The United States and India reaffirmed their commitment to deepening their security partnership during a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to New Delhi. Ties between the two countries have steadily improved amid mutual concerns about China’s growing influence. “There are few relationships in the world that are more vital than one between the U.S. and India,” Blinken said at a joint news conference with Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. The top diplomats of both countries also stressed the need for a political solution to the conflict in Afghanistan. India’s Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken deliver opening remarks as they sit down to meet at Hyderabad House in New Delhi, India, July 28, 2021.Blinken said that reports in the last week of “atrocities” committed by the Taliban “are deeply troubling” and do not speak well of the Taliban’s intentions for the country. He warned that “an Afghanistan that does not respect the rights of its people will become a pariah state.” Saying that the United States remains engaged in Afghanistan and is working to bring parties together to resolve the conflict, he stressed the need for all sides to take negotiations seriously. “The Taliban says it seeks international recognition, that it wants international support for Afghanistan. Presumably it wants its leaders to be able to travel freely in the world, sanctions lifted,” Blinken said. “Well, taking over the country by force and abusing the rights of its people is not the path to achieve those objectives. There is only one path, and that is at the negotiating table.” For Indian officials, the situation in Afghanistan remains a top concern. As American forces withdraw from the country, they fear it could be used by terrorist groups if the Taliban gain control. “The outcome in Afghanistan should not be decided on the battlefield,” said India’s foreign minister. The two sides also discussed the Quad alliance, a security group that consists of India, the U.S., Japan and Australia, which has been denounced by Beijing as a military alliance meant to contain China. Indian Foreign Minister Jaishankar, however, said that it “is not strange” for groups of countries to work together. “People need to get over the idea that somehow other countries doing things is directed against them.” Blinken also met Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his stop in New Delhi. “I welcome President Joe Biden’s strong commitment to strengthen the India-U.S. strategic partnership, which is anchored in our shared democratic values and is a force for global good,” Modi said after the meeting. One of the significant meetings held by Blinken in New Delhi was with Ngodup Dongchung, a representative of the Tibetan government in exile. The meeting will be seen as a signal of the Biden administration’s support to the Tibetan cause and could irk China, which frowns upon meetings with representatives of the Dalai Lama. As critics accuse Modi’s government of rights violations, the issue of human rights also figured during Blinken’s visit. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Ambassador to India Atul Keshap deliver remarks to civil society organization representatives in a meeting room at the Leela Palace Hotel in New Delhi, India, July 28, 2021.At a meeting with civil society members in a New Delhi hotel, Blinken spoke about the need to protect democracy and human rights. “We believe that all people deserve to have a voice in their government, to be treated with respect, no matter who they are. These are fundamental tenets of democracies like ours.” Underscoring the importance of democratic values at his news conference, he said that India’s democracy, like that of the United States, was powered by its “free-thinking citizens.” But taking what some analysts called a soft approach to the issue, he also noted that every democracy was a “work in progress” and said that “when we discuss these issues, I certainly do it from a starting point of humility.” Critics accuse Modi’s Hindu nationalist government of suppressing dissent and pursuing divisive policies that discriminate against Muslims, the country’s biggest minority. They say civil liberties in the country have shrunk, allegations the government denies. Blinken also pledged $25 million for India’s vaccine drive and said that both countries will work together to end the COVID-19 pandemic. The U.S. secretary of state’s visit was the second by a senior official of the Biden administration to India — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin visited in March. 
 
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Eighteen migrant laborers sleeping on a highway in northern India after their bus broke down died when a truck rammed into the vehicle, police said Wednesday. At least 19 others were injured in the accident in Uttar Pradesh state, a senior police officer told reporters. Most of the passengers were returning home to the eastern state of Bihar after working in the states of Punjab or Haryana. The passengers got off the bus after its axle shaft broke and were sleeping next to it when a truck crashed into it from behind. Rescue workers retrieved some of the bodies from under the mangled double-decker bus. “The district administration and the police have launched a probe and we are ensuring that the wounded receive the best medical treatment that’s available,” said police officer Satya Narayan Sabat. India’s vast network of roads is poorly maintained and notoriously dangerous. About 150,000 people are killed each year in traffic accidents in India, according to the government. Among the main factors contributing to the high number of fatalities are excessive speeding and people not using seatbelts or wearing crash helmets. 
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The Himalayan country of Bhutan, with a population of about 800,000, has fully vaccinated 90% of its eligible citizens against COVID-19, according to UNICEF.
More than 2,400 health workers fanned out from July 20 to July 26 to administer second doses, said a release Tuesday from the U.N. Children’s Fund.
“The Royal Government of Bhutan made exhaustive efforts to reach all target groups,” according to UNICEF. “Health workers organized vaccinations at community centers but also conducted home-visits to vaccinate the elderly and people with disabilities and trekked to higher altitudes to reach the nomadic herders.”  
The agency said children between ages 12 and 17 in high-risk areas were also vaccinated.  
Bhutan gave most residents their first doses of vaccine in March and April.
Two weeks ago, the country received 500,000 U.S.-donated vaccine doses through COVAX, a World Health Organization effort to distribute vaccine to poor countries. Other vaccine doses came from China, Denmark, India, Bulgaria and Croatia.
The small country now has one of world’s highest percentages of people vaccinated against COVID-19.
“The success is mainly due to the efforts that went into securing the second dose of COVID-19 vaccines and extensive preparations for the roll out of the vaccines using all forms of resources available in the country, including training health workers, and making people aware about the campaign in advance,” UNICEF said.
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Sparsely populated and isolated from most of the outside world, Turkmenistan has finally won its first Olympic medal since independence from the Soviet Union.Weightlifter Polina Guryeva won a silver medal for the Central Asian nation at the Tokyo Games on Tuesday, and then predicted she would go down in the country’s history.”I was in shock because it’s the first Olympic medal in the history of the Turkmen people. It’s the first medal, which I won. No sport in Turkmenistan has had a medal, not one medal,” the 21-year-old Guryeva said. “I think I’ve entered the history of Turkmenistan by winning a medal. I’m so in shock.”Guryeva lifted a total 217 kilograms in the 59-kilogram category, edging Mikiko Andoh of Japan for second place. Kuo Hsing-Chun of Taiwan won gold by lifting 236kg.Guryeva, who calls Kuo her “idol” and copies her training exercises, finished in 28th place at the 2019 world championships while competing one weight category higher. On her coach’s advice, she used the one-year Olympic delay caused by the coronavirus pandemic to reset, dropping down a class.”When the pandemic began, I didn’t have a chance of qualifying,” she said. “In October, I dropped down and started training. And I went to the Asian Championships in Uzbekistan, lifted 211 total, and then I got the chance to go to the Olympics. And then I started training even harder to get this medal.”Guryeva will return home to a country which has often had little contact with the outside world but is trying to make its name in the world of sports. The gas-rich nation sent two medalists to the Soviet Union’s Olympic teams for the 1956 and 1960 Games but success has been rare since.Hosting the 2018 weightlifting world championships at a lavish new sports complex in the capital, Ashgabat, was one step toward raising the country’s profile. Turkmenistan’s authoritarian president, Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, is a fan of cycling and the country was scheduled to hold the track cycling championships this year, too, but they were moved because of the pandemic.The Turkmenistan government says it has not had any cases of COVID-19 but has made vaccinations mandatory.For Kuo, the victory was about completing a set of major championship medals. The Taiwanese lifter finally added Olympic gold to her four world titles.”I have all the pieces together. Now I am very happy,” she said through a translator.Andoh lifted a total of 214kg for bronze despite what she later revealed was severe pain in her feet. After her last lift, she fell to the ground on stage with a smile and was helped away by her coaches.In the 64-kilogram category, Maude Charron got hear a song at the Olympics that her “idol” never did — the Canadian national anthem.Charron won an unusually open competition with six women in the running for a place on the podium ahead of their last lifts. Charron’s total of 236kg was four more than silver medalist Giorgia Bordignon of Italy and six ahead of Chen Wen-Huei of Taiwan.Christine Girard, the Olympic champion from the 2012 London Games, never got to stand on the top step of the podium while “O Canada” was played because she originally finished in third place. The lifters that finished above her, from Kazakhstan and Russia, both later tested positive for doping.”I asked her how to prepare for the games, how not to be too intimidated by the rings, and she wrote me a message,” Charron said. “Now I just feel like that’s her medal, that’s her moment because she didn’t have it in real time.”Weightlifting has reallocated dozens of past Olympic medals and cut the Tokyo allocation for countries which racked up the most doping offenses.”For sure anti-doping made a great deal in just cleaning the sport,” Charron said. “There is a progression in this clean way.”
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A 19-year-old Pakistani has become the youngest person to summit K2, the world’s second highest mountain, the Alpine Club of Pakistan said Tuesday.  Shehroze Kashif reached the 8,611-meter (28,251 foot) summit at 8:10 a.m. Tuesday.Kashif, who began climbing in his early teens, scaled the world’s 12th highest mountain, 8,047-meter (26,400 foot) Broad Peak, at the age of 17. In May, he became the youngest Pakistani to scale Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain.  Several of Pakistan’s youngest climbers have been on K2 in recent days. Sajid Ali Sadpara, who in 2019 became the youngest to climb K2 at the age of 20, is part of an expedition there to find the body of his father, who went missing along with two other climbers in February.On Monday, sherpas affixing ropes for climbers about 300 meters below an obstacle known as the Bottleneck discovered the bodies of Muhammad Ali Sadpara of Pakistan, Iceland’s John Snorri and Chile’s Juan Pablo Mohr. The same day, Samina Baig, 30, said she was abandoning an attempt to summit the mountain because of dangerous conditions. Baig became the youngest Pakistani woman to scale Mount Everest in 2013.On Sunday night the body of Scottish climber, Rick Allen, 68, was recovered after he was swept away by an avalanche while attempting to traverse a new route on K2’s southeastern face.Earlier this month, Kim Hong-bin, 57, a South Korean Paralympian, went missing after falling from the nearby Broad Peak.
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Pakistan said Monday dozens of Afghan border forces, including several officers, took refuge on the Pakistani side after being unable to hold their military posts apparently in the wake of advances by Taliban insurgents inside Afghanistan.
 
Stepped up Taliban attacks in recent weeks have forced hundreds of pro-Afghan government forces to escape to Tajikistan, Iran, China and Pakistan, enabling the insurgents to seize landlocked Afghanistan’s strategic border crossings with these neighbors.
 
The Pakistani military said in a statement Monday that a local Afghan army commander at the border crossing in the northwestern town of Chitral late Sunday “requested…for refuge and safe passage for 46 soldiers and police, including five officers…due to [the] evolving security situation in Afghanistan.”
 
The Afghan personnel “have been provided food, shelter and necessary medical care as per established military norms” and they will be repatriated to the Kabul government after due process, the statement added.
 
The Pakistani army noted that in early July it had also given “refuge/safe passage” to a group of 35 Afghan border forces under similar circumstances before they were handed over to Kabul.
 
There was no immediate response from Afghan officials.  
 
Reports said the soldiers were stationed in the eastern Afghan border province of Kunar, the scene of heavy fighting between the Taliban and Afghan government forces.
 
The insurgents have stepped up attacks against Afghan security forces and captured vast territory since early May, when the United States and NATO allies officially began pulling their last remaining troops from Afghanistan.
 
Relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan, traditionally plagued by suspicion and deep mistrust, deteriorated after the Taliban captured the town of Spin Boldak earlier this month, which serves a major trade route between the two countries.
 
There are several border crossings between the two countries, which share a 2,600-kilometer historically open border.
 
Kabul has consistently accused Islamabad of allowing the Taliban to use sanctuaries on Pakistani soil to direct attacks inside Afghanistan.
 
Pakistan rejects the accusations and says it has over the past five years unilaterally constructed a robust fence and hundreds of new forts along most of the Afghan frontier, effectively preventing illegal movements in either direction.
 
Islamabad also accuses Kabul of providing shelter to anti-Pakistan militants to orchestrate cross-border terrorist attacks, charges Afghan authorities deny.
 
Bilateral relations between the two countries hit a new low earlier in the month when the Afghan government recalled all its diplomatic staff from Pakistan over the brief kidnapping of the daughter of the Afghan ambassador in Islamabad.
 
The Pakistani interior minister said last week, while addressing a news conference, that investigators have not found any evidence substantiating Kabul’s claims their ambassador’s daughter was kidnapped. The minister, however, called for the investigation to formally conclude in line with local laws and for close cooperation between the two countries to continue.
 
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With an eye on Afghanistan and China, an upcoming visit by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to India is expected to reaffirm a growing strategic partnership between Washington and New Delhi.India’s Foreign Ministry has said that the discussions will focus on regional and global issues including the Indo-Pacific region, Afghanistan and the COVID-19 pandemic.Blinken is scheduled to hold talks on Wednesday with his Indian counterpart, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, and meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.Indian analysts say the unfolding security situation in Afghanistan, where the Taliban are rapidly gaining control of territory as American troops withdraw, will be a key focus for both sides.U.S. officials have said that Blinken will seek India’s support in stabilizing Afghanistan.“We expect that all countries in the region have a shared interest in a stable and secure Afghanistan going forward and so, we will certainly be looking at talking with our Indian partners on how we can work together to realize that goal,” Dean Thompson, the top U.S. diplomat for Central and South Asia, told reporters in Washington on Friday.In recent weeks, India has stressed the need to preserve the gains of the last two decades in Afghanistan. Analysts say that the situation in Afghanistan is of huge concern to New Delhi, which fears that a resurgent Taliban may result in the emergence of terrorist havens that could be used by Islamist militant groups to target Indian-controlled Kashmir.“India will want to assess what kind of role the U.S. wants to continue to play post its withdrawal and see how the two countries can actually work in convergence to help Afghanistan during this difficult time,” Harsh Pant, director of studies and head of the Strategic Studies Program at the New-Delhi based Observer Research Foundation, told VOA. “India will seek clarity on how America wants to take this forward.”The Indian Foreign Ministry has called Blinken’s visit an opportunity to bolster the Indo-U.S. global strategic partnership. The secretary of state’s trip comes four months after U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin visited New Delhi in what many saw as the first affirmation that the momentum in the Indo-U.S. relationship will continue under the Biden administration amid mutual concerns of a rising China.The talks in New Delhi are expected to set the groundwork for a meeting later in the year of countries that comprise the Quad grouping – the U.S, India, Australia and Japan. The informal strategic grouping was revived in 2017 amid fears of China’s growing heft and assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region.FILE – President Joe Biden speaks during a virtual meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, from the White House, March 12, 2021, in Washington.While a virtual meeting of the leaders of the Quad countries hosted by U.S. President Joe Biden earlier this year had focused on the coronavirus pandemic, the in-person meeting later this year is expected to turn its attention on providing developing nations an alternative to infrastructure projects offered by China’s Belt and Road initiative.“There were some apprehensions in New Delhi in the beginning on whether the Biden administration will continue with a tough policy toward China, but clearly the relationship is getting very, very difficult and India’s role continues to be important in that regard,” says Pant.While U.S. officials have said that Blinken will bring up issues of human rights and democracy, New Delhi has indicated that it is preparing to defend its record.Critics have accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government of human rights violations such as stifling dissent and enacting a citizenship law that they say discriminates against Muslims.  The government denies that the law is discriminatory and dismisses allegations of human rights violations.
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The latest round of peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government in Qatar ended July 19 with no apparent progress. The group’s past refusal to accept women’s rights and freedoms has many Afghans worried about the future. VOA’s Mahdy Mehraeen has this report.
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The United Nations has warned that civilian deaths and injuries in Afghanistan sharply increased in the first half of 2021, setting the war-ravaged country on course to witness the highest ever number of civilian casualties in a single year.The U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan in its mid-year report has documented nearly 5,200 civilian casualties, including 1,659 deaths, an astounding 47% spike compared with the same period in 2020.The report noted that civilian casualties have escalated since May, when the United States and NATO allies officially began their military withdrawal and fighting intensified between Afghan government forces and Taliban insurgents across the country.“The number of civilian casualties during May and June — 2,392 in total (783 killed and 1,609 injured) — was the highest for those months since UNAMA began its Former Mujahideen hold weapons to support Afghan forces in their fight against Taliban, on the outskirts of Herat province, July 10, 2021.Critics noted that the UNAMA report has refuted the Taliban’s claims their territorial gains have largely been bloodless.“The U.N. is gravely concerned that if intensive military action is undertaken in urban areas with high population densities, the consequences for Afghan civilians could be catastrophic,” the report warned.While international troops are set to exit Afghanistan by end of August, slow-moving peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government have met with little success. Both sides accuse each other of blocking the progress.UNAMA chief Deborah Lyons on Monday urged the warring sides to intensify their efforts at the negotiating table, saying the pursuit of a military solution to the conflict will only fuel the suffering of the Afghan people.  “I implore the Taliban and Afghan leaders to take heed of the conflict’s grim and chilling trajectory and its devastating impact on civilians,” Lyons said.“The report provides a clear warning that unprecedented numbers of Afghan civilians will perish and be maimed this year if the increasing violence is not stemmed,” she added.UNAMA attributed 64% of the total civilian casualties to anti-government armed forces, saying 39% of them were caused by the Taliban. Islamic State militants caused 9% while the rest were blamed on undetermined anti-government elements.Pro-Afghan government forces were responsible for 25% of civilian casualties, according to the report.An Afghan security forces personnel stands guard along a road amid ongoing fighting with Taliban fighters in the western city of Qala-i- Naw, the capital of Badghis province, July 8, 2021.It attributed 11% of all civilian casualties to “crossfire” during ground engagements where the exact party responsible could not be determined and other incidents.An Afghan military spokesman, Ajmal Omar Shinwari, rejected findings in the U.N. report that government forces were responsible for causing civilian casualties.“(Afghan) security forces have retreated from many areas only to prevent civilian casualties,” Shinwari argued while speaking at a news conference in Kabul.Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid rejected the UNAMA report, claiming nowhere in Afghanistan in the last six months had insurgents “deliberately targeted or carried out attacks that could have resulted in civilian casualties.”Monday’s U.N. mid-year report is the first since 2009 that has not attributed a single Afghan civilian casualty to international forces.
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The United States will continue to carry out airstrikes to support Afghan forces facing attack from the insurgent Taliban, a regional U.S. commander said on Sunday as U.S. and other international forces have drawn down troops in Afghanistan. The Taliban has escalated its offensive in recent weeks, taking rural districts and surrounding provincial capitals, after U.S. President Joe Biden said in April U.S. troops would be withdrawn by September, ending a 20-year foreign military presence. “The United States has increased airstrikes in support of Afghan forces over the last several days and we’re prepared to continue this heightened level of support in the coming weeks if the Taliban continue their attacks,” U.S. Marine General Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie told a news conference in Kabul. McKenzie, who leads U.S. Central Command, which controls U.S. forces for a region that includes Afghanistan, declined to say whether U.S. forces would continue airstrikes after the end of their military mission on Aug. 31. “The government of Afghanistan faces a stern test in the days ahead … The Taliban are attempting to create a sense of inevitability about their campaign,” he said. But he said a Taliban victory was not inevitable and a political solution remained a possibility. Afghan government and Taliban negotiators have met in Qatar’s capital, Doha, in recent weeks, although diplomats say there have been few signs of substantive process since peace talks began in September. Reeling from battlefield losses, Afghanistan’s military is overhauling its war strategy against the Taliban to concentrate forces around the most critical areas like Kabul and other cities, border crossings and vital infrastructure, Afghan and U.S. officials have said. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Saturday that the Afghan security forces’ first job was to make sure they could slow the Taliban’s momentum before attempting to retake territory. McKenzie said there would likely be a rise in violence after a lull over a Muslim holiday this week and said the Taliban could focus on populated urban centers. “They are going to have to deal with the cities if they want to try and claw their way back into power” he said. “I don’t think it’s a foregone conclusion that they are going to be able to capture these urban areas.” 
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U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Saturday that Afghan leadership is consolidating its forces around key population centers ahead of efforts to retake territory lost to the Taliban while the U.S. was withdrawing most of its troops from the country.“The first thing to do is to make sure that they can slow the momentum, and then be able to put themselves in the position where they can retake some of the gains that the Taliban, some of the ground that they have lost,” Austin told reporters traveling with him to Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska.Austin said Afghan military leaders are “committed” and capable of stopping Taliban gains.“They have the capabilities. They have the capacity to make progress and to really begin to blunt some of the Taliban’s advances, but we’ll see what happens,” he said.Taliban insurgents say they already control 85% of the country, a contested claim. However, since the official start of the withdrawal on May 1, the Taliban has nearly tripled the number of districts it controls, from about 75 to now more than 220 of Afghanistan’s 407 districts, according to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Long War Journal.”Strategic momentum sort of appears to be sort of with the Taliban,” Gen. Mark Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters during a briefing at the Pentagon on Wednesday.The U.S. military has conducted airstrikes to support Afghan forces over the “last several days,” according to Pentagon press secretary John Kirby.U.S. defense officials say they are still authorized to support the Afghan government with U.S. air strikes against the Taliban through the end of the U.S. troop withdrawal, set for completion on Aug. 31.After that, though, U.S. strikes in Afghanistan will solely support counterterrorism operations against al-Qaida and Islamic State, according to U.S. Central Command head Gen. Frank McKenzie.   
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Tax officials in India have raided the offices of two major media houses in what the press community believes may be a retaliatory response to recent coverage.The Income Tax Authority raids on the offices of the Dainik Bhaskar newspaper group and Bharat Samachar or BSTV regional television network took place on Thursday and Friday in six states, including Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. The homes of some employees were searched and Dainik Bhaskar reported that agents confiscated cell phones from some staff.Unnamed government sources cited in The Indian Express said authorities are investigating tax evasion, false expenses and “purchases using shell entities.”But Dainik Bhaskar and local media associations say they believe the investigations are in retaliation for critical coverage and are an attempt to send a message to journalists.Both media houses have been critical of the Indian government’s response to a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, including a shortage of oxygen supplies and apparent under-reporting of the death toll.India’s health ministry on Thursday reported 41,383 new cases of the coronavirus in 24 hours and over 500 daily deaths, Reuters reported.Dainik Bhaskar was also one of the few Hindi-language newspapers to prominently cover details of the Pegasus spyware hack, where surveillance software licensed to governments was found to have targeted around 40 journalists in India. None of Dainik Bhaskar’s journalists were among those named as being affected by the hack.The Indian government has not publicly commented on the findings by the Pegasus Project.In a statement, Dainik Bhaskar said it believes raids were a result of its coverage of the government’s alleged mishandling of the COVID-19 outbreak.Broadcaster BSTV reacted to the raid of its offices via Twitter, saying that it would “continue telling the truth.”हम सच के साथ खड़े रहेंगे…. जनता सब देख रही हैं🛑’तुम चाहे जितना दबाओगे आवाज”हम उतनी ही जोर से कहते रहेंगे सच”हम न तो पहले डरे थे और न अब डरेंगे’सच के साथ पहले भी थे और अभी भी हैं’तुम कुछ भी करो लेकिन सच ही कहेंगे’🛑 pic.twitter.com/XgBMMaEQus— भारत समाचार (@bstvlive) July 22, 2021The Editors Guild of India condemned the raids in a statement, saying it was concerned that government agencies are being “used as a coercive tool to suppress free and independent journalism.” The guild added that the actions were “all the more disturbing” following the revelations of Pegasus spyware targeting journalists in India.VOA emailed India’s income tax directorate and finance ministry for comment but did not receive a response.The Central Board of Direct Taxes—the government department responsible for tax investigations—denied any editorial interference and said via social media the team was looking only into financial transactions related to a tax evasion investigation.Certain allegations have appeared in some sections of media that ITDept officials were suggesting changes in stories &taking editorial decisions during their search on offices of a certain publication.These allegations are absolutely false &are categorically denied by ITDept(1/3)— Income Tax India (@IncomeTaxIndia) July 22, 2021Daniel Bastard, of the media watchdog Reporters Without Borders, said raids can have a chilling effect on other news outlets.“Government agencies harassing media houses over spurious accusations has almost become a pattern now,” Bastard, who heads RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk, told VOA.He said the investigations this week may have been a pretext to intimidate the two media groups, adding, “The reason behind it might be the sharp coverage by Dainik Bhaskar and BSTV’s journalists of the government’s poor handling of the COVID-19 crisis.”Geeta Seshu, co-editor of Free Speech Collective, an Indian organization that promotes freedom of expression, also questioned whether the raids were an attempt to send a message.Both media houses are known to be supportive of the larger Hindutva, or Hindu nationalist agenda of the Bharatiya Janata Party or BJP central government and Uttar Pradesh state, she said.“There is no doubt that the raids are a very crude attempt to keep some of the biggest and most prominent Hindi language media houses in line in the run up to the [Uttar Pradesh] elections scheduled for early next year,” Seshu told VOA.Dainik Bhaskar is the largest multi-edition daily in circulation, according to the most recent report published by the Registrar of Newspapers of India. The 63-year-old group works in 12 states, publishing 65 editions in Hindi, Gujarati and Marathi.BSTV is a regional Hindi TV news channel that focuses on Uttar Pradesh from the state capital, Lucknow.Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office in 2014, several media outlets have been investigated for alleged financial irregularities. New regulations have also been put in place to ensure social media platforms comply with government takedown orders.An investigation was started into the media website Newsclick in February of this year, when members of a government financial investigation agency raided its offices in south Delhi as part of an investigation into alleged money laundering.At the time, the independent news website had been reporting on large scale farmers protests.“A majority of mainstream media houses are already operating under a lot of pressure and operate with an unhealthy dependence on the government for advertising revenue.The media houses that still strive to be independent face court cases and lawsuits and, as the Newsclick experience shows us, prolonged raids and investigation into their finances,” Seshu said.As well as being intimidating, such actions bring financial pressures and act as a warning to other media outlets.“It is crippling and debilitating for the operation of a free and fair media and ultimately, for a democracy,” Seshu told VOA.Umakant Lakhera, the president of Press Club of India, believes such raids are meant to send a message to others reporting on public interest stories.“Government failures are now in the open on many fronts like economy and security and a section of the media has started highlighting these failures in recent months,” Lakhera told VOA. “The government and party in power try to brand those critics in media and opposition as anti-national. This new mantra is being used to attack political opponents. It is becoming very difficult for the independent media to function … in such [an] atmosphere.” 
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Authorities in Afghanistan on Saturday enforced an indefinite nighttime curfew across most of the country as government forces struggle to curb Taliban advances.The Islamist insurgent group has made rapid battlefield gains in recent weeks, bringing it close to capital cities of all 34 Afghan provinces and the nation’s capital, Kabul.A spokesperson for the Afghan interior ministry told VOA that all provinces have been placed under the 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. curfew with the exception of Kabul, Nangarhar and Panjsher provinces.“Terrorist groups often undertake terrorist and other subversive acts late in the night, so a nighttime restriction on public movement has been enforced to curb the violence,” said Ahmad Zia Zia.The Taliban unleashed a widespread offensive in early May, when the United States and NATO allies began pulling their last remaining troops from Afghanistan. Since then the insurgents have overrun more than half of roughly 420 Afghan districts, without a fight in many cases.As of last week, the U.S. military said 95% of its withdrawal had been completed and the process is on track to finish by the end of next month.Stepped up Taliban attacks have forced the U.S. military in recent days to launch airstrikes to enable Afghan security forces to contain insurgent advances.To Reach Peace Deal, Taliban Say Afghan President Must Go The Taliban have swiftly captured territory in recent weeks, seized strategic border crossings and are threatening a number of provincial capitals, as the last U.S. and NATO soldiers leave AfghanistanThe Afghan government has blamed its battlefield losses on a lack of U.S. air support for security forces on the ground since May.The Taliban denounced the latest U.S. airstrikes as a breach of the group’s February 2020 agreement with Washington that paved the way for the foreign forces’ withdrawal after nearly 20 years of war in Afghanistan.“It is a clear violation of the signed agreement that will have consequences,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid warned in a statement.U.S. officials have described Taliban offensives as a violation of the Islamist group’s agreement to support a peacefully negotiated resolution of the conflict, as outlined in that same February 2020 agreement.General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Wednesday that about 212 district centers are currently in Taliban hands, and insurgent forces are advancing on the outskirts of 17 provincial capitals.“Strategic momentum sort of appears to be sort of with the Taliban,” Milley told reporters during a briefing at the Pentagon.“What they’re trying to do is isolate the major population centers,” he added. “They’re trying to do the same thing to Kabul, and roughly speaking … a significant amount of territory has been seized.”The Afghan fighting largely subsided, as usual, during this week’s three-day Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha that ended on Thursday.But both warring sides have since resumed attacks against each other.Afghan Defense Ministry officials claimed Saturday that security forces killed nearly 300 insurgent fighters across several provinces in the past 24 hours, though Taliban and government officials routinely offer inflated battlefield claims.U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday assured Afghan counterpart Ashraf Ghani of Washington’s diplomatic and humanitarian support.A White House statement said the two leaders in a phone call “agreed that the Taliban’s current offensive is in direct contradiction to the movement’s claim to support a negotiated settlement of the conflict.”Biden told Ghani that his administration would remain diplomatically engaged “in support of a durable and just political settlement” to the Afghan war.The U.S. State Department noted on Friday the ongoing violence in Afghanistan was largely driven by the Taliban and called for an immediate end to it.“We call on the Taliban to engage in serious negotiations to determine a political roadmap for Afghanistan’s future that leads to a just and durable settlement,” Jalina Porter, principal deputy spokesperson, told reporters in Washington.
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More than 100 people have died and tens of thousands have been evacuated, Indian officials say, after India’s Maharashtra state was bombarded by monsoon rains, causing flooding and landslides.Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he is “anguished by the loss of lives.”Authorities say India’s military has been dispatched to help rescue crews look for survivors.Weather forecasters say the rains are expected to continue for a few more days.
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Afghan lawmakers are asking the United States to continue to provide urgently needed maintenance and logistical support for their air force and national armed forces after the U.S. military completes its withdrawal in September. The White House has pledged continued support but stopped short of promising continued maintenance or drone strikes on Taliban equipment. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.
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The Taliban say they don’t want to monopolize power, but they insist there won’t be peace in Afghanistan until there is a new negotiated government in Kabul and President Ashraf Ghani is removed.In an interview with The Associated Press, Taliban spokesman, Suhail Shaheen, who is also a member of the group’s negotiating team, laid out the insurgents’ stance on what should come next in a country on the precipice.The Taliban have swiftly captured territory in recent weeks, seized strategic border crossings and are threatening a number of provincial capitals, as the last U.S. and NATO soldiers leave Afghanistan. This week, the top U.S. military officer, Gen. Mark Milley, told a Pentagon press conference that the Taliban have “strategic momentum,” and he did not rule out a complete Taliban takeover. But he said it is not inevitable. “I don’t think the end game is yet written,” he said.Pentagon Admits Taliban Control Half of Afghan District CentersTop US general says Afghan forces purposely ceding ground to protect major population centersMemories of the Taliban’s last time in power some 20 years ago, when they enforced a harsh brand of Islam that denied girls an education and barred women from work, have stoked fears of their return among many. Afghans who can afford it are applying by the thousands for visas to leave Afghanistan, fearing a violent descent into chaos. The U.S.-NATO withdrawal is more than 95% complete and due to be finished by Aug. 31.Shaheen said the Taliban will lay down their weapons when a negotiated government acceptable to all sides in the conflict is installed in Kabul and Ghani’s government is gone.”I want to make it clear that we do not believe in the monopoly of power because any governments who (sought) to monopolize power in Afghanistan in the past, were not successful governments,” said Shaheen, apparently including the Taliban’s own five-year rule in that assessment. “So we do not want to repeat that same formula.”But he was also uncompromising on the continued rule of Ghani, calling him a war monger and accusing him of using his Tuesday speech on the Islamic holy day of Eid-al-Adha to promise an offensive against the Taliban. Shaheen dismissed Ghani’s right to govern, resurrecting allegations of widespread fraud that surrounded Ghani’s 2019 election win. After that vote, both Ghani and his rival Abdullah Abdullah declared themselves president. After a compromise deal, Abdullah is now No. 2 in the government and heads the reconciliation council.Ghani has often said he will remain in office until new elections can determine the next government. His critics — including ones outside the Taliban — accuse him of seeking only to keep power, causing splits among government supporters.Last weekend, Abdullah headed a high-level delegation to the Qatari capital Doha for talks with Taliban leaders. It ended with promises of more talks, as well as greater attention to the protection of civilians and infrastructure.Shaheen called the talks a good beginning. But he said the government’s repeated demands for a ceasefire while Ghani stayed in power were tantamount to demanding a Taliban surrender.
“They don’t want reconciliation, but they want surrendering,” he said.Before any ceasefire, there must be an agreement on a new government “acceptable to us and to other Afghans,” he said. Then “there will be no war.”Shaheen said under this new government, women will be allowed to work, go to school, and participate in politics, but will have to wear the hijab, or headscarf. He said women won’t be required to have a male relative with them to leave their home, and that Taliban commanders in newly occupied districts have orders that universities, schools and markets operate as before, including with the participation of women and girls.However, there have been repeated reports from captured districts of Taliban imposing harsh restrictions on women, even setting fire to schools. One gruesome video that emerged appeared to show Taliban killing captured commandos in northern Afghanistan.Shaheen said some Taliban commanders had ignored the leadership’s orders against repressive and drastic behavior and that several have been put before a Taliban military tribunal and punished, though he did provide specifics. He contended the video was fake, a splicing of separate footage.Shaheen said there are no plans to make a military push on Kabul and that the Taliban have so far “restrained” themselves from taking provincial capitals. But he warned they could, given the weapons and equipment they have acquired in newly captured districts. He contended that the majority of the Taliban’s battlefield successes came through negotiations, not fighting.”Those districts which have fallen to us and the military forces who have joined us … were through mediation of the people, through talks,” he said. “They (did not fall) through fighting … it would have been very hard for us to take 194 districts in just eight weeks.”The Taliban control about half of Afghanistan’s 419 district centers, and while they have yet to capture any of the 34 provincial capitals, they are pressuring about half of them, Milley said. In recent days, the U.S. has carried out airstrikes in support of beleaguered Afghan government troops in the southern city of Kandahar, around which the Taliban have been amassing, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said Thursday.The rapid fall of districts and the seemingly disheartened response by Afghan government forces have prompted U.S.-allied warlords to resurrect militias with a violent history. For many Afghans weary of more than four decades of war, that raises fears of a repeat of the brutal civil war in the early 1990s in which those same warlords battled for power.”You know, no one no one wants a civil war, including me,” said Shaheen.Shaheen also repeated Taliban promises aimed at reassuring Afghans who fear the group.Washington has promised to relocate thousands of U.S. military interpreters. Shaheen said they had nothing to fear from the Taliban and denied threatening them. But, he added, if some want to take asylum in the West because Afghanistan’s economy is so poor, “that is up to them.”He also denied that the Taliban have threatened journalists and Afghanistan’s nascent civil society, which has been targeted by dozens of killings over the past year. The Islamic State group has taken responsibility for some, but the Afghan government has blamed the Taliban for most of the killings while the Taliban in turn accuse the Afghan government of carrying out the killings to defame them. Rarely has the government made arrests into the killings or revealed the findings of its investigations.Shaheen said journalists, including those working for Western media outlets, have nothing to fear from a government that includes the Taliban.”We have not issued letters to journalists (threatening them), especially to those who are working for foreign media outlets. They can continue their work even in the future,” he said.
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to India next week, the State Department said on Friday, in the top U.S. diplomat’s first visit to the world’s largest democracy and an important U.S. ally in Asia.Blinken will also visit Kuwait and meet senior officials there at the end of the July 26-29 trip.The United States sees India as an important partner in efforts to stand up to China’s increasingly assertive behavior. Blinken’s trip will follow a visit by Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman to China and coincide with one to Southeast Asia by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.In New Delhi on Wednesday, Blinken will meet with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.Among the subjects on the agenda will be “Indo-Pacific engagement, shared regional security interests, shared democratic values, and addressing the climate crisis” as well as the response to the coronavirus pandemic, a statement said.Blinken is likely to discuss plans for an in-person summit of the Quad group of countries – Indian, Japan, Australia and the United States – that is seen as a counter to China’s rising influence. The meeting later this year is expected to focus on ways to develop regional infrastructure in the face of China’s massive Belt and Road Initiative.The United States hosted a virtual summit of the Quad countries in March at which they agreed that Indian drugmaker Biological E Ltd would produce at least a billion coronavirus vaccine doses by the end of 2022, mainly for Southeast Asian and Pacific countries.However, India, the world’s largest vaccine producer, was subsequently hit by a catastrophic wave of COVID-19 infections and halted vaccine exports amid intense criticism of Modi’s domestic vaccination efforts.Washington sent raw materials for vaccines, medical equipment and protective gear to India after the spike.India expects to receive 3-4 million doses of U.S.-made vaccines by August.”(India) is such a critical country in the fight against COVID-19,” Blinken told MSNBC on Friday, explaining that India would eventually become a vital source of vaccines to the world.”Of course, they’re focused understandably on their own internal challenges now, but when that production engine gets fully going and can distribute again to the rest of the world, that’s going to make a big difference.”Last November, India, the United States, Japan and Australia conducted their largest joint naval exercises in over a decade as part of efforts to balance China’s growing military and economic power in the region.
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India’s badminton superstar PV Sindhu admits that the pressure is on at the Tokyo Olympics and she will be in the firing line.The 26-year-old world champion, who won silver at the Rio 2016 Games, begins her tilt at gold on Sunday against Israel’s Ksenia Polikarpova.With Rio champion Carolina Marin out of Tokyo with a serious knee injury, world number seven Sindhu is among the favorites in what looks to be an open field.”There is definitely a lot of expectation. There are a lot more responsibilities and definitely there will be pressure,” said the Indian, reflecting on her status as reigning world champion.”I’m sure a lot of people are going to look for me because, even the last time in 2016 (Rio), I was not a known person.”But I think now people are looking at me and knowing my game.”I think it’s comparatively tough and it’s not going to be easy.”If Sindhu does win the title in Tokyo she would be just the second individual Olympic gold medalist for India in the history of the Games.In Marin’s absence, other contenders for gold include Taiwan’s world number one Tai Tzu-ying, China’s Chen Yufei and the Japanese duo of Nozomi Okuhara and Akane Yamaguchi.The pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics, where fans are mostly barred because of the coronavirus, officially launch later Friday with the opening ceremony.
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As Pakistan deals with a surge in COVID-19 cases due to the delta variant, the Biden administration is sending 3 million doses of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine Friday, set to arrive in the country Sunday.The doses, sent through COVAX, the United Nations vaccine-sharing mechanism, are in addition to the 2.5 million doses of Moderna already donated to Pakistan, a White House official told VOA.Pakistan’s national vaccination campaign has largely relied on Chinese vaccines, but the U.S. donations are helping officials overcome critical shortages of Western-developed anti-coronavirus shots.Pakistani expatriate workers are required to receive European or U.S. vaccines so they can resume working abroad, where governments have not yet approved Chinese vaccines.White House officials said the administration is “proud to be able to deliver these safe and effective vaccines” to Pakistanis.“We are sharing these doses not to secure favors or extract concessions. Our vaccines do not come with strings attached. We are doing this with the singular objective of saving lives,” the officials stressed.Pakistan hailed the White House announcement, saying it “deeply appreciates” the shipment of 3 million doses of Moderna.“These vaccines will give boost to ongoing vaccination drive in Pakistan,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri told VOA.“This considerate gesture is part of the continued assistance that the U.S. has provided to Pakistan to support our COVID relief and prevention efforts. We look forward to our continued cooperation with the U.S. in our fight against the pandemic,” Chaudhri said.Washington already has delivered nearly $50 million in COVID assistance to Islamabad to help the country combat the disease.The coronavirus situation in Pakistan, a country of about 220 million, remains largely under control.Pakistan government data show the country currently has more than a million cases, more than 53,600 of them active. The country has had almost 23,000 COVID-19-related deaths and is dealing with rampant infections from the delta variant.Wednesday, Karachi University’s National Institute of Virology said the delta variant – first discovered in neighboring India — now accounts for 100% of cases in the country’s largest city, Karachi.According to Pakistan’s Health Ministry, 24.5 million doses of the vaccine have been administered. The government plans to inoculate 70% of about 100 million Pakistanis deemed eligible for COVID-19 vaccine.Pakistan: Daily update on #vaccine doses administeredTotal doses administered till now: 24 millionDoses administered in last 24 hours: 6.07 lakh pic.twitter.com/EGioSIvqzN— Ministry of National Health Services, Pakistan (@nhsrcofficial) July 20, 2021COVAX strugglingThe White House official said that the administration has so far distributed close to 80 million doses to countries in need.Aside from Pakistan, countries that have received vaccine donations from the Biden administration include South Korea, Mexico, Canada, Taiwan, Brazil, Honduras, Bangladesh, Ecuador, Colombia, El Salvador, Malaysia, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Bolivia, Guatemala, Peru, Indonesia, Paraguay, Uruguay, Bhutan, Moldova, Nepal, Costa Rica, Haiti, Fiji, Laos, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines.In addition to a $2 billion donation to COVAX, the administration has pledged to purchase 500 million Pfizer vaccines and distribute them through the year to the African Union and 92 low- and lower middle-income countries that are members of COVAX.Still, COVAX is struggling to get enough doses to reach its vaccination goals. According to July 15 calculations by Doctors Without Borders — also known as MSF, the abbreviation of its French name, Medecins Sans Frontieres — Pfizer has allocated only 11% of its vaccine deliveries to date to low- and middle-income countries directly or through COVAX, and Moderna has allocated only 0.3%.The organization is urging the Biden administration to pressure Pfizer and Moderna to share mRNA vaccine technology with producers in low- and middle-income countries so more vaccines can be made in more places across the world.“The longer people everywhere remain completely unvaccinated, the more chances there will be for new variants to take hold and set back the global response,” Dr. Carrie Teicher, MSF-USA director of programs, said in a statement.Ayaz Gul contributed to this report. 
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Editor’s note: The U.S. departure from Afghanistan marks another major turning point for the Taliban, the militant group with a long history in Afghanistan and a complex relationship with Pakistan. VOA reporters are looking back at the Taliban’s rise to power and the group’s previous tenure as Afghanistan’s rulers.  In late September 1996, after four years of civil war in Afghanistan, the Taliban succeeded in capturing Kabul and then tortured and killed former President Mohammad Najibullah before hanging his body from a traffic post.Shocking images of the executed president sent a signal to Afghans and the world that the Taliban had taken charge and would be imposing what they called a “complete Islamic system” for Afghanistan. Taliban flags began flying over government offices in Kabul, and their military rivals fled to their strongholds in the north.I arrived in Kabul on October 29, the start of the Taliban’s second month in power in the war-torn city. The so-called “moral police” of the Taliban government agency known as the Promotion of Virtue and Elimination of Vice were the most feared squads in the capital. The armed guards in traditional Afghan dress had, in a single month, forced quick changes on urban Afghan women and men. Every man had to wear a cap or turban and sport a beard long enough to be grabbed by a fist. During prayer times, all businesses were required to close.The old-fashioned burqa, a mostly blue shuttlecock-shaped covering, was imposed on women. They were beaten with batons in public by the Virtue and Vice squads, sometimes for unknown reasons. Later they would find out that their ankles had been visible to men, or that they had been seen talking to a stranger. The Taliban would beat a woman if she was not accompanied by a mahram, a male member of the family with whom marital relations are considered haram (forbidden). Seeing Taliban beating women on Kabul streets became the new normal.FILE – Pieces of statues damaged by the Taliban are laid out on a table for restoration at the national museum in Kabul, Afghanistan, Oct. 13, 2019.Schools closed, televisions were smashed, ancient relics at the Kabul Museum went missing, pictures and portraits of humans and animals in official buildings were torn into pieces.Music was banned, so the sounds of chirping birds replaced the traditional instrumental music of Afghan drums and rabab (a local variant of guitar). Local music was replaced by the Taliban’s jihadi taranas (anthems) and sermons, heard on Radio Sharia, the new name of Afghanistan’s national radio and television.Imposing officialThe Taliban intensified the public’s fear by appointing the radical madrassa graduate Mullah Qalamuddin as deputy minister of the Virtue and Vice ministry. A graduate of the Darul Uloom Haqqania madrassa in Akora Khatak, Pakistan, where many Taliban leaders studied, Mullah Qalamuddin was an imposing official who had a reputation for personally leading the group’s fear campaign. He was over 6 feet (1.8 meters) tall, and when I met him at his ministry’s building, he used a love seat as his office chair as he directed his subordinates. He had only contempt for those who expressed concerns over women rights, saying that a woman has two abodes: a home and a grave.FILE – Afghan women, shown Nov. 19, 1996, in Kabul, wear Taliban-imposed burqas as they wait during a winter relief distribution. Scores of poor Kabul residents, notably women, were regularly seen huddled in front of aid agencies every day.Kabul’s landmarks at the time bore signs of the Taliban’s harsh views. At the city’s multistory Intercontinental Hotel, staff told visiting journalists about Mullah Qalamuddin getting angry when he had seen a small statue of Buddha in one of the halls of the hotel. He used an ax to smash it to pieces.At the Afghan national bank building in downtown Kabul, where many women had worked, the top floor had been converted into a child care facility. But the bank was now closed, and the women had all been banished once the Taliban took power, leaving a floor strewn with empty cradles, pacifiers and toddlers’ toys. The bank’s civilian guardians, during a Taliban-escorted visit to the building, said they had no plan in place to reopen. Many other businesses and nongovernment organizations ended up losing all their female staffers, who had been banned from working under the Taliban’s puritan Sharia.At the time, the Taliban’s founding leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, was running Kabul remotely from his southern stronghold Kandahar, then an 18-hour drive away. There was not much of an administrative state. His six-member high council led by Mullah Mohammad Rabbani, a former leader from Kandahar, had little say in making decisions.Broadcast messagesFor locals trying to understand their new leaders’ rapid changes, the international Pashto-language broadcasters VOA and BBC and the Taliban’s Radio Sharia were the main sources of information.Radio Sharia taught them how to tailor themselves under the new Islamist laws of Taliban. The mullahs, graduates from Pakistani madrassas, were offering a menu of punishments in their sermons during primetime evening broadcasts.Some of the messages warned people of the new social restrictions: “Satan urinates on the head of a woman who is not covering her head.” “God will pour hot lead into the ears of those who listen to music.” “Walking or driving on the left side of the road is un-Islamic.” “A man looking at a woman or vice versa is the fornication of eyes.”FILE – An Afghan-ruling Taliban fighter patrols in Kabul, Oct 2, 2001.Kabul was more tense at night. In the evenings, new warnings were broadcast via Radio Sharia, and Taliban fighters enforced a daily dusk-to-dawn curfew, patrolling the streets in pickup trucks. These nighttime patrols led to rumors of mass arrests or Taliban troop movements for northern battle lines. Some Kabul locals thought the Taliban were bringing in Pakistani fighters under the cover of night. At the start of the Taliban’s reign in Afghanistan, people in Kabul were already angry with Islamabad, believing that Pakistan’s support for the Taliban was undermining Afghans.Pakistani officials at the time encouraged this perception. In Pakistan, the then interior minister and former army general, Naseerullah Babar, was not shy of being called the “architect of Taliban” in Afghanistan. He would take credit for helping to create the Afghan Taliban throughout his retired life.Pakistan’s perceived roleI left Kabul for Kandahar, along with a Western journalist, on November 5, 1996. At the time, the drive was rough and around 480 kilometers long, and the needle on the speedometer rarely crossed 30 kilometers per hour. On the way, a radio bulletin brought news from Pakistan, saying the president had dismissed Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and dissolved her elected government over corruption allegations. That marked the second time that her government had been dismissed by a sitting president in Pakistan.Bhutto’s first term ended over a costly military miscalculation in Afghanistan. In early 1989, her government directed pro-Pakistan Afghan fighters to try to take over Afghanistan’s eastern city of Jalalabad from the country’s Soviet-backed government. The operation was a debacle, and the plot was exposed, becoming a political liability for her government and contributing to the perception that Pakistan backs militants in Afghanistan as part of its foreign policy strategy.Pakistan’s next government, that of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, solidified that perception in 1997 by becoming the first to officially recognize the Afghan Taliban government. Twenty-four years later, despite years of denials from Islamabad, most Afghans still see the Taliban as an arm of the Pakistani state.
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The United States has launched about a “half-dozen” airstrikes across Afghanistan in the past 30 days, part of an effort to support Afghan security forces attempting to hold the Taliban at bay.A U.S. defense official told VOA on Thursday that the strikes, most of them carried by U.S. drones, targeted “captured military equipment that the Taliban [were] able to seize from the ANDSF [Afghan National Defense and Security Forces].””There were enemy forces, enemy personnel targeted” alongside the captured equipment, the official added, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the information.For days, Afghan civilians have claimed to have seen U.S. military aircraft, with some reports suggesting the U.S. was behind airstrikes in Kandahar, where Taliban forces had been advancing.But until now, U.S. officials had refused to say whether they supported Afghan ground forces with any of the assets sent to the region — including long-range bombers and the USS Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group — to help protect U.S. forces as they withdraw from Afghanistan.US Preparing for Taliban Attacks as Afghanistan Drawdown Gets UnderwayPentagon says it is positioning an aircraft carrier and long-range bombers to provide cover for departing US and coalition troops  “There’s no switch that was turned on. There’s no change in policy,” the official told VOA, saying the recent airstrikes were part of Washington’s over-the-horizon strategy.”There’s no switch that was turned on. There’s no change in policy” the official says of the half dozen airstrikes in support of #Afghan forces in the past monthSays it is part of the US ‘over-the-horizon’ capabilities – “You’re seeing it come to fruition”— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) July 22, 2021Earlier Thursday, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters the U.S. had carried out airstrikes to support Afghan forces over the “last several days,” though he declined to share specifics.Pentagon officials said earlier this month that the commander of U.S. forces in the region, Central Command’s General Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie, would retain the authority to call for airstrikes in support of Afghan forces until the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan was complete.US air support for #Afghanistan security forces – “Those authorities still exist” per @PentagonPresSecSays they still rest with @Commander_RS Gen Miller and will transfer to @CENTCOM Cmdr Gen McKenzie while withdrawal is ongoing— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) July 2, 2021Military planners have said they expect the pullout to be done by August 31, in line with the direction from U.S. President joe Biden.Word of the handful of U.S. airstrikes in Afghanistan came a day after America’s most senior military officer admitted that the Taliban had gained “strategic momentum,” with their forces now controlling about half of Afghanistan’s more than 400 district centers.General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also said Taliban forces were putting pressure on 17 of Afghanistan’s 34 provincial capitals.”What they’re trying to do is isolate the major population centers,” Milley told reporters Wednesday. “They’re trying to do the same thing to Kabul, and roughly speaking … a significant amount of territory has been seized.”Pentagon Admits Taliban Control Half of Afghan District CentersTop US general says Afghan forces purposely ceding ground to protect major population centersSome U.S. lawmakers have expressed concerns about what will befall the Afghan government without a U.S. military presence on the ground, at times pointing to reports that U.S. intelligence agencies have predicted the government will fall in six months.But in an interview with National Public Radio on Thursday, Central Intelligence Agency Director Bill Burns admitted that while “the trend lines are certainly troubling,” the Afghan government is far from helpless. “The Afghan government retains significant military capabilities,” Burns said. “The big question, it seems to me and to all of my colleagues at CIA and across the intelligence community, is whether or not those capabilities can be exercised with the kind of political willpower and unity of leadership that’s absolutely essential to resist the Taliban.”Ayaz Gul contributed to this report.
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A coalition of more than two dozen U.S. news outlets and press freedom organizations is calling on the U.S. government to help protect Afghans who worked with foreign media and may face risks from the Taliban as a result.  Letters to President Joe Biden and top House and Senate leaders called on the United States to establish a visa program for local journalists and stringers who worked with American news outlets.   Many of these media workers fear retaliation from the Taliban as a result of their association with the U.S. media, the letter said.  Afghanistan has long been one of the most dangerous countries for the media, but threats and risks have increased since the start of peace talks between the Afghan government and Taliban in September 2020, and the U.S. troop withdrawal.  At least 10 journalists and media workers have been killed since peace negotiations began, and dozens are fleeing areas in Afghanistan’s north, where the Taliban have seized territory. About half of the country’s district centers are in Taliban hands, the chair of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff said Wednesday.  Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 9 MB480p | 13 MB540p | 18 MB720p | 38 MB1080p | 75 MBOriginal | 383 MB Embed” />Copy Download Audio“The Taliban has long conducted a campaign of threatening and killing journalists,” the letter to Congress said.  The signatories urged the U.S. to provide assistance to around 1,000 media workers and their families in the same way that it helped protect those who assisted the U.S. military. The letter notes that the U.S. established a similar program in 2008 to help Iraqis who worked with U.S. media.  “This is not a political issue. This is a human rights and a human safety issue. There are people whose lives are at risk every moment of every day, and the U.S. government has an obligation, in my view, to help solve their problems,” said Dan Shelley, executive director of the Radio Television Digital News Association, which is a signatory to the letter.The Taliban deny targeting independent media, telling VOA they have taken over only government-owned outlets and told journalists to work normally.The significance of the contributions that these media workers made to U.S. coverage of Afghanistan over the past two decades cannot be understated, says Laura King, a Washington-based correspondent for the Los Angeles Times who served as that outlet’s Kabul bureau chief from 2008-2012.  VICE News Washington bureau chief Sebastian Walker, who reported from Afghanistan on several occasions, echoed that view.  Both the Los Angeles Times and VICE Media Group are signatories to the letter.Support staff or “fixers” perform a variety of roles for journalists in conflict zones. They act as translators or drivers, help find sources, analyze cultural nuances, advise on safety assessments and help find food and shelter, King and Walker explained. Many tell only their spouses what their job is due to the risks involved with working for foreign media.  “We couldn’t do our jobs without those people — it’s as simple as that. They are absolutely essential to any kind of reporting that you see,” Walker told VOA. “Those Afghans on the ground make it possible for international journalists like myself to come into the country, to get to places, to make their way around, to speak to people and get an understanding of what’s really going on, on the ground. That just would not be possible without this group of people.”A senior State Department official speaking on background confirmed to VOA Wednesday it had seen the letter and would respond “in due course.”The State Department is in the process of relocating as many as 2,500 Afghans to the U.S. later this month under a special immigrant visa, or SIV. The group includes about 700 interpreters and others who aided U.S. forces, as well as their families.“In terms of other people in Afghanistan who have helped the United States or helped U.S. organizations — whether it’s NGOs or media organizations — we are looking at other options for providing safe options for them,” the senior official said.  All Afghan media workers — whether they work for the foreign or domestic press — face severe risks due to their work. But according to King, working for the international press presents distinct threats.  “As far as the Taliban is concerned, people who work with us [the foreign media] are just as much traitors as people who worked with the military,” she said. “In the case of people who work for Western organizations, there might be more of a sense of obligation to them — practical and moral obligation — to make sure that they don’t face retribution for the work that they did with us.”With risks and threats increasing, fewer may be willing to do the job, which in turn could reduce news coverage of Afghanistan, according to Walker.King said she agreed but added that foreign news outlets will likely reduce coverage of Afghanistan in any case once the U.S. completes its exit.  Both journalists said they supported the calls for the U.S. government to protect these media workers and their families, adding that the Afghan media workers just wanted to help tell the world what was happening.  “From our side, it’s complete trust. We are completely in the hands of our local staff,” Walker said. “We have complete trust and faith in the people that we work with.” And now, Walker said, it’s time for reciprocity.  “Your life is in their hands,” King said. “It’s really on us to protect these people who helped us to tell the story of what was going on in Afghanistan, because it would not have been possible without them.” 
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House lawmakers voted overwhelmingly Thursday to allow in thousands more of the Afghans who worked alongside Americans in the Afghanistan war, citing the urgency of protecting those on-the-ground allies from Taliban retaliation as the U.S. military withdrawal enters its final weeks.Florida Republican and Vietnam war veteran Rep. Neal Dunn evoked the scenes of the U.S. military withdrawal from Vietnam, which left many Vietnamese who’d worked with American forces fearing — and sometimes meeting — death and detention.”We cannot do this again. We must not do this again. We must bring back … all the people who were so important to us in combat,” Neal said, urging fellow lawmakers to vote for the measure. “Please do not abandon friends of America again.”House members passed it 407-16, sending it to the Senate. The bill, by Rep. Jason Crow, a Colorado Democrat and former Army Ranger who fought in Afghanistan, allows 8,000 more visas for translators and others who worked with American troops and civilians in Afghanistan. It also eases some requirements for the visas.Currently, 26,500 of the special Afghan visas are allocated.President Joe Biden decreed an end to the U.S. military role in Afghanistan by Sept. 11, concluding a U.S. military effort that early on succeeded in its main goal of crushing the Afghanistan-based al-Qaida plotters of the 2001 attacks on the United States, but struggled to quell Afghanistan’s former Taliban rulers and stabilize a Kabul-based elected government.The Pentagon says the U.S. withdrawal is 95% finished and will be completed by Aug. 31.
The last weeks of withdrawal leave the Taliban apparently holding “strategic momentum” in the fight for control of Afghanistan as they put increasing pressure on key cities, Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Wednesday.The Biden administration says there are 20,000 applicants so far, half of whom have not completed initial stages of review for the visas. The United States is also allowing former Afghan employees to bring in close family members.
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Indian farmers, protesting over three new farm laws they say threaten their livelihoods, will start a sit-in near parliament in the center of the capital New Delhi in a renewed push to pressure the government to repeal the laws.In the longest-running growers’ protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, tens of thousands of farmers have camped out on major highways leading to New Delhi for more than seven months.As India’s monsoon session of parliament began this week, some protesting farmers tried to march towards the main government district, but they were stopped by police just miles from parliament.On Thursday, 200 protesters will gather at Jantar Mantar, a large Mughal-era observatory in central New Delhi that doubles up as a protest site for causes of all manner.“Throughout the monsoon session of parliament, 200 farmers will go to Jantar Mantar every day to hold farmers’ parliament to remind the government of our long-pending demand,” said Balbir Singh Rajewal, a leading farmers’ leader.The monsoon session of parliament will end in early August. After extended negotiations, Delhi police have agreed to let 200 farmers gather during the day at Jantar Mantar, but protesters need to follow coronavirus guidelines issued by the Delhi Disaster Management Authority, a government statement said.In late January, thousands of angry farmers clashed with police after driving their tractors into security barriers. One protester was killed, and more than 80 police officers were injured across the city.Farmers say the laws favor large private retailers who, prior to the new laws, were not permitted to procure farm goods outside government-regulated wholesale grain markets.The government says the laws, introduced in September 2020, will unshackle farmers from having to sell their produce only at regulated wholesale markets.It argues farmers will gain if large traders, retailers and food processors can buy directly from producers. 
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