The United States is making good on its pledge to support Afghanistan’s security forces with military force even as U.S. and coalition troops continue to leave the country. A U.S. official confirmed to VOA late Wednesday that U.S. forces were actively carrying out airstrikes against Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan’s Helmand province, where fierce fighting has raged for days. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, declined to share additional details, citing the need for operational security. The Pentagon also declined to offer specifics, though a spokesman said that “there’s still quite a bit of robust capability” at the disposal of U.S. commanders on the ground. “To the degree we can, as we transition out, we’re going to continue to try to support Afghan national security forces in the field,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters. An Afghan policeman searches a man at a road checkpoint during fighting between Afghan security forces and Taliban fighters, on the outskirts of Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province, May 5, 2021.The U.S. airstrikes come as Afghan security forces have come under intense pressure from the Taliban, especially around Lashkar Gah in Helmand province, where aid groups have reported a significant increase in fighting in just the past few days. One group, Doctors Without Borders, said on social media that civilians fleeing the fighting describe bullets pouring into their homes, forcing them to flee, sometimes without shoes or clothing. #Afghanistan: Fighting around Lashkar Gah city, #Helmand province, increased significantly on 3 May.”Our medical teams treated 53 war-wounded patients on 3 & 4 May,” Sarah Leahy, MSF project coordinator at Boost Provincial Hospital. pic.twitter.com/OI6aUDL90e— MSF Afghanistan (@MSF_Afghanistan) May 5, 2021Speaking to Agence France-Presse, one local government official said Wednesday that the U.S. airstrikes were key to stopping the Taliban advance. “The bombing was intense,” the official, Atiqullah, said. “I have never seen such bombardment in several years.”  Afghan government forces also faced setbacks elsewhere. Officials said Wednesday that Taliban fighters captured a district in Baghlan province in the northern part of the country and killed a police chief in Paktika province in the southeast. Taliban Link Progress in Afghan Peace Talks to Delisting of Top Leaders  The stance comes amid intensified insurgent battlefield attacks, since the United States and NATO began pulling their last remaining troops from the country on May 1 Still, U.S. defense officials expressed confidence in the ability of Afghan security forces to withstand the Taliban offensive. “The Afghan security forces are more capable than they have been in recent years,” Kirby told reporters. “They have been in the lead for quite some time.”  Afghan military officials have been equally insistent that they are up to the task. “Currently, ANSDF [Afghan National Security and Defense Forces] 100% independently plan, command and control, and conduct the military operations,” Ministry of Defense deputy spokesman Fawad Aman told VOA’s Afghan Service on Wednesday. “There is no support and physical presence of foreign troops in the battlefields,” Aman added. There have been long-running concerns, however, about how long Afghan forces will be able to fend off any sort of sustained Taliban offensive without U.S. support. “This will be a big test for the Afghan security forces,” retired U.S. Army Lieutenant General Douglas Lute told VOA’s Afghan Service. “The Afghan security forces have relied heavily on air support — Western air support, U.S. air support … and it’s this air support that has held the Taliban at bay,” he said. “Are the Afghans able to provide their own air support? And if they cannot, or if they’re pressed, will the U.S. come to their assistance?” While Afghan officials have been eager to tout the effectiveness of their air force, some U.S. officials have warned it may be short-lived. Terrorists will not be safe anywhere!Afghan Air Forces airstrikes on terrorist positions and strongholds. pic.twitter.com/oj7mi3ZgS5— Fawad Aman (@FawadAman2) May 5, 2021The Afghan Air Force, these officials warn, remains dependent on thousands of U.S. and international contractors for maintenance — contractors set to leave with the remaining U.S. and coalition forces by early September. “Without continued contractor support, none of the Afghan Air Force’s airframes can be sustained as combat effective for more than a few months,” the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction warned in a report issued last week. ‘Insider Attacks’ on Afghan Forces Increased by 82%, US Agency Reports Taliban insurgents posing as Afghan police or military personnel are mostly behind insider attacksU.S. defense officials say talks to ensure continued technical and logistical support are under way but caution that the issue has not yet been resolved. There are also concerns about how Afghan security forces will adapt as the drawdown progresses and there are no longer any U.S. drones or warplanes in Afghanistan to conduct surveillance or carry out strikes in support of Afghan forces on the ground. U.S. officials admit that bringing in such resources from “over the horizon” will take longer and will generally be “extremely difficult.” Leaving Afghanistan Will Make Counterterrorism ‘Extremely Difficult’, Top General Says The commander of US forces in the Middle East and South Asia admits that without troops on the ground, making sure al-Qaida, Islamic State do not regenerate will likely be problematicFor now, the U.S. has six B-52 bombers on standby at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar and the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier strike group in the Arabian Gulf. But their main task, for now, is providing protection for the withdrawal of U.S. and coalition forces. Talks with countries in the region to base warplanes and other military assets closer to Afghanistan have so far made little progress, officials said. Ayaz Gul, VOA Afghan Service’s Najibullah Ahmadyar and Shaista Lami contributed to this report.
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Pakistan says a militant attack Wednesday from across the Afghanistan border killed at least four paramilitary soldiers and injured six others. 
  
The military said a team of paramilitary forces was moving to install a border fence in the southwestern Zhob district in Baluchistan province when what they described as a group of “around 20 terrorists” from the Afghan side ambushed and opened fire on them. 
  
The troops “responded promptly” and the injured personnel were evacuated to a military hospital in the provincial capital, Quetta. 
  
The military provided no further details, and no one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. 
  
“Pakistan strongly condemns such organized attacks and considers these detrimental to ongoing peace and stability along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border,” said Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri, the Foreign Ministry spokesman. 
  
Chaudhri said the Afghan embassy in Islamabad has been asked to convey his government’s concerns to the relevant authorities in Afghanistan “to undertake effective measures” against terrorist groups operating on their soil and “avoid recurrence of such incidents in future.” 
  
There was no immediate reaction from the Afghan government. 
  
Militants have previously attacked construction teams since Pakistan began fencing the nearly 2,600 kilometer largely porous border with Afghanistan in mid-2017. 
  
The military-led massive construction program is installing a pair of nearly 3-meter-high chicken wire fences, with a 2-meter gap between each one, and topped with barbed wire. Additionally, hundreds of new outposts and forts have been built or are under construction. 
  
Army officials say the project is expected to be completed in the next few months, costing around $500 million. The fence runs through rugged terrain and snow-capped mountains as high as 12,000 feet. 
  
Pakistani officials maintain the border management program will help address mutual concerns of terrorist infiltration, a major source of tensions between Islamabad and Kabul. 
  
Islamabad alleges militants have taken refuge in volatile Afghan border areas after fleeing security operations in Pakistan and are plotting attacks from there.  
  
The latest incident comes amid increased diplomatic efforts Pakistan is making to improve bilateral political and trade ties with Afghanistan.  
  
“As such, it is regrettable while both sides are engaged on a diplomatic track,” said Torek Farhadi, a former Afghan government adviser and political commentator.  
  
“It is possible Kabul doesn’t have full control of some areas there, but if it does, such attacks don’t help the consensus for bilateral collaboration on peace, legal trade and transit the region needs.” 
   
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A senior Indian government scientific adviser warned Wednesday that a third wave of coronavirus infections would sweep the country as it struggles with the devastating effects of the current wave that officially claimed nearly 4,000 lives in the course of one day.The government’s principal scientific adviser, K. Vijay Raghavan, issued the warning as the World Health Organization said in its weekly report that India accounted for almost half the cases reported globally last week and about a quarter of all fatalities.“Phase 3 is inevitable, given the high levels of circulating virus,” Raghavan told a news briefing in New Delhi. “But it is not clear on what timescale this phase 3 will occur … We should prepare for new waves.”India’s crisis is aggravated by a critical lack of oxygen needed to treat critically ill patients, along with the raw materials needed to manufacture doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. While India is home to the Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, only 2% of the country’s 1.3 billion people have been vaccinated, according to local reports. COVID-19 is the disease caused by the coronavirus.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 10 MB480p | 15 MB540p | 20 MB720p | 38 MB1080p | 81 MBOriginal | 243 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioTo help address the oxygen shortage, India’s Supreme Court ordered the government Wednesday to submit a plan to meet oxygen needs in New Dehli hospitals within one day.Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party have been roundly criticized over the last several weeks for holding massive election rallies in West Bengal. Health experts have suggested the rallies may have contributed to a record surge in the state.Other political parties also held rallies there.Award-winning author Arundhati Roy called for Modi to resign in an opinion piece that was published Tuesday by the independent news website Scroll.in.“This is a crisis of your making,” she wrote. “You cannot solve it. You can only make it worse … So please go.”In a related development, Agence France Presse is reporting that India’s Reserve Bank has pledged to provide $6.7 billion in cheap financing for the country’s vaccine makers, hospitals and other health firms as the world’s second-most populous country is mired in a catastrophic surge of the virus.   India’s health ministry reported another 382,315 new cases of coronavirus cases on Wednesday, including 3,780 COVID-related deaths. The South Asian nation has more than 20 million total coronavirus infections, second only behind the United States, and 226,188 fatalities, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 4 MB480p | 5 MB540p | 8 MB720p | 16 MB1080p | 32 MBOriginal | 163 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioMember nations of the World Trade Organization are wrapping up two days of talks in Geneva Wednesday focused on waiving intellectual property rights on new COVID-19 vaccines.  Ambassadors from the WTO’s 164 member states have been debating a proposal first floated by South Africa and India back in October that would temporarily lift patent rights held by pharmaceutical companies that developed the vaccines. Supporters of the proposal say the waiver will allow for the faster manufacturing of vaccines for use by developing countries, where vaccination rates have lagged behind those of wealthier nations.But pharmaceutical companies claim that granting the waiver could hurt future innovation and will not lead to the quick production of vaccines.  The Berlin-based center will collect data and monitor risks to correct “exposed gaps in the global systems for pandemic and epidemic Dozens of civil society groups and former heads of state, including former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Mikhail Gorbachev of the former Soviet Union have urged U.S. President Joe Biden to support the proposed waiver. More than 100 members of the Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives signed a letter to President Biden,  urging him to support the proposal.  Biden says he has not made a decision on the matter. The proposal must be agreed on by all 164 WTO member nations.In other developments, Germany and the World Health Organization announced plans Wednesday to establish a global monitoring operation to help prevent future threats like the current pandemic.The Berlin-based “global hub for pandemic and epidemic intelligence” would track and monitor “exposed gaps in the global systems for pandemic and epidemic intelligence,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.The monitoring center will get about $36 million from Germany and search for funds from other sources. 
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Pakistan says a militant attack Wednesday from across the Afghanistan border killed at least four paramilitary soldiers and injured six others. 
  
The military said a team of paramilitary forces was moving to install  a border fence in the southern Zhob district in Baluchistan province when what they described as “terrorists” from the Afghan side ambushed and opened fire at them. 
  
The troops “responded promptly” and the injured personnel were evacuated to a military hospital in the provincial capital, Quetta. 
  
The military provided no further details and no one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. 
  
Militants have previously attacked construction teams since Pakistan began fencing the nearly 2,600 kilometer largely porous border with Afghanistan in mid-2017. 
  
The military-led massive construction program is installing a pair of nearly 3-meter-high chicken wire fences, with a 2-meter gap between each one, and topped with barbed wire. Additionally, hundreds of new outposts and forts have been built or are under construction. 
  
Army officials say the project is expected to be completed in the next few months, costing around $500 million. The fence runs through rugged terrain and snow-capped mountains as high as 12,000 feet. 
  
Pakistani officials maintain the border management program will help address mutual concerns of terrorist infiltration, a major source of tensions between Islamabad and Kabul. 
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The Australian government on Wednesday faced a court challenge to its temporary Indian travel ban brought by a 73-year-old citizen stranded in the city of Bengaluru.
The government is resisting growing pressure to lift the travel ban imposed last week until May 15 to reduce COVID-19 infection rates in Australian quarantine facilities.
Lawyers for Gary Newman, one of 9,000 Australians prevented from returning home from India, made an urgent application to the Federal Court in Sydney on Wednesday for a judge to review the travel ban imposed under the Biosecurity Act by Health Minister Greg Hunt.
Lawyer Christopher Ward told the court one of the grounds was related to questions of proportionality and reasonableness. Two grounds were based on statutory interpretation and a fourth questioned the ban’s constitutionality.
Justice Stephen Burley said an expedited hearing date would be announced within 48 hours.
Hunt announced late Friday that anyone who sets foot in Australia during the travel ban within 14 days of visiting India faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to 66,000 Australian dollars ($51,000).
The Australian Medical Association this week called on Hunt and Prime Minister Scott Morrison to withdraw the order, which the nation’s top doctors’ group condemned as “overreach.”
Some critics have accused the government of racism because such drastic travel restrictions were not introduced when infection rates were rapidly increasing in the United States and Europe.
Morrison said he was not concerned that the travel disruption might damage relations with India, which he described as “a great friend of Australia.”
“This pause is enabling us to get on the right footing to be able to restore those repatriation flights and we’re making good progress to do that,” Morrison said.
“Had we not done the pause, we would have been eroding our capability to do that over the medium-to-longer term,” he added.
Critics of the travel ban include former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson as well as several Australian lawmakers and Indian community leaders.
India is in the grip of a devastating surge that has overwhelmed hospitals struggling to secure oxygen supplies.
A chartered Qantas flight had departed Sydney carrying medical supplies to India including 1,056 ventilators and 43 oxygen concentrators, the Australian government said in a statement.
The donated supplies will be distributed by the Indian Red Cross and local authorities to ensure support reaches those in greatest need, the government said.
Australia has used its geographic isolation as an island nation to its advantage in fighting the pandemic. It has been among the most successful countries in preventing the virus’s spread in the community.
But a libertarian group will challenge in the Federal Court on Thursday Australia’s tight restrictions on its citizens leaving the country for fear that they would bring the virus home.
LibertyWorks will argue that Hunt does not have the power under the Biosecurity Act to ban most Australians from leaving the country.
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War victims and human rights groups in Afghanistan are calling for an immediate cease-fire and a meaningful inclusion of the Afghan war victims in the ongoing peace process.“I do not want mothers … to have their children buried,” said Wahida Shirzad, whose son, Rahid Amin, 21, was killed alongside 22 others in an attack on Kabul University on November 2.Shirzad, who is an advocate for war victims, is calling on both parties to agree to a cease-fire. “I want the violence and fighting to stop.”Violence across Afghanistan has surged in recent months, killing dozens of people, many of them civilians.Students and civil society activists hold banners in protest as they shout slogans, a day after gunmen stormed Kabul university in Kabul on Nov. 3, 2020.At least 27 people were killed and dozens injured Friday in a car bomb attack on a guest house in the eastern Logar province.According to the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, more than 570 civilians were killed and about 1,200 were injured in the first three months of this year — a 29% increase from the same period in 2020.The Afghan war, from 2001 to present, has left about 241,000 people dead, according to the Costs of War Project at Brown University.Lal Gul, the chairman of the Afghanistan Human Rights Organization who also serves on the newly formed National Committee for War Victims, said war victims want an immediate cease-fire.“If violence continues, no one’s voice will be heard, and democracy, human rights and women’s rights would have no place,” Gul said.Victim-centered peaceGul added that the inclusion of war victims in the peace process is important for the newly formed war victims’ group. “We want voices of the victims of the war to be heard and justice to be served,” Gul said.According to Gul, war victims is a broad category that includes all the civilians who suffered physically, financially and psychologically in the war.Mohammad Rafi, whose sister, Rahila Manji, 17, was killed August 12 in an attack on Mauod Academy in Kabul that was claimed by the Islamic State, is calling for an inclusive peace.“We, the victims, demand an effective and determining role in the peace negotiations. We call on the parties involved in the negotiations to recognize the central role of victims in the peace process as one of the pillars of a sustainable peace,” he said.Rafi called on both sides to “immediately resume talks and stop being stubborn, and bring peace to the people of Afghanistan.”No progress has been reported in the negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban that started September 12.Inclusive peace advocacyAfghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) has been advocating for the inclusion of the victims’ voices in the peace process.According to Zabihullah Farhang, a spokesperson for AIHRC, victims’ rights and grievances should be at the center of the peace process.AIHRC, in a June 2020 news release, proposed four mechanisms for inclusion of victims in the peace process: that victims be selected to speak directly to the parties; regular meetings between parties in the conflict and civil and human rights activists; civil society members and experts to present on issues identified by the parties; and calling a “national victims’ Consultative Jirga … to discuss issues of victims, justice and reconciliation.”Farhang said both the Taliban and the Afghan government can choose some war victims as representatives to “be fair to both sides.”If the peace process is not based on the demands of the war victims, it cannot be called a “true peace,” Farhang said, adding that “it can be considered a power-sharing [deal] or political settlement but not peace.”“Therefore, we [AIHRC] insist on a victims-centered peace in Afghanistan,” Farhang said.
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The Indian diaspora living in the United States is watching in horror as India battles a devastating surge of COVID-19. More with VOA Correspondent Mariama Diallo.
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The United States appears upbeat about the resumption of stalled peace talks between warring parties in Afghanistan, even as fighting escalates amid the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops from the country.
A senior U.S. official said Tuesday during a background briefing in Kabul that Washington’s diplomatic efforts are continuing “to try to get the peace process” between the Afghan government and the Taliban back on track.
“We’re not giving up on the peace process,” said the State Department diplomat, who requested anonymity. “We’re trying to bring all pressures to bear on the Taliban to come to the table, and to come seriously. We hope and expect that that happens.”
The official spoke a day after Zalmay Khalilzad, U.S. special envoy for Afghan reconciliation, visited Kabul, where he shared the latest details of his peace offensive with the Afghan leadership. Khalilzad traveled to the Afghan capital from Doha, Qatar, where he had held talks with Taliban negotiators based there.Zalmay Khalilzad, special envoy for Afghanistan Reconciliation, testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Capitol Hill, April 27, 2021, during a hearing on the Biden administration’s Afghanistan policy and plans to withdraw troops.Renewed fightingThe peace diplomacy comes as the Taliban have unleashed fresh battlefield attacks across several Afghan provinces in response to the U.S. missing a May 1 troop withdrawal deadline in line with an agreement Washington negotiated with the insurgents a year ago.
The Taliban offensive has overrun territory in some areas, drawing a strong response from Afghan security forces, with both sides claiming to have inflicted heavy casualties on the other.
The fighting has been relatively more intense and widespread in southern Helmand province, the country’s largest province and a major illicit opium-producing region. The Taliban control or contest most of Helmand, while the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, is largely held by Kabul.
An Afghan military statement said Tuesday that its ground strikes and airstrikes in Helmand have killed more than 100 Taliban “terrorists” in the last 24 hours, along with at least 22 al-Qaida militants.
A Taliban spokesman swiftly rejected the claims as propaganda and denied the presence of foreign fighters in insurgent ranks.
Independent verification of either claim was not immediately possible, and both warring parties often issue inflated casualty tolls for the other side.
It was not immediately clear whether U.S. air power was called in to help Afghan forces in their latest battles against the Taliban.
The State Department official warned the Taliban to desist from trying to seize power through military means and reiterated the U.S. call for them to reduce violence.
“While American and foreign forces are still here, they will continue to support and defend Afghan defense and security forces when they come under attack,” he said.President Joe Biden speaks from the Treaty Room in the White House on April 14, 2021, about the withdrawal of the remainder of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.Drawdown mostly trouble-freeU.S. President Joe Biden missed the May 1 military withdrawal deadline, citing logistical reasons. He announced last month that all U.S. troops will be out of Afghanistan by September 11, starting May 1. NATO, which has around 7,000 forces in the country, vowed to do the same.
The Taliban denounced the delay as a deal violation and threatened to end their cease-fire with foreign troops that have been in place since the two sides signed the February 2020 agreement.
But so far, the troop drawdown has been trouble-free, except for a firing incident on Saturday that the U.S. military dismissed as insignificant.
The U.S. military said Tuesday it had officially handed over a base in Helmand to the Afghan National Army and completed “between 2% to 6% of the entire retrograde process.”
A U.S. Central Command statement said: “Since the president’s decision, the U.S. has retrograded the equivalent of approximately 60 C-17 loads of material out of Afghanistan and have turned over more than 1,300 pieces of equipment to the Defense Logistics Agency for destruction.”The Taliban have also suspended their already troubled peace talks with Kabul representatives in response to Biden’s decision. The so-called intra-Afghan negotiations, which stemmed from the U.S.-Taliban deal, started in Doha last September but have mostly been deadlocked.
The Taliban have linked their participation in future peace talks to the release of 7,000 prisoners being held in Afghan government jails and the removal of senior insurgent leaders’ names from United Nations and U.S. sanctions lists. The group said Washington pledged to meet those demands at the signing of the deal.
The State Department official urged the Taliban to get back to the negotiating table.”Our agreement with them also talked about a reduction in violence. It talked about a genuine negotiation toward a political settlement, and it also has some counterterrorism requirements that are not entirely met,” he said.Under their deal with the U.S., the Taliban pledged to sever ties with transnational terrorist groups, including al-Qaida, and prevent them from using Afghan soil to launch attacks against the U.S. and its allies.
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As India reels from a second wave of COVID-19 infections that is devastating major cities, stockpiles are falling short of surging demand in the country, health experts warn. The country’s mass immunization bid to expand its vaccination drive to all adults is posing to be a herculean task, they say. India opened vaccinations to those who are 18 years of age and older this month. Although it is the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, the approximately 70 million shots for COVID-19 being produced per month cannot address the massive needs of the world’s second most populous country, health experts say. K. Srinath Reddy is the president of the Public Health Foundation of India, a health research and policy development organization based in New Delhi. He said the challenge to meet demands includes groups considered “new entrants,” people between the ages of 18 to 44 years old.  “We are talking about 595 million people. So, we are talking of 1.2 billion doses,” he told VOA. “It’s a huge task and our vaccine stocks currently do not measure up anywhere near that.” Several states have said they cannot expand the drive because they are already struggling to inoculate older people with higher levels of risk. FILE – Relatives carry the body of a person who died of COVID-19 as multiple pyres of other COVID-19 victims burn at a crematorium in New Delhi, India.Quest for appointments
In cities like New Delhi and Mumbai, where the shots are being given to younger people, tens of thousands have been scrambling online to book limited slots on a government app for immunization since they became eligible on May 1. Only some have been successful. “We got a slot but then the booking was cancelled,” Piyush Kumar, a New Delhi resident who got vaccinated on the weekend said. “But we persevered and kept on trying to refresh the page and suddenly some slots [opened] at a hospital about 45 kilometers away. We rushed there.” India faces major challenges — Mumbai has an estimated five million people in the 18-44 age group but is only giving 2,500 shots per day due to limited stocks. Vaccinations for older people were suspended for days last week. Critics are blaming authorities for a sluggish rollout of what was ambitiously billed as the world’s largest vaccination program when it began in January with a target of reaching 300 million people by August.  Since then, about 2% of the population has been fully inoculated while about 10% has received one dose. As a result, much of the country was unprotected when it was hit by a ferocious second wave that hit seven million people in April alone — the country’s count is about 20 million cases.  A woman argues with a doctor as she is turned back following shortage of COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination center in Mumbai, India, Monday, May 3, 2021. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)Stockpile failure
Experts say India failed to stockpile enough vaccines or invest early enough in boosting production facilities as it prematurely declared victory against the pandemic during a lull in infections earlier in the year. The government also sent 65 million doses to other countries as part of a “vaccine diplomacy” push. “I think it was factored in their minds that we will not have to deal with a second wave and therefore we could have a measured, steady graduated vaccination program which can flow in steps,” Reddy told VOA. “That is why we even felt we had the luxury of sending vaccines abroad to about 80 countries.”  The vaccine powerhouse was relying on domestically produced vaccines being made by two Indian companies — the Serum Institute of India that is making the Oxford/AstraZeneca shots and a domestically developed vaccine by Bharat Biotech. The government suspended exports and extended loans last month to build up infrastructure in the two companies as demand began exceeding supply. It has also stepped-up efforts to get vaccines from overseas. The first consignment of Sputnik V vaccines arrived from Russia this week and the vaccine will also be produced with local partners, but those doses could take months to reach the market. The government has said it will also grant emergency approval for vaccines approved in the United States, Britain, Europe or Japan.  Experts say the government needed a detailed plan on how it will secure the vaccines. “There was a shortage even when the drive did not open up to all adults,” points out public policy and health expert Chandrakant Lahariya. “Now the target beneficiaries have increased three-fold while the vaccine supply, which was already short, has remained the same. So, you can imagine how big the gap is. Even in months this may not be solved unless some additional approaches and strategies are followed.” Miscalculation
Adar Poonawalla, head of the Serum Institute of India, said this week that the shortages will continue through July when production is expected to increase. In an interview with the London-based Financial Times newspaper, he said he had not boosted capacity earlier because “there were no orders, we did not think we needed to make more than 1 billion doses a year.”  Now fear overhangs cities like New Delhi where the ongoing battle for hospital beds, drugs, and medical oxygen by tens of thousands shows no signs of abating.  Even hospitals have been scrambling for oxygen stocks and patients have died in hospitals that briefly ran out of oxygen. Social media is filled with desperate pleas for help. “I deleted social media apps for about a week in the middle because I just could not take it,” Kumar said. “But I had to get back because a lot of people are seeking help on that platform, and I need to be available. The times are very anxious.”   
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As the United States and its allies officially start withdrawing forces from Afghanistan, fears of increased violence and a Taliban return to power are making many Afghans anxious. VOA’s Ayesha Tanzeem reports from capital Kabul.Camera: Rahim Gul Sarwan  
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As the United States and its allies officially start withdrawing forces from Afghanistan, fears of increased violence and a Taliban return to power are making many Afghans anxious. VOA’s Ayesha Tanzeem reports from capital Kabul.Camera: Rahim Gul Sarwan  
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As India reels from a second wave of COVID-19 infections that is devastating major cities, stockpiles are falling short of surging demand in the country, health experts warn. The country’s mass immunization bid to expand its vaccination drive to all adults is posing to be a herculean task, they say. India opened vaccinations to those who are 18 years of age and older this month. Although it is the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, the approximately 70 million shots for COVID-19 being produced per month cannot address the massive needs of the world’s second most populous country, health experts say. K. Srinath Reddy is the president of the Public Health Foundation of India, a health research and policy development organization based in New Delhi. He said the challenge to meet demands includes groups considered “new entrants,” people between the ages of 18 to 44 years old.  “We are talking about 595 million people. So, we are talking of 1.2 billion doses,” he told VOA. “It’s a huge task and our vaccine stocks currently do not measure up anywhere near that.” Several states have said they cannot expand the drive because they are already struggling to inoculate older people with higher levels of risk. FILE – Relatives carry the body of a person who died of COVID-19 as multiple pyres of other COVID-19 victims burn at a crematorium in New Delhi, India.Quest for appointments
In cities like New Delhi and Mumbai, where the shots are being given to younger people, tens of thousands have been scrambling online to book limited slots on a government app for immunization since they became eligible on May 1. Only some have been successful. “We got a slot but then the booking was cancelled,” Piyush Kumar, a New Delhi resident who got vaccinated on the weekend said. “But we persevered and kept on trying to refresh the page and suddenly some slots [opened] at a hospital about 45 kilometers away. We rushed there.” India faces major challenges — Mumbai has an estimated five million people in the 18-44 age group but is only giving 2,500 shots per day due to limited stocks. Vaccinations for older people were suspended for days last week. Critics are blaming authorities for a sluggish rollout of what was ambitiously billed as the world’s largest vaccination program when it began in January with a target of reaching 300 million people by August.  Since then, about 2% of the population has been fully inoculated while about 10% has received one dose. As a result, much of the country was unprotected when it was hit by a ferocious second wave that hit seven million people in April alone — the country’s count is about 20 million cases.  A woman argues with a doctor as she is turned back following shortage of COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination center in Mumbai, India, Monday, May 3, 2021. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)Stockpile failure
Experts say India failed to stockpile enough vaccines or invest early enough in boosting production facilities as it prematurely declared victory against the pandemic during a lull in infections earlier in the year. The government also sent 65 million doses to other countries as part of a “vaccine diplomacy” push. “I think it was factored in their minds that we will not have to deal with a second wave and therefore we could have a measured, steady graduated vaccination program which can flow in steps,” Reddy told VOA. “That is why we even felt we had the luxury of sending vaccines abroad to about 80 countries.”  The vaccine powerhouse was relying on domestically produced vaccines being made by two Indian companies — the Serum Institute of India that is making the Oxford/AstraZeneca shots and a domestically developed vaccine by Bharat Biotech. The government suspended exports and extended loans last month to build up infrastructure in the two companies as demand began exceeding supply. It has also stepped-up efforts to get vaccines from overseas. The first consignment of Sputnik V vaccines arrived from Russia this week and the vaccine will also be produced with local partners, but those doses could take months to reach the market. The government has said it will also grant emergency approval for vaccines approved in the United States, Britain, Europe or Japan.  Experts say the government needed a detailed plan on how it will secure the vaccines. “There was a shortage even when the drive did not open up to all adults,” points out public policy and health expert Chandrakant Lahariya. “Now the target beneficiaries have increased three-fold while the vaccine supply, which was already short, has remained the same. So, you can imagine how big the gap is. Even in months this may not be solved unless some additional approaches and strategies are followed.” Miscalculation
Adar Poonawalla, head of the Serum Institute of India, said this week that the shortages will continue through July when production is expected to increase. In an interview with the London-based Financial Times newspaper, he said he had not boosted capacity earlier because “there were no orders, we did not think we needed to make more than 1 billion doses a year.”  Now fear overhangs cities like New Delhi where the ongoing battle for hospital beds, drugs, and medical oxygen by tens of thousands shows no signs of abating.  Even hospitals have been scrambling for oxygen stocks and patients have died in hospitals that briefly ran out of oxygen. Social media is filled with desperate pleas for help. “I deleted social media apps for about a week in the middle because I just could not take it,” Kumar said. “But I had to get back because a lot of people are seeking help on that platform, and I need to be available. The times are very anxious.”   
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The Afghan government said it plans to begin talks with 14 countries to discuss what to do with hundreds of their citizens who have been captured while fighting alongside the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP).  Ahamd Zia Saraj, the head of Afghanistan’s intelligence agency, National Directorate of Security (NDS), said this week that his government wanted to “find an acceptable solution to the problem.” The foreign nationals in Afghan custody are 408 ISKP members, including 173 women and children. According to the Afghan government, 299 of them are from Pakistan, 37 from Uzbekistan, 16 from China, 13 from Tajikistan, 12 from Kyrgyzstan, five from Russia, five from Jordan, five from Indonesia, four from India, four from Iran, three from Turkey, two from Bangladesh and two from Maldives. Abdul Wahid Taqat, a former senior intelligence official in the Afghan government, predicted a ‘difficult’ legal and political process for the repatriation of the ISKP prisoners, saying Kabul will likely need to use international bodies to convince those countries take back their citizens.   “Returning these fighters would not be easy because Afghanistan has no treaties to extradite or exchange terrorists with most of these countries,” Taqat told VOA, adding that “a reasonable option for Afghanistan is to involve the United Nations Human Commission on Human Rights to find a solution.” Most of the countries are hesitant to take back their citizens who have joined terror groups because of legal and security risks these “dangerous individuals” pose, said Colin Clarke, a senior fellow at the Soufan Center.  Clarke, however, said that some countries will likely be more responsive to the Afghan government request.  “More authoritarian countries do not need the proof; countries that are more transparent will need it to prosecute [these individuals],” he said. He added that China has interest in taking back its citizens back because it has “inflated the threat of terrorism to justify their treatment of Uyghurs.”  Reuters reported in 2015 that the Afghan government arrested and handed over a number of Uyghur militants to China as a way to persuade China to help with convincing Pakistan to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table. Formidable threat Taqat said the Afghan government’s announcement shows that foreign fighters still have bases in the country and that their presence would remain a “formidable threat” after foreign troops leave.  The fighters “will pose a greater threat to the security and stability of Afghanistan after the U.S. withdrawal,” said Taqat. The U.S. and its NATO allies have announced that they will pull out all their forces from Afghanistan by September 11.The Islamic State branch, ISKP, was formed in January 2015 in the eastern provinces of Afghanistan and in northern Pakistan. The group has suffered major setbacks in recent years, including the loss of its key pockets of territory and the removal of its top leadership. Despite the losses, a U.N. report in May 2020 said that ISKP still has about 2,200 armed fighters in the South Asian country and remains capable of launching different attacks. Pakistani citizens During the announcement Tuesday, NDS’s chief Saraj said that 299 out of 208 ISKP prisoners were Pakistani citizens because “60% of Daesh fighters are Pakistanis.”  Daesh is an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State.  Saraj said Aslam Farooqi, an ISKP leader and Pakistani citizen, will be turned over to Pakistani authorities only in exchange for Taliban leadership.   “We would only hand him over to Pakistan if we agree on a mutual exchange. When Pakistan hands over some Taliban leaders to us, we will think about it.” Farooqi was arrested with a dozen other ISKP fighters in April 2020 in the southern Kandahar province.  Earlier this month, Pakistan demanded that Afghanistan hand over Farooqi to Pakistan. “Aslam Farooqi was involved in anti-Pakistan activities in Afghanistan, he should be handed over to Pakistan for further investigation,” Pakistan’s foreign office said in a statement.  Regional observers say that most of ISKP fighters were the alienated members of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) who joined the terror group after it was formed in 2015. The Afghan government said that in addition to the ISKP fighters, it is holding an additional 309 foreign fighters who are affiliated with al-Qaeda and other militant groups.   
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The United Nations said Monday that opium cultivation in conflict-ridden Afghanistan increased by 37% in 2020 compared to the previous year, potentially producing an estimated 6,300 tons of opium.The findings are part of a new survey the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) conducted in coordination with the Afghan National Statistics and Information Authority (NSIA).The survey came two days after the United States and NATO allies formally began pulling their troops from Afghanistan, a move intended to close nearly 20 years of international military engagement in the country.“The total area under FILE – 37-year-old farmer Mohaiyudeen displays packages of opium after harvesting it from his poppy fields in the Surkh-Rod district of Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, June 28, 2020.Afghanistan’s southwestern region, as usual, accounted for 71% of total opium production, while cultivation in the eastern region had reduced by 28%.Southern Helmand province, which is mostly controlled or contested by Taliban insurgents, remained the country’s major opium poppy cultivating province.U.N. officials say rule of law-related challenges such as political instability, corruption, instability, and insecurity caused by insurgency groups are among the main factors driving high levels of opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan.Socioeconomic factors also impact farmers’ decisions — for example, scarce employment opportunities, lack of quality education and limited access to markets.Surveyors used satellite imagery to estimate opium poppy yields because the coronavirus pandemic prevented them from collecting opium data in the field.  “This is a demonstration on how NSIA, together with UNODC, we are able to find innovative solutions and to overcome the challenges and still present to the international community the results of the survey,” noted Angela Me, chief of the UNODC statistics and survey section.The COVID-19 crisis did not affect the 2020 opium season in terms of area cultivated or labor available for harvesting.The survey, however, cautioned and expected that the economic downturn following the pandemic, in combination with increasing food prices, may lead to further increases in opium poppy cultivation in future years.A U.S. government agency reported to U.S. Congress in January that Washington has appropriated $9 billion for counternarcotics efforts in Afghanistan since 2002.However, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) said the opium economy had grown exponentially over the period, while interdiction efforts have had “only a minimal impact” on the illicit narcotics trade.“Importantly, that trade helps fund insurgents, terrorists and criminal networks; fosters corruption; undermines public regard for the government and creates public health and social problems,” SIGAR said.In 2017, opium production in Afghanistan increased 87% to a record 9,000 metric tons, according to the UNODC.  Afghan opiate production accounts for more than 80% of the global morphine and heroin seized. 
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India reported 368,147 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, the 12th consecutive day the South Asian nation has recorded at least 300,000 cases of the disease.  While India is home to the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, the Serum Institute of India, only 2% of the country’s 1.3 billion people have been vaccinated, according to local reports. “I don’t think even God could have forecast it was going to get this bad,” Adar Poonawalla, CEO of the Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, told Britain’s newspaper The Sunday Times.  After scathing criticism about his comments during the interview with the newspaper, the 40-year-old billionaire said he was cutting the vaccine’s price and said that move would enable countries to obtain “more vaccinations and save countless lives.” A request from Tokyo’s Olympics Committee to the Japanese Nursing Association for 500 volunteers for the upcoming summer games was not well received by the nursing organization. The nurses took to social media to express their displeasure with the request.  FILE – Medical workers receive doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine at the Tokyo Metropolitan Cancer and Infectious Diseases Center Komagome Hospital in Tokyo, March 5, 2021.Susumu Morita, the secretary-general of the Japan Federation of Medical Workers’ Unions, said in a statement, “We must stop the proposal to send nurses who are engaged in the fight against a serious coronavirus pandemic to volunteer at the Olympics.” Japan has over 600,000 COVID-19 cases and is currently experiencing a surge.  In the United States, President Joe Biden’s chief of staff, Ron Klain, told CBS’s “Face the Nation” TV show, “we are rushing aid to India.” However, the U.S. is also taking new measures to prevent the spread of the virus. The White House said Friday that starting Tuesday, the U.S. will stop incoming flights from India. Relief supplies from the United States in the wake of India’s COVID-19 situation arrive at the Indira Gandhi International Airport cargo terminal in New Delhi, India, April 30, 2021. (Prakash Singh/Pool via AP)The U.S. has dispatched two Air Force transport planes carrying oxygen cylinders, N95 masks and rapid diagnostic tests, the first of several planned shipments. Taiwan says it has sent much-needed oxygen supplies.  Australia is also banning flights from India. Australians who do enter the country after traveling to India could face a fine and incarceration. Indonesian Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said two COVID variants have entered the country — one from India and the other from South Africa. Meanwhile, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control is advising travelers to “avoid all travel to Indonesia,” saying “even fully vaccinated travelers may be at risk for getting and spreading COVID-19 variants.”  Elsewhere, in Brazil, thousands of people marched the streets of Brasilia, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro Saturday despite the surge in COVID cases to show support for President Jair Bolsonaro. Bolsonaro, who opposes pandemic restrictions put in place by governors and mayors, recently said the army “could take to the street one day, to ensure … freedom to come and go.” Some of Saturday’s banners called for a “military intervention” and bolstering Bolsonaro’s powers. Meanwhile in Wuhan, the epicenter of China’s coronavirus outbreak, thousands attended a two-day Strawberry Music Festival that opened Saturday. The festival was forced to go online due to the pandemic a year ago. Although barriers were set separating the crowd, and security personnel enforcing restrictions, about 11,000 people danced and sang along with their favorite bands on three stages, as some attendees wore masks while many did not, according to the Reuters news agency.  Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported early Monday that there are 152.8 million global COVID cases. The U.S. tops the list with the most infections with 32.4 million, followed by India with nearly 20 million and Brazil with 14.7 million.  
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At least 25 people were killed in a collision between two boats in central Bangladesh on Monday, police said.   “We have rescued five people and retrieved 25 bodies,” local police chief Miraz Hossain told AFP.   The collision was between a packed boat carrying at least 30 passengers and a vessel transporting sand in the Padma river near the town of Shibchar.   More people were reportedly missing while fire service officials and locals continued rescue operations, another policeman said. Maritime accidents are common in Bangladesh, a delta nation crisscrossed by hundreds of rivers.    Experts blame poor maintenance, lax safety standards at shipyards and overcrowding for many of the accidents.   Vessels transporting sand sit low in the water and can be hard to see in choppy conditions, particularly when light is poor.   In early April, more than 30 people died when a packed ferry with around 50 passengers hurrying home from the central city of Narayanganj ahead of an impending coronavirus lockdown collided with a larger cargo vessel.   In June last year, a ferry sank in Dhaka after it was hit from behind by another ferry, killing at least 32 people.In February 2015, at least 78 people died when an overcrowded ship collided with a cargo boat.  
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Pakistan decided Sunday to temporarily suspend incoming pedestrian movement at overland border crossings with Afghanistan and Iran to “restrain import of any new mutation” of the coronavirus. 
 
The restriction will take effect Tuesday night and remain in place until May 20, said the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC), which oversees Pakistan’s response to the outbreak. 
 
Pakistani nationals in Afghanistan and Iran, as well as Afghans seeking extreme emergency medical treatment in Pakistan will, however, be allowed to enter the country. All outbound pedestrian movement will be permissible, the statement said.  
 
The tightened border controls come a day after officials in the southern Pakistani province of Sindh said they had detected the South African and Brazilian coronavirus variants in “some samples.” The highly contagious variants have raised fears of escalations in new infections. 
 
A British variant, however, officially remains the primary source of the current surge in infections across Pakistan. 
 
The country of about 220 million people detected the virus a year ago and has since reported more than 18,000 deaths among an estimated 830,000 infections. They included 113 deaths and 4,414 new cases authorities reported Sunday.  
 
The NCOC said the border restriction will not be applicable to bilateral and transit cargo/trade movement with Afghanistan and Iran, but that drivers will undergo “thermal scanning” at border terminals. 
 
Pakistan shares a nearly 2,600-kilometer border with Afghanistan and about a 930-kilometer border with Iran.  Pakistan’s special representative to Afghanistan, Mohammad Sadiq, defended the border restriction, calling it “the most important step” in curbing the wave of infections.  “The spread of COVID-19 is alarming. It is important that we take difficult decisions to protect our people from this scourge,” Sadiq tweeted. The spread of COVID-19 is alarming. It is important that we take difficult decisions to protect our people from this scourge. The most important step in this regard is reducing the movement of people for a few days so that this wave of virus subsides. pic.twitter.com/g8jo9Ftps8— Mohammad Sadiq (@AmbassadorSadiq) May 2, 2021Thousands of Afghan pedestrians travel daily in both directions. They are mostly members of the Afghan refugee community, students and patients seeking treatment in relatively better Pakistani health facilities. 
 
Pakistan has already banned land and air travel from India because of the devastating wave of coronavirus cases across the neighboring country, which on Sunday recorded its highest daily death toll since the start of the pandemic, with nearly 3,700 people dying in 24 hours. 
 
The health crisis in India has sparked fears Pakistan may be next. The traditionally neglected and underfunded Pakistani health care system, critics say, may not be able to sustain the kind of pressure and surge of cases India is experiencing. 
 
The Pakistani government last week called in troops to assist civilian law enforcement agencies in strictly implementing coronavirus public safety measures to stem the record number of deaths from the infection in recent days.
Authorities have placed virus hotspot areas either under complete or partial lockdowns and are racing to increase the number of beds as well ventilators to hospitals across Pakistan to stave off shortages.  
 
Pakistan authorities launched a nationwide vaccination campaign in February but just over 2 million people have so far been inoculated, the lowest rate in South Asia. 
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Kyrgyzstan’s leader called on his compatriots Sunday to respect a cease-fire reached with Tajikistan after their worst border clashes left at least 34 Kyrgyz dead and caused tens of thousands to be displaced.   
 
Clashes between communities along the long-contested border are regular occurrences, with border guards often getting involved.
 
But the violence that erupted Thursday was by far the most serious during the ex-Soviet nations’ 30 years of independence and sparked fears of a wider escalation.
 
Speaking Sunday, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov called for “a peacekeeping commission composed of elders from both sides” to help keep the calm on the border.  
Authorities had refused the demands of thousands of Kyrgyz who rallied in the capital, Bishkek, this week and demanded to be armed and sent to the border “to prevent a full-scale conflict and maintain stability,” Japarov said.
 
As he offered condolences to the victims of the conflict, Japarov said he was especially saddened by the death of “a 12-year-old daughter of our people,” the only child know to have died in the conflict.  
 
“I encourage every family to return to their previous places of residence,” Japarov said of the tens of thousands displaced during the conflict.  
 
Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan were “eternal neighbors” Japarov said, noting that he had twice held talks with counterpart Emomali Rakhmon in a bid to end the conflict.Kyrgyz men stand on the outskirts of the village of Maksat, near Kyrgyzstan’s border with Tajikistan, May 2, 2021.No compensation demand from Kyrgyzstan
 
Tajikistan, a closed authoritarian state, is understood to have also suffered casualties and damages, but has made far fewer statements on the outbreak of violence.
 
Kyrgyzstan’s emergencies ministry said Sunday that two schools and 78 homes were among the buildings that were burned down during the fighting, which continued intermittently Friday and Saturday despite a cease-fire.
 
But after national security chiefs from the two countries agreed to reinforce the cease-fire Saturday afternoon “no incidents of shooting have been registered,” a spokesman for Kyrgyzstan’s national security committee told AFP by telephone Sunday.
 
The two national security chiefs also agreed on a border protocol early Sunday, Kyrgyzstan’s main government website reported, offering few details on the agreement.
 
There was no immediate indication that progress had been made delimiting disputed sections, which account for more than a third of the 971-kilometer (604 mile) border between the countries.
 
Kyrgyzstan’s interior ministry on Sunday also said it had opened criminal cases in connection with the clashes to consider allegations of murder, mass unrest and illegal border crossings.  
 
National security chief Kamchybek Tashiyev said that Kyrgyzstan had no intention of demanding material compensation from Tajikistan for damages inflicted during the conflict, however.  
 
“If some day the Tajik side repents of what has been done and wants to compensate … then we will consider it,” Tashiyev said during a meeting with villagers shown on a pro-government television channel.  
 
Nearly 60,000 Kyrgyz citizens were evacuated from their villages during the conflict, according to local authorities and the Red Crescent.
 
Both Russia, which maintains military bases in the country, and neighboring Uzbekistan said they were prepared to mediate in the conflict.   
 
The clashes followed tensions between Kyrgyz and Tajiks over a key piece of river infrastructure on Wednesday.   
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Pakistan decided Sunday to temporarily suspend incoming pedestrian movement at overland border crossings with Afghanistan and Iran to “restrain import of any new mutation” of the coronavirus. 
 
The restriction will take effect Tuesday night and remain in place until May 20, said the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC), which oversees Pakistan’s response to the outbreak. 
 
Pakistani nationals in Afghanistan and Iran, as well as Afghans seeking extreme emergency medical treatment in Pakistan will, however, be allowed to enter the country. All outbound pedestrian movement will be permissible, the statement said.  
 
The tightened border controls come a day after officials in the southern Pakistani province of Sindh said they had detected the South African and Brazilian coronavirus variants in “some samples.” The highly contagious variants have raised fears of escalations in new infections. 
 
A British variant, however, officially remains the primary source of the current surge in infections across Pakistan. 
 
The country of about 220 million people detected the virus a year ago and has since reported more than 18,000 deaths among an estimated 830,000 infections. They included 113 deaths and 4,414 new cases authorities reported Sunday.  
 
The NCOC said the border restriction will not be applicable to bilateral and transit cargo/trade movement with Afghanistan and Iran, but that drivers will undergo “thermal scanning” at border terminals. 
 
Pakistan shares a nearly 2,600-kilometer border with Afghanistan and about a 930-kilometer border with Iran.  Pakistan’s special representative to Afghanistan, Mohammad Sadiq, defended the border restriction, calling it “the most important step” in curbing the wave of infections.  “The spread of COVID-19 is alarming. It is important that we take difficult decisions to protect our people from this scourge,” Sadiq tweeted. The spread of COVID-19 is alarming. It is important that we take difficult decisions to protect our people from this scourge. The most important step in this regard is reducing the movement of people for a few days so that this wave of virus subsides. pic.twitter.com/g8jo9Ftps8— Mohammad Sadiq (@AmbassadorSadiq) May 2, 2021Thousands of Afghan pedestrians travel daily in both directions. They are mostly members of the Afghan refugee community, students and patients seeking treatment in relatively better Pakistani health facilities. 
 
Pakistan has already banned land and air travel from India because of the devastating wave of coronavirus cases across the neighboring country, which on Sunday recorded its highest daily death toll since the start of the pandemic, with nearly 3,700 people dying in 24 hours. 
 
The health crisis in India has sparked fears Pakistan may be next. The traditionally neglected and underfunded Pakistani health care system, critics say, may not be able to sustain the kind of pressure and surge of cases India is experiencing. 
 
The Pakistani government last week called in troops to assist civilian law enforcement agencies in strictly implementing coronavirus public safety measures to stem the record number of deaths from the infection in recent days.
Authorities have placed virus hotspot areas either under complete or partial lockdowns and are racing to increase the number of beds as well ventilators to hospitals across Pakistan to stave off shortages.  
 
Pakistan authorities launched a nationwide vaccination campaign in February but just over 2 million people have so far been inoculated, the lowest rate in South Asia. 
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The incumbent chief minister’s party in India’s West Bengal state has defeated Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party in a state election held as the coronavirus pandemic surged to crisis levels. Modi has been criticized for focusing on the elections instead of making the pandemic his top priority. Some expert blame the federal election commission for allowing rallies and voting in which large crowds flouted rules on social distancing and mask-wearing. Mamata Banerjee, 66, is set to be the chief of West Bengal for the third time after her Trinamool Congress party (TMC) won a two-thirds majority, taking more than 200 seats in the 294-seat state assembly, election commission officials said. Final counting for some seats was still underway. Banerjee is now India’s only woman chief minister. Despite the defeat, Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) made substantial gains, making it the main opposition party as its tally in the state legislature went to nearly 80 seats from just three seats won in 2016. Modi, his colleagues and regional politicians campaigned aggressively in five state elections despite the pandemic. The results are seen as a test of the impact the pandemic’s second wave is having on support for him and his right-wing BJP. Banerjee, a sharp critic of Modi, largely conducted a one-woman campaign to retain power by leading scores of public rallies. “It is a stupendous performance by Mamata Banerjee because Modi was determined to win Bengal, but it’s clear that his entire political machinery and strategy was unable to defeat her,” said Diptendu Bhaskar, a political analyst in Kolkata, West Bengal’s capital. In Assam state, the BJP managed to retain political power. In Tamil Nadu, the DMK — the main regional opposition party — secured victory In Kerala state, the ruling leftist political party was set to form government while the BJP led-alliance won no seats. In the union territory of Puducherry, the All India NR Congress-led alliance was leading in 14 of the 30 seats assembly. Most of the votes were cast in March, but polling in some constituencies continued through April, just as India started to detect thousands of new coronavirus infections everyday. 
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India has been pummeled by the coronavirus outbreak, with staggering numbers of daily infections. While India is home to the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, the Serum Institute of India, only 2% of the country’s 1.3 billion people have so far been vaccinated.  The country expanded its vaccine eligibility Saturday to anyone 18 and older, but many locations reported that they did not have any vaccines.  Adar Poonawalla, Serum Institute’s chief executive officer has become a target because of the vaccination gap, and many blamed the India’s situation on Poonawalla. FILE – Adar Poonawalla, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Serum Institute of India poses for a picture at the Serum Institute of India, Pune, India, Nov. 30, 2020.“The level of expectation and aggression is really unprecedented,” he told Britain’s The Times in an interview Sunday. “I’m staying here an extended time because I don’t want to go back to that situation,” Poonawalla told the newspaper explaining the reasons why he plans to stay in Britain. “Everything falls on my shoulders, but I can’t do it alone,” he said. “I don’t think even God could have forecast it was going to get this bad.” After scathing criticism on social media Saturday, the 40-year-old billionaire posted on Twitter that he was returning to India: “Had an excellent meeting with all our partners & stakeholders in the U.K. Meanwhile, pleased to state that COVISHIELD’s [an Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine made in India] production is in full swing in Pune. I look forward to reviewing operations upon my return in a few days.” Had an excellent meeting with all our partners & stakeholders in the U.K. Meanwhile, pleased to state that COVISHIELD’s production is in full swing in Pune. I look forward to reviewing operations upon my return in a few days.— Adar Poonawalla (@adarpoonawalla) May 1, 2021The New York Times reported that India’s government had completed a threat assessment and announced that the Serum Institute chief would receive police protection.  On that same day Poonawalla announced on Twitter that, “As a philanthropic gesture on behalf of @SerumInstIndia, I hereby reduce the price to the states … effective immediately.” This step, he said would save state funds and “enable more vaccinations and save countless lives.”  On Sunday, India’s Health Ministry reported a slight dip in the number of daily cases. The ministry said there were 392,488 new infections in the previous 24 hours, down a bit from the more than 400,000 reported Saturday.  Taiwan says it has sent a container of aid to India, including much-needed oxygen supplies.  BrazilIn Brazil, thousands of people ignored their own coronavirus surge Saturday to march in the streets of Brasilia, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in support of President Jair Bolsonaro.  The South American country has recorded more than 400,000 deaths, including more than 2,600 on Saturday. It is second only to the U.S. in COVID-19 deaths. The U.S. has more than 576,600 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.  Bolsonaro, who opposes pandemic restrictions put in place by governors and mayors, recently said the army “could take to the street one day, to ensure… freedom to come and go.” Some of Saturday’s banners called for a “military intervention” and bolstering Bolsonaro’s powers. Music festival in WuhanMeanwhile in Wuhan, the epicenter of China’s coronavirus outbreak, thousands attended a two-day Strawberry Music Festival that opened Saturday. The festival was forced to go online due to the pandemic a year ago. Although barriers were set separating the crowd and security personnel enforcing restrictions, about 11,000 people danced and sang along with their favorite bands on three stages, as some attendees wore masks while many did not, according to Reuters.  More than 152 million global COVID infections have been reported so far according to Johns Hopkins. The U.S. has 32.3 million, while India has 19.5 million and Brazil has 14.7 million.  
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President Joe Biden became the first U.S. president to officially recognize the massacre of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire as a genocide. Shake Avoyan has the story, narrated by Anna Rice.Camera: Shake Avoyan.
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For British IT consultant Yogen Shah, India’s COVID-19 crisis is deeply personal.The pictures of people hooked up to oxygen bottles on the streets of New Delhi and patients sharing beds in overcrowded hospitals remind him of his uncle in India, who recently contracted the disease.So Shah joined volunteers from one of Britain’s largest Hindu temples who set out to raise 500,000 pounds ($690,000) by racking up 7,600 kilometers (4,722 miles) on stationary bikes — roughly the distance from London to Delhi — in 48 hours.”I think every single person of Indian origin will have someone affected over there,” Shah, 40, said Saturday outside the temple in northwest London. “And anywhere around the world that you have COVID, you feel for that human being, you feel for that person, whether they’re Indian origin or not.”The ride at Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in London’s Neasden neighborhood is one of many fundraising drives taking place across the U.K. as members of the Indian diaspora seek to help India battle the raging pandemic. The British Asian Trust, a charity founded by Prince Charles, has launched an emergency appeal to buy oxygen concentrators, which can extract oxygen from the air when hospital supplies run short.Grim milestoneIndia recorded more than 400,000 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, the first time daily infections topped that milestone. The country reported 3,523 coronavirus-related deaths in the past 24 hours, raising overall virus fatalities to 211,853. Experts believe both figures are undercounts.A man takes part in “Cycle to Save Lives,” a 48-hour nonstop static relay cycle challenge, at the Neasden Temple, the largest Hindu temple in the U.K., in north London, to raise money to help coronavirus relief efforts in India, May 1, 2021.In normal times, British Indian families might respond to a crisis in the homeland by buying a plane ticket and going back to help their relatives. But these aren’t normal times for the 1.4 million people in the U.K. who have Indian roots.Looking for a way to help, members of the Hindu temple in Neasden decided to organize a fundraiser that would be socially distanced and attract young people. They decided on the bikeathon because they also wanted to bring London and New Delhi closer together — connecting the two capitals in spirit even though most travel is barred by COVID-19 restrictions.The need is dire, but so is the message of solidarity, said Tarun Patel, one of the organizers.”India is starving for oxygen,” he said. “We need to help.”Hundreds of ridersOrganizers arranged a bank of 12 bikes in front of the temple. Joining with temples in Leicester and Chigwell, they attracted 750 riders.Each volunteer gets an hour on the bike — 50 minutes to clock up the kilometers and 10 minutes to sanitize the bike before handing it over. Each volunteer has set up a fundraising page that goes toward an overall fundraising goal.The efforts won’t solve India’s pandemic catastrophe, but the bikers of Britain want everyone in India to know that they did their best to ride to the rescue.”You are not alone in this fight,” Patel said. “We are with you. We may geographically be thousands of miles away, but we are with you.”
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Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan attacked and overran a key army base in southeastern Ghazni province Saturday, capturing dozens of soldiers and killing several others.
 
The latest attack came on a day when the United States and NATO partners formally began withdrawing their militaries from the country after almost 20 years of war.
 
Two senior provincial council members told VOA the Afghan army had stationed dozens of its forces at the base outside the provincial capital, also named Ghazni, before the pre-dawn insurgent attack.  
 
Local media reports said the ensuing clashes had lasted several hours and killed at least 17 soldiers.
 
Afghan army chief, Gen. Mohammad Yasin Zia, who is also the acting defense minister, confirmed to reporters in Kabul the fall of the security installation to insurgents, but he shared no further details.
 
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said its fighters had also seized heavy and light weaponry besides capturing 25 army personnel and killing “a number of others.”
 
Separately, Afghan officials Saturday raised the death toll to at least 30 from an overnight truck bombing in Pul-e-Alam, the capital of eastern Logar province. The powerful blast late Friday injured more than 100 others. Almost all the victims were said to be Afghan civilians. The Taliban did not comment on the attack but Afghan authorities blamed the insurgents for plotting the carnage.Security personnel and residents gather at the site of a car bomb attack in the Pul-e-Alam area of Logar province, Afghanistan, May 1, 2021.Critics fear the violence in Afghanistan will intensify unless the Taliban and the Afghan government resume their stalled peace talks and reach a power sharing deal before all foreign troops exit the country in the next few months.  
 
The troops were to have departed Afghanistan by May 1 in line with an agreement Washington signed with the Taliban in February 2020 in exchange for a cessation of insurgent attacks on foreign forces and counterterrorism assurances.
 
However, U.S. President Joe Biden announced last month that the drawdown would start May 1 and conclude by September 11, the 20th anniversary of al-Qaida-plotted attacks on America. Biden cited logistical reasons for missing the deadline.
 
Taliban spokesman Mujahid said in a statement Saturday that the passing deadline meant “this violation in principle has opened the way for Taliban fighters to take every counteraction it deems appropriate against the occupying [foreign] forces.”
 
But Mujahid stressed in his statement that insurgent fighters were waiting on the decision of Taliban leadership “in light of the sovereignty, values and higher interests of the country, and will then take action accordingly.”
 US base attacked
 
The U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan Col. Sonny Leggett tweeted Saturday that the “Kandahar airfield received ineffective indirect fire this afternoon; no injury to personnel or damage to equipment.”Kandahar Airfield received ineffective indirect fire this afternoon; no injury to personnel or damage to equipment.  Gen Miller has been clear about the Coalition’s intent to protect the force. pic.twitter.com/lcxicIgHHP— USFOR-A Spokesman Col Sonny Leggett (@USFOR_A) May 1, 2021“U.S. Forces conducted a precision strike this evening, destroying additional rockets aimed at the airfield,” Col. Sonny Leggett said in a subsequent tweet.
 
Gen. Scott Miller, the commander of U.S. and NATO militaries in the country, had warned last week that if his troops were attacked while carrying out the withdrawal they would respond to defend themselves.
“A return to violence would be one senseless and tragic. But make no mistake, we have the military means to respond forcefully to any type of attacks against the coalition and the military means to support the Afghan security forces,” Miller stressed.
 
The withdrawal of about 2,500 U.S. and 7,000 NATO troops from Afghanistan, once completed, would mark the end of what has been America’s longest war that cost Washington the lives of more than 2,400 military personnel and more than $2 trillion.
 
The nearly two decades-long Afghan war is estimated to have killed more than 241,000 people, including civilians, pro-government forces and opposition fighters, according to a new study by the U.S.-based Costs of War Project released last month.
 
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