Emergency crews recovered at least 25 bodies Monday following the sinking of a passenger ferry in Bangladesh. “Most of the bodies were found inside the sunken boat after it was dragged to the bank,” said Mustain Billah, Narayanganj district administrator. The double-decker ferry, carrying more than 50 passengers, was hit by a cargo vessel and immediately sank in the Shitalakshya River, near the capital, Dhaka. The boat was full of people rushing to leave the city following the announcement of a weeklong nationwide lockdown beginning Monday to handle the recent spike in COVID-19 cases. On Sunday, Bangladesh reported a record daily jump of 7,087 coronavirus infections, bringing its total to 644,439 with 9,318 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. People rely on ferries for transportation in Bangladesh, a low-lying nation with hundreds of rivers. Accidents are common because of overcrowding and poor maintenance and safety standards. 
 
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India’s Home Minister Amit Shah cut short an election rally in the east on Monday to head to the mineral-rich central state of Chhattisgarh, where Maoist guerillas at the weekend killed 22 security force members, officials said.In addition to the fatalities, 30 other members of the Indian police and paramilitary forces were wounded in a four-hour gun battle with Maoist rebels on Saturday, the deadliest ambush of its kind in four years.On Monday, Shah travelled to Chhattisgarh to meet the injured pay tribute to those killed.Also known as Naxals, the Maoists have waged an armed insurgency against the government for decades. Their leaders say they are fighting on behalf of the poorest, who have not benefited from the economic boom in Asia’s third-largest economy.Shah told reporters the government will “not tolerate such bloodshed and a befitting response will be given to put an end to the ongoing battle with Maoists”.Security experts said the latest attack by Maoist rebels, considered India’s biggest internal security threat, has forced Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s right-wing government to re-evaluate counter-insurgency operations against the ultra left-wing fighters, who have been able to increase new followers during the pandemic.”In the last few years the Maoists have had opportunity to regroup themselves in their core region of dominance,” said Uddipan Mukherjee, a joint director for government agency, the Ordnance Factory Board. He has been researching the Maoist strategy for more than a decade.Mukherjee and others with expert knowledge said the pandemic had allowed the insurgency to recruit more to its cause.”We have intelligence reports that the Maoist leaders during the pandemic have managed to recruit hundreds of new foot soldiers, including women, living in the forests who leak details about security force patrols,” a New Delhi-based bureaucrat who oversees country’s internal security said.”The pandemic has made the intra-state movement of Maoist leaders much easier,” the senior official said on condition of anonymity as he is not authorized to speak to the media.Chhattisgarh, one of the fastest-developing states in India, has 28 varieties of major minerals, including diamonds and gold, a government website said. The state has 16% of India’s coal deposits and large reserves of iron ore and bauxite.
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Indian security forces, acting on intelligence, raided a Maoist rebel hideout in the forests of the eastern Chhattisgarh state on Saturday, triggering a gunbattle that killed five paramilitary troops and one rebel, the state’s police said.Senior police officer D.M. Awasthi said hundreds of police and paramilitary soldiers took part in the raid after receiving intelligence that a large number of rebels were gathered in Bijapur district. He said at least 12 security personnel were injured in the four-hour firefight, and authorities were working to evacuate the wounded to hospitals.Awasthi said the body of one female rebel was also recovered.The rebels used automatic weapons and grenades during the gunbattle, according to Hemant Kumar Sahu, a paramilitary officer, who spoke with The Associated Press by phone.State-run All India Radio tweeted that at least 20 security personnel were missing after the engagement.The Maoist rebels, inspired by Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong, have been fighting the Indian government for more than four decades, demanding land and jobs for tenant farmers, the poor and indigenous communities.The government has called the rebels India’s biggest internal security threat. Last month, a roadside bomb killed at least four Indian policemen and wounded 14 in Narayanpur district of Chhattisgarh state as they were returning from an anti-Maoist operation.The rebels, also known as Naxalites, have ambushed police, destroyed government offices and abducted officials. They’ve also blown up train tracks, attacked prisons to free their comrades and stolen weapons from police and paramilitary warehouses to arm themselves.
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Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission confirmed Thursday that 14 women have been killed and 22 others injured since January in targeted killings by armed militants. VOA’s Lima Niazi reports from Kabul.  
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India’s health ministry Friday reported 81,466 new COVID cases in the previous 24-hour period. The new tally is the South Asian country’s highest daily count in six months. The western state of Maharashtra has more than half of the new cases with 43,183.India has 12.3 million COVID infections. Only the U.S and Brazil have more cases, with 30.5 million and 12.8 million respectively, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. Hopkins reports there are more than 129.6 million global infections.In Brazil’s largest city, gravediggers are exhuming bodies from old graves to make way for the latest victims of the coronavirus. Gravediggers in hazmat suits are working diligently in Sao Paulo’s Vila Nova Cachoeirinha cemetery to accommodate the growing number of bodies.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Thursday that vaccine manufacturer Moderna will be allowed to place 15 doses of its COVID vaccine in the same size vial that the pharmaceutical company has been using to contain 10 doses.Moderna said in a statement on its website that “the 15-dose vials will begin shipping in the coming weeks.”Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, said recently during a Royal Society of Medicine webinar that the coronavirus “is not going to go away.” He said, “We are going to have to manage it rather like we manage the flu. … We have to accept that.”The World Health Organization says Europe’s COVID-19 vaccination efforts are “unacceptably slow” in the face of a new surge of the virus and new, more contagious variants.Dr. Hans Kluge, WHO’s European director, issued a statement Thursday urging the continent’s leaders to “speed up the process by ramping up manufacturing, reducing barriers to administering vaccines, and using every single vial we have in stock, now.”The number of new infections across Europe had fallen below 1 million just five weeks ago, but the global health agency says those numbers have since surged to 1.6 million new cases, with nearly 24,000 deaths.Kluge said barely 10% of people across Europe have received at least one dose of a vaccine, with just 4% fully vaccinated.
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Christians in the Holy Land are marking Good Friday this year amid signs the coronavirus crisis is winding down, with religious sites open to limited numbers of faithful but none of the mass pilgrimages usually seen in the Holy Week leading up to Easter.The virus is still raging in the Philippines, France, Brazil and other predominantly Christian countries, where worshippers are marking a second annual Holy Week under various movement restrictions amid outbreaks fanned by more contagious strains.Last year, Jerusalem was under a strict lockdown, with sacred rites observed by small groups of priests, often behind closed doors. It was a stark departure from past years, when tens of thousands of pilgrims would descend on the city’s holy sites.This year, Franciscan friars in brown robes led hundreds of worshippers down the Via Dolorosa, retracing what tradition holds were Jesus’ final steps, while reciting prayers through loudspeakers at the Stations of the Cross. Another group carried a wooden cross along the route through the Old City, singing hymns and pausing to offer prayers.The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, built on the site where Christians believe Jesus was crucified, died and rose from the dead, is open to visitors with masks and social distancing.”Things are open, but cautiously and gradually,” said Wadie Abunassar, an adviser to church leaders in the Holy Land. “In regular years we urge people to come out. Last year we told people to stay at home … This year we are somehow silent.”Israel has launched one of the world’s most successful vaccination campaigns, allowing it to reopen restaurants, hotels and religious sites. But air travel is still limited by quarantine and other restrictions, keeping away the foreign pilgrims who usually throng Jerusalem during Holy Week.The main holy sites are in the Old City in east Jerusalem, which Israel captured along with the West Bank in the 1967 war. Israel annexed east Jerusalem and considers the entire city its unified capital, while the Palestinians want both territories for their future state.  Israel included Palestinian residents of Jerusalem in its vaccination campaign, but has only provided a small number of vaccines to those in the occupied West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority has imported tens of thousands of doses for a population of more than 2.5 million.Israeli authorities said up to 5,000 Christian Palestinians from the West Bank would be permitted to enter for Easter celebrations. Abunassar said he was not aware of any large tour groups from the West Bank planning to enter, as in years past, likely reflecting concerns about the virus.Pope Francis began Good Friday with a visit to the Vatican’s COVID-19 vaccination center, where volunteers have spent the past week administering some 1,200 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to poor and disadvantaged people in Rome.Pope Francis speaks to medical staff on Good Friday at a vaccination site in the Paul VI Hall where the poor and homeless are being inoculated, at the Vatican, April 2, 2021. (Vatican Media/Handout via Reuters)The Vatican City State bought its own doses to vaccinate Holy See employees and their families, and it has been giving away surplus supplies to homeless people. A masked Francis posed for photos with some of the volunteers and recipients in the Vatican audience hall.Later Friday, Francis was to preside over the Way of the Cross procession in a nearly empty St. Peter’s Square, instead of the popular torchlit ritual he usually celebrates at the Colosseum.In France, a nationwide 7 p.m. curfew is forcing parishes to move Good Friday ceremonies forward in the day, as the traditional Catholic night processions are being drastically scaled back or canceled. Nineteen departments in France are on localized lockdowns, where parishioners can attend daytime Mass if they sign the government’s “travel certificate.”  Although a third lockdown “light” is being imposed Saturday, French President Emmanuel Macron has wavered on a travel ban for Easter weekend, allowing the French to drive between regions to meet up with family on Friday.FILE – Churchgoers wearing face masks lineup outside the Notre-Dame-des-Champs church in Paris, France.Fire-ravaged Notre Dame will not hold a Good Friday Mass this year, but the cathedral’s “Crown of Thorns” will be venerated by the cathedral’s clergy at its new temporary liturgical hub in the nearby church of Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois.In Spain, there will be no traditional processions for a second year in a row, and churches will limit the number of worshippers. Many parishes are going online with Mass and prayers via video streaming services.In the Philippines, streets were eerily quiet and religious gatherings were prohibited in the capital, Manila, and four outlying provinces. The government placed the bustling region of more than 25 million people back under lockdown this week as it scrambled to contain an alarming surge in COVID-19 cases.The Philippines had started to reopen in hopes of stemming a severe economic crisis, but infections surged last month, apparently because of more contagious strains, increased public mobility and complacency.
 
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India’s health ministry Friday reported 81,466 new COVID cases in the previous 24-hour period. The new tally is the South Asian country’s highest daily count in six months. The western state of Maharashtra has more than half of the new cases with 43,183.India has 12.3 million COVID infections. Only the U.S and Brazil have more cases, with 30.5 million and 12.8 million respectively, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. Hopkins reports there are more than 129.6 million global infections.In Brazil’s largest city, gravediggers are exhuming bodies from old graves to make way for the latest victims of the coronavirus. Gravediggers in hazmat suits are working diligently in Sao Paulo’s Vila Nova Cachoeirinha cemetery to accommodate the growing number of bodies.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Thursday that vaccine manufacturer Moderna will be allowed to place 15 doses of its COVID vaccine in the same size vial that the pharmaceutical company has been using to contain 10 doses.Moderna said in a statement on its website that “the 15-dose vials will begin shipping in the coming weeks.”Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, said recently during a Royal Society of Medicine webinar that the coronavirus “is not going to go away.” He said, “We are going to have to manage it rather like we manage the flu. … We have to accept that.”The World Health Organization says Europe’s COVID-19 vaccination efforts are “unacceptably slow” in the face of a new surge of the virus and new, more contagious variants.Dr. Hans Kluge, WHO’s European director, issued a statement Thursday urging the continent’s leaders to “speed up the process by ramping up manufacturing, reducing barriers to administering vaccines, and using every single vial we have in stock, now.”The number of new infections across Europe had fallen below 1 million just five weeks ago, but the global health agency says those numbers have since surged to 1.6 million new cases, with nearly 24,000 deaths.Kluge said barely 10% of people across Europe have received at least one dose of a vaccine, with just 4% fully vaccinated.
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A group of female artists in Afghanistan’s central province of Bamyan has recently opened a small pyrography and engraving studio to promote fine arts in the region. VOA’s Zafar Bamiyani has more from Bamyan in this report narrated by Bezhan Hamdard.
Camera: Zafar Bamiyani      Producer: Zafar Bamiyani
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Pakistan removed a nearly two-year old ban on the import of cotton and sugar from India Wednesday amid a gradual thawing of relations between the two nuclear-armed rival neighbors.
 
Finance Minister Hamad Azhar told reporters in Islamabad that his government has allowed importers to urgently procure cotton and 500,000 tons of white sugar from Indian suppliers to keep soaring domestic prices under control.
 
“Sugar prices are comparatively much lower in India, so we have decided to reopen sugar trade with India and have allowed the private sector to import 500,000 tons,” Azhar said after chairing a meeting of the decision-making federal Economic Coordination Committee.  
 
“It will improve supplies here (in Pakistan) and overcome a temporary shortage in the country, and help lower soaring sugar prices,” he added.  
 
Azhar defended the decision, saying “there is no harm in reopening trade” with India if it helps bring down prices for economically burdened Pakistanis. He said that “if the situation required” the government may also decide to lift ban on other imports from India.
 
Pakistan was a leading buyer of Indian cotton until August 2019, when Islamabad banned imports of goods from the neighboring country to protest New Delhi’s revocation of the semiautonomous status of Indian-administered Kashmir.
 
The Himalayan region is split between India and Pakistan. Both claim all of Kashmir and have fought two wars over it since the two countries gained independence from Britain in 1947.
 
“India desires normal relations, including on trade with all countries, including Pakistan,” Hardeep Singh Puri, India’s minister of state for commerce and industry, told the Indian parliament last week, in reply to a question on whether bilateral trade is likely to resume.
 
“Pakistan unilaterally suspended bilateral trade with India in August 2019. It is for Pakistan to review its unilateral measures on trade,” said Puri.
 
Wednesday’s decision by Pakistan to partially reopen bilateral trade came a day after Prime Minister Imran Khan replied to his Indian counterpart’s letter, saying the people of Pakistan “desire peaceful, cooperative relations” with India.  
 
“We are convinced that durable peace and stability in South Asia is contingent upon resolving all outstanding issues between India and Pakistan, in particular the Jammu & Kashmir dispute,” Khan wrote.
 
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his letter sent last week extended greetings to Pakistan on the occasion of the country’s national day.  
 
“As a neighboring country, India desires cordial relations with the people of Pakistan. For this, an environment of trust, devoid of terror and hostility, is imperative,” Modi wrote.  
 
The exchange of goodwill messages and resumption of limited trade come a month after Indian and Pakistani military commanders announced unexpectedly that they were immediately halting hostilities along their de facto Kashmir frontier to reinstate a 2002 cease-fire there.  
 
The flurry of peace gestures, say analysts, visibly eased tensions and reduced rhetoric from both India and Pakistan.  
 
“It looks as if an attempt at a calibrated thaw between India and Pakistan is underway,” said Amit Baruah, New Delhi resident editor at The Hindu newspaper.
 
“However, while I wish all success to the fresh attempts at building bridges between the two estranged neighbors, there are grave doubts about whether the (military) establishments in Pakistan and India actually want peace,” Baruah said.
 
It is widely perceived that whenever Pakistani and Indian political leadership have moved toward better relations in the past, military institutions on both sides allegedly scuttled such moves.
 
Pakistani military chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa earlier this month offered an olive branch to India by stressing the need to “bury the past and move forward.”
 
“But for resumption of peace process, or meaningful dialogue, our neighbor will have to create a conducive environment, particularly in Indian-occupied Kashmir,” Bajwa told an international conference of experts and academics in Islamabad.  Anjana Pasricha contributed from New Delhi.
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A huge relief operation is under way to support tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees affected by a massive blaze last week in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. An estimated 48,000 Rohingya lost their shelters in the fire that ripped through parts of Kutupalong-Balukhali, the world’s largest refugee camp. The camp houses some 600,000 Rohingya refugees who fled violence and persecution in Myanmar in August 2017. The U.N. refugee agency reports the Rohingya are being sheltered temporarily on site with family and friends while housing and other vital infrastructure, including hospitals, learning centers and aid distribution points, are being rehabilitated. This combination of Nov. 12, 2020, left, and March 23, 2021, satellite images provided by Planet Labs Inc shows Balukhali refugee camp before/after a fire, in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, March 23, 2021.UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic says his agency and partners are distributing thousands of relief items to the refugees, and mobile medical teams are helping those in need of first aid.  He says more than 4,000 refugees affected by the fire are being treated for psychological distress.   “Our teams on the ground are monitoring the safety and security of refugees. We are also working to address the critical needs of separated children,” Mahecic said. “Since the fire, together with our partners, we have identified more than 600 separated girls and boys who have now been reunited with their families. Our partners are also establishing two child protection helplines and four unification help desks.”   He says the Bangladeshi government has established a high-level committee to investigate the cause of the blaze. Eleven deaths have been confirmed, but Mahecic notes more than 300 people are missing. FILE – Volunteers from aid agencies rebuild shelters for Rohingya refugees who lost their dwellings to a fire at Balukhali camp at Ukhiya in Cox’s Bazar district, Bangladesh, March 24, 2021.In addition to the aid from the U.N. agency, hundreds of volunteers have been helping refugees affected by the fire. “Last week, they were among the first responders in the collective efforts to extinguish the fire,” Mahecic said of the volunteers. “Since then, they have been helping other refugees, older children, pregnant women to find safe shelters, escorting people to health care facilities, cleaning the debris, identifying and referring refugees with specific needs to the relevant services.”   The UNHCR is appealing for $5.9 million in international support to deal with the aftermath of the fire. That amount is only a small portion of the $294.5 million it needs to implement its humanitarian operation in Bangladesh this year. To date, only 20 percent of that amount is funded. 
 
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Addressing a conference on Afghanistan, President Ashraf Ghani described a three-step process for “making, building and sustaining peace” that he said should result in a “sovereign, democratic, united, neutral and connected Afghanistan.”The two-day Heart of Asia conference in Tajikistan’s capital, Dushanbe, is one of a host of regional conferences that have been taking place to try to jump start a stalled Afghan peace process.The two sides to this decades-long conflict started negotiating in September of last year in Qatar’s capital, Doha, but have yet to make progress.The first phase of Ghani’s plan would involve coming to a negotiated political settlement with the Taliban that was endorsed by a Loya Jirga, or a traditional grand assembly of influential Afghans.It would also include a cease-fire as well as reaching consensus on the principles of forming a “government of peace-building within the framework of the constitution with a time-bound mandate culminating in an internationally supervised and monitored presidential election,” he told the gathering.This phase, Ghani said, should end in elections under international supervision and pave the way for the phase of sustaining peace through “national reconciliation, reintegration of combatants and refugees, defining our new security, development and governance priorities.”While the proposal of forming a transitional government is in line with one proposed by the United States, it differs in its emphasis of sticking to the framework of the current constitution, which the Afghan Taliban reject.It also differs on its emphasis on making elections the basis of transferring power. The U.S. proposal envisions a transitional “peace government” that was appointed “according to the principle of equity between the two Parties to this Agreement, with special consideration for the meaningful inclusion of women and members of all ethnic groups throughout government institutions.”Ghani is expected to take this plan to a conference in Turkey, expected in the next few weeks, that is being watched carefully as part of a U.S. push to boost regional diplomacy.”So, we’ve put some energy into the diplomatic effort in sharing some ideas with the Afghan government, with the Taliban, in bringing them together, including a conference that will take place in the weeks ahead in Turkey. Having the U.N. play a more prominent role in bringing people together and also, getting all the neighbours and other countries who have both an interest and an influence in Afghanistan to actually engage,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CNN in a recent interview.The push comes ahead of a deadline the U.S. is unlikely to meet to withdraw all foreign forces from Afghanistan. The May 1 deadline is part of a deal the U.S. negotiated with the Taliban and the militant group has threatened bloody consequences if the deal is violated.Experts fear if the foreign forces withdraw from Afghanistan without a political settlement, the country could descend into a bloody civil war as it did once before in the 1990s after the Soviets left.Addressing the conference, the president of the host country, Emomali Rahmon of Tajikistan, spoke to the gathering about the civil war in Tajikistan after the collapse of the Soviet Union that lasted five years and killed almost 160,000 people.The first meeting between the warring factions, the government officials and the rebels, was held in Kabul in the 1990s through the mediation efforts of former president of Afghanistan Burhanuddin Rabbani.The end of any war, Rahmon said, was reconciliation, and his country supported the intra-Afghan negotiations to reach a political settlement.Iran’s foreign minister, Javad Zarif, emphasized the need for a responsible withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan and warned of the need to be vigilant against Islamic State in the region.Foreign Minister of Pakistan Shah Mahmood Qureshi underscored the importance of making the ongoing intra-Afghan negotiations in Doha the foundation of Afghanistan’s peace process, according to a press release issued by Pakistan’s foreign ministry.The Pakistani foreign minister also emphasized that a political settlement in Afghanistan needed to be inclusive, broad-based and comprehensive in order to be successful.Foreign ministers of 13 countries, besides Afghanistan and Tajikistan, attended the conference.   The Heart of Asia process was launched in 2011 in Istanbul, Turkey, to help find a solution to the challenges facing Afghanistan. Fifteen countries participate in the process, while another 17 countries and 12 regional and international organizations support it. 
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Pakistan began nationwide door-to-door polio vaccinations Monday of children as the South Asian nation of about 220 million people battles a substantial surge in COVID-19 infections. 
 
Pakistan is one of two countries in the world, along with neighboring Afghanistan, where the polio virus remains endemic and efforts to eradicate the crippling disease continue to face challenges. 
 
The five-day polio immunization drive is aimed at vaccinating more than 40 million children in the country under five years old, said Faisal Sultan, special assistant to the Pakistani prime minister on national health services. 
 
Sultan said the government has engaged some 285,000 front-line workers in 156 Pakistani districts to administer polio drops to the targeted population. 
 
Hours after Monday’s vaccination drive began, authorities imposed partial lockdowns in “high-risk” Pakistani districts, including the capital, Islamabad, citing a “very dangerous” spike in new coronavirus cases. 
 
Since the coronavirus outbreak in the country 13 months ago, the government has recorded more than 14,300 deaths from COVID-19 and 663,000 infections, including 41 deaths and more than 4,500 new cases in the last 24 hours. 
 FILE – Students wear protective masks as they have their temperature checked before entering classrooms as secondary schools reopen amid the second wave of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Peshawar, Pakistan, Jan. 18, 2021.Pakistani officials said the rate of people testing positive for COVID-19 has risen to an alarming 12% from a low of about 3% a few weeks ago, suggesting the actual number of infections is likely much higher than the reported cases. 
 
Sultan said the current wave of coronavirus infections has the “potential to be worse than the first one in the summer of 2020,” when Pakistan imposed a nationwide lockdown to contain the virus. 
 
“COVID-19 continues to challenge us, but we are committed to ensure continuity of the essential public health services during these difficult times,” Sultan said. “It is an absolute must that all our eligible children stay protected against vaccine-preventable diseases, including polio.” 
 
Sultan urged the public to cooperate with polio teams and instructed authorities to ensure the protection of health care workers. 
 
Anti-polio drives in Pakistan have suffered setbacks in recent years due to attacks on vaccinators and police personnel guarding them. 
 
Islamist militants see the polio vaccine as an effort to collect intelligence on their activities, while radical religious groups in conservative rural parts of majority-Muslim Pakistan reject the immunization as a Western-led conspiracy to sterilize children. 
 
The false information has triggered attacks during immunization campaigns, killing scores of health care workers and security forces in the last decade. 
 
Pakistani officials insist the attacks on polio teams have particularly increased since 2011 when the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency arranged a fake vaccination campaign with the help of a local doctor, enabling U.S. forces to locate and kill fugitive al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden deep inside Pakistan. 
 
Pakistan, where polio infected 84 children in 2020, has reported one confirmed case so far this year. 
 
“The year 2021 presents a unique opportunity to leverage the gains made in 2020, despite the challenges of the (COVID-19) pandemic,” said a government statement released in connection with Monday’s launch of the immunization drive.  
 
“We have started witnessing the impact of our hard work over the last six months in terms of improved epidemiology. This is reflected by the declining polio cases and decreased detection of viruses in sewage samples,” said Dr. Shahzad Baig of the Polio Eradication Initiative (PEI), who is quoted in the government statement. 
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Unknown gunmen have shot dead three female anti-polio workers in Afghanistan, one of the two countries in the world along with its neighbor Pakistan, where the crippling children’s disease remains endemic. 
 
Tuesday’s violence came on the second day of a five-day polio immunization drive, this year’s first in the conflict-torn country, that officials say aims to reach nearly one million Afghan children under five years of age in 32 out of the country’s 34 provinces.  
 
Officials said the slain women were administering polio drops to children in parts of Jalalabad, the capital of eastern Nangarhar province. 
 
No one immediately took responsibly for the violence. 
 
Afghanistan reported 56 new cases of polio in 2020, and officials have already detected around two dozen new cases this year.  
 
Continued fighting and a ban on door-to-door vaccinations in areas held by Taliban insurgents are blamed for hampering efforts to eradicate the polio virus in the country. 
 
The Afghan health ministry estimates about three million children were deprived of the polio vaccine in the past three years. 
 
Health Minister Waheed Majroj told a gathering Monday while launching the polio immunization campaign that security concerns may again deprive about one million children from receiving polio drops in 2021.  
 
Pakistan also launched its five-day nationwide door-to-door vaccinations of children against polio on Monday amid a substantial surge in coronavirus infections. 
 
The polio immunization drive targets more than 40 million children under the age of five across 156 Pakistani districts, said Faisal Sultan, special assistant to the Pakistani prime minister on national health services. 
 FILE – A boy receives polio vaccine drops, during an anti-polio campaign, in a low-income neighbourhood in Karachi, Pakistan.Sultan said the government has engaged some 285,000 frontline workers, respecting coronavirus safety guidelines, to administer polio drops to the targeted population. 
 
Anti-polio drives have also suffered setbacks in Pakistan in recent years due to attacks on vaccinators and police personnel guarding them, leading to a spike in new infections. The violence has killed scores of polio workers and security guards escorting them. 
 
Islamist militants see the polio vaccine as an effort to collect intelligence on their activities while radical religious groups in conservative rural parts of majority-Muslim Pakistan reject the immunization as a Western-led conspiracy to sterilize children. 
 
Pakistani officials insist attacks on polio teams have particularly increased since 2011 when the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency arranged a fake vaccination campaign with the help of a local doctor, enabling U.S. forces to locate and kill fugitive al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden deep inside Pakistan. 
 
Pakistan, where polio infected 84 children in 2020, has reported one confirmed case so far this year. 
 
”The year 2021 presents a unique opportunity to leverage the gains made in 2020, despite the challenges of the (COVID-19) pandemic,” said a government statement released in connection with Monday’s launch of the immunization drive. 
 
The South Asia nation’s second polio drive of 2021 comes amid a third wave of coronavirus infections, with Pakistani officials reporting more than 4,000 new cases and 100 deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in the last 24 hours. 
 
Hours after Monday’s polio vaccination drive began, authorities imposed partial lockdowns in “high-risk” Pakistani districts, including the capital, Islamabad, citing a “very dangerous” spike in new coronavirus cases. 
 
Since the coronavirus outbreak in the country 13 months ago, the government has recorded nearly 14,400 deaths from COVID-19 and more than 663,000 infections. 
 
Pakistani officials said the rate of people testing positive for COVID-19 had alarmingly risen to nearly 12% from a low of about 3% a few weeks ago, suggesting the actual number of infections is likely much higher than the reported cases. 
 
Sultan said the current wave of coronavirus infections has the “potential to be worse than the first one in the summer of 2020,” when Pakistan had to impose a nationwide lockdown to contain the virus. 
 
Pakistan President Arif Alvi tweeted Monday that he had been tested positive for COVID-19 as did the country’s defense minister, Shaukat Khattak. 
 
Prime Minister Imran Khan had also tested positive for the virus earlier this month. Faisal tweeted Sunday that Khan had made “steady clinical recovery” and had been advised to resume building up his official work routine.
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Hindus threw colored powder and sprayed water in massive Holi celebrations Monday despite many Indian states restricting gatherings to try to contain a coronavirus resurgence rippling across the country.  
Holi marks the advent of spring and is widely celebrated throughout Hindu-majority India. Most years, millions of people throw colored powder at each other in outdoor celebrations. But for the second consecutive year, people were encouraged to stay at home to avoid turning the festivities into superspreader events amid the latest virus surge.
India’s confirmed infections have exceeded 60,000 daily over the past week from a low of about 10,000 in February. On Monday, the health ministry reported 68,020 new cases, the sharpest daily rise since October last year. It took the nationwide tally to more than 12 million.
Daily deaths rose by 291 and the virus has so far killed 161,843 people in the country.
The latest surge is centered in the western state of Maharashtra where authorities have tightened travel restrictions and imposed night curfews. It is considering a strict lockdown.
Cases are also rising in the capital New Delhi and states of Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh.
The surge coincides with multi-stage state elections marked by large gatherings and roadshows, and the Kumbh Mela, or pitcher festival, celebrated in northern Haridwar city, where tens of thousands of Hindu devotees daily take a holy dip into the Ganges river.
Health experts worry that unchecked gatherings can lead to clusters, adding the situation can be controlled if vaccination is opened up for more people and COVID-19 protocols are strictly followed.
India, with a population of more than 1.3 billion, has vaccinated around 60 million people, of which only 9 million have received both doses of vaccine so far.
However, more than 60 million doses manufactured in India have been exported abroad, prompting widespread criticism that domestic needs should be catered to first.
The government said last week that there would be no immediate increase in exports. It said vaccines will be given to everyone over 45 starting April 1.
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A regional ministerial conference called the Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process (HoA-IP) started Monday in Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe to try to advance the goal of ending the decades long conflict in Afghanistan.Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who arrived early Monday to attend the annual conference, also met his Tajik counterpart Emomali Rahmon on the sidelines.The meeting is just the latest in a flurry of diplomatic efforts to jumpstart a peace process that has been stalled for months.The gathering is taking place as a May 1 deadline, negotiated separately between the United States and Taliban, to withdraw all foreign forces from Afghanistan, looms. President Joe Biden told reporters in his first press conference last week that it was “going to be hard to meet the May 1 deadline.”However, Biden said he could not envision U.S. troops staying in Afghanistan past next year.“It is not my intention to stay there for a long time,” the U.S. leader said.  The Taliban have warned that any deviation from the deadline might result in the group restarting its attacks against foreign forces.“Any responsibility for the prolongation of war, death, and destruction will be on the shoulders of those whom committed this violation,” the group’s spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in a statement.Taliban stopped direct attacks on the U.S. and NATO forces once it signed an agreement with the U.S. in Doha in February of 2020. However, it increased its attacks on Afghan forces, taking the level of violence to a 10 year high at times.The increase in violence has been a major deterrent in progress in peace talks between the Afghan government and Taliban, which officially started on September 12, 2020. Under the agreement the U.S. signed with the Taliban, the militant group was supposed to negotiate with the Afghan government and other factions to find a resolution to the conflict, but the two sides have made scant progress and have yet to agree on the agenda for the talks.  The Taliban are under intense international pressure to reduce violence or announce a ceasefire.Following another regional conference on Afghanistan hosted by Russia earlier this month, the U.S., Russia, China, and Pakistan, issued a joint statement calling on all parties in Afghanistan to reduce violence and for the Taliban to forego their ‘spring offensive,’ the yearly renewal in attacks after a winter lull, in order to facilitate peace negotiations.The Taliban sent signals that it may be ready to yield.  “We have floated a plan under which all related sides will reduce violence. But this is not a cease-fire,” Taliban spokesman Mohammad Naeem told VOA earlier this month.To create momentum for the peace talks, the U.S. has recently proposed several ideas, including creating a transitional government that includes the Taliban. Afghan President Ghani, who took office for the second time last year and still has four more years to go, has strongly rejected that proposal, calling elections the only way to form a new government.HoA-IP was launched in 2011 in Istanbul, Turkey, to help find a solution to the challenges facing Afghanistan. Fifteen countries participate in this process, while another 17 countries and 12 regional and international organizations support it.Around 50 countries and international organizations are attending the ninth conference of its kind. Participants will issue a statement at the end.The Dushanbe conference comes in advance of another meeting in Turkey organized by the United Nations which both Taliban and the Afghan government are likely to attend. The Turkey conference, expected in the next couple of weeks, is being viewed as a game changer in the Afghan peace process.  
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Assailants in Pakistan damaged a nearly century-old Hindu temple in the garrison city of Rawalpindi before fleeing the scene, police said Monday. The vandals damaged the door and the stairs of the temple in the attack, which took place on Saturday night. The temple was not yet reopened for the Hindu community for worship and was still undergoing renovation, according to local police official Mohammad Toseef Sajjad. The renovation had temporarily been halted for the Hindu festival of Holi, when Hindus throw colored powder and spray water on each other to mark the advent of spring. Until the renovations started, the temple had remained abandoned. Nearby shop owners had encroached on much of the land that the temple was built on. There were no further details. So far, no one has claimed responsibility for the attack. In general, Muslims and Hindus live peacefully in the predominantly Muslim Pakistan, but there have been attacks on Hindu temples in recent years. Most of Pakistan’s minority Hindus migrated to India in 1947 when India was divided by Britain’s government. The latest attack, months after a mob demolished a Hindu temple in the country’s northwest, drew criticism on social media. 
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Bangladesh security forces opened fire and used tear gas Sunday to disperse thousands of protesters who were enforcing a nationwide general strike they called to denounce violence at a previous protest over a visit by India’s prime minister.At least one man was shot in Sanarpara in Narayanganj district after thousands of protesters, mostly students from Islamic schools, blocked a major highway connecting Dhaka with the southeastern port city of Chattogram, said Mohamamed Zayedul Alam, the area’s police superintendent.The man was rushed to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital for treatment, he said.Witnesses said scores of people were hurt in clashes with police, which started after protesters set fire to a number of vehicles.Mohammed Russel, a duty official at the control room of the Fire Service and Civil Defense, said by phone that they dispatched several units of the fire fighters after information that some passenger buses and a truck were torched. “But our teams could not reach the scene as the protesters blocked the approaching roads,” he said.Similar clashes also took place in Sarail in the eastern district of Brahmanbaria when protesters attacked the security officials, the Bengali-language Prothom Alo daily reported. It said after the clash two bullet-ridden bodies were recovered from the scene. Local police did not answer calls from AP to confirm the deaths.Security was tight during Sunday’s strike and traffic was thin on Dhaka’s usually clogged streets. Authorities deployed paramilitary border guards to Dhaka to keep order.Sunday’s violence followed days of tension and clashes over a visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that began Friday and ended as scheduled on Saturday. At least four people were killed and scores injured Friday in clashes between protesters and security officials. The clashes continued Saturday.Critics accuse Modi’s Hindu-nationalist party of stoking religious polarization in India and discriminating against minorities, particularly Muslims. In recent weeks, demonstrators in Muslim-majority Bangladesh had urged the Indian leader not to visit and criticized Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for inviting him.The Islamist group Hefazat-e-Islam, which has a network of Islamic schools across Bangladesh, announced the nationwide general strike for Sunday, to protest Friday’s events, in which its members were blamed for attacking government structures.The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party headed by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, an archrival of Hasina, did not support Sunday’s strike directly, but said the call for it was logical. 
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At least five people were killed and dozens injured Saturday by police gunfire in eastern Bangladesh, a hospital doctor said, as security forces tried to quell protests against the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.Hundreds of students from Islamic religious schools clashed with police and border troops in the eastern Brahmanbaria district. Police said they had to open fire to control the violence.Many Islamist groups in Bangladesh accuse Modi of alienating minority Muslims in Hindu-majority India. The two countries issued a joint statement celebrating their cooperation and partnership, but the Bangladesh government made no comment about the protests.”We received three bullet-hit dead bodies and two others succumbed to their injuries later,” Abdullah Al Mamun, a doctor at the government-owned Brahmanbaria General Hospital, told Reuters.A local police officer confirmed five had died but declined to be named as he was not authorized to speak to reporters. Bangladeshi police did not officially confirm the death toll.Fatalities on FridayProtests raged across Bangladesh against Modi but also over the police killing of Islamists who had demonstrated against his two-day visit.Four supporters of the Islamist group Hefazat-e-Islam were killed Friday when police opened fire at protesters who allegedly attacked a police station in the southeastern town of Chittagong.Dozens were also hurt in the capital, Dhaka, on Friday when police used rubber bullets and tear gas in clashes with protesters.On Saturday, hundreds of members of Hefazat-e-Islam and other Islamist groups marched through Chittagong and Dhaka, protesting the deaths of their supporters.”Police opened fire on our peaceful supporters,” the group’s organizing secretary, Azizul Haque, told a rally in Chittagong. “We will not let the blood of our brothers go in vain.”Strike called for SundayHefazat-e-Islam, which translates as Protection of Islam, has called for a nationwide strike Sunday to protest the killings.Amnesty International also criticized the police action in Chittagong.”The right to peaceful protest has come under concerted attack, particularly during the coronavirus pandemic, culminating in this type of bloody repression,” Sultan Mohammed Zakaria, Amnesty’s South Asia researcher, said in a statement.Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi gives the Gandhi Peace Prize, awarded posthumously to Bangladesh founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, to his daughters, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, center, and Sheikh Rehana, in Dhaka, March 26, 2021.Modi arrived in Dhaka on Friday, his first international trip since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic last year, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Bangladesh’s independence.He left the country Saturday after holding talks with Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and giving the country 1.2 million COVID-19 vaccine shots.Facebook services were unavailable in Bangladesh on Saturday, the social network said, adding it had serious concerns about the manner in which it was being restricted at a time when effective communication was necessary to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.”We’re aware that our services have been restricted in Bangladesh,” Facebook said in a statement. “We’re working to understand more and hope to have full access restored as soon as possible.”The Bangladesh government did not comment on whether it had blocked Facebook and its Messenger app, but it has previously used internet shutdowns as a tool to curb the spread of protests. 
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Pakistan is struggling to contain a third wave of coronavirus infections, reporting close to 4,500 new cases in the last 24 hours, the highest number of daily infections in nine months.Officials said Saturday that the rate of people testing positive for COVID-19 had alarmingly risen to more than 10% from a low of about 3% a couple weeks ago, suggesting the actual number of infections is likely much higher than the reported cases.The overall number of infections and deaths from COVID-19, however, remains under control in Pakistan, a country of about 220 million people.Since the pandemic hit the South Asian nation a year ago, officials have documented around 650,000 infections and about 14,200 deaths, including 67 fatalities recorded Friday.British variantAsad Umar, the minister who heads the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) overseeing the government’s COVID-19 response, insisted Saturday that a British variant of the virus, detected in Pakistan early last month, was likely behind the flare-up in infections.“This relatively more contagious and deadlier variant seems to be a major cause for the sudden and sharp increase in the spread of the disease,” Umar told reporters after chairing an emergency meeting of the NCOC in Islamabad.FILE – An elderly resident receives his first dose of the coronavirus disease vaccine, at a vaccination center in Karachi, Pakistan, March 10, 2021.He added that public “disregard” for safety guidelines outlined by the government was contributing to the spread.The minister said his office had already started receiving messages that hospitals across Pakistan were nearing capacity and that finding enough beds for coronavirus patients was becoming a challenge.Call for public supportUmar urged people to strictly follow health and safety guidelines to help the government contain the infection, saying that bringing this “very dangerous situation” under control was impossible without public support.The third coronavirus wave is largely being driven by a high number of cases reported in Punjab, the country’s most populous province, and the northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.The Pakistani government earlier this week ordered educational institutions in high-risk districts across the two provinces and the national capital, Islamabad, to remain closed until April 11, tightening restrictions on public gatherings in those areas.FILE – People gather for COVID-19 vaccine doses at a vaccination center in Karachi, Pakistan, March 22, 2021.Meanwhile, Pakistan is struggling to keep the national COVID-19 vaccination campaign going because of supply challenges and vaccine hesitance.Last month, the government began inoculating frontline health care workers and citizens age 60 and over after receiving a donation of 1 million doses of China’s Sinopharm vaccine. Beijing announced a donation of another 500,000 doses and Islamabad is awaiting the delivery.Umar said this week that the national campaign had already vaccinated more than 700,000 people across Pakistan, raising concerns the government will soon run out of the drug.Officials said Pakistan was supposed to receive several million doses of coronavirus vaccine from the World Health Organization’s COVAX program in the first week of March.But the vaccine did not come because of supply issues, and the delay has forced Islamabad to explore other options to fill the gap and try to ramp up the national vaccination drive.COVAX aims to vaccinate people in low- and middle-income countries against COVID-19.Purchases from ChinaFederal Health Minister Faisal Sultan said this week that his government had purchased just over a million doses of the Chinese vaccine and that the consignment would arrive in the country later this month. He added Pakistan was also planning to buy additional Chinese vaccine to ensure its citizens are inoculated against COVID-19.WHO’s chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, urged the global community on Friday to donate COVID-19 vaccines to lower-income countries, citing the urgent need for 10 million doses for the COVAX vaccine distribution program.“COVAX is ready to deliver but we can’t deliver vaccines we don’t have,” Tedros told a virtual news conference in Geneva.“Bilateral deals, export bans and vaccine nationalism have caused distortions in the market with gross inequities in supply and demand,” Tedros said. “Ten million doses are not much and it’s not nearly enough.”   
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The U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad has departed for Turkey and the region, the U.S. State Department said Saturday, in a push to encourage Afghan parties to accelerate negotiations to end conflict in the country.
 
President Joe Biden is deciding whether to meet a May 1 deadline for the withdrawal of the last 3,500 American troops in Afghanistan that was set in a February 2020 accord struck with the Taliban under former President Donald Trump.
 
Biden’s administration has sought to build international pressure on the Taliban and U.S.-backed Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s government to reach a peace agreement and a cease-fire before the deadline.
 
“He will engage the two sides on their preparatory efforts for talks on a political settlement that produces a permanent cease-fire and a durable and just peace,” the State Department said in a statement, adding that Khalilzad departed Thursday for the talks.
 
The Taliban said Friday it would resume hostilities against foreign forces – which ended under the U.S.-Taliban deal – if they remain beyond the deadline.
 
Biden said Thursday it would be hard to comply with the deadline, which also requires the departure of some 7,000 allied forces.
 
The Taliban has said it was committed to the agreement, which it has termed the “most sensible and shortest path” to end 20 years of war in Afghanistan – America’s longest foreign conflict.
 
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The Afghan Taliban warned Friday that they would be “compelled” to continue their war against international forces in Afghanistan, should the United States and NATO decide against withdrawing their troops from the country by May 1.The insurgent group’s warning came a day after U.S. President Joe Biden said that 2,500 American troops might still be in Afghanistan beyond the May deadline, which is part of a year-old agreement the former Trump administration signed with the Taliban in Doha, Qatar.There are around 7,000 non-U.S. troops in the country under the NATO-led Resolute Support noncombat mission and 20,000 contractors who support Afghan government security forces battling the Taliban.FILE – President Joe Biden speaks during a news conference in the East Room of the White House, March 25, 2021, in Washington.Biden cited “tactical reasons” for the possible delay but said that even if Washington did not meet the deadline, he could not envision the U.S. military staying in the South Asian nation past next year. On Friday, when asked about the U.S. withdrawal, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters the president was still considering a timeline for a troop pullout.The Taliban described Biden’s remarks as “vague,” in their formal written response issued Friday. The group insisted that the Doha pact “is the most sensible and shortest path” for the United States to end the two-decade-long Afghan war.’Compelled’ to keep fightingThe American side will be considered to have violated the accord if there is a delay to the agreed upon foreign troop withdrawal deadline, the group asserted. It added that the insurgents “will be compelled” to continue their “armed struggle” against foreign forces to “liberate” Afghanistan.“All responsibility for the prolongation of war, death and destruction will be on the shoulders of those who committed this violation,” the insurgent group stressed.The Taliban asserted that they are “firmly committed” to their end of the deal, advising Washington against “wasting this historic opportunity due to flawed advice and incitement by warmongering circles.” The group did not elaborate.The insurgents ceased attacks on U.S. and allied forces after signing the deal with Washington, and there have been no U.S. military casualties since then in Afghanistan.The Taliban are also bound to cut ties with al-Qaida and other terror groups, reduce battlefield attacks against local forces and negotiate a political power-sharing peace deal with Afghan rivals.The U.S.-Taliban accord encouraged the insurgents to open talks with Afghan government representatives last September, but the intra-Afghan dialogue, hosted by Qatar, remains deadlocked.Review of dealThe Biden administration initiated a review of the February 2020 U.S.-Taliban deal shortly after the president took office. The review has yet to be completed. Several high-ranking U.S. officials, meanwhile, have questioned whether the Taliban have kept their side of the bargain.FILE – Special Operations Command Gen. Richard Clarke speaks at a hearing on Capitol Hill, March 25, 2021.“It’s clear that the Taliban have not upheld what they said they would do and reduce the violence,” General Richard Clarke, commander of U.S. special forces, told U.S. lawmakers Thursday, hours before Biden held his first news conference.”It is clear they took a deliberate approach and increased their violence since the peace accords were signed,” said Clarke.Earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrote a strongly worded letter to the Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, urging him to “accelerate peace talks” and move “quickly toward a settlement.”The letter said the United States had asked Turkey to host a high-level meeting between Afghan parties to the conflict to “finalize a peace agreement.”The Biden administration has proposed establishing an interim government in Kabul along with a 90-day reduction in Afghan violence to sustain political reconciliation efforts.Taliban officials have suggested they may agree to a 90-day violence reduction if Washington sticks to the troop withdrawal deadline, pressures Kabul to release the remaining 7,000 Taliban prisoners and ends the U.N. terror designations of senior Taliban leaders, as stipulated in the Doha agreement.For his part, Ghani has voiced strong opposition to any interim Afghan government, saying he would transfer power only through elections.VOA’s Patsy Widakuswara and Jeff Seldin contributed to this report. 
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Female journalists in Afghanistan are concerned about their safety after three women working for a media outlet in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad were killed in an early March attack claimed by the Islamic State. VOA’s Lima Niazi has the story, narrated by Roshan Noorzai.
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U.S. President Joe Biden admitted Thursday that some 2,500 U.S. troops could still be in Afghanistan after May 1, the agreed upon deadline for American forces to leave the country under a year-old deal with the Taliban. “It’s going to be hard to meet the May 1 deadline,” Biden told reporters during a White House news conference, his first as president. Biden cited “tactical reasons” for the possible delay but said that even if the United States does not meet the deadline, he could not envision U.S. troops staying in Afghanistan past next year. President Joe Biden speaks during a news conference in the East Room of the White House, March 25, 2021, in Washington.”I can’t picture that being the case,” he said. “It is not my intention to stay there for a long time.” “The question is how and under what circumstances do we meet that agreement that was made by President (Donald) Trump to leave under a deal that looks like it’s not being able to be worked out to begin with,” he said. Biden initiated a review of the February 2020 deal between the administration of former president Trump and the Taliban shortly after he took office. And while that review has yet to be formally completed, several high-ranking officials have questioned whether the Taliban have kept their side of the bargain. “It’s clear that the Taliban have not upheld what they said they would do and reduce the violence,” Gen. Richard Clarke, the commander of all U.S. special forces, told U.S. lawmakers earlier Thursday.  “It is clear they took a deliberate approach and increased their violence since the peace accords were signed.”  Special Operations Command Gen. Richard Clarke speaks at a hearing on Capitol Hill, March 25, 2021.U.S.-Taliban deal Other officials have likewise questioned the Taliban’s commitment to ensure that Afghanistan does not again become a base of operations for groups like al-Qaida, many pointing to evidence that Taliban leadership has yet to sever ties with the terror organization. Despite such public misgivings from U.S. officials about the deal, Taliban officials are insisting Washington honor the agreement as is.  FILE – Members of the Taliban delegation arrive for an Afghan peace conference in Moscow, Russia, March 18, 2021.”It is clearly stated in the agreement that America will withdraw all its troops (from Afghanistan) by May 1, and we again ask them to strictly adhere to the mutually agreed deadline,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told VOA earlier this week.  “In case Americans do not meet their obligations and abandon the agreement, the Islamic Emirate (Taliban) will be forced to defend their nation and consider all other options to force foreign troops out of the country,” Mujahid said, without elaborating.  FILE – A U.S. soldier keeps watch at an Afghan National Army base in Logar province, Afghanistan, Aug. 5, 2018.U.S. military and defense officials, however, continue to raise concerns. Clarke, the commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, warned lawmakers Thursday that the current government in Afghanistan could fall and that its security forces could be overrun by the Taliban should U.S. troops leave.  “While progress has been made … the capabilities that the U.S. provides for the Afghans to be able to combat the Taliban and other threats that reside in Afghanistan are critical to their success,” Clarke told the Senate Armed Services Committee, noting he had traveled to Afghanistan recently to meet with the head of the Afghan military’s new joint, special operations command. Earlier this month, a U.S. government watchdog similarly warned that U.S. and international efforts to build a strong and stable Afghanistan “may turn out to be a bridge too far.”  “It may not be an overstatement that if foreign assistance is withdrawn and peace negotiations fail, Taliban forces could be at the gates of Kabul in short order,” said John Sopko, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR).    Fixing Afghanistan Might Be ‘a Bridge Too Far,’ US Watchdog WarnsUnabating violence and the Afghan government’s inability to sustain itself and its security forces could doom peaceful conclusion to decades of war, US inspector general for Afghan reconstruction saysSopko also cautioned that it is not just the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces that could cripple the Afghan government. He said the departure of approximately 18,000 contractors and trainers, also required under the U.S.-Taliban deal, would be even more devastating.  “The Afghan government relies heavily on these foreign contractors and trainers to function,” Sopko said. ”No Afghan air frame can be sustained as combat effective for more than a few months in the absence of contractor support.”  VOA’s Ayaz Gul in Islamabad contributed to this report.
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The International Monetary Fund said Wednesday that it had approved a $500 million disbursement to Pakistan for budget support after the IMF executive board completed delayed reviews of Pakistan’s $6 billion loan program.The IMF said the latest payment brought total disbursements under the Extended Fund Facility to $2 billion since the program was approved in July 2019.”The Pakistani authorities have continued to make satisfactory progress under the fund-supported program, which has been an important policy anchor during an unprecedented period,” IMF Deputy Managing Director Antoinette Sayeh said in a statement.”While the COVID-19 pandemic continues to pose challenges, the authorities’ policies have been critical in supporting the economy and saving lives and livelihoods,” she said.The disbursement was made after Pakistan cleared up an issue with data on government guarantees dating to fiscal 2016 that had been reported inaccurately and put the government in noncompliance with the program.The IMF said Pakistani authorities had taken strong corrective actions to address institutional shortcomings, including a lack of interagency coordination, to correct the issue.
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