Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan warned Thursday of an attempted coup after top military officials called for him and his government to resign.
 
The demands from the General Staff followed Pashinyan’s move earlier this week to oust its deputy chief.   
 
Pashinyan went further after the military’s statement Thursday, firing General Staff chief Onik Gasparyan.
 
Both Pashinyan and opposition groups called for their supporters to gather in Armenia’s capital.
 
There have been protests calling for Pashinyan’s resignation since November when he signed a Russia-brokered peace agreement to end more than six weeks of fighting with Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
 
Under the deal, Azerbaijan reclaimed control over large parts of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas.
 
Nagorno-Karabakh is within Azerbaijan, but for more than 25 years had been under control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia.
 
Pashinyan defended the peace agreement as necessary to prevent further advances by Azerbaijan.
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Pakistan and India have agreed to immediately cease military hostilities in disputed Kashmir by restoring a 2003 truce to deescalate tensions between the nuclear-armed South Asian rivals.The two nations said in a joint statement Thursday their top military commanders spoke “over the established mechanism of hotline contact” and reviewed in a “free, frank and cordial atmosphere” the situation along the Line of Control that splits Kashmir between India and Pakistan.“Both sides agreed for strict observance of all agreements, understandings and cease firing along the LOC and all other sectors, with effect from midnight 24/25 February 2021,” according to the text of the statement issued by the Pakistan army.It went on to say that in “the interest of achieving mutually beneficial and sustainable” peace, the two sides “agreed to address each other’s core issues/concerns, which have propensity to disturb peace and lead to violence.” It did not elaborate further.The Indian and Pakistani military commanders in their conversation reiterated the need to utilize existing bilateral arrangements, including meetings between their border security officials, to resolve “any unforeseen situation or misunderstanding.”Thursday’s communication between the two militaries through their so-called hotline contact came after months because of worsening relations between Pakistan and India.Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi hailed the understanding as an “important step” for promoting regional peace.“It can be a good beginning, but India will have to sincerely implement the arrangement,” Qureshi said.Analysts in India also welcomed the move.”It’s a good development and should have happened a long time ago,” said Amit Baruah, Delhi resident editor at The Hindu newspaper.“India and Pakistan may not see eye-to-eye, but contact is always good for the sake of the people living on either side of the Line of Control,” Baruah told VOA. Kashmir has sparked two of the three wars India and Pakistan have fought since they both gained independence from Britain in 1947. Both the countries claim the Himalayan territory in its entirety, and it remains the primary source of regional tensions as well as low-level border skirmishes.The two countries agreed to the 2003 Kashmir cease-fire amid international concerns continued hostilities could accidentally escalate into a nuclear exchange.Routine border military skirmishes in recent years have rendered the truce almost ineffective, though, with both sides accusing the other of committing violations. India and Pakistan say the violence has inflicted hundreds of casualties on security forces and civilians on both sides.New Delhi has long accused Islamabad of arming Muslim separatists fighting the Indian rule in Kashmir, charges Pakistan denies as an attempt to divert international attention from “atrocities” it says Indian scrutiny forces have been inflicting on Kashmiris.Bilateral tensions have escalated dangerously since August 2019, when India unilaterally revoked the semi-autonomous status of its administered Kashmir and split the region into two union territories.The move was accompanied by monthslong security and communications clampdowns in the majority-Muslim region to counter a violent backlash from Kashmiris.Pakistan condemned the moves as a violation of a decades-old United Nations Security Council resolution that acknowledges Kashmir as a disputed territory.Islamabad swiftly downgraded an already strained relationship with New Delhi and demanded an immediate reversal of its Kashmir-related actions, fueling regional tensions.Indian leaders dismissed the objections, saying revocation of Kashmir’s autonomy and the communications clampdowns were part of efforts aimed at improving security and bringing economic prosperity to the violence-hit scenic region.India’s Hindustan Times newspaper said the cease-fire agreement stemmed from “back-channel conversations” between National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and his Pakistani counterpart, Moeed Yusuf, to ensure peace long the borders.There was no immediate reaction available to the assertions in the Indian media. Earlier, Yusuf while commenting on Thursday’s development, declared it a “victory” for Pakistan’s peace diplomacy to secure the LOC cease-fire “to help end sufferings of civilians there.”
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Highly crowded Lahore city in Pakistan has the same crowding issues of many urban environments.  To help ease the problem, the government plans to build a new city just to the North, but that has some residents worried. VOA’s Saman Khan has more in this report narrated by Bezhan Hamdard.
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An Indian court has granted bail to a 22-year-old environmental activist accused of sedition in a case that critics say highlights India’s increasing use of a colonial era law to stifle dissent.Disha Ravi, a Bengaluru resident, was arrested earlier this month by New Delhi police in connection with her role in creating and sharing an online document to raise support for tens of thousands of farmers protesting India’s agricultural reforms.Police had linked the document to violence that gripped the city January 26 when a group of farmers stormed a historic building, the Red Fort. They said that Ravi had collaborated to spread “disaffection against the Indian state” and had shared the document with Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, who briefly retweeted it.Supporters Protest Detention of 22-Year-Old Indian Climate Activist Disha Ravi was arrested related to a ‘toolkit’ with information about supporting farmers in India who are protesting controversial agriculture lawsRavi is a member of a climate change movement founded by Thunberg.Calling the evidence against Ravi “scanty and sketchy,” Judge Dharmender Rana said there was no reason to keep a 22-year-old with no criminal antecedents in jail.Ravi’s lawyer said that she had only sought support for issues raised by farmers and that having a difference of opinion does not amount to sedition.In the bail order that was praised by several leading lawyers, the judge said that citizens cannot be arrested for disagreeing with the state. “Citizens are conscience keepers of government in any democratic nation. They cannot be put behind the bars simply because they choose to disagree with the state policies.”The protest has emerged as a huge challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with farm leaders refusing to call it off unless the recent agricultural laws are scrapped.The government says the laws at issue will reform Indian agriculture, draw in private investment and improve incomes, but farmers fear they will eventually eliminate state support for crops and dent their livelihoods.The arrest of the young activist, who has been involved in campaigns to clean lakes, plant trees and educate young people about the impact of climate change, was denounced by opposition politicians, student groups and several senior lawyers. They say her detention under the tough law that can result in life imprisonment is meant to deter those supporting anti-government demonstrations.“The sedition law is being misused to bully vulnerable and young people and frighten them from the exercise of fundamental rights and the right to free speech,” Supreme Court lawyer Colin Gonsalves told VOA.“Sedition law requires the seeking of overthrow of the state by use of force, it requires the commission of an actual act of violence and in none of the recent cases, there is an actual act of violence. It can be just language criticizing the government that is being curbed through a very powerful and serious section of law,” according to Gonsalves, who last week challenged the validity of the law in the Supreme Court on the ground that it is unconstitutional.In recent years, the number of cases filed under the law have been rising — they rose by 160% from 2016 to 2019. During the same period, the conviction rate dropped from 33 percent to 3 percent, according to official figures.In the wake of the violence last month, police filed sedition charges against six journalists and a senior opposition leader in connection with their reporting and online posts about the death of one protester. The Editors Guild of India had called it an attempt to “intimidate, harass and stifle free media.”Thunberg recently tweeted support for Ravi. “Freedom of speech and the right to peaceful protest and assembly are non-negotiable human rights. These must be a fundamental part of any democracy,” she said on Friday.The Indian chapter of Fridays for Future, the international climate movement, has called Ravi “one of the finest among us all” and a law-abiding activist.“Disha has been an integral part of this movement. Not only has she been voicing out environmental concerns in India but strived for the equality and representation of the country’s most affected and marginalized groups in the global climate movement’s narrative,” the group tweeted Friday. 
 
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The United Nations said Tuesday that civilian deaths and injuries in Afghanistan declined by 15% last year but surged in the final three months after peace talks between the government and Taliban insurgents began in September.  
 
In its annual report documenting casualties, the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said that instead of helping alleviate the scale of civilian harm, the so-called intra-Afghan peace negotiations led to an escalation of violence with “disturbing trends and consequences.”
 
UNAMA said that civilian casualties increased by 45% in the fourth quarter of last year in comparison to the same period in 2019. The number of civilians killed and injured in November was the highest of any November since the mission began systematically documenting Afghan casualties 12 years ago.  
 
Toward the end of the year, Afghans were confronted with a spate of targeted killings of civilians, aimed largely at media, civil society, judiciary and government workers, as well as family members of security forces. Afghan and U.S. officials blamed the Taliban for being behind the violence — charges the insurgent group consistently has denied.  
 
The U.N. report noted that the overall number of civilian casualties for all of 2020 stood at 8,820, below 10,000 for the first time since 2013. UNAMA has documented nearly 111,000 Afghan civilian casualties, including more than 35,500 deaths, since the mission began documenting the civilian harm in 2009.  
 
“2020 could have been the year of peace in Afghanistan. Instead, thousands of Afghan civilians perished due to the conflict,” said UNAMA chief Deborah Lyons.
 
The report comes a day after Taliban and Afghan government peace negotiators returned to talks in Qatar, ending a month-long breakdown in the process. The development has raised hopes the two foes can negotiate a reduction in hostilities to prevent more bloodshed in the coming Afghan spring fighting season.
 
“Parties refusing to consider a cease-fire must recognize the devastating consequences of such a posture on the lives of Afghan civilians,” said Lyons. “I urge them not to squander a single day in taking the urgent steps to avoid more suffering.”FILE – A man reads the Quran besides his relative’s grave in a cemetery on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, Jan. 14, 2021.The intra-Afghan dialogue and overall reduction in civilian casualties are the outcome of a February 2020 agreement between the United States and Taliban.  
 
The historic deal required that the U.S. military and the Taliban not attack each other, but the insurgents were not bound to stop attacks on Afghan government forces.  
 
U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration is currently reviewing the deal to determine whether to withdraw the remaining 2,500 American soldiers in Afghanistan by the May 1 deadline as stipulated in the document.  
 
The review was prompted by growing allegations that the insurgents have failed to meet commitments made in exchange for a pledge by Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, to withdraw all American soldiers from what has been the longest war in U.S. history.  
 
UNAMA held the Taliban responsible for 45% of civilian casualties in 2020 while another 17% were blamed on militants linked to Islamic State as well as other local and foreign anti-government groups operating in Afghanistan.  
 
Afghan government forces, including pro-government armed groups, were responsible for 25% of all civilian casualties, according to the report.
The report said that civilian casualties caused by U.S.-led international forces dropped to a record low in 2020, decreasing by 85% compared to the previous year and representing just over one percent of the number of Afghan civilians killed and injured.
 
The U.N. report attributed the rest of the casualties to “undetermined” Afghan security forces, anti-government groups, cross-fire as well as leftover unexploded materials in civilian areas.
 
The Taliban rejected UNAMA’s report, alleging it was “solely compiled and released on the basis of information” provided to the mission by Afghan government security institutions. It went on to say the U.N. office had shared in advance a draft of its report with the Taliban and the final document ignored “the concerns, precise information and accurate details” the insurgent group had shared with the mission.
 
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Pakistan’s military said Monday that efforts aimed at moving forward a stalemated peace process in neighboring Afghanistan are “progressing in a very positive direction.” 
 
Comments by army spokesman Maj. Gen. Babar Iftikhar follow last Friday’s visit to Pakistan by U.S. Central Command Chief Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, where he discussed with the country’s military leadership political reconciliation and peace between Afghan warring parties.  
 
The statement also comes as U.S. President Joe Biden is nearing a decision whether to pull out the remaining 2,500 U.S. troops from Afghanistan by May 1 in line with a February 2020 agreement his predecessor, Donald Trump, signed with the Afghan Taliban. 
 
“There are all the reasons to be optimistic about how things are advancing,” Iftikhar said at a news conference on Monday. He did not elaborate. 
 
Iftikhar reiterated that his country is helping in the Afghan peace process because “peace in Pakistan is absolutely connected to peace in Afghanistan.” 
 FILE – In this Feb. 29, 2020 photo, U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, left, and Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban group’s top political leader sign a peace agreement in Doha, Qatar.Islamabad maintains close contacts with the Afghan Taliban and played a key role in facilitating U.S peace negotiations with the insurgents that produced the February 29 agreement the two adversaries signed in Doha, Qatar. 
 
But soon after taking charge, the Biden administration decided to review the arrangement amid growing criticism the Taliban has not lived up to its commitments outlined in the deal and instead increased violence across Afghanistan.  
 
The U.S. decision to review the document has raised concerns that any unilateral changes in mutually agreed timelines would disrupt the understanding and intensify Afghan bloodshed.  
 
“Yes, there are hurdles in between, but those hurdles have been overcome before, and I am sure they will be overcome in times to come, as well,” Iftikhar said.  
 
A crucial outcome of the deal was the start of peace talks between the Taliban and an Afghan government-sanctioned team.  
 
The dialogue started last September after several months of bickering and little progress, but the Taliban stopped the process in January after the Biden administration announced it would conduct a review of the agreement. 
 
The diplomatic efforts to bring the two Afghan foes back to the negotiation table in Doha seem to have encouraged them to resume some contacts after a gap of more than one month.Taliban spokesman Mohammad Naeem said on Twitter that leaders of the two negotiating teams held a meeting in the Qatari capital Monday evening in a “cordial atmosphere” and both sides agreed to continue discussions on “setting the agenda” for the peace negotiations. 
 
The Taliban warned of a “dangerous escalation” in the Afghan war if the U.S. reneged on its obligations outlined in the deal.  
 
The group rejects allegations they are violating the terms of the agreement or are behind a recent wave of assassinations of government officials, journalists and civilian society figures in the Afghan capital, Kabul.  
 
Instead, the insurgents accuse Afghan security forces of launching new operations against Taliban-held areas, saying the military actions force the group to take “only defensive actions.” 
 
Critics are skeptical whether the Taliban will agree to any changes in the deal and will demand more concessions in return if they decide to renegotiate the timelines. 
 
Asad Majeed Khan, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States, said last Friday that Washington should not decide unilaterally on any extension of the May 1 deadline.  
 
“If that is an agreement between the United States and [the] Taliban, I think the first party that needs to be consulted is [the] Taliban, and that’s where this process should start,” Khan told an online forum sponsored by the Washington-based Stimson Center think tank. 
 
“I am sure if there is a strong justification and reasoning for having that extension for logistical or other reasons, the parties have overcome difficulties before, in terms of reaching common ground. But to present this as a fait accompli, I think, will only create difficulty,” the Pakistani ambassador said.  
 
“It’s really also a question of the credibility of the United States as an interlocutor,” he stressed. 
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Suspected Islamist militants in northwestern Pakistan Sunday killed four women working for a non-governmental welfare organization. 
  
Police said the victims were traveling to work when their vehicle was ambushed in North Waziristan tribal district, a former militant sanctuary on the border with Afghanistan. 
  
The district police office said the attack in the town of Mir Ali wounded the male driver, while a fifth women “luckily survived.” 
  
Pakistani security forces were said to be conducting a “search and strike” operation to capture the assailants. 
  
The victims were said to be associated with the Sabawoon charity, which provides training to local women in making handicrafts to enable them to do business from their homes in the deeply conservative Pakistani region. 
  
No one immediately took responsibility for the deadly shooting incident in the border area, which has lately experienced an upsurge in militant violence mostly targeting Pakistani security forces. 
  
Human rights groups denounced the attack. 
  
“The state must bring to book the perpetrators of this heinous crime. The re-emergence of terror groups in the area is a matter of grave concern,” said the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.  
  
North Waziristan used to be a stronghold of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, an alliance of outlawed extremist groups, and militants linked to the al-Qaida terror network. 
  
TTP, also known as the Pakistani Taliban, has for years waged deadly attacks in the country, particularly in areas close to the Afghan border. 
  
Pakistan says sustained military-led operations in recent years have cleared Waziristan and surrounding districts of militants, aside from isolated pockets. 
  
Authorities say many TTP members and leaders have taken refuge in volatile Afghan border districts from where they orchestrate violence against Pakistani areas. 
  
The United Nations said in a report earlier this month that TTP has “overseen a reunification of splinter groups that took place in Afghanistan and was moderated by al-Qaida.” 
  
Authorities in Afghanistan rejected the U.N. report, saying they were not allowing anyone to use their soil against other countries. 
  
 
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Afghan officials said this week they have managed to secure the release of 43 detainees from the Taliban’s custody in a military operation in Baghlan province. Some of the detainees who were rescued told VOA’s Gul Rahim Niazman they faced torture and abuse while they were in captivity.  
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A rundown Pakistan zoo once home to what was dubbed the “world’s loneliest elephant” and notorious for housing animals in cramped concrete enclosures has launched an ambitious $7.5 million makeover plan.Animal rights activists had campaigned against the plight of Islamabad Zoo’s biggest attraction — a 35-year-old bull named Kaavan, the last remaining Asian elephant in the country — who had lived alone since the death of his mate eight years earlier.Kaavan was transferred to Cambodia late last year in a blaze of publicity after his plight caught the attention of U.S. superstar Cher, who helped raise funds for the jumbo relocation.While the elephant now has hundreds of acres to roam alongside dozens of companions in northern Cambodia, his last years in Pakistan were anything but tranquil.Islamabad Zoo was bereft of any natural vegetation and many animals there developed classic caged behavior, such as constant swaying or repetitive pacing.Established in 1978 and eventually growing to 30 acres, keepers struggled to care for the zoo’s residents.Conditions were so bad that a High Court judge last year ordered it closed, and every animal to be relocated — an exercise in itself that ended in tragedy.Two lions died during their relocation when zookeepers attempted to pry them from their pen by setting ablaze piles of hay.Pakistan’s climate change ministry has now taken charge of the zoo’s rehabilitation, with plans to establish a vastly improved conservation center.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 6 MB480p | 9 MB540p | 13 MB720p | 34 MB1080p | 54 MBOriginal | 96 MB Embed” />Copy Download Audio”We have temporarily shifted some 380 different animals — including monkeys, nilgai (antelope), zebras and bears — to different sanctuaries within and outside Pakistan,” said Waqar Zakriya of the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board (IWMB).”They will all be brought back — not to be kept in captivity but in a national park in a natural habitat.”The center will also include facilities to treat and rehabilitate injured indigenous wildlife — the first of its kind in the country.The initiative was “brilliant and extraordinary,” said Rab Nawaz, the director of World Wide Fund for Nature in Pakistan.Mistreatment of animals — in zoos or for entertainment — is commonplace in Pakistan, but attitudes are changing.Wildlife authorities are also pushing for new laws targeting poachers, who regularly trap and traffic birds, monkeys, and even black bears, said IWMB chairwoman Rina Saeed.’He looks very happy’Kaavan’s departure for happier pastures proved bittersweet for at least one man connected to the zoo — his last keeper, Imran Hussain.Hussain was hired and specially trained last year when Kaavan’s plight became internationally known but quickly formed a bond with his pachyderm pal.”I feel something breaking inside me when I come to the zoo and see his empty cage,” he told AFP.”He used to welcome me with a loud trumpet and by raising up his trunk every morning. He would throw water over me to express his pleasure — and anger.”Still, he knows the animal is now in a better place.”I have seen video clips of Kaavan… he looks very happy,” he said.”I pray to God for his long life.”  
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Russia’s special envoy for Afghanistan visited Islamabad Friday to encourage Pakistan’s support for a meeting in Moscow to help facilitate the stalled Afghan peace process.  
 
Zamir Kabulov told Russian news agency Sputnik earlier this week that he hopes the trip will encourage Pakistan’s support for the meeting to be held by the end of this month.
 
“My leadership has set the task of finding ways that will facilitate the start of inter-Afghan negotiations through consultations within the framework of the enlarged troika. We agreed on such a meeting with the American special envoy [Zalmay] Khalilzad. It can happen in Moscow,” he told the Russian government funded news outlet.
 
The “enlarged troika” is a reference to what Kabulov said is a group that evolved over the last two years, including countries with the most influence on the Afghan peace processes—the United States, China, Iran, Pakistan and Russia.   
 
Russia hopes the meeting of the expanded troika could eventually lead to a larger gathering involving the Afghan government and Taliban along with other regional stakeholders like the Central Asian states and India. Diplomats who back the process say getting all of the regional powers involved in a peace agreement will give it a greater chance of success.
 
The Moscow format was a Russian initiative to organize regional stakeholders involved in the Afghan peace process. Its second meeting in 2018 brought the Taliban to an international forum for the first time. The U.S. sent representatives to observe.
 
The current push by Russia has gained momentum after peace talks between the Taliban and an Afghan government-sanctioned team, which started last September, stalled after several months of bickering and little progress.
 
Although Russia says it is trying to push for a meaningful interaction between the Afghan factions, parts of Kabulov’s interview to Sputnik, especially his suggestion of the need for an interim government set up that includes the Taliban, provoked a strong reaction from Kabul.
 
Afghanistan’s foreign ministry in a statement Friday said his remarks were against ground realities and counter to the official Russian stance on Afghanistan.
 
President Ashraf Ghani’s administration has consistently bristled at the idea of an interim government, claiming it has a constitutional mandate to govern for five years.
 
Meanwhile, the Russian Foreign Ministry has announced that Afghan Foreign Minister Hanif Atmar will visit Moscow later this month to meet his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov.   
 
“The ministers plan to discuss various aspects of bilateral relations, including trade and economic ties, as well as peaceful settlement in Afghanistan, and the need to counter the threats of terrorism and drug trafficking,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova, said at a briefing Thursday in Moscow.   
 
The efforts to jumpstart negotiations between Taliban and Afghan government come at a time when the new administration of President Joe Biden is reviewing its Afghanistan policy.
 
Under a deal the U.S. signed with the Taliban in February of 2020, all foreign forces were supposed to withdraw from Afghanistan by May of 2021.
 
While attacks on foreign forces ceased after the deal, however, attacks on Afghan forces spiked, as did targeted killings of individuals, in particular rights activists and journalists.
 
At a NATO defense ministers meeting in Brussels that ended Thursday, the alliance refused to commit to a May 1 deadline for withdrawal.
 
“The problem is, to leave Afghanistan is conditions-based. Our presence in Afghanistan is conditions-based,” Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters. “[The] Taliban has to meet their commitments.”
 
Senior U.S. and NATO officials have blamed the change of heart on the Taliban not meeting its commitments, not breaking ties with al-Qaida, not negotiating with the Afghan government in good faith, and raising the level of violence in the country to an unacceptably high level.
 
“It just doesn’t create the conditions to move forward in what is hopefully a historic turning point for Afghanistan,” top U.S. commander in Afghanistan General Scott Miller told Reuters earlier this week.
 
The Taliban insists it has fulfilled its end of the bargain, a claim backed by Kabulov in his Sputnik interview.
 
“The Taliban adhere to the agreement almost flawlessly – not a single American soldier has died since the agreement was signed, which cannot be said about the Americans. They repeatedly hit the Taliban under various pretexts,” he said.
 
Americans say their agreement with the Taliban does not stop them from supporting Afghan forces under attack.
 
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Regional officials on the northeastern Indonesian island of Madura said Friday at least 45 pilot whales that stranded themselves on a beach there have died, while rescuers managed to push three back out to sea. East Java Provincial Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa, who was at the scene, told reporters that volunteers began arriving Thursday when news of the stranding first broke. He said they initially were able to push some of the whales back out to sea, but they returned.The governor said there will be an investigation into the stranding and samples from dead whales will be sent to a regional university for study. He said the rest of the whales will be buried Saturday once the tide recedes and excavators can be used. People try to save a short-finned pilot whale beached in Bangkalan, Madura island, Feb. 19, 2021.There were a series of high-profile pilot whale strandings last year in the south Pacific, including incidents in New Zealand and on the Australian island of Tasmania, where hundreds of whales died. It is not fully understood why the whales beach themselves, but they are known to be highly social and travel in large groups known as pods. They will often follow a leader and sometimes come to the aid of an injured or distressed member of their pod. Whale Stranding Indonesia, a nongovernmental organization, says in 2020 more than 70 marine mammals were found stranded, including dugongs, which are medium-sized marine mammals that are related to manatees. 
 
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Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, leader of Hezb–e Islami (Islamic Party), has threatened to stage a large protest to topple the Afghan government if the 2016 peace agreement that they both signed is not fully implemented. The Afghan government said security forces will not allow any group to use violence for political gains. VOA’s Hasib Maududi reports from Kabul.   
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NATO defense ministers wrapped up a two-day, virtual meeting Thursday, refusing to commit to a deadline to withdraw forces from Afghanistan by May 1, as required by last year’s agreement between the United States and the Taliban.Instead, the alliance called upon the Taliban to negotiate in “good faith” and said NATO members would continue to consult about possible next steps, holding out hope talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government may be able to produce a lasting peace.“We are faced with the many dilemmas and there are no easy options,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters, saying no decision has been made.“If we stay beyond the first of May, we risk more violence, we risk more attacks against our own troops, and we risk, of course, also to be part of a continued presence in Afghanistan that will be difficult,” he said. “But if we leave, then we also risk that the gains we have made are lost and that Afghanistan again could become a safe haven for international terrorists.”  Stoltenberg also warned the Taliban against launching their traditional spring offensive, which usually begins sometime in March, after the top U.S. general in Afghanistan indicated preparations for the military campaign may be under way.“Any increase in violence will undermine the peace efforts,” he said. “We are actually expecting the opposite. We are, we are expecting that the Taliban reduces violence and by that demonstrating faith in the peace negotiations.”  General Scott Miller, the head of U.S. forces and the NATO-led noncombat Resolute Support mission, told the Reuters news agency this week that despite the May 1 deadline, Taliban violence has been “much higher than historical norms.”“It just doesn’t create the conditions to move forward in what is hopefully a historic turning point for Afghanistan,” Miller said. Taliban, Russian claimsDespite such concerns, Taliban officials, in recent days, have publicly argued that they have fulfilled terms of the February 2020 deal with the United States.In an open letter posted online earlier this week, top Taliban negotiator Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar urged the U.S. “to remain committed to the full implementation” of the February 2020 deal. Taliban Urges US Public to Demand Early Pullout From AfghanistanBiden administration is reviewing whether the Taliban is honoring its commitments before deciding to withdraw remaining 2,500 US troopsRussia, on Wednesday, backed the Taliban’s claims.“The Taliban adhere to the agreement almost flawlessly — not a single American soldier has died since the agreement was signed — which cannot be said about the Americans,” Russia’s presidential envoy to Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, was quoted as saying by the state-owned Sputnik News Agency.Russia Alleges US, Not Taliban, Breaching Afghan Peace DealRussia’s presidential envoy to Afghanistan spoke ahead of Wednesday’s NATO conference aimed at determining whether to meet a May 1 deadline agreed to with the Taliban for the withdrawal of US and allied troops from AfghanistanHowever, Stoltenberg Thursday said NATO forces have been closely monitoring conditions on the ground in Afghanistan, indicating the Taliban’s compliance with the terms of the agreement are in doubt.”The Taliban needs to negotiate in good faith. Violence has to be reduced.  And the Taliban has to stop cooperating with international terrorist groups that are planning terrorist attacks on our own countries, on allied countries,” he said. “This has been conveyed many times.”U.S. drawdownThere are about 10,000 NATO troops in Afghanistan, including 2,500 from the United States — down sharply from the 100,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan a decade ago.But the prospect of a complete withdrawal has raised concerns by some Afghan officials, something that has not gone unnoticed by U.S. officials.In a statement following the NATO ministerial Thursday, the Pentagon said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin “reassured allies that the U.S. would not undertake a hasty or disorderly withdrawal from Afghanistan.”“And he made clear that he is committed to consulting with allies and partners throughout this process,” it said.In a call Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken likewise sought to assure Afghan President Ashraf Ghani that Washington does not intend to leave Afghanistan in turmoil.”The secretary reiterated America’s commitment to support the peace process, aiming for a just and durable political settlement and permanent and comprehensive cease-fire,” the State Department said in a readout of the call on Thursday.Sediq Sediqqi, a former Afghan presidential spokesman and now the deputy minister of interior affairs, tweeted Thursday that NATO’s refusal to withdraw early, in accordance with Taliban demands, was a “significant step.”“It means that the Taliban can not [sic] get away with the violence,” Sediqi wrote. “It means the game has rules. It means no more concessions will be awarded.”It is a significant decision and a major step. It means that the Taliban can not get away with the violence. It means the game has rules. It means no more concessions will be awarded. Taliban must adhere to a real peace process that will end their violence and terrorism. https://t.co/pmdqL4xNWy— Sediq Sediqqi (@SediqSediqqi) February 18, 2021Negotiating in good faithDespite cautious optimism by NATO and Afghan officials to the U.S. approach, there is also more reason to worry, with many pointing to a growing collection of intelligence that raises doubts about the Taliban’s desire to live up to the agreement with the U.S. and about its intentions regarding ongoing talks with the Afghan government.“The Taliban views the negotiations with the Afghan Islamic Republic negotiating team as necessary to ensure U.S. forces leave Afghanistan,” U.S. Defense Department Acting Inspector General Sean O’Donnell wrote in a report released Wednesday, citing U.S. defense intelligence.O’Donnell additionally accused the Taliban of negotiating in bad faith, writing its commanders are “employing violence across the country in a strategic effort to increase its leverage.”The intelligence has some former officials and experts questioning whether the U.S.-Taliban deal can be saved.“I do not think it can be fixed. I think we need to go back to square one,” Ryan Crocker, who served as U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan under former President Barack Obama, told VOA’s Afghan service.“It’s absolutely critical that the message be: we will stay as long as it takes,” Crocker added. “We need to see, the world needs to see, the Afghan people above all need to see, and be part of a relatively, reasonably stable, reasonably secure country.”Bradley Bowman, with Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said that the increased violence alone, should be cause for concern.“I think it just makes the case that if this is how they’re behaving when they’re supposedly on their best behavior, just imagine how they’re going to behave once all the American troops are gone, or how and when NATO is gone,” he said. VOA’s Afghan Service contributed to this report; Ayaz Gul contributed from Islamabad.
 
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Officials and families Thursday pronounced dead three climbers nearly two weeks after the men disappeared during their ascent of Pakistan’s K2, the world’s second-highest peak at 8,611 meters. 
  
Iceland’s John Snorri, Chile’s Juan Pablo Mohr, and their Pakistani partner, Muhammad Ali Sadpara, had lost contact with base camp on February 5 during their attempt to conquer what is known as the “Savage Mountain.”Our press release this morning ❤https://t.co/O4wdasluHrpic.twitter.com/cgd6FDHjQ6— John Snorri (@john_snorri) February 18, 2021  
An unprecedented search-and-rescue mission was immediately undertaken, involving Pakistani military aircraft and high-altitude climbers, in coordination with Icelandic and Chilean authorities. The effort to trace the missing climbers failed.  
  
Raja Nasir Ali Khan, minister for tourism in Pakistan’s scenic Gilgit-Baltistan, where K2 is located, told reporters that experts concluded that a human being cannot survive for that long in such harsh weather.  
  
“That’s why we are announcing that they are no more,” Khan said, adding that the search for bodies would continue. 
  
A representative for Snorri and Mohr at the news conference read a statement on behalf of their families, saying all the three men were “strong mountaineers” and determined to make history by standing on top of K2 this winter.  
  
“My family have lost a kind father and the Pakistani nation has lost a great, brave and experienced mountaineer,” said Sajid Ali Sadpara, son of the deceased Pakistani mountaineer.  
  
The latest deaths bring to five the number of climbers killed during K2 winter expedition this year.  
  FILE – Porters set up tents at the Concordia camping site in front of K2 summit in the Karakoram range of Pakistan’s northern Gilgit region, Aug. 14, 2019.Bulgarian alpinist Atanas Skatov died earlier this month on K2. A renowned Spanish climber, Sergi Mingote, fell to his death last month while descending the mountain. 
  
“Very sad moment. We lost our friends, 5 strong climbers, during K2 winter expedition 2021, especially Muhammad Ali Sadpara our national hero,” said Karrar Haidri, a spokesman for the private Alpine Club of Pakistan, which promotes mountaineering in the country.  
  
Last month, a 10-member team of Nepali climbers made history when they became the first to conquer K2 in winter.  Nirmal “Nims” Purja, Dawa Tenji Sherpa (team MG), Mingma G, Dawa Temba Sherpa and Pem Chiri Sherpa, Mingma David Sherpa, Mingma Tenzi Sherpa, Nimsdai Purja and Gelje Sherpa are seen before the winter attack on K2, Pakistan, Jan. 5, 2021.  
The peak, located in the Karakoram range along the Chinese border, was the last of the world’s 14 tallest mountains higher than 8,000 meters to be climbed in winter. 
  
K2 is about 200 meters shorter than Nepal’s Mount Everest, which is the world’s tallest peak and part of the Himalayan range.  
  
International climbers, however, describe K2 as “technically hardest” and challenging because summit winds reach hurricane force and still-air temperatures are well below -65 degrees Celsius (-85 Fahrenheit). 
  
Since 1954, up to 86 climbers have died in their attempt to scale K2.  
  
While more than 6,500 people have climbed Everest, only 337 have conquered K2 to date. 
  
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A Delhi court acquitted Indian journalist Priya Ramani on Wednesday of defamation charges filed by a former minister after Ramani accused him of sexual harassment in 2018. The court Wednesday concluded that “even a man of social status can be a sexual harasser.” In 2018, Ramani wrote a story for Vogue India titled “To the Harvey Weinsteins of the World” without naming then-junior Foreign Minister M.J. Akbar. After its publication, dozens of women came forward to say they had been harassed by the politician. Later, Ramani retweeted the article admitting that it was about him. Akbar dismissed the allegations as “baseless and fabricated,” filing a defamation suit against Ramani and resigning from his post two days later.Indian Minister Quits Following #MeToo Allegations

        India's junior foreign minister has resigned following allegations by more than a dozen female journalists of sexual harassment when he was the editor of prominent newspapers. He has dismissed the allegations as "baseless and fabricated."

M.J.

“My victory will empower more women to speak up. This will make powerful men think twice before they drag other people to courts,” Ramani told reporters after the decision Wednesday. The court’s decision was welcomed by many Indian female journalists, who lauded Ramani on social media. “Go Priya. You fought for each one of us, you brave woman,” Rana Ayyub, an independent journalist based in Mumbai, wrote on Twitter. Go Priya. You fought for each one of us you brave woman #PriyaRamanihttps://t.co/E3K1CMGSEz— Rana Ayyub (@RanaAyyub) February 17, 2021Ramani’s story came at the height of India’s #MeToo movement in 2018. Around the time of Akbar’s resignation, two editors of leading Indian dailies also stepped down from their posts following accusations of harassment.  A Bollywood production house also closed in fall of 2018 following harassment allegations from actresses. 
 
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A top Russian diplomat says the Taliban insurgency is “flawlessly” adhering to the terms of a 2020 peace deal with the United States to help end the war in Afghanistan and is urging Washington not to renege on its commitments.Zamir Kabulov, Russia’s presidential envoy to Afghanistan, spoke ahead of Wednesday’s NATO conference aimed at determining whether to meet a May 1 deadline agreed to with the Taliban for the withdrawal of U.S. and allied troops from Afghanistan. He also spoke as the number of attacks carried out by the Taliban continue to rise.The meeting in Brussels of NATO defense ministers comes amid increased allegations the Islamist insurgent group has committed serious breaches of the February 29, 2020, pact by not reducing Afghan battlefield violence and not cutting ties with international terrorist groups.A new U.S. Department of Defense report said Wednesday that the Taliban’s links remain intact with al-Qaida.“The Taliban continues to maintain relations with al-Qaida … [the terror network’s] members were integrated into Taliban forces and command structures” said Sean O’Donnell, the department’s acting inspector general.And on Monday, the U.N. mission in the country published a new report that points to a sharp increase in targeted killings of Afghan human rights defenders and journalists in recent months.’Much higher’ Taliban violenceThe Taliban have denied they are behind the assassination spree, but Afghan officials blame the insurgents, and independent observers also say the group’s denial is not convincing.“Taliban violence is much higher than historical norms,” General Scott Miller, the head of U.S. forces and the NATO-led noncombat Resolute Support mission, told Reuters on Wednesday. “It just doesn’t create the conditions to move forward in what is hopefully a historic turning point for Afghanistan.”The increase in violence prompted U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration to review the deal before deciding on whether to bring home the remaining 2,500 American soldiers from the South Asian nation to close what has been the longest military intervention in U.S. history.Despite that, the Russian state-owned Sputnik News Agency quoted Kabulov as saying, “The Taliban adhere to the agreement almost flawlessly — not a single American soldier has died since the agreement was signed — which cannot be said about the Americans.”The Russian envoy accused the U.S. military of “repeatedly” carrying out airstrikes against Taliban-held Afghan area positions “under various pretexts.”NATO Chief: No Troop Withdrawal from Afghanistan ‘Before the Time Is Right’ Washington has reduced the number of US forces in the country to 2,500 from nearly 13,000 a year agoKabulov also downplayed the presence of al-Qaida operatives in Afghanistan, saying the terror network has about 500 militants in the country and they do not constitute a major security challenge.“If the new [U.S] administration decides not to withdraw [the troops], it will violate the agreement with the Taliban. It doesn’t look good for anyone. The Taliban have announced the war will continue [if foreign troops extend their stay],” said Kabulov.Through an “open letter,” the Taliban also urged the Biden administration on Tuesday to stick to the troop withdrawal agreement, describing it as “the most effective way of ending” the war in Afghanistan.American officials maintain the U.S. has reduced its forces in Afghanistan from nearly 13,000 a year ago to 2,500 to meet its obligations outlined in the agreement. They also acknowledge the U.S. military has suffered no casualties since the signing of the accord with the Taliban that bound insurgents not to stage attacks against foreign troops.Meeting soughtKabulov said Moscow is trying to host a multination meeting this month on how to nudge the Afghan warring parties back to the negotiating table for peace talks that stemmed from the U.S.-Taliban agreement but have been suspended since early last month.The Taliban and Afghan government negotiators have accused each other of dragging their feet in the talks that started last September but failed to produce tangible results.Kabulov said China, the U.S., Iran and Pakistan have been invited to the proposed meeting to develop a “collective mechanism to push the warring Afghan sides to return to table” and “declare a cease-fire at least for the period of the negotiation process.”The Russian envoy said he would travel to Islamabad this week for “consultations” with Pakistani officials on the Afghan peace process. A Pakistani foreign ministry source told VOA the Russian diplomat was scheduled to arrive in the country on Friday.Taliban Urges US Public to Demand Early Pullout From AfghanistanBiden administration is reviewing whether the Taliban is honoring its commitments before deciding to withdraw remaining 2,500 US troopsKabulov blamed the Afghan government for delaying the start of the intra-Afghan talks that were originally scheduled to begin last March.“The Kabul administration has already done a lot of stupid things: It delayed the start of negotiations in anticipation of a change of administration in Washington, thinking that the next administration would behave differently,” alleged Kabulov.He went on to assert the delay in starting the negotiations had allowed the Taliban to expand their influence to “three-quarters of the territory of Afghanistan” and “strengthen their negotiating position.”Criticism of Taliban defenseA senior Afghan interior ministry official, Sediq Sediqqi, criticized Kabulov for defending the Taliban. “No one should just close their eyes and say that the Taliban adhered to the terms. If that was the case, Afghans would have lived in a cease-fire and peace, the talks would continue and there would have been a solution. Taliban are the main violator and they at war with Afghans,” Sediqqi tweeted.Critics acknowledge Biden faces a tough challenge in deciding how to proceed in Afghanistan, but they say abandoning the timelines agreed upon with the Taliban will have consequences.”If the U.S. extends its military presence beyond May 1, there’s a good chance the Taliban will declare the Doha deal null and void, its war against the U.S. will be back on, a nascent and fragile intra-Afghan dialogue will fall apart, and we will be back to square one,” said Michael Kugelman at Washington’s Wilson Center. 
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NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday the withdrawal of allied troops from war-torn Afghanistan will be “condition-based.”
 
At a virtual meeting with NATO leaders, Stoltenberg said the Taliban must “meet the conditions” by reducing violence and ending their support for “international terror groups like al Qaida.”
 
NATO defense ministers are meeting virtually for a two-day conference to discuss a variety of issues confronting the alliance. Detailed discussions about the status of 2,500 U.S. troops and another 7,000 coalition forces in Afghanistan are expected to take place Thursday.
 
The Taliban warned NATO in a statement on Saturday against seeking a “continuation of war” that they say does not serve the interests of any of the parties involved in the nearly 20-year conflict.
 
“Anyone seeking extension of wars and occupation will be held liable for it just like the previous two decades,” the statement said.
 
Before Wednesday’s meeting, German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer warned that peace talks have not progressed enough to allow a withdrawal of NATO troops.
 
“This means we will have to prepare for a changing security situation and a rising threat to both international troops and our own soldiers,” she said in a statement.  
 
Former U.S. President Donald Trump agreed with the Taliban last year that U.S. troops would leave Afghanistan by May 2021 in exchange for meeting conditions that included severing relations with al-Qaida and opening peace talks with the Afghan government.
 
U.S. President Joe Biden said his administration would review the deal, with the Pentagon accusing the Taliban of failing to meet its commitment to reduce violence.
 VOA’s Jeff Seldin contributed to this story.
 
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Unusually intense fighting in the winter by Taliban insurgents has spurred Afghan government preparations for more violence in the warmer spring, which international players fear will further endanger the nation’s fragile peace process.  
Nearly a year after Washington signed a troop-withdrawal deal with the Taliban that called for a reduction in violence by all sides, attacks by the group have escalated, according to General Scott Miller, the head of U.S. forces and the NATO-led non-combat Resolute Support mission.
 
“Taliban violence is much higher than historical norms,” Miller told Reuters. “It just doesn’t create the conditions to move forward in what is hopefully a historic turning point for Afghanistan.”
 
Typically fighting lulls during the snowy winter months before the Taliban launch a “spring offensive” around March.
 
Miller said that the fighting now was an indicator that not only would there be a spring offensive – a move many diplomats view as against the spirit of the Doha agreement – but that it could be more intense than before.
 
It comes as negotiations have largely stalled in Doha in recent weeks and Taliban leaders have left Qatar, a senior state department official said, leading to growing fears that talks could be on the brink of collapse.
 
“If the violence isn’t reduced, it’s going to make a peace process very, very difficult; it would be very difficult for any side to make the necessary compromises,” Miller said.  
 Preparations under way
The Afghan government has instructed security forces to carry out a comprehensive troop restructuring and design operations to prepare for a “tough and hard” spring offensive, two government sources told Reuters.
 
They added that Afghanistan’s special forces from different institutions such as the military and police are being streamlined to operate under one command. Highly experienced commanders have been appointed to key areas, and security forces were planning to conduct more airstrikes to avoid losses on the ground.
 
An Afghan National Security Council spokesman said they were “ready for any kind of war”, though they remained in “active defence” mode.
 
Four Taliban sources said that most of their commanders had in recent weeks cut short annual training sessions after being called back to the battlefield to prepare for intensive fighting.
 
Three residents in areas dominated by the Taliban in north-eastern Afghanistan had noticed a pick-up in the group’s activity in recent weeks, telling Reuters they had seen Taliban fighters moving en masse, holding meetings in mosques and beginning food and recruitment drives.
 
“In the past two weeks the topics Taliban preachers preach, especially on Friday prayers… have changed,” said a tribal elder from Kunduz province who asked not to be named for security reasons. “They preach about… fighting against invasion, and they openly invite people to join them. It’s a clear message that they are preparing for another fight this spring.”
 
A member of what the Taliban considers its special forces told Reuters that the group was preparing to act when there was an announcement about foreign troops.
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“If they don’t leave Afghanistan on the preset date then the USA, NATO and the world will face a dangerous war, a war that never happened in the past 20 years,” he said.
 
A Taliban spokesman did not reply to request for comment on the spring offensive.
 
The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden is reviewing its plans for Afghanistan, including whether to stick to the May 1 deadline in the troop withdrawal agreement former President Trump’s administration signed with the Taliban in February 2020.
 
Miller said his command recognised that foreign forces could be a target if the Taliban view the deal as breached.
 
Experts and diplomats see a vanishing window of opportunity for talks to survive, although sides say they are committed negotiating.
 
“Talks seem already very close to falling apart,” said Ashley Jackson, co-director of the Centre for the Study of Armed Groups at the Overseas Development Institute. “The trouble is that [Washington] seems to grossly underestimate just how bad things could get and how quickly that could happen.”
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More than a half century ago, the northern town of Rishikesh, nestled in the Himalayan foothills along the Ganges river, emerged on the global tourist map after the Beatles pop group spent some time in a spiritual retreat learning meditation and writing some 40 songs.Foreign tourists began heading here to learn meditation and yoga. Domestic visitors were drawn by its scenic location and young people came for adventure sports – until the pandemic shut down hotels, hostels and yoga retreats that line the town.FILE – People walk on the Lakshman Jhula footbridge over the Ganges river in Rishikesh, India, Oct. 2, 2019.Now as the fear of the novel coronavirus diminishes due to a dramatic dip in India’s cases of COVID-19, cars ferrying visitors from nearby towns are back on the roads and brightly-colored boats with excited rafters course down the river again, bringing hopes of a slow revival to its battered tourist industry.The foreigners are missing as the pandemic shuts off international tourist travel. But Indians weary from months of work-from-home schedules are making up the shortfall as the country’s huge middle class begins heading to towns like Rishikesh from nearby cities.“It was very necessary to get out of the monotony,” says Gloria Saldanha who visited Rishikesh with her husband Rahul Jain recently. They drove down from the business hub of Gurugram, where they have been working from home since last March. “We don’t know how long the pandemic is going to last, so till when can you stay shut in the home? One has to start somewhere, and this is our initial step,” she said.Gloria Saldanha and Rahul Jain at a Rishikesh hotel. (Anjana Pasricha/VOA)Akash Mital and Nidhi Singla from Delhi visited the town for a pre-wedding shoot as the pandemic failed to dent their enthusiasm for the momentous occasion. “There are so many scenic locations we can use,” said Mital as he enacts a Bollywood number along hilly slopes with his fiancé.In the past two decades, destinations in Europe and East Asia were the favored vacation haunts of middle-class Indians as decades of high economic growth put surplus income in their pockets – more than 26 million Indian tourists traveled abroad in 2019, spending an estimated $25 billion.Now they are coming to the rescue of tourist towns like Rishikesh as some opt to travel within the country. Hotel managers in the town say domestic travelers are filling up rooms previously occupied by foreign visitors in scenic spots like Rishikesh.It is a trend that the country must capitalize on, said Gurbaxish Kohli, vice president of Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Associations of India. “We need to see how to turn these 26 million into domestic tourists, because there are a lot of people who will not be comfortable going overseas, even though some places like Maldives have opened up,” he said. “Even if they spend half or one quarter of the money they did overseas in India, it will help to make up for the 11 million foreign visitors.”He points out that the travel and tourism industry, which sustains an estimated 40 million livelihoods from cab drivers to hotel employees, is among the sectors hardest hit by the pandemic.For small villages which dot the hillsides around Rishikesh, the return of visitors is critical – most of the locals work in hotels and other tourism-related businesses but lost their jobs last year as the pandemic ravaged India.Deva, a cleaning woman at a hotel in Rishikesh, managed to retain her job but her husband, who worked as a cook in another hotel in a nearby city, was not so lucky and was laid off as India went into a shutdown last March.Deva, a cleaning woman at a hotel in Rishikesh, was among the few who managed to retain her job after the pandemic shut down hotels. (Anjana Pasricha/VOA)“He is still at home,” Deva said as she swept and mopped. Selling milk from a buffalo provides some additional income. “It is hard, but we manage. Now my son has gone with his uncle to help out in a company that organizes river rafting,” she said.Rishikesh is not the only town to benefit as Indians pick up the confidence to travel.“Weekend destinations near Mumbai have gone through the roof, you cannot get a room,” said Kohli. “The idea is if you cannot go anywhere, let us at least go where we can.”Thousands of tourists have flocked to Goa, a popular beach destination in western India. In the north, Kashmir shunned by tourists even before the pandemic due to curbs imposed after the government changed the territory’s status in August 2019, witnessed a dramatic change this winter as visitors packed hotels in some of its most scenic spots.This is making businesses optimistic. “A lot of young people are now coming, especially for trekking,” said Yogendra Rawat, the owner of a company that organizes bungee jumping in Rishikesh.Yogendra Rawat, whose company organizes bungee jumping in Rishinkesh says customers are coming. (Anjana Pasricha/VOA)Kohli warns however that returning to pre-pandemic days is still a long haul. “It’s only going to happen after people get vaccinated. There is still a lot of fear,” he points out.That is evident. India has reported some cases of the more contagious British and South African strains of coronavirus. The number of new infections has been rising in recent days in some places like Maharashtra state.The shadow of the pandemic keeps visitors cautious. Saldanha and Jain did not step out of the hotel during their stay, forsaking the mandatory tourist trips to a small Beatles Museum and to the banks of the Ganges where a picturesque, traditional Hindu prayer service held every evening draws many visitors. And the meditation and yoga retreats in Rishikesh may have a long wait for overseas clients as international tourist travel is unlikely to revive anytime soon. 
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Rohingya refugees are fleeing India or going underground amid fears that the government will arrest them for unauthorized entry into the country.In the past month, security forces have intercepted scores of Rohingya across India and sent them to jail, triggering a panic among the country’s Muslim refugee community who fled violence in Myanmar and took refuge in India.“Some hundreds of Rohingya were living in West Bengal for few years. Almost all of them have disappeared in the past month after some Rohingya were arrested in the state. Many have gone in hiding in other Indian states. Others have entered Bangladesh,” said Rohingya refugee Nizam Uddin, who crossed to Bangladesh with his mother, wife and three children last month after living in a village in eastern Indian state of West Bengal for three years.“If my family got arrested, Indian authorities would have sent us to jail, before finally pushing us back to Myanmar. Myanmar is still very unsafe for the Rohingya. We do not want to return to that hell. I got terribly scared of being arrested. So, I chose to flee India,” he told VOA.An official at the Indian home ministry desk that handles issues related to refugees declined to comment on the claim of a crackdown on Rohingya refugees.Some Rohingya refugee children taking their meals inside a refugee camp in West Bengal. (Shaikh Azizur Rahman/VOA)Few options for stateless RohingyaTo escape discrimination and violence in Myanmar, minority Rohingya Muslims have for decades fled from the Buddhist-majority country to neighboring Bangladesh and other countries, including India. A year ago, it was estimated that 40,000 Rohingya refugees lived in India, scattered across different states.Being stateless in their home country of Myanmar, the Rohingya are unable to travel to another country legally. India, which did not sign the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, treats all Rohingya entering the country as illegal immigrants. An estimated 300 to 500 Rohingya are currently being held in Indian jails on charges of illegal entry.Jan Mohammad, a Rohingya refugee who until the first week of January lived in a village near the eastern Indian city of Kolkata, said his uncle and two other Rohingya were arrested while traveling by train in India last month.“Indian police asked my uncle and his two relatives to produce Myanmar passport with Indian visa. Like other Rohingyas, they did not have passports from Myanmar, they said to the police. Police said, they were illegal immigrants, and they arrested them immediately. They are in jail now,” Mohammad told VOA from an undisclosed location in south India.Hussain Ahmad, a Rohingya rights activist based on Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, said the Rohingya refugees are being unfairly harassed by the Indian authorities.Ahmad, who also monitors the movement of Rohingya refugees in south Asia, cited a 1982 law in Myanmar that left most Rohingya effectively stateless, even though their families had lived in the country for generations. In 2017, the military in Myanmar responded to a series of attacks on police stations with a brutal campaign of killing and rape that drove close to 1 million people into neighboring countries and has been widely condemned as genocide.Now, Ahmad said, “Indian police are asking for travel documents from these refugees who are on the run, scared of their lives. How will the stateless Rohingya refugees be able to produce Burmese passports or Indian visas?”A sick Rohingya woman lying inside an unidentified Rohingya refugee camp in West Bengal. Until December (2020) over 500 Rohingya refugees lived in West Bengal. (Shaikh Azizur Rahman/VOA)Anti-Rohingya sentiment surgesAnti-Rohingya sentiment has been growing in India since the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept to power with an overwhelming election victory in 2014. In recent years, the BJP and other Hindu organizations have begun a campaign demanding the expulsion of all Rohingya refugees from India.Many Rohingya believe the latest crackdown on the refugees in India is linked to a state election in West Bengal, which is expected within the next few months.“They began harassing Rohingya refugees in India just before the national election in 2019. Now they have begun the crackdown on the Rohingya before the election in Bengal,” Hussain Ahmad said.Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director of Human Rights Watch, agreed that the Rohingya refugees are being targeted largely for political reasons.“India knows well that the Rohingya are one of the most persecuted communities in the world. Nearly a million are refugees in Bangladesh. A few that have arrived in India need to be protected and not persecuted again. This is a responsibility of the Indian authorities under the refugees convention as well,” she said in an interview.“For political reasons we find that the Rohingya are being targeted largely because the Hindu nationalist government … tends to persecute all Muslims, including Rohingya refugees.”State-level leaders of the BJP in West Bengal contacted by VOA declined to comment on the Human Rights Watch allegations.Bangladeshi human rights campaigner Pinaki Bhattacharya noted that the Rohingya in Myanmar have been described by the United Nations as “the most persecuted minority in the world” and called for India to do more to help them.“In 2019, India amended its Citizenship Act offering to grant citizenship to the ‘persecuted’ non-Muslim minorities from its neighboring countries. India shares its border with Myanmar. Yet India did not offer to shelter or grant citizenship to the minority Rohingya who fled Myanmar after facing a genocidal level of persecution there,” Bhattacharya said.“India is witnessing an upsurge of right-wing Hindu force that aims to turn India a Hindu Rashtra or Hindu Nation. Rohingyas are being hounded in India indeed because they are Muslim.” 
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Through an “open letter,” the Taliban is urging U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration Tuesday to stick to a 2020 troop withdrawal peace agreement, describing it as “the most effective way of ending” the war in Afghanistan.  The insurgent group’s chief peacemaker, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, addressed the letter to the American public, asking U.S. citizens to hold their government to account over implementing the terms of the agreement the two sides sealed last year in Qatar’s capital, Doha, on Feb. 29.
 
The letter underscored “the effectiveness and success” of the ongoing peace process stemming from the deal. Baradar defended the arrangement, saying it “significantly reduced” insurgent battlefield operations and helped launch peace talks among Afghan parties to the conflict.   
 
“Now that a year has passed since the signing of the Doha agreement, we urge the American side to remain committed to the full implementation of this accord,” wrote Baradar, who heads the Taliban’s political office in the Qatari capital.
 NATO Chief: No Troop Withdrawal from Afghanistan ‘Before the Time Is Right’ Washington has reduced the number of US forces in the country to 2,500 from nearly 13,000 a year agoThe pact, which Baradar inked with representatives of former U.S. President Donald Trump, requires all U.S. and NATO troops as well as other individuals associated with the war effort, to leave Afghanistan by May.  
 
The Biden administration currently is in the process of reviewing whether the Taliban is living up to its commitments before deciding to withdraw the remaining 2,500 U.S. troops from Afghanistan and end what has been the longest war in U.S. history.
 
On Monday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg echoed concerns that the insurgents do not intend to seek a peaceful settlement to the conflict. Stoltenberg said the alliance will not remove troops from the country “before the time is right,” and he urged the Taliban to do more to allow for the possible drawdown of roughly 10,000 foreign forces.  
 
“Peace talks remain fragile, and the level of violence remains unacceptably high, including Taliban attacks on civilians,” the NATO chief noted. “The Taliban must reduce violence, negotiate in good faith and live up to their commitment to stop cooperating with international terrorist groups.”
 
NATO defense ministers will meet Wednesday in Brussels to discuss the future of the alliance’s presence in Afghanistan in line with the U.S.-Taliban agreement.
 
The deal binds the insurgents to cut ties with transnational groups that threaten the United States and its allies. The Taliban also has pledged to agree on a political understanding in the intra-Afghan peace talks that would end decades of hostilities in the country.
 
Afghan leaders allege the insurgents are dragging their feet in the talks and intend to seize power through military means once all U.S.-led foreign forces have left the country.  
 
The Afghan government also accuses the Taliban of being behind a recent wave of high-profile assassinations of officials, civilian society activists and journalists.  
 
The insurgent group rejects the charges, alleging the violence is the work of Afghan security institutions in their bid to spoil the U.S.-initiated peace process.  
 
The intra-Afghan dialogue began in Doha last September, but a second round has been suspended since early last month.
 
Baradar, in his letter Tuesday, said Afghans are capable of solving their internal issues, apparently trying to convey to Washington that his group opposes to any external pressure on how to conduct the peace talks.  
 
He wrote that the Taliban “does not interfere in the internal affairs of others, neither does it want to harm others, nor will it allow anyone else to interfere in our own affairs.”
 
Baradar reaffirmed his radical group’s commitment to finding a negotiated settlement to the conflict with Afghan rivals, pledged to uphold the rights of women and support freedom of speech “within the framework of Islamic laws and principles.”
 
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Five Islamist militants were sentenced to death in Bangladesh Tuesday for the murder of a prominent blogger who was critical of religious extremism.Anti-Terrorism Special Tribunal Judge Majibur Rahman sentenced members of  the al-Qaida-inspired domestic militant group Ansar Ullah Bangla Team. He also sentenced one man to life in prison.The militants were sentenced for the murder of Avijit Roy, a Bangladesh-born U.S. citizen. Roy was hacked to death in the streets of Dhaka as he and his wife walked home from a book fair.Roy’s wife and fellow blogger, Rafida Ahmed, sustained head injuries and lost a finger. She now lives in the United States.Police say the group is also responsible for the killings of more than a dozen bloggers and activists.Two other defendants, including ousted army major Sayed Ziaul Haque Zia, were tried in absentia. Public prosecutor Golam Sarwar Khan said Sayed Ziaul Haque Zia is the group’s leader, who planned Roy’s murder.Judge Rahman said the prosecution proved the charges against all six defendants without any reasonable doubt.The sentences were handed down in the same Dhaka court that sentenced eight Islamic militants to death last week for the 2015 murder of a publisher of books on secularism and atheism.Defense attorney Nazrul Islam said his clients would appeal the sentences.A series of deadly attacks in the Muslim-majority country occurred between 2013 and 2016 against bloggers, religious minorities and secular activists. Islamic State or groups aligned with al-Qaida claimed responsibility.The most deadly attack occurred in July 2016, when gunmen killed 22 people after storming a cafe in Dhaka’s diplomatic community.A subsequent government crackdown led to the killings of more than 100 suspected militants and the arrest of hundreds of others. 
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An overcrowded bus drove off a bridge and into a canal in central India on Tuesday, killing at least 42 people, officials in the Sidhi district of India’s northeast Madhya Pradesh state say.
Police and witnesses at the scene say the bus was traveling from Sidhi district to Satna district early Monday when the driver lost control as it crossed the bridge over the canal. They say the bus was completely submerged and local officials ordered the water cut off from the canal to aid the search and rescue process.  
Sidhi District Magistrate Ravindra Kumar Choudhary told reporters, at the time of the accident, the bus was carrying far more passengers than the 34 for which it was built.
On his Twitter account, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the wreck “horrific” and expressed his condolences. He approved payments from his National Relief Fund for family members.  
Police statistics show India has some of the world’s worst road fatality rates, with more than 110,000 people killed every year. Officials cite poorly maintained roads, aging vehicles, and inadequate law enforcement among the causes.
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Indian police have arrested a 22-year-old climate activist for sharing a “toolkit” for farmers protesting controversial new agriculture laws.Police over the weekend took Disha Ravi, founder of India’s branch of Fridays for Future, a climate movement started by Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, from her home in Bangalore to the capital, New Delhi.Officers said the arrest was part of an investigation into how protesters for farmers’ rights breached the historic Red Fort in Delhi late last month. The police believe the “toolkit,” a document with resources on how to support protesting farmers, was full of misinformation.”The main aim of the ‘toolkit’ was to create misinformation and disaffection against the lawfully enacted government,” Delhi police official Prem Nath told reporters.Disha Ravi, arrested by CyPAD Delhi Police, is an Editor of the Toolkit Google Doc & key conspirator in document’s formulation & dissemination. She started WhatsApp Group & collaborated to make the Toolkit doc. She worked closely with them to draft the Doc. @PMOIndia@HMOIndiahttps://t.co/e8QGkyDIVv— #DilKiPolice Delhi Police (@DelhiPolice) February 14, 2021But the police did not specify the charges against Ravi but said she was a “key conspirator in the document’s formulation and dissemination,” according to Reuters. Activists worry she is being held under a colonial-era sedition law, which has been used against journalists.According to NDTV news, Ravi told the court that she “did not make the toolkit. We wanted to support the farmers. I edited two lines on 3 February.” A Delhi court on Sunday ordered Ravi to be held in police custody for five days, according to Reuters.Ravi’s arrest was met with protests and condemnation from politicians and activists on Monday and comes as the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi faces allegations it is suppressing dissent, a charge the government denies.Legal experts have questioned why the 22-year-old was taken to a magistrate so far from her home — about 2,100 kilometers — a move they argue is illegal under Indian law.“Such illegal actions by Delhi Police would amount to a kidnapping under the pretense of law,” the Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Judicial Reforms wrote in a statement.Our Statement on Delhi Police’s illegal&malafide arrest of environmental activist #DishaRavi for playing a small role in preparing a digital campaign toolkit for the farmer’s protest. The Magistrate in mechanically remanding her to police custody also abdicated his responsibility pic.twitter.com/RMZSISlqLV— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) February 15, 2021Thunberg tweeted her support for the farmers’ protests in February. Her comments were condemned by Indian politicians who claimed the protests were an internal affair. The toolkit prompted investigations by Delhi police.Here’s an updated toolkit by people on the ground in India if you want to help. (They removed their previous document as it was outdated.)#StandWithFarmers#FarmersProtesthttps://t.co/ZGEcMwHUNL— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) February 3, 2021Since late last year, farmers in India have been protesting three new proposed laws, which would end government-regulated pricing of crops. Talks between the government and the protesters have broken down, and demonstrations continue, despite roadblocks and a heavy security presence around the capital.The government says the laws at issue will reform Indian agriculture, draw in private investment and improve incomes, but farmers fear they will eventually eliminate state support for crops and dent their livelihoods.
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