U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Saturday that American soldiers have suffered no deaths in Afghanistan in almost a year, citing the Trump administration’s initiative to promote peace in the conflict-torn nation.Washington in February concluded an agreement with the Taliban insurgency to close the 19-year-old Afghan war, the longest in American history. The historic understanding started a phased withdrawal of American troops from the South Asian nation.The deal also opened first direct peace talks between the Taliban and the U.S.-backed Afghan government in September to negotiate a political power-sharing understanding to permanently end the war.U.S. officials, however, have acknowledged a recent spike in fighting between Afghan security forces and Taliban insurgents that threatens the peace process. They’ve urged both Afghan adversaries to reduce hostilities and move quickly toward a negotiated settlement.“No U.S. servicemen have been killed in Afghanistan in almost a year, and Afghans are finally discussing peace and reconciliation among themselves. Such incredible progress,” Pompeo said in a series of tweets that came one day after several social media posts boasting of American “swagger” during his diplomatic tenure.Swagger (def.): To represent America with pride, humility, and professionalism. We’ve done it. FILE – Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, right, and Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, head of a Taliban political team, arrive at the Foreign Ministry for talks, Islamabad, Dec. 16, 2020. (Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs photo)He tweeted that the U.S. mission in Afghanistan was to eliminate al-Qaida and threats to the American homeland. “Don’t need 10s of 1,000s of U.S. troops on the ground to do that. We have partners: brave Afghans, @NATO forces. We also have the ability to project power from afar.”The U.S.-Taliban deal requires all American and NATO troops to leave the country by this May.In return, the insurgent group has pledged to fight international terrorist groups on Afghan soil and sever ties with the al-Qaida terror network. The Taliban have also committed to finding a political settlement to the war through negotiations with rival Afghan groups.The so-called intra-Afghan negotiations are set to restart Tuesday in Doha, Qatar, after a break of three weeks. The two Afghan warring sides paused the dialogue on December 14 for internal deliberations.The stalemated Afghan conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, including combatants and Afghan civilians. It has cost the U.S. the lives of around 2,500 military personnel and nearly $1 trillion.
…

Pakistan on Saturday arrested a man accused of being a leader of an Islamist militant group blamed by the United States and India for the 2008 Mumbai attacks, a counter-terrorism official said. 
The arrest is in relation to terrorism financing, the official said, and not a specific militant attack.
 
“Proscribed organization LeT (Lashkar-e-Taiba) leader Zaki ur Rehman Lakhvi (has been) arrested on charges of terrorism financing,” a spokesman for the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of the Pakistani province of Punjab said.
 
The suspect is said to have been running a medical dispensary to collect and disburse funds for militant activities, the spokesman said.
 
A U.N. Security Council sanctions committee says Lakhvi is LeT’s chief of operations and accuses him of being involved in militant activity in a number of other regions and countries, including Chechnya, Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan.
 
Indian authorities said the lone surviving gunman in the 2008 Mumbai siege, in which 166 people were killed, had told interrogators before his execution that the assailants were in touch with Lakhvi.  
 FILE – Supporters of Shiv Sena, a Hindu hardline group, shout slogans as they hold toy guns and an effigy depicting a Pakistani soldier during a protest in Jammu January 11, 2013.India has long called on Pakistan to bring Lakhvi to trial, but Islamabad says Delhi has not provided concrete evidence to try the LeT leader. He was first arrested in 2008 but was later released on bail.
 
Imran Gill, Lakhvi’s lawyer, confirmed the arrest and told Reuters his case would be heard next week. He did not respond to further questions.
 
Another man that India says was the mastermind of the Mumbai siege, Hafiz Saeed, was convicted by a Pakistani court on two charges of terrorism financing last year. Saeed denies involvement in the Mumbai attacks.
…

Kazakhstan abolished the death penalty, making permanent a nearly two-decade freeze on capital punishment in the authoritarian Central Asian country, a notice on the presidential website said Saturday.The notice said President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev had signed off on parliamentary ratification of the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights — a document that commits signatories to the abolition of capital punishment.Executions were paused in Kazakhstan from 2003 but courts continued to sentence convicts to death in exceptional circumstances, including for crimes deemed acts of terror.Ruslan Kulekbayev, a lone gunman who killed eight policemen and two civilians during a rampage in Kazakhstan’s largest city Almaty in 2016, was among the convicts set to be executed if the moratorium were lifted.Kulekbayev will now serve a life sentence in jail instead.
…

An Afghan journalist and human rights activist was shot and killed Friday by unidentified gunmen in western Afghanistan, the fifth journalist to be killed in the war-ravaged country in the past two months, a provincial spokesman said.  Bismillah Adil Aimaq was on the road near Feroz Koh, the provincial capital of Ghor, returning home to the city after visiting his family in a village nearby, when gunmen opened fire at the vehicle.  According to the provincial governor’s spokesman, Arif Abir, others in the car, including Aimaq’s brother, were unharmed. Aimaq worked as the head of the local Radio Sada-e-Ghor station and was also a human rights activist in the province. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the shooting. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid insisted the insurgents were in no way connected with the shooting. Aimaq was the fifth journalist slain in attacks in the past two months. Last week, Rahmatullah Nekzad, who headed the journalists’ union in eastern Ghazni province, was killed in an attack by armed men outside his home. Nekzad was well known in the area and had contributed to The Associated Press since 2007. He had previously worked for the Al Jazeera satellite TV channel. FILE – Afghan men carry the coffin of journalist Malalai Maiwand, who was shot and killed by unknown gunmen in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, Dec. 10, 2020.The Islamic State group, blamed for a series of attacks on a variety of targets in Afghanistan in recent months, said it had killed another Afghan journalist earlier in December. Two assailants opened fire and killed TV anchorwoman Malala Maiwand as she left her house in eastern Nangarhar province. Her driver also was killed. In November, two journalists were killed in separate bombings. Rights groups reactThe Committee to Protect Journalists has condemned the relentless attacks on journalists in Afghanistan. The international press freedom group Reporters Without Borders has called the country one of the world’s deadliest for journalists. Earlier this week, the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission said the targeted killings of Afghan journalists have negatively impacted reporting in the country and led to self-censorship in the media community. The statement said several female journalists have left their jobs in the provinces because of ongoing threats. The statement further said most journalists are not able to go out openly in some provinces, and that the government has been negligent when they reported the threats they were facing. Targeted killings and violence have increased across Afghanistan even as the Taliban and Kabul government continue to hold peace negotiations that began in September. The talks, after some recent procedural progress, have been suspended until early January, and there is speculation the resumption could be further delayed. 
…

Police in northwestern Pakistan say an angry mob Wednesday led by local Islamist clerics vandalized and set on fire a Hindu temple. 
  
The attack took place in district Karak of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Witnesses said area police dispersed the crowd of about 1,000 people, but not before they demolished the minority community’s worship place. 
  
A post-attack video clip circulating on social media showed the large group of people assaulting and tearing down the walls of the Hindu temple. Police confirmed an under-construction adjacent private home of a Hindu also was demolished. 
  
Residents said the minority community had intended to extend the worship place and sought formal permission from the district administration.  
  
The move reportedly drew strong denunciation from leaders of local Islamic parties, who organized Wednesday’s mob to demand the removal of the century-old temple.  
  
The district police chief told reporters the attack was under investigation and promised legal action against “all the people who took the law in their hands.” 
  
Pakistani Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari denounced the attack and urged provincial authorities to bring to justice those responsible.  
  
“We as a govt have a responsibility to ensure safety & security of all our citizens & their places of worship,” she tweeted.  
  
The Hindu temple had previously been attacked and destroyed in 1997, before it was reconstructed in 2015 on orders of Pakistan’s Supreme Court.  
  
Extremist attacks on the worship places of minority communities in majority-Muslim Pakistan are not uncommon. 
…

An Afghan air force pilot was gunned down Wednesday in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar. Police confirmed to VOA the killing of a member of the military but did not share any other details. A security source, who did not want to be named, said Massoud Atal, a military helicopter pilot, was shot and killed by unidentified gunmen roughly a kilometer away from the governor’s house on Wednesday. Atal was a resident of Kandahar and was trained in the Czech Republic and the United Arab Emirates. No group has claimed responsibility for the pilot’s death. Targeted killings, especially of journalists and activists, have been on the rise in Afghanistan recently. At least five journalists have been killed in the country in the last two months. On Tuesday, Afghan Interior Minister Massoud Andarabi blamed the increase in attacks on the Taliban. Briefing the Afghan Senate, Andarabi said suspects arrested in relation to the recent killings have revealed that the Taliban has created a cell to target people such as journalists, government employees, and civil society activists. The killings are taking place just as the Taliban is set to begin a second round of peace talks with an Afghan government-sanctioned negotiating team in Doha on January 5, 2021. The two teams agreed upon the code of conduct in the first round and will start negotiating the agenda of the talks. The government side is expected to demand that a cease-fire, or a significant reduction in violence, be the top agenda item. The Taliban have resisted announcing a cease-fire. 
 
…

India has raised the number of visitors it will allow into the Taj Mahal monument to 15,000 per day despite warnings from health officials that overcrowding at tourist sites could lead to a rise in coronavirus cases.
 
The 17th-century mausoleum, one of India’s most popular tourist destinations, was shut in March after the government imposed a lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
 
When it reopened in September, visitors were initially only allowed back under strict restrictions but local officials said numbers had swelled in recent weeks, pushing them to increase the cap on tourists from 10,000 per day.
 
“The limit has been increased to 15,000 tickets per day so that every tourist can get the ticket and admire the monument,” government archaeologist Vasant Kumar Swarnkar said.
 
On Wednesday, thousands of tourists, many without masks, flocked to the white marble monument, crowding around a ticket window. Families also strolled through the gardens surrounding the Taj Mahal.
 
Federal health officials warned on Tuesday that over-crowding at tourist spots could lead to another spike in coronavirus cases, with concern over the new, more infectious strain from Britain that has been detected in India.
 
India has recorded the world’s second-highest number of coronavirus cases after the United States and nearly 148,500 people have died. But daily cases have hit a six-month low after a peak of around 98,000 in September.
 
For tourists like Pawan Gaur, who travelled to Agra from the western state of Rajasthan, visiting the Taj Mahal was a way of relaxing after what he said was a difficult year.
 “People were bored of staying home during the pandemic,” he said.
…

The U.S. Attorney General said Tuesday the United States “stands ready” to try a militant convicted of murdering American journalist Daniel Pearl whose release was ordered by a Pakistani court. The decision by Sindh High Court to release the accused comes months after it sparked outrage for overturning the murder conviction and death sentence of Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, and acquitted three other men connected to the case. The four are being held under the emergency orders of the local government while an ongoing appeal against their acquittals is heard in the Supreme Court, but defense lawyers argued against their continued detention in the south of the country. “We remain grateful for the Pakistani government’s actions to appeal such rulings to ensure that (Sheikh) and his co-defendants are held accountable,” acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen said in a statement, calling the acquittals “an affront to terrorism victims everywhere.” FILE – Pakistani police escort Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was convicted in the 2002 killing of American journalist Daniel Pearl, as he exits a court in Karachi, Pakistan, March 29, 2002.”If, however, those efforts do not succeed, the United States stands ready to take custody of Omar Sheikh to stand trial here,” the statement said. “We cannot allow him to evade justice for his role in Daniel Pearl’s abduction and murder.” Sheikh, a British-born jihadist who once studied at the London School of Economics and had been involved in previous kidnappings of foreigners, was arrested days after Pearl’s abduction and later sentenced to death by hanging. In January 2011, a report released by the Pearl Project at Georgetown University following an investigation into his death made chilling revelations and said that the wrong men had been convicted for Pearl’s murder. The investigation, led by Pearl’s friend and former Wall Street Journal colleague Asra Nomani and a Georgetown University professor, claimed the reporter was murdered by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks, not Sheikh. Pearl was South Asia bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal when he was abducted in Karachi in January 2002 while researching a story about Islamist militants.  A graphic video showing his decapitation was delivered to the U.S. consulate nearly a month later.  
…

Bangladesh has moved a second group of Rohingya refugees to a low-lying island in the Bay of Bengal, despite strong opposition by international human rights activists.Officials say more than 1,800 Rohingyas arrived at Bhasan Char aboard several ships  Tuesday, a day after leaving the overcrowded, squalid camps in the Cox’s Bazar district.Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Abdul Momen said Monday the refugees are being  relocated to what he called a “beautiful resort.”Momen maintained that the island was “100 times better” than the camps where the refugees are presently housed, and that they had “appealed” to be taken to Bhashan Char.But the refugees themselves and humanitarian workers have said that some of the Rohingya had been coerced to accept going there.Earlier this month, the first group of more than 1,600 Muslim Rohingya refugees from Myanmar were taken to Bhashan Char.International and local humanitarian agencies, as well as rights groups, have objected to the move, saying the island, which is several hours away from the mainland by boat, is flood-prone, subject to frequent cyclones and could be submerged during a high tide.Bhashan Char emerged from the sea 20 years ago and has never been inhabited.More than 730,000 Rohingya have fled Buddhist-majority Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state for neighboring Bangladesh after attacks by Rohingya militants against state security forces in August 2017 led to brutal military “clearance operations” that the U.N. said was tantamount to “ethnic cleansing.”Myanmar has repeatedly denied the ethnic cleansing charge, saying its troops targeted Rohingya militants.
…

Afghanistan’s radical Taliban has angrily reacted to a rare fashion show held recently in Kabul, where young girls and boys, mostly in Western clothes, took part in the ramp walk.In a commentary published on its official website, the Islamist insurgent group condemned last week’s event as a demonstration of “obscene Western culture” that “trampled all religious and Afghan values.”Fashion shows are not uncommon in the war-ravaged country, but they have always featured male and female models in loosely fitted traditional Afghan dresses. The Taliban statement vowed to defend all religious and national cultural values.  “The aspirations of the proponents and viewers of the modeling show will be destroyed, God willing,” it warned.  Organizers of Saturday’s private show said it was arranged to select “Mr. and Miss Afghanistan 2020” from a group of 60 participants.“The youth should be trained and introduced to the modeling world, as well as to TV and (the) movie industry in Afghanistan,” Afrasiab Arabzada, a show organizer, told the local TOLO television channel.The Taliban introduced a harsh Islamic governance system in the country during its five-year-rule from 1996 to 2001. The group banned music and barred girls from receiving an education and women from working outdoors.The controversy over the fashion show comes as the Taliban and representatives of the Afghan government are due to resume peace talks in Qatar on January 5, after a break of three weeks.The two Afghan warring sides, however, announced before pausing the process on December 14 that they had agreed on the rules for conducting future negotiations.  Members of Kabul’s negotiating team have since been quoted by the Afghan media as claiming the Taliban’s ideology and views have not changed.“The Taliban have the same views they had 25 years ago about women, music, arts, elections, freedom of speech and human rights,” a recent TOLO TV report quoted unnamed government negotiators.The Taliban denies it opposes education for girls or intends to undermine women’s rights.The so-called intra-Afghan peace talks are a crucial outcome of the agreement the United States signed with the Taliban in February this year, aimed at ending nearly two decades of war.The Taliban has promised to reduce violence and negotiate a political power-sharing deal with Kabul to end four decades of hostilities in Afghanistan. The Taliban is also bound under the deal to fight terrorism on Afghan soil and renounce ties with al-Qaida.In return, all U.S. and allied troops are required to leave the country by May 2021. In recent days, however, Afghan and U.S. officials have criticized a sustained spike in insurgent violence as a threat to the peace process.Top Afghan security officials Tuesday told the Afghan Senate that the Taliban had launched more than 18,000 attacks, including suicide bombings and targeted killings, in the last 10 months.They also accused the insurgents of being behind a string of attacks that targeted and killed high-profile civil society activists, journalists and government officials in recent weeks.Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid rejected the allegations as “enemy propaganda” to malign his group.  He told VOA that the number of insurgent attacks in 2020 was the lowest since the beginning of the war.“Unlike the past, we have not carried out big attacks and bombings in (Afghan) cities, including Kabul, in the outgoing year,” Mujahid said. “However, in areas where the fighting is taking place, we are only defending ourselves against enemy aggression or taking defensive measures to stop them from establishing bases in our (Taliban) areas.”
…

Neha loved the hymns that filled her church with music. But she lost the chance to sing them last year when, at the age of 14, she was forcibly converted from Christianity to Islam and married to a 45-year-old man with children twice her age.She tells her story in a voice so low it occasionally fades away. She all but disappears as she wraps a blue scarf tightly around her face and head. Neha’s husband is in jail now facing charges of rape for the underage marriage, but she is in hiding, afraid after security guards confiscated a pistol from his brother in court.”He brought the gun to shoot me,” said Neha, whose last name The Associated Press is not using for her safety.Force to convertNeha is one of nearly 1,000 girls from religious minorities who are forced to convert to Islam in Pakistan each year, largely to pave the way for marriages that are under the legal age and non-consensual. Human rights activists say the practice has accelerated during lockdowns against the coronavirus, when girls are out of school and more visible, bride traffickers are more active on the internet and families are more in debt.The U.S. State Department this month declared Pakistan “a country of particular concern” for violations of religious freedoms — a designation the Pakistani government rejects. The declaration was based in part on an appraisal by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom that underage girls in the minority Hindu, Christian and Sikh communities were “kidnapped for forced conversion to Islam … forcibly married and subjected to rape.”While most of the converted girls are impoverished Hindus from southern Sindh province, two new cases involving Christians, including Neha’s, have roiled the country in recent months.The girls generally are kidnapped by complicit acquaintances and relatives or men looking for brides. Sometimes they are taken by powerful landlords as payment for outstanding debts by their farmhand parents, and police often look the other way. Once converted, the girls are quickly married off, often to older men or to their abductors, according to the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.Pakistani Christians protest against child marriage and forced conversion, in Karachi, Pakistan, Nov. 8, 2020. Rights groups say each year in Pakistan, as many as 1,000 girls are forcibly converted to Islam, often after being abducted or tricked.A money-making webForced conversions thrive unchecked on a money-making web that involves Islamic clerics who solemnize the marriages, magistrates who legalize the unions and corrupt local police who aid the culprits by refusing to investigate or sabotaging investigations, say child protection activists.One activist, Jibran Nasir, called the network a mafia that preys on non-Muslim girls because they are the most vulnerable and the easiest targets “for older men with pedophilia urges.”The goal is to secure virginal brides rather than to seek new converts to Islam. Minorities make up 3.6% of Pakistan’s 220 million people and often are the target of discrimination. Those who report forced conversions, for example, can be targeted with charges of blasphemy.In the feudal Kashmore region of southern Sindh province, 13-year-old Sonia Kumari was kidnapped, and a day later police told her parents she had converted from Hinduism to Islam. Her mother pleaded for her return in a video widely viewed on the internet: “For the sake of God, the Quran, whatever you believe, please return my daughter, she was forcibly taken from our home.”But a Hindu activist, who didn’t want to be identified for fear of repercussions from powerful landlords, said she received a letter that the family was forced to write. The letter claimed the 13-year-old had willingly converted and wed a 36-year-old who was already married with two children.The parents have given up.Disappeared at age 13Arzoo Raja was 13 when she disappeared from her home in central Karachi. The Christian girl’s parents reported her missing and pleaded with police to find her. Two days later, officers reported back that she had been converted to Islam and was married to their 40-year-old Muslim neighbor.In Sindh province, the age of consent for marriage is 18 years old. Arzoo’s marriage certificate said she was 19.The cleric who performed Arzoo’s marriage, Qasi Ahmed Mufti Jaan Raheemi, was later implicated in at least three other underage marriages. Despite facing an outstanding arrest warrant for solemnizing Arzoo’s marriage, he continued his practice in his ramshackle office above a wholesale rice market in downtown Karachi.Jailed for marrying childrenWhen an Associated Press reporter arrived at his office, Raheemi fled down a side stair, according to a fellow cleric, Mullah Kaifat Ullah, one of a half-dozen clerics who also performs marriages in the complex. He said another cleric is already in jail for marrying children.While Ullah said he only marries girls 18 and above, he argued that “under Islamic law a girl’s wedding at the age of 14 or 15 is fine.”Arzoo’s mother, Rita Raja, said police ignored the family’s appeals until one day she was videotaped outside the court sobbing and pleading for her daughter to be returned. The video went viral, creating a social media storm in Pakistan and prompting the authorities to step in.”For 10 days, the parents were languishing between the police station and government authorities and different political parties,” Nasir, the activist, said. “They were not being given any time … until it went viral. That is the real unfortunate thing over here.”Authorities have stepped in and arrested Arzoo’s husband, but her mother said her daughter refuses to come home. Raja said she is afraid of her husband’s family.Tricked into marriageThe girl who loved hymns, Neha, said she was tricked into the marriage by a favorite aunt, who told Neha to accompany her to the hospital to see her sick son. Her aunt, Sandas Baloch, had converted to Islam years before and lived with her husband in the same apartment building as Neha’s family.”All Mama asked when we left was ‘when will you be back?'” remembered Neha.Instead of going to the hospital, she was taken to the home of her aunt’s in-laws and told she would marry her aunt’s 45-year-old brother-in-law.”I told her I can’t, I am too young and I don’t want to. He is old,” Neha said. “She slapped me and locked me up in a room.”Neha told of being taken before two men, one who was to be her husband and the other who recorded her marriage. They said she was 19. She said she was too frightened to speak because her aunt threatened to harm her 2-year-old brother if she refused to marry.She learned of her conversion only when she was told to sign the marriage certificate with her new name — Fatima.For a week she was locked in one room. Her new husband came to her on the first night. Tears stained her blue scarf as she remembered it:”I screamed and cried all night. I have images in my mind I can’t scratch out,” she said. “I hate him.”His elder daughter brought her food each day, and Neha begged for help to escape. Although the woman was frightened of her father, she relented a week after the marriage, bringing the underage bride a burqa — the all-covering garment worn by some Muslim women — and 500 rupees (about $3). Neha fled.But when she arrived home, Neha found her family had turned against her.”I went home and I cried to my Mama about my aunt, what she said and the threats. But she didn’t want me anymore,” Neha said.Some girls seen as burden Her parents feared what her new husband might do to them, Neha said. Further, the prospects of marriage for a girl in conservative Pakistan who has been raped or married before are slim, and human rights activists say they often are seen as a burden.Neha’s family, including her aunt, all refused to talk to the AP. Her husband’s lawyer, Mohammad Saleem, insisted that she married and converted voluntarily.Neha found protection at a Christian church in Karachi, living on the compound with the pastor’s family, who say the girl still wakes screaming in the night. She hopes to go back to school one day but is still distraught.”At the beginning my nightmares were every night, but now it is just sometimes when I remember and inside I am shaking,” she said. “Before I wanted to be a lawyer, but now I don’t know what I will do. Even my mama doesn’t want me now.”
…

Afghan officials say the government has decided to hold the second round of peace negotiations with the Taliban in Doha, the same place where the first round was held.Faridoon Khawzoon, a spokesman for the Afghanistan High Council for National Reconciliation, the body responsible for overseeing the negotiations, said the decision was taken due to COVID-19-related travel restrictions.Several countries had been in the running to host the peace negotiations, including Norway and Germany.Doha was also the venue for negotiations between the United States and the Taliban that led to the signing of a deal between the two countries in February 2020. The Taliban have maintained an unofficial political office in Doha for years.Khawzoon said the leadership committee of the AHCNR has authorized the Afghan government’s team to negotiate the agenda of the talks with the Taliban.In the first round, the two sides agreed on the code of conduct to guide the negotiations. Before taking a three-week break, the two sides shared agenda items. Talks are expected to resume on January 5, 2021.The office of President Ashraf Ghani also confirmed Doha as the venue for the second round to allow the negotiations to restart on time. Ghani had suggested that the second round and subsequent negotiations be held in Afghanistan.The Taliban do not recognize Ghani’s government as legitimate and rejected that suggestion.Najia Anwari, spokeswoman for the Ministry of Peace Affairs, said the Afghan team was continuing its consultations with different segments of the Afghan society, including politicians and civil society activists.The second round of talks will start at a time when calls for a cease-fire or a significant reduction in violence have gained momentum.Taliban-driven violence against Afghan security forces has increased to a 10-year high after the militant group signed its deal with the United States.The increase in violence has been an obstacle in negotiations with the Afghan government. The international community and regional countries alike have been calling for a reduction in violence.Michael Kugelman, Asia program deputy director at the Wilson Center, said the Taliban want to use violence as a negotiation tactic.”In this sense, the Taliban want to hold out and get more concessions from the other side before it agrees to focus on the violence issue,” he told VOA.Some analysts believe the Taliban would be reluctant to give up violence, which is the most potent negotiation tool they command.”The only leverage they have is the use of violence,” Rick Olson, former U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, told VOA. “They are dreadfully unpopular politically.”The Taliban’s reluctance to give up violence is also linked to their organizational structure, said Andrew Watkins, senior analyst for Afghanistan, at the International Crisis Group.”The Taliban are an insurgency, a machine that runs on fighting. Once fighting stops, it might be hard to start up the machine again,” he said to VOA.
…

Bangladesh is going ahead Monday with plans to move a second group of Rohingya refugees to an island in the Bay of Bengal, although rights activists have voiced strong opposition about the transfer.Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Abdul Momen said about 1,000 refugees will be relocated to what he called a “beautiful resort.”Momen maintained that the island was “100 times better” than the camps where the refugees are presently housed, and that they had “appealed” to be taken to Bhashan Char.But the refugees themselves and humanitarian workers have said that some of the Rohingya had been coerced to accept going there.Earlier this month, the first group of more than 1,600 Muslim Rohingya refugees from Myanmar were taken to low-lying Bhashan Char island.International and local humanitarian agencies, as well as rights groups, have objected to the move, saying the island, which is several hours away from the mainland by boat, is flood-prone, subject to frequent cyclones and could be submerged during a high tide.Bhashan Char emerged from the sea 20 years ago and has never been inhabited.More than 730,000 Rohingya have fled Buddhist-majority Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state for neighboring Bangladesh after attacks by Rohingya militants against state security forces in August 2017 led to brutal military “clearance operations” that the U.N. said was tantamount to “ethnic cleansing.”Myanmar has repeatedly denied the ethnic cleansing charge, saying its troops targeted Rohingya militants.
…

Pakistan’s army said Sunday that a militant raid in southwestern Baluchistan province had killed at least seven soldiers.The pre-dawn attack in the Harnai district targeted a paramilitary Frontier Corps checkpoint. The casualties occurred during the ensuing “intense” exchange of fire with the “terrorists,” said a military statement.“(The) area has been cordoned off and escape routes have been blocked to apprehend fleeing miscreants. A large-scale search and clearance operation is in progress,” the statement added.Local police officials were reported as saying that several Pakistani soldiers were also injured, and the assailants managed to flee into nearby mountains.  There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the deadly attack. It came a day after a bomb explosion near a soccer field in the troubled province’s Panjgur district killed two spectators and wounded six others.  Baluchistan often experiences attacks on Pakistani security forces and state officials. The violence is blamed on separatist Baluch insurgents and other extremist groups operating in the natural resource-rich province.Prime Minister Imran Khan said the “terrorist attack” had “saddened” him. “My heartfelt condolences & prayers go to their families. Our nation stands with our courageous soldiers who face attacks from Indian backed terrorists,” Khan tweeted.Saddened to hear of 7 brave soldiers martyrdom as a result of terrorist attack on FC post in Harnai Balochistan late last night. My heartfelt condolences & prayers go to their families. Our nation stands with our courageous soldiers who face attacks from Indian backed terrorists.
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) December 27, 2020Pakistan accuses rival India of supporting and funding Baluch separatists, charges New Delhi denies. 
…

A military helicopter has crashed in mountainous northern Pakistan, killing four soldiers including the two pilots, the army said.The chopper crashed Saturday in the Gilgit-Baltistan region “due to technical reasons” while transporting the body of a soldier to the military hospital in Skardu, it said in a statement.Pakistan has a checkered military and civilian aviation safety record, with frequent plane and helicopter crashes over the years.Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) came under heavy scrutiny this year after one its planes came down among houses in Karachi, killing 98 people.In August 2015, 12 people were killed when an army chopper crashed in the northwest. In May the same year a Mi-17 army helicopter crashed at a holiday resort in the picturesque hills of Gilgit killing seven people, including two foreign ambassadors.Known for its spectacular mountain ranges, Gilgit-Baltistan is a strategically important autonomous region that borders China, Afghanistan and Indian-held Kashmir.
…

Two Afghan policemen were killed as three separate “sticky bombs” exploded in Kabul on Saturday, the latest violence to hit the Afghan capital.The policemen were killed when a sticky bomb attached to their pickup truck exploded in a central district of Kabul, police spokesperson Ferdaws Faramarz told reporters.A civilian was also wounded in the blast, he said.Two security personnel were wounded in another similar bomb attack targeting a second police pickup truck in a western district of Kabul, Faramarz said.He said a third bomb also exploded in the city but caused no casualties.In recent months, Kabul and several other provinces of Afghanistan have been rocked by deadly violence, including bombings, rocket attacks and targeted killings.Several of these attacks, especially in Kabul, have been claimed by the jihadist Islamic State group.Journalists, politicians and rights activists have increasingly come under targeted attacks as violence surges in Afghanistan, despite peace talks between the government and the Taliban.Peace talks that started Sept. 12 in the Qatari capital Doha are currently on a break until early January.
…

Afghanistan’s foreign ministry issued a statement Friday expressing regret and concern about videos showing senior Taliban leaders meeting their followers and Taliban fighters in Pakistan.
 
In cell phone video that surfaced on social media in the last few days, the head of the Taliban’s political office, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, seems to be briefing a Taliban cadre on the ongoing peace negotiations in Doha and acknowledging the presence of the Taliban’s top leadership in Pakistan. 
In another video, a member of the Taliban’s political team is seen meeting men wearing uniforms used by Taliban fighters. Although the clothing of Taliban fighters in the video suggests it could be older. None of the fighters are wearing a sweater or a jacket as they stand in line outside, and some of the fighters are bare foot, indicating the weather to be warmer rather than the current harsh winter months.Mulla Fazel Akhund-TB Doha office & negotiations team member is visiting suiciders’ unit in Pakistan. He is doing this just after meeting with @ImranKhanPTI. What message TB want to convey by boosting up suiciders during peace negotiations? pic.twitter.com/5wf0HcB6ty— Najeeb Nangyal (@NajeebNangyal) December 22, 2020 
“It is with deepest regret and concern that some Taliban leaders were seen in the videos visiting training camps,” the Afghan statement said, decrying the “overt presence and activities” of Taliban fighters and leadership in Pakistan.   
 
“We urge the Pakistani government not to allow its territory to be used by insurgents and elements who insist on continuing the war and bloodshed,” the Afghan foreign ministry said.
 
When contacted, Pakistan’s foreign office spokesman refused to comment.
 
The Taliban delegation arrived in Pakistan last week to meet the country’s prime minister and foreign minister to discuss the Afghan peace negotiations in Doha between the Taliban and the Afghan government.
 
Pakistan said the visit was “to facilitate the Afghan peace process to achieve a peaceful, stable, united, independent, sovereign and prosperous Afghanistan.”
 
At the time, the Afghan government said the visit was planned in consultation with them and welcomed it as part of Pakistan’s efforts to forward the peace talks.
 
In the video, Mullah Baradar told his followers the Taliban negotiation team in Doha was following orders from its top leadership in Pakistan.   
 
“Whatever we discuss in Doha, we share it with our leadership and the Ulema Council here. They have their own consultation and give us their feedback,” he could be heard telling the men standing around him.   
 
In another portion of the same video, he referred to a telephone conversation he had with U.S. President Donald Trump.
 
“I cut the phone; he [Trump] didn’t cut the phone. He doesn’t speak with anyone for more than 10 minutes, but he talked to us for a long time,” Baradar said.
 
President Trump called Baradar in early March 2020, days after the U.S. signed a historic deal with the insurgent group, laying down a timeline for the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan in return for the Taliban providing counterterrorism guarantees and breaking ties with terrorist groups like al-Qaida.
 
“I’ll be meeting personally with Taliban leaders in the not-too-distant future. And we’ll be very much hoping that they will be doing what they say they’re going to be doing: They will be killing terrorists,” Trump told journalists in Washington after the call.
 
The face-to-face meeting never materialized.
 
In another part of the same video, Baradar referred to the visit of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Doha in November.
 
“When we went to meet the U.S. Secretary of State, he was already waiting for us. He sat down when we sat down, he stood up when we stood up. It is not my personal dignity; it is due to all the sacrifices you made,” he told his followers.
 
Pompeo met the Taliban in Doha to encourage peace negotiations and a reduction in violence that has become the most urgent demand of the Afghan government and civil society.
 
In March, Trump described the phone call with Baradar as a “good conversation.” The State Department said Pompeo told the Taliban that “the people of Afghanistan expect and deserve to live in peace and security after 40 years of war and bloodshed.”  
 
Even though the Taliban have stopped directly attacking foreign forces since the deal with the U.S., it has increased its attacks against Afghan security forces, which often kill civilians as well.
 
“He [Pompeo] called for a significant reduction in violence and encouraged expedited discussions on a political roadmap and a permanent and comprehensive cease-fire,” said a State Department readout of the meeting.   
 
Baradar, in the video, assured his followers the Taliban negotiation team will “never compromise, never undermine your sacrifices.”
 
Direct negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan government started in September in Doha. The two teams are taking a three-week break in December for internal deliberations and are expected to begin again on January 5, 2021.
…

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has defended three controversial laws that have triggered the biggest farm protests in decades and blamed opposition parties for misleading the farmers.    
 
But his outreach may not break the deadlock, as tens of thousands of farmers camped on highways outside New Delhi for the past month demanding concrete offers from the government to address their concerns.  
 
The farmers fear that the laws liberalizing rules for the sale of farm produce favor private corporations and will hurt their incomes by eventually ending a decades-old system under which the government buys some crops, such as rice and wheat, at guaranteed prices.   
 
In a virtual interaction Friday with farmers from six states, Modi assured them the legislation would benefit growers. “Through these agricultural reforms, we have given better options to farmers,” he said. He also reiterated that his government will not dismantle the program of buying grain at what is called “minimum support price.”  
 India’s Supreme Court Suggests Government Delay Farm LawsProtesting farmers say agricultural reform laws will drive down crop prices and devastate their earningsModi’s interaction was the latest effort by his administration to placate the angry protesters, who have been demanding the laws be scrapped.   
 
The farmers addressed by the Indian leader did not include any from Punjab and Haryana, however, two primarily agricultural states from where a majority of the protesters have gathered.    
 
Modi blamed the protests on his political opponents, saying they are spreading lies about the laws. “All these people who are protesting in support of farmers, what did they do when they were in power,” he questioned. “Those with political motives are firing the gun from the farmers shoulders.”  
 
On the highways outside Delhi that have turned into massive protest sites, the farmers did not appear to be convinced by Modi’s outreach as they continued shouting anti-government slogans and told reporters they will not call off their sit-in until the laws are rescinded.  
 
They have categorically dismissed criticism that their protest has been incited by opposition parties and called it a “people’s movement” born out of genuine worries that the new laws will force them to abandon farming and sell their land.   
 
Some braved Delhi’s cold winter nights, sleeping outdoors, others huddled under small tents or in tractors and trolleys covered with tarpaulin.
 Indian farmers shout slogans as they block a major highway during a protest against new farm laws at the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh state border, India, on Dec. 5, 2020.The laws passed in September have become a flashpoint for resentment that has been brewing for years among farmers over what they say are steadily dwindling incomes, especially for owners of small plots of land. They have been demanding higher prices for farm produce but fear the new laws will drive down prices as private companies become the dominant players in farm trade.   
 
Modi offered more discussions Friday with the dissenting farmers to allay their concerns, saying his government is ready for talks, but they must be based on “issues, facts and logic.”  
 
So far, six rounds of talks between farm leaders and the government have failed to break the stalemate as farmers seek legal guarantees the government will continue to offer them “guaranteed prices.” 
…

A court in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province ordered authorities Thursday to immediately release the British national charged over the 2002 murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl.Thursday’s ruling by the high court in Karachi, the provincial capital, canceled a temporary detention order that had prevented British-born Ahmed Omar Sheikh from leaving the prison since the same court overturned his murder conviction eight months ago.The April 2020 verdict modified Sheikh’s sentence to seven years in prison for kidnapping only, allowing him to be immediately freed for time served. Three other men—co-accused in the case and sentenced to life in jail at the same trial 18 years ago—were acquitted.Pakistani authorities quickly moved to halt the release of the four men, however, citing “public safety” concerns, a law often used in high-profile cases to buy time for prosecutors to file an appeal.Thursday’s written ruling, obtained by VOA, struck down the preventive detention order, directing authorities the four men “shall be released from jail forthwith.” It ordered authorities to not allow Sheikh and the others to leave Pakistan.The judges also directed federal and provincial governments not to arrest or place the four men “under any prevention detention order … without the prior permission of the court.”The Wall Street Journal reporter, 38 at the time of his murder, Pearl was visiting the port city of Karachi, the country’s largest, to investigate suspected links between Islamist militants and planners of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States before he was abducted and decapitated weeks later.Pearl’s parents and Pakistani authorities separately have appealed to the Supreme Court against the April verdict that acquitted Sheikh. The top Pakistani court is scheduled to conduct the next hearing on January 5, 2021.An attorney for the Pearl family told VOA that Sheikh will be freed until the appeal is completed, but all four men will “go to jail permanently” if the family is successful in overturning the acquittal. 
…

For nearly three weeks Kazakhstan blogger Aigul Utepova was detained in a psychiatric clinic for “observation” after she wrote critical posts of the government on social media. Utepova, who has over 8,000 followers on both her Facebook page and YouTube channel, had already been under house arrest since September when a court in Kazakhstan’s capital, Nur-Sultan, ordered that she be moved to the clinic, according to rights groups and her daughter. The 50-year-old journalist, who until 2018 worked for the NewTimes.kz news agency, is accused of “participating in an extremist organization.” Aigul Utepova is seen in the window of a psychiatric clinic where a court ordered she be detained, in Kazakhstan’s capital, Nur-Sultan, on Nov. 23, 2020. (Courtesy: Togzhan Tuzel)The blogger’s daughter, Togzhan Tuzel, told VOA she believes authorities are punishing Utepova for commentary on social media about opposition movements such as the Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) and Koshe Partiasy (Street Party), and for publishing articles on alleged “attempts by the government to manipulate” public opinion. “It is not normal for hundreds of people to be persecuted in Kazakhstan every year on charges of extremism and terrorism, for speaking out peacefully on social media and participating in small street rallies,” Tuzel said, adding that dozens of activists are being prosecuted under the same criminal charges as her mother. Two days before Utepova’s Dec. 11 release from the clinic, a court extended her house arrest until January 17. The journalist’s lawyer was presented with the order during an online court session, Tuzel said. Freedom of expression is heavily curtailed in Kazakhstan, where authorities use accusations such as participating in or supporting extremist groups to target government critics or those who report favorably of political movements calling for reform, rights groups say.  The country ranks 157 out of 180 countries on the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index, where 1 is the most free. Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to VOA’s request for comment. Utepova has been released from the clinic. But Heather McGill, a Central Asia researcher at Amnesty International, says the journalist’s case is by no means an isolated incident. In 2019, blogger Ardak Ashym was ordered into psychiatric care for insulting a state official on social media. The cases suggest Kazakhstan has not fully rid itself of the Soviet-era tactic of punitive psychiatry, McGill said, adding that “psychiatry can be misused to attempt to put pressure on critics of the government.” A similar tactic has also been seen in Vietnam where authorities this year ordered Le Anh Hung, a VOA contributor and blogger, and Pham Chi Thanh, who covered politics and social issues on his blog, into psychiatric clinics over their critical comments and reporting. Vietnam Moves Blogger From Prison to Psychiatric HospitalBlogger and author Pham Thanh, who published book critical of Vietnam’s leader, is second jailed journalist forced into psychiatric care Utepova’s lawyer Galym Nurpeisov told VOA that lately Kazakhstan’s government has been pursuing journalists and bloggers for bringing up politics.  Yevgeniy Zhovtis, director of the human rights organization Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law, told VOA that authorities are tough on critics. “There are many cases of pressure on the political opposition, independent journalists and bloggers, in particular supporters of opposition movements Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan and Koshe Partiasy,” Zhovtis said. Zhovtis said he believes the accusations are just an excuse to punish dissidents. The DVK is a political opposition movement founded by Mukhtar Ablyazov, a former minister and critic of the government who fled to Europe to avoid embezzlement charges that supporters say are politically motivated. A court banned the DVK for being an “extremist organization” in March 2018. The Koshe Partiasy, widely viewed by activists as the successor of DVK, was also deemed an “extremist organization” by Kazakh authorities in May.   Government officials say the groups propagate “the forcible change of Kazakhstan’s constitutional order” and are therefore extremist, but supporters say their goal is democratic reforms. Authorities have a track record of targeting outspoken activists who criticize the government or its policies, by using vague and overbroad criminal charges, Mihra Rittmann, a Central Asia researcher at the New York-based Human Rights Watch, told VOA. This year alone Kazakh authorities opened dozens of criminal cases on charges of participating in a banned extremist organization, the same charge Utepova is facing, Rittmann said. “What constitutes ‘extremist’ actions or speech isn’t clearly defined in Kazakh law, allowing for authorities in Kazakhstan to invoke allegations of ‘extremism’ to try and silence critical voices,” Rittman said. Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, the UN special rapporteur for protecting human rights while countering terrorism, has expressed serious concern about this issue. After a visit to Kazakhstan in May 2019, Aoláin concluded that the broad definitions of “extremism” and “inciting discord” in Kazakh law “are used to unduly restrict freedoms of religion, expression, assembly and association.” Maksym Sytnikov, advocacy officer at Warsaw-based Open Dialogue Foundation, which focuses on human rights in post-Soviet area, told VOA the international community should sanction any senior Kazakhstani officials found to be responsible for punitive psychiatry, political assassinations, and torture. “The governments of democratic states should publicly condemn every case of political persecution and the lack of investigation into punitive psychiatry, torture and other gross violations by [Kazakhstan’s] law enforcement authorities,” Sytnikov said. 
…

Officials in Afghanistan say gunmen Wednesday killed the head of an independent elections watchdog in Kabul, the latest casualty in a string of mostly unclaimed recent attacks against prominent civilians. 
 
The violence has claimed the lives of dozens of people, particularly in the Afghan capital. The victims include civil society activists, journalists, politicians and government officials.  
 
Police said Mohammad Yousuf Rasheed, executive director of the Free and Fair Election Forum of Afghanistan (FEFA), was traveling to his office in the city when unknown assailants sprayed his vehicle with bullets. The attack also left his driver wounded. 
 
Elsewhere in Kabul, officials said a bomb attached to a police vehicle went off, killing an officer in the vehicle and injuring two others. 
 
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA, condemned Rasheed’s assassination and other attacks against “so many outstanding citizens,” urging authorities to bring to justice those responsible. 
 
“Targeted killings of civilians are taking place at a deeply disturbing rate in Afghanistan,” said a mission statement. 
 
UNAMA noted that in the last four days alone, the conflict-torn country has seen the killing of a lawmaker as well as a well-known journalist and a group of medics.  
 
“Such dreadful attacks are rarely claimed and frequently focus on those working for an open society,” it said.  Municipal workers clean up debris at the site of a bomb attack in Kabul, Dec. 22, 2020. 
The bomb blast on medics was, however, claimed by the Afghan branch of Islamic State terror group. The attack killed three doctors and two other persons onboard a vehicle that was targeted.  
 
The United States also denounced Rasheed’s assassination. “I am appalled by his murder, another in a cacophony of senseless & endless violence. My condolences to all those who knew him,” tweeted Ross Wilson, the acting U.S. ambassador in Kabul.  
 
Wilson hailed Rasheed as a dedicated and steadfast advocate for representative democracy in Afghanistan.  
 
“He worked tirelessly for years to ensure free & transparent elections that engaged all Afghans. His death is a loss for his family, friends & nation,” the U.S. ambassador said.  
 
Critics fear the wave of targeted killings and increased battlefield hostilities between Afghan security forces and the Taliban insurgency could derail ongoing U.S.-brokered peace negotiations between the two adversaries.  
 
The slow-moving dialogue started September 12 in Qatar and a second phase is expected to resume next month after a three-week break. The recent spike in violence is seen as a threat to the Afghan peace process.  
 
“The U.N. repeats its call for a sustained reduction in violence. Lives and gains must be protected, with spoilers prevented from undermining the vital peace negotiations, due to resume 5 January,” UNAMA said in its statement.
…

Police in Canada have declared the death of a dissident Pakistani human rights activist a “non-criminal” incident. 
  
Thirty-seven-year-old Karima Mehrab, also known as Karima Baloch from Pakistan’s troubled Baluchistan province, was found dead Monday, a day after she went missing in Toronto’s downtown area.  
  
“The circumstances have been investigated and officers have determined this to be a non-criminal death and no foul play is suspected. We have updated the family,” a Toronto Police statement said.  The Toronto Police Service is aware of heightened community and media interest surrounding a missing person investigation.
Earlier today, we confirmed a 37-year-old woman was sadly located deceased on Monday, December 21, 2020.
— Toronto Police (@TorontoPolice) December 23, 2020Baloch had been living in Canada since fleeing Baluchistan in 2015, where she campaigned for the province’s separation from Pakistan and was reportedly charged with terrorism. 
 
Her death sparked speculation of the involvement of Pakistani intelligence operatives, charges officials in Islamabad rejected as “ridiculous” and an attempt to malign Pakistan.  
  
Baloch’s husband, Hammal Haider, told media she went on a walk on Toronto’s Center Island and never returned. 
 
“I can’t believe that it’s an act of suicide,” he told the Guardian newspaper. “She was a strong lady and she left home in a good mood. We can’t rule out foul play as she has been under threats. She left Pakistan as her home was raided more than twice,” Haider said.  
  
Baluchistan has long been home to insurgent separatist movements and often experiences deadly attacks on Pakistani security forces blamed on the separatists. 
  
The Pakistani military said on Tuesday an “intelligence-based operation” against a suspected militant hideout in the province’s Awaran region triggered a shootout with “terrorists,” killing 10 of them.  It added that the slain men were behind a recent deadly attack on a security convoy in the area.  
 
Pakistan alleges Baluch separatists are being supported and funded by rival India, charges New Delhi denies.   
…

The U.S. Congress on Monday passed a bill that is expected to upgrade U.S. support for Tibetans in key areas, including sanctioning Chinese officials if they try to appoint the next Dalai Lama.  The Tibetan Policy and Support Act (TPSA) was passed by the House and Senate as an amendment to the $1.4 trillion government-spending bill and the $900 billion coronavirus relief package.  It will pave the way for the U.S. government to issue economic and visa sanctions against any Chinese officials who interfere with the succession of the Dalai Lama, and will require China to allow Washington to establish a consulate in Lhasa — the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region – before Beijing can open any more consulates in the U.S.  The bill, backed by both Democrats and Republicans, is expected to be signed into law by President Donald Trump.  Lobsang Sangay, president of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), the Tibetan government in exile, called passage of the bill “a momentous landmark for the Tibetan people.” FILE – Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, right, listens to Lobsang Sangay, president of the Tibetan government-in-exile, during an event at the Kirti Monastery in Dharmsala, India, Dec. 7, 2019.“Any interference by Chinese government officials will be met with serious sanctions and be deemed inadmissible into the United States,” he told VOA’s Tibetan Service.  “By passing the TPSA, Congress has sent its message loud and clear that Tibet remains a priority for the United States and that it will continue its steadfast support for His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the CTA,” said Sangay, who is at the helm for his second consecutive term.  Rights group International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) said the bipartisan TPSA will launch a new era in U.S. policy on Tibet.   “By passing the TPSA, Congress has not only upgraded its overall support for Tibet, but specifically laid a marker down on the global stage declaring that the international community will not accept China’s interference in the Dalai Lama’s succession and will oppose China’s human rights abuses in Tibet for as long as they continue,” Tibet Autonomous RegionBuilt on the landmark Tibetan Policy Act of 2002, the TPSA addresses Tibetan human rights, environmental rights, religious freedoms and the democratic Tibetan government in exile. It also calls for a regional framework to water-security issues, following years of concerns from environmental activists and neighboring countries that ambitious Chinese hydropower projects are diverting water, threatening regional ecosystems.  Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Tuesday that China strongly opposed the bill. In the daily briefing, Wang claimed that issues involving Tibet, Taiwan and Hong Kong “concern China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” and urged the U.S. to “stop meddling in Beijing’s internal affairs.”  The legislation also touches on the controversy around the succession of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader who is also a global Buddhist authority. The Dalai Lama is expected to reincarnate after he dies, and there is widespread belief that the Chinese government will interfere in the process and appoint its own Dalai Lama for political purposes.  The TPSA says that naming the next Dalai Lama should be left solely to the Tibetan Buddhist community and that the official position of the U.S. is that China cannot interfere in the selection. China regards the exiled Dalai Lama as a separatist and criticizes foreign officials who meet with him. The Dalai Lama has spoken occasionally about his plans for reincarnation. In 2011, he told an audience he would decide when he is about 90 years old whether he should be reincarnated. He is currently 85.  
…

At least three doctors and their driver were killed and another wounded in an explosion in the southern part of the Afghan capital, Kabul, Tuesday morning as they were driving to work at the country’s largest prison.In a statement, authorities at the Pul-e-Charkhi prison expressed deep regret upon receiving “sad news that the acting director general of the prison’s health department, Brigadier Dr. Nazefa Ibrahimi, was martyred along with two other doctors and a driver of this department in a roadside mine explosion around 7:30 AM today.”Family sources say the male doctor killed in the attack, Dr. Abdul Mateen, was Dr. Ibrahimi’s husband.One of the female doctors also worked at another local hospital converted into a treatment facility for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.Noorullah Tarakai, the deputy spokesman for the Ministry of Public Health, said several passers-by were also hurt in the attack.Condemning the attack, Ross Wilson, the U.S. chargé d’affaires, said it was “shocking to learn of the deaths of Office of Prison Administration (OPA) doctors, who work tirelessly each day to save vulnerable lives, especially during a pandemic when front-line medical personnel are desperately needed.”(1/2) It is shocking to learn of the deaths of Office of Prison Administration (OPA) doctors, who work tirelessly each day to save vulnerable lives, especially during a pandemic when frontline medical personnel are desperately needed. I condemn the attack this morning in Kabul.
— Chargé d’Affaires Ross Wilson (@USAmbKabul) Rahmatullah Nikzad, a prominent local journalist was shot dead by unknown assailants in Afghanistan’s central Ghazni province, Dec. 21, 2020.On Monday, unknown gunmen killed an Afghan journalist in Ghazni province.Targeted killings have been on the rise in the country. According to a survey by Afghan news channel TOLOnews, the capital city experienced at least 60 small or large attacks in the past two months in which 133 people were killed.The survey said Kabul “witnessed 29 IED blasts, three missile attacks, 26 armed attacks and two car bombings,” which were separate from three suicide attacks on Kabul University, a coaching center, and security forces.Earlier this month, the European Union and NATO issued a statement condemning targeted killings, calling them “unlawful attacks on representatives of the media, religious leaders and groups, human rights defenders, students, civil society and civilians at large.”Violence in Afghanistan has been a major cause for concern. Civilians continue to pay a high price in the country’s long-running conflict, even though the Taliban and Afghan government have officially started negotiations aimed at ending the strife.
…