VATRY, France — A charter plane grounded in France for a human trafficking investigation departed Monday for India with 276 Indians aboard, authorities said. The passengers had been heading to Nicaragua but were instead blocked inside a rural French airport for four days in an exceptional holiday ordeal. 

Associated Press reporters outside the Vatry Airport in Champagne country saw the unmarked Legend Airlines A340 take off after the crew and passengers boarded the plane. 

The regional administration said that 276 of the original 303 passengers were en route to Mumbai, and that 25 others requested asylum in France. Those who remained were transferred to a special zone in Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport for asylum-seekers, it said. The passengers grounded in France had included a 21-month-old child and several unaccompanied minors. 

The remaining two passengers were initially detained as part of a human trafficking investigation but were released Monday after appearing before a judge, the Paris prosecutor’s office said. The judge named them as ”assisted witnesses” to the case, a special status under French law that allows time for further investigation and could lead to eventual charges or to the case being dropped. 

The Legend Airlines A340 plane stopped Thursday for refueling in Vatry en route from Fujairah airport in the United Arab Emirates for Managua, Nicaragua, and was grounded by police based on an anonymous tip that it could be carrying human trafficking victims. 

Prosecutors wouldn’t comment on whether the passengers’ ultimate destination could have been the U.S., which has seen a surge in Indians crossing the Mexico-U.S. border this year. 

French authorities are working to determine the aim of the original flight, and opened a judicial inquiry into activities by an organized criminal group helping foreigners enter or stay in a country illegally, the prosecutor’s office said. 

It did not specify Monday whether human trafficking — which the U.N. defines as “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of people through force, fraud or deception, with the aim of exploiting them for profit” — is still suspected. 

The Vatry airport was requisitioned by police for days. Local officials, medics and volunteers installed cots and ensured regular meals and showers for those held inside. Then it turned into a makeshift courtroom Sunday as judges, lawyers and interpreters filled the terminal to carry out emergency hearings to determine the next steps. 

Some lawyers at Sunday’s hearings protested authorities’ handling of the situation and the passengers’ rights, suggesting that police and prosecutors overreacted to the anonymous tip. 

The Indian Embassy posted its thanks on X, formerly Twitter, to French officials for ensuring that the Indians could go home. French authorities worked through Christmas Eve and Christmas morning on formalities to allow passengers to leave France, regional prosecutor Annick Browne told The Associated Press. 

Foreigners can be held up to four days in a transit zone for police investigations in France, after which a special judge must rule on whether to extend that to eight days. 

Legend Airlines lawyer Liliana Bakayoko said some passengers didn’t want to go to India because they had paid for a tourism trip to Nicaragua. The airline has denied any role in possible human trafficking. 

The U.S. government has designated Nicaragua as one of several countries deemed as failing to meet minimum standards for eliminating human trafficking. Nicaragua has also been used as a migratory springboard for people fleeing poverty or conflict because of relaxed or visa-free entry requirements for some countries. Sometimes charter flights are used for the journey. 
…

Islamabad — Federal authorities in Pakistan confirmed Monday they had freed 290 activists arrested in Islamabad, where they had traveled via convoy to protest alleged extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances in their native southwestern Baluchistan province.

“Peaceful protest is everyone’s right, but no one can take the law into their own hands,” said a Pakistani interior ministry statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, while announcing the mass release of Baluch activists.

The convoy of dozens of vehicles carrying women, men, and children traveled 1,600 kilometers and reached Islamabad last Thursday from Turbat, a remote Baluchistan town, to draw attention to the death of a 24-year-old man, identified as Balaach Mola Bakhsh, in police custody last month.

Baluch students and activists in Islamabad also joined the rally.

Police in Islamabad used batons and water cannon to disperse and prevent the rally from moving toward the city’s high security “red zone,” housing key government buildings and embassies, and carried out arrests.

The crackdown triggered a nationwide outcry, with human rights groups and civil society activists demanding the government urgently release protesters and address their long-running complaints instead.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, or HRCP, an independent watchdog, said that it was “appalled” by the state’s response to subject women, children, and elderly peaceful protesters to unwarranted force.

“This treatment of Baloch citizens exercising their constitutional right to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression is inexcusable,” the HRCP said on Thursday.

While mainstream Pakistani media largely ignored the protest march and subsequent police action, social media platforms prominently highlighted them, prompting the government to form a delegation to engage with rally leaders and defuse the situation.

Mahrang Baloch, a central leader of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee, or Baloch Unity Committee, organizers of the protest march, denounced the police action and told reporters over the weekend she was assaulted by several female officers with batons.

Provincial counterterrorism authorities claimed they had arrested Bakhsh, a tailor, on November 20 with explosives in his possession. He appeared in court the next day, but on the 23rd, was killed in a shootout involving security officials and militants. Three other men whom authorities claim were insurgents also were killed in the incident.

Bakhsh’s family rejected the official claim, alleging he was in police custody since October and killed in a fake encounter.

Baluchistan, an oil, gas, and minerals-rich province, has been in the grip of a low-level insurgency for the last two decades. Pakistani security forces have lately come under almost daily deadly attacks from ethnic Baluch insurgents.

Insurgents justify their actions, accusing the state of robbing the mineral rich province of its precious resources. Pakistani security forces routinely conduct counterinsurgency operations in turbulent districts.

The violence has left a trail of forced disappearances, and bodies dumped on the sides of roads. Pakistani authorities say ethnic Baluch insurgents also staged deadly attacks on laborers and workers who come from other provinces.

“The state’s widespread use of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings also warrants a prompt and transparent investigation as well as a commitment to hold the perpetrators accountable,” said the HRCP in its statement and a subsequent news conference at the national press club in Islamabad.
…

Kabul — Fifty couples married Monday in a joint ceremony in the Afghan capital — a growing practice to reduce the astronomical cost of traditional weddings in the impoverished country.

The couples were joined in matrimony in one of the dozens of glitzy wedding halls that punctuate Kabul, but the ceremony itself was somewhat austere.

Since the return of the Taliban in August 2021 weddings have become low-key affairs, with dancing and music effectively banned after authorities deemed such activities un-Islamic.

In front of the City Star wedding hall near the airport, around a hundred turbaned men dressed in traditional shalwar kameez chatted in groups — not a single woman present.

They decorated cars with green ribbons and red plastic roses forming hearts to carry the newlyweds away.

Roohullah Rezayi, 18, due to leave with his wife in a few hours, told AFP he could not afford a solo wedding.

“A traditional wedding would have cost us at least 200,000 to 250,000 Afghanis ($2,800 to $3,600), but this time it will be between 10,000 and 15,000 Afghanis,” he said.

The young man, a member of the Hazara Shiite minority and from Ghor province, earns barely 350 Afghanis per day doing odd jobs.

“We invited 35 people from our two families, otherwise it would have been 300 to 400,” said the groom, a plastic flower in the breast pocket of his waistcoat worn over a white tunic.

Donations to each couple from the Selab Foundation, who organized the event, are equivalent to $1,600 — a huge amount in one of the poorest countries in the world.

They will also leave with a cake, a kit containing toothpaste, shampoo and moisturizer, and a carpet, blanket and a few household appliances to start married life.

A thousand guests

Hundreds of male guests wrapped in traditional patu shawls attended the ceremony in a large, chilly hall, festooned with garlands.

An official from the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice gave a speech, and there were recitations from the Koran.

The brides-to-be were kept out of sight in a separate wing, however, and journalists were prohibited from approaching them.

It was only after lunch that the women appeared, fully veiled.

Larger, more pricey weddings in Afghanistan can bring together more than 1,000 guests and cost over $20,000.

For Monday’s mass wedding, 600 couples applied.

For some of the lucky chosen ones, it has been a long wait.

“I’ve been waiting for this day for three years,” said Samiullah Zamani, a 23-year-old farmer from Kabul province.

“I can’t wait to see her,” he said of his fiancee. 
…

SRINAGAR — The Indian army has launched an investigation into the deaths of three civilians allegedly in military custody in Indian Kashmir, and moved senior officers from the disputed area, a military official said on Monday.

Residents in the area, which is claimed by India and Pakistan, said the civilians had been detained for questioning after militants ambushed Indian army vehicles on Thursday, killing four soldiers.

The inquiry was ordered as a result of the civilians’ deaths, said the official, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The ambush in the woods of Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir was the fifth major attack on Indian troops in recent months in the region, with 24 security force personnel killed.

India and Pakistan each control parts of Muslim-majority Kashmir, where militants have fought Indian security forces since the 1990s.

Indian army chief Manoj Pande visited Poonch on Monday to review the operational preparedness of the troops, said defence spokesperson Suneel Bartwal. “I have no knowledge about the inquiry ordered into deaths of civilians in Poonch,” he said. 

Pakistan “strongly condemns” the deaths of the civilians, its foreign ministry said in a statement, calling for the people responsible to be held to account. 

Mohammad Sidiq, councillor of Topa Pir village, said nine people, including his 26-year-old shepherd nephew, were picked up by Indian troops on Friday for questioning.

“One of them was let off and eight others were tortured, and three, including my nephew Shoukat Ahmad, were killed,” he said.

A grisly video of men purportedly being tortured by the army has gone viral on social media, causing widespread outrage in the region. Reuters could not independently confirm the authenticity of the video.

Sidiq said the people tortured in the video were the men found dead near the ambush site.

“Where is the law and where is the justice? Is this the reward we get for supporting Indian troops here on the borders? I even get death threats for raising my voice against these three deaths,” Sidiq said.
…

Vatry, France — Four French judges on Sunday began questioning more than 300 Indians travelling on a plane detained near Paris over suspicions of human trafficking.   

The Nicaragua-bound Airbus A340 has been held at Vatry airport, 150 kilometers (95 miles) east of Paris, since arriving from Dubai on Thursday for refueling after an anonymous tip-off that it was carrying potential victims of human trafficking.   

The judges have the authority to extend the detention order being used by border police by eight days initially and for a another eight if required.    

They have two days to complete speaking to the passengers.   

“The goal is to be able to see everyone,” Annick Browne, the prosecutor for the Chalons-en-Champagne region, told AFP.   

The judges are being helped by translators.   

The 303 passengers of the flight operated by Romanian company Legend Airlines are holed up in the airport. They include 11 unaccompanied minors, according to Paris prosecutors.   

Ten of the passengers have requested asylum, a source close to the case said.   

Tarpaulin covered the entrance hall’s glass exterior and nearby administrative buildings, while police and gendarmes prevented access.   

Two passengers in custody since Friday had their detention extended Saturday evening for up to 48 hours, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office.   

They were being held “in order to verify” whether their role “may have been different than the others in this transport, and under what conditions and with what objectives.”  

Investigators have checked the identity of passengers and flight crew, and are verifying the “conditions and purposes” of their travel, the prosecutor added.   

The Indian embassy in Paris said Saturday that it was working for “a rapid resolution of the situation,” posting on X that “consular officials are on site.”  

Patrick Jaloux, the head of civil protection in the Marne region, said the passengers were understandably “frustrated” after spending three nights in the airport.   

He said some of them spoke Hindi, India’s national language, and the others Tamil which is spoken in southern India and in parts of Sri Lanka.   

“They are in touch with their families on telephone,” he said.   

A source close to the inquiry told AFP that some of the Indian passengers were likely workers in the United Arab Emirates who may have sought to go to Nicaragua on their way to the United States or Canada. 

 
…

Colombo, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s police announced Sunday the arrests of nearly 15,000 people during a weeklong, military-backed, anti-narcotics drive, a crackdown denounced by rights activists.

Police said their operation, code-named “Yuktiya” or “Justice,” led to the seizure of almost 440 kilograms of narcotics, including 272 kilograms of cannabis, 35 kilograms of hashish and 9 kilograms of heroin.

Authorities believe the Indian Ocean island is being used as a drug trafficking transit point.

A police statement said 13,666 suspects were arrested while nearly 1,100 addicts were detained and sent for compulsory rehabilitation at a military-run facility.

Local media showed footage of police and soldiers using sniffer dogs to search homes in the capital and elsewhere.

Police said raids will pause for the Christmas holidays as officers needed to be deployed on security-related duties, but will resume after Tuesday, which is a Buddhist holiday.

Human rights lawyer Hejaaz Hizbullah said the police raids were illegal as they were conducted without search warrants and urged victims to get the details of officers to initiate legal action later.

Rights activist Ambika Satkunanathan posted on social media that the searches were not based on evidence but were “targeting only poor areas.”

The police were arresting drug users and small-time dealers but “not focusing on large-scale traffickers,” she added.

Sri Lanka’s biggest drug haul by weight was in December 2016, when police seized 800 kilograms of cocaine. 
…

VATRY, France — About 300 Indian citizens heading to Central America were sequestered in a French airport for a third day Saturday after a dramatic police operation prompted by a tip that those aboard might be victims of human trafficking, authorities said.

Those aboard included children and families. The youngest passenger is a toddler of 21 months, and among the children are several unaccompanied minors, according to the local civil protection agency.

Two of the passengers have been detained as part of a special investigation into suspected human trafficking by an organized criminal group, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office. Prosecutors wouldn’t comment on what kind of trafficking was alleged, or whether the ultimate destination was the U.S., which has seen a surge in Indians crossing the Mexico-U.S. border this year.

French authorities hung white tarps across the soaring bay windows of the small Vatry Airport in Champagne country to ensure privacy for the passengers held inside. The unmarked A340 plane, grounded since Thursday, can be seen parked near the terminal. Other flights were canceled or rerouted as the airport was transformed into the hub of a vast trafficking investigation.

The 15 crew members of the Legend Airlines charter flight — en route from Fujairah airport in the United Arab Emirates to Managua, Nicaragua — were questioned and released, according to a lawyer for the Romania-based airline.

A surreal holiday weekend scene has been unfolding in the Vatry Airport since Thursday. The flight stopped for refueling and was grounded by French police based on an anonymous tip that it could be carrying victims of human trafficking, the prosecutor’s office said.

The unusual and sudden probe disrupted air travel as police cordoned off the airport and flights were disrupted, according to the administration for the Marne region. The airfield is used primarily for charter and cargo flights.

Police sequestered the passengers in the airport, where they spent two nights on camp beds while the investigation continues, according to an official with the Marne administration. The official said the passengers initially remained in the plane, surrounded by police on the tarmac, but were then transferred into the main hall of the airport to sleep.

Emergency workers, a doctor and local volunteers are on the scene and the passengers are being given regular meals, medical care and access to toilets and showers, said Patrick Jaloux, head of the regional civil protection service. A special section of the terminal has been equipped for families.

As the ordeal drags on, “we are trying to find ways to help them pass the time” and reduce their distress, Jaloux told The Associated Press.

Indian consular representatives are stationed at the airport and working with the French government “for the welfare of the Indians” and for an “early resolution of the situation,” the Indian Embassy in France posted Saturday on X.

Legend Airlines lawyer Liliana Bakayoko said the company is cooperating with French authorities, denies any role in possible human trafficking and ”has not committed any infraction.”

A “partner” company that chartered the plane was responsible for verifying the identity documents of each passenger and communicated their passport information to the airline 48 hours before the flight, Bakayoko told The Associated Press.

The customer had chartered multiple flights on Legend Airlines from Dubai to Nicaragua, and a few other flights have already made the journey without incident, she said. She would not identify the customer, saying only that it is not a European company.

The crew members, who are of multiple nationalities, “are rather traumatized,” she said. “They wrote me messages that they want to see their families for Christmas.”

The U.S. government has designated Nicaragua as one of several countries deemed as failing to meet minimum standards for eliminating human trafficking.

Nicaragua has also been used as a migratory springboard for people fleeing poverty or conflict in the Caribbean as well as far-flung countries in Africa or Asia, because of relaxed or visa-free entry requirements for some countries. Sometimes charter flights are used for the journey. From there, the migrants travel north by bus with the help of smugglers.

The influx of Indian migrants through Mexico has increased from fewer than 3,000 in 2022 to more than 11,000 from January to November this year, according to the Mexican Immigration Agency. Indian citizens were arrested 41,770 times entering the U.S. illegally from Mexico during the U.S. government’s budget year that ended September 30, more than double from 18,308 the previous year. 
…

PIDIE, Indonesia — The screams were heard soon after the ailing boat emerged into view. On board were babies and children alongside mothers and fathers begging to be saved. 

The passengers were ethnic Rohingya Muslims who had fled surging gang violence and rampant hunger in the refugee camps of Bangladesh, only to find themselves adrift with a broken engine on the Andaman Sea. For a moment, it appeared their salvation had arrived in the form of another boat carrying Rohingya refugees that had pulled up alongside them. 

But those on board the other boat — itself overloaded and beginning to leak — knew if they allowed the distressed passengers onto their vessel, it would sink and all would die. 

They wanted to help, but they also wanted to live. 

Since November, more than 1,500 Rohingya refugees fleeing Bangladesh by boat have landed in Indonesia’s northern province of Aceh — three-quarters of them women and children. On Thursday, Indonesian authorities spotted another five boats approaching Aceh’s coast. 

With so many Rohingya attempting the crossing in recent weeks, nobody knows how many boats did not make it, and how many people died. 

This account of two boats was told to The Associated Press by five survivors from the vessel that made it ashore. It provides the first clues into the fate of the boat carrying up to 200 Rohingya refugees that vanished weeks ago. 

On December 2, the United Nations refugee agency, the UNHCR, put out an urgent message about the two distressed boats and urged countries to look for them. 

But in the case of the boat that remains missing, it appears no one searched. 

From a beach near where they staggered ashore on December 10, the survivors told the AP of their harrowing journey. 

“I remember feeling that together, we would be finished. Together, we would sink. Together, we would drown,” says 31-year-old Muhammed Jubair, who was among the 180 people on his boat to be rescued, along with his three children, wife and brother-in-law. 

The story of the missing boat and its passengers begins the way most Rohingya boat journeys do — with tearful goodbyes in sweltering shelters in the camps of Bangladesh, where more than 750,000 Rohingya fled in 2017 following attacks by the military in their homeland of Myanmar. 

In one of those shelters, Noor Fatima clutched her 14-year-old brother, Muhammed Ansar, as he began to cry. 

The family hoped Ansar would get a job in Indonesia that could help support them. There were few alternatives: Bangladesh bans camp residents from working, so their survival depends on food rations, which were slashed this year. 

It was November 20, and Ansar would be making the trip with several relatives, including his 20-year-old cousin, Samira Khatun, and her 3-year-old son. As her brother left, Fatima told herself other boats had made it safely to Indonesia. Surely his would, too. 

The next day, Samira called Fatima’s family, telling them they were aboard the boat. 

“We are on our way,” she said. “Pray for us.” 

Meanwhile, the boat Jubair and his family were on was chugging across the sea. 

Days into its journey, the passengers on Jubair’s boat spotted Ansar and Samira’s boat; its engine was broken, and water was seeping in. 

Those on Jubair’s boat worried if they got too close, the people on the ailing vessel would jump onto their boat, sinking them all, says one of Jubair’s fellow passengers, Rujinah, who goes by one name and was on board with five of her children. 

As Jubair’s boat drew nearer, between 20 and 30 people began preparing to make the jump, says Zakir Hussain, another passenger. 

The captain of Jubair’s boat shouted to those on the distressed vessel to stay put. Then he asked for a rope so he could tie the boats together and tow their boat behind his. 

Once tethered, the boats began moving through the water. Then, two or three nights later, a storm erupted. Pounding waves destroyed the engine on Jubair’s vessel. 

It was then, the passengers on Jubair’s boat say, that the ropes between the two vessels were severed. 

Jubair could hear the passengers on the other boat pleading for their lives. 

“They were crying and shouting loudly, ‘Our ropes are broken! Our ropes are broken! Please help us!’ But how could we help?” Jubair says. “We would die with them.” 

The other boat vanished from view. 

For days, Jubair and his fellow passengers languished at sea, their food and water gone. Eventually, a plane spotted them, and a Navy ship arrived, delivering supplies. The vessel towed them into Indonesian waters and then left when their boat was close to land. 

That’s when their captain and another crew member fled the vessel on a fishing boat, Jubair says. The abandoned passengers guided their battered boat to shore. 

Though they have no idea what their future holds, at least they are alive. They hope the passengers on the other boat are, too. 

“I feel very sad for them because we were in the same situation, and now we are safe,” Hussain says. “We are just praying for that boat to find land and for the passengers to stay alive.” 

Ann Maymann, the UNHCR’s representative in Indonesia, urged regional governments to launch a search. 

“Here you have hundreds of people that are obviously distressed at the best and, at the worst, they are not even distressed any longer,” Maymann told the AP. “Those nations in this region have fully capable and resourced search and rescue capacities.” 

The governments of regional countries that the AP reached out to either did not respond to requests for comment or said they were unaware of the boat. 

Meanwhile, a familiar feeling of dread has crept into Bangladesh’s camps, which last year mourned the loss of another boat carrying 180 people that an AP investigation concluded had sunk. 

Fatima struggles to sleep as she waits for news of Ansar, her brother. One way or another, she says, they just want answers. 

One night, she says, Ansar came to their mother in a dream and told her he was on an island. 

The family believes he is alive, somewhere. 
…

New Delhi — Anger has spread in some remote parts of Indian-controlled Kashmir after three civilians died while in army custody, officials and residents said Saturday. 

Locals said the Indian army detained at least eight civilians on Friday for questioning. A day earlier, rebels fighting against Indian rule ambushed two army vehicles in the southern Poonch district, killing four soldiers and wounding three others. Poonch is close to the highly militarized line of control that divides the disputed Himalayan region between India and Pakistan. 

Locals accused army personnel of torturing to death three of those detained in a nearby military camp. The bodies were later handed to the local police who in turn contacted the families. Residents said the bodies bore marks of severe torture. 

The five other detainees were taken to an army hospital after they were severely tortured, their families said. 

Mohammed Younis, a resident, said soldiers came to his Topa Peer village in the Poonch district on Friday morning and detained nine villagers, including his two brothers and a cousin. An elderly man was let go, he said, but the others were ruthlessly beaten and electrocuted. 

“My two brothers and a cousin are badly hurt due to torture. They are being treated in an army hospital,” Younis said after seeing one of his brothers. 

Videos reportedly showing the torture of detained civilians spread online hours after their incarceration, triggering widespread anger. 

Authorities cut off internet services on smart devices in Poonch and nearby Rajouri on Saturday morning, a common tactic to dispel possible protests and discourage dissemination of the videos. 

Lieutenant Colonel Suneel Bartwal, an Indian army spokesman, said a search operation for the militants responsible for the ambush has been ongoing since Thursday evening, adding he had no input about the circumstances surrounding the death of the three civilians. 

Late Saturday, the Indian military said in a statement that “reports have been received regarding three civilian deaths” in Poonch. 

“The matter is under investigation. Indian army stands committed to extending full support and cooperation in the conduct of investigations,” it said. 

The government’s information department wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that after medical formalities, a legal action “has been initiated by the appropriate authority” into the killings, without further explanation. It said authorities also announced financial assistance to the victims’ families. 

Senior police and civil officials visited the village and supervised the burials. Local officials said police would investigate the incident, in an attempt to pacify the villagers. 

Protests erupted in Srinagar, the region’s main city, with at least three pro-India Kashmiri political parties staging demonstrations against the killings. 

Mehbooba Mufti, the region’s former top elected official who was once an ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party, said the recent acquittal of an army officer in the killing of three civilians in a staged gunbattle three years ago had emboldened the army, “creating a false precedent among the forces that they can operate without restraint.” 

In 2020, the Indian army killed three young men from Rajouri in a fake gunfight and portrayed them as Pakistani terrorists. But after an outcry and a police investigation, the Indian military in a rare admission acknowledged wrongdoing and that its soldiers exceeded their legal powers granted to them under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. 

The Indian army’s internal court had sentenced an officer to life imprisonment for the killings. However, a military tribunal in November this year suspended his sentence. 

The Armed Forces Special Powers Act gives the Indian military in Kashmir sweeping powers to search, seize and even shoot suspects on sight without fear of prosecution. Under the act, local authorities need federal approval to prosecute army or paramilitary soldiers in civilian courts. 

India has long relied on military force to retain control over the portion of Kashmir it administers and has fought two wars over the territory with Pakistan, which also claims the mountain region as its own. 

Militants in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Most Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels’ goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country. 

India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan denies the charge, and most Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict. 

But the territory has simmered in anger since 2019, when New Delhi ended the region’s semi-autonomy and drastically curbed dissent, civil liberties and media freedoms while intensifying counterinsurgency operations. 

While Kashmir Valley, the heart of anti-India rebellion, has witnessed many militants killed in counter-rebel operations, remote Rajouri and Poonch have seen deadly attacks against Indian troops in the past two years. At least three dozen soldiers have been killed in such attacks. 
…

ISLAMABAD — Only 12 children around the world have been paralyzed by wild poliovirus so far this year, all of them in Pakistan and Afghanistan — with six reported in each.

They are the last two countries in which the highly infectious disease still exists.

Moreover, the World Health Organization has warned that the countries’ vaccination programs continue to miss a large number of children, posing a significant risk to gains made against the crippling wild Type 1 poliovirus.

In addition, Pakistan’s campaign to repatriate undocumented Afghans has increased the risk of cross-border poliovirus spread and spread within the two countries, the WHO said in a statement Friday.

Since mid-September, nearly half a million Afghans have returned to Afghanistan, escaping the crackdown on foreigners living illegally in Pakistan. The number of returning Afghans is expected to reach 1.7 million.

Pakistani officials have reported a sharp increase in environmental detections lately, documenting 60 positive samples since September and bringing the year’s total to 82.

Samples have been found in major cities, including Quetta, Karachi, Peshawar, Rawalpindi and the national capital, Islamabad, the WHO said.

It said political instability, insecurity in some areas and vaccination boycotts continue to hinder anti-polio efforts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, whose capital is Peshawar. The province borders Afghanistan, and four of this year’s six reported polio infections were in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The rest were detected in Karachi, the country’s most populous southern port city, which had recorded zero cases in the last two years. Officials said both polio cases are children from Afghan refugee families.

Pakistan, with a population of about 241 million, came close to eradicating polio in 2021, when it reported only one case of paralysis from the virus. However, the country saw a spike in 2022, with 20 confirmed cases of infection.

Afghanistan has not reported new polio cases since August, and the virus has been cornered in its eastern Nangarhar border province, which reported all six infections this year.

The WHO cited an improvement in the quality of the vaccination campaign in the eastern regions of Afghanistan.

It noted in its Friday statement, though, that difficulties remain in various southern provinces, where almost 200,000 children are yet to be reached during the vaccination campaign.

“Any setback in Afghanistan poses a risk to the program in Pakistan due to high population movement,” the U.N. health agency said.
…

…

BANGKOK — Southeast Asia’s online scam hubs are drawing growing attention from governments and law enforcement agencies well beyond the region as the criminal syndicates behind them search further afield for victims of their cons and human trafficking.

On December 8, the United Kingdom announced sanctions against nine people and five companies accused of trafficking people into Southeast Asia’s “scam farms.” The same day, Interpol unveiled the results of a major operation against trafficking “hot spots” in 27 countries, many used to funnel people into and across Southeast Asia to staff those farms with forced labor.

“There is certainly a trend for more increased engagement from countries and their law enforcement as this issue becomes more widely understood, and the depth and breadth of the scale of what is actually occurring in Southeast Asia,” Rebecca Miller, human trafficking program coordinator for the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime regional office for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, told VOA.

The U.N. estimates that over 120,000 people are being forced to work in scam centers in Myanmar alone at any time, and another 100,000 or more in Cambodia. Nodes of the multibillion-dollar industry have taken root in Laos and the Philippines as well.

Many are tricked into the work with false promises of other jobs. Once inside the centers, often resembling compounds, they can be barred from leaving by razor wire and armed guards and tortured for failing to meet work quotas or trying to escape, according to accounts of those who have gotten out.

At first, Miller said, the scam centers were recruiting almost exclusively from Southeast Asia and China. Over the past year, though, she noticed far more recruits arriving from outside the region.

“And this has been the issue for several months now and a good portion of 2023, and we’ve been now seeing victims from across Asia but also Africa, the Middle East, South America. All of these individuals have been identified in scam compounds,” she said.

Recent UNODC investigation has identified recruits from over 40 countries, including Brazil, Russia, the Netherlands and Uganda.

Looking for new markets

Miller said growing awareness of the scam centers’ recruiting ploys among potential victims in China and Southeast Asia has forced the syndicates to search further afield, targeting countries and regions where most people may not yet know about them.

By casting a wider net for recruits, the syndicates can also increase their pool of potential scam victims, said Jason Tower, Myanmar country director for the United States Institute of Peace, a U.S. government-funded think tank.

“They’re simply looking for new markets, and if they want to scam in the Brazilian market, or if they want to hit people from India or other places, they need individuals who … have contacts there, who speak those languages,” he told VOA.

Troy Gochenour, a U.S. resident who fell victim to a cryptocurrency scam of the sort run out of Southeast Asia, says the syndicates are looking for new markets and finding them. He now investigates such scams for the Global Anti-Scam Organization, a group founded in Singapore now based in the United States.

“I have talked to victims in South America, the Middle East, all over Europe, Australia,” Gochenour told VOA.

“No victims in Antarctica yet, but give it time,” he said, only half in jest.

“They are truly global,” he added. “When you’ve got 100,000 or so people all over Southeast Asia [each] sending out 1,000 or so random messages a day, they’re going to hit a lot of people.”

A global operation

More countries are taking note and taking action.

In the announcement of its sanctions targeting the people and companies allegedly behind some of the Southeast Asian scam centers, the British government said it has also rescued some of its own nationals trafficked to the region.

Interpol said the global crackdown it orchestrated in October, Operation Storm Makers II, was its first to specifically target fraud schemes fueled by human trafficking and that it provided fresh evidence of the trend “expanding beyond Southeast Asia.”

Countries involved in the operation outside of Southeast Asia ranged from Australia to Brazil, India, South Africa and Turkey. Interpol said the raids led to 281 arrests and that over 360 new investigations were opened as a result.

Still, Tower said most countries have been slow to respond to the growing threat. Like Miller, though, he said he expects more of them to start taking steps like those announced and unveiled this month.

“I anticipate that you’re going to see other countries come out with their own sanctions,” he said.

“On the law enforcement side,” he added, “I think you’ll continue seeing operations and crackdowns because we’re talking about modern slavery here, and police anywhere are going to have to respond to that, especially as awareness of it increases.”

Gochenour said he is skeptical that targeted sanctions like the British actions will do much to stem the scamming tide.

Rather, he said, “it’s really going to boil down to … more law enforcement being trained how to deal with it and how to trace cryptocurrencies and freeze them and to seize them. That is the best thing that can happen [for] a [scam] victim.”

He also welcomed a recent announcement from Tether, a popular cryptocurrency, that it was “onboarding” the U.S. Secret Service and FBI — giving them access to its data to help them fight the system’s abuse — and said he hopes others follow suit.

Tower, though, called the international response still ad hoc and said it needs to be more systematic and coordinated and tackle the “crisis of corruption” that has allowed the syndicates to forge protective alliances with business and political elites is some countries.

Miller said the response also must address the fact that many of these syndicates are not only trafficking people and running online scams but tied into sprawling criminal networks involved in everything from illegal casinos to money laundering and the drug trade.

“A lot of law enforcement at the beginning was really addressing this from just a human trafficking perspective, but it really needs to be addressed from a transnational organized crime perspective if we’re going to have any kind of impact on these syndicates,” she said. “So, it really is going to take a collective effort of everyone working together.”
…

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s top court Friday approved the post-arrest bail of former Prime Minister Imran Khan in a lawsuit stemming from charges that while in office he made public state secrets involving the United States.

The Supreme Court’s ruling is a legal victory for Khan, but it does not mean the embattled 71-year-old former Pakistani leader will be able to leave jail, where he has been held since early August after being convicted of corruption.

The verdict came in response to Khan’s petition against his closed-door trial conducted by a special court inside the jail on charges he leaked to the public the contents of a confidential diplomatic cable, known as a cypher, violating the country’s Official Secrets Act.

While accepting Khan’s petition, Pakistan’s three-judge Supreme Court panel ruled “there is no sufficient incriminating material available, at this stage, which could show that the petitioner … communicated the information contained in the cypher telegram … to the public at large.”

The cypher was sent to Islamabad by Pakistan’s ambassador in Washington in March 2022, a month before a parliamentary vote of no-confidence removed Khan from power. Khan swiftly rejected the vote as an outcome of the U.S. “conspiracy.”

The cricket hero-turned-prime minister claimed the cypher had documented the U.S. role in the toppling of his government with the help of the Pakistani military to punish him for visiting Moscow a day before Russia invaded Ukraine. Washington and the Pakistani military deny the charges.

Khan has dismissed the Official Secrets Act charge and dozens of other lawsuits filed by authorities against him since his ouster, accusing the military of manufacturing them to prevent him and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or PTI, party from contesting national elections set for February 8.

Khan remains the most popular national politician, and his PTI is rated as the largest political force in the country of about 241 million people.

The PTI has increasingly complained that the military-backed authorities are cracking down on party candidates to prevent them from filing nomination papers for the coming elections.

The opposition party released a statement from Khan earlier Friday, warning that attempts to force “the largest political party of the country out of the electoral race” would threaten the stability of Pakistan.

He was quoted as saying that “coercive and brutal attempts were being made to oust the PTI candidates from the election process by arresting them illegally, snatching their nomination papers and harassing them.”

Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar has repeatedly stated that his government is determined to hold “free, fair and transparent” general elections. Critics are skeptical about official pledges, however, citing almost daily raids on homes and offices of PTI candidates.

The opposition party says it cannot hold election rallies or meetings because of the crackdown on supporters. Last week, the PTI organized the country’s first virtual rally, drawing upwards of 1.5 million YouTube views and hundreds of thousands on other social media platforms.

PTI and independent global internet monitors confirmed nationwide internet disruptions during the rally, effectively blocking access to major social media platforms, including Instagram, X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook, from within Pakistan.

During a recent press briefing, U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller was asked for a response to Pakistan’s alleged attempts to disrupt the PTI virtual rally.

“We have always made clear that we think access to the internet is an important component of a free society, and we will continue to make that clear as a general proposition for Pakistan and every other country in the world,” Miller told reporters.

Separately, the Election Commission of Pakistan decided Friday not to allow the PTI to retain its cricket “bat” electoral symbol for the upcoming election, a widely anticipated controversial move.

The election body claimed in its announcement that the PTI was unsuccessful in conducting intra-party elections. Khan’s party denounced the move and vowed to challenge it in the Supreme Court.

Independent critics rejected the decision as politically motivated.

“Quite a ludicrous decision,” said Arif Rafiq, a nonresident scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington. “Clearly, they are afraid of any reminder of Imran Khan at the ballot box, including a mere symbol representing him and his cricket career,” Rafiq wrote on X.
…

PORTLAND, Oregon — Three men who died in a small plane crash in Oregon were Afghan air force pilots who fought with the American military and came to the U.S. as refugees after Afghanistan fell to the Taliban in 2021, according to groups that helped with their resettlement. 

Salem for Refugees said it resettled Mohammad Hussain Musawi, 35, Mohammad Bashir Safdari, 35, and Ali Jan Ferdawsi, 29, in the Salem area last spring. The nonprofit provides financial aid to newly arrived refugees and helps them find housing and employment, among other support services. It said it was devastated by their deaths. 

“In 2022, they sought refuge and new beginnings in Oregon, where their kindness, skills, and determination quickly touched the lives of those around them,” the group said on a GoFundMe page it created to help cover funeral expenses and support the pilots’ families. 

The men lost their lives Saturday when a small plane that was piloted by Musawi and carrying Safdari and Ferdawsi as its only passengers crashed into power lines near Independence, a small city in the Willamette Valley about 12 miles (19 kilometers) southwest of Salem. 

Darwaish Zakhil, co-founder and community advancement director of Afghan Support Network, a nonprofit based in Portland, described Musawi as committed and ambitious. He had spoken on the phone with him and met him in person, he said, and had also met Safdari and Ferdawsi at events. 

They were all working toward their commercial pilot licenses and wanted to be reunited with their families. 

“They were happy. They were hopeful for the future,” he said. “When you look back and see their work and their life, what they’ve been through, it’s so sad for all Afghans around the globe and especially here in the state of Oregon.” 

Darin Chung, co-founder of the Afghan American Development group, a nonprofit that helps some 600 former Afghan military aviation personnel in the U.S. with refugee resettlement, job training and family reunification, said he also met Musawi — at the aviation hangar in Independence this past spring. Chung, who was a U.S. Marines pilot for 20 years and served in Afghanistan, described him as “terrifically respectful.” 

“As a veteran myself, who spent time in combat, I consider these guys every bit of veteran as a U.S. citizen who spent time in the U.S. military in combat,” he said. 

“They’re incredible people,” he said of the Afghans his nonprofit assists. “They have been under more stress than I ever have experienced.” 

The pilots’ families have remained in Afghanistan while waiting to be able to come to the U.S., according to the group, which has also created a GoFundMe page. The men hadn’t seen their families since August 2021, when the Taliban swept back to power after seizing the Afghan capital Kabul. 

As the Taliban advanced on Kabul, the pilots were among those who flew their aircraft, under fire, to the neighboring country of Tajikistan to prevent air force equipment from falling into the hands of the group’s fighters, said Russ Pritchard, the nonprofit’s CEO. 

They came to the U.S. as part of Operation Allies Welcome, Pritchard said. The program has helped resettle at least 90,000 Afghans since 2021, including those who worked for the U.S. government and military, according to the U.S. State Department. 

“All three of those men were heroes, fought side by side with their American counterparts, participated in one last heroic act and were granted asylum,” Pritchard said. “They all dreamed of their children coming and being educated in the United States.” 

Pritchard said most of the people that his group helps have been separated from their families for more than two years. 

The small plane carrying Musawi, Safdari and Ferdawsi was traveling in heavy fog Saturday from McMinnville, Oregon, to the Independence State Airport, police said. 

Authorities said the initial investigation found the collision with electrical power lines resulted in a small brush fire and a power outage in the community. 

The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating with assistance from Independence police. A possible cause was not immediately released. 

The nonprofits working to support the pilots’ families said the Afghan community was grieving the loss. Some 1,400 Afghans have resettled as refugees in Oregon since 2021, according to the state’s department of human services. 

“These heroes will be deeply missed,” Salem for Refugees said. “Let’s unite in their honor and give their families the support they need during this unimaginable time.” 
…

SRINAGAR, Indian administered Kashmir — Muneer Ahmad Sofi, a 25-year-old salesman, received a call in September from an unknown number. The caller identified herself as an employee of Curative Survey Private Limited, a startup company on the Indian side of Kashmir.

The woman briefed Sofi about the company, saying it was involved in conducting surveys before introducing cosmetic products. She gained Sofi’s trust and invited him to join an online survey after creating an account on the company’s official website or mobile application.

“She also said that I could invest money in their company and make huge profits,” Sofi told VOA. “I spoke to my friends, and they replied that this could be a scam, but I told them that the company might be involved in the stock market,” he said.

Sofi said he visited their office in the Karan Nagar neighborhood of Srinagar the next day, and staff showed him how to operate the mobile application.

Curative Survey Private Limited, according to Sofi, charged $60 to open an account. He said that the company paid him $75 for answering 20 questions within the next 15 days.

“To make more and more money quickly I invested around $3,600 until mid-December,” Sofi said. “On 15 December when I tried to withdraw some money, I was shocked to see that my account details and other information were changed. I called the staff members but they didn’t respond,” he said, adding that he went to the office and discovered it was abandoned.

Curative Survey Private Limited, according to local media reports, turned out to be a scam worth $709.45 million. The scam is seen as a real-life version of a popular Bollywood movie in Kashmir, “Phir Hera Pheri.” The characters of the movie were seen facing financial difficulties. As a result, they invested in a scheme that promised double returns in 21 days. The scheme in the movie turns out to be a fraud.

Nafi Javaid, a content creator, posted an awareness video on YouTube and Facebook on December 16, claiming Curative Survey Private Limited was a “big scam after conducting the research.”

“What made me suspicious about them was how a startup can offer such high profits when companies like Meta and Google cannot,” Javaid told VOA.

Javaid checked the company’s details on the Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises website and found there were two companies registered with the same name. One was based in the Chennai city of Tamil Nadu in south India and the other was based in the Jammu district of Jammu and Kashmir. Javaid also visited the company’s official website to check details but he couldn’t find the name of the owner.

“I noticed that they were fooling people using a Ponzi scheme,” Javaid said. “I believe the names of the managing directors appearing on the government website are fake. The owners might have also used fake names on their visit to Kashmir.”

The company had set up offices in the Srinagar, Budgam, Baramulla and Jammu districts in the region. They also hired more than a dozen local employees for jobs like marketing and collecting offline payments.

Prior to the launch the alleged owners, who victims identified as Lakshman and Roy and believed to be residents of Chennai, had approached two local social media influencers, Idrees Mir and Yawar Wani, to lure locals to the scam on a large scale. The duo made promotional videos in which they guaranteed “huge profits in return for their investment,” before the launch.

Mir and Wani were approached for their comments, but their phones were switched off.

Tabasum Mir, a resident of the Iragam area of Pattan in the Baramulla district, claimed she invested more than $20,500 following a friend’s suggestion. Mir said that she initially hesitated but her friend showed her how much she had earned since she invested.

“Despite witnessing people earning profits I did not trust non-locals but the locals who worked for them [Lakshman and Roy] showed villagers franchise documents along with a court affidavit,” she said. “Social media influencers also influenced our decision to invest in this scam,” she added, saying almost every household in her village invested in the company, ranging from “$600 to $30,000.”

News reports about Curative Survey Private Limited, Tabasum Mir said, impacted the mental health of many individuals in her village.

“People borrowed money from friends, relatives and even sold jewelry to invest in the company and now they are all stressed thinking about how to repay the amount,” Mir said. “My sister invested $2,500 in this scheme and when her in-laws found out the reality, she was sent back to us and asked to return only after recovering the amount.”

Jammu and Kashmir police determined it was all a scam.

“The preliminary investigation revealed that the company exhorted the common public to register on its website and become a partner in surveys it was undertaking,” a police statement said. “During searches incriminating materials, including electronic devices and documents, were seized,” the police said, adding the registered owners of the company are being identified and being investigated.

Cyber Police Kashmir, in a post on X, formerly Twitter, asked locals as well as victims to share any kind of information related to the financial fraud.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people rushed to submit documents at the local cyber police station in Srinagar.

“I have nothing left except hope,” Imtiyaz Ahmad said. “No one except us is to be blamed. We should not have fallen into greed.”
…

…

ISLAMABAD — The United States and human rights defenders Thursday renewed a call for Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban to allow female students to return to universities and ensure that women have access to education at all levels.

This week marks one year since the exclusively male Taliban government abruptly suspended women’s attendance in public and private higher education institutions, making impoverished Afghanistan the only country in the world to officially ban girls from education from grade seven onward. 

Thomas West, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan, called the yearlong university education ban “indefensible.” 

He wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the crisis-hit South Asian nation “needs a generation of future female doctors, engineers, business leaders, educators to grow & prosper & stand on its own feet.”

“For the sake of Afghanistan’s future and our own interests in a stable region, we must keep women’s access to education at all levels at the very center of our priorities,” West added. 

The Taliban returned to power in August 2021 and imposed their strict interpretation of Islamic law, placing sweeping restrictions on Afghan women’s access to education and work. 

The Islamist rulers have dismissed international criticism of their policies, saying they are aligned with local culture and Islamic law. 

Rina Amiri, the U.S. special envoy for Afghan women, girls, and human rights, questioned the Taliban’s claims Thursday and blasted de facto rulers for stripping half the country’s population of their basic rights.

“We must all stand firmly with the Afghan people, particularly women & girls, as they call on us to counter these policies and remember that they are not borne of Afghan culture, but of Taliban ideology,” Amiri wrote on X. 

Taliban Higher Education Minister Nada Mohammad Nadim told a graduation ceremony for hundreds of male students at the main university in the Afghan capital, Kabul, that his government is committed to developing and progressing education in the country. 

Nadim did not elaborate or discuss matters related to female higher education, which his ministry suspended last year. 

“Foreigners offer suggestions for the development of Afghanistan; in reality, they do not want the country’s development,” the Taliban minister said in an apparent response to international criticism.

Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan, a charitable organization, blamed what it called “gender apartheid policies” of the Taliban for directly contributing to worsening humanitarian conditions in the country, reeling from years of war and natural disasters. 

The United Nations says nearly two-thirds of Afghans need food and other aid. 

“Excluding half the population from accessing higher education is a grave abuse of human rights, but will also debilitate Afghanistan’s economic future by cutting off the supply of educated professionals the country needs not just to develop and advance, but just to function,” said Lauryn Oates, executive director of the organization.

“This, and other discriminatory policies, are taking the country backward and causing irreparable harm,” she added in the statement released in connection with the ban on female university education. It also invited Canadian and other foreign higher education institutions to open their doors to Afghan women.

Roza Otunbayeva, U.N. special envoy in the country, told a Security Council meeting Wednesday that her mission is seeking to verify reports that the Taliban are allowing girls of all ages to study at traditionally boys-only Islamic religious schools, known as madrassas. 

The envoy said the United Nations is receiving “more and more anecdotal evidence” that girls can study at madrassas. “It is not entirely clear, however, what constitutes a madrassa, if there is a standardized curriculum that allows modern education subjects, and how many girls are able to study in madrassas,” Otunbayeva said.

She said Taliban education authorities “continue to tell us that they are working on creating conditions to allow girls to return to school. But time is passing while a generation of girls is falling behind.”

“The quality of education in Afghanistan is a growing concern. The international community has rightly focused on the need to reverse the ban on girls’ education, but the deteriorating quality of education and access to it is affecting boys as well,” Otunbayeva said. 

She said the lack of progress in resolving human rights issues is a key factor behind the current impasse between the Taliban and other countries.

No nation has formally recognized the Taliban government, citing its harsh treatment of women and other human rights concerns. The U.N. has also turned down Taliban demands to allow their nominee to represent Afghanistan at the world body. 

“Accepting and working to uphold the international norms and standards, as set out in the U.N. treaties that Afghanistan has ratified, will continue to be a nonnegotiable condition for a seat at the United Nations,” Otunbayeva told the Wednesday meeting. 
…

islamabad — “He was our pampered brother. He would come home at night and put his head in our mother’s lap … If you look at my mother’s condition, it is as if she is dead.”

The death of Younus Baloch’s brother, Balaach Mola Bakhsh, in a remote town of Balochistan last month has devastated his family of folk singers. It has also spurred a nearly 1,600-kilometer-long march toward Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, to draw attention to forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in the militancy-ravaged province.

Balochistan’s Counter Terrorism Department, or CTD, says Balaach Mola Bakhsh, a tailor, was arrested November 20 with explosives in his possession. The CTD says he appeared in court the next day but died November 23 in a shootout between security officials and militants.

Authorities say that while in custody, Bakhsh was leading them to the militants’ hideout and was killed when armed men fired shots. Three other men who authorities claim were insurgents also were killed in the incident.

The family has rejected the CTD’s claim. It accuses the agency of killing Bakhsh in a fake encounter. They allege he was abducted October 29 from his home and presented in court almost a month later.

Refusing to bury him, the family, along with a large number of men and women, protested under the open sky next to Bakhsh’s coffin to pressure police to file a report against CTD personnel for the alleged killing.

He was eventually buried on November 29. Police filed a report December 9 against four members of the CTD, but only after the top court in the province rejected the government’s attempt to prevent the filing.

The protest over the incident, however, continued to swell with time.

Long march

Largely unreported by the mainstream media, the long march from southern Balochistan to Islamabad received a warm welcome along the way. Videos on social media show thousands of ethnic Baloch coming out in different cities to show solidarity with Bakhsh’s family.

Protesters are being blocked from entering Islamabad.

“We demand that those who are disappeared should be released … we demand that CTD be disarmed so that in the future no one is abducted and then killed in a fake encounter. Our movement will continue until our demands are met,” Mahrang Baloch, a leader of the march, told VOA via phone on her way to the capital.

Mahrang Baloch is one of the most prominent leaders of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee, or Baloch Unity Committee, that has organized the march. Baloch began her activism following the 2009 abduction of her father. His body, bearing signs of torture, was found in 2011. The circumstances surrounding his disappearance remain unclear.

The convoy of about 200 people stopped in several cities to raise awareness about the issue of enforced disappearances and to register families of victims.

The marchers also faced obstacles. Clashes erupted between the police and protesters in Islamabad past midnight Thursday. This came hours after marchers and their supporters staged sit-ins on the capital’s roads as the administration refused to let them proceed to the press club.

Videos on X, formerly Twitter, showed police detaining protesters, who marchers claimed had remained peaceful. In a post on X, the police said they took action after protesters pelted them with stones. 

Earlier, Mahrang Baloch told VOA that as the march traveled between towns and cities, armed men harassed her group while local administrations blocked roads to prevent marchers from moving forward. Several protesters were also detained, and police reports were filed against demonstrators that included, among other accusations, charges of raising anti-state slogans.

Although Pakistan’s Baloch community has staged several protests and marches in the past to draw attention to forced disappearance and killings, Oslo-based Pakistani journalist Kiyya Baloch told VOA this march is unique because women are leading it and support for it has spread across provinces.

He said women are forced to take the lead because men protesting for their missing relatives often face harassment, sometimes go missing themselves or make compromises with authorities to end the protests.

“Due to their uncompromising stand, Baloch people trust [women] more,” Kiyya Baloch said.

He credited sustained awareness efforts by local rights groups for the march’s success in galvanizing ethnic Baloch communities outside Balochistan, particularly in Punjab, the center of power in Pakistan.

The scope of enforced disappearances has also spread, with ethnic Baloch families living outside the province also becoming victims. This, he said, has made the marchers’ message resonate across provincial borders.

Forced disappearances

For the last two decades, Balochistan has been in the grip of a violent insurgency that has left a trail of forced disappearances and bodies dumped on the sides of roads.

Caught between militants who accuse the state of robbing the mineral-rich province of its precious resources and the military fighting violent groups are Baloch families waiting for news on their loved ones who have gone missing.

“There’s an institution of the state that is using the power of the state unreasonably,” said Mahrang Baloch.

Many accuse the country’s security agencies of abducting the civilians.

“Government’s perspective has been that whomever we abduct, they are suspected militants, allegedly involved in militancy,” said journalist Kiyya Baloch. “But now they are in complete denial. Now they say the state has no role in enforced disappearances.”

Militancy in the province has intensified since the launch of the multibillion-dollar China Pakistan Economic Corridor a decade ago, as Balochistan is home to the prized deep-sea port of Gwadar developed with Chinese funds.

Lethal attacks on Chinese nationals by Baloch militants have prompted the Pakistani government to further tighten security, raising friction with locals who feel disrespected and disenfranchised.

Simmering anger over a growing security presence, lack of economic opportunities, curbs on free expression, and continued forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings have created sympathy for resistance fighters, Baloch said.

As most missing persons are never charged with any crime, however, it is difficult to assess how many actively support militants.

Government response

For years, various governments have promised to resolve the issue of forced disappearances with little to show for it. A bill introduced by the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan to tackle the issue infamously went missing.

According to data released in January 2023 by the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances, since its inception in 2011, the independent body has received more than 9,000 cases from across the country. While it traced more than 5,000 people and saw nearly 3,800 return home, more than 2,000 cases are still pending. The largest number of cases is from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, followed by Balochistan.

Following a hearing at the Islamabad High Court last month, then-Interior Minister Sarfaraz Bugti, who comes from Balochistan, refused to give details on who had abducted those recently released. Instead, he told journalists to ask the recovered persons whose custody they were in.

Bakhsh’s family has rejected the commission of inquiry the provincial government set up to investigate his death.

Expressing a lack of trust in such commissions, Marhang Baloch said Bakhsh’s death has left the community fearing for family members.

“We had hope that [since] a person has been presented in court, maybe he will get a sentence and will be free in 10 or 11 years. Now there is a fear that you abduct someone, present them in court, but a week later you might kill them.”

This activist said that fear is prompting many to support the march. She said they want to ensure the parliament and courts take action to disarm the Counter Terrorism Department.

Balaach Mola Bakhsh’s brother, Younus Baloch, said he wants justice for all those whose family members are missing or have been killed without due process.

“We want good justice. If we don’t get justice, I will fight until death.”
…

A former political reporter with Afghanistan’s TOLOnews has found a new job with a Canadian broadcaster after fleeing Taliban repression in her home country. From Ottawa, Ahmad Farshad Saleh has this story, narrated by Jessica Jerreat. Roshan Noorzai and Robin Guess contributed.
…

ISLAMABAD — The United States has again denied leaving any weapons in Afghanistan during the American military’s withdrawal from the country in August 2021, dismissing such allegations as “farce.”

John Kirby, U.S. National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, made the comments Tuesday just days after Pakistan urged the United Nations to investigate how Afghan-based militants are acquiring “sophisticated weapons” to carry out terrorist attacks in the country.

“This is a fallacy, this is a farce. What we did, over the course of our 20 years in Afghanistan, of course, with congressional approval and consultations, was arm and help equip the Afghan national security forces,” Kirby told a White House news conference.

He explained that in the face of advances by the Taliban insurgency during the U.S. troop withdrawal, many Afghan forces had decided not to fight and lay down their arms.

“The ‘arms’ that you’re talking about, and again, I can’t verify these particular reports, belonged to the Afghan national security forces,” Kirby said.

“That’s what was left behind. Not that the United States just walked away and abandoned a bunch of weapons in a pile in Afghanistan. That’s simply not historically accurate.”

Pakistani authorities maintain militants linked to the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, have intensified cross-border attacks from Afghan sanctuaries since the foreign troops withdrew and the Taliban seized power in the neighboring country two years ago.

The TTP and other militant groups have for years carried out bombings and other terrorist raids in Pakistan, but officials say militants are increasingly launching lethal attacks against security forces using U.S.-made modern weaponry.

Usman Jadoon, Pakistan’s deputy permanent representative to the U.N., raised the issue last week during a Security Council open debate on addressing the threat posed by diversion, illicit trafficking, and misuse of small arms and light weapons to peace and security.

Jadoon demanded “an investigation into how the TTP acquired the sophisticated weapons” being used against his country.

Local media quoted him as telling the meeting that “terrorists and criminals do not manufacture these advanced arms; instead, they acquire them from illicit markets or entities with intentions to destabilize specific regions or countries.”

Jadoon did not name the U.S., but Pakistani Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar told foreign media journalists in September that military equipment left behind during the American withdrawal from Afghanistan had “greatly enhanced the fighting capacity” of TTP and other anti-state groups.

“We are not accusing the U.S. of anything that we would need to share evidence (for),” Kakar said when asked if Pakistan had presented evidence to Washington that its military equipment was now being used against Pakistan.

However, Kakar called for a “coordinated approach” to tackle the challenge of the leftover equipment.

The U.S. military built and trained tens of thousands of Afghan security forces at the cost of more than $80 billion during its two-decade-long presence in the country.

More than $7.1 billion in U.S.-funded military equipment was in the inventory of the former Afghan government when it collapsed in the face of insurgent Taliban nationwide attacks amid the foreign troop exit, the U.S. Defense Department estimated in a report released last year.

Taliban authorities have repeatedly rejected allegations that weapons have fallen into the hands of militants, saying “equipment and vehicles are stored and saved in depots, and no one is allowed to smuggle or sell even a single weapon.

Critics question those claims, saying TTP is a known close ally of the de facto Afghan rulers and fought with them against the U.S.-led international forces for years.  The U.S. and the U.N. have listed TTP as a global terrorist organization.

Last July, the Geneva-based independent Small Arms Survey published a report warning that the groups allied with the Afghan Taliban, including TTP, continue to gain access to weapons of U.S.-trained and -equipped former Afghan security forces.

The report noted, citing field research, that “cross-border trafficking is continuing, and that Afghan-sourced arms are both available in Pakistani markets and fueling TTP violence against the Pakistani state.”

Pakistan says nearly 2,500 security forces and civilians have died in militant attacks across the country in the last two years. That toll includes last week’s assault on a military base in a northwestern district that killed 23 soldiers, making it the deadliest attack in Pakistan’s recent history.  
…

…

California high school students are helping Afghan girls learn computer coding as part of a program to counter Taliban prohibitions against girls going to school. Genia Dulot has our story from San Diego. Video edit: Bakhtiyar Zamanov
…

New Delhi — More than half of all opposition lawmakers have been barred from the ongoing session of India’s parliament for demanding a debate into a protest last week in which a smoke canister was released in the legislature.

The suspended 141 lawmakers belong to an opposition grouping of 26 parties dubbed INDIA — the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance — formed to fight general elections slated for early next year.

On Dec. 13, a man stunned lawmakers when he jumped from an overhead visitor’s gallery onto the floor of the lower house of parliament and released yellow smoke from a canister.

The following day, 14 MPs were barred from the chamber for protesting the security breach and, on Monday, 78 more opposition lawmakers were suspended from the rest of the session, which ends Friday.

A further 49 were barred on Tuesday after they shouted slogans inside parliament, demanding that powerful interior minister Amit Shah resign.

“The opposition is being completely decimated so that dangerous bills can be passed without any meaningful debate,” suspended MP and opposition Congress party leader Jairam Ramesh said on X, formerly Twitter.

The smoke canister protest came on the 22nd anniversary of an attack on parliament, then in an older building, when five gunmen shot dead at least eight security personnel and a gardener.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a rare interview with the Dainik Jagran newspaper, called the incident “very serious” and ordered a detailed investigation, but said there was “no need” for a debate.

The premier, who remains widely popular, is seeking a third consecutive term in national elections due by May next year.

Under Modi, India has slumped in Freedom House’s rankings for political rights and civil liberties, with police cracking down on protests, the ruling party scoring lavish funding from business allies, and press freedoms curtailed.
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Islamabad — The opposition party of Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan made history in national politics this week by broadcasting an artificial intelligence-generated video message from the imprisoned leader at an online election rally.

Sunday’s rare virtual rally was live-streamed on YouTube and other social media platforms, drawing more than 1.5 million views. However, the event was marred by internet disruptions, with access to major social media platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, and X, formerly known as Twitter, remaining blocked for several hours for users in Pakistan. 

Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or PTI, said it staged the “virtual power show” because the party faces a state-backed crackdown on physical gatherings and a blackout on national mainstream media despite government pledges it would allow all political parties to take part in the February general elections. 

“The party that has the support of 75% of the people is being kept out of the electoral process,” Khan claimed in his AI-generated video speech. His party said it was produced from a written version he had approved from prison.

“PTI is not allowed to hold worker conventions or gatherings. Our people are being kidnapped, and their families are also being harassed,” said the 71-year-old former Pakistani leader. He urged his supporters to turn out in large numbers on the election day set for February 8. 

Sunday’s internet disruptions and the ongoing crackdown on PTI workers have fueled transparency concerns about the upcoming national elections. 

The state-run Pakistan Telecommunication Authority said it was investigating the connectivity disruptions while the caretaker government, led by Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar, did not respond to allegations it had ordered the interruptions. 

U.K.-based NetBlocks, an independent global internet monitor promoting digital rights, cybersecurity, and governance, confirmed the disrupted internet connectivity in Pakistan.

“Metrics show major social media platforms were restricted in #Pakistan for ~7 hours on Sunday evening during an online political gathering; the incident is consistent with previous instances of internet censorship targeting opposition leader Imran Khan and his party PTI,” NetBlocks said on X Monday.

Critics cautioned against using generative AI images and videos in political campaigning, noting that the technology has mainly been used to spread disinformation worldwide. 

“What I fear is that PTI may just have opened a can of worms by promoting the use of generative AI in Pakistani politics,” said Asad Baig, the executive director of Media Matters for Democracy, a leading media development and watchdog organization in Pakistan.

“With little to no information literacy in the country, I feel the Pakistani population is very susceptible to falling for AI-based disinformation. Suppose another similar but fake AI-generated video of Imran Khan comes to light, but this time with an inciteful message, imagine the consequences,” Baig told VOA in written comments. 

Haroon Baloch at Bytes for All, a Pakistan-based human rights organization promoting the use of technology for sustainable development, democracy, and social justice, said that PTI’s attempt to rally support for the upcoming election through the use of AI technology is “undoubtedly innovative” but could prove challenging in the run-up to the elections.

“PTI, as a popular political force, is not being allowed to actively participate in upcoming general elections, which is an infringement of their constitutional right. Nonetheless, the use of synthetic media will open the floodgates of deep fakes, and they may influence the poll results massively,” said Baloch. 

The crackdown on Khan’s party began following government allegations that its supporters assaulted army installations during anti-government protests in May this year. It has led to the arrest of scores of PTI leaders and workers, with some facing trials in controversial military courts. 

While many PTI members remain in jail and await trial, dozens of others have been freed after publicly denouncing Khan, quitting his party, or joining other groups allegedly under military pressure.

According to public opinion polls, the jailed former prime minister remains the country’s most popular politician, and his party is rated as Pakistan’s most considerable political force.

“Cutting off access in Pakistan to the opposition PTI party’s online rally will backfire because many months of crackdowns on the party have done nothing to dent its popularity, and also because PTI has such a large support base outside Pakistan. Predictable but wrongheaded move,” Michael Kugelman, director South Asia Institute at Washington’s Wilson Center, wrote on X. 

Khan, 71, was removed from power through a parliamentary no-confidence motion in April 2022, a move he rejected as illegal. The deposed leader alleged the United States toppled his government in collusion with the Pakistani military, charges Washington and Islamabad deny. 

The cricket star-turned-prime minister has been in a political showdown with the powerful Pakistan military since his ouster, blaming the institution’s repeated interventions in civilian matters for a lack of democratic and economic progress in the country. 

Khan has faced dozens of lawsuits filed by authorities, which he claims to be a ploy by the military to prevent his comeback to power because of his advocacy for an independent foreign policy for Pakistan, one free from the influence of the United States.
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