Bangladesh’s largest opposition party has decided to boycott next month’s general elections, saying that it cannot participate in a “sham vote.”

Pro-democracy activists and analysts have expressed concern that there is no possibility the elections will be free and fair.

Saying that “democracy is dead” in Bangladesh, Abdul Moyeen Khan, a member of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, the country’s largest opposition party, said that under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government, there cannot be “any free and fair election.”

“The Awami League government has completely monopolized the civil administration, police administration, the judiciary as well as all the independent public institutions in the country, including the election commission. There is no way to ensure free, fair and neutral elections in Bangladesh under the present setup,” Khan told VOA on Thursday.  

“The BNP finds it pointless to take part in such a farcical election,” he said.

Obaidul Quader, the general secretary of the Awami League, said it was not his party but the BNP that was the “main obstacle” to next month’s general election. 

“However, they will not succeed to stop the ‘train’ of the general election. The train will reach its destination on time,” Quader said last week.

“Although the BNP is not joining the election as a party, at least 30 of its former members of Parliament are taking part in the election,” he added. “Also, people are spontaneously participating in the election. It will be a successful election.”

The BNP is the largest among 17 opposition parties that are boycotting the January election.

Ali Riaz, professor of political science at Illinois State University, said that the BNP decided not to participate in the election largely because its demand for the installation of an election-period neutral caretaker government, “which is supported by many political parties and a large segment of the citizens, was not met.”

“It is beyond any doubt that a fair election cannot be held under the incumbent,” Riaz said.

The BNP boycotted the country’s 2014 general elections, accusing the ruling Awami League of a massive crackdown on the opposition, including the enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings of BNP leaders. The next general elections, in 2018, were marred by widespread allegations of vote-rigging and ballot-box stuffing by the Awami League.

After opposition parties and pro-democracy activists expressed concerns about the neutrality of the coming election, other countries began urging Hasina’s government to conduct the January 7 balloting freely and fairly.

In September, the U.S. authorities said they had started “taking steps to impose visa restrictions” on Bangladeshis who were found complicit in “undermining the democratic electoral process” in Bangladesh.

Since last year the BNP has staged street demonstrations demanding Hasina’s resignation and the installation of a neutral caretaker government around the election that, the opposition party said, would ensure a free and fair election.

The Hasina government rejected the BNP demand, calling it unconstitutional. Hasina repeatedly said that her party always came to power after being elected fairly.

Since the Hasina government did not resign and the caretaker government was not installed, the BNP has kept itself away from the elections, said BNP Senior Joint Secretary-General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi.

“Filing false cases, the government arrested almost all senior BNP leaders and thousands of party activists over the past weeks. Hundreds of them were also convicted in false cases during the period. The arrests and convictions are part of a conspiracy to destabilize our party so that it cannot utilize maximum strength to contest the elections,” Rizvi told VOA.

“There is no level playing field for the opposition,” he said.

Mohammad Faruk Hossain, spokesperson for the Dhaka metropolitan police, rejected the accusation of false cases being filed against the opposition.

“The opposition activists indulged in vandalism, arson and other criminal activities. We filed cases against them only after our primary investigations found that they were involved in crimes,” Hossain told VOA. 

“All cases are filed following the law. We always work within the legal frame.” 

Since Hasina came to power in 2008, her terms in office have been increasingly marked by authoritarian measures against all forms of dissent or political opposition.

Human Rights Watch, in a November 26 report, called the government’s action against the political opposition a “violent autocratic crackdown.”

“The government is claiming to commit to free and fair elections with diplomatic partners while the state authorities are simultaneously filling prisons with the ruling Awami League’s political opponents,” Julia Bleckner, senior Asia researcher at HRW, said in the report.

The state machinery is being used in favor of the ruling party to “eliminate” the political opposition, said Rashed Iqbal, the acting president of Chhatradal, the student wing of the BNP.

“BNP leaders, activists and even their family members are being violently targeted by the police and the ruling party activists just because they are associated with the opposition party. The government is in an all-out attack to crush our movement to restore democracy,” Iqbal told VOA.

The Awami League has come under severe scrutiny for the recent emergence of new parties — known in Bangladesh as “King’s Parties” — which appear to be opposition parties but serve Awami League interests.

Riaz told VOA that “enticing and coercing individuals and parties to join the election and setting up dummy candidates to provide an impression of an inclusive election indicate that January 7 will be a stage-managed show.”

The Awami League has “plotted a process to keep the BNP out of the electoral process,” he said.

“Arrests of the BNP’s central leaders and over 20,000 activists over the past six weeks, the conviction of more than 800 leaders and activists in lightning speed over the past three months and sealing off 56 of its party offices across the country, including the party headquarters in Dhaka, by the police are testimonies to this plot,” he said.

“All these facts indicate that the ruling party wants to hold an election not only without the formidable opposition but also with handpicked parties and individuals.”

Badiul Alam Majumdar, founder of Dhaka-based pro-democracy group Citizens for Good Governance, told VOA that it was now “certain” that Bangladesh would have a one-sided, “engineered” parliamentary election on January 7.

“The engineering is done by the government’s appointing of a partisan election commission, politicizing the bureaucracy and law enforcement agencies, and capturing all other institutions,” Majumdar said.

“The only two major brands in Bangladesh’s politics are [Awami League] and BNP. With the absence of BNP from the electoral arena, Awami League is without doubt going to win the coming election notwithstanding the participation of the King’s and marginal parties and its own dummy candidates.

“Such a one-sided, engineered election is going to create serious legitimacy crisis for the new government and may cause an economic meltdown.” 
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The U.S. Treasury’s ’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) Friday announced sanctions against 20 individuals in nine countries for human rights abuses.

Friday’s sanctions include 13 individuals targeted for their roles in perpetrating or condoning the perpetration of rape and other forms of sexual violence in the Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, and South Sudan.

In addition, two Taliban officials in Afghanistan were designated for abuse related to the repression of rights for woman and girls based solely on their gender. In Iran, two intelligence officers were designated for cracking down on opponents of the government and peaceful protests.

Two Chinese government officials in Xinjiang province were also targeted for serious human rights abuses against the Uyghur Muslim ethnic minority.

In announcing the sanctions, the department noted the upcoming 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, or UDHR, “the landmark document enshrining human rights and fundamental freedoms for all individuals.”

The declaration was drafted by representatives from all regions of the world and proclaimed by the U.N. General Assembly in Paris on December 10, 1948.

The department also noted U.S. President Joe Biden has made promoting accountability for conflict-related sexual violence a top priority, signing a memorandum last year to strengthen the U.S. government’s efforts to combat it, using financial, diplomatic, and legal tools.

In the statement, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the U.S. commitment to upholding human rights is sacrosanct.

She said the sanctions announced Friday — and over the course of the past year — “underscore the seriousness of our commitment to promoting accountability for human rights abuse and safeguarding the U.S. financial system from those who commit these egregious acts.”

Some information for this report was provided by Reuters.
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Taliban security forces in Afghanistan have reportedly killed an Islamic State operative and captured several others during overnight raids on the militant group’s bases near the border with Iran.  

“important network” of the regional branch of Islamic State known as Islamic State-Khorasan, or IS-K, said a Taliban-affiliated media outlet Friday.  

The network was involved in some of the recent attacks on the Shi’ite Muslim community in Afghanistan, according to Al-Mersaad, which is tasked to counter IS-K propaganda in the country and report on Taliban counterterrorism operations against the group.  

Using a local acronym for the group, Al-Mersaad noted that “some of the arrested ISKP members are highly important.”

It was not possible to verify the claims from independent sources and Taliban government officials rarely comment on reports published by the state media outlet.  

US Concerns

The United States, in recent statements, has described IS-K as a significant threat to regional security, warning the group could soon launch an international attack from Afghan bases.  

On Thursday, U.S. President Joe Biden attempted to address those concerns in a letter he wrote to Congress.

“United States military personnel remain postured outside Afghanistan to address threats to the United States homeland and United States interests that may arise from inside Afghanistan,” Biden said without elaborating.  

Taliban authorities reject U.S. concerns, claiming their security forces have significantly degraded IS-K’s abilities to prevent it from posing a threat to Afghanistan or beyond.

Al-Mersaad recently published details and pictures of what it said were the “top 12 leaders/officials” of IS-K who were killed by Taliban special forces this year.  

Last week, the U.S. State Department said in its annual report that IS-K continued to conduct terrorist attacks against Afghan civilians, particularly members of the Shi’ite community and the Taliban.  

“In 2022, ISIS-K conducted cross-border attacks in Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan and maintained ambitions to attack the West,” the report noted, using an acronym for the regional Islamic State affiliate.  

“While the Taliban committed to preventing terrorist groups from using Afghanistan to conduct attacks against the United States and its allies, its ability to prevent al-Qa’ida elements, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, and ISIS-K from mounting external operations remained unclear,” the report said.  

It added that the Taliban had hosted and sheltered al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kabul, the Afghan capital, before he died in a U.S. airstrike on July 30, 2022. The Taliban have refused to comment on the allegations to date, saying the matter remains under investigation.

The Islamist Taliban seized power from an American-backed government in August 2021, when all U.S. and NATO troops withdrew from Afghanistan after two decades of war with the then-insurgent Taliban. 
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Celebrations erupted in Nepal’s LGBTQ community when Maya Gurung, a transgender woman and Surendra Pandey, a man, were given a marriage certificate last week. It was hailed as a historic milestone for the community in the tiny, mountainous country.

“This is first in South Asia. We are very excited for the sexual gender minority communities in Nepal,” Sunil Babu Pant, LGBTQ rights activist in Nepal told reporters. He said it will open the door for them to jointly open bank accounts, own and transfer property like other couples do.

Gurung and Pandey were the first couple from the community whose marriage was registered in Nepal, following a June interim Supreme Court order in June allowing registration of non-heterosexual marriages. The court has directed the government to frame laws for such unions.

Despite the court order, the couple, who held a wedding ceremony according to Hindu rituals in 2016, still faced hurdles in legalizing the marriage. A district court had refused to register their marriage citing lack of necessary laws, but municipal authorities in the rural Lamjung district issued the certificate.

Nepal is the second Asian country, after Taiwan, to grant the right.

But while Nepal took a giant leap forward in LGBTQ rights, efforts to advance similar rights in neighboring India hit a roadblock when the country’s top court rejected pleas to legalize same-sex marriages. It said that it was up to Parliament to create laws to legalize such unions after the government argued that the court was not the forum to decide the issue.

India’s Hindu nationalist government has strongly opposed same-sex marriages calling support for them “urban elitist views,” and saying that such marriages are not compatible “with the Indian family unit concept of a husband, a wife and children.” Religious leaders have also raised objections to such marriages.

The October judgment came as a huge disappointment to the country’s LGBTQ community.  It is nevertheless gearing up to press ahead with its campaign for equal rights.

Some activists are now focusing on rallying political support.

“For any sustained change in LGBTQ issues in India, we need to engage with our politicians, we need to ensure that queer rights become an issue in the legislative arena, in Parliament, in our state legislatures, in our city councils,” said Ashish Gawande, who launched Pink List, the country’s first roster of politicians that support LGBTQ rights, during the 2019 parliamentary elections.

“We need to ensure that LGBTQ people are not begging for rights in the courtroom but demanding for rights in the streets,” Gawande said.

As political parties gear up for India’s national elections next year, activists also aim to lobby regional parties, which control over one-third of parliamentary seats and govern several states.

“You can convince smaller parties that their support for LGBTQ plus rights will get them not only national recognition but also the kind of social, cultural and economic capital they need,” said Gawande.

Legal options are already being explored – review petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court regarding its judgment.

Lawyers point out that the judges had called on the government to end discrimination against the LGBTQ community and sensitize the public about LGBTQ rights.

“Everybody acknowledges that there is discrimination. If you are seeing a wrong, it is your duty as a constitutional court to right that wrong which the court has failed to do,” according to Rohin Bhatt, one of the lawyers involved in the marriage equality case.

Activists will also intensify their campaign for social change in a largely conservative country where homosexuality still carries a stigma, despite a shift in attitudes in urban areas and among the middle classes in recent years. Laws criminalizing homosexuality were only struck down in India five years ago.

“Social movements can’t be won just in courts. Winning a case is easier than winning hearts and minds. But some of us have to go on the ground and advocate for everything day in and day out,” said Bhatt.

While the LGBTQ community is aware that the next phase of the battle will be long, there is optimism. At the gay pride march held in the Indian capital 10 days ago, about 2,000 participants danced and held up banners in support of same sex-marriage in support of equality for the LGBTQ community.

“Leading up to the national elections and leading up to most certainly toward the next decade or so, you are going to see more young people come out, more young people demand to be heard and more young people demand the change we need today,” said Gawande. 
…

Two South Asian countries took divergent paths on LGBTQ rights this year. While tiny mountainous Nepal took a huge step in favor by allowing non-heterosexual marriages, in India, the Supreme Court has refused to legalize same sex unions. Despite the setback, India’s LGBTQ community is gearing up to press ahead with its campaign for equal rights. From New Delhi, Anjana Pasricha reports.
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Rescuers used boats to help people stranded inside their homes in southeastern India amid widespread flooding caused by Cyclone Michaung, which left at least 13 people dead and forced thousands of evacuations.

Torrential rains preceded the cyclone, which made landfall Tuesday in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Trees were uprooted and infrastructure damaged.  

In nearby Tamil Nadu state, the storm also caused widespread damage and forced the closure of the airport in the capital, Chennai. Many vehicles were swept away in the flooding.

Rescuers had to wade through waist deep waters to reach people stranded in some houses in Tamil Nadu.

Air force helicopters have been used to deliver food to those who are stuck.

Tamil Nadu State Chief Minister M. K. Stalin requested $600 million from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to help pay for recovery efforts.

Some residents of Chennai questioned if the infrastructure could withstand the severe weather. Though improved storm drainage would have helped in “moderate and heavy rainfall,” it would not have prevented flooding in “heavy and extremely heavy rains,” according to civil engineer and geo-analytics expert Raj Bhagat P.

Cyclones are common along the coast of India, although the effects of changing climate have made them more intense and caused difficulty in preparing for severe weather.  

Some information in this report came from Reuters, The Associated Press and Agence France Presse.
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A Pakistani diplomat said Wednesday that nearly 450,000 Afghan nationals returned to their home country since his government announced two months ago that it would deport all undocumented foreigners.

Asif Durrani, Pakistan’s special envoy to Afghanistan, shared the latest data while addressing a seminar in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. He spoke on a day the United Nations renewed its warning that Afghans returning from Pakistan “face a precarious, uncertain future” in their crisis-hit and impoverished nation.

The Pakistani government says its crackdown is primarily targeting an estimated 1.7 million Afghans who have overstayed their visas or do not possess any document to justify their stay in the country.

“Those who have been asked to leave are the illegal immigrants here. They don’t enjoy the refugee status,” Durrani stressed. “So, almost 450,000 [Afghans] have left. They knew that they were illegal stayers here in Pakistan.”

Those subjects of the deportation drive include close to 700,000 people who took refuge in Pakistan after the withdrawal of the United States and NATO troops from Afghanistan in August 2021.

Durrani clarified again, however, that nearly 2.3 million documented Afghan nationals, including 1.4 legal refugees, hosted by his country are not being asked to leave.

The envoy rejected international criticism of the “lawful” expulsions, saying countries around the world routinely deport foreigners who breach their immigration laws. “It [deportation] becomes legal there in Europe or elsewhere but doesn’t become legal here in Pakistan,” he said. “I think we need to remove this confusion.”

Washington is pressing Islamabad to prevent the deportation of approximately 25,000 “vulnerable” individuals who fled the Taliban’s August 2021 takeover in Afghanistan and could be eligible for relocation to or resettlement in the United States.

Julieta Valls Noyes, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, discussed the resettlement of the Afghan refugees with Pakistani officials during her visit to Islamabad this week, the U.S. Embassy said in a statement Wednesday.

It stated that Noyes “discussed how both countries can work together to accelerate the processing of Afghan nationals eligible for relocation or resettlement in the United States, expressed the U.S. desire to continue working with the government of Pakistan as we process individuals in U.S. resettlement pathways, and encouraged upholding international humanitarian principles, including non-refoulment, and protecting vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers.”

Noyes also met with U.N. officials in Islamabad and “heard directly from Afghan refugees on the concerns most important to them,” said the embassy statement.

A Pakistani official privy to the Noyes’ discussions with counterparts in Islamabad told VOA on Tuesday the United States did not oppose Islamabad’s deportation of illegal Afghan nationals but requested the process be slowed down during winter.

Meanwhile, the U.N. World Food Program said Wednesday that returnees are unsure how they will survive a devastating winter in Afghanistan, where more than 6 million people are already internally displaced nationwide.

“These families arrive at the worst of times and face a bleak future in a country where one-third of people do not know where their next meal will come from,” said Hsiao-Wei Lee, the WFP country director. “Leaving behind their homes and livelihoods, they return to start over in a country that gives them few economic opportunities and where many struggle to survive.”

The WFP said it urgently needs $26.3 million to support 1 million returnees from Pakistan arriving in Afghanistan and help them through the winter and into the first months of next year.

In his Wednesday speech, Durrani cited growing terrorist attacks in the country, among other factors, for unleashing the crackdown on undocumented Afghan and other foreign nationals. He said fugitive militants linked to the anti-state Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, are plotting the bloodshed from their sanctuaries on Afghan soil.

“The TTP’s enhanced attacks on Pakistan while using Afghan soil have been a serious source of concern for Pakistan,” the envoy reiterated. He reported a 65% increase in TTP attacks in the country’s border areas this year, saying suicide bombings shot up 500% during the same period.

“Another worrying aspect of these attacks has been the involvement of Afghans. Out of 24 attacks by the TTP, 14 were Afghan nationals,” Durrani said.
…

In India, a journalist and a member of the country’s low caste community runs a news website where the reporting is focused on groups that have been marginalized for centuries. Meena Kotwal hopes that turning the spotlight on issues affecting the 300 million strong Dalit community will help redress the discrimination they often suffer.

Meena Kotwal is on her way to interview a former teacher at Delhi University who is protesting her termination from a temporary post, blaming it on caste discrimination.

It is one of many stories concerning the low caste Dalit community that her news website, The Mooknayak, has covered in over two years.

Kotwal, a Dalit and a journalist, launched her outlet after seeing that injustices suffered by the community often went unreported. She attributes the lack of coverage to the near absence of low caste journalists in leadership positions in mainstream media.

According to Kotwal, stories about Dalits are covered in a few lines or small columns in newspapers. They don’t get coverage in prime time or debates because there are no editors from the community.

For centuries, the Dalits were at the bottom of the Hindu caste system. Caste-based discrimination has been outlawed and some Dalits have risen to high political posts. But prejudice is still pervasive against the nearly 300 million strong community.

Although caste-based discrimination is outlawed and some have risen to high political posts, discrimination is still pervasive according to author and political analyst Neerja Chowdhury.

That is what Mooknayak, which means “the voice of the voiceless,” aims to do. Kotwal’s team highlights instances where marginalized communities suffer injustice.

Kotwal cites the example of a story on how the Dalit-dominated Balia village in Uttar Pradesh had not been given an electricity connection for 75 years. Within three months the government provided power to the village. She says these kind of stories have an impact.

The emergence of such media can help amplify the concerns of the Dalit community according to Chowdhury.

The Mooknayak initially relied on crowdfunding and donated equipment, but is exploring other sources of funding as it grows. Kotwal is optimistic. Her main goal is to establish credibility.

Kotwal points out that if BBC, Al Jazeera or other big news outlets do a  story, it is seen as factually correct. That is the kind of trust she aspires to build — that if her news website reports on an incident, it will be regarded as absolutely accurate.

Through its reporting, The Mooknayak’s website hopes to make a mark by raising awareness about the issues of the Dalit community.
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The Taliban’s “abusive” educational policies are harming boys as well as girls in Afghanistan, according to a Human Rights Watch report published Wednesday.

The Taliban have been globally condemned for banning girls and women from secondary school and university, but the rights group says there has been less attention to the deep harm inflicted on boys’ education.

The departure of qualified teachers including women, regressive curriculum changes and the increase in corporal punishment have led to greater fear of going to school and falling attendance.

Because the Taliban have dismissed all female teachers from boys’ schools, many boys are taught by unqualified people or sit in classrooms with no teachers at all.

Boys and parents told the rights group about a spike in the use of corporal punishment, including officials beating boys before the whole school for haircut or clothing infractions or for having a mobile phone. The group interviewed 22 boys along with five parents in Kabul, Balkh, Herat, Bamiyan and other communities in eight provinces.

The Taliban have eliminated subjects like art, sports, English and civic education.

“The Taliban are causing irreversible damage to the Afghan education system for boys as well as girls,” said Sahar Fetrat, who wrote the report. “By harming the whole school system in the country, they risk creating a lost generation deprived of a quality education.”

Students told Human Rights Watch that there are hours during the school day when there are no lessons because there is a lack of replacement teachers. So they said they do nothing.

Taliban government spokesmen were not available for comment on the report. The Taliban are prioritizing Islamic knowledge over basic literacy and numeracy with their shift toward madrassas, or religious schools.

The Taliban have barred women from most areas of public life and work and stopped girls from going to school beyond the sixth grade as part of harsh measures they imposed after taking power in 2021.

According to the U.N. children’s agency, more than 1 million girls are affected by the ban, though it estimates 5 million were out of school before the Taliban takeover due to a lack of facilities and other reasons.

The ban remains the Taliban’s biggest obstacle to gaining recognition as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan. But they have defied the backlash and gone further, excluding women and girls from higher education, public spaces like parks and most jobs.

The new report suggests that concerned governments and U.N. agencies should urge the Taliban to end their discriminatory ban on girls’ and women’s education and to stop violating boys’ rights to safe and quality education. That includes by rehiring all women teachers, reforming the curriculum in line with international human rights standards and ending corporal punishment.

“The Taliban’s impact on the education system is harming children today and will haunt Afghanistan’s future,” Fetrat said. “An immediate and effective international response is desperately needed to address Afghanistan’s education crisis.”
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Two Afghan insurgent groups, made up mainly of former government and military officials, claim to have killed at least 50 Taliban officials and soldiers during November.

The hit-and-run insurgency has been most active in the north and northeast of the country where the Taliban encountered significant resistance during their previous rule from 1996 to 2001.

In brief statements in Dari and English posted on X, the Afghanistan Freedom Front and the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan claimed their fighters regularly target members of the Taliban at checkpoints, military bases and even on highways.

So far, the Taliban have played down the armed insurgency, saying peace and tranquility have been fully restored throughout the country.

The Afghan media have suffered major setbacks under the Taliban regime, making it difficult to access accurate information and to verify claims made by the insurgent groups.

“At this stage, there is little reason to suppose that these insurgent groups pose a significant threat to overall Taliban rule,” said Robert Grenier, former head of counterterrorism at the Central Intelligence Agency who also worked with anti-Taliban groups before 2001.

“As someone who was actively involved in trying to organize and motivate anti-Taliban groups and commanders — of which there were many — in the period just prior to 9/11, I can attest to the difficulty in organizing any sort of effective insurgency against Taliban rule. One of the reasons for this is the demonstrated brutality of the Taliban in dealing with perceived enemies,” Grenier told VOA via email.

The United Nations and human rights groups accuse the Taliban of extrajudicial killings, detentions, torture and disappearances of individuals suspected of supporting anti-Taliban groups.

Since their inception in 1994, the Taliban have used brutal force to suppress armed opposition to their rule, but it is unclear how many insurgent fighters they have killed since reclaiming power more than two years ago.

The insurgents lack enough forces to topple the Taliban, at least in the near future, but they appear to be creating political and governance challenges for the Islamist regime.

Political havens

Fighting the Taliban has become a contentious issue among former Afghan officials even while political opposition to the Taliban’s monopoly on power and their extremist policies has grown stronger.

Two former Afghan presidents, Ashraf Ghani and Hamid Karzai, who separately led Afghanistan in its post-Taliban years, have opposed the toppling of the Taliban through war, advocating instead for a political settlement that would create an inclusive government.

While the Taliban regime is globally ostracized and condemned for its misogynistic policies, no country has so far offered support for a war against the Taliban.

Despite fighting the Taliban for 20 years and imposing terrorism sanctions on their leaders, the United States has refrained from supporting anti-Taliban insurgents.

In October, the British government announced it was strongly discouraging groups and individuals seeking political change in Afghanistan through armed violence.

“Any effective insurgency against the Taliban would rely on foreign support and the availability of a safe haven outside the country,” Grenier said, adding that the Taliban used safe havens in Pakistan for two decades while fighting Afghan and U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

While not supporting any warring party in Afghanistan, many countries have hosted the leaders of the anti-Taliban insurgent groups and other Afghan politicians who oppose the Taliban rule.

Recently, some former Afghan military officials who advocate for military and political campaigns against the Taliban opened the office of Afghanistan’s United Front in the United States, raising the former Afghan flag on their office building.

“We need a little bit of help from your side,” Sami Sadat, a former Afghan general and a leader of the United Front, told a U.S. House hearing last month. “We are ready to partner again, we are ready for the great sacrifice.”

Taliban officials have publicly voiced frustration to countries hosting their opponents while most Taliban leaders are unable to travel because of United Nations sanctions.

Terrorism concerns

Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K), an affiliate of the Islamic State extremist group, reportedly poses the most potent threat to Taliban rule. In addition to targeting members of the Taliban, the group has perpetrated some of the deadliest attacks against religious minorities in Afghanistan.

“IS-K proved to be a resilient organization, attempting to plot attacks overseas and with bases of support in northern and eastern Afghanistan becoming more clandestine,” Asfandyar Mir, an expert with the U.S. Institute of Peace, told VOA.

As the number of groups fighting the Taliban goes up, some experts warn about the possibility of yet another cycle of civil war in Afghanistan with potential terrorist threats to regional and global security.

Grenier, the former CIA official, said a resurgent IS-K in Afghanistan would pose greater security threats to regional governments than to the United States and its allies.

“We should remember that active IS operations in Western Europe were the result of active military operations by Western governments against them in Iraq and Syria, rather than on a desire to attack the West per se. Unlike al-Qa’ida, IS has always been far more focused on attacking regimes within the Islamic world, rather than on their perceived Western supporters,” he said via email.

The United States government has evacuated and resettled thousands of members of the former Afghan forces, some of whom are seeking any kind of backing from the U.S. or its allies to intensify the war against the Taliban.

“Absent attacks on U.S. interests clearly emanating from Afghanistan, the U.S. will remain neutral,” Grenier said.
…

Afghan journalists Ramin and Nahid Askari, who fled to Pakistan to escape Taliban rule, say they fear they will be forced to return to Afghanistan under Islamabad’s deportation plan. For Muska Safi in Islamabad, VOA’s Cristina Caicedo Smit has the story. Contributor: Roshan Noorzai Videographer: Muska Safi
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A roadside blast using a remote-controlled improvised explosive device, or IED, wounded seven people Tuesday, including four children in Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan’s northern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

According to area police, a preliminary investigation of the site found that 4 kilograms of explosives were concealed in a concrete block. Images from the site show the blast shattered windows of a nearby building.

Authorities said the wounded children, aged between six and 17, have been identified as Afghan nationals. Hospital authorities said none of the injured were in school uniform, indicating that the wounded were not school children.  

“I am a roadside vendor and I had just arrived at the spot when a blast happened,” Javed Khan, a wounded 17-year-old who had come to sell potato chips told VOA’s Deewa Service. Khan said the injured children were his relatives. Hospital authorities say one 6-year-old is in critical condition.

The area where the incident occurred just after 9 a.m. has several educational institutions nearby, including the Army Public School that terrorists attacked nine years ago, this month. Around 150 people, mostly children, were killed in that brazen attack that shocked the nation.

Speaking to media near the site of Tuesday’s blast, Kashif Abbasi, a senior officer with Peshawar Police said the target was most likely a police vehicle that was on a routine patrol.

“As soon as the police mobile [patrol vehicle] drove by the site, the IED blast occurred,” Abbasi said.

Nearly two months before Tuesday’s attack, a similar incident in the area killed a soldier and injured six others.

So far, no group has claimed responsibility.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province has seen a marked rise in terror incidents, most targeting security personnel, since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in Kabul two years ago.

Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, an ideological offshoot of the Afghan Taliban routinely claims responsibility.

Pakistan accuses Kabul’s de facto government of inaction against TTP terrorists it alleges have moved their operational bases to Afghanistan. Islamabad is currently expelling hundreds of thousands of Afghan nationals residing without proper documents.

The government in Kabul denies providing safe haven to cross-border terrorists.

VOA Deewa stringer Usman Khan contributed to this report.
…

The leader of a Pakistan ethnic group has been detained after authorities said armed men in his vehicle opened fire on police.

Raja Athar Abbas, the deputy commissioner of the northcentral city of Chaman, which sits on the border with Afghanistan, said that Manzoor Pashteen was arrested in connection with the shooting incident, as well as for violating a ban on entering Balochistan province. 

Pashteen is the head and co-founder of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement, a loose network of Pashtun activists demanding equal rights and protections for minority Pashtuns in Pakistan.  

The PTM issued a statement alleging Pashteen’s vehicle was fired at by law enforcement agencies while he was traveling from Chaman to the nearby city of Turbat, where he was scheduled to address a protest.  The statement said one woman is being treated at a hospital after she was injured in the shooting.  

The PTM says Pashteen and his entourage returned to Chaman and surrendered to authorities.  

Pashtuns make up about 15% to 18% of Pakistan’s population, mostly in the insurgency- and counterinsurgency-stricken province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa along the porous border with Afghanistan.

Members and supporters of the PTM claim that their leaders are incarcerated, harassed and even eliminated by government forces.

Several of them have been arrested over the past two years for making incendiary remarks against state institutions.

“There is no justice for Pashtuns in Pakistan,” Pashteen told VOA last year. “When we demand our rights, equal rights, and protest against this colonial-like treatment of our people, we’re thrown [in]to jails indefinitely.”

Some information for this report came from VOA’s Akmal Dawi. 

 
…

White House deputy national security adviser Jon Finer led a U.S. delegation to New Delhi on Monday where he noted the formation of an investigative panel by India to probe an unsuccessful plot to assassinate a Sikh separatist on U.S. soil.

“Mr. Finer acknowledged India’s establishment of a Committee of Enquiry to investigate lethal plotting in the United States and the importance of holding accountable anyone found responsible,” the White House said in a statement Monday.

Last week, the U.S. Justice Department alleged that an Indian government official directed an unsuccessful plot to assassinate a Sikh separatist on U.S. soil, while it announced charges against a man accused of orchestrating the attempted murder.

U.S. officials have named the target of the attempted murder as Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Sikh separatist and dual citizen of the United States and Canada.

In response, India expressed concern about one of its government officials being linked to the plot, from which it dissociated itself, as being against government policy.

India said last week it would formally investigate the concerns aired by the U.S. and take “necessary follow-up action” on the findings of a panel set up on Nov. 18.

News of the incident came two months after Canada said there were “credible” allegations linking Indian agents to the June murder of another Sikh separatist leader, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in a Vancouver suburb, a contention India has rejected.

U.S. President Joe Biden, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, CIA director Bill Burns and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have discussed this issue with their Indian counterparts in recent weeks.

The issue is highly delicate for both India and the Biden administration as they try to build closer ties in the face of an ascendant China perceived as a threat for both democracies.

The Indian government has long complained about the presence of Sikh separatist groups outside India. New Delhi views them as security threats. The groups have kept alive the movement for Khalistan, or the demand for an independent Sikh state to be carved out of India.

Finer met Indian foreign minister S. Jaishankar and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval. They also discussed developments in the Middle East, including the Israel-Hamas war, plans for a post-war Gaza and recent attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea, the White House said Monday.
…

Pakistan’s jailed former prime minister, Imran Khan, pledged Monday to summon the country’s ex-military chief and a U.S. embassy representative during his ongoing trial for allegedly leaking state secrets.

Khan made the statement during a hearing in the case inside a prison complex near Islamabad, where the federal government, citing “serious security risks,” has set up a special single-judge court to try the popular, 71-year-old politician under the Official Secrets Act.

Prison authorities allowed six local media reporters to attend Monday’s proceedings while blocking foreign media, in breach of a recent federal court order for public and media access.

“I will include General Bajwa and U.S. embassy officials as witnesses [in the case]. Bajwa did everything on Donald Lu’s directives,” Khan was quoted as telling the judge.

He referred to the country’s former army chief, Qamar Javed Bajwa, and Lu, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs.

Khan’s attorneys later confirmed his remarks and explained that a request would be formally submitted to the court to summon Bajwa and a U.S. embassy representative as the trial proceeds.

Intazar Hussain Panjutha, a member of Khan’s legal team, said that “only a select group of journalists” was allowed to cover the proceedings “in the name of the open court hearing.” He denounced authorities for not permitting international media, including VOA and the BBC, to attend the hearing.

“It is not an open trial by any legal definition. We do not believe we will receive a fair trial under the current circumstances,” Panjutha told VOA.

Khan is expected to be indicted on December 12 when the court reconvenes. The charges against him stem from a March 2022 classified Pakistani diplomatic cable, known as a cipher, that allegedly documented the United States’ role in toppling his government through a parliamentary no-confidence motion a month later with the help of Bajwa, the then-army chief.

The former prime minister is accused of leaking the cipher contents to the public to block the parliamentary motion and score political points. The cricket star-turned-politician rejects the charges, saying they are a ploy by the military to block him from returning to power.

A U.S. news outlet, The Intercept, published the purported text of the cipher for the first time in August.

The text was written by Islamabad’s then-ambassador to Washington, Asad Majeed Khan. The document purportedly quoted Lu as asking the diplomat to tell the Pakistani military leadership they should oust Imran Khan through the parliamentary motion because of his government’s neutrality over the war in Ukraine.

Lu allegedly threatened that the United States would isolate Pakistan internationally if Khan remained in power.

The deposed prime minister was in Moscow for an official meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the day Putin launched the war. Khan defended the state visit, saying it was the outcome of weeks of planning and the eruption of the conflict was a mere coincidence.

The State Department, while commenting on the reported cipher content, said that Washington had objected to Khan’s visit to Russia, but it had nothing to do with his removal from office.

The Pakistani military, which has ruled directly or overseen elected governments since the country’s independence from Britain in 1947, denies any involvement in Khan’s ouster.

In October, Khan and his former foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, were indicted in the cipher case in controversial closed-door judicial proceedings at the prison. The legal process for the closed-door proceedings was quashed by a higher court last month, ordering authorities to conduct a fair and open trial in line with constitutional requirements.

In early August, Khan was convicted and sentenced to three years’ incarceration for unlawfully selling state gifts he received in office from 2018 to 2022. He denied wrongdoing. A federal court later suspended the sentence and granted him bail, but authorities refused to let him walk out of the jail, citing the cipher case.

The nuclear-armed nation of about 241 million people is scheduled to hold national elections February 8 amid expectations the vote will help end the lingering political turmoil in Pakistan that erupted after Khan’s ouster.

Unless overturned by a court, his conviction in the graft case will continue to block his participation in the elections. Critics doubt an election without Khan will deliver the political stability the South Asian nation desperately needs to deal with its dire economic challenges.

Khan has “dismissed the possibility of cutting a deal (with the military) to find an easy way out” of the prison, his party quoted him as telling reporters after Monday’s court proceedings.

“He was confident he’d be successful in the end and asked his support base to call for change by using ballot papers in massive numbers (in the elections),” the party statement said.
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India’s Chennai International Airport was closed Monday as the region braces for the impact of Cyclone Michaung, which evolved into a severe cyclonic storm. 

Strong winds and rains were already pounding areas across Tamil Nadu, including Chennai, ahead of Michaung’s landfall. 

Some areas of Chennai, Tamil Nadu’s capital city, were already flooded Monday and evacuation efforts were launched.

The Tamil Nadu government advised people to stay indoors and declared a public holiday for some districts. 

Michaung is expected to make landfall Tuesday afternoon.

 
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Nine people, including two off-duty army personnel, were killed when gunmen opened fire on a bus travelling through northern Pakistan, causing it to crash into an oncoming truck and catch fire, officials said Sunday.

The bus was attacked at around 6:30 pm local time (1330 GMT) on Saturday from both sides by at least five militants.

“Following the firing, the bus lost control and collided with an oncoming truck. Subsequently, both vehicles caught fire. Among the casualties are both drivers,” said Arif Ahmed Khan, a senior government official for the district.

He said eight people died at the scene while one person later died in hospital.

Two army troops who were taking leave were among those killed, while 25 others were wounded.

The attack happened near Chilas in Gilgit-Baltistan, along the Karakoram Highway that connects the capital Islamabad to the mountainous north and China, tracing one of the many paths of the ancient Silk Road.

The bus was travelling south to the garrison city of Rawalpindi, which neighbours the capital.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but the region has long grappled with sectarian violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims.

Chilas, a town within the popular tourist destination of Gilgit-Baltistan, lies close to the Diamer-Bhasha Dam, a Chinese-backed mega project being built on the River Indus.
…

India’s ruling nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday appeared set to win three of four states in key regional polls, in a big boost for Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of general elections in six months.

The heartland states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, and the southern state of Telangana, voted last month in the last set of provincial elections before the national vote due by May, when Modi seeks a third term.

BJP had established clear leads in all three heartland states and appeared set to win them, vote-counting data from the independent election panel and five news TV channels showed.

BJP’s performance was better than widely expected as opinion and exit polls had suggested a close contest between Modi’s party and the main opposition Congress, indicating BJP and Modi’s growing popularity despite a decade in power nationally.

Although Congress won Telangana, its second victory in the south this year, Sunday’s outcome is seen as a setback to the party and its leader Rahul Gandhi as it was wiped out of the politically critical heartland.

“We always said we will win the heartland states,” BJP President Jagat Prakash Nadda told Reuters. “The results are the outcome of our finest political strategy and work on the ground.”

BJP members and supporters burst firecrackers, distributed sweets and danced in the streets to the beat of drums in the three states.

“It’s a clean sweep by the BJP in three states, the mandate proves voters trust Modi,” said federal aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, who belongs to Madhya Pradesh.

Modi remains widely popular after a decade in power and surveys suggest he will win again next year. However, a 28-party opposition alliance led by the Congress party has come together to jointly fight BJP, posing a new challenge. 

Congress disappointed

BJP also suffered a setback when it lost the big southern state of Karnataka to Congress earlier this year as Gandhi worked hard to revive the party since its drubbing in the 2019 general elections and went on a 135-day march across the country covering more than 4,000 km (2,500 miles).

He also helped build the opposition alliance, called the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance or INDIA, after the Karnataka victory and his temporary disqualification from parliament after being convicted in a defamation case.

But the alliance did not feature in the state polls due to internal rivalries and it was a direct contest between BJP and Congress.

“The Congress has done extremely well in Telangana… Yes, it is disappointing to see losses in three states, but we are still the opposition with a strong presence,” Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate told Reuters.

The four states are home to more than 160 million voters and account for 82 seats in the 543-member parliament.

Modi and leaders of Congress, led by Gandhi, crisscrossed the states, addressing campaign rallies and promising cash payouts, farm loan waivers, subsidies and insurance cover, among other incentives, to woo voters.

Politicians and analysts say state elections do not always influence the outcome of the general elections or accurately indicate national voter mood.

Results of the last round of state elections before national elections have been misleading in the past.

Sunday’s outcome is, however, expected to boost market sentiment.

“Markets may have had a whiff of the likely results given the gains last week but the margin of victory will be a surprise,” said Gurmeet Chadha, managing partner at asset management firm Complete Circle. 

Markets should gain on Monday on the results, he said, adding it could be a “big move.”

The small northeastern state of Mizoram also voted last month and votes there are due to be counted on Monday.
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The U.S. has charged an Indian national in what prosecutors allege was a failed plot to assassinate a Sikh separatist at the behest of an unnamed Indian government official.

The charges announced Wednesday against an Indian national arrested in June in Europe come two months after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there were credible accusations that India may have been linked to the killing of a Sikh activist near Vancouver, straining relations between the two countries.

The U.S. case is particularly sensitive given the high priority that President Joe Biden placed on improving ties with India and courting it to be a major partner in the push to counter China’s increasing assertiveness.

India, which has banned the Sikh independence — or Khalistan — movement, denied having a role in the Canada killing and said it was examining information shared by the U.S. and taking those accusations seriously.

Here are some details about the issue:

What is the Khalistan movement?

India’s Sikh independence movement eventually became a bloody armed insurgency that shook India in the 1970s and 1980s. It was centered in the northern Punjab state, where Sikhs are the majority, though they make up about 1.7% of India’s overall population.

The insurgency lasted more than a decade and was suppressed by an Indian government crackdown in which thousands of people were killed, including prominent Sikh leaders.

Hundreds of Sikh youths were also killed during police operations, many in detention or during staged gunfights, according to rights groups.

In 1984, Indian forces stormed the Golden Temple, Sikhism’s holiest shrine, in Amritsar to flush out separatists who had taken refuge there. The operation killed around 400 people, according to official figures, but Sikh groups say thousands were killed.

The dead included Sikh militant leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, whom the Indian government accused of leading the armed insurgency.

On Oct. 31, 1984, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who ordered the raid on the temple, was assassinated by two of her bodyguards, who were Sikh.

Her death triggered a series of anti-Sikh riots, in which Hindu mobs went from house to house across northern India, particularly in New Delhi, pulling Sikhs from their homes, hacking many to death and burning others alive.

Is the movement still active?

There is no active insurgency in Punjab today, but the Khalistan movement still has some supporters in the state, as well as in the sizable Sikh diaspora beyond India. The Indian government has warned repeatedly over the years that Sikh separatists were trying to make a comeback.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has also intensified the pursuit of Sikh separatists and arrested dozens of leaders from various outfits that are linked to the movement.

When farmers camped out on the edges of New Delhi to protest controversial agriculture laws in 2020, Modi’s government initially tried to discredit Sikh participants by calling them “Khalistanis.” Under pressure, the government later withdrew the laws.

Earlier this year, Indian police arrested a separatist leader who had revived calls for Khalistan and stirred fears of violence in Punjab. Amritpal Singh, a 30-year-old preacher, had captured national attention through his fiery speeches. He said he drew inspiration from Bhindranwale.

How strong is the movement outside of India?

India has been asking countries like Canada, Australia and the U.K. to take legal action against Sikh activists, and Modi has personally raised the issue with the nations’ prime ministers. India has particularly raised these concerns with Canada, where Sikhs make up nearly 2% of the country’s population.

Earlier this year, Sikh protesters pulled down the Indian flag at the country’s high commission in London and smashed the building’s window in a show of anger against the move to arrest Amritpal Singh. Protesters also smashed windows at the Indian consulate In San Francisco and skirmished with embassy workers.

India’s foreign ministry denounced the incidents and summoned the U.K.’s deputy high commissioner in New Delhi to protest what it called the breach of security at the embassy in London.

The Indian government also accused Khalistan supporters in Canada of vandalizing Hindu temples with “anti-India” graffiti and of attacking the offices of the Indian High Commission in Ottawa during a protest in March.

Last year, Paramjit Singh Panjwar, a Sikh militant leader and head of the Khalistan Commando Force, was shot dead in Pakistan.
…

Vote counting began Sunday in four Indian states in a test of strength for India’s opposition pitted against the ruling party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of next year’s crucial national vote. Results are expected later in the day.

Elections in the four states — Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Telangana — took place last month. Polling in India is generally done in phases owing to the large population.

Vote counting in a fifth state, Mizoram, is expected Monday.

The election results of the five states are expected to give an indication of voter mood ahead of the 2024 national elections in which Modi is eyeing a third consecutive term.

The Indian National Congress, India’s main opposition party, holds power in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, rules Madhya Pradesh, and its regional ally, Mizo National Front, is in power in Mizoram. Telangana is ruled by the strong Telangana Rashtra Samithi, known for opposing BJP in the state.

A live feed on the election commission’s website shows BJP leading in three states, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, while the Congress is making headway in Telangana, in early ballot counting.

Modi and his party remain popular on a national level after nearly a decade in power and surveys suggest he is expected to win a third term. But a new alliance of 28 opposition parties, called INDIA, is expected to challenge Modi’s party nationally. The acronym, which stands for Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, comprises India’s previously fractured opposition parties and is led by the Congress party.

Modi flew across the five states and campaigned to support his party’s candidates. The Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also traveled across the states to woo voters. The charged-up voting campaigns witnessed both leaders promising voters subsidies, loan waivers and employment guarantees.

Modi will seek reelection next year at a time when India’s global diplomatic reach is rising. But in recent polls, Congress has dented his party’s image of invincibility by toppling local BJP governments in state elections in southern Karnataka and northern Himachal Pradesh.

The elections come at a time when India is facing multiple challenges; rising unemployment, attacks by Hindu nationalists against the country’s minorities, particularly Muslims, and a shrinking space for dissent and free media.
…

Philippine troops, backed by airstrikes and artillery fire, killed 11 suspected Islamic militants near a hinterland village in the country’s south, authorities said Saturday, in one of the military’s bloodiest anti-insurgency offensives this year.  

The military launched the offensive Friday after receiving intelligence about the whereabouts of suspected leaders and armed followers of the Dawla Islamiyah and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, or the BIFF, groups near the village of Tuwayan in southern Datu Hofer town in Maguindanao province, military officials said. 

Army Major Saber Balogan, a regional military official, said government forces recovered 11 bodies of suspected militants after more than three hours of fighting. 

Troops also recovered seven M16 and M14 assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and five homemade bombs from the scene, he said, adding that there were no military casualties. 

The Associated Press saw a confidential initial government report about the military operation, which stated that two Philippine air force fighter planes dropped eight 500-pound bombs in the hinterland areas where the militants were spotted. Two military helicopters further targeted the militants. 

Army troops were deployed after the battle scene, military officials said. 

This came after 13 armed militants belonging to the Dawla Islamiyah surrendered with their firearms to the military in the south, said Major General Alex Rillera, a regional military commander. 

It was not immediately clear if the militants provided information that helped the military decide to launch Friday’s assault. 

“This is the good side of coming out and laying down your guns; You can now live peacefully with your loved ones,” Rillera told the militants, who surrendered in a ceremony Thursday in South Cotabato province adjacent to Maguindanao province, where the military offensive was carried out the following day. 

After decades of debilitating armed hostilities, the Philippine government signed a 2014 peace pact with the largest Muslim separatist group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, in the south of the largely Catholic nation. That considerably eased armed insurgency-related clashes and violence in the south. 

However, smaller Muslim separatist groups have continued to wage attacks, including sporadic bombings in public areas, and at times targeting businesses in return for “protection money” from the owners, the military previously said. 

The BIFF, which the military operation targeted Friday, consists of militants who defected from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front following the peace talks with the government. It further split into a few factions, from which some aligned themselves with the Islamic State group. 
…

Unknown gunmen in northern Pakistan shot at a bus on Saturday, killing at least eight passengers and wounding 26 others.  

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the deadly attack in the scenic Gilgit-Baltistan province.  

Arif Ahmad, the area deputy commissioner, said the “cowardly act” targeted a bus traveling to the garrison city of Rawalpindi on the Karakoram Highway that connects Pakistan to China.  

He said the driver lost control of the bus following the attack and it collided with an oncoming truck.  

Ahmad told a televised news conference that two Pakistani soldiers were among the slain passengers. 

The assailants were reportedly riding a motorcycle and sprayed the bus with bullets before fleeing the site.  

Rescue workers expected the death toll to increase.  

Gilgit-Baltistan borders China’s western Xinjiang region and hosts the convergence of the Hindu Kush, Karakoram and Himalayan mountain ranges, creating a stunning landscape. 

Previous attacks in the province have been claimed by Pakistan Tehrik-e-Taliban, or TTP, an outlawed militant group and offshoot of Afghanistan’s ruling Islamist Taliban. 

Pakistan says TTP has intensified attacks from Afghan sanctuaries since the Taliban returned to power in the war-torn neighboring country, killing hundreds of people, including security forces. 

Taliban authorities reject the allegations, saying they are not allowing any group to use Afghanistan to threaten Pakistan or other countries. 
…

Pakistan’s Supreme Court asked the government Friday to respond to questions raised over its policy of expelling Afghans residing illegally in the country, observing that Islamabad must abide by United Nations’ resolutions protecting refugees.

Holding the first hearing on a plea challenging the ongoing eviction of Afghans, a three-member bench of the top court sought responses from the federal government, the apex committee headed by the prime minister and army chief that decided to expel Afghan nationals, as well as the foreign office.

The petition filed jointly by more than a dozen politicians, lawyers and community activists last month calls the eviction a “massive violation of fundamental rights of around 4.4 million persons of Afghan origin [present] for the time being in Pakistan.”

Reeling from a wave of deadly terror attacks, Pakistan in October ordered all people residing there illegally to leave by November 1 or face deportation.

The order primarily affected 1.7 million Afghans living without proper documents. Nearly 700,000 Afghans have arrived since the Afghan Taliban took control of their country in August 2021.

So far, close to 400,000 have left Pakistan from border crossings in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan provinces.

“The haphazard manner in which all Afghans are being shunted out of the country, this is absolutely wrong. It is in violation of their human rights. It is in violation of the international covenants,” Senator Farhatullah Babar, one of the petitioners, told VOA.

Criticizing the government’s strategy, Babar said the order was affecting those with legitimate asylum claims, while many with proper documents also were being pushed out.

Rejecting the allegation, Pakistani foreign ministry’s spokesperson Mumtaz Zehra Baloch said at a weekly media briefing that “the policy [of expulsion] pertains to those individuals who are in Pakistan in violation of immigration law.” Baloch, however, refused to address the court’s order seeking details, saying the matter was sub-judice, or in court.

Aid agencies, as well as local and international rights watchdogs, have criticized Pakistan’s plan, concerned that many Afghan returnees might face extreme poverty or retribution from the Taliban, while girls and women would be deprived of education and work opportunities.

Despite hosting one of the largest refugee populations in the world, Pakistan is not a signatory to the U.N.’s convention protecting refugee rights.

Rida Hosain, a Lahore-based lawyer, told VOA the courts still may apply principles of international law that support or do not contradict domestic laws. The South Asian country is party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, though, as well as the U.N. Convention Against Torture.

“This obligation extends to all residents of Pakistan, not just citizens,” Hosain said about the protections recognized in the U.N.’s resolutions that Pakistan signed.

Among those forced to leave because of a lack of documents are Afghans born in Pakistan to refugee parents. Many now have Pakistani-born children of their own who have little, if any, ties to their grandparents’ homeland.

“By all reckoning they should be treated as Pakistani nationals,” Babar said.

Although Pakistani law recognizes the right to citizenship for children born on its soil, this provision is not extended to Afghan families.

In 2018, then-Prime Minister Imran Khan announced his government would give citizenship to Afghans born in Pakistan. The hugely surprising statement was never turned into law.

Babar, a veteran politician, hinted that Pakistan’s powerful military manages the country’s foreign policy.

“The Afghan policy is not made by the civilian government,” he said. “It has never been discussed and debated in the parliament. The foreign office has little say in the formulation of the Afghan policy.”

The current caretaker government that made the decision to expel undocumented Afghans enjoys the military’s support. Petitioners argue, though, that it simply does not have the authority to formulate this policy of mass eviction. Hosain agrees.

“They are not elected, they don’t represent the people of Pakistan. So, the court would need to decide whether a caretaker government with such a restrictive mandate can take such a major policy decision, and in my view, this is beyond the power of the caretaker government,” she said.

So far, the caretaker government has claimed it is only applying the law of the land.

“The concept of the nation state is that illegal practices, illegal means, are not promoted in any country. We won’t allow that either,” Sarfaraz Bugti, the Pakistani interior minister, told VOA in October after announcing the policy.

Pakistan claims Afghan nationals were involved in several deadly terror attacks on civilians and security personnel this year. Islamabad also accuses the Afghan Taliban of taking insufficient action to curb cross-bordekakr terrorism. The de facto government in Kabul denies the charge.

Speaking to VOA last month, the Pakistani caretaker prime minister said the policy, which the Afghan Taliban rejected as inhumane, was meant to formalize movement between the two neighbors.

“We want to have a regulated movement interaction with Afghanistan as a state. This is the prime target,” Anwar ul Haq Kakar said.

A group of Pakistani academics has also petitioned the court against the expulsion of Afghans.

The hearing will resume next week in the Supreme Court.
…

Afghanistan’s Taliban government announced Friday that China had formally accepted its ambassador to Beijing, hailing the move as an “important chapter” in growing ties between the two neighboring countries.

The announcement, yet to be confirmed by China, would make it the first nation to host a Taliban ambassador since the Islamist group regained power from an American-backed government in Kabul two years ago.

Neither China nor any other country has formally given recognition to the de facto Afghan administration.

An official Taliban foreign ministry statement said that Hong Lei, the director-general of the protocol department of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, accepted the copy of credentials from the newly appointed ambassador, Asadullah Bilal Karimi.

Hong called Karimi’s arrival an “important step in further strengthening and expanding the positive relations” between Beijing and Kabul.

“China respects the national sovereignty and the decisions of the people of Afghanistan. It does not interfere in the internal Afghan affairs, nor has it done so in the past,” Hong said in Friday’s meeting, according to the Taliban.

Karimi assured the Chinese side that “there is no threat to anyone from the territory of Afghanistan, and regional stability and security is in the interest of all.”

The new ambassador, in his early 30s, served as the deputy spokesman at the Taliban-led information ministry until recently.

Beijing has sought to sustain its close engagement with the Taliban to help prevent the conflict-torn South Asian nation from plunging into chaos again, which could encourage anti-China militants to use Afghan soil to threaten Chinese security.

The Chinese government invited Taliban delegates to its global Belt and Road Forum in October this year, marking the first high-profile multilateral gathering de facto Afghan rulers have attended since returning to power.

Last September, China became the first nation to appoint an ambassador to Kabul under Taliban rule. Other countries either retained their previous ambassadors or appointed the heads of their embassies in a charge d’affaires capacity, which does not require presenting credentials to the host government.

State and private Chinese companies have shown interest in investing in Afghanistan, with some signing contracts with the Taliban in recent months. However, international banking sector sanctions have deterred foreign investors from undertaking major initiatives.

Around 20 neighboring and regional countries have kept their embassies operational or reopened diplomatic missions since the Taliban takeover in August 2021, when all U.S.-led Western troops withdrew from the country and ended their two-decade-long involvement in the Afghan war.

Washington and other Western countries have since moved their Afghan diplomatic missions to Qatar to ensure they can sustain humanitarian aid for millions of Afghans.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan’s neighbors and regional countries, including Russia, India and Turkey, have allowed the Taliban to take control of Afghan diplomatic missions on their respective soils, which are being run at charge d’affairs level.

The Taliban’s global isolation mainly stems from their sweeping curbs on Afghan women’s rights. They have forbidden teenage girls from receiving an education beyond the sixth grade and barred most women from public and private workplaces across the impoverished country, where half of the population needs humanitarian aid.

The de facto authorities are under sustained international pressure to remove restrictions on women, govern the country through an inclusive political setup, and prevent terrorists from operating out of Afghan soil.

The male-only Taliban government has rejected criticism of its policies, saying they are aligned with local culture and Islamic law. They also have claimed no terrorist groups operate in the country.

The United Nations has ruled out granting Afghanistan’s seat to the Taliban until they address international concerns and end their harsh treatment of women.
…