After working for 12 years, Isha Khanna quit her job at a bank when she had twins about four years ago. She loved her work but balancing her role as a mother with her demanding career would have been a challenge. 

“In the bank we had to reach by nine and attend to customers till six. After that it took almost two hours to finish all the other work,” said Khanna. And reaching home at eight o’clock with the kids would have been very difficult for me.”

Her case is common in India where no matter what their economic class or age group, millions of women either drop out of the workforce or do not work at all. For some like Khanna, rising household incomes make it possible to give up their jobs.

However, many women from lower-income groups struggle to join the workforce due to lack of suitable childcare.

After getting married, Leela Devi came to Delhi with her husband, determined to work and save enough money to have a house in their home village. But she had two children within five years, putting an end to her hopes.

“My kids were small and there was no one to look after them. In the village we have family support, here I had no one to help me so I could not work.”

Such cases highlight a growing concern that although India’s economy is among the fastest growing in the world, women’s participation in the workforce remains much lower compared to other major economies. After plummeting to just 19% in 2018, participation has climbed back to about 30%, but the number of those who hold formal jobs is far lower.

Entrenched cultural beliefs are part of the reason why women are missing from India’s factories, companies and businesses.

“Whether you are illiterate or you are very literate, social norms in India actually almost dictate that a woman’s role is to be a homemaker, run the home, take care of the children, the elderly, or anyone who needs support in the family,” according to Poonam Muttreja, Executive Director, Population Foundation of India. “So, a lot of women go in and out of the workforce.”

That poses a major challenge for India, which has surpassed China to become the world’s most populous country. While policymakers hope that its huge working-age population of over 700 million will propel the country’s growth, experts say women need to be included in larger numbers at the workplace if they and India are to reap the benefits of development.

But besides social pressures, women face multiple challenges. A key problem is persisting unemployment in the country where economic growth is not creating enough jobs for an expanding population.

That situation is highlighted outside a garment manufacturing factory on the outskirts of New Delhi, where many women from lower-income groups wait patiently on the roadside, hoping to pick up casual work.

Many like Sangeeta Kumari are migrants who have come from villages, hoping that the city will provide opportunities that rural areas do not have. She left her two children behind so that she could work, but in the last two years has only had employment for about four months. In recent months, she has been trudging daily to the industrial hub where factories are located, hoping her luck will turn.

 “I have been coming for two months daily but have not been able to get work,” said Kumari, who worries that she may have to return to her village.  “Without an income it is very hard to provide for our families and our children.”

Other women, women like 18-year-old Muskan Khan, are not educated. She has not gotten a break so far, but lives on hope. “If I get a job, my life will be good. My entire future hinges on finding work,” said Khan.

A new study by the Aziz Premji University said that the recent rise in women’s participation in India’s labor force was led by self-employment and is likely driven by distress more than economic growth.

“Women have lost jobs due to a downturn in small and medium industries. That is the sector which provided more jobs to women,”  according to Amarjeet Kaur, general secretary of the All India Trade Union Congress, one of India’s largest trade unions. “If you look at industrial areas, or even some other sectors, no new recruitments are happening. That is the ground reality.”

The low numbers of women in the workplace extends to political representation – female lawmakers make up just 13% of parliament.  A landmark law was passed last month to reserve one third of seats in parliament and state legislatures for women, but it will not come into effect for several years.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has cited the passage of the bill as proof of his government’s commitment to women’s empowerment.

However, that can only happen at the grassroots by giving women better education and training, according to experts. While the number of women with college degrees is growing in cities and towns, access to good education in India’s vast rural areas still poses a challenge.

“One in every four girls gets married below the age 18. That kills her opportunity to educate, skill and work,” points out Muttreja. “We have to not just do skilling of women; we have to do upskilling.”

For well-qualified women, companies need to provide facilities like flexible working hours, she said.

That would help women like Khanna, who says she would like to get back to work someday but needs a job that will provide better work-life balance enabling her to devote time to her family.

Although India hopes to reap an economic dividend from its huge working age population of over 700 million, demographers warn that may not happen if its women are left behind. 
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Health officials and aid agencies in Afghanistan’s western province of Herat have set up medical tents to treat earthquake victims. The U.N. says recent earthquakes in the province killed more than 1,300 people and injured over 2,000 people. VOA Afghanistan has the story, narrated by Bezhan Hamdard.
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The United States has engaged in high-level diplomatic discussions in Pakistan to address concerns related to Afghan refugees on the brink of mass deportation.

The Pakistani government has pledged to deport hundreds of thousands of Afghan nationals who do not possess recognized refugee status. This includes Afghans who collaborated with the United States and its allies prior to 2021.

A spokesperson from the U.S. Department of State said that Washington is urging Pakistan to adhere to the principle of nonrefoulement, grant entry and extend humanitarian aid to Afghan refugees.

“We consistently raise these issues with Pakistan at the highest levels and will continue to do so,” the spokesperson told VOA on background.

Echoing similar sentiments, the United Nations, along with various human rights organizations, have cautioned Pakistan against a mass deportation, saying such a move could further destabilize Afghanistan’s already dire humanitarian situation and leave some Afghans vulnerable to persecution by the Taliban.

“UNHCR is appealing to Pakistan to continue its protection of all vulnerable Afghans who have sought safety in Pakistan,” the U.N. Refugee Agency said in a statement last week.

The U.N. has offered to help register Afghans who need international protection in Pakistan.

Last week, media advocacy groups also implored Pakistani officials to refrain from deporting scores of Afghan journalists who sought asylum in Pakistan after the Taliban’s return to power.

“At least 200 Afghan journalists are currently refugees in Pakistan, forced to flee the Taliban’s crackdown on press freedom, including draconian restrictions on women journalists, shuttering of media houses, and rampant censorship,” the International Federation of Journalists and its Afghan and Pakistani affiliates said in a joint statement.

Some 1.3 million Afghans are already registered refugees in Pakistan.

Pakistani officials cite security issues as their justification for the potential mass deportation of Afghan refugees, alleging Afghan nationals had roles in multiple terror incidents within Pakistan this year, but offering no evidence.

Independent experts say Islamabad’s intent might be to pressure the nascent Taliban administration in Kabul, given the latter’s perceived inaction against Pakistani Taliban hideouts on Afghan soil.

SIV applicants

Amid concerns that the Taliban continue targeting former Afghan security personnel and human rights activists — charges Taliban officials deny — the U.S. has amplified its efforts to relocate qualifying Afghans under its Special Immigration Visa program, or SIV.

In the past nine months, more than 20,900 Afghans received SIVs — significantly more than the total 11,252 SIVs awarded in 2022.

“At the president’s direction, we have undertaken substantial efforts to improve the Afghan Special Immigrant Visa program to streamline the application and adjudication processes, while safeguarding our national security,” the State Department spokesperson told VOA on Friday.

Because the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan remains closed and also because of security threats, many Afghans are opting to journey to Pakistan and other nations to apply for SIVs and other types of visas.

“The Biden administration should speed up SIV and USRAP [U.S. Refugee Admissions Program] processing and work with the Pakistani government to protect Afghan refugees, not send them back to danger,” said Adam Bates, a policy counsel at the International Refugee Assistance Project.

Over 150,000 Afghans have applied for SIVs.

UK visa

About 3,000 Afghans currently in Pakistan are registered as eligible for resettlement to the United Kingdom under the British government’s two-tiered scheme for relocating at-risk Afghans.

They are “waiting in U.K.-funded hotels in Islamabad for their transfer to the U.K.,” said Sara de Jong, co-founder of Sulha Alliance, a nongovernmental organization advocating for former British military interpreters abroad.

Nearly 7,000 Afghans who worked as interpreters for British forces in Afghanistan have been relocated to the U.K. over the past two years, and some 4,000 applicants are awaiting their turn, according to Britain’s Defense Ministry.

Unlike the U.S., the U.K. has slowed its Afghan resettlement program this year.

“While the Pakistan hotels were initially just used as short-term transits for biometric tests and visa issuance, in December 2022, the U.K. government halted the regular flights because they claimed that there was no longer U.K. accommodation available into which these Afghans could be moved,” de Jong told VOA.

The Taliban maintain that Afghans who worked for the former government and for the U.S. and its allies are covered under their general amnesty and will not face persecution.

Their claim is repudiated in reports from the U.N. and human rights groups documenting extrajudicial detention, torture and assassination of their former enemies by members of the Taliban regime.

“The Taliban have a track record of broken promises, including their promise to respect girls’ right to education, which they are violating every day,” de Jong said, adding that former Afghan interpreters face grave risks to their lives in Afghanistan.
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India’s Supreme Court rejected a plea to legalize same-sex marriage Tuesday, saying that it was up to parliament to legislate the issue. However, it said the community must be protected from discrimination.

The ruling by a five-judge bench sent a wave of disappointment through the LGBTQ community, which had hoped that the top court would grant the right to marry.

Two Asian countries currently allow same-sex marriage.

The livestreamed verdict was closely followed by tens of thousands of community members and broadcast by television channels. Many gathered outside the Supreme Court, listening to the judges on their mobile phones.

Hopes of a positive outcome fell when Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said there were degrees of agreement and disagreement among the justices “on how far we have to go” on same-sex marriages.

“It lies within the domain of parliament and state legislatures to determine the law on marriage,” he said. “The court cannot make law.”

For the LGBTQ community, that could mean a very long wait for legalization of same-sex marriage in a largely conservative country where few political parties or lawmakers have spoken in support of gay rights.

“We are closer to the moon than to gay marriage in India,” Manak Matyani, a gay rights campaigner in the Indian capital, told VOA.

The judgment was handed down six months after the court began hearing petitions by 20 gay couples who said that being denied the right to marry violated their right to equality. Their lawyers argued that marriage was a union of two people and important in India, which is a “marriage-based culture.”

The government and religious leaders strongly opposed the petitions during the hearings. Calling them “urban elitist views,” the Hindu nationalist government said that such marriages are not “comparable with the Indian family unit concept of a husband, a wife and children.”

However, there were some takeaways for the LGBTQ community. During the two-hour ruling, the judges said queer couples have a right to live together and called on the government to ensure that they are protected from discrimination and bias. One of the judges emphasized that queer relationships were neither urban nor elitist and said that LGBTQ couples could celebrate their commitment “in whichever way they wish.”

The court also accepted a proposal made by the government during the hearings to set up an expert committee headed by the country’s top bureaucrat to consider granting queer couples several rights and privileges that are available to heterosexual couples, such as the right to hold joint bank accounts and inheritance rights.

That proposal has not inspired much confidence among gay activists. “The judgment has no teeth,” said Matyani. “Very often we see that committees are formed but nothing comes out of their recommendations. When governments decide to be lethargic on some things, they can just put such recommendations on the back burner.”

Other gay rights campaigners agree that the road ahead for the community will not be easy.

“The court has asked for a committee to be formed and for parliament to consider the issue of same-sex marriages, but when that happens there is a lot of pushback,” said Anjali Gopalan, founder of the Naz Foundation, which campaigns for rights for the LGBTQ community.

“All things considered, the judgment is extremely disappointing,” she told VOA.

The Naz Foundation was at the forefront of a legal battle in 2018 leading the top court to scrap a British-era law that made homosexuality punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The landmark judgment helped India’s gay community be more open in public and started the slow process of societal acceptance. In recent years, some gay couples have even held ceremonies akin to weddings.

Among them was Abhay Dang, who said he was deeply disappointed by the verdict.

“On a personal level we feel proud that we fought this battle,” he said. “Though we lost, lots of dinner table conversations were initiated because of this case. We remain hopeful that one day we will have full marriage equality.”

Among those who welcomed the verdict was the Supreme Court Bar Association, which had earlier said the court does not have the power to legalize same-sex unions.

“That right only rests with the Indian parliament, and we are glad that the court agrees with us,” its president, Adish Aggarwala, told reporters.

Several gay rights activists have vowed to continue their fight for equal rights.
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Bangladesh rights activists Adilur Rahman Khan and ASM Nasiruddin Elan were released on bail Sunday evening after being in prison since Sept. 14 in a cybercrime case.

Khan is the founder and secretary of Odhikar, a human rights organization internationally known for documenting thousands of alleged extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances in Bangladesh. Elan is the organization’s director.

Khan told VOA on Monday that Odhikar’s work would continue “as usual.”

“Since it was founded in 1994, Odhikar has worked exposing human rights violations in the country,” Khan said. “The prosecution failed to prove the charges against us for which we were convicted and jailed. We have become victims of judicial injustice. We never provided any false information in any of our reports.”

‘Distorted’ report

On May 6, 2013, while trying to disperse an Islamic group protest in Dhaka, several protesters were killed by security forces.

According to an Odhikar fact-finding report, at least 61 people were killed that day.

Putting the death toll at 11, government prosecutors filed a criminal case against Khan and Elan, claiming the activists compiled a “distorted” fact-finding report.

Ten years later on Sept. 14, 2023, the court pronounced Khan and Elan guilty and sentenced them to two years each in prison. They were also fined $91 each.

Their imprisonment sparked outrage among human rights groups around the world.

In a joint statement, 39 international rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, and Amnesty International urged Bangladesh authorities to “immediately and unconditionally” release the activists, “as they have been detained solely for their human rights work.”

Days after their sentence, Khan and Elan appealed to the High Court, which granted them bail on Oct. 10. But it took five days for the court order to reach prison authorities. An appeal hearing of their sentence is pending. The court stayed the $91 fine until the appeal is resolved. In the meantime, the state has filed an appeal seeking enhancement of the activists’ punishment.

‘Defending rights’

In addition to extrajudicial killings, Odhikar has reported on thousands of enforced disappearances, cases of torture in custody, and other human rights violations committed by security forces while Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been in office.

In 2022, the government accused Odhikar of spreading “propaganda against the state by publishing misleading information” on its website and canceled the organization’s operating license.

Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman, former liaison officer at the Asian Legal Resource Centre, said Khan and Elan’s conviction and imprisonment were key examples of Bangladesh authorities using the judiciary to punish independent human rights defenders.

“The Sheikh Hasina regime has long established a pattern of silencing dissidents and the opposition using the judiciary that has been massively infiltrated with her political loyalists,” he told VOA.
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Azerbaijan’s recapture of the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave from ethnic Armenians could mean Turkey will soon reopen its border with Armenia after more than 30 years. For VOA, Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
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Another six-point-three magnitude earthquake struck Afghanistan, killing a handful of people and injuring scores more. This latest disaster follows a pair of equally strong earthquakes and aftershocks that killed thousands recently. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more.
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A powerful 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck western Afghanistan on Sunday, just over a week after strong quakes and aftershocks killed thousands of people and flattened entire villages in the same region.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the latest quake’s epicenter was about 34 kilometers outside Herat, the provincial capital, and 8 kilometers below the surface.

There were no immediate official reports of possible casualties or damage.

The earthquakes on Oct. 7 flattened whole villages in Herat, in one of the most destructive quakes in the country’s recent history.

More than 90% of the people killed a week ago were women and children, U.N. officials reported Thursday.

Taliban officials said the earlier quakes killed more than 2,000 people across the province. The epicenter was in Zenda Jan district, where 1,294 people died, 1,688 were injured and every home was destroyed, according to U.N. figures.

The initial quake, numerous aftershocks and a second 6.3-magnitude quake Wednesday flattened villages, destroying hundreds of mud-brick homes that could not withstand such force. Schools, health clinics and other village facilities also collapsed.

Besides rubble and funerals after that devastation, there was little left of the villages in the region’s dusty hills. Survivors are struggling to come to terms with the loss of multiple family members and in many places, living residents are outnumbered by volunteers who came to search the debris and dig mass graves.
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India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has confirmed the world’s most populous nation will bid to host the 2036 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) session in Mumbai on Saturday, Modi said hosting the event is “the age-old dream” for India.

“Indians are not just sports lovers, but we also live it,” Modi said. “India will leave no stone unturned in the preparation for the successful organization of the Olympics in 2036 – this is the dream of the 140 crore (1.4 billion) Indians.”

“We want to realize this dream with your support. I am sure India will get constant support from IOC.”

A city or region wasn’t specified by Modi but Ahmedabad, which boasts the largest stadium in the world with a capacity of 132,000 and is named after the Indian Prime Minister, would be a likely contender as the main host city for the country’s bid.

Indonesia and Mexico have previously expressed official interest in hosting the 2036 Olympics, and last month Poland’s President Andrzej Duda told the IOC it wants to stage the Games.

No firm timeframe has been set by the IOC for when hosting rights for the 2036 Games will be awarded.

The 2036 Summer Games is the next available edition: Paris will host in 2024, Los Angeles in 2028 and Brisbane in 2032.

Modi also told the IOC that India would consider bidding to host the Youth Olympics in 2029.

“Sport is not just about winning medals but also winning hearts,” he said.
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Pakistani police said Saturday that gunmen killed at least six construction workers and injured two others in an overnight attack in the turbulent southwestern Baluchistan province — the country’s largest province bordering Afghanistan and Iran.

The shooting occurred in the Turbat district of the natural resources-rich province, targeting a group of migrants from the country’s most-populous central Punjab province. Police and witnesses said the victims were asleep when unknown assailants stormed their residence and sprayed them with bullets before fleeing the site.

“Deeply saddened to hear about the terrorist attack on innocent laborers in Turbat,” Pakistani caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar said on social media platform X, and he expressed condolences to the victims’ families. “We condemn this heinous act and stand united against terrorism.”

The so-called Baluch Liberation Army, or BLA, an ethnic-based separatist militant group, took responsibility for the deadly shootings. BLA and other Baluch insurgents routinely attack Pakistani security forces and settlers from other parts of the country.

Baluchistan has recently received significant Chinese investment under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, or CPEC, a bilateral extension of Beijing’s global Belt and Road Initiative infrastructure development undertaking.

BLA is listed as a global terrorist organization by the United States and has attacked Chinese nationals associated with CPEC projects and repeatedly warned China to end its alleged exploitation of Baluch resources and withdraw from the province.

Last month, a suicide bombing of a religious procession in the province’s Mastung district killed nearly 60 Muslim devotees and injured dozens more. To date, no group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Suspicions fell on Islamic State, however, along with militants linked to the anti-state Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP. Both of those groups are also active in Baluchistan.
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A suicide bombing ripped through a Shiite mosque in northern Afghanistan on Friday, killing at least seven worshippers, a government official said.

“A blast has taken place at a Shi’ite mosque,” Baghlan province official Mawlawi Hashimi said.

Seven people were killed during prayer and 15 injured in the attack in the city of Pul e Khumri in Baghlan, he said. All of the casualties were Shiites, he said.

The Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility for the attack in a post on the Telegram messaging app.

Afghanistan’s Taliban-run administration has faced an insurgency by IS militants, who have claimed a series of deadly attacks on civilians, foreigners and Taliban security forces in recent months.

Sunni Islamist militants consider Shiites to be heretics.
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The United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, has announced $12 million in immediate humanitarian aid to assist victims of a week of repeated deadly earthquakes in western Afghanistan.

In a statement released on Thursday, the USAID said the funding would support its partner agencies to reach earthquake-affected Afghans with urgently needed supplies, including emergency shelter kits, cooking and water collection materials, blankets, solar lamps, clothing, and other household items.

The Taliban government and the United Nations say more than 1,000 people — mostly women and children — have died and many more injured since the first 6.3 magnitude quake struck Herat and surrounding areas on Saturday.

“We mourn the loss of life from these earthquakes and stand resolutely with the people of Afghanistan as they recover from these crises,” Tom West, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan, said in a post on social media site X, sharing details of the USAID aid.

The United States is Afghanistan’s single largest humanitarian donor, providing nearly $2 billion in humanitarian assistance for Afghans since mid-August 2021 when the Taliban seized power and all U.S.-led international troops withdrew, ending after almost 20 years of presence there.

Meanwhile, the Afghan Red Crescent reported Friday that it had halted all humanitarian services in the quake-hit areas in Herat due to a “severe storm” that began overnight. The aid group said on X that the camp it had set up for rescue, sanitation, and shelter purposes had been demolished, prompting it to relocate 256 families to safety.

“Unfortunately, some Afghan Red Crescent employees were injured while rescuing individuals impacted by the heavy windstorm and have been shifted to the hospital for medical treatment,” the agency said.

Taliban officials say Afghanistan’s immediate neighbors and regional countries, including China, Iran, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia, have already dispatched urgent relief aid and pledged cash donations to assist the Taliban in carrying out relief work. The disaster zone is located close to the country’s border with Iran.

However, the Taliban have refused to accept aid from their long-time supporter Pakistan over what they say was an “irresponsible” social media post by the neighboring country’s leadership.

Pakistani Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar said on X earlier in the week that his country was immediately dispatching a “medical team, field hospital, 50 tents, and 500 blankets” to Herat at the request of the Taliban government. The details were minuscule compared to the massive package the National Disaster Management Authority announced. Moreover, the Taliban have, to date, yet to formally ask foreign nations to send relief goods.

A Taliban official confirmed to VOA on Thursday for the first time that Kakar’s “irresponsible” and “humiliating” tweet forced them to block the arrival of Pakistani relief package in the country as their detractors were already using it to criticize the Kabul administration. “Although no such request was made and our government was ridiculed for it,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Neither Pakistani nor Afghan officials have officially discussed the reasons for the delay in sending the aid to Herat, nor has Kakar removed his post.

China’s state media reported Thursday that it is transporting more than $4 million worth of emergency humanitarian aid to assist the victims of the relentless Afghan quakes. The aid supplies reportedly include tents, rollaway beds, thick blankets, down and cotton-padded jackets, quilts, and family first-aid kits.

The U.N. Children’s Fund, or UNICEF, launched a $20 million appeal Thursday to support children affected by the devastating earthquakes.

“Over the next three months, life-saving humanitarian assistance will reach over 200,000 people – including 96,000 children – living in the most devastated and vulnerable areas of Herat province,” the agency said in a statement.

UNICEF noted that more than 90% of those reported killed were women and children. It added that at least 11,500 people saw their homes completely flattened in Zinda Jan alone, naming a Herat district close to the epicenter of the first earthquake,

The World Health Organization has reported damage to 21 health facilities in 10 districts, with half of the damage caused by the latest tremors on October 11.

The calamity has compounded an already dire humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan blamed on years of war and prolonged drought. Aid workers say hospitals across the country are severely underequipped and underfunded. They say the Taliban’s decision to ban Afghan women from working for aid groups has compounded the crisis.

“Even before the earthquake, these communities were already suffering the effects of conflict and insecurity, migration, drought, displacement, and poverty,” said Rushnan Murtaza, the acting UNICEF representative in Afghanistan.

 
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Afghanistan’s Taliban have blocked earthquake-related relief assistance from Pakistan over a controversial social media post by the country’s prime minister amid an already strained bilateral relationship, VOA learned Thursday from highly placed official sources. 

A senior Taliban official, speaking on condition of anonymity while not being authorized to discuss the matter publicly, confirmed that Pakistani Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar’s post on X (formerly Twitter) was behind their refusal to accept the aid. 

The controversy started after a strong 6.3-magnitude quake struck parts of the western Afghan province of Herat. Islamabad immediately announced it would urgently dispatch a transport plane loaded with 5,000 winterized tents, 15,000 blankets, food items, medical supplies and a team of medical doctors for victims of the deadly calamity.

The National Disaster Management Authority prepared the consignment, sharing details on its official website. Hours later, Kakar claimed in a post on X that the aid was being dispatched at the request of the Taliban government, even though Kabul has to date formally not asked foreign countries to send relief. 

Kakar also posted inaccurate details of the items his government had planned to send to Afghanistan.

“I have instructed @NDMAPk to send maximum support to the affected,” the prime minister wrote, adding, “Afghanistan government has specifically asked for sending medical team, field hospital, 50 tents and 500 blankets. … all the requested items are being dispatched in the afternoon today, with more relief goods to follow,” Kakar added. 

But the Pakistani plane has since not taken off, and neither side has officially cited reasons for the delay. 

“Although no such request was made and our government was ridiculed for it,” the Taliban official said in written comments shared via a Whatsapp messaging platform when asked about their refusal to accept Pakistani aid. He criticized Kakar’s statement as “irresponsible” and advised the Pakistani leader to be extremely careful while issuing statements about Afghanistan. 

A top Pakistani official privy to the matter questioned the Taliban assertions when asked to explain why Islamabad could not send the relief goods to Afghanistan. 

“Kabul neither says yes nor a no; they have made a formal request for assistance and told us that they will let us know when to send,” the official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to interact with the media publicly.

Earlier on Thursday, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesperson, at her weekly news conference, avoided directly commenting on the controversy when asked for progress on sending Afghan relief aid.

“Pakistan expresses deep sympathy with its Afghan brothers and sisters, as they face a very difficult situation following the earthquake that took place a few days ago,” Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said.

“Pakistan also stands in solidarity with its Afghan brothers and sisters and remains in contact with the interim Afghan government to meet any needs they may have during the relief and recovery efforts,” she added.

Relations between the two neighboring countries have been strained over allegations that militants sheltering on Afghan soil are responsible for a dramatic uptick in deadly attacks in Pakistan since the Taliban seized power two years ago, charges Kabul rejects.

Tensions increased after the Pakistani government gave all foreigners, including an estimated 1.7 million Afghans, a one-month deadline to leave or face deportation after November 1. 

Taliban leaders have severely criticized the decision and repeatedly urged Pakistan to review it, warning it could “seriously hurt” bilateral ties.

However, spokesperson Baloch reiterated Thursday that Islamabad was determined to enforce the policy to make sure individuals overstaying their visas or possessing no documentation leave Pakistan. She said the deportation would be completed orderly and in line with local immigration laws.

“This requirement pertains to all nationalities and is not specific to any nationality. … There are different prescriptions within these laws, including deportation. This process will be completed in a phased and orderly manner.”

Pakistan has repeatedly clarified that the November 1 deadline is not meant for 1.4 million officially designated Afghan refugees and more than 800,000 Afghan citizenship card holders living lawfully in the country. 
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Although weary of Beijing’s political ambitions and concerned about over-reliance on China, some Central Asians tell VOA they also see the benefits of the Belt and Road Initiative, or BRI, launched in 2013 as China’s global infrastructure endeavor.

Since its launch, China has funded at least 112 projects in Central Asia. Many of the projects were aimed at boosting transportation and connectivity such as the Qamchiq mountain highway.

“This mountain pass is where I make my living,” said Uzbek taxi driver Majid. The highway connects Tashkent, Uzbekistan’s capital, with the Ferghana Valley and reaches southern Kyrgyzstan and northern Tajikistan. Like others that VOA spoke with Majid was unwilling to give his full name, citing concerns that authorities might retaliate.

Majid drives an Uzbek-U.S. made Chevrolet Lacetti sedan that seats four passengers. He says he usually charges about $14 per person to drive to Kokand, which is about 130 kilometers (81 miles) southeast of Tashkent.

“I aim to make two roundtrips a day, which takes eight to nine hours in lighter traffic. It’s better than working for the government,” he told VOA. “Since this is my own car, I keep most of what I earn in my own pocket to take care of my large family.”

Driving commerce

In Osh, Kyrgyzstan’s second-largest city, on the other side of the Ferghana Valley, China’s economic influence is so widely felt it is common for residents to label any new infrastructure projects “Chinese.”

For Muzaffar, a frequent migrant worker, Beijing is the undisputed “superpower” in this part of the world.

“No other power has as much presence as China, which it pulls off without much publicity. Perhaps China wants us to get used to seeing its influence everywhere,” he wondered, adding that he wants his four children to learn Chinese alongside English and Russian.

In Tajikistan’s second-largest city of Khujand, known for its Panjshanbe bazaar, traders told VOA that they buy and sell mostly Chinese goods.

“They are our lifeline. No commerce is conducted without Chinese merchandise,” which is the easiest to obtain and sell and is the most affordable, according to Mohira, who commutes to Khujand from Ferghana, Uzbekistan, via the Andarkhon-Patar border crossing. “Our Chinese cargo always arrives within a day or two. Very reliable service.”

Yet merchants such as Mohira are unsure about the impact on the local economy of a planned railway project that will connect China with Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Officials said a feasibility study will soon be completed.

China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railroad

The proposed 523-kilometer (325-mile) line will carry passengers and freight between Kashgar in China’s Xinjiang region and Andijan in Uzbekistan by way of Karasu, Kyrgyzstan.

Four months ago, Chinese media reported that construction would start sometime this year, citing a statement by Umidulla Ibragimov, an Uzbekistan Railways official.

Yicai Global, a Chinese state-backed English financial news site, said the railway will give countries in Central Asia the shortest and most accessible passage to global markets, describing it as a bridge between Europe and Asia.

Beijing believes that the new connection will “accelerate the West China Development Project” and “promote the development and use of oil in the Central Asia and Caspian Sea areas, open up new sources of oil imports to China, and change the country’s energy development strategy”—something highlighted at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s summit in Samarkand last year, according to China’s state news agency, Xinhua.

Frank Maracchione, a Ph.D. candidate at England’s University of Sheffield who is researching China’s Belt and Road Initiative in Central Asia, said many experts he has interviewed in Uzbekistan saw Beijing’s efforts as an attempt to rebuild the Great Silk Road.

Minerals, trade and beyond

Extraction, processing and transportation of natural resources, including minerals, represent a large chunk of Chinese investment in Uzbekistan, which amounted to $3.8 billion in 2022, just behind Russia’s $4.8 billion.

“A second large area of investment is transport infrastructure mostly for trade purposes to improve regional connectivity,” said Maracchione. He added that China is also focusing on agriculture and technology. That will lead to investments in education and expertise, a boost to long-term development welcomed by Central Asians, said Maracchione.

China no longer regards Central Asia as just the source of raw materials. It is quickly becoming a manufacturing base, Maracchione said. Examples in Uzbekistan, where mainly locals are employed, include the Pengsheng industrial park, the SCO Center for Agriculture in Sirdarya, the Nukus Herbal Technology pharmaceutical producer, the import-export Lanextract Sino-Uzbek joint venture in Karakalpakstan, and the Uzbek-Chinese electric vehicle production cluster in Jizzakh.

Angst growing

In recent years, there has been growing public anger toward Chinese businesses and influence in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. But Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, similarly known for their poor human rights records and tight control of expression and the media, have not seen such clear expressions of anti-Chinese sentiment.

“Why curse those who invest in us? I wish more Chinese companies would come in, so that we could sell off all the stale state assets we’ve been struggling to privatize,” said one retired government official, requesting to be identified only as Qodir.

In an expanding area emerging as New Tashkent, he pointed to a gigantic sports development, the Olympic village. Its construction site bears the logos of Sinomach and CAMCE—the China National Machinery Industry Corporation — and its subsidiary, CAMC Engineering.

Financed by Beijing’s Export-Import Bank, the $289 million project is among several recent deals, including a $440 million chemical plant in Navoi, in central Uzbekistan.

Rights activists have decried poor working conditions at Chinese-owned enterprises in the Uzbek cities of Bukhara and Margilan.

“The pay was low, the working hours were long and there were chemicals everywhere,” Maracchione’s field research found.

In September, Sinomash reached an agreement with the local government in the eastern Uzbek city of Ferghana to produce drinking water from the Kampirobod dam on the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border. The Uzbek side announced that it had signed 32 trade and investment deals with Beijing worth $1.37 billion.

Marrachione said a “controversial aspect of China’s investment in Central Asia is the potential development of patterns of dependency on Chinese investment and unsustainable lending practices leading to excessive debt and a volatile financial situation.”

“This is true particularly in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan,” he said. “Starting from the latter, loans from the Export-Import Bank of China accounted for a bit less than half of Kyrgyzstan’s external debt and exactly 42.89% in May 2021, and around 40% of Tajikistan’s external debt.”

China is now the largest bilateral creditor in Uzbekistan, even though last year what Tashkent owes to China accounted for only 17.6% of the external debt.

Talking to VOA at a business forum in Washington, Uzbekistan’s Digital Technology Minister Sherzod Shermatov described China as a convenient investor and partner.

“I’m eager to work with any side that Uzbekistan benefits from. What matters most for us is what we stand to gain, not what America, Russia or China get. We focus on our own interests, Uzbekistan’s interests,” said Shermatov.
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President Vladimir Putin arrived in Kyrgyzstan on Thursday on a rare trip abroad for the Russian leader who was indicted earlier this year by the International Criminal Court for war crimes in Ukraine.

Putin met with Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov and was to take part on Friday in the Commonwealth of Independent States summit, which Kyrgyzstan is hosting. Leaders of Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan will also attend the summit.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan will skip it, as Yerevan’s relationship with Moscow has frayed amid mutual accusations.

It is the first time this year that Putin has traveled outside Russia and Russian-held territories of Ukraine. Earlier this year, he visited the partially occupied Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk and Kherson, as well as the annexed Crimean Peninsula.

In March, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin over the deportation of children from Ukraine. Countries that have signed and ratified the Rome Statute, which created the ICC, are now bound to arrest the Russian leader if he sets foot on their soil.

The move caused Putin to skip an economic summit in South Africa in August and further strained Moscow’s ties with Armenia after it moved to ratify the Rome Statute earlier this month, even as Armenian officials sought to assure the Kremlin that the Russian leader would not be arrested if he entered the country.

The Kremlin has said that Russia doesn’t recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC and considers the warrant null and void.

Kyrgyzstan is not a signatory of the Rome Statute. In Central Asia, only Tajikistan is. Putin traveled to both countries last year after the invasion of Ukraine and amid increasing international isolation. He also visited other Central Asian nations in 2022, as well as Armenia, Belarus, China, India and Iran.

Later this month, Putin is expected to travel to China again. Last month, he also accepted an invitation to visit North Korea, although it remains unclear when that might happen.
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Afghanistan’s Taliban government Thursday lowered the death toll from a series of recent earthquakes that struck western districts to about 1,000, revising the previous figure of more than 2,000 fatalities.

The Afghan Public Health Ministry posted the latest toll on X, formerly Twitter, saying around 2,400 people had been injured since Saturday, when the first 6.3-magnitude quake rattled several districts in the western Herat province, bordering Iran.

A UNICEF spokesperson told VOA Thursday that “over 90% of those reported killed” were women and children, saying casualty “numbers are still in flux.”

Repeated aftershocks hit the Afghan disaster zone before it was shaken by another 6.3-magnitude quake Wednesday that was followed by three substantial tremors.

The latest United Nations situation report said that Wednesday’s earthquake and aftershocks affected villages in the Injil, Gulran, and Kushki Robat-e-Sangi districts of Herat, injuring at least 140 people. “Chahak village in Injil district, with 1,250 residents, has been completely destroyed along with five neighboring villages,” it said.

Provincial officials reported at least one death and injuries to over 150 people from the latest quake.

Siddig Ibrahim, UNICEF field officer for western Afghanistan, told VOA earlier this week that when the first earthquake hit, people thought it was an explosion and ran into their homes.

“Unfortunately, the earthquake continued, and houses started collapsing,” Ibrahim said. “Women and children are often at home, tending to the household and caring for children, so when structures collapse, they are the most at risk.”

UNICEF launched a new appeal for Afghanistan on Wednesday, calling for an initial $20 million to respond to the quakes.

The World Health Organization has reported damage to 21 health facilities in 10 districts, with half caused by the October 11 tremors. So far, WHO and other agencies have provided health care services to more than 5,600 people in several highly affected districts, mainly in Zindajan, which was close to the epicenter of Saturday’s quake.

Afghan hospitals, already severely underequipped and underfunded, were quickly overwhelmed. Providing shelter to quake victims on a large scale would be a challenge for the Taliban government.

“That area suffers from extreme cold, and staying outdoors for affected families after the evening is tough,” Public Health Minister Qalandar Ebad told reporters Wednesday.

“They can live in tents for one month, but beyond that, it would probably be very difficult,” he said.

The government has provided medicine, equipment, food, drinking water, tents, and other necessities for the victims but they still need more help, Ebad said. He praised international aid organizations for supporting his government in bringing much-needed relief goods to quake victims.

Taliban chief spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said that several countries had also sent relief items to displaced families in Herat.
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Award-winning Indian author Arundhati Roy is facing prosecution after giving a speech 13 years ago, disputing the idea that Kashmir is an integral part of India.

The initial complaint was filed by a Kashmir activist following Roy’s speech in 2010, in which she and three others spoke at a conference and criticized India’s policy toward Kashmir.

Under Indian law, crimes of hate speech, sedition, and promoting enmity need approval from Indian officials to be prosecuted. That approval was given Wednesday, according to local media — more than a decade after the initial report was filed.

Delhi police now have permission to prosecute Roy and Central University of Kashmir professor Sheikh Showkat Hussain, under crimes of promoting enmity and making assertions prejudicial to national integration and causing public mischief, a move approved by federally-appointed lieutenant-governor, Vinai Kumar Saxena.

The other speakers named in the 2010 complaint, one a professor and the other a Kashmiri separatist leader, have since died.

Reasoning for why Saxena approved prosecution 13 years after the complaint was filed was not given in the report.

Roy, 61, a political activist as well as the 1997 Booker prize winner for fiction, has not provided a reaction to the recent developments.

The decision has faced disapproval from those opposing the current administration led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who came to power in 2014, and has since drawn criticism for its record on free speech.

Prosecuting the 2010 complaint has furthered some concerns over the current government’s free speech stances, despite the complaint being registered before Modi’s administration came to power.

“It is obvious that the LG [and his masters] have no place in their regime for tolerance or forbearance; or for that matter the essentials of democracy,” P. Chidambaram, a senior leader of the main opposition Congress party who was India’s home (interior) minister in 2010, posted on X. LG refers to Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena. 

Some information in this report was taken from Reuters.
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A strong earthquake hit western Afghanistan Wednesday, affecting the same area where an earthquake four days ago killed more than 2,000 people.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the center of the magnitude 6.3 earthquake Wednesday was about 28 kilometers northwest of the city of Herat.

There were no immediate reports of deaths from the new quake, which hit as relief and search efforts were still ongoing in the region from Saturday’s earthquake.

Many people have spent the week sleeping outside because of fear of home collapses.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters 
…

The number of people killed by Saturday’s 6.3-magnitude earthquake in Afghanistan has surpassed 2,400 as search and rescue teams extracted more bodies from the ruins of hundreds of destroyed houses, according to local officials.

“Martyrs are still under the rubble,” said Matiul Haq Khalis, president of the Afghan Red Crescent Society, after visiting the quake-affected areas in Herat province on Tuesday.

In a village located at the earthquake’s epicenter, it is reported that up to 300 bodies have been buried.

“Some are martyred, some are wounded, and some are searching for the missing ones…no one is unhurt,” Khalis said.

The country’s health ministry has reported 2,445 deaths so far, but the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) gives a lower death toll at 1,300 dead and 500 individuals missing.

At least 540 people, primarily women and children, have received treatment for injuries sustained during the quake at a hospital supported by international NGO Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).

“Most of the injured are women and children, likely because when the earthquake hit mid-morning, they were the ones at home,” MSF said in a statement on Tuesday.

The United Nations Satellite Center has released satellite images depicting extensive damage to structures in the Zindajan and Injil districts of Herat province. The majority of the houses, constructed from mud, were unable to withstand the earthquake’s force, resulting in the high casualty rate.

On the ground, a team of Iranian first responders, accompanied by search dogs, is assisting local communities in the retrieval of bodies from the wreckage, Khalis said.

Needs, response

Food, shelter and medicine are among the most urgent needs in the disaster-hit areas, aid workers say.

“It’s already too cold,” said Khalis, describing the needs of the affected people. “If their shelters are not built before the winter sets, they said, their children will face risks of death.”

Child-focused humanitarian organizations warn about severe trauma experienced by children in the aftermath of natural disasters.

“Children are particularly vulnerable and have suffered severe psychological distress due to the earthquake,” Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for OCHA, told VOA. “They require mental health and psychosocial support.”

Countries worldwide have extended their condolences, but only a few have pledged practical support so far.

Germany has pledged $5.2 million, followed by Switzerland with $4.1 million, and $3.7 million from the European Union. The Chinese Red Cross Society pledged $200,000.

Afghanistan’s neighbors, Iran and Pakistan, also have promised to send crucial supplies, including food, blankets, medicine and tents.

Additionally, the United Nations has announced allocating $5 million from the Afghanistan Humanitarian Appeal Fund to support relief efforts in Herat.

The appeal already suffers significant funding shortfalls this year as donors have pledged only $1.9 billion to the $3.2 billion call.

“This general underfunding affects all aspects of the humanitarian response in Afghanistan,” said OCHA’s Laerke.

No word about new US funds

While the United States remains the top humanitarian donor to Afghanistan, with more than $400 million contributed to the humanitarian appeal this year, the overall U.S. funding to the country has dropped markedly over the past year.

The U.S. gave more than $1.2 billion in humanitarian assistance to the country in 2022, according to the United Nations.

The U.S. has not announced any new funding in response to the quake in Herat.

“We are in close contact with our U.N. and NGO humanitarian partners who have been providing rapid response assistance since the day of the earthquake and are assessing the impact,” a spokesperson for the Department of State wrote VOA in response to questions.

U.S. forces pulled out of Afghanistan in 2021 after a 20-year fight against the Taliban.
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Analysts say Azerbaijan’s capture of the Nagorno Karabakh enclave from ethnic Armenians is the latest success of an alliance between Turkey and Azerbaijan. That alliance, observers say, is challenging Russia’s grip on the Caucasus as Moscow is distracted by its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Dorian Jones looks at the situation from Istanbul.
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While the hostilities between Israel and Hamas have raised doubts about the future of Israel’s efforts to develop ties with Saudi Arabia and the wider Muslim world, critics say the hostilities will also significantly restrict public debate in Pakistan about whether to recognize the Jewish state. 

Islamabad does not have diplomatic ties with Israel and refuses to recognize it as a sovereign country until the state of Palestine is established — a long-running policy of many Muslim-majority countries. Pakistanis cannot visit the Jewish state because their passport states it is “valid for all countries of the world except Israel.”

A debate, however, has intermittently flared up in national mainstream television channels, newspapers and social media platforms on whether the South Asian nation should reconsider its stance on Israel. The two countries have held secret meetings on security-related issues since their foreign ministers met publicly in 2005.

The latest public debate stemmed from efforts to forge ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel in line with the U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords, which enabled the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain to normalize relations with the Jewish state in 2020.

The discourse gained momentum in March when Fishel Benkhald, a Pakistani Jew in the southern port city of Karachi, revealed via his social media platform that he had successfully exported his first kosher food shipment to Jerusalem and Haifa.

Officials in Islamabad at the time said the export activity had taken place through a third country and was Benkhald’s initiative, saying it did not signal in any way the establishment of direct trade ties with Israel.

The hostilities that began Saturday appear to have shut down any further discussion of potential Israeli-Pakistani ties, at least for the time being.

“The first lesson of the Gaza war is that the so-called recognition of Israel debate or discussion in Pakistan has been buried, and rightly so,” Senator Mushahid Hussain, the defense committee chair of the upper house of the Pakistani parliament, told VOA.

“It was a nonissue, and just because some Arab countries are doing it, there was no need, no requirement for Pakistan to do so, because we have our own perspective on that, which is more long-standing and older than the Arab one,” said the influential senator.

Maleeha Lodhi, a former Pakistani ambassador to the United States and the United Nations, said the time is not ripe to explore normalization.

“In Pakistan, like other Muslim countries, public sentiments are very strong in support for the people of Palestine,” Lodhi told VOA. “Pakistan has been a steadfast supporter of the Palestinian cause. It would want to see de-escalation in the conflict.”

Pakistani Islamic groups and right-wing parties vehemently oppose forging ties with Israel over the Palestinian issue. Dozens of people staged a demonstration in Karachi this week to protest Israeli attacks on Gaza and to express solidarity with Palestinians.

The Pakistani foreign ministry took a fairly neutral stance on the war when Hamas pulled off its surprise attack against Israel Saturday, saying, “We are closely monitoring the unfolding situation in the Middle East. … We are concerned about the human cost of the escalating situation.”

The statement urged the international community “to come together for cessation of hostilities, protection of civilians and for a lasting peace in the Middle East.”

Pakistan Says ‘No Change’ on Israel Policy

Last month, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen told a national media outlet on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly session that “six or seven” Muslim countries could “make peace” with Israel if it signed a peace agreement with Saudi Arabia. He said, “Peace with Saudi Arabia means peace with the greater Muslim world.”

Cohen’s reported comments prompted Pakistani Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani to dismiss suggestions his country was among those considering regular ties with Israel.

“There is no change, nor are we contemplating a change in our policy regarding Israel. We keep our national interests supreme when we decide on any matter in Pakistan,” Jilani said at a recent news conference in Islamabad.

Pakistan has a traditionally close partnership with Saudi Arabia and received crucial Saudi financial assistance and oil supplies on deferred payments to overcome economic problems.

Ahmed Quraishi, a Pakistani political commentator and peace activist, said that the Gaza conflict could slow down progress in Arab and Muslim normalization with Israel because governments need to take into account public opinion while revisiting policies. 

“There’s no question that the escalation by the Hamas militant group hits at the heart of efforts for peace and will complicate the work of peacemakers in the region,” Quraishi told VOA. 

“However, so far, it doesn’t look like normalization will stop. If anything, Hamas has shown the urgency of integration and normalization to stop militant groups hijacking regional conflicts for terrorism and proxy agendas,” he argued. “Everyone supports Palestinian rights and rightly so, but there’s a debate in the media across the region on whether groups like Hamas are rogue militants or representatives of a cause.”

Senator Hussain criticized U.S.-led Western nations for backing Ukraine’s resistance to Russian occupation of its territory but failing to support Palestinians demanding Israel vacate their land.

“The Western countries, the Western apologists of Israel, have double standards, they have hypocritical attitudes, and their stance has nothing to do with principles,” he said. “They only use human rights and democracy when they want to weaponize it for geopolitics but not as a principled position.”

Quraishi and Benkhald were among a 15-member group of primarily Pakistani-American peace activists who undertook a rare trip to Israel last year in collaboration with an Israeli organization promoting ties with Muslim countries.

“I’m a proud Pakistani living in Pakistan And I Stand With Israel,” Benkhald said on X (formerly Twitter) after hostilities broke out on Saturday. “Hope friends of Israel and Palestinian mediate immediate stop to human suffering on both sides. There should be no provocation again to escalate and undermine peace process.”
…

Doctors attending opposition leader and former prime minister Khaleda Zia in Bangladesh her life is in danger as the government will not allow her to leave the country for urgent medical intervention abroad.

“Suffering from advanced cirrhosis of the liver, Khaleda Zia is at a high risk of dying and she urgently needs a liver transplant at a multidisciplinary advanced medical facility abroad,” Dr. Fakhruddin Mohammad Siddiqui — a member of a medical board taking care of Zia, 78 — said in a news conference in Dhaka Monday.

“A liver transplant cannot be carried out in any hospital in Bangladesh. We have exhausted all available treatment options available in Bangladesh. With her complicated medical conditions, lying in a hospital in Dhaka, she is swinging between life and death.”

The chief of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Bangladesh’s largest opposition party, two-time former prime minister Zia, who was sentenced to a 17-year jail term on convictions in two corruption cases and has been living under house arrest since 2020, is barred from leaving the country.

Last week, citing legal provisions, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina turned down an appeal from Zia’s family to allow her to travel to Germany for a liver transplant.

For decades, Zia and Hasina, chief of the ruling Awami League party, would alternate in government with metronomic regularity. They have long been each other’s archrival and were called the “Battling Begums” of Bangladesh politics.

Since 2009, when Hasina became prime minister for a second time, her party has won all national elections and she has remained in power for the past 14 years.

BNP leaders allege that the charges of corruption for which Zia was convicted and sent to jail in 2018 were false and politically motivated.

Zia’s jail term was suspended by the government in March 2020 and she was released from jail on parole, in view of the risk of her being infected with COVID-19. The sentence was suspended on the condition that in no situation she would be allowed to travel outside the country.

After Zia was released from jail in 2020, her doctors reported that her diabetic conditions had worsened further and she was suffering from ailments of the kidneys, heart and other organs. Her doctors suspected that she had not received proper medical treatment while she was in jail for over two years.

In the past two years, the family of Zia sent at least six official requests, including the one sent on September 30 (2023), seeking permission to let her travel abroad for medical treatment. All requests were rejected by Hasina.

After Zia fell very ill recently, in August she was sent to a private hospital in Dhaka for treatment.

Dr. A. Z. M. Zahid, Zia’s personal physician told VOA that the BNP chief’s health has worsened critically in recent months mostly because she could not receive the crucial medical treatment in an advanced medical facility abroad.

“High dosages of antibiotics are not working. The liver infection is causing fluid to accumulate in lungs, stomach and heart repeatedly. Dr. Zahid said Monday.

“The latest view of the medical board is that she should be taken to a multidisciplinary advanced medical facility abroad for her life-saving treatment as soon as possible, before her medical problems take a fatal turn.”

Last week Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said: “According to the country’s law, there is no scope for granting permission to BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia travel abroad.”

BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi said that Zia has been a “victim of political vengeance.”

“It appears, the government has been denying the BNP chairperson the badly needed medical treatment abroad in a conspiracy to gradually push her to death and keep her away from politics in the future,” Rizvi told VOA.
…

The Taliban have been forced to deny claims that they are trying to join Hamas fighters, after a fake post on the X social media platform claimed the Afghan militant group wants to travel to fight in the war.

Analysts say this has put the Taliban into the difficult position of publicly backing away from active support for Hamas and possibly angering some of their own cadre.

A social media account, Taliban Public Relations Department, which later changed its name to #Free Palestine, posted on Saturday that the Taliban contacted Iran, Iraq and Jordan for passage to join Hamas in the ongoing fighting between the militant group and Israel.

The post was viewed 2.5 million times and was also carried by some media outlets.

The head of the Taliban’s political office in Doha, Mohammad Suhail Shaheen, told a group of journalists in a WhatsApp group that the news was inaccurate.

“Not correct,” he wrote, in answer to a question, adding, “These are rumors, not confirmed news.”

The Taliban’s spokesperson, Zabiullah Mujahid, told VOA that the Taliban’s “foreign ministry has issued a statement, and the Taliban’s position is the same.”

The Taliban’s foreign ministry’s statement, issued Saturday, said it is “carefully monitoring the recent events in Gaza.”

“The Islamic Emirate considers every kind of defense and resistance of the people of Palestine for the freedom of the land and the holy places to be their legitimate right,” added the statement.

The fighting between Israel and Hamas started on Saturday after Hamas fighters breached the fence line along the Gaza border and entered southern Israeli towns.

Hamas was one of the first groups to congratulate the Taliban on taking power in Afghanistan in 2001.

Both groups have met several times since then.

Difficult position

Hashim Wahdatyar, a program director at the Institute of Current World Affairs in Washington, told VOA that the post on X, formerly known as Twitter, put the Taliban in a difficult position.

He said that the Taliban “tilt toward Hamas” and will provide “political, logistical and military” support to the group. Still, they will not “publicly announce” it.

“Taliban won’t publicize its support to Hamas since it has obligations according to the Doha agreement that the Taliban must prevent any threat from Afghanistan to the U.S. and its allies, for example, Israel.”

Sher Jan Ahmadzai, director of the Center for Afghanistan Studies at the University of Nebraska, said that Taliban involvement in the war would be a violation of the Doha Agreement.

“If the Taliban engage in the Palestine-Israel conflict, this would be considered a direct violation of the Doha deal,” he said.

He added that it would be “unprecedented” if the Taliban got involved in the Middle East conflict.

Ahmadzai said that the Taliban might not officially engage; however, “there might be groups of the Taliban fighters who still believe in global jihad and consider the Palestinian-Israel conflict a religious deed to be engaged in.”

‘Vocal support’

Wahid Faqiri, an Afghan political analyst, told VOA that the Taliban leadership is “trying hard to stay away from foreign involvement.”

“They know if they try to do this, the U.S. will cut all financial assistance, arm the opposition, and impose more sanctions,” said Faqiri.

The U.N. says that Afghanistan is facing the world’s largest humanitarian crisis as more than 28.3 million people, or over two-thirds of the population, are in need of humanitarian assistance.

Thomas Johnson, a research professor at the National Security Affairs Department at Naval Postgraduate School, told VOA that the Taliban’s position is “extremely anti-Israeli.”

“I just don’t know if they have the resources to really add anything to Hamas other than vocal support,” Johnson said.
…

The Taliban government and aid groups in western Afghanistan said Monday that rescue efforts were ongoing to find and recover survivors trapped under rubble, two days after a powerful earthquake and multiple aftershocks killed hundreds of people and injured many more.

The 6.3 magnitude quake hit the western province of Herat on Saturday, destroying more than a dozen villages in and around the hardest-hit remote Zinda Jan district.

Officials and witnesses said the disaster zone was twice shaken by fresh tremors Monday, rattling the provincial capital, also called Herat, and sending thousands of its residents into the streets. No losses were reported immediately.

While the Taliban government has reported at least 2,000 deaths since the calamity on Saturday, the United Nations confirmed more than 1,000 fatalities, saying nearly 1,700 injured were injured. More than 1,300 homes have reportedly been destroyed or partially damaged.

Siddiq Ibrahim, the UNICEF’s field officer for western Afghanistan, told VOA by phone from Herat that the casualties were expected to increase, saying volunteers and residents from surrounding areas were assisting Taliban teams in the rescue efforts.

“They are using very basic tools to dig up and try to see if there are any survivors or bodies underneath the rubble,” Ibrahim said after visiting some of the affected villages. “I was shocked to see that these villages have been completely wiped to the ground. There is absolutely nothing standing,” Ibrahim said.

“When the first earthquake hit, people thought it was a missile or a bomb, and they ran into their homes. Unfortunately, the quake continued, and houses started collapsing,” he said, explaining the reasons for the high number of casualties.

Ibrahim said UNICEF and partner agencies had set up tents to provide emergency medical aid to the area communities, and efforts were also under way to establish temporary schools to enable children to resume their education as soon as normalcy returns to the area.

The earthquake struck the country on the day renewed hostilities broke out in the Middle East, effectively diverting global attention from the crisis in Afghanistan.

“We need the world to keep working with us, supporting us. There are so many issues in the world, but we also need to keep giving equal attention to the children of Afghanistan who are in desperate need of aid,” Ibrahim said.

Afghanistan, an impoverished country of about 40 million people, mainly relies on foreign aid to run its economy, health care, and social services. Donor nations have cut most of the financial assistance since the hardline Taliban seized power two years ago.

The U.N. humanitarian office has announced $5 million worth of assistance for the quake response. The Taliban have urged foreign nations and international aid agencies to help in rehabilitating quake victims.

Neighboring Pakistan, Iran, and China’s Red Cross Society immediately extended cash and material aid for Afghan earthquake victims. The Taliban said Monday that a Saudi charity had provided $2 million dollars’ worth of humanitarian food and other material through the Afghan Red Crescent Society.

Monday, the head of the U.S. diplomatic mission to Afghanistan, which operates out of Qatar, applauded the U.N. for approving the funds to support emergency relief efforts.

“My heart goes out to the Afghan people following the earthquakes in Herat province on Saturday and today. U.S. partners have already started to distribute hygiene kits, food, safe drinking water, and medical supplies to affected families in Afghanistan,” Charge d’affaires Karen Decker said on X, formerly Twitter.

In a statement Monday, Amnesty International urged Taliban authorities to guarantee safe and unrestricted access to the quake-hit regions for humanitarian agencies.

“People in Afghanistan are already suffering from the impacts of the acute economic crisis and several years of conflict,” said Zaman Sultani, the global watchdog’s regional researcher for South Asia.

“With the winter months ahead, Amnesty International calls on the de facto authorities and the international community to immediately mobilize resources to support access to housing, adequate food, potable water, safe sanitation, and health care as thousands of families face an uncertain future with their homes destroyed by the earthquake,” Sultani said.

The Taliban have banned humanitarian groups from employing Afghan female staff and ordered many women government employees to stay home since taking control of the country. Aid agencies say restricting women employees has hampered their humanitarian activities in the deeply conservative society.

Teenage girls are forbidden from receiving an education beyond the sixth grade across Afghanistan, prompting the world to isolate the Taliban and refuse to recognize their government.
…