As China marks 10 years of its global Belt and Road Initiative, VOA’s Pakistan bureau chief Sarah Zaman looks at why one of the BRI’s biggest projects, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, failed to spur substantial economic growth in Pakistan despite boosting its infrastructure.
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Air force helicopters were able to land Monday to rescue people in India’s Himalayan northeast after a 6-year-old hydroelectric dam cracked open last week in intense rain, flooding a valley with glacial lake water and washing away bridges and homes as thousands fled.

Police said rescuers have found 52 bodies so far, and the search was continuing while around a 100 people are still missing. As weather conditions improved in Sikkim state, helicopters arrived in the worst-hit Mangan district to help some 3,000 stranded tourists.

The design and placement of the Teesta 3 dam, the biggest hydroelectric dam in Sikkim state, were controversial from the time it was built. A 2019 report identified Lhonak Lake as “highly vulnerable” to flooding that could breach dams and cause extensive damage.

It wasn’t clear what triggered the deadly flood that began early Wednesday, the latest to hit northeast India in a year of unusually heavy monsoon rains. Experts say possible contributors were the intense rain and a 6.2-magnitude earthquake that struck neighboring Nepal on Tuesday afternoon.

The flood began when the glacial lake overflowed, cracking open the Teesta 3 dam. The icy waters then cascaded through towns in the valley below, carrying some bodies kilometers (miles) downstream, where they were found in the neighboring state of West Bengal and in Bangladesh.

On Sunday evening, as the skies cleared and rains subsided, 89 tourists stranded by washed-out roads were airlifted out of northern Sikkim. Some 10 tourists, including five Thai nationals, were able to trek to safety with assistance from rescuers. Police said Monday they would continue to fly the helicopters if the weather permits.

The flood destroyed multiple bridges, hit pipelines and damaged hundreds of houses in northern Sikkim. Of 23 Indian soldiers reported missing earlier, officials say one was rescued and nine were confirmed to have died, while the search for the others continued.

There is no land access or mobile connectivity in the area, complicating rescue efforts and sharing of information. Thousands of people are sheltering in relief camps set up by the state.

Experts say the flooding disaster underscores a climate dilemma that pits local environmental activists who believe dams in the Himalayas are too dangerous against Indian authorities pursuing green energy agenda.

Despite risks to dams due to the increasing frequency of extreme weather, the Indian federal government aims to increase India’s hydroelectric dam output by half, to 70,000 megawatts, by 2030.

Several towns, including Dikchu and Rangpo in the Teesta basin, were flooded. 

Rangpo resident Muhammad Karim has been searching for his father, brother and sister-in-law for five days. “I am clueless. … I have asked the police for help, but there’s been no progress so far,” he said.

Homes and buildings in the town were covered by mud as excavators dug through debris to recover bodies over the weekend.

Disasters caused by landslides and floods are common in India’s Himalayan region during the June-September monsoon season. Scientists say they are becoming more frequent as global warming contributes to the melting of glaciers there.

Himalayan glaciers could lose 80% of their volume if global warming isn’t controlled, according to a report from the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development. 
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The Tehran Stock Exchange saw a sharp decline on the second day of fighting between Israel and Hamas militants, with the overall index plummeting approximately 51,000 points.

According to the ISNA news agency prominent companies, including Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industries, Esfahan Oil Refining, Parsian Oil and Gas Development, Bandar Abbas Oil Refining, and Mapna Group, were at the forefront of stock market transactions and all experienced a decline Sunday.

The over-the-counter market’s composite index also stalled with a 659-point drop, closing at 25,025 units.

Economist Siamak Ghasemi attributed the stock market’s decline to a “clear indication of a substantial surge in systemic risk in Iran.” In a message on the ‘X’ messaging platform (formerly Twitter), he said that Hamas’ attack on Israel and the onset of a new conflict are the most critical systemic economic risks in Iran, and possibly the entire Middle East, this year.

Following Saturday’s attack by Hamas, which enjoys the support of the Islamic Republic, the foreign currency exchange market in Iran saw an uptick, with the U.S. dollar reaching 52,250 Iranian tomans at the time of this report, up from 51,500 Iranian tomans a few hours earlier.

The dollar’s price surpassing 51,000 tomans broke the previous high of 49,000 tomans, which had been consistent in recent months despite assurances from Iranian  officials of a declining trend in the second half of the year.

According to Iranian domestic news sources, in Tehran’s gold and coin exchanges the price of Bahar Azadi gold coins surged from approximately 28 million tomans to over 30 million tomans.
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Men dug through rubble with their bare hands and shovels in western Afghanistan Sunday in desperate attempts to pull victims from the wreckage left by powerful earthquakes that killed at least 2,000 people.

Entire villages were flattened, bodies were trapped under collapsed houses and locals waited for help without even shovels to dig people out.

Living and dead, victims were trapped under rubble, their faces grey with dust. A government spokesman said Sunday that hundreds were still trapped, more than 1,000 hurt and more than 1,300 homes destroyed.

“Most people were shocked … some couldn’t even talk. But there were others who couldn’t stop crying and shouting,” photographer Omid Haqjoo, who visited four villages Sunday, told The Associated Press by phone from Afghanistan’s fourth largest city, Herat.

Saturday’s magnitude 6.3 earthquake hit a densely populated area near Herat. It was followed by strong aftershocks.

A Taliban government spokesman on Sunday provided the toll that, if confirmed, would make it one of the deadliest earthquakes to strike the country in two decades.

An earthquake that hit eastern Afghanistan in June 2022, striking a rugged, mountainous region, wiped out stone and mud-brick homes and killed at least 1,000 people.

People in Herat freed a baby girl from a collapsed building after she was buried up to her neck in debris. A hand cradled the baby’s torso as rescuers eased the child out of the ground. Rescuers said it was the baby’s mother. It was not clear if the mother survived. The video was shared online and verified by The Associated Press.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake’s epicenter was about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of Herat. It was followed by three very strong aftershocks, measuring magnitude 6.3, 5.9 and 5.5, as well as lesser shocks.

With much of the world wary of dealing directly with the Taliban government and focused on the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, Afghanistan hasn’t received an immediate global response. Almost 36 hours after the first earthquake hit Herat province, there have been no planes of aid flying in, no specialists.

Aid agencies and nongovernmental groups have appealed for the international community to come forward but only a handful of countries have publicly offered support, neighboring China and Pakistan among them.

The International Rescue Committee warned that the lack of rescue equipment could push up the death toll in western Afghanistan because trapped survivors cannot be freed.

“There’s not much disaster management capacity and what there is can’t cover people on the ground,” said Salma Ben Aissa, the committee’s country director for Afghanistan. “The numbers (of dead) are increasing hour by hour.”

People injured in the quake on Saturday can’t get the treatment they need because of poor medical infrastructure so they are losing their lives. A lack of food, shelter and clean water are increasing the health risks among communities.

Ben Aissa’s colleague, Jawed Niamati, said Herat city is empty. People are sleeping in the open air, on roadsides and in parks, because they fear more quakes. Temperatures drop to 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit) at night, he said.

The world rushed in aid after an earthquake rocked Syria and Turkey this year, killing tens of thousands of people.

Abdul Wahid Rayan, a spokesman at the Ministry of Information and Culture, said Sunday that hundreds of civilians were buried under the debris in Herat, and he called for urgent help.

At least a dozen teams have been scrambled to help with rescue efforts, including from the military and nonprofit organizations like the Red Crescent.

The United Nations migration agency deployed four ambulances with doctors and psychosocial support counselors to the regional hospital. At least three mobile health teams were on their way to the Zenda Jan district, which is one of the worst-hit areas.

Doctors Without Borders set up five medical tents at Herat Regional Hospital to accommodate up to 80 patients. Authorities have treated more than 300 patients, according to the agency. UNICEF dispatched thousands of supplies, including winter clothes, blankets and tarpaulins as temperatures dropped.

Irfanullah Sharafzai, a spokesman for the Afghan Red Crescent Society, said seven teams were busy with rescue efforts while others were arriving from eight nearby provinces. They set up a temporary camp for the displaced, Sharafzai said.

Some aid groups, like the World Food Program, were already on the scene with essential items.

Later Sunday, people from surrounding villages brought equipment to support rescue efforts.

The first quake was the strongest, causing the most damage and casualties, photographer Haqjoo said, quoting survivors.

Save the Children said the scale of the damage was horrific. “The numbers affected by this tragedy are truly disturbing – and those numbers will rise as people are still trapped in the rubble of their homes in Herat,” said the aid group’s country director for Afghanistan, Arshad Malik. “This is a crisis on top of a crisis. Even before this disaster, children were suffering from a devastating lack of food.”

He called for an “urgent injection” of money from the international community.

Neighboring Pakistan said it was in contact with Afghan authorities to get an assessment of the urgent needs.

China’s ambassador to Afghanistan, Zhao Xing, said his government and the country’s charitable institutions were ready to provide all kinds of help. “We are in contact with Afghan government aid agencies to provide aid to the needy,” he said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Afghan cricket star Rashid Khan is donating all his Cricket World Cup fees to help Herat’s earthquake survivors. “Soon, we will be launching a fundraising campaign to call upon those who can support the people in need,” he told his 1.9 million followers on X.

Japan’s ambassador to Afghanistan, Takashi Okada, expressed his condolences on the social media platform X, saying he was “deeply grieved and saddened to learn the news of earthquake in Herat province.”
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More than two thousand people have died in western Afghanistan following earthquakes and aftershocks, two with a magnitude of six-point-three magnitude, according to a Taliban spokesperson. The United Nations says hundreds of homes have been destroyed. As VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports, those numbers are expected to rise. A warning, this story contains sensitive content that some viewers may find disturbing.
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At least 77 people are confirmed dead in the floods that hit India’s northeast, authorities said Sunday, with destroyed roads and bridges leaving thousands more still cut off despite waters receding.

Violent torrents struck Sikkim state on Wednesday after a high-altitude glacial lake suddenly burst.

Scientists warn that similar disasters will become an increasing danger across the Himalayas as global temperatures rise and ice melts, spurred by climate change.

“A total of 29 bodies have been retrieved from different parts of Sikkim,” state relief commissioner Anilraj Rai told AFP by phone. 

In neighbouring West Bengal state, Jalpaiguri district police told AFP that another 48 bodies had been recovered.

More than 100 people are still missing, according to official figures. 

Water levels along the Teesta river “returned to normal” four days after the floods hit, an official from Sikkim’s state disaster control room told AFP.

The office said more than 2,500 people stranded in the floods had been rescued.

But evacuations have been complicated by the destruction of roads, bridges and telephone lines across much of Sikkim.

Another 3,000 people were still stranded in several relief camps in the state’s north with airlift rescues delayed by bad weather, the office said.

More than 1,200 houses were damaged by the floods, according to the state government.

Loose ordnance

Among the dead were eight Indian army soldiers posted to Sikkim, which sits on India’s remote frontiers with Nepal and China and boasts a sizeable military presence.

India’s defense ministry said in a Saturday statement that the floods had washed away “firearms and explosives” from military camps.

Local media reports on Friday said that two people had been killed and four others injured by a mortar shell that exploded while flowing through the flood waters in West Bengal.

The water surge came after intense rainfall burst the high-altitude Lhonak Lake, which sits at the base of a glacier in peaks surrounding the world’s third-highest mountain, Kangchenjunga.

Water powered downstream, adding to a river already swollen by monsoon rains, damaging a dam and sweeping away houses.

Himalayan glaciers are melting faster than ever due to climate change, exposing communities to unpredictable and costly disasters, according to the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) research group.

“The root cause is climate change,” ICIMOD’s Arun Bhakta Shrestha told AFP on Thursday. “Similar glacial lake outbursts flood events are very likely.”

Earth’s average surface temperature has risen nearly 1.2 degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times but high-mountain regions around the world have warmed at twice that pace, climate scientists say.
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If stones could talk, sing and tell stories, Yogi Trivedi believes the marble and limestone that adorn the spires, pillars and archways of the stunning Hindu temple in central New Jersey would compose a paean to the divine.

The tales these stones tell are those of seva (selfless service) and bhakti (devotion), which form the core of the Swaminarayan sect, a branch of Hinduism, said Trivedi, a scholar of Hinduism at Columbia University.

It took a combined total of about 4.7 million hours of work by artisans and volunteers to hand-carve about 600,000 cubic meters of stone. The four varieties of marble from Italy and limestone from Bulgaria traveled first to India and then nearly 13,000 kilometers across the world to New Jersey.

They were then fitted together like a giant jigsaw to create what is now touted as the largest Hindu temple outside India to be built in the modern era, standing on a 126-acre tract. It will open to the public Monday.

The largest temple complex in the world is the Ankgor Wat, originally constructed in the 12th century in Krong Siem Reap, Cambodia, and dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu by King Suryavarman II. It is now described as a Hindu-Buddhist temple and is one of 1,199 UNESCO World Heritage sites.

The Robbinsville temple is one of many built by the Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha or BAPS, a worldwide religious and civic organization within the Swaminarayan sect.

“Service and devotion are the two basic elements that form the subtle foundation of how a temple so majestic gets built here in central New Jersey,” said Trivedi, who studies the Swaminarayan faith tradition and follows it.

This temple will be the third Akshardham or “abode of the divine” the organization has built after two others in New Delhi and Gujarat, where BAPS is headquartered. The former is the largest Hindu temple complex in the world. The sect, which will celebrate its 50th year in North America next year, oversees more than 1,200 temples and 3,850 centers around the world.

The New Jersey Akshardham, which has been in the works for about 12 years, came under scrutiny and criticism after a 2021 civil lawsuit alleging forced labor, meager wages and grim working conditions.

Twelve of the 19 plaintiffs have now retracted their allegations and the lawsuit is on hold pending an investigation “with which BAPS continues to cooperate fully,” Trivedi said. 

The complaint alleges that those exploited were Dalits or members of the former untouchable caste in India. Caste is an ancient system of social hierarchy based on one’s birth that is tied to concepts of purity and social status.

The case continues to raise questions among activists fighting caste discrimination and those advocating for workers’ rights, about the blurred lines between uncompensated work and the concept of selfless service, which followers of the faith say constitutes their core belief.

Trivedi said these allegations weighed heavily on community members because their faith has always taught them “to see the divine in all and love and serve them as manifestations of the divine.” He said Pramukh Swami Maharaj, the sect’s fifth spiritual successor, who envisioned such a temple campus in the United States, was a progressive guru who cared deeply about social equality.

“Caste and class do not divide us,” Trivedi said.

The temple project brought forth volunteerism and service, which like the sculptor’s chisel, chip away people’s egos and prime them to learn, he said.

“In that learning, one becomes a better person within and that is the end goal of seva,” Trivedi said. “It’s not just to give to the community or build these (ornate structures), but to better oneself.”

He said the temple would not have been possible without the service of thousands of volunteers many of whom took time off school and work to serve in different capacities. This might be the first Hindu temple where women were involved in the actual temple construction under the artisans’ supervision, he added.

This week, families from across the country have been streaming into the temple campus to get a sneak peek. Devotees bowed to each other and to monks in saffron robes. As the sun set, two men in white robes performed a ceremony in front of the 49-foot-tall statue of the Bhagwan Nilkanth Varni, who later became known as Bhagwan Swaminarayan, the founder of the sect who ushered in a moral and spiritual renaissance in western India.

Avani Patel was visiting from Atlanta with her husband and their two children, ages 11 and 15. She knelt inside the temple and marveled at the ornate ceiling, her hands folded in prayer.

“It’s jaw dropping, mind blowing,” she said.

Patel said she and her husband, Pritesh, were among the volunteers who gave their time to create the complex, and she is proud to be a part of an organization that would build such a resource to pass on these values to posterity.

Trivedi said he does not view the temple “just as a Hindu place of worship.”

“It’s not even just Indian or Indian American,” he said, adding that the temple stands for universal values that can be found in every religious text and in the hearts and minds of great thinkers and leaders of every era.

“What we’ve tried to do is express these universal values in a way that relate to all visitors.” 
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The United Nations said Saturday that a strong earthquake struck western Afghanistan, killing at least 100 people and injuring 500 others.

The epicenter of the magnitude 6.3 quake was located near Zinda Jan, a district in the central part of the Afghan province of Herat, bordering Iran.

At least eight powerful aftershocks rattled the province within five hours and affected villages across three districts, said the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. It described as serious the condition of many of those injured.

“More than 600 houses were partially or fully damaged. At least 4,200 people [600 families] have been affected. Additionally, an estimated 300 families, or 2,100 people, are reported to have been displaced, the U.N. agency said

“In coordination with the health authorities, the World Health Organization [WHO] Country Office in Kabul and the WHO Field Office in Herat rapidly mobilized resources and extended immediate life-saving support for the affected population,” the statement noted.

Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities said rescue teams were busy retrieving victims from under the rubble and transporting them to hospitals or safety.

In June 2022, a powerful earthquake in the eastern parts of the impoverished South Asian nation killed more than 1,000 people.

Afghanistan has faced prolonged conflict and natural disasters, including flooding, drought and earthquakes, leading to one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises. The U.N. estimates that two-thirds of the country’s population is in need of aid.

The hardline Taliban seized control of the country two years ago. They imposed sweeping restrictions on women’s access to education and work per their strict interpretation of Islamic law The de facto rulers have also barred women from working for aid groups, hampering humanitarian activities in Afghanistan.

No country has recognized the Taliban government, citing human rights concerns and their treatment of women.
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Rescuers found more bodies overnight as they dug through slushy debris and ice-cold water in a hunt for survivors after a glacial lake burst through a dam in India’s Himalayan northeast, washing away houses and bridges and forcing thousands to flee.

Officials said the hundreds of rescuers recovered six more bodies early Saturday, bringing the death toll to 47. At least 150 people were still missing.

The flood began shortly after midnight Wednesday, when the waters of a glacial lake overflowed, cracking open the biggest hydroelectric dam in Sikkim state. The icy waters then cascaded through towns in the valley below, where it killed scores of people and carried some bodies kilometers away downstream, where they were found in the neighboring state of West Bengal and Bangladesh, police said.

Disasters caused by landslides and floods are common in India’s Himalayan region during the June-September monsoon season. Scientists say they are becoming more frequent as global warming contributes to the melting of glaciers there.

Police said nearly 4,000 tourists were stranded in two locations, Lachung and Lachen in the northern part of the state, where access was severely restricted as the floods had washed away roads. Bad weather has made rescue efforts more challenging, with authorities unable to deploy helicopters to assist those stuck in vulnerable areas.

Some 3,900 people are currently in 26 relief camps set up by the state, Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang said on Saturday. Out of the 23 Indian army soldiers who were earlier reported missing, one had been rescued and eight had died, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said, adding that search operations were carrying on.

It wasn’t clear what triggered the deadly flood in the mountainous Sikkim state, the latest to hit northeast India in a year of unusually heavy monsoon rains. Nearly 50 people died in flash floods and landslides in August in nearby Himachal Pradesh state.

In July, record rains killed more than 100 people over two weeks in northern India.

Experts pointed to intense rain and a 6.2 magnitude earthquake that struck nearby Nepal on Tuesday afternoon as possible contributors.

But the disaster also underscores a climate dilemma that pits local environmental activists who say dams in the Himalayas are too dangerous against authorities pursuing a national green energy agenda.

The design and placement of the six-year-old Teesta 3 dam, the largest in Sikkim state, were controversial from the time it was built. A 2019 report compiled by the Sikkim State Disaster Management Authority identified Lhonak Lake as “highly vulnerable” to flooding that could breach dams and cause extensive damage to life and property.

Despite risks to dams due to the increasing frequency of extreme weather, the Indian federal government aims to increase India’s hydroelectric dam output by half, to 70,000 megawatts, by 2030.

Prakash Chetri, an employee of the Teesta 3 dam operator, was working at the site when he and others were told that water levels were increasing and they should evacuate. Nearly an hour later, “we saw a lot of water — the whole dam was filled with water,” he said, adding that while he was lucky to escape, 14 others who worked with him were still missing.

“I was running to save my life. … In those moments, I thought this was the last day of my life,” Chetri said.

Eleven bridges in the Lachen Valley were washed away by the floodwaters, which also hit pipelines and damaged or destroyed more than 270 houses in four districts, officials said on Friday.

Several towns, including Dikchu and Rangpo in the Teesta basin, were flooded, and schools in four districts were ordered shut until Sunday, the state’s education department said. The floods also hit several army camps, burying vehicles in feet of mud, according to images released by the Indian military.

Himalayan glaciers could lose 80% of their volume if global warming isn’t controlled, according to a report from the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development.

Last month, dam breaches caused by Storm Daniel caused devastating damage to the city of Derna in Libya.

In February 2021, flash floods killed nearly 200 people and washed away houses in Uttarakhand state in northern India.
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At least 15 people were killed and 40 injured after earthquakes struck western Afghanistan on Saturday, a disaster management official told Reuters.

The figures are based on primary reports from the Zinda Jan district of Herat province, said Mullah Jan Sayeq, spokesperson for Afghanistan’s ministry of disaster management.
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The United Nations agencies for migration and refugee protection Saturday jointly appealed to Pakistan to suspend plans to deport undocumented Afghan immigrants, warning they could be at imminent risk back in Afghanistan.

The appeal comes after Pakistan Tuesday ordered all immigrants in the country illegally, including some 1.7 million Afghan nationals, to leave by Nov. 1 or face deportation to their native countries. Many families have already left for Afghanistan to avoid arrest and forcible deportation, with the Pakistani information ministry issuing a daily countdown to remind those covered by the policy that days are running out for them.

“Afghanistan is going through a severe humanitarian crisis with several human rights challenges, particularly for women and girls,” said a joint statement from the International Organization for Migration and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. “Such plans would have serious implications for all who have been forced to leave the country and may face serious protection risks upon return,” it added.

Immigrants facing deportation included hundreds of thousands of families who fled Afghanistan after the hardline Taliban returned to power in Kabul in August 2021 and imposed sweeping restrictions on women’s access to education and work.

The U.N. statement recognized Islamabad’s “sovereign prerogative” over its domestic policies, the need to manage populations on Pakistani territory, and its obligations to ensure public safety and security.

The IOM and UNHCR, while appreciating Pakistan’s “generous hospitality” toward Afghan nationals for over four decades, despite challenges, repeated the call for all returns to be voluntary, safe, dignified, and without any pressure.

“The forced repatriation of Afghan nationals has the potential to result in severe human rights violations, including the separation of families and deportation of minors,” warned the U.N. agencies.

The warning comes a day after Pakistan pledged to repatriate all immigrants in the country illegally, including Afghans, in a “phased and orderly” manner instead of deportations.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch told reporters Friday that the decision to expel the migrants was in line with Pakistan’s laws and that the government was determined to enforce them.

Baloch said that the crackdown was not directed against Afghans only, saying the plan would target all foreigners who were overstaying their visas and did not possess valid documentation.

“This policy will apply to all individuals of all nationalities, and there is no discrimination in that respect,” she said. Baloch underscored that the campaign would not target the 1.4 million Afghan refugees in the country legally and hosted by Pakistan for years.

Pakistan has cited growing incidents of terrorism for ordering the undocumented Afghans to leave the country, saying that Afghan nationals carried out 14 out of 24 suicide bombings in the country this year.

Taliban authorities in Afghanistan have denounced the deportation of Afghans as “inhumane” and called for Pakistan to review the decision, saying the unauthorized immigrants are not involved in the security challenges facing Pakistan. They said Kabul is not allowing anyone to use Afghan soil against neighboring countries.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Baloch asserted Friday that militants linked to the outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, are orchestrating terrorism against the country from Afghan sanctuaries. She said the issue is under discussion with Afghan officials.

“We believe that there are hideouts and sanctuaries of TTP inside Afghanistan. Many of the terrorist incidents that we have seen in recent weeks and months have connections with elements inside Afghanistan,” she said. 
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Maldives President-elect Mohamed Muizzu’s election victory has put South Asian countries’ attempted balancing act between China and India into the global spotlight.

Muizzu is known as a pro-China politician, and analysts predict he will try to institute some pro-China policies. At the same time, they think India’s active presence in the Indian Ocean archipelago will force Muizzu to strike a delicate balance between Beijing and New Delhi.

“Muizzu tapped into the anti-India sentiment [during the campaign] and he certainly will try to distance his government from India to some extent, but I don’t think this means he is going to jump onto the China bandwagon,” David Brewster, a senior Australian National University research fellow, told VOA by phone.

“India’s interests are much broader and deeper across the Maldives. In the security sphere, India is building a new coast guard base near Maldives’ capital, Malé, and they also have various projects around the Maldives,” he added.

While it remains to be seen what actions Muizzu will take to fulfill his campaign promises under the “India Out” slogan, Brewster said he thinks India’s deep involvement in Maldives will make Muizzu feel “restrained and act cautiously.”

Muizzu, backed by a coalition that calls for closer ties with China, won Maldives’ presidential runoff September 30, beating incumbent president Ibrahim Solih by winning 54% of the vote.

The election was viewed as a virtual referendum on China’s and India’s influence on Maldives. Muizzu vowed to reduce India’s presence in Maldives by removing the 75 Indian military personnel stationed in the archipelago.

At an event celebrating his electoral victory on Monday, Muizzu said he would stick to his campaign promise. “We will send back foreign soldiers in the Maldives,” he told a group of supporters.

Traditionally, India views Maldives as part of its sphere of influence in the Indian Ocean, and under outgoing President Solih, who adopted an “India First” foreign policy since coming to power in 2018, New Delhi has kept a small group of soldiers in the country for “humanitarian purposes.”

In addition to the regular military presence, India has provided Maldives with defense-related facilities and equipment in recent decades, including a military hospital, a coastal surveillance radar system, and the Greater Malé Connectivity Project, a $500 million infrastructure project connecting Malé with several nearby islands.

However, Muizzu’s party has voiced concerns about the two countries’ elevated security ties.

“The argument that Muizzu’s party put forward was that India was infringing on Maldives’ territorial integrity by stationing 75 Indian military personnel on one of the islands,” said Yogesh Joshi, an expert on South Asian affairs at the National University of Singapore, by phone.

Despite growing skepticism toward India in Maldives, some experts say they think Muizzu will have to consider other factors, such as infrastructure projects supported by India, when he decides how to manage Maldives’ relationship with New Delhi.

“There are more things that Muizzu has to consider, and this process will have a sobering effect on him when he takes over the office soon,” Srikanth Kondapalli, professor of China studies at India’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, told VOA by phone.

As for India’s government, Brewster said he thinks it will continue projects it initiated under the previous government, including the connectivity project and the new coast guard base, while working out a new approach to engage with Muizzu’s administration.

In a brief statement on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Muizzu on his election victory and vowed to keep strengthening bilateral ties with the Maldives.

While India has enhanced cooperation with Maldives over the last five years, China has been expanding its presence in the Indian Ocean archipelago since 2010.

Beijing funded a number of infrastructure projects under its Belt and Road Initiative, causing Maldives to owe $935 million in sovereign guarantees to Chinese companies and another $600 million to the Chinese government, according to figures shared by Maldives Foreign Ministry in 2019.

Since Muizzu will likely focus on reviving economic ties with China, Brewster said he thinks his government should carefully weigh the risks and benefits of such an attempt.

“I’m not sure to what extent Muizzu will reopen the floodgate to major Chinese infrastructure projects, but [since] Maldives is still highly indebted, any additional amount of debt that the country takes on will be a real problem for them,” he told VOA.

As for Beijing, Joshi said he thinks it will try to reduce India’s involvement and present Maldives as a shining example of the Belt and Road Initiative.

“China would like to capitalize on the domestic political change in Maldives,” he told VOA. “They will try to not only recover its lost space but also consolidate its security and economic presence in the country.”

Following Muizzu’s victory, Chinese leader Xi Jinping congratulated him Tuesday, saying that he attaches great importance to the development of bilateral relations between Maldives and China and stands ready to work with Muizzu to carry forward the friendship.

Despite his seemingly pro-China and India-skeptical stance, Brewster said he thinks Muizzu will try to play a balancing act between India and China rather than tilting too much toward Beijing.

“He will maintain the primacy of India in foreign policy and security while also reopening economic links with China,” he told VOA, adding that such a balancing act has been a common approach adopted by other South Asian countries, including Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

While Muizzu’s victory may suggest a recalibration of Maldives’ foreign policy approach to some extent, Brewster said he thinks it will not significantly affect the competition between China and India in South Asia.

“I don’t think this election adds anything different,” he told VOA. “In each South Asian country, there is a pendulum that seems to swing back and forth between tilting towards India or tilting towards China, and that exact dynamic has been playing out throughout the region. This is just another swing of the pendulum in Maldives,” he said. 
…

Pakistan said Friday that it would deport all undocumented immigrants, including 1.7 million Afghans, in a “phased and orderly” manner, as it sought to allay fears of mass arrests and deportations.

On Tuesday, the government ordered all foreigners residing illegally in Pakistan to return to their respective countries by November 1 or face deportation, a move Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers swiftly decried as “inhumane.” Global human rights groups also called on Pakistani authorities to review the decision.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch defended the policy Friday while responding to the criticism, saying that the decision to expel illegal migrants was in line with “our sovereign domestic laws,” and that the government was determined to enforce them.

Baloch told reporters in Islamabad the crackdown was not directed against Afghans only, saying it would target all foreigners who were overstaying their visas and did not possess valid documentation.

“This policy will apply to all individuals of all nationalities, and there is no discrimination in that respect,” she said. Baloch underscored that the campaign would not target the 1.4 million legal Afghan refugees hosted by Pakistan for years.

“The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in Pakistan has registered them, and they are considered documented individuals,” she said.

Departures begin

Baloch and independent sources confirmed Friday that many immigrant families had “voluntarily” started leaving for Afghanistan.

Pakistan has hosted millions of Afghan refugees who fled the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and the subsequent Afghan civil war.

However, many returned to their native country after the United States and its allies invaded Afghanistan in 2001 to punish the Taliban rulers at the time for harboring al-Qaida leaders blamed for plotting deadly terrorist strikes on U.S. cities.

A fresh wave of Afghan refugees hit Pakistan after the hard-line Taliban seized power from an American-backed government in Kabul in August 2021.

Pakistani officials estimate they have since received about 700,000 Afghans fleeing the Islamist Taliban’s return to power and deteriorating economic conditions in the country.

Nearly 200,000 have been or are being relocated to the U.S. and Europe in recognition of their services to U.S.-led international forces during their two-decade presence in Afghanistan.

About 500,000 more Afghans entered Pakistan illegally, or their visas have expired, and they are among those facing deportation, according to officials.

Pakistani Interior Minister Sarfaraz Bugti, while announcing the crackdown against illegal migrants on Tuesday, cited growing terrorist attacks in the country. Bugti blamed militants operating out of Afghan sanctuaries for the deadly violence. He claimed that Afghan nationals had carried out 14 of 24 suicide bombings in Pakistan this year.

Baloch reiterated Friday that the outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, was orchestrating the cross-border terrorism and said her government was discussing the issue with de facto Afghan authorities.

“We believe that there are hideouts and sanctuaries of TTP inside Afghanistan. Many of the terrorist incidents that we have seen in recent weeks and months have connections with elements inside Afghanistan,” she said.

“Pakistan’s concerns have been very clearly communicated to the Afghan side, and we have asked them to disarm these entities and rein in so that Afghan territory does not become a launching pad for terrorist attacks in Pakistan.”

The Taliban reject allegations they allow TTP or any other group to use Afghan soil against other countries, including Pakistan.
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Police in New Delhi have arrested the editor of a news website and one of its administrators after raiding the homes of journalists working for the site, which has been critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist-led government.

NewsClick founder and editor Prabir Purkayastha and human resources chief Amit Chakravarty were arrested late Tuesday. Earlier, some journalists associated with the site were detained and had their digital devices seized during extensive raids that were part of an investigation into whether the news outlet had received funds from China. NewsClick denied any financial misconduct.

Suman Nalwa, a police spokesperson, said the arrests were made under an anti-terrorism law.

The government has used the wide-ranging law to stifle dissent and to jail activists, journalists and Modi’s critics, some of whom have spent years in jail before going to trial.

Nalwa said at least 46 people were questioned during the raids and their devices, including laptops and cellphones, and documents were taken away for examination.

They included current and former employees, freelance contributors and cartoonists.

Website accused of ‘anti-India agenda’

NewsClick was founded in 2009 and is seen as a rare Indian news outlet willing to criticize Modi. It was also raided by Indian financial enforcement officials in 2021, after which a court blocked the authorities from taking any “coercive measures” against the website.

Indian authorities brought a case against the site and its journalists on August 17, weeks after a report in The New York Times alleged it had received funds from an American millionaire who had funded the spread of “Chinese propaganda.”

That same month, India’s junior minister for information and broadcasting, Anurag Thakur, accused NewsClick of spreading an “anti-India agenda,” citing The New York Times report, and of working with the opposition Indian National Congress party. Both NewsClick and the Congress party denied the accusations.

Hundreds protest raids

On Wednesday, hundreds of journalists and activists in New Delhi held protests against the raids on NewsClick and the broader crackdown on independent media under Modi. Some carried placards with slogans such as, “Stop attacks on media. Stop threatening media.”

“Anybody who speaks against the regime is deemed to be anti-national,” said Manini Chatterjee, a journalist who was part of one protest. “This has been a long-term strategy, and these events are the latest in this.”

Media watchdogs such as the Committee to Protect Journalists denounced the arrests and raids.

“This is the latest attack on press freedom in India,” Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator, said in a statement. “We urge the Indian government to immediately cease these actions, as journalists must be allowed to work without fear of intimidation or reprisal.”

The Editors Guild of India said it was worried the raids were intended to “create a general atmosphere of intimidation under the shadow of draconian laws.”

In February, authorities searched the BBC’s New Delhi and Mumbai offices over accusations of tax evasion a few days after it broadcast a documentary in Britain that examined Modi’s role in anti-Muslim riots in 2002.

A number of other news organizations also have been investigated for financial impropriety. Independent media in India battle censorship and harassment and often face arrests while doing their work.

‘Nothing to fear,’ says journalist

India’s anti-terrorism law has stringent requirements for bail, which mean individuals often spend months, sometimes years, in custody without being found guilty. Successive Indian governments have invoked the law, but it has been used with increasing frequency in recent years.

Reporters Without Borders, an advocacy group for journalists, ranked India 161st in its press freedom rankings this year, writing that the situation has deteriorated from “problematic” to “very bad.”

Some independent Indian think tanks and international groups such as Amnesty International and Oxfam India also have been raided and had their access to funding blocked in recent years.

Journalist Abhisar Sharma, whose house was raided and electronic devices seized Tuesday, said he won’t back down from doing his job.

“Nothing to fear,” Sharma wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “And I will keep questioning people in power and particularly those who are afraid of simple questions.”

The raids against NewsClick also drew criticism from India’s political opposition.

“These are not the actions of a ‘mother of democracy’ but of an insecure and autocratic state,” opposition lawmaker Shashi Tharoor wrote on X. “The government has disgraced itself and our democracy today.”
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Pakistan’s recent crackdown against Afghan refugees living illegally in the country has sparked fear among those residing legally in the southern city of Karachi. VOA’s Sidra Dar introduces us to one Afghan and his troubles with the Pakistani police in this story narrated by Bezhan Hamdard. Camera: Khalil Ahmed. Contributor: Nazrana Ghaffar Yousufzai
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A flood that burst through a major hydroelectric dam in India’s Himalayan northeast killed at least 31 people, officials said Friday, as ice-cold water swept through mountain towns, washing away houses and bridges and forcing thousands of people to leave their homes.

The flood began shortly after midnight Wednesday, when a glacial lake high in the mountains overflowed after a heavy rainfall. The waters cracked open a 6-year-old dam that was the largest in the Indian state of Sikkim, and then cascaded through towns in the Lachan Valley below.

It was the latest deadly flood to hit northeast India in a year of unusually heavy monsoon rains. Nearly 50 people died in flash floods and landslides in August in nearby Himachal Pradesh state, record rains in July killed more than 100 people over two weeks in northern India.

The design and placement of the Teesta-3 dam were controversial from the time it was built, part of an Indian government push to expand hydropower energy. Local activists argued that extreme weather caused by climate changes makes dam-building in the Himalayas too dangerous.

“Despite being the biggest project in the state, there were no early warning systems installed even though the glacier overflowing was a known risk,” said Himanshu Thakkar of the non-governmental organization South Asian Network for Rivers, Dams and People.

According to a release from India’s National Disaster Management Agency on Friday, they plan to set up early warning systems for real-time alerts at most of India’s 56 known at-risk glacial lakes.

Thakkar said authorities failed to apply the lessons from a 2021 dam breach in Himalayan state of Uttarakhand that killed 81 people, allowing an “eerily similar” disaster to occur.

The dam’s operator, and local agencies responsible for dam safety, did not respond to requests for comment Friday.

In 2021, the Indian federal government passed a dam safety law that requires operators and local governments to plan for emergencies, but the Teesta-3 dam is not listed as being monitored for safety by India’s chief dam regulator, the Central Water Commission.

A 2021 study warned that the dam posed a growing risk of catastrophic floods. South Lhonak Lake has been rising in recent years as a warming climate melts the glaciers that feed it, putting pressure on the dam, but it wasn’t clear what triggered the breach Wednesday.

Experts and varying government reports have pointed to sudden, intense rains in the area, and a 6.2 magnitude earthquake that struck nearby Nepal on Tuesday afternoon.

“We knew that this was coming,” said Gyatso Lepcha, general secretary of Affected Citizens of Teesta, an environmental organization based in Sikkim. “The same can happen with other dams also,” he wrote, in a statement that called for a safety review of all dams in the state.

More than 2,000 people were rescued after Wednesday’s floods, the Sikkim State Disaster Management Authority said in a statement, adding that state authorities set up 26 relief camps for more than 22,000 people impacted by the floods.

Rescue workers were still searching for nearly 100 missing people, including 22 soldiers, on Thursday, according to the Sikkim state government.

Vinay Bhushan Pathak, the state’s top bureaucrat, said that 26 people had been taken to hospitals with injuries, while nearly 3,000 tourists were stranded in the flood-hit areas along with 700 taxi drivers.

“We are evacuating them through helicopters provided by the army and the air force,” he said.

Eleven bridges in the Lachan Valley were washed away by the floodwaters, which also hit pipelines and damaged or destroyed more than 270 houses in four districts, officials said.

Several towns, including Dikchu and Rangpo in the Teesta basin, were flooded, and schools in four districts were ordered shut until Sunday, the state’s education department said.

Parts of a highway that links Sikkim, the state capital, with the rest of the country were also washed away.

The floods also hit several army camps, burying vehicles in feet of mud, according to images released by the Indian military.

The Press Trust of India news agency cited a statement by neighboring West Bengal state as saying that the bodies of four soldiers were found. However, it wasn’t immediately clear whether they were among the 22 missing soldiers, or had died separately.

One soldier who had been reported missing Wednesday was later rescued by authorities, the army said in a statement.

The army is providing medical aid and phone connectivity to civilians in the areas of Chungthang, Lachung and Lachen in north Sikkim, the army statement said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office said in a statement that the government would support state authorities in the aftermath of the flooding.

The Teesta 3 hydropower project, built on the Teesta River, took nine years and cost $1.5 billion to construct. The project was capable of producing 1,200 megawatts of electricity — enough to power 1.5 million Indian homes — and began operations in 2017.

Despite risks to dams due to increasing frequency of extreme weather, the Indian federal government aims to increase India’s hydroelectric dam output by half, to 70,000 megawatts, by 2030.

Disasters caused by landslides and floods are common in India’s Himalayan region during the June-September monsoon season. Scientists say they are becoming more frequent as global warming contributes to the melting of glaciers there.

“This is, incredibly sadly, another classic case of a cascading hazard chain that amplifies as you go downstream,” said Jakob Steiner, a climate scientist with the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development, commenting on Wednesday’s flash flooding.

Earlier this year, Steiner’s organization published a report saying that Himalayan glaciers could lose 80% of their volume if global warming isn’t controlled.

Last month, dam breaches caused by Storm Daniel caused devastating damage to the city of Derna in Libya.
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The first shipment of Russian uranium was officially delivered Thursday to Bangladesh to fuel the nation’s only nuclear power plant, currently under construction.

The uranium has been in Bangladesh since late last month but was officially handed over to Bangladesh authorities in a ceremony attended via video link by Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.

Construction of the plant, called Rooppur, has been carried out by Rosatom, Russia’s state nuclear energy corporation, and funded by Moscow. Bangladesh received an $11.38 billion loan from Russia for the project, to be paid back over two decades beginning in 2027. The loan financed 90% of the construction.

Rooppur is the first of two plants set to be constructed in Bangladesh with the help of Rosatom.

Once completed, Bangladesh will become the 33rd country in the world to produce nuclear power.

Upon completion, Rooppur is set to produce 2,400 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 15 million homes, and according to Putin, it will be responsible for 10% of Bangladesh’s energy consumption.

Russia is currently facing sanctions and other obstacles because of its invasion of Ukraine.

However, Sergey Lavrov, who became the first Russian foreign minister to visit Bangladesh since its 1971 independence, assured the South Asian nation that the project would be completed on time.

The traditionally good relationship between Bangladesh and Russia has not been weakened since the invasion of Ukraine, and the two countries have signed several agreements to work together to establish a nuclear power industry in Bangladesh.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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A senior Pakistani diplomat said Thursday that while the Taliban had brought peace and security to Afghanistan, increased terrorist attacks from the neighboring country threatened stability in Pakistan, putting strains on an already difficult bilateral relationship. 

“Unfortunately, the peace dividends for us are missing,” Asif Durrani, Pakistan’s special representative on Afghanistan, told an international seminar in Islamabad. 

He said his government was engaged in a sustained dialogue with the Taliban to seek an end to the cross-border terrorism orchestrated by fugitive leaders and militants of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, a globally designated terrorist organization. 

“The TTP attacks on Pakistan along the borders have increased. They are taking shelter on the Afghan soil,” the envoy stated.  

“I cannot blame the government in Afghanistan at the moment,” Durrani stressed. “But we as Pakistan expect that the kind of peace they have brought in their land should also contribute to peace in our borderlands, and those TTP people who are taking shelter in Afghanistan either should be returned to Pakistan or be neutralized.” 

The seminar was organized by the state-run Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad in collaboration with the United States Institute of Peace.

Surge in militant attacks

Since the Taliban seized control of the neighboring country in August 2021, Pakistan has seen a dramatic surge in militant attacks that have killed hundreds of civilians and security forces. Officials say TTP leaders and other members have moved their operation bases to Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover and enjoy greater freedom of movement there.

The rising TTP-led attacks in Pakistan are the primary source of tensions between Islamabad and de facto Taliban rulers in Kabul, amid allegations Afghan nationals have also taken part in some of the recent suicide bombings and other terrorist raids. 

Last month, members of a Durrani-led delegation to Kabul were reportedly told by their Taliban interlocutors that the Afghans had captured 200 TTP members for their involvement in cross-border attacks and had taken other steps to “neutralize” the militant activity. But Pakistani officials said the measures did not lead to a reduction in attacks.   

TTP calls itself an extension of the Afghan Taliban to Pakistan, and its leaders pledge allegiance to Hibatullah Akhudzada, the supreme leader of the Taliban government in Kabul. 

This week, the militant violence prompted the Pakistani government to order all illegal immigrants, including more than 1.7 million Afghans, to leave the country by November 1 or face deportation. The Taliban decried the move and urged Islamabad to review the decision. 

“Pakistan’s decision to expel Afghans is unjustifiable and inhumane, and we condemn it,” Taliban Defense Minister Muhammad Yaqoob told a graduation ceremony at the police academy in the Afghan capital. 

However, Durrani said that Pakistan and Afghanistan “enjoy a symbiotic relationship” and attempted to downplay tensions as mere “rivalries between cousins” under local traditions. “But that does not mean that we have become enemies. Not at all.” 

Foreign ministers meet

Meanwhile, Pakistani Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani and his Taliban counterpart, Amir Khan Muttaqi, met on the sidelines of a China-hosted international conference Thursday. 

Jilani’s office in Islamabad said he “underscored that challenges confronting regional peace and stability be addressed in collaborative spirit through collective strategies.” 

Muttaqi’s spokesman said the two sides had discussed bilateral trade and problems facing Afghan businessmen and refugees in Pakistan. The Taliban foreign minister cautioned Jilani that “negative media statements, hurdles facing transit trade and harassing Afghan refugees” could adversely affect mutual ties.  

Pakistan provides landlocked Afghanistan access to international markets through its land and seaports.  

This week, Islamabad banned more than 200 items “prone to smuggling” under its Afghan transit trade agreement with Kabul and imposed a 10% process fee on commercial goods imported into Afghanistan through Pakistan.  

The restrictions have upset the Taliban, and they have urged Pakistani officials to reverse them, warning they would harm bilateral trade and transit cooperation.  

Pakistan also conducts its trade with landlocked Central Asian countries through Afghanistan, and there has been a significant increase in the transit trade since the Taliban takeover two years ago.
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As the world eagerly awaits the Norwegian Nobel Institute’s announcement Friday of the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Afghan women have a stake in the results.

Though official nominee names remain under wraps, an Afghan American women’s rights stalwart, Mahbouba Seraj, is reportedly among the contenders.

The Norwegian Peace Institute, independent from the Nobel Institute, disclosed its director’s top five prize candidates last week, featuring both Seraj and an Iranian human rights activist, Narges Mohammadi.

Currently in California for medical care, Seraj, 75, told VOA that receiving the prestigious prize would bolster her persistent fight for women’s rights in Afghanistan.

“[The Taliban] cannot silence all voices — they may try, though, but someone has to speak up for the Afghan women inside the country,” Seraj said, adding that she would soon return to Afghanistan, where she manages a local nongovernmental organization supporting women.

The Taliban have been accused of imposing a gender-apartheid regime on Afghanistan, denying women most human rights, including work, education and political representation.

Treatment of women criticized

Human rights groups say the Islamist regime detains, tortures and silences women’s rights activists as part of its misogynistic rule. The Taliban deny such criticism.

“Indeed, it’s risky to work for women’s rights in Afghanistan,” said Seraj, “but someone has to be there to speak up for women. We have to take risks. There is no way around it.”

Since the Taliban’s 2021 resurgence, many prominent Afghan women who worked in high-profile jobs in the former Afghan government have fled the country, fearing Taliban persecution.

From abroad, some Afghan women have maintained a robust call for action against the Taliban’s restrictive policies.

“We are tired of empty sympathy statements,” Asila Wardak, a former Afghan diplomat and member of the Women’s Forum on Afghanistan, said last month at an event at the U.N. General Assembly.

She urged the international community to undertake more meaningful actions to help support women inside Afghanistan.

“Mahbouba Seraj has put her life in danger and is still running a shelter in Kabul and is raising women’s voice,” Wardak told VOA, adding that the Nobel Prize would empower and inspire Afghan women.

However, Seraj’s candidacy has not been devoid of controversy. Ties to a 19th-century Afghan monarchy that allegedly suppressed local uprisings have led some activists to challenge her nomination.

Her royal lineage briefly led to her incarceration in 1978 during a Soviet-backed regime shift, subsequently pushing her to migrate to the United States. She lived in the U.S. until 2003, then returned to her native Afghanistan.

“I will not leave Afghanistan again until my last breath,” Seraj vowed.

While the Taliban have publicly invited all Afghans, including former government officials, back home promising no retribution, it is unclear how the regime will receive women’s rights activists such as Seraj. 
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Pakistan has ordered all undocumented immigrants to leave voluntarily by November 1 or face deportation. The new order primarily affects Afghans, many of whom fled their country after the Taliban took over in August 2021. VOA’s Pakistan bureau chief Sarah Zaman met with some Afghan women who once again are facing an uncertain future. VOA footage by Wajid Asad, Malik Waqar Ahmad and Wajid Shah.
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The dog’s ribs are visible and her owner’s skeletal shoulders poke through a gray sweater.

The dog’s name is Chalo, essentially “Spot” in Armenian, and the owner, 69, tells us to call her Tamar. She is a refugee in Armenia and wants her real name withheld for security reasons. 

We meet her in a park hours after she arrives in Goris, Armenia, where workers man humanitarian tents in the last days of September for the 100,000-plus people fleeing Nagorno-Karabakh.

Tamar brought her dog and a plastic shopping bag of belongings when she fled her home city, which, last week, was called Stepanakert. For most of this year, Stepanakert was cut off from its main supply route, and Tamar, like other residents, was left waiting for days at a time on bread lines, sometimes only to walk away with nothing. She dropped from 56 to 40 kilograms.

“There was mostly no electricity,” says Tamar, on the lawn outside a tent in Goris. The dog isn’t allowed inside. “We used to sit on the streets of Stepanakert at night together, rather than at home, alone in the dark.”

A place of the past

But Stepanakert, in some ways, no longer exists. 

It was the capital of the self-declared Republic of Artsakh, which, until last week, was most of Nagorno-Karabakh. The residents, like Tamar, were almost all ethnic Armenians, and Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought over it for decades.

In mid-September, a two-day Azerbaijani assault ended the conflict, with a clear victory for Azerbaijan, which now controls all the land inside its internationally recognized borders.

Khankendi, the Azerbaijani name for Stepanakert, is now mostly deserted. A report on the Al Jazeera television channel shows the central square littered with left-behind chairs, suitcases that didn’t fit on buses, and homeless pet dogs. 

“It breaks my heart,” says Tamar, referring to the dogs.

The buildings still stand in Khankendi and a few aid workers search houses for residents who stayed behind because they are sick, old or have no family to help them evacuate.

Tamar was in one of the last groups to leave late last week, because many buses would take her, but not her dog. 

After the vast majority of the residents evacuated last week, the local government dissolved. The land is now in reality what it has long been officially: the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan.

“I had one year left to turn 70 in my own country,” says Tamar, as an aid worker stops by to check on her well-being. Chalo is tied to a park bench with a short ribbon and the worker decides to go search for a leash. “I see now it wasn’t meant to be.”

Scattered past, uncertain future

Over the weekend, the humanitarian tents in Goris are taken down, as refugees board buses and vans to every corner of Armenia. Most want to go to the capital, Yerevan, but officials say there is no room for everyone in the city.

Villages by the border, however, have empty homes and depopulated economies. But upon arrival in Goris, many people balk at the idea of moving to one of these villages. “I just left the war,” says Tamar.

In 2020, the last time Armenia and Azerbaijan battled for Nagorno-Karabakh, the violence spilled over the borders into Armenia proper. When we visit Ishkhanasar, a village alongside Azerbaijani mountains, locals are quick to say they fear the refugees moving in may have to evacuate again, eventually.

“It was horrible. We were expecting the house to be blown up at any moment,” says Ani Aloyan, a 37-year-old farmer who pops her head out of her metal gate when she sees us speaking to a family from Nagorno-Karabakh who moved in next door. “It was autumn and the fields were dry. When shells fell the fields would burn.”

We ask the family next door if they would consider going back to Stepanakert, now Khankendi. Azerbaijan says Armenian residents may take Azerbaijani citizenship without reprisals. 

“I would love to go back,” says Arevik Sargsyan, 21, on the porch of the farmhouse her family has been sharing with its owners for the past few days. “But it’s not possible.”

In the ’90s, when Armenia took over the land later known as Artsakh and several surrounding areas, more than a half-million Azerbaijanis were displaced. Many of those people are now expected to return. Both sides claim historical ties to the enclave and anger runs deep.

“I don’t know how they all lived together before, during Soviet times,” Sargsyan says. “But after everything that has been lost we cannot.” 
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Five people have died and 23 soldiers are missing after flash flooding Wednesday in India’s Lachen Valley in the northeastern state of Sikkim, according to army officials. 

The flood, caused by heavy rainfall, blocked the main highway to Sikkim’s capital, Gangtok. 

Heavy rain left cars and an army base covered in mud and slush. The Defense Ministry said search operations are under way.

The downpours caused the banks of a glacial lake to burst, creating a weather disaster, said Miriam Jackson, a research scientist at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development in Nepal.

“We observe that such extreme events increase in frequency as the climate continues to warm and takes us into unknown territory,” she said. 

Local officials also say a dam overflowed, exacerbating the flooding. 

Around 15,000 people will likely be impacted and at least eight major bridges were swept away, according to India’s Secretary of State V.S. Pathak.

The sudden rain and thunderstorms have delayed rescue operations, an army official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Some information for this report was provided by Reuters.  
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Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, will not participate in talks this week with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in Spain.

Azerbaijani state media and a government official said Wednesday that Aliyev would skip the EU-brokered meeting that also includes the leaders of France and Germany, citing what they described as pro-Armenian statements from France and EU Council President Charles Michel.

The EU said the talks would be aimed at advancing long-running peace negotiations between Azerbaijan and Armenia as well as the situation in the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Last month, Azerbaijan carried out an operation to retake control of Nagorno-Karabakh from ethnic Armenian separatists.

Nagorno-Karabakh is entirely within Azerbaijan but had been under ethnic Armenian control since 1994, until parts of it were reclaimed by Azerbaijan during a war in 2020.

Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse and Reuters
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Afghanistan’s Taliban Wednesday urged Pakistan to review its plans to expel Afghan immigrants, rejecting charges the displaced community is involved in the security problems facing the neighboring country.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid released the statement a day after the Pakistani government ordered undocumented immigrants, including more than 1.7 million Afghans, to leave the country by November 1.

Interior Minister Sarfaraz Bugti told a news conference in Islamabad Tuesday that “illegal immigrants” who stay in Pakistan beyond the deadline would be arrested and deported to their respective countries.

“The behavior of Pakistan against Afghan refugees is unacceptable. The Pakistani side should reconsider its plan,” Mujahid said on X, formerly Twitter.

“Afghan refugees are not involved in Pakistan’s security problems. As long as they leave Pakistan voluntarily, that country should tolerate them,” the Taliban spokesman wrote.

Bugti defended Pakistan’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants, saying that Afghan nationals carried out 14 of the 24 suicide bombings that have taken place in Pakistan this year. He added that eight of the 11 militants who recently raided two Pakistani military installations were Afghans.

“We are coming under attacks from Afghanistan, and we have evidence showing that Afghans are involved in the violence,” the Pakistani minister said.

He clarified that more than 1.4 million Afghans residing in Pakistan as officially designated refugees and at least 850,000 Afghan citizen card holders are not the crackdown target.

Islamabad says that fugitive leaders and militants of the outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, have moved to Afghanistan since the Taliban seized power there two years ago and have stepped up cross-border attacks.

The Taliban deny allowing the TTP or any other group to threaten other countries, particularly Pakistan, in line with their international counterterrorism commitments.

TTP-led insurgent attacks have killed more than 750 civilians and security forces in Pakistan in the first nine months of 2023, a 19% increase compared with the previous year.

The United Nations and human rights groups have expressed concerns over Pakistani plans to evict Afghan immigrants, saying those facing deportations include hundreds of thousands who fled Afghanistan after the Taliban reclaimed control of the country in August 2021, fearing persecution by the hardline de facto authorities.

The displaced community also refuses to return to Afghanistan, citing sweeping restrictions the Taliban have imposed on women’s access to education and work.
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