In the last two months, intense rains have triggered landslides and flash floods and caused widespread havoc in India’s Himalayan region. A recent study points to one cause – shifting weather patterns that are bringing more rain instead of snow to mountainous regions in the northern hemisphere. It says the Himalayas are more vulnerable to the changing climate. Anjana Pasricha has a report on villages impacted by the devastation. (Camera: Rakesh Kumar)
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Suresh Kumar’s home collapsed on a night when torrential rains lashed Manjha village in India’s mountain state of Himachal Pradesh two weeks ago.

“There was no power, only one solar light was burning. We took torches and saw that huge cracks had appeared in all the rooms. They kept widening,” recalls Kumar. By the morning, my house had fallen.”

Several other houses in the village were also buried – in his extended family alone, more than 20 people are now homeless.

Neighboring villages experienced similar devastation. It was a night of terror, recounts Mani Ram, a resident of Bachhwai village.

“We picked up small children and an old woman and fled down the hillside. We tried to rescue the animals stuck in the mud and debris,” said Ram. “By the time we reached down, that land was also sinking. There was waist-deep water. We ran helter-skelter.”

Many of these villagers now are sheltered under tents. Some are trying to salvage whatever they can from the rubble of their broken homes. Many have lost most of their possessions.

They are among hundreds in big towns and small villages whose lives have been upended by landslides and flash floods that have ravaged this Himalayan region over the last two months in the wake of torrential monsoon rains. Scores of people have died. Buildings and houses have been reduced to rubble, including in the state capital, Shimla. Many roads are damaged.

Authorities in Himachal Pradesh state last week declared the havoc caused by rains a “state disaster.” The losses add up to over a billion dollars.

A study published in the journal Nature in June said that rising temperatures are bringing more intense rain and less snow to mountain regions in the northern hemisphere. That can make these mountains more dangerous.

“The increase in extreme rainfall in mountainous regions is 15% for every one degree Celsius of warming and this is almost double of what we previously thought,” Mohammed Ombadi, lead author of the study told VOA. “Rainfall unlike snowfall triggers floods more rapidly leading to a higher risk of flooding, landslides, soil erosion and other negative impacts.”

Residents in these villages have experienced the shifts in climate firsthand in recent years. They say winter precipitation has moved to spring and spells of intense rain are now more frequent.

“The snowfall is irregular. It falls late and melts rapidly as summer comes. The water puts more pressure on the hills and then the monsoons bring more moisture,” according to Cyril Chander, a geographer who lives in Kangra district in the region.

The Himalayas, a young, fragile range, are more vulnerable because the rate of warming here is higher compared to several other mountain ranges.

This could be because of changing atmospheric and wind patterns in the region, according to Ombadi.

“Besides extreme rainfall, there is also a higher rate of melting glaciers and when you have these two processes acting together, they amplify the risk of flooding and landslides. So for these two reasons, the Himalayas are hotspots that are vulnerable to global warming and climate change impacts,” he said. 

Glaciers in the Hindu Kush and Himalayas mountains melted 65% faster in the 2010s compared with the previous decade according to another study published in June by the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development that highlights the risks these ranges face.

Besides the climate shift being brought by rising temperatures, the frenetic development that India’s Himalayan states have witnessed in recent years to cater to an ever-growing number of tourists is also making the mountains unstable, according to environmentalists. Himachal Pradesh, a scenic state, attracted over 15 million visitors in 2022, according to government figures.  

“One of the main reasons is deforestation and construction of buildings unscientifically without soil testing,” according to Priyanka Kalia, an environmental scientist. “Cutting of slopes for expansion of roads for national highways also destabilizes the hillsides.”

Calls for sustainable development have become louder in the wake of the havoc witnessed this year.

But even if those calls are heeded, it will be too late for the villagers affected by the recent rains.

Some like social worker, Sansar Chand, are now arranging rations and other necessities such as shoes for those who lost most of their possessions. “It was nature’s fury. We could not make out whether it was a cloudburst or whether the land sank. I have never seen something like this,” said Chand.  

Most of the affected villagers depend on small farming incomes. Now they say their lifetime savings have been swept away by the rains. For these families, the looming question is: where to relocate?

Even those whose homes escaped the devastation worry about the future as they fear the land where they have lived for generations has become unsafe. “I don’t think this area is any longer habitable. There are cracks everywhere till the river. The land has sunk,” said social worker Chand.

But with the devastation widespread, finding safe havens in the mountains may not be easy. 
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Afghanistan’s Taliban minister for vice and virtue is banning women from visiting a national park because he says they have not been wearing their headscarves or hijab correctly when visiting the site.

The announcement comes after Minister Mohammad Khalid Hanafi’s recent visit to Band-e-Amir, a popular park in the central Bamiyan Province.

“Going sightseeing is not a must for women,” Hanifi told officials and religious clerics after his trip to the park, according to the Associated Press. The minister also said security forces would be used to keep the women out of the park.

CNN described Band-e-Amir as “a peaceful oasis with deep blue lakes surrounded by mountains.”

“Step by step, the walls are closing in on women as every home becomes a prison,” Heather Barr, Human Rights Watch’s associate women’s rights director, said in a statement. “Not content with depriving girls and women of education, employment and free movement, the Taliban also want to take from them parks and sport and now even nature, as we see from this latest ban on women visiting Band-e-Amir.”

Other restrictions imposed on Afghanistan’s females by the Taliban include barring girls from school after the sixth grade and banning women from jobs with local and international non-government organizations.

Some information in this report came from the Associated Press
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Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra became the first Indian to win a gold medal at the World Athletics Championships when he nipped Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem in the men’s javelin on Sunday with an 88.17-meter effort in the final.

Chopra won Olympic gold in Tokyo but managed only a silver at the worlds in Eugene, Oregon, last year. The only other Indian to win a medal at the worlds was Anju Bobby George, who took bronze in the women’s long jump in 2003 in Paris.

Pakistan’s Nadeem, coming back from elbow surgery and a knee injury, produced his season’s best effort of 87.82 on his third attempt to win the silver medal, while the Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejch took the bronze with 86.67.

“This was great. After the Olympic gold I really wanted to win the world championships. I just wanted to throw further. This is brilliant for the national team but it was my dream to win gold at the world championships,” Chopra said.

“This has been a great championships for India and I am proud to bring another title to my country. I don’t think I am the best thrower here. I wanted to throw more tonight,” he said. “I wanted to throw more than 90 meters tonight, but it needs all parts of the puzzle to be there. I couldn’t put it all together this evening. Maybe next time.”

Chopra needed only one attempt in the qualification round to lead the field with a season-best 88.77 meters.

But the Indian was unhappy with his first effort in the final, deliberately stepping over the line for a foul.

Under pressure, the 25-year-old then soared into the lead on his second attempt, turning his back and celebrating in trademark fashion with his arms aloft while pointing at the sky immediately after his throw, knowing it was good.

Nadeem was competing in his first event of the year and as soon as the javelin landed on his third attempt, he broke into a wide grin as he moved up to second.

India and Pakistan may have a heated rivalry in cricket but on a warm night in Budapest, all eyes were on two athletes competing for javelin gold.

But that was as close as Nadeem, the 2022 Commonwealth Games champion, got to Chopra as he ran out of steam.

Julian Weber was very close to giving Germany their first medal in Budapest on the final day of the championships, but he was pushed down to fourth when Vadlejch saved his best for his fifth attempt.

“It was a big fight and I am afraid that Julian Weber will not like me anymore,” Vadlejch said.

Kishore Jena and DP Manu finished fifth and sixth, respectively, to give India three athletes in the top six.
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Protests against soaring power prices continued in Pakistan for a third consecutive day on Sunday, with television footage showing enraged consumers at rallies burning their electricity bills.

The power supply department in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province formally requested that police provide security for its staff and installations in the wake of threats of attacks by protesters.

For safety purposes, the department also instructed its staff to remove the license plates from their official vehicles.

The protests erupted on Friday and spread to many cities, including Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Multan, Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

The unrest over the increased electricity bills comes as the poverty-stricken South Asian nation of about 241 million people faces an economic crisis, with inflation hovering at around 29 percent.

The protests prompted caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar to hold an emergency meeting on Sunday to discuss the high electricity bills; however, no immediate relief was announced.

Kakar’s office said he adjourned the meeting until Monday. He also directed power sector authorities to devise “concrete steps” to reduce excess electricity bills and present the plan to him within 48 hours.

“We will not take any step in haste that will harm the country,” the prime minister said.

The increase in power prices was a condition for Islamabad to secure a much-needed $3 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund. The deal came in July with the lender pressing Pakistan to carry out long-awaited economic reforms.

The government has also slashed energy sector subsidies in line with the IMF deal, sending fuel prices to an all-time high.

Local media reported that announcements from mosques in several cities had urged protesting consumers not to pay their bills until their demands are met.   

Speaking to Pakistani news channels, protesters said their electricity bills were more than their house rents.

Consumers have posted copies of their latest bloated bills on social media, showing a dramatic price surge compared to the previous month’s charges.

Trade union and business leaders have threatened a nationwide strike on Tuesday if the government does not reverse the rise in power charges.  

Mainstream and regional political parties announced Sunday they would also join demonstrators in protest of the “exorbitant increase in electricity prices.”

Last week, the Pakistani currency plummeted to more than 300 rupees against the U.S. dollar for the first time in history, raising concerns that the average Pakistani will find it more difficult to meet their financial obligations.

Officials maintain the IMF deal has saved Pakistan from default and paved the way for billions of loans and investments from longtime allies such as China, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

Independent economic experts and critics said the caretaker government could not immediately cut the taxes on electricity bills to meet protesters’ demands because such a move would upset the IMF and jeopardize the timely release of the next tranche from the bailout package.

“The caretakers have little space to help inflation-stricken citizens without compromising on the fiscal goals of the present IMF program, which would be disastrous for the economy, as it could make the multilateral lender suspend or terminate the programme,” read Sunday’s editorial in English-language newspaper DAWN. 
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Pakistan’s caretaker prime minister, Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar, is holding an emergency ministers’ meeting Sunday to discuss the high electricity bills that have caused some people to take to the street in protest.

“In the meeting, a briefing will be taken from the ministry of power and distribution companies and consultations will be held regarding giving maximum relief to consumers regarding electricity bills,” the prime minister posted earlier this week on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Dawn, a Pakistani newspaper, reported that in Lahore, Sunday, dozens of people gathered their bills together and set them on fire, while chanting, “Expensive electricity is unacceptable.”

Recently increased electricity taxes have caused the monthly bills to skyrocket.
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In a desperate measure to stop students from taking their own lives, authorities in the western Indian city of Kota — the country’s famous academic coaching hub — have directed all local hostels, guest houses and other accommodation facilities to install specially designed spring-fitted ceiling fans in rooms.

The directive from the authorities came on Aug. 16, a day after an 18-year-old student at a test training school in Kota hanged himself from a ceiling fan in his room. It was the 22nd such suicide by a student in the city this year — the highest yearly toll since 2015.

The chief minister of Rajasthan, where Kota is located, held an emergency meeting this week and set up a committee comprising senior government officials, representatives from coaching schools, parents and doctors to address the issue of suicide by the students in Kota.

“We cannot allow the suicide cases to spike further. We do not want to see young students commit suicide,” said Ashok Gehlot, the chief minister. “The committee will investigate why the suicides are taking place and suggest ways to put a halt to these suicides.”

In the past decade in Kota, more than 150 students who were preparing to sit for entrance exams for engineering and medical colleges died by suicide. In most cases, they hanged themselves from the ceiling fans.

The spring-fitted fans that authorities have ordered to be fitted in the accommodations of students are designed to uncoil and lower the moment a load of more than 20 kilograms (44 pounds) is attached to them, making it impossible for someone to commit suicide by hanging from them.

When the spring uncoils, a sensor activates an alarm to alert people in the surroundings.

Spring-fitted fans

The police chief of Kota said the civil administration and the police have been jointly trying their best to curb student suicides in the city. 

“After the [chief minister] held the meeting with senior officials on the issue, we have directed all hostels, guest houses and other places, where the coaching-school students stay in Kota, to attach the special spring and alarm-fitted devices to all ceiling fans,” Sharad Chaudhary, the Kota police superintendent, told VOA. “We have also directed our police forces to visit all accommodation facilities of the students and make sure that devices have been installed.

“With the help of these spring- and alarm-fitted devices, we are aiming to put a halt at least to those suicides taking place by hanging from the ceiling fans,” he said.  

There are about 6,075 engineering and upwards of 600 medical colleges in India, where millions of students seek admission annually, usually after taking entrance tests such as the Joint Entrance Examination and National Eligibility cum Entrance Test.

Competition among the students to do well on the exams is tough. Kota is known for its 150 coaching centers, where over 200,000 students from across the country come every year, sign up for different courses and prepare for the entrance exams.

These students, mostly from middle-class families, stay in hostels and guest houses.

Over the past decade, Kota has often been in the news for suicides by coaching-school students.

‘Improper parenting’

Experts say that some students take extreme steps, such as attempting suicide, after being unable to cope with the pressure.

Dr. Neena Vijayvargiya, a Kota-based psychiatrist dealing with the mental health issues of many Kota coaching schools’ students, told VOA that in “99% of these suicide cases,” improper parenting was found to be the main factor driving the students to take the extreme step.

“Parents continue to pressure the students that they have to enter the top colleges, and that is the only goal for them,” she said. “The students fear facing their parents and society should they not get admission to top colleges.”

According to Vijayvargiya, every student, while depressed, may provide hints to their parents over the course of weeks or months.

Police chief Chaudhary said that parents can play a key role in checking the crisis.

“We are in the process of setting up a separate committee involving mostly the parents of the students to monitor the issue,” he said. “Also, we have decided to conduct a mandatory psychological assessment process for all students enrolled at the coaching schools, at regular intervals.”

Vijayvargiya urged parents not to pressure students to gain admission into the top colleges and to teach their children that “the failure to meet such targets does not mean the end of the world.”
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Consumers are taking to Pakistan’s streets to protest recently increased taxes on electricity bills.

In response, Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar has called for an emergency ministers’ meeting Sunday to discuss the high electricity bills.

“In the meeting, a briefing will be taken from the ministry of power and distribution companies and consultations will be held regarding giving maximum relief to consumers regarding electricity bills,” the prime minister posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

One person told the newspaper Dawn that his electricity bill was so high he could not afford to pay his children’s school fees. Another person said his bill had doubled.
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Health authorities in Bangladesh are wrestling with a surge in dengue fever cases as monsoon rains batter the densely populated country.

According to a World Health Organization report issued this month, “The higher incidence of dengue is taking place in the context of an unusual episodic amount of rainfall, combined with high temperatures and high humidity, which have resulted in an increased mosquito population throughout Bangladesh.”

Almost 90,000 cases of the mosquito-borne viral illness had been reported his year through Aug. 15, according to government figures.

Researchers and public health experts say  the true numbers are much higher. By mid-August, at least 426 people – 81 of whom were age 18 or younger – had died of the fever, according to the Directorate General of Health Services, making this the deadliest year since the first recorded epidemic in 2000.

There are four strains of dengue, including the most life-threatening, hemorrhagic dengue. However, only patients with severe symptoms end up in hospitals, where the government collects data.

Last year, 62,098 dengue cases were recorded in Bangladesh, with 281 deaths.

The dengue virus is transmitted through the bite of infected female Aedes mosquitoes, which also transmit chikungunya, yellow fever and Zika infection and is a recurring problem in Bangladesh during the monsoon season. However, this year’s outbreak has been particularly severe, with the number of cases skyrocketing across urban and rural areas alike.

“We have noticed the disease has changed its characteristics, and so do the mosquitos too. They’ve adapted and become more stronger and prevalent. And now we see that dengue is not an ‘urban,’ problem anymore, the government database now records cases from every corner of the country,” Dr. M.H. Chowdhury Lenin, a physician and public health expert told VOA.

According to Lenin, “Dengue has been present in Bangladesh for over two decades now, and as we now know, dengue mosquitoes had mutations and they are now resistant to the usual insecticide or repellents that we use. So our existing measures are unable to curb the spread of the Aedes mosquitoes.”

Lenin warned the situation could get worse in the coming weeks, as monsoons are likely to intensify, with more rainfall and dengue hospitalizations and deaths. Monsoons in Bangladesh usually surge in August and September, continuing through early October.

“We need to have orchestrated efforts to minimize the fatalities. Dengue is not new in Bangladesh, and as a tropical country, we have to live with such diseases. However, we failed to build a multisectoral approach to prevent this disease from becoming a big public health nightmare,” Lenin added.

This year’s surge in cases has significantly strained Bangladesh’s already fragile health care system, which is plagued by mismanagement and corruption. Hospitals are grappling with the influx of patients, many of whom are suffering severe symptoms of dengue, such as high fever, intense headache, joint and muscle pain, and in severe cases, internal bleeding.

“Health sector in Bangladesh is inundated under corruption and mismanagement. It was nakedly visible during the COVID-19 outbreak. Politicization and commercial interests are the most important causes behind the destruction to this sector,” Sharif Jamil, a prominent Dhaka-based social and environmental activist, wrote in a WhatsApp message.

“The failure to manage dengue spreading across the country is evident now that it is causing casualties in the urban areas in the periphery beyond the city areas.”

Government officials aim to apply the lessons learned from managing the COVID-19 pandemic, when state-run and private hospitals nationwide increased bed capacity, provision of intensive care, and emergency medical preparations.

Dr. Robed Amin, the Directorate General of Health Services line director in the noncommunicable disease control program, said the directorate is hopeful the COVID-era measures will improve the fight against dengue.

“As we have noticed, dengue isn’t just an urban problem anymore. It’s rampant in the entire country. And with the monsoon rain of August and September, the cases will likely to go up. During the COVID pandemic, we strengthened our entire health care network across the country, so I am hopeful most of the severe cases will be able to be managed locally, and not everyone will have to flock to Dhaka or other big cities with better hospitals,” Amin told VOA.

As most of the cases are reported from urban and suburban areas, experts and activists also blame unplanned urbanization and lackluster response from the authorities for the dengue outbreak.

Kabirul Bashar, an entomologist at Dhaka’s Jahangirnagar University, told VOA unplanned construction and lack of awareness helped dengue to become widespread in every corner of the country.

“Climate change is definitely a factor, but there are other man-made factors that are driving the disease. Not only in Dhaka, but even outside the capital, city-centric economic developments drive the rapid construction of high-rise business centers, hotels, and apartments in the urban areas,” he said.

“The entire country has become big construction zones marked by stagnant water on concrete surfaces after rainfall, and potentially breeding Aedes mosquito.”

Bashar said official “anti-mosquito drives” during the monsoon are inadequate to fight the current dengue outbreak, especially because over time and with climate change the mosquitoes have evolved and adapted and have become immune to the repellents used against them.

Activist Jamil said he believes future dengue outbreaks are preventable with a timely and coordinated approach and proper urban planning, among other things.

“A proper urban planning will include people and experts in the planning and implementation processes. If we can engage and empower people meaningfully, community leaders will come forward to work with the local government representatives and administrators to make their own areas safe from dengue outbreaks,” Jamil told VOA.

Bangladesh’s best hope could be a cost-effective vaccine. The International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, is leading a clinical trial in Bangladesh for a promising single-dose vaccine created by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, University of Vermont Vaccine Testing Center, and Johns Hopkins University, according to a recent article in the medical journal The Lancet.

Meanwhile, the suffering of the people affected by the disease is mounting.

Saleha, whose name was provided to VOA by her husband, is a 43-year-old patient in the dengue ward of the state-run Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College and Hospital and was diagnosed with dengue fever almost a week ago. Her husband said the conditions require her to be put in intensive care, but the hospital is already at capacity, and the family is not able to afford private hospital expenses.

“Her platelets count dropped as low as 13,000,” said the husband, who did not give his name. A normal platelet count ranges from 150,000 to 450,000 platelets per microliter of blood. In addition, he said, her blood pressure fell to critically low levels.

“At this stage, doctors said she needs intensive care support, but there are no beds available in ICU,” he said. 
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The United Nations children’s agency on Friday warned that a year on from Pakistan’s devastating floods, an estimated 4 million children continue to need humanitarian assistance and access to essential services as a shortage of funds remains a hurdle in recovery.

The warning from UNICEF comes as authorities in Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province are racing against time to evacuate people from areas affected by the overflowing River Sutlej. Since Aug. 1, rescuers have evacuated over 100,000 people from marooned areas in the districts of Kasur and Bahawalpur.

More than six months ago, dozens of countries and international institutions at a U.N.-backed conference in Geneva pledged more than $9 billion to help Pakistan recover and rebuild from last summer’s floods. But most of the pledges were in the form of loans for projects, which are still in the planning stages.

“This season’s monsoon rains are worsening the already challenging conditions for flood-affected communities, tragically claiming the lives of 87 children across the country,” UNICEF said in a statement.

It said an estimated 8 million people, around half of whom are children, continue to live without access to safe water in flood-affected areas. It said more than 1.5 million children still require lifesaving nutrition interventions in flood-affected districts, while UNICEF’s current appeal of $173.5 million remains only 57% funded.

“Vulnerable children living in flood-affected areas have endured a horrific year,” said Abdullah Fadil, UNICEF representative in Pakistan. “They lost their loved ones, their homes and schools,” he said. The return of monsoon rains has raised fears of another climate disaster, he added.

Last year’s floods caused more than $30 billion in damages as large swaths of the country remained underwater for months, affecting 33 million people and killing 1,739. The deluges destroyed or damaged 30,000 schools, 2,000 health facilities and 4,300 water systems.

UNICEF said one-third of children were already out of school before the floods, while malnutrition was reaching emergency levels and access to safe drinking water and sanitation was worryingly low.

Southern Sindh province was one of the worst hit last year. But Ajay Kumar, a spokesperson for the local disaster management agency, told The Associated Press that authorities haven’t received any complaints or demands from districts affected by the floods.

People who were living in relief camps or on the roadside have returned home because they received compensation for the damage and loss suffered, he said. Local organizations are carrying out reconstruction and rehabilitation work on houses, schools and health care facilities. “I can say that the situation here is normal,” he added.

In its statement, the children’s agency said because of support from the international community, aid reached 3.6 million people with primary health care services. Access to safe water was enabled for 1.7 million people in areas where water networks were damaged or destroyed, reaching over 545,000 children.

Mental health and psychosocial support was also provided to 258,000 children, it said.

UNICEF called on Pakistan and aid agencies to increase and sustain investment in basic social services for children and families. “The flood waters have gone, but their troubles remain, in this climate-volatile region,” said Fadil. 
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India’s prime minister and China’s leader agreed Thursday to intensify efforts to de-escalate tensions at the disputed border between them and bring home thousands of their troops deployed there, according to an official from India’s foreign ministry.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping met on the sidelines of a Johannesburg summit where the BRICS bloc of developing economies — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — invited six other countries to join the group, including Saudi Arabia and Iran.

India’s Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra told Indian reporters that Modi, in an impromptu meeting with Xi, highlighted India’s concerns about their unresolved border issues.

The disputed boundary has led to a three-year standoff between tens of thousands of Indian and Chinese soldiers in the Ladakh area. A clash three years ago in the region killed 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese.

Kwatra said the two leaders agreed to intensify efforts but did not say anything about what Xi’s response to Modi’s expressed concerns or elaborate on details of what the Indian prime minister said.

The Chinese embassy in New Delhi later tweeted a foreign ministry statement saying that President Xi stressed that improving China-India relations served their common interests and was also conducive to peace, stability and development of the world and the region.

“The two sides should bear in mind the overall interests of their bilateral relations and handle properly the border issue so as to jointly safeguard peace and tranquility in the border region,” it said.

Indian and Chinese military commanders had met last week in an apparent effort to stabilize the situation. A Line of Actual Control separates Chinese and Indian-held territories from Ladakh in the west to India’s eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, which China claims in its entirety.

India and China had fought a war over their border in 1962. China claims some 90,000 square kilometers of territory in India’s northeast, including Arunachal Pradesh with its mainly Buddhist population. 

India says China occupies 38,000 square kilometers of its territory in the Aksai Chin Plateau, which India considers part of Ladakh, where the current faceoff is happening.
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This month, the Taliban are marking two years since they retook control of Kabul, a swift blow that shocked the international community and set in motion a frantic evacuation led by the United States.

The violent and chaotic final phase of the U.S. withdrawal in August 2021 saw more than 122,000 people airlifted to safety, but at least 180 people, including 13 U.S. military service members, were killed when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives near Hamid Karzai International Airport’s Abbey Gate entrance on August 26.

Critics of the evacuation — known officially as a Noncombatant Evacuation Operation or NEO — say there is plenty of blame to go around.

“It was a Kafka-esque exercise in bureaucracy and red tape with no clear lines of authority while lives were on the line,” said Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, at a Senate hearing about a month after the evacuation ended.

“We were unprepared,” he said.

Was the State Department to blame?

U.S. officials who spoke to VOA at the time of the fall, and again in recent weeks, have placed the blame largely on the State Department. They say the U.S. Embassy in Kabul repeatedly ignored Taliban gains that were meant to be seen as “trip wires” to signal the need for a NEO.

On May 1, 2021, the Taliban controlled roughly 75 Afghan districts, according to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Long War Journal. By July 12, the Taliban controlled more than 210 of Afghanistan’s roughly 400 districts.

But as Afghan territories fell like dominoes, efforts by the military to conduct an interagency tabletop exercise to prepare for the evacuation were delayed. The State Department continued to “move the date because Secretary of State Antony Blinken was on vacation,” according to one official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to talk to reporters.

Two officials told VOA that the State Department initially did not want the evacuation to include Afghan nationals who had worked with U.S. forces and had applied for Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) to the United States. Instead, State wanted the military to focus solely on airlifting U.S. citizens and embassy personnel.

VOA asked the State Department how many Afghans seeking SIVs the U.S. wanted to include in its initial evacuation plans, but the department declined to comment.

According to an after-action report by U.S. Forces-Afghanistan, during the interagency tabletop evacuation exercise on August 10, Afghanistan’s crumbling situation was presented to Biden administration officials with a prediction that Kabul could be fully isolated within 30 days. However, diplomats did not order an evacuation that day.

“There was a reluctance [from State] to plan for the worst, and a reluctance to start the needed evacuation,” a U.S. official close to the evacuation planning told VOA.

The State Department finally ordered the military to conduct an NEO on August 14, one day before Kabul fell.

“There was not a sufficient sense of urgency,” wrote authors of an After Action Review on Afghanistan released by the State Department this year.

Who was in charge?

By definition, NEOs are “conducted by the Department of Defense … when directed by the Department of State,” and officials have said friction between the two led to the haphazard evacuation.

NEOs are overseen by the chief of mission, who was U.S. Ambassador Ross Wilson.

One official told VOA that in addition to “waiting too long” to order the NEO, Wilson appeared to have “no policy [for] prioritizing how to get folks out.” Sometimes SIV applicants would get processed by State, other times not. Multiple C-17s left Kabul airport without any evacuees on the first day of the evacuation, said another official.

The State Department flew in a second ambassador and others to help with the NEO after Kabul fell, but processing remained the slowest part of the evacuation, frustrating military leaders, including Rear Admiral Peter Vasely and Brigadier General Farrell Sullivan, the officers responsible for coordinating the evacuation.

According to one official, Vasely was instructing military personnel to “load and go” in an effort to get as many people as possible onto planes so they could be fully processed in a safer location outside Afghanistan. State Department personnel, on the other hand, wanted to fully process potential evacuees before they boarded a plane.

International television audiences were shocked by scenes of desperate Afghans clinging to the undercarriages of planes as they took off, only to fall to their deaths.

The chaotic situation further devolved on August 26 when a suicide bomber unleashed a massive blast outside the airport’s Abbey Gate, where thousands of Afghans were clustered in a frantic effort to enter the facility in hopes of boarding an evacuation flight.

The attack, attributed to the Islamic State extremist group, killed an estimated 170 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members who had been manning the gate and trying to maintain order.

Was the military at fault for not using Bagram?

In the days, weeks and months after the attack, many criticized the U.S. military plan to use Hamid Karzai International Airport (HKIA) for the evacuation rather than Bagram Airfield, the Soviet-built base about 50 kilometers north of Kabul that had been the hub of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan for nearly two decades.

Command Sergeant Major Jake Smith oversaw the U.S. military departure from Bagram at the beginning of July 2021, as part of the scheduled departure of the last U.S. forces from Afghanistan.

U.S. President Joe Biden on April 14 of that year had ordered the military to remove all of its troops from Afghanistan by September 11, with the exception of a few hundred to protect the embassy. The Biden administration later changed the military’s withdrawal deadline to August 31.

In the spring of that year, Smith had recommended Bagram for any NEO, saying the vast military base had far better resources and capabilities than HKIA to handle the operation.

“Bagram could house 35,000 people without overloading the infrastructure, whereas HKIA could hold under 4,000. … Bagram held the logistical capability to meet the requirements of 130,000 people, HKIA did not,” he told lawmakers.

Bagram also had one more runway than HKIA.

From a security assessment, too, Smith told lawmakers in July that Bagram was a better option than HKIA.

“The events that happened on Abbey Gate, I believe, that would have not occurred in Bagram,” he said.

In 2017, Kabul was deemed so insecure that then Secretary of State Rex Tillerson asked Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to meet him at Bagram Airfield. Similarly, in November 2019, President Donald Trump landed at Bagram, but did not take the less than 15-minute helicopter flight to the U.S. Embassy in Kabul because of security considerations.

Michael Rubin, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, blames U.S. civilian decision-makers for ignoring Smith’s proposal to execute the NEO from Bagram.

“This was a prime example of the arrogance of civilian decision-makers who had never served in the military and had no real experience in Afghanistan haughtily ignoring those who did,” Rubin wrote to VOA.

To keep Bagram Airfield operational, U.S. military leaders say they would have needed at least 2,500 troops on the ground, significantly more than the Biden administration had ordered them to keep in the country.

U.S. forces vacated Bagram on July 2, at which point U.S. Central Command said the military withdrawal was “more than 90% complete.” By July 12, a month before Kabul fell and the day the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, General Austin “Scott” Miller, relinquished command, the only American troops that remained in Afghanistan were those assigned to protect the embassy and those assisting Turkish forces with security at HKIA.

“What we wanted was an elegant solution that was not attainable,” retired General Frank McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command who oversaw the NEO, told VOA last year. “We wanted to go to zero militarily yet retain a small diplomatic platform in Afghanistan that would be protected.”

In September 2021, McKenzie told a House Armed Services Committee hearing, “I did not see any tactical utility to Bagram.”

Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the same hearing that “Bagram would’ve required exceptional levels of resources.”

Neither of the military officials spoke about Smith’s proposal to use Bagram for the NEO.

“The size of Bagram and its associated terrain would have demanded a much, much larger amount of troops to defend it,” Gian Gentile, a retired U.S. Army colonel and associate director of the Army Research Division at the RAND Corporation, a global policy research group, said in an interview.

“That view is the usual post-facto military lament that if policymakers would have only let us run the show, everything would have been fine,” he told VOA. “But again, that is a contorted inverse on how things work in a democracy.”

Could Ghani have changed the outcome?

Days before he fled from Afghanistan in three helicopters with his wife and closest aides, Ghani vowed he would not run away, even at the cost of his life.

Such assurances, and intelligence estimates about the strength and resilience of Afghan defense forces, prompted U.S. officials to believe that Kabul would not fall to the Taliban, even if the group claimed the rest of the country.

Ghani’s unexpected flight on August 15, however, left Afghanistan without a state for the U.S. to deal with while opening the door for the Taliban to walk into the deserted Presidential Palace in Kabul, less than three miles from the U.S. Embassy.

“If [Ghani] had not fled, things would have been different,” Sediq Seddiqi, a former deputy minister and spokesperson to Ghani, told VOA.

By staying, Seddiqi said, the Afghan president could have prevented the mayhem that followed his escape.

Others who knew Ghani and worked for him disagree.

“I believe President Ghani had totally lost credibility,” said Omar Zakhilwal, a former Afghan minister.

“If he had stayed in Kabul, the only thing he could have saved would have been his honor as a leader but not the government — it was just too late for the latter,” Zakhilwal told VOA.

Whether any U.S. or Ghani government action could have prevented or mitigated the events of August 2021 in Kabul remains in dispute, but neither the dramatic scenes at Kabul airport, nor the loss of life on August 26, can be reversed.

Milley told The Washington Post on Friday that he supported investigations, including those by House Republicans, into the Afghanistan withdrawal.

“I think any time that you can shed light and truth, determine lessons learned, I think that’s a valuable exercise,” he said.
…

The Taliban have allegedly barred a group of young girls from leaving Afghanistan for the United Arab Emirates, where they were expected to complete university studies.

Khalaf Al Habtoor, a prominent Emirati businessman, said in a video message on X, formerly Twitter, that he had sponsored about 100 Afghan female students to enable them to pursue their education in collaboration with the University of Dubai.

But he said that his office received “the uncomfortable news” Wednesday morning that Taliban authorities prevented the girls from boarding a plane waiting for them at Kabul airport.

“This has left me lost for words to describe the disappointment I currently feel,” said Al Habtoor, the founder and chairman of Al Habtoor Group, described as one the UAE’s most respected and successful businesses. 

He said that he was “sad today” because the students could not reach Dubai, where his organization had already arranged university admissions, accommodation, transport, and security for the group after months of efforts.

“The authorities in Afghanistan, without justification, prevented their departure, unjustly curtailing their freedom. This stands as a profound tragedy, a blow against the principles of humanity, education, equality, and justice,” Al Habtoor added. 

“I request all involved parties to quickly step in and help rescue and assist these struggling students,” the Emirati businessman said.

Taliban authorities did not immediately comment on the allegations. 

The fundamentalist Taliban have banned girls from attending schools beyond the sixth grade since reclaiming control of Afghanistan in August 2021.

Late last year, the hardline de facto authorities stopped female students from attending university classes nationwide.

The move prompted Al Habtoor in December to offer scholarships to 100 female Afghan university students to help them continue their education in Dubai.

He also posted a voice message from a student who was prohibited from traveling to Dubai but did not disclose her identity.

“We are right now in the airport, but unfortunately, the government [won’t] allow us to fly to Dubai. Even they don’t allow those traveling with a mahram [male guardian],” the student said.

“They don’t allow us when they see the student visa and ticket. I don’t know what to do. Please help us. We are so concerned about this matter,” the student added.

The Taliban have banned Afghan women from undertaking foreign travel unless accompanied by a male family member. They have also barred many women, including female Afghan staff of international aid groups, from workplaces.

The United Nations has criticized the restrictions on women and repeatedly urged the de facto authorities to reverse the policies and address other Afghan human rights concerns. 

No foreign country has formally recognized the Taliban government. The U.N. has ruled out international recognition for the de facto rulers in Kabul unless curbs on Afghan women are reversed.   
…

Rescuers have evacuated more than 100,000 people from flood-hit areas of Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province in the past three weeks, officials said Wednesday.

The rescue operations were expanded last week when the Sutlej River started overflowing, inundating several districts. Most of the evacuations were reported in the districts of Bahawalpur and Kasur in Punjab province.

Small-scale evacuations began in July after neighboring India diverted water from dams into the Ravi River, which flows from India into Pakistan.

Later rains also flooded the Sutlej River, prompting authorities to evacuate people living nearby.

The national disaster management agency said water levels in the Ravi River are currently normal but will rise further in the Sutlej River this week.

Pakistani authorities are still struggling to overcome the damage caused by massive floods last summer that affected 33 million people and killed 1,739. They caused $30 billion in damage to the country’s economy.

The monsoon season began in July and will continue until September.
…

An Indian spacecraft has landed on the moon, becoming the first craft to touch down on the lunar surface’s south pole, the country’s space agency said.

India’s attempt to land on the moon Wednesday came days after Russia’s Luna-25 lander, also headed for the unexplored south pole, crashed into the moon.  

It was India’s second attempt to reach the south pole — four years ago, India’s lander crashed during its final approach.  

India has become the fourth country to achieve what is called a “soft-landing” on the moon – a feat accomplished by the United States, China and the former Soviet Union.  

However, none of those lunar missions landed at the south pole. 

The south side, where the terrain is rough and rugged, has never been explored.  

The current mission, called Chandrayaan-3, blasted into space on July 14.
…

Myanmar’s detained pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi’s younger son, Kim Aris, has called for international unity against the actions of the Myanmar junta in an interview with VOA from his home in England. 

In the interview via Zoom, Aris says, “the scale of junta’s crime against humanity is horrifying.” He also called for the release of his mother, as well as all political prisoners who have been arbitrarily detained. 

He describes how his mother, while working to bring democracy to her home country from England, was supported by his father, Michael Aris, who would later die of cancer. Suu Kyi went back to Myanmar to nurse her dying mother in 1988, during the people’s uprising against Ne Win’s socialist authoritarian government. 

Suu Kyi would go on to lead the democracy movement in Myanmar and be put under house arrest for more than two decades by the military junta. The junta stripped Aris and his older brother, Alexander Aris, of their Myanmar citizenships in 1989, when their mother first was placed under house arrest.     

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity. 

VOA: You have frequently been interviewed by different media outlets regarding the current situation in Myanmar where your mother, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been sentenced to nearly 30 years imprisonment by the junta. Why are you now willingly and actively engaging with the media and the public in a way that you haven’t before? 

Kim Aris: Since the beginning of the coup, I have had no contact with my mother. The military regime has not answered any of my queries as to her whereabouts or told me that I can have any contact with her in any way, shape or form. So, I have no other way of trying to reach her. I tried to do what I can. And I don’t believe that anyone seeing the horrific images and sheer scale of the crimes against humanity being perpetrated by the military, against the Burmese people could turn a blind eye. … I cannot stand by and simply hope others will do what is needed to free my mother and support the people in desperate need of humanitarian aid if I do not do something myself. 

The recent news that my mother had been transferred into house arrest is, as far as I’m aware, not true. As far as I know, she’s still in prison in Napyidaw somewhere. And the military have used these tactics of false propaganda many times before. And I think this is just what’s happening again, now that they’re saying to be moved back to house arrest, whereas in fact, she’s still in prison. 

VOA: Your mother has said that she didn’t want her kids to be involved in politics. Do you know what her reasons were? 

Aris: Well, I’m sure every mother’s natural instinct is to protect her children. From the personal risks involved due to the brutality of the military. Obviously, paramount in her mind that she herself has faced assassination attempts, and how her father was assassinated as well. These things come with risks. 

VOA: Many of our viewers know that you don’t like to talk about your personal life much, but can you share a little about your experience, especially for our younger audience, on how you overcame the difficult situation of being alone while your mother was back in Myanmar working to lead her country? 

Aris: It has always saddened and angered me that my mother has sometimes been portrayed as cold-hearted because she was unable to be by my father’s side during his final days. I was nursing him at that time and can say that he did not want my mother to return to England. After all the sacrifices she had already made. His wish was to join her in Burma (now Myanmar) and be with her under house arrest. Unfortunately, the military could not find this in their hearts to grant his dying wish. I believe it was a unity between my parents and this gave them the strength to oppose the injustice with which they were faced. Furthermore, I never felt that it was actually hard for me to be without my mother compared to what the Burmese people are going through. Their sacrifices have been far greater than anything that I’ve had to endure. 

VOA: Can you give us an update on your campaign to bring attention to your mother’s imprisonment? What is the main aim of the campaign? What do you see as the biggest challenges going forward? 

Aris: My main aim is to call on the international community to stand in solidarity, take meaningful action to achieve the release of my mother and all political prisoners and hold to account the military leaders responsible for violating the rule of law and numerous rights of the Burmese people. 

Also, I’m trying to support humanitarian aid fundraising events taking place around the world, and to generate more global awareness of the crisis in Burma and the crimes against humanity being committed by the military every day. Some of the biggest challenges that I’m going to be facing are that some governments and institutions are willing to facilitate the military in their increasingly brazen crimes against humanity, the ability of the United Nations and wider international community to effectively impose more targeted sanctions on individuals, companies and institutions that facilitate the flow of revenue and aid to the junta’s military capabilities. 

VOA: In my interview with Myanmar activists from the U.K., they said that they felt encouragement when you, as the son of Aung San Suu Kyi, showed your support for them. Do you have any plan to work with any of Myanmar organizations, such as the National Unity government, which led among opponents to the junta?  

Aris: No, I have no plans on working with any of them. I have no wish to be a politician in any way. But I will be standing in solidarity with all of these organizations. I believe that they will win this war, especially through collaboration and new unity amongst all the different groups in their common fight against this military regime. My belief is that Burma will reemerge as a democratic country with greater inclusivity and acceptance.
…

Military helicopters and ziplining commandos rescued eight people, including six schoolboys, who were trapped for hours on Tuesday in a stricken cable car high above a remote Pakistani valley.

The daring rescue began with a helicopter plucking a child to safety after almost 12 hours, but it was forced back to base as bad weather closed in and night fell.

Then, commandos from Pakistan’s Special Service Group (SSG) — known as the Maroon Berets — used the cable keeping the gondola from plunging into the valley as a zipline to rescue the rest of those stranded.

“I thought it was my last day and I will be no more,” one of the rescued boys, Attaullah Shah, told AFP.

“God has granted me a second life,” the 15-year-old said.

Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar called the rescuers “heroes of the nation.”

“Great teamwork by the military, rescue departments, district administration as well as the local people,” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Local officials earlier said two children had been plucked by helicopter from the stricken gondola, but the military later confirmed only one had been rescued that way.

“After tireless efforts by highly skilled pilots and SSG personnel, a child was rescued but the mission had to be canceled due to bad weather,” the military’s media wing said in a statement. “Further efforts were then made by the SSG troops and a special zipliner team for this purpose was flown to the crash site by army helicopters.”

Adults last to be rescued

Bilal Faizi, an official with Pakistan’s emergency service, said the two adults were the last to be brought to safety.

A video of the first rescue showed a teenager in a harness hanging at the bottom of a swinging rope under a helicopter as crowds cheered with relief.

“Once everyone had been rescued, the families started crying with joy and hugging each other,” emergency services official Waqar Ahmad told AFP.

“People had been constantly praying because there was a fear that the rope might break. People kept praying until the last person was rescued.”

The six children had been on their way to school accompanied by two adults when the chairlift broke down at around 7 a.m. local time, midway through its journey above the lush green Allai Valley.

Mosque loudspeakers raise alarm

Residents used mosque loudspeakers to alert neighborhood officials of the emergency, and hundreds of people gathered on both sides of the ravine — hours away from any sizeable town — to watch the drama unfold.

Military helicopters flew several sorties and an airman was lowered by a harness to deliver food, water and medicine to the gondola.

Earlier in the day, as the rescue operation unfolded, headmaster Ali Asghar Khan told AFP by phone that the children were all teenage boys and students at his government high school Battangi Pashto.

“The school is located in a mountainous area and there are no safe crossings, so it’s common to use the chairlift,” Khan said.

“The parents are gathered at the site of the chairlift. What can they do? They are waiting for the rescue officials to get their children out. We are all worried.”

Abid Ur Rehman, a teacher from another school in the area, said around 500 people had gathered to watch the rescue mission.

“Parents and women are crying for the safety of their children,” he told AFP.

Syed Hammad Haider, a senior Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial official, said the gondola was hanging about 1,000 to 1,200 feet above the ground.

Cable cars that carry passengers — and sometimes even cars — are common across the northern areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and Gilgit-Baltistan and are vital in connecting villages and towns in areas where roads cannot be built.

In 2017, 10 people were killed when a chairlift cable broke, sending passengers plunging into a ravine in a mountain hamlet near the capital Islamabad.
…

When the Taliban entered Kabul in August 2021, nearly the entire leadership of the Afghan government fled the country fearing for their lives. 

President Ashraf Ghani, accompanied by his wife and closest aides, sought asylum in the United Arab Emirates, while the rest of his Cabinet, including his two vice presidents, scattered to different parts of the world. 

In a video statement three days later, Ghani said his departure might have been the only way to escape the fate of his predecessor, former President Mohammad Najibullah, who was tortured and killed by the Taliban in 1996. 

“If I had stayed, the president of Afghanistan would have been executed in front of the eyes of Afghans once again,” Ghani said. 

What the Taliban would have done to Ghani is open to speculation, but Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s chief spokesman, told VOA that the group had no intention of harming anyone, including Ghani. 

That is not entirely true. The United Nations reported Tuesday that since seizing power, the Taliban have killed, tortured, jailed and mistreated hundreds of former Afghan military personnel — a charge the Taliban deny.

But some former leaders did choose to stay in Afghanistan and have been able to remain politically active, if only in a restrained way, thanks to a surprising amnesty announced by the Taliban for its former enemies.  

Hamid Karzai, the nation’s first democratically elected president who signed the U.S.-Afghanistan Strategic Partnership Agreement in 2012, declared his commitment to the country in a video posted on Facebook within days of the Taliban takeover in August 2021. 

“To the esteemed residents of Kabul, I say that my family, my daughters and I are here with you,” Karzai said in the Dari language as his three small daughters huddled with him. 

Similarly, Abdullah Abdullah, a former chief executive and foreign minister of Afghanistan, chose to remain in Kabul despite his history of opposition to the Taliban. 

“I personally had a conversation with former President Karzai 10 days prior to the collapse of the government and asked him specifically what his plans were if some morning he woke up to the scenario of Kabul overrun by the Taliban,” Omar Zakhilwal, a former Afghan minister, told VOA. 

“He responded that he’d thought about it, realized the possibilities of very high risks to him and his family, particularly in the initial moments of the overrun, but under no circumstances would either he or his family leave Kabul.” 

‘No influence or freedom’

Inside Afghanistan, former leaders like Karzai and Abdullah appear active, meeting with locals, diplomats and aid workers. On their verified social media accounts, they issue carefully crafted statements calling on de facto authorities to reopen secondary schools for girls and allow women to work, while avoiding direct criticism of the Taliban’s globally condemned misogynistic policies. 

What has become evident in the two years since the fall of Kabul, however, is that regardless of whether they chose to flee or remain, none of the former leaders has had any significant influence over Taliban policies. 

“Those who stayed in Afghanistan under the Taliban have no influence or freedom to stand against the Taliban,” Sediq Seddiqi, a former spokesperson to Ghani, told VOA. 

Outside of Afghanistan, Ghani and other former Afghan officials are more critical of the Taliban on social media platforms. 

“If the Afghan politicians in exile can bring about an enduring political settlement and work together for a better Afghanistan, it is justified,” Seddiqi said. 

It remains uncertain what kind of a political settlement the exiled Afghan leaders could reach with the Taliban, particularly now that they have little, if any, leverage. 

“History will judge harshly of those who left,” Nader Nadery, a former Afghan official and a member of the former government’s negotiating team with the Taliban, told VOA. 

Now a research fellow at the Wilson Center in the United States, Nadery said many Afghans appreciate Karzai, Abdullah and those former leaders who have remained in Afghanistan. 

“When the time is hard, leaders stay with their people,” he said. 

Exodus of skilled Afghans hurts country

Concerned that the Taliban would target Afghans who worked for the U.S. and the Afghan governments, the United States airlifted more than 120,000 individuals from Kabul in August 2021. Among them were Afghan lawmakers, ministers, journalists and human rights activists.  

Over the past two years, the United States, Canada and some European countries have continued evacuating tens of thousands of at-risk Afghans. 

Prevalent poverty and Taliban repressions have also forced many Afghans to migrate to Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and elsewhere. 

The exodus of mostly educated and skilled Afghans continues to hurt Afghanistan,  Zakhilwal said. 

“Afghanistan would have been better off if not only the political leaders but also the tens of thousands of other [mostly educated] Afghans who were evacuated by the West had remained in Afghanistan,” the former official said. 

For others, however, life under the Taliban is unbearable. 

“Afghanistan now has become the most oppressive country for women,” Pashtana Dorani, an Afghan women’s rights activist, wrote last week on X, formerly known as Twitter.

As the Taliban consolidate their grip on power, rejecting domestic and international calls to respect women’s rights and forming an inclusive government, former leaders — inside the country and in exile — appear to have little sway on how the Taliban govern Afghanistan. 

Last week, the Taliban’s Justice Ministry announced that political parties were outlawed, effectively forcing their opponents to either leave the country or submit to non-democratic rule. 
…

Pakistan said Tuesday that a counterterrorism raid in a volatile district on the border with Afghanistan had killed at least six soldiers and four “terrorists” in the ensuing clashes.

The troops “effectively engaged the terrorists’ location” in South Waziristan and injured two other insurgents, according to the Pakistani military’s media wing.

“However, during an intense exchange of fire, six brave soldiers, having fought gallantly, embraced shahadat [martyrdom],” Inter-Services Public Relations said.

The banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, claimed responsibility for inflicting the casualties, saying the shootout erupted after its fighters ambushed a military convoy in the remote district. The insurgent group claimed a significantly higher number of Pakistani troop casualties, but it often releases exaggerated claims.

Pakistani officials maintain that fugitive TTP commanders have moved their bases to Afghanistan and intensified cross-border terrorism since the Taliban retook control of the neighboring country two years ago.

On Sunday, a bomb explosion hit a vehicle transporting laborers to a police post in the turbulent North Waziristan district adjacent to South Waziristan. Officials confirmed the killing of 11 laborers.

Afghan Taliban authorities reject the allegations, saying they are not allowing any group to use their soil against other countries, including Pakistan.

This year alone, TTP-led insurgent violence has killed nearly 500 people in Pakistan, including civilians and security forces. Army officials have confirmed the death of around 130 officers and soldiers.

The TTP, an offshoot and close ally of the Afghan Taliban, claims its insurgent campaign aims to bring an “Islamic system” to Pakistan. The United States and the United Nations have listed the TTP as a global terrorist organization.

A U.N. report last month said that up to 6,000 TTP fighters are operating out of Afghanistan.

Last month, a suicide bomb explosion ripped through a political rally in Bajaur, another volatile district bordering Afghanistan. The blast killed over 60 people, including children, and wounded many more. The Islamic State terrorist group claimed that attack.
…

Pakistan’s military has rescued two children out of eight people trapped in a cable car dangling over a high ravine, after a line snapped early Tuesday morning, in a high-risk operation complicated by gusty winds.  

Seven students and one teacher have been stuck in the cable car since 7 a.m. (0200 GMT) when they were traveling to school in a remote mountainous area in Battagram, about 200 km north of Islamabad, officials said.

Two children have now been rescued, a rescue agency spokesperson and a district official said. No further details were immediately available.

The cable car became stranded halfway across a ravine, about 274 meters above ground, and was dangling by a single cable after the other snapped, Shariq Riaz Khattak a rescue official at the site told Reuters.

The rescue mission has been complicated due to gusty winds in the area and the fact the helicopters’ rotor blades risk further destabilizing the lift, he said.  

“Our situation is precarious, for god’s sake do something,” Gulfaraz, a 20-year-old who is on the cable car, told local television channel Geo News over the phone, appealing to authorities to rescue them as soon as possible. He said the other students are aged between 10 and 15 and one had fainted due to heat and fear.  

The rescue efforts have transfixed the country, with Pakistanis crowded around television sets, as local media showed footage of an emergency worker dangling from a helicopter cable close to the small cabin, with those onboard seen cramped together.  

At the scene, crowds of villagers gathered on the vertiginous hillside anxiously watching the operation.  

Muzaffar Khan, a district administration official in Battagram, said there were seven students and one teacher aboard, updating from the earlier reported six students and two teachers. 
…

Indian scientists are aiming to put a lander on the moon Wednesday, hoping that the country will become the first to touch down on the lunar surface’s south pole.   

India’s attempt will be made days after Russia’s Luna-25 lander, also headed for the unexplored south pole, crashed into the moon.  

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) expressed optimism about its moon mission on Tuesday. “The mission is on schedule. Systems are undergoing regular checks.  Smooth sailing is continuing. The Mission Operations Complex (MOX) is buzzed with energy & excitement!,” it said on X.

It is India’s second attempt to reach the south pole — four years ago, India’s lander crashed during its final approach.  

If the mission is successful, India would become the fourth country to achieve what is called a “soft-landing” on the moon – a feat accomplished by the United States, China and the former Soviet Union.  

However, none of those lunar missions landed at the south pole. “If you look at the spacecrafts that went to the moon in the 1960s and 1970s, they all landed in latitudes somewhere around the equator or the center of the moon as we view it from the earth, because those are relatively easy to access,” explained Chaitanya Giri, Associate Professor, Environmental Sciences at Flame University, Pune.  

The south side, where the terrain is rough and rugged, has never been explored.  

The current mission, called Chandrayaan-3, that blasted into space on July 14 follows the earlier one that could not put a lander on the moon. Chandrayaan means moon vehicle in Sanskrit and Hindi.   

Space experts say scientists have taken into account the factors that led to the failed landing in 2019.  

“It’s a complex maneuver.  As far as possible ISRO has made changes and taken care to ensure that the descent to the moon’s surface happens safely and in an expected manner,” said Giri. “The rest, of course, depends on any technical glitch that may arise.” 

The space agency has released Images of the far side of the moon — it said it has been mapping the area to locate what it called “a safe landing area — without boulders or deep trenches.” 

“All systems are working perfectly and no contingencies are anticipated,” ISRO Chairman S. Somnath said on Monday, according to a government statement. 

If the mission goes according to plan, a rover being carried by the lander will stay on the moon for two weeks examining the lunar surface for the presence of water, minerals and studying its topography.  Scientists believe the polar craters may contain water which would be critical to support human settlements on the moon that may be planned in the future.  

This is India’s third mission to the moon and is part of its ambitions to be counted among a major space faring nation. The first one in 2008 that involved orbiting the moon helped confirm evidence of water on the lunar body.  

Anticipation is growing about the mission in the country, especially after Russia’s mission failed after encountering problems as it moved into its pre-landing orbit. 

Jitendra Singh, science and technology minister, expressed hope that “it will script a new history of planetary exploration.”  

The landing is scheduled for 6:04 pm Indian time on Wednesday and will be livestreamed on ISRO’s website, its YouTube channel and by India’s public broadcaster.
…

In a third-grade classroom bustling with laughing children, only the teacher knew that Tara was a trafficking victim. 

“Instead of helping me, he asked me if I had any female friends my age back at the village, so that she could work at his house. I refused,” said Tara, who asked to use a pseudonym as she does not want to use her real name for safety reasons, during a recent telephone interview with VOA. 

After returning from school to the house where she lived and worked, Tara sometimes slipped away to the terrace when no one was looking. She said she would watch cars driving across Ranchi, the capital of India’s Jharkhand state, and wish they would take her away; it didn’t matter where they were headed. 

“I was 8 when a lady came to our village, Jonha, and told my mother that she would fund my education if I went to live with her family in Ranchi,” said Tara, a member of India’s Munda tribe. “My parents were poor and had three other children, so they readily agreed.” 

According to India’s National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), over 6,500 human trafficking victims were identified in the country during 2022 ─ 60% of them women and girls. Experts believe the actual numbers are much higher, due to acute underreporting. 

Anurag Gupta, director general of the Crime Investigation Department (CID), Jharkhand, declined VOA’s request to comment on the targeted trafficking of tribal girls, citing a dearth of statistical data regarding the issue. 

However, Gupta said it is protocol for Jharkhand police to assume abduction or trafficking in every case of a missing child, following a Supreme Court order in 2013.

“We have also established Anti-Human Trafficking Units in different districts of Jharkhand,” Gupta told VOA. “We often refer human trafficking cases to the Directorate of Enforcement, who are responsible for handling money laundering cases and seize the properties owned by traffickers.”

Trafficking victims

Ruchira Gupta is an anti-human trafficking activist and journalist and the founder of Apne Aap Women Worldwide, an organization that empowers girls and women to resist sex trafficking. She said the majority of India’s trafficking victims are girls from oppressed castes and marginalized tribal communities. 

“Traffickers take advantage of their [[tribal women and girls’]] intersecting vulnerabilities like food insecurity, unstable housing and lack of legal protection to seduce, trick and force them,” Gupta told VOA. 

With a tribal population of almost 9 million and the highest percentage of outgoing migrants in the country, Jharkhand is one of the primary spots in India targeted by human traffickers, according to the Economic Survey of India of 2017 and the NCRB.

Like many other victims of human trafficking, Tara, who was 8 when she was trafficked, had no idea what awaited her when she entered a city for the first time in her life.

Her parents were told that Tara would have to “help around with some household chores,” which did not seem unusual to them at the time. 

“I would wake up at 6 a.m., clean the house, do the laundry and cook food for all the members of their joint family before leaving for school,” said Tara, who is 18 now.

“I could not focus at school because they used to practically starve me. By the time I returned, they would have finished off everything I had cooked, leaving the utensils for me to wash. Then I had to cook dinner and look after their toddlers,” she said. “I felt so hurt that I would lock myself in the bathroom to cry. They would yell if I shed a tear in front of them.”

Rashmi Tiwary, founder of the Aahan Foundation, a nongovernmental organization that works to prevent human trafficking in Jharkhand, told VOA that over 60% of the domestic workers employed in New Delhi are from Jharkhand. 

“Several of these are women and girls who are trafficking victims. Intergenerational domestic slavery is almost a socially accepted norm among Jharkhand tribes now — many girls who are trafficked have mothers who have faced the same fate,” she said. 

Betrayed by their own 

Most of these victims are taken to cities by “placement agencies”— a euphemism for organized trafficking groups. 

Rishi Kant, a co-founder of Shakti Vahini, a New Delhi-based NGO involved in human trafficking rescue operations nationwide, told VOA that India desperately needs a “placement agency act” to protect vulnerable groups like tribal migrants and hold their exploiters legally accountable. 

“These ‘agencies’ lure tribal girls from remote parts of India with the promise of a better life. They sexually exploit these girls, before forcing them into domestic slavery with little to no pay at a stranger’s residence. Sometimes, their last resort is suicide,” he said. 

Vinod Kumar of Shri Ram Placement Service, a New Delhi-based placement agency, told VOA that they are aware of the role played by several placement agencies in the human trafficking of vulnerable communities.

“We ensure that we are not giving employment to any trafficking victim by contacting at least three members of the immediate family of every person we employ,” Kumar said. “Furthermore, we have refused employment to girls below the age of 18 who have come to us seeking work. We are also registered with the District Court in Saket of South Delhi.” 

Tribal girls and women are usually trafficked by other members of their own tribes who have already settled in cities — people they implicitly trust, Kant and Tiwary have said. They added that, more often than not, these victims do not have the means to tell anyone about the abuse they face.

“They don’t know the local language, have never been to a big city and are often told that these traffickers paid their families a huge sum for them,” activist Gupta said. “They believe that they must allow themselves to be exploited to repay their families’ loans.” 

Laws in place

Bhopal-based Indian Police Service Officer Veerendra Mishra told VOA that a decade ago, Indian law enforcement’s attention was not as sharply focused on human trafficking as it is now. 

“Earlier, the training meted out by the Bureau of Police Research and Development to combat human trafficking was limited to the police forces directly dealing with investigations,” Mishra said. 

“Now, vigorous training is given to a much wider array of personnel in the criminal justice and social justice systems, because it is being realized that trafficking occurs in areas beyond those stated in its conventional definition, including adoption trafficking and clinical drug trial trafficking,” said Mishra.

He is the founder of the Research, Advocacy and Capacity Building Against Exploitation (RACE) Lab, India’s first anti-human trafficking lab. The lab produces evidence-based research regarding human trafficking and advocates for policy and systemic changes in India.

Gupta, of the Criminal Investigation Department, said that in cases involving sexual abuse of trafficked minors, the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act has been a boon.

“The POCSO Act ensures stringent punishment for offenders. In fact, the Jharkhand High Court monitors every POCSO case very closely,” he told VOA. 

Kant, of Shakti Vahini, said, “The recent interventions by the Jharkhand Police in human trafficking cases have been successful. … However, the ‘suicide’ cases in particular must be investigated more thoroughly, instead of being swayed in favor of the economically privileged.” 

At age 11, Tara returned to her village in Jharkhand during a summer vacation and found new hope in a Child Rights Awareness workshop at Aahan Foundation.

Tara convinced her reluctant parents to let her remain at home, breaking a rigid intergenerational cycle. Now a youth fellow at Aahan Foundation, she loves the Bollywood singer Shreya Ghoshal and wants to preserve the traditional Sahadri dialect through her own singing. 

The recent high-school graduate said, “To anyone reading my story: do not send your daughters to a new place without being well-versed about how exactly they are going to be treated there. I do not want anyone else to experience the loneliness I felt.”
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Authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir have blocked access to the website and social media accounts of the independent media outlet The Kashmir Walla.

As well as the block on accessing the web page from inside India, which was implemented Saturday, the news website’s team was issued an eviction notice for the outlet’s Srinagar office.

The measures add to the challenges for the Kashmiri media operation, whose founder Fahad Shah has been held in police custody since February 2022 on accusations of anti-state activities.

A statement that journalists from The Kashmir Walla shared via their own social media accounts said that the website’s service provider had informed them that India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology had blocked the site, under the IT Act 2000.

The legislation covers issues related to cybercrime and electronic commerce.

As well as the block on their news website, the paper’s Facebook page, which had around half a million followers, and its X, formerly Twitter, account were inaccessible inside the country in response to a legal demand, The Kashmir Walla said.

When VOA checked the news website Monday, it could be viewed from the U.S. When accessed from Kashmir, however, a message appeared saying that the “address could not be found.”

On Monday, the website’s staff started to clear the office in the Rajbagh area of Srinagar, in preparation to return the keys to the landlord.

Staff members had few words for the gathered media, referring journalists instead to their statement, which said that for the past 18 months they had “lived a horrifying nightmare.”

The media outlet was founded in 2011 by Shah. But since his arrest, the paper has reduced its workforce from 16 to six. Those remaining, the statement said, work in “an already inhospitable climate for journalism in the region.”

“We are not aware of the specifics of why our website has been blocked in India; why our Facebook page has been removed; and why our Twitter account has been withheld,” The Kashmir Walla said.

The statement added that the journalists have not received any notice or official order explaining the moves.

VOA emailed the information ministry and regional administration for comment and more information, but as of publication had not received a reply.

Describing the latest moves as a “new low for press freedom,” Beh Lih Yi, the Asia program coordinator of the Committee to Protect Journalists told VOA, “The censorship is not only arbitrary but also shrouded in secrecy.”

“If the Indian government wants to be taken seriously as a beacon of democracy, it must promptly restore access to The Kashmir Walla’s website and social media accounts,” she said.

Analysts, journalists and some lawmakers have condemned the move.

DIGIPUB News India Foundation, a digital platform that represents online media, said that the move reflects a “pattern of arbitrary misuse of the law.”

The organization noted that conditions for media have become harder since India revoked Kashmir’s autonomy in 2019.

The past four years “have had a chilling effect on journalists, journalism, and the fundamental right to free speech,” the statement read, noting that journalists in the region risk arbitrary detention and arrest “under stringent laws relating to terrorism and national security.”

The region for decades has experienced tensions and clashes, and journalists often find themselves trapped between authorities fighting unrest, and separatists, with both sides accusing media of acting in the interest of the other.

Lawmakers including Mahua Moitra, a parliamentarian from West Bengal for the All India Trinamool Congress, and Salman Anees Soz, a Kashmiri author and a member of the Indian National Congress, both responded to The Kashmir Walla block on social media.

Moitra described it as “Yet another shameful act of censorship & muffling of Kashmiri voices,” and Soz said that the actions against The Kashmir Walla, including the jailing of its founder, sends a message to all India that “what happens in Kashmir, eventually happens elsewhere.”

Mehbooba Mufti, the last chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir and president of the Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party, said that the media outlet was one of the few in the region left that “dared to speak truth to power.”

The news website’s staff members said in their statement that the outlet had “strived to remain an independent, credible, and courageous voice of the region.”

The statement added, “As to what the future holds, we are still processing the ongoing events.”
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Rights activists and opposition political leaders in Bangladesh have expressed concerns over the country’s draft Cyber Security Act, saying it is as repressive as the existing controversial Digital Security Act that it is set to replace.

The activists, along with journalists and opposition parties, have long demanded the scrapping of the DSA — widely criticized as a law to harass people and silence dissent.

Law minister Anisul Huq said on August 7 that the government would replace the DSA with the CSA in the “better interest” of the people.

“We have not scrapped the DSA but are amending it. Many of the clauses of this act, which were not bailable before [in the DSA] will be bailable now [in the CSA]. To stop the misuse and abuse of the DSA, we have changed its name. By evaluating the amended legislation correctly now, we have named it the Cyber Security Act,” Huq said.

Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman, liaison officer of the Hong Kong-based rights group Asian Legal Resource Center, told VOA the government of Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has disregarded the independent human rights experts of the United Nations by keeping some provisions of the DSA in the new measure.

“While renaming the DSA, by keeping its repressive provisions largely unchanged and deciding to carry on the existing cases against the dissidents, the regime clearly aims to continue muzzling free expression and intensify arbitrary incarceration of citizens in the run-up to the general elections,” Ashrafuzzaman said.

Enacted under Sheikh Hasina

The DSA, enacted in 2018, has long been called a “black act” by critics for its alleged misuse against dissenters and freedom of expression.

Last year, Human Rights Watch reported that the Bangladeshi government used the DSA “to harass and indefinitely detain” people critical of the government, “resulting in a chilling effect on the expression of dissent.”

In March, Volker Türk, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, called for the immediate suspension of the DSA, noting that it was being used “to arrest, harass and intimidate journalists and human rights defenders, and to muzzle critical voices online.”

‘CSA a photocopy of DSA’

During the runup to the general elections in 2018, the government cracked down heavily on opposition activists, arresting many of them on charges of resorting to violence and indulging in subversive activities.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party, the largest opposition party in the country, said its leaders and activists faced trumped up charges to keep them away from the elections.

The elections were marred that year by allegations of vote rigging by the ruling Awami League party, a charge the party president, Hasina, repeatedly denied.

According to the information provided by the BNP, in the past five years, more than 30,000 cases were filed under the DSA, resulting in at least 17,150 arrests.

The BNP’s information and technology affairs secretary said at least 11,285 of those arrested under the DSA were from the BNP and other opposition parties and 368 were journalists. AKM Wahiduzzaman also told VOA that the law has been largely used to keep opposition leaders, activists and journalists from criticizing what he termed the government’s malpractices and anti-people activities.

“The CSA is nothing but a photocopy of the DSA. Under the CSA too, the police will have a free hand to arrest anyone they want, without any warrant,” Wahiduzzaman said.

The Ministry of Law and Justice has not responded to a VOA email requesting comment on the issue.
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