Taliban forces in Afghanistan fired shots into the air and used fire hoses Wednesday to forcefully disperse dozens of women staging protests in Kabul over a recent nationwide ban on beauty salons.

Witnesses said the incident happened as around 30 female owners and workers gathered outside their beauty parlors in a central part of the capital to demand the Taliban reverse the ban.

Protesters accused security forces of beating them with batons and snatching mobile phones from some of them to stop them from filming the violence. Rally participants carried banners that read: “Livelihood, justice, work and education.”

Video posted on social media shows Taliban forces resorting to aerial firing and spraying protesters with water.

Taliban authorities did not immediately respond to the allegations.

“Reports of the forceful suppression of a peaceful protest by women against the ban on beauty salons – the latest denial of women’s rights in #Afghanistan – are deeply concerning,” the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said on Twitter. “Afghans have the right to express views free from violence. De facto authorities must uphold this.”

In early July, the Ministry for the Prevention of Vice and Propagation of Virtue ordered hundreds of beauty parlors across Afghanistan to close within a month. It noted that the decision had stemmed from a decree issued by the reclusive Taliban supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada.

In a subsequent video statement, a ministry spokesman defended the ban on beauty salons, saying they “implant hair and pluck eyebrows, which are against the Sharia (Islamic law).” Additionally, the Taliban said salons burden men with unnecessary and excessive costs during their wedding ceremonies when brides are taken to these facilities.

Owners and workers have since staged several rallies in Kabul and elsewhere in the country, appealing to Akhundzada to reverse the decree to prevent thousands of women-led households from being impoverished. They deny salons engage in any un-Islamic practices, saying they strictly adhere to personal hygiene and cosmetic services.

The ban marks the latest in a series of sweeping restrictions imposed on Afghan women by the fundamentalist Taliban government, or the so-called Islamic Emirate, effectively blocking their access to public life and education.

Since seizing power in August 2021, the Taliban have indefinitely barred teenage girls from attending schools beyond the sixth grade and blocked female students from university classes. Women are not allowed to visit public parks, gyms, and bathhouses.

The restrictions have outraged the international community, with the United Nations and human rights groups denouncing the de facto Afghan administration as a “gender-apartheid regime” and accusing it of trying to squeeze women out of public life.

No country has recognized the Taliban government. The U.N. and the United States maintain that curbs on women’s rights must be lifted before they consider granting legitimacy to the de facto Afghan authorities.

Taliban leaders justify the policies, maintaining they are aligned with Afghan culture and Sharia, claims scholars in other Islamic countries dispute and reject.
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The country’s annual defense spending measure was narrowly approved by the Republican-led House of Representatives on Friday, and although the bill is several steps from becoming law, the White House has announced its opposition to a range of national security provisions, including inaction on the special immigrant visas (SIV) for Afghans.

The House version of the National Defense Authorization Act does not increase the SIV cap by 20,000 in fiscal 2024 or extend the SIV program beyond December 31, 2024, despite the administration’s request to do so.

In 2009, the Afghan Allies Protection Act was approved by Congress, leading to the implementation of the Afghan SIV program — an immigrant visa program that helps military interpreters and others who worked for the U.S. government to come to the U.S. with a direct pathway to permanent residency.

Through this program, the U.S. government has successfully resettled more than 100,000 Afghans and their families in the United States. However, if the annual defense policy bill does not include an extension of the program, it would end a legal immigration path to the United States for Afghans who worked for the U.S. government during the war in Afghanistan at the end of 2024.

“Giving our Afghan allies a chance to apply for legal status is the right and necessary thing to do,” U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota, said in a statement.

Another strategy

On the same day the House passed its version of the NDAA, a bipartisan group of lawmakers reintroduced the Afghan Adjustment Act (AAA) in the House and the Senate.

It would also expand SIV eligibility to include more Afghans. Women, who served in special counterterrorism teams, and others who worked with U.S. forces as commandos and air force personnel, could be eligible for the SIV program. It would also establish a path to U.S. citizenship for Afghans with humanitarian parole status living in the United States. SIV presently covers translators, interpreters, or other professionals employed by or on behalf of the U.S. government in Afghanistan.

Dara Lind, a senior fellow with the American Immigration Council, wrote Tuesday that the NDAA has become a vehicle “for many other legislative proposals to pass into law.”

“Because the need for the AAA is a direct consequence of the U.S. occupation of (and withdrawal from) Afghanistan, and the Department of Defense has long supported ways for Afghans who assisted the government to become U.S. citizens, including the AAA in the current defense authorization bill is thematically appropriate, to say the least. It’s also, given Congress’ aversion to voting on standalone immigration bills, the most likely way the AAA will pass,” Lind wrote.

In 2022, the AAA also was supported by a group of lawmakers from both parties and expected to be included in the omnibus spending package. But it failed to win congressional approval.

Senator Chuck Grassley, then-ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and others objected to the legislation on security grounds, VOA reported.

Following the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, more than 70,000 Afghans were brought to the United States and granted a temporary humanitarian parole status that lasts for two years.

Humanitarian parole is given to those hoping to enter the U.S. under emergency circumstances. While it does not automatically lead to permanent residency, parolees can apply for legal status through the asylum process or other forms of sponsorship, if available, once they’re in the U.S.

But the humanitarian status is only temporary.

U.S. Senator Jerry Moran, a Republican from Kansas, said Afghans who escaped to the U.S., face uncertainty because their original parole statuses are temporary.

“[The AAA] legislation establishes a pathway for our Afghan partners to begin a new life while also establishing a critical vetting process to reduce threats to our national security,” Moran wrote in a statement.

In January, VOA reported that more than 40,000 Afghans living outside the U.S. had submitted humanitarian parole applications since the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Others were allowed to continue their SIV process inside the United States, which leads to a direct pathway to permanent residency.

“Two decades of allyship merits much more than an unnecessary and unsustainable legal limbo. The Afghan Adjustment Act is precisely how we provide the stability our new Afghan neighbors deserve while demonstrating that the United States honors its promises of protection to its allies,” Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, told reporters.

The Senate has drafted and needs to pass its own version of the NDAA. Once both bills are approved, they will need to be reconciled, and a compromised version will have to be approved once again by the Senate and House.
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A suicide bomber targeted a truck carrying security forces in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, wounding at least eight people, police said, amid increasing violence in the region. 

The attack took place in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that borders Afghanistan and is a former stronghold of the militant Pakistani Taliban group, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. 

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing, but suspicion is likely to fall on the Pakistani Taliban, who have stepped up attacks on security forces in recent months. 

The military truck was badly damaged. Police did not give details about any troop casualties. 

A senior police officer in the city, Waqas Rafique, said the victims were taken to a nearby hospital and that the attack also damaged other nearby vehicles carrying civilians. 

The Pakistani Taliban — also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP — are a separate group but an ally of the Afghan Taliban. The TTP has become emboldened since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021 as U.S. and NATO troops were in the final stages of their pullout from the country after 20 years of war. 
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Consensus eluded a meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors of the Group of 20 countries that ended Tuesday in India as members failed to bridge their differences on Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“We still don’t have a common language on the Russia-Ukraine war,” Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told reporters after the two-day meeting wrapped up in Gandhinagar city without issuing a joint statement.

Instead, India, which is the president of the group this year, issued what is called a chair summary and an outcome document in which it summed up the talks and noted disagreements.

According to the chair summary, China and Russia objected to paragraphs referring to the war that said it was causing “immense human suffering” and “exacerbating existing fragilities in the global economy.”

The failure to reach an accord was not unexpected. As the war in Ukraine is a matter of sharp diplomatic differences, India has not been able to forge a consensus document at any of the key G20 events held so far.

Several G20 members also condemned Russia for refusing to extend a deal to allow critical Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea, India’s finance minister said at a press conference.

Several members condemned it saying that shouldn’t have happened,” Sitharaman said. “Food passing through the Black Sea shouldn’t have been stopped or suspended.”

Russia’s quitting the deal has sparked fears about the impact on low-income countries in Asia and Africa, where high food prices already have pushed more people into poverty.  

While India has remained mostly neutral on the Ukraine war, it has expressed concern about the impact of the conflict on developing countries. It said its priority during its presidency is to focus on the need to help nations grappling with a debt crisis in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine conflict.

Sitharaman said members discussed the overall global economic outlook, specifically food and energy issues, climate financing and how to improve assistance to debt-distressed countries. She indicated that progress had been made on key issues.

More than half of all low-income countries are near or in debt distress, twice as many as in 2015, according to U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. Before the meeting began, she said that ending the war in Ukraine is “the single best thing we can do for the global economy.”

The chief of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, emphasized the need for a more effective and speedier debt restructuring process at the meeting.

“The costs of delays in reaching agreement on needed debt treatments are borne acutely by borrower countries and their people, who are least able to bear this burden,” she said.

Global growth is slowing and divergence in the economic fortunes of countries was a persistent concern, Georgieva said. “The world today is more shock-prone and fragile, with climate change, pandemics and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine all causing widespread turmoil.”

World Bank President Ajay Banga echoed similar fears. He spoke of “mistrust that is quietly pulling the Global North and South apart at a time when we need to be uniting,” and said that that “lack of progress was in danger of splitting the global economy to the detriment of the world’s poorest.”

India, which wants to emerge as the voice of what it calls the “Global South” has also been urging the G20 to forge a consensus on reforms for multilateral development banks.

A G20 panel has said in a report that international development banks must create a new funding mechanism and triple sustainable lending by 2030 to eliminate poverty and achieve climate goals. It also called for big changes in their operations.

The summit meeting of the G20 is scheduled to be held in September.
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A senior Pakistani envoy will travel to Afghanistan on Wednesday for bilateral talks with Taliban leaders amid growing allegations Afghan-based fugitive militants have stepped up cross-border terrorist attacks in Pakistan.

Asif Durrani, Islamabad’s newly appointed special representative on Afghanistan, will hold meetings in Kabul, focusing on mutual trade and economic and security cooperation, said a Pakistani official Tuesday. He spoke to VOA on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to interact publicly with the media.

Durrani told VOA in the run-up to his Kabul visit that Pakistan’s trade with and through landlocked Afghanistan had increased since the Taliban reclaimed control of the country two years ago. Bilateral trade currently stands at more than $2 billion, according to official data.

The Pakistani envoy also hailed the growth of Afghanistan’s trade with other neighbors, including China and Iran. Durrani said that “the relative Afghan peace” has enabled Pakistan to increase its trade with landlocked Central Asian countries through Afghan transit routes to nearly $200 million from $55 million two years ago.

“It is good for Afghanistan and will help address many issues; especially it will reduce the poverty rate, which is close to 95% per the U.N. estimates. It is a promising process, but it will take a while,” Durrani said.

“An increase in economic activity will also help deal with the humanitarian crisis amid reports that international donors may reduce their aid contribution for Afghanistan. So, the coming winters are likely to be much harsher for Afghans,” the Pakistani envoy said.

Durrani’s visit coincides with a surge in militant attacks in Pakistan, particularly in districts adjacent to the country’s nearly 2,600-kilometer Afghan border. The violence has killed more than 400 people this year, mostly security forces, with the Pakistani military losing 12 soldiers in a single day on July 12.

The violence is mainly claimed by or blamed on an alliance of outlawed groups, known as the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, conducting attacks against the Pakistani state from sanctuaries in Afghanistan, according to officials in Islamabad.

Pakistan has urged the Taliban to adhere to their February 2020 agreement with the United States and prevent terrorists from using Afghan soil to threaten other countries.

On Monday, Washington joined Islamabad in calling on the Taliban to meet their counterterrorism commitments.

We have made very clear that we believe the Taliban has the responsibility to prevent Afghanistan from being used as a safe haven for launching terrorist attacks,” U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.

Last week, the Pakistani military sternly warned the Taliban against allowing the TTP and other terrorist groups on their soil to threaten the country.

“The armed forces of Pakistan have serious concerns on the safe havens and liberty of action available to TTP in Afghanistan,” a military statement said on Friday. “Such attacks are intolerable and would elicit an effective response from the security forces of Pakistan.”

Pakistani security officials have also confirmed seizing U.S. military weapons from militants killed in recent counterterrorism operations, saying members of the Afghan Taliban also took part in last week’s terrorist attacks in southwestern Baluchistan province.

The Geneva-based independent Small Arms Survey published a report earlier this month warning that the TTP and other militants continue to have access to weapons of now defunct Afghan security forces that were trained and equipped by the U.S. military.

Taliban authorities rejected Pakistani allegations that the TTP or other groups were using Afghan soil for cross-border terrorism. Chief Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid urged Islamabad on Saturday to share the evidence with Kabul so they could investigate the claims.  

On Monday, the White House National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, John Kirby, ruled out the possibility of Afghan refugees participating in terrorist attacks in Pakistan.

“We’ve seen no indication that Afghan refugees in Pakistan or along that border are guilty of acts of terrorism…And we’ll continue to work with Pakistan, as we have on their legitimate terrorism threats and their challenges in counterterrorism,” Kirby told reporters in Washington.

Pakistan hosts more than three million Afghan refugees and economic migrants fleeing decades of conflicts and poverty in their country. 
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NEW DELHI — More than two dozen Indian opposition parties said on Tuesday that they had joined hands to form an alliance called “INDIA” to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in parliamentary elections next year.

Naming the alliance INDIA is seen as an attempt by the opposition parties to challenge the BJP on its own nationalist platform in elections due by May 2024.

Mallikarjun Kharge, president of the main opposition Congress party, said INDIA stood for “Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance.”

“The main aim is to stand together to safeguard democracy and the constitution,” Kharge told reporters at the end of a two-day meeting of 26 opposition parties in the southern city of Bengaluru.

The Bengaluru meeting of opposition parties is their second in a month to build a common platform ahead of next year’s elections, which BJP remains the favorite to win.

The first meeting last month had 15 parties agreeing to unite against the BJP.

The parties, many of which are regional rivals and have been splintered at the national level, hold fewer than half the 301 seats BJP has in the 542-member lower house of parliament.

They have, however, sought to set aside their differences to challenge the BJP after Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi was convicted in a defamation case and disqualified from parliament in March.

The BJP has criticized the opposition group as an alliance of opportunists and the corrupt and is on Tuesday holding a meeting of the 38-party National Democratic Alliance it heads.

A statement from the INDIA alliance said the “character of our republic is being severely assaulted in a systematic manner by the BJP” and pledged to “safeguard the idea of India as enshrined in the Constitution.”

In the first indication of a common political and economic policy, the alliance said it would focus on fighting rising prices and unemployment.

“We must build a fair economy with a strong and strategic public sector as well as a competitive and flourishing private sector, in which the spirit of enterprise is fostered and given every opportunity to expand,” it said.

“We resolve to fight the systemic conspiracy by BJP to target, persecute and suppress our fellow Indians,” it said.

Rahul Gandhi said the fight against BJP is a fight to “defend the idea of India, defend the voice of the Indian people.”

Kharge said the next meeting of the alliance would form a coordination panel of 11 people, name a convener and take up the complex issue of farming out seats for parties to contest one-on-one against BJP.

“From today, it’s a real challenge,” said Mamata Banerjee, chief minister of the eastern state of West Bengal and a key opposition leader. “Catch us if you can.”
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The United Nations says Taliban authorities in Afghanistan continue to arbitrarily arrest and detain individuals suspected of being opposition forces and journalists, in addition to increasing restrictions on women’s access to work and education.

The U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA, has documented the alleged human rights violations in a new report published Monday covering developments in May and June.

Taliban chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid swiftly rejected the findings, claiming they are based on “false information” being propagated by loyalists of the former Afghan government.

The UNAMA report recorded instances where the Taliban enforced previously announced limitations on women’s freedom of movement and searches for employment.

It cited a Taliban Ministry of Public Health directive in early May that allowed only males to take exams and pursue specialized medical studies.

The Taliban have banned teenage girls from attending schools beyond the sixth grade and blocked female students from attending university classes since last December.

“On 1 May, at an airport, two Afghan female staff of an [international nongovernmental organization] were arrested by de facto police because they were travelling without a mahram [male guardian],” UNAMA said in the report.

In June, the Taliban’s intelligence service detained a midwife and interrogated her for five hours before threatening her with death if she continued her work with a nongovernmental organization, UNAMA said, adding that the woman resigned two days later.

“The severe restrictions on Afghan women working with the United Nations continue to impact the work of the organization. With limited exceptions, since 5 April 2023, all Afghan UNAMA staff — women and men — continue to work from home to prevent a discriminatory approach in the workplace,” the report said.

The Taliban have barred women from visiting public parks, gyms and public bathhouses. The Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice has recently ordered hundreds of female-run beauty parlors across the impoverished country to close within a month, alleging they were offering services prohibited under Shariah, or Islamic law.

The move has effectively rendered tens of thousands of Afghan women jobless, according to owners and employees of beauty salons.

Monday’s UNAMA report noted that the detainee population in Afghan prisons nationwide had reached approximately 15,000 people, an increase from the average of 10,000 that the Taliban prison administration department has aimed to maintain since mid-2023.

Detainees included women and girls who have finished their sentences or had been previously identified for release but lack male guardians to whom they can be released, according to UNAMA.

“Arbitrary arrests and detentions of former government and military personnel — often accused of affiliation with the National Resistance Front — are also ongoing, particularly in Kabul and Panjshir provinces,” the report said.

The National Resistance Front is waging armed resistance against the Taliban from mountain hideouts in Panjshir and surrounding areas. It occasionally conducts guerilla raids on Taliban fighters but has not been able to pose any significant challenge.

“The de facto authorities continue to arbitrarily arrest and detain journalists,” UNAMA said. The Taliban morality police arrested four journalists in early May in the southeastern Afghan city of Khost. The detainees were instructed not to publish news reports against the Taliban, before being freed three days later.

Mortaza Behboudi, a French-Afghan journalist, was arrested on January 7 and remained in the custody of Taliban intelligence services in Kabul for unknown charges, the report said.

Mujahid claimed in his statement on Twitter that individuals within UNAMA could be misusing the organization to support a propaganda campaign against the Taliban. He added that Taliban security forces are working hard to ensure public safety, and all state institutions are busy serving the Afghan nation.

“The positive situation demands that the U.N. stop publishing such negative reports,” Mujahid stated.

The fundamentalist de facto Taliban authorities have rejected criticism of their policies, insisting they govern Afghanistan in accordance with local culture and Shariah.

The UNAMA report said that instances of judicial corporal punishment, implemented based on a court order and usually carried out in a public venue, continued in May and June, despite international calls for ending the practice. Scores of people, including women, have been publicly flogged, and at least two people, convicted of murder, have been executed in front of onlookers since the Taliban seized power in August 2021.

The international community has not recognized the Taliban government because of its treatment of Afghan women and other human rights concerns. The hard-line group returned to power nearly two years ago when all American and NATO troops withdrew from the country after nearly two decades of involvement in the Afghan war.
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Bangladesh’s opposition BNP is expected to stage new protests Tuesday and Wednesday amid its call for the resignation of the current government and installation of a caretaker administration ahead of general elections likely taking place in January.

Word of the protest comes as the BNP, or Bangladesh Nationalist Party, and other activists allege Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government has been fast-tracking pending police cases against some of the opposition leaders to prevent them from running in the elections. An antigovernment protest was held last Wednesday.

The Awami League, or AL, is the ruling party.

On July 6, a deputy inspector general, or DIG, of police met with other senior police officials in Dhaka and authorized an initiative to gather data on the cases of the leaders and activists from the BNP and another opposition group, the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh party, known as Jel.

Members of these groups have been facing charges of arson, violent attacks on police, various subversive activities and other serious crimes, since 2013.

VOA received a copy of the minutes of the meeting from a pro-democracy activist group in Bangladesh. Copies were circulated by the activists among most media outlets in Bangladesh, too. Fearing reprisals from police, most of the outlets overlooked the issue. Self-censorship has been common during this Hasina-led government’s time in office. Several journalists have faced repercussions under the country’s Digital Security Act for writing reports against the government or ruling party.

However, The Daily Star, Bangladesh’s largest English language newspaper, and New Age, another English language daily, reported the details about the minutes.

Police have not raised any protest against the two newspapers for publishing the details of the minutes. Additionally, they have not conducted a press conference calling the minutes false.

Most of the trials in the cases against the opposition leaders and activists have been taking place for many years. In many cases, the prosecution has failed to present sufficient evidence. In South Asia, it can take 10, 20 or more years for such cases to be settled.

According to the leaked minutes, at the meeting chaired by Joydeb Bhadra, the deputy inspector general of police, senior officers were allegedly directed to focus on cases targeting accused BNP and JeI leaders — especially those who are expected to contest the next general elections.

The minutes were in Bengali.

“A special emergency meeting in connection with the speedy investigation, trial and disposal of police cases of arson, serious crimes and killing of police personnel, since 2013,” the subject of the minutes read. According to the minutes, the president or chairman of the meeting was the deputy inspector general (crime management) of police.

Introductory statement by the chairman

“ … On the issue of elections, the government is under international pressure. By any means, the government has to win the election. BNP and Jamaat have to be declared disqualified for the election. … All BNP and Jamaat leaders who are expected to contest elections are accused in some cases. If their trials, convictions and punishments are ensured quickly [by September 2023], they will be declared disqualified from taking part in the elections. Every Thursday after 5.00 p.m., I will meet the law secretary to ensure issuance of directives — where and what exactly are needed — for the judges, to ensure conviction [of the opposition leaders].”

The police officers were allegedly instructed to maintain “good rapport” with public prosecutors and judges to ensure quicker trials and the disposition of the criminal cases. Police were also allegedly told to file regular “status updates” on the selected cases.

Past reports have cited examples of the judiciary colluding with the government or ruling party.

In Bangladesh, it has long been alleged that the judiciary and police work in support of the ruling party or Hasina-led government. Additionally, Human Rights Watch and other rights groups allege that the police have taken a heavy-handed approach toward opposition leaders.

Bhadra did not respond to requests sent by VOA on the Facebook Messenger app on queries related to the July 6 meeting. The Bangladesh Ministry of Home Affairs, which controls the police wing, has not responded to requests for comment either.

The BNP boycotted the general elections in 2014. Four years later, elections were marred by allegations of massive rigging by the Awami League — a charge Hasina repeatedly denied.

The opposition has long alleged that Awami League activists stuffed the ballot boxes the night before the 2018 elections.

Since 2022, the United States and other countries have urged the Hasina government to hold the next general election in a free and fair manner. To promote free, fair and peaceful elections, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in May announced a new policy that restricts visas for Bangladeshis who are believed complicit in undermining the democratic electoral process at home.

Demand for installation of caretaker government

The BNP has maintained that Awami League should step aside before the next general elections take place. In the past few months, however, several of its senior leaders have rejected opposition calls to step down to make room for a caretaker administration.

Referring to the July 6 police meeting, BNP vice chairman and former member of parliament Barkat Ullah Bulu said that the leaked minutes have exposed the government’s conspiracy against the BNP. Bulu said he received a copy of the minutes from a media outlet.

“When a senior police officer says that ‘by any means, the current regime has to win the next general elections,’ and judges would be instructed to ensure [the] conviction of BNP leaders, one can understand how this government is resorting to corruption to ban our party from the election,” Bulu told VOA.

Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, the BNP secretary-general, said that his party will stay away from the election if it is held under the Awami League-led government.

“It is utterly pointless to take part in rigged elections where the party goons intimidate the voters, rig the result, stuff the ballot boxes [the] night before the elections. They have politicized all the government institutions including the election commission, the police and the judiciary,” Alamgir told VOA.

“There is no level playing field for the opposition to take part in a meaningful election.”

His party would take part “only if a nonpartisan caretaker government” is in place, he said.

Badiul Alam Majumdar, founder of Citizens for Good Governance, a pro-democracy activist group in Bangladesh, said, “You cannot call it an election” if there is no alternative candidate competing against the ruling party candidate.

“And if, the revival of these cases and expeditious disposal of these cases means that the opposition candidates would not be able to compete, then that will not be an election. It would be a one-sided election. And a one-sided election is no election at all,” Majumdar told VOA.

Ali Riaz, professor of political science at Illinois State University, told VOA, “The absence of a neutral government during the election provides the opportunity to manipulate an election.”

Referring to the past provision of the election-time caretaker government, which was scrapped from the constitution in 2011 by the Hasina-led government, Riaz said Awami League changed the constitution “without the explicit consent of the citizens and used it as a ploy to ensure another stage-managed vote.”

“If it wanted to have an environment wherein the citizens could deliver their verdict, it wouldn’t be afraid of holding it under a neutral government,” he said.

“The Awami League won two elections under the caretaker system. Therefore, it cannot claim that the caretaker system doesn’t deliver a result reflecting the will of the people.”
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Finance ministers of the Group of 20 countries and central bank heads met in the western Indian city of Gandhinagar Monday to discuss how to shore up a faltering global economy and help nations grappling with a debt crisis.

Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the group has the responsibility “to steer the global economy towards strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth.”

India, which holds the presidency of the G20 this year, is hosting the meeting.

One of the top agenda items is facilitating a consensus on debt restructuring for developing countries facing economic distress, Sitharaman said.

The meeting is set to discuss a debt restructuring plan for Sri Lanka and Ghana, which defaulted on their debt last year.

Global concerns have grown as spiraling prices of food grains and energy insecurity in the wake the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s war in Ukraine pushed some low and middle income countries into debt and slow global growth.

More than half of all low-income countries are near or in debt distress, double the number in 2015, said U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

“The world is looking to the G20 to make progress on key challenges like climate change and pandemics as part of our work to strengthen the global economy and to support developing countries,” Yellen said on the sidelines of the G20 meeting.

Before the G20 meeting got underway, Yellen and her Indian counterpart, Sitharaman, held a bilateral meeting signaling the growing closeness between Washington and New Delhi.

Both leaders underlined the deepening ties at a joint news conference. Yellen said the two countries are among the “closest partners in the world.” Sitharaman said that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington last month “paved the way for new avenues of collaboration propelling our partnership to a greater height.”

Treasury Secretary Yellen said the United States is working with India to help the South Asian nation’s transition to renewable energy.

“We look forward to working with India on an investment platform to deliver a lower cost of capital and increased private investment to speed India’s energy transition,” she said.

Yellen, who is on her third visit to India in less than a year, said the two nations are collaborating on a range of economic issues, including commercial and technological collaboration.

Speaking to reporters on Sunday, a day ahead of the G20 meeting, she said the U.S. is pursuing an approach called “friend-shoring” with India — a term coined for diversification of supply chains away from countries that present geopolitical and security risks to global trade.

Yellen also said that ending the war in Ukraine is the best way to aid the global economy. She said Washington is working to cut off Moscow’s access to the military equipment and technologies that it needs to wage war against Ukraine.

“One of our core goals this year is to combat Russia’s efforts to evade our sanctions. Our coalition is building on the actions we’ve taken in recent months to crack down on these efforts,” Yellen said.

Russia’s war in Ukraine has cast a shadow on the G20. At a meeting of finance ministers held in February, the group was unable to issue a joint statement after China and Russia objected to references that other members wanted to make on Moscow’s aggression in Ukraine.

Reform of international development banks, cryptocurrency regulations, and access to financing for countries to adapt to climate change are also on the agenda of the G20 meeting that will conclude Tuesday.

The G20, which includes advanced and emerging economies, was created after the Asian financial crisis in 1999, and is seen as a forum that focuses on how to manage global economic crises. India, which has ambitions to emerge as the voice of what its officials call the “Global South” has said it wants the G20 to turn attention to problems faced by developing countries.
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General Asim Munir, Pakistan’s Army chief, traveled to Tehran to meet with Iran’s Army’s Chief of Staff, General Mohammad Hossein Bagheri, to talk about a wide range of topics of mutual interest, including the expansion of bilateral relations.  

The relationship between the two countries has been fraught because Iran has often been subjected to attacks from Pakistani militants.   

A statement said: “Military commanders on both sides agreed that terrorism was a common threat to the region in general and both countries in particular.  They vowed to eradicate menace of terrorism in the border areas through intelligence sharing and effective actions against the terrorists’ networks, and explore avenues for enhancing cooperation in security domain.” 

Munir also met with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amire Abdollahain and discussed the importance of bilateral relations for regional peace and stability.   
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U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Monday that the U.S. is working with India to help quicken India’s transition to renewable energy. 

Yellen met with Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on the sidelines of a G20 meeting in India. 

“We look forward to working with India on an investment platform to deliver a lower cost of capital and increased private investment to speed India’s energy transition,” Yellen said.

Yellen’s current visit to India follows Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent state visit to Washington. Yellen’s latest visit to India is her third trip there in nine months, an indication of the growing ties between the two countries.  

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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On the heels of a trip to Beijing, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is back in India for the third time in nine months, this time to meet finance ministers from the Group of 20 nations about global economic challenges like the increased threat of debt defaults facing low-income countries.

Yellen will use her time in Gandhinagar to try to foster warming relations between the U.S. and India. She also plans a stop in Hanoi, Vietnam, to address supply chain reliability, clean energy transition and other matters of economic resilience.

Yellen’s goals for her time in India: press for debt restructuring in developing countries in economic distress, push to modernize global development banks to make them more climate-focused and deepen the ever-growing U.S.-India relationship.

Yellen’s frequent stops in the country signal the importance of that relationship at a time of of tensions with China.

India’s longstanding relationship with Russia also will loom as the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine continues despite U.S. and allied countries’ efforts to sanction and economically bludgeon Russia’s economy. India has not taken part in the efforts to punish Russia and maintains energy trade with that country despite a Group of Seven agreed-upon price cap on Russian oil, which has seen some success in slowing Russia’s economy.

Still, the U.S. increasingly relies on India and has courted its leaders.

President Joe Biden hosted a White House state visit honoring Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June, designed to highlight and foster ties. The two leaders pronounced the U.S.-India relationship never stronger and rolled out new business deals between the nations.

Raymond Vickery Jr., a policy expert on U.S.-India relations at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Yellen’s coming to India shortly after visiting China is meaningful in that Indian officials “are going to want to know in great detail what happened in the meetings with her Chinese counterparts and see where it fits with their perspective on economic relations with China.”

“They’re going to want to know whether or not the United States is serious about moving some of its sourcing activity from China to India.”

A senior Treasury official, speaking on condition of anonymity to preview Yellen’s trip, said there was hope that debt treatments for Ghana and Sri Lanka will be discussed and completed quickly at the meetings.

Sri Lanka and Ghana defaulted on their international debts last year, roughly two years after Zambia defaulted. And more than half of all low-income countries face debt distress, which hurts their long-term ability to function and develop.

Last month, Zambia and its government creditors, including China, reached a deal to restructure $6.3 billion in loans, on the sidelines of a global finance summit in Paris.

The agreement covers loans from countries such as France, the U.K., South Africa, Israel and India as well as China — Zambia’s biggest creditor at $4.1 billion of the total. The deal may provide a roadmap for how China will handle restructuring deals with other nations in debt distress.

Yellen’s trip comes shortly after she spent a week in China, meeting the nation’s finance ministry and discussing mutual trade restrictions and national security concerns.

Harold W. Furchtgott-Roth, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, said Yellen’s trip to India “is a reflection of a naturally developing alliance.”

“India has a great deal of tension with China — they have constant border disputes,” he said.” And India wants to develop and has developed into sort of an Indian Ocean naval power, which is also a region that China wants to develop.”
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Cambodians vote July 23 in an election that has been criticized by Western countries, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and pro-democracy activists, after the top opposition party was barred from running. Authorities insist the poll will be fair. Luke Hunt reports from Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
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Embraced by the majestic peaks of the Karakoram mountain range and hugging the bank of the Shyok River, Turtuk unfolds as a captivating hamlet in the far northern Himalayan region of India. But its scenic beauty conceals the heart-wrenching loss of identity and family suffered by many of its inhabitants since 1971.

In that year, while the world focused on the war that saw Bangladesh break away from Pakistan, the Indian army captured Turtuk and three other villages in the Gilgit-Baltistan region from Pakistan, leading in each case to families torn apart and connections lost.

Residents like Mohammed Ali Bari, known as “Goba Ali,” have lived with the pain of separation since childhood. Ali and his brother were raised by their grandfather after being separated from their parents when the border was moved.

The pain remains vivid in Ali’s eyes as he recounts his story to VOA. Desperate to reunite with his parents, he embarked on a years-long quest for permission to travel to Franu, a village across the Line of Control in Pakistan, where his parents lived. Ali finally obtained a passport in 2014, enabling him to see his parents again for the first time in 43 years.

Upon arriving in Pakistan, Ali was greeted by an unknown man who tightly embraced him, shedding tears of joy. Curiosity surrounded this emotional encounter, and the stranger explained the reason for his tears.

It turned out that Ali’s father had served water to the Pakistani army when the stranger was stationed on a nearby mountain peak. Ali’s father had often borrowed the soldier’s binoculars to try to catch a glimpse of his two sons across the border, and the memory moved the stranger to tears.

Ali’s reunion with his parents in Pakistan lasted 10 months. Ali recalls, “Before my return, my mother urged me to visit the border every Friday, dressed in white, to exchange glances through binoculars. This ritual continued for a couple of years until my mother’s passing.” 

Ali and his parents even devised a plan for sending flowers from Ali’s garden across the Shyok River, symbolizing their enduring connection. Although Ali was unsure if the flowers reached their destination, the gesture served as a powerful symbol of love and longing.

The experiences of Ali mirror those of many other households affected by the events of 1971.

Yabgo Mohammed Khan Kacho, a descendant of a family dynasty that ruled the region for centuries, shared his memories of Turtuk’s fall to the Indian army when he was just about 12 years old.

“I recall the time when the Pakistan army was engaged in the Bengal war, diverting their attention and resources,” he says. “Taking advantage of this situation, the Indian army, with their numerical superiority, easily seized control of Turtuk and the neighboring villages, assimilating them into the Ladakh region.”

In recent times, the border around Turtuk has seen relative calm, leading to the opening of the village for tourism in 2010. Turtuk is renowned for its apricot and walnut orchards and has witnessed the construction of paved roads, government schools and other infrastructure.

Mohammad Ali Bari, who experienced the integration of Turtuk into India at the age of 9, recalls there was only one primary school at that time, named Yhul. He says he studied the Pakistani curriculum until fourth grade and then transitioned to the Indian education system, where he had to start afresh in first grade.

Bari later became a teacher, working in the same Yhul School where he once studied. He says many of his fellow villagers work with the army while others are involved in the tourism sector and agriculture, including the cultivation of apricots and barley.

Reflecting on how his village and its residents’ lives have changed since it switched from one country to another, Bari is philosophical.

“It doesn’t matter what nationality you have; what matters is humanity,” he says. 
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Rescuers in boats evacuated 14,000 people over the past several days after floodwaters from two rivers swollen by monsoon rains inundated dozens of villages in eastern Pakistan, officials said Friday. 

Monsoon rains began lashing the South Asian country in late June and since then, at least 91 people have died in weather-related incidents across the country.

Mohsin Naqvi, a top official in eastern Punjab province, tweeted Friday that he visited flood-hit areas. The evacuations began earlier this week after neighboring India diverted waters from dams into the Ravi River, which flows from India into Pakistan. An overflowing Sutlej River has also inundated villages in various parts of the province.

According to the national weather agency, rains will continue this week to lash the southwestern Baluchistan and southern Sindh provinces, where thousands died in floods last summer.

The floods affected 33 million people and killed 1,739 in Pakistan. They also caused $30 billion in damage to the country’s economy.

The monsoon season began in July and will continue until September. 
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Pakistan reiterated a call for Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities Friday to rein in “terrorists” plotting assaults across their shared border after insurgents killed at least 12 Pakistani soldiers this week.  

“Such attacks are intolerable and would elicit an effective response from the security forces of Pakistan,” a military statement said without elaborating. “The involvement of Afghan nationals in acts of terrorism in Pakistan is another important concern that needs to be addressed.” 

The stern warning came two days after insurgents raided an army base in Baluchistan and ambushed security forces elsewhere in the southwestern province, which borders Afghanistan. The violence Wednesday killed at least 12 soldiers and a civilian, making it the deadliest day for the military in recent months.  

“The armed forces of Pakistan have serious concerns on the safe havens and liberty of action available to TTP in Afghanistan,” the military said. 

It referred to the outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, waging terrorist attacks against the Pakistani state. The group is an offshoot and close ally of the Afghan Taliban. Pakistani officials say TTP, also known as the Pakistani Taliban, has moved its operational bases to Afghanistan and stepped up cross-border attacks since the Taliban regained control of the neighboring country in August 2021. 

Baluchistan and the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan have experienced much of the resurgent violence. Insurgent suicide bombings and attacks reportedly have killed more than 400 Pakistanis, including security forces, nationwide since the beginning of 2023. 

The Pakistani military has lost at least 120 officers and soldiers in militant attacks in the first six months of the year. TTP and the so-called Baluch Liberation Army, both designated as global terrorist organizations by the United States, have claimed responsibility for plotting most of the bloodshed.

“It is expected that [the] interim Afghan government would not allow the use of its soil to perpetrate terror against any country, in the real sense and in line with commitments made in the Doha Agreement,” the Pakistani military said Friday.  

The statement referred to the February 2020 deal the United States negotiated under the Trump administration with the then-insurgent Taliban in Doha, the capital of Qatar.  

The landmark understanding paved the way for all U.S.-led NATO troops to depart Afghanistan just days after Taliban insurgents seized power, ending two decades of U.S. involvement in the war. The Taliban, in turn, pledged they would not allow terrorist groups to threaten other countries from Afghan soil.  

The Taliban government did not immediately respond to Friday’s allegations by Pakistan. Taliban leaders have maintained they do not allow TTP or any other groups to threaten neighboring countries, including Pakistan, from Afghan soil.  

Pakistani officials say they have found evidence that fighters of the Afghan Taliban joined hands with TTP to carry out attacks.  

The rise in TTP attacks has strained Islamabad’s relations with the Taliban-led government in Kabul. The Taliban brokered and hosted talks between Pakistan and the TTP in June 2022, leading to a cease-fire. But the insurgents unilaterally ended the truce last November and resumed their terror campaign against the Pakistani state.
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Pakistan held a groundbreaking ceremony Friday for what will be its largest civil nuclear power plant — constructed by China — that will contribute 1,200 megawatts of electricity daily to the national grid and is estimated to cost at least $3.5 billion.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and senior Chinese officials attended the televised event in the central city of Chashma, dubbed the birthplace of China-Pakistan nuclear energy cooperation.

Over the past 30 years, Beijing has installed four nuclear power generation units in Chashma, collectively generating about 1,300 megawatts, with China providing enriched uranium for fuel. 

“This mutual cooperation to promote clean, efficient, and comparatively cheaper energy is a gift of friendship between the two countries and a model for other countries to emulate,” Sharif said at the ceremony.

The plant, known as Chashma-5, or C-5, will feature what China says is its domestically developed third-generation pressurized water nuclear technology, the Hualong One or HPR1000, with “advanced safety and foolproof security features.” 

Raja Ali Raza, the head of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, said the nuclear plant project will be completed by 2030.

“C-5 will be Pakistan’s largest generation-III plus nuclear power project,” Raza said. “This project has brought PAEC one step closer to its envisaged goal of production of 8,800 megawatts electric cheap and clean energy.” 

Beijing has previously supplied the HPR1000 technology for two nuclear power stations, each with a 1,100-megawatt generation capacity, built and operationalized in the last couple of years in the southern port city of Karachi, enhancing Pakistan’s nuclear energy production to more than 3,500 megawatts a day.

Analysts see China’s accelerated civil nuclear cooperation with Pakistan as part of efforts to globally find more lucrative buyers for its HPR1000 reactors developed by state-owned China National Nuclear Corporation or CNNC, the country’s second-largest nuclear power producer company. 

“HPR1000 is a homegrown nuclear technology of CNNC and a flagship of China’s advanced equipment manufacturing,” Yu Jianfeng, the CNNC chairman, told the ceremony. He noted that more than 17 units of HPR1000 are currently under construction in China.

“Today’s groundbreaking for the C-5 project is a significant milestone for HPR1000’s global journey and a new start for the China-Pakistan nuclear energy cooperation,” Yu stated. “Our cooperation in nuclear energy has become an integral part of the China-Pakistan all-weather strategic cooperative partnership and a shining example of international nuclear energy cooperation.”

Under its global Belt and Road Initiative, Beijing also has built and put into commercial operation 14 mostly coal-fired power plants in Pakistan in the last 10 years, with a total installed capacity of 8,000 megawatts daily.

The projects are part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, or CPEC, which has also built road networks, highways, ports, and industrial zones with direct Chinese investment and “soft loans,” expected to increase to about $62 billion by 2030 when the mega undertaking is due to be complete.

Critics blame CPEC for contributing to Pakistan’s deepening economic troubles and depleting foreign exchange reserves, making it difficult for the country to catch up with its foreign debt repayments.

Pakistan owes more than $1.3 billion (350 billion rupees) to Chinese power plants. The amount keeps growing, and China has refused to defer or restructure the payment and CPEC debt repayments.

All the Chinese loans – both government and commercial banks – make up nearly 30% of Islamabad’s external debt. Pakistani and Chinese officials reject the criticism, saying CPEC has stimulated the economy and produced nearly 200,000 jobs for locals since it was launched a decade ago.

On Friday, Sharif thanked China for rolling over several billion dollars’ worth of loans in recent weeks to help his country tackle declining foreign exchange reserves and avert default.

“The Chinese government and commercial banks rolled over amounts back to Pakistan to the tune of more than $5 billion. This is not a small contribution by a great friend at a time that was one of the most difficult times Pakistan was facing,” Sharif told the gathering in Chashma.

Fears of default on external payments and deteriorating economic conditions forced Islamabad to negotiate and secure a much-needed $3 billion bailout with the International Monetary Fund late last month. The global lender finally approved the bailout this week, bringing relief to the embattled Pakistani government.

China’s defense partnership has also significantly deepened with nuclear-armed Pakistan over the past decade but both countries maintain their nuclear cooperation is limited only to civilian purposes.

Pakistan and officials at the International Atomic Energy Agency say the country’s civilian nuclear plants work in line with the global watchdog’s safety guidelines.  
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An Indian rocket hurtled into space Friday to land a robotic rover on an unexplored area of the moon – a challenging feat India was unable to accomplish on a mission four years ago.   

Only three countries, the U.S., China and Russia, have made what is called a “soft” or “controlled” landing on the lunar surface. If the Indian Space Research Organization, or ISRO, is successful this time, some observers say the mission will establish India’s position as one of the world’s leading space powers.   

Millions around the country watched a live telecast of the launch of the “Chandrayaan-3” spacecraft from Sriharikota in southern India and thousands packed a viewing gallery in the launch site’s vicinity.   

“Congratulations India. Chandrayaan-3 has started its journey toward the moon,” ISRO Chairman Sreedhara Panicker Somanath said, after the launch, as scientists at the mission control center clapped and shook hands.   

The mission’s real test will come some 40 days from now when the lander equipped with a robotic rover will separate from the main spacecraft to land on the lunar surface on August 23 or August 24.  

“This remarkable mission will carry the hopes and dreams of our nation,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is visiting France, tweeted ahead of the launch.  

Friday’s launch by the ISRO is the country’s first major space mission since the failed attempt in 2019 when scientists lost contact with the lander minutes before it was scheduled to descend on the lunar surface. It was later established that it had crashed.   

Chandrayaan-3 also will deploy a rover near the lunar South Pole, where it is expected to run a series of experiments for 14 days focusing on the composition of lunar soil and rocks. Chandrayaan means “moon vehicle” in Sanskrit.  

India is hoping to become the first country to conduct studies of the South Pole, where no mission has ventured, and which scientists say has a different geology from the equatorial regions of the lunar surface.  

There is an expectation the South Pole has ice deposits in the depths of craters, as well as minerals.    

Scientists at the ISRO expressed optimism about Chandrayaan-3 achieving its goal of a “soft landing,” saying the mistakes that led to the failure of the previous mission have been rectified.  

The Chandrayaan-3 mission is crucial for India — even though its space program is much more modest than that of countries like the U.S. and China, the country wants to showcase its technological prowess amid its ambitions to be seen as an emerging global power.  

“It is indeed a moment of glory for India and a moment of destiny for all of us,” India’s minister for science and technology, Jitendra Prasad, said after the lift-off of the spacecraft.   

“Entering a small elite club, or becoming one of the pioneers of certain efforts, such as those in space, will continue to be a major indicator of skill, talent, capability and sound organization that decision-makers are able to utilize and leverage in politics,” Tomas Hrozensky of the European Space Policy Institute told VOA in emailed comments.    

India’s space program, built largely on its own proprietary technology, has long been a source of pride for the country. Its first mission to the moon helped establish the presence of water on the moon.

Although the second mission was unsuccessful in making a landing, it placed an orbiter around the moon that continues to relay data. An unmanned mission to Mars in 2013 marked the country’s first interplanetary mission. The ISRO is now developing a spacecraft to take astronauts into orbit, probably in 2025.    

India has also for decades launched its own satellites and those of other countries with its space program focusing heavily on low-cost access to space.  

Experts also say the price tag of India’s current mission, $75 million, also underlines India’s prowess in conducting space exploration at a modest cost.    

Exploring the moon has reemerged on the radar of many countries in recent years. The U.S. space agency NASA has announced that a four-member astronaut crew will carry out a planned test mission around the moon next year. In addition, India and the U.S. are collaborating to send an Indian astronaut to the International Space Station next year.  
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India is set to launch a spacecraft to the moon Friday.

If successful, it would make India only the fourth country to do so, after the U.S., the Soviet Union, and China.

It will take the $75 million Chandrayaan-3 over a month to reach the moon’s south pole  in August.

The south pole is a special place of interest because scientists believe water is present there.

Chandrayaan-3’s equipment includes a lander to deploy a rover.

Chandrayaan-3 means “moon craft” in Sanskrit.
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Afghan women owning and working at beauty salons gathered in Kabul over a two-day period this week to protest a recent decision by the Taliban to shut down their businesses.

Saying the move will force their women-led households into poverty, the protesters appealed to Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, who reportedly resides in the southern Kandahar province, shuns appearing in public and does not meet women.  

Akhundzada’s decree to close all women’s beauty parlors within a month marks the latest in a long list of discriminatory policies imposed by his so-called Islamic Emirate, which has earned Afghanistan the notorious title of “gender-apartheid regime” from the United Nations and human rights groups.

“They closed universities, schools, education and jobs, and now they’re closing this avenue for women too. I don’t know what the leaders of the Islamic Emirate want from us,” one woman told TOLOnews, a local TV channel.

“Two households with disabled children depend on my job,” said another woman.

Despite the pleas from the protesting women, the decision to shut the salons will be implemented in due course, said Mohammad Sadiq Akif, a spokesperson for the Taliban’s Sharia enforcement ministry, which issued the controversial order.

“We have given both economic and Islamic reasons already,” Akif told VOA. 

The Taliban say the salons add unnecessary and excessive costs on men during their wedding ceremonies when brides are taken to these establishments. 

“They also implant hair and pluck eyebrows, which are against the Sharia,” Akif said in a video message. 

The protesting women, however, say their salons strictly adhere to personal hygiene and cosmetic services without engaging in any un-Islamic practices.

Human rights groups have strongly condemned the Taliban’s order on the closure of the beauty salons and accused the Islamist regime of trying to erase women from all public spheres.

Taliban leaders say their decisions are based on Afghan culture and Islamic values.

Teacher training discontinued 

Amid a universally condemned ban on girls’ secondary education since the Islamist group seized power in 2021, Taliban authorities this week announced the dissolution of Afghanistan’s teacher training institute.

The institute employed nearly 4,000 people, many of them women.

In a statement, the Taliban’s education ministry labeled the institute “ineffective and unnecessary” and said, “The fate of all of its employees will be decided” in the near future.

About 80% of school-age girls, or more than 2.5 million, and more than 100,000 female university students are banned from education in Afghanistan, according to the United Nations.  
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Religious minorities are once again the focus of terrorist attacks in northwestern region of Pakistan. The outlawed terrorist organization Daesh has claimed responsibility for two recent attacks on Sikhs in Peshawar in which one person was injured and the other killed. VOA’s Nazar ul Islam files this report from Peshawar, Pakistan, in which he takes us inside a Sikh community. Bezhan Hamdard narrates
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Pakistan said Thursday the International Monetary Fund had transferred $1.2 billion to its central bank as the first tranche of a $3 billion bailout program for the cash-starved nation.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar made the televised announcement a day after the global lender’s executive board approved the much-awaited program to help Pakistan address its short-term acute balance of payments crisis and avert a potential default.

The IMF said Wednesday that the remaining $1.8 billion would be phased in over the program’s duration, spread over nine months, and subject to two quarterly reviews.

The IMF and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government agreed to the bailout plan on June 29 following eight months of talks and delays. It unlocked financing from friendly countries and multilateral sources that had withheld loans until Pakistan clinched the deal.

Dar said Thursday the first tranche from the IMF program and loan deposits from other countries would shore up Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves by the end of the week.

“I expect that our foreign exchange reserves will close at $13 billion to $14 billion on Friday, July 14,” the finance minister said.

In the run-up to Wednesday’s IMF approval, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates each deposited short-term loans of $2 billion and $1 billion, respectively, with Pakistan’s central bank to support foreign exchange reserves.

Close ally China recently rolled over about $5 billion of Pakistan’s loan.

Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves dwindled to about $4 billion a week ago, barely enough to buy a few weeks’ worth of controlled imports as opposed to the IMF-mandated three months of cover.

Families across the impoverished South Asian nation of about 230 million are struggling to cope with ever-eroding buying power due to increasing inflation.

The IMF noted on Wednesday the loan arrangement with Pakistan had come at a challenging economic juncture for the country.

“A difficult external environment, devastating floods, and policy missteps have led to large fiscal and external deficits, rising inflation, and eroded reserve buffers” in the fiscal year 2023, the global lender said.

It underscored that the bailout would require Pakistan to implement “greater fiscal discipline, a market-determined exchange rate to absorb external pressures, and further progress on reforms related to the energy sector, climate resilience, and the business climate.” 
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Schools and colleges were closed after record monsoon rains led to massive waterlogging, road caves-in, collapsed homes and gridlocked traffic in large parts of northern India this week, killing more than 100 people, officials said Thursday.

At least 88 people died and more than 100 were injured in the worst hit-mountainous Himachal Pradesh state where cars, buses, bridges and houses were swept away by swirling flood waters, a state government statement said. The region is nearly 500 kilometers (310 miles) north of New Delhi.

Twelve people have died of rain-related incidents since Wednesday in Uttar Pradesh state, said Shishir Singh, a state government spokesman.

Nine of them drowned, two died after being struck by lightning and one was killed by a snake bite, Singh said.

One person died in New Delhi and four were killed in the Indian-controlled section of Kashmir, officials said.

Authorities used helicopters to rescue nearly 300 people, mostly tourists, who were stranded in the Chandertal area in Himachal Pradesh state since Saturday. They included seven sick people who were airlifted on Tuesday, the government said.

Nearly 170 houses have collapsed and another 600 were partially damaged by heavy rains and landslides in the state, the state emergency operation center said.

In New Delhi, residential areas close to the Jamuna River were flooded, submerging roads, cars and homes, leading to the evacuation of thousands of people from low-lying areas.

Dozens of cars were blocked by sheets of water, throwing the movement of vehicles into disarray during the morning rush hour in New Delhi on Thursday.

The water level of the Jamuna River flowing through the Indian capital topped a 40-year record and reached 207.71 meters (681.5 feet) on Wednesday evening, according to a statement by the office of New Delhi’s top elected official, Arvind Kejriwal.

Authorities have moved nearly 30,000 people to relief camps and also converted some schools into relief camps in the badly hit areas, the statement said. Hundreds of people with their livestock also have taken shelter under overhead road bridges in the eastern parts of the Indian capital.

Rajesh Singh, a factory owner, was stuck with his motorbike for hours with floodwater blocking both sides of the road near the river bank. “I have never seen anything like this in the past 22 years.”

“New Delhi hasn’t seen a lot of rain in the past two days, but the river level has risen due to abnormally high levels of water discharge from Hathni Kund barrage in neighboring Haryana state,” Kejriwal said.

India’s weather agency has forecast more heavy rains in northern parts in the coming days. It said monsoon rains across the country have already brought about 2% more rainfall than normal.

India regularly witnesses severe floods during the monsoon season, which runs between June and September and brings most of South Asia’s annual rainfall. The rains are crucial for rain-fed crops planted during the season but often cause extensive damage.

Scientists say monsoons are becoming more erratic because of climate change and global warming, leading to frequent landslides and flash floods in India’s Himalayan north.
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The Taliban have ordered women’s beauty salons to close in a month. Beauty salon owners and women’s rights activists say the decision is devastating for women in Afghanistan. Farkhunda Paimani reports.
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