Pakistan is optimistic Afghanistan’s Taliban will effectively combat cross-border terrorism to emulate the kind of cooperation that U.S. President Joe Biden recently hinted at between the de facto Afghan rulers and Washington, a senior diplomat said Saturday.

Asif Durrani, Pakistan’s special representative on Afghanistan Affairs, told VOA in an exclusive interview that the Taliban government had recently initiated certain moves to address his country’s cross-border terror concerns and those of other neighbors, including China. But it is premature to speculate on the outcome, he cautioned.

Pakistan has experienced a dramatic surge in terrorist attacks since the Taliban returned to power in Kabul nearly two years ago. The violence has become a daily routine, killing hundreds of Pakistanis, including many security forces.

Islamabad maintains the attacks are being orchestrated by Afghanistan-based fugitive leaders and fighters of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, which is waging a deadly insurgency against the Pakistani state.

“It’s a serious issue. But steps are being taken to neutralize the TTP. We should also understand that it will take a while, but the process has been initiated,” Durrani said, responding to a recent Taliban announcement that TTP members were being moved away from Afghan areas bordering Pakistan.

“That is a step the Afghan government is taking, so we have to wait and see the results. It is now in the initial stages, so it would be too early to comment,” said the Pakistan envoy. “But if this relocation of TTP can actually happen and lead to peace along our borders, it would be a significant development and we would welcome it,” Durrani added.

He said Islamabad had opened talks with fugitive TTP leaders at the request of the Taliban to persuade them to cease violence, but the process broke down last year over “ridiculous” demands by the militants. 

“Pakistan has exhausted the dialogue option; for them, the only way is to surrender and face the law,” Durrani said. He added that Pakistani military operations had deprived the TTP of any territorial control and their relocation from border areas suggests they have now also become a “liability” for the Afghan Taliban.

The Taliban reclaimed power in Kabul in August 2021 when the United States and NATO allies chaotically withdrew all their forces and ended nearly two decades of involvement in the Afghan war.

The TTP, also known as the Pakistani Taliban, is an offshoot and close ally of the Afghan Taliban. It is designated as a global terrorist group by the U.S. The terrorist outfit sheltered the Afghan Taliban in Pakistan and provided recruits as they waged insurgent attacks on U.S.-led foreign troops and the former Afghan government before sweeping back to power two years ago.

“Comparatively, Afghanistan is now very peaceful but there are pockets of TTP, ETIM, and other groups that are a source of concern. Both Pakistan and China hope that the Afghan government will take practical measures,” Durrani said. China has outlawed the ETIM, or the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, for carrying out terrorist attacks on its soil out of Afghan sanctuaries.

China told a U.N. Security Council meeting last month that terrorism remains a major challenge facing Afghanistan and urged the Taliban to take “firm and strong measures” against terrorist groups operating in the country.

“Terrorist forces, including ISIL-K, al-Qaida, and ETIM, are colluding with each other and jeopardizing the security of the country, the region, and the world at large,” the Chinese envoy to the U.N. said in his speech to the meeting. He used an acronym for the Aghan branch of the Islamic State terrorist group.

“As President Biden has also alluded to the cooperation, which Afghan Taliban and American authorities have had in taking counterterrorism measures, the same expectation we have, and the process has started. Hopefully, we will have some positive results in the near future,” Durrani told VOA. 

Nearly two years after the American military withdrawal, Biden told reporters at the White House last week that the U.S. and the Taliban, two former adversaries, were cooperating to push out al-Qaida terrorists from the war-torn South Asian country.

“Remember what I said about Afghanistan? I said al-Qaida would not be there. I said it wouldn’t be there. I said we’d get help from the Taliban,” Biden told reporters. “What’s happening now? What’s going on? Read your press. I was right,” he added without elaborating.

Last year, al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed by U.S. drone missiles in downtown Kabul, where, according to Washington, he was residing as a guest of the Taliban. The de facto Afghan authorities have also killed top Islamic State leaders in the country, reportedly with the help of American intelligence, though U.S. officials have not publicly acknowledged any such cooperation with the Taliban.

Poppy ban

The Taliban also have significantly reduced opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan since regaining control of the country, a move Washington and other international stakeholders have praised.

“But those Afghan farmers, who are losing because of the [Taliban ban on] poppy cultivation and the substitution crops are not fetching them the profits they were earning from poppy earlier. I think they also need compensation and international community should help Afghanistan,” Durrani said.

The Pakistani envoy noted his country’s bilateral trade with Afghanistan has increased after the Taliban takeover and Afghan transit routes to landlocked Central Asian countries are also benefiting Islamabad.

“Our trade with Central Asian countries was close to $55 million before the American withdrawal but now it has registered close to $200 million, almost a rise of three times. Peace dividends are obvious. If Afghanistan becomes peaceful, it will become a South and Central Asia transit hub.”

Dialogue with Taliban

Durrani insisted that dialogue and continued international engagement with the Taliban is the only way to reinforce the positive trends and address the continuing challenges in Afghanistan.

“Staying aloof or not engaging the Taliban, who are in power in Kabul right now, would not help. There is a realization, which is why the U.S. president and others have praised certain steps the Taliban have taken, including eradicating poppy,” Durrani said. “Hopefully, other pending issues such as inclusivity, or for that matter, girls’ education or women’s employment, would also be addressed amicably.”

The Taliban have imposed their strict interpretation of Islamic law or Sharia since re-establishing their control over Afghanistan. They have indefinitely closed girls’ schools beyond the sixth grade and ordered most female government employees — other than those working in the health sector and a couple of other departments — to stay home. 

The United Nations and other non-governmental organizations have also been banned from hiring Afghan women employees. This week, the Taliban ordered women-run beauty parlors across the country to close within a month, claiming services offered at the facilities breached Sharia rules.

From the outset, the U.N. has denounced Taliban curbs on Afghan women’s access to education and public life as unacceptable, saying they have made it “nearly impossible” for the new Kabul rulers to gain international legitimacy. The Taliban are also being pressed to give representation to all Afghan ethnic groups to run the country through an inclusive dispensation.

Taliban leaders defended their policies, saying they are aligned with Afghan culture and Sharia. They have rejected calls for easing restrictions on women as interference in the country’s internal matters and insist their government “represents all languages, generations and regions” of Afghanistan.

Durrani said more than 700,000 Afghans have arrived in Pakistan since the Taliban took control of Kabul in August 2021. More than 120,000 of them have departed to the United States and other Western nations, while the fate of the rest is unknown, he added.

The displaced population mainly comprises Afghan families whose members worked for the U.S.-led international forces during their two-decadeslong stay in Afghanistan. They fled the country, fearing Taliban retribution.
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Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Saturday his country looked forward to cooperating with Switzerland on managing the effects of climate change and receiving an advanced weather warning system from the European country. 

Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis and the head of Pakistan’s disaster management authority, Lieutenant General Inam Haider Malik, signed a Memorandum of Understanding at the Nathia Gali resort, located some 85 kilometers (53 miles) from Islamabad, to cooperate on ways to manage natural disaster risks. 

The two countries announced they will “pool resources” to help strengthen Pakistan’s response to such disasters. 

The Swiss foreign minister, who was on a three-day visit to Pakistan, said the MoU signing was a “vital step” in helping Pakistan overcome the catastrophic effects of climate change. The situation in Pakistan was a “stark reminder” of the urgent need for international cooperation against climate change beyond borders, he added. 

The South Asian nation has been grappling with the effects of climate-induced rains and floods. 

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, present at the event, said that despite his country’s less than one percent contribution to carbon emissions, it was bearing the brunt of global climate disasters. 

Pakistan is among the top 10 countries highly vulnerable to climate change. Last summer’s flash floods killed over 1,700 people and left millions homeless, besides incurring $30 billion in losses to the national economy. 

The current monsoon rains which began in June have claimed the lives of 55 people including eight children. 
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The world’s two largest economies – the United States and China – must work together to fight the “existential threat” of global warming, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Saturday in Beijing at meeting with Chinese government officials and climate experts.

“As the world’s two largest emitters of greenhouse gases and the largest investors in renewable energy, we have both a joint responsibility and ability to lead the way,” Yellen said.

Yellen said “climate finance should be targeted efficiently and effectively” to support already established institutions like the Green Climate Fund, a U.N. entity that is endeavoring to support a paradigm shift in the global response to climate change.

On Friday, Yellen held “candid and constructive” talks with China’s prime minister, Li Qiang, in Beijing.

A Treasury Department statement said Yellen “discussed the administration’s desire to seek healthy economic competition with China that benefits both economies, including American workers and businesses.”

She also emphasized close communication on “global macroeconomic and financial issues and working together on global challenges, including debt distress in low-income and emerging economies and climate finance.”

China’s foreign ministry released a statement saying the prime minister noted that U.S. and Chinese economic interests are closely intertwined, and that China’s development is an opportunity rather than a challenge to the United States. Beijing said that Yellen stated during the talks the U.S. “does not seek ‘decoupling and disconnection’ and has no intention of hindering China’s modernization process.”

The foreign ministry said, “China and the United States should strengthen coordination and cooperation, join hands to tackle global challenges and promote common development.”

While both sides described Yellen’s visit in positive terms, no new plans for more high-level meetings were announced.

“China’s going to continue to be around and be a major player on the world stage,” White House press secretary Karin Jean Pierre said Friday, adding that an intense competition requires intense diplomacy.

“So it is important to have an intense competition requires intense diplomacy,” she said. “That’s what you see Secretary Yellen do, that’s what you saw Secretary Blinken do. These are the type of conversations that the president has had with President Xi in meetings that he’s had with him as well,” she said.

The U.S. Treasury secretary began a four-day visit to China Friday by calling for market reforms in the world’s second-largest economy, and warning that the United States and its allies will fight back against what she called China’s “unfair economic practices.”

Speaking Friday in Beijing to the American Chamber of Commerce in China, Yellen said, “The United States does not seek a wholesale separation of our economies. … The decoupling of the world’s two largest economies would be destabilizing for the global economy, and it would be virtually impossible to undertake.”

And while she noted the importance of trade and investment with China, Yellen also “raised concerns, including barriers to market access, China’s use of non-market tools, and punitive actions that have been taken against U.S. firms in recent months,” during a roundtable with more than 10 U.S. businesses operating in Beijing.

“She also reaffirmed the U.S. economic approach to China, which remains focused on three primary objectives: securing vital interests pertaining to national security and human rights; pursuing healthy and mutually beneficial economic competition, in which China plays by international rules; and seeking mutual cooperation on urgent global challenges, including on the macroeconomy, climate, and global debt,” according to a Treasury Department statement Friday.

China’s foreign ministry said in its statement, “the two sides should strengthen communication and seek consensus on important issues in the bilateral economic field through candid, in-depth, and pragmatic exchanges, so as to inject stability and positive energy into Chinese-U.S. economic relations.”

Yellen arrived in Beijing Thursday and tweeted, U.S. President Joe Biden “charged his administration with deepening communication between our two countries on a range of issues, and I look forward to doing so during my visit.”

Treasury Department officials said before the trip that Yellen would be discussing stabilizing the global economy, as well as challenging China’s support of Russia during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Yellen was not expected to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Her visit, which is scheduled to last through Sunday, follows U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to Beijing last month.

Yellen met earlier this week with China’s ambassador to the United States, Xie Feng, a meeting during which the Treasury said Yellen “raised issues of concern while also conveying the importance of the two largest economies working together on global challenges, including on macroeconomic and financial issues.”

Chinese state media said Xie expressed hope that the two countries will eliminate interference and strengthen dialogue.

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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At least seven Rohingya refugees were killed in Bangladesh in recent days, as an International Criminal Court prosecutor visited the refugee camps to obtain testimony as part of its genocide investigation against the Myanmar military.

Six of the victims were killed Friday. Five of them, all members of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, a Rohingya insurgent group, were killed in a gunfight with members of the rival Rohingya Solidarity Organization Friday morning. The sixth, Mohammad Sanaullah, an RSO supporter, was found with his throat slit. His relatives alleged to police that he was killed by ARSA insurgents.

The seventh man, Mohammad Ebadullah, 27, a junior refugee camp warden who was gathering refugees to testify before the ICC prosecutor, was stabbed to death Thursday, an hour before prosecutor Karim Asad Ahmad Khan reached the camp to interview witnesses to 2017 violence in Myanmar.

None of the victims had spoken to the prosecutor.

However, Hong Kong-based Bangladeshi rights activist Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman told VOA that Ebadullah’s murder just before Khan’s visit and the five others immediately after his departure are highly concerning.

“The Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar are highly securitized. The Armed Police Battalion [a Bangladesh police wing providing security to the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar] of the country controls the entire camp areas. The other security forces such as the Border Guards-Bangladesh, Rapid Action Battalion, the armed forces, are there in the vicinity, too. The intelligence agencies have high presence within the refugee camps,” Ashrafuzzaman told VOA.

“In such condition, how assassinations can be committed, that question must be addressed with higher priority.”

Ebadullah’s killing was certainly linked to the interviews with the ICC prosecutor because he was marshalling witnesses to the 2017 anti-Rohingya violence, Ashrafuzzaman added.

“At least Ebadullah’s murder certainly raises many questions. Who wants to benefit by preventing the paths to justice for the Rohingya refugees at the ICC court? Who provokes and patronizes hate campaign against the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh?

“Investigators have to work hard and find out those enemies of the Rohingya refugees,” he said.

Insurgent groups’ involvement confirmed

Amir Jafar, a deputy inspector general commanding the local Armed Police Battalion, confirmed that ARSA and RSO members were involved in Friday’s gunfight.

“All five killed in the gunfight were active members of ARSA. Two of them were the group’s commanders. The ARSA men were climbing down a hillock in a camp when the armed RSO members, lying in wait, launched the gun attack on them. Three died on the spot and two others died later in a hospital,” Jafar told VOA.

“The two Rohingya groups have long been fighting over the control of different areas of the refugee camps in Bangladesh,” he said.

ARSA, a Rohingya insurgent group, was active in Myanmar’s Rakhine state for years before authorities declared it a terrorist organization in 2017. The group said the terrorism declaration was baseless and that it was only fighting for the rights of the Rohingya.

After more than 700,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh following a military crackdown in Myanmar in 2017, many ARSA members have been based in the refugee camps of Cox’s Bazar. The group was charged with the 2021 assassination of Rohingya community leader and human rights defender Mohibullah, who only uses one name. It has also been alleged by Rohingyas that ARSA is linked to groups involved in drug trafficking, extortion and other crimes in Bangladesh – charges denied by ARSA..

Rohingya insurgent group and political organization RSO was founded in Myanmar in 1982, largely to fight the oppression of the minority Muslim community by the military in the country. In the 1990s, the group shifted its base to Bangladesh and began operating as a Rohingya group in exile.

In 1998, the group gave up armed rebellion. However, in 2021, after Myanmar’s military took power in a coup, the RSO announced the group’s rearmament. RSO, which is active with its armed members in the Cox’s Bazar camps, blames ARSA for violent attacks against many refugee leaders and staunchly opposes the group.

Since 2020, Rohingya camps in Bangladesh have witnessed many violent incidents, including the killing of refugees. The police and Rohingya rights activists blame ARSA and RSO for most of those violent incidents.

According to Jafar’s office, the number of homicides of Rohingyas in Bangladesh has risen since 2021. In that year, 30 Rohingyas were killed in Bangladesh; in 2022, that number rose to 32.

This year, at least 57 Rohingyas have been killed, according to figures provided by the police and Rohingya activists. Among those killed this year, 17 were camp wardens, 16 were ARSA members and two were from RSO.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said some separatists from Myanmar might have infiltrated the Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar.

“I guess, those separatists are triggering violence in the camps and killing people and committing other crimes. We are reinforcing our border patrol in our effort to stop their infiltration,” the minister said Friday.

“We have to repatriate Rohingyas to Myanmar as soon as possible. It will be good for all— them and us.”
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NEW DELHI – India’s opposition leader, Rahul Gandhi, suffered a setback Friday after a high court dismissed his plea to suspend his conviction in a criminal defamation case.

The order by the Gujarat High Court means that Gandhi remains ineligible to run in next year’s national elections in which his Congress Party is the main challenger to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.

Gandhi was expelled from Parliament in March after he was sentenced to two years in jail in connection with remarks that alluded to Modi’s surname under a law that disqualifies a lawmaker facing a two-year or longer jail term.

A suspension of the verdict was crucial to reinstating Gandhi as a lawmaker and allowing him to run next year. Besides being disqualified, his conviction had also barred him from fighting elections for the next eight years unless the sentence is stayed, or he is acquitted.

“There are no reasonable grounds to stay conviction of the application in view of the facts and circumstances of the case,” the Gujarat High court said in its order calling the conviction “just and legal.”

Reacting to Friday’s judgment, Congress Party leader, K.C. Venugopal, called Gandhi a fierce voice “that takes the Modi government head-on.”

“No force can silence him, the truth will triumph and justice will ultimately prevail,” he tweeted.

Gandhi will appeal to the Supreme Court, the Congress Party said.

Political analyst Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay noted that is the last legal option available to him.

“Legally the door is still open for Gandhi. I think the Congress Party knew that this will go all the way to the top court,” Mukhopadhyay said.

The defamation case was filed by a BJP leader, Purnesh Modi, in the prime minister’s home state, Gujarat, in connection with election rally in the run-up to the 2019 general elections.

“Why do all thieves have Modi as their surname?” Gandhi said at the rally before going on to name fugitive Indian diamond tycoon Nirav Modi, banned Indian Premier League boss Lalit Modi, and Narendra Modi.

Purnesh Modi alleged the comments had insulted everyone with Modi as a surname. Gandhi had said his remarks were meant to highlight corruption and were not directed against any group. His supporters had called the case politically motivated.

Gandhi, who is out on bail, is the leading face of the Congress Party. While the party fared poorly in the 2014 and 2019 general elections, he has spearheaded efforts to rejuvenate it and improve its prospects for next year.

He undertook a mammoth 3,500-kilometer cross-country march that ended in January to connect with voters across the country. The party got a boost recently when it wrested power in the southern Karnataka state after defeating the ruling BJP by a huge margin.

Gandhi’s disqualification from Parliament has been widely slammed by most opposition parties, which accused the BJP of trying to undermine the opposition and of undertaking political vendettas.

“Politically this should help the opposition charge that this is a government that does not tolerate dissent, it is very repressive, so it gives a slight push to that narrative,” Mukhopadhyay said. “They can use it to their advantage.”

BJP leaders say due judicial process has been followed.

The Congress Party and opposition parties have begun drawing up plans to mount a united challenge to the BJP in next year’s elections, hoping to improve their prospects of taking on Modi, seen as India’s most popular leader in recent decades.

“I think the Congress Party will do very well in the next election. I think it will surprise people,” Gandhi said last month speaking at the National Press Club in Washington. “Just do the math, a united opposition will defeat the BJP on its own.”
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Washington hopes to rally Southeast Asian nations to take tougher action against Myanmar’s military junta and to push back on China’s actions in the South China Sea as top U.S. diplomat Antony Blinken heads to the region for meetings next week, a State Department official said on Friday.

Secretary of State Blinken will travel to Indonesia to participate in a meeting of foreign ministers from the ASEAN regional bloc after he joins President Joe Biden in the United Kingdom and in Lithuania for NATO meetings from Sunday to Wednesday.

Daniel Kritenbrink, the top State Department official for East Asia, told reporters that Myanmar, which was plunged into chaos by a 2021 military coup, would be “one of the key issues” discussed in Jakarta.

ASEAN has barred Myanmar’s ruling generals from its high-level meetings, but Thailand has proposed re-engaging with the junta.

“We do expect our friends and partners in ASEAN … to continue to downgrade Myanmar’s representation in the ASEAN ministerial and we also look forward to finding ways to increase pressure on the regime to compel the regime to end its violence and return to a path of democracy,” Kritenbrink said during a phone call to preview the trip.

Washington last month issued sanctions against two Myanmar banks used by the junta to convert foreign currency, in a move aimed at reducing the military’s ability to import weapons and material for its crackdown on anti-coup forces.

Kritenbrink said last week that countries in the region should make progress in resolving maritime disputes with each other in order to strengthen their collective voice in disputes with China in the South China Sea.

Kritenbrink said on Friday that the U.S. would work with ASEAN members in Jakarta to push back against what he said was “an upward trend of unhelpful and coercive and irresponsible Chinese actions.”

“It’s not a matter of getting countries on board with the U.S. view, it’s a matter of working with our partners to advance our shared view and vision for the region, and to push back on behavior that runs counter to that vision,” he said.
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India’s federal crime agency Friday said it has arrested three railway officials in connection with one of the country’s deadliest train accidents that killed more than 290 people last month.

The arrested men have been charged with culpable homicide without murder and destruction of evidence, a statement from the Central Bureau of Investigation said. The statement identified them as two signal engineers and one technician, and said the investigation is ongoing.

June’s train crash in eastern Odisha state occurred when a packed passenger train got mistakenly diverted onto an adjacent loop line and rammed into a stationary freight train loaded with iron ore. The collision derailed the passenger train’s coaches onto another track where they struck a passing train that was running in the opposite direction.

The two passenger trains were carrying more than 2,290 people when the collision took place. Nearly 1,000 people were injured in the crash.

After the accident, India’s railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the cause of the crash was related to the signalling system.

India, a country of 1.42 billion people, has one of the world’s most extensive and complicated railways built during the British colonial era: more than 40,000 miles (64,000 kilometers) of tracks, 14,000 passenger trains and 8,000 stations. Spread across the country from the Himalayas in the north to the beaches in the south, it is also a system that is weakened by decades of mismanagement and neglect.

Despite efforts to improve safety, several hundred accidents happen every year, and most such crashes are blamed on human error or outdated signaling equipment.

The June crash was India’s deadliest since 1995, when two trains collided near New Delhi, killing 358 people. In 2016, a passenger train slid off the tracks between the cities of Indore and Patna, killing 146 people.
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An apparent push by India’s government to consider implementation of the Uniform Civil Code, essentially a common set of personal laws for all Indian citizens, has raised concerns that the ruling party is trying to split society along communal lines.

After Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said last week that the country could not run on the dual system of “separate laws for separate communities” and several media reports suggested the government could soon move for consideration of the implementation of the UCC in Parliament, opposition leaders cried foul, calling it a plot by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party to enforce a Hindu majoritarian agenda.

Indian citizens of different religions follow their own doctrines and customs for marriage, divorce, inheritance of property and adoption. The UCC, which is mentioned in the constitution, would be a single law for all Indians.

It could not be confirmed whether the government plans to push the legislation.

Muslim leaders said that by calling for the introduction of the UCC, Modi and his Hindu nationalist party are trying to polarize society along communal lines, aiming to garner votes from the Hindu majority in general elections next year.

Speaking at a June 27 BJP meeting in Bhopal, Modi asked, “How is this possible to have one law for one member of a family and another law for another member? Will that family be able to function properly? How can a country run on such a dual system?”

The BJP has campaigned for the UCC for several decades, saying current laws encourage inequality and do not fit well in secular India and several right-wing Hindus have expressed support for the idea.

Senior BJP leader Alok Vats told VOA, “Some religious entities may not like this idea because of their dogmatic thinking, but the UCC will be good if implemented in the true spirit of the nation.

“We must seek opinion of all sects and discuss at length with opposition parties, too, so that it augurs well with the masses,” he said.

Legal scholar Faizan Mustafa, a Muslim and former vice chancellor of NALSAR University of Law in Hyderabad, said he wants to see the UCC implemented because it is in the Indian constitution as a suggestion made by those who drafted the charter.

“Furthermore, it can help eradicate social evils in the country. For instance, although child marriage is punishable by law, it’s still not considered void as per the Hindu marriage laws. I completely agree with the prime minister’s views on the UCC,” Mustafa said.

The UCC, however, is being met with heavy skepticism by some.

Abhay Kumar, a newspaper columnist and expert on Muslim issues, told VOA the Modi government has failed to follow the suggestions made in previous years by the 21st Law Commission, an expert body set up to advise the government on legal reform.

“In 2016, the 21st Law Commission sought the public opinion on the controversial question of the UCC,” Kumar said. “A follow-up report was published in August 2018, where the commission stated that uniform laws were not needed. Instead, it underscored the importance of ending gender discrimination and promoting cultural diversity. Yet, the 22nd Law Commission was asked to seek suggestions on a subject that has already been settled,” meaning the UCC.

Over the past week, social activists and Muslim leaders held online meetings to express their concerns.

Zafarul Islam Khan, former chairman of Delhi Minority Commission, told VOA the UCC is a “desperate poll gimmick” orchestrated by the BJP to gain votes.

“Modi is scouring for emotive issues to pander to the Hindu majority, as he has nothing positive to show to the electorate,” he said.

Before a state visit to the United States in June, Modi had been severely criticized over the Indian government’s treatment of minority rights.

John Dayal, a Christian community leader, expressed his concerns over the government’s intentions toward the safety, security and preservation of culture of all religious minorities on a level playing field.

“Artificial uniformity and coercion will injure all regions, including the majority one. The Christian community also believes in caring if any other community faces violence or coercion from any state or nonstate actors,” he told VOA.

Flavia Agnes, an Indian women’s rights lawyer and activist, said that in a country as diverse as India, a “one nation, one law” principle would only harm vulnerable communities further.

Citing patriarchal laws, she told VOA, “Instead of a UCC, we need reform in different personal laws to weed out gender discrimination at all levels. This includes the Muslim Personal Law, which contains several discriminations against women, including polygamy and instant divorce.”

Opposition leaders also have spoken out against the UCC and its potential impact on minorities.

“This can only be seen as a plot to enforce their majoritarian agenda of ‘one nation, one culture’ by eliminating our nation’s cultural diversity,” the chief minister of Kerala state, Communist Pinarayi Vijayan said.

“India is distinguished by its diversity, which embraces differences and disagreements, rather than a uniformity that suppresses them.”

Muslim activist Zafarul Islam Khan pointed to comment by former law minister and leader of the Congress Party Veerappa Moily that India has about 250 personal laws, most of them Hindu.

“It will not be easy for Mr. Modi to satisfy all. This divisive scheme will finally fall flat,” Khan said.
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DHARMSALA, India — The Dalai Lama celebrated his 88th birthday on Thursday, as hundreds of his supporters and exiled Tibetans thronged his hillside Indian headquarters in Dharamsala.

Artists played traditional welcome tunes as the Tibetan spiritual leader arrived in his open mobile van to preside over the celebrations in the courtyard of the Tsuglakhang Temple, which was festooned with Tibetan and Buddhist flags and portraits.

“We are celebrating my 88th birthday but look at me, I look barely 50,” the Dalai Lama said, smiling.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken offered warm birthday wishes and expressed admiration for the Dalai Lama’s commitment to peace and nonviolence, in a statement from his office.

The Dalai Lama has made the hillside town of Dharmsala his headquarters since fleeing from Tibet after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959. India considers Tibet to be part of China, though it hosts Tibetan exiles.

The Dalai Lama denies being a separatist and says he only advocates substantial autonomy and protection of Tibet’s native Buddhist culture.

In April, the Dalai Lama faced widespread criticism after a video circulated online showed him kissing a young boy on the lips and saying, “Suck my tongue.” The footage triggered a backlash online with social media users condemning his behavior as inappropriate.

The Dalai Lama later apologized in a statement posted on his official website. It said he regretted the incident and wished to “apologize to the boy and his family, as well as his many friends across the world, for the hurt his words may have caused.”
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LAHORE, Pakistan — The death toll from two weeks of monsoon rains rose to at least 55 on Thursday after 12 people, including eight children, died in weather-related incidents in Pakistan amid fears of flash floods, authorities said.

The eastern city of Lahore witnessed a record-breaking downpour the previous day, flooding many streets and disrupting normal life. Since Wednesday, 19 people have died in the city due to collapsing roofs and electrocution, officials said. Pakistan’s weather forecast agency warned of more rain to hit the city.

At least eight children died when a massive landslide hit Shangla, a district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, officials said. Rescuers were trying to remove a large mud pile for fear that other missing children were buried.

Heavy rain also continued to lash the impoverished nation, overflowing the main rivers in the Punjab province, Jhelum and Chenab, prompting the disaster management agency to be on high alert for fear of flash floods.

The rains have returned to Pakistan a year after the climate-induced downpour swelled rivers and inundated at one point one-third of Pakistan, killing 1,739 people. The floods also caused $30 billion in damage in cash-strapped Pakistan in 2022.
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Clashes with militants and a suicide car bombing in northwestern Pakistan overnight killed at least four soldiers, including an army major.

A military statement said Thursday the violence occurred in Khyber and North Waziristan districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, both bordering Afghanistan and known former strongholds of militants.

The statement said that Pakistani security forces late Wednesday conducted an “intelligence-based operation” against a “terrorist” hideout in Khyber, and the ensuing gunfight killed Major Mian Abdullah Shah, who was leading the operation. “Three terrorists and their facilitators were apprehended,” the statement added.

The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, an outlawed group waging deadly attacks against security forces in the country, confirmed that its fighters were the target of the military raid.

The group, also known as the Pakistani Taliban, in a statement sent to journalists, claimed that TTP fighters retaliated and inflicted several casualties on security forces. The claims could not be confirmed from independent sources in the violence-ridden Pakistani districts.

The clashes came hours after a suicide bomber detonated his explosives-packed vehicle in North Waziristan, killing three soldiers and “critically” injuring three civilians, the military said Wednesday night.

“The suicide bomber intended to target the security forces post. However, timely interception of the suicide bomber on suspicion by on-duty soldiers prevented a major catastrophe,” the army statement said.

No group claimed responsibility for the car bombing but suspicion fell on TTP, which routinely carries out attacks in the North Waziristan district.

TTP, designated a global terrorist organization by the United States, has stepped up attacks in Pakistan since the Islamist Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan nearly two years ago after all U.S.-led NATO troops withdrew from the country.

Leaders and fighters of the Pakistani Taliban have taken refuge on Afghan soil and orchestrated cross-border terrorism from there, according to Pakistani officials.

Attacks carried out by TTP and other insurgent groups in Pakistan have reportedly killed nearly 400 people, including security forces, in the first six months of this year. The military has reported the death of more than 100 officers and soldiers in bombings and clashes with militants since the start of 2023.

The independent Geneva-based Small Arms Survey published a survey this week, saying that despite efforts by the ruling Afghan Taliban to consolidate control over stockpiles of now-defunct U.S.-trained and -equipped Afghan forces and clamp down on unauthorized dealers, groups like TTP continue to gain access to U.S. weaponry.

The group said the trend indicates “a clear inability or unwillingness” by the Taliban rulers to crack down on these activities.

“The situation in [Afghanistan’s] Nangarhar [province]—given its long border with Pakistan, the presence of significant arms markets, and a history of cross-border illicit trafficking—is of particular concern,” the report noted.

“Field research conducted in the province in late 2022 suggests that cross-border trafficking is continuing and that Afghan-sourced arms are both available in Pakistani markets and fueling TTP violence against the Pakistani state,” according to the survey findings.

Taliban authorities in Afghanistan reject allegations they are allowing TTP or any other group to use their territory to threaten other countries.
…

This week, China and Pakistan are marking 10 years of economic collaboration through Beijing’s global Belt and Road Initiative. But the growing terrorist risk to Chinese citizens in the South Asian nation and differences over debt repayments now hinder progress in the joint infrastructure development program, according to officials and critics.

The multibillion-dollar program, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, or CPEC, was introduced in 2013 and quickly dubbed the flagship extension of the BRI — with expectations it would transform Pakistan into a regional hub for economic connectivity.

The investment has helped Islamabad improve debilitating national transportation and power sectors and build trade routes connecting landlocked western China to the strategically located Pakistani deep-water Gwadar port on the Arabian Sea.

Pakistani officials say the project has created nearly 200,000 direct local jobs, built more than 1,400 kilometers of highways and roads, and added 8,000 megawatts of electricity to the national grid, ending years of blackouts caused by power outages in the country of 230 million people. Prolonged daily power cuts crippled economic activity and undermined industrial production.

Officials in both countries say that CPEC has attracted more than $25 billion in direct Chinese investment, which is expected to increase to $62 billion by 2030, when all CPEC projects, including several industrial zones, are scheduled to be completed.

“I am happy and proud to say that CPEC is one of the most successful projects of BRI, termed as the flagship of this worldwide initiative,” Pang Chunxue, the chargé d’affaires of the Chinese Embassy in Islamabad, said Wednesday.

She was speaking at a televised event commemorating the 10th anniversary of the CPEC agreement, with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his top Cabinet members in attendance.

“We are fully convinced that after the 10-year successful operation of CPEC, China and Pakistan will continue to move forward side by side to jointly promote the high-quality development of CPEC and build a closer China-Pakistan shared community with a shared future in the new era,” the Chinese diplomat said.

Sharif said CPEC had been “pivotal to Pakistan’s socio-economic development.” He added that his government was committed to “fully tapping” the project’s potential.

Chinese interests in Pakistan have come under militant attacks in recent years, though, upsetting leaders in China and prompting calls for Islamabad to step up the security of its citizens.

Detractors said Wednesday’s ceremony commemorating the 10th anniversary of the CPEC lacked any notable Chinese leaders from Beijing, highlighting strains over security and other issues stemming from the economic undertaking.

“China hopes that Pakistan will resolutely and effectively crack down on various terrorist organizations in the country and ensure the safety of Chinese institutions and personnel in Pakistan,” the Chinese foreign ministry quoted Prime Minister Li Qiang as telling Sharif in a meeting the two held in Paris late last month.

In his talks with Sharif in Beijing last November, Chinese President Xi Jinping also emphasized the need for Pakistan to protect Chinese personnel and projects.

“They [Chinese] believe this security issue is becoming an impediment in taking CPEC forward,” Senator Mushahid Hussain, the chairman of the defense committee of the upper house of the Pakistani parliament, told VOA.

“Recurring expressions of concern about safety and security of Chinese citizens and investors in Pakistan by top Chinese leaders indicate that Pakistan’s promises of ‘foolproof security’ for Chinese working in Pakistan have yet to be fulfilled,” said Hussain, who represents Sharif’s ruling party in the Senate.

He cautioned that, unless effectively tackled, the growing threat of terrorism could have “serious implications for Pakistan-China continued economic cooperation and Chinese investment in Pakistan.”

In July 2021, a suicide car bombing in northwestern Pakistan killed nine Chinese nationals and three Pakistani co-workers. The victims were working on the Chinese-funded Dasu hydropower project. There were no claims of responsibility for the attack.

Pakistani investigators suspected at the time that militants linked to the anti-China East Turkistan Islamic Movement were behind the deadly bombing. Authorities have since not shared details of their investigation into the attack.

In April 2022, a female suicide bomber blew herself up near a van in Karachi, killing three Chinese teachers and their local driver. The foreigners taught at the Confucius Institute in Pakistan’s largest city.

The Baloch Liberation Army, an outlawed organization operating out of Pakistan’s Baluchistan province, claimed credit for plotting that attack. The natural resources-rich province houses the Gwadar port and several other CPEC projects.

The rising number of attacks have prompted China to ask its citizens and diplomats in Pakistan to strictly limit their movements and not visit the northwestern city of Peshawar, and Baluchistan’s capital, Quetta, highly placed sources told VOA on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak with the media.

Additionally, Chinese authorities received intelligence from “different sources earlier this year” that the embassy in Islamabad may be at risk of a terrorist attack, a Pakistani official privy to the information told VOA on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak with the media. The threat has forced Chinese embassy staff to avoid visiting areas other than the so-called Red Zone in the Pakistani capital, housing key government buildings.

CPEC viability

Pakistan’s economic troubles have deepened in recent years, with some critics blaming CPEC investments as a main contributing factor. The Sharif government fended off the risk of an imminent default by securing on Friday a short-term $3 billion IMF bailout agreement, subject to the approval of the fund’s board later this month.

“CPEC has failed to live up to its hype, and there’s been a whole lot of hype about it. We have seen some significant projects, especially energy infrastructure, go online,” Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at Washington’s Wilson Center, told VOA in written comments.

“But in recent years, a combination of Pakistani economic stress and Chinese security concerns have slowed down CPEC’s momentum. Despite the continued soaring rhetoric from both capitals, the corridor’s progress has taken a major hit,” Kugelman observed.

Pakistan owes more than $1.26 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.

In an interview with a Japanese media outlet this week, Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari rejected assertions that his country had slid into a “debt trap” by China.

“It is incorrect to claim that Pakistan is in China’s debt trap,” Zardari told Nikkei. “Most of the Chinese assistance to Pakistan is in the shape of investments or soft loans,” he said.
…

The deputy executive director and chief operating officer for the U.N. World Food Program, Carl Skau, says that Afghanistan is facing a dire humanitarian situation with nine out of 10 Afghan families lacking adequate food and “children and pregnant women are the hardest hit.”

In an interview Wednesday with VOA via Skype, Skau said that the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan is “dire,” adding that WFP, the world’s largest humanitarian organization, would need $1 billion “to get through” the winter.

“We have so far only managed to mobilize some 10% of that,” Skau told Waheed Faizi of VOA’s Afghan Service.

Skau, who visited Afghanistan last month, said that one of the main challenges for his organization is to reach the most vulnerable groups, especially women and children, in Afghanistan, adding that the Taliban’s “bans on women working for us are complicating that.”

The interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

VOA: Could you please share some information about what you saw during your recent travel to Afghanistan?

Carl Skau: I visited both Kabul Province and Parwan Province. I managed to see both urban and rural contexts. And I guess one takeaway is that the situation continues to be desperate. But also, I was impressed by the resilience of the Afghan people, not least of the women, and their commitment and determination to move forward. I also saw how WFP’s work is making a difference. And how, despite the complicated and difficult operating environment, we are finding ways to deliver to people. The message from the people, and especially the women I spoke to, was clear, that, ‘Do not leave us. You must continue to deliver,’ and we are determined to continue to stay and deliver. But the biggest issue for us now is the lack of funds.

VOA: If the World Food Program is unable to fully fund this year’s aid request, what is the “plan B” for helping people in Afghanistan?

Skau: Well, there isn’t really a Plan B. We need to find a way to fund our operations. We were quite well funded by the end of last year. That’s how we help get through the winter. We reached some 20 million people, almost half the population. We delivered food to 13 million people in December, January and February. We had to scale that down to some eight million in March. And now we have made further cuts to five million in May. So, we are now turning every stone, knocking on every door to see how we can mobilize funds in order to scale up back again as we face winter. We are also looking at different funding sources, including more development funds. But there is no plan B. We will need donors to step up and fund us like they did last year if we’re going to manage to get through the next winter.

VOA: How much funds does the WFP need to help people in Afghanistan?

Skau: Well, we’re looking at almost a billion U.S. dollars to get through the next winter. We have so far only managed to mobilize some 10% of that. So, you know we need some serious injection of funds in order to be able to do what we did last year, which really brought us through the winter, averted famine and helped stabilize the situation.

VOA: There are concerns about the distribution of humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan. Some people say that, in some areas, the Taliban interfere with the distribution and get assistance for themselves. Any instances?

Skau: Now, I can’t speak to any evidence of that, but there are challenges, of course, and mainly, I would point to these latest bans or banning women from our workforce. We need to ensure that women have the same access and that there is no discrimination against women in accessing our assistance. For that, we need women to be working in our operations, including in assessing what the needs are, identifying beneficiaries, including women-headed households, but also to monitor and follow up and make sure that assistance has reached those it was intended to so that is indeed a challenge. We’re finding ways around it. But certainly, that’s one of our main concerns now going forward.

VOA: You mentioned female workers, are females working for WFP currently?

Skau: We have not laid off any women or replaced any women with men. In some provinces, they are working in different functions, and we’re finding different ways around it. But that’s important for us. There are two parts to this. One is to ensure that there is no discrimination against women in our programs, in our delivery of assistance. And we are working with safeguards to ensure that happens. The second part is to ensure we can maintain the level and ratio of women working in our workforce. Those two are overlapping, but they’re not completely overlapping. But we’re actively working on both fronts, and of course, these ladies’ edicts are not helpful, and, you know, we are encouraging the authorities as we meet them to change this to go back to how it was previously where women could freely work in the distribution and follow up of our assistance.

VOA: You mean that female staff of WFP are still banned from working in Afghanistan?

Skau: Well, there have been these edicts. There are different ways of interpretation and implementation. And so, we are finding ways to keep our women working for WFP. And as I said, that will be a key principle and condition for us. We will not lay off any women because of these edicts, nor will they be replaced with men.

VOA: How many people are in need of humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan?

Skau: You know, there are many people because the country has gone through 20 years of war. They are now in a near collapse of the economy. And so, you know, normal people in Afghanistan are not able to cope without international assistance. I think our calculation is that 9 out of 10 Afghan families are unable to feed themselves adequately. And children and pregnant women are the hardest hit. So close to half of the population faces a crisis or emergency level of food insecurity. This year alone, there is a 30% deficit in wheat production. So yeah, the situation is dire. And now we’re bracing for a cruel winter. It will be the third successive winter with limited food and heating. And so we really need to step up our support to the vulnerable people.

VOA: What are the main concerns for WFP in Afghanistan?

Skau: Well, number one would be the ability to reach the most vulnerable and to reach women. These bans on women working for us are complicating that. And so having to find ways around is, of course, not a sustainable way forward. So that would be my number one to be able to independently and impartially access the most vulnerable, including women and children. That will be number one. Number two, and frankly, that’s related to number one, is our ability to raise funds funding is our number one concern at the moment. But that is indeed related to number two because as long as donors are not confident that we can independently reach the most vulnerable, it will be much harder for us to mobilize the funds needed.

Roshan Noorzai from VOA’s Afghan Service contributed to this report, which originated in VOA’s Afghan Service.
…

In India, a recent court judgement that dismissed a legal petition by Twitter challenging the federal government’s orders to block tweets and accounts is a setback for free speech, according to digital rights activists.  

The Karnataka High Court, which delivered its judgement last week, also imposed a fine of $ 61,000 on the social media company for its delay in complying with the government’s takedown orders.  

“The order sets a dangerous precedent for curbing online free speech without employing procedural safeguards that are meant to protect users of online social media platforms,” Radhika Roy, a lawyer and spokesperson for the digital rights organization, Internet Freedom Foundation, told VOA.  

Twitter’s lawsuit filed last year was seen as an effort to push back against strict information technology laws passed in 2021 that allow the government to order the removal of social media posts.  

The government has defended the regulations, saying they are necessary to combat online misinformation in the interest of national security, among other reasons, and says social media companies must be accountable. Critics say the rules enable the government to clamp down on online comments that authorities consider critical.   

In court, Twitter argued that 39 orders of the federal government to take down content went against the law. It is not known which content it referred to, but media reports have said that many of these contained political content and dissenting views against farm laws that sparked a massive farmers protest in 2020.  

The government told the court the content was posted by “anti-India campaigners.” 

The court ruled that the government has the power to block not just tweets, but entire accounts as well.   

“I would disagree with that. The court had an opportunity to ensure that while illegal speech is taken down, free speech for individuals is not restricted,” Nikhil Pahwa, founder of MediaNama, a digital news portal told VOA. “But the court has reiterated that the government has full authority to censor whatever they want and whatever they deem illegal and that is a challenge for free speech in India.”  

The government has welcomed the decision of the Karnataka High Court. “Honourable court upholds our stand. Law of the land must be followed,” Minister of Communications, Electronics & Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw, said in a tweet. 

Twitter had also told the court the grounds for taking down content had not been spelled out by the government and that those whose tweets or accounts were blocked had not been informed. But the court said that the user did not necessarily have to be informed. 

Digital rights activists say this raises concerns because there is no way to ascertain whether the government’s takedown requests are legal.   

“This excessive power (of blocking whole accounts) coupled with the lack of transparency surrounding the blocking orders, spells trouble for any entity whose content has the potential of being deemed unfavourable to the government,” according to Roy.   

Pahwa said the fine imposed by the court on Twitter would also discourage social media companies from going to court to protect their users right to free speech. “We are at a moment of despair for free speech in India. This does not bode well for users who might be critical of the government and its actions and inactions leading up to next year’s general elections,” according to Pahwa. 

Expressing concerns that India is moving towards imposing greater restrictions on online speech, Roy says that “the Karnataka judgement ends up perpetuating the misuse of laws restricting free speech rather than countering its rampant abuse.”  

Last month, Jack Dorsey, who stepped down as chief executive in 2021, said that during his tenure, Twitter had been issued with threats of a shutdown down in India and raids at the homes of its employees if it refused to agree to takedown requests. The government dismissed his comments as an “outright lie.”  

Twitter has said that India ranked fourth among countries that requested removal of content last year — behind Japan, Russia and Turkey. 

India, with an estimated 24 million Twitter users, is one of the largest markets for the social media company.  

Under Elon Musk, the company has complied with takedown orders. Musk, who met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to the United States last month, has said the company has no choice “but to obey local government laws” in any country or it risks getting shut.  
…

NEW DELHI — Russian President Vladimir Putin told a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) on Tuesday that the Russian people are “consolidated as never before.” 

It was Putin’s first address at a multilateral forum since the Wagner mercenary group staged a short-lived mutiny that raised questions about his grip on power.

He spoke by video link from Moscow at the virtual meeting of the grouping hosted by India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, and attended by, among others, the leaders of China and Pakistan.

“The solidarity and responsibility for the fate of the fatherland was clearly demonstrated by the Russian political circles and the entire society by standing as a united front against the attempted armed rebellion,” Putin told the meeting.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank my colleagues from the (SCO) countries who have expressed support for the actions of the Russian leadership to protect the constitutional order and life and security of citizens,” Putin said.

He also said that Russia is standing up to Western pressure, sanctions and “provocations.” 

Analysts said that for Putin, the summit was an opportunity to showcase that he is firmly in charge and also underline that Moscow is not isolated in the wake of its war in Ukraine.

All the members of the SCO have either abstained or not voted in favor of United Nations sanctions against Russia in the aftermath of the Ukraine conflict. 

Founded by Russia and China in 2001 to counter Western alliances, SCO members include India, Pakistan and the Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan – all countries that are close to Moscow.

On Tuesday, Iran became the ninth country to join the SCO, expanding the group’s reach. Belarus is expected to be admitted as a member by next year, according to India’s foreign ministry. Both Iran and Belarus have good relations with Moscow.

In his address to the summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping said achieving regional peace and stability was a common responsibility. “We must formulate foreign policies independently based on the overall and long-term interests of the region,” he said, according to Chinese state news agency Xinhua. He called on members to “focus on practical cooperation and accelerate economic recovery.”

Indian Prime Minister Modi called on member countries to jointly fight terrorism, help Afghanistan and tackle global challenges such as food, fuel and fertilizer shortages.

He said the group should not hesitate to criticize countries that are “using terrorism as an instrument of its state policy.”

The statement is seen as a reference to Pakistan, which India accuses of fomenting terrorism in Indian-ruled Kashmir. Islamabad denies the charge.

In reference to India’s three-year military standoff with China along their disputed border, Modi also stressed the need to respect territorial integrity.

In his speech, Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, denounced terrorism and said that his country’s “sacrifices” in fighting it are “without parallel.” 

The SCO summit also underlined how India is trying to maintain a delicate geopolitical balance as it comes closer to the U.S. while maintaining ties with Russia.

New Delhi hosted the meeting less than two weeks after India and the U.S. tightened their partnership during a state visit by Prime Minister Modi to Washington.

While India has serious differences with China and Pakistan, it has maintained close ties with its long-time ally, Russia, and wants to build ties with Central Asian countries. 

In a phone call last week with the Russian president, Modi reiterated India’s call for diplomacy and dialogue to resolve the Ukraine war – a stance it has maintained since Moscow’s invasion. 

“The fact that India can have such strong positive relations with the United States and also be part of the SCO speaks about India’s strategic autonomy and self-assuredness,” Ashok Sajjanhar, a former diplomat and president of the Institute of Global Studies, wrote in the Indian Express newspaper on Tuesday. 

While India chose to host the SCO summit in a virtual format, it will face a diplomatic challenge when it hosts the G-20 summit in September because the forum includes Russia, China and the U.S. 

Some information in this article came from Reuters and the Associated Press. 
…

Afghanistan’s Taliban administration has ordered hundreds of female-run beauty salons to close within a month, the latest in a series of curbs blocking women’s access to work and public spaces in the poverty-stricken country.

The Taliban Ministry for the Prevention of Vice and Propagation of Virtue has notified authorities in the capital, Kabul, and provinces to immediately enforce the ban and cancel the licenses of all the salons. It said that the directive had stemmed from a decree issued by the reclusive Taliban supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada.

The morality ministry spokesman confirmed the notice Tuesday and did not share more information.

“The deadline for the closing of beauty parlors for women is one month,” Mohammad Sadiq Akif said in a brief text message to journalists. The ministry warned of legal action against violators but did not elaborate.

Since reclaiming power in Afghanistan nearly two years ago, the Taliban have prohibited girls from pursuing education beyond the sixth grade, ordered many female government workers to stay home, and barred the United Nations and other aid groups from employing women.

Public places like parks, gyms, and bathhouses are closed to female visitors.

Makeup artists working in beauty salons said the latest ban would render thousands of women jobless amid Afghanistan’s dire economic crisis and threaten the survival of their families because there are no jobs for male family members.

“When men cannot support their families due to unemployment, women are forced to work in a beauty salon to earn a livelihood,” Raihan Mubariz, a female makeup artist, said while talking to the Afghan TOLO news channel. “What are we going to do if they shut down parlors,” she asked.

“We don’t need to leave our homes if our men can find jobs. Do they want us to starve to death?” asked another woman working in a Kabul beauty salon.

The U.N. called on the Taliban to halt the edict closing beauty salons.  

“This new restriction on women’s rights will impact negatively on the economy and contradicts stated support for women entrepreneurship,” the U.N. office in Kabul said on Twitter. 

The U.N. and the international community at large have demanded an end to restrictions on Afghan women’s access to public life and education, warning the policies have made it “nearly impossible” for the world to grant legitimacy to the Taliban government.

Akhundzada has rejected calls for easing restrictions on women, insisting his government is running the country in line with Afghan culture and Islamic law or Sharia.

On Tuesday, Markus Poztel, the deputy special representative for the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, again denounced restrictions on women and reiterated the demand for the Taliban to lift them before the country’s reintegration into the global community.

“There is no middle ground on this issue. Afghanistan is the only country in the world which doesn’t allow girls to go to school beyond grade six or to university. There is no discussion about this; it’s not a bargaining chip. It has to be reversed,” a U.N. statement quoted Poztel as saying.

He said the Taliban decrees “are detrimental to economic progress” in the country.

“Girls should have a say. Women should have a say in this society. [The de facto authorities] should revoke the ban as soon as possible. Otherwise, there will always be a shadow on the relations Afghanistan has with the international community,” Poztel stressed.

The Taliban waged a deadly insurgency and seized power in August 2021 when the United States and NATO allies withdrew all their troops from Afghanistan after nearly 20 years of involvement in the war.

The U.S.-led foreign forces invaded the country weeks after the September 2001 terrorist attacks against America and removed the then-Taliban government from power for sheltering al-Qaida leaders blamed for planning the carnage.
…

The former publisher of independent news outlet The Irrawaddy has been sentenced to five years in prison for sedition, marking the latest in a barrage of attacks on the press in Myanmar following the 2021 military coup. 

Thaung Win was sentenced by the military-controlled Western Yangon District Court on June 28 under Article 124-A of the penal code, which covers sedition, and fined him 100,000 kyats, or about $47, according to The Irrawaddy. He was arrested nine months earlier at his home in the city of Yangon in late September.   

Win was initially charged with violating the Publishing and Distribution Act by reporting news that “negatively affected national security, rule of law and public peace,” according to The Irrawaddy.   

The ex-publisher has been held in Yangon’s notorious Insein Prison. It is unclear whether he will appeal the conviction.   

The Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ, has called on Myanmar’s military to immediately release Win.   

“The punitive and unjust sentencing of The Irrawaddy publisher Thaung Win is repugnant and should be immediately reversed,” Shawn Crispin, CPJ senior Southeast Asia representative, said in a statement on Monday. “The military regime must release him and stop harassing The Irrawaddy for its fearless and uncompromising news reporting.”  

Ye Ni, editor of The Irrawaddy’s Burmese Edition, denounced the junta’s sentencing of Win and said the former publisher had nothing to do with the news outlet’s coverage.  

War on independent media

Win’s sentencing is the latest development in the war that Myanmar’s military has waged on the country’s independent media since it launched a coup in February 2021.   

In the more than two years since the military overthrew Myanmar’s nascent civilian-led government, the junta, also known as the Tatmadaw, has banned The Irrawaddy and at least 13 other independent news outlets.   

Despite the ban, The Irrawaddy — like many other independent Myanmar outlets — continues to cover the ongoing post-coup crisis in the country. The outlet, like many of its peers, primarily operates in exile.   

Accusations of abuses

The United Nations has accused the Tatmadaw of committing widespread human rights abuses, including war crimes and crimes against humanity, around the country since the coup. The military has cracked down hard on independent journalists to shield itself from scrutiny.   

At the time of CPJ’s December 2022 prison census, Myanmar was the world’s third-worst jailer of journalists, with at least 42 members of the press behind bars. Few reporters continue to work on the ground in Myanmar due to safety risks.   

The same court that sentenced Win also issued arrest warrants for three unnamed editors at The Irrawaddy on June 28, the outlet reported. 
…

Nearly two years after the chaotic American military withdrawal from Afghanistan, President Joe Biden’s statement that the Taliban is helping the U.S. push out al-Qaida from the war-torn country is reigniting controversy about the presence of terror groups there and the deal that ended the Afghan war.  

“Remember what I said about Afghanistan? I said al-Qaida would not be there. I said it wouldn’t be there. I said we’d get help from the Taliban,” Biden said Friday. “What’s happening now? What’s going on? Read your press. I was right.”      

The president made the comments in response to a question about a recent State Department report that highlighted shortcomings of the Trump and Biden administrations as key contributors to the frenzied U.S. military withdrawal in August 2021.   

Biden’s remarks sparked immediate controversy. A former Afghan intelligence chief cited them to reiterate long-standing criticisms of the 2020 peace deal between the then-Trump administration and the Taliban that ended the war.  

Rahmatullah Nabil served as head of Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security from 2010 to 2012. In a Saturday tweet, he mocked Biden’s remarks, joking that they made the Taliban look like a U.S. paramilitary partner, similar to Russia’s Wagner mercenaries.  He said Biden has “made a groundbreaking revelation by exposing the hidden annexes of the Doha deal, shedding light on the true nature of the Taliban as the Wagner Group of the United States in this region.”    

Under the Doha agreement, in return for Washington withdrawing its troops from Afghanistan, the Taliban agreed to prevent the country from becoming a haven for terrorists and to stop attacking U.S. service members.  

Biden’s claims that al-Qaida has retreated from Afghanistan also contradict a February United Nations report that concluded terrorist groups including al-Qaida “enjoy greater freedom of movement in Afghanistan owing to the absence of an effective Taliban security strategy,” and are making “good use of this.”    

Ending the U.S.’s longest war  

Asked to clarify Biden’s comments, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the president had to make a tough decision to end the nation’s longest war.     

“And he also wanted to — and this is part of what he said at the end, which is he wanted to make sure that we remain vigilant against terrorism,” she said during her press briefing Friday.    

“We took a leader of al-Qaida without having any troops – any troops on the ground,” Jean-Pierre added. She was referring to the killing of Ayman al-Zawahiri by U.S. drone missiles in downtown Kabul, where according to the administration, he was residing as a guest of the Taliban.    

A U.S. official who spoke to VOA on condition of anonymity in order to discuss intelligence matters said that in referencing the Taliban’s “help,” the president was referring to the Taliban operation in April that killed a leader of ISIS-K, also known as Islamic State Khorasan, an affiliate of the terrorist group in Afghanistan. The National Security Council has claimed that the individual planned the deadly 2021 suicide bombing at the Kabul international airport’s Abbey Gate that killed 13 U.S. service members and at least 160 Afghans.    

Biden’s assessment of al-Qaida in Afghanistan highlighted the division between Washington and the United Nations on the presence of terror groups in Afghanistan and the threat they pose to the region.  

A U.N. report released earlier this year concluded that the group is expected to remain in Afghanistan for the near future, keeping the country as “the primary source of terrorist threat for Central and South Asia.”    

“Ties between Al-Qaida and the Taliban remain close,” said the report by the U.N. Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team, based on member states’ intelligence.    

The administration has dismissed the U.N. report since its release, emphasizing that al-Qaida in Afghanistan is not a threat to the homeland as Washington has relied on “over-the-horizon” capability since the withdrawal. The term is a euphemism for drone strikes and other actions by special operations forces.    

The U.S. official said that the administration assesses the terrorist group “does not have a capability to launch attacks against the U.S. or its interests abroad from Afghanistan.”       

“We have no indication that al-Qaida in Afghanistan individuals are involved in external attack plotting,” the official said. “Of course, we will continue to monitor closely.”    

The Taliban’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Abdul Qahar Balkhi, welcomed Biden’s remarks as “an acknowledgment of reality” that no terrorist entities operated in Afghanistan under the group’s rule.   

Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the South Asia Program at the Wilson Center, is skeptical of such claims.  

The Taliban have gone after their bitter rival, ISIS-K, but have done little to curb the presence of al-Qaida and most other terror groups in Afghanistan, he told VOA.    

“The Taliban isn’t known to turn on its militant allies, so I have no reason to think it’s trying to remove al-Qaida-or what’s left of it from Afghan soil,” Kugelman said.   

Republican criticism      

Republicans including former Vice President Mike Pence, who has announced he is running for president in 2024, have piled criticism on Biden following the State Department report.      

“The blame for what happened here falls squarely on the current commander-in-chief,” said Pence during a television interview with the CBS television network Sunday. He said the “disastrous withdrawal” would never have happened under the Trump administration.      

The report, however, laid the blame on both Biden and his immediate predecessor, Donald Trump. It highlighted how poor planning by officials in both administrations contributed to the chaotic and deadly withdrawal.    

The report concluded that decisions by both Biden and Trump on ending the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan had “serious consequences for the viability of the Afghan government and its security.”     

“Those decisions are beyond the scope of this review, but the AAR (After Action Review) team found that during both administrations there was insufficient senior-level consideration of worst-case scenarios and how quickly those might follow,” it said.   

The report also noted that the State Department, “confronted a task of unprecedented scale and complexity,” in implementing an evacuation with a scope and scale that was “highly unusual, with no comparable situation since the U.S. departure from Vietnam in 1975.”   

Following the rapid takeover of the Afghan capital, Kabul, by the Taliban, the United States evacuated about 125,000 people – including nearly 6,000 U.S. citizens from the city’s Hamid Karzai International Airport.   

The administration said it has helped resettle 88,500 Afghan allies since the withdrawal. Advocates say tens of thousands are still left behind.   

VOA’s Sayed Aziz Rahman and Jeff Seldin contributed to this article. 
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Officials in Pakistan said Monday that insurgents had ambushed a military convoy in a southwestern region and killed two security personnel, including an army major.

The deadly overnight assault occurred in Balor in the turbulent Baluchistan province.

The army’s media wing said troops were on a counterterrorism search mission in the area and trying to block “escape routes” when a group of “terrorists” ambushed them. The ensuing “heavy exchange of fire” killed two army officers and injured another, it added.

No group claimed responsibility for Sunday’s deadly ambush in Baluchistan, where several ethnic Baluch insurgent groups and the outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, routinely target security forces.

Sunday’s attack came just hours after heavily armed militants in another part of the province assaulted a security post with rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles, killing three police officers and a soldier.

Provincial authorities said police and paramilitary forces were jointly operating the post in the Shirani district.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, in a statement Monday, said that “the entire nation, including me, are saddened over the martyrdom of six security personnel” in the Baluchistan attacks on Sunday.

Militant attacks, including suicide bombings, have dramatically risen in Pakistan in 2023. The violence has reportedly killed around 390 people, including security forces, and injured more than 650 others during the first six months of the current year.

The Islamabad-based Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies documented the casualties in a report local media published Monday. It said that most of the deaths, 266, occurred in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

The report noted an almost 80% increase in militant attacks nationwide compared to the same period last year. It added that Pakistan witnessed 13 suicide attacks this year, which resulted in 142 deaths, noting that only five suicide bombings had taken place during the first six months of 2022, causing around 80 fatalities.

The Pakistani military said last week that it had “killed or captured nearly 1,200 terrorists” in thousands of nationwide anti-terrorism operations. However, the claims could not be ascertained independently.

Army spokesman Major-General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry shared the details at a news conference, saying that 95 military officers and soldiers were also killed during these operations.
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In India, the unpaid domestic work done by tens of millions of women has received little attention. But a recent court judgment in South India giving legal recognition to a housewife’s contribution to her husband’s income has been hailed as a landmark ruling that could set the ground for reform.

Women’s rights advocates say the judgment is particularly significant in a country where women’s participation in the workforce is very low and most women are homemakers.

In a domestic dispute case in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, a husband had claimed ownership over all properties and assets owned by the couple that he said had been bought with his earnings. After his death in 2007, the case was pursued by the children.

In his verdict handed down on June 21, Justice Krishnan Ramasamy of the Madras High Court ruled that the woman who had looked after the family had an equal share in the property and assets.

The woman’s lawyer had argued that when they married, the couple had a mutual understanding that she would stay at home and take care of their children while the husband could work abroad.

The court said that the contribution made by either the husband by earning or the wife by serving and looking after the family and children would mean that both are entitled equally to whatever they earned by their joint effort.

Saying that a housewife works 24 hours without holidays performing various roles including that of chef, manager, “home doctor,” and “home economist,” the judge said that the wife had helped in the acquisition of the family assets by performing household chores for decades. “And moreover, she sacrificed her dreams and spent her entire life towards the family and children,” judge noted in his verdict.

While there is no law that recognizes a wife’s contribution, there is nothing to prevent a court from doing so, the judge said.

“It is very significant ruling because it recognizes the contribution of women through unpaid domestic labor and converts it into a share into the husband’s property,” Flavia Agnes, a women’s rights lawyer told VOA.

160 million homemakers

As in most countries, women bear the brunt of unpaid work in India. The country’s estimated 160 million homemakers spend six to seven hours a day on household chores, according to several estimates.

The share of women in the labor force is around 29%, according to government figures — lower than in most countries. Worldwide, unpaid care work is seen as the main barrier preventing women from getting into or progressing in jobs.

“The recent judgement will certainly contribute to strengthening the rights of homemakers,” said Agnes.

Experts point out that it would be particularly significant for divorced women. In India, divorced women get maintenance and alimony, but they cannot claim a share in the husband’s property until they prove their financial contribution in purchasing it.

“The judgment will have far-reaching implications for divorced women who otherwise spend years collecting paltry maintenance amounts and end up economically far worse than when they married,” Prabha Kotiswaran, Professor of Law and Social Justice at King’s College, London, told VOA in an email.

Indian courts have awarded compensation for work done by homemakers in the past in scores of road accident cases in which a woman died.

Kotiswaran, who researched about 200 such cases filed over five decades since 1968 said judges had awarded compensation to their dependents by putting a value on unpaid work of women who have died in road accidents.

‘Pathbreaking’ ruling

But the recent judgement is the first that gives a homemaker claim to her husband’s property on the grounds that his work would not have been possible without her role.

Kotiswaran calls it a “pathbreaking” judgment. “Together these cases will open the doors for a long overdue reform in Indian law, namely creating a matrimonial property regime to ensure that married women can secure economic justice,” she told VOA. “I hope that other courts around the country will follow this decision and that parliament takes note of the need for urgent law reform in this area.”

However, high courts in other Indian states are not bound by the precedent set by the Tamil Nadu court. That is why women’s rights advocates warn that the road to acknowledgement of the economic contribution made by homemakers is still long.
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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s security detail said it became aware of a drone flying over Modi’s residence on Monday.  

After being contacted by the prime minister’s security force, New Delhi police and air traffic control conducted investigations into the drone sighting

The police and air traffic control reported they did not find any drones or aircraft in the vicinity of Modi’s residence.  

It is not clear what led to the reports of the drone sighting.  
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India’s annual monsoon rains have begun days ahead of schedule.   

The India Meteorological Department said the rains covered the whole country Sunday. Monsoon rains battered villages in northeast India in June, a government relief agency said on Friday. 

The “normal” date for the country-wide rains is July 8, according to weather forecasters.  

India depends on the heavy rains for crop production on the country’s farms.  

Reuters reports that nearly half of India’s farmland lacks irrigation.  

The monsoon also refill India’s reservoirs and provide much needed relief from the summer heat.  
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Militants attacked a security post in Pakistan’s southwestern Baluchistan province, triggering a shootout that left three police officers a paramilitary soldier and one militant dead Sunday, officials said.

Local police chief, Abdul Salam Baloch said while one of the militants was killed, the others managed to escape to the mountainous terrain in the Shirani district, bordering North Waziristan where they have multiple hideouts.

Baloch said the attackers used hand grenades, rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles on the joint security post of police and paramilitary forces.

Bilal Shabbir, a top administrative officer in Shirani district, said two militants and one paramilitary trooper were wounded in the shootout that lasted for about two hours. He said the attackers managed to escape with their wounded accomplices. He added that security forces launched a search operation in the area and surrounding mountains to trace and eliminate the perpetrators.

Head of the provincial government, Abdul Quddoos Bizenjo, condemned the attack and expressed grief over the loss of the four security men.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but militants from the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, known as the Pakistani Taliban or TTP, operate in the area and have been involved in past attacks on security forces in recent months.

TTP is a separate group but allied with the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in the neighboring country in August 2021 as U.S. and NATO troops were in the final stages of their pullout. The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan has emboldened the Pakistani Taliban, which has stepped up attacks on police and troops in recent months after unitarily ending a cease-fire with the government.

Pakistan’s military has carried out major operations in recent years in the tribal belt along the Afghan border, which has served as a haven for local and foreign militants for decades. However, militants still carry out attacks in the region. 
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WASHINGTON – Efforts to establish robust, independent civil societies are facing headwinds in the post-Soviet republics of Central Asia, where foreign-funded NGOs have long been regarded as agents of Western influence and even purveyors of “color revolutions.”

Despite their suspicions, regional governments have reluctantly allowed some space for these nongovernmental organizations to operate, largely due to pressure from the United States and the European Union. But supporters are warning of new regulations that will further restrict and even criminalize their activities.

Kyrgyzstan has the region’s most robust civil society, which activists say is now under direct threat. In Uzbekistan, officials boast of “thousands” of functioning NGOs, but they are subject to tight controls and onerous checks.

Experts there note the phenomenon of the GONGO — government-organized nongovernmental organizations — which may appear independent but are actually run by the government.

Bishkek and Tashkent both say they welcome foreign assistance and claim to support the development of civil society. In reality, NGOs struggle greatly to obtain registration and function.

‘Foreign representative’ bill in Kyrgyzstan

Earlier this month, several prominent human rights groups issued a joint statement urging lawmakers in Kyrgyzstan to reject a bill introduced by 33 legislators. The signatories included Human Rights Watch, the International Partnership for Human Rights, Norwegian Helsinki Committee, Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, Front Line Defenders, Freedom Now, International Federation for Human Rights, and the World Organization Against Torture.

“This draft law, which draws heavily on corresponding Russian legislation and is primarily aimed at stigmatizing and restricting the activities of foreign-funded organizations, poses a direct and serious threat to Kyrgyzstan’s vibrant civil society, in particular human rights defenders and their organizations,” the statement said.

“If adopted, the draft law risks reversing previous achievements with respect to civil society development in the country and eroding the crucial role played by nongovernmental groups in promoting human rights, assisting those in need, and implementing other activities in support of the public good.”

The coalition has urged Kyrgyzstan’s partners “to speak out against this repressive legislative initiative,” stressing that its adoption would hurt assistance programs.

“The draft law is incompatible with international human rights obligations, restricting freedom of association and expression, as well as introducing in some cases criminal liability for nongovernmental organizations and their staff members,” said Syinat Sultanalieva, HRW Central Asia researcher.

Similar proposals have been pushed in Bishkek for a decade. Some lawmakers say a “foreign agent” law is needed to defend the national interests of Kyrgyzstan, where the government has been overthrown several times since 2005.

This year’s initiative labels foreign-funded entities as “foreign representatives,” and arms the Justice Ministry with new powers, such as the right to make unscheduled inspections. If a group fails to register, its activities could be suspended without a court decision.

The draft would grant the government “enhanced oversight powers, with representatives of the Justice Ministry allowed to participate in the internal activities of nongovernmental organizations” and “the right to bar organizations operating in the country from receiving funds from foreign sources.”

It also introduces criminal liability — ranging from fines to as much as 10 years in prison — for establishing or participating in an NGO found to be “inciting citizens to refuse to perform civic duties or to commit other unlawful deeds.”

VOA’s sources in Bishkek say the bill appears to have been removed from the agenda of the relevant parliamentary committee and at least 13 lawmakers are no longer supporting it. But optimism is unwarranted, say activists, who continue to engage the MPs.

Changes coming in Uzbekistan?

In Uzbekistan, the situation is a little more hopeful. There, the government is thought to be reconsidering a year-old decree requiring “significant size-grant receivers” to partner with state institutions.

“We believe they are reviewing the policy and are determined to ease the terms for civil society,” said Eldor Tulyakov, head of the Development Strategy Center, an NGO founded by the administration of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev in 2017.

“Last year’s decision by the Cabinet triggered debates within the NGO community and beyond,” Tulyakov said in an interview. “Such requirements are seen as direct interference in the work of entities that are supposed to be independent.”

But, Tulyakov said, “this measure enables civil society to navigate the system faster with a committed official partner, assisting it in specific parts of the country focusing on specific issues.” He told VOA that groups should trust the government’s promises of continued reforms.

Tulyakov sees the U.S. Agency for International Development playing a constructive role in building trust between NGOs and the government. “Their projects are designed to help us develop, to demonstrate how civil society works — supporting people and helping the state to serve them.”

NGOs as key socioeconomic actors

Mukhayo Portmann, who has run programs for international organizations in Central Asia, argues that any responsible government values civil society “because it completes its work and delivers key services to the population.”

“Ultimately, it is about the well-being of your people, and NGOs ease the state’s tasks,” Portmann said in an interview.

For her, the official suspicion of grants from other governments and of activists who pursue goals such as fighting corruption and promoting democracy “is the legacy of the Soviet system.”

Yet it is a mistake to assume that civil society groups only push for human rights, Portmann said.

“Civil society is a significant economic contributor,” she said. “Look at the data and this sector’s growth impact. NGOs and donors must showcase those results. Most of these groups consist of grassroots volunteers, and solve day-to-day issues where the government is missing the mark.”

Portmann urges NGOs to be transparent in order to dispel suspicions. “Your beneficiaries, the communities you serve, need to know your mission and how you are funded,” she said. “If people benefit from your work, they will often come out supporting you and the governments will have to acknowledge your service.”  

Portmann sees a rocky road ahead for civil society in Central Asia, yet is optimistic that perceptions can improve.

“To be independent and influential, you need to connect with the people,” she said. “I remember doing rural projects in Kyrgyzstan, where we engaged women, youth, farmers and the authorities. They knew the NGOs involved in the area and that helped everyone.”
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