For more than six decades, Ghulan Mohammad Wani guided oxen around a circular track, driving the wooden oil press that generations of his family have operated in the town of Pampore for more than 200 years.

At 82 years old, Wani has no known plans to retire. But whenever that day comes, it will bring the curtain down on the last manually operated seed oil mill in the Kashmir Valley and the age-old skills required to run it.

That day will mark more than a quaint historical milestone. For Ghulam’s loyal customers, it will mean the loss of a source of exceptional quality cooking oil, unmatched by commercially available alternatives.

The popularity of Wani’s product is such that customers leave their empty containers at the mill, often waiting patiently for weeks to have them filled with a few liters of oil. Other customers bring their own seeds to Wani, expecting a better quality of oil than they would get from a commercial miller.

Wani told VOA that his wooden oil press was constructed by his great grandfather more than 200 years ago and that he has been operating it with only “some minor repairs” since the early 1960s.

Remaining true to the practices he learned from his father, Wani crushes several kilos of mustard seeds with a spinning log beam while sitting cross-legged and putting pressure on the mortar with his aging body. The process takes a long time and a lot of patience, but Wani is determined to keep going as long as his health permits.

The health of his two well-trained oxen is also a concern. He alternates them every three hours to avoid overtiring them.

Despite the popularity of his oil, the process of producing it is much slower than that of machine presses. Wani is able to earn no more than 100 to 150 rupees ($1.22 to $1.83) a day, but he says he is committed to serving his community and resists the temptation to raise his prices.

Looking back, Wani recalls a time when his mill was more profitable. He saw his children married and was able to build a modest house. But today he is happy just to know he is preserving a dying custom.

Mustard oil is a very important part of Kashmiri cooking, rendering a unique heat, brightness and flavor to the food. It is no accident that his mill is located in Pampore, a town noted for its golden flowers and mustard blooms.

Wani’s home is known not only for his mustard oil but also for the soothing melodies of Kashmiri songs enjoyed by visitors like Adil Shabir Ashai, director of Marvel Technology Services and Information Systems, a Bahrain-based IT company with Kashmiri roots.

Stepping into Wani’s mud and wood house “becomes a source of spiritual rejuvenation, a reminder of the values that truly matter in life,” Ashai said in an interview.

Wani always has a smile on his face and sings Kashmiri folk songs. Every day at 9 a.m., he climbs the worn wooden stairs to the attic, where he sets up the mill and ties an ox to the wooden crank. Only time can tell how much longer that regimen will continue.
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WASHINGTON – A U.S. State Department report on Friday criticized the handling of the 2021 evacuation from Afghanistan, saying decisions by President Joe Biden and his predecessor Donald Trump to withdraw troops had “serious consequences for the viability” and security of the former U.S.-backed government. 

Adverse findings in the report also reflected on Secretary of State Antony Blinken, without naming him. They included the department’s failure to expand its crisis-management task force as the Taliban advanced on Kabul in August 2021 and the lack of a senior diplomat “to oversee all elements of the crisis response.” 

“Naming a 7th floor principal … would have improved coordination across different lines of effort,” said the report, referring to the State Department’s top floor where Blinken and senior diplomats have offices.  

The review, and a similar Pentagon study, contributed to a report released by the White House in April. But the State Department review’s critical findings were not reflected in the White House report. 

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A representative for Trump also did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

The White House report effectively blamed the chaotic U.S. pullout and evacuation operation on a lack of planning and troop reduction rounds by Trump following a 2020 deal with the Taliban to withdraw U.S. forces. 

“I can’t speak to that internal coordination piece and how the administration settled on the core conclusions that it presented” in April, a senior State Department official said. 

No reason given for timing

The official, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity, declined to say why the review dated March 2022 was withheld from release until the eve of the July 4 holiday weekend. 

The U.S troop pullout and evacuation of U.S. and allied officials, citizens and Afghans at risk of Taliban retribution saw crowds of desperate Afghans trying to enter Kabul airport and men clinging to aircraft as they taxied down runways. 

An Islamic State group suicide bomber killed 13 U.S. servicemembers and more than 150 Afghans outside an airport gate. 

The State Department released 24 pages of an 85-page After Action Report — the rest remained classified — on its handling of the evacuation operation launched as the last U.S.-led international forces departed after 20 years of backing successive Kabul governments against the Taliban. 

It praised the performance of American Embassy personnel working under difficult conditions like the COVID-19 pandemic and reduced security because of the U.S. troop drawdown, whose speed “compounded the difficulties the department faced.” 

About 125,000 people, including nearly 6,000 Americans, were flown out of Kabul before the last U.S. soldiers departed on August 30, 2021, as the Taliban consolidated their grip on Kabul after the U.S.-backed government fled. 

“The decisions of both President Trump and President Biden to end the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan had serious consequences for the viability of the Afghan government and its security,” the review said. 

While those decisions were outside its scope, the review said that “during both administrations there was insufficient senior-level consideration of worst-case scenarios and how quickly those might follow.” 

The review said State Department planning for the evacuation was hindered because it was unclear which senior official had the lead. 

Senior administration officials also failed to make “clear decisions regarding the universe of at-risk Afghans” to be included in the evacuation by the time it started, nor had they determined where Afghan evacuees would be taken, it said. 

Preparation and planning “were inhibited” by the Biden administration’s reluctance to take steps that could signal a loss of confidence in the Kabul government “and thus contribute to its collapse,” the review found. 

“The complicated department task force structure that was created when the evacuation began proved confusing to many participants, and knowledge management and communication among and across various lines of effort was problematic,” it said. 
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In the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, women are crafting products from pine needles as part of an initiative that aims at providing them with livelihood opportunities while reducing the risk of forest fires. Anjana Pasricha reports on one project in the district of Mandi. Video: Rakesh Kumar
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Pakistan has secured initial approval of a $3 billion loan program from the International Monetary Fund to address its short-term acute balance of payments crisis and avoid a potential default.  

Both sides announced the deal Friday, saying the “stand-by-arrangement,” or SBA, spread over nine months is subject to approval by the IMF executive board, expected to consider it by mid-July.

“This arrangement will help strengthen Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves, enable Pakistan to achieve economic stability, and put the country on the path of sustainable economic growth,” Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Twitter.  

Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves have dwindled to a historic low of around $3.5 billion by mid-June, just enough to buy the country a few weeks’ worth of imports as opposed to the IMF-mandated three months of cover. Families across the impoverished South Asian nation of about 230 million are struggling to cope with ever-declining buying power in the wake of skyrocketing inflation.

The IMF said on its website that the new funding program would support the country’s immediate efforts to stabilize the economy from recent external and internal setbacks.

The $3 billion loan is higher than expected for Pakistan. Islamabad was negotiating with the global lender for months to release the remaining $2.5 billion from a $6.5 billion bailout package agreed on in 2019, which expired Friday.  

Nathan Porter, the IMF mission chief in Pakistan, said the new funding builds on the 2019 program and would provide “a policy anchor and a framework for financial support from multilateral and bilateral partners in the period ahead.”

Porter said economic growth had stalled in Pakistan due to “some policy missteps” by the Sharif government, the catastrophic nationwide floods last year, and the international commodity price hike following Russia’s war in Ukraine. “Inflation, including for essential items, is very high,” he added.

Analysts said Friday’s deal had averted the threat of default hanging over the country for over a year and would help bolster an all-time low market and industry confidence.

In the run-up to reaching the agreement, the Sharif government took politically risky measures to meet IMF demands in an election year. It revised the 2023-2024 budget, raising taxes, reversing subsidies in power and export sectors, increasing energy and fuel prices, agreeing to a market-based currency exchange rate, and cutting spending.

The adjustments would likely fuel an all-time high year-on-year official inflation of 38% in May.

“It will be important that the budget is executed as planned and the authorities resist pressures for unbudgeted spending or tax exemptions in the period ahead,” Porter cautioned.

Michael Kugelman, the South Asia Institute director at the Wilson Center in Washington, said the IMF deal would give Pakistan “some economic breathing space.” He warned that the next economic crisis in the country could be around the corner if political considerations prevent the government from introducing much-needed fiscal reforms.

“Islamabad waited until the very final hour to take the (politically risky) fiscal policy steps that the IMF had been hoping to see for months. If it had taken those steps earlier, much of the drama and fraught negotiations of recent months likely wouldn’t have had to play out,” Kugelman said on Twitter.  

Critics said that the nine-month agreement with the IMF would get Pakistan through a caretaker government and elections due this fall, lower the risk of default and enable the next government to negotiate a new loan program with the lender.  

“The SBA comes after extensive damage to the economy by the government,” opposition politician Hammad Azhar, a former federal minister, said on Twitter. “[The] SBA will act like a bridge loan to sustain us till elections. It’s unlikely to reverse economic contraction or inflationary pressures in the short term,” Azhar wrote.  

Abid Qaiyum Suleri of the Islamabad-based Sustainable Development Policy Institute said the IMF deal is good news for the government.

“The bad news for people of Pakistan is that they should expect more inflation, hike in electricity and gas tariffs, and higher prices for petrol, diesel, and kerosine oil,'” Suleri said.  

“The litmus test is whether government resists its appetite to spend lavishly in the run-up to elections,” he said. “If we stay away from the policy missteps committed during the last nine months, I hope Pakistan‘s economy has gotten a chance to take off during the next nine months.”

Pakistan has received almost two dozen IMF bailouts since the 1950s, making it one of the biggest customers of the Washington-based global lender.  

 
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Secretary of State Antony Blinken brought the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan together for several days of peace talks in Washington, as residents of the ethnic Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan say they have been cut off from food, medicine and gas. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.
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A Myanmar pressure group is urging India to stop selling arms to their war-torn country’s military and asking its Western allies to join the call, singling out Sweden and the United States.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made his first state visit to the U.S. last week. Both countries are members of the Quad alliance, along with Australia and Japan, widely seen as working to counterbalance China’s growing sway in the Asia Pacific.

The pressure group, Justice for Myanmar, says its research has found weapons parts made in India but of Swedish design being shipped to Myanmar, even after a 2021 military coup that toppled the country’s elected government.

United Nations experts have accused Myanmar’s military of crimes against humanity and war crimes as it battles a stubborn armed resistance, killing thousands of civilians and displacing over 1.5 million people across the country.

While the U.S., European Union and others have imposed arms embargos on Myanmar, India, which shares a 1,600-kilometer border with the country, remains one of the military regime’s few remaining suppliers.

“Indian exports of arms and dual use goods and technologies are significant for the Myanmar military and enables it to continue to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity,” Justice for Myanmar spokeswoman Yadanar Maung told VOA.

She said India’s latest shipments make it “further complicit” and urged its Quad allies to “step up and start using their leverage to stop India’s abhorrent support for the junta.”

Make in India

Justice For Myanmar said its review of Indian export records found more than $5 million worth of deliveries from state-owned Bharat Electronics to the Myanmar military and its known arms brokers between November 2022 and April. It says the shipments included transducers and sonar parts for naval vessels, radar equipment and battlefield radios.

The group said the records also show a shipment of 20 122 mm barrels from Yantra India in October last year, likely for howitzer artillery guns of the sort the military is reported to have used on civilian targets.

Data from global trade tracking service Panjiva, it adds, show thousands of explosive fuses shipped to another known arms broker for Myanmar’s military in 2019, 2020 and 2022 from India’s Sandeep Metalcraft.

Panjiva gathers and shares commercial shipping data using government-issued records from 17 countries, including India. While the records for the 2020 and 2022 shipments do not specify the types of fuses, Justice For Myanmar said the 2019 deliveries were listed as model 447, for the 84 mm Carl Gustaf rifle, a shoulder-fired weapon originally designed and manufactured by Sweden. The pressure group said it believes the later fuse shipments were of the same type.

In September 2022, Swedish arms giant Saab announced plans to build a factory to make the Carl Gustaf rifle in India and to have the plant up and running by 2024.

Given India’s ongoing exports, Justice For Myanmar said it worries the rifles the factory will soon be turning out could, like the fuses, end up in the junta’s hands.

“When Saab produces arms in India, there are no guarantees over what will happen with these arms. There may be requirements on end use and end users imposed by Sweden and Saab, but we have not seen the terms so there is no way to know what, if any, requirements there would be to not sell onwards to Myanmar,” Yadanar Maung said.

Even with such terms, there is no practical way to guarantee the rifles will not be exported, she added, calling on Sweden to suspend all licensing and production agreements with Indian arms makers.

Neither Saab nor Sweden’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs replied to VOA’s requests for comment.

Bharat, Sandeep, Yantra and India’s Ministry of External Affairs did not reply either.

Means to an end

The shipments from Bharat, Sandeep and Yantra are only the latest in a string of Indian arms exports to Myanmar over the past few years.

In a report last month, the U.N.’s special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, said India’s post-putsch arms exports to the country come to at least $51 million in all.

In his report, Andrews said India has no excuses not to know of the Myanmar military’s “probable war crimes” and that the exports “likely violate” New Delhi’s obligations under the Wassenaar Agreement. The nonbinding treaty obliges members, which include India, to prevent arms transfers to end users whose behavior becomes “a cause for serious concern.”

“India should therefore be aware that the arms it provides to the Myanmar military … are likely to be used in the commission of international crimes,” Andrews wrote.

“It would be in the interest of the people of Myanmar for India’s state-owned arms manufacturers to stop selling arms and associated materials to the Myanmar military and the government of India to stop authorizing these arms transfers,” he added.

Ian Storey, a senior fellow at Singapore’s Institute of Southeast Asian Studies tracking the region’s relations with major powers, said he sees little chance of that.

“For India, arms sales to Myanmar are seen as a means to stay on the junta’s right side and prevent the country from becoming too dependent on China and Russia,” he told VOA.

“New Delhi’s Quad partners can do little to prevent the transfer of weapons from India to Myanmar,” he added. “As we have seen with India’s policy towards the Russia-Ukraine war, New Delhi acts to advance what it sees as its national interests, not those of other countries.”

Calling all countries

India has lately stepped up its arms and oil orders from Russia and abstained from votes at the U.N. condemning its invasion of Ukraine. It also joined China and Russia in staying out of a U.N. Security Council vote demanding an immediate end to the violence in Myanmar in December.

Justice for Myanmar released its latest findings on India’s arms exports to Myanmar last week, just ahead of Modi’s state visit to the U.S. It urged Washington to push New Delhi to cut the junta off and to apply pressure by placing conditions on its own military aid to India.

VOA asked the U.S. State Department whether the United States raised the arms exports during Modi’s stay. In an emailed reply, the department’s press office said the U.S. “expressed deep concern about the deteriorating situation” in Myanmar during his visit but it did not provide a direct answer to the question.

It said the U.S. urged “the international community and all countries” to block arms exports to Myanmar and that stopping their flow was “critical to preventing the recurrence of atrocities against the people of Burma,” using another name for Myanmar.
…

Come summer, a group of women in India’s northern state of Himachal Pradesh comb a nearby forest to gather dead pine needles that the trees have shed.

Strapping huge bundles on their backs, they lug the pine needles home, then boil them in water with glycerin to give them a sheen. After drying them, they use colorful threads to weave the pine needles into handcrafted products, such as pen stands, trays, bread boxes and coasters. It’s a skill they mastered during a short training course.

In these Himalayan mountains, where most families rely on modest farm incomes, this work is putting money in their hands for the first time.

“I no longer need to borrow money from anyone. I help my husband as well in household expenses,” said Lata Devi, a resident of Mandi district who is part of the group of about 40 women involved in the project.

The initiative in Mandi supported by the forest department, started about a year ago, has a twin purpose. It aims to provide local women with livelihoods and to reduce the risk of forest fires that have often ripped through the region where thick pine forests clothe the Himalayan slopes.

The clean-up operation in the forest gets rid of the pine needles that become highly flammable when they dry during the summer, a problem that authorities have long grappled with.

“Our main issue has been to solve the problem of forest fires. How do we deal with these pine needles?” Vasu Doegar, deputy conservator of forests in Mandi told VOA recently. He said that while the handicrafts project will not completely solve the problem, it is yielding benefits.

“It is increasing the overall economy and incomes of the households as well,” he said.

Leaves become fuel, too

Authorities say turning the dead needles into handicrafts is just one of the projects to use pine needles. Others involve turning them into briquettes for fuel. The women also sell pine needles to briquette plants, but turning them into handicrafts provides a better, and sustained, income through the year.

Gathering needles from the forest is also an effective way to connect local communities with the region’s fragile ecology. During monsoon months, women participate in tree-planting drives to revive degraded forest areas.

“When we take the public into confidence, it raises awareness and gives them a sense of responsibility,” said Jiten Sharma, a project officer who leads the women’s groups in the project. “It makes them understand the importance of conserving the environment.”

Marketing the handicrafts can be a challenge but promoting them as eco-friendly products at local fairs and college campuses is helping. A recent bulk order from a nearby college gave the women a boost.

“We used to work till 12 or 1 at night and then get back to work in the day too. We managed to make 50 pen stands in a week,” according to Dromati Thakur, one of the project participants.

The earnings and consequent self-confidence has provided the motivation to burn the midnight oil.

Another project participant, Nirma Thakur, uses the money both for household expenses and her children’s education.

“I buy their books and uniforms with this money. I have also opened a bank account and try to put some money in it,” she told VOA.

The way ahead

Authorities say they will try to connect women with corporations, government agencies and hotels in a state that is a tourist hot spot, so that they can secure more bulk orders. An outlet that will be stocked with these handicrafts also has been built on a busy highway, according to Deogar.

In a country struggling to create jobs, especially in remote areas, such entrepreneurial work is seen as the way ahead. Only about 10% of India’s 1.4 billion people have formal jobs.

“In India, more and more people need to be self-employed,” Sharma said. “This also helps the cause of empowerment of women.”
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COLOMBO, SRI LANKA – The World Bank approved $700 million in budgetary and welfare support for Sri Lanka on Thursday, the biggest funding tranche for the crisis-hit island nation since an International Monetary Fund (IMF) deal in March.

About $500 million of the funds will be allocated for budgetary support while the remaining $200 million will be for welfare support earmarked for those worst hit by the financial crisis.

“Through a phased approach, the World Bank Group strategy focuses on early economic stabilization, structural reforms, and protection of the poor and vulnerable,” the World Bank’s country director for Sri Lanka, Faris Hadad-Zervos, said in a statement.

“If sustained, these reforms can put the country back on the path towards a green, resilient and inclusive development,” Zervos said.

Sri Lanka is struggling with the worst financial crisis since its independence from Britain in 1948 after the country’s foreign exchange hit record lows and triggered its first foreign debt default last year.

The IMF approved a bailout of nearly $3 billion in March, which Sri Lanka expects will bring additional funding of up to $4 billion from the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and other multilateral agencies.

The island nation will release a domestic debt restructuring program this week to push forward reworking its debt with bondholders and bilateral creditors including China, Japan and India.

 
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Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh’s four-day visit to Beijing, which coincided with the June 25 arrival of a U.S. aircraft carrier to Vietnam, appears to be an example of Hanoi’s balancing act between the United States and China, analysts said.    

The U.S. Navy’s USS Ronald Reagan arrived in Da Nang, Vietnam, for a scheduled five-day port call on June 25, the third time a U.S. aircraft carrier has visited the country since 2018.  

That same day, Chinh arrived in Beijing at the invitation of Chinese Premier Li Qiang for an official visit.  

“China regards Vietnam as a priority in its neighborhood diplomacy,” China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a welcome statement that included remarks from Vietnamese Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son, who is traveling with the prime minister.  

“Vietnam regards its relations with China as its top priority, pursues the one-China policy with a clear-cut stance, and firmly supports the development and growth of socialism with Chinese characteristics,” said Son. 

The visit by the only U.S. Navy carrier operating in the Indo-Pacific is a highly visible development in U.S.-Vietnam relations.  

On Tuesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Chinh and described the two nations “as friends who know each other well,” citing cooperation in areas as varied as people-to-people cooperation, China’s Belt and Road infrastructure projects, and trade, according to China’s officialXinhua News Agency.

“The carrier visit comes as Hanoi faces growing challenges from China’s assertiveness in the South China Sea and as Washington continues to push for raising ties to the level of a strategic partnership,” said Prashanth Parameswaran, a fellow with the Wilson Center’s Asia Program.  

Shared concern about China 

The United States and Vietnam are marking the 10th anniversary of their comprehensive partnership at a time when the two countries share an increasingly close trade relationship and similar concerns about China’s growing power in the region.   

“This visit marks a special occasion as our countries celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the U.S.-Vietnam Comprehensive Partnership, showcasing our shared commitment to a prosperous and secure future,” said a U.S. State Department spokesperson in an email to VOA this week. 

The U.S. reestablished diplomatic relations with Vietnam in 1995, 20 years after the fall of Saigon — now Ho Chi Minh City — marked the defeat of U.S. ally South Vietnam.

“We’re excited to come to Vietnam and appreciate the welcome our strike group has received,” Rear Admiral Pat Hannifin said in a press release on June 25.   

“Visits like this reinforce our partnership and commitment to confronting shared challenges in the maritime domain. They also provide a great opportunity for our Sailors to engage with the Vietnamese people and culture,” he said.   

Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Phạm Thu Hang said the USS Ronald Reagan’s visit to Danang, scheduled to end on June 30, is an “ordinary exchange” that is “meant to contribute to peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and the world,” the official Vietnam News reported.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning on June 26 responded to a question about the carrier’s visit to Vietnam. 

“We hope that efforts to grow relations and have exchanges and cooperation between relevant countries will be conducive to regional peace, stability and prosperity,” she said. 

Agreement to manage disputes 

On Monday, China’s Li and Chinh agreed that Beijing and Hanoi should manage their differences in their South China Sea dispute, according to China’s official Global Times.  Vietnam is just one of the nations in the region disputing China’s territorial claims to the resource-rich waters.  

On Tuesday, Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu met his Vietnamese counterpart, Phan Van Giang.       

During the meeting, Li said China is willing to work with Vietnam to strengthen high-level communication and cooperation between the militaries of the two countries, according to Reuters. 

Phan told Li that the Vietnamese military is willing to continue to strengthen cooperation with Beijing in politics, border defense and personnel training, according to the Global Times. 

Planned ‘bamboo diplomacy’ 

Analysts say the visits by the diplomats and the U.S. aircraft carrier were not coincidences, adding that they were well planned by Hanoi, with both visits showing proof of Vietnam’s so-called “bamboo policy” of balancing the interests of competing powers.     

The phrase was coined by the general secretary of the Vietnamese Communist Party, Nguyen Phu Trong, in 2016. It describes Hanoi’s “unique and special foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, flexibility, and diversification of relations” according to the official Vietnam+.

“Obviously, China is unhappy” whenever a U.S. aircraft carrier visits Vietnam, Raymond Powell, director of Stanford University’s Project Myoushu in the South China Sea, who observed recent Chinese research vessels entering Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone, told VOA in a phone interview.   

“To see the third U.S. aircraft carrier visit to Vietnam — and I think that’s a very positive step — it is something that’s clearly for Vietnam. It takes quite a lot of coordination and political will to allow a U.S. carrier visit,” Powell said.  

Asked about the USS Ronald Reagan’s visit to Vietnam, Mao, spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, told Agence France-Presse on June 26, “We hope that efforts to grow relations and have exchanges and cooperation between relevant countries will be conducive to regional peace, stability and prosperity.”   

A day earlier, she said of Chinh’s visit, “We believe the visit “will strengthen the sound momentum of growth in bilateral relations and promote solid progress in our deepening comprehensive strategic cooperation.”  

Christy Lee, Jihan Ham and Le Nguyen contributed to this report. 
…

The White House has condemned an online harassment campaign targeting a Wall Street Journal reporter who asked Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi about his human rights record during a joint press conference last week.

During the event with President Joe Biden and Modi at the White House last Thursday, reporter Sabrina Siddiqui asked the prime minister about discrimination against religious minorities in India.

Siddiqui then became the target of online abuse, primarily from Modi’s supporters. The White House Correspondents’ Association says the reporter has been “subjected to intense online harassment,” with people wanting to know the motive for the question and asking about her religion and heritage.

Biden administration officials earlier this week denounced the harassment.

“It’s completely unacceptable, and it’s antithetical to the very principles of democracy that … were on display last week during the state visit,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre later said, “We’re committed to the freedom of the press” and “condemn any efforts of intimidation or harassment of a journalist.”

Her questions

At the press conference, Siddiqui said, “There are many human rights groups who say your government has discriminated against religious minorities and sought to silence its critics.” She asked, “What steps are you and your government willing to take to improve the rights of Muslims and other minorities in your country and uphold free speech?”

Speaking through an interpreter, Modi responded, “In India’s democratic values, there is absolutely no discrimination, neither on basis of caste, creed or age or any kind of geographic location.

“Indeed, India is a democracy. And as President Biden also mentioned, India and America — both countries — democracy is in our DNA. The democracy is our spirit. Democracy runs in our veins. We live democracy.”

Before becoming prime minister, Modi had been denied a U.S. visa for several years over “severe violations of religious freedom.”

Since becoming prime minister in 2014, he has been criticized for his Hindu nationalist policies that are said to discriminate against Muslims, as well as for crackdowns on press freedom.

Poor ranking

India ranks poorly in terms of media freedom, with Reporters Without Borders putting the country at 161st out of 180 countries, where 1 has the best environment for journalists.

The media watchdog has said journalists there are exposed to violence and that members of the Hindu far right “wage all-out online attacks” on anyone with opposing views.

The attacks often are directed at women, with personal details shared online that put the reporters’ safety at greater risk, the watchdog says.

The White House Correspondents’ Association also expressed support for Siddiqui.

“The WHCA stands by Sabrina and the questions she chose to ask. In a democracy, journalists shouldn’t be targeted simply for doing their jobs and asking questions that need to be asked,” WCHA President Tamara Keith said in a statement on Tuesday.

The Wall Street Journal also condemned the harassment as “unacceptable.”

The harassment facing Siddiqui underscores global press freedom trends.

Reports show that female journalists face disproportionate harassment online as a result of their coverage. In one survey, 73% of journalists identifying as women said they experienced online violence in the course of their work.

The South Asian Journalists Association also backed Siddiqui.

“We want to express our continued support of our colleague @SabrinaSiddiqui who, like many South Asian and female journalists, is experiencing harassment for simply doing her job. Press freedom is the hallmark of any democracy and PM Modi leads the world’s largest democracy,” the group said in a tweet.
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WASHINGTON – The top U.S. diplomat for East Asia, Daniel Kritenbrink, said Wednesday that he expected a greater U.S.-India partnership over issues in the South China Sea, where China has been at the center of numerous territorial disputes with regional countries.

The United States and India declared themselves “among the closest partners in the world” last week during a state visit to Washington by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and emphasized adherence to international law in addressing challenges to the maritime rules-based order, including in the South China Sea.

The U.S. has seen a “clear and upward trend” of Chinese “coercion” in the disputed waters, Kritenbrink told the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.

Asked whether India would have a growing role in the South China Sea and greater cooperation with the U.S. there, Kritenbrink said, “Yes,” adding that there would be greater collaboration among a group of regional powers — the U.S., India, Japan and Australia — known as the Quad.

He said the U.S. focus in the region was on building capacity of allies, partners and friends that share a vision for a peaceful and stable world.

“We will welcome cooperation with any country that embraces that vision. That, of course, includes India,” Kritenbrink said.

“Large countries should not bully smaller ones,” he added, referring to China’s disputes with other South China Sea claimants.

Tensions are high in contested parts of the South China Sea, one of the world’s most important trade routes and a conduit for more than $3 trillion of annual ship-borne commerce.

China claims almost the entire South China Sea as its territory and says disputes should be left to countries in the region to settle without outside interference.

Though not a South China Sea claimant, India has in recent years stepped up security ties in the region, signaling its intent to play a bigger role in efforts to counter China.

India’s navy said Wednesday that it was sending an active-duty missile corvette to Vietnam as a gift, the first warship it has given to any country.

Kritenbrink referred to what he called “unsafe maneuvers” by Chinese vessels inside Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone last month, particularly in the waters around oil and gas installations.

“The PRC’s [People’s Republic of China] provocative behavior exacerbates risks for businesses, effectively pushing out competition and paving the way for the PRC to push a joint development deal with its state-owned firms,” he said.
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Farooq Ahmad Gannie’s one-hectare of land in the Tahab area of Pulwama district, located on the Indian side of Kashmir, is covered with orchids at the front and paddy fields at the back.

Five years ago, the land was once a flourishing apple orchard. However, the 70-year-old landowner made the decision to convert it due to the decade-long decline in apple prices.

“The prices of various commodities soared but to my dismay the price of an apple box kept decreasing,” Gannie told VOA. “After carefully crunching the numbers, I realized that I would incur substantial losses over the next five years. Therefore, I made the decision to switch from inherited horticulture to agriculture,” he explained.

The land transformed by Gannie introduces a concept new to the Indian side of Kashmir called exotic farming. This is the cultivation and growing of non-indigenous or non-traditional plants.

“I felt the need to do something new, but I was unsure about what to do. I went to the local agriculture office in Pulwama and learned about exotic farming,” Gannie said. “The idea fascinated me, and I saw it as an opportunity to earn money round the year during challenging times,” he added.

The farm, Gannie said, produces vegetables such as parsley, broccoli, lettuce, mint, celery, purple cauliflower and yellow zucchini, to name a few. He says he supplies the carefully grown vegetables to several vegetable wholesalers and retailers in different parts of the valley.

“There is a high demand for these vegetables in Kashmir. I cultivate and sell the crops quickly,” he said.

Gannie said that in the past people would buy these vegetables at high prices from the market because they were imported from outside Kashmir. However, now that these vegetables are being produced domestically, people are able to purchase non-indigenous vegetables at a more affordable cost.

Mehraj Ahmad Dar, 32, a sociology post-graduate, told VOA the establishment of exotic farming has provided job opportunities for unemployed youth like him in a region where there are few opportunities.

“I did not find a job in either government or private sectors. Fortunately, I was introduced to Gannie who was in need of employees to assist him on the farm,” Dar said. “Currently there are six people working together on this farm,” he said, mentioning each of them earns $350 per month.

Exotic farming, according to Dar, differs from traditional methods as it involves cultivation of non-indigenous plants in a controlled environment such as greenhouses or net-houses.

“These plants or vegetables do not always require greenhouse conditions for optimal growth,” Dar said. “Controlled temperature is required until seeds sprout into saplings,” he added.

Mohammad Rafiq, 60, who transformed a small patch of orchard land into an exotic farm at Tahab, told VOA that instead of large-scale traditional crops production he opted for exotic agriculture for two reasons — tourists prefer vegetables that are familiar to them and the sale of apples was not as profitable.

“Currently only a few individuals have gone for exotic farming making our district the epicenter of this new agricultural practice,” Rafiq said. “The nutritional value of these vegetables has significantly contributed to the growing demand for non-traditional crops,” he said, adding that exotic farming is the future.

The Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) of Jammu and Kashmir is primarily dependent on the agriculture and horticulture sectors contributing 20% and 10% respectively to the economy.

Conversion of land for exotic farming, Rafiq said, wouldn’t affect the horticulture sector. Instead, he said the new concept would enhance the economy of the region.

“I acknowledge the significance of the horticulture sector in our economy, but we cannot deny the role of agriculture in uplifting Kashmir’s GSDP,” Rafiq said. “In 1996 agriculture accounted for 35% of our GSDP but in recent years that figure has decreased to 20%,” he said, adding that agriculture sector requires a “lot of attention.”

Shahnawaz Ahmad Shah, agriculture officer of the Pulwama district, told VOA the government is committed to promoting exotic farming in Jammu and Kashmir.

“Agriculture Production Department has launched the Holistic Agriculture Development Policy, which includes a project for promoting exotic vegetable cultivation with a $4 million grant,” Shah said. “The department has supported this cultivation through quality seeds and hi-tech poly-green houses on subsidy, benefiting the agriculture sector,” he added.
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Top Indian government officials are pressing their state-level counterparts in northeastern Manipur state to engage warring ethnic factions in talks as they try to defuse weeks of deadly violence between majority Hindu Meiteis and Christian tribal Kukis.

The move comes shortly after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a meeting in Manipur, which the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) controls and where violence has left at least 115 dead and 300 injured in nearly two months.

Modi, who has been criticized repeatedly for not discussing the interethnic crisis publicly, convened the high-level Cabinet meeting Monday just hours after returning from a two-nation trip to the United States and Egypt. During the meeting, he was briefed by senior ministers about steps being taken to restore normalcy in the lush and hilly northeastern state.

Following the Cabinet meeting, Manipur state government officials were asked to talk to all stakeholders in the divide between the Meitei and Kuki communities.

A rare all-party meeting, convened by Home Affairs Minister Amit Shah in Delhi on Saturday, gave BJP lawmakers and all opposition political parties a chance to discuss the conflict — an apparent acknowledgment that the situation in Manipur was spiraling out of control.

Since May 3, more than 5,000 incidents of arson were reported in the state, and thousands were forced to flee their homes. Both Meitei and Kuki mobs have engaged in violence, several sources reported.

Following Saturday’s meeting, N. Biren Singh, chief minister of Manipur state, said the federal government was serious about defusing the crisis and that his state government would work in tandem with federal officials to restore peace.

Shah “has assured [me] that the central government will take all possible steps to bring normalcy in Manipur,” Singh tweeted Sunday after meeting with Shah in Delhi.

Manipur-based political opposition leaders recently issued a memorandum criticizing Singh for his handling of the violence and questioning Modi’s “stoic silence” on the matter.

At Saturday’s meeting, Singh also said that Manipur opposition leaders had been camping in Delhi since June 10 as part of an effort to meet with Modi, who did not grant an appointment.

Shah told the Saturday meeting that “there has not been a single day” when he did not discuss the Manipur crisis with Modi, who has been giving him instructions on the crisis.

“Most of the young men [who took part in violence in Manipur] have surrendered their weapons to the police. We have taken suggestions from all the parties [during the meeting], and steps are being taken in the right direction,” Sambit Patra, who heads the BJP in Manipur, told reporters in Delhi.

Although Saturday’s meeting failed to outline a plan to contain the violence, at least two opposition parties suggested that an all-party delegation visit Manipur to engage directly with those affected by the violence.

“To boost the confidence of the people of Manipur and to provide a healing touch, the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) demands an all-party delegation be sent to the state next week,” said an official AITC statement released after the meeting. 

“The message which has gone out [so far] is that the Union government is ignoring the Manipur crisis. That needs to change [in order] to heal, care, restore peace and harmony,” the statement said.

Root of violence

More than 6,000 houses, businesses, churches and temples in northeastern Manipur — which borders Myanmar — have been set ablaze in the violence sparked on May 3 after the nontribal Meiteis sought access to benefits and quotas in education and government jobs reserved for ethnic tribal groups, including the Kukis.

The Meiteis make up more than half of Manipur’s estimated 3.3 million population and mostly live in the valley, while the Kukis are located mostly in the hill areas of the state.

The violence started when the Kukis protested the Meiteis’ demands. Violence between the two communities worsened after mobs looted more than 4,000 guns from police armories and used them during clashes.

While some of the looted arms have been voluntarily returned, three-fourths of them have yet to be recovered.

Some 60,000 people have been displaced and taken shelter in close to 350 relief camps or homes of friends and relatives, while more than 40,000 security personnel — army and paramilitary — have been deployed across the state to curb the violence.

Sporadic killings and arson are continuing.

In Manipur’s capital, Imphal, last Friday, a mob set fire to $14.63 million worth of pipes earmarked for a government sewage project. Several vehicles and the BJP office in Imphal were also set ablaze. Security forces foiled attempts to torch a government minister’s residence in Manipur. 

The federal government had made some efforts to bring the warring sides to the negotiation table. Shah visited Manipur in late May and tried to organize a “peace panel” made up of a cross-section of people. But both sides refused to participate in the process.

In early June, New Delhi approved a $12.4 million relief package for people displaced by the violence.

The Kukis allege that Meitei-dominated government agencies, including the police, have taken a partisan role and are supporting the Meiteis.

Many Kukis living in the valley area of Imphal and other towns have fled to the hills since the violence broke out. Some Meiteis who live in the hill areas have withdrawn to the valley, resulting in an increasingly divided society of deepening mistrust.

Manipur hasn’t witnessed this kind of violence since the state was incorporated into the Union of India in 1949, said Binalakshmi Nepram, a social activist from Manipur.

“A violent ethnic conflict has been ‘engineered’ by people who are close to guns, drugs and political power, between two ethnic communities who have been living together for decades,” Nepram told VOA. “The situation is like a civil war where both sides are arming themselves while New Delhi and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have maintained a stoic silence on the crisis.

“This is the darkest moment in Manipur’s history, and the people of Manipur have felt completely abandoned by the Indian state,”Nepram said.

New Delhi-based senior BJP leader Alok Vats agreed that the situation in Manipur is “still very volatile.”

“We are indeed concerned about the situation in Manipur. The central leadership of the BJP is trying its best to resolve the crisis and restore peace in Manipur,” Vats told VOA.

“Mobs looted arms from police armories and are using them fiercely in violence. There are over 40 ethnic militant groups in Manipur. Many of them are suspectedly siding with the warring groups. We are still hopeful that the efforts of our central leadership will succeed to bring the warring sides to the negotiating table and resolve the crisis.”

Last week, retired Lieutenant General L. Nishikanta Singh said in a tweet, “The state is now ‘stateless.’ Life and property can be destroyed anytime by anyone just like in Libya, Lebanon, Nigeria, Syria etc.”

Following Monday’s Cabinet meeting, Manipur state government officials were asked to talk to all stakeholders in the ethnic divide between the two communities.
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After fleeing Taliban rule in Afghanistan, Mina Akbari is again working as a journalist, reporting for diaspora media from her new home in Pakistan. For VOA, Muska Safi has more from Islamabad. Cristina Caicedo Smit narrates the story.
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More frequent and intense heat waves are extracting a health and economic toll in India and pose a risk to its development, according to a recent study. Anjana Pasricha in New Delhi reports that low-income workers are among the worst hit by searing temperatures during summer.
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The United Nations said Tuesday that bombings and other militant violence in Afghanistan had killed more than 1,000 civilians since the Taliban regained control of the country nearly two years ago.

The U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan recorded 3,774 civilian casualties, including 1,095 deaths, between August 15, 2021, and May of this year. The report said 92 women and 287 children are among the dead.

Most of the deaths, 701, were caused by “indiscriminate” improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, attacks in populated areas, including places of worship, schools, and markets.

UNAMA said that a regional Islamic State affiliate, Islamic State Khorasan, or IS-K, was responsible for most IED attacks, including suicide bombings. It noted a significant increase in the number of attacks by the terrorist group since the Taliban returned to power in Kabul.

“Of particular concern is the apparent increase in the lethality of suicide attacks since August 15, 2021, with fewer incidents causing a higher number of civilian casualties in that period,” the report said.

More than 1,700 Afghan civilian deaths and injuries were attributed to attacks claimed by IS-K.

The chief of UNAMA’s human rights service condemned the attacks on civilians as “reprehensible” and called for ending them immediately. 

“It is critical that the de facto authorities uphold their obligation to protect the right to life by carrying out independent, impartial, prompt, thorough, effective, credible, and transparent investigations into IED attacks affecting civilians,” Fiona Frazer said.

UNAMA said Monday that Taliban authorities continue to prevent journalists from covering mass casualty IED attacks, saying it recorded many instances of “arbitrary arrest and detention, ill-treatment, and excessive use of force” deployed against media workers covering such incidents.

The mission said that Taliban authorities do release information on incidents of violence but “casualty figures are often inaccurate and unrealistic.”

The Taliban maintain their counterterrorism operations have significantly degraded the IS-K presence in Afghanistan, killing its key commanders in recent months.

The Taliban waged a deadly insurgency and reclaimed power as the United States and its NATO allies withdrew from Afghanistan in August 2021, ending their two-decade-long occupation.

UNAMA documented more than 3,000 civilian deaths in 2020 and 1,659 fatalities in the first half of 2021 alone, blaming the then-insurgent Taliban and other anti-government armed groups for causing most of those casualties.
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For more than 15 years, Qari Baryal has been on a special list of Washington’s “most-wanted” Taliban and al-Qaida leaders in Afghanistan, accused of carrying out bombing and suicide attacks across the country.

Baryal and the militants he oversaw were “involved in the supervision of IED [improvised explosive device] production, suicide personnel allocation, and overall attack planning and execution” in Kabul and surrounding provinces, according to U.S. military reports.

In November 2021, two months after U.S. and NATO forces withdrew from Afghanistan, the Taliban appointed Baryal as the governor of Kabul province. In March 2022, he became the provincial governor for Kapisa province, northeast of Kabul.

Baryal is among those listed in a recent United Nations report as one of the Taliban’s leaders “affiliated” with al-Qaida. Besides Baryal, Nuristan Governor Hafiz Muhammad Agha Hakeem and Tajmir Jawad, the Taliban’s deputy director of intelligence, are also listed in the report.

“With the patronage of the Taliban, Al-Qaida members have received appointments and advisory roles in the Taliban security and administrative structures,” the U.N. Security Council’s Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team said in the report earlier in June. It called relations between the Taliban and al-Qaida “strong and symbiotic.”

According to the report, an estimated 400 al-Qaida fighters were in Afghanistan, and there are signs that the terrorist group “is rebuilding operational capability.”

The Taliban rejected the report, calling it “biased and far from reality.”

A statement posted on Twitter by Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the group “insists on its commitments and assures that there is no threat from the territory of Afghanistan to the region, neighbors and countries of the world and it does not allow anyone to use its territory against others.”

Taliban Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi also rejected the presence of any terrorist groups in Afghanistan.

“There are no terrorist groups in Afghanistan. They cannot operate in the country, and we don’t let them operate in Afghanistan,” he said at an event in May organized by the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad.

U.S. officials have long expressed skepticism over Taliban claims that they have distanced themselves from al-Qaida. When a U.S. drone killed al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri last July, he was found living in a home in a central neighborhood of the capital, Kabul.

The U.S. said his presence there demonstrated the Taliban had broken the 2020 Doha Agreement signed by the U.S. and the Taiban. By hosting and sheltering the al-Qaida leader, the Taliban violated commitments to not allow terrorists in Afghan territory threaten the security of other countries.

The Taliban “will send a clear message that those who pose a threat to the security of the United States and its allies have no place in Afghanistan,” the agreement stated.

Bill Roggio, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told VOA that by appointing “double-hatted” al-Qaida and Taliban leaders, including Baryal, who killed American troops, the Taliban “are openly flouting” the so-called peace agreement.

These appointments show that the Taliban “are not concerned about the perception of the international community,” Roggio said.

He said the Taliban “always lied” about their ties with al-Qaida and other terrorist groups, and that the group’s statements cannot be “trusted.”

Roggio said Afghanistan could again become a training hub for the terrorist group.

“This is everything that al-Qaida can hope for. They have safe haven. They have support from the Taliban, who are in full control of the country,” he said.

But some experts do not think the country is becoming a magnet for foreign fighters.

Sami Yousafzai, a journalist who covered Afghanistan for years, told VOA he believes al-Qaida members now in Afghanistan are mainly Arabs, with just a few Afghan Taliban members who joined “out of necessity.”

“They had contacts with al-Qaida since they were living there, and they were protecting al-Qaida as they paid them,” he said.

Other regional experts say the region’s long military conflict between the Taliban and U.S.-led forces created loose alliances among regional militia groups.

Rahmatullah Andar, the former spokesman for Afghanistan’s National Security Council, told VOA that the Taliban groups in the districts have been hosting al-Qaida members for more than 20 years.

“Therefore, it is difficult to separate them. Not only with al-Qaida but also with the Pakistani Taliban,” he said.

Andar added that some Afghans were working with al-Qaida, but there were also some who were group members.

“They have the same worldview, the same goals and the same approach,” he said.

Back in Afghanistan’s Kapisa province, Baryal now posts Facebook videos showing his outreach to the local community as the Taliban government’s official representative.

This story originated in VOA’s Afghan Service.
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The Pakistan army revealed Monday that more than 100 people are being prosecuted in military tribunals for their alleged roles in last month’s nationwide violent protests over the sudden arrest of former prime Minister Imran Khan.

The revelation comes despite strong criticism from local and global rights groups of incumbent Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government for pressing ahead with military trials of civilians, mostly members of Khan’s opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or PTI, party. 

Army spokesperson Major General Ahmad Sharif Chaudhry told a nationally televised news conference that those on trial in military courts were allegedly involved in attacks on defense installations during protests on May 9, the day when Khan was arrested on graft charges by paramilitary forces outside a high court in the capital, Islamabad.

“Currently, 102 miscreants are under trial in 17 standing military courts nationwide. Civilian courts lawfully transferred these cases to military courts after examining the proofs (against the suspects),” Chaudhry said.

He added that the military had also sacked three senior officers, including a lieutenant general, for failing “to maintain the security and sanctity” of army sites during the unrest.

“Strict disciplinary action against 15 officers, including three major generals and seven brigadiers, has also been completed,” Chaudhry said. He did not disclose the names of the officers, saying that family members of several former army generals were also facing “the accountability process” for playing a role in the violence.

The spokesperson insisted that those tried in military tribunals would have access to their attorneys and the right to appeal in civilian courts — claims critics dismiss.

The Supreme Court outlawed Khan’s arrest after three days, but tens of thousands of his supporters staged street protests across Pakistan. Protesters clashed with riot police in major cities. Angry PTI supporters gathered outside some military sites. They raised slogans against the powerful institution allegedly behind their leader’s arrest, with some setting fire to several defense sites and murals.

Khan has distanced his party from the violence, saying operatives of government intelligence agencies infiltrated “peaceful protesters” and assaulted the military targets.

The Sharif government, backed by the military, has since unleashed a nationwide crackdown on the PTI, arresting thousands of its members, including women, former lawmakers, and ministers, on charges they participated in the violence.

However, scores of close Khan aides have since publicly quit the party and denounced the anti-army protests, enabling them to leave prison and escape prosecution. Those refusing to sever ties with Khan have repeatedly been re-arrested, with some continuing to resist pressure, while many other senior PTI members are in hiding.

The 70-year-old former prime minister and independent analysts say the defections stemmed from “custodial torture,” harassment of close family members, and other “pressure tactics” used by the military.

Speaking Monday, Chaudhry denied the army was behind custodial torture or coercing PTI members into quitting the party, which public polls rank as the most popular political group in Pakistan.

Khan faces more than 150 charges, including treason, corruption, murder, and terrorism in a range of criminal cases. The government has barred dozens of Pakistani television news stations from showing pictures of the former prime minister or even using his name or that of his party’s name.

Imran Riaz Khan, a pro-PTI journalist, and household name through his YouTube shows, was also among those arrested and accused of inciting violence. He has not been seen or heard since police arrested him on May 11.

Analysts say the legal challenges, the media ban, and the crackdown on Khan’s party stem from his campaign of defiance and allegations the military plotted last year’s parliamentary vote of no-confidence that toppled Khan’s government.

This was the first time in history that a prime minister in Pakistan was removed through a no-confidence vote.

Generals have staged three successful coups in Pakistan, leading to decades of martial law and allowing the military to influence national politics.

Earlier this month, the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan demanded the government try those accused of arson in civilian-run courts. The watchdog said that suspects tried under military laws “do not have the right of appeal to civilian courts, whose role is restricted to exercising narrow powers of judicial review in such cases.”

In a recent statement, Amnesty International also denounced the plans to subject civilians to military court prosecutions as “incompatible with Pakistan’s obligations under international human rights law.”

The global rights monitor said that “flagrant disregard for due process, lack of transparency, coerced confessions, and executions after grossly unfair trials” — are some of the human rights violations stemming from previous such trials.  
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Gunmen shot and killed a member of Pakistan’s minority Sikh community in an overnight attack in the northwestern city of Peshawar, police said Sunday.

Gauher Khan, a local officer, said the attack on Manmohan Singh, 35, appeared to be a targeted killing. A police investigation continues, Khan said, into the motive.

Khan said the assailants opened fire at Singh while he was returning home from a suburban area. The assailants fled the scene.

The Islamic State group in a statement claimed responsibility for the killing, saying Singh had been a follower of what it called a “polytheistic” Sikh sect in Peshawar. It also claimed wounding a Sikh in the northwestern city the previous day.

It’s the third killing of a Sikh community member this year in Pakistan. Last month, assailants gunned down Sardar Singh in a drive-by shooting in the eastern city of Lahore. In April, gunmen shot and killed Dayal Singh in Peshawar. In the same city in May 2022, gunmen killed two members of Sikh community.

Most Sikhs migrated to neighboring India in 1947, the year British rule of the subcontinent ended, and Pakistan was created as a homeland for Muslims in the region. Thousands of Sikhs stayed in Pakistan, where they generally live peacefully. But isolated attacks on minority Sikhs, Christians and members of the Ahmadi sect have continued.
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The supreme leader of the Taliban released a message Sunday claiming that his government has taken the necessary steps for the betterment of women’s lives in Afghanistan, where women are banned from public life and work and girls’ education is severely curtailed.

The statement from Hibatullah Akhundzada was made public ahead of the Eid al-Adha holiday, which will be celebrated later this week in Afghanistan and other Islamic countries.

Akhundzada, an Islamic scholar, rarely appears in public or leaves the Taliban heartland in Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar province. He surrounds himself with other religious scholars and allies who oppose education and work for women.

In his Eid message Akhundzada said that under the rule of the Islamic Emirate, concrete measures have been taken to save women from many traditional oppressions, including forced marriages, “and their Shariah rights have been protected.”

Moreover, “necessary steps have been taken for the betterment of women as half of society in order to provide them with a comfortable and prosperous life according to the Islamic Shariah,” the message continued.

Lately, Akhundzada appears to have taken a stronger hand in directing domestic policy, banning girls’ education after the sixth grade and barring Afghan women from public life and work, especially for nongovernmental organizations and the United Nations.

The message was distributed in five languages: Arabic, Dari, English, Pashto and Urdu. Akhundzada said the negative aspects of the previous 20-year occupation related to women’s wearing of the hijab and “misguidance” will end soon.

“The status of women as a free and dignified human being has been restored and all institutions have been obliged to help women in securing marriage, inheritance and other rights,” he added.

Despite initial promises of a more moderate rule than during their previous stint in power in the 1990s, the Taliban have imposed harsh measures since seizing Afghanistan in August 2021 as U.S. and NATO forces were pulling out.

They have barred women from public spaces, like parks and gyms, and cracked down on media freedoms. The measures have triggered a fierce international uproar, increasing the country’s isolation at a time when its economy has collapsed — and worsening a humanitarian crisis.

Akhundzada reiterated his call for other countries to stop interfering in Afghanistan’s internal affairs. He said the Taliban government wants good political and economic relations with the world, especially with Islamic countries, and has fulfilled its responsibility in this regard.

Akhundzada’s message also condemned Israel’s behavior toward the Palestinians and called on the people and government of Sudan to set aside their differences and work together for unity and brotherhood.
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Pakistan’s parliament on Sunday approved the government’s 2023-24 budget which was revised to meet International Monetary Fund conditions in a last ditch effort to secure the release of more bailout funds.

The IMF in mid-June expressed dissatisfaction with the country’s initial budget, saying it was a missed opportunity to broaden the tax base in a more progressive way.

The revised budget was approved a day after Finance Minister Ishaq Dar introduced new taxes and expenditure cuts.

“The [finance] bill is passed,” House Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf said in a live TV broadcast on Sunday.

With currency reserves barely enough to cover one month’s imports, Pakistan is facing an acute balance of payment crisis, which analysts say could spiral into a debt default if the IMF funds do not come through.

There are five days to go before the $6.5 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) agreed in 2019 expires on June 30. The IMF has to review whether to release some of the $2.5 billion still pending to Pakistan before then. The tranche has been stalled since November.

Dar also announced on Saturday a number of other changes, including raising a petroleum levy and lifting of all restrictions on imports, which has been one of the major concerns of the IMF as part of its fiscal tightening measures for the South Asian economy.

The budget revision came after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva on the sidelines of a global financing summit in Paris last week, followed by a marathon three-days of virtual talks between the two sides.

Under the $6.5 billion EFF’s ninth review, negotiated earlier this year, Pakistan has desperately been trying to secure the IMF funds, which are crucial to unlock other bilateral and multilateral financing for the debt-ridden country.
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The supreme leader of Afghanistan’s Taliban declared Sunday that their campaign against illicit drug production in the country had eradicated the cultivation of opium poppies, which are used to make morphine or heroin.

Hibatullah Akhundzada’s declaration follows recent media reports and satellite images backed by the United Nations and the United States, concluding that annual poppy cultivation has “significantly” decreased in the world’s biggest opium producer.

The reduction is credited to a decree issued by the reclusive Taliban chief in April 2022, which strictly prohibited the cultivation, production, usage, transportation, trade, export, and import of all illicit drugs in Afghanistan. The ban allowed anti-narcotics Taliban units to eradicate poppy farming across the impoverished war-ravaged country, which accounted for 85% of global opium production until last year, according to United Nations estimates.

“As a result of continued efforts of the Islamic Emirate, the cultivation of poppy has been eradicated in the country,” the Taliban chief said in his statement in connection with the annual Islamic Eid al-Adha festival later this week. He used the official name of the Taliban government.

“Farmers are looking for alternatives as legal cultivation continues to grow. Many citizens, especially the [Afghan] youth, are now saved from being exposed to harm,” Akhundzada stated.

Last week, the head of the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan told a U.N. Security Council meeting that there was “growing evidence” the Taliban’s opium poppy ban had been “effectively enforced,” decreasing the cultivation “significantly” in many parts of the country.

“At the same time, the opium economy has helped sustain parts of the rural economy in Afghanistan. Donors should consider allocating funding to alternative livelihood programs that address the specific needs of farmers affected by the ban,” Roza Otunbayeva told Wednesday’s meeting in New York.

Thomas West, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan, in a June 7 tweet, also hailed the reduction in poppy cultivation.

“Reports that the Taliban have implemented policies to significantly decrease opium poppy production this year are credible and important. Every country in the region and beyond has a shared interest in an Afghanistan free of drugs,” West wrote.

The international recognition of counter-drug efforts by the Taliban stemmed from new research and analysis published earlier this month by a geospatial analytics firm Alcis. 

The studies noted that recent satellite images show an “unprecedented” decrease in the cultivation of opium poppy in the country, with cultivation in the largest-producing southern provinces down by at least 80% compared with last year.

“The Taliban have successfully reduced poppy cultivation by more than 99% in Helmand province, which previously produced more than 50% of the country’s opium,” the report said.

Women’s rights

Otunbayeva, briefing the U.N. Security Council members on Wednesday, said, however, that the Taliban’s sweeping restrictions on women’s access to work, education, and public life at large “obscure” their “positive achievements” such as countering narcotics and “the welcome reduction of high-level corruption” in Afghanistan.

She renewed the U.N. call for the fundamentalist authorities to rescind the curbs immediately.

Akhundzada has rejected calls for removing restrictions on women as interference in internal Afghan matters, saying their policies are aligned with local culture and Islamic law, or Sharia.

The Taliban chief reiterated his defiance in Sunday’s Eid message, asserting that his decrees have restored “the status of women as free and dignified human beings.” Akhundzada added that he had instructed all government institutions to help women secure marriage, inheritance, and other rights.

“Under the rule of the Islamic Emirate, concrete measures have been taken to save women from many traditional oppressions, including forced marriages and their Sharia rights have been protected. … The negative aspects of the past 20-year occupation related to women’s Hijab and misguidance will end soon,” Akhundzada said without elaborating.

The Taliban regained power in August 2021 after waging a deadly insurgency for almost 20 years against the U.S.-led NATO troops protecting the internationally backed former Afghan government in Kabul.

No foreign government or global organization has recognized the Taliban as a legitimate government over restrictions on women and girls, among other human rights concerns.

“I am blunt about the obstacles they have created for themselves by the decrees and restrictions they have enacted, in particular against women and girls,” said Otunbayeva on Wednesday. “We have conveyed to them that as long as these decrees are in place, it is nearly impossible that their government will be recognized by members of the international community,” she added.
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U.S.-based diplomats from Central Asia, a region long dominated by Russia and more recently China, say they are eager for more engagement with the United States.

Many American foreign policy experts agree that a more robust relationship would be mutually beneficial, though U.S.-based nongovernmental organizations express deep concerns about human rights and authoritarian rule in the five countries: Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.

Michael Delaney, a former U.S. trade official, argued in favor of greater engagement this week at a webinar organized by the American-Uzbekistan Chamber of Commerce.

He noted that three of the five republics are World Trade Organization members and the other two are in the accession process — a goal actively encouraged by the U.S. government.

“I’ve always believed that this is a geographically disadvantaged area. There are relatively small national economies,” he said. But, he said, collectively the region represents a potentially more connected market, about 80 million people.

Key issues

In this virtual gathering, all five Central Asian ambassadors to Washington expressed eagerness to work on issues the U.S. has long pushed for, such as water and energy sustainability, security cooperation, environmental protection and climate, and connectivity.

Kazakhstan’s Ambassador Yerzhan Ashikbayev said that despite all factors, the United States does not want to leave the field to China, its global competitor, which actively invests in the region.

“Recent visit by 20 companies to Kazakhstan as a part of certified U.S. trade mission, including technology giants like Apple, Microsoft, Google, but also other partners like Boeing, have shown a growing interest,” Ashikbayev said.

The Kazakh diplomat described a “synergy” of economies and diplomatic efforts. All Central Asian states are committed to dialogue, trade and multilateralism, he said. “As we are witnessing the return of the divisive bloc mentalities almost unseen for 30 years, it’s in our best interest to prevent Central Asia from turning into another battleground of global powers.”

During his first tour of Central Asia earlier this year, Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, meeting separately with the foreign ministers of all five countries.

That was deeply appreciated, said Meret Orazov, Turkmenistan’s longtime ambassador, who also praised the regular bilateral consultations the U.S. holds with these countries.

Uzbek Ambassador Furqat Sidiqov sees the U.S. as an important partner, with “long-standing friendship and cooperation which have only grown stronger over the years.”

“The U.S. has played a significant role in promoting dialogue and cooperation among the Central Asian nations through initiatives such as the C5+1,” he said, referring to a diplomatic platform comprising Washington and the region’s five governments.

“This is where we address common concerns and enhance integration,” said Sidiqov. “We encourage the U.S. to bolster this mechanism.”

Tashkent regards Afghanistan as key to Central Asia’s development, potentially linking the landlocked region to the markets and seaports of South Asia. Sidiqov said his country counts on American assistance.

‘Possibility of positive change’

Fred Starr, chairman of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute in Washington, ardently advocates for the U.S. to adopt closer political, economic and people-to-people ties with the region.

In a recent paper, he wrote that among dozens of officials, diplomats, entrepreneurs, experts, journalists and civil society leaders interviewed in Central Asia, “even those most critical of American positions saw the possibility of positive change and … all acknowledged that the need for change is on both sides, theirs as well as ours.”

This is the only region that doesn’t have its own organization, said Starr, arguing that the U.S. could support this effort. “We have not done so, probably because we think that this is somehow going to interfere with their relations with their other big neighbors, the north and east, but it’s not going to. It’s not against anyone.”

“Easy to do, low cost, very big outcome,” he added, also underscoring that “there is a feeling the U.S. should be much more attentive to security.”

“Japan, the European Union, Russia, China, their top leaders have visited. … No U.S. president has ever set foot in Central Asia,” he said. He added that regional officials are left to wonder, “Are we so insignificant that they can’t take the time to visit?”

Starr urges U.S. President Joe Biden to convene the C5+1 in New York during the 78th session of the U.N. General Assembly in September. “This would not be a big drain on the president’s time, but it would be symbolically extremely important,” he said. “All of them want this to happen.”

Starr’s findings indicate that the governments need U.S. help to institutionalize Central Asia as a political-economic-social entity.

“We have underused our convening power. This is what the Central Asians are telling us. They’re saying, ‘No, it’s not just a pile of money we’re after. We’re after you taking an active role in using your convening power.’ ”

Pointing to Central Asian leaders’ frequent meetings and consultations with the Russian and Chinese presidents, Starr is challenging the White House to take an unprecedented step. He views the U.S. as “AWOL” (absent without leave).

“The U.S. and Central Asia are in the position of living in a room with a very low ceiling. We’ve got to raise the ceiling. This is not some prejudice of mine. This is exactly what we’re hearing at the top level all over the region,” Starr said.

Steve Swerdlow, a rights lawyer and associate professor at the University of Southern California, just back from Central Asia, agrees that Washington should be more active there.

“But to be effective, that engagement should be principled and prioritize American values such as democracy and the rule of law, which are on a steep decline across Central Asia,” he said.

“Even if the focus is purely on economic goals or jockeying for alliances against Russia and China,” he said, “the U.S. cannot reap real dividends or establish a climate conducive to investment without systems that allow journalists and bloggers to ask tough questions, or where courts do not act independently of the executive branch.”

Swerdlow said principled diplomacy means advocating consistently in the open for human rights and working “with civil society activists as much if not more than the governments of Central Asia.”
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Pakistan said Saturday that “unprovoked” cross-border shelling by India had killed at least two civilians and “critically” injured another inside the Pakistan-administered part of the disputed Kashmir region.

The alleged incident comes more than two years after the nuclear-armed rival South Asian nations agreed to fully adhere to a 2003 cease-fire along their de facto Kashmir frontier, the Line of Control.

A Pakistani military statement said the Indian army Saturday “opened indiscriminate fire onto a group of shepherds in the Sattwal sector,” resulting in the death of two civilians while another was “critically” injured.

“While a strong protest is being launched with (the) Indian side, Pakistan reserves the right to respond back in the manner of its choosing to protect Kashmiri lives in the LoC belt,” the statement warned.

The foreign ministry said later that it had summoned the Indian Charge d’Affaires to register Islamabad’s “strong protest over the cease-fire violation” and condemn the “deplorable” targeting of civilians. Pakistan called on the Indian side to investigate the deadly incident and underscored that “such senseless acts are in clear violation” of the cease-fire deal, according to the statement.

There was no immediate reaction from India to the allegations.

The February 2021 truce effectively stopped almost daily skirmishes between Indian and Pakistani troops that killed more than 70 people in 2020 alone.

The Himalayan region of Kashmir is split between Pakistan and India. Both claim all of it and have fought two wars over the area since the two counties gained independence from Britain in 1947.

New Delhi accuses the Pakistani military of backing militant attacks in India and separatists fighting Indian rule in the majority Muslim Kashmir. Islamabad rejects the accusations as an attempt to divert attention from what it says is Indian suppression of Kashmiris.

“Driven by a newfound geopolitical patronage, Indian forces have embarked on a plan to take innocent lives to satiate their false narratives and concocted allegations,” the Pakistani military asserted in its statement Saturday.

The remarks were targeted at a joint statement issued Thursday after talks between U.S. President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the White House, calling on Pakistan to ensure its territory is not used as a base for militant attacks.

“They (Biden and Modi) strongly condemned cross-border terrorism, the use of terrorist proxies and called on Pakistan to take immediate action to ensure that no territory under its control is used for launching terrorist attacks,” said the U.S.-Indian joint statement.

On Friday, the Pakistani foreign ministry, in its formal response, called the joint statement “unwarranted, one-sided and misleading.” The reference to Islamabad was “politically motivated” and “contrary to “diplomatic norms,” it added.

The ministry said that India was using the allegations of extremism against Pakistan to deflect from the situation in Kashmir and the treatment of Indian minorities.

Bilateral tensions have worsened since August 2019 when Modi’s Hindu nationalist government revoked the semiautonomous status of its administered Kashmir and broke it into two federally controlled territories.

Pakistan denounces the moves as illegal and wants them reversed.
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