Rights activists and refugees have expressed concerns over the United Nations food agency’s decision to cut food aid for the second time in three months for more than 1 million Rohingya from Myanmar who are currently living in shanty colonies in Bangladesh.

Because of a fund shortage, the World Food Program on June 1 cut its monthly food rations for the Rohingya refugees from $10 per person to $8. This amounts to less than nine cents per meal, according to the WFP in a news release late last month. 

The cut follows a previous one in March, when, citing a fund crunch, the WFP reduced the monthly food aid from $12 to $10 per person.

‘Many will starve now’

The World Food Program said it was experiencing a $56 million shortfall, resulting in the latest cut in rations.

Dom Scalpelli, WFP resident representative and country director in Bangladesh, said in the statement that the United Nations food agency was appealing for “urgent support” to be able to “restore rations to the full amount as soon as possible.”

“Anything less than U.S. $12 has dire consequences not only on nutrition for women and children but also protection, safety and security for everyone in the camps,” Scalpelli said in the statement.

Abdul Kalam, a Rohingya living at Balukhali camp in Cox’s Bazar, said that the latest cut is a “terrible blow” to the refugee community in Bangladesh.

“Trying to manage their families — many will starve now,” he said.

“We are extremely concerned that WFP has been forced to cut food aid for the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh,” Gwyn Lewis, the U.N. resident coordinator in Bangladesh, said last week (June 1). “The nutrition and health consequences will be devastating, particularly for women and children and the most vulnerable in the community. We urgently appeal for international support.”

Rice, lentils, oil

To escape persecution and violence in Myanmar, minority Rohingya Muslims have for decades fled to neighboring Bangladesh.

Not being allowed to engage in any livelihood-related activities outside the camp by Bangladesh authorities, the Rohingya refugees are completely dependent on food aid provided by the WFP.

Living in bamboo and tarpaulin shanty colonies in Cox’s Bazar, Rohingya refugees say that the monthly food aid of $12 per person that they used to get before March was already very limited when they were forced to survive only on staples such as rice, lentils and oil, and that most suffer from malnutrition.

“We are not provided with any clothing assistance from any organization. Like many others, I sometimes resorted to selling a portion of our food rations to buy clothing and also fish or beef, for my family. After the food ration has been cut by one-third, we are going to face a terrible level of hardship from this month,” Rohingya refugee Kalam, 42, who lives in Kutupalong camp in Cox’s Bazar with his family, told VOA.

“The devastating blow of this cut leaves me with no choice but to contemplate the unimaginable — accepting a repatriation offer, despite the fact that our fundamental rights remain unrecognized and unfulfilled by the Myanmar authorities, he said. “The thought of witnessing my children suffer the pangs of hunger proves unbearable, prompting me to consider a return to my war-torn homeland.”

The WFP food ration has been reduced twice in the past three months, even though many refugees hoped it would be increased.

Abu Jafar, another Rohingya refugee from Balukhali camp said, “Prices of many food materials have doubled over the past three years. To cope with the growing inflation, we have been praying for a hike in food ration. I cannot figure out how I will manage my family now. There is no way to escape starvation.”

‘Not just a matter of hunger’

Cox’s Bazar-based Rohingya community leader and human rights defender Htway Lwin noted that “the reduction of food assistance for Rohingya refugees is not just a matter of hunger.”

“It is a catalyst for a chain of devastating consequences for the refugees, including an increase of their involvement in criminal activities and exploitation by pimps and smugglers,” Lwin told VOA.

“Ultimately, we are going to be forced to make unimaginable choices to survive, compromising our dignity and future. This is not the way any human being should be forced to live,” Lwin said.

John Quinley, director of the human rights organization Fortify Rights that works among the Rohingya, told VOA that the food ration cuts are having dire consequences for Rohingya, particularly children.

“There are already high levels of malnutrition in the refugee camps in Bangladesh,” Quinley noted.

“Bangladesh is restricting refugees’ right to work.” Quinley said. “The authorities must allow middle-term solutions, including work and livelihood opportunities for refugees. Donor governments must commit funds to Rohingya response, including ASEAN and OIC countries.” ASEAN refers to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and OIC is the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

Noting that “it’s absolutely shocking,” Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division, said that the international community is “slinking away from their solemn obligations” to help the Rohingya.

“The Rohingya refugees have next to nothing, and now they are being told their food rations will be cut because the donors haven’t come up with the money. Bangladesh was promised that if they took the Rohingya in, the global donor community would shoulder the burden, but now it’s clear that bargain is breaking down,” Robertson told VOA.

All this is leading to an impetus toward tragedy, with both Bangladesh and Myanmar raising pressure on the Rohingya to return to Myanmar’s Rakhine state without guarantees of freedom of movement, full citizenship, and protection from harm, he added.

“The Rohingya are increasingly stuck between a rock and a hard place as international donors act to wash off their hands and move on to the next tragedy,” he said.
…

Taliban authorities in Afghanistan announced their plan Sunday to move thousands of Pakistani refugees away from border provinces amid sustained allegations the displaced population is the source of growing terrorism in neighboring Pakistan.   

Zabihullah Mujahid, the chief Taliban spokesman, told VOA by phone that the refugees currently reside in Khost, Kunar and some adjoining Afghan border provinces.   

“The Islamic Emirate plans to relocate them to far-flung provinces (in Afghanistan) to ensure they don’t have access to the (border) lines nor are they involved in attacks or any other acts of violence that happen in Pakistan,” Mujahid said, using the official title of the Taliban government. He did not elaborate.    

The plan comes amid a dramatic surge in cross-border militant attacks in Pakistan since the Taliban reclaimed power in Kabul almost 22 months ago. The violence has killed hundreds of people, mostly Pakistani security forces, especially in districts near the Afghan border.    

The outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), allegedly operating out of Afghan soil, has claimed credit for much of the deadly violence.  

Hostility in Sunday 

The latest hostility occurred Sunday in the volatile North Waziristan border district, where the Pakistani military said that a security raid against a “terrorists’ location” had killed two soldiers and two militants.   

Officials in Islamabad maintain fugitive TTP leaders and fighters, along with their families, reside among tens of thousands of Pakistanis who have taken refuge in Afghanistan after fleeing a 2014 large-scale counterterrorism military operation in the Waziristan border district of Pakistan. 

The Norwegian Refugee Council estimated in an October 2019 report that most of the approximately 72,000 Pakistani refugees settled on Afghan soil were living in a makeshift camp in Khost on the border between the two countries. 

Islamabad presses Kabul

Islamabad has been pressing Kabul to rein in cross-border TTP violence and complaining that the group enjoys “greater operational freedom” after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. Pakistani officials say that members of the Afghan Taliban have also been helping TTP carry out cross-border attacks. 

Mujahid and other Taliban officials have repeatedly denied allegations they are allowing any group to threaten Afghanistan’s neighbors, including Pakistan or any other country.    

While Mujahid did not name TTP in his comments Sunday, a top Pakistani official told VOA last week that the Taliban had recently told Islamabad they intend to “relocate TTP members” from the border areas to remote Afghan provinces.  

Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah added that the Taliban proposal could limit the access of TTP to Pakistan. He did not elaborate.  

The militant group, also known as the Pakistani Taliban, claims its insurgency in Pakistan is aimed at overthrowing the government, calling it “un-Islamic.”  

Washington has also outlawed TTP as a global terrorist organization.

GSettlement negotiations collapse

TTP is an offshoot and close ally of the Afghan Taliban. It provided shelter on Pakistani soil and recruits to the Afghan Taliban as they waged insurgent attacks on U.S.-led international troops and the former Afghan government for almost two decades until they seized power in 2021.  

Shortly after taking control of Afghanistan, the Taliban hosted talks between TTP leaders and Pakistani officials to negotiate a settlement. But the process collapsed last November when the Pakistani Taliban terminated a unilateral shaky cease-fire with the government and has since intensified its violent campaign.  

The violence has strained Pakistan’s relations with Taliban-governed, landlocked Afghanistan, which heavily relies on land routes and seaports of the neighboring country to conduct bilateral and transit trade activities.   
…

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for an attack in northwest Pakistan that left two soldiers and two militants dead.

The army said in a statement that militants opened fire on a security checkpoint Saturday evening in the Jani Khel area of Bannu district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, leading to a shootout with Pakistani troops. A search operation was underway to track the militants behind the attack.

Taliban spokesman Mohammad Khorasani said in a statement on the group’s website that the group carried out the “joint attack” in collaboration with another faction of the Pakistani Taliban, the Hafiz Gul Bahadur group. The militant group has been distancing itself from the Taliban, also known as TTP, and carrying out attacks independently.

The Pakistani Taliban are a separate group but are allied with the Afghanistan Taliban, who took over Afghanistan in August 2021, following the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces from the country.

The takeover emboldened the TTP. They unilaterally ended a cease-fire agreement with the Pakistani government in November and have since stepped up their attacks in the country.
…

India’s prime minister had been scheduled to inaugurate an electrical semi-high-speed train equipped with a safety feature — another step in the modernization of an antiquated railway that is the lifeline of the world’s most populous nation.

Instead on Saturday, Narendra Modi traveled to eastern Odisha state to deal with one of the country’s worst train disasters that left over 280 dead and hundreds injured. The massive derailment on Friday night involving two passenger trains is a stark reminder of safety issues that continue to challenge the vast railway system that transports nearly 22 million passengers each day.

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 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.

From 2017 to 2021, there were more than 100,000 train-related deaths in India, according to a 2022 report published by the National Crime Records Bureau. That figure includes cases in which passengers fell from the trains, collisions, and people being mowed by speeding trains on the tracks.

Official data also suggests derailments are the most common form of rail accidents in India but have been on a decline in recent years.

According to India’s Comptroller and Auditor General, Indian Railways recorded 2,017 accidents from 2017 to 2021. Derailments accounted for 69% of the accidents, resulting in 293 deaths.

The report found multiple factors including track defects, maintenance issues, outdated signaling equipment, and human error as main causes of the derailments. It also said lack of money or non-utilization of available funds for track restorations led to 26% of the accidents.

Even though the railway safety in India has improved compared to earlier years when serious crashes and accidents near unmanned crossings were more frequent, scores have still died and hundreds have been injured.

In 2016, a passenger train slid off the tracks between the cities of Indore and Patna, killing 146 people. A year later, a derailment in southern India killed at least 36 passengers.

The Modi government, in power for nine years, has invested tens of billions of dollars in the railways. The money has been spent on renovating or replacing the old tracks laid by the British in the 19th century, introducing new trains and removing thousands of unmanned railway crossings.

The train Modi was supposed to inaugurate Saturday was India’s 19th Vande Bharat Express, connecting the western city of Mumbai and the southern state of Goa.

The modern trains are designed to help reduce the risk of crashes and derailments. They will be paired with a countrywide automatic train collision protection system, a technology that will make travel safe, according to Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.

But the system was not yet installed on the track where Friday’s crash took place. It wasn’t clear what caused the trains to derail and an investigation has started.

Experts suggest that the country’s railway system needs to prioritize safe tracks and collision protection.

“India has achieved some success in making train journeys safer over the years, but a lot more needs to be done. The entire system needs a realignment and distributed development. We can’t just focus on modern trains and have tracks that aren’t safe,” said Swapnil Garg, a former officer of the Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers.

Garg said the crash should “shake up the whole railway system” and prompt authorities to look at the “lax safety culture.”

“I don’t expect authorities to turn the key and fix things quickly. The Indian railway system is huge and it will take time to make it safer. But there needs to be a will,” he said.
…

A train was on the wrong track because of an electronic signaling system error, and that error led to India’s devastating train derailment that has killed nearly 300 people and injured more than 1,000.

Ashwini Vaishnaw, India’s railways minister, said in a television interview Sunday on New Delhi Television, “Who has done it and what is the reason will come out of an investigation.”

An official explanation of the cause of the crash came after the completion of the rescue operation following the derailment. Workers are now focused on clearing the tracks to restore train service.

The trains involved in the derailment Friday collided about 220 kilometers south of Kolkata.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the site Saturday, spending about half an hour at the location, surveying the relief efforts and talking to rescue workers. He later went to a hospital where some of the injured are being cared for, speaking to some of them and their doctors. He told reporters the government would do everything it could to help the survivors and punish those found responsible.

Emergency workers had to climb on overturned train cars to rescue some victims, while other rescuers cut through the trains’ cars to provide emergency services.

Authorities say at least three multicar trains were involved in the derailment. All told, about 15 train cars derailed.

Train crashes are a frequent occurrence in India because of aging railway infrastructure. More than 12 million people ride thousands of trains across the country every day.

The train derailment canceled the inaugural run of a high-speed train between Mumbai and Goa, which Modi was to attend.

Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press.
…

Indian officials say the rescue operation following a deadly train derailment has been completed.

A report in The Times of India said nearly 300 people had died in the accident and more than 1,000 were injured when three trains collided Friday night about 220 kilometers south of Kolkata.

Officials said railway workers are now focusing their attention on clearing the tracks.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the site Saturday, spending about half an hour at the location, surveying the relief efforts and talking to rescue workers. He later went to a hospital where some of the injured are being cared for, speaking to some of them and their doctors. He told reporters the government would do everything it could to help the survivors and punish those found responsible.

The Times of India said one of the trains involved in the derailment entered the wrong track just moments before it left the rails.

Emergency workers had to climb on overturned train cars to rescue some victims, while other rescuers cut through the trains’ cars to provide emergency services.

Authorities say at least three multicar trains were involved in the derailment. All told, about 15 train cars derailed.

Train crashes are a frequent occurrence in India because of aging railway infrastructure.  More than 12 million people ride thousands of trains across the country every day.

The train derailment canceled the inaugural run of a high-speed train between Mumbai and Goa, which Modi was to attend.

Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press.  
…

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived Saturday at the site of the massive train derailment that claimed the lives of nearly 300 people and injured close to 900. Officials said Saturday that no more survivors have been found.

Modi spent about half an hour at the site, surveying the relief efforts and talking to rescue workers. He later went to a hospital where some of the injured are being cared for, speaking to some of them and their doctors. He told reporters the government would do everything it could to help the survivors and punish those found responsible.

A report in The Times of India said one of the trains involved in the derailment entered the wrong track just moments before it left the rails.

“By 10 p.m. (on Friday) we were able to rescue the survivors. After that it was about picking up dead bodies,” Sudhanshu Sarangi, director of Odisha state’s fire and emergency department, told The Associated Press. “This is very, very tragic. I have never seen anything like this in my career.”

The accident happened Friday night about 220 kilometers south of Kolkata.

India has declared Saturday a national day of mourning out of respect to the victims.

Emergency workers had to climb on overturned train cars to rescue some victims, while other rescuers cut through the trains’ cars to provide emergency services.

Anubha Das, a passenger on one of the trains, told Reuters he would never be able to forget what he saw. “Families crushed away, limbless bodies and a bloodbath on the tracks,” he said.

The Times of India reported that eyewitnesses said that the impact of the trains was so great that “scores of people were thrown out of the train through the broken doors and windows.”

Authorities say at least three multicar trains were involved in the derailment. All told, about 15 train cars derailed.

People who lived near the scene of the wreck rushed to the site to help in rescue efforts. Likewise, reports say that many people have also gone to the hospital to donate blood.

The rescue work was almost done, Amitabh Sharma, a Railroad Ministry spokesperson, said Saturday. Workers will start removing the wreckage and repair the tracks soon, he said.

Train crashes are a frequent occurrence in India due to the railways’ aging infrastructure. More than 12 million people ride thousands of trains across the country every day.

The train derailment canceled the inaugural run of a high-speed train between Mumbai and Goa, which Modi was to attend.

Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press.
…

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi Is scheduled Saturday to visit the site of the massive train derailment that has claimed the lives of nearly 300 people and injured close to 900.  Modi is also expected to visit the hospital where the injured have been taken.

A report in The Times of India said one of the trains involved in the accident entered the wrong track just moments before the derailment.

India has declared Saturday a national day of mourning out of respect to the victims.

Sudhanshu Sarangi, director general of Odisha Fire Services, told Agence France-Presse that there are “a lot of serious injuries.”

The accident happened Friday night about 220 kilometers south of Kolkata.

Emergency workers had to climb overturned train cars to rescue some victims, while other rescuers cut through the trains’ cars to provide emergency services.

Anubha Das, a passenger on one of the trains, told Reuters he would never be able to forget what he saw. “Families crushed away, limbless bodies and a bloodbath on the tracks,” he said.

The Times of India reported that eyewitnesses said that the impact of the trains was so great that “scores of people were thrown out of the train through the broken doors and windows.”

Authorities say at least three multicar trains were involved in the derailment accident.

People who lived near the accident rushed to the site to help in the rescue efforts. Likewise, reports say that many people have also gone to the hospital to donate blood.

Train accidents are a frequent occurrence in India due to the railways’ aging infrastructure.  More than 12 million people ride thousands of trains across the country every day. 
…

After weeks of tensions over water rights to the Helmand River that escalated to a deadly clash last week, Iran says it has made progress in negotiations with Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers over the shared waterway.

On Thursday, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian told Iranian state media, the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, that his government had “good negotiations” with the Taliban.

“We have the water rights issue on the agenda, and the [Iranian] president has assigned Hassan Kazemi Qomi [Iranian ambassador to Afghanistan] to follow up on the matter, with the view that the issues between the two countries should go in the direct direction and be resolved,” said Amir Abdollahian.

The tensions between Iran and the Taliban escalated after Iran accused the de facto government of Afghanistan of restricting the flow of water to Iran.

Deadly clashes between the two sides broke out last week in which two Iranian security forces and a Taliban guard were killed.

The tensions began last month after Iran President Ebrahim Raisi warned the Taliban to “honor” Iran’s rights over the Helmand River.

“We will not allow the rights of our people to be violated,” Raisi said during his visit to the southeastern Iranian province of Sistan and Baluchestan on May 18, adding that the Taliban should take his words “seriously.”

Afghanistan Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said that the Taliban were committed to the 1973 water treaty between Afghanistan and Iran. But he added that “the drought in Afghanistan and the region should not be overlooked.”

“It has become a completely political issue in both Afghanistan and Iran,” said Fatemeh Aman, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute.

Longtime issue

Aman said the water dispute “existed, and it goes back over centuries.”

“The problem is that the issue just went away whenever there was enough rain or water. But the issue surfaced once there was a drought or lack of rain.”

In 1973, Iran and Afghanistan signed the Helmand River Water Treaty. According to the treaty, Afghanistan should provide 850 million cubic meters of water to Iran from the Helmand River in a “normal” year.

Kazemi Qomi said that despite the treaty, Iran has received only about 4 percent of its share of water.

The Helmand River, the longest river in Afghanistan, is about 1,150 kilometers (715 miles) long. Constituting over 40 percent of Afghanistan’s surface water, the river is an important source of livelihood for the country’s southern and southwestern provinces.

It feeds Hamun Lake in Iran’s Sistan and Baluchestan province, the province’s main water source.

Persistent droughts, climate change and a lack of proper water management have brought tensions over the transboundary waters between the two neighbors.

Although water security frictions are increasingly common for nations with shared waterways, it is unclear how much the dispute between Iran and Afghanistan could escalate.

Michael O’Hanlon, director of research at the Brookings Institution, told VOA that he did not expect tensions between Iran and Afghanistan to “boil into a larger problem for the region.”

“I think what you are looking at is really a question of how much will they cooperate on issues that they have a common interest in, like border control, counternarcotics, issues like that, where you could see the cooperation,” O’Hanlon said.

‘Complicated’ relations

During the civil war in Afghanistan in the 1990s, Iran supported the Afghan forces fighting against the Taliban, particularly after the Taliban killed nine Iranian diplomats in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif in 1998.

Iran cultivated closer relations with the Taliban before the fall of Kabul, as both sides were united in opposition to U.S. forces in the region.

While Iran has not recognized the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan, it has handed the Afghan Embassy in Tehran over to the group.

Despite close diplomatic ties, skirmishes over the border have been reported in recent years.

Ryan Crocker, a former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, told VOA that the relations between Iran and the Taliban “are very complicated.”

“The last thing that this region needs to see some kind of border war between Iran and Afghanistan,” he said.

This story originated in VOA’s Afghan Service.
…

Pakistan has authorized barter trade with Iran, Afghanistan and Russia on specific goods, including petroleum and gas, to bypass Western sanctions on those countries and ease pressure on its declining foreign exchange reserves.

The Ministry of Commerce said Friday that its order, the Business-to-Business Barter Trade Mechanism 2023, “shall come into force at once.”

Pakistan, a country of about 230 million people, is scrambling to manage a balance of payments crisis and rein in skyrocketing inflation.

This week, the country’s central bank reported that its foreign currency reserves had fallen to just over $4 billion, barely enough to cover one month’s imports. Inflation hit an unprecedented annual rate of nearly 38% last month, official data showed.

The barter trade mechanism lists 26 commodities that Pakistani state and privately owned entities can export to Afghan, Iranian and Russian markets. In exchange, they can import crude oil, liquid natural gas, liquid propane gas, chemical products, fertilizers, fruits, wheat, industrial machinery and vegetables from the three countries.

Although the United States has designated third-party sanctions on those buying Iranian oil, it might overlook a barter deal.

Pakistan is set to receive its first shipment of Russian discounted crude oil later this month. Islamabad, which has shared few details on the deal with Moscow, has not clarified how payment would be made.

State Minister for Petroleum Musadik Malik said Islamabad would buy only Russian crude oil, not refined products, under the deal, saying purchases could rise to 100,000 barrels per day if the first transaction goes smoothly.

“The [100,000 tons of] Russian oil will reach Pakistan by the end of the first week or at the beginning of the second [week] in June,” he told reporters last week.

Last month, Pakistan and Iran jointly inaugurated the first of the six border markets the countries are building to enhance bilateral trade cooperation.

The Pakistan Petroleum Dealers Association complained last month that up to 35% of the diesel sold in the country had been smuggled from Iran. The countries share a nearly 900-kilometer border. Pakistan has fenced most of that frontier to deter illegal movement in either direction.

Despite the fencing, regional traders and residents allege smuggling, particularly of petroleum products, is facilitated by Iranian and Pakistani border guards, charges officials in both countries reject.

Pakistan’s bilateral trade with Afghanistan, especially the import of Afghan coal, has dramatically increased since the Taliban seized control of the landlocked neighboring country in August 2021. The two countries conduct trade mostly in cash while using a barter mechanism for certain goods.

The hardline de facto Afghan authorities’ return to power prompted Western nations to terminate all economic assistance for the largely aid-dependent nation and impose banking sector sanctions, effectively blocking Afghanistan from conducting regular trade with other countries.

This article contains content from Reuters.
…

Armed men in Pakistan have allegedly abducted a prominent lawyer and human rights activist from near his home in the southern port city of Karachi.

Family members and activists said Friday that Jibran Nasir and his wife, Mansha Pasha, were returning home late Thursday when two vehicles intercepted their car in an upscale neighborhood and took him away.

Pasha filed a police complaint Friday demanding “immediate action” for Nasir’s release and against those behind his abduction. She did not blame anyone, nor has any group claimed responsibility.

“Some 15 people, along with weapons, came out from the vehicles in civil clothes and forced my husband to get out of the car, manhandling him towards the subject vehicle,” Pasha stated in her complaint.

Police said an investigation was underway into the incident.

Nasir’s disappearance outraged local and international rights groups. Human rights activists, journalists and lawyers staged a protest in Karachi Friday against the abduction.

The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, or HRCP, said it was “deeply concerned” that the lawyer and activist had been abducted by unknown men.

“We demand that he be safely recovered immediately, and his abductors held accountable under the law,” the watchdog group said.

“Authorities must expeditiously and impartially investigate and determine his whereabouts,” Amnesty International said in a statement.

“If in state custody, Jibran must either be released immediately or, if there is sufficient evidence, produce him in a civilian court and charge him with an internationally recognizable offense,” the U.K.-based watchdog demanded.

Nasir is a vocal critic of human rights abuses in Pakistan and actively pursues cases of minority communities.

In recent weeks, he has increasingly criticized a nationwide government crackdown on supporters of former prime minister Imran Khan’s opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or PTI, party. Nasir has accused the powerful military of being behind it.

“Jibran Nasir’s abduction is yet another case that the country has seen in recent weeks in the wake of authorities cracking down on critical voices following violent clashes during Imran Khan’s arrest,” Amnesty International said.

Khan denounced the abduction of the activist.

“Today, the oppression and repression of all martial laws have been surpassed. There’s a complete crackdown on PTI plus anyone who dares to criticize the blatant violations of all fundamental rights of our citizens,” the opposition leader said on Twitter.

The PTI chief, who remains the most popular politician in Pakistan, according to public opinion surveys, was arrested by paramilitary forces on May 9 on corruption charges. His detention sparked nationwide protests, with protesters in some cases attacking public and military property.

Pakistan’s Supreme Court outlawed Khan’s arrest two days later but Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s coalition government has since unleashed a crackdown on PTI leaders and supporters.

Khan says police have arrested more than 10,000 PTI members, including senior party leaders. He has accused the military of being behind the dismantling of his party, the country’s largest.

The government has acknowledged the detentions, saying those involved in attacks on public property will be tried in anti-terrorism courts while others will face trials in military courts.

In recent days scores of senior PTI leaders have either abandoned Khan or politics altogether, citing attacks on military installations during protests over his arrest. Those doing so are being released from jail, while others refusing to quit the PTI are being threatened with prosecution in military courts.

“People leave jail, hold a press conference, condemn the incidents of arson, and announce quitting the party. Even if you have not been subjected to physical coercion or pressure, this is not something that’s being done voluntarily,” said Hina Jilani, the head of the HRCP.

Police have already handed over several dozen PTI supporters to the army for trial in military tribunals. The move has outraged local and international rights defenders who maintain that trying civilians in military courts is a breach of Pakistan’s international obligations and human rights law.
…

China and the United States are putting a new focus on diplomacy in Central Asia, a region where Moscow’s long-dominant position has been diminished by its troubled invasion of Ukraine and resulting sanctions by G-7 nations.

Beijing pledged nearly $4 billion in investment during a China-Central Asia summit last month as a sign of its continuing interest in building trade and security ties with Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.

Days later, the United States promoted its engagement with these nations at an annual event in Washington, the Trans-Caspian Forum covering Central Asia, Caucasus and Turkey.

Nicholas Berliner, senior director for Russia and Central Asia at the National Security Council in the White House, told the gathering that the U.S. remains “a consistent advocate for the independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity” of the states that emerged from the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.

“Principles matter. And [there is] no time in the last 30 years that these principles have been more directly under threat than today in Ukraine,” Berliner stressed. The Russian invasion has led to economic disruptions and undermined regional security, he said, vowing that the U.S. is steadfast in connecting Central Asian countries to global markets.

America wants the region to uphold the rule of law, respect human rights, and allow free media, according to Berliner. “We support the reform agendas underway, which aim to create more accountable democratic governance, including in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and we are prepared to assist with the implementation of these reforms.”

Talks on energy supplies

Russia’s oil exports this year returned to their pre-war levels, buoyed by massive purchases from India and China. But analysts believe the country’s gas sector, which lost its biggest European customers after the invasion, may export just half as much gas as the year before.

That has increased the importance of Central Asia’s energy-exporting nations, which are looking for new markets.

“Russia will never again be considered a reliable supplier of energy,” Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Diplomacy Laura Lochman told the forum. She also said Washington is ready to help the region diversify its gas and oil sectors and accelerate the transition to clean sources.

On May 25, Pennsylvania-based Air Products signed a $1 billion investment agreement with Uzbekistan to own and operate a natural gas processing facility in Kashkadarya. The corporation says it plans to deploy its technological and operational knowledge to help deliver highly reliable and efficient energy.

Furqat Sidiqov, Uzbekistan’s ambassador to Washington, said his government appreciates the investments and sees more opportunities.

“We want to be partners in technological innovation and digital commerce,” said Sidiqov, listing food, textile, education, health care and climate change as potential joint project areas.

Focus on development, civil society

Some remain skeptical that Washington will be able to do much to change regional countries’ basic relations with Russia and China because of their proximity and the size of their economies.

Sebastien Peyrouse, Central Asia program director at George Washington University, thinks reducing Chinese and Russian influence is not feasible. “It seems unrealistic that Central Asians will be able to significantly redirect economic exchanges towards other countries. India and Pakistan or even Iran and Turkey, despite increasing trade, cannot replace Russia and China.”

Instead, Peyrouse argued the U.S. should invest in areas that are desperate for outside expertise, such as health care, education, food security and energy. He said that dire situations in these areas “are more likely to lead to destabilization than alleged external terrorist threats.”

Peyrouse believes such a contribution will improve America’s image in Central Asia, “which has seriously deteriorated since the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.”

He also recommended that the Biden administration review how it provides assistance to local nongovernmental groups like human rights organizations, which are under pressure in the region.

“Under threats of being kicked out, many funders engage in self-censorship, downgrading their commitment to democratization and fighting repression and corruption,” he said.

This approach empowers authorities to coerce nongovernmental organizations, he said. They want donors to stop confining programs to sectors endorsed by the Central Asian administrations and follow agreements obligating them to create space and conditions for civil society.

It is essential that the U.S. address this problem, Peyrouse said, so the NGOs can work “without fear of retaliation in key economic and social areas, which remain largely under the control of neo-patrimonial systems across the region.”

Responsive government

Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan experienced unrest and mass violence last year. Their governments now claim to be focusing on public grievances, striving to ensure economic and social justice. Uzbek Ambassador Sidiqov said the Mirziyoyev administration is committed to its “irreversible reforms towards good governance and liberal economy.”

Yerzhan Ashikbayev, Kazakhstan’s ambassador to Washington, said his country “has always been open to U.S. businesses as well as initiatives.” The Tokayev administration is transforming Kazakhstan, Ashikbayev contended, and he thanked Washington for its support.

Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Central Asia Brian Stimmler told the forum that the U.S. maintains a comprehensive dialogue with the region, including on civil society, law enforcement and counterterrorism.

“Our efforts to be a reliable partner include a perennial focus on human rights and the importance of political-economic reform,” he said. “We continue to highlight the security and prosperity for Central Asian countries are inevitably tied in the long term to freedom and opportunity for the people of Central Asia.”

The U.S. approach to Central Asia is not about dictating but partnerships with fully sovereign states, the NSC’s Berliner emphasized. “And while we do not share a common border, we do share a common hope for a secure, prosperous, and independent region.”
…

Critics are skeptical about whether a recently reported rare meeting between the reclusive supreme leader of Afghanistan’s Taliban and the prime minister of Qatar would lead to the removal of sweeping restrictions imposed on Afghan women’s access to education and work.

Hibatullah Akhundzada’s secret talks with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani, first reported by Reuters, were held May 12 in the Afghan city of Kandahar. It was the first meeting the Taliban chief is known to have had with a foreign leader.

The discussions reportedly focused on the need to lift Taliban bans on women and girls and further Kabul’s dialogue with the world to help end the isolation of the de facto Afghan rulers who took control of the country in August 2021.

Neither Taliban officials nor officials in Qatar have since acknowledged or shared any details of the meeting, though the Afghan side confirmed at the time al-Thani’s trip to Kandahar and released pictures of his meeting with then-Taliban prime minister Mullah Hasan Akhund.

In a statement on May 16, Qatar’s official news agency quoted its foreign ministry as saying that the prime minister’s visit to Afghanistan was part of Doha’s “political role in communicating with various parties in addition to facilitating the relations between the caretaker [Taliban] government and the international community.”

Analysts noted that al-Thani’s reported talks with Akhundzada had come just days after Doha hosted an international meeting on May 1 convened and chaired by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

In a post-meeting statement, the U.N. chief rejected the Taliban’s bans on girls’ education and women working for aid groups as unacceptable.

“Western donors would like to help Afghanistan, but with the harsh treatment of women in Afghanistan by the Taliban, it is impossible to lobby for more funds,” said Torek Farhadi, a former Afghan official and regional analyst.

The “Taliban are isolated. Qatar PM brought the message that by opening teenage girls’ schools and letting women back at work, this isolation could end,” Farhadi told VOA in written comments.

Skeptics such as Heather Barr at Human Rights Watch did not see the meeting signaling a willingness by Akhundzada to withdraw his edicts against Afghan women.

“I don’t think it’s a new willingness — just new to see Akhundzada,” Barr said on Twitter. “The Taliban have always been keen, since Aug 2021, to press their demands— for engagement, aid, recognition, congratulations. Parallel to these talks, their crackdown on women/girls has steadily continued & deepened,” she wrote.

The U.N. and nongovernmental organizations say that the ban on their Afghan female staff has undermined relief activities in a country where 28 million people, or two-thirds of the population, need humanitarian assistance.

The hard-line Taliban have repeatedly pledged to ease restrictions on women and girls, saying they are preparing “guidelines” for them in line with Afghan culture and Islamic law — Shariah.

The Taliban Foreign Ministry has renewed the pledge in a report prepared for the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

“Recently, girls’ education for a short period of time has been suspended for an interim time; in this short time of suspension, we are working on a comprehensive plan to provide better conditions for girls. After drafting a plan, girls’ higher education will resume,” according to a copy of the report Afghan rights activists have shared on social media.

VOA has reached out to the Taliban to ascertain the authenticity of the document.

The United States has led calls for Taliban authorities to lift all restrictions on women, including those working for U.N. agencies and humanitarian groups, to restore their freedom of movement and govern the conflict-ravaged country through a politically inclusive system, where all Afghan groups have representation.

Akhundzada, who rarely leaves Kandahar, known as the birthplace of the Taliban, has rejected international criticism of his government and calls for removing curbs on women as interfering in Afghan matters.

“It is the success and good fortune of the Afghan nation that Allah has blessed them with an Islamic Shariah system. … I have promised Allah that so long as I am alive, no law of infidelity will find a place in Afghanistan,” the Taliban chief told worshipers in Kandahar in April.

“I will not move even one step with you or interact with you … at the cost of this Shariah,” Akhundzada said in an earlier speech.

U.N. and global human rights groups have warned in their recent reports that the treatment of Afghan women by the Taliban could amount to crimes against humanity.

The Taliban reclaimed power nearly two years ago when U.S.-led international troops departed the country following two decades of involvement in the Afghan war. No country has since recognized the Taliban government, citing the treatment of Afghan women and other human rights concerns.

Qatar has maintained close contacts with the Taliban since the group was waging insurgent attacks on international forces in Afghanistan and allowed them to open a political office in Doha in 2013.

The tiny Gulf state hosted talks between the U.S. and Taliban insurgents that produced the 2020 deal for a withdrawal of all American and allied troops in return for Taliban counterterrorism assurances.
…

Pakistan said Thursday that two of its soldiers were killed when a security outpost along the border with Iran came under attack from a “group of terrorists.”

A military statement said the insurgent raid occurred in the Kech border district in Baluchistan province. Pakistani troops responded “with all available weapons” and pushed back the assailants in the ensuing heavy gun battle, it added.

“Security forces have launched an immediate sanitization operation in the area and are in communication with Iranian authorities across as well to deny terrorists any opportunity to escape,” the statement said.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the deadly raid.

In a post on Twitter, the Iranian Embassy in Islamabad said it “strongly condemns the terrorist attack” and extended condolences to the families of the fallen soldiers. The diplomatic mission stressed the need for “mutual cooperation” to combat terrorism, calling it “a common pain.”

Last week, Tehran said a “terrorist” attack killed six Iranian security forces on its side of the border with Pakistan, claiming the assailants were trying to infiltrate Iran and fled the area with casualties.

Islamabad denounced that attack and called for mutual efforts to eliminate terrorists on both sides of the border.

Both countries routinely blame the other for not doing enough to prevent militants from taking refuge and launching cross-border attacks.

Predominantly Shiite Iran is battling militants from its Sunni community in the southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan border region. That region abuts Pakistan’s natural resource-rich and impoverished Baluchistan province, where ethnic Baluch separatists routinely target Pakistani security forces.

The uptick in terrorist attacks on both sides comes just two weeks after Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif traveled to the nearly 900-kilometer shared border between the two countries, where they jointly inaugurated a marketplace and power transmission line.

The new marketplace is one of the six such facilities Islamabad and Tehran are jointly building to create jobs to help thousands of poverty-stricken households living on both sides of the border. The transmission line will export 100-megawatts of Iranian electricity to Pakistan.

Raisi, while addressing the May 18 opening ceremony, said that the marketplaces would help create jobs and boost bilateral “retail trade” to help thousands of households on both sides of the remote, poverty-stricken region.

“The message of this project is one of security. Today, both countries see the border as an opportunity and not a threat,” the Iranian leader stressed.
…

The Indian government will not consider any proposals for new coal plants for the next five years and focus on growing its renewables sector, according to an updated national electricity plan released Wednesday evening.

The temporary pause in the growth of the dirty fuel was hailed by energy experts as a positive step for a country that is currently reliant on coal for around 75% of its electricity.

Updated every five years, the plan serves as a guideline for India’s priorities in its electricity sector.

India is the world’s third highest emitter and most populous country. It plans to reach net zero emissions by 2070, which would mean significantly slashing coal use and ramping up renewable energy.

In a draft of the plan released in September, the Central Electricity Authority, which is in charge of planning for India’s electricity needs, projected that nearly 8,000 megawatts of new coal capacity was required by 2027. But Wednesday’s strategy proposes the build out of more than 8,600 megawatts of battery energy storage systems instead.

Battery storage is crucial for round-the-clock use of renewable energy.

“This plan is a step in the right direction,” said Raghav Pachouri, an energy sector expert at Vasudha Foundation, a New Delhi-based think tank.

Pachouri said one reason the plans for new coal might have been scrapped is because there are already some coal plants under construction.

The country is also experiencing longer summers and hotter weather in part due to climate change, meaning greater electricity demand during the scorching day, making it easier to fulfill energy needs with renewables, said Pachouri.

“When you need energy during the day, solar power can provide for it,” he said.

India plans to install 500 gigawatts of clean energy by 2030, enough energy to power anywhere from 150 to 500 million homes depending on power use, but is not on course to meet that target, according to Aditya Lolla, an energy analyst at the think tank Ember.

“We’re installing only up to 17 gigawatts a year, this needs to increase to 40 to 45 gigawatts to meet targets,” said Lolla.

The new plan goes on to project that new coal power will be built after 2027, but Lolla says this should be taken with a pinch of salt.

“Traditionally, projections for the coming five years are more concrete and those for the subsequent years are essentially placeholders,” said Lolla. “India wants to move towards a cleaner power system. With every electricity plan, the coal pipeline is falling.”

Lolla predicts that with the current volatile global energy picture, due to Russia’s war in Ukraine, climate change and pandemic recovery, India will take a call on its longer-term energy plan at a future date, depending on how things progress by 2027.
…

China said on Wednesday it had taken “appropriate” action in response to what it called India’s “unfair and discriminatory” treatment of Chinese journalists, in the latest move that underscores rising tensions between the Asian countries.

The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that China and India have expelled nearly all of each other’s journalists in recent weeks.

The Indian government in May rejected visa renewals for the last two Chinese state media journalists in the country, the newspaper said. One works for Xinhua and the other works for China Central Television.

Indian outlets had four journalists still based inside China, but at least two of them haven’t been granted visas to return to the country, the Journal said. A third was told that his accreditation had been revoked, but he is still in China.

Relations between the world’s two most populous countries have worsened since a deadly clash on the contested Sino-Indian border in 2020.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Chinese reporters had been treated unfairly in India for years.

“What I can tell you is that for a long time, Chinese journalists have suffered unfair and discriminatory treatment in India, and in 2017, the Indian side shortened the visa validity of Chinese journalists to three months or even one month for no reason,” Mao Ning, the spokesperson, said at a briefing.

“In the face of this prolonged and unreasonable suppression by the Indian side, the Chinese side had to take appropriate countermeasures to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the Chinese media,” Mao said.

“The visa of the last remaining Chinese journalist in India has also expired,” she said.

Ananth Krishnan, a correspondent for India’s The Hindu, tweeted on Wednesday, “We’re down to only one accredited Indian reporter in Beijing — and unfortunately, probably zero soon.”

Mao said a return to normal was contingent on “whether India can work in the same direction as China, and provide the same convenience and assistance to Chinese journalists in India.”

India’s Washington embassy did not immediately respond to a VOA email requesting comment.

This is not the first time China has engaged in a tit-for-tat spat over journalist visas. Beijing expelled several U.S. journalists in 2020 after Washington moved to limit the number of Chinese state media reporters in the United States.

Neither China nor India is a particularly staunch defender of press freedom within its own borders. Out of 180 countries, India ranks at No. 161 in terms of press freedom, and China ranks at No. 179, according to the media freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders.

Some information in this report came from Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
…

Global and local human rights campaigners in Pakistan asked the government Wednesday to transfer political activists who are set to be prosecuted in military courts for arson to the civilian justice system.

Pakistani authorities have handed dozens of former prime minister Imran Khan’s supporters to the army recently for trial in military tribunals. They are accused of attacking public and defense installations during several days of protests sparked by Khan’s dramatic, short-lived May 9 arrest on corruption charges.

Human Rights Watch said in a statement that a military trial of civilians would breach Pakistan’s obligations under international human rights law.

“Pakistan’s military courts, which use secret procedures that deny due process rights, should not be used to prosecute civilians, even for crimes against the military,” said Patricia Gossman, the U.S.-based watchdog’s associate Asia director.

She questioned the integrity of the military tribunals, noting that their judges are serving officers and are not independent of the government.

Gossman said that while Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s administration is responsible for prosecuting those committing violence, it should try civilians only in independent and impartial civilian courts.

The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said Wednesday it strongly opposes the government’s decision to try civilians under military law. Hina Jilani, the commission’s chief, said that “the arbitrary manner” used to select cases to be tried by military courts denies the suspects’ constitutional right to a fair trial.

“There is no due process in military courts. Independence and impartiality of these courts are always questionable and people do not get real justice,” Jilani told VOA.

Police have rounded up thousands of members of Khan’s opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or PTI, party in connection with the protests amid allegations of abuses against female detainees in particular. Critics describe the nationwide military-backed crackdown as an attempt to crush the country’s largest political force.

On Tuesday, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah threatened that even Khan could face a military court trial, accusing the 70-year-old opposition leader of being the “architect” of the violence against defense installations.

The former prime minister and his party have condemned the violence, alleging that government intelligence agencies infiltrated saboteurs to justify the ongoing crackdown on the PTI. The army says it has collected “irrefutable evidence” against arsonists.

Sharif has endorsed the military trials under what is known as the Pakistan Army Act and Official Secrets Act. He has pledged to use special anti-terrorism courts to try those responsible for vandalizing public property.

Speaking in parliament last week, Sharif denounced attacks on military installations as an “outright enmity” against the country. “Therefore, all these cases will be tried under the Army Act,” he said, referring to the platform exclusively used to prosecute military personnel and enemies of the state.

“For the Pakistani government to threaten to prosecute Imran Khan in compromised military courts is a virtual admission that the “case” against him is weak. If he really did something wrong, why not prosecute him in independent civilian courts?” tweeted Kenneth Roth, a former executive director of Human Rights Watch.

A parliamentary vote of no-confidence removed Khan from power in April 2022, nearly four years into his coalition government. He accused the military of plotting the vote in collusion with Sharif and the United States.

Washington and Sharif reject the allegations. The government has also maintained elections would be held later this year when parliament completes its mandated five-year term.

According to opinion surveys, Khan is still the most popular politician in Pakistan, but he remains embroiled in more than 100 legal cases instituted against him since his ouster.

The allegations range from corruption and terrorism to sedition and blasphemy. The deposed prime minister rejects all the charges as politically motivated and an attempt by the military to disqualify him from the national electoral process.

Military’s role

The ongoing crackdown on Khan’s party has forced dozens of PTI leaders, including former lawmakers and ministers, to either quit the party or take a break from politics, paving the way for their release from police custody.

Almost all of the defectors in televised news conferences made identical statements. They condemned the attacks on military installations, pledging their loyalty to the powerful security institution and saying they were not abandoning Khan under duress.

Critics continue to point figures at the military, saying the institution was behind Khan’s rise to power and is now trying to keep him from staging a comeback.

“I think the aim of this political engineering at this time is to clean up the mess that the military had created in 2018. The military has no business to engineer politically or re-engineer,” Jilani said.

In a recent editorial, the prestigious English-language daily newspaper Dawn raised questions about the motives behind the desertions.

“One wonders what kind of duress they were under: was it simply the terrible conditions of the prison, or blackmail, threats against family, or something worse? It is difficult to say,” the paper wrote.

“What isn’t as difficult to surmise is who is behind the campaign to break apart yet another political movement that has grown too big for the state’s liking. Their playbook hasn’t changed,” said the editorial, indirectly referencing the Pakistani military’s long-standing intervention into national politics.

Khan has also contacted British and U.S. lawmakers to draw their attention to alleged human rights violations against his supporters.

Republican Sheila Jackson Lee, the chairwoman of the U.S. House’s Congressional Pakistan Caucus, wrote on Twitter last Friday she would be writing to President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken to ask them to help bring an end to “human rights violations” against the opposition.

“I am extremely concerned about the reports that are coming out of Pakistan of human rights abuses and the lack of protection for those who express peaceful opposition to the government,” Jackson Lee said.

The military has staged three coups and ruled Pakistan for more than three decades. Former army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa acknowledged in a televised speech just days before his retirement last November that the military had been interfering in politics for the last seven decades.
…

The Taliban have called on Western countries to stop evacuating and resettling educated and skilled Afghans abroad, saying the practice hurts Afghanistan.

Boasting about improved security in the war-ravaged country, Taliban leaders say all Afghans, including those who had worked for the previous Afghan government, are safe at home and can live and work freely.

“The world should also listen to this message that they should not open [immigration] cases for Afghans under the impression that their lives are at risk here,” Amir Khan Muttaqi, Taliban acting foreign minister, said on Tuesday.

“They should not hurt Afghanistan’s talents, Afghanistan’s scientific cadres and Afghanistan’s prides, and should not take them out of this country.”

Tens of thousands of Afghans, mostly educated individuals who worked under the previous U.S.-backed government, have fled their country over the past two years fearing Taliban persecution.

The United Nations and other human rights groups have accused the Taliban of extrajudicial detention, torture and execution of some members of the former Afghan security personnel — charges the Taliban deny.

The United States, Canada and several European countries have admitted more than 150,000 Afghan refugees and asylum-seekers since the Taliban seized power in August 2021.

Last week, Khairullah Khairkhwa, Taliban acting minister for information and culture, alleged that Kabul University lecturers were receiving invitations from abroad to apply for migration.

The remarks were made in response to media reports that more than half of Kabul University lecturers, about 400 individuals, have migrated out of Afghanistan largely because of security concerns, Taliban restrictions, and other social and economic hardships.

Hundreds of media professionals have also left Afghanistan, leading to significant setbacks to free media, according to Reporters Without Borders.

Risky migration

Last week, the bodies of 18 Afghan emigrants, who died in February while being smuggled to Europe, were brought to Kabul.

It took several months to transfer the bodies from Bulgaria to Afghanistan, for which Taliban officials blame “unjust” Western sanctions.

The Taliban regime is not recognized by any country, and the United States has imposed terrorism-related economic and travel sanctions on Taliban leaders and institutions.

Dozens of Afghans, including women and children, reportedly perished in a shipwreck off the southern coast of Italy in February.

At least 1,645 Afghan migrants were reported missing or dead from 2014 to 2022, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Millions of Afghans are scattered around the world as refugees, asylum-seekers and emigrants, according to the U.N. Refugee Agency, which has ranked Afghanistan as the fourth-largest refugee exporting country in the world after Syria, Venezuela and Ukraine.

Insecurity, poverty, unemployment and expectations of better living conditions are considered the main drivers of migration from Afghanistan.

In public statements, Taliban officials offer immediate employment to Afghans with specific technical expertise.

“Send me anyone with a Ph.D. or master’s degree in geodesy, exploration or probing of fuel, and I will employ him the next day,” Shahabuddin Delawar, Taliban minister for mines, said last week.

The Islamist regime has defied widespread international calls to form an inclusive government.

The Taliban have strictly monopolized the government, refusing to share power with any group or non-Taliban individual. Women are particularly excluded for all political and senior positions.

Suspending the constitution, the Taliban have dissolved Afghanistan’s national assembly, election bodies and the national human rights commission, and have centered all powers in the hands of their unseen supreme leader.
…

On a cold evening, after completing her maghreb (post-sunset) prayer, a woman holds her children close to keep them warm with her threadbare scarf. They sit huddled together outside a now-dilapidated shelter made of bamboo sticks and plastic sheets — their home. Shielded from her children’s gaze, the mother of two lets tears slip down her face. 

The widowed woman, 28-year-old Konsoma Khatun, is one among the million Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, who have been affected by the devastating Cyclone Mocha that hit parts of the country and Myanmar in May. 

The flooding and landslides caused by the tropical cyclone destroyed or damaged the shelters of around 40,000 refugees residing in the Cox’s Bazar camps, according to U.N. officials.

The damage done was not just physical, though. 

“The cyclone did not harm me physically, and our shelter has only been partially damaged. But something else seems to have taken over me. I simply cannot muster the will to move,” Konsoma told VOA in a pair of phone and video interviews.

When asked if the reason behind her stress was the latest food ration cuts implemented by the World Food Program, the only source of proper meals for most Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, Konsoma denied it. 

“The only decent meal my children and I receive is that from WFP, provided to us once a week or so. But it is not that — the cyclone has affected my mind. My sadness is not allowing me to get up and make some arrangements for my children, who have been hungry for days. I feel completely lost,” she said.

Although most of them are not aware of the formal terminology of it, the Rohingya community in Bangladesh is undergoing a “severe mental health crisis, according to a study published in 2020 by Fortify Rights, a human rights organization based in Southeast Asia. 

John Quinley III, director at Fortify Rights, told VOA that Cyclone Mocha is just one of the many issues affecting the mental health of the Rohingya. 

“The Rohingya are genocide survivors and have experienced horrific crimes by the military in Myanmar. They still experience abuse at the hands of many in the Bangladesh camps where they live now,” he said. 

Research conducted by Fortify Rights also revealed that besides depression and emotional distress, the trauma symptoms experienced by many of the Rohingya indicate Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), a mental health condition that can hinder one from living a constructive life. 

Konsoma has been living in Cox’s Bazar as a refugee for more than five years. She says, “Sometimes I feel it would be better to die than to live as a Rohingya here with unsurmountable suffering.”

Aiming to extend a helping hand, the U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and several local and international NGOs like Action Against Hunger (ACF) have set up mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) initiatives for the refugees in Bangladesh. 

Hivine Ali, UNHCR Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Officer in Cox’s Bazar, said that since mental health is an issue that affects all, every UNHCR intervention for the Rohingya such as Child Protection, Health, and Gender-based Violence has integrated mental health support components. 

“We also work with a network of Rohingya refugees who are trained in psychosocial support. They raise awareness in their own community on topics, such as anger management, positive parenting skills and child-to-child peer support,” she told VOA. 

Laetitia Clouin, ACF’s MHPSS and Protection Technical Advisor for Asia, told VOA that while ACF had widespread MHPSS programs in Cox’s Bazar until 2022, they now have a team of psychologists and psychosocial workers supporting mothers and malnourished children in two stabilization centers in the camps.

However, many have criticized the efficacy and quality of these initiatives. 

Mohammed Eliyeas, 53, a Cox’s Bazar-based Rohingya refugee, told VOA that neither organization-affiliated professional counsellors nor Rohingya volunteers provide effective mental health support to the community. 

“The counsellors and volunteers often just spend the time gossiping about petty issues. 

“I had been participating in MHPSS programs long before Mocha. I even used to visit camp-based NGO healthcare centers, but to no avail,” he said over the phone.

Mohammed Rezuwan Khan, a Rohingya activist in Cox’s Bazar, said that the MHPSS programs available to Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are ineffective.  

“As a community that has been the victim of severe human rights abuse, not being able to amend our damaged shelters and receiving little to no aid from NGOs after the cyclone makes us feel voiceless and invisible,” he told VOA.

Fortify Rights director Quinley said, “Refugee human rights defenders we have worked with over the years have cited slow referral pathways for protection services and mental health support. Refugees have also told Fortify Rights that the response times on the UNHCR hotline are extremely slow; this must be urgently improved. 

“I visited the camps in Bangladesh last month. There was a sense of hopelessness among refugees. Governments worldwide should continue to support the humanitarian needs of refugees, including mental-health services,” he said.   

 
…

Delhi Police have filed charges of rioting against some of India’s top female and male wrestlers who were taking part in a protest demanding “convincing legal action” against a former top Indian wrestling official accused of sexually harassing several female Indian wrestlers.

The police disrupted the wrestlers’ protest Sunday while they were marching towards India’s new parliament building that was being inaugurated by Prime Minister Modi.

The wrestlers, including Olympic and other international tournament medalists, have been staging a sit-in protest since April 23 at Delhi’s popular protest site Jantar Mantar, demanding the arrest of Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, a former president of the Wrestling Federation of India, whom they accuse of raping several female wrestlers, including a minor.

Singh, a member of parliament from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and a party strongman, has been questioned by the police but not arrested. He insists that the allegations against him are false, calling them “a conspiracy” to remove him from parliament.

Sunday, around the time of the inauguration of the parliament building, the wrestlers began a march from the Jantar Mantar protest site towards the building, aiming to highlight their demand to arrest Singh.

As the police tried to stop the march, a scuffle broke out between the protesters and the police. Later the police managed to stop the march before it could reach the parliament building and ace wrestlers Vinesh Phogat, Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik, along with others, were arrested.

The police detained the wrestlers charging that they violated law and order and threatened to “harm the national prestige”, by organizing the march when the new Parliament building was being inaugurated.

“More force came there and with great difficulty (we) managed to overpower and detain them. While trying to stop them, (the) protesters manhandled and assaulted police,” a FIR (First Information Report) said. A FIR is a report that the police write on receipt of information of an alleged incident or crime.

On Sunday evening, the police filed cases against the wrestlers, including Phogat, Punia and Malik, and other participants of the protest after accusing them of “rioting”, assembling unlawfully and obstructing public servants on duty.

Dependra Pathak, a special commissioner of police in Delhi, said that the protesters “broke the law.”

However, Olympic medalist Malik insisted that in the “peaceful march” they were walking “quietly” while the police “pounced on them, dragged them forcibly” before detaining them.

Reacting to the police FIR, Phogat, first Indian woman wrestler to win gold at both the Commonwealth and Asian Games, said the authorities are writing “a new history.”

“The Delhi Police takes seven days to file an FIR against sex offender Brij Bhushan. But they did not take even seven hours to slap an FIR against us while we were in a peaceful rally. Has a dictatorship taken control of the country? The whole world is watching how the government is treating its sportspersons. A new history is being written,” Phogat said in a Hindi tweet.

Attaching a video clip of the female wrestlers being dragged to police station, Malik tweeted, “This is how our champions are being treated. The world is watching us.”

Visuals of the protesters, including top athletes, being dragged and bundled into police vans went viral on social media, sparking condemnation and criticism from top sports personalities, opposition politicians and social activists.

Reacting to top female wrestlers being dragged by the police on the road, Indian Olympic gold medalist javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra tweeted: “I feel very sad to see this. There has to be a better way to deal with this.”

In a tweet, Indian national champion long jumper Murali Sreeshankar said: “Absolutely barbaric!! Our champions didn’t deserve this. As an athlete who dreams and works towards the Olympic glory, this picture would leave a very deep wound.”

Recently, the police have filed two cases against parliamentarian Singh, including one under the Indian Act of POCSO (Prevention of Child from Sexual Offences), one of the alleged victims being a minor.

However, the wrestlers insist that they are “not happy” with the police action and say they will not end their protest until Singh is arrested.

“We are continuing our protest. We will not take rest until he is arrested or jailed,” Malik said.
…

Shootings and arson continued Monday in India’s northeastern state of Manipur, where clashes between security forces and tribal insurgents the previous day killed five people, media reports said.

The state, which borders Myanmar, has been roiled by violence for weeks after members of mostly Christian tribal groups clashed with the Hindu majority over its demands for special economic benefits.

More than 75 people have been killed in the fighting, the state’s worst ethnic clashes in decades. Hundreds have been injured and more than 35,000 have been displaced.

Authorities said Indian Home Minister Amit Shah was expected to arrive in the state capital, Imphal, on Monday evening to review the security situation and help restore peace in the state, where a curfew is in place and the internet has been shut off to stop rumors from spreading. 

The violence prompted the federal government to rush thousands of paramilitary and army troops to the state, and many of the recent deaths were caused by the security forces.

The state’s chief minister, N. Biren Singh, said Sunday that 40 Kuki insurgents were killed by government troops. It was not clear whether the figure was part of the overall death toll.

“The fight is not between communities, it is between Kuki rebels and government security forces,” Singh told reporters.

He said insurgents fired at civilians and burned down homes, prompting the security forces to counter their attacks.

The clashes occurred after the security forces began searching for weapons looted from police stations, the Press Trust of India news agency reported. 

Homes and buildings burned in some villages on Sunday, with plumes of grey smoke filling the skies. Troops also fired in the air and lobbed tear gas shells to disperse a mob that attempted to take weapons from a police station near Imphal, said Sapam Ranjan, a state government spokesperson. He said 1,041 guns and 7,500 rounds of ammunition were looted in recent weeks, with authorities recovering about 500 weapons so far. 

Gunfire was reported Monday in districts near the capital, army officials said. Homes were also set ablaze in the Leimakhong area, they said.

The violence first broke out on May 3 after protests by more than 50,000 Kukis and members of other predominantly Christian tribal communities against the majority Meitei Hindu community’s demand for a special status that would give them benefits including access to forest land, cheap bank loans, health and educational facilities, and more government jobs.

The Kuki and other minority leaders say the Meitei community is comparatively well-off and that granting them more privileges would be unfair. The Meiteis say employment quotas and other benefits for the tribespeople would be protected.

Two-thirds of the state’s 2.5 million people live in a valley that comprises roughly 10% of the state’s total area. The Kuki and other tribes mainly live in the surrounding hill districts. 
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Bangladesh should not bear the burden of more than 1 million Rohingya refugees alone while the agencies of the United Nations are facing challenges to feed them, an official of the United Nations said Monday.

Olivier De Schutter, a U.N. special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, made the statement after ending a 12-day trip to Bangladesh, where he visited camps sheltering the refugees from Myanmar. He said the response from the international community to support the refugees against the fund needed is “grossly insufficient.”

About $876 million are needed to support the community for a year, but only 17% of that has been pledged to date, he said, calling it “scandalous” at a news conference in Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka.

“Bangladesh should not be left to shoulder the burden of the presence of the refugees on its own. These [U.N.] agencies should be much better supported in their work,” De Schutter said.

He said the World Food Program has been forced in May to reduce the value of the monthly food vouchers it gives to each refugee from $12 to $10. It will be reduced further to $8 on June 1, he said.

“In a context in which food inflation this year was about 8%, that means that in the camps, children are undernourished,” De Schutter said. “The rates of malnutrition will increase. The rates of stunting will increase. The development of the child in that context will be endangered.”

Bangladesh has sheltered more than 1 million refugees as the Muslim Rohingya face widespread discrimination in the Buddhist-majority Myanmar, where most are denied citizenship and other rights.

More than 700,000 fled to Bangladesh starting in late August 2017, when the Myanmar military launched a “clearance operation” against them following attacks by a rebel group. The safety situation in Myanmar has worsened following a military takeover last year.

Bangladesh is currently working with China to start repatriation of the Rohingya to Myanmar as a pilot case. The U.N. said earlier that they were aware of such a move but were not part of it.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said she would not force any refugees to move to Myanmar.
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Seventy years ago, New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepali Tenzing Norgay Sherpa became the first humans to summit Everest on May 29, 1953.    

The British expedition made the two men household names around the world and changed mountaineering forever.   

Hundreds now climb the 8,849-meter (29,032-foot) peak every year, fueling concerns of overcrowding and pollution on the mountain.    

AFP looks at the evolution of the Everest phenomenon.   

What is the mountain called? 

Initially known only to British mapmakers as Peak XV, the mountain was identified as the world’s highest point in the 1850s and renamed in 1865 after Sir George Everest, a former Surveyor General of India.    

On the border of Nepal and China and climbable from both sides, it is called Chomolungma or Qomolangma in Sherpa and Tibetan — “goddess mother of the world” — and Sagarmatha in Nepali, meaning “peak of the sky.”   

How has climbing Everest changed? 

The 1953 expedition was the ninth attempt on the summit and it took 20 years for the first 600 people to climb it. Now that number can be expected in a single season, with climbers catered to by experienced guides and commercial expedition companies.   

The monthslong journey to the base camp was cut to eight days with the construction of a small mountain airstrip in 1964 in the town of Lukla, the gateway to the Everest region.   

Gear is lighter, oxygen supplies are more readily available, and tracking devices make expeditions safer. Climbers today can summon a helicopter in case of emergency.     

Every season, experienced Nepali guides set the route all the way to the summit for paying clients to follow.   

But Billi Bierling of Himalayan Database, an archive of mountaineering expeditions, said some things remain similar: “They didn’t go to the mountains much different than we do now. The Sherpas carried everything. The expedition style itself hasn’t changed.”   

What is base camp like? 

The starting point for climbs proper, Everest Base Camp was once little more than a collection of tents at 5,364 meters (17,598 feet), where climbers lived off canned foods.   

Now fresh salads, baked goods and trendy coffee are available, with crackly conversations over bulky satellite phones replaced by Wi-Fi and Instagram posts.   

How does the news of a summit travel? 

Hillary and Tenzing summited Everest on May 29, but it only appeared in newspapers on June 2, the day of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation: the news had to be brought down the mountain on foot to a telegraph station in the town of Namche Bazaar, to be relayed to the British Embassy in Kathmandu.   

In 2011, British climber Kenton Cool tweeted from the summit with a 3G signal after his ninth successful ascent. More usually, walkie-talkie radios are standard expedition equipment and summiteers contact their base camp teams, who swiftly post on social media.   

In 2020, China announced 5G connectivity at the Everest summit.    

What are the effects of climate change?   

Warming temperatures are slowly widening crevasses on the mountain and bringing running water to previously snowy slopes.   

A 2018 study of Everest’s Khumbu glacier indicated it was vulnerable to even minor atmospheric warming, with the temperature of shallow ice already close to melting point.   

“The future of the Khumbu icefall is bleak,” its principal investigator, glaciologist Duncan Quincey, told AFP. “The striking difference is the meltwater on the surface of the glaciers.”   

Three Nepali guides were killed on the formation this year when a chunk of falling glacial ice swept them into a deep crevasse. 

It has become a popular cause for climbers to highlight, and expedition companies are starting to implement eco-friendly practices at their camps, such as solar power.   

What is the impact of social media? 

Click, post, repeat — the climbing season plays out on social media as excited mountaineers document their journey to Everest on Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms.   

Hashtags keep their sponsors happy, and the posts can catch the eyes of potential funders.    

That applies to both foreign climbers and their now tech-savvy Nepali guides.   

“Everyone posts nowadays, it is part of how we share and build our profile,” said Lakpa Dendi Sherpa, who has summited Everest multiple times and has 62,000 Instagram followers.   

Mountain of records? 

Veteran Nepali guides Kami Rita Sherpa and Pasang Dawa Sherpa both scaled Everest twice this season, with the latter twice matching the former’s record number of summits before Kami Rita reclaimed pole position with 28.   

There are multiple Everest record categories for first and fastest feats of endurance.   

But some precedents are more quixotic: in 2018, a team of British climbers, an Australian and a Nepali dressed in tuxedos and gowns for the world’s highest dinner party at 7,056 meters on the mountain’s Chinese side. 

How many people have attempted to climb Mount Everest?   

Since 1953, more than 6,000 people have attempted to summit Mount Everest, and at least 310 people have died on the mountain, according to the online site Everett Base Camp Trek.  
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Fresh deadly clashes were reported Sunday in the remote northeastern Indian state of Manipur although the exact number of fatalities was not immediately clear. 

Manipur has been on edge after an explosion of inter-ethnic violence this month killed at least 70 people and left tens of thousands displaced. 

The state’s chief minister N. Biren Singh told local media, in comments confirmed by a government official to AFP, that 40 suspected militants had died along with two police in the past two days.  

“The terrorists have been using M-16 and AK-47 assault rifles and sniper guns against civilians. They came to many villages to burn down homes,” local media quoted Singh as saying.  

“We have started taking very strong action against them with the help of the army and other security forces. We have got reports some 40 terrorists have been shot dead,” Singh was quoted as saying.  

However, while a military source confirmed an uptick of unrest, he said four people had been killed in the past 24 hours. 

“At least three armed miscreants — who were trying to set fire to empty houses and fired at the security forces when they tried to stop them — died in retaliatory firing,” the source told AFP, declining to be named. 

“One more armed miscreant was killed in Moreh and three others, including two security personnel, were injured,” the source said. 

The far-flung states of northeast India — sandwiched between Bangladesh, China and Myanmar — have long been a tinderbox of tensions between different ethnic groups. 

The violence in Manipur earlier in May was between the majority Meitei, who are mostly Hindus and live in and around the state capital Imphal, and the mainly Christian Kuki tribe in the surrounding hills. 

Most victims are believed to be from the Kuki community, with some of their villages and churches destroyed by Meitei mobs. But the Meitei were also targeted by the Kukis in some places.   

The initial spark was Kuki anger at the prospect of the Meitei being given guaranteed quotas of government jobs and other perks in a form of affirmative action.   

This also stoked long-held fears among the Kuki that the Meitei might be allowed to acquire land in areas currently reserved for them and other tribal groups.   

Thousands of troops were deployed to restore order, while around 30,000 people fled their homes for the safety of ad-hoc army-run camps for the displaced. Mobile internet has been cut for weeks.  
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