A military standoff between India and China has entered its fourth year, but despite talks between their senior ministers and military commanders, there is no sign of a resolution to the dispute that has brought ties to their lowest point in six decades.    

Analysts say the volatility along their 3,500-kilometer-long disputed boundary appears to be widening as a new flashpoint has emerged.      

In December last year, soldiers from both sides scuffled in India’s northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh – a territory also claimed by China. The region is thousands of kilometers away from Ladakh in the western Himalayan region where deadly clashes in 2020 triggered the present standoff.      

Last month China renamed 11 places in Chinese in Arunachal Pradesh which it refers to as South Tibet – it is the third time in six years that it issued new names for mountains, rivers and other points in the territory.     

While India rejected the move, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, Mao Ning defended it saying that Zangram (Arunachal Pradesh) is part of China and naming places in the territory “was completely within the scope of China’s sovereignty.”    

It’s a tactic China has used in other parts of Asia to bolster its claim on disputed territories – it has also renamed locations in South China Sea and East China Sea.      

In New Delhi, analysts saw it as another attempt by Beijing to coerce India. “Now with China taking a much more aggressive stand on Arunachal, there are concerns that China wants to put multiple pressure points on India if only to push India to resolving some parts of this dispute,” according to Harsh Pant, Vice president, Studies and Foreign Policy at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi.     

Concerned at the rapid pace with which China has developed both military and civilian infrastructure in its border areas, New Delhi is also building tunnels, roads and bridges in the state.     

One of the key projects is cutting a tunnel through the mountains at an elevation of nearly 4000 meters in Arunachal Pradesh to facilitate troop movement to the border areas.     

Indian Home Minister Amit Shah last month also unveiled a $570 million program to develop nearly 3,000 border villages in the northeast during a visit to Arunachal Pradesh. The project aims to beef up border security.      

In New Delhi, there have been concerns about China developing border villages on its side of the border.     

“As regards to these — what they (China) call “Xiaokang” villages or model villages that the Chinese are saying, there are a couple of them which are right opposite our borders,” Brigadier N.M. Bendigeri told news agency AFP. “It concerns us because of its closeness to the border areas and the way it has been constructed, we can’t rule out them being used by the PLA (People’s Liberation Army).”    

“Our policy is clear that we want peace from everyone. However, no one will be able to encroach even one inch of our land,” Shah said in April.     

India has also accelerated a program to modernize its armed forces — including ordering attack helicopters from the United States and a missile defense system from Russia.    

Analysts say China holds a significant military advantage over India, but Indian troops, who have long confronted Pakistani troops in Kashmir, are more experienced in high altitude warfare. “China has the edge in high technology warfare. It can field more weapons such as drones and surface to surface missiles. While we are trying to catch up, it will still be a long haul for India to match their capabilities,” says a retired senior military officer who did not want to be named.     

High-level political and military dialogues have failed to achieve a breakthrough as both countries have adopted diametrically different positions in their approach to resolve the conflict. India insists that Chinese troops should return to positions which they occupied prior to 2020 when the crisis erupted. Beijing on the other hand describes the situation on the border as “generally stable” and says both sides should move ahead to normalize ties.      

That is why, say analysts, the Indian and Chinese defense ministers could not find common ground when they met on the sidelines of a regional forum recently.     

Indian defense minister, Rajnath Singh, accused Beijing of eroding the entire basis of ties by violating bilateral agreements and said there could be no improvement in ties until the border row is resolved. His Chinese counterpart, Li Shangfu, called on India to take a long-term view and “promote the normalization of the border situation as soon as possible.”    

“From New Delhi’s perspective, there is no sense it is getting about China really sincerely looking at this as a problem for Sino-Indian relations. With China unilaterally deciding to change the status quo along the border and then claiming that is the new normal, I don’t think India will accept this,” points out Pant. “That is why while negotiations at the military and diplomatic levels continue, the broader relationship continues to be in a lock jam, with India putting the onus on China to take it forward.”     

Following multiple rounds of negotiations between their military commanders, troops have disengaged from four disputed points over the last two years.     

But even that adds up to very limited progress. “Even there the disengagement has not really resulted in any demobilization of forces. They just have just taken a step back and created a buffer zone,” says Pant.    

The volatility in the Himalayas is drawing India into a closer strategic alliance with the United States. Next month, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will head to Washington for an official visit that India’s foreign ministry said will underscore the growing importance of the strategic partnership between the two countries. 
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Pakistan’s ruling coalition is rallying against the country’s chief justice. Thousands gathered outside the Supreme Court, demanding the chief justice resign for releasing former Prime Minister Imran Khan.
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Thousands of supporters of Pakistan’s coalition government Monday gathered outside the country’s Supreme Court demanding the chief justice resign for releasing former prime minister and leading opposition politician Imran Khan.

Buses and vans transported people from around the country to the capital, Islamabad, where they made their way into a high-security zone, housing the top court and other key government buildings. Rally leaders said they would stage a sit-in protest until their demands were met.

The rare agitation underscores tensions between incumbent Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s embattled coalition government and the country’s judiciary.

Last Tuesday, paramilitary soldiers dragged and arrested Khan, leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Party, the country’s largest, from outside a federal court on corruption charges.

The dramatic arrest of the 70-year-old PTI chief came as he awaited a hearing on the more than 100 legal cases facing him since a parliamentary vote of no-confidence ousted him from office in April 2022. The allegations range from corruption and sedition to terrorism and murder.

But Supreme Court Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial on Thursday ordered Khan’s immediate release, declaring his arrest “unlawful” and in violation of his right to seek justice.

On Friday, the federal court where Khan was taken into custody protected him from arrest until later this month.

The successive judicial rulings drew a rebuke from Sharif and other leaders of his multi-party coalition, known as the Pakistan Democratic Movement, or PDM. They accused the top court of giving “undue reprieve” to Khan.

While protesters gathered outside the Supreme Court, PDM lawmakers and federal ministers in fiery televised speeches in the National Assembly — the lower house of parliament — condemned the chief justice and his rulings in favor of the opposition leader.

Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif called for legal proceedings against the alleged “misconduct” of the chief justice and several co-judges to remove them from office.

The fundamentalist Islamic party, Jamiat-e-Ulema-Islam (JUI), a coalition partner, led Monday’s pro-government rally. Its chief, Maulana Fazalur Rehman, has called on students from thousands of JUI-run countrywide madrassas, or religious seminaries, to converge on Islamabad.

“We are here to protest the Supreme Court decision that relieved a criminal. They keep ruling in favor of this one person, Imran Khan,” said Fazle Azeem, a JUI activist at the rally.

Workers of Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz or PML-N and those of other partners in the 13-member coalition also joined the rally.

“They give him a blanket immunity. We want him [the chief justice] to make decisions according to the law and the constitution. That’s what we are going to ask him to do,” said Uzma Kardar, a PML-N member.

Television footage showed protesters climbing security gates and forcing their way into the so-called high-security “red zone” without being challenged by security forces, despite a ban in such gatherings in the capital.

Last week, police used tear gas and baton charges and detained hundreds of Khan supporters for breaching the ban as they protested his arrest.

“Meanwhile, these goons are being facilitated by our security agencies to take over the Supreme Court and subvert the Constitution. All citizens be ready for peaceful protests as once the Constitution and SC are destroyed, it is the end of the Pakistan dream,” Khan wrote on Twitter.

He accused the government of arresting around 7,000 PTI workers, including women and most of the senior leadership, in a nationwide crackdown on his party. The arrests were made “without investigation into who was responsible for arson on government buildings or dozens of deaths of unarmed protesters by bullet wounds,” Khan insisted.

The violence reportedly killed at least 10 people. But the government banned coverage of the unrest on local television channels. It suspended mobile internet services and access to social media platforms such as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook, until the protest subsided late on Friday.

Internet services and social media platforms in Pakistan have since remained restricted.

Sharif said culprits involved in violent protests would face trials in anti-terrorism courts.

On Monday, Khan appeared before a court in the eastern city of Lahore along with his wife, Bushra Bibi, where the judge granted bail to the first lady until May 23 in the graft case that had led to Khan’s brief arrest last week.

The Sharif government maintains corruption cases against Khan are being investigated and instituted by the independent anti-graft National Accountability Bureau.

Khan rejects all allegations and maintains they are a pretext for Pakistan’s powerful military to block him from returning to power in elections scheduled for the fall and ban his party.

On Friday, the PTI chief directly accused the army chief, General Asim Munir, of being behind his short-lived arrest and the ensuing crackdown on his party. Khan has distanced his supporters from the violence, alleging that arsonists were government infiltrators to help facilitate the effort to ban the PTI. The army denies the charges.

Michael Kugelman, the South Asia Institute director at Washington’s Wilson Center, sees no early end to the crisis gripping Pakistan.

“One reason Pakistan is on such a collision course is that the main confrontation pits a leader who claims to be Pakistan’s last hope and savior against the leader of an institution that claims to be Pakistan’s last hope and savior. This leaves precious little middle ground,” Kugelman wrote on Twitter.

Khan has been holding major rallies nationwide since his ouster to press for fresh elections, calling the no-trust vote against him an illegal act plotted by the now-retired army chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa. The government has rejected the demands for early elections.

Khan was shot and wounded in an attack last November while leading a pro-election rally. He accused a senior general within the military’s spy agency of planning the assassination bid in collaboration with Sharif and his Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah. Government and military officials reject the charges.
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Growing risks of a potentially large Moroccan locust outbreak sweeping across northern Afghanistan’s eight provinces, the country’s wheat basket, will have devastating consequences for millions of Afghan people already suffering from acute hunger if not controlled, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

“It is a heartbreaking story that could be unfolding,” said Richard Trenchard, FAO representative in Afghanistan.

Speaking from the capital Kabul, Trenchard said, “Its impact could be enormous in a country facing one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises.”

The Moroccan locust is ranked among the most economically damaging plant pests anywhere in the world.  FAO warns it eats more than 150 species of plants, including tree crops, pastures, and food crops, all of which grow in Afghanistan.

Trenchard said a full outbreak this year could result in losses of more than a million metric tons of wheat, “up to a quarter of the total annual harvest” and economic losses of up to $500 million.

“There are heroic local efforts going on—communities, FAO, our NGO partners, and the authorities to do physical control.  But it may be too little, too late to stop the outbreak.”

He said, “We will see in the next few days and weeks, as the hoppers, the adolescent locust become adults, the true scale.  It will certainly lead to a spike of humanitarian needs,” noting that “up to three million people directly could be affected.”

The United Nations reports the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan has become more severe since the Taliban took control of the country in mid-August 2021, adding that their discriminatory policies against women have worsened the country’s humanitarian and economic situation.

The World Food Program reports 19.9 million people face acute hunger and 6 million are on the verge of famine.  It says nearly half of children under five and a quarter of pregnant and breastfeeding women are acutely malnourished and need life-saving nutrition support in the next 12 months.

U.N. agencies report the Ukraine crisis, triggered by Russia’s invasion of the country, has caused the price of food, fuel, and other commodities to rise, making them unaffordable in many countries, including in Afghanistan.

Trenchard notes that the harvest forecasts this year are the best following three years of drought.  This, he said makes it particularly distressing to see that “this outbreak threatens to destroy all these recent gains and dramatically worsen the food insecurity situation later this year and into next year.”

He said thousands of people have been working day and night, shoulder-to-shoulder to kill the hopper bands before they become adults and begin to swarm. Despite these herculean efforts, he said he feared the impact would be limited.

He explained that people have been forced to use traditional physical control methods to reduce the locust threat such as “sweeping locusts by hand into trenches or onto tarpaulins and destroying them.

“Chemical control is the tried-and-tested method for controlling locusts around the world, including here,” he said.  “But chemical supplies were too low to mount a systematic campaign earlier this year.”

He noted that Afghanistan used to have a very strong locust control system in place, which has been heavily eroded in the last two years of Taliban rule.

The FAO representative warns the Moroccan locust population could increase its numbers by 100-fold in the next year if left untreated “creating even bigger problems for agriculture and food security for Afghanistan and that of its neighbors.” 
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More than a dozen people were killed in an overnight battle between Pakistan paramilitary troops and militants who stormed their base and took families hostage, the army said.

“Well-equipped” fighters assaulted a Frontier Corps compound in Muslim Bagh, Balochistan province, and captured three families in a residential block, the military said.

Fighting raged from Friday evening until Saturday morning and “the complex clearance operation involved hostage rescue operation,” the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but ethnic Baloch separatist groups have for decades waged a rebellion against the state in the southwestern province, frequently targeting security forces.

The Pakistan Taliban is also active in the region.

“The terrorists had not even spared children” in their hostage-taking, ISPR said. All six militants who breached the compound were killed, it said.

Seven “sons of the soil” — a term generally used for state security forces — were killed but one individual was a civilian, ISPR said.

Six more people, including a woman, were wounded.

A funeral service for some of the men killed was held in Balochistan’s provincial capital of Quetta on Saturday.

Separately on Saturday, the ethnic separatist Baloch Liberation Army claimed to have staged an attack on security forces guarding an oil and gas survey team further south in Balochistan’s Kalat region.

Pakistan has witnessed a dramatic uptick in attacks since the Afghan Taliban surged back to power in neighbouring Afghanistan in 2021.

The assaults have been focused on regions abutting Afghanistan, and Islamabad alleges some are being planned on Afghan soil.

In January, a suicide bomber linked to Pakistan’s Taliban blew himself up in a mosque inside a police compound in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing more than 80 officers.
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Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan called for nationwide “freedom” protests Sunday, after his brief arrest and detention last week triggered deadly unrest.

The one-time cricket superstar — who has been tied up in dozens of legal cases since being ousted from power in April last year — was freed on bail Friday after his detention was declared unlawful by the Supreme Court.

Enraged by the arrest, supporters set fire to government buildings, blocked roads and damaged property belonging to the military, which they blame for Khan’s downfall.

“Freedom does not come easily. You have to snatch it. You have to sacrifice for it,” he said in an address broadcast on YouTube on Saturday night.

He called for his supporters to hold protests “at the end of your streets and villages” across the country on Sunday, and announced a return to campaigning Wednesday for immediate elections.

For months, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party leader has waged a campaign of defiance against the military.

His arrest Tuesday came just hours after he was rebuked for claiming senior officials were involved in an assassination attempt against him last year.

Pakistan’s powerful military has directly ruled the country off and on for nearly half of its 75-year history, and continues to wield power over the political system.

“The army chief’s actions have made our military bad. It is because of him, not because of me,” Khan said from his home in Lahore, although it was unclear whether he meant the serving chief, or his predecessor, whom Khan has held responsible for his ouster.

He previously told reporters that “one man, the army chief” was behind his arrest.

But Khan distanced himself from the attacks against the military’s installations at the protests, denying his party workers were involved and calling for an independent investigation into the violence.

The army, which denies the accusations made by Khan, on Saturday warned against attempts to create “misperceptions” against the institution.

‘Anti-state behavior’

At least nine people died in the unrest last week, police and hospitals have said.

Hundreds of police officers were injured and more than 4,000 people detained, mostly in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces, according to authorities.

At least 10 senior PTI leaders have been arrested since the protests began, one of Khan’s lawyers said.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the head of a shaky coalition, on Saturday warned that those involved in “facilitating, abetting and perpetrating” the violence should be arrested within 72 hours.

“Those who demonstrated anti-state behavior will be arrested and tried in anti-terrorist courts,” he said during a visit to Lahore.

Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah has repeatedly vowed that police will re-arrest Khan, who remains wildly popular ahead of elections due in October.

The Islamabad High Court ruled that Khan should be given protection from arrest until Monday.

‘Everyone knows’

Khan won the 2018 election on an anti-corruption campaign, voted in by an electorate weary of decades of dynastic politics.

Independent analysts say he was brought to power with the support of the military, before falling out with the generals.

“Everyone knows who it is. It’s the military behind (Khan’s arrest),” 21-year-old PTI supporter Mohsin Khan told AFP outside the party chief’s home.

The pushcart seller added that he wanted the military and politicians “to work together.”

The political crisis has simmered for months, with Khan attempting to disrupt the coalition government by dissolving two provincial parliaments he controlled and agitating for early elections.

Mobile data services and access to social media platforms including Facebook and YouTube, which were cut shortly after Khan’s arrest on Tuesday, had been partly restored around the country as of Saturday.

The country now seems primed for a “progressively ugly showdown in the days and weeks to come,” read an editorial in Dawn, the country’s leading English language newspaper.

“None of the leaders, political or institutional, who are invested in this tug-of-war appear ready to take a step back,” it said.
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India’s main opposition Congress party registered an emphatic win in elections in the southern state of Karnataka on Saturday, defeating the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in a big boost to its prospects ahead of national elections due next year.

The election is the first of five crucial state polls this year that are seen as setting the tone for parliamentary elections due in April and May 2024.

It is also the first big electoral face-off between Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP and Congress since Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was convicted of defamation in March and lost his parliament seat.

A rare blow

Karnataka, which was ruled by the BJP, voted Wednesday and the votes were counted Saturday. Congress won 135 seats against 66 for the BJP in the 224-member legislature, the Election Commission website showed at the end of counting.

The Congress party’s fortunes had shrunk to a historic low since losing power at the national level to the BJP in 2014. Before Saturday, it had won only one of 24 state or federal territory elections since 2019, when Modi swept national elections for a second term.

In contrast, the BJP won 15 states or federal territories either on its own or in alliance with regional parties.

The defeat in Karnataka is a rare blow for the BJP considering Modi remains highly popular after nine years in power and is favored to win a third term nationally in 2024.

‘We fought this fight with love’

Ecstatic Congress members burst firecrackers, danced to the beat of drums and distributed sweets at the party headquarters in New Delhi, and in Bengaluru, the global tech hub which is the capital city of Karnataka.

“(The) Congress party stood with the poor in Karnataka, we fought on the issues of the poor,” Gandhi told reporters.

“I feel happiest about the fact that we didn’t fight this fight with hate or wrong words. We fought this fight with love, with an open heart, and the people of Karnataka showed that this country likes love,” he said.

“The markets of hate have been shut in Karnataka; the shops of love have opened.”

Karnataka is home to about 65 million people and is considered the BJP’s gateway to southern India, as the party has struggled to win elections elsewhere in the region.

“We accept the verdict of people of Karnataka with due respect, we will take this verdict in our stride,” Basavaraj Bommai, the BJP’s outgoing chief minister of Karnataka, tweeted.

“We will analyze and correct our mistakes and rebuild the party and come back during parliamentary elections.”
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Pakistan’s civilian and military leadership Saturday vowed to hunt down and bring to justice all those involved in acts of violence during this week’s protests sparked by the brief arrest of the country’s popular former Prime Minister Imran Khan.

“I have given law enforcement apparatus a target of 72 hours to arrest all those involved in facilitating, abetting and perpetrating the disgraceful incidents of arson, ransacking, sabotage and damaging public and private properties,” incumbent Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in a statement.

“Bringing these people to justice is a test case for the government. Their cases will be tried by the anti-terrorism courts,” he noted.

Pakistan’s military chief, General Asim Munir, backed Sharif’s resolve in a separate statement Saturday.

“The armed forces will not tolerate any further attempt to violate the sanctity and security of its installations or vandalism and resolve to bring to justice all the planners, abetters, instigators, and executors of vandalism,” a military statement quoted Munir as saying.

The government announced the crackdown as police have already rounded up nearly 3,000 supporters of Khan’s opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or PTI, for their alleged role in several days of nationwide protests.

Detention sparks protests

Lingering political tensions escalated Tuesday after Pakistani paramilitary forces dragged and arrested Khan in the capital, Islamabad, from outside a courtroom as he prepared to attend a hearing in a legal challenge against him.

The detention of the 70-year-old cricket star-turned-prime minister on corruption charges sparked protests across Pakistan, some of which turned violent.

The Supreme Court declared the arrest unlawful, however, and Thursday ordered Khan to be set free, effectively defusing the street agitation, which saw protesters allegedly torching vehicles and state property.

Protesters also stormed the main gate of the military’s general headquarters in Rawalpindi, while others broke into the residence of a regional army commander in the eastern city of Lahore. In the northwestern city of Peshawar, protesters set fire to the building which is the home of the state-run radio station.

The violence killed at least 10 people and wounded several hundred, including police officers. Khan alleged that ‘live fire’ by security forces had killed at least 40 protesters.

Court bars arrest of Khan

On Friday, a federal high court barred police from arresting Khan for two weeks, enabling him to leave Islamabad hours later for his home in his native Lahore. He has faced dozens of cases, ranging from corruption and treason to terrorism and murder, since a parliamentary vote of no-confidence removed him from office less than four years into his term.

Khan rejects all the allegations and has persistently accused the powerful military of being behind the legal challenges to get him disqualified to block his return to power and ban his PTI party, the country’s largest political force.

Military officials reject the charges, and Sharif’s government insists corruption cases against the deposed prime minister are “genuine” and alleges the judiciary is being soft on Khan.

“Nobody can eliminate a political party by force and put them in jail,” Khan said in a televised address Saturday. His speech was streamed live on social media, including YouTube, because the government has barred local television channels from airing Khan’s statements.

He rejected allegations that PTI supporters were responsible for acts of violence during the protests and accused pro-government “infiltrators” of the incidents of arson and riots. Khan demanded an impartial investigation into the events starting with his unlawful arrest.

After protests broke out Tuesday, the government blocked internet access to social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter across Pakistan and restored them partially late Friday. But the services again were inaccessible Saturday.
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Pakistani authorities said Saturday that a drawn-out overnight gun battle with “terrorists” in southwestern Baluchistan province had killed six soldiers and a civilian, as well as the six attackers.

Six others were said to have been wounded.

“In the process of clearance operation, seven sons of the soil, including a civilian, have embraced martyrdom while another six individuals, including a woman, have been injured,” the military’s media wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations, said.

The violence erupted Friday evening when “well-equipped” militants assaulted a main paramilitary compound about 100 kilometers north of the provincial capital of Quetta, the ISPR said.

The ensuing clashes and “clearance operation” had continued into Saturday morning, killing “all six terrorists” involved in the attack, according to the ISPR.

The assailants had taken families, including women and children, hostage in a residential block who were rescued by security forces.

A recently emerged so-called Tehreek-e-Jihad Pakistan militant group claimed responsibility for the attack in natural resources-rich but impoverished Baluchistan, bordering Afghanistan and Iran.

The province routinely experiences attacks on security forces and installations. The violence is mostly claimed by ethnic Baluch insurgents, militants linked to the outlawed Pakistani Taliban, and those linked to the Islamic State group.

Militant attacks have lately increased across Pakistan, particularly in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which also shares a large part of the country’s long border with Afghanistan.

Officials say the violence has killed hundreds of people, mostly soldiers, and members of the Pakistani police force since the beginning of the year.
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Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan arrived at his Lahore residence Saturday after being freed on bail following days of legal drama and nationwide riots over his arrest on corruption charges.

Khan was swooped on by dozens of paramilitary troops and arrested during a routine court appearance Tuesday, triggering violent clashes in several cities between his supporters and security forces.

His detention came just hours after he was rebuked by the powerful military, whom he once again accused of being involved in an assassination attempt against him last year.

The arrest on court premises as he prepared to file a bail application was declared unlawful Thursday by the Supreme Court, which kept Khan in custody until Friday, when he was granted two weeks’ bail in the corruption case.

Islamabad High Court also ordered Khan could not be arrested before Monday in any case.

Khan has become entangled in a slew of legal allegations — a frequent hazard for opposition figures in Pakistan — since he was ousted from power in April last year.

“The head of the country’s largest party was abducted, kidnapped from the high court, and in front of the entire nation,” Khan told AFP from the court building.

“They treated me like a terrorist, this had to have a reaction,” he said of the protests that followed.

‘Today is a victory’

Khan eventually left the heavily guarded court late Friday, hours after his hearings ended and as protesters a few kilometers away clashed with police, who responded with tear gas. Shots were also fired towards officers, police said.

Early Saturday, the former cricket superstar reached his Lahore residence, where videos posted by his PTI party showed more than 100 supporters celebrating his release and throwing rose petals over his car.

“They keep trying to silence Khan and keep trying to put him behind bars. But Khan has proven that the one who stands with the truth always wins,” 21-year-old supporter Waqar Ahsan told AFP after Khan was granted bail.

Zuneira Shah, a 40-year-old mother of three, feared that “the establishment would keep coming for him.”

“Khan is threatening their decades of corruption so of course they will not sit still. It’s a long fight ahead, but today is a victory.”

Thousands arrested

Several thousand of his supporters have rampaged through cities in protest of Khan’s detention since Tuesday, setting fire to buildings, blocking roads and clashing with police outside military installations.

At least nine people died in the unrest, police and hospitals said.

Hundreds of police officers were injured and more than 4,000 people detained, mostly in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces, according to authorities.

Faisal Hussain Chaudhry, a lawyer for Khan, said Friday that 10 senior PTI leaders had been arrested.

The interior minister has vowed to re-arrest Khan, who remains wildly popular ahead of elections due in October.

“There should not be any violation of a court order. But if there is a way to arrest Imran Khan (within the bounds of) the court order, then it will definitely be done,” Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah told private television channel Geo News on Friday.

Mobile data services and access to social media platforms including Facebook and YouTube, which were cut shortly after Khan’s arrest Tuesday, were gradually being restored around the country.

Khan has launched an unprecedented campaign of defiance against the military, which independent analysts say helped him rise and fall from power.

Khan has accused the shaky coalition government of supplanting him in cahoots with top generals, and made explosive claims that they puppeteered a November assassination attempt that saw him shot in the leg as he campaigned for snap polls.

Pakistani politicians have frequently been arrested and jailed since the country’s founding in 1947.

But few have so directly challenged a military that holds influence over domestic politics and foreign policy and has staged at least three coups and ruled for more than three decades.
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The arrest of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan earlier this week has shown how quickly his fervent loyalists can mobilize in large numbers. 

Within hours of his detention, his supporters torched vehicles and buildings, and attacked police and military facilities to express their fury over the treatment of the 70-year-old opposition leader. Khan’s supporters have emerged as a major force, challenging the authority of the government and military, aware that they can shift the political balance through unrelenting pressure. 

Although Khan has since been released from detention, it’s clear his supporters are ready to stay on the streets. Here’s a look at who they are and what’s driving them: 

What is Imran Khan’s appeal?

Khan has been a star in Pakistan for decades. As an athlete, in 1992 he led the country to its only World Cup victory in cricket, a massive sport in South Asia. That made him a hero to tens of millions of people before he even entered politics. 

He founded Pakistan’s first cancer hospital, named after his mother, and ventured into philanthropy. His anti-corruption mantra is a hit in a country riddled with graft. And he has claimed he is the only leader who can stand up to the West and, in particular, the United States. It’s a popular narrative in Pakistan, where resentment of foreign involvement in domestic matters is deep-seated. 

Who are his supporters?

Khan’s appeal spans social classes. Loyalists include young, educated Pakistanis without links to the two main political dynasties, the Sharifs and the Bhuttos. He also appeals to the diaspora and illiterate people in rural areas who have no access to social media or the internet. 

Unifying these groups is Khan’s message about challenging the elites and the status quo. He feeds his supporters’ sense of disenfranchisement. Men, women, young and old travel by the thousands to hear him speak at open-air rallies. 

His support among people in their 20s and 30s explains his party’s dominance of social media, especially Twitter. Most of his powerbase lies in the eastern Punjab province and the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. 

How is this outbreak of violence different?

Neither this week’s violent clashes with law enforcement nor the mass arrest of activists and leaders from Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party have deterred his followers. They say they will not allow harm to be done to Khan, and they swear to take revenge against anyone daring to cross what they call their red line, in this case his arrest. 

This level of violence hasn’t been seen since 2007, when then-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated, and her followers rampaged for days. The suspension of social media and mobile internet hasn’t stopped Khan’s supporters from turning out in the thousands. 

What happens next?

The turmoil this week has placed the government, security forces and judiciary in a tough position. 

While Khan’s supporters haven’t brought Pakistan to a standstill, they have disrupted daily life. Educational institutions have shuttered temporarily, consumer spending has fallen as people stay home, industry has slowed, daily governance has ground to a halt, while the suspension of mobile internet has impacted services like food delivery and ride-hailing apps. 

Khan’s arrest and what critics view as the government’s fixation on him have only stoked the passions of his loyalists, who say they are prepared to do anything to save him. 
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Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has announced snap elections less than a week after securing public approval for a new constitution that opens the door for him to extend his time in office by more than a decade.

Mirziyoyev cast the decision as a reform-minded move and a personal sacrifice.

“Why am I voluntarily giving up the remaining three and a half years of my presidential term?” asked the president, who is nearing the mid-point of his final five-year term under the old constitution. Under the new constitution, he is eligible for two more seven-year terms.

“First, all the branches of government are being reformed,” Mirziyoyev said in a May 8 televised address. “Our people expect us to make significant and urgent changes in all areas.”

Mirziyoyev, who is unlikely to face any serious obstacles in seeking reelection, said the point of the new basic law is to introduce a separation of powers and checks and balances. “After all, our basic law stipulates that the people are the sole source of state power,” he said. “We will never deviate from the path of reforms.”

The Uzbek president has also vowed that the coming elections “will be held in full accordance with the law, openly and transparently” and that “the political parties and presidential candidates will put forward new ideas and initiatives to serve the peace and prosperity of the country.”

Critics point to the findings of international election observers, such as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which has never found any vote in Uzbekistan to be free or fair. The OSCE’s initial assessment of the April 30 referendum listed several flaws, including the absence of political competition, pluralism, debate or balanced media coverage.

Mirziyoyev reiterated that journalists are “the most effective force in conveying the voice and opinion of the people” but included the caveat that “freedom of expression means responsibility. Therefore, we must remember that the main requirements for activities in the information space are reliability and objectivity.”

He also pledged to foster civil society in order to ease social-economic problems and promote human rights and freedom. “We will resolutely continue on the path of democratic development,” Mirziyoyev said. “My biggest dream is to create a truly democratic system in which the mahalla [grassroots community] solves people’s problems independently.”

But such pledges are hard to sell to a public long accustomed to viewing presidential speeches as long on rhetoric and short on substance.

Bloggers, who under Mirziyoyev’s rule have emerged as Uzbekistan’s most important social and political commentators, are increasingly skeptical about his intentions. They fear that anything written or stated that is critical of the president or his family can become the basis for prosecution on charges of defamation or related crimes.

Uzbekistan has increased penalties in recent years for statements “threatening the president.”

‘Back to repression’

In a series of interviews with VOA, reporters and bloggers said that while Uzbekistan is freer than under the previous leader, “iron-fisted” Islam Karimov, the last few years under Mirziyoyev have witnessed a tightening of the space for free expression.

Whereas in 2017-2019, the initial years of Mirziyoyev’s presidency, there was a sense of momentum around reforms and a loosening of censorship, they describe the current conditions as “back to repression” and “fearful and disappointing.”

In an interview with VOA, Uzbekistan’s new ambassador to the United States, Furqat Sidikov, said that despite many challenges, the reforms continue.

“We mean it when we say we have a policy of openness. Uzbekistan is open for engagement and business within and abroad. We have a strong will to move forward as a nation, political system, economy,” he said.

Sidikov insisted that any changes, including the constitutional amendments and domestic and foreign policy decisions, are undertaken in the best interests of the country.

But Timur Karpov, a Tashkent-based human rights defender and photographer, remains unconvinced, saying the Mirziyoyev administration suffers from a fundamental lack of credibility.

Karpov, whose 139 Documentary Center showcases “real life and untold stories in Uzbekistan,” questioned official reports that nearly 85% of eligible voters took part in the referendum and that more than 90% approved of the new constitution.

“I do understand everyone who didn’t participate because our generation has never had a practice of trusting the government,” he said.

Karpov said he does not yet see the “New Uzbekistan” that Mirziyoyev has been promoting. “We hear in the news that there are reforms, but we don’t feel them.”

Comparison to Kazakh leader

Yevgeniy Zhovtis, a human rights lawyer in neighboring Kazakhstan, compared Mirziyoyev’s reform agenda with that of Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who also claims that his country is being reshaped under his leadership.

The two governments’ reforms are mainly “rhetorical,” Zhovtis said, noting that neither country has yet replaced its Soviet-era-type of law enforcement agencies, judiciary or dominant security services.

He admitted that changing such institutions is difficult, especially amid internal power struggles and geopolitical challenges. But he sees the two leaders as “afraid to move forward” for fear of destabilizing the system they are accustomed to.

“You cannot meet the public demand” or ensure social and judicial justice simply by modernizing abusive state bodies and vertical power structures, Zhovtis argued. “These institutions are replicating themselves, and those coming in, including the ones educated in the West, end up learning the same rules of the game.”

He stressed that all the countries in Central Asia are still run by consolidated autocracies despite claims of reform and progress from previous and current leaders.

Following nationwide anti-government protests and violence that killed at least 238 people in early 2022, Tokayev initiated constitutional amendments, changed the presidential term, held snap elections, and got re-elected for a new seven-year term.

But long-awaited parliamentary elections this year, which many saw as an opportunity for Tokayev to introduce more pluralism, did not open the space for genuine political opposition.

Uzbekistan is now going through a similar cycle, stirring worries that Mirziyoyev’s makeovers will not lead to the rule of law that he promises.

Nevertheless, Pamela Spratlen, the former U.S. ambassador to Uzbekistan, remains optimistic.

“I’m not ready to write off reforms in either country. Certainly, the snap elections, consolidation of power and muzzling of dissent are worrisome trends in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. But I don’t think either president wants to be considered a copy of his predecessor,” she told VOA.

While ambassador in Tashkent, Spratlen witnessed the Uzbek leadership transition in 2016 and the launch of reforms in 2017-2018. Previously, she had served as the U.S. ambassador in Kyrgyzstan and deputy chief of mission in Kazakhstan.

“Let’s see what Mirziyoyev and Tokayev do with their power in a world that presents each of them with many internal and external challenges. Let’s see what the United States does to sustain its role as a reliable partner at a time of change among major powers,” she said.

Washington supports the reform agendas in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, urging Mirziyoyev and Tokayev to meet their peoples’ expectations.

Talking with Uzbek media last month, U.S. Ambassador in Tashkent Jonathan Henick expressed hope that the new constitution will lead to systemic progress.

“Ultimately, we believe that in a democracy, people need to be able to have a choice of their leaders. … That’s what we support,” Henick said.
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Amid widespread protests and political instability following the recent arrest of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, authorities have imposed internet shutdowns and blocked social media platforms, while protestors have targeted journalists in violent attacks. 

Khan was arrested on May 9 by paramilitary troops on corruption charges. Two days later, Pakistan’s Supreme Court ruled the arrest was unlawful and ordered that Khan be released, marking a setback for the country’s powerful military. 

Khan has faced several charges since he was ousted after losing a confidence vote last year, so it was only a matter of time before he was arrested. 

Nevertheless, the arrest of the popular former prime minister infuriated his supporters, prompting protests around the country, with demonstrators storming military buildings, ransacking the residence of a top army general in Lahore, and setting fire to state buildings.

Following Khan’s arrest, authorities imposed internet shutdown in several regions, including the capital Islamabad, and blocked platforms like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. On Wednesday, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority said the internet shutdown would remain in effect for an indefinite period. 

Digital rights groups condemned the latest development in what has become a pattern of Pakistani authorities blocking internet access in response to political instability and protests. 

“Especially amid protests and crises, people need to share and verify information, and exchange diverse views. The deliberate blackouts in Pakistan undermine human rights, stifle free speech, and will only worsen the impact of the crisis by keeping people in the dark,” said Eliška Pírková, who works at the digital rights group Access Now.

The shutdown is a violation of people’s right to access information and free expression, according to Amnesty International’s Rimmel Mohydin. 

The ban on social media platforms “creates a permissive environment for other human rights violations under the darkness of the internet shutdown,” Mohydin said in a statement.

Many reporters and news outlets have been the targets of violence following Khan’s arrest, according to the press freedom group Reporters Without Borders, or RSF. 

On May 10, about 200 demonstrators stormed the building housing Radio Pakistan, the state-owned radio station in Peshawar, the capital of the northern province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

They immediately ransacked the reception area and smashed furniture in several studios, the station’s managing director Ijaz Khan said in a statement.

The mob later set fire to the building, destroying computer equipment and the station’s historical recordings and three vehicles in the compound. 

The day before, reporters trying to cover the protests in Peshawar were attacked by demonstrators.

“During the current turmoil in Pakistan, it is absolutely crucial that journalists should be able to work without constraint in order to provide their fellow citizens and the world with reliable, freely-reported and independent news coverage,” RSF’s Asia-Pacific head Daniel Bastard said in a statement.

RSF ranks Pakistan 150 out of 180 countries in terms of press freedom.

Some information in this report came from Reuters.  

 
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International forecasters warn Tropical Cyclone Mocha is intensifying in the very warm waters of the Bay of Bengal and is forecast to be one of the most powerful storms to hit the region in decades when it comes ashore Sunday.

The U.N.’s World Meteorological Organization ((WMO)), in a statement Friday, said the storm is likely to come ashore near the Bangladesh-Myanmar border about midday Sunday, very near Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh — home to the world’s largest refugee camp, with about one million Rohingya refugees.

WMO forecasters say the storm is producing maximum sustained winds of 180 km per hour, the equivalent of a category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale. It will bring heavy rain, damaging wind and a storm surge predicted to be about 2 meters above normal and is likely to spawn flash floods and landslides.

The WMO says the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, International Organization for Migration, World Health Organization, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies are all making contingency plans and mobilizing community preparedness, based on the forecasts.

The agencies are also pre-positioning medical supplies, food and emergency shelter.

The Reuters news service, quoting UNHCR spokeswoman Olga Sarrado, said preparations were underway for a partial evacuation of the Cox’s Baza camp, if needed. The agency was also preparing tens of thousands of hot meals and setting aside cooking fuel.

Media reports say both Myanmar and Bangladesh deployed thousands of volunteers and ordered evacuations from low-lying areas ahead of the storm.

Some information is from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan was granted bail by Islamabad High Court on Friday, after his arrest on graft charges this week sparked deadly clashes before being declared illegal.

Khan was manhandled into detention by paramilitary troops at the court on Tuesday, but the Supreme Court later declared the arrest unlawful and demanded the process be “backtracked”.

On Friday, after arriving back at Islamabad High Court in a secure convoy and walking into the building flanked by dozens of police and paramilitaries, he was granted bail.

“The court has granted Imran Khan a two weeks interim bail and has directed the authorities not to arrest him in the [graft] case,” Khan’s lawyer Khawaja Harris told reporters afterwards.

PTI lawyers gathered in front of the court ahead of the hearing shouted “Khan your devotees are countless” and “the lawyers are alive”, as the ousted leader raised a single fist above his head.

But the legal saga seems far from over.

The interior minister has pledged to re-arrest Khan, who has become tangled in a slew of legal cases — a frequent hazard for opposition figures in Pakistan — since he was ousted from power last April and launched a campaign of defiance against the military.

General elections are due no later than October, and the former cricket star has accused the shaky incumbent coalition government of supplanting him in cahoots with top generals.

The 70-year-old has also made explosive claims that they puppeteered a November assassination attempt which saw him shot in the leg as he campaigned for snap polls.

Labyrinthine legal cases

Khan was arrested under the orders of Pakistan’s top graft agency as he arrived for a routine court appearance in the capital.

Two days of chaos followed, with several thousand of his supporters rampaging through cities across the country in protest, setting fire to buildings and blocking roads.

At least nine people died in the unrest, police and hospitals said.

Hundreds of police officers were injured and more than 3,500 people arrested, mostly in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces, according to authorities.

On Thursday, Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial said the arrest was unlawful because it took place on court premises, where Khan had intended to file a bail application.

“Your arrest was invalid, so the whole process needs to be backtracked,” he told Khan.

Khan remained in the bench’s custody overnight under police protection for his own safety until he arrived at Islamabad High Court, where hundreds of security forces were deployed and nearby roads shut.

Country needs peace’

Islamabad Police had issued an emergency order banning all gatherings in the capital city after PTI called for supporters to come together.

Faisal Hussain Chaudhry, a lawyer for Khan, told reporters that further arrests of senior PTI leaders overnight brought the total number to 10.

“The country needs peace but such steps by the government are not helpful,” he said.

Despite the ruling on the legality of Khan’s arrest, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah refused on Thursday to back down.

“If (Khan) gets bail from the High Court tomorrow, we will wait for the cancellation of bail and arrest him again,” Sanaullah told Dunya TV.

With dozens of cases against him, Khan “has a long way to go”, analyst Imtiaz Gul told AFP.

“This is just a timely relief, probably as part of efforts to de-escalate the explosive situation and reduce tensions,” he said.

“The cobweb of criminal cases seems meant to entangle and thus incapacitate him from active politics.”

Khan has remained wildly popular since being ousted.

His arrest this week came after the army rebuked him for once again repeating allegations they were involved in his assassination attempt.

Pakistani politicians have frequently been arrested and jailed since the country’s founding in 1947.

But few have so directly challenged a military that holds significant influence over domestic politics and foreign policy and has staged at least three coups and ruled for more than three decades.
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As the pandemic-related remote work model fades in most parts of the world, women in Afghanistan have found the practice a potential remedy to the Taliban’s ban on women being employed outside the home.

Women employed by the United Nations and other international aid agencies are often provided laptops and links to networks that enable them to keep earning paychecks without explicitly violating the Taliban’s rules.

The Taliban ban, imposed on Afghan women working for nongovernmental organization in December 2022 and extended in April 2023 on women who work for U.N. agencies, has impacted thousands of Afghan women who work for international aid agencies in Afghanistan.

The Islamist leadership has fired all female government employees, except in the health and education ministries, and has set up a men-only interim government.

While remote work has ensured women do not lose income, a lifeline for many female-headed households, there are questions about the long-term viability of the practice.

Amid extremely limited access to electricity, internet and other technological resources in the country, there is also no policy clarity from a hardline Islamist government that has systemically deprived women of their fundamental social and political rights.

“By the time the U.N. perfects the work from home model the Taliban might ban internet or the sites that are used to work,” said Pashtana Durrani, executive director of Learn Afghan, a non-governmental organization promoting education for girls.

Two Taliban spokesmen were contacted to explain the regime’s policy on virtual work and education for women, but none responded.

Pros and cons

While work from home is widely considered better than no work at all, experts say the practice has both immediate and long-term consequences for professional women.

“In societies where women cannot work outside of the house, remote work is one step toward financial freedom and growth in one’s professional development,” said Jeanne Meister, a workplace strategist.

Avoiding daily commutes to worksites, staying away from “microaggressions” in the office, and being close to children are some of the additional benefits of working from home.

“Having work from home is a lot better than no work, but it will damage women’s long-run promotions in comparison to those in the office,” said Nick Bloom, a professor of economics at Stanford University and researcher on work from home.

“We found employees that work from home four days a week had a 50% lower promotion rate controlling for performance,” Bloom said.

There are also personal development and social networking downsides associated with permanent work from home.

“Women benefit from additional social networks when they meet other women working from their community if they work in offices,” said Suhani Jalota, a social entrepreneur and a women’s health and employment researcher at Stanford University.

Online education

In addition to work, the Taliban has banned education for girls above 12 years old. The policy deprives 1.1 million secondary school and more than 100,000 university students from both public and private education.

More than 2.5 million Afghan girls are estimated to be missing education for various social, economic and policy reasons, according to the U.N.

To remedy the crisis, some activists have launched online educational programs for teenage girls in Afghanistan.

“Online classes have been really effective for high school and college-level students,” said Lamar Zala Gran, director of an organization that provides online classes in mathematics, language and technology for young girls and women.

Students also receive mental awareness advice to overcome daily anxiety and stress associated with their inability to go outside of their homes, Gran wrote to VOA.

Despite their perceived effectiveness, online education is not widely accessible. Some Afghan educational videos shared on YouTube have viewership in single digits, while live classes on platforms such as Zoom do not reach many students.

The nearly universal poverty in Afghanistan is considered a major barrier for girls’ education, online and in-person.

“We have students who do not have laptops and it’s difficult for us to teach them writing skills,” Gran said. In some cases, up to eight students will join a class using a single laptop or mobile phone — but the class is canceled because of poor internet connection.

“There is a global sympathy and also solidarity with Afghan girls and women,” said an Afghan education activist who did not want to be named. “But what is missing is a coherent, integrated and organized approach which could effectively undermine the Taliban’s misogynistic bans.”
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A California peace activist who has worked to remove land mines from war-torn regions and replace them with grape vines, fruit trees and vegetables was named the 2023 World Food Prize laureate Thursday at a ceremony in Washington.

The Des Moines, Iowa-based foundation awarded its annual prize to Heidi Kuhn, founder of Roots of Peace. Since founding her nonprofit in the basement of her San Rafael, California, home in 1997, Kuhn’s organization has helped remove thousands of mines and assist farmers in more than a half-dozen countries. The group recently signed an initial agreement to begin work in Ukraine.

Kuhn, 65, said she formed the idea of starting her group after hosting an event at her home for dignitaries advocating for the eradication of land mines.

“Looking back on it, perhaps it was a vision of turning blood into wine, killing fields into vineyards and hatred into love,” Kuhn said in an interview last week.

Kuhn was named the winner of the prize, which carries a $250,000 award, at an event featuring Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, and Terry Branstad, the World Food Prize Foundation president and former U.S. ambassador to China. Kuhn, who was visiting minefields in Azerbaijan when the award was announced, will be formally given the prize at an event in October in Des Moines.

“Her work shows the world the vital role that agriculture must have in the resilient recovery from conflict to restoration of peace,” Branstad said during the announcement. “For making her mission to turn mines to vines, I am so pleased to announce that the 2023 World Food Prize laureate is Heidi Kuhn.”

‘I will do something special’

Kuhn said she created her nonprofit after becoming sick with cancer at age 30 while heading a TV production company and raising three children, ages 1, 3 and 5.

“My little prayer was, ‘Dear God, grant me the gift of life and I will do something special with it,'” said Kuhn, who survived the cancer and had another child.

After learning about the world’s estimated 60 million land mines, and in part inspired by Princess Diana’s efforts to ban the explosives, Kuhn said she met with vintners in California’s Napa Valley and began a fledgling effort that has steadily grown over the decades.

Roots of Peace started in Croatia and then went on to establish programs in Afghanistan, Angola, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Israel, Iraq, Palestinian areas, and Vietnam.

Besides lining up crews to remove mines, Roots of Peace completes market assessments to help determine how farmers can make a living off the newly cleared land. In Vietnam, for example, the group helped plant more than a million pepper trees that resulted in a harvest of high-grade pepper that is now sent to the U.S.

‘Off to a mine field’

While her organization has become established with funding from a variety of government and private sources, Kuhn said, her transition from raising four young children to heading an international mine-clearing organization still can seem strange, even to her.

“It is rather bizarre to be raising four kids, and then their mother is going off to a mine field,” Kuhn said. “It is unusual.”

Norman Borlaug, an Iowa native who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for his work to alleviate hunger through wheat research and other efforts, established the World Food Prize in 1986. The award has been given to 52 people in honor of their achievements in improving the quality, quantity and availability of the world’s food supply.
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Pakistan’s top court handed former Prime Minister Imran Khan a big win on Thursday, declaring his dramatic arrest unlawful. The government was swift to condemn the decision. VOA’s Pakistan bureau chief Sarah Zaman reports.
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China has delivered two frigates to Pakistan’s navy, completing a four-warship deal inked in 2018, Chinese media reported, amid deepening military cooperation between the two nations in one of the world’s most complex geopolitical regions.

The vessels — two Type 054A frigates — will be used to safeguard the seas of the China-Pakistan economic corridor (CPEC), state-backed Chinese newspaper Global Times reported late on Wednesday.

CPEC is an ambitious infrastructure project that links Xinjiang in west China to Pakistan aimed at offering an alternative transportation route in the future for goods including gas. Part of the network is Pakistan’s Gwadar port, located on a key waterway in the Arabian Sea.

Economic and military ties between the two neighbors have deepened against a shifting geopolitical backdrop, evident from Pakistan’s increasing military procurement from China and joint military exercises to safeguard assets and trade routes. For China, Pakistan and its access to the Arabian Sea is key in the event of a maritime blockade in the Strait of Malacca.

China delivered the first batch of six J-10 fighter jets to Pakistan in March last year. Eight Hangor Class submarines that Pakistan ordered from China are expected to be delivered before 2028.

Earlier this week, China’s defense minister told Pakistan’s navy chief that their militaries, including their navies, should “expand into new fields of cooperation” to bolster their capability in safeguarding regional security.

“The prospects for cooperation between the two sides, in my opinion, is getting stronger and stronger,” Song Zhongping, a military commentator with Phoenix TV, told Reuters.

In South Asia, China’s ties with India, with whom Pakistan has frosty relations, have deteriorated in recent years, and the withdrawal of U.S. troops in nearby Afghanistan has raised geopolitical uncertainty in the region, pushing China and Pakistan to seek a stronger alliance.

“Maintaining the peace and stability of South Asia fits with both countries’ actual interests,” Song said.
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Pakistan is witnessing a wave of violence following the arrest of popular opposition leader and former Prime Minister Imran Khan on corruption charges. The level of unrest has not been seen since 2007, when another former premier — Benazir Bhutto — was assassinated during an election campaign.

Footage of Khan being dragged from court sparked outrage among his supporters. Angry protesters torched buildings and vehicles. Authorities have deployed troops in an attempt to contain the clashes. Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif vowed a tough response to the attacks. Khan is in custody at a police compound in the capital, Islamabad, undergoing questioning.

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN PAKISTAN?

Since Khan’s arrest on Tuesday, at least eight people have died and dozens have been wounded in clashes between his supporters and police. Protesters have burned building and vehicles to the ground. Others blocked roads and set fire to police checkpoints and military facilities. Schools and colleges remain closed in Khan’s regional strongholds. More than 2,000 people have been arrested so far.

WHY DOES KHAN’S ARREST MATTER?

Pakistan has a history of military takeovers, political upheaval and social unrest. Khan is the seventh prime minister to be arrested since 1977. Military property, including the home of a top commander, has been destroyed. The current turmoil comes as the already embattled country struggles with a dire economic situation, a spike in militancy, and the impact of last year’s catastrophic floods. This grimness is unlikely to be addressed or resolved soon, further straining living conditions and security for the 220-million population.

WHY IS THERE SUCH A STRONG REACTION TO KHAN’S DETENTION?

Khan was ousted in a no-confidence vote in Parliament in April 2022 but still has a massive grassroots following, with the power to quickly mobilize thousands of supporters to the streets and stir up a frenzy with his anti-establishment rhetoric. Last November, he was shot in the leg at a rally. He claims both incidents are evidence of a conspiracy against him, a compelling narrative for his followers who believe he was unjustly ousted and is being targeted by the government and the military.

WHY WAS HE ARRESTED?

Khan has at least 100 criminal cases filed against him by various government agencies. In some ways his detention was just a matter of time. He was in court on Tuesday for one set of corruption charges but was arrested for another. What’s striking about his detention is how dramatic it was — the anti-graft agency whose agents detained him has not explained why he was taken so publicly, dragged out of court and shoved into an armored vehicle.

The 70-year-old Khan has repeatedly denied all allegations against him.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

The government has stepped up security, banned gatherings — and in some places shut down social media. But Khan’s supporters are determined to see him freed and returned to power, saying he is their red line. A crackdown on party activists and leaders will not make them back down. Though he may ultimately be released, while he is in detention, the standoff between his supporters and authorities continues — all the while deepening Pakistan’s divisions.
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The number of people internally displaced globally hit a record 71.1 million at the end of last year, according to a report released Thursday by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre.

The figure represents a 20% increase from 2021.

Among the drivers of new displacements last year were the war in Ukraine, which the report said accounted for 17 million displacements, and massive floods in Pakistan that caused eight million displacements.

SEE ALSO: A related video by VOA’s Heather Murdock

Worldwide, conflict and violence were responsible for leaving 62.5 million people internally displaced at the end of 2022.

Nearly three-quarters of internally displaced people around the world were in 10 countries: Syria, Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ukraine, Colombia, Ethiopia, Yemen, Nigeria, Somalia and Sudan.

“Conflict and disasters combined last year to aggravate people’s pre-existing vulnerabilities and inequalities, triggering displacement on a scale never seen before,” said Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, which established the IDMC.

Some information in this report came from Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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The Taliban released four Afghan journalists on Wednesday after detaining them for two days in the southeastern province of Khost.

Sakhi Sarwar Miakhil, editor in chief of Gharghasht TV; Pamir Andish, editor in chief of Cheenar Radio; Abdul Rahman Ashna of Nan FM, and Mohammaduddin Shah Khiali, editor in chief of Wolas Ghag Radio were released by the Taliban, according to a statement by the Afghan Journalists Safety Committee.

AJSC stated that these journalists were detained Monday by the Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice after they were summoned for “a seminar.”

“Officials at the Directorate of the Promotion of Virtue (of the Taliban) in Khost Province told the Afghan Journalists Safety Committee that the editors of the mentioned outlets were summoned for a reform seminar,” added AJSC’s statement.

A local journalist with knowledge of the case who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal told VOA that the journalists were detained for the entertainment shows that were aired in April for the Eid celebration that marked the end of Ramadan.

“It was because in some of the shows [for Eid], music was played. There were entertainment shows, possibly with female voices,” the journalist said.

The Taliban banned on-air music and entertainment programs after seizing power in August 2021.

Journalists in some provinces have told VOA that the Taliban barred them from airing female voices.

Gul Mohammad Graan, president of the Afghan chapter of the South Asian Association of Reporters Club and Journalists Forum, told VOA that the absence of a clear media policy by the Taliban has created “confusion” among the journalists.

“They do not know what to air and what not to,” he added.

Graan said the disorder is also the result of an “interference” of different agencies of the Taliban’s government.

“Although the [Taliban’s] current government stresses that without the Ministry of Information and Culture, no government agency has the right to interfere in the media affairs, the Ministry of Promotion of Virtue and the Intelligence in the capital and provinces are imposing their own restrictions on media,” he said.

Graan said the Taliban announced last year that the media law under the former government is in effect until a new media law comes into force, but “this is not the case.”

In February 2022, Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid said that the Mass Media Law of Afghanistan “is still enforceable.”

Sumaya Walizada, a spokesperson for the Afghanistan Journalists Center, told VOA that according to Afghanistan’s mass media law, the government “should not interfere in the operation of free media.”

Beh Lih Yi, Asia program director at the Committee to Protect Journalists, called on the Taliban “to immediately end the arbitrary arrests of Afghan journalists.”

She told VOA that journalists in Afghanistan “have been detained simply for doing their job.”

“We are concerned,” she said, adding that there are still two Afghan journalists in the Taliban’s detention, and “we call on their immediate release.”

Waheed Faizi and Shahnaz Nafees from VOA’s Afghan Service contributed to this report. This story originated in VOA’s Afghan Service.
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Pakistan’s army has been called to maintain security in the capital and two of the country’s four provinces, following angry protests over the arrest of former Prime Minister Imran Khan. VOA Pakistan Bureau Chief Sarah Zaman reports.
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The White House announced on Wednesday that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will make an official visit that will include a state dinner on June 22.

Officials say the trip is intended to boost bilateral ties, including strengthening the defense partnership and confronting common challenges such as climate change.

India is the world’s largest democracy and most populated country. Modi faces international criticism for his government’s crackdowns on the media and for limiting the rights of minority Muslims. Washington increasingly sees India as a bulwark against a rising China, but New Delhi has resisted a formal military alliance with the United States. 
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