Twenty-one-year-old Zamzama Ghazal was at her sister’s graduation ceremony when she heard about the Taliban’s ban on women’s university education.

“It was a painful sight,” said Ghazal, a fourth-year medical student at Shifa University in Kabul. “Instead of celebration, there were tears and grieving. All girls were crying, hugging, and consoling each other.”

Ghazal wanted to be a physician as her home country is in “dire need of female doctors.”

“It was my childhood dream to become a doctor. We had many hurdles. There were financial problems. The culture was not very supportive. But I was able to finish school and get into medical school.”

But she “now feels helpless,” after the Taliban, the de facto rulers of the country, last week ordered public and private universities to suspend women’s access to universities until “further notice.”

“We have worked tirelessly to get an education. Now, we are deprived of our only hope in this country,” said Ghazal.

Taliban defend ban

The Taliban’s higher education minister defended the ban, saying that female university students “failed to comply” with gender-segregated classes and dress codes.

“We have instructed girls to wear hijab but they failed to comply. Instead, they wore dresses like they were going to wedding parties,” Neda Mohammad Nadeem told the Taliban-run state television.

“Girls were studying agriculture and engineering in defiance of Afghan honor and Islam,” he added.

The Taliban’s decision to suspend girls’ university education is the latest blow to the women’s rights gains of the past two decades in Afghanistan.

After taking power in August 2021, the Taliban banned girls from secondary education and barred women from long-distance travel without a male chaperone, working outside, and going to public parks.

The Taliban ordered national and international NGOs on Saturday to immediately suspend female employees from work “until further notice.”

Protests continue

Dozens of Afghan women’s rights activists and girl students Thursday staged a protest in some of the major cities in Afghanistan, demanding women’s access to education and employment.

Afghan women have protested the Taliban`s repressive rules regarding them since the group seized power in 2021.

There were also reports that male students boycotted exams after their female colleagues were not allowed to enter universities due to the ban on women’s university education. Dozens of teachers have resigned in response to the Taliban’s edict.

Gains erased

Hamid Obaidi, a former spokesperson for Afghanistan’s ministry of higher education, told VOA that before the Taliban’s takeover, about 450,000 female students were enrolled at 39 public and 128 private universities.

He said women accounted for 33% of the students, 14% of teaching staff and up to 20% of employees at the institutions of higher education.

“The ministry planned to increase the number of women to … 50% by 2025 in the higher education institutions,” Obaidi said. “Unfortunately, the Taliban returned, and once again the gates of schools and universities are shut on women.”

Shabnam Salihi, an Afghan women’s rights activist, said the Taliban’s ban will take its toll on women in Afghanistan.

“Stripping off women their fundamental right to education and learning will push them towards severe depression and mental health issues,” Salihi told VOA. “Women have been expressing their hopelessness and anger.”

International condemnation

Salihi also said the Taliban’s repression of women has “political motives.”

“The Taliban use Afghan women’s fundamental rights as a bargaining chip in its negotiation with the international community,” she said.

No country recognized the Taliban as Afghanistan’s legitimate government although the group controls all parts of the country.

The international community has called on the Taliban to uphold their promises of respecting human rights, including girls’ education.

The U.N. Security Council on Tuesday condemned the Taliban’s new bans on women’s university education and work for humanitarian agencies.

The United States has also condemned new bans enforced by the Taliban, saying that it is looking into additional measures to further isolate the group for its “appallingly bad” decision to ban girls’ university education.

“My leadership in Washington is taking a look at a range of actions to signal how the Taliban are following the wrong path,” Karen Decker, head of the U.S. diplomatic mission to Afghanistan, told journalists in a video conversation from her office in Doha, Qatar.

Ghazal, the young medical student, urged the international community to put further pressure on the Taliban regarding women’s education.

“We can’t do anything but hope that the international community will use its leverage over the Taliban to reopen schools and universities,” she said.

This story originated in VOA’s Pashto service.
…

Authorities in India-administered Kashmir have seized more than a score of homes associated with the banned Islamist movement Jamaat-i-Islami in recent weeks, raising tensions in the long-troubled Muslim majority region.

The latest wave of confiscations came Saturday when at least 20 properties were seized on the recommendation of the State Investigative Agency, according to multiple reports. Dozens more properties are reported to have been targeted for confiscation.

In one of the more dramatic actions, Indian forces were placed on alert for the seizure on Dec. 20 of a two-story house in an upscale Srinigar neighborhood that once was the home of Syed Ali Geelani, a prominent separatist leader who died last year.

The raid was conducted by India’s top terror-probing organization, the National Investigation Agency (NIA), in the presence of local police.

A Geelani family member, who spoke to VOA on condition of anonymity for fear of official retaliation, was vague when asked who currently owns the house.

“Perhaps, the property belonged to Jamaat-e-Islami, now a banned organization. We lived there for a short while,” the family member said.

India banned Jamaat-e-Islami, or JeI, for five years under anti-terror laws In March 2019. The organization, founded as an Islamic reformist movement in 1941, was accused of being in “close touch with anti-India militant outfits” and of working to “escalate secessionist movement” in the Kashmir Valley.

JeI refuted the allegations, saying it was a socio-political and religious organization with no connection to the militancy that has troubled Kashmir for decades.

The NIA has been staging raids under the increased authority it received when the Indian government revoked Kashmir’s limited autonomy in 2019. Since then, the agency has conducted raids across the valley in a bid to crush separatist militants who have remained a factor in the region despite the presence of multiple Indian secret-service agencies.

Several of the latest property seizures were conducted by a newly constituted local police force called the State Investigative Agency.

On December 18, SIA said JeI properties worth 1 billion rupees [$12.1 million] were seized in several districts of the valley. The agency also said it has identified 188 properties belonging to Jamaat-e-Islami that either have been “notified or are under the process of being notified for further legal action.”

VOA approached multiple JeI members for comment but all refused to speak, fearing reprisals.

Vijay Kumar, whose title is additional director general of Police Kashmir [ADGP], was quoted by an Indian TV channel WION saying the police will “seize all the properties of the people wherever there is an encounter or is being used as a hideout or are harboring the terrorists, their property will be seized.”

Kumar added that if there is a “forceful entry of terrorists” into any house or other structure, the house owner or any other member claiming duress should promptly inform authorities, adding that there are provisions available for hiding the identity of such informants.

A legal expert, who asked that his real name not to be used for security reasons, said that seizure of any property by the state should occur only after a court has determined that the property belongs to an unlawful organization.

“Government should follow the procedures which are already established under law instead of acting arbitrarily,” the expert said.

Among those whose homes have been seized is Naseema Begum, 55. Seated alone inside the kitchen of the house where she is now staying, Begum said her family was accused of harboring militants who were killed during a firefight in Srinigar in September 2020.

“Police said a militant was killed in a lane adjacent to our house and the remaining two inside our lawn,” Begum said. “They don’t believe us that militants may have sneaked into our premises from a neighboring colony after police conducted searches.”

She added that her family had left the home after police knocked at their door during the midnight raid.

“None of my family members has affiliation with militants,” Begum said. “Can anyone say no to gunmen?” she asked.

Begum also decried the jailing of her three sons on charges of being “militant sympathizers,” which she said stemmed from a visit to Pakistan by her youngest son.

“He visited there so that my younger daughter could get enrolled in any of the medical colleges of that country,” Begum said.

The property seizures have prompted objections not only from critics of Indian rule in Kashmir but also from people associated with the New Delhi-backed state administration. Among those is Mehbooba Mufti — a former chief minister of Kashmir and the current chairperson of the Peoples Democratic Party — who termed the move “collective punishment on the people of Kashmir.”

“I see it as vengeance following the undemocratic move on 5 August 2019,” she said in reference to the revocation of autonomy for Kashmir. “Tomorrow if they find out someone’s grandfather was a member of JeI, will they seize that property as well? Today it is happening with someone and tomorrow it can happen with anyone.”
…

The United Nations refugee agency said Sunday in a statement that about 180 Rohingya were feared to have drowned at sea after their boat left Bangladesh for Malaysia earlier this month.

When a boat carrying 174 Rohingya washed ashore Monday in Indonesia, many people speculated that they were the ones the refugee agency had assumed to have drowned.

However, some Rohingya in Bangladesh and Malaysia, who managed to speak to the refugees rescued Monday, confirmed that those 174 were not related to the 180 refugees still missing and feared dead.

Several people in Malaysia and Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh — where more than 1 million Rohingya have been living in squalid, congested camps since fleeing violence in Myanmar — told VOA on Friday that their relatives who had left Bangladesh by boat on December 2 bound for Malaysia, were missing at sea, and that about 180 people were onboard.

Mohammed Rezuwan Khan, a Rohingya activist in Cox’s Bazar, told VOA that on Tuesday he spoke to his sister — who was one of the 174 refugees rescued Monday in Indonesia — by phone and verified that the boat that sailed out of Bangladesh on December 2 with about 180 people was still missing.

“The boat that my sister boarded departed Bangladesh on November 25, with around 200 people on board, bound for Malaysia. Its engine broke down after a few days. It drifted for weeks, and food and water stock on the boat ran out before it washed ashore in Indonesia Monday. However, we stayed in touch with the boat via its satellite phone until it came close to Indonesia,” Khan said.

“Certainly, the boat that was rescued in Indonesia Monday is not the one that left Bangladesh on December 2.”

Khan added that his sister, a widow, boarded the boat for Malaysia with her 5-year-old daughter.

“My sister said that at least 25 people in her boat died after the boat’s engine broke down on December 4, and it drifted for weeks.”

Khan described his sister’s ordeal at sea, saying that when their boat was drifting and they had run out of food and water, a Thai navy boat appeared at some distance. Around 20 men from the boat jumped into the sea and tried to swim closer to the navy boat, hoping to get some food and water, but did not receive any relief. The swimmers then were swept away by a strong current and could not return to their boat.

“She also said that for 13 days they were without food and water before landing in Indonesia, and some had died because of starving and drinking seawater.”

Relatives of those onboard the missing boat said that they had lost contact December 8 and could not hope that the passengers were still alive.

Mohammad Rofik, a Rohingya refugee who landed in Malaysia from Bangladesh in March, said that his wife, Ayesha Khatoon, and their two daughters, ages 5 and 3, were on the missing boat.

“After the boat left Bangladesh on December 2, almost every day my brother-in-law or I called up the satellite phone of the boatman to check if everything was all right with the boat and my family. But from December 8, neither my brother-in-law nor I have succeeded to reach the phone. Many other people who have their relatives on that boat also told us that since December 8, they have failed to get access to the phone of the boatman,” Rofik told VOA.

“My daughters were missing me very much. With my wife and daughters, I dreamed of setting up a nice home in Malaysia. So, I told them to come to Malaysia and join me here.”

Rashidullah, a Rohingya refugee in Cox’s Bazar who uses only one name, said that his 16-year-old daughter, Umme Salima, was on the missing boat.

“I am very poor, and I have seven daughters who are unmarried. Salima was the eldest among them. I put her on the boat with the hope that any Rohingya man in Malaysia would marry her. Now my daughter is missing, and many said that along with all others on the boat, she drowned in the sea,” Rashidullah told VOA.

Some Rohingya, however, insist that it is too early to be certain that all the passengers on the missing boat are dead.

“The boat that washed ashore in Indonesia took 31 days to reach Indonesia from Bangladesh. The boat that is missing left Bangladesh 25 days ago. We should wait for some more days or weeks to be sure that the people are no more,” Mohammad Hussain, a Rohingya community leader in Cox’s Bazar, told VOA Tuesday.

“I, too, do not believe as yet that my daughters and wife are dead,” Rofik, in Malaysia, said. If Allah wants, he can still safely return my children and wife to me, presenting a miracle.”
…

The U.N. Security Council on Tuesday called for the full, equal and meaningful participation of women and girls in Afghanistan, denouncing a ban by the Taliban-led administration on women attending universities or working for humanitarian aid groups.

In a statement agreed by consensus, the 15-member council said the ban on women and girls attending high school and universities in Afghanistan “represents an increasing erosion for the respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms.”

The university ban on women was announced as the Security Council in New York met on Afghanistan last week. Girls have been banned from high school since March.

The council said a ban on female humanitarian workers, announced on Saturday, “would have a significant and immediate impact for humanitarian operations in country,” including those of the United Nations.

“These restrictions contradict the commitments made by the Taliban to the Afghan people as well as the expectations of the international community,” said the Security Council, which also expressed its full support for the U.N. political mission in Afghanistan, known as UNAMA.

Four major global aid groups, whose humanitarian efforts have reached millions of Afghans, said on Sunday that they were suspending operations because they were unable to run their programs without female staff.

U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths told the Security Council last week that 97% of Afghans live in poverty, two-thirds of the population need aid to survive, 20 million people face acute hunger, and 1.1 million teenage girls were banned from school.

The Islamist Taliban seized power in August 2021. They had largely banned education of girls when last in power two decades ago but had said their policies had changed. The Taliban-led administration has not been recognized internationally.
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India’s pharmaceuticals regulator has begun inspecting some drug factories across the country, the health ministry said on Tuesday, as it tries to ensure high standards after an Indian company’s cough and cold syrups were linked to deaths in Gambia.

India is known as the “pharmacy of the world” and its pharmaceuticals exports have more than doubled over the past decade to $24.5 billion in the past fiscal year.

The deaths of at least 70 children in Gambia has dented the industry’s image, though India says the drugs made by New Delhi-based Maiden Pharmaceuticals Ltd were not at fault.

“Joint inspections are being conducted all over the country as per standard operating procedures,” the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said in a statement. “This will ensure high standards of quality compliance with respect to drugs manufactured in the country.”

The ministry said it was inspecting “drug manufacturing units” that were at risk of making non-standard, adulterated, or spurious drugs but did not name any company.

Some health experts say India’s drug regulations are lax, especially at the level of states where thousands of factories operate.

The government in October suspended all of Maiden’s production, based in the state of Haryana, for violation of manufacturing standards.

But India’s main drugs officer told the World Health Organization this month that tests of samples from the same batches of syrups that Maiden sent to Gambia were compliant with government specifications. Maiden too said its drugs were fine.

The WHO said labs contracted by it in Ghana and Switzerland found excess levels of ethyleneglycol and diethyleneglycol contaminants in the Maiden syrups.

A Gambian parliamentary committee said last week that Maiden was responsible for the deaths of at least 70 children from acute kidney injury and called on the government to pursue legal action.
…

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi voiced his support for peace efforts in Ukraine during a phone conversation with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in which the Ukrainian leader sought India’s help in implementing “a peace formula.”    

“I had a phone call with @PMOIndia Narendra Modi and wished a successful #G20 presidency,” Zelenskyy wrote on Twitter Monday. It was on this platform that I announced the peace formula and now I count on India’s participation in its implementation.”   

India assumed the rotating presidency of the Group of 20 major economies for the year beginning December 1.    

In a virtual address to the G-20 summit in Indonesia last month, Zelenskyy asked the grouping to adopt Ukraine’s 10-point peace formula calling for withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine and restoration of its territorial integrity. He said then that “now” is the time to end the war.     

A statement from the Indian government on the phone conversation with Zelenskyy late Monday said that Modi “strongly reiterated his call for an immediate cessation of hostilities” and added that both sides should revert to dialogue and diplomacy to find a lasting solution to their differences. The statement said the Indian prime minister conveyed India’s support for any peace efforts, and assured Zelenskyy of India’s commitment to continue providing humanitarian assistance for the affected civilian population.    

The statement also said that “The Prime Minister explained the main priorities of India’s G20 Presidency, including giving a voice to the concerns of developing nations on issues like food and energy security.”   

The phone call between the Indian and Ukrainian leaders came ten days after Modi’s phone conversation with Russia leader Vladimir Putin, in which New Delhi said Modi spoke of the need for dialogue and diplomacy to end the conflict.    

At a regular press briefing following the Modi-Putin call, U.S. State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel said in response to a question that “Any country that’s interested in engaging in peace and interested in ending this war must do so in close partnership with Ukrainian partners.”    

India has not outright condemned Russia for its war on Ukraine and continues to have a close partnership with Moscow. During a visit to Moscow in November, India’s foreign minister said that India, which has emerged as a huge buyer of Russian crude oil, will boost economic ties with Moscow.   

However, Modi had also told Russian president Vladimir Putin in September at a regional meeting that today “is not an era of war.”    

Analysts in New Delhi say hopes to play a constructive role in any peace efforts to end the Ukrainian conflict during its presidency of G-20. 
…

A second group in two days of weak and exhausted Rohingya Muslims landed on a beach in Indonesia’s northernmost province of Aceh on Monday after weeks at sea, officials said.

At least 185 men, women and children disembarked from a rickety wooden boat at dusk on Ujong Pie beach at Muara Tiga, a coastal village in Aceh’s Pidie district, said local police chief Fauzi, who goes by a single name.

“They are very weak because of dehydration and exhaustion after weeks at sea,” Fauzi said.

They were taken to the village hall and will stay there while they receive help from residents, health workers and others.

Fauzi said that immigration officials and police were trying to identify the refugees to determine if they were from the group of 190 Rohingya who were reported by United Nations to be drifting in a small boat in the Andaman Sea for a month.

The UNHCR on Friday urged countries to rescue the refugees, saying reports indicated they were in dire condition with insufficient food or water.

“Many are women and children, with reports of up to 20 people dying on the unseaworthy vessel during the journey,” the agency said.

Also on Friday, another group of 58 Rohingya — all men — arrived in Ladong village in Aceh Besar district.

Azharul Husna, who heads the Aceh branch of KontraS, an Indonesian rights group, said Monday that the men in the group all carried UNHCR cards from refugee camps in Bangladesh and had left in search of a better life in Malaysia.

Citing one of them, Husna said the 58 refugees left Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, where more than 700,000 Rohingya from Myanmar had fled, to work on plantations in Malaysia. Their boat was damaged and the engine failed, leaving them drifting at sea until they came ashore in Aceh.

Since 2017, Myanmar security forces have been accused of mass rapes, killings and burning of thousands of homes belonging to Rohingya, sending them fleeing to Bangladesh and onward.

Malaysia has been a common destination for many of the refugees arriving by boat, but they also have been detained in the country.

Although neighboring Indonesia is not a signatory to the United Nations’ 1951 Refugee Convention, the UNHCR said that a 2016 presidential regulation provides a legal framework governing the treatment of refugees on boats in distress near Indonesia and helps them disembark.

Last month, 219 Rohingya refugees were rescued off the coast of North Aceh district aboard two rickety boats.
…

Taliban authorities in Afghanistan said Monday a car bomb killed a provincial police chief and his two guards.

The Islamic State terror group’s Afghan affiliate, IS-Khorasan, took responsibility for the bombing in Fayzabad, the capital of the northeastern Badakhshan province.

A spokesperson for the Taliban-led interior ministry in the Afghan capital, Kabul, told VOA the slain police official was traveling to work when an explosives-laden car targeted his vehicle.

Abdul Nafi Takoor said the ensuing blast also injured two people. He added that security forces had taken four suspects into custody in connection with the attack and blamed so-called “enemies of Afghanistan” for being behind it, without elaborating.

Badakhshan borders Pakistan, Tajikistan and China.

IS-Khorasan has intensified terrorist attacks in Afghanistan since the Taliban reclaimed power in the war-ravaged country in August 2021. The violence has killed hundreds of people, including Afghan minority Shiite community members and prominent pro-Taliban clerics, in recent months.

The ruling Islamist group claims that its counterterrorism forces have significantly degraded the presence of IS-Khorasan in Afghanistan, but critics question those claims citing frequent high-profile attacks by the group in Kabul and beyond.  

 
…

The possible sinking of a boat with 180 Rohingya Muslims on board will make 2022 one of the worst years for the community as refugees try to flee desperate conditions in camps in Bangladesh, the U.N. refugee agency told Reuters on Monday.

Nearly 1 million Rohingya from Myanmar are living in crowded facilities in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, including tens of thousands who fled their home country after its military conducted a deadly crackdown in 2017.

In Buddhist-majority Myanmar, most Rohingya are denied citizenship and are seen as illegal immigrants from South Asia.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said over the weekend that it feared that a boat that started its journey from Bangladesh at the end of November was missing at sea, with all 180 on board presumed dead.

The UNHCR said the vessel, which was not seaworthy, may have started to crack in early December before losing contact.

Nearly 200 Rohingya are feared dead or missing at sea this year already. “We hope against hope that the 180 missing are still alive somewhere out there”, said UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch.

The UNHCR estimates nearly 900 Rohingya died or went missing in the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal in 2013 and more than 700 in 2014.

“One of the worst years for dead and missing after 2013 and 2014,” Baloch said of 2022, adding the number of people trying to flee had returned to levels seen before the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Trends show the numbers reaching back to 2020, when over 2,400 people attempted the risky sea crossings with more than 200 people dead or missing.”

The number of Rohingya leaving Bangladesh in boats this year has jumped more than fivefold this year from a year earlier, rights groups estimate.

Baloch said it was not clear where exactly the boat with 180 aboard went missing, nor whether the lifting of COVID restrictions in Southeast Asia, a favored destination for the Rohingya, was leading to the rush of people.

Sayedur Rahman, 38, who fled to Malaysia in 2012 from Myanmar, said his wife, two sons aged 17 and 13, and a daughter aged 12 were among the missing.

“In 2017, my family came to Bangladesh to save their lives, Rahman said, referring to that year’s exodus of Rohingya from Myanmar.

“But they are now all gone … Now I’m devastated,” Rahman said. “We Rohingya are left to die … on the land, at sea. Everywhere.”

Earlier this month, two Myanmar Rohingya activist groups said that up to 20 people died of hunger or thirst on what the UNHCR said was a separate boat that was stranded at sea for two weeks off India’s coast. The boat, with at least 100 people on board, was said to be in Malaysian waters.

Amid the feared fatalities, some boats have made land or been rescued at sea.

On Monday the International Organization for Migration said in a statement that 57 Rohingya males disembarked in Indonesia’s Aceh Besar district early on December 25 with the support of local community members. It said the male-only boat is believed to have set off from Bangladesh and spent nearly a month drifting at sea.

Indonesian officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Two boats carrying a total of 230 Rohingya refugees, including women and children, landed on the shores of Indonesia’s Aceh province in November, while this month, Sri Lanka’s navy rescued 104 Rohingya adrift off the Indian Ocean island’s northern coast.

 
…

A soldier and a militant were killed near the border with Afghanistan, the Pakistani military said Sunday, when a group of militants attempted to sneak into the country’s northwest, triggering a shootout.

The clash erupted in the Sambaza area of Zhob overnight, according to a military statement. Two other soldiers were injured in the exchange of gunfire. It said the area had already been under surveillance for days after intelligence reports that militants were using the route to sneak into Pakistan to target civilians and security forces.

The Pakistani Taliban, known as the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, ended a cease fire last month and have attacked Pakistani security forces over the last month.

The Pakistani Taliban are a separate group but allies with the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in Afghanistan a year ago as U.S. and NATO troops were in the final stages of their pullout. The Taliban takeover in Afghanistan has emboldened the Pakistani Taliban.

In a separate incident in Pakistan’s southwest, a roadside bomb killed an army captain and four other soldiers Sunday. A military statement said the explosion targeted troops engaged in an anti-militant operation in the Kohlu district of Baluchistan province.

Police in Baluchistan also said Sunday that three grenade attacks injured 14 people in separate incidents. Two grenade attacks injured 11 people in the provincial capital of Quetta, while a third attack in the industrial town of Hub wounded three civilians, senior police officer Zafar Maheser said.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks. Baluch separatist groups have long waged a low-level insurgency in the region.
…

The U.S. embassy in Pakistan warned its staff Sunday against visiting a top hotel in the capital, Islamabad, over the holidays, saying, “Unknown individuals are plotting to attack Americans.”

The warning comes amid a surge in terrorist attacks in parts of the South Asian nation, including a suicide bombing in the capital this past week that killed a police officer.

“Effective immediately, the Embassy in Islamabad is prohibiting all American staff from visiting Islamabad’s Marriott Hotel,” the U.S. diplomatic mission said in a security alert published on its website.

It urged all American personnel to refrain from “nonessential, unofficial travel” in Islamabad during the holidays, noting that Pakistani authorities have placed the city on a “Red Alert” and banned all public gatherings due to security concerns.

On Sunday, the Pakistani military confirmed the death of five troops, including an officer, in a roadside bombing in the southwestern Baluchistan province.

Separatist ethnic Baluch insurgents claimed responsibility.

Thursday’s bomb attack in Islamabad, which wounded 10 people, was claimed by the outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also known as the Pakistani Taliban.

The violence prompted the administration to beef up security and increase police patrols across the city, banning political gatherings and processions.

A suicide truck bombing in September 2008 targeted the Marriott Hotel, killing 63 people and wounding more than 250 others.

The TTP, designated a global terrorist organization by the United States, has claimed responsibility for most of the attacks that killed hundreds of people — most of them security forces— in recent months in Pakistan. The group’s leadership is based in Afghanistan and so are its fighters.
…

Neil Turner, the chief of Norwegian Refugee Council in Afghanistan, denounced the ban as an ‘egregious’ step by the Taliban and disputed allegation that NGOs were not in compliance with Islamic dress codes for female staff.
…

More than a year after the U.S. military withdrew from Afghanistan, tens of thousands of Afghan families totaling more than 88,500 individuals have resettled in the United States through different immigration paths.

Some have access to permanent residence while the rest have permission for short-term stays without the chance for a more permanent status unless they apply for asylum or Congress passes legislation to change their status.

For those with temporary status, their best hope to stay is the Afghan Adjustment Act, draft legislation that would give Afghan evacuees with temporary status a pathway to permanent U.S. residence. Although the measure has been introduced in both chambers, it has yet to come up for a vote.

After the evacuation of Kabul in August 2021, the Biden administration partnered with nonprofit organizations to give Afghan refugees temporary assistance with housing, food and clothing and also help them to secure employment and qualify for health care.

Special Immigrant Visa

Approved by Congress more than a decade ago, the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) is for Afghans who worked as interpreters or guides for the U.S. military or were employed by the U.S. government or on its behalf in Afghanistan during the 20-year war. The SIV program leads to permanent residence and a path to naturalization for those Afghans and their families.

The number of SIVs available to people in Afghanistan is set by statute, and Congress can increase the number. In 2021, Congress approved 8,000 SIVs for Afghan principal applicants, bringing the total to 34,500 since 2014.

Since the start of the Biden administration through Nov. 1, 2022, the State Department has issued nearly 19,000 SIVs to principal applicants and their eligible family members, a department spokesperson told VOA on background via email. About 15,000 more SIV principal applicants are awaiting visa interviews, the step before being issued an SIV. About 48,000 more have submitted all of their documents and are awaiting the next step in the approval process.

The SIV program stumbled in the six months following the Taliban takeover in August 2021. During the evacuation, the program for Afghan nationals nearly ground to a halt when the U.S. embassy in Afghanistan suspended operations.

Afghan consular services were transferred outside Afghanistan. While some Afghans traveled to Pakistan to process their immigration cases and visa applications, some were flown to Qatar where they were processed for resettlement in the U.S.

A U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, who spoke to VOA in November on background and did not want to be named, said that of the 88,500 Afghans who resettled in the U.S., more than 77,000 were allowed into the U.S. for humanitarian reasons on a case-by-case basis. About half of them could be eligible to apply for or continue the SIV process in the United States.

Humanitarian parole

Humanitarian parole is special permission given to those hoping to enter the United States under emergency circumstances.

In the last 16 months, more than 50,000 Afghans living outside the United States applied for humanitarian parole, but fewer than 500 have been approved.

The DHS spokesperson told VOA that in a typical year, the United States receives about 2,000 requests for humanitarian parole from all nationalities. Of those requests, about 500-700 are approved annually. There are several reasons applicants are rejected, but most often it’s because they could not prove they were in an emergency situation.

The DHS official told VOA that humanitarian parole is not intended to replace the refugee resettlement channel, including the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP), which is the typical pathway for individuals who have fled their country of origin to come to the United States seeking protection.

Still, the DHS official said, the U.S. government recognizes that in some limited circumstances, the need for protection is “so urgent that obtaining protection via the USRAP is not a realistic option,” because some refugees are not able to leave their countries and start the application process.

Humanitarian parole for Afghans living outside the U.S. is still available, but according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the agency is “currently receiving an extremely high number of requests for parole” and that “petitioners should expect to wait significantly longer than 90 days for their parole request to be processed.”

Afghan evacuees who arrived in the U.S. without a visa or any proper documentation had to file for humanitarian parole because of the urgent humanitarian reasons at the time. They were given parole under the authority delegated to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Officers use discretion to grant humanitarian parole if the person requesting protection is at a U.S. Port of Entry.

To qualify for humanitarian parole, a foreign national must show examples of the urgent humanitarian circumstances they find themselves in, and it is limited to one year, but U.S. immigration officials can extend it another year.

Anyone admitted under the humanitarian parole designation is temporarily protected from deportation and allowed to apply for authorization to work. Humanitarian Parole does not confer permanent immigration status or constitute a path to U.S. citizenship.

Family reunification

On Nov. 14, the State Department launched a website with information for Afghans in the U.S. who want to reunite with family members still in Afghanistan.

Afghans who are naturalized U.S. citizens or who hold a lawful permanent residence card, also known as green card, can file petitions with the government to bring their direct relatives to the U.S. under immigrant visas that lead to permanent status.

Afghans who received humanitarian parole can petition to bring their spouse or minor children to the U.S. as refugees. Some may even be eligible to receive help from the U.S. government to leave Afghanistan.

The number of applications under family reunification was not readily available.

Refugee program

This August, the State Department announced a priority eligibility under the U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program for Afghans who worked for the U.S. government, U.S.-based nongovernmental organizations, or American news organizations.

The program provides a straightforward path to the refugee resettlement process, but the refugees must, on their own, first reach a third country where they can contact the State Department to begin the resettlement process.

According to DHS, the State Department is managing referrals to the refugee program, but there generally is no direct contact with the U.S. government before an applicant leaves Afghanistan.

Approved applicants will then receive travel documents and resettle in the United States.

Under U.S. immigration law, refugees may apply for green cards to become permanent residents after one year in the United States. After five years of permanent residency, they can apply for U.S. citizenship.

In the first two months of fiscal 2023, which began Oct. 1, 540 Afghans were resettled through the program. In fiscal 2022, that number was 1,618. In the last two months of fiscal 2021, which coincided with the Afghanistan evacuation efforts, 378 Afghan refugees resettled in the U.S.

Asylum

Afghans in the U.S. who are unable to become permanent residents can apply for asylum. Afghan humanitarian parolees would generally apply for affirmative asylum through a process done by the USCIS.

According to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, in general, “affirmative asylum cases have a somewhat lower average wait time,” but the current interview backlog is still at 1.6 million cases of asylum and other immigration applications.

The wait time for a hearing on an immigrant’s asylum claim is between two to six years. 
…

The Taliban rulers Saturday ordered domestic and international nongovernmental organizations in Afghanistan to immediately ban female staff from coming to work “until further notice.”  

The ministry of economy warned in a letter that work permits would be canceled for organizations that failed to implement the order, in the latest Taliban crackdown on women’s access to public life.  

Some of the organizations were not adhering to a mandatory Islamic hijab or dress code for their female staff, in line with instructions by the Taliban administration, according to the letter.  

Ramiz Alakbarov, the United Nations resident and humanitarian coordinator in Afghanistan, said he was “deeply concerned” about the ban on female NGO workers. A “clear breach of humanitarian principles,” he said on Twitter.  

Norway also swiftly condemned the Taliban directive.  

“This decision must be reversed immediately. Norway will review the situation with partners and issue an appropriate response,” tweeted Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs Anniken Huifeldt.  

Aid agencies say female workers are critical to ensuring women in the largely conservative Afghan society can access humanitarian assistance.

Education ban

Meanwhile, Taliban authorities in the western city of Herat, used a water cannon Saturday to disperse dozens of female students and women’s rights activists protesting the suspension of university-level education for girls in the country.

The protesters gathered in a central part of the city, which borders Iran, chanting slogans, and urging people to join them in pressing the Taliban to lift the ban. They chanted “education is our basic right under Islam” and “education for all or for none.”

The rally was marching toward to the provincial governor’s office but Taliban security forces used water-spraying vehicles to disrupt it. Social media video showed the women screaming and escaping the water cannon on a harsh winter morning.

The Islamist rulers announced Tuesday that they had suspended women from attending public and private universities across Afghanistan “until further notice.”  

The Taliban have closed secondary schools for girls beyond grade six since reclaiming control of the war-torn country in August 2021 and ignore relentless calls for letting the girls return to classrooms.  

This week’s suspension of female university education has triggered widespread international condemnation, with Muslim-majority countries also unanimously denouncing it and calling for its immediate reversal.

Friday, pro-Taliban prayer leaders in mosques in Mazar-e-Sharif, the capital of northern Balkh province, reportedly used loudspeakers to warn residents not to join protests of the suspension of girls’ education.

Dozens of women’s rights activists and female students have staged protests in the capital, Kabul and several provinces, demanding the removal of restrictions on women’s access to education and public life.  

Male students in several Afghan higher education institutions have walked out of classrooms and examination halls in solidarity with women, while many male teachers have resigned in protest since the ban on female university education became effective Wednesday.

Graeme Smith, an expert at the International Crisis Group, said Saturday the higher education ban may bring new sanctions on the Taliban and further compound problems facing the crisis-ridden South Asian nation.

“Damaging as this misogynistic policy will be to Afghan women, it will also hinder the country’s economic recovery from decades of war,” Smith warned.

“Afghanistan already suffers from shortages of female health care workers, teachers and other professionals, many of whom fled after the Taliban’s 2021 takeover for fear of precisely this sort of draconian measure,” the ICG expert added.  

The United States has said it is looking into additional measures to be imposed on the Taliban to further isolate the radical rulers for their “appallingly bad” decision to suspend Afghan women from participating in university-level education. Washington has also ruled out any relief in existing sanctions, including foreign travel bans, on Taliban diplomats.

The U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine said in a statement Friday that the Taliban’s denial of education to half of the Afghan population “is a misguided decision with potentially disastrous consequences for the future” of the impoverished country.

“Such restrictions not only constitute a gross violation of internationally guaranteed rights and freedoms, they have profoundly negative implications for Afghan women and girls and Afghanistan itself,” the statement said.   

The Taliban minister for higher education has pushed back against international criticism of the decision, saying foreigners should not interfere in Afghanistan’s internal affairs.  

Neda Mohammad Nadeem told Taliban-run state television Thursday that female university education would be restored when issues prompting the ban are resolved. He explained that mandatory gender segregation was not being observed on university campuses and certain subjects breached the principles of Islam. “Girls were studying agriculture and engineering in defiance of Afghan honor and Islam.”  

The Taliban have increasingly excluded women from public life despite repeated promises they would respect the fundamental rights of all Afghans. They have ordered women to cover their faces in public and to not visit health facilities or go on long road trips unless accompanied by male relatives.  

Women have been barred from public places like parks, gyms and baths. Most female government staffers have been told to stay home or have been rendered jobless.  

The radical group defends its governance, insisting it is strictly in line with Afghan culture and Islamic law, or Shariah.

No county has yet granted legitimacy to the men-only Taliban administration in Kabul over human rights concerns, especially the treatment of women.

The Taliban’s return to power has plunged the economy into turmoil and worsened an already bad humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, where U.N. agencies say millions face acute food shortages and urgently need aid. 
…

French serial killer Charles Sobhraj, responsible for multiple murders in the 1970s across Asia, arrived in France on Saturday after almost 20 years in prison in Nepal.

Nepal’s top court ruled on Wednesday that he should be freed on health grounds and deported to France within 15 days.

On Friday, he was released and put on a flight at Kathmandu airport to take him to Paris via Doha. While on the flight to Doha, he insisted to an AFP journalist that he was “innocent.”

Sobhraj’s life was chronicled in the series “The Serpent,” co-produced by Netflix and the BBC.

Posing as a gem trader, he would befriend his victims, many of them Western backpackers on the 1970s hippie trail, before drugging, robbing and murdering them.

“I feel great… I have a lot to do. I have to sue a lot of people. Including the state of Nepal,” Sobhraj told AFP on Friday onboard the plane.

Asked if he thought he had been wrongly described as a serial killer, the 78-year-old said: “Yes, yes.”

He landed in the French capital Saturday morning, an AFP reporter confirmed.

On arrival at Paris, he was taken away by border police for extra “identity checks,” according to an airport source.

The airport source said he was “not wanted” by the authorities in France and that once all the checks had been carried out, he would be able to leave the airport.

‘Bikini killer’

Born in Saigon to an Indian father and a Vietnamese mother who later married a Frenchman, Sobhraj embarked on an international life of crime and ended up in Thailand in 1975.

Suave and sophisticated, he was implicated in the murder of a young American woman, whose body was found on a beach wearing a bikini.

Nicknamed the “bikini killer,” Sobhraj was eventually linked to more than 20 murders.

He was arrested in India in 1976 and ultimately spent 21 years in jail there, with a brief break in 1986 when he drugged prison guards and escaped. He was recaptured in the Indian coastal state of Goa.

Released in 1997, Sobhraj lived in Paris, giving paid interviews to journalists, but went back to Nepal in 2003.

‘Karma’

He was spotted in a casino playing baccarat by journalist Joseph Nathan, one of the founders of the Himalayan Times newspaper, and arrested.

“He looked harmless… It was sheer luck that I recognized him,” Nathan told AFP on Thursday.

“I think it was karma.”

A court in Nepal handed Sobhraj a life sentence the following year for killing U.S. tourist Connie Jo Bronzich in 1975. A decade later, he was also found guilty of killing Bronzich’s Canadian companion.

Talking to AFP among bemused fellow Qatar Airways passengers on Friday, Sobhraj insisted he was innocent of the killings in Nepal.

“The courts in Nepal, from (the) district court to high court to supreme court, all the judges, they were biased against Charles Sobhraj,” he said.

“I am innocent in those cases, OK? So I don’t have to feel bad for that, or good. I am innocent. It was built on fake documents,” he added.

Thai police officer Sompol Suthimai — whose work with Interpol was instrumental in securing the 1976 arrest — had pushed for Sobhraj to be extradited to Thailand and tried for murders there.

But Thursday, Sompol told AFP he did not object to the release, as both he and the criminal he once pursued were now too old.

“I don’t have any feelings towards him now that it’s been so long,” said Sompol, 90.

“I think he has already paid for his actions.” 
…

Growing attacks on Pakistani security forces by terrorists operating from Afghan soil and frequent border clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan are testing Islamabad’s ties with the Afghan Taliban.

In a recent visit to Washington, Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said he would like the Afghan Taliban to demonstrate the will and capacity to curb terror groups operating from its territory, signaling that Pakistan would not hesitate to act against terrorists inside Afghanistan.

Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021, attacks by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, also known as the Pakistani Taliban or TTP, an offshoot and ally of the Afghan Taliban, have killed more than 500 people, mostly security personnel.

“As far as the TTP is concerned, it’s absolutely our red line, it is something that we will not tolerate, and without going further diplomatically on the record I would have to say that, absolutely, we would be willing to consider each and every single option to ensure the safety and security of our own people,” Bhutto Zardari said.

In April, Pakistan struck what it claimed was a TTP outpost in eastern Afghanistan. However, a large number of civilian deaths in the operation led to a strong reaction by the Afghan Taliban.

Wave of terror

Attacks inside Pakistan have increased since intermittent talks between the TTP and Pakistan, mediated by the Afghan Taliban, broke down and the terror group ended a roughly five-month cease-fire in late November.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for a recent incident in which several detainees at a counterterrorism detention center in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan, held security personnel hostage for hours, demanding safe passage to Afghanistan.

At least seven Pakistani security personnel died, including three from the elite Special Services Group that was called in to storm the compound once negotiations to free the hostages failed. Authorities reported killing 24 terrorists and arresting 10.

Crackdown on TTP

During the siege, the TTP chief issued a statement supporting the terrorists from his shelter inside Afghanistan.

Expressing frustration with the Afghan Taliban for allowing the TTP to operate in Afghanistan with impunity, Bhutto Zardari told an audience at Washington’s Atlantic Council that no Pakistani military operation against the TTP could succeed if the group’s fighters find safety across the border.

“Unless we have that sort of pincer effect on both sides of the border, no CT [counterterrorism] policy will be effective,” he said.

Analysts say Pakistan cannot expect the Afghan Taliban to crack down on the thousands of TTP fighters and leaders pushed into Afghan territory in past Pakistani military operations.

“The Afghan Taliban cannot tell the TTP that it’s OK for them [the Afghan Taliban] to have an emirate [Islamic state] on their [the Afghan] side of the border but it’s not OK for TTP to have one on the Pakistani side of the border. That will create problems for the Afghan Taliban. It undermines their credibility,” said Kamran Bokhari, security affairs expert at the Washington-based Newlines Institute.

The Afghan Taliban claim they are not providing safe space to any terrorist group in line with their pledge to the international community.

Border skirmishes

Confrontation is already happening between the two along the British-era border, which Pakistan formalized in recent years with fencing, but the Taliban refuse to recognize.

The Taliban also want less border control and free movement of locals on both sides.

Incidents of local Afghan fighters removing parts of the border fence began soon after the Taliban took control. Clashes turned particularly deadly in December when two attacks near the busy Chaman-Spinboldak crossing killed at least eight, mostly Pakistani civilians, and wounded more than 40.

Speaking to VOA in Washington, Bhutto Zardari said cooperation is the easier path to resolve the border conflict, “but obviously that is not the only route to deal with the problem.” He did not specify what other paths Pakistan could take.

Pakistan’s eastern border with archrival India is already heavily militarized.

“Recent border clashes have removed any illusion which Pakistani security establishment had that after the Taliban takeover, Pakistan’s western border will be secure,” Islamabad-based security affairs analyst Zahid Hussain told VOA.

Policy change

Experts say that as Pakistan’s internal and border security suffer under the Taliban, Islamabad is signaling its displeasure by calling out the hardline regime’s lack of inclusivity and its repression of women.

Bhutto Zardari has not visited Afghanistan since becoming foreign minister in April. In November, Pakistan sent the junior foreign minister, Hina Rabbani Khar, compelling the Taliban to meet with a woman.

No high-profile Taliban delegation has come to Pakistan in months.

But even as some Taliban factions view Islamabad with suspicion, and some see the TTP as an asset, Amir Rana, director of Islamabad-based Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies believes the regime will not risk its economic and political interests with Pakistan as “no other country, except Pakistan, is trying to make their regime recognized by the international community.”

Despite the diplomatic leverage, strengthening the Taliban’s hand over the years has weakened Pakistan, said Bokhari, noting that “Pakistan is worse off” as it is facing an insurgency.

For years, Pakistan supported various Taliban factions, particularly the lethal Haqqani Network, in an attempt to gain influence in Afghanistan. Islamabad hoped a friendly regime in Kabul would safeguard its interests against New Delhi.

Today, it is the Taliban that have that influence in Pakistan, said Hussain, as the hardline regime holds sway over religious and extremist groups present inside its neighbor.

Addressing the blowback of Pakistan’s past policy of supporting the Afghan Taliban, Bhutto Zardari told an audience in Washington: “I think everybody’s Afghanistan policy, whether it’s our Afghan policy or this country’s [the U.S.] Afghan policy, to put it diplomatically, has room for improvement.”
…

Confessed French serial killer Charles Sobhraj was freed from prison in Nepal on Friday after serving most of his sentence for the murders of American and Canadian backpackers.

Sobhraj was driven out of Central Jail in Kathmandu in a heavily guarded police convoy to the Department of Immigration, where he will wait for his travel documents to be prepared.

The country’s Supreme Court had ordered that Sobhraj, who was sentenced to life in prison in Nepal, be released because of poor health, good behavior and having already served most of his sentence. Life sentences in Nepal are 20 years.

The order also said he had to leave the country within 15 days.

Sobhraj’s attorney Gopal Siwakoti Chitan told reporters that the request for the travel documents must be made by the immigration department to the French embassy in Nepal, which could take some time. Offices are closed over the weekend for the Christmas holiday.

The court document said he had already served more than 75% of his sentence, making him eligible for release, and he has heart disease.

The Frenchman has in the past admitted killing several Western tourists and he is believed to have killed at least 20 people in Afghanistan, India, Thailand, Turkey, Nepal, Iran and Hong Kong during the 1970s. However, his 2004 conviction in Nepal was the first time he was found guilty in court.

Sobhraj was held for two decades in New Delhi’s maximum-security Tihar prison on suspicion of theft but was deported without charge to France in 1997. He resurfaced in September 2003 in Kathmandu.

His nickname, The Serpent, stems from his reputation as a disguise and escape artist.
…

India has begun randomly testing arriving international airline passengers for COVID-19.

The new measure is being initiated as China, India’s neighbor, is experiencing a surge in cases.

India has decided to test 2% of passengers arriving on international flights.

According to a report in The Times of India, the country’s Civil Aviation Ministry has advised airlines that their crew members are responsible for taking selected passengers to the airport facilities where the testing will take place.

The Indian Medical Association is urging people to get their booster shots, to wear masks in all public places and to avoid large public gatherings.

“Prevention is better than cure,” the association said in a statement.

Some information for this report came from AP and Reuters .
…

Defying the Taliban’s ban on university education for girls, dozens of Afghan women’s rights activists and female students on Thursday staged protests in Kabul, Takhar and Nangarhar provinces. VOA’s Munaza Shaheed reports from Washington.
…

Across the globe, people are on the move as a hectic Christmas and New Year’s holiday travel season is in full swing. December and January are among the busiest months for global aviation, with passenger traffic this year expected to be the highest since travel restrictions were imposed because of the pandemic.

“This is the first time visiting my relatives for the holidays in three years,” Lyla Singh of Aldie, Virginia, told VOA. She arrived at Dulles International Airport outside Washington nearly four hours before her flight to New Delhi. “With so many people traveling and fewer airline staff means you really have to be patient.”

Like other countries, air travel to and from India has picked up since COVID-19 restrictions eased.

“I was going to avoid the crowds and travel overseas in March but wanted to see my family when they all gather,” Singh said.

In other parts of Asia, tens of millions of people are traveling by air, road and rail. China is expecting a surge in domestic travel after the country relaxed its zero-COVID pandemic control measures earlier in December.

The government eliminated many requirements, including frequent virus testing, and relaxed quarantine rules. The moves came as China prepares for Lunar New Year festivities in January, the country’s busiest travel season.

Economic boost

Analysts believe a surge in vacationing will help China’s ailing economy. Chinese state media quoted Chen Linan, a spokesperson for China-based online travel site Ctrip, as saying, “The increase in travel New Year’s Day and during the Spring Festival could be the biggest turning point in China’s tourism sector in three years.”

In Europe, travel experts foresee the busiest Christmas travel season in years after a protracted period of disruptions because of COVID-19 lockdowns.

“There’s a strong demand for Christmas travel, with ticket revenue up 18%,” Johan Lundgren, CEO of British airline easyJet, told Reuters. The airline also expects more passengers will take to the skies in the first part of 2023.

London’s Heathrow Airport lifted its 100,000 daily passenger limit to avoid major disruptions at the end of October and said it would not cap passenger numbers for the Christmas peak travel time.

Industry observers still warn travelers to prepare for potential labor disputes by transportation workers and staff shortages at European airports and rail stations that could cause cancellations. Two of Air France’s cabin crew unions that failed to reach a contract agreement last October filed to take strike action at any time from Thursday to January 2. The French air carrier issued a statement pledging to maintain a full schedule, adding it hoped to avoid cancelations or delays.

US holiday travel

More than 112 million Americans will travel during the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, according to AAA, a travel services company. Of those, more than 7 million will fly.

“I’m glad to be flying out to Atlanta before the bad weather arrives,” said Washington resident Todd Brunson, who booked his flight several days before the Christmas holiday. “I find the closer you get to Christmas, chances increase you won’t get to your destination on time.”

According to AAA, 2022 is shaping up to be the third-busiest year for holiday travel in the United States since it began tracking numbers in 2000.

The trepidations that holiday travel could get worse grew as weather forecasters predicted disruptions stemming from a fierce winter storm sweeping across the country, affecting 180 million people in 40 states. The storm brought treacherous road conditions and caused thousands of flights to be canceled.

“There’s snow in Kansas City waiting for us, so we are little bit nervous about getting there, but I think we are going to beat it, so we’ll be OK,” Lindsay Bittfield, who was flying from New York City, told WABC-TV.

Chicago, a major airline hub, is bracing for high winds, subzero temperatures and possibly 30 centimeters of snow before Christmas.

“We prepared well in advance for whatever weather conditions come, whether it’s snow, rain or wind,” said Karen Pride, director of media relations for the Chicago Department of Aviation. “We have 350 pieces of snow removal equipment that’s ready to clear snow on runways and around the airport.”

In anticipation of the storm, airlines rerouted flights and issued weather waivers that allow passengers to reschedule their flights without incurring fees.

“I’m keeping my fingers crossed,” Brunson said. “I just hope the joy of the season won’t be spoiled by any travel headaches.”
…

From Saudi Arabia to Turkey, Muslim countries have unanimously condemned the Afghan Taliban’s ban on higher education for women.

The Taliban announced Tuesday that they had banned women from attending public and private universities. The Islamist leadership closed secondary schools to girls more than a year ago.

Taliban officials have said their policies are based on Islamic jurisprudence, a claim many majority Muslim countries and Islamic scholars reject.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs expresses the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s astonishment and regret at the decision of the Afghan caretaker government to deny Afghan girls the right to university education, and calls on it to reverse this decision,” read a statement issued Tuesday.

The United Arab Emirates said the ban on university attendance by women and “earlier bans on girls from accessing secondary education violate fundamental human rights, contravene the teachings of Islam and must be swiftly reversed.”

Turkey, Pakistan, Indonesia, Qatar and many other governments across the Muslim world have made similar statements decrying the Taliban’s ban on women’s work and education.

On Wednesday, the Organization for Islamic Cooperation said, “The OIC, though still committed to its engagement policy with the de facto administration, cannot but denounce the decision, calling on Kabul authorities to reverse it for the sake of maintaining consistency between their promises and actual decisions.”

No country or Islamic organization has backed the Taliban’s policy on women’s education and work thus far.

On Thursday, U.S Secretary of State Antony Blinken praised what he called a global chorus, including from Islamic countries, in condemnation of the Taliban’s ban.

“There are going to be costs if this is not reversed,” Blinken told reporters in Washington on Thursday but gave no details.

The ban, if not reversed, will damage Taliban’s prospects of improved relations with the international community, Blinken said.

In a joint statement released Thursday, foreign ministers of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the U.S. decried the Taliban ban.

“We urge the Taliban to immediately abandon the new oppressive measures with respect to university education for women and girls and to, without delay, reverse the existing decision to prohibit girls’ access to secondary school,” the statement said.

Afghans inside and outside Afghanistan have also widely condemned the Taliban policy.

Some male university lecturers have resigned to protest the policy, while female students have protested outside university campuses in different parts of Afghanistan.

Ashraf Ghani, the former Afghan president who escaped the country as the Taliban seized power in August 2021, has called the denial of higher education for women “a vivid sign of gender apartheid in the 21st century.”

Taliban reasons

In an interview with the Taliban-run state broadcaster of Afghanistan, the Islamist regime’s minister for higher education, Neda Mohammad Nadeem, gave four reasons for the ban on higher education for women.

Dormitories where female students stayed without qualified male chaperones, mixed-gender classes, women’s studies of subjects like engineering and agriculture, and overall poor compliance with female face and body covering rules “forced the leadership to close the universities until further instruction,” Nadeem said.

Nadeem did not say when, if ever, the ban would be lifted.

“Allah will bring such a day when all schools and universities will be opened for all. Do not despair. The country’s education system will be organized, independent, advanced and free of all kinds of corruption,” a Taliban official tweeted in the Pashto language on Thursday.

Taliban leaders have justified their gender segregating governance as being in line with Islamic laws and teachings. However, Afghanistan is the only Muslim country in the world where women are not allowed to go to secondary schools and universities.

Human rights groups say the Taliban’s policies are aimed at erasing women from public and political spheres in Afghanistan.

Despite being in control of all of Afghanistan for over a year, the Taliban’s de facto government has failed to gain recognition from any other country and most Taliban leaders are under terrorism-related international sanctions.
…

A Rohingya activist group reported Wednesday that a powerless boat carrying more than 150 Rohingya refugees has been located close to Aceh, Indonesia. Two days ago, the vessel was reported drifting in Indian waters around Andaman Islands without food and water.

“The boat is no longer located in India’s SAR region but close to Aceh, in Malaysia’s SAR region,” Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project, which works in support of Rohingyas and monitors the movement of the refugees around southeast Asia, told VOA.

On December 16, the United Nations issued a statement urging countries in the region to assist the boat, which had sailed from Bangladesh and had been drifting without power for two weeks around the Andaman Sea.

“Several reports indicate dozens of people have already died during this ordeal, while survivors are hungry and thirsty without access to food and water and suffering from sickness,” the U.N. statement said. “Quick action is needed to save lives and avoid further deaths.”

‘We are starving to death’

On Tuesday, quoting Rohingya support groups and a Bangladesh-based Rohingya activist, news reports said that the boat, with its engine not functioning for several days and carrying around 150 refugees was stranded off India’s Andaman Islands.

Mohammed Rezuwan Khan, a Rohingya activist in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, where more than 1 million Rohingya refugees live in squalid camps after fleeing violence in Myanmar, told reporters on Tuesday that he had spoken to the captain of the boat by phone on Sunday and knew that for eight to 10 days they had been without food and water and three people had died.

Khan said the captain of the boat told him: “Please arrange to rescue us immediately. We are starving to death.”

Khan told VOA Tuesday that the boat had left Bangladesh in November and was bound for Indonesia from where the refugees had planned to land in Malaysia.

“As I spoke to the boatman, I overheard men and women passengers crying for help. ‘We are starving to death. Please rescue us.’ They were crying,” Khan told VOA.

Reuters, quoting Lewa of Arakan Project, reported early Wednesday that as many as 20 people on the boat might have died.

Adrift up to three weeks

While many were speculating that the boat soon would be rescued by the Indian Coast Guard in Indian waters, Arakan Project reported to VOA late Wednesday that the disabled boat had been spotted close to Aceh, the northern tip of Indonesia, in the previous few hours and had not yet received any aid.

“This Rohingya boat in distress has now been adrift for up to three weeks despite repeated appeals for rescue,” Lewa told VOA.

She said that it was appalling that several countries in the ASEAN region had not bothered to search for the refugees and provide basic life-saving assistance even though its location had been transmitted on a regular basis.

“For the sake of humanity, I urge Malaysia and/or Indonesia to immediately send a rescue mission and allow them to disembark safely,” she added.

To escape hardship in the congested refugee camps in Bangladesh, many Muslim Rohingyas seek to flee to Muslim-majority Malaysia, where several thousand members of the community live. Human traffickers operate illegal boat ferries across the sea to take refugees from Bangladesh to Malaysia.

The journey aboard the illegal ferries is fraught with life-threatening risks, and hundreds have died during the journey in the past years.

According to a U.N. refugee agency report, since January this year, at least 161 mostly Rohingya refugees died or went missing during their perilous journey from Bangladesh and Myanmar to Malaysia.
…

Nepal’s Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the release, due to his age, of Charles Sobhraj, a French national known as “the serpent” who police say is responsible for a string of murders in the 1970s and 1980s.

Sobhraj, 78, has been linked to the murders of over 20 young Western backpackers across Asia, usually by drugging their food or drink. He had completed 19 years of his 20-year sentence.

Known as the “bikini killer,” Thailand issued a warrant for his arrest in the mid-1970s on charges of drugging and killing six women, all wearing bikinis, on a beach at Pattaya.

He was also called “the serpent” because of his ability to disguise himself following his escape from a prison in India in the mid-1980s, where he was serving 21 years on murder charges. He was later caught and jailed there until 1997.

Last year, the BBC and Netflix NFLX.O jointly produced a TV series dramatizing his crimes called “The Serpent.”

Sobhraj returned to France after his release from India and in 2003 was arrested from a casino in Nepal’s capital Kathmandu and later charged there for murdering American backpacker Connie Jo Bronzich. He has been held in a high-security jail in Kathmandu since 2003.

On Wednesday, Supreme Court judges Sapana Pradhan Malla and Til Prasad Shrestha ordered that Sobhraj be freed and deported from Nepal, after 19 years in prison.

“The court has ordered that if there is no other reason to keep him in jail, he should be released and sent back to his country within 15 days,” the Supreme Court’s spokesperson Bimal Paudel said.

Convicts sentenced to life imprisonment in Nepal usually serve 20 years in jail.

“He had already served 95% of his jail term and should have [been] released earlier due to his age,” Sobhraj’s laywer Ram Bandhu Sharma said, adding that Sobhraj could be released from prison by Thursday.
…

Female university students in Afghanistan returned to campuses Wednesday morning as usual but left in tears after being turned away by Taliban security forces, citing an overnight ban on their higher education.

The Islamist Taliban regime announced late on Tuesday that public and private universities across the country were being closed to female students until further notice, in the latest assault on Afghan women’s access to education and public life.

The suspension of higher education for female students has outraged Afghans and the international community, who say the Taliban appear bent on isolating the country under their men-only administration.

Witnesses in the Afghan capital, Kabul, saw students crying and hugging each other at the gates of several higher education institutions, including the historic Kabul public university, in the morning after being told they were not allowed to attend class. Similar scenes were witnessed elsewhere in the conflict-ravaged and impoverished South Asian country.

“I came to know about the ban only this morning when I reached the campus and there was a large number of Taliban forces at the entrance turning away female students,” a final-year student told VOA requesting anonymity for security reasons and with tears in her eyes.

A private university student who identified herself as Fatima, told VOA they were due to take their final year exams but were prevented from entering the campus.

“All of us were crying and refusing to leave the gates for several hours, and begging Taliban authorities to let us take our exams, but all went in vain,” Fatima lamented.

The United States swiftly condemned what it called the Taliban’s “indefensible decision” to ban women from universities and warned of consequences for the Islamist rulers.

“No other country in the world bars women and girls from receiving an education. The Taliban’s repressive edicts have resulted in inexcusable restrictions on Afghan women and girls, including on their access to schools,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement on Tuesday.

“The Taliban cannot expect to be a legitimate member of the international community until they respect the rights of all in Afghanistan. This decision will come with consequences for the Taliban,” Blinken added without elaborating.

Since returning to power 16 months ago, the Taliban have increasingly excluded women out of public life despite repeated pledges they would respect fundamental rights of all Afghans. They have ordered women to cover their faces in public and to not visit health facilities or go on long road trips unless accompanied by male relatives.

Women have been barred from public places like parks, gyms and baths. Most female government staff have been told to stay home or have been rendered jobless. Teenaged girls beyond grade six have been banned from attending secondary schools.

“By preventing girls from attending high school and now universities; Taliban have demonstrated they have nothing but a vision of darkness for Afghanistan,” said Torek Farhadi, an Afghan official and political commentator.

The Norwegian Refugee Council charity group said Wednesday it was “appalled” by the latest Taliban restriction on women.

“Closing universities to women is a giant step in the wrong direction that will devastate their futures and the future of the country. We call on the Taliban authorities to immediately lift this and other restrictions on access to education,” Neil Turner, the charity’s Afghanistan director, was quoted as saying.

Neighboring Pakistan, which maintains close ties with the Taliban regime, urged Afghan authorities Wednesday to revisit the ban on university and higher education for women.

“Pakistan is disappointed to learn about the suspension of university and higher education for female students in Afghanistan,” said a foreign ministry statement in Islamabad.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was ” deeply alarmed” by the Taliban’s suspension of access to universities to women and girls, his spokesman said Tuesday.

Guterres reiterated that “the denial of education not only violates the equal rights of women and girls but will have a devastating impact on the country’s future.”

The recent revival of public floggings and executions of convicts stemmed from a directive Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada issued last month to the Taliban judiciary to begin applying Sharia Islamic law to criminal justice.

Since then, nearly 140 people, including women, have been flogged in crowded sports stadiums across several Afghan provinces for crimes such as adultery, gay sex and theft.

This month, in a western province, the Taliban staged their first public execution of a convicted murderer since they came to power in August 2021. The public punishments have angered the global community, but the Taliban rejected the outcry and defended the act as strictly in line with Islamic law, a claim questioned by scholars in rest of the Muslim majority countries.

The return of the Taliban has worsened an already bad national humanitarian crisis, with millions of Afghans facing food shortages, and pushed the country’s economy to the brink of collapse because of financial sanctions and the suspension of development aid.

Blinken noted in his statement on Tuesday that Afghanistan is already annually losing more than $1 billion in contributions that women could be making to the economy.

“Now the Taliban have sentenced the Afghan people to these losses and more. No country can thrive when half of its population is held back,” Blinken said. 
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