Security officials said the operation targeted militants in the Mastung area of Baluchistan province who were alleged to have been behind a bomb attack Friday that left three people dead and six injured
…

Pakistan said Saturday that it had formally protested to the United States over remarks by President Joe Biden questioning the safety of Islamabad’s nuclear weapons.

“We have summoned the ambassador of the United States to Pakistan, Mr. Donald Blome, to the foreign office Pakistan for an official demarche,” Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari told a news conference in Karachi.

Biden told a Democratic Congressional fundraiser Thursday night that Pakistan “may be one of the most dangerous nations in the world” for possessing “nuclear weapons without any cohesion.”

The White House published Friday the transcript of the president’s address in California, which has since sparked outrage in the nuclear-armed South Asian nation.

“As far as the question of the safety and security of Pakistan’s nuclear assets are concerned, we meet all, each and every international standard in accordance with the IAEA,” Zardari reaffirmed.

Zardari apparently confused his country ‘s nuclear weapons program with the civilian nuclear program because Pakistan’s weapons-based nuclear development is not under the IAEA monitoring.

He said he was surprised by Biden’s statement and attributed it to a “misunderstanding” that Zardari said stemmed from a lack of engagement between Islamabad and Washington.

At the same time, the foreign minister attempted to downplay the significance of the remarks, saying Biden did not make them at an official function or in an address to his nation.

“We should allow them an opportunity to explain this position. I don’t believe that this should negatively impact the relations between Pakistan and the United States,” Zardari noted.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre defended as “nothing new” the remarks made by the president, saying he “views a secure and prosperous Pakistan as critical to U.S interests.”

Zardari traveled to the U.S. this month where he held wide-ranging talks with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, marking the 75th anniversary of bilateral relations between the two countries.

But opposition leaders led by Pakistan’s populist former prime minister, Imran Khan, slammed Present Biden for questioning the security of the nuclear weapons.

“Unlike the U.S., which has been involved in wars across the world, when has Pakistan shown aggression, especially post-nuclearsation?” Khan asked on Twitter.

He also questioned assertions made by the Pakistani government that it had “reset” bilateral relations with the United States, calling the American president’s statement a “total failure” of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s foreign policy.

Khan, a known harsh critic of the U.S.-led military invasion of Pakistan’s neighbor, Afghanistan, was removed from office in April of this year in a parliamentary no-confidence vote advanced by the Sharif-led then-opposition alliance.

The ousted cricket-star-turned-politician alleges without evidence that the vote was orchestrated by Washington in collusion with Sharif and the Pakistani military. Both Washington and Islamabad deny the accusation.

Khan, 70, was still in power when Washington withdrew all U.S. forces from Afghanistan in August 2021 after almost two decades of war with Taliban insurgents, who have since seized control of the conflict-torn country.

Pakistan was a U.S. ally in the war and provided its ground, as well as air routes, to ferry crucial supplies for tens of thousands of U.S.-led international forces in landlocked Afghanistan. But some in Washington say Islamabad’s military and intelligence agencies covertly aided the Taliban to enable them to sweep back to power in Kabul, souring bilateral relations.

Pakistan’s close military and economic partnership with China is also a cause of concern for Washington. U.S. officials repeatedly have warned that Beijing’s billions of dollars of investment in developing Pakistan’s infrastructure and power plants under China’s Belt and Road Initiative could end up being a “debt trap” for Islamabad.

Pakistani and Chinese officials dismiss those concerns. China also maintains deep military cooperation with Pakistan.

Beijing has built several nuclear power plants to help the neighboring country meet its energy shortages. The nuclear cooperation is strictly in line with IAEA requirements and safeguards, officials in both countries maintain.

“Ever since May 1998, when Pakistan first began testing nuclear weapons, claiming its national security demanded it, American presidents have been haunted by the fear that Pakistan’s stockpile of nukes would fall into the wrong hands,” wrote the Brookings Institution on its website late last year.

“That fear now includes the possibility that jihadis in Pakistan, freshly inspired by the Taliban victory in Afghanistan, might try to seize power at home,” wrote the author of the statement at the nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington.
…

In a remote village in India, a siren can be heard from the local temple every night at 7 p.m. — signaling the commencement of a daily “digital detox.” For the next 90 minutes, the population of 3,000 in Sangli district’s Mohityanche Vadgaon lays aside all the electronic gadgets in the vicinity, including mobile phones and television sets.

The second siren goes off at 8:30 p.m., indicating the end of the intermission. Until then, the villagers are encouraged to focus on activities such as reading, studying and engaging in verbal conversation with one another.

Proponents of the initiative carried out at a village in the Maharashtra state of India say it is the solution to the “screen addiction” afflicting residents in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and brings back the value of human connection.

The tactic was devised by Vijay Mohite, “the sarpanch” (Indian head of the village council) at Mohityanche Vadgaon.

Jitender Dudi, the chief administrator of district development in Sangli, brought Mohite’s idea into fruition.

‘Mobile phone addicts’

Jayawant Mohite, who retired from teaching at school in the village two months ago said that the children turned into what he called “mobile phone addicts” after the COVID-lockdowns started and they were made to attend classes online, using mobile phones, in 2020.

“Students were found engrossed in their mobile phones for hours, even after online classes ended for the day. Once regular offline classes began last year, most of them were very inattentive in the classes and were found losing interest in academics,” the former teacher told VOA.

“After interacting with the families of the students, we discovered that they were still spending long hours on their mobile phones before and after school hours. We counselled them and their families, but could not wean the students off their mobile phones. Finally, we approached the ‘sarpanch’ of our village and apprised him of the situation,” Mohite said.

The concerned schoolteachers of the village also told the sarpanch that if the habit of overusing or misusing mobile phones by the students was not controlled swiftly, the future of the students would be doomed.

Dr. J.R. Ram, a clinical psychiatrist in Kolkata, said, “extended screen time can result in several adverse effects, but during the pandemic, the forced incarceration of young people at home has amplified its impact.”

He said that it becomes an obstacle for students’ progress in learning.

“Surfing on the internet—that is, multi-tasking deprives students of their ability to concentrate for longer periods when they need to study,” Ram said. “They get used to scrolling on social media, watching videos and exchanging text messages during classes. Such a situation can have negative consequences on one’s cognition or thinking ability.”

Sarpanch Mohite told VOA that he held meetings with other village leaders and started devising strategies to stop the misuse and overuse of the technology by the students.

“Some leaders said that it was impossible to distance the children from their mobile phones, adding that they had never heard of any community that had succeeded in such an initiative. Some other leaders said that we should try to do something. ‘There’s nothing to lose, in case we fail,’ they said,” Mohite said.

The villagers, however, were won over by the collaborative awareness program orchestrated by the village council employees, retired schoolteachers, anganwadi (rural childcare center) workers and members of Accredited Social Health Activist- a nation-wide community health service network, or ASHA, composed of female community health workers.

The women in the village played a crucial role in the digital detox initiative.

“We gathered the village women, including the mothers of the students, and explained to them how the misuse of mobiles was destroying the future of the children,” Sarpanch Mohite told VOA. “When we proposed the idea of a digital detox, they all agreed with our concerns about the children and supported our idea, too.”

ASHA workers, who were also instrumental in persuading the villagers to embrace the idea of a digital detox, are local women trained to create awareness on health issues in their communities, according to the National Institute of Health and Welfare, India.

‘Mandatory practice’

The daily digital detox is now observed as a mandatory practice by the residents of Mohityanche Vadgaon, with a locality-wise team ensuring that every villager is adhering to the discipline.

“In August, we made a public announcement, requesting the villagers to help implement the ‘No Mobile, No TV, for 1.5 Hours Daily’ proposal. On August 15—observed as Independence Day in India—we introduced Digital Detox at our village in our style.

“Initially, some families were not cooperating. But, in such cases, their neighbors would report the cases to our village leaders, and our volunteers would immediately arrive at the houses of those families to convince them otherwise.

Every family at the village is now complying with our digital detox rule,” Vijay Mohite told VOA.

“After we have got a very good response from the villagers, we are pondering over an idea to extend the ‘No mobile, No TV’ time to two or even 2.5 hours in near future,” the sarpanch added.

Word on the initiative at Mohityanche Vadgaon has traveled fast that five other villages in Sangli district have emulated Mohite’s concept and implemented similar steps.

Rajubhai Mujawar, a resident of a nearby Nerli village, said that a daily ban on mobile and TV for 90 minutes will be introduced where he lives soon.

“The children have become mobile addicts. We have decided to introduce the rule of ‘No mobile, No TV’ for 1.5 hours daily in our village soon, following what Mohityanche Vadgaon village has done,” he said.
…

A roadside bombing and a separate gun attack Friday in southwestern Pakistan killed at least four people, including a former chief justice.

The deadly late-evening violence occurred in sparsely populated Baluchistan province, which borders Iran and Afghanistan.

Officials said that an improvised explosive device hit two vehicles carrying civilians and security forces in the Mastung district, about 75 kilometers southeast of the provincial capital, Quetta. The blast killed three people and wounded five others, including security forces.

No one immediately claimed responsibly for the roadside bombing.

Separately, senior provincial police officials said gunmen ambushed and killed a former chief justice of the high court in Baluchistan while he was returning home after offering evening prayers at a mosque in his native Kharan district.

An outlawed insurgent group, the Baluch Liberation Army, claimed responsibility for the assassination of Muhammad Noor Meskanzai.

The slain judge had retired in May as chief justice of Pakistan’s constitutional Islamic court, known as the Federal Shariat Court, which is separate from the civil courts and has the power to examine whether national laws comply with tenets of Islamic law.

Ethnic Baluch insurgent groups routinely carry out attacks against Pakistani security forces and government officials in Baluchistan. The insurgents claim they are fighting for the independence of the impoverished province that is rich in natural resources.

Pakistani officials maintain that years of security operations have largely degraded the Baluch insurgency, though attacks in the region persist. Islamabad accuses archrival India of supporting the insurgents, charges New Delhi denies.

Baluchistan is lately at the center of a massive China-funded development program, which has built road networks and power plants in Pakistan over the past seven years.

The multibillion-dollar collaboration is known as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, an extension of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative. It also has developed Baluchistan’s strategically located deep-water Gwadar Port on the Arabian Sea, which is operated by Beijing’s state-run China Overseas Ports Holding Company.
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Hundreds of rights activists, journalists, and representatives of civil society organizations have rallied in Bishkek in support of independent media following a demonstration threatening free media in front of the RFE/RL office in the Kyrgyz capital.

The demonstrators gathered near Bishkek’s railway station on Friday and marched to the parliament building in the city’s central square chanting “Freedom of speech!” 

The day before, about 40 people, many of whom covered their faces and avoided being filmed, rallied in front of the RFE/RL office in Bishkek demanding its closure along with the two independent media outlets Kloop and Kaktus Media.

They also demanded restrictions on the activities of nongovernmental organizations in the country, calling the media outlets “enemies of our people.” The group’s leader, Ilimbek Israilov, threatened to “burn down” the RFE/RL office.

He also threatened to spray gasoline on RFE/RL reporters and use force against them.

Several Kyrgyz lawmakers supported the idea of shutting down independent media and restricting the activities of nongovernmental organizations. However, several other members of parliament criticized such talk.

The chair of a nongovernmental group called the Commission of Media Complaints, Tamara Valieva, told RFE/RL that lawmakers who supported restrictions on independent media should give up their seats.

“Our media in the [Central Asian] region is most powerful and free. That is our major breakthrough. Our most important achievement is the presence of independent media outlets and freedom of speech in our country,” said Valieva, who participated in the October 14 show of support for media freedoms.

“And now, some want to take that freedom from us… Only shortsighted people do not understand that strong media means a strong country,” she added.

Some in the demonstration echoed RFE/RL President Jamie Fly’s demand that an investigation into threats made against RFE/RL journalists is carried out.
…

After imposing a series of restrictions on Afghan journalists, including mandatory face masks for female television anchors, the Taliban now appear to be targeting foreign journalists they deem biased and critical of their governance.

In the latest move, Taliban authorities banned Stefanie Glinski, a freelance journalist, from returning to Afghanistan. Glinski had covered Afghanistan for various international media outlets over the past four years and recently reported on the desire of some Afghan women to flee Taliban rule.

“The Taliban contacted me regarding my work. I was told that ‘relevant [Taliban] departments have a few concerns’ & that they want ‘details.’ I was also accused of making allegations when I had clearly stated that it’s others making these allegations; I was simply reporting,” Glinski wrote on her verified Twitter account on October 10.

Glinski said the Taliban sought information, via WhatsApp, about her sources, but she refused, fearing doing so would put her contacts at jeopardy and compromise her journalistic integrity.

“They told me that the government will be holding all sides accountable from now onwards, and anyone found breaking the law or unable to substantiate reports […] will be dealt with according to the law, which includes cancellation of visas & non-entry to Afghanistan,” Glinski said on Twitter.

VOA reached out to Taliban chief spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid and foreign ministry spokesperson Abdul Qahar Balkhi for comment, but neither answered his phone.

Lynne O’Donnell, a columnist for Foreign Policy magazine who was briefly detained by the Taliban in July, says she was “threatened, abused, detained, interrogated and forced to make false confessions, on Twitter & on video.”

Speaking to VOA, O’Donnell condemned the Taliban as “liars, fantasists, murderers, drug dealers, and terrorists.”

“Why would they want the truth of their method of staying in power through violence, arbitrary detention, torture and killing with impunity to be revealed to the world by journalists with integrity when their biggest aspiration is to gain the diplomatic recognition that would give them legitimacy?” she asked.

Rejecting O’Donnell’s allegations, Taliban authorities have accused her of openly supporting anti-Taliban forces and “falsifying reports of mass violations” by Taliban forces.

In August, the Taliban also detained a Pakistani journalist working for an Indian channel when he was seen filming the site of a U.S. drone strike in Kabul where al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed.

An Indian journalist who did not want to be named told VOA she was fearful of the Taliban’s new vetting and security procedures and had therefore delayed her return to Afghanistan.

Not surprising, no coincidence

“If visas have been stopped or withdrawn, it’s hardly surprising,” said Yvonne Ridley, a British journalist and author who was detained for 11 days by the Taliban in 2001 for illegally entering Afghanistan.

She said many countries, including the United States, deny visas to journalists suspected of biased reporting. U.S. officials have occasionally barred entry to journalists in recent years, such as a Yemeni journalist who was denied entry for a Pulitzer Prize ceremony in 2019.

Ridley said she recently visited Afghanistan without facing any restrictions.

“I managed to get access to all key ministers, and a main focus of my last trip was interviewing ordinary Afghan women who had never been given the chance to voice their opinions or views, ever,” she told VOA.

The Taliban are widely condemned for their restrictions on women’s education, livelihood and rights, but some Taliban officials, including high-profile Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, have sat for exclusive interviews with foreign female journalists.

Most foreign media outlets left Afghanistan immediately after the Taliban seized power last year. An exodus of Afghan journalists has ensued as hundreds of Afghan media personnel have left the country over the past year.

At least 215 of the country’s 540 media outlets have closed because of financial, social and political problems since last year, according to Reporters Without Borders.

“Two female foreign journalists have been targeted [by the Taliban], and we don’t think it’s a coincidence,” Pauline Adès-Mével, editor in chief of Reporters Without Borders, told VOA. “We consider it a big problem.”

Holding power to account

Backed by foreign donors, Afghanistan had a vibrant media landscape and progressive press laws prior to the return of the Taliban to power last year.

While Taliban officials say they are committed to a free press within the boundaries of Islam, independent observers point to their actions in limiting media freedoms and the many restrictions the Taliban have imposed on journalists.

As access to facts becomes more difficult in Afghanistan, rumors and misinformation often distort descriptions of actual events in the country.

“Access to information is [a] basic and internationally recognized right of every human being, and that doesn’t exempt Afghanistan,” said Adès-Mével. She said an information blackout will not serve the Taliban.

From O’Donnell’s perspective, journalists should hold groups like the Taliban accountable for their actions.

“Those who are not doing that are not doing their job,” she said.
…

A new report finds half of all countries globally lack early warning systems that could save lives by alerting communities of impending disasters, including typhoons, droughts, and heatwaves. The joint report by the U.N. Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, or UNDRR, and the World Meteorological Organization is being released to mark the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction.

Extreme weather is increasing in frequency and intensity. The United Nations estimates up to 3.6 billion people live in areas that are highly vulnerable to climate change and related disasters. It says the number of recorded disasters has increased by a factor of five, driven in part by human-induced climate change and more extreme, unpredictable weather events.

The UNDRR predicts 560 disasters will take place annually by the year 2030. It warns the number of droughts will increase by 30 percent and the number of scorching heatwaves will triple by 2030.

Loretta Hieber Girardet is UNDRR’s chief of the risk knowledge, monitoring and capacity development branch. She says the best ways for communities to protect themselves and to adapt to climate change is to scale up early warning systems. Yet, she notes only half of the world has functioning systems in place.

“This means that one out of three people globally, primarily in small island developing states and least developed countries and six out of every 10 persons in Africa lack access to effective early warning systems,” Girardet said. “This is unacceptable.”

She says lack of early warning leads to loss of lives and livelihoods and unnecessary damage to assets. She says new data show disaster-related deaths are eight times higher in countries with limited early warning coverage than in those that have comprehensive systems in place.

“And yet we know that early warnings by only 24 hours can cut the ensuing damage by 30 percent…A climate-related hazard does not have to translate into a disaster,” Girardet said. “It becomes a disaster because communities are not prepared and because the vulnerabilities and exposures of that community has not been mitigated.”

Many early warning systems cover only one type of hazard, like floods or cyclones. However, given the many extreme, unpredictable climate-change-related events, the United Nations urges countries to invest in multi-hazard early warning systems. Such systems, it notes, can address several climate-induced disasters that may occur simultaneously.
…

A two-judge bench of India’s Supreme Court has expressed opposing views on whether students can wear the Muslim headscarf in classrooms, a contentious issue that had sparked widespread protests earlier this year and become a flashpoint over the rights of minorities.

The southern Karnataka state imposed a ban on students wearing the hijab in classrooms in February. It was challenged in the top court after another court upheld the government order on the ground that wearing the hijab is not an essential practice of Islam.

In the closely watched judgments delivered on Thursday, one judge said that authorities can enforce a uniform in schools, while the other held that the right to wear the hijab cannot be restricted by the state.

Justice Hemant Gupta upheld the ban saying that all communities should follow the dress code.  

Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia on the other hand said that the high court took a wrong path by focusing on whether the hijab was an essential religious practice and wearing it was “ultimately a matter of choice – nothing more and nothing less.”

He said that his focus was on education of the girl child, especially in rural areas and questioned whether the ban would make her life better.

Petitioners had expressed worries that girls might stop attending school if they were prevented from wearing the headscarf.

The issue will now go before a larger bench of three or more judges to settle.

The ban on the hijab in classrooms is not countrywide – it has only been enforced in Karnataka.

Following the split verdict, state authorities said that the ban will continue. “Our rules do not permit religious clothing inside the class,” Karnataka Education Minister B.C. Nagesh told reporters. Saying that “worldwide ladies are demanding they will not wear hijab, even in countries like Iran,” he expressed hopes that a verdict by a larger bench will support the ban.  

Defending the decision to stop girls from wearing the headscarf, the state’s Hindu nationalist government had told the Supreme Court that its decision was religion-neutral and aimed only at promoting uniformity and discipline.

Critics however had slammed the order calling it an instance of marginalization of the country’s Muslim minority under the Bharatiya Janata Party. India is home to 200 million Muslims, who make up nearly 14 percent of the population.

The controversy erupted after a government-run school in Karnataka’s Udupi district had stopped Muslim girls from attending class wearing the hijab in December last year. After Muslim students staged protests, the issue took on a religious dimension as Hindu activists staged counterprotests, demanding that the saffron shawl, a Hindu religious symbol should also be allowed in schools.

Supporters of the ban said that it was within the jurisdiction of schools to set dress codes which should take precedence over any religious practice.

But rights advocates and activists say it violates the fundamental right to education and privacy. “The uniform can never be more important than education. In a democratic country, it is a matter of choice whether a girl student wears the hijab or not,” said Zakia Soman, co-founder of a Muslim women’s rights group called the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan.

Activists said that comparisons with the anti-hijab protests in Iran were misplaced because wearing the hijab is not mandatory in India.

“I agree that the hijab is a patriarchal imposition and is not mandatory in Islam. But for a girl to understand that she requires education,” said Soman. “That opportunity for that girl to educate and empower herself can be thwarted by the ban on hijab.”

She said the split verdict reflected a country that was becoming increasingly polarized on religious lines.

With the top court failing to settle the issue, the debate will likely continue to rock India in the months to come.
…

Authorities in Pakistan arrested a veteran opposition lawmaker on sedition charges Thursday after he had criticized the country’s powerful military chief.

Senator Azam Swati, who represents the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party of former prime minister Imran Khan in the upper house of parliament, was taken into custody in a predawn raid on his residence in the capital, Islamabad.

A criminal complaint filed by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) against Swati under a controversial cybercrime law accuses him of tweeting a “highly obnoxious and intimidating message” against Pakistani armed forces and their chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa.

The 66-year-old senator’s tweet on Wednesday evening was a response to a court order in the eastern city of Lahore acquitting Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his son, Hamza Shehbaz, in a high-profile money laundering case.

“Mr. Bajwa congratulations to you and few with you. Your plan is really working and all criminals are getting free at cost of this country. With these thugs getting free You have legitimise(d) corruption,” Swati wrote on Twitter.

The FIA complaint against Swati alleged that he “intimidated” state institutions “by using false information, which is likely to incite, any officer, soldier,…to mutiny.”

“Such intimidating tweets of blaming and naming is a mischievous act of subversion to create a rift between personnel of the armed forces and an attempt to harm the state of Pakistan,” it added.

Pakistan’s so-called Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act-2016 makes online “defamation” of authorities, including the military and judiciary, a criminal offense with harsh penalties.

Swati appeared before a court in Islamabad, where the judge sent him to police custody for two days for further investigation and set the next hearing for Saturday.

Speaking to reporters outside the court, the senator said that his only crime was naming the army chief in his tweet. He accused security forces of torturing and stripping him naked before arresting him. Officials did not respond to the accusations nor could VOA independently verify them.

Defense attorney Babar Awan alleged his client’s house was raided without a search warrant by what he said were “midnight jackals” and condemned the arrest.

The PTI party condemned the arrest and demanded Swati be immediately released. The party alleged the arrest was part of a government crackdown on political opponents and dissenting voices in Pakistan.

Shahbaz Gill, a close aid of former prime minister Khan, was also arrested and allegedly subjected to custodial torture in August over allegations of “abetting mutiny or attempting to seduce a soldier, sailor or airman from his duty.” Gill was granted bail by a high court after five weeks in custody.

On Tuesday, a prominent Supreme Court attorney, Aitizaz Ahsan, in televised remarks, also blamed Bajwa for playing a role in the acquittal of Sharif family members. Authorities, however, have not yet taken any legal action against Ahsan, a central leader of the Pakistan People’s Party, which is a key partner in the Sharif-led coalition government.

“The cases against them (the Sharif family) are open and shut. Mr. Bajwa has helped them in quashing these cases and the way they are being acquitted makes Bajwa guilty of committing a serious crime,” Ahsan alleged while talking to reporters in Lahore.

Government officials have not yet commented on allegations levelled by both Swati and Ahsan.

Bajwa, who is due to retire in November, and his aides, maintain the military, which has ruled Pakistan for more than half of its 75 years of existence, has nothing to do with the political happenings in the country.

Khan was removed from office in April of this year in a parliamentary no-confidence vote advanced by the Sharif-led then-opposition alliance.

The ousted cricket-star-turned-politician alleges without evidence that the vote was orchestrated by the United States in collusion with Sharif and the Pakistani military. Both Washington and Islamabad deny the accusation.

Khan’s popularity has skyrocketed since his dismissal from power and tens of thousands of people have attended dozens of public rallies his party has organized in recent months. The populist opposition leader has been demanding early elections in Pakistan.
…

The United Nations said Wednesday that it had so far received $90 million, or only about 11%, of the $816 million total flash appeal to assist 9.2 million flood victims in Pakistan.

The pace of the arrival of the committed amount has slowed in the past two weeks, the U.N. lamented in a statement.

“We are responding with what we have, but it is not enough. We appeal to the world: Please speed up the response,” it said.

U.N. and Pakistani officials say the major concerns are outbreaks of waterborne diseases, nutrition, drinking water, shelter and food security in the aftermath of the climate change-induced flooding that has affected 33 million people in the country.

Pakistan could see as many as 2.7 million malaria cases in the 32 worst-hit districts by January 2023, and 5.74 million more people are a step or two away from famine, the U.N. warned.

The flooding submerged huge swaths of the country of about 220 million people, killed more than 1,700 people, including 639 children, washed away 800,000 homes and killed more than 1.1 million livestock.

“Seventy percent of those affected by the floods are women and children. Seventy-nine percent of crops in Sindh [province] are damaged completely. These are not just numbers in a vacuum but illustrate the scale of the damage,” Pakistani Climate Change Minister Sherry Rehman said Wednesday.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that 3.8 million hectares of cropland in Pakistan were inundated.

The Pakistani government estimates that the flooding destroyed at least 1.6 million hectares of farmland, and with large areas still underwater, new crops cannot be planted, particularly in the southern Sindh province.

The U.N. noted Wednesday that more than 350,000 small farms are in flood-hit areas, and if those farmers are unable to sow seeds in time, it will directly impact the food basket for all of Pakistan.

“The planting window is very short, starting now [October] till December, and farmers will need seeds and fertilizers immediately,” the U.N. said.

US cautions against aid misuse

Meanwhile, reports of corruption and theft of flood relief items, especially in Sindh, have prompted the United States, a major humanitarian aid contributor, to caution against such practices.

“This is something we take very seriously, not only in Pakistan but anywhere around the world where American taxpayer dollars are implicated and when there is an urgent humanitarian interest at stake, which is clearly the case, in terms of the response to the flooding in Pakistan,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said Tuesday.

Price told reporters in Washington that “adequate tracking mechanisms” were in place to ensure U.S. response activities were meeting the humanitarian need in Pakistan.

“We also are required to provide regular program updates on the progress of activities and any security concerns, and we require our partners to immediately report any potential diversions, seizures or losses immediately,” he said. “So, this is something we take very seriously.”
…

Afghanistan’s Islamist Taliban government Wednesday criticized new U.S. sanctions against some of its leaders as an “impediment to the development” of ties between the two countries.

The reaction comes a day after the United States announced a new visa restriction policy as punishment for current or former Taliban leaders and others “believed to be responsible for, or complicit in, repressing” Afghan women and girls through restrictive policies and violence.

“Such decisions can adversely affect bilateral relations,” a Taliban foreign ministry statement said. “All disputes should be resolved through diplomatic channels and decisions that do not serve the interest of the two sides should be reviewed,” it added.

The statement questioned the timing of the U.S. decision, saying it was announced after talks last week in Doha involving high-level officials of the two countries where “almost all important issues” were discussed in detail.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in unveiling the sanctions on Tuesday, said that immediate family members of such persons may also be subject to these restrictions.

Blinken called on other governments to join Washington in taking similar actions to collectively send a message to the Taliban that only a government that represents all Afghans and respects their human rights could be considered legitimate.

“As a grim example, for more than a year, Afghanistan remains the only country in the world where girls are systemically barred from attending school beyond the sixth grade, with no return date in sight,” he said.

“Despite public assurances that it would respect the human rights of all Afghans, the Taliban has issued and enforced a series of policies or edicts that effectively bar women and girls in Afghanistan from full participation in public life, including access to secondary education and work in most industries,” Blinken said.

The Taliban regained control of the country in August 2021 when U.S.-led international forces withdrew after 20 years of war with the then-insurgents.

The hardline group has since barred girls from returning to secondary schools across most of Afghanistan but women are allowed to attend public and private universities.

Foreign governments have not yet recognized the new government in Afghanistan over human rights and terrorism-related concerns.

The Taliban defend their policies, saying they are in line with Afghan culture and Islamic injunctions. They also say the male-only government represents all Afghan groups and dismiss allegations of human rights abuses as Western media propaganda against the Islamist group.

While peace has returned to much of the war-torn South Asian nation over the past year, Islamic State’s Afghan affiliate, known as ISIS-K, has stepped up terrorist attacks against members of the minority Shi’ite community and the Taliban, killing hundreds of people.

A powerful suicide bomb blast ripped through a packed school in the Afghan capital late last month, as students were preparing for university entry exams.

The United Nations says the bombing killed 53 people, mostly young women and girls, and injured scores of others.
…

Facing economic paralysis and a nationwide humanitarian crisis, Afghanistan needs to stay current on what it owes international economic institutions before it can receive critically needed foreign assistance. How much the country owes and who should pay off the debts are unclear.

Despite having no representation at the World Bank, the de facto Taliban government paid about $5 million to the bank in June toward Afghanistan’s debt.

Last month, the United States transferred $3.5 billion in Afghan central bank assets previously frozen in New York to a Swiss bank, and officials said some of the funds might be used to pay Afghanistan’s debts to international institutions.

Paying off debt that has come due will “unlock much greater resources for basic services in Afghanistan,” U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Thomas West said during a discussion last month at the Center for Strategic and International Studies while explaining the potential use of Afghan assets in safeguarding the country’s economy.

“Aid reception is contingent upon the scheduled loan repayments before it becomes an arrear or an outstanding loan,” Zia-u-Rahman Haleemi, a former Afghan representative at the World Bank, told VOA. “A very small amount in outstanding arrears could potentially block a huge amount in aid.”

A spokesperson for the World Bank did not answer a question about the extent of Afghanistan’s existing arrear but pointed to a 2018 report that put the country’s total debts to the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank at about $1 billion.

“Afghanistan has memberships in international bodies that have membership fees. If the Taliban do not pay those fees, then they could be paid from the Afghan funds,” Anwar ul-Haq Ahady, a former Afghan finance minister who now sits on the four-member board of trustees for the management of the Afghan funds in the Swiss bank, told VOA’s Afghan service recently.

A spokesman for the Afghanistan central bank received but did not respond to VOA’s questions about the Taliban’s willingness to pay current and future arrears to the World Bank and other international institutions.

Like most Western donors, the World Bank has stopped aid to Afghan state agencies and has instead channeled assistance programs and funds through the United Nations and international nongovernment organizations.

“All projects are being implemented off-budget outside of the interim Taliban administration,” a World Bank spokesperson told VOA, adding that the bank has given $893 million to U.N. agencies and NGOs.

Assets in European banks

Prior to the collapse of the former Afghan government, Afghanistan maintained more than $9 billion in financial assets, mostly in U.S. and European banks. The assets were used primarily to stabilize the Afghan currency market and address other national financial issues.

The Taliban’s return to power has scattered the national assets in different banks and under different, sometimes unclear, circumstances.

Half of Afghanistan’s $7 billion bank assets remain frozen in the U.S. due to ongoing litigation by families of some victim of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S., despite a recommendation by a federal judge that the funds were immune from the court’s jurisdiction.

About $2 billion in additional Afghan financial assets are frozen in European banks.

“I think the $2 billion held in Europe should be unfrozen and combined with the Afghan Fund [in the Swiss bank],” said Mohsin Amin, an Afghan policy analyst.

Like the U.S., European countries have refused to recognize the Taliban’s de facto leadership and have accused the Taliban of lacking legitimacy and perpetrating egregious human rights violations.

“There has not been any declaration by political leaders of the European countries where the $2.1 billion DAB [Da Afghanistan Bank] funds are held that they are ‘frozen.’ But in practice, it is exact that these $2.1 billion are out of reach of the DAB, as the private banks where they are located are not responsive to the DAB requests,” Jean-François Cautain, a former European Union ambassador, told VOA.

Save, but for how long?

Despite extricating half of the Afghan assets from litigation in the U.S. and the official announcements that the funds will be used to stabilize the Afghan economy, the overall preference is to save the money and not spend any amount on humanitarian or development needs, according to Ahady and West.

It is unclear how long the funds will remain dormant in the Swiss bank and how saving the assets will resuscitate the crippled Afghan economy.

U.S. officials have said that neither recognition of nor lifting sanctions on the Taliban is on their immediate agenda.

While defying widespread domestic and external calls for the formation of an inclusive government and respect to women’s rights, Taliban authorities have accused the U.S. of choking the Afghan economy.

Groups advocating a total release of Afghan assets say the asset freeze, financial sanctions and the Taliban’s bad governance have essentially paralyzed the Afghan economy, causing immense suffering for ordinary Afghans.

“While the $3.5 billion moved to Switzerland may be safeguarded from litigation in the U.S., the fundamentals have not changed. The Afghan economy and banking system remains paralyzed — at enormous human cost to regular Afghan citizens — because of political decisions taken by the U.S. and its allies,” United Against Inhumanity, an international organization advocating against war atrocities, said in a statement on October 4.

U.S. officials say the assets freeze and sanctions are targeting Taliban officials and that the U.S. has maintained robust humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan with more than $1 billion given to U.N. agencies and international NGOs.
…

A court in military-ruled Myanmar convicted ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi on two corruption charges Wednesday, according to people familiar with the matter. 

The new convictions included three-year sentences to be served concurrently. 

Suu Kyi was accused of receiving $550,000 in bribes from businessman Maung Weik. 

She has denied the charges and is expected to appeal. 

Suu Kyi was detained in February 2021 as the military ousted her government and seized power. 

Since then, Suu Kyi has been sentenced to more than 20 years in prison for a range of corruption convictions that her supporters say were politically motivated. 

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. 
…

The United States said it is reviewing Haiti’s request for security assistance amid spiraling insecurity and a deepening humanitarian crisis.  

The State Department’s top diplomat for the Western Hemisphere, Brian Nichols, is heading to the Caribbean Island nation on Wednesday to assess the situation. 

Heavily armed gangs control parts of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and have blocked access to the country’s main fuel terminal since mid-September. This has worsened the already dire humanitarian situation, affecting the availability of electricity, clean water, garbage collection and the ability of hospitals to operate. 

Last Friday, Haiti’s government authorized Prime Minister Ariel Henry to request the immediate deployment of an international specialized armed force to help stop the criminal gangs. The gangs are seeking to exploit the political vacuum left by the assassination of President Jovenel Moise at his home in Port-au-Prince on July 7, 2021. 

Tuesday, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said the United States is reviewing the prime minister’s October 7th request in coordination with international partners “to determine how we best can contribute to the removal of security constraints on medical and humanitarian measures aimed at halting the spread of cholera.” 

“We strongly condemn all of those who stand in the way of the equitable and immediate distribution of much-needed humanitarian supplies. This is a status quo that cannot persist,” said Price, while declining to say if the United States would consider sending forces, troops, or police to Haiti. 

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is backing Haiti’s call for an international armed force, providing support for the Haitian National Police.  

VOA’s United Nations correspondent Margaret Besheer contributed to the report. 
…

The United States announced new sanctions Tuesday against the Taliban as punishment for their repressive treatment of women and girls in Afghanistan.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken unveiled the new visa restriction policy for current or former members of the Taliban and others involved in repressing women through restrictive policies and violence.

Blinken made the announcement on the U.N.’s International Day of the Girl Child.

“As a grim example, for more than a year, Afghanistan remains the only country in the world where girls are systemically barred from attending school beyond the sixth grade, with no return date in sight,” Blinken said.

After returning to power in August 2021 following the retreat of U.S.-led forces, the hardline Taliban have barred girls from attending secondary school. But women are allowed to attend university.

A recent suicide bombing of a Kabul classroom killed and wounded dozens of students as they prepared for exams.

The United Nations has put the death toll at 53, including 46 girls and young women.

The bomber blew himself up next to women at a gender-segregated study hall packed with hundreds of students taking a practice test for university admissions.
…

Nobel Peace laureate Malala Yousafzai on Tuesday returned to her native Pakistan to meet flood victims, 10 years after a Taliban assassination attempt against her. 

Her visit — only the second since she was flown to Britain for life-saving treatment — comes as thousands of people protest in her hometown, where the same militant group is once again on the rise.  

Yousafzai was just 15 years old when the Pakistani Taliban — an independent group that shares a common ideology with the Afghan Taliban — shot her in the head over her campaign for girls’ education. 

Visit aims to remind world of need

On Tuesday, two days after the 10th anniversary of the attack, she landed in Karachi, from where she will travel to areas devastated by unprecedented monsoon flooding. 

Her visit aims “to help keep international attention focused on the impact of floods in Pakistan and reinforce the need for critical humanitarian aid,” her organization, Malala Fund, said in a statement. 

Catastrophic flooding put a third of Pakistan under water, displaced 8 million people, and caused an estimated $28 billion in damages. 

Yousafzai grew up in the town of Mingora in the deeply conservative Swat Valley, close to the border with Afghanistan.   

The Pakistani Taliban, known as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), waged a years-long insurgency there that ended with a major military crackdown in 2014.  

But there has been a resurgence in unrest since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in Kabul last year. 

The TTP has claimed dozens of attacks in recent weeks, mostly against security forces and anti-Taliban elders.  

“We are tired and can no longer carry dead bodies,” said Muhammad Ali Shah, the former mayor of Swat. 

“It is the responsibility of the state to protect its citizens and provide them with security, but the government’s silence on all these incidents is criminal.” 

More than 5,000 people blocked a main road through Mingora, sparked by the latest attack on a school bus on Monday, in which the driver was killed and a 10- or 11-year-old boy was wounded.  

The TTP has denied responsibility, and the police said they are investigating the motive.  

Students and teachers walked out of schools — including the school attended by Yousafzai that her father established — to call for peace. 

“Our protest will continue until the arrest of the killers. We will not rise from here until the top government officials assure us of justice and an end to militancy,” said Dr. Amjad Ali. 
…

Thousands of people in northwestern Pakistan took to the streets Tuesday for a second day to protest a surge in suspected militant attacks in the scenic Swat valley, fearing the violence could disrupt years of peace, development and tourist activities.

The mass demonstration came a day after an unknown assailant riding a motorcycle opened fire on a school van in Mingora, a central town in Swat. Police said Monday’s shooting left the driver dead and a student wounded.

Protesters, including students and teachers, kept the driver’s body on a main road and refused to bury it until their demands for preserving the peace were met.

“We demand peace on our soil,” the crowd chanted.

One placard at the protest read, “We cannot let the hard earned peace be destroyed.” Another read, “Act now against the attackers before it becomes too late.”

Later Tuesday, after a 40-hour sit-in, demonstrators agreed to disperse following negotiations with government officials that resulted in assurances that victims’ families would receive financial compensation, that all possible efforts would be made to arrest the shooter and restore peace in the area.

No one has claimed responsibly for Monday’s attack, but residents accused the outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also known as the Pakistani Taliban, of being behind the rise in violence in the area.

The TTP, which is the Pakistani offshoot of neighboring Afghanistan’s ruling Islamist Taliban, has denied responsibility. The extremist group, designated as a terrorist organization by the United Nations and the United States, has long waged attacks in Pakistan, killing thousands of civilians and security forces.

Swat used to harbor TTP strongholds until 2009, when a major military-led counterterrorism operation evicted the militants and restored government authority there.

In the years that followed, the impoverished region has seen sustained development, construction of new schools, educational institutions, sports grounds and a boom in local tourism.

The economic prosperity has effectively shrunk space for extremist forces in religiously conservative Swat, said local government officials and observers. They cited recent massive protests denouncing militancy, unlike in previous years when locals used to support TTP activities.

Pakistan in recent months has engaged the militant group in peace talks brokered and hosted by the Taliban government in Afghanistan, where fugitive TTP leaders are sheltering. But the peace process has not ended the violence, nor is it known if the talks remain on track.

Malala in Pakistan

The resurgent violence and ensuing pro-peace protests come a decade after Nobel Peace laureate Malala Yousafzai, who advocated for the education of Pakistani girls, was shot in the side of her head by the TTP while riding in a school van in her native Swat in 2012.

Yousafzai, who was 15 when she was attacked and received life-saving treatment in Britain, became a global education advocate and the youngest recipient of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize.

On Tuesday, she landed in the southern Pakistani city, Karachi, to visit the country’s flood-hit areas, her second visit to Pakistan since the shooting.

Her organization, Malala Fund, said in a statement it aims “to help keep international attention focused on the impact of floods in Pakistan and reinforce the need for critical humanitarian aid.”

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press.
…

Afghanistan, South Korea and Venezuela lost their bids Tuesday to serve three-year terms on the U.N. Human Rights Council.

With nearly all the 193-member states voting in the General Assembly, Algeria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Chile, Costa Rica, Georgia, Germany, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Morocco, Romania, South Africa, Sudan, and Vietnam were voted onto the 47-member Geneva-based rights body.

Seats are allocated through regional groups. Africa, Eastern Europe, Western Europe and other groups all ran uncontested slates of candidates. But all winners still needed to achieve at least a 97-vote majority.

Among the contested seats, Chile and Costa Rica easily ended Venezuela’s re-election bid (states can serve two consecutive terms). Chile won 144 votes, while Costa Rica took 134. Venezuela only received 88 votes.

“The General Assembly rightly closed the door on Venezuela’s attempt to remain on the U.N. Human Rights Council,” said Louis Charbonneau, U.N. director at Human Rights Watch.

A September report by the U.N. human rights office details repression by Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro’s military and intelligence agencies, committing what the investigators say include grave crimes and human rights violations, including acts of torture and sexual violence.

“A government facing these kinds of allegations has no business sitting on the U.N.’s top rights body,” Charbonneau added. “Now U.N. member states should seek ways to hold accountable those Venezuelan officials responsible for grave human rights violations, including extrajudicial killings and torture.”

The Maduro government has dismissed the accusations as “false and unfounded.” 

Afghanistan also lost its bid to join the council, receiving just 12 votes.

The Taliban’s mistreatment of women, girls and minorities, and their broad crackdown on personal freedoms has led to international condemnation.

While the country is under de facto Taliban control, its U.N. seat is still in the hands of the previous government, in large part because no country has officially recognized the Taliban leadership.

Afghanistan is part of the Asia-Pacific group, as is South Korea. There were four vacant seats and six candidates.  

South Korea lost its re-election bid, winning 123 votes, putting it behind other candidates that received more votes in its group, including Vietnam, which received 145 votes.

“Electing abusive governments like Vietnam to the council only undermines its credibility,” HRW’s Charbonneau said.

The rights group says Vietnam’s one-party rule of the Communist Party systematically suppresses basic civil and political rights. Government critics are also often subjected to police harassment, arbitrary arrest and jail. 

Countries that join the council are expected to “uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights” both at home and abroad.  

Members serve for a period of three years and are not eligible for immediate re-election after serving two consecutive terms. The new members will start their terms on January 1, 2023.

Criticism 

The council has a mixed reputation. Diplomats say it has produced some important and strong reports on war crimes in places such as Syria and spotlights domestic abuses in North Korea, Iran and Myanmar, among others. But it is also frequently criticized for its focus on Israel and the inclusion among its members of several countries with poor rights records of their own, such as China, Eritrea and Pakistan. 

This year, the council took the rare action of suspending a member for its bad behavior. 

On April 7, Russia became only the second state to be suspended (Moammar Gadhafi’s Libya was the first) from the HRC, when the General Assembly voted Moscow off for atrocities it has been accused of in its war in Ukraine. The Czech Republic was voted to finish the remainder of the term through December 2023.  

The Human Rights Council was created in 2006 to replace the dysfunctional U.N. Human Rights Commission, which was disbanded.
…

In a Sikh temple tucked in the narrow lanes of the Indian capital, New Delhi, 60-year Harbans Singh offers a prayer of gratitude. The temple has become his temporary home after he fled Afghanistan, where his family had lived for generations.

“We have left our homes, our shops and come here to save ourselves. Conditions there are very bad,” said Singh. “We have arrived empty-handed.”

Singh and his son along with other family members were in a group of 55 Afghan Sikhs who arrived in India in late September — they were among the last members of the community still living in the strife-torn country. Only a handful remain in Afghanistan, according to those who have come to India.

Afghan Sikhs numbered in the tens of thousands during the nineteen eighties when they ran well-established businesses. But driven out by decades of conflict and persecution, only a few hundred were left when the Taliban took power last August.

Although the Taliban had assured the community of their right to remain in Afghanistan and to practice their religion, its return reignited fears of a resurgence in violence that had targeted the community.

The latest exodus of the Afghan Sikhs was sparked by a deadly attack in June on a Sikh temple in Kabul that killed one worshipper and wounded seven others. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack.

Even before Taliban rule, Sikh temples had been the target of attacks that were also claimed by the Islamic State group.

The dread of waiting for the next attack or staying hidden from sight is over for those fleeing Afghanistan. Harbans Singh’s son, Harminder Singh, said it is a relief not to live in fear of “explosions and gunfire” that had become commonplace in their hometown, Jalalabad and had petrified them.

The Indian government has facilitated the repatriation of Sikhs and Hindus leaving Afghanistan by offering visas, residency permits and organizing evacuation flights. The birthplace of Sikhism, India is home to most of the world’s Sikh population.

The Singhs, who had never visited India, feel safe in the Sikh temple where they have got refuge. It has long been the first stop for those leaving Afghanistan and is known in the neighborhood as the temple for those from Kabul.

But uprooting themselves from a country they had called home for generations was also hard.

“We had our temples there, our community and we used to organize fairs on special occasions. Leaving our life there makes me feel sad,” recalled Harminder Singh.

It was not just fear of violence that prompted them to leave. The collapse of the economy after the Taliban took power hit their businesses making the future look bleak.

The Singhs owned a shop selling spices in Jalalabad — most members of the community in Afghanistan were either shop owners or pharmacists, selling goods that came from India or Pakistan. They said there was amity among Sikhs and ordinary Muslims, many of who they counted as their customers. But in the past year, work had dwindled. “It was not what it used to be earlier. There was too much turmoil and customers had stopped coming,” according to Harminder Singh.

His two children also could not get an education which was organized for the community in the temple in the last year. “The teacher stopped coming,” he explained.

But while India offers safety, the future may not be easy for Singh’s family because the wait for citizenship can be long and uncertain.

It presents a conundrum for the Afghan Sikhs, said Partap Singh, who heads the Sikh temple, Guru Arjan Dev ji gurudwara, that offers shelter to those returning from Afghanistan.

“In Afghanistan, they used to say we are Indians. Here they say we are Afghans,” said Partap Singh, “Where do we belong? We don’t know where to go or what to do. We have no future.”

The community is urging the government to extend more help as it confronts the agonizing task of rebuilding life from scratch.

“They don’t have proper homes, work, or citizenship papers that would facilitate their rehabilitation. Even educating their children is a challenge,” according to Partap Singh. “They are facing so many hardships. Some are setting up pavement stalls or selling street food to earn a living.”

These are problems that Singh and his son will have to grapple with in the coming years. For the time being, they are just getting used to a new country but for the time being the temple where they are sheltered offers both refuge and comfort — many here understand the language they used to speak in Afghanistan, a mix of Pashto and Dari.
…

Pakistan’s former prime minister, Imran Khan, has condemned the recent audio leaks of conversations from his time in office and those of incumbent Shahbaz Sharif, seeking a judicial probe into what he calls “a serious breach of national security.”

Multiple audio clips have hit social media platforms over the past few weeks in which Prime Minister Sharif and his predecessor Khan could be heard discussing official matters with their ministers or close aides.

The conversations were purportedly recorded in the prime minister’s office and official residence.

“We intend to go to Court to establish authenticity of Leaks & then form JIT (Joint Investigation Team) to investigate which Intel agency is responsible for the bugging & who is leaking out the audios many of which are edited/doctored,” Khan tweeted Monday.

“This is critical because sensitive security issues are & have been illegally recorded & subsequently hacked, implying confidentiality of Pakistan’s national security has been exposed globally,” lamented the former prime minister.

Sharif himself has called the leaks a “very serious (security) lapse” and formed a high-level committee about two weeks ago, led by Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, to investigate the incident.

Officials have not shared any information about the status of the probe or its outcomes.

However, Khan and his opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have rejected the government-led investigation, calling into question its impartiality and fearing political victimization. They also allege that the Sharif-led coalition government leaked the clips.

The audio clips started emerging on social media late last month. In one of them, Sharif could be heard discussing with a top bureaucrat how to import industrial machinery from Pakistan’s archrival India for one of the prime minister’s close relatives.

In a subsequent audio clip, Maryam Nawaz — Sharif’s niece and vice president of his ruling party — is purportedly requesting her uncle to scrap a public health project launched by his predecessor Khan.

Sharif’s aides quickly downplayed the audios without questioning their authenticity, saying nothing illegal was discussed.

In a leaked audio clip featuring Khan when he was still prime minister, he could be heard telling his chief bureaucrat about a “cypher” or secret diplomatic cable sent to Islamabad by the then-Pakistani ambassador to the United States.

“We only have to play it up. We don’t have to name America. We only have to play with this,” the former prime minister could be heard saying in the audio lasting more than 100 seconds.

Khan was removed from office in April this year in a parliamentary no-confidence vote, advanced by the Sharif-led then-opposition alliance.

But the ousted Pakistani leader rejected the vote, alleging without evidence that it was orchestrated by the United States in collusion with his political opponents, charges Washington has denied. Khan has also alleged his country’s military leadership facilitated the “regime change” conspiracy.

After tweeting about the audio recordings and calling for a judicial probe, Khan addressed a ceremony in the garrison city, Rawalpindi, Monday where he stopped short of accusing the Pakistani military establishment of being behind the leaks.

“I ask my (security) agencies, is your job to spy on your own people? Is your job to manipulate who should be brought in (power) and who should be removed? … Is this your duty to tap phones to see what Imran Khan is doing or discussing?” asked the populist opposition politician.

The leaking of audio recordings from the prime minister’s office is unprecedented in Pakistan and officials have not yet commented on who could have recorded or leaked them.

Army officials deny any role in the leaks or in the current political happenings in the country.

“The PM office needs pest control, as well as a good plumber or two,” remarked the English-language DAWN newspaper in a recent editorial. “The place appears to have had a bug problem for months, if not years, and private conversations held inside its usually secure walls are now casually leaking into the public domain,” the paper wrote.
…

The U.N. General Assembly will vote Tuesday to admit 14 counties to the 47-member Human Rights Council; among them are some candidates with poor rights records, including Afghanistan and Venezuela.

Seventeen candidate countries from five regional groups are running, but only two groups — Asia-Pacific and Latin America and Caribbean states — face a real contest. The other three groups are running “clean slates”— although countries will still need a simple majority of the secret ballots to make it onto the Geneva-based council.

Venezuela is in a contested group. It will face Chile and Costa Rica for two available seats.

“Venezuela’s vengeful assault on critics of the government makes the country unfit for membership in the U.N.’s top rights body,” Louis Charbonneau, U.N. director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. “Returning this abusive government to the council would undermine the U.N.’s credibility by rewarding Venezuelan authorities with a role in judging other countries’ human rights while they brutalize their population.” 

A U.N. fact-finding mission said in a September report that President Nicolas Maduro’s intelligence agency has suppressed the country’s opposition through arbitrary detentions and torture that amounted to war crimes. On Friday, the human rights council renewed the mission’s mandate for another two years.

The Maduro government has dismissed the accusations as “false and unfounded.”

“U.N. member states will soon have the opportunity to close the door on Venezuela’s return to the Human Rights Council,” Charbonneau added. “With the likes of China, Eritrea and Cuba already on the council, the U.N. rights body would benefit from having one fewer member who’s a walking advertisement for torture and other abuses, and impunity.”

Another controversial candidate is Afghanistan, which has been in the headlines for the past year for the Taliban’s mistreatment of women, girls and minorities, and their broad crackdown on personal freedoms.

Countries that join the council are expected to “uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights” both at home and abroad.

While Afghanistan is de facto under Taliban control, its U.N. seat is still in the hands of the previous government, in large part because no country has officially recognized the Taliban regime. If elected, it would be the hold-over diplomats who are loyal to the previous government who would take the HRC seat.

Afghanistan will face Bangladesh, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, South Korea and Vietnam in its regional group for four vacant seats.

Human Rights Watch is critical of Vietnam’s human rights record, saying the one-party rule of the Communist Party systematically suppresses basic civil and political rights. Government critics are often subjected to police harassment, arbitrary arrest and jail.

In the African regional bloc, Algeria, Morocco, South Africa and Sudan are competing uncontested for four seats. In the Eastern Europe group, Georgia and Romania are running a so-called clean slate, as are Belgium and Germany in the Western European and Others group.

Members serve for a period of three years and are not eligible for immediate re-election after serving two consecutive terms. The new members will start their terms on January 1, 2023.

Criticism

The council has a mixed reputation. Diplomats say it has produced some important and strong reports on war crimes in places such as Syria and spotlights domestic abuses in North Korea, Iran and Myanmar, among others. But it is also frequently criticized for its focus on Israel and the inclusion among its members of several countries with poor rights records of their own such as China and Pakistan.

This year, the council took the rare action of suspending a member for its bad behavior.

On April 7, Russia became only the second state to be suspended (Moammar Gadhafi’s Libya was the first) from the HRC, when the General Assembly voted Moscow off for atrocities it has been accused of in its war in Ukraine. The Czech Republic was voted to finish the remainder of the term through December 2023.

The Human Rights Council was created in 2006 to replace the dysfunctional U.N. Human Rights Commission, which was disbanded.

Some information in this report came from Reuters.
…

In India, it has long been difficult to change deep seated patriarchal attitudes. Now a campaign in North India is tackling the issue through an unusual route — persuading people to stop using swear words that are sexist and target women saying that language is an important reflection of attitudes. From North India’s Haryana state, Anjana Pasricha has a report. Camera: Darshan Singh
…

The United Nations Secretary-General is urging the international community to respond to a request from Haiti’s government and urgently consider sending an international specialized armed force to the Caribbean Island nation to address spiraling insecurity and a deepening humanitarian crisis.

“Considering the extremely grave situation, international efforts to enhance support for the HNP [Haitian National Police] must aim to reduce the ability of armed gangs to block access to and carry out attacks on strategic infrastructure and threaten the livelihood of communities,” Antonio Guterres wrote in a 12-page letter to the U.N. Security Council on Sunday.

As envisioned, such a force would not be under the umbrella of U.N. peacekeeping but would be agreed bilaterally between Haiti and “one or several” other nations. The U.N. Security Council would “welcome” the force, not authorize it, like it does for U.N. missions.

On Friday, Haiti’s government authorized Prime Minister Ariel Henry to request the immediate deployment of an international specialized armed force to help stop the criminal gangs. The gangs are seeking to exploit the political vacuum left by the assassination of President Jovenel Moise at his home in Port-au-Prince on July 7, 2021.

Guterres says the most urgent need is to strengthen the national police’s ability to counter and contain the gangs.

“In this effort, the Haitian authorities underscored those solutions need to be Haitian-led and have the HNP in the lead, supported by international partners to improve its ability to provide security,” he said of consultations with Haiti’s leaders about what a force would look like.

Heavily armed gangs control parts of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and have blocked access to the country’s main fuel terminal since mid-September. This has worsened the already abysmal humanitarian situation affecting the availability of electricity, clean water, garbage collection and the ability of hospitals to operate.

“The national authorities cited the lack of adequate and sufficient individual protection gear, weaponry, ammunition and other tactical equipment, and of the capacity to effectively use them, as the key obstacles to progress in anti-gang efforts,” Guterres wrote. “The HNP is faced with criminal gangs in possession of higher-caliber weapons and better equipment than its own.”

Twenty-one officers were killed in 2021, and from January to August this year 13 have been killed.

In several gang-controlled areas of the capital, including Martissant and Cité Soleil, the secretary-general said there are not even any operational police stations, “contributing to an environment in which gang leaders exercise unfettered power.”

The United Nations estimates that 1.5 million people have been directly affected by gang violence, and 20,000 have fled their homes seeking safety. Rape and other sexual violence are being used “systematically” the U.N. says.

Rapid reaction force

In the short-term, the U.N. chief proposes a rapid reaction force be deployed quickly under the leadership of one country and composed of forces from one or more countries. Nations would also assist through the funding and equipping of the force.

“The force would, in particular, support the HNP primarily in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area in securing the free movement of water, fuel, food and medical supplies from main ports and airports to communities and health care facilities,” Guterres said. “To this end, the force would support the HNP’s efforts to remove the threat posed by armed gangs and provide immediate protection to critical infrastructure and services.”

Longer-term options

The secretary-general suggests that the rapid reaction force would be gradually phased out as the national police begin to restore general security and people’s freedom of movement. They would be replaced by either a multinational police task force or a multinational special force.

The multinational police task force would enhance the national police’s tactical and operational capabilities to fight gang violence through advising, vetting and training them.

The task force would also deploy equipment, materiel and technology necessary for the national police to conduct anti-gang operations.

The other option would be a multi-national special force.

“The Special Force would be composed of well-equipped special police units provided by a group of member states, with one of them serving as the lead country in terms of the command and the direction of operations,” Guterres said.

He envisions this force supporting the national police at land border crossing points and as they try to re-exert government control in gang-held neighborhoods.

“Should member states not step forward with bilateral support and financing for this option, contributions under a United Nations operation may provide an alternative,” Guterres said. “However, as indicated, a return to U.N. peacekeeping was not the preferred option of the authorities.”

Haiti has had a difficult relationship with U.N. peacekeepers, including sexual abuse and exploitation of Haitian women. After the 2010 earthquake, a cholera epidemic ravaged the country infecting more than 800,000 people and killing an estimated 10,000. The outbreak was traced to sewage from a U.N. peacekeeping camp that contaminated a main water supply. It took the U.N. six years to admit its role in the epidemic.

Now the country is facing the return of the waterborne disease in the wake of fuel shortages that have led to power cuts and a shortage of clean water. In the past week there have been several confirmed cases and deaths, and dozens more suspected cases after three years of no cases.

Secretary-General Guterres also underscored the need for the Haitian government to move past its political impasse, warning improving the gang situation would only be temporary if corruption and good governance are not addressed.

The U.N. Security Council is considering new sanctions targeting the gangs and their leaders to help stem the flow of money and weapons to them. On September 26, Haiti’s foreign minister urged the council to sanction the gangs during a meeting on the spiraling violence.

“This is a real step in the right direction to bring an end to the phenomenon of insecurity in the country,” Jean Victor Geneus told the 15-nation council.
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India has sharply criticized the United States and Germany for recent, but rare, back-to-back moves related to a long-running territorial dispute with neighbor and archrival Pakistan.  

The controversy erupted when Donald Blome, Washington’s ambassador to Islamabad, made a three-day visit to the Pakistan-administered part of Kashmir, in the divided Himalayan region. Pakistan refers to the area under its control as Azad (meaning free) Jammu and Kashmir, or AJK.

“I’m honored to visit during my first trip to AJK,” the U.S. embassy quoted Blome as saying on Twitter after touring historic sites there.  

The U.S. diplomat held meetings with senior AJK officials, as well as academic, business, cultural, and civil society representatives. The U.S. embassy noted later in a formal statement that Blome’s visit was designed to promote “the U.S.-Pakistan partnership and highlight the two countries’ deep economic, cultural and people-to-people ties.”

It is rare for a U.S. ambassador to travel to what New Delhi considers an integral part of India and refers to it as Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.  

Islamabad rejects Indian claims and calls Kashmir an internationally recognized disputed territory in line with a decades-old United Nations resolution. Pakistan also refers to the other side of the divided region as Indian occupied Kashmir. Both countries claim the region in its entirety and have fought two of their three wars over it since they gained independence from Britain in 1947. The dispute remains at the center of bilateral tensions.

“Our objection to the visit and meetings in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir by the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan has been conveyed to the U.S. side,” Indian foreign ministry representative Arindam Bagchi told a news conference Friday.  

Later that Friday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, in a rare backing for Islamabad’s stance on the territorial rivalry, said that Berlin had a “role and responsibility” with regard to the tension over Kashmir.  

Speaking at a joint news conference with visiting Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the chief German diplomat hailed a February 2021 Kashmir cease-fire agreement between the nuclear-armed rival nations, urging both sides to build on it. She stressed that Germany supports “intensively the engagement of the United Nations” to find a peaceful solution to the dispute.

“So, we encourage Pakistan, and we encourage India to follow the track of the cease-fire, to follow the track of the United Nations, and to intensify the political dialogue, and also the political and practical cooperations in the region,” Baerbock added.

The cease-fire has since effectively halted deadly military skirmishes between Indian and Pakistani troops in Kashmir.  

On Saturday, the Indian government strongly objected to Baerbock’s Kashmir-related remarks because it vehemently opposes any third-party intervention in what India considers a bilateral issue with Pakistan.  

“All serious and conscientious members of the global community have a role and responsibility to call out international terrorism, especially of a cross-border nature,” Bagchi said in a statement.  

New Delhi has long accused Islamabad of supporting and funding Muslim militants waging cross-border attacks against Indian security forces in Kashmir, charges Pakistan rejects.  

“The Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir has borne the brunt of such a terrorist campaign for decades. This continues until now,” Bagchi said. “When states do not recognize such dangers, either because of self-interest or indifference, they undermine the cause of peace, not promote it. They also do grave injustice to the victims of terrorism,” he added.  

The Pakistani foreign ministry Sunday rejected the Indian criticism of the remarks made by Zardari and his German counterpart as “preposterous.” It again accused Indian authorities of inflicting massive human rights abuses on Kashmiri Muslims on their side of the divided region.

“Hollow denials and evasion of responsibility will no longer cover up India’s mischievous strategy of posing as a ‘victim’ of terrorism while shifting blame elsewhere,” a ministry statement quoted its representative in Islamabad as saying.  

India would do well, the representative added to the statement, to address the international community’s valid concerns and mend its conduct in Kashmir.

Pakistan has welcomed the U.S. diplomat’s visit and the German foreign minister’s statement.  

Senator Mushahid Hussain of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), which heads the coalition government in Islamabad, says a settlement to the Kashmir dispute can only ensure “enduring stability, peace and security” in South Asia.  

“The West has finally realized that putting all their eggs in South Asia in India’s basket was a strategic mistake as it ended up alienating Pakistan and its people; moreover, they now feel that the road to stability in the region lies through Islamabad, while Delhi continues to hunt with the hound and run with the hare,” Hussain, the chair of the Senate Defense Committee, told VOA.

Some critics in Pakistan have speculated that diplomatic tensions between India and the U.S. over New Delhi’s imports of oil products from Russia might have prompted the West to put political pressure on India. Washington has imposed sanctions on Moscow for invading Ukraine in February and been critical of India’s continued oil purchases from Russia. New Delhi defends its actions, saying Russian prices are the cheapest compared to other sources.

Michael Kugelman is the director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington, a non-partisan policy forum. He cautions against linking Blome’s visit to the Pakistan-administered Kashmir and the German foreign minister’s comments or reading too much into them in the wake of reported diplomatic tensions. He said New Delhi would not make a major policy shift under external pressure, especially in the case of Kashmir.  

“If the U.S. were to try to work with its Western allies to get India to change its position on Russia/Ukraine by pressuring New Delhi on the Kashmir issue, then that would be a fool’s errand,” Kugelman said.

“The U.S. wants to signal its willingness to partner more with Pakistan, and a trip to Pakistan-administered Kashmir sends a strong signal to that effect. It can be a big confidence building measure for the two sides when Washington knows Islamabad is looking for signs that the U.S. is ready to reframe the relationship around non-security cooperation,” he said.  

“Baerbock’s comment is tough to assess. Very rarely do senior Western officials publicly express a desire for the Kashmir issue to be internationalized,” Kugelman stated.  

India controls two-thirds of the Muslim-majority Kashmir and Pakistan the rest. New Delhi ended the decades-old semi-autonomous status of its part of the Himalayan region in 2019 and divided it into two union territories to be directly controlled by the federal government.

Pakistan strongly condemned the unilateral moves by India and has demanded their unconditional reversal — increasing mutual tension and the deterioration in ties.

“We believe, and absolutely, that international law should apply everywhere, U.N. resolutions should be respected everywhere, the sovereignty of territory, or even internationally disputed territory, should be respected,” Zardari said while speaking alongside Baerbock Friday.  

India disregards a 1948 U.N. resolution on the world body’s role in Kashmir and wants a settlement in line with a bilateral pact the two countries signed in 1972. Known as the Simla agreement, it calls on the two countries to resolve their disputes bilaterally.

Pakistan maintains that bilateral attempts to find a solution have failed for decades and seeks U.N. intervention.

Among other steps, the U.N. resolution asks India to allow for a free and impartial vote to enable Kashmiris to determine the fate of the region.
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