The Indian government’s ban this week of the Popular Front of India (PFI), an Islamic organization that says it fights for the rights of minorities, has received mixed reaction in the country, with Hindu groups welcoming the move and Muslim groups, opposition leaders and rights activists criticizing it.

Hours after the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs issued the ban on the PFI on Wednesday, accusing it of “terrorism” and “anti-national activities,” the organization declared in a statement that it had disbanded itself.

While PFI leaders say that the accusations against it are baseless, the government insists that the organization poses a threat to the country’s internal security.

PFI leaders say the organization fights for the rights of the minorities and low-caste Hindus.

However, a government gazette that carried the notification about the ban said that the PFI had been found to be involved “in serious offenses, including terrorism and its financing, [and] targeted gruesome killings.”

“There is evidence that the group has a connection with the international terrorist group ISIS,” the notification said, in perhaps the most serious accusation against the PFI. ISIS is an abbreviation for the Islamic State group.

“Our top leaders have all along condemned ISIS — we can present media reports as evidence. The accusation that the PFI had a connection with ISIS is ridiculously false,” one Kerala-based PFI leader told VOA on the condition of anonymity because of fear of government reprisal.

“All charges against the PFI will be found to be false if the court tries the cases properly.”

Welcoming the PFI ban, the chief minister of the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled state of Assam tweeted: “The Government is firm in its resolve to ensure that anyone with a diabolical, divisive or disruptive design against India shall be dealt with iron fist. India of Modi Era is Decisive & Bold.”

In a statement, the Social Democratic Party of India, the political wing of the PFI, called the ban “a direct blow to democracy.”

“Freedom of speech, protests and organizations has been ruthlessly suppressed by the regime. … The regime is misusing the investigation agencies and laws to silence … the voice of dissent,” the statement said.

Muslim community leader and former chairperson of the Delhi Minority Commission Zafarul-Islam Khan denounced the ban on the PFI.

“There is no evidence in the public domain of the PFI or its allied organizations being involved in illegal activities. If an individual belonging to any of these organizations commits any crime, he must face action individually. His organization should not face punishment for his crime,” Khan told VOA.

The PFI ended up irking the current rulers because it built up a strong all-India cadre-based organization to work and fight for minority causes and its upliftment, he said.

“Such an organization is viewed as a hurdle to the Hindutva dream to turn India into a Hindu Rashtra [Hindu Nation, in Hindi]. Hence, for some years, the PFI and its allied organizations have been the target of the current rulers of the country.”

India’s Home Ministry did not respond to VOA requests for comment.

In August in Varanasi, some Hindu right-wing groups released a draft constitution of a Hindu Rashtra that proposed Muslims and Christians living in India would not have voting rights or be counted as citizens.

S.R. Darapuri, a former senior Indian Police Service officer who now works as a social and political activist, said the decision to ban the PFI appears to have been taken “prematurely.”

“When the organization has been accused of a charge as serious as terrorism, the case should have been investigated thoroughly and taken to court. Now, the organization has been banned before the charge of terrorism has been proven in a court of law,” Darapuri told VOA.

“In this situation, the ban appears to be a politically motivated and biased decision.”

Supreme Court lawyer Mehmood Pracha noted that several Hindu supremacist groups are exhorting “an open revolt against Indian state by seeking to replace the constitution of the country with a constitution based on Hindu scripture.”

“The government does not find the actions of those groups unlawful. So one cannot but view this action with doubt that the reason for banning the PFI is not based on their alleged terrorism and anti-national activities,” Pracha told VOA.

The opposition Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist), or CPI-ML, said that the crackdown on the PFI is aimed to whip up anti-Muslim passion.

“In the criminal cases against the PFI, except for some sketchy allegations, there is no reference to any actual incident of crime. The crackdown is a conscious attempt by the Modi government to spread Islamophobia among the public and demonize Muslims, as a community,” CPI-ML General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya told VOA.

“The actions against the PFI are blatantly discriminatory, given the impunity being granted to sundry (Hindu right-wing) organizations and individuals openly calling for anti-Muslim genocides and rapes, and turning India into a Hindu Rashtra.”

The crackdown on the PFI is a pretext for a massive witch hunt of Muslims, said feminist activist Kavita Krishnan.

“The charge by the NIA [National Investigation Agency] that the PFI is conspiring ‘to communalize the nation’s polity and encourage and enforce [the] Taliban brand of Islam’ is a mere pretext to harass Muslims by accusing them of being PFI members.

“The NIA has let off the real Hindu-supremacist terrorists who engineered several terror blasts. Saffron clad (right-wing Hindu) men and women are openly calling for violence against Muslims,” Krishnan said.

“But they are not being investigated or charged by the NIA for trying ‘to communalize the nation’s polity.’ The actions against the PFI appear to have their root in an anti-Muslim (communal) bias.”
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An anti-Taliban wave is gaining momentum in northwest Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, bordering Afghanistan, where many fear the Pakistani Taliban will make a comeback. Residents have questioned Pakistan army-sponsored talks with the militants, saying they put the decade-long peace in the region at stake. Fayaz Zafar reports from Swat Valley, Pakistan, in this report narrated by Fawad Lameh.
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Nepali tea producers are increasingly worried about a proposal in India’s parliament that could make it much harder for them to sell tea to their giant southern neighbor and most important customer.

The proposal, contained in a June 2022 recommendation from India’s Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce, calls for much stricter standards on the certificates of origin required for all Nepali tea imported into India.

Nepali tea exporters say they already face exacting requirements for entry to the Indian market, even when their products have met certification standards maintained by Japan, the United States and the international Certification of Environmental Standards organization.

“There have been constant policy changes that we have to comply [with], which makes it difficult to export tea to India,” said Shanta Banskota Koirala, co-owner and managing director of the Kanchanjangha Tea Estate and Research Center.

“Usually there is also a lot of hassle on borders, things such as asking for more documents than what was initially required, and even if provided the required documents, the work doesn’t get done on time,” Koirala told VOA.

The stakes are high for Nepal, which sells about 90% of its high-grade orthodox tea – loose-leaf tea produced by traditional methods — and about 50% of its lower-grade crush, tear and curl tea – tea whose leaves have been crushed torn and curled into pellets — to India. The industry employs almost 200,000 people in Nepal and contributes more than $40 million a year to its economy.

The orthodox tea, grown at higher altitudes in the Himalayan nation, is especially prized around the world, with its taste and quality attributed to the region’s climatic conditions, soil, the type of bushes planted and even the quality of the air.

But critics in India accuse the Nepalese exporters of mixing their product with similar-tasting tea from the neighboring Indian region of Darjeeling, which sells in India for a much higher price. The recommendation from the parliamentary committee calls for much stricter measures to ensure that all tea sold from Nepal was indeed grown in Nepal.

For the Nepalese growers, the threat of new bureaucratic hurdles is compounded by indignation over the suggestion that their tea is of lower quality than the Darjeeling variety.

“The comments from the committee on the quality of the tea has hurt the traders and farmers in Nepal,” said Bishnu Prasad Bhattarai, executive director of the National Tea and Coffee Development Board Nepal.

“We have raised our concern with the counterpart Indian government officials. We are hopeful that the trade between the two countries will go on smoothly as the two countries share good relation with each other on many fronts including trade,” Bhattarai added.

Suresh Mittal, president of the Nepal Tea Producers Association, also rejected the parliamentary committee’s complaints, pointing out that the quality of all the tea sold into India is certified by India’s Food Safety and Standards Authority.

“Without this proof of origin, we cannot sell even a single leaf abroad. We are exporting tea that has been grown and processed here in Nepal,” Mittal insisted.

Mittal said discussions on the proposal are continuing between the two countries, and that, so far, the trade in tea is proceeding smoothly.

“However, sooner or later it can be a problem for the Nepalese tea industry and will have an adverse effect to over 70% of tea industry of Nepal. We have to start looking for alternate markets,” he said.
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The Taliban say they will arrest and try for “treason” anyone using Afghanistan’s soil against Pakistan or other countries, as skepticism grows over the Islamist group’s counterterrorism assurances to the world at large.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid issued the warning in a VOA interview, amid a recent spike in cross-border terrorist attacks that have killed dozens of Pakistani security personnel.

The latest attack took place on Friday when “terrorists from inside Afghanistan” opened fire on Pakistani troops, killing one soldier, according to a Pakistani military statement.

Officials in Islamabad believe that since seizing power in Kabul a year ago, the Taliban have turned a blind eye to activities of their Pakistani offshoot, the outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) — also known as the Pakistani Taliban — operating out of Afghan sanctuaries.

The Taliban reject the allegation and have hosted talks between Pakistani and TTP negotiators in recent months to try to broker a peace deal between the adversaries. But the effort has not eased the terrorism threat originating in Afghanistan and the peace process seemingly has fallen apart.

‘Treason’

“Whoever is present here, they aren’t allowed to carry out any such activities because they have assured us, they would not threaten another country,” Mujahid told VOA in his Kabul office earlier this month when asked for a response to allegations TTP insurgents enjoy greater operational freedom and mobility since the Taliban returned to power.

The spokesman argued the Taliban’s return following the withdrawal of the United States and allied troops has brought an end to the two-decade war and peace to much of Afghanistan. But Mujahid acknowledged that border security remains a challenge for Taliban forces.

“Afghanistan and Pakistan are separated by a long (boundary) line running through mountains and treacherous territory. There are even sections where our forces have not yet established a foothold or need air support to secure them,” he said.

“It is quite possible some people might be taking advantage of this situation. And if so, these people are committing treason against Afghanistan first. They must be hunted, arrested and punished,” Mujahid stressed.

“We are seriously committed to this issue and assure Pakistan that our soil will not be used against them. They (Pakistan) should also need to make sure their territory is not used to harm us,” he said.

The border between the two countries is more than 2,600 kilometers long. Kabul disputes the demarcation with Pakistan drawn up by 19th-century British colonial rulers and called the Durand Line.

Islamabad rejects the objection, saying it inherited the international border after Pakistan gained independence from Britain in 1947.

Pakistani officials, however, downplay concerns that the TTP factor threatens to disrupt ties between the two countries, describing the relationship as “positive and thriving” despite frustrations over counterterrorism cooperation.

Pakistan notes that the Taliban have only recently returned to power after two decades and face serious governance as well as financial challenges, saying they need time and political space to address counterterrorism and issues related to human rights of Afghans, especially women.

Engaging Taliban

Funding for Afghanistan has dried up because no country has recognized the Islamist group as the legitimate rulers of the country, citing its restrictions on women’s rights to education and work, among other human rights issues.

“The answer has to be engagement,” Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari told an event organized by Washington’s Wilson Center on Wednesday, when asked for his response to the resurgent TTP threat originating in Taliban-governed Afghanistan.

“We have to build their (the Taliban’s) capacity to take on these terrorist groups before we can give a definitive verdict on whether they have demonstrated the will to do so,” Zardari said.

Pakistan has maintained closed ties with the Islamist Taliban since they first ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.

While U.S. and former Afghan government leaders accused the Pakistani military of covertly supporting Taliban insurgents in the years that followed, the Pakistani Taliban — designated a terrorist group by the U.S. and United Nations — provided recruits and safe havens on Pakistani soil for the insurgency.

The new rulers in Kabul now appear to be returning the favor by refusing to crack down on TTP leaders, as Pakistan has requested. Instead, they have urged both Islamabad and TTP to revert to talks to find a resolution.

Common ideology

Critics remain skeptical that the Taliban would use force against their Pakistani offshoot, noting they share a common ideology, with the TTP leadership renewing its allegiance to Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada after his group took over Kabul last year.

The revelation that deceased al-Qaida leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri had been staying in a safe house in the heart of Kabul also has fueled fears the Taliban are reluctant to cut ties with terrorist groups that supported their insurgent operations over the years. Al-Zawahiri was killed in a U.S. drone strike in July.

Trade links

Despite prevailing skepticism, Pakistan says it has taken a series of measures in recent months to boost economic cooperation with Afghanistan and will continue to do so. The policy has tilted the balance of trade in favor of the crisis-ridden country for the first time in the history of bilateral ties.

The change is attributed mainly to increased purchases of Afghan coal in the wake of rising global prices in a bid to reduce Pakistan’s dependence on expensive supplies from South Africa.

Traders say about 10,000 metric tons of coal is being exported daily to Pakistan, helping the Taliban generate much needed revenue to govern the country.

A high-level Pakistani delegation is expected to visit Afghanistan next month to discuss whether daily coal imports could be raised to around 30,000 metric tons to meet Pakistan’s estimated monthly needs of at least 1 million metric tons.

Taliban spokesman Mujahid echoed Pakistani assertions that sustained Afghan peace and economic stability can help counter “spoilers” threatening peace in both countries.
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Uzbekistan has no plans to deport Russians who are fleeing en masse to Central Asia to evade conscription amid Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine, the Tashkent government said on Friday.

Hundreds of thousands of men, some with families, have left Russia since President Vladimir Putin ordered a partial mobilization last week; many headed to Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and other Central Asian former Soviet republics.

Some draft dodgers, however, remain concerned about their safety in those countries since their governments have close ties with Moscow.

Uzbekistan’s foreign ministry said in a statement it remained committed to principles such as respecting other states’ sovereignty and territorial integrity and supported a peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian conflict.

“…Foreign citizens who have not broken the law are not subject to forced deportation,” it said.

Uzbekistan has not said how many Russians have arrived in the country since the mobilization announcement. Neighboring Kazakhstan has said it saw about 100,000 arrivals.

Uzbek officials this week reprimanded a Russian ballet dancer for performing to a song in Tashkent that could be seen as supporting Russia’s war effort.
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A powerful suicide bomb explosion ripped through a packed classroom in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, early Friday, killing at least 19 students and injuring 27 others.

Witnesses and police officials said the bombing occurred inside the Kaaj Education Center in the western Dash-e-Barchi area of the city, a predominantly Hazara Shiite neighborhood.

Female students were among the victims.

Khalid Zadran, a Kabul police spokesperson, confirmed the casualties to VOA and denounced the violence. He said that Taliban security forces had reached the area and an investigation is under way.

“Students were preparing for an entry exam when a suicide bomber struck the educational center. Unfortunately, 19 people have been martyred and 27 others wounded,” Zadran said.

No one immediately took responsibility for the bombing.

Social media videos and photos showed bloodied victims being carried away from the scene to nearby hospitals.

The local offshoot of the self-proclaimed, Sunni-based, Islamic State group, known as Islamic State Khorasan, or ISIS-K, has previously claimed credit for plotting such attacks in the area and elsewhere in Afghanistan.

ISIS-K has intensified its extremist activities in the country since the Taliban seized power in August of last year, when all U.S.-led foreign troops withdrew from Afghanistan after almost 20 years of war.
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India’s top court on Thursday upheld the right of a woman to an abortion up to 24 weeks into pregnancy regardless of marital status, a decision widely hailed by women’s rights activists. 

The right to abortion has proved contentious globally after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned in June its landmark 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade that had legalized the procedure across the United States. 

“Even an unmarried woman can undergo abortion up to 24 weeks on par with married women,” said Justice D.Y. Chandrachud of India’s Supreme Court, holding that a woman’s marital status could not decide her right to abort. 

A law dating from 1971, the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, had limited the procedure to married women, divorcees, widows, minors, “disabled and mentally ill women” and survivors of sexual assault or rape. 

“The decision to have or not to have an abortion is borne out of complicated life circumstances, which only the woman can choose on her own terms without external interference or influence,” the court ruling said. 

It added that every woman should have the “reproductive autonomy” to seek abortion, without consulting a third party. 

Thursday’s decision came in response to a petition by a woman who said her pregnancy resulted from a consensual relationship, but she had sought abortion when the relationship failed. 

The ruling is a milestone for the rights of Indian women, activists said. 

“It is a first step, it is a progressive step,” said Yogita Bhayana, founder of PARI, or People Against Rapes in India.  

The court added that sexual assault by husbands can be classified as marital rape under the MTP law. Indian law does not consider marital rape an offense, though efforts are being made to change this. 

“In an era that includes Dobbs vs. Jackson, and makes distinctions between the marital status of women who are raped, this excellent judgment on abortion under the MTP Act hits it out of the park,” Karuna Nundy, an advocate specializing in gender law and other areas, said on Twitter. 

She was referring to the case that led to the U.S. Supreme Court judgment in June. 

 
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A group of women in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, Thursday staged what was the first demonstration in support of protests in Iran before being forcefully dispersed by Taliban authorities.

The rally comes as nationwide protests continued in the neighboring country over the death of a young woman, Mahsa Amini, while in detention by morality police in Tehran for failing to properly cover her hair with a hijab.

Witnesses in Kabul said that about 30 female activists in headscarves gathered outside the Iranian embassy chanting, “Women, life, freedom” — slogans used during Iranian protests. They also held banners that read, “Iran has risen. Now it’s our turn!” and “From Kabul to Iran say no to dictatorship!”

Taliban security forces snatched and tore the banners before firing in the air to disperse the rally. Organizers later said the demonstration was held to show “support and solidarity” with the Iranian people and the women in Afghanistan.

“We are sure that one day, our people will rise in the same way as the Iranian people,” said a protester who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Since returning to power a year ago, the Islamist Taliban have instructed women to cover their faces in public and told many female public sector employees to stay home. The group’s vice and virtue ministry also requires women not to undertake long road trips unless accompanied by a close male relative.

The Taliban have barred teenage girls in Afghanistan from attending secondary school education beyond grade six.

The restrictions have outraged activists and students and have triggered relentless international calls for the Taliban to ease them if they want their government to be formally recognized.

The Islamist rulers maintain the restrictions are in line with Afghan culture and Islamic principles.

The protests in Iran have spread to at least 80 cities and towns. Security police have used tear gas, clubs and, in some cases, live ammunition to quell the protests calling for the end to the Islamic establishment’s more than four decades in power.

Iranian state media said 41 people, including members of the police and a pro-government militia, have been killed during the protests, although Iranian human rights groups have reported a higher toll.

Amini, 22, was arrested September 13 and died three days later in a hospital after falling into a coma. Her family filed a complaint this week against the Iranian police officers who arrested her, calling for a full investigation.

The Iranian police have denied responsibility for Amini’s death.

Some information in this report came from Agence France-Presse.
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Eight cheetahs have been brought from Africa to India this month to conserve a species that became extinct in the South Asian country seven decades ago. While the project is hugely challenging, conservationists say the benefits go beyond conserving the world’s fastest land animal – if successful, it could help save neglected ecosystems such as grasslands. Anjana Pasricha report from New Delhi
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A group of women’s rights activists in Azerbaijan staged a protest Tuesday in central Baku to express solidarity with demonstrators in Iran angered by the death of a young woman held by authorities for improperly wear a head scarf.

The activists, gathered in front of the “Free Woman” statue in Baku, burned the effigy of Iranian leader Ali Khamenei’s black turban.

“This turban symbolizes the turban of Khamenei, the dictator, and oppression,” activist Gulnara Mehdiyeva told VOA. “By burning it at the feet of the ‘Free Woman’ statue, we want to show that oppression will be undone at the feet of women.”  The statue was erected in Soviet-era Azerbaijan to symbolize the liberation of Azerbaijani women from hijab.

The protests that have spread to various cities in Iran and Azerbaijan followed the death of 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini after being detained by the Iranian morality police.

This week Canada joined the United States in announcing new sanctions against those blamed in Amini’s death. Iran’s president has announced a probe into her death. The government’s crackdowns on the protests that followed have drawn broad condemnation.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani told the Reuters news agency this week that Washington and European countries were to blame for supporting the “rioters” and ignoring those who still support the system.

“Washington is always trying to weaken Iran’s stability and security although it has been unsuccessful.”

Activists in Baku say the hijab protests that have spread throughout Iran have been watched closely in Azerbaijan partly because many protesters have been detained in regions of Iran with predominantly Azerbaijani populations, including cities such as Tabriz, Urmia, Ardabil and Zanjan.

“There are people who died in Zanjan. Among the killed is a women named Aysan Madanpasand in Tabriz,” Iranian Azerbaijani human rights activist Jala Tabrizli told VOA.

In the videos of protests organized in these cities, demonstrators can be heard chanting slogans such as “freedom, justice” and “men and women, hand in hand, will crush the head of the oppression.”

Solidarity with protesters in Iran

Armenia is predominantly Muslim with the second largest Shia population in the world, after Iran. But unlike Iran, Armenia’s constitution calls for the separation of religion and state and protects the right of individuals to express their religious beliefs.

Speaking with VOA, Mehdiyeva said local activists feel solidarity with the struggle of Iranian women against oppression.

“You may ask ‘what is the purpose of this protest, if hijab is not compulsory in Azerbaijan?’ As Azerbaijani women, our bodies are constantly interfered with, our clothes are interfered with, and our looks are interfered with. Society tries to dictate to us how we should dress, how we should look, where we should go. Therefore, we are united with our Iranian sisters and their struggle,” she said.

Activist Narmin Shahmarzade, who also participated in the protest, says that they are sending a message to all dictators that they cannot make decisions for women. “Women should be independent when it comes to their bodies, whether or not to wear hijab and other such choices.”

An activist and member of the opposition Musavat Party, Nigar Hezi, told VOA that the mandatory hijab-wearing in Iran for more than 30 years has reached an unbearable level and the death of Mahsa Amini at the hands of Iran’s morality police for violating hijab rules was the final straw.

“Women are challenging the mullah regime by going out onto the streets, and burning their head coverings and cutting their hair,” she said.

Hezi argues that happy communities start with happy women.

“Experience shows that nothing changes in kleptocratic societies unless women are on the streets,” she told VOA. “The more women are oppressed, the more oppressed the society is. Especially in societies like ours, women’s struggle is more important.”

Hezi says that although it’s hard to predict the outcome of the protests, “it’s great that women are fighting back in a show of unity.”

Power of women-led protests

Women’s rights defender Simin Sabri says that what makes these protests different from others is that they are led by women.

“In a movement where women are at the forefront, men get energy and strength and think “my woman is on the street fighting against her struggles, I can’t leave her alone” and they join them,” she told VOA.

Iranian-Azerbaijani human rights defender Jala Tabrizli says that women are leading the current protests with the experience they have gained from their 43-year-old struggle under the oppression of the Islamic Republic.

“They have been fighting for these rights for 43 years. They have done this continuously. They have learned. They have gained experience. They could always return the women to their homes. But today, they can’t get them from the streets,” she told VOA.

Tabrizli says that the women’s voices that had been considered “haram” [forbidden] for years are now being heard all over the country.

“Today women’s voices have covered all of Iran. The voice that is forbidden. The Islamic Republic declared women’s voice as haram. But now that voice can be heard in the streets,” she said.

The protests in Iran following the death of 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini after being detained by the Iranian morality police have spread to various cities across the country.

This story originated in VOA’s Azerbaijani Service.
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Pakistan is considering amending a landmark transgender rights bill passed in 2018 that some legislators and clerics argue contradicts Islamic teachings on gender identity.

Rights activists, however, say the law is being misunderstood and the “misinformed” debate against it is further endangering the transgender community.

Hailed as among the more progressive laws on transgender rights globally by the International Commission of Jurists, the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act gave transgender people in Pakistan the right to choose their gender identity as they perceived it themselves and to change it on previously issued government documents.

Opponents of the law claim the provision to choose or change one’s gender is un-Islamic and could open the door to same-sex marriage, currently prohibited in Pakistan.

In the last two weeks, at least four trans women have been killed. Some trans-rights activists blame lumping “transgender” together with “homosexuality” for the renewed targeting of their community. Homosexuality is a punishable offense in Pakistan.

Hashtags such as “amend trans act” and “take back the vulgar bill” were recently trending on Twitter.

Senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan, a member of the conservative political party Jamat-e-Islami, is leading the charge against the 2018 law. He told VOA that allowing citizens to choose self-perceived gender identity presents a “danger to the family and inheritance systems,” as it will “open the door for 220 million people to choose to be anything.”

Pakistan uses the Islamic system of inheritance, which divides assets among descendants based on their gender. Men get twice as much as women. The act stipulated that a person identifying as a trans man would also get twice as much as a trans woman.

2018 law

Pakistan’s 2018 law defines transgender as anyone with a mixture of male and female genital features or ambiguous genitalia, a person assigned male at birth but who has undergone castration, or any person whose gender identity or expression differ from their assigned sex at birth.

Khan told VOA he does not believe “fully male” or “fully female” persons should be given the right to choose their gender if their gender perception does not match their physical or sexual anatomy. Instead, “they should seek psychological help,” he said.

He said the law should only encompass those who cannot be categorized as male or female at birth based on their sexual or reproductive anatomy.

His proposed amendments to the 2018 law include establishing medical boards that conduct detailed exams and then advise what gender a person should be.

Transgender rights activists oppose examination by a medical board to determine sexual and gender identity. Speaking to VOA, activist Zanaya Chaudhry asked that since a medical exam is not required to determine a man or a woman’s gender identity, “why is this discriminatory act being forced upon transgender people?”

According to Chaudhry, the purpose of the 2018 legislation was only to protect the rights of transgender people, whom she said, “were finally being accepted as human beings.”

Harassment, death threats

Abandoned by families and relegated to mostly begging, dancing or sex work due to social stigma, transgender people in Pakistan routinely suffer harassment and many face death threats and fatal attacks.

According to data collected by the International Commission of Jurists and its partner organizations, at least 20 transgender people were killed in Pakistan in 2021.

Only a decade ago, in 2012, the country’s top court ruled that transgender people have the same rights as all other citizens and ordered that a “third gender” category be added to national identity cards.

That ruling paved the way for the 2018 legislation, which expressly prohibited discrimination against transgender people in educational institutions, workplaces and health care, and it guaranteed them a share in inheritance.

Human rights activist and lawyer Hina Jilani rejects the notion the 2018 law is against Islam. She told VOA it’s perplexing that “a law that gave identity to a marginalized community and was passed by the parliament is being objected to now.”

Some transgender rights activists, however, are also dissatisfied with the language of the 2018 law.

Speaking to VOA, transgender rights activist Almas Bobby lamented that the trans community is still heavily stigmatized and unable to avail basic rights. Bobby contended the number of “real” transgender people in Pakistan is quite small and that this law protects those “who want to change their sex only because of a personal preference.”

Like Khan, Bobby also believes that only those with ambiguous genitalia should be called transgender.

New proposals

This week, Fawzia Arshad, a senator from one of the most popular political parties, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), also introduced a new bill to replace the 2018 legislation.

The proposals by senators Khan and Arshad focus on only protecting those with genital ambiguities and removing the clauses that allow a transgender person to choose their gender identity as they perceive it and spell their share in family inheritance.

The Senate chairman has forwarded the matter to the relevant standing committee for review.

The country’s religious court, known as Federal Shariat Court, is also reviewing arguments in favor of and against the 2018 law.

Earlier, the Council on Islamic Ideology, a constitutional body that reviews Pakistan’s laws in the light of the Quran and the Prophet Muhammad’s teachings, also declared the 2018 law un-Islamic for allowing one to choose self-perceived gender and gender reassignment.

While Pakistan’s law minister, Azam Nazir Tarar, has rejected the criticism of the law being un-Islamic as “baseless propaganda,” he has welcomed Khan’s proposed amendments, telling a press conference the word of the religious court will now be final.

In 2018, the transgender rights legislation passed with the support of all major political parties, although it was rejected by religious parties, including Khan’s Jamat-e-Islami.

In 2021, when Khan first raised the issue to amend the law, Shireen Mazari, then the human rights minister from the ruling party PTI, opposed the move.

Why is the issue now gaining traction? Khan said his consistent work on this matter is finally paying off.  
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Russia has approved a provisional agreement with the Taliban government to supply oil products, gas and wheat to war-torn Afghanistan, both sides said Wednesday. 

The Russian Sputnik news agency quoted Zamir Kabulov, the special presidential envoy for Afghanistan, as confirming the deal hours after Taliban authorities reported details of the document. 

“Yes, [the deal is tentatively approved],” Kabulov told the state-owned media outlet in Moscow but shared no details.

A spokesman for the Taliban-led Afghan ministry of commerce and industry, Akhundzada Abdul Salam, said its top officials had traveled to the Russian capital last month, where they negotiated and signed the import agreement. Kabul “hopes and is waiting for Russia to implement it soon,” Salam told VOA. 

Minister of Commerce and Industry Nooruddin Azizi, who led the negotiations, said the pact would allow Kabul to annually buy 1 million metric tons of gasoline, 1 million tons of diesel, 500,000 tons of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and 2 million tons of wheat from Russia. 

Azizi said Moscow had offered the Taliban a discount to average global commodity prices that would be delivered to Afghanistan by road and rail. He did not elaborate on the pricing or payment methods. 

The Afghan minister, during his Moscow visit, had said his “priority is to import these Russian goods on a barter basis.” Aziz said at the time, though, that Afghanistan could pay to buy the oil and grain from Russia “if the barter plan does not work.”

No foreign government has yet granted legitimacy to the Taliban, who waged a 20-year insurgency against the United States and NATO troops defending Afghan government security forces. The insurgents eventually seized power from the U.S.-backed Kabul administration in August 2021 as foreign troops withdrew from the country.

The Taliban’s curbs on women’s rights to work, education and political participation, however, are among key concerns preventing the international community from recognizing their government.

The Taliban takeover has pushed the war-shattered Afghan economy to the brink of collapse as Western donors halted development assistance to the largely foreign aid-dependent South Asian nation and isolated its banking sector. The sanctions have worsened an already bad humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.

Washington and European countries also have blocked the Taliban from accessing Afghan central bank reserves worth about $9 billion, mostly held in the U.S. The Islamist group has been demanding the release of all the frozen funds back to Afghanistan. 

U.S. officials have been holding talks with the Taliban on finding ways to prevent the collapse of the country’s economy and to facilitate delivery of much-needed humanitarian aid to millions of Afghans facing acute hunger.

Earlier this month, Washington announced the creation of a Swiss-based trust fund for the disbursement of $3.5 billion out of the $7 billion held in the U.S without involving the Taliban. The group has denounced the move as “illegal and unacceptable.”

In July, the Taliban also sealed a deal with neighboring Iran to purchase 350,000 metric tons of oil, and they have boosted trade ties with Pakistan, which shares the longest border with Afghanistan. 

Pakistani traders have increased coal imports from Afghanistan and Central Asian countries through Afghan territory, enabling the Taliban to generate much-needed revenue to govern the country.
…

Al-Qaida’s former leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, had freedom in the Taliban-controlled Afghan capital before he was assassinated in a U.S. drone strike, a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday.

“He was unquestionably a threat to the United States and he had greater freedom to operate in Kabul than from wherever he came from,” Thomas West, U.S. special representative for Afghanistan, said at an event at the Center for International and Strategic Studies.

Al-Zawahiri was targeted on July 31 at a house in downtown Kabul. Taliban authorities have not confirmed his death.

In the aftermath of the drone strike in Kabul, both the U.S. and Taliban have accused each other of violating the February 2020 U.S.-Taliban agreement, widely known as the Doha Agreement, that commits the Taliban to prevent terror threats to the U.S. and its allies from territories under Taliban control.

West said the U.S. is deeply concerned about a number of other terrorist groups active in Afghanistan.

“We have concerns about al-Qaida in the Indian subcontinent, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Laskhar-e-Toiba, Ansarullah and a range of terrorist groups that still have an active presence in Afghanistan that we are exceedingly concerned about,” he said.

Last week at the U.N. General Assembly, Pakistan’s prime minister, Shahbaz Sharif, voiced similar concerns about the presence of terrorist groups in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

The Taliban swiftly rejected Sharif’s remarks, saying in a statement that they will not allow Afghan territory to be used against any country.

Despite concerns about their counterterrorism commitments, the U.S. has opted to remain engaged with the Taliban.

“We have been in touch with Taliban leaders since the strike and, to be clear, even in the wake of this event, we are prepared to engage pragmatically with the Taliban regarding terrorism concerns,” West said.

2,000 ISIS fighters

On Tuesday, the U.N. warned that the Taliban are failing to bringing security to Afghanistan as terror groups like IS-KB increasingly kill Afghans across the country. 

At least 700 Afghans have died in armed conflict, mostly in attacks by IS-KB (Islamic State Khorasan Branch), since Taliban seized power last year, the U.N. has reported.

Amid the mayhem following the rapid collapse of the former Afghan government last year, jails were opened and thousands of inmates, including IS-KB fighters, were set free across the country.

“There was a big prison break,” West said, adding that it was unclear who within the Taliban released the prisoners and whether they knew who the inmates were.

“But some of the most concerning best-trained ISIS-K fighters they let out, it was about 2,000 individuals. Some of those individuals are folks we’re truly worried about.”

The Taliban call IS-KB fighters “Khawarij,” a reference to a group of Muslims who allegedly deviated from mainstream Islam in the 7th century, and claim to have killed dozens over the last year.

While U.S. officials have called IS-KB a common enemy, the Taliban have reportedly refused direct counterterror collaboration with the U.S. and insist they can address the terror group independently.
…

India has banned an Islamic organization, accusing it of involvement in terrorism and calling it a threat to the country’s security.

The ban on the Popular Front of India was announced Wednesday following a countrywide crackdown that saw over 250 of its members arrested in recent days. The ban includes the group’s affiliates and will remain in place for five years.

A day before the group was outlawed, it had denied accusations of anti-national activities and called the action against its members a “witch hunt.”

Its political arm, the Social Democratic Party of India, has denounced the action, calling it “a direct blow on democracy and the rights of the people.”

The government has listed a series of charges against the Popular Front of India, which was formed about 15 years ago.

It said that the group and its associates have been involved in “serious offenses including terrorism and its financing, gruesome targeted killings, disregarding the constitutional set up of the country.”

The Home Ministry said that the Popular Front of India had links with global terrorist groups and some of its members had joined Islamic State and participated in terror activities in Syria and Iraq.

The government said the group has “been pursuing a secret agenda to radicalize a particular section of the society” while ostensibly operating as a socio-economic, educational and political organization.

The group first came drew attention after a court convicted several of its members for cutting off the hand of a college professor accused by some Muslim groups of asking derogatory questions about the Prophet Muhammad in an examination.

Although largely confined to a handful of southern Indian states for years, its influence had spread to other regions since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government came to power eight years ago.

Calls for a ban on the group grew after its role in fueling anti-government protests came to light in recent years.

Earlier this year, authorities in southern Karnataka state accused the Popular Front of India of supporting protests that erupted after a school banned female students from wearing hijabs. The group also supported demonstrations against a citizenship law that India enacted in 2019 that critics said discriminates against Muslims.

Senior ministers in the government welcomed the ban. Junior Foreign Minister V. Muraleedharan said that it showed that the Modi government “acts tough” with forces aiming to disrupt peace and stability.

The move comes at a time when critics have accused the government of discrimination against Muslims, who make up about 13 percent of the country’s population.

“Freedom of speech, protests and organizations have been ruthlessly suppressed by the regime against the basic principles of the Indian constitution,” the Social Democratic Party of India said in a statement. It accused the government of misusing investigation agencies to “silence the opposition.”

Pointing out that the ban comes at a time “when there is a tendency of radicalization,” political analyst Rasheed Kidwai said “in that context if the assessment of the government is that this organization was becoming a threat to society and civil order, it is within its rights to impose a ban.”

But he added that there needs to be “an objective assessment” of the situation by intelligence agencies. “We know the tendency to move right is not confined to one social group, caste or region in the country. So, there is a need to keep a strict vigil on all,” according to Kidwai.
…

The United Nations warned Tuesday that de facto Taliban authorities are failing in their claims of security and good governance in Afghanistan as terrorist groups like Islamic State are increasingly conducting attacks across the country.  

“Some of the Taliban’s claimed and acknowledged achievements are eroding,” Potzel Markus, deputy head of the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA, told the Security Council on Tuesday.  

“In the past months, there has been a steady rise in security incidents monitored by UNAMA, both armed clashes and criminality, as well as high profile, deadly terrorist attacks.”  

Claiming victory over foreign occupation, the Taliban say they have restored peace and tranquility in war-torn Afghanistan by reestablishing a purely Islamic emirate.  

The U.N. has now challenged such Taliban claims by warning the security situation in the country is actually deteriorating.  

“Our earlier warnings by the capabilities of the Islamic State Khorasan Province ISKP were dismissed by the Taliban, but ISKP has demonstrated in the last few months alone that it can carry out assassinations of figures close to the Taliban, attacks against foreign embassies, as well as fire rockets across Afghanistan’s border to attack its neighbors, all while maintaining its long-standing sectarian campaign against Shia Muslims and ethnic minorities,” said Markus.  

Earlier, UNAMA had reported a significant reduction in Afghan civilian casualties of war since the Taliban seized power. From mid-August 2021 to mid-June 2022, at least 700 civilians were killed and more than 1,400 were wounded in the country, mostly in attacks perpetuated by the ISKP – a marked reduction from 2020, when UNAMA reported 3,035 deaths and 5,785 injuries.  

No Taliban representative was present at the Security Council’s meeting, but a diplomat from the former Afghan government and a Taliban opposition activist were invited. The U.N. has refused repeated calls from the Taliban to accredit their diplomats at the world body.  

Undemocratic governance  

Members of the Security Council also have condemned the Taliban for the group’s undemocratic and often repressive governance style.  

“On a daily basis, we hear reports from Afghanistan of Taliban repression, of night raids, extrajudicial killings and torture. Human rights defenders, journalists and media workers are being deliberately targeted,” said Fergal Mythen, Ireland’s representative to the U.N.  

Since seizing power, the Taliban have dissolved Afghanistan’s parliament and election bodies, and they have appointed a male-only cabinet made of Islamic clerics.  

“Most Afghans do not see themselves represented at all levels of governance. There are no consistent mechanisms for citizens to provide feedback to the authorities and little indication that the Taliban wish to even hear,” said Markus.  

The U.N. has warned that the Taliban would push Afghanistan further into international isolation, poverty and internal strife unless the group fundamentally changes its governance.  

“Leaders who oppose half of the country’s population [women] will not gain legitimacy, not from the Afghan people and not from the international community,” said Mona Juul, Norway’s representative at the U.N. 

Taliban leaders have defended their governance, asserting the U.N. and other rights groups often present inaccurate and biased statements about the situation in Afghanistan. 
…

A senior Taliban official Tuesday called on his men-only government in Afghanistan to reopen all secondary schools to girls without further delay, saying there is no Islamic restriction on female education.

Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, the Taliban deputy foreign minister, made the rare appeal in a televised speech to a gathering of top Taliban officials and leaders in the capital, Kabul.

Since seizing power more than a year ago, the former Islamist insurgent group stopped girls beyond the sixth grade from returning to classrooms, portraying the move as based on religious principles.

“Education is obligatory on both men and women, without any discrimination. None of the religious scholars present here can deny this obligation. No one can offer a justification based on [Islamic] Sharia for opposing [women’s right to education],” Stanikzai said.

“It is the duty of the Islamic Emirate to set the stage for reopening doors of education to all Afghans as soon as possible because the delay is increasing gap between us [the government] and the nation on this particular issue,” he warned. The Taliban call their government the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

The United Nations estimates the education ban has barred nearly one million girls from attending secondary in Afghanistan.

“If [the] Taliban continue failing to uphold the rights of all Afghans and to engage constructively with [the] international community, Afghanistan’s future is uncertain: fragmentation, isolation, poverty and internal conflict are likely scenarios,” Potzel Markus, the head of the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan told a U.N. Security Council meeting Tuesday.

In the run-up to the session, 10 elected and five incoming UNSC members urged the Taliban to allow girls to return to secondary schools, noting that September 18 marked one year since the radical group banned girls’ education.

“We are calling on the Taliban to immediately reverse this decision,” Norway’s ambassador, Mona Juul, read in a joint statement to reporters in New York. “The Taliban have made Afghanistan the only country in the entire world where girls are banned from attending secondary school,” she added.

“The increased risks associated with disruption of education, particularly for girls, makes them more vulnerable to child labor and forced marriages. It impacts their future economic opportunities and results in long-term obstacles for durable peace, security and development,” Juul said.

The Taliban have also instructed women to cover their faces in public and told many female public sector employees to stay home since returning to power in August 2021, when the United States and NATO troops withdrew from the country.

Stanikzai, a rare moderate voice among senior Taliban figures, led the Taliban’s team in months of negotiations with the United States that resulted in the February 2020 agreement between the two rivals and set the stage for all foreign troops to leave the country after almost two decades.

Other Taliban officials have privately also advocated for reopening the schools to teenage girls, but critics say none of them can dare challenge the group’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, and a couple of his associates who are apparently behind the school closure and curbs on women.

Veil restrictions on women and banning them from long road travel without a male relative as well as other curbs on civil liberties are among key concerns deterring foreign governments from recognizing the Taliban as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan.

The Taliban takeover in Afghanistan prompted Western countries to stop their financial assistance, worsening an already bad humanitarian crisis and pushing the national economy to the brink of collapse, with millions of Afghans facing acute hunger.

Margaret Besheer contributed to this report.
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About 98,000 Russians have crossed into Kazakhstan in the week since President Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization of reservists to fight in Ukraine, Kazakh officials said Tuesday, as men seeking to avoid the call-up continued to flee by land and air into neighboring countries.

Kazakhstan and Georgia, both part of the former Soviet Union, appeared to be the most popular destinations for those crossing by car, bicycle or on foot.

Those with visas for Finland or Norway also have been coming in by land. Plane tickets abroad had sold out quickly despite steep prices.

Russia’s Defense Ministry has said that only about 300,000 people with prior combat or other military service would be called up, but reports have emerged from various Russian regions that recruiters were rounding up men outside that description. That fueled fears of a much broader call-up, sending droves of men of all ages and backgrounds to airports and border crossings.

In announcing the number of Russians crossing the border, Kazakhstan Interior Minister Marat Akhmetzhanov said authorities will not send those who are avoiding the call-up back home, unless they are on an international wanted list for criminal charges.

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev ordered his government to assist Russians entering his country “because of the current hopeless situation.”

“We must take care of them and ensure their safety. It is a political and a humanitarian issue. I tasked the government to take the necessary measures,” Tokayev said, adding that Kazakhstan will hold talks with Russia on the situation.
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has pledged more funds to help flood-ravaged Pakistan and pressed the South Asian nation to seek debt relief and restructuring from its largest creditor, China, to deal with the catastrophic flooding.

Blinken spoke late on Monday after wide-ranging bilateral talks with Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in Washington, saying he also discussed with his counterpart a “shared stake” in Afghanistan, counterterrorism cooperation and Islamabad’s strained ties with India.

“We’ve marshaled over $56 million in immediate humanitarian assistance. We’ve been able to send about 17 planes full of supplies like food and materials to build shelters, tents, tarps. And today I’m pleased to announce another $10 million in food security assistance,” Blinken told an event at the State Department marking the 75th anniversary of relations between the United States and Pakistan.

Erratic seasonal rainfall, made worse by global climate change, has triggered the floods across Pakistan, killing more than 1,600 people, including nearly 600 children, affecting 33 million others and drenching large parts of the country, especially the southern Sindh province, since mid-June.

The flooding has destroyed more than 1.4 million hectares of arable land, raising fears it will exacerbate food insecurity issues across the country of about 220 million people. Pakistani officials estimate the deluge has inflicted more than $30 billion in damages on national infrastructure, washing away roads, bridges and more than 800,000 houses.

The disaster has hit as Pakistan struggles to address deeply rooted economic challenges and meet external debt repayment commitments amid dwindling foreign exchange cash reserves.

China debt

“We talked about the importance of managing a responsible relationship with India, and I also urged our colleagues to engage China on some of the important issues of debt relief and restructure so that Pakistan can more quickly recover from the floods,” Blinken said.

Pakistani officials say they have already spoken to the Paris Club of wealthy nations, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank about immediate debt relief in the wake of the devastating floods. Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif told New York-based Bloomberg news in an interview last week he plans to take up the debt relief matter with China.

“We have experienced a climate catastrophe of biblical, apocalyptic proportions…And when the rain finally stopped, a hundred-kilometer lake formed in the middle of my country that’s slowly descending to the sea, to the ocean,” Zardari said while speaking alongside Blinken at the event in Washington.

“The irony of this is that Pakistan has contributed 0.8% to the global carbon output, but we are amongst the 10 most climate-stressed countries on the planet. And that’s why we look to you for assistance and support so we can get our people climate justice,” he said.

Dozens of countries have over the past month sent cargo flights, trucks and trains, carrying urgent relief goods, food and medicines for flood victims in Pakistan.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Monday that his government had provided nearly $59 million worth of humanitarian aid to Pakistan since the country was hit by the floods. He told a regular news conference in Beijing that the civil society in China has also raised about $17 million worth of donations and flood-relief supplies.

“China and Pakistan are all-weather strategic cooperative partners and ironclad brothers that have always stood with each other in trying times…We believe that our brotherly Pakistan will surely prevail over the disaster and rebuild their homes at an early date,” Wang said.

The loan Pakistan owes to China, includes $6 billion in balance of payments support. It stems from the bilateral China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship program of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The massive project has built Pakistani roads, power plants and a strategic deep-water port at an overall cost of more than $25 billion in direct Chinese investment and soft long-term loans over the past seven years.

Pakistani officials maintain, however, that the Chinese loan is around 10% of the country’s 130 billion external debt, the bulk of which it owes to Western nations and international finance institutions

Afghanistan

Blinken said while speaking on Monday that the United States and Pakistan “continue to work closely” on counterterrorism challenges and the two sides also discussed a “shared stake” in the future of Afghanistan after two decades of war there.

“We’ve had our differences; that’s no secret. But we share a common objective: a more stable, a more peaceful, and free future for all of Afghanistan and for those across the broader region. We’ll continue to work together toward that end as well as support the basic human rights of the Afghan people, especially women and girls,” stated the chief U.S. diplomat.

A foreign ministry statement issued in Islamabad quoted Zardari as telling Blinken that Afghanistan needed assistance to avert its ongoing humanitarian crisis and underlined Pakistan’s resolve to work with the international community to achieve peace, development, and stability in the war-torn neighboring country.
…

The family of a former Afghan official who was allegedly detained by the Taliban in Kabul last month says that they have “no information on his whereabouts.”   

Ahmad Shah Habibi accused the Taliban of detaining his brother Mahmood Shah Habibi, former deputy chief of Afghanistan’s Aviation Authority, in the Shash Darak area of Kabul on August 10.     

“The Taliban, who were wearing civilian clothes, detained Mohammad Shah Habibi in front of his house in the Shash Darak area. … Later, they broke the gate, forced their way into the house, and took some documents, books and a laptop computer.”  

The Taliban’s representative did not respond to VOA’s request for comment about the alleged disappearance and whether Habibi had been detained.     

“No [Taliban government] agency has given us any information on his whereabouts. They have not let us meet him. And they have not told us why he was taken into custody,” said Ahmad Shah Habibi, who lives in the U.S.  

He added that the armed men who detained Habibi introduced themselves to the family as “Mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate,” a name used by the Taliban for their forces.  

Habibi, a U.S. citizen, was working as a consultant for the Asia Consultancy Group (ACG), a Kabul-based telecommunication company.   

A spokesperson for the State Department told VOA that they are “monitoring the situation but have no further comment at this time.”   

“U.S. citizens should not travel to Afghanistan due to civil unrest, armed conflict, crime, terrorism, and kidnapping,” said the spokesperson in an email Monday. 

In August 2021, the United States and its NATO allies completely withdrew from the country after almost two decades of war with the Taliban, paving the way for the resurgent Islamist group to seize power.   

Last week, the Taliban released Mark Frerichs, a U.S. citizen, in exchange for a Taliban drug lord, Bashir Noorzai, who was serving a life sentence in a U.S. prison.   

In a statement, U.S. President Joe Biden said that after being in captivity for 31 months in Afghanistan, Frerichs release was “the culmination of years of tireless work by dedicated public servants across our government and other partner governments.”  

He added that his government “continues to prioritize the safe return of all Americans who are held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad, and we will not stop until they are reunited with their families.”   

The U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan Richard Bennett expressed his concerns earlier this month about the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan.    

He added that the U.N. received numerous reports of civilians being subjected to house-to-house searches and what appeared to be collective punishment.   

“I am particularly concerned that former Afghan National Defense and Security Forces and other officials of the former government remain subject to ongoing arbitrary detention, torture, extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances, despite the amnesty declared by the Taliban,” Bennett said.  

Bennett said those committing these crimes appear to be acting with impunity and are creating an atmosphere of terror. 
…

Nabila works 10 hours or more a day, doing the heavy, dirty labor of packing mud into molds and hauling wheelbarrows full of bricks. At 12 years old, she’s been working in brick factories half her life now, and she’s probably the oldest of all her co-workers.

Already high, the number of children put to work in Afghanistan is growing, fueled by the collapse of the economy after the Taliban took over the country and the world cut off financial aid just over a year ago.

A recent survey by Save the Children estimated that half of Afghanistan’s families have put children to work to keep food on the table as livelihoods crumbled.

Nowhere is it clearer than in the many brick factories on the highway north out of the capital, Kabul. Conditions in the furnaces are tough even for adults. But in almost all of them, children as young as four or five labor alongside their families from early in the morning until dark in the heat of summer.

Children do every step of the brickmaking process. They haul cannisters of water, carry the wooden brick molds full of mud to put in the sun to dry. They load and push wheelbarrows full of dried bricks to the kiln for firing, then push back wheelbarrows full of fired bricks. Everywhere they are lifting, stacking, sorting bricks. They pick through the smoldering charcoal that’s been burned in the kiln for pieces that can still be used, inhaling the soot and singeing their fingers.

The kids work with a determination and a grim sense of responsibility beyond their years, born out of knowing little else but their families’ need. When asked about toys or play, they smile and shrug. Only a few have been to school.

Nabila, the 12-year-old, has been working in brick factories since she was five or six. Like many other brick workers, her family works part of the year at a kiln near Kabul, the other part at one outside Jalalabad, near the Pakistani border.

A few years ago, she got to go to school a little in Jalalabad. She’d like to go back to school but can’t — her family needs her work to survive, she said with a soft smile.

“We can’t think about anything else but work,” she said.

Mohabbat, a 9-year-old boy, stopped for a moment with a pained expression as he carried a load of charcoal. “My back hurts,” he said.

Asked what he wished for, he first asked, “What is a wish?

Once it was explained, he was quiet a moment, thinking. “I wish to go to school and eat good food,” he said, then added: “I wish to work well so that we can have a house.”

The landscape around the factories is bleak and barren, with the kilns’ smokestacks pumping out black, sooty smoke. Families live in dilapidated mud houses next to furnaces, each with a corner where they make their bricks. For most, a day’s meal is bread soaked in tea.

Rahim has three children working with him at a brick kiln, ranging in age from 5 to 12. The kids had been in school, and Rahim, who goes by one name, said he had long resisted putting them to work. But even before the Taliban came to power, as the war went on and the economy worsened, he said he had no choice.

“There’s no other way,” he said. “How can they study when we don’t have bread to eat? Survival is more important.”

Workers get the equivalent of $4 for every 1,000 bricks they make. One adult working alone can’t do that amount in a day, but if the children help, they can make 1,500 bricks a day, workers said.

According to surveys by Save the Children, the percentage of families saying they had a child working outside the home grew from 18% to 22% from December to June. That would suggest more than 1 million children nationwide were working. Another 22% of the children said they were asked to work on the family business or farm.

The surveys covered more than 1,400 children and more than 1,400 caregivers in seven provinces. They also pointed to the swift collapse in Afghans’ livelihoods. In June, 77% of the surveyed families reported they had lost half their income or more compared to a year ago, up from 61% in December.

On one recent day at one of the kilns, a light rain started, and at first the kids were cheerful, thinking it would be a refreshing drizzle in the heat. Then the wind kicked up. A blast of dust hit them, coating their faces. The air turned yellow with dust. Some of the children couldn’t open their eyes, but they kept working. The rain opened up into a downpour.

The kids were soaked. One boy had water and mud pouring off of him, but like the others he said he couldn’t take shelter without finishing his work. Streams from the driving rain carved out trenches in the dirt around them.

“We’re used to it,” he said. Then he told another boy, “Hurry up, let’s finish it.”
…

Pakistan’s military said Monday that one of its helicopters crashed in a turbulent southwestern district, killing all six soldiers on board.

The helicopter went down during a “flying mission” in Khost, a remote town in the province of Baluchistan late on Sunday and two major-ranked officers were among the dead, an army statement said. It shared no further details, nor did it give any reason for the crash or type of aircraft.

The so-called Balochistan Liberation Army insurgent group claimed in a statement it had shot down the helicopter. It said the helicopter had arrived in the area to rescue two army officers BLA militants had kidnapped in an ambush in the district.

The claims could not be verified immediately from independent sources and insurgents often release exaggerated details about their activities in the region.

Outlawed ethnic Baluch groups routinely plot attacks against military targets in the impoverished Pakistani province, which borders Afghanistan and Iran.

Early last month, six senior Pakistani military officers were killed when their helicopter crashed due to bad weather during a flood relief activity in Baluchistan’s Lasbela district. An army lieutenant general, a major-general and a brigadier were among those killed.

Heavy monsoon rains have caused catastrophic flooding in parts of Pakistan, including Baluchistan, killing more than 1,600 people and washing away villages, roads, bridges and hundreds of thousands of homes since mid-June.
…

A gunman with a swastika on his t-shirt killed 13 people, including seven children, and wounded more than 20 at a school in Russia on Monday before committing suicide, investigators said.

The identity of the attacker and the motive for the shooting in Izhevsk, about 970 km (600 miles) east of Moscow, were not clear.

Russia’s Investigative Committee, which handles major crimes, said the gunman was wearing a balaclava. It released a short video showing his body lying on the floor of a classroom with overturned furniture and papers strewn on the floor. He was dressed all in black, with a red swastika in a circle drawn on his teeshirt.

The committee said the six adult victims included teachers and security guards. It said 21 people, including 14 children, were wounded.

Tass news agency quoted investigators as saying the attacker was armed with two pistols and a large supply of ammunition.

Russia has seen several school shootings in recent years.

In May 2021, a teenage gunman killed seven children and two adults in the city of Kazan. In April 2022, an armed man killed two children and a teacher at a kindergarten in the central Ulyanovsk region before committing suicide.
…

Rescue workers recovered seven more bodies on Monday after a boat carrying religious pilgrims capsized in Bangladesh, taking the death toll to 32 with scores still missing, police said. 

The small boat packed primarily with women and children on their way to a popular temple flipped over on Sunday in a river as onlookers screamed in horror from the shore.   

The incident in a remote northern area was the latest in a string of similar tragedies blamed on poor maintenance and overcrowding in the low-lying delta country. 

District police chief Sirajul Huda said the seven bodies were found in the Karotoa river downstream from where the boat capsized near the town of Boda. It carried around 90 people – more than the up to 50 pilgrims that police on Sunday said were aboard. 

“Sixty people are still missing,” Huda told AFP. 

“It was carrying three times its capacity. There were heavy rains in the morning and that is why when the ferrying began, pilgrims packed the boat to make it quickly to the temple,” Huda said. 

“The boatman asked some people to disembark in an effort to ease the weight-load. But no one listened,” he said.      

Local media said at least 10 people had been rescued and sent to hospital.   

Mobile phone footage aired by TV station Channel 24 showed the overcrowded boat suddenly flip over, spilling the passengers into the muddy brown river. 

Dozens of people watching from the shore started shouting and screaming. The weather was calm at the time. 

Thousands of Hindus in Muslim-majority Bangladesh visit the centuries-old Bodeshwari Temple every year. 

Sunday marked the start of Durga Puja, the biggest Hindu festival in Bangladesh and eastern India – drawing large crowds to the temple. 

Last December, around 40 people perished when a packed three-story ferry caught fire in southern Bangladesh.  

A ferry sank in Dhaka in June 2020 after a collision with another vessel, killing at least 32 people. 

And at least 78 people perished in 2015 when an overcrowded ship collided with a cargo vessel in a river west of the capital. 
…

Pakistani police arrested a veteran journalist for his alleged involvement in his son’s beating death of his new wife at their suburban home, police said Sunday. 

Police officer Mohammad Faizan said Ayaz Amir, a well-known columnist and TV political analyst in Pakistan, appeared in court in the capital of Islamabad Sunday accused of aiding his son. 

Police were to interrogate him for his role in the death of Sara Inam, 37, who married Amir’s son Shahnawaz four months ago. 

Inam was allegedly killed Friday by Shahnawaz at the couple’s home after a row over a family issue. Shahnawaz was arrested and police say he confessed to hitting his wife repeatedly with a dumbbell and then later tried to hide her body in a bathtub. 

Several Pakistani journalists have been assaulted and detained by police in recent months. 
…