DRULAP

NEW DELHI, INDIA — At least 15 people died during a stampede at a railway station in India’s capital late Saturday when surging crowds scrambled to catch trains to the world’s largest religious gathering, a medical official told AFP. 

The Kumbh Mela attracts tens of millions of Hindu faithful every 12 years to the northern city of Prayagraj and has a history of crowd-related disasters — including one last month, when at least 30 people died in another stampede at the holy confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers. 

The rush at the train station in New Delhi appeared to break out Saturday as crowds struggled to board trains for the ongoing event, which will end on February 26. 

“I can confirm 15 deaths at the hospital. They don’t have any open injury. Most (likely died from) hypoxia or maybe some blunt injury but that would only be confirmed after an autopsy,” Dr. Ritu Saxena, deputy medical superintendent of Lok Nayak Hospital in New Delhi to AFP. 

“There are also 11 others who are injured. Most of them are stable and have orthopedic injuries,” she said. 

Defense minister Rajnath Singh said he was “extremely pained by the loss of lives due to stampede” at the New Delhi railway station. 

“In this hour of grief, my thoughts are with the bereaved families. Praying for the speedy [recovery] of the injured,” Singh said in a social media post. 

The governor of the capital, Vinai Kumar Saxena said disaster management personnel had been told to deploy and “all hospitals are in readiness to address related exigencies.”

Railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said additional special trains were being run from New Delhi to clear the rush of devotees.   

The six-week Kumbh Mela is the single biggest milestone on the Hindu religious calendar, and officials said around 500 million devotees have already visited the festival since it began last month. 

More than 400 people died after they were trampled or drowned on a single day of the festival in 1954, one of the largest death tolls in a crowd-related disaster globally. 

Another 36 people were crushed to death in 2013, the last time the festival was staged in Prayagraj. 
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ISLAMABAD — Pakistan said Saturday that counterterrorism operations in two volatile northwestern districts resulted in the deaths of four soldiers, including an officer, and 15 insurgents during the ensuing clashes.

A military statement said the deadly violence erupted when its forces carried out “intelligence-based” raids on militant locations in Dera Ismail Khan and North Waziristan, which borders Afghanistan.

The statement identified the slain militants as “khwarij,” a term employed by the government for individuals affiliated with the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, a globally recognized terrorist organization.

Local security sources reported that the soldier fatalities occurred during clashes in the Waziristan area.

The official claims about militant casualties could not be verified by independent sources. The TTP did not comment on the reported clashes in the districts, where the militant group routinely attacks security forces and their installations.

Pakistan maintains that TTP leaders and fighters use sanctuaries in Afghanistan to orchestrate cross-border terrorism with the help of the neighboring country’s Taliban government, which has not yet received official recognition from any country.

The allegations have strained Islamabad’s relationship with de facto Afghan leaders in Kabul, who consistently have denied the presence of the TTP or any other foreign terrorist organizations within their territory.

“One of the key issues bedeviling our relations remains the sanctuaries enjoyed by terrorists belonging to the TTP on Afghan territory,” Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan told a weekly news conference on Friday.  

“We continue to remain engaged with Afghanistan and also make them realize that the long-term potential of the region, the bilateral cooperation and what it can bring for the benefit or welfare of the two countries will remain unmet unless this problem is resolved.”

UN backing

The latest report by the United Nations Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team, released earlier this week, highlights Islamabad’s concerns, stating that the TTP has “significantly increased” its attacks in Pakistan and from Afghan territory.

The report stated that Taliban authorities in Afghanistan “continued to provide the TTP with logistical and operational space and financial support.” It added that the group “established new training centers” in the Afghan provinces of Kunar, Nangarhar, Khost and Paktika “while enhancing recruitment within TTP cadres, including from the Afghan Taliban.”

The U.N. assessment also emphasized the growing terrorism threat from al-Qaida and the regional Islamic State affiliate operating in Afghanistan since the Taliban retook control of the country in 2021.

“The Taliban maintained a permissive environment allowing al-Qaida to consolidate, with the presence of safe houses and training camps scattered across Afghanistan,” the report said.

It stated that Afghanistan “remained the main hub” for the regional Islamic State affiliate, known as Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K), primarily “for its recruitment and facilitation.”

The spokesperson for the Taliban government dismissed U.N. findings on Friday as “inaccurate” and contrary to reality.

“The Islamic Emirate [Taliban government] does not allow any foreign, rogue group to operate in Afghanistan, and such groups are not present here,” Zabihullah Mujahid told the local TOLO news channel.

“Unfortunately, some countries and intelligence circles, through organizations like the United Nations and the Security Council, are tarnishing public opinion and waging propaganda and campaigns against Afghanistan,” Mujahid stated, without elaborating.
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washington — A court in Argentina has issued an international arrest warrant for Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, the commander in chief of Myanmar’s military, for his role in the 2017 genocide against the Rohingya.

The court’s decision, announced Thursday, also lists two civilian leaders, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and 22 other military officials. 

Min Aung Hlaing, who leads Myanmar’s military junta after seizing power in a 2021 coup, is at the center of the warrants issued by the court in Buenos Aires. The charges against him include aggravated murder, torture and sexual violence linked to the military’s brutal crackdown on the Rohingya population in Rakhine State, located in western Myanmar bordering with Bangladesh. 

The Myanmar junta has yet to officially respond to the warrants from the Argentine court. However, in response to VOA’s inquiry, junta spokesperson General Zaw Min Tun dismissed Argentina’s legal authority over Myanmar.

“Does Argentina even know Myanmar? The Myanmar government knows Argentina. If Argentina wants to legally criticize Myanmar, it must have judicial authority in the country. I suggest you focus on filling your own vacant judicial positions first,” the spokesperson said in response to a VOA inquiry on the junta’s Viber press group. 

Since the case was filed in 2019 under the principle of universal jurisdiction, the junta has consistently rejected Argentina’s involvement, maintaining that foreign courts have no authority to prosecute Myanmar’s leaders over the Rohingya issue. The principle of universal jurisdiction allows national courts to prosecute individuals for serious crimes that violate international law. 

Legal efforts, court decision  

The Burmese Rohingya Organisation U.K. (BROUK), which filed the initial complaint in 2019, praised the court’s ruling as a victory for justice.  

“This is a victory for the Rohingya and for international justice,” said Tun Khin, president of BROUK, according to a Friday press statement. “It shows that no one is above the law, not even the military leaders who have committed genocide.”  

In 2017, Myanmar’s army launched a brutal offensive against the Muslim Rohingya population in Rakhine State, which is located on the country’s western coast off the Bay of Bengal. The offensive followed attacks on police outposts by insurgent groups.  

The military’s response involved mass killings, sexual violence and widespread destruction of villages, forcing more than 700,000 Rohingya to flee to neighboring Bangladesh. The United Nations and human rights organizations have described the military’s actions as a genocide.  

Late last year, the International Criminal Court also issued an arrest warrant for Min Aung Hlaing for crimes against humanity. 

While the warrant from Argentina for Min Aung Hlaing is a major development, the court’s decision on other leaders has sparked debate.  

In December 2023, BROUK requested arrest warrants for military officials only, presenting evidence related to their roles in the genocide. No evidence was submitted for Aung San Suu Kyi, who served as state counselor and de facto leader of Myanmar during the 2017 military offensive against the Rohingya, or for former civilian President Htin Kyaw.

However, in June 2024, the Argentine prosecutor included them in his request. BROUK then asked the court to reconsider issuing warrants for these civilians, given Burma’s political context, but the court dismissed the request.  

Aung San Suu Kyi has been imprisoned since the military took power in the 2021 coup.  

Implications of warrant  

Tomas Quintana, an Argentinian human rights lawyer and former U.N. special rapporteur for human rights in Myanmar and a key figure in the case, explained the court’s stance.  

“We felt that at this stage in the investigation, it was not appropriate to seek arrest warrants for civilian leaders like Aung San Suu Kyi,” he told VOA’s Burmese Service in an exclusive interview. “But the court sided with the prosecutor, deciding to include civilians in the warrants.”  

Quintana said the ruling was based on legal strategy and evidence available at the time. 

Aung San Suu Kyi’s role in the genocide is still under investigation by the Argentine court. While the court initially focused on the direct perpetrators of the violence — the military leaders, including Min Aung Hlaing — it later sided with prosecutors to explore the civilian leaders’ responsibility as well. 

“This decision marks a shift in international accountability,” Quintana said. “It is the first time Burma [Myanmar] has been held accountable in a court of law for crimes against the Rohingya.”  

The investigation, which has spanned four years, was supported by survivor testimonies and documentation from the United Nations Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar.  

The Argentine court’s decision is expected to lead to an Interpol “red notice,” which would request the detention of Min Aung Hlaing and other Myanmar military leaders worldwide. 

While the arrest warrant for Min Aung Hlaing is a significant step, Quintana said there are still challenges ahead.  

“Myanmar’s military regime controls the country, so executing these warrants remains difficult,” he said. He called for international cooperation to ensure that officials were held accountable.  

“The United Nations and the global community must work together to enforce these decisions.”  

Despite the setback in including Aung San Suu Kyi in the arrest warrant, the warrants are a powerful symbolic ruling for the Rohingya people, Quintana said, adding that it is also a crucial step in the long process of justice.
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The suspension of USAID was felt in particular in Central Asia and Uzbekistan, especially in civil society, which is just beginning to recover. According to Farhod Tolipov, an Uzbek political scientist and head of the nongovernmental organization Knowledge Caravan, the closure of USAID will primarily cast a serious shadow on the U.S.’s global leadership.  

Click here for the full story in Uzbek. 

 
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TAIPEI, TAIWAN — The Philippines is increasing efforts to strengthen defense cooperation with several like-minded democracies amid ongoing tensions with China in the disputed South China Sea. 

Manila is trying to conclude major defense pacts with Canada and New Zealand and explore possibilities of expanding joint military drills with the United States, its main defense partner.

Analysts say the development is part of Manila’s effort to counter China’s aggressive maritime activities near several disputed reefs in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims almost the entirety as its territory.  

“The Philippines is trying to boost their capabilities to sufficiently deter China by putting a lot of emphasis on the Mutual Defense Treaty with the United States while broadening the net of cooperation to other like-minded democracies,” said Collin Koh, a maritime security expert at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.  

Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. described the defense pacts with Canada and New Zealand as part of Manila’s efforts to “build and strengthen” alliances with like-minded countries.  

“The status of visiting forces agreement with New Zealand is an important part of … both countries’ and multilateral countries’ initiatives to resist China’s unilateral narrative to change international law,” he told journalists on the sideline of an event on Feb. 6.  

Meanwhile, the Canadian ambassador to the Philippines, David Hartman, said at a press event on Feb. 7 that the visiting forces agreement would enable Canada to “have even more substantive participation in joint and multilateral training exercises and operations with the Philippines and allies” in the Indo-Pacific region.  

Some Philippine analysts describe the signing of the agreements as part of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s efforts to “reset” the country’s long-term strategic interests. 

As China continues to challenge different countries’ territorial claims across the Pacific region, “the Philippines’ efforts to consolidate more agreements with allies fits Manila’s need to defend its maritime territories and safeguard the freedom of navigation in the region,” Joshua Espena, a resident fellow at the Philippine-based International Development and Security Cooperation, told VOA by phone.  

Since about one-third of global trade passes through the South China Sea, Koh in Singapore said other democratic countries view signing defense agreements with the Philippines as a way to safeguard their strategic and economic interests in the Indo-Pacific region.

While the Philippines’ efforts to strengthen defense cooperation with other democracies may not fundamentally change China’s behaviors in the South China Sea, “it is still a concern for China when you have so many partners being militarily involved with Manila,” Koh told VOA by phone.  

Apart from negotiating defense pacts with Canada and New Zealand, the Philippines is also looking to expand joint military exercises with the United States.  

During a call on Tuesday, the Armed Forces of the Philippines chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. and U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff Gen. CQ Brown talked about the “military modernization initiatives, Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement sites and increasing the scope and capacity of joint exercises in the Philippines,” according to U.S. Joint Staff Spokesperson Navy Capt. Jereal Dorsey. 

In addition to the discussions, the Philippines has conducted a series of joint drills with the U.S. and Canada since last week, a development that China said undermines “peace and stability in the South China Sea.”

While countries around the world are bracing for uncertainties extending from the foreign policy of the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, some experts say recent developments suggest the U.S. may continue to uphold its defense partnership with the Philippines.  

“The people [that] the Trump administration has put into key security roles are mostly China hawks, so they see the China threat as being very real, and the Philippines remains on the front line [of that threat,]” said Raymond Powell, director of Stanford University’s Sealight project, which tracks Chinese maritime activities across the Indo-Pacific region.  

He said the Philippines may “stand to gain” from the Trump administration’s foreign policy direction. Manila “may have one of the strongest arguments” to convince the U.S. to shift resources to the Indo-Pacific region because “they are on the front line,” Powell told VOA by phone.   

As the U.S. and the Philippines continue to uphold their defense cooperation, China has described the partnership as “extremely dangerous.” 

“China will not sit idly by when its security interests are harmed or threatened,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said during a regular press conference on Wednesday.

To counter the Chinese coast guard’s aggressive operations in the South China Sea, Brawner Jr. said Wednesday that the Philippines hoped to buy two more submarines and BrahMos missiles in India. The Reuters news agency reported that New Delhi is expected to sign a $200 million missile deal with Manila in 2025. 

Powell said the additional missiles could strengthen the Philippines’ deterrence against China, while Manila may need to put a lot of effort into familiarizing its military forces with the submarines.   

Despite Philippine President Marcos Jr.’s recent attempt to “offer a deal” to reduce tension in the South China Sea, Powell said Beijing’s aggressive posture will make it hard for the proposal to materialize.

“We’re seeing much heavier [Chinese] Coast Guard and militia activity around Scarborough Shoal, and I don’t see a lessening of tension there,” he said, adding that tensions between Beijing and Manila in the South China Sea will likely “plateau” in the near future.
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ISLAMABAD — Authorities in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province said Friday that at least 11 coal mine workers were killed and six injured when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb.

The early morning incident occurred near a coal mine in the Harnai district of the insurgency-hit province, which is rich in natural resources.

“The terrorists involved in this incident will be brought to justice soon,” an official statement quoted Provincial Chief Minister Sarfaraz Bugti as saying.

In Islamabad, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s office said he expressed sorrow over the deaths of miners and said his government “is actively working to eliminate terrorism.”

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing in Balochistan, where ethnic Baloch militants frequently stage insurgent attacks against security forces and workers associated with public and private mining projects.

The Baloch Liberation Army, particularly its suicide bomber unit known as the Majeed Brigade, has claimed responsibility for nearly all recent attacks in Balochistan, resulting in the killings of scores of civilians and security forces.

At least 18 Pakistani paramilitary troops were killed Jan. 31 when BLA militants assaulted their bus in the province’s Kalat district, marking one of the deadliest days for security forces in recent months.

The U.N. Security Council noted in its latest international terror threat assessment report released this week that BLA has been behind “several high-casualty attacks” in Balochistan.

The report quoted two U.N. member states as saying that the “Majeed Brigade maintained connections with TTP, ISIL-K and ETIM/TIP, including collaborating with the latter in its operational bases in Afghanistan.”

TTP stands for Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, a globally designated terrorist group that carries out almost daily attacks in Pakistan, particularly in its northwestern districts near or on the Afghan border.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant-Khorasan, or ISIL-K, is the Afghan branch of the transnational Islamic State terrorist network. The East Turkestan Islamic Movement, or ETIM, is an anti-China militant group operating from sanctuaries in Afghanistan.

Balochistan is on Pakistan’s borders with Iran and Afghanistan and has experienced years of attacks attributed to BLA, TTP, and Islamic State loyalists. 
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sydney — Category 5 Cyclone Zelia swirled toward Australia’s minerals-rich western coast Friday, with predicted gusts of up to 290 kilometers per hour sparking emergency warnings and port closures.

Forecasters said the slow-moving, severe tropical cyclone was moving south  toward Port Hedland — one of the world’s busiest iron ore loading ports — with landfall expected in the afternoon.

“Very destructive winds of up to 290 kilometers per hour (180 miles per hour) are likely close to the center of the cyclone as it crosses the coast,” the Australian Bureau of Meteorology said.

It warned residents of a possible dangerous storm tide as the cyclone made landfall.

“Tides are likely to rise significantly above the normal high tide mark with damaging waves and dangerous flooding of some low-lying areas close to the shoreline,” it said in an update.

The cyclone was forecast to land near Port Hedland — about 17 hours’ drive north of the state capital, Perth — before tracking inland across sparsely populated mining and cattle country.

Initially arriving as a Category 5 cyclone, Zelia was expected to weaken to a Category 4 later in the evening.

Pilbara Ports said it had cleared vessels and shut down operations at major minerals export centers Port Hedland and Port Dampier as well as the oil and gas shipping port of Varanus Island.

Emergency services in Western Australia told people still in the cyclone’s path to shelter in the strongest part of their homes, warning it was now too late to attempt to leave.

The northwest coast of Western Australia is the most cyclone-prone region in the country, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

It also has “the highest incidence of cyclones in the Southern Hemisphere.” 

The region holds significant deposits of iron ore, copper and gold, and is home to some of Australia’s largest mining operations.

Mining group Rio Tinto said its ships and trains had been cleared from ports in the area.

“It is too early to say how long port and rail operations will be closed and what the impact will be,” it said in a statement Thursday.
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PENTAGON — U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has called for NATO’s European members to increase their role in the defense of Europe as the United States focuses on defending the alliance’s Pacific flank.

It is a move that he says will likely require European allies to significantly increase defense spending from 2% of GDP to about 5% of GDP.

“We can talk all we want about values. Values are important, but you can’t shoot values, you can’t shoot flags, and you can’t shoot strong speeches. There is no replacement for hard power,” Hegseth told reporters on Thursday at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

Last year, NATO’s European allies collectively spent 2% of their GDP, amounting to about $380 billion, for the first time after setting a 2% defense spending goal in 2014. The U.S. currently spends about 3.5% of its GDP on defense. Canada, the other non-European NATO ally, currently spends about 1.4% of its GDP on defense.

“NATO is a great alliance, the most successful defense alliance in history, but to endure for the future, our partners must do far more for Europe’s defense,” Hegseth said. He emphasized that deterrence of Chinese aggression “in the Pacific is one that really can only be led by the United States.”

He said the U.S. does not seek conflict with China, nor does it feel that conflict with China is inevitable, but he contended the administration must work with allies to ensure deterrence in the Indo-Pacific is “hard power deterrence, not just reputational.”

Russia-Ukraine war

On Wednesday, Hegseth said keeping Ukraine’s pre-invasion boundaries is an “unrealistic objective” in its war against Russian aggression, as was the expectation that Ukraine would join NATO. He advocated for a negotiated end to the war with security guarantees backed by European and non-European troops that would not include U.S. forces.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said Ukraine’s potential membership in NATO and whether it should concede any territory should not be decided before peace talks start, referring to Hegseth’s comments as “concessions” made by the United States.

“Vladimir Putin responds to strength,” Hegseth said on Thursday when asked whether the U.S. was decreasing Ukraine’s leverage.

“No one’s going to get everything that they want, understanding who committed the aggression in the first place,” he added, referring to Putin.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte reiterated his support for higher defense spending and appeared to defend Hegseth’s comments on Ukraine not joining the alliance. Rutte said on Thursday that while NATO must “make sure that Vladimir Putin never ever tries again to attack Ukraine,” he said, “it has never been a promise to Ukraine that as part of a peace deal, they would be part of NATO.”

The European Union’s top diplomat warned that any peace deal struck between the United States and Russia — without Ukraine or the EU — will fail.

“Trump says that the killing should stop. Putin can stop the killing by stopping bombing Ukraine. This is doable if there is a will,” said Kaja Kallas, the EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy. She added that any agreement without Ukraine at the table amounts to appeasement.

Kallas’ comments reflected those of many NATO allies at Thursday’s meeting following U.S. President Donald Trump’s call with Putin and Trump’s signaling that talks on Ukraine between the two were imminent.

After Thursday’s NATO ministerial gathering, Hegseth travels to Poland for what the Pentagon said will be talks with leaders about “bilateral defense cooperation, continued deterrence efforts along NATO’s eastern flank and Poland’s leadership as a model ally in defense investment and burden-sharing in NATO.”

Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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