DRULAP

washington — This week, Pakistan banned a grassroots protest movement advocating for the rights of Pashtuns, an ethnic minority inhabiting the country’s northwestern region.

The government in Islamabad contends the movement, known as PTM, poses a threat to national sovereignty and security, but human rights groups view the move as part of a larger crackdown on dissent.

The ban, enacted Sunday under Pakistan’s anti-terror law, comes as tensions are mounting ahead of a PTM-planned jirga, or council of elders, on Friday.

Here is what you need to know about PTM:

What is it?

The Pashtun Tahafuz (Protection) Movement grew out of the turmoil of the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan and Pakistan’s counterterrorism operations in the tribal region.

With the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan driving the Taliban and al-Qaida into the region, the Pakistani military launched a series of operations over the next two decades to hunt down the militants.

The consequences were devastating for the local population. Tens of thousands were killed, thousands were forcibly disappeared and millions more were displaced. These experiences fueled a growing sense of resentment and injustice among the Pashtuns.

In response to the alleged human rights abuses by the army and extremists, a group of eight university students from the Mehsud tribe formed the Mehsud Tahafuz Movement in 2014.

The movement gained national attention in 2018 after leading a 300-kilometer march to the capital to protest the killing of a Pashtun man by Pakistani police. The group then rebranded as the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement, or PTM, giving fellow Pashtuns a cause to rally around.

PTM co-founder Manzoor Pashteen, known for his charismatic personality and oratorical skills, has become the face of the movement. Other key leaders include Ali Wazir and Mohsin Dawar, both of whom served as independent lawmakers in Pakistan’s parliament. Along with other PTM leaders and activists, they’ve been repeatedly arrested on a variety of charges.

How large is PTM?

While there are no figures on PTM membership, it has emerged as a formidable grassroots movement in recent years. Its rallies routinely attract tens of thousands of people.

What does PTM want?

PTM began with a narrow set of demands, including the removal of military checkpoints, clearance of landmines and recovery of missing persons. But its campaign has evolved over the years into a broader struggle for justice, even as the government has met some of its demands.

What methods does it use?

Modeling itself on a British-era Pashtun civil disobedience movement, PTM uses a variety of peaceful methods such as marches, protests, processions through bazaars and open-air meetings known as jalsas. The groups have reportedly formed study circles to promote nonviolence and have called for a peace-and-reconciliation commission for justice.

How does the Pakistani government view PTM?

Though the movement has drawn support from other Pashtun groups, as well as progressive Pakistani activists and politicians, it has become, as one expert said, a “thorn in the side” of Pakistan’s powerful army.

The army, which rejects accusations that it has committed egregious human rights abuses, views PTM as a threat to its legitimacy. As Madiha Afzal, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, noted in a 2020 report, by “calling the army to account” and questioning its integrity, PTM effectively undermines the authority of an institution that sees itself as the guardian of the nation.

But the army’s hostility stems from a deeper fear: Pashtun nationalism. Pakistan, created in 1947 out of several ethnolinguistic parts of then-British India, has long been wary of “strong ethnic loyalties,” according to Afzal.

While PTM has remained peaceful, it is seen by the army as a potential threat to Pakistani sovereignty, as is a violent Baluch insurgency the army has been battling for decades.

Since the early days of the movement, the army has used a variety of tactics to try to shut it down, censoring media coverage of its activities, arresting and jailing PTM leaders, and launching a disinformation campaign to brand PTM activists as traitors and terrorists supported by India and Afghanistan.

But PTM has shown few signs of faltering, combining peaceful protests with legal battles and political activism while resisting the urge to turn violent.

As one activist told researcher Qamar Jafri, “We defend against attacks through resistance driven by legal activism and remaining resilient.”

What is next?

Human rights groups such as Amnesty International have called on Pakistan to revoke its ban on PTM. But Pakistani officials say PTM has ties to both the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban, a charge the group denies.

Meanwhile, the government says PTM’s planned three-day jirga will not be allowed to proceed. At least three people were killed and several others injured as police clashed with activists near the site of the gathering on Wednesday.

VOA’s Deewa Service contributed to this report.
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PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Militants opened fire on a police vehicle and killed two officers on Thursday in restive northwest Pakistan before fleeing the scene, police said, a sign of increasing violence ahead of a summit of an Asian security grouping in the capital, Islamabad. 

Hours later, the military said it killed four militants in North Waziristan, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan.

The latest attack on police happened in the city of Tank, also in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, local police official Sher Afzal said. 

No group has claimed responsibility, but suspicion is likely to fall on the Pakistani Taliban, known as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, who often target security forces. 

The TTP are outlawed in Pakistan. They are separate from but a close ally of the Afghan Taliban who control neighboring Afghanistan. 

Pakistan has witnessed a surge in militant violence in recent months. 

On Wednesday, a suicide bomber dispatched by the Baloch Liberation Army, an outlawed separatist group, struck a convoy carrying Chinese nationals outside an airport in Karachi on Sunday, killing two engineers and wounding another. 

The latest violence comes ahead of the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which will take place in Islamabad on October 15. 

The Asian group was established in 2001 by China and Russia to discuss security concerns in Central Asia. Its other members are Iran, India, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. 

The killing of the Chinese has drawn condemnation from Pakistan’s leaders. 

On Thursday, President Asif Ali Zardari visited the Chinese Embassy in Islamabad, where he met with Ambassador Jiang Zaidong to offer condolences. Zardari denounced the attack and promised that those behind it would be punished, a government statement said. 

Also on Thursday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a news conference in Beijing that “China will work with Pakistan to protect the safety and security of Chinese personnel, projects and institutions in Pakistan.” 

But she said she didn’t know if the movement of the Chinese nationals was being restricted because of the summit. Security in Islamabad was beefed up, with the authorities deploying troops, shutting schools and closing two restaurants on the road that will take guests from the airport to the summit venue. 

Thursday’s developments came a day after at least three people were killed in clashes in the northwestern town of Jamrud between police and supporters of a banned organization, the Pashtun Protection Movement, or PTM, which authorities say supports TTP. 

The government has also barred PTM from holding rallies in the northwest, allegedly because the demonstrations are against the interests of Pakistan. PTM denies backing the Pakistani Taliban, and tension was growing Thursday after the group vowed to resist the ban on its rallies. 
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JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia’s immigration officers on the tourist island of Bali have arrested a Chinese suspect sought by Beijing for helping run over $14 billion investment scam to clients in China, officials said Thursday.

The 39-year-old man, identified only by his initial, LQ, was arrested on October 1, when an immigration auto-gate in Bali’s Ngurah Rai international airport denied him departure for Singapore.

The biometric data in the computer registry at the airport identified him as a suspect wanted by Beijing, which led to his arrest, according to Silmy Karim, the immigration chief at Indonesia’s law and human rights ministry. He had been listed on an Interpol warrant since late September.

The suspect first arrived in Bali from Singapore with a Turkish passport as Joe Lin on September 26, just a day before Interpol released a so-called Red Notice for him, a request to law enforcement agencies worldwide to detain or arrest a suspect wanted by a specific country.

Indonesian authorities brought the suspect, wearing a detainee’s orange shirt and a facemask, before reporters to a news conference Thursday in the capital of Jakarta. The suspect did not make any statements and was not asked any questions.

“He was wrong to use Indonesia as a transit country, let alone as a destination country to hide,” said Karim, lauding technological advances and cooperation between immigration and the national police.

Krishna Murti, the chief of the international division of the National Police, said the decision to deport or to extradite the suspect to China will take some time. Indonesia needs to confirm whether he has truly become a Turkish citizen in the meantime or if he used a fake passport to enter Indonesia.

“We have to respect the suspect’s rights,” Murti said, adding that the suspect has not committed any violations inside Indonesia.

The man was named as a suspect by Beijing, which requested the Red Notice from Interpol, after he allegedly collected more than 100 billion Chinese Yuan ($14 billion) from more than 50,000 people in a Ponzi scheme.

Indonesia, an archipelago nation on the crossroads between Asia and the South Pacific, is attractive to local, regional and global organized crime because of its geographical location and its multi-cultural society.

Last month, Indonesia arrested Alice Guo, a fugitive former mayor of a town in the Philippines accused of having links to Chinese criminal syndicates. She has since been deported to the Philippines.

In June, Chaowalit Thongduang, one of Thailand’s most wanted fugitives, was escorted back to Thailand on a Thai air force plane after being arrested in Bali following months on the run in connection with several killings and drug trafficking charges in his homeland.
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MELBOURNE, Australia — China will resume importing Australian live lobsters by the end of the year, removing the final major obstacle to bilateral trade that once cost Australian exporters more than 20 billion Australian dollars ($13 billion) a year, Australia’s prime minister said Thursday. 

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made the announcement after meeting Premier Li Qiang on the sidelines of a Southeast Asian summit in Vientiane, Laos. 

The ban on lobsters was the last of a series of official and unofficial trade barriers that Beijing has agreed to lift since Albanese’s center-left Labor Party government was elected in 2022. 

“I’m pleased to announce that Premier Li and I have agreed on a timetable to resume full lobster trade by the end of this year,” Albanese told reporters. 

“This of course will be in time for Chinese New Year, and this will be welcomed by the people engaged in the live lobster industry,” he added. 

Albanese has given assurances that relations with China have been improved without compromising Australian interests. Beijing is unhappy with restrictions Australia has placed on some Chinese investments because of security concerns. 

“What’s important is that friends are able to have direct discussions. It doesn’t imply agreement, it doesn’t imply compliance, and I’ll always represent Australia’s national interest. That’s what I did today. It was a very constructive meeting,” Albanese said. 

“I’m encouraged by the progress that we have made between Australia and China’s relationship in producing stabilization to the benefit of both of our nations and with the objective of advancing peace and security in the region,” Albanese added. 

China’s embassy in Australia did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday. 

Australian lobster exports to China had been worth $700 million Australian dollars ($470 million) in 2019. 

Beijing ended trade with Australia in 2020 on a range of commodities including lobster, coal, wine, barley, beef and wood as diplomatic relations plumbed new depths. 

Conservative Prime Minister Scott Morrison had angered Beijing that year by demanding an independent investigation into the origins of and responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Tom Ryan, a manager at lobster exporter Five Star Seafoods at Port MacDonnell in South Australia state, said he was disappointed that his trade would be the last to resume with China. 

“It’s been a long time coming,” Ryan told Australian Broadcasting Corp. of Albanese’s announcement. 

“Between myself and other people in Port MacDonnell, it’s an absolute relief,” he added. 

The industry had found new markets for lobster products but at lower profit margins, Ryan said. 

Li said during a state visit to Australia in June that he had agreed with Albanese to “properly manage” their nations’ differences. 

Beijing had severed minister-to-minister contacts during the conservatives’ nine years in power.
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WASHINGTON — Sharadiya Durga Puja, the largest Hindu festival in Bangladesh, started Wednesday under a cloud of concern following recent acts of vandalism. Reports of idol desecration in various regions have raised concerns about the safety of religious minorities.

On Tuesday, vandals damaged five idols at the Sajjankanda District Road Transport Owner Oikya Parishad temple in Rajbari. This is the latest incident of vandalism of Durga idols reported in the media.

Ranadash Dasgupta, the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council’s general secretary, told VOA, “In the last 15 days, idols of Durga Puja have been damaged in 19 Puja [ritual prayer] pavilions in 14 districts of the country.”

Dasgupta said Hindu minorities are worshipping in fear of attacks.

“The minority community is in a sense of trauma. While they want to celebrate Puja, they also feel the risk of attack,’ he said.

Longtime lawyer Subrata Chowdhury said attacks on Hindu minorities have been taking place since the country became independent.

“The first attacks on Durga idols took place in Chattogram and Dhaka in 1972. Since then, hundreds of such attacks have taken place. Justice was not ensured in any of these incidents and perpetrators not identified,” Chowdhury told VOA.

According to a report by Ain O Salish Kendro, a Dhaka-based human rights organization, there were 12 attacks on religious minorities, 17 temples set on fire, five people injured and three homes attacked in 2022. In 2023, there were 22 incidents of violence, 43 idols vandalized, five reported home invasions and 19 people injured.

“Law enforcers have failed miserably here,” Chowdhurry said, “and we saw the judiciary’s reluctance to ensure fair trial over such incidents.”

Dasgupta said that violence against Hindu minorities continues because attackers face no consequences.

Heightened security in Puja pavilions

Army Chief General Waker-uz-Zaman announced on October 5 that the Bangladeshi Army has made extensive preparations to ensure security during Durga Puja.

The interim government has issued directives to maintain order, including deploying police, the Rapid Action Battalion and all local forces.

Inspector General of Police Mohammad Moinul Islam confirmed increased security at 31,000 festivals. Several arrests have been made, and police officials in Barisal, Pabna and Kishoreganj have been removed following vandalism incidents.

Special Assistant to the Chief Adviser Mahfuz Alam said Tuesday that action would be taken on complaints and that financial assistance would be provided to those affected.

But recent reports of vandalism have left many unsatisfied with the security measures.

Moni Mitra, who works for an online news outlet in Dhaka, said, “Every year before the start of Puja, we get reports of attacks in different parts of the country. This time too was no exception. We want to perform the Puja without fear. This is what we as a citizen of the country want from the government.”

Concern in India over safety of minorities

India has voiced concerns about idol vandalism and the safety of Hindus in Bangladesh. Indian Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on October 4 that concerns for minority safety include Durga Puja and Vijayadashami. He urged the Bangladeshi government to ensure security for minority communities.

In response, Bangladeshi Foreign Adviser Md Touhid Hosasin said Bangladesh will address any attacks on puja mandaps without foreign interference.

The Indian government on several other occasions expressed concerns over the safety and security of minorities in Bangladesh since the fall of the Sheikh Hasina-led government on August 5.

At a news conference on September 18, the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council reported 2,010 incidents of communal violence across the country from August 4 to 20.

They included nine deaths, four rapes or gang rapes, and attacks on 69 places of worship, which were vandalized or set on fire.

Additionally, 953 businesses were attacked, vandalized, looted, or burned. The organization also reported 38 cases of physical assault and 21 instances of illegal land and business seizures.

US concerned, too

Concerns about the safety of religious minorities in Bangladesh were also raised by the United States.

On September 20, the chairs of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee — Senators Ben Cardin, Chris Murphy, Chris Van Hollen and Jeff Merkley — wrote to the chief adviser of the interim government, urging stronger law enforcement and prompt action against those responsible for attacks on vulnerable communities, including Hindus.

On September 26, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken met with Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus. They discussed strengthening the partnership between the countries and highlighted the need to protect human rights for all Bangladeshis, particularly minority communities.

This story originated in VOA’s Bangla Service.
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Islamabad, Pakistan — Afghanistan’s Taliban said Thursday that Uzbekistan had accepted their appointed ambassador, and both sides marked the action as an important advancement in strengthening diplomatic ties between the neighboring countries.

The action is seen as a rare diplomatic achievement for the internationally isolated Taliban leaders since they regained control of the country three years ago.

Until now, China and the United Arab Emirates were the only two countries that had formally accredited a Taliban-appointed ambassador since Afghan insurgents regained power in Kabul.

None of the three nations has recognized the Taliban as the official government of Afghanistan, and neither has the rest of the world, citing concerns about inclusivity, terrorism, and restrictions on women’s access to education and work.

The Taliban’s foreign ministry identified its diplomat to Tashkent as Sheikh Abdul Ghafar Bahr, saying he formally presented a copy of his credentials to Uzbek Minister of Foreign Affairs Bakhtiyor Saidov on Wednesday.

“Bahr described the upgradation of bilateral relations as a pivotal phase, hoping for further progress,” the Taliban quoted their ambassador as saying at Wednesday’s ceremony to welcome him in the Uzbek capital.

The statement quoted Saidov as noting that “both countries enjoy shared interests and have achieved substantial economic growth over the past three years.” The Taliban said that Bahr “is expected to present his original letter of credence” to President Shavkat Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan.

“Our countries share a common history and interests of prosperity that serve as an impetus for the development of cooperation ties in all areas,” Saidov said on his social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, after Wednesday’s ceremony. “We also discussed the acute topics on bilateral, regional, and global agendas,” the Uzbek foreign minister wrote.

 The Taliban separately stated Thursday that their Ministry of Mines and Petroleum had signed a 10-year contract with an Uzbek company for the exploration and extraction of gas in Afghanistan.

The announcement said the agreement requires the Uzbek company to invest $100 million in the first year and $1 billion over the next 10 years. The investment will target the gas reserves of the Totimaidan field in the northern Afghan province of Faryab, which spans an area of about 7,000 square kilometers.

Russia reported last week that a “principal decision” had already been made to remove the Taliban from its list of transnational terrorist organizations, saying relevant Russian agencies were “putting finishing touches” on the delisting in line with federal law.

U.S.-led Western countries have been pressing the Taliban to reverse restrictions on women’s freedoms and their right to education as well as employment before they could consider engaging diplomatically with Kabul. Washington also wants the de facto Afghan rulers to address regional and international terrorism concerns.

“We have not changed our designation of the Taliban as a specially designated global terrorist organization, and we continue to make clear that any significant steps towards normalization of relations is contingent upon a profound shift in the Taliban’s human rights conduct,” Matthew Miller, the U.S. State Department spokesperson said on Tuesday.

“We continue to work with our allies and partners to press the Taliban to reverse their discriminatory edicts, and we make sure that any significant steps toward normalization of relations are contingent upon profound improvements in their treatment of women and girls, including but not limited to allowing women and girls back in school and lifting the restrictions on women’s employment,” Miller explained.

Taliban leaders defend their governance, arguing that it is in line with their interpretation of the Islamic law of Sharia. They also rejected criticism of their curbs on Afghan women’s access to education, employment, and public life at large.

Abdul Kabir, the Taliban’s deputy prime minister for political affairs, reportedly said Thursday that their government aims to maintain positive relations with all countries. However, he emphasized that “they will not sacrifice Islamic principles or values to please others.”

Kabir asserted in his remarks that the Taliban are currently in control of “40 diplomatic missions in different countries and engagement with the world is moving in a positive direction.”
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HONG KONG — A Hong Kong court rejected jailed publisher Jimmy Lai ‘s request to have a jury trial for his libel case against a pro-Beijing newspaper Thursday, the latest setback for the activist who suffered multiple blows in other legal battles.

Lai, the founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper, is one of the city’s leading activists who was prosecuted under a sweeping national security law during Beijing’s crackdown on dissent. He has been the subject of criticism by pro-Beijing media outlets for years.

The 76-year-old brought the case against Ta Kung Pao in 2020, alleging that the publication had maliciously suggested he was planning to illegally abscond from the city and would breach his bail condition.

On Thursday, judge Queeny Au Yeung ruled against Lai’s bid, saying the case requires a prolonged examination of documents.

“(It) is not suitable for jury trial and plainly not suitable for putting only one or some questions to the jury, leaving the rest to the trial judge,” she wrote in her judgment.

The libel case centered on an article published by Ta Kung Pao headlined “Leaders who create chaos in Hong Kong plotting escape, escape route exposed, charge one million dollars” on June 25, 2020. The article named Lai as a potential suspect who intended to abscond and evade criminal liability.

The paper denied the libel charge.

Many of Hong Kong’s most prominent activists were arrested, forced into self-exile or silenced since the 2020 security law came into force. Lai’s Apple Daily was shut down after the arrests of its top management in 2021. The closure was widely seen as an erosion of freedoms that were promised when the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

Lai has suffered setbacks in his landmark security trial. Last December, judges rejected his bid to throw out a sedition charge against him. The court last year also refused to overturn Hong Kong national security authorities’ decision to block him from hiring veteran British lawyer Timothy Owen. Lai will testify in court in his defense for that security trial next month.

Lai is now serving a jail term of over five years after being convicted in a separate fraud case. He has been in custody since December 2020.

The U.S. and U.K. governments have called for Lai’s release and have criticized the security law, which the Beijing and Hong Kong governments say is necessary for the city’s stability. 
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TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan celebrated its National Day holiday Thursday against the background of threats from China, which claims the self-governing island republic as its own territory.

The celebration marks the establishment of the Republic of China, which overthrew the Qing Dynasty in 1911 and fled to Taiwan as Mao Zedong’s Communists swept to power on the mainland during a civil war in 1949. Taiwan was run under martial law until transitioning to full democracy in the 1980s and 1990s but maintains the original constitution brought from China and the ROC flag.

President Lai Ching-te took office in May, continuing the eight-year rule of the Democratic Progressive Party that rejects China’s demand that it recognize Taiwan is a part of China. The Nationalists adhere to a unification stance that recognizes both sides of the Taiwan Strait as a single nation.

Thursday’s commemorations were to include speeches by Lai and others, performances in front of the Presidential Office Building in Taipei, including an honor guard, military marching band and overflight by military aircraft, but no display of heavy military equipment as seen in years past.

Maintaining its military pressure on Taiwan, China’s People’s Liberation Army sent 15 planes across the median line in the Taiwan Strait, prompting Taiwan to scramble jets, dispatch ships and activate missile systems.
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