epubdos : Afghanistan
SCA MORNING PRESS CLIPS
Prepared for the U.S. Department of State
Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs
TO:
SCA & Staff
DATE:
Tuesday, August 6, 2024 6:30 AM ET

Afghanistan
The Taliban says people in Afghanistan on previous government’s visas can stay for now (AP)
AP [8/5/2024 12:20 PM, Staff, 1530K, Negative]
Afghanistan’s Taliban government said Monday it would allow people in the country on visas issued by the former Western-backed government to stay for now, but that they wouldn’t be allowed back in without documents from a Taliban-approved diplomatic mission.

The announcement by the Taliban’s Foreign Ministry on the social media platform X clarified its July 30 announcement that it would no longer accept documents from consulates and diplomatic missions abroad staffed by member of the former government.

The move is part of the Taliban’s efforts to gain control of Afghanistan’s representation abroad since returning to power in 2021.

The Taliban’s blacklisting of diplomatic missions in Canada, Australia and several European countries means that many people may have to travel hundreds of even thousands of miles to get documents issued, renewed, or certified.

Documents from missions in the UK, Belgium, Switzerland, France, Greece, Italy, Poland, Norway, Sweden, Canada, and Australia are invalid unless they are registered with the ministry in Kabul, the Taliban’s Foreign Ministry said.

The documents otherwise are “invalid due to administrative corruption, lack of transparency and lack of coordination,” the ministry said. It said the documents were in “clear violation of principles,” but did not elaborate on what those principles are.

The Taliban’s Foreign Ministry, which operates diplomatic missions in countries including Pakistan, Iran, and Turkey, said Monday that its “acceptable” diplomatic missions in Europe are the consulate general in Munich, Germany and the country’s embassies in the Netherlands, Spain, Bulgaria, and the Czech Republic.

A statement issued last week by a council representing ambassadors appointed by the previous government said those missions remain committed to providing consular services in collaboration with host country authorities.

“Regrettably, through their miscalculated and short-sighted actions, the Taliban have repeatedly created problems for Afghan refugees and citizens who reside outside their country,” the Coordination Council of Ambassadors and General Consulates of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan said in a statement.

The Taliban’s Foreign Ministry did not respond to questions about the number of Afghans affected by the decision. It said online consular services were not yet available.

In March 2023, the Taliban said they were trying to take charge of more Afghan embassies abroad. Their chief spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said the administration had sent diplomats to at least 14 countries.

Many Taliban leaders are under sanctions, and no country recognizes them as Afghanistan’s legitimate rulers.

Afghanistan’s seat at the United Nations is still held by the country’s former government, which was led by Ashraf Ghani, though the Taliban administration is seeking to claim that seat as well.
‘Unconscionable’: UN experts slam delay in compensating alleged Afghan war crime victims (Sydney Morning Herald)
Sydney Morning Herald [8/6/2024 12:50 AM, Matthew Knott, 42991K, Negative]
Top United Nations human rights experts have blasted the federal government for moving too slowly to pay compensation to the relatives of victims of alleged war crimes committed by Australian troops in Afghanistan, including the family of a man who died after allegedly being kicked off a cliff by decorated soldier Ben Roberts-Smith.

Declaring it unconscionable that it had taken so long for the government to establish a financial compensation scheme, the human rights experts also called on the Australian War Memorial in Canberra to stop celebrating Roberts-Smith as a war hero after a Federal Court judge found in a defamation case last year Roberts-Smith had committed war crimes.

The experts – including University of Sydney professor Ben Saul, the UN special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, and Richard Bennett, the special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan – singled out three Afghan families as especially worthy of financial compensation for alleged wrongdoing by Australian troops.

These include the family of Ali Jan, an Afghan man who was allegedly killed by a subordinate at Roberts-Smith’s direction after the Victoria Cross winner kicked him off a small cliff.

The families of Haji Nazar Gul and Yaro Mama Faqir – Afghan civilians who were found dead after being detained by Australian troops – also deserved swift compensation, the experts said.

The Brereton report into alleged war crimes committed by Australian troops, handed down in 2020, recommended a financial compensation scheme for victims’ families be established.

“The inquiry established that compensation is owed to the victims and their families of these violations and as such, it is unacceptable that compensation has still not been paid almost four years since the Australian government agreed to pay, and 12 years since some murders occurred,” the experts said in their report, delivered to Australia’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva.

“It is unconscionable that families of deceased victims such as Mr Nazar Gul, Mr Yaro Mama Faqir and Mr Ali Jan, all murdered in 2012, have been left destitute in the harsh living conditions of rural Afghanistan for over a decade.”

Last month, the Department of Defence quietly announced regulations to establish a compensation scheme, which will result in a new Afghanistan Inquiry Compensation Advocate assessing a claim if Defence Force chief David Johnston refers it to them based on a series of criteria.

While commending the government for establishing a scheme, the experts said: “The scheme fails to provide an enforceable right to compensation, there are no clear and human rights-consistent criteria as to the grounds and amount of compensation, due process and judicial safeguards are inadequate, and there is no requirement to provide information to or consult with the victims.”

The experts said victims’ families had not received any direct official apology, and they were not aware of any steps taken to publicly commemorate the deceased victims of Australian war crimes.

“To the contrary, we note that the official Australian War Memorial continues to publicly commemorate as a war ‘hero’ one of the murderers of Ali Jan, the Corporal Roberts-Smith, who the Federal Court of Australia also found complicit in three other war crimes of murder in Afghanistan,” they said.

“The display very briefly acknowledges the findings of the Federal Court, but not the life-changing plight and suffering of the victims.”

The Defence Department was contacted for comment.
Pakistan
Thousands of supporters of Pakistan’s imprisoned ex-Prime Minister Khan rally to demand his release (AP)
AP [8/5/2024 5:27 PM, Staff, 31180K, Negative]
Thousands of supporters of Pakistan’s imprisoned former prime minister rallied Monday in the country’s volatile northwest to mark the first anniversary of his arrest and demand his immediate release, officials said.

The protest is part of Imram Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf or PTI opposition party’s campaign aimed at pressuring the current government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to free him without any further delay.

The rally was held in Swabi, a city in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where Khan’s party rules.

More than 10,000 supporters of Khan were seen waving the party’s flags and chanting slogans in his favor in Swabi. Top party leaders in their speeches told the demonstrators that Khan would soon be among them, though they did not elaborate.

It was one of the biggest protests since 2022 when Khan was ousted in a no-confidence vote in the parliament.

Ali Amin Gundapur, the chief minister in the province, asked the demonstrators to get ready for a march on Islamabad in the coming weeks, as PTI plans to hold a big protest in the capital later this month or early next month. He said PTI would defy any ban if it was not allowed to hold the rally in the nation’s capital.

Khan was arrested on August 5, 2023, after a court in Islamabad handed him a 3-year jail sentence in a graft case. Despite his multiple convictions, Khan remains a leading figure.

In recent months, all of his convictions have been either suspended or overthrown. However, the former premier will remain behind bars as he awaits a slew of cases pending against him, which his party says are fake and politically motivated.

Sharif’s government has denied those accusations, saying Khan has been given the chance of a fair trial.
Iran, Pakistan Call Meeting Of OIC After Hamas Leader Killed (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [8/5/2024 4:39 PM, Staff, 1530K, Negative]
An emergency meeting of Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) foreign ministers, on the request of Iran and Pakistan, is to be held in Saudi Arabia on August 7, as Iran mulls its response to the killing in Tehran of Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, deemed a terrorist organization by the United States and EU. The meeting in the coastal city of Jeddah will include discussions on the "crimes of the Israeli occupation" and the "assassination of Haniyeh," the Saudi-based OIC said on August 5. The Iranian Foreign Ministry said in Tehran that Iran requested the meeting alongside Pakistan. The OIC, which represents 57 Islamic countries, sees itself as the voice of the Muslim world. Unlike the smaller Arab League, it also includes influential non-Arab states, including Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey.
Official: Iran smuggles ‘5 to 6 million liters’ of oil into Pakistan daily (VOA)
VOA [8/5/2024 5:05 PM, Ayaz Gul, 4032K, Negative]
Pakistan’s military revealed Monday that millions of liters of Iranian oil are being smuggled into the country each day, but rejected long-standing allegations that it is also playing a role in the illegal trade.

Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, the army spokesperson, told a televised news conference that “consistent efforts” are being made to enhance security along the country’s more than 900-kilometer border with Iran in order to restrict oil smuggling.

“If you look at the numbers, [the fuel smuggling] has come down from 15-16 million liters per day to 5-6 million liters per day, thanks to the combined efforts of the army, Frontier Corps [paramilitary force], law enforcement, and intelligence agencies,” Chaudhry stated.

He did not provide further details, but Chaudhry is the first Pakistani official to publicly share estimates regarding the ongoing large-scale illegal oil trade between the two countries.

A rare comprehensive investigative report on the long-running illicit trade, conducted by two Pakistani official spy agencies and leaked to local media last May, revealed that Iranian traders smuggle more than $1 billion worth of petrol and diesel into Pakistan annually.

The probe found that the illegal fuel supply accounted for about 14% of Pakistan’s yearly consumption, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in losses “to the exchequer.”

The report identified more than 200 oil smugglers as well as government and security officials benefiting from the lucrative illegal oil trade.

It said that up to 2,000 vehicles, each with a capacity of 3,200-3,400 liters, are used daily to transport diesel across the border. Additionally, some 1,300 boats, each with a capacity of “1,600 to 2,000” liters, are also used to smuggle Iranian fuel.

Petroleum dealers attributed the surge in cross-border smuggling to years of U.S.-led Western sanctions on the Iranian oil sector, which compelled Tehran to seek alternative markets for its exports.

Iranian traders reportedly sell fuel in their local currency to buyers in Pakistan’s southwestern border province of Baluchistan and collect dollars from the Pakistani market. The illegal fuel is then transported elsewhere in the South Asian nation.

Islamabad mainly sources its fuel from the Middle East. The government has dramatically raised fuel prices in recent months as part of efforts to secure a new International Monetary Fund loan of about $7 billion.

Due to depleting foreign exchange reserves, analysts believe cash-strapped Pakistan could be allowing Iranian oil to be smuggled into the country to fulfill domestic needs.

Chaudhry, while speaking Monday, cautioned that sealing the border with Iran to stop the long-standing oil smuggling without providing alternative livelihood opportunities could have disastrous consequences for poverty-stricken and underdeveloped Pakistani border towns.

The intelligence report published in May estimated that up to 2.4 million individuals in insurgency-hit Balochistan relied on the smuggling of Iranian oil for their sustenance, and they would be left without means of survival if the illicit trade were to cease.

Pakistani government officials did not immediately respond to VOA inquiries seeking a response to Monday’s revelations in time for publication.

Afghan border

Meanwhile, the military spokesperson criticized neighboring Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers for not effectively guarding their side of the nearly 2,600-kilometer border between the two countries.

Chaudhry stated that the Pakistani military has established more than 1,450 border posts while the Afghan side has only more than 200. He argued that the Taliban’s limited number of posts could result from apathy or lack of resources to staff the border crossings.

“Interestingly, it’s not just the lesser number of posts or the border guards,” the army spokesperson said. “We have also noticed that whenever illegal movement or smuggling attempts occur, or people are assisted in crossing the border, gunfire is typically initiated from the Afghan side, or other tactics are used to facilitate such activities.”

Pakistan maintains that anti-state militants have moved their sanctuaries to Afghanistan since the Taliban regained control of the country three years ago and intensified cross-border attacks, killing hundreds of Pakistani security forces and civilians.

There was no immediate reaction from Taliban authorities to Pakistani allegations, but they have previously rejected them as baseless, saying terrorist groups do not operate on Afghan soil and that nobody is allowed to threaten neighboring countries.
She wanted a divorce so her father hacked her legs with an axe: how Pakistan fails women (The Guardian)
The Guardian [8/6/2024 2:00 AM, Zofeen T Ebrahim, 86.2M, Negative]
The household was fast asleep when the six men broke in. They sought out Sobia Batool Shah, 22, and one of them attacked her with a hatchet, chopping at her limbs in an effort to sever her legs. “He was relentless and must have hit me at least 15 times,” she says.

“I screamed in pain and pleaded with him to stop, but he was like a man possessed,” she adds. “I even told him I will not seek a divorce.”

Shah was attacked by men from her own family – including her father, Syed Mustafa Shah, her uncle and cousins – who broke into the house, in Naushahro Feroze, in Pakistan’s Sindh province, as “punishment” for refusing to withdraw her application to divorce her husband.

Speaking to the Guardian by phone from the Peoples University of Medical and Health Sciences for Women, in the city of Nawabshah, where she is being treated, Shah says she is in “immense pain” and her legs are both in plaster.

“The doctors have put a rod in one leg,” she says.

“It’s all about power control,” says Dr Summaiya Syed Tariq, chief police surgeon in Sindh’s capital, Karachi.

Syed Tariq, who also heads the Sindh police medico-legal department, has seen hundreds of women physically and mentally abused, raped, burned and murdered over the last 26 years.

“We are nurturing abusers who are worse than animals,” she says.

On an average day, the department receives reports of about six cases of sexual violence and 10 to 15 cases of domestic violence across the medico-legal centres at three public hospitals in Karachi.

“In the case of sexual violence against minors, my assessment is that for every three cases that come to us, seven more go unreported. And I am not counting the dead bodies that we receive,” Syed Tariq adds.

Gender inequality is a global problem, but Pakistan’s indicators reflect especially alarming rates of disparities and violence faced by women. According to this year’s World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap report, Pakistan is ranked second from bottom out of 146 countries, behind only Sudan. It ranked 164 out of 193 countries on the 2023-24 UN gender inequality index.

Abdullah Lakhair, deputy superintendent of police in Naushahro Feroze, says the victim’s father admitted the attack, telling police his daughter had brought “dishonour” to the family by filing for divorce.

She had asked the authorities for protection after her father threatened to kill her previously. “Earlier last month, the district judge had referred her to a women’s shelter, where she stayed for two weeks, but then decided to return to her mother. The incident happened soon after,” Lakhair says.

Shah says her father had left her mother and siblings and cut all ties with them. “Had it not been for my maternal grandfather and my uncle, we would not have had a roof over our head all these years. How dare he talk about his honour being sullied by my divorce,” she says.

Lakhair says Shah’s father is awaiting sentencing and could face up to 14 years in prison.

The incident has sparked angry reactions from the public and civil society organisations in Pakistan. Anis Haroon, a women’s rights activist and former chair of the National Commission on the Status of Women, travelled from Karachi to visit Shah in hospital. She is sceptical about the case sparking any meaningful change.

“Like so many harrowing incidents in the past, this will soon be forgotten,” she says. Pakistan has the laws but no “political will” to implement them, she adds.

“The legislators think their work ends after laws are passed in assemblies. They fall short of putting efforts towards their implementation,” Haroon says.

After the attack on Shah, her mother went to neighbours for help, thinking her unconscious daughter had lost so much blood she must have died.

“After giving her immediate medical help, we sent her to Nawabshah, an hour and a half from here,” says Lakhair. “She had to be given 10 bags of blood, which the police arranged. She is in safe hands, for now.”

Although her father is in prison awaiting sentencing, Shah has been provided with round-the-clock police protection in the hospital.

“My father has been apprehended but his brother has been granted bail. I am very scared,” she says.
India
India has pushed hard for solar. But as its billions demand more power, coal always gets the call (AP)
AP [8/6/2024 1:04 AM, Sibi Arasu, 456K, Neutral]
India Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in the midst of a monthslong reelection campaign this April when he took to social media to trumpet a “remarkable feat!” and a “historic milestone” for his country: crossing 1 billion metric tons of coal and lignite production. It was proof, Modi said, of India’s “commitment to ensuring a vibrant coal sector.”

A month later, for the third year in a row, his government ordered some coal plants to run at full capacity to meet high electricity demand during the increasingly hot summer months.

Even though India has been significantly increasing its renewable energy capacity in recent years, when demand for electricity surges, it still goes back to its most trusted source of power: coal.

For the first six months of this year, India has responded to major energy demand from its growing population and greater cooling needs because of extreme heat, in part due to climate change, by relying on its coal-fired plants. The country also plans to add more coal plants.

India’s coal demand rose nearly 10% in 2023, or about 105 million metric tons, in the biggest jump by percentage for any country, according to the International Energy Agency. Demand in China rose 6%.

“We know the Indian government is serious about its climate commitments,” said Carlos Fernández Alvarez, the lead author of the IEA report. But he acknowledged the “huge need to ensure people have electricity” in India, and added: “We don’t believe that India will be a front runner in the coal transition.”

More than 70% of India’s electricity needs are still met by coal even though renewable energy such as wind and solar power is growing.

India last year became the world’s most populous nation with 1.4 billion people. Electricity demand is projected to grow by at least 6% annually for the next few years, according to the IEA.

Why coal still rules in India

India has millions of people mired in poverty, but millions more who are being lifted from poverty as the country’s economy develops. And many of those will be able to afford some relief.

“Even if someone gets a fan or an air cooler to make their life a little more comfortable, cumulatively you will see the need for a lot more electricity,” said Charith Konda, an energy analyst with the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. He said 7% growth in annual demand “is the bare minimum” he expects.

While renewables are growing, India needs to add a lot of battery storage so that power can replace coal for nighttime needs, Konda said.

Electricity demand isn’t the only force guaranteeing coal’s durability in India. Konda pointed to millions of jobs in coal, including allied sectors such as the railways that control the trains used for transporting coal. One indicator of coal’s heft: At the height of summer in 2022, the government canceled nearly 2,000 passenger trains so coal freight trains could reach power plants faster.

What is needed for clean power to become the mainstay in India

India grew its renewable energy capacity by 25 times over the past decade, and now has 195 gigawatts of wind and solar power installed.

But it needs to grow faster still. Peak electricity demand reached an all-time high of 250 gigawatts in May, according to a report by the India Energy and Climate Center at the University of California, Berkeley. That demand could go past 300 gigawatts in the next three years, according to the report, which said that would mean power shortages at night.

The country has set an ambitious clean energy goal of 500 gigawatts by the end of this decade.

“In 2015-16, we saw a few years of really good growth of renewable power. Since then, it’s kind of plateaued,” said Ashish Fernandes of the think tank Climate Risk Horizons.

Fernandes and other experts say India needs to install at least 50 to 60 gigawatts of clean power each year to meet growing demand. In the last two years, due to a mix of policy decisions, politics and supply chain issue s, less than 15 gigawatts of wind and solar have been installed annually.

And storage has to be integrated into the system, said Konda, the energy analyst. India has a little less than 4 gigawatts of storage. The government last year announced a $452 million plan to support companies installing more.

“Battery storage is becoming so cheap and is a growth sector globally,” said Fernandes, who said India needs to invest while prices are low.

The Indian government has also said developed nations should provide more support, including money and technological support, to India and other Global South nations working toward a clean energy transition.

In Dipka, a coal town in central India that has seen nearly a century of mining, life without coal is hard to fathom.

“In this region, everything is connected to coal,” said Ramadhar Yadav, 45, whose family was among villagers in the region who sold their fertile land decades ago to coal mining companies and is now among several hundred residents pressing for jobs in the industry in a legal dispute.

“At least for the next 20 years our region and maybe India as a whole will depend on coal, I’m sure of it,” he said.
India’s road-building authority aims to monetise up to $2.4 bln of assets in 2024/25 (Reuters)
Reuters [8/6/2024 5:44 AM, Manoj Kumar, 42991K, Neutral]
India’s highways authority said on Tuesday it plans to monetise up to $2.4 billion worth of road projects in the current fiscal year ending March through an infrastructure investment trust route as it looks for ways to reduce its massive debt.

The state-owned National Highways Authority of India (NATW.NS) (NHAI) has an outstanding debt of 3.2 trillion rupees ($38 billion) and is betting on leveraging assets through infrastructure investment trusts to repay its loans.

"With this, the overall debt liability of NHAI is expected to further reduce to around 3 trillion rupees at the end of fiscal 2025," it said in a statement.

Infrastructure investment trusts have gained popularity in recent years amid India ramping up its infrastructure spending to bolster economic growth.

The statement said that the company hoped to save about 10 billion rupees by retiring high-cost debt worth 157 billion rupees ahead of schedule.

The highways authority had earlier raised about 160 billion rupees by monetising its assets of 889 kilometres of toll roads.

The authority, which handles 983 toll plazas, has set a target of building 10,421 kilometres of new national highways in the current fiscal year, Nitin Gadkari, India’s road transport and highways minister told parliament last week.

The authority plans to spend nearly 1.68 trillion rupees on road projects in the current fiscal year, largely funded through the federal budget, toll collections and monetisation of assets.
Can India help its special ally Bangladesh defuse the crisis? (BBC)
BBC [8/5/2024 9:32 AM, Soutik Biswas, 65502K, Neutral]
The dramatic resignation of Bangladesh’s long-serving prime minister Sheikh Hasina and her flight to India ironically underscore the close ties between the two countries.

Ms Hasina ruled Bangladesh, a nation of 170 million, for close to 15 years until a protest by students to abolish civil service quotas snowballed into a broader and violent anti-government movement. At least 280 people have died in clashes between police and anti-government protesters so far.

Back in June, Ms Hasina visited India twice in two weeks.

Her first visit was to attend Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s oath-taking ceremony. After that, she made a two-day state visit, the first by a head of government to India after Mr Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition’s third consecutive victory in parliamentary elections.

"We have met 10 times in the last one year. However, this meeting is special because Sheikh Hasina is the first state guest after the third term of our government,” Mr Modi said at a joint news conference.

The bonhomie was unmistakable. “Bangladesh greatly values its relations with India,” said Ms Hasina. “Come to Bangladesh to witness what all we have done and plan to do”.

India has a special relationship with Bangladesh. The neighbours share a 4,096km (2,545 miles)-border and linguistic, economic and cultural ties. Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan, was born after a war in 1971 with West Pakistan (now Pakistan), with India supporting Bengali nationalists. Bilateral trade between the two countries is around $16bn (£12bn), with India being Bangladesh’s top export destination in Asia.

To be sure, the ties are not perfect: differences arise over Bangladesh’s close relationship with China, border security, migration issues and some Bangladeshi officials’ discomfort with Mr Modi’s Hindu nationalist politics.

After Ms Hasina’s resignation, Bangladesh’s army chief Waker-uz-Zaman has announced plans for an interim government. He will meet President Mohammed Shahabuddin and reports say he’s hoping for a solution by the day’s end after speaking with opposition parties, led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). Leadership of the interim government remains unclear.

So far, India has only described the violent protests as an "internal matter" of Bangladesh. Can it say - and do - more about the unfolding developments?

"NOTHING. Nothing for now," wrote Happymon Jacob, an Indian foreign policy expert, on X (formerly Twitter) on what India should be doing.

"It is still unfolding. And, it’s not about India; it’s about politics in Bangladesh. Let them figure it out."

Michael Kugelman of the Wilson Center, an American think-tank, believes Ms Hasina’s resignation and flight are "close to a worst-case scenario for India, as it has long viewed any alternative to Ms Hasina and her party as a threat to Indian interests".

Mr Kugelman told the BBC that Delhi will likely reach out to Bangladesh’s military to convey its concerns and hope its interests are taken into account in an interim government.

"Beyond that, India will have to watch and wait nervously. It may support free and fair elections in the interest of stability, but it doesn’t want the BNP - even if it has grown weak and divided - to return. Delhi likely wouldn’t oppose a long period of interim rule for that reason."

Ms Hasina’s sudden downfall would have caught her allies off guard.

The daughter of Bangladesh’s founding president and the world’s longest-serving female head of government, Ms Hasina led her country for nearly 15 years. She had overseen one of the world’s fastest-growing economies and a major boost in living standards in South Asia.

But her rule had also been marked by accusations of forced disappearances, extrajudicial killings and repression of the opposition. She and her party Awami League denied these charges, while her government blamed opposition parties for fuelling protests.

In January, Ms Hasina won her fourth consecutive term in a controversial election. The opposition BNP boycotted the vote, and allegations of a rigged poll were compounded by mass arrests of its leaders and supporters.

Some of the anti-India sentiment in Bangladesh stems from India’s support for Ms Hasina’s government, which critics view as interference in domestic politics. Historical grievances and accusations of overreach also contribute to some of the negative perception.

Ali Riaz, a Bangladeshi-American political scientist at Illinois State University, told the BBC that India’s silence is “not surprising as it has been the principal backer of the Hasina government for the past 14 years and practically contributed to the erosion of democracy in Bangladesh".

“The unqualified support to Sheikh Hasina has acted as a bulwark against any pressure on her for human rights transgressions. India has benefitted economically and seen Ms Hasina as the only way to keep the country within India’s sphere of influence.”

India sees the current Bangladeshi opposition and its allies as “dangerous Islamic forces”. Ms Hasina cracked down on anti-India militants on her soil and granted transit rights to secure trade routes to five Indian states which border Bangladesh.

“A peaceful, stable and prosperous Bangladesh is in India’s interests. India should do everything to ensure that those conditions are maintained. Essentially you want to keep peace and calm,” Harsh Vardhan Shringla, a former Indian foreign secretary and high commissioner to Bangladesh, told the BBC, hours before Ms Hasina resigned.

For the moment, the situation is uncertain. "India doesn’t have too many options at this point in time," a senior diplomat told the BBC. "We have to tighten control on our borders. Anything else would be construed as interference".
NSB
Facing Mass Protests, Bangladesh Leader Quits, Setting Up Power Struggle (New York Times)
New York Times [8/5/2024 4:14 PM, Saif Hasnat, Shayeza Walid and Anupreeta Das, 831K, Neutral]
They came prepared for violence. A day after about 100 people were killed in antigovernment protests, hundreds of thousands took to the streets of Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital, defying a curfew imposed by the government and demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

They got their wish. After 15 years of increasingly autocratic rule during which she crushed the opposition and brought the armed forces and the judiciary under her control, Ms. Hasina bowed to pressure and, according to the military, quit her post and fled the country in a helicopter.

The downfall of her government, in a country known for its messy and sometimes bloody politics, plunged the country into lawless uncertainty and all but guaranteed that there will be a fresh battle for power between leaders of her political party, the Awami League, and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, its main opposition.

It remained unclear what role the military, which has seized power in the past, will play — or whether it had a hand in persuading Ms. Hasina to leave. On Monday afternoon, Gen. Waker-uz-Zaman, the Bangladesh Army chief of staff, announced her departure and said he would request the formation of an interim government.

Neither Ms. Hasina, 76, nor the Awami League made any public comment on the head-spinning turn of events that few people had predicted.

The recent unrest began with student-led demonstrations against a quota system for government jobs, but they quickly broadened into protests against a government seen as increasingly authoritarian, and were met with a brutal crackdown. Thousands were arrested and scores were killed.

Student leaders had initially called for a march on Tuesday, but decided to accelerate that timetable, moving the event to Monday after around 100 people died in clashes on Sunday. In a video message, Asif Mahmud, a protest leader, said: “The time has come for the final battle. Come to Dhaka to be a part of history.”

The Hasina government declared a curfew on Sunday evening. However, protesters defied the curfew on Monday morning despite police barricades and heavy security. Later that day, the security forces made little effort to enforce the curfew.

In Dhaka, what could have been a day of street battles turned into a street party, as many jubilant protesters, shaking their fists in celebration, marched through the city center. Thronging alleys and streets, demonstrators waved national flags and bandannas, booed Ms. Hasina and called her a dictator, and then cheered the announcement that she was gone.

“It is the victory of the students, the victory of the people. After a long time, we are happy to be out of a dictatorial regime,” said one demonstrator, Towfiqur Rahman, who said he was preparing for an entrance exam for a government job. “You can suppress anger for a while, but it erupts. Today is proof of that.”

The celebrations soon descended into vandalism and rioting. Unchecked, the crowd stormed Ms. Hasina’s official residence and made off with its contents, including furniture, house plants and even the former prime minister’s chickens. A protester put up a Facebook post posing with what he said was “Hasina’s sari.”

Monsur Ali, a garment worker, said he was among the thousands who entered the prime minister’s residence, where he took a plate. “We went there out of anger,” he said. “Nothing is left there.”

Protesters attacked the offices and homes of other members of the Awami League. They stormed the Parliament building, setting seats on fire. Amid swirls of smoke, demonstrators stood on tables and chairs, and ran across the main parliamentary floor.

They also set fire to the residence where Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Ms. Hasina’s father, who played a key role in the founding leader of Bangladesh, was assassinated in 1975.

Video footage showed rioters entering the home of Salman F. Rahman, Ms. Hasina’s financial adviser, where they looted artwork and household items and set vehicles on fire. “Take whatever you can. Take everything,” a woman is heard saying in the video. “You are doing great work. Very good, very good.”

One of the deadliest clashes between protesters and security forces occurred on Sunday, even as the government declared an indefinite curfew and shut down the internet.

On Monday morning, protest leaders rallied their supporters, calling for the end of Ms. Hasina’s rule. “There is freedom or freedom. There is no alternative to this for the students and citizens,” Hasnat Abdullah, one of the leaders, said in a post.

The decision to move the protest march to Monday in defiance of the curfew may have left Ms. Hasina unprepared to deal with the enormous throngs of protesters making their way toward her official residence, known as Ganabhaban.

The protests, which have become an outpouring of rage against Ms. Hasina, began more than a month ago when a Bangladeshi court reinstated a quota-based system for government jobs, many of which were reserved for descendants of those who fought for independence from Pakistan more than 50 years ago.

Despite the deadly crackdown of recent days, the protests kept growing, showing that fear of Ms. Hasina and her government was not enough to keep many people off the streets. Instead of backing down in the face of a new curfew and other restrictions, the protesters planned a march.

On Monday evening, leaders of the opposition and the country’s defense leaders met at the residence of Mohammed Shahabuddin, an Awami League supporter who holds the largely ceremonial post of president, to determine next steps.

After the meeting, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, the secretary general of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, said that the current Parliament will be dissolved and the interim government will hold an election within three months.

Collectively, the leaders agreed to give the army the authority to stop any vandalism and civil disobedience. The group agreed to release Khaleda Zia, the chairman of the B.N.P. — the Awami League’s longtime opponent — from custody, along with thousands of people arrested in the recent protests.

The army announced that a new curfew would go into effect at midnight and lift early on Tuesday morning. Universities and educational institutions that had been closed since mid-July amid the unrest would open on Tuesday morning, according to a news release by the army.
Crowds Swarm Prime Minister’s Residence after Bangladesh Leader Flees (New York Times)
New York Times [8/5/2024 4:14 PM, Eve Sampson, 831K, Neutral]
Exuberant looters made off with furniture, bedding and potted plants as they swarmed the Bangladesh residence of the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, after she resigned her office and fled the country, according to local broadcast footage.

People scaled the residence’s black gates, the videos showed, throwing items against walls inside, bashing portraits and helping themselves to a spread of food in catering dishes.

The footage showed many people with hands and fists raised in celebration and some jumping for joy on the street. Many in the crowd appeared to be filming the event on their own cellphones.

Social media posts and live television footage also showed people taking animals from the residence, including chickens, ducks and rabbits, and some people posing with the animals.

Monsur Ali, a garment worker, said he was among the thousands of people who entered the prime minister’s residence, many of them taking away objects. He grabbed a plate.

“We went there out of anger,” he said. “Nothing is left there.”

Ms. Hasina, 76, was driven out of office by weeks of protests — initially about coveted government jobs and who is entitled to them — that began without conflict but turned deadly when government security forces cracked down. Nearly 300 people are reported to have died in those clashes.

Many in the country also oppose Ms. Hasina’s increasing authoritarianism after 15 years in power.

The country’s army chief confirmed Ms. Hasina’s resignation in a statement to the nation and said an interim government would be formed.
As Unrest in Bangladesh Intensifies, All Eyes Are on the Army (New York Times)
New York Times [8/5/2024 4:14 PM, Mujib Mashal and Shayeza Walid, 831K, Neutral]
With Bangladesh’s security forces seemingly on a deadly collision course with angry protesters after a crackdown on Sunday, eyes were turning to the country’s powerful military establishment to see how it might respond.

Protesters are demanding that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina leave office, after 15 years of rule that have turned increasingly authoritarian. If the violence on the street leads to instability and chaos, the military — which has sought to distance itself from the violent police reaction through weeks of unrest — would certainly be a central player.

It has been before. Bangladesh’s army has a history of staging coups and counter coups. But over the past couple decades, the military has taken a less overt role in public affairs, choosing more often to exercise influence from behind the scenes.

Part of that shift has been attributed to Ms. Hasina. Her father, Bangladesh’s first leader, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, as well as much of her family, was killed in a deadly military coup in 1975. In her time in office, she has stacked its leadership ranks with loyalists, and allowed them access to lucrative government contracts and other businesses.

There are international incentives for the military, as well, which has been a major contributor to United Nations peacekeeping missions that have given it another important side business. Any involvement in a coup would subject the army to criticism — or ostracism — from the United Nations, whose human rights chief responded to the recent killings by calling for restraint and accountability from those with “command responsibility.”

While the army was deployed on the streets during the crackdown to clear the protesters late last month, there have been reports of discomfort in the ranks over it. Dozens of former senior officers also issued a statement calling on the military not “to rescue those who have created this current situation” — a statement seen by some as referring to the police and paramilitaries, and possibly even to Sheikh Hasina herself.

On Sunday, the army’s chief, Gen. Waker-uz-Zaman, gathered senior officers for a meeting that was seen as an attempt to allay concerns. In a statement after the meeting, the army said its chief had reiterated that “the Bangladesh Army will always stand by the people in the interest of the public and in any need of the state.”

If Ms. Hasina’s power becomes untenable, analysts said the army would be unlikely to opt for a takeover. It might, though, try to aid some transition period from the sidelines with a caretaker government — something that happened in 2007.

“There are major international ramifications to a military coup. And more than leaders it is the younger officers who are hesitant to go ahead with anything of the sort,” said M. N. Khan, a retired general of the Bangladeshi Army.
She Thought Her Grip Was Unbreakable. Bangladeshis Would Prove Otherwise. (New York Times)
New York Times [8/5/2024 4:14 PM, Mujib Mashal, 831K, Neutral]
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s life, as well as her politics, had been defined by an early trauma at once personal in its pain and national in its imprint.

In 1975, her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh’s charismatic founding leader, and most of their family were massacred in a military coup. Ms. Hasina, who was abroad at the time, was forced into exile in India.

Her eventual return and elevation to prime minister embodied Bangladesh’s hopes of a better, more democratic future. She was celebrated as a secular Muslim woman who tried to rein in a coup-prone military, stood up to Islamist militancy and reformed the impoverished country’s economy.

But in time, she changed. She grew more authoritarian, crushing dissent and exuding an entitlement that treated Bangladesh as her rightful inheritance. Then, on Monday, the years of repressive rule finally caught up with Ms. Hasina, and her story came full circle: She resigned under intense pressure from a vast protest movement and fled once again into exile.

Student-led protesters enraged at her deadly crackdown on their initially peaceful movement stormed her official residence and plundered nearly everything inside. They defaced her portraits and tore down statues of her father around the city, and attacked the homes and offices of her party officials.

Ms. Hasina’s hasty exit comes just months after she had secured a fourth consecutive five-year term in office and thought her grip on power was unbreakable. In her wake she leaves a Bangladesh plunged back into the chaos and violence that have marked the country from the beginning, when her father helped bring the nation into being.

Beyond the immediate jubilation among the protesters over her departure are more worrisome questions.

For now, this country of 170 million appears leaderless. Law enforcement agencies that killed at least 300 protesters have been discredited. The animosities between Ms. Hasina’s party and the opposition are unlikely to fade soon, and revenge for years of harsh suppression under her will be on the minds of many. There is also fear that a streak of Islamist militancy in Bangladesh society could resurface in the political vacuum.

“We are finally free of a dictatorial regime,” said Shahdeen Malik, a prominent constitutional lawyer and legal activist in Dhaka, the capital. “Earlier, we had military dictators. But this civilian dictator was more dictatorial than previous military dictators.”

Mr. Malik said that Ms. Hasina, during an initial term as prime minister in the late 1990s, was a breath of fresh air. Bangladesh’s politics had been marked by coups, counter-coups and assassinations. Ms. Hasina was democratic, and her party was trying to act with more accountability.

But after her return to power in 2009 — following electoral defeat, exile and an attempt on her life that left more than 20 dead — she appeared driven by darker instincts. In her opponents she saw an extension of the forces that had caused her lasting trauma.

She embarked on a mission to shape Bangladesh in the vision of her father, who had been accused before his assassination of trying to turn the country into a one-party state. Ms. Hasina cast seemingly everything in that light, in that vocabulary, as if the country had never gotten over those long-ago days.

Her father’s image was everywhere. She lauded her supporters as the inheritors of the legacy of the country’s liberation from Pakistan — when Bangladesh gained independence — and demonized her opponents as traitors from that old war.

“It is undeniable that she suffered almost the highest degree of trauma, the death of her whole family,” Mr. Malik said. “We have always felt that her personal trauma reflected in her political actions and activity.”

In recent years, Ms. Hasina’s power relied on two pillars: a relentless crushing of the opposition to the point that it could not mobilize and an entrenching of an all-encompassing patronage network that would protect her to protect its own interests in turn.

When asked about her tactics, she would reply that the political opposition had in the past done even worse to her, and public sympathy for her traditional opponents remained limited. But what was clear was that the true test of her power would come over a bread-and-butter issue beyond power politics.

Last year, ahead of the election, the opposition showed some signs of regrouping around the stagnating economy. Ms. Hasina’s image as the architect of the country’s economic transformation had long dissolved, as its overreliance on the garment industry became clear and inequality deepened. Food prices were shooting up, and the country’s foreign reserves were dwindling to a dangerous low.

But her government had enough money to scrape by, and she turned to China and India diplomatically and economically as friends in time of need. She used her control over the security forces to break the opposition’s momentum, bogging her opponents down in dozens, and sometimes hundreds, of court cases in front of judges beholden to her.

The student protest that began last month was over a seemingly small issue: a quota system that gave preferential treatment in government jobs. But the anger was a manifestation of the wider economic stress.

In response to the demonstrations, Ms. Hasina, 76, turned to the repressive playbook that had thwarted all previous challenges. This time, though, it would lead to her downfall.

At first, she dismissed the students, describing them as the descendants of those who had betrayed Bangladesh in the war of independence that her father had won. When that angered the students, she resorted to a crackdown.

She sent her party’s aggressive youth wing to target what had been peaceful protesters. When clashes broke out, she sent more force into the streets — the police, the army and even the Rapid Action Battalion, an antiterrorism unit that has been accused of torture and disappearances.

Her situation turned precarious once the streets turned to carnage late in July, with more than 200 people, most of them students and other young people, killed. She deepened the crackdown — declaring a curfew, cutting off the internet, rounding up 10,000 people into jails and accusing tens of thousands more of crimes. The protest movement appeared dispersed.

“Ultimately, of course people will be silenced if this goes on forever,” Naomi Hossain, a scholar of Bangladesh at the School of Oriental and African Studies, said as the crackdown intensified. “How long can you keep protesting when your friends are being gunned down? But the cost may be so high that, you know, all support” for Ms. Hasina is lost.

When the curfew and the communications blackout eased, it quickly became clear that the protest movement had not been snuffed out and that it had expanded to seeking accountability for the earlier bloodshed.

On Sunday, the protesters gathered in their largest numbers yet. When Ms. Hasina responded once again with force, and nearly 100 people were killed in the deadliest single day of the protests, it became clear that the fear she had long engendered had been broken.

When the protesters on Sunday called for a march on her residence the next day, her response seemed defiant — she called on the nation “to curb anarchists with iron hands.”

In the early hours of Monday, the roads leading to her residence in Dhaka were heavily barricaded. The internet was shut down and public transport halted. The security forces tried to hold back the large crowds at the city gates.

But by midday, it became apparent that those tactics were meant only to buy time for what was happening behind the scenes. Ms. Hasina had resigned and was leaving the country, and the army chief was in consultations with the political parties over an interim government.

Grainy cellphone videos showed Ms. Hasina getting out of a black S.U.V. at a military air base, where a helicopter was waiting. She departed for India, where she is expected to stay before moving on to another destination, most likely London.

The army chief, Gen. Waker-uz-Zaman, addressed the nation, announcing the end of her rule. He promised “justice for all the murders and wrongdoings.”

For the protesters, jubilation was immediate. They poured into the streets and stormed her residence — to take selfies and souvenirs. One protester walked away with a plant, another some chickens and yet another a single plate. One had a giant fish from the prime ministerial pond.

But signs of lingering anger were evident as night fell. Protesters pulled down statues of Ms. Hasina’s father, set fire to the museum erected in his name (at the house where he had been assassinated) and attacked the homes of her ministers and party officials. There were also reports of attacks against the homes and places of worship of minority Hindus, raising fears that the Islamist elements she had contained might be emboldened.

“It will not be enough for Sheikh Hasina to flee,” Nahid Islam, one of the student protest leaders, who was detained twice during the crackdown and tortured, said after the prime minister fled. “We will bring her to justice.”
Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigns and flees country (Washington Post)
Washington Post [8/5/2024 2:57 PM, Azad Majumder, Rebecca Tan, Karishma Mehrotra and Anant Gupta, 54755K, Negative]
Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country Monday as protesters stormed her residence and set fire to government offices, marking a dramatic end to a 15-year rule that had faced violent opposition in recent months.

Bangladeshi army chief Gen. Waker-Uz-Zaman announced Hasina’s resignation in a televised address, adding that an interim government would be formed in the coming days. Weeks of bloody clashes between protesters and Hasina’s security forces had intensified this past weekend, with dozens killed on Sunday alone.

Now, the country of 171 million has been thrust into a level of political turmoil that it has not seen in decades.

“Please trust the armed forces. I am taking full responsibility to protect all lives and property,” Waker-Uz-Zaman said to the nation. He called for an end to the violence and promised a full investigation. “I assure you that you will not be disappointed,” he said, adding, “Every single death will be investigated; every atrocity will be discussed.”

Regular life has been upended across Bangladesh. Most of the garment factories that power the country’s economy did not open Monday. Flights into the capital, Dhaka, were canceled as its main airport temporarily shut down operations. Businesses shut their doors as hundreds of thousands of people flooded the streets of major cities, blaring horns, chanting and setting fire to vehicles and buildings.

Crowds of protesters earlier broke into Hasina’s official residence, looting furniture, artifacts and stationery. According to local media reports, Hasina escaped her residence minutes before it was stormed, leaving on a helicopter to India with her younger sister, Sheikh Rehana.

Speaking to the BBC, Hasina’s son, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, said his mother had left for her own safety and did not have plans to lead the country again. “She has turned Bangladesh around,” Joy said, defending his mother’s legacy. “When she took over power, it was considered a failing state. It was a poor country. Until today, it’s considered one of the rising tigers of Asia.”

Celebrating in the streets of Dhaka, Rakibul Islam, a student at Abudharr Ghifari College, said he had been at the demonstrations since they started in early July and had been confident that the student protesters would prevail. “It seems that we have been liberated again. I am over the moon,” Islam said. “I am going to celebrate this victory for a long, long time.”

Mohaiminul Islam Fahim, 19, called Hasina a “tyrant” as he stood in downtown Dhaka, smoke rising behind him from a motorcycle on fire. The prime minister shouldn’t have been allowed to leave, Fahim said, adding: “We want her to be brought to justice.”

The protests that have gripped Bangladesh over the past month started in opposition to a government policy that reserves half of civil service jobs for certain groups but evolved into a broad-based opposition movement against Hasina, who has become increasingly authoritarian, rights groups and security analysts say. Since taking office in 2009, she has been accused of manipulating the country’s elections — including by suing and jailing political opponents — to maintain her grip on power.

At least 300 people were killed in clashes between the two sides over the past month, the majority “shot dead by police, paramilitaries and members of the ruling Awami League,” according to the International Crisis Group. Hasina showed little indication of backing down as the toll climbed, saying as recently as last week that the protesters were “not students, but terrorists.”

When a fresh bout of protests took place Sunday, the government scrambled to impose a nationwide curfew. Protesters defied the order.

Shortly after the government announced at noon Monday that the army chief would address the nation, street barriers were removed in Dhaka. Demonstrators gathered in Shahbagh Square, many of them wearing red ribbons on their heads as a symbol of protest, and streamed toward the prime minister’s official residence, known as the Ganabhaban.

Television footage showed thousands of angry protesters entering the residence — some climbing atop a statue of the country’s founding president, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who is also Hasina’s father. Others recorded videos of themselves inside what appeared to be Hasina’s living room. Local media broadcast footage of protesters breaking into Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan’s residence and setting fire to the ruling Awami League party’s office and the home of the country’s chief justice.

A high-ranking official in Hasina’s office, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of safety concerns, said in a text message that he was scrambling to leave Dhaka. “Pray for me,” he wrote.

Bangladeshi security forces, which had in recent weeks responded to protests with tear gas and rubber bullets, largely stood aside. Videos shared by protesters showed some units of the military cruising the streets of the capital, shaking hands with civilians.

Tarique Rahman, the exiled acting chairman of Bangladesh’s opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), urged calm. “Please do not be vengeful. Please don’t take the law into your own hands,” he said in a statement.

Hasina’s Awami League and its allies won an election earlier this year that the United States said was neither free nor fair. The BNP had boycotted the election after thousands of its leaders and supporters were arrested in the run-up to polling day.

It’s not immediately clear how a new government will be formed in the wake of Hasina’s resignation. Protest leaders have asserted that they intend to form their own government and will reject martial law. Others have called for new elections.

“We had an imaginary election in the past. Now we need a real election,” Bangladeshi Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus said in an interview. Yunus, who pioneered microfinance and microcredit, had become one of most prominent targets of Hasina’s government in recent years and faced hundreds of lawsuits for charges that ranged from corruption to forgery. He said he expects these “fake cases” to be dropped now that Hasina has departed. “Finally, the monster who was on top of us has left,” he said.

Hasina’s departure is “a new liberation” for Bangladesh, said Badiul Alam Majumdar, secretary of the Citizens for Good Governance, a civil society organization.

“This was the people’s war, and they have won,” he added.
Bangladesh Prime Minister Resigns After Weeks of Protests (Wall Street Journal)
Wall Street Journal [8/5/2024 2:08 PM, Shan Li, Krishna Pokharel, and Muktadir Rashid, 810K, Neutral]
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country on Monday after a government crackdown on violent student protests sparked a revolt against her rule.

Army Chief Gen. Waker-Uz-Zaman announced the resignation at a press conference, and said an interim government will be formed soon.

The 76-year-old has ruled the South Asian nation continuously for more than 15 years, but she faced increasing calls to resign after her government sought to quash demonstrations that erupted last month. At least 300 people have been killed, and hundreds more injured.

Hasina flew out of the country on Monday, and landed in India, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Protesters broke through the gates of the prime minister’s official residence and stormed inside. Some left the mansion with chairs, potted plants and a refrigerator. Large crowds gathered elsewhere in the capital chanting victory slogans and waving the national flag of Bangladesh.

“It is the people’s revolution against a dictator,” said Mustafizur Rahman, a 30-year-old college lecturer who joined in the protest outside the residence.

Hasina, who had a first stint as prime minister after winning election in 1996, became the country’s longest serving leader after returning to power in 2009.

The daughter of Bangladesh independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Hasina has often invoked her family history for political legitimacy, including setting up a war-crimes tribunal to pursue offenses linked to Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence against Pakistan.

Political experts and rights groups say her rule has been marked by increasing repression of political opponents, including through the tribunal.

“She lost a lot of her legitimacy, in part because of her approaches to governance,” said Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. “She ruled with an iron fist.”

Protest organizers welcomed Hasina’s departure and called for a more representative government to be put in place.

The resignation throws Bangladesh into further disarray after weeks of turmoil that began with students demonstrating against a quota system that earmarked 30% of government jobs for the families of veterans of the independence struggle.

The protests reflected deep frustration among young people, who are grappling with inflation and an unemployment rate that has hovered around 16% for years, according to government data. Many saw the quota system as favoring Hasina’s ruling Awami League party and its followers.

Many Bangladeshis are also disillusioned with the government’s lack of commitment to democracy. The election that returned Hasina to a fourth consecutive term as prime minister in January was boycotted by main opposition parties.

“The economic and social grievances have been converted into a political movement,” said Sanjay K. Bhardwaj, a professor of South Asian studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.

Bangladesh has been seen as an economic success story, with gross domestic product growth averaging 6.5% over the past decade, thanks in part to its rise as a low-cost garment exporter. Per capita income is higher than India, and other indicators such as life expectancy and female literacy also top its neighbor. The poverty rate has dropped from 11.8% in 2010 to 5% in 2022, according to the World Bank.

But millions of young people are struggling to find jobs and wrestling with high inflation. The reintroduction of the quota system—which was abolished in 2018 following mass student protests but then reinstated in June by the Bangladesh High Court—angered many students who are facing a tough job market. Government roles are coveted as stable, well-paying posts.

The Supreme Court stepped in last month and ruled that the quota must be slashed to 5%, with 93% of jobs to be filled based on merit. The other 2% would be allocated for disabled or transgender people, or those belonging to ethnic-minority groups.

The government said it would respect the ruling, but after a brief pause protesters renewed their demonstrations, this time calling for Hasina to be held accountable for what protesters and right groups have said was an excessive use of force by authorities.

The police last month enforced a curfew with a “shoot-on-sight” order across the country and shut down mobile internet including access to many social-media platforms.

Kaniz Fatema Mithila, who was outside Hasina’s residence on Monday, said the prime minister had been ruling without a mandate and “keeping us at gunpoint.” The response to the protesters was the last straw.

“When we see a peaceful and justified protest come under attack…we can’t tolerate it,” said Mithila, a 38-year-old activist. “We revolted against a fascist.”

The toll from the protests included civilians caught in fire from security forces, according to Bangladeshi news reports. Unicef, the United Nations children’s agency, said more than 30 children were killed during the protests in July, and many were injured or detained.

The government has said it was responding to violent acts by protesters.

Bhardwaj said the government mishandled the protests by cracking down with such a heavy hand.

Top leaders including Hasina have compared the demonstrators with criminals, terrorists and traitors of Bangladesh. “It backfired,” Bhardwaj said.

The army is likely to put in place a caretaker government that will run the country until elections can be held, analysts said.

Leaders of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which was among the parties that boycotted the January polls, could take on key roles in an interim government, experts said, although its chairwoman is very ill and some members have been imprisoned during Hasina’s time in power.
Bangladesh Lifts Curfew as Army Set to Install Government (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [8/6/2024 1:46 AM, Arun Devnath, 27296K, Negative]
Bangladesh authorities lifted a weekslong curfew as the country awaited a new interim government backed by the military following the ouster of long-time leader Sheikh Hasina.

The nation’s figurehead president directed the authorities to lift the curfew on Tuesday morning after more than two weeks of clashes between Hasina’s supporters, security forces and student-led protesters. Bangladesh’s powerful army chief Waker-Uz-Zaman is looking to set up an interim government in consultation with President Mohammed Shahabuddin.

Shahabuddin ordered the release of jailed protesters, as well as Hasina’s rival and opposition leader Khaleda Zia — a former prime minister herself. The student protesters are pushing for Nobel Peace Prize winning economist Muhammad Yunus to lead the interim government.

What happens next after Hasina, who turned Bangladesh into an economic success and ruled with an iron fist, remains unclear. It is possible the interim government excludes her Awami League party, which won almost 80% of the parliamentary seats in a boycotted vote in January. While Shahabuddin vowed to hold elections “as soon as possible,” it’s unclear if Hasina’s allies will be able to participate or return to power.

Investors are betting on a smooth transition with a key Bangladesh stock index surging by the most since March 2020. Still, the interim government will have to focus on the economy that has struggled to gain its footing since the pandemic and has come under pressure from the curfews and recent internet blackouts.

The new government may also have to negotiate with the International Monetary Fund and other creditors for more cash to bolster dwindling reserves.

“These events in Bangladesh could not have come at a worse time given that it was regaining some amount of macro-stability after having taken the tough policy measures linked to the IMF program,” said Ruchir Desai, fund manager at Asia Frontier Capital, which has been adding to its position in Bangladesh stocks in the past two months. “There will be some amount of economic uncertainty in the near term.”

Hasina, who fled the country to India by helicopter shortly before protesters ransacked the presidential palace, hasn’t spoken publicly. Indian television channel News18 reported she is stationed at Hindon airbase on the outskirts of New Delhi for the next few days. She was trying to head to London and India had agreed to give her safe passage, Bloomberg earlier reported.

The UK Foreign Office and India’s Ministry of External Affairs both declined to comment on her travel. Separately, UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy called for a UN-led investigation into the unrest.

“The UK wants to see action taken to ensure Bangladesh a peaceful and democratic future,” he said.

Iron Hands

Hasina was the world’s longest serving female head of a government, winning a fourth term as prime minister in an election in January that was boycotted by her opponents and voters. The US, the biggest buyer of Bangladesh’s exports, had criticized the polls, and imposed visa curbs on members of Hasina’s party and law enforcement officials in September.

While the Awami League party dominates parliament, the army chief invited none of its members to talks on forming an interim government. The constitution, if it were followed, requires any prime minister to command majority support in parliament. Officials in her party didn’t answer calls seeking comment on Monday.

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Monday that Washington welcomes the forming of an interim government and that all decisions “should be made with respect to democratic principles, rule of law and the will of the Bangladeshi people.”

“We are focused now on supporting an end to the violence and accountability,” Miller said.

Hasina had faced pressure to resign for weeks as the demonstrations turned deadly. Local TV channels showed protesters looting her official residence on Monday afternoon, taking away furniture and food.

What started out in late June as peaceful protests seeking to abolish a government jobs quota turned into deadly unrest in recent weeks with demonstrators seeking to oust Hasina who showed little sign of backing down at the time. Her sudden resignation follows a weekend of student-led clashes with pro-government supporters that pushed the death toll from the violence since mid-July to about 350 people, according to news reports and data from local hospitals and police stations.

On Monday, thousands of students defied a government-imposed curfew to march through Dhaka, chanting “We will not go back.” TV channels showed troops trying to control huge crowds of people who had walked through the night to the capital to take part in the protests. A few jubilant demonstrators were seen hugging soldiers.

Hasina’s father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was killed in a coup in 1975 when he was prime minister. Protesters took hammers to a statue of the independence leader in Dhaka.

Hasina’s son and former official adviser, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, said his mother had not done anything wrong and had provided the “best government in the country.”

“She is disappointed and disheartened,” he told India Today. “She fought militancy with iron hands, she is done.”
After toppling Hasina, protesters want Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus to lead Bangladesh (AP)
AP [8/6/2024 4:12 AM, Julhas alam, 456K, Neutral]
A key organizer of Bangladesh’s student protests Tuesday called for Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus to head an interim government, a day after longtime Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country following weeks of deadly unrest.

Hasina resigned and fled the country by helicopter as protesters defied military curfew orders to march on the capital, before thousands of demonstrators stormed her official residence and other buildings associated with her party and family.

Her depature came after weeks of protests against a quota system for government jobs descended into deadly violence, fuelling a broader challenge to her 15-year rule. The government attempted to quell demonstrations by shutting schools, imposing curfews and sending in troops to shoot tear gas, rubber bullets, and live ammunition, leading to some 300 deaths, but those heavy-handed tactics only drove further discontent.

Bangladesh’s figurehead president and its top military commander said late Monday that an interim government would be formed soon to preside over new elections.

Yunus, who is in Paris according to Indian media, told student leaders he would be willing to serve, considering the present situation of the country, organizer Nahid Islam said in a video posted to social media.

Yunus, who called Hasina’s resignation the country’s “second liberation day,” is a longtime opponent of the ousted leader. During her administration, the government accused him of corruption and put him on trial on charges he said were motivated by vengance. He received the Nobel in 2006 for work pioneering microlending.

Islam said the student protesters would propose more names for the cabinet, and suggested that it would be difficult for those in power to ignore their wishes.

Military chief Gen. Waker-uz-Zamam said Monday he was temporarily taking control of the country, as soldiers tried to stem unrest. The military wields significant political influence in Bangladesh, which has faced more than 20 coups or coup attempts since independence in 1971.

Mohammed Shahabuddin, the country’s figurehead president, said after meeting with Waker-uz-Zamam and opposition politicians that Parliament would be dissolved and a national government would be formed as soon as possible, leading to fresh elections.

Speaking after the Hasina was seen in television footage boarding a military helicopter with her sister, Waker-uz-Zaman sought to reassure a jittery nation that order would be restored.

The streets of Dhaka appeared calmer Tuesday, with no reports of new violence.

Jubilant protesters still thronged the ousted leader’s residence, some posing for selfies with the soldiers guarding the building where a day earlier angry protesters had looted furniture, paintings, flower pots and chickens.

But many fear that Hasina’s departure could lead to even more instability in the densely populated South Asian nation, which is already dealing with crises from high unemployment to corruption to climate change.

Amid security concerns, the main airport in Dhaka, the capital, suspended operations for eight hours.

On Tuesday, the country was still counting the toll of weeks of violent unrest that produced some of the country’s worst bloodshed since the 1971 war of independence.

Violence just before and after Hasina’s resignation left at least 109 people dead, including 14 police officers, and hundreds of others injured, according to media reports, which could not be independently confirmed.

Hundreds of thousands of people poured into the streets waving flags and cheering to celebrate Hasina’s resignation. But some celebrations soon turned violent, with protesters attacking symbols of her government and party, ransacking and setting fires in several buildings.

“This is not just the end of the tyrant Sheikh Hasina, with this we put an end to the mafia state that she has created,” declared Sairaj Salekin, a student protester, on the streets of Dhaka.

Crowds also ransacked Hasina’s family’s ancestral home-turned-museum where her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman — the country’s first president and independence leader — was assassinated. They torched major offices of the ruling party and two pro-government TV stations, forcing both to go off air. At least three other TV stations were attacked.

More than a dozen people were reportedly killed when protesters set fire to a hotel owned by a senior member of Hasina’s party in the southwestern town of Jashore, while at least 25 people died amid violence in Savar, just outside Dhaka, the reports said. Another 10 people died in Dhaka’s Uttara neighborhood.

In the southwestern district of Satkhira, 596 prisoners and detainees escaped from a jail after an attack on the facility Monday evening, the United News of Bangladesh agency reported, as police stations and security officials were attacked across the country.

Police in Dhaka mostly left their stations and assembled in a central barracks in fear of attacks after several stations were torched or vandalized.

The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party Tuesday urged people to exercise restraint in what it said was a “transitional moment on our democratic path.”

“It would defeat the spirit of the revolution that toppled the illegitimate and autocratic regime of Sheikh Hasina if people decide to take the law into their own hands without due process,” Tarique Rahman, the party’s acting chairman, wrote on the social media platform X.

In a statement Monday, the United Nation’s human rights chief, Volker Türk, said the transition of power in Bangladesh must be “in line with the country’s international obligations” and “inclusive and open to the meaningful participation of all Bangladeshis.”

Hasina, meanwhile, landed at a military airfield near New Delhi on Monday after leaving Dhaka and met India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, the Indian Express newspaper reported. The report said Hasina was taken to a safe house and is likely to travel to the United Kingdom.

The 76-year-old was elected for a fourth consecutive term in a January vote that was boycotted by her main opponents. Thousands of opposition members were jailed before the polls, and the U.S. and the U.K. denounced the result as not credible, though the government defended it.

Hasina’s son, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, told the BBC that he doubted his mother would make a political comeback, as she has in the past, saying she was “so disappointed after all her hard work.”
Bangladesh remains in flux as students issue deadline to dissolve parliament (Reuters)
Reuters [8/6/2024 4:36 AM, Ruma Paul, 42991K, Negative]
Bangladesh’s protesting students leaders demanded on Tuesday that parliament be dissolved and warned of a "strict programme" if their deadline was not met, a day after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country.

Nahid Islam, one of the key organisers of the student movement against Hasina, said in a video on Facebook with three other leaders that parliament should be dissolved by 3 p.m. (0900 GMT) on Tuesday and asked "revolutionary students to be ready" if that did not happen.

Bangladesh’s army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman was due to meet student leaders at 0600 GMT to discuss the formation of an interim government that is expected to hold elections soon after it takes over. Zaman had announced Hasina’s resignation on Monday.

It was not immediately clear if the meeting had taken place and if the students’ deadline to dissolve parliament came after the meeting.

Earlier on Tuesday, some normalcy returned to the capital Dhaka, although traffic was lighter than usual and few schools reopened with thin attendance after closing down in mid-July as protests against quotas in government jobs morphed into a broad campaign against Hasina’s rule.

About 300 people were killed and thousands injured in the violence that ripped through the country.

Student leaders, who spearheaded the movement for Hasina to resign, said they want Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus as the chief adviser to the interim government and a spokesperson for Yunus said he has agreed to their demand.
US commends Bangladesh army for ‘restraint’ after PM Sheikh Hasina flees (Reuters)
Reuters [8/5/2024 3:53 PM, Kanishka Singh and Steve Holland, 42991K, Negative]
The U.S. government commended Bangladesh’s army on Monday for its "restraint" and urged the democratic formation of an interim government after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the South Asian country.

Hasina’s exit came after hundreds of people were killed in a crackdown on demonstrations that began as protests against preferential job quotas and swelled into a movement demanding her downfall.

General Waker-Uz-Zaman, Bangladesh’s army chief, announced Hasina’s resignation in a televised address and said an interim government would be formed.

"The United States has long called for respecting democratic rights in Bangladesh, and we urge that the interim government formation be democratic and inclusive. We commend the Army for the restraint they have showed today," a White House spokesperson said on Monday.

The White House and the U.S. State Department separately urged parties to refrain from violence and restore peace at the earliest.

"We welcome the announcement of an interim government," a State Department spokesperson told reporters.

Bangladesh has been engulfed by demonstrations and violence after student protests last month against quotas that reserved a high portion of government jobs for certain groups escalated into a campaign to oust Hasina, who won a fourth straight term in January in an election boycotted by the opposition.

The State Department said in January that the elections were not free and fair. It had also said that Washington was concerned by reports of vote irregularities and violence.

The recent protests against Hasina and the crackdown on them included some of the worst violence since the birth of Bangladesh more than five decades ago.

Asked about how the change of government in Bangladesh could affect programs to aid Rohingya refugees who fled there from neighboring Myanmar, the State Department said it had no immediate comment. Since 2017 the U.S. has provided over $2 billion in assistance for the refugees.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer urged establishing a balanced interim government in Bangladesh that could set up swift democratic elections.

"PM Hasina’s violent reaction to legitimate protests made her continued rule untenable. I applaud the brave protestors & demand justice for those killed," Schumer, a Democrat, posted on social media platform X.

Washington in recent weeks had urged the Bangladeshi government to uphold the right of peaceful protest while also advising Americans to not travel to the Asian nation, citing "civil unrest."

"Too many lives have been lost already," the White House spokesperson said on Monday. "We express our deep concern and sadness about the reports of casualties and injuries over the weekend and past weeks."

The United Nations called for "calm and restraint and to urge all parties to respect the right to peaceful assembly and expression," spokesman Farhan Haq said. "We urge security forces to protect those out on the streets of Dhaka and other cities of Bangladesh."
IMF says it is ‘fully committed’ to Bangladesh after protests oust PM (Reuters)
Reuters [8/6/2024 3:43 AM, Staff, 5.2M, Positive]
The International Monetary Fund said it was "fully committed to Bangladesh and its people" after protests ousted the prime minister.”

The Fund, which approved a $4.7 billion loan programme with the country in January 2023, said it was "deeply saddened by loss of lives and injuries," but would continue to "support efforts to ensure economic stability and deliver inclusive growth".

Bangladesh was awaiting an interim government on Tuesday, a day after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country following student-led protests that left hundreds dead.
Bangladesh’s Hasina faces the revenge of history (Washington Post)
Washington Post [8/5/2024 8:33 PM, Ishaan Tharoor, 54755K, Negative]
For the entirety of Bangladesh’s independent existence, the family of now-deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina has been central to its story. Hasina’s father was the esteemed Mujibur Rahman, the father of the Bangladeshi nation, who led the country’s freedom struggle that withstood the genocidal rampages of the Pakistani army in 1971 and, with Indian aid, ultimately severed the unnatural union between what was then-West Pakistan and East Pakistan.

Four years later, Hasina was studying abroad in Germany when an army putsch saw soldiers burst into her family’s residence in the capital, Dhaka, and assassinate her father, mother, three siblings and other household staff. That trauma was profound for both young Hasina and the fledgling nation: It prefigured cycles of violence and instability, military coups and vengeful, zero-sum political battles. And it lurked below Hasina’s multiple stints in power, especially the last 15 years, during which the democratically elected leader turned into an increasingly aloof and heavy-handed autocrat.

Hasina and her secularist Awami League party won elections in 2009 that were held after a military intervention placed the country under an interim technocratic government. She took office bent on extracting justice for the past, and ushered in trials and tribunals seeking to punish a generation of pro-Pakistani collaborators implicated in wanton massacres, rapes and atrocities that accompanied Bangladesh’s bloody independence five decades ago. The proceedings were cheered by many as a necessary step to healing the country’s wounds. But they were carried out in a manner that engendered criticism by rights groups and foreign governments, who questioned the fairness and transparency by which Hasina’s government was carrying out its prosecutions.

Some critics wondered whether Hasina was actually pursuing justice, or executing a vendetta. A few influential politicians with documented links to 1971 death squads were executed. But, as Hasina assumed more autocratic behaviors and powers, the dragnet of lawfare expanded, sidelining rivals and silencing journalists and civil society activists. She won reelection three successive times in conditions that were increasingly less free and less fair.

The scenes Monday from Dhaka mark a dramatic denouement for Hasina’s career. A month of protests that had been met by deadly repression culminated in Hasina’s resignation and hasty departure to India and the familiar intervention of Bangladesh’s top brass. It also saw the ransacking of Hasina’s official residence by jubilant demonstrators and once-unthinkable scenes of vandalism, with some protesters hammering away at a large statue of Mujib, Hasina’s father and the spiritual figurehead of the nation.

The spur of the uprising had been a government quota policy that reserved a major proportion of civil service jobs for the relatives and descendants of those who fought in the 1971 war for liberation. But they represent only a sliver of the country’s overall population — Bangladesh is the eighth-most populated country in the world — and a generation of students and other young people shorn of opportunities and frustrated by the endemic corruption of the political elites rebelled.

“This quota reform movement became a spark for other political and economic grievances. Three elections have taken place in Bangladesh which were completely fraudulent,” Ali Riaz, a political scientist at Illinois State University, told Scroll.in, an Indian publication. “So people have no way to vent their anger. So when the quota reform movement spilled over to the streets that is when this convergence took place.”

Their dissent was met with brute force and stubbornness from Hasina. “At least 300 people were killed in clashes between the two sides over the past month, the majority ‘shot dead by police, paramilitaries and members of the ruling Awami League,’ according to the International Crisis Group,” my colleagues noted. “Hasina showed little indication of backing down as the toll climbed, saying as recently as last week that the protesters were ‘not students, but terrorists.’”

Another term Hasina used to besmirch the protesters was “razakars,” a reference to the pro-Pakistani death squads that murdered myriad university students clamoring for independence in 1971. The audacity of the claim only further incensed those protesting her.

“It seems that we have been liberated again. I am over the moon,” Rakibul Islam, a student of Abudharr Ghifari College, told my colleagues after news of Hasina’s departure broke. “I am going to celebrate this victory for a long, long time.”

What comes next is far from certain. The specter of further political violence is real, with reprisal attacks on Awami League officials proliferating throughout the country. In neighboring India, concerns grew over the perceived advantage gained by political Islamists in Bangladesh, who Hasina had suppressed while in office. The prime minister’s defenders, including her own son, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, extolled her economic track record and feared the turmoil that may hit the developing country in the coming months. “She has turned Bangladesh around,” Wazed told the BBC. “When she took over power it was considered a failing state. It was a poor country. Until today it was considered one of the rising tigers of Asia.”

But a surge in Bangladesh’s GDP was not felt by the average citizen. “Over the years they have seen that Bangladesh reportedly achieved high economic growth, yet the unemployment rate was very high. On the other hand, they saw widespread corruption,” noted Riaz.

Attention shifts to Bangladesh’s influential military, which yet again says it’s stepping in to clean up the misdeeds of civilian rulers. “Please trust the armed forces. I am taking full responsibility to protect all lives and property,” Gen. Waker-Uz-Zaman, the army chief, said to the nation. He called for an end to the violence and promised a full investigation into the deaths of the protesters. “I assure you that you will not be disappointed,” he said, adding, “Every single death will be investigated, every atrocity will be discussed.”

As stunning as the developments of recent days have been, one can’t help but feel a degree of déjà vu. I was in Dhaka in 2008, not long after the country’s generals had interrupted Bangladesh’s democracy amid a bout of dysfunctional bickering between Hasina and her main rival, former prime minister Khaleda Zia of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (who on Monday was ordered released from the jail where Hasina had had her consigned in recent years).

I interviewed the army chief at the time, the unassuming, diminutive Gen. Moeen Uddin Ahmed. “The situation was deteriorating very rapidly,” he said, justifying the military intervention in 2007. “The world saw people dying in Dhaka’s streets. Was this the way forward?”

The piece I ended up writing cast Moeen as a potential wolf in sheep’s clothing, perhaps a would-be strongman who could snuff out the democratic aspirations of ordinary Bangladeshis. In hindsight, that was an unfair assessment. He ended up fulfilling his promise to allow fresh elections that paved the way for Hasina to come to power, and retired from the armed forces. It was the Bangladeshi prime minister who then set up a regime that further polarized her country.

“No systems of government are bad in their own right,” Moeen told me philosophically 16 years ago. “It’s the human beings who make it so."
The Maldives Might Not Be Sinking After All (The Diplomat)
The Diplomat [8/5/2024 9:01 AM, Ahmed Naish, 1156K, Neutral]
A startling new discovery has challenged the longstanding view that the Indian Ocean archipelago of the Maldives is doomed by melting ice caps to disappear beneath the surging tides.

Defying the dire predictions, some low-lying islands have instead grown despite the sea level rising by about an inch each decade, scientists found in a study that compared aerial photos from the mid-20th century to recent satellite images. As the ocean surged, these buoyant islands appear to have expanded in tandem.

Other islands shrank as global warming accelerated erosion and stronger waves gradually gobbled up the beach. But most islands remained stable in size, researchers found.

Scientists are trying to understand how waves could both destroy and enlarge coastlines, eroding beaches on one side and piling up sand and sediment on the other.

“All the evidence to date is that the islands are changing and dynamic. There are very few examples of islands disappearing. Much of the evidence, not just in the Maldives but in the Pacific, is that islands are changing, are mobile,” Paul Kench, professor of tropical coastal change at the National University of Singapore, told The Times newspaper from the United Kingdom.

Kench was the co-author of a 2010 study of 27 Pacific islands that complicated the picture of rising seas eventually submerging small island states. The shape of some islands had shifted with erosion and expansion on the edges but their total land area remained largely unchanged, the study found.

This confounding pattern of shrinking, growing, and stable islands has since been identified in nearly 1,000 tropical islands studied in recent years, the New York Times reported in late June. The pattern was consistent across several of the 1,192 islands of the Maldives, most of which stand just one meter above sea level.

In the southern Maldives atoll of Huvadhoo, for instance – the largest natural atoll in the world, with 241 islands – 42 percent lost ground to erosion, 39 percent remained stable, and 20 percent grew in size, researchers found. Intriguingly, the rate of erosion was not worse for islands in regions experiencing the fastest sea level rise.

Kench was back in the Maldives earlier this year with a team of scientists hoping to learn why some islands shrank while others grew. The group spent weeks measuring currents, mapping waves, and collecting sand samples. They hoped the wealth of data could be used to project how islands could change in the future.

The new research echoed previous findings about the natural defenses of islands. Coral reef ecosystems – the bedrock of the Maldivian islands formed over millennia atop the flanks of sunken volcanos – offer invaluable protection from flooding and swells. But hard engineering solutions to beach erosion such as sea walls, breakwaters, and land reclamation undermine this natural coastal protection.

The environmental side effects of infrastructure projects were pushing the majority of inhabited islands to a threshold beyond which they cannot naturally adapt to climate risks, according to research published in the science journal Nature in late 2019. Based on the findings, researchers advised the authorities to preserve the defenses of unspoiled islands that still possessed the natural capacity to adjust.

The conclusions from the new research reflected the old advice.

“They’ve got a bit of time, but they need to be thinking about it quickly,” Kench told The New York Times. “To me, that’s the challenge: How do you coexist with the change that’s coming?”

The Maldives should accept the inevitability of losing shrinking islands and learn to live and work with nature, he suggested.

“There could be nature-based solutions such as looking at coastal protection measures, where the reef flat is nourished with dredged sand to supplement natural processes that wash it onto the island,” said Dr. Tim Scott, associate professor in ocean exploration at the University of Plymouth, who was part of the team that conducted research in the Maldives.

But inaction and resignation were both unacceptable to the Maldives Environment Minister Thoriq Ibrahim, whose administration favors the creation of elevated manmade islands as a climate change adaptation strategy. “If there’s coastal erosion, then we have to do something about it,” the minister told the New York Times. “We can’t just leave it, thinking that nature will expand the island.”
Central Asia
Kazakh Journalist Sentenced to 7 Years for Ablyazov Interview (The Diplomat)
The Diplomat [8/5/2024 1:49 PM, Catherine Putz, 1156K, Negative]
A court in Konaev, Kazakhstan has sentenced journalist Duman Mukhammedkarim to seven years in prison on charges of financing an extremist group and participating in a banned group’s activities, stemming from an interview he conducted in December 2022 with Astana’s bête noire, fugitive banker and exiled government critic Mukhtar Ablyazov.

Mukhammedkarim’s trial began in February 2024, although he was arrested in the summer of 2023. The trial was delayed in late February after Mukhammedkarim complained he’d been mistreated in custody. An investigation was closed, with authorities citing a “lack of evidence.” The trial continued in May behind closed doors.

Mukhammedkarim’s YouTube channel, Ne Deydi (What Are They Saying?), which he created in 2015, has 147,000 subscribers at present. Notably, he reported on the January 2022 events and the aftermath in Almaty.

As KIBHR (Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law) laid out in a monitoring report published in July 2023, Mukhammedkarim was “especially known for openly criticizing the authorities on his airwaves” and participating in the March 2023 parliamentary elections after suing the territorial election commission, which had initially rejected his effort to register as an independent candidate. After the election, in which he was not awarded a seat, Mukhammedkarim said he would hold a peaceful protest. This effort yielded three administrative detentions of 25 days each. He’d previously been arrested for 15 days after calling the November 2022 presidential election illegal and again calling on people to protest.

KIBHR notes that in each of these cases, he was subject to administrative arrest – not a criminal offense – for violating the procedures for organizing peaceful assemblies. “A particularly important point is that, in fact, D. Mukhamedkarim did not have time to exercise his right to freedom of peaceful assembly, since he did not hold the rallies that he called for.”

In June 2023, he was charged under the criminal code – Articles 258 and 405, which pertain to financing terrorism or extremist activities and participating in the activities of a banned extremist organization – and put in pre-trial detention.

The charges stemmed from his December 22, 2022, interview with Ablyazov and the sharing of fundraising links for Ablyazov’s banned opposition movement, the Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK). DVK was declared an “extremist” movement in 2018 by Kazakh authorities. Association with the group, or Ablyazov, in any way tends to trigger a crackdown.

For example, in 2020, journalist and blogger Aigul Otepova was forcibly admitted to a psychiatric clinic ahead of her trial for “participating in an extremist organization” via alleged support for DVK and another banned political movement, the “Koshe” party. In 2021, she was sentenced to “restricted liberty” and banned from commenting on social or political issues for two years, according to a statement from the Clooney Foundation for Justice, which urged the overturning of her conviction:

In convicting Ms. Utepova, the Court concluded that the “similarity between the content of [her speech] and the ideas of the extremist organizations ‘DVK’ and ‘Koshe Party’” was sufficient to show her “participation” in an extremist group. It referred to expert findings that Ms. Utepova’s speech could create a negative attitude towards the authorities, lead to “anti-social” activities, and constituted distribution of “agitation and propaganda materials.”

Note the tenuous connection cited as sealing Utepova’s fate – a similarity of ideas was enough to prove participation.

When it comes to Mukhammedkarim’s case, more than three years later, the circus is much the same. According to the indictment, which Human Rights Watch viewed:

A state-commissioned psychological and philological expert analysis of Mukhammedkarim’s interview with Ablyazov claimed that some of Mukhammedkarim’s words in the video “promoted extremist ideas and views” and “showed signs of participation in the activities of the extremist DVK organization.” However, the analysis also concludes that the men talked about how “political change should be made peacefully” and that “the material presented for analysis does not contain appeals to organize a rally and seize power by force.”

In a January 2024 interview with the state-run Kazakh-language publication Egemen Qazaqstan, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said, “The main indicators of political persecution are censorship, tailor-made laws, and punitive authorities. Nothing like this exists in modern Kazakhstan. Our legislation does not contain a single decree, not a single law, no regulatory document that could be used to prosecute citizens for their political views.”

In the same interview, Tokayev proclaimed that “the old system is gone.” But Astana’s obsession with Ablyazov has bridged the Nazarbayev and Tokayev eras, undercutting efforts by the current president to present his regime as reformist in nature, and Kazakhstan as “new.”
‘Bedroom Trial’ Of Slain Kyrgyz Gangster’s Mother Highlights Power Shift (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [8/6/2024 1:13 AM, Chris Rickleton and Aibek Biybosunov, 235K, Neutral]
In the past, Kyrgyz notables would pay tribute to Kyrgyz crime lord Kamchibek Kolbaev’s mother -- Maya Alieva -- at lavish birthday bashes.

But now the 75-year-old Alieva has lived to see the indignity of a courtroom hearing in her bedroom as the state steps up its bid to recover what it says are her slain son’s ill-gotten gains.

The sight of Alieva apparently bedbound in her family home as a judge looms over her has been a jarring one for many Kyrgyz.

The U.S.-sanctioned Kolbaev -- a reputed trafficker of heroin and racketeer par excellence -- was once one of the Central Asian country’s most powerful men.

That continued until he was gunned down on October 4, 2023, in a security operation that apparently even surprised President Sadyr Japarov.

“I, like you, heard about it first from the Internet,” Japarov claimed in his first comments on the killing some two weeks after it took place.

“The case has been transferred to the Military Prosecutor’s Office to conduct an investigation into the operation…[and] determine whether it was legal,” Japarov said, adding that “in developed countries, there is no such thing as a criminal world.”

No Quarter Given

There might have been more than one reason for Japarov’s rather ambiguous reaction to this very important event.

Firstly, as indicated by the large turnout for Kolbaev’s funeral -- in Japarov’s home region of Issyk-Kul, no less -- Kolbaev had a lot of supporters.

Secondly, whether right or wrong, Japarov was widely believed by many politicians and public figures as having risen to power in 2020 with support from Kolbaev’s group. Dancing on the grave of a former ally is hardly a good look, whoever he is.

Finally, Japarov may actually not have ordered the operation, since it is his very powerful national security chief, Kamchybek Tashiev, who has taken the lead in fighting organized crime.

Tashiev has also been explaining to Kyrgyz since last year why the trial of the septuagenarian Alieva had to go ahead.

“A number of cars are registered not to [Kolbaev] himself but to members of his criminal group, in his relatives’ names, in his mother’s name. Why would Kolbaev’s mother need five or six armored cars?” Tashiev asked at a press conference in November, promising a trial "soon."

That time has arrived.

A July 22 photo of Alieva in her bed under the watch of Judge Tilektesh Begaliev was taken by Alieva’s lawyer, Baktybek Zhumashev, and is quite powerful.

She now faces charges of laundering more than a dozen assets registered in her name, with prosecutors last week demanding a 10-year sentence in addition to a confiscation of property.

“She can barely walk. The most she can do is a 10-centimeter step," complained Zhumashev, who has appealed to the court to carry out psychological and medical tests to determine her fitness to stand trial.

"I seriously doubt that she understands everything. During the hearing, she did not understand what was being discussed. She could not even answer questions about where she lives and where she was born; her children answered for her,” Zhumashev said.

Zhumashev and the Kolbaev family also cite medical records stating that Alieva had suffered a stroke in 2014.

The prosecutor in her case, Kunduz Akunova, is dismissive of those arguments.

“Since then, she has been participating in plenty of celebrations," said Akunova. "She was of sound mind then. Are we to consider that suddenly, overnight, she became incompetent?”

The State Taketh Away

The most famous of those celebrations was Alieva’s 75th birthday party in 2018.

Footage showed several Kyrgyz notables at the event, including the current head of Kyrgyzstan’s cabinet, Akylbek Japarov, a lawmaker at the time.

When the video surfaced online last year, Tashiev suggested that Akylbek Japarov -- no relation to the president -- would not be punished for that transgression.

But the national security boss has also made it clear that the days of politicians hobnobbing with gangsters and their families are over.

After Kolbaev was gunned down in broad daylight at a gastro pub in Bishkek last fall by state security officers, dozens of known associates of the Thieves-in-Law criminal group, as well as other gang members, appeared in videos renouncing their ties to the criminal world.

At the end of last month, Customs Service head Samat Isabekov announced that 14 employees of the service had been fired over their alleged ties to Kolbaev since his killing.

Among them is Bakyt Asanbek, Kolbaev’s brother, who was dismissed from the service last year.

Isabekov said a further 62 customs officials were fired for their purported links with Raimbek Matraimov, a former senior employee of the Customs Service believed to have worked in tandem with Kolbaev.

Matraimov was extradited from Azerbaijan and jailed last year on charges related to money-laundering and corruption.

With these bold moves, Kyrgyzstan’s authorities can now justifiably claim to have asserted government control in places where it hadn’t existed for a very long time.

But although businesses have been relieved of pressure from the underworld, the threat of shakedowns from the state appears to be growing.

The latest in a lengthening line of victims in this regard is the family of the late Chynybay Tursunbekov, a magnate and former parliamentary speaker who died during the coronavirus pandemic.

In his absence, Tursunbekov’s business empire has come under a multipronged assault and two of the late politician’s daughters were detained over charges of illegal privatization, some of which happened more than 15 years ago.

Both daughters are now under house arrest after one, Aidai Tursunbekova, spent more than a week in jail last month. The assets under investigation include a flour mill, a bank, a resort on Lake Issyk Kul, and land where a vodka distillery was built.

In comments to the press after news of Tursunbekova’s incarceration broke, Tashiev denied reports that there had been an offer from his side to settle the matter for a multimillion-dollar payment.

“I’m not putting any of this into my pocket but returning it to the state,” the national security chief insisted on July 22.

“On the same 1.5 hectares of land [where the vodka distillery stood], there will be apartment buildings eligible for state mortgages. The bank will be sold and the proceeds used to build these buildings,” he pledged.
Bribing A Way Of Life For Turkmen As Officials Exploit Positions To Extort Money (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [8/6/2024 12:58 AM, Farangis Najibullah, 235K, Neutral]
Ordinary Turkmen often have to pay bribes to get a job, to secure a place at a university, and even to get a vacation at the time of their choosing or renew a passport.

Many say it is almost impossible for people to get through their everyday lives without paying a bribe somewhere, as officials increasingly exploit their positions to extort money.

In a recent example, a group of schoolteachers in the northeastern Lebap region complain that officials have given them an unworkable timetable for medical checkups, just to force them to pay bribes.

The teachers claim they were given just one day to undergo extensive medical examinations -- including X-rays and blood tests -- as a precondition to return to work after summer holidays.

“There are more than 40 schools in our city that employ dozens of teachers. Medical facilities don’t have a capacity to test of all these people just in one day,” one of the teachers from the provincial capital Turkmenabat told RFE/RL on condition of anonymity.

Some teachers say they had to pay money to doctors to obtain a health certificate without undergoing the tests, or bribe school principals to allow them more time.

“I went to the internal medicine clinic at 8 a.m. for the test and there was already a long line,” a teacher from Lebap’s Danew district said. “Then I had to stand in another long line for an X-ray, and the day was gone.”

The teacher claimed he had to pay the equivalent of $7 in bribes to the school director to give him an extra day to complete the tests. Then he bribed doctors at two medical facilities -- about $30 each -- to jump the queue. Teachers in Turkmenistan make around $200 to $400 a month.

A young teacher from Turkmenabat who graduated from university this summer said he paid $120 in bribes to a clinic to complete his medical tests.

“Since I have just been hired, I had to undergo a series of additional examinations, and I was given only three days for all of that,” the teacher told RFE/RL. “Obviously, the only reason behind these checks is to extort bribes from people.”

RFE/RL contacted authorities in Lebap for comment but did not receive a response. Officials in the authoritarian Central Asian country never speak to independent media.

In Every Aspect Of Life

Turkmenistan has been repeatedly ranked among the 10 most corrupt countries in the world by Transparency International, an independent group that monitors corruption worldwide. Turkmen say bribery exists in all aspects of their lives.

During military call-up seasons, officials round up conscript-age men from the streets and even schools to send them to the army. Some parents reported in recent years that they paid about $5,700 for a postponement of military service for their child.

To secure a place in universities in Turkmenistan, parents pay thousands of dollars in bribes regardless of their child’s test results.

Bribery even allows wealthy prospective parents to jump the line to adopt a child.

One couple in the eastern city of Farap reportedly paid about $14,300 to adopt a baby within four months, while those who can’t afford to pay such a fee often have to wait several years.

Meanwhile, some Turkmen doctors reportedly carry out abortions in return for bribes, despite a ban on abortions after five weeks of pregnancy in most cases.

A few months after the ban was enforced in 2022, several medical sources in Mary Province told RFE/RL that the amount of the bribe for an abortion ranged between $100 and $500, depending on how advanced the pregnancy is.

At a women’s health center in Lebap Province, one source said patients pay up to $340 in bribes for an abortion in the later stages of pregnancy.

Turkmen also pay bribes to ensure migration officials at airports don’t remove them from international flights.

Airport migration officials routinely bar people from leaving the country even if they have valid visas and tickets. The random practice has led to widespread corruption, with some people allegedly paying up to $5,000 to be able to leave Turkmenistan.

Sources at Ashgabat International Airport recently told RFE/RL that officers are removing up to 20 to 30 people -- mostly students studying abroad -- from outbound flights without giving any valid reason.

To get a passport or to renew an expiring travel document, several Turkmenabat residents have reportedly paid some $200 in bribes to passport officials to avoid waiting for several months.

Bribing The Morality Police

Young Turkmen accuse some law enforcement officers of targeting couples sitting close, kissing, or hugging in public places to solicit bribes.

Acting like morality police, the officers often detain such couples, accusing them of “violating social norms,” according to several eyewitnesses and those involved in such incidents.

They threaten the “offenders” with arrest and fines, but often release them after getting paid on the spot.

A young man from Turkmenabat claimed he and his girlfriend were stopped by a police patrol while holding hands at the city’s National Flag Square in April.

The man said the officers scolded the couple for “shameful behavior that is unbecoming for Turkmen, especially under the national flag,” and tried to force them into a police vehicle.

“The officers threatened to open a criminal case against me on a charge of resisting a police officer,” the man told RFE/RL. “Then one of the policemen took me to one side and demanded [the equivalent of] $30. I told him that I only have $10 with me. He took the money and let us go.”
Japan to offer $2bn in trade support for Central Asia projects (Nikkei Asia)
Nikkei Asia [8/5/2024 4:01 PM, Hiroyuki Akiyama, 2042K, Positive]
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will announce more than 200 business deals in Central Asia during his visit to the region this week, promoting decarbonization and digital technology with 300 billion yen ($2.1 billion) in government support, Nikkei has learned.

Kishida, who is set to arrive Friday with a business delegation, will make the announcement during a summit with leaders of the region’s five countries.

Japan’s state-owned Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (NEXI) will set up a five-year, 300 billion yen credit line to underwrite trade insurance for Japanese companies exporting to or investing in Central Asia.

NEXI classifies Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan in the highest of its eight categories of country risk, with Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan in the third-highest category. The government seeks to encourage companies to do business in the region by sharing the risks stemming from economic and political instability.

Kishida will also set out plans for official development assistance to be used for projects involving Japanese companies, as well as support on the personnel side including overseas study and training.

Decarbonization is a central part of the business plans. Itochu and Kawasaki Heavy Industries, along with a state-owned company in Turkmenistan, will build a plant there to produce gasoline from natural gas, and bring in technology to reduce methane emissions from natural gas production.

Industrial group IHI is set to announce it will conduct a study on generating power from clean-burning ammonia in Kazakhstan. The company is already moving to bring the technology into commercial use in Malaysia and Indonesia.

Digitalization is another key issue. Toyota Tsusho and NEC are believed to be negotiating deals worth a combined 23.3 billion yen to build new data centers in Uzbekistan. The companies have been involved in building infrastructure to improve the country’s telecommunications system.

Mitsui & Co. and Komaihaltec are rolling out AI-powered traffic lights, designed to reduce congestion, and wind-powered smart cities in Uzbekistan as well.

Kishida will visit Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan for three days through Sunday. Representatives from roughly 50 Japanese companies will accompany the prime minister. The two countries will host their own business forums where Kishida will participate in deal-signing ceremonies.

The six-way summit between Kishida and the Central Asian leaders will finalize a joint statement calling for focused cooperation on decarbonization, connectivity and the development of human resources. The five Central Asian countries form a considerably large market of over 70 million people combined.

Central Asian nations that are formerly part of the Soviet bloc share strong ties with Russia and China. But countries in the region are exploring collaborations with other nations in a bid to ease their dependency on the two. This stems from the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as stalled Belt and Road projects from China.
How Can Central Asia Move Toward Security Integration? (The Diplomat)
The Diplomat [8/5/2024 8:43 AM, Sanat Kushkumbayev, 1156K, Neutral]
Against the backdrop of border conflicts between countries in the region, Russian aggression against Ukraine, and rising global tensions, Central Asian countries are increasingly aware of the need to pursue their own solutions in the security sector. So far in 2024, Kazakhstan has hosted two important events that underscore growing security cooperation in the region.

First, on May 16, a meeting of the secretaries of the security councils of the five Central Asian countries was held in Astana. It was the first meeting of its kind in the region. Kazakhstan, as the soon-to-be host of the Sixth Consultative Meeting of Central Asian Heads of State, scheduled for August 9, proposed complementing that endeavor with a dialogue on security and cooperation in Central Asia at the level of security council secretaries.

The security chefs’ dialogue represents a new chapter in contemporary Central Asian regionalism. It reflects a growing recognition among the five nations that their shared challenges require shared solutions. Paramount among these challenges are the delimitation and strengthening of regional borders.

The arms race between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, following a large-scale border conflict in September 2022, has raised serious concerns regionally, most notably in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Russia, Turkey, Iran, and China have all been involved in the supply of military equipment to Central Asia broadly, and Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in particular. Some of these countries are seeking also to become security brokers.

The increased intensity of the border conflict shocked the governments of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, but paradoxically, rather than worsening relations, the flash of violence ultimately had an opposite, positive effect. Both countries have earnestly begun to deepen and intensify their security dialogue and cooperation. On July 30, officials from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan claimed that following months of negotiation they had agreed on 94 percent of their 972-kilometer border.

It is no coincidence that at the meeting with the secretaries of the security councils, Kazakhstani President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev called for coordinated resistance against external powers attempting to incite conflict and split the region’s nations apart.

Second, on July 9-17, Kazakhstan hosted Birlestik-2024 (Alliance-2024) exercises. The large-scale military exercise was the first held in Central Asia without the participation of Russia or China. About 4,000 military personnel and 700 units of weapons and military equipment from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Azerbaijan were involved in the exercises. The practical goals of the exercises are indicative of regional priorities – conducting operations to ensure maritime security and protect infrastructure, training of joint ground and air reconnaissance groups, naval special forces, army and front-line aviation crews, warships, boats, artillery crews, and assault and tank units.

The location was no coincidence either – Birlestik-2024 took place in the Caspian Sea region. All five countries are part of the “Middle Corridor” transport route through the Caspian Sea connecting the region with Europe by bypassing Russia. Joint military exercises show that the Central Asian countries and Azerbaijan are seeking to resolve security issues in the region on their own.

These initiatives could have important long-term implications for strengthening regional security integration – unless a neighboring power again tries to interfere in the process.

This has happened before. In independence, large-scale agreements were concluded among the Central Asian states, which led to the creation of integration organizations and structures in Central Asia, including the Central Asian Cooperation Organization (CACO) and the Council of Defense Ministers. However, the downside of this process was that these steps faced competition from powerful neighbors. Russia focused on promoting the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) under its control, while China concentrated on developing the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). Finally, in 2004, Russia joined CACO. As a result, a year later, in 2005, at the CACO summit in St. Petersburg, the organization disappeared, merging with a new Russian project, the Eurasian Economic Community.

Perhaps this history is why, almost two decades, some Central Asian states are still cautious about the institutionalization of regional integration efforts.

The creation of a regional organization may once again raise unfounded suspicions in the Kremlin and prompt efforts at involvement or interference. However, the pressing problems in the region, such as border and territorial disputes, transport corridor security, and risks of extremism and terrorism, require urgent solutions that regional states are best equipped to pioneer. It is therefore important for countries in the Central Asian region to focus on building functional institutions of cooperation even if, for the time being, they continue to avoid institutionalization.

Astana intends to seize the present window of opportunity to launch a new cycle of regional cooperation by proposing a detailed “Central Asia – 2040” strategy at the Sixth Consultative Meeting of Central Asian Countries on August 9, 2024.

Kazakhstan seeks to build a network of bilateral and multilateral agreements with the regional states of Central Asia to consolidate and deepen relations. All these steps could lead to the strengthening of Central Asia’s international subjectivity.

In July 2022, the five Central Asian presidents considered a “Treaty of Friendship, Good Neighborliness and Cooperation for the Development of Central Asia in the 21st Century” at their summit in Kyrgyzstan, but Tajikistan and Turkmenistan refrained from signing on.

Kazakhstan hopes at the upcoming meeting is to persuade the two to join the friendship treaty so that it can enter into force. Such a treaty would indeed be a political platform for future unification.
Twitter
Afghanistan
Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Afghanistan
@MoFA_Afg
[8/5/2024 8:53 AM, 67.2K followers, 39 retweets, 134 likes]
Clarification on suspension of consular services at Afghan embassies in Europe, US, Canada, and Australia

Freshta Razbaan
@RazbaanFreshta
[8/5/2024 1:42 PM, 4.8K followers, 2 likes]
The Taliban’s reign of terror has transformed the once hopeful Ministry of Women’s Affairs into a haunting symbol of oppression. This institution, built on principles of equality and justice, has been ruthlessly dismantled by a regime that views women as second-class citizens. The Taliban’s barbaric laws, including the horrific acts of stoning women and amputating limbs, have plunged Afghanistan into a dark age. #AfghanWomen #TalibanTyranny #HumanRights #WomenRights #StandWithAfghanWomen #JusticeForAfghanistan #StopTheViolence #AfghanistanCrisis #NoWomenNoPeace #AfghanLivesMatter #womensrightsarehumanrights #EndTheOppression #FreeAfghanistan #AfghanResistance #AfghanWomenArise #AfghanWomenEmpowerment #AfghanWomenStrong #AfghanWomenDeserveBetter

Freshta Razbaan
@RazbaanFreshta
[8/5/2024 9:24 AM, 4.8K followers, 2 likes]
The Taliban’s rule is marked by cruelty and control, where basic human rights are often ignored. They use fear and violence to keep power, hurting anyone who speaks against them. The sad story of Hora Sadat, who was tortured and killed after being called to the Kabul Police Headquarters, shows their brutal ways. To hide their actions, the Taliban forced her family to lie about how she died, blaming it on poisoning. This shows their willingness to do anything to silence the truth. The world must act to hold the Taliban accountable and protect the rights of the Afghan people.

Jahanzeb Wesa
@JahanzebWesa
[8/5/2024 7:00 PM, 2.6K followers, 3 retweets, 6 likes]
The pitiful and suffocating situation in the Taliban regime, the deprivation of women and girls from their basic rights, revenge and continued shootings, cruelty and oppression, the establishment of field courts: https://amu.tv/fa/114778/
Pakistan
Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Pakistan
@ForeignOfficePk
[8/5/2024 4:44 AM, 479.8K followers, 44 retweets, 75 likes]
On the occasion of #YoumeIstehsal , a walk was held at the Constitution Avenue, Islamabad. Officials of the Foreign Office, led by Foreign Secretary @SyrusQazi participated in large numbers to express solidarity with the Kashmiri people. Deputy Prime Minister/ Foreign Minister @MIshaqDar addressed the rally at D-Chowk expressing solidarity to the Kashmiri cause and reiterating that Pakistan will continue to provide political, diplomatic and moral support to its Kashmiri brothers and sister and called for the realization of their just right to self-determination as enshrined in the UN Charter and as guaranteed in the relevant @UN Security Council and @OIC_OCI Resolutions. #KashmiriLivesMatter #ParadiseInChains #IndiaOut #SilenceIsComplicity

Anas Mallick
@AnasMallick
[8/5/2024 9:48 AM, 73.4K followers, 2 retweets, 29 likes]
While crowds continue to pour in, PTI’s @FaisalJavedKhan at the stage charging their supporters — Good numbers though the venue is yet to be filled up — Interesting to see that a Jalsa in KPK by PTi does not have image of Murad Saeed on the mainstage banner.
India
Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[8/5/2024 5:18 AM, 100.7M followers, 12K retweets, 72K likes]
Today we mark 5 years since the Parliament of India decided to abrogate Articles 370 and 35(A), a watershed moment in our nation’s history. It was the start of a new era of progress and prosperity in Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. It meant that the Constitution of India was implemented in these places in letter and spirit, in line with the vision of the great men and women who made the Constitution. With abrogation came security, dignity and opportunity for the women, youth, backward, tribal and marginalised communities who were deprived of the fruits of development. At the same time, it has ensured that corruption, which plagued J&K for decades, has been kept at bay. I assure the people of J&K and Ladakh that our Government will keep working for them and fulfil their aspirations in the coming times.

President of India
@rashtrapatibhvn
[8/6/2024 3:04 AM, 25.4M followers, 35 retweets, 249 likes]
President Droupadi Murmu laid wreath at the National War Memorial in Suva and paid tributes to the martyred soldiers.

President of India
@rashtrapatibhvn
[8/6/2024 2:11 AM, 25.4M followers, 50 retweets, 280 likes]
President Murmu and Prime Minister Rabuka also presided over a ceremony for handing over of documents for allocation of project sites for (i) High Commission of India Chancery and Indian Cultural Centre Complex, Suva and (ii) 100-bed Super Speciality Hospital, Suva.

Dr. S. Jaishankar
@DrSJaishankar
[8/6/2024 1:10 AM, 3.2M followers, 1.4K retweets, 11K likes]
Briefed an All-Party meeting in Parliament today about the ongoing developments in Bangladesh. Appreciate the unanimous support and understanding that was extended.

Dr. S. Jaishankar
@DrSJaishankar
[8/5/2024 11:21 PM, 3.2M followers, 384 retweets, 3.4K likes]
Met with a delegation of Tamil fishermen leaders yesterday along with @BJP4TamilNadu President @annamalai_k. They conveyed their various grievances and concerns. Government of India attaches utmost priority to the livelihood, welfare and security of Indian fishermen. Assured that their issues will be approached in a sustainable and sympathetic manner.

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[8/5/2024 1:31 PM, 212.1K followers, 80 retweets, 505 likes]
I don’t agree w/idea that India is taking geopolitical losses in South Asia. Pakistan aside, India has leaders it can work with (including Afghanistan & Maldives). But it absolutely suffered a loss in Bangladesh. For years, any alternative to Hasina ran counter to its interests.
NSB
Tarique Rahman
@trahmanbnp
[8/5/2024 7:20 AM, 55.5K followers, 1.3K retweets, 9.6K likes]
Sheikh Hasina’s resignation proves the power of the people and will be an example for generations to come, showing how the courage of the people can overpower atrocities. Congratulations to the students and protesters from all sections of society. Their selfless sense of justice and love for their fellow country people have prevailed on this historic day. Together, let’s rebuild Bangladesh into a democratic and developed nation, where the rights and freedoms of all people are protected.

Tarique Rahman
@trahmanbnp
[8/5/2024 11:01 PM, 55.5K followers, 145 retweets, 1.3K likes]
I call upon the people of Bangladesh to display restraint and calm in the midst of this transitional moment on our democratic path. It is our duty to protect all Bangladeshis, irrespective of religion and politics, from discriminatory violence, and not to harass any particular community, create division, or seek vengeance. Muslims, Hindus, Christians, Buddhists, believers, atheists — no one will be left behind or be prejudiced on our democratic path; together, we are all proudly Bangladeshis. I implore those who have suffered repression and injustice over the past 16 years to take legal and legitimate steps against those who have wronged them. It would defeat the spirit of the revolution that toppled the illegitimate and autocratic regime of Sheikh Hasina if people decide to take the law into their own hands without due process. I urge all political parties in Bangladesh to remain vigilant and protect the public and private institutions and infrastructures, and to look after our fellow citizens and neighbours during this transitional time. We must uphold the spirit of our victorious movement, which is to ensure the democratic principles of fairness, equality, and justice for all.

Sultan Mohammed Zakaria
@smzakaria
[8/5/2024 7:42 PM, 5.3K followers, 379 retweets, 1.4K likes]
#Bangladesh: The student leadership that brilliantly led the revolution to oust dictator #SheikhHasina is now dictating the terms for the interim government. They have just declared country’s Nobel Laureat @Yunus_Centre as the head of the interim government! Very smart move!

Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office
@amnestysasia
[8/5/2024 5:25 AM, 89.9K followers, 102 retweets, 369 likes]
BANGLADESH: @amnesty’s South Asia Researcher @taqbirhuda spoke to @dwnews earlier today to describe how people power triumphed in #Bangladesh, while also sounding a note of caution about the risks to human rights that must be averted during this transitional period. #SaveBangladeshiStudents #ProtectTheProtest

Sabria Chowdhury Balland
@sabriaballand
[8/6/2024 2:07 AM, 6.6K followers]
The US State Department’s travel advisory for #Bangladesh. The DOS advises against all travel to Bangladesh.

Sabria Chowdhury Balland
@sabriaballand
[8/6/2024 3:36 AM, 6.6K followers, 1 like]
The coordinators of the Anti-discrimination Student Movement have said that if Hasina’s Parliament is not dissolved by 3pm, a severe action plan will be announced for tomorrow. Hasina’s Parliament must be dissolved by 3pm: Coordinators #Bangladesh

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[8/5/2024 1:25 PM, 212.1K followers, 30 retweets, 182 likes]
Will be hard to focus on an interim government and political transition as long as the unrest and mayhem are not reined it. This is where the role of the Army becomes significant. Intervening has its own risks, but it’s unclear who else can step in at this point. #Bangladesh

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[8/5/2024 10:36 AM, 212.1K followers, 90 retweets, 523 likes]
A bit ago on the BBC Sheikh Hasina’s son said that his mother is done with politics, apparently ruling out a future comeback. He cited her age as the main factor.

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[8/5/2024 7:45 AM, 212.1K followers, 66 retweets, 314 likes]
For now, all eyes are on the Army-how it deals with the protestors (who don’t want it present in politics), how it approaches the set up of a new government and eventual elections, and how it engages with both the Awami League and BNP-and India for that matter. #Bangladesh

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[8/5/2024 7:06 AM, 212.1K followers, 515 retweets, 1.9K likes]
15 consecutive years of power have been shattered by a people’s revolution.In the end, the Iron Lady had feet of clay. #Bangladesh

Raza Ahmad Rumi
@Razarumi
[8/6/2024 2:22 AM, 575.6K followers, 2 retweets, 13 likes]
Hats off to the youth of #Bangladesh. They stood up and ousted an autocratic leader. But a military coup cannot be celebrated. Bangladesh like Pakistan has experienced many coups. A vicious cycle. Pakistan constantly lives under the shadow of military diktat.

Madiha Afzal
@MadihaAfzal
[8/5/2024 11:45 AM, 42.9K followers, 2 retweets, 12 likes]
Good, succinct background on the July protests that led to Sheikh Hasina’s resignation: https://www.economist.com/asia/2024/07/25/sheikh-hasina-faces-her-biggest-crisis-in-years

Madiha Afzal
@MadihaAfzal
[8/5/2024 8:39 AM, 42.9K followers, 31 retweets, 207 likes]
What an ignominious end for Sheikh Hasina’s rule in Bangladesh. A stark reminder of the shelf life of authoritarian rule in democratic guise.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maldives
@MoFAmv
[8/5/2024 2:43 PM, 54.4K followers, 15 retweets, 34 likes]
#SAARC Secretary General, Golam Sarwar paid a courtesy call on Foreign Secretary, Fathimath Inaya @f_inaya today, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. @SaarcSec

Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maldives
@MoFAmv
[8/5/2024 4:19 AM, 54.4K followers, 54 retweets, 62 likes]
Maldives and the United States of America sign the fourteenth amendment to the Development Objective Grant Agreement (DOAG) Press Release | https://t.ly/IuK1r
Central Asia
UNODC Central Asia
@UNODC_ROCA
[8/5/2024 9:27 AM, 2.5K followers, 2 retweets, 4 likes]
Record drug seizure in Kazakhstan! @UNODC-supported Border Liaison Office seized 775 kg of heroin, worth over $15 million! This highlights the vital role of such offices in fighting transnational crime. Read the full story: https://rb.gy/ybfy8t @oliverstolpe @TMurshudlu @JapanGov

MFA Tajikistan
@MOFA_Tajikistan
[8/6/2024 2:25 AM, 4.9K followers]
Tajikistan and Iran will have a visa-free system https://mfa.tj/en/main/view/15484/tajikistan-and-iran-will-have-a-visa-free-system

Saida Mirziyoyeva
@SMirziyoyeva
[8/5/2024 2:35 PM, 19K followers, 10 retweets, 102 likes]
Today, we had a productive meeting with the President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. We discussed Uzbek-Kazakh cooperation and collaboration in information policy, youth, cultural, and humanitarian areas. Strengthening our strategic ties through open dialogue is essential!

Saida Mirziyoyeva
@SMirziyoyeva
[8/6/2024 3:26 AM, 19K followers, 2 retweets, 9 likes]
As part of our visit to the Republic of Kazakhstan, we met with @erlankarin Kazakhstan’s State Counselor. We discussed bilateral, regional, and multilateral issues, exploring ways to strengthen dialogue in cultural diplomacy and information policy. #Kazakhstan

{End of Report}
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