SCA MORNING PRESS CLIPS

epubdos : Afghanistan

Prepared for the U.S. Department of State

Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs

By TechMIS
www.TechMIS.com

Mobile User Copy

TO:	SCA & Staff
DATE:	Friday, August 9, 2024 6:30 AM ET

Afghanistan

Americans detained in Afghanistan remain a priority, says State Dept (Reuters)

Reuters [8/8/2024 3:10 PM, Simon Lewis, 42991K, Negative]
The United States raises the cases of three detained U.S. citizens in every engagement with the Taliban, and securing their release will remain a top priority, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Thursday.

Americans Ryan Corbett and Mahmood Habibi were detained in separate incidents in August 2022 a year after the Taliban seized Kabul amid a chaotic U.S. withdrawal. A third American, George Glezmann, was detained later in 2022 while visiting as a tourist.

"We are deeply concerned about the well-being of Americans unjustly detained in Afghanistan - Mahmood, Ryan and George Glezmann - and raise their detentions at every engagement we have with the Taliban," Miller said at a press briefing, ahead of the two-year anniversary of Corbett and Habibi’s detention on Aug. 10.

"Bringing them home will continue to be a top priority for the United States as we work to obtain their release," Miller said.

The U.N. Special Rapporteur on torture said in June that Corbett, who lived in Afghanistan for more than a decade and worked for nongovernmental organizations, needed immediate medical care to prevent irreparable harm to his health or even his death.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Corbett’s wife, Anna, in Washington this week, Miller said.

Habibi was one of 30 or so employees of a U.S.-based communications company who were arrested by the Taliban shortly after a U.S. strike killed al Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri. The other employees have been released, but Habibi continues to be held without charge, according to the Foley Foundation, which monitors cases of Americans detained overseas.

The State Department has designated Corbett and Glezmann as "wrongfully detained," a label that directs more U.S. government resources toward their cases. Habibi has not yet received such a designation, but that did not mean officials were not working to secure his release, Miller said.

"I can tell you we are working overtime to try to get him released as well," he said.

UN sees rising threat of IS-Khorasan attacks outside Afghanistan (VOA)

VOA [8/8/2024 12:53 PM, Margaret Besheer, 4032K, Negative]
The head of the United Nations counterterrorism office warned Thursday that there is a risk of the Afghanistan-based Islamic State affiliate IS-Khorasan carrying out attacks abroad.

“ISIL-K has improved its financial and logistical capabilities in the past six months, including by tapping into Afghan and Central Asian diasporas for support,” Vladimir Voronkov said, referring to the terror organization by an acronym. “The group has also intensified its recruitment efforts.”

He told a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on the threat of terrorism that the activity of the self-styled Islamic State and other terrorist groups in Afghanistan “remains a significant concern.”

“We must unite to prevent Afghanistan from once again becoming a hotbed of terrorism,” Voronkov said, urging Afghanistan’s neighbors to counter and prevent the threat from IS-K from spreading.

The United Nations secretary-general said in a July 31 report that the threat from IS and its affiliates “remained high, with the group and affiliates continuing to demonstrate resilience and adaptability despite sustained counter-terrorism efforts.”

The report said following IS’s claimed deadly attacks at a memorial service in Iran on January 3 and at a concert hall in Moscow on March 22, Islamic State’s core “has reportedly directed operatives from Afghanistan and neighboring countries to undertake attacks abroad.”

Afghanistan’s de facto-ruling Taliban claim their security forces have eliminated IS-Khorasan bases in the country and degraded the group’s ability to threaten national security and that of the region.

Voronkov also warned that parts of Africa remain a hotbed of Islamic State activity, which is fueling instability, especially in West Africa and the Sahel. He said two IS regional affiliates — Islamic State West Africa Province and Islamic State in the Greater Sahel — have expanded and consolidated their areas of operations.

“Should these groups extend their influence in northern littoral states, a vast territory stretching from Mali to northern Nigeria could fall under their effective control,” Voronkov warned.

He said they also present a threat in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, northern Mozambique and Somalia.

“Elsewhere, the threat posed by ISIL-K resulted in heightened threat levels in Europe,” Voronkov said. “The group is considered the greatest external terrorist threat to the continent.”

Authorities in the Austrian capital, Vienna, announced Wednesday that they had foiled a plot by a 19-year-old, who had sworn loyalty to IS’s leader online, to carry out an attack at a concert this week by U.S. pop superstar Taylor Swift.

Two other Austrian youths, ages 17 and 15, were also detained. Organizers have canceled the three sold-out Vienna concerts out of caution, disappointing nearly 200,000 fans, many of whom traveled from abroad to attend the show.

Afghan refugees worry as Iran continues forced deportation (VOA)

VOA [8/8/2024 10:06 PM, Meena Barek and Roya Zamani, 4032K, Negative]
When the Taliban overran the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif in August 2021, Aminullah Ranjbar, a police officer, says he had "no option" but to flee with his family to Iran.

The Ranjbars have been living in Tehran as undocumented refugees for the past three years, fearing deportation to Afghanistan, where Aminullah’s life is in danger.

"We know that many [former Afghan security officials] were killed by the ruling group in Afghanistan," Ranjbar said.

Thousands of former Afghan security forces fled to Iran after the Taliban’s takeover in August 2021 for fear of reprisals.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan says it documented "at least 60 instances of arbitrary arrest and detention, at least 10 instances of torture and ill-treatment, verbal threats and at least five killings of former government officials and former ANDSF members" between April 1 and June 30, 2024.

The U.N. has also recorded at least 800 human rights violations, including 218 extrajudicial killings, against government officials and security forces from the Taliban’s takeover in 2021 to June 2023.

UNHCR said an estimated 1 million Afghans fled to Iran after the Taliban took power in 2021.

According to the UNHCR, 4.5 million Afghan refugees are in Iran, of whom only 750,000 are registered as refugees.

Many Afghan refugees living in Iran share Ranjbar’s concerns.

"I just go to work and come back to the hostel. I am afraid of going anywhere else," said Shah Mahmood, a daily laborer who has been living in Iran for the past five years.

Mahmood told VOA that the Iranian government’s behavior toward Afghan refugees changed after the fall of Afghanistan in 2021, which forced many more Afghans to flee to Iran.

"Harassment, detention and deportation of Afghan refugees increased in the past three years," he said. "It is becoming difficult for Afghans to live in Iran, but we are desperate, and there is nothing if we return to Afghanistan."

In a statement on Monday, the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, a Norway-based human rights nongovernmental organization reporting on human rights violations in Iran, reported an increase in "anti-Afghan racism within both governmental and social spheres in Iran."

Videos of the mistreatment of Afghan refugees in Iran are circulating on social media. A viral video posted Tuesday shows Iranian policemen kneeling on a young Afghan refugee. VOA cannot verify the authenticity of the videos.

Meanwhile, Iranian officials said that undocumented foreigners should leave Iran by the end of this year.

In May, the Iranian government said it deported 1.3 million foreigners, primarily Afghan refugees, in one year.

Fearing deportation, Mahmood hopes the new Iranian government, headed by Masoud Pezeshkian, will adopt a more tolerant policy toward the refugees.

However, Abdul Ghafoor Liwal, former Afghan ambassador to Iran, told VOA that he does not think the Iranian policy toward Afghan refugees and Afghanistan will change.

"In general, it is the Iranian policy, in their own words, to expel undocumented Afghans from Iran. I don’t think that there would be any changes," Liwal said, adding, "The region is not in the hands of the civilian governments in Iran."

Iran-Taliban relations

Iran has cultivated close relations with the Taliban since the group seized power in 2021.

The country handed over the Afghan Embassy in Tehran to the Taliban in early 2023.

"Iran’s policy toward Afghanistan is security-focused," said Liwa. "Iran does not want to open another front on its eastern border while it is involved in the Middle East," he said.

Fatemeh Aman, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, agreed that Iran’s relations with the Taliban are driven by security concerns. "As recently as this year, there have been terrorist attacks in Iran. Terrorists could enter the border undercover," she said.

In January, twin suicide bombings in the Iranian city of Kerman killed at least 95 people.

Iranian officials traced the attack to Islamic State-Khorasan Province based in Afghanistan.

Aman said that migrant flow from Afghanistan is another important issue that Iran’s regime is facing.

How Taliban Rule Has Reshaped Higher Education in Afghanistan (The Diplomat)

The Diplomat [8/8/2024 9:25 AM, Abdul Aziz Mohibbi and Noah Coburn, 1156K, Neutral]
Three years ago, Roya was well on her way to her lifelong dream of a career in medicine. She excelled in her high school classes and took extra tutoring sessions to prepare for the Kankor or university entrance exam. When she took the exam in early 2021, she was thrilled to receive one of the highest marks in the country.

Now she says she regrets all that work. “There is no future for me in Afghanistan,” Roya said.

Three years of Taliban rule have made it clear that policies toward higher education are not just about separating men and women, but are about remaking Afghan society. Taliban policies and oppression have worked to gradually, but effectively, undo much of the expansion of higher education between 2001 and 2021 and have changed how a generation of Afghans are thinking about their futures.

While international media attention focused mostly on the banning of girls from secondary education, the Taliban’s strategy toward higher education suggests they view this area as a priority in their work to remake Afghan society. Minister of Higher Education Neda Mohammad is a close ally of Hibatullah, the supreme leader of the Taliban regime, and the head of the Office of the National Examination Authority is a key member of the Haqqani group.

This is an extreme reorientation from the Ministry of Higher Education of the democratically-elected government, which with international support, expanded the number of students in universities to almost half a million between 2001 and 2021.

Born in 2003 in Kabul, Roya embodied a generation of Afghans who came of age under a democratically-elected government. She comes from a family that supported her educational journey and she took advantage of the private tutoring centers that sprang up during those years.

At least initially, the Taliban did not say that they were banning women from universities, and Roya and her family remained somewhat hopeful.

“When I entered university, I thought that this was the first step towards getting to know different people,” she recalled. “Instead, what I found was something completely different.” Taliban guards enforced a strict dress code and treated the students roughly.

One of Roya’s Islamic studies professors asked her why she was there. “‘Women have no need to study,’ he said, ‘they should be at home,’” she recounted the professor telling her.

And then, in December 2022, the Taliban banned women completely from universities. At first Roya hoped this would be temporary, as many officials suggested publicly. As more and more time passed, however, she felt the opportunity to study slip further from her grasp. Even if Taliban officials do allow women to return to the classroom, it is clear that the schools they will be returning to will be completely different.

Taliban officials have made curricular changes slowly, but steadily. They have increased the number of Islamic studies courses required in all faculties and eliminated many of the course they feel are too Western in orientation. Now authorities are reviewing other curricula and there are expected changes, particularly in the social sciences.

The Taliban have reinvested in religious education. In their first two years in power 5,618 new religious schools were opened, up from the 1,212 that existed under the previous government. Many of those interviewed reported concerns that only those with religious educations were likely to get jobs after graduating.

Despite the failings of the democratically-elected Afghan government and its international partners to provide security and reliable economic growth between 2001 and 2021, higher education is one sector where there was significant growth. Now that progress is slowly but intentionally being rolled back.

We have been conducting research on the state of higher education in Afghanistan for the past year, as these changes have been slowly rolled out. We have been collecting educational biographies from Afghans both inside the country and those who have fled in order to better understand the current state of higher education in Afghanistan.

While there are deep differences between those who remained and those who fled, between men and women, and between Afghans from different social classes, the central theme in these interviews has been one of regret and loss. That raises serious questions about the future of the country.

Even more liberally-minded, often urban, families who supported women’s education are now treating girls differently. Instead many families now feel that the safest thing for their daughters is pushing them to marry at a younger age. Amnesty International and other groups have noted similar trends in increasing numbers of child marriages.

Even for male students, there is an increased sense that emigrating is a better strategy than attempting to study in Afghanistan. This past year, only 97,000 students took the Kankor exam, down from over 200,000 in 2020, when the top scorer was a woman from Kabul.

For those who began their quest for higher education under the democratically-elected government, the volte-face has been particularly painful. “Why did I spend so much effort preparing to pass the Kankor exam and be accepted to a field that I was interested in?” Roya lamented. “Why didn’t I study English or computer science, or something that would qualify me to apply for a scholarship and study elsewhere? If I knew English, I would have gone abroad to study.”

“I am really disappointed that I was born in Afghanistan,” she concluded sadly.

Pakistan

U.S. Charges 2 Iranian Brothers, 1 Pakistani In Deadly Weapons Smuggling Case (Radio Free Europe)

Radio Free Europe [8/8/2024 4:14 PM, Staff, 235K, Neutral]
Two Iranian brothers linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps face terrorism charges in the United States in connection with deaths of two U.S. sailors during the interception of a vessel in the Arabian Sea earlier this year. The indictment announced on August 8 by federal prosecutors charges Shahab and Yunus Mir’kazei and Pakistani boat captain Muhammad Pahlawan with providing material support to Iran’s weapons-of-mass-destruction program and other charges. The brothers are at large. Pahlawan and three of his crew members have been in custody since the Navy SEAL team intercepted their small vessel in January.

Pakistan Sees Solar Boom as Chinese Imports Surge, BNEF Says (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg [8/9/2024 1:27 AM, Faseeh Mangi, 5.5M, Neutral]
Pakistan’s market for solar power is booming, propelled by a surge in imports from China, according to BloombergNEF.
The country imported some 13 gigawatts of solar modules in the first six months of the year, making it the third-largest destination for Chinese exporters, according to a report by BNEF analyst Jenny Chase. Pakistan’s installed capacity to generate power is just 50 gigawatts. China is the world’s biggest producer of solar equipment.

Solar is gaining traction in the South Asian nation following hikes in power prices over the past few years, with the latest increase in July triggering widespread protests. Higher rates have seen grid electricity consumption drop to the lowest in four years as many people switch to independent solar.

“Pakistan’s market has the potential to continue to be very large,” said Chase. “If solar is solving the market’s power problems, there is no reason to expect a crash any time soon.”

BNEF expects that the country will add between 10 gigawatts and 15 gigawatts of solar this year, mostly on homes and factories, making Pakistan the sixth-largest market in the world. Given the surge in imports, that figure could end up being far higher — or growth could stall if the grid situation improves, prices fall, or the market of middle-class people who can afford solar panels on their roofs saturates, according to the report.

There are other complications in accurately assessing the market and its prospects, said Chase. Those include wide discrepancies between official data on installations and imports, as well as claims last year that solar imports were used in money laundering schemes.

Q&A: Uncovering Pakistan’s fight against polio (Al Jazeera)

Al Jazeera [8/8/2024 9:46 AM, Faras Ghani, 20871K, Negative]
Pakistan is one of only two countries in the world where the poliovirus is still endemic – the other being neighbouring Afghanistan.

Since 2015, Pakistan has reported 362 polio cases, including 13 this year so far. One of the victims, a two-year-old boy, died in May, while some others have been paralysed.

This year, six campaigns, targeting over 43 million children, have been undertaken.

However, despite administering more than 300 million doses of oral vaccine annually with the help of at least 350,000 vaccinators and an expenditure of more than $9.3bn from 2013 to 2023, the country has been unable to eradicate polio.

Al Jazeera speaks to Dr Hamid Jafari, WHO’s regional director of polio eradication, on the current situation and the prospects of Pakistan eradicating polio.

Al Jazeera: How have things been in the last decade and where are we now?

Hamid Jafari: Over the last decade, the polio eradication effort has gone through multiple ups and downs. Polio is an epidemic-prone infection and disease. If you don’t eradicate it, you will see sporadic outbreaks. That’s why Pakistan and Afghanistan haven’t succeeded in stopping its transmission. They go through periods of very few cases and detections and then there’s a resurgence and you get an outbreak.

There are often events that are political or security related or a decline in programme quality that leads to an increase in the number of under-vaccinated children and then you get an outbreak.

In the last 10 years, we’ve seen strong progress. In 2020, there were around 12 genetic clusters. Now only two have survived. One on the Pakistani side and then there’s the YB3A in eastern Afghanistan.

It looks like the YB3C in Pakistan is on its way out – it was last detected in November 2023. But we’ve seen a resurgence of YB3A that has crossed into Pakistan. This is a cluster we’re picking up extensively in the southern region of Pakistan.

Al Jazeera: Will that be easy to stop?

Jafari: The challenge exists in southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. This is where there’s a lot of militancy, insecurity and community hostility and frustration towards the government because of conflict and a lack of services.

Now, more than 50 districts across Pakistan are detecting the virus. The challenge is to ensure they properly map these migrant and mobile communities and vaccinate them while they’re moving. More importantly, vaccinate them when they come and settle around these big urban areas and cities.

Al Jazeera: So you’re saying that the mobile Afghan population and the forced deportations are affecting the campaign?

Jafari: The programme was kind of prepared and took steps to engage with these communities. There may have been isolated incidents of communities not opening the door or being concerned but the programme is very mature, many of the vaccinators and supervisors are from the same communities.

So this was part of the trust-building process. Some of the community members moved in ways that were unpredictable and non-traditional. It has had somewhat of an epidemiological impact in terms of how the virus has spread because of some unpredictable movement or sort of unusual pattern of movement but I did not hear a big concern and the data doesn’t point to that.

Al Jazeera: What about the boycotts that you mentioned? What’s the impact?

Jafari: The quality of health services is poor in those areas. The quality of civic services, schools, roads and infrastructure is also poor. So they figured out that polio is a big priority for the government. So they sometimes boycott vaccination campaigns with demands that have nothing to do with immunisation or polio vaccination.

The programme implements health camps, additional stuff like soaps, hand-washing, hygiene, detergent, vitamins and other immunisations, but it cannot provide health services or education on a large scale.

Al Jazeera: What other kinds of pushbacks are being seen?

Jafari: The refusals come in many forms and manifestations. The more the programme matures, the more sophisticated and complex the refusals become. In large urban areas, people are saying our children are fully vaccinated, we have our private doctors, so why do you keep coming?

Then you have what we call soft refusals. People say you came last month, why are you back here? Some are a little harder to convince. That’s where local influencers come in, whether it’s a mosque imam, a local pharmacy person or a community leader, they talk to them, have a dialogue, and the community agrees. Then you have a group that just says no, saying they’ve had enough doses or they have misconceptions that this is about population control, haram and is a Western conspiracy.

There is a global anti-vaccine movement, especially around COVID, and that has not helped.

Al Jazeera: We’re also hearing about fake figures. Is that being seen a lot?

Jafari: Some of these communities are migrant communities. The programme has worked very hard to get trusted vaccinators, who speak the same language, are from the same tribe, culture, neighbourhoods. Over the last 12 months, the programme has uncovered collusion. The family tells the vaccinator to just mark the child’s fingers and not vaccinate.

So we are trying to unpack that dynamic. What kind of pressure is leading our vaccinators and the communities to collude like this? It’s obviously the pressure on the worker to demonstrate that they vaccinated everybody. So these hardcore refusal families, to avoid repeated visits, do these things.

Al Jazeera: The other issue is the targeting of polio workers and security officials. Why is that still happening?

Jafari: Over the last few years, it is not the polio programme being targeted but the security personnel that are guarding the teams because they become soft targets when they are in the community. Secondly, there are a lot of security incidents with loss of life happening on an ongoing basis. But when it happens during a campaign, it gets news coverage in a different way. Most of the time, there is an inappropriate link made with the polio programme.

By and large, the vaccination teams across the country are well received. They remain engaged in the programme. Clearly, there are pockets of hostility, where the communities are hostile towards the programme but that’s where the dynamic is very carefully managed.

The district administration takes a very harsh view that communities can say no to vaccination but there is absolutely no right to be hostile or abusive towards vaccinators. It’s a priority of the programme to maintain positive relations with these communities. So in between campaigns, there’s a lot of outreach, engagement of community leaders to defuse this kind of hostility and tension.

But now and then, arguments break out at the doorsteps and the community and the vaccinators are trained to sort of step back, not to engage and supervisors are called to come and defuse the situation.

But this is not to take away from the courage and bravery of our front-line workers. Clearly, it’s hard work. Knocking at somebody’s door not knowing what you will encounter takes a lot of courage and confidence.

Al Jazeera: So what’s the outlook and what needs to happen for Pakistan to eradicate polio?

Jafari: The plan is to eradicate and stop transmission. Despite changes in government and security situations, these programmes have evolved, adapted and adjusted. And that’s why they have a level of population immunity that you’re not seeing outbreaks. They came very close in 2021 and 2022. And I think it is now a matter of getting to these final, hard-to-reach populations. And the programme is focusing on how best to reach these. It’s not a widespread problem across Pakistan. It’s not even a widespread geographic problem. It is now a combination of geographic and specific subpopulations that are harder to reach. When you start reaching these populations, progress happens very fast.

India

Indian FM On First Visit To Maldives Since Troops Sent Packing (Agence France-Presse)

Agence France-Presse [8/9/2024 12:00 AM, Staff, 1.4M, Neutral]
India’s foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar leaves Friday on his first trip to the neighbouring Maldives since Male expelled dozens of Indian soldiers and shifted to become closer to China.

The foreign ministry said in a statement that the Indian Ocean archipelago was a key part of New Delhi’s "neighbourhood first" and maritime security policies.

Known as a luxury holiday destination with pristine white beaches and secluded resorts, the atoll nation has also become a geopolitical hotspot in the Indian Ocean.

India is suspicious of China’s growing presence in the Indian Ocean, including in Sri Lanka as well as the Maldives, which signed a military assistance pact with Beijing in March.

That deal came as a garrison of Indian soldiers, who had been stationed in the upscale holiday destination to assist with maritime patrols, was ordered by pro-Beijing President Mohamed Muizzu to leave.

Global east-west shipping lanes pass the nation’s chain of 1,192 tiny coral islands, stretching around 800 kilometres (500 miles) across the equator.

India’s government has traditionally considered the Maldives, home to around half a million people, to be within its sphere of influence.

In June, Maldives’ pro-China President Mohamed Muizzu visited New Delhi for Narendra Modi’s inauguration as prime minister.

"Maldives is India’s key maritime neighbour and an important partner in India’s ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy," the foreign ministry said.

It said Jaishankar’s two-day visit was "aimed at strengthening the close partnership".

Muizzu’s election successes have hinged on a sustained campaign against India’s outsized political and economic clout in the Maldives.

New Delhi has a history of entanglements with affairs in Maldives, including the deployment of soldiers to thwart a 1988 coup attempt.

Its influence has been a periodic source of resentment in the Muslim-majority nation.

India says up to Hasina regarding her future plans (Reuters)

Reuters [8/8/2024 7:22 AM, Sakshi Dayal, 42991K, Negative]
India’s foreign ministry said on Thursday that it is up to Bangladesh’s former prime minister Sheikh Hasina to "take things forward" regarding her future plans, adding that it had no update on the matter.

"It is not appropriate to talk about her plans," spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.

Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, in a post on X earlier in the afternoon, said he had spoken to Britain’s foreign secretary and discussed "the situation in Bangladesh and West Asia".

Hasina fled to India after stepping down as prime minister on Monday following violent protests demanding her resignation, and has since been sheltering at an air base near New Delhi.

India opposition leader gets bail after 17 months in jail (BBC)

BBC [8/9/2024 4:01 AM, Cherylann Mollan, 20871K, Neutral]
India’s Supreme Court has granted bail to a prominent opposition leader of Delhi’s governing Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in a money laundering case.

The top court said Manish Sisodia’s prolonged incarceration had "violated his right to a speedy trial".

Mr Sisodia has been in jail for more than 17 months in a case related to alleged irregularities in a now-scrapped liquor policy in the city.

He denies the corruption allegations and had challenged his arrest in court.

The court said the right to a quick trial was "sacrosanct" and that if the state or an agency failed to protect it "then bail cannot be opposed, saying the crime is serious".

The judges added that since Mr Sisodia’s trial was unlikely to be completed soon, it would be a violation of his rights to keep him imprisoned indefinitely.

"Bail cannot be denied as a matter of punishment... It is high time the courts realise that bail is a rule and jail is an exception," they said.

One of India’s most high-profile politicians, Mr Sisodia is second-in-command in the AAP.

He was arrested by India’s top investigative agency - the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) - on 26 February last year. He was later charged by India’s financial crimes agency - the Enforcement Directorate (ED) - in the same case.

Mr Sisodia challenged his arrest in the Supreme Court after the Delhi high court and a trial court rejected his bail plea three times.

Authorities have accused several AAP leaders, including Delhi’s Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, of favouring liquor barons in exchange for kickbacks. The AAP denies any wrongdoing and says the cases against its leaders are politically motivated.

Mr Kejriwal was arrested on 21 March, days after the dates for the general election in India were announced. He has called his arrest "illegal" and has refused to give up office. His party says he is running the Delhi government from prison.

Another AAP leader, Sanjay Singh, was arrested in October - the court granted him bail in April .

In recent years, other opposition parties have also accused the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of using federal law enforcement agencies to pick on on its opponents, a charge the BJP denies.

PM Modi’s Legislative Bid to Silence Digital and Social Media Critics (The Diplomat)

The Diplomat [8/8/2024 2:10 AM, Kavita Chowdhury, 1156K, Neutral]
On the evening of August 1, a #KillTheBill and #StopTheBroadcastBill tweetstorm went viral on social media platform X. Spearheaded by independent news and digital content creators, it attempted to create awareness about the draconian Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill 2024 that the Narendra Modi government intends to make into law.

That the Modi government wanted to bring in comprehensive legislation to replace the dated Cable Television Operators Regulation Act 1995 was evident last year. A 2023 Broadcasting Regulation Bill draft was circulated in November asking for public feedback. It was extensively criticized for “erecting a censorship system for online content” and increasing government power.

After Modi 3.0 was sworn into office on June 4, 2024, the Broadcast Bill was back on the agenda, albeit now, it was shrouded in secrecy. Within a month, a new avatar titled the Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill 2024 was being discussed with selective “stakeholders.”

The bill was aimed at regulating the content of all broadcasting networks, including television channels, OTT channels, radio, online audio and video content. OTT channels with a specified threshold of subscribers, for instance, would be required to comply with a prescribed program code.

Significantly, the 2024 draft bill is not in the public domain. Stakeholders with whom the bill has been shared have apparently been given watermarked versions, to ensure secrecy.

The new Broadcast Bill, it has now been ascertained, is drastically different from the earlier version since it includes a new category of “Digital News broadcasters” under its ambit. A digital news broadcaster has been defined as any “individual” and not just Indian citizens who broadcast news and current affairs programs through “online paper, news portal, website or social media.”

It is not a coincidence that the proposed bill could also extend to foreigners like YouTuber Dhruv Rathee, who has been extremely critical of the Modi government. It is an acknowledged fact that Rathee’s YouTube videos exposing the dictatorial nature of the Modi regime in the run-up to the 2024 polls had tremendous influence over voters. In an earlier article in The Diplomat, I highlighted how in the backdrop of a pliant mainstream media, several social media content creators were speaking truth to power with their incisive political commentary. Their impact, along with several other factors, contributed to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s failure to secure an absolute majority in parliament. The government was desperate to restrict these popular YouTubers and content creators.

Apar Gupta, lawyer and co-founder of the Internet Freedom Foundation, wrote in The Hindu that the bill is a “digital authoritarian project” to enforce censorship and works towards creating “a digital license raj.”

Incidentally, as several media analysts have pointed out, the vague terminology in the bill leaves several questions and ambiguities about its scope. For instance, in the detailed wordings of the bill, apart from audio and video content, “News and current affairs” has been described as including “textual content,” leading to apprehensions that the government wants to exercise control over what individual users tweet or write on platforms like X.

The bill is unmistakably an assault on free speech and expression. As per its provisions, broadcasters including social media content creators will have to inform the government and register themselves with the authorities. Failure to do so will invite penal action, including hefty fines of $60,000. This could spell a death knell for independent news creators, who operate on small budgets and with limited resources.

In what is clearly a harkening back to the license-raj of the infamous Emergency era (1975-1977), the registration certificates need to be periodically renewed and one can logically surmise, subject to the discretion of the government. Failure to comply with the stipulated conditions could lead to suspension and even cancellation of the registration.

Apart from mandatory registration, the proposed regulatory framework stipulates that broadcasters will have to set up, at their own cost, a Content Evaluation Committee comprising members from diverse fields to see if the content/ program is fit for public consumption. They will also have to appoint a grievance officer to answer every complaint and objection from the public. Grievances can thereafter be escalated to the proposed Broadcast Advisory Council. Based on the recommendations of the Broadcast Advisory Council, the central government e could get programs or content taken off-air, or from internet platforms or even suspend broadcaster registrations.

Expectedly, press and journalist bodies have spoken out against what they term as arbitrary measures to restrict press freedom. What has also rankled is the blatant opacity of the drafting exercise as it did not include stakeholders such as journalists and social media content creators in the discussions.

Opposition INDIA parties have criticized the bill. Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi took to X to remind the government that press freedom in India was won through a hard battle and was a legacy of our freedom fighters. In a detailed post on X, Congress Communication head Pawan Khera listed why the bill threatens freedom of speech and independent media. He lambasted the bill for paving the way for “excessive surveillance in the online world.” Khera pointed out the chilling impact of the draconian clauses in the bill, which would lead to “pre-publication censorship.”

That the bill is aimed at cracking down on independent journalists and critical social media creators is clear from the wide discretionary powers that it bestows on the government to exclude certain digital news broadcasters from complying with the stringent requirements of the bill. On closer examination, the bill gives the government the clear prerogative to permit and regulate online content and thereby control the narrative.

During his second term, Modi’s image of invincibility gradually wilted. Therefore, the attempt in Modi 3.0 is to silence all voices that highlight his authoritarian tendencies and demand accountability from the regime. The Broadcast Bill with its curbs on free speech, is an assault on India’s democracy and the fundamental rights of its citizens.

India is well placed to become the ‘next China’ and drive global growth (Nikkei Asia – opinion)

Nikkei Asia [8/8/2024 4:05 PM, Amit Kumar, 2042K, Positive]
The Indian economy has come under greater scrutiny as the debate over whether the country will be the "next China" intensifies.

China was a key driver of global growth for almost three decades, contributing more than a quarter to global gross domestic product expansion between 1990 and 2020. In the period from 2013 to 2021, China contributed almost 39% of global GDP growth -- 13% more than the G7 countries combined.

Emulating China would thus require India to sustain a near double-digit growth rate for nearly three decades, integrate with the global manufacturing supply chain, transition into an export powerhouse and attract enormous foreign investment. While this is a daunting task, India does find itself at a unique juncture where China stood over 40 years ago.

China’s ascent was a result of key political and economic factors shaping the world in the 1970s. The geopolitics of the period, characterized by the deepening U.S.-Soviet rivalry and the Sino-Soviet split, prompted the U.S.-led West to open up to China in 1971. This provided a favorable circumstance as China launched reforms in the late 1970s.

A similar inclination exists within the West vis-a-vis India today, owing to the deepening strategic competition with China. Beijing’s expanding diplomatic and economic clout, manifested in its belligerent foreign policy and economic coercion, has sparked concerns of overdependence and strategic vulnerability in the West. This, in turn, has forced the U.S. and its allies to reevaluate their partnership with China and explore options for de-risking and diversification, with India emerging as a preferred partner.

Another factor that worked in China’s favor in the past was that the above geopolitical shift coincided with a time when global businesses, in pursuit of greater competitiveness, were actively looking for offshore destinations in Asia to drive down their increasing operational costs. Incidentally, following the Sino-U.S. rapprochement in the 1970s, China’s market, endowed with a vast pool of cheap labor, became a lucrative option.

Yet again, a similar reorganization is underway. The deepening Sino-American rivalry has impelled Washington to impose unilateral and multilateral export restrictions on Chinese companies to restrict their access to key technological goods. China too has brought in strict regulatory compliance requirements for foreign companies as a tit-for-tat measure. Compelled by the double whammy of regulatory challenges enforced by Washington and Beijing, foreign firms operating in China are looking to redirect their new investments away from China. India has hence emerged as a credible alternative.

The Indian government too seems inclined to make the most of the gains arising from the de-risking strategy, evident in its keen interest in supporting high-profile projects involving the manufacturing of iPhones and the assembly of semiconductors.

Finally, China had the advantage of a burgeoning consumer base that none of its Asian competitors had, offering it an unparalleled edge. Accordingly, its consumer market became increasingly significant in influencing business decisions in the following decades. Over time, the downsides of increasing labor wages in China were offset by the skill competitiveness of its labor and an expanding consumer base.

India is endowed with a similar advantage today. It currently boasts the second-largest consumer base -- defined as people spending above $12 a day -- of over 500 million, second only to China’s 900 million. Estimates show that by 2030, India’s consumer base will expand to 773 million, trailing only China’s 1.062 billion. The gap between China and India will only shrink from here on.

Nevertheless, multiple complications confront India’s journey. The most significant among them is the rise of protectionism worldwide and the reintroduction of industrial policies even within the heart of liberal capitalist economies.

The Chinese miracle rode on the wave of globalization that began around 1980 and lasted until the 2008 global financial market crisis. However, the economic logic underlying globalization has come under severe stress lately. The inclination toward weaponizing trade has left nations increasingly wary of economic coercion.

Domestic political compulsions have encouraged states to pursue self-sufficiency in some form or other. Even the foremost champions of free trade have resorted to floating subsidies at home to encourage the repatriation of investments. The impeded globalization, thus, is the biggest countervailing force against India’s ambition. This is further compounded by India’s reluctance to leverage whatever is left of globalization, evident in its recourse to higher import tariffs and skepticism of multilateral trade agreements.

Yet, there are gains to be derived from the ongoing de-risking and "China plus one" strategies, albeit not of the magnitude that existed in the 1980s and 1990s. While India has emerged as a strong contender in this ensuing contest, it faces tough competition from countries such as Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia, which threaten to diminish its gains in both absolute and relative terms.

The EU Chamber of Commerce in China pointed out that while India has performed better than any Southeast Asian country and has attracted 15% of European investment diversifying away from China, it fell behind ASEAN as a whole, which attracted 21% of the rerouted investments.

Lastly, while a large consumer market can give India an unparalleled advantage vis-a-vis its competitors, experience suggests that it is a third-order factor in influencing inbound investments. This is evident in the fact that Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand -- all with much smaller domestic markets -- have attracted significantly higher foreign direct investment (FDI) as a percentage of their GDP.

Openness to foreign investment and the ease of doing business are key factors for creating growth. On openness, the OECD’s FDI Regulatory Restrictiveness Index places India on a par with or even better than its competitors. But when it comes to the ease of doing business, India falls far behind, thereby preventing its consumer market from catalyzing the inbound investment.

India currently contributes 16% of the global economic growth, as opposed to China’s 34%. The IMF predicts India’s share to rise to 18% in the next five years. As China witnesses a decline in its share going ahead owing to its economic slowdown, India is strategically placed to emerge as the leading engine of growth, provided it navigates the above challenges deftly.

NSB

Bangladesh Swears In Nobel Laureate Yunus After Days of Chaos (New York Times)

New York Times [8/8/2024 4:14 PM, Saif Hasnat and Mujib Mashal, 831K, Neutral]
Bangladesh swore in an interim government on Thursday, days after the country’s entrenched leader was toppled by protests and forced to flee, leaving violent chaos and profound uncertainty in her wake.

The new leader, the Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, appealed to the nation for calm in his first address to the nation upon his arrival in Dhaka from Paris, where he had been a guest at the Olympics.

He was sworn in just hours later, along with more than a dozen other members of the interim administration that included at least two representatives from the student protesters who toppled Sheikh Hasina, the powerful former prime minister.

“You have placed your trust in me, the students have called upon me, and I have responded to that,” said Mr. Yunus, 84, surrounded by student leaders decades younger. “My appeal to the countrymen is that if you trust me, then make sure that no one is attacked anywhere in this country. This is our first responsibility.”

During his brief statement, given at a news conference at the airport after his arrival, he repeatedly fought back tears as he spoke about Abu Sayeed, a student protester whose killing by police officers was caught on camera and helped fuel the subsequent anger.

“My first word is that you protect the country from disorder, you protect the country from violence,” he pleaded.

While the duration of the interim government and the scope of its mandate were not immediately clear, Mr. Yunus, a well-regarded pioneer of microfinance, faces the immediate and daunting task of restoring order to daily life and to the economy. But he has the declared support of the military, whose army chief, Gen. Waker-uz-Zaman, went to the airport to greet him.

The toppled leader, Ms. Hasina, had transformed a parliamentary government — something devised to easily weather leadership change — into a deeply centralized system in which she held all the power. An escalating crackdown on protests, which went on until she boarded a plane to India, left about 400 people dead, and once she was gone, it resulted in a total collapse of government authority.

The police force, long accused of abuses while keeping Ms. Hasina in power, has faced violent retribution since she left. Officers have vanished from the streets. The civil service is paralyzed. An already stagnating economy is in tatters, with foreign reserves dwindling.

Mr. Yunus has said he sees his job as helping restore trust in the government, and that he has no political aspirations beyond helping in this transition period.

In 2007, Mr. Yunus started a political party, offering an alternative to a corruption-riddled political establishment. But it accomplished little besides offending powerful figures, including Ms. Hasina. In recent years, he has been busy fighting legal entanglements after her ruling party bogged him down in more than 100 court cases that his supporters have called politically motivated.

“Let us not let this slip away because of our mistakes,” Mr. Yunus said in a statement on Wednesday. “I fervently appeal to everybody to stay calm. Please refrain from all kinds of violence.”

In the capital, Dhaka, police stations were largely empty late on Wednesday, and many of them were scenes of devastation, with shattered windows, burned-out vehicles and charred furniture. Army personnel guarded the main government buildings, while an auxiliary force was guarding what remained of the police stations.

There were reports of revenge attacks across the country against leaders of Ms. Hasina’s toppled ruling party, as well as violence against religious minorities, particularly Hindus. Bangladesh has a history of Islamist militancy, which Ms. Hasina had tried to rein in.

Robberies were reported across the city on Wednesday, with mosques in some areas using their loudspeakers to urge vigilance. That only added to the fear. In some neighborhoods, residents armed with sticks were carrying out their own patrols to deter robbers.

The city’s landscape also appeared changed. Posters of Ms. Hasina and her father, which once dotted nearly every corner, were defaced or gone entirely.

While some shops and street stalls have reopened, larger shopping centers and malls remained closed Wednesday out of fear of looting and vandalism. By the end of the day, Dhaka’s usual traffic jams were resuming, as offices had opened and people had tried to return to work. But there was no sign of the traffic police to help with the knots in intersections. In many parts of the city, student protesters had started directing traffic — some even extending their authority to questioning motorbike riders for not wearing helmets.

With the police missing in action, the military force of roughly 200,000 is left in charge of securing the country of 170 million. It is stretched in its abilities, but also in its credibility as a force with a history of coups and abuses, and one stacked by loyalists of Ms. Hasina.

The army chief, who blamed much of the chaos on the disappearance of the police, said new leadership had been appointed for the force, and that he hoped that officers would be back to their regular duties soon.

“The void police left, it is not possible to fill it up with army members,” he said.

Nobel Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus Returns to Bangladesh, Takes Charge (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal [8/8/2024 3:26 PM, Shan Li, Refayet Ullah Mirdha, and Tripti Lahiri, 810K, Neutral]
Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus took over as head of an interim government in Bangladesh after weeks of violent upheaval marked by mass demonstrations and a crackdown by security forces that has killed hundreds of protesters, police and bystanders.

The 84-year-old was sworn in on Thursday night, just a few days after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s more than 15 years of continuous rule came to an abrupt end this week. Yunus landed at the Dhaka airport earlier in the day and was greeted by Bangladesh’s top military brass and student protest leaders. He flew in from Paris, where he was a guest at the Olympics.

Yunus will serve as the chief adviser and head of an advisory panel that includes coordinators of the student protests, activists, and former government officials.

Hasina resigned and fled the country on Monday after weeks of tumultuous protest that began over recruitment for government jobs and snowballed into a broader rejection of her increasingly autocratic rule.

Upon arrival, Yunus congratulated students for their successful uprising and for safeguarding the country.

“This is a day of pride,” said Yunus. “Through a revolution Bangladesh is marking a second liberation.”

He also expressed sadness over the death of one of the first students to be killed in the protests—a shooting captured in a mobile phone video and widely viewed in the country. Because of the student’s brave example, Yunus said, the people of Bangladesh stood up.

Yunus implored Bangladeshis to stay calm and avoid attacks on perceived enemies. “We are one family,” he said. “If we travel forward together we can create a beautiful country.”

Fearing for their own safety, police haven’t been patrolling the streets for much of this week. Deadly clashes on Sunday killed at least 85 people, including several officers. More than 300 people have been killed since the protests escalated in mid-July.

Residents said that the disorder had simmered down in recent days, but bouts of violence directed at supporters of Hasina’s ruling party continue. The army and student protest leaders have expressed concern over the safety of the country’s minority Hindus, seen as close to Hasina.

Bangladesh’s newly appointed police chief Mainul Islam on Wednesday urged police officers across the country to resume duty within 24 hours and restore discipline in the force. He also expressed sorrow for excesses by the police and promised a full investigation into every killing during the protests.

Residents said that looting had increased since Hasina’s resignation. Students from various universities in Dhaka, the capital, have taken over directing traffic because no traffic police have reported for duty for two days.

“We are doing it voluntarily so that the people don’t suffer,” said Redoan Ahammed Adil, a student at East West University in Dhaka.

Adil said students belonging to his school’s environmental and social club are taking turns directing cars in a nearby neighborhood. Across the city, many students have volunteered for similar roles, he said.

On Tuesday an angry crowd showed up outside of offices of the Mohammadi Group, a Bangladeshi garment-making conglomerate, intent on vandalism. With police nowhere to be found, Rubana Huq, the group’s chairwoman, said dozens of her employees rushed from a nearby factory to confront the rioters.

The Mohammadi employees explained that while the office building was owned by a controversial political figure, Huq and her late husband were politically neutral and shouldn’t be targeted.

“All of them backed off,” she said of the rioters. “There’s revenge in the air, but there’s also sanity.”

Yunus, a widely respected economist who pioneered microcredit, or extending small loans to impoverished people, will have a tough road to navigate, analysts said. He will have to first restore normalcy and form a caretaker government that will satisfy the protesters, before eventually holding elections for a new government in challenging circumstances.

“What lies ahead for this government is a monumental task,” said Sumaiya Khair, a law professor at the University of Dhaka. “There has been so much mal governance, and the economy is in dire straits. And there’s the issue of how to address erosion in state institutions.”

Under Hasina’s rule, the opposition was hollowed out as many political opponents faced arrests and legal proceedings. Meanwhile, many Bangladeshis hold resentment for members of the Awami League party, the ruling party under Hasina.

Party offices have been burned, including the head office in Dhaka by a mob, as well as a museum dedicated to Mujibur Rahman, Sheikh Hasina’s father and the leader of the country’s struggle for independence from Pakistan in 1971.

Many of the top party officials are trying to flee the country or in hiding. Khair, the law professor, said the situation is especially volatile because many Hasina backers, including those who get financial support from the party, are now “rudderless.”

“They have left behind a huge number of people they patronize,” she said. “They are very unstable at the moment.”

Yunus will also be tested by competing demands from the student movement and the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which will be hoping to step into the vacuum left by Hasina’s departure, said Mahfuz Anam, editor and publisher of The Daily Star newspaper.

“They are all ready to take power,” said Anam, who faced numerous legal cases over the Bangladeshi paper’s coverage during Hasina’s rule. “Their demand will be to hold elections as quickly as possible, whereas the student demand is reform.”

The students are seeking checks on the powers of the prime minister and “do not want to leave scope for any future dictatorships to emerge,” said Anam.

Yunus’s appointment was decided on Tuesday in talks between the president, military chiefs and more than a dozen student protest leaders. He was the choice put forward by student leaders, who said they opposed a military-led interim government.

His new role is a sharp departure for Yunus, who has clashed with Hasina for over a decade. Analysts said Hasina feared that the economist had his own political aspirations. In recent months, he has faced legal proceedings under the Dhaka government.

On Wednesday, a court in Bangladesh overturned his conviction on a labor violations case.

Interim leader Muhammad Yunus takes the helm in Bangladesh, to seek peace and prepare elections (AP)

AP [8/8/2024 11:49 PM, Julhas Alam, 47701K, Negative]
Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus took the oath of office as head of Bangladesh’s interim government Thursday after protests forced out former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina this week.

The key tasks for Yunus now are restoring peace in Bangladesh and preparing for new elections following the ouster of Hasina, who fled to India after weeks of student protests over job quotas grew into an uprising against her increasingly autocratic 15-year rule.

The figurehead President Mohammed Shahabuddin administered the oath to Yunus for his role as chief adviser, which is the equivalent to a prime minister, in the presence of diplomats, civil society members, top businessmen and members of the former opposition party at the presidential palace in Dhaka. No representatives of Hasina’s party were present.

The 16 other members of the interim Cabinet were drawn mainly from civil society and include two of the student protest leaders. The Cabinet members were chosen in discussions this week among student leaders, civil society representatives and the military.

The protests began in July against a quota system for government jobs that critics said favored people with connections to Hasina’s party. But she resigned and fled to India on Monday after the protests coalesced into a movement against her government and more than 300 people including students and police officers were killed in the spiraling violence.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent his best wishes to Yunus in a statement on social media platform X, and alluded to reports that Hindus in Muslim-majority Bangladesh had been targeted during the violence.

“We hope for an early return to normalcy, ensuring the safety and protection of Hindus and all other minority communities,” Modi said. “India remains committed to working with Bangladesh to fulfill the shared aspirations of both our peoples for peace, security and development.”

Yunus, who was awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for his work developing microcredit markets, was in Paris for the Olympics when he was chosen for the interim role. He called for calm and an end to partisan violence before he returned home earlier Thursday.

In his first comments after his arrival, he told a news briefing that his priority would be to restore order. “Bangladesh is a family. We have to unite it,” Yunus said, flanked by student leaders. “It has immense possibility.”

Yunus has been a longtime opponent of Hasina, who had called him a “bloodsucker” allegedly for using force to extract loan repayments from rural poor, mainly women. Yunus has denied the allegations.

On Wednesday, a tribunal in Dhaka acquitted Yunus in a labor law violation case involving a telecommunication company he founded, in which he was convicted and sentenced to six months in jail. He had been released on bail in the case.

The president had dissolved Parliament on Tuesday, clearing the path for the interim administration.

The quick move to select Yunus came when Hasina’s resignation created a vacuum and left the future unclear for Bangladesh, which has a history of military rule and myriad crises.

Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy, who acts as an adviser to his mother, has vowed that his family and the Awami League party would remain engaged in Bangladesh’s politics despite what he said have been attacks on the Awami League party over the past week. Many observers see Joy as Hasina’s successor in a dynastic political culture that dominates the South Asian nation’s politics.

“If we want to build a new Bangladesh, it is not possible without the Awami League,” he said. “The Awami League is the oldest, democratic, and largest party in Bangladesh.”

Hasina, 76, was elected to a fourth consecutive term in January, but the vote was boycotted by her main opponents, thousands of opposition members were jailed beforehand, and the U.S. and U.K. denounced the result as not credible. Hasina’s critics say her administration increasingly was marked by human rights abuses and corruption.

The chaos on Bangladesh’s streets continued after her resignation on Monday. Dozens of police officers were killed, prompting police to stop working across the country. They threatened not to return unless their safety is ensured.

Overnight into Thursday, residents across Dhaka carried sticks, iron rods and sharp weapons to guard their neighborhoods amid reports of robberies. Communities used loudspeakers in mosques to alert people that robberies were occurring, and police remained off duty. The military shared hotline numbers for people seeking help.

Many have feared Hasina’s departure could trigger even more instability in the nation of some 170 million people, already dealing with high unemployment, corruption and a complex strategic relationship with India, China and the United States.

China and the United States have both welcomed the new government.

“We think the interim government will play a vital role in establishing long-term peace and political stability in Bangladesh,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters. He also reiterated that the government’s decisions “should respect democratic principles, rule of law, and the will of the Bangladeshi people.”

China said it stood ready to work with Bangladesh to promote bilateral cooperation and advance their strategic partnership. “We respect Bangladesh’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity and the development path independently chosen by the Bangladeshi people,” the Foreign Ministry statement said.

Bangladesh’s Muhammad Yunus sworn in to lead caretaker government (Nikkei Asia)

Nikkei Asia [8/8/2024 2:20 PM, Ryosuke Hanada, 2042K, Negative]
Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus took office Thursday as head of Bangladesh’s caretaker government, days after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled the country amid violent protests.

Yunus, who just returned from France that day, said he hoped to rescue the country from turmoil, according to local media.

Military chief Gen. Waker-uz-Zaman, who took temporary control in Hasina’s absence, said Wednesday that a new government was expected to be formed Thursday with Yunus as "chief adviser."

Hasina resigned and fled to India on Monday as hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets to demand her resignation. The protests had escalated since July over preferential quotas in government jobs, leading to a violent crackdown that resulted in mass casualties.

Responding to protest leaders, President Mohammed Shahabuddin decided to form an interim government, tapping Yunus as its leader. Founder of Grameen Bank, Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his pioneering work in microlending to the impoverished. He has been a longtime opponent of Hasina’s government.

On Tuesday, Shahabuddin dissolved Parliament, where the majority of the seats were held by Hasina’s ruling party, the Awami League. New elections will be held under the interim government to stabilize the situation.

Local media have reported attacks on Awami League officials since the toppling of Hasina’s government. In a statement Wednesday, Yunus welcomed the end of the former government as a "victory" but urged people to "refrain from all kinds of violence."

Former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, the head of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party who was freed from house arrest after Hasina’s departure, also spoke out Wednesday against "revenge." Concerns had been raised about political coercion in Hasina’s administration, and pressure had been placed on Yunus himself through the courts.

Bangladesh currently has no clear procedures for forming an interim government after constitutional changes under Hasina. The country’s political factions will coordinate on how to proceed, following the model set by past transitional governments.

Improving law and order is top priority, Bangladesh’s interior ministry adviser says (Reuters)

Reuters [8/9/2024 4:07 AM, Devjyot Ghoshal, 5.2M, Neutral]
The first priority of Bangladesh’s caretaker government is to improve law and order in the strife-torn country by restoring the morale of law enforcement agencies, its newly-appointed interior ministry adviser told Reuters on Friday.

Retired Brig. Gen. M. Sakhawat Hossain said the administration was "very concerned" about reports of vandalism and attacks on minorities, adding that some were "slightly exaggerated".

"Yes, there is a problem because law enforcement agencies are not there," he said. "They have to be given confidence so that they can come back."

Sheikh Hasina will return to Bangladesh for elections, her son says (Reuters)

Reuters [8/8/2024 11:36 PM, Shivam Patel, 42991K, Negative]
Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will return to her country when its new caretaker government decides to hold elections, her son has said.

Hasina fled to neighbouring India on Monday after weeks of deadly protests forced her to quit. A caretaker government led by Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus was sworn in on Thursday, which will be tasked with holding elections.

Speaking to the Times of India daily, her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy, who is based in the U.S., said, "For the time being, she (Hasina) is in India. She will go back to Bangladesh the moment the interim government decides to hold an election."

Hasina’s Awami League party does not feature in the interim government, following a student-led uprising against the long-time former prime minister whose exit came after nationwide violence killed about 300 people and injured thousands.

She is sheltering in a safe house in the New Delhi area. Indian media has reported that she plans to seek asylum in Britain, but the British Home Office has declined to comment.

India’s foreign minister said on Thursday he spoke to his British counterpart about Bangladesh, but did not share any details.

Joy said that he will not refrain from joining politics if that is needed. "I am sure the Awami League will take part in the election and we might even win," he said.

Hindus in Bangladesh try to flee to India amid violence (Reuters)

Reuters [8/8/2024 8:44 AM, Ruma Paul and Krishna N. Das, 42991K, Negative]
Hundreds of Bangladeshi Hindus have tried unsuccessfully to flee to India this week after many homes and businesses of the minority community were vandalised following the overthrow of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council said that 45 out of 64 districts in the country had seen the targeting of mostly Hindu homes, businesses or temples this week. A school teacher had been killed and 45 other people hurt, it said.

Hindus make up about 8% of Muslim-majority Bangladesh’s 170 million people and have traditionally largely supported Hasina’s Awami League party, which identifies as largely secular, instead of the opposition bloc that includes a hardline Islamist party.

Hasina has taken refuge in India after fleeing the country on Monday in the face of mass protests against what critics called her authoritarian rule - provoking anger among some Bangladeshis towards their neighbour.

Many living close to India are trying to flee but facing resistance from both sides, local people said. Both countries have said they have stepped up border patrolling since the violence.

Mohammad Rakibul Hasan, a local government official in Thakurgaon district in northwestern Bangladesh, said around 700-800 Hindus tried to flee to India around Wednesday evening after some of their houses were attacked and looted.

"They returned home after we provided protection," Hasan told Reuters. "Border guard troops are patrolling the area. Everything is fine now with no further reports of violence."

Early on Thursday, about 300 Bangladeshis had assembled at a border point near India’s Jalpaiguri district but dispersed later. Indian media showed Indian border troops around a group of people there.

A Hindu goldsmith in the Narsingdi area, about an hour from Dhaka, who did not want to be named for fear of reprisals, said two youths demanded protection money of 1 million Bangladesh taka ($8,550) and relented only after they agreed to pay 100,000 taka.

Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus, who returned to Bangladesh on Thursday to head an interim government following Hasina’s departure, said attacks on minorities could have been part of a conspiracy. He did not say who was behind the conspiracy.

"Our job is to protect all of them," he said on arrival in Dhaka from Paris.

"If you have faith in me and trust me, please ensure no one is attacked in the country. If you cannot listen to me on this, I have no use being here."

The two countries have longstanding cultural and business ties and India played a key role in the 1971 war with Pakistan which led to the creation of Bangladesh.

India, which has a Hindu majority, has said it was worrying that minorities, their businesses and temples had been attacked in many places.

"It is the responsibility of every government to ensure the wellbeing of all its citizens," India’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Randhir Jaiswal, told a press conference.

"We hope for the early restoration of law and order in Bangladesh. This is both in the interest of the country itself and the larger region."

Bangladesh’s Hindu community leaders urged other communities to look after the religious minorities.

"I call upon the conscientious people of the country to forget all differences and stand unitedly by the side of the affected people and build social resistance," said Moyna Talukdar of the Bangladesh Hindu Law Reform Council.

Bangladesh’s Failure Must Worry India (Bloomberg – opinion)

Bloomberg [8/8/2024 8:45 PM, Andy Mukherjee, 27296K, Negative]
The collapse of a friendly government in Bangladesh is bad news for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Most of India’s diplomatic relationships in South Asia are increasingly swaying to Beijing’s tune. But the significance of this week’s turmoil goes beyond geopolitics. Chaos at India’s eastern doorstep is also a warning to the bigger economy: The youth want employment, from politicians they can hold accountable. What they don’t want is jobless growth with democratic backsliding.

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ultimately had to flee the country after deadly protests. People resented her autocratic rule, even though she had a solid economic track record, delivering 11 years of 5%-plus growth in real per capita income since her return to power in 2009.

Modi, who just began a third five-year term, can lay claim to six such good years. Yet neither leader has managed to make a dent into the biggest challenge facing their youthful countries: unemployment. Covid-19 undoubtedly made the situation worse. But three years after the pandemic, disillusionment is setting in. A functioning democracy allows society to blow off steam via ballots. Boycotted by the opposition, elections held in Bangladesh earlier this year failed to provide that safety valve.

The turn of events should give India pause. Modi returned to power in June after securing a fresh mandate, though the loss of parliamentary majority for his party has at least partially opened one clogged democratic artery. It’s still early days, but the legislature seems to be working in a more spirited fashion than during the right-wing Hindu leader’s second term.

Still, all isn’t well. The state’s investigative and prosecutorial agencies are perceived by many to be targeting Modi’s political opponents and civil-society critics. Pre-poll surveys showed a sharp erosion of trust in the Election Commission. Violence against minorities, particularly Muslims, continues. Nor has the judiciary put a stop to “bulldozer justice,” under which some state governments are demolishing private property of people merely accused of crimes or encroachment on public land.

On the economic front, all that has changed is a tacit government acknowledgement that youth unemployment is a problem that’s not responding to trickle-down economics: It needs to be tackled directly with fiscal support. But will the plan to help 41 million youths with their first jobs and paid apprenticeships get off the ground before they lose hope in political authority?

The V-Dem Institute, a research unit at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, categorizes both India and Bangladesh as “electoral autocracies.” Which raises the danger that the bigger neighbor might also be late in reacting to popular sentiment.

Under its longest-serving premier, Bangladesh became the world’s second-largest exporter of textiles after China. India, which was on a skills-based, software-services-led path long before Modi’s 2014 arrival, aimed for more sophisticated production under him — from semiconductors to electric vehicles. Yet, for the youth in both countries, the outcome is roughly the same: In 2022, 30% of Bangladesh’s 15- to 24-year-olds weren’t in employment, education or training. In India, the corresponding estimate for last year from the International Labor Organization is 23.5%. Youth unemployment is at 16% in both countries.

Bangladeshi college graduates are too well educated to work in textiles, while their counterparts in India are too numerous — and too underprepared — to be absorbed by modern industries looking for specialized talent.

With per capita gross national income of less than $3,000, both Bangladesh and India are stuck in the so-called middle-income trap. Neither is close to the club of rich nations, whose doors spring open only at about $14,000. The World Bank estimates that it would take the average Indian 75 years to get one-fourth as rich as the average American.

Much as they may like to have absolute power over their citizens, China’s single-party setup is not available to Indian or Bangladeshi leaders. They’re best served by lessons from South Korea.

A new World Bank report calls Korea’s economic history “required reading” for policymakers in middle-income countries. The government invested heavily in physical and digital infrastructure, while at the same time giving tax incentives to private firms that boosted research and development by an unprecedented 26 times between 1980 and 1990. Initially, Seoul preferred large conglomerates, and used them to raise the technology standards of local firms. When the chaebols became too powerful, Korea switched the focus of state support to entrepreneurs.

Although the stability that made the miracle possible was initially provided by authoritarian governments, the transition to democracy turned out well, too. In the last 20 years, Korea has climbed up the chart of economic sophistication — from 20th in the world to the third place. China is gaining ground in the kind of complex things it can make and sell. However, India’s ranking, close to China’s at the start of the millennium, hasn’t kept pace. Bangladesh is stuck behind 100 other countries.

The 10-fold increase in its stock of foreign capital since 2000 is a start for Bangladesh, but it needed political stability to deepen commercial engagement with the world. That process has come to at least a temporary halt in this week’s chaos.

India should read the right lesson from the upheaval. Attracted by its large domestic market, multinationals are willing to bring in technology and capital. But powerful local tycoons, who are themselves reluctant to invest in R&D, want to gird up against superior competition. India’s “stigmatized capitalism” might be standing between the youth and good jobs. If that is the case, then it’s time for Modi to correct his strategy.

Central Asia

Central Asian Energy Ministers Hold ‘First’ Meeting (The Diplomat)

The Diplomat [8/8/2024 10:34 AM, Catherine Putz, 1156K, Positive]
Energy has always been a critical topic in Central Asia, which renders it perhaps surprising that it was only on August 6, 2024, that the region’s energy minister met together in Astana and signed a joint communique.

Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Energy in a press release called the meeting the “first” among the region’s energy ministers. In framing the meeting, Kazakhstan’s Minister of Energy Almasadam Satkaliyev said, “Fluctuations in oil and gas prices and other factors lead to uncertainty in energy supplies, which historically guarantees regional and national socio-economic stability. To ensure the security of energy supplies, it is necessary to develop mechanisms for forecasting and managing these challenges, as well as to strengthen cooperation between our countries.”

According to Orda.kz, the joint communique signed after the meeting stated that the parties would “continue to strengthen cooperation and expand opportunities for energy trade, and stimulate the development of modern energy infrastructure.”

Satkaliyev chaired the gathering and was joined by Kyrgyz Minister of Energy Talaibek Ibraev, Tajikistan’s Minister of Energy and Water Resources Daler Juma, Uzbekistan’s Minister of Energy Jurabek Mirzamakhmudov, and Azerbaijan’s Deputy Minister of Energy Orkhan Zeynalov.

Although some media reports stated that Turkmen Minister of Energy Annageldi Saparov was in attendance, others noted that it was actually the country’s ambassador to Kazakhstan who represented Turkmenistan at the meeting (and from the group photo it does appear that Ambassador Batyr Rejepov represented Turkmenistan).

The meeting of the region’s energy ministers came days ahead of the sixth Consultative Meeting of the Heads of State of Central Asia, scheduled to take place August 9 in Astana.

Joint projects and cooperative opportunities got top billing in the meeting. Satkaliyev noted Kazakhstan’s efforts, in cooperation with Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan. In May, the three countries signed a memorandum on linking their energy systems.

Satkaliyev also reportedly noted active discussions with Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan regarding the construction of the Kambar-Ata-1 hydroelectric power plant (HPP). In January 2023, the three countries signed a roadmap for the project and in June 2024, they reportedly signed “an agreement to prepare for the construction and operation” of the proposed dam.

Beyond Kazakhstan’s projects, an important effort to track is Tajikistan’s ambition to reconnect to the Central Asian Integrated Power System (IPS or CAPS), which it announced in late May. Dushanbe disconnected from the system in 2009.

In 2018, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved a $35 million grant to help reconnect Tajikistan’s electricity system to CAPS via Uzbekistan. But approvals and final outcomes can be quite distant cousins. As Peter Krasnopolsky wrote for The Diplomat last month, “Tajikistan’s intention to reconnect to the common power system, whether it takes place this summer or is postponed again, offers a strong indication of the realization by Central Asian leaders that the region’s potential can only be achieved through cooperation.”

In its readout of the recent meeting of energy ministers, Tajikistan’s Ministry of Energy noted that in his remarks, Juma “stated that in order to increase the reliability of the region’s energy system, a project on ‘Reconnection of the energy system of Tajikistan to the Unified Energy System of Central Asia’ is currently being implemented, within the framework of which, at the beginning of June of this year, the energy system of the southwestern part of Tajikistan was connected to the energy system of the Central Asian Unified Energy System.”

Other topics broached included “smart” power grids, electricity storage, a gradual energy transition, and further areas for joint projects, particularly the gas industry. The parties reportedly agreed to established an energy dialogue, which includes the creation of a working group and continued regular meetings of energy officials.

Japan PM cancels Central Asia and Mongolia trip over megaquake advisory (Nikkei Asia)

Nikkei Asia [8/9/2024 3:18 AM, Staff, 2M, Neutral]
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Friday canceled his planned four-day trip to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Mongolia, as the weather agency warned that the risk of a potential massive earthquake in a vast area of the Pacific stretching from southwestern to central Japan has increased.

The Japan Meteorological Agency issued the first such advisory for areas around the Nankai Trough hours after a magnitude-7.1 quake hit the country’s southwest on Thursday.

After attending a peace ceremony in Nagasaki marking the 79th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing, Kishida said at a news conference in the city that he canceled the foreign trip to "focus on the government’s response and information dissemination" regarding a potential megaquake.

"As the top official in charge of the nation’s crisis management, as an extra precaution, I should remain in Japan for at least about a week," while the weather agency is calling on the public to prepare for such a scenario, Kishida added.

He was set to attend Japan’s first-ever summit with the Central Asian nations -- Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan -- in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, on Friday night and issue a joint declaration.

In Mongolia’s capital Ulaanbaatar on Monday, the Japanese leader was slated to meet with the country’s President Ukhnaa Khurelsukh and Prime Minister Luvsannamsrai Oyun-Erdene.

Earlier on Friday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told a regular news conference that Kishida would "make an appropriate decision" regarding the overseas trip "after taking into account various factors."

According to the government, multiple injuries and damage to buildings have been reported in Miyazaki and two neighboring prefectures in the wake of Thursday’s temblor, but no fatalities have been reported so far.

Former Kazakh Minister Gets Suspended Sentence Over Deadly 2022 Unrest (Radio Free Europe)

Radio Free Europe [8/8/2024 4:14 PM, Staff, 235K, Neutral]
A court in Astana on August 8 handed a suspended five-year prison term to former Kazakh Interior Minister Erlan Turghymbaev, who pleaded guilty to a charge of abuse of office and power during nationwide antigovernment demonstrations in 2022 that turned deadly after police and security forces opened fire at protesters. The court also banned Turghymbaev from holding public office for 10 years. Several former top officials in the tightly controlled Central Asian nation were sentenced to lengthy prison terms following the January 2022 protests that left at least 238 people, including 19 law enforcement officers, dead.

Kazakhstan Comic Finds Authorities Can’t Take a Joke (Human Rights Watch)

Human Rights Watch [8/8/2024 10:38 AM, Viktoriya Kim, 2.1M, Neutral]
On July 26, a court in Kazakhstan’s capital, Astana, sentenced 31-year-old Alexandr Merkul, a stand-up comedian, to 10-days detention on charges of “petty hooliganism” allegedly for using obscene language during a performance in June. It’s yet another instance of the extent of Kazakh authorities’ crackdown on freedom of expression.

Merkul, who pleaded guilty, often touches on social issues during his performances. For example, at the June concert he made a joke that “Kazakhstan is new, poverty is old,” presumably referring to “Zhana Kazakhstan,” a slogan that translates to “New Kazakhstan” and is used regularly by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. On this occasion, rather than mere laughter, it seems to have provoked the authorities to respond by prosecuting him for “obscene” words used elsewhere in his act.

March 2023 amendments to Kazakhstan’s administrative code toughened penalties for the use of obscene language in public.

In a May interview on a Kazakh podcast, Merkul remarked that, “it is a bad situation when a comedian [or someone else] is jailed for their words.” Commenting on neighboring Russia’s use of laws to target critical comedians and artists, he reflected that when he writes his scripts, he doesn’t think about [the Kazakh authorities] targeting him. He added that “social and politically important issues” can be best addressed through a good comedian.

Merkul is not the only comedian Kazakh authorities have targeted for hooliganism. In May, an Almaty court sentenced another stand-up comic, Nuraskhan Baskozhayev, to 15 days in detention for swearing in public. Baskozhayev, who also pleaded guilty, had joked about corruption in Kazakhstan and made a comment about massive flooding in the country’s north earlier this year that caused the displacement of at least 120,000 people.

Targeting comedians appears to be part of a wider crackdown on free speech in Kazakhstan. On August 2, a court sentenced Duman Mukhammedkarim, a journalist and activist held in pretrial detention since June 2023, to seven years in prison on charges of “financing extremist activities” and “participating in the activities of a banned extremist organization.” He repeatedly criticized the government in his work.

People in Kazakhstan should be able to express critical opinions and commentary, not least through satire, without fear of retribution. Freedom of expression is not absolute, but international human rights law sets clear boundaries on legitimate government measures to regulate it. Kazakhstan is acting well beyond those boundaries, and it is past time it starts respecting them.

Tajik Prosecutor-General Confirms RFE/RL’s Reports About Recent Series Of High-Profile Arrests (Radio Free Europe)

Radio Free Europe [8/9/2024 4:45 AM, Staff, 1530K, Negative]
Tajikistan’s Prosecutor-General Yusuf Rahmon has confirmed recent reports by RFE/RL’s Tajik Service about a series of arrests of noted public figures and politicians.

RFE/RL reported earlier, citing its sources close to the Central Asian nation’s law enforcement, that former Foreign Minister Hamrohkhon Zarifi, former parliament speaker Akbarshoh Iskandarov, Democratic Party of Tajikistan deputy chairman Ahmadshoh Komilzoda, and Social Democratic Party deputy chairman Shokirjon Hakimov had been arrested on unspecified charges.

The arrests came after the state-run Khovar news agency cited the Prosecutor-General’s Office in June, saying that the lawmaker and ex-chairman of the Democratic Party of Tajikistan, Saidjafar Usmonzoda, was arrested on suspicion of plotting to forcibly seize power.

Yusuf Rahmon said at the time at a parliamentary session that Usmonzoda was suspected of collaborating with the National Alliance of Tajikistan -- a group uniting self-exiled opposition politicians and activists that had been banned in the tightly controlled former Soviet republic.

Yusuf Rahmon, who is an in-law of President Emomali Rahmon, said on August 9 that all the arrests are linked to the case against Usmonzoda, adding that those arrested had been charged with high treason.

He declined to elaborate further, saying that details of the investigation are classified.

It is not clear how the arrested men pleaded as neither their relatives nor lawyers have made any public statements.

Sources told RFE/RL that only two of those arrested, Akbarshoh Iskandarov and Shokirjon Hakimov, had managed to get private lawyers, while the others are represented by state-appointed attorneys. However, none of the lawyers has ever been able to meet with their clients, the sources said.

The Tajik government has brutally cracked down on dissent over the years, jailing opposition politicians or forcing them into self-exile. Dozens of independent journalists, activists, and government critics were sentenced to lengthy prison terms.

President Rahmon, who has run Tajikistan for almost 30 years, has been criticized by international human rights groups over his regime’s stifling of political pluralism, independent media, religious freedoms, and civil society.

In recent years, several Tajik journalists, rights activists, and opposition politicians have been handed lengthy prison terms on charges seen by rights groups as trumped-up and politically motivated.

Tajik Official Confirms Arrests Of Almost 30 Residents Of Volatile Gorno-Badakhshan Region (Radio Free Europe)

Radio Free Europe [8/8/2024 6:21 AM, Staff, 1530K, Negative]
Tajikistan’s First Deputy Interior Minister Abdurahmon Alamshozoda has confirmed reports by RFE/RL’s Tajik Service that 27 residents of the Yazgulom community in the volatile Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) have been arrested.

Alamshozoda told journalists in Dushanbe on August 8 that the residents had been arrested on suspicion of being members of the Ansarullah Islamic group, which is banned in the Central Asian nation.

"Four more people have been added to the wanted list," Alamshozoda added.

It was the first official confirmation of the arrests.

Details of the investigation and the charges stemming from it remain unclear.

RFE/RL’s Tajik Service has been reporting about the arrests of residents of Yazgulom for months, citing relatives of those arrested and sources close to law enforcement agencies in the tightly controlled former Soviet republic.

The majority of those arrested have been detained and held incommunicado for months after they were extradited from Russia earlier this year.

Residents of GBAO have been under pressure for years. A crackdown on the restive Tajik region intensified in 2022 after mass protests in May that year were violently dispersed by security forces.

Tajik authorities said at the time that 10 people were killed and 27 injured during the clashes between protesters and police.

Residents of the remote region’s Rushon district have told RFE/RL that 21 bodies were found at the sites of the clashes.

Dozens of the region’s residents have been jailed for lengthy terms on terrorism and extremism charges since then.

Deep tensions between the government and residents of the volatile region have simmered ever since a five-year civil war broke out shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Still, protests are rare in the tightly controlled state of 9.5 million where President Emomali Rahmon has ruled with an iron fist for nearly three decades.

Twitter

Afghanistan

Habib Khan
@HabibKhanT
[8/8/2024 12:28 PM, 229K followers, 31 retweets, 181 likes]
Afghans are getting crushed and humiliated at home and abroad by the Taliban, Iran, and Pakistan. Sure, we can blame Amrika or Shorawi, but at the end of the day, it’s our own selfish, traitorous, cowardly, and corrupt leaders who betrayed 40 million people.

Freshta Razbaan
@RazbaanFreshta
[8/8/2024 5:31 PM, 4.8K followers, 1 retweet]
More casualties have occurred in Taliban prison torture than officially reported. The lack of access to the group’s prisons by human rights organizations makes it difficult to determine the exact number of deaths. They have detained, tortured, and killed thousands of government employees, including former Afghan prosecutors.

Pakistan

Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Pakistan
@ForeignOfficePk
[8/8/2024 11:53 AM, 479.9K followers, 13 retweets, 27 likes] Deputy Prime Minister/Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar @MIshaqDar50 has departed from Jeddah. At the airport he was seen off by Minister delegates of Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs Farid al Khazim, Ambassador of Pakistan in Saudi Arabia Ambassador Ahmad Farooq and and Consul General of Pakistan in Jeddah Khalid Majid.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Pakistan
@ForeignOfficePk
[8/8/2024 5:32 AM, 479.9K followers, 22 retweets, 38 likes]
Message by Deputy Prime Minister/ Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar @MIshaqDar50 on the occasion of ASEAN Day , 8 August 2024

Anas Mallick
@AnasMallick
[8/9/2024 2:41 AM, 73.4K followers, 5 likes]
Pakistan awaits information on Asif Reza Merchants’s charges from US, @ForeignOfficePk spox in weekly briefing says that, “We have contacted the US side and await details from US side”, responds Spox on the US assassination bid being foiled and a Pak national being behind it.

Habib Khan
@HabibKhanT
[8/8/2024 2:11 PM, 229K followers, 72 retweets, 343 likes]
In Balochistan, men are blacking out the Pakistani flag on walls. The Baloch people want freedom and are done with having Pakistan’s identity shoved down their throats.

India

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[8/8/2024 11:16 PM, 100.8M followers, 7.2K retweets, 39K likes]
As this year’s Independence Day approaches, let’s again make #HarGharTiranga a memorable mass movement. I am changing my profile picture and I urge you all to join me in celebrating our Tricolour by doing the same. And yes, do share your selfies on https://harghartiranga.com

Vice-President of India
@VPIndia
[8/8/2024 9:54 AM, 1.5M followers, 43 retweets, 266 likes]
Hon’ble Vice-President and Chairman, Rajya Sabha, Shri Jagdeep Dhankhar interacted with Members of Parliament from various political parties in his chamber at Parliament House today. #RajyaSabha @KirenRijiju @ShuklaRajiv @Jairam_Ramesh @PiyushGoyal @shaktisinhgohil @digvijaya_28 @SmtSudhaMurty @SinghRPN @proframgopalya1 @priyankac19 @AbdulWahabPV @HarisBeeran

Dr. S. Jaishankar
@DrSJaishankar
[8/9/2024 12:13 AM, 3.2M followers, 444 retweets, 3.7K likes]
Proud to join PM @narendramodi and fellow Indians in the #HarGharTiranga mass movement. Let’s celebrate our Tricolour and do share your selfies on http://harghartiranga.com #NewProfilePic

Dr. S. Jaishankar
@DrSJaishankar
[8/8/2024 5:46 AM, 3.2M followers, 264 retweets, 1.6K likes] Greetings to our ASEAN friends on ASEAN Day. For India, ASEAN is the cornerstone of our Act East Policy, which completes a decade. India will continue to strengthen the ASEAN-India Comprehensive Strategic Partnership through substantive and tangible cooperation.

NSB

Tarique Rahman
@trahmanbnp
[8/8/2024 1:59 PM, 57.2K followers, 261 retweets, 3.3K likes]
Congratulations to Professor Muhammad Yunus and his fellow advisers on forming the interim government of Bangladesh. Looking back, this moment arises from the widespread injustices and violations Bangladeshis faced under Sheikh Hasina’s authoritarian regime for 16 grueling years. The quota movement sparked participation from all democracy-loving people beyond our brave students — from teachers, workers, and rickshaw-pullers to housewives, ordinary citizens, and political activists. The protests were not just about quota reform, but a united stand against unprecedented levels of corruption, inflation, unemployment, suppression of freedom of expression and human rights violations. The list of wrongdoings by her regime had grown to monstrous heights over Awami League’s rule. With the fall of the regime, the people of Bangladesh now expect the interim government to create an environment where they can vote freely to reflect their democratic aspirations and enable fair and credible national elections to take place.@bdbnp78 supports the formation of an elected government with a public mandate, and an accountable parliament serving the people, restoring the people’s rights and freedoms, thereby establishing the rule of law and good governance.

Tarique Rahman
@trahmanbnp
[8/8/2024 10:56 AM, 57.2K followers, 80 retweets, 675 likes]
In a democratic state governed by the rule of law, the police are an integral part of that state and should always come to the aid of the wider community that they serve. However, #SheikhHasina, in her quest to cling to power, turned law enforcement agencies into her personal tools against any and all opposition. While most police officers diligently carried out their duties, a partisan faction undermined their efforts with political vendettas. Following Hasina’s departure, conspirators are systematically eroding the police’s morale, in an attempt to destabilise the country and incite fear among particular communities. I warn these conspirators: stop your assaults on the police, minorities and the ordinary public. Anyone misusing @bdbnp78’s name for criminal and violent activities should be reported to the authorities, and allegations will be investigated independently for the appropriate consequences.

Sabria Chowdhury Balland
@sabriaballand
[8/8/2024 10:19 AM, 6.7K followers]
The US Embassy in Dhaka cannot provide any consular services until further notice. #Bangladesh https://x.com/usembassydhaka/usembassydhaka/status/1821545939544457240

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[8/8/2024 11:25 PM, 212.3K followers, 533 retweets, 2.1K likes]
Bangladesh student leaders ousted a prime minister, negotiated with the military, successfully advocated for a Nobel Laureate to lead a new interim government, and then secured two slots in that interim government for themselves. Remarkable achievements for youth politics.

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[8/8/2024 2:14 PM, 212.3K followers, 508 retweets, 1.3K likes]
Attacks on Bangladesh’s Hindu community are alarming, and what is especially concerning is they’re playing out in a security vacuum: The police are missing in action and the army is reluctant to enforce law and order, giving more space to the extremists. This is very dangerous.

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[8/8/2024 3:27 PM, 212.3K followers, 14 retweets, 81 likes]
More context: It is true that there has been some mis/disinformation--videos/photos on social media that show images that are doctored or happened in other countries or at earlier times. But this shouldn’t distract from the fact that Hindus have been targeted the last few days.

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[8/8/2024 1:29 PM, 212.3K followers, 74 retweets, 473 likes]
Bangladesh’s new interim gov’t is an important initial step toward a peaceful transition. But the ouster of Hasina left both political and security vacuums that are at risk of being filled by actors that are neither peaceful nor democratic. Dr Yunus’ job is to help prevent that.

Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office
@amnestysasia
[8/8/2024 4:32 AM, 90.2K followers, 28 retweets, 73 likes]
NEW REPORT: The Cyber Security Act (CSA) has facilitated the state’s crackdown on civic space and human rights, including during the student-led quota-reform protests in Bangladesh. Read the report: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/08/bangladesh-interim-government-must-restore-freedom-of-expression-in-bangladesh-and-repeal-cyber-security-act/

Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office
@amnestysasia
[8/8/2024 4:35 AM, 90.2K followers, 10 retweets, 27 likes]
The CSA is a continuation of successive repressive legislations in Bangladesh. The interim government must undo the long-standing legacy of quashing dissent by repealing laws such as the Cyber Security Act which threaten and undermine the rights to freedom of expression, liberty and privacy in Bangladesh.

Tshering Tobgay
@tsheringtobgay
[8/9/2024 2:17 AM, 99.5K followers, 3 retweets, 16 likes]
On this auspicious occasion of the 70th birth anniversary of His Holiness the Je Khenpo Trulku Jigme Choedra, I join the nation in submitting our deep reverence and gratitude.

Tshering Tobgay
@tsheringtobgay
[8/9/2024 2:17 AM, 99.5K followers]
His Holiness has been a beacon of wisdom, compassion, and spiritual guidance for Bhutan and beyond, embodying the very essence of our rich spiritual heritage.

Tshering Tobgay
@tsheringtobgay
[8/9/2024 2:17 AM, 99.5K followers]
May His Holiness be blessed with continued good health to guide us for many more years to come, and may the Dharma continue to flourish under His compassionate leadership.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maldives
@MoFAmv
[8/8/2024 8:19 AM, 54.4K followers, 21 retweets, 21 likes]
Minister of External Affairs of the Republic of India to make an Official Visit to the Maldives Press Release | https://t.ly/hzKOU

Harsha de Silva
@HarshadeSilvaMP
[8/8/2024 11:53 PM, 356.2K followers, 5 retweets, 42 likes]
At @ParliamentLK, I revealed the real story behind the #lka power transition & shared our plan to achieve 8-10% growth. I also tackled issues in taxation, reforming with relief subsidy reform in #SriLanka. Watch full speech: https://bit.ly/3LYrYd2 #EconomicGrowth #Harshanomics

Harsha de Silva
@HarshadeSilvaMP
[8/8/2024 4:15 AM, 356.2K followers, 19 retweets, 130 likes]
GR was chased away as he messed up #SriLanka economy w lowest growth in the region but for the wealthy cronies. People of #Bangladesh chased away Sheikh Hasina as she made their country one of the fastest growing in the world but inequity. Growth without equity is unsustainable.

Central Asia

Bakhtiyor Saidov
@FM_Saidov
[8/8/2024 10:58 AM, 4K followers, 7 retweets, 23 likes]
State visit of @President_Uz H.E. Shavkat Mirziyoyev to #Kazakhstan is another historic step in centuries-old relations between our two nations. Candid meetings with KZ President H.E. @TokayevKZ resulted in many tangible outcomes - the First meeting of the Supreme Interstate Council, the Strategic Partnership and Alliance Program until 2034, Foreign Ministers Council, Interparliamentary Forum, Council of Regions, University branches, Alisher Navoi Monument in #Astana, new projects, and many others. We have made unprecedented achievements in UZ-KZ ties already and even more is to come.

Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service
@president_uz
[8/8/2024 5:27 PM, 196.1K followers, 7 retweets, 28 likes]
Presidents Shavkat #Mirziyoyev and @TokayevKZ officially opened new branches of the Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and Agricultural Mechanization Engineers in #Almaty and the South Kazakhstan State University named after M.Auezov in Tashkent region. They also attended the arrival ceremony of the first freight train on the route "Xi’an - Khorgos - Almaty - Saryagach - Tashkent", which will significantly accelerate trade transportation between the two countries.

Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service
@president_uz
[8/8/2024 4:08 PM, 196.1K followers, 5 retweets, 37 likes]
President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev was awarded the Order of "Altyn Kyran" (Golden Eagle) for his outstanding contribution to strengthening relations between #Uzbekistan and #Kazakhstan. This award is a symbol of appreciation for efforts to strengthen friendship and strategic partnership between our two countries. The Head of Uzbekistan expressed gratitude for the recognition and emphasized the importance of continuing to develop relations.

Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service
@president_uz
[8/8/2024 3:40 PM, 196.1K followers, 4 retweets, 28 likes]
The first meeting of the Supreme Interstate Council, chaired by the presidents of #Uzbekistan and #Kazakhstan, was held at Akorda residence. President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev emphasized the historical significance of this event for strategic partnership between the two countries. During the meeting, key areas of cooperation were discussed, including increasing trade turnover to $10 billion, developing regional ties, and cultural exchanges.

Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service
@president_uz
[8/8/2024 4:56 AM, 196.1K followers, 3 retweets, 46 likes]
Presidents Shavkat #Mirziyoyev and @TokayevKZ met at the #Akorda residence to discuss various aspects of cooperation between two countries in a focused setting. They deliberated on significant decisions to bolster the strategic partnership and alliance, and agreed to formulate a Strategic Partnership Program for the next decade

Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service
@president_uz
[8/8/2024 4:07 AM, 196.1K followers, 11 retweets, 55 likes]
The official welcoming ceremony for the President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev was held at the #Akorda residence. To honor the distinguished guest, a guard of honor was assembled, and the national anthems of #Uzbekistan and #Kazakhstan were performed.

{End of Report}

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