epubdos : Afghanistan
SCA MORNING PRESS CLIPS
Prepared for the U.S. Department of State
Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs
TO:
SCA & Staff
DATE:
Monday, January 22, 2024 6:30 AM ET

Afghanistan
Rescue Team Finds Survivors of Jet Crash in Afghanistan (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [1/21/2024 9:58 AM, Eltaf Najafizada and Dina Khrennikova, 5543K, Neutral]
A rescue team has reached a private jet that crashed in northern Afghanistan and is treating survivors at the site, according to Russia’s Federal Agency for Air Transport.

According to preliminary information, four of the six people aboard the Dassault Falcon 10 aircraft are injured but alive, the Russian authority said, citing the Russian embassy in Afghanistan. The fate of the other two is not yet known, the statement said.

The accident occurred in Badakhshan province at about 7 p.m. local time on Saturday, the Afghan aviation ministry said in a statement. The Moroccan-registered plane was an air ambulance that was flying from Thailand to Moscow and refueled at Gaya airport, according to India’s civil aviation ministry.

“The plane crashed in the high mountains of Badakhshan province,” Zabihullah Amiri, the provincial head of information and cultural department, said by phone.

The aircraft is co-owned by an unidentified individual and Atletik Grup LLC registered in the Moscow region, the Russian authority said, adding the flight departed from Gaya, India, and was headed for the Zhukovsky airport near Moscow.
4 rescued and 2 dead in crash of private Russian jet in Afghanistan, the Taliban say (AP)
AP [1/22/2024 5:10 AM, Rahim Faiez, 11975K, Negative]
Four people have been rescued and two died following the crash of a private Russian jet carrying six over the weekend in Afghanistan, the Taliban said on Monday.

The crash on Saturday took place in a mountainous area in Badakhshan province, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) northeast of Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul. Rescue teams were dispatched to the remote rural area that is home to only several thousand people.

On Monday, the chief Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, posted videos on X, previously known as Twitter, showing the four rescued crew members. He said they were given first aid and were being transferred from Badakhshan to Kabul. He said the four are in good health.

Local authorities in Badakhshan said the bodies of the two killed in the crash will be recovered from the site. The Taliban have not identified any of the six victims of the crash. The Taliban’s Transportation and Civil Aviation Ministry said in an online statement the plane was found in the district of Kuf Ab district, near the Aruz Koh mountain.

On Sunday, Abdul Wahid Rayan, a spokesman for the Taliban’s Information and Culture Ministry, blamed an “engine problem” for the crash, without elaborating.

In Moscow, Russian civil aviation authorities said a 1978 Dassault Falcon 10 went missing with four crew members and two passengers. The Russian-registered aircraft “stopped communicating and disappeared from radar screens,” authorities said. It described the flight as starting from Thailand’s U-Tapao–Rayong–Pattaya International Airport.

The plane had been operating as a charter ambulance flight on a route from Gaya, India, to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and on to Zhukovsky International Airport in Moscow.

Russian officials said the plane belongs to Athletic Group LLC and a private individual. The Associated Press could not immediately reach the owners for comment.

The plane had been with a medical evacuation company based in Morocco. However, a man who answered a telephone number associated with the company Sunday said it was no longer in business and the aircraft now belonged to someone else.

International carriers have largely avoided Afghanistan since the Taliban’s 2021 takeover of the country. Those that briefly fly over rush through Afghan airspace while over the sparsely populated Wakhan Corridor in Badakhshan province, a narrow panhandle that juts out of the east of the country between Tajikistan and Pakistan.

Typically, aircraft heading toward the corridor make a sharp turn north around Peshawar and follow the Pakistani border before briefly entering Afghanistan. Zebak is just near the start of the Wakhan Corridor.

Though landlocked, Afghanistan’s position in central Asia means it sits along the most direct routes for those traveling from India to Europe and America. After the Taliban came to power, civil aviation simply stopped, as ground controllers no longer managed the airspace.

While nations have slowly eased those restrictions, fears persist about flying through the country. Two Emirati carriers recently resumed commercial flights to Kabul.
Taliban enforcing restrictions on single and unaccompanied Afghan women, says UN report (AP)
AP [1/22/2024 5:49 AM, Staff, 11975K, Negative]
The Taliban are restricting Afghan women’s access to work, travel and healthcare if they are unmarried or don’t have a male guardian, according to a U.N report published Monday.

In one incident, officials from the Vice and Virtue Ministry advised a woman to get married if she wanted to keep her job at a healthcare facility, saying it was inappropriate for an unwed woman to work.

The Taliban have barred women from most areas of public life and stopped girls from going to school beyond the sixth grade as part of harsh measures they imposed after taking power in 2021, despite initially promising more moderate rule.

They have also shut down beauty parlors and started enforcing a dress code, arresting women who don’t comply with their interpretation of hijab, or Islamic headscarf. In May 2022, the Taliban issued a decree calling for women to only show their eyes and recommending they wear the head-to-toe burqa, similar to restrictions during the Taliban’s previous rule between 1996 and 2001.

In its latest quarterly report, covering October to December last year, the U.N. mission in Afghanistan said the Taliban are cracking down on Afghan women who are single or don’t have a male guardian, or mahram, accompanying them.

There are no official laws about male guardianship in Afghanistan, but the Taliban have said women cannot move around or travel a certain distance without a man who is related to her by blood or marriage.

Three female health care workers were detained last October because they were going to work without a mahram. They were released after their families signed a written guarantee that they would not repeat the act, the report said.

In Paktia province, the Vice and Virtue Ministry has stopped women without mahrams from accessing health facilities since December. It visits health facilities in the province to ensure compliance.

The ministry, which serves as the Taliban’s morality police, is also enforcing hijab and mahram requirements when women visit public places, offices and education institutes through checkpoints and inspections.

In December, in Kandahar province, ministry officials visited a bus terminal to ensure women were not traveling long distances without mahrams and instructed bus drivers not to permit women to board without one, said the U.N.

Women have also been arrested for buying contraception, which the Taliban has not officially banned.

Nobody from the Vice and Virtue Ministry was immediately available for comment on the U.N. report.
Human Rights Advocates Worried Over Treatment Of Afghan Women Detained By Taliban (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [1/19/2024 4:11 PM, Staff, 223K, Negative]
A women’s rights advocate with Human Rights Watch (HRW) has expressed concern over the treatment of Afghan women activists currently held in Taliban detention.

Heather Barr, associate women’s rights director at HRW, says the women detained by Afghanistan’s hard-line Islamist rulers are facing inappropriate treatment in prisons.

"I have documented that women face adverse prison conditions and denial of due process," Barr said on January 19.

"They also face torture and are being subjected to horrible preconditions before being released," she added.

In addition, Barr said the Taliban was forcing families of detained women activists who don’t comply with the rules to hand over their property documents.

"Their families are threatened that if these women create problems again, their property will be confiscated, and their families will become homeless," she said.

Leila Basim, a member of the Spontaneous Movement of Afghan Women, said another member of the movement, Munizha Siddiqi, had been languishing in Taliban captivity since her arrest on September 24.

"During the past two months, her family tried very hard to meet her in Kabul’s Pul-e Charkhi prison," she told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi.

Basim said that the family had agreed to all the Taliban’s conditions, but Siddiqi is still being kept in prison.

"Every door they knock on is being shut to them, which is alarming," she said.

Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesman of the Taliban government, did not respond to Radio Azadi’s request for comment.

The Taliban government has neither confirmed nor denied the arrest of Siddiqi and other female campaigners. The number of women who are being held by the Taliban is unknown.

Since its return to power in August 2021, the Taliban has banned women from education, employment, and public life, with few exceptions, and since the beginning of this year, has arrested scores of women for allegedly violating its Islamic dress code.

The dress code and other regulations restricting women’s lives are based on the Taliban’s strict interpretation of Islamic law.
Va. lawmakers rebuke State Dept. for not paying group that helped Afghans (Washington Post)
Washington Post [1/19/2024 9:03 PM, Antonio Olivo, 6902K, Negative]
Members of Virginia’s congressional delegation on Friday chastised the U.S. State Department for not reimbursing a nonprofit group that played a vital role in helping Afghan evacuees entering the state in droves in 2021, including transferring patients to overwhelmed hospitals.

Northern Virginia Emergency Response System (NVERS), which coordinates the region’s services during mass-casualty events, stepped in with aid for thousands of Afghans during what was a lapse in federal support in the weeks after the Taliban took control of Kabul, Democratic lawmakers said in a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
After repeated attempts to recoup nearly $700,000 in costs incurred during that period, the State Department has still not paid the nonprofit, states the letter signed by U.S. Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark R. Warner, and Reps. Jennifer Wexton, Don Beyer, Abigail Spanberger and Gerry Connolly.

“The failure of the State Department and the other federal agencies to make any serious effort to reimburse NVERS for these services is outrageous, and risks disincentivizing community entities nationwide from offering support in future scenarios,” the letter said.

According to the federal lawmakers, the State Department suggested in private conversations that NVERS acted on its own and, therefore, was not entitled to reimbursement.

On Friday, a State Department spokesperson said officials are investigating the matter.

“We appreciate all partners of the U.S. government who have provided critical support to Afghans relocated to the United States,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “We will respond when we have fully investigated the issue.”

The massive influx of Afghans to the region in August 2021 overwhelmed local and federal agencies and wreaked havoc on area hospitals that were already struggling to absorb patients during what was the height of the pandemic.

Many Afghans arrived to Dulles International Airport with gunshot wounds or trauma from the chaos that surrounded the evacuation effort at the Kabul airport, where a terrorist bombing killed 13 U.S. service members and 170 Afghans crowding to get on to planes.

Others suffered from heart disease, broken limbs, malaria, shigella infections and other ailments that had gone untreated in their country.

Most arrived with no documentation, no English and no idea where or how they would rebuild their lives.

The system set up by the Biden administration to help those individuals in the early days of the evacuation was filled with holes that were causing additional trauma, said Kristin Nickerson, executive director of the nonprofit, which was created in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.

At one point, federal officials lost track of a 1-month-old baby who had a potentially life-threatening illness, Nickerson said.

A federal contractor tasked with retrieving Afghan patients in Northern Virginia who had received hospital treatment and delivering them back to temporary refugee holding facilities often let them languish in the hospitals overnight, she said.

Nickerson said her organization was pushing the Biden administration to fix the lapses in services. When it became clear that no solutions were forthcoming and that the local system of care was being overtaxed, area hospitals and local governments asked NVERS to step in, she said.

“All of those gaps compounded to a point where the health-care delivery system in Northern Virginia nearly collapsed,” said Nickerson, who also directs the Northern Virginia Hospital Alliance nonprofit.

Her group coordinated ambulance transports to area hospitals from Dulles Airport and federal transfer points in the region where Afghans were being housed. It also set up services for translation and established a patient tracking system that, among other cases, helped track down the lost 1-month-old, who was still in a hospital.

State Department officials eventually began relying on those services, reaching out to NVERS learn the whereabouts of Afghan evacuees who had received medical care, according to the nonprofit.

Assertions the Virginia lawmakers said State officials quietly made about not owing NVERS because the group had stepped up voluntarily fail “to offer any meaningful suggestions to remedy the situation” and “completely overlooks the Department’s own shortcomings in creating this unfunded mandate,” the letter states.

The dispute over funding, which began in 2021, has not stopped the State Department from calling on NVERS for help, the letter said.

In February 2023, the department asked the nonprofit to assist with 222 Nicaraguan political prisoners who arrived to Dulles Airport after being suddenly expelled from their country.

Nickerson said before agreeing to help with that emergency, her organization laid out the terms of payment. The bill for what amounted to $12,259 in expenses was paid, she said.
Pakistan
In No Position to Fight a War, Pakistan Seeks an Off-Ramp With Iran (New York Times)
New York Times [1/19/2024 4:14 PM, Christina Goldbaum and Salman Masood, 831K, Neutral]
When Iran and Pakistan traded airstrikes this week, both targeting what they said were militant camps, the exchange raised fears that the upheaval sweeping the Middle East was moving into new territory.

To Pakistan, which was hit first, it was important to send a clear message that violations of its sovereignty would not be tolerated. But the Pakistani military quickly followed its retaliatory action with another message — one that showed its desire to contain the tensions, a wish driven in no small part by the immense strain the country was under even before the Iran clash.

Pakistan signaled that it was seeking de-escalation by calling the two nations “brotherly countries” and urging dialogue and cooperation, language that Iran echoed in a statement of its own on Friday. Pakistan’s appeal, analysts said, underlined a plain fact: It could hardly be in a worse position to fight a war.

For two years, the country has been embroiled in an economic crisis and political turmoil that has directly challenged the country’s all-powerful military establishment. Terrorist attacks have resurged across the country. And already at odds with its archrival India, it has seen a souring of its once-friendly relations with the Taliban government in neighboring Afghanistan.

“At a moment when Pakistan is experiencing some of its most serious internal turmoil in years if not decades, the last thing it can afford is more escalations and a heightened risk of conflict with Iran,” said Michael Kugelman, the director of the Wilson Center’s South Asia Institute. “For Pakistan to be locked in serious tensions with not one or two but three neighbors — it’s a geopolitical worst-case scenario, bar none.”

The clash with Iran has come before widely anticipated parliamentary elections in Pakistan that are expected in early February, the first since former Prime Minister Imran Khan was removed in a vote of no confidence in April 2021. His ouster set off a political crisis that has rattled the very foundation of Pakistan’s politics, a winner-take-all game that has long been governed from behind the scenes by the country’s military.

Over the past two years, the ousting of Mr. Khan has awakened deep-seated resentment — particularly among young and middle-class Pakistanis — toward the country’s generals, whom Mr. Khan has blamed for his removal. Tens of thousands have taken to the streets to protest in sometimes violent scenes. Protesters have breached the gates of the national army headquarters and attacked military installations across the country.

Months later, Mr. Khan was arrested — a move widely understood to be an effort by the military to sideline him from politics. He remains in jail, but just weeks before the election, his popularity is still strong. That support has infused the upcoming vote with a once unthinkable sense of uncertainty in a country where the military has typically paved the way for its preferred candidates.

Adding to the political unease, violence by insurgent groups that have attacked political and military targets alike has roared back over the past two years, with hundreds killed. The attacks have laid bare the precarious stability in the country and further eroded the public’s trust in the military. They have also fueled growing tension with the Taliban in Afghanistan, where some militant groups have found safe haven since the group regained power in 2021, while others have been pushed from Afghan soil into Pakistan.

At the same time, Pakistan finds itself in a difficult economic situation, heavily reliant on an International Monetary Fund loan that is keeping afloat an economy that would have trouble sustaining a prolonged military engagement.

In the current circumstances, analysts said, Pakistan’s military strategists are walking a very fine line.

“On the one hand, they faced the strategic dilemma that if Pakistan let this pass, that would have emboldened all of Pakistan’s adversaries, especially India,” said Asfandyar Mir, a senior expert at the United States Institute of Peace. “On the other hand, by adopting a confrontational posture and hitting back, Pakistan has risked a three-front dilemma.”

Still, the military exchange with Iran has shown that, even with the growing discontent toward Pakistan’s military, the country’s foreign policy remains firmly in the hands of the generals. Those military leaders seemed to follow a well-worn playbook in responding to a provocation by a neighbor with military force that falls short of provoking all-out war.

For decades, Pakistan has sporadically shelled Afghanistan’s border areas in what Pakistani officials describe as targeted attacks against Pakistani militants seeking shelter there. And in 2019, intense shelling and exchanges of gunfire between Pakistan and India along their disputed border initially threatened to spiral into a war between the two nuclear-armed nations, but that threat was ultimately contained.

In choosing separatists from the Baluch ethnic group as its target in Iran, Pakistan on Thursday mirrored the action that Iran said it had taken in attacking a militant group, Jaish al-Adl, inside the Baluchistan region of Pakistan. The group had attacked a police station in southeastern Iran on Dec. 15 and killed 11 officers.

Pakistan undertook the tit-for-tat retaliation “in the most careful, deliberate way possible in choosing to target Baluch militants — its own citizens — hiding out in Iran,” said Madiha Afzal, a fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington. Those attacks were reported to have killed nine people.

The strikes and the diplomatic statement afterward “tried to thread the needle of deterring future action by Iran while also pointing to an off-ramp for de-escalation,” she added.

For those living in Baluchistan, however, the Iranian airstrike was a devastating reminder of the violence that has gripped the region for years.

A large, arid province in southwestern Pakistan straddling the Iran and Afghanistan borders, Baluchistan has faced five insurgencies since Pakistan’s founding in 1947, the most recent and enduring one underway since 2003. Those groups have staged violent attacks in the name of fighting political marginalization and the exploitation of the region’s resources.

Pakistan’s military has for years been the ruling power and gatekeeper in Baluchistan, which has been mostly barred to foreign journalists. The army and its militia allies have been widely accused of repression and human rights abuses as they fight insurgents to maintain control.

Now the Baluch people “feel caught in a war between two countries they can’t control,” said Malik Siraj Akbar, a Washington-based expert on the region. “Bleak social and political conditions in both countries fuel Baluch resistance, and these airstrikes risk pushing more toward armed groups, further destabilizing the region.”

Until recently, a military flare-up with Iran — the first exchange of missile fire between the two countries in recent memory — was seen as almost unimaginable, despite occasional border violations over the past several years.

Differences have emerged over the decades on issues like terrorism, a failed gas pipeline project, Iran’s close coordination with India and Pakistan’s ties to Saudi Arabia, a top Iranian rival for influence in the region.

But diplomatic relations remained largely cordial, even with the sectarian differences between Shiite Iran and predominantly Sunni Pakistan. After the 1979 Iranian revolution, Iran began funding Shiite institutions in Pakistan. Any escalation in the clash between the two countries could inflame sectarian tensions and pose a serious internal law-and-order challenge in Pakistan.

Iran said it had carried out strikes this week in Pakistan, as well as in Iraq and Syria, to show it would take the fight to militant adversaries anywhere. Observers said the Iranian authorities were driven by a desire to show strength both domestically and abroad as they face internal challenges to their authority.

On Friday, though, Iran appeared to be heading toward the off-ramp that Pakistan had seemingly laid down. In a statement, Iran said that it “differentiates between Pakistan’s friendly and brotherly government and armed terrorists,” and that it would not allow those militants to “strain these relations” between the two countries.
Pakistan tells Iran it wants to build trust after missile strikes (Reuters)
Reuters [1/19/2024 12:20 PM, Asif Shahzad and Gibran Naiyyar Peshimam, 11975K, Negative]
Pakistan expressed its willingness to work with Iran on "all issues" in a call between their foreign ministers on Friday after both countries exchanged drone and missile strikes on militant bases on each other’s territory.

The tit-for-tat strikes by the two countries are the highest-profile cross-border intrusions in recent years and have raised alarm about wider instability in the region since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted on Oct. 7.

However, while Iran and Pakistan have a history of rocky relations, both sides have already signalled a desire to cool tensions.

A statement from Pakistan’s foreign office said Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani had spoken to his Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amirabdollahian, on Friday, a day after Pakistan carried out strikes in Iran.

Iran said Thursday’s strikes killed nine people in a border village on its territory, including four children. Pakistan said the Iranian attack on Tuesday killed two children.

"Foreign Minister Jilani expressed Pakistan’s readiness to work with Iran on all issues based on spirit of mutual trust and cooperation," the statement said. "He underscored the need for closer cooperation on security issues."

The contact follows a call between Jilani and his Turkish counterpart in which Islamabad said "Pakistan has no interest or desire in escalation".

Amirabdollahian, in comments quoted by Iran’s state media, said: "Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity are of great interest to us and bilateral cooperation is essential to neutralise and destroy terrorist camps on Pakistani soil."

‘MINOR IRRITANTS’

The contacts came as Pakistan’s Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar ul Haq Kakar convened a meeting of the National Security Committee, with all military services chiefs in attendance. Kakar had cut short a visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos and flew home on Thursday.

The meeting concluded that "the two countries would mutually be able to overcome minor irritants through dialogue and diplomacy and pave the way to further deepen their historic relations", according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office.

However, it also resolved that any attempts to breach the territory of Pakistan "will be responded with full might of the state".

It urged Iran to use existing communication channels to address security concerns.

Kakar told a cabinet meeting following the security huddle that it was in the "interest of both countries" to return to relations as they stood before Iran’s strikes, another statement said.

Pakistan had recalled its ambassador from Tehran and had not allowed Iran’s ambassador to return to Islamabad.

Pakistani broadcaster Geo TV, citing sources, reported that the cabinet had decided to end a standoff and also endorsed a move to re-establish full diplomatic relations with Iran.

URGING RESTRAINT

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the two nations to exercise maximum restraint. The U.S. also urged restraint although President Joe Biden said the clashes showed that Iran is not well liked in the region.

Islamabad said it hit bases of the separatist Baloch Liberation Front and Baloch Liberation Army, while Tehran said its drones and missiles struck militants from the Jaish al Adl (JAA) group.

The militant groups operate in an area that includes Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan and Iran’s southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province. Both are restive, mineral-rich and largely underdeveloped.

Iran’s top security body, in meetings on Thursday headed by President Ebrahim Raisi, was told that militants had been preparing a "major operation" and the Iranian strikes on Tuesday were pre-emptive, state media reported on Friday.

Separately, Iranian media reports said security forces clashed with Islamic State militants in the southeast, killing two, capturing several others and seizing explosives and weapons.

INSURGENCY

The groups struck by Islamabad have been waging an armed insurgency for decades against the Pakistani state, including attacks against Chinese citizens and investment projects in Balochistan.

The JAA, which Iran attacked, is also an ethnic militant group, but with Sunni Islamist leanings seen as a threat by Iran, which is mainly Shi’ite. The group, which has had links to Islamic State, has carried out attacks in Iran against its powerful Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Against the backdrop of the war in Gaza, Iran and its allies have been flexing their muscles in the region. This week Iran also launched strikes on Syria against what it said were Islamic State sites, and Iraq, where it said it had struck an Israeli espionage centre.

Inside Pakistan, civilian leaders came together to throw their support behind the military despite a deeply divided political arena ahead of national elections next month.

Former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, a candidate for his party for prime minister, and the party of three-time premier Nawaz Sharif, considered an electoral frontrunner in the polls, said Pakistan had the right to defend itself but called for dialogue with Iran moving ahead.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) party of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan also condemned Iran, but called the strikes on Pakistan a failure of the caretaker government brought in to oversee the elections.
Iran’s foreign minister to visit Pakistan next week, Islamabad says (Reuters)
Reuters [1/22/2024 5:39 AM, Gibran Naiyyar Peshimam, 5239K, Neutral]
Pakistan said on Monday Iran’s foreign minister will visit the country next week, signaling efforts to rebuild ties after the neighbours exchanged missile strikes last week at what they said were militant targets.

Ambassadors of both countries have also been asked to return to their posts by Jan. 26, the Pakistan foreign ministry said in a statement.

Pakistan had recalled its ambassador to Tehran and had not allowed his counterpart to return to Islamabad, as well as cancelling all high-level diplomatic and trade engagements.

"At the invitation of Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani, Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, will undertake a visit to Pakistan on 29 January 2024," a Pakistan foreign office statement said.

The tit-for-tat strikes by the two countries were the highest-profile cross-border intrusions in recent years and have raised alarm about wider instability in the region since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted on Oct. 7.

Islamabad said it hit bases of the separatist Baloch Liberation Front and Baloch Liberation Army, while Tehran said its missiles struck militants from the Jaish al Adl (JAA) group.

The militant groups operate in an area that includes Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan and Iran’s southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province. Both are restive, mineral-rich and largely underdeveloped.
Pakistan, Iran Agree to De-escalate After Trading Airstrikes (VOA)
VOA [1/19/2024 1:45 PM, Ayaz Gul, 761K, Neutral]
Pakistan and Iran agreed Friday to defuse tensions and re-establish full diplomatic ties after their militaries traded unprecedented airstrikes this week against alleged militant camps on each other’s territory.

According to the Pakistani foreign ministry, the agreement stemmed from a telephone conversation that Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani held with his Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.

"The two foreign ministers agreed that working-level cooperation and close coordination on counter-terrorism and other aspects of mutual concern should be strengthened. They also agreed to de-escalate the situation," the statement said.

The chief diplomats also discussed the return of ambassadors of the two countries to their respective capitals.

The conflict erupted on Tuesday when Iranian security forces launched "missile and drone strikes" against what they said were bases of an anti-Iran militant group, Jaish al-Adl, or Army of Justice, in the southwestern Pakistani border province of Baluchistan.

Pakistan condemned the attack as a "blatant breach" of its territorial sovereignty, saying it killed two children and injured several other civilians. On Wednesday, Islamabad announced it was recalling its ambassador to Tehran, asking the Iranian ambassador to leave the country and suspending all bilateral engagements with Iran to protest the "unprovoked" cross-border incursion.

On Thursday, Pakistan undertook retaliatory airstrikes against what it said were "terrorist hideouts" in the southeastern Iranian border province of Sistan-Baluchistan being used to launch attacks against Pakistani security forces in Baluchistan.

Iran said the Pakistani strikes killed at least nine "non-Iranian nationals," mostly children and women.

The reciprocal cross-border incursions by the two countries marked an unprecedented escalation in the usually tense bilateral relations. It also raised fears about broader instability in the Middle East since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted on October 7.

Jilani underscored "the close brotherly relations" between the two countries and expressed Islamabad’s "desire" to work with Tehran "based on [the] spirit of mutual trust and cooperation," the Pakistani statement said. He "stressed that respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty must underpin this cooperation," it added.

The Iranian Embassy in Islamabad said on its official X social media platform that Amir-Abdollahian had "a very good phone talk to restore relations to a high level" and the two countries "can set a new record in de-escalation ... by returning the ambassadors to the capitals" and mutual visits of foreign ministers of Iran and Pakistan.

Meanwhile, Pakistani caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar chaired a Friday meeting with the country’s top civilian and military leaders to discuss the crisis stemming from tensions with Iran.

"The forum undertook a wholesome review of the situation and lauded the professional, calibrated, and proportionate response by the armed forces of Pakistan against unprovoked and unlawful violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty [by Iran]," said a statement issued after the meeting of what is known as the National Security Committee.

"The meeting also concluded that in line with the universal principles governing the conduct of good neighborly relations, the two countries would mutually be able to overcome minor irritants through dialogue and diplomacy and pave the way to further deepen their historic relations."

The military tensions between Iran and Pakistan prompted United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the United States and China to urge the neighboring countries to exercise restraint and defuse mutual tensions.

The Pakistani military said strikes it conducted Thursday hit bases in Iran that are run by the insurgent groups Baloch Liberation Front, or BLF, and Baloch Liberation Army, or BLA. The groups routinely attack Pakistani security forces in natural resources-rich Baluchistan.

The U.S. has listed the BLA as a global terrorist organization.

Tehran said that its drones and missiles targeted Jaish al Adl bases. The predominantly Shiite Muslim country blames the Sunni Muslim-based militant group for plotting attacks against Iranian security forces in Sistan-Baluchistan.

Iran and Pakistan share a nearly 900-kilometer-long (560 mile) border, where separatists, militants and smugglers have thrived for decades, with both countries accusing the other of not doing enough to counter the security challenges.
Amid Rising Tensions With Iran, Pakistani Police Say Member Of Iranian-Backed Militant Group Arrested In Karachi (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [1/21/2024 9:00 AM, Staff, 223K, Negative]
The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) in Pakistan’s southwestern Sindh Province has said it has arrested a suspect in the 2019 attempted assassination attempt on a top Pakistani cleric, accusing the arrested man of being a "trained terrorist" who belongs to the Zainebiyoun Brigade, a militant group allegedly backed by Iran.

The CTD said in a January 20 statement that Syed Mohammad Mehdi was arrested in an operation at a bazaar in Karachi. The CTD accused Mehdi of targeting clerics in the provincial capital and of working for Iranian intelligence.

Khuram Waris, who heads the CTD in Karachi, told Radio Mashaal on January 21 that Mehdi is a Pakistani citizen who received training in a "neighboring country."

"He is a member of the Zainabiyoun Brigade. He was involved in many attacks, including the attack on Mufti Taqi Usmani in Karachi."

Usmani, a religious scholar and former top court judge in Pakistan, narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in Karachi in 2019. Two of Usmani’s bodyguards were killed in the attack, for which no group claimed responsibility.

Waris claimed two associates of Mehdi’s were also involved in recent attacks against clerics in Karachi.

The Zainabiyoun Brigade is alleged to have been formed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and believed to have up to 1,000 fighters.

The arrest comes amid heightened tensions between Islamabad and Tehran after the IRGC on January 16 launched unannounced missile and drone attacks against targets in Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan.

The attacks against Jaish al-Adl, a U.S. designated terrorist group targeted that has been accused by Tehran of carrying out deadly attacks in Iran, were justified by Tehran as its "legitimate and legal right to deter national security threats."

Pakistan condemned the strike on its territory and responded on January 18 with air strikes against separatist groups allegedly hiding out on Iranian territory.
Pakistan Schools, Universities in Capital Close on Attack Threat (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [1/22/2024 1:50 AM, Kamran Haider, 5.5M, Negative]
The schools and universities in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, closed on Monday after police reported a threat of a terrorist attack at education institutions by a banned militant group.

The Islamabad police received the threat of a suicide attack, Inspector Inamullah Khan at Islamabad’s police control said on phone, without identifying the terrorist group that issued the threat. All education institutions are being closed, he said.

The capital’s top universities have closed down, Geo television channel reported.

Terrorist attacks have increased manifold in the South Asian country that the government mainly blames on Tehreek-e-Taiban Pakistan, an offshoot of Afghanistan’s group.
Pakistan’s economy cannot afford another election delay, warns Zardari (Financial Times)
Financial Times [1/20/2024 4:14 PM, Farhan Bokhari, 1.9M, Neutral]
A scion of one of Pakistan’s leading political families has warned that the country cannot afford further delay to an election set for next month as it struggles with a protracted economic crisis and increasingly volatile security situation.

“Pakistan is dealing with the perfect storm of crises,” Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the son of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and chair of the liberal-leaning Pakistan People’s party, told the Financial Times.

Elections were needed “yesterday”, Zardari added, to put in place a government to tackle “our economic situation, unemployment, poverty, inflation hitting historic levels [and] terrorism”.

Zardari’s warning comes as Pakistan grapples with an acute economic downturn as well as a rise in deadly terrorist attacks. This week, Pakistan exchanged unprecedented attacks with neighbouring Iran, which Islamabad and Tehran said targeted separatist terror groups.

Pakistan’s foreign reserves last year dwindled to less than a month’s worth of imports, leading to shortages of vital goods. Islamabad averted default with an emergency $3bn IMF funding programme, but economists have warned that the incoming government needs to secure a longer-term loan after the current scheme ends in April.

“Once elections take place,” said Zardari, “then our international partners, particularly those who are keen to invest in Pakistan, will have confidence in our political stability.”

But the polls, now set for February 8, have already been postponed from November to allow districts to be redrawn, and analysts have raised concerns that they may not go ahead amid a deteriorating security situation. Pakistan’s Senate passed a non-binding resolution this month calling for a delay, citing a rise in terror attacks and harsh weather conditions.

The election’s legitimacy has also come under question due to the absence on the ballot of Imran Khan, the former prime minister who was removed in a no-confidence vote in 2022 and jailed on corruption charges.

Khan, who denies the allegations, is disqualified from holding office for five years, but he remains Pakistan’s most popular political figure, and some analysts believe his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party would triumph in a freely run poll.

Khan’s approval rating stands at 57 per cent, according to a recent Gallup Pakistan poll, ahead of 52 per cent for Nawaz Sharif, the three-time former premier whose return to Pakistan in October from self-imposed exile in the UK has shaken up the race. Zardari stands at 35 per cent, though analysts have criticised the accuracy of public opinion polling data in Pakistan in the past.

Zardari, 35, inherited the PPP’s leadership from his mother, who was assassinated during the 2007 election campaign. He served as foreign minister for a year under the brief administration of Sharif’s brother Shehbaz Sharif, which followed Khan’s ousting.

Khan, meanwhile, remains in prison, and the PTI has suffered a military-backed crackdown, with thousands of its members and supporters detained over the past year after his arrest sparked violent unrest.

Khan “knows he is not winning the elections”, Zardari said, adding that the PTI planned “to create as much political chaos and difficulty for the incoming government”. Khan’s arrest last year sparked violent unrest.

The Supreme Court last week further weakened the party’s campaign, upholding an electoral commission’s decision to block the PTI from using a cricket bat as its party symbol — a serious setback in the country of 241mn where many illiterate voters have traditionally identified candidates by their party symbols. As a result, PTI candidates have been forced to run as independents under a range of symbols.

A PTI spokesperson said the party was “looking for a fair fight so that we can peacefully contest elections, but all legal avenues have been closed on our party to contest elections”.

Political analysts said Khan in particular retained the support of Pakistanis who were badly stung by the economic crisis. Inflation has run as high as 40 per cent, following sharp increases in electricity and gas tariffs, one of the conditions of the IMF package.

Zardari warned that Islamabad would have to adopt further austerity measures in consultation with the IMF and other lenders to escape “the economic quagmire”.

“There are some difficult decisions that the incoming government has to take,” he said.
Pakistani security forces kill 7 militants during a raid near the border with Afghanistan (AP)
AP [1/22/2024 4:45 AM, Staff, 456K, Negative]
Pakistan security forces killed seven militants in a shootout in the country’s volatile southwest near the border with Afghanistan, the military said Monday.

The military said the intelligence-based operation was conducted in Zhob district in southwestern Baluchistan province. In a brief statement, it said security forces also recovered munitions after the shootout.

Quetta is the capital of Baluchistan province, where Baloch nationalists, Islamic militants and the Islamic State group have claimed responsibility for attacks on security forces in recent years.

Gas-rich Baluchistan province at the border with Afghanistan and Iran has been the scene of a low-level insurgency by Baluch nationalists for more than two decades. They initially wanted a share of provincial resources, but later demanded independence.
India
Modi Opens a Giant Temple, a Triumph Toward a Hindu-First India (New York Times)
New York Times [1/22/2024 4:24 AM, Mujib Mashal and Hari Kumar, 831K, Neutral]
They fanned out across the vast country, knocking on doors in the name of a cause that would redefine India.

These foot soldiers and organizers, including a young Narendra Modi, collected millions of dollars to be socked away for a long fight to build a grand Hindu temple in Ayodhya, in northern India. Across 200,000 villages, ceremonies were arranged to bless individual bricks that would be sent to that sacred city, believed by Hindus to be the birthplace of the deity Ram.

The bricks, the campaign’s leaders declared, would not just be used for the temple’s construction on land occupied for centuries by a mosque. They would be the foundation for a Hindu rashtra, or Hindu nation, that would correct what right-wing Hindus saw as the injustice of India’s birth as a secular republic.

Nearly four decades later, the cornerstone of that sweeping vision has been laid.

Mr. Modi, now the country’s prime minister, inaugurated the Ram temple in Ayodhya on Monday — the crowning achievement of a national movement aimed at establishing Hindu supremacy in India by rallying the country’s Hindu majority across castes and tribes.

“Today, our Ram has come. After centuries of patience and sacrifice, our Lord Ram has come,” Mr. Modi said during the ceremony. “It is the beginning of a new era.”

While a moment of triumph for Hindu nationalists, it is a source of jubilation for many others who care little for politics. Ram has a wide following in India; excitement around the temple’s consecration had been building for weeks, with saffron-colored pennants strung across a million streets and markets, and posters of Ram advertising the event everywhere. Devotees descended on the temple despite calls to wait until the high-security consecration had ended.

But for the country’s 200 million Muslims, the Ram temple has reinforced a sense of despair and dislocation.

The Babri Mosque, which once stood on the site, was destroyed in 1992 by Hindu activists, unleashing waves of sectarian violence that left thousands dead. The manner in which the mosque was razed set a precedent of impunity that reverberates today: lynchings of Muslim men accused of slaughtering or transporting cows, beatings of interfaith couples to combat “love jihad” and — in an echo of Ayodhya — “bulldozer justice” in which the homes of Muslims are leveled by officials without due process in the wake of religious tensions.

The Hindu right wing has ridden the movement to become India’s dominant political force. The opening of the temple, built over 70 acres at a cost of nearly $250 million, marks the unofficial start of Mr. Modi’s campaign for a third term, in an election expected in the spring.

That it was Mr. Modi who was the star of the consecration of the temple in Ayodhya — which Hindu nationalists have compared to the Vatican and Mecca — captures the right’s blurring of old lines.

India’s founding fathers took great pains to keep the state at arm’s length from religion, seeing it as crucial to the country’s cohesion after the communal bloodletting wrought by the 1947 partition that cleaved Pakistan from India.

But Mr. Modi, the country’s most powerful leader in decades, has unabashedly normalized the opposite. His public image is simultaneously one of statesman and god-man. His party chief recently described him as “the king of gods.” Ahead of the inauguration, the town was covered in posters and billboards, of Ram and of Mr. Modi.

Just as they did in the 1980s, volunteers from right-wing Hindu organizations went door to door across hundreds of thousands of villages in the days before the temple’s consecration. This time, the effort was a reminder of the immense network Mr. Modi has at his disposal, one that the political opposition can come nowhere close to matching.

In preparation for his role in Ayodhya, Mr. Modi embarked on an 11-day Hindu purification ritual. The prime minister was seen temple-hopping across the country, with his security agents also dressed in traditional garb.

When his office put out pictures of Mr. Modi at his residence feeding cows, which are seen as holy by many Hindus, fawning television channels ran them as breaking news. In between his expressions of religious devotion, Mr. Modi attended to the work of the state, inaugurating huge projects that perpetuate his image as a champion of development.

The omnipresent leader, in mixing religion and politics and tapping into the vast resources at his service, has achieved what his predecessors could not: turning a diverse and argumentative Indian society into something resembling a monolith that falls in line behind him. To question him is to question Hindu values. And that is akin to blasphemy.

Manoj Kumar Jha, an opposition lawmaker and a Delhi University professor, said that while the opposition might someday topple Mr. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P., the transformation of the state and society would take decades, at least, to undo.

“Winning elections could be arithmetic. But the fight is in the realm of psychology — the psychological rupture, the social rupture,” Mr. Jha said. Just as Muslim Pakistan was founded as a state for one religious group, India is “now emulating Pakistan, a little late.”

“The toxic mix of religion and politics is idealized,” he added. “Nobody is bothered to see what such a toxic mix has done.”

In many ways, India’s birth as a secular republic was an idealistic project undertaken by its founding leaders, including Mohandas K. Gandhi and India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. With the country’s diversity in mind, they defined a secular state not as one that keeps out religion, but as one that keeps an equal distance from all religions.

Muslims who remained in India after the creation of Pakistan amounted to the world’s third-largest Muslim population. There were also millions of Christians, Sikhs and Buddhists. Hinduism itself contained multitudes, distinguished not just by devotion to 30 million distinct deities, but also by rigid caste hierarchies and regional cultural identities.

Members of the Hindu right were appalled that the departure of the British had left Muslims with a nation of their own in Pakistan but had not afforded the same for Hindus in India. It was, to them, just the latest inequity for the religious majority in a country that had endured several bloody Muslim invasions and was ruled for centuries by the Mughal Empire.

Initially, these Hindus struggled to turn the anger over partition into a political movement not just because of the event’s trauma, but also because of the taint from a grave act of terrorism. In 1948, one of their foot soldiers, Nathuram Godse, assassinated Gandhi, who had amassed a huge following as an icon of nonviolence and an advocate of India’s diversity.

Gandhi’s last plea, after receiving three bullets from close range during his morning prayer meeting, was to the same deity that the Hindu right would later rally around at Ayodhya.

“O Ram,” he said as he collapsed.

The founders’ secular vision remained in place largely because of Nehru’s continuity in power during India’s first two decades as a republic. But it rested on a thin foundation. There was no major project of historical reconciliation between Hindus and Muslims, said Abhishek Choudhary, the author of a recent book on the ascent of the Hindu right, as Nehru — “a terribly overworked politician” — focused on the immense work of ensuring the country’s immediate survival.

The opening for the right wing came in the decades after Nehru’s death, as the state’s secular clarity became increasingly muddled. When Nehru’s descendants — first his daughter, Indira Gandhi, and then his grandson Rajiv Gandhi — toyed with majoritarian sentiments in the 1980s to keep themselves in power, they walked into a game for which the Hindu right was much better prepared.

The right’s fountainhead, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or R.S.S., which will be 100 years old next year, has been likened to a “large Indian joint family” — it has many offshoots, all working closely for the same goal. When one sibling in the R.S.S. faced a state crackdown, the others could continue organizing.

But what the right wing lacked was political power. One group related to the R.S.S. had already been agitating around the issue of a Ram temple. The B.J.P., the political arm of the R.S.S., got on board.

The Babri Mosque had been built by a military commander of the Mughal Empire in the 16th century after the destruction of a Ram temple, the Hindu right argued. The movement to build a temple for Ram at the same spot was not just about the return of a deity with crosscutting popularity in India as a just ruler and moral exemplar, but also the toppling of a symbol of conquest.

After turning the Ram movement into a participatory affair across the country, the B.J.P. saw its political fortunes shoot up in elections in 1989, and again in 1991. There was no turning back.

The campaign gained such confidence that even as the dispute over the plot was being heard in court, tens of thousands of foot soldiers gathered at the spot in December 1992 and, in the presence of top right-wing leaders, destroyed the mosque with ropes, sledgehammers and their bare hands.

Alok Kumar, the president of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the R.S.S. offshoot that has led the decades-long temple movement, said the destruction of the Mughal structure — which he asserted the Muslim rulers had erected to drain Hindu “willpower and self-respect” — and the building of the temple were crucial to a Hindu revival.

“I believe that when that structure in Ayodhya was brought down,” Mr. Kumar, a soft-spoken lawyer, said in an interview, “the inferiority complex of the Hindu race went away.”

As the court case dragged on, the issue remained a communal tinderbox. When more than 50 Hindu activists returning from Ayodhya in 2002 were burned to death in a train fire in Gujarat, it unleashed days of brutal violence in Muslim areas that left more than 1,000 people dead in the state, a majority of them Muslims.

Mr. Modi, who was then the chief minister of Gujarat, was accused of complicity in the riots, though the courts later cleared him of wrongdoing. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the B.J.P. prime minister at the time, expressed “shame” at the wanton violence.

Twelve years later, Mr. Modi would become prime minister himself. While he campaigned first on the economy and then, in his re-election bid five years later, on national security, his focus remained on the Hindu right’s priorities, chief among them the construction of the temple. Victory was sealed in 2019, when India’s Supreme Court delivered a landmark verdict handing the Ayodhya land to Hindus.

Mr. Modi has continued the uphill task of uniting Hindus into a powerful monolith, through outreach to lower castes and welfare handouts that expand his base. In the process, secularism has been redefined as the suppression of public expressions of other faiths, while Hinduism has increasingly been displayed as the religion of the state.

Muslims are demonized as the “other” against whom the Hindu consolidation is being pursued.

Ziya Us Salam, who documented patterns of violence and marginalization against India’s Muslims in a recent book, said the right-wing campaign had reduced Muslims to the worst deeds of Mughal rulers from long ago while overlooking Muslims’ contributions.

“What matters to you is to project the Muslim as a villain in the past, and to pass off that villainy to the modern contemporary Muslim who is supposed to atone for what happened in the 13th and 14th century,” Mr. Salam said.
Why India’s New Ram Temple Is So Important (New York Times)
New York Times [1/22/2024 2:41 AM, Alex Travelli and Hari Kumar, 831K, Neutral]
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a gigantic new temple in the Indian city of Ayodhya on Monday, the conclusion of a mostly 20th-century odyssey in which Hindu nationalists eventually tore down a centuries-old mosque that has now been replaced with a structure devoted to the Hindu deity Ram.

Leading up to the temple’s consecration, public spaces around India were thrumming with excitement. Ram is one of the most revered gods among India’s Hindus, who make up about 80 percent of a total population of 1.4 billion. As the hero of the Ramayana epic, he is a king and a paragon of virtue, exiled from his native Ayodhya, who comes home for a jubilant coronation.

Islam does not appear in the Ramayana, having arrived in India only 1,000 years ago. But it is cast as the primary villain in the Hindu-nationalist telling of India’s history. Now, with a kind of spiritual and political homecoming for Mr. Modi, the Ram campaigners have the temple they had sought for decades.

What Sets This Temple Apart?

First, the theological reason. Ayodhya is the original home of Ram. Its spot on the Sarayu River was where his just rule began. Diwali, India’s biggest holiday, marks the end of his 14-year ordeal of separation from the place.

Then there’s the more historical answer. In the area around Ayodhya, it was long believed that a Hindu temple had once stood on the land where the Babri Mosque was built in the 1500s. In 1949, soon after the British left and India became independent, Hindu activists smuggled idols representing Ram into the mosque, according to court documents.

That intensified the contest over the site, with Hindus and Muslims squabbling over access to it, and the police suppressing both sides. In the 1980s, reclaiming the site emerged as the principal goal of the Hindutva movement, which has for a hundred years sought to identify multiethnic India with Hinduism and vice versa.

As a newly fledged political leader, Mr. Modi participated in the Ram temple campaigns, which sometimes led to clashes with the police and Hindu-Muslim riots. The tensions boiled over in 1992, when about 2,000 people were killed in sectarian violence.

What Happened in 1992?

The political party representing Hindutva, the Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P., and its affiliated groups organized nearly 100,000 of their volunteers to gather in Ayodhya on Dec. 6, 1992.

The party ran the local government; when young men surrounding the mosque eventually stormed it, the police stood by idly. By noon, the mob was picking the mosque apart. By evening, all three domes were flattened. The demolition crew put up a makeshift temple where the idols had surfaced in 1949.

People in India’s cities were mostly horrified by the destruction and the deadly violence that followed. Many associated the rioters with an earlier Hindu nationalist, Nathuram Godse, who assassinated Mohandas K. Gandhi in 1948 out of devotion to Hindutva ideology.

Today, the B.J.P. seems to have a lock on national power. But until the Ram temple movement, it was a marginal player. The opposition Congress Party, which enjoyed nearly unchallenged power until then, never made up its mind about whether to support or oppose the temple.

What’s Happened Since Then?

With the unfulfilled prospect of the Ram temple glowing in the background, the B.J.P.’s political strength grew, buoyed both by its pro-Hindu causes and its pro-business orientation, during a time when India’s economy was starting to open to the rest of the world.

After the mosque’s demolition, India’s court system tied up the disputed land in a thicket of legal decisions. There it remained until soon after Mr. Modi won his second term as prime minister, in 2019. Soon after, the Supreme Court cleared the way. It insisted that the mosque’s destruction had been an illegal act, and then issued an uneasy judgment allowing the whole claim to be handed over to a Ram Temple Trust anyway. Muslim claimants were offered an empty plot miles away.

The trust took in about $400 million, and construction began in 2020. That money was privately raised, but in many ways the consecration of the Ram temple became an undertaking of the Indian state.

About 70 percent of the temple has been built. Ayodhya itself has gotten a new airport, train services and major urban upgrades. The government declared Jan. 22 to be a national half-day holiday, so Indians everywhere could celebrate the installation of the official Ram idol in the new premises.

The bosses of some political parties, as well as some Hindu religious leaders, balked at the blurred lines between church and state and declined to attend the ceremony.

How Do Indians View the Temple?

Hindu nationalist allies of Mr. Modi tended to look forward to Jan. 22 as a day of ultimate vindication, or even revenge — against India’s medieval Muslim rulers, and against the country’s independence leaders, who sought to stay neutral with regard to religion.

Naturally, India’s secularists see the rise of a Ram temple on the site of the Babri Mosque as confirmation of their own defeat, if not as a blasphemous conflation of Mr. Modi with Ram. India’s 200 million Muslim citizens feel by and large alienated, which may be the point.

But many Hindus, especially in the so-called cow belt in the country’s north, just think it’s nice that Ram will finally have a temple in the holy place where he was born. They were celebrating its inauguration at live screenings, as at a once-a-millennium holiday.

The memory of 1992 is dim among younger Indians, who could observe the day’s spectacle without recalling the Babri Mosque. The timing seemed calculated to bolster Mr. Modi’s campaign to win a third term; elections are only a few months away. Some of those celebrating will think he deserves that much, and others will care little either way.
Modi’s consecration of controversial Hindu temple caps years-long campaign (Washington Post)
Washington Post [1/22/2024 3:35 AM, Gerry Shih and Karishma Mehrotra, 6.9M, Neutral]
When Hindu radicals stormed a 16th-century mosque in this Indian river town and tore it to the ground in 1992, the demolition mortified India’s leaders, ignited religious riots that killed 2,000 people across the country and spurred leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party, accused of inciting the mobs, to issue anguished apologies.

Thirty-two years later, a grand Hindu temple is taking shape on the hilltop where the mosque once stood — a different hall of worship rising in a much different India.

On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi presided over a religious ceremony to consecrate the new $300 million temple to Lord Ram on the site of the razed mosque, marking not just a personal political victory but a triumph of his Hindu nationalist ideology over the secular, multicultural vision espoused by India’s founding fathers.

With a soaring dome 160 feet high and grounds encompassing 71 acres, the lavish temple project, built on the contested hill that many Hindus believe to be the birthplace of the deity Lord Ram, has been anticipated by weeks of wall-to-wall coverage on pro-government television channels and in ebullient speeches by BJP politicians, who have called it a symbol of a new India proudly steeped in Hinduism, the faith of 80 percent of the population.

Intersections in New Delhi have been blanketed by the saffron flag of Lord Ram. Schoolchildren have participated in organized prayers to the god. Shops selling meat, frowned upon in modern Hinduism, have been closed in some states. Government offices and hospitals were ordered shut for a half-day on Monday morning to watch the “Pran Pratishtha” consecration ceremony — the infusion of the soul into the temple’s body — that Modi personally oversaw.

Raghavan Jagannathan, a right-wing commentator, said the temple inauguration represents a triumphant moment when India’s Hindus can proudly assert their identity after centuries of Muslim and British rule and decades of “self-loathing” under its secular post-independence leaders.

After Indian independence, “Hindus got the short end of the stick with secularism, where minorities could celebrate their religious identity but majority Hindus had to suppress theirs,” said Jagannathan, author of “Dharmic Nation,” a book about India’s religious national character. “That’s why you’re seeing a widespread celebration right now. This temple is a coming-out party for Hindus who say: I can finally be a Hindu without fear.”

But others say the religious festivities backed by the state show just how far India under Modi has diverged from the vision of those who struggled for freedom like Mohandas K. Gandhi, a defender of minority rights who often pleaded for the safety of his Muslim compatriots when Hindu-Muslim riots erupted.

In recent days, Modi has prepared for the inauguration by praying at more than a dozen Hindu holy sites, draping himself in robes of pure white and, according to his press office, sleeping on the floor and drinking only coconut water in accordance with rules governing Hindu rituals.

The temple consecration and blanket media coverage are widely expected to give Modi a boost ahead of the national elections expected in April, in which he is heavily favored to win a third term. Several opposition parties said they would boycott Monday’s event, and some prominent Hindu theologians known as the Shankaracharyas have rebuked the prime minister for politicizing religion — and consecrating a temple that is not yet finished in violation of Hindu traditions.

But Modi, who has become the most powerful and popular Indian leader in decades partly by leaning on his credentials as a devout Hindu nationalist, said he was backed by an even higher authority.

“God has made me the representative of the people of India during the ceremony,” Modi told the country in a video this month that garnered 4.2 million views on social media. “I seek blessings from all of you.”

Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, a Modi biographer, said Monday’s event will mark “an era when the prime minister is the high priest of Hinduism, blurring all lines between religion and politics on the one hand, and between religion and the Indian state on the other.”

“We are on our way to becoming a de facto theocratic state with Hinduism becoming the official religion,” Mukhopadhyay added. “It will be very difficult for the country and its religious minorities to return to what was experienced before 2014.”

Inside the vast digital campaign by Hindu nationalists to inflame India

In some ways, the story of the controversial Ram Temple traces the rise of the Hindu nationalist movement, its most prominent political wing, the BJP, and their effort to make India into a religious state.

As a fringe political party in the 1980s, the BJP gained national traction by making the temple a mainstream issue that consolidated the Hindu vote, Jagannathan said. Many Hindu nationalists claimed that a Hindu temple had existed at the site long before it was torn down by Muslim invaders in the 16th century to make way for a mosque built in the name of Babur, the founder of the Mughal empire.

After BJP leaders raised awareness for the project during a 1990 cross-country rally partly organized by Modi — a young party worker at the time — a mob on Dec. 6, 1992, razed the Babri mosque, drawing international condemnation and apologies from BJP leaders, who expressed remorse.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a BJP leader who later became prime minister, said he felt “regrets, agony, anguish” and considered resigning from the party’s leadership. Lal Krishna Advani, the hard-line BJP president who led the cross-country rallies demanding a Ram temple, called the mosque’s demolition the “saddest day of my life” in a later memoir.

But that sense of contrition faded in the ensuing decades as the BJP’s Hindu-first politics came to dominate Indian politics. In 2019, the Indian Supreme Court ruled that a Hindu temple could be built on the hilltop. Modi, reelected resoundingly that year after a stridently Hindu nationalist campaign, laid the foundation stone at the construction site in 2020 as work began.

The success of the Ram Temple project has given fresh impetus to Hindu nationalists, who say other mosques across the country should be demolished and replaced by temples to settle historical grievances. In recent weeks, Hindu activists in Uttar Pradesh, the state that includes Ayodhya, have renewed calls to examine whether the Gyanvapi Mosque in Varanasi and the Shahi Idgah mosque in Mathura were built on top of older Hindu temples razed by Muslim invaders.

Covert Indian operation seeks to discredit Modi’s critics in the U.S.

Other leaders on the Indian right wing set their sights further afield. This week, the BJP’s chief minister of Madhya Pradesh state, Mohan Yadav, said the Ram Temple project gave hope to those who believed in reviving an Indian civilization that stretched from modern Pakistan to Bangladesh, a revanchist idea known as “Akhand Bharat,” or Greater India.

“It is God’s will that the construction of Lord Ram’s temple should definitely be a big step towards Akhand Bharat,” Yadav said Saturday. “If not today, then tomorrow.”
Will Modi’s New Temple Unite Hindus but Divide India? (Wall Street Journal)
Wall Street Journal [1/19/2024 9:00 PM, Krishna Pokharel and Tripti Lahiri, 810K, Neutral]
In January 1992, a photographer in the sleepy northern Indian town of Ayodhya took pictures of a new face among a group of visiting Hindu politicians. They arrived to worship at a 16th-century mosque that had become central to an intensifying battle between Muslims and Hindus.

The photographer, Mahendra Tripathi, asked the man what he had prayed for at the Hindu shrine inside the Muslim mosque. Receiving no answer, Tripathi remembers, he asked instead when the visitor would return.

“Only when there is a temple to Ram built here,” replied Narendra Modi—then a little-known figure and since 2014 India’s prime minister. Now Modi is on the verge of fulfilling that vow to raise a temple to one of Hinduism’s most revered figures at the site many Hindus believe to be the god’s birthplace.

Eleven months after Modi’s visit, the Babri Masjid mosque was decimated by a Hindu mob, spurred on by right-wing politicians labeling it an example of the humiliation of India’s Hindus by conquering Muslim rulers hundreds of years earlier. The new temple rising in the mosque’s place is the most concrete symbol yet of the efforts of Modi and his party to elevate the Hindu religion in Indian public life, sometimes at the expense of the country’s Muslim minority, in a break from a long line of mostly Hindu prime ministers who emphasized the secular nature of Indian democracy.

In recent days, Modi embarked on an 11-day fast and addressed fellow Hindus to tell them about experiencing an overwhelming devotional joy as the temple’s consecration approaches on Monday. “I am blessed to be present for the fulfillment of a dream that generations have kept in their hearts like a resolution,” he said. “God has made me an instrument to represent all the people of India.”

In December, workers hauled ornately carved pieces of rock and pillars into place in a rush to complete the main level of the temple, Ram Mandir, before the ceremony. Nearly $220 million is being spent on its construction, raised from donations, while the city as a whole is being redeveloped into a destination for millions of Hindus. The consecration of the temple, which is only partially built, will take place just months before India holds national elections. The vote is expected to return Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party to power for the third time, in large part because of his foregrounding of Hindu belief in his governing.

Alongside the temple project, a $3.7 billion government-funded makeover has given Ayodhya an international airport named for the sage-poet who composed the Sanskrit version of the ancient Hindu epic poem, the Ramayan. The airport is projected to initially handle a million passengers a year. The railway station has been refurbished to eventually handle 60,000 arrivals daily, up from 10,000.

“This is a cultural achievement but also a political milestone,” said Milan Vaishnav, director of the South Asia Program of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a U.S. think tank. “Those images and visuals that will be beamed out not just across India but across the world will be enough to remind people that he succeeded in moving the country closer to what their ultimate goal is, which is the creation of a Hindu rashtra,” or nation.

The modern dispute over the ancient site in Ayodhya dates to 1949, when an idol of Ram Lalla—baby Ram—was surreptitiously placed in the Babri Masjid. Since then a battle for control over the site has played out in the nation’s courts, streets and ballot box, at times spilling into deadly violence. After the mosque’s destruction, Hindu-Muslim riots erupted across the country; in Mumbai alone, 900 people were killed, most of them Muslim.

In court, Hindu litigants have argued that the mosque was built on top of a temple demolished in the 1500s by the troops of the emperor Babur, founder of the Mughal dynasty that governed India for centuries and built the Taj Mahal. The Mughals’ power dwindled by the 19th century, when India became a British colony.

The Muslim parties to the case disputed the claim of an earlier temple to Ram. Surrendering the mosque to Hindus in Ayodhya, they argued, would open the floodgates to more demands from Hindu hard-liners, who have mounted two other challenges and say they have a list of tens of thousands of Muslim holy sites where they believe temples were demolished to make mosques.

In 2019, the Supreme Court decided to allow the Hindu temple to be built. The Modi government swiftly formed a trust, as directed by the court, to take charge of a 70-acre swath of land. The court also directed the government to provide land for a new mosque to replace the one that was destroyed.

“No one is troubled by a temple being built. We are all people of faith,” said Firoz Khan, a local Muslim leader involved in building the new mosque. “We are troubled that a mosque was broken to do it. We are troubled when you break our places to do this.”

About 15 miles from the original site, in Dhannipur village, a poster advertises the site of the future mosque: “A Masterpiece in Making.” But no construction has started on that project, which lacks the private donations and government engagement of the temple effort. It also has encountered mixed feelings among Muslims who mourn the loss of their original site. Recently, young men were playing cricket on the empty plot of land.

The Congress Party, which ruled India for decades after its independence from the U.K., said in a statement that it won’t attend the temple’s inauguration because the BJP and its Hindu associates have turned it into a political project. “Religion is a personal matter,” said the party, whose leaders are Hindu.

Nevertheless, in recent months, Ram devotees have joyfully thronged to the city. Some paid money to have Ram’s name drawn on their foreheads in red and yellow powder. On an autumn afternoon, a group that arrived in Ayodhya on an overnight train wandered by a stonemasonry workshop run by Hindu groups where workers over three decades have carved dozens of pink sandstone pillars. “Are these for the temple?” asked Shanta Jain, a 65-year-old social worker clad in a saffron sari, visibly excited. “Yes, for the second floor,” said Jhingur Sahni, who was cleaning a pillar.

“Ram temple is my soul, my life,” said Jain, who plans to watch the live broadcast of the inauguration. She hurried with her group to the temporary temple to gaze upon the baby Ram idol, who is treated as a living child and symbolically fed and put down to nap by the priest who tends to him.

The influx of visitors has been accompanied by a boom in property prices that has turned local farmers into millionaires nearly overnight as hotel chains seek prime land. After the Supreme Court ruling, Parashuram Mishra abandoned his career as a management professor and became a real-estate broker, operating out of a farmhouse on the highway to Ayodhya. “The prime minister and chief minister are doing all the marketing and the publicity,” said Mishra.

The new temple will include a new statue of Ram as a young child. A perimeter wall will include carvings depicting scenes from “all the victorious past of the Hindu nation,” said an engineer working with the temple trust. Around the main temple to Ram, seven smaller temples will mark key figures from his story who are now interpreted as belonging mainly to lower castes. It was Modi’s idea to include these to symbolize social harmony, said Nripendra Misra, a former aide who is overseeing construction.

The moment marks a triumph for Hindu nationalists whose vision for the nation did not prevail at independence in 1947 when other Indian leaders supported a secular republic. The assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in 1948 by a Hindu extremist cast a shadow over Hindu nationalism. But Hindu groups worked patiently at the grassroots for decades to get to this moment; Modi attended meetings of one hardline group starting as a boy in the 1950s.

In 2002, an episode linked to Ayodhya nearly derailed Modi’s rise. Nearly 60 temple activists from Gujarat were burned to death in their train carriage returning from Ayodhya. Modi, then Gujarat’s chief minister, condemned the incident as terrorism. Rioting that followed killed more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims. Modi was criticized for not doing enough to protect Muslim citizens. In 2012, investigators for India’s top court found no evidence of wrongdoing by Modi. He was elected prime minister two years later.

Since he came to power, Modi has maintained his policies are for everybody, but Muslims and opposition politicians see concerning signs as Modi and his party have cemented their power. A 2019 amendment to citizenship rules excluded Muslim migrants from new paths to citizenship. The government revoked the autonomy of India’s only Muslim-majority state, the disputed region of Kashmir, a step Modi said was necessary for national unity.

Sultan Beg, a madrassa teacher in Dhannipur, said that local Muslims benefit from some of the welfare programs initiated by Modi, for example a free food grain program for poor families. But Beg and other residents said the contrast between the new temple and missing mosque shows how the prime minister needs to do more to live up to one of his more popular slogans—”Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas” or “Together With All, Progress of All.”

“Modi should stay true to his message…and all should be treated equally,” Beg said. “Right now, that’s not the case. Hindus are being favored more.”
‘Might get worse’: As Modi unveils Ram temple, Indian Muslims fear future (Al Jazeera)
Al Jazeera [1/21/2024 10:06 PM, Sanjay Kapoor, 2060K, Neutral]
Wearing her hijab, Yusra Hussain stood in the queue to enter a makeshift temple to the Hindu god Ram in Ayodhya, the northern Indian city believed to be his birthplace. What followed is etched in her mind.

“I was jeered [at] and taunted,” the 32-year-old said. “And people started chanting Jai Shree Ram [victory to Lord Ram]. I got a sense of aggressive triumphalism.”

That was eight years ago. On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate an incomplete Ram temple built in place of the makeshift shrine Hussain had visited, amid a nationwide frenzy over the consecration that has brought the country of 1.4 billion people, and a nearly $4 trillion economy, to a virtual standstill.

The stock market is shut, government offices are working only half the day and movie halls are offering live screenings of the religious ceremony that Modi’s opponents say he has hijacked ahead of national elections that are expected to begin in March.

Major public hospitals announced reduced services for the day to allow staff to soak in the celebrations, though some have since retracted those announcements.

Missing from news channels and popular discourse is any reference to the fact that the temple is coming up at the very spot where the 16th-century Babri Masjid was torn down by a Hindu nationalist mob on a grey winter morning in December 1992.

Hussain, a freelance journalist based in the city of Lucknow, 120 km (75 miles) east of Ayodhya, said she fears that the “triumphalism” she witnessed on what was her first visit to the temple town “might just get worse in the coming days”.

“In fact, after Ayodhya, there might be a snowballing effect on other disputed places like Mathura and Kashi,” she said. Mathura and Varanasi – Modi’s parliamentary constituency also known locally as Kashi – are also home to historic mosques that the prime minister’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its Hindu majoritarian allies say were built on demolished temples.

For many among India’s 200 million Muslims, the state-sponsored pomp and ceremony around the temple’s launch is the latest in a series of painful realisations that – especially since Modi took office in 2014 – the democracy they call home no longer appears to care about them.

Increased religious polarisation in the country affects not just their safety and security but also their political influence in the upcoming national vote. Muslims constitute more than 20 percent of the population in 101 of India’s 543 directly elected parliamentary constituencies. Indian secularism has been premised on Hindus and Muslims – the country’s two-largest communities – voting primarily on economic or non-religious issues.

That has meant that while Indian Muslims are no homogenous voting bloc, the community has had the limited but definite ability to affect electoral outcomes for the best part of independent India’s 77-year journey. This has especially been true in the northern states of Uttar Pradesh – home to Ayodhya, Varanasi, Mathura and Lucknow – and Bihar as well as the eastern states of West Bengal and Assam, home to some of India’s largest Muslim populations.

With religious sentiments running high and if the majority Hindu vote consolidates behind a party like the BJP, as it often has in recent elections, this equation no longer holds.

“The 2024 elections could be a one-sided affair in favour of BJP,” said Hussain Afsar, Yusra’s father and also a Lucknow-based journalist.

At the centre of Modi’s religious pitch is the Ram temple, which is being unveiled while it is still under construction, despite opposition from some of Hinduism’s senior-most seers who have accused the prime minister of timing its consecration to maximise electoral gains.

“Hindus and Muslims have coexisted with each other for hundreds of years along with mosques and temples in India. Both places of worship are culturally and historically important for all Indians,” Lucknow-based social activist Tahira Hasan said. “I don’t think any Muslim has a problem with a temple, the problem arises when religion and places of worship are used to polarise society, create animosity and use religion to create tensions.”

Since January 12, Modi has been keeping a fast and visiting a series of temples dressed in saffron robes, blurring the lines between prime minister and monk. On Monday, Modi will join priests and selected dignitaries in a 30-minute ceremony at the temple. The country’s biggest opposition party, the Congress, is skipping the event.

“Using religion in politics is what people are concerned about,” Hasan said.

The temple is being built at the estimated cost of 11.8 billion Indian rupees ($142 million). “This will be the new Vatican for the Hindus,” said Vijay Mishra, an astrologer and priest who shuttles between Ayodhya and Lucknow.

But it is only the centrepiece of a broader revival and enlargement of the city of Ayodhya, where Modi inaugurated a new airport and railway station in December. The city is increasingly extending into the neighbouring city of Faizabad, which is named after a Muslim courtier.

Also, next to Ayodhya is Dhannipur village, where India’s Supreme Court, in a 2019 judgement, asked the government to give land to the Muslim community to build a mosque. It was the same judgement that awarded 2.7 acres (1 hectare) of disputed land to a trust to build the Ram temple where the Babri Masjid mosque once stood.

Athar Hussain, who is a coordinator of the trust tasked with building a mosque in Dhannipur, said that “our plan is to build a hospital and mosque”.

“We may not have the funds yet but we will eventually collect them,” he said. Hussain, who is unrelated to Yumna and her father, conceded that the Supreme Court verdict, and the subsequent, rapid construction of the Ram temple, had left many Muslims despondent. But, he added, “There is not much we can do about it.”

That sense of resignation extends to many Muslims and some, like Yumna, also hold the community’s leaders responsible.

“We had reconciled to the construction of a Hindu temple in Ayodhya but the Muslim leadership began to raise hopes that a secular Constitution will look after the interests of the minorities and return the disputed land,” she said.

Expectations peaked, she said, when, in 2018, the Supreme Court attempted arbitration between representatives of the communities. Those efforts failed.

Still, Hussain, the coordinator of the Dhannipur mosque project, continues to hope that India’s judiciary will not allow a repeat of Ayodhya’s example in Mathura and Varanasi.

Last week, the Supreme Court put on hold a High Court judgement ordering a study of the 17th-century Shahi Idgah Mosque in Mathura to see if it was built over the remains of a temple.

“We hope it will remain that way,” Hussain said.
Switzerland and India Reach Deal on Free Trade Agreement (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [1/21/2024 3:29 AM, Jeff Black, 5543K, Positive]
Switzerland and India have reached consensus on a free-trade agreement after 16 years of negotiations, Swiss Economy Minister Guy Parmelin said.

Parmelin traveled to India directly after the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, to meet with counterpart Piyush Goyal, according to a post by the Swiss minister on the platform X, formerly Twitter, late Saturday. The outline of a deal was agreed, and officials are working to finalize the details, he said.

The agreement “will create jobs for the young population of India, and secure employment in Switzerland,” Parmelin said in an interview with the Swiss newspaper Sonntagszeitung.
How a Judge in India Prevented Americans From Seeing a Blockbuster Report (Politico)
Politico [1/19/2024 5:00 AM, Michael Schaffer, 2.1M, Neutral]
Two months ago, the news agency Reuters published an eye-opening cybersecurity investigation bylined by Washington-based reporters and full of news of interest to Americans. But Americans aren’t allowed to read the story anymore — by order of a court in India.

It’s a disturbing turn of events that couldn’t have happened in the pre-internet era, when publishing — and censorship — were largely local affairs.

But what’s going on is not just a tale of a foreign power interfering with the ability of Americans to browse the web as we please. The campaign against the Reuters report has also enlisted some heavy-duty Beltway players.

To back up a bit: On Nov. 16, the wire service published “How an Indian Startup Hacked the World,” an investigation based on hundreds of interviews, thousands of pages of documents and research from multiple cybersecurity firms. The report detailed how a company called Appin allegedly turned itself into a mercenary hacking outfit, targeting political activists, military officials and businesspeople on behalf of shadowy clients from around the world.

Appin and its co-founder, Rajat Khare, strongly denied the allegations. He told Reuters through an attorney that he was in the business of defending against cyberattacks, not perpetuating them.

Nonetheless, the report landed with a splash. It was quickly aggregated in outlets like Lawfare and Wired and passed around on social media.

You didn’t have to be a cybersecurity geek to want to click. The story was full of wild accounts of alleged hacks involving a Dominican newspaper, a Russian oligarch and an Israeli private eye. For Washington types, there were also allegations of hacks against U.S. victims including a Rwandan exile; security executive Kristi Rogers, who is married to former Michigan GOP Rep. and current Senate candidate Mike Rogers; and the leadership of a Native American tribe amidst a lucrative real estate dispute.

And then, last month, the whole thing abruptly vanished from Reuters’ website — and from many of the outlets that had linked to it.

Online, the roughly 6,000-word report was replaced with a terse statement announcing that the article had been “temporarily removed” in order “to comply with a preliminary court order issued on Dec. 4, 2023, in a district court in New Delhi, India.” The four-paragraph editor’s note said that “Reuters stands by its reporting and plans to appeal the decision.”

While the process plays out, though, the original story is offline — not just in India, but around the world.

“Reuters complied with the preliminary court order, which required only that we temporarily remove the story from the Reuters.com website, but not from other platforms,” a Reuters spokesperson told me.

The sweeping order comes as a result of legal action by a group purporting to represent Appin’s digital training centers — who say their students’ reputations are damaged by Reuters’ allegedly false reporting. Last month, Additional District Judge Rakesh Kumar Singh ruled that the story should be suppressed pending trial.

“I am of the opinion that even if the defendants for some period do not retain the article on the website, and on that account they suffer any market value, they can be ultimately compensated by money from the plaintiff, but the retention of such material on the website, if allowed… may have devastating effect on the general students population of India,” Singh wrote.

In India — or any other country — the act of blocking foreign reporting was once simple: Impound some magazines at the airport and call it a day. Local civil libertarians might be infuriated, but the confiscation wouldn’t hamper readers beyond the national border.

Now, though, publishing is global, and keeping things published online is an ongoing choice. Instead of banning disfavored pieces of newsprint in one particular country, judges are apt to demand that things be removed from global websites. A vast organization like Reuters, with major interests in India that could be sanctioned, not to mention local employees who could get in legal trouble, doesn’t have the luxury of blowing off the judge.

“If you are the Iowa Daily Beagle, and you publish a story that upsets some company in India, that company can go to an Indian court and get whatever injunction they want,” said Charles Glasser, who spent 12 years as the global media counsel for Bloomberg News and is the author of a book on international libel law. “But if the Iowa Daily Beagle has no assets in India and does no business in India, they can’t do much. It becomes more of an issue for international publishers, like Reuters. They certainly have resources there, and they are subject to the jurisdiction of the Indian court.”

Of course, Glasser notes, publishers have the ability to geofence content, making it so that an American reader can access a certain page while an Indian reader cannot. But that can backfire. Particularly in a country with historic reasons to be prickly about Western condescension, a judge is likely to take it as a sign of disrespect if an order is ignored beyond the border — not a good move if you are facing trial.

The upshot: Readers in America, where prior restraint is forbidden and where courts won’t enforce foreign rulings that violate the First Amendment, are blocked from reading a story based on a legal complaint that would be tossed out of most American courts.

That’s not the only way the case is resonating in the U.S.

Readers looking to find the gist of the story elsewhere might also have trouble. Wired removed it from a weekly roundup of cybersecurity news, appending a note to say the move was temporary and came as a result of Reuters having taken it down. Lawfare, the influential national security site published in cooperation with the Brookings Institution, also unpublished its excerpts from the piece, replacing block quotes with words made up entirely of the letter “X.”

It wasn’t just the result of one New Delhi court. Several of the U.S. platforms who later removed content became aware of the disputed allegations not because they were following Indian legal news, but after hearing from Khare’s American firm, Clare Locke. The prominent libel-law outfit is based in the Washington suburbs and well-known for representing clients like former GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin in her case against The New York Times. The firm has represented Khare, including going back and forth with Reuters prior to publication.

“Mr. Khare does not comment on legal proceedings, but he defends himself judicially in all relevant jurisdictions against any attacks that target him and illegitimately damage his reputation,” Clare Locke partner Joe Oliveri said in a statement. “Mr. Khare has dedicated much of his career to the field of information technology security — that is, cyber-defense and the prevention of illicit hacking — and it is truly unfortunate that he has found himself the subject of false accusations of involvement in a ‘hack-for hire’ industry or supporting or engaging in illicit hacking or cyberactivities. Those accusations are categorically false. They have been rejected by courts and regulatory bodies and debunked by experts. And Mr. Khare will not hesitate to continue to take steps to enforce his rights and protect his reputation from such false attacks.”

That kind of language — combined with the knowledge that Khare has taken action against hack-for-hire allegations in the U.K., Switzerland and elsewhere — is pretty daunting, especially after Reuters pulled down its story.

“My judgment was it would be imprudent for us to continue to quote from and link to a Reuters article that they weren’t standing by,” Lawfare editor Benjamin Wittes told me. “But I didn’t want to disappear the article because I had no way to assess the integrity of the Reuters reporting.”

By last week, the original version of the story was even gone from the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, which maintains archived versions of millions of web pages going back to the beginning of the Internet.

“In late December, we received a take-down request from the lawyers of Mr. Rajat Khare addressing the preliminary order from an Indian District Court for the disputed Reuters article to be taken down and de-indexed by Google,” Mark Graham, the director of the Wayback Machine, said by email. “We were faced with the decision of either keeping the article available and risking having legal action taken against us, and incurring a costly defense in an unfamiliar venue, or disabling the material and staying abreast of the case and whether the defamation claim ultimately prevails. To most responsibly manage the resources of the Internet Archive, we opted for the latter choice.” (Archived versions of the original Wired and Lawfare items remain on the Wayback Machine.)

Not everyone has taken down their references to the piece. University of Toronto Professor Ronald Deibert, whose Citizen Lab has done its own reports about hacking as part of its work promoting human rights and an open internet, said he disregarded a take-down request about one of his blog posts that touched on the subject.

“I believe strongly in academic freedom and freedom of speech,” Deibert said last week. “This is clearly an attempt to silence credible, evidence-based investigative journalism that makes people uncomfortable, and there’s no way that I would cooperate with such a request.”

In fact, the disappearance of the story has turned it into a cause celebre in certain circles. It’s a transnational example of the Streisand effect, in which the singer’s legal action against a media outlet wound up generating much more publicity than the objectionable item would otherwise get. Last week, the text of the original Reuters report was back online — without formal permission — at the leak-archiving site Distributed Denial of Secrets, which launched a new initiative devoted to posting censored stories. The site described the text as “fair use” and said publishing it comports with the “mission of ensuring the free transmission of data in the public interest” and serving as a “publisher of last resort.”

That may make it the only publisher the story has for a while. The legal wrangling in India actually dates back to a year before Reuters ever published the now-vanished story, following the same reporting team’s previous investigation of the global hacking industry more broadly. And the case is moving glacially.

In the meantime, cases like this are likely to become more common. Within the U.S., “forum shopping” in lawsuits — that is, looking for a jurisdiction where you think you’ll get a better result — is common enough. In a globalized news environment, though, it can be especially tempting, at least for those who have the money. If you legitimately think you’ve been libeled, you’re presumably interested in protecting your good name everywhere. And if you’re just trying to use defamation as an excuse to shut someone up, why bring a case in a court that’s subject to the First Amendment when you can bring one somewhere else?

In their own filings back in New Delhi, for instance, Reuters’ lawyers cast doubt on whether the training centers association even had standing to sue, saying “the Plaintiff has not proved that such a community, in fact, exists.” Though the initial complaint had described it as a group “established to render aid to student, ex-students, employee, ex-employee of technical educational institutions and training institutions,” this rebuttal effectively served to raise the question of whether the organization was ginned up in order to sue in a more friendly court than might be found in the U.S., say, or Switzerland, where Khare is based. The plaintiffs’ Indian attorneys did not respond to a request for comment.

India also makes for an interesting case study. It is not a dictatorship or a banana republic. It’s a democracy with an independent judiciary — albeit one in the long list of democracies where norms have eroded. Its standing on Reporters Without Borders’ annual global press freedom ranking has fallen from number 80 in 2002, the year the list was first published, to number 161 last year. (Don’t act too smug, fellow Americans: The U.S. fell from number 17 to number 45 in the same period.)

In authoritarian countries, governments often use security laws rather than defamation allegations to crack down on unwelcome journalism, accusing reporters of being spies. But for the rich and well-connected elsewhere, weaponizing libel laws that reach across borders can be even more useful.

I suspect that there will be limits to how effective this sort of lawsuit can be. The many Americans who tell pollsters they despise the news media — and even the media-baiting politicians like Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis who want to reconsider the landmark Supreme Court free-speech case New York Times vs Sullivan — might be uncomfortable at the idea of foreign judges deciding what Americans can read.

For a nationalist, it’s not a good look.

Deibert, of Citizen Lab, told me it’s not a good idea to think of the Reuters case simply as a matter of a foreign court system versus a domestic one. He sees the whole thing as part of a global tilt towards the powerful and against anyone who might make them squirm — a tilt that’s aided by people close to home as well as folks far away.

“The way I look at it, it’s less about how an Indian court rules on this than the underlying ecosystem that gives rise to this bullying tactic,” Deibert said. “We’ve had people try to silence us using threats of defamation, and I think it’s something civil society has to prepare for. There are deep-pocketed people out there, and, unfortunately, law firms, often based in liberal democratic countries, who will help them.”
NSB
IMF Says Sri Lanka Made Good Progress on Debt Sustainability (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [1/19/2024 5:22 AM, Anusha Ondaatjie, 5543K, Neutral]
Sri Lanka has made “commendable progress” in putting debt onto a sustainable path, the International Monetary Fund said, as the nation looks to finalize debt deals with creditors.

Swift completion of final agreements with Sri Lanka’s official creditors, and reaching a resolution with external private creditors remain critical, the IMF said in a statement at the conclusion of a staff visit to the country.

The nation’s reform program is yielding the first signs of recovery, the lender said, calling on authorities to stay the course to ensure more broad-based and stable economic growth.

Other details from the statement:

Progress in meeting key commitments under the IMF-supported program will be formally assessed at a second review of Extended Fund Facility, alongside the 2024 Article IV consultation

Authorities need to urgently finalize amendments to the Banking Act, in line with IMF program commitments and to safeguard the stability of the financial sector. Sri Lanka must also implement its bank recapitalization plan and strengthen financial supervision and crisis management framework

Future monetary policy decisions should remain prudent with a focus on keeping inflation expectations well anchored

It’s important to continue rebuilding external buffers

Swift progress toward the introduction of a progressive property tax is key to ensuring fair burden sharing while sustaining the revenue-based consolidation
Crisis-ridden Sri Lanka’s economic reforms are yielding results, but challenges remain, IMF says (AP)
AP [1/19/2024 7:50 AM, Bharatha Mallawarachi, 22K, Neutral]
Debt-stricken Sri Lanka’s economic reform program is yielding the first signs of recovery, but the improvements still need to translate into improved living conditions for its people, the International Monetary Fund said Friday.

Sri Lanka has been struggling with an economic crisis since declaring bankruptcy in April 2022 with more than $83 billion in debt, more than half of it to foreign creditors.

The crisis caused severe shortages of food, fuel and other necessities. Strident public protests led to the ouster of then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. The IMF agreed last March to a $2.9 billion bailout package, and released the first payment shortly thereafter and the second tranche last month.

The IMF said Sri Lanka’s real GDP grew by 1.6% in the third quarter of 2023, the first expansion in six consecutive quarters. Shortages of essentials have eased, inflation remains contained and the country’s external reserves increased by $2.5 billion in 2023, it said.

“The economic reform program implemented by the Sri Lankan authorities is yielding the first signs of recovery,” said Pete Breuer, the IMF’s senior mission chief for Sri Lanka.

Breuer led a team of IMF officials who visited Sri Lanka and met with officials to discuss progress in implementing the economic and financial policies under the bailout package.

“However, challenges remain as these improvements need to translate into improved living conditions for Sri Lanka’s people,” Breuer told reporters at the end of his visit. “Sustaining the reform momentum and ensuring timely implementation of all program commitments are critical to rebuilding confidence and putting the recovery on a firm footing that will benefit all people.”

He stressed that tax policy measures need to be accompanied by strengthened tax administration, the removal of exemptions and reduction of tax evasion to make the reforms more sustainable and build confidence among creditors to support Sri Lanka’s efforts to regain debt sustainability.

Sri Lanka is hoping to restructure $17 billion of its outstanding debt and has already reached agreements with some of its external creditors.

Severe shortages of food, fuel and medicine have largely abated over the past year and authorities have restored power supply. But public dissatisfaction has grown over the government’s effort to increase revenue by raising electricity bills and imposing heavy new income taxes on professionals and businesses.

Early this month, the government raised the value added tax and extended it to cover essentials such as fuel, cellphones, cooking gas and medicines.
Sri Lanka has arrested tens of thousands in drug raids criticized by UN human rights body (AP)
AP [1/19/2024 5:59 AM, Jayampathi Palipane, 22K, Neutral]
Sri Lankan authorities have arrested tens of thousands of people in a monthlong crackdown on drugs, and vowed to continue despite U.N. criticism of possible human rights violations during the “heavy-handed” operation.

Since the operation began in December, heavily armed police and military personnel with sniffer dogs have made regular nighttimes raids on homes and search buses, seizing narcotics and arresting suspects who include drug users, local dealers and distributors, and people with records of drug-related arrests.

Acting police chief Deshabandu Tennakoon told The Associated Press on Thursday that more than 40,000 people have arrested and questioned during operations conducted jointly by the police and security forces, and 5,000 were ordered detained by the courts.

The country of 21 million has long been known as a hub for drug trafficking, but authorities have stepped up action against narcotics amid complaints that more schoolchildren are using drugs that drug-related crimes are on the rise.

Tennakoon said 65% of Sri Lanka’s narcotics distribution network has been dismantled over the past month and police hope to eliminate it fully by the end of this month.

He added that intelligence operations are being conducted to identify people who import drugs into the country and those who may be planning to start dealing drugs.

The U.N. human rights council expressed concern last week over reports of unauthorized searches, arbitrary arrests, torture and even strip searches in public during the operations, code-named “yukthiya,” or justice.

“While drug use presents a serious challenge to society, a heavy-handed law enforcement approach is not the solution. Abuse of drugs and the factors that lead to it are first and foremost public health and social issues,” the U.N. body said.

But Public Security Minister Tiran Alles insisted that the searches will continue, saying the human rights body should identify specific instances of abuse.

“We will not stop this operation. We will go ahead and and we will do it the same way because we know that we are doing something good for the children of this country, for the women of this county and that is why the general public is whole-heartedly with us in these operations,” Alles said.

Tennakoon said police have been ordered follow the law, and any violations can be reported to the police commission.

Shakya Nanayakkara, head of the National Dangerous Drugs Control Board said there are about 100,000 known heroin addicts in Sri Lanka, and another 50,000 people are known to be addicted to methamphetamines.
Central Asia
Kazakh Lawmakers Approve Presidential Initiative To Send Peacekeeping Troops To Middle East, Africa (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [1/19/2024 10:05 AM, Staff, 223K, Positive]
Both of the Kazakh parliament’s chambers, the Mazhilis and the Senate, approved on January 19 a presidential proposal to send 430 Kazakh peacekeepers to the Middle East and Africa. Defense Minister Ruslan Zhaqsylyqov said the troops will join the UN Disengagement Observer Force on the Golan Heights, the UN Truce Supervision Organization that monitors Middle East peace, the UN Mission in South Sudan, and the UN Interim Security Force for Abye in Sudan. Kazakhstan is the only country among former Soviet republics in Central Asia participating in international peacekeeping programs. Dozens of Kazakh soldiers assisted international peacekeepers in Iraq in 2003-08.
Kazakhstan: Farmers looking to break China’s import inhibitions (EurasiaNet)
EurasiaNet [1/19/2024 4:14 PM, Staff, 57.6K, Neutral]
Agricultural exports from Kazakhstan to China are picking up after a multi-year lull due to bureaucratic haggling.

The ElDala.kz outlet reported that agricultural products transported from Kazakhstan to China via rail in 2023 totaled 2.23 million tons, a marked increase from 2022’s 615,000 tons. Kazakhstan’s previous high for agro-exports to China was 1.2 million tons, set in 2019, the year before the covid pandemic hit. Exports in 2023 comprised mainly wheat, barley, soybeans, flax and sunflower seeds.

The expansion of rail infrastructure was a contributing factor to the export increase. Despite 2023’s robust growth, Kazakhstan still occupies a small share of the Chinese agricultural import market. For example, in 2023, out of 12 million tons of wheat imported by China, only 400,000 tons came from Kazakhstan.

Although bilateral agro-trade is rising, there are still problems at the border. The main bottleneck is the slow pace of cargo processing in China, according to a ElDala.kz report. In early January, rail workers in Kazakhstan halted trains headed for the Dostyk border crossing, due to a massive backlog of unloading in China. “The reason for the situation was administrative issues on the part of the PRC [China],” the ElDala.kz report stated, adding that Kazakh government officials were engaging their Chinese counterparts in discussions to resolve “procedural formalities.”

Prospects for continued growth in 2024 appear to be strong. Chinese specialists reportedly conducted inspections in late December of Kazakh agro facilities, including slaughterhouses and other enterprises, according to the Kazakh Agriculture Ministry. The inspection’s results could pave the way for an increase in meat exports, which China previously suspended, citing the failure of suppliers to meet Chinese sanitary standards.

In what could be a breakthrough agreement, Kazakh farmers will reportedly supply livestock to a new meat packing plant scheduled to open in Alashankou in the Xinjiang Region, near the Kazakh border, according to a report distributed by the APK news agency. The arrangement has not been officially confirmed. Neither has there been any official Chinese announcement about a lifting of the Kazakh meat import ban.
Kyrgyzstan’s Vibrant Media Space In Peril After Journalists Raided, Jailed (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [1/20/2024 12:18 PM, Chris Rickleton, 235K, Negative]
Nearly two years ago, police in Kyrgyzstan raided the offices of a media group famed for its investigations into political corruption, slapping narcotics charges on its leader.

As images of Temirov Live founder Bolot Temirov being manhandled by officers in SWAT gear were shared online on January 22, 2022, many predicted the start of an extended crackdown on independent media by the administration of President Sadyr Japarov.

That crackdown reached an alarming crescendo this week as nearly a dozen current and former staff of Temirov Live were arrested on suspicion of trying to foment unrest in the country, while one of the country’s most popular news websites, 24.kg, was targeted in a separate raid.

For so long Central Asia’s standout country for independent journalism, intrepid reporting, and media innovation, Kyrgyzstan fell fully 50 places in global media monitor Reporter Without Borders’s most recent global ranking, sitting at 122nd place -- only 12 spots above its longtime authoritarian neighbor, Kazakhstan.

That plunge was in large part due to the authorities’ decision to put severe restrictions on RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service -- including freezing its bank accounts -- in October 2022.

Local access to the website of Azattyk, as the service is known in Kyrgyzstan, was restored earlier this year, only for another well-respected outlet, Kloop, to come face-to-face with a similar block and potential liquidation.

And now, looming on the horizon, is the threat posed by a new law that experts say could spell the end of independent media in its current format.

But first to the darkest week for the profession in more than three decades of Kyrgyz independence.

‘Misleading Society’

While Temirov was born in Kyrgyzstan and had spent most of his working life there, he no longer lives in the country.

His arrest came right after Temirov Live released an investigation into alleged corruption in the fuel business, which featured a relative of State National Security Committee (UKMK) Chairman Kamchybek Tashiev.

The narcotics charges pressed by authorities in 2022 caused a public outcry, and he was subsequently acquitted by a court. But in November of that year, another Bishkek court found him guilty of forging his Kyrgyz passport, and Temirov was bizarrely deported to Russia, where he also held citizenship.

He is since understood to have left Russia but remains unable to return to his homeland.

Yet even after his deportation, the outlet has continued its investigations and political discussions, earning millions of views across three YouTube channels that broadcast in Russian and Kyrgyz.

Kyrgyz authorities rarely come across positively in that content.

One investigation released in December targeted Interior Minister Ulan Niyazbekov, highlighting properties owned by the minister and his relatives and Niyazbekov’s apparent ties to organized crime. It also featured detailed testimony from a businessman who said Niyazbekov had extorted him.

Two months before that investigation, the group indicated that a charity led by Japarov’s wife received funding from foreign sources, even as authorities promote a Russian-style draft law that would allow them to register organizations receiving financing from abroad or foreign nationals as "foreign representatives."

In an interview with RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service on December 14, Temirov said that police were watching his team "day and night" since the investigation’s release.

The subject for the charges on which 11 current and former Temirov Live staff have been arrested is a video published on YouTube last year by Ait, Ait Dese (Come On, Say It), a Temirov Live spinoff project.

According to the Interior Ministry, linguistic experts found evidence of calls for mass unrest in the broadcast. The ministry has yet to provide a more detailed explanation.

A court ruled on January 17 to keep the detainees locked up for two months pending investigation of the charges.

Among them is Temirov’s wife, Makhabat Tajibek-kyzy, presenter Aike Beishekeeva, and three former Temirov Live journalists now working for other media outlets.

Speaking about the arrests for the first time this week in comments published by the state information agency Kabar on January 19, Japarov claimed his government supported freedom of speech and welcomed "good quality" media investigations.

"But in most cases, bloggers are busy distorting facts, making mountains out of molehills, or resorting to manipulation and misleading society," Japarov said.

Japarov also listed several media organizations that had received grants from organizations such as the U.S.-based National Endowment for Democracy, which he said sometimes amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"We understand these grants are allocated as part of projects on freedom of speech, support for the media community, development of independent journalism, and so on. But in reality it turns out that the funds are not used for their intended purpose. A policy is being pursued to discredit the authorities, denigrate public policy, agitate society, [make] anticonstitutional statements, and disseminate fake information that poses a threat to national security," the president claimed.

Angry Reactions

Temirov has said that the real reason for the arrests of his colleagues is their investigations of top officials.

There are likewise suspicions that the criminal case being built against 24.kg is merely a pretext to force it to tone down its reporting.

The agency’s general director, Asel Otorbaeva, and editors in chief Anton Lymar and Mahinur Niyazova were all taken away for interrogation after their office was raided on January 15, the day before the raids on former and current Temirov Live staff.

The three 24.kg journalists were released that evening.

The website is formally being investigated by the UKMK for "war propaganda" in relation to an unnamed article covering the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

24.kg’s leadership has called the accusation baseless.

The website has been blocked by Russia’s Roskomnadzor media regulator since September of last year.

24.kg does not do investigations of the Temirov Live type.

But it is known for its sometimes spiky headlines such as: Everybody Is Equal Under The Law. But The President’s Relatives Are More Equal. And for casting doubt on the statements of officials and lawmakers.

Niyazova’s sarcastic and government-critical posts on X, formerly Twitter, have turned her into something of a hate figure for pro-government trolls, meanwhile.

In a January 16 statement, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) raised alarm that Kyrgyz authorities were "renewing their assault on key independent media" through the raids and arrests.

The watchdog’s Eurasia chief, Gulnoza Said, called the authorities’ confiscation of equipment from the offices of 24.kg and Temirov Live "deeply concerning," noting that confidential sources could be at risk.

Diplomatic "statements of concern" followed from the embassies of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union’s delegation in the country.

Unfortunately, it appears that there will be plenty of fodder for such statements in the coming period.

At present, there are few critical media outlets without problems.

Kloop, which has investigated illegal enrichment schemes involving some of Kyrgyzstan’s powerful people in the past, currently faces a legal battle to prevent the liquidation of its parent organization, Kloop Media.

Two other independent outlets, Kaktus and Politklinika, were as of last year tied up in civil cases initiated by pro-government and government-owned media.

But the biggest blow of all might be struck by the country’s parliament, the pro-regime Jogorku Kenesh, where only a handful of lawmakers spoke out against the authorities’ actions against Temirov Live and 24.kg.

That is because the legislature is due to consider a media law that sector experts have warned could do untold damage to Kyrgyz journalism.

In yet another condemnation of the crackdown, seven international human rights groups -- among them Human Rights Watch and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee -- called the draft law "repressive" and urged the parliament not to pass it in its current form.

"The draft law would significantly expand government control over the media and grant the authorities wide powers to deny media outlets registration, obstruct their work, and close them down," the rights groups said on January 16.
Creeping Death: Uzbek Capital’s Extremely Poor Air Quality Worries Residents (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [1/21/2024 8:35 AM, Farangis Najibullah, 223K, Neutral]
The air in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, is among the most polluted on Earth, with residents and authorities blaming the poor quality on the extensive use of coal, the large number of vehicles, and a declining number of trees.

In the early evening of January 19, the level of the particle pollution (PM2.5) in the Uzbek capital was 15.8 times higher than the World Health Organization’s recommended safe limit of 5 micrograms per cubic meter. These tiny particles that get into the lungs are linked to several lung and heart ailments.

According to the Swiss-based IQAir, which monitors air quality around the world, Tashkent scored a 163 on the air-quality index on January 19, a level considered "unhealthy."

The most recent data by the World Bank shows that exposure to PM2.5 air pollution caused 89 deaths per 100,000 people in Uzbekistan in 2019, the highest in Central Asia. By comparison, the death toll in Kyrgyzstan was 61 people, 63 in Kazakhstan, 70 in Turkmenistan, and 78 in Tajikistan, according to the World Bank.

Uzbekistan continues to rely heavily on coal-fueled power plants, even increasing the use of coal in the past year to save inadequate natural gas supplies. Last winter, the government said it planned to use coal to heat 2,229 kindergartens, 2,432 schools and other education institutions, and 746 medical facilities in an attempt to help save gas.

Experts warn that this puts the health of millions of people at risk as air pollution from coal emissions produces substances linked to asthma, cancer, heart problems, and other illnesses.

Uzbekistan’s Environment Ministry says vehicles that use low-quality fuel are also among the major pollutants in the densely populated city of more than 2.6 million.

An estimated 730,000 vehicles are in use each day in Tashkent, according to official estimates. In addition, tens of thousands of vehicles enter the capital from outside provinces every day.

The number of vehicles in the country has increased from 3.14 million in 2021 to 4.6 million in 2023. Many of them use a low-grade gasoline, A-80, that contains a high concentration of harmful components that pollute the air.

Vehicle pollutants counted for 60 percent of the 1.3 million tons of hazardous chemicals emitted into the atmosphere in Uzbekistan in the first nine months of 2022, according to government statistics.

Measures To Improve Air Quality

To help tackle the problem, the Environment Ministry called for a ban on the use of coal for industrial purposes in the Tashkent area.

The ministry also urged the government to ban low-quality fuel and all old cars made before 2010 -- while increasing government subsidies to promote electric vehicles.

Uzbekistan also toughened the punishment for illegally cutting down trees and vegetation, introducing heavy fines and up to two weeks of administrative detention to stop individuals and firms from the practice. A new law adopted by parliament in November orders up to $8,250 in fines.

It came after the Environment Ministry said law-enforcement agencies recorded more than 2,000 cases of the illegal removal of trees in the first half of 2023.

The government says it has launched a nationwide campaign to plant 200 million trees and shrubs to increase the amount of green in the city and help produce clean air.

But many Tashkent residents and activists say authorities have failed to deliver on past promises to improve air quality.

Journalist Nikita Makarenko recalled that officials pledged to reduce the number of cars on the road by making public transport an attractive option in the city and to raise the cost of owning a car.

"Where are the pledged measures to reduce the [number of] cars?" Makarenko wrote on Telegram. "A million options have been offered. Where are the paid parking lots, where are the measures to raise the price of owning a car? Where is [the improved] public transport?"

He posted a photo of Tashkent at night showing huge plumes of smoke billowing out of an industrial chimney.

"I don’t get it: Why can’t our politicians and oligarchs realize that they, too, are facing a slow death along with the rest of us? Air [pollution] affects everybody equally," the blogger added.
Twitter
Afghanistan
Bilal Sarwary
@bsarwary
[1/19/2024 4:38 AM, 250.6K followers, 31 retweets, 53 likes]
Taliban’s increased promotion of Madrassahs in Arg ( the Afghan presidential palace ) at the expense of modern education. Female education has now surely taken a back seat. Full scale Madrassah-ization of Afghanistan under the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

Bilal Sarwary
@bsarwary
[1/21/2024 8:35 AM, 250.6K followers, 168 retweets, 232 likes]
Significant improvements in relations between Taliban and Prime minister Modi’s government at every level. This time, the Indian Ambassador in the UAE extended an invitation to the Taliban’s envoy “Excellency Badrudin Haqqani” and his spouse for the Republic Day’s celebrations in a week time.This is a significant shift, bringing India and the Taliban closer than anticipated. Under PM Modi’s leadership, India has forged ties with Taliban leaders not only in Kabul but also in key regional capitals. The departure of Afghan diplomats and the closure of the Republic’s embassy in New Delhi a few months ago echo the closing chapters of an era and confirms the fact that they are forced to leave India. India’s shift in forming new alliances and forsaking moral values and old friendships for the hardline Taliban, will certainly not easily fade away from memory or find a suitable match in the region.

Nilofar Ayoubi
@NilofarAyoubi
[1/21/2024 10:26 AM, 62.8K followers, 48 retweets, 144 likes]
Afghan women are taking a stand against the recent unjust detentions of women and girls by Taliban.

Nilofar Ayoubi
@NilofarAyoubi
[1/21/2024 1:31 AM, 62.8K followers, 26 retweets, 103 likes]
#BreakingNews An Indian commercial plane en route to Moscow has reportedly crashed in the Wakhan region of Badakhshan. The head of information and culture for the Taliban in Badakhshan has confirmed the incident, stating that the passenger plane went down in the Topkhaneh Mountain area, specifically in the districts of Karan, Manjan, and Zibak. At this time, there is no official information available regarding the number of casualties or the cause of the crash. Source : @AmuTelevision
Pakistan
Imran Khan
@ImranKhanPTI
[1/21/2024 12:00 PM, 20.3M followers, 19K retweets, 40K likes]
Former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s message at the #InternationalVirtualConvention (AI generated voice). https://twitter.com/i/status/1749114698484600894

BilawalBhuttoZardari
@BBhuttoZardari
[1/21/2024 8:13 AM, 5.1M followers, 8.7K retweets, 9.7K likes]
Thank you Lahore! It is time to put an end to the politics of revenge, division, and hate. It is time to choose a new way of politics. Choose ending wasteful government spending on defunct ministeries. Choose to redirect untargeted subsidies for the elite to targeted interventions for the poor, the marginalised, the dispossessed. Choose 30 lakh new homes with ownership given to women heads of households. Choose regularising Katchi Abadis. Choose 300 units of free electricity. Choose free healthcare and schooling. Choose prosperity for farmers, laborers, women, and the youth. On 8th February vote for the ‘teer’ and choose a better tomorrow.

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[1/20/2024 1:28 PM, 205.5K followers, 2.5K retweets, 6.1K likes]
Another PTI online event, another Internet blockage. Hard to build a Digital Pakistan when you constantly crack down on it (it’s happened for years). Bangladesh and India do this too, but their economies are stronger & more resilient. Hurts Pakistan’s economic prospects the most.

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[1/19/2024 2:04 PM, 205.5K followers, 137 retweets, 866 likes]
It appears the Iran-Pakistan crisis has been defused. Iran comes out of it looking not very good-a unilateral strike on a neighbor that responds swiftly and decisively. It doesn’t leave Iran less vulnerable to cross-border terrorism, and it damages relations with a key neighbor.

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[1/19/2024 2:04 PM, 205.5K followers, 13 retweets, 87 likes]
The root cause of the crisis remains: Each side harbors violent actors that target the other. But for Iran to try to address that w/ a strike on its nuclear-armed neighbor, at a moment when widening instability in ME is already imperiling Iran’s security interests=reckless move.

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[1/19/2024 2:06 PM, 205.5K followers, 12 retweets, 81 likes]
It appears that Iran targeted Jaish-al-Adl in Pakistan because it claims it was linked to the IS-K-claimed attack in Iran on January 3. Is that sufficient cause to carry out its strike in Pakistan, with the damaging consequences to its interests that followed? Doesn’t seem so.

Madiha Afzal
@MadihaAfzal
[1/20/2024 1:37 PM, 41.7K followers, 34 retweets, 140 likes]
Will the Pakistani political class and public ask questions about the children and women — its own citizens — killed in Pakistan’s retaliatory strikes targeting Baloch militants in Iran? Probably not, sadly.

Madiha Afzal
@MadihaAfzal
[1/20/2024 1:34 PM, 41.7K followers, 2 retweets, 14 likes]
I told Vox: Iran’s strikes on Pakistan “united an otherwise politically polarized country in anger” and Pakistan’s response, which “also provided an off-ramp for de-escalation, seems to have satisfied the Pakistani political class and public.” https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2024/1/19/24044479/iran-pakistan-strikes-gaza-israel

Madiha Afzal
@MadihaAfzal
[1/21/2024 4:14 PM, 41.7K followers, 4 retweets, 9 likes]
I told the NYTimes: Pakistan’s retaliatory strikes and the diplomatic statement afterward “tried to thread the needle of deterring future action by Iran while also pointing to an off-ramp for de-escalation.” https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/19/world/asia/pakistan-iran.html
India
Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[1/21/2024 3:38 AM, 94.7M followers, 16K retweets, 118K likes]
Had the opportunity to be at Arichal Munai, which holds a special significance in Prabhu Shri Ram’s life. It is the starting point of the Ram Setu.

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[1/21/2024 1:07 AM, 94.7M followers, 3.8K retweets, 14K likes]
Sharing my remarks at foundation stone laying ceremony of Khodaldham Trust Cancer Hospital in Gujarat.

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[1/20/2024 8:26 AM, 94.7M followers, 25K retweets, 101K likes]
Whenever I come to Tamil Nadu, the warmth and affection of the people leaves me spellbound. Here are some priceless moments from Srirangam…

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[1/20/2024 8:20 AM, 94.7M followers, 14K retweets, 96K likes]
Prayed at the Arulmigu Ramanathaswamy Temple for the good health and well-being of 140 crore Indians.

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[1/20/2024 8:18 AM, 94.7M followers, 9.4K retweets, 56K likes]
Honoured to have got the opportunity to pray at the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple. Prabhu Sri Ram’s connection with this Temple is long-standing. I feel blessed to have been blessed by the God whom Prabhu Sri Ram also worshipped.

Dr. S. Jaishankar
@DrSJaishankar
[1/22/2024 2:27 AM, 3M followers, 1K retweets, 6.3K likes]
At the Pran Pratishtha ceremony today, the soul of a civilisation finds expression once again. And the message of virtue, honour, justice and commitment reverberates around the world.

Dr. S. Jaishankar
@DrSJaishankar
[1/20/2024 10:48 AM, 3M followers, 431 retweets, 4.4K likes]
A pleasure as always to meet with @UN Secretary-General @antonioguterres. Discussed Agenda 2030, UN reforms, the West Asia situation, maritime security and the Ukraine conflict.

Dr. S. Jaishankar
@DrSJaishankar
[1/20/2024 8:53 AM, 3M followers, 435 retweets, 4.1K likes]
A useful conversation with Vice President of Iran Mohammad Mokhber today in Kampala. Spoke about our bilateral ties as well as recent regional developments. Agreed on further exchanges to take forward our agenda of cooperation.

Dr. S. Jaishankar
@DrSJaishankar
[1/20/2024 8:04 AM, 3M followers, 356 retweets, 3.5K likes]
So glad to meet with my new Bangladesh counterpart FM Dr. Mohammed Hasan Mahmud in Kampala today. Congratulated him on his appointment and wished him all success. India-Bangladesh relations are growing from strength to strength. Look forward to receiving him in Delhi soon.

Dr. S. Jaishankar
@DrSJaishankar
[1/19/2024 3:16 AM, 3M followers, 292 retweets, 2.5K likes]
Pleased to call on Sri Lankan President @RW_UNP on the sidelines of the NAM Summit in Kampala. Appreciate his continued guidance for the advancement of our bilateral initiatives. India’s commitment is reflected in our Neighbourhood First and SAGAR policy.

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[1/20/2024 10:44 AM, 205.5K followers, 16 retweets, 101 likes]
The story behind Ram Mandir, which Modi consecrates on Monday, is characteristic of his politics: deeply controversial, the fulfillment of a long-standing promise, and a savvy political move—for Modi and his largebase, that is. My latest @ForeignPolicy: https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/01/17/ram-mandir-temple-inauguration-modi-india-elections/?tpcc=recirc_latest062921
NSB
Awami League
@albd1971
[1/21/2024 11:52 AM, 635.2K followers, 45 retweets, 132 likes]
PM Sheikh Hasina today has re-appointed @sajeebwazed as her ICT adviser. Sajeeb Wazed played a pivotal role in planning and implementing the goal of establishing #DigitalBangladesh and will continue his work to realise the vision of a #SmartBangladesh. In contrast to the widespread speculation of the rumour-mongering opposition, he will continue his role without any salary. #Bangladesh

Awami League
@albd1971
[1/20/2024 10:05 AM, 635.2K followers, 36 retweets, 185 likes]
Foreign Minister, Dr Hasan Mahmud, MP has had a bilateral meeting with Dr S. Jaishankar, Minister of External Affairs of India, on the sidelines of the 19th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement. #BangladeshIndia @DrHasanMahmud62 @DrSJaishankar @BDMOFA @MEAIndia #NAMSummitUg2024

Awami League
@albd1971
[1/19/2024 12:57 PM, 635.2K followers, 60 retweets, 207 likes]
UN Sec-Gen @antonioguterres has congratulated PM #SheikhHasina on her re-election as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh for the fourth consecutive term. "The @UN deeply values its partnership with #Bangladesh, including its major contributions to @UNPeacekeeping, the generosity towards #Rohingya refugees and efforts towards the achievement of the @ConnectSDGs" he wrote in the letter. https://albd.org/articles/news/41270 #BangladeshPolls #Election2024 #7January

Moosa Zameer
@MoosaZameer
[1/21/2024 6:17 AM, 12.5K followers, 65 retweets, 100 likes]
Pleasure to accompany President Dr @MMuizzu during his meeting with Commander of the United States Indo-Pacific Command, Admiral John Aquilino today. It was encouraging to receive his assurance to support #Maldives in maintaining peace and security, as well as commitment to full assistance towards capacity building of @MNDF_Official. @INDOPACOM @USinMaldives

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maldives
@MoFAmv
[1/21/2024 7:04 AM, 53.3K followers, 29 retweets, 44 likes]
Vice Minister International Department, Communist Party of the People’s Republic of China arrives in Maldives on an official visit. Press Release | http://tinyurl.com/4pp4v758

PMO Nepal
@PM_nepal_
[1/20/2024 3:25 AM, 710.1K followers, 14 retweets, 91 likes]
Rt. Hon. Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ met today in Kampala H.E. Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe, President of Sri Lanka in the sidelines of NAM Summit. Discussions on issues of bilateral interests, including connectivity, tourism and regional cooperation were held.

PMO Nepal
@PM_nepal_
[1/19/2024 8:10 AM, 710.1K followers, 15 retweets, 98 likes]
Rt. Hon. Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ addressed the 19th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement today. Highlights of the statement:

PMO Nepal
@PM_nepal_
[1/19/2024 8:10 AM, 710.1K followers, 1 retweet, 1 like]
1.Principle of non-alignment constitutes one of the fundamental tenets of Nepal’s foreign policy. Nepal believes in the eternal truths of Peaceful Coexistence as taught by the icon of peace, Gautam Buddha.

PMO Nepal
@PM_nepal_
[1/19/2024 8:10 AM, 710.1K followers, 1 retweet, 1 like]
2.NAM has remained a beacon of hope for our dignity, pride, solidarity, and cooperation. We must strive to achieve shared affluence through stronger collaboration among ourselves.

PMO Nepal
@PM_nepal_
[1/19/2024 8:10 AM, 710.1K followers, 1 retweet, 1 like]
3.NAM must stress on the economic development and prosperity of its members through the timely achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and other Internationally Agreed Development Goals.

PMO Nepal
@PM_nepal_
[1/19/2024 8:10 AM, 710.1K followers, 1 retweet, 1 like]
4.NAM should play a greater role in reforming the United Nations. Our multilateral institutions should be inclusive, transparent, and democratic to ensure enduring peace and shared prosperity.

PMO Nepal
@PM_nepal_
[1/19/2024 8:10 AM, 710.1K followers, 1 retweet, 1 like]
5.NAM must take the lead to address common and contemporary challenges we are facing, and to establish a just, equitable, and prosperous world for security, stability, and prosperity.

PMO Nepal
@PM_nepal_
[1/19/2024 8:10 AM, 710.1K followers, 2 retweets, 1 like]
6.Nepal is close to concluding its unique, nationally owned, and home-grown peace process. We are determined to secure enduring peace through resolving transitional justice once and for all.

PMO Nepal
@PM_nepal_
[1/19/2024 8:10 AM, 710.1K followers, 2 retweets, 2 likes]
7.We have witnessed the disastrous impact of climate change on the Himalayas. Protecting the mountain ecosystem, mountain civilization, and biodiversity is in our shared interests. I call upon to support our call - the call of the Himalayas.
Central Asia
MFA Kyrgyzstan
@MFA_Kyrgyzstan
[1/19/2024 8:02 AM, 9.1K followers, 1 retweet]
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic Mr. Jeenbek Kulubaev had a telephone conversation with the OSCE Special Representative on Freedom of the Media Mrs. Teresa Ribeiro Details: https://goo.su/AXqQ

{End of Report}
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