SCA MORNING PRESS CLIPS

epubdos : Afghanistan

Prepared for the U.S. Department of State

Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs

By TechMIS
www.TechMIS.com

Mobile User Copy

TO:	SCA & Staff
DATE:	Tuesday, July 23, 2024 6:30 AM ET

Afghanistan

Taliban Intensifies Crackdown On Dissent In Afghanistan (Radio Free Europe)

Radio Free Europe [7/22/2024 9:54 AM, Firuza Azizi, 1530K, Negative]
The Taliban has detained a former politician, a journalist, and a filmmaker in recent days across Afghanistan, according to their relatives.

The detentions mark a sharp escalation of the extremist group’s crackdown on dissent, a violent campaign that has targeted reporters, activists, and political figures.

The latest target of the clampdown was Sayyed Rahim Saeedi, a television producer and filmmaker based in the capital, Kabul.

Relatives of Saeedi, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi that members of the General Directorate of Intelligence, the Taliban’s notorious intelligence agency, detained him and his son on July 20.

His son was freed on July 21, the relatives said.

It was not clear why they were detained. The filmmaker’s whereabouts remain unknown, and the Taliban has not commented on his detention.

Meanwhile, the Taliban detained Rohullah Rauf, the former head of the provincial council in the northeastern province of Takhar, a source close to him who spoke on condition of anonymity told Radio Azadi.

The source said Rauf was detained by the Taliban after returning home from Friday Prayers on July 19. It was unclear why he was detained, the source said.

Mowloda Tawana, an Afghan rights campaigner, said Rauf’s detention showed that the Taliban was not committed to the amnesty that it announced shortly after seizing power in 2021.

The blanket amnesty included all Afghan officials, security forces, and individuals who cooperated with the departed U.S.-led military presence in Afghanistan.

But international rights watchdogs and the United Nations have documented widespread cases of retribution -- including extrajudicial killings and torture.

Meanwhile, freelance journalist Mohammadyar Majrooh was detained by the Taliban in the southern city of Kandahar, according to his relatives.

Relatives of Majrooh said the reporter was detained on July 12. His whereabouts are unknown, they said.

Majrooh was previously detained in February 2023 while working on a report for the private Tolo News channel.

In a statement issued on July 17, the Afghanistan Journalists Center, a local media watchdog, demanded that Majrooh be released "without further delay and without conditions."

Hamid Obaidi, head of the Afghanistan Journalists Support Organization, another media watchdog, said the "illegal detentions and harassment of journalists violate the freedom of speech."

"We strongly condemn these detentions," Obaidi told Radio Azadi.

The Taliban’s intelligence agency did not respond to Radio Azadi’s requests for comment about the recent detentions.

Since its takeover in August 2021, the Taliban has detained and jailed scores of journalists, activists, and academics for publicly opposing its repressive policies.

Hundreds of Afghan journalists have fled their homeland because of intimidation or for fear of persecution. The Taliban has banned several international broadcasters and denied visas to foreign journalists.

As part of its assault on dissent, the militant group has also clamped down on political parties and local nongovernmental organizations. The Taliban banned all political groups and NGOs last year.

Pakistan

When Pakistan Tightened a Border, Thousands of Lives Were Upended (New York Times)

New York Times [7/23/2024 12:01 AM, Zia ur-Rehman and Christina Goldbaum, 831K, Neutral]
For most of Abdul Manan’s life, the border dividing Afghanistan and Pakistan was little more than a line on a map. Like generations of men before him, Mr. Manan, 55, commuted every day from his mud-brick home on the Pakistan side to the wheat field his family had cultivated for decades in Afghanistan. His four sons crossed the border with him, transporting electronics and groceries from markets on one side to homes on the other.

It was a journey shared by tens of thousands of residents in the Pakistani town of Chaman, the site of the last official border crossing where people could pass through using only their national identity card from Pakistan. Then, in October, the gates slammed shut.

Pakistani officials say the restrictions are a necessary security measure — though most of the travel originates on their side of the border — as the country has grappled with a resurgence of cross-border militant violence since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021.

For the first time since the border was drawn over a century ago, the Pakistani authorities are requiring residents to show a passport and visa before crossing — paperwork that virtually none of them have, they say.

The rules have upended their daily lives. Small traders say they have been effectively locked out of their shops, where their goods rot and bills for shuttered stores mount. Farmers have missed out on wheat harvests, leaving them unable to feed their families, they say. Porters, who once earned up to $3.50 a day by transporting goods like electrical items and groceries on their backs or on hand trolleys, have lost their only source of income.

In recent weeks, Chaman has erupted in violent protests as residents demand that the restrictions be lifted. “Everything has been taken from us. The land is now inaccessible,” Mr. Manan, 55, said. “We are starving.”

Mr. Manan is one of thousands who have gathered every morning since late October at a makeshift protest camp two miles from the border crossing. Throughout the day, the demonstration’s leaders shout speeches to the crowds, which roar with applause. They break only briefly for midday prayers before gathering again until sunset.

The tensions boiled over in mid-June, after security forces were called in to clear protesters who had blocked the main highway linking Chaman to Quetta, the provincial capital 75 miles away. The officers clashed with the protesters, leaving more than 40 people injured.

In the days that followed, the two sides tried to negotiate but government forces arrested protest leaders, generating accusations that the authorities had invited them for talks as a trap. Pakistani officials say that the arrests were necessary after attacks on paramilitary forces and attempts to seize government buildings.

Negotiations resumed last week and, on Sunday, the government released protest leaders in exchange for a temporary end to the daily protests at the border.

Negotiators also announced that the government would once again allow local tribesmen to cross the border with only a national identity card. But Pakistani officials have not issued an official statement on the issue and many observers are skeptical as to whether they will in fact restore the old system.

For generations, Pashtun tribes living along the rugged frontier traversed the area freely, their lives woven together by shared ancestry and culture, as well as economic dependence.

In 1893, British colonial officials established the Durand Line, a 1,600-mile border dividing Afghanistan and British India. Border tribes continued to cross freely, a tradition that persisted even after the creation of Pakistan in 1947. Extended families lived on either side of the line, crossing to dance at weddings or offer condolences at funerals.

“The only real sign that you had crossed into Afghanistan was the sudden switch in driving sides — from the left in Pakistan to the right in Afghanistan,” said Abdul Rauf, 42, a trader who runs his family’s plastic supply business across the border in Afghanistan.

Pakistani officials first introduced restrictions on the border crossing after the U.S. military invaded Afghanistan in 2001. American forces were concerned about the movements of Taliban fighters.

Two years later, the Pakistani authorities built the so-called Friendship Gate in Chaman, a large concrete gateway along the main highway connecting Chaman to Spin Boldak, the nearest town in Afghanistan.

As the years passed, the constraints tightened further. Border crossings were restricted to 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. Pakistanis from Chaman, in Balochistan Province, and Afghans living in Kandahar Province over the border were required to show their national identity cards to cross. Porters — an essential work force of around 15,000 people — needed special paperwork issued by Pakistan’s border security officials.

And in 2017, a larger border fence was constructed, limiting movement through the dozens of informal crossings along the border. People living close to the fence either relocated or obtained a security pass to travel from one side of their village to the other.

Pakistani officials said that the most recent border restrictions were necessary to prevent militants from the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or T.T.P., from infiltrating Pakistan from Afghan soil.

Since the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan three years ago, violence by the T.T.P. and other militant groups has surged in Pakistan, stoking tensions between the two countries. The Pakistani authorities have accused the Afghan Taliban of providing safe haven to Pakistani militants, a claim that Taliban officials deny.

“These measures aim to strengthen border management and prevent terrorists from entering the country from Afghanistan,” said Shahid Rind, a provincial government spokesman.

But tribes complain that the restrictions have also decimated their livelihoods and, if they remain in place, will forever reshape the fabric of communities.

Mr. Rauf, the trader, said he has not been able to visit his shops across the border for the past several months. “The plastic merchandise I stored outdoors is ruined, and the bills for closed shops — electricity, security — keep piling up,” said Mr. Rauf, who estimated losses exceeding $1,180.

Beyond trade, family ties that span the border have been strained, as people cannot visit graveyards, attend weddings and share in celebrations.

Activities that are “an obligation in Pashtun society” have become “impossible,” said Iftikhar Noorzai, 23, a porter. He said that he had not seen his two sisters, who are married to men in Kandahar, during two Eid festivals.

Even though the Pakistani government promises to help with passport applications, the greatest challenge for most Chaman residents is proving their Pakistani citizenship. The authorities require documents dating back to the 1970s, which many cannot provide.

Human rights groups have urged the government to find a way to balance national security needs and the rights of residents to maintain their livelihoods.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, an independent watchdog, urged “immediate engagement with the affected communities, all stakeholders and Afghan representatives through dialogue and diplomacy” to resolve the issue.

At the protest camp in Chaman, families are exhausted and worried. “Will I ever get back to my land? What will become of my sons if the border stays closed?” said Mr. Manan, the farmer. “We can only pray for a solution that shows mercy on the poor like us.”

Pakistan police raid former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party office and arrest its spokesman (AP)

AP [7/22/2024 9:25 PM, Staff, 317K, Negative]
Pakistan’s police raided the imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s political party office in Islamabad on Monday and arrested its spokesman for carrying out anti-state propaganda, the Interior Ministry said.

In a statement, the ministry said officers also arrested Ahmad Janjua, a media coordinator for Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf or PTI party. Janjua was arrested over the weekend in a separate raid.

The arrests have drawn criticism from Gohar Ali Khan, the chairman of PTI, who said authorities also arrested some other workers of the party’s media wing, in a series of police raids in recent weeks.

Pakistani authorities often accuse the PTI of running a campaign against the country’s institutions, a reference to the military, a charge the party denies.

Khan has been embroiled in more than 150 cases since 2022 when he was ousted through a vote of no-confidence in the parliament.

He has been held at a prison in the garrison city of Rawalpindi since last year after his arrest.

Pakistan police arrests jailed ex-PM Imran Khan’s aides (Reuters)

Reuters [7/22/2024 11:17 AM, Asif Shahzad, 42991K, Negative]
Pakistan police arrested two aides of former prime minister Imran Khan on Monday in a raid on his party’s secretariat, despite the jailed ex-leader having won a series of legal cases brought against him since he was ousted from power in 2022.

A police contingent cordoned off the secretariat in Islamabad and detained the party’s acting chairman Gohar Khan and its secretary information Rauf Hasan, a party spokesman Zulfikar Bukhari told Reuters in a Whatsapp message.

His Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party later said the acting chairman had been released shortly after being detained.

However, Pakistan’s ministry of interior identified the detained aides as Hasan and Ahmad Waqas Janjua, the party’s coordinator for international media coverage. The ministry did not mention Gohar Khan in its statement.

The ministry said the two detained men were being investigated but did not say whether they had been charged.

PTI had said over the weekend that Janjua was picked up by police from his house in Islamabad.

The ministry also said the secretariat’s digital media wing had been raided by the police and the country’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

"PTI is involved in anti-state propaganda," the ministry’s statement said.

The party denies the accusation.

Former prime minister Khan has been in jail for about one year, even though all four convictions handed down to him ahead of a parliamentary election in February have either been suspended or overturned.

After being acquitted on the last of those four convictions, authorities rearrested Khan and his wife in an old corruption case on charges of selling state gifts unlawfully. He also faces an accusation of inciting his supporters to attack military installations last year.

Khan denies all the accusations against him.

His party secured the largest number of seats in parliament in the February election despite what Khan’s party says is a military-backed crackdown that aims to keep him out of power.

It also won nearly two dozen extra parliament seats in a court ruling last week.

Khan blames his 2022 ouster in a no-confidence vote on Pakistan’s powerful army generals after he fell out with them, a charge the army denies.

Pakistan police raid ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party HQ (Al Jazeera)

Al Jazeera [7/22/2024 9:24 AM, Staff, 20871K, Negative]
Security forces have stormed the offices of the Pakistan Tehreek e-Insaf (PTI) party of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The raid on Monday came a week after the government said it planned to disband the party, Pakistan’s largest opposition movement.

A police contingent sealed off the offices in Islamabad. Acting party Chairman Gohar Khan and Information Secretary Rauf Hasan were detained, according to a party spokesperson quoted by the Reuters news agency.

The PTI said Gohar Khan had since been released while a Pakistani police official told the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency that Hasan remained in custody.

The latter’s arrest came days after he warned that party members were being rounded up. He said 10 had disappeared “with no trace” in the past two months.

“Seven of them are from my department alone, which they want to cripple because we refuse to stay silent,” he said in an interview with AFP.

Crackdown

The crackdown on the PTI follows several court rulings in its favour this month that threaten the government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who came to power in February with the backing of the military,

The Supreme Court on July 12 ruled that the PTI, which won the most seats in February’s general election but was kept from government by an alliance of military-backed rival parties, should be awarded 23 additional seats in parliament. The judgement deprives Sharif’s coalition of the two-thirds majority needed to push through planned reforms.

On July 13, an Islamabad court overturned Imran Khan’s illegal marriage conviction, meaning the former premier has now succeeded in getting all four convictions handed down to him over recent years suspended or overturned.

However, he remains in jail on new charges of inciting protests and graft, which he said were brought to keep him from power.

Information Minister Attaullah Tarar announced last week that the government would launch a legal bid to ban the PTI, citing accusations including the incitement of violent protests last year and the leaking of classified information.

He also said the government would file treason charges against Imran Khan.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan called the government’s move “an enormous blow to democratic norms” and one that “reeks of political desperation”.

“If pushed through, it will achieve nothing more than deeper polarisation and the strong likelihood of political chaos and violence,” Chairman Asad Iqbal Butt said in a statement.

A United Nations panel of experts found this month that Imran Khan’s detention “had no legal basis and appears to have been intended to disqualify him from running for political office”.

Pakistan’s latest record-breaking, reality-denying IMF program (Financial Times)

Financial Times [7/22/2024 10:00 AM, Murtaza Syed, 14.7M, Neutral]
Earlier this month, Pakistan secured a staff-level agreement for a record 24th tryst with the IMF. Conspicuously absent from the accompanying IMF press release was any mention of debt sustainability. This omission is both surprising and disappointing.

Just this May, the IMF came as close to declaring Pakistan’s debt unsustainable as it diplomatically could without triggering a run for the hills by creditors. In its last Staff Report, it warned that Pakistan’s path to debt sustainability was “narrow” amid “acute”, “exceptional” and “uncomfortably high” risks from elevated gross financing needs and scarce external financing:

The end-FY24 debt-to-GDP ratio is projected to decrease markedly, driven by fiscal consolidation and ex-post negative real interest rates. That said, risks to debt sustainability remain acute given very large gross financing needs and the persistent challenges in obtaining external financing, and that real interest rates are projected to become an adverse driver of debt dynamics in the coming years.

In Fundspeak, this was an SOS call. Yet barely a month and a half later, the Fund and the Pakistani government seem intent on walking back this candour and kicking the can down the road. The consequences of this “extend and pretend” gamble will probably be tragic.

It will impose unbearable austerity on a population already laid low by stagnant per capita income over the past decade, a historic cost of living crisis and endemic political dysfunction. As witnessed in Kenya last month, it could spark a major social rebellion in the world’s fifth-largest country. Moreover, it will lead to deeper losses for creditors when the inevitable reckoning comes. When the dust settles, the already sullied image of the IMF in Pakistan could be in tatters.

Some will object to this bleak prognosis. After all, debt sustainability is usually a judgment call that lies in the eye of the beholder. However, some facts are incontrovertible.

According to the IMF, for each of the next five years, Pakistan owes the world an average of $19bn in principal repayments, or more than half of its export revenues. It will also need a minimum of $6bn every year to finance even threadbare current account deficits forecasts, bringing total external financing needs to at least $25bn a year between now and 2029. Pakistan has foreign exchange reserves of less than $9.5bn.

That’s not all. For each of the next five years, the government will need to pay an average of 6.5 per cent of GDP in interest on the debt it already owes to residents and foreigners. Pakistan’s total tax take is barely 10 per cent of GDP.

Let those facts sink in. Unchecked, things will fall apart. And it’s hard to see how Pakistan can extricate itself from this predicament without debt relief.

For starters, Pakistan cannot meet its external financing needs without incurring more government debt. This is because it doesn’t really attract any meaningful FDI (less than $2bn every year) and its private sector is incapable of generating capital inflows from abroad.

Just take the latest IMF loan for example. The $7bn that the IMF will lend is less than the amount that Pakistan needs to repay the Fund over the next four years — a classic case of ever-greening and a worrying sign of a brewing Ponzi scheme.

At 77 per cent of GDP, Pakistan’s public debt is already above levels considered excessive for an emerging market. Further debt accumulation will be dangerous. And at 24 per cent of GDP, its gross financing needs (the sum of the budget deficit and debt coming due over the next year) are second only to Egypt in the emerging world.

As a result, borrowing abroad at a reasonable cost will be very difficult, and the debt overhang will continue to weigh on domestic investment and economic growth.

Indeed, things have already come to a head. Consider the following troubling exhibits — courtesy of UNCTAD’s World of Debt Dashboard — with Pakistan shown as the blue dot and other developing countries in orange.

At 6 per cent, Pakistan’s government pays more on interest as a share of the economy than any other country in the developing world.

And at 65 per cent, it has the second highest interest payments to government revenue ratio in the world, after Sri Lanka.

As a result of this heavy interest burden, the government has no resources left for social spending, which languishes among the bottom in the world.

This is terrible as social spending is critical for upgrading the skills of the population and boosting the quality of jobs, exports and foreign investment in the economy.

In fact, Pakistan’s government spends almost three times more on interest than on education, again the second worst ratio in the developing world after Sri Lanka.

Similarly, it spends almost six times more on interest than it does on health, behind only Yemen, Angola and Egypt. Is it any wonder then that 40 per cent of children under the age of five are stunted and 26 million are out of school?

Large debt repayment obligations are also crowding out other spending vital for the country’s future. The government spends twice as much on interest as on investment, behind only Angola and Lebanon.

Partly as a result, Pakistan invests just 12 per cent of GDP, two and a half times less than what is generally considered as necessary for sustained growth.

Worryingly, these problems are here to stay. Even if Pakistan’s revenues were to miraculously increase by 3 per cent of GDP over the next three years — as assumed in the forthcoming Fund program — interest would still consume around half of government revenue. All of this demonstrates how Pakistan’s debts are unsustainable.

Another way to get at this is to peruse the IMF’s own debt sustainability analysis (DSA). Unfortunately, the same conclusion emerges.

According to the latest IMF DSA conducted in January, the government will need to start running a primary surplus this year and maintain it for years to come for Pakistan’s debt to be sustainable. The last time Pakistan ran a surplus was 20 years ago during the war on terror, when foreign grants were pouring in.

Basically, the IMF says that all major macroeconomic trends of the past will somehow need to be dramatically reversed for Pakistan’s debt to be sustainable: budgets will need to be much tighter (dark blue bar); the currency will need to be stable (yellow bar); and growth a lot higher (light blue bar); despite much tighter fiscal and monetary policy (green bar).

Another warning sign is that the IMF’s forecasts of Pakistan’s public debt and key variables that affect it — the primary deficit, real interest rates (r), growth (g) and the exchange rate — have historically all been wildly over-optimistic, as denoted by the flashing red lights on its realism score board. Why should this time be any different.

So make up your own mind about where this leaves debt sustainability.

Unfortunately, as seen in so many cases across the world, the consequences of not calling it like it is will be an unrealistic painful amount of fiscal consolidation – previewed by a much-criticised budget recently passed by the government – no real space to protect the vulnerable and a bigger eventual reckoning.

It’s especially disappointing that the IMF has ignored its own latest cross-country research, which shows that fiscal consolidations fail to make debt more sustainable by undermining growth, particularly when the global environment is weak and uncertain.

Instead, in cases of dire distress like Pakistan, the pace of fiscal consolidation must be moderated by combining it with debt restructuring. A far more prudent route than the austerity about to be unleashed on Pakistan would be to reprofile its public debt so that resources can be freed up for critically-needed spending on development and the climate.

Pakistan is a canary in the coal-mine in a world where almost 60 countries are drowning in debt while facing significant development spending needs and monumental risks from climate change. It is precisely in cases like this that debt relief—and truth-telling—are most needed.

Pakistan to Delay Final Bidding for State Airline by Two Months (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg [7/22/2024 9:05 AM, Faseeh Mangi, 27296K, Neutral]
Pakistan has delayed the final auction for state-owned Pakistan International Airlines by two months until the end of September after potential bidders sought more information to assess the carrier, according to people familiar with the matter.

The bidders are waiting for the airline’s latest audited accounts, clarity on flights to Europe that are banned

and aircraft lease agreements, said the people, who requested not to be named as the matter is private. Pakistan’s privatization ministry didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The government said earlier this month that it will announce the final bid date in 10 days. Pakistan wanted to announce the deal on its independence day, Aug. 14. That date will not be met now.

The stake sale in the airline is part of the government’s commitment to undertake economic reforms in exchange for a bailout from the International Monetary Fund. Pakistan is looking to sell 51% to 100% of the carrier, which hasn’t reported annual profit for nearly two decades.

Pakistan selected six groups to bid for the airline in June. These include a consortium led by the Yunus Brothers Group., one of the nation’s largest business conglomerates, and another bid by businessman Arif Habib. Pak Ethanol Pvt.’s consortium includes local airline Serene Air, Liberty Power and is advised by House of Finance.

India

Modi Pledges $24 Billion for Jobs, Financial Aid for Allies (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg [7/23/2024 3:52 AM, Ruchi Bhatia and Preeti Soni, 5.5M, Neutral]
Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged 2 trillion rupees ($23.9 billion) to boost jobs and improve education in India, increased spending to his new allies, while also targeting a smaller fiscal deficit for this year.

The government will focus on employment, skilling, small businesses and the middle class in the fiscal year through March 2025, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in her budget speech Tuesday. She announced a number of employment-linked incentives for businesses to help spur jobs.

The budget is the first under a new coalition government led by Modi after his party lost its majority in elections. Joblessness and the high cost of living despite India’s rapid economic growth emerged as key voter concerns.

The prime minister is seeking to shore up voter support and balance the demands of his coalition partners without blowing out the budget deficit. Curbing the deficit and government debt will be key to raising India’s credit ratings, which are currently at the lowest investment-grade level.

Sitharaman said the government will narrow the deficit to 4.9% of gross domestic product in the current financial year, lower than her February projection of 5.1%. She also pledged to curb the deficit gradually over time.

“The fiscal consolidation path has served our economy very well and we aim to reach the deficit below 4.5% next year,” she said. “The government is committed to staying the course.”

A revenue windfall this year has boosted the government coffers, giving it ample resources to boost spending while keeping the fiscal deficit under control. The Reserve Bank of India paid the government a record $25 billion dividend, while tax revenues have surged on the back of a stronger economy.

Gaura Sen Gupta, an economist at IDFC First Bank Ltd., said the budget was “growth supportive,” with the government keeping its focus on infrastructure spending and supporting states with more funding.

“The RBI dividend which was significant, provided fiscal space of 0.4% of GDP,” he said. “Some of that fiscal space was channeled in supporting rural economy, employment and state governments.”

The smaller deficit means the government will cut its borrowing for the year slightly to 14.01 trillion rupees this year. Yields on India’s 10-year bond dropped to its lowest level since April 2022 after the news, before reversing their declines. Stocks fell after the minister announced an increase in capital gains tax on some equity investments, with the NSE Nifty 50 Index falling as much as 1.8%.

Modi allocated 150 billion rupees in financial aid through multilateral agencies to one of his key allies, the Telugu Desam Party, which governs the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. For a second ally, which runs Bihar state, the government will give an additional allocation to build new airports, medical colleges and sports infrastructure, Sitharaman said. Requests from Bihar for aid from multilateral banks will also be expedited, she said.

The government is “balancing political and economic needs by supporting allies through capex spend and financing help through multilateral agencies,” said Shreya Sodhani, an economist at Barclays Plc.

Other key highlights of the minister’s speech:

Capital expenditure in the fiscal year through March 2025 will reach 11.1 trillion rupees, unchanged from February’s forecast
Government to allocate 2.66 trillion rupees for rural development
Customs duty on gold will be cut to 6%
Government to undertake comprehensive review of Income Tax Act
Corporate tax on foreign companies reduced to 35% from 40%
Personal income tax rate slabs adjusted, and minimum threshold for deductions raised
Taxes on capital gains made through equity investment raised

India’s Modi faces delicate balancing act in post-election budget (Reuters)

Reuters [7/22/2024 9:40 PM, Sarita Chaganti Singh and Nikunj Ohri, 42991K, Neutral]
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first post-election budget on Tuesday will seek to lay out an economic vision that balances fiscal prudence with the expectations of disgruntled voters and the demands of his coalition partners.

"This budget will decide the direction of our work for the next five years and this will lay the foundation of fulfilling our objective to make India a developed country by 2047," Modi said on Monday ahead of the budget, due to be presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) failed to secure a majority in the election last month, making it dependant on allies to form a government for the first time since he came to power more than a decade ago.

The budget is expected to cut taxes for the middle class, provide relief for distressed rural areas and heed the demands of two key coalition partners - Andhra Pradesh’s Telugu Desam Party and Bihar’s Janata Dal (United) - for billions of dollars in additional funding for their regions.

"Weaker political capital, uneven growth story with tepid consumption, and missing vigour in private capex and the rural sector form the backdrop of the upcoming Budget," Madhavi Arora, an economist at Emkay, said.

The government will also look to keep at bay a resurgent opposition which has criticised the Modi government for a lack of jobs, high cost of living and growing income inequality.

According to a report by World Inequality Lab, wealth concentrated in the richest 1% of India’s population is at its highest in six decades, while youth unemployment stands at over 17% according to government estimates.

INFRASTRUCTURE SPENDING

A government report published on Monday forecast economic growth of between 6.5% and 7% for the current fiscal year, slightly below consensus analysts’ estimates.

The government does, however, have enough cover from the central bank to ensure it stays on course to narrow the budget gap and finance its infrastructure projects.

In May, the Reserve Bank of India transferred a $25 billion surplus transfer to the government that will help it cover tax cuts, help for rural areas and coalition partners’ demands for regional funding.

Over the last three years, the government nearly doubled spending on long-term infrastructure projects as a way to push growth and generate jobs and plans to spend 11 trillion rupees ($131.51 billion) on such projects this year.

Some economists expect the budget could include improvements to an incentive scheme for domestic and foreign companies to boost manufacturing in India in 14 sectors including electronics, semiconductors and pharmaceuticals.

On Monday, the government’s economic survey warned of rising risks from a surging equity market, which is also drawing retail investors into risky derivatives trading.

To discourage such risky investments, economists say the budget could include measures such as an increase in capital gains tax on equity investments held long-term. However, such a move could be a major dampener for Indian equities and hit the stock market, according to Morgan Stanley.

Any hike in transaction tax on derivatives would also be a negative surprise, Jefferies said.

Finance Minister Sitharaman is due to present the budget from 0530 GMT.

India’s Economic Adviser Makes Case for Chinese FDI Despite Ban (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg [7/22/2024 7:10 AM, Shruti Srivastava, 27296K, Neutral]
India’s ambition to be a manufacturing hub means it needs to attract Chinese businesses to set up factories and boost exports from the country, the nation’s top economic adviser said, an approach that would require the government to ease its restrictions on Chinese businesses.

In its annual Economic Survey report released Monday, the office of the chief economic adviser argued that to boost its manufacturing sector, India has two options: increasing imports from China, or attracting more foreign direct investment from the country.

The latter would be more beneficial since India’s trade deficit with China is already quite large, according to the report. Replacing “some well-chosen imports with investments from China” would also help in developing domestic technical know-how, it said.

Economic ties between India and China have deteriorated since deadly border clashes between the nuclear-armed neighbors in 2020. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government imposed strict rules on Chinese businesses seeking to invest in the country, banned hundreds of Chinese apps and slowed visa approvals.

Even so, India remains heavily reliant on Chinese-made goods needed in manufacturing, with the restrictions undermining Modi’s ambitions to make India a factory hub, especially in electronics production. The government has pledged billions of dollars in subsidies to support sectors such as semiconductors and cars, and attracted companies like Apple Inc. to set up facilities in the country.

“India faces two choices to benefit from China plus one strategy: it can integrate into China’s supply chain or promote FDI from China,” according to the report. “Among these choices, focusing on FDI from China seems more promising for boosting India’s exports to the US, similar to how East Asian economies did in the past.”

The Economic Survey is authored by the office of the Chief Economic Adviser V Anantha Nageswaran, a senior official in the Ministry of Finance, and usually published a day before the annual budget speech.

With the US and Europe looking to reduce their reliance on Chinese goods, it would be more effective for India to have “Chinese companies invest in India and then export the products to these markets rather than importing from China, adding minimal value, and then re-exporting them,” according to the report.

The Economic Survey highlighted examples from emerging markets like Turkey and Brazil, which raised import tariffs on Chinese electrical vehicles, while at the same time taking measures to attract FDI from China into the sector. That comes on the back of heightened concerns of excess capacity at Chinese factories, which threatens local firms and workers.

“To boost Indian manufacturing and plug India into the global supply chain, it is inevitable that India plugs itself into China’s supply chain,” the report said. “Whether we do so by relying solely on imports or partially through Chinese investments is a choice that India has to make.”

India court suspends order to restaurants to display owners’ names after anti-Muslim bias concerns (Reuters)

Reuters [7/22/2024 5:52 AM, Arpan Chaturvedi and Saurabh Sharma, 42991K, Neutral]
India’s top court ruled on Monday that restaurants cannot be forced to display the names of their owners, suspending police orders in two northern states that critics had said could foment discrimination against Muslims.

Police in the two states, both ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist party, gave oral orders in at least two districts requiring restaurants to put the names of their owners on display boards.

Police said this would help avoid disputes for thousands of Hindu pilgrims who travel on foot to sacred sites during a holy month, many of whom follow dietary restrictions, such as eating no meat during their journey.

But a Supreme Court bench ruled on Monday that while restaurants could be expected to state the type of food they serve, including whether it is vegetarian, they "must not be forced" to display the name and identities of owners.

The court suspended orders by police in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand states and issued a notice to them seeking their response on petitions challenging the move.

More than a third of India’s 1.4 billion people are estimated to be vegetarian - the world’s largest percentage of people who don’t eat meat or eggs - as they follow diets promoted by groups within Hinduism and other religions.

Some vegetarians choose not to eat in restaurants that also serve meat and don’t rent out houses to meat-eating tenants.

A few allies of Modi and leaders of opposition parties had criticised the police orders, saying they feared they would deepen the communal divide and lead to Hindus avoiding restaurants employing Muslims.

Political foes accuse Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of targeting India’s roughly 200 million minority Muslims for electoral gains, which Modi and the BJP both deny.

"Such orders are social crimes, which want to spoil the peaceful atmosphere of harmony," opposition Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav had said in a post on X, criticising the police moves.

NSB

Bangladesh PM Blames Rivals for Deadly Unrest as Curfew Extended (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg [7/23/2024 2:48 AM, Niki Koswanage, 5.5M, Negative]
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina blamed her political opponents for capitalizing on a student protest against a government jobs quota that turned violent and left more than 170 people dead, saying the curfew would be extended.

Hasina told a group of business leaders in her office Monday that the student protesters were not involved in the “arson terrorism,” accusing the opposition Bangladesh National Party and the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamist group, of carrying out militant-like attacks.

“I didn’t want to impose the curfew,” Hasina was cited as saying by Somoy TV. “But they carried out the widespread violence using the students as tools, forcing me to impose the curfew.”

The unrest is the deadliest since Hasina extended her grip in power for a fourth term in elections in January, promising to further develop the country. It is also a major headache for a government seeking more money from creditors and the International Monetary Fund to bolster dwindling foreign-exchange reserves.

While Hasina has overseen one of the fastest-growing economies in the world and helped lift millions out of poverty, those achievements are often overshadowed by what critics contend is her authoritarianism. They allege the 76-year-old leader has used state institutions to stamp out dissent and stifle the media, something she denies.

Nobel Peace Prize-winning economist Muhammad Yunus, who faces time in prison and is seen as Hasina’s rival, called on world leaders and the United Nations to “do everything in their powers” to end the violence against those who are exercising the right to protest.

“There must be investigations into the killings that have taken place already,” he said in a statement.

Internet services remained shut off in Bangladesh for a fifth day while soldiers patrolled the main cities to enforce the curfew, initially imposed from Saturday midnight. Security forces have arrested more than 1,200 people and so far the death toll stands at more than 170 people with hundreds more injured, according to the Agence France-Presse news agency.

The army chief said the law-and-order situation had been brought “under control,” local media reported.

The student protests were initially a reaction to the High Court reinstating a controversial government jobs quota system, which gives preferential treatment to families of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s war of independence from Pakistan in 1971.

The Supreme Court on Sunday rolled back most of the system, directing the students to return to their classes and for the government to carry out the order. Jobs are a major issue in the country, which has an official policy encouraging its citizens to go oversees to find work and depends heavily on foreign remittances.

The jobs situation has turned more acute since the pandemic as youth unemployment has stayed persistently high and the private sector has struggled to expand.

Bangladesh PM Hasina blames opposition for violence, curfew to remain (Reuters)

Reuters [7/22/2024 1:10 PM, Mohammad Ponir Hossain, Ruma Paul, and Sam Jahan, 8591K, Negative]
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina blamed her political opponents for deadly violence that swept the country during recent student-led protests against quotas in government jobs, stating on Monday that a curfew would be lifted when the situation improved.

Her comments came a day after the South Asian country’s top court agreed to scrap most quotas in a ruling on Sunday, following days of clashes between protesters and security forces that prompted the government to shut down internet services, impose a curfew and deploy the army.

Hospital data showed at least 147 people were killed in one of the worst outbreaks of violence in recent years.

Hasina, 76, won a fourth-straight term in power in January in a national election boycotted by the main opposition party.

"When arson terrorism started, the protesting students said they were not involved in it," Hasina said in an address to business leaders in the capital Dhaka, her first comments since her government ordered a curfew late on Friday.

"We were forced to impose a curfew to protect the lives and property of the citizens. I never wanted it," she said. "We will lift the curfew whenever the situation gets better."

Hasina blamed the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Jamaat-e-Islami party and its student wing for the violence that started last week.

The parties did not immediately respond to requests for comment but critics, including the BNP, have previously accused Hasina of authoritarianism, human rights violations and crackdowns on free speech and dissent - charges her government denies.

The streets appeared calm in Dhaka on Monday, a day after the Supreme Court ruled in favour of an appeal from the government against a lower court order and directed that 93% of government jobs should be open to candidates on merit.

The ruling scaled down quotas in state jobs previously reserved for groups including families of freedom fighters, women and so-called disadvantaged groups, cutting it to 7% from 56%.

Experts have blamed the unrest on stagnant job growth in the private sector and high rates of youth unemployment that have made government jobs, with their regular wage hikes and other privileges, more attractive.

‘48-HOUR ULTIMATUM’

Late on Sunday, protesters gave the government 48 hours to meet a string of new demands, but most appeared to be obeying the curfew on Monday in cities that had seen regular demonstrations after a high court in June reinstated the old quotas.

Thousands were injured in protests that turned violent last week, as security forces fired tear gas, rubber bullets and sound grenades to scatter the demonstrators.

Tanks were seen stationed at several places in Dhaka on Monday, while armed security patrols directed the few motorists who ventured out. There were no reports of violence in the country, officials said.

The new demands from protesters included a public apology from Hasina for the violence, restoration of internet connections and reopening of campuses.

The Anti-Discrimination Student Movement also called for the resignation of some ministers and university officials and the dismissal of police officers deployed in the areas where students were killed.

"We are giving an ultimatum to the government to fulfil our eight-point demand within 48 hours," one of the Movement’s leaders, Hasnat Abdullah, told reporters.

He did not say what would happen if the government did not meet the demands. The government did not immediately comment.

Dhaka police said they had arrested 516 people for involvement in "destructive attacks". Police spokesperson Faruq Hossain said three policemen were killed in the violence and more than 1,000 injured.

"Normalcy will return within one or two days," Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told reporters. The government issued a notification that extended a public holiday declared over the last two days to Tuesday.

Protesters said some of their leaders were detained, including Nahid Islam, who told the media he was picked up by "20-30 people" claiming to be police early on Sunday morning and taken to a room where he said he was tortured until he lost consciousness.

"When I regained consciousness I found myself lying on the streets," he said. Dhaka police denied detaining him.

Bangladesh’s $416 billion economy had been one of the fastest-growing in the world for years, but has faced struggles after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Costly energy imports after the war in Ukraine shrank its dollar reserves, which fanned inflation and pushed the government to seek a bailout from the International Monetary Fund.

Bangladesh to formally accept court ruling on job quotas after protests (Reuters)

Reuters [7/22/2024 1:53 AM, Mohammad Ponir Hossain and Sam Jahan, 5.2M, Neutral]
Bangladesh is expected to formally accept on Tuesday a court ruling to cut quotas for government jobs, media said, meeting a key demand of students whose protests sparked one of the worst outbreaks of violence in years that killed almost 150 people.

Calm prevailed in the capital, Dhaka and most major cities for a second day amid a curfew and an Internet and telecoms shutdown the government imposed after the protests erupted last week.

However, the security situation is still not entirely under control, the army chief, who toured the capital by helicopter on Tuesday morning, told reporters.

Officials said curfew is to be relaxed for four hours in the afternoon, up from three on Monday, to allow people to buy essentials.

The protesters wanted authorities to overturn a high court decision last month that restored a quota system setting aside nearly 60% of government jobs for some people, such as families of those who fought in Bangladesh’s war of independence.

The quotas had been scrapped in 2018 by the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who accepted late on Monday a Supreme Court ruling to scrap most of the quotas.

The acceptance is expected to be published in the government’s formal record on Tuesday, media said, meeting one demand made by protesters.

On Monday Hasina blamed her political opponents for violence and said the curfew, imposed on Friday, would be lifted "whenever the situation gets better".

The protesters have given the government 48 hours to meet eight demands, such as a public apology from Hasina and the re-opening of university campuses shut when the violence began.

On Tuesday, Malaysia became the latest nation to evacuate citizens from Bangladesh because of the violence, with the foreign ministry saying a flight bringing them home was set to arrive in Kuala Lumpur, the capital.

India also said at least 4,500 Indian students had returned home from Bangladesh.

Internet is still down in Bangladesh despite apparent calm following deadly protests (AP)

AP [7/22/2024 8:17 AM, Al Emrun Garjon and Julhas Alam, 31180K, Neutral]
Bangladesh remained without internet for a fifth day and the government declared a public holiday Monday, as authorities maintained tight control despite apparent calm following a court order that scaled back a controversial system for allocating government jobs that sparked violent protests.

This comes after a curfew with a shoot-on-sight order was installed days earlier and military personnel could be seen patrolling the capital and other areas.

The South Asian country witnessed clashes between the police and mainly student protesters demanding an end to a quota that reserved 30% of government jobs for relatives of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s war of independence in 1971. The violence has killed more than a hundred people, according to at least four local newspapers. Authorities have not so far shared official figures for deaths.

There was no immediate violence reported on Monday morning after the Supreme Court ordered, the day before, the veterans’ quota to be cut to 5%. Thus, 93% of civil service jobs will be merit-based while the remaining 2% reserved for members of ethnic minorities as well as transgender and disabled people.

On Sunday night, some student protesters urged the government to restore internet services. Hasnat Abdullah, a coordinator of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, told the Associated Press that they were withdrawing their calls for a complete shutdown, which they attempted to impose last week.

“But we are issuing an ultimatum for 48 hours to stop the digital crackdown and restore internet connectivity,” he said, adding that security officials deployed at various universities should be withdrawn, student dormitories reopened and steps taken so students can return to their campuses safely. Abdullah also said they wanted the government to end the curfew and ensure the country was back to normal within two days.

Students have also demanded some university officials to step down after failing to protect campuses. Sarjis Alam, another coordinator of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, said that they would continue with their protests if all their demands weren’t met. “We cannot step back from our movement like a coward,” he added.

Another key organizer of the student protests, Nahid Islam, told reporters that the internet shutdown had disrupted their ability to communicate and alleged that authorities were trying to create divisions among protesters. “I am mentally traumatized ... our unity is being destroyed,” he said.

The US Embassy in the capital Dhaka described Sunday the situation as “extremely volatile” and “unpredictable,” adding that guns, tear gas and other weapons have been used in the vicinity of the embassy. They said the Bangladeshi army had been deployed and urged Americans to be vigilant, avoid large crowds and reconsider travel plans.

The protests have posed the most serious challenge to Bangladesh’s government since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina won a fourth consecutive term in January elections that the main opposition groups boycotted. Universities have been closed, the internet has been shut off and the government has ordered people to stay at home.

Protesters had argued the quota system was discriminatory and benefited supporters of Hasina, whose Awami League party led the independence movement, and wanted it replaced by a merit-based system. Hasina has defended the quota system, saying that veterans deserve the highest respect regardless of political affiliation.

The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party has backed the protests, vowing to organize its own demonstrations as many of its supporters joined the student-led protests.

The Awami League and the BNP have often accused each other of fueling political chaos and violence, most recently ahead of the country’s national election, which was marred by a crackdown on several opposition figures.

Bangladesh protesters issue demands amid shaky calm (Al Jazeera)

Al Jazeera [7/22/2024 7:49 AM, Staff, 20871K, Neutral]
Protesters in Bangladesh have issued demands amid a lull in the violence that has filled the streets in recent days after the government backed down on quotas on hiring for government jobs.

Student leaders said on Monday that they plan to continue demonstrations despite a decision by the Supreme Court the previous day scaling back the controversial job quota system that sparked the protests. A deadly government crackdown ahead of the ruling saw a reported 163 people killed, hundreds arrested, and thousands injured.

The demonstrators have demanded that the government release protest leaders, lift the military curfew, and reopen the universities, which have been shut since Wednesday. They said they would give the government 48 hours to meet the demands.

Protesters were attacked by security forces, as well as other students who back the ruling Awami League party, last week as they launched their call against the quota system, which sought to reserve sought-after government jobs for relatives of war veterans and other groups.

Although the court has largely annulled the quotas, the protesters have demanded accountability for the crackdown, including the resignation of ministers.

They have also called for swift formalisation of the ruling. Law Minister Anisul Huq promised on Sunday that the government would implement the changes to the legislation within days.

Challenges

As on Sunday, the military curfew that was implemented during the protests was relaxed for several hours on Monday to allow people to buy essentials. However, internet connections remained severed for a fourth straight day in the nation of 170 million.

After a call for a nationwide shutdown on Monday by the protesters, soldiers continued to roam the streets and tanks were stationed across the streets of the capital Dhaka. No more fatalities or large-scale gatherings had been reported by the late afternoon as a tentative calm persisted.

Bangladesh army chief on Monday said that the situation has been brought “under control”. “The law and order situation has already come under control after the deployment of the army,” General Waker uz Zaman said in a statement after inspecting troops at several locations in Dhaka.

Meanwhile, protest leader Nahid Islam, bruised and battered and undergoing treatment at a hospital in Dhaka, told AFP news agency on Monday he feared for his life.

The 26-year-old sociology graduate leads Students Against Discrimination, the main group organising the demonstrations against employment quotas. The group suspended the protests for 48 hours on Monday, with Nahid saying it had not wanted to see “so much blood, so much killing, so much damage to life and property”.

“Me and many other coordinators are fearful for their lives,” he said, displaying a large purple bruise on his right arm. “A few of my fellow coordinators are missing.”

Nahid accused the authorities of “irresponsible behaviour”, “provocative remarks” and repression, blaming them for the escalating tension.

“People are expressing their anger at the government. We want justice for people who were martyred in the movement and injured,” he said.

“The ministers, the heads of law enforcement agencies who ordered the attack, shooting, we want their resignation.”

The protests came amid a shaky economic backdrop. While Bangladesh’s economy has grown since 2009 during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s four terms, it faces major challenges, including inflation and high youth unemployment.

Hasina has also been accused of authoritarianism and human rights violations, charges her government has denied. The antigovernment protests have presented the biggest challenge to her rule.

Amid the protests, the government expanded a crackdown on opposition parties, with at least 70 arrests made among the Bangladesh Nationalist Party.

The jobs quota system, which had earlier been set aside by the government but was revived by a court last month, would have given 30 percent of government jobs to relatives of those that fought in the war that won independence from Pakistan in 1971.

Once scaled back, 93 percent of public sector jobs will be dedicated to merit-based recruits, with 5 percent earmarked for veterans’ family members. A further 2 percent will be reserved for people from ethnic minorities or with disabilities.

Bangladesh Arrest Total Passes 2,500: AFP Tally (Agence France-Presse)

Agence France-Presse [7/23/2024 4:48 AM, Shafiqul Alam, 1.4M, Negative]
The number of arrests in days of violence in Bangladesh passed the 2,500 mark in an AFP tally on Tuesday, after protests over employment quotas sparked widespread unrest.

At least 174 people have died, including several police officers, according to a separate AFP count of victims reported by police and hospitals.

What began as demonstrations against politicised admission quotas for sought-after government jobs snowballed last week into some of the worst unrest of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s tenure.

A curfew was imposed and soldiers deployed across the South Asian country, and a nationwide internet blackout drastically restricted the flow of information, upending daily life for many.

On Sunday, the Supreme Court pared back the number of reserved jobs for specific groups, including the descendants of "freedom fighters" from Bangladesh’s 1971 liberation war against Pakistan.

The student group leading the demonstrations suspended its protests Monday for 48 hours, with its leader saying they had not wanted reform "at the expense of so much blood".

The restrictions remained in place Tuesday after the army chief said the situation had been brought "under control".

There was a heavy military presence in Dhaka, with bunkers set up at some intersections and key roads blocked with barbed wire.

But more people were on the streets, as were hundreds of rickshaws.

"I did not drive rickshaws the first few days of curfew, But today I didn’t have any choice," rickshaw driver Hanif told AFP.

"If I don’t do it, my family will go hungry."

The head of Students Against Discrimination, the main group organising the protests, told AFP in his hospital room Monday that he feared for his life after being abducted and beaten, and the group said Tuesday at least four of its leaders were missing, asking authorities to "return" them by the evening.

The authorities’ response to the protests has been widely criticised, with Bangladeshi Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus urging "world leaders and the United Nations to do everything within their powers to end the violence" in a statement.

The respected 83-year-old economist is credited with lifting millions out of poverty with his pioneering microfinance bank but earned the enmity of Hasina, who has accused him of "sucking blood" from the poor.

"Young people are being killed at random every day," Yunus told AFP. "Hospitals do not reveal the number of wounded and dead."

Diplomats in Dhaka also questioned the government’s actions, with US Ambassador Peter Haas telling the foreign minister he had shown a one-sided video at a briefing to diplomats.

Government officials have repeatedly blamed the protesters and opposition for the unrest.

More than 1,200 people detained over the course of the violence -- nearly half the 2,580 total -- were held in Dhaka and its rural and industrial areas, according to police officials who spoke to AFP.

Almost 600 were arrested in Chittagong and its rural areas, with hundreds more detentions tallied in multiple districts across the country.

With around 18 million young people in Bangladesh out of work, according to government figures, the June reintroduction of the quota scheme -- halted since 2018 -- deeply upset graduates facing an acute jobs crisis.

With protests mounting across the country, the Supreme Court on Sunday curtailed the number of reserved jobs from 56 percent of all positions to seven percent, mostly for the children and grandchildren of "freedom fighters" from the 1971 war.

While 93 percent of jobs will be awarded on merit, the decision fell short of protesters’ demands to scrap the "freedom fighter" category altogether.

Late Monday, Hasina’s spokesman told AFP the prime minister had approved a government order putting the Supreme Court’s judgement into effect.

Critics say the quota is used to stack public jobs with loyalists to Hasina’s ruling Awami League.

Hasina, 76, has ruled the country since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition.

Her government is also accused by rights groups of misusing state institutions to entrench its hold on power and stamp out dissent, including by the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.

Bangladesh student protest leader says he fears for his life (Agence France-Presse)

Agence France-Presse [7/22/2024 9:13 AM, Mohammad Mazed, 85570K, Negative]
Bangladeshi student protest leader Nahid Islam lay in a hospital room in the capital Dhaka on Monday, bruised and battered and in fear for his life.

The 26-year-old sociology graduate leads Students Against Discrimination, the main group organising demonstrations against employment quotas for sought-after government jobs that spiralled into deadly violence.

The group suspended the protests for 48 hours on Monday, with Nahid saying it had not wanted to see "so much blood, so much killing, so much damage to life and property".

His soft-spoken manner -- unusual among Bangladeshi student leaders -- belies his steely determination.

Nahid personally led protests against the quotas, which critics say are used to benefit ruling Awami League party loyalists, until Friday.

Wearing a national flag as a bandana, he roused demonstrators with the chant: "Quota or merit? Merit, merit."

However, in the early hours of Saturday, a group of people identifying themselves as police detectives broke through the gate of a friend’s house where he had been staying due to a government-imposed curfew.

He fled to the roof but to no avail.

"Four, five people forcibly took me down and took me to their car. I was blindfolded and handcuffed," Nahid told AFP in an interview in hospital.

He said he was driven to a house 30 or 40 minutes away and interrogated.

"Why we are doing this, what is our purpose, why we were not withdrawing the protests, who was behind this movement," Nahid said he was asked.

"They were not happy with my replies and then at one stage they started beating me, they hit me with something like an iron bar and at one stage I lost consciousness."

He said he found himself on a roadside in Dhaka’s east when he came to his senses early on Sunday morning. A rickshaw took him home and his family took him to hospital.

Nahid asked AFP not to identify where he was being treated for fear of being attacked by members of the ruling party’s youth league or police.

"Me and many other coordinators are fearful for their lives," he said, displaying a large purple bruise on his right arm. "A few of my fellow coordinators are missing."

Nahid has not been able to get a job since graduating from Dhaka University but has been involved in student politics since joining protests against the employment quotas in 2018.

This time, the demonstrations snowballed into some of the worst unrest of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s tenure.

Authorities cracked down on protesters and ordered a curfew, while a widespread internet shutdown was imposed on Thursday.

Nahid accused authorities of "irresponsible behaviour", "provocative remarks" and repression, blaming them for the escalating tension.

"People are expressing their anger at the government," he said.

"We want justice for people who were martyred in the movement and injured.

"The ministers, the heads of law enforcement agencies who ordered the attack, shooting, we want their resignation," he said.

The scale of the violence remained unclear on Monday but an AFP tally of victims reported by police and hospitals put the death toll from the clashes at 163, including several police officers.

Information is limited by official reticence and the internet shutdown, which Nahid demanded be lifted.

"The government is completely controlling media," he said.

"In Bangladesh the human rights situation has gravely collapsed.

"We are not sure how many people were killed."

Bangladesh: Security Forces Target Unarmed Students (Human Rights Watch)

Human Rights Watch [7/22/2024 8:00 PM, Staff, 2.1M, Negative]
The Bangladeshi government has deployed the army against student protesters, imposed shoot-on-sight curfew orders, and shut down mobile data and internet services, Human Rights Watch said today. These actions followed violent protests against excesses by security forces to quell a peaceful student protest campaign.

With more than 160 people killed, foreign governments should immediately call on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her administration to end the use of excessive force against protesters and hold troops to account for human rights abuses.

“Bangladesh has been troubled for a long time due to unfettered security force abuses against anyone who opposes the Sheikh Hasina government, and we are witnessing that same playbook again, this time to attack unarmed student protesters,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Now is the time for influential governments to press Sheikh Hasina to stop her forces from brutalizing students and other protesters.”

In early July 2024, tens of thousands of university students began peacefully protesting after a High Court Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh ruling restoring quotas in government jobs for various categories of people, particularly the 30 percent for descendants of those who had joined the war for independence of Bangladesh in 1971. Students contended that the quota for war veterans would unfairly benefit government supporters. On July 15, members of the Chhatra League (BCL), the student group affiliated with Prime Minister Hasina’s Awami League Party, backed by police, attacked the protesters, killing six people.

Protests spread to several cities and universities across the country following the July 15 attack, leading to deadly clashes between protesters and the pro-government supporters and security forces, with hundreds killed or wounded. Security forces have used live ammunition, tear gas, stun grenades, rubber bullets, and shotgun pellets to disperse protesters. With the internet shut down, reliable information is difficult to get; Agence France-Presse said that police and hospitals had reported 163 deaths, but activists fear the number is much higher. “I have never seen such cruelty,” a Dhaka resident who recently left the country told Human Rights Watch. “The security forces just kept on shooting. They were shooting at such young people. They even shot at bystanders if they tried to help protect the students.”

Several journalists were injured when assaulted by security forces and Chhatra League supporters. The United Nations human rights chief, Volker Türk, called for restraint and said the “attacks on student protesters are particularly shocking and unacceptable.”

Prime Minister Hasina, who won a fourth consecutive term after January elections that were not free or fair, had previously imposed and then withdrawn the quota. She has called for dialogue and promised an inquiry into the July 15 deaths. Educational institutions have been closed indefinitely. On July 21, the Supreme Court, hearing an appeal from the government, ruled to reduce the quota in government jobs, allocating 5 percent for descendants of independence war veterans and 2 percent for other categories.

However, students said that Sheikh Hasina has lost their trust following a statement that denounced the protesters as political traitors. The students responded by calling her an “autocrat.”

On June 18, the Bangladeshi authorities imposed a nationwide internet shutdown, critically limiting communications, access to information, and ability to share reports of human rights abuses.

The junior telecommunications minister, Zunaid Ahmed Palak, confirmed the shutdown, citing concerns over the spread of “fake news.” Bangladeshi media sites were unable to upload credible information, fueling dangerous rumours. “Bangladesh is in information darkness,” one activist told Human Rights Watch.

The UN Human Rights Council had said in a 2016 consensus resolution that shutting the internet to intentionally prevent or disrupt access to or dissemination of information online violates international human rights law, and that all countries should refrain from and cease such measures.

Protests continued on July 19 and 20, with several people killed by security forces. After protesters stormed a jail in Narsingdi district and set fire to the state broadcaster’s offices, the government issued curfew orders and deployed the military.

On July 22, a student leader declared a 48-hour halt to the protests, calling on the government to end the curfew, restore access to the internet, and stop targeting the student protesters.

The authorities have arrested hundreds of protest participants and organizers, and there are allegations of enforced disappearances and torture in custody. Reports trickling out of Bangladesh say that there is ongoing violence in several places where protesters, now joined by members of the political opposition, are clashing with members of the Chhatra League and security forces. Police have backed the Chhatra League attacks instead of arresting those who engaged in violence.

In a television interview, the information minister, Mohammad A. Arafat, reportedly said that the civil unrest could be quelled quickly, but the government was exercising restraint. “The government hasn’t even used five percent of its total capability in this,” he said. “If it does, it won’t take half an hour. But the government is showing patience to avoid casualties.”

The UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms prohibit the use of firearms except in cases of imminent threat of death or serious injury. The UN Human Rights Committee, which monitors compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, has stated that “firearms are not an appropriate tool for the policing of assemblies, and must never be used simply to disperse an assembly.… [A]ny use of firearms by law enforcement officials in the context of assemblies must be limited to targeted individuals in circumstances in which it is strictly necessary to confront an imminent threat of death or serious injury.”

The 2020 UN guidance on “less-lethal weapons” in law enforcement says: “Multiple projectiles fired at the same time are inaccurate and, in general, their use cannot comply with the principles of necessity and proportionality. Metal pellets, such as those fired from shotguns, should never be used.”

The authorities repeatedly deny that Bangladeshi security forces have committed serious human rights violations including extrajudicial killings, torture, and enforced disappearances, leading to a climate of impunity, Human Rights Watch said. Other governments, including the United Kingdom and the European Union, should place Bangladeshi security forces under increased scrutiny following the designation of human rights sanctions by the US government.

“Bangladeshi authorities have flouted international standards in the past and continue to do so during the ongoing protests,” Ganguly said. “The Sheikh Hasina government should take immediate steps to end the crisis, rein in and punish security forces and her party supporters who have committed serious crimes, and protect the rights of protesting students.”

UAE sentences Bangladeshi nationals to prison over protests against their home government (AP)

AP [7/22/2024 6:19 AM, Michael Wakin, 31180K, Negative]
A court in the United Arab Emirates sentenced dozens of Bangladeshi nationals to prison, including three for life imprisonment, over protests against their home government in the Gulf country, state media reported Monday.

The Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal on Sunday handed 10-year prison sentences to 53 Bangladeshi nationals and an 11-year term to another Bangladeshi national, in addition to the three life imprisonments, according to the state-owned Emirates News Agency, WAM. The court ordered the deportation of the Bangladeshis from the UAE following their prison terms.

“The court heard a witness who confirmed that the defendants gathered and organised large-scale marches in several streets of the UAE in protest against decisions made by the Bangladeshi government,” WAM reported.

On Saturday, authorities in the United Arab Emirates ordered an investigation and an expedited trial of the arrested Bangladeshi nationals.

The protests in the UAE followed weeks of demonstrations in Bangladesh by people upset about a quota system that reserved up to 30% of government jobs for relatives of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s war of independence in 1971. The country’s top court on Sunday scaled back the controversial system, in a partial victory for the mostly student protesters.

The UAE’s attorney general’s office on Saturday indicted the Bangladeshis on several charges, including “gathering in a public place and protesting against their home government with the intent to incite unrest,” obstructing law enforcement, causing harm to others and damaging property, according to WAM.

Bangladeshi nationals make up the UAE’s third-largest expatriate community. Many of them are low-paid laborers seeking to send money back home to their families. The Emirates’ overall population of more than 9.2 million is only 10% Emirati.

Political parties and labor unions are banned in the UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms. Broad laws severely restrict freedom of speech and almost all major local media are either state-owned or state-affiliated outlets.

UAE Jails 57 Bangladeshis For Protests: State Media (Agence France-Presse)

Agence France-Presse [7/22/2024 7:47 AM, Staff, 4032K, Negative]
An Emirati court has sentenced 57 Bangladeshi expatriates to lengthy prison terms for protesting against their government in the Gulf country, where demonstrations are banned, state media reported Monday.

Protests have swept Bangladesh this month against a quota system for civil service jobs that critics say benefits supporters of autocratic Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

In Bangladesh, near-daily marches escalated last week into civil unrest, leaving 163 people dead. More than 500 people, including some opposition leaders, have been arrested.

On Monday, the official Emirati news agency WAM said three Bangladeshi expatriates were sentenced to life, 53 others to 10 years in prison and one to 11 years for participating in protests.

The defendants had "gathered and incited riots in several streets across the United Arab Emirates on Friday", WAM said, adding they would be deported after the completion of their prison terms.

The Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal’s ruling was made on Sunday after a swift investigation that had been ordered on Friday, WAM reported.

It quoted a witness as saying that "the defendants gathered and organised large-scale marches in several streets of the UAE in protest against decisions made by the Bangladeshi government".

The UAE, an autocratic federation of seven sheikhdoms, is populated mostly by expatriates, many of them South Asians who work as labourers.

Bangladeshis form the third largest expatriate group in the UAE, after Pakistanis and Indians, according to the UAE foreign ministry.

The oil-rich Gulf state bans unauthorised protests and prohibits criticism of rulers or speech that is deemed to create or encourage social unrest.

Defamation, as well as verbal and written insults, whether published or made in private, are punishable by law.

The country’s penal code also criminalises offending foreign states or jeopardising ties with them.

The ruling comes weeks after Emirati authorities handed life sentences to 43 Emiratis for "terrorist" links after a mass trial heavily criticised by UN experts and rights groups.

Ten others were jailed for 10 to 15 years on similar charges.

Government critics and human rights activists were among the 84 defendants brought before the Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal, most of whom have been in jail since a similar trial of 94 people in 2013, according to groups say.

Commenting on the Bangladeshi case, Amnesty International’s UAE researcher Devin Kenney said it was "the second mass trial in the UAE this month, with dozens of people sentenced to huge prison terms literally overnight, on charges involving no element of violence".

In a statement to AFP, Kenney said the UAE’s "extreme reaction to the mere existence of a public protest on Emirati soil shows that the state places great priority on suppressing any manifestation of dissent in the country."

Flight carrying Malaysians evacuated from Bangladesh to arrive on Tuesday (Reuters)

Reuters [7/22/2024 11:58 PM, Danial Azhar, 5.2M, Neutral]
A charted flight carrying Malaysian nationals evacuated from deadly violence in Bangladesh is expected to arrive in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday afternoon, Malaysia’s foreign ministry said.

Student-led protests against quotas in government jobs in Bangladesh spiralled into violence last week, with at least 147 people killed.

Bangladesh’s top court subsequently agreed to scrap most quotas following the clashes between protestors and security forces that prompted the government to shut down internet services, impose a curfew and deploy the army.

The flight carrying Malaysian nationals is expected to arrive at Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 4.10 p.m. (0810 GMT) on Tuesday, according to an advisory issued by the foreign ministry.

The AirAsia flight, an Airbus A330 aircraft, arrived in Bangladesh earlier on Tuesday, state news agency Bernama reported.

Over 100 Malaysians, including students, have been sheltering in Malaysia’s High Commision in Dhaka since Monday, Bernama reported.

Central Asia

Kazakh Court Commences Trial in High-Profile Prison Torture Case (Radio Free Europe)

Radio Free Europe [7/22/2024 4:14 PM, Staff, 235K, Neutral]
A dozen former Kazakh prison guards accused of torturing a noted anti-war activist Timur Danebaev and 40 other inmates went on trial on July 22. The probe was launched after a video showing guards severely beating the 39-year-old activist and other inmates circulated online in September 2023. Danebaev was arrested in December 2022 over his online posts condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and criticizing Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev for inviting the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization’s troops to disperse antigovernment protests in January that year. In June 2023, he was convicted of inciting ethnic hatred and sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison.

High-polluting cars rule the roads in Kazakhstan (EurasiaNet)

EurasiaNet [7/22/2024 4:14 PM, Almaz Kumenov, 57.6K, Neutral]
The Kazakh government has decided to keep a controversial fee in place for imported autos. Officials say the fee generates revenue for a recycling program that scraps durable goods, including cars, in an environmentally responsible manner. Critics, however, contend that the fee is achieving the opposite of its intended effect by keeping high-polluting junkers on the road because it puts newer, imported cars out of the financial reach of many Kazakhs.

A citizens’ initiative group submitted a petition containing more than 50,000 signatures in late May seeking the repeal of the fee, contending that it hindered competition and caused environmental harm by discouraging the trade-ins of older autos for more efficient models. A government commission, convened under the auspices of the Ministry of Industry and Construction, took almost two months to issue its decision.

“The recycling fee is aimed at solving environmental issues, while serving as a protective measure for the domestic market against used vehicles that do not meet environmental requirements, and indirectly contributes to the development of domestic production,” the Ministry of Industry said in a statement on July 19.

The recycling fee attached to the price of a used or new imported passenger vehicle in Kazakhstan can climb as high as 2.1 million tenge (about $4,500), depending on the engine size. In 2022, the fee topped $7,000, but was scaled back in the face of public pressure. Even so, the recycling fee, on top of the purchase price and registration cost, makes car-buying unaffordable for many in Kazakhstan, where per capita annual income is in the $4,000-$5,000 range.

Almaty taxi driver Nikolai Shapovalov is among the many citizens who would like to get rid of his old car, in his case a 1998 Mitsubishi, but must keep driving it because he can’t afford a newer model. “Often the recycling fee is even more expensive than the cost of the car,” Shapovalov told Eurasianet. The recycling fee, he added, is “is an anti-people measure that benefits local dealers.”

Sanzhar Bokaev, a leader of the group that submitted the petition, contends that the air pollution caused by older autos outweighs the environmental benefits generated by the recycling program. He added that aging cars also increase safety risks on roads. The recycling fee “brings nothing but harm to the country,” he said.

In a commentary published by Forbes Kazakhstan, Shyngys Temir, a representative of the Union of Independent Automotive Businesses, a lobbying organization, showed that since the introduction of the fee in 2016, the average age of autos in Kazakhstan has increased from 15 to 22 years old. Car ownership numbers, meanwhile, have fallen, from 22 cars per 100 people in 2016 to 18.6 per 100 today.

Bokaev, in comments given to Eurasianet, noted the government has not provided a clear breakdown of how it set the recycling fee and why it is so high. He contends the high cost can’t be justified. Temir, meanwhile, estimated that the cost of recycling a car could be as low as $200.

Not all vehicles are apparently accepted for recycling, Bokaev said. In a video posted on his YouTube channel, Bokaev bought a broken-down tractor with the intention of handing it over for recycling, but the equipment was rejected at both recycling facilities he approached. He was told the machine couldn’t be accepted because it wasn’t in working order. “What do Kazakhstanis pay for?” he asked in the video.

Officials contend the recycling program has been successful, citing statistics showing that since the introduction of the fee, the percentage of durable household goods being recycled has jumped from 2 percent in 2016 to 23 percent this year. Between 2016-2022, almost 200,000 cars and farm vehicles were disposed of under the program.

Temir and other industry observers believe the main aim of keeping the fee in place is to protect the nascent domestic auto industry from outside competition. In 2023, domestic vehicle production reached 148,000, a 30 percent increase over the previous year’s total, the Astana Times reported. The fledgling auto sector is centered in the northern Kostanai Region.

Extreme Shortages: Turkmen Face Severe Drinking-Water Crisis During Scorching Summer (Radio Free Europe)

Radio Free Europe [7/22/2024 4:17 PM, Farangis Najibullah, 1530K, Negative]
Denizens of the coastal city of Turkmenbashi have only 40 minutes a day to fill their buckets and tanks with water amid a crippling rationing severely restricting the drinking water in the middle of Turkmenistan’s scorching summer.

Water is provided to residents twice a day for 20 minutes -- at 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. -- with the taps dry the rest of the day, people say.

"First it was 30 minutes in the morning and 40 minutes in the evening, so the problem has gotten [significantly] worse," said a Turkmenbashi resident who didn’t want to give his name for fear of retaliation in the authoritarian country.

The water crisis has affected hotels and businesses in the city’s resort district of Awaza at the peak of the summer holiday season, although the situation is slightly better in that area as it gets water supplies three times a day.

It’s unclear if places like hospitals or nurseries are exempt from the rationing. Authorities did not respond to RFE/RL requests for comment.

Water shortages are being reported in many parts of Turkmenistan, hitting the Central Asian country amid searing summer heat where temperatures hover around 35-40 degrees Celsius.

In Turkmenabat and the surrounding areas in the eastern Lebap region, residents report there have been frequent outages of drinking water since mid-June. The blackouts come without any prior notice and can last for several days, locals say.

One outage in Turkmenabat and the suburban Charjew district lasted July 8-12, they said.

"It was a big problem," one resident said. "There was no water in the taps for days."

A man from Charjew’s Darghanly village told RFE/RL that the price of bottled water went up overnight as a result. Others said people were going to neighboring districts in search of water.

Antiquated Infrastructure

Residents blame the crisis on aging water pipes and authorities’ inability to fix the problem.

Turkmen cities rely on the decrepit centralized network to distribute drinking water. In most cities the pipes have not been replaced since Soviet times, leaving residents with chronic water shortages.

In a country where corruption is widespread, many people suspect that money allocated for the overhaul of the infrastructure has been embezzled.

"We’re tired of asking the city authorities to resolve this problem once and for all. But we know that our complaints don’t bring any results," said a resident of Turkmenabat’s Uchpunkt neighborhood. "The city administration always tells us that the problem will soon be taken care of, but people don’t believe it anymore."

In some Turkmenabat neighborhoods, residents have decided to take the initiative into their own hands, collecting money to replace broken and corroded pipes.

"People are collecting $30 per household," said a resident of the neighborhood known as Mikrorayon N3.

Dirty Water

In addition to the water shortages, there have been reports in some cities of the poor quality of water coming from the taps.

"The tap water in new Turkmenbashi apartment buildings and in the Awaza hotels has a yellowish color and smells like metal," a local resident said on July 18.

"People wait for hours for the dirt in the water to sink to the bottom before using it for tea or food," another resident said, adding that "not everyone in our city can afford filtered water for $4 for a 5-liter bottle."

A similar problem in May in the capital, Ashgabat, was blamed by city officials on floodwater temporarily affecting the quality of the water. Several people were hospitalized with suspected contamination from the water, but the secretive authorities didn’t acknowledge there had been a health crisis.

In the town of Annau in Akhal Province, people complain about what they describe as "high levels of salt" in the water.

"It tastes salty," an Annau resident told RFE/RL. "When you wash your clothes in this water, white stains appear on the clothes after drying."

It’s unknown if authorities have launched a probe to determine if the water is safe to drink.

There is no transparency or accountability for authorities in Turkmenistan, who don’t acknowledge the problems regarding their handling of the important issues that citizens face.

Twitter

Afghanistan

SIGAR
@SIGARHQ
[7/22/2024 11:00 AM, 170.4K followers, 13 retweets, 28 likes]
(1/2) Last quarter, Taliban maintained nationwide ban on girls attending school/university beyond 6th grade. Local Afghan media outlet reported Kandahar, home of regime’s supreme leader, imposed even more stringent ban preventing girls from attending school past…

SIGAR
@SIGARHQ
[7/22/2024 11:00 AM, 170.4K followers, 1 retweet, 9 likes]
(2/2)…age of 10 or beyond 3rd grade. #USAID told SIGAR that no formal directive had been issued about the more stringent ban and USAID had not been able to substantiate the local report https://sigar.mil/pdf/quarterlyreports/2024-04-30qr.pdf#page=57

Bilal Sarwary
@bsarwary
[7/23/2024 1:49 AM, 254.4K followers, 2 retweets, 5 likes]
Taliban Forms Commission to Identify Security Sector Infiltrators In early 2024, the Taliban established a joint commission composed of the General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI), the Internal Security Directorate of the Ministry of Interior, and the Directorate of Reconnaissance and Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense. The commission’s goal was to identify security breaches within their ranks, pinpoint the infiltrators, and recommend preventive measures.

Two months ago, the commission completed its report and submitted it to Taliban security leaders. Following the report, the GDI made several arrests in Herat, Kabul, and Nangarhar. Some Taliban members were also dismissed from their positions in Kabul, Nangarhar, Ghazni, Helmand, Herat, and Faryab provinces. The GDI claimed these actions were due to suspicions of links to the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP).

However, sources familiar with the situation, who requested anonymity, indicated that the arrests and dismissals were not solely related to ISKP connections. Some individuals were reportedly spying for other anti-Taliban groups as well. The commission’s report identified infiltrators from ISKP, the Freedom Front of Afghanistan, and the National Resistance Front. The report concluded that the Ministry of Interior had the highest number of infiltrators within the Taliban’s security structure.

Jahanzeb Wesa
@JahanzebWesa
[7/22/2024 8:51 PM, 2.6K followers]
Reports, this Afghan commando soldier named Muhibullah Mohabat in the last government of Afghanistan was killed in Alingar district of Laghman province and then thrown into the river. His family says that they didn’t had any personal enmity with anyone. #Afganistan #Army #UN

Jahanzeb Wesa
@JahanzebWesa
[7/22/2024 9:45 AM, 2.6K followers, 2 retweets, 2 likes]
A few months after reducing the salary of the female employees who were forced to stay at home by the Taliban, the Taliban sent a letter to the teachers this week and reduced the salary of the female teachers above the sixth grade to five thousand Afghanis. #Afghanistan #Women

Pakistan

Hamid Mir
@HamidMirPAK
[7/23/2024 1:17 AM, 8.5M followers, 24 retweets, 123 likes]
It’s a good that CDA will plant one million trees on Margalla hills but who will look after the trees after the plantation? CDA planted thousands of trees recently on Iran avenue and other parts of capital but half of the trees destroyed due to negligence https://www.dawn.com/news/1847406

Habib Khan
@HabibKhanT
[7/22/2024 11:36 AM, 228.6K followers, 16 retweets, 59 likes]
Pakistani proxy militants detonated a bomb at a school in Waziristan. The man in the video accuses the Punjabi-dominated Pakistani establishment of trying to keep Pashtuns in the dark and urges all Pashtuns to attend the October 11 Jirga, where they will determine their own fate.

Habib Khan
@HabibKhanT
[7/22/2024 11:19 AM, 228.6K followers, 12 retweets, 102 likes]
Pakistan’s support for anti-Hasina protests in Bangladesh—formerly East Pakistan, which they lost to the Bengalis in 1971—hoping to install a puppet regime, is quite ambitious. Meanwhile, they’re losing northwestern and southwestern Pakistan as the Pashtuns and Baloch rise up.

India

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[7/22/2024 8:50 AM, 100.3M followers, 4.9K retweets, 25K likes]
The Economic Survey highlights the prevailing strengths of our economy and also showcases the outcomes of the various reforms our Government has brought. It also identifies areas for further growth and progress as we move towards building a Viksit Bharat. https://indiabudget.gov.in/economicsurvey/doc/echapter.pdf

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[7/23/2024 1:33 AM, 100.3M followers, 3.6K retweets, 14K likes]
Finance Minister @nsitharaman Ji is presenting the Budget in Parliament. https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1vAxROZjjvzKl

President of India
@rashtrapatibhvn
[7/23/2024 12:39 AM, 25.3M followers, 614 retweets, 4.2K likes]
Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs Smt Nirmala Sitharaman along with Minister of State for Finance Shri Pankaj Chaudhary and senior officials of the Ministry of Finance called on President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan before presenting the Union Budget. The President extended her best wishes to the Union Finance Minister.

Derek J. Grossman
@DerekJGrossman
[7/22/2024 5:21 PM, 90.7K followers, 7 retweets, 21 likes]
India is becoming a headache for China within the SCO. Funny, I talked about this years ago (see below)...and now it’s happening. https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/india-hints-at-roles-of-pakistan-china-that-could-undermine-shanghai-cooperation-organisation-6144873

NSB

Awami League
@albd1971
[7/22/2024 8:14 AM, 638.6K followers, 42 retweets, 89 likes]
#BreakingNews #Bangladesh: #QuotaMovement Protestors Withdraw "Shutdown" Programme Conditional Upon 4 Demands. "We are actually waiting for a declaration from the government. We want to see whether declaration includes all grades of government jobs and finally the percentages (of quotas). Only then can we answer whether our reaction (to the Supreme Court judgment) is positive or negative. Since there is an ongoing curfew, we are ending our “shutdown” programme. This is the first point, no shutdown programme."

Awami League
@albd1971
[7/22/2024 12:05 PM, 638.6K followers, 40 retweets, 85 likes]
Prime Minister #SheikhHasina has approved a government declaration ("Proggapon") implementing the #SupremeCourt verdict on quotas in government jobs (all grades): 93% based on #merit only, 5% quota for children of #freedomfighters, martyred freedom fighters and Birangonas, 1% quota for ethnic #minorities, and 1% quota for #disbaled persons and members of #thirdgender.

Bangladesh Nationalist Party-BNP
@bdbnp78
[7/23/2024 2:42 AM, 52.4K followers, 15 retweets, 77 likes]
The United Nations is outraged by the use of UN peacekeeping vehicles and equipment to suppress the student movement in Bangladesh and has issued a stern message expressing their concern #Quota_Reform_Movement #StepDownHasina

Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office
@amnestysasia
[7/22/2024 11:33 PM, 85.2K followers, 530 retweets, 699 likes]
Bangladesh: More than 170 people, including protesters, journalists and bystanders, have been killed and thousands injured in Bangladesh since the quota reform protest led by students started on 1 July 2024. Recent video footage circulated online shows a member of the security forces believed to be a former UN peacekeeper shooting at the student protesters. Amnesty International reiterates its call that the UN must review admission of Bangladeshi law enforcement officers to peacekeeping forces and carry out due assessment of human rights violations when enlisting them as UN peacekeepers. Bangladesh being one of the largest contributors to the @UNPeacekeeping, Amnesty International issued a statement last year when @Lacroix_UN visited the country, that he must prioritize reviewing human rights violations by the security forces so that the perpetrators do not get deployed as peacekeepers. https://amnesty.org/en/documents/asa13/6914/2023/en/

The President’s Office, Maldives
@presidencymv
[7/22/2024 2:07 PM, 109K followers, 136 retweets, 130 likes]
First Lady, Madam Sajidha Mohamed, graced the Centre for Higher Secondary Education’s Prize Day 2024 ceremony. At the ceremony, she presented awards to the distinguished students who achieved first place.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maldives
@MoFAmv
[7/22/2024 10:44 AM, 54.4K followers, 15 retweets, 24 likes]
Under the Ambassador Lecture Series, #FOSIM hosted an interactive career guidance session, conducted by His Excellency Ibrahim Shaheeb, High Commissioner of the Republic of Maldives to India.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maldives
@MoFAmv
[7/22/2024 6:27 AM, 54.4K followers, 38 retweets, 42 likes]
Maldives and China Hold Official Talks Press Release | https://t.ly/W7VM4

Moosa Zameer
@MoosaZameer
[7/22/2024 6:19 PM, 13.6K followers, 63 retweets, 81 likes]
Today, I had productive bilateral discussions with Foreign Minister Wang Yi. We explored opportunities to advance our cooperation in key areas of mutual interest, including infrastructure, healthcare, and tourism. Expressed appreciation for China’s support under BRI, which has been instrumental in our socio-economic development. Looking forward to the continued growth of over 50 years of Maldives-China friendship. @MFA_China @ChinaEmbassy_MV

MOFA of Nepal
@MofaNepal
[7/22/2024 12:40 PM, 23.5K followers, 23 retweets, 63 likes]
Updates on Nepali students in Bangladesh: The Government of Nepal remains committed to ensuring safety and security of all Nepali students in Bangladesh. Till today, more than 1300 students have arrived back from Bangladesh.

MOFA of Nepal
@MofaNepal
[7/22/2024 12:40 PM, 23.5K followers, 7 retweets, 9 likes]
Following coordination of the Embassy of Nepal in Dhaka with relevant authorities, total 126 Nepali students arrived from Bangladesh today, out of which 114 entered from Kakarvitta border point. @Arzuranadeuba @sewa_lamsal @gsbbhandari

Derek J. Grossman
@DerekJGrossman
[7/22/2024 5:36 PM, 90.7K followers, 7 retweets, 12 likes]
Nepal is always stuck between a rock and a hard place, aka China and India. https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3271362/nepals-political-shift-complicates-its-india-china-balancing-act

M U M Ali Sabry
@alisabrypc
[7/23/2024 12:51 AM, 5.9K followers, 1 retweet, 5 likes]
Bade farewell to outgoing High Commissioner of #Bangladesh to #SriLanka @TareqMdArifulI1 as his tenure comes to an end. Appreciated his valuable contribution to elevate relations between our two nations and wished him success in his next assignment @MFA_SriLanka

Central Asia

The International Institute for Central Asia
@IICAinTashkent
[7/22/2024 10:25 AM, 248 followers, 3 retweets, 2 likes]
Kazakhstan and Tajikistan are set to sign a new Roadmap to increase trade turnover for 2025-2027. The decision follows the 18th Kazakh-Tajik Economic Commission meeting in Dushanbe, chaired by Roman Sklyar and Khokim Kholikzoda. More: https://primeminister.kz/ru/news/kazakhstan-i-tadzhikistan-gotovyat-podpisanie-dorozhnoy-karty-po-uvelicheniyu-dvustoronnego-tovarooborota-na-2025-2027-gody-28806

Navbahor Imamova
@Navbahor
[7/23/2024 12:59 AM, 23.5K followers, 2 likes]
Our #SolutionsJournalism trainees this summer in Uzbekistan included some veteran editors and news managers as well as those just getting started. We brought in reporters, producers, bloggers, and freelancers striving to offer more professional/reliable content. Photos from the just completed Urgench-Khiva workshop.

Navbahor Imamova
@Navbahor
[7/23/2024 12:59 AM, 23.5K followers]
Colleagues in Uzbekistan long for trainings in digital media and AI, while also eager for workshops on journalistic principles, ethics, best practices, and international norms. @USAGMgov seminars across UZ this summer.

Navbahor Imamova
@Navbahor
[7/23/2024 12:59 AM, 23.5K followers]
Deep discussions on conflicts of interest in Uzbekistan’s media sector with journalists and bloggers working at news outlets and press services at the same time on top of being bloggers. @USAGMgov workshops in UZ this month.

Navbahor Imamova
@Navbahor
[7/23/2024 12:59 AM, 23.5K followers]
We need more engagement with the media community in Karakalpakstan and Khorezm, western parts of Uzbekistan. They feel isolated even though closely follow the media content generated in Tashkent and abroad. They want to contribute, grow, and expand. Wrapping up @USAGMgov workshop in Urgench-Khiva.

Navbahor Imamova
@Navbahor
[7/23/2024 12:59 AM, 23.5K followers]
Several days in Urgench and Khiva with local journalists and bloggers and those from Tashkent, Karakalpakstan, and Bukhara. Learned a great deal from each other @USAGMgov workshop on #SolutionsJournalism.

Navbahor Imamova
@Navbahor
[7/23/2024 12:59 AM, 23.5K followers]
Uzbekistan: More trainings focusing real world challenges and teamwork, diversity and gender in the workplace, ask our colleagues @USAGMgov workshops this month.

Leila Nazgul Seiitbek
@l_seiitbek
[7/22/2024 5:36 AM, 3.6K followers, 9 retweets, 17 likes]
Uzbek authorities claim that Tajimuratov’s facial expressions and gestures indicated calls to overthrow the government and promote separatism. Tomorrow, July 23, 2024 at 11 AM, the Supreme Court of Uzbekistan in Tashkent will review the revision appeal of Dauletmurat Tajimuratov. https://freedomforeurasia.org/the-revision-appeal-of-dauletmurat-tajimuratov/

{End of Report}

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