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

Afghanistan
The Taliban disavows some Afghan diplomatic missions abroad and rejects their consular services (AP)
AP [7/30/2024 4:19 AM, Staff, 456K, Neutral]
The Taliban on Tuesday disavowed many Afghan diplomatic missions overseas, saying it will not honor passports, visas and other documents issued by diplomats associated with Afghanistan’s former Western-backed administration.

It’s the Taliban’s latest attempt to seize control over diplomatic missions.

In a statement posted to the social media platform X, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that documents issued by missions in London, Berlin, Belgium, Bonn, Switzerland, Austria, France, Italy, Greece, Poland, Australia, Sweden, Canada and Norway are no longer valid and that the ministry “bears no responsibility” for those documents.

The documents affected include passports, visa stickers, deeds and endorsements.

The ministry wrote that people in those countries will need to approach embassies and consulates controlled by the Taliban’s Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan government instead.

“All Afghan nationals living abroad and foreigners can visit the IEA political and consular missions in other countries, other than the above-mentioned missions, to access consular services,” it said.
Taliban Cut Ties With Afghan Embassies Loyal To Former Government (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [7/30/2024 5:30 AM, Staff, 85570K, Negative]
The Taliban government has severed consular ties with swathes of Afghan embassies in Western countries, Kabul said Tuesday, cutting off diplomats loyal to the former foreign-backed administration.

The 2021 Taliban takeover left diplomats staffing Afghanistan’s foreign missions in limbo, having pledged to serve a government which collapsed in chaos after the withdrawal of US troops.

No country has yet formally recognised the Taliban government but in the past three years the Kabul authorities have installed Taliban ambassadors in some neighbouring embassies.

But Afghanistan’s foreign ministry said Tuesday it now "bears no responsibility" for credentials including passports and visas issued by missions out of step with Kabul’s new rulers.

The embassies include those in the cities of London and Berlin as well as the countries of Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, France, Italy, Greece, Poland, Sweden, Norway, Canada and Australia.

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has repeatedly urged the Afghan political and consular missions in European countries to engage with Kabul," a statement said.

"Unfortunately, the actions of most of the missions are carried out arbitrarily, without coordination and in explicit violation of the existing accepted principles."

The statement said Afghans living abroad should deal instead with missions affiliated with the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan -- the self-styled name the Taliban have given the country under their rule.

Pakistan, China and Russia are among Afghan embassies working on order from the Taliban government.

Embassies cut off from Kabul have found themselves in dire financial straits, relying heavily on consular fees to pay staff salaries, rent and bills.

Without that income they may struggle to remain open.

The foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment on its future plans for the ostracised embassies.

Since surging back to power by force after a two-decade insurgency, Taliban officials have campaigned to be Afghanistan’s sole representatives on the international stage.

Considered pariahs over their treatment of women, they have been denied an ambassador to the United Nations.

However at UN-hosted talks in Doha last month they represented Afghanistan -- with civil society groups including women’s activists excluded from the main talks.

Analysts, rights campaigners and diplomats are split over whether to engage with the Taliban government in a bid to soften their stance or freeze them out until they backtrack.
State Department funds could enrich terrorist groups operating out of Afghanistan (Washington Examiner)
Washington Examiner [7/29/2024 1:42 PM, Beth Bailey, 3607K, Neutral]
A recent audit from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction found that two State Department bureaus “could not demonstrate compliance” with procedures for vetting partners carrying out humanitarian and development projects in Afghanistan. As a result, up to $293 million in U.S. taxpayer funds may have benefited the Taliban, which SIGAR emphasized “have sought to obtain U.S. funds intended to benefit the Afghan people through several means, including the establishment of nongovernmental organizations.”

The State Department performs risk assessments to vet implementing partners and “help mitigate the risk of State funds inadvertently benefiting designated terrorist organizations.” In some cases, bureaus may additionally use Risk Analysis Management counterterrorism vetting to further probe implementing partners’ possible ties to terrorists.

State Department agencies are required to retain contract files six years after final payments are distributed. A SIGAR spokesperson confirmed to the Washington Examiner that RAM vetting materials for entities selected as implementing partners must likewise be retained.

Two State Department bureaus, the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor and the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, were only able to provide partial vetting documentation.

DRL provided supporting documents for three of the seven awards it distributed between March 1 and Nov. 20, 2022. Of the three RAM vetting notices provided by DRL, two were deemed “in process.” Though four of 94 entities associated with those notices had not been deemed eligible, SIGAR reported that “DRL began implementing those awards” anyway.

INL only provided vetting information for three of the 22 awards it distributed in the same period. It provided SIGAR with RAM eligibility notices for three of the five RAM-eligible awards. SIGAR reported that one of the notices was “in process.” Five of the six organizations being considered for funds were not yet deemed eligible, but INL was “already implementing the award.”

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller rejected any indications that the department’s funds might have enriched the Taliban, saying at a press briefing last week that “we flatly do not fund the Taliban.”

Whether the tranche of INR and DRL awards reached the Taliban, Afghanistan’s de facto government has already siphoned off $10.9 million in fees, taxes, and duties from $2.8 billion in humanitarian and development aid that the United States has provided since the Taliban came to power in August 2021, per SIGAR reporting.

The danger of U.S. funds reaching Taliban coffers is even more concerning, given findings about al Qaeda’s expanded Afghanistan presence in a July report from the United Nations. Since its last assessment, al Qaeda now operates training camps in two additional Afghan provinces, bringing to 12 the total number of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces where the U.N. believes al Qaeda operates training camps.

Bill Roggio, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told the Washington Examiner, “It is highly likely that Al Qaeda is operating camps” in 15 provinces. Roggio said that Paktia, Paktika, and Khost are not mentioned in U.N. reporting but “are administered by the Haqqani Network, and al Qaeda operated camps there both pre-9/11 and during the U.S. presence in Afghanistan.”

“The Taliban is supporting al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan,” Roggio added. “These camps could not exist without the Taliban’s approval, and the Taliban is also providing material support and manpower to keep the camps running.”

The U.N. report says the continued relationship between al Qaeda and the Taliban is conducted “covertly in order to project the image of Taliban adherence to the provisions of the Doha Agreement.” The team shared a report that al Qaeda “sought to establish cooperation” with the East Turkistan Islamic Movement and Jamaat Ansarullah “in order to intensify activities and strengthen positions within Taliban military structures in the north to conduct joint operations and move the centre of terrorist activity to Central Asia.”

The U.N. team also found that Taliban leaders “continue to profit” from the narcotics trade despite the ban on opium cultivation. Additionally, the team assessed that the Taliban were “unable or unwilling to manage the threat from Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan” and may be unable to combat the Islamic State threat emanating from Afghanistan.

The West must not turn away from indicators that Afghanistan remains a narco-hub and training ground for multiple terrorist organizations. It is vital that the State Department fully vet its implementing partners and find ways to improve the lives of the Afghans suffering under the Taliban regime without enriching terrorists through taxpayer dollars.
Pakistan
Skyrocketing power bills draw protests near Pakistan’s capital (AP)
AP [7/29/2024 10:50 AM, Munir Ahmed, 456K, Negative]
Protests over skyrocketing power bills shut down a major road into Pakistan’s capital on Monday as some 3,000 supporters of a major Islamist party continued a sit-in despite pouring monsoon rains.

In Pakistan’s southwest, meanwhile, thousands protested against police violence, an internet shutdown and highway closures. At least one person was reportedly killed.

Protesters demanding that the government withdraw taxes on electricity to offset price hikes have occupied a road in the garrison city of Rawalpindi since Friday, as police prevented them from heading to the capital Islamabad.

Hoisting the white, blue, and green flags of the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami party, the protesters chanted: “This cruel increase in electricity bills is not acceptable.”

The government has met with protest leaders, but given no indication that it is considering accepting their demands.

Naeem-ur-Rehman, who heads the Jamaat-e-Islami party that called for the protests, says it’s prepared to remain on the streets for as long as it takes.

The government raised power prices 26% during the last fiscal year, which ended June 30, before tacking on another 20% increase on July 13. Officials say the increases were needed to meet conditions set by the International Monetary Fund for a $7 billion loan deal made earlier this month.

The government has also added a confusing bevy of taxes on top of the base price, adding up to a bill that has more than doubled for some Pakistanis.

“This month I paid 22,000 rupees ($80) for my electricity bill, while in May I only paid 10,000 rupees ($36),” said Asma Humayon, who teaches at a private school in the city of Lahore. “I don’t know how to run the kitchen; now half of my salary is going to energy bill.”

Hundreds of supporters of the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami party, mainly women, also rallied against rising bills in Lahore.

Pakistani economist Ashfaque Hasan said another factor in costly power is a deal the government made in the 1990s to buy power from private companies at high prices.

“Pakistan and these independent power producing companies cannot co-exist,” Hasan said.

Hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis have started using solar panels in recent years to avoid heavy electricity bills and power outages, although not everyone can afford the systems.

In Baluchistan province in Pakistan’s southwest, meanwhile, thousands protested against police violence, an internet shutdown and highway closures, community leaders said Monday.

People had been heading across Baluchistan province a day earlier to take part in a mass gathering when security forces reportedly opened fire to disperse the crowds, according to a statement from the event organizers.

At least one person was killed and seven were injured, they said, while Amnesty International put the death toll at three.

However, the military said its own forces had been attacked by a violent mob in the district of Gwadar and that one soldier was killed and 16 wounded. In a statement, it said propaganda was being spread against the military on social media. It said the troops exercised extreme restraint to avoid civilian casualties but those behind the violence would be brought to justice.

It’s the latest unrest to strike the country’s largest and poorest province. Armed groups have waged an insurgency against the state for decades, demanding independence.

There are also deep grievances about enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings and the exploitation of Baluchistan’s abundant natural resources at the expense of people in the province.

The mass gathering was intended to air these grievances.

Following Sunday’s violence, a statement from the human rights advocacy group Baloch Yakjehti Committee warned Islamabad that the situation would escape the state’s control if authorities continued to use force on peaceful public gatherings.

“You people have created an apocalypse in Baluchistan for the last two days, injured many people, martyred a youth and forcibly disappeared hundreds,” the committee said.

A spokesperson for the Baluchistan government, Shahid Rind, said the provincial minister was heading to the city of Gwadar to try to contact the committee’s leaders.
Pakistan army says protesters kill soldier and injure 16 (Reuters)
Reuters [7/29/2024 11:43 AM, Saleem Ahmed, 42991K, Negative]
Pakistan’s army said protesters taking part in a march in the southwestern city of Gwadar attacked security forces deployed to guard them on Monday, killing one soldier and injuring 16 others.

A nationalist ethnic Baloch movement has been demonstrating for the last two days in the port city, blocking a highway to press their demands for the release of members of their movement they say were detained by security forces.

The army said protesters assaulted military personnel who had been deployed to guard them, killing a soldier. "The unprovoked assaults by the violent protesters have resulted in injuries to sixteen soldiers, including an officer."

The Baloch movement’s leader, Bebarg Baloch, said the army used force to break up the protest rally and several of the protesters were injured, including women and children.

He did not comment on the death and injuries reported by the military.

Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, where the port city of Gwadar is located, borders Iran and Afghanistan and has long been the scene of a low-level insurgency by separatist groups, who say they have been fighting for a greater share in the region’s rich mineral resources.

Provincial Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti told legislatures in a televised speech that the demonstration was a "conspiracy" to block a foreign investors’ delegation, which is due to visit the Gwadar next week.

He offered the movement talks to ensure peace.

"Our doors are open," Bugti said in the speech.

The development of Gwadar’s port and many other projects in the region are part of the Chinese $65 billion investment as part of President Xi Jinping’s Road and Belt vision.
Protests In Western Pakistan Turn Violent, Leaving 1 Soldier Dead, Many Injured (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [7/29/2024 2:10 PM, Staff, 1530K, Negative]
Thousands of Pakistanis have been protesting for nearly a week in the port city of Gwadar against a growing Chinese presence in Balochistan and what members of the Baluch community say is a pattern of "forced disappearances" that they blame on Pakistani authorities.

Pakistan’s army said on July 29 that the protests recently turned violent, leaving one soldier dead and at least 16 injured.

According to Baloch United Committee head Mahrang Baloch, the protest, which began on July 24, revolves around the exploitation of resources and the oppression of the Baluch ethnic minority.

"Gwadar is a very sensitive city," Balochistan Interior Minister Mir Ziaullah Lango told RFE/RL, pointing out that there are a number of Chinese nationals living in there.

Gwadar is a port city in western Pakistan on the Iranian border. It is a key nexus for China’s Belt and Road Initiative, an economic-development program criticized by the West for exploitive tendencies throughout the Global South. Beijing has invested about $65 billion in Belt and Road Initiative projects in Pakistan.

Gwadar has been the scene of protests and security concerns in the past. In 2021, Islamabad and Beijing announced plans to install barbed wire around Gwadar, but the move was postponed after mass protests.

Baloch said the gas, coal, and resources of Balochistan belong to the people living in the region, rather than international powers.

"Balochistan and Gwadar are ours," Baloch said. "We cannot live under oppression. We will not allow anyone to exploit us."

Lango said 25 protesters had been arrested for "interfering with the work of the government," but Nadia Baloch, a leader of the Baloch United Committee and Mahrang Baloch’s sister, told RFE/RL more than 300 protesters had been arrested following raids throughout Balochistan.

Videos showing protesters being dragged into police cars have circulated online, and the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan condemned the arrest of the protesters and called for the release of all those arrested.

Lango told RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal that the published videos and images were edited.

The Pakistani Army said the casualties among the soldiers who guarded the protest resulted from "unprovoked assaults by the violent protesters."

Baluch leaders claim that several protesters were injured by the army but gave no details about the number injured or their condition.

Nadia Baloch also cited “forced disappearances” as a motivation for the protests. The Pakistani Army claims that the number of missing people is fewer than 1,000.

Army spokesman Major General Ahmed Sharif said at a May 7 press conference that Baluch people had joined armed groups and were not actually missing.

A Pakistani government commission that investigates forced disappearances said it had registered 197 cases in the first six months of 2024.
Pakistan arrests top leader of radical party on charge of ordering the killing of the chief justice (AP)
AP [7/29/2024 10:35 AM, Staff, 85570K, Negative]
Pakistan’s police on Monday arrested the deputy chief at a radical Islamist party on the charge of ordering the killing of the chief justice over his alleged support to the minority Ahmadi community, officials said.

Zaheerul Hassan Shah was arrested a day after a video went viral on social media, showing him telling a gathering of his supporters from the Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan that he would personally give 10 million rupees ($36,000) to anyone who beheads Qazi Faez Esa, the Chief Justice at the Supreme Court.

Esa has been the target of criticism by extremists in Pakistan in recent months after he granted bail to an Ahmadi blasphemy suspect.

Pakistan’s Parliament declared Ahmadis non-Muslims in 1974. Since then, they have been repeatedly targeted by Islamic extremists, drawing condemnation from domestic and international human right groups.

A senior police officer, Zaheer Asghar, told reporters that Shah was arrested in Okara, a city in the eastern Punjab province. He said a case has been registered against Shah on charges of threatening to kill Esa and inciting people to violence.

Shah’s party has been behind violent protests against any change in Pakistan’s strict blasphemy laws, which carry the death penalty.

Last week, a U.N.-backed panel of independent experts expressed grave concern about increased discrimination and violence against the minority Ahmadi community in Pakistan and urged authorities to ensure their protection.
Pakistan arrests radical Islamist leader for placing bounty on chief justice (VOA)
VOA [7/29/2024 2:30 PM, Ayaz Gul, 4032K, Negative]
Police in central Pakistan on Monday arrested a leader of a far-right Islamist party on charges of ordering the assassination of the country’s top judge over his alleged support for minority Ahmadis.

Zaheerul Hassan Shah, deputy chief of Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan, or TLP, was taken into custody under the anti-terrorism law in Punjab, the country’s most populous province, according to an official police complaint.

The arrest came a day after Shah was seen in a viral video on social media announcing to a crowd of TLP supporters that he would personally give 10 million rupees ($36,000) to anyone who beheads Supreme Court Chief Justice Qazi Faez Esa.

The radical leader delivered the speech in the provincial capital of Lahore, accusing the 65-year-old top judge of “desecrating the law of the country.”

The rally was one of a series of public gatherings organized by TLP in recent days in parts of Pakistan to condemn Esa for granting bail to a member of the minority Ahmadi community, who was accused of posting material against Islam on social media.

Hours before Shah’s arrest, the federal defense minister told reporters in the national capital, Islamabad, that the government would sternly deal with those making false allegations against the chief justice and issuing death threats in the name of the Islamic religion.

“No group can incite violence in the name of faith or politics. We will use the full force of the law to bring them to justice,” Khawaja Asif said. “The state will not allow you to issue a fatwa [decree] to kill someone,” he added.

TLP leaders routinely use offensive anti-Ahmadi language in public rallies and gatherings, inciting followers to attack members of the minority community and their places of worship in the country.

Ahmadis are followers of the Ahmadiyya community, a contemporary messianic movement founded in 1889 who profess to be Muslims.

Pakistan’s constitution declared Ahmadis non-Muslim in 1974 and subsequently prohibited them from acting or representing themselves as Muslims. They are also barred under the law from publicly propagating their faith and building places of worship.

The constitutional restrictions are primarily blamed for the spike in deadly attacks and hatred against Ahmadis in the years that followed.

Last week, a United Nations panel of independent experts said in a joint statement they “are alarmed by ongoing reports of violence and discrimination against Ahmadis” and urged Pakistani authorities to take immediate action to address the situation.

“Urgent measures are necessary to respond to these violent attacks and the broader atmosphere of hatred and discrimination which feeds it,” the panel, reporting to the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council, stated Thursday.
Flash flooding triggered by heavy monsoons in northwest Pakistan kills at least 14 people (AP)
AP [7/30/2024 4:22 AM, Staff, 85570K, Negative]
Heavy monsoons in northwest Pakistan triggered flash flooding, killing at least 14 people, 11 from the same family, officials said Tuesday.

The rains in Kohat, a district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, flooded the basement of a house where the family slept, Bilal Faizi, a spokesman for emergency services said, adding they retrieved the bodies of a man, three women, six children, and an 11-month-old baby girl. He said three others died in the districts of Hangu and Bajur in the same province.

Pakistan has been hit by heavy rains since early July, killing more than 60 people and damaging over 250 homes, mostly in the eastern Punjab and southwestern Baluchistan province.

Authorities warned the rains are likely to cause flash flooding next week in various parts of the country.

Still, weather forecasters say the country will receive less rain as compared to 2022 when the climate-induced downpour swelled rivers and inundated at one point one-third of Pakistan , killing 1,739, displacing nearly 8 million, and causing $30 billion in damage in the cash-strapped country.

Every year, many cities in Pakistan struggle with the annual monsoon deluge, from July through September, drawing criticism for poor government planning. The South Asian country is among the most vulnerable to climate change.
Pakistan to launch home-grown messaging app amid internet disruptions (Al Jazeera)
Al Jazeera [7/30/2024 3:15 AM, Abid Hussain, 20.9M, Neutral]
The Pakistani government is set to roll out “Beep Pakistan”, a communication application designed for federal officials and employees. Its one request? Please don’t compare it to popular messaging platform WhatsApp.

Shaza Fatima Khwaja, the state minister for information technology and telecommunication, said that the application was currently undergoing trial runs within her ministry and would be launched “soon” among other government departments.

“We have developed an application focused on secure and unified communication among government officials. The purpose of Beep Pakistan is to protect our privacy and data,” she told Al Jazeera.

When in August 2023, the then-Minister of IT Syed Aminul Haque first revealed plans for the new app, he described it as Pakistan’s alternative to WhatsApp. Now though, the government is distancing itself from that comparison.

“Any comparison to WhatsApp is misplaced, as there is no intention to compete with any third-party platform,” Khwaja said.

The government’s announcement comes at a time when Pakistanis have been facing numerous disruptions while using the internet.

In April, the government confirmed that the social media platform X had been banned since February due to “security threats”.

In recent months, users have lodged complaints with the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), the country’s top telecom regulator, about internet throttling and, earlier this month, reported difficulties in accessing multimedia content on WhatsApp such as images, documents and voice notes. Information minister Attaullah Tarar, however, denied any problems being faced, saying that it was part of the global technology outage earlier this month.

Earlier in February, mobile data services were suspended on the day of the country’s elections as well.

Concerns about WhatsApp’s security features — or the lack of them — have also long swirled within the Pakistani government, particularly after reports emerged in December 2019 that at least two dozen senior officials were targeted by Pegasus, a spyware developed by the Israeli cybersecurity firm NSO.

At that time, the Pakistani government issued a notification instructing officials to avoid sending sensitive and confidential documents via WhatsApp and announced plans to develop a local communication app to ensure security.

Khwaja, the IT minister, said that the new app would help ensure “data privacy and protection” in government communications. She said that while it would be launched within government departments soon, “the design of the application is robust enough to offer it to the general citizens of Pakistan at later stages, if desired”.

But she denied any future plans to block WhatsApp in Pakistan, describing such fears as “unnecessary exaggerations”.

“The focus of Beep Pakistan is to provide secure communication to the government, and comparisons with other commercial applications are irrelevant,” she said. “Beep will be an official platform for government communication. For personal communication, citizens may choose whatever platform they want, as long as it is not illegal.”

Babar Majid Bhatti, the chief executive of the National Information Technology Board (NITB), the government organisation tasked with developing the application, also insisted that Beep Pakistan should not be compared to WhatsApp.

“WhatsApp is a commercial product, whereas Beep Pakistan is an official, unified secure platform. Their purposes and objectives are different,” he told Al Jazeera.

But Haque, the former minister who oversaw the start of the work on the app, pointed to a more strategic rationale too for the initiative.

Haque, who now heads the National Assembly’s Standing Committee On Information Technology, said that the idea behind launching the application was to ensure Pakistan has what China and the United States have: a homegrown messaging app.

“This is an entirely made-in-Pakistan product. Just like how China has WeChat for their users, or how users have WhatsApp in the United States, we wanted something similar for Pakistan so that is where Beep comes in,” he told Al Jazeera.

Bhatti of the NITB said that the app was developed with the help of Pakistani developers from the private sector but did not disclose further details regarding the safety features or the cost of development.

“The fundamental pillar of any application, particularly Beep Pakistan, is its safety and security, and I assure you that this application includes all necessary layers, including encryption,” he stated.

However, according to Beep Pakistan’s privacy policy, the application will collect various information about the device used to access it, such as location, connection information, and Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, among other data.

The privacy policy further states that this information will be stored on local servers at the National Telecom Corporation (NTC), the official telecom and information communications technology provider to the government of Pakistan.

“The Beep will not share, rent, or sell your personal information to other parties, as the information is only stored on NTC local servers,” the privacy policy states, also noting that it would be legally obligated to disclose relevant personal information if required by law.

The NTC has previously been the target of hacking attempts, with the latest attack occurring in May 2022, when some government websites were suspended for several hours. However, the government clarified that the data centres remained unaffected.

In August 2016, the US-based media organisation, The Intercept, reported that the United States had hacked into NTC servers to spy on Pakistan’s political and military leadership.

Digital rights activists remain wary of the digital safeguards in place for the app.

“One of the greatest vulnerabilities of government apps is the exposure of sensitive user data through unsecured data or app assets,” Ramsha Jahangir, a digital rights expert, told Al Jazeera. According to Beep’s privacy policy, they will collect sensitive personal information, including links to social media. How can its safety and security be assured?”

Experts also point to instances of other countries that have attempted ambitious, locally-made messaging apps. Koo, an X-like social media platform, was developed in India in 2020 and received a grant from an Indian government initiative. Though a private project, it was endorsed by senior leaders of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, who moved to the platform at a time when New Delhi was locked in a tussle with Twitter — as X was then called. The Indian government had demanded that Twitter block a list of accounts critical of the Modi administration.

However, Koo shut down earlier this month due to a lack of funding.

“We have seen local solutions like Koo struggle in the past. Building an app requires significant technical expertise, time, consistency and resources,” Jahangir said.

Fundamentally, she said, “local ‘solutions’ should prioritise respecting users’ privacy rather than merely increasing government power over the private sector”.
Pakistan Cuts Rates Again as Policymakers Try to Revive Economy (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [7/29/2024 10:48 AM, Faseeh Mangi and Ismail Dilawar, 27296K, Neutral]
Pakistan cut its benchmark interest rate for a second consecutive meeting as slowing price gains give policymakers room to focus on shoring up growth in the cash-strapped South Asian nation.

The State Bank of Pakistan reduced the target policy rate by 100 basis points to 19.50%, according to central bank governor Jameel Ahmad. The move was predicted by 31 out of 51 analysts in a Bloomberg survey.

“The Committee viewed that there was a room to further reduce the policy rate in a calibrated manner to support economic activity, while keeping inflationary pressures in check,” the central bank said in a statement on its website.

The central bank slashed rates in June for the first time in four years, going for a 150 basis point cut. Pakistan is trying to keep its economy afloat after dodging a default last summer and the government has set a 3.6% growth target for the new fiscal year from 2.4% in the previous year that ended in June. The central bank expects growth between 2.5% and 3.5%.

The government this month signed a staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund for a fresh $7 billion loan. Fitch Ratings raised Pakistan’s credit rating, citing reduced risks from external funding after it secured the new loan program.

The country has been lurching from one IMF loan to another to keep up with debt payments, which this year stand at about $26 billion. Pakistan has to pay about $10 billion while rest of the loans are expected to be rolled over in the year started July, Ahmad told a press briefing in Karachi on Monday.

The payment “situation is very comfortable,” said Ahmad.

Pakistan will also consider raising funds via Eurobond once credit ratings improve, the governor said. Pakistani officials have recently briefed all three credit rating companies.

Raising interest rates had been a part of the condition, and Pakistan’s inflation, which remains Asia’s fastest, has been slowing even though there are signs of volatility.

Price gains are expected to further weaken to 10.6% in July mainly due to a favorable base effect this month, according to median estimate in a Bloomberg survey. Consumer prices quickened to 12.57% in June for the first time in six months thanks to increased energy costs.

“Inflation is on a declining trend,” said Ahmad. The central bank expects average inflation to remain in the range of 11.5%–13.5% in the current fiscal year that began in July, lower than 23.4% last year.
India
Landslides in Southern India Kill at Least 41 (New York Times)
New York Times [7/30/2024 3:32 AM, Sameer Yasir, 831K, Negative]
At least 41 people were killed in the southern Indian state of Kerala on Tuesday, officials said, after landslides triggered by heavy rains struck an area with rugged, hilly terrain. The death toll was expected to rise.

Rescue workers were struggling to reach the area, in the rural district of Wayanad, because bridges had collapsed and roads had been swept away. State officials said more than 400 families were stranded in remote villages, because the only road connecting them to the rest of Kerala had been cut off.

The state government said it had deployed helicopters to rescue people. “The weather is very bad, but we are trying to do everything we can,” said Veena George, Kerala’s health minister.

Officials said more than 70 people had been injured. Television footage showed water gushing through extensively damaged residential areas.

The India Meteorological Department said on Tuesday that heavy rains were expected to continue in Kerala for at least the next 24 hours, issuing red alerts for several districts. Schools were ordered closed in parts of the state on Monday because of the intense rain, which has been going on for days.
Landslides caused by heavy rains kill 49 and bury many others in southern India (AP)
AP [7/30/2024 4:15 AM, Sheikh Saaliq, 456K, Negative]
Multiple landslides triggered by torrential rains in southern India have killed 49 people, and many others are feared trapped under the debris, officials said Tuesday, with rescue operations being hampered by bad weather.

The landslides hit hilly villages in Kerala state’s Wayanad district early Tuesday and destroyed many houses and a bridge, but authorities have yet to determine the full scope of the disaster. Rescuers were working to pull out people stuck under mud and debris, but their efforts were hampered due to blocked roads and unstable terrain.

PM Manoj, press secretary to the Kerala chief minister, said the landslides had killed at least 49 people so far.

Television visuals showed rescue workers making their way through mud and uprooted trees to reach to those who have been stranded. Vehicles swept off the roads were seen stuck in a swollen river.

Authorities mobilized helicopters to help with rescue efforts and Indian army was roped in to build a temporary bridge after landslides destroyed a main bridge that linked the affected area.

“We are trying every way to rescue our people,” state Health Minister Veena George said.

In a post on social media platform X, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was “distressed by the landslides in parts of Wayanad,” a hilly district which is part of the Western Ghats mountain range.

“My thoughts are with all those who have lost their loved ones and prayers with those injured,” Modi wrote. He announced compensation of $2,388 to the victims’ families.

India’s weather department has put Kerala on alert as the state has been lashed by incessant rains. Downpours have disrupted life for many, and authorities closed schools in some parts Tuesday. More rains are predicted through the day.

Kerala is prone to heavy rains, flooding and landslides. Nearly 500 people were killed in the state in 2018 in one of the worst floods.

The Indian Meteorological Department said the state has had heavy rainfall over its northern and central regions, with Wayanad district recording up to 28 centimeters (11 inches) of rain in the last 24 hours.

“Monsoon patterns are increasingly erratic and the quantum of rainfall that we receive in a short spell of time has increased. As a result, we see frequent instances of landslides and floods along the Western Ghats,” said Roxy Mathew Koll, a climate scientist at the Pune-based Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology.

Koll also said authorities must check on rapid construction activities happening over landslide areas.

“Often landslides and flashfloods occur over regions where the impact of both climate change and direct human intervention in terms of land use changes are evident,” he said.

A 2013 report by a federal government-appointed committee said that 37% of the total area of the Western Ghats mountains should be declared as an ecosensitive area and proposed restrictions on any form of construction. The report’s recommendations have not been implemented so far because state governments and residents opposed it.

India regularly has severe floods during the monsoon season, which runs between June and September and brings most of South Asia’s annual rainfall. The rains are crucial for rain-fed crops planted during the season, but often cause extensive damage.

Scientists say monsoons are becoming more erratic because of climate change and global warming.
Kerala’s Wayanad landslide: Over 50 dead, many missing in tea estate disaster (Reuters)
Reuters [7/30/2024 4:25 AM, Chris Thomas, Munsif Vengattil, and Jose Devasia, 42991K, Negative]
Landslides swept through tea estates in southern India’s Kerala state on Tuesday, killing over 50 people, authorities said, as hillsides collapsed after heavy rain and sent rivers of mud, water and boulders on homes of workers and villagers.

The hillsides gave way after midnight following torrential rainfall on Monday in the Wayanad district of Kerala, a state renowned as one of India’s most popular tourist destinations. Most of the victims were estate workers and their families who were asleep at the time in makeshift tents.

Television visuals showed relief personnel working amid uprooted trees and flattened tin structures as boulders lay strewn at the site with muddy water gushing through.

One man was stuck in chest-high mud for hours, television showed, struggling to free himself until rescue workers finally reached him.

"More than 50 dead bodies have been found but it is difficult to establish a proper count as many body parts have been spotted in the river," the state chief minister’s spokesman, P.M. Manoj, told Reuters by phone.

Nearly 350 families lived in the affected region, mostly tea and cardamom estates, and 250 people had been rescued so far, state officials said. Many others are missing.

Army engineers were roped in to help build an alternate bridge after the one that linked the affected area to the nearest town of Chooralmala was destroyed, the chief minister’s office said in a statement.

The weather office said there was extremely heavy rainfall over north and central Kerala so far on Tuesday, with more rain predicted through the day.

Tuesday’s landslides are the worst disaster there since 2018 when heavy floods killed almost 400 people.

State cabinet minister M B Rajesh earlier said that at least 44 people were killed and 250 had been shifted to temporary shelters, but rescue efforts were hampered due to the collapse of a bridge.

"We fear the gravity of this tragedy is much more. Rescue operations are being carried out by various agencies on a war footing," Rajesh said.

Rashid Padikkalparamban, a resident involved in the relief efforts, said there were at least three landslides in the area starting around midnight, which washed away the bridge connecting the Mundakkai estates to Chooralmala.

"Many people who were working in the estates and staying in makeshift tents inside are feared trapped or missing," he said.

Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, who won the recently-contested general election from Wayanad, but resigned as he was also elected from his family bastion in the north, said he had spoken to the state chief minister to ensure coordination with all agencies.

"The devastation unfolding in Wayanad is heartbreaking," he said in a message on X. "I have urged the union government to extend all possible support"
UK’s new government to restart trade talks with India and other partners (Reuters)
Reuters [7/29/2024 6:00 AM, Kylie MacLellan, 42991K, Positive]
Britain’s new government said on Monday it was restarting talks aimed at securing free trade agreements (FTAs) with India and countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer, whose Labour Party returned to government after 14 years in opposition following a landslide victory at a July 4 election, has made economic growth the central mission of his government.

Trade talks were paused during the election.

"Restarting talks is the first step towards agreeing the high-quality trade deals the UK needs to give businesses access to international markets, boost jobs and deliver that growth," the government said in a statement.

The trade department said the first round of negotiations under the new government were expected to take place in the autumn and would include fresh talks with Israel, South Korea, Switzerland and Turkey.

Britain already has FTAs with those four countries which were rolled over when it left the European Union in 2020, but had previously launched talks aimed at updating the agreements.
India not rethinking issue of allowing Chinese investment, trade minister says (Reuters)
Reuters [7/30/2024 2:04 AM, Manoj Kumar, 5.2M, Neutral]
India is not re-thinking the issue of allowing Chinese investments into the country, Trade Minister Piyush Goyal said on Tuesday
.
Earlier in July, India’s Chief Economic Adviser V. Anantha Nageswaran said in the government’s annual economic survey that New Delhi should focus on direct investments from China to boost its exports and help keep India’s growing trade deficit with Beijing in check.

"There is no rethinking at present to support Chinese investments in the country," the minister told reporters in New Delhi.

The economic survey recommendations are not binding on the government, Goyal said.

Following clashes in the remote Himalayan border in 2020 between the two nuclear armed nations, India tightened scrutiny on investments from Chinese companies.

India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, however, had backed Nageswaran’s suggestion to allow more Chinese investment into the country.

The trade minister’s comments follow a Reuters report last week that said India may ease restrictions on Chinese investment in non-sensitive sectors like solar panels and battery manufacturing.
India’s ‘visa temple’ bestows tickets to the American dream (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [7/30/2024 2:17 AM, Staff, 1.4M, Neutral]
Some gods grant riches and others good luck, but one deity in India offers a much less nebulous fortune to his devotees: tickets to a new life in the United States.

More than 1,000 Hindu faithful visit the Chilkur Balaji temple each day in the belief that the divine presence inside can bless worshippers with a successful visa application.

Those seeking a shot at the American Dream are instructed to pray for their permission to travel abroad, and to return to give thanks when they receive it.

"Every single member of my family who is in the US has come here," Satwika Kondadasula told AFP while walking around the temple’s sanctum.

The 22-year-old said that moving to New York was a longstanding dream. She will head there this week to start her master’s degree and says she has the deity Balaji in part to thank.

"I got the visa because of my capability of course, but I have luck of god as well," she said. "I definitely believe coming here really helped me out."

Balaji is considered an incarnation of Vishnu, one of the key gods of the Hindu pantheon known for upholding the cosmic order of the universe.

The temple bearing his name on the outskirts of Hyderabad was not always known as a conduit for international travel.

Its elderly priest C.S. Gopalakrishna discovered in 1984 that water spontaneously appeared before a shrine to the god when he walked around the perimeter of the temple’s sanctum 11 times.

Word spread and people began visiting the temple to offer wishes for happy marriages, children, or successfully navigating the cut-throat admissions process to India’s top colleges.

‘Blind belief’

Over the decades, devotees came to believe the shrine was particularly effective helping Indians seeking to leave the country -- so much so that it came to be locally known as the "visa temple".

Pilgrims emulate Gopalakrishna’s 11 laps around the temple sanctum, returning later if their wishes are filled to circumnavigate it a further 108 times as an expression of gratitude.

The ritual demands precision. Visitors chanting Balaji’s name in unison keep track of the longer walk with the aid of yellow sheets of paper marked with numbered boxes given out by the temple.

Gopalakrishna says that divine intervention is not guaranteed, and his god helps those who help themselves.

"You should work hard," he told AFP. "Balaji will help if you have blind belief in him."

‘Dream land’

India is now the world’s fifth-largest economy and still enjoys world-beating GDP growth, but hundreds of thousands of its citizens still leave the country each year seeking better opportunities abroad.

While the diaspora spans the globe, the United States remains the destination of choice.

The most recent census there showed its Indian-origin population had grown by 50 percent to 4.8 million in the decade to 2020, while more than a third of the nearly 1.3 million Indian students studying abroad in 2022 were in the United States.

"America is still the dream land," said visa consultant Sakshi Sawhney, who helps Indians negotiate the often perplexing paperwork needed to travel to Western countries.

"That is not going away anytime soon."

‘Better positions’

Sawhney lived for a time in the United States before returning to guide others through the process, and said she herself had visited the Balaji temple while waiting for her visa.

While she does not tell her clients to pray there, she says many tell her that they had done so of their own accord.

Looming presidential elections have focused attention on the heights Indian-origin Americans have scaled.

The mother of Democratic nominee Kamala Harris was born in the southern city of Chennai before her acceptance to Berkeley for her master’s degree aged 19.

The wife of Donald Trump’s pick for vice-president, Usha Vance, was born in San Diego to Indian immigrant parents with family roots not far from the temple.

"It is a great, inspiring moment. Indians are moving around the world and they are in better positions right now," Ajay Kumar, told AFP at the Balaji shrine.

Kumar, 25, has returned to the temple to give thanks to the deity, brimming with excitement before his imminent departure to Tampa Bay, where he will work as a chef.

"America is the place where all my dreams will be fulfilled," he said.
India: Heat and sickness march together as climate shifts (Deutsche Welle)
Deutsche Welle [7/29/2024 6:23 AM, Murali Krishnan, 15592K, Negative]
Indians are no strangers to scorching summers, but this year’s hottest months — from April to June — felt unbearably hot.

The country faced its worst heat wave in over a decade, with hundreds dying and thousands others having their health severely impacted by extreme weather conditions. Temperatures shot past 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) in New Delhi and the northern states of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

Then came the monsoon season, and the heat broke. This month, however, torrential rain triggered floods and landslides in India’s north and northeast, killing scores of people and affecting hundreds of thousands. And both heat and flooding are exacerbating an even deadlier problem — the spread of disease.

‘Beyond human tolerance’

In India, experts say, climate change is boosting the spread of malaria, dengue, yellow fever, cholera and chikungunya, as well as chronic diseases, particularly among the millions of people who already live with poor sanitation, pollution, malnutrition and a shortage of drinking water.

In India’s urban centers, "temperatures are rising beyond human tolerance, humidity is increasing, and so is the nighttime heat," Sunita Narain, head of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a New Delhi-based public interest research and advocacy organization, told DW.

Recent studies have shown that temperatures rising just a few degrees above our body heat levels have an array of harmful effects on mental and physical capabilities. For example, women working in heat-sensitive jobs such as agriculture or construction are at risk for pregnancy-related complications.

Narain warns that cholera, a disease thought to be virtually eradicated, was now "back again with a vengeance." At the same time, she says there is more to the problem than rising temperatures.

"It is not climate change that is bringing cholera. The fact is, it is the mismanagement of the environment," Narain said.

Heat deaths hiding behind other causes

Experts warn that heat waves may be deadlier than we realize, as many heat deaths are attributed on the death certificate to other factors.

"Most people dying during heat waves are not recorded as connected to the heat. There needs to be a proper formulation of heat action plans for cities and towns," Dileep Mavalankar, former head of the Indian Institute of Public Health, told DW.

"The government needs to implement long-term strategies to minimize vulnerability and inequalities across communities especially when heat waves are getting deadlier with every passing year," he added.

A rise in diseases

Climate-sensitive diseases are rising in India, with some of them showing a clear link to the monsoon rainfall and heat. The government is also aware of the link between mortality and heat, and has listed detailed objectives to build up its capacities and prepare India’s medical system to mitigate risks.

However, experts trying to plan and ameliorate these issues often face a fundamental problem — a lack of data.

"This is the first hurdle that we need to work on if we are to save lives," climate scientist Roxy Mathew Koll from the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology told DW.

"Most of the data is not available. Some cities and districts have annual or monthly aggregates, and for a short time, which are insufficient. Hence, it is only possible for us to prepare early warning systems that can inform and save lives and livelihoods if data is available. Basically, the health departments do not share the data that they have" adds Koll.

Agriculture to focus on ‘resilient’ crops

Children and the poorest segments of India are believed to be bearing the brunt of health risks associated with changing climate.

A recent study showcased by Indian officials explored the association between climate parameters and infectious diseases in a three-year study involving 461 children under 16 in the northern city of Varanasi. The researchers established that climate factors such as temperature, humidity, rainfall, solar radiation, and wind speed were significantly associated with infectious diseases like gastrointestinal diseases, respiratory diseases, vector-borne diseases and skin diseases in children.

Chandra Bhushan, head of the Delhi-based International Forum for Environment, Sustainability & Technology, told DW that building resilience in health infrastructure is crucial to deal with climate extremes.

This year, for instance, the Delhi government asked hospitals to initiate a heat-relief action plan and ensure preparedness to deal with Heat Related Incidents (HRIs). In May, there was an increase of between 10% and 15% of heat-related patients coming into outpatient departments and about 10% into emergency departments.

"In Delhi, hospitals were asked to quickly set up new cooling wards to deal with patients with heat-related illnesses. Many other cities faced similar challenges," said Bhushan.

According to the veteran activist, the impact on nutrition and health of the climate crisis is also now being studied. This is also expected to impact India’s agriculture.

"Thus, there is now a greater focus on climate-resilient crops, and in the latest budget the government has announced to release over 100 new climate-resilient crops."

With climate change taking a heavy toll on people’s health, the researcher says, India will have to "adapt and invest" to boost the reslience of its health infrastructure.
NSB
‘Unjustified’: Videos reveal brutality during Bangladesh protests (BBC)
BBC [7/29/2024 8:01 PM, Anbarasan Ethirajan and Shruti Menon, 65502K, Neutral]
An image is worth a thousand words – sometimes, it can even stir a nation.

In Bangladesh, it was the image of university student Abu Sayeed standing with open arms, stick in hand, facing heavily-armed police alone which many credit as the turning point in the recent widespread protest in the country against quotas in government jobs.

Within seconds, as the video shows, the young man was shot at – but still he continues to stand, even as the sounds of more shots ring out. He collapses a few minutes later.

The 16 July incident quickly went viral, triggering more students to jump into the agitation against reservations in civil service jobs for the family members of the veterans of the country’s independence war in 1971.

What followed were days of unrest, marked by an unprecedented ferocity of violence. Bangladesh security agencies are accused of a disproportionate use of force - firing tear gas, rubber bullets, pellet guns, sound grenades and live rounds - a charge they deny. A curfew was eventually brought in, with a shoot-on-sight order.

The highly-respected Bengali daily Prothom Alo and the AFP news agency say more than 200 people were killed in the violence, including several students and three police officers. Official government statistics stand at 147, according to the home minister.

But exact details - and more videos showing what was happening on the streets - have been slow to emerge, in part due to the internet shutdown imposed by the government.

However, since the broadband was partially restored last week, more visuals of the violence have come to light.

In one, substantiated by the BBC’s Verify Team, a young man is trying to pull his injured friend to safety in the Jatrabari area of the capital Dhaka.

Within seconds, a plain-clothes officer with a helmet appears to be firing in the direction of the two. After a while, the young man leaves his mortally wounded friend and sprints away to safety.

What both this and the video of Abu Sayeed show are “unlawful killings”, Irene Khan, a senior UN expert told the BBC.

“Abu Sayeed was not posing any threat to police. But what they do is shoot him point blank, it is a clear display of unjustified, disproportionate violence,” Ms Khan, the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, explained.

Bangladeshi junior minister of information and broadcasting Mohammad Ali Arafat agreed the video of Mr Sayeed being shot appeared “unlawful”.

“That was absolutely vivid and clear,” he said. “The guy was standing stretching his hands and chest, very short distance he was shot.”

Mr Arafat added the incident would be investigated, saying an independent judicial committee had been formed to investigate.

A third video checked and substantiated by the BBC’s Verify Team showed heavily armed troops firing at a group of protesters at a distance in the Mohammadpur area of Dhaka.

But a spokesman for Dhaka Metropolitan police, Faruk Hossain, defended their actions, saying police fired only in self-defence.

“Police use force to save life and property. Any police officer opened (fire) only when it is questioned of private (self) defence situation,” Mr Hossain said in a WhatsApp message.

Officials produced videos of another incident, which appears to show a crowd targeting a police van and later beating up an officer inside the van in the Uttara area of Dhaka.

“They [protesters] killed a police officer and hung him upside down in the Jatrabari area of Dhaka,” Mr Arafat alleged. A ruling party activist was also allegedly beaten to death.

The violence was “not one-sided - people need to see both sides, to see what happened”, Mr Arafat said, adding security forces were outnumbered and attacked in several places because they were not allowed to open fire.

A second video sent by the government showed an injured police officer being carried away by his colleagues.

The government alleges supporters of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the Jamaat-e-Islami party infiltrated the student protests and launched violent attacks on security forces and set fire to state property.

Critics dismiss the claim as an attempt by the governing Awami League to divert attention.

Since the protests died down, activists and local media say the government has unleashed a crackdown by arresting more than 9,000 people, including opposition supporters.

Student protest leaders have also been rounded up - a move the government said was “for their own safety”.

With the government going hard on the demonstrators, experts warn that Bangladesh could witness further unrest.

“There is no trust between the state and the people, you can see that. That’s why you are having these protests and the terrible situation,” the UN expert Ms Khan said.

Bin Yamin Mollah, one of the coordinators of the student movement, who is in hiding “living in fear” of arrest, echoed her sentiment.

“The government has betrayed us,” he told the BBC.
Bangladesh protests resume after ultimatum ignored (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [7/29/2024 7:08 AM, Shafiqul Alam, 85570K, Negative]
Bangladeshi students held scattered street protests on Monday after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government ignored an ultimatum to release their leaders and apologise for those killed in deadly unrest.

Student rallies against civil service job quotas this month sparked days of violence that killed at least 205 people, including several police officers, according to an AFP count of police and hospital data.

The clashes were some of the worst of Hasina’s 15-year tenure but her government has since largely restored order by deploying troops, imposing a curfew and shutting down the internet nationwide.

At least half a dozen leaders of Students Against Discrimination, the group that organised the initial protests, are among thousands since taken into police custody.

"The government is continuing to show complete and utter insensitivity to our movement," Abdul Kader, one of the group’s coordinators, said in a statement.

"We are requesting all citizens of Bangladesh to show solidarity with our demands and join in our movement."

Several protests were staged in the capital Dhaka and elsewhere in Bangladesh on Monday, but they were only a fraction of the size of those seen earlier in the month.

Police charged with batons to break up one protest on Dhaka’s outskirts, arresting at least 20 people, newspaper Prothom Alo reported.

Security forces were deployed widely elsewhere in the teeming megacity of 20 million to deter other demonstrations.

Students Against Discrimination leaders had vowed to end a week-long moratorium on new demonstrations if police failed to release their leaders by Sunday evening.

The group’s demands also include a public apology from Hasina for the violence, the dismissal of several of her ministers, and the reopening of schools and universities around the country that were shuttered at the height of the unrest.

At least 9,000 people have been arrested nationwide since the unrest began, according to Prothom Alo.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday was "concerned about reported mass arrests" as well as "emerging reports about the excessive use of force by security forces", spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Monday.

Troops are still patrolling urban areas and a nationwide curfew remains in force, but it has been progressively eased since the start of last week.

Bangladesh’s mobile internet network was restored on Sunday, 11 days after a nationwide blackout imposed at the height of the unrest, in another sign of the government’s confidence that it was in control of the situation.

"The situation is turning back to normalcy thanks to the timely and appropriate measures taken by the government and the people," the foreign ministry said in a Sunday statement.

Hasina’s government also declared a day of national mourning on Tuesday for those who were killed during the unrest.

Protests began this month over the reintroduction of a quota scheme reserving more than half of all government jobs for certain groups.

With around 18 million young Bangladeshis out of work, according to government figures, the move deeply upset graduates facing an acute jobs crisis.

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

The Supreme Court cut the number of reserved jobs last week but fell short of protesters’ demands to scrap the quotas entirely.

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

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

Protests had remained largely peaceful until attacks on demonstrators by police and pro-government student groups.

The government has accused opposition parties of hijacking the protests to cause unrest.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told reporters Sunday that security forces had operated with restraint but were "forced to open fire" to defend government buildings.
Bangladesh Calls Day Of Mourning For Victims Of Unrest (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [7/30/2024 5:00 AM, Shafiqul Alam, 15592K, Neutral]
Bangladesh’s government called for a day of mourning Tuesday for victims of violence in nationwide unrest, but students denounced the gesture as disrespectful of classmates killed during clashes with police this month.

Student rallies against civil service job quotas this month sparked days of violence that killed at least 206 people, including several police officers, according to an AFP count of police and hospital data.

The clashes were some of the worst of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year tenure but her government has since largely restored order with mass arrests, troop deployments and a nationwide internet shutdown that was rescinded on Sunday.

Her administration said Tuesday would solemnly mark the violence, destruction of government buildings and "terrorist activities" at the height of the unrest with prayers in mosques around the nation.

However, Students Against Discrimination, the group that organised the initial protests, said the government’s announcement was intended to deflect blame for the death toll from police.

"Instead of ensuring justice for the mass murders committed by the state forces, students (have been) cruelly mocked," Mahin Sarker, one of the group’s coordinators, said in a statement.

More than 10,000 people have been arrested in the wake of the unrest, according to the Daily Star newspaper, prompting criticism from rights groups at the extent of the police dragnet.

"The mass arrest and arbitrary detention of student protesters is a witch hunt by the authorities to silence anyone who dares to challenge the government," Amnesty International’s Smriti Singh said in a statement.

Protests began this month over the reintroduction of a quota scheme reserving more than half of all government jobs for certain groups.

With around 18 million young Bangladeshis out of work, according to government figures, the move deeply upset graduates facing an acute jobs crisis.

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

The Supreme Court drastically cut the number of reserved jobs after the unrest but fell short of protesters’ demands to scrap the most contentious aspects of the system.

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

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

Protests had remained largely peaceful until attacks on demonstrators by police and pro-government student groups.

Hasina’s government has accused opposition parties of hijacking the protests to cause unrest.
Has the Araniko Highway in Nepal Become Less Important to China? (The Diplomat)
The Diplomat [7/29/2024 12:50 PM, Sudha Ramachandran, 1156K, Neutral]
The Nepali government has decided to turn down an economic and technical package the Chinese government promised nine years ago for the upgradation of the Araniko Highway. Kathmandu has opted to self-fund the project.

“Since the Chinese government won’t release the amount in the foreseeable future, we have allocated [Nepali] Rs 3.6 billion from our own budget to carry out maintenance along a 26-km section of the highway and manage landslides based on the detailed project report prepared by the Department of Roads,” Madhav Sapkota, a lawmaker of the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist Center (CPN-MC) from Sindhupalchok district, said at an event organized by the Centre for Social Inclusion and Federalism (CESIF) in Kathmandu on July 23, Kathmandu Post reported.

The 115-km Araniko Highway links the Nepali capital of Kathmandu with Kodari at the Nepal-China border. Across this border is the Tibetan market town of Zhangmu, which is linked to the Chinese national highway network.

China and Nepal signed an agreement on building the highway in October 1961. Construction work began in 1963 and the road was officially opened in 1967.

The Araniko Highway runs through treacherous topography; along several stretches the road looks down extremely steep mountains. The terrain is unstable and has seen major earthquakes and frequent landslides, rendering the highway frequently non-operational.

In late March 2015, during Nepali President Ram Baran Yadav’s visit to China to attend the Boao Forum in Hainan province, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced a 900 million yuan (around $123 million) aid package to upgrade the Araniko Highway from a two-lane road to a six-lane metaled highway.

The following month, a massive earthquake hit Nepal and the Araniko Highway suffered severe damage. China began repair work in August 2016 and has completed three phases under the Araniko Highway Long-Term Maintenance Project.

“But the promised upgrade of the highway is yet to begin,” Sapkota said, adding that despite multiple reminders, China did not release the funds. “And so, we decided to fund the work with our own resources,” he said.

According to Smruti S. Pattanaik, a research fellow at the New Delhi-based Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses, China did not release funds for the Araniko Highway’s upgradation because “Nepal rejected the Chinese proposal of including it under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).”

China has been keen to bring projects its companies are implementing under the ambit of BRI. This is the case, for instance, with the Pokhara International Airport project. Beijing has been describing it as a “flagship project” of BRI, a designation that Nepal has rejected.

Additionally, China is “unhappy over Nepal’s reluctance to allow BRI projects to progress. There has been a delay in the negotiation of nine projects that China wants to build under the BRI,” Pattanaik told The Diplomat.

Nepal and China signed the BRI framework agreement in May 2017. Seven years thereon, the two sides are yet to finalize the text of an implementation plan that China proposed in early 2020.

The question of finance is among the contentious issues. “Nepal prefers grant projects as it is apprehensive of the debt it will incur from loans,” Pattanaik said, pointing out that “the Sri Lankan debt crisis served as a wake-up call for Nepal” and has made it cautious. “Nepal is negotiating very carefully.”

A Himalayan country that is sandwiched between China and India, Nepal’s location has bestowed it with immense strategic significance. Indeed, the Araniko Highway holds great significance in the region’s geopolitics.

When the Nepali King Mahendra accepted the Chinese proposal for a road linking Kathmandu to Kodari, Nepal and the region were caught in the vortex of fast-changing developments. Sino-Indian relations were deteriorating rapidly. An election in Nepal in 1959 brought to power the India-backed Nepali Congress (NC). In December 1960, King Mahendra suspended the Constitution, dissolved parliament, and dismissed the NC government. Eager to reduce landlocked Nepal’s dependence on India, he reached out to China and agreed to their proposal for a highway linking Kathmandu to Kodari.

The Araniko Highway, as the Kathmandu-Kodari Road was named subsequently, “pierced the Himalayas,” John W. Garver wrote in “Protracted Contest: Sino-Indian Rivalry in the Twentieth Century” (2001). Understandably India was concerned. As Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru pointed out to the Indian Parliament “India’s security interests would be adversely affected by the road.”

When India conveyed its apprehensions to King Mahendra, the latter derided the concerns saying, “Communism will not arrive in Nepal via a taxi cab.” But India’s worry related to Chinese tanks rolling into the Kathmandu Valley via the proposed highway, Garver cited American academic and Himalayan expert Leo E. Rose as arguing.

The construction of the Araniko Highway back in the 1960s was a major milestone in the region’s geopolitics. After all, it enabled China to breach the Himalayas.

However, the importance of this highway to the Chinese appears to have declined over the past decade.

When the 2015 earthquake severely damaged areas around the Zhangmu/Kodari border crossing and stretches of the Araniko Highway, the latter was rendered impassable, prompting China to shift focus from the Zhangmu-Kodari crossing to the other Sino-Nepali border crossing at Kerung-Rasuwagadhi. Indeed, the Rasuwagadhi-Kerung crossing, which was opened in December 2014, was the only point of bilateral trade between Nepal and China for several years until the Araniko Highway was repaired in 2019.

A Nepali government official who spoke to The Diplomat on condition of anonymity said that China is developing state-of-the art infrastructure at the Kerung-Rasuwadhi crossing. It appears to be “prioritizing this crossing over the Zhangmu-Kodari crossing,” he said.

China’s interest in the Kerung-Rasuwagadhi crossing is not new. When it proposed a road connecting Kathmandu to the China-Nepal border in the early 1960s, it had pushed for the crossing at Rasuwagdhi. King Mahendra preferred the highway running up to Kodari, and this led to the Chinese constructing the historic highway running from Kathmandu to Kodari.

The renewed Chinese interest in the Kerung-Rusawgadhi crossing could have been prompted by the geological challenges that have repeatedly battered the Kerung-Rusawadhi crossing, approach roads, and the Araniko route, according to Sam Cowan, a retired British general who is familiar with Nepal’s topography. “The damage caused by the 2015 earthquake and the 2016 Bhote Koshi flood could have been taken as reinforcing the decision” to prioritize the Kerung-Rusawagadhi crossing, he wrote in The Record, a Nepali digital publication. ​

Declining Chinese interest in conducting trade through the Zhangmu-Kodari crossing could, therefore, be another reason for China delaying its delivery of promised aid for the Araniko Highway. However, the future of the Araniko Highway is not bleak.

As Cowan pointed out, “In strategic terms, just one of anything is dangerous. China will want to retain Kodari as a fallback option in case there are serious problems at Rasuwagadhi.”

Upgradation of the Araniko Highway may not be an immediate priority for the Chinese. But it will ensure its maintenance.
Sri Lanka President Wickremesinghe fails to get backing of largest party for re-election (Reuters)
Reuters [7/29/2024 10:07 AM, Uditha Jayasinghe, 42991K, Negative]
Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe failed on Monday to secure the backing of the biggest political party in parliament for his re-election bid, posing a major challenge to his prospects in the Sept. 21 vote.

Nearly 17 million of Sri Lanka’s 22 million population are eligible to cast ballots in the vote that is crucial to determine the future of reforms in the South Asian island nation weathering its worst financial crisis in decades.

Of the various candidates, Wickremesinghe is seen as the most market- and reform-friendly option. He took over the top job in July 2022 as the economy crumbled under a severe financial crisis triggered by a record shortfall of foreign exchange reserves.

But with just one seat in parliament, he needs the support of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), which holds a parliamentary majority and counts former president Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brother as key members, to be a stronger contender.

Although the SLPP decision is a blow to Wickremesinghe, it does not take him out of the race entirely, as he is contesting as an independent candidate and a breakaway faction of the SLPP and other opposition parties could end up supporting him.

“The politburo decided by a significant majority that Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna will present a candidate under the SLPP party symbol,” SLPP General Secretary Salaga Kariyawasam told reporters after the party’s politburo meeting.

The SLPP candidate would be announced in the next few days, Kariyawasam added.

There was no immediate comment from Wickremesinghe or his office in response to the SLPP decision.

A source in Wickremesinghe’s United National Party said the outcome was expected.

"We are still expecting a group of SLPP members to support President Wickremesinghe as well as parliamentarians from minority parties," said the source with direct knowledge of the matter. "This allows us to build a broader coalition across different parties and ethnic lines."

Wickremesinghe’s predecessor, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, was the first sitting president to be ousted from power after thousands of disgruntled protesters occupied his office and official residence forcing him to flee the country and later resign.

Over the past two years Wickremesinghe has overseen a fragile economic recovery securing a $2.9 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout programme that helped stem a fall in the rupee, tame runaway inflation and rebuild dollar reserves.

Wickremesinghe also set the groundwork for Sri Lanka to start debt restructuring talks with its official creditors and bondholders.

But pain from the financial fallout is far from over. Under the IMF programme Sri Lanka still has to increase tax revenue, fix loss making state companies and finalise a $12.5 billion debt rework with bondholders.

Rising poverty levels, corruption and policy gridlock are also concerns, analysts said, adding that the crisis may have eroded the previously strong SLPP vote base, making the outcome of its alliance with Wickremesinghe unpredictable.

"People are silently waiting to give their decision on election day," said political scientist Prof. Jayadeva Uyangoda.

"It is actually judgement time for Sri Lanka."
Central Asia
Kazakh Prosecutor Seeks 7 Years In Prison For Journalist (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [7/29/2024 6:17 AM, Staff, 1530K, Negative]
The prosecution asked a court in Kazakhstan’s southern town of Qonaev to sentence journalist Duman Mukhammedkarim, who is on trial for what he says are politically motivated charges of financing an extremist group and participating in a banned group’s activities, to seven years in prison.

Mukhammedkarim’s lawyer, Murat Zholshiev, told RFE/RL on July 29 that prosecutors also requested the court to ban Mukhammedkarim from conducting public activities for three years.

Around 40 people gathered in front of the court building to support Mukhammedkarim as they were unable to attend the trial since it is being held behind closed doors.

On July 18, Mukhammedkarim was transferred to a hospital as his health has dramatically deteriorated after he undertook several hunger strikes to protest the secrecy of the trial.

Mukhammedkarim, whose Ne Deidi? (What Do They Say?) YouTube channel is extremely popular in Kazakhstan, was sent to pretrial detention in June 2023 over an online interview he did with fugitive banker and outspoken government critic Mukhtar Ablyazov.

Ablyazov’s Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) movement was declared extremist and banned in the country in March 2018. As Mukhammedkarim’s trial started on February 12, he complained of being beaten by jail guards, prompting prosecutors to launch an investigation into the matter.

Mukhammedkarim’s trial was then postponed until an unspecified date to allow for the investigation, which was shut down later due to a purported lack of evidence.

The proceedings resumed after that.

Domestic and international right organizations have urged the Kazakh authorities to drop all charges against Mukhammedkarim and immediately release him. Kazakh rights defenders have recognized Mukhammedkarim as a political prisoner.

Rights watchdogs have criticized the authorities in the tightly controlled former Soviet republic for persecuting dissent, but Astana has shrugged off the criticism, saying there are no political prisoners in the country.

The oil-rich Central Asian nation was ruled by authoritarian President Nursultan Nazarbaev from before its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 until current President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev succeeded him in 2019.

Over the past three decades, several opposition figures have been killed and many jailed or forced to flee the country.

Toqaev, who broadened his powers after Nazarbaev and his family left the oil-rich country’s political scene following the deadly, unprecedented antigovernment protests in January 2022, has promised political reforms and more freedoms for citizens.

However, many in Kazakhstan describe the reforms announced by Toqaev as cosmetic, and a crackdown on dissent has continued even after the president announced his "New Kazakhstan" program.
Kyrgyzstan: Presidential decree ties Kyrgyz statehood to Soviet legacy (EurasiaNet)
EurasiaNet [7/29/2024 4:14 PM, Staff, 57.6K, Neutral]
The status of ‘founding father’ of any nation is normally bestowed not by politicians, but via the consensus of the population, as distilled by trained historians. Not so in Kyrgyzstan.

For Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov, the roots of the country’s statehood stretch back only to the Soviet era. He issued a decree in late July anointing five Bolshevik functionaries as the founders of Kyrgyzstan’s statehood. Those designated as “fathers who founded the modern Kyrgyz statehood,” are:

Zhusup Abdrakhmanov: effectively the territory’s prime minister from 1927-1933 when Kyrgyzstan enjoyed autonomous republic status.

Ishenaly Arabaev: an educator who founded the first Kyrgyz-language newspaper in 1924, during the early Soviet era.

Imanaly Aidarbekov: the head of the Kara-Kyrgyz Revolutionary Committee in the mid-1920s who later became People’s Commissar of Light Industry and Trade of the Republic;

Abdykadyr Orozbekov: the first chairman of the presidium of the Central Executive Committee after Kyrgyzstan’s elevation of status to union republic in 1936.

Abdykerim Sydykov: Kyrgyzstan’s representative to the congress that formed the Soviet Union in 1922.

Four of the five “founders,” with the exception being Arabaev, perished in 1938, amid the infamous purges carried out by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, who wiped out the ‘Old Bolshevik’ generation.

“These people proved with convincing and reasonable evidence that the Kyrgyz people with their language, culture and history have full right to create their own state equal to other peoples of Central Asia and were at the beginning of the new statehood of the 20th century,” Japarov says in his decree. “However, this title cannot diminish the work of other prominent state and political figures of our country.”

“The historical event of the formation of the Kara-Kyrgyz Autonomous Oblast, and the subsequent formation of the Kyrgyz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and the Kyrgyz Soviet Socialist Republic have great significance for the future history of Kyrgyzstan, and they became the foundation of the independent Kyrgyz Republic,” the decree adds.

Japarov issued the decree shortly before the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Kara-Kyrgyz Autonomous Region in 1924, the first nominally self-directing Kyrgyz entity set up within the Soviet system.

In emphasizing the present-day state’s connection to the Soviet legacy, the decree offers tacit recognition of Kyrgyzstan’s present-day close relationship to Russia. Officials and historians in neighboring Kazakhstan, by contrast, have stressed the nation’s pre-Soviet history in establishing its modern statehood.

Just last year, Japarov lauded pre-Soviet figures as playing pivotal roles in shaping the country’s modern contours. In October of last year, for example, Japarov participated in the unveiling of a monument to Ormon Khan, a political leader in the mid-19th century who is credited with uniting disparate Kyrgyz clans and forging fledgling political and judicial institutions.

“Ormon Khan Niyazbek uulu,” Japarov was quoted by the official Kabar news agency as saying at the ceremony, “occupies a significant place in the history of Kyrgyzstan.”

“This event – the formation of the Kyrgyz Khanate – can be considered the most important event in the restoration of Kyrgyz statehood,” Japarov added.
Tajik Opposition Journalist’s Brother Reportedly Sentenced to 12 Years In Prison (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [7/29/2024 9:02 AM, Staff, 1530K, Negative]
Asliddin Sharipov, the brother of the director of an opposition online television station, has been sentenced to 12 years in prison on unspecified charges, a close associate told RFE/RL on July 29.

According to the associate, Sharipov was sentenced in March and is currently being held in a correctional colony in Tajikistan’s capital, Dushanbe.

Sharipov is a brother of Shavkat Muhammadi, the director of the opposition Payom online TV channel, who currently resides in the European Union.

Police in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg arrested Sharipov in September 2022 and extradited him to Tajikistan on October 1, 2023.

A court in the Russian city of Nizhny Tagil said at the time that Sharipov is wanted by Tajikistan on charges of collaborating with a banned group and the propagation of said group’s activities online.

It remains unclear what exactly Sharipov is accused of as Tajik officials have not made any public statements regarding Sharipov’s case.

Shavkat Muhammadi told the Norwegian Helsinki Committee he was convinced that Tajik authorities are persecuting his brother to put pressure on him in retaliation for criticism of the government aired on Payom.net, the independent media outlet he leads in exile.

Dozens of Tajik opposition figures and activists living abroad are wanted by the Tajik authorities on charges of terrorism and extremism.

President Emomali Rahmon, who has run the Central Asian nation for almost 30 years, has been criticized by international human rights groups over his administration’s alleged disregard for independent media, religious freedoms, civil society, and political pluralism.
Uzbekistan Sets October Date for Parliamentary Elections (The Diplomat)
The Diplomat [7/29/2024 2:58 PM, Catherine Putz, 1156K, Neutral]
Uzbekistan’s next parliamentary election will take place on October 27, the countries’ Central Election Commission announced last week.

Uzbeks will cast ballots for the 150-member Legislative Chamber – the lower house of the Oliy Majlis – well as elect deputies to the 12 regional councils, plus the Tashkent city council and 208 district councils. Voters in Karakalpakstan will elect 65 members to the Supreme Council of the Autonomous Republic of Karakalpakstan.

Uzbekistan’s last parliamentary election took place in late December 2019.

In February 2021, Uzbek President Shakvak Mirziyoyev signed into law a package of reforms that, among other things, moved election day from December to October.

Subsequent reforms, signed into law in December 2023, introduced a mixed electoral system. Previously, Uzbekistan’s elections followed a majority voting system in which the candidate with a plurality of the votes cast would be declared the winner. Under the new system, 75 seats in the Legislative Chamber will be elected in single-mandate districts on a majority basis, while the other 75 will be allocated on a proportional basis by party.

A Senate spokesperson told Interfax in December 2023 that the new arrangement “will help further expand political parties’ role in the parliament’s and local legislature activities…”

Uzbekistan currently has five officially registered parties, but little competition or debate among them.

As a pensioner in Tashkent told me back in December 2019, on the day of the parliamentary elections the authorities had branded with the tagline “New Uzbekistan-New Elections,” “We have five parties, but in fact it’s like one party divided into five pieces.”

In the current parliament, elected in 2019, the Liberal Democratic Party (UzLiDeP) holds 53 seats in the Legislative Chamber – it is considered the president’s party as it was founded by Islam Karimov in 2003. The National Revival Democratic Party or Milliy Tiklanish holds 36 seats; the Justice Social Democratic Party or Adolat holds 24 seats; the People’s Democratic Party holds 22; and the Ecological Party occupies 15 seats.

In the last election, some Uzbek officials cited the Ecological Party as a “new” party – a distinction without difference given the fact that the movement (now recast as a “green” political party) was allotted 15 seats automatically in the 2014 parliamentary election.

It has remained difficult for alternative political parties to achieve the official registration necessary to contest elections.

A case in point: Khidirnazar Allaqulov, a former university rector and dissident, first attempted to register his Haqiqat va Taraqqiyot (Truth and Development) Social Democratic Party in April and May 2021; both times the party was rejected, with the Ministry of Justice denying that they had accumulated the necessary signatures. After the second rejection, the Ministry of Justice issued a press release in which it reminded the party that it must “cease its activities,” citing the Uzbek law on political parties as permitting organizing committees to operate for only three months.

These rejections were accompanied by a pressure campaign. A mob of people accosted Allaqulov at his apartment building in early April 2021. The crowd later filed a lawsuit against Allaqulov and he was fined on libel charges. A student who had been gathering signatures for the party in Namangan was called into a public meeting in the gym of a local school and berated by a crowd of his neighbors, mostly older women.

With just three months to go, the likelihood of any new political parties making an appearance seems slim.

Meanwhile, as Uzbek political scientist Farhod Tolipov told Gazeta.uz in 2023, when the aim to switch to a mixed voting system was announced, “In conditions where there is no rivalry, it does not matter under what system deputies are elected, if they are all members of the same loyal parties.”

There is, of course, an opportunity here for Uzbekistan’s political parties to truly distinguish themselves before the electorate. Whether that happens or not, time will tell.
‘Broken’ Uzbek Blogger Struggles For Justice As The System Strikes Back (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [7/29/2024 2:19 PM, Barno Anvar and Chris Rickleton, 1530K, Negative]
As Uzbek blogger Umid Miraliev passes through the streets of central Tashkent, he does so with a pronounced limp -- the result of a violent assault that he suffered in May.

Footage of the attack that Miraliev’s brother managed to film as the pair came under assault showed a group of angry men bursting into a residential courtyard in their native Qashqadaryo Province armed with sticks and spades.

The faces of several men were clearly visible in the dramatic scenes.

Miraliev and his brother recall around six men piling out of a black Chevrolet minivan prior to the fracas, which took place as the pair were visiting the home of the local neighborhood committee head.

At least three have been arrested to date.

But Miraliev has doubts that the incident will be fairly investigated insofar as he believes the violence was ultimately ordered by local authorities in Qashqadaryo, for whom he has been a thorn in the side for several years.

"In the provinces, the governor is the only law," Miraliev told RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service. "If he wants to fire a prosecutor for disobedience, he can."

Hyperlocal Reporting

Born into a family of smallholders, the 48-year-old Miraliev has become part of a category that simply did not exist in Uzbekistan prior to the death of strongly authoritarian first President Islam Karimov: the provincial blogger.

Typically using YouTube as well as Telegram and Instagram to embrace a small free-speech opening under Karimov’s successor, Shavkat Mirziyoev, these grassroots activists have highlighted problems on the ground in the communities where they live, typically accusing provincial and district administrations of corruption and incompetence.

Ostensibly, Uzbekistan’s president has offered them his support.

In a speech marking Uzbekistan’s day for media workers last month, Mirziyoev said that the "firm positions and impartial words" of bloggers were helping to "wake up some dormant leaders at the local level, making them work in a new way [and] live with the concerns of the people."

In 2020, the message was much the same.

Mirziyoev implored journalists and bloggers to "expose the mistakes and shortcomings of old-fashioned leaders."

That call now looks like an Uzbek version of China’s Hundred Flowers Campaign in the 1950s, during which criticism of the Chinese Communist Party was actively encouraged before an extensive crackdown once the feedback became too much.

One of the first Uzbek bloggers to learn that there were lines that could not be crossed was Otabek Sattoriy, a blogger from the town of Termez near the border with Afghanistan, who was arrested in a heavy-handed police raid targeting his family home in January 2021.

Sattoriy, a vociferous critic of alleged official corruption in his hometown, was then sentenced to more than six years in jail on charges of extortion and slander, before being granted early release in February 2024.

Like Miraliev, he had cited Mirziyoev’s exhortation to "expose shortcomings" as an inspiration for his blogging career.

But Sattoriy has shown no signs of picking up where he left off, and Miraliev admits that he has been "broken, like other bloggers."

"Each district and town [in Qashqadaryo Province] used to have its own bloggers and activists. I’m not sure where they are now," Miraliev said.

‘They Couldn’t Find Anyone’

It is no longer shocking to hear of Uzbek bloggers and online voices of all different types being incarcerated.

Monitoring carried out by the Association for Human Rights in Central Asia in tandem with the International Partnership for Human Rights found that more than 100 bloggers and online activists had been the subject of what the groups called "politically motivated court decisions" in the last 3 1/2 years.

In the joint report published this month, the authors noted incidents of bloggers critical of the Uzbek regime and Mirziyoev being kept in psychiatric facilities, prisons, and under house arrest.

"Today, those who speak out on issues which the authorities deem to be politically sensitive or potentially disruptive, be they journalists, bloggers, social media commentators, human rights defenders, or others, could potentially be at risk of detention, imprisonment, intimidation, harassment, other types of limitations of freedom, as well as torture and ill-treatment," the authors argued.

Miraliev told RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service that he had already experienced many of these ills even before being attacked by men he had never met and left with serious injuries to his head and elsewhere.

In October 2022, he was arrested on what he would later find out were charges of fraud and libel, with the latter pertaining to comments made in his videos against Abdusamad Khasanov, head of the Shahrisabz district, which is in Qashqadaryo Province.

Complaints against Khasanov and other officials were commonplace in the videos that Miraliev published between 2018 and the time of his arrest.

In one interview, a quartet of farmers said that they had been encouraged by the government to grow potatoes on their plots but added that authorities in Khasanov’s district had then failed to provide them with water.

As a result, their crop failed, leaving them with loans they were unable to pay off, they complained.

Extortion and fraud charges are an increasingly common line of attack against Uzbek bloggers, but Miraliev said they failed to stack up, even in a legal setting where the odds are strongly weighted against defendants.

The authorities "went around trying to find someone who would say that I had taken money from them, but they couldn’t find anyone," he said.

Miraliev was released from jail in January 2023, but then sentenced in May 2023 to a stint of limited freedom that lasted until last month and required him to make regular check-ins with local authorities.

Now that he is free -- if still under pressure -- Miraliev has been travelling to Tashkent in the hope that authorities in the capital will seriously investigate the May 26 attack that occurred in the last full month of his sentence.

There’s no sign of that so far.

RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service asked for comment from Khasanov and other Qashqadaryo Province officials, but had received no response at the time of publication.

This year, Uzbekistan fell 11 places in the press-freedom rankings of the international watchdog Reporters Without Borders, placing 148th out of 180 countries.

Komil Allamjonov, head of information policy in Mirziyoev’s administration, acknowledged that news in May but insisted "the president’s position on freedom of the press and freedom of speech is tough and clear, clearly indicating that without freedom of speech, development is impossible."

"Of course, we must admit that there are still many problems that affect the change in press freedom ratings," Allamjonov added.

"But if we do not bring the press into the legal field, and ensure that disputes are resolved in court, then we will be bogged down in chaos instead of achieving improvements."
Twitter
Afghanistan
Freshta Razbaan
@RazbaanFreshta
[7/29/2024 10:59 AM, 4.8K followers, 11 retweets, 29 likes]
The upcoming hearing by the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission underscores the urgent need to address the severe human rights abuses faced by women and girls in Afghanistan under Taliban rule. Since the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021, the situation has become increasingly dire. Women and girls, who once had glimpses of progress and opportunity, are now subjected to a regime that systematically dismantles their rights and freedoms. The Taliban’s policies have reinstated a deeply patriarchal and oppressive environment. Women are banned from most forms of employment, effectively stripping them of economic independence and pushing many families deeper into poverty. Education, a fundamental human right and a cornerstone of personal and societal development, has been denied to girls beyond a certain age. This prohibition not only limits their future prospects but also perpetuates a cycle of ignorance and dependency.

The consequences of these restrictions extend beyond individual suffering. The exclusion of women from public life and the workforce has significant economic repercussions, contributing to the deepening of Afghanistan’s economic crisis. Additionally, the humanitarian situation in the country has worsened, with women and children being disproportionately affected by food insecurity, inadequate healthcare, and a lack of basic services. International organizations, including the U.S. Department of State and various UN agencies, have documented these abuses extensively. Reports highlight the Taliban’s repressive tactics, such as enforcing strict dress codes, restricting movement without a male guardian, and curtailing freedom of expression. Human rights organizations continue to sound the alarm, calling for global action to protect Afghan women and girls.

At the hearing, witnesses, including human rights activists, former Afghan officials, and representatives from international organizations, will provide firsthand accounts and expert analyses of the current human rights landscape in Afghanistan. They will outline the devastating impact of the Taliban’s policies on women and girls and propose concrete steps for congressional action. These recommendations may include increasing humanitarian aid, imposing sanctions on Taliban leaders, and providing support for Afghan refugees and asylum seekers. This hearing is a crucial step in raising awareness and mobilizing international efforts to combat the Taliban’s gender-based oppression. It is a call to action for the global community to stand in solidarity with Afghan women and girls, to advocate for their rights, and to ensure that their voices are heard on the world stage. The international community must not remain passive in the face of such blatant human rights violations; it must act decisively to support those who are fighting for a future of equality and justice in Afghanistan. #AfghanWomen @SE_AfghanWGH @TLHumanRights @StateDept @UN @UNAMAnews @UNHumanRights @hrw @RepMcGovern @RulesDemocrats @TheDemocrats @AmiriWahida @Metra_Mehran @heatherbarr1 @FridayFax @StateIRF @ICJurists @PowerUSAID @humanrights1st @JHRAfghanistan @UN_Women

Freshta Razbaan
@RazbaanFreshta
[7/29/2024 8:45 AM, 4.8K followers, 7 retweets, 23 likes]
Since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, former prosecutors have found themselves in grave peril, victims of the Taliban’s ruthless vendetta against those who once upheld justice and challenged their brutal regime. These individuals, formerly pillars of the legal system, are now hunted by the Taliban, who seek retribution against anyone associated with the previous government’s efforts to establish law and order. The Taliban’s campaign of terror includes threats, harassment, and outright violence, forcing many prosecutors into hiding and perpetual fear. Some have narrowly escaped with their lives, fleeing the country to seek asylum in nations that recognize the grave danger they face. The professional and personal lives of these former prosecutors have been shattered, their dedication to justice now making them targets of a tyrannical regime. The international community must not turn a blind eye to their plight; these brave individuals, who once stood against the Taliban’s oppressive rule, now need protection and support more than ever. The Taliban’s actions are a stark reminder of their complete disregard for human rights and justice, and a call to action for the world to defend those who have dared to fight for a fair and just society. #AfghanProsecutors #PFP #ProsecutorsForProsecutors @APAinc @afghanevac @ApaOrg2021 @JHRAfghanistan @IAP_Official @n1leftbehind @officialopreco @PennsylvaniaDAs @CityAttorneyLA @ITJP_JusticeNow @MoProsecutors @LDAAJustice @marcoattorney @task_force_argo

Michael McCaul
@RepMcCaul
[7/29/2024 4:32 PM, 58.9K followers, 40 retweets, 94 likes]
After the fall of Afghanistan, thousands of terrorists escaped from the prisons at Bagram Airbase, resulting in a surge of ISIS-K’s external operations. Now terrorists from that region are exploiting the Biden admin’s open border. More from my interview on @FaceTheNation
Pakistan
Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Pakistan
@ForeignOfficePk
[7/29/2024 2:35 PM, 479.6K followers, 13 retweets, 30 likes]
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar @MIshaqDar50 will lead the Pakistan delegation at the inauguration/oath ceremony of the President-elect of Iran, Dr. Masoud Pezeshkian, to be held on 30 July 2024 in Tehran.

Habib Khan
@HabibKhanT
[7/29/2024 4:04 PM, 228.9K followers, 71 retweets, 217 likes]
STAND WITH BALOCH WOMEN! Pakistan is now abducting Baloch women leaders. Sammi Deen Baloch and Dr. Sabiha have been unlawfully arrested in Gwadar. As the Baloch people rally for their right to live freely on their land, their struggle faces brutal repression. #FreeBalochistan

Hamid Mir
@HamidMirPAK
[7/29/2024 3:10 PM, 8.5M followers, 2.4K retweets, 6.8K likes]
There are reports that Gawadar police arrested @SammiBaluch along with some other Baloch activists. DIG Gawadar is denying her arrest. A case was registered against her few days back. Arresting women will not resolve any problem. It will further complicate the situation.

Raza Ahmad Rumi
@Razarumi
[7/30/2024 2:23 AM, 575.5K followers, 2 likes]
The ‘Safe Karachi Conference’ organized by K-Electric focused on urban flooding and heatwave related risk preparedness and the shared responsibility of the government and citizens.
India
Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[7/29/2024 11:18 PM, 100.5M followers, 2.6K retweets, 16K likes]
Distressed by the landslides in parts of Wayanad. My thoughts are with all those who have lost their loved ones and prayers with those injured. Rescue ops are currently underway to assist all those affected. Spoke to Kerala CM Shri @pinarayivijayan and also assured all possible help from the Centre in the wake of the prevailing situation there.

Dr. S. Jaishankar
@DrSJaishankar
[7/29/2024 3:41 AM, 3.2M followers, 390 retweets, 3.3K likes]
Honored to call on Prime Minister @kishida230 along with fellow Quad Foreign Ministers today in Tokyo. Conveyed the warm regards of Prime Minister @narendramodi. Briefed him on the key takeaways from our meeting today. Appreciate his guidance for continued growth of Quad grouping and value his views on further intensification of India-Japan relations.

Rajnath Singh
@rajnathsingh
[7/30/2024 12:03 AM, 24.2M followers, 113 retweets, 651 likes]
I am deeply anguished by the loss of precious lives due to a landslide in Wayanad, Kerala. My heart goes out to the bereaved families. Praying for everyone’s safety and well-being.

Rahul Gandhi
@RahulGandhi
[7/30/2024 3:11 AM, 26.5M followers, 1K retweets, 3K likes]
The devastation unfolding in Wayanad is heartbreaking. I have urged the Union government in Parliament to extend all possible support, including increased compensation and its immediate release to the bereaved families. Our country has witnessed an alarming rise in landslides in recent years. The need of the hour is a comprehensive action plan to address the growing frequency of natural calamities in our ecologically fragile regions.

Rahul Gandhi
@RahulGandhi
[7/29/2024 10:49 AM, 26.5M followers, 8.7K retweets, 27K likes]
For the middle class, nothing is certain under PM Modi’s reign but debt and taxes. The budget - which does nothing to ease their burdens - has caused further pain by stabbing them both in the back and the chest.
- Removal of Indexation
- ⁠Increase in Capital Gains Tax
Can there be a clearer warning to the middle class that Mr. Modi cannot be trusted? I am certain they will shift their support to the INDIA bloc and we will fight to break them free from the Chakravyuh of Taxes.

Rahul Gandhi
@RahulGandhi
[7/29/2024 6:39 AM, 26.5M followers, 10K retweets, 31K likes]
In Kurukshetra, Abhimanyu was trapped and killed in a Chakravyuh - a formation controlled by six people, and also known as Padmavyuh for its resemblance to a lotus formation. Today a 21st century lotus-shaped Chakravyuh is trapping India and is controlled by six figures: Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, Adani, Ambani, Ajit Doval, and Mohan Bhagwat.
This modern Chakravyuh has trapped our,
- Youth in a Chakravyuh of unemployment and paper Leak
- Farmers in a Chakravyuh of debt
- Middle class in a Chakravyuh of Tax
- MSMEs in a Chakravyuh of Tax Terrorism
- Jawans in a Chakravyuh of Agnipath
- SC, ST, OBC, Minorities in a Chakravyuh of Anyay
Take for example the Education budget, at 2.5% it is the lowest in 20 years and at a time when our students are suffering from widespread Paper Leaks, the FM did not deem it fit to even mention the crisis in her speech. The INDIA bloc has taken the first steps to break this Chakravyuh and will continue to fight until this atmosphere of fear is replaced with Shiv ji ki Baraat, where there is equal opportunity, justice, and freedom for all. The BJP should not mistake India’s youth for Abhimanyu. They are Arjun and will break free from this Chakravyuh.

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[7/29/2024 1:41 PM, 211.2K followers, 11 retweets, 52 likes]
Strategically speaking, Indo Pacific for India was once more about the Indo and for US more about the Pacific. The China factor is changing that. Today’s Quad statement covers IOR (subject of new US-India dialogue) & SCS (where India has growing equities). https://www.state.gov/joint-statement-from-the-quad-foreign-ministers-meeting-in-tokyo/

Derek J. Grossman
@DerekJGrossman
[7/29/2024 3:44 PM, 90.7K followers, 22 retweets, 95 likes]
India continues to prevent Quad joint statements from mentioning the word "China." Why? https://www.state.gov/joint-statement-from-the-quad-foreign-ministers-meeting-in-tokyo/

Derek J. Grossman
@DerekJGrossman
[7/29/2024 3:46 PM, 90.7K followers, 2 retweets, 15 likes]
Here’s a good possibility. Jaishankar at Quad FM meeting: "We are not looking to other countries to sort out what is an issue between India and China."
NSB
Awami League
@albd1971
[7/29/2024 12:01 PM, 640.4K followers, 61 retweets, 115 likes]
At Rajshahi University today, in the guise of #studentprotest, it was basically the leaders and workers of Jatiyobadi #ChatroDal and @info_shibir and members of the @bdbnp78-backed teachers’ forum. Three of the teachers are members of BNP-backed Jatiyotabadi Shikkhok Forum (Nationalist Teachers’ Forum):
- Professor of Physics Dr. Saleh Ahsan Nakib
- Professor of Arabic Studies Dr. Iftekhar Alam Masud
- Professor of Sociology Dr. Md. Jamirul Islam
#Shibir’s activist Salahuddin Ammar can also be seen in the video. It is now clear that the Quota Movement is finished. What remains is #BNPJamaat’s greed for power and their willingness to go to any extent. #QuotaMovement #QuotaProtest #BNPJamaatViolence

Awami League
@albd1971
[7/29/2024 10:04 AM, 640.4K followers, 70 retweets, 144 likes]
Confessions from Arrestees---On 18 July Friday, @bdbnp78’s leader Israfil gave instructions to miscreants to attack the HQ of the Bridge division in Mohakhali. He paid the hired hands with cash and food. These youth are not students, BNP, @BJI_Official and @info_shibir used them to turn the general students’ #Quotamovement violent. #Bangladesh #Violencce #BNPJamaatViolence

Awami League
@albd1971
[7/29/2024 4:04 AM, 640.4K followers, 54 retweets, 114 likes]
The terrorists of @bdbnp78 @BJI_Official and @info_shibir used the #QuotaReformMovement to carry out violence against the general people and public properties. They brought hired goons from outside of #Dhaka and ran rampant in several areas incl. Mohakhali and Banani.

Bangladesh Nationalist Party-BNP
@bdbnp78
[7/29/2024 6:11 AM, 56.7K followers, 146 retweets, 355 likes]
The #Hasina regime’s bloodthirsty law enforcement agencies didn’t even spare little children and minors. The devastation caused by bullets from assault rifles left in a delicate young body is a sight one cannot unsee in life after witnessing. This horror has visited the children of #Bangladesh several times during the bloody #JulyMassacre2024. We vow to bring justice to the victims of these crimes against humanity. We will not forgive. We will not forget. #StudentsUnderAttack #Bangladesh #StepDownHasina

Sabria Chowdhury Balland
@sabriaballand
[7/30/2024 12:51 AM, 6.1K followers, 8 retweets, 17 likes]
CHRD Bangladesh asks for Accountability And Sanctions On The Perpetrators Of Murder And Repression In #Bangladesh: In the context of the recent carnage and on-going repression of opposition in Bangladesh and government’s total denial of and ambivalence to brutalities of its law enforcement agencies which the government itself unleashed on the innocent protesters that killed countless numbers of people and injured thousands, we are writing to urge you to kindly demand accountability from the Bangladesh government. More specifically, we draw your attention to the following individuals who played the leading and the vilest roles in ordering the carnage and in defending the mass murder. We also request to kindly urge your governments and organizations to impose in the interim, urgent BOYCOTT/SANCTIONS on the following rogue individuals:
1. Obaidul Qader, the Minister of Road Transport and Bridges and General Secretary of Bangladesh Awami League
2. Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, Home Minister
3. Muhibul Hasan Chowdhury, Education Minister
4. Mr. Mohammed A Arafat, the State Minister for Information and Broadcasting
5. Sheikh Hasina Wazed, Prime Minister of Bangladesh
https://chrdbangladesh.org/2024/07/30/accountability-and-sanctions-on-the-perpetrators-of-murder-and-repression-in-bangladesh/

Sabria Chowdhury Balland
@sabriaballand
[7/29/2024 5:57 PM, 6.1K followers, 9 retweets, 6 likes]
#HumanRightsViolations in #Bangladeshi: The Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) has launched extensive raids following the quota reform protests, leading to the arrest of 2,630 individuals. 2,630 arrested in DMP raids: Over 85% students, ordinary citizens

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[7/29/2024 2:10 PM, 211.2K followers, 66 retweets, 242 likes]
Dhaka is trying to put out and shape a narrative about the protests, but it’s struggling to gain traction both inside and outside Bangladesh. Dhaka’s attempts at damage control are only stoking more suspicion and skepticism.

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[7/29/2024 2:10 PM, 211.2K followers, 6 retweets, 25 likes]
The messaging isn’t working because of facts on the ground (arrests of top protests leaders, egregious use of force on peaceful protestors) and a large trust deficit. Its past track record when it comes to its handling of peaceful protests…isn’t exactly stellar.

Tshering Tobgay
@tsheringtobgay
[7/29/2024 6:15 AM, 99.5K followers, 2 retweets, 33 likes]
Amaya Chadha, at just 16 years old, is already deeply passionate about social work, particularly in raising awareness about menstrual taboos and hygiene. As part of the RENEW Red Dot Initiative, she has been mobilizing funds and distributing free sanitary pads.

Tshering Tobgay
@tsheringtobgay
[7/29/2024 6:15 AM, 99.5K followers, 1 retweet, 5 likes]
Additionally, she is making plans to produce biodegradable pads using corn husks. Amaya’s dedication and efforts toward community service at such a young age are truly commendable.

Tshering Tobgay
@tsheringtobgay
[7/29/2024 4:28 AM, 99.5K followers, 1 retweet, 19 likes]
Delighted that the four-day capacity-building workshop on Indian customs and regulatory requirements aimed at facilitating Bhutanese exports to India, began today.

Tshering Tobgay
@tsheringtobgay
[7/29/2024 4:28 AM, 99.5K followers, 1 retweet, 3 likes]
Thank Ambassador @SudhakarDalela & @Indiainbhutan for organizing this unique event; Indian officials from various sectors—Agriculture, Health, Commerce, Customs, and Foreign Trade—have come to Bhutan to engage with Bhutanese counterparts to share their expertise & best practices.

Tshering Tobgay
@tsheringtobgay
[7/29/2024 4:28 AM, 99.5K followers, 1 like]
I am optimistic that this interaction will foster mutual understanding and trust in our respective systems, ultimately boosting trade and empowering our entrepreneurs, manufacturers, and farmers to navigate the complex regulatory landscape and engage in formal trade with India.

Tshering Tobgay
@tsheringtobgay
[7/29/2024 4:28 AM, 99.5K followers, 3 likes]
I urged the Bhutanese participants to seize this opportunity by asking questions and learning as much as possible. On our part, the government will collaborate with Local Governments to ensure all necessary assistance in documentation and certification is provided.

Tshering Tobgay
@tsheringtobgay
[7/29/2024 4:28 AM, 99.5K followers, 3 likes]
Let us ensure that this workshop is only the beginning of many more such fruitful engagements which will pave the way for stronger trade relations between our two countries.

The President’s Office, Maldives
@presidencymv
[7/29/2024 8:09 AM, 109.1K followers, 84 retweets, 95 likes]
The Vice President arrives in Iran as the President’s Special Envoy to attend the inauguration of the President-elect of Iran https://presidency.gov.mv/Press/Article/31286

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maldives
@MoFAmv
[7/29/2024 9:12 AM, 54.4K followers, 20 retweets, 26 likes]
Secretary, Bilateral Dr @halah_hameed meets @StateCDP Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Jennifer Bachus today and discussed ongoing and future collaborations in the cyberspace, and reflected on the need for holistic and consolidated policies in the digital environment.

MOFA of Nepal
@MofaNepal
[7/29/2024 7:14 AM, 258.8K followers, 10 retweets, 40 likes]
H. E. Mr. Abrar H. Hashmi, Ambassador of Pakistan to Nepal, paid a courtesy call on Hon. Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr. Arzu Rana Deuba today. Various matters relating to Nepal-Pakistan relations and cooperation were discussed on the occasion. @Arzuranadeuba @sewa_lamsal

K P Sharma Oli
@kpsharmaoli
[7/29/2024 1:43 PM, 856.2K followers, 19 retweets, 137 likes]
Listened to a 6-hour briefing from ministry Secretaries yesterday, discussing challenges in providing quick services and advancing development. Correctly identifying a problem is half the solution. We’ll reflect and reconvene on tomorrow to decide the next steps. #GoodGovernance

M U M Ali Sabry
@alisabrypc
[7/30/2024 12:44 AM, 6K followers, 6 likes]
Colombo Port recognized as world’s fastest-growing port in Q1 2024 https://www.newswire.lk/2024/07/30/colombo-port-recognized-as-worlds-fastest-growing-port-in-q1-2024/

Ranil Wickremesinghe
@RW_UNP
[7/29/2024 1:05 PM, 322K followers, 118 retweets, 502 likes]
I want to thank the MPs who’ve been with me on this journey. To those who stood by me from the start, your support made the first steps we took to recovery possible. You believed in me and my plan when the country was in crisis, with people struggling for fuel, medicine, and essentials. Your commitment kept us going when the challenges seemed insurmountable. To the MPs who joined midway, you saw the progress and chose to be part of the change. Thank you. To those now joining us, welcome. Your support shows the positive direction we’re heading. You understand the importance of putting aside party politics to unite as one. Together, we can achieve even more. To the MPs yet to join us, we’re ready to welcome you. Our mission to build a prosperous, united Sri Lanka is ongoing, and we need every willing hand to make it a reality. This journey hasn’t been easy, but by coming together, we’ve started to turn the tide. Together, we will create the Sri Lanka we all believe in. Thank you for your dedication, courage, and commitment to our country’s future.

Namal Rajapaksa
@RajapaksaNamal
[7/29/2024 11:20 AM, 436.6K followers, 24 retweets, 97 likes]
With our decision to field our own candidate, we acknowledge past challenges and commit to unity, economic stability, and restoring trust. United, we will advance Sri Lanka with renewed purpose and strength.
Central Asia
UNODC Central Asia
@UNODC_ROCA
[7/29/2024 11:10 PM, 2.4K followers, 4 likes]
By enhancing the skills of the #Justice sector press officers, the training aimed to establish a more transparent & responsive approach to public information. Supported by @EUinKyrgyzstan @UNODC #JUST4ALL project & @StateDeptCT #FTF initiative. #PrisonersMatter

MFA Tajikistan
@MOFA_Tajikistan
[7/29/2024 8:42 PM, 4.9K followers, 2 likes]
Meeting of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Tajikistan with the United Nations Under-Secretary-General https://mfa.tj/en/main/view/15450/meeting-of-the-minister-of-foreign-affairs-of-the-republic-of-tajikistan-with-the-united-nations-under-secretary-general

{End of Report}
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