SCA MORNING PRESS CLIPS

epubdos : Afghanistan

Prepared for the U.S. Department of State

Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs

By TechMIS
www.TechMIS.com

Mobile User Copy

TO:	SCA & Staff
DATE:	Monday, March 11, 2024 6:30 AM ET

Afghanistan

The Taliban once smashed TVs. Now it fosters YouTubers to promote its image. (Washington Post)

Washington Post [3/9/2024 2:00 AM, Rick Noack, 6902K, Neutral]
The Taliban-run government is fostering a thriving community of YouTube influencers and video bloggers in Afghanistan, seeking to shape a positive narrative about the country by rewarding those who have welcome viewpoints with access to stories that can draw millions of views online.

The Taliban, which smashed televisions and burned films in the 1990s during its first stint in power, is now using modern video technology in its radical campaign to remake Afghanistan. The regime grants influencers coveted broadcasting licenses that put them on an equal footing with TV networks and radio stations, and threatens to withdraw the licenses of those who break official rules. Influencers whose work is seen as benefiting the regime have been allowed to embed with government ministries and showcase their achievements.

Meanwhile, videos that are critical of the Taliban have largely disappeared from platforms such as YouTube over the past two years as a result of Taliban pressure and self-censorship, according to interviews with 10 content creators in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan. The government has tightly restricted what can be said and worn in online appearances, and two influencers said they were detained and interrogated after running afoul of the Taliban’s rules.

Often, however, relations between influencers and the Taliban are mutually rewarding. The most successful influencers can earn thousands of dollars in foreign advertising revenue per video, say Afghan owners of YouTube channels, a striking figure in a country where a monthly salary of a few hundred dollars counts as good income. To bypass Afghanistan’s banking system, which is under international sanctions, some Afghan YouTubers have hired associates in the United States or Europe to receive payments and pass them on.

One of the top channels, “Our Afghanistan,” with over 350,000 YouTube subscribers, has focused on a widely known backer of the Taliban named General Mobin, often shown distributing donated winter clothing, talking to soldiers or visiting hospital patients. Some channels, such as “Dostdaran Kabul” with over 40,000 subscribers, focus almost entirely on urban development under the Taliban.

Others, such as Milad Azizi’s “Kabul Lovers,” mix scripted entertainment videos with content featuring Taliban officials. That approach has made “Kabul Lovers” one of the country’s most successful YouTube channels over the past two years. Azizi, 23, has hired about 20 employees and rents space in a high-rise building.

His channel recently drew more than 2.6 million views with a series in which his video team embedded with morality police from the Ministry of Vice and Virtue as they searched for what they said were suspected witches. In one of the videos, a woman being investigated for alleged sorcery looks anxiously into the camera. “Why are all you men here today?” she asks, apparently fearing arrest. She later confesses to investigators on camera that she practiced magic.

Asked for comment, the ministry confirmed past “connections” with Azizi’s channel “to educate the public.”

Although officials have decided against letting the team join possible future witch-hunting operations, Azizi said, other collaborations with the government are being planned. “It helps them a lot,” he said.

A large audience abroad

Camera salesman Mohammad Mujib Nabizada, 20, said he has seen so many influencers rise to fame after frequenting his store that he is considering launching a channel himself.

“When they start off, they usually only come here to buy cheap microphones,” he said. “But soon after, when the money starts pouring in, they return to buy the big cameras.”

Internet speeds and mobile data allowances remain limited in Afghanistan, so influencers here primarily target the estimated 6 million Afghans living abroad as migrants or refugees. (Most of the content is in Dari, the country’s most widely spoken language.) They account for about 90 percent of visitors to some of the most popular Afghanistan-based YouTube channels, with most views coming from the United States and Europe, content creators said. Most spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid unwanted scrutiny from the government.

Afghans abroad are often eager to watch videos about how their country is changing under the Taliban. Kabul-based YouTuber Amir Mohammad Yaqobi, 24, said he gets the most views with videos about new roads and other construction. “It’s good for my channel,” he said.

More than 140,000 people watched a recent 38-minute video, on a channel called “Afghanistan Streets,” in which a presenter praises the quality of concrete in a tunnel construction project overseen by the government. “It will help the tunnel last forever,” the presenter says in the video.

In other clips, presenters accompany Taliban government officials as they burn expired food, crack down on drug dealers, or — in a video titled “An Afghan dream is coming true” — build a major canal across the north of the country.

Making sure viewers get the point, an Islamic scholar on a channel focusing on social issues called “Kabul Show,” with 80,000 subscribers, urged at a recent conference, “We should value our current government.”

Some Afghans in Kabul say they have begun getting calls from relatives abroad asking if the country is really on the rise under the Taliban, as YouTube content suggests.

Influencers who successfully navigate the Taliban’s rules may still run afoul of YouTube itself. The company said it had terminated a number of Afghan channels for posting “content that glorifies or promotes violent tragedies.” After operators reactivated several of these channels, including “Afghanistan Streets” and “Our Afghanistan,” YouTube again terminated them in recent days for violating the company’s terms of service, according to Jack Malon, a spokesman for Google, which owns YouTube.

Asked about the activities of YouTube channel owners in Afghanistan, Malon said, “YouTube is committed to compliance with all applicable sanctions and trade compliance laws, including U.S. sanctions against the Afghan Taliban. If we find an account believed to be owned and operated by the Afghan Taliban, we terminate it. Further, our policies prohibit content that incites violence.”

A tightening grip

Before the Taliban takeover in August 2021, Afghan social media was on many days dominated by clips of the aftermath of bomb blasts and shootings. But for urban Afghans, it was also a space where they felt they could express themselves freely.

Afghan YouTube has changed dramatically since then. The Taliban-run government has banned music in videos and mandated that female presenters wear a headscarf and a mask over their mouth for modesty, several content creators said.

A 20-year-old female YouTuber in Kabul said she began publishing videos after the Taliban closed schools and universities for women. She primarily uses her channel to read poems or share recipes that are popular among her minority Shiite Muslim community, and she has largely flouted the Taliban’s rules on how to dress in videos, hoping officials will be unable to identify her.

But a growing number of viewers have responded angrily to her uploads or threatened to report her to the authorities. “I won’t stop,” she said, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of drawing the attention of officials. “I love doing this.”

There are signs the government intends to further tighten its grip on influencers who do not play by its rules. It has already blocked mobile internet access to TikTok, saying the platform wastes the time of young Afghans and raises moral concerns.

Although some Afghan video creators have used YouTube’s geo-blocking tools to hold back their most sensitive content inside Afghanistan, Afghan officials now appear to be using VPN to see what is being published outside the country, according to the owner of a major Afghan YouTube channel.

New warnings

Many YouTubers have in recent weeks received warnings over alleged violations or been asked by the government to cooperate with it more closely, several influencers said.

Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban government’s spokesman, confirmed that warnings are being issued to all channels that “violate the rules,” and that serious violations can result in legal charges. YouTubers can work freely in the country, Mujahid said in a series of WhatsApp audio messages to The Post, but added: “If they only present the negative side, it doesn’t serve the country.” What serves the country better, he said, is a focus on “development, progress, unity, brotherhood and peace.”

Ajmal Haqiqi, a well-known male fashion YouTuber, held such optimistic views when the Taliban took power. He decided to stay in Kabul to keep publishing videos. But he soon faced a growing number of threats and was eventually detained for allegedly mocking the Quran.

“I wanted to serve my country,” said Haqiqi, who recently moved to Pakistan. “But all I achieved was going to prison for six months.” Yet even in prison, his YouTube fame earned him envy; guards and inmates came up to him to say: “Lucky you, you must be rich.’”

Azizi, the highly successful head of “Kabul Lovers,” was arrested in 2022 for a video that included criticism of the Taliban. He acknowledged that he, too, is now facing more hurdles, such as demands from officials for more paperwork, even though, he said, “we never say anything against them.”

Taliban Send Victims of Domestic Violence to Prison (VOA)

VOA [3/8/2024 8:27 PM, Lina Rozbih, 761K, Negative]
For 27-year-old Leeda, "life is like hell" as her husband beats her every day and she "has to tolerate it" because she has "no other option."

"My body is always bruised, now I am used to it, I have to tolerate it for my children," Leeda, a mother of three who lives in the western city of Herat, told VOA with tears in her eyes.

But Leeda, who did not want her real name to be revealed for fear of reprisals, said that she has "nowhere to go" as her parents and siblings are not in Afghanistan and there is no organization in Herat she can turn to for help.

"In the past in Herat, women-operated offices used to help women like me, but those offices no longer exist," Leeda said, adding that "if I go to the Taliban for help, they will imprison me. They listen to men, not women. What will I do with my children if I go to jail?"

A United Nations report released in December said the Taliban are sending to prison women who complain to them about gender-based violence and do not have male relatives to stay with.

"The confinement of women in prison facilities, outside the enforcement of criminal law, and for the purpose of ensuring their protection from gender-based-violence, would amount to an arbitrary deprivation of liberty," stated the U.N. report.

The report added that the imprisonment of vulnerable women would have "a negative impact on their mental and physical health."

The report, covering the period from August 2021 to March 2023, said that gender-based violence against women in Afghanistan includes murder, honor killings, sexual assault, injury and disability, and deprivation of women from receiving inheritances.

The Taliban told the U.N. that the handling of the cases of violence against women is "based on Sharia law and there is no injustice committed against women."

After seizing power in 2021, the Taliban closed all the women’s protection centers in Afghanistan where female survivors of family violence would take refuge.

Even before the Taliban’s takeover, Afghanistan had one of the highest rates of violence against women, with nine in 10 women experiencing some sort of intimate-partner violence in their lifetimes.

Though the support system was not without shortcomings, female survivors of gender-based violence had access to "pro bono legal representation, medical treatment and psychological support," Amnesty International stated in a 2021 report.

"The system was imperfect, but activists had fought hard for it, and it was gradually improving. One of the first things the Taliban did after seizing power was to destroy this system completely," said Heather Barr, associate director at Human Rights Watch.

Barr said that the Taliban’s return brought about "the worst women’s rights crisis" in the world.

Under the Taliban, women in Afghanistan are banned from secondary and university education, working with government and nongovernment organizations, and traveling long distances without a male relative. They are also barred from going to gyms and public parks.

Samira Hamidi, a regional campaigner for Amnesty International, told VOA that dismantling the institutions, such as the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, created "a huge gap" in the ability to monitor the women’s rights situation in Afghanistan, especially that of survivors of domestic violence.

"The Taliban’s measure to accommodate women survivors of domestic violence in prisons instead of safe houses and accommodations is a blatant violation of human rights, especially the right to freedom of movement and life," said Hamidi.

She added that the Taliban "have no intention to protect women" who face gender-based violence.

With the Taliban’s continued crackdown on women’s rights in Afghanistan, female victims of gender-based violence, like Leeda, live in fear.

"I fear the Taliban," Leeda said. "If I complain against my husband to anyone, my husband will send the Taliban after me."

‘I Can’t Tell’: Sexual Abuse At Taliban-Run Madrasahs Fuels Fear, Dropouts (Radio Free Europe)

Radio Free Europe [3/10/2024 7:59 AM, Staff, 223K, Negative]
Male students who enrolled in Taliban-run religious schools say that sexual and physical abuse has led some to end their pursuit of an education in Afghanistan.

The students, all of whom were aged 10 to 17 and spoke to RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi on condition of anonymity out of fears of repercussion, described numerous instances in which they and fellow classmates were pressured to engage in sexual acts with teachers and subjected to corporal punishments.

The reported cases took place in western and southwestern Afghanistan at Taliban-run madrasahs, part of the network of religious schools that the extremist group has expanded significantly as part of its drive to foster religious education more in keeping with its hard-line Islamist views.

One 16-year-old student, a resident of Farah Province, described being propositioned by a teacher at the madrasah he attends.

"One day at school a Taliban member who teaches there made an inappropriate offer, but I did not accept it," the boy told Radio Azadi, using inexplicit language to describe sexual abuse, a culturally taboo topic in Afghanistan. "When the lessons were over, he bothered me again."

The boy said he reported the incidents to a "qari," a person who has memorized the Koran and serves as a religious authority at the school, to no avail.

"I told the qari that the teacher was doing bad things to me, and the qari told him not to do these things, that he was a teacher," the boy said. "The teacher admitted doing it, but it had no effect. He has continued to do bad things and made sexual requests to numerous students at the school."

Another student in southwestern Afghanistan, a 17-year-old in the 10th grade, gave a similar account of his experience during his six months studying at a Taliban-run madrasah.

"A Taliban member who teaches at the school proposed having a relationship with me and said some other things that I did not accept," the boy said.

After being refused, the teacher swore and issued threats, the boy said, adding that his fellow students have faced similar treatment.

"He also harassed several of my classmates, and one of them left the school," the boy said. "He told me I should not go to school anymore because the same teacher is harassing me."

The boy said the experience has left him "damaged" and unsure of whom he can confide in. "I can’t tell my family," he said.

The Taliban has come under widespread criticism for the severe restrictions it has placed on the daily lives of the Afghans since seizing power in August 2021. In its pursuit to impose its extreme interpretation of Islam, the Taliban has restored many of the draconian rules it was infamous for during its first stint in power from 1996 to 2001.

The ban on the education of girls past the sixth grade, and the erasure of women’s role in society stand out among the measures the Taliban has taken. But other steps -- including prohibitions on music and idolatry through art, and pressure against students and teachers -- have affected all walks of life regardless of sex.

Since the Taliban returned to power, many educators have left the country, while female teachers have been left at home without work due to restrictions on women’s freedom of movement and their ability to teach males.

Meanwhile, the Taliban has steadily worked to replace secular state schools and informal madrasahs with a system of religious schooling. The system does allow for girl students, including those of university age, but critics say it falls far short of the standards of modern education for girls and boys alike and often promotes extremism.

According to a report on Afghanistan issued by the United Nations in February, the Taliban has established 6,836 madrasahs for males and 380 for females and was expected to finalize a standardized religious curriculum in time for the new school year beginning this month.

The recruitment of madrasah teachers is also in full swing, according to the report, following a decree by the Taliban’s spiritual leader Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada to have 100,000 new madrasah teachers in place.

In December, Human Rights Watch gave a stinging assessment of the state of education in general, saying that in addition to the obstacles to the education of girls and women, the Taliban had "also inflicted deep harm on boys’ education" in Afghanistan.

"Many boys were previously taught by women teachers; the Taliban has prohibited women from teaching boys, depriving women teachers of their jobs and often leaving boys with unqualified replacement male teachers or sometimes no teachers at all," HRW said. "Parents and students said that corporal punishment, which has long been a problem at Afghan schools, has become increasingly common. The curriculum in many schools appears to be under revision to remove important school subjects and promote discrimination."

The rights watchdog said the circumstances had "led many boys to leave school altogether" and "left boys struggling with mental health problems such as anxiety and depression."

Shortly after the Taliban regained power, the United Nations highlighted the dire situation for children in Afghanistan, including exposure to sexual violence and increased risk of students dropping out of school.

Difficulties in ensuring the protection of children are exacerbated, according to the UN, by the Taliban’s refusal to consider people below the age of 18 to be children, as is the international standard, instead using the onset of puberty as the basis for adulthood.

Younger madrasah students in western and southwestern Afghanistan below or at the age of puberty said they were not spared physical abuse and sexual harassment from teachers.

One young man who spoke to Radio Azadi said he recently learned that his young brother was being subjected to sexual abuse at a madrasah in western Afghanistan.

The young man said his brother was being assigned extracurricular "homework by a teacher, or to put it bluntly, he was being asked for sex, [the teacher] fondled his hands and feet and kissed him."

As a result, the young man said he told his brother not to go to school anymore.

Fear of sexual harassment and sexual and physical abuse were cited as a common factor leading boys in western and southwestern Afghanistan to give up their studies.

"Some teachers harass our students and make immoral requests," said one 14-year-old boy who also described common methods of corporal punishment at his madrasah. "They strike our faces or beat our hands and feet under the pretext of disciplining us for not learning our lessons properly."

The boy said many students were studying hard in fear of being taken to a special room for punishment, and that "some even drop out of school."

Another student, aged 10, said his teacher separated him and other students from their class to beat the soles of their feet.

Afterward, he told Radio Azadi, he stopped going to class because he was afraid. And upon hearing about the incidents, his and his classmates’ parents "did not allow us to go to school."

The Taliban authorities did not respond to requests for comment on the allegations of abuse at madrasahs it has established. And efforts to speak to individuals aware of the situations at madrasahs in other areas of Afghanistan were met by refusals to comment due to fear of reprisals.

A women’s rights activist who asked that her name not be published told Radio Azadi that families have no avenue to lodge complaints about the abuse their children encounter at Taliban-run madrasahs because they, too, would face threats.

The activist said that not only had she been made aware of sexual harassment against both girls and boys at Taliban-run madrasahs, but the curriculum also serves to "increase the level of extremism in the country."

Reducing the risks of both threats, she said, would require greater oversight by the Taliban authorities and ideally, she said, a reduction in the number of madrasahs.

Najib Amini, a civil society activist in western Afghanistan, said that for now, the onus falls on families to be aware.

"Children are subjected to sexual abuse in madrasahs established under the Taliban regime," Amini said. "Families have an important and essential role in this regard. If they do not want their children to be abused in schools, if they want their children to get a basic education...then they should not send their children to madrasahs under the control of the Taliban."

Afghan Women Stage Rare Protests On International Women’s Day (Agence France-Presse)

Agence France-Presse [3/8/2024 4:14 PM, Staff, 307K, Neutral]
Small groups of Afghan women on Friday staged rare demonstrations to mark International Women’s Day in private spaces, after a crackdown by Taliban authorities forced activists off the streets.

Since surging back to power in August 2021, Taliban authorities have imposed a strict interpretation of Islam, with women bearing the brunt of curbs the United Nations has labelled "gender apartheid".

Women have been squeezed from public life, barred from travelling without a male relative and banned from certain jobs, secondary school and university, as well as from parks, fairs and gyms.

A handful of women in several provinces gathered to demand restrictions be lifted, according to activists from the Purple Saturdays group, which protests Taliban government curbs on women.

In northern Takhar province, images circulated by activists showed seven women holding papers obscuring their faces, reading "Rights, Justice, Freedom".

"Our silence and fear is the biggest weapon of the Taliban," a demonstrator whose face was covered said in a video.

In Balkh province, several women also held up signs saying "Don’t give the Taliban a chance" in front of a banner reading "Save Afghanistan Women".

On Thursday, around 20 women gathered at an office for an event organised by the Afghanistan Association of the Blind in northern Mazar-i-Sharif city.

"The gates of schools, universities and offices should be opened for all women," said one attendee, who remained anonymous for security reasons, during the meeting.

"It is very painful that a woman has no value in our society today. She cannot use any of her rights."

"Women make up half of human society as mothers, wives, sisters, daughters and teachers. The holy religion of Islam is not against women’s work and education," another added.

Also on Thursday, the Independent Coalition of Afghanistan Women’s Protest Movement issued a statement demanding "immediate and serious action from the international community against the clear violation of human rights and obvious crimes the Taliban are committing against Afghan women".

The UN mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA, on Friday urged the Taliban government to lift restrictions on women and girls, saying not doing so risked "further pushing the country into deeper poverty and isolation".

"The space for Afghan women and girls continues to shrink at an alarming pace, and with it Afghanistan’s future prospects to escape a vicious cycle of war, poverty, and isolation," said Alison Davidian, Special Representative for UN Women in Afghanistan, in a statement.

Taliban authorities have repeatedly dismissed such international criticism as propaganda.

On Friday, spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the Taliban government was committed to women’s rights within the framework of Islam, according to an interview with Tolo News.

Women have protested sporadically against rules handed down by the Taliban authorities, but often in small groups and indoors out of fear of reprisals, after several activists were detained for months.

On Friday, the UN Special Rapporteur for human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, called on the Taliban government "to immediately and unconditionally release all those who have been arbitrarily detained for defending human rights, especially the rights of women and girls".

Street protests in Afghanistan have in the past been broken up by security forces firing guns into the air, including during a demonstration last summer after beauty salons were shut down.

Last March, about 20 women held a rare protest in the streets of Kabul for International Women’s Day.

If You Are A Girl In Afghanistan, The Taliban Has Decided Your Future For You (Forbes)

Forbes [3/8/2024 3:31 PM, Dr. Ewelina U. Ochab, 657K, Neutral]
On March 4, 2024, British parliamentarians, including Baroness Helena Kennedy of the Shaws KC, Baroness Fiona Hodgson, the Rt Hon Caroline Nokes MP, and Joanna Cherry KC MP, published a report on the situation of women and girls in Afghanistan and Iran. The report entitled “Shattering Women’s Rights, Shattering Lives” follows several weeks-long inquiry with testimonies from Afghan and Iranian women and global experts (the Inquiry). Citing the words of Malala Yousafzai, human rights advocate and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, the report reminds us that “If you are a girl in Afghanistan, the Taliban has decided your future for you. You cannot attend secondary school or university. You cannot find open libraries where you can read. You see your mothers confined, unable to work, go to the park, get a haircut, or even see a doctor.”

The Inquiry was convened to respond to the ever-growing marginalization of women and girls in Afghanistan and Iran which closely resembles segregation. Women and girls in those countries are treated as second-class citizens, deprived of their freedoms and forced to adhere to strict dress codes under the threat of severe punishments. All these forms of discrimination and persecution are institutionalized, as they stem from policies and practices put in place by the authorities. Because of that, Afghan and Iranian women, including prolific lawyers, journalists, and human rights defenders, such as Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Shirin Ebadi, the first woman Deputy Speaker in the Afghan Parliament Fawzia Koofi, actress and human rights advocate Nazanin Boniadi, and journalist and human rights advocate, Masih Alinejad, among others, have been calling for the recognition of this treatment of women in these countries as gender apartheid.

As it stands, the existing legal framework fails to fully capture the nature of this treatment of women and girls and, in turn, provide adequate responses. Currently, the crime of apartheid is codified within international legal instruments to address a specific form of oppression based on race, as was the case in South Africa. Under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid, it encompasses inhumane acts perpetrated within an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and dominance by one racial group over others, with the explicit intention of perpetuating such a regime.

To address this legal obstacle, Afghan and Iranian women have been leading the international call to codify gender apartheid - as the first step to ensure that the situation is addressed with comprehensive responses.

In January 2024, the Gender Apartheid Inquiry was convened as prompted by growing concerns over the segregation and oppression experienced by women and girls in Afghanistan and Iran under the rule of the Taliban and Mullahs, respectively. The Inquiry, led by a panel of British Parliamentarians, chaired by Baroness Helena Kennedy of the Shaws KC, engaged Afghan and Iranian experts, as well as international experts who urged the acknowledgment of the situation as “gender apartheid.”

The Gender Apartheid Inquiry has heard testimonies of first-hand accounts of threats, intimidation, unfair trials, arbitrary detention and – in some instances – torture. Among others, the Inquiry has heard first-hand accounts of torture, including “needling” whereby needles would be put into the fingers and other torture practices of suffocating the victims/survivors. Others testified to the “endemic of suicide” in Afghanistan with an extremely high number of suicides among women and girls as a result of them being confined to their homes. The Inquiry has also heard how Iranian authorities are using technology to enforce the hijab laws and how the repression of those speaking out is not confined to the territory of Iran but manifests as transnational repression.

The Inquiry called for a formal recognition of the treatment of women and girls in Afghanistan and Iran as gender apartheid and other practical steps to provide meaningful assistance to women and girls in these countries that could help to elevate the unimaginable suffering experienced by them. As International Women’s Day is being celebrated around the world on March 8, one has to be reminded that in parts of the world, women’s rights are suppressed to the point that they are non-existent. In the words of Malala Yousafzai: “If we, as a global community, fail to stand in opposition to gender apartheid in Afghanistan, we send a devastating message to girls and women everywhere: That you are less than human. That your basic rights are up for debate. That we are willing to look away.” Women and girls cannot take their rights for granted.

Pakistan

Zardari Returns as Pakistan’s President After Deal With Sharif (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg [3/9/2024 8:35 AM, Kamran Haider and Ismail Dilawar, 5543K, Neutral]
Pakistan’s lawmakers elected Asif Ali Zardari as president for a second time, the result of a deal struck between the veteran politician and allies of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

Zardari secured 411 votes, beating a candidate put forward by jailed former leader Imran Khan who only received 181 votes, the Election Commission said in a statement.

Senators and members of the national and provincial assemblies traditionally come together to vote for a president every five years. The presidency is largely ceremonial due to Zardari’s move in 2009 to strip it of most of its formal powers when he last assumed the role, though he still wielded significant power behind the scenes.

It’s a scenario that is likely to be repeated, analysts said.

Zardari co-chairs the Pakistan Peoples Party, the third largest group in the National Assembly after February elections. The PPP agreed to back Sharif as prime minister but stopped short of joining his cabinet, stirring concerns the new government will be vulnerable to getting toppled.

Any further political turmoil could complicate Sharif’s plans to seek at least $6 billion in new loans from the International Monetary Fund and carry out the reforms that the multilateral lender is seeking in exchange for releasing the funds. The PPP has been against the privatization of state-run enterprises — a key part of the IMF reform push.

The PPP and Zardari are “now part of the power structure and in a way, Sharif’s government will be beholden to them,” said Zahid Hussain, a political commentator and author of Hybrid Rule in Pakistan.

Ahead of the vote at a campaign dinner for his presidency, Zardari, 68, said he wanted to work with Sharif to steer the country out of the economic crisis.

“Einstein was not afraid of difficult challenges and Shehbaz Sharif will not be afraid either,” he said.

Political Operator

The son of a cinema business owner, Zardari rose to prominence when he wed Benazir Bhutto in 1987 in an arranged marriage. A year later, she became prime minister and he joined her cabinet, earning the nickname “Mr. 10%” on allegations of corruption and kickbacks — which he has repeatedly denied.

Zardari has spent time in and out of jail — a common rite of passage for most Pakistani politicians who say it is usually orchestrated by their opponents. He entered the international spotlight after his wife was assassinated by militants, becoming president for the first time on a wave of public sympathy.

Along the way, he has earned a reputation of being a deft political operator, positioning himself as a kingmaker in alliances and negotiating with the military, which has ruled over Pakistan directly or indirectly for most of its history.

Zardari led political leaders in parliament including Sharif’s elder brother and three-time premier Nawaz in 2008 to force military dictator and then-President Pervez Musharraf to resign or face impeachment. Zardari’s coalition then became the first government to complete a full five-year term in Pakistan’s history despite later falling out with the Sharif brothers.

Shaista Tabassum, a professor of international relations at the University of Karachi, said that when Zardari is president, he may be used as “a tool for the military establishment to control the Sharifs.”

Zardari takes over from Arif Alvi, who was a close ally of former premier Khan. Alvi resisted the ex-cricket star’s ouster in a no-confidence vote in April 2022 and created various constitutional and legal hurdles for Sharif’s government when it took over.

For now, it will be smooth sailing, analysts said.

“There will be a more cooperative relationship, until and unless there are serious issues,” said Umbareen Javed, a professor at the Lahore School of Economics. “Zardari knows how to play his cards.”

Pakistan’s lawmakers pick Asif Ali Zardari as the country’s president for a second time (AP)

AP [3/9/2024 11:19 AM, Riazatt Butt, 456K, Neutral]
Pakistan’s lawmakers elected Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday as the country’s president for the second time.

He is the widower of assassinated former premier Benazir Bhutto and the father of former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari.

Zardari secured 411 votes from national and provincial lawmakers. His opponent, Mehmood Khan Achakzai, who is backed by the party of imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan, received 181 votes.

The Pakistani presidency is a largely ceremonial role. Zardari was previously in the job between 2008 and 2013. Zardari was the joint candidate of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League, or PML-N, party of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his other political allies.

He was the favorite to win on Saturday because of his alliance with Pakistan’s other political dynasty, the Sharifs, and his key role in talks to form a coalition government after the disputed national parliamentary election on Feb. 8.

Sharif congratulated Zardari on becoming the country’s new president with a majority vote.

Zardari “will be a symbol of the strength of the federation,” Sharif said in a statement.

He said that he hoped that Zardari would fulfill his constitutional responsibilities in an efficient manner.

Zardari’s rival Achakzai also congratulated him on his victory, saying the vote was held in a free and fair manner. Zardari is known for handling complicated political and other issues in a cool manner.

Last month’s poll was overshadowed by militant violence, an unprecedented cellphone shutdown and vehement claims of vote-rigging from Khan’s party.

Khan was kicked out of office in 2022 and has faced a number of legal challenges since then. He’s currently serving multiple prison terms.

Zardari also has been dogged by criminal cases. He spent 11 years behind bars before becoming president, but was never convicted and has denied any wrongdoing. He has been arrested and indicted on various charges in recent years.

He will take the oath of office on Sunday.

Pakistan’s former President Zardari wins another term (Reuters)

Reuters [3/9/2024 8:46 AM, Asif Shahzad, 5239K, Neutral]
Pakistan’s former President Asif Ali Zardari won a second term on Saturday, supported by the ruling coalition in a vote by parliament and regional assemblies, the election presiding officer said.

The role of president is largely ceremonial in Pakistan but Zardari is known as a master of reconciliation and could help the governing coalition partners reach a consensus to steer the broken economy on a stabilisation path ahead of seeking a new IMF bailout.

As president, Zardari will also be the supreme commander of the country’s armed forces, which play an oversized role in making or breaking governments.

Presiding officer Justice Amir Farooq announced the winner in a live TV broadcast.

Zardari got 411 votes, easily defeating the 181 votes cast for nationalist leader Mehmood Khan Achakzai, according to a statement from the parliament.

Achakzai was backed by jailed leader Imran Khan’s party.

The president is elected by votes in the lower and upper house of the parliament and four provincial legislative assemblies.

Zardari is the widower of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and gained political stature after his wife’s assassination in a suicide bombing in December 2007, taking control of the PPP Party, in line with wishes expressed in her will.

He became president in 2008 and served until 2013, a period in which a U.S. special forces raid inside Pakistan found and killed Osama bin Laden in 2011.

Zardari’s greatest achievement during his first term was seen as the building of a rare political consensus on adopting a new legal and political framework to decentralise power and curb the presidential powers wielded by former military leaders.

From the early 1990s to 2004, he spent 11 years in jail on graft charges, which were never proven in any court and that he and his party called military-backed political victimisation, a charge the army denies.

Pakistan PM Sharif picks prominent banker in new cabinet, document shows (Reuters)

Reuters [3/11/2024 2:56 AM, Asif Shahzad, 5.2M, Neutral]
The CEO of Pakistan’s largest bank was picked as a federal minister, according to a government document seen by Reuters, and sources said he was set to be appointed finance minister in a new cabinet that will take the oath on Monday.

The South Asian nation, beset by economic and political crises, held inconclusive national elections last month that did not give any party a majority, after which a coalition alliance elected Shehbaz Sharif as prime minister for a second time last week.

Sharif has included Muhammad Aurangzeb, chief executive officer of HBL bank (HBL.PSX), opens new tab, in the cabinet and he will be given the portfolio of finance minister, according to two sources - one in Sharif’s party and the other in the prime minister’s office.

Aurangzeb was picked over several veterans previously involved in handling the troubled $350 billion economy, including four-time finance minister Ishaq Dar, as the country looks to tide over a troubling time for its economy.

Dar was also named a federal minister and is likely to get the foreign ministry portfolio, the two sources said.

A spokesman for HBL said he could neither confirm nor deny any "speculation" about Aurangzeb’s appointment.

Pakistan’s current International Monetary Fund programme expires next month, and Sharif has said his government would look to negotiate a new, longer term bailout to keep the country’s economy stable amidst high inflation and external financing requirements.

The new cabinet will be sworn in on Monday, over a month since the Feb. 8 national election. A letter, seen by Reuters, sent by Sharif to the president for the appointment of the cabinet showed a list of 19 names, including Aurangzeb and Dar.

Pakistani Police Crack Down on Khan Supporters During Alleged Vote Fraud Protest (VOA)

VOA [3/10/2024 3:32 PM, Ayaz Gul, 761K, Neutral]
Police in Pakistan detained dozens of supporters of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan Sunday as they rallied nationwide to protest alleged voter fraud in recent general elections.

Khan’s opposition party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or PTI, said that the police action occurred in the country’s most populous province of Punjab and disrupted “peaceful” protests there.

Television footage showed security personnel rounding up senior party leaders and workers in the provincial capital, Lahore, and elsewhere in the province. The authorities have not yet explained the charges under which they arrested the protesters.

PTI said in a statement that more than 100 people were taken into custody for demonstrating against “rigging and mandate theft.” It condemned the crackdown and demanded that all detainees be immediately released.

“Staging peaceful protest is a democratic right as per the constitution of Pakistan; however, the imposed government is not willing to have anyone call them out, hence why the arrests, using police as their aides,” the party stated.

The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan condemned “the consistent high-handedness of the state in cracking down on PTI protesters” and detaining several of its key leaders during Sunday’s protests against alleged electoral malpractice.

“All citizens, regardless of their political affiliation, have a constitutionally protected right to assemble freely and peacefully. The Punjab government must respect and uphold its political rivals’ right to do so if it is to restore people’s trust in the state,” the watchdog said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The February 8 elections for national and provincial parliaments were marred by widespread allegations of rigging and irregularities. Pakistani authorities shut down mobile phone and internet services nationwide on election day and announced the results with an unprecedented delay of almost three days.

The communication blackout and delay gave credence to PTI’s claims of electoral fraud and made the elections one of the least credible in the country’s troubled democratic history.

Several countries, including the United States and the European Union, have called for a full investigation into rigging allegations. Pakistani authorities have dismissed foreign criticism of the election, saying it was free and fair.

The vote delivered a split mandate, with PTI-backed candidates winning the most seats in the 336-seat National Assembly or the lower house of parliament, but it fell short of a simple majority.

This allowed the two family-run rival parties, former Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, or PML-N, and the Pakistan Peoples Party, or PPP, to cobble together a coalition government, enabling Sharif to return to power for a second time.

Khan and his party have promised to continue their protest campaign until the election results are reversed. They allege that the PTI won a two-thirds majority, but the election commission manipulated the outcome to "steal its mandate.” The commission denies the accusations.

On Sunday, PPP co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari was sworn in as Pakistan’s new president a day after lawmakers elected him to the largely ceremonial constitutional office for a second time.

Zardari, 68, was the joint candidate of the PML-N and the PPP.

Khan, rated as the most popular national politician by public polls, is currently serving lengthy prison terms after having been convicted of corruption, fraudulent marriage, and leaking state secrets in the lead-up to the February 8 elections.

The 71-year-old cricket hero-turned-prime minister was ousted from office in 2022 through a parliamentary vote of no-confidence and has since faced scores of legal challenges. Khan denies wrongdoing and accuses Pakistan’s powerful military of being behind what he dismisses as politically motivated and frivolous charges.

The military denies it meddles in political matters.

Pakistan enters fourth week of nationwide X disruption (Agence France-Presse)

Agence France-Presse [3/9/2024 3:00 AM, Staff, 11975K, Neutral]
Pakistan entered on Saturday its fourth week of nationwide disruption to social media platform X, with activists waging a court battle to get it restored.

The platform, formerly known as Twitter, was downed after jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s party called for protests against a government official’s admission of vote manipulation in last month’s election.

Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party faced a sweeping crackdown ahead of the February 8 poll, forced into opposition by a coalition of military-backed parties despite winning the most seats.

Journalists and academics have filed a case in Sindh High Court in the mega city of Karachi against Pakistan’s Telecommunication Authority (PTA) for the outage.

"X is a common platform of commentary in Pakistan and if you block it, then you are taking oxygen away from public discourse which is illegal," said their lawyer Abdul Moiz Jaferii.

"The reason behind this (disruption) is not to stop people from talking but it is to stop most people from listening."

In a hearing on Thursday, the telecommunications authority sought more time to respond to the challenge.

The government has not commented on the outage.

AFP staff reported Saturday that X remained disrupted in the capital Islamabad, as well as the megacities of Lahore and Karachi.

Access to X has been sporadic, occasionally available for short cycles based on the internet service provider, forcing users to virtual private networks (VPN), said Alp Toker of the NetBlocks internet monitor.

Opposition censorship

Mobile internet services were cut across the country on election day, with the interior ministry citing security reasons.

It was followed by a long delay in issuing voting results -- giving rise to allegations of rigging.

Khan’s opposition party had already faced heavy censorship in the weeks before the election, banned from television channels and from holding rallies, forcing its campaign online.

But the censorship followed.

Pakistani internet freedom watchdog Bytes For All recorded four separate hours-long social media shutdowns in January –- cutting off access to TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube while Khan’s PTI live-streamed to its supporters.

"It all started with targeting one political party’s online campaigning during pre-polls, however, post-polls it is more a test of all citizens and democratic institutions -- particularly the parliament and judiciary. How are they going to respond and interpret the blockage of X?," the watchdog told AFP.

Amber Rahim Shamsi, one of the petitioners and the director of the Centre for Excellence in Journalism, said she believes the restrictions are an attempt by the state to control PTI’s social media success.

"When the state has no credible counternarrative, it uses coercive measures to control or manipulate information," Shamsi said.

IMF backs new Pakistan programme, boosting bond rally (Reuters)

Reuters [3/8/2024 11:38 AM, Ariba Shahid andn Libby George, 5.2M, Neutral]
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) will support a new economic programme for Pakistan if the government seeks one, while encouraging the resolution of disputes linked to last month’s election, it said on Friday.

Cash-strapped Pakistan has grappled with the Feb. 8 election that delayed the formation of a coalition government until new Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was sworn in on Monday. But the IMF news boosted investor confidence and helped add to a remarkable rally in the country’s bonds.

"We look forward to engaging with the new government to complete the second review under the current stand-by arrangement and, should the government request, support the formulation of a new medium-term economic programme," an IMF spokesperson said in an e-mail.

Sharif asked his government to open talks with the IMF for a new programme after clearing the stand-by arrangement, but the party of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan asked the IMF last month to ensure an audit of the disputed election before any more bailout talks.

Pakistan secured a $3 billion IMF stand-by arrangement last summer, but that runs out in April and the country is still struggling with record inflation, currency devaluation and shrinking foreign reserves.

Sharif has yet to name his finance minister, but positive news from the IMF added to investor optimism that has helped boost bonds from pricing in a high chance of a default last year to close to face value on shorter-dated maturities.

"The worst-case scenario of a contested election and a prolonged political crisis has been avoided," said Kevin Daly, head of emerging market debt at abrdn, citing the IMF but also China’s decision to roll over some of Pakistan’s loans.

"All in all this reduces default risk over the next 2-3 years, although one has to bear in mind that Pakistan has a record of falling off the tracks with the IMF, so that’s a risk on the horizon."

Pakistan’s bonds gained around 4 cents on Friday. The 2036 maturity gained the most by 1510 GMT, adding 3.85 cents to trade at 77.4 cents on the dollar.

"It’s been an incredible rally," said Mark Evans, a fixed income analyst with Ninety One. He said moves on currency and interest rates helped improve Pakistan’s financial position, and that they remained overweight.

"There’s too much at stake for a country like Pakistan to default from a geopolitical perspective," he said.

But Pakistan’s still-fragile politics, along with daunting economic troubles, leave risks.

The IMF encouraged a peaceful resolution of all electoral disputes, given the importance of the institutional environment for economic stability and growth.

Pakistan’s finance ministry did not immediately respond to a request for a comment.
Emre Akcakmak, head of frontier markets with East Capital, said investors would watch progress closely.

"There are reasons to be more optimistic compared to the darkest days of last year, but the country is still in the beginning of a much-awaited economic rebalancing and reform process," Akcakmak said.

India

India Wins $100 Billion Investment Pledge in EFTA Trade Deal (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg [3/10/2024 11:31 PM, Shruti Srivastava, Bastian Benrath, and Hugo Miller, 5543K, Positive]
India and four European countries signed a free trade pact that will see $100 billion invested in the South Asian country over 15 years and a million jobs created, boosting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government weeks before the elections.

Indian Trade Minister Piyush Goyal said Sunday the deal with the European bloc — which comprises Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein — marked the “first time in the history of the world that we are inking an agreement with a binding commitment.”

It shows that “investor confidence in India is at an all-time high,” he added.

The trade pact with the EFTA bloc, which includes countries that aren’t members of the European Union, has been under negotiation for 16 years. Bloomberg News had earlier reported on the agreement.

India, the world’s most populous nation and the fastest-growing major economy, is benefiting as countries look to diversify their supply chains away from China. Goyal said the investment commitments from the EFTA countries would be from the private sector.

The EFTA trade deal continues to deepen market access for India, with an added clause for incentivizing investment,” said Rahul Bajoria, an India economist at Barclays Plc. Although the EFTA nations’ market size is small, the agreement is a “signal nevertheless that even highly developed economies are seeking trade deals with India,” he said.

The European nations will in return get easier access for processed food and beverages and electrical machinery.

India offers “immense opportunity for trade and investment,” Swiss Economy Minister Guy Parmelin said at the ceremony, adding that the South Asian nation would gain access to technology through the deal.

The agreement will also benefit the pharmaceutical and medical devices industry of the bloc. Indian exporters will get liberalized access for their rice and other products to these European nations while high-end Swiss watches will become cheaper in India in a phased manner.

‘Significant Milestone’

The Swiss government called the the deal a “significant milestone,” in a separate statement on Sunday. India will lift or partially remove customs tariffs on about 95% of industrial imports from Switzerland, excluding gold, either immediately or over time, it said. In a nod to the Swiss pharmaceuticals industry, the government said the deal includes “improvements” to intellectual property rights, patent procedures and the protection of “Swissness.”

The services sector will also benefit from the deal and Indian professionals will be able to move more smoothly under the arrangement. The EFTA bloc has committed to market access and non-discriminatory treatment for Indian services including in the audio-visual, accounting and auditing, legal and computer-related sectors under the pact.

India has offered market access and non-discriminatory treatment to the accounting, health, computer, banking and insurance services of the bloc. Goyal said the free trade deal is India’s most modern agreement to date, dealing with labor, environment and gender.

Modi’s government has accelerated talks with major trading partners to take advantage of the changing global world order. It is also in discussions with the UK, European Union and Australia for free trade pacts to boost local manufacturing and create jobs. Negotiations with the UK are in the final stages.

Among the EFTA countries, Switzerland is India’s largest commercial partner and bilateral trade stood at $17.14 billion in the 2022-23 fiscal year, out of $18.66 billion with the whole group.

The deal must be ratified by Switzerland’s parliament, which will begin that process immediately, the government said, so it can be approved by 2025 at the latest. Parmelin will brief the media on the pact in the Swiss capital Bern on Monday upon his return.

Swissmem, an engineering industry lobby group whose members include conglomerate ABB Ltd. and elevator maker Schindler Holding AG, said the deal represents an “enormous opportunity.” it gives Swiss companies an advantage over competitors from the UK, China and the US who can’t take advantage of such a free-trade deal, the group said.

India signs a trade accord with 4 European nations for $100 billion investment over 15 years (AP)

AP [3/10/2024 9:00 PM, Ashok Sharma, 22K, Positive]
India signed a trade agreement with Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland on Sunday that includes a commitment of $100 billion in investments and creating 1 million direct jobs in India in the next 15 years.

India committed to reducing import tariffs on industrial products from the four European countries that comprise the European Free Trade Association, or EFTA.

“The landmark agreement between India and EFTA is set to bring significant economic benefits, such as better integrated and more resilient supply chains, new opportunities for businesses and individuals on both sides leading to increased trade and investment flows, job creation, and economic growth,” an EFTA communique said.

India’s Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said India for the first time had signed an agreement with an important economic bloc in Europe. India is also working on trade pacts with Britain and the European Union.

The agreement includes trade in goods and services, investment promotion and cooperation, intellectual property, government procurement, trade and sustainable development, and dispute settlement. It will provide a window for Indian exporters to access European and global markets, Goyal said in a statement.

The agreement was signed in New Delhi by Goyal, his Swiss counterpart Guy Parmelin, Iceland’s Foreign Minister Bjarni Benediktsson, Liechtenstein’s Foreign Minister Dominique Hasler, and Norway’s Trade and Industry Minister Jan Christian Vestre.

Parmelin, speaking on behalf of the EFTA member states, said that “EFTA countries gain market access to a major growth market. Our companies strive to diversify their supply chains while rendering them more resilient. India, in return, will attract more foreign investment from EFTA, which will ultimately translate into an increase in good jobs.”

India signs $100bn free trade deal with European EFTA bloc (Al Jazeera)

Al Jazeera [3/10/2024 7:56 AM, Staff, 2060K, Positive]
India has signed a $100bn free trade agreement with a four-member European bloc and will lift most import tariffs on industrial products from these countries in return for the investment over 15 years.

The deal signed on Sunday with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) – after several rounds of negotiations spanning 16 years – will see investments across a range of Indian sectors, including pharmaceuticals, machinery and manufacturing.

The EFTA comprises Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein, all non-European Union nations, that will get access to a fast-growing market of 1.4 billion people, said India’s Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal.

“The India-EFTA Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement [TEPA] marks a historic milestone in our growing partnership,” Goyal said after the signing in New Delhi.

It “will pave the path for mutual growth and prosperity” by boosting exports, promoting investment and creating employment, he added.

In the last two years, India has signed trade agreements with Australia and the United Arab Emirates, and officials say a deal with the United Kingdom is in the final stages as Prime Minister Narendra Modi aims to hit $1 trillion in annual exports by 2030.

India will lift, or partially remove, very high customs duties on 95.3 percent of industrial imports from Switzerland, excluding gold, either immediately or over time, the Swiss government said in a statement.

“Norwegian companies exporting to India today meet high import taxes of up to 40% on certain goods,” Industry Minister Jan Christian Vestre said in a separate statement.

“With the new deal, we have secured nil import taxes on nearly every Norwegian good.”

Under the agreement, Indian agricultural exporters will enjoy liberalised trade rules in the form of tariff concessions in the European bloc. Professionals will also be able to take up jobs in the EFTA zone, officials said.

The pact covers some new elements such as intellectual rights and gender equity, Goyal said, telling a news conference, “It is a modern trade agreement, fair, equitable and win-win for all five countries.”

The five must ratify the deal before it can take effect, with Switzerland planning to do so by 2025.

The signing comes ahead of India’s general elections, due by May, in which Modi will seek a third term.

India is EFTA’s fifth-largest trading partner after the EU, the United States, the UK and China, with total two-way trade of $25bn in 2023, its Ministry of Trade estimates.

Formed in 1960 as a counterweight to the EU, the EFTA has signed about 30 trade agreements with some 40 countries and territories outside the EU.

India Begins Deporting First Group of Myanmar Refugees Who Fled 2021 Coup (Reuters)

Reuters [3/8/2024 10:29 AM, Tora Agarwala, 761K, Negative]
India on Friday began deporting the first group of Myanmar refugees who sought shelter there after a military coup in 2021 and plans to send back more in the coming days, weeks after saying it would end a visa-free border policy with Myanmar.

Thousands of civilians and hundreds of troops from Myanmar have fled to Indian states, where communities between the two countries share ethnic and familial ties, which has worried New Delhi because of the risk of communal tensions spreading to India.

"First batch of Myanmar nationals who entered India illegally deported today," N. Biren Singh, the chief minister of northeastern Manipur state that borders Myanmar, said in a post on messaging platform X.

Manipur planned to send back at least 77 refugees starting from Friday, according to a state government document seen by Reuters. The state has been roiled by sporadic violence that has killed nearly 200 people so far since ethnic clashes broke out in May last year.

The first group of refugees arrived in the Indian border town of Moreh and would likely be handed over on Saturday, an Indian security official said on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

Singh shared a video clip on X showing some women refugees being brought out of security vans and taken into an airport.

The U.S. State Department is "concerned by reports that recent deportations from India to Burma included refugees and asylum seekers," a spokesperson said on Saturday. The State Department reiterated calls by U.N. human rights organizations "urging Burma’s neighbors to offer refuge and protection to all those fleeing violence and persecution."

New Delhi has not signed the 1951 U.N. Refugee Convention, which spells out refugees’ rights and states’ responsibilities to protect them, nor does it have its own laws protecting refugees.

Singh wrote in his post that the country gave "shelter & aid to those fleeing the crisis in Myanmar on humanitarian grounds with a systematic approach".

India last month said it would end a decades-old visa-free movement policy with Myanmar for their border citizens for reasons including national security, days after the interior minister announced fencing of the 1,643-km (1,020 mile) border with Myanmar.

India election official quits before vote-date announcement (Reuters)

Reuters [3/9/2024 12:48 PM, Aditi Shah and Shivangi Acharya, 5239K, Neutral]
The second-highest official in India’s election commission resigned abruptly on Saturday, days ahead of the expected announcement of the date of the country’s general election.

Arun Goel’s resignation as election commissioner leaves the Election Commission of India with only one of its three mandated top officials in their posts to conduct the world’s largest election with more than 960 million registered voters.

The Ministry of Law and Justice said in a gazette notification, opens new tab that Indian President Droupadi Murmu had accepted Goel’s resignation, without citing a reason for his departure.

Goel, who took over as election commissioner in November 2022, did not immediately answer calls from Reuters, and a commission spokesperson said he did not know why Goel had stepped down.

Opinion polls have predicted an easy win for Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the election due by May, which would give him a rare third straight term in office.

The election commission’s decisions are taken by majority vote among three commissioners, each with a tenure of six years or up to the age of 65 years, according to its website, opens new tab.

The electoral body is now left only with Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, after Anup Chandra Pandey retired as a commissioner last month, and Goel’s resignation drew expressions of concern from several opposition parties.

"India now has only ONE Election Commissioner, even as ... elections are to be announced in few days. Why?" asked Mallikarjun Kharge, president of the main opposition Congress party, on the X social media platform.

He said India needs to stop "the systematic decimation of our independent institutions".

It was not immediately clear if new commissioners could be appointed in time for the election.

Election commissioners are appointed by a panel led by the prime minister, with the leader of opposition in the lower house of parliament and a federal minister nominated by the prime minister acting as its members.

India’s constitution authorises the commission to run elections to parliament and state legislatures, as well as to the offices of the country’s president and vice president.

A Globe-Trotting YouTube Influencer Led Indian Job Seekers to Russia’s War (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal [3/9/2024 10:59 AM, Krishna Pokharel, 810K, Neutral]
In December, Syed Ilyas Hussaini, a catering worker at the Dubai airport, returned home to India and told his father he had a new job destination in mind: Russia.

While working abroad, the 23-year-old migrant worker had become a fan of the Baba Vlogs YouTube channel. Run by Faisal Khan, a Dubai-based Indian recruiter who styles himself as an influencer, the channel showed Khan, often in sunglasses and sporting burgundy-toned hair, talking about job opportunities from locations including New Zealand and Singapore. In a September video, Khan strolled through St. Petersburg, and invited viewers to apply for office jobs with Russian Army officials that would pay 100,000 rupees a month (about $1,200).

It sounded great to Hussaini, said his father, Syed Nawaj Ali. Ten days after returning from Dubai, he and a few friends left for Russia with the help of visas obtained via Khan’s outfit, according to the father. After a month of silence, Ali received a video that Hussaini had made of himself and his friends in a wooded area dressed in what looked like military fatigues. They had all been dispatched to the front lines of Russia’s war with Ukraine, he said in the video, which was seen by The Wall Street Journal.

“My son fell in a trap,” said Ali, a police constable in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. “Now we and all our boys are in trenches of agony and trauma.”

A quest for jobs leads to a battlefront

In recent weeks, videos have surfaced of Indians entangled in Russia’s war effort beseeching the Indian government to help. At least two Indian nationals have been killed, according to India’s foreign ministry, which said on Friday it has information about at least 20 Indians who were duped into working with the Russian Army and that it is working to extricate them.

“We have strongly taken up the matter with the Russian government for early discharge of such Indian nationals,” foreign ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said.

Russia’s foreign ministry didn’t respond to a request for comment.

India has maintained its longstanding close ties with Russia through the war and dramatically increased its purchases of Russian oil since the war began.

On Thursday, India’s Central Bureau of Investigation, a national agency, said it was pursuing human-trafficking networks across seven cities that had lured at least 35 Indian nationals to Russia with promises of high-paying jobs.

“Thereafter, the trafficked Indian nationals were trained in combat roles and deployed at front bases in Russia-Ukraine war zone against their wishes,” said the agency, which listed more than a dozen recruiters, including Baba Vlogs, as trafficking suspects brought to its attention through complaints.

In an interview Friday, Khan said he had no idea the men he recruited were being sent to war.

During a September visit to Russia, he was in contact with a network of Indians and Russians who would help him facilitate job offers for Indians. While that network included commanders in the Russian army, he says he understood that the men wouldn’t be sent to fight. Khan stopped 19 men he was planning to send to Russia as soon as he learned about two months ago that some of the people he had already dispatched were sent to fight.

“I myself have been used and made a victim of this network which will continue its operation even though I have been made a scapegoat,” he said.

Khan said he has remained in Dubai and that his place in Mumbai was searched this week by Indian officials, who took away documents and a plaque he had received from YouTube recognizing him as an influencer.

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 turned into a protracted war, Russia has recruited people from around the world—including from Cuba and Nepal—many of whom have joined the war effort in the hope of bettering their economic prospects. Russia has dangled rewards, including citizenship, for foreign nationals who fight for it. Foreign fighters also joined on Ukraine’s side, but their numbers have reduced since the early days of the war.

In recent years, Indians have been migrating in record numbers to study and work in Europe and the U.S., with an increase in the numbers of those doing so through illegal networks.

Like Hussaini, several young Muslim men from southern India ended up in Russia after coming across the Baba Vlogs video offer, which said the men would need to pay around $3,600 to help with visas and other documents, according to families of the men involved.

Mohammed Mustafa’s younger brother, Mohammed Sameer Ahmed, became a friend of Hussaini’s while working at the Dubai airport and was another fan of Baba Vlogs. When Ahmed announced his decision to go to Russia, Mustafa was surprised. But his brother reassured him.

“He said, ‘It’s all official and legal. This guy has his office in Dubai. I have been to his office as well.’ He also showed me the videos of the agent,” said Mustafa, who talked to Khan himself. You can call me anytime, Khan told him.

In calls from Russia, Ahmed, who is 23, told Mustafa that on arrival, he was passed on to other middlemen with South Asian names. He was made to sign an agreement in Russian—with no translation—and then left at a camp with soldiers. The last time Mustafa heard from his brother was about a week ago.

“We don’t know what to do. We have lost our minds thinking about what condition my brother is currently in,” he said. “Our boys are caught between life and death in the war zone.”

In the interview, Khan acknowledged his role in arranging for Ahmed and Hussaini to go to Russia. He said he has organized the return home of some of the men who ended up fighting for Russia, while for others, he says he has arranged for them to be moved to safer locations inside Russia. Khan said he is pushing for the remaining men to be returned safely to India.

‘Be relaxed, and apply without any tension’

On its website, Baba Vlogs says it is a job consulting firm and a recruitment agency operating in Dubai and India, in operation since 2016. Its YouTube channel has over 300,000 subscribers. Khan told the Journal he doesn’t have an office either in Dubai or India but often met his potential clients at business centers.

In an introductory video, Khan describes himself as an Indian who has made good abroad thanks to talent and self-confidence, despite not studying beyond sixth grade. He proudly says he has the passport that India issues to nationals with less education—which requires additional checks when leaving the country on a work visa to certain destinations to prevent trafficking.

In the Russia video, he promises job seekers will be nowhere near the front lines and that it would be easy to move on to other countries in Western Europe, such as Finland or Estonia.

“Bro, it’s not rocket science for you to understand. You don’t have to fire missiles when you come here or stand on the borders, nothing like that,” said Khan. “It’s mostly the work of security, helpers to army officials far away from the frontiers. You will be given a three-month training after arriving here. Be relaxed and apply without any tension.”

YouTube didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.

Baba Vlogs wasn’t the only route to Russia. Men from the northern states of Punjab and Haryana ended up in the war effort through several other networks, including through people smugglers billing themselves as travel agents, according to India’s Central Bureau of Investigation.

In a video aired in recent days by Indian news channel NDTV, a man called Harsh Kumar from Haryana is shown with six others, several of them from Punjab, in a room. He says he and his friends had traveled to Russia for a New Year’s holiday. There, he said, they met an agent who suggested they also visit Belarus. In Belarus they were detained and then handed over to Russian Army authorities, Kumar says in the video, indicating they were apprehended for not having valid visas for the country. To be freed, they signed documents that they didn’t understand and that resulted in them being sent to join the war effort, he said.

“None of us knows how to even hold a gun properly and they want to deploy us to the front line,” Kumar says in the video, as he chokes up.

Kumar, the 19-year-old in the video, had completed high school and said he would go abroad for further studies, said his father, Suresh Kumar, a grocery shopkeeper in a village in Haryana, in an interview.

“He was visiting Russia on a tourist visa because he thought having a visa stamp of a big country on his passport would help him in getting study visas to countries like Australia and Canada,” said Kumar’s father.

Harsh Kumar flew to Russia around Christmas last year and had been in regular contact with the family, his father said. He called home in distress over a patchy phone connection two weeks ago to say he and his friends were inside Ukraine and were being forced to fight for Russia there. In a more recent call he gave his father better news—he and his friends were being moved inside Russia, from the front line.

But for many families, their fears have only heightened since the news of the deaths of Indians recruited to the battle.

“He has been sent to a dangerous war zone for which he is not trained,” said Ali, the father of Hussaini. “Please rescue my son and help bring him home.

India says some of its citizens have been duped into working for the Russian army (AP)

AP [3/8/2024 7:18 AM, Sheikh Saaliq, 456K, Neutral]
Indian authorities on Friday said they are in talks with Russia’s government about the return of Indian citizens who were duped into working for the Russian army, a day after a federal investigation agency said it broke up a human trafficking network that lured people to Russia under the pretext of giving them jobs.

India’s foreign ministry said the government has initiated action against a network of agents who duped the men into traveling to Russia.

“We remain committed to the early release of our nationals serving as support staff with the Russian army and their eventual return home,” Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in New Delhi.

Jaiswal urged Indian citizens not to be deceived by offers by agents of support jobs with the Russian army.

“This is fraught with danger and risk to life,” he said.

On Thursday, India’s Central Bureau of Investigation said at least 35 Indian nationals have been sent to Russia through the agents. It said the men were recruited through social media and local agents.

It said the men were being trained in combat roles and deployed at front-line bases in the Russia-Ukraine war against their wishes. Some of the men were “grievously injured,” it said.

India’s embassy in Moscow on Wednesday confirmed the death of an Indian citizen in Russia whose family told local media that he was recruited by the Russian army. The embassy did not describe the circumstances behind the man’s death but said it was in touch with his family and Russian authorities.

In January, Nepal asked Russia to send back hundreds of Nepali nationals who were recruited to fight against Ukraine. At least 14 Nepali nationals have died in Ukraine, according to Nepal Foreign Minister Narayan Prakash Saud.

India considers Russia a time-tested ally from the Cold War era with key cooperation in defense, oil, nuclear energy and space exploration.

It has so far avoided voting against Russia at the United Nations or criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin since the invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022.

Japan eyes export of stealth naval ship antennas to India (Nikkei Asia)

Nikkei Asia [3/9/2024 10:41 AM, Yusuke Takeuchi, 293K, Neutral]
The Japanese government is considering exporting naval ship communication antennas to India, Nikkei has learned.

The NORA-50 antenna, dubbed "UNICORN," was jointly developed by a group of Japanese companies that includes electronics maker NEC and Yokohama Rubber. Sources close to the matter said the government is still deciding how many antennas will be sold as well as the cost of the contact.

If the deal goes through, it will be just the second time Japan has exported defense equipment since it lifted a ban on such transfers in 2014. The first came last year when radar systems were exported to the Philippines.

The antenna deal would expand Japan-India security relations to defense equipment, which in turn would likely strengthen deterrence in the Indo-Pacific region.

Japan hopes the deal will also lead to India decreasing its heavy reliance on Russia for defense equipment.

The UNICORN is deployed on Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force escort vessel FFM, and is known for its stealth design in which several antennas are housed in a horn-shaped structure. It enables the SDF to detect the movement of missiles and drones with its ability to sense radio waves from a wide area.

Under Japanese law, it can be difficult to export defense equipment that could be used as a lethal weapon. The UNICORN would not violate the law as it is a communication tool.

Until now, the only precedent of Japan exporting fully assembled defense equipment -- not parts -- was the radar system to the Philippines.

The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad), a framework including Japan, Australia, the U.S. and India, is expected to hold a summit in India this year. The sources said one plan is to confirm the UNICORN deal there during a meeting between Japan and India’s leaders.

India traditionally has imported the vast majority of its arms and defense goods from Russia. New Delhi has not taken part in Group of Seven-led sanctions on Russia related to the Ukraine war. India has also been criticized by some for supporting Moscow by buying large amounts of Russian gas.

But India is beginning to diversify its supply of defense equipment through deals with the U.S., France and Israel. New Delhi is also aiming to manufacture more arms domestically to nurture its industries.

Negotiations with Japan on importing communication antennas also includes potential technology transfers and local production, the sources said.

At US universities, record numbers of Indian students seek brighter prospects — and overseas jobs (AP)

AP [3/11/2024 11:07 PM, Collin Binkley and Krutika Pathi, 6902K, Positive]
Pranay Karkale is spending years of savings and $60,000 in student loans to pursue a master’s degree in the United States, yet he considers himself lucky. At home in India, it’s common to hear about families selling off their land to send children to universities overseas.

Karkale was willing to do whatever it took once he got into Johns Hopkins University. A degree from a prestigious U.S. college, he believed, would open doors to a better job and higher pay than he would find in India.

“I don’t feel like I would have gotten the same level of education that I get here,” said Karkale, 23.

Historic numbers of students from India are studying at foreign universities as a fast-growing, aspirational generation of young people looks for opportunities they can’t find at home. India estimates 1.5 million students are studying at universities elsewhere — an eightfold increase since 2012 — with no country attracting more than the U.S.

It represents a loss for India, with many students seeing universities as stepping stones for careers overseas, but a boon for American schools. As record-setting enrollment by students from China has ebbed, U.S. universities have turned to India as a new source of full-price tuition payments.

India’s economy is growing, but joblessness remains persistent even for college graduates. Jobs are being created in fields such as construction and agriculture, but they don’t meet the demands of a newly educated workforce, said Rosa Abraham, an economist at the Azim Premji University.

“I think many young people today feel like the economy isn’t meeting their potential, their aspirations, and so they want to try their chances abroad if they can,” she said.

India’s own higher education system is also short on capacity. As its population surges, competition for admission to India’s top universities has become frenzied. Acceptance rates at some elite Indian universities have fallen as low as 0.2%, compared to 3% at Harvard University and 4% at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Lokesh Sangabattula, who is pursuing a Ph.D. in materials science at MIT, is among many hoping to land jobs inside the U.S. There’s little demand for materials scientists in India, he said, and at best he figures he could become a professor. It’s a similar story for engineers, which India generates in huge numbers without the industry to employ them.

“We produce engineers whose degrees don’t have value, so people leave the country,” he said.

Universities in Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom also are seeing surging interest, but none more than the U.S., where universities enroll nearly 269,000 students from India. With that number soaring, including a 35% increase in the 2022-23 academic year, India is on the verge of replacing China as the largest international presence on U.S. college campuses.

The vast majority are coming for graduate programs, often in science, math and engineering — fields that have faced persistent labor shortages in the U.S. — though undergraduate numbers also are rising as India’s middle class expands. One selling point is the chance to work in America for up to three years after graduating, a benefit provided by the U.S. government and known as optional practical training.

For Karkale, staying in India never felt like an option. As an undergraduate in India, he became interested in engineering management, which merges engineering and leadership skills. It’s a growing industry in the U.S. and Europe, but Karkale, who is from the western Indian state of Maharashtra, couldn’t find any master’s programs in India.

At Hopkins, he’s gaining professional work experience arranged by the school, a rarity at Indian universities, he said. Ultimately he wants to return to India, but the most appealing jobs are elsewhere. After graduating, he plans to work in the U.S. for at least a year or two.

If he could find the right job in India, he added, “I would hop right back.”

The surge has helped the bottom line of American colleges, which charge international students higher tuition rates. It comes as many Americans sour on higher education, citing concerns about student debt and the perception of liberal bias at universities. The number of students coming from China has been declining as a result of chilly political ties and a stagnant Chinese economy.

In India, American universities have become a common presence at college fairs. Many are spending big to gain name recognition in India, and they are fanning farther across the country to recruit in smaller cities and towns, where demand to study abroad has been rising.

Still, for the vast majority of India’s young people, an overseas education remains out of reach. The cost of a U.S. education is a fortune for most, and Indian banks have scaled back on student loans in response to high default rates.

Even for those who can afford it, the student visa process presents roadblocks. At the U.S. embassy in New Delhi, student applicants are routinely turned away.

On a recent Friday, Daisy Cheema slumped her shoulders and sighed as she left the embassy. She spent weeks preparing for a visa interview after getting accepted to Westcliff University, a for-profit college in California. She hired an agency to help, but her visa was rejected with no reason provided; she just received a slip of paper saying she could reapply.

Cheema, 22, hoped to gain work experience in the U.S. before returning to India to support her family. Her parents, who own a gas station in the northern Indian state of Punjab, were going to pay with their savings.

“I feel terrible right now,” said Cheema, holding back tears. “But I will prepare more and try again. I’m not giving up.”

America’s shift toward Indian students is visible on campuses like the University of Texas, Dallas, where enrollment from China fell from about 1,200 to 400 over the past four years. Meantime, enrollment from India grew from about 3,000 to 4,400.

Rajarshi Boggarapu came to the U.S. to get a master’s degree in business analytics and chose UT-Dallas in part because of its large Indian population. He borrowed $40,000 for tuition, which he sees as an investment in his future.

“We value education more than anything else back in India,” he said.

Like many U.S. universities, Johns Hopkins is deepening ties with India. It has hosted Indian diplomats to discuss health and engineering partnerships and is part of a new task force formed by the Association of American Universities to promote exchange with India.

Before he came to the U.S., Karkale had concerns about the political climate, but the campus made him feel welcome. When he couldn’t return home for Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, he was surprised to find a campus celebration that drew hundreds of students and staff.

In a campus gym adorned with colorful flowers and lamps, Karkale watched as student groups performed dances to a mix of new and old Indian music. There was a Hindu prayer ceremony. And when the dance floor opened up, Karkale joined in.

“It was a memorable evening,” he said. “It made me feel right at home.”

Hundreds of Tibetans march on New Delhi streets asking China to leave Tibet on uprising anniversary (AP)

AP [3/10/2024 8:08 PM, Shonal Ganguly, 22K, Negative]
Hundreds of Tibetans in exile marched on the streets of New Delhi on Sunday to commemorate the 65th Tibetan National Uprising Day against China.

Over 300 protesters gathered near India’s Parliament House and chanted slogans including “Tibet was never a part of China” and “China should leave Tibet.”

The protesters carried Tibetan flags and photographs of their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

The 88-year-old Dalai Lama has made the Indian hillside town of Dharmsala his headquarters since fleeing from Tibet after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959. India considers Tibet to be part of China, though it hosts the Tibetan exiles.

The Dalai Lama denies China’s claim that he is a separatist and says he only advocates substantial autonomy and protection of Tibet’s native Buddhist culture.

The Tibetan government-in-exile in India accuses China of denying the most fundamental human rights to people in Tibet and vigorously carrying out the extermination of the Tibetan identity.

The Tibetan Youth Congress, which organized the New Delhi protest march on Sunday, said that in 1959, the Chinese Communist regime perpetrated an occupation of Tibet, resulting in Tibetans rising in revolt.

“Since then the Chinese regime has resorted to brutal tactics resulting in the deaths of over a million Tibetans who peacefully protested against oppressive Chinese rule,” it said in a statement.

NSB

Will Memes About Politicians Now Get Sri Lankans Thrown in Jail? (New York Times)

New York Times [3/9/2024 4:14 PM, Pamodi Waravita and Mujib Mashal, 831K, Neutral]
Even in the darkest of times, Sri Lankans held on to their humor.

In 2022, when the island nation’s economy collapsed and the government announced a QR code system to ration gasoline, a meme spread online: “Scanning Fuel QR Code Now Makes You Forget Last Three Months.”

And when public anger forced the strongman president to flee his palace, with protesters venturing inside to fry snacks in his kitchen and jump into his pool, another meme captured the mood upon their departure: “We Are Leaving. The Key Is Under the Flower Pot.”

It is this kind of online expression, which helped fuel the largest citizens’ movement in Sri Lanka in decades, that activists and rights groups fear is now endangered.

They are concerned about a new law, the Online Safety Act, that gives the government wide-ranging powers to deem speech on social media to be “prohibited statements.” Under the law, a committee appointed by the president will rule on what is prohibited, and violations could bring penalties ranging from fines of hundreds of dollars to years in prison.

The public security minister, Tiran Alles, told Parliament that the legislation would protect against online fraud, the spread of false information and the abuse of women and children. But he also made clear its potential political applications, saying it could be used against those who insult members of Parliament on social media.

Sri Lanka is taking a page from other countries in the region that are increasingly policing what people say online, most notoriously Bangladesh, where a 2018 law known as the Digital Security Act has led to the imprisonment of activists and opposition leaders.

The Sri Lankan law “is the newest weapon in the government’s arsenal of tools that could be used to undermine freedom of expression and suppress dissent,” said Thyagi Ruwanpathirana, a regional researcher for South Asia at Amnesty International, adding that the act was “ripe for misuse.”

Ms. Ruwanpathirana said that the Sri Lankan government needed to “demonstrate the political will to uphold” international human rights obligations as the country is set this year to hold its first elections since the 2022 crash.

The main impetus for the new law, analysts say, is the protest movement that toppled the government in 2022.

Political leaders want to make sure there is no repeat, the analysts say, a concern that persists as the movement’s goals remain largely unmet. While the powerful president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, was forced out of office that year, little else changed at the top. The political elite has merely rearranged its seats, and Mr. Rajapaksa’s family-run political party has propped up a new president, Ranil Wickremesinghe, until the election later this year.

Mr. Wickremesinghe, a veteran politician, is trying to put the economy back in order, introducing difficult fiscal changes to improve the government’s balance sheet. But activists and rights groups say he has also gone after civil society leaders who were instrumental in the citizens’ movement.

“We saw many taking to social media to critique, to challenge and to push back on various state initiatives, so social media played a huge role in the people’s mobilization,” said Bhavani Fonseka, a senior researcher at the Center for Policy Alternatives, in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo. “That gives new incentive for the government to bring in restrictions.”

Nalaka Gunawardena, a Colombo-based analyst, said that the political intentions of the new legislation were made evident by officials’ refusal to adjust it to better balance freedom of expression and the government’s concerns over online abuse.

In rushing through the legislation, Mr. Gunawardena said, the government rejected suggestions from media experts and rights activists who urged an exemption for those engaging in satire and parody.

Historically, satirists have faced trouble, and even exile, in Sri Lanka for targeting the majority Sinhala community or the powerful Buddhist monks. During the decades of the country’s bloody civil war, which ended in 2009, military leaders — particularly Mr. Rajapaksa, who served as defense secretary — were increasingly off limits.

When a coalition government briefly broke the Rajapaksa family’s hold on the country in 2015, political satire began to thrive online; the new president, Maithripala Sirisena, was a favorite of meme makers.

The elevation of the feared Mr. Rajapaksa as president in 2019 initially gave some pause, but as his management of the economy sent the country into a downward spiral, cartoonists and satirists saw little to lose.

The administrator of a popular anonymously run meme page called NewsCurry, which has about 50,000 followers on social media platforms, said that such efforts had brought attention to anti-democratic behavior and lies by politicians, helping to make up for a docile news local media. The new law, said the administrator, who asked not to be named for fear of running afoul of the authorities, should be renamed the Safety for Politicians Act.

Hamza Haniffa, who is part of a group that runs meme pages, said the law had made many of his friends hesitant to continue generating jokes. Posts have become less frequent.

“During the protest movement, we gave our opinions without being afraid,” he said. “But now we are concerned.”

Central Asia

Kazakhstan Confirms Two Citizens Killed In Russia In What FSB Calls Antiterror Operation (Radio Free Europe)

Radio Free Europe [3/9/2024 1:48 PM, Staff, 223K, Negative]
Kazakhstan on March 9 confirmed that two of its citizens were shot dead in Russia in what the Kremlin said was an antiterrorism operation that prevented an attack against a synagogue in the Moscow area.

“The media published reports about the killing of two Kazakh citizens by Russian law-enforcement agencies during an attempt to organize a terrorist attack in the Russian Federation,” the Kazakh Committee of National Security (KNB) said in a statement.

“We can confirm the Kazakh citizenship and the deaths in Russia,” it added.

The independent Astra news outlet reported that two men, aged 32 and 35, entered Russia on February 28 and allegedly intended to commit a terrorist act.

Astra identified them as adherents of the Wilayat Khorasan group, a branch of the Islamic State (IS) extremist group, which is recognized by Kazakhstan as a terrorist organization.

Russian state-run news agency TASS quoted the Federal Security Service (FSB) on March 7 as saying it had shot dead two suspects of the Wilayat Khorasan terrorist group “whose members were planning to commit a terrorist act against one of the Jewish religious institutions in Moscow."

"During an operation to detain them, the terrorists put up armed resistance to Russian FSB staff and as a result were neutralized by return fire," the FSB said.

The FSB said the Wilayat Khorasan group is an offshoot of Islamic State from that is mostly active in Afghanistan.

The FSB, which did not identify the nationality of the suspects, said the shootings took place in the viillage Koryakovo in the Kaluga region, about 120 kilometers southwest of Moscow.

Russian media identified the two suspects as Kazakh nationals and said they had arrived in Russia in February.

The KNB said it was working “closely” with the FSB to investigation the matter.

The incident came as the U.S. Embassy, along with those of other nations, on March 7 advised citizens to avoid large groupings in Moscow, warning that "extremists" were planning an operation within the next 48 hours and ahead of Russia’s March 15-17 presidential election.

Kazakhstan: Earthquakes sowing unease in Almaty (EurasiaNet)

EurasiaNet [3/8/2024 4:14 PM, Almaz Kumenov, 57.6K, Negative]
Saule Kusainova has been thinking the unthinkable since her home city, Almaty, was struck by an unusually strong earthquake in January.

And she is not alone.

Many in Kazakhstan’s largest city, much loved for its green spaces and scenic proximity to the Tien-Shan mountains, are wondering if the time has come for them to up sticks and move. Some are even thinking of relocating to the unglamorous capital, Astana, where temperatures in winter sometimes plunge to minus-40 degrees Celsius.

“Since [the earthquake], the anxiety has not left me. I am not so much afraid for myself, but for the children,” Kusainova told Eurasianet. “We will no longer be able to live here as serenely as before.”

When the magnitude 7.1 earthquake hit in the early hours of January 23, Kusainova rushed out of her sixth-floor apartment with her daughter and two grandchildren. She is now going through the motions of selling that apartment to raise money to buy a lower-slung home in the suburbs.

Despite the fact that there were no fatalities, there has been a general spike in anxiety. Almaty-based online counseling service Harmonia.kz told Eurasianet that since the earthquake, demand for its services has risen by one-third. People pursuing therapy typically cite their fear of death as the reason for seeking help.

“People have been in constant fear, in anticipation of a devastating earthquake. They do not get enough sleep, and they experience panic attacks,” psychologist Olesya Fedorovich told Eurasianet. “Many people regularly experience phantom sensations. It seems to them that an earthquake has begun, even when it is not the case.”

It does not help that notable follow-up tremors have occurred since January. A magnitude 5 tremblor around Almaty on the morning of March 4 once more sent large numbers of apartment-dwellers fleeing to the relative safety of the streets.

Well-meaning officials want the public to be informed, but their briefings to the press are just adding to the dread.

“Almaty is one of the earthquake-prone regions of our republic. The city is located on 27 tectonic plate faults,” Emergency Situations Deputy Minister Ibragim Kulshimbayev said at a press conference in February.

Almaty residents should not fret, though, he suggested. It is quite unlikely, as some have claimed, that 60 percent of buildings in the city would be destroyed if a magnitude 9 quake were to strike, Kulshimbayev said. The number is closer to 30 percent, he said in an attempt at reassurance.

Real estate market data appears to validate claims that quake anxiety is a real thing. Local media have reported on a recent surge in demand for private homes, which is to say detached houses, instead of apartments. Real estate listing sites indicate that sellers have hiked their asking prices accordingly.

In an interview with Eurasianet, Nurgali Amankulov, an analyst at Almaty real estate agency Favorit, confirmed this market trend, although he believes it is a blip.

“After some time, everything will return to normal,” he forecast.

Almaty is hardly a stranger to earthquakes. A pair of particularly disastrous quakes — in 1887 and 1911 — claimed hundreds of lives apiece and carved fears of a repeat occurrence into the collective consciousness.

The considerable time span since those dates contributes to people’s nervousness. Seismologists have been given to opining that powerful earthquakes in the region occur on a 100- to 150-year cycle, which would be troubling if accurate.

The earthquake on the border of Syria and Turkey in February 2023, which claimed thousands of lives, awakened another strain of concern, over whether construction companies and corrupt officials may have conspired to enable the proliferation of high-rises incapable of withstanding major tremors.

Developers take comfort in the fact that the earthquakes in January and earlier this month caused negligible damage. Major construction firms like BI Group and BAZIS-A hastened to assure Kazakhs that their buildings are erected with the use of monolithic reinforced concrete technology and are designed to withstand magnitude 9 shocks. If social media commentary is anything to go by, though, such claims are commonly treated with sniffy disbelief.

There is unhappiness too about how city authorities dealt with the January quake. An early warning system built at a cost of 1.1 billion tenge (about $2.5 million) failed to work properly. To make matters worse, it emerged that the company behind its installation was controlled by Nurali Aliyev, the grandson of the increasingly out-of-favor former president, Nursultan Nazarbayev.

After a round of scapegoat-hunting, Bauyrzhan Syzdykov, another Emergency Situations Deputy Minister, informed reporters last month that an internal investigation had found that his department’s Almaty branch was found to be negligent in its duties and that a number of officials had been punished. Syzdykov did not specify what kind of punishment had been administered.

This may be the moment for seismologists to get officials to heed their warnings.

Alla Sadykova, a leading expert at Almaty’s Institute of Seismology, has complained in the past that the authorities have failed to provide resources for the required number of seismic observation stations.

Speaking to Eurasianet in 2021, Sadykova complained that her institute did not receive a reliable stream of government funding. Instead, they are forced to apply for grants, which often fall short of requirements and are insufficient to cover salaries, she said.

“Seismic safety is clearly not a priority in Kazakhstan,” Sadykova said at the time.

Kazakhstan plans to increase oil exports amid falling revenues (EurasiaNet)

EurasiaNet [3/8/2024 4:14 PM, Almaz Kumenov, 57.6K, Neutral]
Kazakhstan increased oil exports by volume last year, but flagging prices meant this translated into diminished earnings. The plan for 2024 is to keep expanding sales abroad, although complications are looming on the horizon.

One route that should see more traffic is the trans-Caspian corridor running through Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. The Energy Ministry said on March 6 that oil deliveries made through that channel will rise to 1.5 million tons, which is 1.4 times as much as in 2023.

On the same day, Energy Minister Almasadam Satkaliyev told reporters that Germany had asked Kazakhstan to increase oil supplies for its Schwedt oil refinery to 2 million tons per year. This trade entails sending oil through the Druzhba pipeline, which runs through Russia. This may be complicated, though, as Russia has to date approved the transit of only 1.2 million tons of Kazakh oil in 2024. And even that was 20 percent more than was sent to Germany in 2023.

Kazakhstan had other markets last year. It sent 1.2 million tons of oil to China and another 65,000 tons to Uzbekistan by rail.

And while Russia is a transit nation for Kazakh oil going to Europe, Kazakhstan is a transit nation for Russian oil going to China and Uzbekistan. Last year, 10 million tons of Russian oil were sent to China and another 150,000 tons of oil to Uzbekistan via Kazakhstan.

More than 70 million tons of oil were exported from Kazakhstan in 2023 —a 10 percent increase on 2022. Revenues amounted to $42.3 billion, a 10 percent drop year-on-year. The largest buyers were a familiar lineup: European Union nations, China, Korea, Turkey and Singapore.

The troubling imponderable is the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, the route by which around two-thirds of Kazakhstan’s oil gets to foreign markets. The pipeline, which is also used by Russian oil companies, runs through Russia and ends in the Black Sea terminal of Novorossiysk.

This week, management at the Turkish terminal of Dortyol reportedly announced that they will refuse to accept oil delivered from the CPC since it does not want to fall foul of U.S. sanctions. That is only one mid-sized terminal, but if more follow, Kazakhstan will have cause to worry.

Activists, Domestic Violence Victims March In Bishkek Demanding Women’s Rights Be Defended (Radio Free Europe)

Radio Free Europe [3/8/2024 4:14 PM, Staff, 235K, Neutral]
Feminist activists and domestic violence survivors marched in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, on March 8 to mark International Women’s Day and to demand that women’s rights be defended and respected.

The demonstrators gathered near the monument of Urkia Salieva, a figure of female emancipation in the Central Asian nation, and marched to Gorky Park with posters bearing slogans such as "Real Men Are Not Scared Of Equality," "An Educated Girl Finds Her Place," "Defend Our Mothers And Sisters," and "I Want To Live In A Safe Country."

Asel Nogoibaeva, whose ex-husband, Azamat Estebesov, raped and severely beat her -- cutting off her nose and ears -- told the marchers they can’t stop fighting for their rights.

“You all know the horror I went through.... But I am not alone. My case is just one of hundreds of thousands of situations women face daily in Kyrgyzstan. There will be no results unless all types of violence are criminalized. The torture will go on," Nogoibaeva, whose husband was handed a 20-year prison term in January, said.

"It will never do to forgive those who beat and torture their spouses. Never believe their promises that they will change. They will attack again. I see police here. Dear police officers, in many cases, you are the only hope for domestic violence victims. Do not hesitate to intervene and stop attackers. Judges, look into the domestic violence cases the same way you look into other heavy crimes!" she continued.

Police officers present at the gathering and march did not interfere.

An activist from neighboring Kazakhstan, who introduced herself as Aida, said she came to Bishkek from Kazakhstan’s largest city, Almaty, because this year the city administration did not allow activists to hold a rally for women’s rights there.

"In 2023, in Kazakhstan, some 100,000 domestic violence cases were officially registered. We have been demanding the Kazakh government toughen punishment for such crimes. Rallies like this one are important for all countries," Aida stated.

Kyrgyzstan’s Interior Ministry said earlier that 13,104 cases of domestic violence had been registered in the country last year, which was 32 percent higher than in 2022.

The country has witnessed several high-profile cases of deadly bride-snatching and domestic violence in recent years.

Russia Goes NGO-Hunting In Central Asia, Where NGOs Have Enough Problems (Radio Free Europe)

Radio Free Europe [3/9/2024 6:20 AM, Chris Rickleton, 223K, Neutral]
When Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu spoke of Moscow taking "preventive measures" against "pro-Western" NGOs in the Central Asian region last week, he may not have known that he was speaking on World NGO Day.

It is not a date well-celebrated in Russia, where some of the most vocal and politically active nonprofits have been designated "foreign agents" and "undesirable organizations" in recent years or simply shut down.

Indeed, when Shoigu referenced what he called the "complicated" situation in Central Asia, he mentioned "more than 100 large pro-Western nongovernmental organizations operating in the region" alongside potential militant incursions from Afghanistan and an expected rise in narcotics production in Central Asian countries in the coming years.

In other words, he sees NGOs as an existential threat to the region -- or at least Russia’s interests in it.

"Against the backdrop of the special military operation, these NGOs significantly increased their anti-Russian activities in order to reduce military-technical, economic, and cultural cooperation between the Central Asian states and the Russian Federation," Shoigu complained on February 27, using the Kremlin’s term for Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Russia’s paranoia about NGOs potentially undermining Moscow’s influence in neighboring countries is not new, according to analysts.

"The Russian leadership believes or convinces itself that Western countries, through networks of NGOs, are trying to destroy regimes in undemocratic countries," said Temur Umarov, a fellow at the Carnegie Russia-Eurasia Center in Berlin.

"The more Russia is in isolation from and in conflict with the international community, the more its rhetoric will focus on fighting Western influence everywhere from the Internet and schools to the territory of other countries," argued Umarov.

Leaving aside the fact that Shoigu’s comments more than hint at the kind of external interference that he accuses NGOs of perpetrating, there is the obvious fact that most of the Central Asian countries are at least in line with Russia -- and in some cases well ahead -- when it comes to cracking down on civil society groups.

So, which Central Asian countries might Shoigu have had in mind?

Kazakhstan Pushes Back, Kyrgyz Lawmakers Push On

The only country that responded to Shoigu’s statements was Kazakhstan.

"I don’t know about any preventive measures," Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Roman Vasilenko told journalists the day after the Russian official made his comments.

"Supporting the civil sector and supporting NGOs are a top priority for President [Qasym-Zhomart] Toqaev, for the government, and for the Culture and Information Ministry, which is responsible for this area," Vasilenko added.

"If I remember correctly, there are 18,000 NGOs in our country; they operate in accordance with our legislation and are a very important part of our society. That means that civil society is supported by the state of the Republic of Kazakhstan."

Since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Kazakhstan, which has remained neutral in the conflict, has used diplomatic statements to put some distance between itself and its northern neighbor.

But the reality is that Kazakhstan has not always been the most comfortable place for NGOs.

Just ask Dina Smailova (aka Tansari), head of the women’s rights group NeMolchi.KZ (Don’t Be Silent).

Renowned for defending victims of domestic violence and rape -- including incidents in which police were allegedly involved -- Smailova currently lives abroad and will face recently levied charges of large-scale fraud if she returns to her homeland.

In connection with the case against her, hundreds of private Kazakhs who donated to NeMolchi.KZ have reportedly been called in for questioning by police -- a drive Smailova says is motivated by authorities’ need to back up the accusations.

Kazakhstan also keeps close tabs on civic organizations that receive foreign funding, publishing regularly updated lists of such groups while repeatedly refusing registration for others.

But Kazakhstan might end up becoming the most NGO-friendly country in Central Asia by default, now that Kyrgyzstan, the longtime holder of that title, is following Russia’s lead in the most literal sense.

On February 22, the Kyrgyz parliament passed the second of three readings of a controversial bill that would allow authorities to apply stringent regulations to organizations deemed "foreign representatives," echoing a law on foreign agents that Russia passed in 2012.

And echoing might be putting it too mildly.

An analysis carried out by the nonprofit Legal Clinic Adilet showed that the wording of the draft legislation is more than 90 percent copied from the Russian original, which Moscow has since expanded to make it even more punitive.

Falling In Line With The Neighbors

The Russia connection to Kyrgyzstan’s draft law doesn’t end there.

Journalists from the Politklinika outlet found in 2022 that the law’s initiator, Nadira Narmatova, owned the deeds to the building that houses Russia’s consulate in Kyrgyzstan’s second-largest city, Osh.

Did this fact not make Narmatova herself a "foreign agent," Politklinika asked in its investigation, only somewhat tongue-in-cheek.

When that question was put to her again in the parliament last month by one of the few lawmakers opposed to the law, Narmatova admitted that she continued to lease the building to Russia but took umbrage at the suggestion that this prejudiced her views on NGOs.

"This bill has nothing to do with my personal life. We are late [passing it]. If we had adopted the law 10 years ago there would not have been questions like yours and there would not have been sellouts working for the state," said Narmatova in comments reported by RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service on February 22.

But Narmatova is arguably a sideshow in all of this because without a nod from Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov the bill would not be making the progress it has.

Japarov has shown since he came to power in 2020 that he doesn’t need a command from Moscow to jail activists, journalists, and political opponents who try to obstruct his agenda.

In this sense, said Umarov of Carnegie, Russia is only "supporting the leadership of Kyrgyzstan, which has taken the course of autocracy."

More than 29,000 NGOs are currently registered in Kyrgyzstan -- a country of 7 million people -- almost twice the number that are registered in Kazakhstan, which has a population of nearly 20 million.

Turkmenistan is still Central Asia’s civic wasteland, while authorities in Tajikistan, the region’s poorest country, may be heading in the same direction.

An analysis by the Tajik independent news website Asia-Plus in August 2023 showed that NGO liquidations there outpaced registrations 711 to 217 over the period covering all of 2022 and the first half of 2023.

One NGO shuttered by a court over alleged violations of its charter in 2023 was the Independent Center for Human Rights Protection, a prominent nonprofit that offered free legal services to activists and journalists under arrest.

Uzbekistan, the region’s most-populous country with around 35 million people, has about 9,000 NGOs, according to Yuksalish, a government-backed think tank, which sent them all its best wishes on World NGO Day.

But as independent Tashkent-based civil campaigner Irina Matvienko noted in a 2021 opinion piece for Open Democracy, "the majority are actually government-organized nongovernmental organizations, or GONGOs," while the amount of funding that NGOs can legally source from abroad remains pitifully low.

Uzbek rights defender Agzam Turgunov -- released from a nine-year stint in jail in 2017 -- learned last week that his application to register a would-be rights organization called Human Rights House had been scuppered for a 14th time after a Tashkent court agreed with the Justice Ministry’s objections to its registration.

"Preventive measures" by Russia? They are hardly necessary.

Twitter

Afghanistan

Samira Hamidi
@HuriaSamira
[3/9/2024 7:52 PM, 45.9K followers, 19 retweets, 40 likes]
US negotiated with Taliban, signed a deal, handed over AFG to this group, now US plans to recognize them.This isn’t first US official promoting Taliban engagement nor will be last. Hope rest of intl community don’t follow US as they did in Doha. Don’t repeat same mistake

Bilal Sarwary
@bsarwary
[3/9/2024 4:03 PM, 251.6K followers, 12 retweets, 83 likes]
The anti Taliban group @AfgFreedomAFF says its fighters targeted a Taliban security checkpoint in Kabul’s PD4. According to AFF, “ THREE Talibs were killed and TWO Talibs were wounded in the attack.”

Bilal Sarwary
@bsarwary
[3/9/2024 1:56 PM, 251.6K followers, 5 retweets, 13 likes]
Iranian border force commander disarmed and detained by Taliban border forces in Islam Qala. According to Taliban security officials, “ the Iranian border commander entered into Afghan soil, illegally.”

Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office
@amnestysasia
[3/9/2024 3:24 AM, 79.2K followers, 26 retweets, 53 likes]
AFGHANISTAN: As we celebrate International Women’s Day, reaffirm your solidarity with the courageous women of Afghanistan as they persist in their struggle for rights and a brighter future. #IWD #SpeakUpForAfghanWomen

Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office
@amnestysasia
[3/8/2024 12:47 PM, 79.2K followers, 17 retweets, 35 likes]
Afghanistan: Joint Statement- From Shadows to Spotlight: Afghan Women Amid Taliban Oppression | International Women’s Day Manifesto 2024 @FrontLineHRD @hrw @fidh_en @omctorg @freedomhouse @freedomnoworg @MADREspeaks @WILPF https://amnesty.org/en/documents/asa11/7801/2024/en/

Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office
@amnestysasia
[3/10/2024 8:41 AM, 79.2K followers, 37 retweets, 43 likes]
The Taliban have incrementally stripped away the rights of women and girls, emboldened each time by the lack of tangible response from the global community." Read the Op-Ed by Smriti Singh, Regional Director of Amnesty South Asia on #IWD http://bit.ly/3T91dpt #SpeakupforAfghanWomen #IWD2024EUJP

Pakistan

Asif Ali Zardari
@AsifAliZerdari
[3/10/2024 6:49 AM, 6.5K followers, 86 retweets, 248 likes]
Alhamdulillah took oath as the 14th President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, #PresidentAAZardari

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[3/10/2024 12:34 PM, 209.7K followers, 64 retweets, 187 likes]
Pakistan’s new govt has much going for it that could enhance its longevity:
-PM Sharif="perennial favorite son" of Army
-Deep civil-military convergence on policy issues
-Lack of space for opposition to pressure govt
-Some econ relief may be on the way
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/voices/for-new-pak-pm-a-juggling-act-between-economy-and-military/ BUT

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[3/10/2024 12:34 PM, 209.7K followers, 1 retweet, 13 likes]
Govt fortunes could go south quickly:
-A weak coalition could crack, esp. if pressure from increasing public anger re austerity/econ
-Possible policy triggers for fresh civ-mil tensions (eg structural reforms, trade w/India)
-The Nawaz factor-his potential impact on civ/mil ties

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[3/10/2024 9:23 AM, 209.7K followers, 32 retweets, 94 likes]
In this piece for @timesofindia, I argue that it’s premature to argue-as many observers have-that Shehbaz Sharif’s govt won’t last long. It actually stands a fair chance of pulling through. Still, there’ll be no shortage of threats to its survivability. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/voices/for-new-pak-pm-a-juggling-act-between-economy-and-military/

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[3/9/2024 12:11 PM, 209.7K followers, 113 retweets, 417 likes]
Mr Zardari is the ultimate survivor. He’s played his cards right over the years.

Hamid Mir
@HamidMirPAK
[3/9/2024 2:31 AM, 8.4M followers, 1.3K retweets, 6K likes]
Nine years ago General Raheel Sharif wanted Nawaz Sharif to arrest Asif Ali Zardari under corruption charges. Zardari said that army chiefs come and go every three years but the political leadership was here to stay. Where is General Raheel Sharif today?

Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office
@amnestysasia
[3/9/2024 1:30 AM, 79.2K followers, 58 retweets, 153 likes]
PAKISTAN: Extreme weather events exemplify the urgent need to operationalize the Loss and Damage Fund "The recent extreme weather events exemplify the acute climate vulnerability that Pakistan faces as well as the lack of preparedness for communities and populations most at risk. The unfortunate huge loss of children’s lives underscores the fact that the young are particularly in danger due to these changes," Ann Harrison, Climate Justice Advisor at Amnesty International. READ MORE HERE: https://amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/03/pakistan-extreme-weather-events-exemplify-the-urgent-need-to-operationalize-the-loss-and-damage-fund/.

Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office
@amnestysasia
[3/9/2024 1:30 AM, 79.2K followers, 5 retweets, 18 likes]
“This burden is not Pakistan’s to bear alone, the international community must prioritize ensuring the rapid operationalization and capitalization of the international Loss and Damage Fund to ensure that climate-vulnerable countries such as Pakistan are given the support they need to address the unavoidable impacts of climate change that they are not responsible for." READ MORE: https://amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/03/pakistan-extreme-weather-events-exemplify-the-urgent-need-to-operationalize-the-loss-and-damage-fund/.

India

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[3/10/2024 11:09 PM, 96.1M followers, 5.6K retweets, 31K likes]
Today is an important day for connectivity across India. At around 12 noon today, 112 National Highways, spread across different states, will be dedicated to the nation or their foundation stones would be laid. The Haryana Section of Dwarka Expressway will be inaugurated. These projects will boost economic growth and are also in line with our efforts to build next-generation infrastructure. https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2013129

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[3/10/2024 11:01 PM, 96.1M followers, 1.3K retweets, 6.2K likes]
I look forward to being at the Sashakt Nari-Viksit Bharat programme at 10 AM today in Delhi. This programme marks a significant boost to Nari Shakti empowerment, paving the way for greater progress in our society. Among the highlights of the programme is the witnessing of demonstrations of agriculture drones across India by Namo Drone Didis. Drones will also be handed over to 1,000 Namo Drone Didis. Financial support worth Rs. 10,000 crore would also be given to Self Help Groups either as bank loans or through Capitalization Support Fund. https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2013130

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[3/10/2024 9:27 AM, 96.1M followers, 5.5K retweets, 25K likes]
Delighted by the signing of the India-EFTA Trade & Economic Partnership Agreement. This landmark pact underlines our commitment to boosting economic progress and create opportunities for our youth. The times ahead will bring more prosperity and mutual growth as we strengthen our bonds with EFTA nations.

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[3/10/2024 5:32 AM, 96.1M followers, 5.6K retweets, 44K likes]
Wishing the Central Industrial Security Force a proud and glorious Raising Day! Their dedication and vigilance in protecting the nation’s critical infrastructure are unparalleled. Their professionalism and excellence have set a great benchmark in world of security. @CISFHQrs

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[3/9/2024 9:19 AM, 96.1M followers, 3.1K retweets, 18K likes]
Overwhelmed by the great welcome and boundless enthusiasm in Siliguri! The energy and spirit of the people here are truly heartwarming.

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[3/9/2024 7:20 AM, 96.1M followers, 2.5K retweets, 7.7K likes]
Addressing a programme at the launch of development works in Siliguri. https://twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1eaKbglpWnRGX

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[3/9/2024 5:38 AM, 96.1M followers, 2.9K retweets, 18K likes]
Sela Tunnel’s inauguration is a moment of great pride for us. When I had laid the foundation stone for it a few years ago, some people were unsure that this project will be completed soon because the work culture that prevailed for several decades normalised delays. But, the NDA government works with a different approach and the tunnel has been inaugurated, giving you all yet another reason to visit Arunachal Pradesh.

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[3/9/2024 3:28 AM, 96.1M followers, 6.1K retweets, 42K likes]
Assam is known for its splendid tea gardens, and Assam Tea has made its way all over the world. I would like to laud the remarkable tea garden community, which is working hard and enhancing Assam’s prestige all over the world. I also urge tourists to visit these tea gardens during their visits to the state.

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[3/8/2024 11:06 PM, 96.1M followers, 5.1K retweets, 30K likes]
Interacted with Van Durga, the team of women forest guards who are at the forefront of conservation efforts, bravely protecting our forests and wildlife. Their dedication and courage in safeguarding our natural heritage is truly inspiring.

President of India
@rashtrapatibhvn
[3/10/2024 8:49 AM, 24.2M followers, 499 retweets, 5.5K likes]
President Droupadi Murmu administered the Oath of Office of Chairperson, Lokpal to Justice Ajay Manikrao Khanwilkar at a ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

President of India
@rashtrapatibhvn
[3/8/2024 9:31 AM, 24.2M followers, 552 retweets, 4.5K likes]
The officer trainees of Indian Revenue Service called on President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan. The President told officers to remain steadfast in their duties to facilitate compliance of tax laws by the taxpayers and also contribute towards creating deterrence against tax evasion.

President of India
@rashtrapatibhvn
[3/8/2024 6:56 AM, 24.2M followers, 278 retweets, 1.9K likes]
On the occasion of International Women’s Day, President Droupadi Murmu interacted with members of women Self Help Groups including tribal communities from across the country who visited Amrit Udyan in various slots during the day. @RBVisit

Dr. S. Jaishankar
@DrSJaishankar
[3/10/2024 8:46 AM, 3M followers, 373 retweets, 3.9K likes]
The annual Atal Bihari Vajpayee Memorial Lecture is #TeamMEA’s tribute to his foreign policy. Commend @anandmahindra’s insightful address at its 4th edition. The collaboration between business, technology and foreign policy is essential for Viksit Bharat. Watch: https://youtube.com/live/_-505wAhInY?si=U419REvgRZdI1yS-

Dr. S. Jaishankar
@DrSJaishankar
[3/10/2024 5:35 AM, 3M followers, 241 retweets, 1.7K likes]
Stopped by at the #ViksitBharatAmbassador Artist Workshop at Purana Qila today. Commend @ngma_delhi and @LalitKalaLKA for organizing. Pleased to see the various expressions of Viksit Bharat through the medium of art. #ModiKiGuarantee was the underlying message that the country agrees with today.

Brahma Chellaney
@Chellaney
[3/10/2024 7:10 AM, 262.6K followers, 643 retweets, 2.1K likes]
Ever since China furtively encroached on Ladakh borderlands in 2020, India has militarily challenged Chinese power and capability in a way no other country, not even U.S., has done in this century. Now it is adding 10,000 troops to the standoff with China. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-03-07/india-frees-10-000-more-soldiers-to-guard-border-with-china

NSB

Awami League
@albd1971
[3/10/2024 5:04 AM, 636.7K followers, 30 retweets, 103 likes]
In a recent post on his @facebook prifile, State Minister for @MoPEMR @NasrulHamid_MP praised the enthusiastic participation of #Chattogram’s youth in making the #JoyBanglaConcert 2024 an extraordinary success. The concert, held at Chattogram’s MA Aziz Stadium on Thursday, attracted an unparalleled audience, celebrating the spirit of #Bangladesh’s #LiberationWar and the historic #7thMarch speech by #Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. https://thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/news/nasrul-hamid-thanks-ctg-youth-making-joy-bangla-concert-success-3563406

Awami League
@albd1971
[3/9/2024 9:50 AM, 636.7K followers, 36 retweets, 112 likes]
State Minister for @MoPEMR @NasrulHamid_MP said that automation in #fuelmanagement has been a need of the hour. That’s why the government moved for automation in the fuel system, he said while visiting the main establishment of the state-owned Padma Oil Company in #Chattogram. https://unb.com.bd/category/Bangladesh/automation-in-fuel-management-is-a-need-of-the-hour-nasrul-hamid/132126 #Bangladesh #EnergySecurity

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[3/9/2024 2:03 PM, 209.7K followers, 8 retweets, 34 likes]
Grateful to have written the prologue to this new volume on Bangladesh’s place in the world. I argue its global role is growing-but geopolitics, economic troubles & domestic politics could set it back. Thanks @SreeradhaDatta for the opportunity.

The President’s Office, Maldives
@presidencymv
[3/10/2024 9:53 AM, 107.3K followers, 50 retweets, 70 likes]
Vice President @HucenSembe attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the new six-story building for the Auditor General’s Office.

The President’s Office, Maldives
@presidencymv
[3/9/2024 7:14 AM, 107.3K followers, 79 retweets, 90 likes]
President Dr @MMuizzu arrives on Naifaru Island in Lhaviyani Atoll. The residents of the Island warmly welcomed him.

The President’s Office, Maldives
@presidencymv
[3/9/2024 5:17 AM, 107.3K followers, 85 retweets, 96 likes]
President Dr @MMuizzu arrives on Hinnavaru Island in Lhaviyani Atoll. The Island’s community warmly welcomed the President and his delegation.

The President’s Office, Maldives
@presidencymv
[3/9/2024 12:48 AM, 107.3K followers, 86 retweets, 91 likes]
President Dr @MMuizzu arrives in Kurendhoo Island in Lhaviyani Atoll, as part of his one-day trip to the Atoll. Senior Government officials accompany him on the trip.

Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office
@amnestysasia
[3/11/2024 1:24 AM, 79.2K followers, 2 retweets, 8 likes]
The Sri Lankan law “is the newest weapon in the government’s arsenal of tools that could be used to undermine freedom of expression and suppress dissent,” said @ThyagiR, a regional researcher for South Asia at Amnesty International, adding that the act was “ripe for misuse.” Ms. Ruwanpathirana said that the Sri Lankan government needed to “demonstrate the political will to uphold” international human rights obligations as the country is set this year to hold its first elections since the 2022 crash. #SriLanka https://nytimes.com/2024/03/09/world/asia/sri-lanka-online-safety-act.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb

Central Asia

Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service
@president_uz
[3/8/2024 10:05 AM, 158.6K followers, 1 retweet, 25 likes]
In a concerted effort to uplift the local communities, President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev led a meeting dedicated to bolstering resident incomes and slashing poverty rates in the #mahallas. The primary mission, as stated by the President, is the rational utilization of local resources to create lasting income opportunities for the people.

Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service
@president_uz
[3/8/2024 8:23 AM, 158.6K followers, 2 retweets, 19 likes]
In a colemn ceremony for International Women’s Day, President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev honored the women of our nation with his warmest regards. His address highlighted vital initiatives for enhancing women’s health care, amplifying their employment prospects, encouraging women’s entrepreneurial ventures, and fortifying social protection measures, all pivotal aspects of the 2024 State Program.

Navbahor Imamova
@Navbahor
[3/11/2024 2:48 AM, 22.8K followers]
Karakalpakstan gets a new poverty reduction and labor minister - Kuanishbay Azerbayev. Promoted from a position focusing on similar issues in Karaozek District.

Navbahor Imamova
@Navbahor
[3/10/2024 2:48 AM, 22.8K followers, 4 retweets, 14 likes]
Immigrants from Uzbekistan: Djamshed Nematov shot dead by cops after stabbing wife Amira Nematov during International Woman’s Day party in NYC

Navbahor Imamova
@Navbahor
[3/8/2024 12:50 PM, 22.8K followers, 1 retweet, 7 likes]
In observance of International Women’s Day, the Voice of America recognizes the accomplishments and milestones achieved by women at the organization since its founding in 1942. @insidevoa @USAGMgov

{End of Report}

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