epubdos : Afghanistan
SCA MORNING PRESS CLIPS
Prepared for the U.S. Department of State
Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs
TO:
SCA & Staff
DATE:
Monday, March 25, 2024 6:30 AM ET

Afghanistan
ISIS Branch Blamed in Moscow Attack Has Hit at Taliban’s Russia Links (New York Times)
New York Times [3/23/2024 4:14 PM, Christina Goldbaum, 831K, Negative]
The ISIS affiliate that American officials say was behind the deadly attack in Moscow is one of the last significant antagonists that the Taliban government faces in Afghanistan, and it has carried out repeated attacks there, including on the Russian Embassy, in recent years.

That branch of ISIS — known as the Islamic State Khorasan or ISIS-K — has portrayed itself as the primary rival to the Taliban, who it says have not implemented true Shariah law since seizing power in 2021. It has sought to undermine the Taliban’s relationships with regional allies and portray the government as unable to provide security in the country, experts say.

In 2022, ISIS-K carried out attacks on the Russian and Pakistani embassies in Kabul and a hotel that was home to many Chinese nationals. More recently, it has also threatened attacks against the Chinese, Indian and Iranian embassies in Afghanistan and has released a flood of anti-Russian propaganda.

It has also struck outside Afghanistan. In January, ISIS-K carried out twin bombings in Iran that killed scores and wounded hundreds of others at a memorial service for Iran’s former top general, Qassim Suleimani, who was killed by a U.S. drone strike four years before.

In recent months, the Taliban’s relationship with Russia, as well as China and Iran, has warmed up. While no country has officially recognized the Taliban government, earlier this month Russia accepted a military attaché from the Taliban in Moscow, while China officially accepted a Taliban ambassador to the country. Both moves were seen as confidence-building measures with Taliban authorities.

ISIS-K has both denounced the Kremlin for its interventions in Syria and condemned the Taliban for engaging with Russian authorities decades after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan.

Its propaganda has painted the Taliban as “betraying the history of Afghanistan and betraying their religion by making friends with their former enemies,” said Ricardo Valle, the director of research of the Khorasan Diary, a research platform based in Islamabad.

In the more than two years since they took over in Afghanistan, Taliban security forces have conducted a ruthless campaign to try to eliminate ISIS-K and have successfully prevented the group from seizing territory within Afghanistan. Last year, Taliban security forces killed at least eight ISIS-K leaders, according to American officials, and pushed many other fighters into neighboring Pakistan.

Still, ISIS-K has proved resilient and remained active across Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran. Within Afghanistan, it has targeted Taliban security forces in hit-and-run attacks and — as it came under increasing pressure from Taliban counterterrorism operations — staged headline-grabbing attacks across the country. Just a day before the attack at the concert hall in Moscow, the group carried out a suicide bombing in Kandahar — the birthplace of the Taliban movement — sending a powerful message that even Taliban soldiers in the group’s heartland were not safe.

After the attack in Moscow, Abdul Qahar Balkhi, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s foreign ministry, said in a statement on social media that the country “condemns in the strongest terms the recent terrorist attack in Moscow” and “considers it a blatant violation of all human standards.”

“Regional countries must take a coordinated, clear and resolute position against such incidents directed at regional de-stabilization,” he added.
Taliban Strongly Condemns Moscow Concert Hall Attack (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [3/23/2024 7:42 AM, Staff, 223K, Negative]
Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have issued a stark condemnation of the March 22 attack on a Moscow concert venue that left at least 115 dead and wounded more than 100 others. The Taliban Foreign Ministry "condemns in the strongest terms the recent terrorist attack in Moscow... claimed by Daesh & considers it a blatant violation of all human standards," ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi wrote on X, formerly Twitter, referring to the Islamic State (IS) extremist organization by its Arabic acronym. IS has staged frequent attacks in Afghanistan since the return of the Taliban to power in 2021. On March 21, IS claimed an attack that killed 19 Taliban employees outside a bank in Kandahar.
Taliban Chief Defends Islamic Criminal Justice System, Including Stoning Women for Adultery (VOA)
VOA [3/24/2024 11:42 AM, Ayaz Gul, 307K, Negative]
The leader of Afghanistan’s fundamentalist Taliban government has said it is determined to enforce the Islamic criminal justice system, including the public stoning of women for adultery.

"Our mission is to enforce sharia and Allah’s Hudud [law]," said Hibatullah Akhundzada in an audio clip Taliban officials said was from his latest speech. They did not say where the reclusive leader spoke, but Akhundzada lives in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar and rarely leaves what is known as the Taliban’s historical birthplace and political headquarters.

He primarily addressed Western critics of the Taliban government, which Akhundzada is effectively controlling from Kandahar, through edicts based on his strict interpretation of Islam.

"You may call it a violation of women’s rights when we publicly stone or flog them for committing adultery because they conflict with your democratic principles,” said the Taliban chief.

"Just as you claim to be striving for the freedom of entire humanity, so do I. I represent Allah, and you represent Satan," Akhundzada said.

He criticized Western human rights values and women’s freedoms, saying Taliban religious scholars would persistently resist the West and its form of democracy in Afghanistan. "Thanks to these scholars, such a democracy was evicted from this land," the Taliban leader said.

The Taliban returned to power in August 2021, when the then-internationally backed government collapsed, and U.S.-led Western nations withdrew all their troops after nearly 20 years of involvement in the Afghan war.

Taliban authorities have since publicly flogged hundreds of Afghans, including women, for theft, robbery, and committing "moral crimes" in sports stadiums in the presence of thousands of onlookers. At least four men have also been publicly executed after having been convicted of murder by Taliban courts.

Akhundzada has suspended girls’ education in Afghanistan beyond the sixth grade and prohibited many women from public and private workplaces, including the United Nations and other aid organizations.

Women are not allowed to undertake long road and air trips unless accompanied by a male relative, and cannot visit public places, such as parks, gyms, and bathhouses.

The Taliban leader defends his governance, saying it is aligned with Afghan culture and Islam.

The new academic year started in Afghanistan last week, but girls above 12 were excluded for the third consecutive year.

The United Nations and the world at large have been urging the Taliban to reverse all sanctions on women and halt corporal punishments and public executions of convicts.

"It is heartbreaking to mark another year where school doors open without the participation of Afghan girls above the age of 12," Rina Amiri, the U.S. special envoy for Afghan women and human rights, said Saturday on X, formerly known as Twitter.

She reiterated the U.S. call for the Taliban to reverse their "destructive decrees," saying they are destroying the potential of more than 50% of Afghanistan’s population.

"The Taliban’s relentless, discriminatory edicts against women & girls are keeping Afghanistan poor & aid-dependent, & forcing Afghan families to leave. There is no substitute for all Afghans participating in the formal education system, which has existed for over 100 years," Amiri wrote.

The international community has not granted formal recognition to the de facto Afghan authorities, citing human rights concerns, especially the harsh treatment of women.
Robina Azizi Fled the Taliban. Now She’s Saving Girls’ Education in Afghanistan (Daily Beast)
Daily Beast [3/23/2024 10:55 PM, Kanika Gupta, 1603K, Neutral]
Robina Azizi was only 16 years old when her country was overrun by Taliban soldiers. She and her family had left their town, Mazar-e-Sharif, the capital city of Afghanistan’s northwestern province of Balkh, only a week before, as news of the Taliban’s arrival was already widespread. Azizi was supposed to be at her 10th-grade exam the next day—but she would never finish her schooling.

“When I returned home from school, my mother asked me to pack my things as I was leaving for Kabul,” Azizi told The Daily Beast. “I protested because I still had my exam the next day. But my mother told me that if I didn’t leave now and if the Taliban came, they would force me to marry them.”

Azizi now lives in Pakistan, where she relocated with her family in Oct. 2022. Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in Aug. 2021, the country has become the world’s largest prison for women. The first education ban was announced for girls in grade six and above in Mar. 2022. In December, university education was also banned. More than 1 million girls and young women have been affected as a result. More than two years since the Taliban came to power, girls and women have been excluded from all public life, losing rights and civil liberties by the day.

“The situation is really bad for us because women are not allowed to walk on the streets,” said “Yalda,” a 20-year-old Afghan woman whose name has been withheld to protect her identity. Before the takeover, she excelled in her exams and aspired to study medicine; now the education ban imposed on girls and women forces her to stay at home.

“We cannot leave our houses, and if they [Taliban] see a woman outside without a hijab, they can arrest them,” she said. “All day, we sit at home and do nothing. Sometimes I cry and don’t know what to do.”

When Azizi moved to the capital of Afghanistan just weeks before the country’s fall, she found herself in an online school. Seeing the struggles of girls in different provinces with their online classes, she decided to step in and help them navigate through courses and find suitable schools.

Azizi’s goal was to ensure they had everything they needed for successful online learning. Bringing together girls from various areas and assisting them in pursuing the education they wanted brought her a lot of happiness.

“We didn’t even have proper phones or internet or computers,” Azizi said. “But we somehow stayed connected through WhatsApp. Most of the girls I was helping at the time were my classmates from online school.”

Inspired by her experiences, Azizi founded Girls on the Path of Change (GPC) in April 2023. Utilizing social media, she quickly spread the word, launching the first session and inviting girls from across the country to share their stories in an online community.

"No one wants to listen to girls in Afghanistan; I wanted to change that. So, my first session was all about listening to them and understanding their problems,” she explained.

GPC’s main aim is to provide educational opportunities to Afghan girls affected by successive Taliban bans on education beyond grade six. Operating without funding, the organization relies on volunteers offering language classes and programs like photography and painting.

A month later, GPC launched its online courses with 10 volunteers in her team from around the world, and hundreds of students joining from all parts of Afghanistan. What began as a solo effort has now evolved into a more extensive team of 10 volunteers, with more than 600 students graduating from GPC classes in 2023.

The community is now expanding to include more teachers and students. Alexandra Slayton, who teaches English as a foreign language (TEFL) online from Massachusetts, is one such volunteer.

“One of my former students, Ana, taught Robina in a virtual class. It is through her that I learned about Robina and her story. I was intrigued by her so I requested Ana to set up a meeting with her,” Slayton said. “I was expecting to see an adult woman, especially since the organization was as well-established as it is[…] but was quite surprised to meet a teenager.”

Today, Azizi’s initiative successfully conducts workshops, exhibitions, and motivational seminars, reaching thousands of girls across more than five provinces in the country. It actively engages in various fields like photography, painting, writing, online commerce, foreign languages, poetry, and public speaking, with plans for further expansion in the near future.

Despite her good intentions, the “path for change” is not as easy or seamless as Robina would hope. The risks associated with the Taliban’s strict decrees and the logistical challenges of maintaining a steady internet connection pose significant obstacles.

Navigating Risks and Challenges

“Amaan,” whose name has been changed to protect his identity, is an education activist from Afghanistan’s Herat province and volunteers as a manager for GPC. He oversees their digital marketing and teaches beginner English courses. Despite his passion for the work with the organization, he is compelled to maintain a low profile for his safety.

"The government’s rules for girls and their education are not favorable for us,” Amaan told The Daily Beast. “However, it’s not the time to sit and ignore; it’s time to act.”

“They don’t know about us or where we are located,” he added. “If they find out, we will be arrested.”

In Oct. 2023, Pakistan announced that all undocumented Afghan migrants must leave the country. Since then, more than 1.7 million refugees have been repatriated to Afghanistan, and it is expected that more than 2 million will be affected by this ruling. For those still residing in Afghanistan, poor internet connection and a lack of infrastructure affect their ability to participate regularly in these classes.

Yalda, who started learning English at GPC so she could continue her education, expresses frustration about missing classes due to the lack of WiFi at her home and the instability of her phone network. This concern is shared by her English teacher, Tamara, who joined as a volunteer after reading a post on the organization’s Facebook page.

“I was genuinely excited to support the Afghan girls and volunteered to teach English,” Tamara told The Daily Beast. “One challenge, as I mentioned, is the technological aspect; very often, we were cutting in and out. People didn’t have connectivity.”

The Way Forward

Azizi, who has recently moved to Germany from Pakistan, is well aware of the challenges of managing the organization. However, she remains optimistic that she can now complete her own education while simultaneously working on expanding the reach of GPC.

“I feel like I have more chances here, especially to help girls. No one can make me leave, and I feel really free,” she said. “I’ll do my best to create more opportunities for girls back home. Unlike in Pakistan, I don’t need any permits anymore, so I can work feeling much safer.”

Fortunately for her, volunteers like Slayton bring wealth of experience and provide valuable support to streamline operations to reach more people in Afghanistan. Slayton, who leveraged her network and built a LinkedIn page, GPC English Academy, has allowed the team to attract volunteers from various parts of the world who want to help in teaching Afghan girls. But the long-term goal is to secure funding.

“We dream to secure a grant from the US government to provide stipends for teachers and sustain their commitment,” Slayton said. “Additionally, the organization aspires to access a learning management system for classes, moving beyond the current limitations of free platforms like Google Meet and Zoom and moving to premium accounts to get more features to work with.”

As the organization establishes itself, many girls in Afghanistan feel that GPC and its initiative give them a new chance at life.

“I like GPC a lot. It helps girls like me who can’t go out to study,” Yalda said. “GPC lets me learn English online, and it encourages me to speak well. I have good teachers, and every day, I learn new things.”
Afghanistan: Teen girls despair as Taliban school ban continues (BBC)
BBC [3/22/2024 8:03 PM, Aalia Farzan and Flora Drury, 14192K, Neutral]
Teenage Afghan girls have told the BBC they feel "mentally dead" as the Taliban’s ban on their education prevents them from returning to school once again.

More than 900 days have now passed since girls over 12 were first banned.

The Taliban have repeatedly promised they would be readmitted once a number of issues were resolved - including ensuring the curriculum was "Islamic".

But they have made little comment as a third new school year started without teenage girls in class this week.

The BBC has asked the Taliban’s education minister for an explanation, but he has so far not responded. The Taliban’s chief spokesman told local TV there had been "some problems and shortcomings for different reasons" in getting the ban lifted.

According to Unicef, the ban has now impacted some 1.4m Afghan girls - among them, former classmates Habiba, Mahtab and Tamana, who spoke to the BBC last year.

The hope they described 12 months ago is still there, but seems to have dwindled.

"In reality, when we think, we don’t live, we are just alive," Mahtab, 16, says. "Think of us like a moving dead body in Afghanistan."

Tamana - who dreams of a PhD - agrees. "I mean, we are physically alive but mentally dead," she says.

Girls were first singled out and prevented from going to secondary school back in September 2021 - a month after the Taliban took control of the country.

Acting Deputy Education Minister Abdul Hakim Hemat later told the BBC that girls would not be allowed to attend secondary school until a new education policy in line with Islamic and Afghan traditions was approved, which would be in time for the start of school in March 2022.

Two years later, Zainab - not her real name - is among the 330,000 girls Unicef estimates should have started secondary school this March. She had held onto hope that she and fellow girls in Grade Six would be able to continue, up to the point her headmaster entered the exam hall to explain they would not be able to return for the new term.

Zainab had been top of her class. Now, she tells the BBC: "I feel like I have buried my dreams in a dark hole."

Zainab’s father has attempted to leave Afghanistan, but so far without success. Officially, Zainab’s only option is classes at government-controlled religious schools, or madrassas - something the family do not want.

"It is not an alternative to school," her father says. "They will only teach her religious subjects."

For now, she attends an English class being quietly run in her neighbourhood - one of many which have quietly emerged in defiance of the ban in the last few years. Girls have also been able to keep up their studies by following courses online, or watching programmes like BBC Dars - an education programme for Afghan children, including girls aged 11-16 barred from school, described as a "learning lifeline" by the United Nations last year.

But Zainab and girls like her are among the more fortunate ones. When families are struggling to get enough to eat - as many in Afghanistan are - accessing online education is simply not seen "as a priority for their daughters", notes Samira Hamidi, Amnesty International’s regional campaigner.

The future for many of Afghanistan’s girls is "bleak", she warns - pointing to the fact young girls are continuing to be married off when they reach puberty, and are further endangered by the Taliban’s rollback of laws designed to protect women in abusive marriages.

And it is not just 13-year-olds being prevented from accessing an education. The BBC has found the ban even being extended to younger girls if they appear to have gone through puberty.

Naya, not her real name, is just 11 but is no longer attending school in her home province of Kandahar. Her father says the government has "abandoned" her because she looks older than she is.

"She is larger than average, and that was the reason the government told us she couldn’t go to school. She must wear the veil (hijab) and stay at home."

He doesn’t hold out much hope for the rules changing under the current regime, but was keen to stress one point: the idea the people of Afghanistan backed the Taliban’s ban was an "absolute lie".

"It is absolutely an accusation on Afghans and Pashtuns that they don’t want daughter’s education, but the issue is vice-versa," he said. "Specially in Kandahar and other Pashtun provinces (where Pashtun people live), a lot people are ready to send their daughters to schools and universities to get education."

The ban on a secondary education is far from the only change these girls are facing, however. In December 2022, women were told they could no longer attend university. Then there were the rules restricting how far a woman could travel without a male relative, on how they dressed, what jobs they could do, and even a ban on visiting their local parks.

There are hopes, says Amnesty’s Samira Hamidi, that the secret schools and online education "can be expanded". But, she added: "In a country with over one million girls facing a ban on their fundamental human rights to education, these efforts are not enough."

What it needs, she argues, is "for immediate and measurable actions by the international community to pressurise the Taliban", as well as wider international support for education across the country.

But until that happens, girls like Habiba, Mahtab and Tamana will remain at home.

"It’s very difficult," says Habiba, 18. "We feel ourselves in a real dungeon."

But she says she still has hope. Her friend Tamana is not so sure.

"Honestly, I don’t know whether the schools will reopen or not under this government which doesn’t have a bit of thought or understanding for girls," the 16-year-old says.

"They count the girls as nothing."
Al Qaeda Is Back—and Thriving—in Afghanistan (Foreign Policy)
Foreign Policy [3/22/2024 1:59 PM, Lynne O’Donnell, 315K, Negative]
Al Qaeda is back to its old tricks in Afghanistan. Much as it did before masterminding the 9/11 attacks, the terrorist group is running militant training camps; sharing the profits of the Taliban’s illicit drug, mining, and smuggling enterprises; and funneling the proceeds to affiliated jihadi groups worldwide.

An unpublished report circulating among Western diplomats and U.N. officials details how deeply embedded the group once run by Osama bin Laden is in the Taliban’s operations, as they loot Afghanistan’s natural wealth and steal international aid meant to alleviate the suffering of millions of Afghans.

The report was completed by a private, London-based threat analysis firm whose directors did not want to be identified. A copy was provided to Foreign Policy and its findings verified by independent sources. It is based on research conducted inside Afghanistan in recent months and includes a list of senior al Qaeda operatives and the roles they play in the Taliban’s administration.

To facilitate its ambitions, al Qaeda is raking in tens of millions of dollars a week from gold mines in Afghanistan’s northern Badakhshan and Takhar provinces that employ tens of thousands of workers and are protected by warlords friendly to the Taliban, the report says. The money represents a 25 percent share in proceeds from gold and gem mines; 11 gold mines are geolocated in the report. The money is shared with al Qaeda by the two Taliban factions: Sirajuddin Haqqani’s Kabul faction and Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada’s Kandahar faction, suggesting both leaders, widely regarded as archrivals, see a cozy relationship with al Qaeda as furthering their own interests as well as helping to entrench the group’s overall power.

The Taliban’s monthly take from the gold mines tops $25 million, though this money “does not appear in their official budget,” the report says. Quoting on-the-ground sources, it says the money “goes directly into the pockets of top-ranking Taliban officials and their personal networks.” Since the mines began operating in early 2022, al Qaeda’s share has totaled $194.4 million, it says.

After regaining power in August 2021, the Taliban integrated a large number of listed terrorist groups that fought alongside them against the U.S.-supported Afghan republic. The Biden administration, however, has persistently denied that al Qaeda has reconstituted in Afghanistan or even that al Qaeda and the Taliban have maintained their long, close relationship.

Those denials ring hollow as evidence piles up that the Taliban and al Qaeda are as close as ever. The U.N. Security Council and the U.S. Congress-mandated Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) have consistently reported on the Taliban’s symbiotic relationship with dozens of banned terrorist outfits, including al Qaeda.

Few experts believed Taliban leaders’ assurances, during negotiations with former U.S. President Donald Trump that led to the ignominious U.S. retreat, that the group’s relationship with al Qaeda was over; bin Laden’s vision of a global caliphate based in Afghanistan was a guiding principle of the war that returned the Taliban regime, which one Western official in Kabul said differs only from the previous regime in 1996-2001 in that “they are even better at repression.”

The historic relationship hit global headlines when bin Laden’s successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri, was killed on July 31, 2022, in a U.S. drone strike as he stood by the window of a Kabul villa. The property was linked to Haqqani, the head of the largely autonomous Haqqani network and a member of al Qaeda’s leadership structure. He is also a deputy head of the Taliban and its interior minister, overseeing security. He is believed to harbor ambitions for the top job of supreme leader, with aspirations to become caliph.

Now that they can operate with impunity, the reports says, the Taliban are once again providing al Qaeda commanders and operatives with everything they need, from weapons to wives, housing, passports, and access to the vast smuggling network built up over decades to facilitate the heroin empire that bankrolled the Taliban’s war.

The routes have been repurposed for lower-cost, higher-return methamphetamine, weapons, cash, gold, and other contraband. Militants from Yemen, Libya, Somalia, and the Palestinian territories also circulate through the al Qaeda training camps that have been revived since the Taliban takeover. Security is provided by the Taliban’s General Directorate of Intelligence.

The report includes a list of al Qaeda commanders, some of whom were bin Laden’s lieutenants when he was living in Afghanistan while planning the attacks on the United States. Those atrocities precipitated the U.S.-led invasion that drove him, and the Taliban leadership, into Pakistan, where they were sheltered, funded, and armed by the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence agency.

The report’s findings “demonstrate that, as expected, the Taliban leadership continues to be willing to protect not only the leadership of al Qaeda but also fighters, including foreign terrorist fighters from a long list of al Qaeda affiliates,” said Hans-Jakob Schindler, the senior director of the Berlin- and New York-based Counter Extremism Project and an expert on terrorism. “It is clear that the Taliban have never changed their stance toward international terrorism and, in particular, al Qaeda.”

Many analysts believe President Joe Biden’s decision to stick to Trump’s withdrawal deal led to Afghanistan becoming an incubator of extremism and terrorism. Leaders of neighboring and regional states, including Iran, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and countries in Central Asia, have expressed concern about the threat posed by the Taliban’s transnational ambitions. U.N. figures, including Special Rapporteur Richard Bennett, have repeatedly called out Taliban suppression of rights and freedoms and the imprisonment and killing of perceived opponents.

In February, the George W. Bush Institute released the first report in its three-part Captured State series titled “Corruption and Kleptocracy in Afghanistan Under the Taliban,” which recommends action by the United States and the U.N. to rein in Taliban excesses. It calls on the United States and allies “to pressure foreign enablers of Taliban corruption and reputation laundering to stop facilitating corrupt economic trading activities, illicit trafficking, and moving and stashing personal wealth outside Afghanistan.”

Pointedly, it says the U.N. and other aid organizations “should demand greater accountability for how aid is spent and distributed” and urges international donors to support civil society, which has been decimated by the Taliban.

It’s a reference to the billions of dollars in aid that have been sent to Afghanistan since the republic collapsed—including, controversially, $40 million in cash each week, which has helped keep the local currency stable despite economic implosion. The United States is the biggest supporter, funneling more than $2.5 billion to the country from October 2021 to September 2023, SIGAR said. Foreign Policy has reported extensively on the Taliban’s systematic pilfering of foreign humanitarian aid for redistribution to supporters, which has exacerbated profound poverty.

The Bush Institute paper is one of the few comprehensive studies of the impact of the Taliban’s return to power to publicly call for the group to face consequences for its actions. It suggests, for instance, the enforcement of international travel bans on Taliban leaders, which are easily and often flouted.

Recognition of the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan “would reinforce the Taliban’s claim to power and strengthen their position” by giving them even greater access to “cold, hard cash,” the report says, a warning that comes amid growing fears that the United States could be preparing to reopen its Kabul embassy, which the Taliban would see as tacit recognition.

By “capturing the Afghan state, the Taliban have significantly upgraded their access to resources,” the Bush Institute argues, putting the group “in the perfect position now to loot it for their own individual gain.”

That plundered resource wealth also appears to be boosting the coffers of like-minded groups. The London firm’s unpublished report identifies 14 al Qaeda affiliates—most of them listed by the U.N. Security Council’s Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team—that are directly benefiting from the mining proceeds. They include seven inside Afghanistan (among them, the anti-China East Turkestan Islamic Movement, the anti-Tajikistan Jamaat Ansarullah, and Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, which is fighting the Pakistani state) and seven operating elsewhere: al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, al Qaeda in Yemen, al Qaeda in Iraq, al Qaeda in Syria, al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent, al Qaeda in the Mahgreb, and al-Shabab, largely active in East Africa.

For Western governments that might be pondering a closer relationship with the Taliban regime or even diplomatic recognition, Schindler of the Counter Extremism Project sounded a note of warning. The Taliban, he said, are “not a viable counterterrorism partner, even on a tactical level.” Instead, the group “remains one of the prime sponsors of terrorism” worldwide.
Pakistan
An Economy Perpetually in Crisis Is Shredding Pakistan’s Middle Class (Wall Street Journal)
Wall Street Journal [3/24/2024 12:03 AM, Saeed Shah and Waqar Gillani, 810K, Negative]
For two decades, Muhammad Asim ran a small jewelry shop in central Islamabad with his older brother and slowly amassed the trappings of a dignified middle-class lifestyle.

But with consumer demand drying up and food and utility bills soaring, he said that life is slipping away. The family sold its car, and the two brothers now take a bus to work. He pulled his children out of their private school—and now sends his 14-year-old son to a cheaper private school and his 10-year-old daughter to a free government school.

“We are genteel people but now only God is keeping our honor intact,” Asim said.

Pakistan’s political and economic turmoil is chipping away at the gains in living standards that families have worked hard to achieve, leaving middle-class people like Asim struggling and the poor battling to survive.

As recently as 2017, during a rare period of stability, Pakistan’s middle class was seen as ascendant and was estimated by one study to be around 40% of the population. Official data from 2019, the most recently available, indicated that about 30% of Pakistanis had an income of more than $10 a day, a benchmark some economists use as the threshold for entry into the global middle class.

But inflation has subsequently taken off. “The lower middle class has been really hit in the last few years,” said Javaid Ghani, pro vice chancellor at Karachi’s Al Ghazali University, who has researched Pakistan’s middle class.

Many households in the country of 240 million people say they are struggling to hold on to the markers of a middle-class life as they are buffeted by higher food and energy prices. A consumer attitude report by market research group Ipsos this month found that just one in 10 Pakistanis believed that the country was heading in the right direction.

Meanwhile, families who were no longer poor but also not middle class have lost their footing. In Pakistan’s financial year that ended in June, more than 12 million people fell into poverty, according to the World Bank, using the poverty line of $3.65 a day. The number of people also reflects the impact of the devastating floods of 2022.

Fixing a broken economy is the priority for the new government headed by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who took office this month after an election that political candidates and civil-society monitors allege was heavily rigged. Economic growth has stalled, inflation is averaging close to 30% in Pakistan’s current fiscal year and debt is spiraling.

“Real economic growth, after taking account of population increases, may well be negative,” said Ijaz Nabi, executive director of the Consortium for Development Policy Research, an economic think tank in Pakistan. He said the government must focus on getting inflation under control and gain some room to maneuver by reducing its deficit. “The economy isn’t generating employment, and you don’t have the fiscal headroom to fix the long-term problems.”

In an acknowledgment of the country’s dire straits, Sharif reached outside politics to pick Muhammad Aurangzeb as his new finance minister.

“We need surgery, we can’t make do with antibiotics,” Sharif said at his first cabinet meeting.

Aurangzeb, who previously worked at JPMorgan and headed one of Pakistan’s largest private banks, is tasked with working out a longer-term rescue program with the International Monetary Fund, whose loans are key to Pakistan paying its debt obligations and staying afloat. Pakistan has $8 billion in foreign currency reserves, while it must find $22 billion for debt payments and its current-account deficit for the coming fiscal year, which begins in July, according to the IMF.

Pakistan has been a frequent user of IMF programs. The country is now seeking its 24th bailout, and its current stopgap IMF loan ends in April.

The IMF programs impose bitter economic medicine that previous Pakistani administrations have struggled to stick with in the face of public opposition. With Sharif presiding over a shaky coalition government, and facing a large and angry opposition, that medicine will be even harder to swallow this time around. The IMF has already pushed the government to raise tax revenues and cut subsidies to utilities and fuel.

Electricity bills soared in the summer while bills for natural gas, used to heat homes in the winter, were up more than 900% in February from a year earlier, even for the lowest-volume consumers. Prices are set to increase again in the coming weeks.

Hoping to tame their bills, some families are unplugging their appliances.

Muhammad Khan, a restaurant manager in the northern city of Rawalpindi, has ditched his car for a motorbike and stopped buying new clothes and eating out. He switches his fridge off for several hours a day to save electricity on utility bills whose arrival he dreads. But despite working a second catering job on the side, he has to borrow from relatives to make ends meet.

“The lower middle class, like us, is now just posing as white collar. Honestly, we are in the poor class now,” said Khan. “Seeing the political situation, I have no hope.”

In a speech in parliament earlier this month Omar Ayub Khan, the leader of the opposition bloc, said Sharif was a fraudulent prime minister who has no right to carry out reforms or impose fresh taxes. Political candidates associated with jailed opposition leader Imran Khan have alleged they would have won a majority in parliament if not for election rigging. Pakistan authorities deny the election was rigged.

Khan’s party has also urged the IMF to tie future lending to an independent audit of the election results. The IMF, which is already working with the new government, has said Pakistan should work toward the peaceful resolution of electoral disputes.

On Wednesday, the lender said the country had met the benchmarks to conclude a stopgap lending program that ends in April. The IMF said that the country’s economic situation had improved in recent months, but growth would be modest.

To reduce Pakistan’s deficit, the lender wants it to privatize loss-making state-owned enterprises—like national carrier Pakistan International Airlines—which could result in tens of thousands of job cuts. The IMF also wants Pakistan to broaden its tax base to include the retail, real estate and agricultural sectors, important support bases for the coalition government. Pakistan’s tax-to-GDP ratio is less than 10%.

The lender has also urged Pakistan to overhaul its debt-laden energy sector and pointed to further increases in electricity prices ahead.

That is just what Muhamad Ilyas fears. A vegetable vendor in the eastern town of Daska who makes up to about $3 a day, Ilyas took loans from a local informal lender and a friend to pay a recent gas bill that was nearly a third of his monthly earnings. He now scavenges for wood to burn for cooking. He said the new government, which he considers illegitimate, will “fulfill every demand of the IMF, throwing us into another painful spell of price hikes.”

“Either they will push us to our graves or there will be a big explosion in this society,” he said.
New finance minister says Pakistan will seek a long-term IMF loan to stabilize the economy (AP)
AP [3/22/2024 9:58 AM, Staff, 456K, Neutral]
Pakistan plans to seek a long-term loan from the International Monetary Fund to help stabilize the country’s ailing economy after the end of the IMF’s current $3 billion bailout package, the country’s newly appointed finance minister said Friday.

Muhammad Aurangzeb, who plans to meet with IMF officials in Washington in April, did not specify the amount that Pakistan would seek in comments to reporters in the capital, Islamabad. However, officials previously have said Pakistan wants to get up to $8 billion from the IMF over three years.

Cash-strapped Pakistan has been facing one of its worst economic crises since last year when weekly inflation at one point crossed 40% amid fears the impoverished Islamic nation could default on its payment of foreign debt.

In June 2023, the IMF approved the current, one-year $3 billion loan package to Pakistan after the country agreed to slash subsidies and raise taxes to comply with the bailout terms. Pakistan is to receive the final $1.1 billion tranche in April.

Aurangzeb said the inflation rate has since come down to 23%, and that he would seek to bring it down further, to provide some relief to residents who have struggled to pay electricity and gas bills.
Pakistan Threatens To Close Vital Afghan Trade Corridor With India (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [3/22/2024 4:14 PM, Staff, 235K, Negative]
Amid escalating tensions between Islamabad and Kabul, Pakistan’s defense minister has warned Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers that his country could block a corridor it provides to allow trade with India.

Khwaja Asif said that Islamabad could block access to its western neighbor Afghanistan through its territory that allows goods to flow into its eastern neighbor India if the Taliban government fails to rein in the Pakistani Taliban, formally known as the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

"If Afghanistan treats us like an enemy, then why should we give them a trade corridor?" Asif told Voice of America on March 20.

Tensions between Islamabad and Kabul are running high after the Taliban said it retaliated against Pakistani air strikes that killed eight people, including two children, on March 18. Over the past two decades, Islamabad has repeatedly closed trade routes and border crossings with Afghanistan to pressure Kabul whenever tensions spiked in their bilateral relations.

Islamabad said it targeted a hideout of the TTP, which it blames for mounting attacks on its forces. Pakistan says the TTP is using the Afghan side of the mountainous border region to launch such strikes.

The corridor allowing goods to flow between Afghanistan and India has become an important economic pillar for Kabul.

According to the World Bank, Kabul’s trade with India increased 43 percent to $570 million last year, while its trade with Islamabad has shrunk from more than $4 billion a decade ago to less than $1 billion.

Given the growing importance of the corridor, threats of a possible blockade was met with anger and resentment in Afghanistan.

"Their policy has always been harmful to Afghanistan," Ahmad Khan Ander, an Afghan military expert, told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi. "[Pakistan] has never been a friend of Afghanistan."

Ghaus Janbaz, an international relations expert, told Radio Azadi that Islamabad wants to shift the blame to Afghanistan instead of focusing on its domestic crises.

"[The Pakistani government] wants to show that the violence is coming from elsewhere, when all the violence is coming from within Pakistan," he said.

As part of pressuring the Taliban, Pakistan is set to force some 850,000 documented Afghan refugees back to their country next month if they don’t leave voluntarily.

According to reports in Pakistani media, the expulsions, the latest in an ongoing campaign of forced deportations, are scheduled to begin on April 15.
Historic Win Shatters Stereotypes, Empowers Women in Pakistani Politics (VOA)
VOA [3/23/2024 12:23 PM, Benazir Samad, 761K, Neutral]
When Suriya Bibi was running for a seat earlier this year on the Khyber Pakhtunkwa provincial assembly, she faced numerous challenges beyond being a woman and hailing from a minority sect in Pakistan’s remote district of Chitral.

Another obstacle appeared when the Election Commission randomly assigned a hen symbol as her identifier on ballot papers — such symbols are tools to aid illiterate voters. In January, Pakistan’s Supreme Court barred her political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or PTI, from using the cricket bat symbol associated with former Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The hen symbol inadvertently perpetuated the stereotype that women in Chitral were better suited for poultry farming than politics. Her opponents capitalized on their good luck, ridiculing her and mocking the symbol’s association with domesticity.

In a phone interview with VOA, Bibi said that there was no shame in poultry farming and rejected the attempt to diminish her worth based on her election symbol.

History made

Bibi made history in early February by becoming the first woman from Chitral district to secure an assembly seat through a direct election rather than assuming a seat reserved for women, as is customary in the region. Not only did she clinch victory in the PK-1 constituency in Chitral with a decisive majority, but she also ascended to the position of deputy speaker in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly.

In Pakistan, where women’s involvement in governance is often restricted, Bibi encountered obstacles while navigating and challenging traditional norms to carve out her place in male-dominated politics.

According to social critic and feminist writer Sabahat Zakariya, Bibi belongs to the rare category of women parliamentarians who have secured their positions through open seats without relying on the political influence or lineage of male family members.

“Currently, all the big female names in Pakistani politics are scions of big feudal or industrial political families,” Zakariya said. “In that, Suriya Bibi’s achievement is not just unique for Chitral but also [for] all of Pakistan.”

Campaigning in rough terrain

Bibi also reflected on how the severe winters and the daunting terrain of the Hindukush mountains presented yet another challenge to her campaign.

Dilapidated roads and inadequate infrastructure made reaching the remote areas of her constituency difficult. Spanning approximately 210 kilometers (about 130 miles), the upper Chitral PK-1 district encompasses the farthest village, Broghil, which borders the Badakhshan province of Afghanistan.

“Sometimes, I had to walk kilometers on foot when there were no roads for vehicles," she said. "Despite facing these difficulties and even being unwell at times, I remained dedicated to connecting with people and meeting voters. The support of women who walked with me provided comfort and bolstered my determination throughout this demanding campaign."

Bibi grew up with both her father and a grandfather engaged in local politics and knew that she, too, wanted to be a politician.

“Despite my family’s support for another party, I made an independent choice and joined Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, PTI party, [which means] ‘Pakistan movement for justice,’ in 2007,” she said.

“Joining politics, I initially faced resistance and received criticism for participating in protests and rallies, as it wasn’t common for women in the conservative region like Chitral to break through a male-dominated field like politics.”

Starting as a grassroots worker, Bibi began by mobilizing women at the village level, then represented Chitral as a female leader and then became the vice president of PTI Malakand Division. So, she ascended through the ranks within her party before getting a nomination to run for election from the party.

Bibi’s campaign efforts encouraging women to go out and vote resulted in women surpassing male votes for the first time in the region’s history. In total, 35,377 women voted, compared with the 30,345 votes from men.

In Chitral, where no local woman had previously secured an electoral victory and where her opponents wielded greater financial resources, Bibi initially doubted her chances.

“Men establish connections, friendships, and network with party officials, gaining exposure and influence," she said. "However, as a woman, I couldn’t do the same. Despite these challenges and cultural norms, I only had dedication and the unwavering support of my family, particularly my husband. He consistently encouraged me when I was nominated to run for the seat, urging me to take it up as a challenge.”

Speaking about her plans, Bibi said her focus would be on tackling property rights issues for women and prioritizing girls’ education. Given her background as an educator, she eagerly anticipates establishing a nursing school in the region, recognizing that young women who pursue nursing careers often must move far from their families.

Aspiring female students have begun approaching her about internship opportunities in her office, she said, reflecting a shift in the perception that politics are exclusively dominated by powerful men.

She said her political journey shows how even an ordinary middle-class woman like herself can ascend to great heights in the realm of politics.
India
The Brutality of Sugar: Debt, Child Marriage and Hysterectomies (New York Times)
New York Times [3/24/2024 4:14 PM, Megha Rajagopalan and Qadri Inzamam, 831K, Negative]
Archana Ashok Chaure has given her life to sugar.

She was married off to a sugar cane laborer in western India at about 14 — “too young,” she says, “to have any idea what marriage was.” Debt to her employer keeps her in the fields.

Last winter, she did what thousands of women here are pressured to do when faced with painful periods or routine ailments: She got a hysterectomy, and got back to work.

This keeps sugar flowing to companies like Coke and Pepsi.

The two soft-drink makers have helped turn the state of Maharashtra into a sugar-producing powerhouse. But a New York Times and Fuller Project investigation has found that these brands have also profited from a brutal system of labor that exploits children and leads to the unnecessary sterilization of working-age women.

Young girls are pushed into illegal child marriages so they can work alongside their husbands cutting and gathering sugar cane. Instead of receiving wages, they work to pay off advances from their employers — an arrangement that requires them to pay a fee for the privilege of missing work, even to see a doctor.

An extreme yet common consequence of this financial entrapment is hysterectomies. Labor brokers loan money for the surgeries, even to resolve ailments as routine as heavy, painful periods. And the women — most of them uneducated — say they have little choice.

Hysterectomies keep them working, undistracted by doctor visits or the hardship of menstruating in a field with no access to running water, toilets or shelter.

Removing a woman’s uterus has lasting consequences, particularly if she is under 40. In addition to the short-term risks of abdominal pain and blood clots, it often brings about early menopause, raising the chance of heart disease, osteoporosis and other ailments.

But for many sugar laborers, the operation has a particularly grim outcome: Borrowing against future wages plunges them further into debt, ensuring that they return to the fields next season and beyond. Workers’ rights groups and the United Nations labor agency have defined such arrangements as forced labor.

“I had to rush to work immediately after the operation, as we had taken an advance,” Ms. Chaure said. “We neglect our health in front of money.”

Sugar producers and buyers have known about this abusive system for years. Coca-Cola’s consultants, for example, visited the fields and sugar mills of western India and, in 2019, reported that children were cutting sugar cane and laborers were working to repay their employers. They documented this in a report for the company, complete with an interview with a 10-year-old girl.

In an unrelated corporate report that year, the company said that it was supporting a program to “gradually reduce child labor” in India.

Labor abuse is endemic in Maharashtra, not limited to any particular mill or farm, according to a local government report and interviews with dozens of workers. Maharashtra sugar has been sweetening cans of Coke and Pepsi for more than a decade, according to an executive at NSL Sugars, which operates mills in the state.

PepsiCo, in response to a list of findings from The Times, confirmed that one of its largest international franchisees buys sugar from Maharashtra. The franchisee just opened its third manufacturing and bottling plant there. A new Coke factory is under construction in Maharashtra, and Coca-Cola confirmed that it, too, buys sugar in the state.

These companies use the sugar primarily for products sold in India, industry officials say. PepsiCo said the company and its partners purchase a small amount of sugar from Maharashtra, relative to total production in the state.

Both companies have published codes of conduct prohibiting suppliers and business partners from using child and forced labor.

“The description of the working conditions of sugar-cane cutters in Maharashtra is deeply concerning,” PepsiCo said in a statement. “We will engage with our franchisee partners to conduct an assessment to understand the sugar-cane cutter working conditions and any actions that may need to be taken.”

Coca-Cola declined to comment on a detailed list of questions.

The heartland of this exploitation is the district of Beed, an impoverished, rural region of Maharashtra that is home to much of the migrant sugar-cutting population. One local government report surveyed approximately 82,000 female sugar-cane workers from Beed, and found that about one in five had had hysterectomies. A separate, smaller government survey estimated the figure at one in three.

“The thinking of women is, if we get the surgery, then we’ll be able to work more,” said Deepa Mudhol-Munde, the district’s magistrate, or top civil servant.

The abuses continue — despite local government investigations, news reports and warnings from company consultants — because everyone says somebody else is responsible.

Big Western companies have policies pledging to root out human rights abuses in their supply chains. In practice, they seldom if ever visit the fields and largely rely on their suppliers, the sugar-mill owners, to oversee labor issues.

The mill owners, though, say that they do not actually employ the workers. They hire contractors to recruit migrants from far-off villages, transport them to the fields and pay their wages. How those workers are treated, the owners say, is between them and the contractors.

Those contractors are often young men whose only qualification is that they own a vehicle. They are merely doling out the mill owners’ money, they say. They could not possibly dictate working conditions or terms of employment.

Nobody pushes women to get hysterectomies as a form of population control. In fact, having children is commonplace. Because girls typically marry young, many have children in their teens.

Instead, they seek hysterectomies in hopes of stopping their periods, as a drastic form of uterine cancer prevention or to end the need for routine gynecological care.

“I couldn’t afford to miss work to see the doctor,” said Savita Dayanand Landge, a sugar-cane worker in her 30s who got a hysterectomy last year because she hoped it would end her need to visit doctors.

India is the world’s second largest sugar producer, and Maharashtra accounts for about a third of that production. In addition to supplying Indian and Western companies, the state has exported sugar to more than a dozen countries, where it disappeared into the global supply chain.

The abuses are born from the Maharashtra sugar industry’s peculiar setup. In other sugar regions, farm owners recruit local workers and pay them wages.

Maharashtra operates differently. About a million workers, typically from Beed, migrate for days to fields in the south and west. Throughout the harvest, from about October to March, they move from field to field, carting their belongings with them.

Instead of wages from farm owners, they receive an advance — often around $1,800 per couple, or roughly $5 a day per person for a six-month season — from a mill contractor. This century-old system reduces labor costs for sugar mills.

Our reporters interviewed people at every stage of the supply chain, including dozens of laborers, contractors, mill owners and former executives at multinational companies. The Times also examined medical records and interviewed doctors, lawmakers, government officials, researchers and aid workers who have spent careers examining the livelihoods of Maharashtra’s sugar workers.

Ms. Chaure is petite, barely five feet tall, with a tiny gold nose-ring in the shape of a flower and a grin that takes over her whole face. She speaks a million miles an hour and, when she feels particularly passionate, she grabs your wrist to make sure you are listening.

“It’s easy for people to take advantage of us,” she said, “because we have no education.” She has spent her life cutting sugar for a mill owned by NSL Sugars.

She began working in the sugar fields as a preteen and, now in her early 30s, she expects to continue for the rest of her life. The work has kept her family in the most grueling poverty, the kind that makes her skip meals so her three children have enough to eat.

Ms. Chaure knows there is nothing for her beyond sugar. But she hopes things will be different for her children.

‘There Wasn’t Any Option Left’
Ms. Chaure lay back on an operating-room cot last winter preparing for her hysterectomy. The hospital was bigger than any near her village, with clean floors and a busy, professional-looking staff.

As she looked at the white ceiling, the thought crossed her mind that, once she slipped out of consciousness, she might not come back.

Her hands trembled.

Who, she wondered, would look after her children?

“But since there wasn’t any option left for me,” she said, “I did it.”

Ms. Chaure had traveled to a city hospital hours from her village.

On a given day, the waiting room is crowded with patients from the countryside sitting nervously on metal chairs or cross-legged on the floor as a loudspeaker blares out names.

The women often have familiar ailments: pain that radiates down from their lower backs and prolonged or irregular periods that make work more difficult.

For Ms. Chaure, it was a heavy kind of ache, like a pull. She had pain in her hip, too. It pulsed down her leg and never seemed to go away. Her periods were irregular, which she suspected was from working all through her pregnancies, often forgoing food.

In the fields, Ms. Chaure, like the others, sleeps on the ground, spends hours a day hunched over and carries heavy loads on her head.

Tampons and pads are expensive and hard to find, and there is nowhere to dispose of them. Without access to running water, women address their periods in the fields, with reused cloth that they try to wash discreetly by hand.

“All the problems are intermingled with their personal hygiene and their economic condition. They have to work so hard,” said Dr. Ashok Belkhode, whose Maharashtra practice includes gynecology.

Hysterectomy is a routine surgery performed around the world, though infrequently for women in their 20s and 30s. In India, it is more common, including as a form of birth control, and other parts of the country also have high hysterectomy rates. But in Maharashtra’s sugar industry, everyone — contractors, other workers, even doctors — pushes women toward the surgery.

That is what happened to Ms. Landge, a mother of four with a red bindi and arms full of green bangles. She lives in a tiny concrete home atop a hill, overlooking her village and acres of farmland that turns the color of mustard seeds during the dry months.

Doctors prescribed painkillers and vitamins for her back and abdominal pain, but every appointment cost her a day’s wages and a fee for missing work.

“Everywhere I went,” Ms. Landge said, “hysterectomy was suggested.”

Ms. Chaure ended up on the operating table because a sonogram showed that she had ovarian cysts, her medical records show.

Instead of simply removing the cysts, her surgeon told her she should have a hysterectomy. She did not question the advice. She knew so many women who had done the same. She was terrified of getting cancer. And maybe this would end her pain, and the doctor visits.

“I might not be able to work well if the problems persist,” she said.

Years earlier, to pay one of her children’s medical bills, Ms. Chaure had sold a pair of gold earrings, a gift from her father worth about $30. Now there was nothing left to sell.

So she and her husband borrowed more money from their sugar contractor, promising to return next season to repay it. They already owed so much, Ms. Chaure figured, that they would have to go anyway.

The surgeon removed Ms. Chaure’s uterus, a cyst, an ovary and a fallopian tube. In an interview, her surgeon said it was necessary because the cyst was unusually large.

The Times shared details from Ms. Chaure’s file with Dr. Farinaz Seifi, the director of gynecology at Bridgeport Hospital and a professor at the Yale School of Medicine. “There was absolutely no indication for hysterectomy,” she said.

‘I Was Very Young’
In her wedding photographs, Ms. Chaure stares straight-faced into the camera. She had never met the groom. But that was normal. The same had happened to many of her friends.

Like many rural women in Maharashtra, Ms. Chaure does not know her exact age. She figures she was about 14 on her wedding day. It was two years after she dropped out of her village school so her parents could take her to the sugar fields.

“I was scared to get married,” she recalled, “really scared.”

She knew that marriage meant the end of something. She had dreamed of becoming a nurse. She could picture it — she would wear a crisp, clean uniform and work beneath a whirring ceiling fan, protected from the sun.

But marriage is the moment when many girls give up their futures, and their bodies, to sugar.

Every fall before the harvest, usually in October, the mill owners dispatch contractors to villages in Beed like Ms. Chaure’s to recruit laborers.

Child marriage is illegal in India and is regarded internationally as a human rights violation. Its roots in India run deep, and it has complex cultural and economic causes.

But in this part of Maharashtra, two economic incentives push girls into marriage.

First, sugar cutting is a two-person job. Husband-and-wife teams make twice as much as a man working alone. The two-person system is known as koyta, after the sickle that cuts the sugar cane.

Second, the longer that children accompany their parents in the field, the longer parents must support them. So families often seek to marry off daughters young, even in early adolescence.

“If we are married, their stress reduces and the responsibility is shifted to our husband’s shoulders,” Ms. Chaure said. “So they marry us off.”

Several women recalled being married only months after their first periods.

The links between marriage and sugar go so deep that girls were once married at the mill gates. Even now, weddings are often held before the harvest and the term “gate cane wedding” still comes up.

“Without koyta, there would be no reason to get married,” said Zhamabai Subhashratod, a 30-something sugar laborer who was married in her early teens and later had a hysterectomy.

Contractors, too, have an incentive to find brides, even if it means pressuring parents to marry off young daughters, said Tatwashil Baburao Kamble, the former head of Beed’s child-welfare committee.

“I’ve seen cases where the contractors tried to get it done before taking laborers to the farm — all their belongings were packed,” Mr. Kamble said. “All that was left was to get married.”

Some contractors even lend money for weddings.

“I’ve paid for weddings, for hospital bills,” said Bapurao Balbhim Shelke, a contractor who formerly worked for Dalmia Bharat Sugar.

“I just add the amount to the next year’s bill, and they can work it off,” said Dattu Ashruba Yadav, a contractor who lives in Beed. He said he had lent one couple 50,000 rupees, or about $600, for their wedding. That represents several months of a typical couple’s earnings.

Mira Govardhan Bhole has been working in the sugar fields since her marriage, about a year after her first period. Ms. Bhole is in her 30s but has a round baby face that always looks cheerful.

As a newlywed, she would disappear into cooking to avoid her husband.

When he told her she would have to cut sugar, she sobbed uncontrollably. “They brought me by throwing me in the vehicle,” she said. “I hadn’t even taken a bath or anything.”

In the field, she felt overwhelmed. There, sugar cane surrounds you, the stalks growing so high and close together that you can make out the sky only in patches.

The men bend forward, whipping machetes. The women usually do the rest.

First, they tear the sharp leaves off the cane. It takes practice. Pull downward and you will be fine, but stroke upward, even by accident, and the leaves make gashes as thin as paper cuts.

What Ms. Bhole remembers most about her first weeks is that her palms hurt so badly that she cried and cried.

After stripping the leaves, the women stack the cane in bundles.

They carry the bundles on their heads, then load them onto trucks.

Season after season, the weight can break down the disks in your neck, leaving a constant stiffness. If you ask doctors in the region what happens to the bodies of women in the sugar fields, this is the first injury they mention. Ms. Chaure has this problem, too, and she winces when she thinks about it.

More relentless, though, is the punishment of field life. The workday often ends after midnight, when trucks have hauled away the last of the day’s crop. Women sleep under tarpaulin tents with their families on thin mats cast onto the ground.

They wake as early as 4 a.m. to fetch water, build a fire, boil tea and cook lentils and vegetables. They wash clothes in a basin and then it is back to work, stripping and hauling sugar cane.

Workers said there were almost never official contracts or records tallying how much they cut. At the end of the season, contractors almost always declare that a balance remains.

“There is no possible way they could pay it back within one season,” said Ranjit Bhausaheb Waghmare, a contractor for Dalmia Bharat Sugar.

Dalmia supplies Coca-Cola in Maharashtra, according to S. Rangaprasad, who runs one of the mills there. Dalmia records also list Mondelez, the owner of Cadbury, as a customer. The company said it was “deeply concerned to hear allegations of labor issues at one of our suppliers. We will investigate.”

Pepsi’s franchisee also buys from Dalmia, but from mills outside the state, PepsiCo said.

Ms. Bhole sometimes fantasizes about a different life. A relative in a city a few hours away works as a housekeeper. The idea of getting paid to do chores sounds incredible.

But she says that no matter how hard she and her husband work, at the end of each season, her contractor says they still owe money. They have to return.

Worker-rights advocates say this is tantamount to bonded labor, a practice banned by law.

When Ms. Chaure’s husband took her to the fields after their wedding, she hoped they would be done in a season. That was more than 15 years ago. They are still in debt.

“We take an advance, repay some, and again take another advance,” she said.

The sugar mills keep all of this — child marriage, underage labor, wage debt and working conditions — at an arm’s length. Child marriage, they say, is a social problem that has nothing to do with the industry.

They say the contractors are responsible for the workers.

“The mill does not take on the burden of employing them,” said Mr. Rangaprasad, the head of a Dalmia mill.

Things Could Have Changed

Shubha Sekhar, a Coca-Cola executive who has focused on human rights in India, talked during the Covid pandemic to a group of university students. Speaking by videoconference, she described the challenges of operating in a country that Coke’s own documents identify as risky because of child and forced labor.

Typically, corporations buy from suppliers, she explained. With sugar, she said, at times “one doesn’t have visibility of what is happening beyond, in deep agriculture.”

But those deep fields are typically just outside the doors of Coke’s own suppliers. Sugar cane loses weight — and value — each minute after it is cut, so mills are usually built close to the farms.

All of the problems, including child marriage and hysterectomies, have been known in the region for years.

There was even a moment, not too long ago, when things might have changed.

In 2019, the newspaper The Hindu BusinessLine reported on an unusually high number of hysterectomies among female sugar-cane cutters in Maharashtra. In response, a state lawmaker, along with a team of researchers, launched an investigation. They surveyed thousands of women.

Their report that year described horrible working conditions and directly linked the high hysterectomy rate to the sugar industry. Unable to take time off during pregnancy or for doctor visits, women have no choice but to seek the surgery, the report concluded.

By happenstance, Coca-Cola issued its own report that year. After unrelated accusations out of Brazil and Cambodia about land-grabbing, Coca-Cola had hired a firm to audit its supply chain in several countries.

The auditors, from a group called Arche Advisors, visited 123 farms in Maharashtra and a neighboring state with a small sugar industry.

They found children at about half of them. Many had simply migrated with their families, but Arche’s report found children cutting, carrying and bundling sugar cane at 12 farms.

Nearly every laborer interviewed by reporters said children commonly worked in the sugar fields. The youngest ones do chores. Older ones perform all the work of cane cutters. A Times photographer saw children working in the fields.

The 2019 report includes an interview with a 10-year-old girl who “loves to go to school,” but instead works alongside her parents.

“She picks the cut cane and stacks it into a bundle, which her parents then load onto the truck,” the report says.

Arche noted that Coca-Cola suppliers did not provide toilets or shelter. And it cited “flags in the area of forced labor.” Only a few of the mills it surveyed had policies on bonded or child labor, and those applied only to the mills, not the farms.

The government report called on factories to provide water, toilets, basic sanitation and the minimum wage.

Few if any changes have been carried out.

Major buyers like PepsiCo and Coca-Cola say they hold their suppliers to exacting standards for labor rights. But that promise is only as good as their willingness to monitor thousands of farms at the base of their supply chains.

That rarely happens. An executive at NSL Sugars, a Coca-Cola and PepsiCo franchisee supplier that has mills around the country, said that soda-company representatives could be scrupulous in asking about sugar quality, production efficiency and environmental issues. Labor issues in the fields, he said, would almost never come up.

Soda-company inspectors seldom if ever visit the farms from which NSL sources its sugar cane, the executive said. The PepsiCo franchisee, Varun Beverages, did not respond to calls for comment.

Mill owners, too, rarely visit the fields. Executives at Dalmia and NSL Sugars say they keep virtually no records on their laborers.

“No one from the Dalmia factory has ever visited us in the tents or the fields,” said Anita Bhaisahab Waghmare, a laborer in her 40s who has worked at farms supplying Dalmia all her life and said she had a hysterectomy that she now regretted.

Ed Potter, the former head of global workplace rights at Coca-Cola, said the company had conducted many human rights audits during his tenure. But with so many suppliers, oversight can seem random.

“Imagine your hands going through some sand,” he said. “What you deal with is what sticks to your fingers. Most sand doesn’t stick to your fingers. But sometimes you get lucky.”

Sanjay Khatal, the managing director of a major lobbying group for sugar mills, said that mill owners could not provide any worker benefits without being seen as direct employers. That would raise costs and jeopardize the whole system.

“It is the very existence of the industry which can come into question,” he said.

One thing that changed after the government report was a rule intended to prevent unscrupulous doctors from profiting off unneeded surgeries.

“Some doctors have made it a way to earn more money,” said Dr. Chaitanya Kagde, a gynecologist at a government-run facility in Beed. (Though public hospitals offer hysterectomies free or at reduced cost, they are often far from rural women.)

The new rule required the civil surgeon, the district’s top health official, to approve hysterectomies.

But hysterectomies on younger women continue. Though many doctors agree that some surgeons perform them too often, they also note that patients request the surgery.

In an interview last May, Beed’s civil surgeon at the time, Suresh Sable, said the government should not second-guess doctors. “It’s not necessary to question their authority,” he said.

He said his office still approved 90 percent of hysterectomy requests.

Trapped
One day last May, a few months after the harvest, Ms. Chaure and her husband made their way to the plot of land they farm near their home. It was 104 degrees. There was almost no shade or breeze and the air was so hot it took the shape of waves in the distance.

Her son, Aditya, was at the age where he was putting everything in his mouth — the back of a sticker, a Good Day biscuit, a pink toy watch. He was so preoccupied that he seemed to have forgotten to fuss.

Ms. Chaure, wearing a light floral sari, scooped him in one arm and hiked down the field.

It had been about six months since her hysterectomy and Ms. Chaure’s body hurt worse than usual.

Everything ached, especially her midsection. She was fed up with doctors and the work that had done this to her.

For the first time since being a teenager, she did not know whether she could migrate to cut sugar cane that season.

But the idea of borrowing more money without working to repay it terrified her.

She already stretched the family budget paper thin — growing tomatoes and peppers in a patch behind their home of concrete and corrugated metal.

“We have wasted our whole lives in this work,” she said.

By September, with the harvest looming, she still did not know if she could work. The contractor, she said, had been hassling her and her husband to take a bigger advance.

“It makes me so mad when those people say, ‘Nobody forced you to be a laborer,’” she said. She was washing her family’s clothes in a plastic bowl, slapping each garment against a rock. “Nobody chooses this life.”

It had been an exhausting few days. All three of her children had been coughing. The day before, she and her husband had fought, and he had hurled a basket of fresh cotton that she had just picked to the ground, covering it with mud. It could not be sold.

Finally, her husband left for the fields, to work alone. She stayed behind, resigned to the fact that it would push her family even deeper into poverty.

She worries about her children. She still harbors hopes for Aditya and his two big sisters, who are about 8 and 5 years old.

But Priyanka, the oldest, drove her crazy, skipping school to horse around with her younger siblings. Ms. Chaure remembers missing school herself, then dropping out. She remembers her dreams of being a nurse.

She wants things to be different for her daughter.

“I want her to be someone,” she said. “Do something in life.”

But for all her optimism, Ms. Chaure knows how tough it will be for her children, and how things are likely to go.

“They don’t like it,” she said. “But they need to get used to this life.”
Modi’s Party Doesn’t Control All of India. But He’s Working on It. (New York Times)
New York Times [3/23/2024 4:14 PM, Mujib Mashal and Hari Kumar, 831K, Neutral]
It is the final frontier for India’s most powerful leader in decades.

Narendra Modi, over his 10 years as prime minister, has made it his mission to turn a complex and diverse country of 1.4 billion people into something approaching a monolith dominated by his sweeping Hindu nationalist vision.

The news media, the national legislature, civil society, sometimes even the courts — all have largely been bent to his will. But one critical group of holdouts remains: some of India’s richest states, the engine of its rapid growth.

The future shape of the world’s largest democracy — and its economic trajectory — may rest on the power struggle that has ensued.

Mr. Modi, who is well placed to win a third term in a national election that will begin on April 19, is wielding an increasingly heavy hand in what his opponents call an unfair effort to drive out the governments of the states his party does not control.

They accuse Mr. Modi’s administration of delaying federal money for major projects; of jailing or hounding opposition leaders while shielding anyone who joins the prime minister’s party; of obstructing the delivery of basic services; and of throwing state politics into chaos.

The tensions are tearing at India’s delicate federal formula of power sharing and political competition, the glue holding the country together across 28 states and eight territories.

Regional leaders have described the behavior of the central government, which holds more power than in federal systems like the United States’, as that of a colonial overlord. In the south, the most developed and innovative part of India, officials have spoken of a “separate nation” for their region if the “patterns of injustice” continue.

Mr. Modi and his lieutenants have in turn accused the state leaders of harboring a “separatist mind-set” and pursuing politics that could “break the nation.”

India’s move toward more centralized governance could hurt its overall growth, analysts say, as such efforts have done in the past. Big national spending programs focus on basic development problems that the south mostly solved decades ago. If that region’s freedom to make investments based on its own needs is restricted, the effects could be far-reaching.

“It is ultimately self-destructive,” said P.T. Rajan, a cabinet minister in the government of the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

Mr. Modi offers a simple solution: for the states governed by parties other than his Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P., to come on board.

He often draws on automotive terminology to make his pitch. Those states, he says, could benefit from what he calls a “double engine” government, with one party — his own — working in sync at both the national and state levels.

If they do not comply, the states get wrench after wrench thrown into the works of their governments, officials say, making it difficult for them to deliver on election promises. The B.J.P., relentlessly expanding its base, waits in the wings.

Last month, the chief ministers of about a half-dozen states staged a dramatic demonstration near the seat of federal power in New Delhi.

With posters reading, “Our Blood, Our Sweat, Our Tax,” hanging behind them, they complained that Mr. Modi was using his outsize control over the distribution of revenues collected across India to entrench his party and hobble their own state governments.

At the same time, Mr. Modi was on a final lap of the country before the announcement of the election dates. In opposition states, he combined promises of billions of dollars in infrastructure and welfare projects with scathing criticism of the local parties.

They are scathing of him, too. They have repeatedly sued state governors appointed by New Delhi, who hold largely ceremonial roles, over complaints that they are stalling the work of elected governments.

“You’re playing with fire,” India’s chief justice, Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud, told the central government after the governor in the opposition-controlled state of Punjab repeatedly prevented legislative work. “Will we continue to be a parliamentary democracy?”

In Tamil Nadu, officials said they were struggling to expand a subway line in the capital city, Chennai, because Mr. Modi’s administration was dragging its feet on New Delhi’s share of the funding.

In Kerala, on India’s southwestern coast, the state government is suing the Modi administration over what it says are arbitrary borrowing limits that have thrown the state’s budget into disarray and delayed payments.

In the western state of Maharashtra, home to Mumbai, India’s financial and entertainment capital, Mr. Modi’s officials have splintered the state’s two largest parties through a mix of pressure from investigative agencies and offers of incentives. Such “smash and grab” politics, as critics have branded it, has paved the way for the B.J.P. to emerge as a kingmaker in a coalition government.

In the Delhi capital region, the B.J.P. appears hellbent on destroying a smaller party that swept to power promising to improve basic services. The territory’s elected government has been stripped of important powers, and federal agencies have bogged down the top leaders of the party, Aam Aadmi, in corruption cases.

The party’s deputy leader and a key cabinet minister have been in jail for over a year. On Thursday, in a dramatic nighttime raid, government agents arrested Arvind Kejriwal, the party’s leader and Delhi’s chief minister, whom they have accused of financial crimes. He is the first serving chief minister to be arrested..

The bitter political dispute in Delhi is evident in overflowing sewage in parts of the city and long lines outside government hospitals.

Aam Aadmi sought to improve hospitals in part by relying on outside contractors to enter patient data. But the plan has been caught in the crossfire between Mr. Modi’s officials and the territory’s elected government, and the contractors pulled their staff from many hospitals after salaries were delayed for months.

“In their political fighting, it is the public that suffers,” said Adit Kumar, a cloth-seller who has diabetes, who, along with his wife, was waiting outside a crowded hospital in New Delhi one recent day.

Saurabh Bhardwaj, an Aam Aadmi official in Delhi, said Mr. Modi’s intention was clear: to push the country toward one-party rule.

“You reduced the state government’s work so much that people start saying that it’s better to bring the B.J.P. and only they can deliver,” Mr. Bhardwaj said. “That means the federal structure will collapse.”

The biggest federal-state fault line pits the more prosperous south against Mr. Modi’s support base in the north.

Except for a brief period in the state of Karnataka when the B.J.P. took control by orchestrating defections, the party has been unable to win power in the five southern states.

Officials there say that Mr. Modi is trying to hold them back for their refusal to buy in to his brand of politics, including his party’s stirring of Hindu-Muslim tensions and its push to make Hindi — which is not widely spoken in the south — a national language.

The resentment is amplified by complaints that the south gets proportionally less in return for the tax money it sends to New Delhi. Because the northern states have large populations and are far behind in basic development, they get a larger share of the revenues.

There are also serious concerns in the south that the redistribution of parliamentary seats once a long-delayed national census is finally held will punish the south for its success in reducing birthrates, a key to its relative affluence.

With its earlier investments in infrastructure, education and public health — the result of a unique mix of political, cultural and historical differences in the south — the region is better placed to propel India’s ambition for high-end manufacturing. Mr. Modi’s politics-driven approach, his opponents say, could undercut his ambitions for building India into a major economic power.

The federal finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, rejected claims that revenues were being unfairly distributed, saying the central government was “releasing, and releasing on time,” the states’ share.

“We want every part of the country to prosper,” Mr. Modi said in Parliament after the state leaders’ protest in New Delhi, casting himself as a strong proponent of “competitive, cooperative federalism.”

In pressuring state governments, analysts say, Mr. Modi is simply exploiting structural flaws in India’s Constitution, which created a republic — a quasi-federal union of states — after the British left in 1947.

The Indian National Congress party, which ruled over India uncontested in the first decades after independence, abused the outsize constitutional powers given to the central government over fiscal matters to quash the rise of competitors.

Starting in the late 1980s, however, the decline of Congress ushered in an era of coalition politics, with regional parties finding representation in New Delhi.

This was also the period when India opened its heavily centralized economy to the free market. As growth followed, the distribution of resources was subject to more push and pull between the central and state governments.

“The emergence of regional powers made the center commit to certain principles,” said Kalaiyarasan A., an assistant professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies. “The 1990s was a golden period of federalism.”

Today, Mr. Modi is seeking to remake Indian federalism with his “double engine” push.

In opposition-held states, Mr. Modi has offered infrastructure and welfare projects, branded with his name or that of his office, to pitch himself as India’s only driver of development and growth.

In engaging in joint projects, the state parties face a political cost: They will get the money only if they agree to the Modi branding.

And if they resist?

In 2022, Ms. Sitharaman, the finance minister, stopped at a shop in the southern state of Telangana that distributed rice rations as part of a joint program in which the central government provided the larger share of the funding. Mr. Modi’s picture was not displayed there. Ms. Sitharaman lashed out at state officials.

“This is the work that our prime minister is doing for his people,” Ms. Sitharaman said. “Our people will come and install the prime minister’s photo, and you will, as district administrator, ensure that shall not be removed, that shall not be torn, that shall not be affected.”
India Tax Agency Seizes Opposition Funds Ahead of World’s Biggest Election (Wall Street Journal)
Wall Street Journal [3/22/2024 3:49 PM, Tripti Lahiri, Vibhuti Agarwal, and Krishna Pokharel, 810K, Negative]
India’s main opposition party, the Indian National Congress, says its campaign for the world’s biggest election is in tatters after tax authorities froze its accounts and seized its funds, in what it said was an example of state agencies being turned against opponents of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“We can do no campaign work,” said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, a member of the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty whose grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru was India’s first prime minister. “We cannot send our leaders anywhere, we cannot book ads, we cannot do anything.”

The country of 1.4 billion, in which close to one billion people are registered to vote, will go to the polls from April to June. Modi remains immensely popular after nearly a decade in power and for months political experts have predicted that his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party will return to power with a strong majority.

In recent weeks, however, opposition leaders have pointed to a string of actions from government authorities that, they say, are set to hamstring their parties in the coming elections. Another key opposition party, which rules in the capital and in Punjab, where farmers fiercely oppose Modi, saw its leader arrested on Thursday, hours after Congress aired its tax woes.

The timing of these actions is no accident, said Ajay Maken, treasurer for the Congress party, who said its accounts were frozen in February, cutting off access to about $34 million in funds. The party says the government and the ruling party are behind their troubles.

“We are expecting many more notices and many more such things because they just want to cripple us financially so that we are unable to fight in the election in a fair manner, in a balanced manner,” said Maken.

The prime minister’s office and the Bharatiya Janata Party didn’t immediately reply to requests for comment.

In a news conference Thursday, the BJP said the income-tax recovery action took place according to a normal legal process. Ravi Shankar Prasad, a senior BJP leader, said the Congress party was looking for an excuse for its looming defeat in the coming election.

Indian elections are expensive to fight, given the number of states and constituencies to cover, with one research group estimating the 2019 polls saw more than $6 billion spent, including on campaigning and on giveaways to voters.

Suyash Rai, a political economy analyst, said the timing will be challenging for both parties.

“It is a cost to the campaign,” he said. “Money and leaders’ time are the two things parties need the most to fight.”

Congress’s current tax woes stem from a tax department order in 2021 that found the political party failed to meet the conditions for a tax exemption for the return it filed in 2019. Indian tax law allows political parties to claim a tax exemption if they meet certain reporting requirements.

Due to the loss of the exemption, the department put the party’s taxable income for that year at nearly $24 million and levied more than $12 million in back taxes and interest. In February, the tax department moved to recover the ballooning sum it said the party owed. The party said on Thursday it is now facing demands for around $25 million in taxes and penalties.

The income-tax department said it couldn’t comment on individual taxpayers and referred The Wall Street Journal to tax appeal orders upholding its recovery proceedings. It said during the party’s tax appeals that the party delayed adhering to tax notices issued by it.

The Congress party faces a number of other tax actions that could lead to similar repercussions.

Rights groups and opposition voices say that under Modi’s government, tax actions and other types of financial investigations are being used more frequently as a tool against political opponents and civil society.

The Directorate of Enforcement, an agency tasked with implementing an anti-money-laundering law, on Thursday arrested Arvind Kejriwal, who is the chief minister of Delhi, where the capital is located, on allegations stemming from an investigation into the state’s effort to privatize liquor retail. Investigating agencies say the party got kickbacks as part of the effort, which the party has denied.

“The arrest of Arvind Kejriwal after the election dates have been announced is part of a political conspiracy,” Atishi Marlena, a senior leader of Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party, told reporters after the arrest. Marlena said investigating officials had searched the offices and homes of party leaders and found “not one rupee.”

A BJP spokesman said Friday that prior to Modi’s government a sense of impunity prevailed among political leaders.

“This country has seen a huge change that all these big leaders who thought none of them will go to jail even if they commit huge scams, it is no longer going to happen now,” said the spokesman, Sambit Patra.

The same financial-enforcement unit in January also arrested another opposition leader, Hemant Soren, who was chief minister of the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand. Soren resigned his position as chief minister in the middle of being questioned by law enforcement, according to Indian media reports.

Congress’s tax troubles intensified as the Supreme Court in February struck down a campaign-finance tool introduced by the Modi government, known as electoral bonds, declaring them unconstitutional for allowing donors to give money to parties anonymously.

Between April 2019 and the Supreme Court ruling last month, the BJP received about $700 million in donations through the bonds, representing about half the money donated using the tool over that period, according to the Association for Democratic Reforms, an election-transparency advocacy group, citing party disclosures. The group was the main petitioner that asked the court to bar the tool from being used, on the grounds it was opaque.

Political experts say that even without the tool, the BJP will remain well-funded ahead of these elections.

Other political parties, not so much.

The Congress party has regained access to some accounts this week, while other accounts remain inaccessible, its party treasurer said. The tax department has also withdrawn millions of dollars of its campaign funds, the Congress party said, and a tax ruling showed.

“Eventually we will get relief in the highest courts, that is for sure,” said Maken. “But it will take months and by that time the elections will be over. And then who will be able to compensate us for that?”
Protests against arrest of one of top rivals of Indian Prime Minister Modi continue for second day (AP)
AP [3/23/2024 6:55 AM, Staff, 22K, Negative]
Hundreds of protesters in India’s capital took to the streets for a second day Saturday, demanding the immediate release of one of the top rivals of the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as the country gears up for a national election next month.

Arvind Kejriwal, New Delhi’s top elected official and one of the country’s most consequential politicians of the past decade, was arrested by the federal Enforcement Directorate Thursday night. The agency, controlled by Modi’s government, accused his party and ministers of accepting 1 billion rupees ($12 million) in bribes from liquor contractors nearly two years ago.

His Aam Aadmi Party, or Common Man’s Party, denied the accusations and said Friday Kejriwal would remain Delhi’s chief minister as it took the matter to court.

Kejriwal was taken into custody for seven days following a court order on Friday.

Kejriwal’s wife, Sunita, had a message Saturday she said was from her detained husband. Posted on the AAP party X account, the message relayed Kerijwal as saying he wasn’t surprised by the arrest for he has “struggled a lot” and warning against “several forces within and outside India that are weakening the country.”

Chanting: “Kejriwal is Modi’s doom” and “Dictatorship won’t be tolerated,” protesters accused Modi on Saturday of governing the country under a state of emergency — a claim the opposition has long professed — and using federal law enforcement agencies to stifle opposition parties before the election.

APP leader and chief minister of neighboring Punjab state, Bhagwant Mann, joined the protest alongside some cabinet ministers.

“(Kejriwal’a arrest) is a murder of democracy,” Balbir Singh, Punjab’s health minister told The Associated Press. “For opposition leaders, jail is the rule and bail is the exception,” he added. Singh also accused Modi’s ruling party to “have turned the rule of law upside down.”

Lily Tiga, a protester said when “a person who does good, fights for truth, fights for the downtrodden and poor is arrested, it’s not only unfortunate, it is a time to mourn for this country.”

Some demonstrators tried to move the protest to the main street in central Delhi. But police, some in riot gear, blocked them and detained at least three dozen protesters.

On Friday, hundreds of AAP supporters and some senior party leaders clashed with the police, who whisked a number of them away in buses.

In the lead-up to the general election , starting April 19, India’s opposition parties have accused the government of misusing its power to harass and weaken its political opponents, pointing to a spree of raids, arrests and corruption investigations against key opposition figures. Meanwhile, some probes against erstwhile opposition leaders who later defected to Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party have been dropped.

Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, denies targeting the opposition and says law enforcement agencies act independently.

Kejriwal’s AAP is part of a broad alliance of opposition parties called INDIA, the main challenger to Modi’s BJP in the coming election.

His arrest is another setback for the bloc, and came after the country’s main opposition Congress party accused the government Thursday of freezing its bank accounts in a tax dispute to cripple it. This has led to a rare show of strength by the opposition figures who slammed the move as undemocratic and accused Modi’s party of misusing the agency to undermine them.

In 2023, the agency arrested Kejriwal’s deputy, Manish Sisodia, and AAP lawmaker Sanjay Singh as part of the same case. Both remain in jail.
India protests German remarks on opposition leader’s arrest (Reuters)
Reuters [3/23/2024 6:37 AM, Krishn Kaushik and Emma-Victoria Farr, 5239K, Negative]
India summoned a German envoy on Saturday to protest against his government’s remarks about the arrest of an Indian opposition leader.

New Delhi summoned the German embassy’s deputy chief of mission, Georg Enzweiler, "and conveyed India’s strong protest," India’s foreign ministry said.

The embassy had no comment about the protest.

Arvind Kejriwal, a national opposition figure and chief minister of Delhi’s capital territory, was arrested by India’s financial crime-fighting agency on Thursday on corruption charges that his party rejects, a month before national elections.

Asked about the arrest at a government press conference on Friday, Sebastian Fischer, spokesperson for Germany’s foreign office said, Berlin had taken note.

"We assume and expect that the standards relating to independence of judiciary and basic democratic principles will also be applied in this case," Fischer said, adding that like anyone else facing accusations, Kejriwal is entitled to a fair and impartial trial.

"We see such remarks as interfering in our judicial process and undermining the independence of our judiciary," the Indian ministry said in a statement. "Biased assumptions made on this account are most unwarranted."

It said the law will take its course in the matter, as in all legal cases in the country, and elsewhere in the democratic world.

New Delhi and Berlin share good ties, and the two countries have been coming closer on strategic issues, including defence technology.
Naveen Jindal leaves Congress Party to join BJP before India election (Reuters)
Reuters [3/24/2024 12:11 PM, Krishna N. Das, 5239K, Negative]
A billionaire industrialist and a former Indian Air Force chief on Sunday became the latest prominent figures, including a judge and an ambassador, to join Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party in recent weeks as it seeks to widen its lead over the opposition.

Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is widely expected to win a third straight term in elections starting next month, as the opposition struggles to stay together while its leaders are embroiled in various corruption investigations.

Analysts say the wave of new joiners, many from the main opposition Congress party that has ruled India for more than five decades, indicates the inevitability of another BJP win.

Naveen Jindal, head of Jindal Steel and Power (JNSP.NS), opens new tab and a two-time Congress parliamentarian, followed the country’s last air force chief, Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria, in joining the BJP late on Sunday. Moments after he quit Congress, the BJP said Jindal would contest the upcoming election from his home state of Haryana for the party.

"To fulfil the resolve of Prime Minister Modi for a developed India, famous industrialist, sportsperson and politician Naveen Jindal joined the BJP today," BJP General Secretary Vinod Tawde told a press conference, with Jindal by his side thanking Modi for the opportunity.

Abhijit Gangopadhyay, who resigned as a judge of the Calcutta High Court earlier this month, will also contest the election for the BJP.

On Saturday, six former lawmakers from Congress in the state of Himachal Pradesh joined the BJP. Before that, India’s ambassador to the United States until January, Taranjit Singh Sandhu, became a member and is expected to contest the polls.

Unlike previous governments that mostly relied on seasoned politicians to run key ministries, Modi roped in experts to head important departments like foreign, technology and energy in his current term that began in 2019.

Opposition parties say many of their members have been forced into joining the BJP out of fear of corruption investigations. The BJP denies that.

Congress, meanwhile, says it is short of money even for campaign work because authorities have frozen its accounts in connection with a number of tax investigations.
India court effectively bans madrasas in big state before election (Reuters)
Reuters [3/23/2024 5:47 AM, Saurabh Sharma and Krishna N. Das, 5239K, Neutral]
A court in India essentially banned Islamic schools in the country’s most populous state, a move that could further distance many Muslims from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist government ahead of national elections.

The Friday ruling scraps a 2004 law governing madrasas in Uttar Pradesh, saying it violates India’s constitutional secularism and ordering that students be moved to conventional schools.

The Allahabad High Court order affects 2.7 million students and 10,000 teachers in 25,000 madrasas, said Iftikhar Ahmed Javed, head of the board of madrasa education in the state, where one-fifth of the 240 million people are Muslims.

"The state government shall also ensure that children between the ages of 6 to 14 years are not left without admission in duly recognised institutions," Judges Subhash Vidyarthi and Vivek Chaudhary wrote in their order, which was made on the basis of an appeal by lawyer Anshuman Singh Rathore.

Reuters could not contact Rathore or determine if he is connected to any political group.

India holds a general election between April and June that Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is widely expected to win. Muslims and rights groups have accused some BJP members and affiliates of promoting anti-Islamic hate speech and vigilantism, and demolishing Muslim-owned properties.

Modi denies religious discrimination exists in India.

The BJP says the government is undoing historical wrongs, including by recently inaugurating a Hindu temple on the site of a 16th-century mosque razed in 1992. Many Hindus believe the mosque was built where God-king Ram was born and over a temple demolished under the Mughal ruler Babur.

Rakesh Tripathi, a spokesperson for Uttar Pradesh BJP, which runs the state government, said it was not against madrasas and was concerned about the education of Muslim students.

"We are not against any madrasa but we are against discriminatory practices. We are against illegal funding, and the government will decide on further actions after going through the court’s order."

Modi’s office did not immediately respond to an email on Saturday seeking comment on the court ruling.

‘I AM SCARED’

Arguing for the federal government, which was a respondent in the case, Sudhanshu Chauhan told the court that "religious education and religious instructions of a single religion cannot be included in school education and the state government has no power to create statutory education boards permitting religious education".

He said the government was not planning to revive a federal policy stopped in March 2022 that had provided funds to madrasas to teach subjects like mathematics and science.

Madrasa official Javed, national secretary of the BJP’s minority wing, said that as a Muslim he is often caught between the priorities of his party and members of his community. He said he has been fielding numerous calls from fellow Muslims since Friday’s order, which came during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

"Sometimes it becomes very difficult," he said. "I have to balance a lot because, being a Muslim, the party sends me to the community to convince them to vote for us and join the party. I am scared and I walk with personal security whenever I go to any public event or programme."

The BJP’s Tripathi responded that Muslim BJP leaders had no reason to fear because their community equally benefits from various government welfare programmes.

"I am Hindu and I visit the Muslim community often and get good support from them," he said. "The fact is that the BJP and the government is very serious about education and it’s doing its best."

The BJP’s de facto parent organisation has been installing Muslims loyal to it in leadership positions at India’s Muslim universities as part of a push to garner Muslim votes.

The Uttar Pradesh government halted a funding programme for madrasas in January, making 21,000 teachers jobless. Friday’s order applies to all madrasas in the state, whether funded privately or by the government, Javed said.

The court did not give a timeline for its order, but Javed said madrasas are unlikely to be closed right away.

The northeastern state of Assam, also ruled by the BJP, has been converting hundreds of madrasas into conventional schools.
Critics Complain of Harassment After India Revokes Visa Privileges (VOA)
VOA [3/22/2024 5:52 PM, Shaikh Azizur Rahman, 761K, Negative]
Dozens of Indian-origin academics, journalists and others say they have been denied the right to visit India because of their criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ruling Hindu nationalist government.

While not denying the actions, the Modi government says the people in question had their visa privileges revoked because they indulged in "anti-India activities" — an accusation the banned individuals rejected.

Their cause has been taken up by Human Rights Watch, a New York-based advocacy group, whose Asia director said in a report this week that the government’s actions "show the authorities’ growing hostility to criticism and dialogue."

"The authorities seem intent on expanding politically motivated repression against Indian activists and academics at home to foreign citizens of Indian origin beyond India’s borders," said Elaine Pearson.

The barred critics were among 4.5 million people around the world who hold Overseas Citizen of India status, which is granted to individuals who are of Indian origin but not citizens of the country. Anyone holding an OCI card is granted multiple entries to India and a lifelong visa for any length of stay.

Since Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, came to power in 2014, an increasing number of Indian-origin foreigners have been denied access to India. From 2014 to May 2023, Indian authorities canceled 102 OCI cards.

The HRW statement noted that many of those who had their cards revoked were academics, activists and journalists who are known as vocal critics of the BJP’s political philosophy.

"In some cases, the [Indian] authorities have openly cited criticism of BJP government policies as evidence to revoke the [OCI] visa status," the HRW statement said.

Ashok Swain, a professor of peace and conflict research in Sweden who had his OCI card revoked in 2020, told VOA the government’s "accusations … that I indulge in ‘illegal activities inimical’ to the interests of the sovereignty, integrity and security of India is nothing but fiction."

Swain said he challenged the cancellation, and in July 2023, the Delhi High Court quashed the government’s order, "for its failure to provide any evidence" of anti-India activities.

"In August 2023, the government canceled my OCI card again," he said.

"I am an academic, and it is no secret that I criticize the policies of the Modi government through writing opinion pieces, speaking to the press and commenting on social media," added Swain, who teaches at Uppsala University in Sweden.

"The Modi government is using my case as an example to instill fear among diaspora academics, discouraging them from criticizing its anti-democratic and anti-minority policies."

Last month, Indian authorities barred Nitasha Kaul, an Indian-origin British professor at the University of Westminster in London and an OCI card holder, from entering India to attend a conference on the Indian constitution.

At Bangalore airport, the immigration officials denied her entry following "orders from Delhi," she wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

"The officials informally made references to my criticism of RSS, a far-right Hindu nationalist paramilitary from years ago," she wrote. RSS, or Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, is seen as the ideological mentor of the BJP.

"In addition to this, they have called me jihadi and a terrorist. There has been a vast amount of deliberate disinformation suggesting that because my work is critical of the ruling party in India, that makes me pro-Pakistani," she said.

British anthropologist Filippo Osella, a professor at the University of Sussex who had visited India for 35 years in connection with research, was turned away from Thiruvananthapuram airport in Kerala state, where he was going to attend a conference on coastal communities.

"I later learned that I had been permanently blacklisted from ever entering India again," Osella told VOA. He said that many research collaborations are now being "jeopardized by unjustified deportations and blacklistings, which are becoming all too common."

Modi’s ruling BJP acknowledges the cancellation of the OCI cards but defends the practice.

Those whose cards have been canceled "make a nefarious and negative campaign against a political party that has been duly elected by the people of the country. They aim to malign and tarnish the image of the nation and the ruling party," Delhi-based senior BJP leader Alok Vats told VOA, speaking in Hindi. "These people should not be allowed to enter India."

But Angana Chatterji, an anthropologist at the University of California in Berkeley, said the Indian government aggressively tracks and targets many who speak out against its policies and those who dissent against Hindu nationalism.

The Indian government "propagandizes the myth of ‘India shining,’ to position its majoritarian beliefs as beneficial to the national interest and security," said Chatterji, who in 2019 testified before the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs regarding human rights violations in India-administered Kashmir.

"The Modi-led government camouflages its heightened militarism, casteism, exclusionary changes to the law that privilege Hindus, violent governance of vulnerable communities, especially Muslims, and its sacralization of India as a Hindu state."
India brings back 35 Somali pirates as part of operations near Red Sea (Reuters)
Reuters [3/23/2024 9:34 AM, Krishn Kaushik, 5239K, Neutral]
The Indian navy handed over 35 Somali pirates to the police in Mumbai on Saturday, after 100 days of anti-piracy operations east of the Red Sea, where piracy has resurfaced for the first time in nearly a decade.

India, the largest national force in the Gulf of Aden and northern Arabian Sea region, captured the pirates from the cargo ship Ruen last week, three months after it was hijacked off the Somali coast.

Taking advantage of Western forces’ focus on protecting shipping from attacks in the Red Sea by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi militants, pirates have made or attempted more than 20 hijackings since November, driving up insurance and security costs and adding to a crisis for global shipping companies.

With the attacks by the Houthis, who claim solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza during Israel’s war against Hamas, and the surge in piracy, commercial traffic through the region has halved since November as ships take the longer route around southern Africa, India’s navy said.

The pirates seized by Indian commandoes face up to life in prison as the first to be prosecuted under India’s 2022 anti-piracy law, which enables the navy to apprehend and arrest pirates on the high seas.

The Somalis were using the Ruen as their "mother ship" to launch attacks on other vessels, navy Chief Admiral R Hari Kumar told a press conference marking the 100th day of the operations. The commandoes rescued all 17 crew members.

India has responded to 18 incidents, deploying 21 ships and 5,000 personnel in rotation, boarding and investigating over 1,000 vessels, the navy said. Its unprecedented presence has deployed more than a dozen warships some days.

"The task is to ensure that there is safety, security and stability" in the region, Kumar said.

"We are able to live up to the requirement of being a first responder and a preferred security partner... to ensure that the Indian Ocean region is safe, secure and stable."

During its mission since mid-December, there have been 57 drone or missile attacks or sightings. India’s navy has helped some of the attacked ships, recovering debris from drones launched by the Houthis, whom Kumar said "we really have no quarrel with".

One recovered plywood drone was capable of travelling 1,600 km (1,000 miles) with a four-stroke engine and "elementary" electronics, Kumar said.

"It doesn’t require any very complicated tools to develop or manufacture these drones."
Protests in remote Ladakh enter 3rd week. Locals demand protection of fragile ecology, land autonomy (AP)
AP [3/24/2024 5:19 AM, Aijaz Hussain, 456K, Neutral]
Thousands of people in the remote region of Ladakh have been protesting for over two weeks in freezing temperatures, demanding constitutional provisions from the Indian government to protect their territory’s fragile ecology and to have autonomy over land and agriculture decisions.

Nestled between India, Pakistan and China, Ladakh has faced territorial disputes and suffered the effects of climate change. Shifting weather patterns in the sparsely populated villages altered people’s lives through floods, landslides and droughts.

Top climate activist Sonam Wangchuk is taking part in the demonstrations in the town of Leh. He has been on a fast, since the protests started on March 6, in the open in sub-zero temperatures and surviving only on salt and water.

Wangchuk, also an engineer working on solutions for sustainability at his Himalayan Institute of Alternative Ladakh, has called his protest a”climate fast.”

“We’re already facing climate disaster and these glaciers and mountains will be destroyed if there is not a check on unbridled industrial development and military maneuvers” in the region, Wangchuk told The Associated Press Sunday.

Ladakh’s thousands of glaciers, which helped dub the rugged region one of the “water towers of the world,” are receding at an alarming rate, threatening the water supply of millions of people. The melting has been exacerbated by an increase in local pollution that has worsened due to the region’s militarization, further intensified by the deadly military standoff between India and China since 2020.

He also said Ladakh critically needs ecological protection because “it’s not just a local disaster in (the) making but an international one as these mountains are part of Greater Himalayas intricately linked to over two billion people and multiple countries.”

Wangchuk said the Ladakh nomads were also losing prime pastureland to huge Indian industrial plans and Chinese encroachment. The region’s shepherds complain that Chinese soldiers have captured multiple pasturelands and restricted them from grazing their herds.

The shepherds and Wangchuk are planning to march to the Chinese border later this month to underscore what they say is Beijing’s land grab attempts in Ladakh to gain territory.

In August 2019, Ladakh was split from Indian-controlled Kashmir after New Delhi stripped the disputed region of its statehood and semi-autonomy.

While restive Kashmir has largely been silenced through a crackdown on any form of dissent and slew of new laws, demands for political rights in Ladakh have intensified with demands of statehood with local legislature to frame their own laws on land and agriculture. The region’s representatives have held several rounds of talks with Indian officials, including with the powerful Home Minister Amit Shah earlier this month, without any results.

“This government likes to call India the ‘Mother of Democracy’,” Wangchuk recently posted on X, formerly Twitter. “But if India denies democratic rights to people of Ladakh & continues to keep it under bureaucrats controlled from New Delhi then it could only be called a Stepmother of Democracy as far as Ladakh is concerned.”
Outrage toward rape in India must extend to local women too (Nikkei Asia – opinion)
Nikkei Asia [3/23/2024 4:00 PM, Jaishree Kumar, 293K, Negative]
For women in India, the kind of violence experienced this month by a Brazilian tourist is sadly all too familiar.

The tourist, an internet influencer going by the name Fernanda, was camping in a remote area of Jharkhand state with her Spanish husband when they were brutally assaulted and robbed by seven men.

While some assailants beat her husband, others took turns raping Fernanda. Bruised and traumatized afterward, the couple posted videos on Instagram describing their night of terror.

Due to their large online following and the shocking nature of their tale, the accounts by Fernanda and her husband quickly gathered sizable attention, once again bringing public focus to the precarious state of women’s safety in India.

Under this glare, Jharkhand police caught the seven alleged perpetrators within a week. The police also held a ceremony with Fernanda’s husband, presenting him with a check for 1 million rupees ($12,000) as compensation. Fernanda has said she does not blame the Indian public for the incident and has resumed traveling through India with her husband, aiming for Nepal.

Meanwhile, Jharkhand’s top court requested that police submit a report on the case.

"The incident of crime of any kind against a foreign national may have serious national and international repercussions including impacting the tourism economy of the country," the Jharkhand High Court panel wrote in its request. "A sex-related crime against a foreign woman is likely to bring adverse publicity against the country and thereby tarnishing the image of India across the globe."

The implication -- that a sex crime against a local woman is less problematic -- feels painfully true.

On average, 86 rape cases are reported in India every day. In 2022, the country recorded 31,516 rapes, up 7.1% from a year before. Jharkhand itself recorded 1,298 rape cases in 2022, including 28 involving foreigners. Among those, 13 were tourists.

As many as 99% of incidents of sexual violence go unreported in India, according to an estimate by local newspaper Mint. Social stigma and worries about victim-blaming play a big role in this.

India’s laws against rape are strict and became more so after the 2012 gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student in New Delhi. Punishment for rape can include life imprisonment or the death penalty.

Yet the conviction rate for rape, at 27.4%, trails that of murder, 43.8%, and kidnapping, 33.9%, according to National Crime Records Bureau data.

In addition, under Indian law, some men avoid trial for rape by marrying their victims. On occasion, the judge or the victim’s family will sometimes embrace this outcome as a way to quietly resolve the matter as a face-saving solution, given the shame attached to rape.

These men often abandon the victims after marriage. The Delhi High Court has noted this as a ‘shocking, disturbing pattern.’

In addition, under Indian law, some men avoid trial for rape by marrying their victims; the judge or the victim’s family will sometimes embrace this outcome as a way to quietly resolve the matter as a face-saving solution given the shame attached to rape.

"Shockingly, numerous cases have come to light" where the rapist subsequently has abandoned his bride after winning his freedom, a Delhi High Court judge wrote in a judgment last year.

As with such pressure to marry an attacker, the attitude of the authorities can be especially discouraging for victims of sexual assault.

Amid online discussion of Fernanda’s case, an American journalist commented on the platform X that in India he had "never met a female traveler who had not been groped or assaulted or worse, even if they had only been in country for mere days."

He added, "The level of sexual aggression I witnessed while living in India for several years was unlike anywhere else I have ever been."

Rekha Sharma, head of the government’s National Commission for Women, took immediate issue with the comments. She wrote that the journalist was "totally an irresponsible person" if he had not reported incidents he knew of to the police.

"Writing only on social media and defaming [the] whole country is not [a] good choice," she added.

The toxic mentality Sharma displayed about putting the burden of proof and shame on victims can perpetuate violence and discourage survivors from seeking justice.

This is not to say Indian women lack agency to speak out, but the layered dynamics of caste, politics, religion and patriarchy intersect to create an extremely hostile environment for women in which their safety and well-being are constantly under threat.

When Indian women speak out against rape and harassment, their concerns should be addressed with the same urgency and empathy as Fernanda’s. All too often, though, their voices are silenced, their experiences trivialized and their calls for justice met with indifference.

Even high-profile women can encounter this. Last year, former Indian Olympic wrestlers staged public protests to demand action against the head of the wrestling federation for allegedly sexually harassing their teammates for a decade. As a result, they encountered hostility from the authorities and were even arrested and hauled away at one point.

India does offer a system to provide official compensation to rape survivors, as with the payment Fernanda received, but it is not widely used.

"Unfortunately, many people don’t know that they can file an appeal in the courts for compensation," said Sanjana Srikumar, a Delhi-based lawyer. She noted that the country’s laws focus on prosecution rather than victim rehabilitation.

As an Indian woman myself, I am tired of holding in rage and expecting the system to change.

India lives in collective amnesia regarding violence against women. Urgent cases from all over the nation require attention. Outrage is important, but why does it become news only when the victim is a foreigner?

It is time for the country to face up to uncomfortable truths about the prevalence of rape and the social attitudes that stand in the way of giving full support to survivors.
NSB
‘Redefining journalism’: how Nepali YouTube series Herne Katha goes off the beaten track to bring untold stories to light (South China Morning Post)
South China Morning Post [3/24/2024 6:00 PM, Bibek Bhandari, 57.6K, Positive]
With a fresh approach to journalism, a popular YouTube series in Nepal is shifting the media’s spotlight from politics to the personal, documenting a range of human stories that have often been ignored by the country’s mainstream news outlets.

Herne Katha, a web documentary series, has emerged as one of the country’s most popular journalistic endeavours in recent years. Since 2018, co-founders and hosts Bidhya Chapagain and Kamal Kumar have travelled to “unexplored places to find untold stories”, giving viewers a glimpse of people’s lives that have remained invisible to many.

“The front pages of our newspapers usually prioritise political news and it is very rare to find stories of people unless there is an earthquake, flood, or an accident,” said Chapagain from their Kathmandu office, just weeks after celebrating Herne Katha’s sixth anniversary in early March. “We are working to change that perception of journalism and redefining journalism.”

As Nepal transitioned into a democracy in 1990, private media started flourishing with the newly written constitution guaranteeing press freedom. The latter decades saw a rise in television channels and newspapers, followed by an explosion of online news platforms.

There are currently more than 4,400 online outlets registered with Press Council Nepal, the country’s media regulatory body. However, analysts say Nepal’s media industry,”despite diverse media platforms”, often lacks innovative storytelling techniques to draw in newer and younger audiences, which make up more than half of Herne Katha’s audience.

Both Chapagain and Kumar, who previously worked together on BBC Sajha Sawal, a popular debate programme, say they want to go beyond just asking questions and demanding answers.

“Most of the stories in the mainstream media were from urban centres and they were only giving continuity to it,” Kumar said, referring to their motive for starting Herne Katha. “So there was this vacuum for stories that needed to be told, and we wanted to fill that gap in a creative and innovative way.”

And Herne Katha – which loosely translates to “stories to watch” in English – has filled that void, connecting with audiences and building a solid fan following.

The documentary series, which depicts stories through its simple and linear narrative, has more than 1 million subscribers on YouTube. One of its most popular videos is about the Rautes, a nomadic ethnic group, and has amassed over 4 million views.

According to Kumar, it usually takes weeks of research and filming to complete an episode, which ranges from 20 minutes to about an hour. Their small team of six has completed 118 episodes, which are put online every 15 days, barring disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

So far, they have travelled to 52 of Nepal’s 77 districts, telling stories from the mountains to the valleys and plains.

Some of the topics they have tackled include the love story between two women; a child bride’s journey to becoming an aspiring politician; and the perilous work of honey hunters. Their emotional storytelling, combined with Chapagain’s distinctive narration style, has made both viewers and hosts cry.

“Herne Katha is able to dwell on simplicity that most shows that try to be overly political in Nepal miss out on,” said Pratibha Tuladhar, a former journalist and ex-colleague of Chapagain and Kumar. “It is subtle but powerful. It does not present political debates, but the politics of the world we live in are clearly stated.”

And that is precisely why the series and its hosts have become familiar across Nepal, despite growing competition in the increasingly crowded Nepali content space. Previous work on BBC Sajha Sawal also helped Herne Katha establish credibility and trust among viewers.

Herne Katha is a breath of fresh air in the country’s online news scene, with digital outlets and social media content creators preferring to bank on clickbait views based on one-sided narratives with sensational takes.

Dharma Adhikari, associate professor at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in Suzhou, China, cited Routine of Nepal Banda as among the online platforms lacking in journalistic standards.

Routine of Nepal Banda is one of the country’s biggest online news sources, offering bite-sized news items with limited context or background. It started as a Facebook account sharing information on the general strikes of the early 2010s, and now has nearly 6 million followers across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

“The editorial oversight, news values, and ethical guidelines needed for them to be called journalism are largely missing, although they may reflect attributes of journalism,” said Adhikari, also a media critic for the Kathmandu Post newspaper.

“These attributes may mislead audiences into thinking that they are just another legitimate form of journalism.”

Some online outlets, however, do offer well-researched content, even though they may not necessarily fit into the traditional journalism framework.

Through its explainer videos on political and current affairs, The Nepali Comment on YouTube seeks to “simplify complex topics in a visually engaging way in Nepali” and has nearly 300,000 subscribers.

According to Adhikari, the proliferation of such digital outlets and social media accounts is challenging legacy media, which are losing subscriptions and sponsorships to them.

Over the past few years, online news outlets such as The Record Nepal, Setopati and Ukaalo have introduced subscription and crowdsourcing models to fund in-depth and investigative stories, respectively, though such endeavours are still relatively new in Nepal.

“Legacy media and emerging portals seem to lack significant innovation, with time and resources primarily allocated to traditional reporting,” Adhikari said. “I see some efforts in podcasting and graphics journalism, but sustainability remains uncertain as the main focus remains on textual storytelling.”

While the co-founders of Herne Katha initially pooled their savings to start their initiative, Chapagain says they are now partnering with sponsors – whose brand names appear before the start of an episode – and receiving funds from international donors, though their editorial line remains fiercely independent.

The team is still exploring a sustainable business model that would allow them to focus more on content and less on financial operations, she adds.

Tuladhar, the former journalist, says the team’s sound editorial judgment and skill for crafting stories make Herne Katha appealing to audiences.

Nepali news media could scale to new heights if senior journalists “set some good examples of how media still deserves respect by upholding good journalism”, Tuladhar noted.

Chapagain and Kumar, along with Herne Katha, are on that path and creating impact through their journalism. After an episode on a volunteer teacher’s quest to revive a public school in a rural area, his mission received funding and support from viewers. The issues raised in other episodes have also drawn the attention of government officials.

Appreciation from the public powers the Herne Katha team. “People have told us that the stories on Herne Katha have taught them to appreciate the little things in life, to live life,” Kumar said.

Both creators say they will continue diversifying the stories and hope to include them from all 77 districts and the diaspora.

“When we are telling a story, we feel we should at least live it for a day to know what it is really like,” Chapagain said. “What we are trying to do is tell the stories of ordinary people and make their stories seen.”
Central Asia
Kyrgyzstan claims to have thwarted major assassination plot (EurasiaNet)
EurasiaNet [3/24/2024 4:14 PM, Staff, 57.6K, Positive]
An official in Kyrgyzstan’s presidential administration has said that the corrupt and once-powerful former customs official Rayimbek Matraimov hired a gang of armed criminals to assassinate the country’s leadership.

The claim made on March 23 by the head of the presidential administration, Kanybek Tumanbayev, came in conjunction with an announcement from the State Committee for National Security, or GKNB, about the arrest of five alleged members of a transnational organized crime group said to be planning assassinations in Kyrgyzstan. It was not said who specifically was to be targeted by this alleged plot.

The group arrested in Bishkek were nationals of Azerbaijan, the GKNB said. Undated footage released by the security agency showed special forces troops roughly forcing the detained men to the ground after being pulled out of their cars on a street in Bishkek. Photo handouts also showed the quintet stripped to the waist with their faces pressed to the wall in a corridor in the GKNB’s headquarters.

The security services said separately that it has submitted a request to Azerbaijan for the arrest and extradition of Matraimov, who is understood to currently be located in that country’s capital, Baku.

“Azerbaijani colleagues are considering the issue of his detention and eventual extradition to Kyrgyzstan,” the GKNB said in its statement.

Neither Matraimov nor any known associates have yet to make any public comment on these accusations.

Kyrgyz authorities have characterized the plot purportedly hatched by Matraimov as an attempt to counteract ongoing efforts by the government to root out organized crime.

GKNB chief Kamchybek Tashiyev demonstratively threw down the gauntlet to organized crime in October, following the killing of notorious gangland figure Kamchybek Kolbayev.

“I am addressing criminal elements: do not break the law. From now on, in our country there will be no thieves-in-law, no leaders of organized crime groups, no criminal organizations,” Tashiyev said in a speech.

As for Matraimov, the decline in his fortunes has been profound. Until 2020, he deployed his wealth, which anti-corruption activists say was built off the back of a vast smuggling operation, to wield a powerful influence over political life in Kyrgyzstan.

Shortly after now-President Sadyr Japarov was sprung from prison amid the turmoil of street protests in October 2020, he delivered an emotion-laden speech to a crowd of supporters in which he vowed that he would throw Matraimov into prison.

“Rayim-Million will be arrested. I have not yet fully got into running state affairs. But as soon as I do, he will be arrested,” Japarov said, deploying Matraimov’s widely used nickname.

Initially, Matraimov was dealt with gingerly, but that changed dramatically in January, when Tashiyev announced that the government was poised to confiscate the former customs official’s considerable assets and properties. Matraimov was at the same time declared a wanted man, sought on charges that included “forcibly depriving a person’s freedom.”

“We will not leave him even 100 square meters of land. And even if he returns, he will no longer be that once-strong Rayim Million,” Tashiyev said.
Child Rape Case Underscores Kyrgyzstan’s Failure To Tackle Plaguing Problem (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [3/23/2024 3:06 PM, Farangis Najibullah, 223K, Negative]
Police in Kyrgyzstan are probing a gruesome case of underage sexual violence involving an underage girl who was allegedly raped repeatedly by numerous men near the capital, Bishkek.

The horrific case underscores a longstanding problem in the Central Asian nation of nearly 7 million where dozens of children annually fall victim to rape and other forms of sexual abuse.

Activists, the parents of victims, and many ordinary Kyrgyz accuse the government of failing to tackle sexual violence against children, an intractable issue in Kyrgyz society.

A review of multiple cases in recent years shows that some rape victims committed suicide, others were forced into “marrying” their rapists, and some were bullied into silence by attackers or even by police. Many were forced to relocate from their hometowns to escape perceived shame by neighbors and even family members in the conservative society.

It is a widespread belief that many more cases go unreported than those that are registered because victims are ashamed to speak out, families decide not disclose it to avoid disgrace, or simply due to their mistrust in police.

The parents of the recent high-profile case in the village of Sokuluk -- just outside Bishkek -- claim that as many as 10 men systematically raped their daughter starting in April 2023 and threatened her into staying silent.

They also claim that they first discovered about her ordeal in February after she disappeared for 20 days before she was found by Bishkek police being kept in a hotel.

Deeply traumatized by what she had endured, the girl, now 14, is currently being supported by psychologists and other specialists at the Sezim crisis center. The office of the national ombudsman has hired a defense lawyer for her.

“She had tried to take her own life by slashing her wrists,” Sezim Director Bubusara Ryskulova told RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service. “What she has suffered is unendurable.”

Lack Of Trust In Police And Courts

In another high-profile case in Bishkek, a 13-year-old girl was raped by two policemen, including an inspector in charge of the protection of children.

The two officers and two other men were convicted last year of repeatedly raping the minor between August 2021 and February 2022.

According to the victim and her family’s testimony, the police officers first encountered the girl when a shopkeeper reported her to police for allegedly shoplifting.

The policemen detained her, demanded she pay money, and raped her when she couldn’t pay the exorbitant sum. They then threatened that she would be arrested for many years if she told anyone about the situation. The officers also passed the victim to others, including a bazaar guard and a waiter.

The systematic rape continued until the family of the victim read the policemen’s threatening messages on her phone and reported it to authorities.

Amid public protests, the child-protection inspector was initially sentenced to 15 years in prison. But his sentence was later reduced to seven-and-half years, prompting criticism that courts had treated the rapists lightly. The other three attackers were also sentenced to up to nine years in prison.

In March 2023, Bishkek police chief Azamat Nogoibaev angered many when he blamed underage rape victims for what he called “willingly” getting involved with their potential abusers.

“The girls themselves get acquainted with certain people, willingly sleep with them, and then we have these kinds of situations in hand as the result,” he said, commenting on a child rape case.

The remark -- dubbed by one activist a “green light” for men to rape -- was met by protests and calls for his resignation. Nogoibaev was fired several months later due to an unrelated issue.

Some victims’ families claim police often try to sweep child rape cases under the carpet, possibly in lieu of being bribed.

In 2021, a teenage victim committed suicide when police in Bishkek refused to detain her attacker and claimed the sex was consensual, even though the victim was only 13 years old. Only after her death was a new probe launched and two policemen and a forensic officer taken into custody for falsifying the victim’s testimony.

‘National Tragedy’

In another harrowing case in the Batken region in September 2022, villagers found the body of a 14-year-old girl dumped in a canal. A forensic exam showed she had been gang-raped before being strangled to death.

The case prompted calls by some lawmakers to reinstate the death penalty for those who rape children.

Lawmaker Yrysbek Atazhanov said the incident was a “national tragedy but not an isolated case,” demanding that the penalty for such crimes be capital punishment.

The Batken incident occurred a month after Kyrgyzstan introduced tougher punishment for child abuse. The new law extended prison terms and increased fines for those convicted of crimes against children. Kyrgyz prosecutors that year reported 55 cases of sexual assault against children.

Meanwhile in Bishkek, the Sezim crisis center is calling for the probe into the latest case in Sokuluk to be transferred from the local police to the capital to ensure the case is properly handled.

“It has not been ruled out that the relatives of the suspected rapists work in influential places and we’re concerned they might put pressure on the investigation,” Ryskulova said.

Earlier, the office of the national ombudsman accused the relatives of the suspects of “threatening” the family of the victim.

Upon learning about the incident, the girl’s relatives filed a complaint with Sokuluk district police on the same day, February 12. But they claim police did not take any action so they contacted the ombudsman’s office. The story then went public and, they say, the investigation finally started. Police deny not investigating after initially being contacted.

Police in Sokuluk said they have arrested two of the suspects and were looking for eight others, most of them believed to be in their 20s.

Many of the same problems regarding the handling of sexual violence cases exists in other Central Asian countries as well.

In neighboring Uzbekistan, two regional government officials were jailed last year for sexually abusing three teenage girls at a foster care home for at least 10 months in 2021. The minors in the Khorezm region were reportedly forced to have sex with officials by their foster mother, who also beat and starved the girls when they protested.

In a similar case, an orphanage was closed down in the Uzbek city of Marghelon in 2018 after it was revealed that children were being sexually and physically abused by staff members. At least 10 people were imprisoned for beating and raping the children under their care, forcing minors to have abortions, and stealing the funds provided by the government and donors.
Anti-Migrant Sentiment Rises In Russia As 4 Tajiks Charged In Moscow Attack (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [3/25/2024 12:51 AM, Farangis Najibullah, 235K, Negative]
Russia has charged four Tajiks in connection with the deadly terrorist attack on a concert venue near Moscow on March 22 that left at least 137 people dead.

Russian media identified the men as Murodali Rajabalizoda, Dalerjon Mirzoev, Muhammadsobir Faizov, and Faridun Shamsiddin and said they are Tajik citizens. The court said three of the four men had pleaded guilty to all charges during the closed-door hearing.

The announcement followed Russian media reports that several Tajik citizens were involved in the deadly attack, while unverified videos purportedly showed several suspects -- Tajik citizens -- being interrogated.

Earlier, the Federal Security Service (FSB) said the 11 suspects arrested in connection with the deadly attack at the Crocus City Hall in Krasnogorsk were foreigners but did not announce their identities.

The Tajik government, a close ally of Moscow, insists it has not received any "official information" from Russian authorities about Tajiks allegedly involved in the attack.

But Muhiddin Kabiri, the leader of the opposition Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT), says the opposition has information that several Tajik nationals and Tajik-Russian citizens took part in the massacre.

Kabiri blamed the Tajik government’s authoritarian policies and crackdown on Islam for "radicalizing" some of its citizens. The IRPT -- which served in the government -- is banned in Tajikistan.

Russian lawmaker Aleksandr Khinshtein wrote on Telegram that Tajik passports were found inside the car the suspects allegedly used to flee before being caught by Russian police in the Bryansk region, about 340 kilometers southwest of Moscow.

Harsh Interrogation

Rajabalizoda, the man who was later charged with terrorism, appeared in two separate, unverified videos that show him confessing to have taken part in the Moscow attack. In graphic footage, Russian security officials are shown cutting off the man’s ear.

He is also shown with his head wrapped in a bandage and his face and T-shirt covered in blood. The man says he and other accomplices left their weapons "somewhere on the road" as they fled the scene of the attack. RFE/RL cannot verify the authenticity of the footage.

Another unverified video shows a handcuffed young man telling his interrogator that he was hired by unknown people via Telegram to "shoot at people" for money.

Speaking Russian with a Tajik accent, the man identified himself as Faridun Shamsiddin and said he was born in September 1998. He said he had been contacted by the "assistant of an [Islamic] preacher" whose lectures he had been listening to on Telegram.

According to Shamsiddin, the assistant offered him about 1 million rubles ($10,800) to kill people with provided weapons and told him the site of the attack.

The assistant gave no information about himself: "no name, no surname, nor anything else" he claimed, adding that "half of the money" had been transferred to him before the attack.

The face of the Russian-speaking interrogator and other men holding the suspect were not shown in the footage, which was widely circulated on Russian websites and social media on March 23 before appearing on state media outlets.

The authenticity of the video cannot be independently verified.

Shamsiddin and other suspects detained and shown in videos made no mention of the extremist Islamic State group, which claimed responsibility for the mass killings, or the Islamic State-Khorasan offshoot that has also been mentioned as possibly carrying out the attack.

Another short video shows a third suspect -- an unidentified man speaking Tajik -- telling interrogators through a translator that he had been unemployed and looking for job when he befriended a man called Abdullo via Telegram "about 10 days ago."

The man said Abdullo offered to buy a car together with him so they could work as taxi drivers. Abdullo "was among us," the man said, though it’s unclear if he was referring to the attack.

According to Russian media reports, the suspects detained in Bryansk also include Muhammadsobir Faizov, 19, who hails from the Tajik capital, Dushanbe.

Faizov was reportedly wounded before his arrest and was treated at a Bryansk hospital before being taken by Russian law enforcement.

Two accounts on the Russian social media platform VKontake were linked to Faizov, showing that he had worked at a barber shop in the Russian city of Ivanovo until November. It also showed that he subscribed to the social media accounts Islam My Life and I Love Islam and that he had shared posts about his religious beliefs.

The names of several other alleged Tajik nationals and their photos appeared on Russian websites as suspects in the attack.

Shohin Safolzoda, a 22-year-old native of the Tajik district of Faizobod, was among them. Little is known about Safolzoda or why he’s alleged to have taken part in the attack.

Tajikistan’s Interior Ministry very quickly rejected Russian media reports about the involvement in the attack of three Tajik nationals: Rivojiddin Ismonov, Mahmadrasul Nasriddinov, and Rustam Nazarov, saying in a statement on March 22 that two of the men were at home in Tajikistan at the time of the assault and a third was at work in the Russian city of Samara, several hundred kilometers from Moscow.

But the ministry has not commented on the others with Tajik names who were reportedly detained and interrogated on the videos.

Migrants In Russia Under Pressure

The reports and videos have added to anti-Tajik and anti-migrant sentiments that were already at high levels in Russia, home to millions of workers from Tajikistan and other former Soviet Central Asian countries.

A cafeteria run by Tajik migrants was set on fire in the Far East city of Blagoveshchensk, while three Tajiks were reportedly beaten in the western Russian city of Kaluga.

In several Russian cities, taxi service customers were reportedly canceling their order if the driver was Tajik.

Backlash against other Central Asians was also reported.

Dozens of Kyrgyz men were detained upon arrival at Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow on March 23 and held in rooms with beds, RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service reported the next day. They said they had not received any food or water for nearly 24 hours and that women and children had been sent on flights back to Kyrgyzstan.
Moscow concert attack ‘terrorists have no nationality’, Tajik president tells Putin (The Telegraph)
The Telegraph [3/24/2024 11:46 AM, Staff, 12499K, Neutral]
The president of Tajikistan on Sunday condemned the Moscow concert hall attack in a call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, amid allegations the gunmen were Tajik citizens.

Russian media, including Telegram channels with links to the security services, and a lawmaker have alleged that the four suspected assailants were Tajiks.

Russian authorities have said only that four suspects arrested after Friday’s attack were foreign nationals and Tajikistan has rejected the initial claims its citizens were involved.

“Terrorists have no nationality, no homeland and no religion,” President Emomali Rahmon told Putin in a phone call, the Tajikistan president’s office said in a statement on Sunday.

The language echoed similar previous remarks made by Mr Rahmon regarding extremism. The statement contained no direct reference to reports of the alleged shooters’ citizenship.

The Islamic State (IS) group, which has claimed responsibility for the attack, is active in Tajikistan, a Central Asian nation which shares a border with Afghanistan.

In a graphic video released on Saturday night, the Islamic State boasted about the “bloody attack on Christians”. The person filming the video from the scene of Crocus City Hall can be heard saying: “Bring the machine gun. Kill them and have no mercy on them.”

The Kremlin said on Sunday the two leaders had agreed to “intensify” their joint counter-terrorism efforts.

On Saturday, Tajikistan’s foreign ministry said reports that its citizens were involved were “fake”. The interior ministry also said two of those initially named in Russian media were in Tajikistan at the time of the attack.

Putin said on Saturday that 11 people had been arrested over the attack, including the four suspected gunmen, who it said were trying to flee to Ukraine.

IS has said it was behind the attack on multiple occasions since Friday, though Russian officials have not publicly addressed the claims of responsibility.
Islamic State ‘recruiting from Tajikistan and other central Asian countries’ (The Guardian)
The Guardian [3/24/2024 2:47 PM, Jason Burke, 12499K, Neutral]
Islamic State launched a major recruitment drive last year aimed at militants from Tajikistan and other central Asian countries and specifically targeting experienced members of existing groups with a long history of terrorist attacks, western and other intelligence services have said.

Three of the four men detained by Russian security forces for the attack at a Moscow concert hall on Friday night are thought to be Tajik nationals or of Tajik origin. Video clips of the interrogation of four alleged attackers detained by Russian security forces showed at least one speaking Tajik.

IS has claimed responsibility for the attack in Moscow, which killed 137, posting two statements describing its operation as “a powerful blow against Russia” and repeatedly boasting of killing Christians. The group also posted graphic footage apparently taken by attackers as they opened fire on concertgoers.

Nevertheless, Moscow has sought to blame Ukraine for the attack – a claim Kyiv strongly denies.

Intelligence shared in a recent United Nations report into the activities of IS reveals that over the last 12 months, the group’s local affiliate in Afghanistan had succeeded in recruiting leading militants from Jamaat Ansarullah, a veteran Tajikistan extremist Islamist group, as well as others in central Asia.

Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), which uses a name employed by some Islamic rulers to describe Afghanistan and the surrounding region, also set up a Telegram channel and used multiple other social media platforms to broadcast propaganda aimed at Tajiks and others in the region.

The report, submitted to the UN security council in January, reported a “high concentration of terrorist groups in Afghanistan” and said that “notwithstanding a decrease in the number of attacks perpetrated by Isil-K [ISKP] and its recent loss of territory, casualties and high attrition among senior and mid-tier leadership figures … the group [is seen] as the greatest threat within Afghanistan, with the ability to project a threat into the region and beyond”.

It added that the group “adopted a more inclusive recruitment strategy, including by focusing on attracting disillusioned Taliban and foreign fighters”.

Militants from Tajikistan, which has suffered from a long-running extremist Islamist insurgency, and several other central Asian states have been linked to a series of recent IS attacks in Europe as well as Iran, where about 100 died in a massive bombing at a commemoration ceremony in January.

Iran initially blamed Israel and the US for the attack but its intelligence ministry later identified the ringleader and bombmaker as Tajik. According to the Iranian government press agency, the suspect had entered the country by crossing Iran’s south-east border, eventually leaving two days before the attack, after making the bombs. One of the two suicide bombers was also Tajik, reports said.

US and European intelligence agencies have noted a sharp increase in international plots linked to ISKP, which some analysts believe is the strongest affiliate of IS outside Africa.

“Member states noted the existence of operational plots in European states planned or conducted by ISIS-K [ISKP]. In July and August, seven Tajik, Turkmen and Kyrgyz individuals linked to ISIL-K [ISKP] were arrested in … Germany, while planning to conduct high-impact terrorist attacks for which they were obtaining weapons and possible targets,” the UN report noted.

On Tuesday German authorities arrested two Afghan suspected extremists believed to have been planning an attack on the Swedish parliament. One of the two men is alleged to have travelled from Germany to join ISKP.

On 31 December German police arrested three Tajiks and one Uzbek national suspected of plotting an attack on Cologne Cathedral on New Year’s Eve. The men were linked by investigators to IS.

Tajiks have been involved in multiple other plots in Europe and Turkey over recent years. Two IS militants who in January attacked a church in Istanbul, killing one person and injuring another, were from Tajikistan and Russia.

Earlier this month, Russian security forces killed two Kazakhstan nationals they said were planning an ISKP-linked attack on a synagogue in an operation in the Kaluga region south-west of Moscow.

Since being founded eight years ago, ISKP has mainly focused on its local campaign. It has launched hundreds of attacks on both civilian targets and security forces – including those of the west – in Afghanistan. Two attacks in 2020 targeted a Kabul maternity ward and Kabul University. Others have hit mosques and ethnic or religious minorities in Afghanistan.

The group was also responsible for a hugely destructive attack on Kabul’s international airport in 2021 that killed 13 US troops and more than 150 civilians during the chaotic US evacuation from the country.

The turn to international targets may have been prompted by directives from senior leadership of IS in Iraq and Syria, where the group has suffered significant losses.

The UN report noted that the war in Gaza has provided a potential opportunity for extremist Islamist groups to recruit, but that IS has been forced to balance hostility to Hamas with a desire to foment violence against longstanding enemies.

“Public communications by [IS] in response to the events in Israel and Gaza since 7 October have been cautious and calibrated, aimed at exacerbating religious intolerance. [IS] remained firmly antipathetic to Hamas, whose members it considers apostates. [IS] media output has been focused on capitalising on the situation in Gaza to mobilise potential lone actors to commit attacks,” the report said.
Uzbekistan: “Tashkent mafia chieftain” gets six years in prison (EurasiaNet)
EurasiaNet [3/23/2024 4:14 PM, Staff, 57.6K, Neutral]
A court in Uzbekistan has sentenced Salim Abduvaliyev, a businessman once described in a U.S. diplomatic cable as a "Tashkent mafia chieftain,” has been sentenced to six years in prison for arms trafficking.

The judge presiding over Abduvaliyev’s trial at Tashkent’s Mirabad district court waived imposing a sentence for a smuggling charge due to the statute of limitations, the court said in a statement released on March 23.

The verdict was handed down on March 19, but it is common for court rulings in Uzbekistan to be reported several days after the fact.

Abduvaliyev, 73, was detained in Tashkent in December on suspicion of illegal possession of firearms. News of the arrest came as a surprise to many, even though the police claimed they had been investigating Abduvaliyev “for years.”

“This information [we received] was checked not in one or two days, but over months and years,” Doniyor Tashkhodjayev, a deputy head of the Tashkent police, told journalists after the arrest. “When we had 100 percent confirmation that he had firearms illegally stored at his home, we conducted a search.”

In the weeks following Abduvaliyev’s arrest, dozens of men suspected of extortion, fraud, and drug production were taken into custody across the country in what law enforcement officials cast as a campaign against organized crime and street gangs.

The detainees included another high-profile figure from the Uzbek underworld: Bakhtiyor Kudratullayev, who is known by the nickmake Bakhti Tashkentsky. RFE/RL’s Uzbek service, Radio Ozodlik, reported in 2018 that Kudratullayev, 52, had organized the first gathering of “thieves-in-law,” high-ranking gangsters from across the post-Soviet space, in Tashkent in 20 years.

Few figures are as notorious as Abduvaliyev, though.

A U.S. diplomatic cable obtained and disseminated by the Wikileaks website in 2011 described him as enjoying close connections with the government of the time.

Toward the end of the late President Islam Karimov’s time in office, Abduvaliyev sought to keep a low profile. But things changed following Karimov’s death in 2016, when Shavkat Mirziyoyev became president. That year, he went as far as to pose for a photo bearing a picture of Mirziyoyev and the inscription “My president.”

In 2017, Abduvaliyev, a former wrestler, was appointed vice president of Uzbekistan’s National Olympic Committee and head of the Uzbekistan Wrestling Association. Local press deferentially referred to him as “an entrepreneur” and a “philanthropist”. He has received multiple awards over the years, including the title of “Honored Sports Trainer,” bestowed on him by Mirziyoyev in 2021.

It is unclear what Abduvaliyev did to fall so dramatically out of favor. Remarks by Mirziyoyev in December, however, suggested that he is intent on a draining the scene of informal powerbrokers in Uzbekistan.

“Whether it is criminal groups … or officials mired in corruption, if someone flouts the law and causes harm to the state and society, we will never be able to stand by and watch it,” Mirizyoeyv said in December. “In ‘New Uzbekistan,’ the law must prevail, and punishment for crimes must be inevitable”.
Twitter
Afghanistan
Bilal Sarwary
@bsarwary
[3/24/2024 11:38 PM, 252.3K followers, 20 retweets, 53 likes]
The recent audio clip of Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada has confirmed a number of key issues:
1. Taliban 2 are not different than Taliban 1, yet they are more powerful & strategic in their approach.
2. ⁠Commitment in their mission for another 20 years or more, aiming to establish a “pure Islamic state.”
3. Taliban won’t bow down to any Western pressure on issues related to women’s rights.
4. ⁠No hope for an inclusive government under his leadership

Bilal Sarwary
@bsarwary
[3/24/2024 4:47 PM, 252.3K followers, 18 retweets, 76 likes]
Once during a meeting in Kabul, prior to Hekmatyar’s deal of joining the Afghan government during the republic, one of the sticking points was the perks, i.e the houses, guards, salaries and vehicles. But today the Taliban have kicked Mr. Hekmatyar out of his house in Darulaman, in west Kabul. Now the going gets tough as the Taliban previously blocked his water, power and then at times prevented him from holding Friday sermons. There could be various reasons including rumours the house has been illegally built on MoD land.

Bilal Sarwary
@bsarwary
[3/23/2024 6:22 PM, 252.3K followers, 6 retweets, 19 likes]
An unexpolded ordinance has killed 3 children and has injured 2 in Garmsir district, Helmand province. The children presumed it as a toy and took it home. This story resonates with hundreds of other tragic instances after the withdrawal of the Soviet Union & underscores the need for continued awareness on such risks.

Bilal Sarwary
@bsarwary
[3/22/2024 2:22 PM, 252.3K followers, 4 retweets, 16 likes]
After having stopped the SCA’s operations, the Taliban now have ordered the handover of all equipment and assets belonging to the SCA? @SAK_Sweden

Stephan Jensen
@StephanAJensen
[3/24/2024 12:51 PM, 10.3K followers, 23 retweets, 132 likes]
The Taliban pretending to condemn terrorism is so bizarre and dishonest I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[3/24/2024 10:42 AM, 209.8K followers, 18 retweets, 111 likes]
Islamic State-Khorasan has been around for nearly a decade, has long been one of the most (if not the most) active & potent Islamic State affiliates, and it has a growing capacity to project threats far beyond its Afghanistan base. How has it gotten to this point? Some thoughts.

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[3/24/2024 10:42 AM, 209.8K followers, 5 likes]
The group’s first leaders were disgruntled Taliban militants from Afghanistan & Pakistan. It soon developed a frightening capacity to carry out attacks in those two countries-despite being heavily targeted in Afg by NATO forces & the former Afghan military (remember the "MOAB"?)

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[3/24/2024 10:42 AM, 209.8K followers, 4 likes]
The group’s resilience stood out for years. Not only was it targeted by NATO and Afghan firepower, it also had few allies within the crowded Afghanistan-Pakistan militant network. That’s because it was, and remains, a bitter rival of the Taliban, al-Qaeda, and their allies.

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[3/24/2024 10:42 AM, 209.8K followers, 4 likes]
IS-K did link up with a few jihadist units, such as a faction of LeJ, a Pakistani sectarian group, and some Taliban splinters. But that was it. Yet it held out, until August 2021, when the Taliban took over, and when it staged its infamous Abbey Gate attack at the Kabul airport.

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[3/24/2024 10:42 AM, 209.8K followers, 4 likes]
The Taliban return to power helped IS-K a lot-even though the Taliban is a rival. This helps explain why IS-K is where it’s at today. Taliban prison breaks inadvertently freed IS-K fighters. The collapse of the Afghan military & NATO exit provided opportunities to seize weaponry.

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[3/24/2024 10:42 AM, 209.8K followers, 1 retweet, 4 likes]
IS-K was no longer targeted by airstrikes, the main tactic used to manage the IS-K threat. The Taliban have staged scorched-earth ground offensives on IS-K, which has degraded the threat (attacks in Afg have decreased), but the Taliban’s capacity to deploy air power is limited.

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[3/24/2024 10:42 AM, 209.8K followers, 4 likes]
In effect, post-Taliban takeover and NATO withdrawal, IS-K has enjoyed an enabling environment that gives it the space/breathing room to scale up its capacities to project a more global threat. For years, many (including me) viewed IS-K as just a local/regional threat. No more.

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[3/24/2024 10:42 AM, 209.8K followers, 4 likes]
It’s unclear how IS-K has been able to strengthen its more global attack capacities-a deepening relationship w/IS central perhaps, or maybe more foreign fighter link ups. It’s harder to track this stuff than it used to be. Either way, the global threat posed by IS-K & IS is real.

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[3/23/2024 3:28 PM, 209.8K followers, 28 retweets, 124 likes]
IS-K has bombed Pakistan many times, including political rallies. It attacked JUI-F rallies twice in recent months (Aug & Feb). It rejects every political party in Pakistan and doesn’t need to be "hired" to attack them. There’s no reason why it would be any different with PTI.

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[3/23/2024 3:28 PM, 209.8K followers, 4 retweets, 18 likes]
Not to mention, if we suspend our disbelief and imagine IS-K or IS more broadly is being hired/sponsored, how would that work? IS-K and IS essentially reject (and in many cases attack) every govt/military out there, including the one you suggest was hired for the attack on PTI.
Pakistan
Prime Minister’s Office, Pakistan
@PakPMO
[3/24/2024 10:55 PM, 3.7M followers, 20 retweets, 61 likes]
Message of Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on the occasion of ‘Holi’ " I extend my felicitations to the Hindu community on the auspicious occasion of Holi festival - the Festival of Colors. As Pakistanis we take pride in the multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-cultural and multi-religious characteristics of our society. Let us commemorate this day with a resolve to celebrate our differences as strengths. May the arrival of spring bring new beginnings, hope, and happiness to us all Happy Holi to all who celebrate! "

Prime Minister’s Office, Pakistan
@PakPMO
[3/23/2024 1:19 AM, 3.7M followers, 52 retweets, 190 likes]
Message of Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Pakistan Day (23 March 2024) I extend my heartfelt felicitations to Pakistanis at home and abroad on ‘Pakistan Day.’ The 23rd March marks a momentous day in our history. It was on this day in 1940 that the Muslims of Sub-Continent passed the historic ‘Lahore Resolution’ and demanded a separate homeland where they could freely live their own way of life according to the principles of Islam. Through a consistent and dedicated political struggle of our founding fathers, the dream of a separate homeland for Muslims of South Asia became a reality and Pakistan appeared on the map of the world on 14th August 1947. Our forefathers made untiring efforts and rendered exemplary sacrifices for Pakistan. Millions of Muslims left their homes in India and decided to migrate to Pakistan. The new State faced unprecedented challenges including creating a social and economic foundation, settlement of refugees, creation of State institutions, and meagre resources. However, under the inspiring leadership of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and with the resilience and dedication of the nation, those daunting challenges faced by the nascent State were addressed and a foundation for an independent democratic state was laid down. In our journey on the path of democracy, the people of Pakistan elected their representatives in the general elections held on 8 February and consequently Governments have been formed at the Federal and Provincial levels. We are completely cognizant of the serious challenges confronting Pakistan currently including inflation, unemployment, circular debt, fiscal and trade deficit, and above all the growing scourge of terrorism. However, as a nation we have proved to be resilient in the face of extraordinary circumstances and stood the test of time. I can assure you that we stand committed to put Pakistan on the path to economic recovery and prosperity with a cogent policy reform framework. I hope that these measures will bring economic stability and the current wave of high inflation will recede, bringing respite for our citizens. On this day, let us renew our firm resolve to follow the footsteps of our founding fathers to make Pakistan a trivet of peace, progress and stability. Let us not forget that our actions today will define the legacy of our generation and shape the course of history. Let us work for a Pakistan that is not driven apart by differences but is united around shared values. Pakistan Paindabad!

Shehbaz Sharif
@CMShehbaz
[3/23/2024 2:01 AM, 6.7M followers, 830 retweets, 3.9K likes]
I strongly condemn the heinous attack in Moscow last night that has resulted in the loss of many precious lives. My heartfelt condolences to families of the victims. Pakistan stands with Russia at this difficult time.

Sadanand Dhume
@dhume
[3/22/2024 1:33 PM, 171.3K followers, 4 retweets, 12 likes]
In this conversation w/ @WajSKhan I argue that many overly emotional PTI supporters misread U.S. policy toward Pakistan. Despite this week’s congressional hearing, Imran Khan is in a weaker position today than he was on Feb. 08. [Video, English/Urdu, 27m]

Hamid Mir
@HamidMirPAK
[3/24/2024 3:48 AM, 8.4M followers, 28 retweets, 162 likes]
The media landscape in Pakistan is marked by censorship and control, with both state and non-state actors exerting pressure on media outlets. This article exposed recent actions of state to silence the voices of dissent by abusing law. @RSF_inter

Hamid Mir
@HamidMirPAK
[3/23/2024 3:42 AM, 8.4M followers, 891 retweets, 3.9K likes]
Pakistan must not accept any dictation on gas pipeline project with Iran. Views of US Assistant Secretary of State Donald Lu on this project have been rejected by the majority of Pakistanis https://dawn.com/news/1823296
India
Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[3/23/2024 12:31 AM, 96.5M followers, 12K retweets, 85K likes]
I am honoured by the special gesture by His Majesty the King of Bhutan, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck of coming to the airport as I leave for Delhi. This has been a very special Bhutan visit. I had the opportunity to meet His Majesty the King, PM @tsheringtobgay and other distinguished people of Bhutan. Our talks will add even more vigour to the India-Bhutan friendship. I am also grateful to have been conferred the Order of the Druk Gyalpo. I am very thankful to the wonderful people of Bhutan for their warmth and hospitality. India will always be a reliable friend and partner for Bhutan.

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[3/22/2024 11:59 PM, 96.5M followers, 6.6K retweets, 39K likes]
Inaugurated the Gyaltsuen Jetsun Pema Wangchuck Mother and Child Hospital, which stands as a beacon of hope for several families, offering quality healthcare. This facility embodies a commitment to nurturing a healthy future generation.

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[3/24/2024 4:14 PM, 96.5M followers, 22K retweets, 109K likes]
We strongly condemn the heinous terrorist attack in Moscow. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims. India stands in solidarity with the government and the people of the Russian Federation in this hour of grief.

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[3/22/2024 12:37 PM, 96.5M followers, 22K retweets, 58K likes]
It is with great humility that I accept the Order of the Druk Gyalpo. I am grateful to HM the King of Bhutan for presenting the Award. I dedicate it to the 140 crore people of India. I am also confident that India-Bhutan relations will keep growing and benefit our citizens.

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[3/22/2024 9:21 AM, 96.5M followers, 8.1K retweets, 61K likes]
Glad to have met His Majesty the King of Bhutan, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck. We talked about ways to improve bilateral relations between our nations.

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[3/22/2024 9:19 AM, 96.5M followers, 5.1K retweets, 30K likes]
Was humbled by the welcome at the majestic Tashichhodzong Palace in Thimphu. The traditional Chipdrel procession offers a glimpse of the rich culture of Bhutan.

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[3/22/2024 9:17 AM, 96.5M followers, 5.1K retweets, 31K likes]
In Bhutan, held productive talks with PM @tsheringtobgay. We reviewed the complete range of India-Bhutan friendship, and agreed to boost our developmental partnership as well as deepen cultural linkages.

Dr. S. Jaishankar
@DrSJaishankar
[3/24/2024 8:08 AM, 3.1M followers, 1.4K retweets, 12K likes]
Congratulate PM @narendramodi ji on being conferred the Order of the Druk Gyalpo, Bhutan’s highest civilian decoration, by His Majesty the King of Bhutan. That PM Modi is the first foreign leader to be conferred this high distinction is a reflection both of his personal stature and our unique relationship. This decision by His Majesty further strengthens the India-Bhutan bonds of friendship and celebrates the exceptional India-Bhutan ties.

Brahma Chellaney
@Chellaney
[3/23/2024 12:45 AM, 262.9K followers, 97 retweets, 499 likes]
Modi’s Bhutan visit amid his reelection campaign, and India’s decision to double its aid to Bhutan to nearly $2 billion, underscore New Delhi’s abiding commitment to its small neighbor and also represent a signal to China.

Brahma Chellaney
@Chellaney
[3/24/2024 11:35 PM, 262.9K followers, 221 retweets, 682 likes]
Xi is faced with the challenge of resolving the Himalayan military crisis with India without losing face. The confrontation is about to enter its fifth year, with 100,000 rival troops locked in a standoff in the Ladakh sector alone. https://asia.nikkei.com/Opinion/China-s-Indian-land-grab-has-become-a-strategic-disaster via @NikkeiAsia
NSB
Awami League
@albd1971
[3/24/2024 7:35 AM, 637.1K followers, 26 retweets, 79 likes]
State Minister for Posts, Telecom and ICT @zapalak instructed the Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company (BSCCL) to ensure #uninterruptedinternet #bandwidth supply in the country at an affordable cost to build #SmartBangladesh. https://bssnews.net/news/180289

Awami League
@albd1971
[3/24/2024 6:22 AM, 637.1K followers, 25 retweets, 81 likes]
Foreign Minister and Awami League Joint General Secretary @DrHasanMahmud62 on Saturday said the main objective of @bdbnp78’s call to boycott Indian products is to destabilise the country’s market and increase prices of essentials so that people suffer. https://unb.com.bd/category/Politics/with-call-to-boycott-indian-products-bnp-wants-to-destabilise-the-market-and-cause-price-hike-foreign-minister/132967

Tshering Tobgay
@tsheringtobgay
[3/23/2024 7:30 AM, 97.9K followers, 2.1K retweets, 10K likes]
A big thank you to my brother, PM @narendramodi Ji, for visiting us. Neither his busy schedule nor inclement weather could prevent him from fulfilling his promise to visit us. This must be the #ModiKaGuarantee phenomenon!

Tshering Tobgay
@tsheringtobgay
[3/23/2024 6:42 AM, 97.9K followers, 94 retweets, 617 likes]
The Jetsun Pema Mother and Child Hospital: Prime Minister @narendramodi Ji inaugurated this precious 150-bedded gift from the government and people of India to the people of Bhutan, our mothers and children.

Tshering Tobgay
@tsheringtobgay
[3/22/2024 11:19 AM, 97.9K followers, 241 retweets, 1.3K likes]
I join the people of Bhutan in offering our heartiest congratulations to the Prime Minister of India, my friend and brother, @narendramodi Ji for receiving Bhutan’s highest award, the “Order of the Druk Gyalpo”.

Tshering Tobgay
@tsheringtobgay
[3/22/2024 8:43 AM, 97.9K followers, 154 retweets, 900 likes]
The governments of Bhutan and India exchanged 9 memoranda of understanding further strengthening the scope and depth of the cooperation and friendship between our two countries.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maldives
@MoFAmv
[3/24/2024 3:21 AM, 53.6K followers]
Secretary, Bilateral meets the Director General of China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA) Press Release | https://t.ly/PME5N

Ranil Wickremesinghe
@RW_UNP
[3/23/2024 10:15 AM, 317.5K followers, 46 retweets, 315 likes]
Our medical professionals are leaving the country in large numbers. Around 30-40% of our trained doctors and nurses seek opportunities abroad. This trend is not only alarming but also detrimental to our country’s healthcare system and economic prosperity. We are firm believers in the excellence of our healthcare system, yet we face this challenge. I’ve directed the Sir John Kotalawana Defence University to increase recruitment in the medical and nursing fields and to enhance training facilities. The Faculty of Medicine at NSBM Green University has been authorised to operate a teaching hospital, and Lyceum Campus has shown interest in joining this initiative. We are also looking at integrating advanced technology, including AI, into our healthcare sector to maintain modern medical standards, marking a step forward in our mission to provide quality healthcare. I thank the Government of the Netherlands for providing the new accident and emergency care unit at Point Pedro Base Hospital, extending its benefits to the communities of Jaffna and Point Pedro.

Ranil Wickremesinghe
@RW_UNP
[3/22/2024 11:47 AM, 317.5K followers, 39 retweets, 164 likes]
Land ownership is a fundamental right. We launched the Urumaya programme in Dambulla and today, it reached Jaffna. I’ve instructed its completion by June, transitioning from permit-based to freehold deeds to correct historical injustices and secure land ownership for all. Today in Ottagapulam, Jaffna, we advanced our goal to grant freehold rights to 2 million individuals, issuing 408 deeds. We also returned 234 acres from the Jaffna Security Force HQ at Palali Air Force Base across five Grama Niladhari Divisions in Valikamam North, previously military-held, for local agricultural use, aligning with our agricultural modernisation programme. We’ve initiated an agricultural modernisation programme district-wide, with one Divisional Secretariat per district leading. In Jaffna, Kopai is selected to spearhead this effort, focusing on modernising agriculture and boosting local incomes. The government has to date freed 63,000 acres for civilian use, including 2,600 acres each from the Navy and Air Force. Additionally, today, 234 acres have been granted, alongside 101 acres recently returned to communities. Addressing misclassified forest land using the 1985 map, we’re advancing the Palali Smart Agriculture programme with support from security forces, landowners, and entities like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to modernise agriculture and establish a model farm in Jaffna for the nation. Addressing post-war challenges in Jaffna, including the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, our economic plan from Vavuniya to Jaffna aims to boost agriculture, use solar and wind energy in collaboration with India, and grow tourism and fishing. We’re establishing investment zones to make the region an economic hub in 5-10 years.
Central Asia
Navbahor Imamova
@Navbahor
[3/22/2024 11:15 AM, 23K followers, 9 retweets, 27 likes]
1/3: Two years ago, as Russia invaded Ukraine’s heartland, Central Asian countries feared they would be next and would suffer significantly from Vladimir Putin’s revanchist obsession. Despite lingering concerns, experts and current and former policymakers in Washington portray a confident Central Asia today: more assertive, striving for unity, maximizing economic relationships, and enjoying more bargaining power, including with Russia, China, and the United States. @VOANews

Navbahor Imamova
@Navbahor
[3/22/2024 11:15 AM, 23K followers, 2 likes]
2/3: Frederick Starr @CACI_SilkRoad says governments must stop using “China to balance Russia … and America, to balance them.” Starr recalls how in the 1990s, the region formed a union but lost it in the 2000s after Russia joined it. “That’s exactly why Putin created the Eurasian Economic Union and the Collective Security Treaty Organization took off,” Starr stresses. “Central Asia is the only region in the world without its own regional infrastructure and organization because of Russian pressure.” @CentralAsiaProg @VOANews

Navbahor Imamova
@Navbahor
[3/22/2024 11:16 AM, 23K followers, 2 likes]
3/3: Following Putin’s re-election to a fifth term as president this week in a process widely condemned as rigged and undemocratic, Central Asian leaders rushed to offer him their congratulations. They share much common ground with Putin, remaining in power under similar circumstances, severely curtailing all forms of political competition, the independent media, and restricting civil society. https://voanews.com/a/experts-see-central-asia-emboldened-by-russia-s-struggles-in-ukraine/7537662.html

MFA Tajikistan
@MOFA_Tajikistan
[3/23/2024 6:38 AM, 4.6K followers, 2 retweets, 3 likes]
Meeting of the Minister of Foreign Affairs with Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism https://mfa.tj/en/main/view/14681/meeting-of-the-minister-of-foreign-affairs-with-under-secretary-general-of-the-united-nations-office-of-counter-terrorism

MFA Tajikistan
@MOFA_Tajikistan
[3/23/2024 6:37 AM, 4.6K followers, 2 retweets, 1 like]
Meeting of the Co-Chairs of the UN Water Conference 2023 https://mfa.tj/en/main/view/14680/meeting-of-the-co-chairs-of-the-un-water-conference-2023

MFA Tajikistan
@MOFA_Tajikistan
[3/23/2024 6:24 AM, 4.6K followers, 2 likes]
Participation of the Minister of Foreign Affairs in a high-level event dedicated to World Water Day https://mfa.tj/en/main/view/14674/participation-of-the-minister-of-foreign-affairs-in-a-high-level-event-dedicated-to-world-water-day

Furqat Sidiqov
@FurqatSidiq
[3/24/2024 4:28 PM, 1.2K followers, 4 likes]
Had a productive meeting with @RepMikeRogersAL, Chairman of @HASCRepublicans, discussing Uzbekistan-U.S. cooperation across all spheres. Grateful for the opportunity to meet with the Congressman and looking forward to our collaboration ahead!

{End of Report}
To subscribe to the SCA Morning Press Clips, please email SCA-PressOfficers@state.gov. Please do not reply directly to this email.