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:
Wednesday, March 27, 2024 6:30 AM ET

Afghanistan
She secretly educated herself to escape Afghanistan. Now, she’s working to help women still there (NBC News)
NBC News [3/26/2024 6:53 PM, Maya Eaglin, 3304K, Neutral]
Sola Mahfouz stopped going to school in 2007 when she was an 11-year-old living in Afghanistan.

“A group of men, they came to our door and threatened my father, that if you continue to go into school, they will throw acid on our face or kidnap,” she recalled. So she spent years confined to her home doing domestic chores.

“Over the years, I left home only a couple of times a year and, whenever I did, I had to wear the suffocating burqa that covered me from head to toe,” said Mahfouz, who uses a pseudonym to protect the safety of her family members who still live in Afghanistan. “But, meanwhile, my brothers were going to school and they were thriving academically, and I felt jealous of their lives.”

Once her chores were done each day, she embarked on a secret mission to educate herself. She spent almost six years teaching herself English and math online and eventually made her way to Arizona State University for college.

Today, she works as a quantum computer researcher at Tufts University.

Mahfouz, 27, also is working to bring awareness to the plight of Afghan girls three years after the Taliban officially banned them from attending school beyond sixth grade.

The school year in Afghanistan began this month without the 1 million girls estimated to be barred from school since the Taliban returned to power following the 2021 withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces.

“Afghanistan remains the only country in the world where women and girls are not allowed to attend secondary and higher education,” said Fereshta Abbasi, an Afghan researcher working with Human Rights Watch. Abbasi, who is currently living in exile in the United Kingdom, says women have been banned from almost all aspects of public life in Afghanistan.

“Women do not have the right to freedom of movement. They need to be accompanied by a mahram, which is a male blood-related member of the family,” she said. “Women do not have the right to protest. No right to freedom of expression, no right to assembly.”

Those are all things Mahfouz experienced as a child even though the Taliban was not in power when she grew up there.

“When I was 16 years old, I did not even know how to subtract. And that was, because when I was 11 years old, I was forced to stop going to school,” she said.

Mahfouz recounted her determination to educate herself, her decision to leave Afghanistan and her harrowing journey to cross the border into Pakistan in her 2023 memoir, “Defiant Dreams,” which she co-wrote with Malaina Kapoor, a student at Stanford University who advocates for human rights.

“I remember when we were writing the book, and I was working on those chapters, I would call her over and over, because I would say, ‘I just don’t understand how this is possible. How could you remain so driven?’” Kapoor said of Mahfouz. “But I think what I eventually realized is, there was such a level of desperation because that knowledge really meant the difference between a future within the compound walls that she had always lived in, and a future that might have meant something more,” Kapoor said.

The two have again teamed up with the hope of improving the future of other girls in Afghanistan. They are in the brainstorming phase with the educational organization Khan Academy to develop resources for women in Afghanistan. Mahfouz used a temperamental internet connection, laptop and free online resources like Khan Academy when she taught herself.

“We have been in the brainstorming process to create a digital space where women can gather, they can read, they can share stories they can write ... because you can’t just give a woman a computer, you can’t just tell them, ‘OK, just go online, and just like learn.’” Mahfouz said, “Afghan culture is very social … So how can you have that social environment where they can support one another, be safe and learn?”

Kapoor, 21, and Mahfouz are also creating an educational curriculum for teachers to educate American children on the challenges happening in Afghanistan today using their book to guide discussions.

They have been invited to participate in programs by the United Nations for Women’s History Month and beyond to continue advocating for the rights of Afghan women.

Mahfouz has also been able to teach some of her younger relatives in Afghanistan who are impacted by the education ban.

“I’ve been helping them with English,” she said, “I have been reading books to try to communicate with them and educate them about the resources that are available.”

Ultimately, the duo said their goal is to continue elevating the stories of the girls and women in Afghanistan.

“Every day in Afghanistan, there are millions of human rights violations against women and that’s something that women around the world, but also everyone around the world, should feel very, very deeply,” Kapoor said, “And so, our mission is to bring these stories through our work with the U.N. through our work with schools and building curriculum to educate as many people as we can.”
From Offshoot To ‘Spearhead’: The Rise Of IS-K, Islamic State’s Afghanistan Branch (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [3/26/2024 11:26 AM, Abubakar Siddique, 223K, Negative]
Since its emergence a decade ago, the Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) militant group has largely focused its attacks on Afghanistan and Pakistan.

But IS-K, the Afghanistan branch of Islamic State (IS), has carried out an increasing number of mass-casualty attacks outside its stronghold in South Asia in recent years, including in Iran and Russia.

Experts say the deadly attack on a concert venue outside Moscow on March 22, which was widely blamed on IS-K, shows the affiliate’s growing capabilities and ambitions, as well as its leading role in the umbrella organization.

“This branch has become the spearhead, the leading internationally minded branch of the Islamic State,” said Lucas Webber, co-founder and editor of MilitantWire.com.

Webber said IS’s central leadership in Syria and Iraq has had to “focus more on survival, regrouping, and reconstituting its capabilities and its networks” after the group was largely defeated and dismantled by a U.S.-led coalition in 2019.

“It’s essentially become the parent organization of the IS franchise,” said Webber, referring to IS-K, which first appeared in Afghanistan in late 2014, the same year that IS seized large swaths of Syria and Iraq and declared a self-styled caliphate.

IS also has branches in the Arabian Peninsula, Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Caucasus.

External Operations

As well as continuing to carry out attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan, IS-K appears to have shifted its focus to external operations in recent months.

In January, IS-K was blamed for killing more than 90 people in Iran’s southern city of Kerman, the deadliest attack in the Islamic republic in decades.

On March 22, gunmen stormed the Crocus City Hall concert venue in the Moscow region, killing at least 139 people, in Russia’s worst terrorist violence in two decades.

IS claimed responsibility for the attack. U.S. officials specifically blamed IS-K, while Moscow attributed the attack to Islamic extremists without mentioning the IS affiliate.

IS-K on March 25 threatened to carry out more “massacres” against Russia. Moscow has targeted IS militants in Syria and Africa and forged ties with the Taliban government, a fierce rival of IS-K in Afghanistan.

Webber of MilitantWire.com said IS-K poses a rapidly growing threat to the West. “For the foreseeable future, this seems to be an indication of things to come,” he said.

General Michael E. Kurilla, head of the U.S. military’s Central Command, told lawmakers on March 21 that IS-K “retains the capability and the will to attack U.S. and Western interests abroad in as little as six months with little to no warning.”

Law enforcement in Europe have uncovered several IS-K plots in recent years.

German police on March 19 said they had arrested two suspected IS-K supporters. They were accused of plotting to attack the Swedish parliament.

In July, police in Germany and the Netherlands arrested nine people who they said were in contact with IS-K.

During the past year, the group has threatened to carry out attacks in Sweden, the Netherlands, and Denmark after cases of Koran burnings in those countries.

‘Loose Network Of Cells’

After its emergence, IS-K initially captured small pockets of territory in eastern and northern Afghanistan as part of IS’s broader aim of expansion throughout South and Central Asia.

But IS-K was driven out from its territorial strongholds around 2019 after coming under increasing fire from Afghan and international forces as well as the Taliban. Since then, IS-K has embarked on a new strategy of urban warfare.

“We are witnessing a new phase of the Islamic State-Khorasan,” said Riccardo Valle, the co-founder of The Khorasan Diary, an online platform that tracks militant groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

He said IS-K has evolved from a group aiming to seize territory like a “traditional army” to a “loose network of cells, which tends to carry out more lethal attacks.”

IS-K is made up of Afghan and foreign fighters. In a report published in June 2023, the UN Security Council said the number of IS-K militants in Afghanistan ranged “from 4,000 to 6,000,” including family members. Some experts estimate that the number is much lower.

Sara Harmouch, a terrorism and defense policy expert in Washington, said IS-K’s focus on asymmetric warfare instead of territorial control has enabled the group to adapt to local conditions and withstand counterterrorism operations.

“This flexibility could make IS-K a more dynamic and resilient leader within the IS network, capable of navigating post-caliphate era complexities,” she said.

Harmouch said IS-K’s ability to carry out high-profile attacks outside Afghanistan and Pakistan has raised its profile and indicated its expanding capabilities.

“This visibility could position IS-K as a leading figure within the broader IS network, especially in attracting recruits and resources,” she said.
How the Taliban’s return made Afghanistan a hub for global jihadis (Financial Times)
Financial Times [3/26/2024 9:40 PM, Benjamin Parkin and Sam Jones, 1.9M, Negative]Less than a year after the Taliban retook power in Afghanistan following the chaotic US withdrawal in 2021, President Joe Biden vowed the country that once harboured Osama bin Laden would “never again . . . become a terrorist safe haven”.

Yet a surge in international terrorist threats linked to Afghanistan is raising alarm among governments that the country that once sheltered the masterminds of the September 11 2001 attacks is again becoming a hotspot for jihadi groups with global ambitions.

Western officials blamed Islamic State-Khorasan Province, the Afghanistan-based affiliate of the Middle Eastern extremist group and bitter enemy of the Taliban, for last week’s attack on a Moscow concert hall that killed at least 137 people.

The Taliban has fought a bloody counterinsurgency campaign against Isis-K since coming to power, but analysts said the jihadist group gained substantial strength following the US withdrawal and more recently has ramped up its international activity.

Isis-K was also linked to bombings in Iran in January that killed nearly 100 people, an attack on a church in Turkey the same month and a foiled plot last week to attack Sweden’s parliament that authorities said may have been directed from Afghanistan.

The Pakistani Taliban, an ideological ally of Kabul’s rulers with a large presence in the country, have killed hundreds of people in relentless cross-border attacks from hide-outs in Afghanistan since 2021. Analysts believe that other Islamist groups from al-Qaeda to the Uyghur Turkistan Islamic Party also have a presence inside Afghanistan.

Concern about the growing threat of Afghanistan-linked extremist violence prompted General Michael Kurilla, head of the US Central Command, to warn shortly before last week’s violence in Moscow that the “risk of attack emanating from Afghanistan is increasing”, singling out Isis-K.

“Isis-Khorasan retains the capability and the will to attack US and western interests abroad in as little as six months with little to no warning,” Kurilla told Congress.

European officials have also become increasingly attuned to the threat. “Isis-K is currently the biggest Islamist [terror] threat in Germany,” said Nancy Faeser, interior minister of Germany, which has foiled several Isis-K-linked plots over the past 18 months.

She told Süddeutsche Zeitung on Monday: “The danger posed by Islamic terrorism is still acute.”

While President Vladimir Putin sought to implicate Ukraine in last week’s attack, a Moscow court specified that all four main suspects were Tajik citizens, a group that forms a significant component of Isis-K’s membership. The US had warned of a threat to Russia from extremists, reportedly telling Moscow it came from the Afghanistan-based group.

Though no evidence has directly linked the plotters with Afghanistan, analysts said it was the latest sign that regional jihadi groups have become more powerful following the Taliban’s takeover.

“When the Americans left in 2021, there was zero regional consensus on security in Afghanistan,” said Kabir Taneja, a fellow at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi. As a result, “all these terror groups have a lot of space to manoeuvre”.

The Taliban, who have repeatedly said they do not allow extremists to use the country as a base for terrorist plots, condemned the Moscow attack “in the strongest terms”.

While the Taliban has sought to clamp down on Isis-K, it appears more tolerant of other militant groups. In 2022, the US tracked down and killed al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in downtown Kabul, fuelling western suspicions that the Taliban was harbouring him. It was at this point that Biden said Afghanistan would not be allowed to become a haven for jihadis despite the lack of a US military presence on the ground.

Yet violence in Pakistan by groups such as the Pakistani Taliban has taken off. More than 1,500 people were killed in terrorist attacks in Pakistan in 2023, triple the toll from before the Taliban took power in Afghanistan in 2020, according to the South Asia Terrorism Portal.

Pakistan, which blames the Afghan Taliban for supporting the cross-border militants, launched retaliatory air strikes on Afghanistan last week. A suicide bomber killed six people in an attack on Chinese workers in Pakistan on Tuesday.

Analysts questioned whether the Taliban had the capacity to stamp out jihadi operations even if they wanted to. “The US couldn’t really constrain the Taliban and insurgents, with all their weapons and coalition partners,” said Amira Jadoon, an assistant professor at Clemson University in South Carolina. “It’s hard to see how the Taliban can secure the country and make sure militants don’t operate.”

Isis-K began operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2015, attracting thousands of fighters who believed the Taliban was not hardline enough. The group wants to create a caliphate in Khorasan, a region extending across parts of the Indian subcontinent and central Asia.

It was responsible for dozens of attacks following the fall of Kabul, including a suicide bombing at the city’s airport in 2021 that killed at least 175 people, including 13 US troops. It has also targeted Afghanistan’s Shia minority, Taliban officials and, in 2022, the Russian embassy in Kabul.

The US in 2022 issued a $10mn bounty for information leading to Isis-K’s leader Sanaullah Ghafari relating to the Kabul airport attack. The 29-year-old, also known as Shahab al-Muhajir, is believed to be hiding in the border regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

While the Taliban crackdown succeeded in reducing domestic attacks, it has left Isis-K more dependent on international networks and supporters “to orchestrate its actions”, said Jerome Drevon, an analyst at the International Crisis Group.

This has included operations in Europe either directed or inspired by Isis-K. Isis-K was “a name [people] should remember”, Germany’s domestic intelligence service head Thomas Haldenwang said last year. “The group is trying to make a name for itself with attacks . . . In the future, they will try to plan to carry [them out] against western countries.”

German and Austrian authorities foiled possible attacks by terrorists linked to Isis-K on Christian religious sites during the Christmas period. Three were arrested in Vienna on Christmas Eve over an alleged plot to attack St Stephen’s cathedral, while four Tajiks were arrested in Germany over plans to massacre worshippers at Cologne cathedral on New Year’s Eve, according to police.

After German police arrested two people last week who they said had planned an assault on Sweden’s parliament, an interior ministry official said the government’s joint counterterrorism centre now assessed Isis-K to be the “most aggressive” of all Isis affiliates.

Since the attack in Moscow, French President Emmanuel Macron has said that Isis-K had also made “several attempts” to attack France in recent months.

Colin Clarke, director of research at the Soufan Center, a New York-based intelligence and security consultancy, said Isis-K was “knocking on the door of Europe”, flagging the 2024 Paris Olympics as an event of particular concern.

“The threats and plots of violence coming out of Afghanistan are not only persisting but, in certain respects, growing,” said Asfandyar Mir, a senior expert at the United States Institute of Peace. “The most concerning trend is Isis-K plotting overseas.”
Pakistan
US says it doesn’t support Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline project going forward (Reuters)
Reuters [3/26/2024 3:45 PM, Kanishka Singh and Simon Lewis, 5239K, Negative]
The U.S. said on Tuesday it does not support a Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline project from going forward and cautioned about the risk of sanctions in doing business with Tehran.

WHY IT IS IMPORTANT

The Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline, known as the Peace Pipeline, opens new tab, is a long-term project between Tehran and Islamabad, and has faced delays and funding challenges for several years. The pipeline would transport natural gas from Iran to neighboring Pakistan.

Iran and Pakistan had signed a five-year trade plan in August 2023 and set a bilateral trade target at $5 billion.

Pakistan’s Petroleum Minister Musadik Malik said this week that his country was seeking a U.S. sanctions waiver for the gas pipeline from Iran.

KEY QUOTES

"We always advise everyone that doing business with Iran runs the risk of touching upon and coming in contact with our sanctions, and would advise everyone to consider that very carefully," a U.S. State Department spokesperson told reporters in a press briefing.

"We do not support this pipeline going forward," the spokesperson added, saying that Donald Lu, the State Department’s top official for South and Central Asia, had said as much to a congressional panel last week.

CONTEXT

A few weeks ago, Pakistan and Iran engaged, opens new tab in tit-for-tat strikes when they exchanged drone and missile strikes on militant bases on each other’s territory.

Washington’s relations, opens new tab with Iran have been thorny for a long time and the U.S. has issued multiple rounds of sanctions on Iranian entities.

Officially allies in fighting extremism, Pakistan and the U.S. have had a complicated relationship, opens new tab over the years, bound by Washington’s dependence on Pakistan to supply its troops during its long war in Afghanistan but plagued by accusations Islamabad played a double game.

Some Pakistani politicians have also accused Washington of meddling in Pakistan’s domestic politics, charges that Washington denies.
US Does Not Support Pakistan Iran Pipeline (VOA)
VOA [3/27/2024 5:37 AM, Sarah Zaman, 5239K, Negative]
The U.S. State Department has said it does not support Pakistan’s plan to build a pipeline to import gas from Iran.

State Department spokesperson Mathew Miller refused to comment on the nature of sanctions Pakistan could face for importing energy from Iran. However, he cautioned Islamabad against going ahead with the plan.

“But we always advise everyone that doing business with Iran runs the risk of touching upon and coming in contact with our sanctions, and would advise everyone to consider that very carefully,” said Miller, adding that “the assistant secretary made clear last week, we do not support this pipeline going forward.”

Donald Lu, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia told the House Foreign Affairs committee last Wednesday in a hearing that importing gas from Iran would expose Pakistan to U.S. sanctions.

Pakistan’s outgoing caretaker government approved the construction of an 80-kilometer section of the pipeline in February, largely to avoid paying Iran $18 billion in penalties for years of project delays.

Miller’s remarks came after Pakistani media reported Tuesday, Islamabad was planning to seek a U.S. sanctions waiver.

“We will seek exemption from U.S. sanctions. Pakistan cannot afford sanctions in the gas pipeline project,” Minister for Petroleum Musadik Malik told media during an informal chat, according to a report in Dawn News.

VOA reached out to Malik for details but did not receive a response.

Lu told the committee last week Washington had “not heard from the government of Pakistan a desire for any waiver for American sanctions that would certainly result from such a project.”

Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Islamabad did not need a waiver to build the pipeline.

“It is a segment of the pipeline which is being built inside Pakistani territory. So, we do not believe that at this point there is room for any discussion or waiver from a third party,” Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, the Pakistani foreign ministry spokesperson said last Thursday in response to a VOA question at the weekly press briefing.

Pakistan and Iran signed an agreement in June 2009 for a pipeline to supply 750 million to 1 billion cubic feet per day of Iranian natural gas to Pakistan.

In the recently approved first phase, Pakistan will construct an 80km section of the pipeline from its border with Iran to its port city of Gwadar in the southwestern province of Balochistan.

Iran claimed completing construction of 900 kilometers of the pipeline on its side in 2011. However, Pakistan delayed construction on its side, primarily for fear of U.S. sanctions.

Tehran is under sanctions from Washington for its nuclear program.
Suicide Bomber Kills 5 Chinese Workers in Pakistan (New York Times)
New York Times [3/26/2024 4:14 PM, Salman Masood and Christina Goldbaum, 831K, Negative]
Five Chinese workers were killed on Tuesday when a suicide bomber rammed a vehicle into their convoy in northern Pakistan, the latest in a string of terrorist attacks highlighting the security challenges Pakistan faces in protecting Chinese personnel.

The Chinese laborers were working on the Dasu dam, a hydropower project on the Indus River in the northwestern province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. The convoy was moving to Dasu from Islamabad and came under attack around 1 p.m., officials said.

Over the past week, terrorist attacks also struck a Pakistani military air base and a strategic port in the southwest of the country, where China has invested billions in infrastructure projects. The string of attacks has challenged the close economic and strategic ties between the two countries.

China is estimated to have spent some $62 billion on projects in Pakistan, mostly to build a transportation corridor through Baluchistan to a new Chinese-operated deepwater port in the Pakistani town of Gwadar.

It was the second-deadliest attack on Chinese laborers working on the dam project, after a previous suicide attack on a convoy in 2021 killed nine Chinese workers. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack on Tuesday. The driver of the vehicle was also killed.

“This latest attack on Chinese nationals in Pakistan heightens growing fears in Beijing about the bleak future of its tens of billions in investments in the country,” said Kamran Bokhari, a senior director of Eurasian security and prosperity at the New Lines Institute in Washington.

“China has had a front-row seat in witnessing Pakistan’s social, political, economic and security meltdown,” he said. “What is happening in Pakistan, along with the situation in post-U.S. Afghanistan, represents a serious threat to Chinese interests in the broader South and Central Asian regions.”

The attacks over the past week were part of the surging violence from militant and terrorist groups in Pakistan, which have grown more active and violent since U.S. troops withdrew from neighboring Afghanistan in 2021 and the Taliban seized power.

Much of the violence has been carried out by the Pakistani Taliban, an ideological ally and twin of the Taliban in Afghanistan, as well as the Baluchistan Liberation Army, a militant separatist organization that operates primarily in Baluchistan Province.

Baluch separatists have targeted Chinese workers in recent years, claiming that they are pillaging natural resources like gold and access to the sea that should exclusively belong to the people of Baluchistan.

The Pakistani Taliban has close ties to a militant group known as the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, which seeks independence for Uyghur Muslims in China. As part of that relationship, the Pakistani Taliban has carried out attacks on Chinese interests in Pakistan in response to Beijing’s treatment of Uyghurs.

A U.N. monitoring report in January noted concerns about the East Turkestan Islamic Movement more closely collaborating with the Pakistani Taliban in recent months “in recruitment, training, planning attacks and posing a regional threat.”

The recent uptick in militant violence in Pakistan has added to the political and economic crises the country has faced over the past two years. It has also spurred growing tension in neighboring Afghanistan with its Taliban leaders, who Pakistani officials have accused of offering safe haven to the militants carrying out the attacks in Pakistan. Taliban officials have denied those claims.

Tensions between the two countries have come to a head in recent months. In September, Pakistani officials announced a new policy aimed at deporting the roughly 1.7 million Afghans living in the country illegally. Earlier this month, Pakistan also bombed Pakistani Taliban targets inside Afghanistan for the first time in nearly two years.

“The surge in violence is linked to Pakistan’s deteriorating ties with the Taliban,” said Abdul Basit, a research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. “The new wave of violence also points to improving operational capabilities of both jihadists and Baloch separatist groups to hit hard targets in coordinated attacks. Both groups are employing suicide bombers, which underscores steady recruitment into their ranks.”

The attack on Tuesday took place along the Karakoram Highway, which links Islamabad, the capital, with the mountainous northern region of Gilgit-Baltistan and China, following one of the ancient Silk Road’s many routes.

The Chinese nationals were traveling along the highway in a security convoy when a vehicle laden with explosives rammed into it, according to Bilal Faizi, the spokesman for emergency rescue services in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province.

One day earlier, Baluch separatists attacked a Pakistani naval base, P.N.S. Siddique, in the Turbat district of Baluchistan Province. The Pakistan military said that four heavily armed attackers had been unable to breach security and were killed at the outer boundary of the base. Two Pakistani soldiers were killed in the firefight. The Baluchistan Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the attack.

On March 20, two Pakistani soldiers were killed when Baluch separatists attacked Pakistani military intelligence offices in Gwadar, the southwestern city where Pakistan is developing a port with the help of China. Eight heavily armed gunmen tried to enter the Gwadar Port Authority and were killed after a firefight that lasted several hours, officials said.

In response to Tuesday’s attack, Pakistani officials vowed to investigate the incident and bring those behind the attacks to justice.

After visiting the Chinese Embassy in Islamabad on Tuesday, Syed Mohsin Raza Naqvi, the minister for interior and narcotic control, said that the government would “deal with the elements involved in the attack with iron hands.”

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also visited the embassy and expressed condolences, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The ministry condemned the attack and urged Pakistan to “thoroughly investigate the incident as soon as possible, hunt down the perpetrators and bring them to justice.”

It added: “Any attempt to undermine China-Pakistan cooperation will never succeed.”
Suicide Attack Kills Chinese Nationals Working in Pakistan (Wall Street Journal)
Wall Street Journal [3/26/2024 12:04 PM, Waqar Gillani and Shan Li, 810K, Negative]
At least five Chinese nationals were killed in northern Pakistan on Tuesday when a car packed with explosives hit their van, Pakistani officials said, the latest in a string of attacks that have targeted Chinese interests in the country.

The attack highlights the increasing security challenges China faces in countries such as Pakistan, a major recipient of Chinese investment. As China has sought to extend its influence globally, Chinese workers in Asia and Africa have come under attack. In Pakistan, local insurgents have targeted Chinese construction sites, citizens and symbols.

Pakistan’s interior ministry said the incident was a suicide attack. A police officer in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where the attack occurred, said some remains of the attacker had been found. The remains of the victims were sent to Islamabad, the police officer said.

The Chinese nationals killed were on their way to a dam construction project when they were attacked, the Chinese embassy in Islamabad said. A Pakistani driver was also killed.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi condemned the attack and voiced support for the Chinese government and the families of those killed.

“The enemy has targeted citizens of a very reliable friend of Pakistan,” Naqvi said on the social-media platform X. “This isn’t an attack on the Chinese, but on Pakistan’s most trusted friend. We will respond in a hard manner.”

Beijing is the world’s largest lender to the developing world, mainly through the Belt and Road infrastructure program since Chinese leader Xi Jinping came to power. The country has faced criticism that it is pursuing lopsided lending deals that drive developing nations into heavy debt without necessarily delivering a boost to the local economy.

The security of thousands of Chinese workers has become a sensitive issue in Pakistan, a showcase for Chinese development investment where Beijing has spent billions on roads, ports and power plants. Pakistan’s precarious finances also rely on lending from China and other allies, as well as from the International Monetary Fund. Islamabad has dedicated thousands of soldiers to protecting Chinese projects and personnel.

China “requires Pakistan to conduct a thorough investigation of the attack and severely punish the perpetrators, while at the same time taking measures to protect the safety of citizens, institutions and projects in Pakistan,” the embassy said. Pakistan’s foreign ministry on Tuesday said it would continue to work closely with China on security for Chinese people and projects.

In 2022, a Pakistani woman blew herself up outside the gate of Karachi University’s Chinese language institute, killing three Chinese teachers and a Pakistani driver. The Baloch Liberation Army, the deadliest separatist group in the southwestern province of Balochistan, claimed responsibility. The province is home to the strategic Gwadar port that is at the center of Beijing’s investment program in Pakistan.

Separately, the army said it thwarted two major attacks by militants in Balochistan in the past week, including an attempt to storm a part of the Gwadar port complex.

Pakistan has seen its overall security situation deteriorate sharply since the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan in 2021. The country has seen a wave of attacks on its security forces by Pakistani militants Islamabad has said are based over the border. Kabul has denied the allegations it harbors those or other militants.
Six Killed in Latest Pakistan Militant Attack on China Interests (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [3/26/2024 10:04 PM, Kamran Haider and Ismail Dilawar, 5543K, Negative]
Five Chinese nationals and one Pakistani were killed in a suicide bomb blast in Pakistan’s northwest Shangla region on Tuesday, the latest attack targeting workers and infrastructure projects associated with Islamabad’s key ally and investor.

Militants drove an explosive-laden car into a vehicle carrying the Chinese citizens heading to the Dasu dam that’s being built by a Chinese company, local police said. The Chinese nationals were part of a convoy of at least 12 vehicles when the militants attacked and a Pakistani driver was also killed, one of the police officials said.

This is the latest in a series of attacks appearing to target Beijing’s interests in Pakistan. On the same day, local militants attacked a naval base in southwest Balochistan in the latest development in a simmering insurgency, according to the Dawn newspaper, and last week they struck near a strategic port operated by a Chinese company in the same province.

No group so far has claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s attack in northwest Pakistan. The Dasu hydro-power project is part of President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative and in 2021 a bus carrying workers to the site became the target of an attack that left 12 people dead, including nine Chinese citizens.

Pakistan has seen a resurgence in militant attacks since August 2021 when the Taliban took over in neighboring Afghanistan, emboldening groups like the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan — a local offshoot. Pakistan had 586 attacks in 2023, 55% more than the previous year, according to Islamabad-based Center for Research & Security Studies.

China’s embassy in Pakistan asked for a thorough investigation of Tuesday’s attack and that the perpetrators be severely punished. It also called on the authorities to take steps to protect Chinese citizens, institutions and projects in Pakistan to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

Chinese investment is crucial for Pakistan, which is also seeking a fresh loan from the International Monetary Fund to support the cash strapped economy.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who won a second term in power after a contentious election, is seeking to revive projects on the China Pakistan Economic Corridor, an infrastructure network of roads, railways and ports under the Belt and Road initiative. Projects worth about $60 billion were completed in the first phase that started in 2015.

Pakistan’s Interior Ministry condemned the suicide bomb attack Tuesday and vowed a “strong retaliation.”

“The enemy has targeted the citizens of Pakistan’s most trusted friend,” the ministry said in a statement. “This was not an attack on Chinese nationals, but on Pakistan.”
Pakistani police say 5 Chinese nationals and their local driver were killed in a suicide attack (AP)
AP [3/26/2024 11:19 AM, Riaz Khan, 22K, Negative]
A suicide bomber in northwest Pakistan rammed his explosive-laden car into a vehicle Tuesday, killing five Chinese nationals and their Pakistani driver, police and government officials said.

The attack happened in Shangla, a district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, local police chief Bakhat Zahir said. He added that the five killed were construction workers and engineers heading to the Dasu Dam, the biggest hydropower project in Pakistan, where they worked.

Authorities said the bodies were transported to a nearby hospital, and that security forces started a search in the area to look for accomplices. Police also launched an investigation into the attack.

No group claimed responsibility, but suspicion is likely to fall on Baluch separatists, who have claimed previous such attacks.

Tuesday’s attack came less than a week after Pakistani security forces killed eight Baluchistan Liberation Army militants who opened fire on a convoy carrying Chinese citizens outside the Chinese-funded Gwadar port in the volatile southwestern Baluchistan province.

The BLA wants independence from the central government in Islamabad.

Pakistan’s top political and military leadership denounced the attack.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif visited the Chinese Embassy where he met with the Chinese ambassador, Jiang Zaidong, a government statement said. It said that Sharif condemned the attack, saying those who orchestrated the attack would be punished and a high-level investigation will be conducted into the attack.

“The sympathies of the entire nation, including me, are with the families of the Chinese citizens” who were killed in the attack, he said.

In a statement, the Chinese Embassy condemned the attack and said it has requested Pakistan to “thoroughly investigate the attack and severely punish the perpetrators.”

Earlier, Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi also condemned the attack in a statement on Tuesday and offered condolences to the families of the deceased. He wrote: “The enemy has targeted Chinese citizens who are the friends of Pakistan,” without elaborating who he was referring to. He also vowed to “deal with an iron hand” those responsible, and expressed hope the attack wouldn’t negatively impact Pakistani-Chinese relations.

Naqvi also visited the Chinese Embassy in the capital, Islamabad, where he briefed the Chinese ambassador about the attack, promising a full investigation, according to the Ministry of Interior.

Also Tuesday, Pakistan’s military denounced the attack.

“Such heinous acts of violence against innocent civilians, foreigners and the armed forces will not deter the resolve of the Pakistani people, its security forces and our partners to root out the menace (of) terrorism from our country,” it said in a statement.

Thousands of Chinese nationals work in Shangla on projects relating to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which includes a multitude of megaprojects such as road construction, power plants and agriculture.

The CPEC, also known as the One Road Project, is a lifeline for Pakistan’s cash-strapped government, currently facing one of its worst economic crises. The project is part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, a global endeavor aimed at reconstituting the Silk Road and linking China to all corners of Asia.

Chinese laborers working on CPEC-related projects in Pakistan have come under attack in recent years.

In July 2021, at least 13 people, including nine Chinese nationals, were killed when a suicide bomber detonated his vehicle near a bus carrying several Chinese and Pakistani engineers and laborers, prompting the Chinese companies to suspend work at the time.

Since then, Pakistan has beefed up security on CPEC-related projects.
Pakistan’s national parties never mind the Balochs (Nikkei Asia – opinion)
Nikkei Asia [3/27/2024 4:00 AM, Salman Rafi Sheikh, 223K, Negative]
For years, the Pakistani government has said that the port of Gwadar is in the process of being transformed by foreign investors into the Arabian Sea equivalent of Singapore, Dubai or Shenzhen.

Yet when heavy rains struck the area a month ago, the grim reality of Gwadar’s underdevelopment was clear. Hundreds of homes were damaged and around 10,000 people were evacuated by boat while the rest were left to scrounge for drinking water. It turned out that new port infrastructure had blocked the city’s normal rainwater drainage, leaving many neighborhoods submerged.

This kind of disaster is not an exception in Balochistan province. Even though it possesses critical natural resources, including gas, coal, iron, copper and gold, and Beijing has poured in billions of dollars in support of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to Gwadar, Balochistan remains Pakistan’s least-developed province.

It is little wonder that Balochistan has been beset by a large-scale separatist insurgency. Just last week, eight militants stormed Gwadar Port Authority offices, though they were killed before fully detonating their bombs. Last year, militants carried out 78 attacks in Balochistan, up from 71 in 2022 and the largest number suffered by any Pakistani province.

When a group of female Baloch activists, led by Mahrang Baloch, set off on a 1,600-kilometer march to Islamabad last December to protest enforced disappearances at the hands of security forces, they were greeted at the national capital with water cannon, tear gas and arrest.

Although campaigning had already begun for the election to be held two months later, none of Pakistan’s mainstream political parties showed interest of any kind in the protest.

Their apathy toward Baloch issues might seem surprising. It stems in large part from electoral politics. While the largest of Pakistan’s four provinces in area, Balochistan is the smallest in terms of population and accounts for just 16 of 265 seats in the National Assembly.

In the February vote, the winners of the 16 seats were split among eight parties and two independents. This fragmentation, typical of voting in Balochistan, further dilutes the province’s national influence.

Instead, mainstream national parties are content to leave Balochistan to the military, given the continuing insurgency and the Chinese government’s demands for stronger security protection for personnel involved in CPEC projects and related activities. This in turn has brought the province’s politics and the economy further under military control while also bolstering the army’s national position.

As a result, the identity of Balochistan’s chief minister and the party with the most seats in the provincial assembly carry little importance.

In 2017, when the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lost the military’s favor and Nawaz Sharif was disqualified as prime minister, the party also lost control of Balochistan as several of its provincial representatives defected to the Balochistan Awami Party.

This party, which had military backing, then ruled Balochistan until last year. But ahead of this year’s election, with the military again showing favor to the PML-N nationally, many of the defectors returned to the fold.

Sarfraz Bugti, Balochistan’s new chief minister, was an Awami Party member until he joined the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) in December. The PPP won the most seats in the provincial assembly in February’s vote, besting the PML-N by one seat.

While most of Balochistan’s parties took part in post-election protests regarding suspicious final results that differed markedly from preliminary results, the outcome was most disadvantageous for ethnic parties like the Awami Party.

Since the new administration took office in the province, Mahrang Baloch has claimed that officials have been sabotaging relief efforts organized by Baloch activists to help flood victims in Gwadar. This could be part of state efforts to block Baloch nationalists from expanding their institutional footholds.

But it is unlikely the state can permanently marginalize Balochi nationalists like Mahrang Baloch. Balochistan posted the lowest voter turnout of any province last month, a sign of the lack of public confidence in the political system as it stands. This attitude in turn is fueling nationalism and separatism.

Pakistan’s national parties must realize that Balochistan has to be more than a sideshow or army playground. They need to offer policy solutions to meet the needs of the people of Balochistan if they want Balochs and other residents to feel they are part of this country.
India
India Raises ‘Strong Objections’ to US Over Kejriwal Comments (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [3/27/2024 5:05 AM, Sudhi Ranjan Sen, 5.5M, Negative]
India complained to the US on Wednesday over its comments related to the arrest last week of an opposition leader just weeks before the South Asian nation holds elections.

A US State Department spokesman, speaking on background, said Tuesday it’s closely following the reports of the arrest of Arvind Kejriwal, chief minister of Delhi and leader of the opposition Aam Aadmi Party. The US encourages a fair, transparent, and timely legal process, the spokesman said.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs said Wednesday it raised “strong objections” to the comments.

“Casting aspersions are unwarranted,” Randhir Jaiswal, a spokesman for the ministry, said in the statement. “States are expected to be respectful of the sovereignty and internal affairs of the others.”

Kejriwal was arrested last week by the anti-money laundering agency in relation to a bribery case, prompting a backlash from opposition parties accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government of using federal agencies to target them. Kejriwal’s party governs Delhi, the capital, and the northern Indian state of Punjab.

India recently raised similar objections after German officials commented about Kejriwal’s arrest. Unlike a March 23 statement from the MEA that said New Delhi called Germany’s deputy chief of mission to a meeting to register its disapproval, the ministry’s statement on Wednesday didn’t say whether a US diplomat was similarly summoned.
India strongly objects to US remarks on opposition leader Kejriwal’s arrest (Reuters)
Reuters [3/27/2024 5:11 AM, Sudipto Ganguly, 5239K, Negative]
India has strongly objected to remarks made by the United States on the arrest of key opposition leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday.

New Delhi’s objection came two days after Washington said it is closely following reports of Kejriwal’s arrest and that it encourages a fair legal process.

Kejriwal, whose Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) governs the national capital territory and the northern state of Punjab, was arrested last week by the federal financial crime-fighting agency on corruption charges, weeks before India begins voting in general elections on April 19.

AAP, all of whose main leaders are now imprisoned in connection with the case, says he has been "falsely arrested" in a "fabricated case". The federal government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) deny political interference.

"India’s legal processes are based on an independent judiciary which is committed to objective and timely outcomes. Casting aspersions on that is unwarranted," the Indian foreign ministry said in a statement.

"In diplomacy, states are expected to be respectful of the sovereignty and internal affairs of others. This responsibility is even more so in case of fellow democracies. It could otherwise end up setting unhealthy precedents," it said.

Kejriwal’s arrest after the announcement of elections has angered the opposition alliance challenging Modi and drawn international attention.

The U.S. comments on Kejriwal followed those by Germany, which said Berlin assumes and expects that the standards relating to independence of judiciary and basic democratic principles will also be applied in this case.

In response, New Delhi summoned a German envoy to protest against the remarks. The acting U.S. deputy chief of mission in New Delhi was also summoned on Wednesday, news agency ANI reported.

India and the U.S. enjoy close, strategic ties and Washington has increasingly come to see New Delhi as an important partner in its effort to push back against China’s growing power worldwide.
Jailed Indian Opposition Politician To Run Capital From Cell (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [3/26/2024 9:26 AM, Staff, 11975K, Neutral]
A senior Indian opposition politician will run the capital from his prison cell, a senior aide said Tuesday, facing down growing calls by rivals demanding he resign.

Arvind Kejriwal, chief minister of New Delhi and a key leader in an opposition alliance formed to compete against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in upcoming elections, was arrested on Thursday in connection with a long-running corruption probe.

Atishi Marlena Singh, New Delhi’s education minister and fellow member of Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (Common Man Party, AAP), said "statutory and constitutional provisions" allowed him to remain in his post while behind bars.

"We are very clear that Arvind Kejriwal will remain the chief minister of Delhi," Singh, 42, told AFP.

"If he were to resign when there’s been no trial and no conviction, it opens up the route for other opposition chief ministers to be removed," she added.

India’s main financial investigation agency, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which arrested Kejriwal, has launched probes into at least four other state chief ministers or their family members.

All the investigations involve political opponents of Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

While Modi enjoys high levels of support among his backers, critics accuse him of using law enforcement agencies to intimidate opposition leaders.

Kejriwal, 55, denies the charges against him.

His supporters, who held a rally in the city on Tuesday demanding his release, say charges against him are politically motivated and aimed at sidelining challengers of Modi ahead of the polls.

Modi’s political opponents and international rights groups have long sounded the alarm on India’s shrinking democratic space.

"All the centre has to do is file some fake cases, and then the ED goes and arrests them", according to Singh.

Nearly a billion Indians will vote to elect a new government in six-week-long parliamentary elections starting on April 19, the largest democratic exercise in the world.

Many analysts see Modi’s re-election as a foregone conclusion, partly due to the resonance of his assertive Hindu-nationalist politics with members of the country’s majority faith.

Hundreds of BJP loyalists held a rival march through New Delhi on Tuesday, chanting support for Modi and demanding Kejriwal resign.

"You can run a gang from jail but not a government," BJP lawmaker Manoj Tiwari told the crowd. "A government cannot be run from prison".

In February, Jharkhand state’s chief minister Hemant Soren was arrested and jailed on corruption charges.

Soren, who denies all charges, resigned and handed power to a colleague.
India says new law saves persecuted refugees. Rohingya ask ‘Why not us?’ (Al Jazeera)
Al Jazeera [3/27/2024 12:00 AM, Gurvinder Singh, 2.1M, Neutral]
Muhammad Hamin has been unable to sleep at night since March 8 when the government of the northeast Indian state of Manipur ordered the deportation of Rohingya refugees.

On that day, the state’s Chief Minister N Biren Singh – who belongs to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – posted on X that his government had deported the first batch of eight refugees from a group of 77 members who had “entered India illegally”.

The deportation was later stopped after Myanmar authorities refused to work with India on the matter.

Hamin, a Rohingya who came to India in 2018, is in New Delhi, some 1,700km (1,050 miles) away from Manipur. But the 26-year-old, who is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in business administration in India’s capital, spends his time watching television or scrolling through social media platforms on his mobile phone for any updates on attempts to deport members of his community.

He does this even as he observes the dawn-to-dusk fasts during the holy month of Ramadan.

“The news of deportation has certainly triggered a panic button among most of the Myanmar nationals living in India as nobody knows who would be the next to go out and face the same horror of violence and bloodshed,” he said.

For many Rohingya refugees in India, that fear is tinged with bitter irony. Three days after the Manipur government began its crackdown on Rohingya, Modi’s government on March 11 announced the implementation of a controversial citizenship law aimed at granting Indian citizenship to persecuted minorities from neighbouring countries.

The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) grants nationality to six religious minorities – Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians – who had come to India from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan before 2015 and faced religious persecution.

Missing from the list of potential beneficiaries are Muslim communities from these nations, who are the targets of violence, such as the Ahmadiyya in Pakistan and the Hazara in Afghanistan. Also absent are the Rohingya, from another bordering nation, also persecuted, and also mostly Muslim.

“We are also the victims of religious persecution, just like the citizens of three other countries that will be granted citizenship. We are also a minority in Buddhist-dominated Myanmar. But the Indian government is not bothered about us simply because we are Muslims,” a Rohingya rights activist told Al Jazeera, requesting anonymity for fear of reprisals from the government.

A long struggle

The Rohingya are a mainly Muslim ethnic minority from Myanmar, which denies them citizenship, thereby rendering them stateless and without basic rights. The community, most of whom are residents of Myanmar’s Rakhine State, has been facing violence and repression in the Buddhist-majority country for decades.

In 2017, more than 750,000 Rohingya were forced to flee Myanmar after it launched what the United Nations has called a military campaign conducted with “genocidal intent”. The people fled to the coasts of southern Bangladesh, transforming the region into the world’s largest refugee camp.

Many also fled to neighbouring India or reached the country after fleeing the camps in Bangladesh.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says nearly 79,000 refugees from Myanmar, including Rohingya, live in India, with about 22,000 registered with the UN refugee agency. Most Rohingya in India have been given UNHCR cards that recognise them as a persecuted community.

Hamin arrived in India in 2018 – a year after his family of 11 members landed in Bangladesh’s cramped settlements.

“My family is still in Bangladesh but I came here for my education and started living with my friends who had come here before me,” he said.

But like other Rohingya refugees in India, his existence in the country is precarious.

India is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, which spells out the rights of refugees and a state’s responsibilities towards them. The South Asian country also does not have a law protecting refugees.

Critics have slammed the government for excluding persecuted minorities such as the Rohingya from Myanmar or the Ahmadis from Pakistan from the scope of the citizenship law, calling it a double standard aimed at pandering to anti-Muslim tropes ahead of the general election starting next month.

‘Reckless statements’

During a hearing last week on a plea challenging the deportation of Rohingya, the government told the Supreme Court the group did not have the fundamental right to live in India.

The Rohingya activist who requested anonymity said: “We have the refugee cards issued by the UNHCR but the Indian government claims we do not have the fundamental right to live in India.”

Supreme Court lawyer Colin Gonsalves condemned the government’s stand.

“The right to live is not only for Indians but covers all citizens in the territory of India, including the Rohingya and others who flee religious persecution. The Indian Constitution protects their rights but it is surprising that senior officers in the government are making reckless statements,” he said.

“The top court makes it clear that protection of the lives of the refugees is a constitutional right. They are protected under [the] non-refoulement or non-return policy that states a refugee cannot be sent back to the place from where he or she had fled due to the fear of physical or sexual assault.”

‘Future seems dark’

Salai Dokhar is a New Delhi-based activist who runs India for Myanmar, a political campaign creating awareness of the rights of refugees. He fears the deportation of Rohingya could endanger the lives of the refugees amid a civil war in Myanmar that arose after a military coup in the country in 2021.

“We fear the refugees might be used by the [Myanmar] army as human shields in the [civil] war or would be treated badly for leaving the country,” he said, adding that if the Indian government was adamant about deporting the Rohingya, it should hand them over to the National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC), a platform of opposition parties in Myanmar.

For years, the Rohingya in India were also subjected to a hate campaign by alleged right-wing Hindu groups on social media. In January, Hamin and a fellow Rohingya, Muhammad Kawsar, 19, filed a petition in the Delhi High Court demanding action against Facebook for providing a platform for an anti-refugee social media campaign. The petitioners urged the court to order the United States-based social media company to remove hate speech and other harmful content.

“We have been noticing that there are hate campaigns against us on Facebook but the company has done nothing to stop them. Some posts are briefly suspended and soon restored on social media. Such posts heighten the risk of attacks on the vulnerable community by branding them as terrorists,” said Hamin.

Germany-based Rohingya activist Nay San Lwin, also the co-founder of the Free Rohingya Coalition, a non-profit fighting for the rights of the community, said the Indian media’s frequent portrayal of the Rohingya as a potential national security threat has compounded their challenges.

“The right-wing Indian government doesn’t hold a favourable outlook towards us and the situation is only made worse by the apathetic attitude of the media,” he said.

“We just need some protection to live here [until] the situation normalises in our country. But the future seems dark for us.”
India’s chipmaking ambitions shadowed by infrastructure concerns (Nikkei Asia)
Nikkei Asia [3/26/2024 12:48 PM, Ryosuke Hanada, 293K, Neutral]
India is accelerating efforts to become a global powerhouse in semiconductor production with three factories breaking ground this year, though its success hinges on whether it can dispel lingering infrastructure concerns.

Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India has worked to attract investment in the field through tax reform and subsidies. The government at the end of February approved the construction of three semiconductor facilities.

Two of them -- a fabrication hub owned by Tata Electronics and Taiwan’s Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., and an assembly plant owned by Japan’s Renesas Electronics, Thailand’s Stars Microelectronics and India’s CG Power -- are located in Gujarat, Modi’s home state.

The third plant, belonging to Tata Semiconductor Assembly and Test, is located in Assam, a state that has been slow to attract manufacturers.

"These semiconductor manufacturing hubs will have lasting effect on the entire nation," Natarajan Chandrasekaran, chairman of Tata Group holding company Tata Sons, said at a foundation-laying ceremony for the three plants this month.

"The day is not distant when [India] will emerge as a global powerhouse in this field," Modi said at the ceremony.

With China facing protracted tensions with the U.S., India has emerged as an alternative manufacturing hub for global business.

In a Japan Bank for International Cooperation survey conducted last year, Japanese manufacturers saw India as the most promising country over the medium-term for the second year in a row, while China fell to third place. The percentage of respondents voicing concern over Indian infrastructure has been declining over the years.

Still, whether semiconductor production in India "can overcome challenges on electricity, water and talent remains unclear," said Shotaro Kumagai at the Japan Research Institute.

Even areas with better infrastructure, like Gujarat, still experience temporary power outages, according to Kumagai. Low production yields "means production hubs could end up generating little profit," he said.

Many companies remain cautious about investing in India. The manufacturing sector accounts for less than 20% of the country’s gross domestic product, below the 25% target set by Modi’s government.
Smuggling suspect knew of frigid cold before Indian family’s death on Canada border, prosecutors say (AP)
AP [3/27/2024 12:42 AM, Steve Karnowski, 456K, Negative]
A man accused of helping smuggle people across the U.S.-Canadian border had been warned of blizzard conditions before he arranged for four members of an Indian family to cross in 2022, prosecutors allege. The parents and two young children froze to death.

Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, 28, who prosecutors say went by the alias “Dirty Harry,” is due in federal court in Minnesota on Wednesday on seven counts of human smuggling. The man he allegedly hired to drive the Indian nationals from the Canadian border to the Chicago area also faces four counts, according to a new indictment unsealed last week.

The alleged driver, Steve Shand, of Deltona, Florida, was arrested and charged with human smuggling two years ago. He has pleaded not guilty and remains free on his own recognizance. Proceedings in his case have been put on hold several times.

In a recent court document, an agent with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Patel has been refused a U.S. visa at least five times, including four at U.S. consulates in India and once at the U.S. consulate in Ottawa, Canada. He is in the U.S. illegally, the agent said.

Patel’s name didn’t emerge until he was arrested in Chicago last month on a previously sealed warrant issued last September. Defense attorney Thomas Leinenweber said in an email that Patel will plead not guilty on Wednesday. He didn’t elaborate.

Unsealed court papers connect Patel with a human trafficking group based in the northwest Indian state of Gujarat. The group allegedly would get Indian nationals into Canada on student visas, then move them on to the Chicago area.

The migrants would work for substandard wages at Indian restaurants while they paid off debt to the smugglers, according to the court documents.

Prosecutors allege Shand was driving a rented 15-passenger van when it was stopped by the U.S. Border Patrol in Minnesota just south of the Canadian border on Jan. 19, 2022. Inside the van were two Indians from Gujarat who had entered the U.S. illegally, while five others were spotted walking nearby. According to court documents, they told officers they’d been walking for more than 11 hours in temperatures well below zero Fahrenheit (-34 Celsius).

One person was hospitalized with severe cold-related injuries.

A man with the group told authorities he paid the equivalent of about $87,000 to get smuggled into the U.S. He also had a backpack that contained children’s clothes and a diaper, but there were no children in the group.

The man told authorities he was carrying the items for a family of four with a small child, all of whom had become separated from his group during the night. Later that day, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police found the four dead, just 10 meters (33 feet) from the border near Emerson, Manitoba.

According to a series of messages sent via WhatsApp, Shand told Patel, “Make sure everyone is dressed for the blizzard conditions please.” Patel replied, “Done.” Then Shand remarked, “We not losing any money.”

The victims were identified as Jagdish Patel, 39; his wife, Vaishaliben, 34; their 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi; and 3-year-old son Dharmik, all from the village of Dingucha in Gujarat state. It’s not clear if they were related to the defendant because Patel is a common name in India.

Jagdish Patel and his wife were educated and had worked as teachers, but sought a better life in the U.S, relatives have said.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said their deaths were “mind blowing.”

The victims faced not only bitter cold, but also flat, open fields; large snowdrifts and complete darkness, the Mounted Police have said. They were wearing winter clothing, but it wasn’t enough to save them.

A court filing unsealed last month said Shand told investigators he first met Harshkumar Patel, whom he also knew by the nickname “Dirty Harry,” at a gaming establishment Patel managed in Orange City, Florida.

Shand said Patel originally tried to recruit him to pick up Indian nationals who were illegally crossing the U.S.-Canada border in New York. Shand said he declined, but agreed to pick up others in Minnesota.

Shand said Patel paid him about $25,000 altogether for five trips to the border in December 2021 and January 2022. He said he dropped off his passengers at an Indian supermarket in Chicago, a residence in a wealthy part of the Chicago area, and at a suburban Chicago motel.
NSB
China Courts Nepal’s New Left Alliance Government (The Diplomat)
The Diplomat [3/26/2024 9:13 AM, Rishi Gupta, 201K, Neutral]
Nepal’s newly appointed deputy prime minister and foreign minister, Narayan Kaji Shrestha, is in China on his first foreign visit from March 24 – April 1. The trip comes less than three weeks after the new government was formed in Nepal on March 4. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Politburo were quick to extend an invitation to the newly formed government, now led by a five-party Left Alliance.

As a country landlocked between two nuclear powers, India and China, Nepal’s foreign policy has been constrained by its geographical location. Historically, Kathmandu has enjoyed close diplomatic ties with India, marked by the 1950 Treaty of Peace and Friendship. An open border, sociocultural bonds, people-to-people ties, and no visa regime have further strengthened the bonds.

However, in the last decade, there has been a drastic shift in Nepal’s diplomatic consideration to deepen ties with its northern neighbor: China. The leftist parties – mainly the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist Center and Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML), have advocated moving away from India’s longstanding centrality in Nepali foreign policy, which suits their political mandate and natural ideological bonds with China.

The alleged border blockade by India in 2015 over New Delhi’s reported unhappiness with Nepal’s new constitution and the ongoing border dispute over the Kalapani Region has contributed to a trust deficit in bilateral relations. China has left no stone unturned in exploiting the situation.

Soon after the CPN-UML took over the government in 2016, Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli went on a week-long China visit. Among several deals, the Transport, and Transit Agreement was at the heart of his China visit. It showcased Nepal’s intent to find alternative routes for its third-country trade and increase connectivity for better outreach with China.

The next year changed the course of China-Nepal ties as Beijing succeeded in getting Kathmandu to sign up to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in May 2017. This was seen as a significant diplomatic loss for India, considering New Delhi had objected to the BRI since its inception because part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor traverses disputed territory.

China-Nepal ties received another high-profile boost with the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping in September 2019. During his trip, bilateral ties were elevated from a “Comprehensive Partnership of Cooperation Featuring Ever-lasting Friendship” to a “Strategic Partnership of Cooperation Featuring Ever-lasting Friendship for Development and Prosperity.” It is still unclear whether Nepal has gained anything through the addition of “strategic” to the diplomatic mantra, but it was a win for China in letter and spirit.

Beijing has clearly established a bonhomie with left forces in Nepal. However, it has still been unable to defeat India’s central role in Nepali trade, transit, and transportation due to the geographical limitations presented by the mountainous terrain between China and Nepal. This has eventually led to the BRI failing on technical grounds. To date, nearly seven years after the deal was signed, not a single project has been launched under the BRI framework.

The much-hyped “Trans-Himalayan Multi-Dimensional Connectivity Network,” which includes a railway corridor across the Himalayas connecting Tibet to Kathmandu, has no takers in Nepal for one reason: Who will bear the cost? Nepal certainly cannot afford it. Kathmandu has repeatedly conveyed that it would like to fund the project using more grants than debt.

China’s financial assistance to Nepal has primarily been criticized as “debt-trap” diplomacy. China has consistently denied this, but it is difficult for Beijing to escape such concerns amid examples of default by recipients of China’s loans – including Sri Lanka in Nepal’s immediate neighborhood. Nepal, as a smaller neighbor of China, has its fears and wants to lessen the risks while engaging with China.

While Nepal’s other major political party, the Nepali Congress, has hesitated to engage more profoundly with China due to such concerns, the left parties have a limited bandwidth to resist China. They derive their “ultra-nationalistic” ideology from an anti-India and pro-China approach. Such a political constituency allows China to court Nepal on a larger scale, suiting its strategic needs.

Unfortunately, the political instability and short-term governments in Nepal keep Beijing’s Kathmandu plans on hold more than they are in action. Therefore, Beijing has tried to exploit smaller windows of engagement whenever a left-led government in Nepal exists. The current left alliance government in Nepal is one such opportunity for Beijing to explore the maximum.

While Shrestha is in China, Chinese leaders will seek to pursue the implementation of past accords, including the Belt and Road Initiative, which has been in cold storage since it was signed in May 2017.

Shrestha will also visit Tibet to reaffirm Nepal’s “One China” policy and its commitment to not allowing “Free Tibet” voices on its soil. China heavily focuses on the presence of Tibetan refugees in Nepal who escaped Communist Party rule in Tibet. Beijing worries that the “Free Tibet” movement in Nepal, led by the Tibetan community, harms its international stature on the human rights front and poses security threats to peace and stability in Tibet.
Central Asia
Kyrgyzstan urges citizens to limit travel to Russia (Reuters)
Reuters [3/27/2024 4:29 AM, Olzahas Auyezov, 201K, Negative]
Kyrgyzstan’s foreign ministry has urged citizens of the Central Asian nation to put off unnecessary travel to Russia after a deadly shooting that was blamed on migrants from the region.

The developments have increased existing anti-immigrant sentiment in Russia, especially towards migrant labourers from the predominantly Muslim countries of Central Asia.

A Kyrgyzstan-born man was remanded in pre-trial custody by a Russian court on Tuesday, accused of providing accommodation to the four suspected perpetrators, who are of Tajik origin. Those four and three others of Tajik origin suspected of complicity are also in pre-trial detention.

Islamic State has said it was responsible for the attack and has released video footage of the massacre, which killed 139 people and wounded 182. The group has not identified any of the attackers.

Videos and photographs circulated online appear to show the suspects being tortured. The Kremlin declined to comment on the matter and many Russian politicians heaped praise on the security officers involved in the detentions.

Hundreds of thousands of people from Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan work in Russia, and some have already said it has become tougher for them to do so. Some passengers, for example, refuse to board taxis with Tajik drivers.

In an advisory issued this week, the Kyrgyz foreign ministry urged citizens to visit Russia only if necessary and, if they do, to make sure they have all the required documents on them at all times and comply with lawful orders of Russian police.
Kyrgyzstan’s Former Kingmaker Matraimov Brought Home As Enemy Of The State (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [3/26/2024 4:24 PM, Chris Rickleton, 223K, Neutral]
The former customs official, the kingmaker, the political "wallet" -- one of Kyrgyzstan’s most powerful and infamous sons?

The U.S.-sanctioned "corrupt actor" who was rumored to have bought elections, parliaments, and presidents?

The man who was convicted of smuggling and money-laundering operations first uncovered by journalists, only to walk from the courtroom a free man?

The man whose charitable foundation only last year finished building the new headquarters for the country’s official Islamic Muftiate?

The man whose talent for accruing unexplained riches earned him the moniker "Raim Million"?

On March 26, that same 52-year-old man was brought back from Baku to his homeland, where he is wanted for allegedly plotting to take out members of President Sadyr Japarov’s government using assassins from Azerbaijan.

Kyrgyzstan’s State Committee for National Security (UKMK) did not immediately confirm Raimbek Matraimov’s detention on home soil, but RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service and several other media outlets reported it citing government sources.

But photos and videos seemingly taken of Matraimov during the flight and after landing in Bishkek appear to suggest the government’s intention is to lower this former high-flier to depths of humiliation that would have seemed unimaginable just months ago.

And this time, it would appear real jail time awaits him.

Just three days earlier, the UKMK had given notice of the arrest of five citizens of Azerbaijan in connection with the alleged assassination plot, also releasing footage of the men being arrested.

The motive for the conspiracy, the UKMK said, was to eliminate the Kyrgyz administration due to its pursuit of "a policy of active struggle against organized crime groups that influence the entire post-Soviet space."

Claiming that Matraimov’s links to the supposed criminal group and apparent basing in Baku had emerged during the course of the investigation, the UKMK said that "a letter [for Matraimov’s] arrest was sent to the Azerbaijani side."

Azerbaijan, like Kyrgyzstan a member of the Organization of Turkic States, released a vague statement on the affair on March 26 saying four Kyrgyz citizens "had been identified" and were "transferred to the judiciary."

A plane reportedly carrying Matraimov to Kyrgyzstan arrived later that day at the Bishkek airport where some passengers were put in a van that drove to the capital, RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service reported from the airport.

A video clip shared by the private news outlet Kaktus Media, meanwhile, appeared to show Matraimov having his head held by machine gun-wielding officers of the law as he gave a brief interview to state media.

Fall From Grace

Kyrgyz authorities first announced they had put out a warrant for Matraimov’s arrest last fall, before any reports of assassination plots.

In November, powerful UKMK chief Kamchybek Tashiev said the confiscation of Matraimov’s properties in Kyrgyzstan was under way and accused the ex-official of "forming a criminal group" with another notorious figure, criminal kingpin Kamchybek Kolbaev.

The comment appeared to be quite ominous for Matraimov.

Just a few weeks before Tashiev spoke, Kolbaev had been gunned down by UKMK officers in broad daylight in central Bishkek, kicking off a campaign against organized crime figures across the country.

Both Kolbaev and Matraimov were the subject of U.S. government sanctions -- Matraimov since 2020 under the Global Magnitsky Act and Kolbaev since 2012 under the Kingpin Act.

Yet in Kyrgyzstan, they had until recently enjoyed impunity, a fact underscored by the highly symbolic stints that both men spent in jail in the first year of the Japarov and Tashiev regime -- a lenience not afforded to the administration’s other perceived rivals.

Rumors of a business relationship between Matraimov and Kolbaev were long-standing and received substance in several RFE/RL media investigations carried out in partnership with the Kyrgyz media outlet Kloop and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).

A key whistleblower for those investigations indicated that Kolbaev had offered protection and muscle for Matraimov, who acted as the gatekeeper of a long-term smuggling enterprise that saw hundreds of millions of dollars sent out of Kyrgyzstan and laundered into real estate and other investments.

Things didn’t end well for that money-launderer-turned informer.

But as media analyst Asel Sooronbaeva pointed out in an interview with RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service, Matraimov enjoyed impunity at the time these investigations were published.

"The first article about Raimbek Matraimov’s involvement in corruption, if I’m not mistaken, was published back in 2017. Only journalists and activists demanded that he be brought to justice. Politicians were on good terms with him," she said.

That assertion is backed up by videos and photographs of Matraimov, Kolbaev, and their relatives freely socializing with their counterparts in the political establishment.

One widely circulated photograph from 2022 showed sons of the duo posing for a photograph with Japarov’s son Rustam and former Ultimate Fighting Championship star Khabib Nurmagomedov.

But Japarov and Tashiev have centralized power in ruthless fashion since they first arrived in 2020, meaning less space for the kind of backroom powerbrokers that once gave shape to Kyrgyzstan’s political scene.

And that change is certainly being felt in the parliament, where Matraimov used to have plenty of friends.

Tune Changers

Take now-former lawmaker Shailoobek Atazov, who this month had his parliamentary seat stripped from him by an administrative court in Bishkek, for instance.

Days after the court’s ruling, an indignant Atazov accused Prosecutor-General Kurmankul Zulushev of hypocrisy in an impassioned speech.

"You say that [I] have connections with Matraimov. Dear Kyrgyz, tell me a politician who doesn’t have a relationship with Matraimov? [...] Prosecutor-General Zulushev, you were [Matraimov’s] blood brother," complained Atazov, who came to fame after heading a sports club owned by the Matraimovs.

"At your birthday, while the meat was being served, you said: ‘Nobody eat until my friend Raim arrives.’ You have been prosecutor-general for three years. If [Matraimov] is a major criminal, why did you not notice it?"

Atazov was one of several politicians shamed for their association with Matraimov in programming aired by Region TV -- a television channel closely associated with Tashiev -- in February.

Nadira Narmatova, a lawmaker best known as the author of a Russian-style law on NGOs, was another.

She argued that if knowing Matraimov was a crime, "parliament should disband because 99 percent of lawmakers know Matraimov."

Narmatova has showed no sign of giving up her seat, but three others mentioned by Region TV did.

Iskender Matraimov, Nurlan Rajabaliev, and Abdybahab Boronbaev quit parliament soon after the program aired.

Iskender Matraimov, Raim’s older brother, had in the past vociferously defended his sibling from what he called attacks from the media.

In 2019, he said that he had "raised, guided, and married off" Raim after their father, Ismail Matraimov, died.

"The fact that deputies or ministers pay visits to us is not because of him, as everyone writes, but out of respect for me. I make these invitations," he said. "[So] you should rather write about me."

But on February 16, after authorities seized a home apparently belonging to Raimbek Matraimov in the southern city of Osh and dozens of properties in the family’s hometown of Kara-Suu, the elder Matraimov struck a somewhat less defensive tone.

"By law, upon reaching the age of 18, parents are not responsible for their child. The brother is also not responsible for the younger brother.... I will answer for myself," Iskender Matraimov said, claiming the seized Osh property was an inheritance from their mother.

The Saimati Precedent

The biggest Matraimov tune-changer of all? Arguably Tashiev himself.

In 2019, when Tashiev was very much a politician on the outside looking in, he called Matraimov a "simple, flexible guy" in an interview with RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service and questioned whether RFE/RL journalists had been correct to "make a monster" out of him.

"For what purpose did you, [RFE/RL] journalists, conduct this investigation? Is this done to expose government corruption or to smear one person?" Tashiev asked.

But bonhomie dies in the battle for political supremacy.

And that is the context in which many observers see the actions of Tashiev’s UKMK, from the recent crackdown on criminal networks to the case of the alleged assassination plot.

This is perhaps fair given that nothing about the authoritarian 3 1/2 year reign of Japarov and Tashiev has suggested a high regard for the rule of law.

At the same time, though, it is not the first time either Matraimov or his associates have fallen under suspicion of a crime worse than corruption.

The contract-style killing in Istanbul of Aierken Saimaiti, a self-confessed money launderer who acted as the main whistleblower for RFE/RL’s 2019 investigation, triggered similar accusations -- albeit from the public rather than the state.

Prior to his death in November of that year, Saimaiti had provided reporters with bank records and internal ledgers detailing how he earlier transferred hundreds of millions of dollars out of Kyrgyzstan in what he claimed was a massive money-laundering operation involving Kyrgyz customs officials.

Police in Turkey, an ally of Kyrgyzstan, arrested three people on suspicion of involvement in the slaying and attributed the motivation for the killing as a religious one.

But Saimaiti had previously told journalists he feared he was being targeted by participants in the smuggling and money-laundering scheme that he had once been a part of. The Matraimovs denied any link to the killing.

Matraimov was in 2021 convicted by a Kyrgyz court in connection with the misdeeds that the media investigation exposed, although he spent virtually no time in jail in lieu of what authorities claimed was a repayment of 2 billion soms (nearly $24 million at the rates of the time) in damages to the state.

The gentle nature of his arrest that time round empowered cynics who believed Matraimov and his largesse could survive any revolution or change of leader.

This time the gloves look to be off.
Kyrgyzstan: Fallen kingmaker Matraimov deported from Azerbaijan (EurasiaNet)
EurasiaNet [3/26/2024 4:14 PM, Ayzirek Imanaliyeva, 57.6K, Neutral]
In a dramatic turn of events on March 26, corrupt and once-powerful former customs official Rayimbek Matraimov was loaded onto a plane in Azerbaijan and flown to Kyrgyzstan to be arrested.

Images circulated in local media showed Matraimov being hauled off a plane in handcuffs by masked agents with the State Committee for National Security, or GKNB.

The rapid and unexpected deportation comes just days after government sources linked Matraimov, who they said was living in Azerbaijan, with a plot to assassinate Kyrgyzstan’s national leadership. On the day that allegation was aired, the GKNB announced it had arrested five alleged members of a transnational organized crime group charged with executing the plot.

The group arrested in Bishkek was comprised of nationals of Azerbaijan, the GKNB said.

The security services said in a separate statement that it had asked Azerbaijan’s authorities to detain and extradite Matraimov. The request was fulfilled swiftly.

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

There was some confusion about whether anybody else was detained with Matraimov. News website Kaktus reported that the security forces had also arrested his three brothers: a former lawmaker, Iskender, one-time energy executive Tilek, and a former head of the internal investigations department in the financial police, Islam.

Iskender Matraimov’s son, however, posted on social media to say that his father had not been arrested and that he was returning to Kyrgyzstan on the first flight from Dubai after hearing about the unfolding situation.

Matraimov held his position as deputy chairman of the state customs service from 2015 to 2017. In 2019, a coalition of news outlets, Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, Kloop and Azattyk released a series of investigations alleging that Matraimov had while in that position siphoned at least $700 million out of the country as part of elaborate smuggling operations.

The government in power at the time barely reacted to those allegations. Matraimov’s critics maintained that he deployed his ill-gotten riches to wield extensive influence over the country’s political scene.

But Matraimov has experienced a remarkable slide in his fortunes since the start of this year.

When President Sadyr Japarov was sprung from prison, where he was serving a sentence of hostage-taking charges, 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.” It was understood at that time that he had left the country.

This weekend’s allegations about an assassination plot upped the ante. The GKNB has not offered any evidence for the veracity of its claims about plans for a spree of assassination. Matraimov’s camp, meanwhile, has also offered no comment.
Kyrgyz Opposition Leader Dodges Imprisonment Over Statute Of Limitations (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [3/26/2024 11:08 AM, Staff, 223K, Negative]
The leader of the United Kyrgyzstan opposition party, Adakhan Madumarov, was found guilty on March 26 of financial fraud and "ignoring Kyrgyzstan’s interests" while signing a Kyrgyz-Tajik border deal in 2009 when he led the country’s Security Council. A court in Bishkek did not sentence Madumarov due to the statute of limitations but ordered him to remain in custody until the decision comes into force. Madumarov, a major opponent of President Sadyr Japarov, was arrested in September 2023. Madumarov has called the move politically motivated and says it is punishment for his criticism of authorities.
Unable To ‘Kill A Fly’: Tajik Relatives Of Moscow Attack Suspects Give Details About Their Lives (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [3/26/2024 12:40 PM, Farangis Najibullah, 223K, Negative]
Locals in a village outside the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, described Faridun Shamsiddin as a “coward” and said they were shocked by news their fellow villager was among the suspects in the deadly terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall near Moscow on March 22.

“I never noticed anything suspicious in his actions. He left for Russia six months ago and has been sending money home to his family,” a relative of Shamsiddin in the village of Loyob told RFE/RL on March 25.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the man said Shamsiddin, 25, worked at a local bakery before moving to Russia and “could not have killed a sparrow. He was a coward.”

Married with a son, Shamsiddin was a convicted sex offender and sentenced to seven years in prison for sexual harassment, a relative said. He was granted an early release in 2020.

Asked about Shamsiddin’s religious beliefs, the Loyob resident said he wasn’t a practicing Muslim: “He never prayed or fasted, and he drank alcohol.”

Shamsiddin was among four Tajik citizens charged with carrying out the massacre at the Crocus concert venue in Krasnogorsk that killed at least 139 people in the worst terrorist attack in Russia in two decades. The extremist group Islamic State has claimed responsibility.

Videos released on March 23 showed Shamsiddin telling Russian investigators after being captured that he carried out the attack for money. He said he was paid by unknown people who contacted him via Telegram and instructed him to “kill people” in return for 1 million rubles (about $10,500). Shamsiddin also claimed he had received half of the money before the attack and said he flew on March 4 from Russia to Turkey, where he went to cross the border to be able to extend his stay in Russia.

RFE/RL cannot independently verify the authenticity of the videos or if his statements were made under duress.

Shamsiddin appeared before Moscow’s Basman district court along with three other defendants -- Muhammadsobir Faizov, Dalerjon Mirzoev, and Saidakram Rajabalizoda.

‘Nonreligious, Party-Loving Teenager’

In Tajikistan, the men’s family members were rounded up by authorities for questioning, neighbors told RFE/RL correspondents, who visited the hometowns of the suspects.

Shamsiddin’s “wife, parents, and mother-in-law have been taken to Dushanbe for interrogation,” a relative said. "His sister and her three children were deported from Russia, and also her husband filed for divorced from her [because of Shamsiddin’s actions].”

In Dushanbe, Faizov’s mother, Sairam Faizova, said she was “in disbelief” that her 19-year-old son is alleged to have committed such an atrocity.

“He’s not a person who would do something like this. He must have been brainwashed by someone,” Faizova said.

Faizova described her son as nonreligious and someone who “loved going to wedding banquets” and dancing at get-togethers with his friends in Dushanbe.

He even dreamed of studying in China, she added.

Faizova said that before the attack she had been in regular contact with her son, who worked at a barber shop in the Russian city of Ivanovo until quitting in November because of his low salary. Faizov told his family he had since been in St. Petersburg selling fruit, she said.

The last time Faizova spoke to her son on the phone was one day before the terrorist attack.

“We spoke twice that day, in the morning and evening. He would only say that he was doing well and asked about me. He talked about his job and said everything will be fine,” she said.

Faizov shared Russian songs on his VKontakte social media account and posted photos and videos of himself driving a car and working at the My Style barbershop.

One of Faizov’s friends on VKontakte is Shohin Safolzoda, a person named by Russian authorities as one of the suspects in the Crocus City Hall attack.

The youngest of four brothers, Faizov left for Russia after graduating from high school nearly two years ago to help his family financially.

Faizov and his parents shared the same house with his married elder brothers and have been trying to save money to buy land to build another house.

An elder brother of Faizov was taken for questioning by Tajik authorities after the attack and hasn’t yet returned home, the mother said. She also has no contact with her husband, who also works in Russia.

“Authorities took away our phones. We can’t call anyone,” she said.

Faizova pleaded with Tajik authorities to return her son and the other suspects brought to Tajikistan, “taking into consideration their young ages.”

“I ask [the authorities] to bring home these young men who have been deceived,” the mother said, adding that the entire family was “suffering the consequences” of her son’s actions.

Faizov was brought to the court in Moscow in a wheelchair and wearing hospital clothes. He was reportedly injured during or after his arrest and showed signs of beating. One interrogation video showed Faizov asking investigators: “Have I done something?” A still from a video was also circulated online suggesting Faizov had lost his left eye after being detained.

Reluctant To Talk

In Rajabalizoda’s home village of Chamanzor, 15 kilometers east of Dushanbe, most locals were reluctant to talk to our correspondents, saying they “don’t know” him.

In the family home of Rajabalizoda, 30, a relative said on March 26 that he was alone at home after police took the terror suspect’s “mother, brother, wife, and two uncles to Dushanbe for questioning.” The relative didn’t want to give his name.

The head of the neighborhood committee has also been “taken in for questioning,” one neighbor said on condition of anonymity. Vahdat district officials were not immediately available for comment.

Tajik security sources were quoted by Reuters as saying that Russian investigators were also in Tajikistan on March 26, questioning family members of the suspects.

Several other Tajik citizens -- including a 62-year-old father and his two sons -- were also detained in Russia in connection with the attack. One of the sons was registered as the owner of the car the suspects allegedly used to flee the scene of the attack, Russian officials said.

Another suspect in custody is Alisher Kasimov, a Russian citizen who was born in Kyrgyzstan.
Turkmenistan To Repatriate University Students Studying In Russia After Terror Attack (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [3/26/2024 10:05 AM, Staff, 223K, Neutral]
Turkmen authorities are exploring how to bring Turkmen students studying at Russian universities back home, amid fears of an anti-immigrant backlash in the wake of last week’s terrorist attack on Moscow’s outskirts.

People close to police and security agencies in one Turkmen region told RFE/RL that they had received orders from the capital Ashgabat to figure out how to repatriate Turkmen students from Russia.

It’s unclear exactly how many Turkmen students attend Russian universities, though estimates put the number in the thousands.

The government has also ordered officials to organize meetings with students and teachers, to warn them about religious radicalism, said one person with knowledge of the plans who asked not to be named due to fear of prosecution. They added that police have also received instructions saying that "some Western countries were behind the individuals who carried out the attack" at the Crocus City Hall on March 22.

Four gunmen entered the Moscow venue as a rock concert was about to begin, opening fire on the crowd and later setting fire to the building. As of March 26, the death toll stood at 139, with more than 120 people wounded by gunshots, smoke inhalation, or burns.

Russian authorities have accused four ethnic Tajik men who worked as migrant laborers in Russia of being the attackers; four other people with Central Asian backgrounds have also been accused of being accomplices in the attack.

The arrests have stoked fears of an anti-immigrant backlash in Russian society; millions of migrant workers from Central Asia labor in Russia, where wages are substantially higher. Most Central Asian nations rely heavily on remittances to buttress their economies.

Kyrgyzstan has already advised its citizens to refrain from traveling to Russia out of fears Kyrgyz nationals could be harassed or attacked.

Security officers in three other Turkmen cities -- Cheleken, Balkanabat, and Turkmenbashi -- were reportedly conducting mass questioning of men and women on their way to mosques for prayers, according to local witnesses. The majority of those stopped and questioned were men with beards and women in hijabs.

The security officers "recommended" some of those who were stopped for questioning "to pray at home" and others were asked about links with radical Islamist groups, multiple people told RFE/RL.

Law enforcement officers also reportedly told believers that they should stop fasting during Ramadan, when all practicing Muslims abstain from food, water, and smoking from sunrise to sunset. The Muslim holy month began this year on March 10.

In the western city of Turkmenbashi, all shops selling religious items and clothes, such as rugs for prayers, hijabs, Korans, and similar goods were ordered closed following the Moscow attack.

The gas-rich Central Asian desert nation is one of the most closed and repressive countries in the world.
Turkmenistan: EuroTrip (EurasiaNet)
EurasiaNet [3/26/2024 4:14 PM, Staff, 57.6K, Neutral]
A lot of Europeans will be passing through Turkmenistan this year.

So says Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov.

Meredov last week embarked on a five-day trip that took in Belgium and Italy.

In Brussels, he met with an array of important euro-panjandrums, including European Commission vice presidents Valdis Dombrovskis and Margaritis Schinas, the European Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jutta Urpilainen, and Simon Mordue, the chief foreign policy advisor to European Council’s president.

The end result of all this business was the signing on March 18 of a protocol to the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between Turkmenistan and the EU. A press release from the European Union’s diplomatic service described this as a “significant milestone” no less.

Back in Ashgabat, Meredov briefed President Serdar Berdymukhamedov at the March 23 Cabinet meeting that there are plans for EU representatives to visit Turkmenistan “on a regular and systematic basis this year.” One key purpose of such dialogue is to create a framework agreement on energy cooperation. This is the bureaucratic groundwork that will have to precede any long-term natural gas delivery deals.

But there are other strands to this cooperation, as Meredov outlined in a Brussels roundtable on private sector partnerships between Turkmenistan and the European Union. Turkmenistan is eager to tap European expertise and investment to develop its hydrogen energy potential, continue addressing its methane emission problems, and process natural gas in ways that will make the commodity more broadly marketable.

Another speaker at the roundtable, Grégory Lecomte, head of the Central Asia unit at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, had some complimentary things to say about the work Turkmenistan has done to improve access to information on the legislative framework for investment.

“This may sound like a detail, but it’s important for potential foreign investors,” he said.

On the negative side of the ledger, Lecomte cited complaints of investors about the justice system. When contracts go wrong, a foreign company has little realistic legal recourse within Turkmenistan.

“We suggest the government look at building a stronger and efficient judiciary for alternative dispute resolution for foreign investors,” he said.

A likely possible outcome of such recommendations may be Turkmenistan exploring the creation of an analogue of the Astana International Financial Center court in Kazakhstan, a ring-fenced legal playpen in which foreigners can hash out their disputes.

Regular Turkmen citizens, meanwhile, must make do with good old-fashioned injustice.

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom drew attention in a statement issued on March 25 to how the Turkmen government has been trampling the rights of Muslims, most notably those “who deviate from the state’s preferred interpretation of Islam,” during the holy month of Ramadan.

Officials charged with enforcing the rules do not seem to know if they’re coming or going. RFE/RL’s Turkmen service, Radio Azatylk, has reported that pupils in secondary schools and higher educational institutions in some parts of the country are being prevented from observing the fast by being forced to drink water. Meanwhile, management at state bodies in the Lebap province are telling staff that they should fast so as to follow the example set by the former president and now-National Leader, Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov (the father of the current president).

Drinkers are having a hard time of it too. Police officers in the Mary province were reportedly going around confiscating liquor from stores at the start of Ramadan and will presumably be holding onto it for safekeeping until it is permitted to indulge again. There is no law banning the sale of alcohol during Ramadan.

The second part of Meredov’s European tour took him to Rome, where he met with deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, whose portfolio includes transportation and infrastructure. Conversations in the Italian capital culminated with the signing of a memorandum of cooperation between the ports of Turkmenbashi and Naples.

Quite what shape this cooperation will take was not stated, but it can be assumed management at the former port is eager to draw expertise from the latter. Turkmenbashi is designed to handle up to 17 million tons of cargo per year. The Naples port system, which is constituted of three ports, last year handled 31 tons of cargo, so the scales are very roughly similar.

Interest in Turkmenbashi stems from the perceived need among boosters of the so-called Middle Corridor route to expand capacity everywhere possible. The Turkmen port is currently operating at a fraction of its potential. The mold of what could be happening here was set by a test initiative in December 2022, when a train pulling 46 carriages loaded with copper concentrate was dispatched from eastern Uzbekistan, across to Turkmenbashi, where it was rolled onto a ferry, through to Azerbaijan and Georgia, where it was loaded onto another ferry and then finally unloaded in Burgas, Bulgaria. The entire point of Turkmenistan shelling out $1.5 billion on turning Turkmenbashi into a bells-and-whistles “intermodal transshipment port” was to facilitate this very kind of traffic, but the results so far have been disappointing. The Europeans look eager to give this initiative another heave.

On March 20, farmers in four of the country’s five provinces were assembled to participate in the ritual start to the cotton-sowing season. A fifth province, Dashoguz, starts on March 27.

Fully 600,000 hectares have been set aside for cotton cultivation this year. That is up from the 580,000 hectares of 2023. This is a striking choice given how thirsty a crop cotton is and seeing how water security is looking a little dicey these dayas in light of Afghanistan pushing ahead with its Qosh-Tepa Canal, which is drawing its reserves from the same Amu Darya River upon which Turkmenistan relies so heavily.

The government has not spelled it out, but it appears like last year’s cotton harvest was not a great success. The downstream consequence has been felt by the likes of the Bayramaly oil-manufacturing plant in Mary province, which has had to lay off 70 employees, according to Vienna-based Chronicles of Turkmenistan. Workers still in a job are being offered pay in kind since cash is tight.

The website’s sources say the factory ran into financial trouble because of declining yields of cotton, which is pressed to make cooking oil. Exports are weak as Turkmen oil is perceived as being low in quality. What is sold domestically retails at subsidized rates and does not turn a profit.

Similar layoffs are expected at factories elsewhere in the country, Chronicles said.

Meanwhile, Berdymukhamedov the elder, the National Leader and de facto co-president, has his mind on far more important matters. On March 23, he was busy inspecting his pet project, the new city of Arkadag, which was named in his honor. In trademark fashion, he checked on the appearance of lampposts, gazebos and window frames to ensure they matched his tastes.

“Window frames installed [at buildings in Arkadag] must comply with international standards,” he insisted.

Aerial shots of the city, which was inaugurated in June 2023, showed it to be entirely empty.
In Uzbekistan, economic reforms spark modern-day gold rush (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [3/27/2024 1:41 AM, Staff, 304K, Neutral]
Sifting through a greyish mixture of sand and pebble in the steppe of Uzbekistan, Khislat Ochilov was searching for gold.

He is one of hundreds of new prospectors trying to strike it rich in a modern-day gold rush in the Central Asian country, chock-full of the precious metal.

A right once preserved for state mining firms, recent regulatory changes designed to boost the economy mean anyone can now hunt for gold.

Ochilov scanned the shiny flakes that appeared on his panning mat, submerged in a pool of water. Finally, he spotted a piece the size of a grain of rice.

"Not bad. Though my record is seven grams," the 25-year-old told AFP while out in the Uzbek steppe, near the southwestern village of Soykechar.

Nearby, Sardor Mardiyev, 28, was hard at work digging through the earth in the vast Navoi region, a district larger than Portugal.

He drives his excavator 12 hours a day, six days a week as part of a frenzy for the metal that officials hope will boost Uzbekistan’s output.

Last year, the country produced 110.8 tonnes of gold, putting it tenth place globally, and its central bank was the second largest net seller in the world at around 25 tonnes, behind only Kazakhstan, according to the World Gold Council.

For Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev -- who sees himself as a reformer opening up and liberalising his country’s economy after years of isolation and centralisation -- it is not enough.

He has ordered gold production to be increased by 50 percent by 2030.

The potential is there -- only 20 percent of Uzbekistan’s subsoil has been explored to date.

Mirziyoyev, in power since 2016, has also called for gold bars weighing up to one kilogramme to be sold in the hopes of drawing more tourists to his landlocked Central Asian nation.

Local jobs

Zahit Khudaberdiyev, in his 30s, is among hundreds of entrepreneurs who have decided to try their luck since the regulation change.

To join the gold rush he acquired the rights to a plot of land for three years at auction.

"Before 2019, we didn’t have the right to mine gold. Some did it anyway at the risk of death -- it was dangerous," Khudaberdiyev said.

His competition includes Kazakh and Chinese prospectors who secured neighbouring plots. If this one doesn’t prove bountiful, he said he’d look further afield.

Behind Khudaberdiyev, trucks and diggers bustle with activity. He said they churn up tonnes of rubble and can help scourers unearth "a daily average of 12 to 15 grams."

As he spoke, he had one eye glued to his phone, monitoring global gold prices.

In March they climbed to a record high of $2,200 per troy ounce (31.1 grams).

"The government decided to issue such plots for gold mining to provide work for the population," he said.

The prospecting rush is providing an unexpected employment boon for a country where 20 percent of workers are forced to go abroad for work, mainly to Russia.

Khudaberdiyev gave the example of his young employees, locals Ochilov and Mardiyev. Before he hired them, one was unemployed, the other a farm hand.

"Now they earn three to four million som (240 to 360 euros) on average" each month, Khudaberdiyev said -- a decent salary for the region.

Farmers’ angst

The new wave of gold miners are not allowed to do as they please with the gold they dig up. All of it must be funnelled through the Uzbek central bank, which trades it for dollars on the global market.

The country’s growing economy depends on injections of foreign currency to support the national currency. The Uzbek som has one of the lowest face values in the world, with $1 worth 12,500 som.

In Soykechar, where farming remains a vital sector, not everyone is thrilled about the gold rush.

"Prospectors dig where we graze our cattle," said Erkin Karshiev, a leading farmer in the region, located some 500 kilometres (300 miles) southwest of the capital Tashkent.

"Look how the last guys left everything," the 66-year-old farmer said, motioning frustratedly to holes a dozen metres deep.

Karshiev said he was "really afraid the animals will fall in". But his multiple calls on the authorities to resolve the issue have thus far gone ignored.

"We only want one thing: for the gold miners to level the land by filling in the holes when they leave."
Labor Rights Violations Persist in Uzbekistan (The Diplomat – opinion)
The Diplomat [3/26/2024 8:50 AM, Lynn Schweisfurth, 201K, Neutral]
Since Indorama Agro, one of Uzbekistan’s largest cotton producers, began its operations in Syrdarya and Kashkadarya regions in 2018, Uzbek Forum has documented dozens of serious labor rights violations, including mass redundancies, abuse of employment contracts, anti-union activities, and the illegal reclassification of almost 400 employees as “service providers.” In addition, there have been some 50 incidents of retaliation carried out by management and government officials against workers and farmers contracted to deliver cotton to the company who have spoken out against rights abuses.

In January 2024, in the most recent and serious case, an independent rights monitor working on the Indorama Agro project was threatened by government security officials. The monitor was told that their work was “dangerous” and that they would face criminal charges if they did not immediately stop speaking to Indorama workers.

The Indorama Agro project is being financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) with loans totaling $130 million to modernize cotton production, introduce sustainability standards, and create economic opportunities in the region. In 2023, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) awarded the company a further $15 million.

Rights organizations Uzbek Forum and Bankwatch have monitored the Indorama Agro project since 2020 and have repeatedly raised concerns of rights violations and retaliations with lenders and Indorama management directly. Despite their assurances, the situation for workers and farmers has deteriorated and, in August 2023, Uzbek Forum and Bankwatch filed a request for compliance review with the EBRD.

Over the last two years, independent monitoring and reporting on rights abuses at Indorama Agro has become practically impossible as retaliations against workers speaking to rights monitors, and now even against monitors themselves, have escalated. In August 2023, five Indorama workers were invited to participate in a workshop on labor rights in Almaty, Kazakhstan. All were prevented from attending. The passport of one was confiscated before he was due to travel, while two others expressed fear of reprisals as their reason for not traveling. However, the situation turned dramatic when two workers were physically prevented from boarding a plane to Almaty by plainclothes security agents and escorted by car to their homes, a two-hour drive away.

These are not random, isolated events but part of a pattern of retaliation and intimidation to suppress worker organizing and prevent the reporting of rights violations reaching the public domain. They are also clear violations of freedom of association, freedom of movement, and freedom of speech, which also violate the performance requirements and standards of the EBRD and IFC.

Retaliation by Indorama Agro management was first documented in 2020 by Uzbek Forum and Bankwatch when a whistleblower who had reported on corruption at the company was fired. She was subsequently reinstated after appealing her unfair dismissal in court and went on to become one of the leaders of Uzbekistan’s only known democratically elected trade union. She was then subject to harassment and threatening phone calls from government officials and told monitors she feared for her safety.

The union also came under pressure and in May 2022, Indorama Agro attempted to stage an illegitimate election to install a former company manager as chairman. After workers signed a letter of protest to the Federation of Trade Unions of Uzbekistan (FTUU) and the case was amplified by international organizations, workers were able to hold fair elections and elect a new leader in a fair and transparent vote.

The trade union leader has since come under intense pressure from government officials, which has even extended to his relatives. A family business was subject to unnecessary inspections by the authorities. The union leader has since severed all communications with independent monitors and accepted a better paid position, as did his predecessor. Workers complain that the trade union no longer fights to defend their rights. Paying off individual workers is a standard union busting company practice that prevents collective bargaining and fair negotiation of contracts.

Although the democratically elected union in Syrdarya had been successful in securing employment contracts for workers and appealing against unfair dismissals, labor rights abuses are ongoing. Workers complain that there is no effective company grievance mechanism. When they tried to speak to Uzbek Forum monitors, they were warned against speaking to “international organizations,” with Uzbek Forum named specifically.

When some 400 employees were illegally reclassified by Indorama management in December 2022 as “service providers,” denying them statutory employer benefits and, crucially, trade union membership, 44 workers, including the trade union leader, filed lawsuits against the company. Shortly afterward, government officials, including the regional prosecutor, held meetings with Indorama Agro management and workers to “explain” the new contracts to workers. The lawsuits were subsequently withdrawn, and workers accepted contracts that were only slightly improved but still denied them employee status.

However, Indorama Agro has even violated the terms and conditions of the new so-called Nano Unit Contractor (NUC) contracts and retaliated against those who dared to demand their rights. The contracts stipulated that NUCs would be paid bonuses for exceeding production targets for wheat and cotton and for the supervision of wheat fields after the harvest. In addition, NUCs were guaranteed one hectare of land for personal use. In December 2023, Indorama Agro refused to fulfill the terms and conditions of the contracts and when workers protested, the company responded by refusing to renew their one-year fixed term contracts. The workers are now unemployed.

Farmers under contract to deliver cotton to Indorama Agro often complain about late payments, low prices for their cotton, and inflated prices for inputs such as fertilizers, manufactured at the EBRD-funded Indorama Kokand fertilizer plant in Uzbekistan, which they are obliged to buy. Some farmers have reported that payments are delayed even further when they speak out. In February 2024, one farmer successfully won a court case against Indorama Agro for non-payment for cotton he had delivered during the 2021 harvest. He is now taking the company to court to demand full payment for cotton he delivered in 2023.

Gross negligence of health and safety standards has also been documented, resulting in a horrific, fatal accident in April 2022. The victim’s family reached an agreement for compensation with Indorama Agro, which the company then reneged upon. When Uzbek Forum intervened with lenders and company management on behalf of the family, a company representative warned the family not to speak to international organizations.

After giving interviews to Uzbek Forum monitors, workers have often been interrogated for up to four hours by the police and security officials. Workers have reported the police as telling them, “International organizations cannot help you. Do not speak to them.” The warnings are menacing.

All of these events and many more have been reported regularly to lenders and company management over the last three years. For every incident, Indorama management either has an explanation that does not reflect labor rights obligations, or flatly denies any knowledge of, or involvement in, retaliations, conveniently placing the blame for reprisals with the authorities. In all cases documented by Uzbek Forum, interventions by government officials to silence workers and enforce abusive contracts clearly benefit the company, from enforcing low prices for cotton to ensuring that workers sign exploitative contracts, and crucially, silencing those who speak out through retaliations. It is difficult to accept Indorama’s claims that, as one of Uzbekistan’s largest investors, it has no influence to demand that government officials desist from pressuring workers and employees. In addition, Uzbek Forum has documented no fewer than 15 cases of intimidation and retaliation by Indorama Agro management itself against workers and farmers, including dismissals and withholding pay.

Lenders’ responses to reports of rights violations and retaliations by their client have to date failed to mitigate against reprisals or improve conditions for workers and contract farmers. Despite assurances that the IFC and EBRD have communicated their concerns to their client, lenders have demonstrated a pervasive culture of disbelief when confronted with evidenced-based monitoring findings. They do not appear to accept victim statements, court documents, or disturbing patterns of abuse and retaliation as evidence, which clearly violates their own safeguards. The EBRD and IFC performance standards, including statements on zero-tolerance of retaliation, have had no inhibiting effect on the company’s abusive conduct. On the contrary, since Uzbek Forum and Bankwatch began reporting to lenders, retaliations have intensified and rights violations continue with impunity.

The Indorama Agro project was intended to be the flagship example of a reformed cotton sector in Uzbekistan, proving to international investors, brands and retailers that sourcing Uzbek cotton no longer carried the risk of forced labor or rights violations. The project was earmarked for Better Cotton licensing, which has now been suspended because of labor rights concerns.

The case of Indorama Agro represents a potentially significant liability for multilateral development banks (MDBs). Since 1998, MDBs have invested over $1.5 billion in Indorama and its various subsidiaries, despite similar abuses related to other Indorama investments, which have been the subject of complaints to the IFC.

The human rights due diligence and risk assessment for the Indorama Agro project failed to effectively assess and mitigate the human rights risks in Uzbekistan overall, exposing the weakness of MDB safeguards to protect people negatively impacted by their investments. In light of the serious decline in civic space and freedom of speech in Uzbekistan today, it is essential that MDBs, including the EBRD and IFC, respond decisively when retaliations and rights violations are reported. Without identifying, mitigating, and preventing risks against civil society actors and those who dare to speak out, MDBs are ultimately facilitating and emboldening abusive governments and companies, while deepening their investments in bad actors who undermine the banks’ own development impact goals.
Twitter
Afghanistan
Hafiz Zia Ahmad
@HafizZiaAhmad
[3/26/2024 1:30 PM, 88.3K followers, 12 retweets, 69 likes]
Mohammad Khorram Agha, Deputy Minister of Trade of Pakistan and accompanying delegation called on IEA Foreign Minister Malawi Amir Khan Muttaqi. The meeting aimed at strengthening trade, transit, and economic relations, where FM Muttaqi elaborated on the challenges...

Hafiz Zia Ahmad
@HafizZiaAhmad
[3/26/2024 1:30 PM, 88.3K followers, 1 retweet, 4 likes]
in the said sectors and their solutions. Pointing at commonalities and peoples’ values of the two countries, FM Muttaqi stated that the governments are responsible for ensuring them. He also said that sincere measures to resolve the problems in the trade

Hafiz Zia Ahmad
@HafizZiaAhmad
[3/26/2024 1:30 PM, 88.3K followers, 1 retweet, 4 likes]
and transit sectors are necessary. Later on, Mr. Khorram Agha thanked the Afghan government for the invitation to visit the country and said that they were engaged in talks with the officials of the Ministry of Education, expressing assurance that they would find...

Hafiz Zia Ahmad
@HafizZiaAhmad
[3/26/2024 1:30 PM, 88.3K followers, 1 retweet, 6 likes]
possible solutions to all the problems in the said sectors. To end, the two sides, emphasized expanding and strengthening trade and transit relations and facilitating the movement of passengers, patients, and businessmen through the Durand line crossing points.

Madiha Afzal
@MadihaAfzal
[3/26/2024 2:00 PM, 42.5K followers, 7 retweets, 39 likes]
The premise that a Taliban controlled Afghanistan would not once again become a staging ground for terrorism beyond Afghanistan’s borders was always faulty.
Pakistan
Shehbaz Sharif
@CMShehbaz
[3/26/2024 8:54 AM, 6.7M followers, 517 retweets, 1.8K likes]
I visited Chinese Embassy today to express my condolences at the dastardly act of terrorism in which five Chinese and a Pakistani national were killed. Our sympathies and prayers are with the victims and their families. I strongly condemn this attack against Pakistan-China friendship. Our two countries express firm resolve to bring the perpetrators of this heinous act to justice.

The President of Pakistan
@PresOfPakistan
[3/26/2024 10:26 AM, 733.2K followers, 177 retweets, 418 likes]
I strongly condemn the attack on Chinese citizens in Bisham. My heartfelt condolences to the families of the deceased Chinese citizens, the govt and leadership of China. The enemies of Pakistan will never succeed in harming Pak-China friendship.

Anwaar ul Haq Kakar
@anwaar_kakar
[3/26/2024 7:43 AM, 142.9K followers, 113 retweets, 739 likes]
My heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims of the cowardly terrorist attack on Chinese nationals in Basham, KP. We stand in solidarity with our Chinese brothers and sisters, and we will spare no effort in bringing the perpetrators to justice. 1/2

Anwaar ul Haq Kakar
@anwaar_kakar
[3/26/2024 7:43 AM, 142.9K followers, 2 retweets, 27 likes]
Together, we will overcome this challenge and uphold our strong bonds of friendship and cooperation. 2/2

Imran Khan
@ImranKhanPTI
[3/26/2024 3:34 PM, 20.6M followers, 20K retweets, 34K likes]
27 years ago, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf started its struggle to assert the primacy of the rule of law & justice within the country. Central to establishing rule of law is the presence of an independent judiciary. Over the years we have seen a degeneration of rule of law, and in the last two years, the law & the Constitution has been blatantly violated, subverted and undermined - decimating what was left of the judiciary’s credibility and authority.

Therefore, we welcome the six brave judges of the Islamabad High Court who have highlighted the alarming state of affairs of the higher judiciary in a letter addressed to the Chief Justice of Pakistan and members of the Supreme Judicial Council. This letter with its 2 annexures, brings on the record the brazen and shameful interference of the intelligence agencies in judicial matters, which is a damning indictment against the independence of the judiciary in the country. The fact that the judges have been intimidated and coerced into giving judgements based on political expediency raises a lot of questions on the fairness of the courts and their judgements over the last 2 years.

In addition, this also questions the credibility of the state narrative with results to 9th May, an event instigated within the Islamabad High Court when Chairman PTI Imran Khan was abducted & dragged from the court premises by paramilitary forces, who stormed the building of the IHC. Since then, a wave of political victimisation has been unleashed where abductions, followed by torture inflicted upon political workers & leaders has become the norm, and the Courts have been unable to assert their authority or dispense justice.

More importantly, it is Islamabad High Court & its lower courts where most of the cases of PTI chairman Imran Khan, including his illegal arrest & conviction, are pending or underway. The fact that this court is under influence & pressure raises serious doubts on these cases as well. It is, therefore, imperative that the Supreme Judicial Council conducts an impartial inquiry into these serious allegations by the six honourable judges of the IHC, and ensure justice and relief to thousands of political prisoners languishing in jails without any crime.

Bilal Sarwary
@bsarwary
[3/26/2024 11:05 AM, 252.5K followers, 30 retweets, 91 likes]
The killing of five Chinese nationals in a suicide attack in Pakistan today is an unfortunate incident that underscores the challenging security situation in the country. It comes after a series of militant attacks, including two significant assaults on military bases in Balochistan within a week, a car bomb targeting a military convoy in Dera Ismail Khan, and a large-scale multiple suicide bomber attack on a military camp in North Waziristan a week earlier. Pakistan is grappling with the ramifications of its policies in Afghanistan, which have persisted for decades.

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[3/26/2024 2:48 PM, 209.8K followers, 2.9K retweets, 6.3K likes]
The stunning letter written by six Pakistani high court justices illustrates not only the extent of interference in the legal process, at the highest levels, but also the willingness of public servants to go public about it-despite the risks that doing so may pose for them.

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[3/26/2024 2:48 PM, 209.8K followers, 193 retweets, 514 likes]
And that says a whole lot about just how deep and extensive and serious the establishment’s interference is these days-in the law, but also in politics and public policy. We’re talking about a dynamic that represents something more than a hybrid regime.

Madiha Afzal
@MadihaAfzal
[3/26/2024 1:06 PM, 42.5K followers, 117 retweets, 484 likes]
Interference and intimidation so brazen that six judges of the Islamabad High Court are forced to write to the Supreme Judicial Council. It was obvious that it was happening, but to see it detailed publicly is quite something.

Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office
@amnestysasia
[3/26/2024 5:59 AM, 79.6K followers, 267 retweets, 436 likes]
#PAKISTAN: Human Rights Charter RECOMMENDATION 3: Respect and ensure the right to freedom of peaceful assembly Amnesty International has observed that the right to peaceful assembly is subject to significant restrictions in Pakistan through:
- broad and restrictive laws used to impose discretionary blanket restrictions on public protests and gatherings;
- arrests and detention of people participating in protests; and
- excessive use of force against protestors.

Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office
@amnestysasia
[3/26/2024 11:28 PM, 79.6K followers, 9 retweets, 35 likes]
#PAKISTAN: Human Rights Charter RECOMMENDATION 4: Protect refugees and asylum seekers Amnesty International is extremely concerned by the decision of the new government to continue deportations of Afghan refugees, including Afghan Citizen Card (ACC) holders.

Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office
@amnestysasia
[3/26/2024 11:28 PM, 79.6K followers, 1 retweet, 2 likes]
From September 2023 to February 2024, the government has deported 527, 981 Afghan refugees with little regard to international human rights law, particularly the principle of non-refoulement. Read Amnesty International’s 10-point Human Rights Charter for Pakistan: https://amnesty.org/en/documents/asa33/7868/2024/en/.
India
Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[3/26/2024 1:12 PM, 96.5M followers, 8.2K retweets, 60K likes]
Srimat Swami Smaranananda ji Maharaj, the revered President of Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission dedicated his life to spirituality and service. He left an indelible mark on countless hearts and minds. His compassion and wisdom will continue to inspire generations. I had a very close relation with him over the years. I recall my visit to Belur Math in 2020 when I had interacted with him. A few weeks ago in Kolkata, I had also visited the hospital and enquired about his health. My thoughts are with the countless devotees of the Belur Math. Om Shanti.
NSB
Awami League
@albd1971
[3/26/2024 1:01 PM, 637K followers, 20 retweets, 47 likes]
A chorus of concern arises in #Bangladesh among anti-war crimes campaigners, journalists, and activists regarding @Facebook’s apparent inability to stem the tide of #hatespeech, calls for #violence, and #communalattacks that have risked public security. https://albd.org/articles/news/41355

Awami League
@albd1971
[3/26/2024 6:11 AM, 637K followers, 37 retweets, 103 likes]
Prime Minister #SheikhHasina’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Advisor @SajeebWazed has greeted the countrymen on the occasion of Independence and National Day. In a recent @facebook post, he paid respect to #Bangabandhu and valiat heroes of #LiberationWar1971. https://en.somoynews.tv/news/2024-03-26/bangabandhu-called-for-fight-until-final-victory-joy #IndependenceDay #Bangladesh #March1971 #March26

Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office
@amnestysasia
[3/26/2024 3:13 PM, 79.6K followers, 3 retweets, 13 likes]
BANGLADESH: Amnesty International’s statement on Bangladesh at #HRC55 We welcome the government’s commitment to investigate and prosecute human rights violations by its security forces and to uphold the principle of non-refoulment for Rohingya refugees.

Just ahead of its last review, Bangladesh replaced the controversial Digital Security Act 2018 (DSA) with the Cyber Security Act (CSA). The government has argued that the CSA ‘addressed the apprehensions many had about its predecessor’. However, the CSA is largely a replication of the DSA with minor cosmetic changes, primarily related to sentencing and bail. It retains all but two of the offences from the DSA verbatim. Therefore, Amnesty International is disappointed that the government failed to accept any of the 11 recommendations specifically calling for the repeal or amendment of the CSA, in compliance with international human rights law.

Regrettably, the government has not accepted recommendations to abolish the death penalty, nor to ratify the Convention on Enforced Disappearances and the Refugee Convention. We are also concerned by the government’s continued refusal to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture which would allow victims to file complaints directly to the UN Committee against Torture, citing inadequate institutional capacity of national agencies. It is precisely due to such capacity gaps in the national sphere that torture victims would benefit from having access to an international complaints mechanism.

We welcome the government’s commitment to remove obstacles to workers’ unionisation. However, we are dismayed by its failure to accept recommendations on ensuring a minimum wage which guarantees a decent living wage for workers and preventing occupational accidents through more intensive labour inspections. The government has similarly refused recommendations on reducing the worst forms of child labour and removing legal inconsistencies which provide scope for employing children as labourers. We urge the government to reconsider its position on these fundamental components of labour rights. https://amnesty.org/en/documents/asa13/7829/2024/en/

Namal Rajapaksa
@RajapaksaNamal
[3/26/2024 1:34 PM, 437.6K followers, 1 retweet, 13 likes]
Thanks to Hon. State Minister D.V. Chanaka for leading the committee and convening the Hambantota District SLPP Balamandala meeting. Grateful for MP Rohitha Abeygunawardena’s invaluable contribution. Excited to engage with our community at the Tangalle rally! @ChanakaDinushan

M U M Ali Sabry
@alisabrypc
[3/26/2024 11:07 PM, 5.1K followers, 6 retweets, 15 likes]
A historic day for Sri Lanka as @UNESCO adopted by acclamation milestone Decision on the Commemoration of the International Day of Vesak at UNESCO. The Decision, spearheaded by #SriLanka on the 25th anniversary of the historic #UNGA Resolution 54/115 of 1999 on the International Recognition of Vesak at UN HQ, is a powerful symbol of global peace and intercultural dialogue embodying the core mandate of #UNESCO. The Decision was supported by 39 cross-regional co-sponsors, of which 16 are executive board members. We extend our deep appreciation to the co-sponsors, EXB members, Director General & the Secretariat for their strong support towards the Decision. @MFA_SriLanka @Sriunesco

M U M Ali Sabry
@alisabrypc
[3/26/2024 6:56 AM, 5.1K followers, 4 retweets, 15 likes]
During my presence at the Russian Embassy today to sign the condolence book, I conveyed Sri Lanka’s strongest condemnation of the brutal terrorist attack targeting civilians at the Crocus City shopping center in #Moscow and extended our support to international efforts in countering terrorism to the Ambassador of Russia H.E. Levan Dzhagaryan. I expressed my heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims @MFA_SriLanka
Central Asia
MFA Kazakhstan
@MFA_KZ
[3/27/2024 2:11 AM, 51.2K followers, 5 retweets, 6 likes]
DPM-FM Murat Nurtleu had a substantive meeting with @SecBlinken discussing key issues of global agenda, including energy and food security, climate and critical minerals as well as issues of bilateral political and economic cooperation.

MFA Kazakhstan
@MFA_KZ
[3/27/2024 1:11 AM, 51.2K followers, 1 retweet, 3 likes]
They emphasized the significance of increased regional connectivity and stability for Central Asia’s economic growth&prosperity.

Navbahor Imamova
@Navbahor
[3/26/2024 3:52 PM, 23K followers, 1 retweet, 1 like]
Today @StateDept @State_SCA: @SecBlinken met Kazakhstan’s DPM/FM Murat Nurtleu. Discussion of Kazakhstan-US strategic partnership, investment/economy, Global Methane Pledge, critical minerals, human rights,/media freedom/civil society, and connectivity in Central Asia. More here: https://state.gov/secretary-blinkens-meeting-with-kazakhstans-deputy-prime-minister-foreign-minister-nurtleu/

Farangis Najibullah
@FarangisN
[3/26/2024 3:02 PM, 10K followers, 21 retweets, 20 likes]
Tajik terrorist suspect Faridun Shamsiddin was not a practicing Muslim, drank alcohol, and never prayed or fasted, according to his relatives. #MoscowAttack https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-attack-tajikistan-suspects-relatives-families-hometowns/32878446.html

Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service
@president_uz
[3/26/2024 11:42 AM, 162.2K followers, 2 retweets, 11 likes]
President Shavkat Mirziyoyev reviewed a presentation detailing the construction phases of the New Namangan City. The construction commenced two years ago, and to date, multi-story buildings with 2,764 apartments have been erected, with an additional 648 homes underway. The city is designed to accommodate 200,000 residents and will feature kindergartens, schools, and other social institutions, an industrial zone, and the "New Uzbekistan" park, all developed under the “smart city” concept.

Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service
@president_uz
[3/26/2024 11:13 AM, 162.2K followers, 8 likes]
President Shavkat Mirziyoyev chaired a focused meeting on charting paths for Namangan region’s socio-economic advancement. Key issues were analyzed, and strategies were enumerated to harness the region’s full potential. A primary objective set by the head of state is to guarantee employment for citizens and raise their standard of living through increased earnings.

Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service
@president_uz
[3/26/2024 7:06 AM, 162.2K followers, 8 likes]
President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev hosted an iftar in #Namangan. #Ramadan2024 #Uzbekistan #PresidentialIftar

Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service
@president_uz
[3/26/2024 7:04 AM, 162.2K followers, 10 likes]
Uzbekistan is intensifying efforts to boost renewable energy sources. To that end, Namangan region is launching three new projects valued at $1.1 billion, generating a cumulative capacity of 1228 megawatts. This includes a series of hydroelectric stations and a pair of solar power plants. President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has kick-started the construction of these significant energy initiatives.

Furqat Sidiqov
@FurqatSidiq
[3/26/2024 6:46 PM, 1.3K followers, 2 retweets, 1 like]
Today @RepMikeRogersAL (Chairman @HASCRepublicans), @RepAdamSmith, @RepCarbajal & @RepEscobar were warmly welcomed by Foreign Minister Bakhtiyor Saidov (@FM_Saidov). During the meeting, they discussed strengthening ties w/ every state in the US, focusing on economic partnerships.

Bakhtiyor Saidov
@FM_Saidov
[3/26/2024 11:03 AM, 3.4K followers, 4 retweets, 13 likes]
Farewell meeting with H.E. Manish Prabhat (@manishprabhat06), who is completing his diplomatic mission as the head of the Embassy of #India in #Tashkent (@amb_tashkent). We appreciate Mr. Ambassador’s efforts to enrich #Uzbekistan-#India strategic partnership relations during his tenure and wish him all the success in his new endeavors.

Bakhtiyor Saidov
@FM_Saidov
[3/26/2024 10:27 AM, 3.4K followers, 11 retweets, 15 likes]
Glad to welcome the U.S. House of Representatives delegation @uzbekmfa - H.E. Mike Rogers (@RepMikeRogersAL), H.E. Adam Smith (@RepAdamSmith), H.E. Salud Carbajal (@RepCarbajal), and H.E. Veronica Escobar (@RepEscobar). Today, we witness the opening of new avenues of UZ-US strategic partnership. Value the support of our American partners not only in promoting inter-parliamentary cooperation but also in many areas from facilitating business-to-business to educational ties. We are interested in developing more direct engagements with every state of the U.S., especially in the economic dimension.

Bakhtiyor Saidov
@FM_Saidov
[3/26/2024 5:26 AM, 3.4K followers, 4 retweets, 19 likes]
It was a pleasure to have a phone conversation with H.E. @MIshaqDar50, Pakistan Foreign Minister. The Strategic Partnership Agenda between #Uzbekistan and #Pakistan is getting wider and covering many spheres of fruitful bilateral relations. We see the upward trajectory in every dimension of our cooperation. @uzbekmfa and @ForeignOfficePk stand ready to further facilitate the close ties.

{End of Report}
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