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:
Friday, November 29, 2024 6:30 AM ET

Afghanistan
Women despair over Taliban rules, but many Afghan returnees don’t see it (Washington Post)
Washington Post [11/28/2024 2:00 AM, Rick Noack, 52865K, Neutral]
For the first time since the Taliban takeover three years ago, Afghans living outside the country have begun flocking back to their homeland, usually to visit relatives who have remained in Afghanistan.

Upon their return, few seem preoccupied by the Taliban’s increasingly draconian restrictions on women — including bans on women going to university and school above sixth grade — or by the reluctance of many local women to leave their homes out of fear of encountering the morality police, according to interviews with residents and visitors.

Instead, many of the visitors, carrying foreign passports or visas, marvel about the sense of security and the construction of new roads under Taliban rule. They post photos of their favorite Afghan dishes, discuss business plans and shop in the Kabul airport’s new duty-free store.

During a recent family trip to Kabul — her first since the Taliban takeover three years ago after years of war — Zahra, 34, was pleasantly surprised. “There’s freedom now,” said Zahra, an Afghan who lives in London. She indulged herself in shopping for gold jewelry and is already planning another trip to Afghanistan next year.

For Afghan women who have had to live under Taliban rule, the enthusiasm of visiting relatives can be puzzling and, increasingly, frustrating.

The Taliban further tightened its restrictions three months ago, even banning women from raising their voices in public. But visitors often spend so much time at relatives’ homes that the absence of women in many public spaces can go unnoticed, some hosting families said in interviews. Many visitors also spend their time primarily in more affluent parts of Kabul, where enforcement by the morality police remains relatively rare.

Some of the returning Afghans actually appear drawn to life under the Taliban because their own experiences in the West have proved to be more challenging than expected.

“The quality of life in Afghanistan, especially under the Taliban, is better than in Germany,” said Ali, a 65-year-old Afghan German who recently visited the country and reconnected with a conservative culture he says he feels closer to. Like others interviewed for this story, he spoke on the condition that only his first name be published for fear of drawing unwanted scrutiny.

Some Afghan women say they no longer try to convince their cousins, uncles or aunts about how dire the situation has become, including the heightened efforts by the morality police, reinforced by many newly hired officers, to look for women who violate the regime’s strict hijab mandate and other religious rules.

When her female cousins visited from Europe this year for the first time since the Taliban took power, Sadia, 24, said she struggled. “I tried to explain to them how the Taliban has destroyed all the dreams I worked so hard to achieve,” she recalled. “They kept saying how happy they are here, and how safe it is now. These are the things that impact them directly.”

Afghan culture dictates that relatives and guests be treated with respect, so Sadia — like others in similar situations — eventually gave up, she said.

“But what value does safety have when you lose all your dreams for it?” she asked.

Trendy dining and fine shopping

On arrival, Kabul can be surprising for those who have been away.

Rather than the eerily empty city that locals described to their relatives abroad in the early days of Taliban rule, visitors now find a crowded capital where dismantled blast walls have revealed pomegranate trees along the roads. Most residents struggle to make a living, but anyone who can afford it is able to choose among an array of trendy restaurants. Many are so empty that each guest has a dedicated waiter.

When wide-eyed customers show up at Mirwais Sarmastzada’s furniture store, he knows they’re back in the country for the first time in years or decades. “Many are stunned to see such high-quality beds produced here in Afghanistan,” Sarmastzada said. He said Afghans from abroad now account for 3 in 4 customers, and their number is growing.

The Taliban-run government has not released figures on how many foreign Afghans have visited the country since 2021, but some traders say that rising interest from abroad is offsetting weak domestic demand.

None of the people interviewed for this story said they intend to return to Afghanistan permanently. Most come back for weddings, to which Afghan families traditionally invite hundreds of relatives and guests. Others are here for extended family reunions, which last weeks and even months, or to explore business opportunities.

Over French breakfast or Turkish coffee, returning Afghans can be overheard discussing plans for the future. Habib Rahman, a 60-year-old engineer who moved to Germany over four decades ago, said he was unaware of the nightly blasts and gunshots that can be heard in central Kabul these days and that are frequently carried out by anti-Taliban groups. He feels just as safe in Kabul as in Europe, he said.

While sipping tea at a French restaurant, he recalled how he was among the many Afghans in Germany who feared the worst when the Taliban took over in August 2021. And he, like some other returnees, said he was disappointed by the newly promulgated rules, like the one banning women from raising their voices.

But also like many other visitors, his impressions are mostly positive. At most 5 percent of Afghans are unhappy, he said, based on his own conversations.

The darkest of times

For Qudsia, 53, it doesn’t feel that way. After the Taliban came to power, she said, she sometimes sought temporary refuge near a lake in western Kabul, away from the country’s new rulers.

But when she returned there with her family this month, morality police officers were waiting. They rushed toward her and asked her to leave immediately.

“Ever since I was born, there hasn’t been a darker time in this country,” she said, as she climbed back into her car.

Many women say they believe that hard-liners close to the Taliban leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada, have entrenched themselves in power. Moderates have either failed to soften the regime’s edicts or were never serious about doing so, these woman say.

The Taliban does not deny that its grip has tightened since 2021. “The mixing of genders has been completely stopped,” Saif al-Rahman Khaybar, the spokesman for the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice that oversees the Taliban’s morality police, said in an interview in Kabul this month.

Khaybar said the rules apply to all Afghan Muslims, including returnees and visitors. “We haven’t encountered any challenges with them,” he said.

Some Afghan women say that visiting relatives are deceived by what appears to be lax enforcement and are falling for the Taliban strategy of enforcing the rules only intermittently and counting on fear to deliver compliance.

But at times, even visiting relatives face the severe reality. When an aunt of 23-year-old Beheshta recently returned to Kabul, she was initially happy — until she was scolded at a checkpoint for not fully covering her hair.

“After that, she rebooked her flight to leave sooner,” Beheshta said. “We don’t have that option.”
Women arrested by Taliban for begging report rape and killings in Afghan jails (The Guardian)
The Guardian [11/29/2024 2:00 AM, Yalda Amini, 92.4M, Negative]
Destitute Afghan women arrested for begging under draconian new Taliban laws have spoken of “brutal” rapes and beatings in detention.

Over the past few months, many women said they had been targeted by Taliban officials and detained under anti-begging laws passed this year. While in prison, they claim they were subjected to sexual abuse, torture and forced labour, and witnessed children being beaten and abused.

All the women said they had no other option to begging on the streets for money and food for their children after being unable to find paid work.

Since the Taliban took power in August 2021, women have been barred from most paid work, which has seen levels of destitution, especially among female-led households, increase across the country.

In May, the Taliban passed new laws prohibiting “healthy people” from begging on the streets if they had enough money on them to pay for one day’s food.

A commission was established to register beggars and categorise them as “professional”, “destitute” or “organised”, which involves taking their biometric data and fingerprints. According to Taliban officials, nearly 60,000 beggars have already been “rounded up” in Kabul alone.

Zahra*, a 32-year-old mother of three, said she was forced to move to Kabul and beg on the streets for food when her husband, who was in the national army of the former government, disappeared after the Taliban took power in August 2021.

“I went to the neighbourhood councillor and told him I was a widow, asking for help to feed my three kids,” she said. “He said there was no help and told me to sit by the bakery [and] maybe someone would give me something.”

Zahra said she was unaware of the Taliban’s anti-begging laws until she was arrested.

“A Taliban car stopped near the bakery. They took my son by force and told me to get in the vehicle,” she said. Zahra claimed she spent three days and nights in a Taliban prison and that initially she was made to cook, clean and do laundry for the men working there.

She was then told she would be fingerprinted and have her biometric details recorded. When she resisted, she was beaten until she was left unconscious. She said she was then raped.

“[Since being released] I’ve thought about ending my life several times, but my children hold me back,” she said. “I wondered who would feed them if I weren’t here.

“Who can I complain to? No one will care, and I’m afraid they’d arrest me again if I spoke up. For my life and my children’s safety, I can’t say anything.”

Another woman, Parwana*, said she was detained while begging in Kabul in October with her four-year-old daughter after her husband abandoned them. She said she was taken to Badam Bagh prison and held for 15 days.

“They brought in everyone, even young children who polished shoes on the streets,” she said. “They’d tell us women why don’t we get married, beat us, and make us clean and wash dishes.”

Parwana also said she, along with another two women, was raped while in detention and that the attack had left her traumatised and depressed.

Along with multiple reports of rape and torture of women arrested under the anti-begging laws, former detainees also told the Afghan news outlet Zan Times that they witnessed the abuse of young children in prison, with one woman alleging that two children were beaten to death while she was in detention.

“No one dared speak,” she said. “If we spoke up, they’d beat us and call us shameless. Watching those children die before my eyes is something I’ll never forget.”

The death of detainees rounded up under anti-begging laws is factored into the wording of the Taliban’s new law, in which Article 25 states: “If a beggar dies while in custody and has no relatives or if the family refuses to collect the body, the municipal officials will handle the burial.”

Under the new laws, those classed as “destitute” are legally entitled to financial assistance after their release, but none of the women said they had received any help.

Parwana said that since her release she had been too afraid to beg for food again and instead relied on her neighbours for handouts.

“These days, I go door to door in my neighbourhood, collecting stale, dry bread. I have no other choice,” she said. “The Taliban are brutal and oppressive but where can I go to complain about them? We are alone.”

The Taliban authorities did not reply to multiple requests for a response.
UN report: Taliban have detained Afghan journalists more than 250 times (VOA)
VOA [11/27/2024 2:09 PM, Jocelyn Mintz, 4566K, Negative]
Journalists in Afghanistan are forced to navigate an environment of "censorship and tight restrictions" under Taliban rule, the United Nations has said.

From the Taliban takeover on August 15, 2021, to September 30 of this year, the Taliban have detained journalists 256 times and 130 cases of torture and poor treatment have been documented, according to the report published Tuesday by the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA.

The report documents the "arbitrary arrests, torture, and violence" that journalists have been subject to since 2021, according to Freshta Hemmati, of the Afghanistan Journalists Support Organization.

"They are working under the severe pressure of censorship and restrictions," she told VOA.

The Taliban-led foreign ministry said that the figures in the report were "exaggerated" and that journalists are detained only for violations of law, the Reuters news agency reported.

The ministry cited crimes including defaming the government, false or baseless reports, and providing material to media outlets against the system, Reuters reported.

The UNAMA report found that journalists and media workers in Afghanistan often face "unclear rules on what they can and cannot report." This leads to the high risk of arbitrary detention for what the Taliban deem as criticism.

Analysts who spoke with VOA said that the report reflects the media suppression in Afghanistan and is a hallmark of the Taliban rule.

"The aim of multiplying the arrests is to instill fear in the whole media community and to provoke self-censorship and submission," Célia Mercier, head of Reporters Without Borders’ South Asia Desk, told VOA in an email.

Since the Taliban resumed power, they have imposed a strict interpretation of Islamic law. Their administration has not been officially recognized by any foreign government. Within three months of the takeover, around 40% of Afghan media outlets disappeared, according to the media watchdog group Reporters Without Borders, or RSF.

The takeover led to a large exodus of journalists. Those who remain risk being targeted, according to Beh Lih Yi, of the Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ.

CPJ has documented "cruel assaults and beatings" of journalists by Taliban forces. Often, journalists and their families choose to remain silent about a detention for fear of retribution.

"All these repressive measures of the Taliban are aimed at creating a chilling effect on the press and deterring journalists from continuing their reporting," Beh told VOA in an email.

The restrictions have especially impacted women journalists in Afghanistan, Hemmati, of the Afghanistan Journalists Support Organization, told VOA. After the Taliban takeover, eight in 10 women journalists stopped working, according to RSF data.

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The Taliban foreign ministry, in its response to the UNAMA report, said women were free to work if they met conditions, such as covering their faces and working separately from men.

Watchdogs have called on Afghan authorities to uphold press freedom by respecting the country’s media law, ratified nearly a decade ago. This law outlines the right to free expression in the country, with the goal of protecting journalists, according to the Afghanistan Journalists Center.

The UNAMA report called on the Taliban to improve conditions for media.

"We urge the de facto authorities to ensure the safety and security of all journalists and media workers as they carry out their tasks, and to fully recognize the importance of women working in the media sector," Roza Otunbayeva, special representative of the secretary-general and head of UNAMA, said in the report.

Afghanistan is ranked at No. 178 out of 180 on the Press Freedom Index, where 1 signals the best environment. In 2021, before the Taliban takeover, the country ranked 122nd.
Afghanistan’s Environmental Engagement Under the Taliban (Forbes)
Forbes [11/28/2024 11:39 AM, Saleem H. Ali, 98958K, Positive]
For the first time, the Taliban have attended a major international environmental conference — the COP29 Climate Change Convention hosted by Azerbaijan that wrapped up this past week. Last year, the COP28 conference was held in another Muslim country, the United Arab Emirates, but the Taliban were excluded from the invitation list since their government is not recognized by the United Nations. However, this time the Azeris decided to invite the Taliban, with gentle support from China and India for their inclusion. The delegation was led by the head of the National Environmental Protection Agency of the country, Mati-ul-Haq Khalis, who has degrees in Islamic law from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. The delegation focused their attention on technology transfer through the Climate Technology Center Network of the United Nations. There appears to have been some partial resumption of Green Climate Fund projects for the country.

Afghanistan remains one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change and also has major environmental challenges from urban wastewater treatment to protection of endangered species such as the snow leopard. However, perhaps the most economically significant rationale for engaging with Afghanistan on environmental policy is its potential for resourcing key minerals for the green transition. As the lightest metal on the periodic table, lithium has certain unique properties which make it very suitable as a metal for batteries needed for the green transition. A Chinese company has recently expressed interest in investing $10 billion in Afghanistan’s lithium resources in the south, according to the Taliban-run Ministry of Mines and Petroleum. Another Chinese firm has been awarded with an oil and gas exploration license in the north.

The Taliban claims the lithium deal would generate up to 120,000 direct and many more indirect jobs in the country as it faces a severe humanitarian crisis and continuing international sanctions. As part of the deal, the Chinese firm has also promised to invest in new infrastructure projects in Afghanistan. China is already involved in a fourteen-year deal to extract copper from the Mes Aynak copper mine in Logar province, one of the world’s largest copper reserves. The Chinese state-owned Metallurgical Group signed the deal with the Afghan government in 2007. This project is yet to begin because of years of security issues, logistical challenges, and contract renegotiations.

There has also been a tentative agreement reached between China and Pakistan to extend the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor development corridor to Afghanistan. Afghanistan has long been known for its wealth of mineral resources. The Ministry of Mines and Petroleum in Afghanistan estimates it may hold 60 million tons of copper, 2.2 billion tons of iron ore, 1.4 million tons of rare earth elements such as lanthanum, cerium and neodymium, and lodes of aluminum, gold, silver, zinc, mercury, and lithium.

As the news of China’s lithium interest made its way around the world, local reporters at Michigan News Source found that the company interested in the lithium investment is actually a firm called Gotion Inc. It is the same company that has received scrutiny from Michigan lawmakers for their proposed $2.36 billion electric vehicle battery factory near Big Rapids, Michigan. The Michigan Senate Committee had initially approved $175 million in state grant incentives to support the factory. This could end up sourcing its raw materials from Afghanistan, though the firm has come under attack by incoming U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance for the firm’s connections to China. At the same time, President Trump has noted more of a willingness to engage with the Taliban on specific issues and environmental policy and resource development might be appropriate entry points due to their global significance.

Repugnant as the Taliban are for their human rights violations and their misogynistic behavior, the world cannot abandon the Afghan people nor the sensitive environment that they inhabit. The Taliban have also shown a remarkable alacrity for infrastructure development, often with misplaced water diversion and energy corridor projects. Environmental engagement may be a way to ensure that some of these major development projects are done with some modicum of ecological safeguards. Furthermore, the prospect of resourcing green transition minerals gaining limited exemptions for sanctions may incentivize the Taliban to consider broader changes in environmental policy. The COP29 meetings mark an important first step to ensure that environmental factors in Afghanistan remain a tentative means of engagement with Taliban. Ultimately, all engagement must seek to galvanize further social change in their policies as well.
Pakistan
Pakistan’s Capital Is Turned Upside Down by Unending Protests (New York Times)
New York Times [11/27/2024 4:14 PM, Zia ur-Rehman, 831K, Negative]
Another anti-government protest had come and gone in Pakistan’s once peaceful capital, and Saira Bano was ready to get her city back.

For four days, Islamabad had been a tense battleground after supporters of a jailed former prime minister, Imran Khan, marched into the city.

The capital, home to 2.4 million people, became a “container city” as the authorities stacked more than 700 shipping containers to block key routes and maintain order. Schools and shops closed, internet service was cut, and roads teemed with thousands of police officers scrutinizing passers-by.

“This is not the Islamabad I grew up in,” said Ms. Bano, a schoolteacher who had to cancel her classes for three consecutive days. “Everywhere I looked, there were barricades and containers. We feel isolated and anxious in our own city.”

A day of intense clashes on Tuesday between Mr. Khan’s supporters and security forces culminated in a hasty retreat by his party’s top leadership, including his wife, Bushra Bibi, who had vowed to stay at the protest site “till my last breath.”

Party supporters were pushed from D-Chowk, an Islamabad square that was the designated endpoint of the march, early on Wednesday. Ali Nasir Rizvi, the city’s police chief, said that 954 protesters had been arrested after defying a ban on public gatherings between Sunday and Tuesday.

For months, Mr. Khan’s detention has stoked political tensions across the country. His backers say they will not stop agitating for his release on what they call trumped-up charges.

But for residents of Islamabad, the disruptions from near-monthly rallies in support of Mr. Khan have caused increasing frustration. People are exhausted by frequent closures and restrictions — what many call an unwelcome new way of life.

“Islamabad was once one of the most peaceful cities in the country, but in recent years, it has become far more turbulent,” said Shabbir Farooq, a clerk in the city government.

“The moment people sense even the slightest sign of chaos, they brace themselves because the authorities lock down the city without hesitation,” Mr. Farooq said. “Some head to their nearby hometowns, while others start stocking up on food and essentials.”

Shop owners said they had been hit hard by the protests.

“Pakistan’s economy is already in a bad situation, and business is already slow,” said Naveed Ali, who sells computer-related items near D-Chowk, which is also referred to as Democracy Chowk. “In this situation, we can’t afford business closures for days.”

Commuters, too, are suffering the effects. In recent days, travel between Islamabad and other cities became nearly impossible because of the shipping containers blocking roads and highways.

Asghar Ali, 45, who was visiting relatives in London, said that to reach the Islamabad airport, he had endured a five-hour ordeal involving two cars and a walk from a district in a neighboring province.

“The government needs to find a better way to handle protests,” Mr. Ali said. “We can’t keep living like this.”

Mr. Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or P.T.I., claimed that several of its workers were killed or injured during the protest because of “indiscriminate firing” of guns and the use of tear gas by the authorities. Attaullah Tarar, Pakistan’s information minister, denied that officers had shot at protesters.

A group of five Khan supporters, hiding in a house in Islamabad to evade the police crackdown, said that clashes between officers and protesters had intensified on Tuesday afternoon.

“Clouds of smoke blanketed the area after the law enforcement agencies fired uncountable tear gases and rubber bullets,” said Jibran Ahmed, a university student. “People were running in every direction.” He acknowledged that amid the chaos, some protesters had picked up tear gas canisters and hurled them back at the police.

Political analysts and even Mr. Khan’s own supporters are increasingly questioning the effectiveness of the protests. The ruling establishment has vowed not to give an inch, and the cycle of unrest has shown no signs of yielding tangible results.

“Pakistan’s protests had no winners,” Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington, wrote on X.

The crackdown by the military and the government, he said, had only made the public angrier, while P.T.I., in its retreat, had accomplished little after having made grand statements about its determination to fight until the end. And Pakistan had once again been distracted from its urgent economic and security challenges.

“Every month, workers from across the country gather in Islamabad, enduring the government’s harsh crackdowns in the hope that Mr. Khan will be released,” said Mr. Ahmed, the P.T.I. backer who was holed up in Islamabad. “But each time, our efforts end in vain. It’s starting to exhaust the workers and leave them disheartened.”

Although the protesters had been dispersed by Wednesday morning, the atmosphere in Islamabad remained tense, with the political uncertainty casting a long shadow. Many residents fear another wave of unrest could erupt at any moment, disrupting daily life once again.

“It feels like a never-ending cycle until Mr. Khan is released,” Ms. Bano said. “We just want to live our lives without this constant chaos.”
Pakistan Arrests Hundreds in Crackdown on Protests Backing Ex-Leader (New York Times)
New York Times [11/27/2024 4:14 PM, Salman Masood, 831K, Negative]
More than 600 people were arrested in an overnight crackdown on supporters of Pakistan’s jailed former prime minister in Islamabad, the police said on Wednesday.

The crackdown brought a swift end to the protests that have gripped Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital, this week ever since thousands of people gathered in the city to demand the release of Imran Khan, the former prime minister. Mr. Khan has been in prison since last August on charges that his party claims are politically motivated.

The protesters, led by Mr. Khan’s wife, Bushra Bibi, marched to a main square near government buildings in Islamabad on Tuesday. That resulted in violent clashes with security forces, who moved to disperse them. Four civilians were killed by gunfire in the unrest, according to local media reports.

The Inspector General of Islamabad Police, Ali Nasir Rizvi, said Wednesday that 954 people have been arrested in relation to the recent protests — including 610 the previous night.

He told a news conference that 71 members of the security forces had been wounded in clashes, and denied that they had fired on protesters.

“Only nonlethal weapons, tear gas and baton-charge were used during last night’s crackdown,” Mr. Rizvi said.

Pakistan, an impoverished, nuclear-armed nation of 241 million people with a struggling economy, has been in a constant state of political turmoil since Mr. Khan’s removal from office in 2022 following a parliamentary no-confidence vote.

Since then, he has accused the powerful military of orchestrating his removal and has led a protest campaign to reclaim power through public rallies.

The political crisis intensified after general elections earlier this year. Mr. Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, claimed victory in the elections and accused the current civilian government of being a puppet of the military.

Tensions were already high in the capital on Tuesday, with security officials ordered to use lethal force, if necessary, to protect key buildings.

The crackdown by paramilitary troops and police began shortly before midnight. The authorities turned off streetlights at the main square where protesters had gathered before they were pushed back and forced to regroup nearby, and they ordered nearby shops, cafes and markets to close.

Protesters, most of whom had come from the neighboring Khyber-Pakhthunkwa province, quickly dispersed as security forces used tear gas and rubber bullets, officials said. Mr. Khan’s supporters claimed that security forces had opened fire on the protesters, which the security officials have denied.

By 1:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi appeared before journalists at the protest venue and announced that the area had been cleared.

The protesters’ “hasty retreat,” as described by Dawn, one of Pakistan’s leading English dailies, surprised many and disappointed Mr. Khan’s supporters.

For days, Ms. Bibi had vowed not to leave Islamabad unless her husband was released. “I will stay here till my last breath,” she declared in a speech on Tuesday before the crackdown.

But she and Ali Amin Gandapur, a political ally of Mr. Khan who has led previous protests, managed to evade arrest in the melee. They fled to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which is controlled by Mr. Khan’s party and where Mr. Gandapur serves as its chief minister, officials said.

Mr. Gandapur later vowed to continue the protest — although other officials from Mr. Khan’s party said it had been called off in light of the crackdown.

Mr. Khan’s party also accused security forces of killing dozens of protesters, a claim that could not be independently verified and was repeatedly denied by officials. The country’s information minister, Attaullah Tarar, said that protesters had fled in disarray, leaving behind vehicles and even their shoes. “The miscreants had made big claims but failed,” he said.

On Wednesday, the protest site was strewn with debris and trash, and several vehicles lay damaged. A truck used by Ms. Bibi had been burned to a char.

The political crisis has left Islamabad’s residents frustrated, with frequent protests and blockades disrupting daily life. Anticipating the protest, the authorities blocked major roads and suspended internet and cellular services in parts of the city. Schools, closed since Monday, are scheduled to reopen on Thursday.

Political analysts and rights groups condemned the violence and called for dialogue.

“The government and the opposition, the PTI, must immediately engage in purposeful political dialogue — both on the floor of the house and among political parties,” the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said in a statement. “It is high time they agree on a peaceful way forward instead of inciting their supporters and bringing the country to a standstill.”

Husain Haqqani, a former Pakistani ambassador to the United States and now a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, a public policy think tank in Washington, echoed the sentiment. He noted that the political crisis had led to repeated conflicts.

“The solution to Pakistan’s problems lies in grand reconciliation among political parties and the state’s permanent institutions,” Mr. Haqqani said.
Pakistan’s political tensions escalate after new violent clashes (Washington Post)
Washington Post [11/27/2024 7:23 AM, Shaiq Hussain and Rick Noack, 52865K, Negative]
Pakistan appeared poised to enter an even more fraught phase of political tensions following new violent clashes between security forces and supporters of imprisoned former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan this week.

Khan’s party described Tuesday’s clashes in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital, as “a massacre” and alleged that about 100 people suffered gunshot wounds. Pakistan’s government denied that live ammunition was used and said there were no fatalities.

Khan’s party appeared undecided about how to proceed. A spokesman announced on Wednesday that the party was suspending protests in Islamabad. But only minutes later, senior party member Ali Amin Gandapur said the decision on how to respond is up to Khan, who has shown no signs of backing down. Khan maintains a strong support base despite his imprisonment and a state crackdown on his party.

“This struggle will continue,” Gandapur said, without specifying where and when protests would resume.

Tuesday’s clashes in Islamabad marked some of the worst violence between security forces and Khan’s supporters since the former prime minister’s arrest last year. Videos showed abandoned and damaged cars and motorcycles in central parts of Islamabad.

Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), or Movement for Justice, alleged in a post on X on Wednesday morning that security forces were responsible for a “violent assault” and the use of live rounds “with the intent to kill as many people as possible.”

“There were snipers at the protest,” Gandapur, the senior PTI member, who also serves as chief minister for the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said at a news conference on Wednesday.

The party cited a hospital document for its claim that about 100 people suffered gunshot wounds on Tuesday, but the document’s authenticity could not be verified. Party members said they were still compiling a list of fatalities.

Amnesty International’s South Asia branch also noted the use of “unlawful and excessive force including tear gas, live ammunition and rubber bullets” by security forces.

Pakistani government officials rejected the accusations. “I visited the site last night and didn’t see any shells of live ammunition or any dead bodies,” Attaullah Tarar, Pakistan’s information minister, said in a video posted online.

This week’s protests were led in part by Bushra Bibi, Khan’s wife, who has become a public face of demonstrations since she was released from prison last month. Bibi is implicated in cases that have also resulted in charges against Khan. The former prime minister’s legal woes have ranged from corruption cases to the alleged revelation of state secrets and other accusations.

Khan’s supporters view the numerous legal cases as politically motivated. Pakistan’s military has long played a dominant role in Pakistani politics, wielding influence on political candidates behind the scenes — and overthrowing several governments.

In the months leading up to his ouster by Parliament in April 2022, Khan had repeatedly clashed with the military leadership over the selection of nominees for key army positions and criticism that his government was failing to address soaring inflation and debt.

After his ouster, Pakistani authorities, including the military, cracked down heavily on Khan’s supporters and the leadership of his party. Scores of political aides and party members resigned.

But the PTI managed to stage a surprising comeback in February, overperforming in national elections and casting into doubt the military’s iron grip. While candidates supporting Khan won the most votes, his party wasn’t able to form a national government because its candidates fell short of an absolute majority.
Pakistani police issues charges against Imran Khan and his wife for inciting violence (AP)
AP [11/28/2024 8:36 AM, Munir Ahmed, 31638K, Negative]
Pakistani police have levelled multiple charges against imprisoned former premier Imran Khan, his wife and others for inciting people to violence, officials said Thursday, following days of protests and clashes in which at least six people were killed and scores more were injured.

Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi led thousands of people from the country’s northwest to march on the capital Islamabad to demand the release of Khan, who has been behind bars since August 2023. Khan already has more than 150 cases against him but supporters say they are politically motivated.

Bibi, a spiritual healer, fled when police launched a midnight raid Tuesday to disperse thousands of demonstrators. She was out of prison on bail in a graft case when she led the protest from northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Authorities said police arrested nearly 1,000 demonstrators since Sunday in and around Islamabad.

At least six people, including four security personnel, were killed when a vehicle rammed into them, according to Islamabad police which has blamed Khan supporters for the deaths.

Police issued charges against Khan, Bibi and others in Islamabad and the city of Rawalpindi under Pakistan’s anti-terrorism laws. Authorities accuse them of inciting people to attack security forces and disrupting the peace.

Khan faces more than 150 cases against him but his political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf or PTI, says it will continue to push for his release.

On Thursday, Planning and Development Minster Ahsan Iqbal and Information Minister Attaullah Tarar told international media that Khan supporters "wanted to take over the capital" and that some of them were carrying weapons. These were seized when the midnight raid was under way, they said.

Iqbal said security forces used tear gas and batons to disperse crowds. He dismissed the PTI’s claim that some Khan supporters died from police firing live bullets. He added that it was not a peaceful rally because the protesters used guns.

The rally came after 42 Shiites were killed in the northwestern Kurram district earlier this month when gunmen opened fire on convoys of buses and cars. Retaliatory attacks in Kurram also left dozens more people dead.

Also on Thursday, eight people were killed in new sectarian clashes in Kurram, local police official Salim Shah said.

Meanwhile, Islamabad police filed terrorism charges against a journalist, Matiullah Jan, on Thursday after his family said he was abducted by unknown men. Police say Jan, who is now in police custody, refused to stop at a checkpoint and he had snatched a gun from an officer. Police also alleged that Jan was "drunk" when arrested, a charge he denied.

It’s the latest turmoil to rock the country since Khan’s ouster in 2022.

Pakistan’s Stock Exchange lost more than $1.7 billion on Tuesday due to the political tension, but it recovered from on Thursday by surpassing 100,000 points for the first time. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said the rebound was a sign of an improving economy.
Democrat calls for sanctions over violent clashes in Pakistan (The Hill)
The Hill [11/27/2024 4:07 PM, Ashleigh Fields, 60726K, Negative]
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) denounced Pakistan’s chief of army staff Wednesday for allegedly killing citizens and confiscating death records from medics in an effort to subdue growing protests in the nation’s capital.

"Horrified by reports of an attempted cover-up of the alleged killings of peaceful protesters by Asim Munir’s regime in Pakistan," Khanna wrote on social platform X.

"The US must impose visa bans and asset freezes on senior officials in the military regime," he said.

The Guardian reported army officials unleashed tear gas and open gunfire on civilians in Islamabad amid protests to release former Prime Minister Imran Khan from prison. Khan has been held in prison for nearly a year on more than 100 charges that he claims were spurred by political opponents.

Demonstrators led by Khan’s wife, Bushra Bibi, raided the capital Tuesday, burning shipping containers. This spurred violent pushback from the military, which was given "shoot to kill" orders, according to The Guardian’s reporting.

Later on Tuesday, officials instated a power blackout as a operation to move the crowd out began.

The minister for information and broadcasting, Attaullah Tarar, said there had been no firing on PTI party protesters and no fatalities. Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said in a statement that officers had "bravely repulsed the protesters" as reported by The Guardian.

However, other numbers suggested at least 17 people were dead.

"All records of dead and injured have been confiscated by authorities. We are not allowed to talk. Senior government officials are visiting the hospital to hide the records," one doctor told the outlet on the condition of anonymity.

Pakistan reopened the capital Wednesday after four days of a lockdown, sparking a global response from lawmakers.

"The brutal repression of protesters in Pakistan and growing political violence is an attempt to suppress democracy and human rights," Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) wrote on X.

"I stand with the brave Pakistanis who are rising up and protesting for change.".
Pakistani journalist probing Imran Khan protest casualties charged with terrorism, lawyer says (Reuters)
Reuters [11/28/2024 9:55 AM, Asif Shahzad, 37270K, Negative]
A Pakistani journalist investigating claims of casualties in a protest march demanding the release of jailed ex-prime minister Imran Khan was picked up off the street on Wednesday night and charged with terrorism, according to a colleague and his lawyer.

Television host Matiullah Jan is known as a critic of the military’s heavy influence in Pakistani politics.

Hours before being picked up, he had done a TV show where he read from what he said were hospital records contradicting the government’s denial that live ammunition had been used when security forces dispersed the protest, or that any protesters had been killed.

Jan’s colleague Saqib Bashir said on Thursday that they had both been picked up by men wearing black uniforms from the car park of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) in Islamabad.

They were blindfolded and bundled into a car, he said, adding: "We were collecting data on the casualties.".

Bashir was dropped off in a street three hours later.

Jan’s son Abd-u-Razaq confirmed the account in a video statement, demanding authorities release his father.

His lawyer Imaan Mazari, however, said he had been charged with terrorism, drug peddling and attacking police. The charges seen by Reuters alleged Jan had been under the influence of drugs at the time of the arrest.

"It is all fake, funny and fabricated," Jan told reporters at a court appearance broadcast by local TV channels. "We will continue our work. I was investigating about the dead bodies.".

Bashir said Jan’s family had been given access to him at a police lock-up on Thursday morning.

Neither Islamabad police nor the Information Ministry responded to a request for a comment.

Jan had also cast doubt on official assertions that some security personnel had died after being run over by a vehicle in the protesters’ convoy.

Thousands of supporters of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party had over the weekend stormed Islamabad. The government said they had killed four security officers.

The PTI said hundreds of protesters had been shot, and between eight and 40 killed.

The Committee to Protect Journalists expressed "grave alarm" over Jan’s "abduction" and demanded his immediate release.

Amnesty International termed the arrest "an affront to the right to freedom of expression and media freedom" and demanded that authorities drop the charges, which it said were trumped-up and politically motivated.

Jan had also been abducted for around 12 hours during Khan’s rule in 2020.
Pakistan must release political prisoners and hold fresh elections (Nikkei Asia – opinion)
Nikkei Asia [11/29/2024 2:05 AM, Farhan Bokhari, 2.4M, Neutral]
In the days since Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan ordered his followers to march on the country’s capital on Nov. 24, life across Islamabad has come to a virtual halt.

The government has been forced to shut down the internet, major roads leading to the capital have been closed, schools are shut and a powerful security crackdown has led to the arrests of hundreds of opposition activists.

By Wednesday morning, Khan’s followers began retreating -- though only after causing incalculable harm to the government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. In spite of being in prison, Khan has emerged yet again as Pakistan’s most popular politician, and his followers appear ready to agitate at his call.

The protests were the largest since Sharif came to power in last February’s controversial parliamentary elections, which were rejected as rigged by Khan and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), or Pakistan Justice Movement.

The magnitude of this week’s unrest prompted some to predict a coming change comparable to last August’s public protests that forced out Bangladesh’s once powerful leader Sheikh Hasina.

The latest unrest has revived a two-pronged fear for the ruling structure: Imran Khan, jailed in August last year, remains a powerful figure; and Pakistan is unlikely to witness the badly needed stability that is central to any hope for a recovery from a long period of economic disarray.

Khan’s loyalists, who rule the provincial government of the northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that borders Afghanistan, continue to use that region as a sanctuary to regroup and return to agitate in an often repeated pattern this year.

While Khan remains in jail in Rawalpindi, just outside Islamabad, his loyalists have vowed to keep on agitating until he is released. They are also demanding fresh elections for Pakistan to move beyond the controversy over last February’s election results.

For now, the powerful army, which is widely viewed as being the main arbiter of political events in Pakistan, visibly remains loyal to Sharif. Yet, a larger crisis such as further protests combined with an already worsening security situation and economic disarray could force the prime minister out.

In recent weeks, continued violence linked to hard-line militants has badly exposed fragile security conditions, with incidents including an attack on a train station in southwestern Pakistan and the subsequent killing of more than 40 Shiite Muslims in attacks on vehicles on a single day this month in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The government has turned to placing tighter controls on the internet such as the targeting of online use of increasingly popular VPNs, or virtual private networks. But such controls have done visibly little to curb Khan’s supporters from joining hands to agitate.

Going forward, Pakistan -- the Muslim world’s only country armed with nuclear weapons -- cannot afford to have downward sliding internal conditions.

The country needs to immediately embrace three related actions.

First, the imprisonment of Khan and hundreds of his followers has failed to dampen their resolve to launch protests. Instead, a path towards a political resolution must be built by releasing these prisoners, followed by comprehensive national negotiations to end the unrest. It is clear to many across Pakistan that the parliamentary elections were widely seen to be suspect. A way forward will not be sustainable unless Pakistan can overcome the controversy over the elections, which will eventually need to be followed by another set of elections for their legitimacy to be popularly accepted.

Second, the mounting violence, notably in parts of Pakistan close to the Afghan border, need to be resolved through an urgent push for national unity involving all political players including Khan. Additionally, the southwestern province of Balochistan, where China has made large investments under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) banner, now faces growing militancy involving separatists who seek to create a country of their own. Tackling these matters requires rallying the public behind a common national consensus in support of a comprehensive security crackdown. The history of the world has shown other examples of countries that have successfully fought security threats, with a national political resolve that appears to be missing in Pakistan today.

Finally, Pakistan needs to undertake tough new reforms to rebuild its economy. The country’s revenue and tax collection systems remain in tatters, while the rate of economic growth has plummeted and stands marginally around Pakistan’s population expansion rate. In recent days, the government has targeted banks with a new push for tax in a country where finance is among the very few sectors that continue to grow. In sharp contrast, politically powerful landlords remain practically exempt from paying income tax, though the government has said that it will withdraw that exemption in the near future. Clearly, this is an untenable situation that must change.

The way forward requires bringing Pakistan to peace in a break from a recurring pattern of political unrest and economic disarray. For the international community, Pakistan’s location next to Afghanistan and its long conflict with India are elements that cannot be ignored. A jailed Khan’s influence on the streets of Pakistan has sparked challenges that must be urgently addressed.
India
Energy Billionaire’s U.S. Bribery Scandal Shows Risks of India’s Bet on Giant Firms (Wall Street Journal)
Wall Street Journal [11/27/2024 10:50 AM, Tripti Lahiri and Shan Li, 810K, Neutral]
In the wake of U.S. bribery allegations against top executives of India’s Adani Group, the country faces a reckoning with an economic model that has taken hold during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decade in power—one that has allowed a small group of politically connected entrepreneurs to grow fabulously rich, but at a cost to the country.

Economists and policy experts say Modi has promoted “national champions,” allowing a small number of conglomerates to become giant actors across swaths of the economy.

Those companies can deliver on the massive infrastructure projects—from building roads to rolling out high-speed telecom networks—that India desperately needs to boost its growth. But the concentration of so much economic might crowds out other firms and weighs on broader private investment, economists say.

Adani Group, an empire that stretches from ports to coal and renewable energy, and whose founder Gautam Adani is close to Modi, has lost more than $50 billion in stock market value since the U.S. Justice Department alleged in an indictment last week that Adani and associates orchestrated a $250 million bribery scheme to ensure buyers for their solar power in India.

Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar Adani were charged with securities fraud and two counts of fraud conspiracies, in connection with misrepresenting the company’s anticorruption practices to raise money from investors. The Securities and Exchange Commission also brought civil charges against the two defendants, who are Indian nationals.

The group has denied any wrongdoing. It didn’t respond to a request for comment.

France’s TotalEnergies, which has a nearly 20% stake in Adani Green Energy, the unit that is at the center of the allegations, has said it would pause further investment into Adani businesses. A U.S. government development agency is reviewing its plan to invest in a port Adani is developing in Sri Lanka, while Kenya canceled plans for Adani Group to expand its main airport. Rating firms have downgraded their outlook for some of the group’s debt.

The indictment has cast a negative light on business practices in a country that has attracted more investor interest in recent years as China’s economy has slowed. India grew at more than 8% in its last fiscal year, in part due to infrastructure spending by the government carried out by large private firms.

“If you’re Modi and his team, and you want development, you have a choice between a Western model where you let the market figure out how to do this, or you have a more directive model, where gigantic conglomerates are favored by the government to achieve development aims,” said James Crabtree, author of “The Billionaire Raj,” about wealth and inequality in India. “In the long run, the risk is you create these monstrous companies which are neither responsive nor efficient.”

Regulators, meanwhile, have approached such firms with caution, knowing they enjoy close ties with powerful decision makers. By raising investment overseas, however, Adani Group entered the scrutiny of U.S. regulators.

The prime minister’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Adani, 62, hails from Gujarat, a state on India’s northwest coast that is also the prime minister’s birthplace.

The youngest of five children, he grew up in the city of Ahmedabad, where his family was active in commodity trading. He dropped out of school as a teenager and moved to Mumbai to work in the city’s diamond markets. The family founded an exports firm in the 1990s and soon made its foray into port development.

Adani has played a key role in Modi’s most ambitious policy goals since early in the prime minister’s career. When Modi was chief minister of Gujarat, and later after Modi became prime minister in 2014, Adani companies worked closely with officials to modernize and expand ports and airports, and to import fuel to power the economy.

Other major players who have supported Modi’s economic vision for India include Reliance Industries, whose chairman, Mukesh Ambani, vies with Adani for the title of India’s richest man. After spending more than $45 billion to build out telecom networks, driving the cost of data down in India, the petrochemicals, textiles and retail giant also plans to spend billions of dollars on renewable energy.

The Tata Group, the country’s oldest conglomerate, which took control of the formerly state-owned Air India in 2021, recently placed one of the largest aircraft orders in aviation history. The tea-to-steel-to-software behemoth also produces electric vehicles and is scaling up in defense manufacturing.

India’s biggest five conglomerates—defined as the top industrial groups by sales or assets outside of financial sectors—dramatically boosted their market share in many sectors from 2016 to 2021, according to Viral Acharya, a former deputy governor of India’s central bank. These firms—which include Adani Group—now account for 84% of sales in telecom, 65% of retail, and 42% of the construction and civil engineering sector.

Kavil Ramachandran, a professor at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad, said the close relationships between businesses and politicians stem from the era of the so-called license raj when businesses used their political connections to secure the multiple permits needed to operate.

That legacy continued even after the economy opened up in 1991, with well-connected businesspeople pushing for favorable trade policies, including high tariffs on many imports, and securing state contracts.

“You keep all the rules twisted, all the policies framed favorably to you,” said Ramachandran.

The Modi government has previously said that every company competes on equal footing.

In the decades after liberalization, India’s top five conglomerates nearly doubled their stakes in nonfinancial sectors to 18% in 2021.

The opposition Indian National Congress party has long accused Modi of crony capitalism. In recent months, the party has portrayed Modi as an ambassador for Adani’s economic interests overseas, listing countries where Adani has secured deals around the time of Modi’s visits there.

“Wherever the prime minister goes, he gets a contract,” said Congress party President Mallikarjun Kharge Monday.

The party is calling for a parliamentary committee to investigate the U.S. allegations.

In a television interview in 2023, Adani described his wealth as the product of honesty and hard work. “The major thing for me is what change can I bring about in the nation,” he said.

Adani’s wealth has grown along with his company’s fortunes. In September 2022, he briefly overtook Amazon founder Jeff Bezos as the world’s second-richest person, with an estimated personal worth of around $150 billion at the time.

In January last year, a U.S. short seller targeted the energy and infrastructure business with allegations of stock manipulation and accounting fraud, leading Adani companies to lose tens of billions of dollars in market value. The group denied the allegations and soon recovered their value.

Adani was once kidnapped for ransom, he told an Indian broadcaster. In a separate incident in 2008, he was at Mumbai’s Taj Hotel when the hotel was taken by terrorists who held guests and staff hostage. Security forces helped them escape the premises the following morning.

Adani’s business expanded beyond ports and coal most significantly in the past decade, amid a slew of regulatory, technological and geopolitical shifts after Modi entered national office. For instance, tax reforms under Modi’s government put pressure on smaller businesses that had often evaded taxes. Many were acquired by larger firms.

Better and faster internet and widespread adoption of mobile payments have also helped big firms expand their businesses into once-remote areas. These changes have allowed new firms to emerge in technology-driven sectors, but conventional industries, such as steel, remain firmly in the grip of the largest players.

Friction with China has pushed India to boost manufacturing, especially in critical new technologies such as renewable energy, to shed dependence on its Asian neighbor.

Meanwhile, Adani has steadily become more dominant. When the state privatized six airports in 2018, the company won the bid for all six, despite no previous experience in managing airports. It is now one of India’s largest private operators of airports.

Adani’s renewable-energy business got off the ground a decade ago, as Modi announced ambitious renewable-energy goals for the country. It has since grown to become the world’s second-largest solar developer, the firm has said.

India aims to have 500 gigawatts of renewable energy installed by 2030, up from about 200 gigawatts now. Adani Green has said it aims to be the world’s largest renewables developer by the same year.

The U.S. indictment focused on a deal to supply eight gigawatts of solar power that was awarded to Adani Green in 2020 by the Solar Energy Corporation of India, an enterprise set up by the Indian government to promote renewable-energy development, and to act as a broker between developers and state utilities.

The deal was dependent on state utilities entering into deals with the government corporation for the power from Adani. But India’s cash-strapped utilities have sometimes been reluctant to buy renewable energy amid concerns over the variability in its supply, and the expectation that prices will decline further.

U.S. prosecutors allege that Adani and his associates decided to offer bribes to entice the state utilities to sign deals with the Solar Energy Corporation of India. The indictment said that a senior official in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh was offered the majority of the bribe money, and the state subsequently entered into a deal for seven gigawatts of power to be supplied by Adani Green.

The political party in power at the time of that deal has denied any wrongdoing and said that the government intermediary offered the state a low-cost deal for the solar power.

Other countries have created large firms too, including South Korea’s chaebols and Japan’s zaibatsu, to further national economic goals. In China, electric-vehicle firm BYD and Contemporary Amperex Technology, better known as CATL, the world’s biggest maker of batteries for electric vehicles, have prospered with the help of state policies and subsidies.

But in many of these cases, the firms had to vie with foreign firms for a share of global trade, forcing them to be truly competitive, said Arvind Subramanian, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and former chief economic adviser to the Modi government.

It isn’t clear that is true of Indian firms.

“None of these conglomerates are in internationally tradable sectors, so you worry that the bigness is not tested against international benchmarks of productivity,” said Subramanian. “Have they become big just because they got the favors or because they’re really competitive?”
Indian government accused of protecting billionaire Adani as he faces allegations of fraud in the US (AP)
AP [11/28/2024 2:39 AM, Ashok Sharma, 31638K, Negative]
India’s Parliament was disrupted for a third day Thursday by opposition parties protesting the government’s silence over allegations against billionaire Gautam Adani, who was recently indicted in the U.S. for alleged fraud and a scheme to pay bribes.

As Speaker Om Birla convened the powerful lower house of Parliament, opposition members shot up from their seats and crowded the aisles, shouting anti-government slogans. The Congress and other opposition parties have accused the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi of protecting Adani, an Indian coal magnate.

"I don’t appreciate the manner of protest," Birla said, adjourning the session over the opposition disruptions. The session later resumed but was adjourned for the day with the deadlock between the government and the opposition continuing.

Proceedings in Parliament’s upper house were also adjourned, and the Congress party was unyielding in its stance.

The opposition called for a joint committee to investigate Adani’s companies, which include agriculture, renewable energy, coal and infrastructure.

Adani, 62, one of Asia’s richest men, was thrust into the spotlight last week when U.S. prosecutors in New York charged him a nd seven of his associates with securities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, and wire fraud. The charges allege that Adani duped investors in a massive solar project in India by concealing that it was being facilitated by bribes.

The indictment outlines an alleged scheme to pay about $265 million in bribes to Indian government officials.

The Adani Group, in a statement last week, said the allegations by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission against directors of Adani Green are baseless.

"The charges in the indictment are allegations and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. All possible legal recourse will be sought," the statement said.

In the absence of a statement by the Indian government, Amit Malviya, the governing Bharatiya Janata Party’s IT head, also said in a post on the social media platform X that the U.S. charges are "allegations and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty," which critics interpreted as a show of support by the Modi government for the Adani Group.

The controversy has already affected Adani’s interests overseas. Kenya’s president canceled multimillion-dollar deals with the Adani Group for airport modernization and energy projects.

Adani will also face scrutiny in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

A Sri Lankan government spokesperson said earlier this week that it is reviewing projects to be implemented by the Adani Group in Sri Lanka. The group was set to invest over $440 million under a 20-year agreement to develop 484 megawatts of wind power in the northeastern regions of Sri Lanka and develop a terminal in the Colombo port.

"We are taking it seriously. The foreign ministry and the finance ministry are inquiring into it. We will take the decision according to the reports of both ministries," spokesperson Nalinda Jayatissa said,.

Bangladesh’s interim government is reviewing an agreement under which the Adani Group supplies electricity to Bangladesh from a power project in India.
Ex-chief minister of India’s Andhra Pradesh denies bribery allegations, Adani link in solar deal (Reuters)
Reuters [11/28/2024 2:34 PM, Rishika Sadam and Chandni Shah, 37270K, Neutral]
The former chief minister of India’s Andhra Pradesh state refuted on Thursday bribery allegations and any involvement by the Adani Group in the state government’s purchase of solar power while he was in power.

In his first comments after facing allegations of corruption, Jagan Mohan Reddy dismissed any state involvement with Adani in the deal. He said the agreement was between the government and the Solar Energy Corporation of India, which awards power-supply contracts to companies, and no third party.

"Adani meeting me is nothing out of ordinary. He would have met me several times during my tenure. He has got ongoing projects in Andhra Pradesh," Reddy said in a press briefing.

Reuters earlier reported that the southern state is likely to suspend a power-purchase deal linked to the Adani Group due to Gautam Adani’s indictment in the U.S., and will ask the SECI and the federal government to investigate the charges.

U.S. authorities have accused Gautam Adani, his nephew and executive director Sagar Adani and managing director of Adani Green, Vneet S. Jaain, of being part of a scheme to pay bribes of $265 million to secure Indian power-supply contracts, and misleading U.S. investors during fund raises there.

Most of the alleged bribes - $228 million - were paid to a government official to entice Andhra Pradesh’s state electricity-distribution companies to agree to purchase power, the U.S. indictment said.

Adani Group has denied all allegations made by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission as "baseless" and said it was fully compliant with all laws.
These Exams Mean Everything in India. Thieves See a Gold Mine. (New York Times)
New York Times [11/28/2024 4:14 PM, Mujib Mashal and Hari Kumar, 831K, Neutral]
The call arrived — it was go time. The medical doctor rushed to the airport, bound for a midnight operation hundreds of miles away in western India.

But this mission was not about saving lives. The doctor carried a screwdriver, a pair of pliers, a blade and a cellphone — tools for a heist. His target was something worth more than gold in India’s cutthroat competition for government jobs and university placements: the question sheets for a police constable exam.

After landing in the city of Ahmedabad, the doctor, Shubham Mandal, was hurried to a freight warehouse on its outskirts, according to police documents and interviews with the lead investigator by The New York Times. To avoid surveillance cameras, Dr. Mandal climbed through a back window into a room stacked with boxes. There, the police say, he pried open one marked “confidential” and took out an envelope.

He used his phone’s camera to photograph each page inside before resealing the envelope and locking the box. He would repeat the exercise at least once in the nights that followed, as new sheets arrived at the warehouse from the printing house, in between staying at a one-star hotel nearby. Waiting in a car each time were three men, including, the police say, the burglary’s mastermind, Ravi Atri.

Mr. Atri saw himself as part criminal, part Robin Hood. He had taken the national medical school entrance exam five times, and ultimately passed, but never became a doctor. Instead, he turned to stealing tests to help others.

No job was too small for him and his gang. He had previously had a hand in leaking questions on exams for nursing jobs, banking jobs, teaching jobs and slots at vocational institutes, the police say, and had been jailed at least twice.

The constable exam, his latest quarry, would be taken in February of this year by nearly five million people vying for 60,000 vacancies in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, Mr. Atri’s home base. A new constable is paid about $400 a month. But even the lowest-paid government jobs in India are coveted for their stability, and aspirants endure months of grueling study in expensive tuition centers to prepare for the exams that govern hiring.

Mr. Atri offered a leg up. And now, with the constable test in his hands, the race was on. Mr. Atri sent the signal to his vast network of local agents in Uttar Pradesh. They had already booked a big restaurant hall and a lush resort where thousands of his clients would be bused in for a crash course in the answers.

They just had to avoid getting caught.

“If this works, you will get so much money that you will not need to do anything else in your life,” Mr. Atri told one of the warehouse workers he had patiently cultivated to get access to the exam, according to a police report. “And you will also get a government job.”

A Huge Imbalance
Mr. Atri and people like him capitalize on what has long been a structural problem in India’s economy: too many educated young people, too few jobs.

India has one of the fastest-expanding economies in the world. But much of that growth comes from the services sector, and it is not generating enough jobs for the country’s huge working-age population. Labor-intensive manufacturing has stalled out as a share of the economy before it has had a chance to make India a developed nation. Nearly half of Indians still toil on farms, and a vast majority of private jobs in India are informal.

That makes government jobs highly prized. Last year, 1.3 million people applied for 1,000 slots in the prestigious civil service of the central government. Newspapers frequently run stories about large numbers of people with advanced degrees contending for menial jobs like sweeper or “peon.”

Allotting jobs on the basis of exam results conveys a sense of fairness. But with competition so fierce, the temptation to seek shortcuts can be strong.

Some aspirants, while spending long hours in study groups, also keep an eye out for shadowy figures offering access to exams. They exchange phone numbers with local agents; negotiate tentative prices, often in the hundreds of dollars or more; and pray that the scheme succeeds.

“When four million students prepare for an exam, half of those would also be busy searching for a leaked paper — not just them, their parents, their grandparents, everyone,” said Brijesh Kumar Singh, a senior police officer in the city of Meerut in Uttar Pradesh who investigates organized crime, with much of his time spent on gangs pursuing exam leaks.

An investigation by one of India’s largest newspapers, The Indian Express, found that more than 40 examinations had been compromised by leaks over the past five years, affecting 14 million aspirants in 15 states.

This year, the national exam for seats in medical schools faced widespread questions after an unusual number of the two million candidates achieved perfect scores. As the government tried to contain the fallout from that case, it canceled a national exam for graduate school fellowships and junior positions at universities because of a leak.

Protesters camped outside the home of the education minister in New Delhi. The anger only grew when two young men who had been preparing for an exam drowned in a basement study center as the streets flooded after overnight rain.

“We are working hard for several years, and rich students are taking advantage of the system by spending money,” Harsh Dubey, 22, who had been attempting to pass the medical school entrance test for four years, said during a protest in Delhi.

A Pyramid Plot

Mr. Atri once hoped to achieve his dreams the old-fashioned way.

After finishing high school, he packed up his home in Uttar Pradesh and left for Kota, a small town in Rajasthan known across India for its hundreds of test-prep centers generating hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

But as he kept failing the medical school entrance test (after ultimately passing the exam, he did not complete his medical course), he began focusing more on the exam industry itself and less on the job that an exam could lead to.

On the legitimate end of the spectrum, in thousands of small towns with their own mini-Kotas, are tutors with large followings, as well as managers of “libraries” where people can pay for a desk and study late into the night.

Mr. Atri at first offered his services as a “solver” — taking tests for others. Later, he moved into the wholesale business of exam theft, the authorities say.

Around the time he was starting out, an exam scandal in the state of Madhya Pradesh in 2015 made clear just how much money there was to be made, with billions of dollars in kickbacks traced to politicians, criminal gangs and others.

Mr. Singh, the police officer in Meerut, explained the exam breaches as a pyramid model. At the top is the procurer of the leak. Below him are middlemen. They work with agents at the village level, who recruit customers.

Before the constable test heist, Mr. Atri had been introduced to Dr. Mandal, who, the police say, would become his hired thief.

His story is similar to Mr. Atri’s: Even as he was studying for a medical degree, which he completed in 2021, he kept one foot in the lucrative world of exam leaks. Dr. Mandal eventually became known in test-theft circles for his precise box-opening skills. He landed in jail in 2017 for helping to leak a medical exam, police records show.

This year, as Dr. Mandal performed his day job at a health clinic in the state of Bihar, Mr. Atri had him on standby. If Mr. Atri heard about a shipment of question sheets from one of the people he had on retainer along the supply chain, Dr. Mandal would get a call.

Another Round

The call for the Ahmedabad job had come, Mr. Atri’s clients had taken the constable test — and Dr. Mandal wanted his money.

But there was a problem: After the exam had been administered, news got out that the questions had been leaked.

That alone did not mean that Dr. Mandal, who the police say had been promised a final payment of about $20,000 for stealing the test, would not be compensated. According to his agreement with Mr. Atri, he would be paid as long as the exam results were not canceled. That usually happens only when a leak is found to be widespread.

It was; the results were canceled. Mr. Atri stopped answering Dr. Mandal’s calls.

Mr. Atri’s racket had been busted through routine police work. While investigating another leak case, the police found evidence of the constable test breach.

The police essentially worked their way from the bottom of the pyramid to the top, tracing the leak from a village-level agent up the chain to Mr. Atri and Dr. Mandal.

“We found in their phone the papers for the U.P. constable exam — and when we checked the timing, it was before the exam,” said Mr. Singh, who was the case’s chief investigative officer.

Officials in Uttar Pradesh said there would be a retest with different questions — this time, a higher-security affair. A repeat leak would be a humiliation.

Six months after the first test, in late August, millions of aspirants streamed once again into towns for the exam. At bus stops and train stations, it was chaos.

In Meerut, the train platforms were crowded with people making themselves comfortable for the night. The nearby bus station was flooded with youths in backpacks. As they prepared to sleep on the pavement, some watched sped-up YouTube videos of tutors lecturing in front of a whiteboard.

On the day of the new exam, a police officer named Raghvendra Kumar Mishra had the difficult task of making sure it went well in Meerut. The graveyard of confiscated motorcycles outside his office spoke of his usual job — he is in charge of the city’s traffic.

His large office was a makeshift war room. Half a dozen officers watched footage from the 36 centers where the examination was taking place.

At one exam center, police officers checked documents as a line of students made their way under a billboard advertising a hair tonic for balding.

“Only pens allowed,” a police officer kept announcing through a megaphone. “Shoes in your hand when you enter. Belts not allowed inside. Jewelry not allowed. Sleeves should not be folded.”

Among the aspirants was Subhash Gupta, 24, who had come from central India to take the test for a second time, in addition to trying any test he could in his home state. He and his twin brother, who worked part time as tutors, had left their village focused on one thing: finding a government job anywhere and at any cost.

When he left the exam hall early in the afternoon, he said he had managed to answer 138 out of 150 questions. The math ones were easy, but his weakness was general knowledge.

Before boarding a bus to meet his twin, who was taking the same exam in a different district, he summed up why he was hellbent on a government job.

“The mentality is such in society that only if you land a government job you are considered a success,” he said.

Mr. Atri and Dr. Mandal, the men who the police say forced millions to retake the constable exam, were both arrested in the case. Mr. Atri now sits in jail, awaiting trial. His lawyers have argued that he was falsely implicated. Dr. Mandal was later granted bail.

Mr. Atri’s father, Gorakh Singh, described him as hard-working, saying he would stay up all night poring over books during his student days. “He may be a wrongdoer to the police,” his father said, “but not to us.”

He said his son’s legal expenses had put the family back by 10 to 15 years. If his son is, indeed, in the wrong, he said, he would prefer that the government finish him off in an “encounter” — an extrajudicial police killing.

“We will weep for 10 days and then will go on with our day-to-day activities,” he said. “Our harassment will be over.”
India’s Exam Leaks Underline the Nation’s Bigger Problem (New York Times)
New York Times [11/28/2024 4:14 PM, Mujib Mashal and Hari Kumar, 831K, Neutral]
India has been rocked by multiple scandals involving leaked exams this year, and the country’s government has scrambled to contain the fallout each time.

The distress caused by the leaks of questions on entrance exams for government jobs and higher education highlights the country’s deep inequality.

India’s economy is growing at an impressive rate, but much of the growth has occurred in the services sector, while growth in the labor-intensive manufacturing sector has stalled. It means there are not enough jobs for the youth of the world’s most populous nation. Nearly half of Indians still toil on farms, and a vast majority of private jobs do not provide the stability or social security benefits of formal employment.

In light of this, government jobs are a ticket to a brighter future and entrance tests offer a promise of escape from crushing inequality. The hope for some families is that if they invest resources in a child who studies hard and gets a government job, the family can achieve a degree of upward mobility.

Many of the young people we spoke to for this article about the frequency of exam leaks said they had given themselves a window of several years, stretching into their late 20s, to keep trying, year after year, in exams to qualify for government jobs.

Their lives revolve around test preparation and the ecosystem of tutoring centers and study spaces that has sprung up to meet demand. For many, this preparation becomes their life. When age catches up with them, they become cogs in the system: running study centers, tutoring others who are trying to achieve what they could not.

The numbers highlight the ferocity of the competition.

The most sought-after jobs, in the central government’s civil service, are beyond the reach of many. Last year, there were 1.3 million applicants for 1,000 of these positions.

Competition for other jobs is also cutthroat.

Two years ago, more than 10 million people applied for about 35,000 railway jobs, and their anger over procedural issues affecting the exams escalated into violence.

This year, more than 650,000 people sat the test to become bank clerks, competing for only 4,500 openings.

Indian newspapers have frequently published stories about people — tens of thousands of whom hold Ph.D.s and master’s degrees — applying for jobs that do not require even a high school education.

The frequent leaks of exam questions have made it clear that some applicants have had an unfair advantage.

Nearly five million people registered for an exam in February, vying for 60,000 jobs as police constables in Uttar Pradesh, a state with a population of about 240 million. The results were invalidated when it became clear that the questions had been leaked and sold.

Six months later, millions of applicants needed to go through the same routine again: sleepless nights preparing for the test; leaving their villages for towns and cities to sit the exam; and then waiting for the news of the results and whether they had been successful.

If not, they will need to try again next year.
India, Mongolia in talks for preliminary mining pact, India govt source says (Reuters)
Reuters [11/28/2024 10:25 AM, Neha Arora, 37270K, Positive]
India is in talks with Mongolia to set up a preliminary pact that will focus on mineral shipments between the two Asian nations, an Indian government source with direct knowledge of the developments said on Thursday.

"The pact with Mongolia will focus on transit of minerals" such as coal and copper, said the source, who did not want to be identified as the deliberations are not public.

The federal mines ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comments.

The talks come at a time when multiple domestic steelmakers, such as JSW Steel (JSTL.NS) and SAIL (SAIL.NS) are also in talks with the landlocked nation to import coking coal, an essential ingredient for making steel.

Separately, the source said India is exploring lithium in the Himalayan region of Jammu and Kashmir, and expects it to be ready to be auctioned in two months.

Beyond domestic borders, India is exploring critical minerals in Russia, Mongolia, Chile and Zambia, the source added.

The government has launched multiple auctions of critical minerals as a part of its push toward cleaner energy alternatives and also plans to offer financial incentives for extraction of such minerals.
NSB
Maldives Opposition Cries Foul as Muizzu Government Amends Constitution to Deter Defections (The Diplomat)
The Diplomat [11/27/2024 6:03 AM, Ahmed Naish, 1198K, Neutral]
Opposition parties in the Maldives have mounted a legal challenge against constitutional amendments passed last week to expand executive powers and unseat lawmakers who cross the floor. The swift and unexpected changes entrenched President Dr Mohamed Muizzu’s power and secured his position against any challenge from parliament.

On November 20, Muizzu’s People’s National Congress (PNC) flexed its 75-seat supermajority in the 93-member house to hastily insert new provisions into the constitution.

New conditions were imposed for disqualifying parliamentarians. Members of parliament elected on a political party ticket will lose their seat upon switching parties or following resignation or expulsion from their party, the amendments stated. Independent members will also forfeit their seat by joining a political party.

A new clause was also proposed to grant the authority to formulate national development plans solely to the president.

The government-sponsored legislation was submitted late on November 19, taken up by parliament the following morning and pushed through in less than nine hours. Muizzu ratified the bill on the same day.

The new anti-defection rules effectively allow parties to enforce their whip line with the threat of removal from office.

Opposition parties and civil society cried foul.

Local rights groups led by anti-corruption NGO Transparency Maldives expressed grave concern over "a marked absence of transparency in the unprecedented amendment process, inadequate procedural safeguard mechanisms, and the potential erosion of fundamental democratic principles."

The groups condemned the lack of proper review, informed debate and public consultation in the rushed legislative process.

The anti-defection provisions "undermine the foundational democratic principle of representative choice and constrain the political independence of parliamentarians," the civil society organizations warned.

To avoid losing their seats, lawmakers would be compelled to vote as instructed by their parties regardless of personal objections or the interests of constituents, the joint statement explained. "This centralization of control would weaken internal party democracy and effectively subordinate the autonomy of elected representatives," it added.

The groups acknowledged longstanding concerns over floor crossing since the first multi-party parliamentary elections in 2009, but advocated instead for "strengthening the existing anti-corruption legal framework."

Vesting the power to formulate national development policies solely with the president meanwhile undercuts the mandate of local councils to make development plans in close consultation with the public, the statement observed.

"This consolidation of authority within the executive branch contradicts fundamental democratic principles regarding separation of powers and represents a significant departure from established decentralization laws and efforts put in place by several administrations that have been instrumental in the nation’s emerging democratic development," the statement read.

The NGOs urged respect for democratic norms, "particularly when it involves changes to the nation’s supreme legal document."

Debate on the constitutional amendments took place amid protests by supporters of the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) outside parliament. The demonstration grew heated when pro-government activists and political appointees arrived to stage a counterprotest. But riot police kept the rival protesters apart.

Inside parliament, the MDP’s dozen lawmakers protested in front of the speaker’s desk, holding up a banner that read, "Maldivians in defense of the Constitution." But they were vastly outnumbered as the bill was passed with 78 votes in favor. The final tally was well above the 70-vote or three-quarters majority needed to amend the constitution.

Proposals by the MDP to conduct a consultation process and to hold public referendums on dismissing lawmakers were flatly rejected.

"It is sad to see the people’s representatives (PNC supermajority) applaud the demise of their own autonomy and free will - after amending the Constitution in under 9 hours on President [Muizzu’s] orders," MDP member Meekail Naseem tweeted.

According to local media outlet Adhadhu, the sudden changes followed "rumors that some MPs from PNC were planning to leave the party after the High Court was petitioned to quash part of the Anti-Defection Act that requires MPs to resign for floor crossing."

Referring to the law passed by the MDP supermajority in the previous parliament, Speaker Abdul Raheem from the PNC argued after the vote that enshrining anti-defection rules in the Constitution will ensure political stability by preventing lawmakers from shifting allegiances.

But legal experts were unconvinced. On November 24, former member of parliament Ali Hussain petitioned the Supreme Court to strike down the anti-defection rules as unconstitutional. The amendments conflict with constitutional provisions on fundamental rights and the functions and privileges of lawmakers, the lawyer argued.

The MDP and The Democrats have since joined the case as third parties. The amendments erode constitutional supremacy, deprive the people of their right to elect representatives, and violate basic democratic principles and legislative precedents, the MDP declared.

The apex court decided today (November 27) to hear the case.

The constitutional amendments came shortly after Muizzu celebrated his first year in office on November 17. The expedited passage of the bill also marked the first time that the PNC employed its supermajority to such effect since winning April’s parliamentary elections.

Earlier this week, the party moved to dismiss five members from the Elections Commission and Anti-Corruption Commission, all of whom had been appointed during the preceding MDP government. Legal changes were also approved for the president to directly appoint the heads of both independent bodies.

The constitutional amendments passed last week included other less controversial provisions: raising the threshold for parliamentary approval to modify Maldivian territory to a three-quarters majority; requiring parliamentary approval for the use of Maldivian territory by foreign nationals for military purposes; and requiring a public referendum in order to amend the article that mandates public referendums for revising key provisions.

But the anti-defection provisions and the president’s new power to devise long-term development plans appear to have ruptured a relatively calm period in Maldivian politics.

Faced with mounting criticism, Muizzu addressed the nation last week and defended the changes as "crucial for stability."

"These amendments are critical decisions made for the sake of the people in order to safeguard the country’s independence, sovereignty, development and stability. These decisions were made by the honorable members of the People’s Majlis with patriotic fervor and in national interest," he said.
Nepal’s first transgender candidates run for local office (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [11/28/2024 9:36 PM, Anup Ojha, 60726K, Positive]
Two transgender candidates are contesting Nepal’s local by-elections for the first time, hoping to push for political representation among sexual and gender minorities in the Himalayan nation.

Nepal has some of South Asia’s most progressive laws on LGBTQ rights.

But no one from the community has held public office since 2008, when an openly gay man became a lawmaker in Nepal’s parliament, nominated under the proportional representation system.

"I hope my candidacy will inspire others in the queer community to participate openly in future elections", said Honey Maharjan, 44.

She is running for the post of mayor of Kirtipur, a settlement on the outskirts of the capital Kathmandu, in Sunday’s elections.

Despite legal strides, many LGBTQ people continue to face discrimination in employment, healthcare and education.

"Until now, not one of our community members had exercised the right to run for mayoral elections in Nepal," said Honey.

She grew up in a poor family and struggled to make ends meet working at a restaurant washing dishes as well as at a garment factory. She is currently a tour guide.

"When I remember my past, it’s like a nightmare because I faced a lot of discrimination and abuses -- like other transgender people, I want to change this," she said.

"We are also part of this society and can contribute to the betterment of society. This is what I want to do if I am elected.".

- ‘Voice has not been present’ -

Mouni Maharjan, who is not related to Honey, is running for a ward chair position in the same municipality.

Both candidates represent the small People’s Socialist Party, Nepal, but not one is specifically campaigning for LGBTQ rights.

Chief election commissioner Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya said the two candidates will help "open a door for sexual minority groups to come forward in politics".

More than 900,000 people in Nepal identify as a sexual minority, according to the Blue Diamond Society, a leading rights group.

The country has made significant strides in LGBTQ rights. In 2007, it outlawed discrimination based on gender or sexual orientation.

A third-gender category for citizenship documents was introduced in 2013, and passports with an "others" category followed in 2015.

Last year, an interim order from the Supreme Court allowed same-sex and transgender couples to register their marriage.

Former parliamentarian Sunil Babu Pant has been at the forefront of pushing for these changes.

"Since I left the parliament (in 2013), no one has been elected. So, our voice has not been present in the lawmaking bodies and policy-making bodies," he told AFP.

"We now have two candidates this election. This is hugely a positive development for Nepal.".

Honey and Mouni campaigned door-to-door for over a week under their election symbol, an umbrella.

Mouni, 29, said her priorities include not only improving infrastructure and sanitation in her ward.

She is also fighting stigma against LGBTQ people and wants to create jobs for them.

"I will work to add a curriculum in school courses regarding the community so that the new generation will easily accept our presence and be treated better," Mouni said.

Many Kirtipur residents have opened their doors for their campaign and expressed support.

"In democracy, everyone should get an equal chance," said Kirtipur local Beeju Maharjan.

"Only the election will tell who will win," she added. "But the courage Honey and Mouni hold for their society should be appreciated.".
Six Children Among 12 Killed In Sri Lanka, Storm Heads To India (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [11/27/2024 11:37 PM, Staff, 88008K, Negative]
Sri Lankan rescuers on Thursday recovered the drowned corpses of six children, taking the number killed in torrential rains to 12, as a powerful but slow-moving storm headed towards India.

More than 335,000 people in Sri Lanka have been forced to flee after their homes were flooded, Colombo’s Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said.

It said two men driving a tractor and trailer which had been transporting the six children in the eastern Amara district when it was swept away in floods, were still missing. Searches continue for them.

Indian weather officials said there was a "possibility" that the deep depression over the southwest Bay of Bengal could develop into a cyclonic storm.

Cyclones -- the equivalent of hurricanes in the North Atlantic or typhoons in the northwestern Pacific -- are a regular and deadly menace in the region.

Having skirted the coast of Sri Lanka, it was now moving north towards India’s southern Tamil Nadu state.

The India Meteorological Department said it was expected to hit Tamil Nadu and Puducherry city’s coastline on Saturday morning as a "deep depression" with winds "gusting up to 70 kph (43 mph)".

Sri Lanka’s DMC said some 335,155 people were seeking temporary shelter in public buildings after their homes were swamped.

Nearly 100 homes had been completely destroyed while another 1,700 had been badly damaged due to rains as well as mudslides.

The government said it deployed over 2,700 military personnel to help in relief operations.

Deadly rain-related floods and landslides are common across South Asia, but experts say climate change is increasing their frequency and severity.
Sri Lanka turns to untried leftists to lead break from poverty, strife (Nikkei Asia)
Nikkei Asia [11/28/2024 4:01 PM, Marwaan Macan-Markar, 2376K, Neutral]
There was a sense of the new in Sri Lanka’s parliament on Nov. 21 that went far beyond it being the day of the inaugural sitting after a general election the previous week. Of the 225 seats in the saffron and brown-colored chamber, a record 175 were occupied by first-time lawmakers.

The vast majority of the debutants hail from National People’s Power (NPP), the anti-establishment, left-leaning party that stormed to a historic victory, bagging 159 seats compared with just three in the previous parliament. The newcomers represent all walks of life, from academics, doctors and lawyers to small businessmen and women, as well as sportspeople and artists, ranging in age from the mid-30s to the mid-60s.

From the commercial capital Colombo to the Tamil nationalist heartland of Jaffna, on the northern tip of the island of 22 million, voters told Nikkei Asia many of the NPP’s candidates were also barely familiar to the electorate. Who they were really voting for, they said, was NPP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake, the charismatic orator who made waves around Asia when claiming the presidency of Sri Lanka in September.

Dissanayake and the NPP not only unseated a coalition bloc that had controlled the Sri Lankan parliament since the mid-1990s: This was the first time a single party claimed a two-thirds majority under the nation’s proportional representation voting system.

The scale of the win is matched by the magnitude of expectations for a government with no previous experience running the country. Voters are counting on the NPP to deliver on its campaign promises of cracking down on corruption, improving the battered economy and restoring ethnic peace. At the same time, the new administration must mind the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) terms as it works to steer the country through a near-$3 billion bailout secured by Dissanayake’s predecessor, Ranil Wickremesinghe, after the country’s 2022 economic meltdown, the worst in its modern history.

"We did not expect to win so big in the Jaffna district ... yes, it is historic," said a smiling, bespectacled Karunanathan Ilankumaran, a 34-year-old trade unionist newly elected to parliament, sitting under black and white photos of Marx, Engels and Lenin, reflecting the NPP’s distant roots.

"We were offered tea and asked questions about Anura [Dissanayake] because people liked his plans to improve the country after he won the presidential elections," said Ilankumaran, one of three NPP candidates elected in Jaffna in a landmark for a mainstream party from the non-Tamil south.

Such sentiments in Jaffna were not isolated.

Analysts say they mirror the outcome of the November elections, when voters rallied around the political outsiders after ditching loyalties to established parties.

After a honeymoon period, though, pressure is expected to mount on Dissanayake, 56, whose personal history of rising from abject poverty to the presidency and his style and substance on the campaign trail were flagged as the NPP’s main draw. An early gauge of his presidency could come in investor responses by mid-December to an offer to swap $12.5 billion of dollar bonds into new reduced debt in a deal that could resolve the saga of Sri Lanka’s first-ever sovereign default, dating back to the first half of 2022.

The island’s economic prospects are brightening, economists say, even if there is a long way to go to match conditions predating the bailout. "Although the economy is now rebounding from the 2022 debt default and political crisis, the level of GDP is still around 15% below its pre-COVID peak, suggesting there is still plenty of spare capacity left in the economy and that inflation will remain low for the foreseeable future," according to Gareth Leather, senior Asia economist at Capital Economics.

Sri Lanka’s central bank lowered interest rates on Nov. 27, with Capital Economics predicting a cycle of further rate cuts as deflationary pressures persist.

For Alan Keenan, senior consultant on Sri Lanka for the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, "The ball is in [the NPP’s] court ... the political space has been cleared for them and there are no excuses for failure. It increases the pressure to deliver on ethnic peace and other policies ... AKD [Anura Kumara Dissanayake] made it clear during both campaigns that he was going to be a unifier to bring the country’s majority and minorities together better than previous governments."

Dissanayake wasted no time in laying down his case for converting the NPP’s parliamentary majority to resolution of the dominant political problem that has bedeviled Sri Lanka -- the troubled ethnic relations between the majority Sinhalese-Buddhist community and the minority Tamils and Muslims that triggered a civil war from 1983 to 2009 in which more than 100,000 people were killed, according to U.N. estimates.

"We can have different political ideologies, but I also say one thing responsibly: We will not give in to racist politics in our country again," Dissanayake said in a speech opening the new parliament on Nov. 21. "This election has shown that a very strong opportunity has now been created to build national unity."

Dissanayake has already offered an olive branch to the Tamil community of Jaffna, where a heavy national military presence is still in place in some remote areas 15 years after the civil war ended with the defeat of the Tamil Tigers insurgents. Ignoring warnings from some quarters, the president went ahead and reopened a road that had been closed in the area since the civil war, had a key military checkpoint dismantled and ordered the closure of a military camp for the land to be handed back to its Tamil owners.

"The size of the NPP’s mandate gives them the moral and political power to deliver on their promises," said Sengarapillai Arivalzahan, senior lecturer in the department of statistics and mathematics at the University of Jaffna. "It is the only national party that is finally in a position to take strong action in a diplomatic way."

Meanwhile, a scaled-down cabinet and "scientific ways of appointing ministers" are early signs of the government sticking to its campaign pledges, said Murtaza Jafferjee, chairman of Advocata Institute, a Colombo-based policy think tank.

"Unlike previous presidents who depended on theatrics, AKD appears very genuine so people will give their manifesto on governance, even if it is a wish list, a hearing."

In a major boost for the Dissanayake administration, a visiting team of IMF officials on Nov. 23 approved the release of a fresh bailout tranche of $333 million, bringing funds released since early 2023 to $1.3 billion.

The fund’s nod of confidence toward the NPP government ended speculation that had been swirling on whether the left-leaning party would stick to the IMF’s conditions to stabilize the economy and achieve sustainable debt targets. The fund’s prescriptions for stability range from harsh austerity measures and reform of loss-making state-owned enterprises to a spike in taxes to meet revenue targets to help achieve a primary surplus of 2.3% of GDP by next year.

But Dissanayake’s engagement with the fund appears to signal his appetite for pragmatism over leftist ideology.

"We take comfort from the commitment this government has taken to pursue the reforms," said Peter Breuer, the IMF’s senior mission chief, speaking to reporters at the end of his visit to the island. "The government has agreed to stay within the guardrails of the program."

Sri Lankan economists expect the NPP to use its mandate to stamp its economic shift away from left-wing ideology as a trade-off to keep its largest vote bank, the middle class, within its fold.

"The NPP has decided to take a center-left to at times a center-right approach to shape its economic policies because it has the numbers in parliament and controls the narrative," said Umesh Moramudali, an economist at the University of Colombo. "It will not derail the IMF program and push Sri Lanka back to a 2022-like crisis because that will antagonize the middle class, again."

Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya, a sociologist academic with a PhD from the University of Edinburgh picked by Dissanayake to head his government in the NPP-packed legislature, conceded that her party has taken stock of the public mood in the wake of the battered economy.

"Economic discontent is the biggest challenge," she told Nikkei Asia after voting at a polling booth in a Colombo suburb. "We inherited a broken system."

Back in Jaffna, the buzz about the NPP has raised hopes among voters like Devaraj Kapila Maya, a 30-year-old who lost her father the year she was born. He was a fisherman who was caught in crossfire between Tamil rebels and government troops while out at sea. But after the war, she put this painful past behind her and married a soldier.

And when the NPP campaign, led by Dissanayake, arrived in Jaffna for a final election rally, Maya made her way through the crowd that packed the field in the shadow of the towering St. Anthony’s church to stand in front of the throng to shake the president’s hand.

"He is like a hero to us after the two wins," said Maya, who confirmed she had voted for the NPP. "He has proved that Sri Lanka is at a point beyond divisions ... and he now has the power to make this permanent."
Central Asia
Putin discusses energy ties and trade on visit to Kazakhstan (Reuters)
Reuters [11/27/2024 12:51 PM, Lidia Kelly and Tamara Vaal, 145937K, Neutral]
Russian President Vladimir Putin will discuss energy ties on a visit to Kazakhstan this week, the Kremlin said on Tuesday, a trip that comes amid trade tensions with the Central Asian nation, which exports most of its oil through Russia.

Kazakhstan, which has tried to distance itself from Moscow’s war in Ukraine, remains highly dependent on Russia for exporting oil to Western markets and for imports of food, electricity and other products.

"Our countries are ... constructively cooperating in the oil and gas sector," Putin wrote in an article "Russia – Kazakhstan: a union demanded by life and looking to the future" for the Kazakhstanskaya Pravda newspaper and published on the Kremlin’s website late on Tuesday.

Kazakhstan’s energy minister said on Monday his country could sharply increase its crude oil exports out of Turkey’s port of Ceyhan, a move that would reduce the share it sends via Russia.

Underscoring that more than 80% of Kazakhstan’s oil is exported to foreign markets via Russia, Putin said he and President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev always focused on "a specific result" in their talks.

Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov told journalists on Tuesday that Putin and Tokayev would sign a protocol on extending an agreement on oil supplies to Kazakhstan. He did not give details.

The two leaders did not mention a protocol in remarks after their meeting on Wednesday. They did say they had discussed plans to increase the transit through Kazakhstan of Russian natural gas to Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, part of Moscow’s pivot away from European energy markets. They also said they talked about joint projects in hydroelectric power, car tyres and fertilisers and other areas.

NUCLEAR PLANT

Putin also said in his article that Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom - already involved in some projects in Kazakhstan - was "ready for new large-scale projects".

In October, Kazakhstan, a nation of 20 million, voted in favour of constructing its first nuclear power plant, under a Tokayev-backed plan that faced criticism from Kazakhs concerned by the involvement of a neighbour that has invaded another.

Neither leader mentioned the nuclear project after their talks.

Tokayav said he had raised the issue of agricultural trade following a Russian ban on imports of grain, fruit and other farm products from Kazakhstan in October. Moscow imposed the ban after Kazakhstan barred Russian wheat imports in August to protect its producers.

"Our countries should not compete on the Eurasian Economic Union market or foreign markets," Tokayev said, referring to agricultural exports within and outside a Moscow-led post-Soviet trade bloc.

While Tokayev has made a number of gestures welcomed by Moscow, such as initiating the creation of an international body to support the Russian language across the former Soviet space, his government has also sought to maintain friendly ties with the West.

Last month, Astana said it had no plans to join BRICS, the bloc of emerging economies that Putin hopes to build into a powerful counterweight to the West in global politics and trade.

Kazakhstan has also pledged to abide by Western sanctions on Russia, although some Kazakh companies have been caught skirting them.

Security was tight in Astana on Wednesday, with whole blocks of the city cordoned off and military helicopters and fighter jets patrolling the sky.
Toqaev Welcomes Putin On Visit To Kazakhstan During ‘Difficult Time’ (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [11/27/2024 1:40 PM, Staff, 1251K, Neutral]
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been warmly received in Kazakhstan, where he and Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev discussed boosting energy and industry ties.

Putin arrived in Astana on a state visit on November 27 and was greeted by Toqaev with a handshake, according to images released on social media.

Toqaev said he had "carefully read" Putin’s commentary published in state newspaper Kazakhstanskaya Pravda ahead of the visit and said he had published his own commentary on the state of the relationship between Moscow and Astana in the Russian media.

"I think that we have very thoroughly, as if in unison, outlined our approaches to the development of cooperation aimed at the future," Toqaev said.

He emphasized in his article that Kazakhstan "remains a reliable strategic partner and ally of Russia in this very difficult time," Toqaev’s press service quoted Toqaev as saying.

Putin thanked Toqaev "for his careful attitude toward the Russian language," a reference to the lower house of parliament’s ratification of an agreement to create the International Organization for the Russian Language a few days before Putin’s arrival.

Kazakhstan has tried to distance itself from Moscow’s war in Ukraine but remains highly dependent on Russia for exporting oil to Western markets and for imports of food, electricity, and other products.

Underscoring that more than 80 percent of Kazakhstan’s oil is exported to foreign markets via Russia, Putin said he and Toqaev always focus on "a specific result" in their talks.

"Our countries are...constructively cooperating in the oil and gas sector," Putin wrote in his article, which was also featured in the Kremlin’s website.

Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov told journalists on November 26 that Putin and Toqaev would sign a protocol on extending an agreement on oil supplies to Kazakhstan. He did not give details.

The two leaders said after their meeting that they had discussed plans to increase the transit through Kazakhstan of Russian natural gas to Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, part of Moscow’s pivot away from European energy markets. They also said they talked about joint projects in hydroelectric power, car tires, and fertilizers and other areas.

Putin said in his article that Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom was "ready for new large-scale projects." The company already is involved in some projects in Kazakhstan, which in October voted in favor of constructing its first nuclear power plant. Neither leader mentioned the nuclear project after their talks.

Toqaev said he had raised the issue of agricultural trade following a Russian ban on imports of grain, fruit, and other farm products from Kazakhstan in October. Moscow imposed the ban after Kazakhstan barred Russian wheat imports in August to protect its producers.

"Our countries should not compete on the Eurasian Economic Union market or foreign markets," Toqaev said, referring to agricultural exports within and outside a Moscow-led post-Soviet trade bloc.
What To Know About A New Investigation Into Kazakhstan And A Strategic Caspian Pipeline (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [11/27/2024 10:22 AM, Reid Standish, 1251K, Neutral]
A new investigation led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and 26 media partners, including RFE/RL, dug into financial dealings surrounding a key pipeline in Kazakhstan and the oil fields that feed it.

The project, Caspian Cabals, and the two-year investigation are based on tens of thousands of pages of confidential e-mails, company presentations, and other oil-industry records, audits, court documents, and regulatory filings, as well as frontline reporting and hundreds of interviews, including with former oil company employees and insiders at Shell, Chevron, and Exxon.

At the center is a crucial 1,511-kilometer Caspian pipeline that transports Kazakh oil through Russia to European markets. The investigation documents instances of inflated budgets, rigged bidding for contracts, and payments to subcontractors for work that never happened linked to the pipeline’s construction over the years.

In Russia, the investigation reported on how Transneft, a state-owned company that is the Russian partner in the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) that operates the pipeline, sought to wrest greater control and sideline other Western corporations such as Chevron, Exxon, and Eni that are also part of the consortium.

ICIJ also looked at how oil companies signed off on lucrative contracts to two firms linked to Timur Kulibaev, the billionaire son-in-law of Kazakhstan’s former president, Nursultan Nazarbaev.

The investigation also focused on villages near the Kazakh oil fields where people are battling chronic illnesses and grappling with mounting environmental and health problems that local residents and activists say is tied to the sprawling energy projects nearby.

Key Findings: Kazakhstan and Kulibaev

In Kazakhstan, the investigation centers on the well-connected Kulibaev, who is sometimes called the Oil Prince for his top role in the industry and how he leveraged his influence with international companies and the Kazakh government to turn the country into one of the world’s top producers.

Kulibaev is one of Central Asia’s wealthiest people, with Forbes estimating his fortune at more than $5 billion in 2024, including extravagant properties around the world.

In 2011, a $276.5 million contract for two oil pumping stations was awarded to KazStroyService, a company tied to Kulibaev. Over the course of the six-year project, public records show Kulibaev’s Singapore-based private equity firm, Steppe Capital, listed KazStroyService among its holdings.

The cost of the project awarded to KazStroyService ballooned to $486 million, with little explanation offered for the increase -- and the company completed the work four years behind schedule.

Tenizservice, a company partially owned by Kulibaev until 2010, was given a contract to build the offloading facility linked to the pipeline with a price tag of $1.06 billion. Despite enormous regulatory hurdles, the project moved quickly with preliminary work starting within a month.

Chevron, Exxon, and two other partners approved a deal that would ultimately pay TenizService $1.5 billion beyond the original cost of the no-bid contract, for a total of $2.5 billion.

Kulibaev declined ICIJ’s requests for an interview.

Kulibaev’s U.K. law and communications firm, Schillings, said he is an independently wealthy businessman and investor, with his own business interests and a proven commercial track record.

In a 39-page letter to ICIJ’s lawyers, Schillings acknowledged Kulibaev had an indirect, minority stake in TenizService until 2010, but had no financial interest in the company when the giant infrastructure contract was awarded two years later.

KazStroyService did not respond to repeated requests for comment, nor did the Caspian Pipeline Consortium or Exxon. Chevron did not respond to questions about the KazStroyService contract.

Kulibaev’s lawyers said he acquired a 50 percent stake in KazStroyService in June 2007 but was not involved in the company’s management or contract discussions. They said Kulibaev "was never involved in the management of CPC," adding that neither he nor Steppe Capital played a role in the pumping stations project or CPC’s awarding of the pipeline contract to KazStroyService.

According to filings seen by ICIJ, the government of Kazakhstan has retained a U.S. lobbying firm since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine for a contract that is now worth nearly $4 million to help keep the pipeline sanction-free.

Key Findings: Russia And Transneft

Russia’s Transneft owns a 31 percent stake in CPC and one of the central takeaways of the Caspian Cabals investigation is how the state-owned company has expanded its control over the pipeline.

In one instance documented by ICIJ in March 2020, Transneft sought to wrest greater control of CPC’s board from Western companies. According to internal CPC documents reviewed by ICIJ, Transneft sought to grant expanded powers to Nikolai Gorban, a Transneft veteran who had worked at several of the company’s subsidiaries and was CPC’s general director. This move required Western shareholders working at CPC to report to Gorban as part of a new board for the consortium.

In May of that year, shortly after the new board’s election, more than a dozen Western oil company employees working with CPC were accused by Russia’s Interior Ministry of being illegally employed in Russia. Concerned over the possible legal consequences, the Western workers fled the country and were then shut out of CPC’s computer system.

The move effectively sidelined Western influence over the pipeline’s operations. Prior to the 2020 push by Transneft, sources told ICIJ’s Dutch partner NRC that shareholders argued over a proposal to award Transneft Service, a subsidiary for the state-owned firm, a lucrative marine service contract. Six weeks after the Western employees left Russia, CPC signed a 10-year contract with Transneft Service for marine services at Novorossiysk, the processing terminal for the pipeline on Russia’s Black Sea coast.

A politically influential Russian company, Velesstroy, became one of the pipeline’s key suppliers under Transneft management. Velesstroy is co-owned by two Croatian businessmen, both under sanctions by the United Kingdom for their ties to the Russian energy sector.

One of them is Kresimir Filipovic, who is known in Russian and other media as "Putin’s wallet" in the Balkans. Bank documents, inspection reports, and court filings show how the company avoided taxes and piled up safety violations. At least 18 Velesstroy workers have died on the job since 2015, including one at a pipeline site. Yet the consortium’s partners continued to sign off on contracts with the company amid allegations that the deals were vastly overpriced.

After it started paying dividends, CPC made at least $1.4 billion in such payments to the Russian state through CPC shareholders Transneft and Rosneft, Russia’s biggest oil company. According to ICIJ, at least $816 million has been paid to those companies since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

ICIJ found that since the start of the war, there have been at least 20 pipeline disruptions or suspensions of oil shipments.

CPC paid roughly $321 million in taxes to Russian authorities in 2022 -- including $96 million to the Russian federal government -- an amount equivalent to the value of about 70 new Russian tanks, according to ICIJ calculations.

ICIJ also found that CPC downplayed the severity of the 2021 oil spill in Russia and significantly underreported the amount of oil lost. The consortium later lost a Russian court case on this issue and paid a $98.7 million fine for environmental damage.

In 10 cases identified by ICIJ, Russian construction firms signed contracts for the CPC expansion and accepted advance payments or loans, but they allegedly failed to carry out substantial work or delivered work late.

In a statement to ICIJ, Chevron said the company is "committed to ethical business practices, operating responsibly, conducting its business with integrity and in accordance with the laws and regulations of each of the jurisdictions in which it operates."

Transneft did not respond to ICIJ’s request for comment.

Exxon also did not respond to requests for comment on this issue.

A Shell spokesman said the company does not tolerate bribery in any form.

An Eni spokesperson said, "We are committed to upholding the highest standards of transparency, ethical conduct, and environmental responsibility." The company referred questions about the pipeline to its owner, the CPC, which did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
‘Unconstitutional’ Proposals To Change Kazakhstan’s Charity Laws Set Off Alarm Bells (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [11/28/2024 3:55 AM, Chris Rickleton and Manshuk Asautai, 1251K, Neutral]
Don’t look there, look here?

Officials in Kazakhstan are mulling amendments to laws affecting charity that critical journalists and activists are calling unconstitutional and potentially damaging to their work.

If sent to parliament and passed, the amendments would regulate how people can make and receive donations -- changes that could reach beyond charity, depending on how they might be worded and interpreted.

What is more, the so far closed-doors discussions of the Culture and Information Ministry’s working group on the topic are taking place in the middle of a noisy scandal that has cast fundraising in a bad light.

Local media has been feasting on the rise-and-fall story of jailed businesswoman and charity co-founder Perizat Qairat.

It is certainly a colorful one.

Qairat’s social media accounts portray a jet-setting lifestyle in which luxury-filled visits to the United Arab Emirates, expensive tastes in fashion, and a spoiled canine all feature heavily.

The Agency for Financial Monitoring on November 14 alleged this lifestyle was paid for by around $3 million in contributions by Kazakh citizens to the Biz Birgemiz (We Are Together) charity led by Qairat during its fundraising drive for victims of historic floods in Kazakhstan in the spring.

The agency provided a list of top-end vehicles, real estate, and holidays it said the 33-year-old had purchased with these funds and then followed up with another statement on her alleged embezzlements during another fundraising drive for Palestinians.

The court will decide if she is guilty and, since courts in Kazakhstan rarely disagree with the positions taken by investigators, Qairat might find herself up against it.

But the fact her arrest has coincided with reports about the working group’s activities is already setting off alarm bells among journalists and activists dependent on donations for their work. This is "in no way a coincidence," according to Vadim Boreiko, a veteran journalist and the host of the popular Hyperborei YouTube channel.

"These amendments have not been passed, but they are already threatening small independent media that work overwhelmingly thanks to donations," Boreiko said, citing a sudden drop-off in donations to Hyperborei since Qairat’s detention was announced.

As such, the agency’s comment in its November 14 press release that the case amounted to a "breach of public trust in civil society" is already proving prophetic, Boreiko noted with sarcasm.

‘Stimulating And Developing Charity’.

The Culture and Information Ministry has said the working group was established to develop proposals and new strategies for "stimulating and developing charity" in Kazakhstan.

In response to an official inquiry from RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service, the ministry said amendments to the law were still under discussion and "will be submitted for public consultation at a later stage.".

The ministry has also reassured multiple media outlets that "the issue of restricting individuals and legal entities from making charitable contributions, including in critical situations, is not being considered.".

But a draft document of the amendments that RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service was able to obtain raises doubts about that position.

Kazakhstan’s charity law was adopted in 2015 but has been tweaked several times since then.

The latest proposals to change the law and laws related to it are ostensibly being made to bring Kazakh legislation in line with the best practices of the Financial Action Task Force, a Paris-based intergovernmental organization that fights money laundering and terrorist financing.

One proposal currently being studied by the working group calls for the introduction of steep fines (as much as $800) for crowdfunders who indicate a personal bank account when calling for funds "for the benefit of other people.".

Lesser fines would be applicable to individuals who begin and conclude fundraising drives without notifying the authorities of their activities and goals.

These measures are needed to "reduce the number of fraudulent transactions," according to the authors of the document.

Along with fraudsters, mobile donations are also the main method by which activists, journalists, and regular citizens receive support.

It has less relevance to charities like Biz Birgemiz, which is a registered entity with its own bank accounts.

But those types of organizations would be affected by several other proposals being discussed by the working group.

One of those is a proposal to amend a different law -- on civil defense -- to determine who can and cannot raise funds during natural and manmade emergencies in a given region.

If passed, "the choice of a charitable organization for collecting funds should be assigned to the local executive body," the document reads.

A Scandal Made In The Ruling Party?

The drive to overhaul the sector would perhaps be generating less pessimism if it were not spearheaded by the Culture and Information Ministry and its high-powered minister, Aida Balaeva.

In August, President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev signed off on a new law on mass media drawn up by the same ministry.

The law has introduced new restrictions around media accreditation, limiting journalists to working for a single outlet and increasing the ease with which authorities can suspend accreditation.

One pretext for suspension could be perceived infringements at press conferences and other settings where officials and journalists interact after Balaeva complained of "inappropriate" behavior from journalists in these settings.

Kazakh authorities have a standard form of viewing fundraising efforts negatively when government critics are involved.

The most famous recent example of this is the situation surrounding the women’s and children’s rights group NeMolchi.KZ (Don’t Be Silent).

Last year, police said an arrest warrant had been issued for Dina Smailova, the group’s leader, in connection with an embezzlement case.

Smailova has herself said hundreds of individuals who donated to her in the past have been called in for questioning as officers attempt to build a case against her.

NeMolchi.KZ is known for defending women who are victims of domestic and sexual violence. Several of the group’s recent cases have involved perpetrators who are state officials or members of law enforcement.

Human Rights Watch in February called the charges "dubious" and raised concerns that the authorities were on "a fishing expedition for evidence of wrongdoing by Smailova," who lives in de facto exile but continues to source donations to cover the work of Kazakh-based staff and lawyers to represent victims of abuse.

Smailova argues that authorities’ attempts to tighten regulations surrounding charitable work are unconstitutional, restricting the fundamental right of citizens to dispose of their assets in the way they choose.

While the scandal surrounding Qairat and Biz Birgemiz is a bad look for the local charitable sector, it has also somewhat backfired on the government.

That is after journalists from the Ratel.kz news agency identified at least four people with current or past connections to the ruling Amanat party (formerly Nur Otan) on the charity’s documents of incorporation.

To date there have been no announcements that any of these co-founders are being investigated alongside Qairat, whose entrepreneurial sidelines include a luxury flower shop and a meat export business.

A report from RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service on November 14 recalled that during the massive floods in northern and western Kazakhstan in April, Qairat published an Instagram post calling on President Toqaev to "react promptly and travel to emergency sites to avoid the death of his people" and to cancel international engagements "as presidents of other countries do during emergencies.".

Qairat promptly deleted the post and published a new one, apologizing and asking the country to unite around Toqaev.

Whether her earlier, unsolicited advice played any role in her fate is unclear.

But Amanat was forced to respond to the reports of its members’ involvement in the charity.

Lawmaker and Amanat executive secretary Elnur Beisembaev acknowledged on November 20 that two serving party members were among the charity’s founders but denied any institutional connections between Amanat and Biz Birgemiz.
Kazakhs Intervene on Market After Tenge Hits Lowest in Two Years (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [11/28/2024 7:25 AM, Nariman Gizitdinov, 27782K, Neutral]
Kazakhstan’s central bank said it’s conducting market interventions to stem a decline in the tenge after the currency dropped to its weakest level since March 2022.

Officials acted to prevent "destabilizing fluctuations," smooth out excessive tenge volatility and guarantee foreign-currency supply on the part of the central bank, according to a statement published Thursday. The National Bank of Kazakhstan said it’s ready to continue interventions "to restore a fair tenge exchange-rate formation and ensure normal functioning of the currency market.".

The Kazakh authorities have been grappling with the economic fallout of Russia’s war on Ukraine and sanctions on its neighbor and second-biggest trading partner. The government has also boosted spending on infrastructure and improving living standards after deadly riots shook the nation almost three years ago.

The bank last sold dollars to support the national currency in March 2022 in the aftermath of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, when the tenge weakened to a record low of 525.59 per dollar. The Russian central bank was forced to stop

buying foreign currency under the budget rule on Wednesday after tougher sanctions triggered what the Kazakh monetary authority called an “accelerated” weakening of the ruble.

The Kazakh central bank also pointed to the strong dollar, oil price volatility and expectations of more crude supplies and prospects for trade tariffs after the election of Donald Trump as US president.

Kazakhstan said Nov. 12 that it was ready to intervene and announced a week later that it would order state firms to sell half of their foreign currency revenue in an effort to stem the tenge’s decline. The average volume of trading in November reached $238 million a day compared with $193 million a year earlier and was also “significantly” higher than in August and September, the central bank said Thursday.

While some state companies began

foreign-currency sales last week, according to people familiar with the situation, the central bank said today that a “restricted supply” had been observed, partially because the tenge breached what it called the “psychological level” of 500 per dollar.

While the central bank had been selling dollars from reserves since August as part of the government’s purchase of shares in uranium miner Kazatomprom, those sales have not targeted tenge fluctuations.

Policymakers are scheduled to meet Friday to discuss the key rate, which currently stands at 14.25%.
Uzbekistan: Purge underway inside power ministries (EurasiaNet)
EurasiaNet [11/27/2024 4:14 PM, Staff, 57.6K, Neutral]
Intrigue is swirling around President Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s family in Uzbekistan after a failed assassination attempt of a former top presidential aide prompted a purge within the country’s power ministries.

As is often the case in Uzbekistan’s opaque political system, most of the action is occurring behind closed doors. Thus, a precise understanding of the alignments and motivations driving recent developments is difficult to discern. Definitive answers may never be determined.

What is certain is that Mirziyoyev is carrying out a major overhaul of the State Security Service and Interior Ministry. It also appears the Defense Ministry has gained influence, while one of the president’s sons-in-law is on the outs.

Mirziyoyev issued decrees transferring Defense Minister Bahodir Kurbanov to lead the State Security Service and elevated the first deputy defense minister, Shukhrat Khalmuhamedov, to the top spot at the ministry, the EAdaily outlet reported November 25.

In a corresponding move, the president shifted the former Security Service chief, Abdusalom Azizov, to the “cadre reserve” within the secretariat of the Security Council, a possible euphemism for a dank basement cell in a secure government building, or perhaps house arrest.

According to other local media reports, at least six other top officials within the state security apparatus and Interior Ministry have been sacked. The chief of the president’s personal security detail, Alijon Ashurov, has also lost his job and an investigation into potential misdeeds is ongoing.

The chain of events that led to the purge appears to stretch back to the early September departure of a top presidential adviser, Komil Allamjonov, from Mirziyoyev’s team to pursue various business ventures. In an unusual move, the president’s eldest daughter, Saida Mirziyoyeva, who some observers in Tashkent suggest is being groomed to eventually succeed her father, offered public thanks for Allamjonov’s government service during the announcement that he was leaving.

Allamjonov has reportedly acted as a mentor to Mirziyoyeva in several governmental positions in recent years. Over the same timeframe, a rivalry reportedly developed behind the scenes between Allamjonov and Otabek Umarov, the husband of the president’s youngest daughter. Umarov reportedly used his high level post within the security services to establish a lucrative business network. He and Allamjonov reportedly vied for access to new ventures.

On October 26, Allamjonov, along with his driver, escaped serious injury after gunmen fired multiple shots at his vehicle. Since then, authorities have rounded up seven suspects, one of whom was extradited from South Korea. Several of the suspects had alleged underworld connections, as well as possible links to Umarov, according to an investigative report published by RFE/RL. That same report indicated that Umarov left Uzbekistan on November 23 and it remains uncertain whether he intends to return to the country or not.

Where this all leaves the relationship between the president’s two daughters is anybody’s guess. Meanwhile, Allamjonov has kept a low profile since the assassination attempt. The recent turn of events offers evidence that President Mirziyoyev is not amused.
Indo-Pacific
Two South Asian Neighbors, Once Friendly, Are Now at Bitter Odds (New York Times)
New York Times [11/28/2024 4:14 PM, Saif Hasnat, Anupreeta Das and Mujib Mashal, 831K, Neutral]
Months of simmering tension between India and Bangladesh erupted into the open this week, as the once-friendly neighbors exchanged angry accusations after the arrest of a Hindu priest in Bangladesh on charges of sedition.

In August, Sheikh Hasina, an ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, was toppled as Bangladesh’s leader by a popular uprising. She fled to India, and her continued presence there has strained relations between the interim government in Bangladesh and Mr. Modi’s government in New Delhi.

The caretaker administration in Bangladesh, led by the 84-year-old Nobel Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, has expressed concern that Ms. Hasina is plotting a return to power from India. The interim Bangladeshi leaders have also accused India of exaggerating attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh to score political points at home.

The latest flashpoint was the arrest of Chinmoy Krishna Das, a Hindu monk in Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority country where Hindus make up less than 10 percent of a population of 170 million.

In the past, Mr. Das was associated with an influential global Hindu organization, the International Society of Krishna Consciousness, also known as ISKCON or the Hare Krishna Society.

A court in the Bangladeshi city of Chattogram sent him to pretrial detention under a colonial-era sedition law. His arrest came after a local politician complained that Mr. Das had disrespected the Bangladeshi flag by raising it lower than a saffron-color flag — a symbol of Hinduism — at a rally calling for an end to persecution of Hindus.

The events took a deadly turn when the monk’s supporters surrounded the court. As the security forces struggled to control the situation, a Muslim lawyer was hacked to death, police officials said. The killing was followed by reports of attacks and intimidation in Hindu neighborhoods.

It remains unclear who killed the lawyer. The police have arrested more than 20 people over the violence. The city’s lawyers have gone on strike to protest the killing.

In a statement, India’s Foreign Ministry said it was unfortunate that “a religious leader presenting legitimate demands through peaceful gatherings” was facing legal trouble while extremists behind attacks against minorities, including “desecration of deities and temples,” remained free.

The chapter of Mr. Modi’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party in the Indian state of West Bengal, which borders Bangladesh, has threatened to blockade the border if the monk is not released.

Bangladesh’s Hindus have long faced prejudice and persecution, and their numbers have shrunk in the face of growing intolerance and rising Islamist militancy.

Ms. Hasina ran a police state that coordinated closely with India and kept a lid on some of the extremist elements who have come out in the open since her fall. But deadly attacks against Hindus took place during her reign as well.

Officials in Mr. Yunus’s interim government have promised equal protection for all Bangladeshis. They have said that India has turned the plight of Bangladesh’s Hindu minority into an emotional political ploy to undermine the movement that toppled New Delhi’s favored leader, Ms. Hasina.

The officials point to an unabated barrage of exaggeration and disinformation emanating from India. Right-wing social media accounts and news media loyal to the Indian government often use terms like genocide to describe the widespread violence that left hundreds of people dead following Ms. Hasina’s ouster, though Hindu leaders in Bangladesh said that only a few were from their community.

In an interview with The New York Times last week, Mr. Yunus acknowledged that the relationship with Bangladesh’s giant neighbor was strained. He listed India’s protection of Ms. Hasina and what he said was “propaganda” from India painting his government as overrun by extremists as factors aggravating relations.

“She is in India. She keeps talking. That’s a bit destabilizing for the whole country,” he said. “And we try to draw attention from the Indian government that this is not fair. You are giving ground for somebody who is thrown away from Bangladesh, and you’re giving his or her a voice.”

Mr. Yunus said that India was “trying to project” an image that Bangladesh under him was becoming “like Afghanistan.” That, he said, was making the already difficult task of charting a new course for his country even harder.

“If you destabilize Bangladesh,” he said, “you destabilize yourself — because these elements of destabilization will spill over everywhere, all around us.”

But analysts said that Mr. Yunus’s government had not helped itself by jailing the monk under a colonial-era law that Ms. Hasina had used to crush dissent.

Some of her worst practices, such as mass cases against opposition members, have continued.

“Terms like ‘sedition’ and ‘conspiracy to destabilize the situation’ are being used, which we have seen before,” said Nur Khan Liton, an adviser to Bangladesh’s Human Rights Support Society, a watchdog.

Sarjis Alam, a leader of the student protests that toppled Ms. Hasina, called for a ban on ISKCON in Bangladesh, labeling it an “extremist organization” that was aligning with India to “plot against us.”

ISKCON’s Bangladesh leaders said the group was law-abiding and expressed sadness at the death of the Muslim lawyer outside the courthouse. They have distanced themselves from Mr. Das after an initial statement of support.
India-Kazakhstan Cooperation in Critical Minerals Signals a Shifting Regional Approach (The Diplomat)
The Diplomat [11/27/2024 9:47 AM, Araudra Singh, 1198K, Positive]
The critical minerals sector has attracted significant global attention, including from New Delhi and Astana. On November 4, India and Kazakhstan partnered to produce titanium slag, a critical mineral. Indian Rare Earths Limited (IREL) and Kazakhstan’s Ust-Kamenogorsk Titanium and Magnesium Plant (UKTMP) have signed an agreement to establish an Indo-Kazakh joint venture company (JVC), IREUK Titanium Limited, which is set to process low-grade Ilmenite reserves in Odisha into high-grade titanium feedstock. UKTMP, besides providing the technology and capital investment, would also offtake agreed quantities of titanium.

This initiative aims to develop the titanium value chain within India. According to the official press release, the arrangement "shall be instrumental in bringing valuable forex for [India] and aid UKTMP JSC in raw material security." Synergizing the strengths of both sides, the joint venture is expected to enhance the brand equity of both companies while serving as a hub for India and Kazakhstan in the titanium value chain, aligning with the broader strategic objectives of both sides in securing critical mineral supply chains.

The new India-Kazakhstan titanium deal reflects three important aspects. First, the agreement represents a positive yet incremental development in India’s long-term goal of developing a critical minerals supply chain and a way to compensate for previous lapses. India’s attempts to auction off mining rights for critical minerals have received lackluster responses in the past. Given the costly extraction process, Indian investors have been reluctant to invest due to the outdated official resource classification rules, which lack the necessary information on the economic viability of mining a block. The Ministry of Mines (MOM), having failed to receive a minimum of three required domestic bidders on multiple occasions, has had to scrap the auctioned mineral blocks. In the third tranche of auctions, for example, MOM annulled three out of the total seven auctioned blocks - including the one containing titanium.

Consequently, the deal with Kazakhstan will form a key element of India’s approach to leveraging foreign technology and capital for developing a critical minerals supply chain. This agreement is crucial, given titanium’s application across key sectors and gaps in India’s supply chain. Owing to the lack of extraction, processing, and recycling technologies within India, the country remains excessively dependent on imports. In processing specifically, India has considerable processing capabilities for only one designated critical mineral, copper. For all others, it is reliant on external providers to source refined minerals.

Second, the deal is also a reflection of fundamental politico-economic changes that Kazakhstan and the Central Asian region are witnessing. With over 5 percent growth from the last decade, the region has made significant strides in upskilling its labor force and improving manufacturing capabilities while attempting sustainable economic growth.

Unlike earlier, when Indian energy companies such as ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) bought stakes to explore and exploit Kazakhstan’s oil field, today’s reality is different. UKTMP, which sells 100 percent of its titanium products to developed countries, is a testament to the tremendous technological progress that Kazakhstan has realized. Achieving over 4 percent growth since 2017, excluding the pandemic year, Astana has adopted a market-driven innovation ecosystem, which has meant regional leadership in science, technology, and innovation and competitiveness in a rapidly evolving global technological landscape. The country’s economic growth trajectory appears bright, with its central bank forecasting an average growth rate of 4.5 percent over a 5-year horizon.

Third, the deal could mean increased focus in South Block on advancing India’s ties with Kazakhstan and potentially the Central Asian region - a global mineral powerhouse. Besides oil and uranium, Astana possesses tremendous reserves of critical minerals and rare earth elements, including cadmium and rhenium, considered critical by India.

Kazakhstan’s importance to India goes beyond possession of mineral resources, with Astana being New Delhi’s largest trading partner in Central Asia. Recent talks between the two sides have emphasized greater business-to-business linkages and leveraging complementarities, particularly in the electronics and engineering goods sector. The bilateral trade, totaling $1 billion in 2023, has immense scope for growth in a range of sectors, including power, renewable energy, pharmaceuticals, and agriculture.

The potential of India’s ties to Central Asia remains unfulfilled. Despite its attempts to pursue deeper strategic engagement, New Delhi’s links with the region are limited. India’s traditional policy objective of realizing physical connectivity through projects including the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) and Chabahar port has remained elusive for two decades.

There seems to be a sense gripping New Delhi that its previous assumptions about the region - that Central Asian countries are main beneficiaries from bilateral engagement - no longer remain valid. Today, it’s a new Central Asia, with its economies witnessing strong growth rates and transitioning from inward orientation to liberalization, along with market diversification. There is also a greater regional push toward diversifying international partners. Amid renewed major power competition involving the United States, China, and the European Union, India’s revived regional interest, underscored by the recent deal in the titanium sector, is emblematic of Central Asia’s increased strategic utility.

While India, understandably, cannot provide large-scale infrastructural investments on the same scale as China, New Delhi is likely to capitalize on the fresh engagement opportunities in the region stemming from the Russia-Ukraine war. With complementarities for regional engagement in sectors like mining, green energy, medical tourism and education, and digital technologies, India’s attempts to become a viable alternate partner for Central Asian countries are likely to continue. This is evidenced by a recent 10-year agreement with Iran for operationalizing the Chabahar port and negotiations for a free trade agreement (FTA) with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).

Regarding critical minerals specifically, notwithstanding its partnerships with countries such as the United States, Australia, and France, India is likely to explore further engagement with Kazakhstan and possibly other Central Asian states. Since securing critical minerals supply chain across the spectrum from exploration to recycling remains a long-term and complex goal, the more, the merrier appears to be the mantra going forward.

Therefore, despite multifaceted impediments to substantive engagement, India’s perceptual shift and its interest in becoming a key regional actor would drive New Delhi to pursue deeper economic engagement with Central Asia.
Twitter
Afghanistan
Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office
@amnestysasia
[11/28/2024 6:23 AM, 95.3K followers, 20 retweets, 73 likes]
Afghanistan: Since 2021, Afghan and international civil society organizations have emphasized the need for an independent international accountability mechanism with the mandate to investigate and collect, preserve and analyze evidence of grave violations and abuses in Afghanistan, with a view to advancing accountability. This document provides further details of the mandate such a mechanism should have, its added value, and how it would build on and complement existing efforts. https://amnesty.org/en/documents/asa11/8786/2024/en/

Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office
@amnestysasia
[11/28/2024 5:04 AM, 95.3K followers, 16 retweets, 28 likes]
Access to education is a fundamental human right but the Taliban continue to violate this right by banning secondary education to girls above grade six in Afghanistan. Sign our petition as we continue to demand that the Taliban must be held accountable for the human rights violations in Afghanistan. https://amnesty.org/en/petition/break-the-silence-end-human-rights-violations-in-afghanistan/ #Endgenderpersecution #16DaysOfActivism

Habib Khan
@HabibKhanT
[11/28/2024 5:32 PM, 244.8K followers, 25 retweets, 140 likes]
The U.S. won’t support fragmented factions fighting the Taliban. But if the anti-Taliban resistance groups—NRF, AFF, and AU—unite with a clear agenda, they could overcome Washington’s hesitation, gain global support, and Afghanistan could reclaim its sovereignty.

Habib Khan
@HabibKhanT
[11/27/2024 2:37 PM, 244.8K followers, 21 retweets, 76 likes]
Pakistani forces threw an unarmed protester off a three-story container in Islamabad, killing him.
Pakistan
Shehbaz Sharif
@CMShehbaz
[11/28/2024 5:06 AM, 6.7M followers, 611 retweets, 1.9K likes]
Our thoughts and prayers for all those affected by the torrential rain in Malaysia this week. The people of Pakistan stand in solidarity with our Malaysian brother & sisters in these testing times and pray to Allah Subhana’Wa Taal’a for their wellbeing and safety. These extreme weather events are a stark reminder of the urgent need to address climate change.

Shehbaz Sharif
@CMShehbaz
[11/28/2024 10:30 AM, 6.7M followers, 404 retweets, 1.7K likes]
We welcome the announcement of ceasefire between Israel and Lebanese group Hezbollah and hope that the announcement leads to a permanent cessation of hostilities in Lebanon. We wish the people of Lebanon peace and security in their country.

Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office
@amnestysasia
[11/28/2024 7:00 AM, 95.3K followers, 3.8K retweets, 6.5K likes]
PAKISTAN: The arbitrary detention of journalist Matiullah Jan in Islamabad on trumped up charges after he was abducted in the late hours of 27 November is an affront on the right to freedom of expression and media freedom. The Pakistani authorities must immediately release Mattiullah and drop the politically motivated charges against him. The government should stop targeting journalists for simply doing their job. Mattiullah was taken by plain-clothed individuals around 11 PM along with fellow journalist Saqib Bashir from the parking lot of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) hospital where they were gathering information on the fatalities and injuries in the aftermath of the crackdown on the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf protest. Mattiullah had been actively reporting on the protests in Islamabad.

Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office
@amnestysasia
[11/27/2024 10:50 AM, 95.3K followers, 6.5K retweets, 10K likes]
Pakistan: Urgent and transparent investigation needed into deadly crackdown on opposition protesters “Yet again, protestors in Pakistan have faced a brutal and lethal crackdown shrouded in a callous opacity by the authorities. The escalation of violence, shutdown of mobile internet services, mass detentions, and alarming rhetoric against PTI protesters by the authorities speaks of a pattern of intolerance for the right to freedom of peaceful assembly throughout the country. Similar clampdowns against Baloch and Pashtun protesters were witnessed earlier this year." Read more: https://amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/11/urgent-and-transparent-investigation-needed-into-deadly-crackdown-on-opposition-protesters.

Zalmay Khalilzad
@realZalmayMK
[11/28/2024 10:35 AM, 242K followers, 15K retweets, 30K likes]
I condemn in the strongest terms the brutal crackdown by Pakistani establishment of peaceful demonstrators seeking freedom and the release of Imran Khan and other political prisoners. #Pakistan

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[11/28/2024 11:11 AM, 216.6K followers, 2.2K retweets, 5K likes]
The last few days in Pakistan have been both tragedy and farce. The tragedy: The violence and the lost lives. The cycle of confrontation and crackdown that distracts from serious economic/security crises. And the sense of deja vu: This has all happened so many times before.

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[11/28/2024 11:11 AM, 216.6K followers, 549 retweets, 1.1K likes]
The farce: Justifying a huge lockdown on the visit of a world leader with little relevance for Pakistan’s foreign policy. Arresting a journo critical of the state on the pretext of narcotics possession. Disinfo wars playing out on online platforms that most in Pak can’t access.

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[11/28/2024 11:11 AM, 216.6K followers, 1.2K retweets, 2.7K likes]
Most of all, Islamabad’s assertion that life is back to normal. In all my years observing Pak, I can’t remember a time when there was this much public skepticism & anger at the gov’t & public institutions and especially from young people-who dominate the country demographically.

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[11/27/2024 12:14 PM, 216.6K followers, 7.6K retweets, 12K likes]
According to reportage by @ShahmeerAlbalos & @HannahEP, an ER doctor in Islamabad said "All records of dead and injured" from protests "have been confiscated by authorities. We are not allowed to talk. Senior government officials are visiting the hospital to hide the records."

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[11/27/2024 12:14 PM, 216.6K followers, 781 retweets, 1.2K likes]
Also, "official sources told the Guardian there had been 17 civilian fatalities from army and paramilitary gunfire and hundreds more had been injured." The full report is here: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/27/pakistan-army-and-police-accused-of-firing-on-imran-khan-supporters

Hamid Mir
@HamidMirPAK
[11/28/2024 9:19 PM, 8.5M followers, 326 retweets, 1.3K likes]
Advisor to Prime Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan said that a case registered against journalist Matiullah Jan is fabricated. He further said that the people who made this fake story should be punished, and arrested journalists should be released soon.

Madiha Afzal
@MadihaAfzal
[11/28/2024 1:03 PM, 43K followers, 14 retweets, 102 likes]
So much misinformation and disinformation in Pakistan. A strong, independent media needed now more than ever.
India
Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[11/29/2024 1:58 AM, 103.8M followers, 1.3K retweets, 9K likes]
This afternoon, I will also be addressing a programme organised by @BJP4Odisha in Bhubaneswar. Since assuming office in June this year, the BJP Government in Odisha has been at the forefront of boosting the state’s growth trajectory. The state government is taking many measures to improve the lives of the poor and marginalised communities.

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[11/29/2024 12:56 AM, 103.8M followers, 1.4K retweets, 9.7K likes]
Over the next two days, will be in Bhubaneswar for the DGP/IGP conference. Senior police officers from all over India will take part in this conference. There will be extensive deliberations on enhancing India’s internal security apparatus. Different aspects relating to policing and improving public safety will be discussed. https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2078829

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[11/27/2024 7:48 AM, 103.8M followers, 8.4K retweets, 55K likes]
Had a very good meeting with legislators and MPs from Telangana BJP. Our Party’s presence in the state is growing rapidly. The people of Telangana are already fed up with Congress and have absolutely horrid memories of BRS misrule. They are looking towards the BJP with great hope. BJP will continue to raise a strong voice against the anti-people policies of Congress and BRS. Our Karyakartas will keep elaborating on our development agenda. @BJP4Telangana

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[11/28/2024 1:04 PM, 216.6K followers, 1 retweet, 12 likes]
Adani Green, the firm targeted in Gautam Adani’s indictment, is one of India’s top clean energy producers. But India’s rapidly growing clean energy space, w/its crowded & dynamic markets, should have little trouble rebounding. My latest @ForeignPolicy: https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/11/27/india-adani-indictment-green-clean-energy/
NSB
Tshering Tobgay
@tsheringtobgay
[11/28/2024 7:35 AM, 100.2K followers, 4 retweets, 26 likes]
Pleasure meeting Mr. Charles Cointreau, Vice President for Le Cordon Bleu in the Asia Pacific. We discussed the fascinating world of gastronomy and hospitality, exploring opportunities for collaboration to enhance and promote Bhutan’s culinary and hospitality sectors.

Anura Kumara Dissanayake
@anuradisanayake
[11/28/2024 4:32 AM, 138.7K followers, 17 retweets, 218 likes]
Had a productive virtual meeting with @WorldBank President Ajay Banga to discuss Sri Lanka’s development priorities. Focused on poverty alleviation, digitalization, and boosting key sectors for growth.

Anura Kumara Dissanayake
@anuradisanayake
[11/27/2024 2:53 PM, 138.7K followers, 14 retweets, 291 likes]
Yesterday (27), I appointed two new Ministry Secretaries. K.R. Uduwawala will serve as the Secretary to the Ministry of Environment, while Y.L. Mohamed Nawavi will lead the Ministry of Science and Technology. Wishing them success in their new roles!

Anura Kumara Dissanayake
@anuradisanayake
[11/27/2024 6:14 AM, 138.7K followers, 35 retweets, 457 likes]
Today (27), I directed officials to prioritize ground-level information gathering in disaster-hit areas for faster relief. We’re ensuring secure shelters, food, and sanitation for those affected while allocating funds for effective aid. Efforts are also underway to ensure the safe return of fishermen at sea.

Karu Jayasuriya
@KaruOnline
[11/29/2024 10:14 AM, 53.7K followers, 1 retweet, 5 likes]
Massive accounting failures at the Airports Authority expose public fund mismanagement. Strengthening the Auditor General’s powers and capacity is crucial for strengthening compliane, accountability and safeguarding financial integrity.

M U M Ali Sabry
@alisabrypc
[11/27/2024 10:24 PM, 7.7K followers, 9 retweets, 48 likes]
Honoring Memories, Building Unity As we work toward a united and harmonious Sri Lanka, it is vital to respect the memories of all who suffered and perished during the tragic years of conflict. Families should be allowed to grieve and memorialize their loved ones, even those whose paths were misled by the ideologies of the past. This is a human right and an essential step in healing wounds. However, glorifying the LTTE or its leader, a ruthless architect of terror, is not the way forward. Such actions risk rekindling the pain of the past, igniting unnecessary tension, and undermining the process of reconciliation. Closure cannot be achieved by celebrating violence; it must come through reflection, understanding, and commitment to peace. We must also remember that hardline elements in the South are ever-watchful, ready to exploit any opportunity to stoke racial hatred. Let us deny them that chance. Let us work together to build the Sri Lankan identity we long for—a nation where diversity is strength, not division, and where the mistakes of history serve as lessons, not fuel for further discord. May we tread this path with wisdom, compassion, and an unwavering commitment to unity.
Central Asia
Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service
@president_uz
[11/28/2024 2:24 PM, 206.4K followers, 6 retweets, 21 likes]
President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev chaired a meeting on boosting horticultural production, processing, and exports. Plans include processing surplus produce for export, introducing blast freezing technologies, developing agro-logistic centers, and refrigerated storage in the regions.

Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service
@president_uz
[11/28/2024 7:41 AM, 206.4K followers, 5 retweets, 35 likes]
President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev reviewed measures to strengthen the social environment and advance religious education. #Uzbekistan fosters interethnic harmony and religious tolerance, ensuring freedom for all faiths. Efforts prioritize education and training, international cooperation on Islamic enlightenment, and addressing cyberspace threats. Focus remains on reinforcing mahallas, empowering youth, and sustaining social harmony.

Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service
@president_uz
[11/27/2024 10:37 AM, 206.4K followers, 5 retweets, 38 likes]
President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev assessed the state of foreign investment and plans for the coming year. Significant investments led to enterprise growth, manufacturing expansion, export increases, and job creation. Emphasis was placed on enhancing regional investment efforts and utilizing international and independent funding sources. Public-private partnerships and private investments projects aligned with regional and industrial goals will be prioritized.

Saida Mirziyoyeva
@SMirziyoyeva
[11/28/2024 1:49 AM, 20.6K followers, 6 retweets, 53 likes]
Following a year of expert consultations, the President signs a national women’s oncology program. Free screenings, global standards, and streamlined care aim to transform early detection and treatment of cancer - under my direct supervision.

{End of Report}
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