epubdos : Afghanistan
SCA MORNING PRESS CLIPS
Prepared for the U.S. Department of State
Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs
TO:
SCA & Staff
DATE:
Monday, November 4, 2024 6:30 AM ET

Afghanistan
N.Y. judge says Taliban leader not entitled to war-related immunity (Washington Post)
Washington Post [11/1/2024 5:02 PM, Shayna Jacobs, 52865K, Negative]
A federal judge on Friday ruled that a Taliban leader charged with orchestrating the 2008 killing of three U.S. soldiers and kidnapping an American journalist was properly denied certain war-related protections under complex law governing armed conflicts.

U.S. District Court Judge Katherine Polk Failla sided with federal prosecutors in finding that the conflict in Afghanistan at the time of the alleged crimes was correctly designated a non-international armed conflict. The decision opposed the possibility that defendant Haji Najibullah could be treated as a prisoner of war entitled to Geneva Conventions protections.

Justice Department officials brought a case against Najibullah in federal court in New York after he was arrested in Ukraine in 2020.

Prosecutors have accused Najibullah of planning the abduction in Afghanistan of former New York Times journalist David Rohde and a pair of Afghani men who worked with him. Upon being captured, Rohde and the others were taken to Pakistan. Rohde managed to escape after seven months.

The charges against Najibullah include allegedly murdering U.S. nationals in planning an attack on a U.S. military convoy that killed three soldiers. The judge weighed whether Najibullah should have been treated as a prisoner-of-war, a status that could have given him immunity for killing enemy troops during combat.

Najibullah’s attorneys have argued that the Taliban considered itself the rightful government of Afghanistan in 2008 when the alleged crimes occurred, years after the U.S. military helped to install another leadership regime during its 20-year operation there. As a Taliban member, Najibullah would have believed that he was engaged in a formal international conflict against the U.S., according to the defense.

The Taliban resumed control of Afghanistan when President Joe Biden ordered the withdrawal of U.S. troops in 2021.

Najibullah may appeal the judge’s ruling. He is scheduled to go to trial on all counts in his indictment in early January.
Afghan Journalists Fear Losing ‘Last Remaining’ Freedoms (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [11/2/2024 4:08 AM, Farangis Najibullah, 1251K, Neutral]
Barna’s working day begins early in the morning, hours before she enters her office at a private media outlet in Kabul’s trendy Karte-e Char area.

Barna, a 26-year-old Afghan reporter whose name has been changed for security reasons, says she carefully chooses stories to pitch to her editors via WhatsApp messages while she is still riding on a packed minibus in an hour-long journey to work.

“By the time I reach the Pol-e Sorkh crossroad, which is about 15 minutes from the office, the editors and I go through several topics to make sure we pick a story that is important and interesting but at the same time is safe enough not to anger the authorities,” Barna says in describing her daily work.

“We have many red lines. We have to avoid certain topics, and we have to tone down our criticism in order to survive under the Taliban,” she told RFE/RL by phone from Kabul. “Our work and lives are full of restrictions and the government continues to impose even more.”

Afghan journalists fear that they will soon lose what Barna described as their “last remaining freedoms” after the hard-line, Taliban-led government recently banned the publication of human and animal images as part of new “morality laws.” Unveiled in August, the laws also say that a woman’s voice should not be heard in public.

Several Afghan provinces -- including Kandahar, Helmand, and Takhar -- shut down most television stations to comply with the ban.

Television channels in these provinces have effectively been turned into radio stations, leaving dozens of cameramen, photographers, video editors, and others out of work. The radio stations, meanwhile, were prohibited from airing a woman’s voice.

Afghan media reported last week that all other television networks in the country have been given two months to follow suit. But a high-ranking government source denied those reports on October 29.

The source told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi that authorities will “address the issues that some visual media outlets are facing in some provinces,” but did not elaborate.

A cameraman in Takhar who lost his job because of the ban said the latest restrictions on the media will plunge Afghanistan into the dark ages.

“It feels like we live in a backward society that does not care about progress and development,” the cameraman told Radio Azadi, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Media without photography and video is like a body without a head.”

Another Afghan journalist condemned the ban as “irrational” and “extremist” and said the government would not be able to implement the policy throughout the country.

A 27-year-old reporter in Kabul said Afghan media “would lose thousands of media workers” if the Taliban tries to enforce the ban.

“Many will lose their jobs, and many others will leave the industry because our work will become meaningless,” the reporter told RFE/RL on condition of anonymity. “How can you keep your audiences with male-only radio reports with no video and no music?”

Thousands of Afghan journalists have left Afghanistan since the ultraconservative Taliban returned to power in August 2021.

According to press watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF), of the 10,870 men and women working in Afghan media at the beginning of August 2021, only 4,360 were still working in the industry in December of that year. During that period, of the 2,490 female journalists, just 410 were still in their jobs.

At least 141 journalists have been detained or imprisoned under Taliban rule, RSF reported in August, but added that no media workers were imprisoned at the time of its report.

“The biggest problem is that we don’t have anywhere to complain,” the Kabul-based reporter said. “Who do you complain to when the culprit behind your problems is the government itself and it doesn’t care about the criticism from the international community or public opinion?”

Dream Versus Reality

In Kabul, Barna and her colleagues haven’t yet been told to comply with the new “morality laws,” but the staff -- like most journalists across the country -- are bracing themselves for it. Barna says her female friends working in radio and TV are fearing the worst.

“Women journalists are already the hardest hit, and we stand to lose more,” she said. “Most Taliban officials refuse to speak to female reporters, so we must ask our male colleagues to get comments from officials for our reports.”

Barna says officials from the Vice and Virtue Ministry have installed security cameras at her workplace and pay random visits to ensure female workers don’t breach the strict Islamic dress code.

The latest constraints on Afghan media workers come amid the backdrop of grinding poverty and unemployment in the country.

Several journalists working for Afghan-owned media outlets in Kabul told RFE/RL they earn between 40 to 70 percent less in comparison to the wages they received before the Taliban came to power.

Due to a lack of funds, many media outlets have eliminated benefits such as shuttle buses and free or subsidized lunches for their employees.

Barna earns the equivalent of $150 a month, roughly half of the salary she made before August 2021.

“I dream of having enough money and freedom again to go to coffee shops in Pol-e Sorkh with my colleagues, as we used to do,” she said.

Many coffee shops along the bustling Pol-e Sorkh Road -- once popular with Kabul’s young people -- have been closed or turned into so-called family restaurants.

“But for the time being, my main concern is not to lose the last remaining freedoms we have, such as being able to work in the media, speak to people, and watch a TV report,” Barna said.

Wider Region

The situation of the media has deteriorated in other neighboring countries in recent years, with many independent journalists and bloggers languishing behind bars for their criticism of authoritarian governments.

Uzbek blogger Shohida Salomova has been placed in a psychiatric hospital after she reported that the son-in-law of President Shavkat Mirziyoev had purchased “20 expensive houses" in a wealthy Tashkent neighborhood.

In Tajikistan, independent journalists who criticize government policies often face long-term prison sentences on trumped-up charges with trials being held behind closed doors.

In Turkmenistan, independent media are nonexistent, while several journalists have paid the ultimate price for their work. Among them was 35-year-old former RFE/RL reporter Hudaiberdy Allashov, who died earlier this year after a long illness that his supporters say was brought on by pressure from the government due to his work.

Allashov had been jailed, beaten, and tortured with electric shocks, according to police sources. No one has been brought to justice.

Soltan Achilova, one of the few remaining independent reporters in Turkmenistan, says authorities not only put pressure on her but also target her relatives, friends, and anyone who gives her an interview or a comment.

She says security services have bugged her phone, often hack her e-mail account and personal computer, and follow her “everywhere.” She has been physically attacked several times and once strip-searched at the airport.

“When I call someone, security agents contact that person immediately and threaten them with dismissal from work. If that person doesn’t have a job, the agents threaten their relatives with dismissal and even imprisonment,” Achilova, 74, told RFE/RL on October 27.

Despite the ever-tightening space to operate, Achilova is not giving up her profession, saying that without reporters society will become a dark, silent place.
The Azadi Briefing: Taliban Detains Afghan Political Commentator (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [11/3/2024 4:14 PM, Abubakar Siddique, 235K, Negative]
The unrecognized Taliban government in Afghanistan has detained a political commentator and former university lecturer.

Jawed Mohmand was detained by Taliban intelligence agents outside his home in the capital, Kabul, on October 19, his family said.

A relative of Mohmand, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to safety concerns, told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi that he was "not faring well psychologically" in detention.

The Taliban has not revealed the reason for his detention. But his arrest came soon after the Taliban barred him from appearing as a guest on private Afghan television stations.

Mohmand was not known for his criticism of the Taliban and appeared at times to support the extremist group’s policies.

Why It’s Important: Mohmand’s detention is part of the Taliban’s crackdown on dissent.

The hard-line Islamist group has arrested and jailed scores of academics, political commentators, teachers, journalists, and activists since seizing power in 2021.

Last month, the Taliban detained Jawed Kohistani, a well-known political and military analyst, for over two weeks.

Shahrazad Akbar, executive director of the Rawadari rights organization, told Radio Azadi that the Taliban was creating a society "where no one dares to criticize its repressive policies" because the group "does not believe that rulers should be accountable to the people."

What’s Next: The Taliban’s crackdown on dissent is likely to continue.

Journalists, activists, and academics who criticize the extremist group are likely to be targeted.

The Taliban has further stamped out free speech in recent months. In September, the group imposed new restrictions on Afghan broadcasters, banning live broadcasts of political shows and on-air criticism of its policies.

What To Keep An Eye On

The Taliban has said that two Afghans were killed in a shooting incident in Iran earlier this month.

Local reports and rights groups said Iranian border guards fired on and killed Afghan migrants seeking to cross into Iran from Pakistan on October 13. Iranian officials have denied the incident took place.

Hamdullah Fitrat, a Taliban spokesman, said the group’s investigation found that "explosions and gunfire" targeted Afghan migrants, some of whom were wounded.

The United Nations and international rights groups have demanded a full investigation into the deadly incident.

Why It’s Important: Iran has been the main destination for Afghans fleeing Taliban rule.

Many Afghans in Iran, who number several million, have complained of increasing violence and harassment at the hands of the Iranian authorities.

The Islamic republic has deported over 1 million Afghans in the past year.
Pakistan
Lahore air pollution hits historic high, forcing school closures (Reuters)
Reuters [11/3/2024 7:20 AM, Ariba Shahid, 2376K, Negative]
Unprecedented air pollution levels in Pakistan’s second-largest city of Lahore prompted authorities to take emergency measures on Sunday, including issuing work-from-home mandates and closing primary schools.

The city held the top spot on a real-time list of the world’s most polluted cities on Sunday after recording its highest ever pollution reading of 1900 near the Pakistan-India border on Saturday, based on data released by the provincial government and Swiss group IQAir.

The government has shut primary schools for a week, advising parents to ensure children wear masks, said Senior Minister of Punjab Marriyum Aurangzeb during a press conference, as a thick blanket of smog enveloped the city.

Citizens have been urged to stay indoors, keep doors and windows shut, and avoid unnecessary travel, she said, adding that hospitals had been given smog counters.

To reduce vehicle pollution, 50% of office employees would work from home, said Aurangzeb.

The government has also imposed a ban on three-wheelers known as rickshaws and halted construction in certain areas to reduce the pollution levels. Factories and construction sites failing to comply with these regulations could be shut down, she said.

Aurangzeb described the situation as "unexpected" and attributed the deterioration in air quality to winds carrying pollution from neighbouring India.

"This cannot be solved without talks with India," she said, adding the provincial government would initiate talks with its bigger neighbour through Pakistan’s foreign ministry.

The smog crisis in Lahore, similar to the situation in India’s capital Delhi, tends to worsen during cooler months due to temperature inversion trapping pollution closer to the ground.
Lahore -- World’s Most Polluted City -- Sets Emergency Shutdown Measures (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [11/3/2024 9:48 AM, Staff, 1251K, Negative]
An unprecedented level of air pollution in Lahore, Pakistan’s second-largest city, has forced authorities to take emergency measures, including the closing of primary schools and the issuance of work-from-home orders.

The air-quality index on November 3 in the city of more than 14 million people near the Indian border rose above 1,000 -- far exceeding the 300 level that is considered "dangerous," according to the Swiss-based firm IQAir.

The Punjab regional government called the pollution "unprecedented” – blaming pollutants caused by diesel fumes, smoke from agricultural burning, and heating processes.

IQAir said the level of Fine Particulate Matter (PM2.5) -- which causes the most damage to residents’ health -- in Lahore is currently 44.4 times the WHO annual air-quality guideline value.

Pollution and related health risks have long been an issue for Lahore and other cities in the region. The latest numbers qualified Lahore to move to the top of the unenviable list of the world’s most polluted cities.

Lahore authorities closed down primary schools for one week and urged parents to ensure that their children wear masks.

"Weather forecasts for the next six days show that wind patterns will remain the same. Therefore, we are closing all government and private primary schools in Lahore for a week," Jahangir Anwar, a senior environmental protection official in Lahore, told the AFP news agency.

Marriyum Aurangzeb, the senior minister of Punjab Province, urged all residents to remain indoors and keep doors and windows closed.

She added that 50 percent of staff at government and private offices would be mandated to work from home as of November 4.

Officials said conditions will be reexamined on November 10.

Aurangzeb attributed the dangerous situation to winds carrying pollutants from neighboring India, along with the local factors.

"This cannot be solved without talks with India," she said.

In a 2019 report, the University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute wrote that “inhabitants of cities throughout Asia pay the steepest price” from pollution.

“If current air-pollution concentrations are sustained, the average person in major Asian cities like Beijing, Lahore, and Delhi will live more than five years less than if their air met guidelines established by the World Health Organization.”
Pakistan province calls for ‘climate diplomacy’ with India as record smog chokes major city (CNN)
CNN [11/4/2024 3:51 AM, Lex Harvey and Sophia Saifi, 24.1M, Neutral]
A smog-choked province in eastern Pakistan has issued a rare plea for cross-border collaboration with India, as major cities in both countries endure severe air pollution that risks the health of millions.

Officials in Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province of 127 million people, have drafted a letter to the Indian government to open a dialogue on the issue, Punjabi Secretary for Environment and Climate Change Raja Jahangir Anwar said on Monday.

“We need climate diplomacy, as a regional and global issue,” Anwar told CNN, just days after Punjab’s megacity of Lahore, roughly 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the Indian border, saw its highest-ever levels of air pollution.

“We are suffering in Lahore in a way due to the eastern wind corridor coming from India,” he said. “We are not blaming anyone, it’s a natural phenomenon.”

Pollution in northern India and eastern Pakistan ramps up each winter, when an ominous yellow haze blankets the skies due to a combination of farmers burning agricultural waste, coal-fired power plants, traffic and windless days.

India and Pakistan have for decades navigated fraught and at times hostile relations, but as the issue of toxic air worsens, the neighbors are being forced to confront their shared responsibility – and fate – when it comes to the climate.

Lahore, home to more than 14 million people, saw its air quality index surpass a record 1,900 in one part of the city on Saturday, according to IQAir, which tracks global air quality. That’s more than six times the level considered hazardous to health.

The extreme pollution prompted Lahore officials to close primary schools for one week and place restrictions on barbecue restaurants, motorcycle rickshaws, and construction activities.

In India, air quality in Delhi – which frequently trades places with Lahore as the most polluted city in the world – hit hazardous air quality levels above 500 Saturday and Sunday, partly due to people disregarding a local fireworks ban as they celebrated Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. However, warmer, breezier weather helped to mitigate the smog.

Breathing polluted air leads to increased risk of a host of diseases, including lung cancer, stroke, and heart disease, according to the World Health Organization. Experts say India’s air pollution is so bad that smog could take years off the lives of hundreds of millions of people.

“This is not just a political issue, this is a humanitarian issue,” Punjab’s Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz said last week. “The winds don’t know there’s a border in the middle.”

Air quality worsens in the winter because colder and drier air traps pollution, rather than whisking it away, as warm air does.

The beginning of winter also coincides with stubble burning season, a time when farmers intentionally set fire to crop debris to clear their fields, sending smoke billowing in the skies.

Both India and Pakistan have tried to clamp down on the practice, but it is still widespread.

Last month, India’s Supreme Court condemned the governments of India’s Punjab and Haryana states for failing to crack down on illegal stubble burning. Local officials claim they have reduced the practice significantly in recent years.

Pakistan’s Punjab is providing subsidized super-seeders to farmers to offer alternative methods for disposing of crop residue.
Pakistan Reports New Polio Cases, Raising Number To 45 So Far This Year (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [11/2/2024 10:17 AM, Staff, 1251K, Neutral]
Pakistan reported two cases of wild poliovirus infection on November 1 in the northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province, raising the national count for the year to 45, according to the Pakistan Polio Eradication Program.

“The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed the detection of two more wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases in Pakistan,” the statement said.

It said cases were confirmed in one girl in the Lakki Marwat district and a boy in the Dara Ismail Khan district.

So far, 22 polio cases have been reported from Balochistan Province, 12 from Sindh Province, nine from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, and one each from Punjab Province and Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad.

Seventy-six districts were affected in all, the program said.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries where polio remains endemic.

On October 28, Pakistan launched a weeklong nationwide vaccination campaign with the aim of immunizing more than 45 million children under the age of 5 against the paralytic disease.

Health workers distributing the polio vaccine and the security forces assigned to protect them have been targeted in the past by Islamist extremists who falsely assert that immunization campaigns are Western plots to sterilize Muslim children.
Return of abducted lawyer for Pakistan’s jailed former leader sparks controversy (VOA)
VOA [11/3/2024 12:20 PM, Ayaz Gul, 4566K, Negative]
A leading lawyer for Pakistan’s imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan has resurfaced under mysterious circumstances nearly a month after his alleged “enforced disappearance.”

Police officials and Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party Sunday confirmed the overnight recovery of Intazar Ahmad Panjutha — who had gone missing on October 8 while returning home to Islamabad — amid allegations that government security agencies were involved.

Punjutha’s recovery occurred a day after Pakistan’s attorney general assured a federal high court Friday that the lawyer "would be recovered within 24 hours" but did not provide further details.

However, police reported late Saturday that they intercepted a suspicious vehicle in the city of Hassan Abdul, northwest of the Pakistani capital, and recovered the lawyer, asserting that armed individuals who were with Panjutha opened fire at police from within the vehicle and fled.

A video later surfaced showing a visibly shaken and weak Panjutha sitting in a vehicle with his hands and feet tied. In a separate video, the lawyer can be seen breaking down in tears while telling police officers that his captors were demanding ransom and subjected him to severe custodial torture.

Khan’s party rejected the police claims and Panjutha’s video remarks, saying he was forced to make the statement and alleging again that the lawyer “was abducted by security forces.”

Salman Akram Raja, the secretary general of PTI, identified Panjutha as one of Khan’s key lawyers in his ongoing legal battles.

“His condition, that spoke of the horror he had endured, was filmed and spread to cause fear. This is shameful,” Raja said in a video statement he released Sunday.

A police department spokesperson dismissed allegations of staging a fake encounter, asserting that officers rescued Panjutha from kidnappers demanding ransom.

Absa Komal, a prime-time news anchor at Pakistan’s Dawn TV channel, commented on Panjutha’s video appearance and sympathized with him.

“He is unrecognizable — a changed man. The attorney general told the high court that he would be produced in 24 hours, and this is how he has been presented. Shame on the decision-makers,” Komal wrote on her social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

Khan’s party members and supporters have been the subject of a government crackdown since he was removed from power through a parliamentary vote of no-confidence in 2022 and jailed a year later over controversial allegations of corruption and inciting violence against the Pakistani military, among dozens of other charges.

The 72-year-old deposed leader rejects the lawsuits as fabricated by the military after allegedly orchestrating his ouster from power, charges government and army officials reject.

Domestic and international human rights groups have lately intensified their criticism of Pakistan’s military and intelligence agencies, accusing them of engaging in a campaign of suppressing PTI and dissent at large.

Khan, cricket star-turned-prime minister, has led a campaign of defiance against the military since his ouster from power. Army generals have staged three coups and ruled Pakistan for over three decades since it gained independence in 1947.

Pakistan’s military and its intelligence agencies are frequently accused of influencing the rise or fall of elected governments through election rigging and pro-army political parties, charges army officials deny.

Last month, more than 60 Democratic lawmakers from the U.S. House of Representatives sent a letter to President Joe Biden, urging him to secure the release of Khan and all other political prisoners in Pakistan.

The American lawmakers expressed their concern about what they denounced as the "ongoing widespread human rights violations" in the South Asian nation. Without naming Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s coalition government, the letter stated that “Pakistan’s current system amounts to ‘military rule with civilian facade.’”

Islamabad hit back at the letter, saying it is based on “an incorrect understanding of the political situation in Pakistan.”
India
Sikh Activists See It as Freedom. India Calls It Terrorism. (New York Times)
New York Times [11/3/2024 4:14 PM, Anupreeta Das, 831K, Neutral]
In the months since Canada and the United States accused India of carrying out assassination plots against Sikh separatist leaders on North American soil, a lingering question has hung over the accusations: Why would the Indian government take such a risk?

Inside India, the Sikh cause to carve out a land called Khalistan from the state of Punjab largely fizzled out decades ago. Yet the Indian government still frames the Khalistan movement as a threat to national security — for reasons more mundane but no easier to weed out.

India has repeatedly accused Khalistan-related activists in countries like Pakistan and, more recently, Canada of sponsoring gang warfare, drug trafficking and extortion in India. Proceeds from these crimes, according to India’s government, sustain a campaign of what Indian officials call terrorism in the name of a religious political movement.

“The government of India has sought to project the threat as a wider national security issue, casting a number of domestic political issues in Punjab within the framework of ‘terrorism,’” said Ajai Sahni, the executive director of the Institute for Conflict Management in New Delhi.

But Mr. Sahni and other independent security analysts said that international gangs, guns for hire and other criminals are indeed a problem in Punjab, where the Sikh religious community makes up a majority of the population.

While there are legitimate believers in the cause of a Sikh homeland, criminals have “opportunistically aligned themselves to the Khalistan cause, because in some sense it ennobles them in the eyes of people to be seen as political activists rather than criminals,” he added.

The Indian government defines terrorism broadly, to include any actions it sees as imperiling the country’s security by sowing discord or instability. India has long taken a no-holds-barred approach to stamping out movements it considers a terrorist threat, including the Khalistan cause, as well as left-wing and Indigenous insurgencies.

“The threat of terrorism is used to exploit fear and justify the suppression and silencing of minorities,” said Gunisha Kaur, a medical director of the Weill Cornell Center for Human Rights.

India has long targeted Sikhs with “impunity,” leading some to call for an independent state, said Ms. Kaur, who has written about the subject. But Sikhs, one of India’s religious minorities, hold diverse views on their ties to India, she added, which are often lost in the Indian government’s singular approach to anything it deems anti-national.

In recent years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has led the charge in portraying the Khalistan threat as a national security matter, analysts say. He has done this, analysts say, to burnish his image as a strongman protecting his country — or, more precisely, a Hindu nationalist leader protecting the Hindu majority.

India has forcefully rejected Canada’s accusation that Indian agents killed a Canadian Sikh nationalist leader, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, on Canadian soil.

But on Tuesday, a top Canadian official said in Parliament that a campaign to intimidate, harass and even kill Sikh separatists in Canada could be traced to the highest levels of the Indian government.

The official said he had confirmed to The Washington Post that the Canadian government believed that the campaign was ordered by Amit Shah, who leads India’s Ministry of Home Affairs and is Mr. Modi’s right-hand man. The official did not say what evidence Canada had.

The Indian government has conveyed to Canadian officials that it “protests in the strongest terms to the absurd and baseless references” made to Mr. Shah, a spokesman for India’s external affairs ministry said Saturday.

Last month, Canadian officials said that several Indian diplomats in Canada were agents of India’s foreign intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing, or RAW, and ran the campaign of intimidation and violence. Canada expelled six diplomats, and India responded in kind.

India’s government has been much quieter as the United States has pursued a similar case involving a foiled assassination attempt against a Sikh separatist named Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. The U.S. government has charged an Indian citizen who it says was a RAW agent, accusing him of directing the plot.

“India’s attempt on my life on U.S. soil represents a brazen act of transnational terrorism,” Mr. Pannun said in a statement. “It’s a stark reminder that while pro-Khalistan Sikhs believe in ballots, India’s government resorts to bullets.”

The Canadian and U.S. cases have provided the push for an independent Khalistan more attention than it would otherwise get, given that it is largely driven by a small part of the Sikh diaspora, Mr. Sahni, the counterterrorism expert, said.

In the past, Sikhs in Punjab have demanded a homeland alongside Muslim-majority Pakistan and Hindu-majority India, calling it a matter of justice.

The separatist cause peaked in the 1980s. In 1984, Sikh militants occupied the Golden Temple in Punjab, one of Sikhism’s holiest sites, prompting a bloody operation by Indian government forces to remove them. Five months later, Sikh bodyguards assassinated Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in revenge.

Although Sikh militancy in India was stamped out by the 1990s, a separatist movement remained in pockets around the world. Canada is among the countries where many Khalistan supporters have found a home, and India has angrily accused the Canadian government of allowing Sikh extremists and alleged criminals to operate freely from inside its territory.

On Tuesday, Canada’s ambassador to India, Cameron MacKay, told The New York Times that Canada was “not in a position to arrest people simply because they support a separatist movement in a foreign country,” citing its expansive protections for freedom of speech. “I know that the Indian government sees things very differently and wishes that we that we would do so, but we’re not going to,” Mr. MacKay added. “It’s simply not provided for in Canadian law.”

While it is India’s foreign intelligence agency that has been linked by Canada and the United States to assassination plots, India’s National Investigation Agency — a domestic counterterrorism law enforcement agency — has also long focused on Khalistan figures.

The agency is part of the Ministry of Home Affairs, led by Mr. Shah, Mr. Modi’s close ally. It has described Khalistan separatists as operating within a “terrorist-gangster-drug smuggler nexus.”

The case of Lakhbir Singh Sandhu illustrates India’s anti-Khalistan efforts. Mr. Sandhu, whom the Indian government has labeled a terrorist, is wanted in connection with several Khalistan-allied outfits accused by the National Investigation Agency of conspiring to “wage war against the country.” In January 2023, the agency offered a reward of about $18,000 to anyone providing information on Mr. Sandhu.

In July of this year, the agency said it had arrested an aide to Mr. Sandhu, accusing him of supplying weapons in Punjab for extortion and other “large-scale terror activities.” The criminal acts, the agency said, were “part of the larger conspiracy of various banned Khalistani terrorist organizations to destabilize India by unleashing violent acts in Punjab and other places.”

The Indian government has also disclosed that Mr. Sandhu is on a list that India provided to the Canadian authorities of people it wants extradited. He remains at large.

Mr. Nijjar, the Sikh leader killed in Canada, who was also on India’s terrorist list, was accused of directing extortion schemes and other gang-related activities.

Another factor that makes Sikh separatism a sensitive issue is its connection to Pakistan, India’s archnemesis. Pakistan has aided the Khalistan movement as a way to seed instability in India, analysts say. Some see the presence of pro-Khalistan groups like Babbar Khalsa International, banned in India but with members in Pakistan, as part of a Pakistani strategy known informally in the counterterrorism community as “death by a thousand cuts.”

“Khalistanis have a very robust relationship with Pakistani terrorism,” said Abhinav Pandya, an expert on counterterrorism policy. Mr. Pandya said that although the drug trade on either side of the India-Pakistan border was long established, “in recent years, it has become deeply integrated with the terror network.”

While the Khalistan cause is largely seen in India as a fringe movement with ties to the drug trade, there is some concern among Indian state and federal officials about so-called radicalization of Punjabi youths.

Punjab was once among India’s most prosperous states. But the remnants of the 1980s conflict, combined with failed economic policies and shrinking job opportunities, have unleashed a slow-burning crisis in the state.

Widespread drug addiction is one of the biggest challenges. Although Punjab is listed as India’s 15th-largest state, it accounts for the third-highest number of drug-related cases, according to government officials.

In such a tinderbox, the Khalistan movement could find more fertile ground among vulnerable and jobless young men, analysts said.

Lakhwinder Singh, a visiting professor of economics at the Institute for Human Development in New Delhi, said that generations of Punjabis had left the state, driven by “distress or hopelessness.”

“If youth is not provided adequate employment opportunities, there is a likely possibility that youth can be engaged in social upheavals,” Mr. Singh said. “During the ‘80s, the youth in Punjab picked up arms and, nowadays, are attracted toward using intoxicants.”
India Says Canada’s Allegations Against Amit Shah ‘Baseless’ (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [11/3/2024 7:24 PM, Sudhi Ranjan Sen and Sanjai P R, 1784K, Negative]
India’s government dismissed Canada’s accusations of alleged crimes by a senior member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet, and warned of serious consequences to bilateral ties.

The allegations made by a top Canadian official that Indian Home Affairs Minister Amit Shah allegedly orchestrated crimes including extortion and homicides in Canada, were "absurd and baseless," Randhir Jaisawal, spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs, told reporters in New Delhi Saturday.

India summoned the representative of the Canadian High Commission Friday and a diplomatic note was handed over in reference to the proceedings on Oct. 29 of the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security in Ottawa. David Morrison, Canada’s deputy foreign minister, told a parliamentary committee on Tuesday that he had confirmed the identity of Shah in a newspaper report earlier this month.

A year earlier, India expelled 41 Canadian diplomats after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there were "credible" allegations that Narendra Modi’s government helped orchestrate the killing of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar on Canadian soil.

Jaiswal said the leaking of information about the case by senior Canadian official to international media suggests the government there has a political agenda in smearing India. "Such irresponsible actions will have serious consequences for bilateral ties," he said.

US Sanctions

At the briefing, Jaiswal also addressed the US’s decision to impose sanctions on 19 Indian entities for providing technologies to Russia.

The companies were among almost 400 individuals and companies from countries including China and Turkey, which were sanctioned as part of a bid to crack down on a sprawling network that has helped keep Russia’s war machine running nearly three years into the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

"Our understanding is that the sanctioned transactions and companies are not in violation of Indian laws," Jaisawal said.

However, in keeping with India’s established non-proliferation credentials, the country is working with all the relevant departments and agencies to sensitize companies on applicable export control provisions, as well as inform them on new measures being implemented that could impact them in certain circumstances, the spokesperson said.
India protests Ottawa’s allegation its home minister ordered targeting of Sikh activists in Canada (AP)
AP [11/2/2024 9:45 AM, Staff, 31638K, Negative]
India officially protested on Saturday the Canadian government’s allegation that the country’s powerful home minister Amit Shah had ordered the targeting of Sikh activists inside Canada, calling it "absurd and baseless."

Relations between the two countries soured after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said last year there were credible allegations the Indian government had links to the assassination of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada. India has vehemently rejected the accusation.

New Delhi - long anxious about Sikh separatist groups - has increasingly accused the Canadian government of giving free rein to separatists from a once-strong movement to create an independent Sikh homeland, known as Khalistan, in India.

The diplomatic row led to the expulsion of each other’s top diplomats last month.

"The Government of India protests in the strongest terms to the absurd and baseless references made to the Union Home Minister of India," Randhir Jaiswal, spokesman of India’s foreign ministry told reporters Saturday.

Jaiswal also said a Canadian diplomat in New Delhi was summoned on Friday and handed out a letter to formally protest the allegation. "Such irresponsible actions will have serious consequences for bilateral ties," he warned.

Canada’s Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister David Morrison told Parliament members of the national security committee on Tuesday that he had confirmed Shah’s name to The Washington Post, which first reported the allegations. Morrison did not explain how Canada knew of Shah’s alleged involvement.

Canadian authorities have repeatedly said they shared evidence with India whose officials deny being provided with any proof. New Delhi calls the allegations ridiculous.

Nijjar was a local leader of the Khalistan movement, banned in India. India designated him a terrorist in 2020, and at the time of his death was seeking his arrest for alleged involvement in an attack on a Hindu priest in India. He lived in Canada, where about 2% of the population is Sikh, for nearly three decades.

Shah, who is 60 years old, is responsible for India’s internal security, as the country’s home minister. He is widely considered the second most powerful politician in India after Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Shah has also been a close aide of Modi for decades.

Canada is not the only country that has accused Indian officials of plotting an assassination on foreign soil. The U.S. Justice Department announced criminal charges in mid-October against an Indian government employee in connection with an alleged foiled plot to kill a Sikh separatist leader living in New York City.

Vikash Yadav, who authorities say directed the New York plot from India, faces murder-for-hire charges in a planned killing that prosecutors have previously said was meant to precede a string of other politically motivated murders in the United States and Canada.

New Delhi at the time expressed concern and said India takes the allegations seriously.
India warns Canada of ‘serious consequences’ after diplomats placed on audio video surveillance (The Independent)
The Independent [11/2/2024 6:58 AM, Shweta Sharma, 53826K, Negative]
India has accused Canada of indulging in harassment and intimidation of its consular personnel after Ottawa placed officials on audio and visual surveillance amid an escalating diplomatic row between the two countries.

The Indian foreign ministry said it summoned the Canadian high commission representative and lodged a strong protest over Ottawa’s allegation against minister for home affairs Amit Shah, prime minister Narendra Modi’s chief lieutenant

"Such irresponsible actions will have serious consequences for bilateral ties," spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a press conference in New Delhi on Saturday.

Relations between India and Canada have suffered since Ottawa accused the Indian high commissioner and other top diplomats of being directly involved in the assassinationof Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

Mr Nijjar, 45, a Canadian Sikh who was wanted in India, was shot dead by masked gunmen in Surrey outside Vancouver in June last year. He was the face of the Khalistan movement, which seeks to carve out an independent Sikh homeland in western India.

New Delhi had long accused Mr Nijjar, a Canadian citizen born in India, of being involved in terrorism, an allegation he denied.

It comes as Canadian deputy foreign minister David Morrison reiterated that Mr Shah sanctioned a wave of violence targeting Sikh separatists across the North American country.

On Tuesday, Mr Morrison confirmed he was the source of the The Washington Post story which first named Mr Shah as the "senior official in India" who "authorised the intelligence-gathering missions and attacks on Sikh separatists" in Canada. The story did not name the source of the report when it was published last month.

Mr Jaiswal said the Canadian government "deliberately leaked unfounded insinuations to international media to discredit India and influence other nations".

He said the foreign ministry delivered a strong note of protest to firmly condemn the baseless allegations made against Mr Shah.

The foreign ministry said that some consular officials in Ottawa said they were recently informed by the Canadian government that "they had been and continue to be under audio and video surveillance".

"Their communications have also been intercepted. We have formally protested to the Canadian government as we deem these actions to be a flagrant violation of relevant diplomatic and consular conventions," he said.

Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau went public with the allegations against Indian officials last year, sparking a diplomatic fallout between the two countries.

Bilateral ties hit a nadir last month when Canada expelled six Indian diplomats, accusing them of involvement in the killing. New Delhi, in a tit-for-tat move, expelled six Canadian diplomats.
Sikhs march across California urging protections against threats from India on U.S. soil (NPR)
NPR [11/2/2024 8:17 AM, Sandhya Dirks, 40123K, Negative]
About 30 people are walking along a dirt path between a rural road and a persimmon orchard, kicking up dust with each step. Children run towards the front of the march, where a group of older men with turbans and thick beards keep the pace at a steady clip.

For three weeks in October, a group of Sikhs - some joining for just an hour or a day - have walked 350 miles up the spine of California’s Central Valley from Bakersfield to Sacramento. They stopped at Gurdwaras, or Sikh temples, along the way. The journey, organized by the Sikh advocacy group Jakara Movement, ended on Friday with a rally that drew a crowd at the state capitol.

The events commemorated a Sikh massacre that happened in India 40 years ago. Organizers also sought to call attention to growing threats the Sikh community says have followed them here in the U.S.

Sikhs have been farming in the Central Valley for over a century, but many fled here in the years after 1984. That is when former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi sent the army to occupy the Golden Temple, the holiest of Sikh sites, to rout out separatists who were agitating for their own Sikh state, a place they called Khalistan. In response, Gandhi’s Sikh bodyguards assassinated her. What followed were anti-Sikh riots that killed thousands, and a decades-long effort by the Indian government to stamp out an armed Sikh insurgency.

Last year, the California Legislature recognized what happened in 1984 as a genocide. A similar resolution was introduced this month in Congress.

"My mom came to Modesto from Punjab in 1984, you know?" says Jakara’s Simarpreet Singh. "She lived through that."

He says many younger Sikhs grew up in the shadow of that trauma.

"They left India to find protection here, to find peace here and now that same government they fled is sending folks here to the U.S. and Canada to essentially assassinate those same folks’ children and grandchildren."

A growing threat

In Canada last year Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, was assassinated in a Gurdwara parking lot. Canada alleges that India’s Interior minister, who is also the chief aide to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was behind the murder. In New York last year, the FBI says it stopped another assassination plot against a prominent Sikh activist, Gurpatwant Singh Pannum. Two Indian nationals have been indicted, one of them a former Indian intelligence officer. India denies involvement in either case.

These incidents are both examples of alleged Transnational Repression, known as TNR. The FBI defines TNR as foreign governments working in the U.S. to silence, harass, or even kill people from the diaspora.

Standing in the Ceres Gurdwara after a long day of walking, Simarpreet Singh says it’s a scary time to be a Sikh.

"We have evidence that the Indian government is going around literally naming people who are in this building today, calling them things like ‘they’re a terrorist,’ because we represent something that they are trying to repress."

Both the assassination and the alleged assassination attempt were made on members of the group Sikhs for Justice. Earlier this year, someone fired at a car on a California highway. The three men inside were members of that same Sikh group, though the incident is still under investigation. Sikhs for Justice continues to advocate for an independent Sikh state of Khalistan. The Indian government says they are terrorists, but the group says they are peacefully seeking self-determination. That includes an ongoing non-binding referendum where Sikhs are voting to show support for a Khalistani state. But it isn’t just Sikh separatists facing threats, says Assemblywoman Jasmeet Bains, the first Sikh American elected to California state office.

"This is an attempt by the Indian government to annihilate and destroy an entire community," she says.

This year Bains introduced legislation that aims to better track Transnational Repression in California, including training local law enforcement on how to deal with the threats.

"Right now there are attempts by the Indian government to silence and to push back against the freedom of speech that is being carried out by Sikh Americans," she says. Critics of the Indian government say democracy is faltering under Modi and his Hindu nationalist government, which they say attacks and marginalizes other minority groups and religions, including Sikhs and Muslims.

Opposition to the Transnational Repression Bill

After proposing the bill, Bains says she received death threats and other messages accusing her of protecting terrorists. She says the TNR bill was killed in committee after a flurry of opposition letters from Hindu advocacy organizations. They claimed that naming India in a list of countries engaged in TNR would put a target on the backs of Hindu Americans. One of the opposing groups is CoHNA -- or the Coalition of Hindus in North America.

"Anti-India hate or laws, if they came to be, would be used as a cover for anti-Hindu hate," says CoHNA’s Pushpita Prasad.

Prasad points to a spate of vandalism incidents at Hindu temples across the Bay Area last year, including graffiti that called the Indian prime minister a terrorist, and said "Khalistan Zinzabad" -- which means "long live Khalistan."

Prasad says hate towards Hindus has been largely ignored by the media and law enforcement.

"We know that they won’t go after people who attack Hindus, but they might start coming after Hindus who are advocating for equal treatment and human rights for Hindus, because whatever I say could be twisted into saying, ‘oh, I’m an agent of this and that.’"

Bains says that is not how the bill would work.

"This bill didn’t call out any religion or dialect, it called out a country," she says. "India belongs to a lot of different religions and dialects and ethnicities, not just one."

Bains plans to reintroduce the TNR bill next session. In September, Congressman Adam Schiff introduced the federal Transnational Repression Reporting Act, after the 2023 attempted assassination of Pannun.

A meeting and an accusation

Naindeep Singh, whose group Jakara Movement organized the October march, says the fight against TNR and other suppression of Sikh activism has become personal in the last year. Singh says neither Jakara Movement nor he advocate for an independent Sikh state, though he supports the right of others to speak out for that cause.

Singh was born and raised in Fresno, where he’s an elected school board member. He recalls learning about a meeting that happened last fall - a meeting he wasn’t at, but where his name was mentioned.

The meeting between a group of Hindu residents, the Fresno mayor and then-police chief Paco Balderrama took place last year.

Balderrama says during his tenure as police chief it was common to meet with representatives from Fresno’s diverse communities. What was uncommon were the Hindu residents’ accusations that Singh and two other prominent local Sikh community members were somehow involved in criminal activity, even potentially violent. He says he felt like he was being pushed to investigate them.

"There’s no smoking gun," Balderrama says. "I’m not going to go out there and go after these three people that they named because simply -- I don’t have enough information to say that they’ve committed any crime."

He says back then he didn’t understand the tensions between some in the Hindu and Sikh communities.

"Now, understanding the political impact that it has, you know, I maybe see a reason for them coming forward and saying, hey, ‘they did this’ when maybe they didn’t," Balderrama says.

Earlier this year another Hindu advocacy group, the Hindu American Foundation or HAF held a training on Hinduphobia for some California police chiefs and DA’s. According to HAF’s LinkedIn, representatives from the Justice Department and Homeland Security were also there. HAF’s training materials call Sikhs for Justice a hate group and suggest law enforcement "monitor the social media platforms for US-based groups and individuals with ties to Khalistan terror groups who advocate violence and fundraise in furtherance of Khalistan." They also ask law enforcement to "investigate Khalistan attacks against Hindu temples and devotees as hate crimes."

In a public statement, leading Sikh advocates say the trainings push misinformation, adding that there is "no evidence that pro-Khalistan or Sikh individuals are responsible" for the vandalization of Hindu temples in California. HAF declined to comment for this story and has strongly denied they have any connection to the Indian government.

At heart is who gets to define who is a terrorist, Singh says. He says training around Transnational Repression is best left in the hands of the Justice Department.
Indian troops kill 3 suspected rebels in disputed Kashmir (AP)
AP [11/2/2024 8:55 AM, Staff, 44095K, Negative]
Three suspected militants were killed Saturday in separate gunbattles in Indian-controlled Kashmir, officials said Saturday.

India’s military in a statement said soldiers intercepted a group of militants in a forested area in southern Anantnag district on Saturday, leading to a gunbattle that killed two rebels.

In a separate incident in the disputed region’s main city of Srinagar, police and paramilitary soldiers killed a militant in an exchange of gunfire after troops cordoned off a neighborhood on a tip that he was hiding in a house. Police said two soldiers and two police were injured in the fighting.

Residents said the troops torched the home where the rebel was trapped, a common tactic employed by Indian troops in the Himalayan region. There was no independent confirmation of the incident.

India and Pakistan each administer a part of Kashmir, but both claim the territory in its entirety. The nuclear-armed rivals have fought two of their three wars over the territory since they gained independence from British colonial rule in 1947.

Militants in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Many Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels’ goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.

India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan denies the charge, and many Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.
Eleven injured in militant attack in India’s Kashmir (Reuters)
Reuters [11/3/2024 8:29 AM, Fayaz Bukhari, 37270K, Negative]
At least 11 people were injured when militants threw a grenade at Indian security forces on Sunday in a crowded flea market in Srinagar, capital of India-administered Kashmir, a police official said.

Militants missed their target and instead injured at least 11 people, the official told Reuters. The official wished to remain unnamed as he was not authorised to speak to the media.
The identity of the militant group responsible for the attack is unknown.

The injured were rushed to hospital for treatment where they were in a stable condition, the official said, adding that the explosion had caused panic in the market and sent shoppers scrambling for cover.

The attack comes a day after a top commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a militant Islamist group, was killed along with two other militants by Indian troops in Kashmir.

Kashmir has seen a spate of attacks since a government formed by an opposition alliance took over the territory, where separatist militants have fought security forces for decades, resulting in thousands of deaths.

Since the new government took over earlier last month, 15 people have died in different militant attacks.

Kashmir is claimed in full but ruled in part by both India and Pakistan, and the 2019 revocation of its special status, which saw it being split into two federally administered territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, led to the countries downgrading diplomatic ties.
At least 36 dead after overcrowded and dilapidated bus skids into a deep gorge in northern India (AP)
AP [11/4/2024 5:31 AM, Biswajeet Banerjee, 456K, Negative]
A poorly maintained and overcrowded bus veered off the road and plunged into a deep gorge in northern India on Monday, killing at least 36 people and injuring several others, officials said.

The accident occurred in Almora district in the mountainous state of Uttarakhand. The bus was carrying around 60 people, and more than 20 have been injured, said Deepak Rawat, a senior state government official.

Authorities said earlier they believed there were 42 passengers, which was how many people the bus could accommodate.

Teams of rescue and relief workers were deployed to the site and officials feared the death toll may rise further, especially as seven passengers in hospital were in critical condition.

Television footage showed parts of the bus mangled and destroyed as it lay overturned on a rocky slope, close to a stream. Rescuers were seen working to pull out passengers and carrying bodies on stretchers.

The state’s chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami earlier said rescue teams were working to quickly evacuate the injured passengers to nearby hospitals and that authorities have been instructed to airlift those seriously hurt.

The state government has opened an investigation into the accident, said Vineet Pal, another official in the state. He added that preliminary information suggested that the dilapidated bus skidded before tumbling down a 60 meter- (200-foot-) -deep gorge.

A number of passengers managed to escape or were thrown out by the impact, and then alerted authorities about the accident. Two transport officials have been suspended for approving a bus that was in poor condition, Pal said.

India has some of the highest road death rates in the world, with hundreds of thousands of people killed and injured annually. Most crashes are blamed on reckless driving, poorly maintained roads and aging vehicles.

In July, at least 18 people died after a double-decker passenger bus collided with a milk truck in Uttar Pradesh state. In May, a bus carrying Hindu pilgrims skidded and rolled into a deep gorge on a mountainous highway in Indian-controlled Kashmir, killing at least 21 people.
India-China ties need not be frosty (Nikkei Asia – opinion)
Nikkei Asia [11/1/2024 4:05 PM, Natasha Agarwal and Paresh Batra, 2376K, Neutral]
Last month offered a rare glimpse of progress in the strained relationship between India and China. The two nations agreed on new patrolling arrangements along their disputed Himalayan border, and their leaders -- Xi Jinping and Narendra Modi -- held talks at the 16th BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia.

Yet, this modest diplomatic thaw has yet to ease tensions in their economic relations. With national security concerns increasingly intersecting with economic interests, India remains cautious about welcoming Chinese capital and labor. This stance, however, has been marked by mixed messages.

For example, although the India Economic Survey 2023-2024 advocated for more Chinese investment, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal quickly clarified that India’s position on Chinese investments remains unchanged. Similarly, External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, while noting there’s no formal policy against Chinese FDI, emphasized the "common sense" need for careful scrutiny. Indian leaders continue to perceive China as a "special China problem" in a broader global context.

For businesses, this dichotomy hinders the development of cross-border commercial relationships. Further dampening the confidence and willingness of Chinese entrepreneurs to invest in India are New Delhi’s restrictive visa policies, investment regulations, and a business environment that appears unfavorable toward China.

As The Global Times, a Chinese state media outlet, states: "Without enhancing mutual trust, India will struggle to boost Chinese investments." Mutual trust is the foundation of any stable, long-term relationship. Therefore, rebuilding this trust requires both nations to adopt a neutral approach, focusing on shifting perceptions toward each other across all levels of society.

To this end, India could focus on fostering more people-to-people exchanges between the two countries. The Indian government could reciprocate China’s outreach to Indian passport holders by reinstating visa issuance across all categories for Chinese passport holders, including reestablishing its e-visa policy for China. Functionalizing a visa portal to facilitate short-term business visas for Chinese passport holders required under the government’s Production Linked Scheme (PLI) is in itself inadequate to facilitate the humongous people-to-people exchange that is required for perceptual changes between the two "population giants."

Moreover, New Delhi and Beijing should expedite the resumption of direct flights between the two countries. This would not only facilitate bilateral economic exchange but also support multilateral economic ties. For instance, non-Chinese foreign businesses with supply chains in China may find India a more attractive investment destination if doing business with China from India were made easier.

India and China could adopt a multi-pronged, interdisciplinary approach to promote people-to-people exchanges across various levels. For instance, both nations might benefit from mutual learning about each other’s governance structures.

To support this exchange, a program involving government officials, academia, businesses, and other stakeholders should be considered. This could include both theoretical and practical components. The theoretical aspect might involve courses led by experts on each country’s governance models, while the practical aspect could consist of field trips and interactions with civic officials. Such exchanges would not only foster public-private knowledge partnerships but also offer insights on adapting and integrating newly acquired knowledge into each country’s domestic context.

India has signed Cultural Exchange Programs with 78 countries, including one with China that could be a valuable step toward rebuilding mutual trust. Such a program might enable cross-campus collaborations in language, music, dance, culinary arts, and more, fostering deeper empathy and understanding between the people of both nations.

Exchanges such as these could be piloted through existing India-China sister-city partnerships, revitalizing and breathing new life into these connections.

It is imperative to be cognizant of the fact that rebuilding mutual trust is going to be an iterative process. Perception management alone toward normalization of bilateral ties will take both nations only that far. Taking a leaf out of the learnings from Da Wei, a Chinese scholar at Tsinghua University: "Diplomacy starts with education." Educating each other about one another’s cultures and histories could be a meaningful first step in rebuilding mutual trust.

Ultimately, mutual learning fosters mutual understanding, paving the way for mutual trust and shared benefits for all.
India Can Say No on Trade. Here’s How to Get to Yes (Bloomberg – opinion)
Bloomberg [11/3/2024 4:00 PM, Mihir Sharma, 27782K, Neutral]
India’s approach to free trade can appear contradictory. Officials insist they are serious about closing new deals with the UK and the European Union and improving older ones with countries such as Australia. But they also complain that free trade deals in the past have “hurt” India or that they serve as a backdoor for unwelcome Chinese goods.

This makes it hard to interpret news that the Ministry of Commerce, which handles trade talks, plans to seek cabinet approval for a new negotiating strategy. The loud grumbling from trade bureaucrats suggests India may soon back even further away from open markets.

There is also, however, an optimistic case to be made for a new trade roadmap. India’s negotiators have been stuck in the 20th century. New rules of the road might drag them into the 21st.

Indian officials still tend to think of trade as a zero-sum game, with tariffs as the only real levers. They are legendarily defensive: Global counterparts often wonder at how India can produce new “red lines” out of nowhere, aimed at protecting one sector after another.

The potential gains from new markets are rarely considered — perhaps because, deep down, the bureaucracy doesn’t believe that Indian entrepreneurs have the nous to turn new free-trade agreements into attractive export opportunities. The deal that New Delhi signed with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in 2011 left a particular scar: Imports from Asean have grown much faster than exports from India to the bloc.

If officialdom is so full of pessimists, then what good can a new strategy do? Negotiations with the EU suggest one plausible answer.

Talks were reopened in recent years — after collapsing dramatically over a decade ago — because leaders in both Europe and India believed closer economic integration was strategically necessary. Economic security drove the decision, not optimism about export-driven growth.

A fresh mandate from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet might serve to remind negotiators to evaluate trade from a wider perspective, one which prioritizes access to strategically important supply chains, finance and technology.

And that isn’t the only way in which India’s approach to trade needs could usefully be broadened. A narrow focus on tariffs ignores the numerous additional domains that make up modern trade agreements — from transparency about labor regulations to environmental rules and the role of civil society.

Here I have some sympathy for officials. Ministries are naturally protective of their turf. Why would one allow staff from another to encroach on its domain? As a consequence, while everyone else wonders how best to embed environmental principles into trade rules, India still insists, as it did 30 years ago, that these are two completely different conversations.

Yet this leads to odd and counter-productive situations. It makes no sense that India — where workplace regulations are famously among the most restrictive in the world — is scared of discussing labor rules with potential trading partners.

Here’s a useful shortcut to understanding the Indian state. If a bureaucrat says “no” to something, it’s not necessarily because she doesn’t want to see it happen. Most likely, it’s because she’s not sure of what will happen to her career if she says “yes.”

Any official will ask the following questions of any decision: Are there unforeseen consequences for which I might be held responsible? Am I stepping on someone else’s toes? Is this a new precedent I will have to defend to my superiors?

Worst of all, the generalists who staff the civil service tend to be transferred to other jobs the moment they begin to develop enough confidence to say “yes” instead of “no.”

A new strategy for negotiators might go some way toward addressing these problems. It could allow, for example, for a permanent cell of negotiators, or the addition of outside expertise. It might empower trade negotiators to discuss issues and regulations that normally are the bailiwick of other bureaucrats.

It’s a pretty paradox: The absence of rules has long meant that Indian negotiators were notoriously inflexible. Giving them a new set of guidelines might allow them to cut a deal or two.
NSB
Hindus in Muslim-majority Bangladesh rally to demand protection from attacks (AP)
AP [11/2/2024 11:53 AM, Julhas Alam, 44095K, Positive]
Tens of thousands of minority Hindus rallied Friday to demand that the interim government in Muslim-majority Bangladesh protect them from a wave of attacks and harassment and drop sedition cases against Hindu community leaders.

About 30,000 Hindus demonstrated at a major intersection in the southeastern city of Chattogram, chanting slogans demanding their rights while police and soldiers guarded the area. Other protests were reported elsewhere in the country.

Hindu groups say there have been thousands of attacks against Hindus since early August, when the secular government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was overthrown and Hasina fled the country following a student-led uprising. Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel peace laureate named to lead an interim government after Hasina’s downfall, says those figures have been exaggerated.

Hindus make up about 8% of the country’s nearly 170 million people, while Muslims are about 91%.

The country’s influential minority group Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council has said there have been more than 2,000 attacks on Hindus since Aug. 4, as the interim government has struggled to restore order.

United Nations human rights officials and other rights groups have expressed concern over human rights in the country under Yunus.

Hindus and other minority communities say the interim government hasn’t adequately protected them and that hard-line Islamists are becoming increasingly influential since Hasina’s ouster.

The issue has reached beyond Bangladesh, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi voicing concern over reports of attacks.

While the administration of United States President Joe Biden has said it is monitoring Bangladesh’s human rights issues since Hasina’s ouster, U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump has condemned what he described as “barbaric” violence against Hindus, Christians, and other minorities in Bangladesh.

In a post on X, he said: “I strongly condemn the barbaric violence against Hindus, Christians, and other minorities who are getting attacked and looted by mobs in Bangladesh, which remains in a total state of chaos.”

Hindu activists have been staging protest rallies in the capital, Dhaka, and elsewhere since August to press a set of eight demands including a law to protect minorities, a ministry for minorities and a tribunal to prosecute acts of oppression against minorities. They also seek a five-day holiday for their largest festival, the Durga Puja.

Friday’s protest in Chattogram was hastily organized after sedition charges were filed Wednesday against 19 Hindu leaders, including prominent priest Chandan Kumar Dhar, over an Oct. 25 rally in that city. Police arrested two of the leaders, angering Hindus.

The charges stem from an event in which a group of rally-goers allegedly placed a saffron flag above the Bangladesh flag on a pillar, which was considered disrespecting the national flag.

Hindu community leaders say the cases are politically motivated and demanded Thursday that they be withdrawn within 72 hours. Another Hindu rally was planned for Saturday in Dhaka.

Separately, supporters of Hasina’s Awami League party and its allied Jatiya Party have said they also have been targeted since Hasina’s ouster. Jatiya’s headquarters was vandalized and set on fire late Thursday.

On Friday, Jatiya Party Chair G.M. Quader said his supporters would continue to hold rallies to demand their rights despite risking their lives. He said they would hold a rally Saturday at the party headquarters in Dhaka to protest price hikes of commodities, and what they call false charges against their leaders and activists.

Later Friday, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police announced it was banning any rallies near the Jatiya Party’s headquarters. Hours after the police decision, the party said it postponed their rally to show respect to the law and a new date for the rally would be announced soon.

The police decision came after a student group strongly criticized the police administration for initially granting permission for the rally, and threatened to block it.
Bangladesh rally says govt failing to protect Hindus, minorities (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [11/2/2024 11:22 AM, Staff, 60726K, Negative]
Hundreds marched in Bangladesh’s capital Saturday to demand protections for Hindus and other minorities who say they have suffered violence and threats since the ouster of autocratic premier Sheikh Hasina.

Hasina’s toppling in an August student-led uprising saw a spate of reprisals on Hindus, who were seen as disproportionate supporters of her regime.

The caretaker government that replaced her, led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, has acknowledged and condemned attacks on Hindus but said in many cases they were motivated by politics rather than religion.

Regular protests in the months since claim that attacks are continuing and have demanded action from Yunus’ administration, an "advisory council" tasked with implementing democratic reforms and staging fresh elections.

"It’s deeply regrettable that the council of advisors do not acknowledge the sufferings minorities have endured," Hindu civic leader Charu Chandra Das Brahmachari told AFP.

"I have witnessed the atrocities against them -- their temples, businesses, and homes."

Protest organisers have urged the interim government to introduce a law to protect minorities and mandate a minimum share of minority representation in government, among other demands.

Tensions have been inflamed by the filing of sedition charges this week against 19 people who participated in an earlier minority rights rally in the port city of Chittagong.

The group was accused of disrespecting the Bangladeshi national flag by hoisting a saffron flag -- the emblematic colour of the Hindu faith -- to fly above it.

"Framing our leaders with false charges, like sedition, has made us sceptical of the government’s intentions," protest member Chiranjan Goswami told AFP.

Hindus are the largest minority faith in mostly Muslim Bangladesh, accounting for around eight percent of the population.

Attacks have also been reported on Sufi shrines, with suspicion falling on Islamists seeking to curb alternative expressions of the Muslim faith.

Saturday’s demonstration came a day after 10,000 people attended a similar rally in Chittagong.

Minority leaders have pledged to hold more protests in the coming weeks.

Hasina, 77, fled by helicopter to neighbouring India in August as protesters flooded Dhaka’s streets in a dramatic end to her iron-fisted rule.

Her government was accused of widespread human rights abuses, including the extrajudicial killing of thousands of her political opponents during her 15-year rule.
Bangladesh fast tracks payment to Adani Power after supply cut (Reuters)
Reuters [11/4/2024 3:56 AM, Ruma Paul and Sethuraman N R, 5.2M, Neutral]
Bangladesh is accelerating payment of more than $800 million it owes Adani Power (ADAN.NS) ahead of a Nov. 7 deadline set by the Indian company, which has cut electricity exports to Bangladesh by more than half, two senior government officials said.

Adani Power, which exports power to Dhaka from its 1,600 megawatt (MW) Godda plant in eastern India’s Jharkhand state, set the deadline for receipt of dues as it faces challenges in importing coal necessary for power generation, three sources familiar with the matter said.

The company, owned by billionaire Gautam Adani, reduced the power supply to Bangladesh this month to 700-800 MW from around 1,400 MW, a senior official at the Bangladesh Power Development Board told Reuters.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak with the media.

Adani Power did not respond to Reuters queries on the payment deadline.

Bangladesh has been struggling to pay its bills due to costly fuel and goods imports since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. The political turmoil that led to the ouster of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in August has also compounded its troubles.

"Last month, we cleared $96 million, and this month, a letter of credit has been opened for an additional $170 million," Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan, the power and energy adviser in the interim Bangladesh government, told Reuters.

Last month, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that Bangladesh was scrutinising its contract with Adani Power, as it was charging Bangladesh a rate nearly 27% higher than those of India’s other private producers.

Adani Power Chief Financial Officer Dilip Kumar Jha, in a quarterly earnings conference call last week, said there were no issues related to the power supply to Bangladesh.

"We hope that there will be no further deterioration in terms of the outstanding," he said.
Dissanayake’s bloc seen gaining control of Sri Lankan parliament (Nikkei Asia)
Nikkei Asia [11/4/2024 4:07 AM, Munza Mushtaq, 2.4M, Neutral]
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s National People’s Power is expected to win control of Sri Lanka’s parliament in the Nov. 14 election, completing a change of guard from an elite that has presided over the country’s politics for decades.

The NPP alliance is seen winning at least 113 of the 225 seats up for grabs from its current meager three, after registration for candidates closed in mid-October.

The ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) party, controlled by the Rajapaksa family that has dominated politics, is likely to fall to third or even fourth place. Before the dissolution of parliament, SLPP held 145 seats, while the main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya coalition (SJB) controlled 54.

At least 30 long-serving and once-popular SLPP legislators have opted out of the race this time, expecting to lose.

"My guess is that the NPP might secure around 125 seats, which would constitute a comfortable majority," said Jayadeva Uyangoda, a political science professor at the University of Colombo. "Even if it is 125, it indicates a paradigm shift in Sri Lanka’s party politics."

The leftist antiestablishment Dissanayake won the presidential election in September with 42.3% of the vote. Sri Lankans ousted President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in July 2022 after the economy tipped into its worst crisis under his watch. Ranil Wickremesinghe, who had been appointed prime minister only two months earlier, took over as interim president.

Dissanayake dissolved parliament soon after his win and called for elections to consolidate power so that he can enact crucial laws. Many voted for him because of his commitment to tackling corruption, reviving the economy and improving transparency in government.

He also plans to renegotiate with the International Monetary Fund, looking to ease austerity measures imposed on Sri Lankans in exchange for a bailout loan after the country declared bankruptcy in 2022.

Chathuranga Abeysinghe, a data science consultant and first-time NPP parliamentary candidate, said that the presidential win, "despite being marred by misinformation and fake campaigns against us," bodes well for the party.

"We are confident that we can achieve a majority of around 130 seats in the November election," he said.

Candidates have yet to unveil concrete policies, and no election polling is available. But Colombo-based citizen activist Chaminda Dias said it is critical that politicians address corruption, economic mismanagement and failing public services.

"For far too long, Sri Lanka has been a country of crimes without criminals, and this needs to change," Dias said. "The lack of accountability has fostered a culture of impunity, allowing those in power to feel immune to consequences."

Many of Sri Lanka’s former leaders have been accused of corruption. Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court ruled late last year that Gotabaya and Mahinda Rajapaksa were among 13 former leaders responsible for economic mismanagement that led to the 2022 crisis.

The once-powerful former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, credited with quelling the 26-year civil war in 2009, is not contesting in this election. Mahinda is the older brother of Gotabaya, who fled government in disgrace.

Mahinda’s eldest son, Namal, is also not contesting the seat he once held. But he hopes that a local quirk of the system could let him be appointed to parliament if his party wins enough seats in his district.

Those running this time, though, believe that Sri Lankans want change.

"The message is clear: The old way of governance will not be accepted," said Swasthika Arulingam, a rights activist running for the first time as a candidate of the newly launched People’s Struggle Alliance.

Arulingam continued: "President Dissanayake and the new parliament must choose to govern differently. Policies and laws that favored the elite -- whether business or political -- at the expense of millions are no longer tolerated."

Addressing a rally last week, Dissanayake urged the public to use their vote to get rid of corrupt politicians.

"Some have already stepped aside voluntarily," he said. "But if we truly want to clean up this parliament, we must fill it with people of integrity and dedication to building Sri Lanka."
A bus carrying students skids off a road in Sri Lanka, killing 2 and injuring 39 others (AP)
AP [11/1/2024 6:21 AM, Bharatha Mallawarachi, 456K, Negative]
A bus carrying university students on a field trip skidded off a road and tipped over in central Sri Lanka on Friday, killing two students and injuring 39 others, officials said.

Police said the accident occurred when the driver lost control of the vehicle on a curve near the town of Badulla in the country’s mountainous tea-growing region, about 330 kilometers (205 miles) north of Colombo, the capital.

Derana television showed residents helping health workers remove the wounded students from the toppled bus.

Police and doctors said 39 wounded passengers, including six in critical condition, were admitted to the main hospital in Badulla. Two others were declared dead.

Deadly bus accidents are common in Sri Lanka and are often caused by reckless driving and poorly maintained roads.
Central Asia
Frenchman and German arrested at Russian space site in Kazakhstan (Reuters)
Reuters [11/1/2024 7:44 AM, Staff, 5.2M, Neutral]
A French man and a German man have been arrested for unauthorised entry to the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan that Russia uses for space launches, Russian state media reported on Friday.

RIA news agency quoted a Kazakh prosecutor as saying the pair were detained for one day and then removed from the complex. It said the 21-year-old Frenchman and 26-year-old German were tourists who undertook an "unauthorised walk" around the facility because they wanted to see a Russian Energiya rocket.

In July, two Dutch citizens and a Belgian were arrested while trying to enter Baikonur. The previous month, a French citizen died of dehydration while attempting to walk there.

The cosmodrome, which is leased from Kazakhstan by Russia, is located in a remote desert area and access to it is restricted, although tours are sold for those who want to witness a spacecraft launch.
Kazakh Court Extends Detention Of Russian Entrepreneur Wanted By Moscow (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [11/3/2024 4:14 PM, Staff, 235K, Neutral]
A Kazakh court has extended the detention of Russian entrepreneur Yevgeny Nakaznenko until September 2025, his lawyer, Dias Akhmetov, told RFE/RL on November 1. Nakaznenko, who has lived in Kazakhstan since 2007, was arrested in September while attempting to fly to Istanbul. Moscow accuses him of spreading "false information" about the Russian military and "encouraging terrorism." The charges stem from Nakaznenko’s online condemnation of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. Following Russia’s invasion, President Vladimir Putin enacted strict laws against dissent. Nakaznenko was placed on Russia’s list of "terrorists and extremists" on August 8, just before authorities opened their case. Many Russians have sought refuge in Kazakhstan to escape military mobilization. The Kazakh government aims to maintain a careful diplomatic balance amid ongoing tensions between Russia and the West.
Germany Orders Deportation of Tajik Activist Despite Torture Concerns (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [11/1/2024 4:14 PM, Staff, 235K, Neutral]
An administrative court in Germany has ordered the deportation of Dilmurod Ergashev, a Tajik opposition activist, despite significant concerns about the risk of his detention and torture upon return to Tajikistan.

The ruling, issued on October 28, mandates that Ergashev be deported in early November.

The 40-year-old is a prominent member of Group 24, an opposition movement that is banned in Tajikistan, and part of the Reforms and Development of Tajikistan movement established by exiled dissidents.

His activism has included participating in demonstrations in Berlin, notably during a protest against Tajik President Emomali Rahmon’s visit to Germany in September 2023.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a statement on October 31 condemned the court decision, saying that returning Ergashev to Tajikistan would violate international law prohibiting "refoulement" -- the practice of returning individuals to countries where they face the risk of torture or cruel, inhumane treatment.

This principle is enshrined in various international treaties to which Germany is a signatory, it said.

Germany has faced criticism for similar actions in the past. In 2023, two Tajik dissidents, Abdullohi Shamsiddin and Bilol Qurbonaliev, were deported to Tajikistan, where they were immediately detained and later sentenced to lengthy prison terms on dubious charges related to attempts to overthrow the constitutional order.

Reports indicate that Shamsiddin has faced mistreatment while incarcerated.

Ergashev has been in Germany since February 2011 and first applied for asylum on political grounds that same year.

Despite several applications, his asylum requests have been consistently rejected.

According to his lawyer, German immigration authorities have expressed doubts about the sincerity of Ergashev’s commitment to opposition causes.

The Tajik government is known for its systematic persecution of opposition members, especially those affiliated with banned groups like Group 24.

A recent report by HRW highlighted Tajikistan as a country of major concern regarding transnational repression, noting that the government actively targets critics abroad on charges of extremism and terrorism, leading to severe penalties and mistreatment upon forced return.

Given Ergashev’s documented activism and participation in protests, he is seen as a clear target for persecution by the Tajik authorities.

HRW urged the German authorities to immediately suspend Ergashev’s deportation and conduct a thorough review of his protection needs, emphasizing that he should not be sent back to a country where he faces a serious risk of torture.
Uzbekistan: Small signs of economic reform success (EurasiaNet)
EurasiaNet [11/1/2024 4:14 PM, Staff, 57.6K, Neutral]
It appears that Uzbek government efforts to reorient labor migration patterns is starting to pay dividends. The volume of remittances from Europe and South Korea have experienced sharp increases during the first nine months of 2024.

According to a report published by Gazeta.uz, the overall amount of money transfers in Uzbekistan totaled $11.62 billion during the January-September period this year, an approximately 28 percent jump over 2023’s figure of $8.4 billion during the same timeframe. The highest transfer month was July, when $1.78 billion flowed back to Uzbekistan, according to Central Bank data. Labor migrant remittances are responsible for the overwhelming share of wire transfers in Uzbekistan.

Earlier in 2024, the Uzbek government began implementation of a strategy that, over the long term, seeks to reorient Uzbek labor migrants away from Russia, where many are engaged in menial jobs in construction, transport and other sectors, to higher-skilled positions in Europe, the Gulf and South Korea. Key elements of the strategy include job training and placement programs.

In addition, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s administration is looking to negotiate labor-migration agreements with industrialized states, replicating a deal signed in September with Germany.

Russia remains the primary destination for most Uzbek labor migrants. Accordingly, the bulk of remittances sent back to Uzbekistan continue to come from Russia – $8.75 billion so far in 2024. But that figure represents a modest decrease in Russia’s overall share of remittances this year. Meanwhile, the Central Bank reported that remittances from South Korea grew 76 percent in 2024 over the same period the previous year, reaching $420 million, remittances from Poland rose more than two-fold, reaching $48 million and transfers from the United Kingdom increased 49 percent, totaling $93 million.
Twitter
Afghanistan
Zhao Xing
@ChinaEmbKabul
[11/4/2024 12:54 AM, 28.9K followers, 14 retweets, 164 likes]
I have great honor to meet with H.E. Shir Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, Deputy Foreign Minister of Afghanistan and exchange views on strengthening bilateral relations.

Jahanzeb Wesa
@JahanzebWesa
[11/3/2024 4:40 PM, 4.6K followers, 101 retweets, 231 likes]
Dewa Khan, Afghan women’s rights activist, highlights the plight of Afghan women who have been stripped of their rights by the Taliban over the past year. They are barred from education, work, and public life. The world must raise its voice in support of Afghan women and girls.

Jahanzeb Wesa
@JahanzebWesa
[11/3/2024 4:28 PM, 4.6K followers, 27 retweets, 46 likes]
#Urgent: Over a month has passed since Afghan journalist Hekmat Aryan, was detained by the Taliban, and we still have no news about his condition. Reports indicate he is being tortured in prison. International organizations for journalist must act now to secure his release.

Habib Khan
@HabibKhanT
[11/3/2024 3:26 PM, 243.5K followers, 178 retweets, 362 likes]
A Taliban police commander in the Darqad district of Takhar province, Afghanistan, beat Gul Bibi, a 55-year-old woman, who has since succumbed to her injuries in the hospital.

Habib Khan
@HabibKhanT
[11/2/2024 1:15 PM, 243.5K followers, 201 retweets, 880 likes]
In Afghanistan’s Ghazni province, the local Hazaras have built a school at their own expense, showcasing their commitment to education despite being the most marginalized ethnic group in Afghanistan due to their appearance and religion.
Pakistan
Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Pakistan
@ForeignOfficePk
[11/4/2024 3:37 AM, 479.7K followers, 6 retweets, 20 likes]
Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi arrives in Pakistan today on a two-day official visit. During his visit, he will hold meetings with Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif and Deputy Prime Minister / Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar. Foreign Minister Araghchi will hold consultations on the situation in the Middle East and Pakistan-Iran bilateral relations. This visit provides an important opportunity to advance cooperation and dialogue between Pakistan and Iran on a wide range of areas including trade, economic, energy and security. Islamabad 04 November 2024 191/2024

Imran Khan
@ImranKhanPTI
[11/3/2024 11:07 AM, 20.9M followers, 15K retweets, 29K likes]
As the chaos & repression increases, I want all our people to firmly demand the following, on all media platforms, in Parliament & provincial legislatures and also through street protests: Rule of Law, Release of all political prisoners & Return of stolen mandate. We will not step back from our legitimate demands!

Hamid Mir
@HamidMirPAK
[11/2/2024 4:34 AM, 8.5M followers, 37 retweets, 129 likes]
The year 2024 has proved one of the deadliest for journalists in Pakistan, with multiple targeted killings & 57 violations recorded besides all the provinces doing little to ensure combat impunity for crimes against media and its practitioners #EndEmpunity https://www.fnpk.org/deadly-year-for-journalists-as-impunity-compromises-safety/
India
Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[11/3/2024 7:36 AM, 103.3M followers, 2.9K retweets, 14K likes]
#BhashaGauravSaptah is a noteworthy effort, highlighting people’s enthusiasm on Assamese being conferred Classical Language status. My best wishes. May the programmes planned over the week deepen the connect between people and Assamese culture. I also urge Assamese people outside Assam to participate.

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[11/3/2024 5:35 AM, 103.3M followers, 3.6K retweets, 21K likes]
Commendable progress! The decline in TB incidence is an outcome of India’s dedicated and innovative efforts. Through a collective spirit, we will keep working towards a TB-free India.

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[11/1/2024 8:18 AM, 103.3M followers, 17K retweets, 76K likes]
The Congress Party is realising the hard way that making unreal promises is easy but implementing them properly is tough or impossible. Campaign after campaign they promise things to the people, which they also know they will never be able to deliver. Now, they stand badly exposed in front of the people! #FakePromisesOfCongress

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[11/1/2024 8:18 AM, 103.3M followers, 4.8K retweets, 17K likes]
Check any state where the Congress has Governments today - Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana- the developmental trajectory and fiscal health is turning from bad to worse. Their so-called Guarantees lie unfulfilled, which is a terrible deceit upon the people of these states. The victims of such politics are the poor, youngsters, farmers and women, who are not only denied the benefits of these promises but also see their existing schemes diluted.

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[11/1/2024 8:18 AM, 103.3M followers, 3.1K retweets, 9.4K likes]
The people of the country will have to be vigilant against the Congress sponsored culture of fake promises! We saw recently how the people of Haryana rejected their lies and preferred a Government that is stable, progress oriented and action driven. There is a growing realisation across India that a vote for Congress is a vote for non-governance, poor economics and unparalleled loot. The people of India want development and progress, not the same old #FakePromisesOfCongress!

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[11/3/2024 8:59 AM, 103.3M followers, 2.9K retweets, 9.5K likes]
In Karnataka, Congress is busier in intra-party politics and loot instead of even bothering to deliver on development. Not only that, they are also going to rollback existing schemes. In Himachal Pradesh, salaries of Government workers is not paid on time. In Telangana, farmers are waiting for the waiver they promised. Previously, in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan they promised certain allowances which were never implemented for five years. There are numerous such examples of how the Congress works.

Dr. S. Jaishankar
@DrSJaishankar
[11/2/2024 9:27 AM, 3.3M followers, 195 retweets, 1.3K likes]
Celebrating the spirit of Chennai’s Margazhi Season in Delhi. Inaugurated the Amrit Parampara #KaveriMeetsGanga series at Kartavya Path today celebrating 150th birth anniversary of Sardar Patel and his seminal contribution in national integration. Confident that such endeavors in Amrit Kaal will promote deeper understanding of our culture and enrich our heritage still further.

Dr. S. Jaishankar
@DrSJaishankar
[11/2/2024 8:56 AM, 3.3M followers, 331 retweets, 2.4K likes]
Pleased to release @sreeramchaulia’s book ‘Friends : India’s Closest Strategic Partners’ today. Spoke about India’s efforts at cultivating friendships across the globe, based on converging interests, trust, solidarity and respect. Our Neighbourhood First policy and close linkages with the Global South are fine examples of these.

Dr. S. Jaishankar
@DrSJaishankar
[11/3/2024 8:20 AM, 3.3M followers, 250 retweets, 1.4K likes]
Speaking at the inaugration of Amrit Parampara: #KaveriMeetsGanga at the Kartavya Path in New Delhi. https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1ynJODVXaWnxR

Dr. S. Jaishankar
@DrSJaishankar
[11/2/2024 7:48 AM, 3.3M followers, 274 retweets, 1.8K likes]
Speaking at the release of book ‘Friends : India’s closest strategic partners’ authored by @sreeramchaulia. https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1ypKdpleBVaKW
NSB
The President’s Office, Maldives
@presidencymv
[11/3/2024 1:13 PM, 110.6K followers, 181 retweets, 169 likes]
President Dr @Mmuizzu addresses the nation at the official ceremony to commemorate the Victory Day of the Maldives.

The President’s Office, Maldives
@presidencymv
[11/3/2024 1:14 PM, 110.6K followers, 130 retweets, 134 likes]
Former President Uz @maumoonagayoom addresses the nation at the official ceremony marking Victory Day of the Maldives. This year marks the 36th anniversary of the terrorist attack on November 3, 1988.

The President’s Office, Maldives
@presidencymv
[11/3/2024 12:48 PM, 110.6K followers, 250 retweets, 255 likes]
President Dr @MMuizzu conferred the Grand Order of Military Honour (GOMH) on Major General Retired Moosa Ali Jaleel in recognition of his distinguished service to national security and significant contributions to safeguarding the sovereignty of the Republic of Maldives. Major General Retired Moosa Ali Jaleel (GOMH) played an instrumental role in safeguarding the nation during the terror attack on November 3, 1988.

The President’s Office, Maldives
@presidencymv
[11/3/2024 7:52 AM, 110.6K followers, 198 retweets, 198 likes]
President Dr @MMuizzu and First Lady Madam Sajidha Mohamed attend the military display held by @MNDF_Official at Republic Square to commemorate Victory Day. The event showcased vessels and weaponry from the MNDF’s arsenal.

Anura Kumara Dissanayake
@anuradisanayake
[11/3/2024 2:14 PM, 133.9K followers, 30 retweets, 202 likes]
We extend our sincere gratitude to the thousands who demonstrated their unwavering support for Malima’s victory by attending the victorious rally (‘Building the Nation Together—We are for Malimawa!’) held this evening (03) in Badulla.

Anura Kumara Dissanayake
@anuradisanayake
[11/3/2024 10:10 AM, 133.9K followers, 35 retweets, 249 likes]
We extend our sincere gratitude to the thousands who demonstrated their unwavering support for Malima’s victory by attending the victorious rally (‘Building the Nation Together—We are for Malimawa!’) held this evening (02) in Kandy.

Anura Kumara Dissanayake
@anuradisanayake
[11/1/2024 10:41 AM, 133.9K followers, 35 retweets, 198 likes]
Today (01), I met with Indian High Commissioner @santjha to review Indian-assisted development projects in Sri Lanka. We discussed progress, challenges, and the importance of deepening our longstanding ties. Also discussed the needs of fishing communities and strengthening cooperation in developing Sri Lanka’s energy sector. Together, we aim to achieve sustainable solutions.

Anura Kumara Dissanayake
@anuradisanayake
[11/1/2024 9:53 AM, 133.9K followers, 19 retweets, 214 likes]
Today (01), we convened at the Presidential Secretariat to discuss digitalizing social welfare programs to better serve Sri Lanka. Key topics included stabilizing rice prices through data-driven paddy storage solutions, digitizing relief for children of low-income families, and modernizing the fertilizer subsidy.

Anura Kumara Dissanayake
@anuradisanayake
[11/3/2024 7:46 AM, 133.9K followers, 101 retweets, 853 likes]
I am pleased to appoint Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya as my Chief Advisor on Digital Economy, as we work to elevate Sri Lanka’s digital economy to regional standards. Through progressive digital infrastructure, we’re committed to bringing economic growth, competitiveness, and real benefits to every citizen.

Anura Kumara Dissanayake
@anuradisanayake
[11/3/2024 7:24 AM, 133.9K followers, 75 retweets, 668 likes]
It’s an honour to fulfil the call of the Northern Province residents by reopening the Palali-Achchuveli road after 3 decades. With support from the Defence Ministry, we are committed to ensuring peace and development for our people.

Harsha de Silva
@HarshadeSilvaMP
[11/3/2024 3:03 AM, 359.6K followers, 17 retweets, 116 likes]
The EV permit scandal exposed: A scheme for expat dollars became a luxury car racket. One facilitator. 70% of all permits. Money laundering when #SriLanka was desperate for forex. This is what real oversight looks like #EVPermitscandal #lka #COPF
Central Asia
MFA Kazakhstan
@MFA_KZ
[11/4/2024 2:04 AM, 56.7K followers, 1 retweet, 2 likes]
Under President Tokayev’s directive, 41 Kazakh citizens and their family members were safely evacuated from Lebanon due to escalating tensions in the Middle East. Protection of Kazakh citizens abroad remains one of the main priorities of the Foreign Ministry of Kazakhstan.

UNODC Central Asia
@UNODC_ROCA
[11/2/2024 10:00 AM, 2.5K followers, 2 retweets, 4 likes]
Check out the highlights from the Annual Conference of the Central Asian Platform for Fast-Tracking the Implementation of the UN Convention Against Corruption. This platform enhances knowledge sharing and aligns regional anti-corruption priorities. https://x.com/i/status/1852712306267832726

UNODC Central Asia
@UNODC_ROCA
[11/3/2024 8:24 AM, 2.5K followers, 1 retweet, 4 likes]
Officers of the Ministry of Interior, National Security Committee, and Financial Monitoring Agency have strengthened their skills at a 3-week K9 training in Almaty. With support of @stateINL #UNODC #Kazakhstan #K9Training

UNODC Central Asia
@UNODC_ROCA
[11/3/2024 6:40 AM, 2.5K followers, 5 retweets, 13 likes]
.@oliverstolpe met with Kazakhstan’s Anti-Corruption Agency and State Revenues Committee leadership to discuss progress on integrity checks, financial investigations, and customs controls. Jointly, we are advancing transparency and security in the region.

Joanna Lillis
@joannalillis
[11/4/2024 1:52 AM, 29.2K followers, 2 retweets, 3 likes]
Reporting on Allamjonov shooting sparse, after prosecutors warned journalists/bloggers to cite official reports only on pain of prosecution - there are few official reports. Highly unusual for #Uzbekistan, but the story’s buried in this weekly news roundup https://kun.uz/ru/news/2024/11/03/ministry-dali-zadnyuyu-novyye-sanksii-i-ugroza-eskalatsii-voyny-v-ukraine-novosti-nedeli

Peter Leonard
@Peter__Leonard
[11/3/2024 7:34 AM, 22.4K followers, 21 retweets, 43 likes]
Young Turkmens marching in formation along the Trail of Health, built into the mountains near the capital, in a choreographed event to highlight the government’s healthy living agenda. One man is carrying a portrait of the president

Peter Leonard
@Peter__Leonard
[11/1/2024 12:06 PM, 22.4K followers, 1 retweet, 5 likes]
Kazakhstan’s president has bestowed a state award on veteran journalist Seytkazy Matayev, who was jailed in 2016 on tax fraud charges in a case widely view as politically motivated https://kaztag.kz/ru/news/tokaev-nagradil-seytkazy-mataeva-ordenom-rmet Background: https://eurasianet.org/kazakhstan-editors-parole-release-ordered-in-surprise-ruling

Navbahor Imamova
@Navbahor
[11/2/2024 10:08 PM, 23.8K followers, 2 retweets, 5 likes]
Uzbekistan’s WTO special rep Azizbek Urunov announced today that his country has completed the bilateral negotiations with the United States, "21st country already on our way to the WTO accession."

{End of Report}
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