SCA MORNING PRESS CLIPS
Prepared for the U.S. Department of State
Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs
TO: | SCA & Staff |
DATE: | Friday, October 11, 2024 6:30 AM ET |
Afghanistan
Afghan charged in Election Day terror plot passed multiple screenings (VOA)
VOA [10/10/2024 7:56 PM, Jeff Seldin, 4566K, Neutral]
The Afghan national charged in a plot to carry out an Election Day terror attack in the United States passed multiple background checks before being allowed to enter the country, U.S. officials told VOA.
FBI agents arrested Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on Monday, alleging he and a juvenile co-conspirator had been in contact with a recruiter for the Islamic State terror group and had been planning to die in a mass shooting.
Court documents also stated that Tawhedi hoped to relocate most of his family, including his wife and 1-year-old daughter, back to Afghanistan to live according to what he described as "pure Islam."
However, U.S. officials, speaking to VOA on the condition of anonymity to discuss details of a case still under investigation, said Thursday that there were no indications Tawhedi was sympathetic to the Islamic State, also known as IS, ISIS or Daesh, either when he worked for the United States in Afghanistan or when he was screened immediately before to coming to the U.S. three years ago.
"Every Afghan being resettled in the United States undergoes a rigorous screening and vetting process, no matter which [U.S.] agency they worked with," the official said.
"That process includes checking against a full range of relevant U.S. records and holdings," the official added. "Tawhedi would not have been admitted to the United States had information of concern surfaced."
Kinds of data
A second U.S. official told VOA that Tawhedi’s vetting included checks that involved both biometric data collected by the U.S. Department of Defense and the FBI, and classified information held by U.S. intelligence agencies.
Subsequent screenings that allowed him to be approved for a Special Immigrant Visa after he entered the U.S. also came up clean.
"Vetting is a point-in-time check that evaluates information available to the U.S. government at that time," the official said.
The second official also said the government can take additional actions "if individuals who have entered the country are later found to be associated with information indicating a potential national security or public safety concern."
NBC News, which first reported that Tawhedi’s background checks failed to detect any red flags, quoted sources as saying he had worked as a security guard for the CIA before being resettled in the U.S.
When reached by VOA, the CIA declined comment.
But the arrest has raised concerns among some U.S. lawmakers.
The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Republican Representative Mark Green, sent a letter Wednesday to the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security demanding more information.
"These recent arrests raise serious concerns about the ongoing threat that ISIS and its fanatical supporters pose to U.S. national security, as well as the shortfall in the Biden-Harris administration’s screening and vetting capabilities," Green wrote.
"Additionally, news of these potential Afghan terrorists comes when only months ago, it was widely reported that eight Tajikistanis with ties to ISIS were arrested in Los Angeles, New York and Philadelphia after they had illegally crossed the border," Green added.
The FBI confirmed receipt of Green’s letter but declined further comment.
A Homeland Security spokesperson did not comment on the letter but described the vetting process for Afghans fleeing Taliban rule as "multilayered."
"Afghan evacuees who sought to enter the United States were subject to multilayered screening and vetting against intelligence, law enforcement and counterterrorism information," the spokesperson told VOA in an email. "If new information emerges after arrival, appropriate action is taken."
When was he radicalized?
But in the case of Tawhedi, questions remain.
"What’s not clear from the information currently available is exactly when Tawhedi was radicalized to the Islamic State ideology," said Austin Doctor, the director of counterterrorism research initiatives at the National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology and Education Center (NCITE).
"We don’t know yet whether he radicalized after arriving to the United States or if he already held pro-ISIS beliefs prior to leaving Afghanistan," Doctor told VOA. "This matters."
According to court documents, a search of Tawhedi’s phone and social media accounts showed he had been doing internet searches to find and consume IS propaganda, though when that started is not clear.
The earliest date for any involvement with IS, according to the criminal complaint filed Monday, is sometime around March of this year, when Tawhedi made two cryptocurrency transfers worth at least $540 to what prosecutors described as a charity that fronts for IS.
About four months later, in July, someone made a video recording - saved to Tawhedi’s phone - of Tawhedi reading to a nephew and his daughter about the rewards waiting for martyrs in the afterlife.
The first indications of a possible terror plot emerged that same month, when the FBI said Tawhedi did online searches about webcams for the White House and the Washington Monument, as well as about procuring guns.
It also remains unclear whether Tawhedi’s Islamic State contact was working for the group’s Afghan affiliate, known as IS-Khorasan or ISIS-K.
"We’ve seen ISIS-K make a concerted effort to recruit from diaspora communities," NCITE’s Doctor told VOA. "And facilitating external operations and inspiring homegrown violent extremist attacks are both prominent elements of the group’s playbook." Afghan man charged with Election Day terror plot screened multiple times, worked CIA security job (FOX News)
FOX News [10/10/2024 9:32 PM, Louis Casiano and Jacqui Heinrich, 48844K, Negative]
An Afghan man living in Oklahoma who allegedly plotted to conduct a terrorist attack on Election Day on behalf of the Islamic State worked a security job for the CIA in Afghanistan, Fox News has learned.
Authorities believe Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, became radicalized after he arrived in the U.S. Sept. 9, 2021, weeks after the American troops pulled out of Afghanistan, a senior Biden administration official said.
He entered the U.S. on a special immigrant visa (SIV) and is on parole status pending adjudication of his immigration proceedings, the Department of Homeland Security said this week. Those facts were disputed by the State Department.
Officials have since clarified that Tawhedi came to the U.S. via humanitarian parole and later applied for SIV status.
Humanitarian parole is a process by which Tawhedi would have been held in a third country for screening and vetting and then flown to the U.S.
After moving to the U.S. in 2021, he applied for special immigrant status, a pathway for a green card, and was approved. He hadn’t finalized his status, which is why the State Department denied a DHS claim made this week that Tawhedi arrived with an SIV.
It was still unclear when the State Department approved him for an SIV after DHS approved him for humanitarian parole in 2021. Tawhedi applied for SIV status immediately after arriving in the U.S.
There were no red flags that would have barred him from entry into the U.S., officials said.
"Afghan evacuees who sought to enter the United States were subject to multilayered screening and vetting against intelligence, law enforcement and counterterrorism information. If new information emerges after arrival, appropriate action is taken," a DHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
Investigators believe Tawhedi was radicalized after arriving in the U.S., similar to several past terrorism suspects, including those involved in the Pulse nightclub shooting, the 2015 San Bernardino attack and the Halloween 2017 case in which a man used a truck to murder eight people and injure several others on a bike path in Lower Manhattan on behalf of ISIS.
Tawhedi was arrested Monday and is charged with conspiring and attempting to provide material support to ISIS and receiving a gun to be used to commit a felony or a federal crime of terrorism.
In his seized communications, Tawhedi allegedly indicated that his attack was planned to target large gatherings of people on Election Day, during which he and a juvenile were expected to die as martyrs. He was busted after speaking with an FBI confidential informant, the Justice Department said.
The unidentified juvenile suspect, Tawhedi’s brother-in-law, entered the U.S. in March 2018 under a stricter SIV program after he was vetted.
On Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas refused to answer questions about Tawhedi amid ongoing concerns about the vetting of those brought to the U.S. Taliban-linked Afghan entered US this month from Turkey on visa, congressman says (Washington Examiner)
Washington Examiner [10/10/2024 6:30 PM, Gabe Kaminsky, Anna Giaritelli and Mike Brest, 3358K, Neutral]
A congressman is raising national security concerns over how an Afghan man who had "unrestricted access" to Taliban commanders scored a visa to enter the United States.
The man, Emran Rahimi, arrived at Virginia’s Dulles International Airport in early October and has since traveled to North Carolina, according to a letter that Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN), a House Foreign Affairs Committee member, sent to Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday. Rahimi did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s requests for comment.
Rahimi, whose YouTube account is filled with videos of his travels and meetings with Taliban officials, received a U.S. visa in September at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, and came to the U.S. by way of Turkey, according to Burchett and Vets4NRF, a U.S. military veterans group. Rahimi boasted about obtaining a U.S. visa in a YouTube video posted on his account in late September. He has roughly 12,000 subscribers on the platform.
Vets4NRF, which provided Burchett with information about Rahimi, is comprised of "bipartisan American veterans who served in the post 9/11 wars" who are "dedicated to promoting a mutually beneficial partnership between the United States and Afghanistan." The organization is led by an Afghan-American U.S. Army veteran who goes by the pseudonym Legend. The veteran uses a pseudonym due to his close contacts in Afghanistan and is involved with the anti-Taliban resistance. The veteran is often a source for lawmakers investigating Afghanistan-related issues.
Burchett’s letter to Blinken comes just after the FBI’s announcement on Tuesday of charges filed against another Afghan man who had entered the U.S. in 2021 amid the failed Kabul airlift. Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi was arrested by federal police in Oklahoma City for allegedly planning a large-scale attack targeting Americans on Election Day. He had allegedly pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, which the U.S. government has declared a foreign terrorist organization.
Rahimi, the Afghan man highlighted by Burchett, "has been authorized to enter restricted areas controlled by the Taliban and the Haqqani network, including terrorist training camps and the residences of former senior government officials," Burchett claimed in his letter.
He cited videos on Rahimi’s YouTube account that Burchett’s office and Vets4NRF said depicted the Afghan appearing alongside and sympathetically interviewing Taliban officials, including Maulvi Ghulam Haider Shahama. The Taliban official was listed in 2023 as the general directorate of the Technical and Vocational Education Authority.
"This situation is especially alarming, considering that many evacuated members of the former Afghan military and their families live in the areas Mr. Rahimi has visited," Burchett wrote in the letter to Blinken. "I am deeply concerned for their safety, as well as the well-being of the Afghan American community and U.S. veterans of the Global War on Terrorism, who have fought bravely against the Taliban terrorists for over two decades."
In the letter, Burchett said Rahimi "has referred to Sirajuddin Haqqani - an FBI-wanted terrorist with a $10 million bounty - as ‘Caliph’ in YouTube videos." Haqqani’s terrorist followers have long referred to him as "Caliph," which most commonly refers to the head of the Islamic Caliphate, but is also a leadership title used by a number of Muslim groups.
The FBI lists "Khalifa (Boss) Shahib" as among Haqqani’s aliases. ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi claimed the title of "Caliph" when he ruled the so-called Islamic State.
"Very good," Rahimi told a person he was interviewing, who appeared to be a Taliban official, in a video posted on his YouTube in March 2024, according to a Farsi translation by an independent translator. "So by the order of his excellency Caliph-Sahib Sirja-al-Din Haqqani, this directive has been issued and the recruitment and enlistment of forces have begun?"
Moreover, a since-deleted video posted on Rahimi’s YouTube account depicted him at a Taliban forces training facility. In a separate video posted by Rahimi in October 2023, he appeared to interview a Taliban official and asked him how many people he had killed.
"You personally, how many Americans or foreigners did you kill?" Rahimi asked the Taliban official in the video, according to a Farsi translation.
"Maybe I did not kill anyone," the Taliban official replied, to which Rahimi pushed back and said, "Is it possible? You said you engaged in jihad against occupation."
In his letter, Burchett said it’s clear Rahimi "has consistently provided favorable coverage of sanctioned Taliban leaders, effectively aiding in the promotion of their extremist agenda."
Burchett called on the State Department to "closely monitor Mr. Rahimi’s activities and affiliations" due to potential national security concerns. The State Department declined to comment to the Washington Examiner.
Regardless of the type of visa that Rahimi entered on, the Department of Homeland Security and its agency, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, would have screened Rahimi’s background for red flags.
Screeners have access to classified databases, which flag criminals and people on the FBI’s terrorist watch list to avoid admitting a dangerous person into the U.S. Governments share database information - though data from Afghanistan’s government may be hard to come by for U.S. screeners, given the Taliban’s control of that country.
Biometric data, such as fingerprints and facial scans, are collected during the screening process, but can only be scanned against available data to U.S. officials - leaving Rahimi’s YouTube commentaries and travel possibly overlooked.
The next step would have been vetting, which refers to the in-person interview, during which a federal official determines if the applicant is who he or she claims to be and whether the person poses a national security risk to the U.S. Vetting refugees and immigrants became an admission requirement after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Rahimi’s admission into the country comes three years after more than 120,000 Afghans made it out of the country amid the U.S. military withdrawal in August 2021.
The Taliban overthrew the U.S.-backed Ghani government in Afghanistan about two weeks ahead of the U.S. military’s withdrawal at the end of August 2021, after two decades of war.
President Joe Biden had pledged to evacuate U.S. allies who helped troops during the 20-year war on terror. The U.S. government had created a special visa category, known as the Special Immigrant Visa program, for those who helped the U.S. during the war. Obtaining this type of visa required going through a 14-step process. The government was so behind on approving applications in the lead-up to that August that just 750 of the 20,000 applicants were in the final stage of the process.
Afghans rushed the airport in an attempt to get out of the country while U.S. troops were evacuating people who had helped the U.S. during the war. Despite Biden’s statements that the administration would rescue those who were visa recipients, the administration airlifted tens of thousands of additional people who have not been approved for visas and are not in the process of applying for them.
The Department of Homeland Security and the White House’s National Security Council did not respond to requests for comment.
The FBI declined to comment. Top lawmaker demands Biden reveal if other terrorists have been let in the U.S. after Afghan’s deadly Election Day plot (Daily Mail)
Daily Mail [10/10/2024 1:02 PM, Jon Michael Raasch, 88008K, Negative]
President Joe Biden’s administration must reveal if there are more suspected terrorists living within the U.S. after an Afghan migrant’s Election Day plot was foiled, a top Republican is demanding.
Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, who was employed by the CIA as a security guard, was arrested on Tuesday along with an unnamed minor.
Tawhedi was brought to the U.S. days after the Biden-Harris administration’s deadly military withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 through a rushed Special Immigration Visa (SIV) process.
He is accused of ‘conspiring’ and ‘attempting to provide material support to ISIS.’
The would-be killer also allegedly obtained guns and ammunition to ‘conduct a violent attack on U.S. soil in the name of ISIS’ on a large gathering of Americans on November 5.
Even more shockingly, sources familiar with the investigation say Tawhedi worked as a security guard for the CIA while in Afghanistan.
It is unclear whether he was radicalized by ISIS in Afghanistan or after he fled to the U.S. with his family.
Now, House Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., is demanding answers from Biden’s top officials.
He is probing FBI Director Christopher Wray and Homeland Security Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas, on how this ISIS-inspired terrorist was allowed in.‘These recent arrests raise serious concerns about the ongoing threat that ISIS and its fanatical supporters pose to U.S. national security, as well as the shortfall in the Biden-Harris administration’s screening and vetting capabilities,’ Green wrote to the FBI and DHS chiefs in a letter exclusively obtained by DailyMail.com. ‘The Committee also remains concerned about the threat of a ‘lone wolf’ actor or multiple actors attempting to commit a terrorist attack on U.S. soil.’‘While the Committee commends law enforcement efforts to foil this alleged ISIS-inspired terrorist plot on Election Day, the Committee finds it unacceptable that the Biden-Harris administration is precariously failing to take measures to safeguard U.S. national security by allowing alleged terrorists into the interior of the United States to plot terrorist attacks.’
Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump also skewered Kamala Harris for her role in the immigration policies during a rally Wednesday. ‘Just yesterday, it was reported that Kamala Harris brought in a totally unvetted refugee from Afghanistan, who has now been arrested for plotting an ISIS terrorist attack in the United States during our election,’ he said.‘Kamala completely abandoned her duty to law-abiding Americans, and spent the last four years importing criminals, unvetted refugees, and terrorists into our country,’ he said.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson also slammed the White House earlier this week when the arrest was announced. ‘Following the botched Afghanistan withdrawal, more than 77K Afghans were given humanitarian parole, with little to no vetting and no intent to know their whereabouts.’ ‘Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi -the terrorist plotting an election day attack - was one of them.’‘Whether it’s their open border policies or failed foreign policy, this administration continues to risk American lives by allowing terrorists, murders, rapists, and other violent criminals into our homeland.’
Texas Republican Rep. Michael Cloud posted online: ‘Under Biden, Harris, and Mayorkas’ watch, an Afghan national with ties to ISIS and who was plotting a terrorist attack was let into our country.’‘This is what happens when Democrats prioritize open borders over American safety.’
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., similarly wrote on X: ‘An Afghan national, let into our country after the botched Afghanistan withdrawal, was arrested yesterday for plotting an Election Day terror attack on behalf of ISIS.’ ‘Without a doubt our nation is vulnerable to threats because of the Biden-Harris administration.’
The Tennessee Republican’s letter also details the arrests earlier this year of several other migrants from Tajikistan who were living across the U.S. before being arrested after illegally crossing the border.
These eight men lived in Los Angeles, New York and Philadelphia and were arrested in June after it came to light they too had ties to ISIS.
So far only three of the eight ISIS-connected migrants have been deported. Four are currently in ICE facilities awaiting flights and one is still awaiting legal proceedings, CBS News reports.
The Afghan and his accomplice’s plot to purchase automatic assault riffles, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and several magazines was stopped after authorities broke up the deal.
Tawhedi was charged with conspiring and attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State group, which is designated by the U.S. as a foreign terrorist organization.
He faces a maximum prison sentence of 20 years for providing support to ISIS and 15 years for obtaining a firearm to commit a felony or a federal crime of terrorism.
Green requested that Wray and Mayorkas turn over the documents relating to Tawhedi by October 23. Pakistan
IMF’s New Demand Set to Dissuade China Investments in Pakistan (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [10/11/2024 12:46 AM, Ismail Dilawar, 5.5M, Neutral]
The International Monetary Fund asked Pakistan to stop setting up any industrial zone that offers incentives for investment, in a move that may undermine Islamabad’s efforts to attract more Chinese industries into the country.
The authorities will refrain from providing incentives such as tax breaks and subsidies to any new or existing special economic zones, the Washington-based lender said in its report released on Oct. 10. This will help provide a level playing field for investment, said the report.
The IMF’s condition comes as Prime Minster Shehbaz Sharif is trying to convince Chinese companies to shift more industries into Pakistan thereby giving a fresh momentum to projects under its Belt and Road Initiative. The country had planned to build at least nine special economic zones under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project that are at various stages of development.
The lender asked Pakistan to offer a level playing field to businesses to attract investments without undermining the country’s tax base, according to Nathan Porter, IMF’s mission chief for Pakistan. The country has provided protection or concessions to sectors that were low in productivity, he said in a briefing last month, the reason why Pakistan hasn’t been able to achieve the kind of sustainable growth rates many of its regional peers have.
Immediate Hit
The demand from IMF is expected to immediately hit a new export processing zone that the government plans to build at the site of Pakistan Steel Mills in Karachi, Pakistan’s commercial capital in south.Pakistan authorities, after securing a $7 billion loan from the IMF, are working to invite about 100 major Chinese industries to invest in the textile parks that Ruyi Shandong Group will start building in its southern Sindh and central Punjab provinces later this year.
The Sharif government has been wooing investors through offering special tax incentives, including exemptions from paying taxes and customs duties on imported goods, to businesses set up in such industrial zones.
China has built major infrastructure and energy projects in Pakistan to push its flagship economic corridor project that has helped the nation but left the country burdened by huge debts. Saudi businessmen sign 27 memorandum of understanding with Pakistan valued at $2 billion (AP)
AP [10/10/2024 8:34 PM, Staff, 44095K, Positive]
Saudi and Pakistani businessmen on Thursday signed 27 memorandums of understanding valued at $2 billion for investment across various sectors, including industry, technology, agriculture, food, petroleum, energy, mining and health.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the country’s powerful army chief Gen. Asim Munir attended the signing of the memorandums in the capital, Islamabad.
The agreement comes a day after a Saudi delegation, led by Minister of Investment Khalid al-Falih, arrived in Pakistan.
In a televised speech, Sharif hailed the memorandums and said he hoped they would soon be translated into agreements, adding that his government will do its best to facilitate Saudi investments in the country.
Sharif also thanked Saudi Arabia for helping Pakistan reach an agreement to receive a $7 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund.
Pakistan enjoys close ties with Saudi Arabia, which is a leading supplier of oil to Islamabad.
Earlier, Sharif met with the Saudi delegation at his office, and he said the relations between the two countries were "based on decades long of brotherly ties and were becoming stronger with each passing day." Gunmen kill 20 miners and wound others in an attack in southwest Pakistan (AP)
AP [10/10/2024 11:47 PM, Abdul Sattar, 44095K, Negative]
Gunmen killed 20 miners and wounded another seven in Pakistan’s southwest, a police official said Friday, drawing condemnation from authorities who have ordered police to trace and arrest those who are behind the killings.It’s the latest attack in restive Balochistan province and comes days ahead of a major security summit being hosted in the capital.Police official Hamayun Khan Nasir said the gunmen stormed the accommodations at the coal mine in Duki district late Thursday night, rounded up the men and opened fire.Most of the men were from Pashtun-speaking areas of Balochistan. Three of the dead and four of the wounded were Afghan.No group claimed immediate responsibility for the attack, but the suspicion is likely to fall on the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army, which often targets civilians and security forces.The group committed multiple attacks in August that killed more than 50 people, while authorities responded by killing 21 insurgents in the province. Those killed included 23 passengers, mostly from eastern Punjab province, who were fatally shot after being taken from buses, vehicles and trucks in Musakhail district in Baluchistan. The latest attack drew a strong condemnation from Sarfraz Bugti, the chief minister in Balochistan, who said the “terrorists have once again targeted poor laborers.”He said the attackers were cruel and had an agenda to destabilize Pakistan. “The killing of these innocent laborers would be avenged,” he said in a statement.The province is home to several separatist groups who want independence. They accuse the federal government in Islamabad of unfairly exploiting oil- and mineral-rich Balochistan at the expense of locals.On Monday, a group called the Baloch Liberation Army said it carried out an attack on Chinese nationals outside Pakistan’s biggest airport. There are thousands of Chinese working in the country, most of them involved in Beijing’s multibillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative.The explosion, which the BLA said was the work of a suicide bomber, also raised questions about the ability of Pakistani forces to protect high-profile events or foreigners in the country.Islamabad is hosting a summit next week of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a grouping founded by China and Russia to counter Western alliances.Authorities have beefed up security in the capital by deploying troops to prevent any acts of terrorism.The Ministry of Interior this week had alerted the country’s four provinces to take additional measures to enhance security as the separatist groups and Pakistani Taliban could launch attacks at public places and government installation. At least 20 killed in attack on miners in southwestern Pakistan, police say (Reuters)
Reuters [10/10/2024 10:31 PM, Saleem Ahmad, 37270K, Negative]
At least 20 miners were killed and seven injured in an attack by armed men on a small private coal mine in the southwestern Pakistani province of Balochistan on Friday, police said.“A group of armed men attacked the Junaid Coal company mines in the Duki area in the wee hours using heavy weapons,” said Humayun Khan, the police station house officer for the town, located east of the city of Quetta. They fired rockets and grenades at the mines as well, he added.“We have received 20 bodies and six injured so far at the district hospital,” said Johar Khan Shadizai, a doctor in Duki. Two suspected Pakistani militants behind 2021 attack on Chinese killed in shootout (Reuters)
Reuters [10/11/2024 3:40 AM, Mubasher Bukhari and Asif Shahzad, 5.2M, Negative]
Two militants involved in the 2021 attack that killed nine Chinese engineers were shot and killed in a shootout in a central Pakistani district on Friday, counter-terrorism officials said.
They said the militants who had been convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment were being moved out of a prison in Sahiwal district due to a threat when some men attacked the police van they were in.
Two of the five militants in the van were killed in cross-fire between police and the attackers, it said.
They two were masterminds of the attack that had killed a total of 13 people, including the nine Chinese engineers, near a hydropwer plant in Dadu in northern Pakistan in July 2021.
Pakistan’s main cities, especially Islamabad, are on a high alert ahead of the Shanghai Cooperation Conference (SCO) which is scheduled to be held in the capital on Oct 15-16.
Pakistan is seeking to curb all movements of Chinese nationals during the summit because of the risk that they could be attacked.
The shootout came within hours of an attack that killed over 20 miners in southwestern Balochistan province, the hotbed for separatist militants, including the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), which has been attacking Chinese nationals and their interests in the region. Pakistan’s banned PTM: A movement for Pashtun rights (VOA)
VOA [10/10/2024 6:37 PM, Masood Farivar, 4566K, Negative]
This week, Pakistan banned a grassroots protest movement advocating for the rights of Pashtuns, an ethnic minority inhabiting the country’s northwestern region.
The government in Islamabad contends the movement, known as PTM, poses a threat to national sovereignty and security, but human rights groups view the move as part of a larger crackdown on dissent.
The ban, enacted Sunday under Pakistan’s anti-terror law, comes as tensions are mounting ahead of a PTM-planned jirga, or council of elders, on Friday.
Here is what you need to know about PTM:
What is it?
The Pashtun Tahafuz (Protection) Movement grew out of the turmoil of the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan and Pakistan’s counterterrorism operations in the tribal region.With the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan driving the Taliban and al-Qaida into the region, the Pakistani military launched a series of operations over the next two decades to hunt down the militants.
The consequences were devastating for the local population. Tens of thousands were killed, thousands were forcibly disappeared and millions more were displaced. These experiences fueled a growing sense of resentment and injustice among the Pashtuns.
In response to the alleged human rights abuses by the army and extremists, a group of eight university students from the Mehsud tribe formed the Mehsud Tahafuz Movement in 2014.
The movement gained national attention in 2018 after leading a 300-kilometer march to the capital to protest the killing of a Pashtun man by Pakistani police. The group then rebranded as the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement, or PTM, giving fellow Pashtuns a cause to rally around.
PTM co-founder Manzoor Pashteen, known for his charismatic personality and oratorical skills, has become the face of the movement. Other key leaders include Ali Wazir and Mohsin Dawar, both of whom served as independent lawmakers in Pakistan’s parliament. Along with other PTM leaders and activists, they’ve been repeatedly arrested on a variety of charges.
How large is PTM?
While there are no figures on PTM membership, it has emerged as a formidable grassroots movement in recent years. Its rallies routinely attract tens of thousands of people.
What does PTM want?
PTM began with a narrow set of demands, including the removal of military checkpoints, clearance of landmines and recovery of missing persons. But its campaign has evolved over the years into a broader struggle for justice, even as the government has met some of its demands.
What methods does it use?
Modeling itself on a British-era Pashtun civil disobedience movement, PTM uses a variety of peaceful methods such as marches, protests, processions through bazaars and open-air meetings known as jalsas. The groups have reportedly formed study circles to promote nonviolence and have called for a peace-and-reconciliation commission for justice.
How does the Pakistani government view PTM?
Though the movement has drawn support from other Pashtun groups, as well as progressive Pakistani activists and politicians, it has become, as one expert said, a "thorn in the side" of Pakistan’s powerful army.
The army, which rejects accusations that it has committed egregious human rights abuses, views PTM as a threat to its legitimacy. As Madiha Afzal, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, noted in a 2020 report, by "calling the army to account" and questioning its integrity, PTM effectively undermines the authority of an institution that sees itself as the guardian of the nation.
But the army’s hostility stems from a deeper fear: Pashtun nationalism. Pakistan, created in 1947 out of several ethnolinguistic parts of then-British India, has long been wary of "strong ethnic loyalties," according to Afzal.
While PTM has remained peaceful, it is seen by the army as a potential threat to Pakistani sovereignty, as is a violent Baluch insurgency the army has been battling for decades.
Since the early days of the movement, the army has used a variety of tactics to try to shut it down, censoring media coverage of its activities, arresting and jailing PTM leaders, and launching a disinformation campaign to brand PTM activists as traitors and terrorists supported by India and Afghanistan.
But PTM has shown few signs of faltering, combining peaceful protests with legal battles and political activism while resisting the urge to turn violent.
As one activist told researcher Qamar Jafri, "We defend against attacks through resistance driven by legal activism and remaining resilient."
What is next?
Human rights groups such as Amnesty International have called on Pakistan to revoke its ban on PTM. But Pakistani officials say PTM has ties to both the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban, a charge the group denies.
Meanwhile, the government says PTM’s planned three-day jirga will not be allowed to proceed. At least three people were killed and several others injured as police clashed with activists near the site of the gathering on Wednesday. Pakistan’s Pashtun Movement Plans To Go Ahead With Assembly Despite Recent Violence (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [10/10/2024 3:25 PM, Staff, 1251K, Negative]
The Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) plans to go ahead with its Loya Jirga grand assembly on October 11 to discuss peace and security in northwestern Pakistan despite recent violence, including the deaths of three of its members.Thousands of people took part on October 10 in a funeral prayer service for the three peace activists killed when police started firing at them a day earlier after the activists refused to vacate the venue for the Loya Jirga.Pakistani authorities earlier this week banned the PTM, a popular civil rights movement that campaigns for the country’s ethnic Pashtun minority. The PTM has been engaged in "certain activities that are harmful to public order and security," the Interior Ministry said on October 6 in a statement announcing the ban. It provided no details about the alleged activities.The PTM on October 10 rejected the accusation of the interior minister that it is trying to "create a parallel or parallel justice" in the country and "create division and differences in the society."The PTM in recent days reported a series of police raids and arrests targeting its leaders and members ahead of the Loya Jirga to be held in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.The PTM has campaigned since 2018 for the civil rights of the country’s estimated 35 million ethnic Pashtuns. Many of Pakistan’s ethnic Pashtuns live in areas close to the border with Afghanistan, where the Pakistani military has conducted campaigns that it says defeated the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan, also known as the Pakistani Taliban or TPP.The area has recently experienced a surge in militant violence. The TPP has claimed responsibility for much of it.In the most recent incident, militants opened fire on October 10 on a police vehicle and killed two officers before fleeing the scene, police said. The attack happened in the city of Tank, local police official Sher Afzal said.Within hours the military said it had killed four militants in North Waziristan, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.No group has claimed responsibility, but suspicion is likely to fall on the TTP, which is outlawed in Pakistan. The group is separate from but a close ally of the Afghan Taliban.In other recent violence in the country, two Chinese citizens were killed in a large blast near the airport of Karachi that the Chinese Embassy called a "terrorist attack." The blast was claimed by the separatist Baloch Liberation Army.The attack took place late on October 6 and it targeted a convoy of Chinese employees of the Port Qasim Electric Power Company Limited that was traveling from the airport, the embassy said. The Chinese citizens were working on the construction of two coal-fired power plants in Pakistan.The latest violence comes ahead of the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which will take place in Islamabad on October 15. Pakistan ends power deals to save $1.48 billion, cut tariffs (Reuters)
Reuters [10/10/2024 9:07 AM, Ariba Shahid, 88008K, Neutral]
Pakistan’s government has ended power purchase contracts with five private companies, including one with the country’s largest utility that should have been in place until 2027, to cut costs, officials said on Thursday.
The news confirms comment from Power Minister Awais Leghari to Reuters last month that the government was re-negotiating deals with independent power producers to lower electricity tariffs as households and businesses struggle to manage soaring energy costs.
"We studied these agreements and we decided what plants we need and what plants we don’t need," Leghari told a news conference in Islamabad on Thursday, adding the termination of the take or pay agreements will save the nation nearly 411 billion rupees ($1.48 billion) in the coming years.Take or pay is referred to as capacity payments in Pakistan where the government has to pay private companies irrespective of how much of the power they generate is transferred to its grid.
Negotiations have also begun with other power producers to revise their contracts, Leghari said, adding people would soon see the impact in their monthly bills.
"Our aim is to bring the tariff down," he said.
The need to revisit the deals was an issue in talks for a critical staff-level pact in July with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a $7-billion bailout.
Earlier on Thursday Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Pakistan has agreed with five independent power producers to revisit purchase contracts. He said that would save the country 60 billion rupees a year.
Pakistan’s biggest private utility, Hub Power Company Ltd , also said the company agreed to prematurely end a contract with the government to buy power from a southwestern generation project.
In a note to the Pakistan Stock Exchange, it said the government had agreed to meet its commitments up to Oct. 1, instead of an initial date of March 2027, in an action taken "in the greater national interest".
A decade ago, Pakistan approved dozens of private projects by independent power producers (IPPs), financed mostly by foreign lenders, to tackle chronic shortages.
But the deals, featuring incentives, such as high guaranteed returns and commitments to pay even for unused power, resulted in excess capacity after a sustained economic crisis reduced consumption.
Short of funds, the government has built those fixed costs and capacity payments into consumer bills, sparking protests by domestic users and industry bodies.
Pakistan has begun talks on re-profiling power sector debt owed to China and structural reforms, but progress has been slow. It has also said it will stop power sector subsidies. India
Ratan Tata, Indian billionaire and philanthropist, dies at 86 (Washington Post)
Washington Post [10/10/2024 4:05 PM, Gerry Shih and Brian Murphy, 52865K, Neutral]
Ratan Tata, an Indian magnate who grew family business holdings into a sprawling empire spanning from tea to automakers to internet services, and made the Tata name synonymous with power and philanthropy that touched nearly facet of Indian life, died Oct. 9 at a hospital in Mumbai. He was 86.The death was announced by the Tata Group, where Mr. Tata started in the 1960s as shop floor apprentice in the family’s steel subsidiary. No cause was given, but the company issued a statement earlier in the week that Mr. Tata was being treated for “age-related” medical conditions.Mr. Tata and the conglomerate he led from 1991 to 2012 was seen as a crown jewel of India’s rising economic influence, and he drew cheers for using its muscle for what was dubbed “reverse colonialism” — acquiring some of the West’s most venerable brands.The Tata buying spree included nabbing famous names associated with the subcontinent’s former colonial ruler, Britain. Mr. Tata directed the takeover of tea giant Tetley in 2000, and the Jaguar and Land Rover lines, then owned by Ford, in 2008. A year earlier, Tata Group won a bidding war for the Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus.“I think globalization just made the availability of target companies that much bigger than they were in India,” he once said.In India, the company under Mr. Tata became such a fixture of everyday life that commerce, transportation, entertainment — and even morning tea — could carry the Tata stamp. Tata taxis and cars fill the country’s roads, and passengers travel between cities on Tata airlines.Tata telecom services power mobile phones and computers, and viewers can tune in channels on Tata’s satellite TV for cricket matches, movies and other programs. Tata Consultancy Services helped spearhead India’s IT outsourcing boom in the 2000s.Only rarely did Mr. Tata’s instincts fall short. He made the initial sketches of the Tata Nano, pushing his car company in 2009 to introduce the sub-$2,500 hatchback that he envisioned would become a “people’s car” for lower-income Indians, but sales never took off, and production was halted in 2018.In many ways, Mr. Tata became one of India’s most admired men precisely because he cut an unusual figure in the country’s freewheeling business landscape since the economy began to open with liberal reforms in the early 1990s. Compared to many of his peers atop the Indian business world, Mr. Tata lived modestly, spoke with self-effacing humility, was rarely tainted by rumors of corruption or scandal and avoided the appearance of overtly participating in politics.In 2010, however, leaked recordings revealed that Mr. Tata, like almost all Indian business tycoons, had in fact been lobbying politicians with payments. Mr. Tata managed to move past the scandal with his decades-long reputation mostly unscathed.Mr. Tata gave millions to education and health initiatives through his trusts, backing dozens of companies and groups in India. He said business moguls have an obligation to look 100 years ahead.“For instance, how can we deal with climate change and global warming, right now?” he told authors Sucheta Dalal and Debashis Basu for their book “Pathbreakers 2” (2008). “The effects of it may not be felt now; in fact, we may pay a price for it today, but it will help the generations to follow.”Another initiative, Goodfellows, sought to build cross-generational connections in business and other fields. At an event to launch the group in Mumbai in 2022, Mr. Tata hinted at the need to share knowledge. “You don’t mind getting old until you get old,” he said, “and you find it’s a difficult world.”Among the outpouring of tributes after his death was announced, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded Mr. Tata as a “visionary business leader, compassionate soul and extraordinary human.” Mourners gathered in front of Mr. Tata’s Mumbai residence and on the lawn of the National Center for the Performing Arts in south Mumbai, where his casket was kept before the funeral.Ratan Naval Tata was born on Dec. 28, 1937, in what was then known as Bombay (now Mumbai) during British colonial rule.He was raised amid the wealth accumulated by the extended Tata family, members of the relatively small community of Parsis, the followers of the Zoroastrian religion who fled persecution in Persia centuries ago and resettled on India’s western coast. The Tatas amassed a fortune in the 19th century on textiles and opium trade with China. His father rose to become deputy chairman of family’s business networks.After his parents’ divorce, Mr. Tata and his brother were raised by their paternal grandmother in a Mumbai estate known as Tata Palace with servants and chauffeurs. He finished high school at New York’s Riverdale Country School and graduated in 1962 from Cornell University with a bachelor’s degree in architecture. (Mr. Tata later became one of Cornell’s largest international donors.) In 1975, he attended a management program at Harvard Business School.When Mr. Tata took over the Tata business portfolios in 1991 from a distant relative, J.R.D. Tata, the family was already one of India’s most renowned conglomerates, with holdings that included the famous Taj Mahal Hotel on the Mumbai waterfront, steel mills and power plants, the Tata Motors carmaker and the airline that would later be renamed Air India.In 2012, Mr. Tata resigned as group chairman, plunging the Tata clan — which had struggled to name heirs for decades — into a succession crisis that played out in the media and courts.Mr. Tata successful lobbied for his handpicked successor, Cyrus Mistry, whose family were major shareholders in the conglomerate. But their relationship gradually soured over disputes arising from Mistry’s business decisions, leading to Mistry’s ouster in 2016. Mr. Tata briefly returned to the chairman post as a new leader was sought.In 2017, the group’s board named Natarajan Chandrasekaran, a former Tata Consultancy Services employee, to be chairman, the first non-Parsi professional executive to assume the position. (Mistry sued, but India’s Supreme Court in 2021 ruled that his dismissal was legal.)Mr. Tata never married and had no children. His survivors include a brother.In a BBC interview that aired in 2000, journalist Karan Thapar asked Mr. Tata whether he was worried his company was falling behind competitors in the Indian system because “you don’t grease palms, that you don’t facilitate; is that often a burden?”“More than anything else, one is proud of that,” Mr. Tata replied. “Sometimes it is a problem … [but] I really would like to go to bed at night or wake up in the morning saying that we have not succumbed, and yet we’ve been successful.” Ratan Tata, Beloved Indian Industrialist Who Made Tata a Global Business, Dies at 86 (Wall Street Journal)
Wall Street Journal [10/10/2024 12:24 PM, Tripti Lahiri and Krishna Pokharel, 810K, Neutral]
Indians on Thursday mourned Ratan Tata, seen as a visionary who turned an India-focused family-run business group into a global conglomerate and was admired for his courtly manner and philanthropic endeavors.
The Tata Group announced the death of its former chairman late Wednesday, but didn’t specify a cause. He was 86.
Thousands turned out on Thursday to pay respects to him at a cultural center in Mumbai, where his body was laid in a casket. Government ministers flew to the city to attend his cremation in the evening, business leaders issued statements, and Indians flooded social media with messages saying there would never be another like Tata again.
India’s Tata Group grew out of a trading company established in 1868 by Ratan Tata’s great-grandfather Jamsetji Tata. The family is from the close-knit Parsi community, which traces its roots to arrivals from Persia who sought asylum in India centuries ago, and is prominent in India’s business sphere.
Today, the conglomerate, which established India’s first steel plant, owns an empire that includes Tetley Tea, luxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover, India’s top outsourcing firm, and Air India, which it founded and reacquired in 2021 after seven decades of government control. The group’s combined revenue tops $165 billion.
Tata was raised in the family home in Mumbai and led a privileged life in an enormously poor India that gained its independence from British rule in 1947, when he was nine years old. He was driven to school in a Rolls-Royce.
After studying at Cornell University, he got a job in Los Angeles, where he fell in love and “almost got married,” he told the popular Humans of Bombay photoblog in 2020. But when his grandmother fell ill, he returned to India in 1962 and ended up joining the family business and was soon handling blast furnaces at the company’s steel plant in eastern India.
He became chairman of Tata Group in 1991, succeeding his uncle, J.R.D. Tata, who had run the company for more than 50 years. The year he took over, a financial crisis forced India to open up an economy dominated by state-run companies and known for its “License Raj,” a thicket of rules and regulations that stymied most businesses. “Suddenly all the forces of competitive pressure and free market were unleashed,” said Mukund Rajan, who worked in senior executive positions at Tata Group for more than two decades. “So he had a double whammy.”
He is credited with steering deftly through this time, in part by consolidating control over the company’s many units that had become separate fiefs, and setting a clear direction from Tata Sons, the parent company.“You need a strong center,” said Kavil Ramachandran, a professor at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad who researches India’s family businesses.
He changed the retirement age to 75 soon after he came in, easing some long-timers out.“You can’t run major companies as though you’re a family enterprise,” said Tata, explaining the retirement-age policy at the time. “After 10 years in the seat, you’re part of the problem.”
Rajan, who now is chairman of corporate governance-focused investment advisory firm ECube, said Tata also spearheaded an effort to improve production quality across the company, a huge challenge in a country where for decades “capacities were constrained and you could sell what you liked to the customer.”
As a manager, he kept his cool even during difficult times, said Christabelle Noronha, who worked closely with Tata for many years handling corporate affairs, including crafting his annual New Year’s message to employees.“When you work with people and they get irritated, they take it out on you because you are the next one in line for the meeting,” she said. “He never ever did that.”
He often started out his day petting the stray dogs that hung around Bombay House, where Tata’s office was on the fourth floor.
During his two decades as chairman, Tata led a drive to expand internationally, becoming one of the first Indian companies to acquire marquee foreign brands.
The group’s first big international acquisition was Tata Tea’s acquisition of the U.K.’s Tetley Group in 2000.
In 2007, Tata Steel bought Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus for $12 billion. Tata Motors paid $2.3 billion to buy Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford Motor in 2008.
The pricey deals, just as the world was engulfed in the global financial crisis, catapulted the Indian business to the global stage in a big way but also put heat on Tata for adding an enormous amount of debt to the company’s balance sheet.
The Jaguar Land Rover purchase eventually came to be seen as a good investment, but the Corus deal never really recovered from that unlucky start.
Another of Tata’s most iconic ventures was also doomed to fail but is still lauded as a testament to his bold vision.
After Tata Motors successfully introduced the Indica—the first car truly developed and built in India—Tata unveiled the $2,500 Nano in 2008, a tiny car billed as the world’s cheapest. A pet project, the Nano was envisioned as a safe and comfortable alternative for millions of Indian families who use motorcycles because they can’t afford a car.
There was a frenzy to book the Nano initially, but customers had to wait as violent protests against land acquisition forced Tata to shift its Nano plant to Gujarat from West Bengal state. Sales petered out, and the Nano was discontinued in a decade.
When Tata turned 75 in 2012, he turned the company over to Cyrus Mistry, to whom he was related by marriage. Four years later, Tata’s board ousted Mistry for reasons that are still disputed, leading to a bitter fallout between the two men.
Mistry complained after his removal of “a total lack of corporate governance,” which Tata Sons rebutted.
Mistry, whose family construction company is the biggest shareholder in Tata Sons, died in 2022 at age 54 in a car crash. The company’s current leader, N. Chandrasekaran, has no family connection to the Tatas.
Tata, who never married and had no children, focused in the past decade on philanthropy in health and education in India through Tata Trusts, as well as contributing millions of dollars to Cornell and Harvard Business School. His love of animals led him to fund a five-floor animal hospital in Mumbai and a startup that made reflective collars for dogs so they wouldn’t be run over at night.
Many of the tributes on Thursday praised Tata’s modest and altruistic approach, now seen as a rarity in a country where billionaires are known for lavish spending. The Tatas, including Ratan Tata, subscribed to a more socialist-era view of company wealth, said Ramachandran of the Indian School of Business.“It’s not personal wealth,” he said of the company ethos. “We are facilitating wealth for society.” China still challenges India in the Himalayas as BRICS summit approaches (The Hill – opinion)
The Hill [10/10/2024 9:30 AM, Brahma Chellaney, 19591K, Neutral]
With the Oct. 22 BRICS summit meeting approaching, China and India have stepped up discussions about defusing their tense military standoff along the long Himalayan frontier. But although the 10-nation summit in the Russian city of Kazan is catalyzing efforts to resolve the confrontation — which has sparked rival force buildups and intermittent clashes — it is far from certain that any deal will be reached.The standoff between the two Asian giants is not grabbing international headlines, thanks in part to the wars raging in Ukraine and the Middle East. But the threat of the confrontation escalating to a border war of the kind fought in 1962 cannot be discounted. Both sides have significantly ramped up border deployments of troops and weapons, with India acknowledging the situation is “very tense and dangerous.”The Sino-Indian faceoff, as well as the Russian invasion of Ukraine, are detracting from the international appeal of BRICS, the world’s first major non-Western initiative. Founded 15 years ago by Brazil, Russia, India and China as BRIC, the group, with the addition of South Africa in 2011, became BRICS. And with this year’s entry of five additional countries, it has become BRICS-plus, accounting for nearly half the world’s population and 40 percent of global trade.As many as 40 more countries have lined up to join BRICS, which seeks to shape a multipolar global order in place of the fading era of Western dominance. An easing of military tensions between nuclear-armed titans China and India could help build consensus to further enlarge BRICS.The Sino-Indian border faceoff was triggered by China’s stealth encroachments on some Indian borderlands in April 2020. India failed to foresee the Chinese aggression largely because Prime Minister Narendra Modi had focused on appeasing Beijing in a bid to chip away at the China-Pakistan strategic axis. Between 2014 and 2019, Modi met with Chinese President Xi Jinping 18 times, building a close personal rapport. The Xi-ordered encroachments were thus widely seen in India as a stab in the back.Xi seriously miscalculated that China would be able to present the land grabs to India as a fait accompli, like the Chinese “salami-slicing” expansionism elsewhere in Asia. In contrast to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, China prefers incremental expansionism, enabled by stealth and deception.India’s robust military response to China’s encroachments, including more than matching Chinese force deployments, took Beijing by surprise, helping to spotlight not just the Sino-Indian territorial disputes but also India’s challenge to Chinese power and capability. No other nation, not even the U.S., has locked horns with the Chinese military in this century the way India has since 2020.Xi, by transforming the Sino-Indian frontier into a “hot” border patrolled by tens of thousands of rival troops, has crimped the further pursuit of his own “salami-slicing” strategy on the Himalayan massif. China will find it more challenging from now on to nibble away at Indian territories.With the U.S.-China rivalry deepening, the last thing Xi should be doing is turning India into an enduring enemy. Yet as the world’s fastest-growing major economy, India is moving closer to America, with Modi’s foreign policy showing a distinct pro-Western tilt.With an eye on China, India has ramped up its military buildup and modernization. A stronger India aligned with Western powers and Japan is likely to stymie China’s plan to gain strategic preeminence in Asia.A war with India could expose China’s weaknesses. Whereas the Chinese military relies largely on conscripts, India, with an all-volunteer force, has the world’s most-experienced troops in mountain warfare. The Chinese military, though, has a technological edge over Indian forces.Against this backdrop, China’s recent charm offensive in India, including initiating renewed efforts to defuse the military standoff, suggests that Xi wants to salvage Beijing’s relationship with New Delhi — but without losing face at home.For four-and-a-half years, tens of thousands of Chinese troops have remained deployed along the inhospitable Himalayan frontier, which has some of the harshest terrain on Earth. Oxygen levels are so low that soldiers take weeks to acclimatize before being deployed on the front lines. If Xi were to reach a deal with India centered on a pullback of rival forces, it would raise questions in China about why he ever launched this provocation in the first place.This may well explain why, in the bilateral negotiations up to now, the Chinese side has sought a deal largely on its own terms, dimming the prospect of reaching an agreement by the time Xi and Modi could meet on the sidelines of the BRICS summit.But even if Xi climbed down to some extent, leading to a deal to implement a sequential process of disengagement, de-escalation and removal of rival forces, the new warfare-related infrastructure China has built along the India frontier will remain in place. India thus would not be able to lower its guard.China has bored tunnels and shafts into mountainsides to set up an elaborate underground military infrastructure, as if preparing for war. In addition, it has planted settlers in new militarized border villages, the equivalent of the artificial islands it created in the South China Sea to serve as forward military bases.China and India, which represent more than one-third of the global population, became neighbors only after the Chinese Communist Party annexed Tibet in 1951. Today, China and India need to find ways to peacefully coexist. Yet, despite the latest efforts to mend fences, their strategic rivalry seems likely to endure. The U.S., EU, and India must come together in a free trade agreement on clean energy, says CEO of one of India’s largest renewables company (Fortune – opinion)
Fortune [10/10/2024 6:33 AM, Staff, 23199K, Positive]
There is much debate about how the macro environment, including the elections in the U.S. and monetary policy changes in key economies, might impact the fight against climate change. However, a key aspect of meeting clean energy targets will be the development of a de-risked global supply chain capable of delivering both materials and components to support the rapidly expanding demand.
Clean energy supply chains are long, complex, and capital-intensive. Even if manufacturing is set up at home for some parts of the supply chain, re-shoring production of every single step to Western countries is a gargantuan industrial task.
India is much better placed than the U.S. or the EU to replicate many of the variables that help Chinese producers dominate green industries. These variables include land prices, electricity costs, permitting timelines, construction timelines, construction costs, labor costs, and supply chain sourcing (just to name a few). It is in the geopolitical interest of major economies to support India in achieving the scale, efficiencies, and expertise needed to compete effectively with China. The U.S., EU, and India must urgently come together in a free trade agreement on clean energy.
Countries like Mexico and Vietnam are only at the first step of diversification, focusing on the assembly of components to put together products such as solar modules or battery packs. Risks of disruption will only truly reduce when the value chain further upstream is diversified too, including the manufacturing of intermediate products (like polysilicon, wafers, ingots, and cells for solar; cathode, anodes, and cells for batteries), as well as the technologies and processed minerals needed to manufacture these intermediate products, and even mining and processing ores needed as raw materials. Much of this is technologically complex, capital and time-intensive, and energy and emissions-intensive.
Through initiatives such as the Production-Linked Incentive scheme for alternate battery chemistries and integrated solar manufacturing facilities, India has already kickstarted backward integration. It is also set to launch the Critical Minerals Mission to catalyze investments in the mining and processing of critical minerals.
To meet international 2030 emissions targets, the global manufacturing capacity needed for solar PV modules must rise to 651 GW, 400 GW for wind turbines, 167 GW for hydrogen electrolyzers, and 5099 GWh for EV batteries, according to the IEA. A recent statement from the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy revealed that India has already increased its solar modules manufacturing capacity to 67 GW, a 27x increase in the last 10 years, accounting for 10% of the global requirement. The government has offered financial incentives to companies to set up 1.5 GW capacity of electrolyzers, the main technology to produce green hydrogen from water. Battery manufacturing projects will create a manufacturing capacity of a minimum of 120 GWh by 2030, which will result in a 10-fold increase in India’s share of global battery manufacturing capacity, from 0.2% currently to 2% in 2030.
Reports show that China is a leading investor across the majority of clean energy manufacturing investments in Southeast Asian nations, likely in a bid to bypass trade barriers. By contrast, a majority of investments into the Indian clean energy manufacturing ecosystem are from a diversified investor base, primarily from India but also from the U.S., Japan, and others. This helps India’s positioning as a trusted source for supplies of clean energy equipment.
Ultimately, quality and pricing matter. As the CEO of a company involved in both the manufacturing of solar modules and cells and their use in electricity generation, I can confidently say that modules, cells, batteries, and electrolyzers made in India meet the highest international standards, as evidenced by the rapidly rising exports from India to the U.S. and EU.
Competitiveness on pricing is trickier. Industry estimates indicate that production costs for Chinese suppliers are between 15-25% lower than other international players across technologies such as solar modules, cells, batteries, electrolyzers, and wind turbines. However, Chinese suppliers are offering products at almost 40-50% of the prices being offered by players from other countries. This mismatch has led to a spate of non-tariff barriers, anti-dumping duties, and investigations initiated by several markets including the U.S., India, and the EU.
Clean energy is an area ripe for stronger international collaboration. Even though building domestic supply chain capabilities opens possibilities of a huge economic prize for host countries, multiple hubs are critical to nudging domestic manufacturers toward gaining international competitiveness (especially as subsidies are time- and resource-capped) as well as to leverage respective strengths for faster innovation and cost reduction across the board. NSB
Bangladesh likely to keep power deal with India’s Adani, sources say (Reuters)
Reuters [10/11/2024 1:18 AM, Ruma Paul and Nidhi Verma, 5.2M, Neutral]
Bangladesh is likely to set aside pricing concerns and retain a power purchase pact with India’s Adani Power (ADAN.NS) in the face of supply worries and gloomy prospects for a legal challenge, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.
The new government has set up a panel to gauge whether its predecessor’s contracts adequately protected the nation’s interests, particularly projects faulted for lack of transparency that were initiated under a special expediting law.
One contract being scrutinised over price concerns is a 2017 deal to buy electricity for 25 years from Adani’s $2-billion, 1,600-MW power plant in India’s eastern state of Jharkhand that exclusively supplies Bangladesh.
The project meets nearly a tenth of Bangladesh’s demand for power, so cancelling the Adani deal outright would be difficult, however, said one of the sources. Both spoke on condition of anonymity as the matter is a sensitive one.
Also, a legal challenge in an international court was likely to fail without strong evidence of wrongdoing, the source added.
While an exit may not be possible, the only feasible option could be a mutual agreement to reduce the tariff, the second source said.
Asked for comment on the remarks, Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan, the power and energy adviser, or de facto minister in the interim government, said, "The committee is currently reviewing the matter, and it would be premature to comment."
The Adani power costs Bangladesh about 12 taka ($0.1008) a unit, an official of the Bangladesh Power Development Board said, citing the latest audit report for financial year 2023/24.
That is 27% higher than the rate of India’s other private producers and as much as 63% more than Indian state-owned plants, he added.
Under the deal, Bangladesh has been sourcing electricity since April 2023 from Adani, along with about 1,160 MW from other Indian plants.
Adani has had "no indication" that Bangladesh is reviewing the agreement, a spokesperson in India said.
"We continue to supply power to Bangladesh despite mounting dues, which are of significant concern and are rendering plant operations unsustainable," the spokesperson said.
Dhaka is struggling to clear dues of $800 million to Adani Power, among more than $1 billion owed to Indian power companies, because of difficulty in accessing dollars to make payment."We are in constant dialogue with senior officials of the Bangladesh Power Development Board and the government, who have assured us our dues will be cleared soon," the Adani spokesperson added.
Adani Power was confident Dhaka would fulfil its commitments, just as the company had met its contract terms, the spokesperson added, but did not respond to a query on why its rates exceeded those of other suppliers.
Nevertheless, domestic critics, such as the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of former premier Khaleda Zia, say pricing concerns make a review of the deal necessary.
"The deal with Adani has raised serious concerns about overpricing from the start, and it’s a positive step that the government is now reviewing it," said senior party leader Zainul Abdin Farroque.
"I hope they make the right decision."
The interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus took power in Bangladesh in August after deadly protests prompted then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign and flee to neighbouring India.
It has since scrapped projects such as a floating LNG terminal planned by domestic conglomerate Summit Group, with officials saying more cancellations are possible. Bangladeshi Hindus voice fear, anxiety as Durga Puja begins (VOA)
VOA [10/10/2024 11:32 AM, Staff, 4566K, Negative]
Sharadiya Durga Puja, the largest Hindu festival in Bangladesh, started Wednesday under a cloud of concern following recent acts of vandalism. Reports of idol desecration in various regions have raised concerns about the safety of religious minorities.
On Tuesday, vandals damaged five idols at the Sajjankanda District Road Transport Owner Oikya Parishad temple in Rajbari. This is the latest incident of vandalism of Durga idols reported in the media.
Ranadash Dasgupta, the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council’s general secretary, told VOA, "In the last 15 days, idols of Durga Puja have been damaged in 19 Puja [ritual prayer] pavilions in 14 districts of the country."
Dasgupta said Hindu minorities are worshipping in fear of attacks.
"The minority community is in a sense of trauma. While they want to celebrate Puja, they also feel the risk of attack,’ he said.
Longtime lawyer Subrata Chowdhury said attacks on Hindu minorities have been taking place since the country became independent.
"The first attacks on Durga idols took place in Chattogram and Dhaka in 1972. Since then, hundreds of such attacks have taken place. Justice was not ensured in any of these incidents and perpetrators not identified," Chowdhury told VOA.
According to a report by Ain O Salish Kendro, a Dhaka-based human rights organization, there were 12 attacks on religious minorities, 17 temples set on fire, five people injured and three homes attacked in 2022. In 2023, there were 22 incidents of violence, 43 idols vandalized, five reported home invasions and 19 people injured.
"Law enforcers have failed miserably here," Chowdhurry said, "and we saw the judiciary’s reluctance to ensure fair trial over such incidents."
Dasgupta said that violence against Hindu minorities continues because attackers face no consequences.
Heightened security in Puja pavilions
Army Chief General Waker-uz-Zaman announced on October 5 that the Bangladeshi Army has made extensive preparations to ensure security during Durga Puja.
The interim government has issued directives to maintain order, including deploying police, the Rapid Action Battalion and all local forces.
Inspector General of Police Mohammad Moinul Islam confirmed increased security at 31,000 festivals. Several arrests have been made, and police officials in Barisal, Pabna and Kishoreganj have been removed following vandalism incidents.
Special Assistant to the Chief Adviser Mahfuz Alam said Tuesday that action would be taken on complaints and that financial assistance would be provided to those affected.
But recent reports of vandalism have left many unsatisfied with the security measures.
Moni Mitra, who works for an online news outlet in Dhaka, said, "Every year before the start of Puja, we get reports of attacks in different parts of the country. This time too was no exception. We want to perform the Puja without fear. This is what we as a citizen of the country want from the government."
Concern in India over safety of minorities
India has voiced concerns about idol vandalism and the safety of Hindus in Bangladesh. Indian Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on October 4 that concerns for minority safety include Durga Puja and Vijayadashami. He urged the Bangladeshi government to ensure security for minority communities.
In response, Bangladeshi Foreign Adviser Md Touhid Hosasin said Bangladesh will address any attacks on puja mandaps without foreign interference.
The Indian government on several other occasions expressed concerns over the safety and security of minorities in Bangladesh since the fall of the Sheikh Hasina-led government on August 5.
At a news conference on September 18, the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council reported 2,010 incidents of communal violence across the country from August 4 to 20.
They included nine deaths, four rapes or gang rapes, and attacks on 69 places of worship, which were vandalized or set on fire.
Additionally, 953 businesses were attacked, vandalized, looted, or burned. The organization also reported 38 cases of physical assault and 21 instances of illegal land and business seizures.
US concerned, too
Concerns about the safety of religious minorities in Bangladesh were also raised by the United States.
On September 20, the chairs of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee - Senators Ben Cardin, Chris Murphy, Chris Van Hollen and Jeff Merkley - wrote to the chief adviser of the interim government, urging stronger law enforcement and prompt action against those responsible for attacks on vulnerable communities, including Hindus.
On September 26, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken met with Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus. They discussed strengthening the partnership between the countries and highlighted the need to protect human rights for all Bangladeshis, particularly minority communities. Bangladesh Islamist Chief Backs Crimes Against Humanity Trial For Ex-PM (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [10/11/2024 5:18 AM, Mohammad Mazed, 5.2M, Neutral]
Bangladesh’s top Islamist politician says he supports the extradition of ousted premier Sheikh Hasina to face trial for crimes against humanity in the same tribunal that convicted his colleagues.Shafiqur Rahman is the leader of Jamaat-e-Islami, whose members were hounded, driven underground and sentenced to death during Hasina’s autocratic 15-year rule.Her government justified the crackdown on the nation’s largest Islamist party by accusing it of sponsoring extremist attacks -- charges Rahman denies.After Hasina’s toppling and exile in neighbouring India following a student-led revolution in August, the ban on Jamaat’s activities was lifted.Rahman is leading its public revival.Now back in the political mainstream, he says Hasina must be extradited to face trial with her allies for abuses committed during her tenure."We don’t believe in the theory that just because we faced injustice, someone else should also face injustice," the 65-year-old told AFP at his party office in the capital Dhaka."But people want them to be tried. If they don’t face trial, these criminals will commit more crimes."Dozens of Hasina’s allies were taken into custody after her regime collapsed, accused of culpability in a police crackdown that killed more than 700 people during the unrest that deposed her.Several cases accusing Hasina of orchestrating the "mass murder" of protesters are being probed in a deeply contentious war crimes court her government set up.The International Crimes Tribunal was ostensibly created to try Bangladeshis accused of committing crimes against humanity during the country’s devastating 1971 independence war against Pakistan.The United Nations and rights groups criticised its procedural shortcomings, and it became widely seen as a means for Hasina to eliminate political opponents.The tribunal hanged five of Jamaat’s top leaders, sparking protests that led to the deaths of around 500 people.Rahman said it was important Hasina and her loyalists faced a fair trial, the kind denied to his executed comrades.He said he was confident that the tribunal, if reformed, could meet the task."Whenever there is any crime against humanity in this country, then there is no problem with it being explored in the tribunal," he said."If there is any disparity of law, if there is any contradiction with the constitution or human rights, that can be amended."At the same time, Rahman said Jamaat would challenge the tribunal’s former wrongdoings by posthumously appealing the death penalty verdicts handed to his former colleagues."We will prove that we faced injustices in the court which hanged our leaders," he said.Jamaat’s headquarters was shuttered for more than a decade but reopened days after Hasina’s downfall. It is now swarming with party activists.The party will contest the next national elections, expected sometime in the next two years -- but Rahman says they are in no rush.Instead he wants the caretaker government, led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, to first fulfil its pledge of a democratic overhaul."The election would not be meaningful without reforms," Rahman said.So far there had been no alliance struck with its previous coalition partner, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), he said.But Rahman did support the return of exiled BNP leader Tarique Rahman, convicted of graft charges during Hasina’s government, and who has lived in London since 2008."We have many false cases against us, so we believe he also has many false cases against him," Rahman said.Hasina accused Jamaat of supporting extremism and undermining the country’s secular constitution.The impetus for her crackdown on the party was bolstered by several Islamist attacks during her time in office that killed bloggers accused of blasphemy and Westerners living in Dhaka.Rahman emphatically denied the party’s association with any extremist group, saying Jamaat had long committed to the democratic process.He cited Jamaat’s condemnation of a spate of attacks after Hasina’s toppling on Bangladesh’s minority Hindus, motivated by the community’s perceived support of her government.And he pointed to the party’s efforts to guard Hindu temples and Sufi Muslim shrines after they were attacked since August."We are loud and clear," he said. "We don’t have any ambiguity here. We don’t support any of this." Why is pro-China Maldives leader Muizzu seeking to mend India ties? (Al Jazeera)
Al Jazeera [10/10/2024 10:24 AM, Sarah Shamim, 25768K, Neutral]
Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu has called India a "valued partner" on his first state visit to New Delhi in an effort to mend ties that were strained by Muizzu’s anti-India rhetoric during his election campaign.
Muizzu’s pro-China stance and campaign to drive out Indian troops stationed in the archipelago nation threatened traditionally strong ties between the two Indian Ocean nations.
After his election win in late 2023, the Maldivian leader, however, signalled a willingness to engage with India - and seems to have found a willing partner in New Delhi. "Maldives is India’s key maritime neighbour in the Indian Ocean Region," India’s Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement announcing Muizzu’s five-day visit, which began on Sunday.
So why has Muizzu visited India, and what does it mean for India-Maldives ties?
What was on the agenda for Muizzu’s visit?
Muizzu was given a red carpet welcome, and his busy itinerary included meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other top Indian officials.
According to India’s foreign office, Muizzu and Modi discussed "energy, trade, financial linkages and defence cooperation". Specifically, they talked about a free trade agreement.
After the meeting, Modi said India would help the Maldives develop infrastructure projects. India approved a $400m currency swap agreement to support the cash-strapped Maldivian economy.
Muizzu said this agreement "will be instrumental in addressing the foreign exchange issues we are facing right now".
The two leaders also virtually inaugurated a runway at Hanimaadhoo International Airport in the Maldives.
Why is the Maldives president visiting India?
The Maldives is grappling with a budget deficit and debt burden. It faces the prospect of defaulting on debt repayments with its foreign reserves falling to $440m.
The Maldives, which heavily borrowed from China during former President Abdulla Yameen’s term, owes Beijing $1.37bn, according to World Bank data. New Delhi is also a major source of credit for Male.
Muizzu visited Beijing in January, signing infrastructure and climate deals with China, but he has not burned bridges with New Delhi. Historically, Male has cultivated friendly ties with New Delhi. Yameen, a former ally of Muizzu, forged closer China ties and signed big infrastructure projects.
"Muizzu has been trying to better balance the relations between the Maldives and China and the Maldives and India," Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Washington-based Wilson Center, told Al Jazeera.
While Muizzu has demonstrated a desire to strengthen ties with China, "particularly on the defence side," he has continued to work closely with India in other areas, "particularly when it comes to commercial and economic ties," said Kugelman.
The island nation’s economy is largely driven by its tourism sector, which makes up nearly a third of its GDP. The 1,192 islands in the archipelago are home to an array of luxury resorts.
But the COVID-19 pandemic and later the strained ties with India hit the economy badly. More than 200,000 Indians visited the Maldives in 2023 - the highest from any country. But the numbers dipped by 42 percent this year, amid tensions following Muizzu’s election. India is also a major trade partner of the Maldives.
"I think that Muizzu does recognise that there can’t be any impression that he wants to back away from India and all of the critical economic and development support that entails," Kugelman said.
What was the opposition’s ‘India Out’ campaign?Muizzu’s People’s National Congress (PNC) and its ally Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM), led by Yameen, campaigned on the promise to evict a small contingent of Indian troops from the Maldives over opposition fears that the presence of Indian soldiers posed a danger to its sovereignty.
Mohamed Saeed, a senior leader from Muizzu’s PNC, said, "We are not against the people of India."
"Our people just want the Indian military to leave. We are a very fragile country. We cannot afford to have any military presence of another country here," he told TRT World when the "India Out" campaign was launched in 2020 when pro-India Ibrahim Solih was president.
According to New Delhi, Indian forces were tasked with operating the two helicopters and one aircraft India had donated to the Maldives.
But opposition parties alleged there was a plan for a permanent Indian military base in the island nation. A leaked document released in the local media said an India-funded dockyard for the Maldivian coastguard would be used by Indian navy vessels for years.
The opposition asked why such an important deal was not debated in parliament. Solih was accused of signing a secret defence deal with India, an accusation the government denied as it accused the opposition parties of "spreading lies".
"India has always been the Maldives’ closest ally and trusted neighbour," a statement by the government said in November.
"Support provided by India, on areas such as search and rescue capabilities, casualty evacuation, coastal surveillance, and maritime reconnaissance, directly benefit the Maldivian people," it said.
New Delhi withdrew its soldiers and other support staff after Muizzu became president, but New Delhi and Male reached an agreement to replace them with civilians who will help the Maldives manage the aircraft gifted by India.
What’s the larger geopolitics at play in the Maldives?
Indian forces have long trained Maldivian troops in reconnaissance and rescue and aid operations. India sent its troops in 1998 to thwart a coup attempt against then-President Abdul Gayoom.
During Solih’s presidency, India provided financial aid to the Maldives to help fund projects in the education, health and community development sectors, according to a bilateral brief on India’s foreign office website. In 2019, India provided a cash grant of 50 crore Indian rupees ($6m).
China and India are in a geopolitical struggle for influence in the strategically located Maldives, which sits on one of the busiest maritime routes in the world. New Delhi is wary of China’s growing military presence in the Maldives and other island nations such as Sri Lanka.According to an Al Jazeera report from 2021, India opened a military base on a remote Mauritian island while in March New Delhi inaugurated a new naval base on its Lakshadweep island, about 130km (80 miles) north of the Maldives.
Muizzu’s trip is an occasion to reset ties and address New Delhi’s geostrategic concerns.
"The relationship between India and Maldives is centuries old," Modi said in a joint statement with Muizzu on Monday.
Kugelman said India recognises that the Maldives is "a battleground for India-China competition".
"I think that New Delhi wants to ensure that its leverage remains intact and by extension that its influence remains strong with the Maldives," he said, adding that as long as India continues to be perceived by the Maldives as a critical economic partner, particularly at a moment of economic stress, India will continue to retain leverage.
Will Muizzu’s diplomatic shift affect him back home?
So how will Muizzu’s diplomatic outreach to India be seen in the Maldives, given that he made the "India Out" campaign a major plank of his campaign?
"You have had some notable anti-India sentiment among the public in the Maldives," Kugelman said. "Certainly his decision to run his presidential campaign on a platform to expel the Indian military presence was a popular one, and it helped catapult him to the presidency."
However, "there are several factors at play that I think will minimise the political damage that Muizzu could suffer here," Kugelman said.
First, Muizzu upheld his pledge and expelled the Indian military from the Maldives. He also promptly strengthened defence ties with Beijing with some new military agreements. "These are things that will have been received well by those in the Maldives that were unhappy about the Indian military presence in the Maldives."
"Muizzu never promised to scale back on economic and commercial ties with India. He never promised not to engage with India. He never promised to essentially cut off that relationship."
What’s next?
Muizzu’s trip underscores his efforts to repair ties with New Delhi, said analysts. "India is a key partner in the socioeconomic and infrastructure development of the Maldives and has stood by the Maldives during our times of need," Muizzu said after his meeting with Modi.
New Delhi also pledged to develop a commercial port on the Maldivian island of Thilafushi to decongest the port in the capital, Male.
Additionally, Modi said India will offer financial support for the Maldives in the form of a $100m treasury bills rollover.
RuPay, an Indian multinational financial services and payment system, was launched in the Maldives on Monday, and Modi said India plans to connect the two South Asian countries through the Indian instant payment system Unified Payments Interface.
But symbolically, the biggest moment of Muizzu’s visit was an announcement that followed his meeting with the Indian PM: Modi accepted an invitation for a state visit to the Maldives next year.
Muizzu wanted India out. He has ended up inviting India back in. Central Asia
Kyrgyzstan raises issue of extending validity of US visas for students (Kabar)
Kabar [10/10/2024 6:00 AM, Staff, 82K, Positive]
Ambassador of Kyrgyzstan to the United States and Canada Bakyt Amanbaev met with Assistant of Secretary of State for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu.
The Foreign Ministry of Kyrgyzstan reported that during the meeting topical issues of bilateral and multilateral cooperation and outlined priority areas for further joint work were discussed.
Ambassador Amanbaev raised the issue of extending the validity of U.S. visas for Kyrgyz students from one year to five years, expressed a request for assistance in opening correspondent accounts between Kyrgyz and U.S. banks, and proposed launching projects aimed at temporarily recruiting Kyrgyz truck drivers and nurses to the United States.
In addition, he presented proposals for strengthening bilateral and multilateral relations in the future.
For his part, Donald Lu expressed support for the initiative to extend the validity of visas for students from Kyrgyzstan and proposed concrete steps to implement this measure. The US side also presented its ideas on further development of bilateral and multilateral cooperation.
Following the meeting, the parties agreed on joint actions to achieve mutually beneficial cooperation in the future. Kyrgyz court finds four journalists guilty of inciting unrest (Reuters)
Reuters [10/10/2024 9:47 AM, Olzhas Auyezov, 37270K, Negative]
A court in Kyrgyzstan on Thursday sentenced two journalists to prison terms and two more to probation after finding them guilty of inciting unrest, Kyrgyz news website Kaktus.media reported.The four reporters were part of a group of 11 journalists detained in January in a move which prompted strong criticism from the West. Kyrgyzstan, which hosts a Russian military airbase, is closely allied with Moscow.The journalists, who worked for private local news outlets, were accused of publishing stories which called for protests and public unrest, a charge they denied.The court sentenced Makhabat Tazhibek kyzy to six years in prison and Azamat Ishenbekov to five years. It found seven defendants not guilty."Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns this decision, unsupported by evidence, as an attempt to muzzle independent journalism and calls for their immediate release," the media rights group said in a statement."It is a dark day for press freedom in Kyrgyzstan." Trial of 11 Journalists in Kyrgyzstan Ends in Prison Sentences and Acquittals (The Diplomat)
The Diplomat [10/10/2024 8:43 AM, Catherine Putz, 1198K, Neutral]
Nearly nine months after Kyrgyz authorities took 11 journalists associated with Temirov Live into custody, a court in Bishkek announced its verdict: Two of the journalists, charged with organizing or aiding in "calls for mass unrest," were sentenced to prison terms; two others were handed probation terms, and the remaining seven were acquitted.
Prosecutors had asked for six-year sentences for all 11 defendants in a case that has drawn widespread criticism from media and human rights advocates.
"These charges are nothing more than a politically motivated attempt to suppress free speech and punish journalists for their work," Denis Krivosheev, Amnesty International’s acting director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, said in a statement ahead of the verdict.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has advocated for dropping the charges against the journalists since their arrest in January. In a September 26 statement, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, Gulnoza Said, warned, "The conviction of even a single one of the 11 Temirov Live investigative journalists on such clearly contrived and retaliatory charges would deal a further severe blow to Kyrgyzstan’s international reputation."
The International Partnership for Human Rights said in a September 30 briefing noted, "The media climate in Kyrgyzstan, once relatively free, has deteriorated significantly due to government raids, arrests of journalists, forced media closure initiatives, and blocking of news sites."
Makhabat Tazhibek kyzy, the director of Temirov Live and the wife of its founder, the exiled Bolot Temirov - whose Kyrgyz citizenship was revoked in another controversial case that came in the wake of a long-running pressure campaign against him - was given a six-year prison term.
The judge reportedly said that Tazhibek’s son, a minor, may be placed in an orphanage if no suitable relative could be found, given that his father is outside the country. The journalists’ lawyer and Temirov, in a social media post, said that the child lives with his grandmother. A deputy from the Ombudsman’s Office, as reported by 24.kg, said, "If social services consider that the grandmother is at an age where she can provide the child with all the necessary conditions, then she will have to renew guardianship every six months. I think there will be no problems with this."
Nevertheless, Temirov expressed concern: "They are not taking him away from his grandmother… But that does not mean there is no threat."
Azamat Ishenbekov, an akyn with the "Ait ait dese" project, was sentenced to five years.
As Ilya Lozovsky of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) described in an article earlier this year decrying Kyrgyzstan’s new era of repression, "Ait Ait Dese features rhymed performances by traditional poets, called akyns, calling for action against social problems, inveighing against corruption, or even presenting the findings of Temirov Live’s investigations."
In July, another akyn - Askat Zhetigen - was sentenced to three years in prison on charges of calling for the violent seizure of power.
Following the verdict, Ishenbekov said in a Telegram post, "There is no justice or honesty in this country, everything is dead."
Two of the remaining journalists - Aktilek Kaparov and Aike Beishekeeva - were given three-year probation terms. Beishekeyeva was arrested on her 23rd birthday on January 16; she is the youngest journalist among the 11. Aktilek Kaparov had worked as an investigative joiurnalist for Factcheck.kg and Temirov Live before founding his own outlet, Alga.media.
The two were nominated by the Media Action Platform of Kyrgyzstan for their Most Resilient Journalist and Young Journalist awards in August.
Those acquitted due to a lack of evidence were: Temirov Live editorial staff Maksat Tazhibek uulu, Akyl Orozbekov, and Jumabek Turdaliev; Zoodar Buzumov, a journalist of "Nur press" media; Saparbek Akunbekov, an employee of the "Ait Ait Dese" project; Saipidin Sultanaliev of Archa Media (formerly Next TV media), and PolitKlinika journalist Tynystan Asypbekov. Kyrgyz Investigative Journalists Jailed As Media Crackdown Continues (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [10/10/2024 4:14 PM, Staff, 235K, Negative]
Two journalists from the Kyrgyz anti-corruption investigative group Temirov Live have been sentenced to prison after being found guilty on charges that their supporters and media watchdogs say are politically motivated.
A court in Bishkek on October 10 sentenced Makhabat Tajibek-kyzy to six years in prison and Azamat Ishenbekov to five years after they were found guilty of "creating an organized criminal group" and "calling for mass riots."
Tajibek-kyzy is the wife of the group’s founder, Bolot Temirov.
The court also sentenced Aktilek Kaparov and Aike Beishekeeva to three years of probation on the same charges.
Seven other current and former members of Temirov Live -- Maksat Tajibek-uulu, Akyl Orozbekov, Jumabek Turdaliev, Joodar Buzumov, Saparbek Akunbekov, Saipidin Sultanaliev, and Tynystan Asypbekov -- were acquitted.
The 11 journalists went on trial on June 7 amid calls from domestic and international rights groups for all charges to be dropped and for them to be released immediately.
Last month, one of the journalists on trial, Aike Beishekeeva, was named as the winner of the Gratias Tibi award of the Prague-based Clovek v Tisni (People In Need) rights group.
The annual award is given to people younger than 30 for their contributions to defending human rights worldwide.
Bolot Temirov was deported to Russia in November 2022 after a court ruled that he obtained Kyrgyz citizenship illegally.
Temirov, who held Kyrgyz and Russian passports, rejected the accusation and insisted the probe against him was launched after he published an investigation suggesting corruption among top Kyrgyz officials.
Kyrgyzstan’s free press and civil society have traditionally been the most vibrant in Central Asia, but that has changed amid an intensifying government crackdown.
In early April, President Sadyr Japarov signed into law a controversial bill that allows authorities to register organizations as "foreign representatives," which critics say mirrors a repressive Russian law on "foreign agents" that Moscow uses to muzzle independent journalism and NGOs. Russia’s Putin begins a visit to Turkmenistan for forum with regional leaders, including Iran (AP)
AP [10/11/2024 3:40 AM, Staff, 456K, Neutral]
President Vladimir Putin began a visit to Turkmenistan Friday, speaking at an international forum with Central Asian leaders and the president of Iran.
The Kremlin said Putin will discuss the situation in the Middle East with Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian on the sidelines of the conference in the Turkmen capital, Ashgabat.
Moscow and Tehran signed a $1.7 billion deal for Iran to export drones to Russia after Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022, and the U.S. also believes it has transferred short-range ballistic missiles.
The conference is being attended by other regional leaders including Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and the heads of the other Central Asian nations, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
In his opening remarks at the forum, Putin repeated again that he wants to build “a new world order” with Russia’s friends and partners, according to video shared by the Kremlin.
As well as meeting the Iranian leader, Putin is expected to hold talks with the Turkmen president, Serdar Berdymukhamedov.
Berdymukhamedov, 43, was elected in March 2022 to succeed his father, Gurbanguly, who had run the gas-rich country since 2006.
Turkmenistan has remained largely isolated under autocratic rulers since it became independent following the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. Russia’s Putin visits Turkmenistan, talks of need for new world order (Reuters)
Reuters [10/11/2024 3:33 AM, Staff, 5.2M, Neutral]
President Vladimir Putin on Friday told a conference in the Central Asian country of Turkmenistan that a new world order was needed where wealth was more fairly redistributed and the opinions of each nation taken into account.
The conference in the Turkmen capital of Ashgabat is being attended by regional leaders and Putin is due to hold separate talks with Serdar Berdymukhamedov, his Turkmen counterpart.
Video released by the Kremlin on Friday morning showed Putin arriving at the conference venue in his limousine and shaking hands inside with the Turkmen leader and then addressing the conference.
The Kremlin has said that Putin is due to discuss the situation in the Middle East on the event’s sidelines with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian who was also expected to attend. Uzbekistan accepts ambassador from Taliban-led Afghanistan (VOA)
VOA [10/10/2024 9:13 AM, Ayaz Gul, 4566K, Neutral]
Afghanistan’s Taliban said Thursday that Uzbekistan had accepted their appointed ambassador, and both sides marked the action as an important advancement in strengthening diplomatic ties between the neighboring countries.
The action is seen as a rare diplomatic achievement for the internationally isolated Taliban leaders since they regained control of the country three years ago.
Until now, China and the United Arab Emirates were the only two countries that had formally accredited a Taliban-appointed ambassador since Afghan insurgents regained power in Kabul.
None of the three nations has recognized the Taliban as the official government of Afghanistan, and neither has the rest of the world, citing concerns about inclusivity, terrorism, and restrictions on women’s access to education and work.
The Taliban’s foreign ministry identified its diplomat to Tashkent as Sheikh Abdul Ghafar Bahr, saying he formally presented a copy of his credentials to Uzbek Minister of Foreign Affairs Bakhtiyor Saidov on Wednesday.
"Bahr described the upgradation of bilateral relations as a pivotal phase, hoping for further progress," the Taliban quoted their ambassador as saying at Wednesday’s ceremony to welcome him in the Uzbek capital.
The statement quoted Saidov as noting that "both countries enjoy shared interests and have achieved substantial economic growth over the past three years." The Taliban said that Bahr "is expected to present his original letter of credence" to President Shavkat Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan.
"Our countries share a common history and interests of prosperity that serve as an impetus for the development of cooperation ties in all areas," Saidov said on his social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, after Wednesday’s ceremony. "We also discussed the acute topics on bilateral, regional, and global agendas," the Uzbek foreign minister wrote.
The Taliban separately stated Thursday that their Ministry of Mines and Petroleum had signed a 10-year contract with an Uzbek company for the exploration and extraction of gas in Afghanistan.
The announcement said the agreement requires the Uzbek company to invest $100 million in the first year and $1 billion over the next 10 years. The investment will target the gas reserves of the Totimaidan field in the northern Afghan province of Faryab, which spans an area of about 7,000 square kilometers.
Russia reported last week that a "principal decision" had already been made to remove the Taliban from its list of transnational terrorist organizations, saying relevant Russian agencies were "putting finishing touches" on the delisting in line with federal law.
U.S.-led Western countries have been pressing the Taliban to reverse restrictions on women’s freedoms and their right to education as well as employment before they could consider engaging diplomatically with Kabul. Washington also wants the de facto Afghan rulers to address regional and international terrorism concerns.
"We have not changed our designation of the Taliban as a specially designated global terrorist organization, and we continue to make clear that any significant steps towards normalization of relations is contingent upon a profound shift in the Taliban’s human rights conduct," Matthew Miller, the U.S. State Department spokesperson said on Tuesday.
"We continue to work with our allies and partners to press the Taliban to reverse their discriminatory edicts, and we make sure that any significant steps toward normalization of relations are contingent upon profound improvements in their treatment of women and girls, including but not limited to allowing women and girls back in school and lifting the restrictions on women’s employment," Miller explained.
Taliban leaders defend their governance, arguing that it is in line with their interpretation of the Islamic law of Sharia. They also rejected criticism of their curbs on Afghan women’s access to education, employment, and public life at large.
Abdul Kabir, the Taliban’s deputy prime minister for political affairs, reportedly said Thursday that their government aims to maintain positive relations with all countries. However, he emphasized that "they will not sacrifice Islamic principles or values to please others."
Kabir asserted in his remarks that the Taliban are currently in control of "40 diplomatic missions in different countries and engagement with the world is moving in a positive direction." Indo-Pacific
Blinken tells ASEAN the US is worried about China’s ‘dangerous’ actions in disputed sea (AP)
AP [10/11/2024 2:44 AM, Eileen Ng and Jintama Sakornchai, 456K, Neutral]
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Southeast Asian leaders Friday that the U.S. is concerned about China’s “increasingly dangerous and unlawful” activities in the disputed South China Sea during an annual summit meeting, and pledged the U.S. will continue to uphold freedom of navigation in the vital sea trade route.
The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ meeting with Blinken followed a series of violent confrontations at sea between China and ASEAN members Philippines and Vietnam, which have fueled concerns that China’s increasingly assertive actions in the waterways could spiral into a full-scale conflict.
China, which claims almost the entire sea, has overlapping claims with ASEAN members Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei, as well as Taiwan. About a third of global trade transits through the sea, which is also rich in fishing stocks, gas and oil.
Beijing has refused to recognize a 2016 international arbitration ruling by a U.N.-affiliated court in the Hague that invalidated its expansive claims, and has built up and militarized islands it controls.“We are very concerned about China’s increasingly dangerous and unlawful activities in the South China Sea which have injured people, harm vessels from ASEAN nations and contradict commitments to peaceful resolutions of disputes,” said Blinken, who is filling in for President Joe Biden, in his opening speech at the U.S.-ASEAN summit. “The United States will continue to support freedom of navigation, and freedom of overflight in the Indo Pacific.”
The U.S. has no claims in the South China Sea, but has deployed navy ships and fighter jets to patrol the waters in a challenge to China’s claims.
Chinese and Philippine vessels have clashed repeatedly this year, and Vietnam said last week that Chinese forces assaulted its fishermen in the disputed sea. China has also sent patrol vessels to areas that Indonesia and Malaysia claim as exclusive economic zones.
The U.S. has warned repeatedly that it’s obligated to defend the Philippines — its oldest treaty ally in Asia — if Filipino forces, ships or aircraft come under armed attack, including in the South China Sea.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. complained to summit leaders on Thursday that his country “continues to be subject to harassment and intimidation” by China. He said it was “regrettable that the overall situation in the South China Sea remains tense and unchanged” due to China’s actions, which he said violated international law. He has called for more urgency in ASEAN-China negotiations on a code of conduct to govern the South China Sea.
Singaporean leader Lawrence Wong earlier this week warned of “real risks of an accident spiraling into conflict” if the sea dispute isn’t addressed.
Malaysia, who takes over the rotating ASEAN chair next year, is expected to push to accelerate talks on the code of conduct. Officials have agreed to try and complete the code by 2026, but talks have been hampered by sticky issues including disagreements over whether the pact should be binding.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang was defiant during talks on Thursday. He called South China Sea a “shared home” but repeated China’s assertion that it was merely protecting its sovereign rights, officials said. Li also blamed meddling by “external forces” who sought to “introduce bloc confrontation and geopolitical conflicts into Asia.” Li didn’t name the foreign forces, but China has previously warned the U.S. not to meddle in the region’s territorial disputes.
In another firm message to China, Blinken said the U.S. believed “it is also important to maintain our shared commitment to protect stability across the Taiwan Strait.” China claims the self-ruled island of Taiwan as its own territory and bristles at other countries’ patrolling the body of water separating it from the island.
Blinken also attended an 18-nation East Asia Summit, along with the Chinese premier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and leaders from Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand.
ASEAN has treaded carefully on the sea dispute with China, which is the bloc’s largest trading partner and its third largest investor. It hasn’t marred trade relations, with the two sides focusing on expanding a free trade area covering a market of 2 billion people.
Blinken said the annual ASEAN summit talks were a platform to address other shared challenges including the civil war in Myanmar, North Korea’s “destabilizing behavior” and Russia’s war aggression in Ukraine. He said the U.S. remained the top foreign investor in the region, and aims to strengthen its partnership with ASEAN. Twitter
Afghanistan
UNAMA News@UNAMAnews
[10/11/2024 4:31 AM, 311.2K followers, 13 retweets, 14 likes]
Today we celebrate International Day of the Girl, but mourn more than three years of girls being barred from education above the age of 12. We again urge #Afghanistan’s de facto authorities to change course. Full statement: https://tinyurl.com/fy7de5kj #DayOfTheGirl
Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office@amnestysasia
[10/10/2024 7:48 AM, 92.5K followers, 10 retweets, 32 likes]
Afghanistan: "The HRC has yet again missed the chance to deliver an adequate response, advance accountability and justice, and deter further abuse of human rights as the Taliban continues to intensify and escalate their crackdown on the rights of the people in Afghanistan including through far reaching, draconian restrictions on the rights of women and girl." https://amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/10/geneva-un-hrc-resolution-on-afghanistan-fails-to-deliver-an-adequate-response-to-the-escalating-human-rights-crisis/
Habib Khan@HabibKhanT
[10/10/2024 5:03 PM, 238.2K followers, 137 retweets, 273 likes]
1,120 days and counting Taliban’s Afghanistan holds the title of the only country where girls’ education is illegal Over three years of stolen futures, silenced dreams, and suppressed potential. #LetHerLearn
Yalda Hakim@SkyYaldaHakim
[10/11/2024 2:10 AM, 220.6K followers, 72 retweets, 127 likes]
1120 days since the Taliban banned teenage girls from school. According to UN date, child marriage has increased by 25% since the Taliban takeover in 2021. #LetAfghanGirlsLearn Pakistan
Government of Pakistan@GovtofPakistan
[10/10/2024 5:16 AM, 3.1M followers, 14 retweets, 88 likes]
Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif chairs a meeting of the Federal Cabinet, today in Islamabad.
Shehbaz Sharif@CMShehbaz
[10/10/2024 9:27 AM, 6.7M followers, 395 retweets, 1.4K likes]
At just 22, Shehroze Kashif has made history as the youngest Pakistani to summit all 14 of the world’s highest peaks! Congratulations Shehroze on your inspiring achievement, raising the Pakistani flag on the world’s highest peaks! A true symbol of perseverance!
Madiha Afzal@MadihaAfzal
[10/10/2024 2:44 PM, 42.8K followers, 10 retweets, 52 likes]
If ever a photo captured the long reach of the military into civilian matters in Pakistan https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GZjMY1gXwAkKqA1?format=jpg&name=900x900 Anas Mallick@AnasMallick
[10/11/2024 12:47 AM, 73.9K followers, 4 retweets, 29 likes]
National Coordinators of all SCO member countries are all set to meet today in Islamabad as the 4 day meet gets underway ahead of the SCO Heads of Governments meeting on 15th and 16th of October in Islamabad. #Pakistan
Anas Mallick@AnasMallick
[10/11/2024 12:44 AM, 73.9K followers, 11 retweets, 43 likes]
19 coal miners killed in Balochistan’s Duki following terror attack on a private mine, 7 more injured -- While no terror group has claimed responsibility, the involvement of BLA can not be ruled out -- At the same time, Pakistani channels are focused on the politics in KPK.
Habib Khan@HabibKhanT
[10/10/2024 8:54 PM, 238.2K followers, 45 retweets, 127 likes]
Pashtun women rally against the fascist Pakistani state, standing with the PTM in the fight for justice & freedom. Ethnic Pashtuns and Baloch minorities have endured decades of oppression, but their resistance has grown stronger. #PashtunNationalCourt11October
Habib Khan@HabibKhanT
[10/10/2024 4:41 PM, 238.2K followers, 39 retweets, 86 likes]
Pakistan on the brink of ethnic civil war. Punjabi students have attacked Pashtun and baloch minority students in Juna Punja university in Punjab. Both, Pashtuns and baloch demand independent from Punjabi dominated Pakistan.
Hamid Mir@HamidMirPAK
[10/10/2024 11:43 AM, 8.5M followers, 249 retweets, 1.6K likes]
Secretary Information of @PTIofficial @SheikhWaqasPTI_ said “I am underground” He also claimed that federal government is trying to locate the MPs of his party but they will not be able to break anyone.
Murtaza Ali Shah@MurtazaViews
[10/10/2024 8:16 PM, 619.7K followers, 203 retweets, 1K likes]
PTM leader @ManzoorPashteen asks govt to start with blocking Ali Amin’s passport for meeting him and Ali asks @PashtunTM_Offi leader to add his missing purse and ID card in the list of stolen items India
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[10/10/2024 8:20 AM, 102.7M followers, 2.7K retweets, 14K likes]
Proposed ten suggestions which will further deepen India’s friendship with ASEAN.
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[10/10/2024 8:19 AM, 102.7M followers, 3.6K retweets, 18K likes]
The India-ASEAN Summit was a productive one. We discussed how to further strengthen the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between India and ASEAN. We look forward to deepening trade ties, cultural linkages and cooperation in technology, connectivity and other such sectors.
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[10/10/2024 6:23 AM, 102.7M followers, 3.1K retweets, 13K likes]
Sharing my remarks at the India-ASEAN Summit. https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1ZkKzRnnePaKv President of India@rashtrapatibhvn
[10/10/2024 8:08 AM, 25.9M followers, 531 retweets, 4.6K likes]
Air Chief Marshal AP Singh, Chief of the Air Staff, called on President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Vice-President of India@VPIndia
[10/11/2024 1:06 AM, 1.5M followers, 58 retweets, 264 likes]
Warm greetings on the auspicious occasion of Durga Puja. This festival, celebrated with immense devotion and joy across India, symbolizes the triumph of good over evil, reminding us of Maa Durga’s boundless strength and compassion. Her divine presence inspires us to overcome all challenges with courage and faith. May the blessings of Maa Durga bring peace, harmony and renewed energy into our lives. Wishing everyone good health, happiness and prosperity during this sacred time of devotion. #DurgaPuja2024 NSB
The President’s Office, Maldives@presidencymv
[10/10/2024 11:49 AM, 110.3K followers, 196 retweets, 212 likes]
President Dr @MMuizzu attends the UNDP-Maldives 45+ Year Partnership Celebration event ‘Dhivehi Dhathuru’. UNDP began operations in the Maldives in 1978, marking 45 years this year. The anniversary event features UNDP-funded art displays showcasing Maldives’ development history. UNDP has contributed to Maldives’ development and sustainability for 45 years.
The President’s Office, Maldives@presidencymv
[10/10/2024 11:34 AM, 110.3K followers, 158 retweets, 148 likes]
#Livestream: President attends UNDP-Maldives 45+ Year Partnership Celebration https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1MYGNMOLVLVKw
The President’s Office, Maldives@presidencymv
[10/10/2024 5:16 AM, 110.3K followers, 221 retweets, 237 likes]
President and First Lady return to Maldives after state visit to India https://presidency.gov.mv/Press/Article/31873
Anura Kumara Dissanayake@anuradisanayake
[10/10/2024 10:18 AM, 131.5K followers, 50 retweets, 573 likes]
Directed officials to allocate 11,000 acres of land, owned by the Kantale Sugar Company, to farmers for short-term crop cultivation. These lands will be provided in plots not exceeding five acres each. I instructed that a proper mechanism be developed for this process.
Anura Kumara Dissanayake@anuradisanayake
[10/10/2024 8:36 AM, 131.5K followers, 18 retweets, 212 likes]Had an insightful meeting with Palestinian Ambassador @hmst36 today (10). I’m grateful for Palestine’s kind words on Sri Lanka’s longstanding support! We strengthening our people-to-people ties and reaffirmed our commitment to enhancing cooperation.
Anura Kumara Dissanayake@anuradisanayake
[10/10/2024 8:25 AM, 131.5K followers, 25 retweets, 230 likes]
Had an important meeting with @stephenkoelher, Commander of the @USPacificFleet, today (10). The U.S. commitment to support Sri Lanka in combating transnational threats like drug smuggling and terrorism was discussed.
Anura Kumara Dissanayake@anuradisanayake
[10/10/2024 7:55 AM, 131.5K followers, 18 retweets, 160 likes]
Had a fruitful meeting with Bangladesh’s High Commissioner @andalib_elias today (10). We discussed strengthening economic ties and boostinh trade relations between the two countries. Looking forward to fostering closer bilateral cooperation!
Anura Kumara Dissanayake@anuradisanayake
[10/10/2024 6:13 AM, 131.5K followers, 12 retweets, 186 likes]
Met with Pakistan’s High Commissioner Maj. Gen. Faheem Ul Aziz today (10). Grateful for @AAliZardari’s warm message of support. We discussed enhancing political, security, and educational ties, including more scholarships for Sri Lankan students in agriculture & IT. Central Asia
UNODC Central Asia@UNODC_ROCA
[10/10/2024 4:59 AM, 2.5K followers, 4 retweets, 3 likes]
The Regional Platform for Fast-Tracking the Implementation of #UNCAC is enhancing the capacities of Central Asian countries to build transparent and accountable public sector entities through the introduction of Integrity Checks and Testing.
Leila Nazgul Seiitbek@l_seiitbek
[10/10/2024 9:13 AM, 3.9K followers, 8 retweets, 22 likes]
Kyrgyzstan: The head of the media outlet Temirov Live, Makhabat Tazhibek kyzy, was sentenced to six years in prison, and the akyn of "Ait Ait Dese" Azamat Ishenbekov - to five. Journalists Aktilek Kaparov and Aika Beyshekeeva were given three years of probation. The rest of the defendants in the case were acquitted due to the lack of evidence. The authorities decide to put child of Bolot and Mahabat under child protective service/orphanage/foster family. Both Mahabat and Bolot have parents, who can and are willing to take care of their grandson, who is 12 y.o. The grandparents also tried to get a power of attorney to move the child to Bolot in the EU. But the authorities are preventing this and are unlawfully refusing to verify/notarize the power of attorney.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service@president_uz[10/10/2024 1:18 PM, 201.4K followers, 6 retweets, 24 likes]
President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev has arrived in #Ashgabat with a working visit. He will deliver a speech at the plenary session of the International Forum “Interconnection of Times and Civilizations – the Basis of Peace and Development" dedicated to the 300th anniversary of Turkmen poet and philosopher Makhtumkuli Fraghi, and also hold several bilateral meetings.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service@president_uz
[10/10/2024 10:48 AM, 201.4K followers, 11 likes]
Today, President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev reviewed the report on ongoing efforts and future plans in the area of technical regulation. He instructed the officials to enhance laboratory operations in line with international standards, implement digitalization in these processes, and ensure the training of specialists in the field.
Navbahor Imamova@Navbahor
[10/10/2024 10:09 AM, 23.7K followers, 8 retweets, 9 likes]
Uzbekistan’s energy giant ERIELL is now in Afghanistan. Just signed a $1 billion gas extraction deal with the Taliban. https://amu.tv/129282/
Navbahor Imamova@Navbahor
[10/10/2024 9:21 AM, 23.7K followers, 2 retweets, 4 likes]
Uzbek America: Mahalla USA’s ZiyoArt Academy offers English classes for immigrant parents, while their US-born kids can learn Uzbek … Instructors are all volunteers. Brooklyn, New York{End of Report} To subscribe to the SCA Morning Press Clips, please email SCA-PressOfficers@state.gov. Please do not reply directly to this email.