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 18, 2024 6:30 AM ET |
Afghanistan
The Taliban say they are investigating reports of Afghan casualties on the Iran border (AP)
AP [10/17/2024 6:58 AM, Staff, 44095K, Negative]
The Taliban said Thursday they are investigating reports of Afghan casualties on the Iran border. It’s their first acknowledgement of the alleged killing and wounding of Afghan nationals by Iranian security forces in an attack Sunday. They previously described the reports as rumors.
Iran has denied any shooting took place near Saravan, a town in the country’s restive southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan, which borders Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.
However, anti-Afghan migrant rhetoric has escalated in Iran in recent months as Western sanctions grind down its economy, with the country’s police chief saying some 2 million migrants would be deported in the next six months.
HalVash, an advocacy group for the Baluch people that is broadly focused on Iran, has issued a series of reports about the shooting, citing two unidentified witnesses and others as claiming a death toll of at least dozens, with more wounded. It published images of what appeared to be several corpses and others with gunshot wounds. HalVash alleged that Iranian security forces used both firearms and rocket-propelled grenades in the attack.
Taliban chief spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said a high-ranking delegation was investigating the reported incident.
The delegation includes the deputy interior minister for security and representatives of different ministries, including defense and the General Intelligence Directorate.
"The delegation has been entrusted with the responsibility of conducting an exhaustive and meticulous investigation into the matter," Mujahid wrote on the social media platform X. "Since its assignment, the delegation has worked relentlessly to ascertain the facts. It is committed to providing clarity on this issue to the public at the earliest opportunity."
The Associated Press has been unable to independently confirm the attack. Verifying information remains difficult in Sistan and Baluchistan, which for decades has been home to a cross-border insurgency and violence involving heroin traffickers.
The U.N. mission in Afghanistan called for a thorough and transparent investigation into the alleged incident. It said the rights of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers were protected by international law.
"UNAMA expresses its deep concern over disturbing reports of an incident on 14 to 15 October in Sistan province, Sarbaz district, Kala Gan border area of Iran, with allegations that a large group of Afghan migrants were opened fire on, resulting in deaths and injuries," the mission said.
On Wednesday, Iran began to push back on the reports. Gen. Reza Shojaei, a commander of the provincial border guard, called the reports of a shooting "basically false." Hassan Kazemi Ghomi, the Iranian president’s special representative for Afghanistan affairs, also called the claims "not true" on X and blamed the story’s spread on "the frenzy of the lying media."
Officials from Afghanistan’s former Western-backed government said Iran must bring the perpetrators to justice.
Large numbers of Afghans have called Iran home for decades, from the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan through the first rule of the Taliban, the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and the 2021 Taliban takeover. The United Nations’ refugee agency estimates 3.8 million displaced people live in Iran, the vast majority of them Afghans. Some in Iran suggest the number of Afghans is even higher.
Police and authorities are signaling they want to deport more Afghans. Iranian police chief Ahmad Reza Radan earlier this month said the country planned to deport 2 million undocumented migrants in the next six months, though he stopped short of identifying them as Afghans. He said some 500,000 already had been deported.
"We cannot allow some individuals to enter the country illegally, reside, and work," he said. "Citizens and business owners should know that employing these individuals and housing illegal foreign nationals is a crime." Taliban Investigate Deaths Linked to Alleged Iran Border Clash (Newsweek)
Newsweek [10/17/2024 9:56 AM, Shannon McDonagh, 49093K, Negative]
The Taliban announced Thursday that they are investigating reports of Afghan casualties near the Iranian border.
This marks their first official acknowledgment of rumors regarding the killing and wounding of Afghan nationals by Iranian security forces in an attack on Sunday.
Iran has denied that any shooting took place near Saravan, a town in the country’s southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan, bordering Afghanistan.
Despite the denial, tensions over Afghan migrants have been rising in Iran, where Western sanctions have added pressure to the economy.
Iran’s police chief recently announced plans to deport 2 million undocumented migrants over the next six months.
HalVash, an advocacy group for Iran’s Baluch people, reported the deaths, citing two unidentified witnesses and claiming that dozens were killed.
The group also shared images of what it said were victims, showing corpses and individuals with gunshot wounds.
HalVash alleged that Iranian security forces used firearms and rocket-propelled grenades during the incident.
Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed that a high-ranking delegation has been dispatched to investigate the reports.
The team includes the deputy interior minister for security and officials from the ministries of defense and intelligence.
Mujahid confirmed on the social media platform X that the delegation had been tasked with conducting an "exhaustive and meticulous" investigation.
"They are committed to providing clarity on this issue to the public at the earliest opportunity," he added.
Independent confirmation of the incident has been difficult.
Sistan and Baluchistan is a region known for cross-border insurgency and violence linked to drug trafficking, making it challenging to verify reports.
The United Nations mission in Afghanistan has expressed concern over the reports and called for a thorough and transparent investigation.
"UNAMA expresses its deep concern over disturbing reports of an incident on 14 to 15 October in Sistan province, Sarbaz district, Kala Gan border area of Iran, with allegations that a large group of Afghan migrants were opened fire on, resulting in deaths and injuries," the U.N. statement said.
Iranian officials have pushed back against the claims.
Gen. Reza Shojaei, a border guard commander in Sistan and Baluchistan, described the allegations as "basically false."
Hassan Kazemi Ghomi, Iran’s special representative for Afghanistan, similarly rejected the reports, attributing them to "lying media" on X.
Afghanistan’s former Western-backed government has demanded that Iran hold those responsible accountable.
Millions of Afghans have lived in Iran since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.
Today, the United Nations estimates that 3.8 million displaced people live in Iran, the majority of them Afghan nationals.
Tensions between Iran and Afghanistan have escalated as Tehran faces an influx of Afghan migrants fleeing the economic and political fallout from the Taliban’s return to power in 2021.
Following the Taliban’s takeover, many Afghans fled to neighboring countries, including Iran, seeking safety from the group’s harsh rule.
The strain on Iran’s economy, compounded by U.S. sanctions, has fueled anti-migrant rhetoric and pushed Iranian authorities to crack down on undocumented Afghan migrants.
The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, which allowed the Taliban to regain control, has led to a humanitarian crisis that continues to drive displacement across the region.
Iranian authorities have signaled their intention to deport more Afghans, with Iranian police chief Ahmad Reza Radan stating earlier this month that the country would not tolerate illegal migrants.
He added that some 500,000 undocumented migrants had already been deported.
"We cannot allow some individuals to enter the country illegally, reside, and work," Radan said. UN seeks probe into reported mass killing of Afghans migrating to Iran (Reuters)
Reuters [10/17/2024 1:30 PM, Charlotte Greenfield and Mohammad Yunus Yawar, 37270K, Negative]
The United Nations’ mission in Afghanistan called on Thursday for an investigation into reports that a large group of Afghan migrants had been shot and killed on the Afghanistan-Iran border.Afghan media outlets including Tolo News, citing witnesses, said more than 200 Afghan migrants who entered Iran illegally were attacked on Iranian territory, and that dozens had been killed and injured.Iran’s ambassador to Afghanistan, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, denied the reports of the "death of dozens of illegal nationals" in a post on X.Tolo News quoted an "Iranian human rights organisation" saying that Iranian border guards had attacked the migrants.Afghanistan’s Taliban-run administration has not confirmed the incident and said it was investigating.The United Nations’ Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) in a statement expressed "deep concern over disturbing reports of an incident on 14 to 15 October in Sistan province, Sarbaz district, Kala Gan border area of Iran, with allegations that a large group of Afghan migrants were opened fire on, resulting in deaths and injuries."It did not make any reference to who might have carried out the alleged attack.UNAMA called for a "thorough and transparent" investigation into the alleged incident, stressing that the rights of migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers are protected by international law.Afghanistan authorities have been unable to confirm the incident because it happened "beyond Afghanistan’s borders," deputy spokesman of the government Hamdullah Fitrat said in a statement.He said a high-ranking delegation with officials from the interior, foreign and defence ministries had begun an investigation and would submit a report once the facts were clear.Thousands of Afghans fled their country in 2021 when the Taliban took power in the aftermath of the withdrawal of U.S.-led Western forces from a 20-year conflict.Both Iran and Pakistan are home to millions of Afghan migrants, but both have clamped down hard on refugees inside their borders. Judge orders Afghan man accused of planning Election Day attack in US to remain in custody (AP)
AP [10/17/2024 1:48 PM, Sean Murphy, 88008K, Negative]
An Afghan man who is accused of plotting an Election Day attack in the U.S. was ordered Thursday to remain in custody as officials disclosed that he had previously worked as a security guard for an American military installation in Afghanistan.U.S. Magistrate Judge Suzanne Mitchell in Oklahoma City issued her ruling after hearing testimony from an FBI special agent that Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, of Oklahoma City, and his brother-in-law, a juvenile, took steps to obtain AK-47 rifles and ammunition and planned to carry out an attack targeting large crowds on Election Day next month. Mitchell also determined there was probable cause to bind Tawhedi over for trial.FBI agent Derek Wiley testified that Tawhedi also is linked to an investigation in France that led to the arrests this month of three people, including two of Tawhedi’s brothers, who authorities say were plotting a terrorist attack in that country. One of those arrested in France, a 22-year-old Afghan who had residency papers in France, was being investigated for a suspected plan to attack people in a soccer stadium or shopping center.Authorities say both Tawhedi and those arrested in France were inspired by Islamic State ideology.The Justice Department said earlier that Tahwedi had entered the U.S. on a special immigrant visa in September 2021 shortly after Afghanistan’s capital city of Kabul was captured by the Taliban, and had been on parole pending a determination of his immigration status. In court Thursday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Dillon told the judge that Tawhedi had been temporarily allowed into the U.S. while he had a pending application for resident status, but that his parole status has since been revoked.“Were he to be released today, he would be unlawfully in the United States,” Dillon said.Tawhedi, bearded and with dark tousled hair, was led into the courtroom with his hands shackled around his waist and flanked by two U.S. marshals. Both he and his attorney, Craig Hoehns, wore a headset to communicate, and a Dari language interpreter was provided by the court.Wiley testified that Tawhedi had been under observation by federal agents for more than 40 days before his arrest on Oct. 7. He said Tawhedi subsequently admitted to investigators that he and his co-conspirator planned their attack to coincide with Election Day next month and that they expected to die as martyrs in the attack.Wiley said Tawhedi had used the online messaging application Telegram to communicate with an account associated with the Islamic State militant organization that was directing his actions, and that Tawhedi had sworn allegiance to the group and “would do whatever they told him to.”In arguing for home detention while awaiting trial, Hoehns suggested that the only weapon Tawhedi ever handled in the U.S. was given to him by a government informant and that Tawhedi had never been arrested or even received a traffic citation in three years in the U.S.Hoehns said Tawhedi had worked previously as a rideshare driver in Dallas and at several oil change locations in Oklahoma City.France’s national anti-terrorism prosecution office has previously said that its probe leading to the Afghan’s arrest was launched Sept. 27, prior to Tawhedi’s arrest in the U.S.In a statement Wednesday, the FBI said the arrests in both countries “demonstrate the importance of partnerships to detect and disrupt potential terrorist attacks.”
“The coordination between the United States and French law enforcement contributed to these outcomes,” the FBI said. Media in 3 Afghan provinces banned from showing images of living beings (VOA)
VOA [10/17/2024 1:51 PM, Roshan Noorzai, 4566K, Neutral]
The Taliban has ordered media in three provinces of Afghanistan to stop airing images of any living being, a drastic step widely criticized by journalism and civil liberty groups.
A Taliban official said this week that state-run media in the provinces of Takhar, Kandahar, and Maidan Wardak have been told to stop showing images of living things.
Experts who spoke with VOA said the Taliban also met with local media outlets and told them that the rule also applied to their coverage.
The order - part of the new morality law - will be implemented across the country, according to Saiful Islam Khyber, a spokesperson for the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice. "The law applies to all Afghanistan," he told the French news agency AFP.
The spokesperson added that the Taliban will convince people that taking images of living things is against Islamic law.
The ban on images is part of a newly passed law based on the Taliban interpretation of Islam. The law also orders media to not mock Muslims or contradict Islamic law, and further curtails the rights of women.
Officials have not detailed what the penalties will be but under the last Taliban rule, from 1996 to 2001, people could be imprisoned for showing images.
Mohammad Graan, president of the Afghanistan chapter of the South Asian Association of Reporters Club and Journalists Forum, or SJF, told VOA the new instructions are worrying to the media.
Graan added that independent media outlets in Takhar and Maidan Wardak provinces have also been told not to air images of living things.
"Unfortunately, journalists and media outlets are very concerned as it looks like they [Taliban] are implementing the new morality law gradually in provinces," said Graan.
"It will undoubtedly impact journalists’ work and mental health, as well as create fear among journalists whether they will be able to continue their profession," he said.
Since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, journalists have worked under increased censorship and restrictions.
Added to the challenges, said Graan, is that journalists and media outlets do not know whether Taliban leaders are all on the same page about the new restrictions.
"The Taliban say that taking pictures or videos is forbidden, but they talk at press conferences in front of TV cameras and appear on TV," he said.
The United Nations and rights groups expressed concerns over the morality law, with the U.N. calling it a "distressing vision" for Afghanistan, and saying that it imposes severe restrictions on personal freedom and repressing women in the country.
The law gives the Taliban’s morality police "discretionary powers to threaten and detain anyone based on broad and sometimes vague lists of infractions," said Roza Otunbayeva, the head of the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.
The Taliban imposed similar restrictions during their first rule in the late 1990s. At that time, no one was allowed to take pictures, watch television or use the internet.
The Taliban, however, did not impose immediate restrictions on images after they returned to power in August 2021. Officials routinely use video and the internet for their propaganda.Afghan journalist Ghulam Jilani Zwak told VOA the restrictions are "unprecedented" and that no other Muslim-majority countries have imposed such restrictions.
Most Islamic scholars globally see no issue with showing living beings in photo or video.
"I think because [the Taliban’s government] is an authoritarian regime, it fears freedom of expression and press; therefore, they impose such restrictions on media," Zwak said.
He said that the Taliban "show no tolerance to dissidents and any criticism of their government."
Rights watchdogs reported that the human rights situation has deteriorated under the Taliban.
Heather Barr, the women’s rights associate director at Human Rights Watch, told VOA that the Taliban’s order would have a "significant impact" on the coverage of human rights.
How can media outlets "talk about human rights if they are not allowed to depict human beings in their coverage?" said Barr.
She said the law is of concern to women’s rights activists in Afghanistan who use media to make their voices heard.
"Perhaps one of the goals of this new Taliban’s order is to block them from being able to express themselves and to share their experiences with each other through the media and with the world more broadly," Barr said.
Women in Afghanistan live under repressive measures. They are barred from getting secondary and university education, working with government and non-government organizations, and going to public places, such as parks, gyms, and beauty salons.
Hamid Obaidi, head of the Germany-based Afghanistan Journalists Support Organization, told VOA that banning media from showing living things is the continuation of the Taliban’s "repressive measures against press freedom" in the past three years.
He said that the implementation of the law would mean the closure of all the TV stations in the country.
But, he said, the Taliban’s calculation that it can "beat media into submission" is wrong. He said Afghan journalists and media outlets will continue to function from exile, and technology will help people inside Afghanistan to connect.
"The Taliban think that they can silence Afghan voices, but it is not possible," he added. Pakistan
India foreign minister’s Pakistan visit a ‘good beginning’, Nawaz Sharif says (Reuters)
Reuters [10/18/2024 12:33 AM, Shilpa Jamkhandikar, 5.2M, Positive]
The visit of India’s foreign minister to Pakistan earlier this week was a "good beginning" that could lead to a thaw in relations between the two rivals, former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was quoted as saying by Indian media on Friday.
Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar was in Pakistan on Tuesday and Wednesday for a meeting of governments of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, with the capital city under tight lockdown.
"This is how talks move forward. Talks should not stop," Sharif, the president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N), and the brother of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, told a group of visiting Indian journalists, the Indian Express newspaper reported.
Jaishankar was among nearly a dozen leaders participating in the gathering in Islamabad, nearly a decade since an Indian foreign minister has visited amid frosty relations between the two nuclear powers.
Jaishankar and his counterpart Ishaq Dar had an "informal interaction", an official in Pakistani foreign ministry said on Thursday, but New Delhi denied that any sort of meeting had taken place.
"We had made it very clear that this particular visit is for SCO head of government meeting. Other than that, there were some pleasantries exchanged on the sidelines of the meeting," Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on Thursday.
"We have lost the last 75 years and it is important we don’t lose the next 75 years," Sharif was quoted as saying in the Times of India newspaper. Pakistan’s Punjab province shuts schools for 2 days to contain protests over alleged on-campus rape (AP)
AP [10/18/2024 3:36 AM, Babar Dogar, 456K, Negative]
Authorities in Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province shut all schools and universities for two days on Friday in an attempt to contain the spread of protests by students over an alleged on-campus rape.
The closures in Pakistan’s most populous province affect an estimated 18 million students.
Tensions have been high on college campuses since reports of the alleged rape in the eastern city of Lahore spread on social media, and protests have broken out in four cities. In Gujrat in Punjab province, a security guard died in clashes between student protesters and police on Wednesday.
Police arrested a person in connection with the death.
The government and police have denied that any rape occurred on a campus of the private Punjab Group of Colleges in Lahore, the capital of Punjab. They are seeking the arrest of nearly three dozen people, including several journalists, saying they spread misinformation on social media that led to the protests.
Students, however, announced they would hold a rally later Friday to demand justice for the alleged victim in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan.
The decision to shut all schools in Punjab came a day after hundreds of students ransacked a college building in the garrison city of Rawalpindi. Police fired tear gas and charged at the students, arresting more than 250 people.
The protests appear to have begun spontaneously, as student unions have been banned in Pakistan since 1984. There are no organizations representing students, although political parties’ youth wings exist.
Separately, the political party of imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan announced it will hold protests across the country on Friday to oppose any amendments to the country’s Constitution.
Khan’s supporters say Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who replaced Khan after his ouster in 2022 in a no-confidence vote in parliament, wants to appoint judges of his own choosing and set up a new constitutional court in parallel with the Supreme Court. The government denies the allegations.
Sexual violence against women is common in Pakistan but is underreported because of stigma in the conservative country. Protests about the issue have been rare. Pakistani police fire tear gas at protesting students as anger spreads over alleged on-campus rape (AP)
AP [10/17/2024 1:20 PM, Babar Dogar and Munir Ahmed, 31638K, Negative]
Pakistani police fired tear gas and charged at student protesters who ransacked a college building Thursday, as anger spread over an alleged on-campus rape, prompting the government to shut schools, colleges and universities for two days.
Tensions have been high on college campuses since reports of the alleged rape in the eastern city of Lahore spread on social media, and protests have broken out in four cities.
Sexual violence against women is common in Pakistan, but it is underreported because of the stigma attached in the conservative country. Protests about the issue have been rare.
Thursday’s violence started when hundreds of students demonstrated outside a campus in the city of Rawalpindi in Punjab province. They burned furniture and blocked a key road, disrupting traffic, before ransacking a college building. Police responded by swinging batons and firing tear gas to disperse them, police official Mohammad Afzal said.
Police said they arrested 250 people, mostly students, on charges of disrupting the peace. News of the arrests panicked parents, who struggled to get their children released.
In Gujrat, also in Punjab province, a security guard died in clashes between student protesters and police on Wednesday. Police arrested a person in connection with the death.
They also arrested a man who is accused of spreading misinformation on social media about the alleged rape and inciting students to violence.Earlier this week, more than two dozen college students were injured in clashes with police in Lahore after they rallied to demand justice for the alleged victim, who they said was raped on campus at the Punjab Group of Colleges.
On Thursday, the government banned rallies and shut educational institutions in Punjab for two days, apparently to prevent more protests, officials said.
The Federal Investigation Agency said it has registered cases against 36 people accused of spreading misinformation about the case on social media.
Authorities, including the province’s chief minister, said there was no assault, as did the woman’s parents. But Punjab police on Thursday urged people to share any information about the alleged rape.
Mauz Ullah, a student at the college where the woman was allegedly raped, said they were protesting to seek justice for her.
He said he did not believe the college or police "as they kept changing their position" on the alleged assault. He said the college initially denied any such incident took place. "If no such incident had taken place, then why did they arrest a guard?" he asked.
The protests appear to have begun spontaneously. Student unions have been banned in Pakistan since 1984.
On Thursday, Usman Ghani, the head of the youth wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami opposition party, demanded an end to the ban on student unions, saying they might have helped resolve the matter without violence.
He said cases of sexual abuse at educational institutions are common.
"But the main thing is how you respond to make sure that the attackers don’t get away without getting arrested," he said.
Hasna Cheema, from the rights group Aurat Foundation, said neither Pakistani police nor the media were trained to handle such sensitive matters.
"They turn things from bad to worse instead of solving them," Cheema said.
The Sustainable Social Development Organization said last month that there were 7,010 rape cases reported in Pakistan in 2023, almost 95% of them in Punjab.
"However, due to social stigmas in Pakistan that discourage women from getting help, there is a high chance that due to underreporting the actual number of cases may be even higher," it said.
This week’s protests come less than a month after a woman said she was gang-raped while on duty during a polio vaccination drive in southern Sindh province.Police arrested three men. Her husband threw her out of the house after the reported assault, saying she had tarnished the family name. India
U.S. Charges Indian Official in New York Assassination Plot (New York Times)
New York Times [10/18/2024 3:57 AM, Devlin Barrett, 831K, Neutral]
Federal prosecutors have charged a man they identified as an Indian intelligence officer with trying to orchestrate from abroad an assassination on U.S. soil — part of an escalating response from the United States and Canada to what those governments see as brazenly illegal conduct by a longtime partner.
An indictment unsealed in Manhattan on Thursday said that the man, Vikash Yadav, “directed the assassination plot from India” that targeted a New York-based critic of the Indian government, a Sikh lawyer and political activist who has urged the Punjab region of India to secede.
The target of the New York plot has been identified by American officials as Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the general counsel of Sikhs for Justice.
In a statement, Mr. Pannun called the plot to kill him a “blatant case of India’s transnational terrorism which has become a challenge to America’s sovereignty and threat to freedom of speech and democracy.”
The indictment said that Mr. Yadav called himself a “senior field officer” in the part of the Indian government that includes its foreign intelligence service, known as the Research and Analysis Wing, or RAW.
Authorities say Mr. Yadav recruited an associate to find a U.S.-based criminal to arrange the murder of the Sikh activist. Last year, U.S. prosecutors charged the man accused of being Mr. Yadav’s henchman, Nikhil Gupta, and said Mr. Gupta had acted under instructions from an unidentified employee of the Indian government. Now, prosecutors have charged Mr. Yadav with orchestrating the plot.
The indictment came just days after the Canadian government expelled India’s top diplomat and five others, saying they were part of a criminal network.
Canada’s action stemmed from the killing last year in that country of a prominent Sikh cleric, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was ambushed and shot in his pickup truck in Surrey, British Columbia.
The Canadian government has said the Indian government was behind that killing, just as the U.S. authorities have blamed the Indian authorities for the plot to kill the New York-based activist. The United States has shared intelligence with Canada as the two countries have investigated, officials said.
The U.S. authorities say that after Mr. Nijjar’s killing, Mr. Yadav sent Mr. Gupta a news article about the New York target, which Mr. Yadav called a “priority now.” The person Mr. Gupta tried to enlist to carry out the killing, however, notified U.S. law enforcement, which set up a sting operation leading to the first indictment.
Mr. Gupta was arrested last year in the Czech Republic and extradited to the United States to face trial. He pleaded not guilty at a court appearance this summer. The U.S. authorities believe Mr. Yadav is in India. Both men are now charged with murder for hire and conspiring to launder money.
The evidence detailed in the indictment paints a chilling portrait of a government aspiring to kill critics who live in North America, with Mr. Gupta suggesting at various points that the two targets were the start of a longer, bloodier campaign of killings of Sikh separatists living outside India.“We have so many targets,” Mr. Gupta told the federal agent he had unwittingly hired to do the killing, the indictment said.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada said this week that he had recently pressed India’s leader, Narendra Modi, for cooperation in the investigation.“I impressed upon him that it needed to be taken very, very seriously,” Mr. Trudeau told reporters. That entreaty apparently did not succeed, and days later Canada expelled half a dozen Indian officials. In response, India expelled an equal number of Canadian diplomats. U.S. charges former Indian spy linked to murder plot in New York (Washington Post)
Washington Post [10/17/2024 5:08 PM, Ellen Nakashima and Greg Miller, 52865K, Negative]
The United States has charged a former Indian intelligence officer who allegedly directed a foiled plot to murder a Sikh separatist in New York City last year — charges that, for the first time, implicate the Indian government directly in the brazen cross-border attempt, according to U.S. officials.The department on Thursday unsealed an indictment of Vikash Yadav, a now-former officer in India’s Research and Analysis Wing spy service, represents an escalation of the U.S. effort to hold accountable a major geopolitical ally for an alleged act of attempted violence on American soil. U.S. officials had refrained from charging Yadav in the 16 months since the assassination plot was foiled, out of an apparent reluctance to rupture relations with India and in the hope that the Indian government would follow through on a commitment to carry out a serious inquiry.The decision to do so now follows months of frustration among some administration officials with the course of India’s own investigation into the attempted killing. Some officials had privately voiced concerns that India’s probe would amount to a whitewash.The charges come as Washington and New Delhi have sought to deepen strategic ties, with the aim of countering China’s efforts to dominate the Indo-Pacific region. They also come on the heels of a surprise announcement Monday by Canada that it was expelling six Indian diplomats for involvement in the June 2023 killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh activist in British Columbia, as part of a broad campaign of violence against Indian dissidents directed by a senior official in the Indian government.Yadav, 39, is still in India and the United States is expected to seek his extradition, officials said.“The United States has continued to aggressively investigate the attempted assassination of a U.S. citizen in New York by an Indian intelligence official, and to push India to conduct its own credible and transparent investigation,” said Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), speaking in general terms about the U.S. investigation. “It is absolutely critical that every nation, whether they’re a partner like India or an adversary like Iran, understand that targeting anyone on American soil for extrajudicial killings is unacceptable, and the United States will catch them and hold them accountable.’’U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that senior officials in the administration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi likely authorized the plot, The Washington Post previously reported.The charges against Yadav, who will be named by the Justice Department publicly for the first time, were added to an existing indictment against an Indian citizen who allegedly served as a middleman enlisted to hire a contract killer, according to the officials. In an indictment unsealed last November, Nikhil Gupta was accused of murder-for-hire and conspiracy. He was extradited to the United States in June from the Czech Republic, where he had been detained on a U.S. arrest warrant, and is in a Brooklyn jail awaiting trial. He has pleaded not guilty.The new charges mark “a big step, and it’s a step that I think shows a continued push for accountability,” said one U.S. official.Yadav and Gupta are alleged to have sought the killing in June 2023 of Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a U.S. and Canadian citizen who serves as general counsel for the New York-based Sikhs for Justice, a group that seeks to carve from India an independent Sikh state called Khalistan.The indictment contained the explosive allegation that the murder plot was directed by an Indian official, but it did not charge Yadav, as some law enforcement officials had urged. It referred to him only as a co-conspirator, “CC-1,” who directed the plot from India, and made no mention of the Indian spy agency.The Post identified Yadav as “CC-1” in a story earlier this year.Officials at the time said they wanted to see India carry out its own investigation and hold those responsible to account. President Joe Biden, national security adviser Jake Sullivan and CIA Director William J. Burns have stressed with their counterparts the need to undertake a thorough and credible probe, officials said.Last November, as the Justice Department prepared to unseal Gupta’s indictment, New Delhi announced it had established a high-level inquiry committee to “look into all the relevant aspects of the matter.” In the ensuing months, Biden administration officials have said Indian officials have assured them that they were taking the investigation seriously. But some officials within the U.S. government have been frustrated at the lack of meaningful steps taken by New Delhi.Members of the Indian inquiry committee have been in Washington this week for talks with the Justice Department and FBI. They updated their counterparts on their investigation, and the Americans briefed the Indians on developments in the U.S. probe, in part to help them with their efforts, officials said.“It was meant to be presentation for them of what we know and why” defendants are being criminally charged, said the official.The talks were “cooperative, productive,” the official said. “These were not hostile, adversarial conversations.”National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Tuesday that India’s dispatch of a team to Washington to talk to U.S. law enforcement is “a sign that they’re taking this [investigation] seriously.”India in fact arrested Yadav several months ago — but on charges that were not directly linked to the assassination effort, several U.S. officials said. He was eventually placed on supervised release, they said. While that step seemed aimed at addressing demands for accountability from the United States, it stopped short of admitting any direct government involvement in the plot.India has employed a split strategy, greeting the allegations in Canada with defiance and denials as it offers concessions to Washington that seem aimed at assuaging the Biden administration while seeking to keep the crisis from spreading.While the United States has confronted New Delhi over a failed murder plot, Canada has outlined an alarmingly extensive campaign of surveillance, intimidation and violence involving Indian diplomats, criminal syndicates and a member of Modi’s inner circle. Canadian officials identified the senior Modi official as Amit Shah, who serves as home affairs minister. Spokespeople in India’s Ministry for External Affairs and its Home Ministry, which oversees national security matters, did not respond to requests for comment about the allegations.No direct operational link has surfaced at this point between the Canadian cases and the plot to kill Pannun, U.S. and Canadian officials said. However, the killing of Nijjar in Canada and the attempt on Pannun have parallels, and both have drawn concern that they are part of a global effort by India’s security services to harass, coerce and kill dissidents and others perceived as hostile to the Modi government.On Tuesday, New Delhi denied that Ottawa had presented credible evidence tying the plots back to the Indian government.The State Department on Tuesday said Canada’s allegations were serious. “We have wanted to see India take them seriously and cooperate with Canada’s investigation,” spokesman Matthew Miller said. “They have chosen an alternate path.”The State Department has catalogued India’s alleged engagement in transnational repression, citing in a report this year credible accounts of “extraterritorial killing, kidnapping, forced returns or other violence,” as well as “threats, harassment, arbitrary surveillance and coercion” of overseas dissidents and journalists. Indian Official Charged in Foiled New York Murder Plot (Wall Street Journal)
Wall Street Journal [10/17/2024 9:26 PM, Sadie Gurman and Rajesh Roy, 810K, Neutral]
Federal prosecutors charged an employee of India’s intelligence service with allegedly directing an audacious plot to kill a vocal Sikh activist in New York, an escalation in a long-running investigation that has threatened a rift in the U.S.-India alliance.
Vikash Yadav, 39, a now-former employee of India’s foreign intelligence service, faces murder-for-hire charges in connection with the alleged plot that was first revealed last year. An indictment unsealed Thursday by the U.S. Justice Department says Yadav, who remains at large, recruited another man to orchestrate the planned killing of the Sikh activist.
The new indictment comes after a week of developments that renewed tension between New Delhi and the West over the alleged targeting of Sikh separatists. On Monday, the Canadian government said it expelled six Indian diplomats, including India’s top official in the country, citing allegations that the officials gathered intelligence about Sikh separatists who were then targeted for violence. India responded the same day by expelling six Canadian diplomats and called Ottawa’s allegations “preposterous.”
Those expulsions were the latest flare-up in a diplomatic dispute that began when Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in Parliament last year that Ottawa was pursuing “credible allegations” that agents of the Indian government were involved in killing Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh activist in Surrey, British Columbia, in June 2023.
Then on Tuesday, members of an India-based committee investigating the alleged New York plot briefed U.S. officials about developments in their inquiry.
A State Department spokesman said Indian and U.S. officials updated each other on their respective investigations and shared steps that may be taken in the coming days and weeks.“They have told us that they are taking the allegations seriously, that the activities contained in the DOJ indictment do not represent government policy,” the spokesman, Matthew Miller, said.
U.S. prosecutors revealed the alleged murder-for-hire plot last year when they charged Nikhil Gupta with working with a then-unidentified Indian government officer to pay a purported hit man $100,000 to murder Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a prominent advocate for carving out an independent Sikh homeland from the north Indian state of Punjab. Gupta was extradited to the U.S. last year and has pleaded not guilty.
U.S. prosecutors said Yadav recruited Gupta in May 2023 to plan the assassination of Pannun, who has been a critic of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a decade. At Yadav’s direction, prosecutors said, Gupta then contacted someone he thought could connect him with a hit man but who was actually a confidential source working with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
In June, Yadav gave Gupta personal information about Pannun, including his home address and details about his day-to-day activities, which Gupta then shared with the DEA informant, telling him to carry out the murder as soon as possible, prosecutors said.Yadav allegedly directed the plot from India, where he was working for the Indian Government’s cabinet Secretariat, which houses the Research and Analysis Wing, India’s foreign intelligence service. He referred to himself as a “senior field officer” with responsibilities in “security management” and “intelligence.”“The attempt on my life on American soil is the blatant case of India’s transnational terrorism which has become a challenge to America’s sovereignty and threat to freedom of speech and democracy,” Pannun said in a statement.
Two Indian officials aware of Yadav’s status confirmed he had been removed from his government post. He had been deputed to the intelligence agency from an elite paramilitary force. India hasn’t issued any statements on the inquiry committee’s activities.
The allegations surrounding the case have raised international concerns that the indicted former official was working under the direction of top Indian government officials, who have expressed increasing concern about the activities of the small subset of separatists in the Sikh diaspora in Canada and other Western countries.
India in 2020 designated Nijjar and Pannun, who were friends and advocated for a separate Sikh homeland known as Khalistan, as terrorists.
If the allegations are substantiated, they would feed into a broader narrative that India is taking extraterritorial measures against dissidents, raising human rights concerns and complicating New Delhi’s image as a democratic leader on the global stage. US Charges Indian Government Employee in Plot to Kill US Citizen (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [10/17/2024 6:45 PM, Bob Van Voris and Iain Marlow, 1784K, Negative]
US prosecutors accused an Indian government employee of directing a foiled plot to assassinate a Sikh separatist with US citizenship in New York, in a case that has disrupted US-India relations and mirrors a 2023 killing in Canada.
Vikash Yadav, 39, was added to the criminal case against Nikhil Gupta, 53. Gupta was charged last year with working with an Indian government agent to kill an attorney described as active in the global movement to carve an independent Sikh homeland out of India.
Yadav "resided in India, and directed the assassination plot from India," according to the indictment.
Gupta, who was arrested in the Czech Republic and extradited to the US, was allegedly recruited by an Indian government employee who described himself as a "senior field officer" with responsibilities in "security management" and "intelligence." That government official, who wasn’t named in the original charges against Gupta, was identified as Yadav in Thursday’s indictment.
The case has been awkward for President Joe Biden’s administration, which has continued to court New Delhi in an effort to counterbalance China.
Prosecutors said Yadav is employed by the Cabinet Secretariat of the Government of India, which is home to the nation’s foreign intelligence service. Yadav isn’t in custody, Manhattan US Attorney Damian Williams said in a release announcing the unsealing of charges against Yadav, who allegedly goes by the alias "Amanat."
Yadav and Gupta are charged with murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Gupta, who is being held without bail, has pleaded not guilty.
Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the attorney who was the alleged target of the murder plot, applauded the charges against Yadav.
The attempt on his life is a "blatant case of India’s transnational terrorism which has become a challenge to America’s sovereignty and threat to freedom of speech and democracy," Pannun said in a statement.
India has branded him a terrorist and outlawed his group, which advocates for an independent Sikh homeland to be created out of India’s Punjab state, calling it a threat to India’s territorial integrity.
The charges come after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau this week accused Indian diplomats of backing a pattern of criminal harassment and violence against Canadians, escalating a dispute that began last year when he suggested Indian agents were involved in the murder of a Canadian Sikh activist in British Columbia.
Canada expelled six officials on Monday after saying that India had refused to waive their diplomatic immunity for questioning over what Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly called "a number of violent incidents" targeting Canada’s South Asian community, particularly Sikhs.
After US prosecutors first made the allegations against Gupta, the Indian government formed a committee to look into the issue. That team visited the US this week and held meetings at the State Department in Washington.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters on Wednesday that the visiting delegation told US officials that the Indian government employee named in the original indictment "is no longer an employee of the Indian government." India denies Canadian allegation that it uses mobsters to target Sikh separatists in Canada (AP)
AP [10/17/2024 6:11 PM, Ashok Sharma, 88008K, Negative]
India’s government on Thursday denied it was working with mobsters to target Sikh separatists in Canada as alleged publicly this week by Canadian officials in an escalating diplomatic dispute.But Canada is not the only country that has accused Indian officials of plotting an assassination on foreign soil. The U.S. Justice Department announced criminal charges against an Indian government employee Thursday in connection with an alleged foiled plot to kill a Sikh separatist leader living in New York City.In the case announced by the Justice Department Vikash Yadav, who authorities say directed the New York plot from India, faces murder-for-hire charges in a planned killing that prosecutors have previously said was meant to precede a string of other politically motivated murders in the United States and Canada.The Indian government didn’t immediately provide comment on the U.S. charge but earlier Thursday India’s External Affairs Ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal denied that India was in cahoots with India-based mobsters in Canada and even suggested that Canadian authorities had been resisting India’s attempts to extradite those people to India.“It is strange that people who we asked to be deported” are being blamed by the Canadians for “committing crimes in Canada,” Jaiswal said. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and police officials went public this week with allegations that Indian diplomats were targeting Sikh separatists in Canada by sharing information about them with their government back home. They said top Indian officials were then passing that information along to Indian organized crime groups who were targeting the activists, who are Canadian citizens, with drive-by shootings, extortions and even murder.The two sides ordered the expulsion of top diplomats this week in the deepening crisis over the accusations, including Canada’s allegation that t he diplomats were linked to the June 2023 killing of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.The U.S. criminal case was announced the same week as two members of an Indian inquiry committee investigating the plot were in Washington to meet with U.S. officials about the investigation. Canadian officials say Indian officials have not been cooperative in the Canadian case.The Nijjar killing in Canada has soured India-Canada ties for more than a year, and despite Canada’s assertion that it has forwarded evidence of its allegations to Indian authorities, the Indian government continues to deny it has seen any.Jaiswal said again on Thursday that Canada has provided no evidence of its allegations surrounding attacks on Sikh activists, contradicting Trudeau’s statements this week that his country’s investigators have privately shared information with Indian counterparts and found them to be uncooperative.At the same time, Jaiswal accused Canada of failing to take action against Sikhs living in Canada who face terrorism charges in India and who are accused of being part of a Sikh secessionist campaign in India’s northern Punjab state.Jaiswal said India’s 26 extradition requests have been pending in Canada for a decade or more. He also said that several criminals had provisional arrest requests pending with Canadian authorities.“Some of them are charged with terror and terror-related crimes (in India). So far, no action has been taken by the Canadian side on our requests. This is very serious,” Jaiswal said.India has repeatedly criticized the Canadian government for being soft on supporters of what is known as the Khalistan movement, which is banned in India but has support among the Sikh diaspora, particularly in Canada.Trudeau said Wednesday that Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi underlined to him at a G-20 summit in India last year that he wanted Canada to arrest people who have been outspoken against the Indian government. Trudeau said he told Modi that he felt the actions fall within free speech in Canada.Trudeau added that he told Modi his government would work with India on concerns about terrorism, incitement of hate or anything that is unacceptable in Canada. But Trudeau also noted that advocating for separatism, though not Canadian government policy, is not illegal in Canada.The Royal Canadian Police said Monday it had identified India’s top diplomat in the country and five other diplomats as persons of interest in the Nijjar killing. The RCMP also said they uncovered evidence of an intensifying campaign against Canadians by agents of the Indian government.Nijjar, 45, was fatally shot last year in his pickup truck after he left the Sikh temple he led in Surrey, British Columbia. An Indian-born citizen of Canada, he owned a plumbing business and was a leader in what remains of a once-strong movement to create an independent Sikh homeland.Four Indian nationals living in Canada were charged with Nijjar’s murder and are awaiting trial. India says Canada did not act against gang it links to New Delhi (Reuters)
Reuters [10/17/2024 8:35 AM, Krishan Kaushik, 37270K, Negative]
India’s foreign ministry said on Thursday that despite requests from New Delhi, Canada had not taken any action against members of a gang that Canadian police have accused of being linked to Indian government agents in the 2023 murder of a Sikh separatist leader, that has created a rupture in ties."This is a contradiction in terms, which we don’t understand," Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson for India’s foreign ministry said, calling it "strange".He said that there were 26 Indian extradition requests pending with Canada over the last decade or more, which include members of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, and others.The Royal Canadian Mounted Police had accused Indian government agents of being linked to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang in the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar near Vancouver. The case is at the heart of a fraying of diplomatic ties between India and Canada.Earlier this week, both countries kicked out six diplomats each of the other side in tit-for-tat moves, over Ottawa’s allegations that New Delhi was targeting Indian dissidents on Canadian soil.Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Wednesday that India had made a "horrific mistake" by thinking it could interfere aggressively in Canada’s safety and sovereignty.India, in response said that Trudeau had only confirmed its stand that Canada had not provided any evidence to support its allegations.During a weekly press conference, Jaiswal said on Thursday, "We have shared security related information with the Canadian government regarding gang members including those of Lawrence Bishnoi gang, and requested them to arrest them or take due action as per law."He said Canada has not taken any action, calling it "very serious"."We find it really strange," he said, adding that the RCMP was blaming India for the crimes committed by these people "who we asked to be deported, on whom we asked that action be taken."Bishnoi is a 31-year-old leader of what India’s top investigative agency calls a "terror-crime syndicate" which he operates from different prisons in India.The group, according to India’s National Investigation Agency, has trans-national reach, including a presence in Canada.While India has denied all Canadian allegations, it is working with the U.S., which also mentioned last year that an Indian official was involved in an unsuccessful murder plot of another Sikh separatist leader in New York.Jaiswal confirmed on Thursday that an official who was named in the American indictment about the case was no longer employed by the Indian government.After meeting members of the Indian government committee investigating the case, who were on a visit to the U.S., the State Department said on Wednesday that Washington was satisfied with India’s cooperation in the probe into the foiled murder plot. How the India-Canada fallout could affect trade and immigration (BBC)
BBC [10/17/2024 4:07 PM, Nadine Yousif, 67197K, Negative]
After a bombshell accusation from Canadian officials this week - that they believe India government agents were linked to a campaign of murder and extortion in the country - diplomatic relations hit new lows.That rift is now raising questions over the impact it could have on the deep trade and immigration ties between both countries.Bilateral trade is worth billions of dollars, and Canada is home to nearly 1.7 million people of Indian origin.The breakdown of relations at this level is uncharted territory, and much of what happens next will depend on how they choose to move forward, experts suggest.Neither country has imposed tariffs or other economic forms of retaliation, but experts caution that this could change, and that a cooling relationship between India and Canada could hinder further economic growth.“The biggest challenge, particularly for business and citizens, is going to be uncertainty,” Arif Lalani, a senior advisor at government consulting company StrategyCorp and a former Canadian diplomat, told the BBC.The two countries have been negotiating a bilateral trade deal on and off for over a decade, but Canada paused talks last year shortly before Prime Minister Justin Trudeau first made a public accusation against India.In September 2023, Trudeau said that Canada had "credible allegations" linking Indian government agents to the murder of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was shot and killed in Surrey, British Columbia that June.India temporarily suspended visas for Canadian citizens shortly after, but that move was brief and it resumed visa processing in November.Trade ties between the two, meanwhile, remained as usual. Bilateral trade is around $8bn (£6.15bn), according to the latest fiscal figures from India’s trade ministry.Canada’s trade minister recently assured business owners that Ottawa does seek to disrupt commercial ties with India.Still, with ongoing uncertainty, Mr Lalani said businesspeople from both countries could look elsewhere for opportunities.“People will be thinking twice in terms of expanding trade, or trying to build on what they already have,” he said.Another big concern is how the rift will alter movement of people between the two countries. India has been Canada’s top source of international students since 2018, and about 4% of Canada’s overall population is of Indian origin.“The human connection between our countries is profound,” Karan Thukral, a lawyer based in Delhi, told the BBC, adding that a big portion of his clientele are people eager to move to Canada.He said many are now anxious about how the diplomatic tension could affect their plans to work or study in Canada.Immigration processing remains operational, Mr Thukral noted, but he has advised his clients to anticipate potential delays due to the reduction of diplomatic staff in both countries.Others, especially those in Canada with family in India, are anxious about India reinstating visa restrictions for Canadian nationals, he added.Any visa restrictions would come with business implications and could have a dampening effect on trade, tourism and investment, said Jeff Nankivell, president of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.“The Indian government has already shown its willingness once to suspend the visa issuance, so it’s possible they could do so again,” he said, adding the biggest impact will be felt in Canada’s large Indian diaspora community.Mr Nankivell said that he suspects the diplomatic situation will continue to evolve, and the fallout will be felt for a long time as Canadian police pursue legal action against those allegedly complicit in Mr Nijjar’s death and other criminal acts.“That’s going to continue to raise the temperature,” he said.Four people have been arrested and charged in connection with Mr Nijjar’s murder - all Indian nationals in their 20s - though it remains unclear if and how they are connected to India’s government.A trial date for them has not yet been scheduled.Canadian police said this week there are "multiple ongoing investigations" into the alleged involvement of India government agents in "serious criminal activity" in Canada.On Wednesday, Trudeau doubled-down on accusations against India with sharp criticism of Delhi’s alleged aggressive interference in Canada’s sovereignty.But he also cautioned that he does not want to hurt economic and social ties.“We don’t want to be in this situation of picking a fight with a significant trading partner, with whom we have deep people-to-people ties and a long history and are fellow democracies,” Trudeau told a public inquiry looking into foreign interference in the country.India hit back angrily, calling Trudeau’s behaviour “cavalier” and accusing Canada of not presenting evidence to back up its accusations.Earlier this week, India said that it “reserves the right to take further steps” in its response, while Canada’s foreign minister Mélanie Joly said all options, including sanctions, are on the table. Can India fend off US, UK pressure over Canada row? (Deutsche Welle)
Deutsche Welle [10/17/2024 10:05 AM, Murali Krishnan, 16637K, Neutral]
The US and the UK this week sought to pressure India to cooperate with Canada over the investigation into the killing of a Sikh separatist and Canadian national in British Columbia.
Canadian authorities have accused agents linked to the Indian government of carrying out the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a longtime campaigner for the creation of a separate homeland for Sikhs, known as Khalistan, carved out of India.
On Wednesday, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a parliamentary inquiry he wasn’t looking "to provoke or create a fight with India," but that "India had violated Canada’s sovereignty."
"The Indian government made a horrific mistake in thinking that they could interfere as aggressively as they did in the safety and sovereignty of Canada. We need to respond in order to ensure Canadians’ safety," he said.
New Delhi has called the Canadian allegations "absurd" and "preposterous."
US: India should take the row ‘seriously’
The row strained India-Canada ties so much that both sides earlier this week expelled each other’s top diplomats.
The US on Tuesday said India should take Canada’s allegations "seriously" and "cooperate with Canada in its investigation."
A day later, the UK released a statement, saying it was in "contact with our Canadian partners about the serious developments outlined in the independent investigations in Canada."
"The UK has full confidence in Canada’s judicial system. Respect for sovereignty and the rule of law is essential," an FCDO spokesperson said.
A temporary phase?
But an Indian Foreign Ministry official, who asked not to be named, told DW that the case will not have any major impact on India’s ties with the US or the UK.
"We have strong and deepening ties with the US and the UK and Canada’s allegations are not going to derail our cooperation with our Western allies," the official said.
"Tensions will defuse and there won’t be any geopolitical implications."
Shanthie Mariet D’Souza, president of Mantraya Institute for Strategic Studies, shared a similar view.
She said New Delhi’s ties with Washington and London are "multifaceted" and that "one incident is unlikely to affect relations."
Nevertheless, the expert underlined, the controversy damages India’s global reputation.
"India’s firm response to Canada’s accusations leaves New Delhi with only one choice - to maintain its present position, and there can be no backtracking," she said.
"India may be hoping that the current difficult phase is temporary. It believes that its strong stance and good bilateral relations with each of the Five Eyes members (except for Canada) will help it tide the crisis," D’Souza said, referring to the intelligence-sharing alliance comprising of the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.US, UK seeking closer ties with India
The US has been strengthening its ties with India in recent years, seeing New Delhi as a counterweight to China’s growing political, economic and military clout in the Indo-Pacific region.
Just this week, India signed a $4 billion (\u20ac3.68 billion) deal with the US to purchase 31 armed MQ-9B SkyGuardian and SeaGuardian High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) drones, a sign of the growing military partnership between the two sides.
The UK has also been seeking closer relations with India and negotiating a free trade agreement, which is reportedly nearing completion, with both sides just a step away from finalizing the deal.
C Raja Mohan, a visiting professor at Singapore’s Institute of South Asian Studies, said India’s "relations with the Five Eyes have never been so good as they are now," lauding the present moment as "a historical high point."
He told DW that there is "no question of India being isolated by the US and the UK given the deep linkages."
The expert also criticized Canada’s approach to dealing with India’s concerns regarding Sikh separatist outfits.
"In the name of protecting free speech, Canada cannot have a lax attitude to criminal networks and anti-India outfits that are working in cahoots. That must be addressed first by the authorities there instead of making accusations without presenting evidence," he said.
US dealt with ‘greater diplomatic finesse’
India’s reaction to Canada’s accusations was markedly different from its response to the US, which also made allegations over a similar, albeit unsuccessful assassination plot by India on US soil in November 2023.
New Delhi is cooperating with US authorities in that case.
The alleged target of that operation was another Khalistan campaigner, dual US-Canadian citizen Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.
The US State Department on Wednesday said India had told it that an intelligence operative accused of directing the plot was no longer in government service.
Ajay Bisaria, a former high commissioner to Canada, said the US "has handled this episode with greater diplomatic finesse and ensuring it does not enter the political realm, unlike Canada."
On the US and the UK putting pressure on India, he underscored that they have "an obligation to defend Canada given the structural construct of the Five Eyes alliance."
But Bisaria stressed the developments of recent days will not have major implications for India: "There is not going to be any realignment of geopolitical equations with India, which is a trusted ally for these nations." In India, Some Doctors Go on Hunger Strike to Protest Killing of Colleague (New York Times)
New York Times [10/17/2024 4:14 PM, Suhasini Raj, 831K, Negative]
More than two dozen doctors in India have been on an indefinite hunger strike for nearly two weeks, one of many nationwide protests demanding a safer work environment set off by the rape and killing of a medical resident in August.
Six of those doctors have been subsisting only on water and been taken to the hospital for care, a doctors’ group formed after the episode said on Thursday. At least two of them were in critical condition.
The brutalized body of the female doctor was found on Aug. 9 in a seminar room at R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital, a state-run institution in Kolkata, where she was completing a residency. She had many injuries, including a broken neck, according to local news media reports. The name of the 31-year-old victim may not be published under Indian law because of privacy laws relating to sexual assaults.
The episode shocked India, where violence against women remains a scourge, and galvanized thousands of doctors who demanded a thorough investigation to bring the victim justice. They also sought better protection in government hospitals, where resident doctors often work grueling, multiday shifts.
An investigation by the state of West Bengal, of which Kolkata is the capital, has been taken over by a federal investigative agency. But there has been little progress in the inquiry, according to Dr. Sunanda Ghosh, a member of the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front, an organization formed after the killing in Kolkata.
The protests have taken on an urgency in recent weeks, with doctors around the country pointing to other systemic problems in government-run hospitals, including corruption.“Our colleague was very vocal about corruption in the workplace,” Dr. Ghosh said. “We also want to know the real motive of her murder.”
Dr. Ghosh said 14 doctors in Kolkata started hunger strikes this month, and others did so in Lucknow and other cities. Doctors in some cities have taken to so-called relay fasting, taking turns in between shifts.
In West Bengal, some resident doctors have sought the removal of top health bureaucrats in the state. They have also asked for police protection in medical colleges and safety from assault by disgruntled relatives of patients.
One focus for many doctors is institutionalized corruption, including in how doctors are selected for highly competitive residency programs. They have also expressed frustration at the number of positions that lie vacant in hospitals, adding to their workload.Divyansh Singh, a medical resident in the northern city of Lucknow, was recently on a 66-hour hunger strike.“While they were talking about increasing security measures that must be present in medical colleges, the incident of assault on doctors increased in the past two months,” Dr. Singh said. “So we will continue to demand justice, come what may.” In Modi’s Delhi, Indian Muslims segregate to seek security (Reuters)
Reuters [10/17/2024 10:39 PM, Charlotte Greenfield and Aftab Ahmed, 37270K, Neutral]
In February 2020, Nasreen and her husband Tofik were living in Shiv Vihar, an upcoming neighbourhood in northeast New Delhi. But that month, riots erupted targeting Muslims like them and Tofik was pushed by a mob from the second floor of the building where they lived, according to a police report he filed days later from hospital.He survived, but has a permanent limp and was only able to return to work selling clothes on the street after spending nearly 3 years recuperating.Soon after the riots the couple moved to Loni, a more remote area with poorer infrastructure and job prospects - but with a sizable Muslim population."I will not go back to that area. I feel safer among Muslims," Tofik, who like his wife goes by one name, told Reuters.Reuters interviewed about two dozen people, who described how Muslims in the Indian capital have been congregating in enclaves away from the nation’s Hindu majority, seeking safety in numbers following the deadly 2020 riot and an increase in anti-Muslim hate speech. Details about this phenomenon, which has led a major Muslim neighbourhood in Delhi to effectively run out of space, have not previously been reported.There is no official data on segregation in India, whose long-delayed census also means that there are few reliable figures on how much Muslim enclaves have grown in the past decade. Muslims comprise about 14% of India’s 1.4 billion people.Ground zero in Delhi is the central neighbourhood of Jamia Nagar, which has long been a temporary sanctuary for Muslims when communal riots break out.With ever more Muslims flocking in, the neighbourhood is overflowing, despite a boom in construction, according to 10 local leaders, including politicians, activists and clergy, as well as five real-estate agents."No matter how brave a Muslim might be, they feel they have to move because if a mob comes, how brave can you really be?" said Raes Khan, a real estate agent in South Delhi who said Muslim clients now almost exclusively demand homes in Muslim-majority areas like Jamia Nagar.Segregation nationally has increased significantly in the past decade, said London School of Economics political anthropologist Raphael Susewind, who has overseen long-term field-work on India’s Muslim population.Rising Islamophobia under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which came into power in 2014, is a "key driver" of the trend, he said.Six Muslim community leaders said significant anecdotal evidence supported Susewind’s assertion that segregation has increased. Jamia Nagar clergyman Md Sahil said the number of attendees at his mosque’s early morning prayers had more than doubled to over 450 in the past four to five years, and that it reflected the overall rise in population there.In response to Reuters’ questions, Jamal Siddiqui, a senior BJP official for minority affairs, suggested that poorer Muslims might choose to live in segregated areas because such neighbourhoods tend to be more affordable. "Educated Muslims leave the area and settle in developed areas with mixed population," he said.However, Syed Sayeed Hasan, a Congress party worker in Jamia Nagar, said a big push factor for sectarian cloistering in Delhi was the 2020 riot. More than 200 were injured and at least 53 people, mostly Muslim, were killed in protests after Modi’s Hindu nationalist government moved to introduce a law that made it easier for many non-Muslims to become citizens.A 2020 Delhi government report blamed the riots on BJP leaders who made speeches that called for violence against protesters. At the time, the party said the allegations were baseless and that law enforcement had said there was no proof one of the leaders blamed in the report was responsible.The Delhi government, controlled by the opposition Aam Aadmi Party, did not respond to requests for comment.RISE IN HATE SPEECHIndia’s National Crime Records Bureau, a government agency that collects and analyses crime data, doesn’t keep records on targeted violence against communities. It said the average number of annual riots with communal origins had fallen about 9% between 2014 and 2022 as compared to the previous nine years, when the Congress party ran India.But independent experts at the Center for the Study of Organized Hate, a Washington-based think-tank, have documented a significant increase in anti-Muslim hate speech, from 255 incidents in first half of 2023 to 413 in the second half of 2023. BJP politicians and affiliate groups were key to the trend, the think-tank said.Reuters has previously reported about how right-wing "cow vigilantes," some of whom have ties to the BJP, have led lynch mobs against Muslims.Modi, while campaigning in April for a third term as premier, attacked Muslims as "infiltrators" who had "more children," implying they were a threat to India’s Hindu majority.The BJP’s Siddiqui added that Modi was referring to undocumented immigrants like Rohingya Muslims whom he alleged "are living in India and are also weakening India."When previously asked about alleged anti-Muslim bias, the BJP government has said it does not discriminate and that many of its anti-poverty programs have benefited Muslims, who are among the poorest groups in India.The BJP could only form a fragile coalition government after national election results were announced in June. In the immediate aftermath, at least eight anti-Muslim lynching incidents were reported, the non-governmental Association for Protection of Civil Rights said on July 5.SAFETY IN NUMBERSJamia Nagar is a bustling cluster of alleyways behind Jamia Millia Islamia, a Muslim university that was an epicentre of the 2020 protests. It anchors an area of southeast Delhi that has many Muslim neighbourhoods and a population of about 150,000, according to state election data.When Reuters visited the cramped alleyways of the enclave on a sweltering summer day, they were framed by five-storey buildings. Developers had added three storeys to what were many two storey buildings to cater to the increase in demand, two real estate agents said. In a sign of booming growth, there were also dozens of newly-built kindergartens set up in the narrow lanes of the area.Most Muslim enclaves are not as well-developed. A 2023 study from British, American and Indian economists that analysed 1.5 million Indian areas found that public services like water and schools were comparatively rare in neighbourhoods popular with Muslims and that children in such areas often face educational disadvantages.After Tofik and Nasreen moved to Loni following Tofik’s assault, their income halved, with Tofik only able to work reduced hours.Nasreen’s 16-year-old daughter, Muskan, suffered. The school in the outskirts of Delhi was under-resourced, Muskan said, and she missed her classmates. After feeling that the new school wasn’t for her, she dropped out.But Nasreen doesn’t regret the move. "I will never go back. I have lost faith in them," she said, of the neighbours who she said formed part of the mob that pushed her husband.Reuters could not independently verify her claim but Sam Sundar, a 44-year-old Hindu resident of Nasreen’s old neighbourhood, said both Hindus and Muslims suffered during the riots, which he blamed on outside perpetrators.But he acknowledged that Muslims bore the brunt: "Very few Muslims now live in the area. This is not a good thing."Nasreen’s neighbour Malika also moved to the outskirts after her husband was killed in the 2020 riots. But she was unable to find a job and now also lives part-time at a small room in another neighbourhood with more Hindu residents, where she is close to construction sites where she does odd jobs."Here I am afflicted with poverty, there I’m afflicted with insecurity," she said.Enclaves have also drawn upper middle class Muslim families, who used to be more comfortable living in mixed areas, said Raes, the real-estate agent."People feel it is better to live in separate areas rather than having a constant threat to life and property from members of the other community," said Mujaheed Nafees, a Muslim leader from Modi’s home state of Gujarat, which hosts India’s largest Muslim enclave of some 400,000. Muslims ‘in constant fear’ amid hate campaign in India’s Himachal Pradesh (Al Jazeera)
Al Jazeera [10/17/2024 7:30 AM, Samriddhi Sakunia, 25768K, Negative]
Farhan Khan says he still feels a chill down his spine when he recalls the day an anti-Muslim rally was held in his sleepy town in northern India’s Himachal Pradesh state.
On September 17, the 26-year-old tailor opened his shop in Solan as usual at about 11:30am when two men wearing saffron clothes approached him. One of them recorded the encounter on his mobile phone.
"They pointed the camera at my face, hurling abuses and demanding to know why I had opened my shop. Then, another group of men joined them and they all turned violent," Farhan told Al Jazeera.
He said he was then "dragged by the crowd" to help identify more Muslim-owned shops in the area. "I identified five or six shops and urged them to close," he said.
The scenic state of Himachal Pradesh, a popular destination for Indian tourists escaping the brutal summer and autumn heat of northern India, has been on edge for more than a month after far-right Hindu groups demanded the demolition of a mosque in the state capital, Shimla. That demand soon morphed into a larger anti-Muslim campaign aimed at instituting an economic boycott against them and even included calls to drive Muslims out of the state.‘Locked myself in house for two days’
According to a report in The Hindu newspaper, a clash between a Shimla resident and some labourers in Shimla district’s Sanjauli town over the payment of wages on August 31 snowballed into religious tensions within days.
On September 10, residents in Sanjauli, led by some Hindu groups, including the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council or VHP), gathered outside the five-storey mosque in the middle of the town, claiming it was an illegal construction and therefore should be demolished.
The VHP is a member of a nationwide network of right-wing Hindu groups, spearheaded by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (National Volunteers Association or RSS), a secretive paramilitary organisation formed 100 years ago which advocates for the conversion of a constitutionally secular India into a Hindu state. The RSS is also the ideological fountainhead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and counts him among its millions of lifetime members across and outside India.
The campaign against the Sanjauli mosque soon turned into broader anti-Muslim protests across Himachal Pradesh, a state where only 2 percent of the population is Muslim and where religious hatred on such a scale has not previously been seen, unlike several other north Indian states.
On September 11, a day after the demonstrations outside the mosque, Hindu groups marched from neighbouring Malyana town to Sanjauli and submitted a list of demands, including removing all "illegal" migrant workers and "illegal" mosques and other religious structures belonging to Muslims. The next day, in an apparently conciliatory move aimed at defusing tensions, the mosque’s management handed a letter to the municipal commissioner, asking him to seal the allegedly illegal part of the building.
Meanwhile, rallies were held across Himachal Pradesh. They included hate speeches against Muslims and calls to boycott their businesses, to stop hiring them as workers and to avoid renting houses to them, Amid widespread fear within the community, many have fled the state.
"My Hindu landlord is a good man but he asked me to vacate the shop as soon as possible since he was being pressured by the Hindu outfits," Farhan told Al Jazeera, adding that close to 50 other Muslim migrants had left for their hometowns in other states.
Farhan, speaking by telephone from his hometown of Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh state, said he had no intention of returning to Himachal Pradesh since he "valued his life more than his livelihood".
"I remember locking myself inside my house for two straight days, adding two locks to the door for safety before I finally left for Moradabad on September 19," he said.
Identifying workers, vendors by religion
In a move that worsened the fear and insecurity among Muslims, the opposition Congress-led government in Himachal Pradesh last month made it mandatory for restaurants and roadside food stalls to display the names of their employees.
The government claimed the order was for the "convenience" of customers, but critics allege the idea behind such a move is to help Hindus from privileged caste groups avoid food prepared or served by Muslim workers.
The announcement came a day after the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state where nearly 20 percent of the residents are Muslims, issued a similar order - both states in defiance of a July Supreme Court order that ruled that such policies facilitate discrimination on the grounds of religion and caste.
The Congress - which presents itself as a party opposed to the BJP’s alleged polarisation tactics - was forced to withdraw the order on September 26, about 24 hours after a minister had made the announcement.
Still, earlier this month, videos and photographs circulated on social media showed members of Hindu groups distributing pamphlets to street vendors in Sanjauli and other parts of Shimla, asking them to put up signboards saying: "Sanatani Vegetable Seller". "Sanatan" in Sanskrit means eternal, and "Sanatan Dharm" (eternal religion) is used to describe Hinduism by right-wing Hindus.
Many vendors now display the pamphlets in shops across the city.
Nearly 3km (2 miles) away from the Sanjauli mosque lies the Idgah Colony, a neighbourhood housing mostly Muslim migrant workers. Among them is Hamza*, originally from the eastern West Bengal state.
Hamza has worked as a house painter for the last 15 years and typically spends seven months in Shimla every year.
"In all my years working in this state, I have never faced the kind of discrimination I am dealing with now," Hamza told Al Jazeera. "People are asking for our names to figure out our religion before deciding whether or not to give us work."
When Al Jazeera asked Pawan Khera, national spokesman of the Congress, about Muslims living in fear in Himachal Pradesh and being forced to flee, he only said the state government is "committed to upholding the constitution of India and will ensure the safety and freedom of religion for all communities".
Al Jazeera reached out to multiple Congress spokespersons on the insecurity among Muslims in the state and its retracted order on restaurants displaying the names of its employees, but did not receive a response.
Flashpoint mosque
Mehfooz Malik, 52, migrated to Shimla from Uttar Pradesh’s Bijnor district in 1986 with nothing but the clothes on his back. He started as a daily wage worker and now runs a small grocery shop in Sanjauli’s Idgah Colony to support his family of four - his wife and two sons.
For 38 years, he said, he had been praying at the Sanjauli mosque, but he is too afraid to go there now.
"The city where my family and I spent the most important years of our lives suddenly feels so unfamiliar. I don’t think I belong here any more," Malik told Al Jazeera, adjusting his plastic chair outside his store.
"Once my younger son finishes school next year, I am leaving this city for good. Who would want to live in constant fear, always wondering what might happen to you or your family? I certainly don’t."
Malik said if the protest was only against the illegal construction inside the mosque, the demonstrations should have stopped the day the Muslim committee offered to seal the allegedly illegal part of the structure to de-escalate the tensions. But he said he believed the protests by Hindu groups had a larger objective.
"The goal is to spread fear and distress among the minorities," he said.On October 5, the Shimla Municipal Court ordered the demolition of three unauthorised storeys of the mosque and gave two months to the Waqf Board, the body that administers most mosques across India, to execute the order.
However, two Muslim groups in Himachal Pradesh are at odds with each other over the demolition. The All Himachal Muslim Organisation (AHMO) plans to challenge the municipal court’s order in a higher court while the Sanjauli mosque committee has already consented to demolish the building’s disputed floors.
Tikender Panwar, former deputy mayor of Shimla from the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM), said such campaigns by Hindu groups are a "systematic attempt to destabilise" the Himachal Pradesh government and "disturb the communal harmony".
"It is a game plan for the larger picture," he said. "It is being done at the behest of the RSS. There are illegal religious constructions at both forest and government lands which show that the mosque issue wasn’t about its legality but to flare up communal disturbances."
Kamal Gautam is a former general-secretary of the right-wing Hindu Jagran Manch, which has been at the forefront of the recent anti-Muslim demonstrations in Himachal Pradesh. He has been seen raising provocative slogans at such rallies and on social media.
"These rallies are not intended to cause division but to raise awareness. If local Muslims feel otherwise, it’s time for them to pick a side - will it be with us, the local Hindus, or with the Muslim migrants?" he told Al Jazeera.
"In the past 5-10 years, we have seen the changes. These migrants have radicalised local Muslims. You can see a visible change in their attire now. They used to wear jeans and shirts but now they have shifted to kurta [long, collarless tunic] and burqas [face veils for women]," he added.
Hamza, the painter, said he was "deeply saddened" that something as personal as religion now dictated his ability to earn a living in the state. He said he had been struggling to find regular work in recent weeks. From making 600 rupees ($7) for a day’s work, he claimed he can barely make 300 rupees ($3) now.
"I feel like I will also have to leave Himachal soon. They are not offering us work. How can I earn and send money back to my family?" he asked. "This country belongs to me as much as it belongs to anyone else. It’s so painful to be labelled as illegal migrants."
Hamza warned that workers from Himachal Pradesh could also face problems in other parts of India if such hate campaigns continue.
"If we must leave, we will. We can find work elsewhere. But people in Himachal need to remember that locals from here also migrate to other parts of the country for work. One day, someone might tell them to leave, too. If this hatred continues, it will never end," he said.
Shopkeeper Malik said he had lost hope for peace returning to Shimla soon, and was convinced that hate will only continue to grow.
"When the peace is disrupted by communal hatred, it can never fully return. The hate lingers in people’s hearts forever," he told Al Jazeera. India Is Testing Its Friends’ Trust Over Slain Sikh Activist (Bloomberg – opinion)
Bloomberg [10/17/2024 3:00 PM, Mihir Sharma, 27782K, Negative]
India’s friends and partners are clearly feeling a growing sense of disquiet right now.Relations between Canada and India hit a new low this week, when New Delhi’s ambassador to Ottawa was either recalled or expelled, depending on who you believe. That came after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police declared that they had evidence of “links tying agents of the Government of India to homicides and violent acts.” The RCMP wanted to interview the ambassador about the June 2023 killing of the Sikh extremist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar. When the Indians refused, the Canadian foreign ministry claimed it had no alternative but to expel him and five other diplomats.This has set off a firestorm in New Delhi. There is a great deal of anger at what appears — from an Indian perspective — to be three irresponsible acts by Canadian authorities. First, separatist activists that India views as dangerous extremists are allowed to thrive in Canada, and even given space within the formal political spectrum. Second, accusations linking Indian officials to at least one murder on Canadian soil have been publicized without detailed evidence to back up those claims. And third, Ottawa has raised the stakes by demanding to interview the ambassador, the longest-serving Indian diplomat and a man with no history of involvement in intelligence or connections to the national security establishment.There is a stark contrast with the way the US has dealt with some very similar allegations about Indian actions on American soil. Washington refrained from making anything public except through court submissions; ensuring there was evidence backing up each accusation. While senior US officials have largely been silent, insisting the judicial system had to be given time and space, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau himself has repeatedly raised the issue — saying on Wednesday that India made “a massive mistake.” The US, meanwhile, briefed the press this week that India had fired an intelligence operative who had been accused of an attempted assassination in America.The problem for New Delhi is that its official denials have only imperfectly distanced the nation from Nijjar’s killing. The tone and content are too much at variance. Canada may have provided no evidence of official Indian involvement, but the public’s reaction has been overwhelmingly positive, which has led to some decidedly mixed messaging. “We didn’t kill him, but we had every right to” is not very effective rhetoric.India must recognize that the intemperate nature of its rhetoric — both official and unofficial — might trouble our friends every bit as much as any as-yet-unproven accusations. Now is the time to try to stem growing disquiet about how India acts abroad, not give give it reasons to grow. It isn’t necessary to say Trudeau has a “deliberate strategy of smearing India for political gains”, for example, or that “India reserves the right to take further steps in response” to Canadian “support for extremism, violence and separatism against India.”Officials will argue that, although countries from the US to Australia will pay lip service to Canadian judicial independence and the integrity of its processes, they will continue to increase co-operation with India. In their minds, India is indispensable, and everyone has to engage with us.But that sort of misses the point. Over the past year, I have noticed that investors who previously had no real interest in Indian politics or its geopolitical stance have begun asking careful questions of their interlocutors there. Stories like that of the Nijjar killing, and New Delhi’s response to it, tend to cut through the noise and make their way to even to those who had been otherwise oblivious.Everyone will continue to engage with India. But the quality of the engagement depends on how much it can be trusted; and that in turn depends on whether it has shown a willingness to trust others. Countries have carried out targeted assassinations before. But they have rarely done it on friendly soil; and if so, they have not tried to make political capital out of it. If India is doing things like that, the West will think, then this is a relationship without trust. It is merely transactional.But it is in New Delhi’s interest for relationships in domains from intelligence sharing to high-tech investment to be less transactional. India simply doesn’t have enough to offer at the moment. It may in the future — but today, it is asking for things on trust.As disquiet about India grows, trust in India dies. We need to be a little less sanguine about how we are seen around the world. It may be tempting to beat up on polite Canada and to throw our weight around. But it’s hardly in New Delhi’s long-term interest to be seen as a bully. NSB
Bangladesh tribunal issues arrest warrant for former PM Sheikh Hasina (Reuters)
Reuters [10/17/2024 11:27 PM, Ruma Paul, 37270K, Negative]
Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal on Thursday issued an arrest warrant for former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, currently in India, citing her alleged involvement in mass killings during violent protests that erupted earlier this year.The protests, which began as a student-led movement against public sector job quotas, escalated into some of the deadliest unrest since the country’s independence in 1971, resulting in over 700 deaths and numerous injuries.The violence ultimately forced Hasina to flee to India on Aug. 5 and an interim government led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus took charge.The tribunal’s proceedings, presided over by Justice Golam Mortuza Majumdar, saw prosecutors request arrest warrants for 50 individuals, including Hasina."We appealed to the court that if the accused, who are extremely influential, are not arrested, it will be impossible to conduct the investigation," chief prosecutor Mohammad Tajul Islam told reporters."In the interest of a thorough investigation, we applied for an arrest warrant. The court granted our petition and ordered the arrest of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. It further directed that she be arrested and brought before this court by November 18."To date, more than 60 complaints have been filed against Hasina and other leaders of her Awami League party, alleging enforced disappearances, murder, and mass killings.Party leaders from the Awami League were not immediately available for comment, as many senior members have either been arrested or have gone into hiding.Hasina’s son, Sajeeb Wazed, told Reuters in August that his mother was ready to face trial in Bangladesh, adding: “My mother has done nothing wrong.”Bangladesh’s de-facto foreign minister Mohammad Touhid Hossain said on Thursday all efforts will be made to bring back Hasina from India within the one-month timeframe set by the court."The tribunal gave one month time. We will definitely try to bring her back in the meantime, we will do whatever it takes for us," he told reporters. Bangladesh court issues arrest warrant for ex-leader Hasina (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [10/17/2024 10:02 AM, Staff, 8537K, Negative]
A Bangladeshi court on Thursday issued an arrest warrant for exiled ex-leader Sheikh Hasina, who fled to India in August after she was toppled from power by a student-led revolution. Prosecutor Mohammad Tajul Islam called it a "remarkable day", while a relative of one of the hundreds who died in the uprising against her autocratic rule said they were "looking forward" to the trial.Hasina’s 15-year tenure saw widespread human rights abuses, including the mass detention and extrajudicial killings of her political opponents."The court has... ordered the arrest of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, and to produce her in court on November 18," Islam, chief prosecutor of Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT), told reporters."Sheikh Hasina was at the helm of those who committed massacres, killings and crimes against humanity in July to August," Islam said.The court also issued an arrest warrant for Obaidul Quader, the fugitive former general secretary of Hasina’s Awami League party, as well as 44 others, who were not named.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.Former cabinet ministers and other senior members of her Awami League party have been arrested, and her government’s appointees were purged from courts and the central bank.Hasina, however, has not been seen in public since fleeing Bangladesh by helicopter. ‘Bring her back’
The 77-year-old’s last official whereabouts are a military airbase near India’s capital New Delhi.
India’s foreign ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal, asked by journalists about the arrest warrant, declined to comment.
"She had come at short notice for safety reasons, and she continues to be in India," he said.
Her presence in India -- her government’s biggest benefactor -- has infuriated the interim administration in Bangladesh that replaced her.
Dhaka has revoked her diplomatic passport, and the countries have a bilateral extradition treaty which would facilitate her return to face criminal trial.
A clause in the treaty, however, says extradition might be refused if the offence is of a "political character".
"The court has given one month," interim foreign minister Touhid Hossain told reporters.
"We will try to do everything to bring her back within this time."
Hossain did not say whether Bangladesh would lodge a formal request for Hasina’s extradition with India.
‘A fair trial’
Among those in court were family members of Sajib Sarkar, a medic killed in July during the protests against Hasina.
"We want the government to take the initiative to bring back the former prime minister as soon as possible and hold her accountable," his sister, Sumaiya Sarkar, told AFP.
"We are looking forward to a fair trial."
The ICT is a deeply contentious war crimes court Hasina’s government set up in 2010 to probe atrocities during the 1971 independence war from 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.
Several cases accusing Hasina of orchestrating the "mass murder" of protesters are being probed by the court.
Hasina was replaced by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus.
The 84-year-old microfinance pioneer is leading a temporary administration, to tackle what he has called the "extremely tough" challenge of restoring democratic institutions.
Yunus said he had inherited a "completely broken down" system of public administration and justice that needs a comprehensive overhaul to prevent a future return to autocracy.
Bangladesh tribunal issues arrest warrant for Sheikh Hasina (Nikkei Asia)
Nikkei Asia [10/18/2024 4:04 AM, Syful Islam, 2.4M, Neutral]
The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) in Bangladesh on Thursday issued an arrest warrant for exiled former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and 45 others for alleged involvement in crimes against humanity and mass killings during the student uprising in July and August.
Over 60 complaints of crimes against humanity, killings and enforced disappearances have been filed against Hasina and others, including her close aides. Bangladesh’s ICT, which was set up in 2010 when Hasina was the prime minister, officially began judicial proceedings and ordered Hasina and others to be present at the court by Nov. 18.
Additionally, over 200 other cases have been filed against them in different police districts and magistrate courts by the family members and relatives of people who died between July 15 and Aug. 5, during the student uprising that forced Hasina to resign and flee the country. More than 700 people died and hundreds were injured in clashes between students, common people and law enforcement agencies at the behest of the ruling political party, the Awami League -- which has not commented on the warrants as of the publication of this report.
Hasina, who was the longest serving prime minister in the history of Bangladesh, has been accused in almost all the cases filed after the regime change for ordering law enforcement and her aides to open fire and kill protesters.
She is believed to have been in Delhi, and the Indian government -- according to Indian local media -- recently issued her a travel pass to go abroad, as her visa and Bangladeshi passport have become invalid. Bangladesh government a few weeks ago canceled all diplomatic passports issued to the Members of Parliament of Hasina’s government, as well as herself.
Now the interim-government, headed by Nobel Peace Prize-winning economist Muhammad Yunus, wants to try her for the alleged crimes. The ICT was reconstituted this week with the appointment of three new judges, prosecutors and investigative agencies.
Bangladesh has international cooperation in mind to bring back Hasina. Muhammad Tajul Islam, chief prosecutor at the ICT, told reporters on Monday, "If the tribunal issues arrest order against Sheikh Hasina, we will use all the legal instruments to enforce it," adding that the tribunal will seek Interpol’s assistance to bring her and her aides back to the country and try them.
Former Additional Attorney General M Khalilur Rahman, also a former chief coordinator at the ICT, told Nikkei Asia that it may take about six months to one year to complete the trial, adding that, "If the suspects are not available, the trials will proceed in their abstention, while the state will remain responsible to make them present before the tribunal."
Asif Nazrul, adviser for Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs and a professor at the University of Dhaka, told reporters that the government will try to bring back the convicted persons using both the extradition treaties and other international laws. "If convicted, we will definitely seek Sheikh Hasina’s extradition from India," he said in response to a query.
Hasina is often considered to be a friend of India and has now taken shelter there, according to Imtiaz Ahmed, former professor of International Relations at the University of Dhaka.
"Arresting and bringing back Hasina from India through Interpol will depend on how Indian government and its people see the trial at the ICT," he said.
However, he said, the verdict at the ICT will have "symbolic value" globally. "The process of collecting information and evidence is very important in this case."
The ICT was formed in 2010 under the ICT Act, 1973 to "try and punish any individual or group of individuals or organizations ... irrespective of his nationality, who commits or has committed, in the territory of Bangladesh, whether before or after commencement of this Act, any of the crimes mentioned [in this Act]." The tribunal will detain, prosecute and punish people responsible for committing genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and other crimes under international law.
During her 15 year rule, Hasina tried in cases at ICT tribunals at least six leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami and Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which were adversarial to Hasina’s ruling Awami League. Central Asia
Kyrgyz Government Critic Loses Appeal Against 3-Year Prison Sentence (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [10/17/2024 4:14 PM, Staff, 235K, Negative]
The Bishkek City Court on October 17 rejected an appeal by Kyrgyz government critic Askat Zhetigen and upheld his three-year prison sentence. Zhetigen was convicted in July of calling for an attempt to seize power, a case he and rights organizations have strongly contested. He was, however, acquitted of a separate charge related to inciting mass unrest. Zhetigen, a poet, composer, and activist, gained attention in 2021 for speaking out on social media on cultural and political issues, including government reforms and the treatment of critics under President Sadyr Japarov. The charges stemmed from a video in which he criticized Japarov’s administration. Zhetigen has claimed that he was tortured while in custody, allegations that the New York-based Human Rights Foundation has called for an independent investigation into. It has also condemned the charges as fabricated and demanded Zhetigen’s immediate release. Tajik Opposition Leader Jailed For 30 Years (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [10/17/2024 4:14 PM, Staff, 235K, Negative]
A court in Dushanbe has sentenced the leader of an opposition group that has been sharply critical of the government and another group member to lengthy prison sentences for "extremism." Suhrob Zafar, the leader of Group 24, and Nasimjon Sharifov were sentenced to 30 years and 20 years in prison, respectively. The sentences were handed down a week earlier, sources told RFE/RL on October 17. Group 24 was founded by businessman Umarali Quvatov, who was assassinated in Turkey in 2015. The group has been a vocal critic of the Tajik government and advocates for democratic reforms. Tajik authorities have labeled it "extremist," though Zafar and other members deny any involvement in terrorism, insisting their cause is peaceful. During their final statements, both Zafar and Sharifov expressed no regret, with Zafar maintaining that he had neither harmed anyone nor betrayed his people. Sources suggest the two men are unlikely to appeal, with Zafar indicating he was prepared for prison and even death. Russia Pressures Central Asian Prisoners To Fight In Ukraine As ‘Expendable Force’ (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [10/18/2024 5:27 AM, Farangis Najibullah, 235K, Negative]
A 24-year-old migrant worker from Kyrgyzstan, Eleman enlisted in the military at a Russian prison in 2023 with the promise of parole, big money, and Russian citizenship in return for six months of combat in Ukraine.
In jail for drug trafficking, he was sent to the front line after just a few days of training, his family says.
Eleman, whose last name is being withheld due to possible retribution, was forced to remain on the battlefield even after his contract had ended despite being wounded, his father, Anarkul, told RFE/RL.
"My son spent several days in the hospital unconscious. When he came around he was sent back to the war although he still had bandages on his head and arm," Anarkul said.
"If you’re alive and can shoot, it’s enough for them to send you to the combat zone," he said.
Eleman was finally discharged from the military earlier this year after he sustained even more severe injuries that left him disabled, said Anarkul, who lives in the southern Kyrgyz region of Osh.
Eleman is one of thousands of inmates in Russia who were recruited to fight in Ukraine as Moscow struggles to replenish its depleting forces while trying to avoid another unpopular mobilization.
Russia’s Defense Ministry began enlisting inmates in early 2023, taking over from the notorious Wagner mercenary group that started the prisoner-recruitment scheme in July 2022 -- five months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Wagner had enlisted nearly 50,000 prisoners -- 20 percent of whom were killed in Ukraine -- as of May 2023, according to the group’s founder, Evgeniy Prigozhin. Prigozhin fell out of favor with the Kremlin before dying in a suspicious plane crash in August 2023.
The Defense Ministry has expanded the practice of recruiting inmates to the extent that dozens of penal colonies in Russia were emptied and closed, according to human rights activists.
Olga Romanova, director of the civil rights organization Russia Behind Bars, says 53 prisons were closed this year alone.The ministry has also turned pretrial-detention facilities and immigration-detention centers -- which hold hundreds of migrant workers mainly from Central Asian countries -- into recruitment hubs.
Multiple accounts by inmates, their relatives, and human rights groups suggest Russian officials have made prison conditions unbearably harsh and inhumane in an effort to pressure inmates into joining the military.
"They keep you in a cold cell, you sleep on the floor with just a pillow underneath you holding plastic bottles filled with hot water to keep warm," is how one Kyrgyz inmate described his bleak life in a prison in central Russia.
RFE/RL cannot independently verify the claims, but they align with accounts by several other inmates from Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan serving in prisons across Russia. There have also been claims of severe beatings and psychological abuse to try and force people to enlist in the army.
The father of another Kyrgyz inmate incarcerated in the Sverdlovsk region said his son told him that prisoners "had to drink their own urine after being kept in isolation for days without food or water."
"Some of the inmates who were there for seven or eight years say they haven’t experienced anything like this before," says Gulnara Zakirova, whose son Erlan was killed in battle in Ukraine in 2023 after being recruited from prison by Wagner.
Pushed To The Firing Line
Once recruited into the military, the convicts are treated as an expendable force, with little consideration for their lives, several former inmates and relatives told RFE/RL.
They say the convicts are also often thrown onto the front line after just a few days of military training.
"They push us to the line of fire. They deploy us to the most dangerous battle zones. They don’t even collect the dead inmates’ bodies," said 24-year-old Kyrgyz inmate turned soldier Azamat, who requested his last name not be used.
Azamat told RFE/RL by telephone in early October that he was receiving medical treatment for bullet wounds at a hospital in the Russian-occupied Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine.
Despite being in the war zone for just two months, it was the second time Azamat was wounded, according to medical records he shared with RFE/RL.
"The first time they sent me back to the combat zone even though I hadn’t fully recovered. This time I was hospitalized with shrapnel wounds in my back. I had surgery two days ago, but the doctors want to send me to war again," he said.
"No one is allowed to go back home from here," he added.
RFE/RL has since been unable to contact Azamat, but his sister -- a migrant worker in Russia -- said he had returned to his military unit. "He said if he refused to go he would be shot dead," she said.
According to court documents seen by RFE/RL, Azamat, a former shopkeeper, had been sentenced to five years in prison by a Moscow court earlier this year. The family requested other details of his case not be disclosed.
Azamat was recruited in August and signed a contract that included three months of military training before spending another three months in combat, his sister said.
"But just 10 days into his contract he was already deployed in the battle zone and was wounded," she told RFE/RL.
"There are many Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in his unit. From the stories he heard from them, Azamat realized he won’t be released at the end of his contract.… You are stuck there until you’re dead or severely disabled."
The comments echo accounts by dozens of others who claim that convicts fighting in Ukraine are forced to reenlist after their contracts expire.
In Osh, Eleman’s father said Russian authorities also don’t honor their promises of money and other incentives in exchange for joining the army. Though his son was given a Russian passport and a one-off payment of $5,000 and several medals, he doesn’t receive the monthly allowance and benefits available to other war veterans in Russia, he said.
As Eleman prepares to undergo another surgery in Moscow to remove bullets, the family has heard that the other members of his unit were forced to extend their contracts.
Kyrgyzstan says some 1,500 Kyrgyz nationals are serving time in Russian prisons, most of them accused of drug trafficking.
The number of Tajik inmates and detainees in Russia was estimated at about 10,000 before the Ukraine invasion.
The exact number of Central Asian prisoners in Russia is unknown. Nor is it clear how many Central Asian inmates were recruited to war from Russian prisons. RFE/RL reporters have documented dozens of cases of Central Asian convicts being killed in Ukraine.
Kyrgyzstan has returned about 100 of its nationals from Russian prisons to serve the remainder of their sentences in Kyrgyzstan. About 500 other such requests by Bishkek have been rejected by Russian authorities. Twitter
Afghanistan
Habib Khan@HabibKhanT
[10/17/2024 6:52 PM, 238.3K followers, 28 retweets, 54 likes]
The Taliban’s deputy prime minister is bragging that two permanent UN Security Council members—China and Russia—are backing the Taliban.
Habib Khan@HabibKhanT
[10/17/2024 3:36 PM, 238.3K followers, 80 retweets, 392 likes]
The mother of Pashtun activist Khalil Afghan, murdered by Pakistan in Khyber, stands at his grave holding the #FreePashtunistan flag with pride, saying she offers all her sons for the freedom of her people. The independent Republic of Pashtunistan is only a matter of time now.
Habib Khan@HabibKhanT
[10/17/2024 2:16 PM, 238.3K followers, 88 retweets, 160 likes]
The Taliban’s Supreme Court announced the flogging of six individuals, including two women, in Deh Sabz, Kabul, for extramarital affairs and same-sex relations, resulting in 39 lashes and prison terms of one to 15 months. (Photo is old.) Pakistan
Government of Pakistan@CMShehbaz
[10/17/2024 8:09 AM, 3.1M followers, 10 retweets, 15 likes]
Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif received SCO Secretary-General, Mr. Zhang Ming, earlier today in Islamabad, who was here for the SCO Council of Heads of Government (CHG) meeting. The Prime Minister assured the Secretary-General that as a SCO member, Pakistan would continue to work wholeheartedly for promotion of the organization’s development priorities for the benefit of all its member States and the wider region. He stressed that Pakistan stood ready to work with SCO Member States so as to make the organization more effective and stronger. #SCOinPakistan #SCO2024
Government of Pakistan@CMShehbaz
[10/17/2024 12:24 PM, 3.1M followers, 37 retweets, 70 likes]
Key highlights from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Heads of Government Summit 2024, hosted by Pakistan and presided over by the Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif. Pakistan reaffirms its position on the global stage. #SCOinPakistan #SCO2024
Shehbaz Sharif@CMShehbaz
[10/17/2024 11:53 AM, 6.7M followers, 360 retweets, 1.3K likes]
Received H.E. Mr. Zhang Ming, Secretary-General of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) who was here for the 23rd SCO CHG meeting. We discussed ways to further strengthen SCO as an important platform to enhance regional cooperation and progress for improving the lives of our peoples.
Anas Mallick@AnasMallick
[10/17/2024 12:07 PM, 74K followers, 9 retweets, 72 likes]
Following the holding of a successful #SCOinPakistan, Pakistan’s Foreign Office has declared a closed holiday on the 18th of October except for the office of the Foreign Minister, the Foreign Secretary and some of its departments, reads a notification. #Pakistan
Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office@amnestysasia
[10/17/2024 9:07 AM, 92.7K followers, 1.1K retweets, 1.9K likes]
Pakistan’s ICCPR Review at the UN Human Rights Committee starts shortly. @amnesty notes that Pakistan’s review comes at a crucial time for the country, as human rights violations and abuses remain rampant.
The session will be livestreamed: https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1m/k1mg8i3e4u.
Today (17 October) from 15:00 to 18:00 in Geneva / 18:00 to 21:00 in Pakistan
Tomorrow (18 October) from 10:00 to 13:00 in Geneva / 13:00 to 16:00 in Pakistan.
Read Amnesty International’s submission to the UN Human Rights Committee: https://amnesty.org/en/documents/asa33/8576/2024/en/.
Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office@amnestysasia
[10/17/2024 5:45 AM, 92.7K followers, 206 retweets, 420 likes]
A report by @haalvsh, a Baluchi human rights organization, that on 13 Oct Iran’s security forces indiscriminately shot at scores of Afghan individuals at the Pakistan-Iran border is horrifying, as is any denial of adequate health care in Iran and Pakistan to those injured. 1/3
Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office@amnestysasia
[10/17/2024 5:45 AM, 92.7K followers, 16 retweets, 48 likes]
This latest incident comes over two years since @amnesty first documented unlawful force deployed by Iran’s security forces against Afghans fleeing to Iran after the Taliban takeover of August 2021, resulting in unlawful killings and serious injuries. 2/3 India
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[10/17/2024 11:11 AM, 102.9M followers, 6.1K retweets, 34K likes]
Chaired a meeting of NDA Chief Ministers and Deputy Chief Ministers. We had extensive discussions on aspects of good governance and ways to improve people’s lives. Our alliance is committed to furthering national progress and empowering the poor and downtrodden.
Dr. S. Jaishankar@DrSJaishankar
[10/17/2024 9:08 AM, 3.3M followers, 312 retweets, 2.7K likes]
Delighted to inaugurate the tribal art exhibition ‘Silent Conversation : From Margins to the Centre’ in New Delhi today. Witnessed a beautiful exposition showcasing our ethos of environmental conservation, sustainability and living in harmony with the nature. Commend the exceptional work of our talented tribal artisans. Do visit and support.Dr. S. Jaishankar@DrSJaishankar
[10/17/2024 7:22 AM, 3.3M followers, 423 retweets, 5.4K likes]
Congratulate @NayabSainiBJP on taking oath as the Chief Minister of Haryana. Confident that under guidance of PM @narendramodi, your team will continue to deliver on the aspirations of people and lead the state to greater heights of development. Wish the Government a very successful tenure.
Michael Kugelman@MichaelKugelman
[10/17/2024 11:25 AM, 214.1K followers, 7 retweets, 39 likes]
Jaishankar’s trip to Islamabad this week was more about signaling support for SCO than strengthening ties with Pakistan. What makes SCO so important for New Delhi? I explain this week for @ForeignPolicy: https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/10/16/india-jaishankar-pakistan-islamabad-sco-summit/
Michael Kugelman@MichaelKugelman
[10/18/2024 12:00 AM, 214.1K followers, 100 retweets, 210 likes]
The US has identified Vikash Yadav as the Indian government employee who allegedly directed the attempted assassination of Pannun. He allegedly described himself as a senior field officer w/RAW. He’s at large & the FBI has put him on Most Wanted posters.
Michael Kugelman@MichaelKugelman
[10/17/2024 10:06 AM, 214.1K followers, 41 retweets, 265 likes]
India-Canada relations may not have hit rock bottom just yet. As Canada’s investigation continues and a court process plays out, there could be additional serious allegations that enter the public domain. And that would prompt fresh recriminations and retaliations. Buckle up.
Michael Kugelman@MichaelKugelman
[10/17/2024 9:29 AM, 214.1K followers, 8 likes]
My interview w/@ChannelNewsAsia on why and how the Khalistan issue has done so much damage to a once-robust India-Canada relationship. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHKMWXdfFbo NSB
Sabria Chowdhury Balland@sabriaballand
[10/17/2024 10:47 PM, 7.2K followers, 3 retweets, 6 likes]
Sheikh Hasina is wanted by #Bangladesh’s International Criminal Tribunal (ICT) for her alleged involvements in "crimes against humanity" that took place during the demonstrations, in which hundreds were killed.
Sabria Chowdhury Balland@sabriaballand
[10/17/2024 8:12 AM, 7.2K followers, 2 retweets, 3 likes] The International Crimes Tribunal of #Bangladesh has issued arrest warrants for former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina&45 others, including AL General Secretary Obaidul Quader, as part of the ongoing trial proceedings related to the July-August genocide.
Michael Kugelman@MichaelKugelman
[10/17/2024 9:34 AM, 214.1K followers, 40 retweets, 222 likes]
The arrest warrant issued for Sheikh Hasina underscores the importance for India of Hasina finding a 3rd country to take her in. Delhi would never extradite its closest friend in the region, but it also won’t want to be caught in the middle as it tries to rebuild ties w/Dhaka.
The President’s Office, Maldives@presidencymv
[10/17/2024 5:29 AM, 110.4K followers, 167 retweets, 161 likes]
First Lady Madam Sajidha Mohamed attends inaugural event of the Breast Cancer Awareness 5th Annual Symposium. The symposium reinforced the need for a collaborative effort in tackling breast cancer, promoting early detection and comprehensive care.K P Sharma Oli@kpsharmaoli
[10/17/2024 10:32 AM, 860K followers, 14 retweets, 167 likes]
Met with The New York Times’ International President Stephen Dunbar-Johnson, along with Nepal Republic Media Chairman Binodraj Gyawali, Director Shobha Gyawali, and others. #NepalMedia #GlobalNews @nytimes
K P Sharma Oli@kpsharmaoli
[10/17/2024 10:32 AM, 860K followers, 1 retweet, 16 likes]
Happy to know that Nepal Republic Media and The New York Times are collaborating to offer access to premium content from internationally renowned media through a single digital paywall. A step forward for Nepal’s digital media sector! #DigitalNepal #MediaCollaboration
M U M Ali Sabry@alisabrypc
[10/17/2024 9:44 PM, 7.5K followers, 13 retweets, 48 likes]
As a matter of principle, the government should avoid direct involvement in business activities, especially in a country like Sri Lanka, where policy decisions are often influenced by political motives and change with each new administration. This frequent shift in policies, driven by vote-bank politics and changing ministers, creates instability and inconsistency.
However, there are key exceptions to this rule, particularly in sectors providing essential services such as petroleum, water, and electricity. While electricity generation could be privatized—where transparent competition could lead to better pricing for consumers—many ASEAN countries have chosen to retain control over essential services like petroleum retail, electricity regulation, distribution, and water supply.
Personally, I maintain the view that services with captive demand, like those mentioned, should remain under state control if managed with cost-reflective pricing mechanisms. Effective management, combined with a proper structure, would ensure that these essential services are delivered efficiently and sustainably by the government.
Policy Consistency for Investment Stability
One of the most crucial elements for economic progress is maintaining consistent policies across different governments, particularly in areas affecting investments. Frequent policy reversals erode investor confidence and ultimately harm the country’s prospects for growth. For instance, the suspension of the Port City project during the “Yahapalanaya” administration, followed by the cancellation of the Japanese LRT project under the GR government, sent shockwaves through the investment community.
While political parties can continue trading allegations, it is critical that we learn from these past mistakes and prioritize the nation’s long-term development over short-term gains. Policy consistency, especially in investment-related areas, is vital to restoring confidence among investors and ensuring Sri Lanka’s economic stability.
Learning from India’s Experience
A prime example of policy stability can be seen in India, where despite different political parties coming to power, economic policies have remained largely consistent. The positive results of this approach are evident in India’s sustained economic growth and investor confidence.
As I experienced as cabinet minister, while collective responsibility within a cabinet means that individual preferences may not always prevail, it is important that, for the greater good of the country, we work towards policy consistency and economic stability.
M U M Ali Sabry@alisabrypc
[10/17/2024 9:19 PM, 7.5K followers, 3 retweets, 31 likes]
Why the Government Should Limit Its Role in Business in Sri Lanka
The debate on whether state-owned enterprises (SOEs) should play a major role in the economy often surfaces when comparing Sri Lanka with countries like Singapore, the UAE, Qatar, or China. These nations, known for their successful state-run enterprises, can lead us to ask, “If they can do it, why can’t Sri Lanka?” But this comparison can be misleading due to key differences in governance structures and political environments.
1. Governance Models: A Fundamental Difference
Sri Lanka’s governance structure is fundamentally different from the countries it is often compared to:-Singapore is ruled by a single party, maintaining policy consistency with minimal corruption under what is often called an “iron fist.” There is little room for political dissent, and policy changes are rare, allowing state-owned enterprises to function with long-term stability.-China is a one-party state with strong centralized control, enabling the government to run SOEs with efficiency. There is no electoral cycle or disruptive changes in leadership.-The UAE and Qatar are monarchies with tightly controlled political environments. These nations do not have the complexities of democratic institutions like regular elections or independent press criticism. As a result, their SOEs operate with little political disruption.By contrast, Sri Lanka is a democracy. With regular elections, a separation of powers, a free press, and a vibrant civil society, including sometimes disruptive trade unions, governance tends to be more dynamic. These democratic processes, while important for freedom, often lead to policy inconsistency, especially when governments change frequently. Every new administration may appoint loyalists to key positions, leading to disruptions in strategic plans and inconsistencies in how SOEs are managed. (1/3)
M U M Ali Sabry@alisabrypc
[10/17/2024 9:19 PM, 7.5K followers, 7 likes]
2. Policy Consistency vs. Democracy
Policy consistency is a major factor in the success of SOEs in countries like Singapore and China. It refers to the ability of a government to pursue a long-term strategic vision without being disrupted by changes in political leadership or priorities. In Sri Lanka, however, frequent elections mean that governments change regularly, often leading to changes in policies, priorities, and leadership within SOEs. This lack of continuity can lead to inefficiency, corruption, and poor performance in state-run enterprises. Without long-term stability in leadership and policy direction, SOEs are often not able to operate as effectively as their counterparts in countries with more centralized governance systems. In democracies like Sri Lanka, voters often call for change when they elect a new government, seeking fresh policies and new leadership. This makes it difficult to maintain the long-term stability that SOEs require for success. Additionally, political patronage means that key positions within SOEs are often filled by loyalists, leading to inefficiency and even corruption.
3. Why Government Should Stay Out of Business
While there are strategic sectors where government involvement is crucial—such as energy, electricity, water, and civil aviation—beyond these areas, it is generally better for the government to stay away from running businesses. Here’s why:-Efficiency and Innovation: The private sector is generally more efficient and innovative than the public sector. Private businesses operate under competitive pressures, driving them to cut costs, improve services, and innovate. SOEs, on the other hand, often lack these incentives and are prone to inefficiency and corruption.-Political Influence: Government-run businesses are often subject to political influence, which can lead to poor decision-making. In Sri Lanka, this has manifested in the form of frequent leadership changes in SOEs, where appointments are based on political loyalty rather than merit. This undermines the long-term performance of these enterprises.-Fiscal Burden: SOEs can become a financial burden on the state. When these enterprises fail to generate profits, the government often has to bail them out, diverting resources away from essential public services. Sri Lanka has seen this with several underperforming SOEs that have required large subsidies and bailouts, contributing to the country’s fiscal deficits.-Regulatory Role of Government: The government should focus on creating a regulatory environment that supports business growth, innovation, and competition, rather than trying to run businesses itself. By doing so, it can ensure fair competition and the provision of essential services without directly engaging in commercial activities. (2/3)
M U M Ali Sabry@alisabrypc
[10/17/2024 9:19 PM, 7.5K followers, 6 likes] 4. Constructive Criticism and Governance
In a democracy like Sri Lanka, tolerating constructive criticism is essential for good governance. Unlike countries with centralized control or monarchies, where dissent is often silenced, democracies thrive when there is active dialogue between the government and its citizens.
Governments are elected to govern better than their predecessors, not to dismiss criticism by comparing themselves to other regimes or engaging in whataboutism. Citizens have the right to hold their government accountable and expect improvements, regardless of who is in power.
For the people of Sri Lanka, it is less about who governs and more about how well they govern. The focus should be on governance, transparency, and accountability, rather than maintaining the status quo or dismissing calls for change.
A Strategic Approach to State Involvement
In sectors like energy, water, and civil aviation, where national interests and security are at stake, state involvement can be justified. However, for most other sectors, the private sector is better suited to drive growth, innovation, and efficiency. The government’s role should be to regulate and create a conducive business environment, not to compete in business.
By focusing on governance and tolerating constructive criticism, Sri Lanka can foster an environment where both the private and public sectors thrive, without falling into the traps that often come with running large state enterprises in a democratic setting. (3/3)
Namal Rajapaksa@RajapaksaNamal
[10/17/2024 10:12 AM, 436.8K followers, 1 retweet, 14 likes]
Attended the 251st ‘Ama Dam Sisila’ Dhamma Sermon delivered by Vichitrabhani, Yatimadura Dhammasiri Thero of Tangalle’s Sri Pushparama Viharaya, joined by @PresRajapaksa.
Harsha de Silva@HarshadeSilvaMP
[10/17/2024 8:10 AM, 359.5K followers, 41 retweets, 470 likes]
#SriLanka needs leadership beyond party lines. I’m stepping up. Look for #9 in Colombo. From @1990SuwaSeriya saving lives to exposing corruption in #CoPF, I’ve always put our nation first. Now, I’m prepared to guide #lka towards inclusive growth. Your vote shapes our future. Central Asia
Javlon Vakhabov@JavlonVakhabov
[10/17/2024 10:37 PM, 6.1K followers, 1 retweet, 1 like]
Pleased to deliver my remarks at the Astana Think Tank Forum (@AstanaIntlForum) “Middle Powers in a Changing World.”
My key takeaways at the Session “Building Bridges: Key Trade and Transport Corridors”:- developing a comprehensive and unified approach towards unlocking Central Asia by adopting a Strategy for Regional Transport Corridors is a key task for Uzbekistan and the whole region;- implementing projects that introduce digital technologies and modern corporate practices within the transport and logistics sector should continue. Modernizing customs control and monitoring systems, improving airport infrastructure, and establishing regional logistics centers are essential;- a systematic approach to coordinating tariff policies is crucial. This includes developing a cohesive strategy for implementing tariffs, providing benefits and preferences to support national carriers, modernizing the transport network and infrastructure, and increasing the capacity of border checkpoints;- promoting joint industrial cooperation projects is vital. The countries in the region are well-prepared to engage in collaborative efforts in this area. A Unified Map of Industrialization for the region should be made. Advancing a network of trade and industrial hubs in border areas is essential for fostering regional integration and economic growth.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service@president_uz
[10/17/2024 11:46 AM, 201.8K followers, 2 retweets, 14 likes]
Today President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev reviewed the anticipated economic results for the current and the main macroeconomic indicators for next year. Officials were tasked with developing a three-year program for lengthening the value chain and increasing labor productivity in industry, as well as legalization of the shadow economy through widespread digitalisation and introduction of the AI. The meeting concluded with defining the main directions of the draft state budget for 2025.
Saida Mirziyoyeva@SMirziyoyeva
[10/17/2024 12:51 PM, 20.2K followers, 3 retweets, 50 likes]
Visited UZINFOCOM today to review the #healthcare digitization project. It will automate key processes, unify patient data, and boost efficiency across the healthcare system. If implemented as planned, it will greatly benefit both professionals and the public.{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.