epubdos : Afghanistan
SCA MORNING PRESS CLIPS
Prepared for the U.S. Department of State
Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs
TO:
SCA & Staff
DATE:
Tuesday, September 3, 2024 6:30 AM ET

Afghanistan
Frustrated With White House, Family of Detained American Reaches Out to Taliban (Wall Street Journal)
Wall Street Journal [9/1/2024 12:01 AM, Alexander Ward, 810K, Neutral]
The family of George Glezmann, feeling like it is running out of options, has informed the White House it would negotiate directly with the Taliban to try to secure the American hostage’s release from Afghanistan.

“We are in the process of finalizing a meeting in Doha with the [Taliban] to try to recover George,” wrote George Taylor, a Glezmann family representative, in an email last week to senior U.S. officials including national security adviser Jake Sullivan and top hostage negotiator Roger Carstens.

Taylor accused the administration of putting little emphasis on Glezmann’s case, leaving him to languish in a cell as his health deteriorates. He implored the government “to exhibit the necessary courage and leadership that it takes to facilitate the release of George.”

Glezmann, a Delta Air Lines mechanic, was touring Afghanistan when the Taliban seized him in December 2022. The State Department 10 months later designated him as wrongfully detained, giving the administration vast authorities to secure his release. But Glezmann’s family insists they don’t get enough information or cooperation from the Biden administration, driving them to contact Glezmann’s captors in hopes of pushing negotiations forward.

Officials from Carstens’s office at the State Department and the National Security Council previously warned Taylor, a Delta general manager for corporate security, that taking the meeting would complicate efforts to free Glezmann, he recounted, as U.S. officials imminently planned to meet with Taliban members.

A State Department spokesman wouldn’t comment on private conversations with the Glezmann family or representatives, or its engagement with the Taliban.

A spokesman for the Taliban didn’t respond to requests for comment, but the group has long said it would trade Americans for Afghan prisoners held by the U.S. in Guantanamo Bay—a politically risky deal that becomes more fraught as the U.S. presidential election nears.

The episode highlights simmering tensions between the families of hostages and the government that works for them, particularly in the final months of the Biden administration. It is inherently a frustrating experience, as families want up-to-date information while administrations keep many of their actions private to keep negotiations on track. Much of the diplomatic entreaties are classified, U.S. officials note, complicating the government’s messaging.

But there is also a growing sense among some families that there is a tiered system in place, with celebrity hostages getting nearly all the media’s and president’s attention. The Biden administration has long denied this charge.

Still, Aleksandra Glezmann fears her husband’s case is stuck in the perceived lower tier of importance. “We are not wealthy or famous people,” she wrote in July in a letter to President Biden. “I beseech you to intervene personally in George’s matter and do everything in your power to bring him home.”

She has no confirmation that Biden has read it, even after repeated queries to White House aides if the two-page document was placed on his desk. The National Security Council repeatedly declined to comment on the letter or if Biden is aware of its contents.

In a phone call, Taylor confirmed the trip to meet with the Taliban is on hold until after U.S. officials next meet with Afghanistan’s rulers. But if he and the Glezmann family see no imminent progress, Taylor said he would get on a flight to the Qatari capital and meet with a Taliban representative.

Taylor complained that he, Aleksandra and the family’s attorney consistently fail to receive details about what the administration is doing for Glezmann. The former federal law enforcement agent alleges that when U.S. officials don’t want to answer his queries, “they hit us with the old ‘classified’ card. I have found that in most cases that is used to hide failures or incompetence.”

The family of Ryan Corbett, arrested by the Taliban in 2022 and held in the same cell as Glezmann, has also repeatedly come forward to plead their case and demand more attention from senior administration leaders. So has the family of Mahmoud Habibi, an American citizen who disappeared in 2022 after the U.S. killing of al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kabul. The FBI believes Habibi was taken by Afghan military or security forces.

The Taliban have claimed that Corbett and Glezmann violated the law but haven’t commented publicly on Habibi. The U.S. government has said that Glezmann and Corbett have been designated wrongfully detained, a status that opens up additional government resources that can be used to negotiate their release.

That same label hasn’t been affixed to Habibi due to a lack of clarity on his situation, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said earlier in August. But the administration insists it is working on his case similarly to the others.

“The Biden-Harris Administration is actively working to secure the release of George and all Americans wrongfully detained and held hostage around the world,” said National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett.

Still, their families say that they have to compete for attention from an administration that has been focused on higher-profile cases.

On Aug. 1, the U.S. and Russia conducted the largest prisoner swap between East and West since the Cold War. Russia released 16 people, including Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter detained for more than a year and convicted on a false charge of espionage. The others included former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, as well as another journalist and activists who have opposed Russian President Vladimir Putin and his war in Ukraine. Russia received eight people, including a convicted murderer.

Aleksandra Glezmann is scheduled to meet with Sullivan on Sept. 11, though she is hoping for an earlier discussion over fears her husband’s health is rapidly deteriorating. George has what she describes as a benign tumor on his left side, is losing vision in his left eye and is suffering under detention from breathing difficulties.

For those health complications alone, Aleksandra pleaded in her letter to Biden, “now is the time to bring George Glezmann home.”
Choice facing N.Y. judge: Does Taliban leader get war-related immunity? (Washington Post)
Washington Post [9/1/2024 10:00 AM, Shayna Jacobs, 52865K, Negative]
A federal judge is in the rare position of having to decide whether to grant immunity under military law to a Taliban commander facing charges in the 2008 killings of three U.S. soldiers and the kidnapping of an American journalist in Afghanistan.

U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla’s ruling could significantly truncate a 13-count indictment against Haji Najibullah, who was a Taliban spokesman and alleged orchestrator of a deadly attack on a military convoy.

Najibullah is also charged with orchestrating the abduction of journalist David Rohde and two Afghan nationals who assisted Rohde in his overseas reporting. The captives were marched over the border to Pakistan, where they remained for seven months before Rohde and one of his companions made a remarkable escape (the other remained behind).

The question at issue is whether Najibullah is entitled to prisoner-of-war protections — which could give him immunity for actions like killing enemy troops during combat — given that the Taliban was not the recognized government of Afghanistan at the time of his alleged crime, among other issues.

It is very rare that a civilian jurist would have to make a decision of this nature, said David Glazier, a professor of international law and law of war at Loyola Law School and a retired Navy surface warfare officer.

“This is a U.S. federal district court sitting in New York City, and who would ever expect them to be delving deeply into controversial and ridiculously complex law of war matters?” Glazier said, adding that it was also striking to see a member of the Taliban face murder charges in the United States like an “ordinary criminal.”

Two highly experienced experts reached opposing conclusions when they testified before Polk Failla at a recent hearing, which Glazier said “highlights just how complex and unusual the situation is.”

Christopher Jenks and Rachel VanLandingham are part of a relatively small universe of attorneys who are authorities on military law. The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan called Jenks, who said Najibullah is not entitled to prisoner-of-war status protections. VanLandingham, testifying for the defense, challenged the government’s position on the Taliban’s status in Afghanistan during the 20-year U.S. military operation there.

Polk Failla’s decision will determine whether Najibullah will face charges for the killings of three U.S. soldiers deployed to Afghanistan: Sgt. 1st Class Matthew L. Hilton, Sgt. 1st Class Joseph A. McKay and Sgt. Mark Palmateer. It is not clear when the judge is expected to rule or if she is going to request additional arguments from the attorneys on the case.

Najibullah’s legal team has argued that he was entitled to a combatant immunity status hearing in front of a military tribunal, and that he should only be tried on two counts that relate to the kidnapping of Rohde. Instead, the Justice Department brought a case in federal court, which is scheduled for trial Jan. 6.

Najibullah was arrested in 2020 while traveling in Ukraine and extradited to face the kidnapping charges. A year later, a new indictment was filed against him related to the killing of the U.S. troops. Among the charges: providing material support for terrorism, murder of U.S. nationals, hostage taking and various conspiracies.

Prosecutors have decided to drop two kidnapping-related counts that were being challenged by the defense, but Najibullah is still facing counts of hostage taking and hostage-taking conspiracy related to the Rohde abduction.

Much of the alleged conduct, his lawyers argue, should be considered wartime activities in his role as a Taliban commander.

“This country does not traditionally prosecute foreign soldiers simply for fighting against our military forces on a battlefield,” defense attorney Andrew Dalack wrote in a June 11 filing. “It would be illogical and inequitable to deprive Mr. Najibullah of a combatant immunity determination simply because he was not seized on the literal battlefield.”

At the Aug. 8 hearing, Jenks described a well-established history of international law and widely accepted practices that find Najibullah should not be deemed a prisoner of war and should not be provided privileges that come with it. The Taliban was not the recognized government of Afghanistan in 2008, Jenks said, so Geneva Conventions procedures that might have offered Najibullah protections clearly would not apply.

“Overwhelmingly … international law scholars or noted commentators considered the status of the armed conflict in Afghanistan in 2008 to be non-international in nature,” testified Jenks, who serves as a judge advocate general (JAG) senior law of war adviser at the Pentagon.

VanLandingham, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, countered that the Taliban never surrendered its governing authority during the two-decade U.S. effort there and immediately took charge after the withdrawal of U.S. troops in 2021. Therefore, she argued, the fighting during the U.S. occupation should be governed by the law of war as an international armed conflict.

“The installed government never exercised effective control over the territory of the state of Afghanistan to any type of degree that would divest the Taliban of its link to sovereign state authority,” said VanLandingham, a professor and research dean at Southwestern Law School, who from 2006 to 2010 served as a top legal adviser at U.S. Central Command on the application of international law to the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“The Taliban’s control over parts of the Afghanistan state territory waxed and waned over the years, so it depends on the year, but they maintained at least a continuous level of effective control over at least some parts of Afghanistan throughout that, over almost two decades.”

VanLandingham compared the Taliban’s temporary removal from power to the Free French resistance movement during World War II, a group of French soldiers under the leadership of Charles de Gaulle who acted as a government in exile after France formally surrendered to Germany. That group was recognized as one entitled to privileges of any other formal country that was party to the Geneva agreements.

“With the Taliban I see an even greater claim to state authority because it did maintain a presence continuously in Afghanistan,” VanLandingham testified.

Jenks, during his testimony, disputed that the Free French and the Taliban could be compared. He said the Free French, who were widely recognized as the displaced French government, agreed to follow Geneva Conventions guidelines.

Jenks said that a prisoner-of-war possibility is normally not talked about for members of the Taliban because of the broadly accepted conclusion that for most of the post-9/11 U.S. operation in Afghanistan, the Taliban was not in power.

“The few that even reach [the opposite conclusion] for academic or intellectual purposes, and try to fit the Taliban under one of the criteria, conclude that they don’t fit,” Jenks added.

Experts in military law are watching the case because of the unique circumstances of the matter.

Geoffrey Corn, director for the Center for Military Law and Policy at Texas Tech University School of Law, said the Justice Department’s interpretation of the law — not recognizing an immunity path for Najibullah under Geneva Conventions guidelines — follows legal precedent and logic.

“Even if by some stretch you characterize the conflict in which he fought as an international armed conflict … [Najibullah] doesn’t earn combatant immunity,” Corn said.
Leader of Afghanistan’s resistance movement says he will defeat the Taliban ‘no matter the odds’ (CNN)
CNN [9/1/2024 2:00 AM, Peter Bergen, 24052K, Neutral]
Three years after the departure of the final US troops from Afghanistan, the situation in the country is bleak, with the Taliban tightening its grip as it introduces increasingly oppressive laws that restrict political freedoms and suppress the rights of women.

Most Afghans have had to acquiesce to the Taliban not because they embrace their misogynistic ideology but because they have all the guns. Still, there is a nascent resistance movement. I spoke to its leader, Ahmad Massoud, who said he’s engaged in "a fight for the soul and future of our nation, and we are determined to win, no matter the odds."

He is the son of Ahmad Shah Massoud, who led the Afghan resistance to the Taliban more than two and half decades ago when the Taliban first seized power in Afghanistan in 1996.

Massoud is now 35, and he leads the National Resistance Front to the Taliban. In our interview, he asserted that his group has carried out 207 military operations around Afghanistan this year and that he has 5,000 soldiers under his control. Verifying this kind of information independently is nearly impossible as there are relatively few international journalists covering Afghanistan, while the Taliban have closed hundreds of Afghan media outlets. The UN put out a report in June that documented a surge of anti-Taliban attacks during the first six months of this year but put the number at 29 operations carried out by the National Resistance Front, while on the group’s X feed, there are claims of far more operations.

Massoud told me that "the Taliban’s true victory wasn’t on the battlefield; it was at the negotiating table," a withdrawal agreement that was negotiated by then-President Donald Trump’s team and carried out by President Joe Biden.

Massoud lives in an undisclosed location in Central Asia directing military operations in Afghanistan from outside the country. We conducted our interview over email, and it has been edited for clarity.

BERGEN: The Taliban last week banned the sound of women’s voices outside of the home. This seems crazy, but the Taliban can do it with impunity. What does this say about their hold on power?

MASSOUD: This is a blatant display of ignorance and arrogance. The Taliban believe they can punish the people of Afghanistan, especially women, and yet they can alsostill gain international recognition. [Today, no government officially recognizes the Taliban, though several governments do have diplomatic relations with them.] This impunity is a direct result of the international community’s policy of appeasement of the Taliban over the past three years. If we hope to see a change in the Taliban’s behavior, we must alter our approach towards them. It’s that simple.

Within Afghanistan, our strategy for resistance is clear. The Taliban only respond to power and force. Diplomatic engagement with the Taliban has only emboldened them.

BERGEN: This is the third anniversary of the withdrawal of all US troops from Afghanistan. What are your feelings on this anniversary after two decades of a US military and diplomatic presence in Afghanistan? Was this a betrayal of America’s Afghan allies?

MASSOUD: The hasty US withdrawal in 2021 caused us to lose many achievements that we had gained in the last 20 years. Afghanistan had started experiencing social and political transformations that it never had before. We had rights like freedom of speech, and a new generation, both women and men, was on the rise. Yet we lost all of this when the agreement with the Taliban was signed in 2020 and when the withdrawal abruptly happened in 2021. Now we are the only country fully controlled by terrorists.

BERGEN: What kind of military operations are you carrying out in Afghanistan?

MASSOUD: The National Resistance Front’s military activities started in August 2021 when the Taliban attacked us in the Panjshir Valley [in northern Afghanistan]. Since then, we have been resisting them. We started from two provinces in the north, yet now we have networks and operations in almost 20 provinces after three years of expansion. [There are 34 provinces in Afghanistan.] Our operations at the moment are unconventional and mostly guerrilla operations. Yet, the military wing of the National Resistance Front is based inside Afghanistan, our bases, and our commando units are all in the country, and as every day passes, we are increasing our recruitment and operational capacity.

BERGEN: Can you give us a sense of the strengths of your National Resistance Front?

MASSOUD: The National Resistance Front’s military wing is solely made up of the remnants of Afghanistan’s former armed forces. These forces joined us instead of abandoning the fight for democracy on August 15, 2021 [when the Taliban captured Kabul, the capital]. Today, we have more than 5,000 permanent forces scattered in some 20 provinces. We have been able to increase their capabilities even though we aren’t receiving any external support. To give you a sense of our strength, since January 2024, we have launched 207 operations around the country.

BERGEN: Your soldiers claimed an attack at Kabul Airport last month. Can you describe what happened?

MASSOUD: Operational security prevents me from disclosing specifics, but I can assure you that this operation and many others demonstrate the significant military and intelligence capabilities we’ve developed since 2021. Despite the risks and complexities, our forces, supported by our deep intelligence network within the enemy’s ranks, executed the operation precisely.

Also, I would like to make something clear. All our targets are and will be military targets. We only target where the Taliban and other terror groups reside and avoid civilian casualties.

BERGEN: Tell us about how you became the leader of the anti-Taliban resistance, and are there other resistance groups you work with?

MASSOUD: I started my political efforts back in 2018 by consulting Afghanistan’s people. I went to the furthest villages and valleys of Afghanistan, engaging directly with my people to formulate a strategic response to the imminent US-Taliban deal and withdrawal. On September 5, 2019, I received a clear mandate from our citizens, gathered at my father’s mausoleum, to lead a solution to this coming crisis. The critical moment arrived on August 15, 2021, when my people and some of the former armed forces of Afghanistan established the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, entrusting me with its leadership. This was not a choice but a call to duty that I answered without any hesitation.

BERGEN: You attended Sandhurst, the British equivalent of West Point, and studied in the War Studies department of Kings College, London. Was that helpful training for what you are doing now?

MASSOUD: My training at Sandhurst and education at King’s College provided me with a solid foundation. However, the burden of real-world conflict has been my true academy. The lessons I’ve learned leading our resistance these past few years far surpass any classroom instruction.

BERGEN: You won’t recall this, but I met you when you were only around 4 years old when CNN was interviewing your father, Ahmad Shah Massoud, in the Panjshir Valley in Afghanistan in 1993 during the Afghan civil war. I was very impressed by your father, his extraordinary charisma and his intelligence.

It must have been very difficult for you, aged 11 when he was assassinated by al Qaeda assassins two days before 9/11. How has your father’s assassination affected what you are doing today?

MASSOUD: The video of our first encounter, when you met my father during that CNN interview in the Panjshir Valley in 1993, is indeed part of our historical record. While I wish I had been older to fully grasp the gravity of those moments and learn more directly from my father, his legacy has become the cornerstone of my mission. My father’s assassination by al Qaeda, just days before 9/11, was a moment that shaped not just my family but the course of our nation. As I’ve detailed in my memoir "In the Name of My Father," the impact was profound. However, it also ignited an unshakeable determination within me. At that moment, I vowed to continue his vision for a free and peaceful Afghanistan. His sacrifice wasn’t in vain - it’s the foundation upon which we’re building Afghanistan’s future. [Disclosure: I wrote the foreword to Massoud’s memoir, which I do not benefit from financially in any manner.]

BERGEN: When the Americans left Afghanistan three years ago, they left behind $8.5 billion dollars worth of military equipment, according to an estimate by the UN. That’s more than the defense budget of some European nations. Does this make your task of resisting the Taliban more difficult?

MASSOUD: The $8.5 billion worth of military equipment abandoned by the Americans has of course altered the battlefield dynamics, but it hasn’t dampened our determination and commitment. Yes, the Taliban are now better armed than ever before. However, military history is full of examples where determination and strategy overcame material advantages. The Taliban may have the weapons, but we have the will of the people - and history shows that’s a far more powerful force.

What’s more concerning is the Taliban’s transformation of Afghanistan into a black market for these weapons. We know that they are not just arming themselves; they’re fueling global terror networks. This isn’t just about our resistance; it’s about preventing Afghanistan from becoming a nexus of international terrorism.

BERGEN: When your father, Ahmad Shah Massoud, was fighting the Taliban before 9/11, he controlled some territory inside Afghanistan and could be resupplied from neighboring Tajikistan. You are not in Afghanistan, and it’s hard for you to supply your forces inside Afghanistan as you control no territory in Afghanistan. You do have a political office in Tajikistan, but no other countries support you; how does this lack of support affect your ability to fight the Taliban?

MASSOUD: Our current position differs strategically from my father’s era, but our determination remains unshaken. Since 2021, we’ve not only survived but expanded our influence, despite minimal external support. It is important to emphasize that we are not just fighting the Taliban; we’re engaged in a broader conflict against a coalition of regional and global terror groups. When al Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban supply fighters to the Taliban, it’s clear that our struggle is an extension of the global war on terror.

However, let me be clear: to defeat these 20 terrorist organizations in Afghanistan threatening global security, we require international backing. It’s unrealistic to expect us to single-handedly neutralize this threat without resources. Our fight isn’t just for Afghanistan; it’s for global security. Any nation that perceives terrorism as a threat must recognize the strategic necessity of supporting our cause and efforts.

BERGEN: What support do you need?

MASSOUD: We need any kind of support that will allow us to defeat this group. We believe we have capable forces who were trained for 20 years to pursue counterterrorism. For this reason, we are asking for resources instead of foreign forces to liberate our country.

BERGEN: What do you say to those who say your resistance movement doesn’t have much of a chance against the well-armed Taliban and without financial and military support from other countries?

MASSOUD: Those who underestimate our resistance fail to grasp the lessons of Afghanistan’s history. Despite our current lack of external support, we’ve consistently grown in strength and numbers. The Taliban may control territory and possess billions in arms, but they lack the most crucial asset - the support of the people of Afghanistan. Our history proves that popular legitimacy, not weaponry, determines ultimate victory. Even the communist regime [which controlled Afghanistan from 1979 to 1992], which was far stronger than today’s Taliban, fell due to lack of popular support. Our resistance is expanding because we represent and embody the will of the people.

BERGEN: Will the Taliban still be in charge in Afghanistan a decade from now? If not, why not?

MASSOUD: The Taliban’s grip on Afghanistan is already slipping. Their lack of discipline, competence, legitimacy, and internal disunity makes their long-term rule ineffective. We don’t just hope for their downfall - we’re working to ensure it.

In Vienna, Austria, this year we initiated a political process, uniting Afghanistan’s diverse political and civil groups. This isn’t only opposition - it’s the foundation of a democratic alternative for Afghanistan’s future. We’re not waiting for the Taliban to fail; we’re building the system that will replace them.

The fractures within the Taliban are widening. Their implosion is not a matter of if, but when. When that moment comes - and it will come sooner than many expect - we’ll be ready. The democratic government we’re preparing will fill the void, representing all citizens and bringing stability to our nation.

A decade from now, Afghanistan won’t just be free of Taliban rule - it will be on the path to becoming a beacon of democracy in the region. That’s not wishful thinking - it’s our objective.

BERGEN: Has the Taliban created an "inclusive" government as they promised?

MASSOUD: The Taliban’s promise of an inclusive government has proven to be nothing but propaganda. The fundamentally reject the core democratic principle that political legitimacy stems from the will of the people and free elections. Their current power structure is a sham, with various factions of their terrorist organization vying for control and systematically marginalizing each other.

The very notion that this group could create an inclusive government is absurd when they can’t even maintain unity within their own ranks. Their internal power struggles and ideological inflexibility make any form of genuine inclusivity impossible. They’ve demonstrated time and again that their only interest is in consolidating power for their extremist vision.

BERGEN: Flawed presidential elections produced flawed Afghan governments. How culpable were Afghanistan’s leaders like President Ashraf Ghani for what transpired in Afghanistan?

MASSOUD: The government of Afghanistan was corrupt and flawed. The flaws in Afghanistan’s previous governments were systemic and deep-rooted. I consistently opposed these administrations precisely because of their corruption and ineffectiveness.

The root of the problem lies in the political system adopted after 2004, which was fundamentally unsuited to Afghanistan’s diverse demographic reality. Afghanistan is a highly diverse country without an ethnic majority. Its constitution concentrated excessive power in Kabul, essentially creating a presidential monarchy. This centralization was a primary factor in the government’s weakness and the marginalization of numerous communities.

The situation worsened dramatically during Ashraf Ghani’s presidency. His further centralization of power, limiting decision-making to only himself and a small circle of advisors, exacerbated the alienation of large segments of our population.

Recognizing this flaw, I advocated for the decentralization of power in a 2020 New York Times article. I firmly believe that Afghanistan’s path to peace and stability lies in the distribution of power. It is a strategic requirement for building a stable, resilient nation that can withstand internal divisions and external threats.

BERGEN: In all the discussions about the mistakes made in Afghanistan, sometimes it’s easy to lose sight of what went right. In addition to the rise of independent media and the provision of education to girls and jobs for women, what else worked? Programs like the National Solidarity Programme, which offered small grants for public works to local communities in consultation with those communities?

MASSOUD: Yes, despite challenges and setbacks in Afghanistan, it’s important to acknowledge the significant progress made during the two decades after 9/11. The rise of independent media was a cornerstone of this progress, giving voice to diverse perspectives and creating a more informed population. The expansion of education for girls and employment opportunities for women were transformative. Programs like the National Solidarity Programme were particularly effective.

BERGEN: What was the effect of the Trump administration’s 2020 Doha peace agreement with the Taliban and President Joe Biden announcing in April 2021 that he was going to go through with the total US withdrawal?

MASSOUD: The Trump administration’s 2020 Doha deal with the Taliban and President Biden’s later announcement of a total US withdrawal in April 2021 had detrimental effects on Afghanistan’s stability. These decisions legitimized the Taliban on the international stage while signaling the end of substantial Western support for the government of Afghanistan at the same time.

The Doha agreement, in particular, undermined the morale of our security forces and government officials. It created a sense of certainty about the Taliban’s return to power. Biden’s withdrawal announcement made it worse. It triggered a rapid loss of confidence in the government’s ability to stand independently. These policy decisions, which sought to end America’s longest war, sacrificed the hard-won progress of two decades and betrayed the trust of millions of our people.

BERGEN: Did the Taliban win at the negotiating table with the United States, what they couldn’t win on the battlefield from them?

MASSOUD: The Taliban’s true victory wasn’t on the battlefield; it was at the negotiating table. Prior to the negotiations, their territorial control was limited. The negotiation process itself became their launch pad to power. This diplomatic engagement legitimized a terrorist group. It turned them from insurgents to political actors. Had the US simply withdrawn without these negotiations, the Taliban wouldn’t be in power today.

The consequences were devastating - it demoralized Afghanistan’s armed forces, normalized relations with terrorists, facilitated the release of thousands of extremists from our prisons, and paved the way for the fall of our government.

This colossal mistake handed the Taliban a victory they couldn’t achieve through force of arms.

BERGEN: This year, you published a book, "In the Name of My Father: Struggling For Freedom In Afghanistan." What was the main message of the book?

MASSOUD: My book is more than a memoir - it’s a manifesto for Afghanistan’s future and a testament to our ongoing struggle. I lay out my convictions on democracy, women’s rights and the role of Islam in our society. These are the foundational principles upon which we’re building our resistance.

BERGEN: What is your vision of the future? The Taliban control more of the country than they did before 9/11. They’re better armed. They’ve been fighting for 20 years. So, what’s the end goal here for you?

MASSOUD: Let me be very clear about our vision and end goal. We are fighting for a democratic, decentralized and pluralistic Afghanistan where every citizen, regardless of gender, ethnicity or religious belief, enjoys equal rights. This is our non-negotiable objective.

Yes, the Taliban currently control more territory and are better armed than before 9/11. But control of land and possession of weapons does not mean legitimate governance or popular support.

We’re not just resisting the Taliban; we’re building the foundation for a new Afghanistan. We’re creating a system that’s resilient against extremism and responsive to the diverse needs of all our citizens.

Make no mistake - we are prepared for a long struggle. This isn’t just a fight against the Taliban; it’s a fight for the soul and future of our nation, and we are determined to win, no matter the odds.
3 years after US withdrawal, Afghan resistance still ignored by US, West (FOX News)
FOX News [8/31/2024 6:00 AM, Chris Massaro, 48844K, Neutral]
The Taliban has been in power for three years since the disastrous withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan in 2021, and the country’s only pro-Western opposition force, the National Resistance Front (NRF), tries to make gains against the increasingly extremist authorities, all without much-needed U.S. and international support.

Even without external support, the NRF has increased its capabilities and expanded military operations throughout the country.

Ali Maisam Nazary, head of foreign relations for the NRF, told Fox News Digital that the resistance group has launched more than 200 successful operations against the Taliban since January. Nazary said the NRF has expanded its focus to Afghanistan’s urban centers and has been targeting Taliban commanders. The diversity of targets shows the "precision, capabilities and experience the freedom fighters have gained and shows the weaknesses of the enemy," Nazary said.

As part of the withdrawal agreement with the Trump administration, the Taliban agreed to prevent al Qaeda and other terrorist groups from using Afghan soil to target or threaten the U.S. and its allies, but a new U.N. Security Council report indicates that the Taliban has done little to curb al Qaeda activity in Afghanistan. The report notes that al Qaeda opened eight new training camps and has safe havens in various parts of the country, including the rebel stronghold of northern Afghanistan.

The report stated that al Qaeda "harbor global ambitions, and covert and calibrated efforts to rebuild their capability were reported." A 2022 U.N. report said al Qaeda "leadership reportedly plays an advisory role with the Taliban, and the groups remain close."

The Taliban has been quick to downplay their close relationship with al Qaeda or any resistance they face, whether it’s from resistance groups like the NRF or terrorist groups like ISIS-K. It’s hard to deny facts on the ground as 493 Taliban fighters have been killed or wounded since January, according to data from the NRF.

The NRF, led by Ahmad Massoud, is virtually the only credible pro-Western Afghan resistance unit fighting the Taliban. Massoud is the son of Ahmad Shah Massoud, the prominent Mujahideen rebel who fought against the Soviets in the 1980s and was assassinated by al Qaeda operatives two days before the 9/11 attacks.

The NRF is composed of remnants of former members of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces and gathered in traditional strongholds of anti-Taliban resistance in the northern Panjshir valley once the Taliban marched into Kabul. Other members of the Afghan security forces and officials in the government of former President Ashraf Ghani joined the NRF, including former Vice President Amrullah Saleh.

The Taliban is struggling to change the international perception that they have created a government marked by severe human rights violations and vicious policies toward women, Fatemeh Aman, non-resident senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, told Fox News Digital.

Aman said the NRF remains the most significant resistance group that opposes the Taliban’s rule in Afghanistan but that a viable alternative to their rule doesn’t seem to exist at the moment.

"Without a large-scale uprising and widespread support within Afghanistan and from the international community, no group appears to be capable of replacing the Taliban regime," Aman said.

Amid multiple global crises leading up to a contentious and close U.S. presidential election this November, there doesn’t appear to be much of an appetite in the administration for talking about the situation in Afghanistan three years later.

A State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the United States does not support armed conflict in Afghanistan.

"The country was at war for 44 years. We do not want to see a return to conflict in Afghanistan, and we hear from Afghans that they don’t either," the State Department spokesperson said.

Nazary said the NRF’s forces, composed of remnants of the former Afghan security forces, were trained by the U.S. and international forces for 20 years to pursue counterterrorism.

"We have the most capable units that can fight terrorists, and we have done this for three years without any support. We believe our minimal support we will be able to defeat terrorism within Afghanistan," he said.

Without U.S. or external support, it would be difficult for the NRF to mount a real challenge to the Taliban’s iron grip. The Taliban has also been unable to secure international recognition from major powers or a seat at the United Nations. The Taliban retained its global pariah status once it began to govern and reneged on its promise to respect the rights of all Afghans.

The Taliban implemented draconian restrictions on girls’ and women’s rights. Afghanistan remains the only country in the world where women and girls are banned from secondary and higher education as well as many sectors of the economy and government, according to Human Rights Watch.

The Vienna Process for a Democratic Afghanistan is the only forum for Afghan resistance and was created to restore the rule of law, democracy and human rights. The process brings together 40 different parties within the diaspora, including women’s groups, media representatives and influential individuals. The group seeks to restore an inclusive government that represents all levels of Afghanistan’s diverse society.

"The process has laid the groundwork for an opposition coalition, drawing international attention to the illegitimacy of the Taliban," Afghan Ambassador to Austria Manizha Bakhtari told Fox News Digital.

After the collapse of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, some of the ambassadors serving under the previous government established an ambassadors’ council. The members, according to Bakhtari, uphold democratic values, including human rights, women’s participation and girls’ education, which are in direct opposition to the Taliban’s objectives. The Taliban does not recognize the embassies that refuse to comply with its directives. However, many of the embassies continue to provide consular services to the Afghan diaspora community and remain committed to maintaining their services.

Despite assurances before returning to power, the Taliban has shut out other ethnic groups from the government and has maintained the power of its ethnic Pashtun base. The dialogue also functions without any support from the U.S. or EU, making it harder to have an impact on challenging the Taliban.

While the NRF engages in its Herculean effort to remove the Taliban from power, Afghanistan’s humanitarian situation has also gotten worse under Taliban rule since 2021. More than 23 million people needed humanitarian assistance in 2023, according to the U.N. The world body also reported that 4 million Afghans were malnourished, including 3.2 million children under the age of 5.
UN will continue to engage the Taliban in Afghanistan despite new laws restricting women (AP)
AP [8/31/2024 9:59 AM, Staff, 3902K, Neutral]
The United Nations will continue to engage all stakeholders in Afghanistan, including the Taliban, a U.N. spokesman said, even though Afghanistan’s rulers issued a ban on women’s voices and bare faces in public and severed ties with the U.N. mission after it criticized them.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric in New York defended the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA, and its head Roza Otunbayeva, who said that the new laws provided a “distressing vision” for Afghanistan’s future.

She said last week the laws extend the " already intolerable restrictions “ on the rights of women and girls, with “even the sound of a female voice” outside the home apparently deemed a moral violation.

The laws were issued after they were approved by supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada. The Taliban had set up a ministry for the " propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice” after seizing power in 2021. They say the laws are based on their interpretation of Sharia law.

The ministry called on international organizations, countries and individuals to respect the religious values of Muslims. It announced on Friday that it will no longer cooperate with UNAMA because of its criticism of the laws.

“We have been very vocal on the decision to further make women’s presence almost disappear in Afghanistan. In terms of the contacts with the de facto authorities, I mean, we will continue to engage with all stakeholders in Afghanistan, including the Taliban,” Dujarric said at a news conference.

“We have always done so following our mandate and I would say impartially and in good faith, always upholding the norms of the U.N., pushing the messages of human rights and equality. And we will continue our work as mandated by the Security Council.”
Taliban hires female spies to catch women breaking harsh laws (The Telegraph)
The Telegraph [9/2/2024 3:35 PM, Akhtar Makoii, 31540K, Negative]
The Taliban is using female workers to spy on other women to enforce harsh new laws.

Since returning to power in 2021, the Afghan regime has banned women from working outside the home or attending school and university.

But some women are still employed at the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (MPVPV), the body that polices the restrictions, and more recruits are wanted.

"They are needed to handle other women," said an official from the ministry.

The official said the Taliban has hired women to monitor Instagram pages and report instances where women post pictures with uncovered faces.

"You know how Instagram works … they can hide their pages so no one can see them, but we have women who are our eyes," said the official, who works at the ministry’s women’s department.

He added that some women are coerced into this role, while others are paid for their work, which also includes accompanying male Taliban members on street patrols.

“Some women were arrested and released only on the condition that they inform the ministry of any illegal activity they observe from the women they follow,” the official said.

“It is acceptable when women assist us in combating prostitution,” he added when questioned about whether female members of the Taliban speaking to men violates the rules.

“The ministry needs more women across the country, but the current situation is not good and few are volunteering to work at the ministry.”

The Taliban set up its MPVPV in the premises of the former women’s affairs ministry in 2021, doing completely the opposite job.

One of the women working for the MPVPV is a female informant known as Golnesa. The 36-year-old spends her days monitoring and reporting on her fellow Afghan women – some of the most oppressed in the world.

“It varies from day to day,” she said. “Some days, I patrol the city to look for those who do not adhere to the rules of chastity.

“Other days, I visit different locations to find women who are not following the dress code, I go to busy supermarkets and women’s clothing shops.”

When she spots a woman with an uncovered face or visible ankles or a woman laughing with shopkeepers, she refrains from intervening personally.

“They would say ‘Oh, you are a woman too, why are you doing this?’”

Instead, she contacts male officers who arrive with American rifles slung over their shoulders.

“It’s their job to handle the situation with these women, and many of them are taken to police stations,” she says.

“I don’t support women who protest in the streets and claim to represent all women,” she says. “They don’t represent me or many other Muslim women who are tired of seeing indecency.

“Supporting the infidels isn’t freedom,” she added. “True freedom means women should stay at home, raise their children, serve their husbands and not worry about anything else.

“This is an Islamic country, our brothers fought so hard to kick the infidels out, we cannot just let a few women endanger the religion.

“I am proud to be helping the brothers implement the new rules, women initially thought our brothers were joking, but now everything is law and passed by Amir al-Mu’minin,” she says, referring to the Taliban’s supreme leader. “I have a holy duty.”

One of the women caught by such an informant was Dr Zahra Haqparast after she organised a protest rally in Kabul following the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in 2021.

“We always knew that the Taliban would eventually use women against other women,” she said.

“There were girls who infiltrated our WhatsApp groups posing as activists, and they assisted the Taliban in arresting many of the protesters.

“I was arrested because one of these women infiltrated our WhatsApp group and provided my home and office addresses to the Taliban.

“One reason some women work for the Taliban is financial desperation, many were previously employed by the former government.”

Dr Haqparast recounts that during the women’s rallies advocating for their basic rights, many were beaten and tortured by women working for the Taliban.
‘Shame on you’

“Girls were screaming and saying other girls were running after them during protests,” she says.

Now based in Germany, the former dentist lost her job when the Taliban returned to power.

She says the number of women working for the Taliban is increasing.

“We protested and sacrificed everything for our fellow women,” she says. “Yet, some women do everything they can to harm others of the same gender. I can only tell them, shame on you.”

Despite promising a more moderate government, the Taliban quickly returned to harsh punishments such as public executions and floggings, similar to those from their previous rule in the late 1990s.

Last week, the Taliban imposed new restrictions banning women from looking at men, speaking loudly in public and even within their own homes.

Women who defy the new rules will be arrested and sent to prison, the Taliban said.
A suicide bomber detonates in Afghan capital, killing at least 6 people and injuring 13 (AP)
AP [9/2/2024 11:54 AM, Staff, 459K, Negative]
Police in the Afghan capital say a suicide bomber carried out an attack Monday, killing at least six people and injuring 13 others.

The blast took place in the southwestern Qala Bakhtiar neighborhood in Kabul, said Khalid Zadran, spokesman for the Kabul police chief.

The dead included one woman, he said, while 13 people were wounded, all of them civilians who were taken to a hospital for treatment.

A police investigation is underway. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing.

The Islamic State group’s affiliate, a major rival of the ruling Taliban, has carried out previous attacks on schools, hospitals, mosques and Shiite areas throughout the country.

The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021 during the chaotic departure of U.S. and NATO troops after 20 years. Despite initial promises of a more moderate stance, the Taliban gradually reimposed a harsh interpretation of Islamic law, or Shariah, as they did during their previous rule of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.
They fled Afghanistan. In the US, they have freedom – but fear a return (The Guardian)
The Guardian [8/31/2024 8:00 AM, Justo Robles, 92374K, Negative]
Almost three years after Esmatullah Sultani rushed to Kabul’s international airport, at the time besieged by Taliban forces who were seizing control of Afghanistan, the 24-year-old man walked into a busy neighborhood market near Sacramento, California.

Sultani greeted many of the stallholders, fellow Afghans, and ordered kebabs for lunch in Dari, a language spoken by more than 35 million people in Afghanistan.

Since the United States ended its 20-year military presence there, Afghanistan has become a country where those who assisted American forces are in danger of persecution and where women are deprived of fundamental rights, including education.

"This is the closest I am to home," Sultani said, walking through aisles packed with canned food from the Middle East and an area adorned with colorful rugs and long-sleeved dresses known as kameez.

"But here in California, we are safe. My little sister can go to school. I go on picnics with my whole family and we even play soccer."

While the Biden administration helped to airlift, screen and resettle tens of thousands of Afghans in the US, three years after the chaotic withdrawal of the US military, many continue to live in uncertainty, with only short-term legal protections amid fear of being returned to the country they were obliged to flee.

More than 77,000 Afghans have been relocated to the US under an immigration authority known as parole, according to data provided by the Department of Homeland Security. Sacramento county is home to the largest Afghan community in the US, with a population of almost 17,000, according to statistics from the Migration Policy Institute, a non-partisan thinktank in Washington.

Sultani’s father had worked as a civil engineer for several US military construction projects in Afghanistan and, thanks to a work certificate he brought with him to Kabul’s airport, Sultani managed to get on a US aircraft and evacuate as the Taliban closed in.

His humanitarian parole status was meant to be a quick, temporary fix, valid for two years, with evacuees instructed to apply for special immigrant visas, or for asylum.

Asylum offers refuge to immigrants fleeing persecution based on certain factors such as their race, religion and political views. The visas, on the other hand, are available to Afghans who served American forces as translators, as interpreters or in other roles. Both benefits offer recipients and their immediate relatives permanent legal status.

Sultani applied for asylum and waited anxiously.

"My asylum was approved, and then I applied for a green card, but until the day it comes in the mail the idea of going back to Afghanistan won’t disappear," said Sultani, who is getting an associate degree in computer information science at American River College in Sacramento. With his father still in Afghanistan and his mother and siblings in the US, Sultani also works to help his family in both countries stay afloat.

More than 21,000 Afghan evacuees across the US have submitted asylum applications, according to US Citizenship and Immigration Services, which is reviewing a total of 1.2m pending asylum cases.

The Biden administration has created various temporary avenues for those Afghans in limbo, including extending temporary work permits and protections from deportation. Also, a temporary protected status program for Afghans in the US allows them to work here legally under a different law designed to protect immigrants from countries beset by armed conflict or other crises.

So far, 3,100 Afghans have successfully extended their temporary protected status through May 2025, according to the DHS.

But much uncertainty remains. The US military withdrawal should not end America’s commitment to vulnerable Afghans, said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, who served as a policy director for Michelle Obama and is now the president of Global Refuge, an immigrant rights group.

"The bottom line is that our current system has proven insufficient for extending Afghans permanent protection in a timely manner," she added, saying: "Three years later, thousands of Afghan allies have yet to secure a long-term status through asylum or special immigrant visas. And that’s because Congress failed to pass the Afghan Adjustment Act last year."

Global Refuge has helped resettle more than 23,500 Afghans in the US, said Timothy Young, the director for public relations at the organization.

The Afghan Adjustment Act would have created a path to permanent status for evacuees such as Sultani, but the initiative, which received bipartisan support, has been stalled in Congress for more than two years.

Advocates say Afghans have been treated differently from similar refugee groups who have been offered permanent status under adjustment acts passed by Congress, such as Cubans escaping communism, Hungarians fleeing Soviet repression and Vietnamese refugees following the fall of Saigon.

The day that Kabul fell, Jaber, 24 - who asked for his last name to be withheld out of concerns for the safety of his family, who remain in Afghanistan - planned to go to the international airport with his siblings, hoping to get evacuated by US military aircraft. Instead, he had to stay home because two suicide bombers and gunmen killed 60 Afghans and 13 US marines.

Jaber is part of the long-persecuted Hazara ethnic minority group and said he had been an intern for a journalistic association in Afghanistan.

One month before the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, the United Nations discovered mass graves of Hazaras in Bamiyan, part of an ethnic-cleansing campaign. After the Taliban swept back into power more than 20 years later, Jaber and his family lived in fear.

Having failed to get evacuated, Jaber fled to Iran, where he stayed for seven months with a visa. He then traveled to Brazil and, after two weeks of sleeping in churches and parks, he decided to head for the US.

Like hundreds of thousands of desperate refugees, he embarked on a perilous land journey, traversing Peru, Ecuador, the deadly jungle between Colombia and Panama known as the Darién Gap and the entirety of Central America before reaching the US-Mexico border in August 2022.

"I slept under benches with dogs. I remember my shoes had holes in the soles, and I had no money," said Jaber, who now lives in northern California and works as a dispatcher for a security company.

"After I left Afghanistan, Taliban members came to our house and searched for any documents that would lead to the arrest of any of my family members."

One of Jaber’s siblings escaped to Germany, but others remain in Afghanistan.

With the help of the International Rescue Committee, a resettlement organization that has assisted 11,621 Afghan evacuees, Jaber was granted US asylum this summer. His dream, he said, was to pursue a career in journalism, a job that might have gotten him killed in Afghanistan.

"For those coming up over the southern border, there are even fewer resources for them. They don’t have the same access to benefits as those that are paroled in," said Tara Winter, executive director of the IRC’s chapter in northern California.

"They don’t qualify for the same family reunification benefits as other refugees do, and they experience so much anguish as they read about the worsening humanitarian situation in Afghanistan. It’s just a sort of unending legal limbo that makes it really hard for people to focus on rebuilding their lives here."
We escaped from Afghanistan. We landed in Houston. Where are we now? (Washington Post – opinion)
Washington Post [8/30/2024 11:57 AM, Claudia Kolker, 6.9M, Neutral]
Claudia Kolker, a former member of the Houston Chronicle editorial board, is the author of “The Immigrant Advantage: What We Can Learn From Newcomers to America About Health, Happiness, and Hope.”

Three years after the collapse of their government, more than 76,000 Afghans live in the United States under humanitarian parole. After the U.S. military completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan on Aug. 30, 2021, Houston became the top destination for these refugees. For those who escaped, the anniversary of those weeks can summon chaotic emotions. Some don’t want to discuss it. Most worry about those who didn’t get out. And many, especially women, see their escape as an almost otherworldly reprieve from gender-based cruelty.

None of these refugees, though, could say that their escape is solely history. The Taliban’s stranglehold on civil society, and women most of all, keeps tightening. Last week, the group announced new “vice and virtue” laws threatening to arrest women who reveal their faces (or speak) in public.

Here, three Afghan refugees in Houston reflect on their escapes. The interviews, edited and condensed for length, were interpreted by Zala Hashmi.

Khadija Sakhizad

Khadija, 27, kneels quietly in her living room, which is furnished with nothing more than two chairs and a new carpet. In Afghanistan, she and her husband, Jawad, belonged to the Hazara minority, which according to legend descends from Genghis Khan. Under the Taliban, the Hazara have been marginalized, tortured and massacred. In Houston, Khadija cares for her sons, ages 4 and 6.

My husband worked for six months as a carpenter with a U.S. company in Kabul. It was a good place. They said, “If anything happens, we will take you to the U.S.” A relative had told my husband about the job. “It’s not safe,” the relative said. “But you have no choice.” Before that, we led a very bad life. My husband made about 50 afghani a day [about 70 cents]. In the new job, he made 10,000 a month. Then, on Aug. 15, 2021, I was washing clothes when he came home and said, “The Taliban took everything.” I sewed our valuables into a pillow and handed it to my husband, who left to hide. Soon after, three Talibs tore through our house.

When they were gone, a relative told my husband it was safe to come home. By now, he was getting emails: Go to the airport. We went, with our two small sons in diapers, four times. The first two times, the Taliban wouldn’t let us in. The third time, a bomb exploded a few yards from me. I said, “If we are going to die, I want to die at home.” So for one year, we hid. My husband said, “We will die together by starving but we will not separate.” The emails kept coming. Finally, one directed us to a new spot and we went. There, a team picked us up and drove us into the airport. From there, we flew to Qatar, then to the United States.

Look at me. I’m 27, but I look 40. But now, my son is going to school, and whatever he learns, I learn, too.

Atefa Asma

In 20-year-old Atefa’s family apartment, a sewing machine sits in one corner, a parrot perches in a cage by the window and a shelf of notebooks lines the wall. Safe from the Taliban, everyone in the family — two parents and 11 children — is studying English.

For most of my life, we lived with my father’s extended family of 30 people. I helped my mother because she did absolutely everything for them. If my mother didn’t serve them just right, and exactly on time, my father-in-law beat her. Then, four months before the Taliban came, we got our own place. My father, who is a cook, got a new job in Kabul with Americans. Life was good. The day the Taliban took over, I cried, because my dad had worked with foreigners for 12 years. But he escaped, hiking barefoot for 23 hours until he arrived home, with no toenails. We hid him in an upstairs room.

The Taliban burst in the next day. “Bring us tea, bring us food,” they demanded. “Did you work with Americans?” I had only seen them on YouTube. They were just as horrifying in real life: long hair, beards to their stomachs, black eyeliner. But we fed them, and they left.

For six months after that, my father hid. Then, his company emailed him: Get to a second country, and we can help. We drove two rented cars to Peshawar, Pakistan, and after 80 days, we got travel documents.

Now, it seems unbelievable that we’re here. Not everything is what I expected. In movies, I always saw tall buildings, so when I saw our small apartment, I said, “Really?” The best thing is, if you want to study, you can. Even my mother, who didn’t learn to read, is learning English. No one will stop you because you’re a woman.

Hussain Mohammadi

Hussain, the 34-year-old son of farmers with little formal education, graduated with an English language diploma in Kabul, then interpreted for the U.S. military while running a language and computer education center there.

I was living with family in Kabul, running an educational center with more than 2,000 students. Then on Aug. 15, 2021, I got an urgent email. Go to the airport, it said. Everyone who worked for the U.S. military got a similar message.

Most of my siblings were working or studying outside Afghanistan at the time. But one sister was at home with me, and I thought: We need to get out. Under the Taliban, her life will be impossible. So my sister, my nephew’s wife and I drove to the airport. We left another sister behind in Kabul; I wanted to take her, but she has two small daughters and I saw on TV that some children had died in the airport crowd.

When we arrived, we couldn’t get inside the airport. Instead, we waited on the packed road outside for 10 days. No space, no food, no phone batteries. The Taliban were beating people with long sticks. We went home for one night and returned — this time to the U.S. military entrance.

Underneath the wall ran a dark, shallow river: sewage. I settled the family nearby and waded in, holding my documents up until a soldier approved them. But they wouldn’t open the gates. “Give me your hands,” he said, pulling each of my family members over the wall. Then they pulled me up, too.

After two days in the Kabul airport, we were flown to Qatar, then Italy, then Philadelphia, then El Paso — and, finally, Houston. YMCA International got us an apartment at this complex, Piney Point. “Hey, I’m looking for a job,” I said when I signed the lease. The owner heard and hired me as a leasing agent. Five months ago, they promoted me to manager. I have a lot of energy since coming to the United States. I helped my family. I feel peace.

One month after the Taliban victory, another urgent message went out to Hussain Mohammadi. This one was on paper, stuck on his door in Kabul. Go immediately to Taliban headquarters, it commanded. We know you worked with the Americans. But Mohammadi, like thousands of other Afghans who managed to make it to the United States, was long gone.
Working with the Taliban would not legitimate its rule (Washington Post – opinion)
Washington Post [8/30/2024 8:00 AM, Saad Mohseni, 6.9M, Neutral]
Three years have passed since the chaotic U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan and the takeover of the country by the Taliban. The botched exit wasn’t merely a logistical disaster but a greater failure of strategic vision: Little was done to ensure that the investments of more than 2 trillion dollars and tens of thousands of lives over 20 years to build a stable, democratic Afghanistan were safeguarded.

Forty million Afghans were simply abandoned to an uncertain future — and millions have since fled the country as a result. Years of hard-won progress have been undone as women’s roles in Afghan society, media and politics have been diminished.

And indeed, things are getting worse for women. Recently, Taliban leaders codified new laws banning women’s voices and bare faces in public, empowering their morality ministry to regulate personal conduct and impose penalties for violations. Although it remains uncertain whether all government institutions and ministries will enforce these laws, full implementation could erase women from public life in Afghanistan.

But Afghanistan is also a more complicated place than a first glance can reveal. I am still running Tolo TV, the largest television network in Afghanistan, and my colleagues are still working in our offices in Kabul. We face great difficulties, but we negotiate and fight for our space every day in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. Tolo News continues to report the truth: Our journalists — including female colleagues — are still reporting across the country, and we have been demanding accountability more effectively than many had anticipated. So many brave colleagues working for homegrown media inside Afghanistan continue to prove every day that although not easy, it’s still possible to be an effective, independent journalist in Afghanistan.

We find the inspiration and the courage to carry on from stories such as “Kar o Ebtekar,” a series about female Afghan entrepreneurs — one of our most watched programs this year, with an audience of over 20 million. One segment followed four young Afghan women who, after the Taliban barred them from attending university, pooled resources and expertise to start a small mushroom production business. The episode about a 27-year-old fish farmer in Bamian who overcame numerous setbacks and earned the support of her husband and her community garnered over 1 million views on Facebook alone. These women are scratching out success despite severe financial constraints and absence of institutional support. And the nation is hungry for their stories.

One of the most heartbreaking consequences of the Taliban’s return to power has been the ban on girls’ schooling after sixth grade. A generation of girls is being denied the opportunity to learn, grow and contribute to their society. To try to address this tragedy, my colleagues and I took a risk last year and started producing and broadcasting science and math programs for television, radio and online to improve the access to and quality of education for all Afghan students. The programs have reached millions across the country — and students, families and teachers are demanding more.

Since the collapse of the Afghan government, the United States and its allies have pursued a policy of isolating and punishing the Taliban. They seized Afghanistan’s central bank reserves and mostly limited aid to preventing outright famine. Unfortunately, coercing the Taliban has failed. The Taliban continues to pursue its unyielding social agenda, and it appears here to stay.

The United States and its allies need to recalibrate their policies to help Afghans today, not in some imaginary post-Taliban future. Taking a more pragmatic approach to engagement with the Taliban does not mean legitimizing its rule or ignoring its human rights abuses. Rather, it means recognizing that isolation and sanctions have done little to change the situation on the ground. A policy of conditional engagement could be more effective in encouraging positive changes.

There are countless ways to approach this goal. The United States could offer dialogue on a number of issues of mutual interest — civic projects, tax collection, reduced opium production and improved security — alongside targeted economic and development support. U.S. officials would have to travel to Afghanistan to monitor progress, but this would not entail officially recognizing the Taliban. Washington could open an office in Kabul to provide consular services for eligible Afghans, perhaps staffed by contractors or third-party nationals. There are still tens of thousands of Afghans eligible for U.S. visas, but caseload processing is painfully slow without people on the ground. To signal its concern for improving the Afghan economy, the United States should initiate a process to test the Afghan central bank’s effectiveness in managing monetary policy and help improve its capacity by encouraging Turkey, Qatar and Malaysia to train young Afghan bankers.

These kinds of initiatives would set up a lot of small tests — building confidence and a track record along the way. These kinds of measures could also help alleviate the poverty crisis, which disproportionately affects women and girls.

The Taliban’s politics is complex. It is not a monolithic movement even if dissent is well contained, with officials falling in line with decisions when they are decreed. As part of my job, I speak with Taliban officials aligned with various power centers within the movement. Ultimately, the pragmatic leaders and commanders know that they have the power to move toward a seat on the global table if they can offer improvements on human rights issues.

Afghanistan still has hope. By investing in Afghanistan’s development, supporting education and women’s empowerment, and engaging pragmatically with the Taliban, the United States and its allies can help build a more stable, prosperous and inclusive Afghanistan.
Pakistan
Iran slaps Pakistan with ‘final notice’ over unfinished gas pipeline (Nikkei Asia)
Nikkei Asia [9/2/2024 4:44 PM, Adnan Aamir, 2.4M, Neutral]
Iran has slapped Pakistan with a final notice to finish its part of a cross-border gas pipeline or face international arbitration, and possibly billions of dollars in fines.

Tehran’s warning is the neighbors’ latest flare-up over the long-delayed 1,900-kilometer (1,180-mile) pipeline, a project seen as critical to Pakistan’s energy needs as its own proven gas reserves are set to run dry in a little over a decade.

Iran has said it spent $2 billion building its 1,150-kilometer share of the pipeline, inaugurated in 2013, but Pakistan’s portion remains unbuilt due to U.S. sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear program.

Last year, Islamabad invoked a force majeure clause to suspend its contractual obligations, citing factors beyond its control. Tehran immediately rejected the move.

Then, in February, Pakistan announced it was starting construction on the 80-kilometer first phase of the pipeline within its borders.

The following month, Donald Lu, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian Affairs, cautioned Pakistan against importing gas from Iran, which has some of the world’s biggest reserves. Since then, no further work has been done on Pakistan’s share of the pipeline.

Now, Iran is threatening to take its case to the International Court of Arbitration if Pakistan doesn’t meet a looming deadline to finish the pipeline. Pakistan had in 2014 asked for a 10-year extension to build the pipeline, which expires this month.

Pakistani officials face a delicate balance trying to avoid Washington’s ire over doing business with Iran but they also want to sidestep huge court fines that would hammer the crisis-hit economy -- Islamabad recently agreed to a $7 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout.

"Iran’s case is pretty much straight forward that Pakistan has violated the terms of a bilateral agreement for which it can be sued as clearly mentioned in the written contract," Ikram ul Haq, an expert on economy and taxation who holds a doctorate in law, told Nikkei Asia.

Local media have said the Paris-based court could impose penalties of up to $18 billion on Pakistan if it loses the case. Those figures are based on contractual daily penalties for not completing the project, plus interest and damages.

"Pakistan and Iran have robust channels of communication, including [on the pipeline notice]," a spokesperson for Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Thursday. "We have always said we would like to resolve all issues through friendly consultations."

A government official privy to the late August notice told Nikkei that Islamabad was taking it seriously and exploring its options, but added that the $18 billion figure was "pure speculation."

In 2019, the arbitration court ordered Pakistan to pay an Australian mining company nearly $6 billion over a breach of contract after it yanked the firm’s access to a copper and gold mine. It later agreed to pay $1 billion to the company’s parent as part of a settlement.

The U.S. sanctions are the linchpin of Washington’s broader bid to isolate Iran on the global stage, and the pipeline "has become a casualty of this strategy," said Ahsan Hamid Durrani, executive director of Islamabad-based Policy Research Center.

Hampered by the sanctions, Iranian traders smuggle up to $1 billion worth natural gas into Pakistan annually, according to a report earlier this year by Pakistani intelligence agencies.

Pakistan would struggle to get a sanctions waiver from Washington that would allow it to finish the pipeline project, Haq said.

"Pakistan is economically weak and dependent on the IMF," he added. "Unlike India, Pakistan cannot get any waiver from America."

Durrani agreed Islamabad has little room to maneuver, with countries under IMF programs expected to comply with international sanctions.

"Pakistan doesn’t have any leverage with the U.S. to circumvent the current sanctions regime," he said. "With the IMF loan agreement still in process. Pakistan needs every ounce of support from the U.S. and ... cannot jeopardize that by violating the sanctions."
Pakistan’s military says insurgents have freed an army officer and 3 others abducted on Wednesday (AP)
AP [8/31/2024 4:15 PM, Staff, 44095K, Neutral]
Insurgents on Saturday freed four people, including an army officer who was abducted three days ago from a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban, the military said.

Lt. Col. Khalid Ameer was seized on Wednesday while he was sitting in a mosque to receive mourners after attending his father’s funeral, according to local police.

The "unconditional release" of Ameer and three of his relatives was secured due to the role played by tribal elders and "all the abductees have safely returned home," the military said in a statement without giving any further details.

No one claimed responsibility for the kidnappings in Dera Ismail Khan, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in northwest Pakistan. However, in video statements released hours after they were kidnapped, two of the abductees said they were in the custody of Pakistani Taliban. They also urged the government to accept their abductors’ demands, although these were unclear.

Though the Pakistani Taliban often targets security forces, such kidnappings and releases of abductees are rare. The Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, are separate from but allied to the Afghan Taliban, and they have been emboldened since the Afghan Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021.
A roadside bomb hits a bus in northern Pakistan and kills 3 people (AP)
AP [9/2/2024 10:24 AM, Staff, 459K, Negative]
A landslide struck a passenger bus in northern Pakistan on Monday and killed three people, including two security officials, police said.

An additional passenger was injured in the accident in Kohistan, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, according to local police chief Abdul Rahim.

The bus was heading to Dasu district, where Pakistan’s biggest hydropower project is being built with Chinese help.

Local police official Abdul Rahim said the bus was struck by a landslide triggered by rains, and not by a landmine as was initially thought. Such road accidents are common in Pakistan during the rainy weather.
A Pakistani religious leader is tried in his absence for allegedly threatening Geert Wilders (AP)
AP [9/2/2024 7:18 AM, Mike Corder, 31638K, Negative]
Prosecutors demanded a 14-year sentence Monday for a Pakistani Muslim leader accused of inciting the murder of anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders, the leader of the party that won last year’s general election in the Netherlands.

Muhammad Ashraf Asif Jalali did not appear for trial at a closely guarded courtroom near Amsterdam as prosecutors accused him of abusing his position as a religious leader to call on followers to hang or behead Wilders.

In a second case, prosecutors sought a six-year sentence against a second Pakistani man, Saad Rizvi, who leads the radical Islamist Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan, or TLP, for incitement or threatening a terrorist crime against Wilders. Rizvi also did not show up for his trial.

Neither of the men is believed to be in the country, and Pakistan has no extradition agreement with the Netherlands. Prosecutors said in a statement that requests they sent to Pakistani authorities seeking legal assistance to serve subpoenas on the two men were not executed.

They are the latest Dutch trials for Muslims who have threatened Wilders’ life, forcing him to live under around-the-clock police protection for nearly 20 years because of his outspoken criticism of Islam.

Last year, a former Pakistani cricketer, Khalid Latif, was sentenced to 12 years in prison over allegations that he had offered a reward for the death of Wilders. Latif also did not appear for trial. In 2019, a Pakistani man was arrested in the Netherlands, convicted and sentenced to 10 years for preparing a terrorist attack on Wilders, who is sometimes called the Dutch Donald Trump.

In a statement to the court, Wilders told judges of the impact of the threats on his life, that has been lived under intense security since 2004. Two armed military police sat in court throughout the brief trial.

"Every day you get up and leave for work in armored cars, often with sirens on, and you are always aware somewhere in the back of your mind that this could be your last day," Wilders told the court.

"I’m 60 now, I haven’t been free since I was 40," he added.

While Jalali and Rizvi are not likely to ever serve a sentence if convicted, Wilders said he hoped the case would send a message to him and the world that issuing death threats would not be accepted.

A prosecutor, who asked not to be identified for security reasons, told judges in the Dutch court that threats began to be aired on social media after Wilders’ announcement that he was organizing a competition for cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in 2018. The planned contest sparked angry protests in Pakistan and elsewhere in the Muslim world in 2018.

Physical depictions of the prophet are forbidden in Islam and deeply offensive to Muslims.

In Pakistan, Rizvi’s TLP denounced the Dutch case, saying that instead of trying the two clerics the court should have sentenced Wilders.

"Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan puts this question to the Dutch court: Whether it was not Geert Wilders who should have been punished for insulting Islam’s Prophet Muhammad," TLP said in a statement.

"It is not freedom of expression. This is called Islamophobia, which is being done with a plan," the party said.

TLP gained prominence after campaigning on the single issue of defending the country’s blasphemy law, which calls for the death penalty for anyone who insults Islam.

Wilders, who canceled the cartoon competition after angry reactions in Muslim nations, told the three-judge panel he has paid a high price for his actions, which he cast as defending freedom of expression.

Wilders’ comments in the past have also fallen foul of Dutch law. An appeals court in 2020 upheld his conviction for insulting Moroccans in an election speech in 2014. He was not given a punishment, with a judge saying that Wilders had already "paid a high price for expressing his opinion," a reference to the tight security the lawmaker lives under.

Verdicts in both trials were scheduled for Sept. 9.
India
India’s growing reliance on China poses challenge for U.S. trade strategy (Washington Post)
Washington Post [9/2/2024 2:00 AM, Karishma Mehrotra, 52865K, Positive]
American businesses looking to reduce their reliance on China have increasingly been eyeing India in the past few years as a new manufacturing hub — and as a hedge against potential disruptions in Chinese supply chains caused by rising geopolitical tensions or another pandemic.

But as India has amped up its production of goods like smartphones, solar panels and medicine, the Indian economy itself has become even more dependent on Chinese imports, in particular for the components that go into these products, according to trade figures and economic analysts.

This dynamic serves as a reality check for U.S. policymakers, who have been urgently promoting efforts to diversify supply chains away from Chinese factories and “de-risk” the commercial relationship with China.

“Unless China stops being the third party from where components come in and we just assemble, that de-risking is not going to happen for any country coming in and producing in India,” said Sriparna Pathak, an associate professor at Jindal University focusing on India-China relations.

India’s imports from China have been growing twice as fast as those overall and now make up nearly a third of Indian imports in industries ranging from electronics and renewable energy to pharmaceuticals, according to the Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI), an Indian think tank. These imports include finished products as well as intermediate goods for manufacturing.

Nearly two-thirds of Indian imports of electronic components, such as circuit boards and batteries, now come from China, the Confederation of Indian Industry says. And the volume of such Chinese imports has tripled during the past five years, GTRI reports.

India has long been a large exporter of pharmaceuticals, including to the United States. But while the domestic industry used to make much of its own ingredients, it now relies on China for many of its important pharmaceutical inputs, for instance paracetamol. From 2007 to 2022, China’s share in Indian imports of chemicals and pharmaceuticals grew by more than 50 percent and over just the past five years, Indian imports from China of pharmaceutical ingredients and other intermediate drug products are up by more than half, according to the GTRI report.

To support the production of Indian textiles and garments, another important export industry, India has been ramping up imports of yarn and fabric from China. Even the automobile industry — considered a success story for both domestic and export sales — has been increasing its imports of vehicle parts and accessories from China.

As with electronics, India has made significant strides in producing solar panels but now relies even more on the Chinese solar cells that go in them.

After the United States restricted imports of Chinese solar panel material because of concerns about human rights and labor abuses, Indian exports of solar panels to the American market spiked in 2022, increasing in value by almost 150 percent, according to U.S. government trade figures. The next year saw an even sharper increase.

During that time, however, India sourced between half and all of its solar panel components — such as modules, cells, wafers and solar glass — from China between 2021 and 2023, according to a BloombergNEF report at the end of last year.

Senior Biden administration officials said it is not realistic to think that inputs from China can be excluded at this moment from American supply chains. “We have taken a more practical view that in order to effectively diversify, the first step is to get a foothold in the parts of this supply chain where you can diversify today. And then from there you can grow upstream,” said a senior administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive strategies toward China.

Addressing the significant presence of Chinese components in Indian-made solar panels, the official said: “We recognize we are in the first inning of a long game, but we are at an inflection point in that there is now a clear recognition, not just in the U.S. and India but among friends and allies, that being overly reliant on one source for the clean-energy economy is not sustainable and requires a concerted effort to de-risk. But it’s going to take time.”

India also continues to rely on Russia for crude oil, despite U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia because of its war in Ukraine. Much of India’s defense equipment also remains Russian, though New Delhi has been shifting to other suppliers.

Even as India has tried to produce its own components for manufactured goods, it has remained dependent on China for expertise. Representatives of Indian industry have pressed the government to loosen restrictions on visas for Chinese technicians so they can help Indians use Chinese machinery to make smartphones as well as textiles and even shoes.

“The Chinese can help India secure a foothold on the lowest rungs of the global skills ladder. Those rungs are rising: India must jump now,” wrote Ashoka Mody, an economist at Princeton University, in the Hindu. “The breathtaking irony of invoking self-reliance is lost on Indian officials precisely when India’s economic growth increasingly depends on foreign expertise, particularly from China.”

Many Indian analysts urge, ironically, that to diversify from China, India may need to lean into the relationship.

“India needs China for at least half a decade with the full support of the U.S. to be able to build itself as a big-scale alternative,” said Pankaj Mohindroo, the chairman of India Cellular & Electronics Association, which helped push for more visas for Chinese technicians.

The Indian government’s chief economic adviser, V. Anantha Nageswaran, has proposed also loosening restrictions on Chinese investments. “To boost Indian manufacturing and plug India into the global supply chain, it is inevitable that India plugs itself into China’s supply chain,” said a recent economic survey prepared by his office. “Whether we do so by relying solely on imports or partially through Chinese investments is a choice that India has to make.”

India shut the doors to Chinese investments after the countries’ troops clashed along the Himalayan border in Ladakh in 2020, leaving at least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers dead and igniting widespread boycotts of Chinese goods. Now, more than 50,000 troops are poised on either side of the disputed border, and dozens of rounds of negotiations have yet to produce a breakthrough.

Since 2020, Chinese investment proposals and those from other neighboring countries been evaluated in a case-by-case process, which government and industry figures say is slow and tedious.

In recent months, however, Indian government actions seem to show a softening. In August, for example, India issued new guidelines to expedite visas from China and other neighbors. A government official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, told The Washington Post that, since April, at least 11 electronics investment proposals involving China have been approved, including from Chinese companies like the electronics component manufacturer Luxshare.

The Chinese firm Vivo has begun building a smartphone manufacturing plant outside New Delhi to replace an older facility and help boost exports. Shein, a fast-fashion conglomerate founded in China, will soon tie up with India’s Reliance with an eye on the export market, and the Chinese automaker SAIC Motor formed a joint venture with India’s JSW Group to produce 1 million electric cars in India by 2030, initially for the domestic market but eventually for sale abroad.

Pointing to economic as well as security developments, Zhang Jiadong, the director of the Center for South Asian Studies at China’s Fudan University, recently wrote in the Global Times that “although the improvement in China-India relations has come later than expected, it has finally arrived.”

But these improvements do not portend a dramatic increase of direct Chinese investment in Indian manufacturing, even as imports of intermediate goods from China boom, according to economic analysts.

“Even if India opened up investment from Chinese companies, Chinese capital will not flood into the Indian market,” said Lin Minwang, deputy director of the Center for South Asian Studies at Fudan University, citing the “unfriendliness of the Indian government toward Chinese investment.”

The Chinese automaker BYD, for example, has been blocked from expanding in India, and Chinese smartphone makers Vivo, Oppo and Xiaomi have all faced investigations in India in cases of tax evasion or money laundering, including the arrest of several executives.

Still, analysts agree that Chinese supplies remain crucial for India’s manufacturing aspirations.

“No matter what we say, the fact is that China is the largest manufacturer of components. There is no getting away from that,” said Indrani Bagchi, a foreign policy expert and CEO at the Ananta Centre in New Delhi. And “we’re not in the business of dragging our own industrial growth down.”
Worked to the Bone, India’s Doctors Fear for Their Safety, Too (New York Times)
New York Times [9/2/2024 4:14 PM, Anupreeta Das and Pragati K.B., 831K, Negative]
Exhausted doctors resting in crowded on-call rooms with no locks, two to a single bed. Frustrated relatives of patients angrily challenging a physician’s diagnosis. Too few security guards to keep the peace.

These are everyday realities in Indian government hospitals. Young doctors describe multiday shifts and harrowing working conditions in rooms and wards often lacking in safety and hygiene, where learning is frequently interrupted by the crushing load of urgent cases.

Their plight has come to light in recent weeks after the rape and murder in Kolkata of a 31-year-old junior doctor who had been resting after a grueling 36-hour shift. Last month, the police arrested a man, considered a prime suspect in the killing, after he was caught on CCTV walking into the hospital late at night.

The case has prompted nationwide protests, with doctors, students and human rights activists demanding justice for the victim, as well as better protection and safer workplaces for doctors and women. Many doctors also went on strike.

“People protested because we identified with the victim,” said Dr. Susmita Sengupta, who graduated in 2020 from M.G.M. Medical College & Hospital in Jamshedpur, a large city in the eastern state of Jharkhand, and worked there for a year before moving to private practice.

Between the lack of security personnel and the challenges many female doctors face to be heard, “any residency in India becomes toxic,” Dr. Sengupta said.

The brutalized body of the Kolkata doctor was found on Aug. 9 in a seminar room at R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital, a state-run institution where she was completing a residency. After the attack, India’s Supreme Court set up a national task force to recommend workplace safety measures.

The New York Times interviewed more than a dozen Indian doctors, within India and abroad, who shared their experiences in the country’s state-run hospitals and medical colleges. Many who practice in India spoke only on the condition that their names be withheld, fearing for their safety.

Some told of verbal or physical abuse from families of the ill whose patience had been exhausted. Many, having chosen the medical profession with a deep determination to save lives, said their resolve had turned into despair and then resignation as they went through their residencies in an overwhelmed system.

Some have left for private practice, others for foreign shores. Dr. Richa Sharma, now an anesthesiologist in West Hartford, Conn., went to the United States in 2018 for a residency at Columbia University. Dr. Sharma, who graduated from medical school in Delhi, said she was driven to pursue her training outside India partly because she was disillusioned with the Indian medical system.

Even though that system was set up with the welfare of patients in mind, it did not always function that way, Dr. Sharma said. She added that she had worried about losing compassion if she was “caring for hundreds of patients a day as if they were objects in a factory and not people.”

The Kolkata rape and killing galvanized her to bring together a group of U.S.-based alumni of Indian medical colleges to write letters to government offices demanding change. Dr. Sharma said she was in touch with a member of the Supreme Court task force to make recommendations based on the group’s experiences.

One India-based junior doctor, who did not want to be identified talking about her employer, said those in her cohort who protested had to call patients to cancel appointments. “I received threatening messages, voice notes and calls after that from those patients,” she said. “I now block the patient’s number as soon as I make the call to them.”

State-run hospitals are the main providers of health care for those at the bottom of the economic ladder in India. The public network consists of primary health care centers as well as top research and training institutes. Although there are thousands of private hospitals that typically have better facilities, they tend to be expensive and do not necessarily employ the best doctors.

Many young doctors who want to specialize in a certain field of medicine join government-backed medical colleges and teaching hospitals. In recent years, the Indian government has been trying to increase the number of such institutions to train more doctors.

However, highly trained doctors tend to cluster around cities and in states that have more medical colleges and teaching hospitals, which leaves large areas of rural and small-town India without easy access to health services, especially for complex diseases like cancer, studies have found.

City hospitals are left with many more patients than they are equipped to handle. Patients and their relatives, already agitated because of a health issue, often wait for hours to see a doctor.

“There was no system to attend to the most serious patients first,” said Gunika Sehgal, who recently accompanied her father, who suffers from liver dysfunction, to the emergency room at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, one of the country’s top hospitals.

Ms. Sehgal said they were attended to within two hours only because her family pulled some strings. “I don’t know how much longer we would have waited if not for that connection,” she said.

The combination of overwhelmed doctors and irate patients can create a tinderbox.

While resident doctors around the world often work long shifts, since part of their training involves admitting patients and tracking their journey, the burden is heavier in India’s under-resourced system. The frequency with which many resident physicians in India do demanding shifts wears them down, doctors said.

The sheer number of patients makes it incredibly tough, said Dr. Dhrubajyoti Bandyopadhyay, a cardiologist. Dr. Bandyopadhyay worked at several state-run hospitals in India, including R.G. Kar (the hospital where the Kolkata doctor was raped and killed) before joining Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard University’s largest teaching hospital.

“People from villages and slums come to the hospital, so in a day in an O.P.D. we used to see 400 patients, which is not possible for two to three people,” he said, referring to the outpatient department.

Once during his residency, Dr. Bandyopadhyay administered CPR to an 80-year-old man in an emergency room after his pulse stopped but was unable to save him. The patient’s relatives then started accusing him of killing the man by pumping his chest for half an hour, Dr. Bandyopadhyay said, and refused to have a post-mortem done.

“All of a sudden, 50-plus people gathered and started shouting and verbally abusing us,” he said. “There was no one to protect us.”

Reflecting on the episode, Dr. Bandyopadhyay later said in a WhatsApp message that emotion and “impunity that nothing will happen if you abuse a doctor” were behind violent behavior toward health workers.

Dr. Aditya Yadav, a surgeon, recalled an episode during his residency when a patient with acid burns on his face demanded that a consultant doctor do more to fix the damage. When the doctor was unable to do more, the patient walked around the hospital with a bottle of acid, threatening other doctors that he would “make everyone look like him,” Dr. Yadav said.

Even doctors in private hospitals can be subject to patient abuse, and many keep guards on hand.

“Over the last few years, I have seen and heard so many incidents of family members of patients beating doctors that I have lost count of it,” said Dr. Shoborose Tantray, an associate professor at Santosh Medical College, a private hospital in Ghaziabad, near Delhi. “Male colleagues have been beaten blue and black; female doctor friends have been threatened. Some have thought of even finding jobs outside the country.”

Dr. Sharma, the anesthesiologist who is trying to draw attention to the working conditions of her counterparts in India, reflected on the contrast between how doctors are viewed and treated: “They are either seen as supra-human, or not human at all.”
Ousted Bangladeshi leader becomes diplomatic headache for India (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [9/2/2024 2:01 AM, Aishwarya Kumar and Arunabh Saikia, 88008K, Negative]
Four weeks after ex-premier Sheikh Hasina fled Bangladesh by helicopter during a student-led revolution, analysts say she has become a diplomatic headache for her hosts in India.

Hasina’s iron-fisted tenure came to an end last month as protesters marched on her palace in Dhaka after 15 years characterised by rights abuses and opposition crackdowns.

Bangladeshi students who led the uprising are demanding she return from India, her biggest benefactor before her ouster, to be tried for the killing of protesters during the revolt.

But sending the 76-year-old back risks undermining India’s standing with its other neighbours in South Asia, where it is waging a fierce battle for influence with China.

"India is clearly not going to want to extradite her back to Bangladesh," said Thomas Kean of the conflict resolution think-tank International Crisis Group.

"The message that would send to other leaders in the region who are close to New Delhi would not be a very positive one... that ultimately, India will not protect you," he told AFP.

New Delhi last year saw its preferred presidential candidate in the Maldives lose to a rival that immediately tilted the strategically placed luxury tourism destination towards Beijing.

Hasina’s toppling lost India its closest ally in the region.

Those who suffered under Hasina in Bangladesh are openly hostile to India for the abuses committed by her government.

That hostility has smouldered through megaphone diplomacy waged by Hindu-nationalist Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and directed towards Bangladesh’s caretaker administration.

Modi has pledged support for the government that replaced Hasina, led by 84-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhummad Yunus.

But Modi, who has made championing the Hindu faith a key plank of his tenure, has also repeatedly urged Yunus’s administration to protect Bangladesh’s Hindu religious minority.

Hasina’s Awami League was considered to be more protective of Bangladesh’s Hindu minority than the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

Modi used his annual Independence Day address from atop the 17th century Red Fort to suggest Bangladeshi Hindus were in danger, and later raised the matter with US President Joe Biden.

Some Bangladeshi Hindus and Hindu temples were targeted in the chaos that followed Hasina’s departure in attacks that were condemned by student leaders and the interim government.

But wildly exaggerated accounts of the violence were later reported by pro-government Indian news channels and sparked protests by Hindu activist groups loosely affiliated with Modi’s party.

Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, a top leader of the BNP, said India had put "all its fruit in one basket" by backing Hasina, and did not know how to reverse course.

"The people of Bangladesh want a good relationship with India, but not at the cost of their interests," Alamgir, one of thousands of BNP members arrested during Hasina’s tenure, told AFP.

"The attitude of India unfortunately is not conducive to creating confidence."

Such is the atmosphere of distrust, when deadly floods washed through both countries in August some Bangladeshis blamed India for the deaths that resulted.

Bangladesh’s interim government has not publicly raised the issue of Hasina taking refuge in India with New Delhi -- her last official whereabouts is a military airbase near the capital -- but Dhaka has revoked her diplomatic passport, preventing her from travelling onwards.

The countries have a bilateral extradition treaty first signed in 2013 which would permit 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".

India’s former ambassador to Bangladesh, Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty, said that the bilateral relationship is too important for Dhaka to sour it by pressing for Hasina’s return.

"Any mature government will realise that making an issue out of Hasina staying in India is not going to give them any benefits," he told AFP.
NSB
Fears of waterborne disease rise in Bangladesh as floods recede slowly (Reuters)
Reuters [8/31/2024 1:07 AM, Ruma Paul, 37270K, Negative]
Authorities in Bangladesh are bracing for the spread of waterborne diseases and racing to get drinking water to people after devastating floods last week that left at least 54 people dead and millions stranded.

As floodwaters recede slowly, many people remain stranded and in urgent need of food, clean water, medicine and dry clothes, especially in remote areas where blocked roads have hindered rescue and relief efforts.

The Bangladesh Meteorological Department said that flood conditions could persist if the monsoon rains continued, as water levels were receding very slowly.

Around 470,000 people have taken refuge in 3,300 shelters across 11 flood-hit districts, where around 600 medical teams are helping provide treatment, with the army, air force, navy, and the border guard assisting in rescue operations, authorities said.

A disaster management ministry official warned that as floodwaters recede, there is a risk of an epidemic, adding that the outbreak of waterborne diseases is likely if clean water is not provided soon.

"Our top priority is to ensure the availability of safe drinking water," the official said.

In the past 24 hours, around 3,000 people have been hospitalized due to waterborne diseases in flood-hit areas, according to the Directorate General of Health Services. Many areas remained submerged, preventing stranded people from accessing healthcare facilities.

"Water is everywhere but there is no clean water to drink. People are getting sick," said Farid Ahmed, a resident of one of the worst-hit districts, Lakshmipur.

Vast areas of land are submerged, posing a significant threat to crops, agriculture ministry officials said.

The U.N. children’s agency has warned that two million children were at risk as the worst floods in three decades sweep through eastern Bangladesh. The organization is urgently appealing for $35 million to provide life-saving supplies.

"The devastating floods in eastern Bangladesh are a tragic reminder of the relentless impact of extreme weather events and the climate crisis on children," said Emma Brigham, Deputy Representative of UNICEF Bangladesh.

An analysis in 2015 by the World Bank Institute estimated that 3.5 million people in Bangladesh, one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries, were at risk of annual river flooding. Scientists attribute the exacerbation of such catastrophic events to climate change.

Farah Kabir, director of ActionAid Bangladesh, said that countries like Bangladesh, which contribute minimally to global emissions, urgently need funding to recover from climate-related losses and build resilience for future impacts while pursuing green development pathways.
‘Why was my child killed?’ Parents grieve a month after Bangladesh clashes (Al Jazeera)
Al Jazeera [9/1/2024 1:07 AM, Saharin Shaoun, 25768K, Negative]
In the early afternoon of July 19, four-year-old Abdul Ahad was on the balcony of his family’s toy-strewn, rented apartment in Rayerbag neighbourhood when he saw a commotion on the street.

Abdul, loud, curious and always asking questions, called out to his father.

“Dad, look. Look what is happening,” he said to his father, Abul Hasan.

Abul peered down at the street below. The street, lined with tall apartment buildings, was usually filled with pedestrians, vegetable vendors, rickshaws and children playing cricket on the pavement. But it was a weekend and a curfew had been imposed that day following recent protests and clashes, and the street was quieter than usual.

Abul, 33, and his wife, Sumi Akhter, 26, joined Abdul on the balcony. Abdul’s older brother, Matubbar, 11, the quieter of the two siblings, was at his religious school where he lives and studies.

“There were clashes between two groups,” Abul recounts. A group of about 10 young people – likely student protesters – were throwing stones at a larger group of young men, widely believed to be supporters of the then-ruling Awami League party, who held sticks and other objects. “I couldn’t see clearly from the eighth floor what objects those were,” Abul says.

Abul does not recall any police presence. Mobile footage taken in the neighbourhood shown on Bangladeshi news channel Rtv shows at least one man in the larger group aiming with a gun. Abul remembers hearing people shouting and the distinct sound of gunshots.

Abdul fell to the ground.

In early July, students in Bangladesh had began peaceful protests against the reinstatement of a controversial job quota system, which reserved nearly one-third of positions for people whose ancestors fought in the 1971 war for independence. By mid-July, the protests had turned violent as the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina cracked down, deploying police and other armed forces while members of the Chhatra League, the Awami League’s student wing, who were sometimes armed, attacked and clashed with student protesters.

That day the clashes reached Abul’s family. At first, Abul thought his son had slipped and fallen, but then he saw blood on his face, head and shoulder. He had been shot in the right eye. Sumi, his mother, started to scream.

“The floor was covered with blood. I don’t know where the bullet came from. My world went dark at that moment,” Abul recalls, his voice choked with grief.

‘My child was not safe in my own home’

Abul remembers rushing to lift Abdul and getting him into the lift with Sumi. As they carried Abdul out of the building, the clashes had already dispersed and people on the street rushed to help them find one of the few autorickshaws on the street. Abdul was barely conscious. As the vehicle sped to the hospital, Abul held his son tightly, praying and crying. At some point, the police stopped them and Abul had to plead to let them continue.

Once at the hospital, Abdul was immediately operated on then kept on life support in the intensive care unit (ICU). All Abul and Sumi could do was wait anxiously outside the ICU with their eldest son, Matubbar, who had joined them. The next evening, at about 8:30, a doctor emerged from the ICU to tell them Abdul had died.

“My child was not safe in my own home,” says Abul, as he sits in the family’s dining room, his voice breaking. “Why did an innocent child have to die?”

He continues: “I am a government employee. My grandfather was a freedom fighter. My child was innocent.”

Abul went to his ancestral village of Pukuria to bury his son. He has returned to an empty, quiet house and keeps half expecting to see Abdul, who loved lollies, chips and chicken, on his chair at the dining table or in his usual spot in front of the television. Abdul’s death has splintered the family. Sumi cannot bear to return home without their son and is staying with relatives, nor can she bring herself to be around her other son, who reminds her of the child she lost. Matubbar, meanwhile, is traumatised by his brother’s death and is staying with other relatives.

Now, Abul stares blankly at Abdul’s toys—his favourite collection of small cars, motorbikes, jeeps, robots and stuffed animals. “I like to see my son’s favourite cars scattered around the house,” Abul says, heartbroken. “We left them as they were to preserve his memory.”

According to UNICEF, at least 32 children were killed during the July protests in Bangladesh. Local media reports suggest that nearly three times that number of children were killed.

On August 5, following the new demands of the protesters, Hasina, who after 15 years in power was facing accusations of growing authoritarianism from rights groups and critics, resigned and fled the country. A preliminary report from the United Nations suggests that more than 600 people may have been killed in the unrest and in the immediate aftermath of Hasina’s resignation. Those killed were largely student protesters and bystanders but also journalists and members of the security forces. The report attributes most killings and injuries to the security forces and the Chhatra League.

The UN report notes that “police and paramilitary forces appear to have frequently used force indiscriminately” against both peaceful protests and ones with elements of violence – sometimes with protesters holding sticks or bricks – and employed “rubber bullets, sound grenades firearms with live lethal ammunition”.

Al Jazeera spoke to several families of children who were shot and killed during the unrest. None of them knows who killed their children.

‘I am just a kid. Who will shoot me?’

Ijajul Islam, the executive director of the Human Rights Support Society (HRSS), closely monitored the student movement. His organisation collated information through volunteers and news stories about those killed during the protests and are pushing for a proper investigation and accountability.

New reports and accounts suggest that “almost all the children were shot dead by the indiscriminate firing of the security forces, mostly by the police”, Islam says.

On the afternoon of July 20, 10-year-old Hossein Mia wanted to go out and play in the field at the end of a street near his home in the Muktinagar area of Chittagong Road, a residential neighbourhood in central Dhaka. There had been protests in his neighbourhood since July 15.

Hossein, who left school after class three to work as a street hawker selling children’s books, popcorn and juice to support his family, was bored from being stuck at home. The protests had disrupted his work and his mother, Maleka Begum, 30, was concerned about recent violence in the area and wanted Hossein to stay home that day.

“Ma, I am just a kid. Who will shoot me?” she remembers Hossein telling her.

Though worried, she finally agreed, knowing that her son often played in the same field and that afternoon seemed peaceful compared with previous days. She told Hossein to return in an hour. Hossein left at about 4:30pm. But when the hour passed, he still hadn’t returned.

By then the situation in the neighbourhood had changed dramatically.

Hossein’s father, Manik Mia, 35, a pickle vendor, went to search for his son, alarmed by what was happening outside – there was now tear gas smoke everywhere, police getting out of vehicles and the sound of gunshots. Manik ran, dodging people who were running. He didn’t see any student protesters on the street.

“Everyone was running,” Manik recalls, speaking outside the family’s single-storey home with walls of metal sheeting. “I saw police firing here and there, and there was smoke from tear gas everywhere.”

But when he reached the street that led to the field where Hossein had gone to play, police officers and several vehicles blocked the road. Manik was afraid of approaching the police, fearing an aggressive response.

Even if he could not enter the field, Manik went to other fields, the market, and to neighbours to ask about Hossein. Two hours passed before he returned home. He and Maleka then went out, leaving their two daughters, aged eight and six, at home. By then, the police had gone and they were able to check the field but found no sign of their son.

‘Who will give me justice?’

There were now others on the streets looking for missing family members. Pictures of the wounded and dead were being shared on social media and people in the neighbourhood were sharing updates and trying to help those around them locate their family members.

The couple was frantic at this point. As they asked people on the streets about Hossein, a man came up to them to try to help. He showed them pictures of people from the area who had been injured. They were devastated to see one that showed Hossein with a bloodied waist. The man told them that injured people had been taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital so Maleka and Manik rushed to get there.

Manik did not have money as he did not work that day and he and Maleka had to persuade a pick-up driver and then a rickshaw driver to take them part of the way. They also walked for some of the distance to the hospital, eventually arriving after midnight, more than two hours after they set out.

The hospital was overwhelmed. They asked around about their son but all they could do was wait for news. Manik and Maleka believed Hossein was receiving treatment, as doctors on duty had mentioned that many people from the Chittagong Road area were being treated for gunshot wounds. Though worried, they were hopeful. They waited in the hallway of the hospital, sitting and pacing. They prayed and reassured one another: “Not to worry, Hossein will be safe.”

There were many families looking for their loved ones and volunteers helped direct them to different wards or in some cases the morgue. At about 2am, a man asked who they were waiting for and when Manik told him about Hossein, the man brought them to the morgue. They found Hossein lying there among other bodies. Manik froze, then broke down in tears.

Hossein had been shot twice, in the back and hip, Manik says.

“I am a poor man. Who will give me justice for my son’s killing?” Manik asks, calling his son his “heart”.

“He was my only son,” Maleka says crying.

‘Why was my child killed?’

Six-year-old Riya Gop had boundless energy and an infectious laugh. She would dash from room to room, feet pattering, and dart up the stairs to the rooftop to play with dolls with other children. Her cheerfulness was known among her neighbours, who adored her.

“My daughter looked like a doll,” her father, Deepak Kumar Gop, says of his only child, who had a round face, wide eyes and a ponytail.

On the afternoon of July 19, Riya was playing with some family members and other children on the roof of the four-storey apartment building where they lived in Narayanganj, a residential neighbourhood dotted with trees and tangled wires and plants crowding the rooftops above. When clashes broke out in the streets, Deepak rushed to the rooftop to take Riya. He took her in his arms and as he headed towards the stairs, Riya collapsed onto her father’s shoulder. A bullet had hit her in the back of her head.

Deepak rushed Riya to a local hospital where she was referred to Dhaka Medical College Hospital the same day. There, Riya underwent surgery to remove the bullet, and in the days that followed, her neighbourhood prayed for her swift recovery, Deepak says. She remained unconscious and was kept under observation, with her parents by her side the entire time.

Five days later, Riya died.

“My child was born after many years of marriage. We had to wait so long for her arrival,” says Deepak, choking back tears while speaking to Al Jazeera over the phone.

Deepak and his wife, who declined to share her name, both in their thirties, are unable to make sense of the loss of their daughter.

“Who will give me justice? What’s the point of talking when my child has already been killed? Why was my child killed?” Deepak asks, his voice trembling.

On the same day that Abdul and Riya were killed, 11-year-old Safqat Samir sat at his reading table next to the window in his family’s home in Mirpur Kafrul, a residential area with housing for government employees. Outside, the streets were filled with ongoing protests, which had engulfed the entire neighbourhood. What had started as peaceful demonstrations earlier in the afternoon had quickly escalated as clashes between student protesters and security forces intensified – tear gas filled the air, and the sound of gunfire swept through the street.

When tear gas started entering the house in the early evening, Safqat’s uncle, Mashiur Rahman, went to close the second-floor window. A bullet grazed Mashiur’s shoulder then struck Safqat, who was standing behind him, through the right eye.

Safqat’s mother and grandmother, who were in another room, rushed the child to hospital but he died on the way.

Safqat’s grief-stricken father, Sakibur Rahman, 33, was buying groceries at the time. He recounts seeing a helicopter in the sky and a clash between police and students on the main road in front of Kafrul Police Station.

“My wife doesn’t talk to anyone,” Sakibur says, his voice filled with sorrow. “My son was innocent. He dreamt of being a footballer. What was his fault?”

Accountability

On August 8, Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus was sworn in as the chief adviser of the interim government of Bangladesh. A week later, on August 15, UN officials announced that a fact-finding team would be sent to Bangladesh to investigate alleged human rights violations during the protests.

With the interim government now in place, there is growing pressure to ensure accountability and justice for the people killed.

As the UN prepares to launch its investigation, questions remain about who will be held responsible for the violence and whether the new government will be able to protect the rights of its citizens and deliver justice.

Sakibur is unsure whether the government will deliver justice, something he says he could not afford to pursue. “I am from a middle-class family. I can’t afford to go to court cases,” he says.

What he thinks about now is how he regrets that he did not take Safqat to the playground when he asked to go, or buy him the toys he wanted.

“No father in the world deserves this,” he says.

Abdul’s father Abul sits motionless in a dining room chair, surrounded by his son’s toys.

“I don’t want anyone innocent to be punished for my child’s death,” he says. “I want a proper investigation.”

Still, any answers are unlikely to ease the pain of losing his child. “My world was shattered,” Abul says, his voice shaking, tears in his eyes.

“How can anyone compensate for this loss?”
UAE president pardons Bangladesh citizens jailed for protesting (Reuters)
Reuters [9/3/2024 3:16 AM, Jane Choukeir and Alexander Cornwell, 5.2M, Neutral]
The United Arab Emirates president has pardoned 57 Bangladeshi citizens who were convicted and sentenced to lengthy prison terms for staging a rare protest in the Gulf country, against their South Asian nation, UAE state media reported.

President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s decision cancels the sentences of those convicted and those pardoned will be deported from the UAE, WAM reported on Tuesday.

The Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal sentenced 57 Bangladeshi citizens in an expedited trial in July after they had protested against the then-prime minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina and her government amid protests in Bangladesh.

Three Bangladeshi citizens had been sentenced to life in prison, while 53 were sentenced to 10 years in prison. One Bangladeshi, who state media said had entered the UAE illegally and "participated in the riot", was sentenced to 11 years.

The Public Prosecution had accused the Bangladeshi nationals of "crimes of gathering in a public place and protesting against their home government with the intent to incite unrest".

Sheikh Mohamed pardon’s comes less than a week after UAE state media reported that the president had congratulated Muhammad Yunus on becoming Bangladesh’s interim leader, after former prime minister Hasina was forced to quit and flee the country following violent protests.

Bangladeshi nationals are one of the largest communities in the UAE, a country of some 10 million people where most of the population are foreign residents. Emiratis account for about 10%. Many Bangladeshis in the UAE work low-paid blue collar jobs and send remittances home to help support their families.

The UAE’s hereditary rulers tolerate little dissent. Freedom of expression is restricted and groups like political parties and labour unions are outlawed. Protests are rare.
Can humans grow new islands in the world’s lowest-lying country? (CNN)
CNN [9/2/2024 9:36 PM, Amy Gunia, 24052K, Neutral]
Across the globe, shorelines are under threat from rising sea levels and intensifying storms. Island states and coastal cities are taking action to defend themselves, from building seawalls to dredging sand from the seabed and pumping it onto beaches.

In the Maldives, a 900-kilometer-long chain of about 1,200 islands in the Indian Ocean, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Self-Assembly Lab and Maldivian organization Invena are working on a more natural solution. Using submersible structures, they’re harnessing the ocean’s forces to make sand accumulate in carefully chosen spots to protect islands - and even potentially grow new ones.

Since 2019, the organizations have been running field tests in the Maldives, where the shoreline of almost every island is eroding.

The various experiments - mostly conducted in the shallows of a reef flat just south of the capital city Malé - have consisted of everything from submerging a web of rope tied into tight knots to collect sand, to using a material that transforms from textile to rigid concrete when sprayed with water to create a barrier that was placed onto the seafloor to build up sand there.

In another field experiment, a floating garden was installed above a sand bank, to explore if the roots could help stabilize already accumulated sand, and collect more.

It may not sound all that novel. After all, ideas like using mangroves for coastal defense have been around for a while. But there is serious data and technology behind the work.

The field installations start as experiments in wave tanks on MIT’s campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. To determine how to orient the structures, and their ideal geometries, the team relies on wave and ocean current information collected by tilt sensors in the Maldives, publicly accessible tide and weather data, thousands of computer simulations, and a machine learning model trained on satellite images to predict how sand will move.

Skylar Tibbits, the founder and co-director of the Self-Assembly Lab, which focuses on materials and processes that enable the formation of objects and spaces, told CNN that he hopes the submersible structures can provide a more sustainable method than conventional engineering solutions for reinforcing eroded coastlines. "We’re using the natural force of the ocean to guide the sand," he said.

"The sand wants to be there"

The Maldives, with an average elevation of just one meter (3.3 feet) above sea level, is the world’s lowest-lying country. Officials, resort operators and real estate developers have resorted to dredging and hard engineering solutions, building seawalls, breakwaters and groynes to try to deal with the problem.

But these interventions can be expensive, difficult to maintain, and disruptive to ecosystems.

Pumping and dredging needs to be repeated every few years. Seawalls and other infrastructure can even exacerbate the erosion they’re intended to prevent or fix, especially when the design or construction is shoddy, or ideas are copied and pasted from elsewhere, without factoring in local considerations.

Paul Kench, a coastal geomorphologist at the National University of Singapore not involved in MIT and Ivena’s work, has seen evidence of this. His research has shown that structures from seawalls to boat harbors can make erosion worse and degrade reef productivity. "The kinds of engineering solutions that we tend to use on continental coastlines shouldn’t really go anywhere near a reef island," he said, but "people tend to use them, because that’s what they know."

MIT Self-Assembly Lab and Invena’s use of local data is working with natural forces rather than against them, Tibbits argues, "so the sand wants to be there." With each field experiment, the group says it is advancing its understanding of what materials, configurations, and construction techniques can make sand accumulate in the simplest, most cost-effective, sustainable, long-lasting and scalable way.

In the near-term, Tibbits believes what they’ve already learned can be leveraged to effectively rebuild beaches and existing islands.

The collaboration’s stretch goal is to grow artificial islands. So far, its second field experiment, launched in 2019 in the Maldives, had the most promising results. It utilized biodegradable, textile, sand-filled bladders, which were placed in strategic positions to create a sand bar.

In just four months, about half a meter (1.65 feet) of sand had accumulated over an area of 20 by 30 meters (66 by 98 feet). Today, the sand bank measures about two meters (6.5 feet) tall by 20 meters (65 feet) wide by 60 meters (197 feet) long.

The material used is expected to last approximately 10 years, which could make it a more permanent - and therefore cost effective - solution than pumping and dredging, said Tibbits.

Scaling up sustainable solutions

Other more natural solutions are being tested and implemented elsewhere. The Netherlands, for example, built the world’s first sand motor - an artificially created sand peninsula that helps waves push sand onto the coast - more than a decade ago. In New York, oyster reefs are being replenished to protect shorelines.

Although interest in solutions that incorporate nature is increasing, they can be a tough sell.

"Those who have control of the purse strings … they’re very reluctant to move away from these solid engineering structures because of fear that their money’s going down a hole," said Kench.

But a fresh approach might be crucial. A high proportion of the coastal erosion in the Maldives is "anthropogenically forced" by hard engineering interventions, said Kench, who is currently working with his students in the Maldives to better understand and model how island shorelines change. "Something these atoll countries don’t like to acknowledge is that they’ve had a heavy imprint on the islands."

In the Maldives, the government is supportive of MIT Self-Assembly Lab and Invena’s work, but that hasn’t yet translated into financial support, Sarah Dole, the co-founder of Invena, told CNN.

Late last month, the organizations installed a scaled-up version of their second field experiment, placing six textile bladders in a ring formation, with the aim of collecting sand to build a sand bank, no matter which way the monsoon season drives waves and current. A survey will be conducted in November to check the results.

Separately, an upcoming project will restore a beach at a new resort development about a 15-minute speedboat ride from Malé.

Together, these tests, which are both supported by a USAID grant, are attempting to show that the group’s work can succeed at scale. "That will be very important, and all eyes are on that," said Dole.
Central Asia
No rest for the elite: Central Asian leaders stay busy in August fostering trade (EurasiaNet)
EurasiaNet [8/30/2024 4:14 PM, Staff, 57.6K, Neutral]
A swirl of recent activity in Central Asia and the Caspian Basin aimed at improving trade is belying the notion that August is vacation season.

Late August this year was a time for state visits, with Azerbaijan’s leader, Ilham Aliyev traveling to Uzbekistan, and Kazakstan’s president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, visiting Tajikistan. The dominant theme of both trips was strengthening trade ties.

Following discussions with Aliyev, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev proclaimed 2025 the “Year of Economic Cooperation” between the two countries. “We discussed in detail the whole range of our multifaceted relations, listened to reports on key areas,” Mirziyoyev told journalists in Tashkent. “First of all, it is trade, industrial cooperation, energy, transport, agriculture, where we have very big opportunities.”

The two states have developed a 20-point economic cooperation blueprint, including plans to create textile manufacturing “clusters” and expand trans-Caspian connections to “maximize the potential of interregional ties,” Mirziyoyev added. Aliyev, meanwhile, said the two countries aimed to “saturate our trade and economic relations with concrete content.”

The visit’s outcome provided added momentum to an ambitious project involving Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan to develop solar- and wind-generated electricity for export to Europe.

Tokayev was similarly upbeat following meetings with Tajik leaders, including President Emomali Rahmon, noting that a target to boost annual bilateral trade turnover to $2 billion was achievable. Of the 15 agreements signed during the visit, perhaps the most significant was a memorandum of cooperation aiming to standardize bilateral trade rules, inspections and other customs procedures. Such harmonization of practices is vital for facilitating an expansion of commerce.

Following up on Tokayev’s visit, Kazakh and Tajik officials are discussing a deal under which Kazakhstan would import Tajik-generated electricity, the Ferghana News outlet reported August 29. Such an arrangement could provide a boost to Kazakhstan’s participation in its “green-power” consortium with Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan.

The late August action isn’t limited to just a few states. The Kyrgyz government engaged Turkmen officials in talks on August 27 aimed at expanding the much-discussed China-Kyrgyz-Uzbek railway project onward to Turkmenistan to create a terminal on the Caspian Sea. During the discussions, Kyrgyz Economy Minister Daniyar Amangeldiyev emphasized “the importance of cooperation in international cargo transportation,” according to a report distributed by the Ekonomist.kg outlet.

Elsewhere, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are planning to simplify cross-border travel for citizens of the two states. New procedures that will allow entry with a national ID card, not a passport, are being finalized. The Uzbek-Kazakh simplified rules would mimic procedures already in place along the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border. “Today, the borders between Uzbekistan and the countries of Central Asia can rightfully be called bridges of friendship and good neighborliness,” the Kursiv news outlet quoted Uzbek presidential aide Abdulaziz Kamilov as saying.
Kazakh President Announces Date For Controversial Nuclear Plant Project (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [9/2/2024 4:21 AM, Staff, 1251K, Neutral]
Kazakhstan will hold a referendum on October 6 on whether to build a nuclear power plant, President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev announced on September 2.

Toqaev has argued the project is needed to diversify energy sources in Kazakhstan, which has abundant oil and natural gas reserves. It is also the world’s leading producer of uranium, used to fuel nuclear power plants.

Kazakh Energy Minister Almassadam Satkaliyev has said the construction of a nuclear power plant in Kazakhstan is the only way to meet a rising domestic power demand and carbon-neutrality goals.

Currently, Kazakhstan gets about 80 percent of its energy from coal-fired plants and another 15 percent is generated by hydropower, while the rest comes from renewable energy resources.

A single Russian nuclear power reactor operated from 1972 to 1999, generating electricity and desalinating water.

No exact site for the future nuclear power plant has been announced, although two have been mentioned as likely: at Ulken near Lake Balkash and at Kurchatov.

It’s also unclear who would build the plant. In 2023, the Kazakh Energy Ministry said Russia’s Rosatom was one of four contractors whose reactors were under consideration for the plant, with EDF of France, the China National Nuclear Corporation, and South Korea’s Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power the other three.

The project has been met by much opposition. In recent weeks, several activists known for their stance against the nuclear power station’s construction have been prevented from attending public debates on the issue.

Nuclear-power-related projects have been a controversial issue in Kazakhstan, where the environment was severely impacted by operations at the Soviet-era Semipalatinsk nuclear test site from 1949 to 1991 and the Baikonur spaceport, which is still being operated by Russia.
Kyrgyzstan coming increasingly under China’s economic thumb (EurasiaNet)
EurasiaNet [8/30/2024 4:14 PM, Staff, 57.6K, Neutral]
Kyrgyzstan’s economic dependence on China is continuing to grow. Not only is Bishkek’s trade deficit with China burgeoning, but Beijing is also cementing its position as Kyrgyzstan’s main creditor.

Statistics compiled by China’s General Administration of Customs show that bilateral trade turnover during the January-July period of 2024 amounted to $10.95 billion, marking a roughly 12 percent increase in trade volume during the same period the previous year. Alarmingly from Bishkek’s viewpoint, Kyrgyzstan’s exports to China accounted for a mere $226 million of that total, or roughly 2 percent of overall turnover.

The Chinese figures contrast sharply with official Kyrgyz statistics, raising questions about potential smuggling of goods via Kyrgyzstan to third countries, such as Russia. Data released by the Kyrgyz government covering the first six months of 2024 pegged Kyrgyz-Chinese trade turnover at $3.18 billion. As with the Chinese figures, however, the official numbers compiled by Bishkek showed Kyrgyzstan running a large deficit.

Meanwhile, Kyrgyzstan’s foreign debt keeps rising. As of June 30, Bishkek’s total public debt to foreign creditors amounted to just over $4.5 billion, the Kaktus news outlet reported, citing Finance Ministry figures. The single largest foreign creditor is the Export-Import Bank of China, which is owed $1.66 billion by Bishkek.
Kyrgyzstan resettlement of Uzbekistan enclave gets mixed reviews (VOA)
VOA [8/31/2024 11:52 PM, Staff, 4566K, Neutral]
While Kyrgyz state media have portrayed the recent resettlement of residents of a Kyrgyz enclave in Uzbekistan in glowing terms, a different picture emerged during a VOA visit to the residents’ new home.

At issue is Barak, a Kyrgyz hamlet of less than 1,000 inhabitants in Uzbekistan that was moved in April as part of a border deal with Uzbekistan.

Barak is one of a number of parcels of land shared by Soviet Central Asian republics that, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, became problematic. The Uzbek territories of Shakhimardan, Sokh, Qalacha, and Jangail are all located within Kyrgyzstan’s Batken province. Vorukh and Western Qalacha, two Tajik districts, are also surrounded by Batken province. Tajikistan’s Sarvak lies within Uzbekistan’s Fergana province. Enclave residents have long complained about stiff border control measures by the Central Asian governments that have hampered travel and trade. As a result, the enclaves often become flashpoints for border-related confrontations.

Nurgul, a Barak primary school teacher who only provided her first name, described to VOA the difficulties of living in Barak, which was connected to Kyrgyzstan by a 3-kilometer road through Uzbekistani territory.

"To reach Kyrgyzstan, we had to cross several border and police checkpoints. Border guards frequently closed the road, and this left Barak without food and medicine for weeks." She added that, exhausted by such difficulties, some of her relatives left Barak to resettle in Kyrgyzstan’s Osh province, about 20 kilometers away, in 2018.

In late 2022, in accordance with a Kyrgyz-Uzbek border agreement, Barak’s territory was absorbed by Uzbekistan. In exchange, Kyrgyzatan received an equivalent parcel of land from Uzbekistan.

In November 2022, Kyrgyz officials said that Barak residents would be permanently resettled in a new village in Osh province.

The new settlement is called Jany Barak, or "New Barak" in Kyrgyz. Construction began in April and was to be completed by August 31, the anniversary of Kyrgyzstan’s independence.

Osh provincial Governor Elchibek Jantaev told local media in April that Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov had allotted $3 million for the construction of 101 new houses, a secondary school, and a health clinic for the resettled Barak residents and Kyrgyz state media provided extensive coverage of government’s resettlement works.

An early May broadcast on Kyrgyz state TV described the resettlement as a historic event. The broadcast also presented interviews with several Barak residents who said they were joyous about being reunited with mainland Kyrgyzstan.

A different picture

That is not the picture that emerged during a VOA visit to the site of Jany Barak.

Kalyssa, a retired accountant from Kara-Suu, a town in Osh province near Jany Barak, who would only let her first name be used, said construction is still in progress, adding, "people have questions about quality of the new houses. They are also worried the houses will not be completed until winter."

VOA observed August 17 that the new houses being built are not winterproof and there are no paved access roads or sewage system.

Nurgul, the primary school teacher from Barak, said Barak residents were not given a choice between financial compensation and housing.

"Some people would rather take money instead of moving into government-built houses," she told VOA.

Marat Imankulov, the head of Kyrgyzstan’s Security Council – part of Kyrgyz President’s Office – said in a May interview with Kyrgyz media that the land-swap deal allowing for resettlement of Barak could serve as model for "solving border issues with Tajikistan." Some experts, though, have expressed doubts about land-swap solutions for enclaves.

Chris Rickleton, a journalist based in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city, wrote in a late April analysis paper published by RFE/RL that 2021 comments by Kyrgyz President Japarov’s ally and national security chief Kamchybek Tashiev about a potential transfer of Tajik enclave Vorukh to Kyrgyz control "were met with anger from Vorukh locals, not to mention a former top Tajik official who publicly lambasted Tashiev."

Kyrgyz political analyst Emil Juraev, in an April interview, described Vorukh, compared with Barak, as "a massively more difficult situation, with around 40,000 people in Vorukh compared to just a few hundred in Barak."

A Kyrgyzstani journalist who covered the enclaves for Kyrgyz media pointed to high economic costs from potential land-swap deals, saying Central Asian governments "are cash-strapped, and they cannot afford such costly resettlement projects."

Uzbek officials have their own reasons to oppose further land-swap deals with Kyrgyzstan. An Uzbek government official from Ferghana province, which has jurisdiction over Uzbekistani enclaves of Shakhimardan and Sokh, told VOA on condition of anonymity that the two territories "have strategic importance for Uzbekistan."

"They are major holiday destinations due to their picturesque sceneries and mountain lakes," the official said, adding that both enclaves house small Uzbek military outposts.

Nevertheless, there are positive developments related to enclave solutions.

Since November 2022, the Uzbek and Kyrgyz governments have eased border restrictions for Shakhimardan and Sokh inhabitants and have pledged to jointly develop the tourism potential of the enclaves.

"This step is a crucial move forward," the Uzbek government official from Ferghana said.
Uzbek Leader’s Son-In-Law Building Secretive Compound In Tashkent Worth Millions (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [8/31/2024 3:05 AM, Staff, 1251K, Neutral]
The son-in-law of Uzbekistan’s president is building a secretive multimillion-dollar residential compound in a pricey district of this Central Asian capital, a project for which some two dozen homes have been razed, an investigation by RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service has found.

Multiple sources familiar with the project say Otabek Umarov, who serves as deputy head of security for his father-in-law, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev, pressured residents to move to make way for the development on 1.5 hectares of prime Tashkent real estate with an estimated value of some $20 million.

The project is the latest example of Umarov’s access to significant wealth that stands seemingly at odds with the official salary he draws as a public servant.

Mirziyoev assumed the presidency pledging greater transparency and reforms in Central Asia’s most populous country following the 2016 death of his dictatorial predecessor, Islam Karimov. But multiple RFE/RL investigations have revealed how political insiders, including Mirziyoev’s own relatives, continue to profit in lucrative and opaque state dealings.

Umarov, 40, is the most prominent among these relatives. He is widely seen as a behind-the-scenes power broker among Uzbek political and economic elites in the gas-rich nation of nearly 37 million. And while he has no known official income streams beyond his state job, Umarov regularly flaunts his expensive tastes on social media, including luxury watches and cars.

The compound under construction in Tashkent’s northeastern Mirzo Ulugbek district comprises at least 20 properties adjacent to a residential property where Umarov previously lived with Mirziyoev’s youngest daughter, Shahnoza, whom he married in 2007, and their children.

Since 2018, at least 20 homes surrounding that property have been razed, forming an ever-widening, unified land plot where cement trucks and other construction equipment are operating, historical satellite imagery reviewed by RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service shows.

One former city official with direct knowledge of the matter said Umarov launched his “megaplan” to acquire the surrounding homes around five years ago by making offers to buy from owners who were not in a position to refuse.

“After buying them, he demolished all the houses, each worth half a million and a million and a half [dollars]. Now he is building a palace for himself,” the former official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to fears of retribution, told RFE/RL.

The official’s account is corroborated by historical satellite imagery from the site showing the gradual razing of the homes, and by interviews with relatives of multiple homeowners who moved to make way for the development. The addresses and owners of these homes are known to RFE/RL but are not being disclosed in this report due to security concerns.

One of these relatives said a representative of Umarov had contacted the owners with a “take-it-or-leave-it” offer.

“Many people were forced to exchange their big new houses for older houses half the size in less expensive areas without any additional money,” the relative of a former homeowner said.

RFE/RL was unable to obtain access to paperwork corroborating this claim, though a similar account of the sales process was told by several other sources with direct knowledge of the matter.

While official government land records do not currently identify the owners of the land plots within the planned compound by name, previously available records for some of the plots that RFE/RL obtained do.

These records show that as of June 2022 -- a period when homes at the site were being razed -- the owner of eight of these plots was Uzbek Judo Federation official Zafar Mamajonov, whose personal and business links to Umarov were revealed in a previous RFE/RL investigation.

RFE/RL’s written inquiries about the compound to Umarov, Mamajonov, Mirziyoev’s office, and the Uzbek government’s Anti-Corruption Agency went unanswered as of publication.

The compound linked to Umarov is being built in the Shortepa neighborhood of Tashkent’s northeastern Mirzo Ulugbek district, where high-ranking state officials and wealthy tycoons have made their homes. The site is currently walled off from potential prying public eyes with a tall metallic fence and monitored by surveillance cameras and security guards stationed in booths.

Asked what was being built behind the fence on a recent weekday, one passerby said it was “not allowed” to point at it. When asked why pointing at the compound was forbidden, the passerby said: “It’s the president’s son-in-law.”

A Mosque Runs Through It

On the perimeter of the compound’s site, the only mosque for worshipers in the Shortepa and adjacent neighborhoods has stood since the 1950s.

To enter the mosque, however, worshippers must travel through a long walkway that runs through the development linked to Umarov.

According to multiple sources and visible construction activity, the mosque is now slated to be torn down and a new one erected some 40 meters away.

“It will be completed by the next Ramadan, inshallah. Until then, the old one will work. The old mosque, inshallah, will then be destroyed. We don’t know what will happen to its land plot. They’ll probably put a garden there,” a mosque worker said.

The mosque employee declined to say who will take control of the land under the old mosque, which cadastral records show stand on 1,288 square meters -- with a value of around $1 million under current market prices in the area, according to Tashkent real estate agents.

One local resident with knowledge of the matter said “the youngest daughter of our president lives in our neighborhood” and that she and her husband “are building a new mosque on this site.”

“To build a new mosque, they moved the neighborhood council to a two-story building a little farther away,” said the resident, whom RFE/RL is not identifying by name.

Construction is indeed under way at that site, and video footage reviewed by RFE/RL revealed a familiar company involved in the project.

Trucks operating at the site bear the logo of Hyper Partners, a company headed by Khabibula Abdukadyr, whose role in smuggling and money laundering in Central Asia was first revealed in a 2019 joint investigation by RFE/RL, OCCRP, and the independent Kyrgyz outlet Kloop.

A subsequent 2023 investigation by RFE/RL and its partners found that Hyper Partners and other Abdukadyr companies had partnered closely with Mirziyoev’s government on major state-backed projects, while multiple sources said Abdukadyr’s business in the country was backed by Umarov.

A previously listed shareholder of one of these Abdukadyr-linked companies, Hyper Finance Group, was Mamajonov, the judo official and Umarov associate who as recently as 2022 was the listed owner of eight of the land plots where the secretive compound linked to Umarov is being built.

‘Why Do You Need Such A Palace?’

Since becoming deputy head of Mirziyoev’s security service in 2016, Umarov has steadily cultivated a celebrity image on social media, most notably as a prominent patron of Uzbek sports. He wears expensive watches and zips around in luxury vehicles, one of his most visible passions. His personal logo adorned the apparel of Uzbek athletes at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.

Under a law on civil service enacted by Mirziyoev in 2022, Umarov is among the Uzbek public servants exempted from submitting a declaration on income and property. And those who openly speak about Umarov’s evident wealth and that of other Miriziyoev relatives and their associates have faced legal intimidation, prosecution, and alleged torture.

Among the Mirziyoev critics targeted by authorities is a Tashkent lawyer and blogger who spoke openly about the Umarov-linked compound under construction in the Mirzo Ulugbek district.

In a five-minute video published on YouTube in November 2022, the blogger Shohida Salomova discussed the site of the development, saying Umarov had “recently bought 20 expensive houses.” Salomova gave no other details or evidence for that claim, though her account is consistent with the satellite images and statements of sources who spoke to RFE/RL.

“All these houses are adjacent to the house where he lives. Now all these houses have been demolished. They are digging a huge hole to build a foundation. Apparently, Mr. Umarov’s palace will be here,” Salomova said in the video, which has just under 3,200 views in the nearly two years since it was published.

“Why do you need such a palace in the city center, Mr. Umarov? Where did you get so much money? Answer this, Mr. Umarov. I am very interested,” Salomova added.

Exactly a month after the video was posted, on December 18, 2022, Salomova disappeared. Her relatives learned three days later that she had been taken by Tashkent police and was being held in a detention facility.

Salomova, who had also published a post about an alleged extramarital affair by Umarov, was officially accused of online slander against another blogger and Mirziyoev critic who subsequently said authorities were using him to punish her. The second blogger, Aleksei Garshin, called for her release.

A Tashkent court in February 20231 declared Salomova “mentally unstable” and she was sent to a psychiatric hospital. Rights activists have called her a victim of punitive psychiatry.

In January 2024, Salomova was transferred to a psychiatric ward under control of the Uzbek Interior Ministry, which did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.

It remains unclear when Salomova might be released or what the current state of her health is.
Indo-Pacific
Living in limbo: The struggle of families in South Asia torn by state-enforced disappearances (VOA)
VOA [8/31/2024 1:52 AM, Masood Farivar, 4566K, Neutral]
They’ve been waiting for years, sometimes decades, desperate to learn the fate of their loved ones — victims of enforced disappearances in South Asia.

With husbands neither dead nor alive, their wives are sometimes known as “half widows.” The ambiguity gnaws at them, yet it also keeps them going. Every rumored sighting, every whisper of hope, becomes a lifeline in their endless search for closure.

Farzana Akhtar’s husband, Parvez Hossain, was taken by Bangladeshi security forces 11 years ago. An opposition activist, he was one of more than 600 people forcibly disappeared during former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s rule from 2009 to 2024. While some were released or reported dead, more than 100 are unaccounted for.

Hope for their freedom surged after Hasina’s government collapsed on August 5 in the face of student protests. Three people were released from a notorious detention center in Dhaka, but desperate families that rushed to the site found only empty cells.

Still, Akhtar clings to hope that her husband is alive.

"For this, we hope there are people," Akhtar said.

Her daughter, Abida Islam Ridi, was just 2 years old when her father vanished. Watching a video of the detention center, she felt a chill of fear.

"How could people stay there?" she said.

Yet, like her mother, she holds onto the hope that her father is alive.

"My mother says I have a father," Ridi said. "Everyone says they will return my father. But they don’t say where. Everyone just says, you have a father."

This hope mingled with anguish is echoed by nearly a dozen family members in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan interviewed by VOA.

To human rights activists, the feeling is all too familiar.

"In Sri Lanka, the war ended in 2009 and yet we meet mothers who are still hoping that their sons may be in some secret arrest place and that they will be returned," said Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

Enforced disappearances are a grave human rights violation. Victims are grabbed off the street or taken from their homes by security forces. Their fate remains unknown: They might be held indefinitely, released or die in custody. The practice, made notorious by Latin America’s military regimes in the 1960s, has plagued South Asia for decades.

Across the region, the toll is enormous. In Afghanistan, tens of thousands were forcibly disappeared in the late 1970s. In Sri Lanka, between 60,000 and 100,000 have disappeared since the 1980s. In India’s Kashmir region, at least 8,000 cases were recorded between 1989 and 2012. In Pakistan’s Balochistan, 7,000 cases have been recorded since 2004.

Governments accused of carrying out enforced disappearances deny the allegations. Hasina’s regime often insisted that some of the victims had gone into hiding to evade criminal charges. But Bangladesh’s new interim government has set up a commission to investigate and signed the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances.

The lack of closure, human rights experts say, is the worst aspect of the practice: Family members would rather receive a body than not know.

"There is nothing more difficult than this," said Fahima Bibi, whose son, Abdul Khalid, vanished in Pakistan’s Punjab province in 2012. "If a person dies, your heart gets closure, but not knowing if they are dead or alive?"

The long-term psychological effects on families are uncertain. A 2015 study found that post traumatic stress disorder, depression and complicated grief are more common among these families than in people coping with the death of a loved one. A more recent study, however, found that the evidence is inconclusive.

The vast majority of victims are men, their children bearing the burden of their loss, even those too young to remember them. They come to know them through pictures, mementos, and family stories, forming an imaginary bond. The void becomes painful when they see peers with their fathers.

Fahmida Baloch was 2 when her father, Dr. Muhammad Akbar Marri, was taken from his clinic in Baluchistan by Pakistani paramilitary forces in 2010. Initially telling her that her father had gone on a business trip, Baloch’s mother disclosed the truth when she was about 8 years old.

"I didn’t know before what enforced disappearance meant," she said.

Little things conjured her father’s absence: fathers picking up their children at school, teachers asking students to bring their fathers to school.

"How could I tell them where my father was?" Baloch said.

She drew strength and hope from her Islamic faith.

"My mother says, ‘Keep up your hope, he’ll definitely come back,’" she says. "I pray. Other than praying, I can’t do anything."

This hope sustains others well into their middle years.

Farhad Ashkyar’s father was seized in Kabul in 1979. Farhad was 2 at the time. As he grew, he learned about his absent father from family stories: He was a health ministry employee and a good wrestler.

Like Baloch, seeing other children with their fathers sharpened his sense of loss.

"There is nothing harder than it, especially when you see other kids call their fathers or say, ‘My father is getting me new clothes for Eid,’" he said.

Through the years of his father’s absence, the family clung to every rumor, every whisper of hope, every late-night knock on the door.

"The thing is we were always waiting," Ashkyar said.

Waiting but also standing tall. "I realized that whether he comes back or not, I have to stand on my own feet. I have to work hard."

Then, in 2013, the families of victims found a measure of closure. A list of nearly 5,000 people forcibly disappeared and executed following the 1978 Communist coup surfaced. For many families, the list brought some solace, if not the bodies, at least an acknowledgement. To honor their memory, they held funeral and prayer services.

But Ashkyar’s father’s name wasn’t on the list.

"That gave us hope," he said. "If he had been killed, his name would have appeared on the list. To this day, I can’t say ‘May God forgive him,’ because we haven’t seen his body."
Heavy monsoon rains and floods kill at least 33 in south India and 5 children in Pakistan this week (AP)
AP [9/3/2024 3:19 AM, Omer Farooq, 456K, Negative]
Heavy monsoon rains and floods have killed at least 33 people in southern India and five children in Pakistan over the past two days, authorities said Tuesday.

In India’s Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states, houses collapsed and were swept away by torrential downpours while floods disrupted road and rail traffic, officials said. The weather service issued a red alert for 11 districts, predicting more rains in the region, Telangana’s top bureaucrat, Shanta Kumari, said.

More than 4,000 people have been moved to 110 government-run relief camps in Telangana since Monday, according to the state’s top elected official, A. Revanth Reddy.

Overflowing lakes, tanks and streams have cut off some villages in Mahabubnagar and Nalgonda districts.

Vijayawada, the commercial capital of Andhra Pradesh, is experiencing the worst flooding in two decades with the Budameru River flooding 40% of the city and stranding nearly 275,000 people in more than a dozen residential area.

Disaster relief teams are struggling to transport stranded families to safter areas, said Andhra Pradesh’s top elected official, N. Chandrababu Naidu.

Since June, at least 170 people have died across India’s six northeastern states due to floods and mudslides brought on by the rains, according to official figures.

In neighboring Pakistan, flash floods triggered by heavy monsoon rains killed five children on Monday in southwestern Balochistan province, bringing the country’s overall death toll from rain-related incidents to at least 300 since July 1.

The five deaths were reported in the Zhob and Khuzdar districts, according to a statement by the disaster management authority. In Balochistan alone, floods have killed 32 people, including 18 children and 12 women over the past two months.

The deluges have also inundated dozens of villages and blocked highways in parts of Balochistan, and damaged nearly 20,000 homes across the country, mostly in Balochistan.

Disasters caused by landslides and floods are common in both India and Pakistan during the June-September monsoon season. Scientists and weather forecasters have blamed climate change for heavier rains in recent years.

In 2022, climate-induced downpours inundated one-third of Pakistan, killing 1,739 people and causing $30 billion in damage.
Twitter
Afghanistan
Sara Wahedi
@SaraWahedi
[8/31/2024 3:40 AM, 92.4K followers, 1.2K retweets, 3.3K likes]
Despite global shock, few countries—even after investing billions in women’s rights—have condemned the Taliban’s decrees. This silence is a moral failure, endangering all women worldwide. When women’s rights are stripped away in silence, it threatens every woman’s freedom.

Sara Wahedi
@SaraWahedi
[8/31/2024 3:53 AM, 92.4K followers, 80 retweets, 247 likes]
Gender apartheid in Afghanistan isn’t just a local crisis; it sets a dangerous precedent that a woman can lose her fundamental freedoms simply for being a woman. This affects us all—human rights know no borders, or they lose all meaning.

Habib Khan
@HabibKhanT
[9/2/2024 3:37 PM, 235.5K followers, 45 retweets, 84 likes]
The Taliban’s religious police have beaten two women for going to the city market in Sarpul province. Afghan women say restrictions are tightening as the morality police enforce their new vice and virtue law, which even bans women from speaking or showing their faces in public.

Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office
@amnestysasia
[9/2/2024 9:02 AM, 91.2K followers, 76 retweets, 85 likes]
Three years into the Taliban rule, Afghanistan remains a hotbed of unchecked and unabated human rights abuses – gender persecution, torture, arbitrary detentions, and censorship – all with zero accountability. The world’s response? Tepid at best.
What can you do to help? Sign our petition now, demanding the international community to: https://amnesty.org/en/petition/break-the-silence-end-human-rights-violations-in-afghanistan/
1. Take unified and stronger actions to urgently establish a robust accountability mechanism to hold the Taliban accountable for human rights abuses.
2. Use all forms of leverage to pressure the Taliban to respect and protect the rights of women and girls, end gender persecution and enable the space for women’s meaningful participation in social, political and cultural spheres.
3. Take concrete measures towards addressing the practice of corporal punishment by the Taliban and support the establishment of competent, independent and impartial formal justice mechanism to enable access to justice to Afghanistan population, including women.

Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office
@amnestysasia
[8/30/2024 9:00 AM, 91.2K followers, 5 retweets, 4 likes]
Afghanistan: Afghanistan has one of the highest numbers of people forcibly disappeared in the region since the war started in the 1970s. History of conflict in the country has led to widespread enforced disappearances in the past, which continues since the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021. Currently, the Taliban, as de facto authorities, have been using enforced disappearance as a tool to suppress critical voices, including journalists, human rights defenders, and women protesters against their draconian policies, and others perceived to be opposing the Taliban. The Taliban must immediately end the use of enforced disappearance and release those in their custody. Those responsible for the egregious crime of enforced disappearance must be brought to justice.
Pakistan
Shehbaz Sharif
@CMShehbaz
[9/2/2024 10:20 PM, 6.7M followers, 409 retweets, 1.2K likes]
Pakistan’s annual inflation rate has dropped to 9.6% in August, first single-digit figure in nearly 3 years according to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. This is not an accident! These are results! My focus is on providing relief to the common man.Our work is not done, and a lot more needs to be done but we are making real progress.

Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office
@amnestysasia
[8/30/2024 9:00 AM, 91.2K followers, 79 retweets, 133 likes]
Pakistan: The government must take all measures to end enforced disappearances and institute a truly independent commission that has the mandate and willingness to conduct effective, transparent investigations. The current Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances fails to meet these standards. There are over 10,000 cases of enforced disappearances reported since 2011, with almost 200 in 2024 alone. The violence, vilification and detention by the Pakistani authorities against families of the forcibly disappeared must end, and their demands must be addressed by the government immediately. https://amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/07/pakistan-repeated-punitive-crackdowns-on-baloch-protests-must-end/

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[9/2/2024 9:55 AM, 213K followers, 75 retweets, 168 likes]
Pakistan has a major conundrum on its hands w/the Iran pipeline. It’s unlikely to get a US sanctions waiver & has run out of time to secure external financing. Its only option appears to be negotiating for another deadline extension or a lower penalty. https://asia.nikkei.com/cms/Business/Energy/Iran-slaps-Pakistan-with-final-notice-over-unfinished-gas-pipeline
India
Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[9/3/2024 2:10 AM, 101.5M followers, 1.6K retweets, 7.5K likes]
BJP is a Karyakarta centric Party which works with the motto of India First! I renewed my Primary Membership of the Party and urge all Karyakartas to do the same. I invite people from all walks of life to join the BJP during the #BJPSadasyata2024 movement. You can give a missed call on 8800002024 or even join via the NaMo App. Together, let’s build a Viksit Bharat. https://nm-4.com/bjpmem/K3AVYY

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[9/2/2024 10:07 AM, 101.5M followers, 5.1K retweets, 31K likes]
Yet another boost to India’s efforts towards becoming a hub for semiconductors. The Cabinet approves one more semiconductor unit under the India Semiconductor Mission. To be set up in Sanand, this will cater to a wide range of sectors and also give employment to several youth. https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2050859

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[9/2/2024 10:06 AM, 101.5M followers, 1.9K retweets, 8.4K likes]
Today’s Cabinet decision will improve connectivity between Mumbai and Indore. In addition to boosting commerce, it will also provide employment opportunities to several people. https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2050855

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[8/31/2024 3:11 AM, 101.5M followers, 4.6K retweets, 16K likes]
In a significant boost to rail travel, three new Vande Bharat trains are being flagged off. These will improve connectivity across various cities of Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1jMJgBMDPoeGL

Dr. S. Jaishankar
@DrSJaishankar
[9/2/2024 11:33 AM, 3.2M followers, 643 retweets, 4.6K likes]
Today, Prime Minister @narendramodi launched the Sadasyata Abhiyaan of @BJP4India , the world’s largest political party. Come join the @BJP4India as we work towards building of Viksit Bharat. Give a missed call at 8800002024 and join us in this mega drive. #BJPSadasyata2024

Dr. S. Jaishankar
@DrSJaishankar
[9/1/2024 7:13 AM, 3.2M followers, 269 retweets, 2.6K likes]
Delighted to meet Rajasthan CM @BhajanlalBjp ji today. Discussed deepening investment, skilling and employment opportunities. Assured that MEA would work closely with the State Government to ensure the full success of #RisingRajasthan.

Dr. S. Jaishankar
@DrSJaishankar
[8/31/2024 11:24 PM, 3.2M followers, 182 retweets, 1.2K likes]
Warm greetings to @FM_Saidov and the Government and the people of Uzbekistan on their Independence Day. Committed to taking forward our strategic partnership to newer heights.

Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office
@amnestysasia
[8/30/2024 9:00 AM, 91.2K followers, 2 retweets, 5 likes]
India: Enforced disappearances have constantly led to extra judicial executions in India where systemic impunity endures, bolstered by laws like the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA). The victims’ families are left on their own to navigate an often-challenging legal landscape in their pursuit of justice.

Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office
@amnestysasia
[8/30/2024 9:00 AM, 91.2K followers, 2 likes]
In many countries across the region, victims’ families are facing harassment, intimidation, and even being forcibly disappeared themselves. States must sign and ratify the convention on enforced disappearances, establish strong domestic laws to criminalize it, end recurrence, and ensure truth, justice and reparations.
NSB
Sabria Chowdhury Balland
@sabriaballand
[9/3/2024 2:11 AM, 7K followers, 1 retweet, 4 likes]
There are important discussions on a new constitution for #Bangladesh. Firstly, it’s extremely necessary. The current one is modeled to have given extreme & all powers to individuals, notably, Sheikh Mujib & Sheikh Hasina. We have witnessed the disastrous results of that. It was also allegedly modeled after the Indian constitution. Bangladesh needs a fresh start. However, the current discussions about a new constitution sound largely emotional & frankly, miss the point. A constitution is not about 1971 nor 1975 nor 2024. The US constitution, which was written in 1787, ratified in 1788, and in operation since 1789, the United States Constitution is the world’s longest surviving written charter of government. It was & always will be THE basis for the functioning of US government & society. In the US, the mere mention of the words “the constitution” evoke respect, pride, honor & a way of life. From the very first words, “We the people”, the US constitution establishes rights, the social contract between the state & its people & the balance of power within the government. It establishes equality & human rights. That is the meaning of a constitution. It is not an emotional melodrama of history. It is the foundation of the state & society which navigates the path of both, respecting the rights of all. Framers of the new Constitution, I firmly believe, should study the US one to be able to write a long lasting & respected one which will last centuries.

Sabria Chowdhury Balland
@sabriaballand
[9/2/2024 9:43 AM, 7K followers, 1 retweet, 3 likes]
A court in #Bangladesh has imposed a travel ban on 17 former ministers and 9 former members of parliament from the ousted Sheikh Hasina government, Anadolu has reported. The officials are accused of irregularities and corruption. https://middleeastmonitor.com/20240902-bangladesh-court-imposes-travel-ban-on-former-officials-amid-corruption-allegations/amp/

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[9/2/2024 9:33 AM, 213K followers, 5 retweets, 22 likes]
I’m featured in this deep dive discussion on the fall of Sheikh Hasina, produced by @abcnews’s Rear Vision program. Also features thoughtful analysis from @tdkean @binadcosta and Ali Riaz. https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/rearvision/bangladesh-politics-and-the-business-of-remembering/104180756

Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office
@amnestysasia
[8/30/2024 9:00 AM, 91.2K followers, 2 retweets, 10 likes]
Bangladesh: Recent signing of the Convention on Enforced Disappearances is a vital first step towards truth, justice and reparations. The government should follow this by taking measures to ratify the Convention and enact strong domestic laws. There are reports of over 600 documented cases of enforced disappearances in Bangladesh. The new commission of inquiry must investigate all cases, including those before 2010, ensure transparency, and bring suspected perpetrators to justice without recourse to death penalty. The families should be informed of the whereabouts of their loved ones. https://amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/08/bangladesh-signing-of-convention-on-enforced-disappearances-is-a-much-welcome-first-step/

Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office
@amnestysasia
[8/30/2024 9:00 AM, 91.2K followers, 1 retweet, 2 likes]
Nepal: Successive governments have failed to deliver truth, justice and reparations to victims of enforced disappearances during the 1996-2006 conflict. The Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons which had collected over 3,000 complaints from victims, has not resolved a single case. The law passed by the parliament this month, Investigation of Enforced Disappeared Persons, Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act, includes many positive steps, but gaps need to be addressed to ensure justice and accountability.

Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office
@amnestysasia
[8/30/2024 9:00 AM, 91.2K followers, 176 retweets, 310 likes]
Today, on the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, @amnesty stands in solidarity with the victims and their families who are persevering in the pursuit of truth and justice for their missing loved ones.

Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office
@amnestysasia
[8/30/2024 9:00 AM, 91.2K followers, 2 retweets, 4 likes]
Sri Lanka: Families of the forcibly disappeared in Sri Lanka from all parts of the country continue to demand truth, justice and effective reparations. The Office on Missing Persons, which was established in 2018 after numerous Commissions of Inquiry failed to address grievances of victims, too has been derelict in its duty to investigate cases before it. Many victims have therefore cautioned the government against establishing a new Truth Commission which they fear will face a similar fate, especially in the context of ongoing repression, surveillance and harassment of those agitating for effective redress. As families organised themselves to mark the International Day of the Disappeared today, the police in the North and the East of the country sought court orders preventing the processions.

M U M Ali Sabry
@alisabrypc
[9/2/2024 7:22 AM, 6.3K followers, 16 retweets, 81 likes]
Today, we proudly launched the Online Authentication Portal of the Consular Affairs Division for Birth, Marriage, and Death certificates at @MFA_SriLanka . When we took over two years ago, the demand for these services resulted in massive crowds and overnight queues. To address this, we introduced online appointments through the eChanneling portal, significantly reducing public inconvenience. Our journey began with certifying documents from the Examinations Department, a significant milestone. We then expanded to include documents from the Registrar General’s Department. Currently, we can complete online certification for 50-55% of documents. Our commitment doesn’t end here. We are determined to achieve the capability to certify all documents online, providing an enormous benefit to the public.

M U M Ali Sabry
@alisabrypc
[9/2/2024 4:07 AM, 6.3K followers, 21 retweets, 70 likes]
Today, the Cabinet of Ministers approved taking steps necessary to pass the ‘Burial and Cremation Rights Bill’, a proposal I strongly advocated for. This crucial piece of legislation ensures the right of every individual to choose between burial and cremation, respecting personal and religious beliefs. Together, we will uphold dignity and justice for all.

M U M Ali Sabry
@alisabrypc
[9/2/2024 3:35 AM, 6.3K followers, 13 retweets, 11 likes]
Pleased to launch the Online Authentication Portal of the Consular Affairs Division for Birth, Marriage, Death certificates, enabling efficient and reliable services for the public today at the Foreign Ministry @MFA_SriLanka

M U M Ali Sabry
@alisabrypc
[8/30/2024 8:56 AM, 6.3K followers, 8 likes]
The overall rate of inflation measured by the Colombo Consumer Price Index (CCPI) on Y-on-Y basis decreased to 0.5% in August 2024, compared to 2.4% in July 2024. Food inflation decreased to 0.8% in August 2024, compared to 1.5% in July 2024 - Dept of Census and Statistics-
Central Asia
Yerzhan Ashikbayev
@KZAmbUS
[9/3/2024 12:50 AM, 2.6K followers, 1 like]
Major takeaways from @TokayevKZ State of the Nation Address: 1. Developing industrial potential & addressing infrastructure needs are key priorities. The Government will accelerate the construction of gas processing plants in 3 main oil regions: Zhanaozen, Kashagan&Karachaganak

Yerzhan Ashikbayev
@KZAmbUS
[9/3/2024 12:50 AM, 2.6K followers]
2. The transport and logistics sector will be enhanced by developing air hubs, aiming to double the annual air cargo capacity from 150,000 tons within four years, while leveraging Kazakhstan’s strategic location to attract foreign investment.

Yerzhan Ashikbayev
@KZAmbUS
[9/3/2024 12:50 AM, 2.6K followers]
3. As a regional leader in digitalization, Kazakhstan is focusing on integrating AI into the e-government platform by launching a National AI Center in Astana next year.

Yerzhan Ashikbayev
@KZAmbUS
[9/3/2024 12:50 AM, 2.6K followers]
4. As an implementation of the ‘Listening State’ concept, new laws have been introduced to enhance child safety, prevent crimes against women and children& combat TIP. The ongoing commitment to political reform will be reflected in the direct election of district and city akims.

MFA Kazakhstan
@MFA_KZ
[9/2/2024 12:02 PM, 52K followers, 27 retweets, 28 likes]
Today, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev delivered his annual state-of-the-nation address titled “Just Kazakhstan: Law and Order, Economic Growth, Public Optimism.” Find below a press release and a factsheet on the President’s speech. https://gov.kz/memleket/entities/mfa/press/news/details/838051?lang=en

Navbahor Imamova
@Navbahor
[9/2/2024 4:58 PM, 23.6K followers, 3 retweets, 3 likes]
While Kyrgyz state media have portrayed the recent resettlement of residents of a Kyrgyz enclave in Uzbekistan in glowing terms, a different picture emerged during a VOA visit to the residents’ new home. https://www.voanews.com/a/kyrgyzstan-resettlement-of-uzbekistan-enclave-gets-mixed-reviews/7767088.html

MFA Tajikistan
@MOFA_Tajikistan
[9/1/2024 6:25 AM, 4.9K followers, 4 likes]
Knowledge Day at the International School in Dushanbe https://mfa.tj/en/main/view/15634/knowledge-day-at-the-international-school-in-dushanbe

MFA Tajikistan
@MOFA_Tajikistan
[9/1/2024 3:21 AM, 4.9K followers, 2 likes]
Collective viewing of the President of Tajikistan’s speech on the occasion of Knowledge Day https://mfa.tj/en/main/view/15633/collective-viewing-of-the-president-of-tajikistans-speech-on-the-occasion-of-knowledge-day

MFA Tajikistan
@MOFA_Tajikistan
[8/31/2024 2:12 AM, 4.9K followers, 3 likes]
Participation of the delegation of Tajikistan in the 50th session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers https://mfa.tj/en/main/view/15630/participation-of-the-delegation-of-tajikistan-in-the-50th-session-of-the-oic-council-of-foreign-ministers

Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service
@president_uz
[9/1/2024 11:09 AM, 198.6K followers, 10 retweets, 68 likes]
The 33rd anniversary of Uzbekistan’s #independence was commemorated with a grand ceremony at "Yangi Uzbekistan" park. President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev extended his congratulations to the nation, underscoring the event’s importance for the country’s development and its standing within the international community. The celebration culminated in a concert that captured the festive spirit and highlighted the nation’s cultural diversity and interethnic harmony.

Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service
@president_uz
[9/1/2024 10:33 AM, 198.6K followers, 18 retweets, 67 likes]
33rd anniversary of the Independence of the Republic of Uzbekistan https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1PlJQbqjWOyxE

Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service
@president_uz
[8/31/2024 4:37 AM, 198.6K followers, 4 retweets, 57 likes]
In celebration of the 33rd anniversary of our independence, President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev laid a wreath at the Independence Monument. Topped with a Humo bird, the monument symbolizes the freedom and strong foundations of our nation, reflecting the rich history and heritage our country has achieved over the centuries.

Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service
@president_uz
[8/31/2024 3:25 AM, 198.6K followers, 5 retweets, 54 likes]
Today, a solemn ceremony was held at Shakhidlar Khotirasi Alley in honor of the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Political Repression. President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev, along with government and society representatives, attended the event, where Quranic surahs were recited and the memory of our ancestors was honored. This ceremony, held on the eve of Independence Day, reinforces the enduring values of loyalty to the Motherland and respect for our heroes.

{End of Report}
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