SCA MORNING PRESS CLIPS
Prepared for the U.S. Department of State
Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs
TO: | SCA & Staff |
DATE: | Thursday, April 17, 2025 6:30 AM ET |
Afghanistan
Pakistani envoy says foreign minister will visit Afghanistan soon (Amu TV)
Amu TV [4/17/2025 4:06 AM, Ahmad Azizi]
Pakistan’s special envoy for Afghanistan, Mohammad Sadiq, has informed the Taliban’s top diplomat that Pakistan’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister, Ishaq Dar, plans to visit Kabul in the near future, according to a statement from the Taliban’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.Sadiq, who arrived in Kabul on Wednesday leading a high-level delegation, met with Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Taliban’s acting foreign minister, to discuss bilateral relations and regional issues, including cross-border tensions and the treatment of Afghan migrants.Hafiz Zia Ahmad, deputy spokesman for the Taliban’s Foreign Ministry, said in a post on X that Muttaqi expressed “regret” over Pakistan’s ongoing deportation of Afghan nationals and called for more humane treatment of migrants.In response, Sadiq emphasized the importance of Islamabad’s relationship with the Taliban and stressed the need to address existing challenges through dialogue, according to the Taliban’s account of the meeting.Tensions between the two sides have intensified in recent months, particularly over Pakistan’s claims that the Taliban are providing safe haven to fighters from Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a group responsible for numerous attacks in Pakistan. The Taliban have denied harboring the group and say they do not allow Afghan soil to be used for cross-border attacks.Earlier this month, the chairman of Pakistan’s Senate Foreign Affairs Committee said the Taliban were beginning to align with Pakistan’s position on the TTP issue — which Islamabad views as the primary obstacle in its relations with the Taliban government.Dar’s visit, if confirmed, would mark one of the highest-level diplomatic engagements between the two governments since the Taliban returned to power in 2021. CSTO warns of growing terrorism threats from Afghanistan (Amu TV)
Amu TV [4/17/2025 3:07 AM, Yasin Shayan]
The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a Russia-led military alliance of several Central Asian states, has described Afghanistan as a growing source of regional insecurity, citing concerns over terrorism, extremism, and drug trafficking emanating from its territory.Natalia Kharytonova, spokesperson for the CSTO, said in an interview with the Russian daily Izvestia that threats along Afghanistan’s northern borders have increased, prompting the alliance to consider stronger coordination policies. She also emphasized that reinforcing the Afghanistan-Tajikistan border has become a top strategic priority.“From the CSTO’s perspective, Afghan territory remains a source of challenges related to terrorism, extremism, and narcotics-related crime,” Kharytonova said.Concerns among CSTO member states — which include Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Belarus, and Armenia — have intensified in recent months as violence and militant activity along the Afghan border appear to be rising. Security analysts warn that the Taliban’s return to power has allowed several extremist groups to operate more freely in northern and eastern Afghanistan.Bismillah Taban, a Kabul-based security analyst, said CSTO members are increasingly alarmed by the situation.“Despite the optimistic tone from some Central Asian governments regarding relations with the Taliban, the security reality is different,” Taban told Amu TV. “Serious threats from Afghanistan are causing deep concern among CSTO members, especially Uzbekistan. That’s why the alliance is strengthening its border security.”The Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISIS-K) and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) are among the militant groups cited as top concerns for the alliance. According to Rahmatullah Nabil, former head of Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security, the IMU remains active in several provinces, including Badakhshan, Takhar, Kunduz, Baghlan, Faryab, Kunar and Sar-e-Pol.“Based on intelligence estimates, the IMU has between 500 and 800 active members,” Nabil said. “Although weakened by the loss of senior leaders, the group continues to operate in fragmented cells, often under Taliban protection, especially through coordination with the Haqqani network.”In July 2024, a United Nations Security Council sanctions monitoring report stated that Afghanistan under Taliban control had become a safe haven for groups such as Al Qaeda and ISIS, with the Taliban reportedly maintaining close ties to several of them.The report estimated that between 20 to 25 terrorist groups, including Al Qaeda, ISIS, and Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), currently maintain a presence in Afghanistan, fueling international concerns over regional and global security risks. Pakistan
Imran Khan allowed first call with sons in six months (The Telegraph)
The Telegraph [4/16/2025 8:23 AM, Samaan Lateef, 126906K]
Imran Khan will be allowed to speak to his sons from prison for the first time in nearly six months, a Pakistani court has ruled.
On Tuesday, the court ordered that the jailed former prime minister of Pakistan must be permitted weekly phone contact with his sons Suleman, 28, and Qasim, 26, who both live in London.
The first call is scheduled to take place on Saturday, but doubts have been raised over whether prison authorities will obey the court order.
Khan, 72, was twice granted permission to speak to his sons by the same court in January, but no contact took place.
This time, judges have instructed authorities at the Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi, where the former cricketer is held, to submit proof that they have complied with the ruling by April 28.
Khan has also been permitted regular medical check-ups with his personal doctor, according to a copy of the court order seen by The Telegraph.
Syed Zulfikhar Ali Bukhari, the leader of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, told The Telegraph that he was sceptical the jail would allow Khan to call his sons.
"The court allowing and the government permitting are two different things," Mr Bukhari said.
"The army colonel running the prison in contempt of court is only facilitating those who are on the same page as him," he added, referring to Pakistan’s military-backed government, which took power after Khan was removed in a 2022 no-confidence vote.
"Unfortunately, Khan has not been able to speak to his sons for a very long time.".
Mr Bukhari added that the jail had not complied with previous court instructions to allow six lawyers from Khan’s legal team to meet him regularly.
The PTI party is currently holding public rallies across Pakistan to put pressure on the government to release its former leader.
He has been in prison since August 2023 and has been embroiled in more than 150 criminal cases.
In January, he was sentenced to 14 years in jail in a corruption case relating to receiving land gifts in exchange for money laundering.
Khan continues to command a devoted following, and his imprisonment has triggered protests across the country since he was first arrested in May 2023.
He has denied any wrongdoing and says all the charges against him are politically motivated.
Pakistan’s generals deny meddling in politics, but have long been accused of propping up favourites or undermining those they dislike. Battle for diaspora: Pakistan gov’t woos expats to break Imran Khan clout (Al Jazeera)
Al Jazeera [4/17/2025 12:00 AM, Abid Hussain, 18.2M]
In the cavernous hall of the Jinnah Convention Centre in Islamabad, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif hailed the country’s diaspora as the “pride of the nation,” lauding them for their “unmatched contribution” to the country they have left.
And it wasn’t just talk. Speaking to an audience of more than 1,000 expatriates who had gathered to participate in the Overseas Pakistanis Convention on April 15, Sharif also promised a range of benefits that he said his government would launch to help them.
These include special courts for overseas Pakistanis so their legal disputes are resolved faster than they would be in the country’s notoriously slow judicial system. Quotas in educational institutions, faster immigration procedures at airports and tax benefits are also pledged. Sharif also said the government would award 15 eminent Pakistani expatriates every year.“I believe there is no doubt that the 10 million Pakistanis who live across the world have earned their good reputation with their hard work and promoted Pakistan’s name,” Sharif said in his speech.
But many experts believe that the government’s bouquet of assurances to the diaspora is more than just an innocent outreach effort: it’s also a political move in a battle for the support of overseas Pakistanis with former Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party is widely believed to enjoy vast support among the country’s diaspora, which in turn, wins it influence in Western capitals, shaping how those nations view Islamabad and its deep political divides.
Now, analysts say, the Sharif government is trying to break Khan’s grip over Pakistanis abroad.“The overseas Pakistani summit seemed to have two key objectives, to counter the influence and popularity jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan enjoys among the diaspora, and to encourage the community abroad to invest in Pakistan,” Maleeha Lodhi, former Pakistani ambassador to the United States told Al Jazeera.
Why diaspora clout matters
Many PTI supporters living overseas enjoy positions of influence in those countries, especially in the United Kingdom and the United States, with nearly 1.6 million and 700,000 Pakistan-origin citizens residing there, respectively.
Former PM Khan, who was ousted from power in April 2022 through a parliamentary vote of no confidence, has been in jail since August 2023 on various charges.
His party has faced a sweeping crackdown and alleges that the results of the general elections in February 2024 were heavily manipulated, claiming that their mandate was “stolen”. The government and the country’s powerful military have rejected those allegations, but they have found resonance among many in Pakistan – and outside it.
These allegations helped drive lobbying efforts, particularly in the US, which led Congress to hold a hearing on the “future of democracy” in Pakistan in March last year.
That hearing was prompted by bipartisan calls for then-President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken to scrutinise Pakistan’s controversial elections.
A few months later in October, more than 60 Democratic Party legislators urged Biden to pressure Islamabad to secure Khan’s release.
In fact, many within PTI believe that following Trump’s inauguration, the US president, who enjoyed warm ties with Khan during his first term, might intervene and help secure the former PM’s release, thanks to lobbying by the diaspora.
Arif Ansar, chief strategist of the Washington, DC-based strategic advisory firm PoliTact, acknowledged the effectiveness of the diaspora’s lobbying.“The diaspora has been very effective in its lobbying efforts, and this has influenced the establishment to manage its relations with the diaspora. It wants to engage them and incentivise the ties as opposed to taking an adversarial role,” Ansar told Al Jazeera. The “establishment” is a euphemism for the military in Pakistan.
However, the analyst added that it was also possible that the government was trying to demonstrate that the diaspora was not monolithically aligned with the PTI.“There are many different segments, and PTI is not the only one representing the diaspora,” he said. The government, he added, appeared eager to “build a new narrative”.‘Counterfoil to PTI narrative’
Meanwhile, Islamabad-based political analyst Talat Hussain believes the government’s objective in hosting the convention was to show that it not only has broad reach among expats but also wants to make them stakeholders in its political and economic agenda.“PTI’s claims to having a monopoly over overseas Pakistanis’ political sentiments are amplified through social media. Efforts such as these conventions do provide a counterfoil to the argument that expats move in the direction as instructed by Imran,” Hussain said.
Recent months have shown cracks in just how firmly Khan appears to hold the diaspora’s support.
Last December, Khan warned the government that his party would launch a civil disobedience movement, and asked the diaspora to stop sending money back to Pakistan.
But 2024 saw Pakistan receive the highest annual remittance amount in its history, reaching $34.1bn, a 32 percent increase from 2023, when overseas Pakistanis sent home close to $26bn.
And a day before Sharif’s speech at the diaspora convention in Islamabad, Jamil Ahmed, the governor of the country’s central bank, revealed that diaspora Pakistanis sent more than $4bn in March, marking the highest single-month remittance in the country’s history.“If remittance inflows are a way to measure the efficacy of PTI’s overseas clout, then the picture is not helpful to the party’s boasts,” Hussain said.“Two years of consistent increases in remittances, despite all appeals from Imran and the entire top leadership to not send money to what he calls a ‘corrupt and fascist regime’ tells you where expats stand.”‘I will be your CEO’
Yet, like Lodhi, other analysts, too, believe that the Pakistan government is also wooing the diaspora because it needs them to invest in the country.
Thanking overseas Pakistanis for supporting the country’s economy, Sharif said this week that he would “personally” oversee the investments made by them.“I will be your CEO. My cabinet and our business community will ensure that your investments are protected and facilitated,” he said.
Still, concerns linger about whether the Pakistani diaspora trusts the economic climate in a country where more and more citizens are leaving.
In the last five years, nearly three million Pakistanis have emigrated, according to government data, prompting growing concerns about a “brain drain” from the country.
However, General Syed Asim Munir, the army chief who is widely considered the country’s most powerful figure, dismissed those concerns during his speech at the diaspora convention, describing the trend instead as a “brain gain.”“Those who talk about brain drain should understand that this is not brain drain, but rather brain gain,” he said on Tuesday. Pakistan Party Ends Protest In Support Of Activists (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [4/16/2025 9:13 AM, Staff, 931K]
A Baloch nationalist party called off its protest blockade in support of detained activists in southwest Pakistan on Wednesday, fearing its impact on traders in the impoverished province.Thousands of ethnic Baloch protesters staged a 20-day sit-in rally demanding the release of Mahrang Baloch, one of Pakistan’s most prominent human rights advocates, who was detained last month along with several other women.
The leader of the protest, Sardar Akhtar Mengal, ended the rally on Wednesday "solely out of concern for the people of Balochistan, who have been severely affected by the road blockages".
"We are calling off the sit-in but our protests will continue," Mengal, a tribal elder and head of the Balochistan National Party-Mengal, told a news conference in Mastung district, where his rally has been held up by police for more than a week.
The chamber of commerce in Quetta, the provincial capital, told local media that the rally had caused economic losses of $120,000 a day, with traders complaining that their loaded trucks could not cross into Iran or Afghanistan.
The decision came a day after a Pakistan court refused to rule on the detention of the activist Baloch, who, along with criminal charges of terrorism, sedition and murder, faces a public order offence brought by the provincial government.
The court instead passed the case to the government, a decision her lawyers said would delay justice.
Balochistan, on the borders with Iran and Afghanistan, is Pakistan’s poorest province and is in the grip of separatist militants who regularly carry out attacks on security forces, including a train siege last month that killed dozens of people.
The separatists say the province’s rich mineral wealth is being given away to outsiders, including foreign investors, in a region where most people live below the poverty line.
The violence has been met with a severe crackdown by authorities that human rights groups say has swept up thousands of innocent people.
Pakistan’s powerful army chief downplayed the growing insurgency in an address aired by state television on Wednesday.
"1,500 people will say that they are going to take away Balochistan from us? Your next 10 generations can not even take it from us," General Syed Asim Munir said.
He said foreign investment would flow into the region after Pakistan hosted a mining conference this month.
Last year was the deadliest in a decade in Pakistan, with a sharp rise in attacks along the border with Afghanistan. India
Vance, Second Lady to Visit India and Italy on Weeklong Trip (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [4/16/2025 11:14 PM, Akayla Gardner and Stephanie Lai, 16228K] US Vice President JD Vance will embark Thursday on a week-long trip to Italy and India, according to the White House, visiting two nations whose leaders are eager to strike trade agreements with the Trump administration.
Vance will first travel to Rome, where he plans to meet with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, followed by a visit to India early next week where he will sit down with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi.
His wife, second lady Usha Vance, and children will join him on the trip. The daughter of Indian immigrants, she is the first Indian-American to be second lady. The vice president’s family is slated to visit the cities of Jaipur and Agra and participate in events at cultural sites.
Vance’s trip takes him to two key US trading partners as talks ramp up over President Donald Trump’s trade agenda. Meloni’s meeting with Vance will follow her own visit to Washington to meet Trump at the White House on Thursday, a trip aimed at securing tariff relief for the European Union.
Indian officials are also working on trade talks. A senior New Delhi official told Bloomberg News that India hopes to wrap its tariffs talks with the US in six weeks.
Vance’s visit will provide an “opportunity for both sides to review the progress in bilateral relations and the implementation of the outcomes” of Modi’s visit to the US in February, India’s Ministry of External Affairs said in a press release Wednesday. “The two sides will also exchange views on regional and global developments of mutual interest.”
Trump imposed high levies on most major US trading partners — sparking a severe market downturn — before scaling back those plans for 90 days to give nations a chance to negotiate deals. A lower 10% rate is in place for most countries during that negotiating period.
The seven-day trip holds personal significance for Vance and the second lady. The vice president, a convert to Catholicism, will meet with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, according to the White House.
Return to Europe
In Meloni, Vance will be meeting a center-right political leader who has been an ideological ally of the Trump administration on a continent where many leaders have bristled at the US government’s efforts to reshape global economic and security ties. The Italian leader is also scheduled to visit the White House on Thursday.
Vance during a visit to Europe earlier this year to speak at the Munich Security Conference scolded European leaders, accusing them of retreating from fundamental values on free speech and democracy and of being afraid of their own voters. He further rankled allies during a visit last month to Greenland — a territory of NATO ally Denmark — which Trump has sought to claim for the US.
Meloni, who defended Vance after his remarks in Munich, has sought to be a bridge in the transatlantic relationship and exert influence over the Trump administration.
Vance to meet Modi, Meloni during trip to India and Italy with wife Usha (AP)
AP [4/16/2025 1:50 PM, Michelle L. Price, 864K]
Vice President JD Vance and his family will travel to Italy and India this week and next to meet with leaders and visit cultural sites.
Vance’s office said Wednesday his trip from Friday to April 24 will include visits to Rome and New Delhi along with the Indian cities of Jaipur and Agra.
The trip comes as Vance has taken on a prime role in the White House’s engagements abroad. The Republican vice president and his wife, Usha Vance, traveled to Greenland last month, and he went to Paris and Munich in February.
President Donald Trump is expected to make his first foreign trip in May to Saudi Arabia.
In Rome this week, Vance is expected to meet with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who is due to visit the White House on Thursday. Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, will also meet with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, according to his office, and is expected to participate in ceremonies around Easter Sunday.
Vance’s visit to India marks his first trip to the country, which has added significance for the second family. Usha Vance is the daughter of immigrants from South India.
While in India next week, Vance is expected to meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who met with Trump at the White House in February. JD Vance gears up to talk economic priorities during trips to Italy, India (FOX News)
FOX News [4/16/2025 12:00 PM, Diana Stancy, 52868K]
Vice President JD Vance is poised to kick off a trip to Italy and India on Friday – marking his third international trip with the Trump administration.
Vance and the second family are poised to meet with and "discuss shared economic and geopolitical priorities with leaders in each country," according to a statement from Vance’s office.
When in Rome, Vance is scheduled to meet with Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin. He will meet with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi while visiting New Delhi, Jaipur and Agra.
Vice President JD Vance speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Feb. 20, 2025.
Meanwhile, Meloni is also slated to visit the White House on Thursday in Washington.
The vice president and the second family are also planning to conduct engagements at several unspecified cultural sites.
The vice president’s office did not provide specifics regarding their trip.
It comes as the White House has said that more than 75 countries have reached out seeking to negotiate trade deals with the U.S., after the Trump administration unveiled historic tariffs on April 2.
Both the European Union and India have signaled interest in brokering a deal with the U.S. on trade. Meloni has said Italy isn’t on board with the tariffs imposed on the EU, and is prepared to "deploy all tools" to protect Italian businesses.
The original tariff plan slapped 20% duties on goods from the European Union, as well as at least 26% duties on Indian goods. However, Trump announced on April 9 a 90-day pause on those tariffs where duties would be reduced to 10% as countries work to hash out trade deals with the U.S.
Vance’s previous international trips include attending the Munich Security Conference in February, where he delivered remarks pushing Europe to "step up in a big way to provide for its own defense." He also warned that Russia and China don’t pose as great a threat to European nations as the "threat from within," concerning issues like censorship and illegal immigration.
In March, Vance visited Pituffik Space Base in Greenland, the Department of Defense’s northernmost military installation that houses Space Force’s 821st Space Base Group to conduct missile warning, missile defense and space surveillance operations. US cotton exports to India rise on lower prices, tariff uncertainties (Reuters)
Reuters [4/16/2025 4:35 PM, Staff, 126906K]
U.S. upland cotton exports to India have risen in the past few months fueled by global tariff conflicts, declining American prices and rising demand in the South Asian country, industry experts said.
Exports to India from February to April jumped to 155,260 running bales, from 25,901 shipped during a year ago period, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) data. The exports hit an over 2-1/2-year high in the week of February 20.
The increase comes as Washington-Beijing trade tensions escalate, reducing U.S. cotton exports to China. China will impose 125% tariffs on U.S. goods, up from the 84% previously announced, the finance ministry said on Friday.
With these tariffs and a drop in China’s demand, upland cotton grown in Texas and other regions is now finding a market in India, according to Ajay Kedia, director of Kedia Advisors.
At the same time, exports to China are expected to decrease, said Justin Cardwell, head of research and technology at Alternative Option.
India is the world’s second-largest cotton producer after China, as well as one of the world’s largest cotton yarn processors and exporters. However, declining yields have recently turned the country from a net exporter to a net importer of the fibre.
India mainly imports Extra Long Staple (ELS) cotton from the U.S., benefiting from a 10% duty exemption, unlike short staple cotton which has an 11% import duty.
"The U.S. ELS cotton remains cost-effective for many Indian buyers due to its higher ginning efficiency, better lint yield, and superior fibre quality," said Kedia.
The Cotton Association of India (CAI) this year lowered its cotton production estimate by 250,000 bales to 30.1 million bales, marking a 7.84% drop from the 2023-24 season.
ICE cotton futures have dropped nearly 5% so far this year.
India could see a cotton shortfall of 2.5 million bales this year, a gap that could be bridged with increased imports, said Y. G. Prasad, director of Central Institute for Cotton Research.
India’s cotton imports in 2024/25 are expected to double due to falling production, according to the CAI. India also imports cotton from Australia, Brazil, and Egypt. India opposition slams graft charges against Gandhis (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [4/16/2025 4:59 PM, Staff, 62527K]
India’s main opposition Congress party accused the government of a "vendetta" on Wednesday after a federal agency filed charges against its top leaders in a years-long corruption case.Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi were charged as part of a probe initiated by a member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).They have denied the allegations and have accused the BJP of using the state apparatus to target its rivals.Congress lawmaker Abhishek Singhvi said the case was "nothing but vendetta in legal disguise".He also accused the government of using the Enforcement Directorate -- a national agency that probes money laundering and financial crimes -- of selectively targeting the opposition while sparing its allies."Selective justice is nothing but political thuggery," Singhvi added.The initial 2001 complaint against the Gandhis brought by BJP member Subramanian Swamy accused the Gandhis and others of "usurping" properties belonging to a now-defunct newspaper.He alleged that the Gandhis aimed to grab property worth $332 million owned by the publishing firm using fraudulent papers.Jairam Ramesh, a veteran lawmaker from the Congress party, described the case as "harassment and targeting of rivals"."We can’t be forced to shut up," Ramesh said.Critics in recent years have accused the BJP of using the justice system to target political rivals, with several opposition figures the subject of active criminal investigations.But BJP lawmaker Ravi Shankar Prasad said India’s judiciary was independent and investigative "agencies are free to work under PM Modi’s government"."They (the opposition) have the right to protest -- but what are the protesting about?", Prasad said."There is no license to loot in this country", he added.Rahul Gandhi also faces several defamation cases and was expelled from parliament in 2023 after a defamation conviction.He returned months later after his two-year sentence was suspended by the Supreme Court.He is the son, grandson and great-grandson of former Indian prime ministers, beginning with independence leader Jawaharlal Nehru.His party has struggled to challenge Modi and has lost the last three national elections. The endless legal battles over Muslim-donated lands in India (BBC)
BBC [4/16/2025 5:19 PM, Neyaz Farooquee, 69901K]
A controversial new law introduced by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has put the spotlight on waqf, or properties donated by Indian Muslims over centuries.
Waqf is a tradition across many Muslim-majority countries, where these properties are used to house and operate schools, orphanages, hospitals, banks and graveyards.
The properties in India are managed by waqf boards formed by different state governments. A federal organisation called the Central Waqf Council coordinates their functioning.
But thousands of these land tracts, worth billions of rupees, have been mired in legal disputes across the country for decades.
For instance, in India’s capital Delhi, there are more than a thousand of these properties, including mosques, graveyards and mausoleums. Emblems of the city’s centuries-old Islamic heritage, they have been used for religious, educational and charitable purposes to benefit the community. At least 123 of them are locked in long-running ownership disputes between the city’s waqf board and the federal government.
They form just a fraction of thousands of such cases fought by waqf boards across India against private parties - Muslims and non-Muslims - as well as government departments. It is one of the challenges that the federal government claims will be resolved through the new law, called the Waqf Amendment Act 2025, which has brought in dozens of changes to the existing system.
Many Muslim leaders and opposition parties have criticised the law, calling it an attempt to weaken the rights of minorities, and it has sparked protests and violence in some states. India’s Supreme Court has also begun hearing a bunch of pleas challenging the law.
Waqf disputes stem from a number of reasons - unclear land titles, oral declarations of properties as waqf, inconsistent laws, collusion with land mafias and years of official neglect.
Government data shows that of 872,852 waqf properties in India (on paper), at least 13,200 are entangled in legal battles, 58,889 have been encroached upon and more than 436,000 have unclear status.
Some of these claims have attracted national attention. For instance, waqf boards in different states are accused of wrongly claiming ownership of a predominantly Christian village in Kerala, several government buildings in Gujarat and a large tract of land used by farmers in Karnataka.
The federal government says waqf boards have declared ownership over 5,973 of its properties across India - an assertion denied by the boards which insist they rightfully own these sites.
Some disputes are traced back to India’s partition in 1947. In Punjab, more than half of the state’s 75,965 waqf properties have been "encroached", a legacy of migration that left many Muslim estates in limbo. "Some owners fled to Pakistan, and others arrived and claimed the same properties," said Mohammad Reyaz, who teaches at a university in Kolkata.
In Delhi, the 123 disputed properties are claimed by departments under the federal urban and housing ministry, while the waqf says its ownership dates back to the British era and earlier. Attempts by governments and courts to resolve the issue have not been successful.
As far back as 1923, lawmakers in British-ruled India had flagged concerns over waqf properties slipping away from Muslim control. The MPs pushed for their registration, warning that managers supposed to take care of the properties were wrongly listing themselves as owners - a practice critics say continues even today.
Prof Reyaz says such disputes have increased as land prices rise.
"Not many cared for every piece of land 40-50 years ago, but as its importance has grown, members of the community or descendants of the donors have started claiming the waqf land, often resulting in disputes in places where people have lived for generations, either after buying or encroaching on the land," he says.
Disputes also stem from attempts by waqf boards to suddenly claim land they have long neglected. So, despite them being government organisations, the boards are being criticised for their unchecked power to claim properties.
Part of the concern is because of repeated assertions by media and politicians that the decision of the waqf tribunal - a specialised judicial organisation that hears waqf disputes - is final, says Mohd Ismail Khan, a Hyderabad-lawyer involved in several waqf-related cases. But the final authority, he points out, are higher courts.
Even under the old law - which the government said gave "draconian" powers to claim property ownership - waqf boards frequently failed to safeguard their own interests.
Afroz Alam Sahil, a journalist who has extensively covered waqf-related issues, highlighted these weaknesses in 2011 with a question filed under the right to information law about Delhi’s graveyards. The Delhi Waqf Board initially reported 562, later revising the number down to 488.
But in 2014, a waqf board official told him - in a BBC Hindi report - that only 70-80 graveyards remained under its supervision in the city.
This lack of clarity extends to other properties too. In 2008, says Mr Sahil, the Delhi Waqf Board issued a list of 1,964 properties under it in the city, but a federal government statement this month put that number at only 1,047. It’s not clear what has happened to the 917 properties missing from the list.
The BBC has reached out to the Central Waqf Council and Delhi Waqf Board for comment.
While most stakeholders agree that the system needs reform, critics fear the new bill will not improve the situation.
A major cause for concern is the removal of a provision called "waqf by user" - which allowed properties to be designated as waqf if they had been used for religious or charitable purposes by Muslims over time.
According to government records, 402,000 waqf properties are classified as "waqf by user". This could be because they were orally donated decades or even centuries ago, without deeds or documents.
A federal minister has said in parliament that existing waqf-by-user properties - registered with the government before the new law came into force - will remain so unless their ownership has already been disputed. But it is not clear how many such properties have been formally registered.
Critics argue that eliminating this provision will spark new disputes and worsen existing ones as it could give rise to new claimants even for properties that have been actively used over the years.
One of the petitions submitted in the Supreme Court argues that since much of the waqf land is "not created under any deed" but was classified as "waqf by user", much of the properties will cease to fall under the category.
The removal of the "waqf by user" provision also brings into question a 1998 Supreme Court ruling that said "once a waqf, always a waqf", meaning once a property is donated as waqf, its character couldn’t be changed.
Syed Zafar Mahmood, a former bureaucrat, said this change in the new law could affect tens of thousands of waqf properties.
"Very few properties will remain waqf assets, while the rest may cease to exist," he told BBC Hindi. India’s Military Is Unprepared for a Dangerous Future (Bloomberg – opinion)
Bloomberg [4/16/2025 5:00 PM, Mihir Sharma, 5.5M]
India’s purchase of 26 Rafale jets from France’s Dassault Aviation SA cannot conceal the fact that its military is sleepwalking into a crisis. Strategic indecision and an addiction to short-termism have left its armed forces unprepared for the challenges ahead.
The new planes will certainly fill an obvious gap in the military’s needs — its two aircraft carriers are dependent on 40 elderly Russian-made MiG-29Ks, of which perhaps half are reportedly serviceable at any given time. But instead of solving India’s problems of preparedness, this decision actually reveals their daunting scale.
The real issue isn’t the navy but the Indian Air Force, which is known to be understrength and will likely be even less capable a few years from now unless New Delhi starts thinking long term. Scholars such as the Stimson Center’s Christopher Clary have warned that India is “underbalancing” China, both before and after deadly clashes along their disputed Himalayan border in 2020.
The problem is, defense planners don’t like to spell out what the air force needs. The IAF is supposed to have 45, or at worst 42 squadrons, of 18 aircraft each. Today it would struggle to rustle up 32, and many of those would be one or two planes shy of their full complement. Some of these are ancient MiG-21s, which are due to be phased out this year. India may be left with only 25 or 26 active squadrons by the end of the decade.
The Pakistan Air Force, meanwhile, is supposedly in negotiations with Beijing to buy 40 J-35A fifth-generation fighters. There’s general doubt in New Delhi that the Chinese will be willing and able to make Pakistan the first export destination for their prized jet, or that cash-strapped Islamabad will be able to pay for them. But some quietly worry that, if the deal somehow goes through, India’s overstretched air force could be outmatched not just by China’s but by Pakistan’s.
How could it have gone so wrong for an IAF that, a few decades ago, was proud of its preparedness? Part of the problem lies with its timid and tight-lipped defense planners, and part with a government that’s simply unwilling to pay the political and economic costs of military modernization.
New planes are expensive. The Rafales for the navy will cost $7.4 billion. That will already stretch the defense procurement budget, and somehow officials will have to find the money for another 100-plus planes for the air force. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s fiscal conservatism has left defense spending at historical lows as a proportion of gross domestic product, and his political populism means too much of that is tied to unsustainable pension plans.
Adding to the difficulties, the defense establishment is inefficient even by the standards of the Indian state. Indigenous fighters, developed and manufactured by state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, were supposed to pick up the slack for the IAF and the navy. The military claims that HAL fails to deliver on time and to spec; the engineers complain that the military changes its mind and has unrealistic expectations.
The last time India tried to buy fighters on the open market, the tendering process took so long that Modi was forced to purchase 34 Rafales in a deal that he struck with the French government. That agreement — sans most of India’s usual demands, such as local manufacturing and technology transfer — was urgent because planners determined at least some new jets were needed for India’s nuclear deterrent.
It also caused some domestic political controversy. Defense scandals have brought down governments; the fear of corruption tends to paralyze the bureaucracy. Officials dread an open and structured procurement process, and would much rather the prime minister take the political risk of buying a plane directly.
This unwillingness to go through a proper deliberation and make a transparent choice is a disservice to India — because it leads to strategic indecision. We don’t have answers to basic questions: How many planes do we need, and how modern do they have to be? Can we make do with cheaper indigenous fighters for a decade? Can we rule out buying more Russian hardware? Will we have to keep the Americans happy by buying the F-35, as President Donald Trump clearly wants? Are we now locked into the Rafale, which is expensive and produced entirely in France? Or can we go with one of the other European alternatives, such as the Eurofighter Typhoon or Sweden’s Gripen, which might suit our circumstances far better?
Emergency, piecemeal purchases simply won’t cut it. The IAF needs political direction and cover so it can produce a plan that takes it into the next decades — one that includes technology transfer and localized supply chains of the sort that we know, post-Ukraine, is vital if you get into a war. Whatever option delivers this is the one India must go with — and it can’t put off making a clear choice for much longer, or it will find itself outmatched in the sky. NSB
Leading Bangladesh Party ‘Not Satisfied’ With Poll Timeline (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [4/16/2025 8:14 AM, Staff, 931K]
One of Bangladesh’s main political parties warned on Wednesday that unrest was brewing over the long wait for fresh elections following last year’s overthrow of the South Asian nation’s autocratic ex-premier.
Bangladesh is under the de facto leadership of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhummad Yunus, 84, who took office last August after a student-led revolution forced former leader Sheikh Hasina into exile.
Yunus is helming a caretaker administration that says it has a responsibility to enact democratic reforms before it holds a fresh election, which it has promised to stage by June next year at the latest.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), widely tipped to win the next poll, met with Yunus in the capital Dhaka in a fruitless effort to press him on the vote’s timetable.
"We are not at all satisfied," BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told reporters after the meeting."We made our position clear: if the election is not held by December, the political, economic, and social situation will take a turn for the worse," he said.
Alamgir said his party had extended its full support to the reforms spearheaded by the caretaker government, but that did not warrant delaying the election any further.
"If the reform proposals remain unmet, they can be implemented by the political party that forms the government after the election," he said.
Asif Nazrul, a member of Yunus’ administration, told reporters in response that the current government was "not keen to cling to power for its own sake".
He said the government was committed to putting on trial members of Hasina’s government for the killing of protesters in the weeks before its toppling, as well as implementing some key reforms, before the polls take place.
"We cannot justify ourselves or answer the nation if we fail to complete even a single trial before holding an election," Nazrul said. German firms eye Bangladesh amid US-China tariff war (Deutsche Welle)
Deutsche Welle [4/16/2025 11:28 AM, Faisal Ahmed, 126906K]
A German high-level business delegation visited Bangladesh this month to explore the possibility of expanding commercial relations between the two countries.
The delegation — including representatives from the German Foreign Ministry and the Economy Ministry, as well as officials from the nation’s export credit agency and the international development agency — participated in the Bangladesh Investment Summit 2025 in Dhaka and held talks with the South Asian country’s interim government.
The mission was coordinated by OAV, the German Asia-Pacific Business Association, a key network that promotes German business interests across Asia.
"Bangladesh’s resilience as an emerging market is impressive," said Thomas Köning, CEO of Ospig GmbH and a member of the delegation. "The presented macroeconomic figures and input factors important for prospective investors look very promising," he added.
Almut Rössner, executive board member of OAV, said the aim of the trip was "to learn, collect information, establish contacts and engage with leading figures of the interim government in order to provide German companies and relevant authorities with an updated and accurate picture of the reform policies and investment climate in Bangladesh.".
What’s the state of bilateral trade ties?
Germany and Bangladesh share close economic relations, with bilateral trade amounting to €8.6 billion ($9.8 billion) in 2023.
Germany is the second-biggest export market for Bangladesh, with textiles accounting for more than 90% of Bangladeshi exports to the EU nation.
Bangladesh, meanwhile, imports machinery as well as chemical products and electrical goods from Germany.
A number of German companies are present in Bangladesh, operating manufacturing facilities, particularly in the garments and leather goods sectors.
Early entrants like Köning’s company, Ospig, employ thousands of workers to produce high-quality jeans and jackets, while Picard has been manufacturing handbags and accessories since 1995.
Some German firms also operate joint ventures, like Hana System Ltd. — a collaboration between Germany’s Cube, a major bicycle manufacturer, and Bangladesh’s Meghna Group.
According to OAV, around 80 German companies currently maintain operations, subsidiaries, or representative offices in Bangladesh, including multinationals like BASF, Bayer, Bosch and Siemens.
Eying opportunities amid tariff tensions
The German business delegation visited Dhaka at a time when the world increasingly fears the implications of US President Donald Trump’s tariff onslaught and attempt to rewire the global trading system.
Trump also hit Bangladesh with biting new tariffs of 37% on April 2. Even though the US president granted a 90-day reprieve to most of the US’ trading partners, the policy flip-flop has already hit Bangladeshi suppliers and their orders.
Bangladesh exported approximately $8.4 billion worth of goods to the United States last year, of which $7.34 billion came from the ready-made garments sector.
Overall, textile and garment production accounts for about 80% of exports from Bangladesh, and the industry has been rebuilding after it was hit hard in a student-led uprising that ended Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year-rule last year.
But as the Trump administration seeks to rewrite global economic rules and redirect trade flows, by also hiking tariffs on goods coming from China to exorbitant levels, Bangladesh eyes an opportunity to attract foreign investment leaving China.
Köning said the geopolitical shifts and steep US tariffs on China are prompting German firms to explore alternative manufacturing hubs.
"In light of the need to diversify and recent tariff disruptions, Bangladesh has the potential to be an alternative manufacturing location to China for consumer goods, household appliances, electronics and industrial components," he underlined.
"With a workforce of 114 million and a middle-income bracket equivalent to Malaysia’s population, Bangladesh offers numerous business opportunities," he added.
Masrur Reaz, an economist and CEO of Policy Exchange Bangladesh, a think tank, echoed this view, describing the current situation as a "pivotal moment.".
"This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Bangladesh," he said, urging the Bangladeshi government to act swiftly to address outdated regulations, trade logistics weaknesses, and productivity improvements through skills and technology.
"If we don’t capitalize on this window, others will," he warned.
Investors remain cautious
A recent World Bank report highlighted barriers to investment in the country, including electricity shortages, limited finance access and corruption.
German investors are aware of these challenges but König noted that Bangladesh’s competitiveness has significantly improved.
König said despite the challenges, Bangladesh’s success in the garment sector shows the country could achieve similar success in other industrial areas.
Nevertheless, many investors remain cautious, said OAV’s Rößner, citing Bangladesh’s ongoing political transition, as interim leader Muhammad Yunus — a Nobel laureate who took charge of the administration after PM Hasina’s ouster — tries to enact democratic reforms and hold a fresh election, which he has promised to stage by June next year at the latest.
"Unlike investors from across Asia or other European countries, German companies are currently hesitant to seize opportunities in this political transition period," Rößner noted.
Reaz, the Bangladeshi economist, said it’s important for Bangladesh to conclude the political transition as early as possible.
"Investors come with a long-term perspective, so they look for a stable government — one with a clear political mandate," he stressed. Bangladesh Pokes India in the Eye; Delhi Hits Back (The Diplomat)
The Diplomat [4/16/2025 12:51 PM, Sudha Ramachandran, 777K]
Eight months after the ouster of Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bangladesh’s Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus met for the first time on April 4 on the sidelines of the sixth BIMSTEC summit in Bangkok.
The meeting was important. It was the first face-to-face meeting between the two leaders since Yunus took charge of the interim administration in Bangladesh on August 8, and came amid deteriorating bilateral relations.
During the meeting, the two leaders raised their main concerns. Modi called attention to the targeting of minorities in Bangladesh, while Yunus reiterated Dhaka’s request for Hasina’s extradition. After the meeting, Dhaka described the talks as "very constructive and fruitful," while India pointed out that both leaders had agreed that all bilateral issues should be addressed "through constructive discussions.".
The biggest achievement of the meeting was that it happened, especially since India had been cold-shouldering multiple requests from Dhaka for a meeting between the two leaders. Consequently, the Bangkok meeting was seen as an ice-breaker, "the first tentative step towards mending strained relations.".
The "long-awaited meeting" between the two leaders is "a positive sign for the Bangladesh-India relationship," Daily Star observed in an editorial, adding that it "raises hope for improved ties" between the two neighbors.
However, such hopes were short-lived.
Three days after the Bangkok meeting, the Indian government announced the withdrawal of a transshipment facility granted to Bangladesh in 2020, which allowed it to route its export cargo to third countries via Indian Land Customs Stations, airports and seaports in India.
According to Randhir Jaiswal, the spokesperson of India’s Ministry of External Affairs, "significant congestion at Indian airports and ports," which was causing "logistical delays and higher costs" for Indian exports, was the reason for the decision. Apparently, Indian exporters have been raising concerns over clogged ports due to the transshipment facility given to Bangladesh, and have been petitioning the government to act by halting such facilities to the neighboring country.
That action came on April 8.
While logistical problems and economic concerns may be the underlying reasons for the Indian decision, geopolitics determined its timing.
During his visit to China on March 26-29, Yunus made a statement that ruffled Delhi’s feathers. Underscoring the landlocked nature of India’s Northeast, Yunus had pointed out that the region has "no way to reach out to the ocean. We are the only guardians of the ocean for this region." This "opens up a huge possibility" for "an extension of the Chinese economy. Build things, produce things, market things, bring things to China, bring it out to the whole rest of the world," he said.
The Indian Northeast was insurgency-wracked for decades, and both Bangladesh and China have in the past fueled these insurgencies and provided anti-India insurgent groups with weapons and sanctuary. While most of the insurgencies have subsided, the situation in the Northeast remains restive. The region is India’s sensitive soft underbelly, vulnerable to meddling by hostile foreign powers.
Particularly vulnerable in this regard is the Siliguri Corridor, a sliver of territory that is just 22 kilometers at its widest and is the Northeast’s only land link to the Indian mainland. Bangladesh and Nepal share borders with this corridor, also known as the "Chicken’s Neck," with Bhutan and China just a few kilometers away.Late last year, social media was abuzz with reports of Bangladesh reviving an old airbase with Chinese assistance at Lalmonirhat in north Bangladesh, just 12-15 km from the Indian border and around 135 km from the Siliguri Corridor. While these reports were dismissed as "fake news" back then, the issue came alive again during Yunus’ recent visit to China.
Yunus may have only spoken about economic possibilities. Yet by referring to the "landlocked" Northeast, he underscored India’s vulnerability in the region and the leverage Bangladesh holds there. Worse, he poked India in the eye by inviting Chinese collaboration at this point of Indian vulnerability.
Yunus’ remarks were, no doubt, aimed at underscoring to the Modi government that Dhaka had options other than India. It had cards — read the China card — to play and would not hesitate to do so if needed. Indeed, the Bangkok meeting is widely seen in Bangladesh as a victory for Yunus, his China visit having forced the Indian prime minister to meet him.
However, the latest round may have gone in India’s favor.
The handshakes at Bangkok notwithstanding, India went on to withdraw transshipment facilities to Bangladesh within days of the Bangkok meeting. Delhi hit Bangladesh where it would really hurt – its international trade.
What is more, the decision to deny Bangladesh transshipment cargo access to Indian ports coincided with Trump’s announcement of a 37 percent "reciprocal" tariff on imports from Bangladesh. Although this has been paused for 90 days, it has plunged the Bangladeshi economy into deep uncertainty; the U.S. is Bangladesh’s largest single-country market. India’s decision to shut transshipment facilities to Bangladesh will impact the latter’s trade, particularly with Southeast Asian, Central Asian, and European markets. Bangladeshi exporters "will now have to face more expensive, time-consuming, and uncertain transportation routes.".
It could result in garment factories shutting down, forcing hundreds of thousands out of work.
By needling India, Yunus may have won a bit of applause in Beijing, even impressed anti-India sections at home. However, he seems to have set off a chain of events that could deepen Bangladesh’s problems and delay normalization of relations with India. Why Bangladesh’s renamed New Year parade set off a controversy (Al Jazeera)
Al Jazeera [4/16/2025 4:14 PM, Moudud Ahmmed Sujan, 18.2M]
On Monday, Bangladesh marked its first Bengali New Year, also known as Pahela Baishakh, since a student-led uprising ousted former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina last year.
But the renaming of an iconic parade, which has been held on the occasion for decades, has led to a debate online and offline, highlighting a political and cultural division within the South Asian nation.
Days before the procession, Dhaka University’s fine arts faculty, which organises the annual event, announced that the parade, known so far as Mangal Shobhajatra (Auspicious Parade), would be renamed Borshoboron Ananda Shobhajatra (Joyous New Year Parade).The organisers have defended the renaming of the vibrant parade recognised by UNESCO in 2016 as an intangible cultural heritage, saying it has simply reverted to what it was once called, in 1989, when the event was launched.“This is a reversion to the parade’s original name,” Prof Azharul Islam Sheikh, coordinator of the organising committee and dean of the fine arts faculty, told Al Jazeera.
For the organisers, the name change represents a break from the legacy of Hasina’s Awami League which ruled Bangladesh for 15 years and faced accusations of serious human rights violations, including extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances.
But critics are pushing back, arguing that the shift is about more than a new start. They say it risks erasing a symbol of Bangladesh’s pluralistic tradition.
What’s the parade about?
The parade begins at dawn on the first day of the Bengali New Year.
It features enormous, colourful makeshift statues crafted from bamboo and paper, including representations of animals, birds, and folktales. Women usually wear white saris with red borders, and men dress in panjabis, the long, collarless shirts worn over pyjamas by Bengalis in India and Bangladesh.
The procession moves through the streets of Dhaka, accompanied by the rhythmic beats of traditional drums, and is broadcast live on national television, allowing households across the country to partake in the celebrations. Participants often hold up banners with a range of messages.
The inaugural Ananda Shobhajatra in 1989 was conceived as a subtle yet powerful act of cultural resistance against the then-military dictatorship of General Hussain Muhammad Ershad.
Dhaka University’s student organisers crafted large, colourful effigies — grotesque owls to represent corruption, tigers symbolising courage, and doves for peace — to mock the regime’s authoritarian grip.
While the parade did not feature overt protest chants, its very existence was a form of dissent. By reclaiming public space for artistic expression and cultural celebration, the students challenged the suppression of civil liberties under military rule. The procession’s symbolism and timing conveyed a collective yearning for democracy and freedom.
A little more than a year later, in December 1990, Ershad resigned following mass protests and civil unrest, leading to the establishment of a caretaker government and the restoration of parliamentary democracy.
In 1996, organisers changed the name of the Ananda Shobhajatra to Mangal Shobhajatra. The word “mangal” has Sanskrit origins, meaning “auspicious” or “welfare” in the ancient Indian language, introduced to symbolise a collective aspiration for a better future, reflecting the nation’s renewed commitment to democracy following the end of military rule.
But the name would prove controversial.
Why are these names controversial?
In recent years, conservative and Islamist groups have criticised the event, viewing it as contrary to Islamic principles.
In April 2023, Supreme Court lawyer Mahmudul Hasan sent the Hasina government a legal notice, arguing that the term “mangal” has Hindu religious connotations because of its Sanskrit roots. He argued that the event’s motifs, such as sculptures of birds and animals, offended Muslim sentiments, citing, among other things, a part of the Bangladesh Penal Code that punishes “anyone who deliberately and maliciously insults the religion or religious beliefs of any class of citizens”.
Hasan said following his notice, the government withdrew a notification it had sent all universities to mandatorily hold the Mangal Shobhajatra, as the Bengali New Year in 2023 came during the month of Ramadan. The main parade, organised by Dhaka University, went ahead as always.
However, Hasan’s move did not go unchallenged.
In a statement at that time, the Sammilita Sangskritik Jote, an alliance of several left and centre-left cultural organisations, said the lawyer’s move was an attempt to destabilise the country through communal rhetoric.
The motifs that Hasan objected to have been central to the parade’s visual elements from the inaugural 1989 procession, including in the years when the Awami League and Hasina have been out of power, and the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has been in office.
Historian Mohammad Golam Rabbani of Jahangirnagar University said concerns over the parade in recent years involved more than just religious factors.
Early celebrations of the Bengali New Year were deeply rooted in rural culture and the agrarian economy; there were events marking the harvest, for instance. “However, in the last few decades, it has become urban-centric,” Rabbani told Al Jazeera. “The motifs selected by the urban artists for the Mangal Shobhajatra were often unrepresentative of the rural folk.”
The July 2024 uprising that culminated in Hasina’s ousting the following month “sparked a desire for a cultural” reset, he said. The current debate over the name of the parade was, he added, a “reflection” of this.
However, the renaming this year has faced opposition too. Left-leaning student groups have condemned the change, calling it “a surrender to communal forces” by the interim government and a threat to Bangladesh’s tradition of secular cultural expression. On Tuesday night, unidentified arsonists set fire to the home of an artist who created some of the busts used in this week’s parade.Some students at Dhaka University’s fine arts faculty have also criticised the name change. They argued that the word “mangal” had no link to the former governing party’s ideology.“If the 1996 renaming was unjust, so is this,” said Zahid Jamil, one of the students.
What are the new motifs in the parade?
This year’s procession retained its traditional aesthetic, including motifs of animals and fish, but incorporated political motifs in floats that participated in the parade reflecting last year’s deadly uprising.
Leading the march was a 20-foot-tall “Face of Fascism” bust, widely seen as representing Hasina. Other motifs included a typographic design of “36 July”, representing the 36 days of deadly uprising from July 1 to August 5 last year, during which about 1,400 people were killed, and a portrait of Mugdha, a young man killed while serving water to the protesters during the uprising, symbolised by a water bottle.
While some hailed the symbolism, others criticised it as an attempt to politicise Bengali New Year celebrations.“Hate breeds hate; generations are trapped in the binary of hatred. Yet, may every mind be free from hate,” Nadim Mahmud, a Bangladeshi researcher at the University of California, wrote on Facebook.
Other motifs focused on the national fish hilsa, also known as the ilish, figures of horses and tigers, and the watermelon — symbolising Palestine and resistance.
Bengali versus Bangladeshi: Politics of nationalism
The debate over the renaming and meaning of the parade also reflects broader fissures in Bangladesh, particularly the ideological divide between Bengali and Bangladeshi nationalism.
Bengali nationalism, championed by the Awami League (AL), emphasises ethnic and linguistic identity rooted in Bengali language and culture.
In contrast, Bangladeshi nationalism, promoted by the BNP, centres on a territorial state identity, highlighting Islamic heritage and national sovereignty.“Ideologically, the AL promotes a tribal identity, while the BNP and other like-minded parties promote a national identity,” said Rezaul Karim Rony, analyst and editor of Joban magazine. “The difference in how Pahela Baishakh is celebrated can be explained through these competing ideologies.”
The acting head of the interim government’s cultural ministry and popular playwright, Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, accused previous administrations of limiting the celebration among the Bengali majority.“We’ve long treated this as a festival of [only] the Bengali people, but it’s a celebration of all of Bangladeshis, [including all ethnic minorities],” he told reporters at Dhaka University before joining the parade.
This year, the parade featured participation from 28 ethnic minority groups wearing traditional attire, many of whom were invited officially by the government.“For the first time, we were officially invited,” Chanumung, head of the southeastern hill tract district of Bandarban’s festival committee, who goes by a single name, told BBC Bangla. “It feels like Pahela Baishakh is finally being celebrated by all.”
Also seen in the parade were players from Bangladesh’s women’s football team, wearing their team jerseys.
Farooki rejected suggestions that the current government was politicising the parade — instead accusing the AL governments of having used the celebration for political messaging.
He said the government had not imposed the name change and that it was a decision taken by Dhaka University’s fine arts faculty.
What happened at Monday’s parade?
Since early morning on April 14, the mostly young crowds poured in from Dhaka and nearby areas, packing the street in front of the fine arts faculty well before the parade began.
Participants like Kaiser Ahmed, who joined last year’s antigovernment protests, said they had returned to the celebrations after years.“I boycotted this event for a decade under Hasina’s oppressive rule. Today I’m here again in a free environment,” he told BBC Bangla.
Some analysts view the return to the original name of the parade as a reversal of “cultural fascism”, despite concerns that it reflects the politicisation of culture.“Under the Awami League, Pahela Baishakh became a tool of cultural dominance,” said Rony, alleging that the Bengali Muslim peasant majority was sidelined.
Other analysts like Kamal Uddin Kabir, assistant professor at Jagannath University’s department of theatre, differed.“This sets a bad example,” he told Al Jazeera, referring to the political use of motifs. “I never imagined the New Year celebration would be organised like this. If power shifts again, the next government might do the same.”
Rony, however, said he sees no problem with the politicisation of the New Year celebration.“Culture is inherently political, but the key question is whether the political expression of culture upholds rights and promotes inclusion or suppresses diversity and sows division.” Bhutan turns to ‘green’ cryptocurrency to fuel economy (Reuters)
Reuters [4/16/2025 10:45 PM, Rupam Jain, 5.2M]
The Himalayan nation of Bhutan is exploring ways to mine and leverage green cryptocurrencies using hydropower to boost its economy and create jobs to reduce brain drain, the chief executive of its sovereign wealth fund said.
Green cryptocurrencies are digital currencies mined using clean energy resources such as wind, hydro or solar power instead of fossil fuel.
Sandwiched between Asian giants India and China, Bhutan has earned millions of dollars in recent years by investing in some of the world’s most popular cryptocurrencies and used some of its profit to pay government salaries for two years, two senior officials in Thimphu, the capital said.
"We are a nation that runs 100% on hydropower, and every digital coin we mine in Bhutan using hydropower offsets that coin which gets mined using fossil fuels," said Ujjwal Deep Dahal, the CEO of the fund, Druk Holding and Investments Ltd.
"So a coin mined in Bhutan will contribute to the green economy," he told Reuters on Tuesday.
Dahal said the fund, which controls Bhutan’s only power generation utility, began adding cryptocurrencies to its portfolio in 2019, seeing virtual currencies as a tactical investment and a gamechanger for the country.
Bhutan is famed for its Gross National Happiness (GNH) index, an economic gauge that incorporates factors ignored by the usual measures of gross domestic product, such as recreation, emotional well-being and sustainability.
It uses hydropower to operate energy-guzzling supercomputers to create digital assets that can be added to the blockchain.
Officials are exploring whether large conglomerates could buy Bhutan’s "green" coins to meet their targets on environmental, social and governance (ESG) norms.
"Bitcoin has not just given more value to hydropower energy, it has also increased access to liquidity in foreign currency," said Dahal, who added that training Bhutan’s young people in blockchain and AI techniques would fuel jobs.
The nation of about 800,000 is battling an exodus of young, educated people. The government estimates that more than a tenth of its young people sought greener pastures between 2022 and 2023, taking unemployment in that age group to 16.5% in 2024.
Analysts said Bhutan’s ambitious plan to become the capital of green digital currency depends on expanding its hydropower generation to a potential of 33 gigawatts versus existing capacity of about 3.5 gigawatts.
"We have plans to generate 15 gigawatts in the next 10 to 15 years," Dahal added. Maldives bans Israeli travelers over ‘continuing atrocities’ in Gaza (Washington Post)
Washington Post [4/16/2025 2:42 PM, Mikhail Klimentov, 31735K]
Maldives ratified a change this week to its immigration laws, made in response to Israel’s conduct in Gaza, to prohibit travelers from entering the country under Israeli passports.“The Government of Maldives reaffirms its resolute solidarity with the Palestinian cause,” the Office of President Mohamed Muizzu said in a statement Tuesday, citing “continuing atrocities and ongoing acts of genocide committed by Israel against the Palestinian people.”Israel’s Foreign Ministry did not respond immediately to a request for comment on the change. A growing list of governments and rights groups have accused Israel of carrying out a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, and the International Court of Justice is hearing a case on the matter brought by South Africa. Israel’s government has condemned the claims: “Israel is accused of genocide at a time when it is fighting genocide,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last year.The travel proposal, first raised in June, prompted a spokesman for Israel’s Foreign Ministry to recommend that Israelis leave Maldives and avoid traveling there in the future. Israeli citizens with a second passport will still be able to enter the country, according to Maldives immigration, the Associated Press reported.Maldives, a chain of islands in the Indian Ocean, is a popular tourist destination in Asia. The archipelago has seen over 700,000 tourists so far this year, according to Ministry of Tourism and Environment data. Nearly 11,000 Israelis visited the islands in 2024.Maldives is a Muslim-majority nation, and its constitution restricts other religious practices.Other countries in South Asia, including Bangladesh and Pakistan, also have banned Israeli passport holders from entering, as have some countries in North Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. But Maldives appears to be the first to adopt such a measure in response to the ongoing war in Gaza.Bangladesh over the weekend restored explicit language on its passports forbidding travel to Israel, according to media reports, although its policy hasn’t changed: It is among a handful of countries that have never recognized the state of Israel.Maldives recognized Israel in the 1960s, but has sporadically suspended diplomatic relations and has not maintained full diplomatic relations in recent years. Maldives bans Israeli passport holders in protest against Gaza war (Reuters)
Reuters [4/16/2025 12:28 PM, Staff, 908K]
The Maldives has banned Israeli passport holders from entering its territory, the president’s office said on Wednesday, accusing Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza war, an allegation Israel has repeatedly denied.
Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu ratified an amendment to the country’s immigration law after it was passed by parliament on Tuesday, a statement from his office said.
The amendment introduces a new provision to the Immigration Act, expressly prohibiting the entry of visitors with Israeli passports into the Maldives, it added.
"The ratification reflects the government’s firm stance in response to the continuing atrocities and ongoing acts of genocide committed by Israel against the Palestinian people," the statement said.
The Israeli foreign ministry and the country’s consular office in Colombo did not respond to requests for comment.
Israel has consistently rejected any accusation of genocide, saying it has respected international law and has a right to defend itself after the cross-border Hamas attack from Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023 that prompted the war.
South Africa has brought a case against it at the UN’s International Court of Justice and Amnesty International accused it of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza in a report last December, charges it has denied.
Maldives’ Muizzu initially made the call to ban Israeli passport holders in June 2024 after a cabinet recommendation, which prompted the Israeli foreign ministry to recommend that its citizens avoid the archipelago famous for its pristine beaches and plush resorts.
Tourism is a major driver of the Maldives economy, accounting for about 21% of its GDP and earning $5.6 billion in 2024, according to government data. The island nation is expecting earnings of about $5 billion this year. The Maldives will regret this disgraceful ban on Israeli tourists (The Telegraph – opinion)
The Telegraph [4/17/2025 1:00 AM, Michael Deacon, 353K]
One of the most peculiar trends in our world today is this. Countless places whose economies are dependent on tourists suddenly seem hell-bent on driving them away.
Last year, there were angry anti-tourist protests in the Canary Islands, Barcelona, Madrid, Majorca, Portugal, Greece – to name just a few examples. Apparently, residents blame tourists for everything from a lack of affordable housing to excess pollution.
We in Britain may think these protesters are misguided. But I will say at least one thing for them. They’re nowhere near as stupid as the people running the Maldives. Because the government of these beautiful, Indian Ocean islands has just imposed an official ban on all tourists from Israel – in “solidarity” with Gaza.
A statement on Tuesday from the office of Mohamed Muizzu, the Muslim-majority nation’s president, confirmed that the ban is “in response to the continuing atrocities and ongoing acts of genocide committed by Israel against the Palestinian people”. These words are repellent. Israel is not committing “genocide” against “the Palestinian people”, it is fighting a war against Hamas, a terrorist organisation that was originally founded with the goal of eradicating every Jew in the region. As I will never tire of repeating: the truth about “genocide” in this conflict is as follows. Hamas would do it, but couldn’t. Israel could do it, but wouldn’t.
President Muizzu’s statement, however, is not just based on falsehood. It’s also brazenly hypocritical. After all, if ordinary Israelis deserve to be banned because of the actions of their government, doesn’t that mean ordinary Palestinians deserve to be banned because of the actions of Hamas? Logically, it does. Yet if, on the evening of October 7, 2023, the Maldives announced an immediate blanket ban on all visitors who are Palestinian, I’m afraid I missed it.
Perhaps, for some reason, the idea simply slipped President Muizzu’s mind. At any rate, no doubt he’s feeling tremendously pleased with himself right now. Soon enough, however, I suspect the Maldives will regret this disgraceful ban on Israeli tourists.
This is not because the Maldives’ tourist industry depends on Israelis themselves. Few of them go there these days anyway. Last year, they accounted for only 0.6 per cent of tourist arrivals. And in December, Israel’s National Security Council advised its citizens to stop visiting altogether, because of “increasing hostility toward Israelis and Jews”.
Yet the ban on Israelis will still be damaging for the Maldives – because it will repulse so many decent people from Western countries. And, as a result, they’ll book their holidays elsewhere.
In which case, the Maldives will just have to hope that it can make up the numbers by attracting the sort of purple-haired, keffiyeh-swaddled, Israel-hating Westerners who’ll applaud the ban. Frankly, I doubt there’s anywhere near enough of them. And anyway, they’re terribly busy, what with all the buildings they’ve got to vandalise, all the roads they’ve got to block and all the fire engines they’ve got to delay.
Still, if it gets these foaming fanatics off our streets for a couple of weeks, perhaps we should hand them some Maldives brochures, all the same. Sri Lanka’s Women-run Hotel Breaks Down Barriers (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [4/17/2025 2:19 AM, Philippe Alfroy, 931K]
Time for the daily staff meeting at Sri Lanka’s Hotel Amba Yaalu where woman manager Jeewanthi Adhikari jokes: "This won’t look very serious, there are only girls around the table."
The hotel, on the shores of Lake Kandalama in the green hills of central Sri Lanka, opened in January with a unique selling point -- its staff are exclusively women.
It is a first in the country, designed to promote women in a tourism sector where men hold up to 90 percent of hotel jobs.
"The chairman wanted to start a new hotel with a new concept," said Adhikari.
She explained how the idea sprouted from twin blows that hammered the island’s tourism industry -- first Covid-19, then the 2022 financial crisis and subsequent political unrest that toppled the president.
"It has been really a bad time," the 42-year-old said, noting that when there were employment vacancies, only men got the job. "We wanted to give opportunity and attract more women."Owner Chandra Wickramasinghe, president of the Thema Collection group which runs 14 hotels, said he wanted to showcase what women can do if given the chance.
"Unfortunately, in Sri Lanka in the hotels, there is no gender equality," he said.
The blame rests on a mix of factors -- lack of training, a culture where women are seen first and foremost as mothers, and very low wages which lead to the perception that women may as well stay at home.
"In our men’s society, when it comes to women working in hotels, it’s one nice girl in the reception and housekeepers to clean," he said.
"I wanted to go a little bit further."
For the 33 rooms of the Amba Yaalu -- meaning "best friend" in the island’s Sinhala language -- a team of 75 women handle every task, including those traditionally seen as for men.
They are enthusiastic, like maintenance worker Hansika Rajapaksa.
"People think it’s difficult for women to be involved in maintenance," the 28-year-old said.
"But after coming here and undergoing training, we also can carry out the work that is expected of us without any difficulty".
Meanwhile, Dilhani, who gave only her first name, feels confident in her role as a security officer after 15 years in the army.
"I have experienced war... I have manned roadblocks," she said. "With that experience, it is very easy to do our work here."
Others want to set an example.
"This a good opportunity for women to demonstrate their talents, to showcase our skills and courage to the new generations", said 23-year-old chef Upeka Ekanayake.
Old habits were initially hard to break, manager Adhikari said.
"Our experienced staff were used to working around male colleagues," she said. "Automatically, they waited for someone else to do things, because that is how they had been trained."
But the owner said he shrugged off the doubts of colleagues.
"Some people didn’t believe in it," said owner Wickramasinghe, who dismissed the misogynists who scoffed that an all-women team would just "start gossiping".
The hotel has been welcomed as an "excellent initiative" by Nalin Jayasundera, president of the association of tour operators."We want to encourage even more women to join the tourism industry," he said, adding it made a "very good impression on our customers".
Clients have taken notice.
"I felt like I could speak up and answer questions ahead of my partner without them looking to him for confirmation," one Canadian tourist wrote in a review on a booking website.
Women’s rights activist Nimalka Fernando said the initiative was "really path-breaking for Sri Lankan society".
While she noted Sri Lanka was the first nation to elect a woman as prime minister -- Sirimavo Bandaranaike in 1960 -- tradition, culture and the labour market continue to block women’s rights.
She points out that women dominate the sectors that provide the country with its main sources of income: textiles, tea and foreign remittances.
"Women are treated as an exploitable commodity," she said. "The important thing now is to give dignity to female labour."
The Amba Yaalu is only the first step, acknowledges its manager, but it is making a change.
"We have single mothers and mothers with two or three kids," Adhikari said. "Here, they don’t have to suppress what they want to do in their life."
Wickramasinghe sees it as a way to highlight the lesson he learned as a boy.
"I’m inspired by my mother... she became a single parent with eight children," he said.
"She was working in a hospital at the same time and she managed very well. So I realised the power of a woman... that they can do wonders." Central Asia
OPEC says Iraq, Kazakhstan and others to cut output more in compensation plan (Reuters)
Reuters [4/16/2025 11:24 AM, Vladimir Soldatkin and Alex Lawler, 62527K]
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has received updated plans for Iraq, Kazakhstan and other countries to make further oil output cuts to compensate for pumping above agreed quotas, the group said on Wednesday.OPEC+, which includes OPEC, plus Russia and other allies, has implemented a series of output cuts since late 2022. Its compensation plan is designed to ensure that members who do not make the cuts in full implement further reductions.The latest plan requires seven nations to cut output by a further 369,000 barrels per day in monthly steps between now and June 2026, compared with an earlier plan running from March until next June, according to Reuters calculations.Under the latest plan, monthly cuts will range from 196,000 bpd to 520,000 bpd from this month until June 2026, up from between 189,000 bpd and 435,000 bpd previously.Should the latest cuts be made in full, the compensation plan would to a large extent offset a planned 411,000 bpd output increase being made by other members of OPEC+ in May, providing additional support for the oil market.The seven members making the cuts are Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Kazakhstan and Oman, according to the table, which also includes Algeria with no required cut. In May, six of them will cut by a total of 378,000 bpd, the table shows.However, OPEC+ has repeatedly revised the plan after countries did not make the cuts as pledged.Iraq, the group’s largest overproducer, plans to step up efforts to deliver on its compensation cuts and a source said its crude allocations to customers for May cargoes are much lower, a source with knowledge of the plan said."We need more reduction to meet the compensation plan," the source said.According to the table, Iraq needs to compensate for a total of 1.93 million bpd of overproduction by June 2026. Kazakhstan needs to make the second-largest cut of 1.3 million bpd in the same time frame. Kyrgyz leader Japarov gets parliament to reset election date (Reuters)
Reuters [4/16/2025 9:59 AM, Aigerim Turgunbaeva, 33298K]
Kyrgyzstan’s President Sadyr Japarov has persuaded parliament to push back the date of the next election by several months, in an indication he may be turning his thoughts towards running for a second term.
At Japarov’s request, lawmakers on Wednesday passed a bill to hold the next presidential vote on January 24, 2027, instead of October 18, 2026. This would ensure he serves the full six years of his mandate, which analysts said suggested he was thinking about extending his presidency.
If he ran again and won, Japarov, 56, would be the first Kyrgyz president in two decades to secure a second term. Since long-serving ruler Askar Akayev was toppled in 2005, two other presidents, including Japarov’s immediate predecessor, have been ousted in revolutions.
"He hasn’t said it himself yet, but both by law and by the state of affairs in the country, it would probably make sense for him to run for a second term. Some of his team have said he’s expected to do this," political scientist Emil Juraev told Reuters.
Japarov, who as an opposition politician was jailed between 2017 and 2020, swept to power that year on the back of protests against alleged fraud in a parliamentary election. He won a snap presidential election in January 2021.
The nationalist politician has brought Kyrgyzstan’s once chaotic political scene under his firm control, including through populist moves like the 2021 nationalisation of the Kumtor gold mine, one of Central Asia’s largest. This year he signed a border deal to end a conflict with neighbouring Tajikistan.
Traditionally the most democratic of the five Central Asian states that emerged from the Soviet Union, Kyrgyzstan has in recent years become more aligned with its authoritarian neighbours.
Under Japarov, Kyrgyzstan has introduced a law against so-called "foreign agents" along the lines of Russian legislation, whilst also shuttering several independent media outlets. Parliament - to which elections are due in November - is dominated by parties loyal to the president.
The mostly Muslim country of 7 million people has close ties with Russia, where many of its citizens migrate for work. It also hosts several Russian military bases.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine in 2022, trade data show that Kyrgyzstan has become a key backdoor route for goods from the European Union to enter Russia, bypassing sanctions against Moscow. Kyrgyz lender Keremet Bank was placed under U.S. sanctions in January.
Analysts say Kyrgyzstan is also a major conduit for Chinese products such as ball bearings, which have both civilian and military uses, to enter Russia. Turkmenistan to introduce simplified procedures for obtaining visas (EurasiaNet)
EurasiaNet [4/16/2025 4:14 PM, Staff, 57.6K]
In a fresh sign that Turkmenistan is trying to break out of its self-created shell, the country’s legislature has approved procedures enabling would-be foreign visitors to obtain e-visas.
The e-visa provision was among a series of acts adopted by the Turkmen Mejlis, a rubber-stamp body subservient to the father-son leadership team of Gurbanguly and Serdar Berdymukhamedov. In reporting on the adoption of e-visa provisions, the official Turkmenistan Today information agency did not specify when the new procedures would go into effect or outline other details such as cost.“Information systems for accounting, processing and storage of information are created and systematically improved in the migration service of Turkmenistan,” the Turkmenistan Today report stated, adding that the newly adopted statutes include “norms related to the issuance by the authorized state bodies of Turkmenistan to foreign citizens and stateless persons of an electronic visa, issued in the information system and giving the right to enter Turkmenistan, stay in its territory and exit from Turkmenistan, as well as transit through the territory of Turkmenistan.”
If implemented, e-visas could be a game-changer for foreign tourists and prospective dealmakers alike, significantly easing the process of visiting the country. Routinely ranked by watchdog groups as one of the most closed and repressive states in the world, obtaining a Turkmen visa at present can be described as a painstaking and whimsical ordeal, requiring an abundance of patience. Many visa applications these days end with a denial for no apparent reason.
Turkmenistan has long been known for its insularity. But Turkmen leaders have sent signals of late that they want to integrate the country into expanding regional trade networks. Ashgabat finally launched a long-negotiated gas-swap agreement with Turkey in March, marking the first time Turkmenistan has sealed a deal to ship some of its abundant reserves westward via a route bypassing Russia. In February, Turkmen officials signaled interest in a four-nation project to develop transit links connecting Central Asia to the European Union. An e-visa regime is seen as a needed element to help with expansion of Middle Corridor trade ties. China spikes Gazprom gas export plan in Central Asia (EurasiaNet)
EurasiaNet [4/16/2025 4:14 PM, Staff, 57.6K]
China has put an abrupt stop to a Russian proposal to export added volumes of natural gas eastward via Kazakhstan, deepening the financial woes of the erstwhile Russian energy behemoth, Gazprom.
The Russian state-controlled entity, once a critical foreign policy instrument of the Kremlin, has been forced to abandon projects in Central Asia and Latin America recently due to a lack of fiscal muscle.
Gazprom has been urgently looking east to add export volume after the dramatic loss of market share in Europe. One idea promoted by Gazprom representatives was exporting an additional 35 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas to China via Kazakhstan’s existing pipeline network.
On April 15, China’s envoy to Russia, Zhang Hanhui, took a pin to Gazprom’s trial balloon. “The supply of [additional] gas from the Russian Federation through Kazakhstan is not possible, because there is one gas pipeline and it is overloaded. If we transport [more] Russian gas along this route, we will have to build a new [pipeline]. It is quite expensive. The Russian side is studying [this option], but it is not realistic. In fact, it is not going to work,” the Interfax news agency quoted Zhang as telling Russian journalists. Zhang insisted that to facilitate additional Chinese gas imports, the already planned Power of Siberia 2 (PS-2) route via Mongolia would be a better option.
Construction of PS-2, which has a projected capacity of 50 bcm, was originally slated to start last year, but the project has faced delays due to unresolved financing questions and political factors. Russia’s and Gazprom’s lack of resources to fund the cost of new pipeline construction appears to be one of the major obstacles facing the country’s energy industry.
Once a cash cow for the Kremlin, the Russia-Ukraine war has caused Gazprom’s gas unit to hemorrhage money after the company lost most of its lucrative European gas markets. The entity reported a loss of about $7 billion in 2023 for the first time in its history; annual losses grew to around $10 billion in 2024. The red ink is expected to expand from a puddle into a lake in the coming decade; according to some media reports, Gazprom losses are projected to total $179 billion over the next 10 years at current exchange rates.
The Moscow Times reports that a major restructuring of the Gazprom is in the offing, including the selling off of assets and layoffs of up to 40 percent of staff at the company’s headquarters. “Gazprom’s gas business is suffering catastrophic losses, along with it, the Russian budget is running out of money, about 40 percent of which [Vladimir] Putin spends on war,” the Moscow Times report commented.Already, Gazprom has had to cease involvement in energy development projects in Bolivia, India, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Venezuela, due to the heavy losses they were incurring. For instance, Gazprom walked away from the “Shahpakhty” project in Uzbekistan after a production sharing agreement expired.
Central Asian states had been benefiting of late by buying comparatively large volumes of Russian gas at heavily discounted prices. But political factors, in particular Russia’s ongoing crackdown on Central Asian guest workers, are prompting officials in Central Asian capitals to rethink their purchasing approach.
Kyrgyzstan’s foreign minister, Zheenbek Kulubaev, announced April 15 that Bishkek was looking to reduce its purchases of Russian gas, hinting that the growing Kyrgyz interest in diversifying suppliers is linked to Russia’s rough treatment of Kyrgyz nationals rounded up in a raid of a Moscow bathhouse, the TASS news agency reported. Kulubaev, speaking during a parliament session, urged would-be Kyrgyz labor migrants to avoid Russia. Indo-Pacific
Could polio be poised for a comeback? (NPR)
NPR [4/16/2025 7:14 AM, Betsy Joles and Ruchi Kumar, 30M]
The world is so close to wiping out polio. But in 2025, there are signs that the virus is not quite ready to go the way of smallpox — the only disease eradicated by humans.Two countries are seeing an increase in cases caused by the wild polio virus, which can cause paralysis and even death, particularly in infants and young children.And the cuts in USAID contracts that support polio vaccination raise concern that other countries will see a resurgence as well.Even with in-country vaccination campaigns and global aid, Pakistan and Afghanistan have so far been unable to stop transmission of the disease. In 2024, Pakistan’s numbers spiked to 74 while Afghanistan saw 24 recorded polio cases. So far this year, Pakistan has reported 6 cases and Afghanistan has reported 1. These new cases are tied to disruptions in ongoing vaccine campaigns.Global health officials say there’s real concern that those numbers could balloon and that polio could reemerge in other countries as well in the wake of the dismantling of USAID. In a series of memos drafted by Nicholas Enrich, the acting assistant administrator for global health at USAID, and obtained by the press, including NPR, the potential for damage is quantified with estimates of how many people would possibly become sick and die if the pause in U.S. aid continues. Enrich projected an additional 200,000 cases of polio that cause paralysis each year, and hundreds of millions of infections overall."The sudden cuts to U.S. funding are also affecting efforts to eradicate polio," said director general of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in mid-March.In Kenya, for example, the International Rescue Committee was part of a team doing polio vaccinations along with the Ministry of Health and World Vision. Much of that work was paid for by USAID."That actually was the first [of our USAID projects] to shut down on the 31st of January," says Mohamed El Montassir Hussein, country director for the International Rescue Committee in Kenya. "Currently IRC’s support for polio vaccination in remote areas has stopped [because of the halt in U.S. funding] and future support is in question. The Ministry of Health vaccination efforts, though greatly impacted, continues."As for Afghanistan and Pakistan, the numbers there, while relatively low, raise the question: Why does the wild virus persist in these two countries when it’s been eradicated from the rest of the world since 2020? (Other countries have experienced cases of vaccine-derived polio, which can occur when the weakened virus in the oral vaccine mutates and regains its ability to cause paralysis).Here is a look at what is happening in Afghanistan and Pakistan.Why Pakistan is seeing a resurgence Usman Ali, a 2-year-old, is one of 74 children in five Pakistani provinces known to have contracted polio in 2024. He is now experiencing partial paralysis."[I fear] my youngest son will not be able to walk or play for the rest of his life," says his mother, Naik Margha. Ali lives in Balochistan province, bordering Afghanistan. When polio workers came door-to-door in late April last year in his village of simple mud and brick houses, the child had a fever. His parents worried the vaccine would make his illness worse, so they refused it. They asked polio workers to mark his finger with purple ink anyway to make it look like he’d been vaccinated.Ali had fevers on and off for several weeks, and in June, began having trouble walking. His parents rushed him to a private clinic for treatment. When a later test of his stool sample came back positive for polio, they realized it was paralysis and could be permanent. Since then, Ali has recovered somewhat but still has partial paralysis in one leg.Ali’s community is comprised of seasonal migrants who travel yearly to herd their sheep, mostly in the plains of neighboring Punjab province. Their village lacks toilets and sanitation, and people defecate in the open, which health officials say puts around 2,000 other children at risk of contracting polio, which can be spread by contact with human waste."This is a vulnerable community. They can easily carry the virus from one place to another place," says Saeedullah Lawoon, a polio community communication officer in the district.Polio has surged despite Pakistan’s extensive surveillance program and repeated door-to-door vaccination campaigns, highlighting shortcomings in the country’s polio program. Pakistan has struggled to maintain the necessary high rates of immunization while combating vaccine fatigue.To be optimally protected from polio, health care experts recommend that children in Pakistan receive two doses of the injectable vaccine and at least three doses of the oral — an aggressive course aimed at interrupting transmission. In 2023, only 84% of the country’s eligible children received two doses of the injectable vaccine, according to World Health Organization and UNICEF estimates shared by the Pakistan Polio Programme. while 86% of children received three doses of the oral vaccine during routine immunization."We have higher coverage in Punjab overall, but very low coverage in Balochistan, parts of Karachi, parts of South Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, parts of Balochistan and even Southern Punjab," says Dr. Hamid Jafari, the WHO director of polio eradication for the region. "[There is] huge provincial variation. Punjab is 60% of the country, so it can skew the national average." Vaccination rates during door-to-door drives can surpass 90%, according to Pakistan Polio Programme data, but these campaigns only offer the oral vaccine. To receive the injectable vaccine, parents must travel to designated facilities. The injectable vaccine is harder to administer and requires trained health workers and sanitary conditions. The result is that some children in Pakistan only receive the oral vaccine, while some aren’t vaccinated at all.More than half of the polio cases in Pakistan last year were from children who hadn’t received a single dose of either version of the vaccines. The other 45% were children who had received the oral polio vaccine, sometimes up to seven times, according to case data. Experts say receiving that many doses is not dangerous for a child. Pakistan’s Polio Programme says what’s important is that every child is vaccinated during each vaccine campaign to maintain their immunity.Pakistan’s polio eradication program was started in 1994 and made strides early on to significantly reduce the number of polio cases in the country, which used to be in the tens of thousands. Between 1994 and 2013, the country managed to reduce the average number of annual cases by around 96%, from 2,635 to 93. Case numbers seesawed in the following years before reaching an all-time low in 2021, when Pakistan recorded only one infectionAlthough cases have fluctuated in the past, experts say last year’s increase was particularly alarming. Zulfiqar Bhutta, founding director of The Institute for Global Health and Development at the Aga Khan University in Karachi, says there’s also not one reason why."It isn’t one single factor that leads to polio exacerbations, ups and downs in Pakistan. It’s always a combination," he says.Bhutta attributes the spike in part to laxity with door-to-door vaccination campaigns. In some cases parents or health workers will mark a child’s finger who hasn’t been vaccinated, which he attributes to fatigue among health workers under pressure to hit vaccination targets and exhausted from dealing with uncooperative parents. He also cites inadequate supervision of vaccine workers on the ground.Then there’s vaccine distrust — still a problem in parts of Pakistan and in neighboring Afghanistan. Some think the vaccine will affect fertility, while others believe vaccines are part of a Western conspiracy. The distrust of aid workers grew after the CIA operated under the guise of a vaccine campaign to search for Osama Bin Laden in 2011.Polio workers also struggle to access certain areas because of conflict and security risks. In the past decade, they’ve become the target of militant groups who accuse them of being government spies or agents of the West.In some cases, parents refuse vaccines for their children because they’ve grown tired of repeat visits by polio workers, who are required to give oral polio drops during each vaccination campaign to every child under the age of 5 — including those who’ve received them multiple times before.According to a September 2024 report by the Independent Monitoring Board of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, over four million Pakistani children missed being vaccinated last year.Polio spreads quickly within unvaccinated communities, and mobile populations carry the virus from one part of the country to the next. People also bring it with them across the border from neighboring Afghanistan.In the past, both Afghanistan and Pakistan have each come close to eradicating the virus, says Dr. Jafari of WHO. But the two nations’ vaccine campaigns didn’t align, so pockets of polio can persist and spread between the countries."It’s been very difficult to find a time period where the progress was well synchronized so that they both would interrupt transmission at the same time," he says. "Polio is an epidemic-prone disease. That means that if you don’t interrupt transmission, it resurges after every few years."A number of recent cases involve children who avoided severe paralysis, thanks to some level of protection from oral vaccines, says Zia Ur Rehman, spokesperson for the Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme. "That is very encouraging. And it shows that there is always a benefit of repeated vaccination."Pakistan held its first vaccination drive of the year in early February in an attempt to ensure that all children under age 5 have received at least one dose of the oral vaccine, with the goal of eventually achieving herd immunity. This should occur with polio when around 80% of the population is vaccinated, although Pakistan presents a special challenge.There’s no clear threshold for herd immunity in Pakistan, according to WHO’s Hamid Jafari. "There isn’t just one figure that we can go with in terms of what level of immunity do you need to stop transmission." He said the 80% rate might be an average figure for countries with better sanitation and less population density, but in South Asia, higher vaccination rates are needed to interrupt transmission.The campaign aimed to reach about 45 million children around the country. According to Pakistan’s Polio Programme, health workers vaccinated about 200,000 fewer children than the target, though it’s difficult to independently verify. The number of children nationwide who didn’t receive the vaccine because family members refused was around 66,000, according to Pakistan Polio Programme data. The next countrywide vaccination campaign is set to take place in April. Meanwhile, the virus has been detected in sewage samples around the country this year, including in Punjab province, home to around half of Pakistan’s children. Before a case was confirmed there last year, the province had been without a case of polio since 2020. Punjab has had one polio case so far in 2025.Bhutta said the widespread circulation of the virus means the situation could quickly spiral into something much worse."This is like sitting on the top of a volcano. This can erupt anytime."Changes in vaccination strategy leave some children behind in AfghanistanA few months ago, a 35-year-old Afghan businessman named Mohammad noticed that his youngest son’s hand looked extremely thin and was bending at an unnatural angle. A few tests later, he and his wife’s worst fears were confirmed: "We were told he was infected with the polio virus," he tells NPR. "We missed his vaccines, and now a part of his hand is paralyzed."Mohammad, who requested his full name be withheld fearing reprisal for criticizing the Taliban government, blames his son’s condition on the decision to suspend door-to-door vaccination campaigns.In August 2024, the Taliban announced a temporary suspension of door-to-door vaccination campaigns across the country. No official reason was provided; however, health workers familiar with the situation said that the ban was a result of suspicion of Western aid and the Taliban’s restrictions placed on women workers, who aren’t allowed to travel without a male legal guardian."They stopped the health workers from coming to the communities, and instead moved the vaccinations to the local mosques," Mohammad says. Mohammad, who has four other children who are vaccinated and healthy, says that campaign suspensions coupled with the Taliban restrictions made it hard for his family to get the children vaccinated."As a sole breadwinner, I travel a lot for work, and the women in the family can’t just walk to the local mosque to get vaccines," he says, referring to the Taliban’s ban on women’s movement.Although the number of polio cases in Afghanistan is significantly less than in Pakistan, the spike was "extremely high" in 2024, according to health officials –- 24 cases compared to just six the previous year."The main reason for this increase is the poor quality of vaccination campaigns, particularly the lack of house-to-house distribution system which has been very successful in the past," says an Afghan health official who requested anonymity, fearing Taliban backlash.The spread is alarming, he says.While Pakistan and Afghanistan remain the only countries that have failed to eliminate the polio virus, Afghanistan had made some progress in reducing cases in recent years.However, the various Taliban groups in the region have long held suspicions that the door-to-door vaccination programs involving Western aid might be used to spy on communities.As a result, for many years during its war with the U.S. forces in Afghanistan, the Taliban refused to allow immunization campaigns in areas they controlled. When the Taliban took over Afghanistan after the U.S. withdrawal in 2021, health workers had hoped they could finally be allowed access to previously unreachable parts of the country.Instead, the Taliban expanded their ban across the country.Vaccination drives have also been hampered by the Taliban’s successive bans on women’s employment across various sectors, including in NGOs and development work."Women are crucial to such campaigns because in a conservative country like Afghanistan they would be more welcome by families and communities with women and children, unlike the men, which allows them to not only provide vaccines and raise awareness but is also crucial to reporting some of the cases," the health official explains.Instead, he says, the remaining, mostly male, health workers have been advised by the Taliban to conduct campaigns in mosques across the country, where families are expected to bring their children for doses."This leaves many children unvaccinated since most families aren’t aware or proactive about getting vaccines," the health official says, adding that for the vaccines to be successful, at least 95% of children under the age of 5 need to be covered during each campaign."For most families experiencing poverty, polio vaccine is not a priority," he points out. According to U.N. estimates, more than half the Afghan population relied on humanitarian assistance in 2024 from charities like the U.N.’s World Food Programme.And in densely packed areas with limited sanitation, many children are already struggling with health issues that make them more vulnerable to polio."Immunity among children is low and there are other diseases like diarrhea, malnutrition that is also spreading, alongside a lack of hygiene and sanitation which makes it a deadly combination," he says.Afghan health workers say they are continuing to advocate, alongside international organizations, to resume door-to-door campaigns. In the meantime, health care workers are encouraging parents to bring their children to local vaccination centers."If we don’t act now, we may be faced with many tragic cases across the region, because infections don’t see borders and can spread fast," the health official warns.For Mohammad’s youngest son, though, it might already be too late."All my children except the little one were vaccinated at home. I appeal to the [village] elders to [negotiate with the officials to] resume the door-to-door vaccinations again because not every family can travel to a public space and get the vaccines," he says. "It is not a matter of just my family or province, we are talking million of innocent children who are at risk." Twitter
Afghanistan
Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Afghanistan@MoFA_Afg
[4/16/2025 4:58 AM, 75.4K followers, 40 retweets, 119 likes]
IEA-MoFA Statement Regarding UNAMA’s Irresponsible Remarks on the Implementation of the Shariah Prescribed Punishment, named, Qisas
Shawn VanDiver@shawnjvandiver
[4/16/2025 4:56 PM, 33.1K followers, 22 retweets, 108 likes]
The administration is making more moves to shut down #EnduringWelcome permanently. Stay tuned for more info soon, but I’m done pretending like they don’t know what they’re doing. Are those who say they stand with veterans and allies going to do anything or just lay down?
Beth W. Bailey@BWBailey85
[4/15/2025 2:18 PM, 8.3K followers, 13 retweets, 47 likes]
First-ever moderated debate on The Afghanistan Project Podcast between CIS’ Phillip Linderman and AE’s Shawn VanDiver over recent American Conservative articles attacking vetting procedures for Afghan allies https://youtu.be/eWhPwZwBDII?si=B8EPo53P3BzLgU9b Mohammad Sadiq@AmbassadorSadiq
[4/16/2025 12:20 PM, 31.7K followers, 3 retweets, 20 likes]
After a 15-month pause, the 7th meeting of the Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) convened in Kabul — a vital platform for addressing sensitive and strategic issues. Regular and sustained engagement through such mechanisms is essential to ease tensions, dispel doubts, and strengthen mutual understanding in bilateral ties. Pakistan
Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Pakistan@ForeignOfficePk
[4/16/2025 11:35 PM, 481.4K followers, 3 retweets, 5 likes]
Additional Foreign Secretary (Arms Control & Disarmament), Ministry of Foreign Affairs Pakistan, Tahir Andrabi @TahirAndrabi and Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia, S.A. Ryabkov met in Islamabad for 15th round of Pakistan-Russia Consultative Group on Strategic Stability. Comprehensive discussions were held on global security, regional stability, and key issues related to arms control, disarmament, and non-proliferation. Both sides noted strong convergence of views across a broad agenda and agreed to maintain close coordination—bilaterally and at relevant international fora.Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Pakistan@ForeignOfficePk
[4/16/2025 12:49 PM, 481.4K followers, 6 retweets, 13 likes]
Joint Statement on the 15th Round of Pakistan-Russia Consultative Group on Strategic Stability https://mofa.gov.pk/press-releases/joint-statement-on-the-15th-round-of-pakistan-russia-consultative-group-on-strategic-stability
Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Pakistan@ForeignOfficePk
[4/16/2025 10:29 AM, 481.4K followers, 14 retweets, 21 likes]
Deputy Prime Minister/Foreign Minister, Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar @MIshaqDar50 received a telephone call from the Foreign Minister of Iran, Seyyed Abbas Araghchi @araghchi, wherein the latter while offering condolences on the tragic death of 8 Pakistanis in Iran assured full cooperation in bringing the perpetrators to justice and repatriating the mortal remains of the victims. The Iran FM also briefed the DPM/FM regarding the 12th April talks between Iran and the US in Oman, which the DPM/FM appreciated and encouraged.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Pakistan@ForeignOfficePk
[4/16/2025 9:32 AM, 481.4K followers, 14 retweets, 25 likes]
DPM/FM Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar @MIshaqDar50 delivered a Keynote Address at the conclusion of the UN Peacekeeping Ministerial Preparatory Meeting, held at CIPS, Islamabad today. He stressed the need for a renewed commitment to multilateralism, integrating technological solutions to ensure the safety and security of peacekeepers and to hold accountable perpetrators of attacks against the UN peacekeepers. He also paid tribute to Pakistan’s illustrious and proud UN peacekeeping legacy. DPM/FM reiterated Pakistan’s support for a peaceful resolution of the Jammu & Kashmir dispute in line with relevant UN Security Council resolutions.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Pakistan@ForeignOfficePk
[4/16/2025 8:32 AM, 481.4K followers, 12 retweets, 26 likes]
Deputy Prime Minister/Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar @MIshaqDar50 received the UN Under Secretary Generals Jean-Pierre Lacroix (DPO) & Atul Khare (DOS) on the sidelines of the UN Peacekeeping Preparatory Meeting, being co-hosted by Pakistan & Republic of Korea in Islamabad. DPM/FM reiterated Pakistan’s longstanding commitment to UN peacekeeping and recalled Pakistan’s proud legacy in the peacekeeping arena. He expressed the hope that the Peacekeeping Preparatory Meeting in Islamabad would prove to be an important stepping-stone towards adapting the UN peace operations to contemporary challenges.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Pakistan@ForeignOfficePk
[4/16/2025 7:05 AM, 481.4K followers, 15 retweets, 33 likes]
Deputy Prime Minister/Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar @MIshaqDar50 received the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government of the United Kingdom, Lord Wajid Khan @LordWajidKhan. They discussed issues of mutual interest. DPM/FM reiterated Pakistan’s commitment to a strong, broad-based, multifaceted Pakistan–UK partnership and appreciated the British Pakistani community’s role in fostering goodwill. Lord Khan acknowledged the Government’s commitment to economic reforms and noted their encouraging impact on Pakistan’s economic stability.
Dr. Arif Alvi@ArifAlvi
[4/16/2025 10:04 PM, 4.4M followers, 1.2K retweets, 3.2K likes]
Quran is for eternity with no falsehood and is guidance for the God fearing.
ذلک الکتاب لا ریب فیه هدی للمتقین...
When the Chief of Army Staff General Asim Muneer quotes from it, he brings us to the roots of our beliefs, from where a solution can emerge.
Fake news is indeed dangerous. I wrote an article that was published in Jan 2020. I also spoke on this important issue in the Parliament in my yearly address in Sept 2021 and said:آج کل دنیا کو فیک نیوز جیسے چیلنجز کا سامنا ہے اور یہ معاشرے میں انتشار اور افراتفری پھیلانے کا باعث ہیں۔ فیک نیوز پھیلانا اسلامی تعلیمات کے منافی ہے اور اللہ تعلیٰ قران میں ہمیں کوئی خبر پھیلانے سے پہلے اس کی تصدیق کرنے کا حکم دیتا ہے۔يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِنْ جَاءَكُمْ فَاسِقٌ بِنَبَإٍ فَتَبَيَّنُوا أَنْ تُصِيبُوا قَوْمًا بِجَهَالَةٍ فَتُصْبِحُوا عَلَىٰ مَا فَعَلْتُمْ نَادِمِينَ۔
Quranic verses are for all of us, not to throw in each other’s faces but for introspection. Are we really practicing what we preach and are we applying it on ourselves?
A woman came to the Prophet Muhammad and said: "My child eats too much honey. Please tell him to stop." The prophet asked her to come back after a few days. On her query as to why he told the child to stop after a few days he replied "At that time, I myself was consuming honey. I did not want to tell someone to stop something I had not yet stopped myself." Wow! The above is Islam in its true spirit. It is for the government and establishment to lead the way. I personally have tried my best to stay away from false accusations and fake news. May Allah forgive me where I have faltered. https://tribune.com.pk/story/2144206/fake-news-conundrum-demanding-serious-discourse
Taha Siddiqui@TahaSSiddiqui
[4/16/2025 9:28 AM, 75.6K followers, 521 retweets, 1.5K likes]
Pakistan Army Chief General Asim Munir spews hate against #Hindus and propagates the #TwoNationTheory, which failed in 1971 when Bangladesh got independence from Pakistan. He asserts that children must be taught such "falsehoods" since it’s easier to brainwash youth. Shameful! https://x.com/i/status/1912498421174280536 India
Dr. S. Jaishankar@DrSJaishankar
[4/16/2025 12:58 PM, 3.4M followers, 172 retweets, 1K likes]
Heartening to see the transformations underway in #Gujarat. Some glimpses of my recent visit. https://x.com/i/status/1912551223930294761
Dr. S. Jaishankar@DrSJaishankar
[4/16/2025 6:09 PM, 3.4M followers, 211 retweets, 1.3K likes]
Visited the Lothal archaeological site and the National Maritime Heritage Complex under construction. The Complex will represent our maritime heritage as well as aspirations. As we take forward the MahaSagar outlook, such an institution will anchor our research, planning and narratives in the maritime domain.
Brahma Chellaney@Chellaney
[4/16/2025 2:23 PM, 271.7K followers, 33 retweets, 127 likes]
On Biden’s watch, the U.S.-India strategic partnership began fraying. But with Trump’s return to office, the relationship is being restored, underscored by Modi’s White House visit in February and JD Vance’s upcoming India tour. Pete Hegseth is also planning to visit India. NSB
Bangladesh Nationalist Party-BNP@bdbnp78
[4/16/2025 9:03 AM, 80.8K followers, 15 retweets, 92 likes]
We aren’t satisfied at all with the outcome of the meeting with @ChiefAdviserGoB Dr Muhammad Yunus. As no specific roadmap was given for holding the national election. We told him plainly: if elections aren’t held by December, the political, social, and economic crises will deepen. Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir Secretary General of Bangladesh Nationalist Party-BNP #Bangladesh #Election2025 #Democracy
Sabria Chowdhury Balland@sabriaballand
[4/16/2025 7:48 PM, 8K followers, 2 likes]
#Bangladesh, which had appealed for a pause in the reciprocal #tariffs slapped recently by the #Trump administration, has already welcomed the US decision for a 90-day suspension of the reciprocal tariffs for most countries.
Jon Danilowicz@JonFDanilowicz
[4/16/2025 9:36 PM, 15K followers, 12 retweets, 84 likes]
No remorse, no reform, no resignations. Given this, I see no reason to provide the @albd1971 political space in a new Bangladesh. “Arafat said Sheikh Hasina remains the single most influential figure and politician in Bangladesh, despite the state-sponsored smear and libel campaign against her. “Her popularity has not lessened. Sheikh Hasina’s governance was marked by stability and unparalleled economic growth. Her firm policies were necessary to maintain law and order, fostering economic transformation.” https://theprint.in/world/hasina-era-minister-dismisses-army-coup-rumours-says-free-fair-polls-under-yunus-impossible/2591627/
Jon Danilowicz@JonFDanilowicz
[4/16/2025 8:12 AM, 15K followers, 60 retweets, 260 likes]
Today’s reminder of the brutality of the Hasina dictatorship, courtesy of BBC. And still, there is no remorse or request for forgiveness from those responsible for these horrors. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly6lp567r8o
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maldives@MoFAmv[4/16/2025 5:22 AM, 55.6K followers, 17 retweets, 19 likes]
FOSIM held the second session of its “How to… Series” today, featuring Dr. Ibrahim Zuhuree. The session, titled “UNGA Resolution – Inception to Adoption”, provided valuable insights into the process of drafting, negotiating, and adopting UN General Assembly resolutions.
Harsha de Silva@HarshadeSilvaMP
[4/16/2025 10:39 AM, 361K followers, 5 retweets, 82 likes]
Prabashwara has a multi stakeholder business plan. #SriLanka UDA land; #India Rs 300m grant, our ministry Rs 235m for building. Managed by Board including Dambulla Farmer Coop. Run by private operator(s) on concession. Will they follow the plan?
M U M Ali Sabry@alisabrypc
[4/16/2025 4:37 AM, 8.1K followers, 15 retweets, 60 likes]
Two Decades of Delay Time to Break the Mafias Blocking Sri Lanka’s Energy Future
In 2006, Sri Lanka set out on a bold path with the enactment of the Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority Act. The vision was clear, diversify our energy mix, reduce our dependence on imported fossil fuels, and embrace a greener, more sustainable future. By 2030, we aspired to achieve 70% renewable energy in our grid.
Now, the new government has raised the bar even higher committing to 100% renewable energy. An ambitious and admirable goal. But ambition without realism is merely rhetoric. Let us ask the uncomfortable question, What exactly has been done to reach this goal in the past 18 years?
Despite the existence of the law, an entire institutional ecosystem the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), the Sustainable Energy Authority, and the Public Utilities Commission (PUCSL) and ample policy space, Sri Lanka remains woefully unprepared to absorb even the currently available wind and solar power. Until the recent reforms led by Kanchana Wijesekera, there was no serious movement. Why? Because those entrusted with the task actively obstructed it.
Let us call it what it is: sabotage by silence, by delay, and by weaponizing bureaucracy. The CEB engineering union, highly paid and well placed, did not lift a finger to realize our renewable energy goals. Instead, they built barriers not bridges to cleaner power. They insisted on open bidding processes, not for transparency, but to stall. They delayed approvals, disputed tariffs to the last decimal, and created technical excuses not to connect renewable sources to the grid. And yet without blinking they signed off on thermal power purchases at staggering prices: Rs. 86 to Rs. 100 per unit. But they would quibble over Rs. 18 or Rs. 21 for solar power. Do we need to be rocket scientists to figure out who benefits from this? They will call for open tenders , manipulate it and delay , more often than not, the ultimate awardee to abandon it . By accident? Your guess is as good as mine.
Now, in an extraordinary confession, they claim the country is “not ready” to absorb solar and wind energy after 20 years. Why not? What exactly were these institutions and unions doing all this while? Let’s be blunt: there is a diesel mafia. There is an officials’ mafia. There is a union mafia. And there are enemies within the system who benefit from Sri Lanka’s continued dependence on dirty, expensive energy. This must stop.If we are serious about achieving our renewable energy goals and I believe this government is we must have the courage to confront these entrenched mafias head on. Reforms are meaningless without accountability. Targets are fantasies without discipline. And ambition is delusion without action. Sri Lanka’s energy future should not be hostage to personal profits, petty politics, or outdated mindsets. The law exists. The institutions exist. The market exists. The will of the people exists. What’s missing is the honesty and urgency from within the system. We owe it to our children, our economy, and our environment to make this right now. Central Asia
MFA Kazakhstan@MFA_KZ
[4/16/2025 12:23 PM, 56.1K followers, 4 retweets, 4 likes]
The Kazakh delegation headed by Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan Murat Nurtleu participated in the 3rd Ministerial Meeting of the “Central Asia – Gulf Cooperation Council” format. https://gov.kz/memleket/entities/mfa/press/news/details/977744?lang=en
MFA Tajikistan@MOFA_Tajikistan
[4/17/2025 2:56 AM, 5.3K followers]
Meeting with the Secretary General of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf https://mfa.tj/en/main/view/16886/meeting-with-the-secretary-general-of-the-cooperation-council-for-the-arab-states-of-the-gulf
MFA Tajikistan@MOFA_Tajikistan
[4/17/2025 2:55 AM, 5.3K followers]
Participation at the Third Ministerial Meeting of the Strategic Dialogue between the Central Asian Countries and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) https://mfa.tj/en/main/view/16882/participation-at-the-third-ministerial-meeting-of-the-strategic-dialogue-between-the-central-asian-countries-and-the-gulf-cooperation-council-gcc
Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service@president_uz
[4/16/2025 3:13 PM, 215.8K followers, 2 retweets, 7 likes]
In the framework of the visit to Andijan region President Shavkat Mirziyoyev met with representatives of foreign companies. Plans include implementing projects on producing equipment for hydropower plants, participating in the construction of the new Babur city through developing a modern multifunctional complex. With this, the President’s trip to Andijan region concluded and he returned to Tashkent.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service@president_uz
[4/16/2025 2:19 PM, 215.8K followers, 1 retweet, 4 likes]
During his visit to a social services center in #Andijan region, President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev reviewed proposals on developing the sports sphere and promoting the #Olympic movement. The importance of improving the vertical system of sports education and introducing advanced methods was underlined. Tasks were set to improve the efficiency of sports schools and train talented youth to the level of high-class athletes.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service@president_uz
[4/16/2025 1:23 PM, 215.8K followers, 5 retweets, 20 likes]
President Shavkat Mirziyoyev visited the "Imkoniyatlar olami" social services center in Andijan. The center features facilities for inclusive education, vocational training, sports and rehabilitation. It supports children with disabilities, those needing constant care and low-income families through medical, educational and language services. He also reviewed the country’s first early intervention program, aiding children up to age three and offering counseling for expectant mothers.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service@president_uz
[4/16/2025 12:38 PM, 215.8K followers, 5 likes]
President Shavkat Mirziyoyev visited the “Fayz-M” enterprise in Andijan, a major textile project with full-cycle production. The company produces 4.2 million textile goods annually across more than 50 types using modern equipment, with most output aimed at exports. The enterprise’s annual export potential reaches $6 billion. A design center is established to support employee skill development.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service@president_uz
[4/16/2025 11:28 AM, 215.8K followers, 5 likes]
President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev held a meeting on #Andijan region’s socio-economic development. Investment and export growth will be driven by new free trade and industrial zones. Infrastructure upgrades will expand road capacity to neighboring countries and enhance public transport between Andijan city and its districts. Social priorities span graduate employment, dual education, and achieving international accreditation for programs in engineering, medicine, economics, and agriculture.
Navbahor Imamova@Navbahor
[4/16/2025 11:59 AM, 24.2K followers, 1 like]
EU-Central Asia: Connectivity, climate change, trade facilitation, democratization ... Interview with Eduards Stiprais, EU special rep for Central Asia https://www.gazeta.uz/en/2025/04/14/eduards-stiprais-/ {End of Report} To subscribe to the SCA Morning Press Clips, please email SCA-PressOfficers@state.gov. Please do not reply directly to this email.