SCA MORNING PRESS CLIPS
Prepared for the U.S. Department of State
Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs
TO: | SCA & Staff |
DATE: | Friday, April 25, 2025 6:30 AM ET |
Afghanistan
Raffensperger urges Trump Administration to delay sending Christian refugees back to Afghanistan (WSB-TV 2 Atlanta)
WSB-TV 2 Atlanta [4/24/2025 2:12 PM, Staff, 52868K]
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is urging the Trump Administration to delay sending back refugees from Afghanistan amid persecution by the Taliban.
Raffensperger sent a letter to the Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, asking for them to hear the asylum claims of Afghan Christian refugees living in the United States.
The refugees "face persecution and even execution by the Taliban" for their Christian beliefs, Raffensperger’s office said.
After celebrating Easter on Sunday, Raffensperger said he "learned that several Afghan Christian refugees currently residing in the United States were told they had to return to Afghanistan. Many of these Afghan Christians had risked their lives for religious freedom and democratic values in service of American forces in-country, and we should make sure we hear their asylum claims before sending them back to a government that is known to persecute Christians.".
As a result, Raffensperger is asking President Donald Trump and his administration to "ensure a full and fair vetting" of asylum claims of Afghan Christians before initiating their removals.
He said doing so would align with both Georgia’s and the U.S.’ "longstanding commitment to religious liberty and the values enshrined in our Constitution.".
Channel 2 Action News has reached out to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for comment on Raffensperger’s letter and is waiting for their response. Washington’s Broken Promises Leave Afghan Allies in Limbo (Reason Magazine)
Reason Magazine [4/24/2025 3:10 PM, Beth Bailey, 52868K]
Following the August 2021 Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, the Afghan allies—including interpreters, government professionals, media members, and military personnel—who supported U.S. efforts to bring democracy to their country have lived in fear of Taliban reprisal inside their homeland. Hundreds of thousands applied for visas or sought other forms of legal status in the U.S. and began the process of finding safety.
Over three years later, up to 140,000 primary applicants—and their spouses and unmarried children under the age of 21—were mired in slow-moving processing pipelines when a pair of January 20 executive orders from President Donald Trump suspended the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) for 90 days and canceled the foreign funding that supports Afghans in transit from overseas processing hubs. A January 24 stop-work order from the State Department dealt a further blow, ending resettlement assistance for new arrivals in the U.S.
On March 14, The New York Times published a draft copy of a State Department travel ban that would end all travel to the U.S. from about a dozen countries, including Afghanistan. Three days later, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce denied that such a list existed. However, at a press briefing on March 31, Bruce responded to questions about the travel ban by saying, "Because there’s not a date, it doesn’t mean that it’s not being worked on.".
Afghans who arrived in the U.S. after 2021 are also experiencing immense strain as news has spread of deportations, parole revocation, and a pause in green card issuance.
Further complicating their struggles, on April 11, Department of Homeland Security officials announced the end of temporary protected status (TPS) for Afghans. An estimated 9,000 Afghans have used TPS to find safety in the U.S. while applying for asylum or another status. When the TPS designation runs out in May, they will be under threat of forced return to a country where the Taliban have stripped women of basic human rights and continue to target their former enemies—our allies—for death.
These moves have signaled a marked change in the posture toward our allies, not only impacting their futures but also affecting the Americans who supported them.
The USRAP Suspended
Afghan allies who are known to the U.S. government can be submitted to the USRAP by the entities that employed or can vouch for them. These include Afghans in the Priority 1 and Priority 2 categories who worked for the Afghan military and government, media institutions, or judicial staff.
Afghans who were separated from their families during or after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan have reunification cases that may be classified under the Priority 1 or Priority 3 categories, according to founder and president of the #AfghanEvac coalition, Shawn VanDiver.
Trump’s January 20 executive order suspended resettlement under each of those categories.
The International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) quickly challenged the USRAP suspension, filing Pacito v. Trump on behalf of refugee resettlement groups and individual clients on February 10. A judge ruled in IRAP’s favor on February 25, placing an injunction on the suspension. The judge later ordered the federal government to provide updates demonstrating its compliance with the injunction.
IRAP is embroiled in legal battles over the government’s failure to comply with injunctions. Megan Hauptman, litigation fellow at IRAP, tells Reason that "the government’s recent actions not only demonstrate non-compliance with court orders, but open defiance," which "wreaks daily harm on refugees and the organizations that serve them.".
On April 11, Whitehead granted in part IRAP’s motion to enforce the preliminary injunction. However, on April 21, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued clarifications about whom the government is required to process under the injunction, limiting the scope to approved refugees who already had their travel scheduled before Trump’s executive order blocked their arrival.
A State Department spokesperson would not comment on the status of the USRAP "as a matter of policy," given ongoing litigation. They stated the department "continue[s] to comply with relevant court orders.".
All movement for USRAP applicants is halted due to the program’s suspension. However, one applicant and her family have been able to use the injunction to enter the U.S., thanks to a global boarding letter issued by the State Department in December.
"The Department is actively considering the future of our Afghan relocation program and the Office of the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts," a State Department spokesperson says, adding that "no final decisions have been made.".
The State Department would not enumerate how many USRAP cases are currently open, citing "policy" and "protection of those individuals," but in August 2024, the State Department said that of the 56,000 Afghan applicants referred to the USRAP, 28,000 primary applicants were still undergoing processing.
That creates uncertainty for Afghans awaiting resettlement in other countries, including Pakistan, where an estimated 700,000 Afghans fled in the aftermath of the U.S. withdrawal. Pakistan announced plans to expel "up to 3 million [Afghan] migrants by the end of the year," reported Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Pakistan says this includes Afghans in resettlement pipelines. Thus far, 80,000 Afghans have been deported. It is unclear whether this includes Afghans with a path to resettlement in the U.S.
A State Department spokesperson says the department is in "close communication with the Government of Pakistan on the status of Afghan nationals in U.S. resettlement pathways.".
There is a particularly acute pain for Afghans in the U.S. who have waited over three years to be reunited with their families through the USRAP. John Moses, co-founder of the Massachusetts Afghan Alliance, says he is following several dozen reunification cases in Massachusetts and works directly on three cases in his own town.
Moses explains that a local Afghan high schooler has managed to become "one of the top wrestlers in the state" despite also supporting his father, who "is having nervous breakdowns" while his wife and daughters are "thousands of miles away.".
The young man’s father arrived in the U.S. because he drove a bus through Hamid Karzai International Airport to ferry our allies to safety. When U.S. operations ended, American military personnel told the driver that he could not be safely released into the crowds for fear that he might be killed by the Taliban. "He helped, and this is how we repaid him," Moses laments.
Moses says that Trump’s executive orders harm not only Afghans but "all the Americans that support them," particularly in reunification cases in which "the trauma spreads, because it’s continuous.".
"I don’t have the luxury of being hopeless," Moses explains. "I just get to keep working.".
Nasrullah is a medical doctor who entered the U.S. through the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program after supporting the U.S. mission in multiple capacities. Nasrullah’s family was submitted to the USRAP program on account of his prominent position with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
Nasrullah’s family had cleared several stages of the process and was awaiting final travel arrangements when the USRAP was suspended. In the interim, Nasrullah was one of many USAID employees to lose his job when 5,200 of the agency’s 6,200 programs were cut. He explains that he now has no source of funds to help his parents pay their rent, and his parents risk deportation in Turkey.
"My hope to see or visit my parents is fading away," Nasrullah says.
Nonprofit Steps in for SIV Applicants
The largest number of Afghans still in the processing queue for admission to the U.S. are applicants to the SIV program, designed to assist interpreters or employees of the U.S. government or U.S. contractors with at least a year of "faithful and valuable employment." Per the latest Afghan SIV quarterly report, there were more than 128,000 primary applicants still in the processing pipeline as of October 2024. Not all applicants will qualify for an SIV. About 80,000 applicants remain in the first hurdle of processing, of whom an estimated 37 percent typically receive approval.
A State Department spokesperson confirmed that the program’s Chief of Mission approval, visa adjudication, consular interviews, and security vetting are ongoing.
Unlike applicants in USRAP pipelines who cannot leave third countries for transportation to the U.S. due to their program’s suspension, SIV applicants can continue moving to the United States. However, because of the freeze in foreign funding, the U.S. government no longer pays for their travel, and the resettlement funds they once received on arrival are no longer available.
Among the organizations that have filled this void is the nonprofit No One Left Behind. Its executive director, Andrew Sullivan, tells me that the organization "immediately saw what was in the pipe.".An unforeseen challenge to getting "up and running" was the spending limit on the organization’s corporate credit card, which fell far short of the funds required to book flights for hundreds of Afghan SIV holders at worldwide processing hubs. To make up for the shortage, Sullivan says that he and other members of the organization used personal credit cards to pay for travel.
"At one point, I had $70,000 in credit card debt," Sullivan recalls. "Thankfully, we’ve all reimbursed ourselves again because of the incredible generosity of everyday Americans.".
Sullivan’s team first traveled to Tirana, Albania, where they helped around 200 SIV holders leave for the United States. Next, they went to Doha, Qatar, where conditions were "starkly different." It "reminded me of every military base that I ever went to on my way to Iraq," Sullivan says.
According to Sullivan, the State Department Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts (CARE) team on the ground in Doha was "doing their absolute best, doing incredible work to try and support our wartime allies," despite numerous services being impacted by the foreign aid pause.
In Qatar, No One Left Behind moved over 350 SIV holders, though Sullivan says that there remains "a major population of refugees" whose futures are yet to be determined.
Sullivan encountered some "incredibly sad cases," including a family in Qatar who were unable to bring their 19-year-old daughter with them to the U.S. because she had signed a contract when becoming engaged to a man in Afghanistan. Though the marriage was never performed, the U.S. government considered the paperwork proof that a marriage had transpired, leaving the daughter stranded in Qatar.
The case illustrates "why the refugee program…is so important" Sullivan says, explaining that it supports family members in unique situations or who have aged out of visa-dependent status, Afghans who are shy of the time-in-service requirement for an SIV, and Afghans who "were paid by the government of Afghanistan because they were a special operator or female tactical platoon member.".
No One Left Behind also encountered SIV applicants whose struggles illustrate Taliban brutality. One Afghan who spent years working with a West Coast–based SEAL team during a violent period of the war was arrested by the Taliban after the U.S. withdrawal. Sullivan says the man was imprisoned and "tortured for a week" before village elders secured his release.
Another story came from an SIV-eligible mechanic who logistically supported Americans and refused to heed the Taliban’s warnings to stop working for the United States. After being shot twice in the chest by the Taliban, the SIV applicant "is a paraplegic and he will be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life," Sullivan explains.
"There’s this idea that somehow you have to have been…working directly alongside counterterrorism forces or a tactical interpreter to be at risk of reprisal from the Taliban," Sullivan says. "That’s just not true.".
If Afghans in our visa programs were returned to their country, Sullivan continues, "they would have to go through a Taliban-controlled immigration checkpoint where they could potentially see that they had a U.S. Special Immigrant Visa in their passport." The repercussions for these individuals would be "everything up to torture and murder," Sullivan says. "That’s why it’s so important that we are able to continue moving these folks and protecting them.".
On April 8, No One Left Behind announced that it has booked flights for a total of 1,000 allies since February 1.
Unfortunately, other difficulties plague the SIV process. There were approximately 13,600 visas remaining for the Afghan hopefuls in the pipeline as of October 2024. A recent provision in the House Budget Committee’s continuing resolution to fund the government would have added 20,000 SIVs to this total. But the provision was removed on March 11.
Sullivan urges Americans "to raise the issue with their member of Congress, with their senators, to tell them that we have to keep the promise" to our allies.
Living in Fear
Since the start of Trump’s second term, Afghans in the U.S. have been on tenterhooks about their legal status. An unknown number of Afghans were among the migrants deported to a Panamanian hotel in February. That same month, I reported for Reason about an asylum-seeking ally who was detained during a routine check-in with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the lead-up to his asylum hearing. The parole he received on entering the country was revoked at the time of his detention.
"Thousands of Afghans are living in the United States in legal limbo," explains immigration lawyer Alison Tabor. "They arrived here seeking safety and stability but instead find themselves facing prolonged uncertainty." Tabor says she’s "seen Afghan allies detained, asylum seekers turned away at the border, and even expulsions to Panama.".
According to Tabor, "green card processing has paused for many eligible Afghans," leaving them to face "an uncertain waiting period" for stability. "My clients tell me they’re anxious about their futures and unsure if the country they believed would protect them will truly allow them to stay and rebuild their lives," she explains.
An estimated 8,100 Afghans have arrived in the U.S. through the southern border since 2021. Most have accomplished this by procuring humanitarian visas to Brazil, traversing the deadly Darién Gap, being ferried to Mexico by cartel members, and claiming asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Those who are still waiting for asylum adjudication are especially concerned, particularly since the Trump administration announced on April 8 that it was revoking parole for all Afghans who entered the country via the CBP One app, introduced in January 2023. A number of Afghans in this situation, including Christian Afghans, received letters from the Department of Homeland Security informing them that they had seven days to depart the country by April 18—Good Friday.
Nasrin has been sharing her story since December 2021. After trying to evade her abusive former husband for years, she ultimately fled to the U.S. in late 2024 to avoid his threats to marry their daughter to a Taliban member.
Nasrin and her daughter were released from ICE custody soon after arrival in the U.S. and now await asylum hearings. Her two adult sons have remained in a southern ICE facility for five months with no word about their future. "My little son calls every day, crying," Nasrin tells Reason.
One former interpreter, Mahmud, arrived in the U.S. in 2014 through the SIV program. His brother, Fawad, applied to the SIV program based on his work for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. After being beaten by unknown strangers in 2022, the same year that his half-brother was murdered, Fawad escaped to Pakistan. He followed a path to Mexico in 2024.
Mahmud says that Fawad waited eight months in Mexico for SIV approval or an appointment to request asylum through the CBP One app, but received neither. Fearful of dangerous conditions in Mexico, Fawad fled to the port of entry in San Diego last month and requested asylum. ICE detained him.
Fawad has not received an asylum interview or a court hearing and has not had the opportunity to request bond. Mahmud says that his brother "is under immense pressure and stress" and explains that Fawad believes that he is in deportation or removal proceedings, but ICE has not informed him of his fate.
"If he is deported to Afghanistan, it will be a death sentence for him," Mahmud says.
ICE did not respond to my questions about parole revocation, the outlook for detained Afghans, or the prospects for Afghans who have sought protection through another pathway: humanitarian parole.
Over 52,870 Afghans applied for the status, which provides a pathway for those with "urgent humanitarian" needs. Afghans who applied for humanitarian parole between March 2021 and 2022 spent $19 million in $575 per-person filing fees. As of January 2024, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) had conditionally approved just 1,860 applications.
USCIS did not respond to questions about how many humanitarian parole applications remain open and how many have been conditionally approved.
Congress Speaks Up
In the tumultuous early months of the second Trump administration, a few congressional leaders have spoken out about our allies’ uncertain future.
In February, Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D–Minn.), Richard Blumenthal (D–Conn.), Dick Durbin (D–Ill.), Mark Kelly (D–Ariz.), and Chris Coons (D–Del.) implored leaders in the Trump administration "to provide Congress with information on how…executive orders and directives affect our Afghan wartime allies." Their open letter also requested information from the departments of Defense, State, and Homeland Security about policies impacting Afghans.On March 4, Reps. Michael Lawler (R–N.Y.), Michael McCaul (R–Texas), and Richard Hudson (R–N.C.) addressed a letter to the president, noting that shutting down the CARE and Operation Enduring Welcome platforms "would abandon over 200,000 wartime allies and have lasting consequences for America’s global credibility, military operations, and veterans.".
Citing "over 3,200 documented killings and disappearances of former Afghan military personnel, interpreters, and U.S. government partners," the representatives defended our allies as among "the most vetted immigrants in U.S. history having undergone extensive screening by DHS, DOD, FBI, CIA, and the State Department.".
Among the serious consequences the representatives outlined should we abandon our allies are a loss of trust in the U.S. military and intelligence communities, the empowerment of American adversaries who will propagandize the country’s failures, and an immediate threat to the "over 3,000 spouses, children, and parents of active-duty U.S. service members" trapped in Afghanistan.
On March 6, Reps. Jennifer McClellan (D–Va.) and Doris Matsui (D–Calif.) penned a letter signed by 47 House Democrats urging Trump "to fully restore humanitarian and refugee protections for our Afghan allies and all refugees.".
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D–N.H.) addressed a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio on March 18 expressing concern for the SIV program, and in particular for the Afghans stranded in U.S. processing platforms with "no clear path to travel to the United States.".
National security adviser Michael Waltz, a former Army Special Forces officer, was often an advocate for Afghans as a Florida representative, co-sponsoring the Support Our Afghan Partners Act in July 2022 and introducing a resolution supporting the people of Afghanistan against the Taliban’s human rights abuses in July 2023.
Waltz told 60 Minutes in July 2021 that his interpreter "was often more important to me than a heavy machine gun or a radio to be able to talk to the Air Force because without that asset, I was basically deaf and in many ways culturally blind." Waltz’s interpreter was discovered by the Taliban at a checkpoint while awaiting SIV processing and was beheaded along with several of his relatives.
Waltz did not respond to my questions about his stance on our allies’ plight.
Silence from the Trump administration about our allies has allowed an atmosphere of mistrust to grow among immigration hawks, like the Center for Immigration Studies’ Phillip Linderman. In a series of questionably sourced pieces for The American Conservative, Linderman makes damning and often inaccurate statements about our Afghan allies’ qualifications for safety in the U.S. and the veterans and volunteers who stepped up to fill the shoes of the federal government by providing support for our allies as they awaited seemingly interminable processing for pathways to safety.
Linderman not only wrongly insinuates that our allies are poorly vetted and "may bring the next terrorist attack," but he implies that the #AfghanEvac coalition, which fought tooth and nail to support allies, is in bed with the "open-border lobby.".
VanDiver rejects the notion, explaining that the #AfghanEvac coalition "has insisted that advocates in our ecosystem only work to move Afghans to safety through legal and durable mechanisms. Coming through the southern border, for refugees, results in loss of eligibility for that status.".
Breaking Promises to Veterans
In the course of nearly four years covering newsworthy developments in Afghanistan, I have interacted with dozens of selfless Americans from both civilian and military backgrounds who have been involved in supporting Afghans since the withdrawal. Several sent me their thoughts about the meaning of their accumulated years of efforts and the difficulties our allies are currently facing.
One anonymous veteran told me that the efforts have "been massively traumatic" for volunteers, especially those with post-traumatic stress disorder. "Leaving SIVs behind will absolutely eviscerate our reputation," he says. "We cannot break this promise.".
Another veteran who spoke on condition of anonymity says that the uncertainty of the last few months brought back her "nightmares of friends dying and others being killed." She says she wonders "if it was all worth it, [or if] maybe our allies should have just protected themselves and not stuck their neck out for people like me." In the end, she feels that the betrayal is not just "of our allies but…against us as well.".
Another veteran, who missed the birth of his daughter during his Afghanistan deployment, says of the 20-year effort, "I guess it wasn’t that important." He explains that he went to the steps of his state’s capitol building multiple times to try to drum up support for our allies. In the end, he says, he "had to quit going.…You sometimes feel like a fool for having gone there because of how people look at you as if you are making the whole thing up.".
Kate Kovarovic, formerly the director of resilience programming for the #AfghanEvac coalition, has talked to me over the last several years about fielding calls from overtaxed volunteers with suicidal ideation in the aftermath of the withdrawal. She says she began receiving similar calls again after executive orders threatened long-awaited successes.
The nonprofit Operation Recovery’s Impacts of War initiative found that volunteers who assisted Afghans in the aftermath of the withdrawal spent over $2.2 million, selling homes, cashing out pensions, or taking on debt in order to support Afghan allies. Volunteers were found to have donated 59,330 hours of labor to the cause, with 78 percent of respondents saying that "the track of their life has drastically changed" as a result of their efforts.
House Resolution 4517, the Ensuring Voluntary Actions Are Compensated Act of 2023, intended to have the State Department draw up plans to reimburse Americans who helped Americans and Afghan allies evacuate from Afghanistan. Introduced in the House in July 2023 and co-sponsored by Waltz, it never passed.
The Path ForwardTo truly understand the impact of the Trump administration’s pause—and possible closure—of the USRAP and the tenuous future of the SIV program, we must look at the incredible variety of humans they impact. This includes the populations of Afghan allies who believed in the promises of the U.S. government, and the American legal professionals, refugee resettlement teams, civilian volunteers, and veterans who have supported them.
The frustrations that came along over three and a half years of dawdling bureaucracy and a general sense of neglect from the Biden administration have been compounded by the early efforts of the Trump administration to realign American priorities. Preserving our national security and our moral standing on the world stage are paramount, but both require that we deliver on the promises we made to our partners. Pakistan
How India’s Threat to Block Rivers Could Devastate Pakistan (New York Times)
New York Times [4/24/2025 4:14 PM, Anupreeta Das, Pragati K.B. and Zia ur-Rehman, 831K]
India on Wednesday said it would suspend its participation in a crucial water-sharing agreement with Pakistan, a punitive measure that could wreak havoc on the country’s agriculture and economy.
The move came a day after militants killed 26 civilians who were visiting a scenic location in the part of Kashmir controlled by India. Both countries lay claim to and control parts of the strife-torn region. Although India did not blame Pakistan outright, it said there were “cross-border linkages” with the attackers.
India has threatened before, in other moments of rising tensions, to pull out of the Indus Waters Treaty, which both countries signed in 1960. If India follows through this time, it could restrict the flow of water that is used for most of Pakistan’s crop irrigation and human consumption. Agriculture represents one-fourth of the country’s economy.
The Pakistani government said on Thursday that it would consider any blockage of the water an “act of war.” India, larger and more developed, would have far less to lose by walking away from the pact, although it might face criticism from the global community and raise questions about whether it is flouting international law.
Here’s what to know.
What is the Indus Waters Treaty?
It is an agreement between India and Pakistan that specifies how the waters of six rivers and their tributaries, called the Indus waters, will be used by the two countries.
The agreement became necessary after 1947, when India and Pakistan became independent countries, although the treaty took a decade to negotiate and was signed in 1960, with the World Bank as a mediator. The treaty outlined the rights and obligations of both countries for “equitable use” of water flowing in the Indus river system.India has unrestricted use of the waters of the three eastern rivers: the Ravi, the Sutlej and the Beas, two of which then flow into Pakistan. Pakistan has control of the Indus, the Chenab and the Jhelum, known as the western rivers, which pass through Indian-controlled territory but primarily reside in Pakistan. The treaty obligates India to let the waters of those rivers flow freely to Pakistan for its “unrestricted use.”
For decades, the treaty has been hailed as a landmark that could serve as a template for solving international water disputes. But in the past decade, India has threatened to weaponize the treaty during conflicts with Pakistan.
After Pakistani terrorists attacked an Indian Army base in the Kashmiri town of Uri in 2016, Mr. Modi told Indus Waters Treaty officials that “blood and water cannot flow together.” And in 2019, Indian government officials threatened to divert the flow of the eastern rivers away from Pakistan after a suicide bombing that killed dozens of Indian security forces in Kashmir.
What does India’s withdrawal mean for Pakistan?
It would put Pakistan in a tough spot. The country is arid and has been battling acute water shortages, partly because of extreme weather events. Last month, Pakistan’s water regulator warned that Punjab and Sindh, the country’s key agricultural provinces, could already face water shortfalls of as much as 35 percent during the final phase of the current crop season.
Upcoming monsoon rains also hold risks for Pakistan because India could choose to release surplus water from the eastern rivers without prior notification, potentially triggering floods, said Naseer Memon, an Islamabad-based policy analyst focusing on water governance.
If India decides to withhold hydrological data, such as the timing of monsoons and floods, the unpredictability could hurt small farmers, Mr. Memon added.
Will India take a hit from its decision?
The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to score domestic points with its move, while the international community would be likely to see it as little more than another aspect of the flare-up between two longstanding enemies, some analysts said.“This is a clever, popular and populistic measure,” said Happymon Jacob, an associate professor of diplomacy and disarmament at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
The global community is more likely to be concerned if border tensions escalate into armed conflict, Mr. Jacob said. “So, India has nothing to lose internationally” in suspending the water treaty, he added.
Some analysts saw an opportunity for Pakistan to seek a better outcome by casting it as a matter of international law.“You should not cause significant harm to another country — this is customary international law that is binding on all countries,” said Anwar Sadat, senior assistant professor at the Indian Society of International Law.
Hassan Abbas, a hydrology expert, said Pakistan had effectively compromised the rights of people who live in downstream areas by signing the 1960 treaty.“India’s recent actions present a strategic opportunity for Pakistan to take the matter to The Hague,” he said. “By articulating its position more assertively, Pakistan could seek a comprehensive review of the treaty, potentially reclaiming its rightful share of water resources.”
Anti-India sentiment rose swiftly in Pakistan on Thursday. While addressing protesters in Lahore, Haris Dar, the leader of an Islamist political party, said India had “effectively declared war” on Pakistan.“This is India’s water terrorism,” he said. Pakistan Hits Back at India as Kashmir Fallout Widens (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [4/25/2025 10:54 AM, Eltaf Najafizada, Sudhi Ranjan Sen, and Kamran Haider, 5.5M]
Pakistan condemned India’s actions taken against it after a deadly attack on tourists in Kashmir, halting all trade and warning that any attempt to prevent the flow of water promised under a decades-old treaty would be considered an act of war.
It also expelled Indian diplomats from Islamabad, closed its airspace to Indian-owned and Indian-operated airlines, and suspended the limited trade between the nations as tensions flare after gunmen killed dozens in the Indian territory of Kashmir — a disputed region shared by the nuclear-armed neighbors but claimed in full by both.
The decisions were taken by Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif at a national security committee meeting on Thursday that included the nation’s top civilian and military leadership. The moves come less than a day after New Delhi announced punitive measures against Pakistan, including downgrading diplomatic ties and suspending a crucial water-sharing treaty.
Pakistan’s dollar bonds saw the biggest drop among emerging markets on Thursday amid rising friction between the neighboring nations. Notes due in 2031 sank 3 cents to 82.4 cents on the dollar, the lowest since April 15.
India has accused Pakistan of being involved in Tuesday’s attacks in the scenic area of Pahalgam, about 90 kilometers (56 miles) east of Srinagar, a claim Pakistan has denied.
In his first speech since the shooting, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said the “terrorists and the conspirators — we will punish them worse than they can imagine.” Switching from Hindi to English, Modi told supporters in Bihar state that “India will identify, track, punish every terrorist and their backers.”
India’s government has labeled the attack, the worst against civilians in years, as an act of terrorism. On Thursday, police in Kashmir identified three suspects, two of them Pakistani nationals, of being involved in the attacks. All three were members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the police said, a Pakistan-based militant group that India and the US have designated as a terrorist organization. The police offered a 2 million-rupee ($23,425) reward for information.
Since 1947, the two nuclear-armed neighbors have fought major wars over Kashmir. The last time the two sides came close to an all-out war was in 2019, when a suicide bomber killed 40 members of India’s security forces. Jaish-e-Mohammed (Soldiers of Mohammed), a Pakistan-based jihadi group, claimed responsibility at the time, prompting India to respond with its first air strikes on Pakistani soil since 1971.
The two nations are reacting “childishly,” said Mohammad Hussain Soharwardi, head of regional studies department at the University of Peshawar. “In such a tense situation, investors will try to run away with their capital from both countries,” he said. “Militants are the sole beneficiary of such situations.”
Tit-for-Tat Response
India Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said Wednesday the country plans to reduce its diplomatic staff in Islamabad and expelled at least three Pakistani defense advisers from its New Delhi High Commission. The land border post between the two countries in Punjab state was also shut and Pakistani citizens in India were asked to leave.
In a statement on Thursday, Pakistan called these measures “unjust, politically motivated, extremely irresponsible and devoid of legal merit.” It also “vehemently” rejected India’s unprecedented move to suspend a water-sharing pact. “Any attempt to stop or divert the flow of water belonging to Pakistan as per the Indus Waters Treaty” will be “considered as an Act of War and responded with full force,” it said in the statement.
The suspension of the water treaty between the two nations raises risks for Pakistan’s crop production at a time when the economy is still recovering and reliant on foreign loans, including from the International Monetary Fund.
Islamabad’s description of the suspension means they consider the move “as an existential threat” as availability of water is declining in the country, said Ashok Behuria, a senior fellow who studies Pakistan at the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defense Studies, a New Delhi-based think tank. Pakistan suspends visas for Indians after deadly Kashmir attack on tourists (BBC)
BBC [4/24/2025 9:40 AM, Emily McGarvey, 69901K]
Pakistan has responded with tit-for-tat measures against India as tensions soared following a militant attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that killed 26 tourists.
Islamabad suspended all visas issued to Indian nationals under an exemption scheme with immediate effect, as well as expelling some of its neighbour’s diplomats and closing its airspace to Indian flights.
Indian police have named three of four suspected gunmen behind the attack, saying two are Pakistani citizens and a third is a local Kashmiri man. Pakistan denies Indian claims that it played a role in the shooting.
Tuesday’s attack saw a group of gunmen fire on tourists near Pahalgam, a resort in the disputed Himalayan region.
Police in Indian-administered Kashmir say all three suspects named are members of the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). None of the men have commented on the allegations.
A statement from Pakistan’s National Security Committee rubbished attempts to link the Pahalgam attack to Pakistan, saying there had been no credible investigation or verifiable evidence.
Earlier Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed that "India will identify, track and punish every terrorist and their backers and we will pursue them to the ends of the Earth.".
He said that the "terrorists behind the killings, along with their backers, will get a punishment bigger than they can imagine".
"Our enemies have dared to attack the country’s soul... India’s spirit will never be broken by terrorism.".
On Wednesday evening Delhi announced a raft of diplomatic measures against Islamabad in light of the killings in Kashmir - one of them was shutting the Attari-Wagah border between the two countries immediately.
India also cancelled visa services to Pakistani nationals "with immediate effect".
In its response, Pakistan also rejected India’s suspension of the Indus Water Treaty - a six-decade-old water sharing treaty between the neighbours - adding that any attempt to stop or divert the water "will be considered as an Act of War".
The country has closed its airspace to all Indian-owned or Indian-operated airlines and suspended all trade with India.
It has also reduced the number of diplomats in the Indian High Commission in Islamabad to 30 and asked Indian defence, naval and air advisers to leave Pakistan before 30 April.
About 1,500 people across Kashmir have been detained for questioning in connection with the attack, police sources have told BBC News.
Schools, business and shops are reopening after a shutdown across the region following the shootings.
Police have offered a reward of 2m rupees [$23,000; £17,600] for anyone offering information about any of the attackers.
Visitors from different states in India were killed, with others seriously injured, in one of the deadliest attacks in recent years in the region.
An Indian naval officer on honeymoon, a tourist guide who was the sole breadwinner for his family, and a businessman holidaying with his wife and children were among the victims.
An all-party meeting in Jammu and Kashmir expressed deep shock and anguish at what it called a "barbaric attack".
The bodies of victims arriving in their home states around India are being given emotional farewells by their families and loved ones.
Meanwhile, reports are coming in from parts of India of Kashmiri students facing harassment in the aftermath of the killings.
A spokesperson for Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s National Conference party said several videos showing students being harassed in colleges and other places were being circulated online.
Nasir Khuehami, head of the Jammu and Kashmir Students’ Association, shared a video of a right-wing Hindu group threatening to physically assault Kashmiri Muslim students in the northern state of Uttarakhand to ensure they leave.
The BBC has not been able to independently verify any of these clips. Hundreds protest in Pakistan over India’s threats (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [4/24/2025 9:16 AM, Staff, 62527K]
Hundreds of Pakistanis joined protests across the country on Thursday, including in Kashmir, to rage against Indian threats after a deadly attack on tourists across the contested border.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed to pursue and punish the gunmen responsible for killing 26 civilians in the tourist hotspot of Pahalgam on Tuesday, accusing Pakistan of supporting "cross-border terrorism".
The attack in Indian-administered, Muslim-majority Kashmir was the deadliest for a quarter of a century and marked a dramatic shift with the targeting of civilians instead of Indian security forces.
"If India wants to go to war, then come forward openly," businessman Ajmal Baloch told AFP at a protest called by a religious party and attended by around 700 people Lahore, where the main border crossing with India is located.
India has said it will suspend the Indus Water Treaty, which shares critical water between the two nuclear-armed neighbours, although it has no major means of restricting the river’s flow downstream to Pakistan.
However, protesters including Baloch raged against the "unacceptable" threat.
"Water is our right and, God willing, we will reclaim it, even if that means through war. We will not back down," 25-year-old Muhammad Owais said.
Around 300 people brandishing placards carrying anti-India slogans marched through the main city of Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
"If India makes the mistake of attacking, the Pakistani Kashmiris will fight on the frontline, we’re ready to die for Pakistan," said Shoukat Javed Mir, a senior leader of the Pakistan People’s Party in the region.
In Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, around 150 people staged a protest. Pakistan pauses key canal irrigation project (Reuters)
Reuters [4/24/2025 11:12 AM, Asif Shahzad, 41523K]
Pakistan is pausing a key canal irrigation project, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Thursday, adding that no new canals will be built until a special committee formed to address concerns on the project reaches a consensus. India
Crisis Deepens for India and Pakistan Over Kashmir Attack (New York Times)
New York Times [4/24/2025 1:48 PM, Salman Masood, 126906K]
Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated sharply on Thursday, as the Pakistani government said it would consider it “an act of war” if India followed through on a threat to block the flow of crucial rivers as punishment for a deadly militant attack in Kashmir.After a high-level meeting of Pakistan’s National Security Committee, the government announced a series of sweeping retaliatory measures, including the closing of its airspace to Indian carriers, a reduction of India’s diplomatic staff in Islamabad and a suspension of all trade with India.The Indian government has not officially identified any group as being behind the attack on Tuesday in a scenic tourist area of Indian-administered Kashmir. But it announced a flurry of punitive measures against Pakistan on Wednesday, including the suspension of an important water treaty, in response to what it said was Pakistan’s support of terrorist attacks inside India.On Thursday, Pakistan’s top civilian and military leadership called India’s actions — which included the revocation of visas for Pakistanis and a downgrading of diplomatic ties — “unilateral, politically motivated and legally void.” Pakistan has denied any involvement in Tuesday’s attack.The Pakistani government reserved its strongest words for India’s actions on the water treaty, saying it would respond decisively if the rivers were blocked or diverted. Pakistan relies on water from the Indus river system, which flows through India, for about 90 percent of its agriculture.The treaty, brokered by the World Bank in 1960, had long been seen as a rare pillar of stability in South Asia, a framework that endured even through full-scale wars. Its unraveling now marks a rupture with huge symbolic and strategic weight.Before the security committee meeting on Thursday, the Pakistani government had struck a measured tone after militants killed more than two dozen Indian civilians in Kashmir, insisting that it had no interest in seeing tensions with India escalate.But across Pakistan, people are watching with growing concern as Indian officials hint at the possibility of military strikes, and the television airwaves have been filled with defense analysts warning of unpredictable consequences if hostilities between the nuclear-armed neighbors intensify.Najm us Saqib, a former Pakistani diplomat, said the fallout from the militant attack could be lasting.“The coming weeks and months are likely to witness heightened tensions that might culminate in destabilizing an already fragile and susceptible region,” he said.The assault in Kashmir, a region both countries claim and have fought wars over, set off a familiar pattern.The Indian news media, which is largely aligned with the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, quickly pointed a finger at Pakistan. Pakistan accused India of trying to deflect attention from security lapses in the restive region.Western intelligence officials have said that Pakistani security services allow anti-India militants to operate in Pakistan. India says those militants have crossed into Indian territory to carry out attacks.Pakistan has pointed a finger at India, too, long accusing it of supporting a separatist insurgency in Baluchistan, a southwestern province. In recent months, attacks have spread across the province, including the deadly hijacking of a passenger train last month. Pakistan has also accused India of playing a role in militant attacks in the country’s northwest.The last major militant assault in the Indian part of Kashmir took place in 2019, when dozens of Indian security personnel were killed. After that attack, India launched an air battle that stopped just short of all-out war.Some Pakistani analysts warn that the current confrontation could intensify beyond the 2019 standoff. “Indian escalation already began last night, and it will be at a bigger scale than February 2019,” Syed Muhammad Ali, a security analyst in Islamabad, said on Wednesday.He claimed that India was using the attack to seek solidarity with the United States and defuse tensions over President Trump’s threat of tariffs, as well as to reframe the push for independence in Kashmir as a terrorist movement.As of Wednesday, Pakistani officials said they had seen no evidence of an Indian military mobilization. They said that the Pakistani military remained alert along the Line of Control separating the Indian- and Pakistani-administered parts of Kashmir.A senior Pakistani security official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic and military matters, said that Pakistan would approach any tit-for-tat escalation carefully but would thwart incursions by India if they occurred.Some military analysts and current and former officials accused India of staging the attack, noting that it had come while Vice President JD Vance was visiting India.“They’re blaming Pakistan without proof,” Ahmed Saeed Minhas, a retired brigadier general, said on the television channel Geo News.He then made a joke about the 2019 standoff between Pakistan and India, when a video emerged of an Indian Air Force pilot, Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, sipping tea while in Pakistani custody.“If India tries anything again, they should remember — we served tea to Abhinandan in 2019,” Mr. Minhas said. “This time, we might even offer him biscuits.”The current tensions have revived memories of the 2019 episode.A suicide bombing that February in the city of Pulwama prompted an Indian airstrike inside Pakistan, triggering a dogfight. An Indian jet was shot down, and Wing Commander Varthaman was captured and later released — a gesture that helped cool tensions, if briefly.Officials say the current situation differs from 2019. While the Pulwama attack was claimed by the militant Islamist group Jaish-e-Mohammed and targeted security personnel, the one on Tuesday involved unarmed civilians, and any claims of responsibility have been vague and unverified.So far, the Pakistani military has made no public statement about Tuesday’s attack. The Foreign Ministry on Wednesday condemned the loss of life, denied any role by Pakistan and urged India to avoid “premature and irresponsible allegations.”Officials and analysts warn that while the region avoided catastrophe in 2019, that good fortune may not repeat itself.“During the last escalation, both India and Pakistan were lucky to step down from the ladder,” said Murtaza Solangi, a former interim information minister.“This time, we’re in a more dangerous phase,” he said. “A fractured global order and India’s hyperventilating media make it harder for Modi to act rationally. Both countries will be net losers if India doesn’t stop this madness.”Asfandyar Mir, a Washington-based security expert, warned that the absence of diplomatic back channels had made the situation more dangerous.“Crises in South Asia have historically been defused through discreet communication,” he said. “That infrastructure is now missing. And that increases the risk of a miscalculation.” India and Pakistan escalate diplomatic tensions after deadly Kashmir attack (Washington Post)
Washington Post [4/24/2025 8:58 AM, Victoria Bisset, 31735K]
India and Pakistan revoked visas for each other’s citizens Thursday as diplomatic tensions escalated two days after a deadly shooting attack on a mountain town in Indian-administered Kashmir killed at least 26 people.Pakistan announced it was suspending trade with India and closing its airspace to all Indian-owned or -operated airlines, while India’s Foreign Ministry said that all Pakistani nationals were to leave the country before their visas expired in the next few days. On Wednesday, India had closed the main land border between the two countries and suspended a key water-sharing treaty — something Pakistani officials described as “an act of water warfare.”Tuesday’s attack on tourists in a scenic mountainous valley in the Kashmir region, a Muslim-majority enclave, was the deadliest attack against civilians in the region in more than a decade. The attack outside the town of Pahalgam, which coincided with Vice President JD Vance’s visit to India, threatens the fragile 2021 ceasefire between India and Pakistan that ended fighting at the de facto border between Indian- and Pakistani-held Kashmir.The nuclear-armed neighbors both claim Kashmir and administer separate parts of it; India has long accused Pakistan of supporting militants in the area it administers.Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday vowed to pursue the perpetrators of the attack “to the ends of the earth,” without identifying them or naming Pakistan. India’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the move to revoke all existing visas to Pakistani nationals came “in the wake of the Pahalgam terror attack” and also recommended that Indian nationals currently in Pakistan “return to India at the earliest.”Pakistan has condemned the attack and denied involvement. At a news conference Tuesday, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar accused India of a “blame game” without proof. The country’s National Security Committee described India’s response as “unilateral, unjust, politically motivated, extremely irresponsible and devoid of legal merit.”India and Pakistan have fought three wars over the disputed territory, and armed insurgents in Kashmir have spent decades fighting against Indian control. Thousands of civilians have been killed in the violence or caught in the crosshairs of the dispute.In 2019, the two countries came to the brink of war after a Pakistan-based militant group claimed responsibility for a massive suicide bombing targeting paramilitary forces in Indian-controlled Kashmir — prompting India, and then Pakistan, to launch cross-border airstrikes.Later the same year, India revoked the semiautonomous status of Indian-administered Kashmir and imposed sweeping security measures. As The Washington Post has reported, Kashmiris deemed too vocal or too close to separatists have since been fired, jailed or warned to stay silent. Modi Vows to Hunt and ‘Punish’ Kashmir Attackers in Fiery Speech (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [4/24/2025 5:45 AM, Swati Gupta and Eltaf Najafizada, 16228K]
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed to track and “punish” the perpetrators of this week’s deadly attack on dozens of tourists in Kashmir, which officials accuse Pakistan of being involved in.In his first speech since Tuesday’s shooting of 26 people in the northern region of Jammu and Kashmir, Modi said the “terrorists and the conspirators — we will punish them worse than they can imagine.” Switching from Hindi to English, Modi told supporters in Bihar state that “India will identify, track, punish every terrorist and their backers.”India’s government has labeled the attack, the worst against civilians in years, as an act of terrorism. On Thursday, police in Kashmir identified three suspects, two of them Pakistani nationals, of being involved in the attacks. All three were members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the police said, a Pakistan-based militant group that India and the US have designated as a terrorist organization. The police offered a 2 million rupees ($23,425) reward for information.New Delhi took retaliatory measures against Pakistan on Wednesday, including downgrading diplomatic ties and suspending a crucial water-sharing treaty. Pakistan has said it has no links to the attack, with the government’s National Security Committee meeting on Thursday to respond to India’s actions.Since 1947, the two nuclear-armed neighbors have fought major wars over Kashmir, an area in the Himalayas claimed in full — and ruled in part — by both. The last time the two sides came close to an all-out war was in 2019, when a suicide bomber killed 40 members of India’s security forces. Jaish-e-Mohammed (Soldiers of Mohammed), a Pakistan-based jihadi group, claimed responsibility at the time, prompting India to respond with its first air strikes on Pakistani soil since 1971.So far, India has taken a “graded response” to this week’s attack, said Harsh Pant, who teaches international relations at Kings College, London. If the government takes more aggressive steps, it’s “not going to be formally announced if at all they want to go in that direction,” he added. India Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said Wednesday the country plans to reduce its diplomatic staff in Islamabad and expelled at least three Pakistani defense advisers from its New Delhi High Commission. The land border post between the two countries in Punjab state was also shut and Pakistani citizens in India were asked to leave.The suspension of the water treaty between the two nations raises risks for Pakistan’s crop production at a time when the economy is still recovering and reliant on foreign loans, including from the International Monetary Fund.Modi, who cut short his two-day trip to Saudi Arabia after the attacks, was speaking Thursday to supporters in Bihar state, which is set to hold local elections in the second half of the year. The chief minister in Bihar is the second-biggest coalition partner in Modi’s government. India and Pakistan ramp up tit-for-tat spat as tensions mount over Kashmir attack (AP)
AP [4/24/2025 9:33 AM, Aijaz Hussain, Sheikh Saaliq, and Riazat Butt 48304K]
India and Pakistan cancelled visas for their nationals to each other’s countries and Islamabad warned New Delhi for suspending a water-sharing treaty Thursday.The moves came after India blamed Pakistan for a deadly attack by gunmen that killed 26 people in disputed Kashmir.India said all visas issued to Pakistani nationals will be revoked with effect from Sunday, adding that all Pakistanis currently in India must leave before their visas expire based on the revised timeline. The country also announced other measures, including cutting the number of diplomatic staff, closing the only functional land border crossing between the countries and suspending a crucial water-sharing agreement.In retaliation, Pakistan closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or Indian-operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country.Tuesday’s attack in Kashmir was the worst assault in years, targeting civilians in the restive region that has seen an anti-India rebellion for more than three decades.The incident shocked and outraged Indians, prompting calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. The Indian government said the attack had “cross-border” links to Pakistan, without publicly producing any evidence to support that claim. Pakistan has denied any connection to the attack, which was claimed by a previously unknown militant group calling itself the Kashmir Resistance.Pakistan’s National Security Committee condemned India’s “belligerent measures.” It said that while Pakistan remained committed to peace, it would never allow anyone to “transgress its sovereignty, security, dignity and inalienable rights.”Government ministers on both sides have hinted that the dispute could escalate to military action. Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar told local Dunya News TV channel that “any kinetic step by India will see a tit-for-tat kinetic response.”Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh pledged Wednesday to “not only trace those who perpetrated the attack but also trace those who conspired to commit this nefarious act on our soil,” and hinted at the possibility of military strikes.India and Pakistan each administer a part of Kashmir, but both claim the territory in its entirety. New Delhi describes all militancy in Kashmir as Pakistan-backed terrorism. Pakistan denies this, and many Muslim Kashmiris consider the militants to be part of a home-grown freedom struggle.Domestic pressures on both sidesThe killings have put pressure on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government to respond aggressively.“India will identify, track and punish every terrorist, their handlers and their backers,” Modi told a rally Thursday. “We will pursue them to the ends of the earth,” he warned.His government announced a series of diplomatic actions against Islamabad while hinting at plans for more punishment.India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri announced Wednesday that a number of Pakistani diplomats were asked to leave New Delhi and Indian diplomats were recalled from Pakistan. Diplomatic missions in both countries will reduce their staff from 55 to 30 as of May 1, and the only functional land border crossing between them would be closed.India’s foreign ministry advised Indians citizens not to travel to Pakistan and asked those currently there to return.India also suspended a landmark water-sharing treaty that has survived two wars between the countries, in 1965 and 1971, and a major border skirmish in 1999.The Indus Water Treaty, brokered by the World Bank in 1960, allows for sharing the waters of a river system that is a lifeline for both countries, particularly for Pakistan’s agriculture.Pakistan has responded angrily that it has nothing to do with the attack and warned that any Indian attempt to stop or divert flow of water would be considered an “act of war” and met with “full force across the complete spectrum” of Pakistan’s national power.In Pakistan, dozens of demonstrators rallied in some cities, including outside the Indian High Commission in Islamabad, against India’s suspension of the treaty, demanding their government to retaliate.Fears of escalationModi overturned the status quo in Kashmir in August 2019, when his government revoked the region’s semi-autonomous status and brought it under direct federal control.That deepened tensions in the region, but things with Pakistan held stable as the two countries in 2021 renewed a previous ceasefire agreement along their border, which has largely held despite militant attacks on Indian forces in the region.Some experts say India may move beyond diplomatic sanctions as the country’s media and leaders from Modi’s ruling party call for military action.Ashok Malik, a former policy advisor in India’s foreign ministry, said New Delhi’s response reflected a high degree of anger within the administration and India’s move on the Indus Water treaty “will impose costs on Pakistan’s economy.”Malik added that Indian leaders view military options as viable."(India’s) military strategists believe there is a space for kinetic conventional action under the nuclear umbrella. The space isn’t infinite, but it isn’t insignificant either,” he said.Praveen Donthi, senior analyst with the International Crisis Group, said framing the Kashmir conflict as a security crisis of Pakistan’s creation, “which can be resolved only through harsh talk and actions,” brings political dividends to Modi’s government but could also leave it with few options in times of crises.“The immense public pressure on the Modi government to retaliate strongly and militarily is self-created. Soon, there will be no options left unless New Delhi starts looking to address the roots of political unrest in Kashmir,” Donthi said.Dismay in KashmirThe killings shocked residents of Kashmir, where militants fighting against Indian rule have rarely targeted tourists and have mainly mounted their attacks against Indian forces.In a rare show of public outrage, Kashmiris — many of whom have struggled under an intense crackdown by Indian forces and New Delhi’s highhanded rule — took part in street protests and candle light marches in protest against the killings. Markets, private schools and businesses were shut Wednesday amid an uneasy calm as people worried that the attacks could drive away tourists and hurt the region’s economy.“The people here are in fear and panic,” said hotelier Manzoor Ahmed, adding that tourists would now be skeptical of visiting Kashmir.Funerals of several of those killed were also held across some Indian cities. India and Pakistan again teeter on the brink of conflict over Kashmir. Here’s why (AP)
AP [4/24/2025 11:37 PM, Rajesh Roy, 13342K]
A deadly attack on tourists in Indian-controlled Kashmir has again moved India and Pakistan closer to war as the two rivals downgraded diplomatic and trade ties, closed the main border crossing and revoked visas for each other’s nationals.
Pakistan has denied it was behind Tuesday’s attack that killed 26 mostly Indian tourists at a popular scenic spot in the Himalayan region, where India claimed it had restored a sense of calm despite a decades-long rebellion. A militant group calling itself Kashmir Resistance has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Here’s what to know about an escalation in tensions between the two nuclear armed rivals. They have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir, which is split between them and claimed by both in its entirety.
What’s at the heart of the dispute?
Ties between India and Pakistan have been shaped by conflict, aggressive diplomacy and mutual suspicion, most notably in their competing claims over the stunning Himalayan region of Kashmir.
Armed insurgents in Kashmir have resisted New Delhi for decades, with many Muslim Kashmiris supporting the rebels’ goal of uniting the territory either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country. India accuses Pakistan of fomenting violence, a charge denied by Islamabad. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict over the years.
How has Pakistan responded to India’s reprisals?
On Tuesday, gunmen fatally shot 26 people, mostly Indian tourists, in an attack near the picturesque town of Pahalgam. New Delhi immediately linked Pakistan to the attack, although it did not publicly provide any evidence.
India announced a string of punitive measures. It downgraded diplomatic ties, suspended a crucial water-sharing treaty with Islamabad and on Thursday, India’s Foreign Ministry said it had revoked all visas issued to Pakistani nationals. India also said it will reduce its staff in its high commission in Pakistan and bring down the number of Pakistani diplomats in New Delhi to 30 from 55 beginning May 1.
Pakistan called India’s actions "irresponsible" and canceled visas for Indian nationals, suspended all trade with India, including via third countries, and closed its airspace to Indian aircraft.
Islamabad warns dispute over water could lead to war.
India’s decision to suspend the water treaty could potentially mark a major turning point in how the two neighbors manage an essential shared resource between them. Pakistan warned Thursday that any Indian attempt to stop or divert the flow of water between them would be considered an "act of war.".
The Indus Water Treaty, brokered by the World Bank in 1960, allows for sharing the waters of a river system that is a lifeline for both countries. The treaty has survived two wars between the countries, in 1965 and 1971, and a major border skirmish in 1999.
It governs sharing of the water supply from the Indus River system and its tributaries. Under the treaty, India has control over the eastern rivers of Ravi, Sutlej and Beas, and Pakistan controls the western rivers of Jhelum, Chenab and Indus that flow through the Kashmir region.
Water treaty is ‘vital national interest’ for Pakistan.
Pakistan said the treaty was a binding international agreement brokered by the World Bank and contained no provision for unilateral suspension. Islamabad described it as a "vital national interest" and a lifeline for the country’s 240 million people.
The treaty is essential for supporting Pakistan’s agriculture and hydropower needs. Suspending it could lead to water shortages at a time when parts of the country are already struggling with drought and declining rainfall.
Militant attacks scale back peace efforts
Despite largely strained relations, the neighbors have intermittently made efforts for peace. However, regular border flare-ups and multiple militant attacks in Kashmir and India have marred peace overtures as New Delhi has taken a tough position on Islamabad, accusing it of "terrorism.".
In 1999, Pakistan-backed rebels and Pakistani soldiers seized Indian military posts in the icy heights of the Kargil region. Indian troops responded and a 10-week conflict killed at least 1,000 combatants on both sides. The fighting stopped after a U.S. intervention.In 2008, a group of heavily armed assailants of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group went on a rampage in India’s financial capital, Mumbai, killing 166 people. New Delhi blamed Pakistan’s intelligence service for the assault, an accusation denied by Islamabad.
In 2019, a suicide car bombing killed 40 Indian soldiers in Kashmir and brought the countries closer to war. In response, India said its air force struck a militant training camp inside Pakistan. Pakistan responded by aerial raids, downed an Indian military aircraft and captured an Indian pilot, who was later released.
Months later, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government revoked Kashmir’s semiautonomous status and imposed sweeping security measures. Since then, India has kept order in the region with a huge security presence and drastically curbed dissent, civil liberties and media freedoms.
Worries of nuclear confrontation
India and Pakistan have built up their armies and nuclear arsenals over the years. India was the first to conduct a nuclear test in 1974, followed by another in 1998. Pakistan followed with its own nuclear tests just a few weeks later. The sides have since armed themselves with hundreds of nuclear warheads, missile delivery systems, advanced fighter jets and modern weapons to take on each other. Indian army chief in Kashmir as rising tensions with Pakistan spook markets (Reuters)
Reuters [4/25/2025 3:31 AM, Fayaz Bukhari and Shivam Patel, 5.2M]
India’s army chief will review security arrangements on Friday and visit the site of a deadly attack on tourists in Indian Kashmir earlier this week, with fears of fresh tensions with long-time rival and neighbour Pakistan spooking markets.
India has said there were Pakistani elements in Tuesday’s attack, when militants shot 26 men in a meadow in the Pahalgam area, and Islamabad has denied any involvement.
The nuclear-armed nations have unleashed a raft of measures against each other, with India keeping a critical river water-sharing treaty in abeyance and Pakistan closing its airspace to Indian airlines, among other steps.
General Upendra Dwivedi, India’s army chief, will visit Kashmir on Friday to review security arrangements and was likely to visit the site of the attack, an army source said, a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed to chase the perpetrators to "the ends of the earth".
Indian stock markets fell on Friday and the key indices were down by around 1%, while the rupee turned lower and the 10-year benchmark bond yield jumped 4 basis points.
India’s top two carriers IndiGo and Air India said some of their international routes, including to the United States and Europe, would be affected by the closure of Pakistani airspace, leading to extended flight times and diversions.
There have been calls for and fears that India could conduct a military strike in Pakistani territory as it did in 2019 in retaliation for a suicide bombing in Indian-controlled Kashmir that killed at least 40 Indian paramilitary police .
Several leaders of Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party have called for military action against Pakistan.
The two countries both claim Muslim-majority Kashmir in full, but rule it in part. India, a Hindu majority nation, has long accused Islamic Pakistan of aiding separatists who have battled security forces in its part of the territory - accusations Islamabad denies.
Indian officials say Tuesday’s attack had "cross-border linkages". Kashmiri police, in notices identifying three people "involved" in the violence, said two of them were Pakistani nationals. India has not elaborated on the links or shared proof.
Those killed in the attack belonged all parts of India, Modi said in a speech on Wednesday, even as television channels showed images of funerals taking places in several states across the country.
Pictures of women wailing and people praying in front of burning pyres as many of the 26 dead were cremated were splashed across most national dailies on Friday.
Early on Friday, authorities in Indian Kashmir demolished the houses of two suspected militants, one of whom is an accused in Tuesday’s attack, an official said.
Governments in many states ruled by Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party have torn down what they say are illegal houses or shops of people accused of crimes, many of them Muslims, in what has come to be popularly known as "instant, bulldozer justice".
In an unrelated incident, sporadic firing was reported along the Line of Control that divides Indian and Pakistani Kashmir, the Indian army said on Friday, despite a 2021 ceasefire which has been violated several times. Indian officials say troops exchanged fire with Pakistani soldiers in disputed Kashmir (AP)
AP [4/24/2025 3:58 AM, Aijaz Hussain and Rajesh Roy, 456K]
Indian officials said the army had a brief exchange of fire with Pakistani soldiers along their highly militarized frontier in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, as the nuclear-armed rivals ramped up tit-for-tat diplomatic offensive following a deadly attack on tourists.
The report of a gunfight comes amid soaring tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad after gunmen killed 26 people near the resort town of Pahalgam in Kashmir on Tuesday. India immediately described the massacre a “terror attack” and said it had “cross border” links, blaming Pakistan for backing it.
Pakistan denied any connection to the attack, which was claimed by a previously unknown militant group calling itself the Kashmir Resistance.
Three Indian army officials said that Pakistani soldiers used small arms to fire at an Indian position in Kashmir late Thursday. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with departmental policy, said Indian soldiers retaliated and no casualties were reported.In Pakistan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday decline to confirm or deny the report. Ministry spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan told a news conference that “I will wait for a formal confirmation from the military before I make any comment.”
He added there had been no effort yet from any other country to mediate.
In the past, each side has accused the other of starting border skirmishes in Kashmir, which both claim in its entirety.
The United Nations has urged India and Pakistan “to exercise maximum restraint and to ensure that the situation and the developments we’ve seen do not deteriorate any further.”“Any issues between Pakistan and India, we believe can be and should be resolved peacefully, through meaningful, mutual engagement,” the statement said Friday.
Following the attack, India announced a series of diplomatic actions against Pakistan.
New Delhi on Wednesday suspended a crucial water-sharing treaty that has withstood two wars between the two countries and closed the only functional land border crossing between the countries while also cutting the number of diplomatic staff. A day later, India revoked all visas issued to Pakistani nationals with effect from Sunday.
In retaliation, Pakistan on Thursday responded angrily that it has nothing to do with the attack, and canceled visas issued to Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or Indian-operated airlines and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country.
It also warned that any Indian attempt to stop or divert flow of water would be considered an “act of war” and met with “full force across the complete spectrum” of Pakistan’s national power.
Tuesday’s attack in Kashmir was the worst assault in years, targeting civilians in the restive region that has seen an anti-India rebellion for more than three decades.
India and Pakistan each administer a part of Kashmir. New Delhi describes all militancy in Kashmir as Pakistan-backed terrorism. Pakistan denies this, and many Muslim Kashmiris consider the militants to be part of a home-grown freedom struggle. Pakistan and India exchange fire as UN calls for ‘maximum restraint’ (The Guardian)
The Guardian [4/24/2025 4:14 PM, Penelope McRae, 78.9M]
Troops from Pakistan and India exchanged fire overnight across the line of control in disputed Kashmir, officials have said, after the UN urged the nuclear-armed rivals to show “maximum restraint” after a deadly shooting in the region.
Relations have plunged to their lowest level in years, with India accusing Pakistan of supporting “cross-border terrorism” after gunmen carried out the worst attack on civilians in contested Muslim-majority Kashmir for a quarter of a century.
Syed Ashfaq Gilani, a government official in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, told Agence France-Presse on Friday that troops exchanged fire along the line of control that separates the two countries. “There was no firing on the civilian population,” he added.
India’s army confirmed there had been limited firing of small arms that it said had been initiated by Pakistan, adding it had been “effectively responded to”.
Three Indian army officials told Reuters that Pakistani soldiers used small arms to fire at an Indian position. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with departmental policy, said Indian soldiers retaliated and no casualties were reported.
There was no immediate comment from Pakistan, and the incident could not be independently verified. In the past, each side has accused the other of starting border skirmishes in Kashmir, which both claim in its entirety.
India’s army chief, Gen Upendra Dwivedi, is to lead a high-level security review in Srinagar in Indian-held Kashmir on Friday, days after militants killed 26 civilians in the disputed region in one of the worst such attacks in years.
The brazen assault, carried out in a mountain meadow near Pahalgam, has derailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s claims of restored calm in the restive Himalayan territory and sent tensions soaring between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan.
The Indian army has launched sweeping “search-and-destroy” operations, deployed surveillance drones, and ramped up troop numbers across the Kashmir Valley. A manhunt is underway for three suspects – one Indian national and two Pakistanis.
Early on Friday, authorities in Indian Kashmir demolished the houses of two suspected militants, one of whom is an accused in Tuesday’s attack, according to an official.
As tensions rise between the two countries, the UN has urged India and Pakistan to show restraint. The countries have imposed tit-for-tat diplomatic measures over a deadly shooting in Kashmir.
Relations have plunged to their lowest level in years, with India accusing Pakistan of supporting cross-border terrorism, after gunmen carried out the worst attack on civilians in contested Muslim-majority Kashmir in a quarter of a century.“We very much appeal to both the governments … to exercise maximum restraint, and to ensure that the situation and the developments we’ve seen do not deteriorate any further,” the UN spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, told reporters in New York on Thursday.“Any issues between Pakistan and India, we believe, can be and should be resolved peacefully through meaningful mutual engagement.”
Dwivedi’s visit to the regional capital underscores a sharp increase in military and diplomatic activity. India began large-scale air and naval drills on Thursday, which analysts say could pave the way for military action.
The Indian air force’s Gagan Shakti exercises, showcasing its Rafale jets and elite strike squadrons, have assumed added urgency, while the navy has intensified manoeuvres and test-fired a surface-to-air missile.“There are many imponderables Modi must deal with, including the significant capabilities of the Pakistan army,” the veteran analyst C Raja Mohan wrote in the Indian Express. “But given the horrific nature of the attack and the outrage that has convulsed the nation – the victims came from 15 states across India – the PM may have no option but to explore some major risks.”
On the diplomatic front, India’s foreign secretary, Vikram Misri, briefed envoys from 25 countries, including key G20 partners, Gulf states and, notably, China. Beijing’s inclusion, despite strained ties, was seen as an attempt to build broader global consensus.
India presented what it called “clear evidence of cross-border complicity”. An obscure group calling itself the Resistance Front has claimed responsibility for the attack. Indian officials say it is a proxy for the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba or a similar outfit. Islamabad denied involvement, accusing India of failing to provide proof.
On Thursday Modi promised to capture the gunmen responsible for killing 26 civilians, after Indian police identified two of the three fugitive assailants as Pakistani.“I say to the whole world: India will identify, track and punish every terrorist and their backer,” the prime minister said, in his first speech since Tuesday’s attack in the Himalayan region. “We will pursue them to the ends of the Earth.”
Denying any involvement, Islamabad called attempts to link Pakistan to the Pahalgam attack “frivolous” and vowed to respond to any Indian action.“Any threat to Pakistan’s sovereignty and to the security of its people will be met with firm reciprocal measures in all domains,” a Pakistani statement said, after the prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, held a rare national security committee meeting with top military chiefs.
Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since its independence in 1947, with both claiming the territory in full but governing separate portions of it.
Rebel groups have waged an insurgency in Indian-controlled Kashmir since 1989, demanding independence or a merger with Pakistan.
Indian police say the three gunmen are members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a UN-designated terrorist organisation. They offered a bounty of 2m rupees ($23,500) for information leading to each man’s arrest.
A day after the attack, New Delhi suspended a water-sharing treaty, announced the closure of the main land border crossing with Pakistan, downgraded diplomatic ties, and withdrew visas for Pakistanis.
In response, Islamabad ordered the expulsion of Indian diplomats and military advisers on Thursday, cancelling visas for Indian nationals – with the exception of Sikh pilgrims – and closing the main border crossing from its side.
Pakistan also warned any attempt by India to stop the supply of water from the Indus River would be an “act of war”. US Issues New Travel Warning After Kashmir Attack (Newsweek)
Newsweek [4/24/2025 6:45 AM, Dan Cody, 3973K]
The United States has issued a "Do Not Travel" advisory for the Indian-administered state of Jammu and Kashmir after gunmen opened fire on a group of tourists, killing at least 26 people and wounding 17 others.
The attack, which unfolded in the popular destination of Pahalgam, has triggered heightened security alerts and intensified diplomatic tensions between India and Pakistan. New Delhi has since ordered the closure of the land border with its neighbor.
The U.S. Department of State updated its guidance for American citizens on April 24, emphasizing the threat of "terrorist attacks and violent civil unrest" in Jammu and Kashmir.
The advisory excludes visits to the eastern Ladakh region and its capital, Leh, but specifies that "violence happens sporadically in this area and is common along the Line of Control (LOC) between India and Pakistan. It also occurs in tourist spots in the Kashmir Valley: Srinagar, Gulmarg, and Pahalgam.".
The travel warning came a day after militants opened fire on tourists in Pahalgam, marking the region’s deadliest incident since the 2019 Pulwama bombing, where a suicide attack killed 40 Indian paramilitary personnel.
How Has India Responded to the Terror Attack?
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemned the attack and pledged retaliation. "Attackers, conspirators will be punished beyond their imagination," Modi said. Modi assured the public that his government would take decisive actions to prevent further violence and maintain security in the region.
The government closed its main border crossing with Pakistan, effectively cutting a crucial transit point for people and goods. The border closure was part of a broader strategy that included expelling Pakistani military diplomats. India will also reduce the number of Pakistani diplomats allowed in its High Commission in India to 30 from 55 from 1 May. Pakistani nationals in India were ordered to leave the country within 48 hours.
Home Minister Amit Shah chaired security meetings, deploying additional troops to sensitive areas in Jammu and Kashmir. An all-party meeting was also convened to address the broader security strategy and diplomatic consequences following the attack. These measures included suspending the Indus Water Treaty, a long-standing agreement that regulates water-sharing between India and Pakistan.
How Did Trump Respond to the Terror Attack?
President Donald Trump condemned the Pahalgam attack in a statement posted on his social media platform, Truth Social. "Deeply disturbing news out of Kashmir. The United States stands strong with India against Terrorism. We pray for the souls of those lost, and for the recovery of the injured. Prime Minister Modi, and the incredible people of India...," Trump wrote.
The U.S. Embassy in India reinforced its travel advisory with specific warnings. It reminded citizens that "U.S. government personnel are prohibited from travel to Jammu and Kashmir," and recommended that Americans avoid the area, monitor local media, and stay vigilant, particularly in tourist destinations like Srinagar, Gulmarg, and Pahalgam.
This incident has placed the Kashmir region in the international spotlight, where violence continues to fuel India-Pakistan tensions. The diplomatic fallout from the attack is likely to intensify, with global responses and potential sanctions under consideration as investigations unfold. Trump Faces New Nuclear Crisis as India-Pakistan Tensions Soar (Newsweek)
Newsweek [4/25/2025 4:00 AM, Tom O’Connor, 52.2M]
As President Donald Trump grapples with wars raging in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip, another major flashpoint is simmering in South Asia, where tensions are escalating after a deadly attack along one of the most militarized boundaries on Earth.
In the bloodiest strike of its kind in years, Islamist militants killed 26 people Wednesday in Pahalgam, a hilly town that lies in the India-administered stretch of the disputed Jammu and Kashmir region. The attack—for which a lesser-known outfit known as the Resistant Front, reportedly tied to the alleged Pakistan-linked Lashkar-e-Taiba insurgent group, has claimed responsibility—took place as U.S. Vice President JD Vance was elsewhere in India for an unofficial visit alongside his wife and children.
Shortly afterward, Vance pledged to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that Washington would "provide all assistance in the joint fight against terrorism," according to Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal.
While Pakistani officials have vehemently denied any connection to the massacre, a call to arms is gaining traction among the world’s most populous nation across a long-disputed border, setting the stage for the Trump administration to throw its weight behind a diplomatic or military response from India—possibly both.
In any scenario, the stakes are exceptionally high amid a face-off between two nuclear-armed nemeses as reports of clashes emerged Thursday along their contested Line of Control.‘A Game-Changer’
Kashmir has been at the front lines of the India-Pakistan rivalry since the two nations were partitioned from the formerly United Kingdom-ruled subcontinent in 1947. The vast Himalayan stretch of territory has since been at the center of three major wars fought between the archenemies, accompanied by a three-decade insurgency by separatists on the India-administered section.
The most recent major escalation took place in February 2019, two decades after the last war fought between India and Pakistan. New Delhi responded to an attack claimed by the Jaish-e-Mohammed militant group against Indian forces in Kashmir by conducting strikes across the Line of Control, resulting in a retaliatory attack by Islamabad that downed an Indian warplane.
Modi moved that same year to revoke Jammu and Kashmir’s special autonomous status, drawing outrage from Pakistan and resulting in a deterioration of relations between the two powers. Cross-border clashes erupted the following year, leading to a 2021 truce that has largely been upheld but now risks being unraveled due to the militant attack this week.
Michael Kugelman, director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars’ South Asia Institute, described the attack in Pahalgam as a "game-changer."
"It shatters the relative calm prevailing in Kashmir in recent years, and in so doing it punctures the Indian narrative that normalcy—including stability—has been restored in a highly restive region," Kugelman told Newsweek. "It’s also the deadliest attack on civilians in India since the 2008 Mumbai attacks, which Indians regard as their 9/11."
"Given the scale and targeting of this attack," he added, "it’s all but assured that India will respond with muscle."
New Delhi has already taken several steps to reduce cooperation with Islamabad. These include the suspension of a water treaty along the shared Indus River, the expulsion of Pakistani military attaches, the withdrawal of India’s defense envoys in Pakistan, the closure of the Wagah-Attari border crossing and an ordering of all Pakistanis on valid visas to exit India within days.
However, Kugelman said such measures "could be the prelude to something bigger." He argued that "an Indian military retaliation, at some point in the coming days, is a real possibility."
Such a confrontation presents a conundrum for Trump, who vowed during his successful campaign for a second nonconsecutive term to oversee a more peaceful world.
In the wake of the 2019 clash that took place during his first administration, Trump offered to mediate between India and Pakistan. Six years later, with the U.S. once again signaling "that Washington wouldn’t try to stand in the way if India decides to stage a kinetic response against Pakistan," Kugelman said Trump may find an opportunity here to turn chaos into calm as he struggles to placate conflicts in Europe and the Middle East.
"We know that Trump relishes negotiation opportunities, which suggests his administration may be prepared to take on that role, despite everything else on its plate abroad," Kugelman said. "These would be delicate negotiations, given the high stakes and risk of serious escalation between two nuclear-armed rivals, but it’s likely the administration would want to take on that third-party mediator role, perhaps in collaboration with a few of the Arab Gulf players."
Newsweek has reached out to the Indian External Affairs Ministry, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry and the U.S. State Department for comment.
India’s Retaliatory OptionsArun Prakash, a retired admiral and former chief of staff of the Indian Navy, also saw a potential windfall for Trump if he chose to wade into the treacherous tides of the India-Pakistan feud.
"Since Trump does not seem to be making much headway in Ukraine or Gaza—or the tariff war—de-fusing this serious South Asian crisis would garner some brownie points for him," Prakash told Newsweek. "Imposing punitive economic sanctions on Pakistan—even temporary—and having them sack the army chief would send a salutary message to hot-head and war-monger folks in both countries."
Days before the attack in Pahalgam, Pakistani Chief of the Army Staff General Asim Munir delivered a fiery speech in which he described Kashmir as the "jugular vein" of Pakistan.
The comments echo Islamabad’s long-standing grievances with the status quo of India-administered Kashmir, where Modi’s decision to reorganize the territory into a federally led union state was accompanied by mass crackdowns and the deployment of tens of thousands of troops. Pakistani officials allege mass human rights abuses in the region, while Indian officials cite necessary steps to improve the livelihoods of a state long beleaguered by insurgency.
Nevertheless, tough measures are demanded in response to the Pahalgam attack. Prakash, considered one of India’s most decorated military officers outlined three possible courses of action.
These include "punitive action via military/kinetic means with risk of escalation," "economic blockade of Pakistani ports by the Indian Navy, with risk of international repercussions" and the "invocation of severe economic sanctions via USA and FATF," the intergovernmental anti-financial crimes body officially known as the Financial Action Task Force.
"All of these should be accompanied by immense diplomatic pressure, and drawing parallels with Hamas 7th of October 2023 attack," he added.
Pakistani officials have long drawn historical parallels between their feud with India and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, both disputes having been born out of bloody partitions as the United Kingdom’s colonial empire collapsed in the years following World War II.
In fact, Indian military sources told Newsweek after the Palestinian Hamas movement’s surprise attack on Israel half a year ago that they had shored up defenses along the Line of Control to prevent a similar shock operation being conducted by militants.
Indian troops may be on an even higher level of preparedness today, but Prakash warned that even if hard-liners in India sought to strike back, "the government must remain conscious of the fact that the Pakistani military will be in a state of alert, and kinetic action will be the first step on an ‘escalatory ladder’ whose outcome is unpredictable."
Pakistan Prepares for Action
Unlike the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, where only one side—Russia and Israel, respectively—possesses nuclear weapons, or even Trump’s diplomacy regarding Iran’s nuclear program, both India and Pakistan each possess hundreds of such weapons of mass destruction.
But the 2019 clash, and an earlier 2016 raid by Indian commandos across the Line of Control after a militant attack on one of their Jammu and Kashmir outposts, demonstrated that retaliatory strikes need not escalate to nuclear exchange. Iran also tested Pakistan’s strategic patience last year by conducting a missile strike against alleged separatist positions across their border, albeit later suffering retaliatory raids against alleged rebel bases in Iranian territory.
In confrontations with both India and Iran, Pakistan has consistently denied offering safe haven to transnational rebels at a time when the country was struggling with deadly attacks by insurgents.
Talat Masood, a retired Pakistani Army general and former federal secretary, argued that the raid in Pahalgam "couldn’t possibly be a part of. government policy or that of military leadership, for they are fully aware that it would have invited an immediate response from India and could lead to wider conflagration, which certainly is not in Pakistan’s interest."
"Moreover, it would lower Pakistan’s standing and support even from its allies," Masood told Newsweek, "as we have witnessed China and several Muslim countries have condemned the attack and expressed their support for India in its fight against terrorism."
"However, what should be of concern, there are some rogue elements within the system that are acting against the interest of the country and creating an embarrassing and difficult situation," Masood said. "This has given India [reason] to further malign Pakistan diplomatically."
Now, he said, "the government and especially the military has an enormous task of dealing with the crisis."
With Pakistan closing its airspace and expelling Indian advisers and diplomats in response to the threats, the government has warned against any attempts to strike Pakistani soil following a National Security Committee meeting chaired Thursday by Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif.
"Any threat to Pakistan’s sovereignty and to the security of its people will be met with firm reciprocal measures in all domains," according to a press release issued Thursday by Sharif’s office and shared with Newsweek.
The statement went on to double down on Pakistan’s long-held support for the self-determination of Kashmir, accuse India of carrying out "state sponsored extraterritorial assassinations or attempts on foreign soil" and condemn New Delhi’s barrage of diplomatic measures against Islamabad. The premier’s office took particular aim at Modi’s decision to revoke the Indus Water treaty.
"Any attempt to stop or divert the flow of water belonging to Pakistan as per the Indus Waters Treaty, and the usurpation of the rights of lower riparian will be considered as an Act of War and responded with full force across the complete spectrum of National Power," the press release said.
Hasan Askari Rizvi, a Pakistani political scientist and military analyst who previously served as caretake chief minister of the Punjab Province, also affirmed that Pakistan would answer in kind to any attacks, while noting that the escalation was currently being managed.
While he described India’s response thus far as "calculated and restrained," he maintained that "the Pakistan Air Force is on alert to cope with any limited Indian air strike on the line of control in Kashmir or inside Pakistan ostensibly to destroy terrorist camps."
"Pakistan is expected to give a matching response to any ground or air strike by India, although no one expects a full-fledged war between the two countries," Rizvi told Newsweek. "Pakistan is already in touch with friendly countries, including the five permanent members of the U.N."
A number of major powers have a potential stake in the South Asia crisis. China, which lays its own claims to parts of Kashmir, has invested heavily in a growing strategic partnership with Pakistan, while Russia has continued to build upon its long-standing ties to India. Through their own tight relations, Beijing and Moscow have frequently sought to ease tensions between Islamabad and New Delhi, both of which are fellow members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
Rizvi similarly felt that the U.S. would more likely strive to calm tensions rather than green-light any military operations—describing the Trump administration’s language in support of India as closely mirroring remarks delivered in the wake of attacks conducted by militants against Pakistan—which has struggled to stem the activities of a number of insurgent groups, some of which it claims receives backing from New Delhi.
"I do not expect that the U.S. would support any military action by India against Pakistan," Askari said. "Traditionally, American policy has been to advise both countries to avoid military action because of fear of escalation, given the fact that both India and Pakistan possess nuclear weapons with delivery systems."
Measured Responses
Noting India’s prior choices of action, Deependra Singh Hooda, a retired lieutenant general who served as general officer commanding-in-chief of the Indian Army’s Northern Command tasked with defending the Line of Control, "would not rule out further action" following India’s latest diplomatic steps against Pakistan.
At the same time, he felt that "while the military option is not ruled out, it is likely to be limited in scope," as would be the potential role of the Trump administration if attempted to become involved.
"What India wants is for Pakistan to stop supporting terror groups targeting India," Hooda told Newsweek. "There is little evidence to suggest that President Trump can mediate to mount such pressure on Pakistan that they renounce support to terror groups operating in Jammu and Kashmir. Perhaps the only mediation role is in controlling escalation, if matters reach that stage."
Yogesh Gupta, a veteran Indian diplomat and former ambassador, was also skeptical of the utility of U.S. intervention in the affair.
"The Trump administration has been very forthcoming in supporting India and condemning these attacks for which India is thankful," Gupta told Newsweek. "I don’t see any need for any US or foreign involvement in any mediation on the Kashmir issue. If we need any help from the USA or any other friendly state to pursue these terrorists, we will approach them as necessary, but that is speculative at present."
Gupta also drew a connection to Hamas, citing reports that the Islamist Palestinian faction at the heart of conflict raging across the Middle East, was "involved in this terrorist attack." Regardless of their local or foreign affiliation, he argued that India would "vigorously chase" the perpetrators while boosting security measures and taking additional steps to "uproot the local supporters and sympathizers of Pakistan-led terror groups and pro-Pakistan elements in the valley and other parts of Kashmir including their financial networks."
But he expressed confidence that India would respect the precarious equation that has thus far throughout this century kept the decades-long rivalry over Kashmir from escalating into a broader confrontation.
"These are local incidents," Gupta said, "and India will not do anything to threaten the regional or global security, though it will be firm and unrelenting in pursuit and punishment of the terrorists involved in these and other attacks."‘The Last Thing the World Needs’
Most analysts on both sides of the conflict agree that an all-out conflict would prove disastrous for the region, and potentially beyond. At the same time, some analysts felt mediation may only come after further escalation, as was the case when Trump offered to try his hand as resolving India-Pakistan tensions in the wake of their 2019 clash.
"The previous iteration of the mediation offer from the U.S. only came when India conducted the Balakot strikes in 2019 where Indian fighter jets flew across into Pakistan to target terror camps," Kabir Taneja, deputy director and fellow at India’s Observer Research Foundation, told Newsweek. "If India opts for a similar response again, we could see the U.S. rushing to intervene once again."
And while he described Pakistan as being "politically isolated," a position exacerbated by political unrest, economic woes and worsening insurgencies, he argued that "its reality of being a nuclear armed state forces the international community to give it disproportionate attention."
"The last thing the world needs right now is an India-Pakistan flare up," he said, "but India, in its current position, may just be forced to respond."
For now, the Trump administration appears to be carefully curating its response. Asked for the U.S. position on India indicating blame for Pakistan for the Pahalgam attack, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce declined to speak beyond support for condemnation of the bloodshed.
"What I can tell you is, of course, as we all know, it’s a rapidly changing situation and we are monitoring it closely, as you might imagine," Bruce said. "And we, of course, are not now taking a position on the status of Kashmir or of Jammu either, so that’s really going to be the extent of what I can say today." India economic outlook dims further as US tariffs dent business sentiment: Reuters poll (Reuters)
Reuters [4/24/2025 10:16 PM, Vivek Mishra and Pranoy Krishna, 126906K]
The Indian economy will grow a bit slower than previously thought this fiscal year, according to economists in a Reuters poll who said U.S. tariffs have negatively impacted business sentiment, raising concerns about already weak private investment.
Gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the world’s fifth-largest economy is expected to average 6.3% this fiscal year, according to an April 15-24 Reuters poll of 54 economists, the same pace as expected for the year just ended.
This fiscal year’s forecast is a downgrade from 6.5% in a March poll but is slightly above the International Monetary Fund’s recently-updated forecast for 6.2%. But it is a dramatic slowdown from the fiscal year 2023-24 when the economy grew 9.2%.
Economists say beneath the headline growth numbers is an economy not generating enough well-paying jobs for millions of young people entering the labour market every year.
Despite the government stepping up its infrastructure spending, private sector investment has largely remained stagnant over the past decade which has generated growth well below the economy’s true potential.
A proposed 26% U.S. tariff on Indian goods imports, currently paused for 90 days, is also not helping even though most of India’s exports to the U.S. are services.
"Middle-class Indians are struggling. Residential building sales, passenger vehicles and two-wheelers (sales) have declined... It is important domestic policies focus on the root cause," said Kunal Kundu, India economist at Societe Generale.
Kundu said "India needs a 1991 moment," referring to a landmark campaign by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, then finance minister, to open up the economy to encourage foreign investment and competition.
"We believe the tariff war offers a perfect opportunity for India to embark on this much-needed journey. Otherwise, despite being the fastest-growing large economy in the current low global growth environment, India is likely to fall significantly short of its long-term objective of becoming a developed nation.".
Asked how U.S. tariffs have affected business sentiment in India 60% of economists, 21 of 35, said the impact was negative or very negative. Fourteen said it was neutral.
"Business sentiment has certainly taken a hit because no business today wants to take a call under an uncertain and volatile environment...(and) investment is the most adversely affected component on account of trade tariffs," said Kanika Pasricha, chief economic advisor at Union Bank of India.
"Sectors that were actually willing to invest like renewables, refineries, steel and cement to some extent are unlikely to elongate their capital expenditure plans.".
With U.S. recession fears rising and consumer inflation remaining below the 4% medium-term target for the past two months the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) mild rate-cutting cycle is expected to end in August at 5.50%, a quarter-point lower than the previous survey.
The RBI is widely expected to cut rates for a third consecutive meeting in June to 5.75%.
"The unexpected drop in inflation... has created greater scope for monetary policy support to growth," said Dhiraj Nim, economist at ANZ.
Consumer inflation was expected to average 4.0% this fiscal year before rising to 4.3% next year. Inequalities of Caste and Contract in Sewage Work in Delhi (The Diplomat)
The Diplomat [4/24/2025 9:45 AM, Aarushie Sharma, 777K]
In October 2024, Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), India’s largest sanitation project to make the country "open defecation-free," turned ten. The project constructed over 100 million toilets and launched behavioral change initiatives encouraging toilet use and hygiene practices to promote "cleanliness.".
In response to the increasing load on sewerage systems due to rising urban density, SBM’s urban component, SBM-U 2.0, focuses on improving sewage management and developing sewage treatment plants to create a sustainable and comprehensive urban sanitation system.
However, these interventions neglect the issues of sewage workers, who constitute the backbone of urban sewage infrastructures. This is seen in the rising contractualization in sanitation work – outsourcing to private entities or third-party agencies, often with exploitative conditions for workers – which draws upon and reproduces historical inequalities of caste and class in urban India.
This piece draws upon the author’s doctoral research on sewage work and infrastructure in Delhi, alongside fact-finding surveys on sewer and septic tank deaths in 2024, conducted as part of a team of researchers and activists organized by Dalit Adivasi Shakti Adhikar Manch, a social and advocacy forum for sewer workers’ rights in the city.
It addresses two forms of contractualization: privately contracting sewage work to informal workers or casual laborers, and the rising contractualization in civic bodies that compounds caste inequality for sewer workers mostly belonging to marginalized caste communities.
Despite massive investments in SBM, over the last decade, at least 453 people have died while cleaning sewers and septic tanks in India; other data suggests around 377 deaths between 2019 and 2023, and over 72 deaths between 2013 and 2024 in Delhi alone.
In May 2024, two informal sanitation workers died after allegedly inhaling poisonous fumes while cleaning the private septic chamber of a house in a well-sewered colony in Noida. Two more lost their lives after being forced to enter a clogged sewer without protective equipment or supervision at a mall in northwest Delhi. They were contractually employed as housekeeping staff by a private company to which the mall had outsourced cleaning and maintenance operations.
In October 2024, three laborers died while cleaning a sewer at a construction site in southwest Delhi, leading to investigations on the role of the private construction company and the site owner, a public sector undertaking company. In the last five months, there have been at least three more incidents of sewer and septic tank deaths in Delhi.
The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013, prohibits "hazardous cleaning" of sewers, septic tanks, or manual cleaning without mandated protective gear, cleaning devices, and safety precautions. These cases persist despite the law, pointing to the absence of municipal regulation and accountability in privately contracted sewage work and exploitative work arrangements that may force workers to undertake hazardous cleaning without requisite training, supervision, and protective gear.
They also reveal a culture of negligence as housing colonies, private companies, and state corporations summon untrained informal workers to clean sewers or septic tanks without accounting for safety risks. As gathered from fact-finding surveys, at times, there is an institutional reluctance in criminalizing these cases under the Act; they are often seen as "accidental.".
Many of these workers were either poor migrant or informal workers, who mostly belonged to marginalized caste or class communities. Many worked as daily-wage laborers, guards, or housekeeping staff, and had to take up a range of sewage work without prior experience due to desperate economic circumstances or fear of losing their jobs.
Privately contracted sewage work thus draws upon pre-existing social and economic inequalities and vulnerabilities. It also reproduces the cycle of inequality for the workers’ families that are forced to deal with the loss of their loved one, also an earning member, and settle for less than the mandated compensation offered stealthily by contractors, due to lack of resources to fight a legal battle.
To counteract this exploitation and lack of regulation, a few ground activists suggested during field discussions that sewage work be undertaken by the civic body as these workers and their supervisors are more experienced, and the civic body can be held accountable for any lapses or malpractices.
Sewer workers employed with civic bodies, such as the Delhi Jal Board – the nodal state agency responsible for water and sewerage in the city – emphasize this work is not only dangerous but also demands a certain technique. Skills are accrued through knowledge passed down from senior to junior workers, and these lessons are at times their only safeguard against the risks of sewer work, especially in earlier years when workers had to enter deep sewers.
The impact of the 2013 Act started emerging a few years after its implementation when new machines for sewer cleaning, though still inadequate, were introduced. The machines, alongside the pressure on civic bodies to ensure compliance with the law, significantly reduced sewer deaths in the civic body. But just as one critical fight for workers’ safety and dignity was being fought, there emerged a new challenge: contractualization.
Today, a large number of sewer workers are employed on a contractual basis with civic bodies. In recent years, workers have protested this due to issues such as unfair salary cuts by the contractor, no identity cards, and lack of access to social security provisions such as health insurance. Further, once a contract ends, there is a constant fear of losing their source of livelihood. The civic body and contractors pass the buck, revealing accountability gaps in the system.
The contractual system, key to the social infrastructure of urban sanitation today, sustains labor inequalities and creates precarity. Further, it exacerbates and compounds the inequality of caste.
Historically, sanitation work in India, seen as "polluting work," has been relegated to marginalized caste communities, particularly the Valmikis and other Dalit subcastes. Even today, most sewer workers belong to these communities, showing how caste ideologies and practices continue to shape occupational structures. Caste also operates through a deep-seated public apathy toward what goes down the drain with the expectation that someone will do the "dirty work" of unclogging blocked sewer lines. While "behavioral change" is the SBM’s key focus area, it rarely targets the caste-based foundations of civil society.
Permanent employment in the civic body cannot alone dismantle these structures of caste inequality. However, it offered some safety net: job security, fixed salary and allowances, retirement benefits, and health insurance. Contractualization not only deepens the workers’ economic vulnerability but also reinforces the social marginalization rooted in caste.
The SBM movement has seldom grappled with questions of work, labor, contract, and caste. A focus on these issues not only reveals how relations of caste and contract sustain urban infrastructures but also the gaps in sanitation programs and the need for interventions that guarantee safety, security, and dignity to the sanitation workforce. NSB
Nepal’s Long Road To Quake Resilience (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [4/24/2025 11:04 PM, Paavan Mathema, 931K]
A decade has passed since a massive earthquake ripped through Nepal, but in Ram Bahadur Nakarmi’s home the damage is still visible -- and so is the fear another might strike.
Ten years ago, on April 25, 2015, the ground beneath Nepal shuddered with a magnitude-7.8 earthquake, killing nearly 9,000 people, injuring over 22,000, and leaving millions homeless.
The disaster also reduced monuments to ruins, including centuries-old temples and royal palaces in the Kathmandu valley that attracted visitors from around the world.
Nakarmi’s four-storey home in historic Bhaktapur city was damaged, but financial constraints made it impossible for him to rebuild.The 61-year-old continues to live in his house despite the cracks.
"Even now, it is still scary," Nakarmi told AFP. "We are still feeling the tremors and they terrify us -- we run outside the house".
The aftermath of the quake exposed deep cracks in Nepal’s disaster response system and the rebuilding efforts were initially hit by political infighting, bureaucracy and confusion.
Yet over the last decade, significant progress have been made.
According to official figures, nearly 90 percent of the homes destroyed have been rebuilt, alongside thousands of schools, health institutions, and public buildings.
Temples and cultural landmarks are also slowly rising again.
A joint assessment of affected districts by Nepal’s National Society for Earthquake Technology, and the international Global Quake Model showed marked improvements for resilience in the face of another quake.
They estimated there had been a 44 percent reduction in the number of buildings at risk of complete collapse, after Nepal’s rebuilding and retrofitting drive.
"Our initial years were focused on rebuilding. Now our focus should be in areas which were not affected in 2015 but are at risk of a quake," Dinesh Prasad Bhatt chief of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA), told AFP.
"We have to extend the reach of lessons learnt from the earthquake to all parts of the country."
The disaster was a wake up call for a country that is situated on a dangerous geological faultline, where the Indian tectonic plate collides with the Eurasian plate to form the Himalayas.
According to the UN, Nepal ranks 11th in terms of earthquake risk.
Experts question if the country is prepared for the next one.
In the decade since the quake, the country has taken important steps.
The NDRRMA disaster reduction and management authority was established, and building codes were updated to reflect seismic safety standards.
Unlike 2015, there are elected members at local levels responsible for mobilising rescue teams, volunteers and stockpiles of emergency resources in case of a disaster.
"If you really look into a holistic picture, compared to what we had back in 2015 and right now, we’ve made massive progress," said Anil Pokharel, a former NDRRMA chief.
"But still, it is inadequate given the kind of growing risks."Experts say that while Kathmandu’s skyline now includes more reinforced buildings, rural areas -- where infrastructure is weaker and access to resources limited -- remain exposed.
Only 9.4 percent of structures were revealed to be safe in a 2023 integrity assessment of nearly 29,000 buildings of schools, health centres and government offices across the country by the NDRRMA.
Implementation of disaster preparedness policies and building codes is also inconsistent.
"Nepal has made many policies learning from the 2015 quake experience, but policies are only pieces of paper that dictate the system," said Surya Narayan Shrestha, from the National Society for Earthquake Technology.
"To make the system itself effective, we need people... and systems that have that capacity."
David Sislen, the World Bank chief Nepal, said that despite better policies and institutional framework, the country remains "dangerously underprepared for a major disaster".
"Without stronger enforcement and implementation of risk reduction and mitigation measures, the physical footprint of vulnerability will continue to grow, putting people, services and assets are risk," Sislen said.
He added that there was a need for "a phased financing strategy for retrofitting schools, hospitals, and other vital infrastructure".
Records at the National Earthquake Monitoring and Research Center show that over 800 earthquakes with a magnitude of four or above have struck Nepal since the 2015 quake.
Every tremor takes Shri Krishna Chhusyabada, a quake survivor who lost three of his family members under the rubble of his house, back to the fateful day.
"It was a black day for us. That day took away all our happiness," Chhusyabada said. "I hope we never see such devastation again." Nepal village ravaged by 2015 earthquake now a reluctant tourist hotspot (Al Jazeera)
Al Jazeera [4/25/2025 12:00 AM, Kate McMahon, 18.2M]
On the morning of April 25, 2015, Nima Chhiring Tamang, 30, left his home in northern Nepal’s Langtang village to spend time with friends in the neighbouring village of Kyanjin Gompa – about a three hour walk through the Himalayas, in the shadow of the towering 7,234-metre (13,733-foot) Langtang Lirung peak.
Chhiring had recently completed his university education in the capital, Kathmandu, a three-day walk combined with an eight-hour drive away, and returned to his home in the mountains.
Chhiring was playing cards with his friends when a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck the region, triggering a glacial avalanche that engulfed his village below. His mother, Karmu Tamang, was killed, along with nearly 300 others in Langtang, and 9,000 throughout the country. The avalanche brought an estimated 40 million tons of rock and ice bearing down on the village, carrying half the force of an atomic bomb and reducing the village to rubble.
Only one building was left standing, a single house sheltered under a rock face.
Ten years later, Langtang is bustling with life again, serving as a popular trekking destination for tourists from all over the world. Grazing yaks greet hikers as they walk beneath strings of prayer flags, pausing to examine the earthquake memorial – stacks of stones etched with Buddhist mantras, honouring the lives lost in the tragedy.
The village falls within the Langtang National Park, which was established in 1976 to protect the region’s rare and endemic flora and fauna. That led to a spike in tourism to the region in the 1980s, forever altering the lives of Indigenous inhabitants within the park’s boundaries.
But the village lacked significant facilities to host the steady stream of tourists.
Following the earthquake, Langtang embraced tourism-driven development, with nearly every house in the village turning into a guesthouse with modern amenities, including WiFi for those tourists who want to embrace the wild while retaining the comforts of home.
Yet some residents now express dismay that the village is unrecognisable, both aesthetically and culturally. Anxious locals worry that the rebuilding came at the expense of social cohesion in the village and led to communities abandoning traditional activities, like yak herding and foraging for medicinal plants.“Everyone here only cares about money and hotels now. There’s lots of competition for tourists. Before life was simple, and there was peace,” said Chhiring. While Langtang had been welcoming tourists before the earthquake, the atmosphere was more communal and supportive, and families didn’t push to get tourists into their guesthouses, he explained.
In the aftermath of the quake, international aid poured into Nepal, with a host of development organisations implementing a top-down approach and dictating the rebuilding process – how, when, where, and what to rebuild. The Asian Development Bank committed more than $600m to “build back better.”
But aid was often delivered in the form of loans with interest and other strings, leaving Nepal increasingly indebted.
Yet in Langtang, due to both its isolation and the determination of residents, the rebuilding efforts were largely organised by grassroots efforts, chiefly the Langtang Management and Reconstruction Committee – a community-led effort formed three months after the quake to facilitate rebuilding and raise funds. The committee was formed among the Langtangpa, the people of Langtangpa Valley – which contains around twenty-five villages, but with Langtang Village bearing the brunt of the disaster – who were living as refugees in Kathmandu and wished to facilitate a quick return to their land.“In the weeks that followed the earthquake, government authorities said maybe the Langtangpa wouldn’t be able to return,” explained Austin Lord, an anthropologist who was hiking in Langtang at the time of the earthquake and later published a dissertation at Cornell University on the disaster and its aftermath. “This sparked a strong desire to self-organise, which ultimately proved quite successful.”
But locals didn’t have enough funding to build separate homes and businesses, so they combined the two projects, explained Lhakpa Tamang, secretary of the reconstruction committee.
That’s when problems began to arise, he suggested.“With business, jealousy comes. Who’s gonna do better? Who is gonna earn more?” quipped Lhakpa. Quarrels happened over the size of prospective guesthouses, and community ties faltered. “There are always two sides of tourism: good and bad. Development sacrifices culture, but at the end of the day, people need money.”
Today, with nearly every building in Langtang Village is a guesthouse, families often sleep in the common room around a wood-burning stove during the peak seasons: March to May and September to November. Before the quake, the village mostly consisted of scattered tea houses, built with organic materials, primarily stone and timber. The landscape of Langtang is now dominated by concrete buildings with modern amenities, some rising three storeys tall from the ashes.
Still, the guesthouses brought badly needed income to families like that of Nurchung Tamang.
After losing everything, Nurchung, who now operates the Chhomo Valais Guest House in Langtang, told the story of how his family was evacuated to Kathmandu after the earthquake, but eventually decided to return to the rubble. The capital city was inundated with a wave of refugees fleeing the devastation across the countryside.“We had no money in Kathmandu, so we stayed at the monastery with the monks,” said Nurchung. The people of Langtang Valley migrated from Tibet about a thousand years ago, and they are devout Buddhists in a Hindu-majority country, roughly 9 percent of the population.
After years of living in poverty in Kathmandu, families began trickling back into the devastated Langtang Valley. “There was nothing left at first, so we planted barley and potatoes and stayed in tents and did what we could to earn income,” explained Nurchung.
Nurching’s family started their rebuilding efforts with the help of foreign volunteers who had previously visited Langtang – that families with fewer international friends and connections received less external help was another source of contention – but obtaining materials was not straightforward. Langtang Village is a three-day hike from the closest road and sits at an elevation of 3,430 meters (11,253 feet), high enough to induce altitude sickness, especially during strenuous physical activity. Construction materials had to be carried on the backs of porters, strapped to mules, or flown in with helicopters at huge expense.
Large machinery cannot be carried in at all, leaving the old Langtang Village still largely buried beneath the rubble. Instead of attempting to excavate the debris, a new village was constructed nearby. Because the village sits within Langtang National Park, the Langtangpa had limited space to expand. Residents were forced to rebuild in a cramped area free of avalanche debris and compete for space for their guesthouses.
Before the disaster, there were approximately 50 families in Langtang Village. Today, fewer than half remain. Some were killed, others moved away. Money was scarce and people were desperate, leaving much of the rebuilding process to be dictated by efforts to rapidly develop income-generating tourism infrastructure, as opposed to daily necessities like healthcare facilities, which have not been built in the village 10 years later. Today, there is a small clinic in neighbouring Mundu, but facilities are basic, and it is staffed by only a paramedic.“There is an unfortunate trickle-down effect with aid, with it often not reaching where it’s needed,” explained Cherie Rezen, a US nurse who is leading a two-day healthcare mission to the village for the anniversary of the disaster. Rezen and Dr Amar Raut, co-founders of the NGO Embrace Nepal, are planning on doing health screenings for residents and carrying in a variety of heavy medical equipment with them, including an ECG machine. The elderly, in particular, rely on these health camps for medical care, as it is challenging for them to leave Langtang Valley.
Today, foreign tourists embarking on the roughly six-day Langtang Trek are beckoned into one newly built guesthouse after the next. Tenacious women with long black braids in traditional Tamang dress – the Tamang are one of Nepal’s 142 recognised ethnic groups and the majority of the population of the valley – hand out printed business cards for their guesthouses. With snow-capped peaks in the backdrop, signs across the valley read: “We have hot showers and Western food at no extra cost!”“The disaster definitely accelerated the transition away from agro-pastoral livelihoods to a heavy dependence on the tourist economy,” said Lord.
The yak herders are dying out, and the next generation is more focused on gaining education that was inaccessible to their parents and grandparents, with many young Langtangpa opting to move to Kathmandu or go abroad to study. About 8 percent of Nepal’s population lives outside the country, driven away by a poor economy and a lack of job prospects. Many are enticed to stay only by carving out a role in the country’s tourism industry.“Langtang had almost no tourism 50 years ago. Our grandmothers made us clothes with yak wool. Life was happier before, but this is the way of life now. When you need to go forward and develop, going back is not possible,” explained Lkhapa, the rebuilding secretary, who is a resident of the neighbouring Kyanjin Gompa.
Today, he hands out fresh cinnamon rolls to tourists in luxury alpine gear while recounting his role in recovery efforts, retrieving bodies when the snow finally melted.“Langtangpas did the best they could to build back, and, after all their suffering, they built a new version of Langtang based on what they thought would bring them material security. They also built a version of Langtang for the future generation to come back and take over – most think a vibrant tourism economy is the best way to ensure their children come home.”
Climate change continues to threaten the survival of the village. A 2024 study found that it exacerbated the impacts of the avalanche, and the village faces increasingly warming temperatures and erratic snowfall. When asked why return at all, Chhiring thought for a moment and responded: “It’s our motherland, we have to respect that.” Sri Lanka to begin talks with India, UAE for new energy hub (Reuters)
Reuters [4/25/2025 3:53 AM, Uditha Jayasinghe, 5.2M]
Sri Lanka will start work next month on plans to develop an energy hub with India and the United Arab Emirates, the energy minister said on Friday, as the nation looks to leverage its strategic location to cement a recovery from a financial crisis.
The trio signed a deal to create the hub during a visit this month by India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the first global leader to visit the island since President Anura Kumara Dissanayake took office last September.
Dissanayake won an election with pledges of stability after the worst financial crisis in decades three years ago triggered runaway inflation, sent the local rupee into free-fall and forced the country to default on $25 billion of debt.
The hub in the eastern harbour city of Trincomalee will involve the construction of a multi-product pipeline as well as bunkering facilities and potentially a refinery.
It will also include development of a World War II-era storage tank farm partly owned by the Sri Lankan subsidiary of Indian Oil (IOC.NS).
Representatives from state-run Ceylon Petroleum, Indian Oil and AD Ports (ADPORTS.AD) will meet in Sri Lanka in late May to start discussions on a detailed business plan for the hub, said Energy Ministry Secretary Udayanga Hemapala.
"A joint project monitoring committee has been set up to oversee the development of the business plan and eventually finalise detailed proposals," Hemapala told Reuters.
President Dissanayake also discussed energy cooperation in Colombo this week with UAE Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the president’s office said.
Chinese state energy firm Sinopec (600028.SS) has signed a deal to build a $3.2 billion oil refinery in Sri Lanka’s southern port city of Hambantota. Central Asia
Local Employee of Russian Cultural Agency Detained in Recruitment Case in Kyrgyzstan (The Diplomat)
The Diplomat [4/24/2025 2:14 PM, Catherine Putz, 777K]
A Kyrgyz employee of a Russian government agency, an employee in the Osh mayor’s office, and two others were detained on April 19 on suspicion of recruiting Kyrgyz citizens to fight for the Russian army in Ukraine.
The case became known on April 22, when a court in Bishkek filed to keep the suspects in pre-trial detention through June 17. Although the suspects are identified only by initials in the court paperwork, two of those detained have been identified by the media as Sergei Lapushkin and Natalia Sekerina.
Lapushkin is reportedly an employee of the press service of the Osh mayor’s office. RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service, Radio Azattyk, reported that the mayor’s office confirmed the arrest but declined to provide further details.
Sekerina has been reported as a local employee of Rossotrudnichestvo – formally, the Russian Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States Affairs, Compatriots Living Abroad, and International Humanitarian Cooperation. She worked at the Russian House in Osh, a branch of Rossotrudnichestvo in Kyrgyzstan, and formerly as a journalist.
The Rossotrudnichestvo’s Office in Kyrgyzstan confirmed the arrested and expressed concern. In a statement, the office said, "Sekerina is a citizen of Kyrgyzstan, a local employee of the branch, and has been working at the Russian House since July 2024. She is responsible for media relations at our Osh branch. We know her as a conscientious, open, and responsible employee.".
The Kyrgyz State Committee for National Security (SCNS) is leading the investigation, but has not commented publicly on the case.
According to the court filing, the four individuals are being charged under Article 416 of the Kyrgyz Criminal Code, which pertains to "Recruitment, financing, material support, training of mercenaries for the purpose of using them in armed conflicts of other states or violent actions aimed at overthrowing state power or violating territorial integrity, as well as the use of mercenaries in military conflicts or actions." If convicted, the four could face up to 15 years in prison.
Although a handful of Kyrgyz citizens have been prosecuted for participating in the Russian war in Ukraine, this appears to be the first case in Kyrgyzstan alleging Russian recruitment on Kyrgyz territory. The involvement of an employee of a Russian government agency – albeit one focused on cultural exchange and aid – only heightens the sensitivity of the case.
Like neighboring Uzbekistan, Kyrgyz authorities have issued repeated warnings to their citizens since the onset of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine that participating in the foreign conflict would be viewed as a crime at home. Initial Russian efforts to recruit Central Asians focused on migrant workers already in Russia, and those serving time in Russian prisons. Although Central Asian governments have loudly warned their own citizens against joining the Russian war – and jailed those that have returned from it – they have been far more quiet in dealing with Russia itself.
Earlier this month, an Uzbek taxi driver from Andijan was sentenced to a little more than seven years for attempting to recruit passengers into working for the Russians on the Ukraine front. In that case, a prior connection from the taxi driver’s years working in Russia reached out via WhatsApp and offered money if the man could recruit others to come to Russia.
Kyrgyz authorities have not shared details of the alleged recruitment effort in Osh, but the case has explosive potential depending on whether it has been successful in recruiting Kyrgyz into the war and if there was any direct Russian government involvement in the scheme. Even absent such involvement, the reality is that on this question the Russian government and the governments of Central Asia are diametrically opposed, and yet the latter have been arguably meek about pushing back. Uzbekistan in talks with Belgium over return of $108m belonging to jailed ex-president’s daughter, RIA reports (Reuters)
Reuters [4/24/2025 7:09 AM, Mariya Gordeyeva, 41523K]
Uzbekistan’s government is negotiating with Belgian authorities over the return of $108 million in frozen assets belonging to Gulnara Karimova, the jailed daughter of the country’s former president, Russian state news agency RIA reported on Thursday.
RIA cited Uzbekistan’s deputy finance minister as saying that the funds may be given back to Uzbekistan via United Nations’ mechanisms, and spent on UN projects in the Central Asian country of 35 million people.
Karimova, a powerful businesswoman during her father Islam Karimov’s presidency, also held a series of official posts, recorded pop songs, and produced her own fashion line.
She ultimately fell out with her father, who died in 2016, in around 2014.
Karimova, 47, was jailed in March 2019 for violating the terms of her house arrest after receiving a five-year sentence in 2015 on charges of embezzlement and extortion.
She had amassed a fortune of well over a billion dollars, much of which was stashed overseas.
Uzbekistan has previously reached agreements with Belgium and Switzerland for the restitution to the Uzbek government of several hundreds of millions of dollars of Karimova’s frozen assets.
On Karimov’s death in 2016, his former prime minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev succeeded him as president, promising a loosening of Karimov-era controls on the economy, as well as a crackdown on corruption. Russian and Chinese tourists discovering Central Asia (EurasiaNet)
EurasiaNet [4/24/2025 4:14 PM, Staff, 57.6K]
Most seasons of Survivor, the most successful US reality television show in the 21st century, are set in a remote locations, far removed from civilization.
The Russian knock-off of the program, now in its second season after a wildly popular debut, also strives to place contestants in an exotic locale, forced to endure outside their comfort zones.
The show is called Surviving in Samarkand.
The title is a tacit admission that for Russians, Samarkand — a fabled Silk Road city in Uzbekistan, and an urban center possessing a far longer and richer history than Moscow — is still seen as an alien environment, lacking familiar amenities. Such attitudes are a holdover from the Soviet era, when Slavs in the Russian heartland generally regarded all of Central Asia as backwater.
But the program is not only a reflection of long-standing stereotypes. It is also a sign of changing attitudes. Russia’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine in 2022 prompted the United States and European Union to impose sanctions that have made it far more difficult for Russians to vacation in Western locations, forcing them to explore new tourist destinations. Uzbekistan in particular, and Central Asia more broadly, has been among the locations that has benefited the most from shifting Russian tourism patterns.
The number of Russian tourists visiting Uzbekistan over the past three years has increased 53 percent from over 567,000 in 2022 to 873,000 last year. Tajikistan has experienced an even higher growth rate, although the overall number of Russian visitors in 2024 was about 334,000. Meanwhile, Russian visitors to Kyrgyzstan have remained steady, in the range of 640,000 annually, while Kazakhstan has experienced a decline in Russian tourists over the past few years, according to official statistics.
In Uzbekistan, the surge in Russian visitors is helping spur an expansion of the tourism industry. The country attracted 10 million foreign tourists in 2024, generating $3.5 billion in revenue, and officials aim to attract 15 million visitors annually within the next five years. To meet that goal, the government is investing billions of dollars to build tourist infrastructure, refurbish historic sites and buy passenger jets to ferry foreigners to Uzbekistan.
According to a World Economic Forum’s Travel and Tourism Development Index 2024, Uzbekistan ranked 78th out of the 119 nations surveyed for tourism infrastructure. Yet, the WEF data also shows that the country’s tourist industry has made the most advances of any country over the past five years.
Russians are not the only neighbors discovering Central Asia. The numbers for Chinese tourists are also rising fast. Kazakhstan, for example, experienced nearly a doubling of Chinese visitors in 2024 with a total of 665,000, up from 367,000 the previous year. Chinese visitors spent spent $307 million in Kazakhstan last year, or an average of $470 per person, according to government statistics.
Kyrgyzstan, which recorded only 8,800 Chinese tourists in 2022, accommodated 128,000 visitors last year. A similar growth pattern holds for Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
Central Asian tourism has benefited from a relaxation of visa requirements in recent years. Kazakhstan and China introduced a reciprocal 30-day visa free regime in 2023. In late 2024, Kyrgyzstan unilaterally allowed group visits by Chinese tourists without a visa for up to 21 days. Uzbekistan has allowed Chinese citizens to visit without a visa for up to 10 days since 2021, and Tajikistan since March 2024 has allowed visits for up to 14 days without a visa for Chinese citizens older than 55. Twitter
Afghanistan
Heather Barr@heatherbarr1
[4/24/2025 3:27 PM, 62.1K followers, 15 retweets, 31 likes]
Glad to have a chance to raise some necessary questions about what UNAMA has been planning as the next stage in the Doha process. #NoWomenNoPeace
Heather Barr@heatherbarr1
[4/24/2025 11:04 AM, 62.1K followers, 4 retweets, 6 likes]
Mariam, a 25-year-old Afghan woman, said, “I asked if I could get asylum in Panama. The immigration authorities told me, ‘Panama can’t accept asylum. You cannot stay in Panama. You have to go back to your own country.’” https://www.hrw.org/report/2025/04/24/nobody-cared-nobody-listened/us-expulsion-third-country-nationals-panama#1232
Shawn VanDiver@shawnjvandiver
[4/24/2025 6:53 AM, 33.2K followers, 56 retweets, 234 likes]
#BREAKING: Last night, I sent a letter to senior leaders in the Trump Administration requesting clarity, collaboration, and action on behalf of our Afghan wartime allies. This isn’t just about policy—it’s about promises. And right now, the U.S. is failing to keep them.
Shawn VanDiver@shawnjvandiver
[4/24/2025 7:53 AM, 33.2K followers, 5 retweets, 23 likes]
The program that’s keeping our promises for the first time—Enduring Welcome—is in limbo. Families are stranded. Flights are grounded. Contracts paused. Even some U.S. citizens are still stuck in Afghanistan, forced to choose between safety or staying with family in the pipeline.
Shawn VanDiver@shawnjvandiver
[4/24/2025 7:53 AM, 33.2K followers, 5 retweets, 21 likes]
Before it was paused, #EnduringWelcome was relocating, safely and securely, ~5,000 Afghans per month. These were not speculative pathways—these were vetted allies and their families, most of whom supported U.S. forces directly.
Shawn VanDiver@shawnjvandiver
[4/24/2025 7:53 AM, 33.2K followers, 6 retweets, 32 likes]
Since January, the Trump Admin has:- Sent erroneous (and valid) parole termination notices- Let TPS expire- Halted refugee processing in Pakistan (and everywhere)- Proposed winding down Enduring Welcome despite Congress extending it to 2027- Refused to communicate
Shawn VanDiver@shawnjvandiver
[4/24/2025 7:53 AM, 33.2K followers, 6 retweets, 34 likes]
We lay out 7 urgent steps this administration must take—from reaffirming their commitment to restarting processing & reengaging diplomatically with Pakistan. The U.S. made a promise. We intend to hold them to it. Read the full letter: http://afghanevac.org/leadership-letter #AfghanEvac Pakistan
Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Pakistan@ForeignOfficePk
[4/24/2025 11:35 AM, 482.2K followers, 67 retweets, 209 likes]
Foreign Secretary Amna Baloch briefed a group of Islamabad-based Heads of Mission and diplomats on the evolving situation following Pahalgam attack in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu & Kashmir. Foreign Secretary shared the outcomes of the National Security Committee meeting. She rejected Indian misinformation campaign against Pakistan and said that such tactics would obstruct the path to peace and stability in the region. Foreign Secretary underscored that Pakistan has always rejected terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. She also cautioned against Indian attempts to escalate tensions and reaffirmed Pakistan’s readiness to counter any misadventure.
Yalda Hakim@SkyYaldaHakim
[4/24/2025 6:01 PM, 217.9K followers, 24 retweets, 66 likes]
Pakistani Defence Minister Khwaja Asif warns ‘all-out war’ possible with India https://news.sky.com/video/share-13355051
Anas Mallick@AnasMallick
[4/24/2025 12:13 PM, 77K followers, 20 retweets, 102 likes]
Over 30 envoys of Islamabad based diplomatic corps attend the briefing by Foreign Secretary @amnabaloch4 where FS shared the outcomes of the National Security Committee meeting and rejected Indian misinformation campaign against Pakistan, reads except from @ForeignOfficePk PR
Anas Mallick@AnasMallick
[4/24/2025 11:11 AM, 77K followers, 10 retweets, 77 likes]
In line with the decision taken today during the National Security Committee meeting in response to India, #Pakistan has issued NOTAM notifying closure of Airspace to Indian owned and Indian operated airlines, suspension of airspace for both civilian and military Indian aircrafts
Habib Khan@HabibKhanT
[4/25/2025 12:29 AM, 247.6K followers, 63 retweets, 352 likes]
As India and Pakistan edge toward another war, it’s important to recall history: Pakistan has lost every war it has fought against India. In 1971, it marked the most significant military defeat in modern history, 93,000 Pakistani troops surrendered, surpassing even Stalingrad.
Habib Khan@HabibKhanT
[4/24/2025 1:13 PM, 247.6K followers, 24 retweets, 229 likes]
Pakistan is already battling a growing TTP insurgency in Pakhtunkhwa, while Baloch separatists continue launching major attacks on the military. Now, with tensions flaring over Kashmir, it’s nearly at war with India, stretching its military thin amid deepening political chaos. India
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[4/24/2025 4:51 AM, 107.8M followers, 56K retweets, 306K likes]
India will identify, track and punish every terrorist, their handlers and their backers. We will pursue them to the ends of the earth. India’s spirit will never be broken by terrorism. https://x.com/i/status/1915327762275197145
Zalmay Khalilzad@realZalmayMK
[4/24/2025 1:19 PM, 261.2K followers, 794 retweets, 2.8K likes]
The massacre of tourists in Kashmir and Delhi’s suspicion/belief that Islamabad was behind the attack has resulted in a huge crisis in India/Pakistan relations, including the threat of war. The possession of nuclear weapons by both sides might discourage escalation should war start. However, given the configuration of nuclear forces, each side may believe that to strike first would be decisive. This could result in preemptive strikes against delivery systems. Pakistan might be able to diffuse the crisis by a) committing to an honest and open investigation of the horrific terrorist attack; b) proposing an agreement between the two countries that neither will allow its territory to be used by any group to threaten the security of the other; and c) offering to negotiate a permanent solution to the Kashmir dispute. Musharraf and Vajpayee had been making real progress on this issue but they were unable to finalize an agreement, largely for political reasons. Might this be the time to refocus on a diplomatic settlement, perhaps using the progress made earlier as a starting point? Given the historic mistrust, the understandable outrage in India, and the personality of Pakistan’s military leader ( emotional and fond of bombastic hawkish rhetoric), the leaders of the two countries do not seem ready to follow such a path. Given the risks involved, I hope they reconsider. With President Trump’s emphasis on peace and negotiations, the US administration should consider helping to preclude a potentially devastating conflict. @elonmusk @realDonaldTrump @SecDef @SecState @SecDef #India #Pakistan @narendramodi @ImranKhanPTI
Michael Kugelman@MichaelKugelman
[4/24/2025 1:03 PM, 219.6K followers, 222 retweets, 1.1K likes]
The world should be very worried about the current India-Pakistan crisis. The savage brutality of Tuesday’s attack. The unprecedented retaliations. The massive pressure on both sides to do more. Escalation risks sky-high. Higher than 2019, 2016. And all this after a 4-year truce.
Michael Kugelman@MichaelKugelman
[4/24/2025 10:34 AM, 219.6K followers, 76 retweets, 540 likes]
Suspending the Indus Waters Treaty is significant because it’s unprecedented and a massive blow to diplomacy. But it’s important not to overstate the immediate water security impacts. Suspending the IWT doesn’t cut off water to Pakistan. It’s not about to run dry. Some context:
Michael Kugelman@MichaelKugelman
[4/24/2025 10:34 AM, 219.6K followers, 11 retweets, 90 likes]
India could most impact river flows downstream by adding certain forms of water infrastructure, like dams. But these take time to build. They also risk flooding Indian territory. There’s also the risk of China retaliating vs India by building dams upstream on the Brahmaputra.
Michael Kugelman@MichaelKugelman
[4/24/2025 10:34 AM, 219.6K followers, 7 retweets, 85 likes]
This isn’t to underplay longer term implications. If India starts using more river water for storage than IWT allows, this could impact downstream flows with implications for Pakistan agriculture among other things. But bottom line-suspending IWT alone doesn’t shut off the tap.
Randhir Jaiswal@MEAIndia
[4/25/2025 2:09 AM, 2.3M followers, 127 retweets, 830 likes]
Reaffirming IN’s commitment to #NeighbourhoodFirst Policy. IN sends assistance consisting of medicines and vaccines for patients with Thalassemia and Sickle Cell Disease worth $2 million, responding to a request from Nepal. The 1st tranche of 17,030 vials of Vaccines for Immunization of patients with Thalassemia was handed over to NP. NSB
Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office@amnestysasia
[4/24/2025 7:50 AM, 100.2K followers, 14 retweets, 33 likes]
Bangladesh: Today marks the 12 years since the collapse of Rana Plaza in Bangladesh, which left over 1,100 garment workers dead and thousands injured. The disaster, caused by wholly negligent workplace monitoring, exposed the human cost of systemic lack of regulation of the garment industry in Bangladesh. Despite some progress on health and safety in the industry in the South Asia region, garment workers continue to face innumerable obstacles including harassment, intimidation and violence, as well as legal hurdles when attempting to voice their demands for justice, wages, adequate safeguards and working conditions.
Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office@amnestysasia
[4/24/2025 7:51 AM, 100.2K followers, 4 likes]
In Bangladesh, despite the interim government in September 2024, promising to review the FIRs filed against an estimated total of between 35,900 to 44,450 unnamed garment workers for taking part in wage related protests in November 2023, as of April 2025, the majority of cases remain. In addition, according to media reports, at least three cases were filed against 5,000 people, including garment workers and trade union leaders over protests, some of which turned violent, at several factories at Kashimpur in Gazipur on 22 January 2025.
Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office@amnestysasia
[4/24/2025 7:52 AM, 100.2K followers, 3 likes]
In March, as workers began the process of forming a union in a Dhaka factory supplying goods to major western fashion brands, factory management led a campaign of harassment and intimidation aimed at stopping their attempts to unionize. After a protest on 8 March, enforcement officials raided the local branch of the National Garment Works Federation and arrested the Joint General Secretary Kabir Hossain along with two factory unionists under a previous FIR case. They were granted bail, but the factory owner then filed a new case against the unionists leading to their rearrest. On 25 March, they were released from prison but continue to face several charges of criminal damage and blocking roads.
The President’s Office, Maldives@presidencymv
[4/24/2025 12:33 PM, 112.8K followers, 123 retweets, 121 likes]
President Dr @MMuizzu and First Lady Madam @sajidhaamohamed attend the ceremony to commemorate the 92nd anniversary of the Maldives Police Services.
M U M Ali Sabry@alisabrypc
[4/24/2025 3:46 AM, 8.1K followers, 12 retweets, 73 likes]
How quickly things change. Not too long ago, we were vilified for engaging with the IMF, for insisting on debt sustainability, and for steering the country through a difficult but necessary debt restructuring process. Today, many of those same critics are busy defending and explaining the very steps they once condemned. It’s a quiet but powerful reminder: meaningful progress often demands difficult choices. No pain, no gain still true, still relevant.
M U M Ali Sabry@alisabrypc
[4/24/2025 8:39 AM, 8.1K followers, 1 retweet, 11 likes]
Today, I had the honour of visiting the Apostolic Nunciature in Colombo to express my heartfelt condolences on the passing of His Holiness Pope Francis. In the presence of the Apostolic Nuncio, I paid tribute to His Holiness whose message of compassion, justice, and unity transcended faiths and borders. May his legacy continue to inspire peace and humanity across the world.
Harsha de Silva@HarshadeSilvaMP
[4/24/2025 10:21 AM, 361K followers, 7 retweets, 63 likes]
Awaiting ‘joint statement’ Pres @anuradisanayake said will be released after successful negotiations with US on #TrumpTariffs. Min Anil Jayantha boasted #India was the only other Asian country to negotiate with USTR thus far. Excuse me?!?! Central Asia
Joanna Lillis@joannalillis
[4/24/2025 4:57 AM, 28.7K followers, 1 retweet, 11 likes]
Tokayev warns against "populists and politicos" who try to "cynically" take advantage of tough times for their own purposes, which he does not define - after taking aim at foreign-funded NGOs, he hints at outside forces trying to undermine #Kazakhstan
Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service@president_uz
[4/24/2025 11:46 AM, 216.1K followers, 3 retweets, 17likes]
At the end of the visit of the National Leader of the Turkmen people Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, the distinguished guest was seen off by the Head of our state at the Samarkand International Airport. With this, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev returned to Tashkent.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service@president_uz
[4/24/2025 10:05 AM, 216.1K followers, 3 retweets, 15 likes]
President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev and National Leader of the Turkmen people Gurbanguly #Berdimuhamedov visited the “Mirages of Time” exhibition in #Samarkand. It features a night desert with a starry sky displaying zodiac signs, Ulugbek’s star map, and meridians, offering a comprehensive view of civilization’s history.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service@president_uz
[4/24/2025 9:18 AM, 216.1K followers, 5 retweets, 25 likes]
President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev and National Leader of the Turkmen people Gurbanguly #Berdimuhamedov planted an oak tree in the honored guests’ alley of the Congress Center in #Samarkand, becoming a symbol of the centuries-old friendship and good-neighborliness of the two fraternal nations.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service@president_uz
[4/24/2025 6:15 AM, 216.1K followers, 5 retweets, 38 likes]
A solemn ceremony was held to present #Turkmenistan’s National Leader, Gurbanguly #Berdimuhamedov with the Order “Oliy Darajali Doʻstlik”. His significant role in strengthening the close friendship and strategic partnership between the two brotherly countries was noted.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service@president_uz
[4/24/2025 5:15 AM, 216.1K followers, 8 retweets, 24 likes]
President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev and the National Leader of the Turkmen people, Chairman of #Turkmenistan’s Khalk Maslakhaty Gurbanguly #Berdimuhamedov held talks on strengthening UZ-TM ties.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service@president_uz
[4/24/2025 3:25 AM, 216.1K followers, 5 retweets, 24 likes]
Currently talks are being held in Samarkand between President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev and the National Leader of the Turkmen people, Chairman of Turkmenistan’s Khalk Maslakhaty Gurbanguly #Berdimuhamedov.
Saida Mirziyoyeva@SMirziyoyeva
[4/24/2025 12:54 PM, 22.1K followers, 11 retweets, 80 likes]
Together with Oguljahan Gurbangulyyevna, we explored Samarkand’s iconic sites — Amir Temur Mausoleum, Bibi-Khanym Mosque, Registan, and the Konigil village, where ancient crafts live on. Samarkand is a cultural heart of the region & its heritage must be preserved for generations.
Saida Mirziyoyeva@SMirziyoyeva
[4/24/2025 9:02 AM, 22.1K followers, 1 retweet, 29 likes]
Truly privileged to attend the ceremony honoring His Excellency Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov with the highest degree of the “Do’stlik” Order — in recognition of his pivotal role in deepening Uzbek-Turkmen ties and regional stability.
Saida Mirziyoyeva@SMirziyoyeva
[4/24/2025 8:53 AM, 22.1K followers, 1 retweet, 27 likes]
Glad to welcome Oguljahan Gurbangulyyevna Atabayeva to Uzbekistan. Together we visited the “Inson” Social Services Center and an inclusive school in Samarkand. A meaningful step toward deeper cooperation for the well-being of children and families.
Navbahor Imamova@Navbahor
[4/24/2025 8:30 AM, 24.3K followers, 5 retweets, 18 likes]
Uzbekistan mandates Uzbek language finals for all graduates: For schools where the language of instruction is not Uzbek, the state language will be included in the list of compulsory subjects.
Navbahor Imamova@Navbahor
[4/24/2025 8:53 AM, 24.3K followers, 1 retweet, 1 like]
Uzbekistan sells $3.6 billion worth of gold in three months, making up 44% of total exports{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.