SCA MORNING PRESS CLIPS
Prepared for the U.S. Department of State
Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs
TO: | SCA & Staff |
DATE: | Monday, January 13, 2025 6:30 AM ET |
Afghanistan
Biden speaks with relatives of Americans held by Taliban, but deal to bring them home still elusive (AP)
AP [1/12/2025 8:59 PM, Eric Tucker, 63029K, Neutral]
President Joe Biden spoke Sunday with relatives of three Americans the U.S. government is looking to bring home from Afghanistan, but no agreement has been reached on a deal to get them back, family members said.Biden’s call with family members of Ryan Corbett, George Glezmann and Mahmood Habibi took place in the waning days of his administration as officials try to negotiate a deal that could bring them home in exchange for Muhammad Rahim, one of the remaining detainees at Guantanamo Bay.Corbett, who had lived in Afghanistan with his family at the time of the 2021 collapse of the U.S.-backed government, was abducted by the Taliban in August 2022 while on a business trip and Glezmann, an airline mechanic from Atlanta, was taken by the Taliban’s intelligence services in December 2022 while traveling through the country.Officials believe the Taliban is still holding both men as well as Habibi, an Afghan American businessman who worked as a contractor for a Kabul-based telecommunications company and also went missing in 2022. The FBI has said that Habibi and his driver were taken along with 29 other employees of the company, but that all except for Habibi and another person have since been freed.The Taliban has denied that it has Habibi, complicating talks with the U.S. government and the prospect of finalizing a deal.On the call Sunday, Biden told the families that his administration would not trade Rahim, who has been held at Guantanamo since 2008, unless the Taliban releases Habibi, according to a statement from Habibi’s brother, Ahmad Habibi.“President Biden was very clear in telling us that he would not trade Rahim if the Taliban do not let my brother go,” the statement said. “He said he would not leave him behind. My family is very grateful that he is standing up for my brother.”Dennis Fitzpatrick, a lawyer acting on behalf of Glezmann’s family, expressed dismay at the lack of progress, saying in a statement, “President Biden and his national security adviser are choosing to leave George Glezmann in Afghanistan. A deal is available to bring him home. The White House’s inaction in this case is inhumane.”Ryan Fayhee, a lawyer acting on behalf of Corbett’s relatives, said the family was grateful to Biden for the call but also implored him to act on the deal.“A deal is now on the table and the decision to accept it — as imperfect as it may be — resides exclusively with the President,” Fayhee said in a statement. “Hard decisions make great Presidents, and we hope and believe that President Biden will not let perfection be the enemy of the good when American lives are at stake.”The White House confirmed the call with the families in a statement in which it said they “discussed the U.S. Government’s continuing efforts to reunite these three Americans with their families. The President emphasized his Administration’s commitment to the cause of bringing home Americans held hostage and wrongfully detained overseas.” A spokesperson did not directly address the complaint from the families.If a deal is not done before Jan. 20, it would fall to the incoming Trump administration to pick up negotiations, though it’s unclear if officials would take a different approach when it comes to releasing a Guantanamo detainee the U.S. government has deemed a danger.Just 15 men remain at Guantanamo, down from a peak of nearly 800 under former President George W. Bush.Rahim is one of just three remaining detainees never charged but also never deemed safe for the U.S. to even consider transferring to other countries, as it has done with hundreds of other Muslim detainees brought to Guantanamo but never charged.The U.S. has described Rahim as a direct adviser, courier and operative for Osama bin Laden and other senior al-Qaida figures and a continuing threat to U.S. national security, despite never charging him or otherwise formally making public any evidence against Rahim in his 17 years at Guantanamo.Successive U.S. administrations have kept Rahim under wraps to a degree remarkable even for the military-run detention at Guantanamo.A case-review panel in periodic security assessments has judged him a lasting danger. One typical review in 2019 cited what it said were his “extensive extremist connections that provide a path to re-engagement” if he were ever released. It claimed he had failed to answer questions from the review panel about his past or speak to any change to a more peaceful outlook.His attorney, James Connell, told a U.N. human rights commission recently that Rahim was being “systematically silenced” by the U.S. Connell claimed to the same panel that a U.S. official had told him “every word Rahim utters on any topic is classified on the basis of national security.”The Biden administration in September 2022 swapped a convicted Taliban drug lord imprisoned in the U.S. for an American civilian contractor who’d been detained by the Taliban for more than two years. Biden spoke with families of Americans detained in Afghanistan, White House says (Reuters)
Reuters [1/12/2025 3:48 PM, Andrea Shalal and Jonathan Landay, 63029K, Negative]
U.S. President Joe Biden spoke on Sunday with the families of three Americans detained in Afghanistan by its Taliban rulers since 2022, and emphasized his commitment to bringing home Americans wrongfully held overseas, the White House said.Biden’s administration has been negotiating with the Taliban since at least July about a U.S. proposal to release the three Americans - Ryan Corbett, George Glezmann and Mahmood Habibi - in exchange for Muhammad Rahim al-Afghani, a high-profile prisoner held in Guantanamo Bay, Reuters reported last week, citing a source familiar with the discussions.Efforts to secure the release of the Americans continue, a second source familiar with the initiative said on Sunday.Corbett and Habibi were detained in separate incidents in August 2022 a year after the Taliban seized Kabul amid the chaotic U.S. troop withdrawal. Glezmann was detained later in 2022 while visiting as a tourist.Ahmad Habibi, Mahmood Habibi’s brother, who was on the call on Sunday, welcomed the discussion with Biden."President Biden was very clear in telling us that he would not trade Rahim if the Taliban do not let my brother go," he said. "He said he would not leave him behind. My family is very grateful that he is standing up for my brother."The Taliban, which denies holding Habibi, had countered the U.S. proposal with an offer to exchange Glezmann and Corbett for Rahim and two others, one of the sources told Reuters last week. The White House noted that Biden has brought home more than 75 Americans unjustly detained around the world, including from Myanmar, China, Gaza, Haiti, Iran, Russia, Rwanda, Venezuela and West Africa. His administration also brought home all Americans detained in Afghanistan before the U.S. military withdrawal, it said."President Biden and his team have worked around the clock, often in partnership with key allies, to negotiate for the release of Americans held hostage or unjustly detained abroad so that they can be reunited with their families, and will continue to do so throughout the remainder of the term," it added.A Senate intelligence committee report on the agency’s so-called enhanced interrogation program called Rahim an "al Qaeda facilitator" and said he was arrested in Pakistan in June 2007 and "rendered" to the CIA the following month.He was kept in a secret CIA "black site," where he was subjected to tough interrogation methods, including extensive sleep deprivation, and then sent to Guantanamo Bay in March 2008, the report said.Biden last week sent 11 Guantanamo detainees to Oman, reducing the prisoner population at the detention center in Cuba by nearly half as part of its effort to close the facility as the president prepares to leave office on Jan. 20. Wife of American detained in Afghanistan heads to Mar-a-Lago to beg Trump to take up prisoner swap (FOX News)
FOX News [1/10/2025 6:27 PM, Morgan Phillips, Alexandra Koch and Alexis McAdams, 57114K, Neutral]
The family of an American who has suffered two and a half years of wrongful detainment in Afghanistan told Fox News he is "praying and hoping" his wife, who has been standing outside of Mar-a-Lago in Florida this weekend, will get an opportunity to meet with President-elect Donald Trump.
Ryan Corbett was captured by the Taliban while in Afghanistan for business in August 2022, just as the U.S. was pulling out of the country.
After years of pleading for a meeting with President Biden, his wife, Anna, flew to Florida and spent the weekend standing outside of Mar-a-Lago. She posted videos and updates on social media in an attempt to get Trump’s attention.
The family told Fox News they spoke with Ryan on Sunday and explained their efforts. They said he was "praying and hoping" that his wife gets the meeting.
At some point during the day on Sunday, Biden finally gave them a call, a spokesperson confirmed.
Reports broke this week that the Biden administration was negotiating with the Taliban to swap three U.S. citizens being held in Afghanistan in exchange for a Guantanamo Bay prisoner alleged to have been a close associate of Usama bin Laden.
The deal seemingly stalled, as a senior Taliban official told The Guardian the group would rather wait to negotiate with the incoming Trump administration.
"I am absolutely desperate to fight for my family," Anna Corbett told Fox News Digital Friday during a layover on her last-minute flight to Mar-a-Lago.
"Wouldn’t it be amazing if I got a meeting in one day, when, for 883 days, I tried to get a meeting with President Biden, and he didn’t have the time," she said.
The White House on Sunday confirmed Biden spoke with Corbett’s family, along with the families of George Glezmann, and Mahmoud Habibi – who have also been unjustly held by the Taliban in Afghanistan since 2022.
"The President and the families discussed the U.S. Government’s continuing efforts to reunite these three Americans with their families," according to a statement. "The President emphasized his Administration’s commitment to the cause of bringing home Americans held hostage and wrongfully detained overseas.".
White House officials noted that over the last four years, Biden brought home more than 75 Americans unjustly detained around the world. All Americans detained before the United States’ military withdrawal in August 2021 have returned home, according to the White House.
"Globally, President Biden and his team have worked around the clock, often in partnership with key allies, to negotiate for the release of Americans held hostage or unjustly detained abroad so that they can be reunited with their families, and will continue to do so throughout the remainder of the term," according to the statement.
Trump told Fox News’ Peter Doocy he would consider a prisoner swap, but seemed skeptical.
"I haven’t looked at it," Trump said Thursday. "I have not been in favor of the trade, but I’ll be taking a look tomorrow. We’ll announce something tomorrow.".
The talks, which have been ongoing since at least July 2024, involve exchanging suspected senior al Qaeda aide Muhammad Rahim al Afghani for U.S. citizens Ryan Corbett, George Glezmann and Mahmoud Habibi, who were detained in Afghanistan in 2022.
Some Republicans in Congress privately voiced national security concerns over returning Rahim to the Taliban and questioned whether the negotiations resulted in a bad deal.
"Ryan is an amazing person, and he has done nothing wrong, and our family desperately needs him," Anna Corbett said, imploring the U.S. government to accept the deal. "He’s a patriot. He was just trying to help the Afghan people, and this is a decision that the president needs to make. And we are just desperate for Ryan to come home alive as soon as possible.".
Glezmann and Ryan Corbett have been declared by the State Department as wrongfully detained, and the Taliban denies holding Habibi.
Prior to the call on Sunday, Anna Corbett said she last spoke to her husband on Christmas Day for about 15 minutes.
"He was obviously trying hard to be in good spirits for Christmas for the kids and I," she said. "But it was a difficult call, obviously, because this has been going on so long.
"He asked me where things were at, if there was progress, and there really was nothing that I could share with him.".In 2024, two released American detainees revealed Ryan Corbett was severely malnourished, was experiencing blackouts and fainting, and was being held in a basement cell with almost no sunlight or exercise.
Anna Corbett said that since then, her husband has gained some weight, but still experiences constant headaches and ringing in his ears.
Ryan Corbett was abducted Aug. 10, 2022, after returning to Afghanistan, where he and his family lived during the collapse of the U.S.-backed government a year prior.
He arrived in Afghanistan on a valid 12-month visa to pay and train staff, as part of a business venture he led aimed at promoting Afghanistan’s private sector through consulting services and lending.
Despite the detentions, the U.S. remains the largest financial supporter of Afghanistan, having offered the nation around $3 billion since the 2021 withdrawal.
The Taliban has long sought the release of Rahim, who has been held at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba since 2008, because the Pentagon believes he was a close associate of bin Laden.
In November 2023, the Guantánamo Bay prison review board cited Rahim’s work for senior al Qaeda members, and his participation in attacks on U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan, as reasons to keep him in custody.
Historically, Biden has been intent on closing the Guantánamo Bay prison. He announced on Monday the transfer of 11 Yemeni detainees, including two former bodyguards of bin Laden, from Guantanamo to Oman, which has agreed to help resettle them. Sullivan says ‘history has judged well’ Biden’s call to withdraw from Afghanistan (The Hill)
The Hill [1/12/2025 11:32 AM, Sarah Fortinsky, 57114K, Negative]
National security adviser Jake Sullivan said Sunday that President Biden made the right strategic call to withdraw from Afghanistan three years ago and that history reflects well on that decision.
"The strategic call President Biden made, looking back three years, history has judged well and will continue to judge well," Sullivan said in an interview on CNN’s "State of the Union.".
"From the point of view that, if we were still in Afghanistan today, Americans would be fighting and dying; Russia would have more leverage over us; we would be less able to respond to the major strategic challenges we face," he continued.
Sullivan also pointed to the recent example of the New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans, noting that "although the investigation continues," the FBI has not seen "any connection between Afghanistan and the attacker in New Orleans.".
"Now, the FBI will continue to look for foreign connections. Maybe we’ll find one, but what we’ve seen is proof of what President Biden said, which is that the terrorist threat has gotten more diffuse and more metastasized elsewhere, including homegrown extremists here in the United States who have committed terrorist attacks," Sullivan said. "Not just under President Biden, but under President Trump in his first term.".
"And that is part of why we had to move our focus from a hot war in Afghanistan to a larger counterterrorism effort across the world," he added.
Sullivan declined to respond to reports that he had offered to resign after the Afghanistan withdrawal, saying he would not divulge details of his personal conversations with the president.
"What I can tell you," he added, "is that the United States of America is definitively better off that we are not entering our 25th year of Americans fighting and dying in Afghanistan.". Gingrich: Afghans who fought alongside Americans should get ‘unusual level of support and treatment’ (The Hill)
The Hill [1/12/2025 2:31 PM, Tara Suter, 57114K, Neutral]
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said Sunday that Afghans who fought alongside Americans "against the Taliban" should get "an unusual level of support and treatment.".
"As you know, with that chaotic exit, there were tens of thousands of Afghans scattered, some of them still separated from their families," CBS News’s Margaret Brennan said on "Face the Nation," noting the late 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal by the U.S.
"Many of them worked for the U.S. government. Should Mr. Trump extend the legal process of this program and bring those Afghans here, and would you ask Congress to raise the current cap they have on the number of them coming?" she added.
"I think the Afghan refugees who actively fought on the side of Americans, saved American lives, tried to help win against the Taliban — I think they deserve an unusual level of support and treatment," Gingrich replied.
On Sunday, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said President Biden made the correct strategic call regarding the withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
"The strategic call President Biden made, looking back three years, history has judged well and will continue to judge well," Sullivan said in an interview on CNN’s "State of the Union.".
"From the point of view that, if we were still in Afghanistan today, Americans would be fighting and dying; Russia would have more leverage over us; we would be less able to respond to the major strategic challenges we face," he added.
A recent report from GOP members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee analyzing the withdrawal criticized President Biden for a rushed task that was undergone despite counsel from allies and advisers and resulted in unnecessary deaths.
"I worked all during the period of President Biden’s insanely disastrous withdrawal. I tried to work with various people and did podcasts with people who were trying to get folks out of Afghanistan who should legitimately have been helped by the U.S. government," Gingrich said in his "Face the Nation" appearance.
The Hill has reached out to President-elect Trump’s transition team and the White House for comment. Malala Condemns Taliban On Women’s Rights, Assails ‘Gender Apartheid’ (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [1/12/2025 4:59 AM, Staff, 1089K, Neutral]
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai urged Muslim leaders not to "legitimize" the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan and instead to "raise their voices" and "use [their] power" against the militant group’s curbs on women and girls’ education.
"Do not legitimize them," Yousafzai said on January 12, as she addressed the second and final day of a Muslim-led summit on girls’ education in her home country, Pakistan.
"Simply put, the Taliban do not see women as human beings. They cloak their crimes in cultural and religious justification," Yousafzai, 27, told the gathering in Islamabad.
She also urged Muslim leaders and global politicians to support efforts to make what has been called "gender apartheid" a crime under international law.
The event marked a full circle for Yousafzai, who was shot in 2012 by the Pakistani Taliban in the northwestern valley of Swat because she had campaigned for girls’ education.
Following the conference, organizers released a 17-point "Islamabad Declaration," including an agreement "emphasizing that girls’ education is not only a religious obligation but also an urgent societal necessity.".
"It is a fundamental right safeguarded by divine laws, mandated by Islamic teaching, reinforced by international chargers and well-established by national constitutions," it said.
The rights of girls and women – especially access to education – is often a controversial subject in conservative Islamic nations. Domestic activists and international organizations have pressed leaders to promote and protect such rights, and observers in recent years have noted improvements in many, but not all, countries.
Some 47 Muslim-majority nations and organizations sent representatives to the event, but it was shunned by the Afghan Taliban, whom activists say are among the world’s leading violators of the rights of women and girls.
Ahead of the gathering, Yousafzai said she would focus her speech on Afghanistan -- which is now the only nation among the 57 members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation that bans women’s education. The ban has been widely assailed by the international community and many people inside Afghanistan.
"I will speak about protecting rights for all girls to go to school, and why leaders must hold the Taliban accountable for their crimes against Afghan women & girls," she wrote on X.
The attack on Yousafzai, who had become a target for her campaign for girls’ education, sent shock waves across Pakistan and provoked international outrage.
Yousafzai, who was 15 at the time, survived after months of treatment at home and abroad and became an international figure, winning 2014 Nobel Peace Prize.
Roza Otunbayeva, head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), urged leaders of Islamic nations to protect the rights of Afghan girls.
"I really call on all these ministers...who came from all over the world, to offer scholarships, to have online education, to have all sorts of education for them. This is the task of the day," she said during a panel discussion.‘Crime Against Humanity’
Yousafzai’s father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, criticized Muslim countries for what he described as being "either silent, complicit, or apologetic" toward the Taliban’s curtailing of Afghan women’s rights.
Echoing condemnations by the United Nations, which has labeled the Taliban’s treatment of women "gender apartheid," Ziauddin Yousafzai told RFE/RL that "the international community, especially Muslim countries, should call the [government in Kabul] an apartheid regime.".
He said the Taliban-led administration’s curb on girls and women’s rights is a "crime against humanity.".
No Taliban representatives were present among participants of the two-day conference that brought together ministers and education officials from dozens of Muslim-majority countries, backed by the Muslim World League.
A senior Taliban diplomat in Islamabad told RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal that "so far, Kabul has not told us anything about this event.".
Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Pakistan’s education minister, said, "No one from the Afghan government was at the conference," but that Taliban leaders were formally invited to the event.
The Taliban government banned teenage girls from education soon after returning to power in August 2021.
Since then, the Islamist group has imposed draconian bans on women’s work, education, and mobility despite domestic opposition and a global outcry.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in his opening statement that preventing girls from receiving an education is "tantamount to denying their voice" and restricting their choices.
"The Muslim world, including Pakistan, faces significant challenges in ensuring equitable access to education for girls," Sharif said.
Muhammad al-Issa, a Saudi cleric and secretary-general of the Muslim World League, who organized the event with the Pakistani government, said, "The entire Muslim world has agreed that girls’ education is important.".
"Those who say that girls’ education is un-Islamic are wrong," he added. As Land Mines Kill More Afghans, Deminers Face Funding Crisis (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [1/12/2025 3:17 AM, Abubakar Siddique, 1089K, Negative]
Shah Agha is one of more than 100,000 Afghans living with injuries caused by land mines. He lost his leg to a mine during the anti-Soviet war in the 1980s in his native Kunduz Province in northern Afghanistan. In 2015, another unexploded weapon injured him again.
"My life is miserable," he told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi. "I am always in need of help.".
Noor, who goes by only one name, lost both his legs to a mine blast. The Kabul resident says disabled Afghans cannot access education, jobs, or even move freely.
"Both our society and the government do little to give us our rights," he said.
Agha and Noor are among the hundreds of Afghans killed and maimed every year by land mines left behind during more than four decades of war.
Mine-clearing agencies in Afghanistan, one of the most mine-infested countries globally, now fear an even larger number of Afghans will soon become victims of land mines.
Calls To End Aid
They say the clearing of killer munitions that still litter large swaths of Afghanistan could soon stop amid calls to end aid to the country ruled by the extremist Taliban group.
Ahead of his inauguration this month, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and his allies have repeatedly criticized Washington’s assistance to Afghanistan.
The United States is the leading donor for humanitarian operations in Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power in the country after the final U.S. military withdrawal from the country in August 2021.
"Deaths and injuries, especially among children and women, will increase," Shahabuddin Hakimi, head of the Mine Detection Center (MDC), an Afghan demining NGO, told Radio Azadi.
Since 1989, over 45,000 Afghans have been killed by land mines, according to the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS). Deminers have so far cleared over 3,000 square kilometers of some 14 million pieces of unexploded ordnance, including 764,000 antipersonnel mines and more than 33,460 anti-vehicle mines.
Casualties ‘Set To Increase’.
UNMAS estimates land mines still threaten more than 1,700 communities spread across Afghanistan, where over 1,200 square kilometers of territory still needs to be cleared of unexploded munitions.
Hakimi said that a decline in funding has forced the MDC to cease nearly 80 percent of its operations during the past year.
He says the lack of demining has already increased the number casualties from land mines to 60 per month. In previous years, Afghans suffered an average of 50 mine-related casualties per month -- one of the highest rates in the world.
"These casualties are set to increase this year as refugees return from Iran and Pakistan and internally displaced populations return to their homes," Hakimi said.
An estimated 2 million Afghans have been forced to return from neighboring Pakistan and Iran, which have been hosting millions of Afghans since the decadelong Soviet invasion of their country that began in December 1979.
The end of fighting after the Taliban’s return to power has prompted hundreds of thousands more displaced Afghans to return to their homes across the country.
Last year, 455 Afghan civilians were killed or injured by 234 land mine blasts, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross. These include 359 children, indicating they constitute nearly 80 percent of the victims of explosive hazards.
"Currently, mine action is among the most underfunded sectors in Afghanistan, said a spokesperson of the HALO Trust, a British charity and one of the leading demining groups in Afghanistan."[The country] no longer has the resources needed to stem the problem.".
The spokesperson said that, over the past two years, funding for mine action has halved, forcing demining groups to dramatically reduce their workforce.
Today, only 3,000 of the 15,000 Afghan deminers working before the Taliban returned to power are still clearing dangerous explosives. According to the HALO Trust, more than 40 percent of Afghan deminers lost their jobs over the past two years.
"The country is facing a paradox of reduced donor support and increase in humanitarian need and rising poverty," the spokesperson said.
Humanitarian Crisis
According to the UN, Afghanistan has one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world, with more than half of its 40 million population in need of assistance.
Yet the Taliban’s restrictions on women and new humanitarian crises elsewhere have prompted Western donors to cut aid to the country.
Kabul lost all its development assistance, which funded most of its government expenses after the Taliban toppled the pro-Western Afghan Republic.
The country is now in danger of losing more humanitarian aid. On January 7, Trump accused President Joe Biden of paying "billions of dollars to essentially the Taliban in Afghanistan.".
In a letter to the U.S. president-elect on January 2, Republican Congressman Tim Burchett urged him to stop cash aid to Afghanistan, some of which he alleged was going to the Taliban. The Taliban made me marry my boss: how one word led to a forced marriage (The Guardian)
The Guardian [1/13/2025 3:00 AM, Haniya Frotan, 83M, Neutral]
It was a normal summer morning in July last year when 19-year-old Samira* made her way to the carpet-weaving shop where she worked in Kabul to pick up her wages. She had no way of knowing that in just a few hours, her life as she knew it would be over.
She would end the day in a Taliban police station, a victim of forced marriage with her entire future decided for her by a group of strangers with guns.
That morning, as she waited alone outside her employer’s shop to collect her salary while he ate his lunch, the Taliban’s “morality police” were on patrol nearby.“I had to wait because the workshop was an hour’s walk from home,” she says. “The shop was near a main road. Unluckily, I was sitting right outside the door when the Taliban passed by and suddenly noticed me.”
The Taliban officials roam the streets enforcing the Islamic fundamentalists’ strict interpretation of sharia religious law, such as bans on women speaking or showing their faces outside their homes, or travelling without a male relative. They can make decisions about people’s lives and liberties on the spot, say human rights activists, including forcing them to marry.
Under Taliban rule, girls aged over 12 are not allowed to attend school, so carpet-weaving is one of the few areas where women and girls deprived of education can still work.
More than 20 women and young girls along with Samira worked for the carpet-weaving business, located in the basement of an unfinished building in a poverty-stricken neighbourhood. They earned about 7,000 Afghanis (£80) a month.
That day, Samira says, she was “frozen with fear” as they approached her. “They asked, ‘Who is this man [her employer] to you? Why are you alone? What are you doing here? How can you allow such a thing? What are you doing with a man who isn’t your relative?’”
The Taliban officers arrested Samira and Mohammad*, 42, on charges of an immoral relationship and contacted both of their families.“No matter how many questions they asked, I had no answers because they kept insulting me with hurtful words and curses. They pushed us into their car and took us to the police station.”
Samira says that out of fear, she did not give the Taliban her father’s phone number, so her sister Yasmin* and her sister’s husband came to the police station instead.
Fearing for the teenager’s safety and worried she might be imprisoned, they told the Taliban that Samira and Mohammad were engaged. Mohammad’s family, who were also frightened, said the same thing.
Without any further investigation, the Taliban forced Samira to marry her employer, a man who already had a wife and two children. His eldest son is the same age as Samira.
The marriage was officiated at the station that same day by the Taliban police, who have been given the authority to perform marriage rites since the Islamists’ takeover in 2021. The only witnesses from their respective families were Samira’s sister and brother-in-law, and Mohammad’s father.
Shaharzad Akbar, director of the Afghan human rights organisation Rawadari, says Samira’s story is not uncommon, but many women remain fearful of coming forward to share their story.“[In the minds of the ‘morality police’] they have to do something when they find a man and a woman together,” she says. “Women are not supposed to be working with men and so this forced marriage is their solution.“The Taliban police’s power to marry two people is not something that is clear in law. Taliban officials feel entitled to make decisions about people’s lives and liberties and there are no consequences – they are coming up with rules on the spot,” says Akbar.
After the marriage ceremony, the Taliban took them both to Mohammad’s house, but Samira’s nightmare did not end there.
When her father, uncle and older brothers learned what had happened, they broke into Mohammad’s house with sticks, shovels and other tools and beat Samira. Samira does not even remember which of her relatives hit her with the shovel. The marks from the wounds on her forehead are still visible six months later, she says.
Yasmin says she had intended to take Samira home before her father had arrived and had to tell Samira she could not now return home. Her father told her: “My honour is gone. How can I face the neighbours and the community?”
Yasmin tried to persuade her father but to no avail. “I apologised repeatedly, telling him that Samira hadn’t done anything wrong and that it was a misunderstanding. I asked him to let her come back now that the Taliban were gone, but no one would listen, not even my mother.“Because of one word [engaged], my sister’s life was ruined,” she says.
Before being barred from school, Samira says she had dreams of becoming an engineer, despite the mockery of her brothers, who told her: “What does a girl have to do with becoming an engineer? When you grow up, your father will find you a husband.”
Samira, who remains living with Mohammad and his first wife, says she is now struggling with depression and that the only place where she is allowed to go is her sister Yasmin’s house. Neither her father nor her mother will speak to her. She says the men in her family are “no different from the Taliban”.“Without knowing the full story, without even asking me why I had gone to the factory’s office at that time of day, they feel entitled to call me a prostitute, just like the Taliban did, and enforce the marriage between Mohammad and me.”
As well as frequent reports of the forced marriage of girls and women, Rawadari says 1,202 men and women have been subjected to cruel punishments, including public execution, since the Taliban’s takeover in 2021.
A spokesperson for the Taliban said: “This claim is incorrect. No organisation or individual can force any sister into marriage. So far, this matter has not been brought to our attention, but if it is, it will definitely be investigated. Such a claim is not true.”
However, Richard Bennett, UN special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, said there had been a worsening trend of forced and child marriages in Afghanistan, despite a Taliban order in December 2021 that banned forced marriages.“Many Afghans have informed me that forced and child marriages still occur widely with impunity, including with Taliban members, especially in rural and remote areas.“The ban on girls’ education above grade 6 increases exposure of girls to abuse, including early marriage. These marriages often lead to more suffering for women and girls, including marital rape, abuse, forced pregnancy and forced labour.” Russia says Afghanistan was its top flour buyer in 2024 (Reuters)
Reuters [1/11/2025 7:44 AM, Vladimir Soldatkin, 48128K, Neutral]
Afghanistan became the largest importer of Russian flour last year as it doubled purchases, Russia’s state agricultural export agency, Agroexport, said late on Friday.
Afghanistan imports flour as it does not have enough production capacity to fully meet domestic demand.
The increase in imports came as Russia sought to foster ties with Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers.
Last month, Moscow moved a step closer towards recognising the Taliban government, with Russia’s parliament voting in favour of a law that would make it possible to remove the movement from a list of banned terrorist organisations.
Agroexport, citing preliminary estimates, said Afghanistan bought Russian flour worth almost $80 million last year, double the 2023 level.
Russia’s total wheat and wheat-rye flour exports reached $300 million last year, up 3% year on year in value terms and 7% more by volume, according to the watchdog.
China and Turkmenistan were also in the top three buyers of Russian flour, it said. Pakistan
Taliban Absent As Pakistan PM Opens Summit On Girls’ Education (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [1/11/2025 5:59 AM, Staff, 1089K, Negative]
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said preventing girls from receiving an education is "tantamount to denying their voice" as he opened a major Muslim-led summit on the subject that remains sensitive in the Islamic world.
The gathering attracted Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai – who is scheduled to speak on January 12 – while it was apparently shunned by Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers, who activists say are among the world’s leading violators of the rights of women and girls.
"The Muslim world, including Pakistan, faces significant challenges in ensuring equitable access to education for girls," Sharif said at the opening of the event in Islamabad.
"Denying education to girls is tantamount to denying their voice and their choice, while depriving them of their right to a bright future," he added.
On January 11, no Taliban representatives were present among participants from some 50 Muslim-majority countries when the two-day conference opened in the Pakistani capital.
A senior Taliban diplomat in Islamabad told RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal that "so far, Kabul has not told us anything about this event.".
Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Pakistan’s education minister, said, "No one from the Afghan government was at the conference," but they were formally invited to the event.
The Taliban government banned teenage girls from education soon after returning to power in August 2021.
Since then, the Islamist group has imposed draconian education on women’s work, education, and mobility despite domestic opposition and a global outcry.
It is now the only nation among the 57 members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation that bans women’s education. The ban has been widely opposed by Afghans and internationally.
"The entire Muslim world has agreed that girls’ education is important," said Muhammad al-Issa, a Saudi cleric and secretary-general of the Muslim World League, who organized the event with the Pakistani government.
"Those who say that girls’ education is un-Islamic are wrong," he added.
Nobel laureate Yousafzai wrote on X ahead if the conference that "leaders must hold the Taliban accountable for their crimes against Afghan women and girls.".
In 2012, Pakistani Taliban militants shot Malala in the northwestern valley of Swat because she campaigned for girls’ education.The Taliban banned women’s education despite promising to allow it while it negotiated a peace agreement with the United States.
Senior Taliban government leaders, who are Sunni Deobandi clerics, have adopted a "fringe opinion" of Islamic Shari’a law to enforce the ban on the education of teenage girls and women.
Pakistan has also faced criticism for violation of the rights of girls and women in the country, particularly in rural areas. But poverty, lack of infrastructure, and cultural issues have also hampered the educational system.
"Millions of Pakistani children do not attend school, and those that do must deal with absent teachers and poor learning environments, among other things," the U.S.-based Wilson Center said in a report. A Pakistani court suspends the deportation of Afghan singers and musicians (AP)
AP [1/10/2025 9:51 AM, Riaz Khan, 456K, Neutral]
A Pakistani court on Friday stopped the deportation of 150 Afghan musicians and singers for at least two months, ordering authorities not to expel or force them to return home until their asylum applications are decided, their defense lawyer said Friday.
These Afghans were among an estimated half a million others who escaped Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover in 2021. Like the rest of the world, Pakistan has so far not recognized Afghanistan’s Taliban government. The international community has been wary of the Taliban’s harsh measures, imposed since their takeover, especially in restricting the rights of women and minorities.
Mumtaz Ahmed, a lawyer who fought the legal battle for 150 Afghan performers, told The Associated Press that the court order was the first of its kind and a big relief for his clients, who have lived in a state of uncertainty since 2023, when Pakistan launched a major crackdown on migrants in the country illegally.
The crackdown drew widespread criticism by U.N. agencies which said such forced expulsions of Afghans could lead to severe human rights violations — including family separations and the deportation of minors.
In the past 18 months, Pakistan has deported more than 800,000 Afghans who were living in the country without valid documents after entering the country through various border crossings since 2021.
Ahmed said under the court order, Pakistan is required to decide the fate of the applications of 150 Afghan musicians and singers in the next two months, and the Afghans were also entitled to register with the U.N. refugee agency to get the status of refugees.“I am very happy and we are grateful to the court and we hope now we will not face any harassment and forced expulsions,” Heshmat Ali, an Afghan singer, said.
He said Afghan singers and musicians would not be safe if they were forced to go back.Afghan refugees can live in Pakistan until June 2025, according to a government order last year.
Pakistan has long hosted an estimated 1.7 million Afghans, most of whom fled during the 1979-1989 Soviet occupation of their country. China, Pakistan agree to ‘upgrade’ CPEC cooperation (Deutsche Welle)
Deutsche Welle [1/12/2025 2:57 AM, Dharvi Vaid, 13448K, Positive]
China and Pakistan have reaffirmed their vow toward the development of the second phase of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the two nations said on Saturday.
The remarks came after Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong and Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Amna Baloch met in Beijing on Friday for the fourth cycle of diplomatic talks at the vice-foreign ministerial level.
"The two sides agreed that China and Pakistan are ironclad friends and all-weather strategic cooperative partners, and the time-tested friendship between the two countries has grown even stronger," China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Saturday.
CPEC 2.0
Both foreign officials also co-chaired the fifth meeting of the CPEC Joint Working Group on International Cooperation and Coordination (JWG-ICC) on Friday.
Beijing said that the two countries agreed on the need to "upgrade" the CPEC.
The agreement — which was signed in 2015 — pledges billions of dollars of Chinese investment in Pakistan’s infrastructure.
The project is part of China’s mammoth Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) which is aimed at developing trade routes to connect with the rest of the world.
Islamabad said on Friday that a "high quality development" of CPEC 2.0 would focus on industrialization, Special Economic Zones (SEZ’s), clean energy, agriculture and livelihood projects.
A statement from the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted on social media said "both sides reiterated firm resolve to elevate Pakistan-China ironclad ties to a new pedestal of cooperation and collaboration.".
Pakistan’s economic hurdles
Chinese investment in the region is facing the challenges posed by political instability, economic stagnation and energy supply issues.
Earlier this week, hundreds of Pakistani protesters blocked a section of a key highway that forms part of the CPEC in protest against power outages.
Locals in the snowy Gilgit-Baltistan region suffered blackouts of more than 20 hours amid temperatures of -15 degrees Celsius (5 degrees Fahrenheit).
The demonstrations on the Karakoram Highway in Hunza Valley prevented dozens of freight trucks from crossing into China.
Pakistan is hoping the greater Chinese investment to help alleviate its economic woes. Pakistan Makes Progress on First Panda Bonds, Finance Chief Says (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [1/12/2025 10:22 PM, Swati Pandey and Faseeh Mangi, 21617K, Positive]
Pakistan is preparing to debut yuan-denominated bonds this year to shore up finances, its Finance Minister said, while the government remains optimistic of meeting the International Monetary Fund’s bailout loan terms.The South Asian nation is planning to raise $200 million to $250 million from Chinese investors over the next six to nine months, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb told Bloomberg’s David Ingles and Rebecca Choong Wilkins in a television interview Monday. The plan comes as Pakistan’s sovereign rating has been upgraded recently by all three credit agencies. Aurangzeb sees further upgrades and the challenge is to get into a “single-B” category, which allows the country to return to global bond markets to raise funds.“The country is very keen, to tap the Panda bonds and the Chinese capital markets,” Aurangzeb said on the sidelines of the Asian Financial Forum in Hong Kong. “We have been remiss as a country not to tap it previously.”The latest figure is slightly lower than the $300 million the finance minister was targeting in a March 2024 interview. China International Capital Corporation is advising Pakistan on the issuance of Panda bonds, Aurangzeb said.Pakistan has enjoyed some stability from two years ago when an IMF bailout deal was in limbo and inflation and interest rates were above 20%. The government is optimistic it will meet the terms for an ongoing $7 billion loan.The IMF, which is scheduled to visit Pakistan next month, wants Pakistan to broaden its tax base and reach a tax-to-GDP ratio of 13.5%, from 10% in December, Aurangzeb said.“We are well on our way to achieve that target, not only because the IMF is saying that but because from my perspective the country needs to get into that benchmark to make our fiscal situation sustainable,” he said.After Pakistan clinched the IMF bailout last year, it has been getting some reprieve, including from cooling inflation that provides space for policymakers to cut borrowing costs further and help prop up a nation that remains hammered by structural weaknesses. Stronger remittances, a bright spot, helped shore up currency reserves.The rupee, as a result, rose about 2% in 2024, among best performers in emerging markets. The benchmark stock index outperformed nearly all other equities markets last year.Still ToughEven so, Pakistan remains in a tough spot.The government has to increase taxes to secure a fresh $1 billion loan tranche from the IMF or miss the lender’s tax revenue requirement for fiscal year ending June 2025 which could put the bailout at risk, Bloomberg Economics’ Ankur Shukla said in a note on Jan. 8.Having gone through 25 loan programs over half a century, Pakistan must institute durable reforms in key areas of the energy sector, tax collection and state-owned enterprises to end a cycle of indebtedness, Aurangzeb told an IMF forum in October.On Monday, Aurangzeb said the nation’s gross domestic product will probably expand 3.5% in the fiscal year ending June. Pakistan had set a 3.6% economic growth target after a 2.5% expansion the prior financial year.The State Bank of Pakistan, which has cut the benchmark rate to the lowest in more than two years, is scheduled to announce its decision on Jan. 27 while inflation is expected to stabilize within the target range of 5%–7% in the next 12 months.“We are into that phase of stabilization,” Aurangzeb said. “Now where do we go from here? We have to focus on sustainable growth. We are now very focused is to fundamentally change the DNA of the economy to make it export-led.” ‘Education apartheid’: schooling in crisis in Pakistan (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [1/10/2025 8:37 PM, Zain Zaman Janjua, 63029K, Negative]
Aneesa Haroon drops off her tattered school bag at her rural home in Pakistan and hurriedly grabs lunch before joining her father in the fields to pick vegetables.
The 11-year-old’s entry into school at the age of seven was a negotiation between teachers and her parents in her farming village on the outskirts of Karachi.
"Initially, many parents were not in favour of educating their children," headteacher Rukhsar Amna told AFP.
"Some children were working in the fields, and their income was considered more valuable than education.".
Pakistan is facing a severe education crisis, with more than 26 million children out of school, the majority in rural areas, according to official government figures -- one of the highest rates in the world.
This weekend, Pakistan will host a two-day international summit to advocate for girls’ education in Muslim countries, attended by Nobel Peace laureate and education activist Malala Yousafzai.
In Pakistan, poverty is the biggest factor keeping children out of classrooms, but the problem is worsened by inadequate infrastructure and underqualified teachers, cultural barriers and the impacts of climate change-fuelled extreme weather.
In the village of Abdullah Goth on the outskirts of Karachi, the non-profit Roshan Pakistan Foundation school is the first in decades to cater to the population of over 2,500 people.
"There was no school here for generations. This is the first time parents, the community and children have realised the importance of a school," said Humaira Bachal, a 36-year-old education advocate from the public and privately funded foundation.
Still, the presence of a school was just the first hurdle, she added.
Families only agreed to send their children in exchange for food rations, to compensate for the loss of household income that the children contributed.
In Abdullah Goth, most children attend school in the morning, leaving them free to work in the afternoon.
"Their regular support is essential for us," said Aneesa’s father, Haroon Baloch, as he watched his daughter and niece pick okra to sell at the market.
"People in our village keep goats, and the children help graze them while we are at work. After finishing grazing, they also assist us with labour tasks.".
Education in Pakistan is also increasingly impacted by climate change.
Frequent school closures are announced due to heavy smog, heatwaves and floods, and government schools are rarely equipped with heating or fans.
In the restive provinces of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, education faces significant setbacks due to ongoing militancy, while classes are routinely disrupted in the capital Islamabad due to political chaos.
Although the percentage of out-of-school children aged between five and 16 dropped from 44 percent in 2016 to 36 percent in 2023, according to census data, the absolute number rises each year as the population grows.
Girls all across the country are less likely to go to school, but in the poorest province of Balochistan, half of girls are out of school, according to the Pak Alliance for Maths and Science, which analysed government data.
Cash-strapped Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif declared an "education emergency" last year, and said he would increase the education budget from 1.7 percent of GDP to 4 percent over the next five years.
Public schools funded by the government offer free education but struggle with limited resources and overcrowding, creating a huge market for private schools whose costs can start from a few dollars a month.
In a parallel system, thousands of madrassas provide Islamic education to children from the poorest families, as well as free meals and housing, but often fail to prepare students for the modern world.
"In a way, we are experiencing an education apartheid," said Adil Najam, an international relations professor at Boston University who has researched Pakistan’s education system.
"We have at least 10 different systems, and you can buy whatever quality of education you want, from absolutely abysmal to absolutely world-class.
"The private non-profit schools can prime the pump by putting (out) a good idea, but we are a country of a quarter billion, so these schools can’t change the system.".
Even young student Aneesa, who has set her mind on becoming a doctor after health professionals visited her school, recognises the divide with city kids.
"They don’t work in field labour like we do.".
In the small market of Abdullah Goth, dozens of children can be seen ducking in and out of street-side cafes serving truck drivers or stacking fruit in market stalls.
Ten-year-old Kamran Imran supports his father in raising his three younger siblings by working at a motorcycle workshop in the afternoons, earning 250 rupees ($0.90) a day.
Muhammad Hanif, the 24-year-old owner of the workshop, does not support the idea of education and has not sent his own children to school.
"What’s the point of studying if after 10 to 12 years, we still end up struggling for basic needs, wasting time and finding no way out?" he told AFP.
Najam, the professor, said that low-quality education was contributing to the rise in out-of-school children.
Parents, realising their children cannot compete for jobs with those who attended better schools, instead prefer to teach them labour skills.
"As big a crisis as children being out of school is the quality of the education in schools," said Najam. Rescuers in southwestern Pakistan recover the bodies of 11 workers who died in a coal mine blast (AP)
AP [1/13/2025 12:17 AM, Staff, 456K, Neutral]
Rescuers recovered the bodies of 11 coal miners who died last week after a methane gas explosion caused a coal mine to collapse in southwestern Pakistan, officials said Monday.
An operation is still underway to find a 12th worker who has been missing since Thursday, when the mine collapsed in Singidi city in Balochistan province, said Abdul Ghani, a mines inspector.
Two more coal miners were killed on Sunday when another mine collapsed in Harnai, a district in Balochistan, he said.
Safety standards are commonly ignored in the coal mining industry in Pakistan, leading to accidents and explosions that kill dozens of mine workers every year. Miners often complain that owners fail to install safety equipment.
Last week, Pakistani security forces also rescued at least eight of 16 mine workers who had been kidnapped by local militants in the restive northwest, and an operation is still underway to rescue the remaining miners. India
World’s Largest Gathering Puts Modi’s Hindu Agenda in Spotlight (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [1/13/2025 4:49 AM, Dan Strumpf, 21617K, Positive]Billed as the world’s largest human gathering, India is hosting a once-in-a-decade religious event from Monday that gives Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party a fresh opportunity to promote its Hindu nationalist agenda among hundreds of millions of pilgrims.The Kumbh Mela will take place on the banks of the Ganges river in northern India over the course of some six weeks, a religious extravaganza that attracts Hindu devotees and tourists, rich and poor, political leaders and celebrities. With local reports suggesting it could draw as many as 400 million pilgrims, the event is a mammoth logistics operation for the government in Uttar Pradesh state, which must seek to prevent stampedes and disease outbreaks that have been occurrences in the past. It’s also a political opportunity for Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party and other groups on the Hindu right, who will likely use the event to advocate for their cause. Uttar Pradesh lies squarely in the so-called Hindi belt, the stretch of northern India that is a stronghold for Modi and the BJP, and is run by Yogi Adityanath, the hardline Hindu monk-turned-politician.“The politics behind it is to show that the government is promoting religiosity, is promoting the Hindu religion and is trying to create a Hindu vote bank in order to create what is popularly known as a Hindu nation,” said Sudha Pai, a former professor of political science at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.The event kicked off early Monday amid chilly temperatures and heavy morning fog, as streams of pilgrims poured into the Ganges for a morning dip. In a post on X, Modi called the event “a sacred confluence of faith, devotion and culture.”What is the Kumbh Mela?The Kumbh Mela — which means “festival of the sacred pitcher” — will take place in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, at the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers. The site is also said to be the meeting point of a mythical third river, the Saraswati. The Kumbh is organized around a series of riverside bathing ceremonies, and joining in the ritual dips is said to cleanse sins and end the Hindu cycle of rebirth. This year’s event is known as the Maha — or “great” — Kumbh Mela, and takes place on a 12-year cycle in Prayagraj. Smaller Kumbh festivals take place at one of three cities — Haridwar, Ujjain and Nashik — roughly every three years. While even those smaller events draw crowd sizes in the millions, organizers expect this one to be the biggest yet. Local media have reported that more than 400 million people — the population of the US, plus France, give or take a few million — could gather over the course of the event. The 2013 Maha Kumbh Mela reportedly drew more than 120 million visitors.How has India been preparing for the event?Hosting a gathering of that size is, by any measure, a logistical nightmare. In anticipation of the event, the Uttar Pradesh government has designated an area in Prayagraj as a separate administrative district, with construction of housing, roads, water, electricity and other infrastructure well underway. To accommodate the millions of visitors, the state is building what has been described as one of the world’s largest temporary cities, some 10,000 acres in size and packed with tens of thousands of tents, street lights, bathrooms and closed-circuit TV cameras. While many of the accommodations are rudimentary, some companies are offering stays in luxury tents for upwards of 40,000 rupees ($465.28) a night. Temporary bridges, markets, hospitals and other facilities are also being built. Organizers have rolled out a Kumbh Mela app to help guide visitors. In all, the event is expected to generate some 2 trillion rupees ($23.3 billion) in economic growth, said Yogi Adityanath, the leader of Uttar Pradesh. One big challenge looms over the event — dealing with the sheer volume of human waste generated by such a gathering. The Ganges is already known for its heavy pollution levels, and past festivals have turned into a breeding ground for disease due to inadequate waste-disposal measures. Officials have said 150,000 toilets have been dispatched to the event, while technology from India’s space and nuclear research agencies is reportedly being deployed to help cope with the volumes of sewage. Prior events haven’t been without mishaps and disasters. Deadly stampedes have occurred on numerous occasions: In 1954, a stampede resulting in the death of large numbers of pilgrims on the event’s main bathing day, while a 2013 stampede at a train station killed dozens. Public health experts said the 2021 Kumbh Mela became a “super spreader” event for Covid-19.What is the political significance of the Kumbh Mela?For the ruling BJP, the event is one of its highest-profile opportunities to promote its Hindu-nationalist agenda before a receptive crowd.Adityanath, widely seen as a possible successor to Modi, will likely seek to use the Kumbh Mela as a national platform for his state — India’s most populous — and help build his political profile. In a sign of the event’s growing Hindu-nationalist tone, the name of the Kumbh Mela’s host city was changed in 2018 to Prayagraj from Allahabad — part of a wave of name changes by the BJP of places with designations tracing back to the Mughal era. A proposal by Hindu religious groups to ban non-Hindus from setting up food shops at the event has been met with opposition by a Muslim body.During previous festivals, organizations promoting the Hindu-nationalist cause have all occupied a central presence, and this year will be no different. The right-wing Vishwa Hindu Parishad, or VHP, has issued calls for people across India to visit the Kumbh this year. In December, Modi said that previous governments neglected the significance of religious events like the Kumbh Mela — though the opposition too has used the festival to pitch its agenda.How do businesses capitalize on the Kumbh Mela?For Indian companies, the world’s largest gathering of people is a marketing opportunity not to be missed. “An advertising bliss,” as one executive described it to Bloomberg News. “It’s some 100 million people in one place, and that never happens anywhere else on the globe.”Indian advertising agency Shreyas Media, which won advertising rights for the event, said it expects Indian companies to spend 30 billion rupees ($349 million) at the Kumbh Mela. The company said it’s selling advertising to companies on billboards, charging stations, sky balloons and other platforms. The 2013 Kumbh Mela was an advertising bonanza, with brands finding creative ways to pitch their products to Indians on tight budgets, with cheap glasses of Coca-Cola for sale alongside rotis stamped with advertisements for soap. India kicks off a massive Hindu festival touted as the world’s largest religious gathering (AP)
AP [1/12/2025 9:06 PM, Sheikh Saaliq, 63029K, Positive]
Millions of Hindu devotees, mystics and holy men and women from all across India flocked to the northern city of Prayagraj on Monday to kickstart the Maha Kumbh festival, which is being touted as the world’s largest religious gathering.Over about the next six weeks, Hindu pilgrims with gather at the confluence of three sacred rivers — the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati — where they will take part in elaborate rituals, hoping to begin a journey to achieve Hindu philosophy’s ultimate goal: the release from the cycle of rebirth.Here’s what to know about the festival:A religious gathering at the confluence of three sacred riversHindus venerate rivers, and none more so than the Ganges and the Yamuna. The faithful believe that a dip in their waters will cleanse them of their past sins and end their process of reincarnation, particularly on auspicious days. The most propitious of these days occur in cycles of 12 years during a festival called the Maha Kumbh Mela, or pitcher festival.The festival is a series of ritual baths by Hindu sadhus, or holy men, and other pilgrims at the confluence of three sacred rivers that dates to at least medieval times. Hindus believe that the mythical Saraswati river once flowed from the Himalayas through Prayagraj, meeting there with the Ganges and the Yamuna.Bathing takes place every day, but on the most auspicious dates, naked, ash-smeared monks charge toward the holy rivers at dawn. Many pilgrims stay for the entire festival, observing austerity, giving alms and bathing at sunrise every day.“We feel peaceful here and attain salvation from the cycles of life and death,” said Bhagwat Prasad Tiwari, a pilgrim.The festival has its roots in a Hindu tradition that says the god Vishnu wrested a golden pitcher containing the nectar of immortality from demons. Hindus believe that a few drops fell in the cities of Prayagraj, Nasik, Ujjain and Haridwar — the four places where the Kumbh festival has been held for centuries.The Kumbh rotates among these four pilgrimage sites about every three years on a date prescribed by astrology. This year’s festival is the biggest and grandest of them all. A smaller version of the festival, called Ardh Kumbh, or Half Kumbh, was organized in 2019, when 240 million visitors were recorded, with about 50 million taking a ritual bath on the busiest day.Maha Kumb is the world’s largest such gatheringAt least 400 million people — more than the population of the United States — are expected in Prayagraj over the next 45 days, according to officials. That is around 200 times the 2 million pilgrims that arrived in the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia for the annual Hajj pilgrimage last year.The festival is a big test for Indian authorities to showcase the Hindu religion, tourism and crowd management.A vast ground along the banks of the rivers has been converted into a sprawling tent city equipped with more 3,000 kitchens and 150,000 restrooms. Divided into 25 sections and spreading over 40 square kilometers (15 square miles), the tent city also has housing, roads, electricity and water, communication towers and 11 hospitals. Murals depicting stories from Hindu scriptures are painted on the city walls.Indian Railways has also introduced more than 90 special trains that will make nearly 3,300 trips during the festival to transport devotees, beside regular trains.About 50,000 security personnel — a 50% increase from 2019 — are also stationed in the city to maintain law and order and crowd management. More than 2,500 cameras, some powered by AI, will send crowd movement and density information to four central control rooms, where officials can quickly deploy personnel to avoid stampedes.The festival will boost Modi’s support baseIndia’s past leaders have capitalized on the festival to strengthen their relationship with the country’s Hindus, who make up nearly 80% of India’s more than 1.4 billion people. But under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the festival has become an integral part of its advocacy of Hindu nationalism. For Modi and his party, Indian civilization is inseparable from Hinduism, although critics say the party’s philosophy is rooted in Hindu supremacy.The Uttar Pradesh state, headed by Adityanath — a powerful Hindu monk and a popular hard-line Hindu politician in Modi’s party — has allocated more than $765 million for this year’s event. It has also used the festival to boost his and the prime minister’s image, with giant billboards and posters all over the city showing them both, alongside slogans touting their government welfare policies.The festival is expected to boost the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party’s past record of promoting Hindu cultural symbols for its support base. But recent Kumbh gatherings have also been caught in controversies.Modi’s government changed the city’s Mughal-era name from Allahabad to Prayagraj as part of its Muslim-to-Hindu name-changing effort nationwide ahead of the 2019 festival and the national election that his party won. In 2021, his government refused to call off the festival in Haridwar despite a surge in coronavirus cases, fearing a backlash from religious leaders in the Hindu-majority country. Tens of thousands take holy dip in India as Maha Kumbh festival begins (Reuters)
Reuters [1/13/2025 4:30 AM, Saurabh Sharma, 5.2M, Neutral]
Tens of thousands of Hindus seeking absolution of their sins immersed themselves on Monday in freezing waters at the confluence of sacred rivers, as India began a six-week festival expected to draw the world’s largest gathering of humanity.
Held every 12 years, the Maha Kumbh Mela or Great Pitcher Festival, as the religious event in the city of Prayagraj in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh is called, attracts more than 400 million visitors, both Indians and tourists.
As many as 40,000 police officers are on guard to provide security and help manage the crowds, while surveillance cameras equipped with artifical intelligence AI capabilities will ensure continuous monitoring.
"It is our festival," said ascetic Hazari Lala Mishra, who immersed himself before sunrise, which is considered an auspicious time. "(It is) the only festival for hermits and monks, and we wait for it desperately."
Authorities expect Monday’s first ritual dip to draw more than 2.5 million visitors, followed by a "royal bath" on Tuesday reserved for ascetics, in the belief that it absolves them of sin and confers salvation from the cycle of life and death.
Amid public warnings to walk in lines without halting anywhere, droves of marchers headed for bathing positions to await sunrise at the confluence of the three holy rivers, the Ganga, Yamuna, and the mythical, invisible Saraswati.
Advancing towards the waters’ edge in the winter morning fog, they chanted invocations such as "Har Har Mahadev" and "Jai Ganga Maiyya" in praise of the Hindu deities Lord Shiva and Mother Ganga, who personifies India’s holiest river.
"I am excited but now scared because I didn’t expect this crowd," said Priyanka Rajput, a fashion model from Delhi, the capital, who accompanied her mother. "This is my first Kumbh and I came here only because my mother is very spiritual."
The Kumbh originates in a Hindu tradition that the god Vishnu, known as the Preserver, wrested away from demons a golden pitcher that held the nectar of immortality.
In a 12-day celestial fight for its possession, four drops of the nectar fell to earth, in the cities of Prayagraj, Haridwar, Ujjain and Nashik, where the festival is held every three years in rotation.
The Kumbh held once in 12 years in this cycle has the prefix ‘maha’ (great) as its timing renders it more auspicious and it attracts the largest crowds.
CROWD MANAGEMENT
A showcase mix of religion, spirituality and tourism like no other in India, the event offers a test in crowd management for authorities in the world’s most populous country who must balance arrangements for millions while retaining its sanctity.
A temporary city sprawling over 4,000 hectares (9,990 acres)has sprung up along the river banks with 150,000 tents to house the visitors, and is equipped with 3,000 kitchens, 145,000 restrooms and 99 parking lots.
Authorities are also installing as many as 450,000 new electricity connections, with the Kumbh expected to consume more power than 100,000 urban apartments require in a month.
Indian Railways has added 98 trains to make 3,300 trips carrying festival visitors, in addition to regular services to Prayagraj.
Uttar Pradesh is governed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which hopes a successful Kumbh Mela will burnish its efforts to reclaim and glorify India’s religious and cultural symbols.
That has been a plank for the party’s Hindu base promised since Modi swept to power nationwide in 2014.
"The Maha Kumbh embodies India’s timeless spiritual heritage and celebrates faith and harmony," Modi said in a post on X. Tougher U.S. sanctions to curb Russian oil supply to China and India (Reuters)
Reuters [1/12/2025 6:57 PM, Nidhi Verma, Chen Aizhu, Siyi Liu and Florence Tan, 57114K, Neutral]
Chinese and Indian refiners will source more oil from the Middle East, Africa and the Americas, boosting prices and freight costs, as new U.S. sanctions on Russian producers and ships curb supplies to Moscow’s top customers, traders and analysts said.
The U.S. Treasury on Friday imposed sanctions on Russian oil producers Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas, as well as 183 vessels that have shipped Russian oil, targeting the revenues Moscow has used to fund its war with Ukraine.
Many of the tankers have been used to ship oil to India and China as Western sanctions and a price cap imposed by the Group of Seven countries in 2022 shifted trade in Russian oil from Europe to Asia. Some tankers have also shipped oil from Iran, which is also under sanctions.
Russian oil exports will be hurt severely by the new sanctions, which will force Chinese independent refiners to cut refining output going forward, two Chinese trade sources said. The sources declined to be named as they are not authorised to speak to media.
The expected disruption in Russian supply drove global oil prices to their highest in months on Monday, with Brent trading above $81 a barrel. [O/R].
Among the newly sanctioned ships, 143 are oil tankers that handled more than 530 million barrels of Russian crude last year, about 42% of the country’s total seaborne crude exports, Kpler’s lead freight analyst Matt Wright said in a note.
Of these, about 300 million barrels were shipped to China while the bulk of the remainder went to India, he added.
"These sanctions will significantly reduce the fleet of ships available to deliver crude from Russia in the short term, pushing freight rates higher," Wright said.
A Singapore-based trader said the designated tankers shipped close to 900,000 bpd of Russian crude to China over the past 12 months.
"It’s going to drop off a cliff," he added.
For the first 11 months last year, India’s Russian crude imports rose 4.5% on year to 1.764 million bpd, or 36% of India’s total imports. China’s volume, including pipeline supply, was up 2% at 99.09 million metric tons (2.159 million bpd), or 20% of its total imports, over the same period.
China’s imports are mostly Russian ESPO Blend crude, sold above the price cap, while India buys mostly Urals oil.
Vortexa analyst Emma Li said Russian ESPO Blend crude exports would be halted if the sanctions were strictly enforced, but it would depend on whether U.S. President-elect Donald Trump lifted the embargo and also whether China acknowledged the sanctions.
ALTERNATIVES
The new sanctions will push China and India back into the compliant oil market to seek more supply from the Middle East, Africa and the Americas, the sources said.
Spot prices for Middle East, Africa and Brazilian grades have already risen in recent months on rising demand from China and India as supplies of Russian and Iranian oil tightened and became more expensive, they added.
"Already, prices are rising for Middle Eastern grades," said an Indian oil refining official.
"There is no option than that we have to go for Middle Eastern oil. Perhaps we may have to go for U.S. oil as well.".
A second Indian refining source said the sanctions on Russian oil insurers will prompt Russia to price its crude below $60 a barrel so Moscow can continue to use Western insurance and tankers.
Harry Tchilinguirian, head of research at Onyx Capital Group said: "Indian refiners, the main takers of Russian crude, are unlikely to wait around to find out and will be scrambling to find alternatives in Middle Eastern and Dated-Brent-related Atlantic Basin crude.
"Strength in the Dubai benchmark can only rise from here as we are likely to see aggressive bidding for February loading cargoes of the likes of Oman or Murban, leading to a tighter Brent/Dubai spread," he added.
Last month, the Biden administration designated more ships dealing with Iranian crude ahead of tougher action expected from the incoming Trump administration, leading the Shandong Port Group to ban sanctioned tankers from calling into its ports in the eastern Chinese province.
As a result, China, the main buyer of Iranian crude, will also turn to heavier Middle Eastern oil and most likely will maximise its offtake of Canadian crude from the Trans-Mountain pipeline (TMX), Tchilinguirian said. India won’t reduce troops along China border in winter, army chief says (Reuters)
Reuters [1/13/2025 2:51 AM, Shivam Patel, 5.2M, Neutral]
India is not looking to reduce the number of troops along the northern frontier in winter, the country’s army chief said on Monday adding that it will review summer deployment based on outcome of negotiations with China.
Four years ago, 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers were killed during border clashes following which both sides stopped patrolling several points on the border in Ladakh to avoid new confrontations, while moving tens of thousands of new troops and military equipment closer to the freezing mountainous region.
New Delhi and Beijing reached a deal in October last year to resolve the four-year military stand-off and few days later they pulled back troops from the disputed border.
"During winter deployment, the number of troops come down. So therefore, at least in the winter strategy, we are not looking forward to any reduction of troops," army chief Upendra Dwivedi told reporters in New Delhi.Dwivedi said a decision on summer deployment would depend on how negotiations and talks with China progress.
"When it comes to the summer strategy, we’ll take a review based on that time, how many negotiations and meetings have taken place," he said.
India and China share a poorly demarcated border which runs along the Himalayas and has been a source of tension between the neighbours for decades, including a brief but bloody war in 1962.
Ties stabilised after diplomatic talks and a series of pacts were reached from 1991 and trade and business links boomed until they were disrupted by the clashes in the summer of 2020. India’s Modi marks the opening of a strategic tunnel in disputed Kashmir (AP)
AP [1/13/2025 3:27 AM, Aijaz Hussain, 456K, Neutral]
India’s prime minister marked Monday the opening of a tunnel in the northeast of disputed Kashmir that will grant all-year accessibility to a town that is isolated by heavy snow each winter.
The $932 million project includes a second tunnel and a series of bridges and high mountain roads that will link Kashmir with Ladakh, a cold desert region nestled between India, Pakistan and China that has faced territorial disputes for decades.
Amid high security, Narendra Modi visited the resort town of Sonamarg where he inaugurated the 6.5-kilometer (4-mile) tunnel. The town denotes the end of the conifer-clad mountains of the Kashmir Valley before Ladakh begins across the rocky Zojila mountain pass. The tunnel, named Z-Morh, will now grant it accessibility for the first time all year round.
The second tunnel, about 14 kilometers (9 miles) long, will bypass the challenging Zojila pass and connect Sonamarg with Ladakh and is expected to be completed in 2026.
Sonamarg and Ladakh have been plagued with severe snowfalls that close the mountain passes due to massive snowfalls, forcing them to remain cut off from neighboring towns for nearly six months every year.
Authorities on Monday deployed police and soldiers in the area and established multiple checkpoints at key intersections as an enhanced security measure for the prime minister’s visit. Troops also stationed sharpshooters at several points and carried out drone surveillance to ensure constant vigilance.
Modi is scheduled to speak later at a public meeting.
Experts say the tunnel project is important to the military, which will gain significantly improved capabilities to operate in Ladakh while also providing civilians with freedom of movement year-round between the Kashmir valley and Ladakh.
In October, gunmen fatally shot at least seven people working on the tunnel project and injured at least five others. Police blamed insurgents fighting for decades against Indian rule in the region.
In 2019, New Delhi stripped Kashmir’s special status as a semi-autonomous region with a separate constitution and inherited protections on land and jobs. The federal government also downgraded and divided the former state into two centrally governed union territories, Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir, the first time in the history of India that a region’s statehood was downgraded to a federally administered territory.
India and Pakistan each administer a part of Kashmir, but both claim the territory in its entirety. Militants in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Many Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels’ goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.
India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan denies the charge, and many Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict. Six dead and dozens injured after bus falls into ditch in hilly Indian state (The Independent)
The Independent [1/13/2025 4:37 AM, Shweta Sharma, 57.8M, Neutral]
Six people died and at least 22 were injured when a bus plunged into a 100-metre-deep gorge in the mountainous Indian state of Uttarakhand.
The tragedy occurred on Sunday evening in the Dahalchauri area of Pauri Garhwal district after the driver lost control, the State Disaster Response Force said,
At least eight people were critically injured and they were referred to a hospital in Srinagar city for treatment.
Visuals showed the wreckage of the yellow bus lying in a deep wooded valley surrounded by towering mountains. Rescuers and local residents had to navigate steep slopes to bring out the wounded.
Pauri district magistrate Ashish Chauhan said the transport department would investigate the cause of the accident.
Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami expressed sadness over the tragedy and prayed for the speedy recovery of the injured.“Relief and rescue operations are underway by the local administration and the injured are being treated at the nearest hospital,” Mr Dhami said.
Private and government buses remain a common mode of transport for local people as well as tourists from other states in India. They are often overcrowded, however, and the drivers are known to flout safety rules.
On 4 December last year, at least 36 people died and 27 were injured after a bus fell into a gorge in the state’s Almora district. It was the deadliest in the hill state since July 2018, when 48 people lost their lives in Pauri Garhwal.
Nearly 160,000 people lose their lives to road accidents in India every year, the highest in the world, as people routinely violate traffic and safety rules. Why is India courting the Taliban now? (Al Jazeera)
Al Jazeera [1/11/2025 12:01 AM, Ruchi Kumar, 19588K, Neutral]
The meeting in Dubai between Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and Amir Khan Muttaqi, acting foreign minister of the Taliban, on Wednesday this week has confirmed India’s intentions to raise its influence with the Afghan leadership, analysts say.India has been gradually upping relations with the Taliban over the past year but this latest meeting marked the first high-level engagement of its kind.India has invested more than $3bn in aid and reconstruction work in Afghanistan in the past 20 years and a statement from the Indian Ministry of External Affairs laid out the usual talking points: regional developments, trade and humanitarian cooperation plus an agreement to resume developmental projects and to support the health sector and refugees in Afghanistan.However, it was what was left unsaid in that statement – but which was evident from the timing and agenda of this meeting – that signalled a shift in the geopolitical realities of the region.For one, the meeting comes just days after India issued a condemnation of Pakistan’s air attacks on Afghanistan which have reportedly killed at least 46 people in the last month.It also comes on the heels of the Taliban’s appointment of an acting consul in the Afghan consulate in Mumbai, in November last year.While the Indian government did not comment on the appointment, the timing coincided with a visit by India’s joint secretary of the Ministry of External Affairs to Kabul the same month.The Taliban’s deployment to Mumbai of Ikramuddin Kamil, a former Afghan student in India-turned Taliban diplomat, places India on a growing list of countries, including Russia, China, Turkiye, Iran and Uzbekistan, which have allowed the Taliban to take over operations in Afghan embassies. Earlier, in 2022, India also sent a small technical team to partially reopen its embassy in Kabul.A strategic shift?These recent events signal a deepening of ties between New Delhi and Kabul, observers say.But the move may not be the strategic shift it appears, said Kabir Taneja, deputy director and fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, an Indian think tank. “It is just a natural progression of what has been India’s cautious and protracted approach to the Taliban’s reality in Kabul since 2021,” he said. “Much like other neighbours, for India as well the Taliban is a reality, and ignoring Afghanistan and the Afghan people is not an option.”Raghav Sharma, associate professor at the Jindal School of International Affairs in New Delhi, agreed. “I think this is a continuation of the earlier policy where we are sort of engaging with the Taliban, but we don’t really want to acknowledge the depth of our engagement,” he said, noting that policy has seldom emerged from such dialogues.“When it comes to diplomatic engagement with the Taliban, we have remained on the periphery,” he added, referring to a study by the Washington Institute, a US think tank that analysed international engagement with the Taliban. The study found that countries including Qatar, China and Turkiye are leading the way in developing relations with the Taliban, with Pakistan at number five in terms of influence.“India is not even there on the list,” Sharma said.“For the longest time, India has been saying that Afghanistan is a country of strategic importance, and we have had historical ties, but then you’ve got to walk the talk,” Sharma added. “After the fall of the republic government, we put Afghanistan in a cold storage, only addressing it when we needed, on an ad hoc basis.” Indian reluctance lingers
One positive move which may come out of all this, Taneja said, is the prospect of visas for Afghans. “The main takeaway from Misri-Muttaqi engagement is that India may be close to restarting a tranche of visas for Afghans, specifically in trade, health tourism and education,” he said.
India was criticised for suspending Afghan visas, including medical and student visas, in the aftermath of the Taliban takeover in 2021. It has issued very few visas to Afghans since then. “It is high time New Delhi came around to do this,” Taneja said. “It will bring relief to many Afghan citizens who had used India as their preferred choice for attaining higher education, medical attention, and so on.”
Sharma said he was less hopeful that more visas will be issued, because of security concerns. “At the end of the day, the Taliban are an ideological movement, and their resurgence to power has resulted in an uptick of radicalisation which is going to be a challenge,” he said.
India needs to remain involved in the region, too. “It believes that by keeping the channel open to the Taliban, they’ll be able to engage them at least on some issues that matter to India. Will the Taliban be able to deliver is another question because what are the leverages that we have vis-a-vis the Taliban?” he added.
The meeting was needed by the Taliban more than by India, Sharma said. With the group engaged in military clashes with Pakistan, a former ally of the Taliban, it is eager to demonstrate that it has a wider ambit of options available.
“They [the Taliban] want to show [autonomy] to Pakistan particularly. But also it helps them play against the larger propaganda that they have no strategic autonomy, they have no agency and that they are merely stooges of Pakistan,” he said, referring to the Taliban’s portrayal in the international arena that analysts say has been influenced by the Pakistani military establishment.
Cautious steps or just a lack of strategy?
There are other reasons India may be reluctant to go further with the Taliban. Closer ties could put “the world’s largest democracy” in an ethical quagmire, say analysts.
“India has long tried to market and position itself as the largest democracy in the world, but has failed to even condemn the banning of girls’ education in Afghanistan. There has been absolute pin-drop silence on these issues. So what signal are we sending to the population back home?” Sharma asked.
India has maintained a strong presence in Afghanistan and was one of the first countries to send a diplomatic mission after the fall of the Taliban in 2001. However, despite significant interests in the region, India has lacked a coherent policy on the country.
“Any manoeuvres that India wanted to make, it has always done that in alignment with other powers with whom we found a convergence of interest. That’s largely been Iran and Russia in the past, and then the Americans,” Sharma said. Following the collapse of the US-backed republic government, India found itself in a new situation.
As many countries around the world quickly moved to adjust to the new reality, India put Afghanistan into “cold storage”, Sharma repeated. Even the US, he said, “has been working with the Taliban on a counterterrorism to deal with the ISKP”. The ISKP (Islamic State of Khorasan Province) is a regional branch of ISIL (ISIS) and has been known to operate within Afghanistan.
At the same time, “countries like Iran that enabled and facilitated the Taliban, even Pakistan, have kept channels of communication open to the opposition,” Sharma added. “Iran hosts opposition figures like Ismael Khan. The Tajik government which was very critical initially of the Taliban is not so any more but continues to host the opposition.”
‘Putting all our eggs in the Taliban basket’
Now, stakeholders in the region are assessing what the incoming Trump administration in the United States could mean for the Taliban.
“Afghanistan has dropped from the political consciousness in Washington, DC,” Taneja said. While the country remains relevant on the security front, it “will not supersede more immediate issues such as Gaza, Iran, and Ukraine”.
What happens next is hard to say, he added. “Trump’s strategies are akin to predicting weather on a daily basis. However, any Taliban opposition which is trying to gain strength may find a more approachable ear under Trump than they ever did under Biden.”
Ultimately, despite being the strongest power in the region, India has failed to engage with diverse players in Afghanistan, isolating its interests in the long run. “Initially, we made a mistake of putting all our eggs in the [Hamid] Karzai [former Afghan president] basket and then the [Ashraf] Ghani basket. We did in Bangladesh too and threw all our support for Sheikh Hasina.”
Repairing this could take time as India may also lack crucial understanding of Afghan society, Sharma said.
“It is not just about cultivating ties at the political level, it’s also understanding about how certain sociopolitical setups operate. I don’t think India has that understanding which is ironic because we are close to them geographically [and] culturally. Yet we’ve invested very little in terms of trying to understand the society,” he said.
“I believe we are repeating that same mistake, and putting all our eggs in the Taliban basket,” Taneja said, warning that Afghanistan’s political climate has always been very volatile.
“Ground shifts very rapidly,” he added.
NSB
Tulip Siddiq faces calls to resign after Bangladesh leader’s remarks (Financial Times)
Financial Times [1/12/2025 11:00 AM, Rafe Uddin and George Parker, 17.8M, Neutral]
Tulip Siddiq’s position as the UK’s City minister looked increasingly fragile on Sunday, with the leader of the opposition calling for her to be fired after she became embroiled in a property scandal tied to the ousted government of Bangladesh.
Kemi Badenoch, Conservative leader, said Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer should fire Siddiq, whose role covers anti-corruption policy, following allegations that she had benefited from properties linked to the Awami League, the party led by her aunt Sheikh Hasina, the former prime minister of Bangladesh.“It’s time for Keir Starmer to sack Tulip Siddiq,” Badenoch said in a post on X. “His weak leadership on Siddiq suggests he is not as bothered by integrity as he claims.”
Siddiq was forced to pull out of an official Treasury delegation to China at the weekend to deal with the allegations, and one Labour official admitted “it doesn’t look good”.
Last week, Siddiq referred herself to Sir Laurie Magnus, the government’s independent adviser on ministerial standards, after a Financial Times investigation found she was given a two-bedroom flat in London’s King’s Cross in the early 2000s by a person with links to the Awami League.
On Sunday, a cabinet minister suggested Siddiq would be sacked if the investigation found any wrongdoing. “The inquiry needs to go through,” science minister Peter Kyle told Sky’s Trevor Phillips.“I think that that’s the appropriate way forward. I’m giving it all the space it needs to do. I’ll be listening for the outcome, as the prime minister will be.“It will be a functional process, and the outcomes of it will be stuck to by the prime minister and this government, a complete contrast to what we’ve had in the past.”
Siddiq has insisted she has done nothing wrong and Number 10 insiders said that so far they had seen no proof of any breach of the ministerial code.
The City minister has also lived in several other properties that are tied to the former Awami League regime, which was toppled last summer following a student-led protest that was initially met with violent suppression by security forces that led to the deaths of hundreds of civilians.
Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel Peace Prize-winning economist and the interim leader of Bangladesh, said in an interview with the Sunday Times newspaper that properties used by Siddiq should be returned if the minister was found to have benefited from “plain robbery”.“She becomes the minister for anti-corruption and defends herself [over the London properties],” he said. “Maybe you didn’t realise it, but now you realise it. You say: ‘Sorry, I didn’t know it [at] that time, I seek forgiveness from the people that I did this and I resign.’ She’s not saying that. She’s defending herself.”
Siddiq was named in a probe last month by the Anti-Corruption Commission in Bangladesh after a political rival of Sheikh Hasina accused her family, including Siddiq, of taking a cut from a Russia-backed nuclear power project, claims they have denied.
After taking power in August, Bangladesh’s interim government named Ahsan Mansur, a former IMF official, to head the country’s central bank and begin clawing back billions of dollars the country’s new leaders claim were taken out of the banking system and funnelled overseas.
In an interview in October, Mansur told the FT that an estimated Tk2tn ($16.7bn) had been taken out of the country after the forced takeovers of leading banks by people linked to the Awami League, using methods such as bogus loans and inflated import invoices.
Bangladesh’s Financial Intelligence Unit last week ordered banks in the country to provide transaction details for all accounts linked to Siddiq and her family, according to people familiar with the matter.
An ally of Siddiq said that she held only a UK bank account and did not possess any accounts overseas.
Downing Street pointed to Starmer’s remarks earlier this week when he said that he had confidence in Siddiq and that she had “acted entirely properly by referring herself to the independent adviser”. Sri Lanka’s children suffer amid climate change-fuelled floods and disease (South China Morning Post)
South China Morning Post [1/12/2025 8:00 AM, Dimuthu Attanayake, 9355K, Negative]
For a week, seven-year-old Nathushika suffered from diarrhoea, vomiting, and a high fever. Her mother, Easwary, was baffled by her daughter’s sudden illness, as no one else in the household was sick and Nathushika had not eaten any outside food.
At the time, Easwary did not realise that her daughter, like many others in their flood-stricken community, had unknowingly been exposed to waterborne disease.It was the monsoon season in the Eastern province of Sri Lanka, where Nathushika and her family lived. In late November, a cyclonic storm developed off the country’s northeastern coast and by mid-December, floods had killed 16 people and displaced close to 50,000 – affecting almost half a million Sri Lankans in total.
Scientists say climate change is driving these increasingly severe storms and erratic monsoons, turning once-predictable weather patterns into disasters that spread waterborne diseases.
When floodwaters rise, diseases follow, viruses and other pathogens spread through contaminated water and food, said Dr Thilanga Ruwanpathirana, a consultant epidemiologist at the Ministry of Health.
Pregnant women, the elderly, those with chronic diseases, and children are at the greatest risk during such outbreaks, he added.“Children are [the most vulnerable] group, because they are also playing in floodwater,” Ruwanpathirana told This Week in Asia.When a disease spreads among children, it can easily infect other children, leading to clusters of cases, said Dr Lahiru Kodithuwakku, a public health specialist working in the intersection of climate-related disasters and diseases.“[Children interact] at close quarters, and they are in touch with each other, so the spread can happen very fast,” he said. Extreme weather events increase the magnitude and frequency of such disease outbreaks.While cyclones are common in the Indian Ocean region, experts say climate change has made rainfall and cyclones more unpredictable and intense.Roxy Mathew Koll, a senior scientist from the Indian Institute for Tropical Meteorology, said that as ocean waters warm, the increased heat and moisture intensifies weather systems.“The monsoon that sources its energy and moisture from the Indian Ocean has become more erratic, and more extremely severe cyclones are projected to form in the future,” Knoll said.Sri Lanka repeatedly experienced disastrous floods last year: in June, October, November and December.As seasonal weather patterns change, with more intense rains appearing outside monsoon periods, it challenges the ability to predict disease outbreaks, Kodithuwakku said.Contaminated water sources and puddles provide ideal conditions for the spread of waterborne diseases such as leptospirosis and vector-borne diseases like dengue, which is transmitted by mosquitoes.Whenever there is contact with muddy water, if there are abrasions or scratches on exposed areas of the skin, the risk of leptospirosis increases, Kodithuwakku noted.These diseases can have common symptoms, such as high fever, joint aches and diarrhoea. “There can be abdominal pain, there can be loose stools,” Kodithuwakku said.According to Dr Thushani Dabarera, a consultant epidemiologist from the Ministry of Health, leptospirosis spikes during monsoons, with nearly 12,000 cases in 2024, more than double the 2015 figure.This has long term health effects, Dr Dabarera said, such as liver and kidney diseases.Many diarrheal diseases are caused by viruses, and conditions like hepatitis and typhoid can also present the same symptoms, along with bacterial infections such as salmonella, according to Dr Ruwanpathirana.These trends were seen more recently in the east coast of Sri Lanka from late November, as floods came and receded, and the sporadic rains continued. In early December, several roads and bridges were flooded, rendering parts of Batticaloa city and its surroundings inaccessible.There were “a lot” of children with diarrhoea during the flood, and every time it rains, a few more come in, said a medical officer from the area who did not wish to be named.Some children experienced stomach pains, but the doctor diagnosed them with dengue fever. Dengue spreads quickly after rain and flooding and was the most reported notifiable disease in Sri Lanka last year, with nearly 47,000 cases as of November 2024.Drinking water without boiling is the number one “culprit” in spreading diarrhoea, Ruwanpathirana said. Consuming uncooked food, or food exposed to “mechanical vectors” such as flies and mosquitoes, can also spread these diseases.Wells that are not cleaned, and chlorinated after the floods, can also increase the risk of infection, Ruwanpathirana added.“[If the] toilet is under the water, then a toilet [located] on a higher ground has to be used, because otherwise it will contaminate the water sources and everything.”As the weather becomes more erratic, larger disease outbreaks will exert a greater burden on the health system, so it is about managing the situation with the available resources, Kodithuwakku said. Central Asia
Central Asian leaders look to expand mutual trade (EurasiaNet)
EurasiaNet [1/10/2025 4:14 PM, Staff, 57.6K, Neutral]
After decades of competition over dwindling resources in Central Asia’s agricultural heartland, the leaders of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are embracing a spirit of cooperation as they jointly confront global warming-related challenges.
That spirit of cooperation was on display January 8, when the prime ministers of the three states gathered at a remote location in the FerghanaValley where the three nations’ frontiers meet, to mark progress on settling long-standing border disputes.
Helping to pave the way for the gathering was a border demarcation agreement reached by Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in December. The two countries had engaged in armed clashes over the disputed frontier as recently as 2021 and 2022. And in 2023, reports that the two states were engaging in an arms buildup raised fears of renewed conflict.
The resolution of border disputes sets the stage for joint efforts to expand economic cooperation in 2025. “The prime ministers of the three countries emphasized that the countries have great potential for strengthening cooperation in such key areas as trade, logistics, water-energy and cultural-humanitarian ties,” a Kyrgyz government statement issued after the meeting noted. Managing dwindling water resources was a major topic of discussion during the January 8 meeting.
With the region’s borders settled, barriers to cross-border trade should start coming down. The three states are participating in a US-sponsored initiative, dubbed the B5+1 process, that promotes regional trade connectivity. A report published on a World Bank blog in December touted the regional potential for e-commerce. “E-commerce development is a viable way to reduce poverty in Central Asia,” the item stated. “Except for the payment sector, which requires financial experts, the e-commerce ecosystem, particularly in production, marketing, and delivery, offers job opportunities that facilitate the participation of the poor and less skilled in online markets.” Deportation Of Afghans Sparks Rare Outrage In Tajikistan (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [1/11/2025 3:12 AM, Farangis Najibullah, Alisher Zarifi, and Mullorajab Yusufzoda, 1089K, Negative]
Tamkin Mehrabuddin and her sister were preparing lunch in their home in Tajikistan when police officers knocked on their door.
The two Afghan women were ordered to accompany them to a police station in Dushanbe, the Tajik capital. Instead, they were driven for nearly three hours to the border and forced back to their homeland.
"My sister was crying, and we pleaded with the officers not to send us back to Afghanistan," said Mehrabuddin, whose brother was also deported from Tajikistan.
The 24-year-old said she and her sister both had valid visas to reside in Tajikistan, adding that their residency documents were confiscated by the police the day before their deportation.
Mehrabuddin and her sister are among the scores of Afghans who have been deported in recent weeks from neighboring Tajikistan, which is home to some 10,000 Afghans. Her brother, who lived separately from them, was also deported.
The deportations have triggered anger in Tajikistan, an authoritarian country where criticism of the authorities is rare.
No Official Reason
Many of the deportees were abruptly summoned by the police and expelled without any due process, despite having temporary visas or documents showing they have been registered as refugees.
The move has triggered fear that they could face possible retribution in their homeland, which has been under the Taliban’s repressive rule since 2021, although no country has formally recognized the extremist group’s government.
Afghanistan’s consulate in Tajikistan’s eastern city of Khorugh, which represents the Taliban-led administration in Kabul, said that around 60 Afghans were expelled from Tajikistan in December.
"They had their documents in order, and I don’t know what the reason for their expulsion was," said a consulate officer who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Nusratullo Mahmadzoda, a spokesperson for Tajikistan’s Interior Ministry, said he was not aware of the deportations, adding that foreigners are deported if they "do not follow immigration rules.".
But the Dushanbe office of the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said at least 37 of the Afghans deported had refugee status.
Police Harassment
Tajikistan, which shares a border of around 1,300 kilometers with Afghanistan, is home to documented and undocumented Afghan migrants and refugees.
Some have lived in the Central Asian country for decades, while others fled there after the Western-backed Afghan government collapsed and the Taliban seized power in 2021.
Most of Tajikistan’s Afghan community live in the town of Vahdat, which is on the outskirts of Dushanbe.
Tajikistan is seen by many Afghans as a transit country from where they hope to reach the West.
"My sister and I lived in Dushanbe for two years before moving [abroad]," said Leena, a 25-year-old Afghan who only gave her first name.
Leena worked as a waitress in a coffee shop but said she "did not see any future" for herself in Tajikistan.
"Tajik police often harass Afghans to extort bribes," she said. "A police officer in our neighborhood in Dushanbe knew where I lived and would blackmail me with a deportation threat to get money.".
Roya Hafizi moved to Tajikistan with her husband and five young children in 2020. Last month, her husband and several other Afghans were taken to a police station.
"Later my husband called me from the border to say that he was being deported," said Hafizi. "My husband is an ordinary worker. We don’t harm anyone and haven’t committed any crime.".
Hafizi’s husband was the family’s sole breadwinner, and his deportation has left the family with no source of income to buy food or pay rent.
Tajikistan usually does not provide income support and welfare benefits to refugees and migrants.
Possible Retribution
In a statement issued on December 7, the UNHCR office in Dushanbe expressed "grave concern" over the forcible return of Afghans and urged the Tajik government to halt the deportations and uphold its "obligations to protect those fleeing persecution.".
Some Tajik have taken to social media to criticize the move.
Tajikistan and Afghanistan have deep linguistic, cultural, and historical ties, and Tajiks have called on the authorities to better protect Afghans.
Social media users have been particularly critical of the deportation of Mehrabuddin, a graduate of the Technological University in Dushanbe.
On social media, Mehrabuddin had recently complained of "psychological abuse" at the hands of her husband, an Afghan who was living in Tajikistan. Her allegations prompted the Tajik authorities to launch an investigation.
Some Tajiks on social media said Mehrabuddin could face torture or death in Afghanistan, where the Taliban has severely curtailed women’s rights.
Other Tajik social media users recalled how tens of thousands of Tajiks took refuge in Afghanistan during Tajikistan’s civil war in the 1990s.
Taliban officials did not respond to RFE/RL’s request for comment.
Tajikistan had previously come under criticism by the UNHCR for deporting scores of Afghans in 2021 and 2022.
The latest expulsions come as Afghan migrants and refugees are under increased pressure in neighboring countries.
Iran has vowed to deport millions of Afghans in the Islamic republic. Pakistan, meanwhile, has deported nearly 800,000 since late 2023. Indo-Pacific
Quad eyes foreign ministers’ meeting following Trump inauguration (Nikkei Asia)
Nikkei Asia [1/12/2025 11:35 AM, Rieko Miki, 1286K, Negative]
The Quad nations of Japan, the U.S., Australia and India seek to convene a foreign ministers’ meeting in Washington after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s swearing-in ceremony on Jan. 20.Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar will attend the inauguration. The U.S. is expected to be represented at the meeting by Sen. Marco Rubio, Trump’s pick for secretary of state.The meeting would serve to highlight the regional security framework’s continued importance under the incoming administration, with the participants likely to work toward plans to hold a Quad summit within the year.The Quad’s Indo-Pacific security and economic cooperation strengthened under outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden. Japan has emphasized to the Trump camp the need for further cooperation under the framework. Twitter
Afghanistan
Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Afghanistan@MoFA_Afg
[1/12/2025 8:14 AM, 72K followers, 6 retweets, 47 likes]
The newly appointed Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mr. Alireza Bikdeli, paid a courtesy call on IEA Deputy Foreign Minister, Al-Haj Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai. Welcoming the Iranian Ambassador & wishing him success in his diplomatic mission,DFM Stanekzai expressed
Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Afghanistan@MoFA_Afg
[1/12/2025 8:14 AM, 72K followers, 1 like]
confidence that the his tenure would contribute to further strengthening the political, economic, & cultural relations between Afghanistan & Iran, adding further, Mr. Stanikzai also raised concerns regarding the challenges faced by Afghan refugees in Iran, stressing the need..
Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Afghanistan@MoFA_Afg
[1/12/2025 8:14 AM, 72K followers, 2 likes]
for effective measures to address these issues facilitate their movement between the two countries. Appreciating having meeting with IEA-Deputy Foreign Minister, Mr. Bikdeli said that bilateral political, economic & cultural relations with brethren neighbouring nation,
Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Afghanistan@MoFA_Afg
[1/12/2025 8:14 AM, 72K followers, 2 likes]
Afghanistan, would be further upscaled, stressing on capitalising on the existing opportunities to advance shared interests.
Jahanzeb Wesa@Jahanzeb_Wesa
[1/12/2025 11:23 AM, 5.3K followers, 1.1K retweets, 3.1K likes]
Afghan women human rights activists have launched a campaign demanding freedom and support for Afghan women. They urge the international community and human rights organizations to amplify their voices and stand in solidarity for their fight for freedom and equality.
Jahanzeb Wesa@Jahanzeb_Wesa
[1/11/2025 4:13 AM, 5.3K followers, 731 retweets, 2K likes]
Afghan women in Kabul protested today, demanding freedom and their fundamental rights. Despite the dangers, they stand against the Taliban’s gender apartheid, fighting for justice and equality. They called on international community to stop normalizing with Taliban. Pakistan
Government of Pakistan@GovtofPakistan
[1/12/2025 11:13 AM, 3.1M followers, 8 retweets, 14 likes]
Day 2 of the "International Conference on Girls’ Education: Opportunities and Challenges" was marked by impactful discussions and the inspiring presence of Malala Yousafzai along with other delegates from 47 countries. Together, global leaders and changemakers explored solutions to advance women’s education worldwide. Let’s continue working towards a brighter, more inclusive future for all #پاکستان_لڑکیوں_کی_تعلیم_کا_رہنما #PakistanLeadingGirlsEducation
Government of Pakistan@GovtofPakistan
[1/11/2025 10:41 AM, 3.1M followers, 16 retweets, 33 likes]
Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif addresses the International Conference on Girls’ Education in Islamabad. #پاکستان_لڑکیوں_کی_تعلیم_کا_رہنما #PakistanLeadingGirlsEducation
Government of Pakistan@GovtofPakistan
[1/11/2025 9:20 AM, 3.1M followers, 23 retweets, 51 likes]
Islamabad: Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif attends the International Conference on Girls’ Education, with Secretary General OIC H.E. Hissein Brahim Taha and Secretary General Muslim World League H.E. Sheikh Dr. Mohammed bin Abdul Karim Al-Issa. #پاکستان_لڑکیوں_کی_تعلیم_کا_رہنما #PakistanLeadingGirlsEducation
Government of Pakistan@GovtofPakistan
[1/11/2025 9:22 AM, 3.1M followers, 13 retweets, 19 likes]
Islamabad: Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif witnesses the exchange of MoUs between Muslim World League and OIC, at the International Conference on Girls’ Education. #پاکستان_لڑکیوں_کی_تعلیم_کا_رہنما #PakistanLeadingGirlsEducation
Government of Pakistan@GovtofPakistan
[1/11/2025 8:39 AM, 3.1M followers, 12 retweets, 36 likes]
Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif announces Rs. 1.5 Crore reward to recognize the outstanding achievement of the Chief Collector Customs & Team for developing the Faceless Customs Assessment System.
Government of Pakistan@GovtofPakistan
[1/11/2025 7:56 AM, 3.1M followers, 29 retweets, 66 likes]
Ministers of Education participating in the International Conference on Girls’ Education being held in Islamabad called on the Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif.
Imran Khan@ImranKhanPTI
[1/11/2025 6:59 AM, 21M followers, 11K retweets, 19K likes]
Former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s conversation with his lawyers and representatives of media in Adiala Jail - January 10, 2025
" The government’s non-serious attitude towards negotiations is evident from the fact that I haven’t even been allowed to meet with my negotiation committee yet. It seems like the purpose of negotiations is merely to waste time so that public reaction over the November 26th Islamabad massacre starts to fade.
Peaceful citizens were massacred on November 26th; they were directly shot at, and D-Chowk was drenched in their blood. Many of our people are still missing. In any civilized society, those responsible for such shootings would have been held accountable, but this government has not even managed to form a judicial commission yet. A judicial commission acts as a (neutral) third umpire. Only an impartial commission can provide justice to the martyrs of November 26th (2024) and May 9th (2023). If this massacre is swept under the rug, no one’s life or property in Pakistan will be safe.
My unequivocal message is that if the government continues to remain non-serious about the negotiation process and fails to form a judicial commission, then negotiations will be discontinued after the next meeting.
The false flag operation on May 9th was also orchestrated by the establishment. Army and police personnel were removed from checkpoints on that day, fires were deliberately set, and the CCTV footage was stolen. We demand transparent investigations into both these incidents and have repeatedly appealed to the Supreme Court for this.
The Constitution, law, and human rights have been violated in this country over the past three years. The sanctity of people’s homes has been violated, and they have been abducted, tortured, and oppressed. Their homes and businesses have been ravaged. Life has been made unbearable for every ticket-holder of our party in their constituencies. Even my own house has been wrecked twice. In this regard, we approached the Lahore High Court. A five-member bench headed by Justice Baqir Najafi heard this case, but the verdict has been reserved for one-and-a-half years and is yet to be announced. Later, we approached Justice Aamer Farooq in the Islamabad High Court and Qazi Faez Isa in the Supreme Court, but both played the role of the establishment’s opening batsmen.
While in military custody, our innocent people were subjected to severe mental and physical torture. According to my information, three young men attempted suicide during custody. Sami Wazir’s condition is a stark testament to this brutality. What happened to PTI leaders like Shahbaz Gill and Azam Swati is no secret. Zille Shah was brutally murdered, and Intezar Panjutha was treated worse than animals. What kind of justice is this? Those who leave PTI are absolved of any charges related to May 9th, while those who refuse are subjected to all kinds of torture and pressure?
We haven’t obtained justice despite repeatedly appealing to Pakistan’s judicial system, leaving us with no choice but to raise our voice on international forums. Pakistan’s government is bound by international laws and treaties regarding human rights. I have instructed our lawyers to take these matters to global forums and draw the world’s attention to the ongoing human rights violations in Pakistan.
My message to overseas Pakistanis is that democracy and human rights have been obliterated in Pakistan, to be replaced by the law of the jungle. Your boycott of foreign currency remittances is critical. Your loved ones in Pakistan deserve the same rights that you enjoy abroad.
Who will fight terrorists when all (intelligence) agencies are deployed to crush a political party? Supreme Court judges, Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Mandokhail, have also remarked that intelligence agencies have been engaged in political engineering. 1/2
Imran Khan@ImranKhanPTI
[1/11/2025 6:59 AM, 21M followers, 3.6K retweets, 5.3K likes]
Our government was falsely accused of resettling the Taliban. Terrorism did not resurface during our tenure, and even a year after it ended. The same people who are responsible for conditions in Balochistan are also responsible for the current chaos.
Pakistan’s economy is at its worst because of these experiments. According to a recent World Bank report, an additional 13 million people have fallen below the poverty line. Every institution, including the judiciary, NAB, FIA, and police, have been tasked to work against PTI, causing political and economic systems to collapse and instability to reach its peak. Economic growth will remain zero as long as political instability persists.
All of this is being done to bolster the plan for a decade-long dictatorship. Anyone who supports this lawlessness can have their corruption of billions pardoned.
No leader in Pakistan’s history has ever faced 280 cases. This kind of treatment was only meted out to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman during General Yahya’s rule, and now it is being done to me.” 2/2Imran Khan@ImranKhanPTI
[1/11/2025 12:20 AM, 21M followers, 13K retweets, 22K likes]
Former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s conversation with his lawyers and representatives of media in Adiala Jail - January 10, 2025“Bushra Bibi is a homemaker and a modest woman who observes full veil. False and baseless cases have been filed against her solely to put pressure on me. The Al-Qadir case is part of the same campaign. Bushra Bibi was confined to a room at our Bani Gala residence for three months. She had to file a petition in the High Court requesting to be treated like a regular prisoner. She was then incarcerated in Adiala Jail for nine months under the harshest conditions, which served no purpose other than to pressure us.
Bushra Bibi has not been in contact with anyone. Any claims to the contrary are mere propaganda. Our negotiations committee is handling these matters. I strongly condemn the social media campaign against Bushra Bibi.
I categorically deny the insinuation that my release had been agreed if our march stopped at Sangjani. Controversies like the Sangjani issue have been used to deflect attention from actual issues. I fully understand the government’s malicious intent. Having served as Prime Minister for three and a half years, I know exactly how they operate.
Reaching Islamabad’s D-Chowk with our workers was a victory for Bushra Bibi, and I commend her for this achievement. She only followed my instructions."
Habib Khan@HabibKhanT
[1/11/2025 12:02 PM, 247.4K followers, 12 retweets, 46 likes]
Pakistan once got billions to fight militant groups it actually sheltered, including TTP, ETIM, IMU, & Al-Qaeda. These groups, based in Waziristan supported the Taliban against the U.S. Now, Pakistan seems to play the same game again, but this time, the dynamics have shifted.
Habib Khan@HabibKhanT
[1/11/2025 12:38 PM, 247.4K followers, 7 likes]
In 2014, during Zarb-e-Azb, Pakistan received $1B in U.S. aid and $700M from the Coalition Support Fund, despite supporting groups like TTP, IMU, and ETIM. Pakistan allowed these militants to cross into Afghanistan’s Zabul, where they worked with the Taliban.
Habib Khan@HabibKhanT
[1/11/2025 12:43 PM, 247.4K followers, 6 likes]
The first ISKP leadership consisted almost entirely of ex-TTP, closely tied to Pakistan’s ISI. Today, ISKP operates training camps and madrasas within Pakistan. Despite ISKP’s opposition to the Taliban, all these groups—shared a common goal: overthrowing the Afghan government.
Habib Khan@HabibKhanT[1/11/2025 12:50 PM, 247.4K followers, 1 retweet, 6 likes]
Now, Pakistan is trying to play the same double game again, but the TTP, once backed by ISI, now threatens the Pakistani state. With no U.S. military presence in Afghanistan, convincing Washington to fund Pakistan after its duplicity during the war on terror will be difficult.
Hamid Mir@HamidMirPAK
[1/11/2025 1:42 AM, 8.5M followers, 97 retweets, 1.1K likes]
Last night many private airlines cancelled flights to Lahore and Islamabad from Karachi. Air Blue cancelled KHI-ISB flight after checking in all passengers. PIA flight to Islamabad at 11:30 was not cancelled. We reached back Islamabad safely. Weldone PIA. https://www.geo.tv/latest/584538-pias-first-direct-flight-to-europe-takes-off-for-paris-after-over-four-year-hiatus
Hamid Mir@HamidMirPAK
[1/11/2025 1:27 AM, 8.5M followers, 49 retweets, 292 likes]
Remittances from overseas Pakistanis reached $17.845 billion in the first half of the ongoing fiscal year, achieving half of the annual target of $35bn. India
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[1/12/2025 10:03 PM, 104.6M followers, 5.9K retweets, 29K likes]
A very special day for crores of people who cherish Bharatiya values and culture! Maha Kumbh 2025 commences in Prayagraj, bringing together countless people in a sacred confluence of faith, devotion and culture. The Maha Kumbh embodies India’s timeless spiritual heritage and celebrates faith and harmony.
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[1/12/2025 10:03 PM, 104.6M followers, 841 retweets, 3.2K likes]
I am happy to see Prayagraj abuzz with countless people coming there, taking the holy dip and seeking blessings. Wishing all pilgrims and tourists a wonderful stay.
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[1/12/2025 11:24 AM, 104.6M followers, 3.7K retweets, 21K likes]
India’s youth are the harbingers of a Viksit Bharat, brimming with innovation, passion and a deep commitment to the nation’s progress. The Viksit Bharat Young Leaders Dialogue illustrated this spirit. Today’s programme was one of the most memorable, where we collectively brainstormed ideas on economic growth to insights into technology, sustainability, culture and social welfare. I’m proud of how the young leaders showcased their vision for India.
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[1/12/2025 11:24 AM, 104.6M followers, 666 retweets, 1.5K likes]
The enthusiasm and optimism I saw also highlight the immense potential of our youth as changemakers driving the nation forward. I also told my young friends that the ownership of this Viksit Bharat movement is with them and the success of today’s programme further cements it!
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[1/11/2025 11:18 PM, 104.6M followers, 8.8K retweets, 43K likes]
Paying homage to Swami Vivekananda on his Jayanti. An eternal inspiration for youth, he continues to ignite passion and purpose in young minds. We are committed to fulfilling his vision of a strong and developed India.
Dr. S. Jaishankar@DrSJaishankar
[1/10/2025 11:28 PM, 3.3M followers, 198 retweets, 782 likes]
The #PravasiBharatiyaDivas2025 reinforced 🇮🇳’s bond with its diaspora, a living bridge to the world and a partner in the #ViksitBharat journey. Some highlights of the culmination of #PBD2025.
Dr. S. Jaishankar@DrSJaishankar
[1/10/2025 6:22 AM, 3.3M followers, 138 retweets, 879 likes]
Pleased to join the Valedictory Ceremony of #PravasiBharatiyaDivas2025 presided over by President Droupadi Murmu. Congratulate all the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Awardees. Their exceptional work enhances India’s image and strengthens our ties with the world. Great work team MEA and ICCR for making the #18PBD a memorable one. Also thank Odisha state government for their partnership. #PBD2025 #Odisha NSB
Anura Kumara Dissanayake@anuradisanayake
[1/12/2025 10:12 AM, 144.1K followers, 10 retweets, 139 likes]
Today (12), I held discussions at the Presidential Secretariat with Sri Lanka Customs & port service providers to address delays in container clearance. Key decisions include 24/7 Customs operations, additional container storage, & land for truck parking. Collective action is vital!
Karu Jayasuriya@KaruOnline
[1/12/2025 8:15 AM, 53.7K followers, 2 likes]
Since 2023, civil society has urged the government to fill vacancies in the Supreme Court & Court of Appeal. Kudos to the civil society members of the Constitutional Council for their role in safeguarding judicial integrity. Your uphill, thankless fight deserves applause.
Karu Jayasuriya@KaruOnline
[1/12/2025 2:42 AM, 53.7K followers, 3 likes]
Clean Sri Lanka is a ‘think-big’ initiative that needs care and vigour. Its task force must be inclusive, reflecting all communities & groups. Its activities must be prioritised and sequenced thoughtfully to avoid antagonism & rally everyone toward a shared goal. Unity is key.Karu Jayasuriya@KaruOnline
[1/11/2025 5:49 AM, 53.7K followers, 3 likes]
Opposition leadership in COPE, COPA & Finance Committees strengthens checks & balances—fulfilling the civil society’s 17th Amendment dream. Sunil Handunetti’s COPE leadership in the 8th Parliament upheld this principle. A similar move now reflects these democratic aspirations. Central Asia
MFA Kazakhstan@MFA_KZ
[1/12/2025 1:44 PM, 60.6K followers, 2 retweets, 6 likes]
Kazakh Foreign Minister Murat Nurtleu held talks with Kyrgyz FM Jeenbek Kulubaev. The parties discussed the development of bilateral cooperation, as well as the strengthening of Kazakh-Kyrgyz friendship & alliance. https://gov.kz/memleket/entities/mfa/press/news/details/916369?lang=en
MFA Kazakhstan@MFA_KZ
[1/11/2025 4:22 AM, 60.6K followers, 6 retweets, 20 likes]
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan expresses its strong solidarity to the @StateDept and to the entire Nation of the United States on the wildfire disaster in Los Angeles. We express our condolences on lives lost and sympathize with the affected families.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service@president_uz
[1/11/2025 11:07 AM, 210K followers, 5 retweets, 43 likes]
President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev assessed initiatives aimed at enhancing the #transport and #logistics infrastructure. Efforts focus on streamlining transit routes, reducing border fees, and waiving VAT for expediting companies to boost cargo volumes and service exports. Key measures include electronic queue systems, faster border crossings, online vehicle monitoring.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service@president_uz
[1/11/2025 9:30 AM, 210K followers, 4 retweets, 30 likes]
President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev reviewed achievements and goals in the electrical industry. Entrepreneurs are encouraged to develop and sell facilities in technoparks, with three-year tax exemptions to boost high-tech production. Further support involves enhanced access to infrastructure, funding and raw materials.
Navbahor Imamova@Navbahor
[1/13/2025 12:23 AM, 24K followers, 2 likes]
Creative freedom is not about telling people what to do, but rather about sharing ideas, facts, imagination, and puzzles," says Elyor Nemat, Uzbekistan’s leading documentary photographer and independent digital producer. We also discussed the state of Uzbek photography, which has traditionally been a tool of state propaganda. Nemat notes a certain level of independence, but as a member of the World Press Photo jury, he believes Central Asian photographers are not yet competitive enough. 1/2
Navbahor Imamova@Navbahor
[1/13/2025 12:23 AM, 24K followers, 2 likes]
"Uzbekistan is not just about historic sites, exotic imagery, or staged illustrations," says Uzbek photographer and graphic artist Elyor Nemat. "The reality is raw, complicated, yet deeply compelling," he argues. Nemat served on the jury for the World Press Photo annual competition last year. 2/2 More here: https://youtu.be/87PmgZNfT7I{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.