SCA MORNING PRESS CLIPS

epubdos : Afghanistan

Prepared for the U.S. Department of State

Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs

By TechMIS
www.TechMIS.com

Mobile User Copy

TO:	SCA & Staff
DATE:	Wednesday, January 8, 2025 6:30 AM ET

Afghanistan

U.S. Presses for Release of Americans Held in Afghanistan (New York Times)

New York Times [1/7/2025 6:25 PM, Julian E. Barnes and Carol Rosenberg, 57114K, Neutral]
U.S. officials made a new offer to the Taliban over the weekend to try to secure the release of Americans held in Afghanistan, according to people familiar with the matter.

American officials declined to discuss the negotiations or the offer. But people briefed on the conversations said the White House had been working on a deal to get the Americans back in exchange for Muhammad Rahim, an Afghan who has been held at Guantánamo Bay since 2008.

The U.S. government has said Mr. Rahim was a senior aide in Al Qaeda, but others have cast doubt on his role in the organization, suggesting that he was a courier and a translator and would not pose a threat to the United States if he were released.

The Taliban have acknowledged holding two Americans. One of them, George Glezmann, a former airline mechanic, was touring Afghanistan when he was taken prisoner in December 2022. The other, Ryan Corbett, who had long lived in Afghanistan with his family before the fall of the U.S.-backed government, was on a business trip when he was seized in August 2022.

The Taliban have refused to say whether they are holding a third American whose return is also sought by the U.S. government. That person, Mahmood Habibi, a naturalized American, was taken captive soon after the U.S. strike in Afghanistan in 2022 that killed Ayman al-Zawahri, the leader of Al Qaeda.

Mr. Habibi’s family has said that he was arrested with 30 other people who all worked for the same American firm, Asia Consultancy Group, on suspicion that the company was involved in the U.S. drone strike that killed the Qaeda leader. U.S. officials would not discuss whether Mr. Habibi had a role in the strike, nor is his condition known.

But his father, Ahmadullah, and brother, Ahmad, have denied that he was involved. Mr. Habibi was out of the country at the time of the attack and arrived in Afghanistan days later, they said. They have also said, based on “several independent sources in Afghanistan,” that he was alive and last known to be in custody of the government’s General Directorate of Intelligence.

Sean Savett, a National Security Council spokesman, said the Biden administration had negotiated the return of more than 75 Americans held overseas. He said officials were “working around the clock” to ensure the return of Mr. Glezmann, Mr. Corbett and Mr. Habibi.

“The administration will do so throughout the remainder of the term,” he added.

The administration made an earlier offer to the Taliban to secure the release of the three men on Nov. 14, a proposal that The Wall Street Journal reported earlier.

Mr. Rahim has never been charged with crimes while held in Guantánamo. James G. Connell III, a defense lawyer who has represented Mr. Rahim for his detention review hearings, said that Mr. Rahim was willing to be traded but that the U.S. government had not reached out to them.

“I have never received official confirmation from any government that talks are ongoing, or were ongoing, for that matter,” Mr. Connell said.

Mr. Rahim is not currently eligible for transfer out of Guantánamo. A federal national security review panel has repeatedly deemed him too dangerous to be released, most recently on Nov. 21, 2023.

But U.S. officials have discussed transferring him to Qatar as part of a prisoner swap, according to the people briefed on the discussions.

The Defense Department is legally required to notify Congress 30 days before a detainee is released from Guantánamo.

But the Obama administration ignored that requirement when it sent five Taliban prisoners from Guantánamo to Qatar in return for the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in 2014. Like Mr. Rahim, none of those prisoners were approved for release through the national security review panel process.

Republicans criticized the Bergdahl trade, and a Government Accountability Office study concluded that the Obama administration broke the law.

But Dennis M. Fitzpatrick, a lawyer for the Glezmann family and a former terrorism prosecutor, said that Mr. Rahim was improperly classified as ineligible to be released and that the government had long exaggerated the danger he posed.

“He is no longer a national security threat,” Mr. Fitzpatrick said. “He was never operational with respect to being a fighter or organizer. He’s also not an intelligence risk to the United States, nor does he have any intelligence value. If he’s not operational and there’s no intelligence issue, then he’s not a national security threat.”

In a letter sent to the White House last July, Aleksandra Glezmann, Mr. Glezmann’s wife, spoke about President Biden’s long commitment to public service while she pushed for a deal.

“I beseech you to intervene personally in George’s matter and do everything in your power to bring him home,” she wrote. “We understand the Taliban poses extreme geopolitical challenges for the United States, and we do not suggest that securing George’s release is easy. But you did not enter a life of public service to do easy things.”

Mr. Corbett and his family had lived in Kabul between 2010 and 2021. After leaving Afghanistan during the American withdrawal, Mr. Corbett returned for a trip, to support his Afghan employees who were continuing his microloan and consulting business.

Since his capture, his wife, Anna Corbett, and their children have been lobbying the White House and officials in Washington to press for his release.

Both families met with Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, late last year.

U.S. in Talks to Swap Detained Americans in Afghanistan for Guantanamo Prisoner (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal [1/7/2025 12:37 PM, Alexander Ward and Brett Forrest, 57114K, Neutral]
The Biden administration is negotiating with the Taliban to exchange Americans detained in Afghanistan for at least one high-profile prisoner alleged to be an Osama bin Laden associate held in Guantanamo Bay.

The Biden administration, which has been discussing a deal with the Taliban since at least July, told the group on Nov. 14 that the U.S. would release Muhammad Rahim al Afghani, who the U.S. government alleges was a senior al Qaeda aide, if the Afghan rulers released George Glezmann, Ryan Corbett and Mahmoud Habibi, American citizens seized in Afghanistan in 2022. Rahim is currently held in Guantanamo Bay.

The Taliban counteroffered that day, seeking Rahim and two others in exchange for Glezmann and Corbett. The Taliban denies holding Habibi.

Biden had yet to decide on the Taliban’s proposal, national security adviser Jake Sullivan told House Foreign Affairs Committee members in a Dec. 17 classified session, attendees said in interviews with The Wall Street Journal.

Rep. Michael McCaul (R., Texas), the panel chair, expressed concern that it wasn’t a good deal, one of the people said. McCaul’s office declined to comment on a classified conversation.

Roger Carstens, the administration’s top hostage negotiator, recently completed a trip to Doha, Qatar, where he spoke with representatives of the Taliban about the Americans’ release. A U.S. official said that Carstens made a new, “significant offer” to the Taliban last weekend.

The Taliban’s offer poses a dilemma for Biden. He has prided himself on securing the release of American hostages around the world, bringing home more than 70 people over the past four years. But handing over Rahim, long seen by the U.S. government as a high-profile prisoner, and potentially other Afghan prisoners held in U.S. custody might spark criticism.

Afghanistan has proved a political thorn after Biden’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from the country led to a messy exit and the Taliban’s return to power. Freeing one or more Afghan prisoners deemed a national-security threat in exchange for American civilians risks even more political fallout.

Sean Savett, a National Security Council spokesman, said in a statement, “The safety and security of Americans overseas is one of the Biden-Harris Administration’s top priorities, and we are working around the clock to ensure George, Ryan and Mahmoud’s safe return.”

A spokesman for the Taliban declined to comment, but the group has long said it would trade Americans for Afghan prisoners held by the U.S.

President-elect Donald Trump has denounced past deals Biden struck with adversarial powers. After the U.S. in August concluded a 24-person prisoner exchange that saw Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan come home from Russia, Trump said, “Our ‘negotiators’ are always an embarrassment to us!”

Brian Hughes, a Trump transition spokesman, said the president-elect “is committed to securing the release of all American hostages who have been wrongfully detained. Things will only get worse for any hostage taker once President Trump assumes office.”

The families of the detained Americans have advocated for two years for the Biden administration to take action to get them released and have expressed frustration at what they describe as the lack of progress.

In a Dec. 15 email to senior U.S. officials viewed by the Journal, Aleksandra Glezmann, George Glezmann’s wife, said her husband now thinks trips to Washington “are just a waste of life because his government doesn’t care anyway, and that he will likely rot in jail and never come home alive.” Sullivan and Carstens were among the recipients of the email.

The Glezmann family has long expressed frustration with the administration, which has yet to confirm that Biden has read Aleksandra Glezmann’s July letter to him or heard a recorded appeal from George Glezmann for his release. The family is open to the idea of negotiating directly with the Taliban instead of relying on the White House and State Department.

Anna Corbett, Ryan Corbett’s wife, also expressed frustration with the administration and questioned Biden’s dedication to securing her husband’s release.

“I want to take seriously the president’s pledge that returning wrongfully detained Americans is a top priority, but he is running out of time to show these are more than empty words for families like mine that are not famous or well connected,” she said in a statement. “After all, I haven’t even been able to get a meeting with him despite 16 trips to D.C. to fight for Ryan’s release, so it’s hard to continue to have faith that he will use his power to bring my husband home.”

The State Department has labeled Glezmann and Corbett as wrongfully detained, giving the administration more authority and resources to negotiate for their release. Glezmann, a Delta Air Lines mechanic, was touring Afghanistan when the Taliban seized him in December 2022. Corbett, a consultant traveling with a German colleague 300 miles northwest of Kabul, was taken by the Taliban the preceding summer.

Glezmann and Corbett are in failing health, their families say.

Habibi disappeared in 2022 after the U.S. killing of al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kabul. The Federal Bureau of Investigation says it believes Habibi was taken by Afghan military or security forces. He hasn’t been designated by the U.S. government as wrongfully detained.

“My family is confident that Mahmoud is alive and remains in the joint custody of the Taliban and the Haqqani network,” said Ahmad Habibi, a brother of Mahmoud Habibi. “We have a lot of evidence. If the Taliban wants Rahim, releasing my brother is their best shot at getting him.”

Taliban officials have long sought the release of Rahim, who has been held in extrajudicial detention at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since 2008, according to a senior U.S. official and other people with knowledge of relevant discussions.

The Defense Department said at the time of Rahim’s transfer to Guantanamo that he had been a close associate of al Qaeda leader bin Laden and one of his most trusted facilitators and procurement specialists.

Rahim has consistently denied the charges, maintaining that he functioned as a linguist in Afghanistan, working in Arabic and Pashto.

“That’s not a close facilitator,” said James Connell, a lawyer who represents Rahim. Connell said that the U.S. charges against Rahim are “largely exaggerated. In the 17 years since, no evidence has been forthcoming.”

The Senate’s 2014 torture report says that Rahim was subjected to “enhanced interrogation techniques” by the Central Intelligence Agency, such as sleep deprivation, including one November 2007 session that lasted nearly 139 hours.

The Taliban asked the first Trump administration to free Rahim, and again sought his exchange during talks that preceded the release of an American from Taliban custody in 2022.

The U.S. government has said it considers Rahim a significant threat to national security and for years has been resistant to discussing an exchange for him. In November 2023, the Guantanamo Bay prison review board cited his work for senior al Qaeda members, including bin Laden, and participation in attacks on U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan for keeping him in custody.

In a letter that year to the board, Rahim described himself as older, wiser, and in poor health. “I am confident that the United States does not fear that I would return to a battlefield that no longer exists,” he said.

He added that he hopes, if released, to pursue his love of cooking and open a food truck or booth.

In August, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden still plans to close Guantanamo before he leaves office. “It is something that he’s determined to get done,” she said.

The administration didn’t respond to a request for comment on whether it still plans to close the facility.

In 2022, the Biden administration secured the release of American Mark Frerichs, a civil engineer held by the Taliban for more than two years, exchanging him for Haji Bashir Noorzai, an Afghan who was serving a life sentence in U.S. federal prison for drug trafficking.

Also that year, the Taliban sent home two additional Americans, including Ivor Shearer, a filmmaker, though no trade was involved in their release.

US, Taliban in talks to swap detainees, WSJ reports (Reuters)

Reuters [1/7/2025 11:44 AM, Staff, 48128K, Negative]
The Biden administration is negotiating with Afghanistan to exchange Americans detained in the country for at least one high-profile prisoner held in Guantanamo Bay with alleged ties to former al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

Representatives for the White House and the U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report. Representatives for the Afghan Taliban also did not immediately respond.

U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration is seeking the return of three Americans seized in 2022 - Ryan Corbett, George Glezmann and Mahmood Habibi - in exchange for Muhammad Rahim al-Afghani, the WSJ reported.

A source familiar with the matter confirmed to Reuters that the Biden administration has been negotiating with the Taliban since at least July on a U.S. proposal to exchange Corbett, Glezmann and Habibi for Rahim.

The Taliban, who deny holding Habibi, countered with an offer to exchange Glezmann and Corbett for Rahim and two others, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

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.

A spokesperson for the National Security Council said they could not confirm the WSJ story, but added that the administration was "working around the clock" to secure the release of the three Americans.

Rahim’s lawyer, James Connell, told Reuters that neither the Biden administration nor the Taliban had informed him or Rahim of the negotiations.

"It does seem important to include Rahim or his representative in the conversation," said Connell. "As it happens, he is willing to be traded or exchanged."

Rahim was "the last person brought into the CIA torture program," said Connell, referring to an agency program instituted after the Sept. 11, 2001, al Qaeda attacks that used harsh interrogation methods on suspected Islamist militants.

The CIA denies the methods amounted to torture.

A Senate intelligence committee report on the agency’s so-called enhanced interrogation program called Rahim an "al Qaeda facilitator" and said that 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.

The U.S.-Taliban talks have been in motion since July, according to the WSJ, which cited sources who attended a classified House Foreign Affairs Committee briefing last month with White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan.

On Monday, Biden’s administration 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 Jan. 20.

US Inadvertently Funding the Taliban, Republican Says (Newsweek)

Newsweek [1/7/2025 7:28 PM, Chloe Mayer, 56005K, Neutral]
Americans are funding the Taliban because tax dollars sent abroad as foreign aid is ending up in the hands of the Islamic terror group, a Republican congressman said.

Representative Tim Burchett, who serves Tennessee’s 2nd Congressional District, did not provide any direct evidence for his claims, which appeared in an open letter to President-elect Donald Trump dated January 2.

He repeated the allegation on Monday during a social media exchange with billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk, who is slated to serve in Trump’s administration co-leading the new Department of Government Efficiency. Burchett told Musk that he believes the "next terrorist attack will be 100% fully funded by the American taxpayer.".

Newsweek has reached out by email to Burchett and Secretary of State Antony Blinken seeking comment.

Why It Matters

The United States is the single largest humanitarian donor in Afghanistan, providing nearly $2 billion in humanitarian assistance for Afghans since mid-August 2021, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) said in an October 2023 report.

Burchett wrote to Trump on January 2 congratulating him on his electoral victory but also expressing his "strong concerns with foreign aid being funnelled to the Taliban." He said he hoped to work with Trump’s new administration "to stop tax dollars from going to terrorists.".

What to Know

An aid tracker on the website of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a global policy forum, shows that the U.S. issued almost $64.7 billion in what is known as Official Development Assistance (ODA) in 2023, the most recent year for which full figures are available. The OECD said Ukraine was by far largest recipient of aid from its members in 2023, as allies seek to support the embattled country after it was invaded by Russia in February 2022, but Afghanistan is also one of the organization’s aid beneficiaries.

Burchett suggested that the U.S. State Department had been responsible for this, under Democrat President Joe Biden’s administration. And the congressman claimed that Blinken had "admitted that non-governmental organizations paid nearly $10 million of foreign aid to the Taliban in taxes.".

He added an even "larger issue, which Secretary Blinken failed to acknowledge, is the shipments of cash payments in United States dollars to Afghanistan’s central bank. These cash shipments are auctioned off and after that, they are nearly impossible to track. This is how the Taliban is being funded and plans to fund terrorism around the world.".

Burchett said he had tried to introduce a bill in 2023 in a bid to tackle the problem, but says the legislation was thwarted and he now plans to reintroduce it in Congress this year and would welcome Trump’s support.

The Taliban, which is designated as a terror group by the U.S., was founded in Afghanistan in the early 1990s. It was accused of sheltering Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda terror group after they orchestrated the 9/11 attacks in 2001. Bin Laden was killed by U.S. special forces in 2011, although the Taliban was ousted from power in 2001 by a U.S.-led military coalition.

However, the organization seized power once more in 2021, when the allies withdrew from the country in a chaotic exit. Since then, the Taliban has cracked down on Afghans with increasingly hardline laws, and women in particular have suffered from brutal oppression.

What People Are Saying

Elon Musk, who owns X, on Monday referred to the letter on his platform, asking his followers: "Are we really sending US taxpayer money to the Taliban?".

Republican Representative Tim Burchett on X: "We have got to quit funding the Taliban under @realDonaldTrump. $40 million a week to our enemies is a slap in the face to those who served.".

U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in an October 2023 report: "The United States is the single largest humanitarian donor in Afghanistan, providing nearly $2 billion in humanitarian assistance for Afghans since mid-August 2021." But the organization added it was working "to ensure aid is reaching the most vulnerable individuals, including women and girls, and through the meaningful participation of female humanitarian staff. USAID will continue to stand with the Afghan people to respond to humanitarian needs.".

What Happens Next

News network Al Jazeera said that some pundits are predicting Trump will take a tough stance against the Taliban in his second term, while others suspect he will make ad-hoc decisions based on pragmatism rather than policy in an attempt to avoid intervention.

UK special forces soldiers tell inquiry of Afghan murder concerns (Reuters)

Reuters [1/7/2025 7:07 PM, Michael Holden, 48128K, Negative]
Soldiers who were part of British special forces working in Afghanistan have told a public inquiry of their concerns that Afghans who posed no threat had been murdered in raids against suspected Taliban insurgents, including some aged under 16.

The independent inquiry was ordered by Britain’s defence ministry (MoD) after a BBC TV documentary reported that soldiers from the elite Special Air Service (SAS) had killed 54 people in suspicious circumstances during the war in Afghanistan more than a decade ago.

The investigation is examining a number of night-time raids called deliberate detention operations carried out by British forces from mid-2010 to mid-2013. On Wednesday it released a precis of evidence from seven UK special forces (UKSF) witnesses who gave their testimony in secret for national security reasons and cannot be named.

One of the soldiers, known only as N1799, told the inquiry he had raised concerns in 2011 about a unit referred to as UKSF1 after having a conversation about its operations with one of its members on a training course.

"During these operations it was said that ‘all fighting age males are killed’ on target regardless of the threat they posed, this included those not holding weapons," his witness statement said.

"It was also indicated that ‘fighting age males’ were being executed on target, inside compounds, using a variety of methods after they had been restrained. In one case it was mentioned a pillow was put over the head of an individual before being killed with a pistol.".

Questioned by the inquiry’s lawyer, he said he understood this related to those under 18 and younger than 16.

N1799 escalated his concerns to other senior officers who took them seriously. Other officers told the inquiry they had heard rumours and had their own concerns about UKSF1 operations where high numbers of deaths and the official reports of the killings suggested some were unlikely to be justified.

One officer, referred to as N2107, had emailed colleagues expressing his disbelief at summaries of UKSF1 operations which suggested detained suspects had been allowed back into compounds where they were then said to have picked up weapons and attempted to attack the unit.

‘MURDER’

"Whilst murder and UKSF1 have oft been regular bedfellows, this is beginning to look bone," he said in one email, telling the inquiry this meant it looked "very stupid".

Giving evidence, he agreed with Oliver Glasgow, the lead lawyer for the inquiry, that by April 2011 he believed UKSF1 might have been committing extra-judicial killings.

None of the soldiers who gave evidence to the inquiry, which opened in 2023, said they had witnessed any such behaviour themselves.

British military police have previously conducted several inquiries into allegations of misconduct by forces in Afghanistan, including those made against the SAS, but the MoD has said none found enough evidence for prosecutions.

The inquiry’s aim is to ascertain whether there was credible information of extra-judicial killings, whether investigations by the military police years later into N1799’s concerns were properly conducted, and if unlawful killings were covered up.

N1799 said he still felt disloyal in speaking out and requested that two defence ministry figures were removed from the inquiry room before he gave his evidence, fearing for his own safety.

"I believe I did the right thing and I continue to but it’s not easy," he told the inquiry. "It does make me feel a bit sick.".

Pakistan

Clashes in northwest Pakistan kill 19 militants, 3 soldiers, military says (VOA)

VOA [1/7/2025 4:10 PM, Ayaz Gul, 2717K, Negative]
Pakistan’s armed forces said Tuesday that 19 militants and three soldiers were killed during counter-terrorism operations in its northwestern province bordering Afghanistan.

The fatalities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa occurred during what the military called intelligence-driven raids on suspected militant hideouts in three districts, including the provincial capital of Peshawar.

The military statement identified the slain insurgents as "khwarij," a term the government uses for the outlawed armed group Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, known by the acronym TTP, which has been waging deadly attacks in the country.

Official claims about insurgent deaths cannot be independently verified, and the TTP did not issue any immediate comment on the military’s claim.

These were the first major clashes of the year between security forces and anti-state militants in Pakistan, following a dramatic surge in militant activity during 2024.

In 2024, insurgent attacks resulted in the deaths of more than 1,600 Pakistanis nationwide. The death toll included nearly 700 troops and police force members. TTP and separatist groups active in southwestern Balochistan province claimed responsibility for much of the bloodshed.

The Islamabad-based Independent Center for Research and Security Studies documented the casualties, stating that 2024 was the deadliest year for Pakistani security forces in a decade.

This week, the TTP issued a warning that it would persist in targeting security personnel and escalate its attacks to encompass commercial enterprises run by the Pakistani military.

TTP, designated as a global terrorist group by the United Nations, urged employees of military-operated companies to find alternative sources of income within three months and warned civilians to refrain from engaging with these businesses.

Neither the Pakistani government nor the military has responded to the TTP threat.

The militant warning comes as a surge in terrorist activities in Pakistan has strained its relations with Afghanistan’s Taliban government. Last month, the Pakistani military reported that 27 Afghan nationals were among more than 900 militants killed during counterterrorism operations in 2024.

Islamabad asserts that the TTP operates from Afghan sanctuaries and receives support from the Taliban government to perpetrate cross-border attacks. Kabul has vehemently denied the presence of foreign militants in Afghanistan or the use of its soil to threaten neighboring countries.

In December, Pakistan allegedly conducted airstrikes against TTP-suspected hideouts in an Afghan border province, resulting in the deaths of dozens of individuals. Taliban authorities condemned the bombardment, saying it killed nearly 50 civilians and describing the victims as "Pakistani refugees.".

While the Pakistani government has publicly refrained from acknowledging the attack, officials have anonymously confirmed it and said the airstrikes killed more than 25 prominent TTP commanders and operatives.

Neither the Pakistani nor the Afghan assertions regarding the strikes could be independently verified.

Protests over power outages block Pakistan’s trade route with China (VOA)

VOA [1/7/2025 9:53 AM, Staff, 2717K, Neutral]
Thousands continued their blockade of a crucial Pakistani trade route with China for a fifth day on Tuesday, protesting chronic, prolonged power outages in the mountainous region.

The organizers of the sit-in demonstration in Hunza, a picturesque city with a population of more than 70,000, have pledged to remain in place until their demands are met. Rally leaders emphasized the town’s persistent inadequate power supply, noting that residents endure up to 23-hour electricity outages amid a harsh winter season.

Both men and women participated in the protest, braving average daytime temperatures of -4 degrees Celsius and nighttime temperatures of -10 degrees Celsius, as reported by rally participants to VOA via phone.

Rahim Aman, a Hunza resident, reported a gradual and substantial increase in protesters, saying female activists were seen using vehicles and loudspeakers to encourage participation in the rally. He said representatives of local political parties, traders and hotel associations were also present.

Local authorities negotiated with the protesters but failed to persuade them to disperse and restore traffic flow along the Karakoram Highway connecting Pakistan to China. Hunza is situated on the scenic roadway traversing the Gilgit-Baltistan region, bordering China’s western Xinjiang province.

Traders reported that numerous containers carrying commercial goods were stuck on both sides of the highway due to the sit-in demonstration.

The crippling protest erupted more than a month after Pakistan and China announced that they would keep open their sole land port, the Khunjerab Pass, for year-round operations to foster trade connectivity between the two nations.

The world’s highest paved border crossing, approximately 190 kilometers from Hunza, stands at an elevation exceeding 4,600 meters and was previously closed for four months annually due to heavy snowfall.

The impoverished Gilgit-Baltistan region heavily relies on hydropower, but generation almost ceases during the winter months due to the freezing of rivers and lakes. Consequently, residents and business establishments, including hotels, must operate expensive thermal generators to maintain power supply.

Residents and area experts have noted that the growing use of such generators by major hotels and other commercial entities is damaging the atmosphere in Hunza and surrounding areas.

The United Nations reports that the Pakistani regions are home to some of the largest stretches of glaciers outside the northern pole and already face the growing threat of global warming.

The Khunjerab Pass is an integral component of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, or CPEC. The multibillion-dollar corridor seeks to establish a comprehensive trade and transit infrastructure between the two nations, the most populous and fifth-most populous in the world.

Beijing has invested more than $25 billion in Pakistan since the two countries launched the CPEC a decade ago and is eager to use Gwadar, a Chinese-managed Pakistani port on the Arabian Sea, as a strategic gateway to international markets.

Pakistan Slides Into New ‘Era Of Terrorism’ (Radio Free Europe)

Radio Free Europe [1/8/2025 12:06 AM, Abubakar Siddique, 235K, Negative]
Pakistani warplanes bombed a village in the country’s northwest in the fall of 2007, killing around 50 people.

The air strikes occurred in the district of North Waziristan during the height of militancy in the South Asian country.

“That was the darkest era of terrorism,” said Adil Dawar, a local activist whose uncle and cousin were among those killed in the attack.

Northwestern Pakistan, a stronghold of Al-Qaeda and the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), was the scene of deadly Pakistani counterterrorism operations and U.S. drone strikes. Militants, meanwhile, terrorized the local population.

Eighteen years on, the TTP is resurgent, and the region has witnessed a sharp uptick in violence.

“Today, the situation is as bad as the previous era of terrorism,” said Dawar.

Soaring Violence

Last year was the deadliest for Pakistani security forces in nearly a decade, according to the Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS).

In its annual report, the Islamabad-based think tank reported 685 fatalities among security personnel, a nearly 40 percent increase compared to 2023.

The number of militant attacks in Pakistan in 2024, meanwhile, rose by 70 percent compared to the year before, said the Pak Institute of Peace Studies (PIPS), another think tank in Islamabad.

Many of the attacks were carried out by the TTP, which is active in northwestern Pakistan, as well as the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), a separatist militant group which has wreaked havoc in the southwestern province of Balochistan.

Experts said the Taliban takeover of neighboring Afghanistan in 2021 boosted the fighting capabilities of armed groups in the region.

Some of the American military gear and weapons left behind after the U.S. military withdrawal and seized by the Taliban have turned up and been used by the TTP and Baluch armed groups.

The TTP and Afghan Taliban have close ideological and organizational ties. Pakistan has accused the Afghan Taliban of sheltering the Pakistani militants.

Pakistan had hoped the Afghan Taliban, its longtime ally, would “control and neutralize” the TTP, said Amir Rana, the head of PIPS, the Islamabad-based think tank.

“Pakistan’s Taliban policy has backfired,” he said, adding that the Afghan Taliban has also provided some help to Baluch militants.

‘Nobody Is Listening’

Observers have said Pakistan has resorted to brute force to crush the TTP and Baluch insurgencies and ignored the longstanding grievances of the Baluch and Pashtun ethnic minorities in southwestern and northwestern Pakistan, respectively.

Abuses by the government have boosted support for the insurgencies. The Pakistani Army, which has an oversized role in the country’s domestic and foreign affairs, has been accused of committing widespread human rights abuses.

Major military offensives aimed at uprooting militants have killed thousands of civilians and uprooted millions of others in the past two decades.

“The security state controls the entire state system,” said Afrasiab Khattak, a former lawmaker. “And the [army] is not listening.”

The Pakistani military has defended its actions, and claimed that it killed a “record” number of militants in 2024.

Ordinary Pakistanis find themselves stuck in the middle of the escalating fight between the military and the militants.

“People have lost their lives and properties both because of the militants and the security forces,” said Attiqullah Dawar.

In 2021, the lawyer in North Waziristan spent some eight months in the TTP’s captivity. He and his two cousins were freed after their family paid a $40,000 ransom.

Idress Mehsud, a member of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement, a civil rights group, is on the government’s terrorism watch list after he campaigned against the alleged abuses of the Pakistani security forces.

“It is a tragedy that the state is oppressing the very people who oppose terrorism,” Mehsud said.

With Trump looming, Pakistan braces for foreign policy challenges in 2025 (Al Jazeera)

Al Jazeera [1/8/2025 12:00 AM, Abid Hussain, 19.6M, Neutral]
Pakistan entered a new year in a state of relative calm after tumultuous 30 months, marked by volatile politics, a controversial election, andan economy teetering on the verge of collapse.

As domestic politics stabilises and economy hopes for a turnaround in South Asia’s second-most populous nation, foreign policy and security challenges are likely to emerge as the country’s most pressing concerns this year.

Analysts predict a tough 2025 for Pakistan, as it manages ties with its immediate neighbours, allies and adversaries across the world, as well as with the United States, where Donald Trump is set to return to power later this month.

Most of Pakistan’s foreign policy and security challenges arise due to its neighbourhood, mainly Afghanistan to its west and archrival India on the east.

Violence by armed groups and rebels intensified across Pakistan after the Afghan Taliban seized Kabul in 2021. In 2024, armed attacks claimed the lives of nearly 700 law enforcement personnel, making it one of the deadliest years in a country of 240 million people.

The attacks were primarily carried out by the Pakistan Taliban (Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, TTP), an armed group that considers the Afghan Taliban its ideological twin. Separate rebel attacks targeted sites related to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a $62bn megaproject that has brought Islamabad and Beijing closer than ever as political and economic allies.

Christopher Clary, a non-resident fellow at Stimson Center, a US-based nonprofit, and an associate professor of political science at the University at Albany, says Pakistan faces its “most severe” national security challenge “in at least a decade and possibly since the 1990s”.

“Pakistan has no grand strategic choice other than to get its economic house in order and repair its relationships with other great powers and regional neighbours. This likely entails years of work, and it is not clear that Pakistan has years to do that work before the house tumbles in,” Clary told Al Jazeera.

Here’s a lowdown on the countries that will be the focus of Islamabad’s foreign policy this year:

China

Pakistani authorities frequently tout their “deeper than the oceans, taller than the mountains” friendship with China. But 2024 revealed cracks in that relationship.

Attacks on Chinese citizens and interests culminated, forcing a rare public rebuke by Beijing’s envoy to Islamabad. “It is unacceptable for us to be attacked twice in only six months,” Jiang Zaidong said at an event in Islamabad in October.

Muhammad Faisal, a foreign policy expert on China, warns that while China will continue to provide financial support to Pakistan, any further expansion of the CPEC project in the country is unlikely.

“Pakistan must skillfully navigate mounting pressure from Beijing for a ‘Joint Security Mechanism’, essentially putting Chinese security personnel on Pakistani territory which, in turn, would make them the target of militants complicating existing security measures,” Faisal told Al Jazeera.

Chinese soldiers manning the country’s projects on Pakistani soil would represent an admission of Islamabad’s security failures, increase the risk of Chinese nationals being targeted, and also amplify the politically sensitive possibility of Chinese fighters killing Pakistani nationals.

Meanwhile, experts also fear that Trump’s adversarial stance towards China may push Beijing to demand public support from Pakistan, which will then be forced to walk a diplomatic tightrope in order to avoid annoying Washington, an old ally.

Trump has taken a consistently hardline position on China, with his first term seeing a trade war between the two economic powers. In his second stint, the US leader has pledged to impose up to 60 percent tariffs on Chinese imports.

“But since Pakistan isn’t high on Trump administration’s international agenda, there is a silver lining. Yet, uncertainty is the common denominator of both of Pakistan’s challenges with China,” Faisal said.

Kamran Bokhari, senior director at the US-based New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy, said China’s frustrations with Pakistan stem from its extensive investments in the CPEC yielding few returns. He added that China’s predicament could work to the US’s advantage.

“China is already quite disappointed with Pakistan and the relationship has been terse for some time. But Beijing is in a fix because it is knee-deep in Pakistan, thanks to CPEC investment of billions, without getting any benefit from it. So, China being in a quagmire in Pakistan is good for the US,” Bokhari told Al Jazeera.

The United States

Pakistan’s relations with the US go back to its independence from British rule and emergence as a new nation in 1947. But Islamabad-Washington ties have mostly pivoted on how Pakistan aided US policies in the region, mainly in Afghanistan, which saw the Soviet invasion in the 1970s and 1980s, or the US-led “war on terror” following the 9/11 attacks in 2001.

With the Afghan Taliban back in power in Kabul, the Pakistan-US strategic partnership in the South Asian region has dwindled. While the US is now less invested in Afghanistan, Pakistan has gradually moved towards China for economic, military and technological needs.

Hassan Abbas, professor at the National Defense University in Washington, DC, believes Pakistan must “carefully navigate” its ties with the US amid tensions with China and India. He says “while nervousness is evident” on Pakistan’s part, dramatic changes in the relationship appear unlikely.

“Security issues and regional challenges, such as instability in Afghanistan,” Abbas told Al Jazeera, “are likely to dominate bilateral interactions.” Abbas is also the author of The Return of Taliban: Afghanistan after Americans Left.

Bokhari said Pakistan remains a low priority for the US, which has more pressing global issues such as the Russia-Ukraine war and the several Middle East conflicts to tackle.

“Right now, I don’t see any tensions rising to significant levels between the two countries and Pakistan is playing its cards very safely. In DC, the perception about Pakistan is that it is a weak, messy state which needs to figure out its own business first before anything else,” he said.

India

India remains the biggest foreign policy conundrum for Pakistan.

While limited interactions occur at multilateral forums, relations have been practically frozen for years. Tensions over Kashmir further intensified after New Delhi stripped Indian-administered Kashmir of its limited autonomy in 2019, triggering a strong condemnation by Pakistan. Both India and Pakistan rule over parts of Kashmir, but claim the Himalayan region in its entirety, making it one of the world’s longest and bloodiest military conflicts.

“The asymmetry with India is increasingly stark, and Pakistan has few options to compel India to take it seriously that don’t endanger other Pakistani foreign policy goals,” analyst Clary told Al Jazeera, adding that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has “little ideological interest” in rapprochement with Pakistan and “sees it as impractical during a period of domestic instability” in Pakistan.

Abdul Basit, a former Pakistani envoy to India, views the Kashmir issue as a continuing deadlock requiring behind-the-scenes diplomacy. “India has shown no willingness for flexibility after the constitutional amendment,” he told Al Jazeera, referring to the Modi government’s scrapping of Article 370, the law that granted Indian-administered Kashmir its partial autonomy.

With India getting closer to the West, mainly the US, over their common enemy in China, Basit thinks Islamabad must find ways to engage with New Delhi.

“Otherwise, we will keep moving from one stalemate to the next and never be able to put our relationship on a trajectory of building normal relations. That, for me, is the crux of the matter when it comes to India,” the retired envoy said.

However, Bokhari of the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy thinks it could be India that might be in the US crosshairs this year and find itself under pressure over its rivalry with China.

“India has much closer and practical ties with Iran, where it is building a port. It is also buying oil from Russia, which is waging a war in Ukraine. So they [India] have a bigger chance of being put under pressure by the incoming [Trump] administration,” he said.

For Pakistan to attract US attention, according to Bokhari, it must offer a strategic value as it did during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and during the post-9/11 US wars.

“If you want US attention, you have to offer them something that could significantly generate an interest for the US, and only then you can get attention,” he said. “It wasn’t that the US liked Pakistan or became best friends, it was just that Pakistan provided a purpose.”

Iran

The year 2024 turned out to be a cataclysmic year for Iran, as it saw its geopolitical interests in the Middle East suffer heavy losses and Israel even launching direct attacks on its territories on several occasions.

But the year began with Iran launching attacks inside Pakistan’s Balochistan province, citing an armed group called Jaish al-Adl as a threat to its security in border areas. The attack prompted a swift military retaliation by Pakistan. But the tensions between the mainly Muslim neighbours did not escalate, with Tehran resorting to diplomacy to resolve the issue.

Umer Karim, researcher at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, foresees the “uneasy rapprochement” continuing, as well as the emergence of new challenges with Trump’s return to the White House.

Karim warns that a deterioration in Pakistan-Iran ties could worsen border security, emboldening Baloch separatists who are reported to have hideouts in Iran. The Baloch rebels have been fighting for decades for a separate homeland.

“Pakistan will pursue positive engagement with Iran to avoid further antagonism amid rising domestic violence,” said Karim.

India

Indians slam MAGA ‘war’ over H-1B skilled visas as ‘racist’ (Washington Post)

Washington Post [1/7/2025 6:55 AM, Anant Gupta, 40736K, Negative]
The “civil war” among supporters of President-elect Donald Trump over H-1B visas in recent days has sparked sharp reactions and accusations of racism from commentators in India, where these visas for skilled workers are in high demand.

Newspaper columns and social media posts decried what they characterized as a “racist” backlash against legal Indian workers in the American high-tech industry, after criticism of the visa program by far-right activists in the United States, such as Laura Loomer.

“The rising power, wealth, and visibility of Indian-Americans made it perhaps inevitable that the nativist base would direct its anger at the Desi [Indian] community. What Loomer and her ilk have done is open the floodgates for this anti-Indian racism,” said an article in the Hindustan Times.

In an editorial in its Saturday edition, the Deccan Herald slammed Trump’s supporters for not recognizing foreign contributions to the U.S. economy.

“They respond to the call to make America great without, ironically, realising that it was the foreign talent at work in the US that had once made America great,” said the paper, which is distributed in southern Indian tech hubs such as Bangalore. “The H-1B visa is a tool and symbol of that idea.”

The Times of India and the Hindustan Times called the debate “a red-hot potato” and “a new chapter of racism against Indians” in their headlines and warned of its long-term implications for the relationship between the two countries. Digital news sites were less restrained and blamed “America’s corrosive politics” for the “explosion of racism.”

For decades, the H-1B program has allowed hundreds of thousands of computer programmers and other high-skilled workers from India to work in the United States on a temporary basis. In 2023, Indians made up more than 70 percent of all H-1B workers, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data.

Critics say the program has failed in its original purpose of attracting the most highly skilled labor and is mainly used by tech companies to avoid hiring Americans in favor of lower-paid workers from abroad.

Trump adviser Elon Musk has heavily used the program for his companies and maintained that the United States does not produce enough skilled tech workers, prompting former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley to call on the tech industry to “invest in our education system.”

The issue even resonated with long-standing Trump opponents such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), who railed last week against the program’s “widespread corporate abuse.”

Indian commentators on X responded by sneering at the shortage of science, technology, engineering and mathematics graduates in the United States. Several painstakingly dissected the American economy to show how the country needs to keep importing labor.

During a news briefing Friday, a spokesman for India’s Ministry of External Affairs said, “India-U.S. economic ties benefit a lot from the technical expertise provided by skilled professionals, with both sides leveraging their strengths and competitive value.”

The Indian government has seized on the export of skilled labor as a patriotic issue, portraying it as a source of rising Indian power on the global stage. Past Indian leaders once lamented this exodus as a brain drain.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally took up the cause of H-1B workers in multiple meetings with President Joe Biden.

With Trump coming out in favor of the H-1B program, the controversy in itself is unlikely to cause major friction in the U.S.-Indian relationship in the short term. It does, however, reveal the growing belligerence among hardcore supporters of the respective administrations in the two countries and the shrinking space for nuance in discussions on complex issues such as immigration.

Tanul Thakur, a New Delhi-based independent journalist and author of a forthcoming book about the H-1B program titled “Wild Wild East,” rued the “woefully bad” media reporting on an issue that he insisted is economic, and not about civil rights.

“I am a Brown guy, and I was an H-1B worker for two years, so you can take it from me,” he said, criticizing the program for what he described as exploitation of Indian IT workers with low-wage jobs.

Thakur said the visa system harms both American tech workers, who lose out on jobs, and Indian H-1B visa holders, who remain stuck in a relatively low-wage trap for years as they cling to the hope of obtaining lawful permanent resident status, or green cards. He accused the mainstream Indian news media, which used to be vocal about the brain drain until the late 2000s, of failing to get to the bottom of the issue because of its nationalist stance.

“Everything in the big newspapers and television channels on H-1B is largely about the image of India’s IT prowess because it is the biggest story from the last few decades that we like to tell ourselves,” Thakur said. “But like many stories, it is mired in self-deception.”

India’s Modi looks to new economic playbook as risks mount (Reuters)

Reuters [1/7/2025 11:14 PM, Shivangi Acharya and Nikunj Ohri, 48128K, Neutral]
After world-beating economic growth last year, India’s policymakers are scrambling to head off a sharp slowdown as worsening global conditions and domestic confidence wipe out a recent stock market rally.

On Tuesday, Asia’s third-largest economy forecast annual growth of 6.4% in the fiscal year ending in March, the slowest in four years and below the government’s initial projections, weighed by weaker investment and manufacturing.

The downgrade follows disappointing economic indicators and a slowdown in corporate earnings in the second half of 2024, which have forced investors to rethink the country’s earlier outperformance and cast doubts over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious economic targets.

The fresh worries are heightening calls for authorities to lift sentiment by loosening monetary settings and slowing the pace of fiscal tightening, especially as Donald Trump’s looming second presidency throws more uncertainty over the global trade outlook.

"You have to revive the animal spirit, and you also have to ensure that consumption picks up. It’s not that easy," Madhavi Arora, chief economist at Emkay Global Financial Services, said, adding India could expand its fiscal balance sheet or cut interest rates.

Such calls come amid a flurry of meetings by Indian policymakers with businesses growing increasingly worried about faltering demand.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman held a series of meetings in December with industry and economists, customary ahead of India’s annual budget, which is due Feb. 1.

Some of the measures proposed in those talks to boost growth include putting more money into the hands of consumers and cutting taxes and tariffs, according to demands by trade and industry associations.

Growing Concerns

The worries about India’s economy knocked 12% off the benchmark Nifty 50 (.NSEI) index from late September to November. It clawed back those losses to end 2024 up 8.7%, a decent gain but well off the previous year’s 20% surge.

As confidence wanes, the political urge to stimulate growth appears to be broadening.

India’s monthly economic report published last month said the central bank’s tight monetary policy was partly responsible for the hit to demand.

Modi has made some high profile changes recently that are expected to lift economic growth as a priority over price stability.

In a surprise move in December, Modi appointed Sanjay Malhotra as the new central governor, replacing Shaktikanta Das, a trusted bureaucrat who was widely expected to get another one to two-year term as bank chief after having completed six years at the bank.

The appointment of Malhotra, who recently said the central bank will strive to support a higher growth path for the Indian economy, came immediately after the September quarter growth slowed much more than expected to 5.4%.

During the pandemic, Modi sought to keep the economy growing by raising infrastructure spending and limiting wasteful expenditure to keep government finances in good shape.

That lifted headline GDP growth but has not supported wages or helped consumption sustain an annual expansion of more than 7% over the past three years.

While India’s economy may still outperform globally, the question is whether it can maintain 6.5%-7.5% growth or slow to 5%-6%, said Sanjay Kathuria, visiting senior fellow at Centre for Social and Economic Progress.

Arora said the country currently is in a "bit of a limbo" where individuals are not spending. She expects this to continue if employment does not improve and wage growth remains weak.

Reuters reported last month the government plans to cut taxes for some individuals and is preparing to offer tariff cuts on some farm and other goods mainly imported from the U.S., to clinch a deal with Trump.

Economists say the government will have to slow some of its fiscal tightening to support growth with the success of such measures dependent on the extent of the cuts.

With regards to trade, analysts say India needs a credible plan to fight Trump’s tariff wars.

If China remains the main target of Trump’s tariffs, that could present an opportunity for India to boost its trade profile, although it would also need to let the rupee fall further to make its exports more competitive, economists said.

India needs to "seriously implement tariff rationalisation to help embed itself more deeply into global value chains," Kathuria, also an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University, said.

This could include tariff cuts aimed at pre-emptively heading off punitive levies from a Trump White House.

"India should announce some proactive measures for U.S. suo-moto to bring concessions for the U.S. rather than waiting for the new administration to announce their steps," said Sachin Chaturvedi, head of the New Delhi-based Research and Information System for Developing Countries.

Calls grow for better protection after brutal killing of journalist in India (VOA)

VOA [1/7/2025 12:44 PM, Suhail Anjum, 2717K, Neutral]
At a candlelight vigil for Mukesh Chandrakar, supporters called for justice for the slain journalist.

Chandrakar, who was part of the Mahar community in the Indian city of Bijapur, was known for his coverage of corruption. He worked for the TV news channel NDTV and ran a YouTube channel "Bastar Junction," which has 170,000 subscribers.

At the vigil on Sunday, RD Jhadi, who speaks for the Mahar community, told the media, "We want a safe environment for journalists so they can work freely and without fear.".

In the wake of the killing, the Press Club of India — one of the country’s largest media associations — demanded that the government pass protective measures for media workers.

The body of the 33-year-old Chandrakar was discovered in a septic tank on Jan. 3. His brother had filed a missing person report to police on Jan. 1, noting that the journalist had been receiving threats.

Chandrakar’s body showed evidence of a brutal attack, with broken ribs and fractures to the skull, according to local media reports.

Chandrakar had recently investigated a road construction scam in Bijapur, which resulted in an official investigation into contractors.

The state of Chhattisgarh deputy chief minister was cited in local media as saying that police suspect the murder is directly linked to the coverage. He said that the journalist’s report on corruption was aired on Dec. 25, and it was possible that the coverage was the reason for the attack. He added that charges are expected to be filed within a week.

Chhattisgarh’s chief minister, Shri Vishnu Deo Sai, condemned the murder and the state government has set up a special investigation team. So far, at least three arrests have been made.

One of those is an individual identified as Suresh Chandrakar, a distant relative of the journalist who, according to local media, was allegedly upset by the state government’s investigation into the construction project after the corruption was uncovered,.

The police tracked hours of security video and phone records before making the arrest of Suresh Chandrakar.

The killing was widely condemned by media groups in India. As well as his investigations into corruption, Mukesh Chandrakar was known for his reporting on the Naxalite-Maoist insurgency in India.

Gautam Lahiri, president of the Press Club of India, told VOA the case is not the first instance of a journalist being killed in Chhattisgarh.

Lahiri said that the press club is demanding "strict and swift" action.

He added that the government needs to do more to protect journalists and should act on a long-standing call for better legislation to ensure media members are safe.

"The Press Club of India has been raising its voice for the protection of journalists," said Lahiri, adding that the press club demands that central and state governments "ensure the safety of journalists in the country.".

The Editors’ Guild of India, in a letter, described the killing as a matter of grave concern. The guild demanded that the state government "spare no efforts in investigating the case speedily and bringing the guilty to book.".

Media watch dogs have been expressing concerns over the declining state of press freedom in India under the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Journalists who cover corruption in remote areas are said to be the most vulnerable.

At least 24 journalists have been killed in India in relation to their work in the past decade, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. The media freedom organization is investigating a further nine cases to see if reporting was a motive.

Among those cases is Subhash Kumar Mahato, a reporter based in Bihar who covered illegal mining. Mahato was shot in May 2022.

India ranks 159 out of 180, where 1 is the best environment on the World Press Freedom Index.

Indian authorities deny any threats to press freedom and say that the media enjoys complete freedom in the country.

A journalist’s murder highlights risks of reporting in small-town India (BBC)

BBC [1/8/2025 3:23 AM, Cherylann Mollan, 76.2M, Negative]
The gruesome murder of Indian journalist Mukesh Chandrakar has shone a spotlight on the dangers of reporting from some of the country’s most volatile regions.

Chandrakar’s body was found last week in a septic tank in a compound owned by a contractor he had implicated in a story about corruption in Chhattisgarh state. Police have arrested the contractor and two others in connection with the 33-year-old’s murder.

Chhattisgarh, a mineral-rich state, has witnessed an armed conflict for more than three decades and attacks by Maoist rebels on security forces are common. The Maoists, who are active in several Indian states, say they are fighting for communist rule and greater rights for tribal people and the rural poor.

Chandrakar’s killing was condemned by Indian media watchdogs. People who knew him commended his bravery and resilience, with many saying he cared deeply about people and would go to great lengths to report on an important story.

His death also sparked discussions about the challenges faced by independent reporters, often working as stringers or freelancers, in states like Chhattisgarh, where employment opportunities are few and the balance of power is constantly shifting between the state, insurgent groups and powerful mining corporations.

Chandrakar was born in Basaguda, a remote village in the state, and dabbled in odd jobs before he pivoted to journalism in his 20s.

His childhood was difficult; he lost his father when he was still a child and was raised by his mother, who worked hard to make ends meet. He also grew up in the shadow of violence as militia and rebel groups fought for power in the state.

To help support his family, he initially collected mahua flowers, which are used to make a liquor popular among tribespeople, and later worked in a garage.

His friend Ganesh Mishra told the BBC that Chandrakar discovered journalism through conversations with friends and began working as one in 2013. He learnt on the job, gleaning tips from fellow journalists, and gradually developed a passion for reporting.

He worked as a reporter with mainstream media outlets before launching his own YouTube channel, Bastar Junction. At the time of his death, the channel had around 165,000 subscribers, a number that has since grown by about 10,000.

Bastar is a hilly district in Chhattisgarh which is full of dense forests and is part of India’s ‘red corridor’, a nickname for the regions most affected by the Maoist insurgency.

Watching the videos, Chandrakar’s journalism comes across as slightly melodramatic and sometimes straying from the rigours of traditional reporting, such as not always giving all parties a right of reply. However, his videos highlighted stories frequently overlooked by mainstream media - reports of innocent villagers killed in crossfire between Maoist rebels and soldiers, or tribal men wrongfully accused of being insurgents and imprisoned by the police.

His channel captured the hardships faced by locals in Bastar’s remote villages, where even basic necessities are scarce.

One video showed villagers swimming across a river with groceries in tow due to the lack of a bridge; another documented a key road mined with explosives, allegedly planted by Maoists to target security forces. His stories gave locals a platform to voice their grievances and hold public officials accountable.

Chandrakar used to also work as a "stringer" for news organisations, where his job involved providing outstation journalists with information about a story or sometimes, even chaperoning them through Maoist strongholds.

Most media outlets pay such freelance reporters poorly, and despite doing much of the ground work, they often don’t receive proper recognition or a byline.

A journalist who Chandrakar helped cover a particularly sensitive story told the BBC about how he had helped him cross Maoists camps and police check-posts to access regions deep inside forests.

"It would have been impossible to access the terrain without him," the person, who wanted to remain anonymous, said.

He described Chandrakar as a person who was passionate about new experiences, loved the chase and felt proud when his actions led to change.

"He was also a deeply aspirational person. He didn’t want to be defined by his difficult life; he wanted to rise above that," he said.

It’s perhaps this trait of Chandrakar’s that has led to some speculation about the actual cause of his death. Police say that two of the people arrested for his murder are related to him, one of whom is a contractor.

There are whispers about Chandrakar’s lifestyle, which some colleagues found puzzling given the poor salaries of local journalists. In a tribute, his close friend and fellow journalist, Dipankar Ghose, acknowledged the complexities of working in a profession where survival often meant navigating difficult choices.

"For me, Mukesh was the personification of bravery. I’m not going to pretend that in a universe where media organisations he [Chandrakar] worked for didn’t even pay for his petrol let alone a stable salary, sustenance wasn’t a problem, and therefore some wires weren’t crossed. But Mukesh loved journalism with a passion," he wrote as part of a lengthy post praising Chandrakar on X.

Manisha Pande, managing editor at Newslaundry, an independent news platform, speaks about the challenges facing journalists in many small towns and cities across the country.

"There are many passionate and even fearless young journalists who are the first to uncover and report stories from their regions. But as a profession, we haven’t figured out how to make journalism financially sustainable for them," she says.

Chandrakar’s murder is still under investigation, and more details about his death are expected to emerge in the coming days. However, his work continues to serve as an inspiration to many.

"I have lost a friend who was like a family member and Bastar has lost a good journalist," Mr Mishra says. "His journalism impacted many and so his loss is deeply felt deeply by all".

India’s first human metapneumovirus (HMPV) cases confirmed, but officials say "no reason to worry" (CBS News)

CBS News [1/7/2025 9:23 AM, Arshad R. Zargar, 52225K, Neutral]
Indian officials have confirmed the vast nation’s first cases of human metapneumovirus, often called HMPV, with seven people said to have contracted the virus as of Tuesday, according to the Indian Council of Medical Research.

Two of the HMPV infections were reported in the central Indian city of Nagpur on Tuesday, while two cases were reported in cities of Bengaluru, and one each in Ahmedabad, Chennai and Salem on Monday. The cases include a three-month-old girl who tested positive for HMPV on Monday. Another case involved an eight-month-old boy who tested positive for both HMPV and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.

HMPV can cause upper and lower respiratory disease in people of all ages. Young children, older adults and people with weakened immune systems are the most at risk for serious illness from the virus. According to the CDC, symptoms commonly associated with HMPV include cough, fever, nasal congestion, and shortness of breath.

HMPV infections are reportedly surging in China, drawing interest around the world, but Dr. Carla Garcia Carreno, director of infection prevention and control at the Children’s Medical Center Plano in Texas, told CBS News this week that there was no concern over a potential new pandemic.

"This has been circulating for a while, so people have some immunity," she said, adding that the virus was fairly stable, unlike the COVID-19 virus that mutates often, making it harder to fight.

India’s federal government asked states on Monday to step up surveillance of respiratory illnesses and spread awareness about how to prevent the transmission of HMPV. Preventive measures include covering the mouth and nose while sneezing or coughing, frequent handwashing, and wearing masks in crowded places.

"Health experts have clarified that the HMPV is not a new virus; it was first identified in 2001 and it has been circulating in the entire world for many years," Indian Health Minister J. P. Nadda said Monday. "The health systems and surveillance networks of the country are vigilant and there is no reason to worry.".

Nadda said the people infected in India had no recent travel history and that the government was "closely monitoring the situation in China and neighboring countries.".

The Health Ministry also said the HMPV infections were "no cause of concern," as there has been no unusual surge in respiratory illnesses detected in the country, and it noted that India was well prepared for any surge should it occur.

"The virus infection is usually a mild and self-limiting condition and most cases recover on their own," the ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

Health agencies, such as the United Nations’ World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have not voiced any concern over the HMPV infections in Asia.

India high court halts Bhopal waste disposal plans after protests (Nikkei Asia)

Nikkei Asia [1/8/2025 2:34 AM, Neeta Lal, 1.3M, Neutral]
Violent demonstrations and two attempted self-immolations last week in the industrial town of Pithampur in protest of the transferring of toxic waste from Bhopal 250 kilometers away have led an Indian high court to halt local authorities’ plans.

A gas leak from the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal 40 years ago killed over 5,400 people in the world’s largest industrial accident. Last month, Indian authorities ordered the removal of the residual toxic waste from Bhopal for disposal in Pithampur, where it has been put in storage at an incinerator facility.

On Monday, the Madhya Pradesh High Court granted authorities six more weeks to ensure safe disposal of the waste.

"We need to be scientifically assured that the disposed waste will not flow into the Gambhir River and ultimately to the Yashwant Sagar Dam in the coming years," said Pradip Sinha, a member of Pithampur Bachao Samiti, a local organization formed to resist the waste disposal plans.

Over 5 million people, including Pithampur’s population of 183,000 and neighboring Indore’s 3.4 million, could be affected if the waste contaminates the river.

Sinha said the disposal should take place only after detailed discussions with all stakeholders, scientists and residents.

"We don’t see any transparency on the government’s part to take us on board even though our lives are at stake," he said.

The events of Dec. 2, 1984, remain fresh in Indians’ minds. That night, 27 tonnes of noxious methyl isocyanate gas leaked from the Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal, killing at least 5,479 people and leaving thousands with serious injuries and long-lasting health issues.

Up to 25,000 are estimated to have died from that leak over time, with over 2 million affected.

On Jan. 2, 12 specially designed containers carrying 358 tonnes of toxic waste were escorted by police and emergency vehicles through a designated 250-km Green Corridor to Pithampur to be incinerated at the Ramky Enviro company.

But local protests intensified once the waste reached Pithampur, forcing police to close shops and businesses in case violence erupted.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav blamed the unrest on "media misinformation."

Protests also rocked adjoining Indore, whose residents fear the incineration also may ruin their ecology and harm public health. They expressed concerns that no transparent disposal plan was shared with them.

"Send the toxic waste generated from the American company for disposal to America, we won’t allow it in Pithampur," read a protester’s sign.

Rushing the process of burning the waste could result in leaks into Yashwant Sagar Dam, which is a crucial water source for Indore, Sinha said.

Kamla Sharma, a Pithampur-based teacher and protester who lost uncles and aunts in the Bhopal gas tragedy, told Nikkei Asia by phone that it was difficult to believe the government when no preparations are visible on the ground to tackle any emergency resulting from waste disposal.

"No medical camps or hospital vans are on standby should there be any toxic waste-related incident," she said. "The specter of the Bhopal gas tragedy still haunts us. We refuse to take any more chances now."

A 2010 study commissioned by the government found that the Union Carbide factory premises held 1.1 million tonnes of contaminated soil, one tonne of mercury and nearly 150 tonnes of contaminated materials in underground dumps.

"The entire disposal episode reeks of a political farce," said Champa Devi, a member of Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmchari Sangh, a nonprofit organization run by survivors of the Bhopal tragedy. "The undertaking is shrouded in mystery with no stakeholders taken on board, especially the inhabitants of Pithampur and Indore."

Lawyers say the court should insist on a scientific testing of the waste to determine its toxicity and its ramifications on local population, if any.

"Publishing the test results and putting it out in public domain before disposal will ensure transparency and quell public anxiety about the waste’s toxicity levels," said Naman Nagrath, a lawyer for a Bhopal survivor who has since died. "It will go a long way in restoring public faith in the authorities."

One body recovered from flooded Indian mine as rescuers search for trapped men (Reuters)

Reuters [1/8/2025 12:38 AM, Tora Agarwala, 5.2M, Neutral]
The body of a miner was recovered from a flooded coal mine in a remote district of India’s northeastern state of Assam on Wednesday, two days into the search for nine men trapped below ground.

The mine, which is 300 feet (91.44 m) deep and has multiple underground tunnels, is thought to have flooded on Monday morning after miners hit a water source, according to officials and a state minister.

The extent of the flooding hampered rescue work on Tuesday, but expert divers entered the mine again early on Wednesday and were able to retrieve a body, Himanta Biswa Sarma, the chief minister of Assam state, said on X.

Officials have said the mine is illegal.

"We didn’t see the body, it was completely dark inside, we felt a body using our hands, and that’s how we were able to rescue them," one of the divers told a local news channel after the body had been recovered.

The Army has deployed divers, helicopters and engineers to help the rescue efforts in Assam’s hilly Dima Hasao district.

"It is difficult to say how long the operation will take, because we have been told there are rat holes in the mine," H P S Kandhari, a commandant in the National Disaster Relief Force, the federal agency that is responsible for such operations, told news agency ANI.

Rat hole mines, named because their tunnels are just big enough for workers to get through, were once used extensively in India’s northeastern states. They were banned in 2014 because of the large number of fatalities and the damage caused to the environment.

In 2019, at least 15 miners were buried while working in an illegal rat-hole mine in the neighbouring state of Meghalaya after it was flooded by water from a nearby river.

Coal mining disasters in the remote northeastern part of India are not uncommon.

India names rocket scientist Narayanan as new space agency chief (Reuters)

Reuters [1/7/2025 10:44 PM, Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Kanjyik Ghosh, 63029K, Positive]
India appointed rocket scientist V. Narayanan as the new head of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the government said on Tuesday, a key role as India works to become a space superpower.

Narayanan takes over from S. Somanath, who became chairman in 2022 and has been credited with making the 54-year-old space agency more approachable and opening it up to engage with the next generation.

Narayanan, who has worked on the key rocket launches such as ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle and led the centre that designs and develops liquid propulsion systems for the agency, will take over on Jan. 14 for a two-year term.

Narayanan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The $400 billion global commercial space market is expected to be worth $1 trillion by 2030. India wants to expand its share in the global space market and grab a $40 billion slice of the pie by 2040, the federal government has said.

NSB

Bangladesh’s ailing former premier Khaleda Zia leaves country to undergo medical treatment in London (AP)

AP [1/7/2025 3:15 PM, Julhas Alam, 47097K, Negative]
Bangladesh’s ailing former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia left the nation’s capital for London on Tuesday for medical treatment, said one of her advisers.

Zahiruddin Swapan, an adviser to Zia, told The Associated Press by phone that the three-time former premier and head of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party left Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport late Tuesday on an air ambulance.

“Our senior leaders left the airport seeing her off,” Swapan said.

Her ailments include liver cirrhosis, cardiac disease and kidney problems, according to her physician.

Zia left behind a South Asian nation grappling with uncertainty over its political future after her archrival, former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, was ousted in a student-led mass uprising in August. Zia and Hasina are the most influential political leaders in Bangladesh.

An interim government headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus is running the country and plans to hold elections in December this year or in the first half of 2026.

Zia was sentenced to 17 years in jail under Hasina’s rule following two corruption cases stemming from 2001-2006 when she was prime minister. Her supporters say the charges against her were politically motivated, an allegation Hasina’s administration denied. Under Yunus, Zia was acquitted in one of the cases in November and an appeal in the second case was being heard on Tuesday.

Zia, 79, was freed from prison on bail under Hasina through a government order and had been undergoing medical treatment in Bangladesh. But Hasina’s administration did not allow her to travel abroad for treatment despite requests seeking approval.

The special air ambulance was sent by Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani. Hundreds of her supporters gathered outside her residence in the city’s upscale Gulshan area to see her off.

Zia’s motorcade took nearly three hours to cross about a 10-kilometer (6-mile) stretch of road to get to the airport from her residence in Dhaka’s Gulshan area as thousands of her desperate supporters greeted her on the way, creating traffic chaos. Her hours-long journey to the airport was broadcast live by television stations.

Enamul Haque Chowdhury, a close aide of Zia, told reporters that the air ambulance had arrived from Doha to take her to London, where her eldest son and heir apparent Tarique Rahman has been in exile since 2007. Rahman is the acting chairman of Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party and is expected to lead the party toward the election. The country’s dynastic politics have long focused on the families of Hasina and Zia.

Zia is the wife of late President Ziaur Rahman, a former military chief. He rose to prominence during years of tumultuous politics after Hasina’s father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the country’s independence leader, was assassinated along with most of his family members in a military coup in 1975. Zia’s husband was also killed in 1981 in another military coup after he formed his political party and ruled the country as president for three years. Hasina’s father led Bangladesh’s independence war against Pakistan, aided by India, in 1971.

Zia’s personal physician, A.Z.M. Zahid Hossain, said Qatar’s emir arranged the special aircraft with medical facilities for the former prime minister, whose ailments include liver cirrhosis, cardiac disease and kidney problems.

Her departure follows dramatic political developments since last August, when Hasina’s 15-year rule ended. Hasina fled into exile in India as she and her close aides faced charges of killing hundreds of protesters during a mass protest movement that began in July.

Zia’s departure could create a symbolic vacuum in the country’s politics amid efforts by a student group that led the anti-Hasina protest to form a new political party. In the absence of Hasina and her secular Bangladesh Awami League party, the rise of Islamist political parties and other Islamist groups has been visible in the Muslim-majority country of 170 million people.

Zia’s party has been bargaining with the Yunus-led government for an election sometime this year. Yunus said his government wants to make some major reforms before the election.

Ailing Bangladeshi ex-PM flown to London for treatment (Agence France-Presse)

Agence France-Presse [1/7/2025 10:26 PM, Staff, 63029K, Negative]
Ailing former Bangladeshi premier Khaleda Zia has flown to London for long-sought medical treatment, a party spokesman said, months after a student-led revolution ousted a government that had prevented her from travelling abroad.

Zia, 79, served as prime minister of the South Asian nation twice but was jailed for corruption in 2018 during the tenure of Sheikh Hasina, her successor and lifelong rival.

Hasina’s toppling and exile to neighbouring India after the August revolt against her autocratic government prompted Zia’s release from house arrest.

Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) spokesman Zahir Uddin Swapan confirmed her departure shortly before midnight on Tuesday.

Zia was seen leaving her residence in a car for the airport in the capital Dhaka, where she departed on a chartered flight provided by the Emir of Qatar.

State news agency Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha quoted her doctors as saying that her treatment in London was expected to take a few months.

Zia has been in declining health for years, is confined to a wheelchair with rheumatoid arthritis, and also suffers from diabetes and cirrhosis of the liver.

Hasina’s government consistently refused requests for Zia to travel abroad for treatment after her conviction.

She has barely been seen in public since her release. Her last appearance was at an event to mark Armed Forces Day in November, where she appeared frail.

AZM Zahid Hossain, Zia’s personal physician and a member of the BNP’s standing committee, said she may also receive treatment at the Johns Hopkins University Hospital in the United States after her stay in London.

"A three-member team from Johns Hopkins treated her in 2023 and recommended a liver transplant there," he told reporters.

London is also the adopted home of her son Tarique Rahman, who has lived abroad since 2008 after fleeing his own set of convictions on corruption and other offences.

Tarique has had several of his convictions quashed since Hasina’s ouster and he is widely expected to return to his home country to lead the BNP to fresh elections slated for next year.

Bangladesh to Probe Hasina’s Niece, UK City Minister Tulip Siddiq (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg [1/7/2025 11:37 AM, Arun Devnath, 21617K, Neutral]
Bangladesh’s anti-money laundering agency requested information on the domestic bank accounts of UK City Minister Tulip Siddiq, who’s also the niece of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, a potential precursor to a broader financial investigation.

The Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit’s inquiry extends to Siddiq’s immediate family members, including her mother Sheikh Rehana, as well as Hasina, according to a notice issued by the BFIU and seen by Bloomberg News. An official familiar with the development, who did not wish to be named discussing a sensitive matter, confirmed the contents of the notice.

Siddiq has been under intense scrutiny after a series of revelations in the British press about her receipt and use of properties connected to Hasina, who was ousted in a student-led mass uprising in early August. The link with Hasina’s government is controversial because her Awami League party has been accused of siphoning funds out of Bangladesh’s banking system, charges they deny.

Siddiq — whose role includes overseeing the financial industry and tackling corruption within it — has referred herself to the UK government’s standards watchdog. She has acted “entirely properly” by doing so, Prime Minister Keir Starmer told reporters on Monday, saying that he retains conference in the minister.

Mostakur Rahman, a director at the anti-money laundering agency, didn’t respond to phone calls for comment. The UK Treasury didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Bangladesh’s banks have been directed to provide comprehensive data, including transaction details and account opening forms, within five days.

Bangladesh authorities seek Siddiq account details (BBC)

BBC [1/7/2025 1:32 PM, Joe Pike, 57114K, Negative]
Bangladesh’s anti-money laundering agency has asked the country’s banks for details of accounts and transactions linked to Treasury minister Tulip Siddiq.

The Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) is also seeking details related to Siddiq’s sister, brother, mother as well as her aunt Sheikh Hasina, the country’s former prime minister.

It comes after Siddiq was named last month in an investigation into claims Sheikh Hasina and her family embezzled up to £3.9bn from infrastructure spending in Bangladesh.

A spokesperson for Tulip Siddiq said: "No evidence has been presented for these allegations. Tulip has not been contacted by anyone on the matter and totally refutes the claims.".

Allies of Siddiq insist she has no bank accounts outside the UK, and has not been contacted by the Bangladeshi authorities.

The investigation in Bangladesh is based on a series of allegations made by Bobby Hajjaj, a senior political opponent of Hasina, who fled Bangladesh last August amid deadly protests against her government.

A source close to Siddiq has previously described the allegations as "trumped up" and designed to damage her aunt.

A senior official at the BFIU told the BBC: "BFIU has issued directives to all banks and financial institutions of Bangladesh to send the information and transaction details of Sheikh Hasina, Sheikh Rehana, Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy, Hasina’s daughter Saima Wazed Putul, Rehana’s daughters Tulip Siddiq and Azmina Siddiq and Rehana’s son Radwan Mujib Siddiq Bobby and their business enterprises.".

On Monday, Siddiq referred herself to the prime minister’s standards adviser after controversy over her links to her aunt’s political movement.

Siddiq had faced growing calls for an investigation after reports in recent days she had lived in London properties linked to allies of her aunt.

In her letter to Sir Laurie Magnus, who polices standards among government ministers, she said: "I am clear that I have done nothing wrong.".

Downing Street confirmed Sir Laurie would now conduct a "fact-finding" exercise to determine if "further action" was needed, including a further investigation.

A spokesman for PM Sir Keir Starmer said the results would be made public, but did not specify a timescale for the process to conclude.

Sir Keir has said he has confidence in Siddiq, who as Economic Secretary to the Treasury is responsible for tackling economic crime, money laundering and illicit finance.

Why are millions of Bangladeshi girls quitting school? (Deutsche Welle)

Deutsche Welle [1/7/2025 8:30 AM, Alfrose Jahan, 13448K, Neutral]
Millions of girls in Bangladesh are facing an uphill battle to stay in school. For many, the COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters, and economic hardship have made this struggle even more daunting.

Born in a remote village in the country’s northeastern region, 19-year-old Zueana is the first person in her family to go to school. She benefited from "boat schools" — classrooms set up on river boats — that aim to save children from remote villages a dangerous commute during the rainy season.

During the pandemic, however, she dropped out of secondary school and moved to the capital Dhaka to make a living.

"My father never told me to stop going to school. I was studying in a boat school [run] by an NGO and studied for free. But I could not buy pen and paper to study," Zueana said. "Also, there are no higher secondary schools and colleges in my village. The transportation cost is 40 cents every day which is not possible for my father to arrange," she added.

School over with ‘nothing but debts’.

On top of those expenses, Zueana says natural disasters and climate change have also disrupted her education.

"I come from a flood-prone area," she told DW. "If it rains a lot in India then we get flooded which is getting worse over time. We left with nothing but debts that we have to repay.".

Zueana’s father is an agricultural worker and owns no land. Dreaming to break the cycle of poverty, he sent all but one of his children to school. But it was not just Zueana who stopped her education. Two of her sisters dropped out after completing primary school.

Her family followed Zueana to Dhaka and are now working in the country’s vast, albeit poorly paid and regulated, garments production sector.

Experts see ‘vast demand’ for education

Such stories are far too common in Bangladesh. Official statistics show some 8.8 million girls attended primary school at all levels in 2018. However, comparing that number to the number of girls enrolled in secondary schools in 2023 indicates that some 3.3 million stopped their education between these years. Even after adjusting this figure to account for girls attending madrasas (Islamic schools) and vocational schools, the dropout rate surpasses 35%.

This worrying trend continues despite many poorer people in Bangladesh understanding the benefits of education.

Educational expert Rasheda K Choudhury told DW that there is a "vast demand" for education in the country.

"The people who hardly live on hand to mouth, they believe that education can change their lives. Can we fulfill their demand for education? Many families cannot afford the costs associated with secondary education, including tuition, books, and transportation.".

"In rural areas, girls are often pulled out to contribute to household income," said Choudhury, executive director of Campaign for Popular Education (Campe), a coalition of NGOs.

Child marriage perpetuates the cycle of poverty

In remote regions, pupils have to contend with poor connectivity and lack of transportation, cultural barriers, and lack of safety which compound the problem and prevent children from going to school.

The issue of child marriage also has a "pervasive" impact on the dropout rate, according to AQM Shafiul Azam, the head of the planning and development sector at the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education.

"When a girl drops out and that results in child marriage and early childbirth — there is a chance of giving birth to a malnourished child who fails to benefit from education and ends up in the cycle of poverty," he said.

The World Bank data for 2022 indicated that some 7.3% of girls aged between 15 and 19 have given birth in Bangladesh.

Additionally, girls who leave school are more vulnerable to violence, abuse, and exploitation.

"Women with less education or no education do not have the courage like an educated girl to fight for justice or continue the burden of legal cost for justice," education expert Rasheda said.

What can be done to help girls stay in school?

To improve the education of Bangladeshi girls, experts recommend safe transportation, safe spaces for girls, separate dormitories, and campaigns to tackle violence against women.

Rasheda K Choudhury from Campe highlights the importance of investing in education.

"Many families cannot afford the costs associated with secondary education, including tuition, books, and transportation. Poverty, child marriage, and cultural barriers further exacerbate the issue," she said.

In turn, AQM Shafiul Azam points to partnerships with development organizations that aim to keep girls in school. He said authorities were trying to "change socially constructed beliefs including sharing the responsibility of household chores" and the impact of child marriage, among other issues.

"We are increasing awareness in the society about the importance of women’s contribution in economic boost and overall a better future of Bangladesh," he said.

Other nations facing similar issues have already charted a path that could be used in Bangladesh. In Nigeria, a project named "Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment" provided scholarships to half a million girls with poor backgrounds.

There are also international initiatives like the program championed by Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, the Malala Fund Education Champion Network, or various large projects funded by the World Bank which aim to keep girls in schools.

With safe classrooms, scholarships, community involvement and skill development programs, Bangladesh could work toward ensuring a better future for girls like Zueana.

Deflation to Provide ‘Respite’ to Sri Lankans, Says Governor (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg [1/8/2025 3:38 AM, Anusha Ondaatjie, 5.5M, Neutral]
A deflationary environment in Sri Lanka is expected to continue in early 2025, according to the central bank governor, highlighting a change in scenario for the South Asian nation that had struggled with high prices during an unprecedented economic crisis.

The country’s inflation is projected to converge to the target level of 5% during the second half of the year, as economic activity picks up with relaxed monetary policy conditions, Central Bank of Sri Lanka Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe said in the monetary policy roadmap on Wednesday.

“We believe this temporary period of deflation could provide some respite to the general public by damping or managing the cost of living,” that had been driven up in the past, Weerasinghe said. Sri Lanka has undershot its inflation target since March and recorded deflation from September.

READ: Sri Lanka to Present Report on Inflation Falling Below Target

In the meantime, the central bank will “maneuver interest rates to ensure that inflation is kept low and stable with the view to promote overall public welfare,” Weerasinghe said.

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka in November set its new single benchmark interest rate at 8%, replacing an earlier system of two gauges under which the monetary authority slashed rates by 725 basis points since an easing cycle that started in April 2023.

Weerasinghe said the country’s economic growth in 2024 is expected at 5%. Sri Lanka’s economy grew 5.5% in the third quarter, after expanding 4.7% in the April-June period.

Sri Lanka has lately managed to find some balance after suffering an economic meltdown in 2022. Funds from the International Monetary Fund have helped stabilize the island nation’s economy and conclusion of its $12.6 billion debt restructuring will ensure further aid keeps flowing.

On Dec. 23, Moody’s Ratings upgraded Sri Lanka’s credit rating, following a similar move by Fitch, noting the nation’s reduced external vulnerability and liquidity risk.

“The central bank will continue to ensure price stability, safeguard financial stability and support the economy to reach its potential” Weerasinghe said. “Achieving long-term stability requires the commitment to pursue necessary economic reforms.”

Sri Lanka c. bank to focus on stronger crisis recovery in 2025 (Reuters)

Reuters [1/8/2025 4:03 AM, Uditha Jayasinghe, 5.2M, Neutral]
Sri Lanka will focus on stronger recovery this year after the island nation posted real GDP growth of 5% in 2024, the highest in seven years, its central bank chief said on Wednesday, hoping to accelerate a rebound from its worst financial crisis in decades.

Sri Lanka’s economy crumpled under a severe foreign exchange crisis in 2022, but has posted a faster than expected rally after it secured a $2.9 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) program in March 2023 and completed a $25 billion debt restructuring in December.

The economy grew 5.2% in the first nine months of 2024, outstripping the 3% estimate by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL), Governor P. Nandalal Weerasinghe said.

"Achieving a transformative acceleration in growth trajectory is essential to catch up and enhance the growth potential. This would also help enhance the debt-carrying capacity of the country," he said at a annual policy agenda launch.

Taking advantage of lower inflation, which reached minus 1.7% in December, Sri Lanka’s central bank set a new single policy rate of 8%, easing monetary settings below previously used benchmarks and setting the stage for stronger private sector credit growth, Weerasinghe added.

Inflation is expected to reach positive territory in mid-2025, after which CBSL will focus on maintaining a 5% inflation rate.

CBSL will also strengthen monetary policy forecasting, continue to improve its reserve buffers under the IMF program, and introduce a benchmark spot exchange rate in 2025. Weerasinghe said.

Sri Lanka will continue recapitalisation of banks, consolidate large finance companies, and review the Statutory Reserve Ratio (SRR) of 2% to increase financial system stability, the Governor added.

With eyes on China and India, Sri Lanka lifts ban on foreign research vessels (South China Morning Post)

South China Morning Post [1/8/2025 3:12 AM, Maria Siow, 9.4M, Neutral]
Sri Lanka is reversing a year-long ban on foreign research vessels in its waters, opting instead to draft new protocols that aim to balance India’s security concerns with China’s growing presence in the Indian Ocean.

The moratorium, which expired on December 31, was introduced in late 2023 after New Delhi raised alarms about the Chinese research vessel Shi Yan 6 that conducted a joint maritime survey with Sri Lanka’s maritime agency.

While the ban temporarily eased tensions with India, Colombo’s decision to let the restriction lapse signals a shift towards managing maritime issues through regulations rather than outright prohibition.

Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath confirmed late last month that a committee was working on new standard operating procedures for granting clearance to foreign research vessels and aircraft. The guidelines would consider international best practices and national security concerns alongside the country’s national interests, Herath said.

But the move raises questions about Colombo’s ability to navigate the competing agendas of its two most influential partners.

Frédéric Grare, a senior research fellow at the Australian National University’s National Security College, described Sri Lanka’s approach as an attempt “to be as non-aligned as possible”.

“But until the specifics of the new standards have been decided and made public, it is difficult to assess the extent to which China will be able to operate in Sri Lankan waters and therefore how much of a threat it is for India,” he said.

Grare believes Colombo is likely to draft its rules in a way that minimises friction with Delhi, noting that common standards could make it easier to manage relations with both India and China.

Sankalp Gurjar, an assistant professor at the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics in Pune, echoed this sentiment.

“Sri Lanka wants to avoid being caught in the India-China rivalry,” Gurjar said, noting Indian suspicions that Chinese research vessels might be spy ships.

“For Sri Lanka, there are no easy answers,” he said. Historical partner India provided more than US$4 billion in economic help during the South Asian island nation’s recent financial crisis. Yet China remains a powerful ally, accounting for 11.9 per cent of Sri Lanka’s foreign trade in 2023.

“Sri Lanka does not want to alienate Beijing, therefore it is attempting to find a middle ground,” Gurjar added.

Chennai-based policy analyst and political commentator N. Sathiya Moorthy sees Sri Lanka’s decision as a step towards asserting its sovereignty and deciding for itself which ships are allowed in its waters.

Still, concerns linger over the implications of China’s activities in the region, particularly regarding seabed mining. Moorthy warned that Chinese companies could use research data to secure international approvals for mining operations in Sri Lankan waters, adding that Colombo should prioritise working with India instead of “distant China” for logistical reasons.

Even during the moratorium, Sri Lanka allowed exceptions. A German research vessel docked at the Port of Colombo last year, prompting questions from the Chinese embassy. Sri Lanka clarified that the ban applied only to research, not “replenishment”, and that the German vessel did not conduct studies in its waters.

That incident highlights the complexities of enforcing such a ban and underscores why Colombo is prioritising a standardised approach moving forward.

“It also implies that Sri Lanka would be willing to extend a similar facility to China,” Moorthy said.

When asked about the timeline for the new protocols – described by local commentators as “reinventing the wheel” – Foreign Minister Herath said they would be completed “in a short period”, assuring reporters that no foreign vessels would arrive in Sri Lankan waters before the rules were finalised.

Meanwhile, Japan has stepped in to bolster Sri Lanka’s oceanographic capabilities. During the moratorium, Tokyo finalised plans to provide Colombo with a vessel equipped with underwater sonar to detect other ships.

This technology will help “Colombo to avoid the temptation of depending on any Chinese research vessel to study its seabed for minerals”, Moorthy said.

During a visit to India last month, Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged to enhance cooperation on surveying and charting the ocean.

Sri Lanka’s predicament is closely watched by other nations caught in the crosshairs of global power struggles.

“Other smaller countries that are caught in the great power politics will also be carefully watching what Sri Lanka does and how it finds a way out,” Gurjar said.

Central Asia

China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway officially launched, but sidetracked at least until summer (EurasiaNet)

EurasiaNet [1/7/2025 4:14 PM, Staff, 57.6K, Neutral]
After a long search to line up financing, officials from China, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan have signed an investment agreement to build a railway that could reduce costs and cut transit times for Westward-bound freight rail traffic. But it is still going to be years before the first freight train rolls on the new route, and the route’s profit potential remains uncertain.

In his New Year’s address, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov, long the railway’s most ardent proponent, portrayed the route as an economic game-changer for the Central Asian nation, casting the project as a catalyst for economic growth in a variety of areas.

“This path will provide new opportunities for the entire region, strengthen the economy and improve the lives of millions of people,” the Trend news agency quoted Japarov as saying. “Special attention will be paid to the opening of industrial enterprises, the creation of new jobs and the increase of the population’s income. The social sphere will reach a new level.”

The new route would stretch roughly 300 miles, connecting Kashgar in China to Andijan in Uzbekistan via points in Kyrgyzstan. Kyrgyzstan’s difficulty in financing its section of the project, along with China’s reluctance to open its purse for Bishkek, had presented the biggest obstacles for the project. A railway company established by the three participating states will oversee construction of the almost 200-mile-long Kyrgyz segment, currently projected to take six years.

Top officials from the three states participated in a ceremonial launch of the project December 27 near the city of Jalal-Abad in southern Kyrgyzstan. “The construction of the railway demonstrates China’s commitment to aligning its development with the interests of other countries to foster a win-win situation through greater openness,” the website of China’s State Council quoted Zhong Feiteng, an expert at the Chinese National Institute of International Strategy, as saying.

Whether the railway can match the Kyrgyz president’s rosy vision remains an open-ended question. While all sides report that financing is in place, specifics about amounts and terms are hard to come by. Though the launch ceremony has already been held, construction on the Kyrgyz segment is not slated to begin until July, according to official Chinese sources. Whether construction sticks to that timetable will be an important indicator of China’s commitment to seeing the project through.

If completed, the railway would create a more direct connection to China for Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Currently, rail traffic to/from China must transit through Kazakhstan.

Both Kyrgyz and Uzbek officials and experts see the railway’s primary purpose as expanding trade with the Middle East and Europe. “This will make Central Asia more important in the global supply chain,” said Ravshan Nazarov, an expert affiliated with Uzbekistan’s Academy of Sciences.

Beijing also hopes the route will boost Chinese exports to Europe. But even if it does not fulfill those hopes, China can still benefit: the railway is expected reduce transit times for Chinese imports of Central Asian foodstuffs and raw materials.

“Our coal imports from Kyrgyzstan will see a significant surge in quantity, while the transport cost will be cut by a third,” Jiang Zhidong, who heads the Kashgar-based Xinjiang Jiujiuxi International Trade Co., told official Chinese media.

The China-Kyrgyz-Uzbek railway will likely face stiff competition from Kazakhstan, which currently acts as the chief node for East-West trade via the emerging Middle Corridor. In the coming years, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokaev has promised that the country will refurbish almost 7,000 miles of existing track and build more than 3,000 miles of new rail routes to enable Middle Corridor trade growth.

Is Uzbekistan the next great architectural destination? (CNN)

CNN [1/7/2025 10:50 PM, Anne Quito, 22417K, Positive]
Driving through Tashkent feels like flipping through an architecture picture book teeming with examples of Soviet brutalist, orientalist, modernist, futurist and neoclassical styles. One marvel after another, buildings in Uzbekistan’s capital city whiz by like a carousel for design lovers.

After an earthquake leveled much of its infrastructure in 1966, Tashkent became a laboratory of urbanism. Architects arrived en masse to rebuild roads, apartment blocks, hotels, theaters, shopping malls, metro stations and a panoply of public structures that offered different takes on progressive socialist living.

Today, new landmarks designed by the firms of "starchitects" such as the late Zaha Hadid and Tadao Ando are in the works, as well as an "Olympic City" comprising five state-of-the-art sports venues for the 2025 Asian Youth Olympic Games. Beyond the capital, the cities of Bukhara, Samarkand and Khiva contain an array of ancient "toki" (domed markets), "madrasa" (schools) and "caravanserai" (inns) built for traders who traversed the Silk Road.

Now, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s government is pouring resources into highlighting this rich architectural legacy as part of a campaign to open the former USSR republic to the world. Conservation work on its historic sites is a top priority.

"By preserving and restoring these unique architectural treasures, we position Uzbekistan as a global cultural destination," said Gayane Umerova, chairperson of the Uzbekistan Art & Culture Development Foundation (ACDF) in a statement to CNN. The investment, she added, will be paid off "through increased tourism revenue, job creation, urban revitalization, and cultural branding, as well as preserving and reimagining our heritage in this new era.".

Loving and loathing brutalism

Reimagining a collective identity is something of a preoccupation for a nation that only gained its independence from the USSR in 1991. Within Uzbekistan, where 60% of the population is under 30 years old, not everyone is particularly enamored with vestiges of its Soviet past. Young Uzbeks often opt to live in Western-style apartments and point to the gleaming towers in the international business district, including the sprawling Tashkent City Mall, as points of pride. Inevitably, generic glass-and-steel modernity sometimes buts against preservationists’ agendas. The demolition of the iconic Dom Kino cinema house — to make way for a business park — in 2017, in particular, spurred heritage advocates to action.

Over the past three years, ACDF has held 10 exhibitions in 10 countries, including shows at Paris’ Louvre Museum and the Milan Triennale. It has also convened conferences (one of which was headlined by celebrated Dutch architecture theorist Rem Koolhaas and another featured experts from UNESCO, the Guggenheim, Venice Heritage and the British Council), developed a "Tashkent Modernism" app, and commissioned a meticulously researched 900-page book titled "Tashkent Modernism XX/XXI.".

Getting influential voices outside of Uzbekistan to rally behind unloved local treasures has, historically, proven to be effective, according to Ekaterina Golovatyuk, a Milan-based architect, researcher and co-editor of "Tashkent Modernism.".

"Nobody really cared about Soviet modernism until that book by Frédéric Chaubin," she said, referring to the hugely popular coffee-table book "CCCP: Cosmic Communist Constructions," a 2011 architectural survey of 14 former Soviet republics published by Taschen. French photographer Chaubin’s travelogue, she said, spurred architectural expeditions like Canadian photographer Christopher Herwig’s catalog of Soviet bus stops and Garage Museum’s Soviet modernism guidebook series. "People … started saying, ‘If somebody is traveling from so far away and actually covering it in such a regional way, that must mean something. We might have been underestimating the relevance of this,’" Golovatyuk added.

Social media influencers who introduce their followers to Uzbekistan’s under-the-radar wonders are helping, too. "It gives visibility to this architecture and transforms it into some sort of cultural and artistic product — something that you don’t perceive when you walk past it every day in the city," Golovatyuk said.

Sustainable architecture lab

Amid the current construction boom, Uzbekistan is again serving as a magnet for progressive building ideas, just as it did in the 1960s and 1970s. This time, however, the most consequential issue is sustainability.

Wael Al Awar, the Lebanese architect co-curating the Uzbekistan’s inaugrual Bukhara Biennial, says the country’s ancient cities are teeming with green solutions. Buildings are responsible for almost 40% of global carbon emissions, and Al Awar points to the "standardization and globalization in architecture" as a culprit, adding that contemporary concrete buildings have also resulted in a homogenization of the world’s skylines. "Uzbekistan’s structures, in contrast, are contextual," he said "They’re made by local communities who know the weather and the climate, and respond to that when they build. This is something we’ve lost.".

Most ancient buildings in Uzbekistan are naturally energy-efficient, according to Takhmina Turdialieva, co-founder of the Tashkent-based collective, Tatalab, referring to the historic public buildings and dwellings found in Uzbekistan’s Silk Road cities. "It’s very pleasant in the summer and (buildings stay) warm during the winter because of the choice of construction materials and well-designed air circulation. If we learn those passive design methods, we don’t need any new technologies to make buildings more sustainable," she said.

"Modern architecture in Uzbekistan should be based on traditional construction materials like brick and clay," she added. "We can express different designs with those eco-friendly materials and keep traditions in mind. I think this is how we express modern Uzbek," she says.

This new vision of modernity is taking shape in New Tashkent City, a 20,000-hectare extension of Uzbekistan’s capital that posits to become a locus of sustainable design ideas. Zaha Hadid Architects’ winning design for the Alisher Navoi International Scientific Research Centre, for instance, uses locally made bricks to achieve the firm’s signature avant-garde swooping structures.

Turdialieva, who also leads the Young Architect’s Association of Uzbekistan, adds that a global spotlight on Uzbek design could help invigorate the country’s next generation of architects. "Maybe this will be a starting point when more attention will be paid to local architects so they can better develop their potential," she said.

Indo-Pacific

Tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan escalate amid border clashes (Washington Post)

Washington Post [1/8/2025 2:00 AM, Rick Noack, Haq Nawaz Khan, and Shaiq Hussain, 6.9M, Negative]
When Kabul fell to the Afghan Taliban in 2021, the head of Pakistan’s intelligence service was one of the first foreign guests to visit the new regime, telling reporters that “everything will be okay.” But less than 3½ years later, relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have dramatically deteriorated.

In the most severe confrontation between the countries so far, Pakistani airstrikes killed 46 people in eastern Afghanistan in late December, according to the Afghan government. Pakistani officials said the strikes targeted militants of the Pakistani Taliban. The Afghan government said women and children were among the victims of the strikes.

The cross-border escalation reflects growing frustration in Islamabad over the rise in deadly attacks carried out inside Pakistan and attributed to the Pakistani Taliban. Islamabad claims that the group is being sheltered by the Afghan Taliban regime.

Tensions remained high over the past few days, with a cross-border attack from Afghanistan late last month and reports of renewed fighting along the border Friday.

“This is the time to act together for the future of Pakistan,” Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was quoted as telling Pakistani officials Friday.

Pakistan’s leadership was frequently accused of harboring or tolerating Afghan Taliban leaders and fighters during the 20-year Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan. Now Pakistan finds itself on the other end of a very similar situation.

The victory of the Afghan Taliban over three years ago energized its Pakistani counterparts and encouraged them to embrace much of the same playbook. At the same time, the fall of Kabul flooded Pakistani weapons markets with modern firearms and night-vision goggles, giving militants an edge over local forces, according to Pakistani officials.

The Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies, an Islamabad-based think tank, said in a report released last week that both “the frequency and intensity of terrorist attacks” has surged since the Taliban takeover of Kabul in 2021, reaching levels last year that had not been seen in a decade.

Between 2007 and 2015, Pakistani Taliban militants shocked the world with their assassination attempt on women’s rights activist Malala Yousafzai, their brutal rule over tribal areas, and a string of devastating plots, including a school attack in 2014 that left 132 children dead.

At the time, the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban were believed to frequently collaborate. In a report last year, the United Nations’ Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team concluded that such links still exist, writing that “Taliban rank and file” and al-Qaeda militants “assisted” the Pakistani Taliban in recent cross-border attacks and supplied weapons and equipment.

In the border region, locals are convinced of such links, too. Maulana Altaf Hussain, a village elder, recalled spotting holes in the border fences after recent suspected incursions of militants from Afghanistan into Pakistan.

But in an interview last year, Qari Shoaib Bajauri, a senior Pakistani Taliban member, said the group’s intentions have evolved. Rather than targeting civilians, he said, the group has focused on its combat with Pakistani forces, which he called “a cancer for this whole region.”

Bajauri denied that the group relies on Afghan fighters, but acknowledged that its ranks include “Pakistani mujahideen who fought alongside the Afghan Taliban in Afghanistan and are now back in Pakistan.”

While some Afghan officials want to maintain cordial relations with Islamabad, the Taliban leadership now appears compelled to publicly rebuke Pakistan over its cross-border strikes in late December. Many in the ranks of the Afghan Taliban view the Pakistani Taliban as brothers in arms, and there is pressure on the regime in Kabul to publicly support the group, analysts said.

“Our people’s will is to provide protection to the people — locals and guests alike,” Khairullah Khairkhwa, the Afghan Taliban’s acting information minister, said in late December. His remarks were widely interpreted as a veiled confirmation that the Afghan government harbors Pakistani Taliban militants as “guests,” echoing the Taliban’s rationale for hosting Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda militants in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

“The Taliban wants to remove the stigma that it is being used by Pakistan,” said Afrasiab Khattak, a Pakistani Pashtun nationalist leader.

But options for the Afghan Taliban to confront Pakistan, a nuclear power with one of the world’s largest militaries, are limited.

The presence of the Pakistani Taliban “is increasingly becoming embarrassing for the Taliban authorities, who must have realized by now that the TTP cadres are misusing the ‘guest status,’” said Asif Durrani, Pakistan’s former special representative for Afghanistan, using an abbreviation for the Pakistani Taliban.

The same week that Pakistani airstrikes hit targets in eastern Afghanistan, Durrani’s successor was in Kabul for talks with Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Taliban’s acting interior minister.

“It shows that the Taliban also realizes the importance of dialogue,” said Muhammad Amir Rana, a Pakistani security analyst.

The question in Islamabad, however, is increasingly whether that view is shared across the Taliban regime. While Pakistan is believed to have had historically strong ties with Haqqani, the leader of a key faction within the regime, it is less clear how Pakistan’s messages are received among the reclusive leadership in Kandahar.

“The Haqqanis are important, no doubt,” said Rana, but they “don’t have the ability to control the dialogue or to prevail.”

Twitter

Afghanistan

UN Special Rapporteur Richard Bennett
@SR_Afghanistan
[1/7/2025 9:37 AM, 42.5K followers, 126 retweets, 250 likes]
Concerning reports from Pakistan about arrests & deportation of Afghans. I reiterate my call for protection & non-refoulement, esp. of vulnerable categories. Afghans hosted in region need better treatment. I urge all States to step up host country funding and relocation pathways.

Sara Wahedi
@SaraWahedi
[1/7/2025 12:51 PM, 97.9K followers, 310 retweets, 624 likes]
In Kandahar, Afghan women are banned from trade exhibitions showcasing goods they make, like embroidery and homemade items. Male relatives must now represent them. The Taliban’s intent is clear: to erase women entirely from public life.

Sara Wahedi
@SaraWahedi
[1/7/2025 12:52 PM, 97.9K followers, 29 retweets, 100 likes]
The Taliban’s strategy has been calculated and phased. They began by allowing women with proper hijab, then mandated face coverings, and now, a total ban on attendance. It’s slow, methodical oppression—designed to fade amidst global media fatigue, leaving Afghanistan forgotten.

Madam Frogh
@FroghWazhma
[1/7/2025 5:31 PM, 174.8K followers, 1 retweet, 3 likes]
The humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan is worse than ever. Taleban are not even paying the salaries of the civil services, services don’t exist. Economy under sanctions, banks don’t work. The UN agencies & Intl NGOs along with local partners are only support mechanism for local

Madam Frogh
@FroghWazhma
[1/7/2025 5:31 PM, 174.8K followers]
Communities. 4 million children malnourished, 28 million Afghans don’t have food daily. All because of the Taleban but they don’t care about people. Humanitarian aid is exempted from any intl’l sanction. https://press.un.org/en/2021/sc14750.doc.htm

Freshta Razbaan
@RazbaanFreshta
[1/7/2025 2:14 PM, 5.2K followers, 1 retweet, 5 likes]
Imagine fleeing everything you’ve ever known, only to end up in a place where you’re treated as a burden. Afghan refugees in Pakistan are facing unimaginable struggles—arrests, deportations, and an overwhelming sense of uncertainty about their future. These are people, families, children, who once dreamed of safety but now find themselves clinging to hope in the harshest of circumstances. We owe them more than just pity; we owe them action, compassion, and dignity. The world must come together to ensure their safety, provide resources, and offer pathways to a life of peace and stability. They’ve already lost too much—let’s not take away what little hope they have left.

Jahanzeb Wesa
@Jahanzeb_Wesa
[1/7/2025 3:53 PM, 5.3K followers, 3 retweets, 8 likes]
Donald Trump slams billions in aid to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, calling it ‘unacceptable’ and demanding it stop. He blames the U.S. withdrawal for damaging America’s global credibility. #Afghanistan #Trump #SkyNews #Women

Jahanzeb Wesa
@Jahanzeb_Wesa
[1/7/2025 1:37 PM, 5.3K followers, 75 retweets, 80 likes]
Reports from Kandahar: Afghan women are banned from trade exhibitions showcasing their handmade goods like embroidery. Male relatives now represent them. The Taliban continues its push to erase women from public life. #FreeAfghanAfghanistan #WomensRights

Pakistan

Shehbaz Sharif
@CMShehbaz
[1/7/2025 4:28 AM, 6.7M followers, 340 retweets, 1.2K likes]
I extend my heartfelt condolences to President Xi Jinping and the brotherly people of China for the loss of precious lives in the devastating earthquake in Xizang, China. The entire Pakistani nation is deeply saddened by the tragedy. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims, their families, and all those affected. Pakistan stands in solidarity with the people of China during this difficult time.

Government of Pakistan
@GovtofPakistan
[1/7/2025 9:13 AM, 3.1M followers, 10 retweets, 16 likes]
Pakistan Telecom Sector 2024: A Year of Growth, Connectivity and Global Recognition From record-breaking telecom revenues to enhanced connectivity, from improved broadband speeds to its penetration, Pakistan is making waves in digital transformation. #DigitalConnectivity

Government of Pakistan
@GovtofPakistan
[1/7/2025 6:56 AM, 3.1M followers, 7 retweets, 28 likes]
Islamabad: Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif chairs the Federal Cabinet Meeting.

Dipanjan R Chaudhury
@DipanjanET
[1/7/2025 7:59 AM, 5.8K followers, 2 likes]
Islamabad’s strategic pivot to Dhaka: Pakistan intensifies engagement with Bangladesh after regime change across sectors, fuels suspicion of its role in “revolution”. Dhaka cancels training prog for officers in India — My report @ETPolitics https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/pakistan-intensifies-engagement-with-bangladesh-after-regime-change-fuels-geopolitical-speculation/articleshow/117025517.cms

India

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[1/7/2025 7:38 AM, 104.6M followers, 3K retweets, 18K likes]
Tomorrow and the day after, I will be in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha to attend key programmes. These include the inauguration and laying of foundation stones for various development works in Visakhapatnam and the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in Bhubaneswar. https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2090664

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[1/7/2025 7:38 AM, 104.6M followers, 669 retweets, 1.7K likes]
I look forward to being among the people of Visakhapatnam to inaugurate key works linked to green energy, renewable energy, infrastructure and more. It is a matter of great joy that the foundation stone for the NTPC Green Energy Limited Green Hydrogen Hub Project will be laid, making it the first such hub under the National Green Hydrogen Mission.

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[1/7/2025 7:38 AM, 104.6M followers, 583 retweets, 1.5K likes]
Other projects include the foundation stone laying for a Bulk Drug Park in Anakapalli district and Krishnapatnam Industrial Area (KRIS City) under Chennai Bengaluru Industrial Corridor in Tirupati District.

Dr. S. Jaishankar
@DrSJaishankar
[1/8/2025 1:50 AM, 3.3M followers, 44 retweets, 342 likes]
Delighted to inaugurate the Youth Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in Bhubaneswar today along with CM @MohanMOdisha, Cabinet colleague Minister @mansukhmandviya, Union Ministers @KVSinghMPGonda, @PmargheritaBJP & @khadseraksha and Newsweek CEO @DevPragadNW . The customary conclave of our younger generation as part of the #PBD celebrations is a testimony to their vital role and significant contribution in the building of a Viksit Bharat and IN’s global image. #PravasiBharatiyaDivas #Odisha #PBD2025

Dr. S. Jaishankar
@DrSJaishankar
[1/7/2025 9:49 AM, 3.3M followers, 610 retweets, 7.6K likes]
Impressed by the Konark Eco Retreat Park. Will surely help promote tourism. #PBD2025 #Odisha #IndiasBestKeptSecret

Dr. S. Jaishankar
@DrSJaishankar
[1/7/2025 9:26 AM, 3.3M followers, 277 retweets, 2.4K likes]
Joined the inauguration of Mukteswar Dance Festival this evening. Celebrating Odissi dance, the Festival is a cultural and spiritual delight for our Pravasis who have come to Odisha. #PBD2025 #Odisha #IndiasBestKeptSecret

Dr. S. Jaishankar
@DrSJaishankar
[1/7/2025 7:32 AM, 3.3M followers, 269 retweets, 2.1K likes]
Visited the Dhauli Shanti Stupa. The message of peace & harmony is particularly important in a volatile world. Also saw the historic rock edicts of Emperor Ashoka with its the message of compassion towards all. #PBD2025 #Odisha #IndiasBestKeptSecret

Dr. S. Jaishankar
@DrSJaishankar
[1/7/2025 7:10 AM, 3.3M followers, 423 retweets, 3.5K likes]
Great to visit the Raghurajpur Arts village. #18PBD is an apt occasion to showcase the rich and diverse arts & crafts of Odisha. Hope our Pravasis will also visit and appreciate our heritage and traditions. #PBD2025 #Odisha #IndiasBestKeptSecret

Richard Rossow
@RichardRossow
[1/7/2025 10:17 AM, 29.7K followers, 7 retweets, 17 likes]
U.S.-India goods trade has basically stalled out at around $125b-$135b for the last two years.

Brahma Chellaney
@Chellaney
[1/7/2025 10:29 PM, 269.2K followers, 152 retweets, 345 likes]
The powerful earthquake near Tibet’s borders with India and Nepal highlights the fact that China’s super-dam project next to the international boundary represents a ticking water bomb for downstream communities in India. My column: https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/5068380-chinas-new-super-dam-carries-both-geopolitical-and-environmental-risks/

Dipanjan R Chaudhury
@DipanjanET
[1/7/2025 9:03 AM, 5.8K followers, 1 like]
First NSA level dialogue as decided by 2 PMs: India, Malaysia agree to explore to enhance cooperation in critical minerals, rare earth & defence industry & maritime security — My report @ETPolitics @ETDefence — https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/foreign-trade/india-malaysia-agree-to-explore-to-enhance-cooperation-in-critical-minerals/articleshow/117027051.cms

NSB

The President’s Office, Maldives
@presidencymv
[1/7/2025 12:26 PM, 111.6K followers, 96 retweets, 91 likes]
President Dr @MMuizzu meets with the residents of Fiyoari Island, South Huvadhu Atoll, to listen to their concerns and discuss the island’s developmental priorities. During the meeting, he outlined key initiatives, shared plans to address pressing issues, and reaffirmed his commitment to improving the community’s well-being.

The President’s Office, Maldives
@presidencymv
[1/7/2025 7:32 AM, 111.6K followers, 114 retweets, 119 likes]
President Dr @MMuizzu meets with the residents of Vaadhoo Island in South Huvadhu Atoll to understand their needs and address development priorities, highlighting the importance of collaborative solutions for a sustainable future.

The President’s Office, Maldives
@presidencymv
[1/8/2025 1:47 AM, 111.6K followers, 11 retweets, 11 likes]
President Dr @MMuizzu visits the Secretariat of the Rathafandhoo Council in South Huvadhu Atoll, touring the place, engaging with staff, and reviewing its operations. During the visit, he assessed the current condition of the place and discussed potential infrastructure improvements. Senior officials from the Council highlighted key concerns, including challenges caused by limited space, staff shortages, and resource constraints.

The President’s Office, Maldives
@presidencymv
[1/8/2025 2:46 AM, 111.6K followers, 14 retweets, 14 likes]
President Dr @MMuizzu visits the Rathafandhoo Island Health Centre in South Huvadhu Atoll, touring the facility, engaging with staff, and reviewing its operations. During the visit, he assessed the centre’s current condition. Senior officials highlighted key challenges, including limited space and staff shortages, which are affecting the quality of care provided. In his discussions with health centre officials, the President acknowledged their concerns and assured them of his commitment to exploring solutions to improve the facility and its services.

Comrade Prachanda
@cmprachanda
[1/7/2025 7:47 AM, 421.2K followers, 9 retweets, 92 likes]
I am deeply saddened to know the loss of lives in the Xizang earthquake. I extend my heartfelt condolences to families of the deceased, President HE Xi Jinping and chinese people also wish for speedy recovery of the injured.

Anura Kumara Dissanayake
@anuradisanayake
[1/8/2025 2:42 AM, 143.9K followers, 2 retweets, 20 likes]
Participated in the ‘Gem Sri Lanka - 2025’ today (08) at Cinnamon Bentota Beach Hotel. A fantastic platform with 103 booths showcasing Sri Lanka’s gem & jewellery industry, attracting buyers from across the globe. Also engaged in meaningful discussions with industry leaders.

Anura Kumara Dissanayake
@anuradisanayake
[1/7/2025 6:06 AM, 143.9K followers, 15 retweets, 145 likes]
I chaired an in-depth discussion with Finance Ministry officials on key issues: vehicle imports, withholding tax refunds for retirees, and VAT digitalization. Emphasized a balanced approach to imports, fairness in tax, and the urgent need for digital systems to enhance transparency. Sri Lanka is steadily moving towards economic recovery, and we are committed to maximizing benefits for citizens.

Central Asia

Navbahor Imamova
@Navbahor
[1/7/2025 11:27 AM, 24K followers, 3 retweets, 4 likes]
Uzbekistan’s top export products in 2024, according to customs office :
1. Textile
2. Food
3. Metal
4. Chemicals

{End of Report}

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