SCA MORNING PRESS CLIPS
Prepared for the U.S. Department of State
Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs
TO: | SCA & Staff |
DATE: | Friday, June 13, 2025 6:30 AM ET |
Afghanistan
Afghanistan Warns Israeli Strikes On Iran Stoke Regional Instability (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [6/13/2025 4:25 AM, Staff, 931K]
Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities on Friday condemned a wave of Israeli strikes on Iran, saying the attacks violated international law and fuelled regional insecurity.
The strikes, which left key military commanders and nuclear scientists dead, "constitute a clear violation of the fundamental principles of international law, particularly national sovereignty", Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid posted in a statement on X.
"The continuation of such tension-provoking actions has made the situation in the region even more fragile and worrying," he wrote.
He said the Taliban authorities, which do not recognise Israel, called for all stakeholders to "address this issue and prevent the spread of further insecurity and instability in the region".
The strikes have stoked fears of a full-blown war in the region and jeopardised US-Iran nuclear talks set for Sunday in Oman.
Iran is one of the few countries to have built strong diplomatic links with the Taliban authorities since they took control of Afghanistan in 2021, though Tehran has not officially recognised their government. Pakistan
Pakistan ‘Strongly Condemns’ Israeli Strikes On Iran (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [6/13/2025 3:13 AM, Staff, 931K]
Pakistan, the only Islamic country with nuclear weapons, "strongly condemned" on Friday a wave of Israeli strikes on its neighbour Iran.
The strikes, which left key military commanders and nuclear scientists dead, stoked fears of a full-blown war in the region and jeopardised US-Iran nuclear talks set for Sunday in Oman.
"Strongly condemn unjustified Israeli attacks on Islamic republic of Iran," Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar wrote on X.
He said Pakistan, which does not recognise Israel, "stands in solidarity with the Government & the people of Iran".
The foreign ministry later warned the Israeli strikes were "a serious threat to the peace, security, and stability of the entire region and beyond".
Iran and Pakistan frequently accuse each other of allowing militants to operate from their territory to carry out cross-border attacks.
Both countries have conducted deadly strikes inside each other’s territory in the border region, which is regularly shaken by violent attacks by Islamist or separatist groups. Pakistan set to hold rates as Israel-Iran conflict overshadows growth push (Reuters)
Reuters [6/13/2025 3:57 AM, Ariba Shahid, 5.2M]
Pakistan’s central bank is expected to hold its policy rate on Monday, a Reuters poll showed, as many analysts shifted their previous view of a cut in the wake of Israel’s military strike on Iran, citing inflation risks from rising global commodity prices.
Israel said on Friday it targeted nuclear facilities, ballistic missile factories and military commanders in a "preemptive strike" to prevent Tehran from building an atomic weapon.Several brokerages had initially expected a cut but revised their forecasts after the Israeli strikes sparked fears of a broader conflict. The escalating hostilities triggered a sharp spike in oil prices - a worry for Pakistan given the broader impact on imported inflation from a potentially prolonged conflict and tightening of crude supplies.
Eleven of 14 respondents in a snap poll expected the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to leave the benchmark rate unchanged at 12%. Two forecast a 100 basis-point cut and one predicted a 50 bps cut.
"There remains an upside risk of a rise in global commodity prices in light of geopolitical tensions which could mark a return to inflationary pressures," said Ahmad Mobeen, senior economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence.
"The resultant higher import bill could also threaten external sector performance and bring pressure to the exchange rate."
Inflation in the South Asian country has been declining for several months after it soared to around 40% in May 2023.
Last month, however, inflation picked up to 3.5%, above the finance ministry’s projection of up to 2%, partly due to the fading of the year-go base effects. The SBP expects average inflation between 5.5% and 7.5% for the fiscal year ending June.
The central bank paused its easing cycle in March after cumulative cuts of 1,000 basis points from a record high of 22%, and resumed it with a 100-basis-point reduction in May.
The policy meeting follows the release a tight annual budget, which saw Pakistan raise defence spending by 20% but overall expenditure was reduced by 7%, with GDP growth forecast at 4.2%.
Pakistan says its $350 billion economy has stabilised under a $7 billion IMF bailout that had helped it staved a default threat.
Some analysts are sceptical of the government’s ability to reach the growth target amid fiscal and external challenges.
Abdul Azeem, head of research at Al Habib Capital Markets, which forecast a 50-bp cut, said a lower rate could “support the GDP target of 4.2% and reduce the debt financing burden.” In A Pakistan Valley, A Small Revolution Among Women (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [6/13/2025 12:19 AM, Nisar Ali, 931K]
In a sawdust-filled workshop nestled in the Karakoram Mountains, a team of women carpenters chisel away at cabinets -- and forge an unlikely career for themselves in Pakistan.
Women make up just a fraction of Pakistan’s formal workforce. But in a collection of villages sprinkled along the old Silk Road between China and Afghanistan, a group of women-led businesses is defying expectations.
"We have 22 employees and have trained around 100 women," said Bibi Amina, who launched her carpentry workshop in 2008 at the age of 30.
Hunza Valley’s population of around 50,000, spread across mountains abounding with apricot, cherry, walnut and mulberry orchards, follow the Ismaili branch of Shiite Islam.
Ismailis are led by the Aga Khan, a hereditary position held by a family with Pakistani roots now living in Europe.
As a result, attitudes have shifted, and women like Amina are taking expanded roles.
"People thought women were there to wash dishes and do laundry," Amina said of the generation before her.
Trained by the Aga Khan Foundation to help renovate the ancient Altit Fort, Amina later used her skills to start her own business. Her carpenters are currently at work on a commission from a luxury hotel.
Only 23 percent of the women in Pakistan were officially part of the labour force as of 2024, according to data from the World Bank.
In rural areas, women rarely take on formal employment but often toil in the fields to support the family’s farming income.
In a Gallup poll published last year, a third of women respondents said their father or husband forbade them from taking a job, while 43.5 percent said they had given up work to devote themselves to domestic tasks.
Cafe owner Lal Shehzadi spearheaded women’s restaurant entrepreneurship in Hunza.
She opened her cafe at the top of a winding high street to supplement her husband’s small army pension.
Sixteen years later, her simple set-up overlooking the valley has become a popular night-time tourist attraction. She serves visitors traditional cuisine, including yak meat, apricot oil and rich mountain cheese.
"At the start, I used to work alone," she said. "Now, 11 people work here and most of them are women. And my children are also working here."
Following in Shehzadi’s footsteps, Safina quit her job to start her own restaurant around a decade ago.
"No one wanted to help me," she said. Eventually, she convinced family members to sell two cows and a few goats for the money she needed to launch her business.
Now, she earns the equivalent of around $170 a month, more than 15 times her previous income.
The socio-economic progress of women in Hunza compared to other rural areas of Pakistan has been driven by three factors, according to Sultan Madan, the head of the Karakoram Area Development Organisation and a local historian.
"The main reason is the very high literacy rate," he told AFP, largely crediting the Aga Khan Foundation for funding training programmes for women.
"Secondly, agriculture was the backbone of the economy in the region, but in Hunza the landholding was meagre and that was why women had to work in other sectors."
Women’s increased economic participation has spilled into other areas of life, like sports fields.
"Every village in the valley has a women’s soccer team: Gojal, Gulmit, Passu, Khyber, Shimsal," said Nadia Shams, 17.
On a synthetic pitch, she trains with her teammates in jogging pants or shorts, forbidden elsewhere by Pakistan’s dress code.
Here, one name is on everyone’s lips: Malika-e-Noor, the former vice-captain of the national team who scored the winning penalty against the Maldives in the 2010 South Asian Women’s Football Championship.
Fahima Qayyum was six years old when she witnessed the killer kick.
Today, after several international matches, she is recruiting the next generation.
"As a girl, I stress to others the importance of playing, as sport is very good for health," she told AFP.
"If they play well, they can also get scholarships." Inside Pakistan’s War on Baloch Students (The Diplomat)
The Diplomat [6/12/2025 4:14 PM, Dilshad Baluch, 555K]
Late one March night, a group of Baloch students were startled by a forceful knock on the door of their shared flat in Islamabad’s I-10 sector. A number of men in plain clothes entered without warning or warrants. One of them instructed the others: “Humiliate these Baloch students and torture them like this.”
The harassment in Islamabad had been escalating for months. “They come late at night, enter our flat without permission, and make those remarks right in front of us,” said one student, whose name has been withheld for security reasons. “They follow us constantly in their Vigo vehicles, the kind everyone recognizes as used by state agencies. Whether we go to university or just out for tea, they follow us the entire way.”
He described one incident where two friends were followed from a café: “As soon as they reached our flat, the Vigo came right up to the building, then turned around and left.”
These are not just rare incidents. Many Baloch students living in cities like Islamabad and across Punjab face constant harassment, racial profiling, and state-led intimidation. For them, going to university has become a continuous struggle to stay safe and continue their education.
A Targeted Minority: Repression of Baloch Students Across Pakistan
Resource-rich Balochistan is home to the Baloch people, who have endured decades of political exclusion, economic hardship, and violent crackdowns by the Pakistani state. While Balochistan is widely known for enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings, far less attention is given to how this repression has extended beyond its borders into classrooms, hostels, and city streets across Pakistan.
In Punjab and Islamabad, the country’s academic and administrative centers, Baloch students face systematic targeting under the guise of national security. Accused of harboring anti-state views or links to Baloch armed organizations, they endure constant surveillance, racial profiling, public harassment, false charges, and threats of abduction.“The harassment isn’t just on the streets,” said a Baloch student from Punjab University who was recently evicted from his hostel. “Inside our classrooms, our teachers make us feel like we don’t belong. We are asked to condemn things we have no connection to. We’re made to feel like criminals simply for being Baloch.”
This repression reflects a broader institutional mindset that views Baloch identity and political expression as security threats. Enforced disappearances – secret abductions and detentions without due process – have become a common tool to instill fear and control dissent. These disappearances escalated sharply in Balochistan in the early 2000s, carried out by intelligence agencies, the army, or the Frontier Corps. Victims include activists, journalists, professionals, and most frequently, students.
The current Baloch resistance movement is stronger and more widespread, drawing in students, thinkers, and professionals. Rather than confronting Baloch armed organizations directly, state forces have chosen to punish the entire Baloch nation, with students bearing the heaviest toll. By criminalizing peaceful voices, the state has expanded its crackdown far beyond the battlefield.
This repression now extends to major urban centers. In cities like Islamabad and Lahore, Baloch students face racial profiling, surveillance, and enforced disappearances. Many are picked up from hostels or streets and held in secret detention, with some returning after torture while others never reappear. Female students are also subjected to targeted harassment on university campuses.
According to Paank, the human rights wing of the Baloch National Movement, thousands have been forcibly disappeared since February 2023, with students among the most affected. This surge followed attacks by Baloch armed organizations on Chinese and Pakistani interests. In response, state forces conducted widespread raids across the country, which rights groups describe as indiscriminate and retaliatory.
Classrooms as Interrogation Chambers
Baloch students say that university spaces now feel more like security zones than places of learning. For security reasons, the names of students quoted in this section are being withheld.
One Baloch student in Punjab said a professor asked him to condemn Baloch armed organizations. “He wanted me to say that anyone involved with Baloch armed organizations is not a real Baloch,” the student recalled. “I told him I have nothing to do with these organizations. But he got angry and said, ‘Every militant attack in Balochistan will cost you here.’”
At Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad, students say surveillance is constant. “It starts with your name,” said one. “Once they know you’re Baloch, your bags are searched, and you’re stared at in lectures. You’re seen as a threat.”
Female students also report facing discriminatory treatment in Islamabad and Punjab. After participating in the Baloch Long March Against Genocide in 2023, one Baloch female student said a warden questioned them in their hostel. “They wrote our names down, asked who had been jailed during the crackdown on Baloch marchers in Islamabad, and said we would be expelled,” she recalled. She was also told that Baloch girls would be charged higher hostel fees.
The same student described another disturbing experience. During an oral exam, she was asked, “If you were on a flight with a gun, how would you target someone?” She said it felt less like an academic question and more like an attempt to provoke or criminalize her.
Teachers have also given Baloch students failing grades due to ethnic bias. “One teacher said I looked like I’d kill people after graduating,” said a student. Another recalled being failed for wearing traditional Balochi clothes: “He [the teacher] called me uncivilized.”
These stories are part of a much larger problem. They reflect a deeper institutional issue, where education is replaced with suspicion and profiling.
The targeting of Baloch students does not stop at university gates. It continues in markets, flats, and streets. A Baloch female student at Punjab University described being stopped in a local market by state agents who asked if she was carrying a bomb in her handbag. “We came here to study, not to be treated like terrorists,” she said.
The Baloch Students Council Punjab called out what it sees as a systematic campaign. “At Punjab University, the disciplinary committee has become a platform for intelligence agencies,” said the spokesperson. “Baloch students are being evicted, forced to record videos, and harassed in the name of university rules.”
Surveillance, too, has grown more aggressive. After peacefully protesting in Islamabad for the release of Hafeez Baloch, a student from Quaid-i-Azam University was threatened at gunpoint by a rideshare driver. “You think I’m just a driver?” the driver said. “If you protest again, you’ll be abducted just like Hafeez.”
The everyday presence of such threats reflects how the state uses both formal institutions and informal proxies to maintain fear and obedience.
A Timeline of Terror
Simply existing as a Baloch student has already been dangerous in Pakistan. In August 13, 2016, Pakistani forces handed over the bodies of Gazzain Qambrani, a Baloch student leader and university student in Islamabad, and his relative Suleman Qambrani. Both had been abducted from Quetta in July 2015 and were later killed in what critics called a staged encounter.
Gazzain was not the first Baloch student to be disappeared outside of Balochistan, nor would he be the last; there has been a startling uptick in such cases in the past few years.
On February 8, 2022, Hafeez Baloch, an M.Phil physics scholar at Quaid-i-Azam University and volunteer teacher, was abducted in broad daylight from a classroom in Khuzdar, Balochistan. He had previously been harassed and threatened by military officials for refusing to spy on fellow Baloch students. Hafeez was later arrested under fabricated charges and falsely linked to Baloch armed organizations. After weeks of protests, he was acquitted and released in June 2022 due to lack of evidence.
In the months that followed Hafeez’s disappearance, multiple Baloch students across Islamabad and Punjab were similarly abducted.Dilip Baloch, a literature student at Islamia University Bahawalpur, was abducted on February 27, 2022, while traveling to Quetta. He was released two days later. Sameer Baloch, a Punjab University student, was abducted in Turbat on January 20, 2022. Two college students, Adam and Imran Baloch, residents of Hoshab, were abducted on January 21.
On April 28, 2022, a viral video showed personnel of Pakistani intelligence agencies abducting Beebagr Imdad, a literature student at National University of Modern Languages Islamabad, from the hostel of Punjab University where he was visiting his cousin Salim Baloch. He was later released after being tortured. His cousin, Salim Baloch, who petitioned for his release, was himself disappeared over a year later, on July 4, 2023, in Turbat.
Additional cases include Feroz Baloch, an education student in Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi, abducted on May 11, 2022, while on his way to the library. He remains missing. His classmate, Ahmed Khan Baloch, was abducted later from Turbat and is also still missing. Ihtesham Baloch, a biotechnology student at International Islamic University Islamabad, was abducted from Panjgur on February 3, 2022. His mutilated body was discovered hours later.
According to Paank, 151 cases of enforced disappearances were reported in April 2025 alone. In the same period, 23 individuals were extrajudicially killed, while 50 survivors of enforced disappearance were released after being subjected to severe torture. A significant number of the victims were Baloch students and young men, indicating a systematic pattern of targeting the Baloch youth through abductions, custodial torture, and killings.
On February 4, 2023, Allah Dad Baloch, an MPhil scholar from Quaid-i-Azam University and a respected literary figure, was shot dead in Turbat after previously receiving threats from Pakistani intelligence agencies. He had left his studies due to sustained harassment.
On June 4, 2024, Anees Baloch, a computer science graduate and former chairman of Baloch Students Council in Multan, was abducted in Khuzdar. He remains in illegal detention on charges from the Counter Terrorism Department, a tactic increasingly used to mask abductions as counterterrorism operations.
One of the most brazen cases occurred on October 31, 2024, when ten Baloch students from the National University of Modern Languages in Rawalpindi were abducted in a coordinated raid just before midterms. All ten were released two days later after enduring severe torture.
Most recently, on March 4, 2025, Ashfaq Baloch, a recent social work graduate from Punjab University, was abducted from his home in Kalat. His whereabouts remain unknown.
These cases reflect a brutal and systematic campaign in which Baloch students, particularly those in Punjab and Islamabad, are surveilled, harassed, disappeared, and in some cases, murdered. For every student who is released, five more go missing. No one is prosecuted for the abductions or murders, and the cycle shows no signs of slowing.
The psychological toll on survivors of enforced disappearances is often undocumented, but in some tragic cases, it becomes painfully visible.
On March 6, 2025, Sajjad Ishaq, a second-semester law student at the International Islamic University Islamabad, was abducted from I-10 Markaz, Islamabad. It was not the first time he had been targeted. Years earlier, while studying law at Quaid-i-Azam University, he had been abducted from Khuzdar.
During that first abduction, Sajjad was electrocuted, injected with sedatives, and dumped unconscious in a roadside drain after three days. He was released physically alive but psychologically devastated. He left Quaid-i-Azam University and transferred to International Islamic University, hoping to start over. But the nightmare repeated.
After being abducted again in 2025, Sajjad was subjected to similar torture. When released two days later, he was no longer the same. Friends say he now experiences sudden outbursts, faints at the sight of strangers, and lives in constant fear. He has since dropped out of university and returned to Khuzdar, a young man broken not only in body but also in spirit.
The State’s War on the Baloch Intelligentsia
What is especially disturbing is that the very students who have chosen education over the gun and pursued knowledge as a means of empowerment are being labeled as terrorists.“By targeting students, the state is trying to cut off the intellectual and political leadership of the Baloch people,” said a student leader. “They don’t want an educated Baloch youth. They want us to remain silent, illiterate, and broken.”
This repression goes beyond security concerns. It is a deliberate effort to dismantle the Baloch intelligentsia and to silence any voices of dissent, reform, or resistance before they can organize.
The damage caused by this policy extends well beyond individual lives. It is feeding a deepening sense of alienation, resentment, and disillusionment among Baloch youth. When students are abducted, humiliated, or driven out of classrooms, they begin to lose faith in the possibility of peaceful change. This is more than repression, it is a political failure that pushes youth closer to the brink.
By criminalizing peaceful students, the state is not countering insurgency; it is creating the very conditions that lead to it. Instead of investing in education, dialogue, and inclusion, the government is relying on surveillance, intimidation, and brute force – an approach that will inevitably backfire.“If you leave people with nothing to lose, can you really be surprised if they pick up arms?” asked one Baloch activist. “The state says it wants development in Balochistan, but how can you talk of development when students are being abducted, tortured, and killed?” India
Hundreds Dead in the Fiery Crash of an Air India Jet (New York Times)
New York Times [6/12/2025 4:14 PM, Suhasini Raj, Pragati K.B., Mujib Mashal, Michael Levenson and Jacob Judah, 831K]
An Air India flight bound for London crashed only seconds after takeoff in western India on Thursday, plunging into a local medical college and killing more than 260 people, officials said.
It was India’s worst aviation disaster since 1996.
Video verified by The New York Times shows the plane taking off and then descending slowly over a cluster of buildings as if it were gliding before a large fireball erupts on the horizon. It did not tumble or plunge out of the sky, and was in the air for less than a minute, the video shows.
Air India confirmed that 241 people — all but one person on the plane — were killed, and that one person, a British citizen, had survived.
A video clip circulating on Indian news outlets shows a man with injuries on his face and blood on his white shirt limping toward an ambulance, saying he came from “inside” the plane.
The crash’s sole survivor was later identified by his brother as Viswash Kumar Ramesh.“He got off the plane and he video-called my dad and said, ‘Our plane crashed — I have no idea how I got outside, or how I survived,’” the brother, Nayan Ramesh, said in an interview.
Viswash Kumar Ramesh had been traveling on the plane with another brother, Ajay Ramesh. “He was like, ‘I can’t see my brother — I can’t see any other passengers,’” Nayan Ramesh said, quoting his brother on the video call. “I don’t know how I am alive,” Nayan Ramesh said his brother added.
The jet, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner bound for London Gatwick Airport, was carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members when it crashed at 1:38 p.m. local time, just about a mile southwest of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, in the city of Ahmedabad.
A senior police official in Ahmedabad said 269 bodies had been brought to the main hospital. The official, Vishakha Dabral, cautioned that the exact toll might change after DNA testing.
Rescue personnel at the crash site, as well as doctors and security officials, said that as many as three dozen people caught in the path of the crashing plane might have been killed.
Officials at the site said the jet appeared to have skidded along the ground, damaging buildings, before it burst into flames. At least five students at B.J. Medical College were killed, according to Minakshi Parikh, the dean of college, who said the plane had hit a dining hall where 60 to 80 students had been eating lunch.“Most of the students escaped, but 10 or 12 were trapped in the fire,” she said.
Amit Shah, India’s home minister, said the plane had been carrying 125,000 liters, or 33,000 gallons, of fuel. “The temperature was so high that there was no chance to save people,” he said.
After the crash, plumes of smoke billowed from the wreckage as firefighters doused charred buildings. The ripped tail of the plane could be seen jutting out of the side of a building, and a wing lay in a road.Hundreds of police officers and emergency workers were still at the scene hours later, using heavy equipment to untangle pieces of the aircraft from a building. Medics and rescue workers said it was difficult to navigate the smoke and the rubble as they searched for bodies.
The flight, Air India 171, was carrying 169 Indian citizens, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese and one Canadian. Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India said in a statement that the crash was “heartbreaking beyond words.”
The British government said it was working with the Indian authorities to “urgently establish the facts,” and had opened a hotline for British citizens seeking information about the crash. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that scenes of the crash were “devastating.”
The United States and Britain both said they would send investigators to India. “Anything we can do, we will be over there immediately,” President Trump said at the White House.
It was not immediately clear how many flights the plane had completed, although it was built in 2013.
The crash posed yet another hurdle for Boeing, as it struggles to recover from a series of crashes and embarrassing mishaps that have plagued its 737 line of planes, jeopardizing what its new chief executive, Kelly Ortberg, had called “its turnaround year.”
And it immediately renewed scrutiny of the Dreamliner, which has been the focus of safety concerns, but had not been involved in any fatal accidents, according to the Aviation Safety Network.
In April 2024, the Federal Aviation Administration said that it was looking into claims by a Boeing engineer who said that parts of the 787 Dreamliner fuselage were improperly fastened at the company’s factory in South Carolina.
The engineer, Sam Salehpour, said that the fuselage could break apart midflight after thousands of trips. He added that large pieces came from different manufacturers, and were not exactly the same shape when they fit together. Boeing said it had done extensive testing on the Dreamliner and “determined that this is not an immediate safety-of-flight issue” and that it was “fully confident” in the plane.
Before that, Boeing had paused Dreamliner deliveries for more than a year, until the summer of 2022, when the F. A.A. approved a plan to address paper-thin gaps in the plane’s body and other concerns. Boeing said at the time that none of the problems had an immediate impact on the safety of Dreamliners.
About 1,100 Dreamliners are currently in service worldwide. Air India flies nearly three dozen of the jets, according to Cirium, an aviation data firm.
In a statement on Thursday, Mr. Ortberg expressed condolences to the families of those on the plane and “everyone affected in Ahmedabad.” He added that a Boeing team was ready to support Indian investigators.Natarajan Chandrasekaran, the chairman of Air India, said that the firm was focused on supporting the victims’ families and emergency response teams.
Officials looking into the crash will have no shortage of questions, said Greg Feith, a former investigator at the National Transportation Safety Board.“Did they properly configure the airplane when it took off?” he said. “What was occurring with them? Was there a loss of thrust? Was there fuel contamination? Fuel starvation where both engines weren’t getting fuel that would have caused a loss of thrust on both engines?”
In the video, the plane’s descent appeared to be controlled, which suggests that the pilots may have been trying to slow it down, said Ben Berman, a safety consultant who is also a former airline pilot and federal crash investigator in the United States.
Heat was another consideration. The temperature was more than 100 degrees in Ahmedabad, and hot weather makes takeoffs more difficult because engines produce less thrust and warm air is less dense, making it harder for airplanes to generate lift.
The crash came as Air India, the country’s flagship carrier, had been working to improve its safety record. Its last major crash was in 2020, when a passenger plane operated by Air India Express, a subsidiary, skidded and cracked in half on a rain-soaked runway, killing at least 17 people in the southern Indian state of Kerala.
In 2010, an Air India Express plane overshot a hilltop runway in Mangalore, in the western state of Karnataka, killing more than 150 people.
At the time, many experts expressed concerns about the safety of India’s rapidly expanding aviation sector — in 2009, there were three near-misses at the Mumbai airport — and raised questions about Air India’s professionalism.
Information about the passengers who were on the Air India plane that crashed on Thursday was just beginning to emerge. One of the them was Vijay Rupani, former chief minister of Gujarat, who led the state in western India until 2021, according to a passenger list confirmed by officials of his party.
A Muslim community group in Gloucester, England, said it was mourning the death of three others who had been on the plane — Akeel Nanabawa, his wife Hannaa and their daughter Sara. All three names appeared on a passenger manifest viewed by The Times. Grieving Relatives of India Air Crash Victims Wait for Bodies to Be Identified (New York Times)
New York Times [6/13/2025 4:14 PM, Suhasini RajMujib Mashal and Pragati K.B., 831K]
Families of the victims of India’s deadliest aviation disaster in decades lined up at the main hospital in the western city of Ahmedabad early Friday, ready to offer DNA samples that could help identify the bodies of loved ones they had seen off less than a day before.
The cruel but necessary exercise, which began hours after the crash of the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner bound for London on Thursday afternoon, continued overnight as a clearer sense of the devastation began to emerge. Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Ahmedabad, which is the capital of his home state of Gujarat, to survey the scene and visit those injured when the plane crashed into a building.
Officials say that at least 269 people died in the jet’s crash and its aftermath, cautioning that the death toll could rise as emergency teams continue to comb through the site of the devastation. In addition to 241 passengers and crew, dozens perished as they were caught in the path of a plane that began descending on the dining hall of a nearby college seconds after takeoff from a nearby airport, before exploding into flames on the ground.
Only one passenger survived and was being treated for his injuries, the airline and Indian officials have said. The details of how he survived are still patchy.
The plane was carrying 125,000 liters of fuel at the time of the crash, according to India’s home minister, Amit Shah. After returning to the ground, it skidded along, damaging buildings, before it burst into flames just about a mile southwest of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport. The intense blast and flames made rescue impossible, he said, and left the bodies so badly damaged that DNA testing was needed for basic identification.
The city’s health services on Friday morning appeared overwhelmed by that task, as they hurried to carry out hundreds of DNA tests so they could hand over the bodies to mourning families growing restless at the hospital gates.
Dr. Vijay Shah, a medical official in Ahmedabad, said more than 250 bodies had been brought to Ahmedabad Civil hospital, less than a mile from the scene of the crash. By late Friday morning, the hospital had collected DNA samples from 160 people, a doctor in the hospital’s sample collection center said. The results would come only by Saturday evening, the doctor said.
Alkesh Patel, among those waiting outside the hospital building where the DNA testing was taking place, said his 70-year-old uncle, Neelkanth Patel, was among the passengers.“He was my mother’s younger brother,” he said, as his distraught mother waited on a plastic chair next to him. “My mother is waiting to give the DNA sample.”
Just steps away, Salma Rafeek Memon, dressed in a traditional cotton salwar suit, sobbed on a bench. She had lost her nephew, killed in the plane crash along with his wife and two children. The young family had been visiting relatives in Mumbai, and was connecting through Ahmedabad on their way back to London.“This is their photo as they bid us goodbye from Mumbai,” Ms. Memon said, wiping away tears with the edge of her stole as she showed her cellphone displaying a picture of her nephew’s smiling family.
Some family members were growing impatient as the hospital gave them contradictory answers on when the bodies could be released.
Rafi Abdul Ahmed — who lost his nephew Javed Ali, along with Mr. Ali’s wife, Mariam, and the couple’s two children, aged 2 and 4 — said some hospital officials had told him it would be by evening, while others said it could take days.“We don’t know what condition the bodies are in,” he said. “They should release them quickly. They are not animals to be stored as parts.”
His nephew worked in hotel management in London, he said.“He studied hard, worked hard. That’s how he made it in London,” Mr. Ahmed said. “He had just begun to make a life for himself.”
The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner bound for London Gatwick Airport had taken off from the airport at 1:38 p.m. local time and shortly after crashed into the dining facility of a government medical college, where dozens of students were sitting for lunch. It also caused heavy damage to nearby apartment buildings where doctors and their families live.
Air accident investigators from Britain and the United States are expected to travel to India to support the investigation into the cause of disaster. ‘I Don’t Know How I Am Alive,’ Air India Crash Survivor Tells Family (New York Times)
New York Times [6/13/2025 12:25 AM, Jacob Judah, 831K]
The only passenger known to have survived the crash of Air India Flight 171 called his family in Britain moments after he emerged from the wreckage on Thursday and said he was at a loss to explain his luck.“I don’t know how I am alive,” the passenger, Viswash Kumar Ramesh, said, according to his younger brother, Nayan Ramesh, 27.
Viswash, 38, was flying back to London from Ahmedabad, India, when the plane crashed moments after taking off, killing the 241 other people on board the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. One of them was his brother Ajay.
The Ramesh family home in Leicester, England, was a scene of mourning and stunned amazement.
Outside the house, two dozen men milled about, one a dazed-looking Nayan. The door to the house was open, and inside an older woman could be seen crying and being comforted.
In India, a doctor who said he had examined Viswash, Dhaval Gameti, told The Associated Press that the former Air India passenger was “disoriented, with multiple injuries all over his body, but he seems to be out of danger.”
Later, Nayan said that the family had spoken with his brother from the hospital. “They have told him to be on bed rest, and they have switched off his phone,” he said.
Shortly after the plane crashed, Viswash, who had been on vacation, Nayan said, managed to make a video call to his father from next to the wreckage.“Our plane crashed,” he said, according to Nayan. “I have no idea how I got outside.”
He had to couple the extraordinarily good news with the extraordinary bad.“He was like: ‘I can’t see my brother. I can’t see any other passengers,’” Nayan said. “He was just in shock.”
Then he was hustled into an ambulance. More than 240 dead in India’s deadliest plane crash in decades (Washington Post)
Washington Post [6/12/2025 3:57 PM, Sahal Qureshi, Karishma Mehrotra, and Supriya Kumar, 32099K]
An Air India flight bound for London crashed shortly after taking off Thursday from the western city of Ahmedabad, the country’s deadliest air disaster in nearly three decades.The Boeing 787 Dreamliner, carrying 242 passengers and crew members, went down at around 1:30 p.m. local time, just after departing from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in the state of Gujarat.Verified CCTV footage from the runway showed the plane ascending, then leveling off, then plummeting to earth — sending clouds of fire into the sky — all in under a minute.The aircraft slammed into a dormitory at B.J. Medical College in the dense Meghani Nagar neighborhood, just as medical students were sitting down to lunch, witnesses said.“This is an accident, and nobody can stop accidents,” Home Minister Amit Shah said upon arriving in Ahmedabad.The cause of the crash was not clear. Also unclear was the full death toll. Officials said initially that all those aboard the flight were believed to be dead.Later, it emerged one passenger had miraculously survived. Vishwash Kumar was able to walk away from the crash and was recovering from his injuries at a local hospital, where he told the Hindustan Times there was a loud noise 30 seconds into the flight.“It all happened so quickly,” he told the paper. “I was scared. I stood up and ran.”More than two dozen people on the ground were also killed. Firefighters navigated a wasteland of charred vehicles, mangled metal and scorched trees. The fuselage of the plane had torn through the upper floors of the dormitory. First responders hauled hoses across smoldering debris as bystanders placed bodies onto stretchers and covered them in white sheets.“I have never seen this many dead bodies in my life,” said Mahesh Desai, a 39-year-old local who rushed to help. “It was all on fire when I came to the site.”
“The whole nation is crying,” said Musharaf Ali Gulzar, a civil defense official at the scene.At least 269 bodies had been brought to the city’s Civil Lines hospital, senior police official Vishaka Dabral told The Washington Post late Thursday.Outside the hospital, the gates to enter the postmortem room were filled with family members desperate for news of their loved ones. Nearby, Samir Sheikh, 48, sat in a daze; his son Irfan was a member of the flight’s cabin crew.“I can’t say anything,” Sheikh said.In a converted auditorium, dozens of relatives sat on benches, waiting to provide DNA samples to confirm what they already knew. Vijay Patel, 49, learned about the crash on WhatsApp and rushed to the hospital. Just hours earlier, he remembered, he had been eating samosas with his uncle, 62-year-old Ashok Lallu Bhai Patel, who was excited to visit his son in London. Now, all he can think about is the sight of the charred bodies.“I can’t bear this pain,” Patel said.The plane was carrying 169 Indians, 53 British nationals, seven Portuguese nationals and one Canadian, according to a statement from Air India. “We are actively working with the authorities on all emergency response efforts,” Campbell Wilson, the CEO of Air India, said in a video online. Later, the company released a statement saying had it confirmed 241 fatalities.It was the first crash involving Boeing’s 787, a fuel-efficient jet introduced by the company in 2009 and dubbed the Dreamliner. The jet that crashed was delivered to Air India in early 2014; it had taken off and landed more than 8,000 times, according to Cirium, a data analytics firm.There was not enough evidence yet to determine what might have caused the crash, aviation experts cautioned Thursday, but some said videos of the jet appeared to show its landing gear down and flaps up — an unusual configuration after takeoff.“It is plausible that the airplane could not climb because the flaps weren’t in the proper position and the landing gear was down,” said Jeff Guzzetti, a former Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board analyst. It was too soon to say whether pilots made an error, the plane suffered a mechanical problem or another issue arose, Guzzetti added.In the chaos, Neeta Parikh, 45, was frantically looking for her aunt and daughter, who worked as cooks in the area. Asodia Som, a medical student from a nearby college, said one of his friends was killed, and as many as 20 people were in the dining hall when the plane hit.Television footage showed students’ mattresses and shoes strewn outside the building; the tail of the plane sat near half-eaten plates of food.Union Minister C.R. Patil said Vijay Rupani, Gujarat’s former chief minister, was among those killed in the crash. “It is a huge loss to the BJP family,” Rupani said, referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party.Modi called the incident “heartbreaking beyond words.” “In this sad hour, my thoughts are with everyone affected by it,” he said on X.Global leaders, including those from Russia, Britain, France and Pakistan, offered their condolences. British cabinet minister Lucy Powell told the House of Commons that the government would “provide all the support that it can with those in India and those in this country as well.” U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy said a crisis coordination team had been established between New Delhi and London.Officials at Gatwick Airport, where the flight was due to land, said they were setting up a reception center for relatives.There are nearly 1.9 million people of Indian origin in the U.K., according to the 2021 census.British nationals Akeel Nanabawa, his wife, Hannaa, and their 3-year-old daughter, Sara, had flown to Gujarat this month to celebrate the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha with Akeel’s parents, whom they had not seen in a year.His parents, Abdullah Nanabawa and Shaheen Nanabawa, found out from news reports that their son’s flight home had crashed. “They are inconsolable; they have not stopped crying,” said Mohammed Rizwan Lightwala, a family friend.President Donald Trump called the crash “terrible” and “horrific” in remarks at the White House. “I let them know that anything we can do, we’ll be over there immediately,” he said.The National Transportation Safety Board said on X it would lead a team of U.S. investigators assisting Indian authorities with their investigation.Analysts said the inquiry is likely to focus on the actions of the pilots, the airline, maintenance of the jet and Boeing — which has struggled for years to fully recover from two air disasters involving a smaller jet, the 737 Max, in 2018 and 2019. Those crashes, linked to a design flaw, killed a combined 346 people in Indonesia and Ethiopia.Until Thursday, more than 1,100 Dreamliners in service globally had carried 1 billion passengers, according to the company, with no fatal crashes.Major aviation disasters are rare in India, though Air India, the country’s former national carrier, has been involved in several deadly incidents.In 2020, a flight operated by Air India Express, a subsidiary of Air India, skidded off a runway during a heavy downpour in southern India and broke into pieces, killing 21. In 2010, 158 people died when an Air India Express plane crashed upon landing in Mangalore, western India. In 1978, 213 people perished on Flight 855, which fell into the Arabian Sea off the coast of Mumbai.In 1996, in India’s deadliest aviation disaster, a Saudia flight collided with a Kazakhstan Airlines plane in the skies west of New Delhi, killing nearly 350 people.Air India was purchased by the Tata Group conglomerate in 2022 after years of heavy financial losses. Wilson, a former Singapore Airlines executive, embarked on a five-year corporate restructuring, including IT systems, maintenance practices and the fleet.“We’ve taken delivery of a new aircraft about once every six days [for] the last two years,” Wilson said earlier this month at the annual meeting of the International Air Transport Association, an aviation trade group.At a recently opened training center in Gurgaon, south of New Delhi, a prominent display just past the reception desk highlights Air India’s past crashes, encouraging staff members to remember and learn from them. Pieces of wreckage are displayed around the room: a discolored lavatory door decorated with pale blue flowers, warped passenger seats still covered in mud.“No words can adequately express the grief we feel at this moment,” Tata Group chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran said in a statement Thursday, adding that the company would provide compensation to the families of the victims. Air India Boeing Crash Kills Hundreds, Leaves Sole Survivor (Wall Street Journal)
Wall Street Journal [6/12/2025 6:48 PM, Shan Li, Andrew Tangel, and Krishna Pokharel, 810K]
An Air India Boeing 787-8 passenger jet carrying 242 people bound for London crashed into a residential area Thursday, less than a minute after taking off from the western Indian state of Gujarat. Only one person survived the crash, which was the first fatal incident for Boeing’s Dreamliner aircraft.
Air India said the sole survivor was a British national of Indian origin who was being treated in the hospital.“There is good news of one person surviving,” said Indian Home Minister Amit Shah, after meeting the person in a hospital in Ahmedabad, the city where the crash took place.
Shah said rescuers had recovered most of the bodies from the crash site. The amount of fuel involved in the plane’s explosion meant “there was no opportunity to save anyone,” he said.
Air India said the flight departed Ahmedabad at 1:38 p.m. local time and was carrying 230 passengers, including 169 Indian nationals, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese and one Canadian.“This is a difficult day for all of us at Air India,” the airline’s chief executive, Campbell Wilson, said. “Investigations will take time, but anything we can do now we are doing.”
Jagdish Solanki, a resident medical officer at Ahmedabad Civil Hospital, said he had treated a man who said he survived the crash.“There is one survivor. He is a British national,” Solanki said. “He is fully conscious. He has little abrasions and one burnt mark on the face.”“We are under heavy shock due to all that happened and only single person survived. It’s a miracle. All others in the plane died, as per our knowledge,” he said.
Thursday’s crash is a fresh blow to Boeing, which has been mired in safety and production issues in recent years. The Air India accident also dents the excellent safety record of the 787 Dreamliner, which entered service in 2011. Like other modern aircraft, it is equipped with advanced safety systems that can aid pilots in emergencies.
Boeing posted on X: “We are in contact with Air India regarding Flight 171 and stand ready to support them. Our thoughts are with the passengers, crew, first responders and all affected.”
Accident investigators are likely to rely on videos of the flight’s final moments, in addition to the plane’s flight-data and cockpit-voice recorders, to piece together what went wrong.
The plane, which was headed to London’s Gatwick Airport, had reached an altitude of 625 feet in clear conditions when it stopped transmitting location data, according to Flightradar24, just 50 seconds into the flight. A mayday call had gone out from the cockpit. But there was no response to subsequent calls from air-traffic control, according to India’s civil-aviation regulator.
The Boeing plane involved was 12 years old, Air India said.
Local television channels in India showed heavy plumes of smoke rising into the sky and emergency responders carrying people away from the scene on stretchers.
Federation of All India Medical Associations, a resident doctors’ body, said that the plane had crashed into a medical hostel and that 50 students were hospitalized as a result, adding that they were in a stable condition. The association said that at least four students were missing, as well as the relatives of at least three doctors. The wife of one doctor had died, it said.
Accident investigators will likely focus on why the aircraft’s landing gear was still down and whether its flaps, which are movable flight-control surfaces on the back of the wings, were in the correct position, according to U.S. pilots and aviation-safety experts. Flaps, along with slats on the front of the wings, help generate aerodynamic lift during takeoff.“There’s some question about whether the flaps are extended or not, which they would need to be for takeoff,” said John Cox, an aviation-safety consultant and pilot.
The Dreamliner is equipped with a warning system to alert pilots if the airplane isn’t properly configured for takeoff. “If the flaps were not extended, did the warning system work?” Cox said. Or, he added, “Were they retracted for some reason right after takeoff?”
Cox said it wouldn’t be uncommon for the crew to delay pulling up the landing gear. The airplane’s pitch appeared to be about right, he said, but then the pitch increased as the aircraft got closer to the ground, suggesting the wings weren’t creating enough lift to sustain flight. With the nose pointing higher, that would create more drag, requiring more thrust and more lift, he said.“If you’re already not producing enough lift,” he said, “it’s a very bad place to be because you’ve got a massive amount of drag and not enough lift.”
The plane’s rudder at the rear of the plane doesn’t appear to be deflected, as might be expected with the loss of a single engine, aviation-safety experts said, nor did the airplane appear to yaw, or twist, to either side.“If there was a loss of thrust, it seems it would be in both engines, not just one,” said Jeff Guzzetti, a former senior accident investigator with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board, who isn’t involved in the crash probe.“It’s just shocking to me that an airplane as advanced as a 787 can allow this to happen,” he added, noting the plane’s safety systems and sterling record. “There’s so many procedures to ensure that everything is in working order before you add power for takeoff that it’s a real mystery to me to try to explain what happened.”
The NTSB said Thursday that it would lead a team of U.S. investigators traveling to India to assist a probe led by the country’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau.
Gujarat is the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and some of India’s most prominent business moguls and is one of the country’s most developed states. A large proportion of the Indian diaspora comes from the western state.
Modi said his government was offering assistance to authorities in Ahmedabad.“It is heartbreaking beyond words. In this sad hour, my thoughts are with everyone affected by it,” Modi wrote in a post on X.
Air India was for decades the country’s state-run national carrier until Tata Sons, an Indian conglomerate, bought it in 2022. The Indian government had been trying for years to unload the money-losing venture. Tata has worked to modernize the airline’s fleet and improve its safety record in recent years, placing orders for over 500 new aircraft from Boeing and Airbus and upgrading its cabins and premium seats.
Before Thursday, the most recent crash involving the airline was in 2020, when a passenger plane from its budget arm Air India Express skidded off the runway and fell into a valley in the southern state of Kerala, killing at least 18 people.
The Dreamliner is one of Boeing’s bestselling aircraft, with the company so far delivering close to 1,200 of the jets to customers.
Still, the 787 has faced a number of production setbacks. It suffered from early supply-chain issues and then battery fires that led air-safety regulators to ground the 787 fleet for a few months in 2013. Boeing also had to pause deliveries of the aircraft for much of two years because of quality-control problems. More recently, Boeing said the plane’s manufacturing operations had improved.
Gatwick airport on Thursday afternoon had set up an area behind a police cordon on site for relatives of victims, where they were invited to stay to receive more information.
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was monitoring the situation in Gujarat and offered his condolences to the families affected.“The scenes emerging of a London-bound plane carrying many British nationals crashing in the Indian city of Ahmedabad are devastating,” he said. Air India Crash Probe Puts Early Focus on Engine Thrust (Wall Street Journal)
Wall Street Journal [6/12/2025 4:04 AM, Shan Li, Andrew Tangel, and Aakash Hassan, 810K]
An investigation into the crash of a London-bound Air India Boeing 787-8 that killed more than 240 people is focusing on whether the aircraft had a loss or reduction in engine thrust, and if that contributed, according to people briefed on the probe.
The aircraft crashed shortly after taking off with 242 people on board on Thursday, leaving a single survivor and killing at least four people in the residential area where it went down.
The flight reached an altitude of 625 feet in clear conditions when it stopped transmitting location data, according to Flightradar24, just 50 seconds into the flight. Efforts to contact the cockpit after it issued a mayday call drew no response.
The probe was in its early stages, and new points of interest could emerge as investigators comb through wreckage and recover and analyze the plane’s flight-data and cockpit-voice recorders. The people familiar with the probe cautioned that engine thrust was an early focus as many questions remained unanswered.
Investigations can last months and often point to a number of factors contributing to a crash, such as crew missteps and maintenance errors.
Videos of the Air India flight showed the jet lifting off, then descending, sending flames and smoke into the sky in the crash, in which it hit a hostel housing medical students.
The survivor, Ramesh Viswashkumar, a British national in his late 30s, had a window seat on an exit row near the front of the plane. He recounted what happened in an interview on Friday from his hospital bed with Indian state-owned television channel DD News.“I think the side of the plane I was in, it didn’t land on the hostel, it landed below on the ground floor,” he said. “When my door broke, I saw in front of me that there is some space and that I can try to go out. So I tried and got out there.”
Nobody would have been able to get out on the opposite side of the plane, which was against a wall, he said.“I myself can’t believe how I came out of it alive,” he said. “Because for some time, I was feeling that I, too, am going to die.”
A nurse who treated Viswashkumar said he had some cuts and abrasions but nothing life-threatening. “He is traumatized but physically he is fine,” she said.
Ahmedabad is one of India’s most populous cities and the largest in Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Modi went to the crash site on Friday and visited Ahmedabad Civil Hospital, where he spoke with Viswashkumar.
Around 100 people injured on the ground were brought to the hospital, including about 50 medical students who were at the dormitory where the plane crashed, a doctor there said Friday. Four students died, a few were in intensive-care units with serious injuries and several were still missing, the doctor said.
The flight was carrying 230 passengers, including 169 Indian nationals, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese and one Canadian. The crash was the deadliest civil aviation disaster since the 2014 crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine killed 298 people.
The Air India crash was the first fatal incident for Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, which entered service in 2011. As is the case with other modern aircraft, it is equipped with advanced safety systems that can aid pilots in emergencies.
Videos suggested the aircraft had sufficient thrust to take off initially, leaping off the runway as it should, said Ben Berman, a former senior accident investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board and pilot for a major U.S. airline.“It climbed really well for the first few seconds,” Berman said. “It leapt off and then immediately sagged and then sank down.”
A possible failure or combination of problems could have resulted in a reduction of “thrust to a very low level,” he said.
Indian authorities are leading the crash investigation. The NTSB will support the probe, with assistance from the Federal Aviation Administration, Boeing and engine maker GE Aerospace.
U.S. officials said they would send resources to help and take action as needed. “We will not hesitate to mitigate any risks we identify in that process,” acting FAA Administrator Chris Rocheleau said Thursday.“We have a lot of questions but we have to wait because we have to get authentic information,” Natarajan Chandrasekaran, chairman of Air India owner Tata Sons, said in an interview with CNBC. Modi ‘Devastated’ After Visiting Site of Air India’s Plane Crash (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [6/13/2025 2:09 AM, Prateek Mazumdar, 5.5M]
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was “devastated” after visiting the site of Thursday’s plane crash in western India, where more than 240 people were killed.“The loss of so many lives in such a sudden and heartbreaking manner is beyond words,” Modi said in a post on X on Friday. In a separate post, he described the crash site as “saddening” and shared images of the wreckage from Air India flight AI171.
On Thursday, the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, bound for London, crashed within minutes after takeoff in Ahmedabad in Modi’s home state of Gujarat. Video footage shared on social media showed the aircraft exploding into a huge fireballs upon impact. The plane had plunged into a dining hall at a medical school as students ate lunch.
One passenger, Ramesh Vishwaskumar, miraculously survived the crash.
Modi met Vishwaskumar and others injured on Friday, according to a video shared on his YouTube channel. He also held meetings with officials at the airport in Ahmedabad.
The Indian leader is expected to travel to Canada for the Group of Seven summit beginning Sunday. On Thursday, New Delhi described a potential meeting between Modi and his Canadian counterpart Mark Carney on the sidelines of the summit as an “important opportunity” to mend bilateral ties. Authorities investigate one of India’s worst aviation disasters as Modi visits the site (AP)
AP [6/13/2025 2:32 AM, Rajesh Roy and Aijaz Hussain, 3554K]
Authorities began investigating one of India’s worst aviation disasters after an Air India plane crashed a day earlier that killed all but one of the 242 passengers and crew onboard, officials said Friday, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the crash site.
The Indian government has launched an investigation into the fatal crash of the London-bound Air India plane that came down in a in a residential area in the northwestern city of Ahmedabad minutes after takeoff on Thursday.Officials said most of the bodies were charred beyond recognition. There was no news early Friday on the cause of the crash, or on efforts to retrieve the black boxes — the flight data and cockpit voice recorders — as authorities continued to search the crash site.The plane hit a building hosting a medical college hostel and burst into flames, killing several college students on the ground. Black smoke billowed from the site where the plane crashed near the airport in Ahmedabad, a city of more than 5 million and the capital of Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state.
“We are all devastated by the air tragedy in Ahmedabad. The loss of so many lives in such a sudden and heartbreaking manner is beyond words,” Modi said on social media after visiting the site. “We understand their pain and also know that the void left behind will be felt for years to come.” Modi meets lone survivorThere was only one survivor of the crash, who was seen in television footage meeting Modi at a local government hospital.Dr. Dhaval Gameti told the Associated Press he had examined the man, whom he identified as Vishwashkumar Ramesh.“He was disoriented with multiple injuries all over his body,” Dr. Gameti said. “But he seems to be out of danger.”Another medic said Ramesh told him that immediately after the plane took off, it began descending and suddenly split in two, ejecting him before there was a loud explosion. Investigators probe cause of crashIndia’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau has initiated a probe into the disaster in line with global protocols set by the International Civil Aviation Organization, said Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu in a statement on social media.A team from the United States is expected to arrive in India to help. The National Transportation Safety Board, Federal Aviation Administration, Boeing and General Electric are all sending experts.DNA tests for victims underwayMedics are conducting DNA tests to identify those killed, the national president of the Federation of All India Medical Association, Akshay Dongardiv, said. Meanwhile, grieving families gathered outside the Civil hospital in Ahmedabad on Friday.Modi is scheduled to hold a meeting with senior officials later Friday. He also met some of those injured on the ground during the hospital visit.Thursday’s Air India crash involved a 12-year-old Boeing 787. Boeing planes have been plagued by safety issues on other types of aircraft.According to experts, there are currently around 1,200 of the 787 Dreamliner aircraft worldwide, and this was the first deadly crash in 16 years of operation. Rescuers scour buildings after Air India plane crash kills over 240 (Reuters)
Reuters [6/13/2025 2:12 AM, Sudipto Ganguly, Abhijith Ganapavaram, and Sumit Khanna, 51390K]
Rescue workers searched for missing people and aircraft parts in the charred buildings of a medical college hostel in Ahmedabad on Friday after an Air India plane crash killed more than 240 people in the world’s worst aviation disaster in a decade.The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner with 242 people on board bound for Gatwick Airport south of London took off over a residential area and then disappeared from view before a huge fireball was seen rising into the sky from beyond the houses, CCTV footage showed.Only one passenger survived after it crashed onto the hostel during lunch hour, causing deaths on the ground as well, which local media has put as high as 24. Reuters could not immediately verify the number.Rescue workers had completed combing the crash site and were now searching for missing people and bodies in the buildings as well as for aircraft parts that could help explain why the plane crashed soon after taking off.Local newspaper Hindustan Times reported that one of two black boxes from the plane had been found. Reuters could not verify the report and the paper did not say whether the flight data recorder or the cockpit voice recorder had been recovered.Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was briefed by officials on the progress of rescue operations when he visited the crash site in his home state of Gujarat on Friday. Modi also met some of the injured being treated in the hospital."The scene of devastation is saddening," he said in a post on X.Residents living in the vicinity said that construction of the hostel for resident doctors was completed only a year ago and the buildings were not fully occupied."We were at home and heard a massive sound, it appeared like a big blast. We then saw very dark smoke which engulfed the entire area," said 63-year-old Nitin Joshi, who has been living in the area for more than 50 years.Parts of the plane’s fuselage were scattered around the smouldering building into which it crashed. The tail of the plane was stuck on top of the building.The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that an investigation into the crash was focusing on "whether the aircraft had a loss or reduction in engine thrust", citing unnamed sources. Reuters was not immediately able to verify the report.Air India Chief Executive Officer Campbell Wilson also arrived in Ahmedabad in the early hours of Friday.The company said the lone survivor, a British national, was undergoing treatment in the hospital.The man told Indian media how he had heard a loud noise shortly after Flight AI171 took off.Vidhi Chaudhary, a top state police officer, said on Thursday the death toll was more than 240, revising down a previous toll of 294 as it included body parts that had been double counted.The dead included Vijay Rupani, the former chief minister of Gujarat state, of which Ahmedabad is the main city."Almost 70% of the passengers were found in their seats, most of them had their seatbelts on," a first responder told local newspaper Indian Express.Air India has said the investigation would take time. Planemaker Boeing has said a team of experts is ready to go to India to help in the probe.While Air India is not publicly traded, shares of rival airline IndiGo parent Interglobe Aviation (INGL.NS) and SpiceJet (SPJT.BO) were both down 4% in early Friday trade.Boeing’s (BA.N) shares fell 5% in the crash’s wake on Thursday.It was the first crash for the Dreamliner, a wide-body airliner that began flying commercially in 2011, according to the Aviation Safety Network database.The plane that crashed on Thursday flew for the first time in 2013 and was delivered to Air India in January 2014, Flightradar24 said.The last fatal plane crash in India, the world’s third-largest aviation market and its fastest growing, was in 2020 and involved Air India Express, the airline’s low-cost arm.In an unrelated incident, an Air India flight from the Thai island of Phuket headed to Delhi made an emergency landing on Friday after a bomb threat was received on board, Phuket’s airport said.The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.The formerly state-owned Air India was taken over by Indian conglomerate Tata Group in 2022, and merged with Vistara - a joint venture between the group and Singapore Airlines – in 2024. US Sees No Immediate Reason to Ground Boeing 787 After Air India Crash (Reuters)
Reuters [6/12/2025 11:26 PM, David Shepardson, 24051K]
U.S. officials said on Thursday they have not seen any immediate safety data that would require halting Boeing 787 flights after a fatal Air India accident killed over 240 people.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Acting Federal Aviation Administration head Chris Rocheleau made the comments at a news conference and said they had seen videos of the crash in India.
Duffy said he had spoken to National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy. An NTSB and FAA team, with support from Boeing and engine manufacturer GE Aerospace, was going to India, Duffy said.
"They have to get on the ground and take a look. But again right now it’d be way too premature," Duffy said. "People are looking at videos and trying to assess what happened, which is never a strong, smart way to make decisions on what took place.".
Duffy said the FAA was reviewing information with Boeing and GE as part of the investigation into the crash.
Duffy also emphasized the U.S. government "will not hesitate to implement any safety recommendations that may arise. We will follow the facts and put safety first.".
Rocheleau said, "As we proceed down this road with the investigation itself, if there’s any information that becomes available to us regarding any risk, we will mitigate those risks.".
Duffy said the FAA is "prepared to send additional resources to get the data we need to ensure the safety of the flying public.". India, US Harden Stance in Trade Talks as July Deadline Near (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [6/13/2025 1:31 AM, Shruti Srivastava, 88K]
Trade officials from India and the US have hardened their stance on some key issues as they race to conclude an interim deal before higher US tariffs take effect in July, people familiar with the matter said.
Negotiators from both sides, who met in New Delhi this week, wrangled over issues including a US demand that India open up its market to genetically-modified crops, officials in New Delhi said, asking not to be identified as the discussions are private.
The US also wants India to eliminate tariffs and ease price controlson medical devices, and relax rules on data localization ..New Delhi is pushing for the US to exempt India from existing sectoral tariffs on steel and automobiles, and threatened reciprocal tariffs that are scheduled to kick in on July 9, the people said. India also wants to be exempted from proposed duties on pharmaceuticals, they said. US President Donald Trump has launched investigations in the pharmaceuticals sector under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, a precursor to higher tariffs. He had used the Section 232 probes, which looks at the national-security implications of imports in critical sectors, to impose tariffs on steel, aluminum and automobiles and its components.India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking information.Trade analysts say the toughening in stance on both sides may not derail the deal, but will certainly prolong the negotiations. India also appears to be giving up more on tariffs than the US, according to Ajay Srivastava, founder of the New Delhi-based think tank Global Trade Research Initiative. India is cutting its most-favored nation tariffs, while the US hasn’t offered to do the same, and is also insisting on the 10% baseline tariff remains for all nations.“India should enter a deal only when it is balanced,” Srivastava said. “A small deal is very much possible, but there shouldn’t be pressure as India doesn’t have much to lose even if the deadline is missed.”A US trade team led by Brendan Lynch, assistant US Trade Representative, met officials in New Delhi on June 5-10, with both sides agreeing to expedite talks to conclude an agreement that includes “early wins,” Indian officials said earlier this week.Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is scheduled to head to the Group of Seven summit in Canada in coming days, may also have an opportunity to advance the trade talks with Trump while there.India and the US are working on a phased trade deal with an early agreement targeted for July. India Signals Modi Likely to Attend G-7 Summit in Canada (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [6/12/2025 8:31 AM, Eltaf Najafizada and Sudhi Ranjan Sen, 19320K]
India described a potential meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Canadian counterpart on the sidelines of the upcoming Group of Seven summit as an “important opportunity” to mend bilateral ties, signaling Modi is likely to attend the summit next week.The meeting will also offer a chance to “explore pathways to set or reset the relationship based on mutual respect, shared interest and sensitivity to each others’ concerns,” Randhir Jaiswal, a spokesman for India’s External Affairs Ministry, told reporters in New Delhi on Thursday.His comments come after a Boeing Co. 787 Dreamliner aircraft operated by Air India crashed shortly after taking off in Ahmedabad. Modi said the accident is “heartbreaking beyond words,” according to a statement, adding that he’s been in touch with ministers and authorities assisting the salvage operation.The Indian prime minister is expected to travel to Canada for the G-7 summit beginning Sunday.The South Asian country is not a member of the G-7, a grouping of seven of the world’s richest countries, comprising the US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Canada and Japan. But this will be India’s 12th time participating and Modi’s sixth consecutive invitation to the summit.In a post on X last week, Modi said Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney invited him to the G-7 summit and he looks forward to their meeting. The development signals improving relations between the two nations, which have been frayed over the Modi government’s alleged involvement in homicides and extortion targeting Sikhs in Canada who advocate for carving out a separate homeland for followers of the faith. India eyes reset of Canada ties with Modi’s G7 visit (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [6/13/2025 1:19 AM, Bhuvan Bagga, 58908K]
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits Canada next week, his first since relations plummeted after the assassination of a Canadian Sikh separatist in Vancouver, triggering diplomatic expulsions and hitting trade.
Analysts hope it is a step towards repairing ties that soured in 2023, after Canada’s then prime minister Justin Trudeau pointed the finger at New Delhi’s involvement in murdering Hardeep Singh Nijjar, claims India furiously denied.
But an invitation by Ottawa’s new Prime Minister Mark Carney to Modi to attend the Group of Seven (G7) leaders summit in Canada offers a chance to "reset" relations, said India’s former top diplomat Harsh Vardhan Shringla.
"This is a new moment," Ashok Malik of business consultancy The Asia Group told AFP. "A gesture has been made by Canada and it has been reciprocated by India.".
India is not a member of the G7 -- which comprises Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States -- but the world’s most populous nation and fifth biggest economy has been invited to summits since 2019.
The invitation is also a pragmatic reflection of India’s role in global supply chains as an alternative to China, and with markets rocked by threats of punishing US tariffs.
"India is being called to the G7 because of its weight and size as an economy," Malik said.
India and Canada trade stood at around $9 billion in 2023, with India exporting electrical machinery, pharmaceuticals and iron products and Canada exporting fertiliser and pulses.
Canadian pension funds have also cumulatively invested around $55 billion in India.
Shringla said it was India’s "window of opportunity"."We are expected to grow for the next two decades," he told AFP.
"From that perspective, we will offer greater demand, a larger market, talent, technology and services in the coming years.".
Modi’s visit -- his first to Canada since 2015 -- comes as Ottawa seeks to insulate its economy from trade policies of US President Donald Trump - who is also expected at the June 15-17 summit in Kananaskis, Alberta.
Modi will have his own eye on Trump, with an expected meeting to push a trade deal with the United States -- India’s largest trading partner -- before the July 9 deadline when Washington’s punishing 26 percent tariffs are set to resume.
"For Canada, mutually beneficial ties with India make sense today given how the Trump administration has upended Washington-Ottawa ties," the Times of India wrote in an editorial.
"Add to this Trump’s propensity to weaponise tariffs, and both India and Canada have enough reasons to cooperate on trade.".
But the unsolved investigation into the 2023 assassination of 45-year-old naturalised Canadian citizen Nijjar remains.
Canada is home to the largest Sikh community outside India.
That community includes activists for "Khalistan", a fringe separatist movement seeking an independent state for the religious minority carved out of Indian territory.
The Khalistan campaign dates back to India’s 1947 independence and has been blamed for the assassination of a prime minister and the bombing of a passenger jet.
It has been a bitter issue between India and several Western nations with large Sikh populations.
New Delhi demands stricter action against the Khalistan movement, which is banned in India, with key leaders accused of "terrorism".
Nijjar was a prominent supporter of the Khalistan movement.
Canada has accused India of directing a broad campaign targeting Sikh activists on Canadian soil, which Ottawa says has included intimidation, threats and violence.
Protests will be expected at Modi’s visit.
Carney’s invitation inflamed fringe Canadian Sikh groups who expressed "anger and a sense of betrayal".
In an apparent reference to the tensions, Canada has said there was "agreement to continued law enforcement dialogue and discussions addressing security concerns".- ‘Use every opportunity’ -
But India sees Carney’s new leadership as a chance to put aside the fury that was directed at Trudeau, and discuss both the Nijjar probe and Indian concerns over criminal gangs linked to fringe groups that operate in both countries.
"India has always offered that, with these issues on the table, we need to increase cooperation to ensure mutual interests and security concerns are protected," Shringla said.
He called Carney "a very mature individual" who views issues "from a larger perspective".
Still, Modi’s trip is only a first step, The Hindu newspaper noted.
"It would be naive to imagine that these issues can be resolved in a summit," the Indian newspaper wrote in its editorial on Thursday, but said it was "imperative" that ambassadors were restored and trade talks restarted.
"India and Canada must use every opportunity to reset ties," it added. India, China agree to expedite resumption of direct air services (Reuters)
Reuters [6/13/2025 1:01 AM, Shilpa Jamkhandikar, 5.2M]
India and China have agreed to expedite the resumption of direct air services and will continue to stabilise and rebuild ties, the Indian foreign ministry said on Friday.
The statement from the foreign ministry came after a meeting on Thursday of Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong, who is visiting India.
The neighbours agreed in January to work on resolving trade and economic differences, a move expected to boost their aviation sectors. India in touch with China about supply chain predictability after rare earths curbs (Reuters)
Reuters [6/12/2025 8:10 AM, Shivam Patel, 51390K]
India is in touch with China to bring "predictability in supply chain for trade" following China’s curbs on rare earths exports, India’s foreign ministry spokesperson said on Thursday.China’s curbs on some rare earth exports have rocked the global auto industry, with companies warning of severe supply chain disruptions. Maruti Suzuki (MRTI.NS) India’s top carmaker, has cut near-term production targets for its maiden electric vehicle because of rare earths shortages, Reuters reported this week."We are in touch with the Chinese side, both here in Delhi as also in Beijing, to bring predictability in supply chain for trade, consistent with international practices," Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said. NSB
‘People see government as the enemy’: Bangladesh’s interim leader on the legacy of a toxic system (The Guardian)
The Guardian [6/13/2025 1:02 AM, Kaamil Ahmed, 83M]
A year on from the political uprising that swept the prime minister of Bangladesh into exile, people still see government as the enemy, according to the country’s interim leader, Muhammad Yunus.
Rooting out corruption at every level, from village to government, is the only way for people to believe in a “new Bangladesh”, he says.
The Nobel Peace prize winner, who took over after July’s student-led revolt unseated Sheikh Hasina, told the Guardian he wants the state to deliver more for citizens who have felt the government offers them little.
Pervasive corruption has included the siphoning off of money by government members and demands for bribes in every transaction from getting a passport to applying for a business permit, he says.“Somebody is [always] waiting to grab an enormous amount of money,” says Yunus. “People see government as your permanent enemy and you have to live your life fighting with this enemy. It’s a very powerful enemy, so you want to stay away.”
While the protests were prompted by student anger over a quota system for government jobs that favoured the then ruling Awami League party’s allies, there was also discontent over high living costs and a lack of opportunities for young people.
Hasina had become increasingly authoritarian, cracking down on the opposition and freedom of expression, while the breakdown of the banking system has been attributed to corruption among the elites.
Many hoped the protests in the summer of 2024 would lead to radical changes to a toxic, confrontational political system dominated by two rivals – the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist party (BNP).“Our starting point was a devastated economy, a devastated society. Administration had totally collapsed,” says Yunus. “We didn’t even know whether we could pay our bills. Massive amounts of financial resources were just siphoned up as if they didn’t belong to anybody – just taken. Banks issued loans, knowing full well that these were not loans, just gifts [that were not paid back].”
A series of reform commissions formed by the interim government made recommendations in January covering elections, corruption and welfare. Yunus is now focused on forging an agreement on these reforms between the country’s political parties, and wants the so-called July Charter to be finished before the first anniversary of the protests next month, so that they can focus on implementing them ahead of an April election.“It will be a historical document, to bring all these people together. The recommendations of the commissions are fundamental recommendations, not light things, not just to do a little better, a little of this or that – no,” he says. “Then our job is to implement and prepare the country, moving towards a sane, functioning system.“Afterwards, we can feel happy that we are in a situation to make a beginning of the new Bangladesh.”
Yunus admits, however, that agreement will not be easy.
The BNP, now the country’s most powerful party and the clear favourite to win an election, has been pushing for an earlier poll date and has opposed the proposed two-term limit for prime ministers.
But Yunus says he is encouraged by how the parties have engaged with each other so far, in a country where there was little precedent of consensus between opposing politicians.
Yunus wants to change how the state functions and serves the people, for example encouraging nonprofit social businesses that could deliver on issues such as healthcare, and expanding on the microcredit model he pioneered.
The sector is now dominated by NGOs that provide small loans to people living in poverty to allow them to start businesses. Yunus wants to formalise that system by creating dedicated microfinance banks.
He says this would encourage entrepreneurship, as people would not have to rely on traditional banks, which often refuse to lend to poor people.
Microcredit has gained a bad reputation, he believes, in part due to some lenders pushing high interest rates, but he says the model had been exported and copied globally.“[People think] it’s extracting money out of the poor people but that’s not what it does. So it was given a bad name and then people said, ‘Oh, you have to improve it.’ You don’t have to improve it … there is nothing wrong with microcredit,” he says.
Yunus has been critical of the mainstream banking system, which poorer people without assets can often not access but which has also crumbled in the past year after the non-payment of large loans taken by allies of Hasina, leading at times to citizens being unable to withdraw their money.
Just a year ago, Yunus was publicly vilified by Hasina, before being suddenly thrust into government. He says he does not plan to stay on in government after the election in April, but until then will focus on trying to balance the many political pressures while trying to implement the reform mandate.“Before, I was criticised by the Awami League and its leaders, now everybody criticises me – it’s open game. This is part of life if you’re holding this position, people will have their opinions. You have to go through it and accept it,” says Yunus. “[In April] we will have an elected government and then we’ll disappear.” Bangladesh leader declines to meet Tulip Siddiq (BBC)
BBC [6/12/2025 11:19 AM, Joshua Nevett, Rajini Vaidyanathan, and Junaid Ahmed, 47007K]
Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus has refused to meet Labour MP Tulip Siddiq to discuss corruption allegations against her during his visit to London.
Yunus told the BBC the allegations were a "court matter" and said he had confidence in Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), which is investigating Siddiq.
The ACC has accused Siddiq of illegally receiving land from the regime of her aunt Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted as Bangladesh’s prime minister last year.
Siddiq, a former Treasury minister, has denied the allegations and accused the Bangladeshi authorities of a "politically motivated smear campaign".
In a letter, Siddiq requested a meeting with Yunus, a Nobel-prize winning economist who has led an interim government in Bangladesh since a student-led protest movement toppled Hasina from power.
Siddiq said a meeting "might also help clear up the misunderstanding perpetuated by the Anti-Corruption Commission in Dhaka".
In an interview with the BBC, Yunus was asked whether he would meet Siddiq during his four-day visit to the UK this week.
"No I’m not because it’s a legal procedure," Yunus said. "I don’t want to interrupt a legal procedure. Let the procedure continue.".
Siddiq has argued Bangladeshi authorities have not provided any evidence to back up their allegations and refuse to engage with her lawyers.
Responding to those arguments, Yunus said: "It’s a court matter.
"A court will decide if enough materials are available to pursue the case or cancel it".
When asked if prosecutors in Bangladesh needed to be more transparent and provide evidence of wrongdoing to Siddiq, Yunus said: "As chief adviser I have full confidence in our Anti-Corruption Commission and they are doing the right thing.".
On the question of whether he would seek Siddiq’s extradition if she was found guilty of any crimes in Bangladesh, Yunus said: "If it is part of the legal procedure, of course.".‘Fantasy accusations’
In a statement, Siddiq said she was disappointed Yunus had refused to meet her.She said: "He’s been at the heart of a political vendetta based on fantasy accusations with no evidence relentlessly briefed to the media.
"If this was a serious legal process they would engage with my lawyers rather than sending bogus correspondence to an address in Dhaka where I have never lived.
"I hope he is now serious about ending the practice of smearing me in the press and allowing the courts to establish that their investigations have nothing to do with me - a British citizen and a proud member of the UK Parliament.".
Siddiq quit her ministerial post earlier this year, following an investigation into the allegations by the prime minister’s ethics adviser, Sir Laurie Magnus.
In his report, Sir Laurie said he had "not identified evidence of improprieties".
But he said it was "regrettable" that Siddiq had not been more alert to the "potential reputational risks" of her ties to her aunt, who is leader of Awami League party in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh authorities estimate that about $234bn (£174bn) was siphoned off from Bangladesh through corrupt means while Hasina was in power.
The Bangladeshi authorities allege that much of this money has been stashed or spent in the UK.
Yunus said he had not been able to arrange a meeting with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, a close friend and constituency neighbour of Siddiq.
He said: "I don’t know whether I should be disappointed or he should be disappointed. It’s a missed opportunity.
"That’s why I’m saying coming to Bangladesh would be a good opportunity to relax and see and feel the moment.".
When asked if Downing Street had given a reason for not scheduling a meeting with Starmer, he said: "I don’t think we have received an explanation from that kind of thing. Probably he is busy with other important things.".
A Downing Street spokesperson did not comment.
But Yunus did have an audience with King Charles at Buckingham Palace and met Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds in Parliament.
In a post on X, Reynolds said they discussed "our shared ambitions for economic growth, job creation and prosperity".
Some anti-Yunus protesters from the Bangladeshi community in the UK gathered on Parliament Square during his visit.
Yunus said Bangladesh’s interim government had hired lawyers to try to recover any allegedly stolen funds from the UK.
He said the UK government was "extremely supportive" of this effort.
"I have a lot of admiration for the promptness with which they’re treating the whole subject," Yunus said.
The BBC understands the International Anti-Corruption Co-ordination Centre (IACCC) is exploring opportunities to assist Bangladesh’s interim government and its law enforcement agencies in their efforts to investigate allegations of corruption under Hasina’s rule.
The IACCC is hosted by the National Crime Agency in London.
An NCA spokesperson said: "The NCA does not routinely comment on the nature of international assistance, nor confirm or deny if the Agency has opened an investigation or is supporting a partner’s investigation.". NCA freezes £170m of UK property belonging to ally of ousted Bangladesh leader (The Guardian)
The Guardian [6/12/2025 10:42 AM, Rob Davies, 83003K]
Britain’s serious crime agency has frozen UK property worth £170m belonging to the former land minister of Bangladesh amid a crackdown on former allies of Sheikh Hasina, the autocratic leader deposed in last year’s student-led revolution.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) confirmed it had frozen assets belonging to Saifuzzaman Chowdhury, who is among allies of Hasina whose sizeable UK real estate portfolios have come under scrutiny by authorities in Dhaka investigating alleged corruption.
Analysis of Land Registry documents indicates that all of Chowdhury’s more than 300 properties are subject to asset freezing orders, preventing them from being sold or transferred.
These include a luxury home in St John’s Wood, London, bought for £11m in 2022, and an apartment block in Fitzrovia, bought for £12.65m a year earlier, part of a portfolio bought for an estimated £170m.
Chowdhury is the third member of Bangladesh’s former elite to be targeted by the NCA with asset freezes after £90m of property belonging to two members of the Rahman business dynasty were frozen last month.
The action follows requests by the interim regime in Dhaka, whose leader, Muhammad Yunus, has been in London this week for Britain’s help in tracing allegedly stolen assets.
An NCA spokesperson said: "We can confirm that the NCA has secured freezing orders against a number of properties as part of an ongoing civil investigation.".
One of the homes affected by the freeze was the scene of footage secretly filmed by Al Jazeera as part of an investigation into wealth that Chowdhury had accumulated while he was a government minister.
During the meeting, Chowdhury talked about his global property portfolio, his taste for expensive suits and designer "baby croc" leather shoes and his closeness to Hasina, saying he was "like her son".
Hasina is the aunt of the UK’s former Treasury minister Tulip Siddiq, who resigned from the post in January after accepting the government was being harmed by the furore over her ties to her aunt.
Siddiq has since requested a meeting with Yunus to discuss allegations made in Bangladesh, which she denies, that she benefited from corruption.
Ben Cowdock, the investigations lead at Transparency International, said: "These freezing orders present a major step forward, however there still remains millions of pounds worth of UK property – bought by individuals close to Sheikh Hasina – that is at risk of being sold, moved offshore and placed beyond the reach of investigators.
"It is now vital that UK law enforcement intensify efforts to investigate and freeze these remaining assets. Where corruption is found, funds should be returned to Bangladesh and support the interim government’s efforts to seek accountability.".
The Guardian approached Chowdhury for comment. He has previously said that his UK assets were acquired with the proceeds of legitimate business and that he is the subject of a politically motivated "witch-hunt". Special report: Turning Bangladesh into a pluralistic cultural center (Deseret News – opinion)
Deseret News [6/12/2025 11:00 PM, Jay Evensen, 47007K]
Editor’s note: This is the fifth in a five-part series on the price of freedom, by exploring the work and experience of Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus in Bangladesh. Deseret News Opinion Editor Jay Evensen has known Yunus since 1997, when the world leader first visited Utah. Evensen traveled to Dhaka to speak again with Yunus, entrepreneurs, politicians in the country, and even revolutionaries seeking change to understand the risks Yunus is enduring and why peace and opportunity in Bangladesh are so important to the United States.
Mahfuj Alam has broad and ambitious hopes for the future of Bangladesh.
It’s encouraging to hear it, and to know he’s not alone. Many of the people I spoke to during a recent visit to this South Asian country expressed optimism about the future, and especially the prospect of free and fair elections — something they have been denied for 15 years.
This is especially good news for the United States, which has long worked with this important ally in South Asia to cooperate on trade and other important matters, such as regional security and counter terrorism. Freedom and prosperity in Bangladesh would strike a blow against tyranny, while shining a bright light in a troubled part of the world and putting pressure on neighboring countries to do the same.
Many of Bangladesh’s leaders speak of the past with sorrow and anger. Turn the conversation to the future and they light up.
Alam’s opinion, in particular, carries considerable weight. At the age of 30, he is considered one of the chief architects of the revolutionary uprising last summer that led to the overthrow of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and the installation of Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus as the nation’s interim leader. In February, Alam was named adviser to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
Yunus, known as the "banker to the poor" after establishing a bank that offers unsecured loans to impoverished Bangladeshis as part of a program to teach them entrepreneurship and self-sustainability, is working toward holding free and fair elections in April of 2026.
He has faced mounting pressures to hold those elections sooner. Within the last few weeks he briefly threatened to resign. Sources said his cabinet members talked him out of it. They also said the nation’s voting rolls are a mess, which is a main reason why elections can’t be held yet.
Until free and fair elections are held, and until the winners of that election establish important freedoms and reforms Yunus has proposed, Bangladesh’s future will remain unsettled.
Many people, Americans in particular, are unaware of this. But the free world should hope Bangladesh settles itself correctly, soon.
Yunus is a friend of Utah who has visited many times and spoken at venues from the Alta Club to BYU. Now, as the interim leader of Bangladesh (his official title is Chief Adviser to the Government), he faces many challenges, including unexpected new ones from the United States.
President Donald Trump has cut funding to programs that help the nation deal with concerns over health and poverty, and he has threatened tariffs that might devastate Bangladesh’s struggling economy.
Mahfuj Alam, the revolutionary activist, is acutely aware of these dangers, as well. But he stays optimistic, even in the face of American-imposed problems that might make some people nervous.
"People want to grow," he told me via an audio interview on WhatsApp. "Our population is feeling unity and strength. The political process of Bangladesh will pave the way for economic prosperity.".
With freedom comes worries
The New York Times recently reported that radical Islamic extremists are sensing an opportunity as the nation transitions to a more pluralistic society that allows for greater religious freedom.
Alam and others say it may be tempting to overstate the momentum of such a movement. In the days since the revolution, Bangladesh has been the subject of more than a few worries that many say are either false or exaggerated.
One of those is the persistent accusation that, under Yunus’ leadership, Hindu minorities, which make up about 8% of the population, are being oppressed or violently attacked. Many I spoke with blame Hasina for orchestrating these rumors from her exile in India. Others also blame Hindu nationalist groups.
Credible reports tell of attacks against Hindus in various parts of the country, especially toward the end of 2024.
In an interview with Yunus at the Jumuna Guest House, near his official residence in Dhaka, he acknowledged to me that some crimes have occurred, especially during the chaos that followed the revolution. But he strongly denied any involvement from his government. Much of what happened during the revolution was politically motivated, rather than religiously motivated, he said.
His press secretary, Shafiqul Alam, said perpetrators of crimes are being held accountable. More than 100 people have been arrested in connection with crimes committed during that time and after, he said.
In my contact with numerous Hindus, including a visit with several Hindu women in the town of Gopaldi and in a meeting with a prominent Hindu politician with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, all denied feeling victimized or persecuted by the government since the revolution.
Yunus said he wants all people to feel equally protected by the nation’s constitution.
"The constitution gives me all rights, guarantees my rights; ensures my rights," he said. "That’s what I want.".
Tug and pull of democracy
On Aug. 8 last year, the day Yunus was sworn in, the BBC World Service invited me on its morning Newsday radio program to discuss the challenges of his new position. I said it would be interesting to watch how a man so principled in his plans to end poverty would navigate the "tug and pull and the compromises that are necessary" to operate a newly hatched democracy.
As it turns out, this has happened in unexpected ways, with major challenges from the United States.
Early in his second term, President Trump began dismantling the United States Agency for International Development program, or USAID, and it withdrew from the World Health Organization. USAID was contributing to more than 100 programs in Bangladesh, including those involved in fighting the spread of communicable diseases.
An editorial in the Dhaka Tribune on Feb. 28 noted that the withdrawal from the World Health Organization threatens funding to fight or research "tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, malaria and maternal health." The U.S. was the largest donor of COVID-19 vaccines to WHO, and "played a significant role in helping Bangladesh overcome this crisis.
"Without U.S. contributions, Bangladesh would have likely faced substantial delays in securing vaccines for its population," the editorial noted.
Asked about Trump’s actions, Yunus was diplomatic, especially concerning USAID.
Barbara Singer, of Bethesda, Md., who says she worked for USAID as a contractor until being let go three weeks ago, holds up a sign in support of USAID, Friday, Feb. 28, 2025, in Washington. "It’s a great agency that benefits all of us," says Singer. "Americans and people worldwide." | Jacquelyn Martin.
"Suddenly, you wake up and this whole thing (USAID) stops," he said. "This is a new experience. I’m sure they have a bright plan after that. They can’t just walk away from such a beautiful program, a global program, they had.
"USAID has been very helpful for us. We’re very grateful for the support.".
Tariffs and Bangladesh
In the days since that interview, the president’s new tariff program was initiated, then put on hold for three months. The U.S. was prepared to impose a 37% tariff on imports from Bangladesh, which would have been devastating for the nation’s struggling economy.
As I observed while driving through Dhaka, Bangladesh is home to more than 4,000 garment factories, most of which produce inexpensive clothing for the American market. The United States is Bangladesh’s third-largest trading partner, behind China and India.
Workers stitch garments at a factory run by the Bangladesh based Urmi Group in Narayanganj, Bangladesh, Tuesday, April 8, 2025.
The Trump administration claims Bangladesh imposes a 74% tariff on U.S. imports, something Bangladesh disputes. Economist Mustafizur Rahman noted that Bangladesh imports large amounts of cotton from the U.S., which it uses to make clothing it sells back to the U.S.
He told the Daily Sun of Dhaka that the U.S. has policies in place that are supposed to ease tariffs on foreign products made using American raw materials.
President Trump’s three-month pause on increased tariffs was welcomed news, but Bangladesh is anxious to negotiate with Washington, hoping to avoid the mass layoffs and other problems that might come from their full implementation.
Relations with India
Yunus faces other challenges, including relations with neighboring India. But a recent impromptu meeting in Thailand with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a summit of The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, or BIMSTEC, is seen as a positive step.
Bangladesh and India have a long friendship that has been strained recently by India’s decision to grant asylum to Hasina. Yunus has called for her to be returned to Bangladesh to stand trial.It will take strength and resolve for Bangladesh to overcome its challenges, but strength seems to be in good supply among many. There’s something about enduring the dangers of a bloody revolution.
Mahfuj Alam tried to bring that to life for me during our interview. He described life in hiding from security forces last July.
"We were hiding," he said. "We knew that any time we got caught, we would get killed.".
What had started as a peaceful student protest — in opposition to Hasina’s quota system guaranteeing a portion of government jobs to descendants of fighters in Bangladesh’s war of independence in 1971 — rapidly turned violent as government police opened fire.
UN human rights chief Volker Türk said as many as 1,400 people were killed over 36 days of protest, most being shot by government security forces, according to the UN News website. Videos of that violence show the brutality on the one side and the resolve on the other, as waves of protesters kept taking to the streets, despite the dangers. When the crackdown began, the movement shifted from a protest against quotas to demands for Hasina and others to resign.
"I wasn’t surprised," Alam says when I ask him about the violence. "It was her (Hasina’s) sort of playbook. If you were coming in the street with protests, you would have to face bullets. It happened with other political leaders. It happened with everyone who would oppose the regime.
"We were expecting it would happen to us some day.".
It ended quickly as Hasina fled. Alam and his fellow leaders of the movement were happy that Yunus accepted their invitation to lead the country, but Alam is quick to note that the nation’s deep-seated problems, including widespread government corruption, will take a long time to change.
Once Yunus leaves office, Alam and the students who prevailed last summer hope to assume much of the responsibility for shaping the future of Bangladesh. To that end, Alam’s vision is expansive.
Late last year he told The Diplomat, a publication that serves the Asia Pacific region, that he envisions Dhaka, the capital city, as a place where religions, cultures and civilizations can co-exist and form the foundation of a state unique in the region, where ideas can blossom and grow.
To me, he said, "I hope that Bangladesh will be a country which will have educated and skilled workers and institutions free of corruption; a place where resources are used wisely.
People work in rice fields outside Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News.
"It will have a say in global platforms. This is our hope: Bangladesh will be a dignified political community and will have the institutions necessary to have a say in global platforms and a democratic process. It will not be radicalized.".The Western world, including Utah, where Yunus has visited and spoken often, should hope this comes true. Family pleads for the release of a Nepali student abducted by Hamas (AP)
AP [6/12/2025 10:37 AM, Binaj Gurubacharya, 456K]
The family of a Nepali man taken captive by the Palestinian militant group Hamas appealed Thursday to his captors for his release, stressing that he has no involvement in the conflict in Gaza.
Bipin Joshi, now 25, was among 17 Nepali students studying agriculture in southern Israel during the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack that ignited the war in Gaza.
Joshi had worked hard in a government competition to earn a spot to study in Israel, his 17-year-old sister Pushpa Joshi said Thursday in Kathmandu. He arrived in southern Israel just three weeks before the attack. It was his first time out of Nepal.“Bipin Joshi is an innocent agriculture student,” Pushpa Joshi said. “He is a student who has a long life ahead of him, who is just 25 years now.”
Militants killed 10 of the Nepali students in the attack and injured six. Joshi saved multiple lives by tossing a live grenade out of the bomb shelter where they were hiding, his sister said, before he was abducted and taken to Gaza.
His family hasn’t had a sign of life from him since Israel obtained security footage from a hospital in Gaza showing Joshi, so they know Joshi was taken alive to Gaza, but have no information about him since then.
Pushpa, who was 15 when her brother was kidnapped, lives with their parents in a town in western Nepal. She travels eight hours each direction on buses to Kathmandu regularly to lobby officials to secure her brother’s release. She has met the country’s prime minister and president several times.
Nepal’s government says it has repeatedly sought help from Qatari and Egyptian officials to get Joshi freed.“He is alive and we believe from the bottom of our hearts that he for sure is going to come back all safe and sound,” Pushpa said. “We have big hopes that he will be back.”
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages in the Oct. 7 attack. They are still holding 53 hostages, around 20 them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Israeli forces have rescued eight living hostages from Gaza and recovered dozens of bodies, including five over the past week.
In the ensuing conflict, more than 55,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed “doubts” about whether several hostages are still alive. None of the previously released hostages have seen Bipin Joshi recently during their captivity.
His parents are constantly monitoring news about the Gaza conflict, and get their hopes up whenever they see signs of a hostage release. “News is always on, all day from the morning to night, at our house,” Pushpa Joshi said.
They also are in contact with families of other Nepalis who were killed or injured in the attack, though Joshi is the only Nepali hostage.
Pushpa said her brother is her best friend, and that they would often learn, sing and dance together while their parents were at work.“In rainy season like now, we used to get wet in the rain and dance,” she said.
He studied diligently to earn the scholarship to study agriculture in Israel, she said. The exchange program at Kibbutz Alumim was close to the Gaza border in a major agricultural area.
Nepalese go to Israel for both education and employment, to learn the country’s advanced agricultural techniques. Agriculture is the backbone of Nepal’s economy, and the primary source of income for more than 60% of the population. Central Asia
Turkmenistan Names High-yield Wheat After Its Leaders (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [6/12/2025 7:14 AM, Staff, 931K]
Turkmenistan inaugurated its harvest season on Thursday by naming new high-yielding wheat varieties after its leaders, as climate change threatens food security in the predominantly desert Central Asian country.
Among the fifteen former Soviet republics, Turkmenistan is the most threatened by severe food insecurity, affecting over 12 percent of its seven-million population, the World Bank’s data from 2024 showed.
One of the most reclusive countries in the world, Turkmenistan has been ruled continuously since 2006 by the father-and-son duo: Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov and his son Serdar.
Gurbanguly is the subject of an intense personality cult and has been officially proclaimed the "leader of the Turkmen nation" and the "hero-Arkadag", or hero-protector in Turkmen.
"For this year’s harvest, new high-yielding wheat varieties ‘Arkadag’, ‘Serdar’ and ‘Pyragy’ were sown on the country’s farmlands," Turkmen state media said.
"They are distinguished by high yields, large grains and low water requirements, which demonstrates their greater efficiency," the statement added.
State television footage on Thursday showed hundreds of people working in fields in front of a portrait of the current President Serdar Berdymukhamedov.
Information on the country is fragmented, tightly controlled by the state and generally unverifiable.
An employee of the state-owned company "Turkmen Wheat" told AFP on condition of anonymity that the new wheat varieties "were selected on the instructions of President Serdar Berdymukhamedov to improve seeds and their resistance to climate change."
According to the Food and Agriculture Organtization of the United Nations (FAO), "wheat rust diseases threaten to affect approximately 0.5 million hectares of arable land in Turkmenistan, given the climatic conditions." Uzbekistan takes a diplomatic jab at the Kremlin over the harsh treatment of migrants in Russia (EurasiaNet)
EurasiaNet [6/12/2025 4:14 PM, Staff, 57.6K]
Uzbek diplomats have rebuked Russian officials over what Tashkent sees as the continuing “rude treatment of Uzbek citizens” in Russia and are demanding changes.
In an unusually direct statement posted on Telegram following a regular bilateral diplomatic meeting, the Uzbek Foreign Ministry said Russia’s harsh policies towards Uzbek nationals, and by implication citizens from other Central Asian states, was “absolutely incompatible with friendly relations between our countries and that specific measures are needed to prevent them.”
The harassment of Central Asian nationals, in particular labor migrants, by Russian law-enforcement authorities and others has intensified over the past year, following the Crocus City Hall terrorism tragedy carried out by Tajik militants. “The Republic of Uzbekistan considers the protection of the rights and interests of its citizens living and temporarily staying abroad to be its priority,” the statement said, adding that Tashkent will keep “this issue under constant control and will continue to take additional measures if necessary.”
Russia has a long track record of denial and deflection in the face of diplomatic pressure, but the Russian Foreign Ministry’s response to the Uzbek complaint was comparatively conciliatory. Instead of counter-punching, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova tried to de-escalate. Re-emphasizing that bilateral relations remain “strong,” she said Uzbek complaints would receive careful consideration, without, of course, making any commitments to take remedial action.“I would like to note that we have direct channels of communication through law enforcement and other services,” Zakharova stated. “As is customary between allies, the conversation is frank and any signal is carefully considered.”
Part of Tashkent’s dissatisfaction may be linked to Russian efforts to recruit Uzbek and other Central Asian nationals to fight in Ukraine. Uzbekistan has sought to discourage the practice by handing out prison terms to returnees who saw action in Ukraine on the Russian side. A June 10 report published by Gazeta.uz said that an Uzbek national recently received a five-year term for joining the “WagnerGroup,” a mercenary force that was subjugated by the Kremlin following an abortive putsch almost two years ago. Political Science on the Sidelines in Uzbekistan (The Diplomat)
The Diplomat [6/12/2025 10:03 AM, Bakhrom Mirakilov and Niginakhon Saida, 555K]
In May, Uzbekistan’s State Statistics Committee reported that the number of tertiary education graduates has more than tripled over the past decade, rising from 144,900 in 2015 to 472,200 in 2025. This growth is certainly commendable and reflects the Mirziyoyev administration’s early commitment to expanding higher education as part of the country’s broader development strategy. Caution over Uzbekistan’s higher education reform highlights a core issue: market competition alone does not ensure quality. Higher education is not only about constructing buildings, developing curricula and marketing them with glossy brochures, but also about intellectual autonomy, academic freedom, the transformation of individuals, and the cultivation of research culture. Otherwise, higher education becomes merely a shop for distributing degrees.
Today, Uzbekistan is home to more than 200 universities – state, private, and international. But even with the private university boom and this quantitative expansion, academic freedom remains limited in certain sensitive or underrated fields like political science and related disciplines.
Despite a Return of Political Science, an Ongoing Shortage of Opportunities.
Political science majors were effectively dismantled in 2015, but it was not an overnight decision. Uzbekistan’s higher education system ceased admitting students to political science programs in 2010, and by 2013, all political science departments had been shut down under the justification that they did not consider the "Uzbek model" of development. The decision reflected the Soviet tradition of fighting with pseudosciences and eliminating elements not corresponding with the state’s ideological leaning. This continuity of Soviet-style education can also be interpreted through the lens of what institutionalists term as path dependency – a lock-in effect whereby institutional development remains trapped and reflects the decisions and habits of the past.
Although the political science discipline was formally reinstated in 2019 by a presidential decree under the new administration, its revival has been extremely limited in scope. According to the State Open Data Portal, currently only eight state universities offer political science degrees. For the 2024-25 academic year, Uzbekistan’s 112 public universities offered 196,388 spots in bachelor’s programs, but only 325 were allocated to political science majors, representing a mere 0.16 percent of the total. The figure appears even more marginal when viewed in the broader context: according to the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, and Innovation, the country has 211 higher education institutions serving over 1.1 million students across various disciplines.
Political science is not alone. Based on the available data published on State Open Data Portal, only six state universities offer undergraduate degrees in international relations – all clustered in Tashkent. Sociology is available at 12 universities across the country, social work at 10, philosophy at seven, anthropology at only three, while public administration is available at just two state universities. Although in May the government announced that the Presidential Academy of Public Administration will be reorganized into a new Academy of Public Policy and Governance, at present, the country lacks a fully-fledged school of public policy.
Another related problem is a significant shortage of Uzbek-language materials, including in the field of political science or sociology – works by renowned world scholars or classic books are rarely available in translation. Most university courses employ domestically authored textbooks in Uzbek or Russian, which become the main window onto the discipline. In turn, this may create a citation loop. Home-grown manuals shape how the next generation understands political science in isolation of the field’s global reach. Although the state has launched a project aimed at translating world classic books, multiple observers highlight the gap, lamenting that many books were never translated into Uzbek.
In recent years, Uzbekistan has seen a clear positive trend toward the creation of new research and analytical centers – think tanks. To name a few, the Development Strategy Center was opened in 2017, Yuksalish was established in 2019, the International Institute for Central Asia was founded in 2021, the Institute of Advanced International Studies in 2022, and the Center for Progressive Reforms in 2023. Most of these institutions are state-affiliated, state-run and/or staffed by former state officials. Where formal political science departments are small, policy advice migrates to a constellation of semi-official think tanks. Crucially, even such quasi-government think-tanks still depend on academia to supply the next generation of knowledge producers and high-quality outputs in the form of policy or research papers.
The 2024 Bertelsmann Transformation Index noted that "Uzbekistan has only a limited number of relatively capable independent think tanks and academic institutions that engage in critical analysis of existing policies and government decision-making processes." A 2023 article in Modern Diplomacy pinpointed the core challenges faced by today’s Uzbek think tanks: dependence on state contracts, limited funding diversification, limited data access, lack of investment in human capacity, and shortage of experts, all of which are constrained within safe ideological boundaries.
The supply of social science programs remains concentrated within state-run institutions, leaving a noticeable gap in educational opportunities at non-state and branches of international universities. The shortage of local social science programs makes Uzbekistan a niche well worth exploring for well-regarded foreign universities eyeing regional expansion. Most private and international universities are heavily skewed toward business, finance, information technology, management, marketing, and tourism. In many cases, some institutions do not even maintain functioning websites or do not post detailed content, making it difficult to assess the quality and scope of their programs.
Uzbekistan needs not only entrepreneurs, business managers, or IT specialists, but also policy architects, public administrators, international relations specialists, sociologists, anthropologists, political scientists, and similar civic experts. This gap highlights the growing need for scholars in these fields – especially as the world hurtles into an AI-driven era – with leading universities already offering AI programs and courses in social sciences.
While there are certainly Uzbek scholars and practitioners in the field of political science and related fields, the future of the discipline relies on nurturing a new cohort of experts. Today, that role is often filled by local bloggers and podcasters. Back in 2017, Alisher Faizullaev – professor emeritus at the University of World Economy and Diplomacy in Tashkent and a former ambassador of Uzbekistan to the United Kingdom, Benelux countries, EU, and NATO – highlighted the need for political analysis and the study of political science. Notably, in his view, political science should be treated as a science, free from ideological or opportunistic influences, as its development as an independent discipline would benefit both the state and society. Yet this vision hinges on political will, which in practice still tends to reflect lingering institutional traditions from the Soviet period.
One of the key ingredients necessary for a flourishing social science scene and the production of high-quality outputs is true academic freedom and investment in human capital, allowing diverse scholarly perspectives to gain prominence and, just as importantly, creating space for systematic, well-resourced research. According to the Academic Freedom Index run by FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg and V-Dem Institute, Uzbekistan sits in the 20-30 percent bracket of the 2024 index (status D) yet with signs of statistically significant improvements since 2013. For contrast, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are in the 30-40 percent (Status D and C status) with a slightly more pluralistic environment in academia. Freedom House’s most recent annual Freedom in the World report still ranked Uzbekistan as "not free" and this has implications for academia.
Sensitive issues, from the perspective of the government, could be red lined for researchers, while locals must report foreign grants and get approval. Contacts between universities or scholars and foreign entities are also subject to state oversight, although Uzbek universities have had more space to seek partnerships with foreign institutions since 2016. A notable limitation of Uzbekistan’s higher education system is its inability to cultivate critical thinking and to transform individuals, enabling learners to view the world and social processes from multiple angles. It’s still difficult for students and academics in Uzbekistan to critically engage with scholarly debates and the theories of leading scholars and thinkers.
This brings us back to the central question: how ready is the system to open the doors to genuine academic debates?
The issue runs deeper than just the ban or restriction of political science. "Whether you get an academic degree or not depends on the existence of research councils at universities and there is a limited number of research councils in this field in Uzbek universities," explains a U.K.-based scholar who asked to remain anonymous, referring to his field research.
This does not mean there is a complete lack of academic freedom in Uzbekistan. In fact, fields such as sociology, philosophy, and related fields have witnessed a relaxation of previous censorship.
"I still think there is a positive change in academic freedom," the scholar further noted. What largely persists, he elaborated, is a deep-seated fear among administrative bodies about damaging the country’s public image. Rooted in a Soviet-era mindset, openly discussing the country’s problems – whether obvious or nuanced – is often seen as a betrayal, as though it tarnishes the nation’s reputation. What they fail to understand is that identifying and criticizing systematic shortcomings in one or another sphere is a necessary step toward meaningful reform and building a stronger nation.
A related issue regards interpreting academic freedom. There is "a difference between academic freedom and academic autonomy (in Uzbek state documents, it is rendered as ‘autonomy’)," he continued. "That is, in our context, academic freedom is often interpreted as academic autonomy, but in the documents it mostly refers to the universities’ freedom in academic management. In my understanding, there is no clear distinction in this regard, and everyone may interpret it differently.
"In a certain sense, the opportunities for freedom of speech that have been granted since 2017 have also, to some extent, provided more freedom in academic research (which is a positive aspect). However, in terms of disseminating information that may not align with the state’s/government’s image, censorship still exists.".
Despite market-oriented reforms, governance of the higher education sector is top-down, hierarchical, and centralized. Rectors often come from a state-sector background reflecting a path-dependent carry-over of the Soviet legacy of "nomenklatura" posts. Back in 2024, the higher education minister claimed that "the question of electing rectors is included in the 2030 strategy and is under review." However, appointments of executive heads and rectors, which is a component of institutional autonomy, remains centralized under the Cabinet of Ministers, with rapid reshuffles. In February 2020 the Cabinet dismissed or moved 10 rectors in a single day.
Throughout the broader scholarly ecosystem and issues with academic freedom, the structural weakness of social sciences extends beyond pedagogy, exacerbated by a shortage of reputable journals and sensitivity of research topics. The phenomenon known as "publish or perish" is evident within Uzbekistan’s higher education system too. It pushes people to chase compliance rather than quality, driven by local bureaucratic quotas, lack of funding, and the global shift toward open-access publishing. This stick-led pressure and quota-driven demands led to a ballooning market of ghostwriting and predatory publications. Even one quick search on Telegram is enough to surface a plethora of Uzbek channels offering to place manuscripts in little-known, barely indexed journals. Simultaneously, the 2017 policy reforms – linking cash bonuses to publication counts – boosted unethical behavior, unintendedly encouraging widespread shortcuts in doctoral dissertations and triggering a surge of low-quality publications. Yet even if universities or scholars notch any success, the credit lies with determined individuals, not with the system.
Further progress will depend on departure from "old habits" and ensuring genuine freedom of academic inquiry, which includes unfettered access to data, a plurality of viewpoints, institutional autonomy, more funding and more space for bottom-up independent research. This would allow both universities and think tanks to nurture a new pool of knowledge producers capable of offering policy advice, and can potentially make the social sciences flourish. Meanwhile, the limited social science landscape signals an untapped market for international universities to invest in Uzbek academia and human capital more and to introduce globally benchmarked programs. Indo-Pacific
Trump vows to bring together India, Pakistan to ‘solve anything’ (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [6/12/2025 2:30 PM, Staff, 3077K]
US President Donald Trump insisted Thursday he would bring India and Pakistan to the table together after recent fighting, saying he can "solve anything.".US diplomacy last month helped bring a ceasefire that ended four days of fighting between the nuclear-armed adversaries triggered by an attack on civilians in the Indian part of divided Kashmir.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in announcing the ceasefire that the two nations had agreed to "start talks on a broad set of issues at a neutral site.".
The statement was welcomed by Pakistan, which has long sought an international role over Kashmir, but India — which has a warm relationship with the United States — was more circumspect.
Asked whether there remained plans for talks between India and Pakistan a month after the ceasefire, Trump said: "We’re going to get those two getting together, you know?".
"I told them, India and Pakistan — they have a longtime rivalry over Kashmir — I said, I can solve anything. I’ll be your arbitrator," he told reporters.
India refuses any outside mediation on Kashmir, the scenic Himalayan region which has a Muslim majority but a sizable Hindu minority.
"Any India-Pakistan engagement has to be bilateral," Indian foreign ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal told reporters on May 29.
"At the same time we are clear that talks and terror don’t go together.".
Gunmen on April 22 massacred 26 tourists in Kashmir, most singled out as Hindus, in the deadliest attack on civilians in decades in the region which has seen a long-running insurgency.
India has accused Pakistan of backing the assailants and launched military action in response. Pakistan denies involvement and accuses India of escalating tensions. Twitter
Afghanistan
Zalmay Khalilzad@realZalmayMK
[6/12/2025 6:03 PM, 266.3K followers, 11 retweets, 116 likes]
During the recent Eid sermon/prayer, the leader of the Taliban was very critical of democracy. I do not want to defend the lawlessness, corruption, and many other failures of the previous Afghan government. And, of course, the Afghan people have the right to have their own form of government. However, it is important to observe that many of the most successful, richest, and most powerful countries in the world are democracies. #Afghanistan
Fawzia Koofi@Fawziakoofi77
[6/12/2025 11:21 AM, 567.3K followers, 19 retweets, 84 likes]
The fall of Kabul and the return of the Taliban wasn’t just another regime collapse. It shattered the hopes and dreams of millions and marked a collapse of global leadership from the Global North. It emboldened authoritarian regimes everywhere.Part of my one on one stage conversation at @GLOBSEC. @GLOBSEC is a major international platform convening 2,000+ leaders, heads of state, prime ministers, foreign ministers, civil society, business, media, and more in Prague to address the world’s most urgent challenges. Pakistan
Shehbaz Sharif@CMShehbaz
[6/12/2025 9:49 AM, 6.8M followers, 2.3K retweets, 24K likes]
Saddened by the tragic crash of Air India flight near Ahmedabad today. We extend our condolences to the families of the victims grieving this immense loss. Our thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by this heartbreaking tragedy.
Shehbaz Sharif@CMShehbaz
[6/13/2025 2:58 AM, 6.8M followers, 446 retweets, 1.5K likes]
I condemn, in the strongest possible terms, today’s unprovoked attack on Iran by Israel. I convey my deepest sympathies to the Iranian people on the loss of lives in this attack. This grave and highly irresponsible act is deeply alarming and risks further de-stabilising an already volatile region. We urge the international community and the United Nations to take urgent steps to prevent any further escalation that could imperil regional and global peace.
BilawalBhuttoZardari@BBhuttoZardari
[6/12/2025 6:36 AM, 5.1M followers, 407 retweets, 696 likes]
Spoke to Hasan Askari of @BBCUrdu in London. I conveyed that Pakistan’s position is rooted in truth and strength. Even India’s supporters in the U.S. admitted Delhi offered no evidence on Pahalgam. Our counterterrorism efforts are recognized globally. Warned that if India weaponises water, consequences will follow. We came with a message of peace, and the world is listening. #Pakistan4Peace #TruthMatters Link: https://bbc.com/urdu/articles/czxylwqvd4ko
BilawalBhuttoZardari@BBhuttoZardari
[6/12/2025 3:56 AM, 5.1M followers, 479 retweets, 880 likes]
My interview with @ForeignPolicy on India-Pakistan Conflict & the path to a permanent peace. https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/06/11/india-pakistan-delegation-bilawal-bhutto-zardari/ India
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[6/13/2025 1:08 AM, 108.8M followers, 6.4K retweets, 42K likes]
Visited the crash site in Ahmedabad today. The scene of devastation is saddening. Met officials and teams working tirelessly in the aftermath. Our thoughts remain with those who lost their loved ones in this unimaginable tragedy.
Narendra Modi@narendramodi[6/13/2025 1:07 AM, 108.8M followers, 4.4K retweets, 34K likes]
We are all devastated by the air tragedy in Ahmedabad. The loss of so many lives in such a sudden and heartbreaking manner is beyond words. Condolences to all the bereaved families. We understand their pain and also know that the void left behind will be felt for years to come. Om Shanti.
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[6/12/2025 6:35 AM, 108.8M followers, 28K retweets, 210K likes]
The tragedy in Ahmedabad has stunned and saddened us. It is heartbreaking beyond words. In this sad hour, my thoughts are with everyone affected by it. Have been in touch with Ministers and authorities who are working to assist those affected.
President of India@rashtrapatibhvn
[6/12/2025 12:23 PM, 27.1M followers, 1.3K retweets, 12K likes]
The loss of lives after the plane crash at Ahmedabad is utterly devastating. My heart goes out to the bereaved families. The country has also lost the former Chief Minister of Gujarat, Vijay Rupani Ji in the tragedy. Rupani Ji was always committed to people’s welfare. I express my heartfelt condolences to his family and admirers.
Dr. S. Jaishankar@DrSJaishankar
[6/13/2025 2:29 AM, 3.8M followers, 176 retweets, 1.3K likes]
In touch with FS @DavidLammy of UK, FM @PauloRangel_pt of Portugal and FM @AnitaAnandMP of Canada regarding the Ahmedabad plane crash. Expressed our profound condolences and offered fullest support in this hour of grief.
Dr. S. Jaishankar@DrSJaishankar
[6/12/2025 4:21 PM, 3.8M followers, 1.6K retweets, 23K likes]
Thank all foreign leaders and Governments for their condolences at the tragic loss of lives in the Ahmedabad air crash. We appreciate this deeply.
Dr. S. Jaishankar@DrSJaishankar
[6/12/2025 5:47 AM, 3.8M followers, 3.2K retweets, 36K likes]
Deeply shocked to learn about the flight crash in Ahmedabad. Our prayers are with the passengers and their families.
Rahul Gandhi@RahulGandhi
[6/12/2025 5:55 AM, 27.9M followers, 9.2K retweets, 46K likes]
The Ahmedabad Air India crash is heartbreaking. The pain and anxiety the families of the passengers and crew must be feeling is unimaginable. My thoughts are with each one of them in this incredibly difficult moment. Urgent rescue and relief efforts by the administration are critical - every life matters, every second counts. Congress workers must do everything they can to help on the ground.
Zalmay Khalilzad@realZalmayMK
[6/12/2025 10:39 AM, 266.3K followers, 8 retweets, 68 likes]
I am saddened by the crash of the Air India plane today in Ahmedabad. My condolences to the families of those who lost loved ones. #India #UnitedKingdom
Michael Kugelman@MichaelKugelman
[6/12/2025 11:00 AM, 226.3K followers, 18 retweets, 323 likes]
An absolutely devastating tragedy in India. Thinking of all the victims and their grieving families.
Michael Kugelman@MichaelKugelman
[6/12/2025 11:51 AM, 226.3K followers, 6 retweets, 12 likes]
Modi’s visit to Canada is more about geopolitics than bilateral ties. But it can still position the 2 sides to take further steps to reset relations-and to plan a meeting between the 2 PMs at a G20 summit in Johannesburg in Nov. For @ForeignPolicy: https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/06/11/india-canada-modi-carney-g7-trip-sikh-separatism/ Derek J. Grossman@DerekJGrossman
[6/12/2025 12:48 PM, 102.9K followers, 506 retweets, 2.3K likes]
For India, the Trump admin’s invitation to Pakistani Field Marshal Asim Munir to attend the US army parade on Saturday is tantamount to inviting an avowed anti-India terrorist to attend. Good luck to the US-India strategic partnership. https://www.deccanherald.com/world/us-invites-asim-munir-terms-pakistan-as-phenomenal-partner-while-lauding-its-counterterrorism-role-3581920 NSB
PMO Nepal@PM_nepal_
[6/12/2025 11:40 AM, 721.5K followers, 4 retweets, 19 likes]
The Rt. Hon. PM KP Sharma Oli, speaking at the World Day Against Child Labour event in Baluwatar, said that no child should live on the streets and all deserve love and care.
PMO Nepal@PM_nepal_
[6/12/2025 11:40 AM, 721.5K followers, 2 likes]
He expressed concern for their suffering and pledged to ensure their safety, noting the shift from past feudal neglect to today’s commitment to children’s rights
PMO Nepal@PM_nepal_
[6/12/2025 6:20 AM, 721.5K followers, 3 retweets, 22 likes]
The Rt. Hon. PM underscored the need to modernize education, making it more practical, tech-driven, and aligned with employment. At Kathmandu University’s 99th Senate meeting,PMO Nepal@PM_nepal_
[6/12/2025 6:20 AM, 721.5K followers, 1 like]
the Chancellor highlighted the importance of nurturing self-employable graduates and praised the university’s proactive strides in this direction.
MOFA of Nepal@MofaNepal
[6/12/2025 1:10 PM, 263.7K followers, 6 retweets, 24 likes]
Ministry of Foreign Affairs organized the 4th edition of the Professor Yadu Nath Khanal Lecture Series on the theme “Nepal–China Relations in the Context of South Asia: Opportunities, Challenges, and the Road Ahead” in Kathmandu today. Professor Jayaraj Acharya, former Ambassador of Nepal to the United Nations, and Dr. Yang Chenxi, Director at the China Institute of International Studies, delivered the keynote lectures. Delivering the concluding remarks, Honourable Foreign Minister Dr. Arzu Rana Deuba highlighted the growing Nepal-China ties, rooted in Professor Khanal’s enduring legacy of independent, balanced, and pragmatic diplomacy. @Arzuranadeuba @amritrai555 @krishnadhakal07
MOFA of Nepal@MofaNepal
[6/12/2025 6:02 AM, 263.7K followers, 9 retweets, 27 likes]
Hon. Foreign Minister Dr. Arzu Rana Deuba addressed the virtual workshop entitled “Investment and Tourism Promotion: Opportunities, Challenges and Prospects” organized with the participation of the Heads of Nepali Mission abroad stationed in Europe and America regions. The Hon. Foreign Minister instructed the Heads of Nepali Mission to play active role for the promotion of tourism and investment in Nepal. The Investment Board Nepal and the Nepal Tourism Board made their presentations on investment and tourism promotion. The discussions featured on the ways and means to further accelerate tourism development and foreign investment in Nepal.@Arzuranadeuba @amritrai555 @krishnadhakal07
MOFA of Nepal@MofaNepal
[6/12/2025 5:40 AM, 263.7K followers, 2 retweets, 17 likes]
Mr. Daniel Gustafson, Special Representative of FAO Director General, paid a courtesy call on Hon. Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr. Arzu Rana Deuba today. On the occasion, they discussed matters related to strengthening longstanding partnership between Nepal and the FAO. @FAO @Arzuranadeuba @amritrai555 @krishnadhakal07 Central Asia
MFA Kazakhstan@MFA_KZ
[6/13/2025 1:03 AM, 55.8K followers, 7 retweets, 11 likes]
A Kazakh delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Murat Nurtleu, has arrived in Washington, D.C. for an official visit. https://gov.kz/memleket/entities/mfa/press/news/details/1016710?lang=en
Navbahor Imamova@Navbahor[6/12/2025 11:37 AM, 24.3K followers, 5 retweets, 9 likes]
Kyrgyzstan: Lenin has finally come down in Jalal-Abad too. https://www.turmush.kg/ru/news:2282062 Bakhtiyor Saidov@FM_Saidov
[6/12/2025 11:59 AM, 11.2K followers, 3 retweets, 8 likes]
Met with H.E. Yu Jun, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of #China to #Uzbekistan. During the discussion, we explored opportunities to further strengthen bilateral relations, enhance trade and investment cooperation, as well as expanding cultural and educational exchanges between our two countries.
Bakhtiyor Saidov@FM_Saidov
[6/12/2025 11:41 AM, 11.2K followers, 2 retweets, 7 likes]
Welcomed H.E. Baghdad Amreyev, President of the Turkic Investment Fund, today @UzbekMFA. We discussed deepening economic ties within the Turkic world and expanding the Fund’s engagement in #Uzbekistan. Welcome the Fund’s commitment to supporting projects in green energy, infrastructure, innovation, and other areas.{End of Report} To subscribe to the SCA Morning Press Clips, please email SCA-PressOfficers@state.gov. Please do not reply directly to this email.