SCA MORNING PRESS CLIPS
Prepared for the U.S. Department of State
Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs
TO: | SCA & Staff |
DATE: | Monday, March 10, 2025 6:30 AM ET |
Afghanistan
US reviewing visa programs as official says Afghanistan could be included in Trump travel ban (CNN)
CNN [3/7/2025 7:18 PM, Jennifer Hansler, 22.1M]
The US State Department is “undertaking a full review of all visa programs,” a department spokesperson confirmed amid reports of an impending new travel ban, and a US official familiar with the situation told CNN that Afghanistan could be among the countries included.
The official said the ban could come as soon as next week but noted it was unclear if final decisions on countries and timing had been made.
In an executive order issued on January 20, President Donald Trump directed cabinet members, including the Secretary of State, to compile a list of countries “for which vetting and screening information is so deficient as to warrant a partial or full suspension on the admission of nationals from those countries.” The executive order calls for this to be done within 60 days.“The Department is undertaking a full review of all visa programs as directed under this EO and executing on administration priorities,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson would not give further details, saying they do “not comment on internal deliberations or communications.”
A White House official told CNN, “No decisions regarding possible travel bans have been made, and anyone claiming otherwise does not know what they are talking about.”
In his first term, Trump barred travelers from seven majority-Muslim nations from coming to the US, a policy that saw court challenges before President Joe Biden repealed it when he took office in 2021.If Afghanistan is included in the new travel ban, it could impact tens of thousands of Afghans who worked alongside the US during its two decades of war there, as it would block Afghan nationals from coming to the US.
Tens of thousands of Afghans have already been caught in limbo due to other Trump administration executive orders suspending the US refugee admissions program and the suspension of foreign aid funding for flights of Afghan Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) holders.
On Wednesday, AfghanEvac, a coalition of organizations that has been working to bring Afghan allies to safety since the end of the war in Afghanistan in 2021, urged “all Afghan nationals holding valid U.S. visas to travel as soon as possible amid credible indications that a travel ban affecting Afghan nationals may be imminent.”“While no official announcement has been made, multiple sources within the U.S. government suggest that a new travel restriction could be implemented within the next week. This potential policy change may significantly impact Afghan visa holders who have been awaiting relocation to the United States,” the group’s notice said.
The International Refugee Admissions Project (IRAP) also spoke out against reports of a new travel ban, saying in a news release Friday that many of their clients “have been waiting years for their visas to be processed and remain in extremely dangerous circumstances.”“A new travel ban would put their lives at risk by denying them the opportunity to reach safety. Even a temporary suspension will result in immediate and lasting harm for refugees and their families,” the statement said.“While we do not yet know the full scope of who could be impacted, reports indicate that Afghan refugees targeted by the Taliban, including Special Immigrant Visa holders and others who supported the U.S. mission in Afghanistan, could all be subjected to this unlawful ban,” it continued. “It is shameful that the Trump administration is abandoning America’s promise to protect Afghan allies and other forcibly displaced people around the world.” He Was Once a Covert Taliban Operative. Now He’s the Friendly Taxman. (New York Times)
New York Times [3/9/2025 12:01 AM, David Zucchino, 831K]
He is the Taxman of Kabul, a bearded, black-turbaned Talib with a genial manner and the calculating mind of a computer-savvy accountant.
As director of the Taliban’s Taxpayers Services Directorate, Abdul Qahar Ghorbandi has the unenviable task of raising revenue for the government of a wretchedly poor, isolated nation.
From his perch behind an enormous desk next to a black and white Taliban flag, Mr. Ghorbandi rides herd on hundreds of Afghan taxpayers each weekday. He makes sure they arrive with income documentation and leave with a fistful of tax forms to fill out.
Teachers, money changers, truckers, wedding planners, grocers and others trudge the worn hallways of the imposing tax building, discussing their taxes with Talibs pecking away at computer terminals.
The Taliban have sought to ramp up tax collection after a severe economic contraction that followed their takeover in 2021. The authoritarian regime has been crippled by sanctions, in part over its harsh restrictions on women and girls.
U.S. aid, drastically reduced since 2021, could be eliminated entirely under President Trump’s budget cuts. That aid has gone to the United Nations and nongovernmental organizations working in Afghanistan, not directly to the Taliban government.
With the Taliban now in power, former guerrilla fighters must function as bureaucrats. In the 280-person tax department, they work alongside employees inherited from the U.S.-backed government that the Taliban overthrew.“At the same table we have people with turbans, with beards, next to people with suits,” said Mohammad Walid Haqmal, spokesman for the Ministry of Finance.
The Taxman himself, Mr. Ghorbandi, was an undercover operative for the Taliban in Kabul before becoming a civil servant, he said.
Mr. Ghorbandi, who said he had a master’s degree in computer science, presides over a tax administration computer system converted from English into Pashto and Dari. He has hired IT experts to modernize the department.
He has also tried to instill a culture of transparency, he said as he took a break for a lunch of beef kebabs and rice. His employees are not permitted to handle cash. Taxpayers take their forms to a government-run bank and pay taxes there.
When he is not at his desk signing reams of documents delivered by aides hustling in and out, he said, he visits different sections of his department, asking taxpayers how he could make the process faster.
International observers say the Taliban have reduced the tax corruption and cronyism that Afghans say were rampant under the U.S.-aligned government, while streamlining the process of collecting taxes.
Although many well-connected Afghans once avoided paying taxes, Mr. Ghorbandi stressed that even as the government Taxman, he was not exempt. He said he paid 30,000 afghanis a month, or a little over $400.
However open and efficient, it is still a tax office, though, and not every taxpayer leaves satisfied.
Shamsurahman Shams, who showed up one day late last year, had a beef with the Taxman. He said the two private schools he helped run had not turned a profit the past three years — and he carried a plastic folder stuffed with documents to prove it. Yet he had been assessed 500,000 afghanis, or about $7,350, in taxes.
He engaged in a spirited but civil discussion with a department employee, showing the man his documents. There was no resolution. He was told to return later to resume negotiations.
Although it was not the outcome he had hoped for, Mr. Shams conceded that the new process was more transparent than the previous system. “At least they listened to me,” he said.
During the war, the Taliban ran a lucrative tax system that levied customs duties, trucking fees and local taxes in areas they controlled. They also earned millions by imposing 10 percent taxes — “ushar” in Islam — on poppy farmers, though they have since banned poppy production.
In 2023, the Taliban government collected about $3 billion in taxes, customs and fees, or 15.5 percent of gross domestic product. (The comparable rate in the United States was 25.2 percent). The biggest source for the Taliban was so-called nontax revenue — customs duties, mining revenues, telecom licenses, airport charges, and fees for national ID cards, passports and visas, the World Bank reported. That revenue, for the first half of last year, increased 27 percent compared with the same period the previous year.
Half of government revenues were spent on security and the military last year, and just 26 percent on social programs — most of that on education for boys, according to international observers.
Mr. Ghorbandi said the tax system was not designed to be punitive. Generous exemptions mean that most ordinary Afghans do not pay income taxes. Shopkeepers with annual sales below two million afghanis, or about $29,500, also are exempt.
Merchants with earnings over that amount are taxed at just 0.3 percent — a rate that American conservatives would surely appreciate.
There are no cash penalties or interest fees for taxpayers who do not pony up on time. But scofflaws can lose their business licenses and access to the banking system.“We are human,” Mr. Ghorbandi said. “We don’t want to put burdens on our people.”
He and Mr. Haqmal, the Finance Ministry spokesman, said the ultimate goal was to eliminate all income taxes.“It is a direct order from our supreme leader,” Mr. Haqmal said. “He said: ‘I need a tax-free Afghanistan.’” Mr. Haqmal was referring to Sheikh Haibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban’s emir and head of state.
Another direct order from Sheikh Haibatullah has been the shredding of women’s rights and broader restrictions on civil liberties for all Afghans. Women are prohibited from traveling any significant distance without a male relative and are obligated to cover their entire bodies and faces in public. The sound of a woman’s voice outside her home is banned.
A striking feature of the tax department’s 15 sections in Kabul is the sight of female taxpayers in rooms crammed with men.
Lida Ismaeli, who operates a private school, sat next to a bearded Talib as he reviewed her tax status on a computer. She said no one had complained that she spoke with a male employee about her taxes with no male relative present.
Under the previous government, Ms. Ismaeli said, she never knew whether her taxes went to the government or into the pockets of the employee she paid.“The system is better now — it’s more fair,” she said.
Down a darkened hallway, Mohammad Taqi Irfani, a money changer, huddled over a computer screen with a tax employee. Mr. Irfani seemed resigned to his assessed tax payment of 73,500 afghanis, or about $1,080, on his annual earnings.
He said he did not enjoy paying taxes — who does? — but his tax burden was clearly explained to him, and his business accounts were not questioned. Under the American-backed government, he said, tax collectors came to his office and demanded bribes to lower his tax assessment.“They were in it just to make money for themselves,” he said. “So far under this government, no one has ever asked me for a bribe." Taliban insist Afghan women’s rights are protected as UN says bans cannot be ignored (AP)
AP [3/8/2025 6:20 AM, Staff, 34586K]
The Taliban issued a message on International Women’s Day, saying Afghan women live in security with their rights protected, even as the U.N. condemned ongoing employment and education bans.
Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 2021, they have barred education for women and girls beyond sixth grade, most employment, and many public spaces. Last August, the Vice and Virtue Ministry published laws that ban women’s voices and bare faces outside the home.
The Taliban’s chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid released a statement on his official X account, without specifically mentioning International Women’s Day, which is celebrated on March 8.
He said the dignity, honor, and legal rights of women were a priority for the Islamic emirate, the term used by the Taliban to describe their government.
Afghan women lived in security, both physically and psychologically, he added.
"In accordance with Islamic law and the culture and traditions of Afghan society, the fundamental rights of Afghan women have been secured. However, it should not be forgotten that the rights of Afghan women are being discussed within an Islamic and Afghan society, which has clear differences from Western societies and their culture," said Mujahid.
Also Saturday, the U.N. renewed its call for the Taliban to lift the bans.
"The erasure of women and girls from public life cannot be ignored," said Roza Otunbayeva, the head of the U.N. mission in Afghanistan. "We remain committed to investing in their resilience and leadership, as they are key to Afghanistan’s future.".
Alison Davidian, special representative for U.N. Women Afghanistan, said the world could not accept a future for Afghan women that would never be tolerated elsewhere.
"Our response to their erasure is a test of our commitment to women and girls everywhere," said Davidian. "We must stand with Afghan women as if our own lives depend on it — because they do.".The Taliban remain isolated from the West — and without international recognition as the country’s official government — because of their restrictions on women and girls.The Afghanistan Journalists Support Organization said 893 women were currently employed in the media sector. That’s a drop from 2,756 who were working before 2021, according to Reporters Without Borders.There were nine provinces where there were no women in the media industry, the Afghan support organization said. The declining participation of female journalists, driven by the Taliban’s discriminatory policies, signalled a “concerted effort” to erase women from the media landscape, it said.On Friday in Paris, UNESCO hosted a high-level conference on women and girls in Afghanistan. Participants included Hamida Aman, the founder of the women-only station Radio Begum, Fawzia Khoofi, a parliamentarian from the former Western-backed government, and rights experts including Richard Bennett, who is barred from entering Afghanistan.In an apparent dig at the event, the spokesman for the Vice and Virtue Ministry Saif ul-Islam Khyber said recent international conferences held under the name of women’s rights exposed the hypocrisy of certain organizations and European Union foundations. UN urges Taliban to end restrictions on girls on International Women’s Day (VOA)
VOA [3/8/2025 6:54 PM, Staff, 2913K]
Four years ago, Yalda never imagined that she would not be able to continue her education or achieve her dream of graduating from school.
"My parents would often talk about the Taliban’s first rule [in the 1990s]," recalled Yalda, who requested that her full name not be used for security reasons. "I used to think it was fortunate I wasn’t born during those days. Sadly, we ended up experiencing the same fate.".
Yalda, who was in 10th grade when the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021, is one of the 1.5 million girls deprived of an education in Afghanistan.
Like most school-age girls, she is now confined to her home.
"I think I live in a prison. I am so hopeless, and wish I had not been born a girl," Yalda said.
In addition to banning girls from secondary and university education, the Taliban have barred them from working with government and nongovernment organizations, traveling long distances without a close male relative, and going to parks, public baths and salons.
The U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, in a statement issued on March 8, condemned the "progressive erasure of women and girls from public life" and called on the Taliban to lift restrictions on Afghan women.
"These restrictions are not only violations of human rights but also barriers to Afghanistan’s progress, deepening poverty and isolation for millions," said UNAMA’s statement.
The Taliban rejected the U.N. call, saying that women in Afghanistan are given their due rights "in accordance with Islamic Sharia law.".
"At present, Afghan women reside in a state of complete physical and psychological security," they said.
An Afghan teacher, who did not want her identity to be disclosed for fear of reprisal, told VOA that Afghan women do not feel safe in the country.
"We don’t have safety. I can’t teach anymore. We don’t have any future," said the teacher. "We are not considered as equal human beings in this country.".
Afghanistan is listed last — 177th out of 177 countries — on Georgetown University’s global Women Peace and Security Index of inclusion, justice and security for women.
The teacher said that women in Afghanistan are filled with despair, saying that "any change by the group is unlikely.".
Hoda Jaberian, the UNESCO program coordinator for education emergencies in Paris, called the Taliban’s restriction "a war against women.".
She told VOA that women’s rights in Afghanistan should remain a top priority for the international community.
"This is the responsibility of the international community to ensure that the rights of Afghan women and girls are restored without any delay," Jaberian said.
No country has yet formally recognized the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.
Adela Raz, a former Afghan ambassador to the United States, told VOA that one of the main reasons for not recognizing the Taliban’s government is the group’s failure to grant women their rights.
She added that, alongside the United Nations, Muslim-majority nations and neighboring countries should pressure the Taliban to respect women’s rights in Afghanistan.
"The neighboring countries, to an extent, have ties with the Taliban and their position is important" to apply pressure on the Taliban to uphold women’s rights.Yalda says that she and other girls in Afghanistan, however, are losing hope.
"They [the Taliban] haven’t changed in the past 3½ years. I don’t think they will," said Yalda. Afghan women who fled Taliban to study abroad face imminent return after USAID cuts (BBC)
BBC [3/8/2025 3:31 AM, Yogita Limaye, 52868K]
More than 80 Afghan women who fled the Taliban to pursue higher education in Oman now face imminent deportation back to Afghanistan, following the Trump administration’s sweeping freeze on foreign aid programmes.
Funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), their scholarships were abruptly terminated after a funding freeze ordered by President Donald Trump when he returned to office in January.
"It was heart-breaking," one student told the BBC, speaking anonymously for fear of reprisals. "Everyone was shocked and crying. We’ve been told we will be sent back within two weeks.".
Since regaining power nearly four years ago, the Taliban has imposed draconian restrictions on women, including banning them from universities.
The Trump administration’s aid freeze has faced legal roadblocks but thousands of humanitarian programmes around the world have been terminated or thrown into jeopardy as the White House seeks to cut billions in government spending.
The students in Oman say preparations are already under way to return them to Afghanistan, and have appealed to the international community to "intervene urgently".
The BBC has seen emails sent to the 82 students informing them that their scholarships have been "discontinued" due to the termination of the programme and USAID funding.
The emails - which acknowledge the news will be "profoundly disappointing and unsettling" - refer to travel arrangements back to Afghanistan, which caused alarm among the students.
"We need immediate protection, financial assistance and resettlement opportunities to a safe country where we can continue our education," one told the BBC.
The USAID website’s media contact page remains offline. The BBC has contacted the US State Department for comment.
The Afghan women, now facing a forced return from Oman, had been pursuing graduate and post-graduate courses under the Women’s Scholarship Endowment (WSE), a USAID programme which began in 2018.
It provided scholarships for Afghan women to study science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), the disciplines banned for women by the Taliban.
Just over a week ago, the students were told their scholarships had been terminated.
"It’s like everything has been taken away from me," another student told the BBC. "It was the worst moment. I’m under extreme stress right now.".
These women, mostly aged in their 20s, qualified for scholarships in 2021 before the Taliban seized Afghanistan. Many continued their studies in Afghan universities until December 2022, when the Taliban banned higher education for women.
After 18 months in limbo, they said they fled to Pakistan last September.
USAID then facilitated their visas to Oman, where they arrived between October and November 2024.
"If we are sent back, we will face severe consequences. It would mean losing all our dreams," a student said. "We won’t be able to study and our families might force us to get married. Many of us could also be at personal risk due to our past affiliations and activism.".
The Taliban has cracked down on women protesting for education and work, with many activists beaten, detained and threatened.
Women in Afghanistan describe themselves as "dead bodies moving around" under the regime’s brutal policies.
The Taliban government says it has been trying to resolve the issue of women’s education, but has also defended its supreme leader’s diktats, saying they are "in accordance with Islamic Sharia law".
"Afghanistan is experiencing gender apartheid, with women systematically excluded from basic rights, including education," a student said.
She and her friends in Oman had managed to escape that fate, as the scholarships were supposed to fund their education until 2028.
"When we came here, our sponsors told us to not go back to Afghanistan till 2028 for vacations or to visit our families because it’s not safe for us. And now they’re telling us to go," a student said.
Last month, White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly blamed the situation for Afghan women on the US military’s withdrawal from the country under the Democrats, telling the Washington Post: "Afghan women are suffering because Joe Biden’s disastrous withdrawal allowed the Taliban to impose mediaeval Sharia law policies.".
The decision to slash American aid funding has come under the Trump administration, and been implemented by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
And these women face a grim future, urgently seeking a lifeline before time runs out. Greenland and Afghanistan: Frontiers in race for critical minerals (VOA)
VOA [3/7/2025 6:50 PM, Alex Gendler, 44838K]
Just as discoveries of fossil fuel reserves helped to shape the 20th century, the race for critical minerals is shaping the 21st. These minerals are seen as strategically crucial for modern economies, including those used in construction, energy and manufacturing — particularly for semiconductors and other technology applications.Where mineral resources are located and extracted has often played a major role in geopolitical and economic relations. Today, the world’s attention is turning to two places believed to be rich in untapped reserves — but accessing each of them comes with unique challenges.AfghanistanSitting at the intersection of multiple tectonic plates, Afghanistan’s geology has resulted in extensive and diverse mineral deposits. Historically, its territory was a primary source of copper and gold as well as gems and semiprecious stones, particularly lapis lazuli, a stone prized for its intense blue color.Today, Afghanistan is estimated to hold nearly $1 trillion worth of mineral reserves. This includes 60 million tons of copper, 183 million tons of aluminum and 2.2 billion tons of iron ore. Gold is mined on an artisanal scale in the northern and eastern provinces, while the mountainous north contains valuable marble and limestone deposits used in construction.The China National Petroleum Corporation also pumps oil in the north, though Afghanistan has no domestic refining capability and is reliant on neighbors such as Turkmenistan, Iran and Kyrgyzstan for fuel.Most of the international focus, however, is on Afghanistan’s other metal deposits, many of which are crucial to emerging technologies. These include cobalt, lithium and niobium, used in batteries and other electronics. The country’s unexplored lithium reserves may even exceed those of Bolivia, currently the world’s largest.Afghanistan also holds major deposits of rare earth metals like lanthanum, cerium and neodymium, which are used for magnets and semiconductors as well as other specialized manufacturing applications.One obstacle to extracting Afghanistan’s minerals is its terrain, considered the eighth most mountainous in the world. But security has been a much bigger impediment. Amid the political instability that followed the first fall of the Taliban in 2001, many gemstone and copper mines operated illegally under the command of local militants. With workers paid very little and the product smuggled out to be sold in neighboring Pakistan, the Afghan people saw little benefit from these extraction operations.Since retaking power in 2021, the Taliban, who have been eager to make use of the country’s mineral wealth and increase exports, are hampered by a lack of diplomatic recognition and their designation as a terrorist group by multiple nations. This is, however, beginning to change, as some countries establish de facto diplomatic ties.In 2024, the Taliban government’s resource ministry announced that it had secured investments from China, Qatar, Turkey, Iran and the United Kingdom. China, which was the first nation to accredit a Taliban-appointed ambassador, is expected to be a major player in Afghanistan’s extractive industries as part of its Belt and Road Initiative.However, as newly discovered deposits require an average of 16 years to develop into operational mines, harnessing Afghanistan’s mineral potential will take a great deal of investment and time — if the political and security issues can somehow be worked out.GreenlandFor millions of years, Greenland has been mostly covered by an ice sheet, habitable only along coastal areas. Despite some offshore petroleum and gas exploration, fishing and whaling have remained the primary nongovernment industries.Now, as ice recedes amid climate change, the large island’s frozen interior offers new opportunities in untapped mineral resources. These include more common metals such as copper and gold, as well as titanium and graphite. But as elsewhere, there is even greater interest in Greenland’s deposits of technology-critical minerals.The autonomous Danish territory is estimated to contain deposits of 43 of the 50 minerals designated by the United States as crucial to national security. Among these are the sought-after rare earth metals, in addition to other metals with technological applications such as vanadium and chromium.Currently, a majority of the world’s rare earth metals are mined in China, making Greenland’s deposits vital for countries seeking to reduce their dependence on Chinese imports. This strategic importance is one of the factors that led U.S. President Donald Trump to propose buying Greenland from Denmark.Greenland’s government has issued nearly 100 mining licenses to companies like KoBold Metals and Rio Tinto. But these have mostly involved exploration, with only two mines currently operating in the country. Getting a mine to production can take as long as a decade, because it involves several unique challenges.One such hurdle is Greenland’s strong environmentalist movement, which has successfully shut down mining projects for safety concerns. Rare earths pose a particular issue, because they must be extracted from other ores — a process that can cause waste and pollution. At the Kvanefjeld site in the south, metals were to be extracted from uranium ore until the fear of radioactive pollution led to a ban.The receding ice and warming climate have made extraction easier not only by revealing more territory but also by extending possible working hours and easing ship navigation. However, the environment remains harsh and inhospitable, and the island suffers from a lack of infrastructure, with few roads or energy facilities outside major settlements. Nevertheless, Greenland’s government considers the mining industry to be an important means of developing the economy.ConclusionShaped by both politics and geography, Greenland and Afghanistan have become two major frontiers in the global scramble for critical minerals. Which parties will have the opportunity to benefit from their resources will depend on the interplay of military power, economics and diplomacy. Selfie sticks and AK-47s: the surreal rise of Taliban tourism (Business Insider)
Business Insider [3/9/2025 4:08 AM, Amanda Hoover, 52868K]
Nolan Saumure, a 28-year-old Canadian YouTuber, walked into Afghanistan from Pakistan last summer. He spent a week traveling through the Taliban-controlled country with a local guide and a camera in an attempt to show what he called "the other side of Afghanistan" — the natural beauty, warm hospitality, and rip-roaring good times he says aren’t depicted in Western media.
Saumure, whose YouTube channel, Seal on Tour, has 650,000 subscribers, is something of a shock-jock Zoomer Anthony Bourdain: His popular videos include "48 Hours Living in India’s Biggest Slum," "Trying the Most Addictive Substance in the Philippines," and "White Boy Becomes Jamaican in Downtown Kingston." For his Afghanistan trip, he played up the unique travel experience of hanging out with exclusively men, titling one 35-minute video "Afghanistan Has Too Much Testosterone." Since 2021, women have been effectively barred from many aspects of public life under the Taliban’s modesty laws. All day, it’s "all dudes, bro-ing the fuck down," Saumure says to the camera. "It’s a complete sausage fest in here," he adds as he spins the camera around to show the crowd of men around him.
At one point he meets some girls playing outside. He narrates that after childhood, "everything is taken away from them," which he says makes him sad. But in the bulk of his YouTube videos, he presents the "sausage fest" as a blast, as he and Afghan men go to parks, ride a pedal boat in a crystal blue lake in Band-e-Amir, eat ice cream, and watch the slaughter of a goat.
Along the way, he bumps into men he and other travel vloggers call the "Talibros," who patrol the streets with rifles strapped over their shoulders. Saumure chats it up with several men he says are Taliban members, showing one of them how to download Duolingo so he can practice his English.
Saumure is one of several travel content creators who have gone to Afghanistan since the United States ended its longest war and evacuated the country. They’re mostly men — sometimes traveling in groups on boys’ trips. For a certain kind of manosphere influencer eager for an edge in the attention economy, Jalalabad is the new Nashville.
In the summer of 2021, a 21-year-old British student named Miles Routledge visited Afghanistan after seeing it on a list of the world’s most dangerous places. (He had previously visited Chernobyl.) Notably, Routledge was stranded during the fall of Kabul that August and had to be evacuated by the British army. When he returned in 2023, he was imprisoned by the Taliban for several months. He claims he was treated well, watching movies and playing Xbox with members. "It was a good setup," he says in a video. "Basically, I was chilling." Routledge didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The predominating sentiment in these videos is that Afghanistan is misunderstood, portrayed by the West as hostile and dangerous while it’s actually warm and welcoming. "F*@K the Media: I Went to AFGHANISTAN!" one traveler titled his video; another clip is called "Afghanistan is NOT What You Think!" Some show beautiful mountains and mosques and detail warm interactions with locals. There’s more shocking fare, such as "I Went Shooting with the Taliban," or videos about exploring decades-old abandoned Russian tanks. A YouTuber called Arab who runs a channel with 1.8 million subscribers calls himself an adventure traveler but says in a disclaimer that he’s going for journalistic purposes. His goofy, spirited hourlong videos include "The Young Taliban Train Me For War," where he plays with children dressed in camo and holding toy guns, and "I Spent 7 Days Living with the Taliban." He didn’t respond to a request for an interview.
These creators are also wading into a country that many Western governments warn against traveling to, one that has been ravaged by war and is now under an oppressive unelected government. Freedom of expression and religious practices that don’t conform to sharia, or Islamic law, are restricted; girls must leave school at 12; and Taliban members have attacked queer people. In 2024, three Spanish tourists and three Afghans were killed in a shooting in a bazaar — the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack. In January, two Americans were freed in a prisoner swap for a Taliban member. In late February, the Taliban arrested a British couple in their 70s, though the Taliban described their detention as a "misunderstanding." The US Department of State advises citizens not to travel to Afghanistan, citing "civil unrest, crime, terrorism, risk of wrongful detention, kidnapping, and limited health facilities.".
You kind of start to disengage from all the level four warnings that your government might say about traveling to these places and just not trust your own government.
Many of these travelers aren’t strangers to some sense of danger. Afghanistan offers the kind of exclusive content certain to lure eyes, especially if the vloggers can interact and bro out with a notorious extremist group.
Saumure tells me that after traveling to several "dangerous" countries, including Iraq and Pakistan, "you kind of start to disengage from all the level-four warnings that your government might say about traveling to these places and just not trust your own government and go based on what other travelers are saying.".
But he still witnessed the country’s deep-rooted issues. "Even if the west is maybe selling a very sensational narrative, I still saw the oppression firsthand as far as women not being allowed in certain parks and modesty laws," he says. "It’s a delicate subject. I just wanted to be like, ‘this is how it is here,’ instead of driving into my beliefs.".
The growing interest to experience places firsthand — or at least watch some other amateur do it — underscores a growing distrust of institutions and authority. In a 2024 survey by the Pew Research Center, about one in five Americans said they got their news from influencers on social media. That figure jumped to 37% for respondents under 30.
As dangerous as Western governments say Afghanistan is, the country wants tourists, particularly those who show a different side of the country than news reports show, and it advertises tourism on its websites. Afghanistan’s Ministry of Information and Culture didn’t respond to my request for comment. Taliban officials told The New York Times last year that some 14,500 foreigners had visited Afghanistan since 2021, most of them men. Several tourism companies and travel agencies have popped up to help eager travelers navigate the country. The rebrand of Afghanistan has been underway for years — shortly after the fall of Kabul, videos of Taliban fighters became memeified, showing them doing silly activities like riding a carousel. Some researchers worried at the time that the content could help soften the group’s image.
Carrie Patsalis, a 48-year-old British travel vlogger, toured Afghanistan with a guide for 10 days in May. "The world has a really funny narrative and a really funny idea about which countries you should shun based on unelected regimes," she says. She argues that staying away hurts the country’s economy — UN officials have estimated that about 85% of Afghans live on less than $1 a day — and the Afghan people who may not support the Taliban rule.
She thinks travel vloggers should show both the country’s beauty and its oppression. Patsalis tells me she made a point to seek out women on her trip. She tells me that while the women could not be seen on camera, she wanted to let them know that "I see you, I know you’re here, and it matters to me how you live.".
Ultimately, going to Afghanistan is good business for travel content creators competing for eyes in an online world full of travel recommendations. Harry Jaggard, a British 27-year-old who has been making videos for three years, says his series in Afghanistan in 2023 was his most successful. He tells me he’s traveling to North Korea next month. "To be the best, you sometimes have to push the boundaries," he says. "Everyone wants to see it, and not many people go there.".
In his series, Jaggard travels with a guide and meets men who he says are members of the Taliban in the street. (He says he learned to tell by looking at their clothing and asking his guide.) He says that while he was apprehensive, he found the Taliban members to be shockingly friendly. "They’re outwardly very kind — that’s how they gain your trust," he tells me. But he didn’t want to highlight too much of the Taliban in his videos; he says he focused on meeting citizens, whom he described as among the most hospitable people he’s encountered in the dozens of countries he has traveled to. He says it’s a reminder that "a government and its people are two different things.".
The videos also fill a gap in traditional travel journalism. "Frommer’s would never cover travel to a place that is as dangerous as this one is," says Pauline Frommer, the publisher of Frommer’s Guidebooks, the popular guidebook series that has been around since the 1950s. While encouraging other people to travel to places like Afghanistan despite government warnings is dangerous, there are insights to be gleaned from watching travel vloggers have first-hand experiences there, and many people can learn from watching them. "I see nothing wrong with videos about less visited parts of the world," Frommer tells me. "I find value in looking at what daily life is like.".
For now, Afghanistan isn’t overrun with selfie sticks at landmarks and TikTokers crowding local restaurants. But the need to keep content interesting is pushing these creators to more controversial and dangerous places, as curious viewers want to see more of the worlds they aren’t a part of. But then how many eager backpackers will follow in their footsteps to make their own content?
Amanda Hoover is a senior correspondent at Business Insider covering the tech industry. She writes about the biggest tech companies and trends. Pakistan
Afghans promised a future in the U.S. now fear deportation from Pakistan (Washington Post)
Washington Post [3/8/2025 2:00 AM, Rick Noack, 31735K]
After 2½ years of anxious waiting, 36-year-old Shirzad and his family were booked on a Feb. 3 resettlement flight from Pakistan to the United States. Two weeks before they were due to depart, President Donald Trump signed an executive order suspending America’s refugee program.“Now, we’re living as if we’re under house arrest — we don’t leave our home anymore for fear of being detained,” said Shirzad, an Afghan former aid worker for a U.S.-funded organization.Thousands of Afghans who were set to be relocated to the United States before Trump halted refugee admissions are at risk of being forced out of their homes in Pakistan — and potentially sent back to Taliban-run Afghanistan.Pakistani authorities were already gearing up for a major deportation campaign targeting hundreds of thousands of Afghans with no path to resettlement in Europe or the United States. Now, even those who had been promised a new life in America have been told they must leave Pakistan’s capital region by the end of the month, which they fear is a pretext for arrest and deportation.While Pakistan has long respected Western requests to spare Afghans with ties to NATO countries, the upcoming campaign is expected to target anyone without a valid visa — including many like Shirzad, who, after being in limbo here for years, have recently been unable to pay surging visa extension fees.Hiding inside their cramped apartment on the outskirts of Islamabad has been particularly hard on his two children, Shirzad said. But going back to Afghanistan is not an option: “It’s like inviting death into your home,” he said. Like others in this story, he spoke on the condition that he be identified by his last name, fearing unwanted scrutiny from the Taliban.Afghans interviewed for this story said the uncertainty has taken a growing mental toll. Some said they were battling depression and suicidal thoughts.Aman, 41, a former member of the Afghan security forces, can’t shake the thought of his potential arrest by Pakistani police. If it comes to that, he said, he wonders if he should ask them to shoot him rather than send him back.“When my little daughter sees police officers, she starts crying,” he said, sitting in a bare room with faded walls in one of the capital’s densely populated Afghan neighborhoods.Islamabad began deporting Afghans who were not vocal critics of the Taliban in late 2023, amid deteriorating ties with the government in Kabul. Over 800,000 Afghans — some of whom were born in Pakistan — have already been sent back.In recent weeks, Pakistani officials have also begun to put more pressure on the estimated half-million Afghan refugees who arrived here after the Taliban takeover in 2021. Pakistani officials say few other countries would have been willing to take in so many refugees in the first place and their patience has run out amid mounting public pressure over competition for work and housing.“It is a fact that you will have to go,” Amir Muqam, Pakistan’s minister for states and frontier regions, said recently, addressing Afghans without valid visas.For now, Pakistani officials say they are focusing their efforts on the estimated 1.5 million Afghan refugees who fled across the border after the Soviet invasion of their country in the late 1970s. But the estimated 20,000 Afghans whose resettlement cases were processed by the U.S. government before Trump’s executive order fear they will be caught up in the dragnet.The Jan. 20 order suspended refugee arrivals for at least 90 days, pending a government review. Some Afghans have still been able to enter the United States in recent weeks under Special Immigrant Visas — reserved for those who directly supported the 20-year American war effort, including as military interpreters. But AfghanEvac, a volunteer organization that helps families resettle in the United States, warned Wednesday that it has “credible indications that a travel ban affecting Afghan nationals may be imminent,” which could seal off the last remaining path.The White House press office said “no decisions regarding possible travel bans have been made.” A statement from the State Department press office said the United States “is committed to protecting our nation and its citizens by upholding the highest standards of national security and public safety through our visa process.”Thousands of Afghans have been arrested in Pakistan over the past two months, and hundreds deported, said Umer Ijaz Gilani, a human rights lawyer in Islamabad.“There are legal precedents stating that anyone who has come to Pakistan and is at genuine risk can’t be sent back,” Gilani said. “It’s against our international obligations.”A statement from Pakistan’s Interior Ministry said the country “has been a gracious host and continues to fulfill its commitments and obligations as a responsible state. … No one will be maltreated during the repatriation process, and arrangements for food and health care for returning foreigners have also been put in place.”Once arrested, Afghans are taken to the border within hours, according to Gilani. “Nobody is coming to their rescue,” he said.Of the more than a dozen refugees interviewed by The Washington Post, none said they heard from the U.S. government about when — or whether — their resettlement cases might proceed.“These folks are struggling to survive,” said Shawn VanDiver, the president of AfghanEvac.Although the Taliban leadership issued a general amnesty for former officials in the U.S.-backed government more than three years ago, the United Nations has documented more than 200 extrajudicial killings of former Afghan officials and members of the armed forces since the withdrawal of U.S. forces. The government has also imposed increasingly harsh laws limiting the rights of women and girls.Marzia Hafizi, 32, has been working for an exiled Afghan broadcaster since fleeing her country for the Pakistani capital region shortly after the fall of Kabul, presenting segments critical of the Taliban from across the border. Over the past two months, she has left her home only once, for a doctor’s visit, she said, after an anonymous threat was sent to her channel suggesting that her whereabouts are known to the Taliban.She has reported recently about alleged hacks targeting Taliban ministries and accusations of sexual abuse under the regime. She had hoped Pakistan would continue to grant her sanctuary while she waited for U.S. authorities to facilitate her relocation.One of her sisters, still in Kabul, was so confident the family would be welcomed to the United States that she passed on an opportunity to relocate to France, opting to wait for a U.S. decision on her pending application.The Pakistani deportation drive, and the increasingly repressive political climate in Kabul, have alarmed Hafizi.“I don’t even want to think about being deported,” she said.Worried about their future, a group of Afghans met for a protest at an indoor shelter this week on the outskirts of Islamabad. But their anger wasn’t directed at Pakistan.The room was covered in American flags. Some held up photos of Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “Honor your commitments — before it’s too late,” one poster read.Zahir Bahand, 51, was a regional government spokesman under the U.S.-backed administration. His 29-year-old son and his son’s wife were among the last Afghans to make it to the United States before Trump’s inauguration in January. Bahand, his wife and their two younger children had expected to join them there soon. They had already sold their belongings. Now he worries they may never make it.“Many people who worked with other NATO allies have long been evacuated, but we — the ones who assisted the United States — are being left behind,” he said. Pakistan asks illegal foreigners, Afghan Citizen Card holders to leave by March 31 (Reuters)
Reuters [3/7/2025 10:42 AM, Sakshi Dayal and Charlotte Greenfield, 5.2M]
Pakistan’s interior ministry on Friday asked all "illegal foreigners" and Afghan Citizen Card holders to leave the country before March 31, warning they would otherwise be deported from April 1.
Islamabad has in the past blamed militant attacks and crimes on Afghan citizens, who form the largest portion of migrants in the country. Kabul has rejected the accusations.
"Pakistan has been a gracious host and continues to fulfil its commitments and obligations as a responsible state," the country’s interior ministry said in a statement. "It is reiterated that individuals staying in Pakistan will have to fulfil all legal formalities."
Pakistan launched its repatriation drive of foreign citizens, most of whom are Afghan, in 2023, but had said they were first focusing on foreigners with no legal documentation.
More than 800,000 Afghans hold an Afghan Citizen Card in Pakistan, according to U.N. data. Another roughly 1.3 million are formally registered with the Pakistan government and hold a separate Proof of Residence card. The statement did not specify how PoR holders would be affected.
The U.N. says that more than 800,000 Afghans have returned to Afghanistan from Pakistan since the repatriation drive began and that in total Pakistan hosted around 2.8 million Afghan refugees who crossed the border during 40 years of conflict in their homeland.
Among those are tens of thousands of Afghans in the process for resettlement to the United States and other Western nations following their withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 as the Taliban took over. Pakistan orders documented Afghan migrants to leave (VOA)
VOA [3/7/2025 4:22 PM, Sarah Zaman, 2.9M]
Pakistan ordered all documented Afghan migrants on Friday to leave the country by March 31 or risk deportation.
The directive was issued a day after the Afghan Ministry of Refugee and Repatriation Affairs urged Pakistan to slow down the expulsion of Afghans.
Pakistan launched the Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Program in October 2023, after a dramatic rise in violence that Islamabad blamed on militants operating from Afghanistan.
Friday’s order called on those with Afghan Citizen Cards (ACCs) to leave the country in the next three weeks, saying deportation of documented migrants would begin April 1.“In continuation of the government’s decision to repatriate all illegal foreigners, national leadership has now decided to also repatriate ACC holders,” the ministry said in a brief press release. “All illegal foreigners and ACC holders are advised to leave the country voluntarily before 31 March 2025; thereafter, deportation will commence with effect from 1 April 2025.”
This affects nearly 900,000 documented Afghan economic migrants residing in Pakistan.
According to data from the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) released Friday, more than 842,000 Afghans have left Pakistan since the expulsion drive began, including more than 40,000 deportees.“It is highlighted that sufficient time has already been granted for their dignified return,” the Pakistani interior ministry said.
In late January, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government approved a plan to repatriate ACC holders but did not specify a date.
Security concerns
Pakistan ranks second among countries most affected by terrorism, according to the Global Terrorism Index released this week.
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, emerged as the fastest-growing terrorist group in 2024, almost doubling the number of deaths attributed to it in 2023.
Pakistan accuses the Afghan Taliban of providing sanctuary to TTP militants, and Islamabad alleges Afghan nationals are involved in terror attacks claimed by the TTP and its offshoots.
Friday’s directive to expel documented Afghan migrants followed Tuesday’s twin suicide bombing of a military compound in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that killed 18, including five soldiers. The Pakistani military said that Afghan nationals were among the 16 militants killed in the attack and that it was orchestrated from Afghanistan.
The Afghan Taliban denied Islamabad’s accusations.
Arrests and detention
Since the start of 2025, the UNHCR has recorded an uptick in the arrest and detention of Afghans, especially undocumented and ACC holders in the capital region, where it recorded 45 times more arrests than in January and February of 2024.
The trend follows a November 2024 order by Pakistan’s interior minister, Mohsin Naqvi, calling on Afghans to leave the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, and its neighboring garrison city of Rawalpindi by the end of that year.
In the first two months of this year, more than 2,600 Afghans were arrested across Pakistan. Nearly 2,300 were undocumented or ACC holders, according to the UNHCR. Close to 1,200 were arrested in Islamabad and nearby areas.
In January, Pakistan deported 1,000 Afghans. Of those, more than 800, who included women and children, were rounded up from the capital and Rawalpindi.
The Pakistani advocacy group Joint Action Committee for Refugees raised alarm Friday, claiming that authorities had rounded up more than 200 Afghans in the capital and nearby cities. The rights organization called the action a violation of a recent court order that restrained authorities from harassing refugees, and it urged authorities to act according to the law.“It is emphasized that no one will be maltreated during the repatriation process,” the interior ministry said. “Arrangements for food and health care for returning foreigners have also been put in place.”
The order for documented Afghans to leave takes place as Torkham, the busiest border crossing between Pakistan and Afghanistan, remains closed after intense shelling from both sides in recent days. How the Kabul airport blast mastermind was captured and what it means for US-Pakistan relations (The Telegraph)
The Telegraph [3/9/2025 10:30 AM, Samaan Lateef, 126906K]
The suspected mastermind of the deadly bombing of Kabul airport during the chaotic US withdrawal was captured after painstaking planning and coordination between America and Pakistan, The Telegraph can reveal.
Mohammad Sharifullah, also known as "Jafar", has now been extradited to the US and faces charges in Virginia of providing material support to the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISIS-K), the designated terrorist group responsible for the attack which killed 13 US military personnel and at least 170 Afghan civilians.
Sharifullah was arrested in a counter-terrorism operation in Pakistan’s Balochistan province near the Afghanistan border, a Pakistan ministry of defence official told The Telegraph.
"The Pakistan army, acting independently, captured Sharifullah along with three other high-profile ISIS-K operatives in a carefully planned raid," the official said.
The US intelligence services had been tracking Sharifullah but required Pakistan’s assistance to secure his arrest. "When the Americans located him, they engaged with us. Once we confirmed his identity, we made it clear that this would be a Pakistan-led operation," he said.
"We sent our elite unit of special forces to storm his hideout near the Afghanistan border and nabbed him in a swift raid," he said.
On March 2, Sharifullah was handed over to US officials and flown to Washington DC, via Morocco on a department of justice aircraft, he said.
His arrest marks a significant moment in counter-terrorism cooperation between Washington and Islamabad, as the two nations work to repair strained relations following America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The American intelligence agencies had been hunting the mastermind since the Kabul Airport attack. As soon as John Ratcliffe, the CIA director, took charge, he established contact with Pakistan’s ISI chief, Lt Gen Asim Malik. Later they met again during the Munich Security Conference last month.
During the close door meetings, the US urged Pakistan to play a key role in neutralising the growing ISIS-K threat in the region with global security consequences.
Donald Trump, who blames Joe Biden for the chaotic pullout from Afghanistan, announced Sharifullah’s arrest in his address to Congress on Tuesday.
"He is right now on his way here to face the swift sword of American justice," Mr Trump said.
On Monday, Sharifullah appeared in court wearing a blue jail jumpsuit. He stood around 5ft tall, wore a surgical face mask, and spoke through an interpreter in the packed courtroom. A judge ordered him to remain in custody until a formal detention hearing scheduled for Monday.
US authorities allege that Sharifullah helped ISIS-K operatives scout routes around Kabul’s Abbey Gate, ensuring the suicide bomber could reach the target undetected. He also allegedly provided intelligence to the terrorist group to facilitate the attack.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said Sharifullah "orchestrated" the bombing, vowing that under Mr Trump’s leadership, the US would ensure that terrorists "have no safe haven".
Kash Patel, the FBI Director, heralded his capture and extradition saying: "The FBI will never forget the loss of these American heroes, we will continue to hunt down those who viciously murdered our warriors, we will find all responsible and bring them to justice.".
According to the DOJ, during FBI interrogations, Sharifullah admitted to knowing Abdul Rahman al-Logari, the ISIS-K militant who carried out the suicide bombing.
He also confessed to involvement in other attacks, including a 2016 bombing near the Canadian embassy in Kabul and last year’s massacre at Crocus City Hall near Moscow, which killed 130 people. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Sharifullah’s militant career began with the dreaded Haqqani Network (HQN), a group closely linked to al-Qaeda.
In 2015, he defected to ISIS-K and formed Kabul Katiba, an elite urban warfare unit, which has a direct link to the group’s core leadership.
Former Afghan intelligence officials told The Telegraph that he operated alongside senior jihadist figures of Islamic State (IS) including Sanaullah Ghafari, the current emir of ISIS-K.
He introduced the small-cell structure to improve operational secrecy, enabling independent attacks with minimal risk of exposure when the ISIS-K lost territorial control in eastern Afghanistan.
He was first arrested in 2019 by Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security (NDS), which identified him as one of ISIS-K’s most dangerous operatives. He was held in Bagram prison until Aug 15, 2021, when the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan led to mass prison breaks, allowing him to escape and re-join ISIS-K.
Sharifullah’s capture comes at a time of heightened tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Clashes along the Torkham-Jalalabad border crossing have escalated, displacing dozens of families and forcing a shutdown since Feb 21.
Relations between Islamabad and the Taliban remain strained, with Pakistan accusing Afghanistan of harbouring militants who launch cross-border attacks — an allegation the Taliban denies.
Pakistan has been pushing for renewed US counter-terrorism support, including pressuring the Taliban to return abandoned American military equipment that Islamabad claims is being used by insurgents in cross-border attacks.
In recent weeks, Mr Trump has repeatedly said he wanted to recover the weaponry left behind.
"We’re talking here about a concrete case of cooperation on a sensitive issue, in this case intelligence-sharing on a shared threat. This is a rare success story for a relationship that’s lacked an anchor since the US withdrawal from Afghanistan," said Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Centre in Washington DC.
"While this isn’t necessarily the opening salvo of a new counter-terrorism alliance, it does signal that the new administration — despite featuring a large number of harsh Pakistan critics, including the president himself — thinks enough of Pakistan as a partner that it’s willing to reach out on a matter as fraught and complex as counter-terrorism," Mr Kugelman said.
On March 4, Mike Waltz, the US national security advisor, called Mohammad Ishaq Dar, Pakistan’s foreign minister, thanking his country for its efforts in countering terrorism.
Dar reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to "continue its cooperation with the US in the field of counter-terrorism".
On Tuesday, 18 people, including children, were killed and dozens more wounded after a group of gunmen and suicide bombers launched a coordinated attack on a Pakistani army base at Bannu in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
On Thursday, General Asim Munir, Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff, said that terrorist groups continued to operate from Afghan soil against Pakistan. The use of foreign weapons and equipment in recent terrorist attacks was clear evidence that Afghanistan remained a haven for such elements, General Munir said.
The UN Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team warned in February that Afghanistan remains the primary hub for ISIS-K operations. The group’s activities in Pakistan have also surged, with the Islamabad-based Centre for Research and Security Studies reporting more than 1,600 fatalities from militants in 2024 — the deadliest year in a decade. ‘My childhood just slipped away’: Pakistan’s ‘monsoon brides’ (Al Jazeera)
Al Jazeera [3/8/2025 4:14 PM, Staff, 18.2M]
Asifa* was sitting on the cool earthen floor of her family’s home when her parents entered the room. The sun had begun to set over the small village of 250 families nestled in the heart of Pakistan’s southeastern Sindh province, casting a warm glow over the surrounding arid landscape. Asifa remembers distinctly the smell of dried grass carried by the wind.
Her mother’s face was hard to read, but Asifa could tell something was different today. Her parents looked at each other briefly before turning to her. “Your marriage has been arranged,” her father told her.
Asifa was just 13 years old.
At first, she didn’t fully grasp the situation. Her mind went to thoughts of new clothes, shiny jewellery, and the celebrations she had heard about from older girls in the village. A wedding meant gifts, makeup and new outfits.“I thought it would be a big celebration,” Asifa recalls, her voice heavy as she sits outside her husband’s home on a colourful charpai, a woven daybed, and looks out over the cracked earth of the village where she grew up. She is wrapped in a faded pink dupatta, her young face framed by dark hair. Now 15, she is the mother of a baby, a few months old, whom she holds tenderly in her arms.
Her house of mud and straw stands behind her, its roof thatched and weathered by years of harsh winds, rains and scorching sun.“I never truly understood what marriage would involve,” she says. “I never realised that it would imply being with a man older than me, someone I didn’t know or choose.”
Furthermore, she says, her husband is in debt having taken out a loan of 300,000 Pakistani rupees ($1,070) to give to her family when they agreed to the marriage. “He cannot pay it back.”
The family’s decision to marry their 13-year-old daughter off was not one made from tradition but out of sheer desperation.
Asifa’s parents had been hard hit by the catastrophic floods that ravaged Pakistan in 2022. For generations, her family cultivated rice and vegetables such as okra, chilies, tomatoes and onions in the once-rich landscape of the Main Nara Valley, but the rising waters left their fields unrecognisable, swamped and sterile.
The money the family had hoped to make from their harvests and the small savings they had set aside for their daughter’s future all vanished. For months, her parents tried to rebuild what they had lost, salvaging what little they could from the remnants of their land, borrowing from relatives in an attempt to make ends meet. But the devastating loss of their crops, along with rising prices of essentials and a lack of access to clean water, made it impossible to stay afloat.
With three other younger children at home, the couple concluded they could no longer afford to keep Asifa, let alone give her the education they had once hoped for her.“They had no other choice,” Asifa says sadly.
A community scarred
In the village of Khan Mohammad Mallah, where farming, fishing and livestock rearing are the main sources of income, Asifa’s experience is not unusual. The floods of 2022 have left deep scars on the community, plunging families, now living at the mercy of the vagaries of the weather, into extreme poverty.
With homes destroyed, crops washed away and livelihoods shattered, the practice of child marriage, where men pay an agreed sum to families in exchange for marriage to girls as young as nine, is on the rise.
Last year, there were 45 recorded cases of children – mostly girls, but some boys as well – under the age of 18 being married in this one village alone, according to Sujag Sansar, an NGO working to combat child marriage in the region.
This is not a simple matter of tradition, says Mashooque Birhmani, founder of Sujag Sansar. Pakistan’s Child Marriage Restraint Act of 1929 set the legal age of marriage for boys at 18 and 16 for girls. In April 2014, the Sindh Assembly adopted the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act, which changed the minimum age to 18 for both girls and boys.
Birhmani believes the rise of child marriage is directly linked to the floods. Crucially, one-third of these underage marriages occurred in May and June – just before the monsoon rains begin – indicating that they took place in anticipation of the damage that was expected from the torrential downpours.“Before the 2022 rains, girls would not get married so young in this area,” says Birhmani. “Such cases remained rare. Young girls were helping their parents make rope for wooden beds or work on the land.”
For many families, the decision to marry off young girls has become a means of survival, but it is also at the cost of the girls’ education, health and futures.
In recent years, the effects of climate change have become increasingly visible. Monsoon rains, once a lifeline for millions of Pakistan’s farmers and crucial in the normal cycle of food production, have grown increasingly erratic and severe, wreaking havoc on agricultural lands and exacerbating food shortages. In addition, rising temperatures are accelerating glacier melt in the north of the country, contributing to river swelling and overwhelming flood defences.
The climate crisis has triggered the phenomenon which has come to be known as “monsoon brides”. No formal studies of child marriage have been undertaken, but nongovernmental organisations such as Sujag Sansar say anecdotal evidence suggests the practice is becoming more widespread across the country as a whole. In the Sindh region, nearly a quarter of girls are believed to be married before the age of 18.“There has been a notable uptick in forced marriages, particularly during the most catastrophic floods in the nation’s history – those of 2007, 2010 and 2022,” says Gulsher Panhwer, project manager at Sujag Sansar.‘When they took her away, she clung to me’
For many, and in particular for women, these natural disasters are not distant nightmares.
The years have passed, but for Salwa, 40, the memory of her daughter’s wedding day is still hard to bear. As she plays with her four-year-old granddaughter, her tone becomes solemn as she begins to tell the story of what led to one of the darkest days of her life.“We once lived off our land, but when the monsoons destroyed everything in 2010, we were forced to leave our home and seek refuge in another province,” she recalls. The family, which moved from Balochistan in southwestern Pakistan, depends on the cultivation of cotton and lush rice, but struggled to make ends meet in Khan Mohammad Mallah and resorted to marrying off their youngest daughter.
In 2010, Salwa married her then-12-year-old daughter to a 20-year-old man in exchange for 150,000 rupees ($535).“When they took her to her new home, she clung to me, and we both wept. I regret this decision deeply, but I saw no other option at the time,” says Salwa, her voice cracking. She, herself, had been married at 13 because her family did not have enough money to feed her.
Despite her daughter’s marriage, she and her husband returned to live with Salwa in Khan Mohammad Mallah shortly afterwards. “They didn’t have enough money to survive on their own. They were just kids. We now live in poverty but at least we are reunited,” says Salwa, sighing, the wrinkles on her face betraying her exhaustion.
Today, Salwa is grandmother to her daughter’s four children. The eldest is 15 and studying at school, as are her siblings. Salwa says she hopes that the education they are receiving will enable them to marry of their own free will, breaking the cycle that has trapped the girls in her family for generations.
It is a fragile hope as Pakistan is experiencing more frequent and severe weather events such as floods, droughts and heatwaves.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns that Pakistan, being one of the most vulnerable countries, will face worsening effects on agriculture, water availability, and food provision, further driving poverty and social instability.
The floods of 2022, the deadliest to date, inundated one-third of Pakistan, killing more than 1,700 people, displacing some 33 million – almost a third of its population – and submerging vast tracts of farmland that destroyed the country’s farming backbone.
Agriculture, which contributes a quarter of the nation’s gross domestic product and sustains one in three jobs, was hit particularly hard, with huge numbers of crops lost to the floods. Approximately 15 percent of the nation’s rice crop and 40 percent of its cotton crop were affected. The total cost of damage to the agriculture sector was approximately $12.97bn, with crops accounting for 82 percent of this total.
In Sindh province, entire villages have been left in ruins.‘Significant progress’ undone by the floods
Sindh is particularly prone to flooding due to its proximity to the Indus River, which often overflows during heavy monsoon rains. Poor drainage systems, deforestation and climate change all exacerbate the risk of floods.
In this region, nearly 4.8 million people were affected by the 2022 floods, half of them children.“With livelihoods destroyed and no reliable income, farmers, desperate to make ends meet, often resort to marrying off their daughters for an amount as modest as the price of a cow – or even less,” says Panhwer.
A lot of work has been done since 2010 to protect young girls from early marriages and people are now aware that marrying off their children is a crime, Panhwer says. “But when families are displaced in flood relief camps, they feel their daughters face higher risk of sexual assaults since they are no longer protected inside their homes. Their hope is also to protect them from the crushing poverty while raising enough funds to sustain the rest of the family.”
According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Pakistan is home to nearly 19 million child brides. While the organisation reported in 2023 that there has been “significant progress” in reducing child marriages in the country, it warned that the 2022 monsoon floods could undo much of that progress.“We anticipate an 18 percent rise in child marriages,” the organisation warned in its report last year.
According to the 2018 Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (PDHS), 3.6 percent of girls under 15 and 18.3 percent of those under 18 are married. The same report found that 8 percent of girls aged 15 to 19 have either already given birth or are pregnant with their first child. One in six women in Pakistan were married as children.“There is ongoing debate among lawmakers about child marriage in Pakistan,” says Syed Murad Ali Shah, a law researcher at the University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir. “One side insists on adhering strictly to the legal marriage age, while the other argues that socioeconomic realities must be taken into account and that each case should be judged individually.”
A 2023 study by Ohio State University researchers, published in the academic journal International Social Work, also highlighted the link between climate disasters and increased rates of child marriage, particularly in countries where such marriages already take place. A 2020 Save the Children report also noted that nearly all of the 25 countries with the highest rates of early marriage are afflicted by conflicts, protracted crises and climate-related disasters.
In response to the increase in the numbers of “monsoon brides” in recent years, Sujag Sansar has launched several community-based initiatives to tackle the root causes of child marriage. “We engage with religious leaders, teachers, parents, and young girls to create networks of support and resistance,” explains founder Birhmani. “Through artistic and cultural projects, we foster dialogue and raise awareness.“Education is the key to breaking the cycle of child marriage. When girls are empowered with skills, they are no longer seen as burdens but as individuals capable of building their own futures.”
Sujag Sansar organises community theatre and music performances which serve as a platform for discussion in five districts within Sindh.
The use of theatre allows different members of a community to be brought together to share their stories through art. “By inviting both men and women to participate, we create a space for reflection and conversation,” Birhmani explains. The organisation also offers professional training to women and girls to help them find financial independence, and mental health support.‘The hardest was not having my mum’
The Sujag Sansar office in Dadu district, located along the Indus River in southeastern Sindh, is buzzing with energy as a small group of women gathers outside. They form a circle on the ground, the soft sand beneath their feet dotted with scattered roses.
Each woman holds a candle, the flames flickering gently in the evening air, casting a warm glow on their faces. Voices echo as the women talk about their lives. Some laugh, others speak softly, but all are united in their purpose – to bring an end to the practice of child marriage.
Among them is Samina* who has a gentle smile on her face as she cradles her baby. Today is a special day as she is taking part in a tradition upheld by the organisation since 2005, where women and girls who have been forced into early marriages light candles to raise their voices against the oppressive practice. This ritual is their way of standing together, a defiant show of strength and solidarity.
During the ceremony, Samina, now 28 and a mother of five, tells her story. In 2011, when she was 13, Samina was told by her mother that she was to marry a distant cousin, who himself was only 15. She barely knew him.“I was sitting outside sewing a bedsheet when my mum came to me and simply told me, ‘You’re getting married’. We both remained silent. In our family, women don’t express their emotions,” she recalls. Her two older sisters had also been married at 13 and 14.
With her father unable to work because of psychiatric problems, the family’s income depended on her mother, who worked long hours as a housemaid. But the deadly 2010 floods had destroyed the homes where she was employed and the family’s income disappeared.
The 200,000 rupees ($714) that her marriage brought in was the family’s last lifeline, a means to avoid total destitution and to potentially protect Samina’s two younger sisters from the same fate.“Today, families earn a maximum of 10,000 ($36) to 12,000 rupees ($43) a month,” says Birhmani. That is about one dollar a day to feed about 10 people. “Every mouthful of food per child counts.”
On the day of her wedding, Samina recalls being overwhelmed with anxiety. “During the ceremony, I didn’t fully comprehend that my childhood was slipping away,” she says.
When the ceremony concluded, the reality of separation from her family became painfully clear.
While her mother and younger sister sobbed, the 13-year-old bride was taken to her new home with her husband in a different village.“The tiny gloves I received as a wedding gift did nothing to ease the overwhelming sadness,” she recalls. Today, she consoles herself with the fact that her younger sisters have not been married and are pursuing their education instead.“During the first year of my marriage, the hardest thing was not having my mum next to me any more,” she says. “In the night, at bedtime she would stay with me until I would fall asleep. She would tell me stories and touch my hair. Overnight, I had to sleep in a bed with a man I didn’t know. I was on my own, without my sisters and my parents in an unknown small house. It felt so cold all of a sudden.”
Two years after her wedding, Samina became pregnant with her first child. “I didn’t understand what I was supposed to do. I was scared and the pain was hard to bear but I got used to it.”
While her family had hoped she would have a better life if she got married, Samina’s husband, a labourer, struggles to find work in the building industry. “A lot of houses are damaged because of the floods but people don’t have enough money to repair them,” she says.
The lack of employment took a toll on her husband’s mental health and Samina was compelled to work at sewing bedsheets to feed and educate her five children.‘My daughters will escape the hell I endured’
In 2024, as news of the 45 cases of underage marriage in the village of Khan Mohammad Mallah spread, Sindh’s minister, Murad Ali Shah, ordered an investigation to determine whether those marriages were directly linked to the floods.
Agha Fakharuddin, the director of the Human Rights Department for the province of Sindh, later concluded that no such cases of child marriage had been reported and that the news had been fabricated. Mukhtiar Ali Abro, the deputy commissioner of Dadu, however, stated that while marriages had been arranged in the village, they were simply part of the local tradition rather than a consequence of the floods.
Following the visit by government officials in October 2024, alongside representatives from civil society organisations, Sujag Sansar says it has observed a decline in the incidence of child marriage, attributing it to a fear of legal repercussions. However, it cautions that this reduction may only be temporary, as the underlying drivers of child marriage – in particular, poverty and the lack of educational opportunities for vulnerable girls – remain largely unaddressed.
Years after being married off against her will, Samina now smiles with a renewed sense of hope. Although she still sews bedlinen, just as she did the day she was told of her impending marriage, her life has changed beyond recognition. She is taking crafting courses and hopes to start her own business. Wearing a red dupatta with tiny white dots, her expression is resolute.
Surrounded by other young women who, like her, were married too early, Samina smiles as she talks about her future. She hopes to continue her sewing and earn her own income.
Samina has resolved that her daughters will never face the same fate. “I will make sure they are educated, so they can escape the hell I endured,” she says. India
India Signals Readiness to Make Deeper Tariff Cuts, Trump Says (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [3/8/2025 3:09 AM, Divya Patil, 52868K]
US President Donald Trump said India has signaled its readiness to make deeper tariff cuts, after he ramped up pressure on the country to lower trade barriers that he has said unfairly penalize American businesses.
"They’ve agreed — by the way, they want to cut their tariffs way down now," Trump said, while delivering remarks on the US economy late on Friday. India charges "massive tariffs" that mean the US does "very little business inside," he said.
India’s commerce ministry didn’t immediately respond to a request for a comment on the remarks outside of regular business hours.
Preserving India’s access to the US market is a priority for Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he seeks to shield his country from reciprocal duties Trump has indicated will take effect next month.
Trade between the two countries grew to $127 billion in 2023, making the US India’s largest trading partner and putting pressure on New Delhi to strike a deal. The two leaders have agreed to boost trade to $500 billion by 2030.
Modi’s government has already made numerous concessions to the Trump administration in recent weeks in a bid to smooth over relations. Among the efforts was a wide-ranging reduction in tariffs on products including high-end motorcycles and whiskey, and pledges to buy more US energy and weapons.
Indian officials have also discussed reducing duties on cars, some agricultural products, chemicals, critical pharmaceuticals, as well as certain medical devices and electronics, Bloomberg News reported last month. US pushes India to lower tariffs, buy more defence products for fair new deal (Reuters)
Reuters [3/7/2025 10:49 AM, Shivangi Acharya and Manoj Kumar, 5.2M]
India needs to buy more defence products and lower its tariffs on U.S. products for the two countries to be able to sign a "grand" bilateral deal, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told India Today television on Friday.
India’s import tariffs, among the highest in the world, warrant a reassessment of its "special relationship" with the United States, Lutnick said, speaking from Washington.
He also asked India to shift defence equipment purchases away from Russia.
Lutnick’s remarks come weeks ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs from early April on trading partners, including India, which are worrying exporters across sectors ranging from autos to electronics."We would like to focus on a bilateral conversation just between India and the United States - bring down the tariff levels that India has, that protects some of its areas," Lutnick said.
For sensitive industries like agriculture, which India has long shielded to support its small farmers, Lutnick suggested a trade agreement with quotas and limits but emphasised that India must open up the sector.
After a meeting between Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month, the two countries agreed to resolve tariff rows and work on the first segment of a deal by the fall of 2025, aiming for bilateral trade worth $500 billion by 2030.
Indian Trade Minister Piyush Goyal has been on a nearly week-long trip to the United States and on Tuesday met Lutnick to pursue trade talks.
"Maybe certain products have quotas. Maybe certain products have limits...And then we do the same thing on the other side and craft an agreement that makes sense for both of us," Lutnick said.
"The Indian agriculture market has to open up. It can’t just stay closed," he added. Referring to India’s high tariffs, Lutnick called them among the steepest globally.
Washington wants India to bring tariffs down to zero or negligible in most sectors, except agriculture, under the bilateral trade deal, Reuters has reported.
The U.S. has a $45.6 billion trade deficit with India. Overall, the U.S. trade-weighted average tariff rate has been about 2.2%, according to World Trade Organization data, compared with India’s 12%.
DEFENCE PURCHASES
Lutnick also asked India to shift defence equipment purchases from Russia to sophisticated U.S. products.
"India has historically bought significant amounts of its military equipment from Russia, and we think that is something that needs to end," he said.
The U.S. will increase military sales to India starting in 2025 and eventually provide F-35 fighter jets, Trump announced last month after meeting Modi in Washington. India has agreed to buy more than $20 billion of U.S. defence products since 2008.
On the impact of tariffs on inflation, Lutnick dismissed concerns, saying: "Inflation only comes from running deficits and printing money. Tariffs have not created inflation in India, so that argument is nonsense.
"I want manufacturing to come back home. And if that means I need to put a 25% tariff on the outside world, I’ll do that." India says it is working to cut tariffs as it eyes US trade deal (VOA)
VOA [3/8/2025 10:51 AM, Anjana Pasricha, 2913K]
India said Friday it is working to lower trade barriers with the United States as it tries to reach a bilateral trade deal with Washington this year.
The two countries said after a February White House meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that they will try to reach a deal by fall, aiming to increase bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030.
External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told reporters Friday the objective of the bilateral trade agreement would be "to strengthen and deepen India-U.S. two-way trade in the goods and services sector, increase market access, reduce tariff and nontariff barriers, and deepen supply chain integration between the two countries.".
Trump has accused Delhi of imposing unfair trade barriers through high tariffs and has been putting pressure on India to cut duties on U.S. imports. India, for example, imposes tariffs of up to 110% on all car imports.
"India charges us massive tariffs. Massive. You cannot even sell anything in India," Trump said Friday at the White House. "They have agreed. By the way, they want to cut their tariffs way down now because somebody is finally exposing them for what they have done.".
There was no immediate comment from Indian officials.
Conciliatory approach
Analysts say India has adopted a conciliatory approach on tariffs, opting to engage the U.S. in talks as it looks to avoid friction. India already has lowered duties on some imports that will benefit American companies, such as high-end motorcycles and bourbon.
"The U.S. is, first of all, India’s largest export market, so we do not want to upset that," said New Delhi-based trade analyst Biswajit Dhar. "Then there are other considerations at play. There is a sense that the U.S. is a valued strategic partner, so we don’t want trade tensions to upset that equilibrium, also.".
While India has been spared tariffs so far from the Trump administration, reciprocal tariffs that Trump has said he will be announcing early next month could affect Indian exports to the U.S. in areas from pharmaceuticals and drugs to auto components. Two-way trade in goods between the countries was more than $129 billion last year, with Indian exports surpassing $87 billion.
Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal visited Washington this week to discuss trade issues with American officials, including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
During remarks to an Indian television network, Lutnick called on India to reconsider its tariffs in light of the "special relationship" with the United States.
"It’s time to do something big, something grand, something that connects India and the United States together, but does it on a broad scale, not product-by-product, but rather the whole thing," he said speaking Friday from Washington to India Today TV.
Defense purchases
He also said India must shift defense equipment purchases away from Russia and buy more from the U.S.
Analysts say purchasing more military hardware from the U.S. could help bridge India’s trade surplus with the U.S., which stood at more than $40 billion last year.
Lutnick also said he wanted India to open its market to U.S. farm exports, which New Delhi has long resisted for fear it will hurt tens of millions of India’s small farmers.
In New Delhi, trade analysts said there is room for India to lower tariffs in several areas outside of agriculture.
"I think we can lower tariffs to zero level on most industrial goods, but agriculture we don’t want to touch. It is very sensitive," said Ajay Srivastava, founder of the Global Trade Research Initiative think tank in New Delhi. "For us, that is not a trade issue but a livelihood issue, with more than 700 million farmers depending on it for their incomes.".
Other analysts agree that tariffs on imports of farm products, a key area in which the U.S. wants access, could pose a hurdle for the two countries during negotiations.
"Agricultural products are a strict ‘no’ for India. This will cause unease here and could become a sticking point as they try to clinch a trade deal," trade analyst Dhar said. India signs $248 million deal with Russia for advanced battle tank engines (Reuters)
Reuters [3/7/2025 8:03 AM, Shivam Patel, 5.2M]
India has signed a $248 million contract with Russian state arms exporter Rosoboronexport to acquire more powerful engines for its Soviet-era battle tanks, the Indian Defence Ministry said on Friday.
The T-72 tank, first introduced in India in the 1970s, is the mainstay of the Indian Army’s fleet. It operates about 2,500 such tanks fitted with a 780 horsepower (HP) engine.
The new acquisition of 1,000 HP engines will replace engines of the existing fleet to "enhance the battlefield mobility and offensive capability of the Indian Army", the ministry said in a statement.
The deal includes transfer of technology from Rosoboronexport to Indian state-owned Armoured Vehicles Nigam Ltd for licensed production of the engines.
India is the world’s largest arms importer and Russia has been its top defence supplier for decades, although Moscow’s ability to provide systems was damaged by its war in Ukraine, which has made New Delhi look more westward for suppliers. An Israeli woman and her Indian host were gang raped in southern India, police say (AP)
AP [3/8/2025 11:24 PM, Staff, 456K]
Police in southern India said Saturday that they arrested two men in connection with allegations of gang rape of an Israeli and a local woman.
The Israeli and her homestay operator were stargazing along with three male travelers, an American and two Indians, in Koppal town in southern Karnataka state on Thursday night, police official Ram L. Arasiddi said.
According to an initial investigation, three men on a motorbike approached them while asking for money. Following arguments, the three men pushed the male travelers into a nearby water canal and sexually assaulted the women, Arasiddi said. One of the Indian tourists drowned and his body was recovered on Saturday. The American and another Indian swam to safety.
Koppal is about 350 kilometers (217 miles) from Bengaluru, India’s startup and technology powerhouse.
Arasiddi said police set up a special investigation team that arrested two out of the three suspects on Saturday. They were being investigated on suspicion of attempted murder, gang rape and robbery, he said.
The Associated Press generally doesn’t identify victims of sexual assault.
Sexual assaults on women have become familiar in India, where police recorded 31,516 rape cases in 2022, a 20% increase from 2021, according to the National Crime Records Bureau. The real figure is believed to be far higher due to the stigma surrounding sexual violence and victims’ lack of faith in police.
Rape and sexual violence have been under the spotlight since the brutal 2012 gang rape and killing of a 23-year-old student on a New Delhi bus. The attack galvanized massive protests and inspired lawmakers to order the creation of fast-track courts dedicated to rape cases and stiffen penalties.
The rape law was amended in 2013, criminalizing stalking and voyeurism and lowering the age at which a person can be tried as an adult from 18 to 16. The government in 2018 approved the death penalty for people convicted of raping children under age 12.
Despite stringent laws, it’s rare for more than a few weeks to pass without another brutal sexual assault being reported.
High-profile cases involving foreign visitors have drawn international attention to the issue. Last year, in a video that was later deleted, a Spanish tourist said his wife was raped in northern India while an Indian-American woman said she was raped at a hotel in New Delhi. In 2022, a British tourist was raped in front of her partner in Goa. Third gang-rape suspect arrested as tourists flee popular Indian travel destination (The Independent)
The Independent [3/10/2025 1:55 AM, Alisha Rahaman Sarkar, 456K]
Police have arrested a third suspect in the gang-rape of two women, including an Israeli tourist, near a Unesco World Heritage Site in southern India.The women and three male tourists were stargazing near Sanapur lake in Hampi, Karnataka, when they were attacked by three men on Thursday night.The Israeli and the owner of the homestay she was staying in were assaulted and gang-raped, police said, while the male tourists, including an American, were pushed into the Tungabhadra canal nearby. While two of them survived, a 22-year-old tourist from the eastern state of Odisha was found dead.Two of the suspects were arrested on Saturday while the third person was detained in the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu on Sunday.Karnataka minister Shivaraj Tangadagi said police had been instructed to beef up security to prevent such incidents. “Three people were involved in this horrific crime, which should never have happened. Two were arrested yesterday, and the third was caught today," he told reporters on Sunday.The incident appears to have led to a sharp decline in tourists heading to Hampi, an ancient village known for its ruins and temples from the Vijayanagara Empire.More than 25 homestays in and around Hampi saw travel agencies cancel bookings over the weekend. Several tourists also cut short their stays and left the region shortly after the incident came to light, local media reported.Virupakshi V Hampi, secretary of the State Tourist Guides Association, confirmed a decline in homestay bookings after the incident was reported. “Even tourists from other states are cancelling or postponing their visit to Hampi,” he told The New Indian Express. “The entire nation condemned the Sanapur rape incident. Hope police increase patrolling in Hampi and surroundings."Kiran Hanumanahalli, a homestay operator, told The Indian Express that news about the gang-rape spread rapidly and prompted "about 400 people, mainly Israelis" to leave.Foreign visitors in Hampi said they had been instructed to travel in groups and return to their homestays by 8.30pm.Vijayangara police superintendent Shrihari Babu B L said his force was ready to take care of visitors to Hampi and that they would issue guidelines for homestay owners.An unnamed police officer earlier told The Times of India that the Sanapur lake area was frequented by petty criminals, gamblers and "drug users who often target individuals alone or in some groups". He said many incidents of crime in the area were either not reported to police or would come to light only after significant delays.The US State Department said it was "aware" that an American citizen was among a group of victims of violent crime in Karnataka.According to police, three men initially approached the tourists on a motorbike asking for petrol and demanding 100 rupees (£1). When the victims refused, the men turned violent, pushing the men into the canal and then sexually assaulting the women.“Since the homestay operator did not know them, she told them they had no money. When the men repeatedly insisted, one of the male tourists from Odisha gave them 20 rupees. After that, the three men allegedly started arguing and threatened to bash their heads with stones," police said.Incidents of sexual assault are not uncommon in India, which recorded 31,516 rape cases in 2022, nearly 20 per cent more than in the previous year, according to the most recent available figures from the National Crime Records Bureau. The actual number is thought to be much higher, however, as many cases go unreported due to stigma surrounding sexual violence, societal pressure and police apathy. Seven-year ‘nightmare’ of Scottish activist held in an Indian jail (BBC)
BBC [3/8/2025 4:47 AM, Calum McKay, 126906K]
It’s more than seven years since Jagtar Singh Johal was snatched from the bustling streets of Jalandhar in northern India.The young Sikh activist, from Dumbarton in the west of Scotland, had been visiting the state of Punjab to celebrate his wedding.But as he walked through the busy streets and crowded markets on 4 November 2017, he was surrounded by officers from the local police force.His family say he was grabbed, a hood was placed over his head and he was forced into a vehicle in broad daylight.He was taken into custody – where he has remained ever since.Jagtar has not been convicted of any crimes, and was this week acquitted in the first of nine cases against him.The Indian government says that he’s a dangerous terrorist who helped plan the killings of seven people.But his family says he’s an innocent man who has been tortured by his jailers, and there are growing calls for the 38-year-old to be released and allowed to return home after the "seven-year nightmare".The charges he faces range from membership of a terrorist gang to conspiracy to murder, but in each of the cases his alleged activity is the same.The prosecution says Jagtar was documenting the violence against Sikhs in the Punjab region during the bloodshed of the mid-1980s through his website, but that his activism went further.It says that through his work on the website he made links with figures intent on destabilising India through violence.It says that in 2013 Jagtar travelled to Paris and handed over about £3,000 to members of the Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF), an armed organisation which has carried out violent attacks in pursuit of a putative Sikh homeland called Khalistan.It says this money was used to purchase weapons which were then used in acts of terrorism in the Punjab, namely the targeted killings of seven Hindu and other religious and political leaders, and the attempted murder of another during a particularly volatile period in the region across 2016 and 2017.That the violence took place is not in dispute.What is less clear is the role that this man from Dumbarton, with no criminal history, may have played in it.Jagtar’s brother Gurpreet originally thought his brother had been abducted, before learning that he was in the custody of the Punjab Police.In the following days, Gurpreet learned that Jagtar was accused of being an active member of a terror cell - and that he claimed he had been tortured in his cell.A handwritten note passed from Jagtar to his defence lawyer detailed how he’d been beaten and subjected to electric shocks, and how officers entered his cell with a petrol container and threatened to burn him alive, before coercing him to sign a blank piece of paper.Gurpreet’s concern for his brother only grew when, in December 2017, a video appeared showing Jagtar in a police cell, allegedly confessing to his role in a series of killings in the Punjab region.Gurpreet began a campaign to free his brother, telling politicians and the media that Jagtar was a peaceful activist who had been falsely implicated.For seven years Jagtar has waited for progress to be made in the various cases against him and his eight co-accused.Eight of the cases have been brought by the Indian government’s counter-terror branch, the National Investigation Agency (NIA).There have been hundreds of hearings, beset by procedural delays, as each trial grinds its way through the courts in Delhi.Jagtar’s representatives from the legal charity Reprieve have criticised the process as unfair and say no "credible" evidence has been presented against Jagtar.They say his confession is coerced, obtained through torture and therefore inadmissible as evidence.But now the ninth case, in the District Court of Moga, Punjab, has finally provided some clarity in this murky and intriguing story.After seven years, we finally received a verdict.Judge Harjeet Singh found that the prosecution "has failed to collect cogent and convincing evidence… regarding participation of the accused in unlawful activities or otherwise".He said it had also "failed to lead any evidence that the accused were members of [a] terrorist organization".And he said: "The prosecution has miserably failed to prove the commission of the [conspiracy] offences by all the accused."Thus, all the accused are liable to be acquitted."All the charges of conspiracy, raising funds for a terrorist gang, and membership of a terrorist gang were rejected.Jagtar was acquitted of all the charges against him in this case.Three of his co-accused were found guilty of gun possession and given two-year sentences. They have already spent seven years in jail.But why did it take years to reach this point – and what does the acquittal mean for the other cases against Jagtar, who is still being held in a maximum security prison in Delhi?To understand this we need to look at the evidence which did make it into court.DSP Balwinder Singh was one of the officers who arrested Jagtar in November 2017.The judgement tells us that in his evidence DSP Singh "admitted that no incriminating article/thing/document [was] recovered from Jagtar Singh Johal in this case, during his investigation and no documentary evidence was produced or in the file regarding links of other accused with Jagtar Singh Johal during his investigation".On the central allegation that Jagtar travelled to Paris to hand over money to members of the KLF, the judgement says that DSP Singh could not tell the date, month and year of that visit."He admitted that during his investigation, no material in the shape of letter heads or logo of KLF or any other banned organization… was recovered from the accused," said the judge."This causes a serious dent in the case of the prosecution."The other arresting officer’s evidence was that "nothing incriminating" was recovered from Jagtar at the time of his arrest or afterwards.Perhaps the most curious testimony came from witness Kanwaljit Singh, a property dealer who gave a police statement saying that he was visited by Jagtar and another accused in the spring of 2017.He said Jagtar told him that he had collected funds to carry out attacks on "hardline Hindu leaders" in the Punjab.But, according to the judge, "careful scrutiny of the statements shows that no reliance can be placed on" his evidence.At Jagtar’s trial, Kanwaljit Singh admitted that he himself had previously been active in an armed Sikh group, had served time in jail and, most importantly, that he had never met Jagtar or the other man who he had put in the frame with his police statement.He said he had approached the police after reading about Jagtar in a newspaper following his arrest.This is just one witness in a case which Jagtar’s legal representatives from Reprieve say is characterised by unreliable, even tainted, testimony.They point to the statement given by a different man which they say is "almost identical, word for word" to the statement given by Kanwaljit Singh.The prosecution failed to produce this man in court and now say he is dead, so he cannot speak to his statement.Retracted statementsReprieve alleges that these men are "stock witnesses" - people improperly influenced or coerced by the authorities into giving evidence in a case.The organisation’s caseworkers also highlighted the confession statement of Harmeet Singh Mintoo, the former KLF leader whom Jagtar allegedly met in Paris.Mintoo retracted this statement and died in prison before he could finish challenging it through the courts.Reprieve says other witnesses in the case have similarly retracted the statements they gave to police when appearing to give evidence at trial, with some even testifying their statements had been falsified.The prosecution’s case included an elaborate cast of characters, meetings and plots from the UK, across Europe and into Pakistan and India, culminating in the grisly murders of seven people.In this one case at least, no evidence has been found for any of it.Reprieve’s interim deputy executive director, Dan Dolan, says the case against Jagtar was "absurdly weak from the start"."Seven years of his life have been wasted, with proceedings dragging out, when it was plain all along that there was never any solid evidence," he told the BBC."The process is the punishment – the cases are no more than a thin excuse to keep him in jail."The remaining cases against Jagtar are scheduled to be heard in Delhi, in a different court. The potential punishments are much more severe, including the death penalty, in the event of conviction.They are brought by the NIA under India’s Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, which exists to clamp down on any activity which might "threaten the unity, integrity, security or sovereignty of India, or to strike terror in people or any section of people of India".Its critics say it is a draconian law which can label people as terrorists without due process, and which is disproportionately used against minorities in the country.There is also likely to be evidence from "protected witnesses" in the NIA’s cases, whose full identities are not known. Reprieve says their statements have not provided any more evidence beyond what was heard in the Moga case where Jagtar was acquitted.Nevertheless, Reprieve argues that because the allegations against Jagtar in every case are "all-but identical", the Moga verdict should mean his acquittal in all the others too.Dan Dolan says it’s now over to the UK government to secure Jagtar’s release.‘The beginning of the end’Meanwhile, in an apparent strengthening of its position, a UK government minister said in parliament this week that Jagtar’s release "needs to happen urgently".Gurpreet, who has limited contact with his brother over video calls, continues to live in hope."To be vindicated in court is a great feeling," he said."Jagtar’s smile and spark are back. He spoke to our dad for only the third time in seven years yesterday and they were in high spirits thanks to the acquittal."Ministers are saying all the right things but what counts is action. This judgement can be the beginning of the end of our family’s seven-year nightmare, if the government acts now."This week a spokesperson for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) welcomed the progress in the case."The UK government remains committed to working for faster progress on Jagtar’s case, and the FCDO continue to work to support Mr Johal and his family," it said.The Indian government has not responded to a request for comment on the verdict in the Moga case, but has previously said that due process has been followed in the case.The Indian authorities have also previously denied the allegations of torture. The Guardian view on Modi redrawing India’s electoral map: deepening a dangerous north-south divide (The Guardian – opinion)
The Guardian [3/9/2025 1:30 PM, Staff, 78938K]
When Narendra Modi’s alliance won a narrow majority in last year’s Indian election, it signalled his waning popularity after a decade in power. A victory in 2029 may seem unlikely. Yet his government’s push to redraw parliamentary constituencies using post-2026 census data could tilt the electoral field in his favour.
The process, known as delimitation, ensures each member of parliament represents an equal number of voters – a principle of democratic fairness. Since 1976, however, it has been frozen to avoid penalising Indian states that curbed population growth. If delimitation proceeds, Mr Modi’s populous northern strongholds will gain seats, weakening the political clout of India’s economically dynamic and culturally distinct southern cone. Its five states are governed by different parties but, critically, none belong to Modi’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party (BJP). Southern states have long accused Mr Modi’s government of bias in federal funding and project approvals. Last week’s gathering of the south’s political leadership in Delhi to protest against his move underscores the risk of backlash.
India’s north and south are worlds apart: the six largest northern states have 600 million people – twice the south’s population – but lag far behind. Tamil Nadu thrives on industry, education and social mobility, with only 6% in poverty compared with 23% in Bihar. A child in Kerala has better survival odds than in the US; in BJP-run Uttar Pradesh (UP), they’re worse than in Afghanistan. It makes sense to redistribute resources to alleviate poverty. But UP alone receives more federal tax revenue than all five southern states combined. Even if it grew faster than southern India, it would take decades to catch up in per capita income. For southern India, delimitation represents both economic and political marginalisation – being taxed more, represented less and sidelined in national policymaking.
A recent paper by Paris’s Institut Montaigne thinktank highlights how India’s north-south divide is deepening due to economic, demographic and political disparities, stirring southern discomfort. It compares the situation to the EU’s Greek debt crisis, where wealthier northern countries resented subsidising the poorer southern ones. The report considers Mr Modi’s home state of Gujarat – a wealthy but highly unequal western region with slow population growth – but warns that the Hindi‑speaking north’s larger populace and lack of socioeconomic progress will deepen tensions and drag the country down.
The Indian economist Jean Drèze notes that while the BJP lost ground in the north in 2024, it gained in the south. He argues that if seats were redistributed by population while maintaining state-wise party shares, Mr Modi’s coalition would have won 309 MPs, not 294, out of 543 – an edge in a tight race. Prof Drèze suggests Mr Modi may be pushing delimitation to lock in a lead in 2029, when rising discontent could threaten his hold on power.
Southern concerns could be addressed by freezing seat allocations for decades to allow the north to catch up. However, Mr Modi seems to prefer expanding India’s parliament to prevent any state from losing representation, while shrinking southern influence. Much hinges on the timing of India’s census, a crucial tool for evidence-based policymaking. Already postponed due to Covid in 2021, further delays are increasingly difficult to justify – they obstruct welfare distribution, stall efforts to improve women’s parliamentary representation and appear politically motivated. If delimitation proceeds before 2029 it could reshape India’s political landscape to the BJP’s advantage – but at the cost of a growing north-south rift that threatens to fracture the Indian union. NSB
Muhammad Yunus on picking up the pieces in Bangladesh after ‘monumental’ damage by Sheikh Hasina’s rule (The Guardian)
The Guardian [3/10/2025 1:00 AM, Hannah Ellis-Petersen, 78.9M]
When Muhammad Yunus flew back to Bangladesh in August, he was greeted by bleak scenes. The streets were still slick with blood, and the bodies of more than 1,000 protesters and children were piled up in morgues, riddled with bullets fired by police.
Sheikh Hasina had just been toppled by a student-led revolution after 15 years of authoritarian rule. She fled the country in a helicopter as civilians, seeking revenge for her atrocities, ransacked her residence.
At 84, Yunus – an economist who won a Nobel prize for pioneering microfinance for the poor – had long given up his political ambitions. He had faced years of vilification and persecution by Hasina, who viewed him a political threat, and had been living in the US for decades.
But when the student protesters asked him to lead an interim government to restore democracy to Bangladesh, he agreed.“The damage she had done was monumental,” Yunus told the Guardian, describing the state of Bangladesh on his return. “It was a completely devastated country, like another Gaza, except it wasn’t buildings that had been destroyed but whole institutions, policies, people, international relationships.”
Hasina’s reign was dominated by allegations of tyranny, violence and corruption. It culminated in a bloody few weeks over July and August, when more than 1,400 people were killed in protests against her repressive rule, a violent crackdown by police that could amount to a “crime against humanity”, according to the UN. She has denied all use of excessive force.
Yunus’s return to Bangladesh was heralded as the dawn of a new era for the country. In the six months since he took charge, senior police officers – no longer under Hasina’s protection – have been prosecuted for extrajudicial killings, secret detention centres where Hasina’s critics were allegedly tortured have been emptied, human rights commissions have been established and Hasina is facing hundreds of charges, which she denies. Yunus has pledged that, sometime between December this year and March 2026, Bangladesh will hold its first free and fair elections in decades, after which he will hand over power.
But walking the streets of Dhaka, there is a feeling that the country stands at a precipice. While Yunus is still widely respected, questions have been raised over his governance capabilities and the pace of promised reform.
Political parties, particularly the Bangladesh National party (BNP), have been desperate to return to power and have exerted mounting pressure on Yunus to hold elections, calling into question his legitimacy. The students who led the revolution have also launched their own party.
The senior BNP figure Amir Chowdhury said elections could not come soon enough. “This government was only meant as an interim measure,” he said. “Right now nobody is accountable on a day-to-day basis and they don’t have the political weight, mandate and mobilisation to carry out reforms.”
Declining law and order
Police, facing public anger and criminal charges for their actions under Hasina, have been reluctant to return to their posts and the security situation has been rapidly declining. Gang crime is rampant on Dhaka’s streets and minority groups are experiencing harassment. On Monday, protesters burned an effigy of Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, the home affairs minister, demanding his removal from office over his failure to curb rising crime.
Yunus denied any suggestion that the streets were less safe than under Hasina’s rule, but others have warned that the country’s security situation threatened to spiral beyond his government’s control. Prominent student leader Nahid Islam, head of the new National Citizens party, said it would be “impossible to hold free and fair elections in this current law-and-order situation”.
In a strongly worded speech last week, Bangladesh’s army chief, Gen Waker-Uz-Zaman – who played a pivotal role in Hasina’s departure and Yunus’ return – said the country was in a “state of anarchy”, and if the divisions fuelling unrest continued, “the independence and sovereignty of this country will be at stake”.
Yunus maintained he had a “very good relationship” with the military, and that there was “no pressure” from the army chief. However, some took the general’s words as a strong rebuke of Yunus’s leadership and even a warning that military intervention might be on the horizon.
Yunus is determined to frame the country’s woes as consequences of Hasina’s rule: “Hasina’s regime wasn’t a government, it was a family of bandits. Any order from the boss and it was done. Someone’s causing problems? We’ll make them disappear. Want to hold an election? We will make sure you win all the seats. You want money? Here’s a million dollar loan from the bank you never have to pay back.”
The scale of the corruption carried out under Hasina has left the banking system highly exposed and the economy in tatters. Among Hasina’s relatives caught up in the financial scandals is her niece, Tulip Siddiq, a UK Labour MP. Siddiq resigned from her role at the Treasury as she faced questions over assets allegedly linked to Hasina’s regime and was named in a corruption investigation in Bangladesh. She has denied all wrongdoing.
Operations involving financial authorities in the UK, US and Switzerland are under way to try to recover upwards of $17bn estimated to have been taken from country’s banks by Hasina’s allies. But hopes of it being returned anytime soon are diminishing.“Banks were given full licence to loot people’s money, with active participation from the government,” Yunus said. “They would send their officials with guns to get it all signed off.”
Yunus has also been accused of not doing enough to contain a surge in the hardline Islamic religious right in recent months. Under Hasina, Islamist parties such as Jamaat-e-Islami were banned, and Islamist political leaders faced widespread persecution. They are now free to operate and have seen a swell in support, while banned Islamist militant groups have also become more active. There have been incidents of teenage girls’ football matches being halted after intervention by local hardline Islamic groups and on Friday, police used tear gas to disperse hundreds of members of banned militant outfit Hizb-ut-Tahrir as they marched through Dhaka demanding an Islamic caliphate.
Yunus courts Trump
Some of the greatest pressures on Yunus have come from outside Bangladesh. When she was in power, Hasina enjoyed a close relationship with India and is now hiding out in the neighbouring nation as bilateral ties between the countries disintegrate. India has shown little interest in mending them while Yunus is in charge, with Delhi recently accusing Dhaka of “normalising terrorism”.
In December, a formal extradition request was made to India to send Hasina back to face trial in Bangladesh but Yunus confirmed there had been “no response” from the Indian government. He said Hasina would still face trial for crimes against humanity, even if in absentia.
Hasina is becoming increasingly vocal in her criticisms of Yunus: she recently called him a “mobster” who was unleashing “terrorists” on the country.
Yunus said India hosting her would be tolerated, but “allowing her to use India as a platform for her campaign to try to undo everything we have done is dangerous. It destabilises the country.”
India’s government is not Yunus’s only problem: the return of Donald Trump to the White House is also bad news. The Biden administration was one of Yunus’s biggest backers, both politically and financially. But the restoration of democracy in Bangladesh is unlikely to be a priority for Trump.
Bangladesh has taken a blow from Trump’s decimation of the US Agency for International Development (USAid), which had pledged the country more than $1bn in assistance in recent years. In a speech, Trump alleged millions of USAid dollars earmarked for strengthening Bangladesh political landscape had been used to elect a “radical left communist” without offering any evidence.
In an attempt to bring the US on side, Yunus recently invited Trump’s billionaire backer Elon Musk to bring his Starlink satellite internet network to Bangladesh. Sources around Yunus said a visit by Musk to the country was expected in April.
Yunus expressed hope that Trump might see Bangladesh as a “good investment opportunity” and trading partner, and said he intended to pitch this to Musk during his visit. “Trump’s a dealmaker, so I say to him: come, do deals with us,” he said. If he did not, Bangladesh would feel a little pain, Yunus said. “But this democratic process will not stop.” Police in Bangladesh use batons and tear gas to disperse rally by banned Islamist group (AP)
AP [3/7/2025 8:01 AM, Julhas Alam, 456K]
Police used batons and stun grenades on Friday to disperse thousands of members of the banned Hizbut Tahrir group as they marched near Bangladesh’s main Baitul Mokarram Mosque in the country’s capital.
Police said that many people were injured and several protesters were arrested during the violence which came after weekly prayers.
Masud Alam, a deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said that attempts were made to disperse the rally after marchers broke away from the police barricade. Witnesses said that scores of people were injured.
The clashes happened as between 3,000 and 5,000 protesters joined the procession, chanting slogans such as “Freedom has one path, Khilafat, Khilafat,” or caliphate, and “Naraye Taqbir, Allahu akbar,” meaning “Cry, God is the greatest.”
The Islamist group had mounted a social media campaign in recent days and distributed leaflets and used posters across Dhaka urging people to join the procession, dubbed “March for Khilafat.”
Hizbut Tahrir says it wants unification of all Muslim countries over time in a unitary Islamic state or caliphate, headed by a caliph elected by Muslims. Its supporters believe this is an obligation decreed by Allah, warning that Allah will punish those Muslims who would overlook this duty. It also wants the introduction of Sharia law.
The group was banned in 2009 as a “threat to public security” by the government of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina under an anti-terrorism law.
Hasina was forced to flee last August after weeks of protests over a quota system for allocating government jobs turned into a broader challenge to her 15-year rule and an interim government was established under Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus. Hasina has been in exile in India since her ouster.
Bangladesh, a nation of about 170 million people, is largely Muslim-majority and is governed by mostly secular laws based on British common law. But many Islamist groups and hard-line political parties want to establish tough Sharia law in the country, which has experienced extremist attacks in the past. Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh Brace for Upcoming Food Reductions as Aid Agencies Cut Funding (AP)
AP [3/8/2025 11:38 PM, Shafiqur Rahman and Julhas Alam, 24727K]
Rohingya refugees in crammed Bangladeshi camps say they are worried about a U.S. decision to cut food rations by half beginning next month, while a refugee official says the reduction will impact the nutrition of more than 1 million refugees and create "social and mental pressure.".
President Donald Trump abruptly stopped most foreign aid and dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development, which has significantly hampered the global humanitarian sector. Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order froze the funding for a 90-day review.
The World Food Program, the main U.N. food agency, recently announced that cuts to food rations will take effect from April 1 in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, where dozens of camps are inhabited by Rohingya refugees.
More than 700,000 Muslim Rohingya fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar starting in late August 2017 when Myanmar’s military launched a "clearance operation." The ethnic group faces discrimination and are denied citizenship and other rights in the Buddhist-majority nation. Following a miliary takeover in 2021, the country has been engulfed in an armed conflict widely seen as civil war.
It was not immediately clear if the WFP’s decision was directly related to the Trump administration’s action.
"We received a letter that (says) previously it was $12.50, and now it is $6. They used to get $12.50 per month, and from now $6, this will greatly affect them," Shamsud Douza, additional refugee relief and repatriation commissioner of Bangladesh, told The Associated Press.
"As the food is cut, they will get less nutritious food, which may lead to a lack of nutrition. There will be social and mental pressure created amongst the Rohingya people in their community. They will have to look for an alternative for the food," he said.
Douza said there are more sectors where budgets have been cut beyond the food rations, but he would not say whether WFP cuts were related to the U.S. funding rollback.
"Generally, there will be less (support) for the (Rohingya) response after the funding cuts. The response already has been slowed, and some people, including Rohingya, have lost their jobs, and some services are reduced. It does not bring a good result when the available services get reduced," he said.
The interim Bangladesh government said the end of USAID payments would stop other projects in Bangladesh, but funding for Rohingya refugees will continue to flow.
The U.S. has been the top donor to Bangladesh for Rohingya refugees, providing the U.N. with emergency food and nutrition assistance. The U.S. usually provides almost half of the aid money spent on the humanitarian response to Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, which provided about $300 million in 2024.
As the news of the impending food reductions spread through the camps in Cox’s Bazar, fear and frustration gripped the refugees.
"I am afraid now about how I am going to run my family, as we don’t have any income-generating opportunities here. I got scared when I heard it," 40-year-old Manzur Ahmed said. "How will I buy rice, chilies, salt, sugar and dal, let alone fish, meat and vegetables, with 700 taka ($6)? We won’t even be able to buy (cooking) oil. How are we going to get them?".
Medical treatment also is decreasing, refugees said.
"When we go to the hospital, they don’t provide medicines unless it’s an emergency. They only provide medicines to the very emergency patients. Earlier, they would treat anyone who felt unwell, but now they only provide treatment to those who are in an emergency," 32-year-old Dildar Begum said.
Hundreds of thousands have lived in Bangladesh for decades and about 70,000 crossed the border from Myanmar in 2024. During fighting with the military junta, the opposition force known as the Arakan Army effectively took over the Rakhine state where Rohingya were displaced and took shelter in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh says Rohingya refugees must return to Myanmar, which has been accused in an international court of genocide against Rohingya. Thousands in Nepal want monarchy back as public frustration with politics grows (AP)
AP [3/9/2025 12:31 PM, Binaj Gurubacharya, 456K]
Thousands of supporters greeted Nepal’s former king in capital Kathmandu on Sunday and demanded his abolished monarchy be reinstated and Hinduism brought back as a state religion.
An estimated 10,000 supporters of Gyanendra Shah blocked the main entrance to Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport as he arrived from a tour of western Nepal.“Vacate the royal palace for the king. Come back king, save the country. Long live our beloved king. We want monarchy,” the crowds chanted. Passengers were forced to walk to and from the airport.
Hundreds of riot police blocked the protesters from entering the airport and there was no violence.
Massive street protests in 2006 forced Gyanendra to give up his authoritarian rule, and two years later the parliament voted to abolish the monarchy as Gyanendra left the Royal Palace to live the life of a commoner.
But many Nepalis have grown frustrated with the republic, saying it has failed to bring about political stability and blaming it for a struggling economy and widespread corruption. Nepal has had 13 governments since the monarchy was abolished in 2008.
Rally participants said they were hoping for a change in the political system to stop the country from further deteriorating.“We are here to give the king our full support and to rally behind him all the way to reinstating him in the royal throne,” said Thir Bahadur Bhandari, 72.
Among the thousands was 50-year-old carpenter Kulraj Shrestha, who had taken part in the 2006 protests against the king but has changed his mind and now supports the monarchy.“The worst thing that is happening to the country is massive corruption and all politicians in power are not doing anything for the country,” Shrestha said. “I was in the protests that took away monarchy hoping it would help the country, but I was mistaken and the nation has further plunged so I have changed my mind.”
Gyanendra has not commented on the calls for the return of monarchy. Despite growing support for the former king, Gyanendra has slim chances of immediately returning to power.
He became the king in 2002, after his brother and family were massacred in the palace. He ruled as the constitutional head of state without executive or political powers until 2005, when he seized absolute power. He disbanded the government and parliament, jailed politicians and journalists and cut off communications, declaring a state of emergency and using the army to rule the country. A resort entirely staffed and run by women in Sri Lanka seeks to break gender barriers (AP)
AP [3/8/2025 12:49 AM, Bharatha Mallawarachi, 34586K]
After leaving school, Jeewanthi Adikari was determined to pursue her studies in accounting. But her life took a different path when she began a three-month training program in hospitality.
She has since worked in different hotels throughout a career spanning over two decades. Now 42, she is in charge of Sri Lanka’s first resort fully operated and managed by women. It’s an attempt to address gender disparities in a male-dominated tourism sector crucial for the country’s economic recovery after a major crisis.
"This is a place where women can realise their potential. They will not be inside the shell. Instead, they will come out and try to perform better," said Adikari, who oversees the daily operations of Amba Yaalu, a resort located in Dambulla city that serves as a gateway to most of Sri Lanka’s tourist attractions.
Most Sri Lankan women don’t get a chance to work in the tourism industry, earn money and own a career. In a country where 52% of the 22 million people are women, they account for only about 10% of the 200,000-strong workforce in the hospitality sector.
Amba Yaalu wants to be the driver of change
Some 160 kilometers (100 miles) northeast of Colombo, the resort is nestled in a mango plantation and all work is managed by 75 women staff who garden, work in the kitchens, clean the facility, address the guests and provide security in the form of seven ex-military members. The resort’s facilities also include training programs for women to develop their skills in different areas of hospitality.
The resort opened in January and has been seen as a move unlocking women’s potential and driving the tourism economy in the debt-stricken nation.
The idea was conceived by seasoned hotelier Chandra Wickramasinghe, who said he was "inspired by the power of women," especially that of his mother who raised him and his seven siblings as a single parent.
"I knew what these ladies can do. I got the idea and put my team to work on it. We got a strong team to run it and it worked very well," said Wickramasinghe, adding that the resort would enable women to thrive as leaders.
Social stigma, language barrier, work-life balance, lack of training facilities and low salaries have long kept the majority of Sri Lankan women away from the hospitality industry, especially those in the rural areas, said Suranga Silva, professor of tourism economics in the University of Colombo.
Much of this stems from a patriarchal structure and traditional gender roles deeply embedded in Sri Lanka’s society, even though many women have made their mark in the country’s politics and have held key positions in the government. The island nation’s current prime minister, Harini Amarasuriya, is a woman.
"Tourism industry can’t be isolated from women," said Silva, adding that women’s employment in Sri Lanka’s tourism is very low compared to the global and regional levels.
Lack of women professionals
Sri Lanka’s tourism and hospitality sector contributed 2.3% to the country’s economy in 2023 — down from 5% in 2018 — and the industry has traditionally been the country’s third largest foreign exchange earner. But the shortage of skilled women and some of them leaving jobs after getting married have been challenges faced by the industry since the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings and the coronavirus pandemic.
Kaushalya Batagoda, the executive chef at the resort, said the industry faces a shortage of female professionals to serve in the kitchen and as a result, most staff recruited to the resort’s kitchen were rookies still in training.
"But, the new generation has a passion for working in the kitchen," she said, adding that she gets a lot of applications from women.
The resort has been lauded by women’s rights activists who have long been concerned about limited career choices for women in Sri Lanka.
Activist Sepali Kottegoda said such business enterprises can "open up more safe employment opportunities for women.".
Silva, the professor, said that "a dramatic change" is taking place as more young women are eager to join the industry, but suggested that the government and the sector must jointly provide training programs for women to improve their skills and employability.
At Amba Yaalu resort, some of these concerns are already being tackled.
"This is purely to empower women," Adikari said. "We invite women to come and join us, see whether they can perform better in the career, sharpen their capacities and skills and contribute to the industry.". Central Asia
Russia says OPEC+ may reverse oil output after April, Kazakhstan pledges cuts (Reuters)
Reuters [3/7/2025 9:27 AM, Olesya Astakhova, Mariya Gordeyeva and Maha El Dahan, 5.2M]
Russia Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Friday that the OPEC+ group agreed to start increasing oil production from April, but could reverse the decision afterward if there are market imbalances.
Speaking at an online briefing almost simultaneously with Novak, officials from Kazakhstan, which has frequently exceeded the OPEC+ production quotas, pledged to cut output in March, April and May.
Novak also said Russia produced less oil in February than the quota it agreed to with the OPEC+ group, which includes the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies.
Eight members taking part in OPEC+’s most recent layer of output cuts held a virtual meeting on Monday and agreed to proceed with the April increase, the first by the group since 2022. The increase is 138,000 barrels per day, according to Reuters calculations.
Novak told reporters that the group will go ahead with the April increase, but after that it may consider other steps.
"If there is an imbalance in the market, we can always play in the other direction," he said.
Global oil prices rose more than $1 a barrel after his comments.
KAZAKHSTAN
Industry sources told Reuters that record output from Kazakhstan helped sway this week’s OPEC+ decision.
The world’s largest landlocked country has been producing at a record high, and well above its quota, as U.S. oil major Chevron (CVX.N) expands output at the largest Kazakh oilfield, Tengiz.
The Chevron-led Tengizchevroil (TCO) consortium operates the Tengiz and Korolev fields. Tengiz, one of the world’s deepest oilfields, was discovered in 1979.
Chevron holds a 50% stake in TCO, while KazMunayGaz has 20%, ExxonMobil (XOM.N), (25%) and Lukoil (LKOH.MM) (5%).
Another country’s large oil project, Kashagan, is operated by the North Caspian Operating Company (NCOC) that includes Eni (ENI.MI) (16.81%), Shell (SHEL.L), (16.81%), TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA) (16.81%), ExxonMobil (16.81%), KazMunayGaz (KMGZ.KZ) (16.88%), Inpex (1605.T) (7.56%) and China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC.UL) (8.33%).
Shell declined comment, while Chevron said: "Tengizchevroil has safely started initial production from the Future Growth Project (FGP). Once all Tengiz facilities are operating at full capacity, TCO’s total annual crude oil production is expected to reach approximately 40 million tons per annum. Beyond this, TCO does not comment on specific details of current or future production levels."
Several members of the OPEC+ group, including top producer Saudi Arabia, were angered by the rising output from Kazakhstan, three OPEC+ sources told Reuters.
Kazakhstan Energy Minister Almassadam Satkaliyev told an online briefing of reporters and analysts that the country was producing oil above quota, but the government had tasked oil majors to cut production.
His deputy, Alibek Zhamauov, said that the country will cut oil production in March, April and May, as well as exports via the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), its main exporting route.
Kazakhstan’s OPEC+ production quota is set at 1.468 million barrels per day (bpd).
"In March, we will strive to achieve the OPEC+ quota of about 1.5 million bpd," he said.
Kazakhstan raised crude and gas condensate output in February to a record-high 2.12 million bpd.
A pumping station on the Russian stretch of the CPC pipeline was hit by a Ukrainian drone last month. There have been conflicting reports about the scale of the damage and its impact on exports.
Zhamauov said CPC has embarked on repair works and while exports have been steady, they will decrease in March. He didn’t specify if the cuts will be due to the aftermath of the drone strike or output reduction. Kyrgyz-Tajik Border Accord Not Universally Popular In Kyrgyz Political Elite (Eurasia Review – opinion)
Eurasia Review [3/9/2025 7:56 PM, Paul Goble, 206K]
At the end of February, Bishkek and Dushanbe announced the conclusion of an agreement about the disputed border between them. The accord was based don a 50-50 exchange of territories in disputed areas and the establishemnt of several neutral and demilitarized areas along their state borders.
The governments of the two countries are firmly behind the agreement which they say will remove the threat of further violence, but there are signs that the accord is not universally popular and that disputes about the border may continue to create problems for both of these Central Asian countries.
On March 5, Sultanbay Ayzhigitov, a Kyrgyz deputy, denounced the accord even though other members of the national parliament had voted for it. He said it was "unequal" and was giving Tajikistan villagers where the ancestors of today’s Kyrgyz had lived. The parliament’s speaker denounced him, and his party expelled him from its ranks, an action that will cost him his mandate because he was elected by party list (ru.kabar.kg/news/spornye-territorii-na-granice-byli-resheny-5050-spiker/ and vesti.kg/politika/item/136487-lishitsya-li-deputatskogo-mandata-sultanbaj-ajzhigitov.html).
Ayzhigitov’s criticism shows both how difficult solving border disputes invariably is and remains a clear sign that current celebrations about the border accord are almost certainly premature. Indo-Pacific
Panama releases dozens of detained deportees from US into limbo following human rights criticism (AP)
AP [3/9/2025 11:53 AM, Megan Janetsky, Alma Solis, and Matias Delacroix, 44742K]
After weeks of lawsuits and human rights criticism, Panama on Saturday released dozens of migrants who were held for weeks in a remote camp after being deported from the United States, telling them they have 30 days to leave the Central American nation.
It thrust many like Hayatullah Omagh, a 29-year-old who fled Afghanistan in 2022 after the Taliban took control, into a legal limbo, scrambling to find a path forward.
"We are refugees. We do not have money. We cannot pay for a hotel in Panama City, we do not have relatives," Omagh told The Associated Press in an interview. "I can’t go back to Afghanistan under any circumstances. ... It is under the control of the Taliban, and they want to kill me. How can I go back?".
Authorities have said deportees will have the option of extending their stay by 60 days if they need it, but after that many like Omagh don’t know what they will do.
Omagh climbed off a bus in Panama City alongside 65 migrants from China, Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Nepal and other nations after spending weeks detained in poor conditions by the Panamanian government, which has said it wants to work with the Trump administration "to send a signal of deterrence" to people hoping to migrate.
Human rights groups and lawyers advocating for the migrants were waiting at the bus terminal, and scrambled to find the released migrants shelter and other resources. Dozens of other people remained in the camp.
Among those getting off buses were migrants fleeing violence and repression in Pakistan and Iran, and 27-year-old Nikita Gaponov, who fled Russia due to repression for being part of the LGBTQ+ community and who said he was detained at the U.S. border, but not allowed to make an asylum claim.
"Once I get off the bus, I’ll be sleeping on the ground tonight," Gaponov said.
Others turned their eyes north once again, saying that even though they had already been deported, they had no other option than to continue after crossing the world to reach the U.S.
The deportees, largely from Asian countries, were part of a deal stuck between the Trump administration and Panama and Costa Rica as the U.S. government attempts to speed up deportations. The administration sent hundreds of people, many families with children, to the two Central American countries as a stopover while authorities organize a way to send them back to their countries of origin.
Critics described it as a way for the U.S. to export its deportation process.
The agreement fueled human rights concerns when hundreds of deportees detained in a hotel in Panama City held up notes to their windows pleading for help and saying they were scared to return to their own countries.
Under international refugee law, people have the right to apply for asylum when they are fleeing conflict or persecution.
Those that refused to return home were later sent to a remote camp near Panama’s border with Colombia, where they spent weeks in poor conditions, were stripped of their phones, unable to access legal council and were not told where they were going next.
Lawyers and human rights defenders warned that Panama and Costa Rica were turning into "black holes" for deportees, and said their release was a way for Panamanian authorities to wash their hands of the deportees amid mounting human rights criticism.
Upon being released Saturday night, human rights lawyers identified at least three people who required medical attention. One has been vomiting for over a week, another deportee had diabetes and hadn’t had access to insulin in the camp and another person had HIV and also didn’t have access to medicine in detention.
Those who were released, like Omagh, said they could not return home.
As an atheist and member of an ethnic minority group in Afghanistan known as the Hazara, he said returning home under the rule of the Taliban — which swept back into power after the Biden administration pulled out of the country — would mean he would be killed. He only went to the U.S. after trying for years to live in Pakistan, Iran and other countries but being denied visas.
Omagh was deported after presenting himself to American authorities and asking to seek asylum in the U.S., which he was denied.
"My hope was freedom. Just freedom," he said. "They didn’t give me the chance. I asked many times to speak to an asylum officer and they told me ‘No, no, no, no, no.’".
Still, he said that leaving the camp was a relief. Omagh and other migrants who spoke to the AP detailed scarce food, sweltering heat with little relief and aggressive Panamanian authorities.
In one case, Omagh and others said, a Chinese man went on a week-long hunger strike. In another, a small riot broke out because guards refused to give a migrant their phone. The riot, they said, was suppressed by armed guards.Panamanian authorities denied accusations about camp conditions, but blocked journalists from accessing the camp and cancelled a planned press visit last week.
While international aid organizations said they would organize travel to a third country for people who didn’t want to return home, Panamanian authorities said the people released had already refused help.
Omagh said he was told in the camp he could be sent to a third country if it gives people from Afghanistan visas. He said that would be incredibly difficult because few nations open their doors to people with a Afghan passport.
He said he asked authorities in the camp multiple times if he could seek asylum in Panama, and said he was told that "we do not accept asylum.".
"None of them wants to stay in Panama. They want to go to the U.S.," said Carlos Ruiz-Hernandez, Panama’s deputy foreign minister, in an interview with the AP last month.
That was the case for some, like one Chinese woman who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity, fearing repercussions from Panamanian authorities.
Upon getting off the bus, the first thing she wanted to do was find a Coca-Cola. Then, she’d find a way back to the U.S.
"I still want to continue to go to the United States and fulfill my American dream," she said. Twitter
Afghanistan
Shawn VanDiver@shawnjvandiver
[3/9/2025 8:58 PM, 32.2K followers, 8 retweets, 84 likes]
You’re not imagining things AND it’s not a conspiracy -- Internet is down (or degraded) at the U.S. government facility housing Afghans in Doha, Qatar due to a construction incident. Repairs are underway and expected to be complete within the next few hours. Please stay patient.
Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office@amnestysasia
[3/8/2025 10:30 AM, 96.5K followers, 11 retweets, 13 likes]
What is the state of women’s rights in Afghanistan? This #InternationalWomensDay, Amnesty’s Secretary General Agnes Callamard is joined by Zahra Joya, an Afghan woman journalist and founder of Rukhshana Media. They discuss the need for gender apartheid to be recognized as a crime under international law. https://x.com/i/status/1898395789790953964
Habib Khan@HabibKhanT
[3/9/2025 8:35 PM, 247.7K followers, 59 retweets, 207 likes]
Worldwide protests in support of Afghan women and against the Taliban’s gender apartheid. https://x.com/i/status/1898548105592676585
Habib Khan@HabibKhanT
[3/8/2025 8:10 PM, 247.7K followers, 109 retweets, 302 likes]
This 14-year-old girl was sold to a 70-year-old man for just $200—without even knowing. This horrific practice is still culturally accepted in some places, including parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan. No culture or religion should justify such abuse.
Habib Khan@HabibKhanT
[3/8/2025 7:24 PM, 247.7K followers, 56 retweets, 237 likes]
On International Women’s Day, women worldwide are rallying in support of Afghan women living under the Taliban’s gender apartheid. This global solidarity is exactly what Afghan women need to fight back against this oppression and end the brutality.
Lina Rozbih@LinaRozbih
[3/9/2025 9:29 PM, 427K followers, 1 retweet, 5 likes]
Thank you @UNESCO for amplifying the voice of women of Afghanistan on #WomensDay2025 and dedicating this event their plea. Pakistan
Anas Mallick@AnasMallick
[3/8/2025 3:53 PM, 75.9K followers, 9 retweets, 36 likes]
The United States has issued a renewed travel advisory for Pakistan asking people to reconsider their travel(Level 3 advisory) while cautioning them to NOT travel to Balochistan and KPK due to terrorism and potential armed conflict.
Anas Mallick@AnasMallick
[3/9/2025 7:33 AM, 75.9K followers, 8 retweets, 47 likes]
On sidelines of OIC Extra Ordinary Session of Council of Foreign Ministers in Jeddah, #Pakistan’s Foreign Minister @MIshaqDar50 met #Bangladesh’s Advisor on Foreign Affairs -- Second in person meeting in less than 5months, discuss bilateral relations and its upward trajectory
Shawn VanDiver@shawnjvandiver
[3/7/2025 4:25 PM, 32.2K followers, 36 retweets, 291 likes]
A quick update after my discussion with the Ambassador to the United States from Pakistan. Stay tuned for more. https://x.com/i/status/1898122925439349215
Hamid Mir@HamidMirPAK
[3/7/2025 9:17 AM, 8.6M followers, 187 retweets, 2.3K likes]
Today I visited Islamabad College for Girls F-6/2 Islamabad. I was amazed to meet very intelligent students and very committed teachers. Introduction of AI in class 7th and 8th was a pleasant surprise for me. We need to invest more in girls education. Education is our future. India
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[3/9/2025 3:50 AM, 105.7M followers, 4.8K retweets, 44K likes]
Went to AIIMS and enquired about the health of Vice President Shri Jagdeep Dhankhar Ji. I pray for his good health and speedy recovery. @VPIndia
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[3/8/2025 9:04 AM, 105.7M followers, 4.1K retweets, 22K likes]
Do watch this very special interaction with Lakhpati Didis, who epitomise confidence and determination! #WomensDay https://x.com/i/status/1898374256041369766
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[3/8/2025 2:11 AM, 105.7M followers, 4.1K retweets, 17K likes]
Humbled to receive the blessings of our Nari Shakti in Navsari. Speaking at a programme during the launch of various initiatives. Do watch.
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[3/8/2025 12:46 AM, 105.7M followers, 3.6K retweets, 24K likes]
Since morning, you’ve all seen inspiring posts by extraordinary women sharing their own journeys and inspiring other women. These women belong to different parts of India and have excelled in different areas, but there’s one underlying theme - the prowess of India’s Nari Shakti. Their determination and success remind us of the boundless potential women hold. Today and every day, we celebrate their contributions in shaping a Viksit Bharat.
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[3/8/2025 12:29 AM, 105.7M followers, 4.6K retweets, 30K likes]
Namaste India and Happy #WomensDay. I am Dr. @access_anjlee, founder of @samarthyam Centre for Universal Accessibility. Through PM @narendramodi’s social media handle, which I have the honour of taking over today, I want to ignite a spark of transformation, and seek a call to action- forget labels, forget barriers…lets strengthen Sugamya Bharat and make it an important precursor to a Viksit Bharat. Let’s ensure that every woman, every individual, can navigate their life with dignity and independence. Let us build on the recent gains and improve lives for persons with disabilities.
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[3/8/2025 12:29 AM, 105.7M followers, 198 retweets, 559 likes]
Here is more about myself- for over three decades, I’ve worked on universal accessibility and inclusive mobility. These sectors are integral to creating inclusive spaces. Basis my experience of the recent past, I am positive that accessibility and mobility are no longer remaining only in words but have been seamlessly assimilated with other aspects of governance. #WomensDay
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[3/8/2025 12:29 AM, 105.7M followers, 195 retweets, 508 likes]
Research and writing are key passions for me, because this is also how we can drive a positive change when it comes to improving the lives of persons with disabilities. Here too, working towards empowering women with disabilities has been very important for me. I conduct extensive training workshops for government and educational institutions to further this goal. I have worked widely in making schools accessible in India. This is vital because, no one must be denied education just because of lack of accessible infrastructure. #WomensDay
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[3/8/2025 12:29 AM, 105.7M followers, 868 retweets, 2.3K likes]
Additionally, I have also conducted numerous accessibility training workshops throughout the Asia Pacific region. I have played a small part in adding to the ongoing initiatives of building a resource pool of access auditors, both nationally and internationally. My practical experience includes conducting access audits of several sites in India including the pilgrimage spaces under PRASAD scheme and in public transportation spaces. Recognising the importance of basic needs, I’ve worked on WASH facilities for persons with disabilities and conducted anthropometric studies to better understand the needs of mobility aid users. Our collective success in Swachh Bharat has particularly benefited persons with disabilities. #WomensDay
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[3/8/2025 12:29 AM, 105.7M followers, 876 retweets, 2.5K likes]
Ultimately, I aim to be a leading force in creating accessible and inclusive environments in India, with a deep commitment to empowering individuals with disabilities in partnership with individuals, organisations and governments. The mindset change, combined with positive action on the ground and many policy changes have been encouraging. Today, many women with disabilities are excelling in sports, commerce, education and more. May we keep adding momentum to this and cement India’s position as a pioneer in this area. #WomensDay
President of India@rashtrapatibhvn
[3/8/2025 3:23 AM, 26.5M followers, 381 retweets, 1.6K likes]
On International Women’s Day, President Droupadi Murmu inaugurated a National Conference on the theme ‘Nari Shakti Se Viksit Bharat’ in New Delhi, organised by the Ministry of Women and Child Development. The President highlighted that a better environment for girls to move forward is necessary for realizing the dream of a developed India. She said that they should be able to make independent decisions about their lives without pressure or fear.
President of India@rashtrapatibhvn
[3/9/2025 12:27 AM, 26.5M followers, 212 retweets, 2K likes]
Saddened to learn about the passing of Shri Anant Das who served as minister in Odisha government. He worked for the people of Odisha. My condolences to his family, friends and followers.
President of India@rashtrapatibhvn
[3/10/2025 2:10 AM, 26.5M followers, 38 retweets, 164 likes]
LIVE: President Droupadi Murmu addresses the convocation ceremony of Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology, Hisar https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1OyJALXDpgNGb NSB
Mohamed Nasheed@MohamedNasheed
[3/9/2025 12:45 PM, 274.2K followers, 164 retweets, 287 likes]
The MMA, the country’s central bank, purchasing real estate under the guise of developing a financial center is not only highly irregular but also a significant departure from the government’s pledges to implement fiscal consolidation measures as recommended by the IMF. This measure is essentially monetarization in disguise. By increasing the money supply by MVR 14 billion, the US dollar exchange rate is likely to surge well over MVR 24/- consequently fueling inflation. The government must reconsider this approach and revert to fiscal consolidation to reduce the budget deficit.
Abdulla Khaleel@abkhaleel
[3/10/2025 12:09 AM, 33.8K followers, 12 retweets, 12 likes]
On this #CommonwealthDay, we embrace the power of unity under the theme #TogetherWeThrive, as we work together to build solutions for addressing shared challenges. The #Maldives is dedicated to a future where every Commonwealth citizen can thrive. Through collaboration, we will ensure a more resilient, sustainable, and inclusive future for all.
Anura Kumara Dissanayake@anuradisanayake
[3/8/2025 4:52 AM, 146.2K followers, 15 retweets, 118 likes]
Yesterday (07), I had a productive virtual meeting with @IMFNews Managing Director Ms. Kristalina Georgieva. We discussed Sri Lanka’s progress under the EFF program, our commitment to economic reforms and strengthening our partnership. Grateful for the IMF’s continued support in our recovery journey.
Anura Kumara Dissanayake@anuradisanayake
[3/7/2025 8:12 PM, 146.2K followers, 25 retweets, 103 likes]
On this #InternationalWomensDay, we celebrate the immense contributions of women in shaping our nation. From political leadership to economic progress, women continue to drive change. We are committed to safeguarding women’s rights, ensuring equal opportunities, and eliminating all forms of discrimination and violence. With a production-based economic approach, we strive for an inclusive and just society where all women and girls are empowered. Together, let’s build a future of equality, justice, and progress!
Anura Kumara Dissanayake@anuradisanayake[3/7/2025 8:37 AM, 146.2K followers, 10 retweets, 115 likes]
Today (07), I joined a discussion at the Presidential Secretariat with officials of Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation (SLIC). I emphasized the need for efficient, productive investments to strengthen SLIC’s economic contribution. Proper management is crucial to ensure profitability and protect the people’s investments.
Anura Kumara Dissanayake@anuradisanayake
[3/7/2025 8:36 AM, 146.2K followers, 9 retweets, 94 likes]
Today (07), I met with members of the ‘Clean Sri Lanka’ Task Force at the Presidential Secretariat to discuss the initiative’s progress and future plans. Emphasizing social, environmental and ethical transformation, we reviewed strategies to ensure its effective implementation.
Namal Rajapaksa@RajapaksaNamal
[3/8/2025 2:21 PM, 436.8K followers, 14 likes]
Joined the #GaminGamata program in Wanathawilluwa, Puttalam District. Appreciate the efforts of Mr. D. M. Maduranga in organizing this gathering to strengthen our grassroots engagement. #GaminGamataNR #Puttalam #SLPP
Namal Rajapaksa@RajapaksaNamal
[3/8/2025 2:40 PM, 436.8K followers, 9 likes]
Paid homage at the sacred St. Anne’s Church in Thalawila today and called on the Bishop of Chilaw, His Eminence Arachchige Don Wimalsiri Jayasuriya. Received his blessings with reverence.
Namal Rajapaksa@RajapaksaNamal
[3/8/2025 1:35 AM, 436.8K followers, 8 likes]
On this #InternationalWomensDay, we recognize the strength, dedication, and leadership of women who drive our nation forward—mothers, daughters, sisters, and wives who are the foundation of every family and the backbone of our society. Your contributions are invaluable in building a stronger and more prosperous Sri Lanka. Today, and every day, we stand with you. #IWD2025
Harsha de Silva@HarshadeSilvaMP
[3/9/2025 3:30 AM, 360.8K followers, 9 retweets, 67 likes]
I questioned the Insurance Regulator at #COPF, on their failure to act against #SLIC distorting #lka market for 9 years. Why are powerful players allowed to manipulate markets while smaller companies face strict enforcement? Selective regulation is unacceptable in a fair economy.
Harsha de Silva@HarshadeSilvaMP
[3/7/2025 10:05 PM, 360.8K followers, 3 retweets, 31 likes]
On #WomensDay, I pledge that @sjbsrilanka will champion women’s economic empowerment. #Women make up 52% of our pop, but only 9.3% in @ParliamentLK & 33.6% of our workforce, we’re missing out on #lka greatest untapped resource. Our economic revival depends on changing this. Central Asia
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