SCA MORNING PRESS CLIPS
Prepared for the U.S. Department of State
Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs
TO: | SCA & Staff |
DATE: | Tuesday, May 27, 2025 6:30 AM ET |
Afghanistan
Veterans recoil at Trump plan to end Afghans’ deportation protection (Washington Post)
Washington Post [5/25/2025 6:00 AM, Abigail Hauslohner and Emily Wax-Thibodeaux, 121822K]
The Trump administration’s move to end deportation protections for wartime allies who fled to the United States after the fall of Afghanistan has infuriated veterans of the 20-year conflict there, who say the U.S. government is betraying a sacred promise made to some of America’s most vulnerable partners.This month Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem announced the administration’s termination of temporary protected status, or TPS, for Afghans, exposing thousands, potentially, to deportation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as soon as July, when the policy is to take effect.The fear, veterans and other advocates say, is that anyone who returns to Afghanistan will almost certainly face reprisal by the Taliban, the extremist militant group that in 2021 overran the U.S.-trained Afghan military and toppled the government in Kabul.“If they attempt to deport the Afghans, you’re going to see actual physical conflict between veterans and ICE,” predicted Matt Zeller, an Army veteran who became a prominent advocate for America’s Afghan allies after his interpreter saved his life.Advocacy groups estimate that about 10,000 Afghans in the United States have been dependent on TPS while they navigate the lengthy and complex process for obtaining permanent residency, a process made all the more difficult, they say, by the absolute chaos that defined Afghanistan’s collapse — and by the guidance they received from the U.S. government while trying to escape.By declaring his intent to end these protections, President Donald Trump risks alienating a key demographic — veterans of the war — at the same time he seeks to court them politically. His administration has intensified its scrutiny of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and demanded accountability for 13 U.S. troops and an estimated 170 Afghans killed in a suicide bombing at Kabul’s airport as the evacuation, hastily orchestrated by the Biden administration, raced to a tragic end.The White House did not respond to a request for comment.Since returning to office, Trump has moved with speed and severity to eliminate legal immigration pathways, particularly humanitarian protections for those who fled crises abroad. In announcing an end to Afghans’ TPS, the administration said there have been “notable improvements” in Afghanistan under the Taliban’s authoritarian rule — a claim the Afghans’ advocates call fundamentally wrong.“To me as a veteran, that’s incredibly offensive,” said Andrew Sullivan, a former infantry company commander in Afghanistan who works with No One Left Behind, a veterans nonprofit that helps resettle Afghans and Iraqis who risked their lives to serve the U.S. government during its post-9/11 wars.Sullivan, who last year addressed a Republican-led congressional hearing focused on Taliban reprisals, said he has met with Afghans who were attacked or tortured because of their U.S. affiliation — including one who is now a paraplegic. The Trump administration’s assessment of the safety conditions in Afghanistan, he said, is “laughable.”
“If there was ever a country that deserves TPS,” Sullivan insisted, “it is Afghanistan.”An international watchdog, Human Rights Watch, wrote in its 2025 report on Afghanistan that the situation there has “worsened” over the past year as “Taliban authorities intensified their crackdown on human rights, particularly against women and girls.” More than half the population needed urgent humanitarian assistance last year, the group found, including nearly 3 million people who faced “emergency levels of hunger.”CASA, Inc., a national immigrant rights organization, has sued the Trump administration over its decision to end Afghans’ TPS, arguing that Noem, as homeland security secretary, failed to follow “statutorily mandated notice procedures” and callously endangered thousands of people “living and working lawfully in this country.” The U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, where the case will be heard, has set an expedited schedule.The war’s deadly endgame has been fiercely politicized. Trump tirelessly attacked President Joe Biden over the scenes of violence and despair that marked the two-week retreat from Kabul. In turn, Biden and his aides faulted Trump, who in his first term as president struck an exit deal with the Taliban that Biden maintained he was forced to carry out. Various investigations have determined that both administrations — and the two that came before them — made costly mistakes.Many Republicans who took part in the frantic effort to rescue Afghan allies now echo Trump’s skepticism about the evacuees.Since the FBI arrested an Afghan evacuee last year on charges he was planning an Islamic State-inspired Election Day attack, Trump’s backers and fellow immigration hard-liners have argued, without evidence, that a broader swath of the evacuee population poses a threat to U.S. national security.Rep. Brian Mast (R-Florida), an Army veteran who lost both legs in an explosion while serving in Afghanistan and who convened last year’s House hearing on Taliban reprisals, said he sees a stark contrast between Afghans who worked directly with U.S. forces — who he said would not be affected by the TPS termination — and those who did not.“They’re not one in the same,” Mast said in an interview. “There’s people that maybe worked on a base, maybe they worked at [TGI] Fridays on a base as a waiter or something like that. That doesn’t mean that they were out on missions with me, rolling people up, right?”The congressman said he was not immediately concerned that the Taliban might seek to execute or punish such people if they returned to Afghanistan. “I’ll think about how I feel about that,” he said.Shawn VanDiver, president and board chairman of #AfghanEvac, a coalition of groups that have worked to extricate and protect vulnerable Afghans, said he was appalled by what he called the “political amnesia” of those such as Mast. It was only last year that the congressman “sounded the alarm” about what might happen to America’s Afghan allies if the U.S. government failed to keep its promises to protect them.“These are real lives, not talking points. And the idea that a cook, a janitor or a mechanic at Bagram [air base] deserves less protection than a combat interpreter is both morally bankrupt and strategically foolish,” said VanDiver, a Navy veteran. “The Taliban doesn’t do performance reviews. They don’t check résumés. They kill people for being associated with us.”
“These are people whose only ‘crime’ is having lived, learned or worked in the United States. And now, with TPS terminated and no viable pathway forward, they face an impossible choice: return to persecution or risk deportation from the very country they trusted,” he said.Many of those who escaped Afghanistan were simply lucky enough to make it through the panicked crowds thronging Kabul’s airport as the Taliban closed in and began meting out violent retribution to those suspected of working with the United States, or with the Afghan government that Washington had supported.Tens of thousands of other Afghans, who advocacy groups said were eligible for the Special Immigrant Visas reserved for those who served the U.S. mission, were left behind. Others who made it onto evacuation planes were separated from young children, their spouses or their parents, and have sought to bring them to the United States in the years since.For veterans of the war who say their survival depended on the relationships they built with Afghan partners, Trump’s abrupt cancellation of deportation protections is a deeply, bitterly shameful slight. Some devoted considerable time and personal expense to help evacuate and resettle their former Afghan partners during Kabul’s collapse.Advocacy groups such as No One Left Behind say they continue to urge members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans, to intervene. But the GOP, which holds majorities in the House and Senate, has yet to demonstrate an appetite to challenge a president who is so determined to lock down U.S. borders and ramp up deportations, no matter the means — and no matter the potential cost.The Afghans’ plight gained some attention during a recent Senate hearing with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, when Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (New Hampshire), the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s top Democrat, appealed for clarity on Trump’s plans. America’s Afghan allies, she said, “have been stranded in Qatar and Albania, and Pakistan and Afghanistan,” she said. “Is this administration going to allow them to come to the United States as promised?”Rubio was vague in his response, citing an ongoing review. “We are determining,” he said, “whether we are properly vetting people.”Advocates say the Afghans dependent on TPS include women’s rights activists, journalists, humanitarian workers, and former members of the Afghan military and government who are ineligible for Special Immigrant Visas because they did not work directly for the United States. But even for those who are eligible, obtaining them has been extraordinarily difficult because many — at the urging of the Biden administration — sought to evade Taliban detection as they fled and destroyed documents showing their U.S. affiliation.“Some of these are our closest partners, people that actually worked with us and for us, that are simply using the TPS program because that was the only option,” said Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colorado), a former Army Ranger who fought in Afghanistan and was among the U.S. lawmakers who rallied to help when the evacuation was declared.“If they’re sent back to Afghanistan,” Crow said, “it would be a death sentence for them.” The Trump administration’s move to end deportation protections for wartime allies who fled to the United States after the fall of Afghanistan has infuriated veterans of the 20-year conflict there, who say the U.S. government is betraying a sacred promise made to some of America’s most vulnerable partners.This month Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem announced the administration’s termination of temporary protected status, or TPS, for Afghans, exposing thousands, potentially, to deportation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as soon as July, when the policy is to take effect.The fear, veterans and other advocates say, is that anyone who returns to Afghanistan will almost certainly face reprisal by the Taliban, the extremist militant group that in 2021 overran the U.S.-trained Afghan military and toppled the government in Kabul.“If they attempt to deport the Afghans, you’re going to see actual physical conflict between veterans and ICE,” predicted Matt Zeller, an Army veteran who became a prominent advocate for America’s Afghan allies after his interpreter saved his life.Advocacy groups estimate that about 10,000 Afghans in the United States have been dependent on TPS while they navigate the lengthy and complex process for obtaining permanent residency, a process made all the more difficult, they say, by the absolute chaos that defined Afghanistan’s collapse — and by the guidance they received from the U.S. government while trying to escape.By declaring his intent to end these protections, President Donald Trump risks alienating a key demographic — veterans of the war — at the same time he seeks to court them politically. His administration has intensified its scrutiny of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and demanded accountability for 13 U.S. troops and an estimated 170 Afghans killed in a suicide bombing at Kabul’s airport as the evacuation, hastily orchestrated by the Biden administration, raced to a tragic end.The White House did not respond to a request for comment.Since returning to office, Trump has moved with speed and severity to eliminate legal immigration pathways, particularly humanitarian protections for those who fled crises abroad. In announcing an end to Afghans’ TPS, the administration said there have been “notable improvements” in Afghanistan under the Taliban’s authoritarian rule — a claim the Afghans’ advocates call fundamentally wrong.“To me as a veteran, that’s incredibly offensive,” said Andrew Sullivan, a former infantry company commander in Afghanistan who works with No One Left Behind, a veterans nonprofit that helps resettle Afghans and Iraqis who risked their lives to serve the U.S. government during its post-9/11 wars.Sullivan, who last year addressed a Republican-led congressional hearing focused on Taliban reprisals, said he has met with Afghans who were attacked or tortured because of their U.S. affiliation — including one who is now a paraplegic. The Trump administration’s assessment of the safety conditions in Afghanistan, he said, is “laughable.”
“If there was ever a country that deserves TPS,” Sullivan insisted, “it is Afghanistan.”An international watchdog, Human Rights Watch, wrote in its 2025 report on Afghanistan that the situation there has “worsened” over the past year as “Taliban authorities intensified their crackdown on human rights, particularly against women and girls.” More than half the population needed urgent humanitarian assistance last year, the group found, including nearly 3 million people who faced “emergency levels of hunger.”CASA, Inc., a national immigrant rights organization, has sued the Trump administration over its decision to end Afghans’ TPS, arguing that Noem, as homeland security secretary, failed to follow “statutorily mandated notice procedures” and callously endangered thousands of people “living and working lawfully in this country.” The U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, where the case will be heard, has set an expedited schedule.The war’s deadly endgame has been fiercely politicized. Trump tirelessly attacked President Joe Biden over the scenes of violence and despair that marked the two-week retreat from Kabul. In turn, Biden and his aides faulted Trump, who in his first term as president struck an exit deal with the Taliban that Biden maintained he was forced to carry out. Various investigations have determined that both administrations — and the two that came before them — made costly mistakes.Many Republicans who took part in the frantic effort to rescue Afghan allies now echo Trump’s skepticism about the evacuees.Since the FBI arrested an Afghan evacuee last year on charges he was planning an Islamic State-inspired Election Day attack, Trump’s backers and fellow immigration hard-liners have argued, without evidence, that a broader swath of the evacuee population poses a threat to U.S. national security.Rep. Brian Mast (R-Florida), an Army veteran who lost both legs in an explosion while serving in Afghanistan and who convened last year’s House hearing on Taliban reprisals, said he sees a stark contrast between Afghans who worked directly with U.S. forces — who he said would not be affected by the TPS termination — and those who did not.“They’re not one in the same,” Mast said in an interview. “There’s people that maybe worked on a base, maybe they worked at [TGI] Fridays on a base as a waiter or something like that. That doesn’t mean that they were out on missions with me, rolling people up, right?”The congressman said he was not immediately concerned that the Taliban might seek to execute or punish such people if they returned to Afghanistan. “I’ll think about how I feel about that,” he said.Shawn VanDiver, president and board chairman of #AfghanEvac, a coalition of groups that have worked to extricate and protect vulnerable Afghans, said he was appalled by what he called the “political amnesia” of those such as Mast. It was only last year that the congressman “sounded the alarm” about what might happen to America’s Afghan allies if the U.S. government failed to keep its promises to protect them.“These are real lives, not talking points. And the idea that a cook, a janitor or a mechanic at Bagram [air base] deserves less protection than a combat interpreter is both morally bankrupt and strategically foolish,” said VanDiver, a Navy veteran. “The Taliban doesn’t do performance reviews. They don’t check résumés. They kill people for being associated with us.”
“These are people whose only ‘crime’ is having lived, learned or worked in the United States. And now, with TPS terminated and no viable pathway forward, they face an impossible choice: return to persecution or risk deportation from the very country they trusted,” he said.Many of those who escaped Afghanistan were simply lucky enough to make it through the panicked crowds thronging Kabul’s airport as the Taliban closed in and began meting out violent retribution to those suspected of working with the United States, or with the Afghan government that Washington had supported.Tens of thousands of other Afghans, who advocacy groups said were eligible for the Special Immigrant Visas reserved for those who served the U.S. mission, were left behind. Others who made it onto evacuation planes were separated from young children, their spouses or their parents, and have sought to bring them to the United States in the years since.For veterans of the war who say their survival depended on the relationships they built with Afghan partners, Trump’s abrupt cancellation of deportation protections is a deeply, bitterly shameful slight. Some devoted considerable time and personal expense to help evacuate and resettle their former Afghan partners during Kabul’s collapse.Advocacy groups such as No One Left Behind say they continue to urge members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans, to intervene. But the GOP, which holds majorities in the House and Senate, has yet to demonstrate an appetite to challenge a president who is so determined to lock down U.S. borders and ramp up deportations, no matter the means — and no matter the potential cost.The Afghans’ plight gained some attention during a recent Senate hearing with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, when Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (New Hampshire), the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s top Democrat, appealed for clarity on Trump’s plans. America’s Afghan allies, she said, “have been stranded in Qatar and Albania, and Pakistan and Afghanistan,” she said. “Is this administration going to allow them to come to the United States as promised?”Rubio was vague in his response, citing an ongoing review. “We are determining,” he said, “whether we are properly vetting people.”Advocates say the Afghans dependent on TPS include women’s rights activists, journalists, humanitarian workers, and former members of the Afghan military and government who are ineligible for Special Immigrant Visas because they did not work directly for the United States. But even for those who are eligible, obtaining them has been extraordinarily difficult because many — at the urging of the Biden administration — sought to evade Taliban detection as they fled and destroyed documents showing their U.S. affiliation.“Some of these are our closest partners, people that actually worked with us and for us, that are simply using the TPS program because that was the only option,” said Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colorado), a former Army Ranger who fought in Afghanistan and was among the U.S. lawmakers who rallied to help when the evacuation was declared.“If they’re sent back to Afghanistan,” Crow said, “it would be a death sentence for them.” Why fierce rivals India, Pakistan and China are racing to woo the Taliban (The Independent)
The Independent [5/24/2025 4:23 AM, Arpan Rai, 48471K]
Afghanistan’s Taliban, who were a pariah on the global stage less than four years ago, are now being courted by three Asian nuclear powers – India, Pakistan and China – all vying to upgrade their diplomatic ties with the former militants.
No international government has formally recognised the Taliban administration, but China, India, and the United Arab Emirates are among the nations that have officially accepted its ambassadors in their capitals since the militant group took control of Kabul in 2021. The Taliban administration said last year it was in control of 39 Afghan embassies and consulates globally.
The Taliban’s isolation, at least in Asia, seems to be coming to an end. Playing the role of big brother to both Kabul and Islamabad, Beijing this week sought to ease the tensions gripping the two countries stoked by terrorism and deportation of refugees.On Wednesday, China’s foreign minister Wang Yi said after his talks with Afghanistan’s acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and his Pakistani counterpart, Ishaq Dar, that the two countries planned to upgrade their diplomatic ties and send ambassadors to each other as soon as possible.
A photo of the informal gathering showed Wang Yi holding hands with Mr Dar and Mr Muttaqi. "China welcomes this and is willing to continue providing assistance for the improvement of Afghanistan-Pakistan relations," he said.
Pakistan expelled more than 8,000 Afghan nationals in April in a fresh repatriation drive after the expiry of a 31 March deadline. Islamabad says the drive is part of a campaign called the Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan, launched in late 2023. Pakistan has in the past blamed militant attacks and crimes on Afghan citizens, who form the largest portion of migrants in the country. Afghanistan has rejected the accusations. Kabul has termed the repatriation as forced deportation.
Wang’s comments comes just days after New Delhi, reeling from the Kashmir attack and near-war conflict with Pakistan, made political contact with the Taliban, with external affairs minister S Jaishankar appreciating Mr Muttaqi’s condemnation of the 22 April Pahalgam terror strike. India said it attached a "lot of significance" to the telephone conversation between Mr Jaishankar and Mr Muttaqi.
In January, Indian foreign secretary Vikram Misri met with Mr Muttaqi as the two sides discussed expanding bilateral ties, with an increased focus on India’s security concerns, boosting trade through the development of the Chabahar Port in Iran, and Indian investments in several development projects inside Afghanistan.
The Taliban have banned girls and women from school for more than three years now and are blamed for turning Afghanistan into an "open-air prison" for its female population due to their gender apartheid policies – one of the biggest reasons the group is isolated and denied formal recognition.
Many western nations, including the US, have said the path to any formal recognition of the Taliban will be stuck until they change course on women’s rights and re-open high schools and universities to girls and women, and allow their full freedom of movement. The Taliban say they respect rights in accordance with their interpretation of Islamic law and that restrictions on their banking sector and a lack of recognition are hindering their economy.
The Taliban-ruled Afghanistan being wooed by the biggest powers in Asia is a scenario, experts say, that was unimaginable just last year. India, Pakistan, and China are seen to be looking out for their own interests in the regional race for minerals and guarding against terrorist groups over which the Taliban have influence.
Farid Mamundzay, Afghanistan’s ambassador to New Delhi until 2023, says the world should note that the competition over Afghanistan is "not new, but it has become more public, more visible, and increasingly pursued at higher diplomatic levels".
The three countries are focused on their strategic imperatives rather than concerns for rights or governance, he tells The Independent.
"For Pakistan, Afghanistan remains central to its concept of strategic depth, a critical arena for influence and a means to limit Indian influence along its western frontier. China views Afghanistan as vital to securing Xinjiang, expanding the Belt and Road Initiative, establishing overland trade corridors to Central Asia and Iran, and accessing its untapped mineral wealth," says the ambassador, who served New Delhi until the Taliban took control of the mission.
"India, meanwhile, sees continued engagement as essential for countering Chinese and Pakistani influence and maintaining strategic access to continental Asia," he says, warning that the Taliban risk making war-battered Afghanistan a pawn and not a partner in the regional race.
"In this unfolding rivalry, Afghanistan risks once again being treated less as a sovereign actor and more as a geopolitical battleground, its internal priorities overshadowed by external power plays," Mr Mamundzay says. "For too long, Afghanistan’s soil has hosted the rivalries of others. That pattern must end.".
As for the Taliban, the former ambassador says the increased attention from three sides boosts their international posture, political leverage and economic gains.
But this does not guarantee any safety to Beijing, Delhi and Islamabad, says Afghanistan’s former deputy foreign minister Nasir Ahmad Andisha.
"This engagement, while it might look pragmatic at the moment and allows Delhi to be friends with its enemy’s enemy, in the long run, this is doomed to fail," he says.
For the time being, the Taliban is enjoying the popularity from the three power centres.
"There is no doubt in this regard that the Islamic emirate has strengthened its comprehensive relationship with big countries such as China, Russia, Iran, and even India, in accordance with its interests," Abdul Mateen Qanay, the spokesperson for the Taliban’s interior ministry, told The Independent.
He added that the Taliban’s interior minister Sirajuddin Haqqani and foreign minister Mr Muttaqi have made renewed efforts to repair Afghanistan’s ties with Pakistan. When asked if this is a new chapter for the Taliban, Mr Qanay says: "Yes, that’s exactly right.". Pakistan
Turkey’s Erdogan, Pakistan PM Sharif discuss boosting cooperation (Reuters)
Reuters [5/25/2025 1:11 PM, Daren Butler, 51390K]
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan met Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Istanbul on Sunday and said the two countries would strive to boost cooperation, particularly in defence, energy and transportation, Erdogan’s office said.
Turkey has strong ties with Pakistan, both being largely Muslim countries and sharing historical links, and expressed solidarity with it during its recent clashes with India.
Erdogan’s office said he told Sharif it was in the interest of Turkey and Pakistan to increase solidarity in education, intelligence sharing and technological support in the fight against terrorism.
Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Defence Minister Yasar Guler and intelligence agency chief Ibrahim Kalin also attended the meeting.
Earlier in May, Erdogan expressed solidarity with Pakistan after India conducted military strikes in response to an attack in Indian Kashmir by Islamist assailants. The clashes between the nuclear-armed neighbours were the worst in more than two decades.
Ankara also maintains cordial ties with India but after Erdogan’s expression of support for Pakistan, small Indian grocery shops and major online fashion retailers boycotted Turkish products. Pakistan upgrading nukes with Chinese support, US warns (The Telegraph)
The Telegraph [5/26/2025 2:11 PM, Samaan Lareef, 121822K]
Pakistan is upgrading its nuclear arsenal with Chinese support and sees India as an "existential threat", a US report has said.
In its worldwide threat assessment report for 2025, the US Defence Intelligence Agency predicted that nuclear modernisation would be a top priority for Pakistan’s military during the next year.
The report said: "Pakistan regards India as an existential threat and will continue to pursue its military modernisation effort, including the development of battlefield nuclear weapons, to offset India’s conventional military advantage.".
It suggested Islamabad was not only upgrading and securing its arsenal but also "almost certainly" procuring weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
"Pakistan is modernising its nuclear arsenal and maintaining the security of its nuclear materials and nuclear command and control. Pakistan almost certainly procures WMD-applicable goods from foreign suppliers and intermediaries," it said.
Pakistan is a recipient of China’s economic and military largesse, and the two nations carry out joint military exercises, including an air exercise in November last year.
"Foreign materials and technology supporting Pakistan’s WMD programs are very likely acquired primarily from suppliers in China, and sometimes are trans-shipped through Hong Kong, Singapore, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates," said the report.
India considers China its "primary adversary," and Pakistan, its neighbour, more of an "ancillary security problem", the report said.
It added that India had modernised its military last year, testing the nuclear-capable developmental Agni-I Prime MRBM (medium-range ballistic missile) and the Agni-V multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicle.
India also commissioned a second nuclear-powered submarine to strengthen its nuclear triad and bolster its ability to deter adversaries.
Last week, the Indian government claimed China had helped move satellites and recalibrate air defence systems before Pakistan shot down Indian fighter jets during their recent military clashes.
According to Ashok Kumar, the director general of the New Delhi-based Centre For Joint Warfare Studies, China worked with Pakistan to reorganise its radar and air defence systems to track troop deployments and aerial movements by India.
Mr Kumar, whose research group operates under the Indian Ministry of Defence, said Chinese military advisers helped Pakistan realign its satellite coverage over India as the two neighbouring state clashed after the April 22 terror attack.
On that day, 26 tourists were killed at Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir. India blamed Pakistan and accused it of backing cross-border terrorism. Pakistan denied any involvement and called for an international investigation.
Between May 7 and 10, the neighbouring states launched attacks involving supersonic missiles and drones on each other’s territory.
Pakistan said it shot down six Indian warplanes, including three French-made Rafales. India has not commented on the specific losses. Dozens of civilians were killed in the attacks, mostly in Kashmir, which is divided between the two nations.
Hours after the initial Indian military strikes on May 7, Ishaq Dar, Pakistan’s foreign minister, told parliament that Islamabad had used Chinese jets, including J-10C, against India. Mr Dar said the Chinese ambassador had been called to his office to discuss the deployment.
Pakistan also used a Chinese-made PL-15 missile, which has never been used in combat before. Its use raised concerns among Beijing’s rivals, including Taiwan. China’s government has not commented on the use of its equipment.
Donald Trump, the US president, surprised many by announcing a "full and immediate ceasefire" on May 10, which appears to be holding. Death toll from Pakistan school bus bombing rises to 8 as Islamabad blames India (AP)
AP [5/23/2025 8:43 AM, Staff, 456K]
The death toll from a school bus bombing in southwestern Pakistan rose to eight on Friday after three more critically wounded children died, according to the country’s military, which blamed rival India for allegedly supporting rebels behind the attack.
The victims included two soldiers who were aboard the bus when it was attacked Wednesday in Khuzdar, a city in Balochistan province, where a separatist insurgency has raged for decades. A total of 53 people, including 39 children, were wounded in the attack.
The children were going to their Army Public School when the bombing happened.
Military spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmad Sharif said that several of the wounded children remain critical. He said an initial investigation suggested the bombing was carried out by insurgents from the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army, which was designated a terrorist organization by the United States in 2019, on India’s instructions.
Sharif said Pakistan had evidence that India is orchestrating "terrorists attacks inside Pakistan" and the international community should take its notice. India has not responded to the allegation and Pakistan has presented no proof to back up its claim.
No group has claimed responsibility for the bombing.
Tensions between India and Pakistan remain high after the two sides earlier this month engaged in a four-day border conflict before agreeing to a cease-fire. Pakistan sends ‘important signal’ of hope in a gloomy world of pushbacks on women’s rights (The Guardian)
The Guardian [5/27/2025 2:00 AM, Sarah Johnson and Shah Meer Baloch, 83M]
During last week’s tense debate over whether the Pakistan senate should pass a bill banning child marriage, Naseema Ehsan stood up to speak. “I got married at 13 years old and I want child marriage to be banned,” said the 50-year-old senator.“I was lucky to have good and affluent in-laws but most Pakistani women are not so lucky. Not every child has a supportive husband like me.”
When she finished talking, there was applause in the chamber.
Despite fierce opposition, later that day the bill banning child marriage in Pakistan’s capital city, Islamabad, was passed. It will be signed into law by the president in the coming days and replace legislation introduced under British colonial rule.
The landmark parliamentary vote comes more than a decade after a similar bill was passed in Sindh province. Senators, civil society organisations and activists hope that because this latest bill was passed by both houses of Pakistan’s legislature, other regions will follow suit, eventually outlawing child marriage throughout the country.“This bill sends a powerful message,” says Sherry Rehman, the politician who tabled the bill in the senate after Sharmila Farooqi introduced it in Pakistan’s lower house, the national assembly.“It’s a very important signal to the country, to our development partners, and to women that their rights are protected at the top.”
Under the new legislation, the minimum age for marriage is 18 for both males and females in the capital, with underage marriage now a criminal offence. Previously, it was 16 for girls but 18 for boys.Strict punishments, including up to seven years in prison, have been introduced for people – including family members, clerics and registrars – who facilitate or coerce children into early marriage.
Any sexual relations within a marriage involving a minor – with or without consent – will be deemed statutory rape, while an adult man found to have married a girl could face up to three years in prison.
It is a moment of hope in an increasingly gloomy landscape for women’s rights globally, according to Jamshed Kazi, Pakistan’s representative for UN Women.“This particular passage [of the bill] is even more significant because it’s happening in the wake of counter-currents,” he says.“We are seeing a global pushback on women’s rights and even a renegotiation of issues that were settled maybe 30 years ago. Countries are challenging the use of gender-responsive language, and even sexual and reproductive health and rights.”
In Pakistan, 29% of girls are married by 18 , according to a 2018 demographic survey, and that 4% marry before the age of 15 compared with 5% for boys, according to Girls Not Brides, a global coalition aiming to end child marriage. The country is among the top 10 worldwide with the highest absolute number of women who were married or in a union before the age of 18.
Girls who marry are less likely to finish school and are more likely to face domestic violence, abuse and health problems. Pregnancies become higher risk for child brides, with a greater chance of fistulas, sexually transmitted infections or even death. Teenagers are more likely to die from complications during childbirth than women in their 20s.
Ehsan knows only too well the dangers facing girls who are married early. She had her first child at 15. “I had complications during pregnancy,” she told the Guardian.“Doctors told me I was weak because I was very young – a child. My health, and my daughter’s health, were affected,” she says.
Her in-laws could afford medical care and she had three more children in consecutive years. She dropped out of school but her husband allowed her to continue her studies privately.“At 20, I came to the realisation that I should have finished my studies and waited till 19, at least, to become a mother. I would have been able to take care of my children more,” she says.
Since then, she has seen many cases of child brides dying in childbirth in her home province of Balochistan, where girls can get married at 16. A woman dies due to pregnancy complications in Pakistan every 50 minutes.“I’ve never been so content to vote for a bill as the child marriage restraint bill,” she adds. “The world has changed and developed. We have progressed and we must embrace the progress … It was a very much needed bill.”It has been “a long time coming”, according to Kazi, and is the result of more than a decade of advocacy by civil society and rights organisations.
Rehman says it follows three attempts over seven years to get a ban passed, with previous bills falling victim to parliamentary inertia as well as religious opposition.“It has been difficult to go through various stages and jump through hoops, and to keep making amendments,” she adds.“To see it defeated repeatedly, or not even make the agenda because there was opposition in the National Assembly, has been one of the most difficult parts of this journey.”
Some religious and political leaders have threatened to protest against the bill, claiming it is “unIslamic”, that marriage must be a family decision and that puberty should mark the age a girl can be married.“We should not be forcing the age of child marriage. Parents should decide that and children should consent to it,” says Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, secretary general of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl political party.“In Britain and western societies, during adulthood they have relations and partners, and they have sex and then do abortion and waste their children. Why don’t Pakistani liberals and civil society and even the west see that and introduce laws over there?“This new law is unacceptable and unbearable,” he says. “We will decide our course of action.”
Nadeem Afzal Chan, information secretary of the Pakistan People’s party – which is in power in Sindh and Balochistan provinces – refutes such claims.“We must celebrate this bill as it protects the rights of children,” he says. “The Balochistan government soon will enact laws to ban child marriages.” India
India approves stealth fighter program amid tensions with Pakistan (Reuters)
Reuters [5/27/2025 4:08 AM, Shivam Patel, 5.2M]
India’s defence minister has approved a framework for building the country’s most advanced stealth fighter jet, the defence ministry said on Tuesday, amid a new arms race with Pakistan weeks after a military conflict between the neighbours.
Indian state-run Aeronautical Development Agency, which is executing the programme, will shortly invite initial interest from defence firms for developing a prototype of the warplane, envisaged as a twin-engine 5th generation fighter, the ministry said.
The project is crucial for the Indian Air Force, whose squadrons of mainly Russian and ex-Soviet aircraft have fallen to 31 from an approved strength of 42 at a time when rival China is expanding its air force rapidly. Pakistan has one of China’s most advanced warplanes, the J-10, in its arsenal.
Militaries of nuclear-armed neighbours India and Pakistan faced-off in four days of fighting this month, which saw use of fighter jets, missiles, drones and artillery by both sides before a ceasefire was announced by U.S. President Donald Trump.
It was the first time both sides utilised drones at scale and the South Asian powers are now locked in a drones arms race, according to Reuters’ interviews with 15 people, including security officials, industry executives and analysts in the two countries.
India will partner with a domestic firm for the stealth fighter programme, and companies can bid independently or as a joint venture, the defence ministry said in a statement, adding that the bids would be open for both private and state-owned firms.
In March, an Indian defence committee had recommended including the private sector in military aircraft manufacturing to shore up the capabilities of the Indian Air Force and reduce the burden on state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HIAE.NS), which makes most of India’s military aircraft.
Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh has previously criticised Hindustan Aeronautics for slow delivery of light combat Tejas aircraft, a 4.5 generation fighter, which the firm blamed on slow delivery of engines from General Electric (GE.N) due to supply chain issues faced by the U.S. firm. India to push for international financial measures against Pakistan, source says (Reuters)
Reuters [5/23/2025 7:02 AM, Aftab Ahmed, 5.2M]
India will push the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global financial crime watchdog, to add arch-rival Pakistan back to its "grey list", and oppose upcoming World Bank funding to Islamabad, a top government source in New Delhi said on Friday.
India announced a slew of measures as retribution for what it says are Pakistan-backed militant attacks on its soil - the latest of which killed 26 Hindu tourists in the Kashmir valley last month - including keeping a critical water treaty in abeyance.
The source said India would not miss any opportunity "in opposing Pakistan and the next one is funding by World Bank, and we will raise our protest there too."
Pakistan’s finance ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Pakistan has denied any hand in the Kashmir attack and has said India’s move of keeping the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance is an act of war.
The nuclear-armed neighbours clashed in their worst military fighting in nearly three decades before agreeing to a ceasefire on May 10.
Pakistan was taken off the FATF grey list in 2022, giving it a clean bill of health on terrorist financing and boosting its reputation among lenders - essential for Pakistan’s crisis-hit economy.
The FATF’s grey list places a country under increased monitoring until it has rectified identified flaws in its financial system.
The Indian government source alleged that Pakistan had not met the conditions for being taken off the grey list, and should therefore be returned to it.
India also told the IMF that arms purchases by Pakistan spiked every time it got a loan from the International Monetary Fund, the source said.
Reuters could not immediately verify the claims.
The FATF, the World Bank, and the IMF did not respond to requests for comment.
Pakistan secured a $7 billion bailout programme from the IMF last year, and a new $1.4 billion arrangement this month under a climate resilience fund.
At a press conference in Washington on Thursday, IMF director Julie Kozack said Pakistan had met all of its targets and made progress on reforms, leading the board to approve the programme last year.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday that Pakistan, its army and its economy would "have to pay a heavy price for every terrorist attack." India, Canada Move To Mend Diplomatic Ties (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [5/26/2025 6:50 AM, Staff, 931K]
India’s foreign minister said he had spoken to his Canadian counterpart as the two sides seek to ease fraught relations.
The telephone call, which took place late Sunday, is the highest diplomatic contact between Ottawa and New Delhi since Mark Carney became Canadian prime minster in March.
Ties between Canada and India were strained following accusations of New Delhi’s involvement in the 2023 assassination of a Canadian Sikh, claims India denied.
India’s Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said he had "discussed the prospects of India-Canada ties" with newly appointed Foreign Minister Anita Anand and he had "wished her a very successful tenure".
Anand, whose parents hailed from India, said on X she looked forward "strengthening Canada–India ties, deepening our economic cooperation, and advancing shared priorities".
Canada is home to the largest Sikh community outside of India and includes activists for "Khalistan", a fringe separatist movement seeking an independent state for the religious minority carved out of Indian territory.
Ottawa previously accused India of orchestrating the 2023 killing in Vancouver of 45-year-old naturalised Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent Khalistan campaigner, and targeting other Sikh activists connected to the movement.India has repeatedly dismissed the allegations, which sent diplomatic relations into freefall, with both nations last year expelling a string of top diplomats.
The Khalistan campaign dates back to India’s 1947 independence and has been blamed for the assassination of a prime minister and the bombing of a passenger jet.
It has been a bitter issue between India and several Western nations with large Sikh populations.
New Delhi demands stricter action against the Khalistan movement, which is banned in India, with key leaders accused of "terrorism".
Canada will host the G7 summit next month.
India Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been invited to attend previous summits since 2019, when France invited him to Biarritz. There are no details as to whether Modi has been invited to Canada. India’s Kerala state on high alert as vessel with hazardous cargo sinks off its coast (AP)
AP [5/26/2025 8:52 AM, Staff, 456K]
India’s southern state of Kerala on Monday issued a high alert along its coastal areas and asked fishermen not to venture near the site of an accident where a container ship carrying hazardous cargo sank off its coast in the Arabian Sea.
The Liberia-flagged MSC ELSA 3 was sailing between the Indian ports of Vizhinjam and Kochi when it sank about 38 nautical miles off Kerala early Sunday. All 24 crew members were rescued, India’s defense ministry said.
The vessel went down with 640 containers, including 13 with an unspecified “hazardous cargo” and 12 containing calcium carbide. It also had 84.44 metric tons of diesel and 367.1 metric tons of furnace oil in its tanks.
The Kerala chief minister’s office on Monday urged people to stay away from some of the containers that began washing ashore. It also advised fishermen not to venture too close to the sunken ship.
Indian Coast Guard on Sunday said it had sent an aircraft with an oil spill detection system to survey the area. It also deployed a ship carrying pollution control equipment to the site of the accident.India’s southern state of Kerala on Monday issued a high alert along its coastal areas and asked fishermen not to venture near the site of an accident where a container ship carrying hazardous cargo sank off its coast in the Arabian Sea.
The Liberia-flagged MSC ELSA 3 was sailing between the Indian ports of Vizhinjam and Kochi when it sank about 38 nautical miles off Kerala early Sunday. All 24 crew members were rescued, India’s defense ministry said.
The vessel went down with 640 containers, including 13 with an unspecified “hazardous cargo” and 12 containing calcium carbide. It also had 84.44 metric tons of diesel and 367.1 metric tons of furnace oil in its tanks.
The Kerala chief minister’s office on Monday urged people to stay away from some of the containers that began washing ashore. It also advised fishermen not to venture too close to the sunken ship.
Indian Coast Guard on Sunday said it had sent an aircraft with an oil spill detection system to survey the area. It also deployed a ship carrying pollution control equipment to the site of the accident. India rushes to contain oil spill as vessel sinks off Kerala coast (Reuters)
Reuters [5/26/2025 2:14 AM, Jose Devasia and Chris Thomas, 5.2M]
Authorities in the southern Indian state of Kerala were scrambling to contain an oil spill on Monday after a container vessel sank, leaking fuel into the Arabian Sea and releasing 100 cargo containers into the water.
The Liberia-flagged MSC ELSA3 ship was travelling from Vizhinjam on India’s southern tip to Kochi when it capsized about 38 nautical miles off Kerala on Saturday, officials said, adding that all 24 crew members had been rescued.
The entire ship has since been "submerged", the Kerala chief minister’s office said in a statement on Sunday without elaborating on the cause of the incident.
"The Coast Guard is taking steps to block the oil with two ships. A Dornier aircraft is also being used to spray oil-destroying powder on the oil slick," the statement said.
The vessel was carrying 640 containers, including 13 with "hazardous cargo" and 12 with calcium carbide, the Indian coast guard said, without disclosing the contents of the containers that fell into the sea.
Cyprus-based MSC Shipmanagement, which owns the vessel, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Kerala coast has been put on high alert, with local coastal bodies instructed not to touch or go near the containers - some of which began washing up on beaches on Monday - and fishermen advised not to venture into the sea.
Authorities in the state’s Kollam region have encouraged people living nearby to move to safer places.
Accidental oil spills in the ocean can have far-reaching effects, putting marine ecosystems to the local fishing industry at risk.
The collision of a BW LPG vessel and a local ship carrying heavy fuel oil caused a similar oil spill in 2017 near the southern city of Chennai, which harmed aquatic life and affected the livelihood of thousands of fishermen. India’s dairy sector pushes for safeguards in US trade talks (Reuters)
Reuters [5/26/2025 10:06 AM, Rajendra Jadhav and Amit Dave, 121822K]
India, the world’s largest milk producer, must protect millions of small dairy farmers in its trade talks with the United States to avoid market disruption from any surge in U.S. imports, industry officials said.
India is negotiating a comprehensive bilateral trade agreement with the United States after Washington imposed reciprocal tariffs including a 26% duty on Indian goods, later paused for 90 days.
The United States, whose dairy exports reached $8.22 billion last year, is pushing for greater access to India’s dairy market, which remains shielded by high import duties and non-tariff barriers.
"It is necessary that we do not give them very cheap access to our markets," said Jayen Mehta, managing director of the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd (GCMMF), which owns Amul, a household name and the country’s largest dairy brand.
"They are intended to dump their surplus in our country, which we cannot afford," Mehta said.
The average herd size in India is only two to three animals per farmer, compared to hundreds in the United States - a difference that puts small Indian farmers at a disadvantage, industry officials say.
India’s dairy sector feeds more than 1.4 billion people and provides livelihoods to 80 million farmers, making it critical that trade negotiations do not harm milk producers, most of whom are rural poor, Mehta said.
India accounts for nearly a quarter of global milk production, with output reaching 239 million metric tons, more than double U.S. output of around 103 million tons. The Indian dairy industry is valued at $16.8 billion.
New Delhi has previously excluded the dairy sector from bilateral trade agreements and will continue to protect it, as the government recognises its role in supporting small farmers, said R.S. Sodhi, president of the Indian Dairy Association.
The country’s dairy industry should also be protected due to cultural and dietary considerations, as cattle in the United States are often fed feed containing animal by-products, which does not align with Indian consumer preferences, Sodhi said.
A senior official at the federal trade ministry said India is resisting pressure from the United States to open its dairy sector in the current bilateral trade talks.India will not surrender under any circumstances, and the dairy sector will continue to enjoy protection, said the official, who did not wish to be named since the deliberations were not public.Removing tariffs on skimmed milk powder could encourage Indian food producers to opt for imported products, significantly reducing their milk purchases from local farmers and potentially driving down domestic prices, said Pushan Sharma, director of research at Crisil Intelligence.He added that domestic cheese and yogurt producers would also face stiff competition from U.S. imports.Dairy farmers say they need government protection."The government needs to make sure we’re not hit by cheap imports from other countries," said farmer Mahesh Sakunde from the western state of Maharashtra. "If that happens, the whole industry will suffer, and so will farmers like us." NSB
Bangladesh’s Leader Threatens to Resign Over Election Pressure (New York Times)
New York Times [5/23/2025 4:14 PM, Saif Hasnat, 831K]
When an idealistic movement led by students toppled the increasingly autocratic government of Sheikh Hasina last August, millions of Bangladeshis celebrated the imminent revival of democracy.
Almost nine months on, an appointed interim government is frustrating everyone who wanted to vote in new leaders right away. Now its celebrated leader, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, is threatening to quit if he is not allowed to get on with his job and prepare the country for elections at a slower pace.
Mr. Yunus, an internationally respected technocrat, was seen as Bangladesh’s best chance to pull things together until fair elections could be held. He was appointed to lead an interim government while there was still blood in the streets.
But his aides say he feels thwarted by an emerging alliance between the country’s largest remaining political party and the army, which have criticized his policies and say he is being too slow to plan elections.
On Thursday, Mr. Yunus threatened to resign if he did not get political and military backing to carry on unfettered.
Mr. Yunus went as far as drafting a speech announcing his resignation, according to a senior official in his government. Other advisers managed to persuade him that his resignation would further destabilize Bangladesh. The official said by phone that his boss was especially unhappy with statements recently made by the army chief calling for elections this year, and felt worn down by criticism from political opponents.
Ms. Hasina’s old enemies stand to gain in any election, the sooner the more so. With her party in disgrace, and more recently banned outright, the country has been stranded without meaningful political competition.
Bangladesh has also been plagued by a breakdown in law and order and haphazard efforts to fix it. Mr. Yunus, who has personally come under increasing pressure from both the country’s army and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, lacks political support of his own.
Mubashar Hasan, a political scientist and research fellow at the University of Oslo, said that Mr. Yunus “could be a great banker, he could be a great leader in leading institutions, but what he lacks, and it appears day by day, is he doesn’t have a firm and strong persona.” Instead, Mr. Hasan thinks, Mr. Yunus can be overly influenced by his own advisers.
Mr. Yunus feels sidelined by some of the people who are supposed to be helping him get the country’s democracy back on track, said the official who works closely with him. He seemed to reach his breaking point after the leader of Bangladesh’s army, Gen. Waker-uz-Zaman, said on Wednesday that an election should be held by December.
Mr. Yunus previously suggested that the country might be ready for an election by June 2026, but has given no clear timeline. He has told his cabinet he doesn’t believe the current political climate is suitable for a fair election.
In an address to the nation last November, Mr. Yunus said, “The election train has started its journey. It will not stop. But we have to complete many tasks on the way.”
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party has been insisting that a democratic mandate is needed before the future course of the country can be decided. After the banning of its traditional nemesis, Ms. Hasina’s Awami League, the former opposition party wants to seize its chance to win power.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party was initially supportive of Mr. Yunus’s government, but in recent months it has stopped cooperating over a series of policy disagreements. Mr. Yunus and his officials, for instance, want to privatize the country’s largest seaport at Chattogram; to open an aid corridor to war-torn parts of Myanmar; and to split up Bangladesh’s main tax authority.
Stabilizing the political turmoil has proved a challenging — and at times, almost insurmountable — task for the 84-year-old economist. With one of Bangladesh’s two broad-based parties outlawed and the other urging haste, Mr. Yunus seems to want to buy time.
That annoys even sympathetic analysts. Mr. Hasan, the political scientist, said, “There is no reason this election cannot be held by December. It completely depends on the willingness of the government.”
Members of the student protest movement that overthrew Ms. Hasina’s government have clashed violently with her supporters since. But they dread letting her old enemies in the Bangladesh Nationalist Party take her place. Most still put their faith in Mr. Yunus.
In February, one of Mr. Yunus’s former advisers, Nahid Islam, launched a political party called the National Citizens Party, hoping to attract students into its fold.
Mr. Islam said he has urged Mr. Yunus not to resign. On Thursday, they spoke and Mr. Yunus told him that promises he was made when he took office are being broken.“With different groups creating instability, disorder, and pressuring the government, he feels it is no longer possible for him to carry out his responsibilities in an effective way,” Mr. Islam said. Protests grip Bangladesh as pressure mounts on Yunus-led government (Reuters)
Reuters [5/26/2025 6:19 AM, Ruma Paul, 5.2M]
Primary school teachers in Bangladesh joined public sector workers in protests against the interim government on Monday amid growing discontent and political uncertainty in the South Asian country.
Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus, 84, took over as interim head of the country of 173 million last August after deadly student-led protests forced then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to flee to India.
Yunus’ administration has faced pressure from civil servants, teachers, political parties and the military as the caretaker government attempts to guide the country through a fragile transition before holding a general election.
The government issued an ordinance on Sunday allowing the Ministry of Public Administration to dismiss public servants for misconduct without lengthy procedures, sparking outrage across the bureaucracy.
Government employees continued their demonstrations for a third consecutive day on Monday, calling the ordinance "repressive" and demanding its immediate withdrawal.
Thousands of teachers in government primary schools also began indefinite leave from work on Monday, demanding a hike in wages.
In the face of protests by the employees of National Board of Revenue, the interim government was forced on Sunday to withdraw an order to dissolve the tax body and replace it with two divisions under the finance ministry.
The strike was then called off.
Political uncertainty also deepened last week after a top student leader said Yunus said he could step down if political parties cannot agree on reforms and an election timeline.
Wahiduddin Mahmud, the planning adviser in Yunus’ cabinet, however, said the de-facto prime minister was not quitting.
"We are not going anywhere till our job is done," Mahmud said during the weekend, adding that Yunus acknowledged the obstacles but remained committed to holding a fair election.
The interim government has been caught between competing demands for swift general elections and reforms. Yunus has said the elections could be held by June, 2026 while the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), led by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, has been pushing for polls by December.
Bangladesh’s army chief, General Waker-Uz-Zaman, added to the pressure by calling for elections to be held in December during a speech last week, expressing his dissatisfaction over the political situation.Yunus convened a last-minute meeting of his Advisory Council on Saturday and also held talks during the weekend with the country’s main political forces, including the BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami, and the student-led National Citizen Party.
Leaders of other political parties also met Yunus.
"We are in a war-like situation," Yunus’ press secretary Shafiqul Alam told reporters on Sunday. "After the Awami League’s activities were banned, attempts are on to destabilise us in various ways. We have to get out of this situation."
The registration of Hasina’s Awami League party was suspended this month, effectively barring the party from contesting the next election. Bangladesh Consensus Commission Fails To Find Agreement (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [5/26/2025 8:33 AM, Staff, 931K]
Bangladesh’s National Consensus Commission, tasked by the caretaker government to lead critical democratic reforms after a mass uprising last year, said Monday that political parties had failed to reach agreement.
The South Asian nation of around 170 million people has been in political turmoil since former prime minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted by a student-led revolt in August 2024, ending her iron-fisted rule of 15 years.
Muhammad Yunus, the 84-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner who is leading the caretaker government as its chief adviser until elections are held, has previously said he inherited a "completely broken down" system of public administration.
Yunus has said it required a comprehensive overhaul to prevent a future return to authoritarian rule. He set up six commissions to do that work, overseen by the Consensus Commission, which he heads.
Ali Riaz, the commission’s vice president, said that despite marathon efforts they had not reached a deal.
"It wasn’t possible to reach a consensus on several significant constitutional issues," Riaz told reporters in Dhaka, saying talks stretched over 45 sessions.
"We have been discussing 166 recommendations with 38 political parties and alliances."
Riaz, a political science professor at Illinois State University, said the teams would not give up.
"We are going to begin a second round of talks," he said, adding that the country’s statistics bureau would "conduct a household survey to gauge public opinion". The commission plans to include 46,000 families in the survey.
Contentious issues include whether a prime minister can serve more than two terms, and the process for selecting the president.The procedure for appointing the chief of the interim government, and the duration of its tenure, has also divided parties, Riaz said.
Parties also debated recommendations to change the terms of the constitution from "secularism" to "pluralism".
Bangladesh is a Muslim-majority nation, with Hindus accounting for less than a tenth of the population.
"Although most parties rejected the idea of pluralism, they recommended incorporating some form of protection for minorities," he said. Why the future of Bangladesh’s Muhammad Yunus administration is uncertain (Al Jazeera)
Al Jazeera [5/24/2025 4:39 AM, Moudud Ahmmed Sujan, 47007K]
On the surface, it was a routine closed-door meeting between Bangladesh’s interim leader and Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus and the chiefs of the country’s three armed forces, to discuss law and order.
But the May 20 meeting came amid what multiple officials familiar with the internal workings of the government described to Al Jazeera as an intensifying power struggle in Dhaka. Portrayed in social and mainstream media in Bangladesh as a "cold war" between the armed forces and the interim administration, these tensions now threaten the future of Yunus’s role, nine months after he took charge following the ousting of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the ruling Awami League.
Hasina fled to India in August 2024 amid a mass uprising against her 15-year-long rule, during which she was accused of orchestrating extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.
The meeting also came amid rumours that Yunus was considering stepping down. However, following another cabinet meeting on Saturday, acting head of the planning ministry, Wahiduddin Mahmud, told reporters: "The chief adviser [Yunus] is staying with us – he hasn’t said he’ll resign – and the other advisers are also staying; we are here to carry out the responsibilities given to us," following a closed-door meeting of the interim government’s advisory council amid ongoing political unrest.
Analysts, however, say, the standoff is not over yet.
We unpack the latest tumult in Bangladesh, and what it means for the country’s fledgling efforts to return to electoral democracy.
Why are tensions mounting between the military and the government?
The Bangladesh Army has remained deployed since July 2024, following the mass protests that led to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s ouster. Their continued presence was necessitated by the collapse of civilian law enforcement during the upheaval, including a nationwide police strike that left many stations abandoned and public order in disarray.Although the police resumed operations in mid-August, the army’s presence has been maintained as part of a civil-military consensus, because of unrest in the country.
On Wednesday, Bangladesh’s army chief, General Waker-Uz-Zaman, publicly urged that national elections be held by December this year, warning that prolonged deployment of the army for civil duties could compromise the country’s defences.
According to a report by The Daily Star, General Waker told a high-level gathering at Dhaka Cantonment, "Bangladesh needs political stability. This is only possible through an elected government, not by unelected decision-makers." The comments came during a rare address in which he delivered a 30-minute speech, followed by more than an hour of questions and answers. Officers from across the country and at Bangladeshi UN missions reportedly joined the event, both physically and virtually, in full combat uniform – a show of unity and resolve.
"The army is meant for defending the nation, not for policing … We must return to barracks after elections," Waker was quoted in The Daily Star as saying.
His remarks indicate a difference of opinion with the Yunus administration’s stated intention of holding elections no earlier than mid-2026, to allow time for political and electoral reforms first, in order to ensure a fair election.
According to local media reports, Waker is also strongly opposed to key initiatives being considered by the interim government. On a proposed humanitarian corridor into Myanmar’s Rakhine State, he reportedly said: "There will be no corridor. The sovereignty of Bangladesh is not negotiable." He warned that any such move could drag Bangladesh into a dangerous proxy conflict. "Only a political government elected by the people can make such decisions," he said, according to the paper.
The army chief also voiced concern about making other decisions without an electoral mandate – including the potential foreign management of Chattogram Port, Bangladesh’s main seaport, and the launch of Starlink, Elon Musk’s satellite internet service – which he said could compromise national security. "The army will not allow anyone to compromise our sovereignty," The Daily Star quoted him as saying.
His remarks came amid widespread speculation – still unaddressed by either the military or the government – that the Yunus administration had attempted to remove General Waker from his post last week. Though unconfirmed, the rumour has dominated public discourse and prompted questions about civil-military relations during the transitional period.
The timing, therefore, of General Waker’s assertive public statement – and its emphasis on constitutional process and national sovereignty – is widely viewed as a signal of growing unease within the military over the interim government’s expanding civilian initiatives, according to analysts.
Are there tensions with political parties as well?
Yes. Since its formation on August 8 last year, the interim government has faced escalating pressure from different sides. While the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) insists that national elections must be held by December, the National Citizen Party (NCP) – a student-led party formed earlier this year – and several other political groups argue that sweeping reforms and the prosecution of former Awami League (AL) leaders for killings resulting from the brutal crackdown on student-led protests last year must precede any election.
Bangladesh’s largest political party, the BNP, has launched a wave of protests over other demands as well, including that its candidate, who lost an allegedly rigged mayoral election in Dhaka on February 1, 2020, under the Awami League regime, be reinstated as mayor.
On Thursday, the BNP held a news conference demanding an election by the end of the year, as well as the resignation of two student advisers and the national security adviser. The party warned that without these steps, continued cooperation with the Yunus-led administration would become untenable.
On Saturday, Yunus is expected to meet with both the BNP and Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami (BJI), the largest Islamic political party in Bangladesh.
Was Yunus considering resigning?
On Saturday, following a cabinet meeting, it was announced that Yunus will not step down as interim leader of Bangladesh.
But amid this growing turbulence, speculation had intensified that he might have been preparing to resign. Local media began reporting that he had indicated that he intended to step down and address the nation in a televised statement, during a cabinet meeting on Thursday afternoon, following widespread social media chatter.
That evening, Nahid Islam – a student leader from the July uprising against the previous government and now head of the newly formed National Citizen Party (NCP) – met Yunus along with two student advisers to make an appeal for him to stay on.
After the meeting, Nahid confirmed to BBC Bangla that Yunus was seriously considering stepping down.
By Friday evening (13:00 GMT), sources within the interim administration told Al Jazeera that Yunus was still weighing his options.
Why might Yunus have wanted to resign?
Yunus was understood to be contemplating resigning because of intensifying political pressure, according to local media reports.
Two advisers quoted in the Samakal newspaper said Yunus told cabinet members on Thursday that the political parties and other government institutions had failed to deliver on promises to cooperate with the transitional government to implement state reforms and a peaceful democratic transition since the fall of Hasina’s government last year.
It had become impossible to carry out his responsibilities, he was reported as saying. Pressure is also mounting to hold an election. "The prospect of a fair election in the current situation is slim," he said. He was concerned any election would be interfered with or rigged and he did not want to have to take responsibility for it.
Later on Thursday evening, Yunus met Information Adviser Mahfuj Alam, Local Government Adviser Asif Mahmud Shojib Bhuyain and NCP convenor Nahid Islam at his official residence, the Jamuna State Guest House in Dhaka.
Speaking to BBC Bangla afterwards, Nahid confirmed Yunus was considering resigning and quoted him as saying he felt "held hostage" by protests and political gridlock.
"I cannot work like this if you, all the political parties, cannot reach a common ground," Nahid quoted Yunus as saying. He urged the interim leader to "remain strong", stressing the hopes the public had pinned on him after the July uprising that ousted the Awami League government.
Meanwhile, Yunus’s ambitious reform agenda is reportedly faltering, with analysts noting that key arms of the state – including the police and civil bureaucracy – are increasingly slipping beyond the interim government’s control.
One striking example among many, they say, is a proposal to split the National Board of Revenue (NBR), the country’s authority for tax administration, overseeing the collection of income tax, value-added tax (VAT) and customs duties, into two separate entities – a move that the government says is aimed at enhancing efficiency and the integrity of Bangladesh’s tax system. This has been met with strong resistance from senior officials of the NBR over fears that experienced revenue officers will be sidelined.
What does the BNP want?
Speaking to Al Jazeera, BNP leader Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury said his party never wanted Yunus to resign. "Nobody asked for his resignation, and we do not want him to do so," he stated.
"The people are waiting to cast their vote and bring back democracy. They have been deprived of this for nearly two decades," said Khasru. "We expect him to go for a free and fair election and peacefully hand over power. That’s how he came in.".
He questioned the delay in setting an election timeline. "What is the wait for? This is something [about which] a very strong conversation is going on in the country.".
Khasru said the BNP wants the administration to move into caretaker mode – with a leaner cabinet and the removal of some controversial figures, particularly those with political ambitions or affiliations. "They have already floated a political party," he said, referring to the student representatives. "Others made partisan statements. These should go if you’re serious about a credible election.".
He dismissed any contradiction between reforms and elections, saying both could move forward simultaneously. "Where there is consensus, reforms can be completed within weeks.".Khasru also voiced confidence in the Election Commission and the role of the army in ensuring a fair vote. "This is not the era of Sheikh Hasina," he remarked, suggesting a more conducive political environment for elections.
On the question of trying former Awami League leaders, he said judicial processes could continue in parallel. "The judiciary must do its job – the elected government will continue if more is needed.".
"BNP suffered the most under the previous regime," he added. "The trials are a national consensus.".
BNP Standing Committee member Salahuddin Ahmed echoed this sentiment in a TV interview on Friday: "If Yunus is personally unable to carry out his duties, the state will find an alternative." But he added: "As a globally respected figure, we hope he will understand the situation and announce an election roadmap by December.".
What do other political parties want?
NCP’s Senior Joint Convenor Ariful Islam Adeeb rejected the BNP’s narrative, telling Al Jazeera: "All parties were meant to support the interim government after the July uprising, but the BNP stuck to old tactics based on muscle power – that’s the root of the crisis.".
He urged unity, saying: "BNP and all other parties must come together for the national interest.".
Meanwhile, demonstrations and behind-the-scenes meetings continued across Dhaka. On Thursday evening, top leaders of five political parties, including the NCP, attended an emergency meeting at the headquarters of another Islamic political party, Islami Andolan Bangladesh (IAB), called by its chief Mufti Syed Muhammad Rezaul Karim.
They urged all "anti-fascist forces" to unite, defend national sovereignty, and support a credible election under Yunus after key reforms. Several of these parties, including BJI, argue that elections must come after key reforms – such as adopting a proportional voting system and ensuring accountability for past abuses – to prevent any repeat of past authoritarian practices. They believe holding elections without these changes would undermine public trust and risk another crisis.
BJI chief Shafiqur Rahman joined the IAB meeting via phone and endorsed the resolution. On Thursday, he urged Yunus to convene an all-party dialogue to resolve the crisis.
Then, on Friday night, BJI’s Shafiqur Rahman requested a meeting with Yunus, proposing to convene at 12:00 GMT (6pm local time) on Saturday.
Speaking to Al Jazeera on Friday night, NCP Joint Convenor Sarwar Tushar said: "Whatever the rumours, we believe Dr Muhammad Yunus is committed to his historic responsibility.
"There is massive expectation – both from the international community and the people," he added.While acknowledging political divisions, Tushar said: "If everyone moves beyond party agendas and focuses on a national agenda, the crisis can be resolved through dialogue.".
What can we expect next?
Political analyst Rezaul Karim Rony told Al Jazeera that talk of Yunus’s resignation may reflect growing frustration over the lack of unity within the transitional setup. "The unity that had formed around the post-uprising interim government appears to be weakening due to vested interests," he said. "The resignation talk might be a signal underscoring the need to rebuild that unity.".
Rony suggested that certain government appointments may have alienated political parties, raising questions about whether some actors have agendas beyond the official reform mandate. "This could be one reason why the government is struggling to gain broad political cooperation and function effectively," he noted.
Rony added: "At this point, advocating for elections may [make the administration] appear politically aligned with the BNP. But in the end, it should be up to the people to decide who they want to lead.".
NCP’s Nahid Islam, however, sees otherwise.
He warned in a Facebook post on Friday night: "There’s a conspiracy to sabotage the democratic transition and stage another 1/11-style arrangement.".
The term "1/11" refers to January 11, 2007, when the military-backed caretaker government took control in Bangladesh amid political chaos and ruled for two years, suspending democratic processes.
"Bangladesh has repeatedly been divided, national unity destroyed, to keep the country weak," Nahid wrote.
Urging Yunus to stay in office and deliver on promises of reform, justice and voting rights, he said, "Dr Yunus must resolve all political crises while in office.".
He also outlined NCP’s demands: a timely July declaration, elections within the announced timeframe (Yunus has repeatedly promised that the election will be held between December 2025 to July 2026), a July Charter with core reforms before polls, visible justice for the July killings, and a roadmap for a new constitution through simultaneous elections to a Constituent Assembly and legislature.
Meanwhile, public anxiety is rising. On Friday, the Bangladesh Army issued a Facebook alert debunking a fake media release circulated a day earlier, which falsely used the military’s logo in what it described as "an apparent attempt to sow confusion and create rifts" between the armed forces and the public. "Do not believe rumours. Do not be misled," the statement warned.
As the weekend continues, all eyes are on Muhammad Yunus – and whether he can stand firm and forge a new consensus to lead the country through its second transition since last year’s dramatic uprising. Bangladesh Court Begins First Trial Of Hasina-era Officials (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [5/25/2025 7:03 AM, Staff, 931K]
Bangladesh began the first trial on Sunday at a special court prosecuting former senior figures connected to the ousted government of Sheikh Hasina, the chief prosecutor said.
The court in the capital Dhaka accepted a formal charge against eight police officials in connection to the killing of six protesters on August 5 last year, the day Hasina fled the country as the protesters stormed her palace.
The eight men are charged with crimes against humanity. Four are in custody and four are being tried in absentia.
"The formal trial has begun," Tajul Islam, chief prosecutor of Bangladesh’s domestic International Crimes Tribunal (ICT), told reporters.
"The prosecution believes that this prosecution will be able to prove the crimes done by the accused," he said.
It is the first formal charge in any case related to the killings during last year’s student-led uprising, which ended Hasina’s iron-fisted rule of 15 years.
Up to 1,400 people were killed between July and August 2024 when Hasina’s government launched a brutal campaign to silence the protesters, according to the United Nations.
The list of those facing trial includes Dhaka’s former police commissioner, Habibur Rahman, who is among those being tried in absentia.
Hasina also fled by helicopter to India, her old ally.
She remains in self-imposed exile, defying Dhaka’s extradition request to face charges of crimes against humanity.
The launch of the trials of senior figures from Hasina’s government is a key demand of several of the political parties now jostling for power as the South Asian nation awaits elections that the interim government has vowed will take place before June 2026.
Islam said the eight men were accused of "different responsibilities", including the most senior for "superior command responsibility, some for direct orders.. (and) some for participation".
He said he was confident of a successful prosecution.
"We have submitted as much evidence as required to prove crimes against humanity, both at a national and an international standard," he said.
Among that evidence, he said, was video footage of the violence, as well as voice recordings of Hasina in "conversations with different people where she ordered the killing of the protesters using force and lethal weapons".
The ICT was set up by Hasina in 2009 to investigate crimes committed by the Pakistani army during Bangladesh’s war for independence in 1971.
It sentenced numerous prominent political opponents to death over the following years and became widely seen as a means for Hasina to eliminate rivals. UN refugee agency fears more than 400 fleeing Rohingya died this month in separate boat incidents (AP)
AP [5/24/2025 5:29 PM, Staff, 456K]
The U.N. refugee agency said Friday it fears that 427 Rohingya fleeing Myanmar and a refugee camp in Bangladesh may have died at sea this month.
UNHCR said it has collected reports from family members and others of two separate boat tragedies off the coast of Myanmar in May. It acknowledged that details remained unclear but that enough information has been collected and verified to bring the incidents to light publicly.
About 1 million Rohingya, who are predominantly Muslim, are in camps in Bangladesh after leaving Myanmar. They include about 740,000 who fled a brutal “clearance campaign” in 2017 by Myanmar’s security forces, who were accused of committing mass rapes and killings.
A first boat that left from a refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, and traveled to Rakhine State in neighboring Myanmar to pick up more people sank on May 9, with only 66 survivors among a total of 267 people on board, UNHCR said.
The Geneva-based agency said reports indicated a second boat with 247 people on board that made a similar journey capsized a day later, with only 21 survivors.“Reports have been coming in and it has been very hard to confirm what has happened, but the fear is that this number of people may have lost their lives at sea in the region,” said UNHCR spokesman Babar Baloch.“Before these two tragedies, some 30 Rohingya were reported to have died or gone missing in boat journeys in 2025,” he said. “So if confirmed, this is a huge jump.”
Thousands of Rohingya each year attempt to cross the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea, and often the fates of those who have gone missing go unexplained. Even when officials knew the boats’ locations, maritime authorities to rescue some of them have gone ignored, UNHCR has said.
A total of 657 people died or went missing in the regional waters in more than 150 boat journeys by fleeing Rohingya last year, UNHCR said.
The recent monsoon season brought perilous maritime conditions including strong winds, rain and rough seas, UNHCR said, adding that it was investigating reports about the fate of a third boat carrying 188 Rohingya that left Myanmar on May 14.
Many Rohingya have fled by sea to Indonesia, which has reported an increase in the number of Rohingya refugees in recent months. As Climate Change Threatens, Maldives Is No Island Paradise (Human Rights Watch)
Human Rights Watch [5/27/2025 2:55 AM, Robbie Newton, 1.4M]
Every year, thousands of couples choose to spend their honeymoon in the Maldives. Tucked in the Indian Ocean, this tropical atoll nation consistently ranks among the world’s most desirable destinations for newlyweds.
But beyond the crystal-clear waters and pristine, white-sand beaches, local communities are facing a far harsher reality: a growing water crisis driven by climate change. While tourists sip cocktails in overwater bungalows, some neighboring islands are literally running out of fresh water.
Tourism accounts for more than 20 percent of Maldives’ GDP and is likely to grow, with President Mohamed Muizzu recently visiting the United Kingdom to promote a new “Visit Maldives” campaign. But the boom in tourism belies the looming existential crisis facing this South Asian nation.
Scattered across 1,192 islands and 26 atolls, the Maldives is the world’s lowest lying country. The majority of its islands are less than half a meter above sea-level and scientists warn that at the current rate of climate change, large swathes of the Maldives archipelago could become uninhabitable by 2050.
An even more immediate threat is the lack of access to clean, safe, and affordable water. Climate change impacts, such as saline intrusion, sea-level rise, and drought, are already placing a considerable strain on natural freshwater sources, like groundwater and rainwater.
While resort islands and urban centers – like the capital, Malé – benefit from desalination, imported bottled water, and more sophisticated water infrastructure, many remote islands face shortages as rainwater tanks are drying up and groundwater is becoming increasingly saline and contaminated.
The Maldives’ tourism secret to success could well be its 1978 “one island, one resort” policy, offering a unique sense of exclusivity and privacy to its 130 resort islands. However, that image sold to tourists is world’s away from the lived reality of many Maldivians. It has meant that the honeymooner or social media influencer can remain blissfully unaware of the water crisis that may be playing out on a neighboring non-resort island.
A recent Human Rights Watch report focusing on two islands affected by water shortages, Kanditheem and Nolhivaranfaru, found that despite government efforts to address water shortages, many marginalized communities still face significant barriers to accessing clean, safe, and affordable water.
On both islands, the Maldivian government recently initiated water projects, supported by climate funding, to introduce Integrated Water Resource Management systems, combining desalination, rainwater harvesting, and groundwater recharge to diversify the islands’ water sources.
While they look good on paper, these projects have suffered from systemic faults that have exacerbated inequalities in accessing water in the Maldives. Issues include inadequate consultations with affected communities, poor government monitoring, and elevated water bills for users. Islanders on Nolhivaranfaru said that many of the houses that were meant to be covered by the project lacked water connections for over two years after the project was initiated.
This caused islanders to continue relying on groundwater, even though they said it was “foul-smelling” and believed it to be contaminated. In Kanditheem, the water system, which should have been completed over two and half years ago, still lacks a functioning water testing lab despite it being a regulatory requirement.
Having historically relied on rainwater and groundwater, which were largely free, islanders are now forced to incur an additional financial burden – in a context where they’re already very stretched.
Agricultural workers are particularly affected. A farmer on Kanditheem said that if the groundwater becomes too saline, they won’t be able to afford to pay for desalinated water for irrigation and would lose their livelihoods.
The remote outer islands in the Maldives have higher poverty rates than the more populated islands like Malé and Addu. In addition, communities living on these islands are often not adequately consulted about key decision-making processes, including surrounding development projects on their own islands.
The result is that infrastructure projects like these often suffer from chronic shortcomings and risk widening existing inequities within the country, instead of narrowing them.
The climate crisis is not a distant reality to island communities in the Maldives – it’s an everyday struggle, which requires the support of the international community. Climate-financing countries have an obligation under the Paris Agreement, the international treaty on climate change, to provide “continuous and enhanced” financial support and technical assistance to small island nations, like the Maldives, that bear the brunt of a global climate crisis.
High-income governments should also create the conditions globally for the Maldives and similarly situated countries to have the fiscal space to raise resources to fund climate adaptation measures like water projects.
At the same time, the Maldives government has an obligation under international and domestic law to provide access to water for all its people. To do this effectively, it should ensure that its climate adaptation efforts protect the rights of those most affected by the climate crisis, including by addressing systemic problems that have led to inequities in Maldivians’ access to water. Debt-stricken Sri Lanka and New Zealand discuss ways to deepen bilateral trade and investment ties (AP)
AP [5/26/2025 5:55 AM, Bharatha Mallawarachi, 456K]
Debt-stricken Sri Lanka hosted one of New Zealand’s top ministers to discuss ways to deepen bilateral ties in areas such as trade, tourism and agriculture.
Winston Peters, New Zealand’s deputy prime minister and foreign affairs minister, met Sri Lanka Foreign Affairs Minister Vijitha Herath in the capital Colombo on Monday. The five-day visit by Peters is scheduled to continue until Wednesday
The visit comes as Sri Lanka struggles to emerge from its worst economic crisis, which began in the Indian Ocean island nation three years ago.
The countries have improved relations in recent years, establishing a New Zealand embassy in Colombo in 2021 and a Sri Lankan embassy in Wellington this year.
The discussion Monday focused on advancing ties in trade, investment, agriculture, education and tourism, Herath said.“We also explored expanding trade links in high-potential sectors such as diary, processed food, fresh produce and discussed improving market access for Sri Lankan products,” Herath told reporters.
He commended New Zealand’s support in developing Sri Lanka’s dairy industry, saying it had a “transformational impact on rural livelihood.”
Sri Lanka has embarked on an effort to expand and modernize its domestic diary industry in recent years, but still produces only about 40% of the country’s demand for milk and dairy products, while the balance is imported.
New Zealand is a key supplier of those dairy products, especially milk powder. In 2024, New Zealand exported $335 million in goods to Sri Lanka, with dairy products forming the bulk.
Trade balance between the nations favors New Zealand, which in 2024 imported goods worth $64 million from Sri Lanka including tea, coffee, apparel and rubber products.
The discussion included reducing red tape at the border and how to “increase Sri Lanka’s market access capabilities,” Peters said.“We discussed the growing number of New Zealand companies working with and investing in Sri Lanka or looking to work with Sri Lankan partners,” said Peters, adding that those collaborations will benefit Sri Lanka’s tourism, agriculture and healthcare sectors.
Sri Lanka declared bankruptcy in April 2022 with more than $83 billion in debt, more than half to foreign creditors. It sought the help of the International Monetary Fund, which approved a $2.9 billion, four-year bailout package in 2023 under which Sri Lanka was required to restructure its debt.
In September last year, Sri Lanka said it had concluded the debt restructuring process after reaching agreements with bilateral and multilateral creditors and private bondholders. Sri Lanka is seeking to obtain $17 billion in debt service relief.Sri Lanka’s crisis was largely the result of economic mismanagement combined with fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, along with 2019 terrorism attacks that devastated its important tourism industry. The pandemic also disrupted the flow of remittances from Sri Lankans working abroad. ‘Need answers’: Will Sri Lanka’s Tamils find war closure under Dissanayake? (Al Jazeera)
Al Jazeera [5/24/2025 1:11 AM, Jeevan Ravindran, 47007K]
On a beach in northeastern Sri Lanka, Krishnan Anjan Jeevarani laid out some of her family’s favourite food items on a banana leaf. She placed a samosa, lollipops and a large bottle of Pepsi next to flowers and incense sticks in front of a framed photo.
Jeevarani was one of thousands of Tamils who gathered on May 18 to mark 16 years since the end of Sri Lanka’s brutal civil war in Mullivaikkal, the site of the final battle between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist group that fought for a Tamil homeland.
As on previous anniversaries, Tamils this year lit candles in remembrance of their loved ones and held a moment of silence. Dressed in black, people paid their respects before a memorial fire and ate kanji, the gruel consumed by civilians when they were trapped in Mullivaikkal amid acute food shortages.
This year’s commemorations were the first to take place under the new government helmed by leftist Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who was elected president in September and has prompted hopes of possible justice and answers for the Tamil community.
The Tamil community alleges that a genocide of civilians took place during the war’s final stages, estimating that nearly 170,000 people were killed by government forces. UN estimates put the figure at 40,000.
Dissanayake, the leader of the Marxist party Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), which itself led violent uprisings against the Sri Lankan government in the 1970s and 1980s, has emphasised "national unity" and its aim to wipe out racism. He made several promises to Tamil voters before the elections last year, including the withdrawal from military-occupied territory in Tamil heartlands and the release of political prisoners.
But eight months after he was elected, those commitments are now being tested – and while it’s still early days for his administration, many in the Tamil community say what they’ve seen so far is mixed, with some progress, but also disappointments.
No ‘climate of fear’ but no ‘real change’ either
In March 2009, Jeevarani lost several members of her family, including her parents, her sister and three-year-old daughter when Sri Lankan forces shelled the tents in which they were sheltering, near Mullivaikkal.
"We had just cooked and eaten and we were happy," she said. "When the shell fell it was like we had woken up from a dream.".Jeevarani, now 36, buried all her family members in a bunker and left the area, her movements dictated by shelling until she reached Mullivaikkal. In May 2009, she and the surviving members of her family entered army-controlled territory.
Now, 16 years later, as she and other Sri Lankan Tamils commemorated their lost family members, most said their memorials had gone largely unobstructed, although there were reports of police disrupting one event in the eastern part of the country.
This was a contrast from previous years of state crackdowns on such commemorative events.
"There isn’t that climate of fear which existed during the two Rajapaksa regimes," said Ambika Satkunanathan, a human rights lawyer and former commissioner of the National Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, referring to former presidents Mahinda and Gotabaya Rajapaksa, brothers who between them ruled Sri Lanka for 13 out of 17 years between 2005 and 2022.
It was under Mahinda Rajapaksa that the Sri Lankan army carried out the final, bloody assaults that ended the war in 2009, amid allegations of human rights abuses.
"But has anything changed substantively [under Dissanayake]? Not yet," said Satkunanathan.
Satkunanathan cited the government’s continued use of Sri Lanka’s controversial Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and a gazette issued on March 28 to seize land in Mullivaikkal as problematic examples of manifesto promises being overturned in an evident lack of transparency.
Despite his pre-election promises, Dissnayake’s government earlier this month denounced Tamil claims of genocide as "a false narrative". On May 19, one day after the Tamil commemorations, Dissanayake also attended a "War Heroes" celebration of the Sri Lankan armed forces as the chief guest, while the Ministry of Defence announced the promotion of a number of military and navy personnel. In his speech, Dissanayake stated that "grief knows no ethnicity", suggesting a reconciliatory stance, while also paying tribute to the "fallen heroes" of the army who "we forever honour in our hearts.".‘We walked over dead bodies’
Kathiravelu Sooriyakumari, a 60-year-old retired principal, said casualties in Mullivaikkal in 2009 were so extreme that "we even had to walk over dead bodies.".
She said government forces had used white phosphorus during the civil war, a claim Sri Lankan authorities have repeatedly denied. Although not explicitly banned, many legal scholars interpret international law as prohibiting the use of white phosphorus – an incendiary chemical that can burn the skin down to the bone – in densely populated areas.
Sooriyakumari’s husband, Rasenthiram, died during an attack near Mullivaikkal while trying to protect others.
"He was sending everyone to the bunker. When he had sent everyone and was about to come himself, a shell hit a tree and then bounced off and hit him, and he died," she said. Although his internal organs were coming out, "he raised his head and looked around at all of us, to see we were safe.".
Her son was just seven months old. "He has never seen his father’s face," she said.
The war left many households like Sooriyakumari’s without breadwinners. They have experienced even more acute food shortage following Sri Lanka’s 2022 economic crisis and the subsequent rise in the cost of living.
"If we starve, will anyone come and check on us?" said 63-year-old Manoharan Kalimuthu, whose son died in Mullivaikkal after leaving a bunker to relieve himself and being hit by a shell. "If they [children who died in the final stages of the war] were here, they would’ve looked after us.".
Kalimuthu said she did not think the new government would deliver justice to Tamils, saying, "We can believe it only when we see it.".‘No accountability’
Sooriyakumari also said she did not believe anything would change under the new administration.
"There’s been a lot of talk but no action. No foundations have been laid, so how can we believe them?" she told Al Jazeera. "So many Sinhalese people these days have understood our pain and suffering and are supporting us … but the government is against us.".
She also expressed suspicion of Dissanayake’s JVP party and its history of violence, saying she and the wider Tamil community "were scared of the JVP before". The party had backed Rajapaksa’s government when the army crushed the Tamil separatist movement.
Satkunanathan said the JVP’s track record showed "they supported the Rajapaksas, they were pro-war, they were anti-devolution, anti-international community, were all anti-UN, all of which they viewed as conspiring against Sri Lanka.".
She conceded that the party was seeking to show that it had "evolved to a more progressive position but their action is falling short of rhetoric".
Although Dissanayake’s government has announced plans to establish a truth and reconciliation commission, it has rejected a United Nations Human Rights Council resolution on accountability for war crimes, much like previous governments. Before the presidential elections, Dissanayake said he would not seek to prosecute those responsible for war crimes.
"On accountability for wartime violations, they have not moved at all," Satkunanathan told Al Jazeera, citing the government’s refusal to engage with the UN-initiated Sri Lanka Accountability Project (SLAP), which was set up to collect evidence of potential war crimes. "I would love them to prove me wrong.".
The government has also repeatedly changed its stance on the Thirteenth Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution, which promises devolved powers to Tamil-majority areas in the north and east. Before the presidential election, Dissanayake said he supported its implementation in meetings with Tamil parties, but the government has not outlined a clear plan for this, with the JVP’s general secretary dismissing it as unnecessary shortly after the presidential election.‘We need answers’
"Six months since coming into office, there’s no indication of the new government’s plan or intention to address the most urgent grievances of the Tamils affected by the war," Thyagi Ruwanpathirana, South Asia researcher at Amnesty International, said. "And the truth about the forcibly disappeared features high on the agenda of those in the North and the East.".
Still, some, like 48-year-old Krishnapillai Sothilakshmi, remain hopeful. Sothilakshmi’s husband Senthivel was forcibly disappeared in 2008. She said she believed the new government would give her answers.
A 2017 report by Amnesty International [PDF] estimated that between 60,000 and 100,000 people have disappeared in Sri Lanka since the late 1980s. Although Sri Lanka established an Office of Missing Persons (OMP) in 2017, there has been no clear progress since.
"We need answers. Are they alive or not? We want to know," Sothilakshmi said.
But for Jeevarani, weeping on the beach as she looked at a photograph of her three-year-old daughter Nila, it’s too late for any hope. Palm trees are growing over her family’s grave, and she is no longer even able to pinpoint the exact spot where they were buried.
"If someone is sick, this government or that government can say they’ll cure them," she said. "But no government can bring back the dead, can they?". Sri Lanka Foils Synthetic Cannabis Smuggling Attempts (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [5/24/2025 1:37 AM, Staff, 931K]
Sri Lankan authorities have seized nearly 60 kilograms of potent synthetic cannabis that foreigners tried to smuggle in this month in three separate cases, a customs official said Saturday.
The South Asian island has long been considered a transit point for international drug smugglers, and all three suspects -- from Britain, India and Thailand -- could face life imprisonment if convicted.
The 21-year-old British woman was arrested on May 12, with customs officers saying she was stopped with 46 kilograms (101 pounds) of kush -- a synthetic drug containing powerful opioids -- packed in two suitcases.
"This could be the biggest drug bust at the Colombo airport in recent times," said Customs Additional Director General Seevali Arukgoda.
British media reports have identified the woman as Charlotte May Lee, a former cabin crew member from London, who had flown to Sri Lanka from Thailand.
She is being held in detention at a prison near Colombo airport.
The BBC reported that she denied knowledge of drugs in her luggage, and claimed they were planted at her hotel in Bangkok.
On May 16, a 33-year-old Indian man was arrested at the northern seaport of Kankesanthurai.
Arukgoda said that he had been carrying four kilograms of kush.
He too has been handed over to the anti-narcotics police for further investigations.
On May 18, a 21-year-old Thai man was stopped at Colombo airport, who is accused of attempting to smuggle in nearly eight kilograms of kush.
Sri Lankan authorities have previously seized large quantities of heroin off its shores, saying it suggested the island is being used as a transit hub for narcotics being reshipped onward.
In October, a Sri Lankan court sentenced 10 Iranian men to life imprisonment after they pleaded guilty to smuggling more than 111 kilograms of heroin.
The men were among 17 arrested in Sri Lankan waters in April 2016 while transporting narcotics aboard an Iranian trawler.
In 2023, nine Iranians received life sentences in a separate drug smuggling case. Central Asia
Military veterans of US’ ‘toxic soup’ Uzbekistan base fighting for proper care 20 years after its shutter (FOX News)
FOX News [5/26/2025 11:00 AM, Morgan Phillips, 46878K]
At the former Soviet base-turned-CIA black site and U.S. military base in Uzbekistan, researchers knew early on danger lingered not just from the enemy but from the ground itself.
Karshi-Khanabad Air Base, known as K2, was a launchpad for U.S. operations into Afghanistan after 9/11. But for thousands of American troops who served there, it may have been a death sentence.
Matthew "Nick" Nicholls, an Army environmental technician and preventive medicine specialist, was part of an early team that assessed the environmental hazards at K2.
"It is probably the most toxic soup of chemicals that any service member has ever been exposed to," Nicholls told Fox News Digital.
Yellowcake uranium oozed from the ground. Jet fuel and volatile chemicals from decaying Soviet rocket bunkers polluted the soil and air. Dangerous fumes hung over the base like the fog of forgotten war.
Nicholls and his team warned commanders, providing recommendations like laying down gravel to suppress toxic dust and restrictions on how long personnel could work in high-risk zones. Some precautions were taken, others weren’t.
"People that I am friends with are actively dying from cancer right now," Nicholls said. "These are weird ontologies that are striking down people who are very young, people in their 20s, 30s, 40s, in the prime of their life.".
K2 veterans have reported a disturbing trend of rare and aggressive cancers, reproductive organ diseases, osteoarthritis and sudden, unexplained deaths.
"These are not the cancers that young people normally get," Nicholls said. "Their stories are not really able to be told. That’s the tragedy of it.".
"These people went there right after 9/11 to avenge the deaths of those who were murdered," Nicholls said. "Yet we had this launching pad in Uzbekistan that was left in such derelict condition by the Soviets.".
Between 2001 and 2005, more than 15,000 U.S. service members passed through K2. Thousands more served as contractors. Many now find themselves struggling to get adequate medical care or recognition from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
The VA recognizes such veterans "may have encountered several hazardous exposures," and the Department of Defense conducted an initial study to look at cancer outcomes. But that study was based only on a few cases of each type of cancer and should not be viewed as "definitive evidence of an association with service at K-2," the VA says.
But a spokesperson for Rep. Mark Green said he does not believe these studies were enough, that they did not take the full extent of contamination into account and did not appropriately inform occupants of the base of their exposure risk or account for the full range of diseases that can result from toxic exposures.
"That is why Rep. Green’s NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act) amendment calls for a new, fully rigorous epidemiological study to cover these blind spots," the spokesperson said. "There are too many unknowns to call it a case closed.".
Fox News Digital has reached out to the VA for comment.
Green, R-Tenn., and Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., introduced a provision in the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act requiring the Pentagon to complete a study on K2 exposure within 180 days. Four years later, that study remains unfinished.
"This is unjust," Green told Fox News Digital. "There were repeated warnings that service members were being exposed to toxins, and yet their health and safety were ignored by Pentagon leadership of that day.".
In a letter first obtained by Fox News Digital that went out late Friday, Green is pressing the Pentagon to complete the long-overdue study, a step he argues is essential to ensure K2 veterans receive the care they deserve.
"Because this study has yet to be completed (as far as Congress is aware), many K2 veterans are still waiting to receive much needed care," he wrote. "This is unjust. There were repeated warnings at Camp Stronghold Freedom that servicemembers (sic) were being exposed to toxins, and yet their health and safety were ignored by the Pentagon leadership of that day.".
The Pentagon told Fox News Digital it would respond to Green privately.
In 2024, the VA moved to expand access to disability for K2 veterans and lower the burden of proof for the veterans to link their illnesses to their service. But advocates say it wasn’t enough.
"The VA is dragging its feet," Green said. "I think it really purely comes down to cost. I get that the VA wants to be judicious, but my God, the numbers here are so convincing. This is long past due.".
Green has also introduced new legislation requiring the VA to formally recognize links between K2 toxic exposure and diseases like cancer, ensuring affected veterans qualify for care and benefits.
Toxins at K2 included petrochemicals, volatile organic compounds, depleted uranium, burn pits and tetrachlorethylene, all chemicals associated with long-term health risks.
But K2 veterans are not specifically named in the PACT Act, which expanded coverage for other toxic exposures like Agent Orange and burn pits.
Green, a physician and Army veteran, sees disturbing echoes of past delays.
"Bureaucrats come and go, and bureaucrats have their own agendas," he said. "I want to make sure that it’s written in stone and that these guys are not forgotten.". Uzbekistan looks to introduce visa-free travel for American tourists (EurasiaNet)
EurasiaNet [5/23/2025 4:14 PM, Alexander Thompson, 57.6K]
Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has instructed his government to develop a framework for a 30-day, visa-free period for all American tourists, while also pursuing negotiations with the United States to loosen entry requirements for Uzbeks. The move is part of a broader effort by Tashkent to reduce barriers to travel, for both Uzbek citizens and foreign visitors.
Officials have three months to put a plan together covering American visitors and would-be Uzbek travelers to the United States, the president said in his May 15 decree.
Since 2021, Americans over 55 have had a 30-day, visa-free period, but everyone else must apply for a $20 e-visa through a government portal.
Citizens from other wealthy countries, including most European Union members, the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan and South Korea have a 30-day, visa-free period to visit Uzbekistan, making the United States something of an outlier.
Meanwhile, Uzbeks must apply for a tourist visa to enter the United States. During Fiscal Year 2024, almost two-thirds of applications were rejected, the highest rate for any country in the region, according to State Department data.
Tourism has exploded in Uzbekistan over the last decade as Mirziyoyev has made it an important part of his planned economic makeover for the country. Officials have vigorously promoted the country’s Silk Road cities like Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva as well as off-the-beaten-path destinations.
About 8.2 million foreign tourists visited Uzbekistan in 2024, up from 6.6 million in 2023 and 1 million in 2016, according to the national statistics agency. The growth continues at break-neck speed; 1.3 million tourists visited this April alone, a record, according to the State Committee for Tourism.
Mirziyoyev originally aimed to raise the annual number of foreign tourists to 15 million by 2030, but he said in April that the goal is attainable by this year.
Still, only a sliver – 0.3% or 23,000 in 2023 – of those tourists were from the United States. The move toward a visa-free period is aimed at boosting those numbers.
It may prove a winning strategy. A 2024 study by Spanish researchers found that visa requirements, even as light as an e-visa, reduce tourism from affected countries between 50 and 75 percent.
Since the pandemic, Uzbekistan has successfully attracted growing numbers of Russian and Chinese tourists, who enjoy visa-free travel privileges.
Kazakhstan already has a 30-day, visa-free period for Americans while Kyrgyzstan leads the region with a 60-day period.
Uzbekistan has stood out in Central Asia for its efforts to woo the Trump administration. The country struck a critical minerals deals with Washington in April, although details remain scant. Mirziyoyev also has invited President Donald Trump to visit the country, and footed the bill to fly 131 undocumented Central Asian migrants back to Tashkent in April.
Meanwhile, Tashkent in recent days has finalized agreements that add China, Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain to the list of countries where Uzbek travelers can make short-term visits (up to 30 days) without obtaining a visa. The Chinese visa-free regime is set to begin June 1.
Uzbekistan now has visa-free frameworks in place for visitors from 90 countries.
In the same May 15 presidential decree, Mirziyoyev instructed officials to develop a travel regime enabling citizens of Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan to visit Uzbekistan without an international passport, using just a domestic passport or another government-issued ID. Such a system has already been launched for Kyrgyz citizens. Indo-Pacific
Despite ceasefire, India and Pakistan are locked in a cultural cold war (Washington Post)
Washington Post [5/26/2025 1:00 AM, Karishma Mehrotra, 32099K]
Even during the darkest moments of India and Pakistan’s volatile history — through wars, terrorist attacks and diplomatic breakdowns — artists and activists tried to keep the countries connected.Mumbai’s plays found an audience in Karachi. Lahore’s painters held shows in New Delhi. Activists walked across the disputed border, past soldiers marching in elaborate drills, hoping to bridge one of the world’s most intractable divides.“When you travel, and meet the other side, it gives them a human face,” said Suhasini Mulay, an Indian actor and co-founder of the Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD).“All that demonization that you’ve been fed — it just begins to melt away.”But after years of declining relations, punctuated by the latest eruption of violence between the nuclear-armed neighbors, even the smallest cultural exchanges have all but vanished. In more than a dozen interviews, Indian and Pakistani artists, musicians, diplomats and academics reflected on how the countries became so cut off from one another — and how much has been lost.Trade between India and Pakistan had already shriveled to almost nothing in recent years. Postal routes were suspended in 2019. The final tightening came last month, after gunmen killed 26 tourists in a meadow near Pahalgam, in Indian-administered Kashmir. Cultural ties, already threadbare, frayed further.“Even a simple thing like sending a book to a friend across the border is impossible,” said Ritu Menon, an Indian publisher who has helped Pakistani writers come to India.Salima Hashmi was 4 when her father — the celebrated Pakistani poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz — moved the family from New Delhi to Lahore in anticipation of the bloody partition of British India in 1947.“A guy who had never been here drew an unthinking carving line over a gin and tonic,” she said, referring to Cyril Radcliffe, the British judge who divided the subcontinent. “His hand, I’m sure, wavered a bit.”She grew up watching India and Pakistan try to make sense of their sudden separation. The first field hockey match between the newly created countries in 1948 was, for her, a moment of “realization that something had happened that alienated us from our own humanism.”It inspired her to organize the Faiz Festival — an annual cultural festival in Lahore, named for her late father — which became one of the most consistent venues of cultural exchange. Starting in the 1980s, she hosted Indian icons almost every year, including filmmaker Shyam Benegal, poet Kaifi Azmi, and screenwriter-actor couple Javed Akhtar and Shabana Azmi.“If you put people together, they always find reason to enjoy the same music, the same food, the same films — [they] dance together, read together.”She also made a point to travel frequently to India — for lectures and festivals, and as part of a Pakistani peace delegation after the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai. Since 2016, though, her cross-border trips have ceased.Four years ago, when she inquired about visiting India for a wedding, and to see a dying friend, she was swiftly told that a visa was out of the question. Works of art she had once shipped to India for exhibitions were slapped with 200 percent duties in 2019, then banned altogether.“Art is not lethal,” she said, laughing. “But it had clearly become a freeze.”The freeze has only intensified in the intervening years. Goods that once flowed via third countries have faced heightened scrutiny.After the Pahalgam attack, a painting by a Pakistani artist was confiscated by Indian customs officials. A movie with Pakistani actor Fawad Khan was denied theatrical release. Social media accounts of Pakistani actors were blocked in India.In April, India’s government sent out an advisory telling streaming platforms in the country to “discontinue” carrying Pakistani content — even soap operas, which have long been popular across the border. Mulay remembers a Pakistani diplomat telling her once that the serials had done more for the India-Pakistan relationship than any diplomatic mission ever could.Sports had been one of the most enduring links between the countries, but, outside of multinational tournaments, India and Pakistan have not played a cricket match against each other since 2013.In April, Indian Olympic medalist Neeraj Chopra, who has praised Pakistani javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem, invited him to India, only to be met with severe blowback online. After Pahalgam, Chopra said, a visit by Nadeem was now “out of the question.”Bani Singh, an Indian filmmaker, grew up hearing about her father’s former hockey teammate from Lahore who switched teams after partition. A friend, her father told her, suddenly became a foreigner.When she traveled to Pakistan six decades later to find him, she found warmth and hospitality — but also loud silences. “We never discussed terrorism or the political situation,” she said.“When you are in a state of trauma, you cannot have a conversation about peace,” she continued. “You have to first feel secure.”Every time there has been a flicker of “possibility” between the countries, she said, it has been derailed by violence, and the cycle of mistrust is renewed.“Then there’s no point even going there, because you almost feel that it would be disrespectful of the people who’ve lost their lives and the families that are suffering,” Singh said.Lalita Ramdas remembers a different time. Her late husband, Adm. L. Ramdas, rose to become the head of India’s navy, decorated for his service in the 1971 war against Pakistan.When their daughter told them that her Pakistani boyfriend had proposed, the admiral requested — and received — permission from India’s defense minister and prime minister for the couple to wed.“There didn’t used to be this kind of hostility and suspicion with the layers of evil or anger that we have seen over the last 10 to 15 years,” Ramdas said.After retiring, the admiral joined PIPFPD, the coalition of Indian and Pakistani peace activists, with encouragement from the home secretary.In 1999, Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee — the first from the now-ruling Bharatiya Janata Party — traveled to Pakistan with an entourage of celebrities on a bus painted with the colors of the two nations. He was welcomed by Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.“Back then, it was a very different understanding of what relationship we should have with our neighbors,” said Ramdas. “Things were civil, and conversations could happen.”PIPFPD, founded in 1982, hosted at least eight peace conferences. Ramdas and her husband helped organize dialogues among educators, writers, artists and lawmakers.Shoaib Iqbal, a Pakistani theater actor, said performing in Indian cities used to feel like just another stop on the tour: “It wasn’t like we were going into enemy territory or anything like that.”But in 2004, in the western city of Pune, angry protesters showed up at Iqbal’s hostel. Now, he refuses invitations to return to India — not because he doesn’t want to go, he said, but because he’s afraid.Beena Sarwar, a Pakistani professor who has taught journalism at Princeton and Brown, spent four years in the early 2010s running a media organization launched by leading media houses in India and Pakistan. She even organized a delegation of Indian students to Pakistan after the Kargil War in 1999.“Back then, it just wasn’t so difficult,” she said.The shift happened gradually. PIPFPD saw a growing number of visa requests declined, said Mulay; the group held its final peace conference in 2013. Sarwar saw her own visa to India denied for the first time the day after the Pahalgam attack, she said.Pakistani Sufi Muslim singers Fareed Ayaz and Abu Muhammad, who lived in India before partition, once described to an audience in southern India their feeling of living in suspension between the two countries. It was 2008, just after the attacks in Mumbai.“In Pakistan, they call us ‘those from Delhi,’” Ayaz said. “In India, they call us ‘those from Pakistan.’”And then they began to sing: “Today, we sit in an undivided land and tell you, Oh my beloved, please come visit my country.” India, Pakistan battle for global sympathy after border truce (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [5/24/2025 2:31 AM, Sudhi Ranjan Sen, Kamran Haider, Dan Strumpf, and Swati Gupta, 3805K]
Two weeks after pulling back from the brink of all-out war, India and Pakistan are now racing to win over global opinion.
Both sides are sending delegations to global capitals to influence international perception of the conflict, as tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals continue to simmer.
New Delhi this week dispatched seven teams of diplomats and lawmakers to capitals of some 30 countries, including in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and South America as part of its publicity campaign. The delegates have been told to detail Islamabad’s history of supporting militants, and its alleged involvement in the deadly April 22 attacks in the India-administered part of Kashmir, which triggered the latest conflict.
India is also pushing back against the perception - reinforced by U.S. President Donald Trump’s social media posts - that the two sides were equals in their dispute over the territory of Kashmir, and that they had agreed to mediated peace talks.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday ruled out talks with Pakistan and vowed military action if faced with further terrorist attacks. Separately, India’s foreign minister told Dutch broadcaster NOS that the May 10 truce was negotiated directly between India and Pakistan, refuting Trump’s claim of brokering the ceasefire.
"For many Indians, Trump’s messaging on mediation amounts to drawing a false equivalence by treating India and Pakistan the same," said Michael Kugelman, a South Asia analyst based in Washington. "This is a major setback for New Delhi, given that it amounts to a victory for Islamabad in the battle of narratives that has endured even after the fighting stopped.".
Pakistan is also planning its own diplomatic initiative, though on a much smaller scale. Its government has said it’s sending seven officials to three European capitals and the U.S. to make the case that it, not India, is the victim.
The dueling efforts are playing out almost two weeks after both countries agreed to a ceasefire, following days of intense drone and air strikes and artillery and small arms exchanges between the two nations. The fighting touched off after India blamed Pakistan for what it called a terrorist attack that killed 26 civilians, mostly Indian tourists. Pakistan denied responsibility.
Trump’s attempt to take credit for the ceasefire has frustrated Indian officials, as have his assertions that trade was used as a bargaining chip to negotiate the truce. New Delhi has denied those claims as well as a statement by Secretary of State Marco Rubio that the two sides agreed to begin talks on a broad set of issues at "a neutral site.".
In their diplomatic outreach, a main focus of the message from Indian officials will be Pakistan’s alleged links to terrorism and its purported involvement in the April 22 attack on civilians, said Rajeev Kumar Rai, a member of parliament who is part of a delegation visiting Spain, Greece, Slovenia and Russia.
The teams will specifically raise Pakistan’s alleged support for U.N.-designated terror groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed, according to officials familiar with the outreach, who asked not to be identified because the discussions were private. They will also inform foreign officials that India remains resolved to respond to future violence in a manner it deems fit, they said.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking further information.
Of the nations on India’s list to visit, roughly a third are members of the Organization of Islamic Countries, a multilateral body that claims to speak for the Muslim world. Pakistan is also a member of that group, and has lobbied it for greater intervention in the Kashmir conflict.
New Delhi also aims to target Pakistan’s economy, which is only beginning to recover from a prolonged crisis. India plans to urge the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force to take renewed action against Pakistan, a government official said on Friday in New Delhi. The anti-money laundering watchdog removed Pakistan from its terror-financing list in 2022, easing its access to trade and investments. India wants Pakistan returned to the gray list, the official said.
For its part, Pakistan has said the goal of its outreach is to highlight what it says are its "consistent and constructive efforts to ensure peace and stability in the region," according to the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan. It said its officials will "expose India’s propaganda campaigns.".
The Pakistan officials will also bring up India’s suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty - a critical water-sharing pact - that can have serious long-term consequences for Pakistan. "Breaking the treaty at will is irresponsible behavior," said Khurram Dastgir Khan, who is part of Pakistan’s delegation. "If the water issue is not solved, then we are looking at another war in six to ten years," he said.
New Delhi suspended the treaty, which governs the distribution of waters from six rivers flowing from the Himalayas, after the Kashmir attacks.
"President Trump has demonstrated more openness to working with Pakistan than we saw under President Biden, so this moment does represent a meaningful opportunity for Pakistan to reassert its relevance in Washington," said Elizabeth Threlkeld, senior fellow and director of South Asia at the Stimson Center in Washington.
For India, the diplomatic effort is complicated by the fact that it continues to press ahead with trade talks with the U.S., which it hopes will remove Trump’s so-called reciprocal tariffs on the South Asian country’s exports."The challenge for policymakers in the U.S. and New Delhi will be to navigate sensitivities over U.S. mediation while continuing to make progress in other areas of the relationship, including trade and defense," Threlkeld said. India and Pakistan’s drone battles mark new arms race (Reuters)
Reuters [5/26/2025 10:33 PM, Devjyot Ghoshal, Ariba Shahid and Shivam Patel, 58908K]
A little after 8:00 pm on May 8, red flares streaked through the night sky over the northern Indian city of Jammu as its air-defence systems opened fire on drones from neighbouring Pakistan.The Indian and Pakistani militaries have deployed high-end fighter jets, conventional missiles and artillery during decades of clashes, but the four days of fighting in May marked the first time New Delhi and Islamabad utilized unmanned aerial vehicles at scale against each other.The fighting halted after the U.S. announced it brokered a ceasefire but the South Asian powers, which spent more than $96 billion on defence last year, are now locked in a drones arms race, according to Reuters’ interviews with 15 people, including security officials, industry executives and analysts in the two countries.Two of them said they expect increased use of UAVs by the nuclear-armed neighbours because small-scale drone attacks can strike targets without risking personnel or provoking uncontrollable escalation.India plans to invest heavily in local industry and could spend as much as $470 million on UAVs over the next 12 to 24 months, roughly three times pre-conflict levels, said Smit Shah of Drone Federation India, which represents over 550 companies and regularly interacts with the government.The previously unreported forecast, which came as India this month approved roughly $4.6 billion in emergency military procurement funds, was corroborated by two other industry executives. The Indian military plans to use some of that additional funding on combat and surveillance drones, according to two Indian officials familiar with the matter.Defence procurement in India tends to involve years of bureaucratic processes but officials are now calling drone makers in for trials and demonstrations at an unprecedented pace, said Vishal Saxena, a vice president at Indian UAV firm ideaForge Technology (IDEF.NS).The Pakistan Air Force, meanwhile, is pushing to acquire more UAVs as it seeks to avoid risking its high-end aircraft, said a Pakistani source familiar with the matter.Pakistan and India both deployed cutting-edge generation 4.5 fighter jets during the latest clashes but cash-strapped Islamabad only has about 20 high-end Chinese-made J-10 fighters compared to the three dozen Rafales that Delhi can muster.Pakistan is likely to build on existing relationships to intensify collaboration with China and Turkey to advance domestic drone research and production capabilities, said Oishee Majumdar of defence intelligence firm Janes.Islamabad is relying on a collaboration between Pakistan’s National Aerospace Science and Technology Park and Turkish defence contractor Baykar that locally assembles the YIHA-III drone, the Pakistani source said, adding a unit could be produced domestically in between two to three days.Pakistan’s military declined to respond to Reuters’ questions. The Indian defence ministry and Baykar did not return requests for comment.India and Pakistan "appear to view drone strikes as a way to apply military pressure without immediately provoking large-scale escalation," said King’s College London political scientist Walter Ladwig III."UAVs allow leaders to demonstrate resolve, achieve visible effects, and manage domestic expectations — all without exposing expensive aircraft or pilots to danger," he added.But such skirmishes are not entirely risk-free, and Ladwig noted that countries could also send UAVs to attack contested or densely populated areas where they might not previously have used manned platforms.DRONE SWARMS AND VINTAGE GUNSThe fighting in May, which was the fiercest in this century between the neighbours, came after an April 22 militant attack in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly Indian tourists.Delhi blamed the killings on "terrorists" backed by Islamabad, which denied the charge. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed revenge and Delhi on May 7 launched air strikes on what it described as "terrorist infrastructure" in Pakistan.The next night, Pakistan sent hordes of drones along a 1,700-kilometer (772-mile) front with India, with between 300 and 400 of them pushing in along 36 locations to probe Indian air defences, Indian officials have said.Pakistan depended on Turkish-origin YIHA-III and Asisguard Songar drones, as well as the Shahpar-II UAV produced domestically by the state-owned Global Industrial & Defence Solutions conglomerate, according to two Pakistani sources.But much of this drone deployment was cut down by Cold War-era Indian anti-aircraft guns that were rigged to modern military radar and communication networks developed by state-run Bharat Electronics (BAJE.NS), according to two Indian officials.A Pakistan source denied that large numbers of its drones were shot down on May 8, but India did not appear to sustain significant damage from that drone raid.India’s use of the anti-aircraft guns, which had not been designed for anti-drone-warfare, turned out to be surprisingly effective, said retired Indian Brig. Anshuman Narang, now an UAV expert at Delhi’s Centre for Joint Warfare Studies."Ten times better than what I’d expected," he said.India also sent Israeli HAROP, Polish WARMATE and domestically-produced UAVs into Pakistani airspace, according to one Indian and two Pakistan sources. Some of them were also used for precision attacks on what two Indian officials described as military and militant infrastructure.The two Pakistani security sources confirmed that India deployed a large number of the HAROPs - a long-range loitering munition drone manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries. Such UAVs, also known as suicide drones, stay over a target before crashing down and detonating on impact.Pakistan set up decoy radars in some areas to draw in the HAROPs, or waited for their flight time to come towards its end, so that they fell below 3,000 feet and could be shot down, a third Pakistani source said.Both sides claim to have notched victories in their use of UAVs.India successfully targeted infrastructure within Pakistan with minimal risk to personnel or major platforms, said KCL’s Ladwig.For Pakistan’s military, which claimed to have struck Indian defence facilities with UAVs, drone attacks allow it to signal action while drawing less international scrutiny than conventional methods, he noted.CHEAP BUT WITH AN ACHILLES HEELDespite the loss of many drones, both sides are doubling down."We’re talking about relatively cheap technology," said Washington-based South Asia expert Michael Kugelman. "And while UAVs don’t have the shock and awe effect of missiles and fighter jets, they can still convey a sense of power and purpose for those that launch them."Indian defence planners are likely to expand domestic development of loitering munitions UAVs, according to an Indian security source and Sameer Joshi of Indian UAV maker NewSpace, which is deepening its research and development on such drones."Their ability to loiter, evade detection, and strike with precision marked a shift toward high-value, low-cost warfare with mass produced drones," said Joshi, whose firm supplies the Indian military.And firms like ideaForge, which has supplied over 2,000 UAVs to the Indian security forces, are also investing on enhancing the ability of its drones to be less vulnerable to electronic warfare, said Saxena.Another vulnerability that is harder to address is the Indian drone program’s reliance on hard-to-replace components from China, an established military partner of Pakistan, four Indian dronemakers and officials said.India continues to depend on China-made magnets and lithium for UAV batteries, said Drone Federation India’s Shah."Weaponization of the supply chain is also an issue," said ideaForge’s Saxena on the possibility of Beijing shutting the tap on components in certain situations.For instance, Chinese restrictions on the sale of drones and components to Ukraine have weakened Kyiv’s ability to produce critical combat drones, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies think-tank.A spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry said in response to Reuters’ questions that Beijing has always implemented export controls on dual-use items in accordance with domestic laws and regulations as well as its international obligations."Diversification of supply chain is a medium to long term problem," said Shah. "You can’t solve it in short term." Pakistan, Afghanistan move towards ‘restoring ties’ in talks with China (Al Jazeera)
Al Jazeera [5/23/2025 4:14 PM, Abid Hussain, 17M]
As Pakistan remained embroiled in a war of words with its archrival India – following a dramatic exchange of missiles and drones nearly two weeks ago – it this week advanced diplomatic efforts with two other neighbors: China and Afghanistan, which could lead to the formal resumption of diplomatic ties between Islamabad and Kabul after nearly four years.
In an “informal” trilateral meeting held in Beijing on May 21, the foreign ministers of China, Pakistan and Afghanistan convened under a forum first launched in 2017, and which last met in May 2023.
This time, a key outcome from the meeting, according to Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, was a renewed willingness by both Pakistan and Afghanistan to restore diplomatic relations after heightened tensions in recent years.“Afghanistan and Pakistan expressed clear willingness to elevate diplomatic relations and agreed in principle to exchange ambassadors as soon as possible. China welcomed this and will continue to provideassistance for the improvement of Afghanistan-Pakistan relations,” Wang said.
He added that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) – a $62bn mega project under China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) – will now be extended into Afghanistan.
A Pakistani diplomat with direct knowledge of the talks told Al Jazeera that the next round of the trilateral meetings will be held “very soon”, within a few weeks, to build on the momentum from the Beijing conclave.“I am reasonably optimistic about the outcomes. It was a great confidence- and trust-building exercise between the three countries,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity about the Beijing meeting.
Trilateral diplomacy amid Indo-Pakistan tensions
The meeting came after a four-day standoff between Pakistan and India, with both countries claiming “victory” and launching diplomatic offensives to assert dominance.
The conflict, from May 7 to May 10, followed Indian strikes on what it called “terrorist infrastructure” in Pakistan, in retaliation for the Pahalgam attack in Indian-administered Kashmir last month that left 26 civilians dead. India blamed the attack on Pakistan-based armed groups, an allegation Islamabad denies.
While China urged restraint on both sides, its support for Pakistan was evident on the front lines of the conflict, with the Pakistani military using Chinese fighter jets, missiles, and air defence systems.
On the other hand, Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar said on May 15 that he appreciated Afghan acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi’s “condemnation” of the Pahalgam attack, in a conversation between the two. Indian media also reported a visit to New Delhi by senior Taliban figure and deputy interior minister, Ibrahim Sadr, in early May.
Mustafa Hyder Sayed, executive director of the Islamabad-based Pakistan-China Institute, called the Beijing meeting “very significant”, given Afghanistan’s geopolitical sensitivity.
For Pakistan and China, the “conflict with India has reinforced strategic clarity” on the need to work closely with Afghanistan, Sayed said.
Kabul-based political analyst Tameem Bahiss agreed.“This [the call between Muttaqi and Jaishankar] signals a major shift in India-Afghanistan relations, one that could raise concerns in Islamabad amid an already volatile regional climate,” he said. “The timing of this trilateral meeting, not just its content, reflects an urgent need for coordination among these three countries as new geopolitical dynamics take shape in South and Central Asia.”
A rocky relationship
When the Afghan Taliban returned to power in August 2021, many saw it as a win for Pakistan, given its historical ties to the group. From 1996 through 2021, Pakistan was one of the Taliban’s key allies. India, meanwhile, viewed the Taliban as a proxy of Pakistan’s intelligence agencies and refused to engage with it.
However, relations between Pakistan and the Taliban have deteriorated.
Pakistan has accused the Afghan Taliban of allowing groups like Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) to launch attacks across the border, an allegation the Taliban vehemently deny. The TTP, formed in 2007, shares ideological roots with the Afghan Taliban but operates independently.
According to the Pak Institute for Peace Studies, Pakistan suffered 521 attacks in 2024 – a 70 percent increase from the previous year – resulting in nearly 1,000 civilian and security personnel deaths.
But in a trip that was seen as a potential breakthrough in strained ties, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar visited Kabul on April 19, just days before the Pahalgam attack.
Ihsanullah Tipu, an Islamabad-based security analyst, says Pakistan’s renewed diplomatic outreach to Afghanistan prioritises key concerns, with security taking precedence over trade, border disputes, and border closures, a sentiment he said China also shares.“To foster meaningful trade ties, Pakistan’s security concerns must be addressed first,” Tipu told Al Jazeera, warning that failure to do so could escalate tensions to armed conflict.“But given China’s global influence and close ties with both Pakistan and Afghanistan, Beijing can play a pivotal role as a guarantor of any commitments made,” added Tipu, who co-founded the security research portal The Khorasan Diary.
Common security threats
While Pakistan continues to accuse the Afghan Taliban of harbouring fighters who attack targets in Pakistan, many of these assaults have been directed at Chinese nationals working on CPEC projects.
Pakistani government figures estimate that about 20,000 Chinese nationals live in the country. At least 20 have been killed in attacks since 2021 in provinces like Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. Groups including the TTP have claimed responsibility.
China has also expressed concern over the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), alleging that its fighters use Afghan territory to stage attacks against China.
Sayed of PCI stressed that both Pakistan and China see security as their “core interest” in Afghanistan.“This is a shared threat, and in the past the ETIM has also had a significance presence in Afghanistan. And these militant networks are connected with each other as well. So that is a pre-requisite for any cooperation to move forward, to first neutralise these terrorist outfits, which seem to be operating freely and comfortably in Afghanistan,” he said.
However, Bahiss noted that since the Taliban’s return to power, most regional countries, including China, have found the security situation inside Afghanistan acceptable, enabling ongoing economic engagement.“The key exception is Pakistan, which continues to face serious threats from Afghan soil. While Pakistan prioritises eliminating or containing the TTP, Kabul is focused on trade, transit, and regional integration,” he said.
This is where China’s pivotal role could come into the picture, the Kabul-based analyst said, adding that the country is uniquely positioned to mediate by encouraging security cooperation while also advancing trade and transit initiatives that benefit all three countries.
India-Afghanistan ties and Pakistan’s concerns
During the civilian governments in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2021, India and Afghanistan developed close ties, despite several attacks on Indian diplomatic missions by the Taliban and its allies.
In recent months, there has been increased interaction between officials from New Delhi and Kabul, including the recent Jaishankar-Muttaqi conversation.
Does this warming of ties raise alarm in Islamabad? Sayed doesn’t think so.“Pakistan doesn’t mistrust Kabul. But Pakistan has asked for action. The rulers there need to walk the talk regarding TTP and other terrorist outfits. I don’t think either Beijing or Islamabad opposes Kabul having positive relations with India, as long as it doesn’t compromise the interests of Pakistan and China,” he said.
However, Bahis said New Delhi’s rapprochement with the Taliban could lead to worries in Pakistan and China, both of which have historically had tense ties with India.“While recent India-Afghanistan contacts are still in early stages, their timing may raise concerns in Islamabad,” he said.“Afghanistan has the sovereign right to engage with any country, including India. But it must tread carefully. Clear messaging is essential to ensure that its growing ties with New Delhi aren’t misinterpreted as threats by other regional players,” Bahiss said. “Balancing these complex relationships will require diplomacy, transparency, and mutual respect.” Twitter
Afghanistan
Jahanzeb@JahanzebKhanWE
[5/26/2025 2:04 PM, 5.8K followers, 32 retweets, 59 likes]
1447 days of silencing Afghan girls. The Taliban’s school ban is not just repression — it’s gender apartheid. Denying education is denying a future. Afghan girls deserve pens, not prison walls. The world must act. #LetAfghanGirlsLearn #EndGenderApartheid
Jahanzeb@JahanzebKhanWE
[5/26/2025 1:40 PM, 5.8K followers, 15 retweets, 20 likes]
Taliban have sentenced Bashir Ahmad Hanafi, religious scholar & Al-Azhar University graduate, to 8 months in prison in Helmand. His crime? Speaking up for women’s education-rights. After weeks of arresting & torturing journalists & activists, now scholars are being silenced too. Pakistan
Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Pakistan@ForeignOfficePk
[5/25/2025 2:04 AM, 497K followers, 41 retweets, 152 likes]
Deputy Prime Minister/Foreign Minister, Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar @MIshaqDar50, today held a telephone conversation with the Foreign Minister of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Saidov Bakhtiyor Odilovich @FM_Saidov. The two leaders discussed existing bilateral relations , particularly Uzbekistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (UAP) Railway Line Project. They expressed the hope that framework agreement for the regional connectivity project will be finalised soon. Views were also exchanged on current regional situation.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Pakistan@ForeignOfficePk
[5/23/2025 11:51 AM, 497K followers, 50 retweets, 119 likes]
Deputy Prime Minister/Foreign Minister, Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar @MIshaqDar50 , met members of high-level delegations designated to present Pakistan’s stance across foreign capitals. The DPM/FM outlined Pakistan’s diplomatic priorities and hoped that the delegation will effectively highlight Pakistan’s perspective and promote Pakistan’s message of peace abroad.
Shehbaz Sharif@CMShehbaz
[5/26/2025 3:22 PM, 6.8M followers, 439 retweets, 2.1K likes]
Had a cordial and warm meeting with President Pezeshkian @drpezeshkian I thanked Iran for the visit of their Foreign Minister and expressions of concern over recent developments in South Asia. I reaffirmed Pakistan’s continued commitment to enhancing bilateral cooperation with Iran for peace, prosperity and regional stability and for the mutual benefit of peoples of both countries. We will continue to work together to deepen our bilateral ties in trade, connectivity and combating terrorism.
Shehbaz Sharif@CMShehbaz
[5/26/2025 3:29 PM, 6.8M followers, 596 retweets, 3.5K likes]
Honoured to call on His Eminence Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of Iran. I sought his views especially with regards to the current challenges faced by Muslim Ummah. We also exchanged views on bilateral and regional issues of mutual interests. I thanked him for Iran’s role as a mediator and for expression of its concern for Pakistan during the recent crisis in South Asia. Pakistan values Iran’s role in the Muslim Ummah and looks forward to advancing mutual goals of peace, development and harmony. @khamenei_ir
Imran Khan@ImranKhanPTI
[5/26/2025 2:19 PM, 21.1M followers, 15K retweets, 29K likes] “PTI Candidates had to run as ‘independent’ but they still won the most seats in National Assembly” Sulaiman Khan spoke about Imran Khan’s party being the people’s choice in Pakistan. https://x.com/i/status/1926704718190919786
Imran Khan@ImranKhanPTI[5/24/2025 2:38 AM, 21.1M followers, 15K retweets, 29K likes]
Former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s conversation with lawyers in Adiala Jail - May 22, 2025 The baseless trials related to the events of May 9th (2023) have resumed once again. May 9th was a false flag operation. No CCTV footage has been presented to this day, and the past two years have made it abundantly clear that its sole objective was to crush PTI. The truth will be evident to all if the CCTV footage of that day is made public.
Seats were stolen from our candidates in Peshawar through the manipulation of Form-47, just like in other parts of the country. Legally, election petitions must be decided within 180 days. Yet, despite the passage of 15 months — and repeated changes in laws and judges — hearings have not even begun. Those whose mandate was stolen in Peshawar must immediately file petitions in the High Court, together with the provincial cabinet, and should protest before the Election Commission. Furthermore, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly must pass a resolution on this matter.
As party chairman, it is necessary for the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to seek my guidance on budgetary and policy matters. The people have elected PTI to govern, and therefore, the responsibility for policymaking also rests with us. Consequently, it is essential that Ali Amin Gandapur and the finance minister meet with me before the budget is presented. No one has approached me for any negotiations. News claiming otherwise is entirely false. National unity is of utmost importance at this time for three key reasons: Narendra Modi, having faced embarrassment in the recent Indo-Pak tensions, is likely to retaliate to salvage his pride. Innocent lives are being lost daily to terrorist attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. The economy is in shambles; investors and the youth are steadily leaving the country. It is for these reasons that I have called for dialogue. But talks will only be held with those who actually hold power, and only in the national interest. I do not fear hardship — my resolve remains strong.
Engaging in any talks with the puppet PML-N government is pointless. This illegitimate Form-47 installed government has already wasted two months. Its only objective is to cling to false authority. It holds no real power. This is the very regime that has utterly destroyed Pakistan’s moral values and constitutional structure. Democracy is founded on two core principles: rule of law and moral integrity. The baseless political cases against me and other PTI members, forced abductions, and coerced press conferences designed to make members publicly disassociate from the party — all prove that rule of law has been entirely dismantled. What we now have is the law of the jungle.
The decline of integrity is equally alarming. The Chief Election Commissioner and other members of the Election Commission continue to hold office even after the terms have ended. The formation of a controversial constitutional bench, its conduct and handling of cases further reflect the erosion of ethical standards. Democracy cannot flourish in the absence of law and morality. This is a recipe for societal collapse, and it should serve as a wake-up call for all of us. I am being subjected to all forms of hardships. I am not allowed to speak to my children. Meetings with my family are arbitrarily delayed for days. Even my personal physician is not permitted to see me. Despite this, I will continue to stand firm for the sake of my nation.
Zalmay Khalilzad@realZalmayMK
[5/26/2025 10:06 AM, 265.1K followers, 117 retweets, 250 likes]In a newly released, very brutal and inhumane video (watch below), the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), makes the following three points:
1.It is actively operating training camps in the mountainous parts of Pakistan’s Balochistan province.
2.It acknowledges the deadly mid-March attack by the Baloch nationalist forces on one of its camps, which killed some 30 of its fighters, including several non-Pakistanis.
3.It issues a warning to the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and other Baloch groups, declaring them priority targets for future operations. It states that the previous "Non-aggression pact" with these groups is over. Now ISKP and Pakistani security forces are on the same side against the Baluch nationalists. #Pakistan #USA #India #Afghanistan #Iran #Uzbekistan #Tajikistan #Russia
Hamid Mir@HamidMirPAK
[5/26/2025 11:45 PM, 8.7M followers, 20 retweets, 121 likes]
How Indian Government helped Pakistan by sending a Trump hater to US? Name of @ShashiTharoor was missing from the list sent by his party but he was selected by @narendramodi to lead the Indian delegation for US. Modi actually teased @realDonaldTrump by sending Throor to US because Throor is an old Trump hater.
Hamid Mir@HamidMirPAK
[5/25/2025 2:05 AM, 8.7M followers, 463 retweets, 2.5K likes]
Suspension of Indus Water Treaty will have no negative impact on Pakistan. And remember that India will not be able to permanently stop water coming to Pakistan. If anyone in Delhi would like to prove me wrong let’s stop the water just for three or four days and then you will see the result. India
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[5/27/2025 1:13 AM, 108.7M followers, 944 retweets, 3.3K likes]
With over two decades of transformative urban development, Gujarat is setting new benchmarks in building world-class cities. Addressing a programme in Gandhinagar.
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[5/26/2025 12:57 PM, 108.7M followers, 4.3K retweets, 25K likes]
Gratitude to the people of Bhuj! Here are highlights from a very special visit. https://x.com/i/status/1927046518248214541
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[5/26/2025 12:55 PM, 108.7M followers, 4.7K retweets, 36K likes]
After the programmes in Vadodara, Dahod and Kutch, landed to a warm welcome in Ahmedabad. Looking forward to joining a programme on urban development tomorrow morning at Mahatma Mandir.Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[5/26/2025 11:10 AM, 108.7M followers, 3.8K retweets, 30K likes]
It’s an honour to be among my sisters and brothers of Kutch. The welcome in Bhuj is one I’ll always remember. The patriotic fervour and enthusiasm was exceptional.
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[5/26/2025 7:54 AM, 108.7M followers, 2.8K retweets, 12K likes]
Bhuj’s growth story is remarkable. The projects launched today will accelerate progress in power, renewable energy, ports and other infrastructure. https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1mnGegrrQWbxX
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[5/26/2025 7:08 AM, 108.7M followers, 4.7K retweets, 30K likes]
Dahod is a tribal dominated area in Gujarat. For decades, this part was ignored. The BJP Government in Gujarat and the Centre have worked to ensure the fruits of development reach the people. As a part of such efforts, a Loco Manufacturing Shop at the Rolling Stock Workshop in Dahod was dedicated to the nation. An Electric Locomotive manufactured at the Dahod Workshop was also flagged off.
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[5/26/2025 3:25 AM, 108.7M followers, 3.6K retweets, 14K likes]
Visiting Dahod is always a special experience. The projects launched today will significantly boost rail infrastructure, enhance connectivity and drive economic growth of the region. https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1BRJjmLywpdGw
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[5/25/2025 7:57 AM, 108.7M followers, 8.6K retweets, 52K likes]
Participated in the NDA Chief Ministers’ Conclave in Delhi. We had extensive deliberations about various issues. Various states showcased their best practices in diverse areas including water conservation, grievance redressal, strengthening administrative frameworks, education, women empowerment, sports and more. It was wonderful to hear these experiences.
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[5/25/2025 7:57 AM, 108.7M followers, 899 retweets, 2.4K likes]
I emphasised the need to add momentum to our development trajectories and ensure the benefits of a double-engine government reach the people in an effective manner. Spoke about building stronger synergies in key areas be it cleanliness, sanitation, healthcare, youth empowerment, agriculture, technology and more.
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[5/24/2025 12:16 PM, 108.7M followers, 8.7K retweets, 56K likes] Took part in the 10th Governing Council Meeting of Niti Aayog at Bharat Mandapam. Chief Ministers, Governors and LGs from various states took part in the meeting. The theme for today’s meeting was ‘Viksit Rajya for Viksit Bharat@2047.’ We had a fruitful exchange of perspectives on how to achieve this goal.
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[5/24/2025 12:16 PM, 108.7M followers, 250 retweets, 821 likes]
India has changed significantly over the last decade. Our economy has grown and 25 crore people have been freed from poverty. This offers an unparalleled opportunity to add further momentum to our growth trajectory. Urged the states to leverage their manufacturing strengths and draw investments.
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[5/24/2025 12:16 PM, 108.7M followers, 761 retweets, 2.1K likes]
Education and skilling also featured prominently in our discussions. The National Education Policy has stressed greatly on this too. Also talked about ways to improve our urban centres considering rapid urbanisation is the reality of our times.
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[5/24/2025 12:16 PM, 108.7M followers, 744 retweets, 2K likes]
Farmer welfare will always be a priority for us. Discussed ways to further modernise the sector and ensure better prosperity for our hardworking farmers. Also emphasised on leveraging the power of science and technology to develop the sector and improve soil health.
Dr. S. Jaishankar@DrSJaishankar
[5/26/2025 9:21 AM, 3.8M followers, 491 retweets, 3.6K likes]
Pleased to meet FM @abkhaleel of Maldives today. Welcome Maldives’ support and solidarity in combatting terrorism. India remains committed to Maldives’ progress and development.
Dr. S. Jaishankar@DrSJaishankar
[5/26/2025 4:15 AM, 3.8M followers, 509 retweets, 3.5K likes]
Chaired the Consultative Committee Meeting of MEA this morning in Delhi. Discussed #OpSindoor and India’s zero-tolerance policy against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. Underlined the importance of sending a strong and united message in that regard. NSB
Chief Adviser of the Government of Bangladesh@ChiefAdviserGoB
[5/26/2025 8:33 AM, 167K followers, 37 retweets, 388 likes]
USCIRF chief meets Chief Adviser Professor Yunus
DHAKA, May 26, 2025 — Stephen Schneck, Chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), met with Bangladesh’s Chief Adviser, Professor Muhammad Yunus, at the State Guest House Jamuna in Dhaka on Monday. Their discussions encompassed the state of religious freedom in Bangladesh, the July 2024 uprising, the Interim Government’s reform agenda, proposed constitutional amendments, and the ongoing Rohingya crisis. Chief Adviser Professor Yunus underscored the significant role of religion in Bangladesh and reaffirmed the government’s dedication to ensuring religious harmony in the country of 171 million people. "We are committed to safeguarding the religious freedom of every citizen of the country," the Chief Adviser said.
Addressing allegations of violence against minorities, Yunus emphasised the Interim Government’s commitment to transparency by inviting journalists worldwide to visit Bangladesh and assess the situation firsthand. "Any journalists can visit Bangladesh anytime. Many have visited the country since the uprising," he said. Professor Yunus expressed concern over orchestrated disinformation campaigns aimed at discrediting the July uprising and undermining minority rights in the subsequent months. He highlighted massive efforts from external sources, including media from the South Asia region, to portray the uprising as an Islamist extremist movement. "We are striving hard to build religious harmony in the country," he noted, adding that violence targeting the minorities in the South Asia region and the genocide in Palestine have exacerbated tensions domestically.
Schneck enquired about the activities of the reform commissions and the proposed constitutional changes following the uprising. Yunus stated that any constitutional amendments would uphold religious freedom and minority rights in Bangladesh. "The consensus-building commission is holding dialogue with political parties over the proposed amendments. Minorities will continue to enjoy the same rights as the majority Muslim population," he assured.
Professor Yunus sought support from the USCIRF to highlight the plight of the Rohingya people and their prolonged persecution in Myanmar’s Rakhine State. He mentioned that the United Nations is scheduled to hold a special session on the Rohingya issue in September, following his request. "We need to resolve the crisis. The sooner, the better. An angry young generation is growing up in the Rohingya camps. We need to provide them hope," Yunus emphasised.
Chief Adviser of the Government of Bangladesh@ChiefAdviserGoB
[5/25/2025 9:44 AM, 167K followers, 51 retweets, 630 likes]
A second group of political leaders called on Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus at the State Guest House Jamuna on Sunday.
Chief Adviser of the Government of Bangladesh@ChiefAdviserGoB
[5/26/2025 8:26 AM, 167K followers, 39 retweets, 679 likes]
Leaders of several political parties called on Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus at the State Guest House Jamuna on Sunday.
Chief Adviser of the Government of Bangladesh@ChiefAdviserGoB
[5/24/2025 12:42 PM, 167K followers, 48 retweets, 675 likes]
A delegation of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party called on Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus at the State Guest House Jamuna on Saturday.Chief Adviser of the Government of Bangladesh@ChiefAdviserGoB
[5/24/2025 12:41 PM, 167K followers, 57 retweets, 902 likes]
A delegation of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami called on Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus at the State Guest House Jamuna on Saturday.
Chief Adviser of the Government of Bangladesh@ChiefAdviserGoB
[5/24/2025 12:39 PM, 167K followers, 12 retweets, 490 likes]
A delegation of the National Citizen Party called on Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus at the State Guest House Jamuna on Saturday.
Chief Adviser of the Government of Bangladesh@ChiefAdviserGoB
[5/24/2025 8:23 AM, 167K followers, 293 retweets, 2.5K likes]
Statement from the Advisory Council
Dhaka, 24 May 2025: An unscheduled meeting of the Advisory Council was held today, Saturday, following the meeting of the Executive Committee of National Economic Council. The two-hour long meeting included detailed discussions on three primary responsibilities entrusted to the interim government – elections, reforms, and justice. Presided over by Chief Advisor Professor Muhammad Yunus, the meeting took place at the Planning Commission at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar. The Council discussed how unreasonable demands, deliberately provocative and jurisdictionally overreaching statements, and disruptive programmes have been continuously obstructing the normal functioning environment and creating confusion and suspicion among the public.
The Advisory Council believes that a broader unity is essential to maintain national stability, organise a free and fair elections, justice, and reform, and permanently prevent the return of authoritarianism in the country. On this matter, the Interim Government will listen to the views of political parties and clarify its own position. Despite all obstacles, the Interim Government continues to fulfil its responsibilities by putting national interests above group interests. However, if—under the instigation of defeated forces or as part of a foreign conspiracy—the performance of these responsibilities becomes impossible, the government will present all reasons to the public and then take the necessary steps with the people. The Interim Government upholds the public expectations of the July Uprising. But if the government’s autonomy, reform efforts, justice process, fair election plan, and normal operations are obstructed to the point of making its duties unmanageable, it will, with the people, take the necessary steps.
Ashok Swain@ashoswai
[5/26/2025 12:17 PM, 625.1K followers, 40 retweets, 261 likes]
Yunus is not resigning but is he really running the government? Bangladesh needs a legitimate government to overcome the serious economic and political crisis it is going through. A free and fair election is the only way out, but Jamaat has its agenda, & Students want power.
Ashok Swain@ashoswai
[5/24/2025 5:23 PM, 625.1K followers, 88 retweets, 613 likes] Bangladesh has cancelled a $21 million defence contract with India’s state-owned Shipbuilders and Engineers Ltd (GRSE). India and Bangladesh need to realize that their security and development is intrinsically interrelated.
The President’s Office, Maldives@presidencymv
[5/26/2025 8:39 AM, 113.3K followers, 108 retweets, 109 likes]
President Dr @MMuizzu inaugurates the expansion of emergency services at Hulhumale’ Hospital. The project has doubled the @HMH_mv ER’s capacity from seven to 14 beds. This is considered a crucial step in strengthening the hospital’s emergency services, especially considering the number of patients it has already served through its emergency and general outpatient departments.
The President’s Office, Maldives@presidencymv
[5/26/2025 1:32 AM, 113.3K followers, 144 retweets, 142 likes]
President Dr @MMuizzu inaugurates the revised Hulhumalé Masterplan. The project is a significant step toward creating an eco-friendly and economically vibrant city. Hulhumalé is set to become a model city with its new master plan focusing on balanced growth and enhanced living conditions for all residents.
Abdulla Khaleel@abkhaleel
[5/26/2025 10:47 AM, 34K followers, 34 retweets, 61 likes]
Wonderful to meet my counterpart, EAM @DrSJaishankar in India, today. We reviewed our ongoing political and development cooperation and explored ways for early implementation of the Vision Document set forth by the two leaders of Maldives-India for strengthening #Maldives - #India relations.
Abdulla Khaleel@abkhaleel
[5/25/2025 9:30 AM, 34K followers, 32 retweets, 54 likes]
Congratulations to the new @UN Resident Coordinator to the Maldives, Hao Zhang on presenting his credentials to the President. In my meeting with him, following the ceremony, we discussed enhancing #Maldives–#UN cooperation across key areas, especially as we mark 60 years of Maldives’ membership in the UN and 80th anniversary of the UN Charter. I conveyed my appreciation for the UN’s continued assistance and assured him of the Government’s full support in further strengthening this longstanding partnership. @UNMaldives
Anura Kumara Dissanayake@anuradisanayake
[5/26/2025 5:10 AM, 151.8K followers, 6 retweets, 103 likes]
Today, I met with @lionsclubs President Fabrício Oliveira to strengthen our collaboration on Child and youth mental health and social welfare in Sri Lanka. We’re committed to building a more resilient future for our young people.
Anura Kumara Dissanayake@anuradisanayake[5/25/2025 1:08 PM, 151.8K followers, 7 retweets, 131 likes]
I met with representatives of Sri Lanka’s vibrant performing arts community today! From musicians to dancers, we addressed key challenges in the sector & provided immediate solutions. Grateful for their dedication to enriching our culture. Progress starts with collaboration!
Anura Kumara Dissanayake@anuradisanayake
[5/23/2025 9:05 AM, 151.8K followers, 4 retweets, 95 likes]
I inaugurated the #TourismRenaissance2025 at BMICH, Colombo today to unite industry leaders, SMEs and aspiring entrepreneurs under one roof. With 250+ stalls and bold plans to hit $5B in tourism revenue by 2025, #SriLankaTourism is soaring! Let’s make history together.
M U M Ali Sabry@alisabrypc
[5/25/2025 3:34 AM, 8.2K followers, 45 retweets, 142 likes]
Free Education vs. Freedom to Educate: Time for Sri Lanka to Move Forward, Not Backward For over seven decades, Sri Lanka has proudly upheld the principle of free education. It is a cornerstone of our social fabric, an ideal that has empowered generations, fostered upward mobility, and built the backbone of our professional class. But like all ideals, it must evolve with time and context. Clinging to outdated interpretations will only lead to stagnation, missed opportunities, and an accelerating brain drain.
Let’s be clear: no country in the world provides free tertiary education to all qualifying students. Different countries adopt different models, some offer full scholarships to top performers, others implement reasonable fee structures subsidized by the state or philanthropic endowments. Many rely on student loans or bursary systems, balancing equity with sustainability.
In Sri Lanka, we provide free education up to A/Levels for nearly every student. But when it comes to university admission, only about 15–16% of those who qualify through A/Levels are actually accommodated. What happens to the rest? Do we ignore them? Abandon their dreams? Throw them into the streets? In reality, many of these young people pursue education elsewhere,at private institutions or universities abroad. Their families pay dearly, draining billions in foreign exchange each year. This is not rocket science. It is common sense.
If Sri Lanka could improve the quality and scale of its higher education sector, including both private and public institutions, we could educate more of our own, attract international students, earn foreign exchange, and position ourselves as a regional hub for knowledge and innovation. We had this opportunity decades ago. The proposed Private Medical College in Ragama in the 1980s was tragically abandoned due to pressure from narrow-minded ideological forces. That short-sightedness has cost us dearly. Today, India, Malaysia, the UAE, China, Belarus, even Bangladesh and Nepal, have seized the opportunity we let slip through our fingers. They are now welcoming thousands of Sri Lankan students, and profiting in the process.
Meanwhile, our own institutions such as NSBM and SLIIT have proven that high-quality, self-sustaining, affordable, and job oriented education is possible right here in Sri Lanka. These universities are flourishing, producing graduates equipped for the modern job market, many of whom would not have had a chance under the traditional university system. It is in this context that the government allowed KDU and Lyceum to establish medical faculties. This was not a betrayal of free education but a long-overdue step toward balancing national needs with individual aspirations. So why the outrage?
Because a small but vocal group, trapped in a 1970s-style ideological echo chamber, continues to equate “free education” with the belief that only the state has the right to educate, and that education must be free for all, at all times, regardless of capacity, quality, or economic feasibility. Ironically, many of the same senior members in government who once demanded 6% of GDP for education while in opposition, now struggle even to maintain previous allocations. Governance, as we know, is very different from making promises and demands from the opposition benches. That is not what free education means.
True free education means providing every child with a fair start. But it also means giving society the freedom to educate, innovate, and grow. While we must preserve and strengthen our state university system, we must also open the doors for complementary private initiatives, subject to rigorous quality standards and proper regulation. Let us not repeat the mistakes of the past.
Shutting down new opportunities is not a victory for social justice. It is a step backward, one that may take generations to correct. We must learn from other countries that have integrated public and private education systems successfully, often with better outcomes for both students and society. Let us be bold. Let us be sensible. Let us do justice to our youth, not only by protecting their right to education, but by creating more avenues for them to learn, grow, and lead. The choice is ours: move forward with vision, or stay trapped in the ghosts of yesterday.
I hope the government and relevant authorities will re-examine this ill-conceived decision. Instead of scuttling the progress of Sri Lanka’s forward march in higher education, rightfully led by wider sectors of the country, not just the state, it is time they encourage and facilitate the next phase of transformation. I hope saner counsel will prevail, sooner rather than later! Central Asia
MFA Kazakhstan@MFA_KZ@MFA_KZ
[5/26/2025 10:39 AM, 55.8K followers, 4 likes]
Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan Murat Nurtleu held a meeting with Secretary General of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Nurlan Yermekbayev. https://gov.kz/memleket/entities/mfa/press/news/details/1004774?lang=en
Bakhtiyor Saidov@FM_Saidov
[5/26/2025 4:49 AM, 11.5K followers, 12 retweets, 28 likes]
Great pleasure to welcome H.E. Catherine Mary Russell, Executive Director @UNICEF. Creating the best possible conditions for the prosperity of future generations in #Uzbekistan and globally remains the top priority for @GovUz. During the meeting today @UzbekMFA, we had an extensive exchange on joint implementation of important projects aimed at creating better future for the millions of children in the region. We value close cooperation with #UNICEF and will continue our full support of the Fund.
Bakhtiyor Saidov@FM_Saidov
[5/25/2025 3:24 AM, 11.5K followers, 91 retweets, 511 likes]
Had a phone conversation with H.E. @MIshaqDar50, Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, and Senator of #Pakistan. Underscored that @UzbekMFA and @ForeignOfficePk will continue close cooperation towards the timely implementation of all the agreements reached between our Leaders. We discussed strengthening bilateral ties, boosting trade, and advancing regional connectivity, including the #Uzbekistan-#Afghanistan-#Pakistan Railway Project.
Bakhtiyor Saidov@FM_Saidov
[5/24/2025 7:42 AM, 11.5K followers, 6 retweets, 22 likes]
A pleasure to host H.E. Dr. @SalimAlMalik, Director General of the Islamic World Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. We had a comprehensive exchange on our expanding cooperation. Welcome #ICESCO’s promising initiatives, including the celebration of #Samarkand as the Culture Capital of the Islamic World - 2025. Moreover, we signed the Action Plan between @GovUz and @ICESCO_En outlining key priorities to deepen our collaboration and jointly implement impactful projects in the near future.{End of Report} To subscribe to the SCA Morning Press Clips, please email SCA-PressOfficers@state.gov. Please do not reply directly to this email.