Category Archives: South and Central Asia

‘Broken-down’ cars bring Myanmar streets to standstill in coup protest

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Protesters try to block movement of security forces and civil servants, while hackers targets military

Some of the busiest streets in Myanmar’s biggest city, Yangon, have been brought to a standstill for a second day running by slow-moving and “broken-down” cars, as part of an evolving civil disobedience movement against the military coup.

Cars were parked across roads to block the movement of security forces and prevent civil servants from travelling to work. Some protesters walked in circles around a pedestrian crossing at a busy intersection. “Don’t attend the office, leave it. Join the civil disobedience movement,” protesters chanted.

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Gone fishing: the fight to save one of the world’s most elusive wild cats

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With webbed feet and a tail for a rudder, Asia’s fishing cats face shrinking habitats. But conservation efforts in West Bengal are helping it swim against the tide

For more than a decade, wildlife biologist Tiasa Adhya has spent many a day (and night) in a small wooden boat, silently gliding through dense vegetation in the wetlands and mangroves of West Bengal, scanning the banks for signs of a rarely seen wild cat – the fishing cat (Prionailurus viverrinus).

“Fishing cats are fascinating animals,” she says. “They have co-inhabited riverine deltas and floodplains alongside humans for centuries. Ancient cultures like the Khmer empire show evidence of fishing cats.” As co-founder of the world’s longest-running fishing cat research and conservation project, Kolkata-based Adhya is dedicated to this endangered felid, one of the least-studied and understood wildcats.

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Nepal proposes ‘ridiculous’ ban on women travelling without permission

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Activists warn new anti-trafficking law requiring permission from families to travel is evidence of ‘deep-rooted patriarchal mindset’

A proposed law in Nepal that would ban women from travelling abroad without permission from their families and local government officials has been called unconstitutional and “ridiculous”.

The proposals, introduced by the Department of Immigration last week in an attempt to prevent women being trafficked, would require all women under 40 to seek permission before they visit Africa or the Middle East for the first time.

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Fresh protests in Myanmar after Aung San Suu Kyi trial begins in secret

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Court case begins a day early, without the knowledge of her lawyer and with fresh charges

Thousands of people have taken to the streets of Myanmar’s main city Yangon on Wednesday morning to voice their anger after the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi began ahead of schedule and without the knowledge or presence of her lawyer.

Across Yangon, protesters marched with red flags signalling their support for their ousted leader, and carrying signs denouncing the military. Roads were blocked by sit down protests, and by drivers who held a “broken down” protest, parking their cars with bonnets open.

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Stateless, stuck and desperate: the militants’ wives trapped in Kashmir

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Hundreds married to men who travelled to Pakistan for militant training now find themselves stateless

Under dark skies in Kashmir’s heavily militarised town of Kupwara, Saira Javed mournfully recalled her happy childhood.

Recounting her early life in Karachi, a bustling metropolis over the border in Pakistan, she spoke vividly of her father, Abdul Latif, who would take their large family on weekend picnics and of the moonlit nights she spent dying her hands with henna.

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Myanmar military files new charge against Aung San Suu Kyi

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Junta holds first press conference and describes coup as lawful, as internet shut for second night

Myanmar’s military regime has filed a new charge against the deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi and shut down the internet for a second night as it tries to quell a popular revolt against the coup it launched at the beginning of the month.

The junta held its first press conference on Tuesday, seeking in part to limit the economic and diplomatic fallout of its takeover, which it described as lawful. It said it would hold an election soon and denounced protesters for allegedly inciting violence and intimidating civil servants.

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Myanmar: troops and police forcefully disperse marchers in Mandalay

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Protests against military coup continue despite overnight internet blackout and extra soldiers deployed

Troops have joined police in forcefully dispersing marchers in the city of Mandalay in northern Myanmar, as protests against the military coup continued despite the deployment of extra soldiers in some areas and an eight-hour internet blackout overnight.

Images and reports from the city on Monday showed police and soldiers using rubber bullets and slingshots to disperse protesters. A student union in the city said several people had been injured.

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Pakistan to allow private firms to import coronavirus vaccines

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Vaccines also exempt from price caps in divisive move that health experts fear will deepen inequality

Pakistan will allow private companies to import coronavirus vaccines and has exempted the vaccines from price caps in a divisive move that health experts fear will create vast inequalities in access.

The country has been scrambling to secure vaccine supplies but so far only the Chinese-made Sinopharm treatment is being deployed. This month 500,000 doses were donated to Pakistan.

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‘They want division’: on patrol with Myanmar’s civilian night watch

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Since the coup, people in Yangon have been patrolling the streets to protect neighbours from overnight military raids and criminals

Sitting next to a makeshift barricade of bamboo and recycled metal, Aung Than, 30, a tour operator, says he is ready to die for his street. “A life on this street is worth more than mine,” he says. “I am ready to exchange my life to protect them if it comes to that.”

Protests against the 1 February coup have grown in recent days in Myanmar’s biggest city, Yangon. Meanwhile, nights are filled with an eerie silence, punctuated by bursts of clashing pots and pans in support of the detained civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and the clamour of mobs chasing down lone figures.

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India: activist arrested over protest ‘toolkit’ shared by Greta Thunberg

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Disha Ravi charged with sedition, accused editing document on how to support India’s farmers that was tweeted by Swedish climate activist

Indian police have charged a 22-year-old climate activist with sedition over accusations she edited and circulated a document tweeted by climate activist Greta Thunberg relating to India’s ongoing farmer protests.

Swedish climate activist Thunberg tweeted her backing this month for the farmers, who have been demonstrating since December against agricultural reforms they say will harm their livelihood but benefit large corporations. She shared a document which she said was a toolkit to create and spread awareness about the farmers’ complaints.

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Myanmar: tanks roll into cities as internet shut down

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Diplomats warn ‘the world is watching’ amid fears for fate of pro-democracy protesters

Myanmar’s internet has been cut overnight on Sunday, hours after armoured vehicles rolled into several cities, prompting fears for the fate of protesters and warnings by diplomats that “the world is watching”.

Armoured cars appeared on the streets of Yangon, Myitkyina and Sittwe on Sunday, live footage broadcast online by local media showed, in the heaviest show of force so far by the military since it staged a coup on 1 February.

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‘We cannot hope for anything good’: Myanmar coup sparks despair for Rohingya

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While Aung San Suu Kyi defended a genocidal campaign against the Muslim minority, refugees fear military rule will end dreams of a return home

For the Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar, news of the fall of Aung San Suu Kyi after the military coup was bittersweet.

After all, no community had felt more betrayed by Myanmar’s civilian leader. When she came to power in 2015, the belief was that she would overturn decades of persecution and finally bring about peace and citizenship, following in the footsteps of her father, Gen Aung San.

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‘We took a huge risk’: the Indian firm making more Covid jabs than anyone

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Adar Poonawalla, chief executive of the Serum Institute of India, on vaccines, regulation and what comes next

Adar Poonawalla, 40, is the chief executive of the Serum Institute of India (SII), the Pune-based, family-owned vaccine manufacturer that is producing more Covid-19 vaccines by dose than any other in the world. For now it’s the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine rolling off its production lines, but SII has signed contracts with three other developers – Novavax, Codagenix and SpyBiotech – all of which have candidates in the works.

Did you ever imagine you would be making vaccines for a global pandemic?

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Huge blasts on Afghanistan-Iran border spotted from space

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At least 60 injured in explosions at Islam Qala crossing that consumed 500 natural gas and fuel trucks

A fuel tanker exploded on Saturday at the Islam Qala crossing in Afghanistan’s western Herat province on the Iranian border, injuring at least 60 people and causing a massive fire that consumed more than 500 trucks carrying natural gas and fuel, according to Afghan officials and Iranian state media.

Two explosions at the border crossing were powerful enough to be spotted from space by Nasa satellites. One blast erupted around 1.10pm Afghan time (8.40am GMT), the next around a half hour later at 1.42pm local (9.12am GMT).

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Myanmar army chiefs order arrest of leading coup opponents

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Junta suspends rules restraining security forces as nationwide protests continue

Myanmar’s junta has suspended laws constraining security forces from detaining suspects or searching private property without court approval and ordered the arrest of well-known backers of mass protests against the coup.

The announcements came on Saturday, the eighth day of country-wide demonstrations against the 1 February takeover and detention of the elected leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, which halted an unsteady transition to democracy that began in 2011.

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Why Myanmar protesters see Aung San Suu Kyi as their greatest hope – video explainer

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Hundreds of thousands of people have been protesting across Myanmar since the army overthrew the civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi and detained most senior leaders on 1 February. 

Aung San Suu Kyi’s rise to power prompted hope she could end years of ethnic strife in Myanmar, but she has been accused of standing by while genocide was committed against the Rohingya people. The Guardian's south Asia correspondent, Hannah Ellis-Petersen, explains why – despite her fall from grace internationally – Aung San Suu Kyi is seen by so many protesters as the only person who can still save them from military rule

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‘I did what I thought was right’: a Myanmar protester voices her fears for the future

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Almost two weeks after the military coup, one demonstrator explains why she is still out on the streets

In previous years on Union Day – the Myanmar public holiday marking the agreement between ethnic leaders on 12 February 1947 to forge a unified country – Khin* had worn her traditional htamein, a snug maxiskirt. But since it would prevent her from running away if the police opened fire, this year she opted for loose trousers, large sunglasses, a baseball cap and face mask.

For the seventh consecutive morning she found a full-scale rebellion playing out on the streets of Myanmar’s biggest city, Yangon. A couple of thousand railway workers marched near her home as Khin, in her early 30s, reflected on a phone call she had just received from her father, a high-ranking official in the army, which seized power from Aung San Suu Kyi’s democratically elected government on 1 February.

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Roaring crowds, roti and Rihanna: the view from a Delhi farm protest camp

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As rhetoric rises on both sides, Indian farmers at the Singhu camp say they are going nowhere

Puffing out his chest, his lime green turban luminescent in the morning sun, Surinder Singh made it clear he was a man who would not easily be moved. “We will stay here five years, 10 years if we have to,” the farmer said with a steely smile. “As long as it takes.”

A roar of approval greeted his words from fellow farmers who had gathered for breakfast at Singh’s chai stand at the Singhu camp, one of three main protest camps on the outskirts of Delhi. Singh, a small-scale farmer from India’s northern state of Punjab, is just one of hundreds of thousands to have made Singhu his home since November, living out of the back of his now fully furnished tractor trailer.

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Pakistan ends death penalty for prisoners with severe mental health problems

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Supreme court ruling welcomed by rights activists who say it opens the way to broader prison reforms

In a landmark decision, Pakistan’s supreme court ruled this week that prisoners with serious mental health problems cannot be executed for their crimes.

The verdict was hailed by rights activists, who said it laid the groundwork for broader prison reforms in the country.

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Election officials detained in Myanmar ‘in bid to prove fraud’

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A senior polling officer and a human rights watchdog say arrests part of military’s attempt to discredit vote

Myanmar’s military government is detaining election commission officials in night-time raids and asking them to provide evidence that November’s election was rigged, according to a senior member of the organisation and a human rights watchdog.

The Tatmadaw justified its 1 February coup by alleging widespread irregularities in the vote, won decisively by Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, but their claims have been rejected by the Union Election Commission (UEC), the organisation responsible for administering elections in Myanmar.

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