Category Archives: South and Central Asia

Afghanistan: current US withdrawal plan risks ‘total civil war’, top envoys say

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  • Nine ambassadors condemn US approach to negotiations
  • Letter says full withdrawal must come ‘only after real peace’

The majority of America’s ambassadors to Afghanistan since the removal of the Taliban government have condemned the US approach to negotiating a troop withdrawal, warning it risked a return to “total civil war”.

Writing the day after a draft agreement was announced, the nine men, including a former deputy secretary of state, said they supported peace talks in Afghanistan.

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US and Taliban close to deal to allow peace talks, Trump envoy says

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Zalmay Khalilzad, the US envoy for peace in Afghanistan, says agreement would reduce violence and allow ‘intra-Afghan’ talks

US and Taliban negotiators are close to an agreement that would reduce fighting and allow full peace talks among Afghans, a top US official said on Sunday, a day after insurgent forces stormed the strategic northern city of Kunduz.

But only hours after Zalmay Khalilzad, the Afghan-born US diplomat overseeing negotiations for Washington, spoke the Taliban attacked a second Afghan city, Puli Khumri, the capital of Baghlan province, an official said.

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India: almost 2m people left off Assam register of citizens

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Rights groups warn of possible humanitarian crisis as those left off list face statelessness and detention

Almost 2 million people in north-east India face the threat of statelessness and detention after they were excluded from an official list designed to root out illegal immigrants.

Security was heightened in the border state of Assam on Saturday, as millions of people waited for the final release of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) – a major bureaucratic exercise that rights groups warn could create a humanitarian crisis.

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Taliban launches ‘massive’ attack on Kunduz in northern Afghanistan

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Assault comes as US continues to seek agreement with insurgent group on ending what is America’s longest war

The Taliban have launched a new attack on one of Afghanistan’s largest cities, Kunduz, the government said on Saturday, even as the insurgent group continued negotiations with the US on ending America’s longest war.

The militants, who have demanded that all foreign forces leave the country, now control or hold sway over roughly half of the country and are at their strongest since their 2001 defeat by a US-led invasion.

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‘A nightmarish mess’: millions in Assam brace for loss of citizenship

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People who cannot prove links to region from before 1971 face being sent to detention camps

Millions of people in north-eastern India could lose their citizenship on Saturday in what could become the biggest exercise in forced statelessness in living memory.

Human rights experts have raised serious concern over the drive against suspected illegal immigrants in the border state of Assam, warning it could create a humanitarian crisis that disproportionately affects Muslims and the region’s poorest communities.

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Attacks escalate against Afghanistan’s human rights defenders – report

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Amnesty says activists have been attacked and killed with impunity, with their plight ‘largely ignored’ at home and abroad

Human rights defenders in Afghanistan are suffering relentless attacks, intimidation and harassment amid escalating violence, Amnesty International has warned.

In a damning report castigating both the government and armed groups including the Taliban and Islamic State, Amnesty said activists and members of civil society organisations have been shot at and killed in attacks that remain uninvestigated by the authorities.

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Opioids addiction rising in India as US drugmakers push painkillers

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As the Indian government loosens its prescription opioid laws after decades of lobbying by palliative care advocates, the cash-fed healthcare system is ripe for misuse

In the crowded waiting room of Dr Sunil Sagar’s clinic, in the working-class neighborhood of Bhagwanpur Khera, a toddler breathes from a nebulizer. The patients sit, motionless, but there is somehow tremendous noise. The clinic is a squat cement building draped in wires, a red cross on the door. Sagar sits behind a desk in a small, open room, as a squad of assistants escort patients to him.

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UN migration agency accused of pressuring Bangladeshis to return home

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Complaint against International Organization of Migration of ‘severe concerns’ over treatment of rescued migrants in Tunisia

The UN migration agency is the subject of a formal complaint after “severe concerns” were raised about its treatment of Bangladeshi migrants, including children.

A Tunis-based NGO, Forum Tunisien pour les Droits Economiques et Sociaux (FTDES), filed a complaint to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) this month, after migrants alleged officials and diplomats had put pressure on them to return home following weeks at sea.

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Rohingya refugees shot dead by Bangladesh police during gunfight

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The two men had been accused of killing a ruling party official but activists say the shooting appeared to be staged

Two Rohingya refugees were shot dead by Bangladesh police during a gunfight in a refugee camp on Saturday after they were accused of killing a ruling party official, police said.

Nearly one million Rohingya live in squalid camps in southeast Bangladesh; 740,000 fled a 2017 military offensive against the Muslim minority in Myanmar.

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Bollywood to depict Indian air strikes on Pakistan over Kashmir bombing

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Vivek Oberoi movie will tell ‘true story’ of reprisals after February attack in which 40 Indian troops were killed

Bollywood is to make a movie based on the “true story” of Indian air strikes on Pakistan this year, its producer said, the latest patriotic film to hit the silver screen.

The 26 February attack took place after a suicide bombing claimed by a militant group based in Pakistan killed 40 Indian troops on 14 February in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

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Pakistan expands ban on plastic bags as inspectors are caught in shop spat

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Punjab joins regions where polythene bags are illegal and stiff fines take effect in Islamabad amid demands for alternatives

Punjab has become the latest region in Pakistan to ban plastic bags, as the country battles to reduce single-use plastics that are damaging the environment.

So far there is no date for implementation in Pakistan’s most populous state. The south-eastern province of Sindh has announced it will ban polythene bags from October, and last week a ban took effect in Islamabad.

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Kashmir: suspected militant killed in Indian security operation

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Incident is believed to be first clash with insurgents since revocation of special status

A suspected militant and a police officer have been killed in a gun battle in Indian-administered Kashmir in what is believed to be the first clash with insurgents since the revocation of the territory’s special status.

Tensions remain high in the region, where there is a heavy security presence on the streets and a continued block on mobile and internet services. In Kashmir’s main city, Srinagar, posters appeared overnight urging people to defy a ban on public gatherings and join a mass march after Friday prayers this week to protest against Delhi’s decision to strip the region of its autonomy.

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Wrong peace deal could mean ‘return to chaos’ for Afghanistan

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US-Taliban agreement will not be successful without involvement of government and citizens, say Afghan women’s rights groups

Afghanistan could “return to chaos” with the wrong peace deal, say women’s rights groups in the country. A poorly negotiated agreement without proper representation of Afghan citizens and a clear counterterrorism strategy would place the democratic gains of the past 18 years at risk, says Suraya Pakzad, founder of the Voice of Women Organisation.

Talks between the US and the Taliban are running alongside campaigning for twice-postponed presidential elections, now due to take place on 28 September.

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With Kabul wedding attack, Isis aims to erode Taliban supremacy

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As the US and Taliban negotiate peace, Isis sees a chance to sow fresh chaos in Afghanistan

Even by the bloody standards of Afghanistan, it was a brutal attack: a suicide bomber at a wedding celebration, detonating his device as children danced and the happy couple completed their marriage rituals. In an instant more than 60 of the 1,000 guests were dead, hundreds injured.

Few events are so joyous and optimistic as a wedding. So why would a terrorist group – even one as brutal as Islamic State, which has claimed responsibility – want to attack one?

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This porridge is just right: homemade baby food that’s big business in India | Amrita Gupta

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Entrepreneurs are cooking up wholesome alternatives to sugary baby formulas in a country where only one baby in 10 gets the recommended nutrition

When her baby was six months old, Dr Hemapriya Natesan found herself appalled by the sugary commercial baby food available. With her mother, she began to make batches of mullaikatiya sathumaavu, a traditional porridge for weaning infants in Tamil Nadu, southern India.

It’s a painstaking 10-day process with more than 15 grains, lentils and nuts. Many of the ingredients are first sprouted, then sun-dried in the sweltering heat before being slow-roasted, ground and sieved.

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Thousands left homeless after blaze destroys slum in Bangladesh – video

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A fire swept through a crowded slum in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, destroying thousands of shanty homes. No one was killed. Many residents had left their homes to celebrate Eid al-Adha with their families, and some of those left homeless took refuge in schools closed for the holiday

• Bangladesh fire leaves 10,000 homeless

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Bangladesh fire leaves 10,000 homeless after blaze razes slum

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Fire broke out in Dhaka’s Mirpur district on Friday, destroying almost 2,000 tin shacks, officials say

At least 10,000 people are homeless after a massive fire swept through a crowded slum in the Bangladesh capital and destroyed thousands of shanties, officials said on Sunday.

The fire broke out at in Dhaka’s Mirpur neighbourhood late on Friday and razed around 2,000 mostly tin shacks, fire services official Ershad Hossain said.

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Afghanistan wedding hall blast: more than 60 killed, 180 injured

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Explosion in packed Kabul venue comes as Donald Trump talks up prospects of peace deal with Taliban

An explosion ripped through a wedding hall on a busy Saturday night in Afghanistan’s capital, leaving more than 60 people dead and more than 180 injured, a the interior ministry has said. More than 1,000 people were believed to be inside.

Women and children were among the casualties, the interior ministry spokesman, Nasrat Rahimi, said on Sunday.

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‘I’m scared for my life’: Kashmir politician’s daughter pleads for international help

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State is in panic over India’s removal of its status, says Iltija Mufti from under house arrest

The daughter of one of Kashmir’s most prominent politicians has pleaded with the international community to act over an unprecedented clampdown imposed on millions of people in the territory, warning that Kashmiris are being “caged like animals” and treated as cannon fodder.

Speaking to the Guardian while under house arrest, Iltija Mufti, daughter of the former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, said as many as 25 armed security personnel had surrounded her house last week. All entrances to the house have been locked, she said, defying a communications ban by the Indian government.

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‘We will teach you a lesson’: Pakistan PM Khan issues furious threat to India – video

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Pakistan’s prime minister, Imran Khan, has threatened to ‘teach India a lesson’ in a warning against any attack on Pakistani-administered Kashmir. Pakistan responded furiously after India’s decision last week to revoke Indian-administered Kashmir’s special status, the most radical change since Kashmir joined the Indian union, comparing its government to Nazis and suggesting it might carry out ethnic cleansing.


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