Category Archives: South and Central Asia

Italian court jails people smuggler over shipwreck that killed at least 94 migrants

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Gun Ufuk, 29, sentenced to 20 years in prison over deadly sinking that occurred metres from shore

An Italian court has sentenced a people smuggler to 20 years in prison for involvement in a shipwreck last year that killed at least 94 migrants.

The court in the southern city of Crotone found Gun Ufuk, a 29-year-old Turkish national, guilty of crimes including causing a shipwreck and aiding illegal immigration. It also ordered him to pay a €3m fine and pay damages to civil plaintiffs.

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India’s wealthy ‘fear London is worse than Delhi for muggings’

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Fear of crime in UK capital is one of biggest concerns of rich Indians, says entrepreneur

Indian business people are avoiding being out and about in Mayfair over fears they could be mugged for their expensive watches after a 27% rise in “theft from a person” in London, an entrepreneur has said.

Devin Narang, an entrepreneur, told a meeting attended by David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, that fear of crime in London was one of the biggest concerns of India’s rich elite.

“People are being mugged in the heart of London – in Mayfair,” Narang, a member of the executive committee of the federation of Indian chambers of commerce and industry, said at a meeting in New Delhi, according to the Financial Times. “All CEOs in India have had an experience of physical mugging and the police [in London] not responding.”

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At least 24 killed in two bombings at election offices in Pakistan

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Party office and that of an independent candidate hit in Balochistan province on day before vote, leaving dozens injured

Two bomb blasts, at the election offices of a political party and an independent candidate in south-west Pakistan, have killed at least 24 people and wounded more than two dozen others, a day before parliamentary elections are to be held.

In the first attack, in Pishin, a district in Balochistan province, at least 14 people were killed, officials said. The wounded were transported to a nearby hospital, some listed as in a critical condition.

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India’s plan for untouched Nicobar isles will be ‘death sentence’ for isolated tribe

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Exclusive: $9bn port, airport and military base on Great Nicobar Island will cause ‘genocide’ of isolated Shompen, academics warn

Academics from around the world have urged India to cancel a huge construction project on Great Nicobar Island, warning it would be “a death sentence” for the Shompen hunter-gatherer people who live there.

The $9bn (£7bn) port project, planned to transform the Indian Ocean island of 8,000 inhabitants into what has been called the “Hong Kong of India”, includes the construction of an international shipping terminal, airport, power plant, military base and industrial park. It will also develop tourism.

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Army looms large as Nawaz Sharif eases towards fourth term in Pakistan

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Military has put its faith in former PM for fourth time, leading many to believe election outcome is already decided

With days to go before Pakistan goes to the polls, the feverish buzz and boisterous rallies that usually mark the campaign season have been unusually muted.

“There is a sense among many people that the outcome is already predetermined,” said Samina Yasmeen, a fellow from the Australian Institute of International Affairs.

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Imran Khan and his wife sentenced in ‘un-Islamic’ marriage case

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Pakistani former PM says case was created to ‘humiliate’ him and Bushra Bibi, who were sentenced to seven years each

A local court in Pakistan has sentenced Imran Khan, the country’s former prime minister, and his wife to seven years each in a case related to their marriage, which it declared “un-Islamic”.

Khan and Bushra Bibi were both last week separately handed 14-year sentences in a corruption case, known as Toshakhana, for illegally selling state gifts.

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Indian model Poonam Pandey fakes death to raise cervical cancer awareness

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Reality TV star reveals social media stunt and says she is proud of what ‘death news has been able to achieve’

An Indian model who faked her own death in a publicity stunt to raise awareness about cervical cancer has defended her actions, saying in a social media post that she was proud of what her “death news has been able to achieve”.

Poonam Pandey, a 32-year-old reality TV star and former Bollywood actor who shot to fame in 2011 when she promised she would strip for the India cricket team if they won the Cricket World Cup, was said to have died on Friday.

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Myanmar at standstill as silent strike marks third anniversary of coup

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Towns and cities empty during protest on anniversary of military takeover and arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi

Cities and towns across Myanmar have come to a standstill as people took part in a silent strike to signal defiance against the military junta on the anniversary of the 2021 coup.

Three years since the military detained political leaders including Aung San Suu Kyi, its grip on power is more uncertain than at any point in the last six decades, according to analysts. The UN says two-thirds of the country is experiencing conflict.

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Hindus can worship in contested mosque, Indian court rules

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Fears decision on Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi could increase religious tensions and inspire more claims

An Indian court has ruled that Hindus can worship inside a contested mosque, a verdict that it is feared will increase religious tensions and galvanise further claims against other Muslim places of worship.

Gyanvapi mosque, in the holy city of Varanasi, was built in the 17th century by the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb and has been in use by Muslims for prayer ever since.

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Imran Khan, Pakistan former PM, sentenced to 14 years in prison for corruption

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Ruling against Khan and wife Bushra Bibi comes just a day after a 10-year sentence was handed down, and just before Pakistan goes to the polls in a general election

Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan has been sentenced to 14 years in jail in a corruption case, a day after he was given a 10-year sentence for leaking state secrets.

Khan’s wife, Bushra Bibi, was also handed a 14-year sentence in the case, known as Toshakhana, which accused them both of illegally selling state gifts. The judge also banned them both from holding political office for 10 years.

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Myanmar hands over junta-backed warlords to China in telecoms scam case

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Ten people extradited on Tuesday accused of being key figures in fraud involving victims of trafficking

Myanmar has extradited 10 people, including notorious warlords, to China, where they are wanted for their alleged role in running abusive online and telephone fraud centres in which tens of thousands of foreign nationals are trapped and forced to run scams.

The centres – which target people in China as well as in other countries - have flourished since the Covid-19 pandemic and China says about 44,000 people have been involved, including victims of human trafficking.

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Pakistani military use age-old tactics to keep Imran Khan away from election

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Former PM, once military’s golden boy, has been sentenced in two separate cases to 10 and 14 years

The script seems eerily familiar. Imran Khan, once the golden boy of Pakistan’s powerful military establishment, found himself at the receiving end of not one, but two, damning court verdicts this week.

Sentenced to 10 years in jail on Tuesday, and 14 years on Wednesday, the brazen timing of the convictions in two separate cases made one thing abundantly clear: the military will stop at nothing to keep Khan away from Pakistan’s general election, which will be held next week.

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Imran Khan handed 10 years in prison for leaking state secrets

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Former Pakistan PM condemned trial as ‘a joke’ amid crackdown on his political party in run-up to election

Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan has been sentenced to 10 years in jail for leaking official secrets, amid a crackdown on his political party before the general election due next week.

The sentence is the harshest yet against Khan, who has been held in jail since August after he began to openly criticise the country’s military.

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Three years on from Myanmar’s military coup, the junta is struggling to assert control

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Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing facing criticism after months of battlefield losses, with an estimated two-thirds of the country gripped by conflict

Three years after seizing power, Myanmar’s junta is struggling to assert control, with humiliating losses in recent months and growing criticism of its leader, Min Aung Hlaing, by pro-military figures.

Images shared across social media show hauls of weapons seized from overrun military outposts in the north, exhausted soldiers surrendering en masse and even a military jet plunging from the sky after it was shot down. In one unprecedented image, brigadier general commanders are pictured raising a glass – apparently with their former enemies – after they were forced to concede defeat in the key town of Laukkai in northern Shan state, along with almost 2,400 men.

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People smugglers recruiting skippers from central Asia on Turkey to Italy route

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Boat drivers from former Soviet republics often have very little experience and no idea what they are doing is illegal, say NGOs

People smugglers are increasingly recruiting people from former Soviet republics in central Asia to pilot boats carrying migrants from Turkey to Italy, say NGOs and lawyers.

The migrants are taken by sea from Turkey to Italy, often using sailing boats, as an alternative to the longer overland route through the Balkans where border guards in Croatia and Slovenia have engaged in illegal pushbacks of asylum seekers at the EU border.

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Pakistan accuses Indian agents of two assassinations on its soil

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Foreign minister draws comparison to similar claim in Canada and says India must be held to account

Pakistan has said it has credible evidence that Indian agents carried out two assassinations on Pakistani soil, and drawn comparisons to the killing of a Sikh activist in Canada.

In a press briefing on Thursday, the foreign secretary, Muhammad Syrus Sajjad Qazi, said India was running a “sophisticated and sinister” campaign of “extraterritorial and extrajudicial killings” inside Pakistan.

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Bangladesh launches investigation into children ‘wrongly’ adopted overseas

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Police start to interview witnesses following Guardian reports on adoptions to the Netherlands nearly 50 years ago

Read more: ‘I was told I could visit. Then she went missing’: the Bangladeshi mothers who say their children were adopted without consent

Police in Bangladesh have launched an investigation into historical allegations that children were adopted abroad without their parents’ consent, after a Guardian investigation into adoptions to the Netherlands in the 1970s.

Bangladesh special branch in Dhaka confirmed it had opened an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the adoption of a number of children between 1976 and 1979.

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India’s courts to rule on who invented butter chicken

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Two Delhi restaurants both claim to have the right to call themselves the home of the original butter chicken recipe

It’s one of India’s most beloved dishes and can be found bubbling on kitchen stoves or served on silver in restaurants across the country.

But exactly who came up with the recipe for rich and creamy butter chicken has long been a matter of dispute – one that has now reached India’s courts.

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Powerful earthquake hits China-Kyrgyzstan border

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Authorities warn of potentially widespread damage after the 7.0-magnitude quake, with tremors felt in neighbouring countries

A 7.0-magnitude earthquake has struck along the China-Kyrgyzstan border, as authorities warned of potentially widespread damage.

The China Earthquake Networks Center said the quake hit Wushu county in Aksu prefecture shortly after 2am local time, according to the state-run Xinhua press agency and about 200 rescuers were dispatched to the epicenter.

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Modi inaugurates Hindu temple on site of razed mosque in India

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Narendra Modi hails controversial opening as fulfilment of ‘dream that many have cherished for years’

More than three decades after a mob of militant Hindu radicals razed a mosque to the ground in the Indian town of Ayodhya, the country’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, has inaugurated the new Hindu temple that will stand in its place.

For some, the inauguration marks a hugely significant religious moment. Many Hindus believe Ayodhya to be the birthplace of the popular deity Lord Ram and the building of the temple, after over a century of disputes, has been heralded as Ram returning to his rightful place, and India freeing itself from the chains of past religious occupation.

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