Category Archives: South and Central Asia

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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Four of six aboard private jet survive crash in Afghanistan

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Rescue teams find charter ambulance flight from Thailand to Moscow after it disappeared from radar screens

Four people are reported to have survived after a private jet carrying out a medical evacuation from Thailand to Russia disappeared from radar screens and crashed in a remote and mountainous area of north-eastern Afghanistan on Saturday.

Russian aviation authorities said two passengers and four crew members were onboard the charter ambulance flight, which was travelling from Utapao airport, near Pattaya, to Moscow via India and Uzbekistan.

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Seemingly disparate Middle East conflicts show collective erosion of self-restraint

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As pockets of war multiply across region so does the risk that conflict becomes more contagious and intractable

On Thursday morning the Iranian news website Entekhab ran, without irony, the headline: “Taliban call on Pakistan and Iran to show restraint and urge both sides to settle differences through diplomatic means”.

If proof were needed that a new, more dangerous world order may be upon us, the Taliban cast in the role of advocates for restraint seems conclusive.

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Tata Steel to shut down Port Talbot blast furnaces, putting 3,000 jobs at risk

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Firm rejects union plan, leaving UK on course to become only major economy unable to make steel from scratch

The owners of Port Talbot steelworks have rejected a trade union plan designed to keep its blast furnaces running, putting nearly 3,000 jobs at risk and leaving the UK on course to become the only major economy unable to make steel from scratch.

In what one union said would be a “crushing blow” to workers and UK steelmaking, Port Talbot’s parent company, the Indian-owned Tata Steel, told workers’ representatives that it could no longer afford to continue production at the loss-making plant in south Wales while it completed a four-year transition plan to greener production.

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Pakistan hits separatist ‘hideouts’ in retaliatory strikes against Iran

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Drone and missile attacks in Sistan and Balochistan province come after Iran struck sites inside Pakistan

Pakistan has launched retaliatory strikes against militants in Iran in response to attacks by Tehran that targeted sites within Pakistan’s borders, heightening fears of further instability across the Middle East and surrounding region.

A statement by Pakistan’s foreign office early on Thursday said it had undertaken “a series of highly coordinated and specifically targeted precision military strikes against terrorist hideouts” in the Sistan and Balochistan province of Iran, adding that “a number of terrorists were killed during the intelligence-based operation”.

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Climate crisis to increase cancer risk for tens of millions of people in Bangladesh

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Scientists say sea level rises, flooding and extreme weather will accelerate release of arsenic into water supply

Climate breakdown will put tens of millions of people in Bangladesh at heightened risk of cancer from contaminated well water, according to research.

Sea level rises, unpredictable flooding and extreme weather caused by the climate heating up will accelerate the release of dangerous levels of arsenic into the country’s drinking water, say scientists.

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Iran hails strikes in Pakistan as it is warned of ‘serious consequences’

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Iran claims attack in south-west Balochistan province destroyed two strongholds of Sunni militant group

Iranian military officials were hailing one of the biggest projections of force in its recent history as Pakistan warned Tehran of “serious consequences” to a “completely unacceptable” attack in Pakistan’s Balochistan that left six dead or injured including two children.

Iran said its attack mounted on Tuesday using “precision missile and drone strikes”, destroyed two strongholds of the Sunni militant group Jaish al-Adl in the Koh-e-Sabz area of Pakistan’s south-west Balochistan province.

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Iran strikes ‘militant bases’ in Pakistan in latest Middle East flashpoint

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Pakistan says attacks killed two children in ‘unprovoked violation’ of its airspace, adding to regional instability sparked by Israel-Gaza war

Iran has launched airstrikes on Pakistan territory, apparently aimed at a Sunni militant group, in the latest sign of a wave of violence rolling across the Middle East and beyond.

Pakistan’s foreign ministry said two children were killed and three others were injured in what it called an “illegal” airstrike, and summoned Tehran’s senior diplomat in Islamabad to protest against the “unprovoked violation of its airspace”. The ministry did not give more details of the strikes, but Pakistani social media accounts said missile and drone strikes had been aimed at the Balochistan province which lies along the 1,000km border between the two countries.

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Pakistan: Imran Khan’s party loses cricket bat electoral symbol

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Supreme court ruling is latest setback for jailed leader before general election

Pakistan’s supreme court has rejected an attempt by the party of the former prime minister Imran Khan to retain its traditional electoral symbol of a cricket bat, in the latest setback for the jailed leader before a general election.

Khan’s party, at odds with powerful army generals, has been grappling with a military-backed crackdown that has gathered pace before the vote due on 8 February. The party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), alleges the military is attempting to keep it out of the election race, a charge the army denies.

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Myanmar junta and armed rebels agree ceasefire

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China mediates truce that would halt months of conflict that has displaced half a million people in country’s north

Myanmar’s military and an alliance of armed ethnic minority groups have announced a China-mediated ceasefire after months of conflict that has posed the biggest threat to the junta since it seized power in 2021.

Fighting has claimed hundreds of lives and displaced more than half a million people since October, when the alliance launched an offensive against the junta.

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BAE Systems in line for potential windfall from Kazakhstan airline flotation

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Air Astana, which is 49% owned by the British defence firm, announces plans to float on London stock market

Kazakhstan’s national airline has announced plans to float on the London stock market, bringing a potential windfall to BAE Systems, which has been an investor for more than two decades.

Air Astana, which is 49% owned by the British defence company, hopes to list in London and Kazakhstan and raise $120m (£94m). The airline, which is majority owned by the Kazakh sovereign wealth fund, did not say how much of the company would be floated and is yet to confirm an expected valuation range.

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Netflix pulls Indian film after backlash from rightwing Hindu groups

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Annapoorani: the Goddess of Food criticised for depiction of deity and member of vegetarian caste cooking and eating meat

Netflix is embroiled in a backlash in India from rightwing Hindu groups over a film accused of offending religious sentiments for its depiction of a deity and a member of a traditionally vegetarian caste cooking and eating meat.

Annapoorani: the Goddess of Food, a film made in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, tells the story of a young woman of the privileged Brahmin caste, whose father cooks food in a Hindu temple, and her aspirations to become one of India’s best chefs.

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Human rights in decline globally as leaders fail to uphold laws, report warns

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Human Rights Watch’s annual report highlights politicians’ double standards and ‘transactional diplomacy’ amid escalating crises

Human rights across the world are in a parlous state as leaders shun their obligations to uphold international law, according to the annual report of Human Rights Watch (HRW).

In its 2024 world report, HRW warns grimly of escalating human rights crises around the globe, with wartime atrocities increasing, suppression of human rights defenders on the rise, and universal human rights principles and laws being attacked and undermined by governments.

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Afghan girls detained and lashed by Taliban for violating hijab rules

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Girls as young as 16 arrested in shops, classes and markets in Kabul by the Taliban, who labelled them ‘infidels’ for wearing ‘bad hijab’

Girls as young as 16 have been arrested across the Afghan capital, Kabul, in the past week for violating the Taliban’s hijab rules.

The girls – who were detained in shopping centres, classes and street markets – were accused of “spreading and encouraging others to wear a bad hijab” and wearing makeup.

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