Category Archives: South and Central Asia

At least 17 people dead after boat carrying Rohingya refugees capsizes off coast of Myanmar

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Search for survivors continues in latest tragedy as persecuted Muslims make perilous sea journeys in search of better lives

At least 17 people have drowned and 33 are missing after a boat carrying Rohingya refugees from Myanmar to Malaysia capsized on Monday.

The bodies of 10 women and seven men have been recovered after being washed up on the coast of Myanmar, said Bya Latt, a spokesperson for the rescue group Shwe Yaung Matta Foundation. Eight people who were rescued are being held at a local police station, Latt said.

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Gordon Brown calls for Taliban to face crimes against humanity charges

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Ex-PM urges UK and allies to impose sanctions on Afghan regime over its ‘brutalisation’ of women and girls

Gordon Brown has called for the Taliban to be prosecuted for crimes against humanity, as he urged the UK government and its allies to impose sanctions against the Afghan regime.

The former Labour prime minister appealed to the international criminal court to prosecute those responsible for the “systematic brutalisation of women and girls”.

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Imran Khan barred from politics for five years by Pakistan election commission

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Former prime minister appealing against conviction and three-year jail term for corruption in high court

Imran Khan, Pakistan’s former prime minister, has been barred from politics for five years by the country’s election commission after his conviction on corruption charges, local media reported.

Several local TV news channels said the election commission of Pakistan issued the notification on Tuesday in line with the guilty ruling.

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Dozens die in train crash in southern Pakistan after 10 carriages derail

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Thirty people reported dead and more than 90 injured after Rawalpindi-bound express overturns

A train has derailed in southern Pakistan, killing 30 people and injuring more than 90.

Ten carriages of a Rawalpindi-bound train derailed and some overturned near the Pakistani town of Nawabshah on Sunday, trapping many passengers, said senior railway officer Mahmoodur Rehman Lakho. Officials said rescue operations had been completed by early evening.

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Fears grow Pakistani government will delay general election due this year

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Law minister claims new census needed for vote but supporters of Imran Khan, who is facing jail, believe his popularity is a factor

Concerns are mounting in Pakistan that a general election due later this year could be delayed after the government announced that the vote could take place only after a new census was completed and new constituency boundaries drawn.

The announcement from the nation’s law minister that it could take four months to complete the process came on the same day that the former prime minister Imran Khan was arrested after a court sentenced him to three years in prison for “corrupt practices”, involving the sale of state gifts, and disqualified him from politics.

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Imran Khan: former Pakistan prime minister sentenced to three years in jail

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Khan arrested in Lahore after court ruling bans him from politics for five years for corruption

Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan has been arrested after a court in Islamabad sentenced him to three years in jail and disqualified him from politics for “corrupt practices” involving the sale of state gifts.

Khan, 70, was picked up by police from his home in Lahore on Saturday after a court ruled on the Toshakhana case, in which he was accused of illegally selling gifts from heads of state worth hundreds of millions of rupees.

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A year on, the devastating long-term effects of Pakistan’s floods are revealed

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Country’s health and economy ruined as Islamic charity says rich nations must compensate those suffering worst of climate crisis

A year after Pakistan’s worst floods in living memory, a report by Islamic Relief Worldwide has revealed the devastating long-term impact on people, especially children, and argued that rich nations must compensate those countries most affected by the climate emergency.

Researchers from Islamic Relief who talked to people in the flood-affected areas found 40% of the children they surveyed had stunted growth and 25% were underweight as families struggle to access food and healthcare. About 80% of mothers reported sickness among children, with outbreaks of diarrhoea, malaria and dengue fever increasing.

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India’s supreme court suspends Rahul Gandhi’s two-year defamation jail term

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Ruling allows leader of Congress party to return to parliament and contest national elections

India’s supreme court has suspended Rahul Gandhi’s two-year prison sentence for defamation, paving the way for him to return as an MP and to run in next year’s general election.

Gandhi, the leading face of India’s opposition Congress party, was given a two-year jail sentence for defamation in March, in a case he alleged was politically motivated.

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‘How will any Muslim feel safe?’ Spate of attacks increases tensions in India

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With elections due next year, there are fears unrest will grow as the ruling BJP faces criticism over its alleged inaction

An imam stabbed and shot to death in a mosque that was then burned to the ground. A young doctor, walking home, set upon by an armed mob who thrashed and molested her. A railway officer, boarding a train, prowled the carriages for his targets and shot dead three men. The incidents, which all took place in India this week, were seemingly unconnected, yet the victims were united by a common factor: they were all Muslim.

Since the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) came to power in 2014, led by the prime minister, Narendra Modi, incidents of sectarian violence targeting the Muslim minority, who make up about 14% of the population, have become increasingly frequent.

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UK aid budget cuts are ‘death sentence’ for world’s most vulnerable children

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Save the Children and Oxfam urge government to restore aid budget back to 0.7% of national income

UK aid cuts are a “death sentence” for children in the world’s most dangerous places, aid charities have warned after an internal government report revealed the impact of budget reductions on the most vulnerable.

The government faced calls from NGOs including Save the Children and Oxfam to restore the aid budget back to 0.7% of national income, after the potential effects of cuts were outlined in grim detail by an assessment produced by civil servants.

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Pakistan government faces backlash over ‘draconian’ arrest powers

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Amendment to bill would allow intelligence agencies to search ‘enemies’ and their premises without warrant

The Pakistan government is facing a backlash from MPs and senators after introducing an amendment to a colonial-era secrets act that critics have said will grant “draconian” powers to its military intelligence agency to detain and arrest citizens with impunity.

The amendment was quietly added in a parliamentary session and passed without providing copies to MPs, creating concern among parliamentarians on both sides of the aisle.

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Aung San Suu Kyi’s partial ‘pardon’ still means 27-year sentence

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Human rights groups say Myanmar military’s move to drop five of ousted leader’s convictions is meaningless

Even with a partial pardon announced this week by Myanmar’s military junta, Aung San Suu Kyi still faces the prospect of being kept in detention until she is more than 100 years old, if she lives that long.

She has been held by the military since it seized power in a coup on 1 February 2021, and has been convicted of 19 offences – from sedition and illegal possession of walkie-talkies, to breaking pandemic rules and electoral fraud.

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Women’s health at risk from UK aid cuts, Foreign Office warned

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Thousands more women will be forced into unsafe abortions and die in pregnancy and childbirth, ministers told

Hundreds of thousands more women will face unsafe abortions and thousands will die in pregnancy and childbirth as a result of UK aid cuts in 2023-24, Foreign Office ministers were warned in an internal assessment.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) published its programme allocations for the next two years last month, showing that official development assistance (ODA) spend is due to rise marginally in 2023-24 and then increase by 12% in 2024-25 to £8.3bn.

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Aung San Suu Kyi given partial pardon by Myanmar junta

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Ousted leader granted clemency on five charges as part of amnesty but faces a further 14 cases

Myanmar’s junta has pardoned Aung San Suu Kyi on five legal charges, military-controlled TV has announced, although the deposed leader still faces more than two decades in detention.

Aung San Suu Kyi has been detained by the military since 1 February 2021 when it ousted her democratically elected government. The 76-year-old has since been sentenced for multiple charges – including incitement, electoral fraud and corruption.

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Indian sanitation workers clean up with £1.2m lottery win

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An impulsive decision to collectively buy a single lottery ticket resulted in the friends from Kerala collectively hitting the jackpot

The 11 women had never felt luck was on their side. The friends, some in their 20s and others over 70, all struggled to make ends meet, earning only a small salary as they collected and segregated rubbish in their town of Parappanangadi, in the south Indian state of Kerala.

Yet this week, their fortunes changed. An impulsive decision to pool their small resources to collectively buy a single lottery ticket, at a cost of 250 rupees (£2.50) – the equivalent of a day’s wages – resulted in them collectively hitting the jackpot. This week, they found out they had won the monsoon bumper prize, worth 100m rupees (£1.2m).

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Myanmar junta extends state of emergency, forcing delay to elections

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Military-controlled government seemingly needs more time to organise new vote as it tackles protests and armed resistance

Myanmar’s military-controlled government has extended the state of emergency it imposed when the army seized power from an elected government in 2021, forcing a further delay in elections it promised when it took over.

MRTV television said the National Defense and Security Council met on Monday in the capital, Naypyidaw, and extended the state of emergency for another six months starting on Tuesday because time is needed to prepare for the elections. The NDSC is nominally a constitutional government body, but in practice is controlled by the military.

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Islamic State says it carried out Pakistan suicide bombing that killed 54

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Blast took place at political rally for a pro-Taliban party as country faces a rising tide of militant attacks

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed 54 people in Pakistan, as the country battles a rising tide of militant attacks.

The bombing took place at a rally for a pro-Taliban party in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a province bordering Afghanistan that has faced a rapidly declining security situation due to attacks from militant groups including the Pakistan Taliban and Islamic State’s regional affiliate.

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Pakistan police suspect Islamic State in bomb blast that killed at least 44

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Nearly 200 injured at gathering of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party ahead of elections expected later this year

At least 44 people have been killed and almost 200 injured in a bomb blast in Pakistan’s north-western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that targeted a political party gathering.

Police said the explosion at a rally on Sunday afternoon for the conservative Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party (JUI-F), a government coalition partner, was carried out by a suicide bomber who detonated his explosives vest close to the stage where several senior leaders of the party were sitting.

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Bangladesh police clash with protesters calling for PM to resign

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Officers use rubber bullets and teargas to disperse demonstrators blockading main roads into Dhaka

Bangladesh police have fired rubber bullets and teargas to disperse stone-throwing crowds blockading main roads in the capital, Dhaka, in a protest demanding the prime minister’s resignation.

The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist party (BNP) and its allies have staged a series of protests since last year demanding that Sheikh Hasina step down and allow a caretaker government to oversee the elections that are scheduled for January next year.

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Baby dies after teargas fired at Rohingya trying to escape Indian detention centre

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Child’s death follows hunger strike at Jammu & Kashmir jail amid increasing hostility towards 40,000 refugees ahead of elections

A five-month-old girl has died after Indian forces fired teargas at Rohingya refugees trying to escape a detention centre where they have been held for more than two years.

Videos – sent to Rohingya activists by detainees at Hiranagar jail, now operating as a holding centre – appear to show women and men amid clouds of teargas. About 270 Rohingya detainees at the centre, in the Indian-administered territory of Jammu & Kashmir, have been on hunger strike since April over their detention.

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