Category Archives: South and Central Asia

Airstrikes by Burmese military kill dozens at anti-junta event

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Attack targeted opening ceremony for office set up by military’s opponents in Sagaing region of Myanmar

Myanmar’s military has killed dozens of people in airstrikes on an event organised by its domestic opponents, in what is feared to be one of the deadliest attacks since the junta seized power more than two years ago.

Local independent media reported that the attack on Tuesday morning targeted a ceremony marking the opening of an office set up by the military’s opponents in the village of Pa Zi Gyi, in Sagaing region.

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UN tells Afghan staff to stay home after Taliban ban on female workers

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Review launched into operations in Afghanistan as men and women told not to go to work at least until May

The United Nations has launched a review of its operations in Afghanistan and asked all Afghan staff not to come to work at least until May after the Taliban barred its female staff from working.

The UN said last week that the Taliban, who swept to power in 2021, had communicated that Afghan women would not be able to work for the global organisation. Taliban officials have not commented on the order.

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Dalai Lama apologises after kissing boy and asking him to ‘suck my tongue’

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Interaction at temple in India seen in video that has gone viral condemned as ‘inappropriate’ and ‘scandalous’

The Dalai Lama has apologised after he faced allegations of inappropriate behaviour after kissing a young boy on the lips and asking him to “suck his tongue” at a public event in India.

The interaction, which took place in late February at the Dalai Lama’s temple in Dharamshala, was attended by about 100 young students who had just graduated from the Indian M3M Foundation.

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Indian government accused of rewriting history after edits to schoolbooks

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References to Muslim rulers, deadly riots connected to PM and Gandhi’s dislike of Hindu nationalism removed

The Indian government has been accused of rewriting history to fit its Hindu nationalist agenda after school textbooks were edited to remove references to Mahatma Gandhi’s opposition to Hindu nationalism, as well as mention of a controversial religious riot in which the prime minister, Narendra Modi, was implicated.

Textbooks were also revised to remove chapters on the history of the Mughals, the Muslim rulers who controlled much of India between the 16th and 19th centuries.

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Five arrested over human sacrifice at Indian temple

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Arrests follow discovery four years ago of woman’s headless body at Hindu temple in Guwahati

Indian police have arrested five men accused of conducting a human sacrifice, nearly four years after the discovery of a woman’s headless body at a Hindu temple left officers baffled.

Shanti Shaw, 64, was killed and decapitated with a machete in 2019 after visiting the temple in Guwahati, a city in India’s remote north-east.

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Twitter accused of censorship in India as it blocks Modi critics

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Canadian politician, poet, an India MP and journalists are among 120 accounts that have been withheld

Twitter has been accused of bowing to government pressure in India by blocking scores of prominent journalists, politicians and activists from its platform in recent weeks.

The Indian government issued notices to Twitter to remove people in the aftermath of an internet shutdown in Punjab during the search for a fugitive Sikh separatist leader.

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Bangladesh fire: 600 firefighters tackle blaze in huge Dhaka clothing market

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Bongo Bazar and three adjacent markets said to be gutted, as 11 people reported injured

Hundreds of Bangladeshi firefighters have battled an inferno that raged through a popular clothing market in the capital, Dhaka, and covered the city’s oldest neighbourhoods in black smoke.

No deaths have been reported, but shop owners and fire officials told reporters that the famous Bongo Bazar and three adjacent markets had been gutted in the dawn fire.

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India’s Rahul Gandhi appeals against defamation verdict

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Opposition leader was found guilty last month, given suspended jail term and barred from parliament

The Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi has appealed against his conviction for defamation, seeking to overturn a judgment that resulted in his expulsion from parliament a year before a general election is due.

Gandhi, 52, was convicted last month in a case brought by a state lawmaker from Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) after comments Gandhi made in a 2019 speech were deemed to be insulting to the prime minister and other people surnamed Modi.

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Two Britons held by Taliban speak to families for first time since arrest

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Calls described as ‘great relief’ after Kevin Cornwell, 53, and an unnamed man were detained in Afghanistan

The families of two British men held in custody by the Taliban in Afghanistan have been able to speak to them for the first time since their arrest.

Kevin Cornwell, a 53-year-old charity medic, and another British national, who has not been named, were detained by the Taliban’s secret police on 11 January.

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Taliban holding three British men in detention in Afghanistan

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Charity medic, hotelier and ‘danger tourist’ reportedly arrested by Taliban’s secret police in January

Three British men including a charity medic and a self-styled “danger tourist” are being held in custody by the Taliban in Afghanistan, it has been reported.

The Mail on Sunday said Kevin Cornwell, a 53-year-old charity medic, and another British national who manages a hotel for aid workers in Kabul, who has not been named, were detained by the Taliban’s secret police in January.

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Female radio station in Afghanistan closed for playing music during Ramadan

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Sadai Banowan violated ‘laws and regulations of the Islamic emirate’, says local Taliban official

A female-run radio station in Afghanistan’s north-east has been shut down for playing music during the holy month of Ramadan, a Taliban official said.

Sadai Banowan, which means women’s voice in Dari, is Afghanistan’s only female-run station and started 10 years ago. It has eight staff, six of them female.

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Eight arrested in Pakistan after crush at free food point kills 12

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Police in Karachi say nine women and three children dead after crush outside factory during Ramadan alms-giving

Pakistani police have arrested eight people in the southern port city of Karachi after a crush killed 12 people at a Ramadan food and cash distribution point a day earlier.

Hundreds of women and children rushed to collect free food and cash outside a factory in an industrial area of the city on Friday. Business-owners during the Islamic holy month often hand out cash and food, especially to poorer people. An initial report from the police said nine women, aged between 40 and 80, and three children, aged between 10 and 15, had died in the crush.

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Thirty-six dead after floor of Indian temple collapses

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Worshippers in Indore fell into communal water source as they gathered to mark Ram Navami

At least 36 people have died after the floor of a Hindu temple collapsed in Indore, central India, plunging them into a well.

It has emerged that the floor which covered the stepwell – a stair-lined communal water source – consisted only of tiles laid over a metal grille.

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New project seeks to bring south Asian literature to western readers

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Founded by two translators – one American, one British – the Salt initiative will provide mentorships, funding and a south Asia-focused literary translation school

A new project to help bring the “extraordinarily rich” literature of south Asia to English-speaking countries will launch this summer, it has been announced.

The cross-continental South Asian Literature in Translation (Salt) project has been set up by the University of Chicago, in partnership with the American Literary Translators Association, English PEN, Words Without Borders and the British Council. The multi-year project will try to “strengthen each part of the publishing chain across the English-speaking world”, the University of Chicago has said.

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Afghan applying to resettle in UK asked to provide Taliban approval

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Despite MoD assurances, applicant and former British Council worker still being asked for Taliban-stamped papers

An Afghan who worked with the British Council and is applying to come to the UK has been told to retrieve documents from the Taliban or risk rejection, despite assurances earlier this month that such demands would end.

The Ministry of Defence apologised on 18 March after an investigation found that applicants to the Afghan relocations and assistance policy (Arap) scheme were required to provide birth and marriage certificates in English and bearing stamps from Afghan government departments.

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Bangladesh journalist charged over story about rising food prices

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Shamsuzzaman Shams was taken from his home at 4am and accused of spreading ‘false news’ over article about cost of living crisis

Bangladesh police on Wednesday charged a reporter from a leading newspaper with producing “false news”, stoking fears about media freedom, after an article about high food prices went viral.

Shamsuzzaman Shams was picked up from his home in the industrial town of Savar just outside Dhaka at about 4am by plainclothes police, according to his newspaper, Prothom Alo.

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Priyanka Chopra Jonas: Bollywood’s fair skin fixation helped drive me away

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Actor and former Miss World announced move to US at pinnacle of her fame in India eight years ago

The Indian actor Priyanka Chopra Jonas has spoken of how Bollywood’s enduring obsession with fair skin was one of the reasons she left the industry to try her luck in Hollywood eight years ago.

Chopra, 40, is a former Miss World and was at the pinnacle of her fame in India when she abruptly announced the move to the US.

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Victory over big pharma opens door to cheaper tuberculosis drugs

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India’s patent office turns down bedaquiline extension to Johnson & Johnson, clearing the way for generic versions

People with drug-resistant tuberculosis in India could soon have access to critical medication at a far lower cost after the authorities rejected US pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson’s application to extend a patent.

The firm wanted to extend its patent on bedaquiline, which expires in July, until 2027, which would have prevented cheaper generic versions reaching the market.

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Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party dissolved

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Party refuses to comply with tough new registration law imposed by Myanmar’s military junta

Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) has been dissolved after it refused to comply with a tough new party registration law imposed by Myanmar’s military, according to junta-controlled media.

The military, which seized power in a coup in February 2021, set Tuesday as a deadline for political parties to re-register under the restrictive new law. It has promised to hold an election, though such a vote has been widely dismissed as lacking in any credibility.

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Afghan refugees face homelessness under UK plans, say rights groups

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Ministers announce refugees in hotels will be offered move to a home on condition they accept first offer

People who fled the Taliban in Afghanistan are at risk of homelessness in the UK, humanitarian groups have warned, after ministers announced plans to move the refugees out of hotels and into homes on the condition they accept the first offer made to them.

Afghans living in “temporary bridging accommodation” in the UK under the UK’s two resettlement schemes would be given additional support to find settled accommodation after 18 months in hotels, the Home Office said.

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