Category Archives: South and Central Asia

Huge fire at Rohingya refugee camp leaves thousands without shelter

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Fears of future blazes after health, learning and religious facilities also destroyed in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh

An estimated 12,000 Rohingya have been left without shelter after a fire tore through part of a cramped refugee camp in southern Bangladesh on Sunday, destroying health centres, learning facilities and mosques.

The fire broke out at Camp 11 of Cox’s Bazar refugee camp, which is home to more than 1 million Rohingya refugees, including 700,000 who fled their home country, Myanmar, after a brutal military crackdown in 2017.

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Pakistan police serve arrest warrants to Imran Khan to ensure court appearance

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Ex-PM and former international cricketer is facing charges of misusing his office to sell state gifts

Pakistani police served arrest warrants to the former prime minister Imran Khan to ensure his appearance in court on charges of misusing his office to sell state gifts, authorities have said, after Khan’s supporters tried to prevent police entry into his home.

The election commission of Pakistan in October found the 70-year-old cricketer-turned-politician guilty of unlawfully selling gifts from foreign dignitaries.

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Bangladesh: at least six people killed in fire after explosion at oxygen plant

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Officials say death toll could rise as rescue operation continues in southeastern town of Sitakunda

At least six people were killed and several injured on Saturday when a fire broke out after an explosion at an oxygen plant in southeastern Bangladesh, officials said.

The death toll could rise as a rescue operation was ongoing at the plant at Sitakunda, 40km (25 miles) from the south-eastern port city of Chittagong, they added.

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Anger grows over Afghan journalists still stranded by Home Office inaction

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Press members living under the Taliban, and living uncertain lives in Pakistan, must be given clarity say campaign groups

Hundreds of Afghan journalists remain stranded in increasingly “dire” circumstances as frustration mounts over the UK government’s refusal to share the latest entry criteria for its flagship resettlement programme.

This weekend, a coalition of press freedom and free expression organisations, including Index on Censorship, the National Union of Journalists, PEN International and English PEN, have written to home secretary Suella Braverman asking why details of the next phase of the Afghan citizens’ resettlement scheme (ACRS) have yet to be revealed.

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Russian minister’s claim Ukraine war ‘launched against us’ met with laughter

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Sergei Lavrov says Moscow ‘trying to stop’ war in remarks at India’s Raisina Dialogue conference

Comments by Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, were met with laughter at an international conference in India, when he said that the Ukraine war had been “launched against” his home country.

Speaking at the Raisina Dialogue, a politics and economics event in Delhi, Lavrov also claimed that Russia was trying to stop the war.

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Russia accuses west at G20 of blackmail and claims it has China’s support

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Stormy meeting in Delhi breaks up without joint statement as west and Moscow spar over Ukraine

Russia has accused the west of blackmail and threats and claimed it had China’s support for its position at a stormy meeting of G20 foreign ministers in India, dominated by the war in Ukraine.

The event broke up with no joint communique, only a summary of the meeting prepared by the host, India, the group’s current chair.

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Pakistan crackdown on Afghan refugees leaves ‘four dead’ and thousands in cells

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Asylum seekers in Karachi tell of terror of being sent back to the Taliban and despair at being shackled and held in Pakistani jails

Refugees are reportedly dying in Pakistani prisons, and children are being arrested and tied together with ropes, as a wave of detentions and deportations spreads fearamong the hundreds of thousands of Afghans who have crossed the border since the Taliban took power.

According to lawyers representing Afghans in detention, at least four people have died in custody, and thousands more, including children, are being held in prisons as Pakistan hardens its stance against Afghan citizens.

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Foreign Office scaling back support for UK Sikh activist held in India, Keir Starmer says

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Sunak’s government has refused to echo assertion that Jagtar Singh Johal is being arbitrarily detained

Rishi Sunak and the Foreign Office appear to be scaling back the UK’s support for Jagtar Singh Johal, the British Sikh activist held in an Indian jail for five years, his family and Keir Starmer have said.

Sunak’s government has refused invitations to echo Boris Johnson’s assertion that the Indian government has arbitrarily detained Johal, a term seen as significant because it means the UK does not recognise there is a proper legal basis to hold him.

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Pakistan’s fresh £580m loan from China intensifies debt burden fears

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Loan is on top of £25bn that cash-strapped Islamabad already owes Beijing and Chinese commercial banks

China has agreed to loan Pakistan $700m (£580m) to help it weather its worst economic crisis in a generation, in a development that will intensify concern among western countries about cash-strapped Islamabad’s debt burden to Beijing.

The loan comes on top of $30bn (£25bn) that Pakistan already owes China and Chinese commercial banks. Securing the financing will help to unlock bailout cash from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

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War in Ukraine defining new world order, says thinktank

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Poll reveals west more united but gulf growing with countries such as India that do not subscribe to post-cold war view

Almost a year after Russia’s war against Ukraine started, it has united the west, according to a 15-country survey – but exposed a widening gulf with the rest of the world that is defining the contours of a future global order.

The study, by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) thinktank, surveyed opinions in nine EU member states, including France, Germany and Poland, and in Britain and the US, as well as China, Russia, India and Turkey.

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Bangladesh shuts down main opposition newspaper

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Campaigners fear media crackdown under PM Sheikh Hasina after suspension order upheld

The only newspaper of Bangladesh’s main opposition party has stopped publishing after a government suspension order was upheld, stoking fears about media freedom in the south Asian nation.

Campaigners and foreign governments including the US have long expressed worries about efforts by the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, to silence criticism and what they see as creeping authoritarianism.

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At least four killed as Pakistani Taliban militants storm police HQ in Karachi

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Officials say three attackers also dead as police and paramilitary forces clear building in gun battle

Militants launched a deadly suicide attack on the police headquarters of Pakistan’s largest city on Friday, with the sound of gunfire and explosions rocking the heart of Karachi for several hours.

Two police officers, a ranger and a civilian were killed and 14 others wounded, said Murtaza Wahab, a government spokesman in Sindh province, where Karachi is located. Two suicide bombers were killed and at least one blew himself up after entering the police building, officials said.

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India accuses BBC of tax evasion amid Modi documentary row

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Country’s finance ministry claims broadcaster has not fully declared its income and profits

India’s finance ministry has accused the BBC of tax evasion, saying that it had not fully declared its income and profits from its operations in the country.

Indian tax authorities ended three days of searches of the British broadcaster’s Delhi and Mumbai offices on Thursday night. Opposition political parties and other media organisations have criticised the searches as an attempt to intimidate the media.

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UN warns of ‘unconscionable’ cuts to Rohingya food rations as donations fall

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World Food Programme calls for urgent $125m injection after being forced into axing supplies into Bangladesh refugee camps by 17%

The UN has been forced to cut food rations for Rohingya refugees by 17% and has warned of “unconscionable” further cuts in April as a result of dwindling international donations.

The World Food Programme (WFP) said it needs $125m (£104m) urgently to avoid the further cuts.

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Taliban bans contraception calling use a ‘western conspiracy’

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Reports that fighters have threatened those issuing birth control medicines come as Afghan midwives and activists warn of impact on women’s health and rights

Taliban fighters have stopped the sale of contraceptives in two of Afghanistan’s main cities, claiming their use by women is a western conspiracy to control the Muslim population.

The Guardian has learned that the Taliban has been going door to door, threatening midwives and ordering pharmacies to clear their shelves of all birth control medicines and devices.

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Reopened Manchester Museum gives voice to south Asian diaspora

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‘It’s time for a whole host of other perspectives,’ says museum’s director after £15m redevelopment

After 18 months of closure and a £15m redevelopment, Manchester Museum will reopen to the public on Saturday.

Alongside the existing collection of about 4.5m objects, from mounted mammals to botanical specimens and fossils, visitors will also be able to explore new spaces and hear diverse, untold stories.

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BBC offices in India raided by tax officials amid Modi documentary fallout

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Searches come weeks after release of documentary critical of PM that was later blocked by government

BBC offices in India have been raided by tax department officials, just weeks after the release of a documentary critical of the prime minister, Narendra Modi, which was later blocked by the government.

According to those working at the broadcaster, more than a dozen officials from the country’s income tax department turned up at the BBC offices in Delhi and Mumbai, where hundreds of employees are based, to conduct a “survey”. Documents and phones of several journalists were taken and the offices sealed.

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India trying to prevent declassification of ‘sensitive’ 1947 Kashmir papers

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Government documents fear letters about special status known as Bucher papers could affect foreign relations

India may prevent the declassification of papers from 1947 related to Kashmir as it fears the “sensitive” letters could affect foreign relations, according to internal government documents seen by the Guardian.

The letters, known as the Bucher papers, are believed to include political and military arguments for why India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, called for a ceasefire with Pakistan and provided special status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

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India opens first stage of $13bn Delhi to Mumbai expressway

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Route linking two cities is part of concerted infrastructure push to catch up with geopolitical rival China

India has inaugurated the first stage of its longest expressway, a route linking Delhi and Mumbai, as it makes a concerted infrastructure push to catch up with its geopolitical rival China.

The $13bn (£10.8bn) project will eventually cut the road travel time between the country’s two biggest cities in half, to 12 hours.

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Mob storms Pakistan police station and lynches man accused of blasphemy

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Killing is latest in string of mob attacks against people accused of blasphemy in Muslim-majority south Asian country

A mob in eastern Pakistan stormed a police station on Saturday and snatched a Muslim man accused of blasphemy from police custody and lynched him, in the latest religion-linked killing in the conservative Islamic country.

Muhammad Waris, in his mid-30s, was in police custody in Nankana Sahib in Punjab province, 80km (50 miles) from Lahore, for desecrating pages of the Qur’an.

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