Category Archives: South and Central Asia

Afghan cleric killed by explosives in attacker’s artificial leg, say officials

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Taliban in Kabul investigating death of prominent figure they describe as a ‘huge loss’

A prominent Taliban cleric, Sheikh Rahimullah Haqqani, was killed in an attack in a seminary in Kabul when the attacker detonated explosives hidden in a plastic artificial leg, according to officials and Taliban sources.

“Very sadly informed that respected cleric (Sheikh Rahimullah Haqqani) was martyred in a cowardly attack by enemies,” said Bilal Karimi, a spokesperson for the Taliban administration.

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Indians forced to buy national flag in return for food rations, says opposition

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Shopkeeper filmed telling customer he had been told to deny rations to anyone refusing to buy flag in run-up to Independence Day

India’s opposition leader, Rahul Gandhi, has accused the government of forcing people entitled to free food at government ration shops to buy flags in return for provisions in the run-up to Independence Day celebrations on 15 August.

India will celebrate 75 years of independence from the Raj on Tuesday, and the streets of cities across the country are full of flags for sale.

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‘The US let him go free’: release of terrorist who killed unarmed Australian soldiers shows contempt for ally, family says

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Exclusive: Father of one of three soldiers slain by Hekmatullah says Australia was ‘sidelined’ in deal between US and Taliban to release terrorist from prison

The family of one of the Australian soldiers killed by rogue Afghan national army sergeant Hekmatullah says Australia was treated with contempt by its closest ally, the US, after it agreed to release the self-professed terrorist from prison.

The Guardian revealed on Monday that the former Afghan national army sergeant, and Taliban plant, Hekmatullah, is again at liberty, and housed under Taliban protection, in the former diplomatic quarter of the Afghan capital Kabul.

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‘I will continue killing foreigners’: soldier who shot dead unarmed Australians treated as ‘returning hero’ by Taliban

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Exclusive: Hekmatullah, who killed three Australian soldiers, is living in a heavily protected luxury Kabul home after being freed from prison

Hekmatullah, the rogue Afghan soldier who killed three unarmed Australian diggers in Afghanistan a decade ago, is living in a luxury home in the capital Kabul, treated as a “returning hero” by the Taliban who released him from prison.

He has said he does not regret killing Australian soldiers, and has vowed he would again kill Australians, or anyone who opposes the Taliban.

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‘They beat girls just for smiling’: life in Afghanistan one year after the Taliban’s return

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Despite their promises of peace and stability, the country is on its knees, and its people are desperate

Maryam* is near the top of her sixth grade class in Kabul, which under Taliban rule means that her education should be ending in a few months.

But the 10-year-old, whose name we have changed to protect her identity, has a strategy to stay in school for another year, and her eyes dance with satisfaction as she explains her plan. “I will make sure I don’t answer too many questions right. I have decided to fail, so I can study sixth grade again.”

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‘Shameful’: Afghans who helped UK abandoned to a life of fear under the Taliban

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Home Office accused of failing to ensure safety of thousands including teachers and translators

Thousands of Afghans who worked for the UK have been abandoned and remain at risk from the Taliban a year after the evacuation from Kabul, a coalition of human rights groups has said.

In a parliamentary briefing, nine expert groups on Afghanistan criticised the British government’s resettlement schemes as “unjustifiably restrictive”. They said it was deeply concerning that the government is currently not offering a safe route for many Afghan women and girls or to oppressed minority groups.

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Afghanistan: bomb in Kabul shopping street injures at least 22 people

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The explosion happened in a western district where the minority Shia Muslim community regularly meet

A bomb exploded in a busy shopping street in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul on Saturday injuring at least 22 people, hospital officials and witnesses said.

The blast occurred in a western district of the city where members of the minority Shia Muslim community regularly meet.

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Third member of Cardiff family dies from ‘poisoning’ in Bangladesh

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Death of Samira Islam, 20, follows deaths of Rafiqul, 51, and Mahiqul, 16, during holiday

A woman has become the latest family member of a British family of five on holiday in Bangladesh to die from a suspected poisoning.

Samira Islam, 20, died on Friday after she was discovered unconscious in a locked room by police officers on 26 July. Her father, Rafiqul Islam, 51, a taxi driver, and his 16-year-old son, Mahiqul, also died in the rented flat in the eastern city of Sylhet.

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Sri Lankan government accused of draconian treatment of protesters

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New president Ranil Wickremesinghe is attempting to crush mass protests that forced out predecessor

The Sri Lankan government has been accused of a draconian crackdown on protesters who were involved in toppling Gotabaya Rajapaksa as president, with activists facing intimidation, surveillance and arbitrary arrest.

Dozens of protesters have been detained by the police in recent days as the government, led by the newly appointed president, Ranil Wickremesinghe, tried to crush the mass protest movement that forced Rajapaksa to flee the country and resign in early July.

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Taliban claim they did not know Ayman al-Zawahiri was living in central Kabul

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Denial contradicts US officials who say al-Qaida leader was staying at home of Taliban leader’s aide

The Taliban leadership has said they did not know that al-Qaida boss Ayman al-Zawahiri had moved to the Afghan capital, Kabul, where the US president, Joe Biden, said he was killed by a drone strike at the weekend.

“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has no information about Ayman al-Zawahiri’s arrival and stay in Kabul,” the militants said in a statement, that used their chosen name for their unrecognised regime.

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Hey, that’s my house: US aid worker realises Zawahiri villa is his old home

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The Kabul property hit by a US drone was familiar. It turned out Dan Smock had something in common with al-Qaida’s leader

The balcony in Kabul where the head of al-Qaida was killed was a spot Dan Smock knew well. It used to be his – when he worked in Afghanistan on a US government aid project – and the views were spectacular.

Smock enjoyed starting the day looking out at the Afghan capital, as did the world’s most wanted terrorist, from the villa they both called home, several years apart.

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How Ayman al-Zawahiri’s ‘pattern of life’ allowed the US to kill al-Qaida leader

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After a decades-long hunt the simple habit of sitting out on the balcony gave the CIA an opportunity to launch ‘tailored strike’

In the end it was one of the oldest mistakes in the fugitive’s handbook that apparently did for Ayman al-Zawahiri, the top al-Qaida leader killed, according to US intelligence, by a drone strike on Sunday morning: he developed a habit.

The co-planner of the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington in 2001 had acquired a taste for sitting out on the balcony of his safe house in Sherpur, a well-to-do diplomatic enclave of Kabul. He grew especially fond of stepping out on to the balcony after morning prayers, so that he could watch the sun rise over the Afghan capital.

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Zawahiri’s killing unlikely to weaken al-Qaida significantly

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Analysis: The terrorist leader had been ill and key tasks are likely to have been handled by others for several years

Ayman al-Zawahiri was a low-key but effective leader of al-Qaida whose death will cause the terrorist organisation some short-term turbulence but is unlikely to cause any major long-term problems.

A decade ago, killing Zawahiri would have made a major difference. Now, though the nature of his death demonstrates the US’s continuing ability to strike individual enemies even in hostile environments and raises questions about the Taliban’s relationship with extremist groups, it is unlikely to weaken al-Qaida significantly.

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Fears over building works at Afghan Buddhas of Bamiyan site

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Unesco says it has not been consulted on project and local experts are alarmed at Taliban plans

The Taliban have launched construction work on a tourism complex just metres from the cliff that held the Bamiyan Buddha statues, which archeologists and experts warn could cause permanent damage to the sensitive world heritage site.

The project aims to “rebuild” a historic bazaar, which was destroyed in the civil war of the 1990s. Under the Taliban blueprint, the area will become a tourism centre with restaurants, guesthouses, parking, public toilets and handicraft and grocery shops.

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Ayman al-Zawahiri: al-Qaida leader killed in US drone strike in Afghanistan, Joe Biden says

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President ordered strike on Kabul safe house last month during a high-level meeting, administration says

A US drone strike in Afghanistan has killed the top al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, Joe Biden announced on Monday.

The US president described the death of Zawahiri, who was Osama bin Laden’s deputy and successor, as a major blow to the terrorist network behind the September 11 2001 attacks.

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Weather tracker: monsoon rains sweep India and Pakistan

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Further heavy rainfall forecast after deadly lightning strikes and flooding last week

The monsoon season in India and Pakistan is well under way, with further heavy rain events expected in parts of south-west India over the next week or so. The states of Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka and Kerala in particular could experience rainfall totals above 200mm widely over the next couple of days.

Towards the weekend, this risk could transfer further north and east across India, with 200mm potentially affecting central states. This follows a week when dozens were killed by lightning strikes in India, while hundreds died in severe flooding in neighbouring Pakistan.

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‘A moment of opportunity’: fall of Sri Lankan president raises victims’ hopes

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Rights groups say they have a dossier of evidence against Gotabaya Rajapaksa – and a renewed appetite to bring him to account

It was a warm April day in 2019 and Gotabaya Rajapaksa was enjoying the afternoon with his family in an affluent suburb of Los Angeles. Rajapaksa, relaxed in his chinos and polo shirt as he strolled through the car park of the popular American supermarket Trader Joe’s, looked surprised when a woman sidled up and shoved a brown envelope into his hands. “You’ve been served,” said the private investigator before rushing away.

The charges inside that brown envelope, a civil suit alleging complicity in torture and killings, would not make it far in the courts. Seven months later Rajapaksa, a member of Sri Lanka’s most powerful political dynasty, would be elected president, and be granted immunity from prosecution.

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Bohra imam’s visit puts British girls at risk of mutilation, warn FGM campaigners

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Dawoodi Bohra leader Mufaddal Saifuddin, who is in the UK to preach, is an advocate of the abusive practice whose visa should be revoked, say activists

Campaigners have criticised the UK government for granting a visa to a religious leader who has advocated for female genital mutilation (FGM).

Mufaddal Saifuddin who is the syedna, or leader, of the Dawoodi Bohra community, a sect of Shia Islam with 1.2 million followers worldwide, will give sermons in front of tens of thousands of people at Northolt mosque in London between 29 July and 7 August.

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Wife of executed Myanmar activist says fight for democracy must go on

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Ma Nilar Thein says people must ‘eradicate this military regime’, as four prisoners executed after closed trials

The wife of Kyaw Min Yu, a prominent democracy activist whose execution by the Myanmar junta caused global outrage, has urged the country’s people not to stop their fight for democracy, but “to go forward with a victory spirit”.

Ma Nilar Thein, 50, told the Guardian that she was heartbroken by the killing of her husband but that the public “will hold our hands together in unity”.

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Foreign Office admits multiple errors in UK’s exit from Afghanistan

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Officials say they can not provide hope of resettlement for Afghans who worked for UK civilian schemes

The UK Foreign Office has admitted a catalogue of errors over its handling of Britain’s exit from Afghanistan, but has shut the door on many Afghans who helped the UK prior to the Taliban takeover last August, saying it will not provide false hope that they will be given the chance to come to the UK.

Foreign Office officials say it is difficult to judge whether Afghans who worked on UK-funded civilian schemes, such as the British Council, are truly in danger from the Taliban, saying the evidence is that the threat primarily applies to those who provided security support to the UK.

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