The Taliban fighters who were once embedded in Afghanistan’s rugged mountains are now a feared urban police force. Felipe Dana joins them on patrol
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‘We want dignity’: the vanishing craft of Kashmir’s papier-mache artists
Award-winning artist Maqbool Jan is one of a handful still practising the ancient artform, but without government help he fears it could be lost
Kashmir’s ancient papier-mache artworks are famous throughout the world. The art form is a staple of the luxury ornamental market, and has a rich and long cultural lineage. It is closely associated with the advent of Islam in Kashmir, and depicts scenes from the Mughal court, Arabic verses from the Qu’ran, Persian poetry, as well as Kashmir’s iconic tourist attractions.
However, this ancient art form is vanishing, with only a handful of artisans left practising.
Continue reading...Civilians killed in deadliest Kabul attack since US withdrawal
Islamic State suspected of carrying out bombing outside mosque in Afghan capital
At least five civilians have been killed in a bomb blast at the entrance to a Kabul mosque on Sunday, a Taliban official said, the deadliest attack in the Afghan capital since US forces left at the end of August.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but suspicion fell on Islamic State extremists, who have stepped up attacks on the Taliban in recent weeks, particularly in the IS stronghold in eastern Afghanistan.
Continue reading...‘Renting the Taj Mahal’: the fight to save Darjeeling’s toy train
India’s tiny train has puffed up the Himalayas since 1881 but now the world heritage site is under threat
“Darjeeling ko sano rail, hirna lai abo tyari cha / Guard le shuna bhai siti bajayo” (Darjeeling’s dainty train is all set to chug off / Oh, listen to the guard blowing the whistle): generations of children in Darjeeling have grown up hearing these lines from a Nepali nursery rhyme. Serenading the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR), it depicts the close relationship between the “Queen of the Hills” and local people.
However, that relationship has become strained after the Indian government decided to hand over the running of the railway – listed by Unesco as a world heritage site – and oversight of the land adjoining the stations to a private company, threatening jobs and livelihoods.
Continue reading...Inside the CIA’s secret Kabul base, burned out and abandoned in haste
A Taliban commander invited the media to inspect the site where America plotted killing raids and tortured prisoners
The cars, minibuses and armoured vehicles that the CIA used to run its shadow war in Afghanistan had been lined up and incinerated beyond identification before the Americans left. Below their ashy grey remains, pools of molten metal had solidified into permanent shiny puddles as the blaze cooled.
The faux Afghan village where they trained paramilitary forces linked to some of the worst human rights abuses of the war had been brought down on itself. Only a high concrete wall still loomed over the crumpled piles of mud and beams, once used to practise for the widely hated night raids on civilian homes.
Continue reading...Coronavirus treatments: the potential ‘game-changers’ in development
After positive clinical trials for antiviral drug Molnupiravir, it joins other medicines that have shown promise
The first clinical trial results showing a positive effect for a pill that can be taken at home has been hailed as a potential gamechanger that could provide a new way to protect the most vulnerable people from the worst effects of Covid-19. Molnupiravir joins a growing list of medicines that have shown promise. Here are some of the main developments in treatments so far.
Continue reading...Aung San Suu Kyi appears in closed court on corruption charges
Allegations are among most serious of those filed against ousted leader by Myanmar’s military junta
Aung San Suu Kyi has appeared in a closed court to face allegations of corruption, one of the most serious of a number of legal charges filed against the ousted leader by the military junta.
In a hearing at the Naypyidaw Council compound, Aung San Suu Kyi was accused of breaching the anti-corruption law in four cases. This includes accepting packets of US bank notes and gold bars in bribes from Yangon’s former chief minister, Phyo Min Thein; renting government land at a discount; and using funds of the Daw Khin Kyi Foundation, a charity founded by Aung San Suu Kyi in the name of her mother, to build a home.
Continue reading...‘I don’t know where to go’: uncertain fate of the women in Kabul’s shelters
Women in refuges have been sent home to their abusers or to prison since the Taliban takeover. Those in the few shelters still open fear what lies ahead
Zari was seven years old when her parents died, forcing her to move in with her uncle. But when he died four years later, his two widows beat Zari and forced her to work long hours weaving carpets. During her teenage years, Zari tried to kill herself.
After her suicide attempt, Zari, now 28, moved into a shelter for abused women. For the past eight years she has held on to the belief that things would get better. She made friends and learned to sew clothes, eventually teaching others to do the same.
Continue reading...Fears grow for photojournalist arrested by Taliban as executions resume
Taliban deny Morteza Samadi, 21, has been sentenced to death but family concerned for his safety after he was detained while covering women’s protests in Herat
Fears are growing for a photojournalist who has been detained by the Taliban for more than three weeks after being arrested while covering the women’s protests in Herat.
Morteza Samadi, 21, a freelance photographer, was one of several journalists who were arrested at street protests at the beginning of September. All were quickly released except Morteza, whose whereabouts is not known. Some of those detained in Kabul have alleged they were badly beaten and tortured.
Continue reading...Gail Omvedt: US sociologist who ‘lived by her principles’ among India’s poor
The respected academic, who has died aged 80, was a leading anti-caste campaigner and fought tirelessly for women’s rights
At the village of Kasegaon, in India’s rural western region of Maharashtra, huge crowds turned up for the funeral in August of a US-born, white sociologist whom many local people saw as one of their own.
Most of the mourners were Dalits, who belong to the lowest caste in Indian society, previously deemed “untouchables”.
Continue reading...‘Living in a cave is no life’: Pakistani villagers trapped by Taliban and poverty
Seven years after fleeing army clashes with militants, 100 families eking out an existence on a hillside near the Afghan border are unable to return home
“Don’t talk to me about the government. They don’t help.”
Ninety-year-old Shah Mast is angry. He has been living in the cave he calls home for seven years, ever since an offensive by the Pakistan army against the Islamist militant group Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) destroyed his home.
Continue reading...US Afghanistan withdrawal a ‘logistical success but strategic failure’, Milley says
- General and other military leaders in heated cross-examination
- Milley defends loyalty to country and rejects suggestion to quit
The withdrawal from Afghanistan and the evacuation of Kabul was “a logistical success but a strategic failure,” the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff has told the Senate.
Gen Mark Milley gave the stark assessment at an extraordinary hearing of the Senate armed services committee to examine the US departure, which also became a postmortem on the 20-year war that preceded it.
Continue reading...Fears for Afghan psychiatrist abducted by armed men
Dr Nader Alemi, who opened the country’s first private psychiatric hospital, had received death threats before being taken on his way home from work last week
One of Afghanistan’s most prominent psychiatrists has been abducted on his way home from work by a group of armed men.
Dr Nader Alemi, 66, who opened the country’s first private psychiatric hospital in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, was stopped by seven men in a white car last week, said his family.
Continue reading...Ambassador in limbo makes plea for Afghans to be allowed into EU
Former Afghan government’s ambassador in Greece appalled by Athens’ media blitz against ‘illegal migrant flows’
In other times, Mirwais Samadi would have welcomed a campaign to deter his compatriots from opting to become illegal migrants and embarking on the often dangerous trek from Afghanistan to Europe.
By far the worst part of his job as Afghanistan’s ambassador to Athens – apart from the strange limbo he has found himself in representing a nation whose leaders he refuses to recognise – is notifying families back home of loved ones who died along the way. Invariably they are the victims of smuggling networks motivated solely by profit.
Continue reading...UK urged to resettle fleeing Afghan women’s football team
Leeds United have offered support but players face return to Taliban regime unless accepted soon
The UK government is being asked to urgently resettle female players from Afghanistan’s junior football team who fled the Taliban and have been offered a new life with Leeds United.
The 35 young women – many of whom are in their teens – their families and football coaches are in Lahore, Pakistan, on 30-day visas. But the 136-strong group face returning to Afghanistan unless they are accepted by a third country soon – they have to leave Pakistan by 12 October.
Continue reading...Haitians fleeing and Hotel Rwanda case: human rights this fortnight – in pictures
A roundup of the struggle for human rights and freedoms, from Myanmar to Germany
Continue reading...‘Free and open’: Quad leaders call for ‘stable’ Indo-Pacific in veiled China dig
Joe Biden meets leaders of Australia, India and Japan in latest effort to cement US leadership in Asia
US president Joe Biden and the leaders of Australia, India and Japan highlighted their Quad group’s role in safeguarding a stable, democratic Indo-Pacific in a veiled dig at rival China.
The first in-person summit of the Quad held on Friday marked Biden’s latest effort to cement US leadership in Asia in the face of a rising China.
Continue reading...Notorious gangster gunned down in Indian courtroom
Attackers dressed as lawyers opened fire and killed Jitendra ‘Gogi’ Maan before police shot them dead
One of India’s most notorious gangsters has been shot dead in a Delhi courtroom after members of a rival gang disguised themselves in lawyers’ cloaks and opened fire.
The shooting took place as Jitendra Maan, alias Gogi”, previously one of Delhi’s most wanted men, entered the court to face murder and extortion charges. Police returned fire, according to officials, killing two gunmen.
Continue reading...Mismatch of mindsets: why the Taliban won in Afghanistan
Analysis: the west tried to impose its alien values and it is time to try a new approach, as Joe Biden has indicated
Some years ago, in Afghanistan, the anthropologist Scott Atran asked a Taliban fighter what it would take to stop the fighting, because families on both sides were crying. The fighter replied: “Leave our country and the crying will stop.”
The crying may not have stopped, but the Taliban have taken control of Afghanistan without an air force, heavy arms or expensive training, against US-backed Afghan government forces that outnumbered them four to one. In doing so, they have taken an important step closer to realising their stated goal, which is the creation of an Islamic emirate governed according to their interpretation of sharia law.
Continue reading...‘Necessary for security’: veteran Taliban enforcer says amputations will resume
Nooruddin Turabi, in charge of Afghan prisons, says executions and removal of hands will restart, but possibly not in public
The Taliban will resume executions and the amputation of hands for criminals they convict, in a return to their harsh version of Islamic justice.
According to a senior official – a veteran leader of the hardline Islamist group who was in charge of justice during its previous period in power – executions would not necessarily take place in public as they did before.
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