Category Archives: South and Central Asia

Sri Lanka troops rescue ex-PM as houses torched in deadly night of unrest

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Mahinda Rajapaksa rescued in pre-dawn military operation after day of protests in which eight people were killed

Sri Lankan troops have conducted a dramatic pre-dawn operation to rescue Mahinda Rajapaksa – who resigned as prime minister on Monday – firing warning shots in the air to disperse thousands of anti-government protesters who had stormed his official residence in Colombo.

Eight people have been killed and over 200 wounded after pro-government supporters provoked violence among previously peaceful protests, which have been taking place for weeks in the midst of an unprecedented economic crisis.

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Sri Lanka is the first domino to fall in the face of a global debt crisis

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The south Asian country is the first to buckle under economic pressures compounded by Russia’s war on Ukraine, but it won’t be the last

The departure of Sri Lanka’s prime minister, Mahinda Rajapaksa, follows weeks of protest and a deepening crisis. There is no bankruptcy system for states but if there was then the south Asian country – down to its last $50m (£40m) of reserves – would be first in line to use it.

A team from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) this week started work with officials in Colombo over a bailout that will include a tough package of reforms as well as financial support. But as the IMF and its sister organisation, the World Bank, know full well, this is about more than the mismanagement of an individual country. They fear Sri Lanka is the canary in the coalmine.

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Sri Lanka’s PM resigns after weeks of protests over economic crisis

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Police are imposing nationwide curfew following violence at protest site in Colombo

Sri Lanka’s prime minister, Mahinda Rajapaksa, has resigned after months of protests over the country’s deepening economic crisis, as once-peaceful protests turned violent and at least five people were killed in clashes.

Turmoil began to engulf the country on Monday following violence at a major protest site in Colombo, where pro-government supporters attacked demonstrators and police responded with teargas and water cannon.

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UK urged to act after UN panel rules detention of Briton in India ‘arbitrary’

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Jagtar Singh Johal has been detained since 2017 and allegedly tortured, accused of helping to fund assassination plot

The UK is under pressure to insist India release Jagtar Singh Johal, a British citizen, after a UN working group ruled he had been arbitrarily detained by India and his detention lacked any legal basis.

Boris Johnson apparently raised the case when he met the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, last month and provided a written note of consular cases, but Foreign Office ministers have not confirmed whether they regard his detention as arbitrary.

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Afghanistan face veil decree: ‘I’ve lost the right to choose my clothes’

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Women say they fear going out in public despite Taliban vow to respect hard-won rights after 2021 takeover

Despite everything that has happened to her country since the Taliban seized power last August, 29-year old Nafisa still never believed there would come a day when she would be unable to feel the sun on her face as she walked the streets of Kabul.

Yet on Saturday, the Taliban’s sinisterly named ministry for the propagation of virtue ordered that Nafisa, along with millions of women across Afghanistan, should ideally not leave the house at all. If they do, they must be fully veiled and never show their faces in public.

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Nepali mountaineer Kami Rita Sherpa scales Mount Everest for 26th time, beating own world record

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Fifty-two-year-old used customary route up 8,850-metre mountain while leading 10 other climbers

A Nepali sherpa has scaled Mount Everest for a record 26th time, breaking his own previous record set last year, a government official says.

Kami Rita Sherpa, 52, scaled the 8,849-metre mountain on Saturday along the traditional south-east ridge route leading 10 other Sherpa climbers.

“Kami Rita has broken his own record and established a new world record in climbing,” Taranath Adhikari, director general of the Department of Tourism in the capital of Kathmandu, said on Sunday.

Kami Rita’s wife, who gave her name as Jangmu, said she was happy at her husband’s achievement.

The climbing route used by Kami Rita was pioneered by New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Nepali sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953 and remains the most popular.

This year Nepal has issued 316 permits to climb Everest in the peak season, which runs through May, compared with 408 last year, the highest ever.

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Taliban order all Afghan women to cover their faces in public

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Decree forces male relatives to police law by making them liable to fines or prison for breaches

The Taliban have ordered all women to cover their faces in public in Afghanistan, the latest sweeping restriction by a government that has taken away women’s right to travel long distances alone, work outside healthcare or education, and receive a secondary education.

In a cruel twist, the decree makes women’s relatives and employers the enforcers. If their faces are seen in public, their male “guardian” will be fined, then jailed. If the woman who goes out uncovered or her relative work for the government, they must be fired.

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Indian climber dies in summit bid on Mount Kanchenjunga

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The 52-year-old man collapsed in the final stages of climbing the world’s third highest mountain

An Indian climber died has during a summit push on Mount Kanchenjunga, the world’s third highest mountain, an official said.

The death is the third to be reported on Nepal Himalayas during the current climbing season which started in March.

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From India’s highs to Thailand’s lows, Asia’s weather is hitting extremes

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Analysis: As the heatwave in India and Pakistan starts to intensify again, Thailand and China are recording strangely cold May days

The final days of April saw further unbearable temperatures recorded in India and Pakistan. Temperatures peaked at 49C in Jacobabad, Pakistan on 30 April, with a high of 47.2C observed in Banda, India. The Indian Meteorological Department confirmed that average temperatures in April were the highest for northern and central parts of the country since records began over 100 years ago.

Heatwaves are a common occurrence at this time of year in India and Pakistan, but scientists believe the intensity, duration and arrival time of the conditions witnessed so far this year are caused by rising global temperatures. Despite a slight respite in the extreme heat over the past few days, temperatures are set to intensify once more this weekend and into next week with maximum temperatures expected to approach 50C in parts of north-west India and Pakistan.

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Sri Lankan president calls second state of emergency in five weeks

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Police disperse students with teargas and water cannon as national strike over economic crisis takes place

Sri Lanka’s president has declared a state of emergency for the second time in five weeks, giving security forces sweeping powers as a nationwide strike demanding his resignation brought the country to standstill.

A spokesperson for Gotabaya Rajapaksa said he invoked the tough laws to “ensure public order” after shops closed and public transport was halted on Friday by unions blaming him for the unprecedented economic crisis, which has ignited weeks of unrest.

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Aung San Suu Kyi on trial in fresh bribery case against ousted Myanmar leader

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Supporters say cases against the deposed leader are an attempt to discredit her and legitimise the military’s seizure of power

Ousted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has gone on trial in a new corruption case against her, alleging she took $550,000 in bribes from a construction magnate.

She is charged with two counts under the country’s the Anti-Corruption Act, with each count punishable by up to 15 years in prison and a fine.

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‘We are living in hell’: Pakistan and India suffer extreme spring heatwaves

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April temperatures at unprecedented levels have led to critical water and electricity shortages

For the past few weeks, Nazeer Ahmed has been living in one of the hottest places on Earth. As a brutal heatwave has swept across India and Pakistan, his home in Turbat, in Pakistan’s Balochistan region, has been suffering through weeks of temperatures that have repeatedly hit almost 50C (122F), unprecedented for this time of year. Locals have been driven into their homes, unable to work except during the cooler night hours, and are facing critical shortages of water and power.

Ahmed fears that things are only about to get worse. It was here, in 2021, that the world’s highest temperature for May was recorded, a staggering 54C. This year, he said, feels even hotter. “Last week was insanely hot in Turbat. It did not feel like April,” he said.

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Blast at Kabul mosque kills more than 50 worshippers

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Explosion in Afghan capital is latest in string of attacks on civilians during Ramadan

A powerful explosion has killed more than 50 worshippers after Friday prayers at a Kabul mosque, the latest of a series of attacks on civilian targets in Afghanistan during Ramadan.

The blast hit the Khalifa Sahib mosque in the west of the capital in the early afternoon, according to Besmullah Habib, the deputy spokesperson for the interior ministry.

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Gunmen steal 200 Eid outfits from Pakistani tailor in Islamabad

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Muhammad Razzaq says two armed men tied up and beat his staff and made off with 240 shalwar kameez

Gunmen have stolen more than 200 outfits made for the customers of a Pakistani tailor for the Eid al-Fitr holiday that marks the end of Ramadan.

Muhammad Razzaq said two armed men barged into his store in the capital, Islamabad, tied up and beat his staff, before making off with 240 completed or near-finished traditional shalwar kameez outfits.

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Myanmar junta sentences Aung San Suu Kyi to five years for corruption

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Deposed leader has been detained since a military coup in 2021 and has been charged with offences ranging from fraud to violating the official secrets act

Aung San Suu Kyi has been sentenced to five years in prison after she was found guilty of corruption by a court in military-controlled Myanmar, the latest in a series of legal cases condemned as an attempt to remove her as a political threat.

Myanmar’s former leader, 76, has been detained since a military coup in February last year plunged the country into a political crisis and escalating conflict. Since then, she has been charged with at least 18 offences, ranging from election fraud to violating the Official Secrets Act. The various charges carry maximum sentences that could lead to Aung San Suu Kyi spending the rest of her life in detention.

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Four killed by female suicide bomber near China institute in Pakistan

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Baloch Liberation Army claims responsibility saying it was the first such attach by a female assailant

A suicide bomber from a Pakistani separatist group has killed four people, including three Chinese nationals, in an attack on a minibus carrying staff from the Confucius Institute at Karachi University.

The Baloch Liberation Army – one of several groups fighting for independence in Pakistan’s biggest province – claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s bombing, saying it was the first suicide attack by a female assailant.

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Spectre of polio returns to haunt Pakistan as baby boy is left paralysed

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First case in a year sparks fears of new outbreak despite success of national programme to wipe out the disease

Pakistan has confirmed its first case of polio after more than a year, damaging the country’s hopes of eradicating the virus. Health officials have announced that a baby boy in North Waziristan, bordering Afghanistan, is paralysed after contracting polio.

Dr Shahzad Baig, a coordinator with the Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme, confirmed the “deeply saddening” case.

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Johnson vows to stop UK exports to India ending up in Russia

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PM says he will close loopholes that allow components to be smuggled via India for use by Russian military

Boris Johnson has said he will close loopholes to ensure UK exports to India cannot end up being used in Russian weapons, as he conceded the war in Ukraine could go on until the end of next year, and Russia could win.

Speaking in Delhi at the end of a two-day visit, the UK prime minister warned that Vladimir Putin was resorting to a “grinding approach” in Ukraine; and suggested the UK would help to “backfill” countries including Poland if they provided heavy weaponry such as tanks to Kyiv.

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Boris Johnson feels Westminster heat under the Indian sun

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Analysis: The PM travelled 4,000 miles to not get very far, on a trip fraught with tensions about Partygate and Ukraine

As Boris Johnson met Narendra Modi on Friday morning, he joked of the enthusiastic welcome he received in the Indian prime minister’s home state of Gujarat featuring giant posters of the British leader’s face, and flag-waving crowds: “I wouldn’t get that necessarily everywhere in the world.”

It was a characteristically self-deprecating reference to the fact that even 4,000 miles from home, he was unable to escape Partygate.

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Indian lawmaker arrested after tweet criticising Narendra Modi

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Jignesh Mevani accused prime minister of idolising Nathuram Godse, killer of Mahatma Gandhi

A state lawmaker in India was arrested for criticising the prime minister, Narendra Modi, in a tweet, officials have said, raising concerns over freedom of speech in the world’s largest democracy.

His arrest coincided with the arrival of the British prime minister, Boris Johnson, in the country.

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