Category Archives: South and Central Asia

Children of elderly UK couple jailed by Taliban call for release before they ‘die in custody’

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Barbie Reynolds, 76, and husband Peter, 80, have been held for five-and-a-half months without charge

The children of an elderly couple imprisoned by the Taliban in Afghanistan have urged the group to release the pair before they “die in custody”.

They said the UN would be making a statement on Monday calling for the immediate release of Barbie Reynolds, 76, and her husband Peter, 80, who were arrested as they travelled to their home in Bamyan province, central Afghanistan, in February.

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Bangladeshis linked to Hasina regime appear to have made UK property transactions in past year

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Call for asset freezes after figures under investigation in Dhaka employed services of UK law firms and consultants

By the time Bangladesh’s student-led revolution finally toppled Sheikh Hasina, her security forces had already spilled the blood of hundreds of protesters.

Now, almost a year after the country’s autocratic leader fled the former British colony into exile, an interim government is struggling to navigate bitter factional politics and economic turmoil.

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Air India finds ‘no issues’ with fuel switches on other Boeings after crash

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US report says investigators looking at actions of plane’s captain before plane crash that killed 260 people

Air India has said it found “no issues” with the fuel switches on its other Boeing planes after the fatal crash that killed 260 people last month, as a US report suggested investigators have turned their attention to the actions of the plane’s captain.

A preliminary report into the incident, released last week, found that the switches that controlled fuel going into the engines had been turned off “one after another” just after the plane took off from Ahmedabad airport.

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Thousands of Afghans relocated to UK under secret scheme after data leak

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Conservative government used superinjuction to hide error that put Afghans at risk and led to £2bn mitigation scheme

Conservative ministers used an unprecedented superinjunction to suppress a data breach that required the UK to offer relocation to 15,000 Afghans in a secret scheme with a potential cost of more than £2bn.

The Afghan Response Route (ARR) was created in haste after it emerged that personal information about 18,700 Afghans who had applied to come to the UK had been leaked in error by a British defence official in early 2022.

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‘The worst day of all time’: Afghans speak of safety fears after UK data leak

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Law firm representing thousands says some already killed and others in hiding as a result of government ‘blunder’

When Abdullah received an email from the British government saying his details had been included in the military data leak, it became “the worst day in all time”.

Speaking from Afghanistan, where he is in hiding, Abdullah fears he will be tortured and killed.

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UK’s cavalier attitude leaves Afghans facing yet more fear and uncertainty

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Leaked details are just another example of how the UK let down Afghans who believed in what Britain promised their country

This week’s revelations about the UK’s dangerously cavalier treatment of Afghans who worked with British forces are shocking but not surprising.

The carelessness with which Britain went to war in Afghanistan was matched by the carelessness with which it left the country and its people to Taliban rule two decades later.

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Fauja Singh, ‘world’s oldest marathon runner’, dies in road accident aged 114

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Singh’s east London running club confirms death in India of athlete thought to be first centenarian to run a marathon

The runner Fauja Singh, believed to be the oldest person to complete a marathon, has died in a road accident in India aged 114.

The athlete, who lived in Ilford in east London, was hit by a car and suffered fatal injuries while trying to cross a road in his birth village of Beas Pind, near Jalandhar in Punjab, on Monday, according to reports in India.

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Indian regulator orders airlines to check Boeing fuel switches after plane crash report

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Air India cautions investigation into Boeing 787 Dreamliner crash is in early stages as speculation about cause grows

India’s aviation regulator has ordered the country’s airlines to examine fuel switches on Boeing aircraft, after a preliminary report on the Air India flight 171 crash in June showed the fuel supply had been cut seconds after takeoff.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation said it had issued the order after several domestic and international airlines began making their own inspections of the locking mechanisms attached to the switches.

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Indian film board criticised for cutting ‘overly sensual’ Superman kisses

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Viewers complain that board allows violence and misogyny in Indian films but not a smooch in a Hollywood release

As Indian cinemagoers watched the latest Superman film, many noticed something was amiss. On two occasions as the superhero leaned in for a kiss with Lois Lane, the film suddenly jumped forward, cutting to the aftermath of an embrace.

India’s censor board had deemed the kissing scenes, including a 33-second smooch, to be “overly sensual” for Indian audiences and demanded they be cut from the film before its cinematic release.

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Air India crash victims’ families not satisfied with ‘vague’ initial report

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Relatives call for ‘honesty, transparency and an unwavering commitment to uncovering the full truth’

Families of the Air India crash victims have said they are hoping for more answers from investigators after a report found the plane’s fuel switches were cut off, deepening the mystery of what happened.

The preliminary report from India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, published on Friday, said both of the plane’s fuel switches moved to the cut-off position immediately after takeoff, stopping fuel supply to the engines.

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Engine fuel switches cut off before Air India crash that killed 260, preliminary report finds

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Early investigation into accident in Ahmedabad in June also contains details of pilots discussing the switches

Fuel to both engines of the Air India plane that crashed and killed 260 people last month appears to have been cut off seconds after the flight took off, a preliminary report has found.

Air India flight AI171, bound for London, crashed into a densely populated residential area in the Indian city of Ahmedabad on 12 June, killing all but one of the 242 people on board and 19 others on the ground. It was India’s deadliest air crash in almost three decades.

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Bangladesh caretaker government overturns use of ‘sir’ to address female officials

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Protocol was ‘clearly odd’ relic of regime of ousted leader Sheikh Hasina, administration says in revision of directives

Bangladesh’s caretaker government has overturned a longstanding protocol requiring female officials to be addressed as “sir”, calling it an “odd” relic of the regime of the ousted leader, Sheikh Hasina.

The interim administration, headed by the Nobel peace prize winner Muhammad Yunus, took office last year after the former prime minister was overthrown by a student-led uprising, forcing her to flee to neighbouring India.

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Shunned Myanmar leader thrilled at US contact after Trump tariff letter

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Min Aung Hlaing expresses ‘sincere appreciation’ for letter from US president threatening 40% tariff

Myanmar’s military leader has praised Donald Trump and asked him to lift sanctions, as the junta sought to capitalise on a tariff letter from the US president believed to be Washington’s first public recognition of its rule.

Min Aung Hlaing, who has been in power since a 2021 coup, expressed his “sincere appreciation” for Trump’s letter, which threatened a tariff of 40% on its goods, and commended the US president for his “strong leadership” and for guiding the US “toward national prosperity with the spirit of a true patriot”.

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Bangladesh’s ousted Sheikh Hasina charged with crimes against humanity

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Former leader, who is in hiding in India, indicted over deadly crackdown on anti-government protests last year

Bangladesh’s ousted leader Sheikh Hasina has been formally charged with crimes against humanity after being accused of ordering a deadly crackdown against anti-government protests last year that left more than 1,400 people dead.

Hasina, who fled the country on 5 August last year, was charged in absentia by a three-judge panel on Thursday. She remains in hiding in neighbouring India and has ignored formal requests for her to return.

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Accelerated glacial melt and monsoon rains trigger deadly floods in Pakistan

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Record temperatures and seasonal downpours raise fears of a repeat of the devastating flooding in 2022

Glaciers across northern Pakistan have been melting at an accelerated pace as a result of record-breaking summer temperatures, leading to deadly flash flooding and landslides.

The floods and heavy monsoon rains have caused devastation across the country this summer, killing at least 72 people and injuring more than 130 since the rains began in late June.

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Dozens missing after flash floods and landslides in Himachal Pradesh

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Hundreds of homes, bridges and roads washed away in north Indian state after unusually heavy rainfall

India’s mountainous state of Himachal Pradesh has been left reeling after it was hit by rainstorms, flash floods and landslides, with dozens of people reported missing.

Hundreds of homes, bridges, roads and electricity pylons in the north Indian state were washed away after 23 flash floods and 16 landslides caused by unusually heavy rainfall over the weekend. There were also 19 cloudbursts, in which an enormous amount of rain falls in a sudden deluge, according to a report by the Himachal Pradesh state government.

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Lion’s owners arrested after woman and children injured in attack in Pakistan

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Footage shows animal leaping over wall in Lahore before attack that left victims with face and arm injuries

The owners of a pet lion that escaped from a farmhouse and injured a woman and her two children in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore have been arrested, authorities said on Sunday.

The arrest came after dramatic video footage emerged showing the lion leaping over a wall and attacking the victims in a residential area.

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At least 32 people killed as flash floods hit northern Pakistan

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Family dies in Swat River, with witnesses saying they waited to be rescued for more than an hour

At least 32 people have been killed in Pakistan in recent flash flooding caused by heavy rains, including a family of tourists who died after being swept away by flood waters while apparently awaiting rescue.

Videos of the family stranded on a small piece of land as the raging Swat River in northern Pakistan swept them away were shared widely on social media, prompting anger towards the provincial government as witnesses said the family waited helplessly for more than an hour.

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Pakistan debates Trump Nobel peace prize nomination after US strikes on Iran

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Pakistani government had credited US president with ‘pivotal leadership’ in its ceasefire negotiations with India

Donald Trump’s intervention into the Iran-Israel war, and brokering then announcing a ceasefire, has drawn a heated debate in Pakistan – where the government had formally nominated the US president for the Nobel peace prize as the US military was making its final preparations for a strike that threatened all-out war in the Middle East.

A statement in the early hours of Saturday local time – shortly before US B-2 bombers left the Whiteman air force base in Missouri and headed to Iran – had credited Trump for a “legacy of pragmatic diplomacy” and “pivotal leadership” for ensuring Pakistan’s ceasefire with India in a conflict that had begun with the killing of tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir in April.

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Pakistan to nominate Donald Trump for Nobel peace prize

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Islamabad says US president helped resolve India conflict but critic says ‘Israel’s sugar daddy in Gaza’ not candidate for any prize

Pakistan has said it will recommend Donald Trump for the Nobel peace prize for his work in helping to resolve the recent conflict between India and Pakistan.

The move, announced on Saturday, came as the US president mulls joining Israel in striking Iran’s nuclear facilities.

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