Category Archives: South and Central Asia

How an Afghan reporter was left to the Taliban by the Foreign Office

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‘Fahim’ was cleared to leave Kabul. Then the phone went dead. Now he moves house every two days to evade capture

Fahim, a journalist who had worked with British media organisations, was one of thousands of Afghans who approached the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) for help to escape Afghanistan after the Taliban’s conquest this summer.

Told he was cleared to travel with his family to the UK, he was also one of the many left behind as the promised help from the FCDO failed to materialise.

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‘Do or die’: Myanmar’s junta may have stirred up a hornets’ nest

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Almost a year on from the coup, resistance to the military is growing stronger and more organised

On Sunday morning, a small group of protesters walked together in Kyimyindaing township, Yangon, waving bunches of eugenia and roses. They carried a banner reading: “The only real prison is fear and the real freedom is freedom from fear”.

The words are famously those of ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose sentencing by the junta to two years in detention was announced on Monday.

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Aung San Suu Kyi sentenced to four years in prison for incitement

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First verdict against Nobel Peace Prize winner and Myanmar’s former leader, who was deposed in a coup in February

Aung San Suu Kyi has been sentenced to four years in prison for incitement and breaking Covid restrictions – the first verdict to be handed down to Myanmar’s ousted leader since the junta seized power in February.

The 76-year-old has been accused of a series of offences – from unlawful possession of walkie-talkies to breaches of the Official Secrets Act – that could amount to decades-long prison sentences. Her lawyer has previously described the cases as “absurd”.

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Nagaland killings: rioting as Indian security forces shoot dozen civilians

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Villagers burn army vehicles after coalminers were mistaken for insurgents, with Indian home minister promising full investigation

Angry villagers who set fire to army vehicles are among more than a dozen civilians killed by soldiers in India’s remote north-east region along the border with Myanmar.

An army officer said soldiers fired at a truck, killing six labourers returning home from work, after receiving intelligence about a movement of insurgents in the area.

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West condemns Taliban over ‘summary killings’ of ex-soldiers and police

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Human Rights Watch says 47 former members of Afghan national security forces have been killed or forcibly disappeared

The US has led a group of western nations and allies in condemnation of the Taliban over the “summary killings” of former members of the Afghan security forces reported by rights groups, demanding quick investigations.

“We are deeply concerned by reports of summary killings and enforced disappearances of former members of the Afghan security forces as documented by Human Rights Watch and others,” read a statement by the US, EU, Australia, Britain, Japan and others, which was released by the state department on Saturday.

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Lives lost at Europe’s borders and Afghan MPs in exile: human rights this fortnight – in pictures

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A roundup of the struggle for human rights and freedoms, from Mexico to Manila

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Man tortured and killed in Pakistan over alleged blasphemy

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Government accused of having emboldened extremists after lynching of Sri Lankan in Sialkot

A mob in Pakistan tortured, killed and then set on fire a Sri Lankan man who was accused of blasphemy over some posters he had allegedly taken down.

Priyantha Diyawadana, a Sri Lankan national who worked as general manager of a factory of the industrial engineering company Rajco Industries in Sialkot, Punjab, was set upon by a violent crowd on Friday.

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India’s ‘pencil village’ counts the cost of Covid school closures

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Ukhoo village in Kashmir supplies 90% of wood used in the country’s pencils, but the industry, a major employer in the area, has seen a dramatic drop in demand

School closures in India during the pandemic have left their mark on more than the children who have seen delays to their learning. In one Kashmiri village the impact has been catastrophic on employment.

Pick up a pencil anywhere across India and it is likely to come from the poplar trees of Ukhoo.

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Aung San Suu Kyi: Myanmar court set to deliver first verdict on deposed leader

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Ousted leader could be jailed for three years if found guilty of incitement against military, and faces a range of other charges

Ousted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi is expected to hear the verdict in her incitement trial on Tuesday, the first judgment from her many junta court cases that could see her jailed for decades.

The Nobel laureate has been detained since the generals ousted her government in the early hours of 1 February, ending the south-east Asian country’s brief democratic interlude.

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Nurdles: the worst toxic waste you’ve probably never heard of

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Billions of these tiny plastic pellets are floating in the ocean, causing as much damage as oil spills, yet they are still not classified as hazardous

When the X-Press Pearl container ship caught fire and sank in the Indian Ocean in May, Sri Lanka was terrified that the vessel’s 350 tonnes of heavy fuel oil would spill into the ocean, causing an environmental disaster for the country’s pristine coral reefs and fishing industry.

Classified by the UN as Sri Lanka’s “worst maritime disaster”, the biggest impact was not caused by the heavy fuel oil. Nor was it the hazardous chemicals on board, which included nitric acid, caustic soda and methanol. The most “significant” harm, according to the UN, came from the spillage of 87 containers full of lentil-sized plastic pellets: nurdles.

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‘We will start again’: Afghan female MPs fight on from parliament in exile

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From Greece the women are advocating for fellow refugees – and those left behind under Taliban rule

It is a Saturday morning in November, and Afghan MP Nazifa Yousufi Bek gathers up her notes and prepares to head for the office. But instead of jumping in an armoured car bound for the mahogany-lined parliament in Kabul, her journey is by bus from a Greek hotel to a migrants’ organisation in the centre of Athens. There, taking her place on a folding chair, she inaugurates the Afghan women’s parliament in – exile.

“Our people have nothing. Mothers are selling their children,” she tells a room packed with her peers. “We must raise our voices, we must put a stop to this,” says Yousufi Bek, 35, who fled Afghanistan with her husband and three young children after the Taliban swept to power in August. Some around her nod in agreement; others quietly weep.

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Myanmar junta accused of forcing people to brink of starvation

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Advisory group say military has destroyed supplies, killed livestock and cut off roads used to transport food since February coup

Myanmar’s military junta has been accused of forcing people to the brink of starvation with repeated offensives since it seized power in a coup earlier this year.

The Special Advisory Council for Myanmar said the junta had destroyed food supplies and killed livestock while cutting off roads used to bring in food and medicine.

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National Geographic green-eyed ‘Afghan Girl’ evacuated to Italy

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Sharbat Gula left Afghanistan after Taliban takeover that followed US departure from country

National Geographic magazine’s famed green-eyed “Afghan Girl” has arrived in Italy as part of the west’s evacuation of Afghans after the Taliban takeover of the country, the Italian government has said.

The office of the prime minister, Mario Draghi, said Italy organised the evacuation of Sharbat Gula after she asked to be helped to leave the country. The Italian government would help to get her integrated into life in Italy, the statement said on Thursday.

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India’s apple farmers count cost of climate crisis as snow decimates crops

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Kashmiri farmers lose half their harvest to early snows for third year, with fears for future of the region’s orchards

The homegrown apple is in danger of becoming a rarity in India, as farmers have lost up to half their harvest this year, with predictions that the country’s main orchards could soon be all but wiped out.

Early snowfalls in Kashmir, where almost 80% of India’s apples are grown, have seen the region’s farmers lose half their crops in the third year of disastrous harvests.

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I got help for postnatal depression that saved me. Most women in India do not | Priyali Sur

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With up to one in five new mothers suffering depression or psychosis, experts say the need for help is ‘overwhelming’ India

A month after giving birth, Divya tried to suffocate her new daughter with a pillow. “There were moments when I loved my baby; at other times I would try and suffocate her to death,” says the 26-year-old from the southern Indian state of Kerala.

She sought help from women’s organisations and the women’s police station, staffed by female officers, in her town. But Divya was told that the safest place for a child was with her mother.

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UK invites south-east Asian nations to G7 summit amid Aukus tensions

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The alliance between Britain, the US and Australia has divided the region and angered China

The UK has invited south-east Asian nations to attend a G7 foreign ministers meeting in Liverpool next month, in a move that risks highlighting concerns that the new alliance between Britain, the US and Australia will fuel a regional nuclear arms race.

States from the Association of South-East Asian Nations are divided on the new Aukus partnership but some, notably Indonesia and Malaysia, have sharply criticised it, and many in the 10-member bloc are reluctant to take sides in the unfolding superpower rivalry between the US and China.

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On Helmand’s bleak wards, dying children pay the price as western aid to Afghanistan is switched off

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The staff are unpaid, the drugs are running out. Gereshk hospital can only watch as tiny infants succumb to treatable diseases

Shirin has paid heavily for both Afghanistan’s conflict, and its abrupt end in Taliban victory. Three years ago her husband lost his leg when a roadside bomb hit his bus. Then in the summer the militants’ victory brought peace to her corner of Helmand, but a halt to the foreign aid funds that paid her salary as a hospital cleaner and kept the family afloat.

They fell behind on rent, were evicted from their home and began running out of food. Three weeks ago, worn down by cold, hunger and disruption, Mohammad Omar died from wounds that had never fully healed, leaving her a single mother to their four children.

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Kashmir tensions high after deaths of men ‘used as human shields’

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Indian police say four men killed in shootout were militants but families say gunfight was staged and they were innocent civilians

Tensions in the Indian state of Kashmir remain on a knife edge after a shootout by the Indian authorities this week left four people dead, with families alleging the gunfight was staged and that police used innocent civilians as a “human shield”.

Police initially described the incident, which took place on Monday when officers raided a shopping complex, as a counter-insurgency operation in which two militants and their associates had been killed in a shootout.

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Migrant caravan and Qatar’s tarnished World Cup: human rights this fortnight – in pictures

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A roundup of the struggle for human rights and freedoms, from Pakistan to Poland

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‘The strongman blinks’: why Narendra Modi has backed down to farmers

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Analysis: the authoritarian PM’s first retreat is a much needed triumph of democracy

“The strongman finally blinks,” was how one commentator put it. On Friday morning, India woke to a surprise announcement by the prime minister, Narendra Modi, that he was repealing the farm laws, which have been at the heart of one of the greatest challenges his government had faced in almost eight years in power.

It was a significant turning point, not only for the farmers, but for Indian politics and the reputation of the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) government. Since Modi was first elected in 2014, his modus operandi has been that of a tough, unyielding, authoritarian strongman leader who does not bow to public pressure.

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