Category Archives: South and Central Asia

Afghanistan ‘at make-or-break point’ says UN as G20 ministers meet

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Leaders will discuss UN proposal to channel funds to Afghanistan to ease growing humanitarian catastrophe

G20 leaders and ministers will meet by video conference on Tuesday to discuss a United Nations proposal to channel funds to Afghanistan to ease its worsening humanitarian catastrophe.

It will be the first time the world’s richest nations have met to discuss the consequences of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban takeover on 15 August. Afghanistan was 75%-dependent on foreign aid before the takeover, and funds held overseas have been frozen by the US.

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‘Evil customs’: why a Kashmiri village abandoned dowries

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Dowries, illegal since 1961, still cause 20 deaths a day in India. But Babawayil has had no divorces or violence against women since it banned them

Babawayil, in the foothills of the Zabarwan mountains by the Sind River, is a typical village in Indian-administered Kashmir. Groups of men and women sit on their lawns breaking open green husks of walnuts, freshly gathered from the giant trees shading the sleepy hamlet. Other villagers are busy in the paddy fields bringing in the harvest. Harud, the harvest season, is usually busy.

Most of the 150 households make their living from farming and weaving pashmina shawls.

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India faces electricity crisis as coal supplies run critically low

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Eight in 10 thermal power stations within days of running out as state blackouts spark protests

India is facing a looming power crisis, as stocks of coal in power plants have fallen to unprecedentedly low levels and states are warning of power blackouts.

States across India have issued panicked warnings that coal supplies to thermal power plants, which convert heat from coal to electricity, are running perilously low.

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Sindhu Vee and her father go back in time: ‘As a child, I was always copying him’

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The comedian and her dad recreate a childhood photo and talk about early days in India, agoraphobia and swapping banking for comedy

Born in New Delhi in 1969, Sindhu Vee spent her childhood in India and the Philippines, before throwing herself into academia, getting degrees from Oxford, Montreal and Chicago universities. In her early 40s, she traded the world of investment banking for standup comedy. Her career quickly ascended, with appearances on QI, Have I Got News for You, Radio 4 and Netflix’s forthcoming adaptation of Matilda. She lives in London with her husband and three children; she is currently touring her new show Alphabet.

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US to hold talks with Taliban over easing evacuations

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Focus of talks in Qatar will be allowing foreigners and at-risk Afghans to leave Afghanistan, says US official

US officials will meet senior Taliban figures this weekend for talks aimed at easing the evacuation of foreign citizens and at-risk Afghans from Afghanistan, a US official has said.

The focus of talks on Saturday and Sunday in Doha, Qatar, would be holding Afghanistan’s Taliban leaders to commitments that they would allow Americans and other foreign nationals to leave, along with Afghans who once worked for the US military or government and other Afghan allies, the official said.

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Shia mosque bombing kills dozens in Afghan city of Kunduz

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Large number of worshippers killed or wounded in blast during Friday prayers

At least 100 worshippers have been killed or injured in a suicide bombing that targeted a packed Shia mosque in Afghanistan during Friday prayers.

The blast took place in Kunduz, the capital city of Kunduz province in the north-east of the country. There was speculation that the attack was carried out by Islamic State (IS), which has a long history of attacking Afghanistan’s Shia minority.

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Facebook’s role in Myanmar and Ethiopia under new scrutiny

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Whistleblower Frances Haugen adds to long-held concerns that social media site is fuelling violence and instability

Whistleblower Frances Haugen’s testimony to US senators on Tuesday shone a light on violence and instability in Myanmar and Ethiopia in recent years and long-held concerns about links with activity on Facebook.

“What we saw in Myanmar and are now seeing in Ethiopia are only the opening chapters of a story so terrifying, no one wants to read the end of it,” Haugen said in her striking testimony. Haugen warned that Facebook was “literally fanning ethnic violence” in places such as Ethiopia because it was not policing its service adequately outside the US.

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Pakistan earthquake: at least 20 dead after powerful 5.7 magnitude tremor

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Homes collapsed after the quake struck 100km east of Quetta in Balochistan, and officials fear the death toll could rise

A 5.7 magnitude earthquake hit southern Pakistan in the early hours of Thursday, killing at least 20 people and injuring more than 200, government officials said.

The quake struck Balochistan at 3am local time and at a depth of around 20km (12 miles), the US Geological Survey said.

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‘We want dignity’: the vanishing craft of Kashmir’s papier-mache artists

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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.

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Civilians killed in deadliest Kabul attack since US withdrawal

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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.

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‘Renting the Taj Mahal’: the fight to save Darjeeling’s toy train

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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.

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Inside the CIA’s secret Kabul base, burned out and abandoned in haste

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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.

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Coronavirus treatments: the potential ‘game-changers’ in development

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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.

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Aung San Suu Kyi appears in closed court on corruption charges

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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.

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‘I don’t know where to go’: uncertain fate of the women in Kabul’s shelters

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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.

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Fears grow for photojournalist arrested by Taliban as executions resume

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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.

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Gail Omvedt: US sociologist who ‘lived by her principles’ among India’s poor

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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”.

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‘Living in a cave is no life’: Pakistani villagers trapped by Taliban and poverty

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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.

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US Afghanistan withdrawal a ‘logistical success but strategic failure’, Milley says

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  • 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.

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