This story first appeared in www.thehindu.com

Bhutan’s fifth King is aiming for his country’s ‘transformation’ through a new educational curriculum, governance reforms and connectivity and infrastructure projects 

On a cold but sunny day last December, Bhutan’s King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, the fifth King of the current line of Dragon Kings, stepped up onto the stage at Thimphu’s Changlimithang stadium to address the nation, the first such public address since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. “We fought an unknown and unpredictable enemy. I can now safely say that we have won the war,” the 42-year-old King said in Dzongkha. Deviating to English, the King then delivered a strong message on drugs and alcohol addiction, addressing Bhutan’s youth in particular. “This is a challenge we have to face. This is a reality we have to face. Failure is not an option. We have to address this,” he said, looking straight at the audience.

It was this challenge, of a social ill borne of the lack of economic opportunities, as more Bhutanese youth move from villages to urban centres, increasing youth unemployment numbers (20.9%), and a large migration of young Bhutanese to other countries, that brought the Bhutanese King to India last week. In meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and interactions with Indian CEOs and others around the world, he is seeking new global investment to power his plans for Bhutan’s “transformation”. Among the plans, powering his ‘Desuung’ programme (Guardians of Peace) for youth volunteers, a new educational curriculum called the Bhutan Baccalaureate, a slew of governance and bureaucratic reforms, bolstering Bhutan’s environmental agenda with a new Tourism policy that imposes $200 a day sustainable development fee (₹1,200 for Indians), and plans for a new connectivity and digital technology hub along Bhutan’s southern borders with India in a town called Gelephu, where its second international airport is coming up.

Another initiative, launched by the Bhutanese King a decade ago, is the Desuung Project (Guardians of Peace) that is building a network of young Bhutanese volunteers to work on community projects and help during natural disasters, and has trained about 35,000 volunteers so far. During the pandemic, where Bhutan saw about 62,000 COVID cases, but restricted casualties to 21 deaths, he didn’t just mobilise the Desuups (as the volunteers are called), he travelled to locations around the country himself to see the COVID task-force at work, spending close to 14 months as he trekked, rode by horse or drove to each affected district in the country.

Unusual tasks

Clearly, the tasks King Jigme Khesar sets himself are unusual for a monarch in any part of the world, where royalty is normally associated with a life of comfort and protocol, pressing the flesh and posing for photographs. What drives the fifth King, say most analysts in Bhutan, is the desire to fill the shoes the fourth King, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, famous for the concept of “Gross National Happiness” (GNH), left for him when he abdicated from the throne in 2006. The abdication was met with public sorrow, and for a while the population balked at the next step the former King took, to turn Bhutan into a functional democracy and constitutional monarchy. Such reforms are normally wrought by revolutions, as in the case of neighbouring Nepal, not by the incumbent monarch, then just 51, himself.

In 2011, the new Bhutanese King met and married his Queen, Jetsun Pema, a distant relative and nearly a decade his junior, and pictures of the royal couple, and their two sons aged 6 and 3, always dressed in traditional attire, make the covers of international glossy magazines often.

While much about the royal family speaks of tradition and reverence for history, the Bhutanese King was educated in the ways of the modern world — after high school in Bhutan, he went to the U.S. to complete his schooling and then went to college at Oxford University in the U.K. For about a year in 2005, as Crown Prince of Bhutan, he took courses at the National Defence College in Delhi, learning lessons in statecraft and warfare — a period that was significant, as it preceded his father’s decision to step down and hand over power to him.

As King, Jigme Khesar has had to use the lessons he may have learnt very quickly. During his reign, Bhutan has gone from having diplomatic ties with just 21 countries, to 54 today. Bhutan still does not maintain full diplomatic ties with any permanent member of the UNSC, but there is constant pressure to change that. The 2017 military standoff between India and China at Doklam was a big challenge for the Bhutanese government, and while there were no public statements, both the fourth and fifth Kings of Bhutan are understood to have been involved in deftly handling the tricky relations with both neighbours.

Boundary talks with China that began in 1984 have made considerable progress, which could have repercussions for India in Doklam, and will possibly need more nimble diplomatic footwork by Bhutan of the kind seen last week. Above all, King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck’s task will be in ensuring a strong GDP and a strong GNH, so that as his country opens its doors wider, its people aren’t buffeted by both internal and external winds.

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This story first appeared in Voicepk.net

By Rehan Piracha & Xari Jalil

Rampant neglect by state authorities have left prisoners exposed and at risk of disease and death.

Outdated and discriminatory bail laws from the Colonial era, and rampant neglect by the state authorities in Pakistan have not only resulted in overcrowding in Pakistani jails and prisons, but have also deprived prisoners of basic or emergency health care, with thousands in jails at risk of disease and death, highlighted a report by the Human Rights Watch released on Wednesday.

The 55-page report, “A Nightmare for Everyone: The Health Care Crisis in Pakistan’s Prisons,” documents widespread deficiencies in the prison system, focusing on lack of health care and examining the consequences for a prison population of more than 88,000.

Six to 15 inmates squeezed in a prison cell for three

Pakistan has one of the world’s most overcrowded prison systems. Prison cells that have been originally designed for a maximum of three people actually hold up to 15, says the report. As of 2022, many of the country’s 91 jails and prisons were 100 percent over capacity.

In some prisons between six and 15 prisoners may occupy a single prison cell built to hold a maximum of three prisoners.

Jalal was 19-years-old when he was arrested in connection with a case of theft and sent to prison in Lahore in 2019. He remained in prison for 35 days in a cell with six other people. He said:

“I was there in summer [June and July] and we had one fan which only worked half the time due to power outages. In the Lahore heat, with the perspiration and sweat of seven people in a tiny room, it was like being baked alive. I was dizzy and sometimes delirious due to the heat. I collapsed and was unconscious three times and was given water, asked to take a shower and “not be dramatic. I lost six kilograms in one month, permanently lost my hair and had bags under eyes making me almost unrecognizable by the time I was released.”

Shafiq, 33, who was in a prison in Lahore for four weeks in 2021, said, “The room was so clogged at night that it was almost impossible to get up and go to the bathroom without stepping on people’s heads and the only option was to wait till morning.”

This severe overcrowding has resulted unhygienic conditions, inadequate and poor-quality food, and lack of access to medicines and treatment. More so, it has compounded existing health care deficiencies, leaving inmates vulnerable to communicable diseases –such as the deadly outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020. The floods that struck Pakistan in mid-2022 have also damaged many prison facilities, especially in Sindh, and left prison populations even more isolated and vulnerable to water-borne disease.

Besides lack of basic health care facilities, there are other rights violations against prisoners, including torture and mistreatment – a key symptom of a broken criminal justice system; corruption among prison officials and guards, and impunity for abusive conduct.

The prison health care crisis reflects the failures in health care across Pakistan, and is worsened by the recent economic crisis.

While the rich and influential inmates sometimes serve out their sentences outside prison in private hospitals, poorer prisoners must pay bribes only for pain relief medication. Colonial-era laws enable the government and other powerful people to interfere in police and prison operations, sometimes directing officials to grant favors to allies and harass opponents.

Patricia Gossman, associate director of Human Rights Watch Asia said that the prison system in Pakistan needed urgent reform. “Successive governments have acknowledged the problem and done nothing to address the most critical needs to overhaul bail laws, allocate adequate resources, and curb corruption in the system,” she said.

A lack of sentencing guidelines and the courts’ aversion to alternative noncustodial sentences even for minor offenses significantly contributes to overcrowding. Most inmates are under trial, and the majority facing criminal trials are poor and lack access to legal aid.

Stories from Within

Several former inmates in Sindh, Punjab, and Islamabad, were interviewed for the report, including women and juveniles. Others who were interviewed include lawyers for detainees and convicted prisoners, prison health officials, and advocacy organizations working on prisoner rights.

Aslam, 54, who was in Lahore prison from 2017 to 2020 says, “Almost from the beginning of my imprisonment, I had pains, swelling and stiffness in my body. My complaints were either ignored and jail staff would ask me to “man up” and “suck it up,” or on certain occasions I was given a painkiller. I could hardly stand up in the morning and kept pleading for an MRI or an ultrasound, but my requests were ignored.” Only when he was finally released was he diagnosed with arthritis.

A 37 old woman, who spent three years in a prison in Lahore, Punjab after being convicted for a drug trafficking offense between 2016-19 highlights how women were treated.

“Throughout my stay in prison, I suffered from acute migraines and hormonal issues causing pains and irregular menstruation cycles,” she said. “I was not allowed to meet a specialist even once and was only given a painkiller. It is extremely difficult for us to speak about menstruation to a male prison official due to social taboos and embarrassment. Women prisoners are treated the worst because in Pakistan they are abandoned by their families, and no one comes to visit them and hence the prison authorities know that no one is willing to pay any (bribe) money for their better treatment.”

Women and Girls

HRW spoke to nine women who had been imprisoned. Women in Pakistani prisons face mistreatment and abuse on a massive scale, reflecting discrimination and their vulnerability.

In 2020, Pakistan’s Human Rights Ministry issued a report, ‘Plight of Women in Pakistan’s Prisons, and submitted it to the prime minister. It documented poor conditions and barriers to adequate medical care faced by women prisoners. It found that of the 1,121 women in prison as of mid-2020, 66 percent had not been convicted of any offense and were detained prior to trial or while awaiting their trial’s conclusion. More than 300 women were detained in facilities outside the districts where they lived, making family visits nearly impossible. The prisoners included 46 women over the age of 60 and 10 girls under 18. Currently, only 24 female health workers are available to provide full-time care to women and girls in prisons across the country.

Children who accompany their mothers in prison faced additional risks. As of September 2020, 134 women had children with them in prison, some as old as 9 and 10, despite the legal limit of 5 years. Altogether at least 195 children were housed in prisons.

Lawyers and rights activists said that women prisoners are especially vulnerable to being abused by male prison guards, including sexual assault, rape, and being pressured to engage in sex in exchange for food or favors. An Islamabad based lawyer said, “The stigma attached to women being in prison is very high and often leads to women prisoners being abandoned by their families. This increases their vulnerability further and enables and encourages abusive behavior, including sexual violence. Women arrested for sex work form a significant group of the detainees and are most at risk of sexual violence and abuse.”

One woman said she felt like ‘a piece of meat on display’, the way she was touched and groped by the prison officials.

Other issues faced by women in particular were menstrual hygiene issues, lack of access to sanitary napkins, soap and clean water, lack of women in supervisory and senior positions in the prison administration.

‘Mental health patients told to pray’

In its findings, HRW noted that prisoners with mental and physical disabilities are at particular risk of abuse, discrimination, and mistreatment. A lack of awareness about mental health in Pakistani society has resulted in the abuse of those with psychosocial disabilities (mental health conditions), and prisoners who ask for mental health support are often mocked and denied services.

The prison system lacks mental health professionals, and prison authorities tend to view any report of a mental health condition with suspicion. Psychological assessments for new prisoners are either perfunctory or not done at all.

A prisoner who had spent four months in a Lahore prison in 2018 said that he had depression and was thinking of ending his life. He said that when he requested professional help, an official told him, “Everyone here is depressed. Even I am depressed. You should start praying.”

The report said that the governments at federal and provincial levels should urgently focus on the prison health care system and bring it in line with international standards, such as the Nelson Mandela Rules.

However successive governments have only failed to allocate adequate resources and utilize them efficiently. The Sindh province is the only province in the country that has enacted prison rules in line with international standards, but the rules are not enforced, the HRW report noted.

In addition to addressing access to health care, and ensuring sanitary living conditions and adequate food, the most important reforms include changing bail laws, expediting the trial process, and prioritizing noncustodial sentences to reduce overcrowding.

Recommendations

The reasons for the abysmal and rights-violating conditions in Pakistani jails and prisons are multifaceted and fixing the problems will require broad structural changes, the HRW report stated. Even so, the federal and provincial government can adopt measures that can begin to bring significant changes in prison conditions and in particular improve prisoners’ access to health facilities.

The HRW report recommended that the government must prioritize to reduce overcrowding by enforcing laws and early release; bringing the bail law in line with international standards; implementing sentencing guidelines for judges to allow bail unless there are reasonable grounds to believe the prisoner would abscond or commit further offenses; reforming the sentencing structure for non-violent petty crimes and first-time offenders to include non-custodial alternatives; implementing a mechanism of free and adequate legal aid to prisoners who cannot afford private legal representation and finally ensuring that prisoners in pre-trial detention are tried as expeditiously as possible, and never detained longer than necessary.

The report called for increasing the number of prison medical professionals. All prison rules must be in line with international standards such as the Nelson Mandela Rules and the Bangkok Rules and address the specific challenges faced by women and children, including menstrual and reproductive health.

Most importantly, the government must ratify the UNCAT (Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment) and install a mechanism to carry out unannounced inspections at all detention facilities. An independent, and transparent mechanism must hold those prison officials responsible who fail to uphold prisoners’ rights and maintain required standards in prison administration.

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This story first appeared in The Hindu

Attack on Imran Khan | Why Pakistan’s neighbours should be concerned

In this episode of Worldview, we bring to you what is happening in Pakistan right now after an assassination attempt on former PM Imran Khan during a rally 

An attempt to assassinate Pakistan’s former PM Imran Khan during a rally throws Pakistan into further turmoil as his supporters blame the military, demand elections

On Nov 3, Opposition leader and former PM Imran Khan,who has just launched a Haqeeqi Azadi or real freedom movement- calling for immediate elections, was shot at in both legs during a rally in Wazirabad, about 100 kms from Lahore- he is now stable, and recovering from his injuries in hospital- atleast 1 person was killed in the shooting and several others, including Khan’s aides were injured.

Imran Khan is not just former Cricket Captain and former PM but an international personality, and statements have come in from the US, Canada, UK, Germany, Saudi Arabia, the OIC, condemning the attack- this is clearly an event the world is watching closely, as is India

Let’s take a step back- 2022 has certainly been a year of dramatic developments in Pakistan, for Imran Khan, and for the Pakistani military’s credibility:

Cascading crisis in Pakistan

– In April this year, PM Khan stepped down after losing a confidence vote, and a political drama that lasted nearly a month

– Since then he has held a number of public rallies, bringing in massive crowds across the country

– At the rallies, Khan criticised his political rivals, the government of PM Shehbaz Sharif, but also the Pakistani military and the ISI – probably a first

– In May, Imran Khan said he had received information of a planned attempt on his life- he said he had made a video recording naming his would be assassins- including PM Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and an Army General Faisal Naseer- whom he referred to as Dirty Harry

– In particular, he made the reference repeatedly to a cipher- diplomatic telegram that he claimed showed that the US had ordered his ouster as PM- which he blamed the military for carrying out

– In August, the government banned News TV ARY that was seen as pro-Khan, and arrested its executive and filed cases against its journalists

– In October, Imran Khan was also disqualified from public office, with the possibility that he may not even be allowed to contest elections due in 2023

– Two days later, a former Pakistani journalist with ARY known to be close to Khan was shot dead in Kenya- and media reports began pointing fingers at Pakistani military intelligence

– Next, the unexpected happened- for the first time ever Pakistan’s ISI chief Gen Nadeem Anjum held a press conference refuting all the charges- .

– And then- the assassination attempt- reports are suggesting that the man who shot Khan, and has been arrested is not the only shooter at the rally- with some suggesting automatic weapons fire was heard as well

The big question that will haunt Pakistan now is clearly- who is behind the attack. There is no question that Khan has made powerful enemies in many quarters- but previous assassinations and deaths of leaders in Pakistan have happened without a conclusive investigation, including PM Liaqat Ali Khan in 1951, the plane crash that killed military ruler Gen Zia Ul Haq in 1988, and former PM Benazir Bhutto in 2007. Threats against other leaders in the past have led to many leaving politics and leaving the country.

What does this mean for the Pakistan government ?

1. Political instability- as calls for the government to resign and accede to Khan’s demand for general elections grow.

2. Military instability- Army Chief General Bajwa is set to step down on November 29, and his successor is unclear. Amidst reports that there are divisions within the army with several Khan sympathizers, and major protests against the army itself on the streets, the institution is facing unprecedented challenges

3. Security instability- with the situation in Afghanistan threatening to spill over, the emboldening of terror groups given safe haven on both sides of the Af Pak border could lead to more terror attacks inside Pakistan.

4. Economic instability- Pakistan is still grappling with the worst floods in decades, that have slashed growth figures to 2% this year, while inflation is projected to cross 20%, and foreign exchange reserves have emptied out. Meanwhile, Covid losses, food and energy shortages after the Ukraine war, and debt repayments, particularly to China will make Pakistan unstable for the foreseeable future

5. Regional and international instability- Here is why most other countries including India, must care:

– In times of economic strife, Pakistan’s radical islamist groups have grown more powerful, leading to more terrorist groups and recruits spreading in the region- particularly the cross border spillover to India

– Pakistani groups and terrorists are implicated in attacks not just inside Pakistan, but in India, US, UK, France, and many parts of Asia.

– Pakistan is also the lynchpin for China’s Belt and Road Initiative, particularly for Central Asian countries, which need connectivity to the sea through the CPEC. This may actually help India, which is promoting the alternative routes through Iran- Chabahar port and the INSTC

– Pakistan’s total external debt is 37% of its GDP at present, and a default would cause instability within the international credit market.

– The region has already instability in Afghanistan under the Taliban, Iran with protests over the compulsory Hijab growing every day, and economic turmoil in Sri Lanka. India and Pakistan have made little movement on talks in seven years. And lastly, Pakistan is a nuclear power

The attack on Imran Khan has been claimed by a lone wolf, and even as the conspiracy behind the shooting is investigated in Pakistan, it is necessary for the international community to keep an eye on all the extended repercussions of instability and violence inside Pakistan spreading across its borders as well.

READING RECOMMENDATIONS:

1. Pakistan: A Personal History by Imran Khan

2. Reimagining Pakistan:: Transforming a Dysfunctional Nuclear State Hardcover – April 20, 2018 by Husain Haqqani (Author)

3. Making Sense of Pakistan by Farzana Shaikh

4. The Pakistan Paradox: Instability and Resilience Paperback by Christophe Jaffrelot

5. Pakistan’s Political Parties: Surviving between Dictatorship and Democracy (South Asia in World Affairs series) by Mariam Mufti and Sahar Shafqat

6.The Nine Lives of Pakistan: Dispatches from a Precarious State by Declan Walsh

7.Pakistan: Origins, Identity and Future by Pervez Hoodbhoy

8. India’s Pakistan Conundrum: Managing a Complex Relationship by Sharat Sabharwal

9. Pashtuns: A contested history by Tilak Devashar

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Sanna Irshad Mattoo, a Kashmiri photojournalist working for Reuters news agency, was stopped from leaving the country on October 18. Ms. Mattoo was headed to the United States to receive her Pulitzer Prize at the Pulitzer awards ceremony in New York when she was stopped by immigration authorities at the Delhi International Airport.

SAWM India condemns the Indian government’s decision. Receiving the Pulitzer is an honour for any journalist. Effectively, the government has stolen from Ms. Mattoo what was a big milestone moment in her career. She was awarded the Pulitzer for a photograph showing an anti- COVID vaccination drive in the hilly Lidderwat area of Anantnag district in Kashmir.

It should be of deep concern to every citizen of the country that the government can intrude into and cancel a fellow citizen’s travel plans without explanation. Ms. Mattoo was prevented earlier in the year too from travelling abroad.

If the government has specific information against Ms. Mattoo for barring her from travelling out of the country, it should tell her what wrong she has committed.

The attitude of the government seems to be that it owes no explanation to anyone and that it will become an obstacle in a citizen’s path merely because it can.

Over the last year, the government has prevented other Kashmiri journalists and at least one Kashmiri academic from leaving the country for assignments or employment abroad. This is a worrying trend, associated as it is only with authoritarian regimes. Certainly, these are among the actions that has given India its abysmal 150th rank in the World Press Freedom Index.

Nothing can return to a 28-year-old the honour of receiving a prestigious award in person. The government, which claims to have restored peace and normalcy in Kashmir, has diminished itself with this action against a young citizen of the country.

This story first appeared in ThePrint

In an exclusive interview with ThePrint in Kabul, Abdul Qahar Balkhi also spoke on issues of girls’ education, the late al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri’s presence there & Islamic State attacks.

Kabul: The Taliban helped give safe passage to India’s diplomats and other citizens when they wanted to leave Kabul amidst the chaos that overtook the city exactly a year ago — on 15 August, 2021 — when former President Ashraf Ghani fled the country with a few key aides and the Afghanistan capital was taken over by the Taliban, said the spokesman of the now Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s ministry of foreign affairs, Abdul Qahar Balkhi.

In an exclusive interview with ThePrint in Kabul, Balkhi said that “India temporarily suspended its operations (of the Indian embassy in Afghanistan) last year” when the Taliban walked into Kabul, although several nations like Russia and China stayed, adding, “we gave safe passage to India to leave”.

One year later, as India celebrates its 75th independence day and the Islamic Emirate its first anniversary in power, Balkhi said that today, “we welcome (India’s) return” to Kabul.

India does not recognise the Taliban interim government, or the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, but the embassy in Kabul — closed when the Taliban made a return to power in the the country — was reopened in June, when New Delhi deployed a “technical team” consisting of diplomats and others to the Afghan capital to “closely monitor and coordinate” the delivery of humanitarian assistance there.

India had also introduced an e-visa system in August last year for Afghans visiting India. But issuing of visas started only recently.

“We, (the Islamic Emirate) congratulate India on its independence day. We are also glad and happy that Afghanistan has finally regained its sovereignty after 43 years…the conflict is over, criminal elements and syndicates will try and disturb the peace, but we will always try and neutralise those threats,” said Balkhi.

In a statement on Saturday Afghanistan’s ministry of foreign affairs spokesperson had welcomed “India’s step to upgrade its diplomatic representation in Kabul”, to the level of a senior diplomat, a minister-counsellor position.

When ThePrint pointed out that India had, in fact, not recognised the Islamic Emirate yet, Balkhi said, “de facto recognition has taken place, direct flights have been resumed between the two countries and we are working on visa issuance and consular services”.

He added: “We have civilisational ties with India and steps are being taken for de jure recognition. It is not in the interest of any country to see Afghanistan unstable and be a centre that proves to be a challenge to other countries.”

On the question of Indian visas for Afghans — thousands of Afghan students studying in Indian educational institutions, as well as patients dependent on Indian doctors were forced to look at alternatives in the wake of the Indian visa clampdown when the Taliban took power — Balkhi indicated that some relaxation was in the offing.

But he was outright dismissive of Indian concerns that the reason Afghan visas had been blocked was because Afghan passports with valid Indian visas could have been misused by other countries.

“I don’t believe that this fear is warranted. It holds no basis. It is irrational,” Balkhi said.

That’s why, he added, countries have visa sections and consular wings, to prevent incidents like this from taking place.

Balkhi also spoke at some length about the situation in Afghanistan in the past year, including the challenges faced by the Islamic Emirate — on the question of women’s rights, freedoms denied to girl children from going to high school and suicide attacks by the Islamic State terror group in which scores of innocent people have been killed.

‘Afghanistan shared home of all Afghans’

Answering ThePrint’s question on what al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri was doing in Kabul, before he was killed last month by an American missile launched from a drone, Balkhi denied that the Taliban leadership was even “aware” of al-Zawahiri’s arrival or presence in Kabul.

“We don’t agree with the US assessment (that he was found in a house in the heart of Kabul). We will continue our investigation and try to separate fact from fiction. That investigation is ongoing,” Balkhi said.

On the question of why the Islamic Emirate didn’t allow girls studying in grades above six to go to school, when boys could do so, Balkhi said that the government was “working very hard” to address the concerns of parents.

He said high schools for girls were open in more than a dozen provinces of Afghanistan — the country has a total of 34 provinces.

While Balkhi was mildly critical of Taliban guards firing into the air to contain a group of women protestors in downtown Kabul on the weekend, who had raised slogans of “Bread, work and freedom”, saying that security officials need to be trained better to handle such unsanctioned protests, he added that the “important thing was that no one was hurt”.

The Afghanistan foreign ministry spokesman appealed for understanding for the behavior of young Taliban men frightening young women in several parts of the country and holding them in detention on the charge of not being accompanied by a male escort. “We have gone through 43 years of conflict. There will be and continue to be incidents like this, but our government will hold individuals responsible for violating the law,” he said.

On the question of why Islamic State (IS) suicide bombers were continuing to target innocent people and Taliban ideologues like Rahimullah Haqqani, who was killed in a bomb blast last week, Balkhi alleged that the IS “believes they are the only Muslims on the face of this planet. They excommunicate the majority of Muslims — Sufis, other Muslims that aspire to different interpretations. The significant point is that they have no support inside Afghanistan.”

He said the government would not rest until IS was completely eliminated from Afghanistan.

Asked whether people of all religions, including Hindus and Sikhs, were welcome in the Islamic Emirate, Balkhi pointed to the support given to Afghanistan’s small Sikh community in the defence of its faith.

“Afghanistan is the shared home of all Afghans. Minority groups like Hindus and Sikhs have a long history (here). We have provided them with protection. We have returned them the properties that were usurped and taken by force by the previous administration in Jalalabad and elsewhere,” Balkhi claimed.

(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)

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This story first appeared in ThePrint

As Taliban inches towards completing a year in power, exodus from Afghanistan continues. But more countries are coming to realise one can’t ignore the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

Kabul: At the Kah Faroshi bird market in Kabul’s old city, the question of whether the ruling Taliban has become an improved version of itself turns on the question of what they think of the buying and selling of birds, if not outright gambling.

It’s Friday, the day of the week sacred to all Muslims worldwide — and the weekly off in Afghanistan — in deference to which the city has more or less shut down. Traffic to Kah Faroshi is slow. The muezzin calls at you more clearly. The Taliban are about, roaming the streets in their distinctive black-and-white turbans.

At one checkpoint in Sherpur, in the heart of the city, not far from where the al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed just two weeks ago, two young Talib are sitting on a plastic grass mat, drinking green tea, cradling their automatic guns, while a ribbon of bullets lies carefully unspooled in front.

This is their city and they know it. First, ask if you can take a few photos. Yes, a slight nod of the head. Second, ask if you can ask questions. Yes, okay, says Mustafa, 23, from nearby Wardak province, while Ahsanullah, 30, from Logar province, pours tea for his guests.

Mid-sip, Mustafa believes enough is enough. Please do not defile the plastic grass mat with your presence anymore. You have outlived your welcome. The foot-soldier’s fatwa is final.

My translator offers a second interpretation of the scene just played out. Taliban sudhar raha hai, he says. The Taliban is improving itself. Earlier, there would be absolutely no question of them allowing a foreign woman to address them in a public space.

A security guard from a nearby bank strolls up. He half-winks at us. “I have got my visa for Germany. I am leaving next month. Main jaa raha hoon.”

As the Taliban’s first anniversary in power on 15 August inches closer, the exodus from Afghanistan continues. According to UNHCR, as many as 683,000 people fled the country after the Taliban came to power a year ago, while another 239,000 are seeking asylum abroad.

But the truth is that more and more countries are coming around to the fact that you cannot ignore the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA), even if the UN has refused to recognise it so far. As many as 14 countries have reopened their missions in the country, including India, which still calls its relatively small presence a “technical mission”. Diplomats say they are keenly watching the unpredictable security situation.

The big powers are all here, in one way or another. Russia and China never left, while the US continues to wield enormous power through its influential NGOs. Pakistan openly ramped up its presence and the Central Asian states followed suit. Iran and Tajikistan, neighbours on either end of Afghanistan, Turkey and the European Union, are all key players in town.

Much has changed, much hasn’t

Two women who work for one such influential US NGO in Herat in western Afghanistan, point out that the Taliban’s worst failure lies in the manner in which they have dealt with women’s rights and freedoms this past year. Girls above Class 6 cannot go to school, university classes for men and women are separate as are office spaces where both sexes work, and public parks — including the world heritage site, the Bagh-e-Babur, where lies the grave of the first Mughal emperor, Babur — have been bifurcated into ‘mardana’ (men only) and ‘zenana’ (women only) sections.

The two out-of-town women notice how Kabuli women have become more conservative, wearing longer tunics, like women from Kandahar and Herat in the south and west.

One of the women has brought her father along; he is her ‘mahram,’ a family male escort who must accompany an adult woman if she’s travelling out of town, as decreed by the Islamic Emirate; her husband is busy all week. The other woman sought special permission from her office — which in turn is in constant touch with the local Taliban — to be exempt from the ‘mahram’ rule, because neither husband, nor brother or father, were available. The Taliban allowed her to travel alone.

Who pays for the ‘mahram’? The office, of course. So in the name of protecting an Afghan woman’s chastity, the Taliban has also decreed that the organisation in question picks up the tab for the ‘mahram’ too.

Both women also pointed out that Taliban rule had certainly improved security conditions; nobody dares mess with them. Earlier, in the time of the Islamic ‘jamhooriyat’, or republic, the infighting between warlords and pretenders in most provinces meant that women had to be much more careful when they left the house.

En route to Kah Faroshi, a big, fat Lexus SUV — without number plates — that costs at least $80,000, emits a few bars of melody, shattering the hot, morning silence. (It’s only the SUV reversing.) Music is banned by the Taliban, which means that the Kuch-e-Kharabat, where you could buy commonly loved musical instruments like tablas and sarangis, has been obliterated. ‘Afghan Star’, the beloved singing competition, has been banned. TV channels cannot showcase any music shows.

But the music has been pushed inside, behind closed doors. So you cannot sing and dance at weddings, but a DJ can do the honours. “When I drive home from work,” says IT technician Ahmad Shah, “I put the music on in my car. The Taliban really doesn’t care. It is a different Taliban from the last time around.”

At Asif’s bird stall in Kah Faroshi, an elderly buyer is negotiating the price of a “kowk”, a highly prized partridge with black-and-white feathers that he plonks into a deep cloth bag so that the bird has no chance for escape. The market is packed with men of all ages and all tribes — Pashtun and Tajik and Hazara and Turkmen and Uzbek, all notoriously individualistic outside the market, but consumed with an overriding passion for partridges, pigeons, parrots and other small and big birds that line the stalls on either side of this ancient market.

“The Taliban love birds too, after all they are Afghan,” says Asif, adding, “And for all those who say that there is a lot of poverty in Afghanistan after the Taliban came to power in this country, come here and see for yourselves. We love our birds. Yeh hamaara shauq hai. This is our passion. I don’t know what we love more.”

The deal is sealed at 4,000 Afghani, about Rs 3,500. Asif teases the buyer. “Yeh hamara Seth Dharam Das hai,” he laughs and everyone crowding into the stall laughs along. Hindi films are obviously still ubiquitous in these parts, despite two years of Covid and a near-complete ban on Indian visas for Afghans since the Taliban took power in Afghanistan a full year ago.

Last time around, when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996-2001, bird gambling was banned because all gambling was banned. This time around, at least for now, it seems as if the Taliban is taking a more lenient view of things. At least the Kah Faroshi bird market is applauding.

(Edited by Gitanjali Das)

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This story first appeared in ThePrint

Shahr-e-Naw, literally, The New City, used to be a cauldron of noise & activity — streets choked with cars, pavements buzzing with people. But this Kabul seems to have retreated into itself.

Kabul: There was a hush at the Kabul International airport Thursday evening as the much-delayed Kam Air flight from Delhi disgorged its passengers, unloaded its enormous cargo and crawled back to the hangar. The passengers quickly walked to the parking lot on the other side of the airport, the men leading the women — some carefully clothed in pitch black, others more careless about the shimmery sequin patterns on their green burkha sleeves — past the three, young Taliban guards at the passenger entrance, past the white and black Islamic Emirate flag fluttering in the breeze, past the “I love Afghanistan” signpost opposite the main terminal building.

The airport no longer bears the names of two distinguished Afghan leaders — Ahmad Shah Massoud — the Tajik leader, whose brooding portrait reminded everyone of his assassination two days before the Taliban bombed America on 11 September, 2001 — and Hamid Karzai — the Pashtun leader, who refused to leave Kabul with his wife and three daughters on 15 August last year, when the Taliban walked into the capital without firing a shot.

The airport seems like a ghost version of itself, catering to a few flights and even fewer people.

The hush extends into the city.

Earlier in the evening, an Islamic State suicide squad burst into a seminary and killed a key Taliban ideologue, Rahimullah Ansari.

The Taliban, admittedly, are nervous — this is their first anniversary week and they don’t want any hardline, extremist groups to spoil the party. Only a few days ago, the Americans brought Afghanistan back to the front pages of newspapers, when they plucked the senior-most al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri from a balcony in the heart of Kabul, and killed him with a Hellfire missile launched from a drone. Today, there’s enough Taliban with enough weapons at that crossing to prevent pesky journalists from taking photos, to make up a small armoury.

Shahr-e-Naw, literally, The New City, used to be a cauldron of noise and activity, the streets choked with cars, the pavements buzzing with people of all ages, shapes and sizes. It was like a fashion parade — Kabuli women strutting their tent-like outer garment known as the “chadaree” in colours anything but black, luxuriating in the confidence brought about by 20 years of education — while the fruit sellers and currency converters and restaurants did brisk business on the backs of lavish Western aid.

But this Kabul seems to have retreated into itself. An unseasonal shower that sends everyone running home adds to the feeling that something is missing. A young boy still caresses his pet parrot, Toti, in a shoe shop as he waits for the rain to ebb.

Further down the street, Chara-i-Ansari, or Chowk Ansari, Aimuddin’s shop still sells the best vanilla ice cream in all South Asia, as his muscular, fellow worker hand-grinds the ingredients in an aluminium ‘deg’ that is embedded in cubes of ice.

‘Happy India has opened embassy in Kabul’

The sense of incompleteness had begun at the airport itself — the airport that has no particular name.

As we wait for our luggage at one of the two carousels, it’s heartening to note that the air-conditioning is running nicely. We ask one of the porters the cause for the luggage delay, and he turns around and says, “It’s because the cargo from Delhi has brought ‘paan’.”

Paan? Yes, paan (betel nut). He adds, “Like, khai-ke paan Banaraswallah,” a line from an old and much-loved Amitabh Bachhan starrer.

According to this porter, the cargo from Delhi, along with medicines and clothes and whatnot, also includes the betel nut. No one knows if this is true, but by now he has launched into “Hum toh thehre pardesi,” another Hindi film song of unknown vintage.

The luggage shows no signs of showing up.

A slim, young girl in nicely coordinated trousers and long tunic is standing close by, her non-resident Afghan look accentuated by an Australian accent. Afghanistan has changed so much. One sister left, evacuated, when the Taliban came to Kabul last year, and is now in the US. Another sister, recently married, refuses to leave the house. “They broke our hearts. The Taliban broke our hearts,” she said.

Meanwhile, the three young Taliban guards at the passenger entrance inside the airport, aged 21, 22 and 28 years — the older man once worked with the much-villified former president, Ashraf Ghani’s security — have no hesitation in speaking about Hindustan.

Hindustan is an old friend. We would like to revive communication with Hindustan. Pakistan and Iran are territorial neighbours and India is a bit far, but we will not allow our soil to be used by foreign countries against India, said one of them.

Back in Shahr-e-Naw, the Taliban and its mandate dominate the conversation.

Aimuddin is most eloquent. “The Americans destroyed the country. The Taliban are good for Afghanistan.”

Another young man at a burger joint pipes up in perfect English, “You cannot imagine what the Taliban can do to people.” A middle-aged Afghan-American, with several properties in the city, insists, “Afghanistan must be run by Afghans. Not by foreigners.”

Fazal Ahmad, a middle-aged Taliban gentleman from Kandahar, with four daughters — two working as doctors and the other two students — is escaping the rain at a shop which sells sweetmeats and birthday party paraphernalia made in China. He has been to India four times, twice for medical treatment.

“There is no need to be afraid of the Taliban. You can go where you like. We are happy that India has opened a “safarat”, an embassy, in Kabul. Right now it is small, it should be made bigger, so that Afghans can get visas to travel and Indians can come here,” he says.

The rain has eased. The Taliban leader makes his way home. The shopkeeper deals with a couple of late stragglers. Kabul is shutting down for the night, pushing its unresolved issues to another day.

(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)

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This story first appeared in India News Stream

When she presented her credentials in New York to the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to assume charge as India’s Permanent Representative (PR) to the UN, Ruchira Kamboj cracked the final frontier or glass ceiling of the Indian Foreign Service (IFS), becoming the first woman to ever hold that charge for India.

Deeming it a “privilege to be the first Indian woman to be given the honour to hold this position,” Kamboj had a special message: “To the girls out there, we all can make it!”

Kamboj, who broke another glass ceiling when she served in New Delhi as India’s only woman Chief of Protocol, and as the first woman to head India’s diplomatic Mission in the Kingdom of Bhutan, is very mindful of what exactly her appointment signifies, in terms of gender equality in the elite service.

This stage of gender parity has not exactly come easily to the IFS, despite the fact that the first woman ever to be elected President of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) was an Indian, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, back in 1953. And the fact that India had Indira Gandhi as Prime Minister for over 16 years.

Around the time that Pandit was presiding at the UNGA, Chonira B. Muthamma, India’s first woman IFS officer who had topped the civil service entrance exams and joined the IFS in 1949, had to give a blatantly discriminatory undertaking, along with other women then, that she would quit the service if she got married. While that rule was changed, Muthamma had to seek legal redress against gender discrimination several times; to get a foreign posting, to get a foreign posting as Ambassador and then to get her due promotion to Secretary- rank.

Finally, after decades of struggle, it was in a landmark judgement in 1979 that a three-member Bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer struck down the discriminatory provisions governing foreign service personnel and upheld Muthamma’s case. In a scathing rebuff to the government, the apex court impressed upon the government of India “the need to overhaul all service rules to remove the stains of sex discrimination, without waiting for ad-hoc inspiration from writ petitions or gender charity.”

Muthamma retired from the IFS in 1982 after 32 years of exemplary service, after breaking South Block’s glass ceiling for all the women who joined the IFS after her. Since then, the IFS has come a long way in changing gender stereotypes.

India has subsequently had many very distinguished woman diplomats, ambassadors and high commissioners who have held charge in countries like the USA, China, Spain, Sri Lanka, Australia, Lebanon, Bangladesh, Qatar, Switzerland, Serbia, Russia, Slovakia and Ghana, among numerous other countries. Three women have served as Foreign Secretary – Chokila Iyer, Nirupama Rao and Sujatha Singh – all of whom have been highly respected for their equanimity, determination and unflappable poise in upholding Indian national interest during their years of distinguished service.

Rao broke another glass ceiling as India’s first foreign office spokesperson and was among the first to embrace the use of social media to disseminate key aspects of foreign policy. India refused to give up her nuclear options at the Conference on Disarmament when Ambassador Arundhati Ghose refused to even countenance the huge pressure from the combined hectoring of the P-5 and other nations to join the discriminatory NPT (nuclear non-proliferation treaty).

Women have held charge in countries of West Asia and in war-torn countries such as Libya, Lebanon, and Afghanistan. In Libya and Lebanon, in fact, the Ambassadors, exemplarily, refused to desert their posts and stayed on with the Indian communities under extremely trying conditions of war and bombings.

Kamboj, who has assumed charge at a time when India is nearing the end of its two-year non-permanent tenure as a member of the UN Security Council, has her work cut out. She is looking forward to a “productive tenure” that will most effectively weave Indian national priorities into the global multilateral framework.

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The South Asian Women in Media (India) condemns the arrest of Teesta Setalvad, secretary and co-founder of Citizens for Justice and Peace, and of Mohammed Zubair, co-founder of Alt News, the fact-checking media organisation, and expresses solidarity with them. SAWM India seeks their immediate release and demands that all charges against them be dropped.

Setalvad’s arrest came hours after the Supreme Court of India dismissed a petition by Zakia Jafri, the wife of Congress parliamentarian Ehsan Jafri, who was killed in the 2002 riots in Gujarat. The petition was filed after the 2012 clean chit to then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi. It sought a probe into an alleged larger conspiracy behind the riots. Setalvad was a co-petitioner in the case as a representative of the CJP, an organisation formed to seek justice for the victims of the Gujarat riots.

While dismissing their petition on June 24, the Supreme Court said the proccedings were pursued “to keep the pot boiling, obviously for ulterior design”. It also said “all those involved in such abuse of process, need to be in the dock and proceeded with in accordance with the law”.

In an interview after the Supreme Court decision, Home Minister Amit Shah said Modi had suffered long years at the hands of opposition parties, some NGOs and “motivated elements” to clear his name.

Setalvad’s arrest followed shortly thereafter. The FIR in the case quotes heavily from the Supreme Court judgement, treating it virtually as an order for the arrest of Setalvad, former Gujarat DGP B P Sreekumar, and the already imprisoned IPS officer Sanjeev Bhatt.

Also disturbing are the Supreme Court’s remarks. The nearly decade long delay in deciding the case is hardly to be blamed on the petitioners. The Court ‘s remarks bear ominous portents for those who knock on its doors with real or perceived grievances against the State.

The alacrity with which the Gujarat Police jumped to the arrest of a rights activist with over two decades of public service forms part of a disquieting chronology. The decision to dispatch officials of the state police’s anti-terror squad to Mumbai for the purpose is ominous, considering the current trend of describing all those opposed to the government as “urban Naxals” and their activities as “terrorism”.

It is in this atmosphere that police forces under BJP governments across the country appear to be waiting for the smallest opportunity to crack down on dissenters. The Delhi Police’s decision to arrest Mohammed Zubair on charges of hate speech for a tweet in 2018 in which he reproduced a poster from a 1983 Bollywood comedy film ‘Kisi Se Na Kehna‘  is strange, to say the least.

He has been arrested on the complaint of a twitter handle whose only tweet in the eight months of its existence has been to complain against Zubair.

Altnews has been providing yeoman service as a fact checking site, and Zubair is one of its pillars. In recent days, he had become the target of a social media campaign for his role in exposing the hate speech of suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma.

Incidentally, Sharma, against whom too Delhi Police has registered an FIR for hate speech, has not yet been arrested and is apparently untraceable!

Both arrests, of Setalvad and Zubair, make a mockery of the G-7 Plus 4 statement on “Resilient Democracies”, that India signed on Monday after the G-7 summit in Germany.

Among other promises in the statement to advance democratic practices, India has signed on to “protecting the feedom of expression online and offline and ensuring a free and independent media landscape…”; “guarding the freedom, independence and diversity of civil society actors, speaking out against threats to civic space and respecting freedom of association and peaceful assembly”; and to “protecting freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief and promoting inter-faith dialogue”.

SAWM India believes the arrests of Setalvad and Zubair go against the letter and spirit of this statement as well as India’s own constitutional guarantees and freedoms.

Both Setalvad and Zubair must be released without delay and the charges against them withdrawn.

SAWM India calls on all other civil society groups to join in this demand for their release.

This story first appeared in ThePrint

As many as 20 countries and organisations have issued statements, but not Bangladesh. It has clearly understood at whose door the power lies in India.

When the sun meets the sea in Cox’s Bazaar, at the very tip of Bangladesh, it’s easy to forget that only a few kilometres beyond, in Teknaf, protests were held last week against the derogatory remarks recently made about Prophet Muhammad by two BJP politicians. When your feet sink into the softest sand on the world’s longest natural beach, it’s tempting to drown out the anti-India slogans at the Baitul Mukarram mosque in faraway Dhaka with the gentle roar of the waters of the Bay of Bengal.

India is never far away from Bangladesh, but last week it was particularly close. Two former BJP leaders were the cynosure of all eyes as the Islamic world erupted in anger against insulting comments they had made against the Prophet. As many as 20 countries and organisations have issued statements, while a few summoned the Indian ambassador for a dressing down – but Bangladesh has remained absolutely quiet.

“We are not compromising on the honour of the Prophet. We strongly condemn any insult to the Holy Prophet whenever and wherever it happens. But the government of India has taken action and we thank them for it. We congratulate them. Now the law will take its own course,” Bangladesh information minister Hasan Mahmud told a group of visiting Indian journalists, including me, over the weekend.

Mahmud’s fulsome praise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is certainly unusual. For the first time since Modi came to power, the PM has been on the back foot regarding his foreign policy because of the comments about the Prophet by his own ruling party. The criticism by the Islamic world is clearly hurting.

But the PM will likely travel to the UAE by the end of June, on his return journey from the G-20 summit in Germany, when India takes over the chair, clearly to make the point that the Nupur Sharma-Naveen Jindal duo were speaking against the party line.

Why UAE? Abu Dhabi criticised the BJP politicians’ comments, but did not summon the Indian ambassador. Moreover, an important free trade agreement has been recently signed between India and the UAE. Modi’s visit to Dubai and Abu Dhabi is sure to send the signal that the Prime Minister won’t allow anyone to undermine the achievements of his Gulf policy.

Forged in blood

Like the UAE, Bangladesh has clearly understood at whose door the power lies in India. The Congress’ Indira Gandhi may have helped Bangladesh win its liberation war 50 years ago, but that party today mostly manifests its angst by tweeting and fulminating on social media. Other regional parties are powerful in their own right, but the fact remains that there is no national alternative to Narendra Modi today.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, among the most politically astute leaders in the region, is keenly aware of this. China is a significant presence in Bangladesh, building bridges and roads and railway lines, but India is so omnipresent that it cannot be ignored.

At the interaction with Indian journalists in Dhaka over the weekend Mahmud and his colleagues repeated the statement that “ties between India and Bangladesh are forged in blood.” They were of course referring to the ultimate sacrifice paid by about 3,900 Indian soldiers as well as 10,000 wounded in the 1971 Bangladesh war. It is a sentiment widely heard across Bangladesh. From students to shopkeepers to politicians, the line that “India shared its home and hearth with the people who wanted to be free” resounds across the country.

That’s why the ruling Awami League’s refusal to criticise Narendra Modi and his government, on the Prophet controversy or otherwise, is embedded in the realisation that he is among the most powerful leaders in South Asia. That is why when Home Minister Amit Shah made his undiplomatic comments calling Bangladeshi infiltrators “deemak” or termites some years ago, Bangladeshis either ignored the insult or swallowed it.

Here’s another example. At the informal interaction in Dhaka over the weekend, Mahmud was asked whether the sharing of the Teesta river waters would be on the agenda when PM Hasina visits New Delhi a few months from now.

Mahmud responded with some alacrity. “On Teesta, the problem is the provincial government (West Bengal), not the Central government. So PM Hasina can visit India even if Teesta is not yet done. But we do hope that the issue will be resolved as early as possible,” he said.

Mahmud’s refusal to indict the Modi government and instead, lay the blame on West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s shoulders, on what has been an emotive issue inside Bangladesh for several years, is indicative of the mood in the Hasina establishment.

The Bangladesh model

In any case, the Bangladeshis rightly reason, the anti-India protests on the Prophet issue that took place after the Friday prayers outside several mosques across the country are sending two messages to India:

The first, “see what we are up against,” and the second, “that is why there is no option but the Awami League.”

Both messages seem to have been properly received in Delhi. Moreover, the fact that the Awami League can control the anti-India slogans in the mosques and not let them get out of hand and still come up with a congratulatory comment about India is bound to put Sheikh Hasina and Bangladesh on the frontline of Modi’s friends and partners abroad.

The opposite also holds true. While the BJP hasn’t been able to control its own foul-mouthed spokespersons who got so carried away by their anti-Islamic rhetoric that they forgot the red lines, Hasina has dealt with anti-Hindu protests with a severe hand. The damage to property at a Durga Puja pandal last year in Comilla and similar incidents elsewhere were swiftly contained on direct orders by the Bangladesh PM.

Mahmud confirmed that the victims have been well compensated for their losses, up to two or three times.

So as the sea recedes into the horizon at Cox’s Bazaar and darkness falls, one wonders if the Bangladesh model of a secular, Muslim-majority republic, born out of the womb of an Islamic nation 50 long years ago, can become a model for the rest of South Asia?

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