Author: Priya Saha

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has categorically rejected the Indian Ministry of External Affairs’ unwarranted and gratuitous remarks on an incident involving the statue of Sikh ruler Maharaja Ranjit Singh in Lahore. “It is highly hypocritical of a country that is purveyor of state-sponsored discrimination against its minorities to pontificate on the issue of minority rights elsewhere. A mature state would have appreciated the immediate arrest of the accused against whom strict legal action has already been initiated,” Foreign Office spokesman Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri said in a statement on Wednesday. He said the government, legislature, judiciary, civil society and the media in Pakistan…

The District Magistrate, Imphal East, has issued a temporary permit for three hours only on August 20 for the observation of the Manipuri Language Day. The permit was issued on August 17 to L. Sharatchandra, Convener of the State-level Manipuri Language Celebration Committee. The permit shall be valid from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on August 20.Manipuri is one of the oldest languages in India. Recently, the titular king of Manipur, Leishemba Sanajaoba who the lone Rajya Sabha MP from Manipur, had urged the House to recognise it as a classical language. Manipuri is the lingua franca of the State.…

Twenty years after the Taliban were expelled from power they are back and the US has left in an ignominious departure. It could have been done better in many ways but the signs mean that the Western cluster had reached its limits in Afghanistan. President Joe Biden is getting all the flack but it’s Trump who signed the deal. The point is, no matter how inept Biden and how unstable Trump may be seen, it’s the USA which has weakened in the last 20 years and the Taliban hasn’t become stronger. And China and Russia are stronger in the region.  …

By Jill GralowSYDNEY (Reuters) – From his home in Sydney, Abdul Alizada is watching events unfold in Afghanistan, fearful for his many relatives still living there.He has extra cause to be afraid. Alizada’s family belong to the Hazara, an ethnic minority who have for decades been targeted by militants, including the Taliban and Islamic State, for their ethnicity and religious beliefs.Most of the Hazara are Shi’ite Muslims, whom Sunni hardliners like the Taliban abhor, and the community has faced persecution and violence for decades, including recent attacks on a maternity hospital and a girls’ school.Alizada says the Hazara have been…

India needs to ignore its fake secularists and protect the last of the vulnerable minorities in Afghanistan from the Taliban Taliban fighters patrol inside the city of Ghazni, southwest of Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, 12 August, 2021. AP Photo/Gulabuddin Amiri And the chorus by the usual suspects against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) has started rising again. “Should India’s response to the Afghanistan crisis depend on a person’s faith?” “Should Afghan Muslim victims of the Taliban be denied refuge under the CAA?” The short answer is yes. Here is why. The CAA is narrow-window legislation that fast-tracks citizenship for six persecuted…

Does the militant group’s presence spell trouble for Bangladesh? Early this month, on information that members of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) were holding a secret meeting in a mosque in a Rohingya camp, the Armed Police Battalion raided the site. When the raid occurred at Chakmarkul Rohingya Block-3 camp, Amtala mosque, the members escaped the dragnet. The police seized 72 pairs of sandals as evidence of the botched meeting.The ARSA members are mostly recruits from among the Rohingya refugees. They mostly raise funds from the Rohingya living in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.ARSA is the…

Responding to Sri Lanka’s expansion of its draconian counter-terrorism legislation in March, a team of UN Special rapporteurs have published a damning report highlighting that the current legislation “risks jeopardizing the rights and liberties of persons who may be detained arbitrarily, especially religious and ethnic minorities, and may curtail political dissent”. The report follows decades of concern over the Prevention of Terrorism Act which has been used disproportionately to arbitrarily detain Tamils and has been linked to accounts of torture and enforced disappearances. The European Union has recently passed a resolution similarly condemning Sri Lanka’s retention of the legislation and…

Bangladesh has urged all stakeholders in Afghanistan to maintain peace and calm, ensuring safety and security of all including foreign nationals. In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs today said Bangladesh is carefully observing the fast-evolving situation in Afghanistan, which may have an impact on the region and beyond. For all latest news, follow The Daily Star’s Google News channel. Taliban swept into Kabul unopposed and seized the presidential palace, while Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country following evacuation of US embassy officials in Kabul yesterday. The foreign ministry statement said Bangladesh and Afghanistan share historical and cultural…

Shagufta Masih and her husband, Shafqat Emmanuel, with their children.(Photo: ADF International) Last week, a Pakistani Christian couple, who had been on death row for seven years on false blasphemy charges, has safely arrived in Europe. The Lahore High Court had overturned their death sentence in early June. A session court had sentenced Shagufta Kausar and Shafqat Emmanuel to death by hanging in 2014. The parents of four faced death threats after the news of their acquittal broke. ADF International, a human rights organisation supporting the couple. Here Sofia Hörder of ADF examines the issue:  We’ve been here before. A…

Even during the pandemic, sectarian violence has continued “What is your religion?” — this peculiar question (yes, it feels peculiar when asked within seconds of being introduced to someone) followed me all throughout my life as my two names are pure Bangla words while my surname is a common one used by people of different religions.I always wondered why knowing someone’s religion was so important. I could be a non-believer with the most “religious” name and vice versa. “Who gave you this name?” “How religious are you?” These were some other odd questions that bugged me, with the worst one…

Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif limply fall to the Taliban: A hidden deal? Kanako Mita and Lee Jay Walker Modern Tokyo Times The collapse of the armed forces of Afghanistan is astonishing given the alleged professional training by America, the United Kingdom, and other NATO powers. Hence, it seems that backchannels in America, Pakistan, the Taliban (in Qatar), and inside the armed forces of Afghanistan have all done a deal to hand power to the Taliban on a plate. Thus, the fall of Mazar-e-Sharif was a sign that the game was over for President Ashraf Ghani. Therefore, once Mazar-e-Sharif fell, the writing…

Maps showing Bangladesh as being part of India are very often shared by Indian Hindu right wing leaders on social media In an interesting turn of events, a senior leader of Indian ruling party has taken oath for what he termed an undivided India while sharing its map incorporating Bangladesh on Twitter.Ever since being posted on Saturday afternoon, the tweet kept on garnering sharp criticism. 14th August is the day of solemn vow & oath for “#AkhandaBharatSankalpaDiwas (undivided Bharat)”, the tweet of Dilip Ghosh, president of the West Bengal state unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), reads. The call followed his claim…