Maham Khan

ISLAMABAD: With angel wings on its cover, the children&rsquo;s book told the story of a father watching over his son from heaven, a tale Utah mother-of-three Kouri Richins said she wrote to comfort children grieving the loss of a parent. It would later be revealed that she had poisoned her own husband six months earlier. On May 13, a Utah judge sentenced Richins to life in prison without parole for the 2022 fentanyl murder of her husband, Eric Richins, 39, as reported by ABC News The date was not incidental. It was Eric&#39;s birthday. He would have turned 44. The book was called &ldquo;Are You With Me?&rdquo; Richins published it in the months between killing her husband and her arrest, appearing on local television, speaking about loss, and building the image of a widow doing her best. A ghostwriting company helped produce it, according to CNN. Her mother mailed a copy to the Summit County Sheriff&#39;s Office with a note describing Kouri as a &ldquo;devoted wife.&rdquo; However, investigators were less convinced. Eric Richins was found unresponsive at the foot of the couple&#39;s bed on March 4, 2022, in their home near Park City, Utah, United States. A medical examiner determined he had died of fentanyl poisoning, at five times the lethal dose, as reported by several American news outlets, including the New York Times and CBS News. The fentanyl was illicit. There was no therapeutic explanation for the concentration found in his system. And it was not the first attempt. On Valentine&#39;s Day, six weeks earlier, Eric had consumed a fentanyl-laced sandwich, suffered a blackout and respiratory distress, and survived only after a family member administered an EpiPen, according to CNN. He called a friend afterward and said, &quot;I think my wife tried to poison me,&quot; as per the New York Times. He was right. The father of three would be dead within weeks. The motive, prosecutors argued, was financial and cold. By early 2022, Richins had accumulated approximately $4.5 million in debt, according to several local news outlets, including The Park Record and CNN.&nbsp; She had taken out fraudulent credit lines in Eric&#39;s name, opened life insurance policies on him without his knowledge, and purchased a $2 million mansion he had refused to fund. She closed on that property the day after he died, according to CBS News. Eric had been quietly preparing to leave. He consulted a divorce attorney in 2020 and restructured his estate to exclude her, according to KPCW, a public radio station in Kouri&rsquo;s city. Prosecutors argued Kouri did not know this and believed she stood to inherit millions. The digital record was direct. Searches recovered from her phone included &quot;What is a lethal dose of fentanyl?&quot;, &quot;How is poisoning marked on a death certificate?&quot;, and &quot;Luxury prisons for the rich America,&quot; according to AP News. The family housekeeper testified that Richins had purchased fentanyl pills on at least four occasions. While in custody, Richins was found with a handwritten six-page letter allegedly instructing family members to tell investigators Eric had sourced the fentanyl himself, as per CNN and KPCW. The defense called it fiction. The jury deliberated for less than three hours before convicting her on five felony counts, including aggravated murder. At sentencing, the boys she had written the book for delivered statements of their own. The middle son, now 11, testified that his mother locked him inside the house when she was intoxicated. He said he would feel safer if she stayed in prison, according to CBS News. Judge Richard Mrazik sentenced her to life without parole, calling her &quot;simply too dangerous to ever be free,&quot; as reported by KPCW. She wrote a book about children who lose their fathers, yet her own children lost theirs &mdash; and she was the reason.

Kouri Richins reacts to impact statements from the Richins family during her sentencing in 3rd District Court in Park City, Utah. (AFP)

Americas

Utah woman Kouri Richins is sentenced to life without parole for murdering her husband with fentanyl after writing a children’s book about loss while portraying herself as a grieving widow.

Kouri Richins wrote about losing a father after killing one

ISLAMABAD: On a warm Sunday in May, Sumaira loaded her arms with cherries, a dress and a changair &ndash; a decorative basket woven from reeds &ndash; and brought them to her mother. It was not a grand gesture, she said. But her mother smiled. Across Pakistan this Mother&#39;s Day, similar scenes played out in living rooms and on WhatsApp video calls, in households where the holiday is embraced warmly and others where it barely registers. The day has taken a quiet hold in urban Pakistan over the last decade. Not uniformly, not without dissent, but undeniably. Pakistan TV Digital reached out to people across the country to find out how they marked the occasion. In Rawalpindi, Arhama kept it simple. A cheeseboard, she said, because that is what her mother likes. The specificity of the choice mattered. It was not picked from a promotional display or a sponsored post. It was chosen because someone paid attention, and had been paying attention for years. <figure class="fr-media"><img src="https://paktv-assets-7d41fab8.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/a3b56717-d920-4f2b-912b-e3691c37ce22-2197cfcd-b157-4cb8-b0dd-c2cdc8602cef.jfif" alt="2197cfcd-b157-4cb8-b0dd-c2cdc8602cef.jfif" class="fr-fil fr-dib"><figcaption class="caption-cover-image text-sm text-gray-600 italic">Cheeseboard assembled for a Mother&#39;s Day celebration in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, May 10, 2026.</figcaption></figure> That kind of quiet knowing is what the day, at its best, seems to surface. Not the roses sold for Rs300 or more outside every major shopping plaza, but the accumulated knowledge of a child who has watched their mother long enough to know exactly what she enjoys. For some, the day was measured in distance. Umair, based in Peshawar, spent Mother&#39;s Day at the office. There was no way to get home in time. He arranged flowers and a cake online and had them sent to his family. Later, they sent back a video. His mother was leaning over the cake, cutting through it. She looked happy. He had not been there to see it in person. It is a situation familiar to millions. Pakistan is a country where young men &ndash; and now even women &ndash; routinely relocate for work, sometimes to other cities, sometimes abroad, and the distance quietly reshapes how families observe these days. The phone screen becomes the table they gather around. The video call becomes the room. The holiday itself is relatively new to Pakistan in its current form. Social media accelerated its spread through the 2010s and the markets followed. Restaurants offered Mother&#39;s Day brunches. Florists doubled their prices. For some families, particularly in larger cities, it became a fixture. For others, it remained foreign territory. In Karachi, Areeba falls firmly in the second camp. No one in her family observes the day. Not Mother&#39;s Day, not birthdays, not any of it. She is direct about why. It is commercialized, she said, and the point is lost on her. Her position is not that mothers do not deserve recognition, it is the opposite. She believes they deserve it every day, not because a market calendar has designated the second Sunday of May for the purpose. Her skepticism is neither new nor uniquely Pakistani. But it carries a particular weight here. Reverence for mothers is embedded in this society at a level that goes beyond sentiment. It is present in religious teaching, in poetry, in the way major decisions are still deferred to a mother&#39;s judgment. The word maa is among the first a child learns. The argument that every day is already Mother&#39;s Day is not deflection. For many people, it is genuinely how they live. Still, for those who do observe it, the holiday offers something the everyday does not. An occasion, a nudge, a shared moment that might otherwise be quietly postponed. A cheeseboard. A changair. A cake cut on a phone screen 400 kilometers from where a son sat watching. The mothers, by most accounts, were touched.

A Pakistani woman carries her son as she walk on a street in Islamabad on May 13, 2012, on Mother's Day. (AFP)

Culture

Across cities, families found small, tender ways to honor the occasion. Not everyone was convinced they should have to though.

From Rawalpindi to Karachi, Pakistan marks Mother's Day –  with cake, cherries, and a few skeptics

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is hosting negotiations between the United States and Iran, the latest chapter in a decades-long diplomatic record that spans secret back channels, hostage negotiations, arms deals, and multilateral nuclear talks, most of which ended without a lasting agreement. Official records and news archives show that despite the absence of formal diplomatic relations since 1980, the two governments have returned to the negotiating table repeatedly, across administrations and across continents. What follows is a chronological account of every significant diplomatic engagement between Washington and Tehran on record. November 28 &ndash; December 1, 1943 | The Tehran Conference Venue: Tehran, Iran US President Franklin D. Roosevelt met with Allied leaders in Tehran to coordinate military strategy during World War II. According to US State Department archives, the discussions covered military objectives for the remainder of the war, as well as the future of Iranian sovereignty. The conference concluded with a formal declaration committing the Allied powers to the maintenance of Iranian independence and territorial integrity after the war. November 4, 1979 &ndash; January 19, 1981 | The Algiers Accords Venue: Algiers, Algeria (mediated) Formal diplomatic ties dissolved during the Iran hostage crisis on November 4, 1979. According to US National Archives, the two nations conducted 444 days of negotiations through Algerian intermediaries. The discussions covered four matters: the release of 52 American hostages; the unfreezing of Iranian government assets held in US banks; a formal US pledge of non-intervention in Iranian affairs; and the establishment of the Iran-US Claims Tribunal at The Hague to resolve financial disputes. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, the Algiers Accords were signed on January 19, 1981. The agreement was properly concluded. The Congressional Research Service noted that the two countries have not maintained formal diplomatic relations since 1980. May 1986 | Secret Tehran Meetings Venue: Tehran, Iran US officials conducted secret meetings in Tehran in May 1986. As reported by the Reagan Library, a delegation led by former National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane traveled to Iran to discuss an exchange of arms for the release of American hostages held in Lebanon. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, the broader arrangement also involved redirecting proceeds from arms sales to fund other covert operations. Iranian Ambassador Said Rajaie-Khorassani stated at a New York press conference that the visits were &ldquo;fruitless.&rdquo; The talks did not result in a formal agreement. January 1998 | Cultural Diplomacy and Track-Two Contact Venue: Various Iranian President Mohammad Khatami proposed cultural engagement during a televised broadcast. As per US State Department files, this led to informal track-two diplomatic contact, including sporting exchanges later that year. Official government-level talks did not follow. September 1998 | Six-Plus-Two Talks Venue: United Nations General Assembly, New York US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Iran&#39;s deputy foreign minister met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, within the framework of the Six-Plus-Two multilateral talks on Afghanistan. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, the meeting was the highest-level contact between US and Iranian officials since 1979. The discussions addressed regional stability, specifically the situation in Afghanistan. The National Security Archive noted this as part of a broader shift in US approach toward pursuing direct contact with Tehran. The meeting did not produce a bilateral agreement. April 2000 | Bilateral Diplomatic Outreach Venue: Washington, DC Secretary of State Albright delivered a formal statement acknowledging the United States&#39; role in the 1953 overthrow of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, calling prior US policy toward Iran &quot;regrettably shortsighted,&quot; according to the Council on Foreign Relations. The outreach included the lifting of some US sanctions on Iranian goods. The CRS noted that this period represented a brief improvement in bilateral relations. No comprehensive diplomatic framework resulted. December 5, 2001 | The Bonn Agreement Venue: Bonn, Germany Following the September 11, 2001 attacks and US military operations in Afghanistan, the United States and Iran participated in multilateral negotiations in Bonn on Afghanistan&#39;s political future. The two governments coordinated on two specific issues: post-Taliban governing arrangements in Afghanistan, and the repatriation of Afghan refugees, as per the Council on Foreign Relations. The two sides worked jointly on terms allowing displaced Afghan citizens to return home. The National Security Archive described this as a notable instance of direct US-Iran cooperation on a shared regional objective. The Bonn Agreement was concluded and signed on December 5, 2001. May 2003 | The Grand Bargain Proposal Venue: Washington, DC (delivered through Swiss intermediaries) Iran submitted a comprehensive diplomatic proposal to the United States through Swiss diplomats, who represented US interests in Tehran. According to the Iranian Foreign Ministry, the document (which became known as the Grand Bargain) offered nuclear inspections, cooperation on regional security, and steps toward broader normalization. The CRS noted that bilateral tensions had risen in the early 2000s amid reports of previously undisclosed nuclear facilities. The proposal was not taken up. Talks did not proceed to a formal conclusion. March 2013 &ndash; July 14, 2015 | The Secret Oman Channel and the JCPOA Venue: Muscat, Oman (back channel); Geneva, Switzerland (interim deal); Vienna, Austria (final agreement) The Obama administration opened a secret diplomatic back channel with Iran in Muscat, Oman, beginning in 2011. As reported by the White House, the meetings centered on Iran&#39;s nuclear activities and laid the groundwork for formal multilateral engagement. In September 2013, President Barack Obama and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani spoke by telephone (the most direct contact between the two countries&#39; leaders since 1979). The call opened a formal negotiating track between Iran and the P5+1 &mdash; the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany. An interim agreement, the Joint Plan of Action, was signed in Geneva on November 24, 2013, providing limited sanctions relief in exchange for a partial freeze of Iran&#39;s nuclear activities. The process moved to full negotiations and concluded in Vienna on July 14, 2015, with the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. The JCPOA required Iran to dismantle and redesign its nuclear reactor at Arak, submit to enhanced IAEA verification, and limit uranium enrichment for a minimum of 15 years. In exchange, the US waived secondary sanctions on Iran&#39;s oil exports and financial sector, the EU lifted its ban on Iranian oil purchases, and UN Security Council resolutions imposing related restrictions were revoked, per the CRS. The agreement was concluded and signed by China, France, Germany, Iran, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union. April 2021 &ndash; August 2022 | JCPOA Revival Talks Venue: Vienna, Austria Multilateral negotiations aimed at restoring mutual compliance with the 2015 JCPOA were held in Vienna beginning in April 2021. According to the US State Department, the meetings focused on a mutual return to the terms of the 2015 nuclear agreement. The sessions were structured as proximity meetings, in which US and Iranian delegations held separate sessions in the same building while European intermediaries carried proposals between them. The CRS reported that the talks addressed the same core issues as the original JCPOA: the scope of Iran&#39;s nuclear activities and the corresponding level of sanctions relief. Multiple rounds were held over more than a year. The talks did not reach a new agreement. September 2023 | Prisoner Exchange Venue: Doha, Qatar (transfer point) The United States and Iran concluded a prisoner exchange mediated by Oman, Qatar, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. The specific terms covered two matters: the release of five Iranian-American dual citizens detained in Iran; and the transfer of approximately $6 billion in Iranian funds frozen in South Korea, released through a US sanctions waiver and routed through Qatar. The CRS reported that the funds were designated exclusively for humanitarian purchases. The exchange was concluded. No broader nuclear or diplomatic agreement was attached to it. April 12 &ndash; May 11, 2025 | Direct Nuclear Talks Venue: Muscat, Oman (April 12, April 26, May 11); Rome, Italy (April 19) Four rounds of direct US-Iran nuclear talks were held between April 12 and May 11, 2025. As reported by Iranian state news, the delegations were led by US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. It was the first direct, face-to-face engagement between US and Iranian diplomats since 2017. Omani officials served as intermediaries across multiple sessions. The discussions addressed Iran&#39;s nuclear enrichment program and the removal of US sanctions. The CRS reported that the two sides exchanged written proposals during this period. The discussions were inconclusive. No agreement was finalized. April 11, 2026 | Islamabad Talks Venue: Islamabad, Pakistan Pakistan is currently hosting negotiations between the United States and Iran in Islamabad. Officially dubbed Islamabad talks will begin on April 11, 2026, following a military conflict between the two sides that began February 28. As per Iranian government statements, the agenda covers a 10-point peace plan addressing regional stability and the status of the Strait of Hormuz. These negotiations are currently active.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (R) talks on January 14, 2015 with US State Secretary John Kerry before their meeting in Geneva. Zarif said on January 14 that his meeting with his US counterpart was vital for progress on talks on Tehran's co

Middle East

From a 1943 wartime conference to active talks in Islamabad, the United States and Iran have sat across the table from each other repeatedly — through revolution, hostage crises, and nuclear standoffs.

The secret channels, sealed deals, and unfinished business of US-Iran diplomacy

ISLAMABAD: For decades, political leaders, generals, and commentators have leaned on a familiar phrase to explain repeated foreign failures in Afghanistan: &ldquo;the graveyard of empires.&rdquo; The expression suggests inevitability, that geography and culture doom any outside power to defeat, turning policy missteps into acts of fate. But scholars and analysts argue the phrase is less historical truth than convenient narrative. Abdul Basit, Senior Associate Fellow at the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at Nanyang Technological University, calls it &ldquo;a very narrow framing which deprives the country of its diversity and the vitality it offers.&rdquo; He warns the implications extend beyond semantics: &ldquo;If Afghanistan is in trouble, because it is the heart of Asia, the entire Asia will be in trouble.&rdquo; A modern phrase, not an ancient truth The historical record does not support the idea that Afghanistan has consistently defeated foreign powers. The phrase itself only entered widespread use in November 2001, when former CIA station chief Milton Bearden wrote in Foreign Affairs that empires from Alexander the Great to the Soviet Union had been undone by &ldquo;unruly Afghan tribals.&rdquo; Historians R. Gerald Hughes and James Fergusson reject that thesis, arguing it is &ldquo;historically illiterate and empirically flawed.&rdquo; They contend the narrative distorts two millennia of regional history, though its resurgence in 2001 aligned closely with the United States preparing to invade Afghanistan. Research drawing on imperial records and studies by Thomas Barfield indicates the territory was under foreign rule for at least 75.95% of the past 2,000 years, rising to 87.85% under stricter definitions. Barfield describes an &ldquo;Afghan Paradox&rdquo;: stability historically depended on strong centralized authority, not resistance to it. Empires including the Mongols, Kushans, Mughals, and Safavids ruled successfully for extended periods. In this framing, Afghanistan was less a graveyard than a strategic corridor. A &ldquo;highway of conquest&rdquo; linking major regions. Origins in imperial failureThe roots of the myth trace back to the First Anglo-Afghan War (1839&ndash;1842). While the British invasion initially succeeded, it ended in catastrophe during a retreat in which thousands of soldiers and civilians were killed near Gandamak. According to Martin J. Bayly, colonial records framed the defeat in ways that shifted blame from military leadership to the environment and local population. Nivi Manchanda argues this narrative was deliberately constructed to shield decision-makers from scrutiny. Sahar Khan of the Stimson Center describes the pattern clearly: &ldquo;The term shifts the blame away from decision-makers and onto things like the terrain, decentralized power structures, and cultural norms.&rdquo; The British themselves undermined the myth during the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878&ndash;1881), adapting their strategy and ultimately imposing a protectorate over Afghanistan for decades. Repeating the narrativeThe Soviet experience followed a similar trajectory. Journalist Arshad Yousafzai notes: &ldquo;the Soviets didn&#39;t collapse solely because of Afghanistan, they fell apart because of deep economic rot and political shifts back in Moscow.&rdquo; Despite this, the &ldquo;graveyard&rdquo; framing persists, often simplifying complex geopolitical failures into cultural inevitabilities. Human consequencesAnalysts say the narrative carries real-world costs. By recasting policy failures as destiny, it obscures accountability and sidelines the lived realities of Afghans. Recent reporting by Amnesty International and the US State Department documents severe restrictions on women&rsquo;s rights, along with arbitrary arrests, forced disappearances, and extrajudicial killings. As Khan puts it, &ldquo;The phrase &lsquo;graveyard of empires&rsquo; transforms a policy failure into a destiny.&rdquo; The historical record suggests otherwise. What ended foreign campaigns in Afghanistan was not an immutable landscape or culture, but decisions made by those who led them.

Afghan men armed with guns and rifles march in the Zazai Maidan district of Khost province on March 27, 2026. (AFP)

Afghanistan

The phrase "graveyard of empires" is less a historical truth about Afghanistan than a piece of political cover; invented, sustained, and deployed by the very powers it flatters.

Graveyard myth shields empires from accountability in Afghanistan’s history

ISLAMABAD: The debate over how to write &quot;strong female characters&quot; has consumed Hollywood for years. But in the folklore of Pakistan, etched into tombs, preserved in 17th-century manuscripts, and sung across five distinct regions, women have been swimming rivers, crossing deserts, debating clerics and slaying demons for half a millennium. Consider Sohni, from Sindh&#39;s Shahdadpur, where her tomb still stands. Every night, she navigates the treacherous Chenab River on an unbaked clay pot to reach Mahiwal, who waits passively on the opposite bank. She is the risk-taker, the boundary-crosser, the agent of her own desire. When the pot dissolves and she drowns, it is her conscious choice to enter the water rather than accept a life without autonomy. Mahiwal is merely the prize at the finish line. Or Sassui, immortalized in Shah Jo Risalo and anchored to the Kech-Makran route in Balochistan. She walks barefoot across the blistering Thar Desert to find her kidnapped lover Punnhun. The entire Hero&#39;s Journey, the trials, the suffering, the confrontation with the antagonist, belongs to her.&nbsp; Punnhun sleeps. Sassui acts. When threatened with assault by a shepherd, she doesn&#39;t wait for rescue; she commands the earth itself to open and swallow her, protecting her agency through spiritual ascension. She is neither damsel nor deity, she is sovereign. These aren&#39;t anomalies. They&#39;re the rule. In Punjab&#39;s Jhang district, a tomb dated 1471 CE verifies the existence of Heer. In Waris Shah&#39;s epic, she doesn&#39;t weep silently when forced into marriage, she engages the Qazi in fierce theological debate, citing Islamic jurisprudence to argue that forced marriage violates divine law. She schools the clergy. Ranjha, meanwhile, is a passive flute-player content to herd her buffaloes. He is her disciple, not her savior. From the Pashtun highlands of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa comes Gul Makai, preserved in 17th-century prose manuscripts. This woman stops an inter-tribal war by wielding the Quran as rhetorical weapon. She forces an all-male Jirga (council) to submit to her interpretation of sacred text. Her agency is intellectual, theological, revolutionary. Malala Yousafzai didn&#39;t choose this name accidentally. Even the &quot;damsel&quot; archetype collapses. In Sindh&#39;s Sehwan region, Momal builds a palace rigged with lethal puzzles to test and reject male suitors. She controls the gaze, the space, the rules. In Balochistan&#39;s heroic age, Hani is forced to marry the powerful Mir Chakar Rind to save her true love. She refuses to consummate the marriage for thirty years by turning her body into an unconquerable fortress. Her &quot;no&quot; is more powerful than a king&#39;s armies. And then there&#39;s Durdana Chelmard from folk anthologies, the monster-slayer who dresses as &quot;the strength of forty men&quot; to kill the demon terrorizing her kingdom, not for glory, but because the men failed. She is Gretel defeating the witch while Hansel cowers in the cage. These Pakistani tales, with their documented tombs, 17th-century manuscripts, and centuries-old oral traditions, prove that female agency runs deep in human storytelling. Women swimming rivers. Women crossing deserts. Women debating scripture. Women slaying monsters. Not as exceptions. As archetypes. Perhaps the answer to writing strong women isn&#39;t innovation. Perhaps it&#39;s remembering what storytellers already knew five hundred years ago.

From Sindh's river-swimmers to Balochistan's warrior queens, verified Pakistani folktales feature women who debate clerics, cross deserts, and slay demons—while men wait passively as prizes.

Pakistan's folktales: Where strong women slay demons, men wait passively

ISLAMABAD: While 235 million Indians struggle in multidimensional poverty, their government has locked in weapons contracts worth over $23 billion in 2025 alone, a military spending spree that analysts warn is accelerating a dangerous arms race across one of the world&#39;s most densely populated and nuclear-armed regions.&nbsp;The scale of the buildup is staggering. The defense ministry in New Delhi signed 193 contracts totaling 2.09 trillion Indian rupees ($23.28 billion) in the 2024-25 cycle, according to India&#39;s Press Information Bureau. Domestic manufacturers secured 92% of orders under the &quot;Atmanirbhar Bharat&quot; self-reliance initiative, marking India&#39;s most aggressive military expansion in decades.&nbsp;The timing is stark. India ranks 130th on the UN Human Development Index, with 235 million people facing multidimensional poverty and 269 million vulnerable to falling into poverty, according to the 2025 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index published by the UN Development Programme and Oxford University. Yet the Indian Union Budget for Financial Year 2025-26 allocates 13.45% of total federal expenditure to defense and just 2.54% to education.&nbsp;An examination of India&#39;s weapons contracts reveals a coordinated strategy to achieve military dominance across South Asia while forcing regional neighbors into reactive militarization that diverts resources from development priorities and increases the risk of catastrophic miscalculation.&nbsp;Arsenal from three continents The acquisition spree draws from an unlikely coalition of suppliers. India and the US renewed their 10-year Defense Framework Agreement on Oct. 31 during meetings between Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth in Kuala Lumpur, according to statements from both defense ministries.&nbsp;Under the renewed framework, Washington approved $45.7 million in Javelin anti-tank guided missiles and $47.1 million in Excalibur precision-guided artillery shells capable of two-meter accuracy at 70-kilometer range, according to US Defense Security Cooperation Agency notifications. The US also approved 113 additional GE-F404 engines for India&#39;s Tejas fighters.&nbsp;The centerpiece of American military sales remains a $3.9 billion procurement of 31 MQ-9B Predator armed drones with 1,000-kilometer operational range, scheduled for 2029 delivery. Negotiations have advanced for six additional P-8I Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft and co-production of Stryker infantry combat vehicles, according to Indian defense sources.&nbsp;France and India signed a $7.6 billion Inter-Governmental Agreement in April for 26 Rafale Marine fighters equipped with SCALP cruise missiles offering 300-kilometer standoff range and HAMMER precision munitions, according to the French Defense Ministry. The aircraft will deploy aboard carriers INS Vikrant and INS Vikramaditya.&nbsp;Russia has continued deliveries of the S-400 Triumf air defense system despite Western sanctions, with three regiments now operational, according to Indian media reports. Indian media reported the systems were utilized during border incidents in May and December. Moscow and New Delhi signed a $248 million contract in March for engines to upgrade India&#39;s T-72 tank fleet, including technology transfer for licensed domestic production, according to Russia&#39;s state-owned Rostec Corporation.&nbsp;Indigenous push Domestic production has accelerated dramatically under the &quot;Atmanirbhar Bharat&quot; initiative. State-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited received $6.98 billion for 156 Prachand light combat helicopters, according to company statements. The Defense Acquisition Council approved $28 billion in procurements covering the Nag Missile System Mk-II, BrahMos fire control systems, indigenous medium-altitude long-endurance drones, ground-based electronic intelligence systems and naval surface guns, according to India&#39;s Press Information Bureau.&nbsp;Additional contracts finalized 307 Advanced Towed Artillery Gun Systems valued at $768.5 million, 425,000 close-quarter battle carbines for $308.5 million, and various ammunition types for Pinaka Multi-Barrel Rocket Launchers totaling $1.13 billion, according to Ministry of Defense procurement data. The Cabinet Committee on Security approved development of the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft fifth-generation fighter program in May, according to government statements.&nbsp;&quot;The next warfare frontier is swarm drone attacks,&quot; said Dr. Masood ur Rehman Khattak, assistant professor of international relations at International Islamic University Islamabad, whose doctoral research examined Indian military strategic thinking and its implications for South Asian deterrence stability. &quot;We saw this in the Russia-Ukraine war, Israel-Iran confrontations and the Pakistan-India standoff in May. India is heavily investing in this domain.&quot;&nbsp;Cost of guns over development The opportunity cost becomes clear in comparative terms. The $3.9 billion allocated for armed drones alone could fund approximately 15,000 schools or 500 hospitals based on Indian government construction estimates obtained through Right to Information requests.&nbsp;Trilateral arms race The spending surge extends beyond South Asia&#39;s bilateral dynamics. India faces strategic challenges with China along the disputed Line of Actual Control, where persistent infrastructure buildup by the People&#39;s Liberation Army necessitates &quot;modernization and operational preparedness&quot; to maintain the status quo, according to the Ministry of Defence Annual Report 2024-25.&nbsp; In the Indian Ocean Region, the Indian Maritime Doctrine 2025 formally recognizes the threat of &quot;military encirclement&quot; due to China&#39;s expanding naval presence and dual-use base network including facilities at Djibouti, Gwadar and Hambantota. The competition between India-Pakistan and India-China creates interlocking security dilemmas that ripple through global great power relations. The US has positioned India as a counterweight to Chinese influence through weapons sales and strategic partnerships, while Russia maintains defense cooperation with New Delhi despite Western pressure over Ukraine.&nbsp;&quot;Countries involved in strategic competition do not compromise on defense expenditure,&quot; said Dr. Attiq ur Rehman, a defense analyst specializing in South Asian security, nuclear politics and defense studies. &quot;India has adopted a balanced policy with all great powers &mdash; receiving S-400 systems from Russia while maintaining US strategic partnership &mdash; positioning itself as an essential customer for nations seeking to constrain Chinese influence regionally.&quot;&nbsp;Regional reckoning The arms buildup forces reactive militarization across the region. Pakistan has relied primarily on Chinese military assistance, including JF-17 Thunder fighters jointly produced with China and Type 054A frigates, according to Pakistani military sources. Regional states will be forced to divert scarce resources from development priorities into military modernization, perpetuating cycles of competition that benefit no population.&nbsp;The pattern mirrors historical precedents. Arms buildups preceded the wars of 1965, 1971 and 1999, each time undermining diplomatic efforts and confidence-building measures that had sought to reduce tensions. India launched a massive modernization program following the 1962 Sino-Indian War while Pakistan received substantial American military aid through the 1954 Mutual Defense Assistance Agreement, according to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute military expenditure data.&nbsp;&nbsp;&quot;The conventional imbalance automatically creates dangerous dynamics,&quot; Khattak said. &quot;This dynamic is extremely dangerous for the region. India is now focusing heavily on artillery with extended ranges &mdash; systems like Dhanush, ATAGS and Vajra K9 that far exceed the range of older systems. They&#39;re adding capabilities systematically, and this creates pressures that make the entire regional security environment more volatile.&quot;&nbsp;Advanced weapons systems lower crisis thresholds and compress decision-making timelines during confrontations, reducing space for diplomatic resolution, according to conflict studies research from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.&nbsp;Dr Rehman noted that the great power competition adds another layer of complexity. &quot;India has positioned itself as essential to constraining Chinese influence, which ensures continued weapons flows from both Western and Russian suppliers despite geopolitical tensions,&quot; he said.&nbsp;Guns-and-butter equation The 2025 acquisitions fundamentally alter South Asia&#39;s military equilibrium. The trajectory threatens to transform one of the world&#39;s most densely populated regions into an arena of intensifying military competition, where advanced weapons systems and compressed crisis timelines increase the risks of miscalculation and escalation.&nbsp;In a region where nuclear-armed neighbors have fought four wars since 1947, where over 500 million people live within potential strike range of the weapons systems India is now deploying (as per UN and SIPRI), and where a single miscalculation could trigger catastrophe on a scale the world has never seen, the $23 billion question is not what India can buy with its defense budget. It is what the entire subcontinent will pay for it.&nbsp;The Rafale fighters, the Predator drones, the S-400 systems &mdash; each represents a choice. Not just between guns and butter, but between a future where South Asia&#39;s 2.096 billion&nbsp;people can pursue development and prosperity, or one where they remain hostage to an arms race that enriches defense contractors in Washington, Paris and Moscow while schools go unbuilt, hospitals remain understaffed and hundreds of millions stay trapped in poverty that military spending helps perpetuate.&nbsp;India&#39;s defense ministry calls it strategic autonomy. History may record it as a collective suicide note, written in weapons contracts and signed by governments that chose military dominance over human development in one of the world&#39;s most vulnerable regions.

India

New Delhi chooses guns over development, signing $23 billion in weapons contracts that threaten regional catastrophe and perpetuate poverty.

Guns over schools: How India's military buildup is bankrupting South Asia's future

The phone call comes at 9pm, after a long day at work. The man on the other end, introduced through her mother&#39;s WhatsApp network, is pleasant enough. 20 minutes in, he mentions that he can&#39;t cook. Or clean. His mother does everything, he explains, but of course after marriage, that would be his wife&#39;s responsibility. &quot;You&#39;ll still work, naturally,&quot; he adds. &quot;We want a modern woman.&quot; The woman, in her mid-20s, sits in her room and feels a familiar exhaustion. This is the third such call this week. Different men, same script: they want a working woman who will also shoulder all domestic responsibilities. &quot;This is not feminism,&quot; she says, recounting the experience weeks later. She requested anonymity to speak freely about family matters. &quot;Feminism was meant to make our life easier, not harder.&quot; 250 years ago, Jane Austen was born in Hampshire, England. The novelist would create some of English literature&#39;s most beloved characters: Elizabeth Bennet, Emma Woodhouse, Anne Elliot; women navigating the constraints of Regency-era marriage markets with wit and intelligence. Austen&#39;s genius lay not in imagining escape from the system, but in documenting how intelligent women operated within it. Her heroines couldn&#39;t opt out of marriage, economic survival depended on it, but they could resist, delay and ultimately choose partners who offered genuine respect alongside financial security. That tension between autonomy and constraint, individual preference and family pressure, remains startlingly alive in modern Pakistan. Here, the marriage market Austen satirized has evolved but not disappeared, migrating from drawing rooms to WhatsApp groups, from calling cards to biodata profiles. <figure class="fr-media"><img src="https://paktv-assets-7d41fab8.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/8ba2624f-2eee-4643-b7e6-aa6e455d2db1-drawing boards to whatsdapp.jpeg" alt="drawing boards to whatsdapp.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib"><figcaption class="caption-cover-image text-sm text-gray-600 italic">The marriage market Austen satirized has evolved but not disappeared, migrating from drawing rooms to WhatsApp groups. (Illustration from Pride and Prejudice/Jane Austen&#39;s House)</figcaption></figure> Pakistan TV Digital spoke with four women who recently navigated or are currently navigating Pakistan&#39;s rishta system, the network of family connections and matchmakers through which most marriages are still arranged. Their experiences, shared on condition of anonymity, reveal how Austen&#39;s observations about marriage as transaction rather than romance remain uncomfortably relevant. Economics of eligibility The woman, living in Islamabad, describes how proposals arrive: Her mother has joined numerous WhatsApp groups dedicated to matchmaking. When a man&rsquo;s profile appears, it gets forwarded to daughters deemed age-appropriate. &quot;You don&#39;t even want to talk to them,&quot; her mother said after weeks of resistance. She finally relented. What followed were conversations lasting one to two hours, mandatory auditions with prescribed questions. Do you pray five times daily? Can you cook? In &quot;Pride and Prejudice,&quot; accomplished women needed music, drawing, languages. Today&#39;s requirements are different but identical in spirit. Several families specified height requirements: between 5 feet 4 inches and 5 feet 6 inches. &quot;My son is so tall, we want a girl that looks great next to him,&quot; mothers explained. &quot;Even if the guy had no prospects himself, he wanted a perfect wife: has to be religious and &#39;homely,&#39;&quot; she says. The word &quot;homely&quot; in Pakistani usage means domestically skilled, but the expectation is clear. The cruelest irony, she notes, is that families explicitly want working women, dual incomes are increasingly necessary, but refuse to adjust expectations around domestic labor. Unspoken rules A Pakistani woman in her early 30s who holds a foreign passport but lives in Pakistan remembers when the pressure began. &quot;From an early age, since the teens, they were telling us to mentally prepare for marriage,&quot; she says. &quot;Mind you, I was just 24 when the pressure intensified.&quot; She resisted. Proposals came and were rejected. She became engaged once, then broke it off. Her parents, she says, &quot;almost gave up on me.&quot; <figure class="fr-media"><img src="https://paktv-assets-7d41fab8.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/c621a95d-c5a6-4daf-ab0f-79224ad9e023-AustenIllustrations3.webp" alt="AustenIllustrations3.webp" class="fr-fic fr-dib"><figcaption class="caption-cover-image text-sm text-gray-600 italic">Two centuries after the novelist skewered Regency-era matchmaking, her observations about family pressure and women&#39;s constrained choices remain startlingly relevant. (Illustration from Pride and Prejudice/The Mary Sue)</figcaption></figure> In Austen&#39;s &quot;Persuasion,&quot; Anne Elliot is persuaded at 19 to reject Captain Wentworth because he lacks fortune and connections. The novel&#39;s tragedy isn&#39;t that Anne made the wrong choice; it&#39;s that the choice was never truly hers to make. Family pressure overrode her own judgment. Rare success A 28-year-old woman based in Karachi describes a smoother experience, though one that still operated through the rishta infrastructure. &quot;My parents joined every WhatsApp rishta group on the planet,&quot; she says. She&#39;s currently working in the corporate sector and married two years ago. The proposal came through a family friend. When asked how she knew he was right, her answer is simple: &quot;I felt calm and comfortable with him.&quot; &quot;Marriage is not constant happiness, but long-term emotional safety and partnership,&quot; she says. &quot;I believe the strongest marriages operate with a mindset of &#39;us versus the problem.&#39;&quot; Darker edge For a woman based in Peshawar who married in her early 20s, the process became traumatizing. A proposal came through family friends. The prospective in-laws made their expectations clear: She would not be allowed to study further or work. &quot;They earn enough to feed me,&quot; she recalls them saying. They openly discussed their wealth while explaining her economic contribution would be unnecessary. <figure class="fr-media"><img src="https://paktv-assets-7d41fab8.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/277410c8-7eff-4bca-a973-45f50fbbc660-AFP__20061030__Del69818__v2__HighRes__PakistanSocialMarriageMass.jpg" alt="AFP__20061030__Del69818__v2__HighRes__PakistanSocialMarriageMass.jpg" class="fr-fil fr-dib"><figcaption class="caption-cover-image text-sm text-gray-600 italic">A Pakistani Christian bride shows off her jewellery during a mass wedding ceremony of about 55 couples in Lahore. (AFP)</figcaption></figure> Her family immediately rejected the proposal. Instead of ending there, it became a pressure campaign. &quot;They started insisting and started pressurizing my parents through our mutual friends to say yes,&quot; she says. The mutual friends became intermediaries, delivering messages about what a good match it was, how turning them down was insulting. Persistent question None of the women interviewed have given up on marriage. Like Austen&#39;s heroines, they&#39;re not revolutionaries attempting to dismantle the system. They&#39;re pragmatists trying to find decent outcomes within constraints they didn&#39;t choose. &quot;I&#39;m not against arranged marriages,&quot; one told me. &quot;I&#39;m against the hypocrisy. Say you want a housewife, fine. Say you want a working woman who will also be your mother&#39;s replacement, that&#39;s honest at least. But don&#39;t dress up exploitation as feminism.&quot; What strikes me most is how little has fundamentally changed since Austen&#39;s era. The mechanisms are more efficient, WhatsApp can connect families across continents instantly, but the underlying calculation remains: women as assets to be acquired, their worth determined by attributes that serve family interests. The question Austen asked repeatedly was: Given that you must operate within this system, how do you preserve your dignity and autonomy? How do you find genuine partnership in a transactional market? <figure class="fr-media"><img src="https://paktv-assets-7d41fab8.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/bab8a1d3-b617-4a41-965a-589303f1c123-P-CE-Brock.jpg" alt="P-CE-Brock.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib"><figcaption class="caption-cover-image text-sm text-gray-600 italic">Anne Elliot talking to Captain Wentworth &quot;in spite of the formidable father and sister in the background&quot;. (Illustration from Jane Austen&#39;s novel Persuasion/Jane Austen Society of Australia)</figcaption></figure> Elizabeth Bennet rejects Mr Darcy&#39;s first proposal and only accepts his second when he&#39;s demonstrated genuine respect. Anne Elliot spends years alone rather than settle. The women navigating Pakistan&#39;s rishta market are making similar calculations: seeking the same elusive balance between practical necessity and personal fulfillment.

Blogs

Two centuries after the novelist skewered Regency-era matchmaking, Austen's observations about family pressure and women's constrained choices remain startlingly relevant.

Marriage market: How Jane Austen's England lives on in Pakistan's rishta culture 

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will officially revive one of South Asia&rsquo;s most vibrant spring festivals next month, as the Punjab government lifts a ban of more than a decade on Basant, the centuries-old kite-flying celebration once halted after deadly incidents caused by razor-sharp kite strings.&nbsp;Punjab&rsquo;s Senior Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb announced the decision on X, declaring: &ldquo;Spring returns to the city of heritage and festivals. Lahore&rsquo;s skies will speak in color again, reclaiming our glory for the world.&rdquo;&nbsp;She said Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif &ldquo;has approved&rdquo; the return of Basant from February 6 to 8 in Lahore, the first officially sanctioned celebration since 2007. <div class="fr-embed"><div class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" style="display: flex; max-width: 550px; width: 100%; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; line-height: 2;"><iframe id="twitter-widget-0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" style="position: static; visibility: visible; width: 550px; height: 672px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;" title="X Post" src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=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%3D%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1998711272876159402&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fmain.d1wrm1qseko1cp.amplifyapp.com%2Farticles%2Fnew%2F&sessionId=333af8a47caec9ae1a27b53b80cbf02f1fc98b03&theme=light&widgetsVersion=2615f7e52b7e0%3A1702314776716&width=550px">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</iframe></div>The festival historically transformed Lahore into a citywide spectacle, with entire neighborhoods turning into open-air gatherings and thousands of participants flying brightly colored kites in rooftop competitions. At its peak in the early 2000s, Basant drew international tourists and Pakistani expatriates who traveled home specifically for the event.&nbsp;Aurangzeb noted the festival would be celebrated &ldquo;across Lahore after 25 years,&rdquo; emphasizing that although small-scale celebrations persisted despite the ban, authorities had long blocked any formal or citywide events.&nbsp;A major safety operation is already underway. Lahore has begun installing protective antennas on motorcycles to prevent injuries caused by stray kite strings.&nbsp;&ldquo;Safety is CM Punjab priority,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Let every kite soar and every ride be safe, together we&rsquo;ll make Lahore happy, historic and secure.&rdquo;&nbsp;Why Basant turned deadlyOver the years, competitive kite-flying pushed enthusiasts to coat their strings, known locally as &ldquo;dor,&rdquo; with ground glass, metal or chemicals to gain an advantage.&nbsp;These sharpened strings could slice through rivals&rsquo; kites but also caused widespread harm, cutting electrical lines, triggering blackouts and, most tragically, injuring or killing motorcyclists who collided with the nearly invisible strings.&nbsp;By 2007, authorities attributed dozens of deaths to Basant-related incidents, including falls from rooftops and motorcycle accidents. The Punjab government banned the festival that year, and any attempts at revival in subsequent years were halted following new casualties.&nbsp;The ban hit Lahore&rsquo;s traditional kite-making families particularly hard, forcing many artisans to abandon their craft.&nbsp;New law sets strict controlsBasant&rsquo;s revival follows the introduction of the Basant Ordinance 2025, which sets strict safety rules aimed at preventing the tragedies that once made the festival deadly.&nbsp;Metallic and chemical-coated strings remain banned; only approved cotton strings may be used. Manufacturers and sellers must register with authorities and label each product with a QR code for tracking. &ldquo;Every kite string and seller registered, QR coded and monitored,&rdquo; Aurangzeb said, stressing rigorous enforcement.&nbsp;Penalties for violations include fines of up to Rs100,000 ($353.7) and possible imprisonment of up to three years.&nbsp;Motorcycles are being equipped with vertical antennas designed to deflect or break dangerous strings. &ldquo;On CM Punjab&rsquo;s direction a city-wide campaign to install safety antennas on all motorbikes starts tomorrow,&rdquo; she said, adding: &ldquo;Every motorbike in Lahore will have Antenna for safety before and during Basant.&rdquo;&nbsp;Aurangzeb said the festival belongs to the people but requires collective responsibility. &ldquo;Basant belongs to the people, its success is our collective responsibility. The Basant Ordinance 2025 will be fully enforced and implemented.&rdquo;</div>

It will be the first officially sanctioned celebration since 2007, when the a centuries-old kite-flying festival was prohibited after metal-coated strings killed dozens of people.

Punjab revives Basant festival after long ban with new safety rules

For decades, Pakistan has hosted one of the world&#39;s largest refugee populations, providing sanctuary to millions of Afghans fleeing conflict. But by October 2025, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif declared that Pakistan could no longer sustain this burden, citing security threats and socio-economic challenges. The result: over 1.47 million Afghan nationals repatriated in what Islamabad said is an orderly but necessary response to an escalating crisis.&nbsp; The numbers tell a grim story. Between 2023 and 2025, Pakistan experienced a devastating wave of terrorist attacks with alleged or confirmed links to Afghanistan. In January 2023, a suicide bomber killed 95 people at a Peshawar mosque. In July 2023, an attack on a political rally in Bajaur claimed over 50 lives. By December, 23 soldiers died in a military post attack in Dera Ismail Khan.&nbsp; In 2023, Pakistan&#39;s former Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti stated that 14 of 24 suicide bombings in that year alone&nbsp;involved Afghan nationals. The pattern continued into 2024 and 2025. After seven soldiers were killed in North Waziristan in March 2024, Pakistan&#39;s defense minister declared that terrorism against Pakistan was &quot;mostly being conducted from Afghanistan.&quot; Most recently, in November 2025, a suicide bombing at an Islamabad district court killed 12 people. Pakistani officials stated that the bomber was an Afghan national and the attack was orchestrated from Afghanistan. For Pakistan, these aren&#39;t isolated incidents but evidence of a systemic problem: militant groups, particularly Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Islamic State-Khorasan Province (ISIS-K), operating from Afghan territory to launch cross-border attacks. Pakistani officials have repeatedly asked the Afghan Taliban of preventing its soil from being used by these militant groups. Despite diplomatic assurances to the contrary, the Taliban regime has done little. The diplomatic efforts were genuine but ultimately futile. Throughout 2025, Pakistan engaged in multiple rounds of high-level talks with Afghanistan&#39;s Taliban government, mediated by Qatar and Turkey. In April, Pakistan&#39;s Foreign Minister visited Kabul. In May, trilateral talks were held in Beijing. When deadly border clashes erupted in October, three separate negotiation rounds were convened in Doha and Istanbul. All failed. Pakistan demanded verifiable action against militant groups; Afghanistan either could not or would not deliver. The humanitarian dimension of this crisis cannot be ignored. According to an International Organization for Migration report in late November,&nbsp;435,279 Afghan nationals returned to Afghanistan between July and September alone. 93% left through self-organized returns, driven overwhelmingly by fear of arrest. The deportees came from areas that had suffered terrorist attacks: 28% from Quetta, 11% from Pishin. In September 2025, a suicide bombing at a political rally in Quetta, near Pishin, was claimed by the ISIS-K. This is the tragic calculus of national security meeting humanitarian obligation. Pakistan has legitimate security concerns. When diplomatic channels fail and attacks continue, a government faces pressure to act decisively. The international community has largely remained silent, treating this as a bilateral issue rather than a regional crisis requiring multilateral solutions. Afghanistan&#39;s Taliban regime has proven unable or unwilling to control militant groups within its borders, leaving Pakistan with few options. Meanwhile, Afghan refugees become pawns in a security crisis not of their making. There are no easy answers here. Pakistan&#39;s security concerns are real and documented. The failure of diplomatic engagement left Islamabad feeling it had exhausted peaceful options. But the mass repatriation of over a million people, many of whom have known only Pakistan as home, raises profound questions about refuge and the limits of hospitality when national security appears threatened. What remains clear is that this crisis demands more than bilateral negotiations that end in deadlock. It requires sustained international engagement, pressure on the Afghan&nbsp;Taliban to deny sanctuary to militant groups, and genuine support for both Pakistan&#39;s security needs and the humanitarian needs of displaced Afghans. Without it, we&#39;re left with what we have now: a tragic situation where everyone loses, and the most vulnerable pay the highest price.

When diplomatic channels fail and attacks continue, a government faces pressure to act decisively.

Pakistan's refugee crisis: When security concerns force difficult choices

24 years ago, the twin towers fell in Lower Manhattan, reshaping not just the skyline but the lived reality of every Muslim in America. This January, Zohran Mamdani will be sworn in as New York City&#39;s 111th mayor&mdash;its first Muslim, first South Asian, and first African-born leader.&nbsp; The geographic irony is almost too perfect: a Muslim mayor taking office in the very city whose police department once mapped every mosque within 100 miles, where &quot;wearing traditional Islamic clothing&quot; was listed as a radicalization indicator, where informants infiltrated wedding parties and college rafting trips in the name of counterterrorism. The distance between those two moments&mdash;between surveillance subject and City Hall&mdash;tells a story not just of individual achievement but of collective survival, political awakening, and the hard-won transformation of a community that refused to disappear. Since at least 2002, the NYPD&#39;s Intelligence Division engaged in what can only be described as systematic religious profiling. The Demographics Unit mapped 28 &quot;ancestries of interest&quot; associated with Muslim populations while explicitly excluding non-Muslims like Coptic Christian Egyptians or Iranian Jews. Undercover officers embedded themselves in mosques, bodegas, coffee shops, and barber shops. Their job, according to civil liberties groups, was to &quot;live the life of a fake Muslim&quot; inside these communities. The statistics are staggering: anti-Muslim hate crimes jumped from 28 incidents in 2000 to 481 in 2001 alone. But numbers can&#39;t capture what surveillance does to a community&#39;s soul. As Dr. Debbie Almontaser, a longtime Muslim advocate, testified: &quot;The community was traumatized because of how invasive the surveillance was.&quot; Trust evaporated&mdash;not just between Muslims and law enforcement, but among Muslims themselves. You couldn&#39;t be certain your neighbor wasn&#39;t an informant. Abdullah Ahmad, a Pakistani-American Brooklynite, who grew up in the 2000s, remembers this atmosphere vividly. &quot;Growing up in New York, it was a lot of Islamophobia,&quot; he recalls. &quot;That smear campaign mentality, the stigmatism that came from the Bush administration and everything after, it shaped how we moved through the world.&quot; Yet this is also where the story turns. Because surveillance, for all its trauma, had an unintended consequence: it politicized a generation. When your community is under siege, you have two choices:&nbsp;retreat or organize. New York&#39;s Muslims chose organization. Mamdani&#39;s victory carries symbolic weight that no single person should have to bear. A 2017 Pew Research survey found that 75% of US&nbsp;Muslims agreed there is &quot;a lot of discrimination&quot; against their community. The UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion noted that &quot;widespread negative representations of Islam, fear of Muslims generally, and counterterrorism policies have served to perpetuate, validate and normalize discrimination.&quot; Into this climate steps a 34-year-old who spent his early years in Uganda and Cape Town, a &quot;third culture kid&quot; who once worked as a foreclosure prevention counselor in Queens. He&#39;s being asked to represent not just eight million New Yorkers but, symbolically, 1.8 billion Muslims worldwide. Yeliz Coban, a Turkish-American Brooklynite,&nbsp;understands this weight differently. &quot;It feels like being heard,&quot; she says simply. &quot;Not just being spoken at or spoken about, but truly listened to. It feels like someone who understands both the quiet resilience and the heavier burdens that Muslim communities have carried. His win isn&#39;t just symbolic&mdash;it&#39;s emotional. It feels like the city finally made space for us at the table.&quot; But the political opposition Mamdani faces reveals how precarious this moment remains. President Trump branded him a &quot;communist&quot; and vowed &quot;political retribution.&quot; Sitting members of Congress used fear-mongering, warning that his election would cause &quot;another 9/11.&quot; Trump even endorsed independent Andrew Cuomo&mdash;his political opponent&mdash;to prevent a Muslim from leading America&#39;s largest city. Masroor Jehangiri, a Pakistani-American living and studying in Staten Island, a predominantly Republican-leaning borough of NYC, feels both pride and anxiety. &quot;As a Muslim, I certainly feel proud and enabled that a person from our background can now become mayor of one of the greatest cities in the world,&quot; he says. &quot;This also comes with worry about how much Mamdani can actually deliver seeing how bad the political opposition has gotten. But I&#39;m glad his campaign revealed the mindsets of the politicians that lead us.&quot; Here&#39;s what makes Mamdani&#39;s victory genuinely transformative rather than merely symbolic: he didn&#39;t win by running away from controversy or making himself palatable to power. He won by building the largest grassroots campaign in New York history&mdash;100,000 volunteers knocking on three million doors. He won by centering economic justice: freezing rents for two million New Yorkers, making buses free, creating universal childcare, building 200,000 affordable housing units. &quot;A year ago, almost nobody had heard of Zohran Mamdani,&quot; Masroor notes. &quot;He used social media and multiple mediums to connect with younger generations, but he was also out on the streets doing ground work, genuinely connecting with everyday New Yorkers. For the first time, we witnessed a politician being genuine and honest,&nbsp;who doesn&#39;t seem trained to say certain answers but rather knows what answers people want.&quot; Abdullah saw this authenticity firsthand. &quot;Zohran has been a person of the community since the very beginning. He can speak to folks in Harlem because of his Ugandan background, or with all the desis [South Asians] in Jackson Heights.&nbsp;I recently had friends who went out for Halloween, and he was at the clubs speaking. No other politician would do that. I went to Yemeni delis, and they still have his posters up.&quot; This matters because it reframes the narrative. Mamdani isn&#39;t asking Muslims to be grateful for a seat at the table&mdash;he&#39;s reorganizing the entire table around working people&#39;s needs. South Asian voter turnout in the 2025 NYC primary increased by 40% compared to 2021, not because of identity politics but because a candidate finally spoke to their lived economic reality. The path from surveillance to City Hall wasn&#39;t inevitable, it was built. Built by Muslims who refused to self-censor out of existence, who organized despite fear, who raised their children to claim space rather than apologize for occupying it. Abdullah captures this generational shift perfectly: &quot;This 9/11 rhetoric is sort of ending. Yeah, you can instill fear from the Trump administration or Cuomo or whatever. But I think love and hope trumps all of that.&quot; Yeliz&#39;s hopes are more personal but no less powerful: &quot;My prayer is that Mamdani leads with integrity, keeps his promises, and shows this city that representation isn&#39;t something to fear but something that can expand our collective sense of belonging. If he does that, even those hesitant now will see that this moment isn&#39;t a threat, it&#39;s an opportunity.&quot; 24&nbsp;years ago, Muslim New Yorkers became surveillance subjects in their own city. Today, one of their own will lead it. That transformation didn&#39;t erase Islamophobia or solve systemic discrimination. But it proved something more important: that communities under siege can organize their way to power, that the children of immigrants can reshape the cities that once profiled them, that the distance between &quot;suspect community&quot; and City Hall is shorter than it looks&mdash;if you&#39;re willing to knock on three million doors. The future isn&#39;t certain, but it&#39;s no longer being written about Muslims. It&#39;s being written by them.

Articles

The geographic irony is almost too perfect: a Muslim mayor taking office in the very city whose police department once mapped every mosque within 100 miles.

New York once surveilled its Muslims, now Zohran Mamdani leads it

Faraz Saeed

Pakistan TV Digital&#39;s Faraz Saeed marks Eid Al-Adha in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, offering prayers at the central mosque while covering the International Water Conference 2026.

Asia

Pakistan TV Digital's Faraz Saeed marks Eid Al-Adha in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, offering prayers at the central mosque while covering the International Water Conference 2026.


Eid Al-Adha in Dushanbe: Pakistan TV Digital's Faraz Saeed joins prayers at landmark central mosque

Muhammad Usman Amin

As Eid Al-Adha is celebrated across Pakistan, markets stocked up on everything from sacrificial knives and cleavers to barbecue skewers, grills, and charcoal.&nbsp; Peshawar&#39;s Reti Bazar emerged as a key hub for sacrificial tools and barbecue gear, with ironmongers and wholesalers moving 1&ndash;2 tons of skewers per shop daily to meet the national demand.

Shorts

Peshawar's Reti Bazar emerged as a key hub for sacrificial tools and barbecue gear, with ironmongers and wholesalers moving 1–2 tons of skewers per shop daily to meet the national demand.



Peshawar's Reti Bazar braces for Eid rush as demand for sacrificial tools, barbecue gear surges

Asfandyar Yahya

Eid ul-Adha goes back 4,000 years to Prophet Ibrahim&#39;s test of devotion.&nbsp; Today in Pakistan alone, over six million animals are sacrificed across three days, with 1.8 billion dollars changing hands and one-third of all meat distributed directly to those who cannot afford it.

Tell Me Why

Today in Pakistan alone, over six million animals are sacrificed across three days, with 1.8 billion dollars changing hands and one-third of all meat distributed directly to those who cannot afford it.



Tell Me Why: We celebrate Eid al-Adha

Web Desk/AFP

This live blog follows the latest developments across the Middle East crisis, including regional diplomacy, maritime security, ceasefire negotiations, and economic fallout.<hr style="line-height: 2;">Catch up: Yesterday&rsquo;s top developments<ul style="list-style-type: square;"><li style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 2;">Oil prices continue to slide as investors monitor US-Iran negotiations</li><li style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 2;">Hezbollah says it carried out 37 attacks on Israeli forces in southern Lebanon</li><li style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Trump claims &lsquo;nobody&rsquo;s going to control&rsquo; the Strait of Hormuz</li><li style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Iran&#39;s president appreciates Pakistan&#39;s peace efforts</li><li style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Israel kills chief of Hamas armed wing in Gaza strike</li></ul><hr style="line-height: 2;"> Iran Guards say targeted US base in retaliation for strikes: State TVPublished: May 28, 2026 | 03:57 GMT | by AFP The Iranian Revolutionary Guards targeted an American base on Thursday in retaliation for US strikes on the country&#39;s south, Iran&#39;s state broadcaster IRIB reported. &quot;Following this morning&#39;s aggression by the invading US military against a location on the outskirts of Bandar Abbas Airport using aerial projectiles, the American air base that served as the source of the attack was targeted at 4:50 am (0120 GMT),&quot; the Guards said, according to IRIB. It did not provide details of the location of the base, though Kuwait, said it was responding to missile and drone attacks on Thursday morning. <hr> Iran forces fired at 4 ships attempting to cross Hormuz: State broadcasterPublished: May 28, 2026 | 03:11GMT | by AFP Iranian forces fired at four ships attempting to cross the Strait of Hormuz, state broadcaster IRIB reported on Thursday, the same day Washington carried out fresh strikes on southern Iran. &quot;Four vessels attempted to cross the Strait of Hormuz and enter the Persian Gulf without coordination with the security forces,&quot; IRIB posted on Telegram, saying the incident took place at around 12:35 am local time (2105 GMT Wednesday) but without providing details on the ships. &quot;They were warned, but after they ignored the warning, warning shots were fired at them, forcing them to return,&quot; it added. <hr style="line-height: 2;"> Kuwait army says air defenses responding to missile, drone attacksPublished: May 28, 2026| 02:41GMT | by AFP Kuwait&#39;s military said on Thursday it was responding to missile and drone attacks, after the United States carried out fresh strikes on Iran and Tehran said it had fired at ships in the Strait of Hormuz. &quot;Kuwaiti air defenses are currently engaging hostile missile and drone attacks,&quot; the Kuwaiti army posted on X. <hr style="line-height: 2;"> US Treasury sanctions Iran authorities overseeing Strait of HormuzPublished: May 28, 2026| 02:36GMT | by AFP The United States Treasury announced sanctions Wednesday against Iran&#39;s Persian Gulf Strait Authority, Tehran&#39;s new agency that collects fees for traveling through the strategic Strait of Hormuz. &quot;The Iranian military&#39;s latest attempt to extort global maritime trade is proof that Economic Fury has left the regime desperate for cash,&quot; Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. The statement extended the threat of sanctions to anyone paying the fees, because they &quot;may be providing support to and receiving services from&quot; Iran&#39;s Revolutionary Guards, and therefore may &quot;be exposed to sanctions risk.&quot; <hr style="line-height: 2;"> Israeli military issues evacuation order in Lebanon&#39;s southern city of TyrePublished: May 28, 2026 | 02:30GMT | by AFP Israel&#39;s military issued an evacuation warning for residents of the city of Tyre in southern Lebanon on Thursday, saying it would operate against the fighter group Hezbollah in the area. &quot;The IDF is compelled to take forceful action against it,&quot; the Israeli military&#39;s order said, in reference to Hezbollah. It added that residents of the zone around certain buildings should leave and travel north of the Zahrani River, and that remaining in the area &quot;places you at risk.&quot; <hr style="line-height: 2;"> US military conducts new strike in southern Iran: US mediaPublished: May 27, 2026 | 00:51 GMT | by AFP The US military shot down four drones launched from Iran and struck a control center in the port city of Bandar Abbas, US media reported Wednesday evening, citing unnamed officials. The strike in Bandar Abbas prevented a fifth drone from being launched, CNN and The New York Times reported, and follows what the US military described as &quot;self-defense&quot; attacks overnight Monday to Tuesday on Iranian missile sites and mine-laying boats. <hr>

The US military shot down four drones launched from Iran and struck a control center in the port city of Bandar Abbas; Iranian forces fire at four ships attempting to cross the Strait of Hormuz; Israel's military issues evacuation warning for residents of the city of Tyre in southern Lebanon.







US military conducts new strike in southern Iran: US media

Maryam Shah

ISLAMABAD: As Eid al-Adha approaches, millions of Muslims living in conflict zones and displacement camps continue to observe the festival despite circumstances shaped by war, hunger and displacement. In the besieged and bombarded territories of Palestine, famine-hit regions of Sudan, and camps scattered across Syria and Yemen, the rituals of Eid persist even where normal life has largely collapsed. According to the Elham Fund, Gaza resident Nahidh Abu Armaneh said his family woke up to the sound of Takbeer, wore their best clothes &ldquo;even if they weren&rsquo;t new,&rdquo; and gathered for Eid prayers. &ldquo;We started by greeting everyone we met, whether we knew them or not, because people especially need kindness and peace in these times,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;After that, we visited relatives to extend our Eid wishes, ate sweets and drank coffee, though the coffee tasted as bitter as our lives.&rdquo; Nahidh and millions of others across conflict zones, displacement camps and war-damaged cities continue observing Eid al-Adha each year under conditions that would ordinarily make celebration unimaginable. In peaceful societies, Eid al-Adha is built around abundance and sharing.&nbsp; To commemorate Prophet Ibrahim&rsquo;s willingness to sacrifice his son in obedience to Allah, Muslims slaughter livestock animals and traditionally divide the meat into three portions: one for the household, one for relatives and neighbors, and one for the poor. The ritual centers on generosity flowing outward from the family to the wider community. But in war zones where many families have lost homes, livelihoods and livestock, the practice increasingly depends on humanitarian aid. According to Islamic Relief Worldwide, Sudan is facing the world&rsquo;s largest displacement crisis, with nearly 14 million people uprooted by conflict and famine conditions reported in parts of Darfur. The organization said Eid al-Adha meat distributions had become the only source of meat for many displaced families, with its Qurbani program reaching 3.2 million people across 29 countries in 2025. &ldquo;Eid al-Adha means everything to me,&rdquo; displaced Sudanese resident Halima said in a statement released by the organization, adding that she did not expect to eat meat this year. In Syria and Yemen, where wars have stretched on for more than a decade, Eid al-Adha has become an annual confrontation with memory and loss. According to Al Jazeera, Umm Ghadi, a displaced Syrian mother living in an Idlib camp, gathered with neighbors to prepare sweets for children ahead of Eid despite harsh camp conditions. &ldquo;At the camp, there is no joy for the Eid, but we need to make the children happy,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Eid al-Adha in the villages is nicer.&rdquo; In Yemen, Abdul-Raqeeb al-Samey traveled through front-line areas to return to his home village in Taiz after purchasing a traditional jambiya &mdash; a ceremonial dagger worn during Eid celebrations &mdash; in Sanaa, according to Al Jazeera. Meanwhile in Syria, former residents of the remote Rukban displacement camp returned home for Eid only to find destroyed houses and devastated neighborhoods. According to Al Jazeera, Yasmine al-Salah returned home during Eid al-Adha 2025 after spending nine years in the camp. &ldquo;Even though our house is destroyed, and we have no money, and we are hungry, still, it&rsquo;s a castle in my eyes,&rdquo; she said. Across these conflict zones, Eid functions not as denial of suffering but as an insistence that interrupted lives are not extinguished lives. What unfolds during Eid al-Adha in such places reflects something central to the story of Prophet Ibrahim: the ability to move through catastrophe while refusing to surrender hope entirely. This is not simple optimism. While optimism assumes improvement, people living through war often continue their traditions fully aware of destruction around them, choosing meaning despite devastation. For many trapped in conflict, the acts of washing, dressing, praying and sharing whatever food remains become assertions of dignity and humanity against conditions designed to strip both away. None of these moments erase the catastrophes surrounding them. Hunger, displacement and violence persist. Yet the prayers are still offered, sweets are still prepared and families still gather where they can. In places shaped by siege and loss, Eid al-Adha becomes more than a religious celebration.&nbsp; For many, it is also a quiet declaration that war has not succeeded in erasing faith, memory or the will to endure.

Across conflict zones and displacement camps, Muslims observe Eid al-Adha despite war and famine, turning sacrifice and shared traditions into acts of resilience, dignity and hope amid devastation and loss.


Muslims celebrate Eid al-Adha across war zones despite devastation and displacement

WASHINGTON: The International Monetary Fund&#39;s board on Wednesday approved two reviews of Sri Lanka&#39;s loan program, making $695 million in additional loans immediately available to the crisis-hit island nation. It is the latest tranche in the country&#39;s four-year $3 billion bailout, with the Fund warning of further risks due to the economic impact of the Iran war. Surging oil prices due to the war, launched by the United States and Israel on February 28, have heavily impacted many import-dependent Asian countries. &quot;Sri Lanka&#39;s strong implementation under the EFF arrangement has continued despite challenging circumstances,&quot; said Kenji Okamura, the IMF&#39;s Deputy Managing Director and Acting Chair. &quot;Gains from the economic reform program helped preserve economic resilience and provided room to respond to cyclone Ditwah and the Middle East war. The latter, however, has significantly worsened Sri Lanka&#39;s economic outlook and tilted risks to the downside.&quot; The IMF projects 2026 growth to slow to 3%, with higher oil prices increasing inflation and weighing on the current account balance. The board&#39;s approval was contingent on Sri Lanka adjusting certain energy market subsidies issued in the wake of the war. Wednesday&#39;s statement said the Sri Lankan authorities had met the Fund&#39;s requirements on fuel and electricity prices, meeting cost-recovery criteria. Criteria on ensuring no new external debts and on not imposing or intensifying import restrictions &quot;were not observed,&quot; however.

Sri Lanka

It is the latest tranche in the country's four-year $3 billion bailout, with the Fund warning of further risks due to the economic impact of the Iran war.


IMF approves $695M for crisis-hit Sri Lanka

KAMPALA, Uganda: Conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo is complicating efforts to rein in a deadly Ebola outbreak, the World Health Organization chief warned Wednesday, while Uganda announced it was shutting its border. The WHO has recorded 10 confirmed and 223 suspected Ebola deaths in the DRC since the outbreak was declared in mid-May, out of more than 1,000 confirmed and suspected cases. Its chief fears insecurity in the eastern DRC, which has been plagued for three decades by conflict involving a litany of armed groups, is making it extremely difficult to contain the outbreak. &quot;Eastern DRC now faces a catastrophic collision of disease and conflict with the Ebola outbreak in Ituri province outpacing the response,&quot; the UN agency&#39;s head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X. No vaccine or treatment exists for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, which is behind the DRC&#39;s 17th recorded outbreak of the disease. State services in rural Ituri province, where it was first detected, have been largely absent for decades. In Rwampara, one of the epicentres of the outbreak, AFP saw a symptomatic woman being brought to hospital on a motorbike, squeezed between her sister and the driver. A health worker recorded a high fever and bleeding from her nose, a common symptom of Ebola, which causes a haemorrhagic fever. He rushed to spray chlorine on the bike and driver, who wore a surgical mask but little else to protect him against a virus that spreads through bodily fluids. With no ambulances available, &quot;people make do with motorbikes&quot;, the health worker, Dieudonne Sezabo, told AFP. The hospital has set up a temporary isolation centre but is still awaiting crucial equipment deliveries. Uganda shuts borderNeighbouring Uganda, which has recorded one death confirmed to be from Ebola and six additional cases, announced it was shutting its border with the DRC with immediate effect. It also said it was imposing a 21-day quarantine on anyone arriving from the DRC, under the supervision of the Ministry of Health and district surveillance teams. The WHO said the case fatality rate was under 25 percent -- much lower than in other recent outbreaks. But experts suspect the virus was circulating under the radar for some time and the true extent of the health crisis has yet to be seen. The WHO chief lamented that clashes were &quot;driving mass displacement, pushing exposed contacts into overcrowded camps and severing critical containment corridors&quot;. &quot;Frontline workers are risking everything, while attacks on health facilities make tracking cases and their contacts nearly impossible,&quot; Tedros warned. &quot;We cannot build community trust or isolate the sick while bombs are falling,&quot; Tedros said, urging &quot;all warring parties to agree to an immediate ceasefire to contain this outbreak&quot;. The United States plans to open a quarantine centre in Kenya, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, primarily intended for Americans who need to leave the DRC quickly and quarantine. Kenya said it had screened some 55,000 people crossing the border from Uganda and had yet to confirm an Ebola case.

Response team members are helped to wear protective suits before burying a person suspected of having died from Ebola in Bunia, in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, on May 25, 2026. (AFP)

Africa

The World Health Organization chief warns that conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo is complicating efforts to rein in a deadly Ebola outbreak, while Uganda shuts its border.

WHO warns of 'catastrophic collision' of Ebola and war in DR Congo

PARIS: YouTube will in the future automatically detect AI-generated content and flag the information to viewers on its platform, the Google-owned company said Wednesday. The move reverses a previous policy of relying on video creators to self-report if they had used generative AI tools. &quot;If a creator doesn&#39;t specify whether or not they used AI, but our systems detect significant photorealistic AI use, we will now automatically apply a label,&quot; YouTube said in a blog post. The video platform&#39;s last steps on generative AI date back to 2024, when it requested that creators flag content where they had used the technology. Since then there have been major strides in producing photorealistic images and video, with widely available AI models including Google&#39;s Veo 3.1 and Seedance from Tiktok&#39;s parent company Bytedance. Creators will be able to challenge the new flags if they think their content has been unfairly labelled as AI, Youtube said. The platform added that the flags would have no impact on its algorithm for recommending videos to users. Other platforms and social networks to introduce automatic flagging of AI content recently include music streamer Spotify. Many online spaces are flooded with AI-generated images, video or audio, which is growing increasingly difficult to tell apart from human creations as the tools become more capable.

Artificial Intelligence

YouTube to automatically detect AI-generated content and flag the information to viewers on its platform, the Google-owned company says.

YouTube says will flag AI-generated content

Shizza Jasmin

Renowned vloggers&nbsp;<a href="https://globie.io/products/esim-pakistan" style="color:#0073e6;">Luke Damant</a>,&nbsp;associated with&nbsp;<a href="https://globie.io/products/esim-pakistan" style="color:#0073e6;">Globie.io</a>,&nbsp;and Don Rob joined Chatroom with Shizza for a conversation about Pakistan&#39;s food, people and hospitality.&nbsp;<a href="https://globie.io/products/esim-pakistan" style="color:#0073e6;">Luke</a>&nbsp;explained what &#39;Burger&#39; means in Pakistani culture, showed off his Urdu skills, and reacted to a surprise cheese paratha. His verdict on Pakistan versus India on hospitality was direct and unfiltered.&nbsp;

Chatroom with Shizza

Renowned vloggers Luke Damant, associated with Globie.io, and Don Rob joined Chatroom with Shizza for a conversation about Pakistan's food, people and hospitality

'Cheese paratha guy' Luke Damant and Don Rob on Pakistan's food, people, and hospitality

NEW DELHI: Hundreds of people in India&#39;s border region with Bangladesh have fled to the frontier, police said Wednesday, after the government ordered the construction of detention centres for undocumented Bangladeshi migrants and Rohingya refugees. Prime Minister Narendra Modi&#39;s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept to power in West Bengal state in early May with a hardline policy to &quot;detect, delete and deport&quot; illegal migrants. India&#39;s right-wing have long argued that illegal migration is a national security threat, and warned of changing demography in India&#39;s border states. West Bengal government&#39;s last week ordered the setting up of &quot;holding centres&quot; for &quot;apprehended foreigners&quot;, singling out both Bangladeshis and Rohingya. The decision has fuelled anxiety among West Bengal&#39;s roughly 35 million Muslims, many of whom share linguistic and cultural ties with neighbouring Bangladesh. Indian police officer Shirshendu Pati, from the Swarupnagar Police Station about 10 kilometres (six miles) from the Bangladesh border, said streams of people had arrived since Tuesday. &quot;People who say they are from Bangladesh and want to return home have been coming here since yesterday,&quot; Pati told AFP. &#39;Holding centre&#39;Pati said that the process had &quot;been peaceful and smooth so far&quot;, and they received about 200 people on Tuesday and 40 people early Wednesday. &quot;While we verify their identities and complete the necessary paperwork, all of them are in a holding centre,&quot; he said, noting they will be handed to India&#39;s border security force and sent to Bangladesh. &quot;The local administration is catering to all their needs including food, water and lodging,&quot; Pati added. On Tuesday, Home Minister Amit Shah announced the formation of a special committee on demographic change. &quot;Illegal migration and other reasons for unnatural demography change are a big challenge for any country&#39;s present and future,&quot; Shah said in a speech. &quot;Demographic change is a serious issue linked not only to our sovereignty but also to national security, law and order (and) profound changes in social structure,&quot; Shah added. Top BJP members have previously referred to Bangladeshi migrants as &quot;termites&quot; and &quot;infiltrators&quot;. Critics say BJP&#39;s rhetoric and policies have added to the unease and marginalisation of India&#39;s estimated 200 million Muslims, accusing the party of conflating religious identity with illegal migration. The West Bengal centres have drawn particular concern because of the state&#39;s porous border with Bangladesh and its long history of migration. Relations between India and Muslim-majority Bangladesh soured after a 2024 revolution in Dhaka ended the autocratic rule of then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina, an ally of New Delhi who subsequently fled to India. The detention order&#39;s apparent inclusion of Rohingya refugees -- &nbsp;a mainly Muslim group who fled Myanmar during a brutal military crackdown in 2017 -- has also drawn criticism.

Bangladesh

Hundreds of people in India's border region with Bangladesh flee to the frontier after the government ordered the construction of detention centres for undocumented Bangladeshi migrants and Rohingya refugees.

Articles by Maham Khan