Hindus begin to leave Kashmir Valley after rise in deadly attacks

An Indian paramilitary trooper stands guard along a street during a random search in Srinagar on June 3, 2022. (AFP)
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Updated 03 June 2022
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Hindus begin to leave Kashmir Valley after rise in deadly attacks

  • Members of the Pandit community have been holding mass protests demanding relocation to a safer place since May
  • Indian-controlled Kashmir has been witnessing a spate of targeted killings since August 2019, when the government abrogated its autonomy

NEW DELHI: Members of a minority Hindu group in Kashmir Valley have started to leave the area, citing fear amid an intensifying string of killings targeting the community.

Indian-controlled Kashmir has been witnessing a wave of deadly attacks since August 2019, when the government abrogated the Muslim-majority region’s limited constitutional autonomy to bring it under the direct rule of New Delhi.

On Tuesday, gunmen killed a Hindu schoolteacher in Kulgam district. On Thursday, a Hindu bank employee was shot dead in the same area. The killings came less than a month after a government employee, another member of the community, was murdered in nearby Budgam.

Since May, members of the community have been holding protests against the local administration, demanding relocation to a safer place, but as no steps have been undertaken by the government, many have decided to leave on their own.

“The local and the central government has failed to secure the lives of religious minorities staying in Kashmir Valley,” Sanjay Tickoo, who heads the Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti, the largest Kashmiri Pandit organisation in the region, told Arab News on Friday.

“Around 3,000 Kashmiri Pandit employees have left the valley during the last two days and the remaining will go in the next couple of days.”

Some 5,000 members of the Pandit community have been living in the valley since 2010 — two decades after about 200,000 of them fled Kashmir when an anti-India rebellion broke out. They returned under a government resettlement plan that provided jobs and housing.

Jagat Bhat, a Kashmiri Pandit and government employee who was working in Srinagar, the main city of Kashmir Valley, said the resettlement plan was “an invitation to death.”

He told Arab News that 10 families from his neighborhood alone moved out to nearby Jammu district on Thursday.

“The situation is very bad and those who can are leaving the valley for safer places,” he said.

“We left the valley with whatever stuff we could carry early in the morning on Friday,” Rubon Sapro, a schoolteacher, said. “The situation in the valley has worsened and there is a great sense of fear among Hindu minorities. They are leaving the valley in hordes.”

Sunit Bhat, who lives in a transit camp, one of the seven camps that the government built in 2010 to accommodate the Pandit community under the resettlement plan, said he is now only waiting to get his son’s school certificate before the family can move.

“Already many have left and those who are still in the valley will move out in a day or two after finishing local formalities,” he told Arab News. “I will leave the valley most probably tomorrow morning. I cannot think of returning to the valley again.”

While earlier this week a local spokesperson of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, Dr. Hina Bhat, said relocation of Pandits would be against the government’s policy, another party official blamed the current instability on neighboring Pakistan.

The Indian government has been invested in projecting the majority-Muslim region as a stable, integrated part of India after revoking its autonomy 2019.

“The way the situation has been improving in the valley in the last four years, there has been an atmosphere of frustration in Pakistan, and they have been trying to vitiate the atmosphere in the valley,” Manzoor Bhat, BJP spokesperson in Srinagar, told Arab News. “Pakistan wants to sabotage the peace in Kashmir.”

Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence from British colonial rule in 1947. Both countries claim the region in its entirety and have fought two of their three wars over control of Kashmir.

India has accused Pakistan of arming and training rebel groups, which Pakistan denies.


Putin ‘doesn’t dare’ meet Zelensky in Istanbul: EU’s Kallas

Updated 5 sec ago
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Putin ‘doesn’t dare’ meet Zelensky in Istanbul: EU’s Kallas

The meeting set for Thursday in Istanbul would be the first direct negotiations
Zelensky has urged Putin to personally attend the talks

COPENHAGEN: The European Union’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas said Tuesday she didn’t think Russian President Vladimir Putin would turn up for talks in Turkiye this week with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The meeting set for Thursday in Istanbul would be the first direct negotiations between Ukrainian and Russian officials since the early months of Moscow’s invasion in 2022.

Zelensky has urged Putin to personally attend the talks that the Kremlin leader himself suggested, but Moscow has so far declined to respond to the invitation.

“I think it’s a good move if they sit down,” Kallas told a democracy conference in Copenhagen, adding: “But I don’t think he dares, Putin.”

“It has been over two months since Ukraine agreed to an unconditional ceasefire,” she said.

“Russia is clearly playing games, trying to find time, hoping that time is on their side. We haven’t seen any good efforts or good signs from their side.”

Ukraine said Tuesday that a Putin no-show would be a clear sign that Moscow is not serious about peace.

“If Vladimir Putin refuses to come to Turkiye, it will be the final signal that Russia does not want to end this war, that Russia is not willing and not ready for any negotiations,” Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said in a statement.

How Western aid cuts deepen Afghan women’s crisis

Updated 29 min 9 sec ago
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How Western aid cuts deepen Afghan women’s crisis

  • Foreign aid empowers Afghan women through funding, training, market access
  • Entrepreneurs say sudden cuts force women-led businesses to close

KABUL: Afghan women entrepreneurs who have carved out spaces of independence for themselves and others, despite sweeping Taliban restrictions, are facing the collapse of their businesses as Western donors abruptly cut the aid they once pledged.

The rights of Afghan women have been curtailed since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 2021.

Barred from secondary schools and higher education, restricted in public places and not allowed to take up most of the jobs, women have been turning to private entrepreneurship to empower themselves and others.

Aid from Western countries, which have been pressuring the Taliban to uphold women’s rights, has been especially vital in sustaining these female-led initiatives.

The sudden reduction in funding, which started with massive US aid cuts since January, has already affected Afghan healthcare and essential services and is now taking a toll on the very group the West once vowed to support.

“Women’s economic activities have been severely affected by the reduction in international aid. Reduced financial support has led to fewer training and development opportunities, and in some cases international partners that previously provided resources or markets have suspended or ceased their activities,” Behnaz Saljoqi, head of the Women’s Chamber of Commerce and Industries in Herat, told Arab News.

International humanitarian aid has played a key role in empowering women entrepreneurs by providing not only direct support but also training, networking opportunities, microfinance, access to foreign markets, and sponsorship for exhibitions.

“This support not only helped women acquire technical and managerial skills, but also gain greater confidence to participate in the labor market and society. Without this support, many women would not even consider starting a business,” Saljoqi said.

“If the situation continues or worsens, the working environment for women will become increasingly difficult … The empowerment process that began in previous years will be reversed.”

Bahar Anwari, who runs Bahar Canvas Art Gallery in Kabul, is already observing a decline in her business as her usual customers — women — are no longer placing orders.

“With the reduction of development projects, things changed in the country,” she said.

“The purchasing power of people, especially women, has become very low. Employment opportunities became scarce, and most women lost their jobs, and poverty is growing every day. We will have to shut down our workshops and sit at home doing nothing.”

For Afghan women entrepreneurs, doing business means not only helping to sustain their own households but also contributing to society and creating opportunities for others like them.

International support has played a key role in making it possible.

“Women in Afghanistan largely depend on financial support from family and international organizations. While establishing my company, I also received some funds from a development organization, without which it would have been very difficult to set up the business,” said Parisa Elhami, director of fashion brand Watan Collection.

“Being in business as a woman gave me the strength and confidence to maintain my social standing despite the limitations. Business allowed me to be independent and provide employment opportunities for other women.”

The foreign aid cuts, especially from Afghanistan’s main donor, the US — which invaded the country in 2001 and spent billions of dollars on two decades of military and development operations — have already disrupted basic services such as healthcare, education, and food distribution.

Women, whose social role US humanitarian agencies earlier promoted, face losing their place in society, together with the collapsing businesses.

“The presence of women in economic and social spheres is vital. It not only contributes to economic growth, but also contributes to social justice and the overall progress of society,” Elhami told Arab News.

“The decline in international aid, especially from the US, has forced many women-run companies to close or reduce their staff … If the economic situation and global aid levels continue at the same pace or worse, the future of women’s business will be seriously threatened. Many businesses will disappear and women’s access to economic, health and educational opportunities will be severely limited.”


UN chief pleads with countries to pay their share for peacekeeping, points to financial problems

Updated 27 min 43 sec ago
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UN chief pleads with countries to pay their share for peacekeeping, points to financial problems

  • UN’s peackeeping department currently leads 11 operations, in countries including Lebanon, South Sudan, Congo others
  • “Peacekeeping operations have been facing serious liquidity problems,” said Guterres

BERLIN: UN Secretary-General António Guterres told countries that the world body’s peacekeeping operation is “only as strong as member states’ commitment to it” as he pleaded with them Tuesday to pay their share.

The United Nations’ peackeeping department currently leads 11 operations, in countries including Congo, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Lebanon, Cyprus and Kosovo.

The budget for nine of those operations during the fiscal year that ends on June 30 totals $5.6 billion, 8.2 percent lower than a year earlier. Each of the UN’s 193 member countries is legally obliged to pay its share toward peacekeeping.

Guterres argued that, with a budget “representing a tiny fraction of global military spending — around one half of one percent — UN Peacekeeping remains one of the most effective and cost-effective tools to build international peace and security.”

“But it’s only as strong as member states’ commitment to it,” he added at the opening of a two-day, German-hosted conference of ministers to discuss the future of peacekeeping.

“Unfortunately, peacekeeping operations have been facing serious liquidity problems. It is absolutely essential that all member states respect their financial obligations, paying their contributions in full and on time.”

Guterres didn’t offer details of the problems, but acknowledged that “these are tough times for the financing of our work across the board.”

More broadly, the UN has been scrambling to respond to funding cuts for aid operations from its biggest donor, the United States, under President Donald Trump’s administration.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said that his country, like many others, “is prepared to pledge additional resources” for peacekeeping. But he said there should also be an effort to make missions “more efficient and more focused” through clearer mandates, cutting back on bureaucracy and avoiding duplication.


Philippine ex-president Duterte wins mayoral election from ICC detention

Updated 44 min 9 sec ago
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Philippine ex-president Duterte wins mayoral election from ICC detention

  • Duterte was mayor of Davao for more than 20 years before becoming president
  • Local residents credit him with creating a peaceful, safe and livable city 

MANILA: Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has won the mayoral election in his home city by a landslide, poll results showed on Tuesday, despite his detention at the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity.

Duterte won another term as mayor of Davao City with more than 662,000 votes, which is about 85 percent of the total and eight times more than his closest rival. 

In ICC custody since March, Duterte is awaiting trial over the “war on drugs” campaign during his time as president in 2016-22, which the court estimates resulted in the extrajudicial killings of 30,000 Filipinos.

But even from a jail cell halfway across the world, his legacy as mayor of Davao for more than two decades before becoming president lives on, enough for his supporters to show up in masses at the polls. 

“He is the father figure for most Davaoenos (people of Davao). He is largely credited for the peace and order in the city, which is far better than anywhere else,” Davao resident and former journalist Allan Afdal Dawal told Arab News. 

“Things worked and people can walk in the busy streets without being pickpocketed or robbed. For example, Agdao was a gangland until the ’90s. Now it’s a bustling commercial district,” he said. “As for his ICC case, most people believed he would eventually be exonerated as the charges were seen as trumped up.” 

Under Philippine law, candidates facing criminal charges, including those in detention, can run for office, unless they have been convicted and have exhausted all appeals. 

Duterte, 80, first became mayor of Davao in 1988, at a time when the city was plagued by violence, insurgency and gang warfare. 

“Davao’s peace and order situation in the ’80s was unimaginable. When PRRD (President Rodrigo Roa Duterte) took over, it was a miraculous 360-degree turn. He ruled with an iron fist but made Davaoenos feel safer,” Davao native Jojie told Arab News. 

Davao, the third most-populated city in the Philippines, has since topped global lists of safest and most livable cities across Asia. 

In Duterte, the people of Davao remember a leader who is approachable and relatable. 

“He’s very different from the typical politician who’s like ‘high and mighty’ or usually has a lot of bodyguards … So many of the people here felt that finally, there’s someone who is ‘one of them,’” business owner May Ann told Arab News. 

People often saw him in public spaces, including driving a taxi around the city. Interacting with Duterte, who locals call Digong, was a normal occurrence that made people “feel like they know him personally and have a close connection with him,” she added. 

“I used to volunteer at a halfway home for children with cancer, and he would always be there on Survivors’ Day. Even though I knew about the EJKs (extrajudicial killings), many of us overlooked it because of what he had done for the city.”

Duterte’s deadly anti-drugs campaign has been the subject of international investigation for years, leading to his arrest in March. He has repeatedly defended the crackdown and denied the extrajudicial killing of alleged drug suspects, although he has also openly admitted to instructing police to kill in self-defense.

He could become the first Asian former head of state to go on trial at the ICC. But while his legal fate remains uncertain, Duterte could still take his oath as mayor despite being behind bars. 

“If I were President Duterte, I will ask ICC to be given the chance to take an oath of office as elected mayor of Davao before an official of the Philippines’ consulate to make more official his victory. Though it could be a long shot, depends on his lawyers’ arguments,” election lawyer Romy Macalintal told Arab News. 

“In his absence, the vice mayor will act as mayor ... The elected vice mayor is his son.” 


Bomb scare on plane halts operations at Belgian airport

Updated 47 min 9 sec ago
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Bomb scare on plane halts operations at Belgian airport

  • A bomb threat was triggered on board an aircraft that landed at Charleroi airport
  • “Ryanair was informed of a security threat on flight FR6313,” the company said

BRUSESL: Operations at Belgium’s second largest airport were briefly suspended on Tuesday due to a bomb alert on a Ryanair flight from Portugal, the company running the airport and the airline said.

Shortly before 11:00 am (0900 GMT) “a bomb threat was triggered” on board an aircraft that landed at Charleroi airport, said a spokeswoman for its operator.

“A security perimeter was established around the aircraft,” the spokeswoman said.

This required the runway to be closed as authorities took over, halting operations, she added. Air traffic eventually resumed at 1:45 pm.

Charleroi, south of Brussels, is a major European hub for low-cost airline Ryanair, which said the threat concerned one of its planes.

“Ryanair was informed of a security threat on flight FR6313 from Faro to Brussels Charleroi,” the company said.

“Passengers have been disembarked and the aircraft is being prepared for return to service. We sincerely apologize to any passengers affected.”

Belgian police did not immediately reply to a request for comment.