Author: Minakshi Mukhtar

North Korea has sent thousands of soldiers to Russia. Ukraine and its allies expect that they will be deployed to assist the Kremlin’s war effort. Ukrainian, South Korean and US sources all report that North Korea has transferred at least 10,000 soldiers to Russia, with some reports mentioning numbers up to 12,000. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he reserves the right to deploy North Korean soldiers: “It is our sovereign decision.” Ukraine and its supporters strongly condemned the deployment of North Korean troops, fearing a further escalation of the war. What do we know about where the soldiers are? The troops were initially…

A follow-up report issued recently by the UN General Assembly’s Human Rights Council assails Tajikistan’s government for failing to implement recommendations contained in an earlier survey concerning atrocities committed during the country’s civil war in the mid-1990s. The follow-up report relates to a mission conducted in 2019 by UN researchers intent on promoting the closure of old societal wounds left by the civil war. Among that mission’s recommendations was the establishment of a “a truth-seeking State policy” and the development of “specific mechanisms, supported by dedicated resources, for dealing with disappearances caused by and related to the civil war.” The Tajik civil war…

Anura Kumara Dissanayake and Sajith Premadasa go forward after no candidates gained 50% in first round. The Sri Lankan presidential election will be decided in a runoff, the country’s election body has said, after the top two candidates failed to win the mandatory 50% of votes to be declared winner. The Marxist-leaning Anura Kumara Dissanayake garnered the most votes in the first round of voting, with 39.5% of the counted ballots, while the opposition leader, Sajith Premadasa, finished second with 34%. All the remaining candidates, including the incumbent, Ranil Wickremesinghe, who trailed in third with 17%, have been disqualified, the…

Dushanbe 25/2 (35.71) The social networking activity of “influencer” Ismoil Mahmadzoir is causing a stir within the country’s political and security corridors. His grandfather President Emomali Rahmon is planning his succession, which has triggered quiet maneuvering within elite factions, including Mahmadzoir’s relatives. Nobody is clear about how becomes the next president of Tajikistan. The daughters jockeying for the top job besides the grandson.Video of a bland speech by Tajikistan’s long-time President Emomali Rahmon was posted late last month on Instagram by Buzkashi_1111, a handle created by Ismoil Mahmadzoir, the 25-year-old son of Firuza Emomali, one of the president’s daughters, who…

Brussels (12/03 – 55.56) Mary Lawlor, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, said that the dissolution of human rights NGOs signals a deteriorating environment for civil society and human rights defence in Tajikistan. She reiterated that Tajikistan must reconsider its attitudes towards civil society and view human rights defenders as allies instead of enemies. Earlier in November 2023, Tajikistan Minister of Justice announced that 700 NGOs in the country had been liquidated over an 18-month period. “Human rights defenders working on so-called sensitive issues, including freedom from torture, the right to housing and compensation for requisitioned land, minority rights, freedom of belief and good governance, political rights, and…

On the first anniversary of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan’s deadliest border war, marked in September, irascible Kyrgyz national-security chief Kamchybek Tashiev aired his frustrations at the slow progress in talks aimed at demarcating the disputed frontier. Tajikistan, said Tashiev, was making “territorial claims” against Kyrgyzstan in the talks. “But our answer is that there should be no such claims,” Tashiev fumed, noting ominously that Kyrgyzstan had found “new documents” related to the border. “Based on those, we know that many parts of Kyrgyzstan had been given to Tajikistan,” he claimed. “If [Tajikistan] does not renounce its territorial claims against Kyrgyzstan then…

Beyoncé’s Renaissance world tour was full of fashion moments, with her three-hour sets featuring numerous dazzling looks. For her Atlanta show, that came in the form of a flowing neon green sari – a traditional South Asian outfit. It was the work of Indian fashion designer Gaurav Gupta and took hundreds of hours to finesse. “My purpose in life is for people to think differently,” he tells BBC Asian Network. Gaurav designed three looks for the Renaissance world tour. As well as the neon green sculpted sari he also made Beyoncé a gem-encrusted gown and a crystal body suit. Both…

KATHMANDU: A Yeti Airlines crash in Nepal that killed 72 people almost a year ago was caused by the pilots mistakenly cutting power leading to an aerodynamic stall, a report issued by a government-appointed investigation panel on Thursday (Dec 28) said. The ATR 72, operated by privately owned Yeti Airlines, crashed just before landing in the tourist city of Pokhara on Jan 15 in one of Nepal’s worst airplane accidents in 30 years. There were 72 people on the twin-engine aircraft including two infants, four crew and 15 foreign nationals. There were no survivors. Dipak Prasad Bastola, an aeronautical engineer and…

Brussels (4/11 – 25) It’s an old story, a broken record: war crimes in the Middle East, encouraged and stoked by outsiders with their own agenda. Israel, offended and humiliated by the 7 October attacks for which they had repeatedly been warned by Egypt. Hamas, encouraged and bankrolled by Israel initially, in its effort to undercut the appeal of Al-Fatah, has turned into Frankenstein’s Monster, breaching a border that was trumpeted as the most invincible in the world, with 24/7 surveillance, sensors to detect tunnels, full camera coverage and on and on – yet several thousand Hamas warriors parachuted in…

A controversial theory that some Hindu groups call “Love Jihad” – which claims that many Muslim men are taking part in a plot to seduce Hindu women and convert them – has circulated in India for years, despite lack of evidence. Now a reverse theory – that Hindu men are deliberately trying to seduce Muslim women – is going viral online. It’s called the “Bhagwa Love Trap”, and again, evidence for the claim is scant. But that hasn’t stopped it spilling over into real-world violence. “It was extremely vile. I couldn’t believe my eyes,” says Maryam, a Muslim woman from…