Author: Arif ArifArman

INTERNATIONAL DESK: Afghan refugees about the bad treatment of Pakistani soldiers and said that when they returned, their property was stolen in Pakistan. “There were two men in the house, they took one, and then they took our money; after a lot of harassment, we were deported,” said Sayed Ilyas, a deported refugee. “We are happy here, we eat bread, but we will not go there again, even if they give us money,” said Mohammad, a deported refugee. The returnees in Balkh are asking the authorities to provide work and permanent shelter. “We did not see any benefit from foreign…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: The sanctity of a place of worship was disrupted over the weekend as India’s Ambassador to the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu, faced heckling during his visit to a New York gurdwara. The incident has sparked outrage from the American-Sikh community, urging the gurdwara’s management to take decisive action against those responsible. Sikhs of America, a prominent Sikh organization in the United States, issued a statement on Monday, condemning the disruption of Ambassador Sandhu’s visit to the Hicksville gurdwara in Long Island, New York. The organization emphasized that gurdwaras are sacred places meant for worship, and they should remain…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: Hospitals in China are filling up with patients as respiratory illnesses surge among children, stoking fears among China’s neighbors. But the current outbreaks do not appear to be a new virus. Instead, they reflect three factors: a young population that lacks exposure to common viruses thanks to years of lockdowns, recurrent COVID-19 infections, and the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections, which are leading to rising pneumonia figures. As Annie Sparrow wrote in Foreign Policy today, Chinese medical authorities are so far evasive and uncommunicative about the outbreaks. That is in part because of distrust between the United States…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: The Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme has helped India reduce its reliance on China for imports. The scheme offers incentives to manufacturers to set up and expand production facilities in India. On the occasion of the 16th edition of CPHI and PMEC India 2023, the Chairman of the Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India (PHARMEXCIL), Dr Veeramani SV said that after the introduction of the PLI scheme, the reliance on China has reduced to some extent. Veeramani, in an interview with ANI on India as a ‘Pharmacy of the World’ has reduced dependency on China, said, “The Indian market,…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: China’s property sector has fallen into an unprecedented crisis. The country’s biggest homebuilders are in ruins. Two of the country’s largest developers — China Evergrande Group and Country Garden Holdings — have defaulted on their loans. The companies have a combined total of $500 billion in debts. In fact, since mid-2021, firms accounting for 40% of Chinese home sales have defaulted. Most are private property developers. Nearly 20 million houses across China have been sold but not yet completed. In October of 2023, home prices fell the most since 2014. China’s property market makes up a substantial chunk…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: The Ministry of National Defense (MND) tracked 10 Chinese naval vessels and six military aircraft around Taiwan between 6 a.m. on Monday (Nov. 27) and 6 a.m. on Tuesday (Nov. 28). Of the six People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft, one Shaanxi Y-8 anti-submarine warfare plane entered the southwest corner of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ), according to the MND. No PLA aircraft crossed the Taiwan Strait median line during that time. In response, Taiwan sent aircraft and naval ships and deployed land-based missile systems to monitor PLA activity. So far this month, Beijing has sent 312 military…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: The US and China this week are pitching rival visions of what constitutes a resilient and sustainable supply chain, marking the latest chapter in their fierce competition to assert a global trading system built around their respective economic needs. Just hours before Beijing was to launch its first international expo on supply chains featuring American tech giants like Tesla, Apple, Intel and Qualcomm under the tagline “connecting the world for a shared future”, US President Joe Biden convened the inaugural meeting of his supply-chain resilience council in Washington on Monday. In doing so, Biden announced 30 new actions…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: Arthur Anthony, a 70-year-old Christian man, owner of a small hotel near Dhoke Noor Chowk in Rawalpindi was shot at and critically wounded by some unknown man riding a motorbike, who fled after the shooting. Arther Anthony said that when his hotel started good business another person compelled him to sell the establishment to him. On his initial refusal, the man started propagating among people in close vicinity of his hotel that he is a Christian and no Muslim should have food from his hotel. Being unable to take the pressure of religion-based hate propaganda he decided to…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of the Sindh police on Sunday claimed to have arrested two terrorists who were trained in Syria. The suspects were identified as Syed Khurram Ali Kazmi and Syed Raza Ahmed Jafri. The CTD also claimed to have seized two pistols, ammunitions and explosives from the two. Their arrests were made during a raid conducted by the CTD in collaboration with an intelligence agency in Karachi. According to the CTD spokesman, Jafri is a former policeman who had been dismissed from the force in 1994. The spokesman said the suspects had been receiving significant…

YUSUF DURRANI: On the pretext of terrorism, the Pakistani Army is driving millions out of their homes, schools, businesses, and neighborhoods to a country that they may never have considered home. Millions are forced to live in tent colonies set up hastily along the borders. Living conditions are pathetic. Scores of children are separated from their parents. Women and children are forced to travel by buses, without any male relatives. These millions had escaped Afghanistan to Pakistan for succor when their homes were taken over by terrorists and their masterminds. They believed in Pakistan’s forefathers who had pledged to protect…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: The vulnerable villages in Pakistan’s mountainous north are facing a threat to their future due to melting glaciers caused by global warming, Reuters reported. On the steep slope of a glacier jutting through the Hunza Valley, Tariq Jamil measures the ice’s movement and snaps photos. Later, he creates a report that includes data from sensors and another camera installed near the Shisper glacier to update his village an hour’s hike downstream. The 51-year-old’s mission: mobilise his community of 200 families in Hassanabad, in the Karakoram mountains, to fight for a future for their village and way of life,…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: The recent denial of visas to 788 Sikh devotees by Pakistan, preventing them from celebrating Guru Nanak Jayanti (Gurupurab) at historic gurdwaras in the country, stands as a stark reminder of the deep-rooted intolerance that continues to plague Pakistani society, particularly towards its minority communities. This insensitive decision not only denies Sikh devotees the opportunity to practice their faith and connect with their spiritual roots, but it also serves as a stark illustration of Pakistan’s blatant disregard for the rights of its religious minorities. The Sikh community holds a special reverence for Pakistan, as it is the birthplace…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: Several Western diplomats and the United Nations have strongly criticised Pakistan over its decision to impose hundreds of dollars in exit fees for every Afghan refugee who fled the persecution by the Taliban condemning the decision as “shocking and frustrating”, The Guardian reported. The “unprecedented” move targets refugees who are waiting to leave Pakistan for Western countries under resettlement schemes, and charges about USD 830 for each person This comes after Pakistan announced a crackdown on undocumented foreigners and set November 1 as the deadline for about 2 million unregistered Afghans to leave the country. It further started…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: A convoy of trucks bringing goods into Myanmar from China has gone up in flames in what state media reported on Friday was an insurgent attack, compounding surging insecurity that has raised concern in neighbouring China. The fire in the town of Muse came as China’s ambassador to Myanmar met top officials in the Myanmar capital for talks on stability on the border after recent signs that their relationship has been coming under rare strain. “Due to this terrorist act … about 120 out of 258 vehicles carrying household goods, consumer goods, clothes and building materials were destroyed…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: Two superbugs are on the rise among patients in Hong Kong, the Hospital Authority has warned while announcing a pilot scheme that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to combat antibiotic overuse. Dr Raymond Lai Wai-man, the authority’s chief infection control officer, said the number of patients carrying vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) and Candida auris had increased in the first three quarters of 2023 compared with previous years. Lai attributed the trend to fewer resources allocated to combating multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) over the past two to three years as efforts were redirected to battle the Covid-19 pandemic. “We used many isolation…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: Lt Gen Upendra Dwivedi, the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Northern Command, on Friday said some of the terrorists who have crossed over into India from across the border are retired Pakistani soldiers. Speaking to media persons after paying his last tributes to five soldiers, including two Army Captains, who lost their lives in the Rajouri firefight, Lt Gen Dwivedi said, “While we lost five our brave soldiers in the encounter, we also eliminated two dreaded terrorists. Our boys went after the well-trained and equipped foreign terrorists without giving any thought to their personal safety. This (taking out…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: One year has passed since the November 24 Urumqi Fire. Maybe the world has forgotten that, but we Uyghurs haven’t. Because that day, Uyghurs experienced a tragedy that has never happened to any nation in human history. On that day, 44 people lost their lives in a fire that broke out in an 18-storey building where Uyghurs lived in Urumqi. The majority of these people were mothers and children. The screams of mothers and children coming out of the fire spread through the buildings to Urumqi and reached the world via the internet; but no one could help…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: The World Health Organisation (WHO) has asked China for details on an increase in respiratory illnesses and reported clusters of pneumonia in children, which its China office on Nov 22 called a “routine” check. The Chinese authorities from the National Health Commission held a press conference on Nov 13 to report an increase in incidence of respiratory diseases. They attributed the increase to the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions and the circulation of known pathogens such as influenza, mycoplasma pneumoniae, a common bacterial infection that typically affects younger children, respiratory syncytial virus, and the virus that causes Covid-19. Both…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: The handover of thousands of scamsters to Beijing by Myanmar’s military junta has brought into stark focus the multibillion-dollar fraud industry run by Chinese fugitives operating organized criminal syndicates across Southeast Asia. On November 21, the Myanmar authorities handed over 31,000 telecom fraud suspects to China, including “financiers” and ring-leaders of crime syndicates that have cheated Chinese citizens of large sums of money. Just days before this handover, the head of the cybercrime syndicate, Ming Xuechang, aka Myin Shaw Chang, committed suicide as Myanmar’s military junta tightened the noose around him, and China issued warrants for his arrest.…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: In a record achievement, the Border Security Force (BSF) has recovered 69 Pakistani drones that entered Indian territory in the last 10 months of this year, foiling attempt of smugglers to smuggle narcotics, data collated by the border guarding force reveals. Accessed by the ANI, the data points out that majority of these drones are “Made in China”, and of Quadcopter designs– which have four rotors– in different models. As per the data, a total of 69 such drones were seized by the BSF between January 1 to October 31 this year on the Western Border of India…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: China is closing, destroying and repurposing mosques, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has alleged in a new report. The crackdown is part of a “systematic effort” to curb the practice of Islam in China, HRW said. There are about 20 million Muslims in China, which is officially atheist but says it allows religious freedom. Observers, however, say there has been an increased crackdown on organised religion in recent years – with Beijing seeking greater control. The BBC contacted China’s foreign ministry and ethnic affairs commission for comment in advance of publication of the HRW report. “The Chinese government’s closure,…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: A creditor has seized a pair of luxury houses on Hong Kong’s Peak connected to China Evergrande Group’s chairman Hui Ka Yan, the latest setback to the fallen property tycoon. The creditor, Orix Asia Capital, appointed receivers for the adjacent homes, according to documents lodged with the Land Ministry. The properties, 10C and 10E on Black’s Link, are linked to Mr Hui via his associate Tan Haijun, who is listed as a director of the companies holding the houses. Mr Hui has seen his wealth evaporate and his freedom curtailed as creditors look to salvage what’s left of…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: Nepal seems to be losing interest and confidence in China due to concerns about the sustainability of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the negative effects of Chinese social media apps, encroachment on Nepalese territory, and criminal syndicates operated by Chinese elements. The recent stance taken by the Nepal government, not endorsing the BRI and President Xi Jinping’s security doctrine, speaks volumes about China’s declining influence in the Himalayan country. Nepal unexpectedly and without notice banned the Chinese social media app TikTok. Nepalese Minister Rekha Sharma stated, “Our social harmony, family structure, and family relations are being disturbed…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: The Border Security Force (BSF) troops on Wednesday foiled a smuggling bid and recovered a drone with contraband items weighing 534 grams from the farming field near Mianwala village in Punjab’s Tarn Taran district. The operation was carried out in the evening hours and was launched after getting specific information regarding the presence of a drone, the Public Relations Officer of BSF’s Punjab Frontier said in a press release. During the search operation, at about 5:42 pm, BSF troops intercepted a suspected drone activity near Village Mianwala in Tarn Taran. “BSF troops recovered 1 drone along with 1…