The movement succeeded, the government was overthrown, and the quota system was largely scrapped — but the reform has had unintended consequences.

Women are securing a shrinking share of public sector jobs in the Muslim-majority nation of 170 million people.

Tothapi Azad, a 25-year-old Dhaka University graduate, supported calls to end quotas — but says she should have supported retaining them for women.

“For me, who had my family’s support, a quota might not have been essential — but for an average woman, it was essential,” she told AFP.

“A job is a tool for women’s empowerment. For rural women, it is more than that — a survival tactic, a shield to resist domestic violence.”

Data shows that the share of female government recruits has fallen since quotas were cut, shrinking an already limited number of civil service roles held by women.

‘Uncomfortable’

Until 2018, quotas accounted for 56 per cent of Class I posts, the top ranking civil service and public sector jobs.

That included 10pc for women, as well as 30pc for descendants of those who fought for Bangladesh’s independence in 1971.

Another 16pc was reserved for underprivileged regions and people with disabilities.

In 2018, after student protests, the then prime minister Sheikh Hassina scrapped quotas.

In 2024, it was proposed to reinstate quotas, sparking student protests.

That escalated into a mass uprising, and Hasina was overthrown.

Today, 93pc are filled on merit. A 7pc quota is reserved for those related to freedom fighters and other smaller groups, and there is no quota for women.

The Bangladesh Public Service Commission (BPSC), which runs the recruitment examinations, has around 300,000 applicants each year for 2,500-3,000 Class I jobs.

Before the quota was scrapped in 2018, women accounted for up to 35pc of recruits, including both quota and merit-based appointments.

That has dropped to 19pc, according to figures from the last exam round.

A BPSC official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the body “finds the outcome uncomfortable”, but that its “duty is limited to conducting the examination”.

AKM Abdul Awal Majumdar, a former bureaucrat, backs merit-based recruitment but advocates coaching to help women compete.

“My female colleagues were unparallelled,” he said.

The government elected in February also backs merit-based recruitment.

Md Abdul Bari, a public administration minister, described it as a “rational reform” in parliament.

But some officials fear the decline in female recruitment will become increasingly visible.

“At this moment, at least 21 women are leading 21 districts,” said a female bureaucrat with 20 years of experience, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“In 10 years’ time, there won’t be this many women in the service.”

‘Can’t continue’

The impact goes beyond the civil service.

Police data shows that only 267 women out of 2,651 candidates qualified as constables this year.

Only six of the 184 candidates who qualified as police sub-inspectors were women. No women qualified as sergeants, compared with 96 men.

“We can’t continue without them,” a police officer told AFP, noting that every station has dedicated desks for women and children.

Bangladesh previously had 60pc quotas for women in primary teaching positions. That has also ended.

Asif Shahan, a Dhaka University professor of Development Studies, said fewer women in government would impact policymaking.

“Their issues get reflected in policy,” he told AFP.

The debate has split students.

Md Mazharul Islam, a Dhaka University students’ union career advisor, a supporter of the Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami, backs a merit system.

“Society was much more conservative before, and girls were not allowed to pursue higher education,” he said.

“That has changed.”

Philosophy student Adity Islam said abolishing the women’s quota was wrong.

“We measured women across all walks of life with the yardstick of female students at Dhaka University,” said Islam, who is involved in leftist politics.

“Cutting the quota for women would eventually impact the overall governance system. We have already seen that in some districts. So aspiring candidates in many other places will lose hope.”

Header image: This photograph taken on September 7, 2026 shows Dhaka University students walking across the campus in Dhaka. —AFP

Tarar made the remarks while addressing a ceremony organised by the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad to launch a report on the IWT issue.

Water and the IWT remain a contentious issue between India and Pakistan, following New Delhi’s unilateral abeyance of the accord in April last year — a move that was followed by a brief military conflict between the two sides in May 2025.

Following India’s move, Pakistan termed any attempt to suspend its water share an “act of war”, noting the IWT had no provision for unilateral suspension. It later argued that Delhi’s action was a violation of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties.

“We are a peaceful nation, but we cannot allow India to weaponise water because it is the basic right of the 240 million people of Pakistan,” Tarar said, drawing attention to the “wider precedent involved”.

“If a state can unilaterally put a binding international water treaty in abeyance despite established dispute resolution mechanisms, the implications extend to transboundary water governance across the world,” Tarar warned, adding that it may have implications for countries sharing water under similar frameworks.

Tarar reiterated that Pakistan will continue to engage the international community and defend the country’s vital national interests.

At the outset of his address, Tarar said, “I take great pride in the fact that wherever we go, we say we are the people of the Indus Valley [..] we identify ourselves with the Indus waters.”

He noted that when the treaty was signed, the signatories “did not envisage that there would come a time a few decades down the line when conditions in India would deteriorate so much that they would be legally ignorant, morally bankrupt and devoid of ethics”.

Tarar held that the IWT was legally binding upon both parties. “It contains stipulations that this legal instrument cannot be unilaterally revoked, rescinded, or altered,” Tarar added.

He further stated that the treaty cannot be “unilaterally altered, revoked, rescinded or held in abeyance, for that matter, but even if there is a dispute, both the parties have to adhere to the terms and conditions of the treaty”.

At this, Tarar recalled an August ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), saying, “The court upheld Pakistan’s stance, giving legitimacy and strength to the argument that there cannot be a unilateral attempt to change the status of this treaty”.

In its August order, the PCA had backed Pakistan’s stance, declaring that the IWT between the two countries remained fully in force, as India had no justification for ending or suspending the agreement.

Tarar further stated that Pakistan had approached the issue diplomatically: “We have engaged the international community and presented our point of view — legal and diplomatic — and as a nation-state, which respected the rights of others, in a manner that has been most effective.”

At this, the information minister recalled Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s speech at the recent United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

“PM Shehbaz said that the IWT is the lifeblood of our people and our region, and any attempt to usurp this right be treated as an act of war,” Tarar said.

Tarar stated that Pakistan’s position on the IWT remained “absolutely clear,” adding that the treaty was an “instrument of peace and stability for the region”.

He noted that India had justified its actions with “alleged cross-border terrorism”; however, he went on to highlight sacrifices made by Pakistan in the fight against terrorism.

“We have economic losses of over $50bn over the past many decades,” Tarar said.

He continued: “When one Pakistani citizen lays down their life, yes, it is to make Pakistan safe, but it also makes the world a safer place.”

Tarar, drawing a contrast with neighbouring India, said, “India has illegally tried to alter the status of the IWT and has been accused at the international level of transnational aggression”.

Shifting his attention back to the IWT, Tarar said India’s actions were “highly condemnable” and unjustifiable at a “legal, diplomatic, and moral level”.

The IWT allocates the eastern rivers — Ravi, Beas and Sutlej — to India, while the western rivers — Indus, Jhelum and Chenab — are largely allocated to Pakistan. The 1960 water-sharing agreement has also established mechanisms for data-sharing and dispute resolution.

The assurance followed the controversial remarks by US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor, who described Jammu and Kashmir as an “important part of India” during a visit to Srinagar on Aug 19.

According to Pakistani diplomatic sources, Islamabad sought clarification from Washington on whether Gor’s remarks signalled a policy shift. US officials told their Pakistani interlocutors there had been “no change in our position” and that Washington continued to regard Kashmir as a dispute requiring resolution between Pakistan and India.

The sources also pointed to President Trump’s previous offer to help resolve the Kashmir dispute, saying the offer reflected Washington’s view that the issue remained unresolved.

Trump’s offer to help resolve Kashmir dispute highlighted

Gor’s remarks had caused concern in Islamabad. During a meeting with Omar Abdullah, who heads the government in India-held Kashmir, the US ambassador described the territory as “an important part of India”. He also indicated that Washington was reviewing its ‘Do not travel’ advisory for the region in light of what he described as improvements in the security situation.

Pakistan subsequently protested the remarks and summoned the US chargé d’affaires in Islamabad, saying the ambassador’s comments were inconsistent with its understanding of the longstanding US position and relevant UN Security Council resolutions.

The issue was discussed during a media interaction in Washington involving Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Kashmir Rana Muhammad Qasim Noon and Pakistan’s Ambassador to the US Rizwan Saeed Sheikh.

Mr Noon reaffirmed Pakistan’s political, diplomatic and moral support for the Kashmiri people and said lasting peace in South Asia could not be achieved without resolving the dispute in accordance with UNSC resolutions. He said the dispute could not be treated as settled.

He urged the international community to pay greater attention to allegations of human rights violations in India-held Kashmir, citing concerns over disappearances, detentions, demographic changes and efforts to alter Kashmir’s political and cultural identity.

Mr Noon also linked the dispute to the broader security situation in South Asia, arguing that the presence of three nuclear-armed states underscored the importance of resolving outstanding disputes peacefully.

Similarly, Amb Sheikh said Kashmir remained part of the international and UN framework and that its peaceful resolution was essential to regional and wider international peace and stability. The embassy later issued a statement reflecting these positions.

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2026

Delhi, a sprawling megacity of 30 million people, is regularly ranked among the world’s most polluted capitals due to a mix of emissions from power plants, heavy traffic, construction activity and the burning of crop stubble.

The construction ban will run from December 10 to January 20 as part of a winter action plan which will include restrictions on vehicular traffic aimed at encouraging residents to use public transport.

“Early implementation of these stringent measures would help prevent the city’s air from reaching hazardous levels during winter,” Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa told reporters.

A study in The Lancet Planetary Health in 2024 estimated that 3.8 million deaths in India between 2009 and 2019 were linked to air pollution. Levels of cancer-causing PM 2.5 microparticles often hit more than 300 micrograms per cubic metre in the city, 20 times the World Health Organisation’s recommended daily maximum.

Government-led initiatives such as partial restrictions on fossil fuel-powered transport and water trucks spraying mist to clear the air have failed to make a noticeable impact.

Under the new plan, Sirsa said “staggered office timings will be imp­l­emented from November 1 to February 28 to reduce peak-hour traffic congestion and vehicular emissions”. Parking fees will also be doubled from November 1 to discourage the use of private vehicles.

“We hope we will do better than last year and keep on improving the situation from year to year,” Sirsa said.

Published in Dawn, September 29th, 2026

Under the scheme launched by actor-turned-Chief Minister Vijay, all babies born in public health facilities in the state are eligible for a one-gramme gold ring, worth some $143.

Gold has immense cultural significance in India, featuring prominently in weddings and religious ceremonies, and seen as a safe generational asset.

“The gold ring would give the child something valuable to keep for the years ahead,” said one mother at a government hospital in the state’s Madurai district, who declined to give her name.

She was among dozens of mothers who cradled their newborns as they queued up to receive the gift.

“This scheme feels personal,” another grateful mother, Stella Mary, told AFP.

Officials say the initiative aims to highlight maternal and newborn care, while strengthening faith in public healthcare institutions in the southern state of over 72 million people.

The scheme, however, drew some criticism from the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is in the opposition in Tamil Nadu.

“A gold ring for a newborn may be a welcome gesture, but for families, the most immediate need is ensuring that essential nutrition is available every day,” party member Tamilisai Soundararajan said in a social media post.

India’s overcrowded public hospitals often struggle with staff shortages, long waiting times and patchy infrastructure, prompting many patients to seek treatment in the costly private sector.

While most women in India give birth in hospitals, home deliveries still occur in some rural communities, making institutional childbirth a priority for health authorities.

Despite significant gains in recent years, infant and maternal mortality rates continue to languish in India.

The country recorded 24 infant deaths per 1,000 live births while maternal deaths stood at 88 per 100,000 live births, according to latest official data.

The gold ring scheme, known as the “Thaimaman” (maternal uncle) programme, draws on the special cultural significance of a child’s maternal uncle, who is often expected to play a key role in family milestones and celebrations.

It also taps into India’s enduring obsession with gold.

For many women, particularly in rural areas, gold jewellery can serve as a form of personal financial security.

India is one of the world’s largest consumers of the metal. According to the World Gold Council, demand in the country reached $25 billion in the first quarter of this year.

In India’s most populous state of Uttar Pradesh, 56 people have died over the past three days with more than 1,000 houses damaged, the relief commissioner’s office said in a statement.

Neighbouring Nepal, already reeling under the catastrophic August 26 flood, was struck by a fresh wave of flooding and landslides that has killed 12 people since Thursday.

“Since Thursday, 12 people have died in rain-related disasters like floods and landslides,” Shanti Mahat, spokesperson at Nepal’s disaster authority, told AFP, adding that seven more were missing.

Scientists have warned in recent years of an increase in extreme weather events across South Asia, linking them to rising temperatures and changing climate patterns.

The flooding in Nepal last month, triggered by a glacial mountain collapse on the China-Nepal border, has killed more than 1,400 people and left thousands missing.

Uttar Pradesh, home to more than 240 million people, is frequently battered by rain and thunderstorms during the annual monsoon season from June to September.

The latest deaths were reported during a spell of “exceptionally heavy rain” after a “depression over the Bay of Bengal moved inland and intensified rainfall across the region”, it said.

The state recorded 66.5 millimetres of rain between Friday and Sunday, compared to the season average of 7.6mm, it added.

The heavy rain caused extensive damage to crops, with farmers raising concerns over sowing delays in the upcoming season.

In India’s eastern state of Odisha, over 70,000 people living in low-lying areas were evacuated after rivers swelled due to heavy downpours, NDTV news network reported.

The rains have damaged bridges and culverts, forcing officials to shut down Devkund, a popular tourist spot in the state.

Monsoon-related disasters are an annual occurrence across India after long summers when many parts of the country face water scarcity and drought.

The disaster triggered by a glacial mountain collapse on the China-Nepal border killed more than 1,400 people and left thousands missing — while knocking 410 megawatts (MW), or about 10 per cent of the generation capacity, out of Nepal’s power system.

More than 90pc of Nepal’s electricity comes from hydropower, but extensive damage to its river projects has prompted questions about its energy security as climate and geological risks intensify.

“Hydropower has been a major driving force in growth of the country… generating jobs and income,” Uttam Bhlon Lama, senior vice president of the Independent Power Producers’ Association (IPPAN), told AFP.

“It was bringing huge hope and future prospects to the people,” he said, adding that the country would now have to rethink its dam-building spree.

“We have to prepare… This is our new normal.”

Over the past decade, the Himalayan nation has increased hydropower output more than fourfold to about 4,120 megawatts, according to government figures, helping connect nearly all its 30 million people to the grid.

The country had previously moved to export surplus electricity to neighbouring India and Bangladesh, seeking to turn its glacier-fed rivers into a source of revenue. Authorities suspended electricity exports after the disaster.

The major destruction of hydropower infrastructure underscored the risks of that strategy in a region where glaciers are retreating, permafrost is thawing and extreme hazards are becoming harder to predict.

‘Serious lessons’

Nepal’s energy sector accounted for about half of the infrastructure damage from the disaster, according to government assessments.

Seven hydropower projects were directly hit while generation was halted at others, removing 410 MW from the national grid.

Six hydropower projects under construction, with a combined capacity of 508 MW, were also damaged.

Rescuers have continued searching hydropower tunnels for hundreds of missing workers, engineers and other personnel, weeks after the disaster.

The scale of the damage has prompted calls for a rethink of how projects are designed and built.

The disaster has “taught us serious lessons for the future”, Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Minister Biraj Bhakta Shrestha told parliament on Wednesday.

“We must not only take stock of the damage but also learn from it and develop systems to reduce future risks,” he said.

The World Bank warned that Nepal needs to build a hydropower system capable of anticipating, absorbing and recovering from increasingly complex Himalayan hazards.

Scientists say the August disaster was caused by a complex chain of geological and climatic factors rather than a single extreme weather event.

According to the World Weather Attribution group, the massive rock-and-ice collapse was shaped by long-term warming, glacier retreat and geological instability.

‘Existential threat’

Much of Nepal’s hydropower infrastructure lies along steep river valleys fed by glaciers — terrain exposed to floods, landslides and cascading geological hazards.

“Powerhouses need to be moved higher up from the riverbeds to protect them against floods, we need better evacuation plans and stocked safehouses,” IPPAN’s Lama said.

“We should explore remotely operated systems so people are not stuck inside in case anything happens.”

The flooding has also renewed calls for diversifying the power mix in Nepal, which lacks coal or gas-fired generation capacity.

“Nepal’s electricity system, currently strained and heavily dependent on hydropower, could be made more robust through well-planned additions of solar electricity,” Germany’s development agency GIZ said in a 2024 report.

The challenge extends beyond Nepal.

Glaciers in the wider Himalayan and Hindu Kush ranges are a crucial water source for around 240 million people in the mountainous regions, as well as for another 1.65 billion people in the South Asian and Southeast Asian river valleys below.

Basanta Raj Adhikari, director at the Centre for Disaster Studies at Tribhuvan University, said the Himalayas must be monitored regionally for hotspots to develop early warning systems.

“I call it the fate of the Himalayan people,” he told AFP.

“It can happen anywhere in the world but the Himalayas are experiencing adverse impacts due to climate change and anthropogenic activity,” he said.

“We have to design climate-resilient infrastructures. That is our top priority because we are (facing) existential threat.”

Header image: An aerial view taken from inside a commercial aircraft shows Trishuli river in Nepal’s Dhading district on September 1, 2026 in the aftermath of flash floods. —AFP/File

In a reply to the Indian representative’s statement during the general debate of the 81st session of the UN General Assembly, Counsellor Saima Saleem termed India a state “that has elevated propaganda into statecraft, embraced disinformation as diplomacy, exports terrorism as an instrument of policy, pursues hegemony as a regional strategy, mainstreamed Islamophobia and institutionalised Hindutva ideology”.

“The extraordinary balance sheet of today’s incredibly intolerant India. It exports terrorism and violence while trying to import victimhood and sympathy,” she said.

“Pakistan knows the cost of Indian-sponsored terrorism all too well,” she said, adding that since the turn of the century, Pakistan had lost nearly 100,000 lives to terrorism, generations had been scarred and billions of dollars had been drained from the country’s economy.

She said Pakistan’s counter-terrorism efforts and sacrifices had been well recognised internationally.

“We have also presented to the international community extensive evidence of India’s financing, aiding and abetting of terrorist groups targeting Pakistanis, including the TTP, BLA and Majeed Brigade,” she said.

“Yet, despite its endless lectures to others on terrorism, we are still waiting to hear India unequivocally condemn the terrorist attacks that kill innocent Pakistani civilians. But how can we expect India to condemn its proxies?” she stated.

She said India’s “terrorist exports have gone from regional to global”, citing former Indian naval commander Kulbhushan Jadhav, convicted in Pakistan on terrorism and espionage charges, and Nikhil Gupta, who pleaded guilty in the United States for plotting the murder of a Sikh leader at the direction of the Indian government.

She also referred to “others implicated in assassinations carried out in Canada”.

Kashmir dispute

Turning to the Kashmir dispute, the counsellor said: “Jammu and Kashmir never was, neither is, nor will ever be an integral part of India. It is an internationally recognised disputed territory, a huge part of which is under India’s forcible and illegal occupation for nearly eight decades against the wishes of the Kashmiri people, and in gross violation of international law and numerous resolutions of the Security Council.”

“The contrast between AJK and Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir could not be more stark,” she said.

“In AJK, Kashmiris enjoy rights, participate in political life and have the freedom to express their opinions, while the people of Indian-occupied Kashmir endure decades of occupation, repression and denial of their fundamental rights and freedoms, including the inalienable right to self-determination. Rights exercised cannot be equated with rights denied,” she said.

‘Largest hypocrisy in the world’

Saima said the ruling RSS-BJP dispensation in India had “institutionalised Hindutva ideology in state policy and practice, and unleashed a reign of terror against minorities”.

“Muslims are demonised; Christians persecuted; Dalits dehumanised; and Sikhs disenfranchised in the largest hypocrisy in the world,” she said.

She said massacres of Muslims in Gujarat and Delhi under state patronage, calls for the genocide of Muslims, Islamophobic rhetoric by politicians and discriminatory citizenship laws were part of the “Hindutva project”.

Indus Waters Treaty

On the Indus Waters Treaty, Saima said that by the “so-called holding in abeyance of the Indus Waters Treaty and blatantly disregarding its international legal obligations, including the sanctity of treaties”, India had “stooped to a new low of weaponising water, a lifeline for the 240 million people of Pakistan”.

She said India’s “false narratives and disinformation could not hide the crushing defeat it suffered at Pakistan’s hands during Marka-i-Haq in May 2025”.

“It is well recognised by the international community that India lost more than a military conflict; it lost its credibility. Today, India can no longer import sympathy as it stands exposed in front of the world,” she said.

“As stated by my prime minister, Pakistan remains steadfast in its pursuit of peace, mutual respect, dialogue and the peaceful settlement of disputes in our region and beyond — a commitment reflected in our consistent role as a peacemaker, mediator and bridge-builder,” she stated.

“We will defend ourselves whenever aggression is imposed upon us, but we will never abandon the path to peace; for lasting strength lies not in the wars a nation can fight, but in the peace it has the courage to build and defend.”

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday said any attempt by India to stop, impede or divert Pakistan’s share of water would be treated as an “act of war”.

Addressing the 81st session of the UN General Assembly in New York, he said India’s decision to hold the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance had no legal basis, adding that the country’s position had been rejected by UN experts and the Permanent Court of Arbitration.

Opposition parties have claimed the lists have been manipulated to benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The Election Commission of India has said differences are normal in any institution, and that all its actions were lawful.

The Indian Express newspaper reported this week that two election commissioners had raised questions or expressed concerns to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar at least 14 times in 10 months, mostly in connection with the process of updating voters’ lists that began last year.

Opposition parties and the youth-led Cockroach Janta Party have demanded Kumar’s resignation.

The CJP said it would launch nationwide protests on October 2 if he did not quit by Saturday.

The Commission said on Saturday that a committee led by a senior election official and including an independent technology expert would examine whether the software complied with election laws and rules.

It also said local officials would visit voters flagged for discrepancies instead of routinely requiring them to appear at government offices.

The rule would impact family-run stores, restaurants and food stands selling everything from sugary soft drinks and salty chips to greasy samosas and fatty pizzas or burgers close to India’s 1.5 million schools.

It could prove another hurdle for multinationals such as PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Mondelez and Nestle, which already face proposed rules to put red warning labels on products high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS), bringing India into line with markets such as Chile and Mexico that have tougher food safety regulations.

Some Indian businesses and grocery shop owners near schools are already fretting. In Bhubaneswar city in eastern India, a dozen shopkeepers said sales could drop by a third or more.

At one shop, 15-year-old Priyanshu Palei bought two packets of PepsiCo’s popular Uncle Chipps, stuffing them into his backpack on the way to class.

“I will have these during recess,” he said, preferring them over his mother’s packed lunch of rice and lentil stew.

That’s the habit India wants to break.

Rajit Punhani, the chief executive of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, which is driving the changes, said the “safe food” schools plan aimed to steer children away from unhealthy habits early on.

“We have to discourage children from having these. We have to inculcate this habit,” he told Reuters.

“It will not have an impact on businesses in a major way. Shop owners can sell non-HFSS foods,” he added, saying regulations are aimed at nudging companies to reformulate recipes.

There is no fixed timeline for the law, first proposed in 2020. Amid a nationwide food safety crackdown, the authority in August published thresholds for fat, salt and sugar content that would trigger restrictions on sales near and inside schools, inviting public feedback until Oct 6.

Child obesity surging in India

In recent years, products ranging from Lay’s chips to Cadbury chocolates and Maggi noodles have grown in popularity.

Some Indians with lower incomes view buying foreign brands as a mark of an improving lifestyle, while also being drawn by cheap prices.

In 2023, Domino’s launched its cheapest pizza in the world in India, selling for just 49 Indian rupees.

As diets changed, the number of Indian children aged 5-19 deemed overweight or obese has also climbed. From 28m in 2015, it surged nearly 50 per cent to 41m by 2025 and will touch 56m by 2040, World Obesity Federation data shows.

While India’s federal law aims to block near-school shops from selling and advertising HFSS products only to schoolchildren, the western state of Maharashtra, home to Mumbai, has taken a stricter approach — no shop within 50 metres of schools can carry such products, state food safety commissioner Tukaram Mundhe told Reuters.

“There will be hundreds of such shops near schools. How will one regulate if they are selling to schoolchildren or not? Shops cannot stock these items,” said Mundhe.

State data accessed by Reuters showed inspectors have so far found violations at 133 shops within 50 metres of schools, and ordered 51 to discontinue their business.

Industry woes

The Confederation of Indian Food Trade and Industry is concerned, saying compliance would be difficult as many schools are close to congested markets serving the general public, according to its confidential draft submission made to respond to the proposal, and reviewed by Reuters.

The trade group did not respond to queries.

The law can cause “loss of business and livelihood”, the document said, arguing restrictions should only apply inside schools.

Asked about the schools proposal, PepsiCo, which owns Lay’s, referred Reuters to its global policy which limits what products it allows to be sold in schools.

Nestle, which makes Maggi noodles, said it follows its global policy which only allows the sale in primary and secondary schools of products that meet specific nutrition criteria.

Coca-Cola and Mondelez, owner of Cadbury, did not respond to Reuters queries.

Rahul Khanna, a food regulations specialist at Indian law firm RAKLaw, said there was a “wave of concern” among his firm’s clients, especially confectionery makers for whom children are an “important consumer segment”.

He did not name the clients.

Around the world, five countries have proposed or implemented sale restrictions around schools, while 48 have restricted junk food sales inside schools, according to researchers at the University of North Carolina.

In 2016, Chile imposed new rules on warning labels and prohibited the sale and promotion of junk food in schools. A Lancet study this year said that 18 months of exposure to the law saw a 2.85pc lower probability of excess weight among girls, and 2.4pc among boys.

The law also pushed manufacturers to reformulate recipes of many products in Chile.

“If the law were ineffective and consumers did not change their behaviour, producers would not push back,” said Guillermo Paraje, a professor at Adolfo Ibez Business School in Chile.

“They know the law will make them reformulate as much as they can.”

Opposition parties have said the lists have been manipulated to benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

On Wednesday, the Indian Express newspaper said two election commissioners had raised questions or expressed concern at least 14 times in 10 months — mostly in connection with the process of updating voter lists that began last year — with Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

The report sparked a political furore, with opposition parties launching a fresh attack on the election commission that they have accused of being biased. The panel has denied these claims.

On Thursday, the main opposition Congress Party announced protest marches on all state election offices across India on Friday, demanding Kumar’s arrest, his removal from office and an independent review of all decisions and voter-list changes made under him.

The Election Commission of India has said that differences between election commissioners were normal for any institution and that all its actions were lawful. It did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.

“If Gyanesh Kumar does not resign within 48 hours, the Cockroach Janta Party will start a nationwide agitation … we will not back down without Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation,” said Abhijeet Dipke, who founded the self-named movement, at a press conference.

Differences are normal, poll panel says

The Cockroach Janta Party is fresh off its successful youth demonstrations in July, which led to the resignation of Modi’s education minister over exam-paper leaks — one of Modi’s biggest political setbacks since he came to power in 2014.

“Differing views and observations are a normal part of deliberation in any institution,” the panel said in a statement on Wednesday following the newspaper report. “They are a part of the decision-making process before a final decision is taken.”

Kumar is one of three election commissioners and is the chief as he is the most senior.

Election commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi — who the newspaper said had questioned and differed with Kumar — did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

Opposition parties have criticised the conduct of the panel in recent years, alleging that names of millions of voters were deleted without warning and that new voters were added without verification to favour the BJP.

The BJP has defended the poll panel and said opposition parties had launched a smear campaign because they were regularly losing elections.

“Neither the Election Commission of India nor any constitutional body in India is under dictatorial rule … they are functioning democratically,” BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said at a media briefing on Wednesday.

The Election Commis­sion of India (ECI) has been under scrutiny in rec­ent months over the nationwide revision that has struck millions of names from voter lists since last year.

The ruling party says the revision aims to strike off fraudulently registered voters, but the opposition argues it is politically motivated and also targeting legitimate ones.

The report by the Indian Express focused on internal divisions within the three-member ECI.

It said the body’s chief, Gyanesh Kumar, overruled objections from the other two members at least 14 times during the past 10 months, leading to the removals of some 130 million voters.

Such overrulings may be unlawful because the commission is supposed to work based on the consensus of at least two members, according to the report.

The Congress accused Kumar of acting unilaterally at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling BJP.

“It was already known that things were not exactly well within the ECI,” Congress party spok­esman Pawan Khera said in a social media post.

“But just how messy, dysfunctional and, frankly, disturbing things had become is (now) laid bare.”

K. C. Venugopal, another sen­ior Congress party leader, demanded Kumar’s “immediate removal” and a Supreme Court-mon­itored investigation.

Arvind Kejriwal of the opp­o­sition Aam Aadmi Party accused Kumar of “vote-rigging”.

Published in Dawn, September 24th, 2026

India unilaterally suspended the accord in April last year — a move that was followed by a brief military conflict between the two sides in May 2025.

In August, the Permanent Court of Arb­i­­t­ration (PCA), in a setback to New Delhi, declared that the treaty between the two co­u­ntries remained fully in force, as India had no justification for end­ing or suspending the agreement.

In his address at the ministerial meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir on the sidelines of the 81st session of the UN General Assembly in New York, Dar said: “The treaty is a binding international agreement and contains no provision permitting its unilateral suspension.

“International obligations can’t be set aside when they become inconvenient.”

Recalling the conflict between Pakistan and India in May last year following a deadly attack in occupied Kashmir’s Pahalgam, Dar said it “provided a stark reminder of the consequences of leaving the Jammu and Kashmir dispute unresolved”.

The foreign minister also mentioned that following the Pahalgam incident, India levelled baseless allegations against Pakistan without credible investigations and embarked upon military aggression.

“Pakistan exercised its inherent right to self-defence under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter in a measured and proportionate manner while acting responsibly to prevent further escalation,” he stated.

DPM Dar emphasised that the “lessons from [the] dangerous confrontation from May 2025 must not be lost”.

“Two nuclear-armed states came into a direct military conflict over a dispute that has remained unresolved for almost eight decades,” he noted.

“Whether in South Asia or the Middle East, military force can’t resolve longstanding political disputes. Dialogue, diplomacy and just resolution of the root causes in accordance with the international law remain the only sustainable way forward,” he stressed.

The foreign minister added that India’s unilateral attempt to hold the IWT in abeyance has introduced “another dangerous dimension”, explaining that the treaty was a binding international agreement and contained no provision permitting its unilateral suspension.

He also referred to the PCA’s decision on the matter, saying the court reaffirmed that “the unilateral action by one party can’t deprive the court of its competence and has underscored the continued force of the treaty’s obligations, including those governing the Western rivers”.

‘Sustained effort to silence people’

At the outset of his address, Dar expressed “profound appreciation” to the OIC secretary general and members of the group for their “steadfast and principled support for Kashmiri people”.

“For almost eight decades people of Jammu and Kashmir have waited for the international community to honour a solemn promise: the right to determine their future through a free and impartial plebiscite under the UN auspices,” he said.

He mentioned a series of illegal and unilateral measures taken by India since Aug 5, 2019, saying New Delhi’s “unmistakable intention is the unlawfully changing the demographic, critical and cultural character” of India-occupied Kashmir (IoK).

The foreign minister noted that India had systematically “dismantled political and civic space” in the region.

“Kashmiri leaders, activists, journalists and youth continue facing arbitrary detentions, torture and persecution under draconian laws, including the Public Safety Act.”

He noted that political organisations had been outlawed and legitimate dissent was criminalised. “This suppression is accompanied by a deliberate effort to alter the identity of the occupied territory.”

He added: “New domicile and laws, manipulation of electoral constituencies, addition of non-Kashmiris to electoral roles, confiscation and demolition of properties and measures undermining Kashmiri Muslim’s cultural and religious heritage are used to change realities on the ground.”

Meanwhile, India has “simultaneously sought to shut the window through which the world can see these violations”, Dar highlighted.

“Media freedom has been systematically curtailed; journalists face intimidation, surveillance and detention; Kashmir Press Club was forcibly closed; social media accounts have been blocked; and international media and independent observers continue to be denied unhindered access.”

DPM Dar pointed out that the international community had independently corroborated these concerns, including in a joint communication by the UN Special Procedures issued on Oct 16, 2025.

That report mentioned the “arrest and detention of around 2,800 individuals, including journalists and human rights defenders; demolition of homes, blocking of around 8,000 social media accounts; and incidents of hate speech, intimidation and dehumanisation targeting Kashmiris and Muslims”.

Dar stressed that the incidents were not isolated violations. “Taken together, they reveal a sustained effort to silence people, transform the identity of their homeland and foreclose their right to self-determination and their own future,” he said.

In his address, DPM Dar also mentioned multiple laws promulgated by India for the annexation of Jammu and Kashmir.

He asserted that New Delhi cannot “invoke domestic law to negate” a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution on Kashmir, adding that Kashmir remained an internationally recognised dispute on the UNSC’s agenda.

“No domestic legislation, judicial verdict, electoral exercise or demographic manipulation can substitute for the Kashmiri people’s inalienable right to self-determination.”

He reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to a just and peaceful settlement of the dispute in accordance with the relevant UNSC resolutions and wishes of the Kashmiri people.

“We will continue extending our fullest support to the Kashmiri people until the right is realised,” the deputy premier reaffirmed.

‘Sustained diplomatic action’

Extending his gratitude to OIC for consistently standing up with the Kashmiri brothers and sisters, Dar noted: “Our challenge now is to translate this principled solidarity into a sustained diplomatic action.”

Expanding upon those actions, Dar urged the OIC and its member states to “maintain a unified and visible … position at the UN and other international fora and intensify efforts for implementation” of the relevant UNSC resolutions.

The foreign minister further urged the OIC to “call upon India to reverse all illegal measures taken since Aug 5, 2019; halt demographic engineering and attacks on Kashmiri political, religious and cultural identities; and release all political prisoners and those arbitrarily detained”.

Third, Dar called on the OIC to demand unrestricted access to IoK for the OIC special envoy and fact-finding mission, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), UN Special Procedures, international media and independent observers.

He also sought OIC members’ support for “international accountability for serious human rights violations” in the region.

Fourth, Dar urged the forum to strengthen coordinated OIC diplomacy in New York and Geneva and support the OIC’s call for an updated OHCHR report on Kashmir.

He pointed out: “Kashmiri people are only asking the international community to deliver what was provided to them decades ago. The right to self-determination is already recognised, and the mechanism for its exercise has already been prescribed by the UNSC.

“What remains is the fulfilment of the solemn international commitment.”

Dar also urged the OIC to keep the Jammu and Kashmir issue high on the international agenda, oppose attempts to alter the character of the disputed territory and advance a just and peaceful settlement in accordance with the relevant UNSC resolution and the aspirations of Kashmiris.

Jagtar Singh Johal, from Dumbarton in west Scotland, was detained in November 2017 while in India for his wedding over an alleged plot to kill right-wing Hindu leaders.

His brother, Gurpreet Singh Johal, said in a video posted on X that “in the coming days Jagtar will be released on bail”, calling this “really, really good news”.

“Now, all I can think about is Jagtar walking out of prison. We have waited so long and fought so hard for this moment,” he added in a statement released by Reprieve, a British charity that has campaigned for Johal’s release.

Johal’s MP, Douglas McAllister, welcomed the “amazing news” in a post on social media, saying his constituent was being held in “arbitrary detention”.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2026

The three-judge bench found that 14 of the accused were guilty on all charges, which included murder, conspiracy to commit terrorism and possessing firearms and explosives under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. A 15th defendant was found guilty of only some of the charges, while nine others were acquitted.

The presiding judge told a packed courtroom that sentencing would take place later on Tuesday. Dozens of police commandos provided security outside as the verdicts were read.

The 24 men were accused of aiding and abetting the suicide bombers who struck three luxury hotels and three churches on April 21, 2019, killing 279 people, including 45 foreigners.

Country’s historic trial brings record 23,270 charges

Local media has said some could face the death penalty, although Sri Lanka has not carried out an execution since 1976 and capital punishment is typically commuted to life imprisonment. Sri Lanka’s Roman Catholic Church welcomed the convictions.

“Finally, we have justice,” Catholic priest Jude Fernando said. “It has taken a long time to get to this point.” Teresa Fernando, a survivor who suffered head injuries, said no one should have to endure what she had gone through. “We came here today as victims of this attack to receive justice,” she said.

“Whatever the court says… we will bow our heads and accept it.” It was the first criminal prosecution directly linked to the coordinated bombings, though a former police chief and an ex-security chief were sentenced to death in July for criminal negligence after failing to prevent the attacks despite prior intelligence warnings.

All of the accused are from Sri Lanka’s minority Muslim community. Twenty-five men were originally cha­rged, but one defendant died in custody. Investigators blamed the attack on a homegrown extremist group.

The trial had already made Sri Lankan legal history, with prosecutors filing 23,270 charges, the most ever brought in a single case. The suspects were prosecuted under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.

Among those convicted on all charges was Mohamed Naufar, whom prosecutors identified as the ringleader who provided support to the eight-member suicide squad that carried out the bombings.

‘Mastermind’ spy boss

Three of the defendants were also charged by US authorities with terrorism-related offences linked to the bombings in December 2020. Five Americans were among those killed, including a US Commerce Department employee who was in Colombo on official business.

Other foreigners killed include citizens of Australia, Bangladesh, China, Denmark, India, Japan, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkiye and Britain.

The trial has unfolded against the backdrop of a separate and highly sensitive investigation into allegations that elements within the Sri Lankan state may have had links to those responsible for the attacks.

Former intelligence chief Suresh Sallay is in custody facing accusations that he had been the “mastermind” who orchestrated the bombings, allegations he denies. Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala told parliament in June that investigators believed he had worked with Islamist extremists before the bombings were carried out.

Investigators said the network was cultivated to manufacture a security threat that would in turn bolster political support for the Rajapaksa family, which returned to power several months after the attack with Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s election as president.

According to court filings, investigators believed the objective was to create chaos and present Rajapaksa, a former defence chief, as the leader best placed to restore security. Rajapaksa was credited by supporters with crushing Tamil separatist rebels in 2009 after a decades-long civil war.

Published in Dawn, September 23rd, 2026

Even switching to an induction cooker has not helped, as power outages often leave food half-cooked.

More than 2,000 kilometres away on the other side of South Asia, in Pakistan, the government has started a fuel subsidy that went into effect on Wednesday to ease the sharp rise in fuel prices.

Vehicle owners have to register for the subsidy; however, residents have complained the programme is not working smoothly.

Mohammad Musharraf, who lives in Karachi, says he has spent days trying to register with his motorcycle and ID card number, but has struggled.

“First of all, you have to register your vehicle. Then you have to register your mobile phone. How can an illiterate person survive if the conditions are so difficult?”

Attacks by the US and Israel on Iran over six months ago led to the disruption of oil and gas exports through the Strait of Hormuz. Now fighting between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis also imperils trade through the Red Sea.

The problems at the two chokepoints have driven Asian spot liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices back toward $30 per million British thermal units this week, the second such spike this year, from about $10 before the war.

Shell estimates the world has lost roughly 36 million tonnes of LNG from the Middle East so far this year, and the shortage is particularly hitting countries where governments have limited financial leeway to intervene.

In Bangladesh, the shortfall has triggered blackouts and factory shutdowns. Pakistan and other countries in the region are rushing to blunt public anger with hastily introduced subsidies.

Bangladesh in the dark

Bangladesh draws more than 40 per cent of its electricity from imported LNG, and disruptions in deliveries from Qatar — once the source of 95pc of those imports — have forced Dhaka to chase costlier cargoes on the spot market.

“Industrial growth is slowing down, and production is going down,” Power Minister Iqbal Hasan Mahmud said this week.

The strain shows up in orders in its garments industry, the country’s biggest export.

A survey of knitwear factories by the BKMEA trade group found 55pc had seen buyers cancel or cut orders because of gas and power shortages since late August, and 78pc had partially halted production.

At one factory, a boiler ruined in mid-process by low gas pressure forced owner Alvi Islam to source fabric from China instead — a delay that led a buyer to cut a 50,000-piece order to 40,000.

Others had to take on additional expenses after energy-related production delays forced them to send finished products by plane to meet deadlines. Garment industry executive Fazlee Shamim Ehsan said his factory had to pay $50,000 to send hoodie jackets by air freight to a French buyer.

“On top of that, we’ve had to spend extra money on diesel just to keep the factory running,” said Ehsan, who is the managing director of Fatullah Apparels Ltd.

In Tangail city, poultry farmer Sayedul Islam said power outages are killing 15 to 20 of his birds a day because he cannot run the electric fans needed to cool his sheds.

Even hospitals aren’t spared. In Sylhet, power cuts hit the local hospital almost hourly. While generators keep intensive care units running, they don’t always suffice for ward ventilation, leaving patients to cope with the heat in crowded rooms.

The government has said it is seeking solutions. Fazlul Hoque of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry pointed to a directive to fix a non-functional LNG terminal, which would help more tankers unload.

Some, including business owner Ehsan, said they have noticed slight improvements in recent days with gas supplies increasing.

Grids and gas tanks

Pakistan’s power grid is under a milder version of the same strain.

The government has reintroduced austerity measures in an effort to conserve fuel, setting 9pm as the time for closing markets and reducing fuel provision for official vehicles by 50pc for a period of three months.

The Pakistani power sector will need up to 400m cubic feet of gas a day through winter, Independent System and Market Operator (ISMO) data shows, with only two LNG cargoes confirmed so far for September.

One standard Pakistan LNG cargo is around 140,000 cubic metres, equivalent to roughly 3 billion cubic feet of gas, or just over one week’s supply.

While solar power has eased some of Pakistan’s power crunch in recent years, the country still needs gas for other sectors and households, said Masood Nabi, chief executive of state importer Pakistan LNG, at Gastech this week.

The more immediate battle in Pakistan, though, is over transport fuel prices.

The Prime Minister’s Fuel Relief Scheme that took effect on Wednesday night offers motorcycle, rickshaw and small-car owners a subsidy of Rs100 a litre on a capped monthly quota.

Petrol has risen to roughly Rs391 ($1.41) a litre and diesel to Rs421 ($1.52) — a heavy burden in a country where the minimum wage is around $145 a month.

Business leaders and workers say it isn’t enough.

“We used to eat meat once a week, but now it is difficult to afford it even once a month,” said Amesh Gul, 32, a rickshaw driver in Karachi whose income has taken a hit with rising fuel prices.

“All I ask of the government is to please take care of poor people.”

Header image: People on motorbikes ride past a portrait of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif set up in protest against rising fuel prices, ahead of the nationwide rollout of a government fuel subsidy scheme, in Karachi on Sept 16, 2026. — Reuters

The assertion by Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Asim Iftikhar Ahmad came during a Security Council meeting on the situation in Afghanistan five years after the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul.

“Pakistan cannot sit idle in the face of this terrorist onslaught,” Ahmad told the UNSC. “We will respond in self-defence, as and when needed and in accordance with international law. We will defend ourselves against whosoever attempts to harm our citizens and our national security.”

He said that more than 4,700 Pakistanis had lost their lives to terrorism emanating from Afghanistan over the past three years and added that Kabul had failed to take concrete and verifiable action against terrorist groups operating from Afghan soil.

Afghanistan had again become a safe haven for terrorist groups including the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, Baloch Liberation Army and its Majeed Brigade, Islamic State-Khorasan and the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, as well as their affiliates, Pakistan’s envoy said.

“The situation [is] made worse by external actors, the spoilers who support proxies inside Afghanistan to target Pakistan and other neighbouring countries,” he added.

A recent report by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres says terrorist groups remain present in Afghanistan, while restrictions on women and girls, exclusionary governance, economic pressures, declining capacity to provide basic services and large-scale returns and migration continue to threaten the country’s longer-term stability.

Armed groups opposed to the Taliban also remain active. According to the report, such groups claimed responsibility for 88 attacks across 21 Afghan provinces between May 1 and the end of July.

The report identifies the institutionalised denial of the rights of women and girls and the authoritarian nature of the Afghan Taliban’s political system among the most serious concerns. It says these policies affect Afghan society and remain obstacles to the country’s reintegration into the international system.

Against this backdrop, Ahmad said Islamabad had supported Afghanistan’s stabilisation through engagement, humanitarian assistance and regional cooperation.

“Despite reservations with regard to certain policies of the Afghan Taliban, Pakistan abided by its international commitments to allow unhindered humanitarian aid to Afghanistan. As noted in the secretary general’s report, at least 687 humanitarian cargo trucks entered Afghanistan from Pakistan during the reporting period,” he said.

But, “unfortunately, the hopes and expectations of the international community at that critical juncture five years ago did not materialise and in fact gradually turned into despair and disappointment”.

“The extent of challenges in Afghanistan is evident … and the secretary general’s report highlights that the semblance of relative stability that the Taliban seek to display ‘masks the accumulating risks that could impact the country’s stability over the short and long term’“, he said.

Ahmad said terrorism had been at the “core of Afghanistan’s problems”.

“This finds its roots in the deep nexus between the Taliban and terrorist groups,” he said, adding that the Afghan Taliban had failed to act against the terrorist groups. He further warned about weapons left behind in Afghanistan by international forces and illegal arms trafficking.

The United States took a similarly critical position on the Afghan Taliban, with Ambassador Mike Waltz focusing on the detention of American citizens, terrorism and restrictions on women and girls.

“The United States will not tolerate the Taliban taking American citizens hostage. Period,” Waltz said, accusing the Afghan Taliban of using American citizens as bargaining chips.

He called on the Security Council to condemn the detention of US citizens by the Afghan Taliban and demand their release.

Waltz also criticised the Taliban’s sheltering of terrorist groups and cited UN reporting on arbitrary arrests and detention, torture, ill-treatment and extrajudicial killings.

He highlighted the continuing ban on girls’ education beyond sixth grade and restrictions preventing Afghan women working for the United Nations from entering UN compounds.

The envoy questioned how long the international community could continue relying on engagement without seeing concrete changes.

“How many UN reports documenting abuse? How many Council resolutions demanding change? How many years of ‘engagement’ can we pass before we see measurable results?” he asked.

“This Council must demand results from the Taliban,” Waltz said. “We need to see action, not words.”

Russia, on the other hand, argued that engagement rather than pressure remained essential in Afghanistan’s case.

Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said there was “no alternative” to genuine, pragmatic engagement with Afghanistan. Recalling the withdrawal of foreign forces five years ago, he said predictions that Afghanistan would collapse or become a “black hole” had not materialised.

Nebenzia attributed the country’s relative stability to the Taliban’s focus on development, regional cooperation and building a self-reliant state.

He called for trust-based dialogue with the Afghan authorities, “fully free from the language of pressure and blackmail”.

China also argued for continued engagement while acknowledging concerns over the treatment of women.

Deputy Ambassador Sun Lei urged all parties to “cherish the outcomes of engagement and dialogue with the Afghan government, show good faith and stay patient”.

But he said restrictions imposed on Afghan women and girls affected their physical and mental health and undermined social stability and development prospects, making it harder for Afghanistan to gain greater international support.

China called on the Afghan rulers to guarantee the fundamental rights and interests of all Afghans, including women.

Seemingly referring to the US, it called on a “relevant country” to “bear its historical responsibilities” by resuming aid to Afghanistan, lifting unilateral sanctions, returning the overseas assets of the Central Bank of Afghanistan and providing resources for the country’s reconstruction and development.

The debate highlighted the central disagreement over how the international community should deal with Afghanistan five years after the Taliban takeover.

The previous extension of the ban was set to expire on September 24.

“Pakistan airspace not available for Indian registered aircraft and aircraft operated/owned or leased by Indian airlines/operators, including military flights,” the Notam said.

According to the notice, the extension came into effect at 10:45am on Wednesday and will remain until 04:59am on Oct 24, 2026.

The country’s airspace is divided into two flight information regions (FIRs) — Karachi and Lahore, according to a Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA) document from 2022.

Wednesday’s Notam applies to both the Karachi (OPKR) and Lahore (OPLR) FIRs.

India and Pakistan closed their airspaces to each other’s airlines in late April 2025, when tensions between them escalated in the wake of a deadly attack in India-occupied Kashmir’s Pahalgam.

On April 24, Pakistan’s top brass had announced a series of measures, including the closure of its airspace to all India-owned or Indian-operated airlines with immediate effect, as it retaliated against New Delhi’s slew of aggressive measures against the country.

New Delhi, without evidence, had alleged that Islamabad backed the Pahalgam attack. However, Pakistan had strongly denied any involvement and offered a neutral probe. The nuclear powers had the fiercest air battle in May, in which Pakistan said it downed seven Indian fighter jets.

Since then, Pakistan has extended the airspace ban several times, forcing Indian carriers to use longer and costlier routes.

For Air India, the country’s only carrier with a major international network, fuel costs rose by as much as 29 per cent and journey times by up to three hours on some long-haul routes, according to a document submitted to Indian officials last October.

The airline, owned by Tata Group and Singapore Airlines, estimated the Pakistan airspace closure’s impact on its profit before tax at $455 million annually — a significant amount given its fiscal 2024-25 loss stood at $439m.

The seven men, members of ousted leader Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League, were convicted of crimes against humanity including murder, as well as instigating and provoking killings.

They include the party’s former general secretary, Obaidul Quader, as well as fellow former minister Mohammad Ali Arafat. They were sentenced by a three-member tribunal headed by Justice Nazrul Islam Chowdhury. “We are happy with the verdict,” said prosecutor Md Aminul Islam.

As many as 1,400 people were killed between July and August 2024, according to the United Nations, when Hasina’s government attempted to suppress the student-led uprising.

27 AL activists arrested over alleged plans for subversive activities

Hasina’s 15-year, iron-fisted rule ended in August 2024, when she fled her palace by helicopter to neighbouring India — where she remains in hiding. She was sentenced to death by hanging in absentia in November 2025.

State-appointed defence lawyer M Hasan Imam said the seven men were not directly involved in the killings and that the court could have handed down a lesser sentence than death. “They were not directly involved in the killings, they have been convicted due to their fellow activists and supporters,” he said.

The other five men are AFM Bahauddin Nasim, Sheikh Fazle Sh­­a­­ms Parash, Mainul Hossain Khan Nikhil, Saddam Hussain and Sheikh Wali Asif Enan. The court also ordered that half the assets of five of the men be distributed as compensation to the families of those killed or injured in the uprising.

Tuesday’s sentencing brings the total number convicted in trials connected to the 2024 protests to 68. Of those, 22 have been sentenced to death, though only four are in custody. Hasina has refused to accept the authority of the court.

The government of Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, which won a landslide victory in February in the first elections since Hasina was ousted, has requested her extradition. But Hasina, 78, has said she will return of her own volition to Bangladesh in December, despite the death sentence she faces.

58 AL leaders held

Police have arrested 58 leaders and activists of Awami League, whose activities are currently banned, in Jashore and Munshiganj, The Daily Star reported.

In Jashore, at least 27 AL leaders and activists were arrested during a special drive in different areas under nine police stations in the district on Monday night, said Mirazul Islam, additional superintendent of Jashore district police.

During the drive, police also recovered narcotics, crude bomb-like objects and bomb-making materials, Mirazul said. The drive was conducted based on information that the detainees were planning to carry out subversive activities in different parts of the district, he said.

The detainees were produced bef­ore a court this afternoon after poli­­ce filed a case against them with Ko­­t­­­­w­­ali Police Station under the Exp­losive Substances Act, Mirazul said. The court later sent them to jail, the police official added.

In Munshiganj, police arrested 31 AL leaders and activists early today on charges of preparing for a flash procession.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2026

Bihar is among India’s most flood-prone states and all seven of its key rivers measured above their “danger level” on Tuesday after heavy rain, according to the state water resources department.

“Food, clean drinking water, medicines, and other essential facilities are being continuously provided to the needy families,” Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, Bihar’s deputy chief minister, said in a statement.

Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary said 7,000 rupees ($72) each had been transferred to more than 827,000 flood-affected families in the state. Nearly five million people have been affected by floods, according to figures from Bihar’s Disaster Management Department.

The government’s “priority is that every affected family gets flood relief and reconstruction work is done with a spirit of building back better”, Choudhary said in a statement.

Flooding began this month and local media have reported 20 deaths, while officials said swaths of farmland have been swamped. Bihar is downstream from Nepal, which suffered deadly flooding last month.

“Flood is our fate, every year we face it,” said Chandan Kumar Mahto, 46, a resident of Saran district. “We are helpless… we are struggling for food, safe drinking water and milk for children.” Bihar’s government is made up of a coalition of parties, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.

It said it had opened 13 relief camps, with more than 1,000 community kitchens and nearly 1,800 boats deployed in flood-hit areas. Modi has sent a federal government team to conduct a “detailed assessment of damages”, officials said.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2026

The findings come after the collapse of a Himalayan glacier in late August along the Nepal-Tibet border, which caused cascading landslides and flash floods in the ​valleys below. At least 1,300 people have been confirmed dead ​and more than 5,300 are missing across Nepal and China’s ⁠Tibet region.

As glaciers retreat, they are leaving behind unstable glacial lakes ​held back by little more than loose rock and ice, above valleys ​where millions of people live, the study found.

The study was produced by Systemiq, a sustainability advisory firm, together with the Integrated Mountain Initiative, the International Centre for Integrated ​Mountain Development, and India’s GB Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment.

Himalayan ​glacier mass loss had accelerated in recent decades, while only 21 glaciers were currently ‌monitored ⁠on the ground out of an estimated 40,000 glaciers across the Hindu Kush-Himalaya region, a vast mountain system spanning eight countries from Afghanistan to Myanmar, the study found.

Close to 200 glacial lakes in India had been identified as ​high risk, with ⁠56 classified as “very high risk”, leaving millions exposed downstream.

As the region neared “peak water”, the point when river flows ​stop rising and start declining, it would have ​profound implications ⁠for water security.

As the Himalayas underpinned more than 20 per cent of India’s GDP, the region made up a key piece of the country’s national ⁠economic infrastructure, ​upon which hundreds of millions of people ​depended.

Though making up around 18pc of India’s land, the Himalayan region accounted for roughly 35pc ​of the country’s natural disasters.

Bilawal made the remarks on the social media platform X, while reacting to Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s interview with an Indian media channel.

In an interview with NDTV, Ibrahim — who was in India to attend the BRICS summit over the weekend — was asked if he considered Israel’s actions against Hamas terrorism.

“Yes, it is terrorism,” Ibrahim replied.

The host then asked if “by that token”, what “Pakistan has done against India and in Pahalgam” would be considered “terrorism”.

“I would not go to that extent. I know it is very sensitive to say that in India. I’m a close friend of Modi ji, and we engage with the Pakistanis,” the Malaysian prime minister said.

Asked why the Malaysian PM was “not as direct in criticising Pakistan for terrorism”, Ibrahim said: “Well, it has to be established.”

He continued: “I mean, none of my intelligence establishment … would come back and tell me, ‘Anwar, yes, there was state-sponsored terrorism’. Therefore, I, as the prime minister of Malaysia, would then refer to this fact.”

Reacting to the clip of the interview, Bilawal said on Monday: “Malaysian PM exposing Indian propaganda, in India on Indian TV. The truth is India started a war based on a lie and lost miserably.”

He said that India now stood “exposed internationally”.

“India must live up to its commitments made at the time of the ceasefire; to discuss all friction points with Pakistan. So we can together bring peace, prosperity and stability to our region,” he said.

In May 2025, a four-day conflict between Pakistan and India was sparked by an attack on tourists in occupied Kashmir’s Pahalgam, which New Delhi, without evidence, linked to Pakistan. Islamabad strongly denied responsibility while calling for a neutral investigation.

After New Delhi launched deadly air strikes in Punjab and Azad Kashmir on May 7, Pakistan said it downed five Indian planes in air-to-air combat, later raising the tally to eight. After tit-for-tat strikes on each other’s airbases, it took American intervention on May 10 for both sides to finally reach a ceasefire.

In April, on the first anniversary of the Pahalgam attack, Pakistan had rejected a renewed Indian propaganda campaign linking it to the attack, deploring that the neighbouring country was focusing on “weaponising its false narrative” in the midst of a regional crisis sparked by the US-Israel war on Iran.

India’s 1.4 billion people are subject to a common criminal law, but rules on personal matters such as marriage, divorce and inheritance vary based on the customary traditions of different communities and faiths.

The introduction of a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) to replace those diverse rules has been a long-standing goal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

At least four states have implemented the UCC so far.

“We have introduced the UCC in several states … I am confident that we will implement (it) in all 21 states governed by the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance by 2029,” Home Minister Amit Shah said on Sunday.

The campaign for a standardised civil code has raised concerns, especially among Muslim citizens, who say such a move would infringe on their religious freedoms.

Supporters say the UCC gives Muslim women the same rights as others by ending polygamy, setting equal property inheritance rights for sons and daughters, and requiring divorce processes to take place before a civil court.

India, the world’s most populous country, is majority Hindu. It is also home to an estimated 220 million Muslims, giving it the world’s third-largest Muslim population.

India’s next national elections are due in 2029, after Modi won a third successive term in 2024, when he was forced into a coalition government.

The trophy presentation at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium was delayed by more than half an hour after India secured a 72-run victory over Sri Lanka in the final, Hindustan Times reported.

Naqvi, also the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman and the country’s interior minister, stood on the stage as the audience waited for India to collect their trophy.

ESPNCricinfo reported that the presentation ceremony wrapped up “without the Indian team collecting their winners’ medals or the trophy”. Live visuals from the stadium confirmed the same.

However, Sri Lanka’s Chamari Athapaththu picked up the runners-up cheque from Naqvi, the outlet added.

The final ball of the match was done by 9:55pm UAE time (10:55pm PKT), and by 10:30pm (11:30pm PKT), there were “no signs of the presentation ceremony starting”, Hindustan Times noted.

The outlet pointed out that broadcasters interviewed Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur “immediately”, even though the interview is usually kept for the end of the presentation ceremony.

Asked whether his team’s refusal to accept the trophy was “pre-decided”, head coach Amol Muzumdar said the “stand has been taken by the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India), and we stand by it”.

“For us, this tournament is over. We are the champions; that’s good enough. It was on the big board that India are the champions of Asia Cup 2026,” he told a post-match press conference in Dubai.

Asked whether the trophy will end with the same fate as the men’s trophy from last year, Muzumdar said, “No news as yet. So I cannot answer that.”

On a query about the decision impacting sportsmanship, the coach reiterated that the team stood by the BCCI’s stance and that the tournament was “officially over” for them.

Sunday’s scenes illustrated a replay of the events of October last year, when India refused to collect the trophy at the closing ceremony of the Men’s Asia Cup final as tensions from their May 2025 military conflict spilt over into the cricket field.

At the time, India had beaten Pakistan by five wickets, but they caused the post-final formalities to be inordinately delayed due to their refusal to budge from their stance.

There were also no customary handshakes between the teams after India refused to do so, with tensions high from their previous two clashes in the competition, which witnessed political posturing and aggressive on-field behaviour.

‘Destroying the sports culture’

Reacting to the development, Minister of State for Interior Tallal Chaudhry said India’s “diplomatic defeat and military defeat will not be erased” by refusing to accept the trophy.

Speaking to Geo News, he slammed India for “destroying the sports culture”. “Sports spirit matters. If you do not have that spirit, then victory or defeat means nothing,” he added.

Chaudhry said New Delhi had “filled jingoism in their entire nation”. “Our sports culture, which was a symbol of peace and love and which ended many wars, has been eroded.”

The state minister asserted that Pakistan had not “politicised” sports or made it the target of conflict between the two countries, and was open to dialogue on “every controversial issue”.

The finale

Shree Charani’s fantastic four-wicket haul helped India crush Sri Lanka by 72 runs to lift the Asia Cup title for the eighth time.

Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma both towered the innings with 59 and 68 runs, respectively, as the Indian team managed to post 185 runs on the board in the allotted 20 overs with five wickets to spare.

Charani, outracing Deepti Sharma, who grabbed three wickets, dismantled the Sri Lankan lineup, with only Athapaththu, Vishmi Gunaratne, and Nilakshi de Silva entering the double figures.

Athapaththu, after scoring 36 off 32 balls, emerged as the top run-getter for outclassed Sri Lanka.

Kaur maintained that India played to their standard.

“We know they are a great team. But we played to our standards. We set high standards for ourselves, and we wanted to keep matching them.

“Very happy with the way we all performed. The openers did a great job for us. The way Shafali and Smriti bat like they did. Great to see someone like Shafali take responsibility through the tournament with the bat and ball,” she said.

In her comments, the Sri Lankan skipper said they will “bounce back” for the upcoming Asian Games.

“This is the part of the game: one team wins, one team loses. But at the end of the day, we did not play our best game in all three departments. They played very well. But we will bounce back,” Athapaththu said in a post-match talk.

“We played really good cricket throughout the tournament, but today we struggled a little bit,” she added.

Prime Minister Balendra Shah has vowed to “strongly raise” with the international community the disasters that Nepal has experienced as a result of climate change.

The August 26 catastrophe, a tsunami-like flood that began on the China-Nepal border, killed more than 1,400 people and left some 5,600 missing.

Shah will take his first foreign trip as leader to address the UN General Assembly on the urgent issue later this month, the foreign ministry said.

Foreign Secretary Amrit Bahadur Rai told reporters on Friday that Shah will address the UN to “draw the attention of the international community to the repeated loss of life and property Nepal has had to face, due to climate change and disasters created by it”.

Nepal’s leaders say the Himalayan country needs long-term international support to adapt to a rapidly changing mountain environment.

“The total estimated requirement for reconstruction is approximately $4.78bn,” Nepali foreign ministry spokesman Lok Bahadur Chhetri told reporters.

“Of this, approximately $57.67 million is estimated to be required for short-term reconstruction and recovery over the next six months, while approximately $4.71bn is required for longer-term reconstruction.”

Damage assessments

Nepal, a largely rural nation of 30m people, contributes a fraction of global greenhouse gas emissions compared to industrialised nations.

While the exact cause of the glacial collapse is unclear, climate change is causing glaciers to melt worldwide, increasing the risk of such disasters.

Scientists say glaciers in the Himalayas, the world’s highest mountain range, are melting faster as global temperatures rise.

“Given the scale and extent of the damage, the government is also undertaking a comprehensive post-disaster needs assessment to determine the full extent of loss and damage and the requirement for recovery, rebuilding and reconstruction,” Chhetri said.

A UN preliminary assessment estimated building damage from Nepal’s floods at $158m alone, warning that total losses — including damage to roads and bridges, agricultural land and humanitarian costs — would be far higher.

Nepal rescuers are still excavating hydropower tunnels swamped by freezing mud, with hundreds of workers among the missing.

Three people were rescued from deep inside tunnels days after the disaster, but there has been no confirmation of further survivors since a Chinese man was pulled out alive nearly a week ago.

The United Nations, which has launched a $50m appeal to help more than 84,000 people, has said that “operations are shifting from search and rescue to relief and recovery, though rescues continue”.

Rescuers in Nepal have retrieved 1,385 bodies, while around 5,130 people are missing, according to the disaster agency on Friday. In China, the toll is 43 dead and 519 missing, according to state media.

The combined toll is 1,428 people dead and more than 5,649 missing, including around 800 foreigners, among them tourists and pilgrims.

The talks were held on the eve of the annual summit of Brics leaders in the Indian capital, which will see the participation of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian, among others.

India is walking a tightrope in the conflict, boasting historical and cultural ties with Iran, strong, strategic relations with Israel and close friendships with Arab countries, where millions of its nationals live and work.

The South Asian nation has been particularly affected by attacks on vessels transiting the region, which have killed at least 10 Indians.

“The prime minister [Modi] reiterated India’s consistent position that all issues must be resolved through dialogue and diplomacy,” the ministry said in a statement.

“He also underscored the need for continued efforts to ensure lasting peace and stability in the region, safeguarding freedom of navigation and commerce, and the safety and well-being of seafarers,” it added.

This was the second meeting between the leaders in as many weeks. They last held talks on August 31, on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, where Pezeshkian told Modi that Tehran wanted a negotiated solution to its conflict with the US.

New Delhi has condemned Tehran’s attacks on its Gulf neighbours, energy infrastructure in the region, and on ships that have led to the deaths of crew members but, in a surprise move at the Bishkek summit, signed a joint declaration condemning the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran and Western sanctions.

Earlier, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin began talks in New Delhi on Friday, their second meeting in two weeks, which is expected to focus on trade, energy and defence ties between the two countries, which have long been friends.

Modi and Putin were expected to discuss cooperation between the two countries in civil nuclear energy, fertilisers, defence, critical minerals, manufacturing, railways, and steel, an Indian source said.

The two leaders met on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on August 31, where Modi told Putin that the war in Ukraine needed to end for humanity’s sake and that New Delhi would support every peace effort to stop the fighting.

India, along with China, is one of the biggest buyers of Russian oil, which is seen as helping Moscow replenish its budget since it sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in 2022 and was hit with sweeping Western sanctions.

India has, however, sought to resist the pressure, saying its large population and economy need secure, affordable and reliable energy supplies. New Delhi has also said that the Ukraine conflict can be resolved only through dialogue and diplomacy and not by some countries stopping energy, metal or fertiliser trade with Russia.

Russia’s share of Indian crude imports rose in 2026, reaching a record 51 per cent in July, as disruptions to Middle Eastern supplies increased Indian refiners’ reliance on Russian oil. That share likely moderated in August as China stepped up Russian oil purchases, Indian media reported.

Putin visited India in December 2025 as well for the annual India-Russia summit and the two countries agreed to expand their trade and defence relationship.

India prepares for Brics

Leaders from Iran were also in India for talks on Friday, ahead of a Brics summit dominated by conflict and economic challenges.

“One should engage in debate and friendship only with the virtuous, and nothing whatsoever with the unvirtuous,” Modi wrote on Friday, in a social media message in Sanskrit to welcome leaders to the 11-nation summit.

Posters of a beaming Modi line streets across New Delhi, with heavy deployments of security forces across the capital and widespread traffic restrictions.

Wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, as well as global trade turbulence and oil are expected on the agenda at the two-day annual summit that opens on Saturday, when Xi is set to arrive.

It will be Xi’s first visit to India since 2019, and marks the biggest step yet in a cautious thaw between the rival neighbours, six years after a deadly military clash along their disputed Tibetan border.

Ties between the nuclear-armed Asian giants have been warming again, with flights, visas and high-level contacts gradually being restored.

“China stands ready to work with India … by strengthening communication, enhancing cooperation, and properly handling differences,” Beijing’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said Friday.

Deep mistrust remains, with their contested Himalayan frontier, a widening trade deficit and strategic rivalry still complicating ties.

Dozens of Tibetans protested in New Delhi on Friday — exiles, like their Buddhist leader the Dalai Lama, who has lived in India since fleeing a Chinese crackdown in 1959 — waving placards against Xi’s visit.

Brics was created in 2009 as a forum for major emerging economies seeking greater influence in institutions dominated by Western powers.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who arrived in New Delhi on Friday and will hold talks with Modi, said that “Brics was established to counter unilateralism”, according to Tehran’s IRNA news agency.

‘Fault line’

As well as Iran, Brics includes Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — countries with sharply differing positions on the war launched by the United States and Israel in February.

All three have been admitted to the group in recent years, joining founding member states that include India, China and Russia.

“The Gulf conflict is going to be the central fault line this time during the Brics summit,” said Harsh V. Pant of India’s Observer Research Foundation.

“What was seen until last year as an achievement — the expansion of Brics — today looks like a big constraint on Brics,” Pant said.

Pezeshkian’s participation — his first visit to India as Iranian president — will put the Middle East conflict firmly on the agenda.

“The war in Iran will provide a stern test of the group’s cohesion,” said Shilan Shah of Capital Economics, noting the failure of the Brics foreign ministers to agree on a joint statement when they met in New Delhi in May.

UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan is also expected, as is Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

The August 26 glacial and mountain collapse on the China-Nepal border killed at least 1,398 people, with more than 5,500 missing, including around 800 foreigners.

Flags flew at half-mast, with candlelight vigils planned later in the day, following traditional Hindu mourning rituals on the 13th day after death.

Hundreds of hydropower workers are among the missing, but the rescue of three of them from deep inside tunnels — two Nepalis on Friday and a Chinese man on Saturday — have buoyed hopes that more could still be alive.

Nepal Army spokesman Raja Ram Basnet told AFP on Monday that rescue efforts were continuing “with the same tempo we had on day one”.

“Our focus is on search and rescue at three levels — on ground, by air, and in the tunnels,” he said.

“We are making sure that no one is still stranded.” Entire communities have been swept away, roads destroyed, and homes demolished.

‘Hope’

But families of some of the missing workers who gathered in the capital, Kathmandu, said the government must move faster.

“We have a lot of hope,” said Reena Amatya Shrestha, whose brother is among the missing.

“They say they are doing rescue. If the rescue is there, where’s the result? We need the result.”

Australian tunnel rescue expert Arnold Dix, who is advising Nepali teams, said the operation presented an unprecedented challenge.

“We are facing something I have never faced before,” said Dix, president of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association, in a post on social media.

“Not one rescue, but multiple potential rescues, unfolding at the same time, in different places, each with its own dangers, uncertainties, and lives that may still be saved.”

Foreign experts, including from China, India and South Korea, are aiding Nepali teams in rescue efforts.

“We are measured not only by the lives we save, but by the lives we refuse to abandon,” said Dix, a key adviser during the Indian rescue of 41 men trapped for 17 days inside the collapsed Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand state in 2023.

“Silkyara taught me never to confuse unlikely with impossible,” he said.

‘Help Nepal’

With mortuaries overflowing, Nepal has buried hundreds of bodies in mass graves after taking DNA samples for future identification, according to police.

Only around 100 bodies have been identified and handed over to families.

While the exact cause of the glacial collapse is unclear, climate change is accelerating glacial melting worldwide, increasing the risk of such disasters.

Nepal, a largely rural nation of 30 million people that has contributed little to the greenhouse gas emissions driving global warming, says reconstruction could cost billions of dollars.

Its economy is already under pressure, with limited resources to respond to a disaster of this scale.

The disaster has come just ahead of the anniversary of last year’s September 8-9 mass anti-corruption protests that toppled the government, and the young government now faces the enormous task of rebuilding communities and critical infrastructure.

A UN preliminary assessment estimated building damage from Nepal’s floods at $158m alone, warning that total losses — including damage to roads and bridges, agricultural land and humanitarian costs — would be far higher.

The United Nations has appealed for $50m to help more than 84,000 people.

“My plea to the international community is — this is the time to help Nepal,” UN country chief Lila Pieters Yahia told AFP.

In Nepal, rescuers have retrieved 1,355 bodies, while around 4,996 people are missing, according to the disaster agency. In China, the toll is 43 dead and 519 missing, according to state media.

Responding to media queries regarding the demolition, Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson Sajjad Haider Khan condemned the move and described it as “a reprehensible action against a historic Islamic place of worship”.

He recalled that the demolition of the Babri Mosque in 1992 was an “enduring symbol of this ideology of religious intolerance, prejudice and hatred”.

“Pakistan calls upon the international community to take immediate cognisance of the systematic persecution of Muslims by Indian authorities,” the statement said, highlighting the “continued desecration and destruction of their places of worship under state patronage”.

Khan called for accountability of Indian authorities for actions against the religious freedom and cultural heritage of all minorities, particularly Muslims.

According to The Indian Express, the mosque, which was located inside a Collectorate in Saharanpur, was demolished a day earlier.

The demolition came three days after a district court had dismissed an appeal against an order holding that the structure stood on government land and was unauthorised.

The September 2 order did not itself mention demolition.

The Indian Express quoted mosque staff member Tanveer Ahmed as saying that the order was for eviction, not demolition. He claimed the mosque was around 150 years old, and maintained that the land was recorded in their names.

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen president and Hyderabad lawmaker Asaduddin Owaisi condemned the demolition and questioned whether the constitutional guarantee of freedom of religion applied to Muslims, NDTV reported.

According to Owaisi, the mosque dated back to 1911, claiming that the Collectorate itself was constructed later.

In 2024, the Akhonji mosque, which was over 600 years old, was razed to the ground without any prior notice in Delhi’s Mehrauli district. In 1992, a Hindu mob destroyed the famous Babri mosque, triggering riots that killed about 2,000 people across India, most of them Muslims.