Pakistan says three air bases attacked by Indian missiles
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Hello and welcome to our coverage of the India-Pakistan crisis.
Pakistan's army spokesman says India has fired missiles at three air bases inside the country, but most of the missiles have been intercepted.
Lt Gen Ahmad Sharif said all Pakistan air force assets were safe.
He made this announcement during his televised address, saying some of the Indian missiles had also hit India's eastern Punjab.
The news comes after Pakistan was accused of launching a fresh wave of drone strikes against India, with projectiles reported over the states of Indian-administered Kashmir and Punjab.
The allegations were yet another alarming confrontation between India and Pakistan, two nuclear-armed countries, since India's missile strikes on nine sites in Pakistan on Wednesday killed 31 people. Those strikes in turn were India's response to an attack in Indian-administered Kashmir late last month, in which militants killed 25 Hindu tourists and a guide.
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The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
45 minutes to pack up a lifetime as Pakistan's foreigner crackdown sends Afghans scrambling
The order was clear and indisputable, the timeline startling. You have 45 minutes to pack up and leave Pakistan forever. Sher Khan, a 42-year-old Afghan, had returned home from his job in a brick factory. He stared at the plainclothes policeman on the doorstep, his mind reeling. How could he pack up his whole life and leave the country of his birth in under an hour? In the blink of an eye, the life he had built was taken away from him. He and his wife grabbed a few kitchen items and whatever clothes they could for themselves and their nine children. They left everything else behind at their home in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir. Born in Pakistan to parents who fled the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the ensuing war, Khan is one of hundreds of thousands of Afghans who have now been expelled. The nationwide crackdown, launched in October 2023, on foreigners Pakistan says are living in the country illegally has led to the departures of almost 1 million Afghans already. Pakistan says millions more remain. It wants them gone. Leaving with nothing to beat a deadline 'All our belongings were left behind,' Khan said as he stood in a dusty, windswept refugee camp just across the Afghan border in Torkham, the first stop for expelled refugees. 'We tried so hard (over the years) to collect the things that we had with honor.' Pakistan set several deadlines earlier this year for Afghans to leave or face deportation. Afghan Citizen Card holders had to leave the capital Islamabad and Rawalpindi city by March 31, while those with Proof of Registration could stay until June 30. No specific deadlines were set for Afghans living elsewhere in Pakistan. Khan feared that delaying his departure beyond the deadline might have resulted in his wife and children being hauled off to a police station along with him a blow to his family's dignity. 'We are happy that we came (to Afghanistan) with modesty and honor,' he said. As for his lost belongings, 'God may provide for them here, as He did there.' A refugee influx in a struggling country At the Torkham camp, run by Afghanistan's Taliban government, each family receives a SIM card and 10,000 Afghanis ($145) in aid. They can spend up to three days there before having to move on. The camp's director, Molvi Hashim Maiwandwal, said some 150 families were arriving daily from Pakistan — far fewer than the roughly 1,200 families who were arriving about two months ago. But he said another surge was expected after the three-day Islamic holiday of Eid Al-Adha that started June 7. Aid organizations inside the camp help with basic needs, including healthcare. Local charity Aseel provides hygiene kits and helps with food. It has also set up a food package delivery system for families once they arrive at their final destination elsewhere in Afghanistan. Aseel's Najibullah Ghiasi said they expected a surge in arrivals 'by a significant number' after Eid. 'We cannot handle all of them, because the number is so huge,' he said, adding the organization was trying to boost fundraising so it could support more people. Pakistan blames Afghanistan for militancy Pakistan accuses Afghans of staging militant attacks inside the country, saying assaults are planned from across the border — a charge Kabul's Taliban government denies. Pakistan denies targeting Afghans, and maintains that everyone leaving the country is treated humanely and with dignity. But for many, there is little that is humane about being forced to pack up and leave in minutes or hours. Iran, too, has been expelling Afghans, with the UNHCR, the UN's refugee agency, saying on June 5 that 500,000 Afghans had been forced to leave Iran and Pakistan in the two months since April 1. Rights groups and aid agencies say authorities are pressuring Afghans into going sooner. In April, Human Rights Watch said police had raided houses, beaten and arbitrarily detained people, and confiscated refugee documents, including residence permits. Officers demanded bribes to allow Afghans to remain in Pakistan, the group added. Searching for hope while starting again Fifty-year-old Yar Mohammad lived in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir for nearly 45 years. The father of 12 built a successful business polishing floors, hiring several workers. Plainclothes policemen knocked on his door too. They gave him six hours to leave. 'No way a person can wrap up so much business in six hours, especially if they spent 45 years in one place,' he said. Friends rushed to his aid to help pack up anything they could: the company's floor-polishing machines, some tables, bed-frames and mattresses, and clothes. Now all his household belongings are crammed into orange tents in the Torkham refugee camp, his hard-earned floor-polishing machines outside and exposed to the elements. After three days of searching, he managed to find a place to rent in Kabul. 'I have no idea what we will do,' he said, adding that he would try to recreate his floor-polishing business in Afghanistan. 'If this works here, it is the best thing to do.'
The Guardian
6 hours ago
- The Guardian
Eradicating India's jungle insurgency – can it be done and at what human cost?
For decades, guerrilla communist warfare has raged deep in India's jungles. What began as an uprising in the 1960s, fuelled by inequality and discontent among the poorest, is now a fully fledged Maoist armed struggle vowing to overthrow the Indian state. But after decades of insurgency and a corresponding state-led crackdown that has left almost 12,000 civilians, militants and security personnel dead, India's home minister Amit Shah gave a clear-cut deadline earlier this year; the Maoist insurgency would be 'completely eradicated' by March 2026. Yet activists, lawyers and former officials have alleged that the operation has come at the cost of human rights abuses and loss of civilian life. They have also questioned the government's motives as well as whether it can truly erase the ideologically driven movement. Widely known as the Naxalites, a name taken from the West Bengal village where the first peasant rebellion took place, the movement follows the Marxist-Leninist ideology of class struggle and agrarian revolution and the philosophy, taken from the Chinese communist leader Chairman Mao, of achieving this through guerrilla armed struggle. The Naxalite cadre has largely been drawn from two of the most marginalised and oppressed groups in India: adivasis, the tribal Indigenous people who largely live in the forests and jungles, and Dalits, the lowest caste previously referred to as untouchables. The militant insurgency has surged at various intervals over the past half century. At its peak in the early 2000s it controlled large swathes of the country, known as the 'red corridor' which stretched from the Telangana-Andhra Pradesh border in southern India, right across the central states of Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and up to West Bengal, and had more than 30,000 foot soldiers. Now, however, the number of active Naxalite fighters is estimated to be just 500, operating in limited districts, who pitch their fight as a David and Goliath struggle. It was in early 2024 that the government announced Operation Kagar, intended as the endgame for the Naxalite movement. Focusing on the vast forest areas of the Chhattisgarh, the remaining Maoist heartland, upwards of 60,000 security personnel were deployed as well as advanced drone and surveillance technology. As a result, 2024 was the bloodiest year for Maoist casualties in over a decade, with 344 killed in security operations according to the South Asia Terrorism Portal. Last month, security officials cornered and killed one of India's most wanted Maoist leaders, Nambala Keshava Rao – who was almost in his 70s – along with 26 others alleged to be militants. Shah called it a 'landmark blow' to the Naxalite movement. N Venugopal, a newspaper editor who has spent years documenting the movement, claimed that of the roughly 500 people killed since the escalation of the counter-insurgency at the beginning of 2024, around half were non-combatant adivasis, including children. 'This is not an anti-Maoist operation, it is a killing spree,' he said. 'Security forces have become like bounty hunters, killing for rewards.' The claims of atrocities against adivasis in the name of anti-Naxalite operations go back years. Organisations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have documented over years how security forces have been implicated in extrajudicial killings – including allegations of what is referred to as 'encounter killings' in which police stage the deaths of civilians to look like the killing of Maoist fighters – and allegations of arbitrary detention, forced displacement and sexual violence. Bela Bhatia, a human rights lawyer in Chhattisgarh, alleged that forces in the area had always 'enjoyed impunity to carry out abuses and harassment and encounter killings, it's now just happening on a much bigger scale'. Bhatia was among several activists and lawyers in Chhattisgarh who said there was a newfound brutality to Operation Kagar, in which the focus was on 'neutralising' – meaning shooting to kill – any alleged Naxalite target, with police and paramilitary officers often incentivised with financial bonuses. 'Instead of prioritising arrests, the government has increasingly taken the path of elimination. Civilians are being lumped together with Maoists and killed,' said Malini Subramaniam, a human rights defender and journalist based in Bastar who has faced threats for her work. Subramaniam said entire adivasis villages in the Bastar area were being rounded up and coerced into surrendering, even if they had no involvement in the Naxalite uprising. 'The government has offered only two choices: either surrender or be killed,' she alleged. 'When we hear reports of people surrendering, it's often just ordinary villagers being forced to do so.' Sundarraj Pattilingam, Inspector Gen IG of Police Bastar Range leading the anti-Maoist operations, called the allegations 'completely baseless' and said the operations were all carried out 'as per the law'. He said: 'There is no intention to harm any civilians or to harm anyone who comes forward to surrender. The allegations are made up by the Maoists to put a question mark over the action of the security forces and boost up the morale of their cadres, who are already in a very bad shape.' Since the beginning of the year, leaders of the Naxalite movement, which operates as the Communist party of India (Maoist), have put out several statements calling for a ceasefire and expressed willingness to enter into peace negotiations with the government. However, the government has ignored calls for a political or rehabilitation process. That stance has reinforced a suspicion among activists and lawyers that the primary driver of the recent crackdown was not peace but instead corporate interests. The forests of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand are rich with coal and minerals such as iron ore and some of India's biggest industrialists have set up mining operations there, with government-approved plans to expand. Soni Sori, a school teacher turned political leader fighting for adivasis rights in Chhattisgarh, claimed the targeting of adivasis was no accident. The tribal communities have blockaded and disrupted mining attempts in the forests as they fought back against their displacement and the destruction of the forests. 'This is a one-sided war— a war waged by the government against the people of this region, all to clear the way for industrialists desperate to seize the area's mineral wealth,' said Sori. The home ministry did not respond to request for comment. A home affairs statement in April said the government focused on 'security, development, and rights-based empowerment' in areas affected by the Naxal insurgency and said that 'the vision of a left wing extremism-free India is closer than ever'. Prakash Singh, the former commander of India's Border Security Force and author of a book on Naxalites, said he believed organisationally the Naxalites would ultimately be crushed and he called for a more 'humane' approach. 'Give them the opportunity to come out from the underground, lay down their arms and be given steps for rehabilitation,' he said. 'This way the government would achieve the same objective, without all this bloodshed.' Yet he also acknowledged that it was much harder to destroy the beliefs that have driven the insurgency. 'You can kill the cadre, you can liquidate the party,' said Singh. 'But as long as there is injustice, as long as there is exploitation or the displacement of the poor in any part of the country, the Naxal ideology is going to survive.'
The Independent
19 hours ago
- The Independent
Concern grows as India ramps up deportation of alleged migrants to Bangladesh
India has forcibly deported over 2,500 alleged Bangladeshi nationals since early May in an intensified nationwide campaign, raising concerns about violations of human rights, legal procedures and international norms. The campaign, launched on 7 May, involves mass detention of suspected illegal immigrants across several states, including Delhi, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Assam and Rajasthan, followed by their transfer to border states such as Assam, Tripura, and Meghalaya, The Indian Express reported. There, they are handed over to the Border Security Force and 'pushed back' into Bangladesh. In a striking shift from earlier, the detainees are reportedly transported to the border in air force aircraft. Authorities claim the crackdown is driven by national security concerns sparked in particular by a terror attack in Pahalgam, Kashmir, on 22 April left 26 civilians dead and led to a military conflict with Pakistan. Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma claimed the northeastern state had detained almost 1,000 alleged Bangladeshis in recent months and expelled 303, IANS news agency reported. A digital identification system has become key to the deportation campaign. The Foreigners Identification Portal – originally designed in 2018 to track Rohingya refugees from Myanmar – has been expanded to store biometric and demographic data of suspected migrants from Bangladesh, according to The Indian Express. State governments, union territories, and the foreign ministry now have access to the portal, enabling deportation when identity can't be verified. Additionally, applicants for national identity documents such as biometric-based Aadhaar card, voter IDs and ration cards are being screened against this database. The home ministry has given states a 30-day deadline to verify the status of suspected undocumented immigrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar. This drive is supported by a centralised server integrating data from border and immigration agencies. The campaign is also targeting Rohingya refugees and convicted foreign nationals in detention facilities. Mr Sarma said even individuals who had received temporary protection from deportation by India 's Supreme Court and various high courts had been expelled – though later re-admitted to India through diplomatic intervention. The chief minister cited the Supreme Court ruling upholding Section 6A of the 1955 Citizenship Act to justify bypassing Foreigners Tribunals, a quasi-judicial process for determining citizenship. Section 6A allows those who entered Assam between 1966 and 1971 to apply for Indian citizenship, but it has long been opposed by Assamese groups who argue it legitimises migration from Bangladesh. State authorities refer a person suspected to be a foreigner to a tribunal, which looks at documentary evidence to decide whether the person is Indian or not. The efficacy of the system has been criticised, however. In an egregious case, a tribunal declared Assam resident Rahim Ali a foreigner, forcing him to wage a 12-year legal fight to prove his citizenship. By the time he was recognised as an Indian citizen by the Supreme Court, Ali had died. Delivering its ruling in July last year, the court called the tribunal's order a 'grave miscarriage of justice'. Bangladesh has formally protested the deportations. On 8 May, Dhaka lodged a diplomatic complaint with India and foreign affairs adviser Md Touhid Hossain confirmed that another protest note was forthcoming. 'We see it's happening. It's not feasible to resist physically,' Mr Hossain said. He urged both countries to resolve the issue through legal and diplomatic channels. Despite India's assertion that migration from Bangladesh was rising, Bangladesh's Border Guard previously said that such flows had declined due to economic gains in their country. In 2020-21, Bangladesh's per capita income briefly surpassed India's, complicating the narrative of economic desperation as a primary driver of migration. Still, Indian officials continue to press for faster nationality verification from Bangladesh. Foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said over 2,360 people were awaiting deportation pending confirmation of their Bangladeshi citizenship, with some cases stalled since 2020. In the capital Delhi, police have arrested 66 alleged Bangladeshi immigrants, PTI news agency reported, quoting officials. The expulsion campaign has sparked condemnation from rights groups as many of the deported people claim to be Indian nationals wrongfully identified as Bangladeshis. Khairul Islam, 51, a former government schoolteacher in Assam's Morigaon, is one of them. He was picked up from his home by Assam police on 23 May and thrown across the border four days later. In a video posted by a Bangladeshi journalist, Mr Islam was seen standing in a field between Assam and Bangladesh's Kurigram district. 'My hands were tied like I was a thief and I was made to sit in the bus,' he said, recounting his ordeal. Mr Islam had been declared a foreigner by a tribunal in 2016, a decision upheld by the Gauhati High Court in 2018. He spent two years in a detention centre before being released on bail. His appeal to the Supreme Court is still pending. After being stranded in no man's land between the two countries for two days, he was taken to a camp run by Bangladesh's Border Guard. A few days later, the group was escorted to the Indian border, where he was taken into police custody again and finally released on Thursday. 'I am an Indian, so why would I go to Bangladesh?' Mr Islam said, adding that he was beaten at the Matia Detention Centre when he resisted deportation. His family had submitted documents proving his Indian citizenship to local authorities but to no avail. 'This is injustice and there will be judgement for this one day,' Mr Islam was quoted as saying by the Indian news outlet Scroll. 'We are not Bangladeshi. We are swadesi [native-born]. They should check and verify this before doing such acts.' Human rights campaigners, academics and lawyers have condemned the deportation of people to Bangladesh, calling it a violation of protections granted by the Indian constitution and the right to due process. Demanding an end to all 'pushbacks', 125 academics and activists called on the Indian government to 'allow the return of those citizens who have already been forcibly deported to Bangladesh'. 'This is not just a legal failure,' they said in a statement, 'it is a humanitarian crisis that strikes at the core of India's constitutional democracy.' The concern followed Indian media reports that at least 40 Rohingya refugees had been flown from Delhi to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, then allegedly abandoned in the sea off southeastern Myanmar, handcuffed and blindfolded. Bangladeshi media reported that some 300 individuals, including Rohingyas, were forced back into the country from India between 7 and 9 May, often through isolated and remote border points.
