South Asia

While India reached an agreement with China on border patrols, activist Sonam Wangchuk, 58, ended one of his many hunger strikes. Local herders, whose activities have been limited due to military tensions (unlikely to decrease, experts say), fear the construction of power plants.

In the last 15 years, the Bangladesh Chhatra League has been a tool of repression for former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's party and its members have been charged in connection with dozens of very serious crimes. The student movement that led to the resignation of the former government had given the current administration a week to ban the organisation.

According to international observers, this is a pragmatic truce among long-term rivals. Diplomats from the two countries will resume meetings to manage the border dispute in Ladakh. For India’s Modi, talks with everyone is an opportunity to show himself as a credible leader of the global South.

After months of clashes with the judiciary, most notably over the imprisonment of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, the government led by Shehbaz Sharif has approved a constitutional amendment empowering a parliamentary committee with appointing the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, hitherto chosen based on seniority. For experts, this is a new attempt to limit the powers to which the opposition can turn to.

Since 13 October, at least five violent incidents have been reported in different parts of the country, most notably in Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh. Prayer services and buildings were targeted, a family was not allowed to bury a loved one in the village cemetery. The police are complicit with the attackers. For the archbishop of Bangalore, government silence is “baffling”.

This follows previous announcements and could lead to a bilateral summit between Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS summit underway in Kazan, Russia, which, for the first, includes Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates. Negotiations between New Delhi and Beijing over the past four years have ended in an impasse and experts say disputes between the two are far from being resolved.

The latest Multidimensional Poverty Index data released by UNDP finds that among the 1.1 billion people in the most extreme condition, 1 in 5 live in India. Rural areas have the most extreme situations. Fr. Nithiya Sagayam to AsiaNews: “Data that also challenge us as a Church. When will we see a true social synodality?"

The charity released two reports that highlight the shortcomings of the school system and cultural and identity issues in the most marginalised communities. Illiteracy and school dropout rates were found to be much higher than those in other rural areas of the country. For Apostolic Nuncio Brian Udaigwe, “an inclusive approach” is needed.

Baba Siddique was killed on 12 October as he left his son’s office; the latter is a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Maharashtra, where voters will go to the polls on 20 November. The investigation suggests that behind the killing is the Bishnoi gang, which has been accused by Canada of killing Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar on behalf of the Indian government. The group has a track record of threatening Bollywood stars for killing blackbucks, sacred to their community.

Initiated by Archbishop Joseph Arshad, the diocesan tournament is now in its fifth year, involving 14 teams from the various parishes. A sign of the attention paid to young people in the conviction that sport can also help minorities emerge from the margins of Pakistani society.

Using satellite images, a recent report shows 20 new Chinese settlements with about 7,000 residents in Bhutanese territory. For experts, China’s strategy began in the 1990s and is aimed at India, becoming more aggressive in recent years. In the last year alone, seven new villages have been built in strategically important areas at around 4,000 metres above sea level.

Sri Lanka’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) carried out raids in the Western Province, shedding light on a system operating out of hotels and private establishments, according to a same scheme already present in several Southeast Asian countries. The most common frauds are financial and fake investments.