The street protests in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) are de javu for many locals. It is claimed that a new generation of youth in the state are turning to confrontational tactics as the state continues to define security in strictly militaristic terms. For the Indian side peace in J&K implies ensuring that separatists and militants […]
The government of Bangladesh has placed severe penalties against burning the national flag. The cabinet approved the move and the parliament will debate the prospect of 2 year prison terms and a 10,000 Taka fine levied against all such acts. This smacks of nationalism run amok. It is nearly incontestable that any instance in […]
The New York Times just published a fascinating piece about a Iranian scientist named Shahram Amiri, who has sought refuge in the Pakistani Embassy’s Iran interest section in Washington D.C. The piece shows that there are at least two different versions of the story and clearly demonstrates the murky and cold waters that run over […]
I’ve not attended to Bangladesh’s climate change derived water crisis in some time. Whether I’ve been right or wrong, I’ve principally attended only to the political bearings that have supported the two main opposing parties. Happily, Sebastian Strangio a journalist writing for Foreign Policy Magazine has written up an excellent piece about climate change in […]
It often goes unremarked but politics is nothing more than the show of armed, military might sublimated through votes and caucuses. So it is somewhat odd that the majority of the coverage of Pakistani politics related to the so-called ‘War on Terror’ is principally concerned with terrorism and the growing insurgency of the Tehrik e- […]
As I wrote recently the High Court in Bangladesh has deemed fatwas and other extrajudicial punishment illegal. Indeed, it has ruled that those who issue fatwas are now subject to punishment. This is good news. But the results that the ruling might seem to promise may be a long time coming. In the first instance […]
India faces daunting challenges in overcoming its infrastructure deficit.
The High Court of Bangladesh recently declared all forms of extrajudicial punishment illegal. Fatwas, or religious judgments fall under the domain of the ruling. Therefore, fatwas, as a form of extrajudicial punishment have been deemed illegal in Bangladesh. The Daily Star reports; “Anyone involved, present or taking part in or assisting any such conviction or […]
If it wasn’t sufficiently clear before, it should be now: the Pakistani Taliban (Tehrik e- Taliban) are out to bring down the ‘apostate” government in Islamabad, piece, region by region, piece by piece. It were as if the Taliban were only moved to refute the writ and authority of the central government, which it thinks […]
Over the last couple of months, news has been in pouring in about ‘honor killings’ in the northern States of Punjab and Haryana. Numerous couples have been killed mostly by family members on the orders of the ‘khap panchyats’ because they eloped, married outside their caste or within the same ‘gotra’. The problem is not […]
Apropos my last post, a work of art entitled “1945-1998” by Japanese artist Isao Hashimoto. This piece is one part of a larger project of his on nuclear explosions. More on Hashimoto and the project here.
Recent reports from the Japan have, once again, complicated the history of Japan’s seemingly steadfast commitment to its Three Non-Nuclear principles – non-production, non-possession, and non-introduction of nuclear weapons on Japanese soil. (It is important to note that this is not the end-all, be-all of Japan’s nuclear stance: the four pillars of Japan’s nuclear policy […]
Popular from Press
