AFP Asia

Hotels are empty and roads deserted at the start of what is normally peak tourist season amidst the towering peaks and lush valleys of Pakistan’s Kashmir valley, as the threat of attack from India looms. Tensions between the nuclear-armed arch-rivals have soared since India accused Pakistan of backing a shooting that killed 26 civilians on the Indian side of the disputed territory on April 22.Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave his military “full operational freedom” to respond while Islamabad earlier this week warned they had “credible intelligence” that India was planning imminent strikes.High season in the cooler climes of the Neelum Valley, the tourist centre of Pakistan administered-Kashmir, begins in May as temperatures around the rest of the country rise.”It’s been a really bad start,” said Muhammad Awais, a 22-year-old photographer at a popular picnic spot.Tourism is the Neelum Valley’s lifeline, drawing over 300,000 visitors each year from all over Pakistan, according to the district administration. Much of the local population depends on roughly 350 guesthouses, which employ thousands of families.”Our livelihoods depend on tourism, and without it, we suffer,” Awais told AFP.”The way things are unfolding is very slow, and it’s affecting our work badly.”This week police and soldiers at army check points barred tourists from entering the valley, allowing only local residents through the checkpoint.Tourists were instead told to return the main town of Muzaffarabad.”It’s extremely disappointing that the government did not warn us or advise against visiting,” said Saleem Uddin Siddique, who travelled from the capital Islamabad with his family.”Our hopes are now dashed,” the 69-year-old retired accountant said. – ‘We don’t want war’ -Islamabad has denied any involvement in last month’s attack at Pahalgam and the uneasy neighbours have issued a raft of tit-for-tat punitive diplomatic measures.The two South Asian nations have exchanged gunfire for nine consecutive nights along the militarised Line of Control, the de-facto border, according to Indian defence sources.On Saturday, Pakistan’s military said it tested a surface-to-surface missile system with a range of 450 kilometres (280 miles) aimed at “ensuring the operational readiness of troops”.International pressure has been piled on both New Delhi and Islamabad to settle their differences through talks.India and Pakistan, which both claim Muslim-majority Kashmir in full, have fought several wars over the Himalayan territory since the end of British rule in 1947.On India’s heavily fortified border, residents of farming villages along the Chenab river have sent families back from the frontier, recalling the terror of the last major conflict between the rival armies in 1999.There has been an exodus of tourists on the Indian side of the border too since the attack which targeted Hindu men enjoying the open meadows with their families.Indian authorities have heavily promoted the region as a holiday destination, both for skiing in winter and to escape the sweltering heat of the summer.The regional government of Pakistan‑administered Kashmir has ordered religious schools to close and urged residents to stockpile food. However, some tourists continued to arrive undeterred.”We don’t think the threat of possible war is serious,” said Mudasar Maqsood, a 39‑year‑old factory worker from the eastern city of Kasur, over 630 kilometres away, who was blocked along with his friends from entering the valley.”We should not disrupt our routine life,” he added.Raja Iftikhar Khan, the president of private tourism association, said the situation could become “extremely dire”.”This disruption has been devastating for all those tied to tourism,” he said”We don’t want war — no sensible businessperson ever does”.

Thousands of Bangladeshi Islamists rallied in Dhaka on Saturday, one of their biggest public shows of strength in years as religious activism surges.Islamist groups have gained strength after the toppling of the iron-fisted regime of Sheikh Hasina in August 2024, opposing attempts at reforms they say are un-Islamic.Hefazat-e-Islam — an influential pressure group made up of multiple political parties, Muslim organisations and religious schools — issued a string of demands at Saturday’s rally, including the abolishment of a government women’s commission seeking equality.”Men and women can never be equal: the Koran outlines specific codes of life for both genders,” said Mohammad Shihab Uddin, 53, leader of a women’s madrassa, a religious school.”There is no way we can go beyond that.”The rally on Saturday came after two days of demonstrations by political parties, drumming up support ahead of much-anticipated elections, including by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), widely tipped to win the poll.No date has been set for elections but caretaker leader Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize winner who heads the interim government, has promised polls will be held by June 2026 at the latest. Muhammad Umar Faruq, 30, another teacher at a seminary, said they helped the interim government run the country. “If a government attempts anything anti-Islamic in a country where 92 percent of the population is Muslim, we will reject it immediately,” Umar Faruq said.Hasina, who was blamed for extensive human rights abuses, took a tough stand against Islamist movements during her autocratic 15-year rule.Since she fled to India — where she has defied extradition orders to face charges of crimes against humanity — Islamist groups have become emboldened. That has sparked worries from smaller groups, including Muslim Sufi worshippers and the Hindu minority, who together account for less than a 10th of the population.Women, in particular, have expressed concern.Islamists have demanded an end to a swath of activities, including cultural events deemed “anti-Islamic” — from music to theatre festivals, women’s football matches and kite-flying celebrations.

On India’s heavily fortified border with arch-rival Pakistan, residents of farming villages have sent families back from the frontier, recalling the terror of the last major conflict between the rival armies.Those who remain in the farming settlement of Sainth, home to some 1,500 people along the banks of the broad Chenab river, stare across the natural division between the nuclear-armed rivals fearing the future.”Our people can’t plan too far ahead”, said Sukhdev Kumar, 60, the village’s elected headman. “Most villagers here don’t invest beyond a very basic house,” he added.”For who knows when a misdirected shell may fall from the other side and ruin everything?”Relations between the nuclear-armed neighbours have plummeted after India accused Pakistan of backing the worst attack on civilians in Indian-administered Kashmir in years.Indian police have issued wanted posters for three men accused of carrying out the April 22 attack at Pahalgam — two Pakistanis and an Indian — who they say are members of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba group, a UN-designated terrorist organisation.Islamabad has rejected the charge of aiding gunmen who killed 26 people, with both countries since exchanging diplomatic barbs including expelling each other’s citizens.India’s army said Saturday its troops had exchanged gunfire with Pakistani soldiers overnight along the de facto border with contested Kashmir — which it says has taken place every night since April 24.- ‘Living in fear’ -Muslim-majority Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence from British rule in 1947, with both governing part of the disputed territory separately and claiming it in its entirety.Sainth, with its open and lush green fields, is in the Hindu-majority part of Indian-run Jammu and Kashmir.Security is omnipresent.Large military camps dot the main road, with watchtowers among thick bushes. Kumar said most families had saved up for a home “elsewhere as a backup”, saying that only around a third of those with fields remained in the village.”Most others have moved”, he said.The region was hit hard during the last major conflict with Pakistan, when the two sides clashed in 1999 in the high-altitude Himalayan mountains further north at Kargil.Vikram Singh, 40, who runs a local school, was a teenager at the time.He remembers the “intense mortar shelling” that flew over their heads in the village — with some exploding close by.”It was tense then, and it is tense now,” Singh told AFP. “There is a lot to worry since the attack at Pahalgam… The children are scared, the elderly are scared — everyone is living in fear”.International pressure has been piled on both New Delhi and Islamabad to settle their differences through talks.The United States has called for leaders to “de-escalate tensions” , neighbouring China urged “restraint”, with the European Union warning Friday that the situation was “alarming.On the ground, Singh seemed resigned that there would be some fighting.”At times, we feel that war must break out now because, for us, it is already an everyday reality”, he said. “We anyways live under the constant threat of shelling, so, maybe if it happens, we’d get to live peacefully for a decade or two afterwards”.- ‘Checking our bunkers’ -There has been a flurry of activity in Trewa, another small frontier village in Jammu.”So far, the situation is calm — the last cross-border firing episode was in 2023″, said Balbir Kaur, 36, the former village head.But the villagers are preparing, clearing out concrete shelters ready for use, just in case.”There were several casualties due to mortar shelling from Pakistan in the past”, she said.”We’ve spent the last few days checking our bunkers, conducting drills, and going over our emergency protocols, in case the situation worsens,” she added.Kaur said she backed New Delhi’s stand, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowing “to punish every terrorist and their backer” and to “pursue them to the ends of the Earth”.Dwarka Das, 65, a farmer and the head of a seven-member family, has lived through multiple India-Pakistan conflicts. “We’re used to such a situation,” Das said. “During the earlier conflicts, we fled to school shelters and nearby cities. It won’t be any different for us now”.

Pakistan-administered Kashmir called on residents near the de facto border with India to stockpile food on Friday as tensions flare between the arch-rivals following a deadly attack last month.India blames Pakistan for backing a shooting on civilians at the tourist site of Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir on April 22 that killed 26 men.Islamabad has denied the charge and the uneasy neighbours have issued a raft of tit-for-tat punitive diplomatic measures.The two nuclear-armed countries have exchanged gunfire for eight consecutive nights along the militarised Line of Control, the de facto border that separates the contested Kashmir region.”Instructions have been issued to stock food supplies for two months in the 13 constituencies along the Line of Control (LoC),” the prime minister of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Chaudhry Anwar ul Haq, told the local assembly on Friday.The regional government has also created an emergency fund of one billion rupees ($3.5 million) to ensure the supply of “food, medicines and all other basic necessities” to the 13 constituencies, he said.Government and privately owned machinery was also being deployed to maintain roads in the areas along the LoC, he said.In Muzaffarabad, the region’s capital, dozens of protesters rallied under the banner of a Kashmiri political coalition, chanting “Death to India” and calling for “Jihad”, according to an AFP journalist.”This protest march is a show of solidarity with the Pakistan military,” Farooq Rahmani, one of the organisers of the protest told AFP. “If there is any misadventure (by India), we are ready to respond firmly,” he added.The attack in Indian Kashmir and subsequent tensions, including expulsions and closed border crossings, have raised fears of a conflagration between India and Pakistan.Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday gave the military “complete operational freedom” to respond to the attack.Pakistan said earlier this week it had “credible evidence” that India is planning an imminent military strike, vowing that any attack would be met with a response.Fearing a military escalation, authorities in Pakistani Kashmir shut more than 1,000 religious schools for 10 days on Thursday.India and Pakistan, which both claim Kashmir in full, have fought over the Himalayan territory since the end of British rule in 1947.

Bangladesh’s Islamists are readying to make political gains after being crushed for years by the government that was overthrown in a mass uprising last year, rallying hardline loyalists for eagerly anticipated elections.”We are pretty confident about entering the parliament in the next election,” Muhammad Mamunul Haque, joint secretary of Hefazat-e-Islam, an influential coalition of Islamic schools, told AFP in an interview.The coalition will hold a mass rally in the capital Dhaka on Saturday in what is expected to be one of their biggest public shows of strength for years as religiously fuelled activism gains popularity.Haque, 52, said the group will push to implement sharia, or Islamic law, and believes the group’s network of tens of thousands of seminaries — claiming to have some 500,000 members — means they will do well if the vote “is free and fair”.Hefazat-e-Islam is an alliance of different parties and Muslim organisations, including Haque’s Khilafat-e-Majlish party.A hugely influential pressure group, it has been courted by political parties since it was founded 15 years ago.No date has been set for elections but caretaker leader Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize winner who heads the interim government, has promised polls will be held by June 2026 at the latest.- Strength after revolution – The South Asian nation of some 170 million people last held elections in January 2024, when Sheikh Hasina won a fourth term as prime minister in the absence of genuine opposition parties.Her opponents boycotted the vote after a crackdown.Hasina, who was blamed for extensive human rights abuses, took a tough stand against Islamist movements during her autocratic 15-year rule.Thousands were detained, including Haque, who was arrested in 2021 and spent three years in jail.He faced around a dozen charges after Islamists tried to protest against a visit by Hasina’s key ally Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Hindu-nationalist leader of neighbouring India.Hasina fled to New Delhi in August as crowds stormed her palace.She remains in self-imposed exile in India, infuriating Bangladeshis determined that she face trial for alleged “mass murder”.Islamist groups have gained strength with Hasina gone and have increasingly sought to impose their vision on the wider population. That has sparked worries from smaller groups, including Muslim Sufi worshippers and the Hindu minority, who together account for less than a tenth of the population.Women, in particular, have expressed concern.Islamists have demanded an end to a swath of activities, including cultural events deemed “anti-Islamic” — from music to theatre festivals, women’s football matches and kite-flying celebrations.Mobs have vandalised Sufi shrines. Supporters of Haque’s Khilafat-E-Majlis group stormed a public library last month and carted away hundreds of books before returning them.Golam Rabbani, a leader of Khilafat-E-Majlish’s youth wing, said they had targeted books that “promoted atheism”, including Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore and the national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam.- ‘Implement sharia’ -Hefazat-e-Islam’s rally on Saturday follows two days of marches by other key parties who are also seeking their support.Those include the powerful Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), expected to be the largest political force, and the National Citizens Party (NCP), formed by students who spearheaded the uprising against Hasina.It also includes the largest single Islamist political party, Jamaat-e-Islami.Haque said the group opposed a government women’s commission and its recommendations to end discriminatory provisions, including equal inheritance rights for men and women.”The commission is disrespectful to Islamic family traditions,” Haque said.”It seems they want to destroy the religious values attached to marriage and divorce and want to establish a Western society.”Muslim-majority Bangladesh has a constitution based on the four pillars of nationalism, socialism, democracy and secularism.However, Haque said his supporters wanted Islamic law.”We will implement sharia,” Haque said, insisting all would be treated fairly.”Everything will be guided by the Koran… under an Islamic welfare state, all, regardless of their faith, will be treated justly.”That would include capital punishment for blasphemy against Islam.”We demand death sentences for speaking against Allah, tarnishing the image of the Prophet, and offending Muslims,” Haque said.”There is no room for negotiation in this regard.”

Thousands in Indian-administered Kashmir with “resistance tattoos” including assault rifles inked to oppose New Delhi’s authority have been lining up to scrub them from their bodies, fearing police retribution after a deadly attack on tourists last week.Basit Bashir receives up to 100 people, mostly men, every day at his laser clinic in the main city of Srinagar, hovering swiftly over designs ranging from AK-47 rifles to Islamic symbols such as a crescent moon.”I have safely removed AK-47 and similar type tattoos from the arms and necks of more than 1,000 young people using laser,” Bashir told AFP at his clinic in the old quarter of Srinagar as he blasted high-intensity light pulses to break up the ink.Muslim-majority Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence from British rule in 1947, with both governing the disputed territory separately and claiming it in its entirety.That long-running conflict has shot back to attention after gunmen targeting tourists carried out the deadliest attack on civilians in a quarter of a century in the Himalayan territory, killing 26 men on April 22 in Pahalgam.Indian police have issued wanted posters for three men accused of carrying out the Kashmir attack — two Pakistanis and an Indian — who they say are members of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba group, a UN-designated terrorist organisation.India blames Pakistan and, while Islamabad denies any role, troops from the nuclear-armed neighbours have repeatedly fired at each other across the Line of Control, the de facto border in contested Kashmir.”After Pahalgam, we have seen a rise in the number of people with a crescent or AK-47 tattoos coming in for removal,” 28-year-old Bashir said.One young man came in this week with an AK-47 tattoo after friends told him it was “better to get it removed” since the situation was “very precarious”, he said.- ‘Fearful young’ -In Indian-controlled Kashmir, body tattoos have been a form of political expression, like graffiti, since an armed rebellion against Indian rule erupted in 1989.Rebel groups — largely crushed in recent years — demand Kashmir’s independence or its merger with Pakistan, and tens of thousands of people have been killed in the conflict.But deeply held anti-India sentiment has remained.Many who grew up during the violent uprising had their bodies inked with symbols expressing not just resentment towards Indian rule but also their religious identity.Bashir, the laser technician, said he initially started erasing tattoos depicting Muslim religious symbols.”They wanted the tattoos removed, believing it was prohibited in Islam, and wanted to be buried as pure after death,” he said.But others with pro-independence slogans started coming in big numbers after 2019, when New Delhi cancelled the region’s partial autonomy and clamped down on dissent and protests.Thousands were arrested and civil liberties were drastically curtailed.Police and security forces increased surveillance following the 2019 change in the territory’s status.They punished political expression hinting at resistance or a reference to the disputed nature of Kashmir in any form — even on social media.”I started getting a stream of fearful young men and women seeking their tattoos to be safely removed,” Bashir said.On some days more than 150 people turned up at his clinic, prompting him to buy a new machine for a million rupees (nearly $12,000).”Many of them told me their stories of being harassed by police for their tattoos showing any anti-India sentiment”, he said. – ‘Interrogation’ -The rush for having tattoos erased for fear of police reprisal has now spawned more than 20 other laser clinics across Srinagar, charging between 300 and 3,000 rupees ($3.50-$35) for the job, depending on the tattoo’s size.Sensing the rush, Bashir said he had trained in India’s Gujarat state to learn how to erase tattoos safely.”People come from all across Kashmir,” Bashir said. “Many have told me their horrific stories of facing police interrogation for their tattoos.”Many were hesitant, fearful of speaking about younger motivations for the tattoo.”I get rebuked by my family and school friends all the time for my tattoos,” a student said, clenching his teeth during the painful procedure.”I can’t deal with it anymore, that is why I came here”.Another, a lawyer hoping to find a match for marriage, said she had an assault rifle tattooed on her arm during the 1990s when the armed rebellion was at its peak.”That is what I had seen all around me during my childhood — soldiers and militants wielding and firing from their AK-47s,” she said, declining to be identified for fear of reprisal.”Everything has changed since then,” she said, showing the blisters that now replaced the rifle after two rounds of laser. “These things are trouble.”

Rohit Sharma shined with the bat and Karn Sharma spearheaded a fine collective bowling effort as Mumbai Indians cruised to a massive 100-run win over Rajasthan Royals on Thursday, officially ending their opponents’ chances of reaching the playoffs. Rohit smacked 53 runs of 36 balls as Mumbai posted 217-2 after being invited to bat first at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur. Indian pace bowler Jasprit Bumrah and spinner Karn then picked up a combined total of five wickets to help bowl out Rajasthan for 117 in 16.1 overs after teenage sensation Vaibhav Suryavanshi fell to a two-ball duck. The match extends Mumbai Indians winning streak to six games and pushes them to the top of the points table. Mumbai skipper Hardik Pandya said the team were going back to “simple” cricket with clinical batting and bowling performances. “As a group, the way we batted was proper batsmanship…,” said Hardik. “Everyone is really clear. We’re going back to simple cricket, and it’s working for that. We want to take game by game, and be humble and disciplined.” Mumbai openers Rohit and Ryan Rickelton kicked off the first innings on a dominant note, producing a 116-run partnership before Rickelton, who hit 61 runs off 38 balls, departed in the 12th over. Rohit fell shortly after, leaving the team at 123-2. But the rest of the batting burden was shouldered ably by aggressive knocks from Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik. Both players smacked an unbeaten 48 runs each, giving no quarter to Rajasthan’s bowlers, with Yadav hitting a six off the very last ball to set Rajasthan a chase of 218. In reply, Rajasthan started the on a wobbly note. Suryavanshi (0) was dismissed cheaply in the first over while Yashasvi Jaiswal (13) fell soon after, leaving the team at 20-2 at the end of the second over. Unfortunately for the hosts, sharp spells from Mumbai’s bowlers triggered a batting collapse. Nitish Rana (9), skipper Riyan Parag (16), Shimron Hetmyer (0), Shubham Dubey (15) and Dhruv Jurel (11) fell like flies, leaving the team teetering at 76-7 at the end of the ninth over. England’s Jofra Archer offered a glimmer of hope, hitting 30 runs off 27 balls, but ultimately fell, leaving the Rajasthan Royals far short of their target. Parag said that Mumbai Indians deserved credit “for the way they batted”. “Yeah, 190-200 would have been ideal. We’ve been getting good starts,” he said. “But it’s up to the middle order… to step up. I think we’ve done a lot of things right. And a lot of things wrong.” 

Authorities in Pakistan-administered Kashmir shut more than 1,000 religious schools Thursday over fears of possible military action from India in retaliation for last week’s deadly attack.India blames Pakistan for the gun attack that killed 26 people on April 22 in Indian-administered Kashmir, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi giving his military “complete operational freedom”.US Secretary of State Marco Rubio late Wednesday separately called India’s top diplomat Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to “de-escalate tensions and maintain peace and security in South Asia”, the State Department said.Denying involvement in the attack, Islamabad says it has “credible evidence” that India is now planning an imminent military strike, vowing that “any act of aggression will be met with a decisive response”.Rubio “urged Pakistani officials’ cooperation in investigating this unconscionable attack”, said spokeswoman Tammy Bruce.India’s foreign minister said after the call that the attack’s “perpetrators, backers and planners must be brought to justice”.Fearing a military escalation, Pakistani authorities shut more than 1,000 religious schools in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.”We have announced a 10-day break for all madrassas in Kashmir,” said Hafiz Nazeer Ahmed, head of the local religious affairs department.A department source said it was “due to tensions at the border and the potential for conflict”.On Thursday, New Delhi reported the seventh straight night of small arms gunfire between the two sides at the heavily militarised Line of Control, the de facto border.- ‘Constant fear’  -Muslim-majority Kashmir, a region of around 15 million people, is divided between nuclear-armed Pakistan and India which have fought several wars over the disputed territory.About 1.5 million people live near the ceasefire line on the Pakistani side, where residents are readying simple, mud-walled underground bunkers — reinforced with concrete if they could afford it. “For one week we have been living in constant fear, particularly concerning the safety of our children,” Iftikhar Ahmad Mir, a 44-year-old shopkeeper in Chakothi on the Line of Control (LoC), told AFP.”We make sure they don’t roam around after finishing their school and come straight home.”Emergency services workers in Muzaffarabad, the main city in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, have also begun training schoolchildren on what to do if India attacks. “We have learned how to dress a wounded person, how to carry someone on a stretcher and how to put out a fire,” said 11-year-old Ali Raza.- Tit for tat aggression -Since the attack — the deadliest in Kashmir on civilians in years — India and Pakistan have exchanged tit-for-tat diplomatic barbs and expulsions and shut border crossings.Indian police have issued wanted posters for three men suspected of involvement — two Pakistanis and an Indian — who they say belong to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, a UN-designated terrorist organisation.They have announced a two-million-rupee ($23,500) bounty for information leading to each man’s arrest and carried out sweeping detentions seeking anyone suspected of links to the attackers.New Delhi on Wednesday closed its airspace to Pakistani planes, after Islamabad banned Indian planes from overflying.India and Pakistan have fought over the Himalayan territory since the violent end of British rule in 1947.Rebels in the Indian-run area of Kashmir have waged an insurgency since 1989, seeking independence or a merger with Pakistan.The worst attack in recent years in Indian-run Kashmir was at Pulwama in 2019, when a suicide bomber rammed a car packed with explosives into a security forces convoy, killing 40 and wounding 35.Indian fighter jets carried out air strikes on Pakistani territory 12 days later.burs-ecl/stm/pst

Sri Lanka’s government pledged closer ties on Thursday with Communist parties in China and India, two regional powers competing for influence in the small but strategically important nation.The leftist government of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake held its first May Day rally with special guests from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Communist parties in India.CCP official Peng Xiubin told the mass rally in Colombo that his party had been working closely with Dissanayake’s JVP, or People’s Liberation Front.”We will make China–Sri Lanka relations even stronger,” the Chinese official said.JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva said he hoped cooperation with China would help address rural poverty.”China has done tremendous work in this area and we want to get their expertise,” Silva said.A.R. Sindhu, a Central Committee member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), which governs India’s southern Kerala state, said they were drawing inspiration from the JVP’s rapid rise to power.”We proudly tell the people that, yes, Kerala will follow the Sri Lankan way. Not only Kerala –- the entire India will be following the Sri Lankan way,” Sindhu said.The JVP, which held just three seats in the previous parliament, went on to win 159 -– just over two-thirds –- in the 225-member assembly at the November elections.With the leftist Dissanayake in office, New Delhi has been concerned about Beijing’s growing influence in Sri Lanka, which India considers to be within its sphere of geopolitical influence.Sri Lanka lies just south of India and is located at a halfway point along the main east–west international shipping lane, making it a strategic location in the Indian Ocean.Dissanayake has been trying to balance relations with the two regional super powers. His first overseas visit was to India after coming to power following September presidential election.He then travelled to China, which is also the island’s largest single lender.Beijing was the first to restructure its loans to Sri Lanka after the country declared a sovereign default in April 2022, following an acute shortage of foreign exchange that triggered an unprecedented economic meltdown.India extended credit lines to help salvage the Sri Lankan economy after it declared bankruptcy three years ago.

Three days of political rallies began in Bangladesh on Thursday with rival groups to stage mass demonstrations in Dhaka, drumming up support for eagerly anticipated elections following an uprising last year.Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, 84, has led an interim government since autocratic prime minister Sheikh Hasina fled into exile as crowds stormed her palace in August. He has said elections will be held as early as December, and at the latest by mid-2026.The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), widely tipped to win the poll, will hold a May Day rally in Dhaka.”We are confident this will be the most memorable grand rally in recent times,” BNP media officer Shairul Kabir Khan said.The largest Islamist political party, Jamaat-e-Islami, will also take to the streets of the capital on Thursday.The Jatiya Party, formerly close to Hasina’s regime, will likewise hold a rally.It will be its first outdoor political event since its offices were vandalised in October, allegedly for helping Hasina’s Awami League cling to power.On Friday, the National Citizens Party (NCP), formed by students who spearheaded the youth-led protests that overthrew Hasina, will hold a rally. NCP leader Nahid Islam initially joined the interim government led by Yunus, before resigning to form the party.”Political programmes help us build public engagement,” said senior NCP official Ariful Islam Adib.”This rally isn’t about showing strength, but we expect 20,000 to 30,000 attendees.”Hefazat-e-Islam, a platform of Islamic seminaries, will hold a “grand rally” on Saturday.”Our rally is a reminder to the government of the sacrifices we’ve made,” said its leader Mamunul Haque, adding they will use the event to present their demands.Key among them is cancelling recommendations by a government women’s commission for ending discriminatory provisions, a further indication of how hardline, religiously fuelled activism is strengthening after years of suppression.”We will present four demands. Chief among them is scrapping the recommendations of the Women’s Rights Commission,” Haque said.”We don’t care if it’s Muhammad Yunus in charge or someone even more prominent, we’ll take to the streets,” he added. – Democratic reforms -Hasina’s government was blamed for extensive human rights abuses and she took a tough stand against Islamist movements during her 15-year rule.She remains in self-imposed exile in India, and has defied an arrest warrant from Dhaka to face charges of crimes against humanity.The South Asian nation of some 170 million people last held elections in January 2024, when Hasina won a fourth term in the absence of genuine opposition parties who boycotted the vote after a crackdown.It is not confirmed if Hasina’s Awami League will take part in elections.Yunus says the caretaker administration he is leading has a duty to implement democratic reforms before it holds a fresh election.He said the timing of elections depends on how much change the political parties can agree on.”If they are in a hurry… then we have the early election in December,” Yunus told broadcast Al Jazeera on Sunday, adding that if parties want more reforms, polls would be later.”If they want a longer version, we go up to June. Beyond June, we don’t go.”