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SpaceX has cut service to more than 2,500 Starlink internet devices at Myanmar scam centres, a company executive said Wednesday, after AFP revealed that their use had exploded in the illicit industry.Sprawling compounds where internet tricksters target foreigners with romance and business cons have thrived along Myanmar’s loosely governed border during its civil war, sparked by a 2021 coup.A highly publicised crackdown starting in February saw around 7,000 workers repatriated and Thailand enact a cross-border internet blockade.But an AFP investigation this month revealed construction has continued apace, while Starlink receivers have been installed en masse, seeming to connect the hubs to the Elon Musk-owned satellite internet network.SpaceX’s vice-president of Starlink business operations, Lauren Dreyer, said the company “disabled over 2,500 Starlink Kits in the vicinity of suspected ‘scam centers'” in Myanmar.Her post on X did not say when the terminals were disconnected. The online scam industry has boomed across Southeast Asia, conning victims out of up to $37 billion in 2023, according to a United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report.Cambodia deported 64 South Koreans last week accused of links to scam networks, with police seeking arrest warrants for most on their return.Thailand’s deputy finance minister Vorapak Tanyawong resigned on Wednesday following allegations linking him to Cambodia-based cyberscam networks.Myanmar’s border regions with Thailand and China have become particularly fertile ground for the fraud factories where some workers are lured or trafficked, while others go willingly.Starlink did not have enough traffic to register as one of the country’s internet providers before February, but ranked top every day from July 3 until October 1, according to the Asian regional internet registry, APNIC.The powerful US Congress Joint Economic Committee says it has begun an investigation into Starlink’s involvement with the centres.- ‘Leaving in chaos’ -Myanmar’s junta said this week it had raided KK Park — one of the country’s most notorious scam centres — and seized Starlink terminals.People there said raids were continuing on Wednesday, and an AFP reporter saw more than 1,000 people travelling north away from the site by foot, on motorbikes and crammed into pickup trucks.”Around 10:00 am Myanmar military soldiers in four trucks arrived to our site,” said one employee leaving KK Park, who declined to give his name for security reasons.”Workers are leaving in chaos,” he added.Experts say Myanmar’s military turns a blind eye to scam centres which profit its militia allies in the region who are crucial in the civil war.But the junta has also faced pressure to shut down the scam operations from its military backer China, irked at the number of its citizens both participating in and being targeted by the scams.The haul of Starlink terminals the junta said it seized this week numbered only 30, a fraction of the thousands which independent analysts have documented at KK Park.Nathan Ruser, an analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said the Myanmar military is attempting a “balancing act” to please both China and the militias aligned with the junta  — “tokenistically” taking action “while actually not doing anything”.But as night fell on Wednesday, a resident of Mae Sot, just over the border in Thailand, said KK Park appeared largely abandoned.”Usually at this time in the evening it is lit up brightly,” they told AFP, speaking anonymously for security reasons.”Today I only see some lights,” they added. “I don’t see the lights on in the dormitory buildings.”Erin West, a longtime US cybercrime prosecutor who resigned last year to campaign full-time against scam centres, said its closure would be “a drop in the ocean”.”If there is a crackdown at KK Park, this is a small portion of what’s happening at KK Park,” she told AFP. “And KK Park is a small portion of the number of compounds in the world that are doing this dirty business.”

In Pakistan, where gender affirmation surgery was recently legalised, Bunty is one of the few trans women who could afford to get it done safely.Despite winning the right to medically transition in 2018, many transgender people in the Muslim-majority nation still turn to unqualified surgeons because of a lack of trained doctors, high costs and cultural taboos.Bunty, who no longer uses her family name since her transition, said she went to the only doctor in the northeastern city of Lahore who performs breast augmentation surgery for trans women — a qualified, experienced professional.While the procedure was successful, she said it took place in an “underground” manner and cost twice the normal rate for a cisgender woman.”I was kept at the hospital for only two hours and then I was forced to leave so that no one would find out,” she told AFP.”I was in extreme pain.”It was the latest ignominy for Bunty, who said she was shunned by her family over her gender identity, then sacked from the job that funded her hospital bills, pushing her into sex work.She said the hospital did not want news of her procedure to spread among doctors and patients who might disapprove.”Gender transitioning is still controversial. Doctors fear they will be judged,” said Mudassir Mahboob, a doctor who carries out legal gender-affirmation surgeries.Mahboob said he chose to work in the capital, Islamabad, to avoid causing controversy in his deeply conservative home province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.He has operated on patients who have asked him to repair damage done to them by unscrupulous backstreet “doctors”.One of them, “who got castrated by a so-called practitioner, came to me and asked me to fix what went wrong”, he said.- ‘Have fear of God’ -Reem Sharif, a member of a communal household known as a “dera” for trans people, said there were only two doctors in Pakistan openly offering legal, safe gender affirmation procedures.Public hospitals often turn away those who enquire about such services, citing religion, Sharif said.”They would say: ‘Have fear of God, how can you try to do this?'” she told AFP, surrounded by other trans women putting on make-up and fixing their hair. “Gender transition is legal according to the law, but practically it is not, and (it) is not accepted in society.”No reliable data exists on the number of transgender people in Pakistan.The country has long recognised a third sex, known as “khawaja sira”, who for centuries have played a spiritual role in society, offering blessings at weddings and births.The 2018 law aimed to strengthen political and social rights for transgender people, whose wider integration was being met with increasing violence.Despite being lauded around the world, the law drew domestic backlash from right-wing religious groups, which spread disinformation that it would lead to same-sex marriage in a country where homosexuality is illegal.The law remains in force but is subject to court challenges, including a review of whether it complies with Islamic law, which coexists with Pakistan’s secular legal code.Psychiatrist Sana Yasir said “the most visits and follow-ups I have had” came in the three years since those challenges began, as transgender clients grappled with the potential repercussions of any legal change.Rights groups say trans people who are helped to transition report better quality of life, while those not given support are more likely to report mental health issues, including suicidal ideation.According to Pakistan’s religious and cultural norms, having surgery to change gender characteristics is “a sin”, even if it aligns one’s body and gender identity, said Mehleb Sheikh, an independent trans rights researcher and activist.Gender affirmation surgery is available in some other Muslim countries, such as Egypt, where the procedure is legal but only with approval from doctors and religious officials. In practice, access remains extremely limited.In Iran, gender affirmation care is legal and even subsidised by the government, but according to activists, transgender people face discrimination on a daily basis. – Threats, violence, and pride -Activists say Pakistan is seeing a rise in violence against trans people, although exact figures are not available due to severe underreporting.The Gender Interactive Alliance in Pakistan says 56 people have been killed since 2022.They include three trans women whose bullet-ridden bodies were found on a roadside in the megacity of Karachi last month.”My brother threatened to kill me and demanded that either I be thrown out of the house, or he would hurt me, blaming me for ruining their honour and their reputation,” said Zarun Ishaque, a 29-year-old transgender man in Islamabad.Despite the hardship, he told AFP that “this happiness after my transition is the dearest (thing)”.”My inner self has come out, and I am very happy with my life like this.”Haroon — a pseudonym to protect his identity — said his transformation had allowed him to finally feel “very comfortable with myself”.He has managed to have breast removal and bottom surgery despite being shunned by family and some doctors.”If you have the capability, if you’ve taken this step and made the decision, then you don’t step back,” he told AFP.

Toxic air in India’s capital hit more than 56 times the UN health limit early Tuesday, after fireworks for the Hindu festival of Diwali worsened air pollution.This month, the Supreme Court relaxed a ban on fireworks during the festival of lights, allowing the use of less-polluting “green firecrackers” — designed to emit fewer particulates.The ban was widely ignored in past years, however, and environmental groups have expressed doubts about the efficacy of the supposedly greener explosives.In the early hours of Tuesday morning, just after the peak of the bursting fireworks, levels of cancer-causing PM 2.5 microparticles hit 846 micrograms per cubic metre in parts of New Delhi, according to monitoring organisation IQAir.That is more than 56 times the World Health Organization’s recommended daily maximum.By Tuesday morning, PM2.5 concentrations had eased to around 320 micrograms per cubic metre — roughly 23 times WHO limits, but relatively typical for New Delhi in winter.The city regularly ranks as among the most polluted capitals.A study in The Lancet Planetary Health last year estimated that 3.8 million deaths in India between 2009 and 2019 were linked to air pollution.The UN children’s agency warns that polluted air puts children at heightened risk of acute respiratory infections.

Nepal’s mountains including Everest have long drawn climbers from across the world, but a growing community is exploring hidden summits promising solitude and the chance to be first to the top.The Himalayan nation is home to eight of the world’s 10 highest peaks and welcomes hundreds of climbers every year, making mountaineering a lucrative business.While commercial expeditions dominate on Everest and other 8,000-metre (26,246-foot) giants, a new generation of adventurers is looking sideways rather than upward — towards the countless 6,000- and 7,000m summits studding Nepal.The country has 462 peaks open for climbing and around a hundred have never been summited.”If you are only interested in the height of the peak then there are limited mountains to climb,” French alpinist and veteran expedition leader Paulo Grobel told AFP.”But if you open your interest to 7,900 metres there is a lot of potential. If you go to 6,900 metres you have many more peaks waiting.”This autumn Nepal has issued 1,323 climbing permits.While most climbers are part of large commercial expeditions on popular peaks, small, independent teams are dispersed across remote and lesser-known mountains.Many of these expeditions, including French, Japanese and Swiss teams, are tackling summits in true alpine style: minimal support, no supplementary oxygen, no fixed ropes and carrying all their own gear.The concept is not new but it is rapidly gaining momentum.- ‘Adventure is way bigger’ -“It’s a huge challenge,” said French mountaineering star Benjamin Vedrines, 33, back from the first ascent of the 7,468m Jannu East with another French climber Nicolas Jean.”For me, it is very important. Alpine style is completely different in terms of skills, in terms of passion. The adventure is way bigger.”Vedrines believes there are huge possibilities for alpine climbs on Nepali mountains outside the highest peaks.”They’re just lower than 8,000 metres,” he said. “Maybe society values them less, but they’re underrated. There’s so much left to explore.”The shift comes as questions about sustainability, overcrowding and commercialisation reshape mountaineering.Billi Bierling, who runs the Himalayan Database recording expedition data, said: “With more crowds on the 8000’ers it is actually a beautiful development.”That young, technically able alpinists are looking at other, more interesting peaks.”Hopefully it will also be safe because that’s the next thing.”- Endless possibilities -Many of Nepal’s mid-range peaks remain logistically out of reach — not because they are too difficult, but because they are too remote.”In Nepal, what is challenging is access,” said Nepali climber and guide Vinayak Malla, whose team has been nominated for the prestigious Piolets d’Or award for the first ascent of the 6,450m Patrasi Peak last year.”It is expensive to travel and then you will have to trek to areas where hotels don’t exist much,” he added. “Rescue is difficult.”On the plus side, smaller expeditions also mean climbers are spread across a wider area, bringing tourism income to valleys that have long remained outside mainstream trekking routes.In August, Nepal waived climbing fees for 97 mountains to promote lesser-known peaks.”We are seeing more interest in mountains below 8,000 metres,” said Himal Gautam, chief of the mountaineering section at Nepal’s tourism department.”Gradually, we’re promoting new regions, so that as interest increases, the infrastructure and manpower needed to support them can develop.”Grobel says it is another part of “Nepal’s climbing story”.”If you are interested in the climbing experience, you need to go to the other peaks,” he said.”The possibilities are endless.”

Pakistan punished poor catching from South Africa to accumulate 259-5 on the opening day of the second and final Test in Rawalpindi on Monday.Had the tourists not dropped five catches on a turning pitch they would have been in a better position after Pakistan won the toss and batted.Skipper Shan Masood, dropped on 71 off a luckless Keshav Maharaj, top-scored with 87 while Abdullah Shafique — dropped four times — made 57.Saud Shakeel and Salman Agha will resume on Tuesday unbeaten on 42 and 10 respectively, with the home team seeking a 2-0 series win against the world Test champions.South African pacer Kagiso Rabada trapped Mohammad Rizwan with the fifth delivery with the second new ball for 19 to give some respite to his team.Maharaj, who missed the first Test in Lahore through injury, took 2-63 and fellow spinner Simon Harmer 2-75.With the bulk of bowling done by Maharaj and Harmer, spinner Senuran Muthusamy — who took 11 wickets in the first Test — was surprisingly used for just four overs.The final session also saw Masood fall to an uppish sweep off Maharaj, caught by Marco Jansen, after hitting two four and three sixes in his innings.Earlier, Shafique’s chancy knock finally ended when he edged Harmer to wicketkeeper Kyle Verreynne after adding an invaluable 111 runs for the second wicket with skipper Masood.The struggling Babar Azam, again cheered by a home crowd willing him to return to form, was dismissed for just 16 when Tony de Zorzi took a low catch at silly point for Maharaj’s first wicket.Azam has gone 29 Test innings without a century.Maharaj himself dropped Shafique on 15 off his own bowling and then saw Aiden Markram drop the same batter on 41 and 53.Shafique also survived on nine when a Jansen delivery rolled onto the stumps but did not dislodge the bails.In the morning session South Africa’s only breakthrough came from Harmer, who bowled Imam-ul-Haq for 17 with a sharp turner that beat the bat and hit off-stump.Rabada was also unlucky when Tristan Stubbs dropped Shafique in the slips off the fourth ball of the match when he was on nought.Having won the first Test in Lahore by 93 runs, Pakistan included a third spinner in Asif Afridi, dropping fast bowler Hasan Ali.At 38 years and 299 days, Asif became the second oldest Pakistani Test debutant, behind Miran Bakhsh, who made his debut at 47 years and 284 days against India in 1955.

After a week of violence, residents on the frontier between Afghanistan and Pakistan are hoping a new ceasefire deal will end the clashes and revive crucial cross-border trade.While the crossings remain closed, life has regained a semblance of normality, with bakers kneading bread, fruit and vegetable sellers wheeling out their carts, and customers frequenting shops. “People can breathe and feel relieved. (But) before that, gunfire damaged a few houses in our village,” said Sadiq Shah, 56, a shopkeeper from Baizai on the Pakistani side.Fighting between Afghanistan and Pakistan broke out after explosions in Kabul on October 9.The Taliban government blamed the blasts on its neighbour and launched a retaliatory border offensive, prompting Islamabad to vow a strong response.After further clashes left soldiers and civilians dead, the two sides declared an initial 48-hour ceasefire on Wednesday.New Pakistani strikes hit Afghanistan on Friday, with Islamabad saying it was targeting armed groups that the Taliban harbours and allows to launch attacks on Pakistani territory — a claim that Kabul denies.The two sides approved a second ceasefire on Sunday, to the relief of many along the border.”It’s incredible: both sides are Muslim, (ethnic) Pashtuns, so why fight?” said Shah.”Previously, trade with Afghanistan went through here, and now we’re shooting at each other. What country does that?”- ‘Losing money’ -The border only opened temporarily this week to admit Afghan migrants expelled by Pakistan under a campaign that it launched back in 2023.In the Pakistani town of Torkham, a normally busy crossing point into the Afghan province of Nangarhar, stranded drivers bought tea from a vendor as they waited in colourful trucks.More than 1,500 trucks, trailers and containers carrying cement, medicines, rice and other basic goods are waiting in Torkham, according to a senior Pakistani customs official in nearby Peshawar.Abdul Rahman Habib, spokesman for the Taliban’s economy ministry, said fruit and vegetables were rotting as they awaited export to Pakistan.”Businessmen are losing money,” he said, without giving an estimate of the damages.Habib warned that if this situation persisted, “it could increase prices and unemployment, and destabilise markets”.”Trade relations should be separate from political issues,” he told AFP.After the peace talks in Doha, Qatar’s foreign ministry said the ceasefire deal provides for “the establishment of mechanisms to consolidate lasting peace”, but their details have not been disclosed.Niaz Mohammed Akhund, a 39-year-old car salesman in Spin Boldak, an Afghan town where fighting flared last week, said “people here are very happy with the ceasefire”.”(They) have no farmland or other source of income — everyone depends on cross-border trade, on both sides,” he said. Nematullah, a 24-year-old vendor, also told AFP he hoped “this problem won’t resurface”.Across the road on the Pakistani side, market worker Imran Khan called on the two countries to establish a “mechanism to end these conflicts and to start treating each other like brothers”.

Myanmar’s junta raided one of the country’s most notorious cyberscam centres and seized Starlink satellite internet devices, it said Monday, after an AFP investigation revealed an explosion in their use in the multibillion-dollar illicit industry.Internet sweatshops where workers scam unsuspecting foreigners with business or romance schemes have thrived in war-ravaged Myanmar’s lawless border regions since the coronavirus pandemic shut down casinos operating in the area.A crackdown by Thai, Chinese and Myanmar authorities starting in February saw thousands of suspected scammers repatriated, with experts saying some in the scam industry participate willingly while others are forced to by organised criminal groups.But an AFP investigation this month revealed rapid new construction at scam centre sites and devices using Elon Musk-owned satellite internet service Starlink being installed on their roofs.State media The Global New Light of Myanmar said the military “conducted operations in KK Park near Myanmar-Thai border” and had “seized 30 sets of Starlink receivers and accessories”.That number is only a fraction of the Starlink devices AFP identified using satellite imagery and drone photography. On the roof of one building alone in KK Park, images showed nearly 80 of the internet dishes.Starlink, which is not licensed in Myanmar, did not have enough traffic to make it onto the list of the country’s internet providers before the sweeping February crackdown.But it topped the ranking every day from July 3 until October 1, according to data from the Asian regional internet registry, APNIC.The US Congress Joint Economic Committee told AFP they have begun an investigation into Starlink’s involvement with the centres. While it can call Musk to a hearing, it cannot compel him to testify.Starlink parent company SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.- Thriving scams -The Global New Light of Myanmar also said junta troops had occupied around 200 buildings and found nearly 2,200 workers at the site, while 15 “Chinese scammers” had been arrested for involvement in “online gambling, online fraud and other criminal activities” around KK Park.Southeast Asian scam operations conned people out of $37 billion in 2023, according to a report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.While Myanmar has emerged as a focal point of scam centres in Southeast Asia, they have also flourished elsewhere in the region.Last week, Cambodia deported 64 South Koreans detained for alleged involvement in cyberscams there, with most now facing arrest warrants back home.Scam centres are a key part of Myanmar’s black market economy alongside drug production and mining, filling the war chests of factions fighting in the country’s civil war which was sparked by a 2021 military coup.The border region fraud factories are typically run by Chinese criminal syndicates, analysts say, often overseen by Myanmar militias given tacit backing by the Myanmar junta in return for guaranteeing security.However, their allegiances have shifted as international pressure has been brought to bear.China led the push on authorities in Myanmar and Thailand to crack down in February after Chinese actor Wang Xing said he was lured to Thailand for a fake casting and trafficked into a scam centre in Myanmar.Nonetheless satellite images show what appear to be office and dormitory blocks shooting up in many of the estimated 27 scam centres located along a winding stretch of the Moei River on the Thai-Myanmar border.While some scam workers are clearly trafficked into the centres, experts say others go voluntarily to secure huge pay packets.Beijing said last week it has arrested more than 57,000 Chinese nationals suspected of committing fraud in its crackdown on cross-border crimes in Myanmar.

India’s capital New Delhi was shrouded in a thick, toxic haze on Monday as air pollution levels soared to more than 16 times the World Health Organization’s recommended daily maximum.New Delhi and its sprawling metropolitan region — home to more than 30 million people — are regularly ranked among the world’s most polluted capitals, with acrid smog blanketing the skyline each winter.Cooler air traps pollutants close to the ground, creating a deadly mix of emissions from crop burning, factories and heavy traffic.But pollution has also spiked due to days of fireworks set off to mark Diwali, the major Hindu festival of lights, which culminates on Monday night.The Supreme Court relaxed this month a blanket ban on fireworks over Diwali to allow the use of the less-polluting “green firecrackers” — designed to emit fewer particulates.The ban was widely ignored in past years.On Monday, levels of PM2.5 — cancer-causing microparticles small enough to enter the bloodstream — hit 248 micrograms per cubic metre in parts of the city, according to monitoring organisation IQAir. The government’s Commission of Air Quality Management said air quality is expected to further deteriorate in the coming days.It also implemented a set of measures to curb pollution levels, including asking authorities to ensure uninterrupted power supply to reduce the use of diesel generators.City authorities have also said they will trial cloud seeding by aeroplanes for the first time over Delhi this month, the practice of firing salt or other chemicals into clouds to induce rain to clear the air.”We’ve already got everything we need to do the cloud seeding”, Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa told reporters this month, saying flight trials and pilot training had been completed.A study in The Lancet Planetary Health last year estimated 3.8 million deaths in India between 2009 and 2019 were linked to air pollution.The UN children’s agency warns that polluted air puts children at heightened risk of acute respiratory infections.

Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed to an “immediate ceasefire” at talks in Doha, Qatar said Sunday, after at least 10 Afghans were killed in Pakistani air strikes that broke an earlier truce.For more than a week, the South Asian neighbours have engaged in bloody border clashes — their worst conflict since the return of the Taliban government in 2021.A 48-hour truce briefly put a stop to the fighting, which has killed dozens of troops and civilians, until Friday’s air strikes. After peace talks in Doha, Qatar’s foreign ministry said early Sunday that “the two sides agreed to an immediate ceasefire and the establishment of mechanisms to consolidate lasting peace and stability between the two countries”.They also agreed to follow-up meetings in the coming days to ensure the ceasefire, the foreign ministry added.Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif confirmed that a ceasefire agreement had been reached and said the two sides would meet again in Istanbul on October 25.”Terrorism on Pakistani soil conducted from Afghanistan will immediately stop. Both neighbouring countries will respect each other’s sovereignty,” Asif posted on social media.Afghan Defence Minister Mohammed Yaqub said both sides had “concluded that each country will respect the other”.”(We) will not violate the other’s rights, will not support hostile actions against the other, and no party or group will be allowed to harm the security of the other country or attack it,” he said.The defence ministers posted a picture on X shaking hands after the signing.- ‘No interest’ in conflict -Michael Kugelman, a leading South Asia analyst, said “the Taliban have no interest in an all-out conflict that would pit them against a vastly superior military force”.”That gives them a strong incentive to agree to a long ceasefire,” he told AFP, though he warned that the risks of escalation “remain high”.Security issues lie at the heart of the clashes.Since the Taliban returned to power, Pakistan has witnessed a dramatic spike in militant attacks, mainly near its 2,600-kilometre (1,600-mile) border with Afghanistan.Analysts say Islamist fighters have been emboldened by the neighbouring insurgency’s success following the withdrawal of US forces in 2021. Islamabad alleges that hostile groups, including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), operate from “sanctuaries” in Afghanistan, a charge the Taliban government routinely denies.Kugelman said it was the Taliban’s “lack of action” on those alleged groups “that provoked Pakistani military strikes and triggered the recent crisis”.The cross-border violence flared on October 11, days after explosions rocked Kabul during an unprecedented visit by the Taliban’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi to India, Pakistan’s archrival.The Taliban then launched a deadly offensive along parts of its southern border with Pakistan, prompting Islamabad to vow a strong response.Ahead of the Doha talks, a senior Taliban official told AFP that Pakistan had bombed three locations in Paktika province late Friday, and warned that Kabul would retaliate.A hospital official in Paktika told AFP that 10 civilians, including two children, were killed and 12 others wounded. Three cricket players were among the dead.Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid wrote on X that their forces had been ordered to hold fire “to maintain the dignity and integrity of its negotiating team”.Saadullah Torjan, a minister in Spin Boldak in Afghanistan’s south, said: “For now, the situation is returning to normal.””But there is still a state of war, and people are afraid.”

Bangladeshi traders on Sunday assessed heavy losses after a devastating fire tore through the cargo complex of the country’s main international airport, as the government opened an investigation into possible arson.The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) gave an initial assessment of “devastating” direct and indirect costs of as much as $1 billion.Firefighters had brought the blaze under control and flight operations resumed late Saturday, airport executive director S. M. Ragib Samad told AFP, after thick black smoke swept across the runway, forcing authorities to briefly suspend flights.But Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport’s cargo complex — which stores fabrics, garment accessories, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and other imports — was left in ruins.The National Board of Revenue (NBR) also said it was assessing the damage.Bangladesh is the world’s second-biggest garment manufacturer, and textile and garment production accounts for about 80 percent of exports.”We have witnessed a devastating scene inside. The entire import section has been reduced to ashes,” said Faisal Samad, director of the BGMEA.”The entire import section has been reduced to ashes. We fear the losses might well exceed $1 billion.”He said around 200 to 250 factories export products by air every day.- ‘Resolute response’ -Smoke was still rising from the charred remains on Sunday. “The fire spread to every corner — I don’t know if any consignment could escape,” said one exhausted firefighter, whose uniform was greyed and hands blackened.”We were supposed to deliver the consignments to our clients today. All burnt to ashes, I guess,” said importer Anand Kumar Ghosh, who said he had lost 52 consignments.Moinul Ahsan, a senior official at the health directorate, said four people had been taken to hospital with minor injuries.The cause of the blaze was not immediately known.But the government said it was aware of growing public concern following a string of major fires in recent days — including in Chittagong’s export processing zone and a chemical and garment factory in Dhaka, where 16 people were killed.The government said the security services were investigating all incidents “thoroughly”, and warned that “any credible evidence of sabotage or arson will be met with a swift and resolute response.””No act of criminality or provocation will be allowed to disrupt public life or the political process,” it said, urging calm.The South Asian nation of 170 million people has been in political turmoil since Sheikh Hasina was ousted as prime minister by a student-led revolt in August 2024, and is gearing up for hotly contested elections slated for February 2026.”If these fires prove to be acts of sabotage, and their aim is to sow panic and division, they’ll succeed only if we allow fear to overtake our reason and our resolve,” the statement added.”Bangladesh has faced many challenges before, and together we will face any threats to our new democracy with unity, calm and determination. We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”