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Bangladesh’s ex-prime minister Khaleda Zia, chair of the powerful Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), returned home to cheering crowds on Tuesday after months abroad for medical treatment. Zia, 79, led the South Asian nation twice but was jailed for corruption in 2018 during the tenure of Sheikh Hasina, her successor and lifelong rival who barred her from travelling abroad for medical care.The 79-year-old was released from house arrest after a student-led mass uprising ousted Hasina in August 2024.She flew to Britain in January and returned on Tuesday, BNP spokesperson Shairul Kabir said.Thousands of party activists welcomed her, gathering on either side of the road leading to the airport, carrying photographs of Zia and waving party flags and placards with welcome messages.Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, 84, who has led an interim government since Hasina fled into exile as crowds stormed her palace, has said elections will be held as early as December, and by June 2026 at the latest. “This is a significant day for the country and the people of Bangladesh,” Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, the BNP’s secretary general, told reporters.”The celebration we are witnessing is not only an outpouring of emotion but also a demonstration of our strength.”Zia’s rival Hasina remains in self-imposed exile in India and has defied an arrest warrant from Dhaka over charges of crimes against humanity.

Sri Lanka’s leftist government faced its first electoral test with local polls on Tuesday since sweeping parliamentary and presidential votes last year, as the country emerged from economic meltdown.President Anura Kumara Dissanayake urged voters to return all 339 local council bodies to his ruling National People’s Party (NPP) coalition, which enjoys a sweeping two-thirds majority in parliament.Dissanayake, who upset the more established political parties to win the September presidential election, built on his popularity to secure the parliamentary vote held two months later.Since coming to power, Dissanayake, 56, has made a U-turn on his pledge to renegotiate the terms of an unpopular IMF bailout loan agreed by his predecessor, and has maintained high tariffs.”We must understand the nature of the reality before us — an economy that has collapsed to the bottom,” Dissanayake said at his May Day rally in Colombo.He said it was essential for his party to sweep the local councils so that all layers of the administration were “free of corruption and endemic waste”.He also urged trade unions not to agitate over “small issues”, and to give his government more time to deliver on its promises of increased welfare.Some 17.1 million people — the same number that voted in the two previous national elections — are eligible to vote on Tuesday to elect 8,287 councillors from 75,589 candidates.The campaign has been lacklustre, with no high-profile figures in the running. Results are expected by midday on Wednesday.

The excited little girl who first touched a plane two decades ago is now flying high as the face of India’s fast-modernising military and its only woman Rafale fighter pilot.”This is where my adventure began,” Shivangi Singh, 29, told AFP at the Air Force Museum in New Delhi, recalling her first visit as a child when she “gawked” and “immediately knew that I wanted to become a pilot”.Women were first inducted into the fighter pilot ranks in 2015, two decades after they were allowed to join the Indian Air Force (IAF).”There have been many of us,” said Singh, a lieutenant. “This not only reflects modernisation (of our society) but also the fact that we can now realise our dreams.”Singh, who is married to a fellow fighter pilot, is the first Indian woman to fly the French-made single-seat Rafale jets.New Delhi last month signed a multi-billion dollar deal for 26 of the aircraft from Dassault Aviation, adding to 36 already ordered.The jets are part of a major modernisation of the IAF to replace its ageing fleet of Russian-made MiGs.The deal comes as tensions with arch-rival Pakistan rise after New Delhi blamed Islamabad for an attack in contested Kashmir in April that killed 26 people.Pakistan has rejected any link to the assault, the worst attack on civilians in the Muslim-majority region for a quarter of a century.India has also eyed with worry its northern neighbour China, especially since a deadly 2020 clash between their troops along their disputed Himalayan border.- ‘Be independent’ -Singh, born in the Hindu holy city of Varanasi, had to excel in both academics and sports to break into a job once seen by many as something only men could do.”My mother was a great source of inspiration as she didn’t just want me educated — she wanted me to be independent, and backed all my endeavours,” the pilot added.India’s Air Force had more than 1,600 woman officers, including many pilots, according to official statistics from 2023.The world’s most populous nation also has highest proportion of woman commercial pilots — at about 14 percent of the total strength.Singh detailed her experience of flying, from “nervous and anxious” when she first sat in the cockpit, to the “incredibly exhilarating” moment when flying solo.The first time Singh took the controls of a fighter jet, a MiG-21, was when she “realised how much skill it takes to control” to fly.- Aiming for space -Singh was among the first to try the new Rafale jets.After a rigorous selection process, she was in 2020 shortlisted for simulator training with French instructors before stepping into the cockpit.”Its responsiveness is impressive… the cockpit is incredibly comfortable, you feel like it was designed for you,” Singh added.But her dreams are even bigger.India is planning a manned space mission, and the pilot hopes that challenge will be her next frontier.”I succeeded in a field that was long reserved for men, and if I succeeded, then women can now work in any sector,” she said, adding she had applied for training courses to be a test pilot.”I want to be an astronaut,” she said. “So let’s hope.”

Bangladesh hoped to celebrate progress towards eradicating tuberculosis this year, having already slashed the numbers dying from the preventable and curable disease by tens of thousands each year.Instead, it is reeling from a $48 million snap aid cut by US President Donald Trump’s government, which health workers say could rapidly unravel years of hard work and cause huge numbers of preventable deaths.”Doctors told me I was infected with a serious kind of tuberculosis,” labourer Mohammed Parvej, 35, told AFP from his hospital bed after he received life-saving treatment from medics funded by the US aid who identified his persistent hacking cough.But full treatment for his multidrug-resistant tuberculosis requires more than a year of hospital care and a laborious treatment protocol — and that faces a deeply uncertain future.”Bangladesh is among the seven most TB-prevalent countries globally, and we aim to eradicate it by 2035,” said Ayesha Akhter, deputy director of the formerly US-funded specialised TB Hospital treating Parvej in the capital Dhaka.Bangladesh had made significant progress against the infectious bacteria, spread by spitting and sneezing, leaving people exhausted and sometimes coughing blood.TB deaths dropped from more than 81,000 a year in 2010, down to 44,000 in 2023, according to the World Health Organization, in the country of some 170 million people.Akhter said the South Asian nation had “been implementing a robust programme”, supported by the US Agency for International Development (USAID).”Then, one fine morning, USAID pulled out their assistance,” she said.- Starving children -More than 80 percent of humanitarian programmes funded by USAID worldwide have been scrapped.Tariful Islam Khan said the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research Bangladesh (ICDDR,B) had, with US funding, carried out mass screening “improving TB case detection, particularly among children” from 2020 to 2024.”Thanks to the support of the American people… the project has screened 52 million individuals and diagnosed over 148,000 TB cases, including 18,000 children,” he said.Funding cuts threatened to stall the work.”This work is critical not only for the health of millions of Bangladeshis, but also for global TB control efforts,” he said.Growing rates of infectious diseases in one nation have a knock-on impact in the region.Cuts hit further than TB alone.”USAID was everywhere in the health sector,” said Nurjahan Begum, health adviser to the interim government — which is facing a host of challenges after a mass uprising toppled the former regime last year.US aid was key to funding vaccines combatting a host of other diseases, protecting 2.3 million children against diphtheria, measles, polio and tetanus.”I am particularly worried about the immunisation programme,” Begum said.”If there is a disruption, the success we have achieved in immunisation will be jeapordised.”Bangladeshi scientists have also developed a special feeding formula for starving children. That too has been stalled.”We had just launched the programme,” Begum said. “Many such initiatives have now halted”. – Pivot to China -US State Department official Audrey M. Happ said that Washington was “committed” to ensuring aid was “aligned with the interests of the United States, and that resources are used as effectively and efficiently as possible”.Bangladesh, whose economy and key garment industry are eyeing fearfully the end of the 90-day suspension of Trump’s punishing 37 percent tariffs, is looking for other supporters.Some Arab nations had expressed interest in helping fill the gap in Muslim-majority Bangladesh.China, as well as Turkey, may also step into Washington’s shoes, Begum said.Jobs are gone too, with Dhaka’s Daily Star newspaper estimating that between 30,000 and 40,000 people were laid off after the United States halted funding.Zinat Ara Afroze, fired along with 54 colleagues from Save the Children, said she worried for those she had dedicated her career to helping.”I have seen how these projects have worked improving the life and livelihoods of underprivileged communities,” she said, citing programmes ranging from food to health, environmental protection to democracy.”A huge number of this population will be in immediate crisis.”- Babies dying  -Those with the least have been hit the hardest.Less dollars for aid means more sick and dead among the Rohingya refugees who fled civil war in their home in neighbouring Myanmar into Bangladesh since 2017.Much of the US aid was delivered through the UN’s WHO and UNICEF children’s agency.WHO official Salma Sultana said aid cuts ramped up risks of “uncontrolled outbreaks” of diseases including cholera in the squalid refugee camps.Faria Selim, from UNICEF, said reduced health services would impact the youngest Rohingya the hardest, especially some 160,000 children under five.Hepatitis C, with a prevalence rate of nearly a fifth “is likely to increase in 2025”, Selim said.Masaki Watabe, who runs the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) in Bangladesh working to improve reproductive and maternal health, said it was “trying its best to continue”.Closed clinics and no pay for midwives meant the risk of babies and mothers dying had shot up.”Reduced donor funding has led to… increasing the risk of preventable maternal and newborn deaths,” he said.

All 133 Catholic cardinals who will vote for a new pope have arrived in Rome, the Vatican said on Monday, two days before they gather in a conclave to elect the next head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.Hailing from 70 countries across five continents, the group — summoned following the death of Pope Francis on April 21 — is the largest and the most international ever.At stake is the direction of the Catholic Church, a 2,000-year-old institution with huge global influence but which is struggling to adapt to the modern world and recover its reputation after the scandal of widespread child sex abuse by priests.The 133 cardinals who will vote — all those aged under 80, minus two who are absent for health reasons — will gather on Wednesday afternoon under the frescoed splendour of the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel.They are sworn to secrecy, risking excommunication if they reveal what happens — as are their support staff, from medics to lift operators, canteen and cleaning staff, who took their oath on Monday.The Vatican announced on Monday that it would also cut the phone signals within the tiny city state for the duration of the conclave, although this will not cover St Peter’s Square, where thousands of pilgrims are expected to gather to see the new pope.On Monday morning, technicians installed red curtains on the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica overlooking the square, where the new pontiff will make his first appearance.Cardinals of all ages had met earlier on Monday for the latest in a series of closed-door preparatory meetings.Discussions so far have covered everything from the Vatican’s finances to the abuse scandal and Church unity.On Monday morning “the focus was on the missionary nature of the Church: a Church that must not withdraw into herself”, the Vatican said.Cardinals discussed the profile of the next pope — “a figure who must be present, close, capable of being a bridge and a guide, of favouring access to communion for a disoriented humanity marked by the crisis of the world order”.He should be “a shepherd close to the real life of the people”, the Vatican added.- ‘Spectacular’ conclave -Francis was an energetic reformer from Buenos Aires who helped open up the Church during his 12-year-long papacy but was accused by critics of failing to defend key Catholic doctrine.The question now is whether his successor will follow a similar progressive line, or take the Church on a more conservative, traditionalist path.Francis appointed 80 percent of the current cardinal electors — but experts caution that they may not choose someone in his mould, with many warning that there could be surprises.Vatican affairs specialist Marco Politi told AFP that, given the unknowns, the conclave could be “the most spectacular in 50 years”.  The conclave begins on Wednesday afternoon and could continue for days, weeks or even months — although both Francis and his predecessor were elected within two days.The cardinals will vote once the first day and four times a day thereafter until one of them has the two-thirds majority to be elected pope.They will stay at the nearby Santa Marta guesthouse and are forbidden from contacting the outside world until they have made their choice.Under a centuries-old ritual, they will inform the waiting world of their progress by burning their ballots, with black smoke indicating no winner, and white smoke signalling a new pope.- ‘Tough pope’ -Italy’s Pietro Parolin, who was secretary of state under Francis, is one of the favourites, as is Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem.Amongst the so-called “papabili” are also Luis Antonio Tagle from the Philippines and Hungarian conservative Peter Erdo.But many more names have been discussed and a surprise candidate could emerge, as was the case when Francis — then an Argentinian known as Jorge Bergoglio — was picked in 2013.Amongst the pilgrims and sightseers who gathered in St Peter’s Square on Monday, opinions varied widely about who could or should take over.”Maybe more of Pope Francis than Pope Benedict,” said German visitor Aurelius Lie, 36.”As long as he’s not too conservative (and) influenced by modern political leaders — (Giorgia) Meloni, (Donald) Trump,” he said, referring to the Italian prime minister and the US president.”Maybe the Church will be thinking: ‘We need a tough pope now to deal with these people’. But their terms will end in a couple of years.”burs-ar/db/bc

Pat Cummins’ figures of 3-19 went in vain after rain ended his and Sunrisers Hyderabad’s chances of reaching the playoffs as their clash against Delhi Capitals was called off on Monday.Hyderabad restricted Delhi to 133-7 in 20 overs, but rain fell ahead of the chase and after about one hour and 45 minutes the officials decided to share one point each between the two teams.Rain stopped after more than 70 minutes but the ground remained covered with puddles of water and Cummins and Delhi skipper Axar Patel shook hands.Last year’s runners-up Hyderabad with seven defeats, three wins and one no result fell out of the playoffs contention along with Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals.Delhi in fifth place keep their dream alive of winning their first-ever IPL title.The top four teams at the end of the league stage will move into the playoffs.Australia’s Cummins struck on the first ball of the match and had the opposition reeling at 62-6, before Ashutosh Sharma and Tristan Stubbs put on 66 runs for the seventh wicket.Cummins elected to field first and took a wicket in each of his first three overs to send back Karun Nair for a first-ball duck, Faf du Plessis (three) and Abishek Porel (eight).Harshal Patel dismissed Axar, and KL Rahul fell to Jaydev Unadkat in a dominant bowling performance by Hyderabad.Stubbs and impact substitute Ashutosh both scored 41 each to check Delhi’s slide.Ashutosh took on the attack in his 26-ball knock, laced with two fours and three sixes, before falling to Sri Lankan Eshan Malinga in the final over.South Africa’s Stubbs finished off the innings with his fourth boundary but rain had the final say.It was the second match of the current IPL season to be called off due to rain.

Pakistan conducted a second missile test and India ordered civil defence drills in an escalating stand-off over contested Kashmir that the UN said on Monday has brought the two nations to the brink of war.New Delhi blames Islamabad for backing an attack on tourists last month — the deadliest against civilians on the Indian-administered side of the Himalayan territory for years — sparking a series of heated threats and diplomatic tit-for-tat measures.Pakistan rejects the accusations, and the two sides have exchanged nightly gunfire since April 24 along the de facto border in Kashmir, the militarised Line of Control, according to the Indian army.UN chief Antonio Guterres on Monday said relations between Pakistan and India had reached a “boiling point”, warning that “now is the time for maximum restraint and stepping back from the brink” of war.The Pakistani military said Monday it had tested a surface-to-surface missile with a range of 120 kilometres (75 miles), a launch “aimed at ensuring the operational readiness of troops”.The missile test comes as Iran’s top diplomat Abbas Araghchi was in Islamabad for talks with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday, ahead of a visit to India on Thursday.Tehran has offered to mediate between the two nuclear-armed neighbours, and Araghchi will be the first senior foreign diplomat to visit both countries since the April 22 attack sent relations into a tailspin.”We will spare no effort to help de-escalate the situation between the two countries,” Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said.Pakistan announced a previous test on Saturday of a surface-to-surface missile with a range of 450 kilometres — about the distance from the Pakistan border to New Delhi.It has not said where either of the tests took place.Sharif, who cancelled a visit to Malaysia scheduled for Friday, said the launch “clearly shows that Pakistan’s defence is in strong hands”.Indian information ministry officials said that several civil defence “mock drills” would take place on Wednesday, preparing people to “protect themselves in the event of a hostile attack”.- Calls to de-escalate tensions -Muslim-majority Kashmir, a region of around 15 million people, is divided between Pakistan and India but claimed in full by both.Rebels in the Indian-run area have waged an insurgency since 1989, seeking independence or a merger with Pakistan.India regularly blames its neighbour for backing gunmen behind the insurgency.Hindu nationalist Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said India will “identify, track and punish every terrorist and their backer” who carried out the attack at Pahalgam last month, and will “pursue them to the ends of the Earth.”Pakistan’s government has denied any involvement in the shooting and vowed that “any act of aggression will be met with a decisive response”.No group has claimed responsibility for the April 22 killing of 26 mainly Hindu men in the tourist hotspot of Pahalgam, but Indian police are seeking at least two Pakistani citizens they say are among the alleged gunmen.International pressure has been piled on both New Delhi and Islamabad, who have fought several wars over the disputed Kashmir region.US Vice President JD Vance has called on India to respond to the attack in a way “that doesn’t lead to a broader regional conflict”.Vance also urged Pakistan to “make sure that the terrorists sometimes operating in their territory are hunted down and dealt with”.Russia’s Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday that Moscow was “following with great concern the atmosphere that has developed on the border”, calling for both nations to “reduce tensions”.In Indian-run Kashmir, a vast manhunt seeking the gunmen continues across the territory, while those living along the frontier are moving further away — or cleaning out bunkers fearing conflict.On the Pakistani side, emergency drills have been carried out on playing fields, residents have been told to stock up on food and medicine, and religious schools have closed.burs-ecl-pjm/dhw

All 133 Catholic cardinals who will vote for a new pope have arrived in Rome, the Vatican said on Monday, two days before they gather at a conclave to elect the next head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.Hailing from 70 countries across five continents, the group — summoned following the death of Pope Francis on April 21 — is the largest and the most international ever.At stake is the direction of the Catholic Church, a 2,000-year-old institution with huge global influence but which is battling to adapt to the modern world and recover its reputation after the scandal of widespread child sex abuse by priests.The 133 so-called “Princes of the Church” who will vote — all those aged under 80, minus two who are absent for health reasons — will gather on Wednesday afternoon under the frescoed splendour of the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican.Voting once that day and four times a day thereafter until a pope is chosen, they will stay at the nearby Santa Marta guesthouse but are forbidden from contacting the outside world until they have made their choice.They will inform the waiting world of their progress by burning their ballots and sending up smoke — black if no candidate has reached the two-thirds majority of votes, or white if they have a winner.On Monday morning, technicians installed red curtains on the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica, where the new pontiff will make his first appearance.At issue is whether the new pontiff will follow the popular Argentine pontiff’s progressive line or whether the Holy See will pivot towards a more conservative traditionalist leader. Francis, an energetic reformer from Buenos Aires, ran the Church for 12 years and appointed 80 percent of the current cardinal electors.But experts caution they may not choose someone in his model, with many warning there could be surprises.Vatican affairs specialist Marco Politi told AFP that, given the unknowns, the conclave could be “the most spectacular in 50 years”.  – ‘Calm the waters’ -Cardinals met on Monday morning for the latest in a series of preparatory meetings, so-called general congregations, and will gather again in the afternoon.All cardinals are invited to these, not just those eligible to vote in the conclave, taking the opportunity to discuss the issues that will face Francis’s successor.”Nobody campaigns, for crying out loud. That would be extraordinarily stupid and indiscreet, and improper and counterproductive,” said Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York.”But you just want to get to know folks, and it works well,” he said on his own podcast.Among the pilgrims and sightseers who gathered in the square on Monday, opinions varied widely about who could or should take over.”Maybe more of Pope Francis than Pope Benedict,” said German visitor Aurelius Lie, 36.”As long as he’s not too conservative (and) influenced by modern political leaders — (Giorgia) Meloni, (Donald) Trump,” he said, referring to the Italian prime minister and the US president.”Maybe the Church will be thinking: ‘We need a tough pope now to deal with these people.’ But their terms will end in a couple of years.”But Canadian priest Justin Pulikunnel did not hide his frustration at the direction Francis tried to take the Church, saying he personally sought a return to a more traditional leadership.”Well, I hope and I pray that the new pope will kind of be a source of unity in the Church and kind of calm the waters down after almost a dozen years of destabilisation and ambiguity,” he said on Sunday.- ‘Changing world’ -The conclave begins on Wednesday afternoon and could continue for days, weeks or even months — although both Francis and Benedict XVI — who was pope from 2005 until his resignation in 2013 — were elected within two days.Italy’s Pietro Parolin, who was secretary of state under Francis, is one of the favourites, as is Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem.Among the so-called “papabili” are also Luis Antonio Tagle from the Philippines and Hungarian conservative Peter Erdo.But many more names have been discussed, and just like when Francis — then an Argentinian known as Jorge Bergoglio — was picked in 2013, a surprise candidate could emerge.Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako of Iraq told reporters before Monday’s meetings that he wanted “a pastor, a father who preserves the unity of the Church and the integrity of the faith but who also knows the challenges of today”.”The world is always changing. Every day there is news. The pope must read the signs of the times to have the right answer and not be closeted in his palace.”burs-ar/ams/sbk

The Pakistan military said on Monday it had conducted a second missile test since a fresh stand-off with India over the disputed region of Kashmir.New Delhi has blamed Islamabad for backing a deadly attack on tourists on the Indian side of the divided territory last month, sparking a series of heated threats and diplomatic tit-for-tat measures.The missile test comes as Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was in Islamabad on Monday for talks with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, before heading to New Delhi later this week.Araghchi will be the first senior foreign diplomat to visit both countries, after Iran offered to mediate between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.”We do not want tensions to develop in this region and we will spare no effort to help de-escalate the situation between the two countries,” Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said.The Pakistan military tested a surface-to-surface missile with a range of 120 kilometres (75 miles), according to Monday’s statement.”The launch was aimed at ensuring the operational readiness of troops and validating key technical parameters, including the missile’s advanced navigation system and enhanced accuracy,” the military said.On Saturday, the military said it had tested a surface-to-surface missile with a range of 450 kilometres.It did not say where either of the tests took place.Sharif said he was satisfied with the military’s “full preparedness for national defence”.”The successful training launch clearly shows that Pakistan’s defence is in strong hands,” he said in a statement.- Calls to de-escalate -Muslim-majority Kashmir, a region of around 15 million people, is divided between Pakistan and India but claimed in full by both.No group has claimed responsibility for the April 22 attack in Pahalgam that killed 26 people, but rebels in the Muslim-majority region have waged an insurgency since 1989.Pakistan has denied any involvement and called for an independent probe.Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said last week he has given his military “full operational freedom” to respond and Islamabad has warned it will respond with force to any aggression.International pressure has been piled on both New Delhi and Islamabad — who have fought several wars over the disputed Kashmir region — to de-escalate.US Vice President JD Vance has called on India to respond to the attack in a way “that doesn’t lead to a broader regional conflict”.In an interview with Fox News, he also urged Pakistan to “make sure that the terrorists sometimes operating in their territory are hunted down and dealt with”.Russia called for de-escalation between the two countries, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov telling reporters on Monday that Moscow was “following with great concern the atmosphere that has developed on the border”.”Pakistan is presenting its case to friendly countries,” Information Minister Attaullah Tarar told reporters on a visit to Pakistan-administered Kashmir on Monday.The two sides have exchanged nightly gunfire for more than a week along the militarised Line of Control, the de facto border, according to Indian defence sources.In Indian-run Kashmir, a vast manhunt seeking the gunmen continues across the territory, while those living along the frontier are moving further away — or cleaning out bunkers fearing conflict.On the Pakistani side, emergency drills have been carried out on playing fields, residents have been told to stock up on food and medicine, and religious schools have been closed.Sharif has postponed an official visit to Malaysia scheduled for Friday, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said on Monday.burs-ecl/dhw

In the skies above the bunkers where Indian and Pakistani soldiers trade gunfire, masters of an ancient sport beloved on both sides seek to snatch prized pigeons from the other.Indian breeder Pyara Singh spends his days trying to lure Pakistani birds from across the Himalayan valley, and guard against rivals wooing his flock.”We get pigeons from Pakistan — we catch them,” said 33-year-old Singh, watching as some of his feathered favourites twisted like jets overhead. “We also often lose our pigeons to them”.An attack in Indian-administered Kashmir last month that New Delhi blames on Islamabad has sparked fears of renewed conflict between the nuclear-armed arch-rivals.Pakistan insists it was not involved in the April 22 killings of 26 mainly Hindu men but Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has vowed to respond.Like every night since April 26, India’s army said Monday that its troops had exchanged gunfire with Pakistani soldiers overnight across the de facto frontier in contested Kashmir.- ‘Treasured possession’ -Pigeon fanciers across the divide can’t meet face-to-face, but share the same passion. Breeders say the top birds can be worth hundreds of dollars.The skill of “kabutar-baazi” pigeon flying stretches back centuries, straddling a border created at the violent end of British imperial rule in 1947.Singh, sitting with his 100-strong flock on the roof of his home in the village of Pangali, said it was “it is an old art”.Keepers guide the flight of their flocks with whistles to provide a swirling spectacle.Others race them, timing their flight home, or simply find peace in their graceful colourations and gentle coos.But Indian keepers like Singh say their Pakistani counterparts rear “better and stronger” birds, explaining the buzz in catching their pigeons.”They are a treasured possession,” said Aarav Khajuria, from Sainth, another frontline Indian village.He proudly showed his flock of 29 birds — three of which are from Pakistan.”Our pigeons also fly there”, he said. “Two of my pigeons went”.The teenager started breeding pigeons four years ago after watching another local fancier catch a bird. “I was fascinated,” Khajuria added. “I now spend time on the roof, both immediately before and after I return from school”. But he is most proud of his Pakistani captives.”I lured them after they’d strayed across”, he said, pointing to a nearby row of trees that mark the border.Pakistani pigeons “are better because they’re bred better and fly longer durations in a competition”, Khajuria said.Keepers say capturing a pigeon is a skill, using water, grain and their own flock to lure the stray bird into the fold.Once the bird lands, they immediately clip some feathers to stop them flying. While they grow back, the bird builds a bond with the new flock.- Eyes out for spies -Fanciers fix leg rings with contact details to the animals.”If we catch a bird that belongs to someone from the nearby villages, and we know them, we call them and hand it back,” Singh said, hand on his heart.Birds from Pakistan are a different matter.”Given the overall situation, and the risks involved, no one calls if the bird is from the other side”, he said.”We don’t want any issues in the future, and allegations that as an Indian we were contacting Pakistanis.”In fact, fanciers say that police are wary Pakistani pigeons might be carrying messages.Indian police have in recent years “detained” several suspected of being enemy carrier pigeons, with some jailbirds accused of having Pakistani links, others Chinese.”The Pakistani side often marks their pigeons with ink stamps, names, or rings — but beyond that, we haven’t seen anything suspicious yet”, Singh said.”We inform the army if we come across such a pigeon, but so far, we haven’t caught any with a camera”, he joked. Singh says he worries that the nightly gunfire will escalate.”Ideally there shouldn’t be a war”, he said, but said the April 22 attack was “so wrong that it can’t be left unanswered”.But he is confident nothing will stop his pigeons flying free.”The border is not for the bird,” he said.”No army or fence could stop them. How could you? Our pigeons go there, and theirs often cross into India”.