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India could be banned from world football for the second time in three years after FIFA and the Asian governing body demanded it implement a new constitution by October 30 or risk suspension.World governing body FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) sent a joint letter to the All India Football Federation (AIFF) president Kalyan Chaubey expressing “profound concern” at the continued failure to finalise and adopt the constitution.”Failure to meet this schedule will leave us with no alternative but to refer the matter to the relevant FIFA decision-making body for consideration and decision,” said the letter, seen by AFP.”AIFF must regard this communication as binding and requiring immediate compliance in order to safeguard its rights as a member of FIFA and the AFC,” it added.The AIFF constitution has been in India’s Supreme Court awaiting a decision since 2017.A suspension would mean India national teams and clubs being barred from all international competitions.FIFA previously suspended India in August 2022 for third-party influence after the Supreme Court appointed a committee of administrators to run the AIFF.The ban was lifted a few days later, paving the way for the AIFF to elect Chaubey.India’s top-flight club football is currently in disarray. The Indian Super League (ISL) could fold over a dispute between the AIFF and its commercial partner.This season’s ISL kickoff has been delayed with thousands of players and staff in danger of losing their jobs.A rights agreement between the AIFF and the company that runs the ISL, Football Sports Development Limited, ends on December 8 and is yet to be renewedThe AIFF has been unable to come up with a revival plan for the ISL, which is usually played between September and April.Players union FIFPRO Asia/Oceania raised the issue with FIFA last week.

Floodwaters gushing through mountain villages, cities rendered swamps, mourners gathered at fresh graves — as Pakistan’s monsoon season once again delivers scenes of calamity, it also lays bare woeful preparedness.Without better regulation of construction and sewer maintenance, the annual downpours that have left hundreds dead in recent months will continue to kill, experts say.Even Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif appeared to agree as he toured flood-stricken northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province last week, where landslides killed more than 450 people. “Natural disasters are acts of God, but we cannot ignore the human blunders,” he said.”If we keep letting influence-peddlingand corruption control building permits, neither the people nor the governments will be forgiven.” Pakistan is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change, with limited resources for adaptation.In the devastated mountain villages the prime minister visited, and beyond, residential areas are erected near riverbeds, blocking “natural storm drains,” former climate change minister Sherry Rehman told AFP.Entrepreneur Fazal Khan now recognises the “mistake” of building too close to the river.His home in the Swat Valley was destroyed first by 2010 floods and then again in the 2022 inundation that affected nearly four million Pakistanis.”On August 15, once again, the floodwater surged through the channel and entered our home,” the 43-year-old father said.– Man-made mistakes –Since it began in June, this year’s monsoon has killed around 800 people and damaged more than 7,000 homes, with further downpours expected through September. While South Asia’s seasonal monsoon brings rainfall that farmers depend on, climate change is making the phenomenon more erratic, unpredictable and deadly across the region.By the middle of this month, Pakistan had already received 50 percent more rainfall than this time last year, according to disaster authorities, while in neighbouring India, flash floods and sudden storms have killed hundreds.Extractive practices have also compounded the climate-related disasters, with cash-strapped but mineral-rich Pakistan eager to meet growing American and Chinese demand.Rehman, the former minister, said mining and logging have altered the natural watershed.”When a flood comes down, especially in mountainous terrain, a dense forest is very often able to check the speed, scale and ferocity of the water, but Pakistan now only has five percent forest coverage, the lowest in South Asia,” she said.Urban infrastructure, too, has faltered. Days after villages were swept away in the north, a spell of rain in the south brought Pakistan’s financial capital, Karachi, to a standstill.The coastal megacity — home to more than 20 million people — recorded 10 deaths last week, with victims electrocuted or crushed by collapsing roofs.A Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) report said brown water inundating streets is not only the result of rain but “clogged drains, inadequate solid waste disposal, poor infrastructure, encroachments, elitist housing societies… and so on.”Published in the wake of 2020’s deadly floods, the report still rings true today.- ‘Negligence’ -According to the commission, the problems are “inherently political” as various parties use building permits to fuel their patronage networks — often disregarding the risks of constructing on top of drainage canals.In some areas, “the drain has become so narrow that when high tide occurs and it rains simultaneously, instead of the water flowing into the sea, it flows back into the river,” urban planning expert Arif Hasan said in an interview after the 2022 floods.In the sprawling, rapidly swelling city, the various authorities, both civil and military, have failed to coordinate urban planning, according to the rights commission. As a result, what infrastructure does get built can solve one problem while creating others.”Karachi isn’t being destroyed by rain, but by years of negligence,” said Taha Ahmed Khan, an opposition lawmaker in the Sindh provincial assembly.”Illegal construction and encroachments on stormwater drains, along with substandard roads… have only worsened the crisis,” he added.Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab says he has been asking Islamabad every year for help financing the revamping of drainage canals, to no avail.”It’s easy to suggest that drainage capacity should be enhanced, but the cost is so high that it might require spending almost the entire national budget,” he told AFP.Yet during June’s budget vote, the opposition accused the city of having spent only 10 percent of funds earmarked for a massive development project.The five-year plan, designed with international donors, was supposed to end the city’s monsoon suffering by the end of 2024.But nearly a year later, there is no respite.

Sri Lanka’s former president Ranil Wickremesinghe was granted bail on Tuesday, four days after his arrest on the charge of misusing state funds for an overseas visit.The ex-leader, 76, was arrested on Friday accused of spending $55,000 in government funds on a 2023 stopover in Britain while returning from attending the G77 summit in Havana and the UN General Assembly in New York.The Colombo Fort Magistrate Nilupuli Lankapura ordered Wickremesinghe’s release on a five-million-rupee ($16,600) bond after a lengthy hearing held under tight security, including elite troops.A few hundred protesters had gathered outside the court earlier in the day in support of Wickremesinghe, and were met by riot police who held back the crowd.After being remanded in custody on Friday, the former leader was rushed to a prison hospital and then the country’s main state-run hospital suffering from dehydration, but hospital officials said his condition was stable. Wickremesinghe joined Tuesday’s bail hearing via video link from his bed at the National Hospital of Colombo, where he is being treated under armed guard.The judge ordered his next hearing for October 29.His arrest came as part of his successor Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s campaign against endemic corruption on the island nation, which is still emerging from its worst economic crisis in 2022.Three former Sri Lankan presidents expressed solidarity with Wickremesinghe on Sunday and condemned his incarceration as a “calculated assault” on democracy.Wickremesinghe’s United National Party (UNP) said it believed he was being prosecuted out of fear that he could mount a political comeback.He lost the presidential election in September to Dissanayake, but has remained politically active despite holding no elected office.He has maintained that his wife’s travel expenses in Britain were met by her personally and that no state funds were used for the visit.Wickremesinghe became president in July 2022 after then-leader Gotabaya Rajapaksa stepped down following months of street protests fuelled by the economic crisis.

The World Food Programme warned Tuesday that the aid Israel is allowing to enter Gaza remains a “drop in the ocean”, days after famine was formally declared in the war-torn Palestinian territory.The United Nations declared a famine in Gaza on Friday, blaming the “systematic obstruction” of aid by Israel during its nearly two-year war with the Palestinian militant group Hamas.Carl Skau, WFP’s chief operating officer, said that over the past two weeks, there has been a “slight uptick” in aid entering, averaging around 100 trucks per day.”That’s still a drop in the ocean when we’re talking about assisting some 2.1 million people,” Skau told AFP during a visit to New Delhi.”We need a completely different level of assistance to be able to turn this trajectory of famine around.”The Rome-based Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Initiative (IPC) said famine was affecting 500,000 people in Gaza.It defines famine as when 20 percent of households face extreme food shortages, more than 30 percent of children under five are acutely malnourished, and there is an excess mortality threshold of at least two in 10,000 people a day.Skau painted a grim picture of Gaza.”The levels of desperation are so high that people keep grabbing the food off our trucks,” the former Swedish diplomat said.”And when we’re not able to do proper orderly distributions, we’re not sure that we’re reaching the most vulnerable — the women and the children furthest out in the camps,” he said. “And they’re the ones we really need to reach now, if we want to avoid a full-scale catastrophe.”- ‘Starvation phase’ -But Skau also warned that Gaza was only one of many global crises, with multiple famine zones emerging simultaneously as donor funding collapses.Some 320 million people globally are now acutely food insecure — nearly triple the figure from five years ago. At the same time, WFP funding has dropped by 40 percent compared with last year.”Right now, we’re seeing a number of crises that, at any other time in history, would have gotten the headlines and been the top issue discussed,” he said.That includes Sudan, where 25 million people are “acutely food insecure”, including 10 million in what Skau called “the starvation phase”.”It’s the largest hunger and humanitarian crisis that we probably have seen in decades — since the end of the 1980s with the Ethiopia famine,” he said.”We have 10 spots in Sudan where famine has been confirmed. It’s a disaster of unimaginable magnitude.”He detailed how a UN aid convoy in June tried to break the siege by paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of Sudan’s city of El-Fasher in Darfur, only for the truck convoy to be hit by a deadly drone attack.Neighbouring South Sudan is also struggling, he said, suggesting “there might well be a third confirmation of a famine”.”That will be unprecedented”, he said, citing “extremely expensive” operations in the young nation’s Upper Nile state, where, with few roads, aid must be delivered by helicopters or airdrops.”This is maybe the number one crisis where you have on one hand staggering needs and, frankly, no resources available”, he said.At the same time, traditional donors have cut aid.US President Donald Trump slashed foreign aid after taking office, dealing a heavy blow to humanitarian operations worldwide.”We are in a funding crunch, and the challenge here is that the needs keep going up”, Skau said.While conflict is the “main driver” of rising hunger levels, other causes include “extreme weather events due to climate change” and the economic shock of trade wars.”Our worry is that we are now cutting from the hungry to give to the starving,” he said.Skau said the organisation was actively seeking new donors.”We’re engaging countries like India, Indonesia, Brazil, and others, beyond the more traditional donors, to see how they can also assist”.

The Election Commission of India, long regarded as the impartial guardian of the world’s largest democracy, is facing unprecedented scrutiny over its credibility and independence.Opposition leaders and critics have alleged that large-scale rigging of elections is impacting the overall results of the vote.The ECI has denied all charges, the first against it in India’s history.Heading the charge is the leader of the opposition in New Delhi’s parliament, Rahul Gandhi of the Congress party, who previously alleged that India’s electronic voting machines are flawed.Now Gandhi has accused the ECI of refusing to share digital voter records, detailing what he said was a list of errors after his supporters spent weeks combing through vast piles of registration lists by hand.- What are the allegations? -Gandhi, 55, said his party lost dozens of seats in the 2024 parliamentary elections because of vote rigging.The largest democratic exercise in human history across the country of 1.4 billion people was staggered over six weeks.Gandhi claimed that the ECI manipulated voter rolls to favour Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).Modi, 74, won a historic third term last year but fell short of a majority.The alleged rigging involved a string of tactics, according to Gandhi.He said some people voted multiple times, citing bulk registrations from one dwelling and seemingly bogus addresses.In a presentation to reporters on August 7, Gandhi pointed to a parliamentary constituency his party narrowly lost as an “open and shut” example of the alleged irregularities.Over 100,000 “fake” votes were cast in the constituency, he said, courtesy of duplicate voters.His Congress party lost the seat by just over 30,000 votes.”Our demand from the ECI is clear — be transparent and release digital voter rolls so that people and parties can audit them,” Gandhi said. – What has the Election Commission said? -The ECI has called Gandhi’s accusation “false and misleading”.India’s chief election commissioner said they would “never” back down from their constitutional duties. “Politics is being done using the Election Commission… as a tool to target India’s voters,” Gyanesh Kumar told a news conference this month.”The Election Commission wants to make it clear that it fearlessly stands rock-solid with all voters… without any discrimination and will continue to do so.”Kumar also said those alleging fraud either need to furnish proof under oath or apologise.”An affidavit must be submitted or an apology to the nation must be made — there is no third option.” – Why now? -Gandhi launched a month-long “voter rights” rally in the key battleground state of Bihar on August 17, receiving enthusiastic public response.The allegations come ahead of elections in Bihar in October or November.The opposition alleged the ECI had embarked on a “mass disenfranchisement” exercise, after it gave voters in the state just weeks to prove their citizenship, requiring documents that few possess in a registration revamp.India’s top court stepped in last week, allowing a biometric ID most residents possess to be accepted in Bihar’s voter registration.The “Special Intensive Revision” (SIR) of voter registration is set to be replicated across India.Gandhi called the exercise in Bihar the “final conspiracy”.Activists have reported finding numerous living voters declared dead by election officials, and entire families struck off draft lists.Voter verification in Bihar is scheduled to be completed by September 25, with the final list released five days later.”They aim to steal the elections by adding new voters under the guise of SIR and removing existing voters,” Gandhi said.The ECI has defended the registration revision, saying it is in part to avoid “foreign illegal immigrants” from voting.Members of Modi’s BJP have long claimed that large numbers of undocumented Muslim migrants from neighbouring Bangladesh have fraudulently entered India’s electoral rolls.Criticism mounted after the ECI replaced Bihar’s machine-readable voter records with scanned image files that do not allow text searches.Critics said the changes made detecting anomalies more time-consuming and prone to error.

Indian exports to the United States will face some of the highest tariffs in the world this week, barring a last-minute reversal from President Donald Trump. Trump has tied issues of war and peace to trade, threatening to slap 50 percent duties on New Delhi in retaliation for its continued purchases of Russian oil — which Washington argues help finance Moscow’s war in Ukraine.The tariff offensive has rattled US-India ties, given New Delhi a new incentive to repair relations with Beijing, and carries major consequences for the world’s fifth-largest economy.Trump issued a three-week deadline on August 6, which is expected to take effect on Wednesday morning in India.- How bad will it be? -The United States was India’s top export destination in 2024, with shipments worth $87.3 billion.Analysts at Nomura warn that 50 percent duties would be “akin to a trade embargo”, devastating smaller firms with “lower value add and thinner margins”. Elara Securities’s Garima Kapoor said no Indian product can “stand any competitive edge” under such heavy import taxes.Economists estimate tariffs could shave 70 to 100 basis points off India’s GDP growth this fiscal year, dragging growth below six percent, the weakest pace since the pandemic.Exporters in textiles, seafood and jewellery are already reporting cancelled US orders and losses to rivals such as Bangladesh and Vietnam, raising fears of heavy job cuts.A small reprieve: pharmaceuticals and electronics, including iPhones assembled in India, are exempt for now.S&P estimates exports equivalent to 1.2 percent of India’s GDP will be hit, but says it will be a “one-off” shock that “will not derail” the country’s long-term growth prospects.- Will either side blink? -There’s no sign yet. In fact, since the US and Russian presidents met in Alaska, Washington has ramped up criticism of India.”India acts as a global clearinghouse for Russian oil, converting embargoed crude into high-value exports while giving Moscow the dollars it needs,” White House trade adviser Peter Navarro wrote in the Financial Times earlier this month, slamming the country’s refiners for “profiteering”.Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar fired back, arguing India’s purchases helped stabilise global oil markets — and were done with Washington’s tacit approval in 2022.He argued that both the United States and Europe buy refined oil and associated products from India.”If you have a problem buying oil from India, oil or refined products, don’t buy it”, he said, speaking in New Delhi. “Nobody forced you to buy it — but Europe buys, America buys.”Jaishankar said that, until Trump’s ultimatum, there had been “no conversations” asking them to stop buying Moscow’s oil.Trade trackers at Kpler say India’s stance will become clearer only in September, as most August shipments were contracted before Trump’s threats.But experts say India is in a tricky situation.India needs “considerable ingenuity and flexibility” to escape “what appears to be a no-win situation”, said Nandan Unnikrishnan of New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation.Washington, Unnikrishnan argued, is telling India: “We think that you are the weakest link in the Russia-Ukraine geopolitics chain”.- What can India do? -New Delhi has sought to bolster its economy while deepening ties with both BRICS partners and regional rivals.Jaishankar flew to ally Moscow, producing pledges to ease barriers to bilateral trade, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi is preparing his first visit to China in seven years to repair long-frosty relations.Domestically, Indian media reports that the government is working on a $2.8 billion package for exporters, a six-year programme aimed at easing liquidity concerns.Modi has also proposed tax cuts on everyday goods to spur spending and cushion the economy.- What is blocking a trade deal? -Talks have stumbled over agriculture and dairy.Trump wants greater US access, while Modi is determined to shield India’s farmers, a huge voter bloc.Indian media reports suggested that US negotiators cancelled a planned late-August trip to India. That sparked speculation that discussions had broken down.Jaishankar, however, says talks are continuing, adding drily: “Negotiations are still going on in the sense that nobody said the negotiations are off,” he said. “And people, people do talk to each other.”

A team of drone operators joined climbers and guides at Everest Base Camp this climbing season, armed with heavy-duty drones to help clear rubbish from the world’s highest peak.Tonnes of trash — from empty cans and gas canisters, to bottles, plastic and discarded climbing gear — have earned once-pristine Everest the grim nickname of the “highest dumpster in the world”.Two DJI FC 30 heavy-lifter drones were flown to Camp 1 at 6,065 metres (19,900 feet), where they airlifted 300 kilograms (660 pounds) of trash down during the spring climbing season, which usually lasts from April to early June.”The only options were helicopters and manpower, with no option in between,” said Raj Bikram Maharjan, of Nepal-based Airlift Technology, which developed the project.”So, as a solution for this problem, we came up with a concept of using our heavy-lift drone to carry garbage.”After a successful pilot on Everest last year, the company tested the system on nearby Mount Ama Dablam, where it removed 641 kilos of waste.”This is a revolutionary drive in the mountains to make it cleaner and safer,” said Tashi Lhamu Sherpa, vice chairman of the Khumbu Pasang Lhamu rural municipality, which oversees the Everest area.- ‘Game changer’ -The drones are proving to be far more efficient, cost-effective and safer than earlier methods, said Tshering Sherpa, chief of the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee.”In just 10 minutes, a drone can carry as much garbage as 10 people would take six hours to carry,” Sherpa told AFP.The powerful drones cost around $20,000 each, but were supplied by the China-headquartered manufacturer to support the cleanup operation and promote its brand.Other costs were borne partially by the local authorities.Beyond waste removal, the drones have also been deployed to deliver essential climbing gear such as oxygen cylinders, ladders, and ropes — reducing the number of dangerous trips across the Khumbu Icefall, one of Everest’s deadliest sections.That can help improve safety for the guides and porters, especially the early “fixing” teams who establish routes at the start of the new season.”People in the fixing team were very happy,” said record-holding climber Nima Rinji Sherpa, the youngest to summit all 14 of the world’s highest peaks.”They can simply just go by themselves and the drone will carry ladders or the oxygen and ropes for them. It saves a lot of time and energy.”Next month, Airlift Technology will take the drones to Mount Manaslu, the world’s eighth-highest peak.”It’s not just in war that drones are useful,” Maharjan said.”They can save lives and protect the environment. For climate and humanitarian work, this technology is going to be a game changer.”

Vietnam’s central belt was lashed by Typhoon Kajiki on Monday, with at least one person killed by deluges and gales howling more than 130 kilometres per hour, as tens of thousands of residents were evacuated from the path of the tempest.The typhoon — the fifth to affect Vietnam this year — roiled the Gulf of Tonkin with waves of up to 9.5 metres (31 feet) before hitting shore around 3:00 pm (0800 GMT).Nearly 44,000 people were evacuated from the region as 16,000 military personnel were mobilised and all fishing boats in the typhoon’s path were called back to harbour.Two domestic airports were shut and 35 flights cancelled before it landed between Ha Tinh and Nghe An provinces, tearing the roofs off more than 600 homes according to authorities.”I have never experienced such strong winds in all my life,” 38-year-old Nguyen Thi Phuong told AFP in Vinh city, the provincial capital of Nghe An which was stricken by widespread blackouts on Monday night.One fatality was reported by the agriculture ministry, with at least eight more people wounded.The typhoon made landfall packing windspeeds between 118 and 133 kilometres per hour (73 and 82 miles per hour), Vietnam’s National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting said.”The risk for flash floods overnight is very high, so we have to stay on high alert,” director Mai Van Khiem told AFP.Waterfront Vinh city was deluged early on Monday, its streets largely deserted with most shops and restaurants closed as residents and business owners sandbagged their property entrances.”I have never heard of a typhoon of this big scale coming to our city,” said 66-year-old Le Manh Tung at a Vinh indoor sports stadium, where evacuated families dined on a simple breakfast of sticky rice.”I am a bit scared, but then we have to accept it because it’s nature — we cannot do anything,” he added.- ‘Never this big’ -Human-caused climate change is driving more intense and unpredictable weather patterns that can make destructive floods and storms more likely, particularly in the tropics.”Normally we get storms and flooding, but never this big,” said 52-year-old evacuee Nguyen Thi Nhan.The typhoon’s power is due to dramatically dissipate after it makes landfall.The Joint Typhoon Warning Center said conditions suggested “an approaching weakening trend as the system approaches the continental shelf of the Gulf of Tonkin where there is less ocean heat content”.China’s tropical resort island of Hainan evacuated around 20,000 residents on Sunday as the typhoon passed its south.The island’s main city, Sanya, closed scenic areas and halted business operations.In Vietnam, more than 100 people have been killed or left missing from natural disasters in the first seven months of 2025, according to the agriculture ministry.Economic losses have been estimated at more than $21 million.Vietnam suffered $3.3 billion in economic losses last September as a result of Typhoon Yagi, which swept across the country’s north and caused hundreds of fatalities.

The rain was relentless the night Mohammad Kaisar fled for his life from his home in Myanmar’s Maungdaw township.Barefoot and exhausted, he trudged with his parents and four siblings on mud paths until they reached the Naf River.On a flimsy boat, they crossed into Bangladesh, joining around a million of the largely Muslim Rohingya minority, fleeing a military crackdown in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.That was in 2017. Eight years later, rain still lashes down on his simple shelter in the sprawling refugee camps of Cox’s Bazar.But for the 28-year-old refugee, nothing has washed away his despair.”War is raging. Hundreds are waiting at the border to enter Bangladesh. Every day, a new family from Rakhine takes refuge,” Kaisar told AFP by telephone, speaking outside his cramped hut in Balukhali camp.”How is it possible to return home? We were destined to stay in this crowded camp, sandwiched between small huts.”- ‘Like a hostage’ -Bangladesh on Monday is holding talks aimed at addressing the plight of Rohingya refugees, even as fresh arrivals cross over from war-torn Myanmar and shrinking aid flows deepen the crisis.The meetings in Cox’s Bazar are taking place ahead of a UN conference in New York on September 30.Both Bangladesh and the UN want to provide stable conditions in Myanmar for the Rohingya to eventually return.That seems unlikely any time soon.”I consistently hear from Rohingya refugees that they want to return to their homes in Myanmar, but only when it is safe to do so,” Nicholas Koumjian, who heads the UN’s Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, warned ahead of the meeting.”Ending the violence and atrocities against civilians from all communities in Rakhine is critical for the eventual safe, dignified, voluntary and sustainable return of those that have been displaced.”But Kaisar’s old homeland of Rakhine is the site of intense fighting in Myanmar’s civil war, triggered by the 2021 coup that ousted the democratic government.Bangladesh has recorded a surge of refugees from Myanmar since early 2024, with 150,000 more Rohingya arriving.For Kaisar, life in Myanmar was a spacious home, running a small grocery shop.Today, in the grim camps, it’s a battle for survival.Safety is fragile. Factional clashes have shaken the camp in recent months.”We had two armed groups fighting only a few months ago. It was like a hostage situation,” he said. “Violence is common; children are the most vulnerable.”- ‘Violence and atrocities’ -In Rahkine, restricted access due to fighting has been compounded by worldwide aid cutbacks spearheaded by US President Donald Trump’s freeze on humanitarian funding.The World Food Programme — which received nearly half its 2024 donations from the United States — warned this month that 57 percent of families in central Rakhine are now unable to meet basic food needs.In the camps, food too is a constant worry.Each refugee receives a ration card worth about $12 a month. Kaisar listed what that buys: 13 kilogrammes of rice, a litre of oil, a handful of onions and garlic, and a packet of salt.”It fills our stomachs, but there is no nutrition,” he said.”I have a three-year-old son. He needs milk, eggs, lentils, but we cannot afford them. Nutrition centres in the camps provide support to children under two. After that, we are left to struggle.”- ‘Used us as pawns’ -Education is the next looming hurdle, and Kaisar fears for his young son.”Will he be able to study and get a job? Or will he spend his whole life as a refugee like me?” Kaisar asked.He recalled how ordinary villagers in Bangladesh once handed him dry clothes and food after his escape. But beyond that generosity, the future looks bleak.The violence that uprooted him still rages across the border, and Rohingya militants working with the Myanmar junta have tried to recruit refugees, according to camp residents, UN reports and analysts.”We civilians have been continuously betrayed,” Kaisar said bitterly. “Every side has used us as pawns.”For now, the father’s appeal is simple: that Dhaka eases restrictions on education, to allow Rohingya children to attend regular Bangladeshi schools.”At least allow our children to attend school,” he said. “If they can stand on their own, maybe their future won’t be as hopeless as ours.”

Bangladesh and Pakistan, once bitter enemies after they split in 1971, agreed Sunday to bolster long-strained relations, including increasing trade.But Dhaka said a key issue, of wanting an apology from Islamabad for atrocities during the war when East Pakistan broke away to form Bangladesh, remained “unresolved”.”The scope and possibility of doing good for the two peoples of our two countries is tremendous,” said Islamabad’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, the most senior Pakistani official to have visited Dhaka since 2012.Pakistan’s military was accused of widespread atrocities during the 1971 war.Hundreds of thousands were killed -– Bangladeshi estimates say millions — and many in Dhaka still demand Islamabad apologise for the killings.Dhaka’s foreign affairs adviser Mohammad Touhid Hossain said that the issue of an apology was not solved, but agreed to strengthen ties between the nations.”We have reached a consensus that the pending issues must be resolved so they don’t stand as obstacles in our relationship,” Hossain told reporters.Agreements were signed to deepen trade and economic ties, as well as boost cultural exchanges.Analysts say neighbouring India, which fought a four-day conflict with Pakistan in May, will be watching closely.Relations between Dhaka and New Delhi turned icy in August 2024 after a mass uprising in Bangladesh ended the autocratic rule of prime minister Sheikh Hasina, prompting her to flee to India.