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The West Indies gained a slender nine-run lead over Pakistan Saturday as spinners dominated the opening day of the second Test in Multan, with Noman Ali achieving a hat trick for the home side.Jomel Warrican took 4-43 and Gudakesh Motie 3-49 as Pakistan were bowled out for 154 at the close, replying to the West Indian first innings total of 163. Left-armer Noman became the first Pakistan spinner to register a Test hat trick during his 6-41 as the West Indies were bowled out at the stroke of lunch in 41.1 overs, having won the toss and batted.”I am honoured to have a hat trick to my name,” said Noman. “We need to bowl them out quickly and not give costly runs like in the first innings.”But the visitors hit back with a blitz of their own as 16 wickets fell to spinners — the most by that type of bowling on the opening day of a Test. The previous record was 14 between England and South Africa at Leeds in 1907.West Indian bowling coach James Franklin said the team had put up a “fighting performance”.”If we could post a 200 or plus total then there is a real belief that Jomel and Gudakesh can come and bowl us to victory,” said Franklin, a former New Zealand allrounder.Only Mohammad Rizwan (49) and Saud Shakeel (32) batted with confidence for the home side, adding 68 for the fifth wicket before Pakistan slumped from 119-4 to 154 all out — losing the last six wickets for 35 runs.Fast bowler Kemar Roach dismissed openers Muhammad Hurraira (nine) and Shan Masood (15), while Motie sent back Babar Azam (one) and Kamran Ghulam (16) to leave Pakistan at 51-4.In the post-tea session, Shakeel was smartly caught in the deep by Roach — who hurt his groin but completed the catch — while Rizwan was stumped, both falling to Warrican.- Left reeling -Motie had Salman Agha for nine while the last man Kashif Ali was run out without scoring.Earlier, the West Indies were left reeling at 7-38 with Sajid Khan 2-64 and Noman doing the damage.It could have been worse for the tourists had Motie — who top scored with a career-best 55 — not added an invaluable 68 runs for the last wicket with Warrican, who scored 36 not out with two sixes.Motie also added 41 for the ninth wicket with Roach (25) to delay the lunch break before Noman grabbed the last two wickets for his eighth five-wicket haul in an innings.Pakistan employed the same spin-heavy tactics which earned them a 127-run win in the first Test — also in Multan — with the ball turning from the first over.Noman came on to bowl as the first change, and trapped West Indian skipper Kraigg Brathwaite leg before for nine to spark a collapse which saw the tourists slump from 32-2 to 38-8 off just 14 deliveries.Noman dismissed Justin Greaves for one, then Tevin Imlach and Kevin Sinclair off successive deliveries to become the fifth Pakistan bowler to grab a Test hat trick.Fast bowlers Wasim Akram (two hat tricks against Sri Lanka in 1999), Abdul Razzaq (against Sri Lanka in 2000), Mohammad Sami (also against Sri Lanka, in 2002), and Naseem Shah (against Bangladesh in 2020) achieved the feat for Pakistan previously.Off-spinner Sajid dismissed debutant Amir Jangoo and Alick Athanaze — both without scoring — while Abrar Ahmed accounted for Kavem Hodge for 21.Debutant pacer Kashif had Mikyle Louis for four in his first over. 

Noman Ali took a hat trick as Pakistan dismissed the West Indies for 163 Saturday in the second Test in Multan, but the visitors replied strongly to have the home side at 70-4 at tea.At the break, Saud Shakeel and Mohammad Rizwan were at the crease on 14 and 13 respectively, with Pakistan trailing by 93 runs.The Multan Stadium pitch helped spin bowling on the opening day, with the two sessions seeing 14 wickets falling.Noman took 6-41 — becoming the first Pakistan spinner to register a hat trick — as the tourists were bowled out in 41.1 overs after winning the toss and opting to bat.West Indian fast bowler Kemar Roach and spinner Gudakesh Motie took two wickets apiece in reply.It could have been worse for the tourists had Motie, who top scored with a career-best 55, not added an invaluable 68 runs for the last wicket with Jomel Warrican, who scored 36 not out with two sixes.Motie also added 41 for the ninth wicket with Roach (25) to delay the lunch break before Noman grabbed the last two wickets for his eighth five-wicket haul in an innings.Pakistan employed the same spin-heavy tactics which earned them a 127-run win in the first Test — also in Multan — with the ball turning from the first over.Noman came on to bowl as the first change, and trapped West Indian skipper Kraigg Brathwaite leg before for nine to spark a collapse which saw the tourists slump from 32-2 to 38-8 off just 14 deliveries.Noman dismissed Justin Greaves for one, then Tevin Imlach and Kevin Sinclair off successive deliveries to become the fifth Pakistan bowler to grab a Test hat trick.Fast bowlers Wasim Akram (two hat tricks against Sri Lanka in 1999), Abdul Razzaq (against Sri Lanka in 2000), Mohammad Sami (also against Sri Lanka, in 2002), and Naseem Shah (against Bangladesh in 2020) achieved the feat for Pakistan previously.Off-spinner Sajid dismissed debutant Amir Jangoo and Alick Athanaze — both without scoring — while Abrar Ahmed accounted for Kavem Hodge.Debutant pacer Kashif Ali had Mikyle Louis for four in his first over. In reply, Roach dismissed openers Muhammad Hurraira (nine) and Shan Masood (15), while Motie sent back Babar Azam (one) and Kamran Ghulam (16).

Noman Ali became the first Pakistan spinner to register a hat trick as the West Indies were dismissed for 163 Saturday on the opening day of the second Test in Multan.Noman finished with 6-41 and fellow spinner Sajid Khan took 2-64 as the tourists were bowled out in 41.1 overs after winning the toss and opting to bat.It could have been worse for the tourists had Gudakesh Motie, who top scored with a career-best 55, not added an invaluable 68 runs for the last wicket with Jomel Warrican, who scored 36 not out with two sixes.Motie also added 41 for the ninth wicket with Kemar Roach (25) to delay the lunch break before Noman grabbed the last two wickets for his eighth five-wicket haul in an innings.Pakistan employed the same spin-heavy tactics which earned them a 127-run win in the first Test — also in Multan — with the ball turning from the first over.Noman came on to bowl as the first change, and trapped West Indian skipper Kraigg Brathwaite leg before for nine to spark a collapse which saw the tourists slump from 32-2 to 38-8 off just 14 deliveries.Noman dismissed Justin Greaves for one, then Tevin Imlach and Kevin Sinclair off successive deliveries to become the fifth Pakistan bowler to grab a Test hat trick.Fast bowlers Wasim Akram (two hat tricks against Sri Lanka in 1999), Abdul Razzaq (against Sri Lanka in 2000), Mohammad Sami (also against Sri Lanka, in 2002), and Naseem Shah (against Bangladesh in 2020) achieved the feat for Pakistan previously.Off-spinner Sajid dismissed debutant Amir Jangoo and Alick Athanaze — both without scoring — while Abrar Ahmed accounted for Kavem Hodge.Debutant pacer Kashif Ali had Mikyle Louis for four in his first over. 

Cars speeding along a smooth, black-coloured street in Nepal’s Pokhara are also driving over heaps of discarded plastic, transformed into an ingredient in road construction.Nepal’s urban areas generate about 5,000 tonnes of solid waste per day, according to the World Bank, of which 13 percent is plastic waste dumped in landfills.While high-value plastics, like bottles, are absorbed by the recycling industry, low-value plastics — such as multi-layered packaging — pose a significant challenge because they don’t fit into a single recycling category.For a group of young Nepali entrepreneurs, the vast accumulation of this low-value plastic waste presented an opportunity.”A plastic road can use even low-value plastics,” said Bimal Bastola, founder of Green Road Waste Management, the organisation leading the initiative in Nepal.”We saw scope for such plastics to be utilised as a raw material, partially substituting bitumen in road construction.”  Discarded packages of noodles, biscuits and other snacks move along a conveyor belt at their trash-sorting centre.The divided plastic is then put into machines to be shredded into fine pieces.Since the early 2000s, neighbouring India has been leading the world in building a network of plastic roads, even making the usage of plastic waste mandatory in roads near large cities in 2015.A growing number of countries are experimenting with it, including nearby Bhutan and Bangladesh.In traditional road construction, bitumen is the binding material, a tarry oil product mixed directly with hot aggregates before paving a road. The plastic road method, however, first coats the aggregates with shredded plastic before adding bitumen.”This method reduces the need for fresh raw materials, lowers costs, prevents water infiltration and increases road lifespan,” Bastola said.Studies show that roads paved with plastic waste can be twice as durable as normal roads.- ‘Scale up’ -Globally, only nine percent of plastic waste is recycled, while 19 percent is incinerated, and nearly half ends up in controlled landfills, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Left unchecked, the production of synthetic polymers — the building blocks of plastics -— is expected to reach about 1.2 billion tonnes annually by 2060.The plastic that accumulates in the environment is non-biodegradable, takes hundreds of years to decompose and breaks down into tiny microscopic particles.And while Nepal banned single-use plastic bags thinner than 40 microns, that ban is not strictly implemented. For Bastola, increasing plastic road construction is key to making the recycling of low-value plastics economically viable.His organisation says about two tonnes of shredded plastic is used to build a kilometre of road.So far, the organisation has completed about 10 projects totalling a little over 1.5 kilometres (one mile).”It is happening at a small scale, we need to scale up,” Bastola said. “We have to make government-level projects and we are trying to work closely with the department of roads.”A pilot project is planned this year in the capital Kathmandu at a major intersection.”Nepal is keen on testing this technology through pilot projects,” said Arjun Nepal, an engineer with the Kathmandu road department.”But to take it forward, we need government-led standards to ensure quality.”The World Bank says life cycle analyses of plastic roads are limited and it is still not clear what environmental impacts — if any — recycled plastics may have when used in road construction. “While initial anecdotes and pilot studies show promise, further research is needed to measure emissions during production, evaluate microplastic release over time and determine how these roads behave once they are decommissioned,” said Valerie Hickey, global director of the World Bank’s climate change group.Despite these concerns, environmentalist Bhushan Tuladhar said that plastic roads present an important opportunity for Nepal.”It is a low-hanging fruit to address two problems simultaneously — the need for strong roads and the management of plastic waste — for a developing country like Nepal,” he said.

The death toll from a landslide on Indonesia’s main island of Java rose to 25 as rescuers found three more bodies on Friday, a search and rescue agency official said.Intense rainfall on Monday in a mountainous area near Pekalongan city in Central Java province triggered the landslide, collapsing bridges and burying cars and houses.”Overall, the victims who were found dead were 25 people, with a note that two people are still unidentified,” Budiono, head of the search and rescue agency from nearby Semarang, told AFP. If those two victims are among the list of missing people, there would be only one more person left to find, he said.The two unidentified victims were found trapped under rocks and landslide materials, making it difficult for rescuers to recover their bodies, added Budiono, who like many Indonesians uses only one name.Bad weather was hampering search efforts, with the operation suspended on Friday afternoon to ensure the safety of rescue teams as rain and fog descended on the area.The rescue operation is set to resume on Saturday, Budiono said, with rescuers focusing their search around a cafe where the victims are thought to have been buried as they sought shelter from the rain.At least 13 people were also injured in the landslide, according to the national search and rescue agency Basarnas.Indonesia is prone to landslides during the rainy season, typically between November and April, but some disasters caused by adverse weather have taken place outside that season in recent years.Climate change has also increased the intensity of storms, leading to heavier rains, flash floods and stronger gusts.In May, at least 67 people died after heavy rains caused flash floods in West Sumatra, pushing a mixture of ash, sand, and pebbles from the eruption of Mount Marapi into residential areas.

Head coach Aaqib Javed brushed aside criticism of Pakistan’s reliance on spin bowling as they seek a clean sweep against the West Indies in the second Test starting on Saturday.Pakistan completed a 127-run win inside three days in the opening Test, with spinners Sajid Khan taking nine wickets, Noman Ali six and Abrar Ahmed five for their third straight win at home.West Indies left-arm spinner Jomel Warrican also grabbed a career-best 7-32 as 34 of the 40 wickets in the match went to spinners.The second Test will also be played on a dry and grassless pitch in the central city of Multan.Former Pakistan players and analysts hit out at the spin-heavy strategy, saying the team would struggle on away tours where pitches may not be as conducive to spin.Aaqib, a fast bowler from an era dominated by the great pacemen Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, insisted the spin assault would continue.”We found that the West Indies have a weakness in dealing with the spin bowling, so we exploited that and will do that again,” Aaqib told a news conference on Friday.West Indies skipper Kraigg Brathwaite had no qualms about Pakistan’s tactics.”Pakistan are playing at home and if they believe spinning pitches are their strength then that’s fine and that’s how cricket is played,” Brathwaite said.”I have played on pitches which took turn from day one but not like this, which had cracks from day one,” he said.- ‘Believe in your plan’ – West Indies will be without injured pace bowler Jayden Seales, who took three wickets in the first match and will be replaced by the experienced Kemar Roach.Pakistan are unlikely to make any changes.Brathwaite said his batters need more faith after the first Test, in which his team managed just 137 and 123 in their two innings, with Alick Athanaze the only one to reach a half century.”It was a difficult pitch to bat in the last game,” Brathwaite said.”I would say you need to believe in your plan from ball one and not think of the third or fourth ball.”Pakistan are eighth and the West Indies ninth and last on the World Test Championship table.Another victory in Multan could see the hosts rise to seventh.Pakistan were forced to make radical changes last year after losing the first of three Tests against England, their 11th straight home Test without a win.The Aaqib-led selection panel dropped out-of-form batter Babar Azam and rested pace spearheads Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah.The tactics worked on the spin-friendly pitches in Rawalpindi and Pakistan went on to win the series 2-1.”If we had taken these decisions earlier we would have been in the race for World Test Championship final,” Aaqib said.

The Taliban authorities that rule Afghanistan have imposed a severe interpretation of Islamic law on the population, heavily restricting all aspects of women’s lives. This week, the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor said he was seeking arrest warrants against senior Taliban leaders over the persecution of women, a crime against humanity.The government claims it secures Afghan women’s rights under Sharia law, but many of the edicts are not followed in the rest of the Islamic world and have been condemned by Muslim leaders. The United Nations has called it a “gender apartheid”, and no country has formally recognised the government since they swept to power in a lightning but largely bloodless military offensive in 2021. – Education -Taliban authorities banned girls from public secondary classes at the start of the new school year in 2022.A year later, universities were also closed to women. The last options for education — midwifery and nursing – were banned from teaching women late last year. Afghanistan is the only country in the world where girls and women are barred from education and the move has been widely criticised by Muslim leaders — including the Saudi-based Muslim World League.- Work -Taliban authorities have made it increasingly difficult for women to work in a bid to keep them segregated from men.While they held positions throughout the civil service of the foreign-backed government ousted by Taliban insurgents, women have been mostly been fired, forced to stay home, and have had their pay slashed.Officially, women can no longer work for NGOs and the United Nations apart from in education and health, although the ban has not been strictly enforced.Women are allowed to work from home or in women-majority businesses, such as textiles.Private businesses can employ women, but in offices that are supposed to be segregated. – Public life -In cities, where women once generally already wore modest clothing and headscarves, huge billboards and posters on shop windows order them to cover their hair, faces and their bodies with a long cloak and face mask. Women rarely appear on television, and many journalists have been pushed off screen. They are banned from public spaces such as parks and gyms, while baths and salons have been closed down.Women travelling long distances must be accompanied by a male chaperone.In one of the latest orders, women cannot sing or recite poetry in public, and their voices and bodies must be “concealed” outside the home.The Ministry of Women’s Affairs was shut down and their offices taken over by the Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the Taliban authority’s morality police.

Afghan taekwondo star Marzieh Hamidi told AFP the death threats she has received, forcing her to live under French police protection, show how effective her stinging criticism of the Taliban has been.The 22-year-old’s defiance of Afghanistan’s governing Taliban fits well with her coming from “a family of freedom fighters.”Her father fought in the Afghanistan army and then alongside the late mujahideen leader Ahmed Shah Massoud before moving to Iran.Hamidi’s weapon has been her voice, since coming to France in December 2021 after living for a few months under Taliban rule when they seized power again in August that year.However, her no-holds-barred criticisms of the Taliban had serious repercussions.Last September she was granted police protection after receiving 5,000 calls, including 500 threatening to either murder or rape her.French prosecutors opened an investigation in September after her lawyer Ines Davau lodged a legal complaint for cyber-harassment and death threats, as well as threats of rape.Remarkably, the erudite and passionate Hamidi — formerly Afghanistan’s national champion at -57 kilos and with a ranking in the top 100 in the world — sees the positive side.”It means that I have more power than them, because I always talk about the situation,” she told AFP at Davau’s office in Paris.”This time I talk about more details, because it’s not to boycott Taliban, it’s also to boycott who are normalising them.”It can be an athlete, an artist, activist.”She believes in particular that the men’s Afghan cricket federation has close links to the Taliban and should be boycotted by their opponents.Hamidi, whose sporting aim is to compete at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, has an Afghan passport and a 10-year French residency permit.She said it was her duty to harangue the Taliban and their supporters.The Taliban has imposed an austere version of Islamic law that the United Nations has labelled “gender apartheid” and Afghanistan is the only country in the world where girls are banned from secondary school and university. The Taliban authorities claim Islamic law “guarantees” the rights of all Afghans.”I have to fight, because I was stuck there three months,” said Hamidi.”I saw that the system is against women, how they are making it a bad place for everyone.”So because of that, I’m talking about this.”Hamidi, who was born in Iran and returned with her family to live in Afghanistan in 2020, remains in touch with friends back home.”Each time is bad when I talk with them.”- ‘Feel so lonely’ -Hamidi says wearing the burqa is repugnant — a 2022 edict by the supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada said women should wear the garment but many just wear headscarves and long coats.”I think this is the end of humanity. Like, you cannot breathe.”You put on the burqa. It’s like you put yourself in a prison when you walk in the city.”Hamidi’s way of life in France is restricted in a manner which would be alien to ordinary people.Phone calls have to be made to cinemas and restaurants alerting them to her coming, accompanied by a police bodyguard, and to ensure it is “a safe area.”Her frustration boils over at times.”I mean, at my age, it’s too much for me, you know, like, I just want to live free and to go crazy,” she said.”I’m proud of my fight, I’m not regretful of my fight, but I’m sad what’s going on in my life because of that.”This is costing my safety, my freedom, my joy in life.”She has the unconditional support of her parents, three sisters and brother — who live at an undisclosed location.”It’s the spirit of my parents that they are combatants,” said Hamidi, who managed to see them recently.”They really have this spirit to fight against this Taliban ideology.”Because of that, they always support me. “Sometimes my mum tells me, ‘calm down, Marzieh’. But, it’s my mom. She’s stressing for me.”My father, he’s like, no, no, no, keep going, keep going.” Hamidi, whose sole company largely consists of her PR representative Baptiste Berard Proust and Davau, says things are bleak at times.”At the end of the day, it’s me facing this,” she said.”Sometimes I feel so lonely, even if I have good people around me.”I’m kind of lost, sometimes it’s difficult to keep the balance in life for me.”It’s a lot of pressure, because the most important thing for me is my taekwondo.”She admits she is “really afraid”. nevertheless her indomitable spirit ensures she remains unbowed.  “If I stay silent, they win.”

Bangladesh let 178 former paramilitary troops walk free from jail Thursday, nearly 16 years after they were detained over a violent mutiny that massacred dozens of senior army officers.Rampaging troops from the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) murdered 74 people during the two-day revolt that began in Dhaka and spread across the country in 2009, destabilising the government of then-premier Sheikh Hasina weeks after she took office. Thousands of participants were rounded up after the mutiny ended with more than 150 initially sentenced to death in trials criticised by rights groups for procedural shortcomings. Those bailed on Thursday had been acquitted of murder charges, but were kept in custody on accusations of violating explosives laws — with their cases still pending more than a decade after the revolt.”I can’t express my feelings in words. I am returning to my family. I came out of a life full of darkness into the light,” newly released prisoner Abul Kashem, 38, told AFP. The releases came months after the ouster of Hasina following a student-led uprising against her 15 years of autocratic rule over the South Asian nation. Relatives of the jailed men thronged prisons in Dhaka from early in the morning after news of the impending release spread.”It feels like a dream. I never would have imagined he could come out of jail if Hasina was still in power,” Shiuly Akter, 40, the wife of one of the men released on Thursday, told AFP. “There was no justice here; what happened to us was unfair. My husband knew nothing about the mutiny or the killings. He was just a novice in the BDR when he was arrested.”A previous official investigation into the mutiny blamed years of pent-up anger among ordinary soldiers, who felt their appeals for pay rises and better treatment were ignored. But that probe was carried out during Hasina’s tenure, and her opponents have claimed her involvement in a conspiracy to orchestrate the mutiny in a plan to weaken the military and bolster her own power. Since her fall, families of soldiers killed in the violence have been campaigning to reopen the investigation, a demand met last month by the interim government which replaced Hasina’s regime. The mutineers stole thousands of weapons from the BDR headquarters before embarking on a killing spree in the barracks.The uprising quickly spread, with thousands of soldiers pledging allegiance to the mutineers before it was quashed by the army.

Bangladeshi students braved bullets to overthrow an autocratic government, but six months after the revolution, many say finding a job is proving a harder task than manning the barricades.Dhaka University student Mohammad Rizwan Chowdhury’s dreams of ample opportunities for youth have been badly dented, saying he had seen little action from the caretaker government of Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus.”I can’t see any fruitful initiatives taken by the government so far,” Chowdhury grumbled, a25-year-old student who took part in the protests that drove autocratic ex-leader Sheikh Hasina into exile on August 5.Unemployment was a key driver of protests last year. Since the revolution, it has only grown worse.At the end of September 2024, the number of people seeking employment in the country of 170 million hit 2.66 million, a six-percent increase from 2.49 million the year before, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).The International Monetary Fund warned in September that economic activity had “slowed markedly, while inflation remains at double-digit levels”, with tax revenues down while spending pressures had increased.For many, the euphoria of Hasina’s ouster is fading.Chowdhury said that while Yunus handed cabinet posts to student leaders, he felt demands were being ignored.”Although our representatives are part of the administration, I’m not sure whether our voices are being heard,” the political science graduate said.- ‘Whatever jobs they can’ -Literature graduate Shukkur Ali, 31, scrapes by on odd jobs to support his elderly and sick parents.”I do anything and everything just to cover the bare minimum,” he told AFP, adding that newspaper job advertisements have dried up.”I used to apply only for white-collar jobs in educational institutions or banks — but failed,” he said. “Now, anything is good for me. I just want a job.”Independent analyst Zahid Hussain,71, former lead economist at the World Bank in Dhaka, said that around a third of the working labour force are “underemployed doing whatever jobs they can to pay the bills”.Bangladesh’s economy grew dramatically after its independence in 1971.That was largely due to its textile industry producing global brands in a multi-billion dollar business as the world’s second-largest garment exporter.But jobs outside the crowded clothing factories for university graduates are far fewer.Educated Bangladeshis make up 87 percent of those without work, according to BBS figures.The government says it is making every effort to address the issue.Shafiqul Alam, Yunus’ press secretary, said robust tax generation would allow the government to invest in the public sector and create a “huge” number of jobs.”Ensuring better revenue collection is a priority, as the previous government left behind a broken economy,” Alam said.- ‘Empty-handed’ -But Yunus, an 84-year-old microfinance pioneer, is also swept up in what he calls the “extremely tough” challenge of restoring democratic institutions ahead of elections slated for this year or early 2026.Those reforms include an overhaul of the constitution and the public administration to prevent a return to autocracy.”The interim government is preoccupied with managing the mess they inherited,” said Hussain, adding there were only “sporadic attempts” to support the youth, such as hiring students to assist traffic police.”The administration isn’t functioning at full speed,” he said. “I’d rate them 50 out of 100.”Challenges are daunting.”The public sector can recruit no more than 20,000 to 25,000 graduates, while around 700,000 graduates leave colleges each year,” said AKM Fahim Mashroor, chief of popular online job site Bdjobs.The private sector provides around 85 percent of jobs, but there is little optimism there either.”Both the public and private sectors have been slow in recruiting since August 5,” he added.And the unrest has spooked investors.Bangladesh’s central bank says foreign investment between July and November 2024 was $177 million — less than a third of the $614 million secured under Hasina’s iron-fisted rule during the same period the previous year.Taskeen Ahmed, president of the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the government should roll out programmes to support young job-seekers including “loan schemes for youth to start businesses”.Some like Subir Roy, a 31-year-old finance graduate who was nominated to a government job only for it to be rescinded without reason, said it was already too late for him.”My father sold a small piece of land to send me to university… now I’m returning home empty-handed,” Roy said. “I’ll join my father in the paddy field.”