Author: Passad Siyal

Berlin (05/11 – 40) The international transport corridor “Tajikistan-Europe” will be expanded. The initiative for the implementation of the “Crossroads of the World” project was announced at the IV International Tbilisi Silk Road Forum, which concluded in the capital of Georgia. The project envisions the development of connections between Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Iran. This means that the Silk Road, which once passed through the North Caucasus, will now be connected to the South Caucasus hub. “In this way, another node is added to the multimodal corridor ‘China – Tajikistan – Uzbekistan – Turkmenistan – Iran – Turkey – Europe’,”…

Paris (27/10 – 40) An independent investigation done by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) has found that the little-known daughter of Tajikistan’s president has built a medical empire that is generously supported by the state with finance and PR, and her husband, who is ambassador to Turkey, provides her with lobbying services. Parvina Rakhmonova – fifth daughter of the president Emomali Rahmon. Many relatives of the head of Tajikistan became owners of large fortunes or took high government positions after he came to power more than thirty years ago. Unlike Emomali Rahmon’s other children, Parvina is almost unknown to the general public.…

As much as 34 percent of women of reproductive age in Nepal have been found to be suffering from anemia. The problem of anemia among women in the age group of 14 to 49 is 34 percent as per the Nepal Demographic and Health Survey 2022. Experts have pointed out that although it had decreased by seven percent compared to the figures of 2016, five years ago, it has not decreased at the expected rate. In 2016, this rate was 41 percent. In 2016, the problem of anemia among girls between the ages of 14 and 19 was 44 percent,…

THE U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT encouraged the Pakistani government in a March 7, 2022, meeting to remove Imran Khan as prime minister over his neutrality on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, according to a classified Pakistani government document obtained by The Intercept. The meeting, between the Pakistani ambassador to the United States and two State Department officials, has been the subject of intense scrutiny, controversy, and speculation in Pakistan over the past year and a half, as supporters of Khan and his military and civilian opponents jockeyed for power. The political struggle escalated on August 5 when Khan was sentenced to three years in…

Pakistan is considering a proposal to privatize the import of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) from the spot market to utilize 200 mmcfd idle capacity, its state minister for petroleum said on Saturday.  Cash-strapped Pakistan has remained out of the spot LNG market since June 2022 due to the skyrocketing prices which hit a record high of $69.9 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) for Asia deliveries in August last year and a financial crunch at home. Last week, Pakistan LNG Limited (PLL), a state-owned entity mandated to import and procure LNG, received offers for the supply of super chilled fuel…

Thousands of Muslims in Pakistan gathered on Friday to protest last week’s burning of the Quran, Islam’s holy book, in Stockholm following a call by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to “send a strong message to Sweden.” The biggest anti-Sweden protests were held in the eastern city of Lahore and Karachi, the largest city in the South Asian Islamic country, where thousands of people gathered on main roads before dispersing peacefully. In the capital, Islamabad, lawyers holding copies of the Quran protested in front of the Supreme Court, while smaller groups of worshippers gathered outside mosques, demanding the severing of diplomatic ties with…

Brussels (12/7 – 30.77) International investigators interviewing survivors of a mountain massacre that occurred in May 2022 in Tajikistan have collected evidence that government security services carried out a planned massacre of peaceful protestors as part of a larger ethnic cleansing campaign targeting the peaceful Pamiri indigenous people of the mountainous eastern region of the country. Numerous witnesses described how heavily armed troops from both the Ministry of Internal Affairs (VKD) and the intelligence service (GKNB) gunned down Pamiri demonstrators in the town of Vamar/Rushon on 18 May 2022. The non-violent protests had erupted in various cities of the Gorno-Badakhshan…

Tokyo, Berlin (6/6 – 50) The Defense Agency Ground Staff Office in Japan has established a “guide unit” or an escort service in the Ground Self-Defense Force 1st Airborne Brigade (headquartered at Funabashi City, Chiba Prefecture). Its task is to transport and escort overseas Japanese nationals in such emergency situations as a conflict and a natural disaster in a foreign country. The service is staffed with about 100 personnel. In the event of a dispute or coup breaking out in a foreign country, the government will dispatch the Self-Defense Force (SDF) aircraft or transport vessels with escort personnel aboard to…

Cash-strapped Pakistan urged the United States to restore military financing and sales, which was earlier suspended by Former America President Donald Trump, according to Dawn. Addressing the seminar in Washington, Pakistan’s envoy to US Masood Khan, on Thursday said, “It is important that the US restores, for Pakistan, Foreign Military Financing and Foreign Military Sales, suspended by the previous administration.” Since the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, the US-Pakistan relationship has been stuck in a prolonged period of uncertainty. And, now with the rivalry between US and China, Pakistan’s relations with America have strained and also damaged the country’s deteriorating economy.…

Rawalpindi: A total of 293 people have been killed and 521 others injured in 436 terrorist attacks in Pakistan since January this year, the military’s media wing ISPR said. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, 192 people were killed and 330 injured in 219 incidents, whereas Balochistan reported 80 fatalities and 170 wounded persons in 206 attacks, said Director General (DG) of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry at a press briefing. A total of 21 people were killed and 21 others injured in 11 incidents in Punjab and Sindh provinces, he told reporters here. The DG added that this year,…