INDIA: When half a dozen trucks loaded with construction material screeched to a halt on their farms, Baryam Singh and fellow residents in the Indian village of Bobiya sensed they were soon going to lose more land to the military.
The farmers chased away the contractors and laborers with protests and threats of deflated tires, knowing it was only a temporary reprieve.
“The military infrastructure has been growing in our village and our farmlands are shrinking,” Singh told the Thomson Reuters Foundation, like other farmers sitting around him nodded.
“More than 50% of our agricultural land is under military lockdown,” he said of the village on the border with Pakistan.
Over the past 15 years, the Indian army and the country’s Border Security Force (BSF) have been acquiring land to fortify defenses in the border districts of Jammu and Kashmir, according to the Border Welfare Committee, a local organization campaigning for the rights of border residents.
Both India and Pakistan administer the disputed state of Kashmir in part while claiming it in full.
The fertile land where Jammu and Kashmir meet Pakistan has become dotted with barbed wire and land mines, leaving hundreds of farmers cut off from their farms, often with no warning or compensation, said Bobiya villagers.
“This is adding to the economic distress of farmers who don’t have alternative sources of livelihood,” said Singh.
After India revoked the autonomy of its portion of Kashmir in August, farmers in border areas now fear to lose even more of their land to the military, according to ID KHajjuria, an activist who heads up the Jammu and Kashmir Forum for Peace and Territorial Integrity.
With India bringing Jammu and Kashmir deeper into its fold, the central government will have greater power to seize territory in the border regions in the name of national security, he warned.
“The local elected political representatives will now have a very limited say in the functioning of the (Jammu and Kashmir) government,” KHajjuria said.
Jammu divisional commissioner Sanjeev Verma said that all farmers in Jammu province would eventually be paid for their land.
“Whatever new agricultural land is being acquired, the farmers will get financial compensation,” he said in a phone interview.
Some have already been compensated, he added, though he declined to specify how many.
’I AM LANDLESS NOW’
The defense system includes a fence of about 900 km (560 miles) in length that sits several kilometers into India from the border, slicing through villages and leaving vast tracts of farmland on the other side of the fence toward Pakistan.
India’s government is also working on a “Wall of Defense” along the border between India and Pakistan, according to the Border Security Force.
The project consists of a 10-meter-high (32-foot) mud embankment to protect residents of India’s border villages from frequent cease-fire violations that both sides blame on each other.
There are also plans to install high-tech surveillance systems to plug gaps where physical surveillance is not possible, India’s ministry of home affairs announced last year.
Members of the Border Welfare Committee — which is based in the city of Kathua — said that thousands of hectares of Indian farmland now sit untouched on the other side of the fence.
Technically, farmers can still get to their land, but the checkpoints in the fence are opened only during specific times of day and farmers have to walk for hours to reach their fields, explained Bharat Bhushan Sharma, the committee’s vice president.
Even if they do manage to successfully cultivate their crops, “there is always a threat of cross-border fire,” said Sharma, who is also head of Bobiya village.
“And then (they) can’t protect their crops from wild animals.”
Committee president Nanak Chand, 87, said he lost almost eight hectares of land to the fence when it was first built in 2004.
“Three months ago, the military acquired the remaining two hectares of farmland as well,” he said. “I am landless now.”
Chand was given 3 million rupees ($42,000) as compensation, which he says is not enough to buy himself an equivalent piece of land in a peaceful part of the country.
KHajjuria agreed, saying that “with developers and businessmen from other states rushing to Jammu and Kashmir, land prices are likely to soar and it would make it difficult for poor border residents to buy land in peaceful areas.”
In December 2018, Chand filed a petition with the Jammu and Kashmir High Court on behalf of farmers living in the border areas of the affected districts.
The petition called for the government to pay rent for farmland on the Pakistan side of the fence and provide farmers with compensation for each crop season during which their land remains uncultivated.
The Ministry of Home Affairs, the BSF and the local administration have not yet filed their responses, according to lawyers representing the farmers.
Jugal Kishore Sharma, a member of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party who represents the Jammu-Poonch parliamentary constituency, could not specify how much of the land along the border currently being used by the military is farmland.
But he said officials in the border districts are in the process of measuring that amount.
“Thereafter, the government will start paying rent to farmers,” he said in a phone interview.
WAITING FOR PEACE
Often times, when the border fence cuts through a farm, it also isolates the village in which the farm is located, said Mohammad Arif Khan, 67, head of Behrooti village in Poonch district.
As a result, “the villages (are) deprived of even the basic facilities and infrastructure,” he explained.
The huge razor-wire fence has turned Behrooti into what locals have described as an open prison.
“Our village doesn’t have roads and health care facilities. There is no Internet or mobile phone connectivity,” said Mohammad Nisar Khan, 30, another resident.
“A zoo is visited by people every day, but here the outsiders are not allowed. Socially, we are completely isolated.”
The knowledge that the military plans to add high-tech surveillance equipment to the fence is disheartening, said Khan, who like many Indians living on the border is holding out hope that the fence will one day be moved onto the border itself.
“We’ll become permanent prisoners if the fence gets upgraded at its current location,” he said.
While the residents of Behrooti feel trapped in their village by the fence, others fear it will force them to leave their homes for good.
“There’s little chance that our next generation will be in a position to continue living here (at the border),” said Meer Chand, a rice farmer in Nanga village, 30 kilometers (18 miles) from Bobiya.
“We’ve lost hope that there will ever be peace between India and Pakistan. We have neither security of life nor livelihood.” (Reporting by Ashutosh Sharma, Editing by Jumana Farouky and Zoe Tabary. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women’s and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, property rights, and climate change.
India’s increasing defenses eat away at farmland along border with Pakistan
India’s increasing defenses eat away at farmland along border with Pakistan
- More than 50% of our agricultural land is under military lockdown, a villager said
- Technically, farmers can still get to their land, but the checkpoints in the fence are opened only during specific times of day
Pakistan issues over 6,500 visas to Indian Sikh pilgrims for Baisakhi festival
- Baisakhi, the spring harvest festival, marks the beginning of the Sikh New Year and symbolizes spiritual rejuvenation
- Indian pilgrims will be visiting Gurdwara Panja Sahib, Gurdwara Nankana Sahib and Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has issued more than 6,500 visas to Indian Sikh pilgrims for the Baisakhi festival this month, the Pakistani high commission in New Delhi said on Monday.
Baisakhi, the spring harvest festival primarily celebrated in Punjab and northern India, marks the beginning of the Sikh New Year and symbolizes spiritual rejuvenation, with celebrations centered around Gurdwara Panja Sahib in Hasan Abdal, some 45 kilometers northwest of Islamabad.
Sikhs are a small minority based in the Punjab region that is divided between Muslim-majority Pakistan and Hindu-majority India, but several Sikh holy sites ended up being in Pakistan after the partition of the Subcontinent in 1947.
The annual festival is scheduled to be held in Pakistan on April 10-19, with pilgrims expected to visit Gurdwara Panja Sahib, Gurdwara Nankana Sahib and Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib.
“The large number of visas issued by the Government of Pakistan is a manifestation of our policy to foster harmony and promote understanding between peoples, cultures and religions,” Pakistan’s chargé d’affaires was quoted as saying by the country’s high commission in New Delhi.
“Pakistan would continue to facilitate such visits to sacred and holy sites.”
The shrine in Hasan Abdal is one of Sikhism’s holiest sites and it is believed that the handprint of the founder of the religion, Guru Nanak, is imprinted on a boulder there.
Baisakhi is also meant to mark the day when Gobind Singh, the 10th and final guru of Sikhism, established the discipline of Khalsa, through which the faithful can aspire to the ultimate state of purity.
Every year, a large number of Yatrees from India visit Pakistan to observe various religious festivals under the framework of the Pakistan-India Protocol on Visits to Religious Shrines of 1974.
Pakistan says US acknowledges issue of military equipment left behind in Afghanistan
- Pakistan has voiced its concerns over the presence of advanced US weapons in Afghanistan which Washington has sought to be returned by Kabul
- Last week, Islamabad urged the UN to recover these weapons, warning that militant groups like the Pakistani Taliban were gaining access to them
ISLAMABAD: The United States (US) acknowledges the issue of US military equipment left behind in Afghanistan, Pakistan’s foreign office said on Monday, days after Islamabad urged the international community to recover foreign stockpiles in the neighboring country.
The statement came after Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar’s telephonic conversation with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, during which the two figures discussed the issue of US-made advanced weapons in Afghanistan, Islamabad’s counter-terrorism efforts and other affairs of mutual interest.
Pakistan has voiced its concerns over the presence of advanced US weapons in Afghanistan which Washington has sought to be returned by Kabul’s Afghan Taliban rulers. Islamabad last week urged the United Nations to recover these weapons, warning that militant groups like the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) were gaining access to them.
Last month, a Geneva-based monitor, Small Arms Survey, said in its report that trafficking and illegal sale of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and Soviet arms have continued in Afghanistan and Pakistan’s border regions more than three years after the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul and their seizure of the previous regime’s stockpiles.
“Secretary Rubio agreed on the need to resolve the issue of US Military equipment left behind in Afghanistan,” the Pakistani foreign office said in a statement.
“Dar and Secretary of State Rubio agreed to remain in close contact and to work together to advance the shared interests of both countries.”
Pakistan has struggled to contain surging militancy in its western regions that border Afghanistan in recent years, with Islamabad accusing Kabul of sheltering and supporting militant groups that launch cross-border attacks. Afghan officials deny involvement and insist that Pakistan’s security issues are an internal matter of Islamabad.
During his conversation with Rubio, Dar highlighted Pakistan’s efforts in fighting terrorism from 2013 till 2018, which caused Islamabad huge economic and human losses.
“Secretary of State Rubio also appreciated Pakistan’s efforts in the fight against terrorism and expressed the US desire to further enhance counter-terrorism cooperation,” the Pakistani foreign office added.
On Friday, Syed Atif Raza, counsellor at Pakistan’s UN Mission, told a UNSC meeting on small arms and light weapons management that militant groups possessed lethal weapons left in Afghanistan that were now used against civilians and Pakistan’s armed forces.
“We know that non-state actors do not have many of the capabilities to manufacture advanced illicit arms, thus raising questions of culpability of certain state actors in these nefarious activities,” he said.
“Pakistan is concerned at the acquisition and use of modern and sophisticated illicit arms by terrorist groups such as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, a UN-listed terrorist organization, which operates with impunity from Afghanistan, as well as the so-called Baloch Liberation Army and Majeed Brigade.”
The Pakistani diplomat asserted that militants receive external support and financing from Pakistan’s “principal adversary,” alluding to India.
He also highlighted that the evolving nature of warfare and new technologies posed challenges in combating the proliferation of increasingly lethal small arms.
The Small Arms Survey report said that as of August 2021, Afghanistan had 258,300 rifles, including M4, M16 and AK-variants, 64,300 pistols, 63,000 sniper rifles, 56,155 light, medium and heavy machine guns, 31,000 grenade launchers, 9,115 shotguns, 1,845 rounds of 60-82mm, as well as hundreds of thousands of accessories and munitions.
Punjab requests deployment of army, paramilitary troops for security of PSL 10th edition
- Top teams shunned the South Asian country after the 2009 attack on a bus carrying Sri Lankan cricketers in Lahore, forcing them to relocate home matches
- It took the PCB years to convince foreign counterparts that Pakistan was safe to visit and foreign teams began returning after it staged its own T20 league
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Punjab province has requested the Pakistani federal authorities to deploy army along with paramilitary Rangers troops for the security of Pakistan Super League (PSL) 10th edition matches in Lahore, Multan and Rawalpindi, it emerged on Monday.
Top teams shunned Pakistan after the 2009 attack on a bus carrying Sri Lankan cricketers in Lahore, forcing them to relocate home matches, mostly to the United Arab Emirates. It took the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) years to convince foreign counterparts that it was safe to visit.
The PSL 10th edition is scheduled to commence from April 11 at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium and will conclude on May 18, with the final taking place at the Qaddafi Stadium in Lahore. The six-team tournament will feature 34 matches across four venues, including Karachi, Lahore, Multan and Rawalpindi.
“This will be a high-profile event with the participation of international cricketers, match officials, foreign dignitaries,” the Punjab home department said in a letter to the interior ministry, dated April 5.
“Troops of Pakistan Army, Pakistan Rangers (Punjab) and Army aviation/assets may be requisitioned for protection and security of teams during their stay, travel and movement in Lahore, Multan and Rawalpindi from April 6 to May 19.”
Touring sides began returning to Pakistan after the PCB successfully staged its own T20 league in the form of PSL on home soil in 2017.
Since then, PSL, which features city-based franchise teams, has become a major event in Pakistan’s cricket calendar and grown substantially in value and popularity.
Over 13,500 Afghans deported as Pakistan ramps up expulsion drive against ‘illegal foreigners’
- Islamabad last month set the deadline for some 800,000 Afghans carrying citizen cards to leave the South Asian country
- The move is part of a larger repatriation drive that began in 2023, with over 800,000 Afghans expelled from Pakistan since
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has repatriated more than 13,500 Afghan nationals since the expiry of a March 31 deadline set by Islamabad, Pakistani officials said on Monday, amid intensifying efforts to return all illegal foreigners and Afghan Citizen Card-holders to their home countries.
Pakistan last month set the deadline for some 800,000 Afghans carrying ACCs to leave the country, another phase in Islamabad’s campaign in recent years to return foreigners, mostly Afghans, living in Pakistan. The move is part of a larger repatriation drive of foreign citizens that began in 2023, with over 800,000 Afghans expelled from Pakistan since. The government initially said it was first focusing on expelling foreigners with no legal documentation and other categories like ACC holders would be included later.
According to the United Nations (UN) data, Pakistan has hosted more than 2.8 million Afghan nationals who crossed the border in a desperate attempt to escape decades of war and instability in their home country. Around 1.3 million of them are formally registered as refugees and hold Proof of Registration (PoR) cards, which grant them legal protection. Another 800,000 Afghans possess ACC, a separate identity document issued by the Pakistani government, that recognizes them as Afghan nationals without offering refugee status.
“As per the government’s decision, the operation against illegal foreigners and ACC-holder Afghans is continued with full intensity since April 1,” Qadir Yar Tiwana, a senior official at the Pakistani interior ministry, told Arab News.
“All those who are confirmed after checking are being sent to the holding centers for further processing to be repatriated.”
Although Pakistani federal authorities have not released details of recent detentions, provincial governments in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan, which border Afghanistan, have confirmed repatriating 11,134 individuals through the Torkham border crossing and over 2,500 via the Chaman border crossing, respectively.
“After the expiry of the deadline from April 1 till today, more than 2,500 individuals have been deported, which includes illegal and ACC card-holder Afghans,” Habib Ahmed, the Chaman deputy commissioner, told Arab News.
“In the latest deportation drive, a total of 11,134 illegal immigrants have been deported via KP, including 1,573 from Islamabad, 3,905 from Punjab, 38 from Azad Kashmir, one from Gilgit-Baltistan and 44 from Sindh,” the KP home and tribal affairs department said, adding that this included around 3,053 ACC-holders.
“Only on Monday, a total of 1,437 illegal Afghan nationals were deported through Pak-Afghan Torkham border.”
Anwer Shehzad, a KP government focal person for repatriation centers, said both holding centers in Peshawar and Landi Kotal were working hard to “ease the repatriation process.”
“We are sending them back to Afghanistan after completing all the processes at the Landi Kotal holding centers, including the finger-print scanning for the record,” he told Arab New.
“There is no extensive operation going on in KP but we are receiving individuals from other parts of the country.”
Shehzad clarified the KP government had initially focused on encouraging voluntary repatriation, but they were now launching search operations in the province.
A spokesperson of the Punjab police said the government’s campaign for the deportation of illegal immigrants continues “without interruption” in the province.
“So far, 4,111 individuals have been deported from the province with the assistance of relevant agencies during the ongoing deportation campaign,” a police spokesperson said, adding a total of 46 holding centers had been established across Punjab.
“Over 5,950 illegal foreign residents have been sent to holding centers during the campaign and currently, 1,839 illegal foreign residents are present at the holding points.”
In Pakistan’s southern province of Sindh, a total of 307 illegal foreigners and ACC-holders have been repatriated since April 1, according to Sohail Ahmed Jokhio, a spokesperson for the Sindh home minister.
“Of these, 187 were undocumented illegal foreigners, while 120 were Afghan nationals holding ACCs,” he told Arab News.
Jokhio said the Sindh government has established two holding centers: one in Karachi and the other in Jacobabad.
Shahid Rind, a spokesperson of the Balochistan government, said the provincial administration has started arresting illegal foreigners and Afghan ACC-holders as per the federal government’s direction.
“Police and other agencies are acting on the information to arrest the individuals falling in the category defined by the federal government and they are sent to the holding centers for further processing,” he told Arab News.
Rind said provincial law enforcement agencies and the administration were facilitating the repatriation of these individuals.
Afghan refugee ministry spokesman Abdul Mutalib Haqqani has said that “more than a million Afghans might return” to their home country under the repatriation drive, urging Islamabad to ensure their dignified return.
“We are urging Pakistan authorities not to deport them (Afghans) forcefully — there should be a proper mechanism with an agreement between both countries, and they must be returned with dignity,” he was quoted as saying by AFP news agency.
Speaking to Arab News, UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Pakistan spokesperson Qaiser Khan Afridi expressed concerns over the deportation drive and reports of arrests of ACC holders.
“We believe that among the Afghan Citizen Cardholders, there may be individuals requiring international protection. In that light, we are urging the Government to see their situation through a humanitarian lens,” he said.
“We also call for engagement between Pakistan and Afghanistan to so that returns can be dignified and voluntary. It is imperative that returns is voluntary and dignified so that reintegration in Afghanistan is sustainable.”
Ties between the neighboring countries have frayed since the Taliban takeover, with Pakistan accusing Kabul’s rulers of failing to root out militants sheltering on Afghan soil, a charge the Taliban government denies.
“The government and people of Pakistan have a commendable, decades-long history of hosting Afghans who fled conflict and violence in the past,” Afridi said.
“UNHCR reiterates its call and urges Pakistan to continue to protect those seeking safety, as it has done for many decades, recognizing the ongoing human rights situation in Afghanistan and noting that there are people whose lives might be at risk if they return, regardless of their status.”
Binance founder Zhao appointed adviser to Pakistan Crypto Council
- Pakistan Crypto Council formed this year to set regulatory guidelines for adoption, lure foreign investment
- Cryptocurrencies including bitcoin are not officially regulated in Pakistan but are not illegal or banned
KARACHI: One of the world’s most powerful people in crypto, co-founder and former CEO of Binance Changpeng Zhao, has been appointed as a strategic adviser to the Pakistan Crypto Council (PCC), the finance ministry said on Monday.
The announcement came after Zhao met key members of the PCC on Monday, including Federal Minister for Finance Muhammad Aurangzeb, who is the chairman of the council, and Bilal Bin Saqib, its CEO. Zhao also separately met the Pakistani prime minister and deputy PM in Islamabad.
The PCC, established by the government last month, aims to create a legal framework for cryptocurrency trading in a bid to lure international investment. Cryptocurrencies including bitcoin are not officially regulated in Pakistan but are also not illegal or banned. As of Jan. 16, 2021, the State Bank of Pakistan has not authorized any individuals or organizations to carry out the sale, purchase, exchange, and investment of virtual currencies, coins, and tokens.
“This is a landmark moment for Pakistan, we are sending a clear message to the world: Pakistan is open for innovation,” Aurangzeb said in a statement.
“With CZ onboard, we are accelerating our vision to make Pakistan a regional powerhouse for Web3, digital finance, and blockchain-driven growth.”
As strategic adviser to the council, Zhao will provide guidance on regulation, infrastructure, education, and adoption and work closely with the government of Pakistan and the private sector to create a “compliant, inclusive, and globally competitive crypto ecosystem,” the finance ministry said.
“Pakistan is a country of 240 million people, over 60 percent of whom are under the age of 30. The potential here is limitless,” Zhao was quoted as saying in the statement.
Zhao in 2023 stepped down as Binance CEO and pleaded guilty to breaking US anti-money laundering laws as part of a $4.3 billion settlement resolving a years-long probe into the world’s largest crypto exchange, prosecutors said. The deal with the Justice Department, part of a large settlement between Binance and other US agencies, resolved criminal charges for conducting an unlicensed money transmitter business, conspiracy and breaching sanctions regulations.
According to Forbes, Zhao, who is a Chinese-born Canadian businessman, was ranked the 24th-richest person in the world, and second-richest Canadian overall, with a net worth estimated at $66.6 billion as of January 2025.
In 2013, Zhao was a member of the team that developed Blockchain.info. He has also served as Chief Technology Officer of OKCoin. In 2022, Zhao invested $500 million through Binance to finance the acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk.
After its launch in July 2017, the Binance cryptocurrency exchange was able to raise $15 million in an initial coin offering, and trading began on the exchange eleven days later. In less than eight months, Zhao grew Binance into the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, as of April 2018.
