Afghanistan has descended into a full-blown political crisis after the two main contenders in a bitterly disputed presidential election — each claiming victory — were sworn in as president in rival ceremonies. President Ashraf Ghani, the officially declared winner of the vote, was sworn in for a second term by the country’s chief justice in Kabul on March 9. Abdullah Abdullah, …

Tribal mindset has taken over society, says CJ Minallah, emphasizing that  it is important to see Aurat March in a positive light   High Asia Herald Report   The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday dismissed a petition seeking a ban on the Aurat March, scheduled for Sunday, to mark the International Women Day. “In our society, various Islamic laws …

The award-winning author addressed a gathering at Jantar Mantar in Delhi on Sunday   Beloved friends, comrades and my fellow writers, This place where we are gathered today is only a short bus ride away from where four days ago a fascist mob, fired up by speeches made by members of the Ruling Party, backed up and actively assisted by …

A guard tower and barbed wire fences surround an internment facility in the Kunshan Industrial Park which has previously been revealed by leaked documents to be a forced indoctrination camp in Artux in western China’s Xinjiang region. (File photo) Leaked data shows the detention of 311 individuals from the Karakax County sent to internment camps for reasons their faith and …

Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister of West Bengal, and her party supporters attend a protest march against the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and a new citizenship law, in Kolkata, India, December 16, 2019. Reuters/Rupak De Chowdhuri Fiction in time of fake news. Below is the text of the 2020 Clark Lecture in English Literature instituted by Trinity College, Cambridge. We …

High Asia Herald Report   Islamabad: Civil society and women rights activists have condemned a resolution passed by the lower house of the parliament supporting capital punishment for those involved in sexual abuse. “We at Women Democratic Front condemn National Assembly’s resolution on #HangRapistsPublicly,” the socialist feminist movement said in a statement posted on its official Facebook page. Sexual barbarism is undoubtedly widespread, but …

  RFE/RL   Four Islamic State (IS) extremists that Dushanbe is trying to extradite from Syria include Tajik militants linked to dozens of terrorist attacks and a notorious online propaganda campaign aimed at recruiting fighters to the IS. The Prosecutor-General’s Office in Dushanbe says Tajik authorities “have established” that Parviz Saidrahmonov and Tojiddin Nazarov are currently being held at “prisons …

Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission probing video of a woman being stoned to death Ghor province High Asia Herald Report   An independent rights watchdog in Afghanistan has initiated an investigation of video footage that shows a woman being stoned to death, says a report published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty on its website. The two-minute clip shows a group of …

Manzoor Pashteen, nine others were arrested on late Monday evening in Peshawar and sent on 14-day judicial remand   High Asia Herald Report Islamabad: The Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM), a civil rights movement, has called on supporters to protest on January 28  against the arrest of its leader Manzoor Pashteen and nine others. Pashteen was arrested at Tehkaal Bala, Peshawar …

In this last installment of the three-part article based on correspondence between Hassan Mirza and Professor Noam Chomsky, the internationally-acclaimed linguist and social scientist speaks about the British colonial genocidal role in South Asia and Africa, the future of South Asia, religion, the catastrophic impact of climate change, and the US-Europe imperialist-induced migration crisis.   Religion and spirituality Hassan Mirza …