South Asia

Sri Lanka: mass grave recalls bloody past

Sri Lanka’s left opposition is demanding investigation of a mass grave found in the central town Matale, asserting that the human remains date to a wave of bloody repression.

South Asia

India: parliament attack plotter executed

A Kashmiri militant who received the death penalty for the 2001 attack on India's parliament was executed after India's president turned down his plea for clemency. 

South Asia

Bangladesh tribunal: Islamist leader gets life

The International Crimes Tribunal Bangladesh sentenced Abdul Quader Mollah, leader of the Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami, to life in prison over crimes related to the 1971 war.

South Asia

India: Naxalite hand in opium trade?

Authorities in India say that the Naxalite guerillas, following a series of reversals, have taken refuge in the northeast, where they are trading opium for guns from Burma.

South Asia

Riots rock Bangladesh after factory fire

Bangladeshi workers blocked streets in a Dhaka industrial zone, throwing stones at factories and smashing vehicles, to demand justice for 112 people killed in a garment factory fire. 

South Asia

India: strange bedfellows in Bharat Bandh

A Bharat Bandh—all-India general strike—called to protest neoliberal economic measures shut down much of the country, supported by Hindu nationalist and Marxist parties alike.

South Asia

India: police fire on anti-nuclear protesters

A months-long civil disobedience campaign against the Koodankulam nuclear plant in southern India’s Tamil Nadu state turned violent as police opened fire on protesters.

South Asia

India: more convictions in Gujarat riots

An court in Ahmedabad, Gujarat's main city, convicted 32 individuals for their roles in the deaths of 95 people during the 2002 anti-Muslim pogroms in the northwest Indian state.