One of India’s most isolated tribes, the Dongria Kondh, is preparing to stop British FTSE 100 company Vedanta from mining aluminum ore on their sacred mountain, after police and hired thugs forced protesters to dismantle a barricade over the weekend…. Read moreIndia: tribe vows to fight mine with axes and arrows
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi is calling on India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to look into the ethnic violence that left 55 dead and more than 200,000 displaced in his state over the past week. “The culprits involved in… Read moreIndia: tribal peoples displaced in Assam clashes
A suicide bomber struck the offices of the opposition United National Party (UNP) in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka, Oct. 6, killing at least 27. Authorities blamed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The attack came as the military announced it… Read moreSri Lanka: dialectic of terror escalates
The conflicted Indian state of Gujarat is on alert after a terror attack in the predominantly Muslim town of Modasa Sept. 29 that killed at least one person and injured 12. Two men on a motorcycle reportedly threw a bomb… Read moreIndia: terror targets Muslims in Gujarat, Christians in Karnataka
Synchronized explosions hit five crowded markets and thoroughfares in New Delhi Sept. 13—including Connaught Place, a tourist destination in the heart of the city. The blasts left 23 dead and over 100 injured. A group called Indian Mujahedeen sent an… Read more“Indian Mujahedeen” strike New Delhi
At least two were killed and 80 wounded in renewed repression in India-controlled Kashmir Sept. 12. Police fired bullets and tear gas to disperse crowds in two towns near Srinagar after separatist leaders issued a call for Muslims across the… Read moreMore deadly repression in Kashmir
Asif Ali Zardari, widower of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, was elected president of Pakistan Sept. 6 by a wide margin. Zardari—who spent 11 years in prison on corruption charges that remain unproved—succeeds Pervez Musharraf, who resigned last month… Read morePakistan: Bhutto widower elected amid growing violence
Pakistan opened an investigation Sept. 1 into the killings of five women in Baluchistan who tried to choose their own husbands, after a federal lawmaker from the province defended their deaths, asserting that “only those who indulge in immoral acts… Read moreProtests over “honor killings” in Pakistan
Jumma man Ladu Moni Chakma was hacked to death Aug. 26 by a group of Bengali settlers at his home in the Sajek area of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh. His wife, Shanti Bala Chakma, who was also attacked, was… Read moreBangladesh: tribal peoples face deadly reprisals for defending land
India’s Border Security Force has launched a new initiative to combat “illegal” infiltration of peasants from Bangladesh into Assam and other northeastern states. The Assam Assembly witnessed noisy scenes last month after the state government announced that Bangladesh and neighboring… Read moreIndia: Bangladesh “encroaching” on Assam; harbinger of climate disaster?
Food riots erupted Aug. 27 in eastern India, where more than 2 million people have been forced from their homes and about 250,000 houses destroyed in the worst flooding in 50 years. One person was killed in Madhepura district when… Read moreIndia: flooding, food riots in east strain ties with Nepal
Indian authorities have deployed 3,000 police at Tata Motors’ plant in West Bengal as protesters defied a threat from the company to halt production of the Nano model ultra-compact automobile in the communist-ruled state. About 30,000 local residents have occupied… Read moreIndia: farmers occupy West Bengal industrial site
