AFP Asia

Nearly two decades lost, a family fractured and a city still without closure — the scars of the 2006 Mumbai train bombings remain, even as the men once blamed for the deadly attacks walk free.After 19 years behind bars, Mohammad Sajid Margub Ansari can finally hold his daughter in his arms.Ansari, now 48, was one of 12 men convicted in 2015 for murder, conspiracy and waging war against India over the 2006 train blasts.The evening rush-hour attacks, carried out with pressure-cooker bombs hidden in bags beneath newspapers and umbrellas, killed 187 people and wounded hundreds more.Five of the accused were sentenced to death, while the other seven — including Ansari — were given life imprisonment.At the time of the blasts, Ansari was just 29, running a modest mobile and computer repair shop. He was arrested soon after the explosions, reportedly accused of assembling the bombs and sheltering two Pakistani nationals.But this week, a two-judge bench of the Bombay High Court overturned the convictions, ruling that the prosecution had “utterly failed” to prove the men were responsible.The prosecution appealed to the Supreme Court to halt their release, but it declined to intervene.”It feels amazing to be free,” Ansari told AFP. “We are innocent.”- ‘Youth gone’ -Freedom, however, feels bittersweet for Ansari.”My whole youth is gone. My family had to face financial troubles,” he said. His wife was pregnant when Ansari was arrested, leaving him to miss his daughter’s entire childhood. In her early years, she wouldn’t even come near him.”As a dad that felt terrible, that I could not hold my own daughter,” he said.”I used to feel very helpless and think why do we have to go through all this when I am innocent.” The 2006 attacks were initially blamed on the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, although a little-known outfit, Lashkar-e-Qahhar, later claimed responsibility. Pakistan denied the allegations.For survivor Chirag Chauhan, who was paralysed from the waist down in one of the blasts, the acquittal of the men felt like being dragged “back to square one”.”We don’t know what to do and where to start from. The entire system is hopeless,” he told AFP.- ‘Back to square one’ -In 2006, Chauhan, now 40, was returning home from chartered accountancy training when the train he boarded was hit by an explosion.Prosecutors said the explosives were deliberately placed in first-class coaches to target the city’s wealthy Gujarati community. They also said the bombings were intended as revenge for riots in the western state of Gujarat in 2002, which left around 2,000 people dead, most of them Muslims. A spinal cord injury left Chauhan requiring the use of a wheelchair.”After 19 years if the accused are let free, who carried out the blasts then?” he asked.But he also said there should be a “fair investigation”, noting that the now freed men could have been framed.”All are equally to be blamed, the judiciary, the investigative agencies, everyone,” he said.For Ansari, his years behind bars demand more than an acquittal.”The agencies should be ashamed of what they did and should definitely apologise to us,” he said. While his old mobile and computer repair shop is no longer an employment option, given the advances in technology since he was imprisoned, Ansari is aiming to rebuild his life.He plans to finish the undergraduate law degree which he enrolled in while in prison. “I hope to put it to good use,” he said.

The United Nations said Thursday that Taliban authorities were committing human rights violations, including torture and arbitrary detention, against Afghans forced to return by Iran and Pakistan.Large-scale deportation campaigns launched by Iran and Pakistan have forced millions of Afghans to return to Afghanistan, including more than 1.9 million this year, the overwhelming majority from Iran.”People returning to the country who were at particular risk of reprisals and other human rights violations by the de facto (Taliban) authorities were women and girls, individuals affiliated with the former government and its security forces, media workers and civil society,” the UN said in a statement accompanying the release of a report.”These violations have included torture and ill-treatment, arbitrary arrest and detention, and threats to personal security.”The UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR) recently estimated that up to three million people could return to Afghanistan, which is facing a severe humanitarian crisis, in 2025.The report by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and the UN Human Rights Office was based on interviews with 49 returned Afghans.It said violations have been committed against Afghans “based on their specific profile”, including women, media workers, and members of civil society, as well as people affiliated with the former foreign-backed government that fell in 2021.The Taliban government rejected the findings, accusing the UN of spreading propaganda and rumours.”The people cited in this report may have been inaccurate, may be opposed to the system, or may want to spread propaganda or rumours and are therefore using the UNAMA for this purpose,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP on Thursday.Taliban authorities have previously said they declared an amnesty against those who worked for NATO forces and the former government during the two-decade conflict against the Taliban’s insurgency.”Nobody should be sent back to a country where they face risk of persecution on account of their identity or personal history,” UN rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement this month.”In Afghanistan, this is even more pronounced for women and girls, who are subjected to a range of measures that amount to persecution on the basis of their gender alone,” he added.Over the past four years, women have been increasingly isolated from public life by the Taliban authorities, which have banned them from universities, public parks, gyms and beauty salons, in what the UN has denounced as “gender apartheid”.- ‘Gender apartheid’ -Millions of Afghans have fled Afghanistan during decades of successive wars but neighbouring countries have grown hardened against hosting such large migrant populations.After crossing back into Afghanistan from Iran at the Islam Qala border on Thursday, Wahid Ahmad Mohammadi told AFP that he had no money to rent and would have to “set up a tent” in the nearest city, Herat. Although he had worked in Iran over the past 15 years, he said the “conditions were very bad, we were treated badly because we were Afghan”.Russia is the only country that has recognised the Taliban government since it seized power in 2021 following the withdrawal of foreign troops from the country.Neighbouring Tajikistan has followed Islamabad and Tehran’s example by announcing its intention to expel Afghans.Since July 8, at least 377 have been deported, the UNHCR told AFP.Germany, meanwhile, deported 81 Afghan men last week who had committed crimes and the United States announced it would revoke the temporary protection status for thousands of Afghans.According to the UN, the recent increase in the number of returnees has created a “multi-layered human rights crisis” and the organisation called last week for an “immediate halt” to forcible returns.

Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter once called India a “sleeping giant” of football, but the sport is mired in fresh crisis in the country and faces problems from the top down to grassroots.The men’s national team are without a coach and the Indian Super League (ISL) — India’s top competition — is in danger of collapsing over a dispute between the federation and its commercial partner.”Everybody in the Indian football ecosystem is worried, hurt, scared about the uncertainty we are faced with,” Sunil Chhetri, the celebrated veteran striker, wrote on X about the fate of the ISL.The former national skipper unwittingly summed up one of the issues facing Indian football when he came out of international retirement in March aged 40.The striker has 95 goals for his country and is only behind Cristiano Ronaldo (138), Lionel Messi (112) and Ali Daei (108) in the all-time international scoring charts.His best days are well behind him, but with no younger replacements coming through he returned to the national side.India’s men are 133rd in the FIFA rankings — their lowest placing in nearly a decade — and have won just one of their last 16 matches.They have never reached the World Cup and Spaniard Manolo Marquez stepped down this month as head coach after just one year and one win in eight games.His last act was to oversee a 1-0 defeat in Asian Cup qualifying to Hong Kong, population 7.5 million to India’s 1.4 billion.- Disarray -The ISL is usually played between September and April.But a rights agreement between the All India Football Federation (AIFF) and Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL), the company which runs the ISL, ends on December 8 and is yet to be renewed.The league is now paralysed ahead of the new campaign and the uncertainty has affected over 5,000 players, coaches, staff and others.National football team director and former captain Subrata Paul is confident the sport in India — a country obsessed with cricket — will come out stronger.”Indian football, like any growing ecosystem, will face its share of challenges and transitions,” Paul, regarded as one of India’s best-ever goalkeepers, told AFP.”I see this as a time to pause, reflect and refocus. Yes, the recent results and the uncertainty around the ISL are difficult for all of us who love the game, but I see a silver lining as well.”It’s an opportunity to strengthen our foundation by investing in youth development, infrastructure and quality coaching.” The franchise-based ISL started in 2014 as a league that brought global stars including Italy’s Alessandro Del Piero to India, and aimed to promote the game in a new avatar.Bur rather than boom, the ISL has seen dwindling TV ratings and falling sponsor interest.- Wenger help and hope -Football’s global bosses have long been keen to tap the potential that India has as the world’s most populous country.Arsene Wenger, the former Arsenal manager and now FIFA’s chief of global football development, visited in 2023 to inaugurate an academy.AIFF president Kalyan Chaubey — who is also a politician with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party  — last month met Wenger, who has backed India’s football development, particularly at grassroots level.Chaubey said Wenger believes starting football at 13 years of age, as is the norm in India, is too late. Players should start by eight, he said.While India have never reached the World Cup and again will be absent in North America next year, there has been modest success in the distant past.India qualified for the Olympics four times between 1948 and 1960. At the 1956 Melbourne Games India came fourth after losing the bronze-medal match to Bulgaria.Blatter in 2007 called India a “sleeping giant” — but it remains in a deep slumber. – ‘Own benefit’ -Football is a distant third in popularity in India after cricket and hockey, with the eastern city of Kolkata and the southern state of Kerala hotspots for the sport.Compounding that, there has long been mismanagement by Indian football chiefs, said veteran sports journalist Jaydeep Basu.”The fact that the team which was ranked 99 in September 2023 has come down to 133 basically shows poor management,” Basu told AFP.”There is a caucus working in the AIFF of two or three people who are running the show for their own benefit,” added Basu, who recently authored a book, “Who stole my football?”.AFP has contacted the AIFF for comment.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomes his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi to Britain on Thursday where the pair will sign a recently announced UK-India trade deal.Modi will also meet King Charles III during his brief stay in Britain, his fourth visit since becoming India’s leader in 2014.Starmer and Modi are also likely to discuss last month’s Air India disaster in which 241 people died when a London-bound flight crashed after taking off from Ahmedabad in western India.The British leader is also facing calls to raise the case of a Scottish Sikh activist jailed in India seven years ago on terror charges.Starmer and Modi announced in May they had struck a free trade agreement that the British government says will eventually add £4.8 billion ($6.5 billion) a year to the UK economy.”Our landmark trade deal with India is a major win for Britain,” Starmer said in a statement late Wednesday.Starmer’s year-old government is struggling to fire up an economy weakened by years of stagnant growth and high inflation.The UK and India hope the accord will boost trade between the two countries by £25.5 billion, as well as bolstering the British economy and wages.Britain and India are the sixth and fifth largest global economies respectively, with a trade relationship worth around £41 billion and investment supporting more than 600,000 jobs across both countries.As he left India on Wednesday, Modi said the partnership had “achieved significant momentum in the last few years”.”We will have the opportunity to further enhance our economic partnership, aimed at fostering prosperity, growth and jobs creation in both countries,” he added.The accord will slash tariffs on imports of UK goods into India, including whisky, cosmetics and medical devices.In return, the UK will cut tariffs on clothes, footwear and food products including frozen prawns from India.- Air India crash -On June 12, some 169 Indian passengers and 52 British nationals were killed in the Air India crash, one of the deadliest plane disasters in terms of the number of British fatalities.A lawyer for 20 British families expects Starmer to raise claims that some of the remains of victims were wrongly identified.James Healy-Pratt told the Press Association that relatives of one victim found that the coffin contained “co-mingled” remains.A different family were told a coffin contained the body of someone else entirely, not their loved one, the agency reported on Wednesday.Another tricky topic of discussion could be that of blogger Jagtar Singh Johal, imprisoned in India since 2017 on accusations of being part of a terror plot against right-wing Hindu leaders.He has not been convicted of a crime and in March was cleared of one of the nine charges against him.His brother Gurpreet Singh Johal said in a statement the case “should be high on the agenda” when the two leaders meet.Starmer and Modi have met twice recently, at the G7 summit in Canada last month and at the G20 meeting in Brazil last year.

India suffered a potentially major setback when Rishabh Pant retired hurt on the first day of the fourth Test against England at Old Trafford on Wednesday before they reached stumps on 264-4.Left-arm spinner Liam Dawson had earlier marked his first Test in eight years with the key wicket of Yashasvi Jaiswal after England captain Ben Stokes went against history by opting to bowl first.No team winning the toss and bowling first has ever won a Test at Old Trafford.But lively paceman Stokes led from the front with 2-47 in 14 overs as he again proved the pick of England’s attack this series.India, 2-1 down after three Tests, must win in Manchester if they are to keep alive their hopes of winning the five-match campaign.The tourists, however, will have to make history of their own as they have never managed to win in nine previous Tests at Old Trafford.India got through the first session without losing a wicket only for three batsmen to be dismissed before tea.The recalled Sai Sudharsan, dropped on 20, twice hooked fast bowler Jofra Archer for four in the evening session before Pant launched Brydon Carse for a superb straight six. But the aggressive Pant was hurt when attempting an audacious reverse sweep off a yorker-length delivery from paceman Chris Woakes.England appealed for lbw but a review revealed wicketkeeper Pant had got an inside edge before the ball deflected onto his right foot.Pant, who had made 37 off 48 balls, eventually limped into a buggy before being driven off the field, with India then 212-3.Soon afterwards Sudharsan fell for a well-made 61 when a top-edged swivel pull off a short ball from Stokes flew straight to Carse at long leg.Bad light ended play for the day at 1721 GMT, even though the floodlights were on and England were bowling spin at both ends.Jaiswal and fellow opener KL Rahul had previously defied difficult conditions and testing bowling from Woakes and Archer to take India to 78-0 at lunch.But Rahul had added just six more runs to his interval score of 40 when, trying to force Woakes off the back foot, he edged to Zak Crawley at third slip, leaving India 94-1.Jaiswal late-cut Carse for four to go to 49 before completing a 96-ball fifty.- Dawson glad to ‘do a job’ -Dawson, recalled after 21-year-old off-spinner Shoaib Bashir suffered a series-ending finger injury during England’s thrilling 22-run win in the third Test at Lord’s, did not bowl before lunch.But the 35-year-old, playing his first Test since 2017, needed just seven balls to strike on Wednesday when Jaiswal pushed forward defensively to a good-length delivery and edged to Harry Brook at first slip.”What you say today was what you get, not amazing but I do a job for the team,” the modest Dawson told Sky Sports after ending the day with 1-45 in 15 overs. He added: “I’m not getting any younger, so just try and enjoy it and take each day as it comes.”New batsman and India captain Shubman Gill, who had accused England of contravening “the spirit of cricket” with their time-wasting tactics during an ill-tempered match at Lord’s, was greeted with a chorus of boos from spectators as he walked out to the middle.But none of the ill-feeling between the teams in London was evident in Manchester on Wednesday. Gill’s brief stay ended when he was lbw for 12 playing no shot to opposing captain Stokes following a vociferous appeal from the all-rounder.He reviewed, but to no avail, with India now 140-3.His early exit means Gill has scored just 34 runs in his past three innings after scoring three hundreds in the first two Tests.India selected paceman Jasprit Bumrah again after previously announcing he would only play three Tests in the series.The policy was aimed at protecting the world’s top-ranked bowler following a back injury.Bumrah missed the second Test in Birmingham, which India won, but returned for the dramatic match at Lord’s.The fifth and final Test takes place at the Oval, starting on July 31.

Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul got India off to a solid start against England at Old Trafford on Wednesday in a must-win fourth Test for the tourists.India, invited to bat by England captain Ben Stokes, were 78-0 at lunch on the first day, with left-hander Jaiswal 36 not out and Rahul unbeaten on 40.Shubman Gill’s tourists, 2-1 down after three Tests, must win at Old Trafford if they are to keep alive their hopes of winning the five-match series.But India will have to make history as they have never managed to win in nine previous Tests at the Manchester ground.An overcast morning and green-tinged pitch encouraged Stokes to break with history by bowling first after the coin fell in his favour.No team winning the toss and bowling first has ever won a Test at Old Trafford.Chris Woakes and Jofra Archer subjected Jaiswal and Rahul to several testing overs early on.Jaiswal was fortunate when he edged the sixth ball of the day, from Woakes, through the slips for four.Woakes’ seven previous Tests at Old Trafford had yielded 35 wickets at just 17.37 apiece.But when the Warwickshire all-rounder dropped short, Rahul, fresh from a century in India’s 22-run defeat in the third Test at Lord’s, pulled him in front of square for a resounding boundary.And when Woakes over-pitched, Jaiswal off-drove him for four.Archer, after a miserly opening spell in which he conceded just seven runs in five overs, was replaced by Brydon Carse.The need for England to maintain an accurate line and length, despite the helpful conditions, was emphasised when Rahul square-cut a short and wide Carse delivery outside off stump for a stylish four.Stokes, player of the match at Lord’s and a renowned partnership-breaker, brought himself on in a bid to end India’s first-wicket stand.When Archer returned for a second spell, Jaiswal was hurried by a short ball which he inadvertently ramped for four as he sank to his knees when seemingly trying to evade the delivery.But there was no doubting Jaiswal’s intentions when he deliberately uppercut a short and wide Stokes delivery high over the cordon for six.Stokes persisted with an all-pace attack with spinner Liam Dawson, playing his first Test in eight years following an injury to Shoaib Bashir, not deployed before lunch.India selected paceman Jasprit Bumrah again even though they had previously announced he would only play three Tests in the series.The policy was aimed at protecting the world’s top-ranked bowler following a back injury.Bumrah missed the second Test in Birmingham, which India won, but returned for the dramatic match at Lord’s.The fifth and final Test takes place at the Oval, starting on July 31.India made three changes for the match at Old Trafford, with batsman Sai Sudharsan replacing Karun Nair, and Shardul Thakur and debutant Anshul Kamboj coming in for injured pacemen Nitish Kumar Reddy and Akash Deep.

India captain Shubman Gill accused England of ignoring the “spirit of cricket” after the hosts’ time-wasting tactics in the third Test at Lord’s sparked an angry flare-up between the teams.The tourists ought to have been able to bowl two overs late in the third day’s play of the third Test after being dismissed for 387 — exactly level with England’s first-innings total.Crawley, however, ensured there were only six deliveries from Jasprit Bumrah before stumps by twice withdrawing from his stance and then calling for the physio after the fifth ball appeared to make only minimal contact with his glove.Tempers flared as it became evident India would not be able to bowl another over before the close, with host broadcaster Sky Sports issuing an on-air apology after a stump microphone picked up Gill swearing angrily at Crawley.England went on to win a thrilling match by 22 runs to go 2-1 up in a five-match series.Gill, in his first campaign as India captain, addressed the issue on the eve of the fourth Test at Old Trafford.”A lot of people have been talking about it so let me just clear the air once and for all,” the 25-year-old Gill said on Tuesday.”The English batsmen on that day had seven minutes of play left, they were 90 seconds late to come to the crease, not 10, not 20, 90 seconds late. “Yes, most of the teams use this (delaying tactic), even if we were in this position we would have liked to play fewer overs but there’s a manner to do it. “If you get hit on your body, the physios are allowed to come on and that is something that is fair. But to be able to come 90 seconds late to the crease is not something that comes in the spirit of the game.”Gill admitted he was not proud of swearing at Crawley but said it took place in the context of rising tensions.”We had no intention of doing that whatsoever but you’re playing a game, you’re playing to win and there are a lot of emotions,” said the India skipper.”When you see there are things happening that should not happen, sometimes emotions come out of nowhere.”

Pakistan’s embattled football federation has appointed former Newcastle United cult hero Nolberto ‘Nobby’ Solano as coach of their national teams to try to improve their dreadful record of never qualifying for a major tournament.Solano, 50, who also played for Aston Villa and West Ham United in the English Premier League before retiring in 2012, was an assistant coach for his country Peru when they qualified for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.”We have hired the services of Solano with a hope that he will bring more energy and zest to the national players and lift our standings at the international level,” the Pakistan Football Federation president, Mohsen Gilani, said in a statement.The cricket-obsessed nation has reached the second round of Asian qualifying for the FIFA World Cup only once.Pakistan are 201st of 210 teams the in FIFA world men’s team rankings, and have sought to improve standards by inducting players of Pakistan heritage based in the UK.Pakistan football has suffered badly from political parties fighting over control of the federation, which receives a large annual grant from world governing body FIFA.The federation was for 10 years run by a FIFA-appointed committee and earlier this year briefly suspended for political interference ahead of elections in May.FIFA in 2021 banned Pakistan from playing international matches for 15 months, also for political interference in the federation.Solano’s first task will be with the under-23s men’s team, who are due to face Cambodia, Iraq and Oman in September in qualifying for the U23 Asian Cup next year.Solano’s first matches in charge of the senior team will be a double-header against Afghanistan in 2027 Asian Cup qualifying in October.Pakistan kicked off their campaign with a 2-0 away defeat to Syria in March and a 1-0 loss to Myanmar in Yangon last month.

A landslide triggered by torrential monsoon rains swept away cars in mountainous northern Pakistan, killing at least five people, with more vehicles buried under the debris, officials said Tuesday.Flash floods, collapsed buildings and electrocutions have killed 221 people nationwide since the monsoon season arrived in late June with heavier rains that usual.More than eight vehicles were swept away on Monday when heavy rains triggered a landslide on a highway in Diamer district, Gilgit-Baltistan region.”One local resident and four tourists have died and among the deceased is an unidentified woman,” Atta-ur-Rehman Kakar, a senior official in Diamer, said in a video statement Tuesday. Nearly 100 homes have been destroyed in the floods, and rescue operations were ongoing, he added.The region is a popular tourist destination, marked by towering mountains, deep valleys and wide rivers.Faizullah Faraq, spokesperson for the regional government, said hundreds of visitors have been rescued.”Government teams cleared debris and escorted them off the mountain road, while local villagers provided emergency shelter and assistance,” Faraq added. Floods and landslides in the area have blocked major highways, damaged communication signals, four bridges, a hotel and a school.Washed out buses used by tourists were left abandoned on the side of the road after the destruction caused by the landslides. Rescued families holding babies and carrying rucksacks sat on rocks while rescue teams handed them food at the scene of a landslide.- Lacking disaster management -Nationwide, the death toll from monsoon-related incidents since June 26 includes 104 children, while more than 500 people have been injured, Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Agency said Tuesday.A spokeswoman for the agency told AFP that the heavy rains usually start later in the monsoon season. “Such death tolls are usually seen in August, but this year the impact has been markedly different,” she said. Monsoon season brings South Asia 70 to 80 percent of its annual rainfall, and runs from late June until September in Pakistan.The annual rains are vital for agriculture and food security, and the livelihoods of millions of farmers, but also bring destruction. Sherry Rehman, the former climate change minister, pointed out “the absence of an effective, comprehensive disaster management system in the country”, in a statement released by her office.  In late June, at least 13 tourists were swept to their deaths while sheltering from flash floods on a raised river bank. In 2022, monsoon floods submerged a third of the country and killed 1,700 people.