India Launches Austerity Drive; Drone Strike Kills Four in South Waziristan; Afghanistan Burns 20 Tons of Illegal Drugs

India

Indian government launches austerity drive

The Indian finance ministry announced austerity measures on Thursday, and asked bureaucrats to cut down non-plan (discretionary) expenditure by 10 percent (NDTV, Economic Times). These measures include restrictions on holding meetings at five-star hotels, creating new positions in the government, first-class air travel, and new car purchases. The new measures also discourage departments from holding seminars abroad and encourage video conferencing. However, the austerity measures will not impact the defense budget, salaries and pensions, or interest and debt payments.

The finance ministry’s statement said: "Such measures are intended at promoting fiscal discipline, without restricting the operational efficiency of the government… In the context of the current fiscal situation, there is a need to continue to rationalize expenditure and optimize available resources" (Livemint). The Prime Minister Narendra Modi government has set a target of narrowing the fiscal gap to a seven-year low at 4.1 percent. In the 2013-14 year, the fiscal deficit was at 4.5 percent.

Indian man arrested for being gay

A 32-year-old man was arrested under Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in the city of Bangalore, located in the southern state of Karnataka, after his wife caught him on a spycam allegedly having sex with another man in their home, according to news reports on Wednesday (Hindustan Times). It was reported that the wife got suspicious of her husband when they did not engage in physical relations, slept in separate rooms, and many random men visited their home. The wife installed hidden cameras and caught her husband engaging in homosexual activities.

Sandip Patil, deputy commissioner of police, Central Division, Bangalore, said: "We think it is one of the first cases to come up under this section after the Supreme Court’s verdict last year" (BBC). Last year, the Indian Supreme Court overturned a high court decision that had termed Section 377, a 153-year-old British colonial law, unconstitutional. Section 377 of the IPC criminalizes sexual activities "against the order of nature," including homosexual acts.

Critically-acclaimed ‘Haider’ creates controversy

Bollywood director Vishal Bhardwaj’s Indian adaptation of Hamlet, titled "Haider" and set in Indian-administered Kashmir, has resulted in numerous controversies in India (NYT, Firstpost). Critically-acclaimed Haider focuses on the alleged human rights abuses in the northern state of Jammu and Kashmir, and highlights the alleged torturing and kidnapping of local youths by the Indian army. Kashmiri Hindus in Jammu burnt posters of the film and demanded an immediate ban on the movie. Meanwhile, Ghulam Hassan Shah, a 65-year-old Imam in a mosque in Srinagar was stopped from leading the evening prayers at his mosque, and was asked to leave for his ancestral village because it was un-Islamic for an Imam to appear in a film. Shah had briefly appeared in the film for three seconds.

Pakistan has also banned the screening of the film, as its censors claim that the movie was "against the ideology of Pakistan." The Hindu Front for Justice, a group of rightist lawyers, petitioned in court to seek a ban on the film, arguing that "Haider" was against "national interest." In response to the criticism Bhardwaj received for portraying the Indian Army in a negative light, the 48-year-old director said: "I’m also an Indian, I’m also a patriot, I also love my nation. So I won’t do anything which is anti-national. But what is anti-human, I will definitely comment on it" (BBC).

— Neeli Shah and Jameel Khan

Pakistan

Drone strike kills at least four in South Waziristan

A drone strike killed at least four militants on Thursday targeting a house near the town of Wana in South Waziristan (RFE/RL, Reuters, ET, Dawn). The strike reportedly killed a senior Arab commander, who Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper reported as named Adil. One local villager told Reuters: "We heard from local militants that there was a senior Arab commander but they didn’t mention his name." Another said there were "foreign guests" at the house. According to data collected by New America, there have been 17 drone strikes in Pakistan this year in which 115 people have been killed (NA). The United States’ drone campaign paused in early 2014, and no strikes were conducted in Pakistan until June. The number of strikes surged in early October with seven strikes in seven days between Oct. 5 and Oct. 11.

Cyclone Nilofar weakens

Cyclone Nilofar, which is 650 kilometers (404 miles) off of Karachi, has weakened and is unlikely to directly hit Pakistan, according to Pakistani meteorological officials (ET). Tauseef Alam, the chief meteorologist at the National Seismic Monitoring Centre in Karachi, told Express News that the cyclone would not directly hit Pakistan, passing it by to hit the Indian city of Gujarat instead. The cyclone was downgraded from category three to category two on Tuesday and it is expected to be further downgraded to a category one cyclone today. Despite the cyclone’s weakening, the Sindh government declared an emergency in ten of the province’s districts (Dawn).

Iran, Pakistan agree on pipeline plans

Iran and Pakistan agreed during a meeting in Tehran on Tuesday to look for ways to implement the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline despite U.S. opposition (ET). Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Pakistan’s federal minister for petroleum, told Pakistan’s Express Tribune newspaper: "I am hopeful that both parties can find a consolidated solution for the project despite threats of sanctions." The Pakistani delegation reportedly informed the Iranian delegation that American sanctions were the main challenge to implementing the pipeline.

Malala to donate World Children’s Prize to Gaza

Malala Yousafzai, who won the World Children’s Prize on Tuesday, announced on Wednesday that she would donate the $50,000 prize to help rebuild a United Nations Relief and Works Agency school in Gaza (ET). In her statement, Yousafzai said: "I am honored to announce all my World’s Children’s Prize money will go to help students and schools in an especially difficult place – in Gaza."  Pierre Krähenbühl, the UNRWA commissioner general thanked Malala, stating that her recognition: "will lift the spirits of a quarter of a million UNRWA students in Gaza and boost the morale of our more than 9,000 teaching staff there."

— David Sterman

Afghanistan

Afghanistan burns 20 tons of illegal drugs

On Wednesday, Afghan counternarcotics agents burned over 20 tons of illegal drugs that were seized over the last 9 months in Kabul including heroin, morphine, opium, and chemical products (Pajhwok). Opium poppy production in Afghanistan, which accounts for 80 percent of the world’s opium, has hit an all time high with over 3 million Afghans involved in the cultivation, production, and trafficking of poppy-derived drugs (NYT). Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, John F. Sopko, said: "The recent record-high level of poppy cultivation calls into question the long-term effectiveness and sustainability" of the U.S.-led counter-narcotics program (LAT).

Special court created for Kabul Bank prosecution

The Afghan Supreme Court announced on Wednesday the creation of a special court to expedite the inquiry into the reopening of the Kabul Bank case where prominent bank officials embezzled $900 million in 2010 (TOLO News, Pajhwok). Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, upon taking office, gave the attorney general six weeks to prosecute the case; individuals involved in the scandal have yet to be arrested and no court hearing has been held. Two of the individuals involved, the heads of the Milli Bank and the New Kabul Bank, recently were permitted by the Ministry of Finance and Central Bank to leave the country, but have yet to return following the attorney general’s summons.

Judicial reform underway

After his inauguration, Ghani gave the judiciary one month to enact judicial reforms and curtail corruption within the judicial system, the deadline of which has already passed but newly appointed Chief Justice Abdul Rashid Rashid says reforms are currently underway (TOLO News). As of Wednesday, almost 200 judges and 600 court employees have been fired for abuse of power, taking bribes, or the allegations such actions. The judicial system is the most corrupt public institution in Afghanistan, according to Transparency International.

— Courtney Schuster

Edited by Peter Bergen