Buses, Fuel Truck Collision Kills 73 in Ghazni; Blogger, Rights Activist Killed in Karachi; India to Clear $6.4 Billion in Oil Payments to Iran

Event Notice: “Islamist Terrorism in Europe: A History,” Monday, May 9, 12:30 PM (New America)

Afghanistan

Bonus Read: “U.S. Role in Afghanistan Turns to Combat Again, With a Tragic Error,” by Matthew Rosenberg and Joseph Goldstein (NYT)

Bonus Read: “Haqqanis Steering Deadlier Taliban in Afghanistan, Officials Say,” by Mujib Mashal (NYT)

Buses, fuel truck collision kills 73 in Ghazni

A collision and subsequent explosion of two buses and a fuel truck in Ghazni province on the main highway that connects Kabul to Kandahar killed 73 people and wounded 50 others on Sunday (BBC, AP, NYT, Al Jazeera). The Associated Press reports that the director of the provincial traffic department, Mohammadullah Ahmadi, blamed the crash on reckless driving. Reports from Afghan officials cite a passenger count of 125-140 passengers on the two buses. An Al Jazeera reporter notes that the drivers of the two buses and fuel tanker may have been speeding to avoid attacks from the Taliban, who maintain checkpoints along the road the buses and tanker were travelling. He said, “It looks like the bus driver was trying to avoid any Taliban checkpoints, and the tanker driver was trying not to be ambushed by the Taliban.”

Afghan government executes six Taliban prisoners

The Afghan government hanged six Taliban prisoners, convicted of terror-related crimes, in the Pul-e-Charkhi Prison in Kabul on Sunday (NYT, Al Jazeera, Post, Reuters). These were the first executions of President Ashraf Ghani’s tenure, and come in the aftermath of the April 19 truck bombing at Kabul’s National Directorate of Security (NDS) that was carried out by the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani network and killed 64 people. Executions had been stopped during former president Hamid Karzai’s administration as a way to get the Taliban to the negotiating table for peace negotiations. Before the executions occurred, the Taliban warned of “serious repercussions” if they were to be carried out.

Two Romanian soldiers killed in inside attack in Kandahar

On Saturday, two men wearing Afghan security forces uniforms opened fire on and killed two Romanian coalition troops at an Afghan compound in Kandahar (Post, Long War Journal, Telegraph/AFP). Another coalition service member was wounded. The Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs acknowledged the deaths via their Twitter page. The military coalition released a statement saying, “Two Resolute Support (Nato) service members died this morning when two individuals wearing Afghan uniforms opened fire… in southern Afghanistan. Resolute Support members returned fire and killed the shooters.” This “green-on-blue” attack – when Afghan forces kill international operators – is the first in more than a year. The Taliban nor other insurgent groups have yet claimed responsibility.

Pakistan

Blogger, rights activist killed in Karachi

Khurram Zaki, a prominent blogger and rights activist who actively opposed the Taliban and other Islamist groups, was shot and killed in Karachi on Saturday night by four unidentified gunmen on motorbikes (NYT, Reuters). He was 40 years old. The Hakeemullah group, a faction of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack in a phone call to Reuters and said it was carried out due to Zaki’s campaigning against Maulana Abdul Aziz, a prominent Sunni cleric of Islamabad’s Red Mosque. A statement on the website that Zaki helped run said he had been “a target of a systematic hate campaign” by an Islamist political leader and another Pakistani Taliban-affiliated group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. Asad Iqbal Butt, a member of the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said, “Being an activist in Pakistan is highly risky, as the state has yet to eliminate the sectarian militias that kill with impunity.”

Pakistani economy is growing but remains restrictive

According to the Express Tribune, Pakistani’s economic growth outlook is at 4.5 percent for the current financial period, up from 4.2 percent at the current time last year (ET). This is due in part to the energy-starved country’s easier access to oil due to low prices, and Islamabad’s subscription to the International Monetary Fund’s program giving easier access to credit in exchange for more fiscal discipline. However, according to the World Bank’s Overall Trade Restrictiveness Index, Pakistan remains the world’s seventh-most restrictive and protective economy due to high tariffs on imported goods.

Son of Pakistani immigrants elected London’s first Muslim mayor

Sadiq Khan, the son of two Pakistani immigrants, was elected London’s first Muslim mayor and sworn in on Saturday (NYT, Intercept). Khan, a member of the Labour Party, received wide praise for an election that saw him win 1.3 million votes in his defeat of the Conservatives’ Zac Goldsmith. On Twitter, Khan received congratulations from British Conservatives like business secretary Sajid Javid, also a son of a bus driver and a second-generation Pakistani.

India

Bonus Read: “”‘I have to be taller’: the unregulated world of India’s limb-lengthening industry,” by Vidhi Doshi (Guardian)

Bonus Read: “These beasts are beauties: India holds bovine beauty pageant,” by Rishabh R. Jain (Post)

India to clear $6.4 billion in oil payments to Iran

India’s Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Friday that the central banks of India and Iran have reached an arrangement to use European banks to process pending oil payments to Iran (Reuters). Payments to Iran were being held in India after sanctions were imposed in 2011 over Iran’s nuclear program and the international banking channels were not available to transfer funds. Iran hopes the lifting of sanctions earlier this year will lead to capital inflows in the country and the revival of its economy. Payments from India to Iran that will be cleared through European banks are estimated to be approximately $6.4 billion.

Protests over lawmaker’s son’s deadly road rage

Protesters in the eastern Indian state of Bihar are demanding the arrest of Rocky Yadav, a state legislator’s 20-year-old son after he allegedly shot and killed a student in a road rage incident (BBC). Local media reports indicate that Yadav was traveling with his security guard near the town of Gaya on Saturday night when he got angry over another vehicle overtaking him and started firing at it, killing Aditya Sachdeva, the son of a local businessman. Bindeshwari Prasad Yadav, Rocky’s father, and the security guard have been arrested for allegedly helping Rocky Yadav abscond. They maintain that Rocky Yadav was defending himself after occupants of the other car attacked him. Rocky Yadav’s mother, Manorama Devi, is a member of the state legislature, belonging to Janata Dal (United), the governing party in Bihar.

Draft law regarding maps leaked online

On Thursday, a draft law regarding drawing of maps of the Indian state was uploaded on the Ministry of Home Affairs’s website before being quickly removed for unknown reasons (Post, HT, Hindu). The proposed law would define India’s international borders and punish offenders (defined as anyone who draws India’s borders differently), with up to seven years in jail or fines ranging from $150,000 to $15 million. It would also require all individuals and companies producing maps in India, and all Indian citizens doing so globally, to procure a license from the Indian government. India has longstanding border disputes with both Pakistan and China.

–Albert Ford and Shuja Malik

Edited by Peter Bergen

STR/AFP/Getty Images