The police in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh reported Monday the arrest of a schoolteacher on charges of supporting Maoists. The arrest led to protests by the local people, including students. 25-year-old school teacher Ramlal Nureti was arrested in Chhattisgarh after being apprehended from Karekatta village. The arrest was made based on his alleged involvement in [...]

The Supreme Court of India declined Monday to interfere in the Allahabad High Court ruling acquitting politician Ajay Mishra, who was charged with the murder of a student leader in 2000. Mishra is a Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs in the Government of India and is a member of the ruling [...]

Pakistan rejected Monday its designation as a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) by the United States State Department over religious freedom concerns in the South Asian country. The US State Department designated Pakistan as a CPC on January 4 following a recommendation from the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). The Pakistan Ministry of [...]

The Indian Supreme Court (SC) on Monday stayed the Bombay High Court’s (BHC) order directing the Election Commission of India (ECI) to conduct by-polls for the Pune constituency of India’s lower house of Parliament, Lok Sabha. Girish Bapat, a Member of Parliament from Pune, passed away in early 2022, creating a vacancy. The present Lok [...]

The Indian state of West Bengal’s Police registered three criminal complaints Sunday against unidentified individuals regarding an assault on Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials in the Sandeshkhali region of North 24 Parganas district. Furthermore, the ED officials have themselves been charged in one criminal complaint for alleged offences of criminal trespass and intending to outrage a [...]

The Supreme Court of India allowed a petition by Bilkis Bano on Monday against the premature release of convicts involved in the 2002 Gujarat communal riots. The 11 individuals were charged with the gangrape and murder of Bano family members and convicted in 2008. The court concluded that the writ petition filed under Article 32 [...]

The Pakistani Government raised concerns in a letter to The Economist on Friday regarding an article purportedly written by former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, who is currently in jail after a conviction in a corruption case. Khan questions the fairness of the upcoming general election in the piece. Murtaza Solangi, Pakistan’s Federal Caretaker Minister [...]

State police filed a criminal complaint on Friday against two editors and the managing director of the Hindi daily Prabhat Khabar, alleging forgery and the printing of defamatory material. The complaint follows threatening calls to one of them over the paper’s coverage of the liquor mafia and scams. The complaint against Chief Editor Ashutosh Chaturvedi, [...]

India Supreme Court dismissed Thursday a Special Leave Petition by the Indian National Congress, India’s largest opposition party, Spokesperson Pawan Khera, seeking quashing of a criminal complaint against him over remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A special leave petition, given under Article 136 of the Indian Constitution, is a request seeking permission to appeal [...]

The Taliban have arrested women in Afghanistan for wearing “bad hijab” for the first time since coming to power, according to voice notes received Thursday by the AP from a spokesperson from the Taliban government’s Vice and Virtue Ministry. A year after they took power in 2021, the Taliban issued a strict dress code. Spokesperson [...]