Regional
New temple transforms India’s Ayodhya but Muslims feel neglected
In the northern Indian city of Ayodhya, which was once marred by communal tensions, labourers are finalizing a $6 billion infrastructure facelift ahead of the opening of a grand Hindu temple that is igniting an economic boom - which some of Ayodhya's poor and its Muslim community say is passing them by, Reuters reported.
City officials expect about 4.5 million tourists a month - more than Ayodhya's entire population of 3 million - once the first stage of Ram Mandir, as the temple is known, opens on Jan. 22 inside a sprawling complex of carved pink sandstone and white marble.
Ayodhya made international headlines in 1992 when a Hindu mob razed Babri mosque - where the Mandir will stand - saying it had been built on the site of an earlier Hindu temple. The incident sparked nationwide riots that left 2,000 people dead, most of them Muslims.
After decades of legal contests, India's Supreme Court in 2019 awarded the site to Hindu groups for temple construction.
While the $180 million temple project in Uttar Pradesh state is funded by donations, the state government - controlled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) - is pulling out all the stops.
The BJP - which had made construction of the temple a national campaign pledge - is in government spending billions on rebuilding Ayodhya, with a new international airport, parks, roads and bridges in the offing.
Hindu priest Rajendra Das says the temple - which believers say is built on the birthplace of Lord Ram, one of Hinduism's most sacred deities - has boosted Ayodhya's hospitality and real estate sectors like never before.
"Everyone will benefit by the temple," said Das, a 64-year-old dressed in a dhoti sarong. He is spending $120,000 to rebuild his tourist lodge - which is being demolished in the city's revamp - with bigger rooms that have more amenities.
"Foreign tourists and people from every nook and corner of India will come."
Reuters interviewed dozens of residents and businesspeople who said the Mandir is bringing a flood of new investment and prosperity to Ayodyha, though some complain of being left behind.
Locals whose property was demolished in redevelopment feel displaced by soaring land prices and scant compensation. And some from the city's sizeable Muslim community of an estimated 350,000 said they are not reaping the benefits of the boom.
BJP spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi denied that Muslim residents were being left out: "If roads are getting widened then Muslims will also use them. If electricity supply is getting fixed, Muslims will also benefit."
"This temple is expected to stand as one of the grandest Hindu temples, much like India's own Vatican City," said Lodha chief executive Samujjwal Ghosh, adding that businesses were marketing Ayodyha as a premium consumer product.
Each year, millions of Hindus travel to Indian temple cities like Varanasi and Tirupati, which have become tourist hotspots with thriving hospitality sectors.
The revamp, however, has upset many in the city's Muslim community. In its 2019 order, the Supreme Court also said authorities must allocate the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board, which advocates for Muslim rights, "suitable" land at a "prominent" place to build a new mosque.
The board was issued land 15 miles from the temple, just next to the city border. That effectively means Muslims are excluded from the development boom downtown, said Azam Qadri, president of Ayodhya district committee of the board.
When Reuters visited the site designated for the mosque, there was no construction or infrastructure development ongoing in the quiet surrounding area. A poster on a wall showcased the proposed design and read: "A Masterpiece In Making".
"Everyone is focused on the temple. There should have been focus on promoting mosques too," Qadri said.
Muslims still don't have wide acceptance in the city and even if the community tried to build hotels, Hindu religious tourists might not visit, he added.
Regional
At least 18 dead in retaliatory sectarian attacks in Pakistan
The latest killings in a tribal district began on Friday night, when armed men attacked a village in the district, said the chief secretary of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
At least 18 people were killed and 30 injured in further sectarian violence in northwestern Pakistan, officials said on Saturday, as tensions remained high following attacks on transport convoys that killed dozens of civilians this week, Reuters reported.
The latest killings in a tribal district began on Friday night, when armed men attacked a village in the district, said the chief secretary of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Nadeem Aslam Chaudhry.
"They set on fire petrol stations and damaged properties as part of revenge," he told Reuters by phone. He said he and top police officials would be visiting the area and engage tribal elders on both sides to restore order.
The toll since Thursday is 58 dead, read the report.
AFP reported on Saturday that 32 people were killed in the latest violence, citing an unnamed official.
On Thursday unidentified gunmen opened fire on passenger vehicles, killing over 40 in the Kurrram district, where armed Shia and Sunni Muslims have engaged in tribal and sectarian rivalry for decades over a land dispute near the Afghanistan border.
Most of the dead were Shiites, officials said, sparking retaliatory attacks by armed groups, with markets and schools remaining shut in a curfew-like situation, Reuters reported.
A police official requesting anonymity told Reuters that the death toll from the fresh violence could have been higher had residents of the village that was attacked not already evacuated their homes in anticipation of more violence.
He said the residents of Bagan village, a mostly Sunni area, had already left their homes and shifted to safe places in Lower Kurram.
Regional
Gunmen attack Pakistan passenger vehicles, killing at least 38 people
Gunmen opened fire on passenger vehicles in a tribal area in northwestern Pakistan on Thursday, killing at least 38 people and wounding 29, the chief secretary of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Nadeem Aslam Chaudhry, said.
Reuters reported that among the fatalities in the attack, which occurred in the Kurram tribal district, were a woman and a child, Chaudhry said, adding: “It’s a major tragedy and death toll is likely to rise."
No group claimed responsibility for the incident.
"There were two convoys of passenger vehicles, one carrying passengers from Peshawar to Parachinar and another from Parachinar to Peshawar, when armed men opened fire on them,” a local resident of Parachinar, Ziarat Hussain told Reuters by telephone, adding that his relatives were travelling from Peshawar in the convoy.
President Asif Ali Zardari, in a statement, strongly condemned the attack on passenger vehicles.
Regional
Pakistan’s ex-PM Imran Khan gets bail in state gifts case, his party says
A court in Pakistan granted bail to jailed former prime minister Imran Khan in a case relating to the illegal sale of state gifts, his party said on Wednesday.
Khan, 71, has been in prison since August 2023, but it was not immediately clear if the embattled politician would be released given that he faces a number of other charges too, including inciting violence against the state, Reuters reported.
"If the official order is received today, his family and supporters will approach the authorities for his release," one of his party's lawyers, Salman Safdar, told journalists. Safdar added that, as far as he knew, Khan had been granted bail or acquitted in all the cases he faced.
However, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar, a member of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party, told Geo TV Khan lacked bail in cases in which he is charged with planning riots by his supporters in the wake of his arrest in May last year.
Khan denies any wrongdoing, and alleges all the cases registered against him since he was removed from power in 2022 are politically motivated to keep him in jail.
The case in which he was granted bail on Wednesday by the Islamabad High Court is known as the Toshakhana, or state treasury case.
It has multiple versions and charges all revolving around allegations that Khan and his wife illegally procured and then sold gifts worth over 140 million rupees ($501,000) in state possession, which he received during his 2018-22 premiership.
Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, were both handed a 14-year sentence on those charges, following a three-year sentence handed to him in late 2023 in another version of the same case.
Their sentences have been suspended in appeals at the high court.
The gifts included diamond jewellery and seven watches, six of them Rolexes - the most expensive being valued at 85 million rupees ($305,000).
Khan's wife was released last month after being in the same prison as Khan for months.
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