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China trying to disconnect Tibetan students from their culture and religion

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Chinese authorities are sending Tibetan students back to their homes from monasteries. These Chinese actions are said to affect their connection with their religion and culture.

The move, announced in a Religious Affairs Regulation on Oct. 1, has already seen monks aged 11 to 15 years expelled from Dhitsa monastery in Qinghai, historically a part of northeastern Tibet’s Amdo region, a source in the area told Radio Free Asia in a written message.

“Also, young monks in Jakhyung monastery and other monasteries in Qinghai have been forced to give up their robes and are being sent back home,” RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Government officials are now inspecting these monasteries to make sure the regulation is being obeyed.”

Enforcement of the new rule was launched on Oct. 20, “and higher-up officials have been very strict in implementing it,” the source said, adding that the number of young monks expelled so far under the regulation is still unclear.

“But they are being told they can’t return to the monasteries or wear monks’ robes anymore, and whether they will now be sent to government schools or not is also unclear,” he said. “None of them were forced to become monks, and they enrolled in the monasteries with their parents’ consent.”

Authorities in Tibetan-populated regions of neighboring Sichuan had already begun three years ago to remove young monks from their monasteries so they could return to government-run schools and learn to “serve society,” Tibetan sources told RFA in earlier reports.

Chinese government forcing disabled Tibetans to Denounce Dalai Lama in order to stay in job

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The notice, a copy of which has been obtained by RFA, also requires applicants for jobs including drivers, office cleaners, kitchen helpers, and other kinds of support staff to “support the [ruling Chinese Communist] Party’s leadership and socialist system.”

“Job seekers with disabilities must abide by the Constitution and laws of the People’s Republic of China,” the recruitment notice goes on to say.

Chinese demands that even disabled Tibetans now meet political qualifications to find work “shows the CCP’s sense of deep insecurity,” U.S.-based China analyst Ganze Lama Kyab told RFA’s Tibetan Service in a recent interview.

“It underscores that in Tibet, the Chinese government’s top priority is political correctness as a number-one requirement for hiring. Anyone who doesn’t toe the official Chinese policy line has no chance for a livelihood now in Tibet,” he said.

Tibetans seeking work as auxiliary police officers in Tibetan areas of China have also been barred from employment over a wide range of concerns, with recruiters told to disqualify anyone engaging in “separatist activities” or having family members who have left Tibet to go into exile abroad, sources told RFA in earlier reports.

“My younger brother tried to enroll in the Chinese police force,” a former resident of Tibet’s Chamdo prefecture now living in India told RFA’s Tibetan Service, adding, “But because I’m now in India, they have denied my brother the job.”

Tibetans wanting to join the Chinese army must also have no record of engaging in Tibetan political activities, Shide Dawa—a researcher at the Tibetan exile government-connected Tibet Policy Institute in Dharamsala, India—said.

“The Chinese crackdown on Tibetans for their loyalty and devotion to the Dalai Lama is in violation of international laws as well as a breach of freedom of speech and worship,” Dawa said, adding, “It even goes against China’s own laws, including its regional ethnic autonomy laws.”

Regarded by Chinese leaders as a dangerous separatist, the Dalai Lama fled Tibet into exile in India in the midst of a failed 1959 Tibetan national uprising against rule by China, which marched into the formerly independent Himalayan region in 1950.

Displays by Tibetans of the Dalai Lama’s photo, public celebrations of his birthday, and the sharing of his teachings on mobile phones or other social medial are often harshly punished.

Chinese authorities meanwhile maintain a tight grip on Tibet and on Tibetan-populated regions of western China, restricting Tibetans’ political activities and peaceful expression of cultural and religious identities, and subjecting Tibetans to imprisonment, torture, and extrajudicial killings.

Tibetans allege Beijing’s climate action plan hurts their livelihoods, traditions, rights

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Tibetans have alleged that the Beijing government is trying to strip them off their lands under the garb of climate mitigation efforts. They said they were forced to give up ownership of their land as well as stopped from using grazing fields. All this is expected to jeopardize the basic rights and hurt the livelihoods of the Tibetans living in Tibet. The Chinese government has started revoking land permits and confiscating farmlands and grazing grounds under the Grassland Preservation Policy. Water resources from Tibet take care of China’s water needs, which has caused Beijing to declare grasslands as national parks. All this has disrupted the lives and the livelihoods of Tibetan people. Tibet is a part of the Third Pole– Earths’ largest store of glaciers, ice and permafrost. Thus urbanization and disrupting the traditional likelihoods in Tibet are going to have huge negative COP26 Summit in Glasgow.

Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) said China was punishing Tibetans in the name of climate action and reducing carbon emissions. China is relocating and resettling nomadic pastoralists from highlands to urban areas, which can lead to loss of land tenure security, food security and a host of other collective rights, it said. TCHRD said the climate action component, eco-compensation, had contradictory meaning in China’s way of doing it since it leads to the expulsion of Tibetan from their homelands. “Instead of compensating Tibetans for the loss of permafrost and wetlands, due to climate change driven by China’s emissions; and for the costs of increasing flooding, lake overtopping and extreme weather, China uses its adoption of Natural Ecological Capital Accounting to relocate Tibetans away from their lands,” the TCHRD said in its report named Unsustainable Futures.

China’s programme to address climate change involved restructuring Tibetan’s way of life even as allowing an intensive, industrial, market-based economy in other parts of the country, TCHRD said. This can affect long-term livelihood resilience among the affected communities. “Nomadic pastoralists are already vulnerable to climate induced disasters and calamities, the frequency of which has only accelerated in recent years. As if this is not enough, official policies aimed at environmental conservation prevent Tibetan nomads from pursuing a sustainable 33 livelihood and exercising autonomous agency, which is the foundation of human rights and personal dignity,” reads the TCHRD report. Also, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Chinese authorities were found to be relocating Tibetan nomadic herders forcefully– physical as well as by creating unfavourable conditions.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) had in 2019 warned that the rate of warming in Tibet was at triple the speed of the rest of the world was experiencing warming. Yet China continued with extensive infrastructure building across the Tibetan Plateau. “Despite the fragility of the high-altitude ecosystem and the stark threats spelled out by the IPCC, China has intensified infrastructure construction across Tibet to further open up the landscape and extract Tibet’s natural resources. Such projects include a network of strategic rail routes and major damming and hydropower projects, the effects of which are likely to be irreversible,” said International Campaign for Tibet.

China is the biggest polluter as it releases more greenhouse gases Tibet than the combined share of other countries. And China contribution is set to increase significantly as it has boosted coal-based power generation in the wake of the unprecedented power crisis. Naturally, China finds itself at the centre stage as different countries begin negotiations for a comprehensive and balanced outcome for a coordinated climate action plan. Thus, China is using Tibet to show that it is taking mitigation measures to repair reputation damage. This however has in turn affected poor and naive Tibetan’s livelihoods, their traditions, and their basic rights, said CHRD researcher Tenzin leadership role in global climate management.

Beijing: Tibetan lives improved because of CCP

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Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, India: According to the book released on Chinese National Day, the life of Tibetans is improved due to Chinese Communist Party. The claims come from vague history.

Tibet’s exiled leader Sikyong Pema Tsering has refuted claims made by China in a White Paper, “Tibet Since 1951: Liberation, Development and Prosperity,” released in May, Radio Free Asia reported.


“It is not 70 years of liberation, but in fact 70 years of suppression and oppression,” the exiled leader said at the event held to launch a book titled ‘Tibet: 70 years of occupation and oppression.


“In the last 70 years, the Chinese government has constantly subjugated the Tibetans inside Tibet in the name of infrastructure development and evolution,” Sikyong Pema added.


“The subjugation of Tibetans is pursued by means of increased securitization, intensified surveillance and a narrative on development, all of which are used as a political tool to integrate Tibet with China,” The exiled government was quoted as saying by Radio Free Asia.


A few days ago, the Tibetan Community of Switzerland and Liechtenstein (TCSL) had also organised a peace march in protest against China for the deteriorating human rights situation in Tibet.


The march was taken out from the UN Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights to the building of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on September 24.


Tibet has been ranked as the second least free region in the world, according to the latest report “Freedom in the World 2021: A Leaderless Struggle for Democracy,” based on a study of political freedom around the world.
Tibet was a sovereign state before China’s invasion in 1950 when the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) entered northern Tibet.

110 Tibetans detained for taking video of horse festival

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Lhasa, Tibet: China is continuing to harass people of Tibet. 110 Tibetans have been detained for taking video of local horse racing festival.

As of now, 80 Tibetans have been released after being forced to pay a monetary fine but details of 30 detainees remain unknown, reported Phayul citing Tibet Watch.

An anonymous source on the report revealed, “Local Chinese authorities held a meeting with the villagers around 9.30 in the morning.

During the meeting, they asked all the villagers to put their mobile phones in a box on the table and later conducted a search operation.

It was reported that eleven police officers were present at the meeting and they called out names of 110 people and took them to the police station.”Many local Tibetans were interrogated for the online content on the horse-racing festival on August 9. According to the report, 80 detained Tibetans had to pay a fine of 5000 yuan for their release.

However, prior to the event, Chinese officials had issued a notice to the attendees, warning them with monetary fines and required weekly presence at the police, if they take photos or videos of the officials at the preparation or share them online.

Chinese troops occupied Tibet in 1950 and later annexed it. The 1959 Tibetan uprising saw violent clashes between Tibetan residents and Chinese forces. The 14th Dalai Lama fled to neighbouring India after the failed uprising against Chinese rule. The Dalai Lama, the supreme Tibetan Buddhist leader, established a government-in-exile in India.

There are, at present, more than 10,000 Tibetans living in Dharamsala alone, and an estimated 160,000 Tibetan exiles around the world.

Since becoming President in 2013, Xi has pursued a firm policy of stepping up security control of Tibet. Beijing has been cracking down on Buddhist monks and followers of the Dalai Lama.

The United States has been raising the issue of human rights violations in Tibet on various platforms.

Recently, US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman visited China to meet Chinese officials. She raised concerns about human rights violations in Tibet, Hong Kong and Eastern Turkestan.

China is having an eye on South China sea with underwater surveillance system. It has also spread the servers in international waters.  

Many of the radars are floating in Chinese water but some are in international waters. Associate Fellow at the Asia-Pacific Programme at Chatham House Bill Hayton told Express.co.uk: “Over the past few years, China has put in place a whole load of systems; satellite, radar, and underwater systems to try and observe what’s going on in the South China Sea.

“Obviously they built these seven new artificial islands on coral reefs in the Spratly Islands and that adds to other things they’ve built elsewhere.

“That gives them a pretty good view of what’s happening around them and even over the horizon.

“This allows them to send ships whether they be Navy or coastguard ships or militia to stop things they don’t like.

“For example, to stop other countries fishing or monitor warships from other countries passing through.”

Developed countries must have climate change solution

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After the UN repot released, Prime Minister of Australia mentioned the need of climate solutions in developing countries as the emission in such countries is increasing.

China accounts for roughly 30 per cent of the world’s carbon emissions, pumping out twice the amount of the US which makes up about 15 per cent.

Australia makes up about 1.2 per cent of global emissions, with the second-highest rate per person after Canada.

China accounts for roughly 30 per cent of the world’s carbon emissions, pumping out twice the amount of the US which makes up about 15 per cent. Pictured: Beijing in February 2021

‘We cannot ignore the fact that the developing world accounts for two thirds of global emissions and those emissions are rising,’ Mr Morrison said. 

‘That is a stark fact. It is also a clear fact that China’s emissions account for more than the OECD combined.’

ScoMo’s green energy revolution 

These are the technologies the government is pursuing to combat climate change:

Hydrogen: Can be used to heat buildings, power factories and even run cars with no emissions

Electricity storage: Huge batteries can store energy generated by solar and wind power so it can be released at peak times

Low carbon materials: Steel and aluminium made by burning hydrogen instead of coal to reduce carbon emissions

Mr Morrison said it would not be fair to impose climate-related taxes on developing nations because advanced economies developed by burning fossil fuels over the past century. 

Instead, he wants to develop new low-emission technologies and export them overseas. 

‘The Australian approach is not to tax them or deny them the employment and the jobs and the industries that they should have,’ he said.

‘World history teaches one thing. Technology changes everything! That is the game changer.’ 

The sixth United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment released on Monday night shows global warming of at least 1.5C above pre-industrial levels is anticipated within 20 years.

Climate scientists expect 1.5C to be reached in the early 2030s.

The worst-case projection shows warming of between 3.3C and 5.7C between 2081 and 2100, with a best estimate of about 4.4C.

Australian land areas have already warmed 1.4C and worsening climate change will only intensify destructive fires, floods, droughts, cyclones and coral bleaching.

IPCC vice-chair and Australian National University climate change institute director Mark Howden warned: ‘We’re heading into a bad place.’

‘We’re already in that zone where we’re experiencing extremes pretty much everywhere in Australia and pretty much every year,’ he told ABC radio.

‘What Covid-19 has shown us is that hard and fast and smart action really benefits everyone in health terms, in economic terms.

‘It’s exactly the same for climate change.’

If temperatures continue to rise, there could be devastating effects here on Earth, including a dramatic loss of sea-life, an ice-free Arctic and more regular ‘extreme’ weather

The Morrison government has not committed to reaching net zero emissions by 2050 in response to the report and maintains this target is a preference.

‘I don’t make blank cheque commitments. I leave that to others,’ Mr Morrison said. 

‘Blank cheque commitments you always end up paying for. And you always end up paying for it in high taxes. That’s what the alternative approach is. That’s not my approach.’ 

The Prime Minister said he would make sure that regional Australians including farmers and miners would not lose jobs as a result of climate change action.

‘Regional communities should not be forced to carry the national burden and I won’t let them,’ he said. 

‘I will ensure that we have a plan that addresses the need for jobs, and industries, that can be supported by new energy technologies both now and into the future. 

‘I will not be asking people in the regions of this country to carry the burden for the country alone. 

‘I will be ensuring that we have a plan that addresses their critical needs, that addresses their anxieties, and seeks to bring the whole country with us on this very important task that we have together.’ 

Australia is projected to cut emissions 29 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, compared with its Paris Agreement target of between 26 and 28 per cent.

Globally, current commitments are not consistent with keeping global temperatures to 1.5C or even below 2C.

This requires immediate, rapid, drastic and sustained cuts to greenhouse gas emissions.

Australia’s reductions to date have been helped along by reductions in land clearing and mechanisms put in place under Labor.

An Aircrane water bombing helicopter drops water on a bushfires in Harrington, 335km north east of Sydney on November 8, 2019

‘Looking at the core fossil fuel-based sectors, the emissions from those have actually gone up within that period and at the moment they’re pretty much flatlining,’ Professor Howden said.

‘There’s no real evidence that our current policy settings are actually working to driving down our emissions.’

Deputy Labor leader Richard Marles urged meaningful action on climate change.

He also maintained coal had a role to play in Australia’s economy for some time to come.

Greens leader Adam Bandt said getting climate change under control would protect farmers and food production.

Businesses wanted state and federal governments on the same page when it came to climate change.

‘We shouldn’t have states and federal government go off in totally different directions. That just impacts on investment,’ Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox said.

The UN Environment Programme director Inger Andersen lamented the world’s failure to heed decades of warnings.

‘The world listened, but didn’t hear. The world listened, but it did not act strongly enough,’ she told the global launch of the IPCC’s sixth assessment.

‘And as a result, climate change is a problem that is here, now. Nobody’s safe and it’s getting worse faster.’ 

Tibetan teacher completes his 20 year long sentence last week, no news of him after his release

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World has always been suspicious about the Chinese detention camps and forced punishments. Last week a school teacher was released after completing his 20 years of sentence. A Tibetan rights group is warried about his safety as nobody has heard anything from him after his release.

Bangri Rinpoche, a Tibetan religious teacher also known as Jigme Tenzin Nyima, was handed a life sentence in a trial held on Sept. 26, 2000 that was commuted to a 19-year term on July 31, 2003, the Dharamsala, India-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said on August 1.

His term was due to end on July 31, but nothing has been heard of his release, Tenzin Dawa—a TCHRD researcher—told RFA on Monday.

“We all know that Bangri Rinpoche has spent 22 years of his life in prison, and even though he has completed his prison term we don’t know whether he has been released or not, or anything about his current health conditions,” Dawa said.

“Since we haven’t heard anything about his release, we are very concerned right now” Dawa said, adding, “It is a well-known fact that Tibetan prisoners are treated inhumanely inside Chinese prisons.”

“The Chinese government should immediately clarify [Bangri Rinpoche’s] status, whereabouts, and well-being,” he said.

Manager of an orphanage and school in Tibet’s capital Lhasa that gave instruction in the Tibetan language, Chinese language, English language, and mathematics, Bangri Rinpoche was arrested with his wife Nyima Choedron in August 1999 in connection with an alleged plot by a worker at the school to raise the banned Tibetan national flag in the city’s main square and then blow himself up with explosives.

Choedron’s ten-year sentence was later commuted, and she was released in February 2006, TCHRD said.

The orphanage was closed almost immediately following their arrest.

Formerly an independent nation, Tibet was invaded and incorporated into China by force 70 years ago.

Language rights have become a particular focus for Tibetan efforts to assert national identity in recent years, with informally organized language courses in the monasteries and towns typically deemed “illegal associations” and teachers subject to detention and arrest, sources say.

Taliban getting non tolerant towards Muslim

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Kabul: With time, the oppression of Taliban has increased and the non-Muslim tolerance has decreased said the President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani

 President Ashraf Ghani said that the Taliban have become more oppressive and non-Muslim as compared to the past and have no will for peace.

Ghani told the first digital cabinet meeting on Sunday that despite the Taliban’s reluctance to make peace, he is confident that the security situation would return to normal within the next six months. Ghani emphasized that the security of cities is a priority for the government.

He said that the Taliban had allowed international insurgent groups to enter Afghanistan. The president said that people in some parts of the country are dissatisfied with the government, but added that the government wants the constitution to be implemented properly so that the people are satisfied.

He added that despite the Taliban’s efforts, the Afghan people have shown that they have sided with the security and defense forces. Ghani accused the Taliban of lying and said the group would not enter peace talks until the country’s security situation changed. Ghani’s remarks come at a time when the war is intensifying in most provinces of the country and the number of civilian and military casualties is increasing daily.

Also, security officials in Badakhshan province have confirmed that a roadside bomb had exploded in the provincial capital, Faizabad city. Badakhshan police spokesperson Sanaullah Rouhani told Hashte Subh daily that the incident took place before noon on Sunday, near the “Mazar restaurant” in Shahr-e Naw, the PD3 of Faizabad.

According to Rouhani, no one was injured in the attack. Eyewitnesses told Hashte Subh daily that the explosion took place on a police ranger in the alley leading to the Badakhshan police headquarters and damaged the houses around the scene. However, a number of Faizabad residents have complained that the police are negligent in providing security. This is the second mine explosion in the city of Faizabad in central Badakhshan. No individual or group has claimed responsibility for this incident

Meanwhile, the counter-narcotics and Border Police officers arrested a man on Saturday in connection with drug trafficking from Hamid Karzai International Airport during an operation.

sDetained person wanted to smuggle more than seven kilograms of “methamphetamine” type drugs abroad through the airport customs, which was identified and seized by the police. In connection with this case, another person from the PD8 of Kabul was arrested.

Kabul: The Parwan Police has announced that the Taliban offensive in the Jabal Saraj district of the province has been repulsed by security forces and popular uprising forces. A statement issued by Parwan police on Sunday said that the Taliban attacked army checkpoints in the village of Shatotak in Jabal Saraj district of Parwan province at around 12:00pm on Sunday, which was met with resistance from security forces.

According to the statement, the Taliban suffered heavy casualties in the clash and the group’s fighters fled the area. Two Taliban fighters have been killed in the district as a result of resistance by security forces and popular uprisings. Parwan police have confirmed the wounding of an army soldier. The Taliban have not yet commented.

On the other hand, a security source confirmed that one policeman and two civilians were killed as a result of shooting by unidentified gunmen in Kabul’s PD5. The source, who did not want to be named in the news, told the Etilaat roz daily on Sunday that the incident took place in the “Company” area of the PD5. According to the source, unidentified gunmen opened fire at a police vehicle and fled the area. One policeman and two other civilians were injured in the incident. He did not elaborate on the identities of those killed or injured in the incident.

Also, unidentified gunmen killed Khairullah Khaksar, a religious scholar, in PD4 of Jalalabad city, Nangarhar province on Sunday. Provincial governor’s spokesman Attaullah Khogyani told Etilaat Roz daily that the incident happened at around 10:30am and the perpetrators fled. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the incident.

Meanwhile, the National Directorate of Security (NDS) has clarified how four journalists were detained in Kandahar province. On Sunday, the NDS said in a statement that Bismillah Watandost, head of Sadaye Milat radio; Qudratullah Soltani, and Mohibullah Obaidi, employees of the radio, and Sanaullah Siam, a correspondent, at the house of General Abdul Raziq, met with Taliban leaders, including Mullah Gul Agha, intelligence chief of Taliban, Mawlavi Manzoor, Gen. Mobin, and Faizullah, two employees of Pakistani ISI, Mullah Yaqub Omari, son of Mullah Mohammad Omar, Taliban military chief, and got an exclusive interview.

NDS added in the statement that the purpose of the meeting and interview was to not expose the ugliness of Taliban, but to glorify the Taliban. According to national security sources, the detained journalists were trying to ignore the “inhumane acts of this terrorist group” in various provinces, including the Spin Boldak incident in Kandahar, in order to change public opinion in favor of the Taliban.

National Security officials also said that the preliminary results of the investigation show that these journalists have committed various violations in the past and extorted money from government officials and businessmen. Bismillah Watandost, head of Sadaye Millat radio, recently called the governor of Kandahar and encouraged him to surrender so that the Taliban could offer Eid prayers at the Kandahar provincial headquarters.

In addition, NDS has asserted that a number of these media outlets and journalists were involved in illegal activities. The agency explained that Sadaye Millat radio was not licensed to broadcast by the Ministry of Information and Culture and was operating illegally. In addition, China’s Xinhua news agency, said it was unaware of the presence of a journalist named Sanaullah Siam at the agency, saying that the reporter had misused the agency’s name and was engaging in illegal activities.

However, according to the NDS, the Kandahar governor wrote a letter to the NDS requesting the arrest of the “unknown” journalists. The organization has said that the case of these journalists has been completed and will soon be sent to the judicial authorities, so that these institutions can process their cases in accordance with the rulings and the applicable law of the country. NDS has emphasized that in accordance with the laws in force in the country, anyone who spreads propaganda during the war to raise the morale of the enemy and destroy the morale of the defense and security forces, has committed a crime and the security, justice and judiciary deals with it in accordance with the provisions of the law.

National Security officials added that it does not allow any person in the media to deviate from the constitution, abuse its freedom of expression and media values, as well as spread propaganda for terrorist groups. It has warned that it will take legal action if it sees propaganda that includes defamatory content from the enemy, as well as propaganda in favor of terrorist groups.

In other news, the entrance exam for the National Military Academy of Marshall Fahim National Defense University was held on Sunday with the participation of about 5,000 male and female volunteers from all over the country in the presence of Gen. Wali Mohammad Ahmadzai, Chief of Army Staff and under the supervision of the National Examinations Office.

Ahmadzai appreciated the great enthusiasm and interest of the youth to join the ranks of the ANA, and said, “In the critical situation when you came to join the ranks of the Defense Forces, you performed your religious and patriotic obligation. You will be professionally assigned to the serious tasks of defending the homeland.” Rawzatullah Majidi, Head of the National Examination Authority Board, assured the candidates of ensuring justice and transparency in the examination process. Candidates also expressed their full satisfaction with the transparency of the exam.

Meanwhile, Iran has called on its citizens to leave Afghanistan as soon as possible, citing escalating security threats. The Iranian embassy in Kabul on Sunday wrote in a statement that all Iranian citizens in different provinces of Afghanistan except Kabul must leave the country.

The embassy said in a statement that its citizens can travel to Kabul only in emergencies and refuse to travel to other provinces. According to the embassy’s statement, the trip of Iranian citizens to Afghanistan should be in coordination with the Iranian embassy in Kabul.

Blinken meets representative of Dalai Lama in India

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NEW DELHI: Beijing considers the Tibetan spiritual leader a dangerous separatist, risking the China’s anger the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met a representative of the Dalai Lama in New Delhi

Blinken met briefly with Ngodup Dongchung, who presented him with a scarf from the Dalai Lama, a senior State Department official said. Dongchung serves as a representative of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), also known as the Tibetan government in exile.

“The Dalai Lama obviously is a globally revered spiritual leader and so the gesture was gratefully received and appreciated,” said the official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity.

The meeting was one of the most conspicuous contacts between U.S. and Tibetan officials since President Barack Obama met the Dalai Lama in Washington in 2016.

China’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Chinese troops seized Tibet in 1950 in what Beijing calls a “peaceful liberation”. In 1959, the Dalai Lama fled into exile in India following a failed uprising against Chinese rule.

The CTA and Tibetan advocacy groups have received a boost in international support in recent months amid rising criticism of China’s human rights record, particularly from the United States. In November, Lobsang Sangay, the former head of the Tibetan government in exile, visited the White House, the first such visit in six decades.

A month later, the U.S. Congress passed the Tibet Policy and Support Act, which calls for the right of Tibetans to choose the successor to the Dalai Lama, and the establishment of a U.S. consulate in the Tibetan capital Lhasa.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Ambassador to India Atul Keshap deliver remarks to civil society organization representatives in a meeting room at the Leela Palace Hotel in New Delhi, India, July 28, 2021. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

In his first visit to India since joining U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration, Blinken met his Indian counterpart, Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, and other officials on Wednesday before calling on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The two sides also discussed supplies of COVID-19 vaccines and the human rights records of both countries, the ministers told a joint news conference, as well as the Quad alliance, a security group that also includes Australia and Japan and has also angered China.

Asked about China taking umbrage at Indo-pacific security cooperation and the Quad, Jaishankar told the news conference: “For groups of countries to work together is not strange…. People need to get over the idea that somehow other countries doing things is directed against them.”

Speaking to a group of civil society leaders at a New Delhi hotel, Blinken said that the relationship between the United States and India was “one of the most important in the world”.

“The Indian people and the American people believe in human dignity and equality of opportunity, the rule of law, fundamental freedoms including freedom of religion and belief . . . these are the fundamental tenets of democracies like ours,” he said.

“And of course, both of our democracies are works in progress. As friends we talk about that.”

Pak: Islamabad High Court pay salary to missing person’s family

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ISLAMABAD (APP): Islamabad High Court (IHC) held the hearing of the missing citizens case and asked the authorities to implement the court decision in case pertaining to a missing citizen.

The court instructed the government to pay the amount to victim Imran Khan’s family on monthly basis equal to his last salary as compensation and submit compliance report on the next hearing.

Chief Justice Athar Minallah, hearing the case, questioned why the court orders were not complied yet as it had issued directives in this regard on June 30.

Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Syed Tayyab Shah, on the occasion, adopted the stance that the interior ministry through a letter had asked the mother of missing person to submit last salary slip of her son.

The Deputy Attorney General also submitted the letter copy to the bench.

The chief justice observed that there was no need to write such letter after the orders of this court.

He directed to pay the compensation in light of the affidavit submitted by the petitioner woman.

The court directed the ministry to implement the court verdict and submit compliance report to it till August 3.

The petitioner’s lawyer earlier informed the court that the last salary of the missing person was AED 3,000 when he got disappeared.

He was an information technology expert who arrived Pakistan to spend his vocations in 2015.