In the late afternoon of March 23, 32-year-old lawyer Deepak Bundele was on his way to a hospital in Madhya Pradesh state in central India. A diabetic, he was there to pick up lifesaving medicine. Before he could make it inside, he was accosted by local police. As he began explaining to the police what…

Last week, 22-year-old Dilshad “Mehboob” Ali was dragged into a field on the outskirts of Delhi and beaten with sticks and shoes by an enraged crowd demanding to be told, “who else is behind this conspiracy?” His attackers believed he was part of a “corona Jihad:” an evil plot by India’s Muslim minority to spread…

It was only a matter of time before the anti-Muslim sentiment in India turned violent. A country that has historically prided itself on its diversity and tolerance and for being ‘the largest democracy in the world’ has, in recent years, exhibited the exact opposite qualities – chauvinism, racism, religious intolerance, and, at times, extreme violence. The…

The Middle East, battered by wars and adjoining humanitarian crises that have left millions of people stateless, hungry and diseased, is in urgent need of peace, security, and reconstruction. Thanks to the US, Russian, French, Israeli and other weapons manufacturers, however, it is now the dumping ground for military hardware, an ominous sign for the…

SURENDRANAGAR, INDIA — As India’s election season drags on and nears its conclusion, current Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has continued to use speeches on the campaign trail to threaten using nuclear bombs against neighboring Pakistan in an attempt to portray himself as tough on “terrorism.” In a speech delivered last Wednesday that was widely…

The world must not ignore the potential nuclear flashpoint in South Asia. If such a war, even a very limited nuclear exchange, transpired between India and Pakistan, it could very easily lead to the deaths of a billion people all over the world from the resulting global fallout. Since the nuclear armament of South Asia…

LONDON — Well-known British journalist Robert Fisk recently wrote a very telling and troubling article in The Independent regarding the outsized role of the state of Israel in the burgeoning tensions between India and Pakistan, two nuclear powers. The story — despite its importance, given the looming threat of nuclear war between the two countries…

TEHRAN, IRAN — Despite the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign targeting the Iranian economy, Iran’s crude oil and oil product revenues jumped a surprising 60 percent from March 21 to July 23. In addition, figures provided by Iran’s Central Bank show that Iran’s revenues from oil sales soared by 84.2 percent over that same period,…

Presently, some $2 billion worth of arms deals are hitting a snag over how settlement is to be made for defence transactions between Russia and India as US sanctions stand in the way. The issue has led to the US Dollar being dropped as a means of payment, with the Ruble and Rupee being considered…

WASHINGTON – A recent report created by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) at the behest of the Senate Armed Services Committee sought to provide an overview of “foreign nuclear weapons-related capabilities.” However, that report, compiled using purely open-source information instead of DIA intel, focuses on only three of the world’s nine nuclear powers – Russia,…

Washington and New Dehli are having a mutual lovefest these days. Donald Trump is popular in India — where only 17 percent of the population considers the president “intolerant,” compared to a global average of 65 percent — and he has warmly welcomed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the White House. Both leaders are eager to bump…

India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) — a counter-terrorism law enforcement agency — has outlined what Kashmiri journalists should report on in a court response that was issued after the arrest of 23-year-old Kashmiri photojournalist Kamran Yousuf. Yousuf worked as a freelance photojournalist for many local dailies including Greater Kashmir, the largest circulated daily in the valley, and MunsifTV, an English-language news channel. He was best…