By Shoaib Ahmed Sayam / Global Southasia / sapannews.com This past June, an elderly man was found stranded in no-man’s land on the Bangladesh-India border. For 24 hours, he and his nationality were shoved from one flank to the other. In the sweltering heat, border officials of both countries kept grilling Shosti Chandra Barman —… Read More Who defines where home is? Confronting Partition trauma
Bharat Bhushan The sudden ceasefire after Operation Sindoor showed Narendra Modi that the support of the Hindutva base is not unconditional. It is predicated on giving no quarter to Pakistan. That is why he needs the blessing of the RSS to move forward with Pakistan Bharat Bhushan The call for keeping open the doors of dialogue… Read More Why Modi needs RSS cover for dialogue with Pakistan
NB: A gripping and very informative account of the intertwined crises that led to war and global confrontation in 1970-1971. I was a small witness to it from the Indian side of the border; and was caught up in the political cyclone which became the central theme for my novel Revolution Highway. Indeed, it was… Read More The Vortex
It’s one thing to remove a PM from office, as happened to the former cricketer in 2022. But it’s another thing to try to eradicate the most famous person in Pakistan’s history Osman Samiuddin Just so we’re clear, the following is a fact. Not opinion, not a point of view, not a hot take. Fact.… Read More Prisoner number 804: the plot to erase Imran Khan
Netra News obituary for the first female prime minister of Bangladesh She became only the second woman ever elected prime minister in a Muslim-majority country, leading a party that liked to cast itself as the centre-right antidote to the Awami League’s secular nationalism. By the time her Bangladesh Nationalist Party returned to power in 2001,… Read More Begum Khaleda Zia, the walking contradiction
By Irfan Chowdhury / Sapan News Citizens to Traitors: Bengali Internment in Pakistan 1971-1974By Ilyas Chattha; Cambridge University Press, 2025 Growing up in the 1980s in Bangladesh, I had heard many stories of the 1971 war. I knew about the Bengalis working, for example, in the civil service of Pakistan, like my uncle who was stranded with… Read More Silences within silences: excavating the hidden history of Bengalis interned in Pakistan after 1971
Earlier this year, Bangladesh asked Pakistan for a formal apology for the 1971 war crimes. But responsibility for the massacre of civilians does not rest with Pakistan alone. Ramesh Sharma’s latest documentary ‘Chronicles of the Forgotten Genocide’ looks at the role of the US in the violence that accompanied the birth of Bangladesh. The Emmy-nominated filmmaker… Read More The puppet-masters behind the Bangladesh genocide of 1971: Interview with Ramesh Sharma
The Mohana of Pakistan’s Sindh province once thrived on the lake but pollution and drought have caused the fragile ecosystem to collapse, along with their way of life A Mohana hunter holds a thin branch with a living bird tethered to the end, which he uses as a decoy to trap wild birds By Guillaume Petermann… Read More The bird people of Lake Manchar: surviving in a vanishing oasis
Praveen Swami Elegantly dressed in an impeccably draped sari, a brilliant diamond tiara discreetly placed on her head, Crown Princess Sarvath El Hassan flitted from New York soirees to diplomatic dinners. The daughter of the eminent Kolkata-born Pakistani diplomat Muhammad Ikramullah and his wife, writer Shaista Suhrawardy Ikramullah, the Crown Princess had never played down… Read More Rajnath Singh is discovering India-Pakistan civilisational ties
“Directorate S,” was covertly training, arming, and seeking to legitimize the Taliban, in order to enlarge Pakistan’s sphere of influence From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Ghost Wars, the epic and enthralling story of America’s intelligence, military, and diplomatic efforts to defeat Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan since 9/11Prior to 9/11, the United… Read More Directorate S: The C.I.A. and America’s Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan
