By Kaamil Ahmed
DHAKA, Bangladesh
Anadolu Agency's briefing on events from South Asia in the last week:
KABUL, Afghanistan – NATO-led foreign forces formally ended their 13-year combat mission in Afghanistan on Sunday. Some forces will remain to support the nascent Afghan security forces.
- At least 20 people were killed in the early hours of the new year when a mortar fired by Afghan security forces, targeting Taliban militants, hit a wedding party.
SRINAGAR, Indian-held Kashmir – Firing between Pakistani and Indian troops along the working border dividing disputed Kashmir killed at least four people.
The ongoing clashes are the first since October, when days of fighting killed at least 20 people on both sides.
DHAKA, Bangladesh – Bangladesh was hit by three days of nationwide strikes, known as hartals, called by opposition political parties.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which leads the main opposition coalition, has accused the government of suppressing its activities but has planned a mass rally on Jan. 5 to mark a year since they boycotted the 2014 general election.
A two-day strike was also held by the Jamaat-e-Islami party after one of their members was sentenced to death for war crimes committed during the country’s 1971 war of independence.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – Sri Lanka’s minority Tamil and Muslim communities lent their support to the opposition candidate for the upcoming Jan. 8 presidential elections.
Justice Minister Rauf Hakeem, who heads the country’s largest Muslim political party, resigned from President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government with his party claiming that Muslims had not been protected from violent attacks.
KARACHI, Pakistan – A convicted Taliban militant was hanged for his role in a failed attempt to assassinate former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf.
It was the seventh hanging since the government ended its moratorium on executions following a Taliban attack that killed more than 100 children in the city of Peshawar on Dec. 16.
NEW DELHI – More than 100,000 people have been displaced in India’s northeastern state of Assam by violence allegedly instigated by separatist rebels. At least 73 people were reportedly killed by the rebels the previous week.
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