Category World News

As an Indigenous community protested a planned mega-dam, India’s most recent move in its ongoing dispute with China over Himalayan water, the air rang with fiery speeches on a football pitch ringed by misty mountains.

By stockpiling water and preventing the release of weaponized torrents, India claims the proposed new structure could prevent China from building a likely record-breaking dam upstream in Tibet.

The project has the feel of a death sentence, but those who are at one of the potential sites for what would be the largest dam in India.

In a show of defiance of the authorities, Tapir Jamoh, a resident of the thatch-hut village of Riew, said, “We will fight until the end of time.” “We won’t permit the construction of a dam.”

The Adi people’s ancestral home in Jamoh’s far-offened northeastern region of India, which is separated by imposing snowy peaks from Tibet and Myanmar, is located there.

According to proposed plans, India is considering building a massive storage reservoir in Arunachal Pradesh that would be equivalent to four million Olympic-sized swimming pools behind a 280-meter (918-foot) high dam.

The $ 167 billion Yaxia project downstream of Riew on the river known as the Siang and the Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibet is a step forward for China in this regard.

Although other details are unknown, China’s plan includes five hydroelectric power stations that could generate three times as much electricity as its enormous Three Gorges dam, the largest power station in the world.

Beijing claims that there won’t be a “negative impact” afterward.

China has never intended to harm downstream nations’ interests or impose them on them, according to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

One of the shortlisted sites for India’s response mega-dam is the village of Riew, which people like Jamoh perceive as the most immediate threat to their lives. The 69-year-old Jamoh said, “We also cease to exist if the river is dammed.” Because of the Siang, he continued, “We derive our identity and culture from it.”

India has kept its concerns a secret, even though there has been a thaw between Beijing and New Delhi, the two most populous countries have a number of disputed border areas manned by tens of thousands of troops. Indian officials fear that China may use its dam as a control tap to cause deadly droughts or defuse the Brahmaputra’s tributary, which flows downstream.

China disagrees, claiming that the hype that refers to the Yaxia Hydropower Project as a “water bomb” is “unfounded and malicious.”

India’s dam could have 11, 200, 11, and 600 megawatts of hydropower, making it the most powerful nation and reducing emissions from its coal-dependent electricity grid. The dam’s intended 9.2 billion cubic meter reservoir would be built, but the precise location of the floodfields will determine how big the reservoir will be.

The Adi people revere the river as sacred, just like Jamoh, for their lush, dotted with orange and jackfruit trees.

They are concerned that the dam will obliterate the world. Before being forced to resign by local authorities because of protests against the dam, Jamoh, who was the former head of Riew, said, “We are children of the Siang.”

Residents are persuaded that dozens of villages would be completely drowned by the dam. The Adi community will vanish from the map of the world if a large dam is constructed, according to Likeng Libang of Yingkiong, a town that even officials predict will be completely underwater.

He continued, “The Adi will completely be displaced.” “We will not be where we are.”

India’s public hydroelectricity utility, NHPC, did not respond to AFP’s requests for comment.

According to Anamika Barua, a transboundary water governance expert at the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, India’s “dam-for-dam” strategy may be counterproductive. She said that “diplomatic engagement, transparent water-sharing agreements, and investment in cooperative river basin management would lead to more stable and justifiable outcomes than reactive infrastructure construction.”

According to Barua, building mega-dams in Arunachal Pradesh is also dangerous. However, India’s commitment to building massive dams suggests that it will continue to work on this project. Other significant dams overcame local opposition.

Demetre Daskalakis, the former US vaccine director, claims a “chaose agent” is in charge of the nation’s health department, which is harming vulnerable people. Following her months-long dispute with health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Dr. Daskalakis was one of the three directors to resign in August. Since then, Dr. Daskalakis has publicly criticized Kennedy, accusing him of intentionally destabilizing the nation’s vaccine program by supporting his own ideology and sidelining experts.

In Indonesia, a school building collapsed during prayer time, injuring dozens and killing several students. As parents wait for news about their loved ones, rescue efforts are still being made to find those who are still ensnared.

Islamabad, Pakistan – A powerful car bomb blast outside the headquarters of Pakistan’s paramilitary Frontier Corps in the southwestern city of Quetta has killed at least 10 people and wounded more than 30 others, authorities said.

The explosion, swiftly followed by heavy gunfire, tore through the vicinity of Zarghoon Road in Quetta, capital of Balochistan province, on Tuesday.

“Two law enforcement personnel were killed while the rest of the dead were civilians,” Bakht Muhammad Kakar, the provincial health minister, told Al Jazeera.

A security camera video posted on social media showed a vehicle turning towards the regional headquarters of the Frontier Corps and exploding within seconds.

Naresh Kumar, a witness, said he was standing outside his office close to the targeted building when the explosion took place. “My mind just went blank. I got hit by shards of glasses in my arm and back. The explosion was just massive,” Kumar told Al Jazeera.

Inam, another injured person who only gave his first name, was brought to the hospital where he was treated for wounds after glass shards injured his back due to the explosion.

“Our office is right around the paramilitary building. We were working in our office when the explosion totally rocked us and then everything went dark. I could hear firing which lasted for a while before the law enforcement arrived to take control,” he told Al Jazeera via telephone from the hospital.

Balochistan’s Chief Minister Mir Sarfraz Bugti condemned the incident, labelling it a “terrorist attack”. Speaking after the blast, Bugti confirmed that at least four attackers were killed by the security personnel.

Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari issued a strong condemnation over the attack, saying, “The misguided extremists were acting on India’s agenda.” He did not give details.

India has not yet responded to the allegation. No group has claimed responsibility for the bombing.

Balochistan’s economic significance

Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest yet most sparsely populated province. Home to about 15 million people in a country of roughly 240 million, it remains the country’s poorest province despite possessing vast reserves of oil, coal, gold, copper, and gas. While these resources contribute substantially to the revenues of the federal government, the province itself faces economic hardships.

Balochistan is also home to Gwadar, a strategic deep-sea port which is the centrepiece of $60bn China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project designed to establish a trade link between southwestern China and the Arabian Sea.

However, Chinese investments, particularly in Balochistan, have fuelled local resentments. Residents accuse Chinese firms of “stealing local resources” and this sentiment has repeatedly driven local armed groups to attack Chinese personnel and installations.

The province also has the Reko Diq reserves, which are said to contain the world’s fifth-largest copper deposits.

Canadian firm Barrick Mining has been operating at the site since 2022. Earlier this month, Pakistan also signed a $500m deal with a United States-based firm to export critical minerals and rare earth elements.

The local resentments have fuelled a rebellion movement for decades, which aims to establish an independent Balochistan state.

As violence escalates in the province, analysts have questioned the government’s ability in eliminating the armed and rebel groups such as the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) or the Baloch Liberation Front (BLF).

Muhammad Arif, an expert on international relations, said the demography of Balochistan is complex for both the violent groups as well as the government as he pointed out a logistical challenge inherent in the province’s topography.

“It is not possible for non-state actors to take control of the region of Balochistan with its vast, difficult terrain, but at the same time, the security of each and every corner of the state is difficult for the same reasons,” he said.

Arif suggested that a recent surge in violence could be linked to the government’s counter-insurgency operations.

“It is believed that the Baloch Liberation Army and other groups have suffered heavy casualties in the last couple of weeks, with the Pakistani forces helped by Chinese communication equipment along with drones and Pakistani jet fighters. [Tuesday’s] attack could be a retaliation move,” the Quetta-based analyst told Al Jazeera.