This week at Himal
This week, Shivanthi Fernando writes about recent developments into the case of Sri Lankan journalist Keith Noyahr, who was abducted and tortured, as the Attorney General’s Department in Sri Lanka filed charges after 17 years. Despite progress in the investigation, the path to justice remains uncertain, with the case repeatedly stalled and key suspects released over the years.
Don’t miss episode 2 of our podcast series ‘Partitions of the Heart: Conversations with Harsh Mander’, in which Hilal Ahmed talks about Indian Muslim’s marginalisation and aspirations.
For the next episode of the Southasia Review of Books podcast, host Shwetha Srikanthan speaks with Mumbai-based writer and poet Jerry Pinto about his collection of personal essays Thinking Aloud, which underscore the importance of inclusive storytelling.
Have you signed up for our next panel event for Fiction Fest yet? We’ll be discussing Caste, Gender and Resistance in Southasian speculative fiction on 16 June, 2025 at 7:30 PM IST (10 AM EST). This event is being held in partnership with the Armory Square Prize for South Asian Literature in Translation, and will feature readings by their finalists, followed by the announcement of the 2025 prize winner. Sign up here for the Zoom link - you don’t want to miss this! And make sure to read the latest stories from Fiction Fest published this week.
Also read: Artificial Emotion: Himal Fiction Fest 2025
Also read: JJ Robinson on how Mohamed Muizzu’s Maldives is “a free-for-all kleptocracy”
Also read: The Waters Between Us: Himal Fiction Fest 2025
Also read: Muslim Life – and Death – in Modi’s India: A podcast with Harsh Mander
Also read: Will there finally be justice for Sri Lankan journalist Keith Noyahr?
This week in Southasia
Southasia sees 'hotter' and 'wetter' monsoon season
Over the past two weeks, monsoon rains have been sweeping across Southasia, bringing devastation. As of 5 June, 46 people have died across Northeast India due to record-breaking rainfall, leading to flooding and landslides, with several villages submerged and roads cut off. Meanwhile, Mumbai issued a red alert due to heavy downpour as the monsoon arrived nearly two weeks before schedule. In Bangladesh, the monsoon has exacerbated the humanitarian crisis for Rohingya refugees, damaging over 1400 homes due to landslides, with one refugee killed due to a wall collapsing and 11 injured in lightning strikes, even as refugees continue to flee violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, contributing to overcrowding. A critical funding shortfall has impacted humanitarian agencies’ preparation for the monsoon, the UNHCR said.
In Myanmar too, farmers report significant crop losses due to monsoon flooding, including in townships impacted by the ongoing fight between junta and anti-junta groups, while displaced refugees lack shelter, medicine and other humanitarian aid to ride out the monsoon season.
Though the monsoon rains are vital for agriculture and water availability, they have become increasingly intense and erratic, with the variability strongly linked to climate change. The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development warned of a "hotter and wetter monsoon" this year, with the possibility of climate risks from flooding and landslides to heat stress and waterborne disease outbreaks, including dengue. This evolving risk necessitates enhanced regional cooperation and improved flood management strategies to mitigate the growing humanitarian and economic consequences across the subcontinent.
From 2020, revisit our conversation with Sunil Amrith about climate change, global inequality and migration in the wake of Covid-19. Our interview with public policy analyst Dawar Butt in the wake of flooding in Pakistan in 2022, and our video story on flood management in Bangladesh and the need for better regional cooperation are also worth revisiting.
From the archive (December 2020)
Also read: The rise of extremes
Elsewhere in Southasia
- Air India flight bound for London crashes into a hostel for doctors in Ahmedabad, India, with at least 290 people dead. A single British national passenger onboard survived.
- Sri Lanka’s Commissioner General of Prisons and assistant commissioner of Anuradapura prison arrested over alleged unauthorised release of prison inmates under the guise of presidential pardon, as many as 20 prisoners may have been unlawfully granted pardons from December 2024 onwards
- Pakistan hikes defence spending in annual federal budget by 20 percent, but cuts overall government spending by 7 percent in line with IMF-mandated reforms
- Bangladesh interim government chief advisor Mohammed Yunus meets acting Bangladesh Nationalist Party Tarique Rahman during four day visit to London amidst strained government-BNP ties
- Water tests from Kok and Sai rivers near Myanmar-Thailand border reveal elevated arsenic levels due to unregulated mining in Myanmar’s Shan state; China-backed United Wa States Army militia group protecting new rare-earth mines in the region
- Thirteen Kabul residents wounded in shooting spree by supporters of Afghan militant leader Ahmad Shah Massoud on 14 June
- Refugees from Myanmar, Afghanistan impacted by US travel ban that came into effect on 9 June
- Shortage of medicine persists in the Maldives, despite government intervention including price-caps, due to difficulties in sourcing medicine
- Major parties fail to reach consensus on investigation into Nepal’s Home Minister Rakhesh Lekhak over human-trafficking ‘visit visa’ scam; House of Representatives proceedings stalled for over two weeks
- 7121 active Covid-19 cases reported in India as of 12 June; Kerala the most affected state with over 2000 cases
- Bhutan retreats from democratic norms with arbitrary imprisonment, enforced disappearances, press freedom denials and continued disenfranchisement of the Lhotshampas, the exile-based think tank Bhutan Watch details in their 2025 Human Rights Report
Happenings in Southasia
PARADE: Kathmandu, Nepal - Nepal Pride Parade, Queer Youth Group, Pukhusi Kyaba, Opposite to Ratnapark, Yen, 14 June 2025, 1 PM NPT
EXHIBITION: Dhaka, Bangladesh - A Printmaking Group Exhibition on Contemporary Art: Timber Tales, Alliance Française de Dhaka, 17 June 2025, 6 PM BST
WORKSHOP: Bengaluru, India - Sketch with Penciljam, MAP Bengaluru, 22 June 2025, 10:30 AM PM IST (registration required)
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