India’s new UNESCO site museum reveals Mughal emperor’s life, legacy

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Updated 31 July 2024
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India’s new UNESCO site museum reveals Mughal emperor’s life, legacy

India’s new UNESCO site museum reveals Mughal emperor’s life, legacy
  • Humayun World Heritage Site Museum in New Delhi opened for visitors on Tuesday
  • Latest addition to 16th-century tomb complex ‘brings alive 700 years of heritage’

NEW DELHI: The second Mughal emperor Humayun was widely known as an avid reader fond of journeys, architecture, and storytelling. Almost half a millennium after his death, a new museum in the heart of New Delhi highlights his role in shaping India’s cultural heritage.
Opened for visitors on Tuesday, the Humayun World Heritage Site Museum is the newest addition in Humayun’s Tomb complex — a landmark 300-acre area in New Delhi’s Nizamuddin that features dozens of historical monuments and includes Sunder Nursery, a 16th-century heritage park.
The advent of the Mughal dynasty, which ruled the Indian subcontinent between the 16th and 19th centuries, marked the global revival of Islamic architecture, with works that until today are examples of the highest quality and refinement.
Originally from Central Asia, the Mughals carried cultural elements borrowed from Arabs, Persians and Ottomans. As they settled in India, they fused these with the various local styles found in their new domains.
Humayun was the son and successor of Babur, founder of the dynasty, and ruled the empire from 1530 to 1540 and again from 1555 until his death the following year.
The new museum, established by the Agha Khan Trust for Culture and the Archaeological Survey of India, traces Humayun and his descendants’ lives, as well as the 700-year-old history of the whole Nizamuddin locality and its influence on Indian culture.
“There are hundreds of stories to be told, which the stones don’t speak,” Ratish Nanda, conservation architect and projects director at the AKTC, told Arab News.
“The idea is to bring alive 700 years of heritage.”
The museum is located in Humayun’s Tomb, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the first of the grand mausoleums that became synonymous with Mughal architectural innovations and, three generations later, culminated in the construction of India’s most iconic monument, the Taj Mahal.
About 7 million tourists from across India and abroad visit the complex every year.
“The idea is that people who now visit the World Heritage Site come with a deep understanding of the site,” Nanda said.
“We’ve been able to ... combine architectural elements with incredible manuscripts, miniature paintings, calligraphy, textiles, coins, metalware, architectural elements — one is two one scale — with lots of films and digital technology, and models and so on.”
Spanning five galleries, the underground museum has over 500 artefacts sourced from the collections of the National Museum in New Delhi, ASI and AKTC.
“It captures the 700 years of history that is associated with the region of Nizamuddin and the World Heritage site of Humayun’s Tomb ...This museum really captures the history,” said Ujwala Menon, AKTC conservation architect.
“The principal gallery talks about Humayun. There’s very little known about this emperor, and one of the things with this museum is to really address that ... Then we have a second section of this gallery which talks about the personalities that are associated with Nizamuddin.”
Among the famed figures featured in the second gallery are Nizamuddin Auliya and Amir Khusro.
Auliya was an 13th-century Indian Sunni Muslim scholar, Sufi saint of the Chishti Order, and is one of the most famous Sufis from the Indian subcontinent. His shrine and tomb are located near Humayun’s complex.
Khusro was a 13th-century poet and scholar who remains an iconic figure in the culture of the subcontinent.
Both Auliya and Khusro lived during the period of the Delhi Sultanate, which Humayun’s father conquered, leading to its succession by the Mughal empire. The museum shows how the empire did not come to its bloom in a cultural vacuum, but drew from and incorporated the culture of its predecessors.
“There was this idea of pluralism that existed during the Mughal period,” Menon said.
“And this (museum) really captures all of that.”


Maldives ban Israelis to protest Gaza war

Maldives ban Israelis to protest Gaza war
Updated 12 sec ago
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Maldives ban Israelis to protest Gaza war

Maldives ban Israelis to protest Gaza war
  • President Mohamed Muizzu ratified the legislation shortly after it was approved by parliament on Tuesday
  • Official data showed that only 59 Israeli tourists visited the archipelago in February, among 214,000 other foreign arrivals
MALE, Maldives: The Maldives announced Tuesday it was banning the entry of Israelis from the luxury tourist archipelago in “resolute solidarity” with the Palestinian people.
President Mohamed Muizzu ratified the legislation shortly after it was approved by parliament on Tuesday.
“The ratification reflects the government’s firm stance in response to the continuing atrocities and ongoing acts of genocide committed by Israel against the Palestinian people,” his office said in a statement.
“The Maldives reaffirms its resolute solidarity with the Palestinian cause.”
The ban will be implemented with immediate effect, a spokesman for Muizzu’s office said.
The Maldives, a small Islamic republic of 1,192 strategically located coral islets, is known for its secluded white sandy beaches, shallow turquoise lagoons and Robinson Crusoe-style getaways.
Official data showed that only 59 Israeli tourists visited the archipelago in February, among 214,000 other foreign arrivals.
The Maldives had lifted a previous ban on Israeli tourists in the early 1990s and briefly moved to restore relations in 2010.
Opposition parties and government allies in the Maldives have been pressuring Muizzu to ban Israelis as a statement of opposition to the Gaza war.
Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs urged its citizens last year to avoid traveling to the Maldives.
The Gaza war broke out after Palestinian militant group Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Gaza’s health ministry said on Sunday that at least 1,613 Palestinians had been killed since March 18, when a ceasefire collapsed, taking the overall death toll since the war began to 50,983.

China’s top Hong Kong official warns US ‘hillbillies’ over tariffs

China’s top Hong Kong official warns US ‘hillbillies’ over tariffs
Updated 58 min 33 sec ago
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China’s top Hong Kong official warns US ‘hillbillies’ over tariffs

China’s top Hong Kong official warns US ‘hillbillies’ over tariffs
  • Top Hong Kong official: Imposing tariffs on the city is ‘hegemonic and shameless in the extreme’
  • Xia Baolong: US sanctions and tariffs would not shake the determination of Beijing and Hong Kong governments

HONG KONG: Beijing’s top official overseeing Hong Kong slammed US tariffs on China as “hegemonic” and attacked American “hillbillies” on Tuesday, as the world’s two largest economies face off in a trade war that has battered global markets.
Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macao Work Office, said in a speech that the Chinese finance hub has never levied taxes on imports and that the United States enjoyed a $272 billion trade surplus in the city over the past decade.
US President Donald Trump has increased the levies imposed on China to 145 percent, while Beijing has set a retaliatory 125 percent toll on American imports – a move not followed by Hong Kong.
Imposing tariffs on the city is “hegemonic and shameless in the extreme,” and shows that the United States does not want Hong Kong to thrive, Xia said.
The United States, he said, “is the greatest culprit in undermining Hong Kong’s human rights, freedom, rule of law, prosperity and stability.”
“It is not after our ‘tariffs’ – it wants to take our ‘lives’.”
Xia said the US sanctions and tariffs would not shake the determination of Beijing and Hong Kong governments and that “victory must belong to the great Chinese people.”
“Let those American ‘hillbillies’ wail before the 5,000-year-old civilization of the Chinese nation!” he said, adding that anyone seeking to bring China into poverty was an “enemy.”
The comments were part of a pre-recorded speech at a Hong Kong event to mark the 10th iteration of China’s annual national security education day.
Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong after the city saw huge and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests in 2019.
Last year, the city passed another homegrown security law, which officials say is needed to restore order.
The United States imposed a fresh round of sanctions this month on Hong Kong’s outgoing police chief, justice secretary and other officials over human rights concerns.
China’s market regulator is looking into a deal by Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison to offload 43 ports in 23 countries – including its two on the Panama Canal – to a US-led consortium.
The sale was seen as a political victory for Trump, who earlier vowed to “take back” the crucial waterway from alleged Chinese control.
Echoing earlier criticisms of the deal, Xia said on Tuesday “those who sell out the nation’s interest during key moments... will not meet a good end.”
Hong Kong leader John Lee also criticized the US tariffs as “absurd,” saying at the event that the correct reciprocal levy would be “zero” as Hong Kong is a free port.


Pakistan aims to deport millions of Afghans but local ties and resistance stall the campaign

Pakistan aims to deport millions of Afghans but local ties and resistance stall the campaign
Updated 15 April 2025
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Pakistan aims to deport millions of Afghans but local ties and resistance stall the campaign

Pakistan aims to deport millions of Afghans but local ties and resistance stall the campaign
  • The provincial government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa appears reluctant to repatriate Afghans
  • More than 35,000 Afghans have left Pakistan since the start of April
  • Many recent deportations have been from eastern Punjab, which is hundreds of kilometers from the border and home to some 200,000 Afghans with documents

PESHAWAR: Akber Khan is seeing a brisk trade at his restaurant in the northwest Pakistani city of Peshawar. Staff fan skewers of grilled meats and dole out rice and salad.
As an Afghan, Khan ought to be leaving as part of a nationwide crackdown on foreigners the Pakistani government says are living in the country illegally. But the only heat he feels is from the kitchen.
“I have been here for almost 50 years. I got married here, so did my children, and 10 of my family members are buried here. That’s why we have no desire to leave,” he said.
Khan is one of more than 3 million Afghans that Pakistan wants to expel this year. At least a third live in the northwest province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and that’s just those with documents like an Afghan Citizen Card or proof of registration.
It is not clear how many undocumented Afghans are in the country.
Shared cultural, ethnic and linguistic ties
The provincial government — led by the party of imprisoned former premier Imran Khan — appears reluctant to repatriate Afghans. Mountainous terrain, sectarian violence and an array of militant groups have also challenged the central government's expulsion ambitions.
“Afghans can never be completely repatriated, especially from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, as they return using illegal channels or exploiting loopholes in the system despite fencing at the border,” said Abdullah Khan, managing director of the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies. “Many villages along the border are divided between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and people in the past three or four decades were never stopped from visiting either side.”
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s proximity to Afghanistan, together with shared ethnic, cultural and linguistic ties, make it a natural destination for Afghans. The province has hosted significant numbers since the 1980s.
Many Afghans have integrated, even marrying locals. The region feels familiar and it’s easier to access through legal and illegal routes than other parts of Pakistan.
While the provincial government was cooperating with federal counterparts, policy implementation remained slow, analyst Khan told The Associated Press.
“The (local) government is sympathetic to Afghans for multiple reasons," he said. "They share the same traditions and culture as the province, and former Prime Minister Imran Khan during his days in power consistently opposed coercive measures toward Afghan refugees.”
Authorities are also wary about unrest, with Afghans living in almost all of the province’s cities, towns and villages.
A slow repatriation rate
Although police were raiding homes in Islamabad, Rawalpindi and other cities in Punjab and Sindh province farther from the border, the “lack of aggressive enforcement” was the main reason for the slow repatriation rate, analyst Khan said.
Pressure on Pakistan to have a change of heart — from rights groups, aid agencies and Afghanistan's Taliban government — could also be a factor.
More than 35,000 Afghans have left Pakistan since the start of April through the northwest Torkham crossing. It’s a far cry from the volume seen in the early phases of the expulsion campaign in 2023, when hundreds of thousands fled to beat a government-imposed deadline to leave.
Many recent deportations have been from eastern Punjab, which is hundreds of kilometers from the border and home to some 200,000 Afghans with documents.
‘We are going under duress’
At a highway rest stop on the outskirts of Peshawar, a truck carrying 30 Afghans stopped to give passengers a break before they left Pakistan for good. They had come from Punjab. Families nestled among furniture, clothes and other items. A woman in a burqa, the covering commonly seen in Afghanistan, clambered down.
Ajab Gul said the actions of Pakistani officials had forced them to leave: “We didn’t want to go. They raided our houses two or three times. We are going under duress.”
Another truckload of passengers from Punjab pulled over by the Torkham border crossing to speak to the AP.
Jannat Gul outlined the dilemma that awaited many. “Our children’s education (in Afghanistan) has been destroyed. We’re going there, but we have no connections, no acquaintances. In fact, people often call us Pakistanis. No one regards us as Afghan.”
‘If they take him, I will stop them’
There were happier scenes at the Kababayan refugee camp in Peshawar, where children played and ate ice cream in the sunshine. The camp, established in 1980 shortly after the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, is home to more than 15,000 people and has schools, a health center, electricity and drinking water.
School is a crucial reason Afghans want to stay in Pakistan, because the Taliban have barred girls from education beyond sixth grade.
Muhammad Zameer, a camp resident, said girls’ education was “non-existent” across the border.
Other camp residents have a different concern: their Afghan husbands. Afghan men face deportation, and their local wives are unhappy.
Some are fighting to get their husbands a Pakistani identity card, which unlocks basic public services as well as indefinite stay, property ownership, bank account access and employment.
Some wives said they are willing to fight anyone deporting their husbands.
“I never imagined the government would treat my husband like this,” said one, Taslima. “If they take him, I will stop them."


US flies long-range bomber for drill with South Korea, as Pyongyang marks key anniversary

US flies long-range bomber for drill with South Korea, as Pyongyang marks key anniversary
Updated 15 April 2025
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US flies long-range bomber for drill with South Korea, as Pyongyang marks key anniversary

US flies long-range bomber for drill with South Korea, as Pyongyang marks key anniversary
  • North Korea often reacts to the US deployment of B-1B bombers and other powerful military assets
  • Tuesday’s flyover of the US bombers could draw an angrier response

SEOUL: The United States flew long-range B-1B bombers in a show of force against North Korea on Tuesday, days after the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to resist a US-led push to eliminate the North’s nuclear program.
North Korea often reacts to the US deployment of B-1B bombers and other powerful military assets with missile tests and fiery rhetoric. Tuesday’s flyover of the US bombers could draw an angrier response because it happened when North Korea was marking a key anniversary – the 113th birthday of state founder Kim Il Sung, the late grandfather of the current leader.
South Korea’s Defense Ministry said the US bombers participated in a South Korea-US aerial drill over the Korean Peninsula to strengthen the allies’ combined operational capability and demonstrate their deterrence capability against North Korea’s advancing nuclear program.
A ministry statement said South Korean F-35 and F-16 fighter jets and American F-16 fighter jets also took part in the training. It said South Korea and the US will continue to expand their joint military exercises to respond to North Korean nuclear threats.
It was the second time a US B-1B’s had participated in a drill with South Korea since President Donald Trump began his second term in January.
In February, North Korea’s Defense Ministry slammed the B-1B’s earlier flyover as proof of intensifying US-led provocations since Trump’s inauguration. It pledged to counter the strategic threat of the US with strategic means. Days later, North Korea test-fired cruise missiles in what it called an attempt to show its nuclear counterattack capability.
Trump has repeatedly said he will reach out to Kim Jong Un to revive diplomacy. North Korea hasn’t directly responded to Trump’s outreach.
Last Wednesday, Kim Yo Jong – Kim’s sister and a senior official – derided the US and its Asian allies over what she called their “daydream” of denuclearizing the North, insisting that the country will never give up its nuclear weapons program. Her statement came as a response to a recent meeting among the top diplomats of the United States, South Korea and Japan where they reaffirmed their commitment to push for the North’s denuclearization.
The Kim Il Sung birthday, called “the Day of Sun,” is one of the most important holidays in North Korea, where a state-sponsored cult of personality treats key members of the ruling Kim family like gods. On Tuesday, the country’s main Rodong Sinmun newspaper issued an editorial urging the public to rally behind Kim Jong Un to achieve a national prosperity. In recent days, North Korea has held seminars, performances and other events commemorating the founder’s achievements.


Singapore dissolves parliament ahead of imminent election

Singapore dissolves parliament ahead of imminent election
Updated 15 April 2025
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Singapore dissolves parliament ahead of imminent election

Singapore dissolves parliament ahead of imminent election
  • The vote will be the first electoral test for Prime Minister Lawrence Wong
  • The election will take place amid a gloomy economic outlook

SINGAPORE: Singapore’s parliament was dissolved on Tuesday ahead of a general election to be held within three months, a government gazette said.
The vote will be the first electoral test for Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, who took over from long-time premier Lee Hsien Loong as leader of the People’s Action Party in May 2024.
The PAP is almost certain to dominate and win most seats, as it has in every vote since independence in 1965, although its share of the popular vote will be closely watched after one of its worst electoral performances in the last contest in 2020.
The election will take place amid a gloomy economic outlook as US President Donald Trump’s tariffs threaten to hit activity in the trade-reliant nation, which on Monday downgraded its growth forecast for 2025 to 0 percent to 2 percent, from 1 percent to 3 percent.
The ruling party’s popularity has dimmed in recent elections as the opposition steadily gained more ground in parliament, winning an unprecedented 6 seats in 2011 and 2015, and 10 in 2020.
The upcoming election will have four more seats compared to the last vote in 2020, with 97 lawmakers elected from 15 single-member electoral divisions and 18 divisions with 4 or 5 members each.
In February, Wong delivered what analysts called “a full-blown election budget” with goodies for all Singaporeans ahead of the polls.