Pakistan
India: Petrol refinery and agricultural marketing workers strike against privatisation; Pakistani government workers strike against pay freeze
Workers Struggles: Asia and Australia
12 September 2020
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.
Thousands of workers strike at Indian arms factories; Indonesian police attack paper mill workers; South Korean doctors continue strike
Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific
29 August 2020
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.
Pakistani university workers oppose job cuts; Offshore gas platform workers strike in Western Australia; New Zealand health workers protest
Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific
22 August 2020
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.
India: Punjab health workers strike for permanent jobs; Asahi auto glass-making workers strike in Chennai; Woolworths Distribution Centre workers locked out in Australia
Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific
1 August 2020
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.
India: Over 40,000 Karnataka health workers begin indefinite state-wide strike; Pakistani doctors protest and Sri Lanka nurses demand overtime pay
Workers Struggles: Asia and Australia
18 July 2020
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.
Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific
4 July 2020
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.
Indian and Pakistani health workers strike over coronavirus safety; Australia Paper maintenance workers locked out
Workers Struggles: Asia and Australia
27 June 2020
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.
India-wide protests by military armament and power industry workers; Australian airport workers demand JobKeeper pay
Workers Struggles: Asia and Australia
6 June 2020
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.
Ninety-seven die in Pakistan International Airline crash
By Sampath Perera, 25 May 2020
The plane was in the air for 10 to 15 more minutes after its initial aborted landing attempt, according to eyewitnesses.
Thousands of migrant workers demonstrate across India; Tamil Nadu cleaners demand COVID-19 protection
Workers Struggles: Asia and Australia
16 May 2020
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.
Workers in India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan strike to demand coronavirus-safe working conditions
Workers Struggles: Asia
9 May 2020
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.
Thousands of Assam tea workers demand lockdown wages in India; Protests continue in Bangladesh over wages, factory closures and safety
Workers Struggles: Asia and Australia
2 May 2020
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.
Pakistan “reopening” much of its economy as COVID-19 cases and deaths spike
By Sampath Perera, 16 April 2020
Under Islamabad’s “partial” lockdown, workers in key export industries and construction are being ordered to return to work under conditions where the COVID-19 pandemic is anything but contained.
Police in Pakistan beat and arrest health care workers protesting over Coronavirus safety concerns, lack of PPE
By Dr. Zayar, 9 April 2020
Police brutally attacked several hundred medical staff after they marched to the house of the Balochistan Chief Minister in Quetta to protest the lack of personal protective equipment or PPE.
Social crisis looms in Pakistan as COVID-19 pandemic surges
By Sampath Perera, 9 April 2020
Pakistan's health authorities expect the outbreak in the country will increase rapidly this month to hit 50,000 cases by April 25.
Tea estate workers in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, as well as medical workers in India and Papua New Guinea strike over COVID-19 dangers
Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific
4 April 2020
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.
Pakistan: District government workers strike over unpaid wages; New Zealand plastics workers strike over COVID-19 concerns
Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific
28 March 2020
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.
As coronavirus cases surge in Pakistan, its prime minister preaches “no need to worry”
By Sampath Perera, 21 March 2020
If the rapid spread of the deadly virus is not halted, it will prove catastrophic for millions of people in Pakistan, an impoverished South Asian country of more than 200 million.
Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific
21 March 2020
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.
India: Punjab government teachers protest against privatisation; Sacked Sri Lankan government workers demonstrate; New Caledonia miners strike against long hours
Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific
15 February 2020
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.
India: 10,000 Karnataka midday-meal workers strike indefinitely; Tahiti workers strike against Macron’s pensions “reforms”
Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific
8 February 2020
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.
Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and New Zealand
1 February 2020
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.
Mumbai hospital workers demand outstanding wages; South Korean car workers strike; Australian tram drivers vote to walk out
Workers Struggles: Asia and Australia
18 January 2020
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.
India: Haryana public transport workers strike against outsourcing; Pakistani journalists oppose salary and job cuts
Workers Struggles: Asia and Australia
11 January 2020
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.
Pakistan court sentences to death former US-backed military strongman Musharraf
By Sampath Perera, 20 December 2019
The court ruling, provoking an open conflict between the judiciary and the military, has deepened the political turmoil engulfing Islamabad.
Indian auto parts workers demand union rights; Bangladesh cargo workers on indefinite strike; French Polynesia hotel workers expand walkout
Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and New Zealand
30 November 2019
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.
Indian Honda contract workers still on strike; West Bengal teachers demand pay rise; maintenance workers take industrial action at Australian paper mill
Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and New Zealand
16 November 2019
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.
Honda motorcycle and Kerala state transport workers strike in India; Pakistan health workers oppose privatisation
Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific
9 November 2019
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.
Detentions without charge, night-raids, torture:
India’s state of siege in Kashmir continues
By Wasantha Rupasinghe, 10 October 2019
With the blessing of India’s Supreme Court and the staunch support of big business and the opposition, the BJP government continues to impose an unprecedented security lockdown and communications blackout.
Sri Lankan PM backs Indian repression in Kashmir
By Wasantha Rupasinghe, 28 August 2019
The support for New Delhi’s anti-democratic measures in J&K reflects the fact that all factions of Sri Lanka’s ruling elite are moving towards the imposition of dictatorial rule.
Indian assault on Kashmir in third week, thousands arrested
By Deepal Jayasekera and Keith Jones, 21 August 2019
Despite India’s efforts to black out what is happening in Kashmir, information is leaking out that points to both widespread repression and popular resistance.
India’s unprecedented lockdown of Kashmir in eleventh day
By K. Ratnayake, 15 August 2019
India’s Hindu supremacist BJP government has imposed a brutal lockdown to suppress mass opposition to its subjecting Indian-held Kashmir to permanent central government domination.
New Delhi’s assault on Kashmir and the fight against communal reaction, imperialism, and war
By Keith Jones, 10 August 2019
With the aim of inciting communal reaction against mounting social opposition and strengthening its hand against Pakistan and China, India’s BJP government has illegally stripped Jammu and Kashmir of its special status.
Report details Indian security forces use of torture against Kashmiri people
By Wasantha Rupasinghe, 23 July 2019
Jammu and Kashmir has been under de facto military rule since 1990, with over half a million security forces deployed in a state of just 13 million people.
Pakistan government prepares savage austerity following IMF “bailout”
By Sampath Perera, 31 May 2019
Washington is seeking to exploit Pakistan’s fiscal and economic crisis to disrupt Islamabad’s growing economic and strategic ties with China.
Reports underscore how close India and Pakistan came to all-out war in late February
By Keith Jones, 20 March 2019
Just three weeks ago, India and Pakistan became the first nuclear-armed powers to ever attack each other with warplanes.
Days after coming to the brink of all-out war
India and Pakistan stoke chauvinism, exchange threats
By Deepal Jayasekera, 6 March 2019
Although cross-border shelling has reportedly declined since Sunday, continuing tensions between South Asia’s rival nuclear-armed states have left the region on the brink of a catastrophic war.
India-Pakistan war tensions escalate
By Deepal Jayasekera, 4 March 2019
At least six civilians and two Pakistani soldiers have been killed as a result of cross-border shelling from both sides along the Line of Control.
India and Pakistan tobogganing toward a catastrophic war
By Keith Jones, 2 March 2019
India and Pakistan are teetering on the brink of what would be the first-ever war between nuclear-armed states.
India and Pakistan issue fresh war threats
By K. Ratnayake, 1 March 2019
Even as Islamabad agreed to release a captured Indian pilot as a “peace gesture,” India and Pakistan continued their war preparations.
Nuclear-armed India, Pakistan on brink of all-out war
By K. Ratnayake, 28 February 2019
Pakistan announced Wednesday that it had struck targets in India after India carried out a large-scale bombing raid deep in Pakistan on Tuesday morning.
India bombs Pakistan, Islamabad vows military retaliation
By Wasantha Rupasinghe, 27 February 2019
Washington gave the green light for Tuesday’s attack, although it could trigger tit-for-tat retaliatory action that quickly cascades into all-out war.
Indian government intensifies retaliatory threats against Pakistan
By Deepal Jayasekera, 19 February 2019
Any Indian military strike could easily lead to a tit-for-tat escalation and rapidly cascade into an all-out war between South Asia’s rival nuclear-armed states.
Indian government seizes on Kashmir attack to ratchet up tensions with Pakistan
By Deepal Jayasekera, 16 February 2019
New Delhi’s denunciations and blood-curdling threats are all but an announcement of an impending Indian military strike on Pakistan.
New postings in Urdu on capitalist breakdown and war, France’s Yellow Vest protests
27 December 2018
Four recent WSWS Perspectives are now available in Urdu, Pakistan’s national language.
Chinese consulate in Pakistan attacked by Balochi separatists
By Sampath Perera, 29 November 2018
The targeting of the Chinese consulate comes amid a concerted US campaign against deepening China-Pakistan strategic ties.
Pakistan prime minister visits Beijing amid heightened US-China tensions
By Pradeep Ramanayaka, 21 November 2018
If Khan was hoping for an immediate financial bailout from China, he was disappointed as Beijing offered no specific aid and signed no significant agreements.
Pakistan’s government bows to Islamist right, victimises anew woman in blasphemy case
By Sampath Perera, 9 November 2018
Pakistan’s PTI government has ordered the Supreme Court to review its decision vacating the blasphemy conviction and death sentence imposed on Asia Bibi.
Pakistan caught up in intensifying US-China rivalry
By Pradeep Ramayake, 27 October 2018
Amid a worsening balance-of-payments crisis, Pakistan desperately needs an estimated $12 billion, but is under pressure from the US to distance itself from China.
As Pakistan seeks IMF bailout, US intensifies pressure on Islamabad
By Sampath Perera, 16 October 2018
Washington has served notice that it intends to leverage Pakistan’s current account crisis to disrupt Islamabad’s economic and strategic partnership with China
Pakistani premier Imran Khan imposes austerity mini-budget
By Athiyan Silva and Kumaran Ira, 2 October 2018
Barely two months after his election, Khan’s anti-imperialist and populist posturing has been utterly exposed.
India cancels talks with Pakistan, threatens military action
By Keith Jones, 24 September 2018
India’s army chief said “pain” should be inflicted on Pakistan, while applauding New Delhi’s scuttling of foreign ministerial talks with Pakistan.
Pompeo visits Pakistan to demand “reset” in support for Afghan war
By V. Gnana and Athiyan Silva, 7 September 2018
US Secretary of State Pompeo and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dunford staged a four-hour visit to Pakistan on Wednesday.
Bangladesh jute mill workers demonstrate; Paradip port workers strike in Orissa
Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific
25 August 2018
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.
Right-wing populist Imran Khan sworn in as Pakistan prime minister
By Sampath Perera, 22 August 2018
Khan’s promises of an “Islamic welfare state” will quickly prove to be a cruel hoax as his government imposes a fresh-round of IMF-style austerity.
US threatens to nix IMF bailout of Pakistan
By Sampath Perera, 10 August 2018
The 12 previous loans Pakistan has obtained from the IMF were all conditional on the imposition of brutal “structural readjustment” measures.
Amid charges of massive irregularities
Right-wing Islamic populist Imran Khan claims victory in Pakistan elections
By Sampath Perera, 27 July 2018
It is widely expected the new government will have to turn to the IMF for a bailout and will be tasked by it with imposing a new round of savage austerity measures.
Former Pakistan PM Sharif arrested in run-up to election
By Sampath Perera, 17 July 2018
Pakistani state authorities banned all public gatherings in Sharif’s home town prior to his arrival, suspended mobile services, and deployed thousands of police and paramilitary Rangers.
Millions of refugees face harsh conditions across South Asia
By Rohantha De Silva, 13 July 2018
The plight of millions of refugees in South Asia is a damning indictment of the imperialist powers and the regional ruling elites.
WSWS call to fight Internet censorship published in Urdu, Bengali, and Telugu
21 February 2018
The US government, in close collaboration with Google, Facebook, and other giant IT corporations, is implementing massive restrictions on Internet access to socialist, antiwar and progressive websites.
Indian-Pakistani clashes in Kashmir put South Asia on knife’s edge
By Sampath Perera, 31 January 2018
India’s army chief has said that if the deteriorating situation along the border warrants it, his forces stand ready to call Islamabad’s nuclear “bluff” and strike inside Pakistan.
US suspends security aid to Pakistan as part of Afghan War push
By Jordan Shilton, 6 January 2018
The deepening of US-Pakistan tensions is bound up not just with the Afghan War, but also the growing polarization of the region between the Indo-US and Sino-Pakistani military-strategic alliances.
WSWS publishes Urdu translation of Trotsky’s Lessons of October
13 December 2017
Lessons of October reviews the history of the October 1917 Russian Revolution and the pivotal role of revolutionary leadership.
Preface to the Urdu edition of Lessons of October
By Keith Jones, 13 December 2017
Trotsky’s Lessons of October was written from the standpoint of preparing future “Octobers,” both in the advanced capitalist countries of Europe and the US, and in the oppressed countries of the East.
Tillerson delivers stern warning to Pakistan
By Sampath Perera, 28 October 2017
In a visit of just four hours, Tillerson spelled out Washington’s demand Pakistan join the US in dramatically escalating Afghan war violence or brace itself for reprisals.
Pakistan boycotts talks with US, rejects role for India in Afghanistan
By Sampath Perera, 1 September 2017
US President Trump’s Afghanistan strategy has provoked an angry reaction in Islamabad.
US threatens Pakistan as part of new Afghan war drive
By Keith Jones, 24 August 2017
Trump’s threats include closer cooperation with Pakistan’s arch-rival India, which has repeatedly boasted of its readiness to mount military raids inside Pakistan even if they risk provoking all-out war.
Seventy years since the communal Partition of South Asia
By Keith Jones, 16 August 2017
The Partition was one of the great crimes of the 20th century—a crime that has shaped, or more precisely deformed, the entire subsequent history of South Asia.
Pakistan plunges deeper into crisis as prime minister ousted on corruption charges
By Sampath Perera, 31 July 2017
The immediate beneficiary of Sharif’s ouster and the weakening of the PML (N) government is Pakistan’s politically powerful military.
Mounting tensions between India and its nuclear-armed neighbors, China and Pakistan
By Wasantha Rupasinghe and Keith Jones, 14 July 2017
For the past month, Indian and Chinese troops have been arrayed against each other on a Himalayan ridge that is claimed by both China and Bhutan.
Over 150 people die in oil tanker explosion in Pakistan
By Wasantha Rupasinghe, 27 June 2017
In an exercise in political damage control, the prime minister expressed his “sympathy” for the victims and announced compensation for the families of the dead and injured.
India and Pakistan admitted to Shanghai Cooperation Organisation
By Wasantha Rupasinghe, 14 June 2017
Despite India and Pakistan becoming full SCO members, there has been no de-escalation of war tensions between the two nuclear-armed South Asian rivals.
Indian establishment lauds military’s use of Kashmiri youth as “human shield”
By Wasantha Rupasinghe, 24 May 2017
Predictably the military’s announcement that it would convene a court of inquiry to investigate the incident has proven to be a cruel joke.
India intensifies repression in Kashmir
By Kranti Kumara and Wasantha Rupasinghe, 16 May 2017
India’s former National Security Advisor has warned that the ruling elite has lost control of the situation in Kashmir, with unarmed youth repeatedly risking their lives to impede security operations.
Afghanistan-Pakistan border clash erupts amid seething regional tensions
By Sampath Perera and Keith Jones, 8 May 2017
Fighting Friday between Afghan and Pakistan troops killed at least 12 people and possibly many more.
Indian military given green light to strike Pakistan
By Keith Jones, 3 May 2017
Relations between India and Pakistan are again on the boil, just months after South Asia’s rival nuclear-armed powers came to the brink of war.
New in Urdu
Urdu translation of “The Political Lessons of Syriza’s Betrayal in Greece”
8 March 2017
The statement is a devastating exposure of the pseudo-left in Greece and internationally who shamelessly promoted Syriza as a means for working people to oppose austerity.
South Asian nuclear arms race accelerates amid India-Pakistan standoff
By Sampath Perera, 28 February 2017
India and Pakistan are rapidly expanding their nuclear arsenals and proclaiming adherence to aggressive military strategies that increase the prospect of nuclear war.
New Indian army chief threatens Pakistan and China
By Wasantha Rupasinghe, 7 January 2017
As India conducts tests of nuclear-capable ballistic missiles, its new army chief has warned of a possible “two front” war against China and Pakistan.
India rebuffs Pakistan’s “peace” overtures
By Keith Jones, 6 December 2016
India has demonstrably rebuffed Pakistan’s attempts to initiate a dialogue aimed at defusing the almost three-month-long war crisis between South Asia’s rival nuclear-armed states.
War tensions between India and Pakistan intensify
By Wasantha Rupasinghe and Keith Jones, 1 December 2016
The truce along the Line of Control between Indian- and Pakistan-held Kashmir, that was put in place in the aftermath of a war crisis in 2001-2002, has manifestly broken down.
Indo-Pakistan tensions escalate
By Wasantha Rupasinghe, 8 November 2016
The ongoing clashes along the Line of Control between India and Pakistan highlight the dangerous standoff that has brought the nuclear-armed rivals to the brink of war.
Death toll rises to 25, as India-Pakistan border clashes heighten war danger
By Alex Lantier, 2 November 2016
As US officials pledge greater support to India against Pakistan and China, both Indian and Pakistani officials are vowing to escalate their conflict over Kashmir.
India-Pakistan cross-border barrages heighten South Asia’s war crisis
By Keith Jones, 1 November 2016
India’s BJP government calculates that it can exploit the war crisis to strengthen its hand against Pakistan while stoking reaction and rallying support at home.
Terror attack on Pakistani police academy kills more than 60
By Keith Jones, 26 October 2016
The attack on the Balochistan Police College is said to be the deadliest terrorist attack ever mounted on Pakistan’s security forces.
Bangladesh government accused of “kneecapping” opponents
By Sarath Kumara, 22 October 2016
The Hasina government, which confronts widespread opposition, is increasingly resorting to police-state methods to maintain its rule.
US amplifies its support for India’s military strikes on Pakistan
By Deepal Jayasekera, 18 October 2016
Washington’s endorsement of India’s jettisoning of “strategic restraint” will only encourage New Delhi to carry out still more aggressive and provocative military actions.
Indian Stalinists aid BJP’s bellicose anti-Pakistan campaign
By Wasantha Rupasinghe and Keith Jones, 14 October 2016
India’s principal Stalinist party, the CPM, is playing a foul role in the reckless, bellicose offensive India’s ruling elite is mounting against its nuclear-armed arch-rival, Pakistan.
Opposition grows in Indo-Pakistan borderlands to India’s warmongering
By Wasantha Rupasinghe, 10 October 2016
Despite the bellicose propaganda campaign of the Indian government and media, there is widespread public opposition to a war between Pakistan and India.
Pakistani elite rattled by “strategic isolation” following Indian attack
By Keith Jones, 8 October 2016
To the shock of Pakistan’s elite, its appeals for international condemnation of India’s military strikes have fallen on deaf ears.
India’s military calls for more strikes on Pakistan
By Keith Jones, 6 October 2016
Large sections of India’s ruling elite are urging the Hindu communalist BJP government to further escalate military pressure on Pakistan.
Amid war crisis, Pakistani actors hounded out of India
By Kranti Kumara, 4 October 2016
The Indian Motion Pictures Producers’ Association has passed a resolution banning Pakistani actors, singers and technicians from Bollywood productions.
India and Pakistan teeter on the brink of war
By Keith Jones, 3 October 2016
In anticipation of a possible Pakistani counter-strike, or to facilitate their own war preparations, India is evacuating tens of thousands of people living near the border.
US backs India’s military strikes on Pakistan
By Keith Jones, 1 October 2016
Washington’s readiness to endorse India’s new aggressive posture will only encourage New Delhi to take still greater military-strategic risks.
India launches military attacks against Pakistan
By Keith Jones, 30 September 2016
Indian military strikes killed people in the “double-digits,” according to media reports, bringing South Asia perilously close to an all-out war with potentially catastrophic consequences.
After Kashmir attack, US media threaten to support India in war with Pakistan
By Kumaran Ira, 29 September 2016
Washington’s anti-China “pivot to Asia” is fueling war tensions between Pakistan and India, which have escalated since Islamist militants attacked an Indian military base in Kashmir.
India launches campaign to “punish” Pakistan
By Wasntha Rupasinghe, 28 September 2016
The publicly announced steps India has taken against Pakistan are of a diplomatic and economic character. But behind the scenes feverish preparations continue for a lethal “counterstrike.”
Pakistan replies with belligerence to Indian threats
By Sampath Perera, 27 September 2016
The Pakistan Air Force conducted war exercises last week, including over the skies of the national capital, Islamabad, and on the highway connecting it to Lahore.
India and Pakistan teeter on the precipice of war
By Keith Jones, 21 September 2016
Four days after India’s government held Pakistan responsible for a terrorist attack in the disputed Kashmir region that killed 18 Indian soldiers, New Delhi continues to be gripped by war fever.
Bellicose campaign in India against Pakistan after attack on Kashmiri base
By Wasantha Rupasinghe, 20 September 2016
Led by senior figures in the ruling BJP, India’s political and defense-security establishments are clamouring for military action against Pakistan.
Follow the WSWS