Author: Gowani

by B. R. GOWANI

The Indian subcontinent (Bangladesh, India, Pakistan) was unified under British colonial rule. In 1947, India was divided into India and Pakistan. In 1971, Pakistan got divided into Pakistan and Bangladesh. Since coming to power in 2014, Hindu nationalist Modi’s hatred of minorities, particularly Muslims, has created internal division and turned Muslims into second class citizens.

On the other side, Pakistan today is facing another crisis which, if not handled humanely and fairly, could result in yet another division.

The Indian subcontinent is not a homogeneous entity, it is an amalgam of various ethnicities, one could say nations. India is suppressing Kashmir‘s autonomy. The southern states in India are not happy, too, with the central government. Ditto with the northeastern states.

Same situation exists in Pakistan: the province of Punjab’s domination since Pakistan’s creation forced the majority province of East Pakistan to secede, and form the new nation of Bangladesh. The other three provinces, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly NFP or North Western Frontier Province), and Balochistan are not happy either — especially Balochistan. It is sparsely populated, and is the largest province and is also the most ignored by the central government.

In 2012, Adaner Usmani wrote:

As Pakistan marks the 65th anniversary of its independence, the ongoing rebellion of the Baloch is a damning verdict on the country’s ruling-class. The fact that the national question remains arguably the most salient fault line in the country’s politics — not just in Balochistan, but in Sindh, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan, and even inside Punjab itself — illustrates the colossal failure of the State’s attempts to chloroform popular aspirations in the hollow language of “national unity.”

Balochistan Liberation Army

On March 11, 2025, BLA members, based in the Baluchistan region of Afghanistan, hijacked Jaffar Express, a train with over 440 passengers in Pakistan on its way from Quetta, Balochistan to Peshawar, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

The clash between the government forces and the hijackers lasted over 36 hours and resulted in the death of 33 hijackers, 26 hostages, and 5 security personnel. BLA attacks have been steadily prevalent as is evident from the list of all the BLA attacks over the recent times.

Government reaction

Pakistan, Iran, the United Kingdom, China, the European Union, and the United States have declared BLA a terrorist organization. It is widely believed that BLA gets support from India and Afghanistan.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif (PML-N) issued a statement similar to other world leaders’ when confronted with such situations. An extract:

“We will continue the war against the monster of terrorism until it is completely eradicated from the country. We will thwart every conspiracy to spread insecurity and chaos in Pakistan.”

President Asif Zardari’s (PPP) declaration was no different:

“The situation is clear—the state will continue to exist, and we must win the war against terrorism.”

The Balochistan issue is a decades old problem and needs some serious planning and negotiations with the Balochi people and their leaders, rather than issuing worn out useless statements.

Aasim Sajjad Akhtar reminds us of the remoteness of Balochistan:

“Balochistan only enters the mind of mainland Pakistan when something spectacular happens.”

The tragedy is that governments are not interested in listening to the Baloch grievances or to enter into negotiations. The PML-N’s previous government had made an indirect effort but it didn’t yield results because of its lack of enthusiasm to grant Baloch requests, or to continue negotiations.

Journalist Zahid Hussain sums up the current state of government inertia:

“The latest wave of militant violence gripping the country may have shaken the corridors of power but so far there have been few signs of any course correction. There is not even an attempt to understand what has gone wrong and what needs to be done.”

Nothing has changed in the government’s approach, and the situation has worsened.

Government crack down

Thousands of Balochis have been protesting over the disappearance of their relatives and friends. Over 5,000 Balochis are missing but the government refuses to take any action. Critics of the administration are jailed. The Pakistani government’s indifference towards Balochi peoples’ plight and their grievances has exacerbated the situation.

A human rights activist and lawyer Imaan Mazari fights for the rights of various communities and, also, defends journalists. She fights for Balochi struggle for their rights and has been incarcerated many times. In January 2026, she, along with her husband, human rights lawyer Hadi Ali Chattha, were sentenced to 17 years in prison. The judgement read:

“She propagated a narrative that aligned with hostile terrorist groups and proscribed organisations and individuals. Her contents incited ethnic hatred, undermined public trust on state organisations and portrayed the armed forces are behind terrorism and forced disappearances.”

The judgement further noted the tweets made between 2021 and 2025 by Mazari “portrayed the agenda” of the banned Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

The Pakistani military spokesperson Lieutenant General, Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, accused Mazari of “terrorism:”

“They operate under the guise of democracy and human rights to promote terrorism.”

Defending people against the Pakistani government’s terrorism becomes “terrorism.” It is the strange reality currently prevalent in Pakistan (also true in most of the world today).

People, associated with the United Nations (UN), who have expertise in human rights urged the Pakistan government to not equate freedom of expression with “criminal” behavior or “terrorism”.

“Lawyers, like other individuals, are entitled to freedom of expression. The exercise of this right should never be conflated with criminal conduct, especially not terrorism.” “Doing so risks undermining and criminalising the work of lawyers and human rights defenders across Pakistan and has a chilling effect on civil society in the country.”

Journalist Arifa Noor points out that news about Imaan Mazari “on the idiot box is a no-no.” The result is that the issue does not receive coverage.

Another Baloch Dr Mahrang Baloch is also behind bars for protesting the disappeared Balochis.

According to Balochistan Times, Pakistan’s intelligence agencies use death squads made up of local men, “mostly thieves and drug peddlers,” who “sell drugs, loot, abduct and kill without fear of consequences.” These squads hold protest rallies, against Baloch political activists.

Many Balochis fighting for their rights have been murdered. In 2013 alone, 116 bodies were discovered throughout the province.

Activists murdered

In May 2014, Karima Mehrab Baloch, first woman to be a chairperson of Baloch Student Organization (BSO-Azad), outlined the murderous nature of the Pakistani security agencies:

“… many of our members have been brutally killed and thousands have been abducted. Two months back, the chairman of my organization was kidnapped right in front of my eyes. Before that, in 2009, the vice-chairman of our organization Zakir Majeed was kidnapped by the secret services while he was attending a crowded procession.”

In 2013, BSO-Azad, Pakistan’s largest ethnic Baloch student group was banned on charges of “terrorism” — the easiest excuse to arrest, ban, or even kill. Sensing danger to her life, Karima exiled herself to Canada. In 2020, Karima’s dead “body was found near Toronto.”

Baloch activists, particularly those calling for independence, have been subject for years to a sustained and documented campaign of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings, local and international rights groups say.

Aljazeera

That same year, journalist Sajid Hussain Baloch‘s body was found in Sweden’s Fyris River. Between 2012 and 2017, he lived his years in exile in Oman, UAE, and Uganda where in 2015 he started Balochistan Times. In 2017, he settled in Sweden.

There has been a sharp escalation in Baloch separatist violence over the past five years, with 2025, the deadliest year on record. “According to the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies, the province saw at least 254 attacks in 2025 (a 26 per cent increase from the previous year) resulting in more than 400 deaths.”

Sometimes bodies of Balochis are just thrown in graves, without being covered with a shroud, by the authorities.

Pakistan needs to tackle the Balochi problem

Globally and regionally, the world is changing rapidly. Old alliances are disappearing or losing relevance. New ones are being formed; some are in embryonic stages. Then, there are US and Israel led wars in Gaza, Palestine, Lebanon, and in particular, against Iran that have created economic hardships, rise in inflation, and shortage of oil and gas due to the blockade of Strait of Hormuz.

In the face of this reality, Pakistan’s leaders are gloating in the worldwide coverage of their role as mediators between Iran and the US. But that is not going to solve the pressing economic problems facing the country.

Then, there are problems in the neighborhood. Pakistan’s relations with two of its four neighbors are not good at all. With India, Modi’s unnecessary rigidity and his four day war with Pakistan last May further deteriorated the already strained relations.

Also, for some time now, the war between Afghanistan and Pakistan has resulted in border closings affecting Pakistan’s trade with Central Asia. Pakistan is now using different routes via Iran and China making it more costly and time consuming.

With Afghanistan, an additional problem exists of the TTP (Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan) <1>, a Jihadi group operating from Afghanistan, that the Pakistani authorities accuse of supporting BLA.

Already financially constrained, Pakistan faced another problem recently, when UAE suddenly demanded its loan of $3.5 billion back. The reason being the UAE wanted to see Iran nuked but Pakistan argued that if Israel nuked Iran today, they’ll come after Gulf countries tomorrow. Saudi Arabia and Qatar came to Pakistan’s rescue with billions of dollars.

In this critical situation, Crisistan should try to keep peace within its borders, by:

• granting due rights to Balochi people
• letting Balochis decide what course their province wants to take
• release the thousands of Balochis if still alive, and the whereabouts of all who have disappeared by the army
• the central government should contribute towards the economic development of the province
• and so on …

Only steps to placate Balochistan would permit the government to concentrate on other critical problems facing the country, rather than wasting its energy on fighting its own people.

<1> Looking for “strategic depth,” Pakistan wanted to use friendly Afghanistan as an area to retreat in case of an Indian attack. The idea germinated during Benazir Bhutto’s rule. But now, things have changed so much that Afghanistan has become a pit full of anti-Pakistan terrorist groups, including TTP (Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan), which consists of several armed militant groups. This, in turn, has led to unjust and inhumane deportation of Afghan refugees, many of them had settled in Pakistan for decades.

B. R. Gowani can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com

DEMOCRACY NOW

United Nations expert Francesca Albanese’s latest report warns that Israel is systematically torturing Palestinians on a scale that “suggests collective vengeance and destructive intent” and that “torture has effectively become state policy” since October 2023.

Of all the investigations Albanese has carried out, “this has been absolutely the most excruciating, that led me to say that Israel uses torture in a systematic and widespread fashion, intentionally and sadistically, to break the spirit of the Palestinians, not just as individuals, but as a people,” says Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory since 2022.

This comes as Israeli forces reportedly tortured a Palestinian toddler earlier this month, by using a cigarette to burn one of the child’s legs and a nail to puncture the other, in order to coerce a confession from his father.

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: An Israeli court has closed an investigation into the death of Walid Ahmad, a 17-year-old from the occupied West Bank who died in an Israeli jail six months after he was arrested, held without charges and accused of throwing stones at Israeli soldiers. An autopsy showed Ahmad likely starved to death after suffering extreme weight loss, muscle wasting and untreated scabies. Human rights groups say nearly a hundred Palestinians have died in Israeli jails since October 2023.

Meanwhile, local and international media outlets report Israeli forces recently tortured a Palestinian toddler in Gaza to coerce a confession from his father. According to reports from Palestine TV, Al Jazeera and others, the child’s father, Osama Abu Nassar, was detained near the al-Maghazi refugee camp after he came under fire from Israeli soldiers. He was forced to approach an Israeli checkpoint, where he was separated from his 18-month-old son, stripped naked and forced to watch as soldiers used a cigarette to burn one of the toddler’s legs while using a nail to puncture the other.

AMY GOODMAN: This comes as a new U.N. report warns Israel is systematically torturing Palestinians on a scale that “suggests collective vengeance and destructive intent.” The report, titled “Torture and Genocide,” was written by Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory.

In July, the Trump administration imposed sanctions on her over her report naming dozens of companies she says are profiting from Israeli occupation and genocide in Gaza. Amnesty International blasted the sanctions as, quote, “shameless and transparent attack on the fundamental principles of international justice.” Francesca Albanese’s new book is When the World Sleeps: Stories, Words and Wounds of Palestine. She joins us from Geneva, Switzerland.

Francesca, thank you so much for being with us. Why don’t you lay out what you found in your new report, “Torture and Genocide,” that you just presented at the U.N. Human Rights Council?

FRANCESCA ALBANESE: Thank you. Thank you, Amy and Nermeen.

I’ve been investigating genocide for over two years now. So, five out of eight reports I’ve produced for the United Nations focus on genocide, acts of genocide, the context in which a genocide happens, why the genocide is not stopped, the layers of complicity from states and private companies, which is the reason why also I’m sanctioned by the United States, against which now my 13-year-old daughter, who’s an American citizen, is the only one to take action suing the Trump administration. But of all the investigations I’ve carried out, this has been absolutely the most excruciating, that led me to say that Israel uses torture in a systematic and widespread fashion, intentionally and sadistically, to break the spirit of the Palestinians, not just as individuals, but as a people, considering the scale and intensity of torture.

And I monitored torture behind bars, collecting hundreds, hundreds of testimonies, directly and from Palestinian and Israeli human rights organizations, but also analyzing what experts call torturous environment, meaning the cumulative impact of all the practices, of all the crimes that Israel has massively inflicted on the Palestinians — again, beyond the torture, sodomization, raping in jail, the enforced disappearance, which is touching 4,000 people. This is new. This is a new crime, including for Israel, toward the Palestinians. But also starvation, constant forced displacement, not just in Gaza, but in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and home demolition, the fear of being always threatened with death or other crimes, it creates a torturous environment for the Palestinians, which is an essential element of genocide. And it is genocide.

Democracy Now for more

CONCERNED JEWISH WRITERS

“We are Jewish authors who believe in Jewish books, and for whom Palestinian liberation is a moral imperative.”

Open Letters April 9, 2026

Below is an open letter from a group of Jewish authors to the Jewish Book Council (JBC). A group of us—consisting of writers with books eligible for the 2025 National Jewish Book Awards and those who have written for their magazine, had our books reviewed in their pages, or had some connection to the JBC—came together because we felt that the JBC, the pre-eminent US organization for Jewish writers and literature, did not represent or value us, as non- and anti-Zionist Jewish writers. Further, we were—and remain—concerned that the institution’s apparent bias toward centering Israeli and Zionist voices is not only exclusionary but harmful, contributing to the dehumanization of Palestinians and advancing a system of cultural apartheid.

To name a few practical examples of this bias: Since October 7, 2023, JBC leadership has spoken to national press about anti-Semitism and violence against Jews while remaining silent about the loss of life to Palestinians; has taken special care to highlight Israeli narratives and Zionist voices in the announcement of—and choice of recipients of—their 2025 National Jewish Book Awards; has launched an anti-Semitism reporting tool that did not offer any definition of anti-Semitism (thus rendering anti-Zionist voices vulnerable); and has posted a round-up on social media of Jewish AWP panels that only included ones with a Zionist bent and excluded those with a non- or anti-Zionist lens.

We sent this letter directly to the JBC first because the JBC is a historically social justice-oriented institution, and we wanted to have a good faith conversation about how they might expand their awards, programming, and institutional vision to support non- and anti-Zionist voices. They agreed to a conversation, and we met with their leadership in a moderated Zoom conversation, where representatives from our informal coalition asked questions about the JBC’s actions—including the use of the data from their anti-Semitism reporting tool and their role in curating and publicizing panels of Jewish interest at AWP 2025—and proposed a number of specific ideas for more inclusive programming and messaging. The JBC’s leadership listened and promised to follow up.

We are Jewish authors who believe in Jewish books, and for whom Palestinian liberation is a moral imperative.

Unfortunately, no follow-up has been forthcoming and none of our proposed action steps have been implemented, even after several additional attempts to reach out for status updates. We felt disappointed that no action steps were taken. We have now decided to publish our original letter as an open letter to the literary and cultural community in the hopes that even more Jewish authors will sign in support and that the JBC will finally take meaningful action.

Literary Hub for more

by SUMANGALA DAMODARAN

From AI to Bob Dylan to Van Dung, songwriters and singers have captured the moment of conflict like few others have.

In the third week of March, a video circulated on social media ‘on behalf of the women of Iran’ contained a song titled ‘Hey America! Hey Israel!’ with lyrics that went as follows:

“Hey America, keep your bombs to yourself
Stay away from our land, this is our homeland
And our freedom belongs in our own hands
We don’t want your democratic bombs
Take your poison, take your filth, and get out.”

The song emerged around June 2025 as a viral protest anthem against American and Israeli foreign policy in West Asia, specifically within the context of Iranian protests from 2022, where women played a huge part in resistance against the regime. The song was not identified with any specific person or group. It also became known an example of a hugely successful protest song that was AI-generated. It was circulated through social media activist networks, and was one which could respond to events with appropriate lyrics as they unfolded. 

The lyrics of the song in a sense sum up the politics of the current conjuncture, opposing American-Israeli aggression which is being called a war of liberation waged on behalf of the Iranian people, justified by the fact that they have been protesting conditions in their own country. In a sense, the song also symbolises the vastly different conditions of production and circulation of campaign material in an era where the global anti-war movement, as it emerged during and after the World War II, has become fragmented and has largely dissipated.

In the post-World War II world, there have been several wars waged by the US, beginning with the Vietnam War in the 1955-75 period, the two Gulf wars against Iraq in 1990 and 2003, against Afghanistan from 2001 onwards, against Libya in 2011 and several other military actions, where the narrative has been similar. 

Music and musicians have played an important role in protesting these wars, even if the most extensive repertoires that are known are from the Vietnam war. 

In the period from 1969 to 1975, vast repertoires of music got created and performed protesting the Vietnam war. In America itself, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and several others, wrote and sang songs that became iconic as anti-war anthems. Bob Dylan’s ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’, Pete Seeger’s ‘Where Have All The Flowers Gone’ and ‘Bring ‘Em Back Home’, Joan Baez’s 1973 album ‘ Where Are You Now, My Son’ and the song ‘Saigon Bride’ are some examples. The Woodstock Festival, held over three days in August 1969, brought together more than 400,000 people and was dedicated to ‘Peace and Music’, featuring many of the musicians who were protesting the Vietnam war. 

The Wire for more

by KATHLEEN WALLACE

“Who the fuck does he think he is? Who’s the fucking superpower here?” Bill Clinton 1996 upon meeting Benjamin Mileikowsky (Netanyahu) for the first time.

“It would be fine if they took it all” Mike Huckabee, U.S. Ambassador to Israel during an interview with Tucker Carlson, February 2026.

The bombs have started dropping and Netanyahu is rejoicing in the prize he has been so longing for. The region is now aflame and the regional contender to thwart Israeli power is receiving massive bombardment. As is always the case, children’s blood will flow disproportionately as the protected elderly warmongers give the orders from places of safety and comfort.

A girl’s school in Iran has been wiped out, blood spattered little backpacks show the wanton violence inflicted by the Israeli bombing. “We are fighting the Epstein class. They either rape little girls or burn little girls” says Dr. Izadifoad, a professor from the University of Tehran. He’s not wrong. And before you launch into discussion about the religious zealots of Iran, know that the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a 501 non-profit in the US, is fielding a reported 110+ complaints that different military units in the US are being told this war in Iran is part of a divine plan to cause Armageddon.

How have we gotten to this place? A situation where Israel essentially gives marching orders to the United States and those wishes are complied with posthaste? Those paying attention through history know the relationship has always been lopsided, but even Reagan pushed back in a very slight manner to Israeli aggression, keeping some semblance of autonomy in decision making. What has taken away even that 1% of push-back?

Of course, the Israeli propaganda, the hasbara, has been very successful in labeling those against their apartheid state as antisemitic. The thing is, that label has been used so promiscuously that it has lost almost all meaning. The true antisemitism would seem to come from the Zionists who have tried to claim all of Judaism as their own and in so doing put the Jewish diaspora at the risk of idiots who conflate the two. As the esteemed Dr. Gabor Mate has indicated, collective Jewish trauma has been exploited by Israel to justify the behavior in Gaza.

Kathleen Wallace for more

by BARRY MALONE

When, as a young and green journalist, I started working for the Reuters news agency, the first thing I was told by my editor was this: “Above all else, accuracy.”

And speed? “Second,” he said. 

Though Reuters’ bread and butter is to be first, the one to hurry breaking news onto the wire so it can be picked up by media organisations around the world, that speed would be nothing if what is reported is not pinpoint accurate.

So, what does that mean? What does it mean to be accurate in journalism? To boil it down to its very essence, it means this: tell the audience only what you know, be clear about how you know it and, if something is not known, make that plain, too.

How then, to explain the flurry of stories that have appeared in the last few weeks using vague terms such as “Iran-linked”, “Iran-backed” and “Iran-aligned”, without telling readers and viewers exactly what is meant by those fuzzy phrases?

BBC editorialising 

There were three recent stories in which the terms were liberally applied. First, the arson attack on four ambulances owned by Hatzola, a Jewish community-run volunteer emergency response service in London. If Trump attacks Iran, western media will be cheering him on Barry Malone Read More »

Just a few days later, the personal email of FBI Director Kash Patel was hacked. And the following day, a man attempted to set off an improvised explosive device outside the Bank of America’s headquarters in Paris.

All three were deemed linked or aligned to Iran by some of the western world’s most venerable news organisations, including, as just one example, the BBC, which has not covered itself in glory with its reporting of Israel’s genocide in Gaza either.

MEE for more

Sahar Vardi discusses the human and political costs of Israel’s flourishing arms industry, and the deep societal shifts demilitarization would require.

Episode transcript 

How has Israeli society become so deeply militarized, and what does that mean for how “security” is defined?

In this episode, we speak with Sahar Vardi, a veteran anti-militarist activist and researcher who has spent years tracking Israel’s arms industry and its effects on society. She explains how militarization is embedded in everyday life, shaping culture, politics, and economic priorities, while carrying profoundly different meanings for Israelis and Palestinians. 

Vardi also traces how Israel’s military industrial complex increasingly drives the nation’s policy priorities, and how these systems extend far beyond Israel’s borders, exporting both arms and doctrines of control into a global security economy. As defense exports rise, she asks who profits, who bears the cost, and why do we accept this model as inevitable despite its failure to provide real safety?

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AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

• Regulators rubber-stamped casinos this year despite evidence of slavery and torture
• Survivors describe being trafficked to casino complexes and forced to scam
• Casinos linked to scamming compounds owned by major Cambodian companies

A new investigation by Amnesty International shows that a dozen casinos in Cambodia are directly linked to scamming compounds where torture, forced labour, child labour and human trafficking have taken place.

Analysis of official licensing documents issued by Cambodia’s Commercial Gambling Management Commission (CGMC) shows that casino owners are in direct control of buildings and sites where human rights abuses have been documented in at least 12 separate locations. The findings corroborate testimony from compound survivors who described being on casino property while they were confined and abused.

The casinos’ plans were recognized by the CGMC in December and January – during the country’s supposed nationwide crackdown on scamming compounds. The approved businesses include three Crown casinos owned by Anco Brothers Co. Ltd., one of the most powerful companies in Cambodia.

“This research establishes a clear link between Cambodia’s licensed casinos and its scamming compounds. At a time when the government says it is dismantling the scamming industry, the evidence shows it is simultaneously recognizing the plans for casino properties where abusive scamming compounds are run,” Amnesty International’s Co-Regional Director Montse Ferrer said.  

“This contradiction raises urgent questions about whether Cambodian regulators are legitimizing companies linked to grave abuses. The authorities must explain why casinos with documented links to trafficking and torture continue to receive official approval. Every day that these casinos remain licensed is another day in which people on casino property are at risk of human rights abuse.”

Casinos recognized by government despite scamming links

In December 2025 and January 2026, the CGMC reviewed and recognized plans submitted by companies operating casinos. These included Crown casinos in the cities of Poipet, Bavet and Chrey Thum, and the Majestic Two and Majestic Hotel & Casino in Sihanoukville, whose former chairman was charged in January 2026 with illegal recruitment for exploitation, aggravated fraud, organized crime and money laundering.

The CGMC published detailed maps of the casino complexes, which show casino buildings, rental buildings, guest accommodation, hotels and general facilities.  

By comparing the official CGMC maps with satellite imagery, analyzed alongside Amnesty International’s own visits to compounds and testimony from scores of survivors gathered for its June 2025 report on scamming compounds, Amnesty identified 11 instances where the compounds profiled in the 2025 report were within the casino complexes recognized by the CGMC.

Amnesty International for more

by JESMIN PAPRI

The country gets 95% of its fuel from abroad.

On a recent Saturday evening, a line of motorcycles stretched from a gas station in Dhaka. The queue snaked along the road for kilometers, its end out of sight. In the late afternoon heat, delivery and ride-hailing drivers leaned against their bikes, wiping sweat from their faces. Some scrolled through their phones; others waited in silence for fuel that might or might not arrive.

Among them was 25-year-old Rubel Malita. He had been standing in line since 1 p.m. Five hours later, he finally reached the pump. He was only allowed to buy 500 taka ($4) worth of diesel. 

“It’s not just less income; it’s lost time and energy. We spend hours in line instead of earning,” he said. 

Malita has worked full time in ride-sharing for the past two years, earning around 30,000 taka ($243) a month driving for Uber and Pathao.

Like many gig workers, he relies on daily trips for income, and without a fixed salary or benefits, any disruption quickly cuts into his earnings. 

The current fuel shortage, sparked by Israel and the U.S.’ war with Iran, has upended his income, exposing the lack of safety nets in platform-based work. Drivers say that during such disruptions, ride-sharing companies continue to take the same commission rates while offering no financial support when trips dry up. Last month, his income fell by almost half to 17,000 taka ($138), pushing him into financial strain. 

Like many gig workers in Dhaka, Rubel now spends hours every day searching for fuel — time that could otherwise be spent earning. Across Bangladesh, the shortage reflects a wider disruption in the country’s fuel supply chain, which depends heavily on imports for nearly 95% of its petroleum needs. 

Rest of World for more