Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan.

Today's three stories you should know.

Mar 06, 2023

Bangladesh

Bangladeshi authorities have opened an investigation into a huge fire that ripped through the world’s biggest refugee camp yesterday, destroying about 2,000 temporary shelters and leaving 12,000 people homeless. Apocalyptic images showed smoke rising over charred ground, the occasional scattered debris all that was left of the structures. Most of the camp’s estimated one million residents are Rohingya Muslims from neighboring Myanmar who fled across the border after the government launched a brutal crackdown against them in 2017. Aid workers say rehousing the 12,000 people affected will be difficult given how overcrowded the massive camp already is.

Pakistan

Another suicide attack in Pakistan. A bomber on a motorcycle today rammed a police truck, killing at least 10 officers and wounding 12, according to local authorities. A recently-formed armed group, Tehreek-e-Jihad, later claimed responsibility for the attack. But, confusingly, the local ISIS affiliate also did. The region where the bombing took place, Balochistan, is home to several armed groups opposed to the government. The country’s Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif condemned the attack.

Afghanistan

The Taliban’s relentless assault on the rights of women and girls since it came to power in Afghanistan could amount to a crime against humanity, according to a new UN report. "The Taliban's intentional and calculated policy is to repudiate the human rights of women and girls and to erase them from public life," the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, told the Human Rights Council in Geneva. "It may amount to the international crime of gender persecution for which the authorities can be held accountable."