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Sri Lankans are continuing to demand President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s resignation, with thousands rallying in the capital, Colombo, saying neither he nor members of his family could be trusted to steer the country out of its deepening economic crisis, Aljazeera reported.

At the Galle Face Green on Colombo’s waterfront on Saturday, students, teachers, lawyers, actors and architects – many of whom said they were protesting for the first time – chanted “madman Gota” and “Go home Gota”, in a reference to the president’s nickname, as they gathered under a blistering sun.

They waved the Sri Lankan flag and held up hand-written placards in Sinhalese and English that carried messages such as “No more corrupted politicians” and “Save Sri Lanka from the Rajapaksa family”.

“This is a do-or-die moment,” said 29-year-old Buddhi Karunatne, who works in advertising.

“For the first time, people of all kinds of political and social beliefs are coming together, with non-negotiable demands for the president to resign and hand over power to people who are capable of getting us out of this socioeconomic crisis.”

The display of anger marked a stunning reversal for Rajapaksa, 72, who won the presidency in 2019 by a big margin and whose party went on to secure a two-thirds majority in the parliament less than a year later. Those victories allowed Rajapaksa to appointhis brother Mahinda Rajapaksa as prime minister and amend the constitution to strengthen the president’s powers, according to Aljazeera.

He also went on to hand three other Rajapaksa family members key positions in his cabinet, including the finance, agriculture and sports portfolios.

At the time, many voters said they believed Gotabaya and Mahinda Rajapaksa would boost security and stabilise the country following a spate of ISIL-inspired bombings that killed at least 250 people in 2019. That is partly because the brothers had overseen the military defeat of Tamil separatists in 2009 after 26 years of bloody conflict. Mahinda was then president and Gotabaya, his younger brother, the defence secretary, Aljazeera reported.

But instead of improving things, the Rajapaksas “have proved incompetent and incapable of taking the right decisions”, said one protester at Saturday’s rally. “Gota simply can’t run a country,” said another. “He doesn’t have a brain to deal with this kind of crisis.”

Pakistan’s political opposition ousted the country’s embattled prime minister in a no-confidence vote early Sunday, which they won after several of Imran Khan’s allies and a key coalition party deserted him, Associated Press reported.

The combined opposition that spans the political spectrum from the left to the radically religious will form the new government, with the head of one of the largest parties, the Pakistani Muslim League, taking over as prime minister.

Anticipating his loss, Khan, who charged the opposition colluded with the United States to unseat him, has called on his supporters to stage rallies nationwide on Sunday. Khan’s options are limited and should he see a big turnout in his support, he may try to keep the momentum of street protests as a way to pressure Parliament to hold early elections.

Khan earlier had tried to sidestep the vote by dissolving Parliament and calling early elections but a Supreme Court ruling ordered the vote to go ahead.

The vote comes amid cooling relations between Khan and a powerful military who many of his political opponents allege helped him come to power in general elections in 2018. The military has directly ruled Pakistan for more than half of its 75 years and wields considerable power over civilian governments, who worry a disgruntled army could unseat them.

The opposition called for Khan’s ouster charging economic mismanagement as inflation soars and the Pakistani rupee plummets in value. The vote caps months of political turmoil and a constitutional crisis that required the Supreme Court to sort out, according to the Associated Press.

In an impassioned speech Friday, Khan doubled down on his accusations that his opponents colluded with the United States to unseat him over his foreign policy choices, which often seemed to favor China and Russia and defied the US. 

Khan said Washington opposed his Feb. 24 meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin hours after tanks rolled into Ukraine, launching a devastating war in the heart of Europe.

Ahead of the vote, his lawmakers addressed Parliament to express outrage about a letter Khan said told of a senior US official, who was not named, who informed top Pakistani diplomats that Washington’s relations with Pakistan would improve if Khan was ousted. Human rights minister Shireen Mazari said the memo named Khan and said that if he was out of power “all would be forgiven.”

She went on to ask: “Forgiven for what? What is our sin?”

The US State Department has denied any involvement in Pakistan’s internal politics. Deputy State Department spokeswoman Jalina Porter told reporters on Friday there was “absolutely no truth to these allegations.”

Still, Khan urged his supporters to take to the streets, particularly the youth who have been the backbone of his support since the former cricket star turned conservative Islamist politician came to power in 2018. He said they needed to protect Pakistan’s sovereignty and oppose US dictations, Associated Press reported.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late Saturday that democratic countries are united in working to stop the Russian invasion as civilians continued to flee eastern parts of the country before an expected onslaught and firefighters searched for survivors in a northern town no longer occupied by Russian forces, Associated Press reported.

In his daily late-night video address to Ukrainians, Zelenskyy said that “Russian aggression was not intended to be limited to Ukraine alone” and the “entire European project is a target for Russia.”

Several European leaders have made efforts to show solidarity with the battle-scarred nation. Zelenskyy thanked the leaders of Britain and Austria for their visits Saturday to Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, and pledges of further support. He also thanked the European Commission president and Canada’s prime minister for a global fundraising event that brought in more than 10 billion euros ($11 billion) for Ukrainians who have fled their homes.

Zelenskyy repeated his call for a complete embargo on Russian oil and gas, which he called the sources of Russia’s “self-confidence and impunity.”

“Freedom does not have time to wait,” Zelenskyy said. “When tyranny begins its aggression against everything that keeps the peace in Europe, action must be taken immediately.”

More than six weeks after the invasion began, Russia has pulled its troops from the northern part of the country, around Kyiv, and refocused on the Donbas region in the east. Western military analysts said an arc of territory in eastern Ukraine was under Russian control, from Kharkiv — Ukraine’s second-largest city — in the north to Kherson in the south, according to the Associated Press.

But counterattacks are threatening Russian control of Kherson, according to the Western assessments, and Ukrainian forces are repelling Russian assaults elsewhere in the Donbas, a largely Russian-speaking and industrial region.

Civilians were evacuating eastern Ukrainefollowing a missile strike Friday that killed at least 52 people and wounded more than 100 at a train station where thousands clamored to leave.

Ukrainian authorities have called on civilians to get out ahead of an imminent, stepped-up offensive by Russian forces in the east. With trains not running out of Kramatorsk on Saturday, panicked residents boarded buses or looked for other ways to leave, fearing the kind of unrelenting assaults and occupations by Russian invaders that brought food shortages, demolished buildings and death to other cities.

“It was terrifying. The horror, the horror,” one resident told British broadcaster Sky, recalling Friday’s attack on the train station. “Heaven forbid, to live through this again. No, I don’t want to.”

Ukraine’s state railway company said residents of Kramatorsk and other parts of the Donbas could flee through other train stations. Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said 10 evacuation corridors were planned for Saturday, Associated Press reported.

Zelenskyy called the train station attack the latest example of war crimes by Russian forces and said it should motivate the West to do more to help his country defend itself.

Russia denied responsibility and accused Ukraine’s military of firing on the station to turn blame for civilian casualties on Moscow. A Russian Defense Ministry spokesman detailed the missile’s trajectory and Ukrainian troop positions to bolster the argument, according to the Associated Press.

The Nepal Army, which has been constructing the 72.5km fast track to link Kathmandu with Bara district in the Tarai, says 96.47 percent of the project’s land-acquisition process has been completed. What remains unsettled are the properties in the Bungamati and Khokana areas of Lalitpur district.

The army says land-acquisition in these places have been halted over a compensation row. But the ground reality is different. The halt has more to do with the cultural significance of these two areas than land issues.  The project’s Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) had hinted of the challenges of securing land for the 6 km-stretch of the expressway in Lalitpur. As the area is part of the ancient Newa heritage and a site of various cultural and religious ceremonies, the EIA report had given a heads-up to the project developer. As anticipated, there was fierce pushback from the residents of Bungamati and Khokana when the time came to open a track for the expressway. 

As the town planning principles and traditional architecture of the principal cities of Kathmandu valley were transplanted to Khokana and Bungamati in the seventh century, these settlements represent not just a Newari townscape. They also have great architectural, aesthetical, and symbolic values. 

Also read: ApEx Explainer: The what, where and when of the fast track

Earliest human settlement in the valley is thought to have started here. Naturally, the locals are against the expressway as they fear the fast track will obliterate their closely-guarded heritage and culture. Cultural experts say Bungamati and Khokana are home to Hindu and Buddhist socio-cultural values, and local arts and crafts industry. This heritage, they say, is sustained by the locals who still practice and celebrate ancient rituals and festivals. 

The expressway’s construction through these areas will destroy several heritage sites and ancient settlements—and with them a civilization.

Besides the fast track, seven other projects are proposed and even being carried out in these areas. These “development undertakings” could further impact the local heritage, fear experts.  

In 1996, King Birendra had proposed Khokana for the UNESCO World Heritage Site. In the proposal, Khokana was described as a unique village, a model of a medieval settlement pattern with a system of drainage and chowks. The mustard-oil seed industry was called the ‘living heritage’ of the village. 

Today, the entire village is at risk, says Sanjay Adhikari, a public interest litigator for natural and cultural heritage who has been closely following the fast track project.  

“The 27-meter-wide expressway will destroy the proposed heritage site,” he says. “The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, of which Nepal is a signatory, as well as our constitution, advocate for the rights of indigenous people. But we are ignoring our commitment.” 

Also read: Army veers off the environment track

Bungamati and Khokana are well known for Rato Machhindranath and Shikali Jatra. These places are built in the shape of Swastika, according to Hindu mythology. The fast track could distort these features. Besides, there is also the risk of Katuwal Daha, a pool whose water is used in Rato Machhindranath Jatra, getting encroached, or worse, buried. 

Similarly, Kumari Chaur, the courtyard of the living Goddess Kumari where the victory of Bhawani Devi is celebrated on the night of Navami, will be completely encroached by the fast track. The practice of Pahanchahre, a festival celebrated on the eve of Ghodejatra, will also stop. 

The Newars of Khokana don’t celebrate major Hindu festivals like the Dashain. They rather consider Shikali Jatra as their biggest festival. 

Also read: Lack of fast track progress raises questions over Nepal Army’s credibility

The construction of a fast track will erase these ancient villages, heritages and rare cultural practices, warns Nepal Man Dangol, who leads a struggle committee for the conservation of Khokana. 

“Rather than solving the issues, the army, police, and government have been using force to suppress our movement to protect our heritage and culture,” he says. “We are determined not to allow them to resume construction here.”

Cultural functions performed in public spaces, religious structures, and agricultural lands are the foundations of these Newari settlements. The gradual shift in the economic base from agriculture to service and the demise of traditional social institutions were already endangering local culture. 

Dangol fears the fast track could be the final nail in the coffin of their heritage. 

Also read: What if… the fast track project was completed on time?

The fast track also violates article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that stipulates that everyone has the right to freely participate in the cultural life of the community, enjoy the arts, and share in scientific advancement and its benefits. 

It also breaches article 15.1 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and articles 7, 8 and 23 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

While the fast track could potentially put the ancient villages of Khokana and Bungamati in jeopardy, the impact of its construction elsewhere is starkly different. 

In the village of Lendanda in Makwanpur district, which is just a 1.5 hours off-road drive from Hetuada, the fast track is viewed as a boon.  

When the expressway comes into operation, they say it won’t take them more than 30 minutes to reach Kathmandu. 

Also read: A whiff of partisan, geopolitical interference

“Not only will our access to hospitals and schools improve, we will also be able to build more of them right here in our own village,” says Biru Tamang, a Lendanda villager. 

Roads connect nearby inter- and intra-communities with markets as well as health and education facilities. They also improve access to facilities like water, sanitation and electricity, create jobs and diversify sources of income.

Laya Prasad Uprety, professor of anthropology at the Tribhuvan University, says while road connectivity is vital to improve people’s living standards, it also comes with some negatives. 

“Yes, roads can spur growth and improve people’s lifestyle, but they can also damage the culture and heritage of indigenous communities,” he says.

“Development also means an incursion of modern norms and values and they could displace indigenous culture,” says Uprety.  

Rural areas, by and large, have acted as producer communities. The new infrastructures could turn them into consumer communities. There is also the risk of organic agricultural practices being displaced. For instance, it is hard to find organic agricultural produce these days as the seeds and fertilizers of multinational companies have penetrated all corners of the country. 

“So, you see, the roads can be both a boon and a bane,” says Uprety.