In a monumental win for Pakistan, a panel of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) on Aug. 31 held that India must honor a nearly 70-year-old water treaty between the two nations. The court said that the treaty remains legally binding and that no party may unilaterally suspend or terminate it.

Amnesty International condemned the July 15 decision of Delhi's lieutenant governor to invoke Section 3(2) of India's National Security Act (NSA), which effectively grants police the power to hold individuals in administrative detention without procedural guarantees.

Pakistani authorities say that more than 100 insurgents have been killed in Balochistan province over the past week as security forces intensify a large-scale campaign against the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) and other militant groups. The campaign, dubbed "Operation Shaban," was launched on July 7 after a series of attacks on security personnel. The army, Frontier Corps and Balochistan Police have been deployed in coordinated aerial and ground assaults across the province.  

UN experts on July 8 condemned the sentencing of Pakistani human rights defender Mahrang Baloch to two terms of life imprisonment by a court in Quetta, describing it as a "travesty" of justice.

Indian authorities have deported thousands of Bangladeshi citizens in the month since Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won elections in the state of West Bengal. Shortly after taking power in West Bengal, BJP officials ordered the creation of detention centers both for undocumented Bangladeshis and Rohingya Muslims who are fleeing persecution in their native Burma and mistreatment in overcrowded refugee camps in Bangladesh.

Amnesty International on June 4 called for the immediate and unconditional release of civilians being held by armed groups in India's Manipur state as negotiations over the fate of remaining captives appear to have stalled amid continuing ethnic tensions.

Pakistan's Balochistan has just witnessed one of the province's deadliest ever episodes: a wave of attacks and clashes across several cities that left dozens of civilians, fighters, and security personnel dead, with official but unconfirmed tolls as high as 200 overall. It marked the latest escalation in decades of conflict between separatist groups and the Pakistani state in Balochistan, where the central government has long been accused of exploiting rich resources while marginalizing the local population.

The politically volatile region of Pakistan-administered Azad Jammu Kashmir (AJK) has once again plunged into a crisis of civil unrest. In late September, a local protest over government plans to drop subsidies for wheat and electricity rapidly transformed into a broader movement demanding comprehensive reform and regional ecomic relief. The demonstrations have pressured the government into negotiations and legal concessions, after initial harsh repression only further fueled public dissent.