New Delhi, India – On May 25, the day India celebrated Eid al-Fitr, Talha, 12, and five-year-old Mariam slept with their mother’s mobile phone next to them all night.
They had not spoken to their father, Khalid Saifi, since a nationwide lockdown was imposed in India on March 25 to check the spread of the novel coronavirus.
“They thought he would call on that day [Eid], ” his wife Nargis Saifi told Al Jazeera.
Khalid, in a New Delhi jail since February, is among thousands of prisoners awaiting trial as India’s criminal justice system came to a complete halt during the pandemic.
Under the lockdown, legal services were not classified as essential by the government, which allowed only a small number of “virtual” courts to operate.
Geopolitical tensions between India and China are beginning to hurt some of Taiwan’s biggest technology companies, including suppliers to Apple Inc. and hindering New Delhi’s much-vaunted incentive program for electronics manufacturing.
Posted: Feb 06, 2021 4:00 AM ET | Last Updated: February 6
People attend a Maha Panchayat, or grand village council meeting, as part of a farmers protest against India s agricultural laws at Kandela village in the northern state of Haryana on Feb. 3.(Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)