March 2, 2021: Briefings on South Asia

1) Mumbai Power Outage Could Have Been Cyber Attack, says local Minister

· A power failure that crippled India's financial capital of Mumbai in western Maharashtra state last year could have been a case of cyber sabotage, said Anil Deshmukh, as China denied a report that it was behind the outage.

· "Speculation & fabrication have no role to play on the issue of cyberattacks. Highly irresponsible to accuse a particular party with no sufficient evidence around," tweeted the spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in India.

· Millions were left without power, and services collapsed, lasting for more than 12 hours in some parts of the city.

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2) Indian Air Force Set for First-ever Drill in Strategic Persian Gulf Region

· For the first time, India is set to participate in a major multi-nation air combat exercise in the United Arab Emirates with fighter jets and heavy-lift aircraft this month.

· Greece, Jordan, Kuwait, and Egypt, will be observers for the three-week wargames coordinated by the Air Warfare Center of the Al Dhafra airbase in UAE, with fighters like American F-15s and F-16s French Rafales and Mirage-2000s, and Sukhoi taking part.

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3) Bangladesh: Under 'No Obligation' to Accept Stranded Rohingya Refugees

· According to FM A.K. Abdul Momen, Bangladesh is under no obligation to accept 81 Rohingyas found by the Indian Coast Guard on a crippled fishing boat.

· New Delhi did not sign the 1951 Refugee Convention, which spells out refugee rights and state responsibilities to protect them. Nor does it have a law protecting refugees, though it currently hosts more than 200,000, including some Rohingya.

· Momen told Reuters that Bangladesh expects India or Myanmar to accept them.

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