January 12: Bangladesh
President Iajuddin Ahmed resigns after imposing a state of emergency. Former Central Bank Governor Fakhruddin Ahmed is sworn in as the head of a new interim government. Ahmed is responsible for forming a new cabinet and overseeing new elections. The shake-up follows months of political crisis and violent protests led by the Awami League party, which has alleged an electoral bias in favor of its bitter rival, the Bangladeshi Nationalist Party.
January 19: India
The Indian state of Gujarat inaugurates the controversial Sardar Sarovar dam on the Narmada River. The dam is expected to irrigate almost 5 million acres and provide drinking water to 20 million people in western India. The project has displaced tens of thousands of villagers who have not been adequately compensated.
January 25: India
During his official visit to India, Russian President Vladimir Putin signs several agreements with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Two deals concern the production and joint development of aircraft and fighter plane engines in Russia. Russia also offers to build four new nuclear power plants to meet India’s growing energy needs.
February 9: Nepal
Leaders of the Madheshi ethnic minority in southern Nepal suspend protests after the government promises them more representation in the country’s parliament. The Madheshi, who constitute up to 45 percent of Nepal’s population, also demand autonomy for their region.
February 26: Afghanistan
Great Britain announces that it will send an additional 1,400 troops to Afghanistan, bringing the total number of British forces in Afghanistan to 7,700. Most of these troops will be based in the southern province of Helmand, where they will fight Taliban insurgents.
April 1: Nepal
Nepal’s former Maoist rebels join an interim government under a peace deal that ends a decade of civil war. The Maoists join the government as the Communist Party of Nepal and will be in charge of five of the country’s twenty-one ministries, including the departments of information and local development.
April 2: South Korea
South Korea and the United States agree on a free-trade deal after ten months of talks. The two governments say that removing tariffs and other trade barriers will boost commerce between the two countries by 20 percent. The deal sparks opposition on both sides. The trade agreement, which is the largest for the United States since the North American Free Trade Agreement signed in 1992 and the largest ever for South Korea, requires legislative approval in both countries.
May 3: Pakistan
Several people are injured in Pakistan during violent demonstrations sparked by the dismissal of Chief Justice Iftakar Mohammed Chaudhry. President Pervez Musharraf dismissed Chaudhry in March, accusing him of corruption. Critics, however, say that the removal of the judge was political, aimed at weakening the courts in an election year.
May 13: Afghanistan
The Taliban’s most notorious leader, Mullah Dadullah, is killed in a battle with U.S. forces in the Helmand province of Afghanistan. He represented an extreme element of the Taliban, supporting worldwide jihad and the founding of a new caliphate. He has been linked to many beheadings, kidnappings of Westerners, and dispatching suicide bombers. His death is a loss to the Afghan insurgency.
June 20: Afghanistan
Three NATO soldiers are killed in southern Afghanistan by a roadside bomb. In 2007, about ninety foreign soldiers have been killed fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan. Earlier this month, a suicide bomb attack on a police bus in the country’s capital, Kabul, killed thirty-five people and injured more than thirty. This was one of the most devastating attacks in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. The attack resembled the tactics used by insurgents in Iraq.
June 25: Afghanistan
The United Nations World Drug Report says that Afghanistan produces more than 90 percent of the world’s illegal opium, which is used to make heroin. The enormous scale of opium production in Afghanistan stifles efforts to restore security in the country. The report also notes that despite improvements in drug law enforcement, drug traffickers use new routes from Afghanistan through Africa to distribute heroin.
July 10: Pakistan
Pakistani security troops storm the Red Mosque complex in Islamabad after a week-long siege. The complex contained well-armed extremists from a variety of banned parties and groups, including some linked to al Qaeda and Taliban militants. About 100 people, including soldiers and the leader of the rebels, are killed in the fight that ends the siege and removes the extremists. The extremists called for the overthrow of Pakistan’s government and implementing Islamic sharia law.
July 20 — Pakistan
Pakistan’s Supreme Court reinstates the country’s chief justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry, in a move seen as a blow to President Pervez Musharraf’s authority. Musharraf suspended Chaudhry four months earlier amid accusations of corruption. His opponents, however, say that Musharraf has violated the judiciary’s independence and demand his resignation.
July 25: India
Pratibha Patil, the former governor of the northern Indian state of Rajasthan and a candidate of the ruling Congress Party, becomes India’s first female president. Her supporters say her election is a victory for women and a step toward gender equality, but critics wonder how much influence she will have holding this largely ceremonial position.
August 6: Afghanistan
Russia cancels 90 percent of Afghanistan’s $10 billion debt, which dates back to the Soviet period. Russia is Afghanistan’s biggest creditor, mostly for weapons sales. This debt forgiveness gives Afghanistan a significant boost in its struggle towards economic recovery.
August 24: Bangladesh
Bangladeshi military-backed authorities detain several senior academics after violent clashes between students and riot police on university campuses across the country. Students in cities such as Dhaka, Chittagong, and Kushtia have protested against the military-backed government that has run the country for the past six months. More than 100 people have been injured during the protests, in which demonstrators have demanded a return to democracy.
August 30: Afghanistan
After intense negotiations between Afghanistan’s Taliban rebels and the South Korean government, the Taliban releases the last group of the twenty-three South Korean Christian missionaries kidnapped in May. As a result, South Korea agrees to pull its 200 troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year and to stop missionary work by South Korean citizens in the country. South Korea also says it will impose a travel ban on its citizens to Afghanistan.
September 10: Pakistan
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif returns to Pakistan, but within hours is charged with money laundering and sent back to Saudi Arabia in exile. Sharif, who was ousted in the 1999 military coup, wants to challenge Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in the upcoming presidential election.
October 6: Pakistan
Pakistan’s parliament elects General Pervez Musharraf for another term as president despite uncertainty over the legality of his candidacy. Opposition members of parliament abstain or boycott the election, saying it is unconstitutional. The country’s Supreme Court declares that Musharraf cannot be declared a winner until it decides whether he was eligible to stand for election while still holding the post of army chief.
October 18: Pakistan
A double suicide bombing in the Pakistani city of Karachi kills 140 people during a rally celebrating the return of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto from an eight-year long exile. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf granted Bhutto amnesty and negotiated with her over a possible power-sharing agreement. Bhutto is a leader of Pakistan’s largest political party, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).
October 23: Sri Lanka
The Tamil Tiger rebels launch a combined air and land attack on an air base in the northern Sri Lankan town of Anuradhapura, killing nine Sri Lankan soldiers. The fighting between the Tamil Tigers and the government forces has intensified in recent months.
October 29: Pakistan
Forty-five Pakistani soldiers and 130 pro-Taliban rebels are killed in fierce fighting in Pakistan’s North Waziristan region, which is a stronghold of militants and al Qaeda fighters near the Afghan border. This has been the heaviest fighting in Waziristan in months. The United States and NATO have been pressing the Pakistani government to do more to stop the militants from cross-border attacks on their troops in Afghanistan.
November 2: Sri Lanka
Sri Lankan troops kill S.P. Thamilselvan, the head of the Tamil Tiger rebels’ political wing, in an air strike. Thamilselvan was the Tigers’ spokesman, representing them at peace talks mediated by Norway and giving interviews.
November 3: Pakistan
Pakistani president General Pervez Musharraf imposes emergency rule and suspends the country’s constitution, saying it is necessary to combat Pakistan’s rising extremist threat. The move stops the Supreme Court from ruling on the legality of General Musharraf’s October reelection. The Supreme Court declares the state of emergency unconstitutional, resulting in the President’s dismissal of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry.
November 15: Bangladesh
With winds of up to 150 miles per hour, cyclone Sidr strikes southern Bangladesh killing at least 3,100 people and leaving millions homeless. Survivors lack basic necessities, such as drinking water and medicines. Cyclone Sidr hits just a few months after floods devastated the north of the country. The Bangladesh government appeals for international aid.
November 29: Pakistan
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf is sworn in for a second term as president a day after handing over command of the military to General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani. Musharraf stepped down as army chief after months of intense pressure from Pakistani opposition and international leaders. Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto welcomes the move, but calls on the president to lift emergency rule before the January parliamentary elections.
December 15: Pakistan
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf lifts the emergency rule he imposed six weeks ago and restores the country’s constitution. He also swears in the new chief justice of Pakistan’s Supreme Court, Abdul Hameed Dogar. Iftikhar Chaudhry, the discharged former chief justice, remains under house arrest.
December 27: Pakistan
Former Pakistani Prime Minister and main opposition leader Benazir Bhutto is assassinated during an election rally in Rawalpindi, where she was campaigning ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for January 2008. While President Pervez Musharraf blames Islamic extremists for her killing, others blame Musharraf and the military. Her assassination sparks violent demonstrations by her supporters.