he took part in the greatest adventure in history. the room a legend. simply a human being. was strong starts july 20th on t.w. . this is the news asia coming up in the program the stunt that became of water the grave and indian magician dies attempting an escape made famous by having houdini. he had remarked it'd be magic if you pulled it off otherwise tragic also coming up a killing in pakistan a known critic of the military and politicians is mobbed up near the capital islamabad is this trend in the country plus. to dictate to poppy farming we meet an afghan man who says he has no choice then to grow crops

that funds turned up and criminals. i'm british welcome to do. it's good to have you with us we start in india and the iconic bridge in kolkata that became the scene of tragedy a dangerous underwater escape that went horribly wrong indian man. who called himself the wizard mandrake said he wanted to revive interest in magic by replicating by a trick under the bridge. he was tied up with a heavy rope and still chains secured by 6 locks he was then know what by crane into the holy river. after 10 minutes he still had.

to the horror of onlookers which included members of his family rescue teams are mobilized and yesterday they found his body still in chains washed up a kilometer from where he entered the water this was a flight his 1st underwater stunt and he knew the risks. even went to the village river it will be very hard to open the knots and locks but i will open them and if i do that it's magic if not then it's tragic and he's going to live. prophetic almost didn't know correspondence so no funding is standing by for us in delhi sonia good to see you what do we know about the details of this case when british police in the state of west bengal's say ciancia law he had indeed

taken permission from the authorities in this case both a call to the police as well as the support of in order to do this stunt but they say that in a small mission that he really didn't say that he was planning to jump into the water but rather that stunt would be carried out on the boat on a basis another police officer has been quoted as saying that you know he did mention the letter barry beattie that there was an extra act but he didn't spell out what that was going to be another report in the indian newspaper suggest that he really wants a war rather hazy and combis until he can god when he was lowered into the water that would have made it very difficult to swim in the strong current of the. but there's also reports coming out so now that this wasn't the 1st time he was attempting this stunt. that's right british really was in the palestine but we have to also remember that chantel that he's career really seems to have you know been marked by a series of hits and misses you know for example just before this act he told a reporter that he had successfully carried out this stunt at the exact same spot

21 years ago yet in 2013 he had attempted the same stunt at the hooghly river and apparently that had gone wrong and he was apparently assaulted by a crowd of onlookers who 1st cheated because they saw him escape the malaki each by a door that was clearly visible he was apparently punctured beaten his trademark of you know flowing golden brown squared off and 10 years earlier he had also declared that he planned to you to walk the walk on the river who believe that that also apparently misfired and he had to abandon that effort denisov all the rules and regulations in place what about the official dom here. to follow certain procedures to ensure that this committee says well british to the best of my knowledge i have to come across any rules or regulations governing these kinds of stunts and that is i think we have to remember that that

magic. or magicians like that he are really a part of prevention preach you know magic is losing its popularity in india ashley thanks to the internet which is really kind of promising to make a magician out of everyone and traditionally you know we have to remember most of india's let it happen street performers you know whether it's jugglers tightrope walkers and these people have really been pushed out of india by a series of laws against try label animal cruelty they can push the margins when they do before it's in small villages and those those are all really not subject to any safety procedures so now reporting for us from delhi thank you very much for that thank you. to pakistan next where a blogger and social media diverse critical of the military has been killed mom a beloved son was a freelance journalist and blogger who was known for his criticism of pakistan's military and politicians police say he was killed in

a wooded area of the capital islamabad on sunday night they say he was called there by an unknown person and it was here that he and his cousin were attacked by assailants wielding daggers cousin is currently said to be critical in hospital. showing shots from near the shows with me in the studio for more on this summit welcome what exactly happened. well. i was around 24 years of age and he was a stab to death the captain islam bought on sunday. although he was religiously inclined but he was very critical of the pakistani military and particularly the spy agency the i.s.i. and his last tweet was about he sarcastically criticised the appointment of i mean the new i.s.i. chief and many accuse me of being involved in political activities and

constitution the army is not supposed to take part in politics but he does is this part of a trench of the blog is online activists been targeted in parkas it definitely definitely is because you see in this case it's not really to stick it to liberal and progressive bloggers and journalists. religiously inclined and he was sympathetic to some religious organizations so we see a wider trend pakistani media has come under immense pressure you can criticize politicians you can criticize. religious groups you cannot criticize the army it's just that big holy cow that you you cannot criticise so we have seen that the bloggers have been abducted in the past i know some some of them personally they have taken refuge in europe in north america there is still write about it there is

still speak out against the army but their lives are in danger increasingly in danger i lived in bonn com who took over as prime minister. i mean he promised to usher in an era of ny up artists or new pakistan when translated into english can we expect realistically free speech to improve in his brain. well what has happened since non-con came to power in august last year that the freedom of fist speech has shrunk further in pakistan. has not done anything to do and show safety to bloggers and judges just recently. cons foma information minister. a senior pakistani journalist. experts say that khan is not doing anything he's just doing the line of the military because the military brought him to baba and due to the military do to kind of deal with human rights issues and the

military allegedly has. done a lot of criminal activities in the northwest of pakistan so to david that khan has to challenge the military and he wants to avoid this kind of confrontation with the army he may want to avoid this confrontation what about the role of the judiciary bucky's on claims it has an independent judiciary and the judiciary not crack down on this or what is happening with some judges have confronted but now one of them confronted the military but now a reference has been filed against that judge so the powerful military has kind of captured the civilian areas you have the legislature you have you have the parliament or you have the judiciary you have the civil society so you see. tentacles like you know reaching out to all these fears and it is becoming very difficult for for the bloggers and activists to kind of you know challenge this

kind of situation. therefore it's best to keep away please that appears to be a message and budgets on trauma child from didn't do isha thank you very much for breaking that down for us. and of course you can find out more about this story on our website that's at dot com forward slash. next which remains the world's top drawer of opium poppies for the global narcotics trade that's despite years of domestic and international efforts and billions of dollars to stop production growing the crop is technically illegal in the country but many of guns say they're faced with the choice of poppies. it's harvest time in kandahar and for 20 year old mohammed ahmadi it's imperative to work as hard as possible during the short season he's the breadwinner for a family of 14. in the poppy harvest season lasts for 18 to 19 days. during this period we work on the fields and the owner of the land praises

with money always poppy. harvest is around $135.00 u.s. dollars for just one month's work that's big money in afghanistan where average workers take home less than $800.00 a year. mohammed has worked in the poppy fields since he was 13 years old the euro fast money outweighed his strains. their cars. but they're hard nobody's really interested in doing this job. which i wanted to study but it cannot make issues of forced me into this business. also the government is not paying attention to us. they didn't pave the ground for alternative jobs. that i'm not on another career. it's what many foreigners cite as the reason they continue with the illegal trade. after almost 2 decades of war options are limited for many afghans and the

government of them it's struggling to provide viable economic alternatives to its citizens who kind of house counter-narcotics team says afghanistan has seen a decrease in poppy production but fully eradicating the trade isn't possible. in the past the foreigners paid for and you know caught it campaigning but now the afghan government doesn't have the budget to help the farmers and provide them with alternative crops. mohammad still hopes that one day he'll find it different way to provide for his family and fulfill his dream of getting an education. and money when i can improve my economic situation and continue my studies then i'll have a bright future ahead. until then he'll keep relying on the striking red flowers to make ends meet and as long as there's global

demand for opium hundreds of thousands of others will too. that's all for now we leave you now with japan's iconic shrine which is undergoing its fust restoration walk in 70 france your next time. with the senses. recognize. and experience the inexpressible. the cultural magazine. 21

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