Pakistan's Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani announced March 16 that the government will reinstate deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry in response to the opposition protests. In a televised address, Gilani announced that Chaudhry and other deposed judges will be reinstated March 21, when the current chief justice retires. Gilani ordered the releaseof all arrested during the past week's "long march" protest, which began March 12.

Pakistan opposition leader and ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif March 15 defied a house arrest order to lead a march by opposition activists and members of the Pakistan lawyers' movement against President Asif Ali Zardari and his Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). The government had ordered Sharif and many of his supporters to remain in their homes, but Sharif said the order was illegal, and lead an estimated crowd of 10,000 in the Lahore protest calling for full reinstatement of judges ousted by Gen. Pervez Musharraf in November 2007 after his declaration of emergency rule. During the march, protesters reportedly damaged police vehicles used to block roadways in the city, and police used tear gas to disperse the crowd. Several high-ranking police officials resigned from their posts in protest of the repression.

Pakistani government forces conducted raids and arrested hundreds of opposition members, including leaders of the country's lawyers' movement, prior to a protest rally led March 11 by former prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Nawaz Sharif. Among those targeted were lawyers' movement leader Aitzaz Ahsan and Imran Khan, founder of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). Following the raids, many opposition politicians and party leaders—including Khan, who avoided arrest—went into hiding.

Police in Bangladesh March 1 charged more than 1,000 members of the paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) in last week's border guards mutiny, which killed dozens of top BDR officers, including the force's commander. The government plans to organize a special tribunal to try the organizers of the revolt. Among those charged are six accused of planning the revolt, including four deputy assistant directors. The government said that a previous offer of amnesty from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina would not apply to those directly involved in the mutiny. The revolt was motivated by disputes over pay, conditions, and the selection of top officers from the regular army rather than from within the BDR.

The Committee to Protect Journalists protested the arrest of Tamil-language newspaper editor Nadesapillai Vidyatharan in Sri Lanka Feb. 26, calling it part of a pattern of repression of media outlets critical of the government. Officials said he was arrested in connection with the Feb. 20 air raid by Tamil Tiger rebels on the capital, Colombo. Vidyatharan, editor of the Sudar Oli Tamil daily, was detained while attending a funeral in Colombo. Police first reported he was abducted but later admitted he had been arrested.

Military authorities in Bangladesh say 72 officers are still missing after a two-day mutiny by border guards in which at least 76 people were killed. The uprising was sparked by longstanding grievances over pay and benefits. Authorities have found scores of bodies buried in shallow mass graves in the Dhaka headquarters of the Bangladesh Rifles border force. The army brought tanks to the streets of Dhaka before the mutineers surrendered. Violence was also reported in Chittagong and elsewhere around the country. India's Border Security Force remains on high alert. (Xinhua, Feb. 28; AP, Feb. 27; The Guardian, Feb. 26)

The Supreme Court of Pakistan Feb. 25 upheld a lower court ruling that bars Nawaz Sharif, former prime minister and current leader of the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), from holding elected office based on a past criminal conviction for "hijacking." Sharif was convicted of the offense for attempting to divert a plane carrying Army commander Pervez Musharraf during a 1999 coup against Sharif that ultimately succeeded.

As fighting continues unabated in Sri Lanka, Amnesty International has called upon the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to immediately declare a temporary truce and create humanitarian corridors to allow more than a quarter million trapped civilians to escape the war zone and also let food, water and medical assistance reach those civilians who cannot leave.