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Global Eye 2026 04 13
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00:19Hello and welcome to Global Eye, a program that brings you unmissable investigations
00:24and reporting from around the globe made by teams from across the BBC World Service.
00:29I am Farhad Javed, a BBC correspondent based in Pakistan and this week we are here in the capital Islamabad.
00:37Pakistan is confronting a rapidly escalating HIV crisis now among the fastest growing in South Asia.
00:45Figures from the World Health Organization reveal that infections have risen by 200% over the past 15 years
00:52and uniquely children are now getting the disease in high numbers even when their parents are fine.
00:58BBC Eye has been investigating how routine visits for medical treatment in Pakistan
01:04have resulted in hundreds of children getting this infection.
01:13He injects his first patient through a cannula in his arm
01:17but then takes the same syringe and puts it back into the medicine vial.
01:23There is no reason to believe he does
01:25but if this child had HIV, the entire vial could now be contaminated.
01:32Also coming up on the program,
01:34as Pakistan takes a lead role in attempts to broker a ceasefire in Iran,
01:39it stands on the brink of a full-scale war with another neighbour, Afghanistan.
01:44Why are they fighting and what is at stake for the millions of ordinary people caught in the crossfire?
01:51And we'll bring you the story of the world's biggest Palestinian community outside of the Middle East
01:57and its location might surprise you.
02:00Many thousands of Palestinians have been living in Chile in South America since the 19th century.
02:07We'll follow members of the community as their help.
02:10Refugees from Gaza build new lives on a new continent.
02:14There is a saying that in every city of Chile you'll find a plaza, a bomber, and a farmer.
02:20And it's true.
02:22I like that here there is a mini-Palestina.
02:27Hundreds of children in central Pakistan have recently tested positive for HIV.
02:32They came from different local communities, set dozens of miles apart.
02:37But local doctors noticed one thing appeared to unite most of their pediatric patients who tested positive
02:43that they had been treated at the same local government hospital.
02:47Officials say there is no proof children were infected there.
02:50But BBC Eye went undercover to investigate the source of the HIV outbreak and find out who is to blame.
02:57Here is Ghazal Abasi.
03:06This is eight-year-old Mohamed Amin.
03:11In 2024, he fell ill with a fever and received treatment at his local hospital, THQ Tonsa, in central Pakistan.
03:22But after being discharged, Mohamed Amin got worse.
03:42Eventually, the boy was diagnosed with HIV.
03:47He began treatment, but it came too late.
03:59The family's trauma didn't end there.
04:13Shortly after Mohamed Amin's death, his older sister, Asma, also received treatment for flu symptoms at THQ Tonsa Hospital.
04:22Two months later, she too fell seriously ill.
04:26Asma, the second woman, how do you feelchiates?
04:44Not how do you feelchiates?
04:52Yeah.
04:55No adult in Asma's family tested positive for HIV.
05:00So how did she contract the disease?
05:04In the winter of 2024 and 2025, more than 100 children in Tonsa tested positive for
05:10HIV.
05:13Like Asma, many of those kids had been treated at the government hospital, THQ.
05:22And many of their parents told stories about syringes being reused on child after child.
05:31In late 2025, the BBC Eye team went undercover inside THQ Hospital to see if these allegations
05:39were true.
05:41Was medical malpractice placing children's lives at risk?
05:49The Tehseel Headquarters Hospital in Tonsa Sharif, known as THQ.
05:56A staff member, worried about what he'd seen on the children's ward, helped us to document
06:02how children are treated.
06:19It immediately becomes clear that the go-to method of treatment for any fever or ailment
06:24is via injection, mostly with liquid paracetamol.
06:41signs about infection control hang on walls around the hospital, but staff appear to
06:46ignore them.
06:53They're not wearing sterile gloves.
06:57No cotton swabs are used.
07:01Patients are left to walk around the ward with blood on their sleeves.
07:06It doesn't take long before our camera captures something much worse.
07:19The nurse pulls up a used syringe from under the counter.
07:23Liquid from the last patient is still visible inside.
07:28She hands it to her colleague, ready to be reused on another child.
07:38We showed our undercover footage to one of Pakistan's leading experts on infectious diseases.
07:45We have to highlight that our healthcare provider infection control training is very poor.
08:01By early 2025, so many children had tested positive for HIV that parents came out on the
08:08street in Tonsa, demanding action.
08:15In mid-March, the government finally stepped in.
08:24A joint task force was set up to investigate what had gone wrong and why.
08:47Our undercover team went into the hospital six months after the crackdown.
08:52But it didn't take long for them to capture proof that children were still being put at risk.
08:59In the children's emergency ward, this worker is getting ready to fulfil a series of paracetamol
09:05prescriptions.
09:08He takes a new syringe and fills it from a multi-use vial of paracetamol.
09:19He injects his first patient through a cannula in his arm, but then takes the same syringe and
09:26puts it back into the medicine vial.
09:33There is no reason to believe he does, but if this child had HIV, the entire vial could
09:39now be contaminated.
09:43Every child subsequently injected from that vial is at risk of contracting the disease.
09:50The worker dips a new syringe into the same potentially infected vial and injects the next child again
09:59through a cannula.
10:05And then a third time, he goes into the same vial and injects a third child via a cannula
10:13in his arm.
10:16Dr. Altaaf Ahmed is a clinical microbiologist specialising in blood-borne diseases.
10:23What do we mean with child們 before I promote HIV or any blood-borne virus as well?
10:30Most of the chances.
10:32But most of the chances.
10:33Because the vial is contaminated…
10:37If they don't have the needles they bought in the same potion…
10:40no Reed asked him his body about the syringe, that will+.
10:48But the syringe will be discovered.
10:53Our team witnessed 10 occasions when vials were double dipped and potentially contaminated.
11:00All this months after the government promised to keep Tansa's children safe.
11:16Even after the government intervention in THQ, HIV infections amongst Tansa's children
11:22appear to have continued.
11:25We brought together data from the Punjab Provincial Aid Screening Program, a data set leaked by
11:31special branch and records from local private clinics.
11:35And documented 331 children from Tansa who tested HIV positive between November 2024 and
11:44October 2025.
11:47Of their parents who also agreed to be tested, less than one in 20 was HIV positive.
12:00Dr. Qasim Buzdar has been the medical superintendent of THQ since March 2025, when the government
12:07intervened to put an end to the outbreak.
12:15Dr. Qasim Buzdar
12:43I point out we have evidence that syringes are currently being reused at the hospital.
13:16In a shocking display of denial, the hospital boss refuses to admit that our footage is current or even real.
13:48We asked the local government for a response to the allegations in this film.
13:54It said no validated epidemiological evidence has conclusively established THQ as a source.
14:04The joint mission has reaffirmed the role of unregulated private practices and the contribution
14:10of unscreened blood transfusions.
14:14But an insider leaked the joint mission inspection report to BBC Eye.
14:21Conducted by WHO experts, it does highlight the issues outlined in our film, issues the
14:28government and hospital bosses continue to deny.
14:35For children growing up with HIV, the future feels uncertain and frightening.
15:07Harmed in the very place trusted to keep them safe, they will face stigma.
15:11And need treatment for life.
15:28It should never have happened.
15:32Hundreds of children infected with an incurable disease on a visit to the doctor.
15:40But instead of facing the truth about what's gone wrong, doctors and politicians seem more
15:46concerned with protecting their own reputations.
15:50Until Pakistan holds those responsible to account, more parents and more children will be forced
15:57to live through this nightmare.
16:02This mosque in the suburbs of Islamabad is usually filled with worshippers gathered here for prayers.
16:08But now it stands quiet, watched over by security guards and grieving families.
16:12Just a few weeks ago, this country was celebrating Basant, a spring kite festival many here hadn't seen for nearly
16:19two decades.
16:20But those celebrations were overshadowed by a tragedy.
16:23A suicide bomber attacked this Shia mosque, killing dozens of worshippers who were here for Friday prayer.
16:29Pakistani officials said that the attacker was linked to a militant network operating from across the border in Afghanistan.
16:36The Afghan Taliban government denied any involvement.
16:40But within days, Pakistan launched airstrikes inside Afghanistan.
16:44And since then, the tensions between the two neighbours have escalated into one of their most serious confrontations over the
16:51years.
16:53Pakistan and Afghanistan share a border stretching more than 1,600 miles.
17:00For decades, it has been a place of trade, migration and cultural ties.
17:07But it has also been exploited by militant networks moving between the two countries.
17:12Authorities here have accused the Pakistani Taliban, known as the TTP, of using Afghan territory as a base for operations.
17:22The Taliban government denies allowing militants to operate from its soil.
17:27But the accusations have fuelled a growing diplomatic and military standoff.
17:32I have reported on this conflict from both Afghanistan and Pakistan over the years and the pattern has often been
17:38the same.
17:39Accusations, denials and cycles of violence that leave communities on both sides living with uncertainty.
17:46And those living near the frontier are the ones who are feeling the impact most acutely.
17:51In parts of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, residents say that they have been told to leave villages which are now
17:57considered too dangerous.
17:59And in Afghanistan, hundreds of civilians are feared dead in Pakistani aerial strikes.
18:04Families living in this region have already experienced displacements during previous wars and military operations against militant groups.
18:14And now, the fear being forced to start over again.
18:21But it's clear that the conflict is no longer confined to the borderlands.
18:28Just a few weeks ago, Pakistan says one of its air defense systems intercepted Afghan drones near Islamabad.
18:37Afghan officials have not confirmed the incident but have acknowledged that they have sent drones close to the Pakistani capital,
18:45meaning the conflict is no longer confined to remote border regions.
18:52Airstrikes in Kabul last month damaged critical infrastructure and caused civilian casualties.
19:00Senators here at the Parliament House have unanimously supported taking action against militant networks set to be based in Afghanistan.
19:08But despite rising tensions, neither Afghanistan nor Pakistan can afford a prolonged confrontation.
19:15With other neighbors, Pakistan is trying to turn geography into diplomacy.
19:21As well as Afghanistan, it also borders Iran.
19:25And Pakistani officials have played a crucial role in attempts to broker a ceasefire between Tehran and Washington.
19:34Iran and Pakistan have a long history of cooperating over energy, trade and their joint response to separatist Baloch insurgents
19:43who operate across both countries' borders.
19:46Meanwhile, the Pakistani army chief, Aasim Munir, has developed a strong personal rapport with Donald Trump, who has called him
19:54his favorite field marshal.
19:57Pakistan has a powerful self-interest in ending the war in Iran.
20:01It depends on Gulf energy, needs Saudi money, wants US favor and fears any sectarian spillover at home given its
20:11significant Shia population.
20:14So it makes sense that Pakistan has been acting as an intermediary between the US and Iran, passing messages between
20:22the two, publicly putting pressure on Iran and offering to host rounds of talks.
20:28So even as Pakistan risks escalating tensions with Afghanistan, it has been acting as a force for de-escalation in
20:36Iran.
20:40And now we are taking you to Chile in South America, home to what is believed to be the largest
20:44Palestinian community outside the Arab world.
20:47A migration that began in late 19th century during the final decades of the Ottoman Empire.
20:52Over the years, Palestinian newcomers built successful businesses across the country while preserving their traditions through food, dance and a
21:01deep passion for football.
21:02Today, the descendants of those early migrants are welcoming refugees from Gaza.
21:07BBC Mundo traveled to Chile to find out how they are adapting to a new life across the world.
21:21The
21:21I grew up, grew up, grew up, and since I was aware of myself, I felt Palestine.
21:26Especially when I was a child.
21:28And it was very crazy to belong to a place where you don't have real or tangible access.
21:52The most palestina community outside the Arab world is in Chile.
21:57There are several reasons and no reasons.
22:01It's like it's not so well explained.
22:02It's not so well explained why, it's not so well understood why.
22:05For me, the only clear answer that I can give is that it's for azar.
22:09The first one that came to Chile, I liked Chile.
22:13The first one that came to Chile, I liked Chile.
22:13Miau.
22:13My daughter's Abuelo.
22:15And here is your daughter's Abuelo.
22:17Dime if it's not been excused.
22:19Yes.
22:20My daughter's Abuelo is my daughter's Abuelo.
22:22There's enough Abuelo.
22:24There's enough Abuelo.
22:25There's enough Abuelo.
22:27There's enough Abuelo.
22:27There's enough Abuelo.
22:28I've read the historical records that I have in the fourth book.
22:31Yes.
22:32And the first immigrant, the first one that came to Chile came to 1853.
22:37No, I don't know.
22:38I don't know.
22:411853.
22:411853.
22:43They came to the Salitreia of the North.
22:45The Chilean was rich with the Salitreia.
22:47My father and my mother were born in Palestine.
22:49My father and my father was also in Palestine.
22:53I'm an architect, a profession.
22:55And I'm a farmer.
22:57Because here, one being a farmer, never stops being a farmer.
23:02You're a Serso Chaguan.
23:03The boxer of the family.
23:05Of course.
23:05Of course.
23:07Of course.
23:08Of course.
23:09Of course.
23:10Of course.
23:11Of course.
23:12Of course.
23:13Of course.
23:14Of course.
23:14Of course.
23:18Of course.
23:19Of course.
23:20From course.
23:21Of course.
23:22Here come from России.
23:24From the one I think of the beautiful guerre with Ukraine.
23:34Of course.
23:35Of course.
23:37Of course.
23:39From Romansans.
23:41From
23:41from eastward.
23:44From Philadelphia to flood.
23:49and they filled the market, then they came to a village, to a fair, and they announced it with a
23:56silbato.
23:57The Arabs did a great job to go out to all these places where there was no place to buy
24:04anything,
24:04and the people felt very complacent that it was a falte, as they called it,
24:09because the only thing they knew was to say is what falte.
24:14After that, when the Nakba happened to us, the catastrophe that was in the 1948,
24:22when it was founded in Israel, there was a lot of people, but not so much as the first time.
24:30I would say that those who came to Chile were because they had parents in Chile.
24:33What are you eating?
24:36There is an image of that all the Arabs are rich.
24:39There are all sorts of people.
24:41There are some that are multimillionaires,
24:43some of the banks, some of the big companies, some of the seguros,
24:46and others that are teachers of school, small employees.
24:53For me, the language is one of the first things that we lost in the culture.
24:57Therefore, the generations of my dad and my mom didn't speak much the language,
25:03only words, and I didn't dominate the language.
25:06But I always felt the need to be more close to Palestine.
25:13The first time I went to Palestine was to come to my home.
25:17That was a certain belonging that you felt like imaginary.
25:22It was very real.
25:24And I realized that the language was the only thing that allowed me to understand
25:29and feel part of that.
25:31Because I came to Palestine and said,
25:32yes, I'm Palestinian, but how do you speak Arabic?
25:35Do you think you have a lot of language?
25:38Yes.
25:42Yes.
25:43Yes.
25:47Yes.
25:48Yes.
25:49Yes.
25:50Yes.
25:51Yes.
25:52Yes.
25:53Yes.
25:53Yes.
25:55Yes.
25:56Yes.
25:56Yes.
25:57Yes.
25:57Yes.
25:57Yes.
25:58Many years I was?
26:02pllestina de Gaza.
26:03De Palestina de Gaza.
26:04And where do you live?
26:06Yes.
26:07Yes, in Santiago Recoleta.
26:08Yes, in Santiago Recoleta.
26:09University.
26:11Raising re-fri messenger from Gaza in Chile.
26:14Yes.
26:15I'm grateful, I'm grateful, I'm grateful.
26:29There is a Palestinian community in Chile
26:32that is always close to Palestine.
26:35I think I grew up in that way.
26:38For me, to be Palestinian is a political declaration
26:41and a resistance declaration.
26:44It's a constant attempt to hide the culture of us.
26:51There are many people who are learning to dance,
26:57and that is a very important way to dance.
27:00It's a very powerful dance.
27:03It's also a dance that represents marches, protestes,
27:08and to say that I'm standing here playing my traditional dance.
27:14Being Palestinian, for me, is to stand up with a positive posture and resilient.
27:20They know how to live.
27:28There is a statement that says that in every city of Chile
27:31you will find a plaza, a bomber, and a family.
27:34And it's true.
27:37I like that here there is a mini-Palestina.
27:45Here is another highlight from the World Service this week.
27:49As the Artemis II mission looped around the moon,
27:52taking four astronauts further away from Earth than any human had ever travelled,
27:57a dedicated space podcast, 13 Minutes Presents, followed the spacecraft's movements each day.
28:05The podcast team, joined by experts, analyzed each momentous event as it happened
28:10and discussed what this mission might mean for the future of humanity
28:14and whether the US is now winning the space race.
28:18You can listen to the podcast on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.
28:26Thanks for joining me in Pakistan.
28:28We want your feedback on Global Eye.
28:30Let us know what you think on social media using the hashtag BBCGlobalEye.
28:34Next week, we will be reporting from Turkey.
28:37Goodbye.
29:04Bye.
29:06Bye.
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