Tokyo
CNN
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Think of Japan’s famed yakuza gangs and you might think of heavily tattooed men getting into bloody fights – the stuff of action films and video games.

But last week four men were arrested in Tokyo for a more mundane crime – operating a yakuza office too close to a library.

The suspects, ages 55 to 77, “conspired” to operate an office from June 2024 to February 2025, “despite the fact that the area was within a 200 meter radius around a library,” said police in a statement. The city has strict rules on where yakuza offices can operate, as part of their campaign to eliminate organized crime.

The oldest man, 77, was a “member of an organization affiliated with the Sumiyoshi-kai organized crime syndicate,” one of Japan’s biggest yakuza groups, the statement added.

Known for their strict hierarchies and honor codes, the yakuza – also known as the boryokudan – engage in everything from extortion and money laundering to drugs and sex trafficking.

Far from being underground organizations, many are registered with the police and have an established presence across the country.

The National Police Agency (NPA) even lists the business addresses of some yakuza organizations on their website; for instance, the Sumiyoshi-kai’s main office is located in Tokyo’s upscale Akasaka district, not far from the parliament building.

During their heyday in the 1960s, the yakuza operated internationally and had more than 184,000 members, according to the NPA. But their numbers have declined steadily over recent decades after police crackdowns to curb their activities.

Though they are legally still allowed to exist, regulations made it harder for gangsters to survive as it became illegal to recruit yakuza, pay them off, or share profits with them. Even securing mobile phone contracts and renting out apartments became more difficult.

In 2024, the number of members of organized crime syndicates fell below 20,000 for the first time to a record low of 18,800, according to police data.

In Tokyo, yakuza offices cannot operate within 200 meters of schools, child welfare centers, community halls, museums, probation offices and family courts – as well as libraries.

Businesses cannot hire yakuza members as bouncers, offer them payoffs for services, or sign any contracts with yakuza that “encourage” their activities.

The result is shrinking yakuza groups that nowadays largely make headlines for disbanding, pursuing new law-abiding lives, or promising to behave.

In April, Japan’s largest yakuza crime syndicate, the Yamaguchi-gumi, pledged to end its longstanding war with a rival faction after police stepped up surveillance and restricted their activities. Three senior members of the gang hand-delivered a letter to police vowing to “end all internal fighting” and to “never cause any trouble,” police told CNN.

CNN
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Indian police have arrested a travel vlogger on suspicion of spying for Pakistan, as tensions between the two countries simmer following a dayslong conflict between the two neighbors.

Jyoti Malhotra, an influencer from the northern state of Haryana, has been accused of sharing sensitive information with Pakistan, a senior police official told reporters Sunday.

Arrests in India and Pakistan on suspicion of espionage are not uncommon, but Malhotra’s case has sparked widespread interest as it comes just days after the two countries fought their most intense conflict in decades, raising fears of an all-out war.

Police allege Malhotra was in touch with a Pakistani intelligence operative who groomed her to become an “asset” for Islamabad. Malhotra remained in touch with the operative during the deadly four-day battle earlier this month, police allege.

“She was a travel blogger, and during interrogation, it has emerged that in the pursuit of views, followers, and viral content, she fell into a trap,” said superintendent Shashank Kumar Sawan.

Sawan also claimed that Malhotra used to go to Pakistan on “sponsored trips,” and that she was in touch with other YouTube influencers who had also been in touch with Pakistani intelligence operatives.

She did not have direct access to defense and military information, police said.

CNN has contacted the Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs and has attempted to contact Malhotra for a response. She has not been formally charged with any crime.

Malhotra’s father told reporters he wasn’t aware of his daughter’s travels and that she used to make small videos at home. Earlier, he told reporters she went to Pakistan after acquiring necessary permissions.

Prior to this month’s conflict, Pakistanis and Indians were able to travel to each other’s countries, but it has long been very difficult to obtain visas due to government bureaucracy and historical mistrust.

Tensions between India and Pakistan soared in the aftermath of the April tourist massacre in India-administered Kashmir, when gunmen shot dead 26 tourists in the town of Pahalgam, spurring India’s military operation on Pakistani territory.

India blames Pakistan for the attack, a claim Islamabad denies. For four days, the two neighbors traded missiles, drones, and artillery shelling – killing dozens on each side – before a ceasefire was reached.

Both sides have since claimed victory and, in the febrile aftermath of the short conflict, media coverage in India and Pakistan has seen high levels of nationalist vitriol and hyperbole.

Malhotra has posted travel videos to her YouTube channel, which boasts nearly 400,000 subscribers. Several videos posted in March depict her travel to Pakistan, where she can be seen taking public transport, exploring local markets and visiting the Muslim-majority country’s largest Hindu temple.

Malhotra describes herself on YouTube as a “nomadic wanderer” and had posted videos of her trips to Bali in Indonesia and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, among other overseas destinations.

Speaking to reporters, police questioned how Malhotra was funding her travel. “We are analyzing her financial details… Her travel details defy her source of income,” Sawan alleged.

Her arrest is one of several recent cases where Indians have been suspected of spying on behalf of Pakistan.

Police in the northern state of Punjab on Monday also arrested two people for allegedly “leaking sensitive military information” to Pakistan.

The two men have been accused of “sharing classified details” related to India’s military operation in Pakistan, including troop movements and sharing “strategic locations” in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and India-administered Kashmir, police said in a statement on X.

Police are investigating whether the individuals have violated India’s Official Secrets Act, which penalizes “helping an enemy state.” If found guilty, they could face a maximum sentence of life in prison.

CNN
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Mohammad Iqbal was working the nightshift at a power plant when he got a frantic call from his family saying artillery shells were exploding around their home.

“I told them all to hunker down in one room together on the ground floor and hopefully things would become okay by morning,” he told CNN.

But dawn brought no relief from the shelling that would continue for four days as India and Pakistan fought their most intense conflict in decades, raising fears of an all-out war.

Iqbal, 47, lives near the town Poonch in India-administered Kashmir, a stone’s throw from the de-facto border with Pakistan, an area of pine-clad foothills and flowery meadows, backdropped by towering, icy peaks.

But the idyll is illusory – Kashmir is one of the world’s most militarized regions and the trigger for multiple wars between India and Pakistan, who both claim the territory in full but control only in part.

Last week the nuclear-armed neighbors traded missiles, drones, and artillery shelling for four days following a massacre of tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir last month that New Delhi blamed on its neighbor, which Pakistan denies.

Two hours after the firing started last Wednesday, Iqbal got news his brother-in-law’s home had been hit.

The shell had exploded at a nearby water tank, obliterating windows and sending shards of glass flying, hitting his brother-in-law and niece.

What followed was a frantic scramble to get the wounded to the nearest hospital.

“As people started evacuating there were a few people in the village with cars so people just poured into whatever vehicle they could find,” Iqbal said.

“For a few hours it was difficult to locate everyone. People got split up. But finally at the hospital my family came together.”

There, he found his brother-in-law, who works as a policeman, critically wounded and medical staff struggling to treat the influx of casualties.

Iqbal’s brother-in-law survived. But two of his neighbors did not.

Pakistan said on Tuesday that 40 civilians had been killed and 121 wounded in Indian firing, and that 11 members of its armed forces had been killed. India has previously said 15 civilians were killed and 59 wounded and that it had lost five soldiers.

For the roughly 15 million people living in the contested region, the latest bout of hostilities has appeared to push a political solution for their home further away than ever.

But the immediate concern in both sides of Kashmir is how long the skies will stay quiet.

“There is an uneasy calm here,” Amir Choudhary, 25, from the town of Akhnoor in India-administered Kashmir told CNN on Sunday, hours after the ceasefire came into effect.

“Markets are open again and some people who had left have slowly started coming back,” he said.

“There still is that anxiety about what might happen when night comes,” he added.

On the other side of the Line of Control, in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Saima Ashraf shared those feelings.

“Uncertainty still prevails,” she said. “Many believe it (the ceasefire) is not a permanent solution.”

Others are unclear about when they can return to their homes and villages.

“Many of them are waiting to see how the situation develops before making a decision about returning,” Akhtar Ayoub, a local administration official in Pakistan’s Neelum Valley, told Reuters.

Raja Shoukat Iqbal, who lives near the de facto border, described the ceasefire as “essential for the people of Kashmir” who he said were paying a high price on both sides of the divide.

“This peace was also necessary on the international level because both countries are nuclear powers, any mistakes or anger of any country could cause the deaths of two billion people,” he posited.

Kashmir has been a flashpoint since 1947, when British India was hastily divided into two by its former colonial rulers.

What followed was the birth of two nations: Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan. Millions suddenly found themselves on the “wrong” side of the new border, leading to a frantic and bloody mass migration that tore communities asunder.

Kashmir, a Muslim-majority state led by a Hindu monarch, was in a unique position. Pakistan laid claim to the territory, while the prince chose India.

Both Pakistan and India, two nations gripped by fervent nationalism, believe that Muslim-majority Kashmir is an integral part of their countries.

For Pakistan – which was founded as a homeland for South Asia’s Muslims – Kashmir’s division is viewed as a grave historic injustice.

The country’s powerful military is run by the general Asim Munir, known for his hardline stance on India. Weeks before the latest conflict, he described Kashmir as Pakistan’s “jugular vein,” according to local media reports.

India has long accused Pakistan of funding terror groups in Kashmir, an accusation denied by Islamabad. Pakistan, meanwhile, seeks to position the cause of violence in the region as a result of New Delhi’s alleged “oppression.”

Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pushed a more uncompromising position on the contested land.

In 2019, his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government split the former state into two union territories, giving the government in New Delhi greater control over the Muslim-majority region.

India and Pakistan have both claimed victory from their latest conflict.

New Delhi says its strikes inside Pakistani territory – the deepest since one of their wars in 1971 – have eradicated terror camps used to plot attacks on India – including the massacre of tourists last month that sparked the conflict.

Pakistan says its air force shot down five Indian warplanes, including advanced French-made Rafale fighter jets.

On Monday, in his first remarks since the fighting started, Modi said India had “only suspended our responsive attack on Pakistan’s terror and military hubs.”

“In the coming days we will measure Pakistan’s every step,” he said.

Those on both sides of the border have long been living under the threat of shelling and strikes.

A student from Uri, in India-administered Kashmir, described to CNN lying awake as the sound of shelling shook his home last week.

“We sat in silence, extremely petrified,” he said. “Praying the next target would not be our family or our home.”

The student, who CNN is not naming for security reasons, described the jubilant moment he heard the news announcing the ceasefire.

“Smiles plastered across our faces, and we hugged,” he said.

“We now want this ceasefire to stay. Both countries need to find long-term solutions.”

Iqbal, the power plant worker, said he was trying to remain optimistic despite the damage done.

“We are lucky,” he said. “We have only homes to re-build and our family is together. I hope things don’t resume. But there’s no guarantee.”