NEW DELHI: Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram said on Thursday ‘Azad’ Kashmir is an Indian territory and “we should facilitate the return of Kashmiris who have crossed over the Line of Control (LoC) for some reasons”.
Talking to reporters, he confirmed an amnesty scheme for militants who had gone to ‘Azad’ Kashmir and said India was ready to “welcome” them if they are ready to return after giving up militancy.
“The idea is accepted… This idea must now be translated into a scheme,” he said.
Sources in the Indian Home …

HUNZA, Jan 21: The rapid rise in the level of the artificial lake, formed on the Hunza River, due to the devastating landslide of Jan 4 at Atabad has endangered thousands of people in the area.
Lt-Gen Najeeb of Army Engineering Corps and Maj-Gen Shahid Niaz of the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) visited the sites and assured to breach the block to release the water in 45 days.
The local people, however, are showing their dissatisfaction over the pace of work and sceptical about the 45 days deadline. They said that the …

The walkout by two ministers from the Balochistan Assembly session on Monday in protest against the killing of two Baloch students at a protest rally in Khuzdar last week and condemnation of the killings by senators of both the treasury and opposition benches once again focuses minds on the plight of the Baloch. When the PPP government presented a package for Balochistan, a province that has been fighting for its rights since the inception of Pakistan, many termed it a historic step. Though the Baloch nationalists rejected the package and …

By Saleem Shahid and Amanullah Kasi QUETTA: Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani has accused the Frontier Corps of running a parallel government in Balochistan.
In a statement issued here on Wednesday, the chief minister said that FC’s attitude had harmed the ongoing reconciliation process and, as a result, the situation had worsened.
“The FC has established a government paralled to the provincial government,” he said.
He urged the federal government to direct law-enforcement agencies in Balochistan to work for normalising the situation and strengthening the reconciliation process.
The federal government, he said, should realise …

By Habib Khan Ghori  in The Dawn, Jan 21
KARACHI: Several Sindhi nationalist parties frustrated by what they view as a ‘change’ in the Pakistan People’s Party’s original agenda have intensified their efforts to form a single platform to launch a joint political struggle for the rights of the province and its people.
Shah Mohammad Shah, head of the Save Sindh Movement (SSM) — part of a five-party alliance — and Saleem Jan Mazari of the Sindh Awami Alliance told a press conference at the Karachi Press Club on Wednesday that they …