Press "Enter" to skip to content

Posts published in November 2015

Visiting Kunduz, a Taliban Target, Afghan Leader Urges Security Overhaul

By MUJIB MASHAL in The NY Times, Nov 27, 2015 KUNDUZ, Afghanistan — President Ashraf Ghani on Thursday visited Kunduz, the first Afghan city in 14 years to fall, briefly, under Taliban control, and used his visit to call for major security changes in the city and surrounding province. Mr. Ghani announced the dismissal of the provincial intelligence chief and an overhaul of the security leadership. And he delivered what he said was a final…

Ghani assigns delegation to investigate alleged support by govt to ISIS

Khaama Press, Nov 26 2015, 9:26 pm President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani has assigned a delegation of high level government officials to launch an investigation regarding the alleged support the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) loyalists receive from the government. A statement by ARG Presidential Palace said the delegation was assigned after deputy house speaker Mohammad Zahi Qadir claimed that the loyalists of the terror group are supported by the government. The statement further…

4 ISIS terrorists arrested from capital Kabul

Khaama Press, Nov 26 2015 at 1:38 pm At least four militants belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group have been arrested from Paghman district of Kabul. The Afghan Intelligence – National Directorate of Security (NDS) said the suspects were arrested during a special military operation conducted by intelligence operatives. A statement by NDS said the detained militants have been identified as Nisar Ahmad, Nabullah, Obaidullah and Syed Sohail who…

Soldier, four militants killed in cross border attack : The News, Nov 27, 2015

GHALLANAI: A soldier and four militants were killed in a clash that erupted after a group of Afghanistan-based militants stormed a post in Safi Tehsil of Mohmand Agency on Thursday, official sources said. The sources said that dozens of militants attacked the Al-Ghazi Post in Sheikh Baba Gulono area in the Safi area of Mohmand Agency early in the day. They said security forces deployed at the post challenged the attackers triggering a gunbattle. “One…

Khost drone strike: Editorial in Dawn, November 27th, 2015

TERROR knows no boundaries and perhaps there is no better recent illustration of it than the US drone strike in eastern Afghanistan that allegedly killed dozens of militants whose bodies were buried in Pakistan.It is now widely acknowledged that the shrinking space for militants in Fata, particularly since the launch of Operation Zarb-i-Azb and the recent Khyber operations, caused many militants to decamp to eastern Afghanistan.It is also now an open secret that eastern Afghanistan…

Pakistani terrorist killed in staged shootout, say police sources

By Jon Boone in The Guardian, Nov 26, 2015 at 17.37GMT Islamabad: A founder of a Pakistani terror group has been shot dead in the middle of Lahore, in an incident that senior police sources privately admitted was a killing staged by the authorities. Haroon Bhatti, who was extradited from Dubai in September, was killed while in police custody, along with three other members of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ). LeJ has a track record of attacks on…

Baloch rebel believed dead ‘appears in video’

Reuters in Dawn, November 27th, 2015 ISLAMABAD: Baloch separatists released a video on Thursday purporting to show that their leader Allah Nazar, who the government believed it had killed in a raid in August, was alive and leading the campaign. The date of the video released by the banned Baloch Liberation Front (BLF) could not be independently verified, but BLF spokesman Miran Baloch said it was shot in Balochistan in November. “For quite some time…

CPEC concerns: edit in Daily Times, Nov 27, 2015

The progress on the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project has become subject to controversy in recent days as a tense hearing of the Senate Standing Committee on Communication about the project has been followed by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government loudly voicing its concerns over the allegedly Punjab-centric nature of CPEC. During the Senate Committee hearing from earlier this week, the committee’s head, Senator Daud Khan Achakazi, sarcastically dubbed the CPEC the ‘China Punjab…

Imran says CPEC should not exclude deprived areas

PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan has said that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) should be planned and executed in a way to integrate and develop the backward and deprived areas of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Fata and Balochistan. The PTI chairman regretted that while the corridor planned to run from Gwadar to Kashgar was aimed at bringing the underdeveloped areas of China on a par with other parts of that country, in Pakistan the planners were ignoring…

China Retools Its Military With a First Overseas Outpost in Djibouti

By JANE PERLEZ and CHRIS BUCKLEY in The NY Times, Nov 27, 2015 BEIJING — China announced on Thursday that it would establish its first overseas military outpost and unveiled a sweeping plan to reorganize its military into a more agile force capable of projecting power abroad. The outpost, in the East African nation of Djibouti, breaks with Beijing’s longstanding policy against emulating the United States in building military facilities abroad. The Foreign Ministry refrained…

China assures Pakistan of help to join nuclear suppliers club

By Naveed Miraj in The Express Tribune, Nov 27th, 2015. ISLAMABAD: China has assured that if India is allowed to get the membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) it will go all out to ensure that Pakistan also joins the group. The assurance was given to Islamabad during the visit of a high-level delegation headed by President Mamnoon Hussain to Beijing recently. “The issue was discussed at length and Pakistan highlighted its point of…