The writer is Senior Research Associate at the Strategic Vision Institute Islamabad The recent rise in the anti-Islamic sentiments specifically in the West warrants a close scrutiny of the pattern that is subtly taking shape in which almost every other “terrorist” turns out to be a “Muslim” and is somehow ultimately found to have links with Pakistan. Most investigations are even substantiated with facts claiming that the offenders have been born, trained or at least…
Posts published in “Day: January 4, 2016”
No doubt the situation in Afghanistan is getting grimmer day by day while President Ashraf Ghani has linked any peace prospect with the condition of ending terror. He has given two options to the Taliban. They should either choose peace or terrorism. He also cautioned that there will be no tolerance for terrorism. After decades of infighting and invasions, the ground is being paved for reviving a peace process in war-torn Afghanistan. Since 2001, when…
KHAAMA PRESS – Jan 01 2016, 10:34 am At least 14 fanatics affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group were killed in airstrikes carried out by Afghan Air Force in eastern Nangarhar province. The Ministry of Defense (MoD) said the airstrikes pounded the sanctuaries of the terror group in the restive Achin district. A statement by MoD said at least 12 ISIS fanatics were also injured and numerous weapons, ammunition…
Kabul: A Taliban suicide car-bomber struck a French restaurant popular with foreigners in Kabul, killing two people in a New Year’s Day attack that marks the latest in a series of brazen insurgent assaults. Fifteen others were wounded in the attack on the Afghan-owned Le Jardin, which left the building engulfed in flames. The attack comes a day after Afghanistan announced four-way talks in Pakistan on 11 January, aimed at jumpstarting peace negotiations with…
PESHAWAR – Rival factions of the Afghan Taliban agreed to stop deadly infighting, officials said, but tensions remained over the status of new leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour, who has not been seen since reportedly being shot last month. Leadership of the Taliban has been in dispute since the confirmation last July of the death of the hard-line Islamist insurgency’s founder, Mullah Mohammad Omar, nearly two years previously. Despite leadership disputes, the Taliban have made big…
SAHARA DESERT, Niger — A group of light armoured vehicles skated over the moonscape of the Sahara, part of one of the largest detachments the French military has deployed here since colonial times. Its mission is growing ever more urgent: to cut smuggling routes used by jihadists who have turned this inhospitable terrain into a sprawling security challenge for African and international forces alike. Many of the extremist groups are affiliates of Al Qaeda, which…
ByJaved Hamim Kakar in Pajhwok Afghan News, Jan 2, 2016 at 16:58 hrs KABUL (Pajhwok): Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Abdullah Abdullah is expected to pay an official visit to Islamabad next month to discuss peace talks with Pakistani officials. Sources in the unity government told Pajhwok Afghan News the CEO would be visiting Islamabad in response to a formal invitation extended by the neighboring country. Abdullah would be accompanied by a high-level delegation,…
The Saudi Arabian Interior Ministry said, in a rare statement broadcast on state television that the state had executed 47 people on Saturday for terrorism. The executions were carried out in 12 different locations. Some were beheaded, some were shot. The executed men believed in “extremist ideology” and members of terror groups, included suspected al-Qaeda members but also a prominent Shia Muslim cleric, Nimr al-Nimr. Al-Nimr was known to be a driving force behind the…
IN the extremely fluid situation obtaining in the Middle East, Pakistan has had to maintain a delicate course, and continues to face complex foreign policy choices. Take, for example, the 34-nation, Saudi-led counterterrorism coalition formed last month, of which Islamabad is a part. As reported, a few days ago a senior Saudi defence ministry official was in the country and met the army chief. While the meeting was ostensibly convened to discuss ‘defence ties’, it…
Is ISIS trying to establish a unified Islamic state under the leadership and command of the promised Mahdi? The ISIS’s owned coordinated attacks in Paris have laid bare the truth that the terror group is a global concern. This article is an attempt to understand the ISIS objectively by delving into its objectives, the underlying factors behind its rise and its strategies. What are ISIS’s objectives? Currently, the ISIS employs global caliphate ideology more…
THE year gone by was a landmark in the history of Pakistan: militant violence took a steep downward turn. However, the last two weeks of December exposed a new terror fault line — the growing footprint of the militant Islamic State group, or IS, in Pakistan. Apparently, the group has been silently making inroads into the religious segments of Pakistani society. The unearthing of the reported IS-inspired or affiliated cells in Karachi, Daska and…