Friday was one of the deadliest days for Daesh and Taliban in eastern Nangarhar province. Earlier reports suggested that dozens of militants were killed in airstrikes but an official says that 16 others were killed in internal clashes of the insurgent groups. Spokesperson for the police headquarters of Nangarhar said the clashes erupted in Dago, Sangini and Kariz areas of Chaparhar Distirict on Friday. Colonel Hazrat Hussain Mashriqiwal added that 13 fighters of Daesh and…
Posts published in “Day: January 9, 2016”
The U.S. Army will deploy about 500 soldiers to Afghanistan for an assignment of up to nine months who will also serve as advisors to Afghan national security forces. According to information released by the Army on Friday, the soldiers will be deployed later this winter to join the 10th Mountain Division at Bagram Airfield after completing a mission rehearsal exercise this month at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, La. “Our nation’s…
JAMRUD: The Pak-Afghan Highway was closed on Friday for traffic after intelligence agencies received a security tip-off. Long queues of vehicles were stranded for many hours. Intelligence agencies reportedly alerted the political administration of Jamrud tehsil that 13 suicide bombers from a banned militant organisation had been sent to Jamrud tehsil through Afghanistan. The Frontier Corps has started checking the vehicles amid tight security and khasadar forces were deployed at check posts of Jamrud tehsil…
The writer is a lawyer based in Islamabad. No one said making peace between India and Pakistan would be easy. The two countries are sitting atop a reservoir of painful history, bitter memories, hate and mistrust. They have active war-mongering constituencies that benefit from their hostility. Since inception, their definition of national interest has been zero-sum: defeat of one is success of the other. Liberating them of this regressive mindset holding them captive, breaking from…
Beijing: Chinese security agents hooded one as they bundled him into a vehicle. Police seized others at home as their horrified families watched. More, alone when they disappeared, sent frantic text messages to friends. Six months ago, China’s biggest-ever crackdown on human rights lawyers saw state agents question more than 130 attorneys and their colleagues. Among those who were taken away at least 16 people are still being held in secret, leaving their families isolated…
Saudi Foreign Minister Dr Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir finally made good his postponed visit. The visit has been billed by the Pakistani authorities as ‘successful’. But if we go behind the seemingly consensual joint statement at the end of the visit, much light can be thrown on the dilemmas of Islamabad vis-à-vis the current rupture between Saudi Arabia and Iran and its consequent fallout on the region and the world. At the outset, it should…
While opposition parties, particularly PTI, had so far lambasted the government on its ambiguous stance on the Iran-Saudi row, this may have been one of the wiser decisions of the government, until it was changed yesterday when Pakistan announced unswerving support for Saudi Arabia following the visit from Saudi Foreign Minister, Adel Al-Jubeir. The Saudi Foreign Minister also briefed Nawaz Sharif about what the 34-member coalition entails, but the government has so far neglected to…
Over the coming days, Pakistan will need to indulge in some very fine diplomacy as it negotiates the international situation that has developed following Riyadh’s decision to sever ties with Tehran after the Saudi embassy in the Iranian capital was attacked to protest the execution of Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr in the Kingdom. The visit of Saudi Foreign Minister Adel bin Ahmad Al-Jubeir had been planned before these developments, but it seems likely…
THE caution that the Pakistani leadership, both political and military, has demonstrated in the midst of the alarming escalation in tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran has been relatively reassuring. Following Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir’s visit to Islamabad and Rawalpindi, the Prime Minister’s Office put out a now familiar-sounding statement expressing support for the Saudi people and pledging to help protect Saudi Arabia’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. While the Saudi leadership is presumably unimpressed…
ISLAMABAD: Chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan has urged the government to play role of a mediator so that tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran could be reduced in an amicable manner. Addressing a press conference after meeting ambassadors of Saudi Arabia and Iran here, Mr Khan said both the countries should take steps for easing the ongoing crisis. Pakistan, he said, should lead from the front to prevent sectarianism in the region.He…
Terror in South Asia: edit in Pakistan Today, Jan 9, 2016
Recent attacks against Indian interests – one in Pathankot inside India and the other in Mazar-i-Sharif in Afghanistan – show how terrorists remain able to not only strike at sensitive locations, but also disrupt crucial, landmark diplomatic advances. To a large extent the terrorist attack has achieved its aim, though not completely. New Delhi has acted more responsibly than expected, but it has associated further advancement in the recent ‘thaw’ with progress, from Pakistan, on…