It is heartening to see a positive report regarding the advancement of women emanating from Balochistan. Particularly so when the report concerns a woman rising up the bureaucracy — in itself something of a rarity. Balochistan as is remarked so often is the largest, least developed and most poorly resourced of all the provinces, despite being the richest in terms of natural resources. It is home to a bloody and pernicious insurgency and the minorities,…
Posts published in “Day: April 11, 2016”
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif met Army Chief Gen Raheel Sharif on Monday to discuss the civil-military impasse over the authorisation of military-led counter-terrorism operations in Punjab. “Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif presided over a high-level meeting on security. Matters related to national and internal security were discussed during the meeting,” a brief statement from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said. Mr Sharif was assisted at the meeting by Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and…
In the 1980s when we supported the so-called Afghan Jihad, the lack of border management with Afghanistan was a boon. With the start of the 2000s, the porous border became a huge problem. Militants of all creeds crossed the border, and returned, without fearing for security. This movement across the border in the age of terror wars has continued. The extent of this free movement across borders can be seen in the fact that even…
Afghan Spy Agency Arms Villagers to Hold Off Islamic State By Jessica Donati and Habib Khan Totakhil in The Wall St Journal, April 5, 2016 KOT, Afghanistan—An Afghan spy agency is recruiting villagers for militias to hold back Islamic State fighters seeking to expand their foothold in this opium heartland in eastern Afghanistan. The program, which one top official says the government hopes to roll out across the country and may later use against the…
The leader of Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin Hekmatyar has reportedly changed his his conditions for peace process with the Afghan government by stepping back from his demands for the complete withdrawal of foreign forces, it has been reported. An official of Hezb-e-Islami Amin Karim has told The Associated Press that Hekmatyar is no longer demanding that all foreign troops leave Afghanistan. This comes as Hekmatyar earlier demanded for the complete withdrawal of the foreign forces from Afghanistan…
The writer is an investigative journalist based in Bangladesh. DHAKA, Bangladesh — In 1971, Bengali nationalists and the people of what was then called East Pakistan waged a war of independence against the Pakistani Army. The conflict culminated in the birth of a new nation, Bangladesh. The war, which lasted nine months, was a brutal one: Depending on the source, some 300,000 to three million people were killed, and millions were displaced. There is no…
Bogra: Police yesterday recovered 20 grenades, firearms and ammunition, and a huge amount of bomb-making materials, including gel explosives, from a house in Sherpur upazila of Bogra where two people were killed in a bomb explosion Sunday night. Law enforcers suspect that the house was a militants’ den. A 12-member bomb disposal team of the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit led by Senior Assistant Commissioner Hayatuddowlla Chowdhury conducted a drive there and recovered four…
The writer is a freelance contributor. The two-day visit to Pakistan by Iranian President Dr Hassan Rouhani was very significant because of the emerging geopolitical situation in the region. Opportunities have opened up because of the removal of sanctions on Iran, as a result of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action between Iran and the P5+1 countries and recalibrating relations between the two countries to their mutual advantage, which have not been as enviable as…
ISLAMABAD: Chairman Majlis-e-Shura Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Dr Abdullah Mohammad Al-Sheikh has lauded the economic turnaround achieved by Pakistan and appreciated the investor friendly policies of the present government. He has expressed confidence that under the leadership of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif Pakistan will eventually come out of these challenges on permanent basis. He was talking to the prime minister at the PM House Monday during meeting. Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and State…
ISLAMABAD: Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq on Monday called for Parliamentary diplomacy between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan should be given a new fillip through regular exchanges of delegations and diversification of bilateral relations. The Chairman of the Shura Council of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Dr. Abdullah Bin Mohammad Bin Ibrahim Al-Sheikh called on the Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq in Parliament House along with the delegation on Monday.During the meeting, they exchanged cordial…
At least 8 militants affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group were killed during an operation in eastern Nangarhar province of Afghanistan. The Ministry of Defense (MoD) said the operations were conducted in Achin district involving the Afghan air and ground forces. A statement by MoD said at least four suspects were also arrested during an operation in Sukh Rod district of the same province. The Afghan national security forces…