Like clockwork, the announcement of the Taliban’s spring offensive in Afghanistan has been accompanied by a renewed assault on the northern Kunduz city. The Taliban had managed to take control of the city last year for a couple of weeks and there are fears they may be able to do the same again. Already, residents are worrying about cell phone signals being blocked, curfews imposed and the strain on the medical sector placed by the…
Posts published in “Day: April 19, 2016”
Security officials in Kunduz said Monday they have pushed back a major onslaught by the Taliban in Chardara district, which is only eight kilometers south-west of Kunduz city. According to officials, at least 1,000 Taliban fighters launched a coordinated attack on various security check posts in the district but they faced strong retaliation on the part of Afghan security forces. The officials also said that 20 Taliban militants were killed in this battle. A local…
Nearly 200 anti-government armed militants were killed or wounded in the latest raids of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), the Ministry of Defense (MoD) said Monday. According to a statement by the Ministry of Defense (MoD), the raids were jointly conducted by Afghan army, police and intelligence operatives in the past 24 hours. The statement further added that the ground forces were receiving close-air support by the Afghan Air Force (AAF) as well as…
Afghan commandos arrest key Taliban member Mullah Khalifa in Kandahar KHAAMA PRESS – Mon Apr 18 2016
The Afghan National Army (ANA) Commando Forces have arrested a key Taliban group member during a night operation in southern Kandahar province of Afghanistan. The Ministry of Defense (MoD) spokesman Dawlat Waziri said Monday that the special night operation was conducted with an aim to arrest the key Taliban leader. He said the operation was successfully conducted which led to the arrest of Mullah Khalifa along with another militant accompanying him. According to Waziri, the…
Local residents in Qala-e-Zal district of northern Kunduz on Monday helped security forces drive insurgents back from their district after an hour-long clash, local officials said Monday. Officials said that Taliban insurgents attacked the district at 5:00am local time and took control of the district governor’s compound for almost an hour before being ousted by security forces along with the help of local residents. However, officials said that reinforments have arrived in Qala-e-Zal and that…
THATTA: Although the United Nations agreed to extend Pakistan’s ‘territorial shelf’ in the Arabian Sea by 150 nautical miles last year, the government has yet to start follow-up action to benefit from this unprecedented development. The UN made the decision after going through a scientific study conducted by a team comprising the Navy’s hydrographers and civilian oceanographers over the past 20 years. Senator Karim Khuwaja, who is the convener of a sub-committee of the Senate’s…
Islamabad: Islamabad may consider a request from India to allow its investigators to visit Pakistan to further probe the Pathankot attacks. Prime Minister’s Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz stated on Monday that “once the stage [where information has been analysed] is reached and India makes a request, then we will see.” “I think once the investigation is complete, on the basis of what additional information is required, a decision (to allow Indian investigators to…
KARACHI: Foreign direct investment (FDI) increased 15.1% in the first nine months of 2015-16 on a year-on-year basis, according to statistics released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Monday. Pakistan received $957.4 million in FDI in July-March, which is $125.2 million higher than the investment received in the same period of the preceding fiscal year. More than half of the FDI in the first three quarters of 2015-16 originated from China alone. FDI…
KARACHI: Habib Bank Limited on Monday announced it had received a licence to open a branch in China, a move that would make it the first South Asian lender to operate in the world’s number two economy. HBL said it would open a branch in Urumqi, the largest city in the province of Xinjiang, which lies along the traditional Silk Route and borders Pakistan. “Habib Bank Limited is the first South Asian bank to get…
In his address to heads of state and government of more than 30 member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) convened at the 13th Islamic Summit in Istanbul, Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan efficaciously reinstated his country at the helm of the Muslim world to combat the increasing might of terrorism. He talked at great length of the “wars, armed conflict, sectarianism and terrorism” that plague areas of the Middle East, setting off a…
MASHKIL: Frontier Constabulary (FC) claimed to have seized a huge quantity of contrabands in the Mashkil area of Balochistan alongside Pak-Iran border. On a tip off, Frontier Constabulary raided a compound in the Mashkil area and recovered 450 kilogrammes of opium and 13 kilogrammes of heroin worth millions of rupees. However, no arrest was made. http://dailytimes.com.pk/balochistan/18-Apr-16/huge-quantity-of-contrabands-seized-from-pak-iran-border