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Posts published in May 2016

Project Afghanistan: b y CYRIL ALMEIDA in Dawn, May 29th, 2016

MAYBE we don’t know what we’re doing. Maybe we’re hostage to history and the past. Maybe the outside world is wrong. Or maybe we know exactly what we’re doing and why. Mansour is dead because Pakistan couldn’t deliver him to the negotiating table. And Pakistan couldn’t deliver Mansour to the negotiating table because Pakistan has influence, not control. You don’t have to be a strategic expert to figure out how leverage works. We want X…

Throw out hatred: Editorial in the News, May 29, 2016

Leave the country or get thrown out – this is the message of Balochistan Home Minister Sarfaraz Bugti to the Afghan refugees in Pakistan. The comments reflect growing xenophobia within a country that is only beginning to confront the demon of home-grown terrorism. Afghan refugees have become the easy target following the country’s failure to curb terrorism within its borders. Speaking after the arrest of six alleged Afghan spies, Bugti chose to use the moment…

Rights Group Calls For Hekmatyar To Be Tried by Abdul Wali Arian in Tolo News, May 28, 2016 at 19:38hrs

Junbesh-e-Adalat Khawhi Baray Qurbanian-e-Jang, or ‘The Movement Seeking Justice for War Victims’, has criticized the Afghan government for entering peace talks with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the leader of Hizb-e-Islami, a group which has been in opposition with the Afghan government for years. The movement has insisted that the Afghan government must bring Hekmatyar to justice, citing that Hekmatyar played a key role in the civil war particular the bloody wars that shattered the Afghan capital Kabul.…

10 Taliban commanders killed in Baghlan airstrike, MoD claims By KHAAMA PRESS – Sun May 29 2016, 11:09 am

At least ten Taliban commanders were killed in an airstrike in northern Baghlan province of Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defense (MoD) said Sunday. The airstrike was carried out in Baghlan-e-Markazi district where the Taliban insurgents are actively operating. According to MoD, the airstrike targeted a gathering of the Taliban insurgents in the vicinity of the district, leaving ten of their commanders dead and another one seriously wounded. The Taliban militants group has not commented regarding…

Taliban shadow governor and military commission chief killed in Uruzgan By KHAAMA PRESS – Sun May 29 2016, 9:42 am

At least 9 Taliban militants including the group’s two top leaders were killed during separate clashes with the Afghan security forces in southern Uruzgan province. The 205th Atal Corps of the Afghan National Army said the group’s shadow governor Mawlavi Jan Agha and military commission chief Asadullah were among those killed. At least 5 militants were also wounded during the operations and 5 Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) were seized and defused, a statement by 205th…

Pakistan could abandon Afghan projects, says official By Tahir Khan in The Express Tribune, May 29th, 2016.

ISLAMABAD: In a sign of fast deteriorating ties between Islamabad and Kabul, Pakistan has indicated it could abandon work on development projects in Afghanistan in the wake of harassment of its workers there. A Pakistani official in Kabul said on Saturday that authorities in the Logar province earlier this week detained an engineer, who is working on a Pakistan-funded hospital, for nearly five hours. On May 24, a police squad visited the under-construction 100-bed Naeb…

Pakistan’s application for NSG to be decided by consensus: US

ANWAR IQBAL in Dawn, May 29th, 2016 WASHINGTON: The United States, while acknowledging Pakistan’s application to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), has said that the request will be decided by a consensus. Last week, Pakistan submitted a formal application in Vienna for joining the NSG. “The decision to seek participation in the export control regime reflects Pakistan’s strong support for international efforts to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means…

Nuclear patrol to boost China’s own security Report in Global Times, May 28, 2016 at 0:43:02

Western media, including the Guardian, recently reported that China will send a submarine armed with nuclear missiles into the Pacific for the first time. The Pentagon also predicted in an earlier report that China will probably conduct its first nuclear deterrence patrol in 2016. There is no official comment from the Chinese government on the news. Strategic nuclear missiles are the foundation of a military deterrence. China has been adopting an “effective nuclear deterrence” strategy,…

The fuss about ISIS and what we need to do By Muhammad Nurul Huda in the Daily Star, May 29, 2016

The writer is a columnist of The Daily Star. The murders of bloggers, intellectuals, priests, academicians, rights activists, and also persons of ordinary vocations committed by allegedly extremist groups owing allegiance to ISIS have given rise to a heated controversy regarding the organisational existence of such an outfit in Bangladesh. Every time an incident even remotely carrying the hallmarks of religiously motivated extremist groups occurs, there is instant attribution by some western quarters to ISIS.…

Foreign policy dilemmas: By Dr Hasan Askari in The Express Tribune, May 30th, 2016

The writer is an independent political and defence analyst. The death of Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mansoor in a drone attack in Balochistan on May 21 has raised several serious issues about the formulation and management of Pakistan’s foreign policy. The most serious deficiency exposed in our foreign policy is the slow and outdated response of our government machinery. Pakistan was the last to acknowledge the death of the Taliban leader. It was only after…

Regional rapport: By Yasir Masood in The Express Tribune, May 30th, 2016.

The writer is an Islamabad-based security expert The benefits of globalisation have clearly multiplied around the world. At the same time, security threats have also mushroomed, along with the efforts of states to reap speedy economic gains. These factors are pushing regions to bank on ‘collective connectivity’ to achieve their common goals of economic development and security. In South Asia, Pakistan’s strategic and geographical position and vitality impress proponents of regional integration, but unfortunately we…