Posts published in August 2016

A Christian lawyer is retracting criticisms he made of other rights activists targeted in the “709” crackdown, saying he made the comments against his will. Christian and rights lawyer Zhang Kai, 36, has confirmed that he wrote a notice released online yesterday. It essentially overturned an interview given on the evening of August 4 about the trial of lawyer Zhou Shifeng, who sits at the centre of a campaign that saw more than 319 lawyers…

Kyrgyzstan may be a landlocked country with a relatively small population, but it is of strategic importance to China, which has stepped up investment in the Central Asian nation. A suicide car bombing at the Chinese embassy in the capital, Bishkek, which killed one and injured at least three, has raised concerns about whether China should step up security engagement with the country. Why is China concerned with the development of Kyrgyzstan? Not only Kyrgyzstan,…

ISLAMABAD: After lifting sanction against Tehran, Pakistan’s federal cabinet is all set to approve re-establishing of banking relationship between Pakistan and Iran in its upcoming meeting. Federal Minister of Commerce Khurram Dastgir Khan said this in a meeting with Mehdi Honardoost, Ambassador of Iran to Pakistan.  Areas of mutual interest and bilateral relations in the fields of commerce and trade came under discussion. The ambassador said the two brotherly Islamic countries must focus on developing…

The Afghan foreign minister and the Iranian ambassador to Kabul said Sunday that a prisoner exchange program has been finalized between the two countries based on an agreement signed few years ago. According to the Afghan-Iran prisoner agreement, prisoners swapped will serve out their sentences in prisons in their own countries. In the first phase of this exchange, 21 Iranian prisoners who were sentenced for various crimes were transferred to Iran on Saturday. The Afghan…

Local officials in Kunduz said that a large-scale military operation has been launched in order to reopen the Kunduz-Takhar Highway, which has been closed for the past 10 days. According to officials, the operation will focus on pushing Taliban back from the highway, but a number of security forces said this will not work and that another plan should be implemented in this crackdown. TOLOnews’ Wali Aryan says that according to a number of military…

Parts of Helmand’s Nawa district, which is close to Lashkargah city, has turned into a Taliban stronghold over the past 18 days, especially after insurgents took to using the homes of locals as safe havens. But security forces are trying to clear the area through a large-scale operation, security officials in Helmand said. They said that the Taliban have planted several mines on both sides of the road and that they use people’s houses as…

Quetta – Security forces have raided a seminary in Quetta and rounded up around 100 Afghan nationals for suspected links to militant groups, officials said on Sunday. Balochistan government spokesman Anwarul Haq Kakar told Voice of American (VOA) the detainees did not posses any identity documents. Authorities also seized “undesired literature” from the seminary, known as Madrassa Abdullah bin Zubair. The institution, he said, has been sealed after the overnight raid in the Bhoosa Mandi…

ISLAMABAD: A local Afghanistan court has sentenced guerrilla commander Sirajuddin Haqqani’s brother Anas Haqqani to death, according to reports. A section of media quoted Baseer Aziz, spokesperson for the office of attorney general, saying that a primary court awarded death sentence to Anas, who was captured by United States security officials after he visited Qatar in October, 2014, along with another leader Hafiz Rashid. Baseer refused to comment on when and where the verdict was…

ISLAMABAD: A breakaway faction of the Afghan Taliban is struggling to survive due to the uncertain fate of its chief, Mullah Muhammad Rasool. Rasool was arrested in Pakistan after he fled infighting in the southern and western parts of Afghanistan,  in March this year. Mullah Abdul Rahman Niazi, a spokesman for the rebel group, confirmed last week that Rasool had been missing. Niazi, who now lives somewhere near Kabul and is accessible to the Afghan…

WASHINGTON: The United States continues to support Pakistan’s efforts to maintain law and order in Karachi, says the US State Department as the government demolishes MQM offices and arrests party activists. The campaign, launched after Altaf Hussain’s latest diatribe against Pakistan, aims to delink the party from its chief, who operates from London. But the State Department reminds the Pakistan government that all such efforts must be made in accordance with the rule of law.…