ISLAMABAD: A dramatic development is taking place on the panorama of Pakistan as a particular segment does not want to see harmony and unity between the government and the Pakistan Army. An instance was witnessed on Saturday when Federal Minister for Information Pervaiz Rashid was removed from his office and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif received his resignation. The development came after the publication of a national newspaper story “Act against militants or face international isolation,…
Posts published in October 2016
ISLAMABAD: The government has formed an inquiry committee to probe the planted news story, terming it as a breach of national security besides directing Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid to step down for an independent and detailed inquiry. “Evidence available so far points to a lapse on part of the information minister who has been directed to step down from office to enable holding of an independent and detailed enquiry,” a Prime Minister Office’s statement said…
LAHORE: Two Christian families have gone into hiding in Sheikhupura fearing for their lives after the registration of a blasphemy case against unidentified suspects. On Friday, Mananwala police registered an FIR under section 295-B of the Pakistan Penal Code on the complaint of Sub-inspector Shafqat Ali, who alleged some suspects had allegedly desecrated the Holy Quran at an abandoned house in Khan Colony. Duty officer Ishtiaq told The Express Tribune the police were trying to…
The US officials have expressed concerns regarding the attempts by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant also known as the Islamic State of Syria and Iraq (ISIS) terrorist group to expand foothold in Afghanistan. The State Department spokesman John Kirby said Wednesday “It is no secret that we have been long concerned about ISIL’s eyes on Afghanistan and their desires to have a presence there.” He was responding to a question regarding the…
The writer is a postgrad student of economics at the University of Bonn. And so it happened – three veiled men laced with arms and explosives managed to skip over the walls of the police academy, taking down a lone tower guard and ripping through everything and everyone coming their way. By the time the security forces could respond, the terrorists had already slaughtered over sixty young cadets, leaving dozens reeling in pain. What followed…
The writer is a lawyer based in Islamabad. The loss of five-dozen police cadets in Quetta in a terror attack remained of interest to the news cycle for a sum total of one day. How can a nation with a soul be so nonchalant about indiscriminate murder of citizens? How can a state with qualms be so pigheaded about policies that continue to require placing soldiers and policemen in harm’s way? Balochistan weeps over the…
The aim of the Lashkar-e-Janghvi (LeJ; the reinvarnation of the Sipah-e-Sahaba) since 1996 has been to create a sectarian divide on a regional level that could lead to a global war. The police academy in Quetta was its latest target on October 24, and 61 young men lost their lives. For such Deobandi groups, the elimination of the Shi’ite sect is not something that can garner mass support, and thus their attention has turned the…
The writer is a former editor of Dawn. ALL the noise being made by various players jockeying for power in and around the federal capital has not distracted me for a moment from the feat of that remarkable young man who had a split second to make a choice — and look what a choice he made. Yes, the right decision in this case meant he would be no more. But his training, and the…
JALALABAD – An airstrike in Afghanistan on Friday hit the home of a Taliban commander in the eastern province of Nangarhar and caused several civilian casualties, government and insurgent spokesmen said. The strike targeted the home of Mawlawi Mohammad Alam, a Taliban commander in the Sherzad district, said Attaullah Khogyani, a spokesman for the provincial governor, adding that there were casualties but he could not confirm numbers. A police official said the strike was carried…
NATO officials in Afghanistan have said the Taliban is struggling with a number of major issues mainly a financial recession, the rising number of casualties and serious disagreements over their leadership. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said that they and Afghan forces must be prepared for any situation amid the ongoing war in the country. Stoltenberg said that the Taliban used all potential to occupy major territories in Afghanistan, but the Afghan security forces…
The NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday that the presence of the loyalists of the Islamic State Of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Afghanistan is underlining the importance of the NATO in the country. Stoltenberg was responding regarding the alliance’s contribution in the fight against the terror group in Iraq and Syria led by a coalition of forces. “NATO contribute to the fight against ISIL and terrorism in many different ways. All NATO…