The U.S Treasury Department on Wednesday added Nayf Salam Muhammad Ujaym al-Hababi, a senior al-Qaeda leader reportedly based in Afghanistan, to the US government’s list of specially designated global terrorists. The order – Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) – targets terrorists and those providing support to terrorists or acts of terrorism. In a statement issued by the Treasury Department, it said they targeted al-Hababi for his activities and for his leadership role in the organization,…
Posts published in “Day: February 12, 2016”
After almost two years of an ongoing extensive military operation in the country, the last thing any one wants to hear is that terrorists are regrouping and the self-styled Islamic State (IS) is emerging as a tangible threat in Pakistan.Yet that is exactly what the director general of the Intelligence Bureau (IB), Aftab Sultan, informed the Senate Standing Committee on Interior on Wednesday, stating that the presence of IS in the country is very real…
It is a blunt, though perhaps unsurprising, warning: the country’s top civilian spymaster, director general of the Intelligence Bureau, Aftab Sultan, has told the Senate Standing Committee on Interior that the militant Islamic State group is in fact an emerging threat in the country, particularly because sectarian militant outfits and elements of the banned TTP are sympathetic to its ideology. The DG IB’s warning stands in stark contrast to the interior ministry’s repeated claims that…
It has taken the Director General of the Intelligence Bureau (IB), Aftab Sultan, to finally give the nation’s politicians a salutary reality check regarding the presence of the Islamic State (IS) in Pakistan. This newspaper, along with a range of other media outlets and platforms, has been sending out alarm signals for over a year. There are well-sourced and researched reports on IS penetration in the country. Time and again, those reports have been rubbished…
Both civilian and military agencies agree that despite a significant decline in terrorist attacks the threat of terrorism still looms large. As Gen Raheel Sharif told the Corps Commanders meeting on Thursday, this is a complicated war which can be won with unity and steadfastness. Similar views were expressed by the IB Chief in his presentation before a Senate Committee. While there may not be any duly certified franchise of the IS functioning in Pakistan,…
ISLAMABAD: Despite intelligence warnings that the militant Islamic State (IS) group is an emerging threat, Foreign Office insists that the Middle Eastern terrorist group has “no organised presence” in the country. “Let me reiterate that there is no organised presence of Daesh, the Arabic acronym for IS, in Pakistan,” FO spokesman Nafees Zakaria said on Thursday. The new spokesman, who was holding his first media briefing, was answering a question about the testimony by Aftab…