Posts published in July 2016

Dozens of families of Afghan National Police (ANP) officers eke out a living each month and due to poverty are forced to live in caves around the Buddha statues in central Bamiyan province. These families deal with untold hardships on a daily basis and have their homes in the mountainside as the salaries paid to the local ANP officers is not enough to cover daily expenses, they told TOLOnews on Wednesday. Khadija, 54, is a…

At least 23 Taliban insurgents were killed during airstrikes in the restive Kunduz province in North of Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defense (MoD) said Wednesday. According to a statement by MoD, the airstrikes were carried out in Dasht-e-Archi and Qala-e-Zal districts in the past 24 hours. The statement further added that the artillery units of the Afghan National Army (ANA) forces also pounded the Taliban hideouts in the two districts. According to MoD, at least…

At least 300 loyalists of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group have been since a major operation was launched against the supporters of the terror group in East of Afghanistan. Officials in the Ministry of Defense (MoD) have said the militants were killed during the operations, Shaheen 18, in Nangarhar province. Deputy MoD spokesman Mohammad Radmanish confirmed around 300 ISIS loyalists were killed and around 100 others were injured during the…

By JESSICA DONATI and  HABIB KHAN TOTAKHIL SHINDAND, Afghanistan—Morale among some Afghan special forces is wearing thin as they are increasingly called upon to lead the fight against the Taliban, with teams feeling exploited by their leadership and missing U.S. support. Sgt. Peer Khapalwak’s battalion has been operating alone in this western district, one of the most dangerous in the country, since the Americans left more than a year ago. During that time, the Taliban…

From its establishment based on religious ideology, Pakistan has attempted to use religious extremism and terrorism as tools, in addition to its military forces, to ensure its continued existence. The invasion of the former USSR in Afghanistan and the rule of Gen. Zia-ul-Haq provided fertile ground for Pakistan to use extremism for putting pressure on neighboring India because of the Kashmir dispute and also to entrench its hegemony and expansionist ideals. This was when Pakistan…

GHOTKI: Communal tensions ran high in Sindh’s Ghotki district on Wednesday, after a Hindu man was arrested for allegedly desecrating the Holy Quran a day earlier. Two Hindu men were shot having tea at a stall in Ghotki’s town of Mirpur Mathelo during an attack by a mob Wednesday. One of the victims, 17-year-old Dewan Sateesh Kumar, succumbed to his injuries while his friend Avinash is in a critical condition, police said. Local leaders of…

CHANGTANG, China—A highway project here that is four years behind schedule and hundreds of millions of dollars over budget helps explain why Beijing’s effort to raise infrastructure spending is an increasingly ineffective way to boost thenation’s economy. When construction on the Chang’An Expressway, originally intended to cost $880 million, began in 2008 it seemed a sure bet. Its private partners stood to collect decades of lucrative toll revenue. The economy and the environment would benefit…

General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee Xi Jinping on Tuesday called for the building of strong armed forces through military reform. Xi presided over a group study seminar of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, which focused on national defense and military reform. He called the reform drive “a comprehensive and revolutionary change,” and said obstacles and policy issues that may hold back reform measures must be addressed so…

The Sixth Plenary Session of the 18th Communist Party of China Central Committee (CPCCC) to be held in Beijing in October is expected to bring strict intra-Party governance to a new level with the introduction of detailed and practicable regulations, officials said. The Political Bureau of the CPCCC announced the news after a Tuesday meeting presided over by President Xi Jinping, who is also the general secretary of the CPCCC, the Xinhua News Agency reported.…

The writer is DG of SSII, a private think tank, and a PTI MNA. When will we, as a nation and a state, stop being the world’s favourite whipping boy and rediscover our dignity and self-respect? Of course, the people are simply being plummeted down the path of servitude, to the world at large, by our leaders, while the nation cries out ‘when will this end?’ Some say when the national economy is strong; others…