Villagers have clashed with riot police in Wukan in southern China after officers forced their way into homes in the remote fishing village and arrested more than a dozen villagers early on Tuesday. The arrests came after the village leader Lin Zuluan, who headed protests against land seizures, was jailed last week on corruption charges. Villagers were injured by rubber bullets and tear gas shells were seen scattered on the ground, according to witnesses and…
Posts published in “Day: September 16, 2016”
ISLAMABAD: In a sign of progress towards a free trade agreement (FTA), the Iranian authorities have agreed with the initial draft shared by Pakistan and returned it with their input, paving the way for kicking off formal negotiations on streamlining commerce between the two sides. Pakistan had shared the draft on Iran President Hasan Rouhani’s desire for free trade between the two countries during his visit to Islamabad in March this year. Both the sides…
ISLAMABAD: The Taliban are urging India to stop giving lethal military equipment to the Afghan government, condemning it as a “clear hostility” towards the war-torn nation. In its first public reaction to New Delhi’s growing military cooperation with Kabul, the Islamist insurgency alleged Indian aircraft and equipment are being used to kill Afghans and destroy their homes as well as other civilian infrastructure. “The Islamic Emirate [the Taliban] condemns this action with the strongest of…
The writer is a staff correspondent ISLAMABAD: Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani’s explicit threat to Pakistan that he will shut the land route for transit of Pakistan’s export goods to Central Asia, if Kabul is not allowed to trade with India via Wagah border, is not a new story. Kabul has time and again pressed Pakistan to allow India to become part of a proposed trilateral transit trade agreement between Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Pakistan, on…
THE contrast between tense Pak-Afghan ties and deteriorating Pak-India relations on one side and the fresh impetus in the Indo-Afghan relationship on the other make it extremely unlikely that reason will prevail in the ongoing Pak-Afghan transit trade tug of war. But the pragmatic, sensible and mutually beneficial case for opening up trade routes across Pakistan and Afghanistan needs to be restated — because, perhaps even more so than the north-south trade envisaged under CPEC,…
For centuries, Afghanistan has sat at a crossroads. One of the landlocked Central Asian states, it has always been reliant on agreements for transit trade with its neighbours. Transit generates revenue for a country that has few goods of its own to export, and those that it does have are with a short shelf-life, mostly soft fruits. Into this precarious economic mix comes modern geopolitics, and neighbourly relations with India — a state that is…
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has been making some questionable comments towards Pakistan ahead of his tour to New Delhi. President Ghani’s statement threatened to block Pakistan’s trade access to Central Asian States (CAS), if it did not allow Afghanistan to trade with India via the Wagah border. Whether it is merely a publicity stunt or his ‘threats’ really hold merit remains to be seen. However, it is likely that he is simply not aware of…
National Directorate of Security (NDS) officials on Saturday seized over 35 tons of explosives in two heavy duty trucks coming in to Afghanistan from Pakistan. The explosives were hidden among building material bags – mostly cement. According to officials, bags of ammonium nitrate were recovered. These had been concealed under cement bags. The two trucks, which were driving together, were stopped at Torkham gate in Nangarhar. Each truck had a Khost registration plate. The two…
Nangarhar officials confirmed that the provincial police chief Brigadier General Zorawar Zahid was killed on Sunday evening when his vehicle hit a roadside IED in Hesarak District. The incident took place Sunday evening when Zahid was reportedly on his way to a check post. Zahid was the police chief of Nangarhar and had previously served in Ghazni in same capacity. He is the second brigadier general to have been killed in a week in Afghanistan.…
PESHAWAR / ISLAMABAD: A much-talked-about peace deal between the Afghan administration and the Gulbuddin Hekmatyar-led Hizb-i-Islami militant group is likely to be announced on the eve of Eidul Azha. Hizb leaders earlier hoped the announcement would be made on Saturday evening, but it couldn’t materialise owing to differences between President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Dr Abdullah Abdullah. Hekmatyar, a veteran of the Afghan jihad against the Soviet military, has been accused by rights campaigners…
Head of Hizb-e-Islami Afghanistan (HIA) party Gulbuddin Hekmatyar in his Eid message said that the delay in signing the peace deal between government and his party was due to problems inside government. He said that the war – that he previously called jihad – is not in the country’s favor. Analysts said they believe that the remarks by Hekmatyar against insurgency should have been stated years ago. The remarks by Hekmatyar come at a time…