The Taliban militant group and other irresponsible militant groups are recruiting children as soldiers in their ranks, local officials in Ghor province said. Zabiulalh Jawad, the provincial Independent Human Rights Chief, has told RFERL that they have credible evidences and documents to prove that Taliban are recruiting children to fight for the group. Provincial governor’s spokesman, Abdulhai Khatebi confirmed the remarks by the Independent Human Rights Commission, saying the group is actively recruiting childre in…
Posts published in October 2016
PRIME MINISTER Nawaz Sharif has perhaps done all that he could to draw the international community’s attention to the Kashmiri people’s ordeal. He and members of his large entourage spoke of India-held Kashmir to whoever they met in New York. By all accounts offered by our media services, the Kashmir mission, carried out with unusual vigour, went off well — this despite a slight slip while drafting the press release on the meeting with US…
The writer is DG of SSII, a private think tank, and a PTI MNA The Kashmir dispute as it has come to the fore once again has also shown the limitations of the traditional rhetoric of both Pakistan and India even as successive generations of Kashmiris in Indian Occupied Kashmir continue to lay down their lives in resisting Indian occupation and the brutality unleashed once again by the occupation Indian military. While India continues to…
Is SAARC coming apart: by Brig Gen Shahedul Anam Khan ndc, psc (Retd), The Daily Star, Sept 29, 2016
The writer is Associate Editor of the daily .WHEN we speak of SAARC, we usually hear two reactions – cynicism and skepticism,” Modi had told the 18th Kathmandu summit, which was to be held in 2012 but postponed to 2014. “Yet, South Asia is slowly coming together” he had added. Given that the latest Summit postponement is the ninth since SAARC came into being in 1985, one wonders whether the regional grouping is falling apart.…
A DAY after insinuating that India may use water as a weapon against Pakistan, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made another unfortunate, though perhaps less surprising, decision: his government will boycott the Saarc summit scheduled for November in Islamabad. Disappointingly, it was followed by Bangladesh’s decision to do the same. Mr Modi’s participation in the head-of-government summit has long been a subject of speculation, with Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Gautam Bambawale suggesting only…
Through an announcement on Twitter by the official spokesperson of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, Vikas Swarup, India has pulled out of the official South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit planned to be held in Islamabad in November 2016. In an open reference to Pakistan, the Indian statement alleged Pakistan’s role in cross-border terrorism, and its supposed “interference in the internal affairs of Member States” as the reason behind its decision. This…
The 19th Saarc summit has been cancelled after India decided to boycott the summit set for November in Islamabad. After Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Bhutan joined the Indian boycott, Nepal has announced that the summit will now be postponed. Afghanistan’s boycott is hardly a surprise, both because of its close relationship with India and its ‘tendency’ to level similar allegations about Pakistani sponsorship of terrorism. Bhutan and Bangladesh put out vague statements noting that the ‘environment…
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decided to take recourse to non-military measures against Pakistan to achieve his aims. The refusal to attend the SAARC summit along with Afghanistan and Bangladesh is a move towards isolating Pakistan. That Nepal, Sri Lanka and Maldives declined to join hands indicates that not all SAARC members are on the same page with India. The ongoing Pakistan-Russia military exercises further indicate the difficulties India is likely to face in isolating…
By Jon Boone in Islamabad and Michael Safi in Delhin Four south Asian countries are to boycott what was set to be a historic regional summit in Islamadad in November, dealing a humiliating blow to Pakistan and isolating it diplomatically. India, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Bhutan all said they would pull out of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) meeting following a collapse in relations between Pakistan and India, the subcontinent’s nuclear-armed rivals. Statements…
Tensions between Pakistan and India are at a simmer after a deadly terrorist attack in Uri in the Indian-held Kashmir; 18 Indian soldiers died. New Delhi blamed this attack on Pakistan and started looking for ways and means to hurt Pakistan. One of the crucial matters that can cause serious repercussions for Islamabad is the suspension of water flowing from India to Pakistan. Reportedly, India is planning to “maximise” the amount of water it uses…
There are many bones of contention between Pakistan and India with the conflicts along the Line of Control being perhaps the most visible, but it is water that may yet be the spark that could ignite a serious conflict. Both India and Pakistan share a common need regarding water and it is a diminishing resource. Water may be diminishing but it is also a vital source of power generation for both countries and now India…