Posts published in “Day: November 1, 2016”

The attack against a Muharram Majlis in Karachi that led to the deaths of five is the fourth attack against Shias in the city since the beginning of Muharram this year. The country as a whole rejoiced when the 9th and 10th of Muharram passed without incident, but clearly we were lulled into a false sense of security too soon. The attack took place in the absence of any police presence at the event, which…

October 28, 2016: When police was on high alert and cracking down on the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) activists, at a time when section 144 was imposed in Islamabad, a banned organisation, Ahl-e-Sunnat-Wal-Jammat (ASWJ) conducted its congregation in the capital, that too in broad daylight and with glaring fearlessness. The crowd present at the congregation shamelessly chanted slogans of declaring Shia Muslims “Shia kafir” (infidel), and nothing was done to stop them. October 29, 2016: The…

DUBAI: Saudi Arabia has arrested at least eight suspected militants, including two Pakistanis, for plotting killings and a car bombing, the country’s interior ministry said on Sunday, and authorities were pursuing other accomplices. A ministry statement said those arrested included Islamic State suspects who had planned killings of security officials in the Shaqra district north of the capital Riyadh. Other militants had planned to attack civilians in the eastern city of Qatif and stage a…

In recent months, the Afghan refugee population in Pakistan have been made to feel unwelcome. We only extend the deadline till which refugees are allowed to stay in Pakistan by a few months a time so as to leave them in a state of permanent insecurity. Politicians frequently scapegoat Afghan refugees for our crime, drugs and gun problems. And then Sharbat Bibi, who became the face of Afghan refugees when she was featured on the…

LASHKAR GAH, AFGHANISTAN: With jingling poppy seeds hidden in his pouch, Helmand farmer Nematullah sidled out of Taliban territory to explain how he struck gold — two additional opium harvests a year, which could further roil Afghanistan’s conflict. Afghanistan has all the trappings of a narco-state, with opium production — the lifeblood of the Taliban insurgency — from the traditional spring harvest alone edging towards a record high. Farmers such as Nematullah are now reaping…

PESHAWAR: Without mincing words, Afghan ambassador to Pakistan Dr Hazrat Umar Zakhilwal said on Sunday that trust deficit was bedeviling relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan. In an interview with The News, he said the Afghans knew that who had imposed war on them. “I still believe that Kabul and Islamabad can find out solutions of the problems confronting them,” he said. Umar Zakhilwal, who is also Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s special envoy to Pakistan, observed…

WASHINGTON: The Afghan government lost control or influence between May and August over two percent of the territory it controlled, the US government´s top watchdog on Afghanistan said in a report on Sunday, a sign of the precarious security situation in the country and challenges posed by the Taliban and other militant groups. Fifteen years after the United States invaded Afghanistan to topple the Taliban rulers who had harboured al-Qaeda militants who attacked the United…

A huge weapons cache belonging to the Taliban group was discovered and destroyed n southern Helmand province of Afghanistan, the Ministry of Interior (MoI) said Sunday. The cache was discovered during an operation conducted in Nahr-e-Saraj district of Helmand as the Taliban militants were looking to use the weapons and explosives for the terrorist attacks. “Last night, Afghan National Police (Special Units) launched a security operation in Nahar Saraj district of southern Helmand province,” Moi…

At least 19 militants belonging to Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist group were killed in an airstrike in eastern Kunar province of Afghanistan. The Ministry of Interior (MoI) said the airstrike was carried out in Dangam district and at least 8 militants of the terrorist group were also wounded. According to a statement by MoI, A BM-1 rocket launcher and a Dshk heavy machine gun belonging to the terrorist group were also destroyed in the raid. MoI further…

At least nine insurgents were killed in a foreign troop’s airstrikes in eastern Kunuar province, local official said on Monday. The airstrike took palace in Dangam and Ghaziabad districts of the province in which a number of weapons of the insurgents were also destroyed, a spokesman for the Provincial Governor, Abdul Ghani Musamim said. There are no civilian casualties in the airstrike, he said. However, he did not provided more details about the airstrikes. Recently,…