Newspaper Articles Archive
Is it fair to throw the humiliating DI Khan jailbreak in the PTI’s lap alone? – by Dr Mohammad Taqi: Just as the intelligence agencies’ ability to detect and intercept the TTP plan to attack the Dera Ismail Khan (DIK) prison was being questioned, reports in the media started appearing about the intelligence agencies tipping off the Khyber Pukhtunkhwa
Video Shows Iran’s President-Elect Was Misquoted on Israel – by Robert Mackey: A video report from Iran’s state-owned Press TV included subtitled remarks by President-elect Hassan Rouhani that were misreported by other Iranian news agencies on Friday. Last Updated, 6:46 p.m. | As my colleague Thomas Erdbrink reports from Tehran,
#ShiaGenocide is a reality, not just a ‘fab’ Twitter trend – by Alizeh Khaleeli: It means taking one life away and leaving a few hundred near death. PHOTO: EXPRESS Another sectarian attack in Parachinar. The infamous hashtag Shia Genocide, however, only lasts momentarily on Twitter before being taken over by more worthy trends
Collective Amnesia – by Khadim Hussain: A scene from Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Nobel Prize winning novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude, has vaguely remained my memory for a long time. The scene is about a gun battle in 1967 between liberals and conservatives in Macondo
Shia leader, son killed in Rahim Yar Khan – by Kashif Zafar: Pakistani Shia Muslims carry the coffins of relatives during a mass burial ceremony in Quetta on February 20, 2013. PHOTO: AFP/FILE BAHAWALPUR: The Shia Council’s Divisional President Sheikh Manzoor Hussain and his younger son Haider Ali were killed as a
UN: Over 1,000 Iraqis Kill in July, Highest Toll in Years – by Jason Ditz: The UN mission to Iraq has released its official figures for violence in the month of July today, putting the toll at 1,057 dead and 2,326 wounded. This is almost exactly in line with the death toll for May,
Bahrain Cracks Down in Bid to Stop its Tamarod Movement (a la Egypt) – by Juan Cole: The Bahrain struggle is still going on two and a half years later. A coalition of Shiite groups and some Sunnis (the Waad or Promise Party) continues to agitate against the authoritarian practices of the
We must face our demons – by Kamran Shafi: The writer is a columnist, a former major of the Pakistan Army and served as press secretary to Benazir Bhutto [email protected] It is quite incredible that though we are in our late-ish sixties, both our country and its people
Consumer price index: Inflation rebounds to alarming levels – by Shahbaz Rana: The 8.3% inflation level surpassed the expectations of the Ministry of Finance and Planning Division, which was expecting inflation to level around 7.5% in July. CREATIVE COMMONS ISLAMABAD: After slipping to levels never seen in nine years, inflation rebounded in
Pakistan’s Sectarian Meltdown – by Michael Kugelman: Last month, militants murdered nine foreign mountain climbers at a base camp on Pakistan’s Nanga Parbat peak. Many observers noted that it was the first attack of its kind. But in fact, one aspect of the attack—which received little
Carnage in Kurram – by Dr Mohammad Taqi: The Pakistani security establishment needs to take a long and hard look to see how many Adnan Rashids are still hiding among its ranks Two synchronised bomb attacks wreaked havoc in the heart of Parachinar in the Kurram Agency
Pakistan chooses next President after jailbreak underscores threats – by Declan Walsh: LONDON — The troubling gap between politics and governance in Pakistan came into stark relief on Tuesday, when lawmakers elected the country’s 12th president just hours after Deobandi Taliban militants (along with Sipah Sahaba aka Lashkar-e-Jhangvi) shot their way
Attacks on Pakistan’s Minorities: Jan 2012 – Jun 2013 – by Omar Waraich: Last Friday, hundreds of shoppers were gathered in Parachinar’s main bazaar. In this main town of Pakistan’s Kurram tribal agency, located along the Afghan border, the local residents were buying food items for the looming evening Ramadan meal,
Asian Human Rights Commission’s report on minorities in Pakistan: World’s concern about minorities in Pakistan Nasir Saeed The issue of minority rights in Pakistan is discussed often around the world these days, in parliaments, human rights groups like Amnesty International, religious freedom departments, foreign affairs committees and international
Christian Science Monitor: What’s behind the attacks on Shiites in Pakistan?: Source: Christian Science Monitor – with minor edits and additional information Twin bombings June 30, killed 28 people, primarily Shiites, in Pakistan’s city of Quetta. More than 300 Shiite muslims have been killed in a string of major attacks
برطانیہ الطاف حسین کا حامی کیوں؟: برطانوی اخبار گارڈین کی ایک رپورٹ میں دعویٰ کیاگیا ہے کہ برطانیہ کے ایم کیو ایم کے سربراہ کو ملک میں مستقل رہائش اختیار کرنے اور لندن میں ان کی سرگرمیوں کو نظر انداز کی وجہ ایم کیو ایم
Jamshed Dasti: You have no idea who I am! – by Umer Nangiana: “You have no idea about the powers of MNAs. You will regret this,” Dasti threatened two patrolling officers. PHOTO: Express/Shahid Saeed ISLAMABAD: Just as people in glass houses should not hurl stones, people in parliament houses should not hurl threats.
Energy Fraud: Nawaz Sharif’s advisor Musaddiq Malik, Mian Mansha and Abdullah Yousuf in Power Plant Scam: A letter about the energy policy, blaming a gang of four for what is described as a con operation, had the parliamentary corridors on fire. The thrust of the letter was that the IPPs are
Najam Sethi seeks extra-constitutional powers as interim head of Pakistan Cricket Board: Dawn’s report: LAHORE, July 27: Amid the ongoing constitutional crisis surrounding Pakistan cricket, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in a review petition against the Islamabad High Court (IHC) decision is seeking extra- constitutional powers for its caretaker chairman Najam Sethi. The
In denial on Abbottabad – Farahnaz Ispahani: The leaked report of the panel set up to look into the 2011 Osama bin Laden incident in Pakistan skips many hard questions including how the nation came to acquire a jihadi mindset Hours after U.S. Navy SEALs found
In Pakistan, TV show gives away babies to win Ramadan ratings war – by David Woode: Editor’s note: The most unethical and bizarre TV show in history airs on Jang Media Group’s Geo TV. The argument that Geo and Amir Jihalat are not at fault since the program gets major ratings is absurd. If Geo
Christian nurse living in fear she does not want to marry Muslim man: Ghulam Muhammad, an influential and feared Muslim businessman in Sanghar District, has threatened to abduct Nazia Masih and disfigured her with acid because she has refused to marry him. The man is known to police because of several complaints
Bangladesh Islamist leader sentenced to death: Tribunal finds Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, secretary-general of Jamaat-e-Islam, guilty of war crimes. A Bangladesh court has sentenced a senior leader of the country’s largest Islamic party to death for war crimes committed during the 1971 independence war against
Al-Qaeda-linked extremists hold 200 Kurdish civilians hostage as ‘live shield’ in Syria: Al-Qaeda-linked extremists have taken and continue to hold hostage about 200 Kurdish civilians, including women and children, using them as live shields in north-eastern Syria, Russia’s Foreign Ministry has stated. Civilians remain hostage after Syrian Kurds clashed with
How Taliban brought new terror to Pakistan’s Killer Mountain – by Jason Burke: Pakistani air force officers carry a coffin of one of the climbers killed by a Taliban faction on Nanga Parbat in June. Photograph: MD Nadeem/EPA The sun had long gone down. Sher Khan, a Pakistani climber on his
Maulana Fazlur Rahman condemns proxy war by US and allies for regime change in Syria: اسلام آباد: مولانا فضل الرحمن نے کہا ہے کہ ہم شام میں حکومت بدلنے کیلئے امریکا، اسرائیل اور ان کے دیگر اتحادیوں کی ایما پر لڑی جانے والی پراکسی جنگ کی حمایت نہیں کر سکتے_ انہوں نے شام کے
Sikh holy book desecrated again in Sindh: KARACHI: Before police could arrest culprits who desecrated Sikh holy book Guru Granth Sahib in Pano Aqil, a similar incident happened in Shikarpur, in which unknown people tore 24 pages of the sacred book. The incident has caused annoyance
European Parliament identifies Wahabi and Salafi roots of global terrorism: Source: Dawn Author: Murtaza Haider It is not merely the faith or oil that flows out of Saudi Arabia. The oil-rich Arab state and its neighbours are busy financing Wahabi and Salafi militants across the globe. [In Pakistan and
40 government employees in Rawalpindi have links to banned terrorist groups – Dawn’s report: Despite being put on the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) watch list, 40 individuals having links to outlawed organisations (of Takfiri Deobandis and Wahhabis) are working in different government departments in the Rawalpindi division. This was disclosed in an intelligence report
Rocket attack by Wahhabi terrorists kills custodian of shrine of Prophet’s granddaughter Sayyeda Zainab: The Syrian government accuses rebels of targeting Sayyeda Zainab shrine, which is now protected by hundreds of Shia militants from Iraq and the powerful Lebanese Hezbollah group. PHOTO: AFP BEIRUT: A rocket strike near a Shia Muslim shrine in Damascus
America’s naked ambition – by Seema Mustafa: The writer is a consulting editor with The Statesman and writes for several newspapers in India The Americans are finding that it is not easy to conquer the world. Military power and diplomatic machinations can work only to a
ISI: Failing state within a state? – by Nadeem Saeed: “The ISI, no wonder, has lost control over both violent jihadi militant extremists on the one hand and the CIA special operatives on the other”, this startling observation about Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency is made in a leaked
Pakistan’s first sect-free mosque calls for end to discrimination – by Mubashir Zaidi: ISLAMABAD: Darul Iman Jamia Masjid Qurtuba’s story is as dramatic as the sectarian history of Pakistan. The newly-built mosque in Islamabad’s Margalla foothills is calling upon its followers to stop discriminating along sectarian lines and to start praying together
Full text of Pakistani Taliban terrorist Adnan Rasheed Deobandi’s letter to Malala Yousafzai: In a letter written to teen activist Malala Yousafzai, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan militant Adnan Rasheed has claimed she was not targeted for her stance on education, and urged her to return home and seek education at a local madrassa. Below is
You are right, Malala’s speech could have been better! – by Josh Shahryar: Malala’s speech could have better if it was delivered by Obama. PHOTO: AFP It was a privilege to take a few minutes off my life and listen to Malala Yousafzai’s speech at the United Nations– alas, on YouTube. I’ve
Pakistan and Egypt: Where Armies Rule – by Ayesha Siddiqa: ISLAMABAD — The July 3 coup that ousted Egypt’s first popularly elected president, Mohamed Morsi, reminds us that military putsches can happen anywhere. Egypt and Pakistan have political similarities. Both have powerful and predatory armies, are heavily militarized and
More Shia genocide on the way? Punjab govt agrees to release most dangerous LEJ terrorists – by Abdul Manan: The gang of some 50 to 60 bandits had taken the police hostages a week ago when they stormed pickets on islands in the riverine region in Rajanpur. PHOTO: FILE LAHORE: The government has agreed to release three members of
Pakistani Deobandi Taliban set up base in Syria, BBC reports: Taliban fighters. — File Photo he Pakistan Taliban militants set up a cell in Syria six months ago to monitor “the jihad” in the region, the BBC Urdu website reported on Friday. The militants had visited Syria to set
First Pakistani women paratroopers make history: ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s first group of female paratroopers completed their training on Sunday, the military announced, hailing it as a “landmark achievement” for the country. Captain Kiran Ashraf was declared the best paratrooper of the batch of 24, the military
Failing, Failing, Failed? – by Saroop Ijaz: The writer is a lawyer and partner at Ijaz and Ijaz Co in Lahore “We are a failing state even if we are not a failed state yet” thus spoke Lieutenant General (retd) Ahmad Shuja Pasha while talking to