If half-a-million ethnic Punjabis flee Balochistan – by Jan Assakzai: If they flee Balochistan A disturbing fallout of Baloch militants’ estrangement is going to be mass migration from Balochistan of Punjabi- and Urdu-speaking people, who mostly live in Quetta. The professional entrepreneurial middle class composed of the non-indigenous communities
Faisal Shahzad: The Air Marshal’s incompetent bombmaker son: By Dr Omer Ali Someone posted comments about the Times Square bomber and why Pakistan is breeding so many Islamic fanatics (thankfully so many incompetent Islamic fanatics). Someone else posted Dhume’s article from the WSJ today. I wrote a
Banned outfits eye new recruits through jihadi material – by Faraz Khan: KARACHI: Religious organisations outlawed by former president Pervez Musharraf continue promoting terrorism in Karachi by distributing material to convince the youth to enlist themselves in the name of jihad, Daily Times learnt on Monday. Sources revealed that Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan,
Finally, the Deobandi awakening against Taliban terrorists?: No condemnation Dawn Editorial Monday, 03 May, 2010 There is little doubt that there still exist, across Pakistan, mosques, schools of religious learning and other religious centres that continue to spew hate. Unless that infrastructure of hate is shut
Who if not Baitullah? By Amir Mir: The United Nations Inquiry Commission report into Bhutto’s murder has put Musharraf regime in the dock The three-member United Nations Inquiry Commission has almost absolved the slain Ameer of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Commander Baitullah Mehsud of the Bhutto murder
Mufti sahib and the fatwa for suicide attack: Contributed by: Zalaan مفتی صاحب اور خود کش دھماکے کا فتویٰ سلام علیکم مفتی صاحب وعلیکم سلام و رحمت الله و بر کا تہ مفی صاحب آج میرا دل بڑا دکھا ہوا ہے اور میں بہت اداس ہوں مفتی
Paradox republic – by Nadeem Paracha: Pakistan has been in the news for quite some time now. A country that (until about the early 1980s) was little known and usually mistaken for being a province of India in Europe and the United States, has rapidly
Pack your bags and get out, Lahoris tell intelligence agencies: Pack your bags and get out, Model Town tells security agencies * MTS residents hold protest, demand removal of security offices from residential neighbourhood * Demonstrators carrying placards, banners demand compensation for victims of terror attacks * Slam MTS
Research: Nawaz Sharif’s ties to Bin Laden: Daily Times of Pakistan reports – Sunday, March 21, 2010 Ex-ISI official says he arranged 5 meetings between Nawaz, Osama LAHORE: Former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) official Khalid Khawaja has claimed that he arranged five meetings in the past between
Dilemmas of counter-terrorism — by Dr Hasan-Askari Rizvi: The perspective of Islamic parties and the political right that expresses varying degrees of sympathy for the Taliban has seeped into other sections of society that either do not blame the Taliban for the violence or attempt to rationalise
Encountering fundamentalism — by Nizamuddin Nizamani: Extremist Islam is encroaching deeper into the Thar Desert and almost all district and tehsil headquarters of Sindh and Balochistan, where large numbers of seminaries, with new buildings and equipped with every kind of infrastructure, have been erected during
Societal perspectives on terrorism — by Dr Hasan-Askari Rizvi: At least one generation has been socialised into a favourable disposition towards Islamic conservatism and militancy. They have a natural sympathy towards the political discourse of the militants even if they do not support their violent methods The terrorist
The Al Qaeda Connection – by Imtiaz Gul: Chilling truths Book Review by Afrah Jamal The Al Qaeda Connection – By Imtiaz Gul, Penguin Global; Pp 320 Today, the landscape has been transformed into a hunting ground as the showdown between the military and militants gets underway
Thanks to Saudi-financed Islamofascism: Iranians face terror threat in Pakistan KARACHI: The arrest of Jundullah chief Abdolmalek Rigi by the Iranian government has raised the risk of attacks on Iranian nationals and installations including the embassy and consulates in Pakistan, as the militant
Peace Carvan: A journey for peace – by Shujuaddin Qureshi: It was an unusual gathering at Karachi’s Cantt railway station, where over 100 people from civil society organisations, intellectuals, political and trade union workers, and journalists had gathered for a peaceful cause. Sixty of those gathered, including more than
Pakistan’s Most Wanted Terrorists – by Nick Fielding: First published at “Circling the Lion’s Den” Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency has published an updated version of its Red Book of ‘Most Wanted Terrorists‘. Containing 119 names, the list includes some of the most dangerous men in the country,
Hijacking Democracy – by Anas Muhammad: Today we live in an increasingly dangerous world, which is filled with people who have their ulterior motives and willingness to harm others to benefit themselves. Our world is filled with criminals, gangsters, murderers, and terrorists. The people who
The Rightist Judicio-Politico Mafia – by Anas Muhammad: Saturday February 13 – The Chief Justice of Pakistan defied Presidential orders through a suo moto action against the Presidential notification for appointment of certain judges. Chief Justice, in a rare nightly emergency session, formed a three members
Reconciliation Is No Silver Bullet – by Anas Muhammad: Two years ago – February 2008 – Pakistan began its transformation to democracy with a general election that brought Benazir Bhutto’s PPP (Pakistan People’s Party) into power. The party decided to continue its policy, introduced by its slain leader