U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the 2018 list of Countries of Particular Concern under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 on Tuesday, listing China, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia at the top of the list of the world’s worst abusers of religious rights.
It is imperative for the United States to “reconcile” with the Afghan Taliban so that the American military can withdraw its troops from Afghanistan in a “decent way” and leave behind an “acceptable” regime, China’s state-run Global Times argued in an editorial published Monday.
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, in commenting on ongoing tensions between Islamabad and Washington, said he does not want the United States to treat Pakistan “like a hired gun” in America’s war on terrorism, the Washington Post (WaPo) reported on Thursday.
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s administration is kicking out 18 international charities based in the United States and Europe after refusing their final appeal to remain in the country, the latest move in a “systematic crackdown” on non-governmental organizations (NGOs) operating in the nation, the Associated Press (AP) reported on Thursday.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Monday that it was time for Pakistan to get onboard with peace talks to end the war in Afghanistan.
Pakistan this week welcomed U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to make political reconciliation between the Afghan Taliban and Kabul the primary goal of America’s strategy to end the more than 17-year-old war in Afghanistan.
U.S. President Donald Trump, in a letter sent to the Pakistani prime minister on Monday, urged the country to assist the United States “in achieving a negotiated settlement of the Afghan war,” Pakistan’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
Contents: Kashmir experiences bloodiest year since 2009; India and Pakistan approve the Kartarpur Corridor, connecting Sikh shrines; Corridor raises concerns about activating the Sikh separatist Khalistan movement
A Pakistani born American citizen pled guilty on Monday to charges of defrauding numerous financial institutions in a bitcoin scheme designed to fund the Islamic State (ISIS.)
Pakistani law enforcement took the leader of the country’s hardline Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) Islamist party and dozens of supporters into “protective custody” this weekend. The group orchestrated violent riots in the wake of Christian mother Asia Bibi’s acquittal over allegedly insulting Muhammad.
Contents: Pakistan fails to get agreement from IMF for a bailout; Pakistan’s link to the FATF financial blacklist; Pakistan turns to its ‘friends’ for aid
Theresa May has reportedly refused to grant a Pakistani Christian woman being hunted by lynch mobs for “blasphemy” asylum, after bureaucrats advised her it would cause upset in Britain’s Muslim community.
A terrorist attack Friday against the Chinese consulate in Pakistan’s Karachi region reportedly killed two policemen, two civilians, and the three attackers.
The lawyer of the Christian woman Asia Bibi, recently acquitted in Pakistan of a 2010 death penalty verdict for alleged blasphemy, reportedly revealed this week that he is appealing to Germany to grant her whole family citizenship to flee death threats by Islamists.
The administration of Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday summoned the U.S. envoy in Islamabad to register a strong protest against U.S. President Donald Trump’s assertion that the country has failed to take decisive action against radical Islam.
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday declared that Islamabad, which the U.S. placed on a special watch list for “severe violations of religious freedom” this year, would spearhead an international campaign against the defamation of religion and make using freedom of speech as a pretext to commit blasphemy a crime.
Pakistan’s Christians are living in a state of fear in the wake of Asia Bibi’s acquittal for allegedly committing blasphemy against Islam, the Telegraph reported over the weekend, echoing other assessments.
Asia Bibi — the Christian mother of five sentenced to death nearly a decade ago under Pakistan’s arcane blasphemy laws — is, in effect, still facing a sentence, despite the Supreme Court of Pakistan overturning her actual death sentence on October 31, acquitting her of all charges, and authorizing her immediate release.
The head of the Mutahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), a radical Islamist group in Pakistan, delivered remarks Friday accusing Islamist Prime Minister Imran Khan of being a “Jew representative” seeking praise from the West by releasing Christian mother Asia Bibi.
U.S. President Donald Trump should “absolutely” grant asylum to Asia Bibi, the Christian mother of five acquitted by the Pakistani Supreme Court of a 2010 death penalty conviction for blasphemy against Islam, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) told Breitbart News this week.
Prime Minister Imran Khan this week reiterated his support for the Pakistani Supreme Court’s acquittal of Asia Bibi, reaffirming Islamabad’s resolve to respect the decision to rescind the Christian mother’s 2010 death penalty verdict for allegedly committing blasphemy against Islam.
Pakistan released two Afghan Taliban terrorists from jail on Monday amid intensified U.S. efforts to convince the jihadi group to negotiate an end to the war with Afghanistan, which has lasted more than 17 years.
A senior Pakistani official told reporters Monday that the government will not allow Asia Bibi, a Christian woman recently acquitted on false charges of blasphemy, to flee the country despite incessant calls from radical Islamist rioters for her death and that of her family.
Like many people in this age of weaponized migration, I’m increasingly wary of asylum claims. But if anyone deserved rescuing by the benign and civilized West from a foreign hellhole it’s Asia Bibi.
Islamists reportedly attacked travelers in Pakistan who identified themselves as Christians in the wake of the decision by the Supreme Court to rescind the 2010 death sentence against Asia Bibi for alleged blasphemy, CNN reported on Sunday.
According to a report from Sri Lanka-based think tank LinreAsia, approximately 70 percent of Pakistani people do not know what the Internet is.
China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has intensified its counterterrorism and border patrol activities in the Muslim Uighur-majority province of Xinjiang, which borders Afghanistan and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, the state-run Global Times reported Monday.
The Dutch embassy in Pakistan temporarily halted visa services on Monday “due to circumstances beyond [their] control” shortly after the attorney representing Christian blasphemy law victim Asia Bibi suggested Bibi and her family were seeking asylum in the European country.
The more than 17-year-old war on terror that started in the wake of the 9/11 attacks on the U.S. homeland has killed between 479,858 and 507,236 people in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, including at least 6,951 American troops, according to a study by Brown University’s Costs of War Project.
THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) – Greek police say they have arrested two Pakistani migrant traffickers operating from Turkey.
The British government has turned away a Pakistani Christian who faces mob justice after a death sentence for blasphemy against Islam was overturned, allegedly to appease “certain sections of the community” at home and Islamist terrorists who might be inclined to attack British embassies abroad.
Asia Bibi, a Christian mother recently acquitted by Pakistan’s Supreme Court of a blasphemy conviction that carried a death sentence, is seeking asylum in the Netherlands along with her family, her lawyer revealed on Friday.
Pakistani government officials reportedly withdrew arrest warrants for members of the radical Islamist Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) party involved in violent riots calling for the death of Christian woman Asia Bibi last week, blaming “opposition” parties instead of the TLP for the mobs.
The government of Pakistan confirmed on Thursday that Asia Bibi, a Christian woman whose acquittal on blasphemy charges have triggered violent Islamist riots, remains in Pakistan despite rumors she has left prison and flown to the capital, Islamabad.
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday reportedly told his federal cabinet that his recent visit to China was “more successful than expected,” noting that Beijing has “assured every kind of assistance to Pakistan.”
Various reports Wednesday afternoon suggest that Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian woman acquitted of blasphemy charges last week, has left prison and is onboard a flight at press time.
Pakistan fired the acting chief of its state-run television outlet this week over a caption during a live broadcast that said Prime Minister Imran Khan was “begging” for money during his recent visit to China.
Pakistan’s Minister of State for Interior Shehryar Afridi assured those concerned that the government would protect Asia Bibi, a Christian woman acquitted of blasphemy last week, from Islamist mobs who want to kill her and that the government would not ban her from leaving the country if she was not re-convicted.
Christian leaders, politicians, and activists in the West are urging their home countries and the international community to find a way to grant asylum to Asia Bibi, a follower of Christ under threat in Pakistan after the country’s supreme court overturned a death penalty verdict over blasphemy allegations.
Italy is ready to offer sanctuary to a Pakistani Christian woman and her family following her acquittal on a charge that she blasphemed against Islam.
