U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, accompanied by Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford, made a surprise visit to Afghanistan on Friday for meetings with President Ashraf Ghani to discuss security issues and the prospect of peace talks with the Taliban.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Pakistan on Wednesday for meetings with top officials and the new prime minister, Imran Khan. Pompeo told reporters his objective was to “reset” America’s troubled relations with Pakistan.
The Taliban released a statement on Tuesday confirming the death of Mawlavi Jalaluddin Haqqani, founder of the notorious Haqqani Network (HQN), a terrorist organization allied with the Taliban and al-Qaeda. The Haqqani Network quickly made it known that new leaders are prepared to take over and Haqqani’s death will not hinder its operations.
Pakistani pop star Rabi Pirzada has used her verified Twitter account to call for cartoonists who draw the Prophet Mohammed to be “hanged immediately”, claiming that drawing Islam’s founder is “the worst act of terrorism”.
The government of Pakistan has celebrated the cancellation of a cartoon competition facilitated by Dutch anti-Islamisation politician Geert Wilders in which participants were encouraged to draw the Islamic prophet, Mohammed.
Ten thousand Islamic radicals have rallied in Pakistan against a ‘Draw Mohammed’ contest in the Netherlands by Geert Wilders, as the South Asian country’s politicians demand global blasphemy laws.
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s wife makes a fashion statement by wearing a white niqab to his swearing-in ceremony.
The “several hundred” members of the Afghanistan-based al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) terrorist group are intent on carrying out attacks inside India, the United Nations warned in a new report.
Contents: Chinese workers in Pakistan injured in terrorist bombing; War of words grows over IMF funding for Pakistan’s debt
Sarah Champion MP says she has “aged” after the Labour Party threw her off its front bench for calling out “British Pakistani men raping and exploiting white girls” and now requires enhanced police security — but vows “I am quite a long way from done.”
A wave of attacks perpetrated by the Taliban, recently deemed by a U.S. government-linked study as the world’s second most lethal terrorist group, killed more than 30 people in Afghanistan since Sunday. The killings came as negotiations reported get underway between the United States and the ruthless narco-jihadis to end to the nearly 17-year-old war.
Contents: Pakistan elects anti-American far right religious Imran Khan to be prime minister; Pakistan faces imminent financial crisis threatening China’s CPEC
Christian watchdog groups have voiced concern over last week’s election of former cricket star and Islamist Imran Khan as Pakistani Premier, noting Khan’s public supported the nation’s harsh blasphemy laws.
Chinese state media celebrated the victory of Pakistan’s new Prime Minister Imran Khan in an editorial Monday, claiming the two countries’ relationship of “iron brothers” will “flourish” under his leadership.
The former cricketer turned politician Imran Khan declared victory in Pakistan’s elections on Thursday, hailing what he describes as the “fairest” vote in the country’s history despite opposition claims of vote-rigging and corruption.
Pakistan experienced multiple violent incidents, including a suicide bombing that killed at least 31, on Wednesday as the nation took to the polls for regional legislative elections.
The State Department is bringing together Christian and other religious leaders from all corners of the world this week for a ministerial advocating religious freedom around the world, including Muslim-majority nations like Pakistan, predominantly Hindu India, and communist China, where both Christians and Muslims face harsh oppression.
Pakistan prepares to open polls for this year’s regional and legislative elections Wednesday, ending a campaign season fraught with incendiary language, terrorist attacks, and flooded with hundreds of candidates openly embracing Islamist groups.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that Pakistan is facing a debt crisis due to the enormous loans it has taken out for the Orange Line, an elevated railway in Lahore that is only the first installment in China’s $62 billion plan to bring its “Belt and Road” infrastructure initiative to Pakistan.
China’s One Belt, One Road (OBOR) development projects within the borders of Pakistan will improve political stability in the Muslim country, the Chinese state-owned Global Times claimed in an editorial this week.
Chinese development projects and citizens are at risk of becoming “targets of terrorist attacks” in Pakistan, China’s state-owned Global Times recently cautioned in an editorial, citing deteriorating security conditions ahead of the Muslim country’s general election.
Voters in Pakistan may not have their ballots by election day, July 25, because over 100 candidates have pending legal cases that keep them off the ballot, preventing election officials from printing the ballots in time.
Contents: Second largest terror attack in Pakistan’s history occurs at election rally; ‘Ghazi Force’ takes credit for attack on 11th anniversary of Red Mosque siege
Islamic State jihadists claimed responsibility on Friday for targeting an election rally in Pakistan’s largest province Balochistan, killing an estimated 128, including a provincial seat candidate, and wounding up to 200.
The heads of intelligence services for Iran, Russia, China, and Pakistan discussed ways to combat the threat of the Islamic State in Afghanistan in a meeting in Islamabad on Tuesday.
A Taliban commander, identified as Hanzala, was reportedly killed in an explosion triggered by his own explosives in Afghanistan’s northern Kunduz province on Tuesday.
The leader of one of the most prominent Islamist extremist groups participating in the Pakistan general elections vowed to use an “atom bomb” from the country’s arsenal to “wipe Holland off the face of this earth” if it allows a competition of cartoons depicting Mohammad to proceed, Pakistani media reported Tuesday.
The nuclear-armed militaries of Pakistan and India, at the behest of China, are scheduled to participate in unprecedented joint military counter-terrorism drills in Russia next month as part of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), an eight-member Eurasia coalition led by Beijing.
A 16-year-old girl was among three people who died in Kashmir on Friday, after security forces opened fire at stone-throwing protesters.
A Pakistani court on Friday sentenced ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in absentia to a decade behind bars for corruption.
The looming July 25 general elections in Pakistan have seen hundreds of candidates enter the political mainstream with backing from Islamic terrorist organizations and ardent supporters of the country’s blasphemy law, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) revealed this week.
Turkey reportedly announced this week that it has agreed to build four of its indigenous “Ada-class” naval corvette warships for Pakistan’s military, marking an unprecedented export deal for the country.
Political leaders in nuclear-armed Pakistan, often considered to be allied with the powerful military establishment, are beginning to feel the ramifications of the jihadi candidate surge that entered the general elections, increasingly facing terrorist threats ahead of the contest, Dawn reports Tuesday.
Pakistan removed the leader of one of the nation’s most prominent jihadi groups from its terrorist watchlist this week while Islamabad considers if his group may join other Islamist radical organizations in fielding candidates in its upcoming election, Reuters learned Thursday.
The New Delhi-based federal government ruled by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) recently took direct control of the Indian-held region of Kashmir, the only Muslim-majority territory in the country, following the collapse of a fragile coalition with a local political group.
The looming general elections in Pakistan will see candidates backed by the nation’s powerful military establishment run against more than 200 contenders affiliated with the Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) wing of U.S.-designated terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
Pakistan’s election commission appears powerless to prevent the “political mainstreaming” of Islamic extremists and candidates charged with crimes ranging from corruption and rape to human smuggling and murder, rendering the country’s upcoming race a springboard for radicals and alleged criminals, according to several news reports.
The already fragile bilateral ties between regional rivals India and China could not sustain the strain of another incident mirroring the 73-day standoff near the Doklam region that nearly triggered a war last year, the Chinese envoy to New Delhi warned this week.
Senators on the Armed Services Committee from both sides of the aisle expressed growing impatience and skepticism with the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan during a hearing on Tuesday to vet the next incoming commander, Army Lt. Gen. Austin “Scott” Miller.
Contents: India cancels ceasefire in Kashmir after one month; Controversial one-sided UN report on Kashmir condemns India
