As Dawn News points out, “honor killings” involving immolation are distressingly common in Pakistan, often triggered by a young woman marrying someone her family disapproves of. The murder of 18-year-old Zeenat Rafique was especially diabolical because her mother lured her into an ambush by offering to reconcile with her.
The situation in Afghanistan is similar to Iraq: a premature troop withdrawal, conducted with great fanfare for political reasons by President Obama, has turned into a disaster. On Thursday, the White House concluded what the Associated Press (AP) describes as “months of debate” and gave U.S. commanders greater authority to conduct airstrikes against Taliban targets.
The 2007 free trade agreement (FTA) between the People’s Republic of China and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan continues to favor the communist country, fueling its penetrating influence over its Muslim-majority neighbor, reveals a detailed analysis by current affairs magazine the Herald.
The “covert” relationship between Sunni Taliban jihadists in Afghanistan and Shiite state-sponsor of terrorism Iran has endured as a “marriage of convenience” for over a decade, primarily due to their mutual disdain towards the United States, according to various reports.
Contents: Death of Afghan Taliban leader exposes Iran-Taliban links; 50,000 civilians in danger as Iraq tries to liberate Fallujah from ISIS
Hundreds of members and allies of the U.S.-designated terrorist organization Jamaat-ud Dawa held funeral prayers across Pakistan for Mullah Akhtar Mansour, the late head of the Taliban killed by a U.S. drone strike this month.
The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) — Pakistan’s 20-member constitutional body — recently proposed a bill recommending that men bestow a “light beating” onto their defiant wives.
Pakistan launched one of its most ambitious censorship initiatives in memory at the beginning of 2016, with a Supreme Court order to “take remedial steps to quantify the nefarious phenomenon of obscenity and pornography that has an imminent role to corrupt and vitiate the youth of Pakistan.” It’s apparently not going well.
Contents: Iran and India sign ‘historic’ deal for Iran’s Chabahar port; Chabahar port deal highlights enmity between Iran-India versus Pakistan-China; Iran, India and the classic fables of Kalileh-wa-Dimneh, Jataka and Panchatantra; The Caspian Corridor and the New Silk Road
The U.S. airstrike that reportedly killed Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour violated Pakistan’s sovereignty, according to Islamabad.
Contents: Death of Afghan Taliban leader complicates America’s relationship with Pakistan; Massive explosions in Syria target Bashar al-Assad’s heartland
Contents: Kazakhstan farmers riot over fears of encroachment from China; Afghan Taliban leader reportedly killed by US drone strike in Pakistan
The United States is working with Pakistan, Afghanistan, and China to bring the Taliban terrorist group to the peace negotiation table, according to Islamabad.
Al-Qaeda may be training one of Osama bin Laden’s young sons for a leadership position within the jihadist organization, according to a newly surfaced video that features his voice.
Violent protests broke out in Bangladesh after Islamist party leader Motiur Rahman Nizami was hanged on war crime charges, including genocide, rape, and torture linked to the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.
A 25-year-old Christian named Imran Masih, from the Punjab province of Pakistan, has been charged with “blasphemy” for allegedly watching anti-Islamic lectures on his smartphone.
Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT), a small right-wing opposition party, has reportedly demanded that the Pakistani Army lead the investigation into corruption allegations against embattled Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family highlighted in the Panama Papers leak.
The Hakeemullah group, a branch of the Pakistani Taliban, has claimed responsibility for killing a renowned activist in Pakistan’s Karachi region who was known for speaking out against jihadist groups, Reuters has learned.
Some U.S. officials continue to believe Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency poisoned the top CIA operative who presided over the secret raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, reveals The Washington Post.
Islamabad has refused to heed the Afghan government’s demands to take military action against Taliban commanders operating in Pakistan, which is pushing for a negotiated resolution to the 15 years of war in neighboring Afghanistan, Voice of America (VOA) reports.
The Pakistani government’s Central Board of Film Censors (CBFC), a regulatory body governing the film industry, has recently banned at least two documentaries on Islamic extremism.
A five-year-old Afghan boy who became famous online after photos surfaced of him playing soccer in a Lionel Messi “jersey” made out of a garbage bag has fled Afghanistan for Pakistan, after months of threats from jihadi groups.
Pakistan angrily criticised Donald Trump, frontrunner for the US Republican presidential nomination, for saying he would force the country to free a jailed Pakistani doctor believed to have helped the CIA hunt down Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Afghanistan has reportedly voiced criticism towards neighboring Pakistan for allowing a delegation from the Taliban “terrorist organization” to visit Islamabad.
Given the impossibility of active human surveillance along its lengthy border, India has installed a dozen “laser walls” along its border with Pakistan, which will set off a loud siren if breached.
The Afghan Taliban says it has sent a “high-level” delegation to Pakistan, a spokesman for the jihadist group has confirmed to Voice of America (VOA).
On Monday, the government of India banned the importation of milk products, steel, and some electronic devices from China, citing “quality concerns.”
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said that he would “try and keep” the “not that much” amount of foreign aid the United States gives to Pakistan and with regards to humanitarian aid he “would try so hard to keep some
Two men kidnapped an eight-year-old girl and gang raped her for seven days in Pakistan. They later strangled her.
Pakistani authorities, in an effort to persuade the Afghan Taliban to participate in peace talks, reportedly warned the terrorist group that it will pay a heavy prize if it continues to perpetrate violence.
The United States Department of State has released its official blacklist of countries guilty of egregious violations of religious freedom, and for the 14th consecutive year has left Pakistan off the roster.
Nuclear-armed Pakistan is reportedly concerned about an increase in Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) recruitment at religious schools and universities within its borders and the jihadist group’s growing presence in and around the country despite a crackdown on Islamist organizations carried out by the Pakistani military.
A new study on textbooks used in Pakistan’s public schools found “deeply troubling content” in the representation of Christians and other minority religions as fundamentally inferior and less trustworthy than Muslims. The comprehensive report, Teaching Intolerance in Pakistan: Religious Bias
Three people were injured in an explosion in a Pakistan court after the judge asked a police officer to explain how a grenade works. Instead of simply telling the court how the weapon functions, the constable produced a live grenade
Two weeks removed from the Lahore Easter massacre, enraged Pakistanis need a government willing not just to combat individual jihadis, but uproot jihadi ideology from Pakistan’s mainstream.
Contents: EU-Turkey refugee deal fraught with chaos and legal and political problems; Turkey’s Erdogan threatens to terminate the refugee deal
Both the United States and Saudi Arabia have announced sanctions against four individuals, and two groups they are associated with, based on allegations they have provided financial support to global terrorism.
Pakistani security forces killed at least five terrorists and arrested over 600 suspects in large-scale operation in the country’s eastern Punjab province, reports state-controlled Chinese outlet Xinhua.
Islamic extremists carried out nearly every suicide terror attack in the world during the year 2015, and the number of women and young girls among them grew exponentially, according to a report from the Institute for National Security Studies.
The head of the National Border Patrol Council says a breach in the fence along a ten-mile area in remote areas of the Mexico-Arizona border should cause concern about terrorist threats.
