Pakistan

RAWALPINDI: Following successful operation against militants in Lower Dir, security forces on Tuesday afternoon launched an offensive against the Taliban militants in the Buner district. “The aim of the offensive, which began at 4 pm, is to eliminate and expel the militants from Buner,” Inter-Services Public Relations Director General Maj-Gen Athar Abbas told a news […]

The point of no return could be crossed in the near future if the Taliban are not subjected to decisive and telling action. The government dithered and the army stayed its hand even as the militants who want nothing less than the state’s overthrow flexed their muscles and moved from Swat to Buner and then […]

‘Operation Pathway’ was perhaps destined for failure the moment the UK’s top counter-terrorism officer was photographed with files providing details of planned police raids on Pakistani students. The officer concerned was forced to resign and the police action, which had been in the works for months, was moved forward at short notice. The result: mass […]

The Interior Advisor, Rehman Malik, says an operation by the Frontier Corps and the Pakistan Army in Lower Dir has killed 30 militants, but maintains that the operation has nothing to with the Swat deal. In the next breath he also says, “If the militants do not lay down arms after the enforcement of Sharia laws in […]

ISLAMABAD: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown pledged on Monday £10 million in assistance to help Pakistan fight extremism and militancy, but expressed no regrets over the arrest of Pakistani students against whom no evidence has been found. ‘We will stand up to extremism together. We will reverse this trend and take them (extremists) on. We […]

BUNER: Taliban militants from Swat took control of Buner on Tuesday and started patrolling bazaars, villages and towns in the district. The militants, who had sneaked into Gokand valley of Buner on April 4, were reported to have been on a looting spree for the past five days. They have robbed government and NGO offices […]

LAHORE: Pakistan’s top opposition leader, former Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, expressed concern Monday about a controversial peace deal with Islamist militants but backed off calls he made last month for a “revolution” to topple the government. Unable to contain an insurgency through military force, Pakistan’s government agreed last week to let Taliban militants impose sharia, […]

IN this wretched, unfortunate land, anger and despair have been wasted emotions. After all, while we may never have known how to fix things, at least we could be relatively sure that they wouldn’t get much worse. But as things begin to fall apart, the assumptions of yore are crumbling before our eyes. And the […]

TOKYO – International donors, led by the United States and Japan, pledged more than $5 billion Friday to stabilize Pakistan’s troubled economy and fight the spread of terrorism in the Islamic nation and neighboring Afghanistan. The U.S. and Japan started off the one-day conference by pledging $1 billion each. Saudi Arabia added $700 million and […]

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — The Taliban have advanced deeper into Pakistan by engineering a class revolt that exploits profound fissures between a small group of wealthy landlords and their landless tenants, according to government officials and analysts here. The strategy cleared a path to power for the Taliban in the Swat Valley, where the government allowed […]

We remain in a state of denial. We are fully capable, we say, of handling the terrorist threat; we are going to fix our economy; all we want is trade opportunities, not aid; and we do not accept or give blank cheques. The truth is that we are in a parlous state The parliament approved […]

This article is by a progressive blogger in Lahore, (Pakistan) Raza Rumi. It was first published by Friday Times (picture of the march in Lahore – courtesy Friday Times.)  Raza’s article gives voice to millions of Pakistanis who are unable to express their anger and frustration for varying reasons.  Raza Rumi blogs at www.razarumi.com and edits Pak Tea House and […]