Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan ‚ An American drone aircraft hit a militant compound in South Waziristan on Sunday night, killing 20 people, including two important local Taliban commanders known for their attacks against American soldiers in Afghanistan, a senior government official and a local resident said Monday. One of the dead commanders, Eida Khan, was wanted by […]

WASHINGTON: The next US president must revamp policy toward Pakistan, mixing deft diplomacy, security support and economic aid to help Islamabad defeat a grave threat from extremists, an experts’ report said on Thursday. Pakistan Policy Working Group, a bipartisan group of a about a dozen experts on US-Pakistan relations, said the South-Asian country of 160 […]

KARACHI: A 17-year-old village girl was falsely accused of immorality and had dogs set on her as a punishment before she was shot dead, the girl's parents said on Monday. Gul Sher, father of the girl, Tasleem Solangi, demanded justice for the killing of his daughter after he said a council in their village in […]

ISLAMABAD, Oct 26: US attacks in tribal areas are harming the government's efforts to isolate extremists and mobilise people against militancy, according to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. Addressing a press conference after returning from Beijing on Sunday, the prime minister criticised the Inspector-General of the Frontier Corps for saying that the military operation in […]

PESHAWAR: Analysts and intellectuals believe that dialogue is the only way to stem militancy in the Tribal Areas, provided those responsible for the unrest surrender and guarantee they will not challenge the writ of the government. They also believe that the return of peace depends on the sincerity of both sides , the Taliban as […]

ISLAMABAD, Oct 27 – Political and ethnic Pashtun tribal leaders from Afghanistan and Pakistan began a two-day meeting on Monday to find ways to end surging militant violence including the possibility of opening talks with the Taliban. The meeting, dubbed a Pakistan-Afghanistan "Jirgagai", or mini-jirga, is a follow-up to a grand assembly in Kabul last […]

WASHINGTON ‚ The White House has backed away from using American commandos for further ground raids into Pakistan after furious complaints from its government, relying instead on an intensifying campaign of airstrikes by the Central Intelligence Agency against militants in the Pakistani mountains. According to American and Pakistani officials, attacks by remotely piloted Predator aircraft […]

ISLAMABAD: Thirty-two percent of Pakistanis say they have cut down on food because of rising prices, a research group said on Friday. Soaring food prices and shortages of staples mean about 77 million of Pakistan's 160 million people are food insecure, a 28 percent increase over last year, according to United Nations World Food Programme […]

PESHAWAR, Pakistan ‚ Two tribal elders lay stretched out in an orthopedic ward here last week, their plastered limbs and winces of pain grim evidence of the slaughter they survived when a suicide bomber blew himself up in the midst of their tribal gathering. These wounded men, and many others in the hospital, were supposed […]

A suspected US air strike killed nine people at a religious school in north-west Pakistan, intelligence officials said today. It was claimed the school, on the outskirts of Miran Shah, the main town in the North Waziristan region, had links to the Taliban. Four of those killed in the attack were found in the rubble […]

Pakistan plans to arm tens of thousands of anti-Taliban tribal fighters in its western border region in hopes — shared by the U.S. military — that the nascent militias can replicate the tribal “Awakening” movement that proved decisive in the battle against al-Qaeda in Iraq. The militias, called lashkars, will receive Chinese-made AK-47 assault rifles […]

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) ‚ Pakistan sought help from the International Monetary Fund on Wednesday to avoid defaulting on billions of dollars in loans and to skirt a financial crisis brought on by high fuel prices, dwindling foreign investment and soaring militant violence. Pakistani officials had previously said that turning to the I.M.F. would be a […]