Monthly Archives: December 2016
Trump must get tough with Pakistan
Future financial aid should depend on genuine opposition to terrorists
By Fulvio Martusciello
President-elect Donald Trump made headlines after Pakistani officials released details of his phone call with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. While the reported kind words exchanged could be interpreted as the beginning of a renewed friendship between the two countries, Islamabad’s thirst for headlines alone have made this less likely. More importantly, in the past Mr. Trump has stressed the security challenges associated with Pakistan and its potential global reach.
Filed under Interviews and Articles
Pakistan: How the blasphemy laws enable abuse
Pakistan’s blasphemy laws are often used against religious minorities and others who are the target of false accusations, while emboldening vigilantes prepared to threaten or kill the accused, a new Amnesty International report says today.
“There is overwhelming evidence that Pakistan’s blasphemy laws violate human rights and encourage people to take the law into their own hands. Once a person is accused, they become ensnared in a system that offers them few protections, presumes them guilty, and fails to safeguard them against people willing to use violence,” said Audrey Gaughran, Amnesty International’s Director of Global Issues.
Filed under News
Dec 20: Shaheed Shafi Baloch
Filed under Baloch Vanguards
As Bangladesh Became Free on Dec 16, 1971, a Secret London Conclave Mooted Balochistan’s Liberation
Abdus Samad Azad, the first foreign minister of Bangladesh, with Indira Gandhi in New Delhi in 1972
On the day Pakistan surrendered to India at Dhaka, Bangladesh’s foreign minister-in-exile advised Baloch, Pakhtoon and Sindhi nationalists to launch a joint liberation struggle against Pakistan with Indian help.
By
In the nine months since March 25, 1971 – as the Mujibur Rahman-led Bangladesh liberation struggle got transformed into a war of independence, ending on December 16, 1971, with the emergence of the former East Pakistan as the sovereign, independent Peoples Republic of Bangladesh – the Pakistani Army’s campaign of massacre and mass rape became the unmarked and un-wept genocide of the 20th century. This grim event is well documented by research scholars and there is no scope for doubting the records.
Filed under Interviews and Articles
Is the Islamic State Now in Pakistan’s Balochistan Province?
How the Middle Eastern terrorist group found a home in Pakistan’s restive province.
By Shah Meer Baloch
Pakistan has been a hotbed of Islamic militants for years. Over 45 known terrorist and extremist organizations have sprung up or split off since the 1980s. The government, however, has continued to deny that the Islamic State (ISIS) is present in the country. Speaking in London last year, then-Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif said “even a shadow of ISIS would not be allowed.” Senior officials in both Karachi and Punjab province have admitted, however, that their forces had carried out raids against ISIS militants.
Now it seems that the government is admitting to the presence of ISIS after the military says it thwarted planned ISIS attacks on foreign embassies and the Islamabad airport, according to military spokesman Lieutenant General Asim Bajwa.
