Whos responsible for recent attacks on Karachi police? on August 4, 2017KARACHI: Counter-terrorism authorities say that evidence available to them lends credence to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan’s (TTP) claims of responsibility for the July 24 attack on the police but they cannot entirely rule out the involvement of a new outfit either. On Monday, Ahmed Mansoor, a TTP spokesperson, had sent out an email to media persons saying […]
Women in jihad on August 3, 2017KARACHI: Counter-terrorism experts interpret the recently launched women’s magazine of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) as an attempt by the banned outfit to tap into women’s familial and social networks in a bid to facilitate operations of its male members. They say that the recent success in military operations have made it difficult for TTP to operate […]
The decline of Daesh in Pakistan on July 25, 2017KARACHI: The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) seems to be fast losing its charm for militants from Pakistan. After its emergence in Khorasan two years ago, the group made some quick inroads into the Pakistani militant space. But recent events suggest, and security analysts concur, that the trend has clearly reversed in […]
The decline of Daesh in Pakistan on July 25, 2017KARACHI: The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) seems to be fast losing its charm for militants from Pakistan. After its emergence in Khorasan two years ago, the group made some quick inroads into the Pakistani militant space. But recent events suggest, and security analysts concur, that the trend has clearly reversed in […]
Will MQM-P regain PS-114? on June 15, 2017KARACHI: After rumours of his ‘secret deal’ with former president Asif Ali Zardari, the announcement of PML-N’s Irfanullah Marwat to support the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf candidate in PS-114 by-election has made it tough for the three-time winner of the constituency – the Muttahida Quami Movement-Pakistan – to regain its seat. The Farooq Sattar-led party is however […]
CTD warns of terror acts in upper Sindh on June 6, 2017A month after the two failed suicide blasts during Eid prayers in Shikarpur’s Khanpur tehsil last year, the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of Sindh Police wrote a letter to the Home Department and other relevant quarters, warning of more terrorist acts in upper Sindh in absence of a decisive operation in Wadh, Mastung and Jhal […]
Hekmatyars return exposes Afghanistan’s ethnic divide on May 12, 2017Former mujahideen leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who also served as prime minister, is one of the most controversial figures, who is remembered for his role in the bloody civil war of the 1990s. He headed the Hizb-e-Islami – one of the Peshawar Seven, which has much influence in the professional class of Afghanistan. With official confirmation […]
Dicing with death on February 14, 2016Imagine a person who has just been issued an Afghan visa being informed via a Facebook status from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) appearing on his timeline that at least seven employees of his host organisation in Kabul have been killed in a suicide blast. “The CPJ condemns attack on Tolo TV employees in […]
The state in a state of denial on January 24, 2016The American war on the Taliban has become Pakistan’s own war. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has waged a war on the state of Pakistan. Still the ‘supply’ to Afghanistan has been on the move. It was in those initial days that the dead bodies of several students belonging to different varsities and colleges — killed in […]
A turn to ethnic politics on December 20, 2015While Zafar Ali Shah — the PML-N contender for mayor of Islamabad — says his defeat from Union Council-30 was a ‘plot’ chalked out by his own party men, an Ahl-e-Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) associate claimed the returned independent candidate, Chaudhry Mohammad Naeem Ali, could win due to the active support of his group. Qasim, […]