30 June 2011
President Obama’s counterterrorism strategy is narrowly focused on al-Qaeda and its ability to strike the U.S. homeland and is “not designed to combat directly every single terrorist organization in every corner of the world,” White House counterterrorism chief John O. Brennan said Wednesday. Acknowledging that the president’s goals “track closely with the goals” of the George W. Bush administration, Brennan said...
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29 June 2011
A tribunal headed by Justice Mohammad Hashim Kakar of the Balochistan High Court submitted on Tuesday its report on the Kharotabad incident of May 17 in which five foreigners, three of them women, were killed by security personnel, but the provincial government has decided not to make it public. According to sources, the government observed after going through the report that recommendations made by the judicial tribunal could not be fully implemented....
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28 June 2011
The announcement by President Obama on 22 June 2011 of substantial withdrawals of United States troops from Afghanistan by September 2012 marks an important moment in the almost decade-long war in the country. The impact of the decision will be felt on the current diplomatic calculations over the nature of a settlement that will bring the war to an end. It may also impinge on the presidential-election campaign in the US that reaches a climax in November...
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28 June 2011
The Pakistan government’s inability to provide for the security and prosperity of its own people has led to questions about its sovereignty, whether in terms of its monopoly of violence, fiscal solvency, or human security. But rather than asking questions of the Pakistani government, Pakistanis are content with blaming Washington for the country’s ills. Washington wants Pakistan to succeed, even though, admittedly, the United States has...
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Police Stations Understaffed in Punjab, KP and Sindh: Report
28 June 2011
The police stations in Sindh, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) were understaffed to a varying degree, the police stations in Balochistan and Islamabad capital territory were heavily overstaffed, according to Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN’s) police station monitor. This report is based on information collected by FAFEN monitors who visited 90 police stations in 62 districts across the country during January - March 2011. Of the monitored...
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Pakistan, India Decide to Open New Trade Post After Talks
28 June 2011
Pakistan and India on Monday decided to open up another trade point at the Wagah border, to boost trade ties between the two neighbouring countries. The decision was taken at a meeting held at Wagah border between officials of Pakistan and India. The new point will help facilitate trade and the passage of freedom busses, officials told The Express Tribune. The agreement was formalised under the supervision of Pakistan’s joint secretary Shabbir...
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Pakistan Expels British Military Trainers
27 June 2011
Pakistan has expelled a team of British military trainers sent to help with the fight against the Taliban and al-Qaida, as the fallout from the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden continues to rock relations between Islamabad and its western allies. The Ministry of Defence confirmed that at least 18 military advisers, deployed as part of a £15m programme to train the paramilitary Frontier Corps, have been withdrawn from Pakistan. Most are already...
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Kabul Calls for End to Cross-Border Attacks from Pakistan as "Artillery Shells Kill Four Children"
24 June 2011
Afghanistan on Friday complained to Pakistan for a second time in a week about its shelling of Afghan villages in which four children were killed, fighting that threatens to raise regional tensions as the United States begins a gradual troop withdrawal. The Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs first complained on Monday about Pakistan shelling soon after an assault by Pakistani forces drove militants across the border. The two sides blame each other...
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Obama "Insists" Pakistan Fulfills Counterinsurgency Promises as US Prepares Afghanistan Withdrawal
23 June 2011
President Barack Obama on Wednesday vowed the United States will “insist” Pakistan fulfill its promises to counter militant sanctuaries on its soil. “We will work with the Pakistani government to root out the cancer of violent extremism, and we will insist that it keep its commitments,” Obama said in a televised speech on troop withdrawal plans for the war in Afghanistan. Obama’s comments underscored festering tensions...
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India, Pakistan Hold Peace Talks in Islamabad after "Two-Year Freeze"
23 June 2011
India and Pakistan held talks on peace and security issues in Islamabad on Thursday, part of efforts to stabilise South Asia as the United States prepares to draw down troops from Afghanistan. Concerns over terrorism are likely to dominate India’s agenda since US troops killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan and since a four-year peace process collapsed when gunmen killed 166 people in Mumbai in November 2008. India blamed the attack on Pakistani...
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