Pakistan Urges Karzai to Drop U.S., Ally with Islamabad, Beijing
27 April 2011
Pakistan is lobbying Afghanistan's president against building a long-term strategic partnership with the U.S., urging him instead to look to Pakistan—and its Chinese ally—for help in striking a peace deal with the Taliban and rebuilding the economy, Afghan officials say. The pitch was made at an April 16 meeting in Kabul by Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who bluntly told Afghan President Hamid Karzai that the Americans had...
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Militants Destroy Peshawar School for Girls amid Police Inaction
27 April 2011
Militants blew up a government-run primary school for girls in Adezai area on the suburbs of provincial metropolis on Tuesday, police said. An official of Matani police station said that militants planted five explosive devices at the three-storey building and exploded them through a remote at about 1.25am. He said that it was the second girls` school, which was blown up within a month in the area. “We have time and again asked police high-ups...
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Pakistan's Islamist Tightrope: Analysis
27 April 2011
It is no longer uncommon to read about attacks on progressive Pakistani intellectuals and politicians. These killings are tragic, but they are also intelligible. They fit a familiar narrative of liberals versus extremists in Pakistan, reformers versus reactionaries. The militant fringe, we have repeatedly been told, is threatened by intellectual argument, and kills its opponents to intimidate public figures into silence. Each gruesome episode is...
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