Pakistan Starts Deradicalization Course in Effort to Resocialize Former Taliban
12 May 2011
Together with psychologists, officers [at a "deradicalization center" for Taliban members in Pakistan's Swat Valley] have spent months researching whether and how Taliban helpers and sympathizers could be deradicalized. They looked at programs in Saudi Arabia and in Yemen, learned about the reintegration of right-wing radicals in Denmark and Great Britain and studied how those who helped the Nazis during the Third Reich became democrats in the Federal...
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Bin Laden Case Puts Pakistani Army's Dominance in Focus: Analysis
12 May 2011
When Pakistan's army officers are not watching their old rival India or fighting Taliban insurgents, they are busy running a business empire that gives them an iron hold on society. As one saying goes here: "Every country has an army, Pakistan's army has a country." Pakistan's 600,000-strong army has financial muscle flexed across industries from oil and gas to cereals and real estate -- it even set up its own airline. Its Inter-Services Intelligence...
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US Drone Strikes Continue Despite Growing Pressure; Latest Strike Kills Eight
12 May 2011
A U.S. drone aircraft fired missiles at militants in Pakistan on Thursday, killing eight of them, Pakistani officials said, in the third such attack since U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden in his Pakistani hideout. The killing of the al Qaeda chief in a U.S. raid on May 2 has strained ties between Washington and Islamabad, with suspicion in the United States that Pakistan knew where bin Laden was hiding and Pakistan angered by a raid it saw...
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Sectarian Conflict and Its Aftermath in Jhang and Gilgit, Pakistan
12 May 2011
Many of the violent conflicts in Pakistan are sectarian – that is, they are between Muslims with different sectarian affiliations, particularly Sunnis and Shias. They are often protracted, reflecting longstanding social tensions, and have lasting effects on the people involved. This research sought to develop a better understanding of such conflicts and their aftermath in two urban centres in different regions of Pakistan, in order to identify...
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