Rising Violence Suggests Government Failing to Protect Religious Minorities: Report
14 June 2011
The year 2010 ended with violent protests over amendments to the controversial blasphemy laws, and 2011 opened with the brutal target killing of Punjab’s Governor Salmaan Taseer, a staunch advocate of minority rights. This was followed closely by the assassination of Federal Minister for Minorities, Shahbaz Bhatti. Both had supported amendments in the law proposed by a member of Parliament from the ruling party and former federal minister,...
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Renewed Political Violence Kills at Least 12 in Karachi
14 June 2011
A fresh wave of violence blamed on political and ethnic tensions killed at least 12 people in Pakistan's biggest city of Karachi overnight, officials said Tuesday. Tensions are high between the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and the Awami National Party (ANP), which represent different ethnic communities and straddle volatile political fault lines. Killings have been blamed on their loyalists. "At least 12 people were killed in targeted killings,...
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Terrorist Attacks on Military Installations Underscore Risk to Nuclear Arsenal: Report
14 June 2011
Recent terrorist attacks on military installations suggest the “safety and security of nuclear weapons materials in Pakistan may very well be compromised,” says an article published in the Combating Terrorism Center’s magazine, Sentinel, at the U. S. Military Academy West Point. “A frontal assault on nuclear weapons storage facilities, which are the most robustly defended elements of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons cycle,...
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