02 March 2011

"Taliban militants on Wednesday shot dead Pakistan's only Christian government minister for challenging a law that mandates the death penalty for insulting Islam, the latest sign of instability in a country where many fear radical Islam is becoming more mainstream. Minister for Minorities Shahbaz Bhatti is the second senior official this year to be assassinated for opposing the blasphemy law. Provincial governor Salman Taseer was shot dead by his...

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02 March 2011

"Pakistan, with one of the world`s largest out-of-school population, about 7.3 million, spends over seven times as much on arms as on primary schools, says a report of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco).  The discrepancy between primary education and military expenditure is so large that just one-fifth of Pakistan's military spending would be sufficient to finance the universal primary education, asserts the 'Education...

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02 March 2011

"With militants on the retreat since the summer of 2009 and a victory over them declared by the military in February 2010 life has begun returning to normal in Swat and neighbouring districts such as Buner and Dir. [...] The valley, a former tourist resort area some 160km from Islamabad, has also seen evidence of a revival of tourism - a primary source of livelihood for many before the insurgency (led by Maulana Fazlullah). The conflict displaced...

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02 March 2011

"India has agreed 'in principle' to allow an investigating team from Pakistan to question Mumbai witnesses of the 2008 terror attack, said Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram according to a news story published in the Times of India on Tuesday. [...] 'We have agreed that they should come to India to record the evidence (about the Mumbai attack),' Chidambaram told reporters at his monthly press conference. 'But we have also sent them a request asking...

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02 March 2011

"The Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is facing a serious financial crisis since its slain founding leader Baitullah Mehsud combined several scattered groups from all over the tribal belt to form the most feared terror network of homegrown militants back in 2007. 'The Taliban have seriously run out of funds…they have hardly any money anymore,' at least three associates of the group said amid a surprising halt in their activities – suicide...

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02 March 2011

"The Pakistani Taliban brutally executed four more so-called American spies in the terrorist-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan. The bodies of four Pakistani tribesmen were found dumped along a road in Miramshah, the main town of North Waziristan. The four men were found with notes pinned to their chests identifying them as US spies and warning others they will meet the same fate if they work with American intelligence agencies. 'We killed...

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02 March 2011

"Four weeks into the Raymond Davis affair, an ongoing and very public spat between the ISI and the CIA threatens to engulf the fraught relationship between Washington and Islamabad. Partners in the war on militancy, the two spy agencies have never had an easy relationship. But ties hit a new low after the revelation that Davis was part of a clandestine CIA network operating in Pakistani cities. 'We feel betrayed by the CIA operations behind our back,'...

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02 March 2011

"Prime Minster Yousaf Raza Gilani on Monday said that there was solid evidence that foreign elements and powers were involved in aggravating the situation in Balochistan. Acknowledging that a sense of deprivation prevails in Balochistan, Gilani said that the government had presented the Aghaz-e-Haqooq-e-Balochistan package to address these concerns. Long inter-tribal feuds and mutual differences cannot be ruled out when causes to worsening security...

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