Rash of Karachi Violence Continues; Third Naval Bus Bombed
29 April 2011
Pakistan Navy’s Commander in Karachi had advised over the internal wire that no large navy vehicles should be used for transporting personnel following the Tuesday’s twin bombings on the force’s buses. Despite the precautionary advice, the buses were used on Thursday morning, sources within the navy say. And terror struck – for the third time in 48 hours. At least five people, including four sailors, were killed and seven...
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Balochistan Nationalists Attack Police, Claim Responsibility for Naval Bus Bombings
29 April 2011
Militants ambushed Pakistani police before dawn on Friday, sparking a gunfight that killed two policemen and two militants in the country’s troubled southwest, officials said. One policeman and a militant were also wounded during the shootout in Balochistan province, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, police said. A group of militants attacked a police vehicle in the town of Mir Hasan, about 360 kilometres southeast of Quetta. Impoverished...
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FATA Clashes Between Army, Militants Leave at Least 36 Dead
29 April 2011
At least 33 militants, two pro-government tribesmen and one soldier were killed in military actions and clashes in Kurram, Orakzai and Mohmand agencies on Thursday. Officials said helicopter gunships pounded three militant hideouts in Mirandi, Sangraba and Chinarak areas of central Kurram, killing 20 militants and injuring several others....
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Appointment as C.I.A. Director Puts Patraeus Further in "Conflict with Pakistan"
29 April 2011
The appointment of Gen. David H. Petraeus as director of the Central Intelligence Agency puts him more squarely than ever in conflict with Pakistan, whose military leadership does not regard him as a friend and where he will now have direct control over the armed drone campaign that the Pakistani military says it wants stopped. Pakistani and American officials said that General Petraeus’s selection could...
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"Crumbling Unity" among North Waziristan Groups an Opportunity for Pakistani Army
28 April 2011
Crumbling unity among militants could provide the Pakistan army an opening to conduct a limited offensive against a particularly vicious Taliban group in a strategic tribal region, according to analysts and a senior military official. The target of such an operation in North Waziristan would be the most violent factions within the so-called Pakistani Taliban. Their leader, Hakimullah Mehsud, is believed to be increasingly isolated after executing...
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Border Clash Threatens Afghanistan-Pakistan Relations
28 April 2011
Despite signs of improvement in diplomatic relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan, border guards from the two countries on Wednesday traded fire in the South Waziristan tribal district. At least 12 Afghan National Army (ANA) troops and one soldier from the Pakistani paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) were killed in the clash that took place in the Angoor Adda area of the district. Three FC troops and eight civilians were also wounded. The border...
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Lashkar-e-Taiba: Past Operations and Future Prospects
28 April 2011
Lashkar-e-Taiba (the Army of the Pure or LeT) is one of Pakistan’s oldest and most powerful jihadi groups. Yet despite its long and bloody history, LeT only began generating significant attention outside South Asia after launching a multi-target attack on the Indian city of Mumbai in November 2008. Pakistan publicly as well as privately [has been advised] to move against LeT. Yet LeT’s position remains relatively secure. There are...
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"Climate of Fear" over Pakistan Blasphemy Laws: Analysis
28 April 2011
Earlier this year two prominent politicians in Pakistan were murdered over their opposition to Pakistan's controversial blasphemy laws. The BBC's Jill McGivering investigates how the abuse of these laws is creating a climate of fear among Pakistan's religious minorities. One stretch of road in a residential suburb of Islamabad has the air of a shrine. This is where Pakistani Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti was shot dead in March. Mr Bhatti's murder...
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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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