By Nafisa Hoodbhoy
GWADAR, PAKISTAN — Over the last six months, the skyline over the sleepy fishing city of Gwadar has been transformed by machines that dredge the Arabian Sea and cranes that set up shipping berths in what is projected to become Pakistan’s biggest international port.
Continue reading “Sleepy Pakistani Village Rises as China’s Gateway to Middle East”
ISLAMKOT, PAKISTAN — As the car speeds along gleaming blacktop highways in Pakistan’s southern desert of Tharparkar, it is clear the new roads were not built to serve the poor herders and nomads who live in cone-shaped straw homes and subsist on herding sheep and cattle.
Continue reading “Coal Project Is Latest Sign of Growing Pakistan-China Relationship”
WASHINGTON — Taliban attacks on two consecutive weekends in Kabul, which have killed hundreds of people, including Americans, have occurred in the midst of stepped-up efforts by the Trump administration to find a way out of the 16-year-old Afghan imbroglio.
Continue reading “Analysts: Battle for Kabul Has Begun”
In an unprecedented move, nuclear-capable South Asian rivals India and Pakistan are gearing up to take part in joint military drills.
Last week, Indian Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman confirmed that India would participate in anti-terrorism military drills alongside Pakistan.
Continue reading “India, Pakistan Set for Counterterror Drills — Together, in Russia”
Pakistan’s political parties have urged the government to exercise restraint in handling the grass-roots Pashtun Protection Movement (PTM), arguing that the military’s crackdown and potential collision with PTM could threaten the stability of the South Asian nation.
Continue reading “Opposition Parties in Pakistan Warn Against Ongoing Crackdown on PTM”
WASHINGTON — Pakistan’s Punjab province Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) this week said it killed two prominent Islamic State (IS) operatives in the province and closed “a big chapter” in the history of Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K) in the country.
Continue reading “Pakistan Says it Struck a Blow Against Islamic State-Khorasan”
The United States and Pakistan this month started cracking down against armed militant groups, in what analysts describe as establishing a groundwork ahead of the meeting between the U.S. President Donald Trump and Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan in Washington early next week.
Continue reading “Pakistan, US Take Action Against Militants Ahead of Trump-Khan Meeting”
A series of Islamic State (IS) announcements of new provinces it controls in recent weeks has renewed debate over the group’s possible resurgence after its self-proclaimed caliphate fell, with some analysts warning an increasingly decentralized IS could recover and spread its tentacles to other parts of the world.
Continue reading “IS Decentralizing Into ‘Provinces’ in Bid to Return”
Pakistani feminists say they are determined to fight blasphemy charges filed in mid-April by militant Islamic groups opposed to their International Women’s Day rallies held on March 8.
Continue reading “Pakistan’s Feminists Fight Blasphemy Cases”
Indian authorities are stepping up efforts to investigate and bring charges against Indian citizens allegedly linked to Islamic State (IS). This comes in the wake of the Easter bombings in April in neighboring Sri Lanka that killed 259 people and wounded hundreds, according to Indian officials.
Continue reading “India Makes it Easier to Charge Citizens With Alleged Ties to IS”