Tag: pakistan

Trump Announces US-Mediated ‘Full and Immediate Ceasefire’ Between Warring Nuclear Powers India and Pakistan

The situation between warring neighbors (and nuclear powers) India and Pakistan seemed to be devolving into an open war, as the two countries targeted military bases and exchanged missile and drone attacks.

This military conflict arose after a deadly terrorist attack on tourists in the disputed Kashmir region, raising concerns of a full-blown military confrontation between the two nations that have Historically had a tumultuous relationship, marked by multiple conflicts since their partition in 1947.

But the efforts by the US Donald J. Trump administration have made a difference: after a full night of negotiations mediated by Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a ceasefire has been achieved.

Keep reading

Did Pakistan really shoot down five Indian fighter jets?

At just after 1am local time on Wednesday morning, Indian fighter jets took off for the launch of Operation Sindoor, a series of strikes targeting alleged terrorist camps inside Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

French-made Rafales and Russian MiGs were in the air for less than half an hour, firing missiles that crashed into nine targets across the border. The question now gripping the region is whether all of them returned.

The first site struck was the Abbas camp in the city of Kotli, about 13km across the Line of Control in Kashmir, at 1.04am.

Vyomika Singh, a wing commander in the Indian air force (IAF), said that the camp had been used by suicide bombers from Lashkar-E-Taiba (LeT), the group New Delhi blames for killing 26 tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir last month.

In grainy, bird’s-eye video posted online by the information wing of India’s armed forces, small clouds of black smoke puff up from a scrubby hillside as the missiles explode on impact.

Some of the eight other operations targeted sites much deeper inside Pakistan, including the Subhnallah mosque compound in the Punjabi city of Bahawalpur and an LeT training camp in the city of Muridke, a short distance north of Lahore.

Keep reading

India Confirms Strikes On Pakistan’s “Terrorist Camps”; Pakistan Claims 5 Jets Shot-Down

India confirmed early Wednesday that it had conducted strikes on Pakistan, two weeks after more than two dozen civilians were killed in a terrorist attack in Indian-administered Kashmir.

India said it had struck Pakistan after gathering evidence “pointing towards the clear involvement of Pakistan-based terrorists” in last month’s attack on civilians in a tourist area in Kashmir.

It said that its military actions on Wednesday had been “measured, responsible and designed to be nonescalatory in nature.” 

It added that it had targeted only “known terror camps.”

India’s defense ministry said in the statement that nine sites had been targeted in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir. 

“Our actions have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature,” it said in a statement, calling it “Operation Sindoor.”

Keep reading

Will We See Mushroom Clouds Over Kashmir?

One of the world’s, oldest and most dangerous conflicts went critical this past week as nuclear armed India and Pakistan traded threats of war. The Kashmir conflict is the oldest one before the UN.

In my book `War at the Top of the World’ I warned that the confrontation over Kashmir, the beautiful mountain state claimed by both Islamabad and Delhi, could unleash a nuclear war that could kill millions and pollute the planet.

After three wars and many clashes, it seemed the two bad neighbors had allowed the Kashmir dispute to fade into the background as their relations slightly improved.

Then came the murder last week of 26 Indian tourists at Pahalgam, a Kashmir beauty spot, by Muslim insurgents. Kashmir was roughly divided between India and Pakistan in 1947. The larger part of Kashmir was annexed by Indian troops as the entire region was scourged by massacres and rapine.

As a result, India’s portion of Kashmir became the only Muslim majority state in India. Kashmiri Muslims have waged a bloody struggle since the 1980’s to leave India or join Pakistan. Today, 500,000 Indian troops and an equal number of paramilitary police garrison the restive province.

I’ve been under fire three times on the Line of Control that separates the two Kashmirs and at 15,000 feet altitude on the remote Siachen Glacier. I was with Pakistani President Musharraf after he tried to seize Kargil which lies above Kashmir.

The outside world cared little about the India-Pakistan conflict until both Delhi and Islamabad acquired nuclear weapons. Their ‘hatred of brothers’, as I called it, pits fanatical Hindus against equally ardent Muslims who share centuries of hatred and are being whipped up by politicians.

Right wing Hindu militants in Delhi demand reunification of pre-1947 ‘Mother India.’ Pakistan has about 251 million citizens; India has 1.4 billion and a much larger GDP. Pakistan would be unable to resist a full-bore attack by India’s huge armed forces. So, it relies on tactical nuclear weapons to compensate for the dangerous imbalance.

But both sides nuclear arsenals are on hair-trigger alert and pointed at the subcontinent’s major cities. A decade ago, the US think tank Rand Corp estimated an India-Pakistan nuclear exchange would kill three million immediately and injure 100 million. Such damage would pollute most of the region’s major riverine water sources all the way down to Southeast Asia.

Keep reading

Pakistan Warns Of ‘Act Of War’ After India Cancels Landmark Water Treaty

India is retaliating against Pakistan in major ways as tensions soar in the wake of the Tuesday terrorist attack on Indian-Controlled Kashmir, which killed 26 tourists in the picturesque region.

Not only has India closed its border to Pakistan, declaring that no visas will be given to Pakistanis, but the Indian government has downgraded its diplomatic ties with Islamabad and suspended a crucial water treaty. Pakistani visa holders in India have also been ordered leave the country within 48 hours.

The water issue will could impact hundreds of millions of people on both sides of the border, as the 1960 Indus Water Treaty delineates how water is distributed and used from six rivers that flow through both countries, starting in disputed regions of the Himalayas in the north.

The decision was made in a meeting chaired by India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who cut short a trip to Saudi Arabia. All Pakistan military advisers who were previously cooperating with their Indian counterparts have also been given a week to leave.

During the terror attack on the tourist destination in the Baisaran Valley men were separated from women and children by armed militants which had descended on the area. The men, all civilians, were then asked their names before being executed at close range. 

This apparently was to confirm that they were Hindus. India has alleged that this was a Pakistan-backed massacre conducted by Islamic extremists due to the sectarian nature of the attack. Islamabad has long been accused of harboring Islamic terror groups along the disputed Jammu and Kashmir border region.

India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri specifically charged Wednesday press conference that “cross-border linkages of the terrorist act” had been “brought out” – in a clear reference to Pakistan. Authorities have identified that 25 victims were Indian, and one a Nepali citizen. 

Pakistan has firmly rejected it had anything to do with the massacre, instead saying that terrorism in India was “homegrown”. Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif said “This is the result of a Hindutva [Hindu nationalist] government exploiting and killing religious minorities, including Christians and Buddhists,” He described to a Pakistan news service this was the result of “homegrown rebels.”

Keep reading

INSANE: Pakistani Pedo Gets To Stay In UK Because He’s An Alcoholic

A convicted pedophile has escaped deportation from the UK to his native country of Pakistan after a judge ruled that he would face “inhuman or degrading treatment” there for being an alcoholic.

Yes, really.

The man was released from prison after serving sentences for sex offences, but was subsequently charged again after assaulting a teenage girl.

The Home Office issued a deportation order, however, the guy successfully appealed it using the European Convention on Human Rights whilst serving another one year sentence in prison.

His legal representatives argued that without proper treatment for his addiction in Pakistan, his “uncontrollable” alcoholism could worsen and potentially lead to “further suffering.”

Respondents on X expressed disbelief at the UK justice system, with many pointing out that there are people currently serving longer prison sentences for spicy tweets.

Keep reading

Accusations of US Regime-Change Operations in Pakistan and Bangladesh Warrant UN Attention

Two former leaders of major South Asian countries have reportedly accused the United States of covert regime change operations to topple their governments. One of the leaders, former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, languishes in prison, on a perverse conviction that proves Khan’s assertion. The other leader, former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheik Hasina, fled to India following a violent coup in her country. Their grave accusations against the U.S., as reported in the world media, should be investigated by the UN, since if true, the U.S. actions would constitute a fundamental threat to world peace and to regional stability in South Asia.

The two cases seem to be very similar. The very strong evidence of the U.S. role in toppling the government of Imran Khan raises the likelihood that something similar may have occurred in Bangladesh.

In the case of Pakistan, Donald Lu, Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia and Central Asia, met with Asad Majeed Khan, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the U.S., on March 7, 2022. Ambassador Khan immediately wrote back to his capital, conveying Lu’s warning that PM Khan threatened U.S.-Pakistan relations because of Khan’s “aggressively neutral position” regarding Russia and Ukraine.

The Ambassador’s March 7 note (technically a diplomatic cypher) quoted Assistant Secretary Lu as follows: “I think if the no-confidence vote against the Prime Minister succeeds, all will be forgiven in Washington because the Russia visit is being looked at as a decision by the Prime Minister. Otherwise, I think it will be tough going ahead.” The very next day, members of the parliament took procedural steps to oust PM Khan.

On March 27, PM Khan brandished the cypher, and told his followers and the public that the U.S. was out to bring him down. On April 10, PM Khan was thrown out of office as the parliament acceded to the U.S. threat.

We know this in detail because of Ambassador Khan’s cypher, exposed by PM Khan and brilliantly documented by Ryan Grim of The Intercept, including the text of the cypher. Absurdly and tragically, PM Khan languishes in prison in part over espionage charges, linked to his revealing the cypher.

Keep reading

WEF: Climate Change Causes Pakistani Men to Beat up Their Wives

Apparently the problem is not that some Pakistani men are cowardly wife beaters, the problem is climate change.

How climate change affects youth mental health in Pakistan

Aug 8, 2024
Henna Hundal
Sikander Bizenjo
Manager, External Engagements, Engro

  • In 2024, Pakistan has faced devastating floods and extreme heat, hindering its recovery from existing climate crisis-related disasters.
  • While the economic and physical health impacts of climate change are clear, Pakistan’s population is also experiencing the often overlooked mental health ramifications.
  • How can a growing sense of climate anxiety or “eco-anxiety” in locals be addressed?

Pakistan is facing an onslaught of climate disasters. Since record floods in 2022 that affected 33 million residents and caused more than $15 billion in damages, the country has contended with several new crises that have hampered a sustained recovery.

In February 2024, flash floods further upended lives and livelihoods in the southwestern coastal region of Gwadar – the heart of a billion-dollar investment under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. The summer of 2024 has been marked by searing heat with thousands of Pakistanis succumbing to heatstroke and inundating healthcare facilities.

Keep reading

Pakistan Strikes Back At Iran, Targeting Militants Near Border

Pakistan has struck back at Iran with attacks on militant groups near the border between the two countries after Tehran targeted militant sites within Pakistan just two days prior. Pakistan said it used weapons including drones and loitering munitions to hit the Iran-based Baloch separatist militants, stoking fears of an escalating conflict between the two countries. It’s the first time another country has openly struck inside Iran since the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s.

The Iranian attacks on Pakistani territory were part of an unprecedented operation involving what Iranian officials described as “precision missile and drone strikes.” These were directed against two alleged strongholds of Jaish al Adl (JAA), a Sunni Islamist militant group that has previously mounted attacks in Iran, including against the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and police. Pakistani authorities said that Tuesday’s strikes hit civilians, killing two children.

Keep reading

U.S. HELPED PAKISTAN GET IMF BAILOUT WITH SECRET ARMS DEAL FOR UKRAINE, LEAKED DOCUMENTS REVEAL

SECRET PAKISTANI ARMS sales to the U.S. helped to facilitate a controversial bailout from the International Monetary Fund earlier this year, according to two sources with knowledge of the arrangement, with confirmation from internal Pakistani and American government documents. The arms sales were made for the purpose of supplying the Ukrainian military — marking Pakistani involvement in a conflict it had faced U.S. pressure to take sides on.

The revelation is a window into the kind of behind-the-scenes maneuvering between financial and political elites that rarely is exposed to the public, even as the public pays the price. Harsh structural policy reforms demanded by the IMF as terms for its recent bailout kicked off an ongoing round of protests in the country. Major strikes have taken place throughout Pakistan in recent weeks in response to the measures.

The protests are the latest chapter in a year-and-a-half-long political crisis roiling the country. In April 2022, the Pakistani military, with the encouragement of the U.S., helped organize a no-confidence vote to remove Prime Minister Imran Khan. Ahead of the ouster, State Department diplomats privately expressed anger to their Pakistani counterparts over what they called Pakistan’s “aggressively neutral” stance on the Ukraine war under Khan. They warned of dire consequences if Khan remained in power and promised “all would be forgiven” if he were removed.

Keep reading