Étiqueté : Pakistan

No prisoner swap for bin Encumbered hunt physician, says Pakistan 0

No prisoner swap for bin Encumbered hunt physician, says Pakistan

Islamabad, Pakistan – Pakistan’s foreign ministry has ruled out the possibility of a « prisoner swap » with the United States for Shakil Afridi, a Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA track down al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to a compound in the north of the country. The denial came in response to Pakistani media reports that Afridi was either…

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Bombs, blood and brotherhood: Defusing IEDs in Pakistan

Every time the phone rings, it’s bad news. An improvised explosive device (IED) has been found, or worse, it has already gone off.  The crackled message is relayed on walkie-talkies across Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province (KPK) and the men of the KPK Bomb Disposal Unit (BDU) spring into action. Braving booby-trapped devices and targeted…

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Manzoor Pashteen: The sigh of Pashtuns for a range of in Pakistan

Manzoor Ahmed Pashteen is usually seen wearing a red and black patterned hat. The story goes that he received the hat from a low paid labourer in his hometown of Sarwakai district, in Pakistan’s northwestern South Waziristan region. The 26-year-old then gave the worker his brand new hat and took the worn red and black…

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Kashmir’s chief minister urges dialogue with Pakistan

Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir – Chief minister of Indian-administered Kashmir, Mehbooba Mufti, has urged dialogue with Pakistan after a spate of deadly attacks on army installations in recent months.  Mufti, who runs the regional government in alliance with the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), recently said that there was no other option to stop the « bloodshed » in the Himalayan…

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Kasur rapist-murderer sentenced to death in Pakistan

A Pakistani serial killer convicted of rape and murder of a seven-year-old girl Zainab Ansari has been sentenced to death, prosecutors say. The trial was held in the eastern city Lahore by the country’s special anti-terrorism court on Saturday in the presence of the killer, Mohammad Imran Ali. Zainab was found dead in a rubbish dump…

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Lower-off date looms for Afghan refugees in Pakistan

Islamabad, Pakistan – A deadline on the validity of legal refugee status for many Afghan residents in Pakistan is due to expire, throwing into doubt the futures of more than a million refugees, many of whom have lived in the country for decades. The deadline is due to expire on Wednesday, with Pakistan’s federal cabinet…

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Social media crackdown stifles dissent in Pakistan

Islamabad, Pakistan – When Zafar Achakzai, a journalist in the restive Pakistani province of Balochistan, heard a loud, insistent knocking on his door just before sunrise on June 25, he did not quite know what to expect. When he answered, he was met by about a dozen armed men, some in Pakistani paramilitary uniforms. « They…