s defence minister, Khawaja Asif, told Reuters that the government would not hesitate to bomb militant hideouts or send forces into the tribal areas if the Taliban did not abide by the ceasefire announced last weekend. "It will not take months now. We'll have to march in the month of March," Asif said of Islamabad's response if insurgent attacks continued. "If there is a ceasefire, it has to be complete....
s political party has been accused of homophobia as he ran for student union president The nephew of Pakistani polititian Imran Khan has sparked controversy at his university, after he tweeted that a politician was "worse than a faggot". Hassan Niazi, who is studying for a master's in international human rights law at City University London, was a canditate for the position of student union president...
s victory over India in a cricket match. Police have been investigating the students after a complaint from university officials in the northern city of Meerut, in Uttar Pradesh, over celebrations following Pakistan's win in Sunday's Asia Cup clash. The students at Swami Vivekanand Subharti University (SVSU) have been suspended and were escorted from campus following the match due to concerns about...
Crew of HMAS Darwin find men clinging to wreckage after their boat was hit by an unknown vessel ...
s third-largest political party, which has repeatedly denied any involvement. A special anti-terrorism court sentenced Naveed Polka, Muhammad Ali Rizvi, Faisal Mahmood and Mohammad Shahrukh Khan to life in prison for the murder of Babar. Two others, Kamran (alias "Zeeshan") and Faisal Mota, who have not yet been arrested, were sentenced to death in absentia. Bob Dietz, the Asia programme coordinator...
At least 11 people were killed and 24 wounded in attack two days after Pakistani Taliban announced ceasefire Jon Boone ...
s negotiating team, Irfan Siddiqui, praised the ceasefire announcement while speaking on Pakistan's Geo Television, saying the government will review any written document from the Taliban about it. "Today, we are seeing a big breakthrough," Sadiqui said. In recent weeks, Pakistani jets and helicopters have been striking militant hideouts in the northwest, after previous efforts at negotiations broke...
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, which killed 11 officers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province Two bombs, detonated minutes apart, struck tribal police assigned to guard polio workers in north-west Pakistan on Saturday, killing 11, police said. The first struck an escort vehicle in the Lashora village of Jamrud tribal region in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Police official Nawabzada Khan...
s security forces in the murder and abduction of regional separatists Relatives campaigning against the illegal kidnapping and detention of family members by Pakistan's security forces completed an arduous 2,000km protest march from one of the country's most troubled provinces to Islamabad on Friday. The twenty-strong group started their "long march" in October from Quetta, the capital of Balochistan...
s editor, Kamal Siddiqi, sent an email to staff outlining the paper's new policy. Henceforth there would be "nothing against any militant organisationand its allies like the Jamaat-e-Islami, religious parties and the Tehrik-e-Insaf", the rightwing party led by Imran Khan, that strongly opposes military operations against the TTP. There would also be "nothing on condemning any terrorist attack", "nothing...
s authors call on governments and international tribunals to give greater protection to education, and say the UN, regional peacekeepers and all sides in conflicts should refrain from using schools or universities for military purposes. In 24 countries, researchers found that armed forces – both state and non-state – used school buildings as bases, weapons caches, prisons and even torture chambers,...
t want to talk about, but it's fact of our life." Public discussion about sex is taboo in Pakistan. Few institutions provide organised sex education, and in some places it has been banned. However, the teachers operating in Johi village, in poverty-stricken Sindh province, say most residents support the scheme. Lashari says most of the girls in the village used to reach puberty without realising they...
counter-productive' attacks A Pakistani tribesman whose son and brother were killed in a CIA drone strike urged British MPs on Tuesday to support his efforts to declare the attacks illegal and persuade the US to end them. Kareem Khan, close relatives were killed in 2009, told the Guardian that the UK was "equally liable" since it was a close intelligence partner of the US. He said he had come to London...
s clashes before paramilitary reinforcements were called in to control the situation. He said villagers suspected that seven people killed overnight on Monday were civilians rather than armed rebels, as rumours circulated about civilian hunters who had gone missing. On Monday, the army said it killed seven suspected rebels in Dardpora, a remote village 87 miles (140 kilometres) from the main city of...
s war against the state. The militants aim to enforce their harsh brand of Islamic sharia law. The Waziristan tribal region is home to a mix of local and foreign al-Qaida-linked militants. Insurgents fighting American and Nato troops across the border in Afghanistan also operate there. Pakistan's prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, has long favoured peace talks over military action to end the bloodshed in...
s ally Zalmay Rassoul paid tribute to the "bravery and sacrifices" of the police, army and intelligence services. Yesterday's attack began in the morning when dozens of militants, some of them foreigners, converged on an army checkpoint in the mountainous Kunar province, Afghan officials said. The insurgents outnumbered the government troops and were also possibly helped by a Taliban sympathiser inside...
s wellbeing and asked the president of Pakistan to intervene. Asghar was arrested in 2010 in Rawalpindi, near Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, for claiming to be the prophet Muhammad. His family says he suffers from mental illness and was treated for paranoid schizophrenia in Edinburgh before returning to Pakistan in 2010. He was convicted last month and his family immediately launched a campaign for...
Attacks said to have killed 15 comes after peace talks faltered and Taliban announced it had executed 23 Pakistani soldiers ...
Family releases statement following report of US attempts to secure release of last known American held captive by Taliban ...
s former president Pakistan's former military ruler Pervez Musharraf finally made a short and largely symbolic appearance at a high treason trial on Tuesday, almost two months after the start of hearings he has been desperate to avoid. A huge security operation involving 1,100 police and armed personnel was laid on for Musharraf's 20-minute drive from a military hospital where he has been receiving...