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About 39,000 Pakistanis have been deported from the Kingdom in the past four months for violating the rules of residence and work, according to informed security sources. The sources also said the involvement of a number of Pakistani nationals in some terrorist actions orchestrated by Daesh, the so called IS, is a cause of public and societal worry. They said a number of Pakistanis were held in the crimes of drug trafficking, thefts, forgery and physical assault. Against this backdrop, Abdullah Al-Sadoun, chairman of the security committee of the Shoura Council, called for thoroughly scrutinizing the Pakistanis before they are...

Since the Citizenship Amendment Act has come into effect, there has been a sudden spike in the number of Afghan Muslims and Rohingya Muslims, who are illegal immigrants in India, wanting to convert to Christianity so as to become eligible for Indian citizenship. According to a report by The Economic Times, the central agencies, aware of this development, have apprised the government that almost 25 such cases of Afghan Muslims converting to Christianity has come to the fore. Adib Ahmed Maxwell, who heads an Afghan church in south Delhi, told ET: “Post CAA, there has been a spurt in the...

Pakistan’s foreign policy has been incoherent and inconsistent since its inception. It has suffered from a chasm between policy and strategy, xenophobic tendencies, domestic politics interfering negatively with the foreign policy process, and vice versa – including the unsettling influence of the military on civilian politics and the outsize impact of religious groups. Policy-makers, rather than focusing on the policy process and the outcomes, serially succumb to socio-religious pressures, intensifying policy volatility, and that volatility, read as vulnerability, opens Pakistan up to manipulation by stronger world powers. The result is that on the issues that Pakistan flags as central to...

Tens of thousands of Pakistanis protested on Sunday against the normalisation deal signed between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israel, Anadolu reported. Mass rallies were held across Pakistan, including the capital, Islamabad, the port city of Karachi, northeastern city of Lahore, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Quetta, Faisalabad, Multan and Hyderabad. The protests were organised by the Milli Yakjehti Council, a political-religious alliance which called on the Pakistani people to join the protests and denounce “the controversial deal between Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv”. In the city of Rawalpindi, thousands of citizens marched through the city streets led by Senator Sirajul...

Naseem was charged with denigrating the Koran and the Prophet Muhammad. Two years later, awaiting his bail hearing surrounded by police and lawyers, he was gunned down. Faisal Khan, a 15-year-old Pakistani, beams for selfies with lawyers and police. Thousands hail him in the streets as a “holy warrior.” His claim to adulation? Allegedly gunning down in open court an American accused of blasphemy, a capital crime in this Islamic republic. Khan is charged with murder, which also carries a death sentence. But while lawyers line up to defend him, the attorney for Tahir Naseem, the U.S. citizen, has gone...

In the wake of the normalization of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, there are rumors that several other states could be next to sign an agreement with Israel. While there are hurdles to normalizing relations with some states in the Middle East, there are others who view the UAE decision as a trial balloon and will react positively based on how the next weeks and months play out between Jerusalem and Abu Dhabi. What follows is a list of some countries that reports suggest may be in line to normalize relations. Bahrain Bahrain was long thought to...

the genuinely privileged class in America’s big cities consists of radical progressives, who flout mask requirements at mass demonstrations, deface public property with graffiti, and riot and destroy while being called “mostly peaceful demonstrators.” ... The two rioters grabbed national attention when they were arrested because of their elite and privileged backgrounds. ... Colinford Mattis.. embodies elite credentials via affirmative action, “plucked” in Miller’s word, from East New York and educated at elite St. Andrew’s prep, Princeton (where he was a member of two elite eating clubs), and NYU Law. Urooj Rahman, born in Pakistan and brought to the USA...

This June, a giant cross was discovered in the remote mountain areas of northern Pakistan, overlooking the river Indus, by a team of researchers from the University of Baltistan in Skardu. Carved out of marble stone, weighing three or four tonnes, and approximately seven feet in height, the cross is believed to be the largest one of its kind found in the Subcontinent. The discovery has generated global interest since it sheds new light on the religious history of the Subcontinent. While the precise era to which the cross belonged is yet to be ascertained through carbon dating, initial...

The Hindus performed the prayer rituals awkwardly in supplication to their new, single god, as they prepared to leave their many deities behind them. Their lips stumbled over Arabic phrases that, once recited, would seal their conversion to Islam. The last words uttered, the men and boys were then circumcised. Dozens of Hindu families converted in June in the Badin district of Sindh Province in southern Pakistan. Video clips of the ceremony went viral across the country, delighting hard-line Muslims and weighing on Pakistan’s dwindling Hindu minority. The mass ceremony was the latest in what is a growing number of...

Anger over the closing of the border because of coronavirus fears triggers demonstrations, and then artillery barrages.KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Some of the most intense border clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan in recent years left at least 15 civilians dead on the Afghan side on Thursday, officials said. Afghanistan accused Pakistani forces of firing heavy artillery into civilian areas after protests by communities on both sides who were demanding the reopening of a nearby border crossing that Pakistan had closed to try to limit the spread of the coronavirus. Hayatullah Hayat, the governor of Kandahar Province, where the clashes occurred, said...

It was not immediately clear how the assailant, identified as Khalid Khan, managed to get into the court amid tight security. The attacker was subsequently arrested. The man on trial, Tahir Shamim Ahmad, had claimed he was Islam's prophet and was arrested two years ago on blasphemy charges, according to Azmat Khan, the police officer. Ahmad died before he could be transported to hospital. A Punjab governor was killed by his own guard in 2011 after he defended a Christian woman, Asia Bibi, who was accused of blasphemy. She was acquitted after spending eight years on death row in a...

Many Indians thought former BBC journalist Humphrey Hawksley was being overly alarmist when he wrote the thriller Dragon Fire two decades ago about a war pitting China and Pakistan against India that ended apocalyptically with nuclear devastation. Hawksley, a veteran Asia hand, said his fiction was meant not just to entertain but also be a warning that China was expansionist and was a one-party state whose government had to prove itself to survive. Since then, though, we’ve seen China offering a different narrative in which global economic diplomacy was its choice weapon. The Chinese have been busy proving they’re responsible...

A recently discovered Buddha statue was smashed into pieces by local construction workers and a cleric on Saturday in Mardan. The relic was discovered while digging the foundation for a house. A video of the act, which has since gone viral on social media, showed the construction workers, along with a cleric, smashing the Buddha statue using a sledgehammer. According to international reports, the statue was destroyed allegedly on the order of a local cleric. "Your nikah would cease to exist and you will no more be a believer if the statue isn't disposed of," the cleric allegedly told the...

The 1967 Six-Day War by Mitchell Bard -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Israel consistently expressed a desire to negotiate with its neighbors. In an address to the UN General Assembly on October 10, 1960, Foreign Minister Golda Meir challenged Arab leaders to meet with Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion to negotiate a peace settlement. Nasser answered on October 15, saying that Israel was trying to deceive world opinion, and reiterating that his country would never recognize the Jewish State.(1) The Arabs were equally adamant in their refusal to negotiate a separate settlement for the refugees. As Nasser told the United Arab Republic National Assembly March...

Vietnam has suspended 27 Pakistani pilots working at local airlines after 262 of 860 civilian commercial pilots in Pakistan were found to have fake licenses. "All of the pilots are of Pakistani nationality and licensed in the country. These pilots are working at several airlines in Viet Nam," Dinh Viet Thang, Civil Aviation Administration of Viet Nam (CAAV), was quoted as saying by Vietnam News Agency. Minister of Transport of Vietnam Nguyen Van The has asked the CAAV to review the licenses and certificates of foreign pilots who are working at local airlines. The minister ordered ban of fight missions...

Pakistan said Saturday that it will re-open its western border with Iran from July 5 for trade. In a notification, the ministry of interior said it will re-open the border at four crossing points at Gabd, Mand, Katagar, and Chedgi and they will remain opened seven days a week from morning till evening. “Unlimited number of trucks will be allowed while ensuring all Covid-19 related SOPs and protocols,” read the notification. The ministry said the decision to re-open border crossings with Iran was taken on July 2 in the meeting of National Command Operation Center. Pakistan had first closed its...

Kuwait's Al-Jarida newspaper on Friday reported that Israel was responsible for a Thursday "accident" at an Iranian nuclear facility in Natanz. It is believed that the Natanz facility is used to enrich uranium. According to the Al-Jarida report, the explosion was caused by an "Israeli cyber attack" which targeted the computers which control the pressure gauges inside gas containers. Tehran has allegedly lost 80% of the uranium hexafluoride gas it needs in order to enrich uranium. The report also claimed that Israel is responsible for the Parchin blast which occurred last week. On Thursday, Iran's state news agency IRNA published...

At least five people have died after shots were fired at the Pakistan Stock Exchange in Karachi, according to rescue officials on Monday. Rescue and paramilitary security personnel are at the scene in an ongoing operation, Azeem said. Video shows security and barricades outside the stock exchange in Karachi, according to CNN affiliate Geo News. Abid Ali, director of the Pakistan Stock Exchange, said in a media briefing on Geo News that four attackers entered the compound and started firing but were killed by security forces. The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) group has claimed responsibility for the attack, according to...

Print Friendly and PDF 2 comments India Deploying Massive Force to Chinese Border Daniel G. J. by Daniel G. J. August 27th, 2013 Updated 08/27/2013 at 11:54 am Asia’s naval arms race is heating up again; India has joined Japan and China by launching an aircraft carrier to aid its mass of troops and weaponry along the border with China and Pakistan. india-military-china-borderChina and Japan have both launched carriers, and China has started work on its first large aircraft carrier. Now India has launched its own carrier, called the Vikrant. The Vikrant is the first aircraft carrier built in India,...

The Indian military is amassing more men and material as a precautionary deployment along the 3,488-km-long disputed border with China. The Indian military is amassing more men and material as a precautionary deployment along the 3,488-km-long disputed border with China. The deployment, perhaps one of the biggest in the recent years, comes at a time when India and China are locked in a hitherto unprecedented standoff – for eight weeks now – at multiple points along their border. Sources said that Indian Army has deployed three more divisions in eastern Ladakh region to bolster its position on the Line of...