Free Republic

Pakistan’s Army needs to take a large chunk of the blame for ruining the country’s economy. Last year, former Army Chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa officially admitted that the military has been meddling in politics for decades. “In my opinion, the reason for this is the constant meddling by the army in politics for the last 70 years, which is unconstitutional,” he said, adding that the crumbling economic situation must be taken as a lesson and all stakeholders need to work together to safeguard the country’s interest. Last year in November General Asim Munir took charge as Pakistan’s new Army...

Will China come to the rescue of cash-starved Pakistan, which is inching closer to a default amid delay in revival of the $6.5 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF)? China has not made any statements over the deepening political crisis in the South Asian nation but concerns have risen. “China’s stakes in Pakistan are high. It also needs Pakistan to contain India but the moot question is whether Beijing will be willing to completely bailout Pakistan. That is a matter of debate,” an analyst told India Narrative. Global ratings agency Moody’s has already warned that Pakistan may default...

Day 163 of the Iranian national uprising for democracy was eventful in Iran's provinces. nationwide uprising entered its 163rd day on Saturday in different parts of the country against the mullahs' brutal dictatorship. The Iranian opposition MEK has published the names of 17 more martyrs of the February 25 nationwide uprising. So far, the names of 664 martyrs have been published. Mass demonstrations in BaluchistanOn Friday, February 24, the 162nd day of the nationwide uprising, the brave people of Zahedan held demonstrations after Friday prayers for the 21st week after the Zahedan Bloody Friday. The demonstrations took place despite the...

First, the data on what's happening in Iran. Start with the count:Days: 121 Protests: 282 citiesFatalities: 750+ estimated deaths, 627 identified by MEKDetentions: 30,000 Now here's the latest news:Iran’s nationwide uprising entered its fifth month following a day of major rallies and demonstrations against the mullahs’ regime in various cities of what's known as Sistan and Baluchistan province, especially the provincial capital of Zahedan. A large number of locals took to the streets on Friday in the Baluch cities of Zahedan, Rask, and Khash, chanting slogans specifically targeting regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), the paramilitary Basij...

(excerpt) "If someone does not accept the accusation, they torture him to accept it. Confessions under coercion and the beating of the accused have no place in sharia (Islamic law) and our country's Constitution," Molavi Abdolhamid Ismaeelzahi said in a Friday prayers sermon, according to his website. Ismaeelzahi is based in Zahedan, capital of the impoverished Sistan-Baluchistan province, home to Iran's Baluch minority. Authorities have reportedly pressured him by banning him from traveling abroad and restricting his travels and contacts within Iran.

The U.S. State Department on Tuesday walked back remarks questioning Pakistan’s ability to keep its nuclear weapons safe by leftist President Joe Biden, who went as far as to call the South Asian nation, a nominal ally of America’s, “one of the most dangerous nations in the world.” Biden made the offending comments at a Democrat Party event at a private home in California last week. Offering disorganized remarks commenting on nuclear weapons generally, Biden mentioned Pakistan amid boasting yet again that he has a close personal relationship with dictator Xi Jinping of China. “I’ve spent more time with Xi...

Iranian security forces have arrested 14 foreigners, including American, British and French citizens, for their involvement in anti-government protests, the semi-official Fars news agency said on Wednesday. -excerpt- "Citizens of 14 countries, including the United States, Russia, Austria, France, the United Kingdom, and Afghanistan, have been arrested in recent riots in Iran, of which Afghan nationals are the most numerous,"

Over the past ten years, China’s Communist Party (CCP) has strategically relied on its $4 trillion Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to boost its image and influence with at least 149 countries to date. But success has eluded its efforts, and the BRI strategy may be doomed as a result. Consider for example the CCP’s stalled attempts at pushing the BRI strategy across countries in Europe. Not anticipated were the barriers and delays created by sanctions imposed on Russia for the invasion of Ukraine. Before the sanctions, China used Russia as a convenient transit point for the shipment of BRI...

"China is our most important partner," says Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid on the prospect of Afghanistan becoming part of the New Silk Road initiative

Onion and tomato prices have skyrocketed after flash floods washed away large number of crops prompting the Pakistan government to allow imports from neighbouring countries to lower costs. In a shocking case of food wastage, protestors have been seen stopping vehicles carrying imported tomatoes coming from Iran in Kalat district of Balochistan, and destroying the produce on the streets. The bizarre reason as per social media is that the tomatoes are from a Shia country and so Sunni extremists will not allow it.

There were three pillars on which the Iranian regime was founded, following the 1979 revolution, hi-jacked by the elderly fanatical cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The first pillar was the system of velayat-e-faqih, or guardianship of the Islamic jurist, which laid the foundations for the first fundamentalist Islamic state and was written into the constitution. The second pillar was the complete transfer of all power and authority to the Supreme Leader and from him to the theocracy of ayatollahs and mullahs, who perversely claimed their authority came directly from God. The third and final pillar, carefully designed by Khomeini, was the...

As the situation turned chaotic in Islamabad after PTI Chairman Imran Khan and his convoy entered the federal capital and started marching towards the city's D-Chowk, the government decided to seek the help of the army to control the situation and protect the government's offices located in the Red Zone. The government, in a notification, said that the army was summoned to control the situation under article 245 of the Constitution. The decision comes after the protests staged by PTI workers took a violent turn as they clashed with law enforcement agencies (LEAs) in the federal capital and injured multiple...

Lethal suicide bomb attack on Chinese nationals claimed by Balochistan Liberation Army with threat of more to come.PESHAWAR – China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Pakistan is being targeted by an intensifying Balochistan insurgency that has so far claimed dozens of lives including three Chinese teachers last week in a daring suicide attack carried out by a female operative of the insurgent Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA).Shari Baloch, a 31-year-old teacher, mother of two and a post-graduate philosophy student, blew herself up in front of a van carrying Chinese teachers near the Confucius Institute in the southern seaport city of...

Baluchis in Pakistan are rebelling against colonization by Chinese. Starts around 8:00.

Iran is hosting a meeting of... the foreign ministers of Iran, China, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Russia holding talks in the Iranian capital Tehran on Afghanistan's political future and the formation of a new government...Iran's population is majority Shiite but Sunni minorities live predominantly in the areas near the border with Afghanistan. The Sunnis have long complained about discrimination by Iranian authorities.Due to dilapidated infrastructure and a lack of health and educational facilities, the areas near the Afghan border are the poorest and least developed in Iran...But Fatemeh Aman, an Iran expert at the Washington-based Middle East Institute (MEI),...

Islamabad apparently bought peace with the TLP. As in its frequent mobilisations over the last few years, the TLP has once again forced the Pakistani state onto the backfoot and enhanced its own political clout. A relatively new phenomenon, the TLP, was founded in 2015 by Khadim Hussain Rizvi, a firebrand cleric who died in November 2020. It now has a strong following among Pakistan’s Barelvi sect. At the heart of TLP’s ideology is the protection of the Prophet’s honour and a vigorous defence of Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws. In Pakistan, anyone deemed to have insulted Islam or the Prophet...

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...

Despite the constant accusations against Westerners of being “intolerant,” “racist,” and “Islamophobic,” everywhere Islam is found, Islamic supremacists are lording it over innocent people, oppressing them, murdering them, and seeking further conquest and further Islamization. This occurs even in majority-Muslim countries where Sharia is not fully implemented. For example, there is a drive to further Islamize Indonesia, and Sharia parties are constantly pressuring Pakistan to implement more of Islamic law. Then there are the people of Balochistan. These are Iranians spread across the southeastern edge of the Iranian plateau in Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. They are resisting Pakistani jihadists whose...

Militants wearing security force uniforms stopped two buses in southwest Pakistan on Thursday and killed 14 passengers after ordering them out of the vehicles, police said. Balochistan provincial police chief Mohsin Ali Butt told CNN that 15 to 20 attackers stopped the buses near the town of Ormara, in the south of the province. The militants ordered 14 out of the total passengers to disembark and shot them at close range before escaping. "This was an act of targeted killing," he said. An alliance of Baloch separatists, Baloch Raaji Aajoi Sangar (BRAS), claimed responsibility for the killings, saying in a...

Two police officers, three gunmen confirmed dead in attack claimed by the armed separatist group Baloch Liberation Army. Armed gunmen have killed two policemen as they stormed the Chinese consulate in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, security officials say, in a raid claimed by ethnic Baloch separatists. Security forces killed all three attackers and secured the building shortly after the raid was launched on Friday morning, Pakistan's military said in a statement. No Chinese citizens or Pakistani civilians were killed, security officials said. "All of our Chinese friends and officials who work at the consulate, 21 in total, all...