Free Republic

This is a movie about the history of India and the events that led up to the splitting off of Pakistan from India in 1947. In it, British Army Captain Scott is tasked to rescue a Hindu child-prince from a "Muslim uprising" and convey him to safety at the Governor's residence in Haserabad (it is not clear whether "Haserabad" is a real place, or a renamed version of "Hyderabad). They journey across the "North West Frontier," which is territory in what is now Pakistan, into India, which is more firmly controlled by the British. This journey takes place by means...

This week's feature is to honor the memory of the late Herbert Lom who passed away last week. An exciting 1959 adventure(a British "western" of sorts) set in imperial India about the attempts to protect a young prince from Mohemmadan terrorists(sound familiar)? As a Bible-believing Christian, I don't agree with the universalistic quip Kenneth More's character makes near the beginning but other than that, it's quite a good historical drama. Lom plays a character that Hollywood(or in this case, London) wouldn't have the guts to include today, i.e., an Islamic villain.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A massive suicide bomb hit northwest Pakistan killing 41 people Monday, as the military geared up for an assault on Taliban rebels blamed for increasingly bloody and brazen attacks. The bomber flung himself at a paramilitary convoy passing through a busy market in Shangla, a northwest district near Swat valley where the army claimed to have flushed out Taliban rebels after an offensive launched in April. But Islamist extremist groups appear far from quashed, with an audacious raid on army headquarters over the weekend leaving 22 people dead and underscoring the vulnerability of the nuclear-armed nation. The...

A senior Taliban commander who became a hero to Islamic militants for his role in shooting down a U.S. helicopter in 2005, killing all 16 special forces troops aboard, has been killed by Pakistani security forces, officials and Taliban militants tell CBS News. Mullah Ismail, a notorious Taliban commander from the Afghan province of Kunar, was killed in a shootout with Pakistani police as he traveled with a kidnapped trader, a local police officer said Wednesday. He was apparently on his way into the lawless Northwest Frontier Province along the Afghan border. Officer Mukarma Khan said Ismail, also known as...

NWFP Assembly condemns US SAID ALAM KHAN and MOHAMMAD ASHFAQ PESHAWAR - Through a unanimous resolution, the NWFP Assembly on Tuesday strongly condemned the statement of CIA Director Michael Hayden terming Pakistan’s tribal areas as direct threat to US, asked the federal government to take serious notice of the statement of US official. The resolution also added that all the matters should be resolved through holding meaningful talks. The ANP’s Mian Iftikhar Hussain moved the jointly drafted resolution for which the speaker relaxed the rules with the consent of the House. The PML-N Provincial Chief Pir Sabir Shah on a...

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - A suicide bombing at a funeral for a police officer killed at least 30 people and wounded 62 others Friday in northwestern Pakistan, a police official said. The attack occurred in a government high school in Mingora town while funeral prayers were being held for a police officer killed in a roadside bombing earlier in the day, said Deputy Inspector General of Police Syed Akhtar Ali Shah. Mingora, in Swat Valley, is 105 miles from Peshawar, a town at the border with Afghanistan. Pakistan's army was deployed in Swat earlier this year to quell an uprising led...

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Fed up with violence and economic hardship, voters in the deeply conservative northwest have thrown out the Islamist parties that ruled this province for five years — a clear sign that Pakistanis are rejecting religious extremism in a region where al-Qaida and the Taliban have sought refuge. Instead, voters in turbulent North West Frontier Province, which borders Afghanistan, gave their support to secular parties that promised to pave the streets, create jobs and bring peace through dialogue and economic incentives to the extremists. That may conflict with U.S. pressure to step up the fight against armed militants...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders Osama bin Laden and Mullah Mohammad Omar and their top commanders are hiding in Pakistan, posing a "huge challenge" to the security of the country and neighboring Afghanistan, a senior US administration official said Friday. "There is no question that the iconic leaders of Al-Qaeda -- (Ayman al-) Zawahiri, bin Laden ... are in the tribal areas of Pakistan," the official said at a media briefing. "We believe that the Taliban's shura (consultation) council leaders led by Mullah Omar reside in Quetta in Pakistan," he said, referring to the capital of rugged Baluchistan...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - An Al-Qaeda resurgence in Pakistan's tribal areas has raised deep concerns in the United States, which reportedly is pondering unilateral military strikes in a reflection of increasing impatience over Islamabad's counterterrorism strategy. US military chief Admiral Michael Mullen last week expressed "grave concern" over Al-Qaeda's use of the Pakistani tribal areas as safe havens, saying they posed a "significant" security threat to Afghanistan and Pakistan itself. Also from the vast tribal region in northwestern Pakistan, Osama bin laden's Al-Qaeda could be plotting and training a deadly attack on the United States, similar to the September 11, 2001...

Afghanistan: U.S. Tactical Change To Lead to Better Intelligence? Summary The commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan has hinted at new tactics the United States plans to employ in an effort to streamline operations. The crux of the change will be the deployment of platoon-sized elements into Afghan villages. This shift has the potential to significantly benefit U.S. forces and the indigenous population -- but it brings new dangers for U.S. troops with it. Analysis Lt. Gen. David Barno, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, on Feb. 18 mentioned a planned shift in U.S. military tactics. The key component will...

Pakistan's intelligence service, ISI, publicly allied with the United States in the fight against terrorism, is trying to broker an alliance between leaders of Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime and a fugitive warlord who is on the United States' most wanted list, a former Taliban official has said. Meeting in secret on Friday in the dust-clogged streets of Peshawar, he said Pakistan's intelligence service has been acting as a go-between with the remnants of the Afghan religious regime and supporters of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a key rebel leader who was based in Iran and is now sought by US forces. "Already the...