Free Republic

On Sunday afternoon, protesters in Islamabad pressed shoulder to shoulder, most of them dressed in black, and chanted slogans that rippled through the crowd. “Death to America, death to Israel,” they shouted in unison. Among them was also Kazim Hussain, who clutched a portrait of Ayatollah Khamenei. The student, also an activist affiliated with Shia group Imamia Students Organisation (ISO), believes that the crisis unfolding in Iran was not a distant geopolitical conflict playing out beyond Pakistan’s western border. For him, it is deeply personal and emotionally moving.“This is not just an attack on Iran. It concerns all Shia Muslims,”...

Cross-border clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan continued on Tuesday, with intermittent fighting reported along the frontier as Pakistani forces expanded aerial and ground operations under Operation Ghazab lil-Haq. Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said 464 Afghan Taliban personnel had been killed, over 665 injured, and 188 checkposts destroyed as of late afternoon, with multiple military installations targeted across Afghanistan. Amid escalating violence, including strikes on Bagram and Khugyani bases and border skirmishes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, the United Nations urged both sides to halt hostilities and warned of the growing risk to civilians and worsening humanitarian conditions in the border...

In today’s world, there are 193 countries in the UN. The large majority of those countries will vote consistently against the United States on measures that come before the General Assembly. Then again, the international system that counts is not the UN, but rather the U.S.-led commercial and legal order of alliances and trade. Almost all of the 193 UN member countries participate willingly in that system, to their great benefit. They may oppose the U.S. on many issues, and they may have disputes with their immediate neighbors, but they don’t make themselves constant troublemakers threatening to disrupt world peace...

You may remember former Councilman Shakir Khan from his inspiring life story. When Shakir Khan immigrated to Lodi from Pakistan 23 years ago, he spoke no English. He and his family moved into a one-bedroom apartment on Lodi’s eastside. His father stayed behind to tend the family farm before traveling to America several years later. Khan began school at Washington Elementary on Lockeford Street, but he says he was bullied there by other kids because he didn’t speak English. As a young man growing up in Lodi, Khan says he became concerned that the local Pakistani community, mostly located on...

Estimates suggest that at least 370-400 people have safely sought refuge in Azerbaijan after crossing the Astara border checkpoint. Some 100 of those were Azerbaijani nationals with the rest being expats from 19 different countries. The Astara Border Crossing between Iran and Azerbaijan has seen increased traffic over the last few days by foreign nations, as many continue to seek an exit from Tehran amid continued US and Israeli attacks. The increased crossing traffic comes after the Azerbaijani government announced on Saturday that it would open the crossing to enable its nationals trapped in Iran to safely evacuate, as well...

...November 20, 1979, and Islam's holiest site... had been taken over by more than 200 armed militants. The weeks-long siege of the Grand Mosque, led by Juhayman, an anti-monarchy Islamist, would see gunbattle inside the mosque and in the holy city...Masjid al-Haram's armed seige came to become a watershed moment for the Muslim world. It turned Saudi Arabia into a hardcore Sunni nation, creating a huge rift with post-revolution Iran. The Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979, the same year as the seige of Mecca, turned a moderate Iran into a radical Shia country.The creation of two radical power centres...

“Islamabad, Pakistan – Protests erupted across Pakistan on Sunday, with 20 people dead and dozens wounded nationwide, after the United States and Israel confirmed the killing of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in coordinated air strikes on Tehran. The deaths included 10 people in Karachi, at least eight in Skardu and two in the capital, Islamabad, as demonstrations largely led by members of Pakistan’s Shia Muslim community escalated and security forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters.”

At least nine people were killed, and dozens were injured on Sunday when Shiite protesters stormed the US consulate and clashed with Security forces in Karachi, Pakistan. This came in response to the joint US-Israel operation in Iran, which killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday. Video from the scene shows protesters storming into the Consulate. Security forces were seen moving in on the protesters and deploying nonlethal munitions. Per Fox: Hundreds of protesters stormed the diplomatic compound in a sharp escalation of anti-American demonstrations. The unrest followed reports that Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in...

At least nine people are dead and more than two dozen injured after violent clashes outside the U.S. Consulate in Karachi, Pakistan. Hundreds of protesters stormed the diplomatic compound in a sharp escalation of anti-American demonstrations. The unrest followed reports that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in a joint U.S.-Israeli strike, sparking anger among Shiite Muslims in Pakistan. Witnesses told The Associated Press that many of the protesters were Shiite Muslims who expressed outrage over Khamenei’s reported death and alleged U.S. involvement. Protesters chanted anti-American and anti-Israel slogans, and attempted to breach the consulate’s perimeter. Security forces...

Residents of Kabul's District 6 were awakened abruptly on Thursday night by the sound of an explosion that shook their homes. They rushed out in the street and heard jets flying overhead. It was a night that saw a serious escalation in violence between Afghanistan and Pakistan, with Pakistan launching airstrikes in Afghanistan - including its capital city, Kabul. Other places struck were in Paktia and Kandahar provinces, the latter a stronghold and the birthplace of the Taliban movement. Hostilities between the two sides have been ongoing for months, yet the answer to who started the aggression depends on who...

The ongoing tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan have boiled over into what looks like a full-fledged war. Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif, in a carefully crafted statement, took the Taliban to task for violating "the rights that Islam grants women" (can we guffaw at this point?); he reminded the Taliban that the Pakistani Army will not go away; and, in a final dramatic flourish, decalred that "open war” existed between the two countries.In a clearly worded post on X, Pakistan's Defense Minister Khawaja Asif has made the following statement:After NATO forces withdrew, it was expected that peace would prevail...

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Friday condemned Israel’s recent actions in the occupied West Bank of converting the territory’s areas into “state property”, highlighting that the country’s “expansionist mindset” held no regard for international law. The minister made the statement while addressing a meeting of the executive committee of the Organisation of Islamic Council (OIC) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The meeting was taking place against the backdrop of the Israeli government approving a proposal to register large areas of the occupied West Bank as “state property” for the first time since the occupation of the territory...

Pakistan carried out airstrikes on Afghanistan’s two largest cities on Friday, including the capital, Kabul, according to officials from both nations, escalating months of tension and border skirmishes into an open conflict. Beyond Kabul, home to six million people, the strikes hit the southern city of Kandahar — where the Taliban’s supreme leader, Sheikh Haibatullah Akhundzada, lives — and the border province of Paktia, according to Zabiullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban government. Pakistan launched the strikes hours after Afghan troops had attacked Pakistani border positions, according to Afghan and Pakistani officials. The Afghan attacks were described as retaliation...

Canada's woke, female , DEI Minister of Defence announces the hiring of foreign nationals into the Canadian Military for the purpose of attacking and destroying provincial oil infrastructure , and the waging of war against its own citizens, especially in Alberta and Saskatchewan. This is a chilling move disguised from the public by military recruitment code numbers.Stirling Thomas does an incredibly accurate reveal as to where the tyrannical liberal elites are prepared to take Canada in order to preserve their protective tariff economy from being an open market, as well as preparations to have foreign military willing to wage war...

In yet another reckless move by the far-left Liberal government, Canada is now throwing open the doors of its military to foreign nationals, offering them a fast-track path to permanent residency.Under Prime Minister Mark Carney’s regime, skilled immigrants from around the world can now snag jobs in the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) as doctors, nurses, or even pilots, and get expedited immigration status in return.

President Donald Trump announced Sunday that member states of his newly-formed Board of Peace have pledged more than $5 billion toward humanitarian and reconstruction efforts in Gaza. Trump said the commitment will be formally unveiled on Thursday, February 19, at the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C. In addition to financial pledges, Trump said participating nations have committed thousands of personnel to both an International Stabilization Force and to local police units to maintain security and peace for Gazans. “On February 19th, 2026, I will again be joined by Board of Peace Members at the Donald J....

Two Pakistani nationals were indicted on Thursday for their roles in defrauding Medicare in a scheme conducted in Chicago, Illinois. The duo allegedly regularly billed “Medicare and private insurers” in excess of $10 million for “nonexistent healthcare services,” according to the Department of Justice. Kashif Iqbal and Burhan Mirza, and several other unnamed participants, “used nominee-owned laboratories and durable medical equipment providers to submit fraudulent claims to Medicare and private healthcare benefit programs for items and services not rendered. Mirza illegally obtained private identification information of individuals and providers as part of the fraud. He then used this data to...

MP Rupert Lowe, who launched an independent inquiry into the mass child rape that occurred throughout England at the hands of clans of mostly Pakistani Muslim men, has called on the government to launch an investigation into cases of missing girls in grooming areas to determine whether they may have been trafficked to Pakistan as sex slaves. “I believe there are currently countless British women being used as sex slaves overseas. This may sound insane. It is not. Look at these gangs. Nobody would have believed the extent of the evil before it was uncovered. This is very real,” the...

After injuries and fatalities caused by sharp strings, falls and celebratory gunfire, an event that dates back centuries returns. In the streets of Lahore there are hints that the kite flying festival, Basant, has returned. Someone is fishing a kite from electricity cables, the distant sound of a drum beat, a flash of neon when you look up in the walled city's narrow streets to a stretch of sky. This party is above. As the sun sets across the city, on every rooftop we can see families and friends, laughing, shouting, watching as kites zig zag, circle, and soar through...

Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey have prepared a draft defence agreement after nearly a year of talks, Pakistan's Minister for Defence Production said, a signal they could be seeking a bulwark against a flare-up of regional violence in the last two years. Raza Hayat Harraj told Reuters on Wednesday the potential deal between the three regional powers was separate from a bilateral Saudi-Pakistani accord announced last year. A final consensus between the three states is needed to complete the deal, he said.