Free Republic

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...

The brother of Afghan Taliban leader Haibatullah Akhunzada has been killed in a powerful bomb blast at a mosque in southwestern Pakistan, Taliban sources have confirmed. A senior Taliban source said that Hafiz Ahmadullah was the imam of the Khair Ul Madarais mosque in the town of Kuchlak, on the outskirts of Quetta, that came under attack during Friday prayers. At least four people were killed in the bomb explosion, according to police. "It is true that the brother of Akhunzada, Hafiz Ahmadullah, has been killed in the explosion," the source told Al Jazeera, adding that two of Haibatullah's nephews...

(QUETTA, Pakistan) — Two suicide bombers attacked a church in the Pakistani city of Quetta on Sunday, killing eight people and wounding 42 others, officials said. The Islamic State group later claimed responsibility for the attack. Sarfaraz Bugti, home minister for the southwestern Baluchistan province, said hundreds of worshippers were attending services at the church ahead of Christmas. He said the attackers clashed with security forces, with one assailant killed at the entrance while the other made it inside. [snip]

The Islamic State terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement by its Amaq news agency. It was one of the group’s deadliest attacks against religious minorities in Pakistan this year, following a blast at a Sufi shrine in February that killed more than 70 people. Initial reports suggested that two assailants had approached the church before the attack. Officials said security personnel shot one to death while another reached the gate of the main hall. Authorities said they were searching for two other suspects believed to be accomplices. Rescue teams reached the church to evacuate the dead...

The attack began at about 11:30 p.m. local time on Monday when at least 4 and as many as 6 armed men stormed the training center, opened fire, and proceeded to the hostel. Between 500 and 700 recruits are undergoing training at the facility.

Pakistan said the United States drone strike that reportedly killed a Taliban leader violated its sovereignty, The Guardian reported . Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed in an airstrike on Saturday in Pakistan, CNN confirmed , according to sources within al Qaeda and the Taliban. U.S. officials said the drone strike was authorized by President Obama. But Pakistan said Sunday the U.S. government didn't tell Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of its plans ahead of the strike. “This is a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty,” Sharif told reporters in London, according to The Guardian. The Guardian reported that the American government...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States carried out a drone strike on Saturday against the leader of Afghan Taliban, likely killing him on the Pakistan side of the remote border region with Afghanistan in a mission authorized by U.S. President Barack Obama, officials said.

Senior Afghan Taliban sources on Sunday confirmed the death of their chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour in a US drone strike in Pakistan, adding a shura or council is underway to decide his successor. “I can say with good authority that Mullah Mansour is no more,” a senior Taliban source told AFP. Mansour’s death was confirmed by two other senior figures, who said the group’s top leaders were gathering in Quetta to name their future chief. Earlier, Reuters quoted a US official as saying that Mansour was “likely killed” along with another combatant.

Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour has been wounded in a gunfight at a meeting of militants in the Pakistani city of Quetta, reports say.

A suicide bombing at a funeral for a policeman in south-western Pakistan has killed at least 28 people including a senior police officer, police say. They say that the blast in Quetta, capital of Balochistan, also wounded at least 50 people. Quetta police chief Mir Zubair Mehmood told the AP news agency that the bomber detonated his explosives just before the funeral service was about to start. No-one has claimed responsibility for the attack. However suspicion is likely to fall on the Taliban who have in the past carried out numerous suicide bombings in Balochistan.

ISLAMABAD — At least 24 people were killed when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives during a funeral service for a police official in southwestern Pakistan on Thursday, officials said.

A group behind assaults on Shiites in Pakistan has claimed responsibility for tandem attacks on a university bus and a hospital that killed at least 24. The Sunni extremist outfit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi announced on Sunday that it had sent a female suicide bomber to strike the bus in Quetta, capital of the restive Balochistan province, killing 14 students from a women's university near a Shiite neighborhood on Saturday. About 90 minutes later, a follow-up attack on the hospital treating survivors left at least 11 dead and led to a prolonged gun battle between security forces and militants occupying part of the...

SNIPPET: "Muslim convert Richard Dart declared “judging is only for Allah” and refused to stand in the dock as he was jailed for six years for terrorism yesterday." SNIPPET: "Mr Justice Simon said the three held “radical Islamist beliefs” and showed they were “committed to acts of terrorism”. Dart, 30, of Ealing, west London, was jailed for six years; Mahmood, 22, from Northolt, west London for nine years and nine months, and Alom, 26, of Stratford, east London, for four years and six months." SNIPPET: "Dart and Alom travelled to Pakistan to try to get terrorist training, and took advice...

The beheaded body of a kidnapped British doctor working for the International Committee of the Red Cross was found by the roadside on Sunday in the southwestern Pakistan city of Quetta, police and Red Cross officials said. Khalil Rasjed Dale, 60, was abducted by suspected militants on Jan 5 while on his way home from work. "The ICRC condemns in the strongest possible terms this barbaric act," ICRC Director-General Yves Daccord said in a statement. "All of us at the ICRC and at the British Red Cross share the grief and outrage of Khalil's family and friends." British Foreign Secretary...

A senior Al Qaeda leader who has been linked to the planning of attacks on Australia has been arrested in Pakistan. Younis al-Mauritania was caught in the suburbs of the south-western city of Quetta, the military said in a statement. Two other senior operatives in the Al Qaeda terrorist group were also captured and arrested by Pakistan's main intelligence service. Mauritania was responsible for conducting international operations, and had been ordered by Osama bin Laden to hit Australian, American and European economic interests, the statement said. Cooperation between the CIA and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency led to the arrests by...

SNIPPET: "QUETTA, Pakistan — Six people were injured on Saturday when a tricycle bomb exploded in southwestern Pakistan, a region troubled by Islamic insurgents and separatist unrest, officials said. The remote-controlled bomb exploded when a police van passed by in Quetta city's Saryab neighbourhood, police said."

"Internationalizing the Jihadist Threat from Pakistan-Afghanistan" "American terror arrests show reach of al Qaeda-affiliated jihadi groups along Pakistan-Afghanistan border" IPT News January 25, 2010 SNIPPET: "Much of the Afghan Taliban leadership is in the Pakistani city of Quetta, which borders southern Afghanistan. Supreme leader Mullah Muhammad Omar reportedly conducts Taliban operations in Quetta and raises money from wealthy Persian Gulf states to supply guns and fighters for the insurgency in southern Afghanistan." SNIPPET: "Al Qaeda's alliance with terrorist groups in Pakistan and the lawless tribal region bordering Afghanistan has bolstered its ability to plan international attacks directed at the United...

Senior US officials are pushing to expand CIA drone strikes beyond Pakistan's tribal region and into a major city in an attempt to pressure the Pakistani government to pursue Taliban leaders based in the city of Quetta, The Los Angeles Times reported late Sunday. The newspaper said the prospect of Predator aircraft strikes in Quetta signals a new US resolve to decapitate the Taliban. But it also risks rupturing Washington's relationship with Islamabad. The concern has created tension among officials in the administration of President Barack Obama over whether unmanned aircraft strikes in a city of 850,000 are a realistic...

Note: The following text is a quote: LAHORE: Twenty-five explosive-laden vehicles have reportedly entered various major cities of the country, as the intelligence services launched search operations across all four provinces, a private TV channel reported on Monday. According to the channel, the vehicles could target sensitive government installments and other important buildings. The channel cited a notification issued by the Interior Ministry stating that suicide bombers along with the vehicles had entered Peshawar, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Quetta and Karachi. The ministry ordered provincial authorities to immediately conduct search operations and impound the vehicles before any terrorist incident took place....