KABUL: At least 23 people were killed and more than a dozen wounded in multiple suicide bombings and attacks in Afghanistan on Saturday, officials said, the latest in a series of assaults in the war-torn country. In the biggest attack, Taliban militants stormed an army base in the western province of Farah overnight, killing at least 18 soldiers. “Last night, ...

Protests in Pakistan’s tribal areas signal the rise of a younger, more educated, and technologically savvy generation. The protests, mostly by youth, in northwestern Pakistan since early February are a clear and visible indication of decades-old resentment among locals against a system based on repression, injustice, suppression of free speech, and widespread corruption in the country’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas ...

A heart that cries for Kashmir, will cry for Burhan Wani but not for Naqeeb or Mashaal. If the British drawn borders could be challenged by the Bangladesh, why not the Pashtuns in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, FATA, and Baluchistan. Pashtuns, when asked in urban cities of Pakistan reply raises eyebrows. So you are from FATA? Baluchistan? KPK? First and foremost where ...

KABUL: The Taliban on Friday announced stout support for the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline project, hailing it as a landmark scheme for the country’s economic prosperity. Construction work on the Afghan section of the multibillion dollars natural gas pipeline — linking energy-rich Turkmenistan to Pakistan and India — got under way in Western Herat province today. President Ashraf Ghani, his Turkmen counterpart Kurbanguly ...

A global money-laundering watchdog has decided to place Pakistan back on its terrorist financing watchlist, a government official and a diplomat said on Friday, in a likely blow to Pakistan’s economy and its strained relations with the United States. The move is part of a broader U.S. strategy to pressure Pakistan to cut alleged links to Islamist militants unleashing chaos ...

PESHAWAR: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi will arrive in western Herat province tomorrow (Friday) to attend the groundbreaking ceremonies for the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan–Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project. Abbasi will also hold a bilateral meeting with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani after the groundbreaking ceremony in Herat City, a spokesman for Abbasi said on Thursday. Invited by the presidents of Turkmenistan and Afghanistan, ...

WASHINGTON: Pakistan will collapse like the erstwhile Soviet Union if it does not quit a “losing arms race”, and, must also seriously consider casting aside its dependence on the armed forces, especially the army, to be regarded as a great nation, said a former envoy. Interacting with students and academia at the Florida State University (FSU) recently, Pakistan’s former Ambassador ...

PESHAWAR: Pakistan and Russia will hold high-level talks in Moscow this week on a negotiated political settlement in Afghanistan, an Islamabad-based newspaper reported on Monday. Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif will pay a working visit to Moscow at the invitation of his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on February 20, according to Daily Times. Russian Foreign Ministry official Maria Zakharovawas quoted as saying: “We maintain ...

SWAT-PASHTUNKHWA: Hundreds of Pashtun masses in Swat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa staged a big demonstration in Khwazakhela against the security forces of Pakistan, calling on Islamabad to quit its military installations and to put an end to the ongoing brutalities, inhuman treatment with residents on military check-posts and also to the human rights violations by the security forces in the ...

KABUL: A top Pakistani politician said that fetching the Taliban militant group to the table of talks is impossible, rejecting the Taliban’s offer for direct talks with the United States as unjustifiable. In an interview published on Sunday, Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) Chairman, Aftab Sherpao believed bringing the Taliban insurgents to peace talks was impossible. In an interview with The ...