WASHINGTON: Pakistani Ambassador Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry on Wednesday had heated exchanges with ex-American diplomat Zalmay Khalilzad over the allegations of terrorist safe havens in his country. A Washington audience burst into laughter when Chaudhry claimed Taliban leader Mullah Omar was not in Pakistan, as Khalilzad challenged his assertion and said there was enough evidence to the contrary. Other panelist — ...

ISLAMABAD: A report compiled by a 13-member joint investigation team (JIT) investigating the lynching of Mashal Khan stated that a group in the university incited a mob against the Mardan university student on pretext of blasphemy. It added that no proof was found that Khan had committed blasphemy. In April, a vigilante mob, incited by rumours attacked Khan for allegedly ...

KABUL: More than 100,000 Afghans have been forced to leave their homes because of war in 2017, the United Nations (UN) reported on May 29. Data from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) showed that 103,229 people have been displaced since January 2017. The figure marked a 36 percent decrease compared to the same period in ...

Photo: Gettyimages BY RYSZARD CZARNECKI, VICE PRESIDENT, EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: Relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan have deteriorated sharply over the last few years, as also evident in the increase in exchange of fire between security forces of the two countries, along the Af-Pak border. The last such incident took place on May 7 at the Chaman border in Balochistan, when firing by ...

WASHINGTON: The much-anticipated Af-Pak policy of President Donald Trump is likely to be announced after the NATO summit in Brussels later this month when he would consult allies, the White House hinted on Friday. “The president has not made a decision yet on a course of action. What we have done, which is what we have done in many cases, ...

ICG says US should condition its military aid to force Pakistan to rethink its alleged support to Afghan insurgency. WASHINGTON: The United States should condition its military aid to Pakistan to force Islamabad to rethink its alleged support to the Afghan insurgency, says a report released by the International Crisis Group (ICG) on Sunday. The transnational think tank, which provides ...

INDIA: Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha), Subamanian Swarmy on Sunday has said that India should recognize Baluchistan as a separate country and must be taught a lesson to Pakistan by dividing it into Pashtunistan, Baluchistan and Sindhudesh. Delivering a lecture on “India and International terrorism” in India he said, India should pay in kinds by teaching ...

A border that was a product colonial jealousy and insecurity, the Durand Line divided what can be claimed as one of the world’s largest ethnic tribes, the Pashtuns, into two separate nation-states, Afghanistan and Pakistan, where they compete for political prominence today. In the late 1880s, the Amir of Afghanistan, Abdur Rahman, started demanding a clear demarcated border with the ...

ISLAMABAD: At least 15 kilogrammes of heroin were recovered from a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight on Tuesday at the Jinnah International Airport in Karachi, the national flag carrier reported on Tuesday. “PIA’s security department, with the assistance of Anti-Narcotics Force, has recovered approximately 15 kg of heroin from an aircraft which was at the hangar in Karachi undergoing [a] ...

BERLIN: More than 250 Turkish diplomats, government employees and their family members have filed for political asylum in Germany, Berlin said on Monday, amid a bitter row between the two Nato allies. Germany’s interior ministry said 151 of the asylum applications came from Turks holding diplomatic passports while the other 111 were from people with passports issued to other government ...