Gilgit-Baltistan police on Wednesday announced the arrest of 12 members of the nationalist Balawaristan National Front (BNF) on charges of anti-state activities. GB’s Inspector General Police Zafar Iqbal Aiwan during a press briefing claimed the 12 arrested were trying to “promote an anti-national ideology” and had “played into the hands of foreign agencies”. “The BNF came into being in 1995. ...

KABUL: The Pakistani army chief of staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa called President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani following a series of deadly bombings in capital Kabul and other key provinces to condole the terrorist attacks that left scores of people dead or wounded. According to an official statement released by media wing of the Pakistani military “Chief of Army Staff (COAS) ...

KABUL: The US defense secretary-designate General James Mattis has said the Taliban group is still using the Pakistani soil for insurgency in Afghanistan and the sanctuaries of the group along with the associated militant networks in the country is a key operational issue faced by Afghan forces. At his confirmation hearing at the Senate Armed Forces Committee on Thursday afternoon, ...

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa civil society, students and political parties workers arranged demonstration to condemn the disappearance of teacher, writer, human right activist Salman Haider and three other bloggers across Pakistan. The demonstrations had placards and banners to that had slogans to recover the writers and human right activists. While addressing the gathering Awami National Party’s former MNA and central leader ...

The sanitised language — ‘missing persons’, ‘the disappeared’, etc — cannot hide an ugly truth: the state of Pakistan continues to be suspected of involvement in the disappearance and illegal detentions of a range of private citizens. Now, with the disappearance of Salman Haider and at least three other activists, a dark new chapter in the state’s murky, illegal war ...

AFP: At least four human rights activists known on social media for their leftist views have gone missing this week, relatives and NGO workers told AFP on Sunday, as analysts voiced rights concerns. Two of the men — Waqas Goraya and Asim Saeed — disappeared on January 4, according to a cybersecurity NGO, while Salman Haider vanished on Friday and Ahmed ...

ISLAMABAD: The military’s media wing on Sunday announced that “the military courts have ceased to function on expiry of mandated period”. The military courts were established through constitutional amendment following the attack on Army Public School in Peshawar. According to a statement issued by Inter-Services Public Relations, “special constitutional arrangements were made to effectively check the terrorists and terrorism”. “Routine ...

PESHAWAR: Speakers, at a study circle, have stressed the need for evolving a comprehensive Pakhtun cultural narrative to achieve national objectives. The discussion was conducted under the auspices of Bacha Khan Trust Educational Foundation at the University Town here on Saturday. The topic of the study circle was ‘basics of a successful national political movement’. Delegates from Afghanistan, Balochistan, Fata ...

The official spokesperson at the Turkish Embassy in Pakistan claimed Wednesday that Turkish police had recovered several Pakistani nationals abducted in Turkey. The arrests were made on information provided by Pakistani officials investigating the matter. Earlier, the Gujranwala police had also claimed it had arrested suspects thought to be involved in the abduction. The spokesperson said officials stationed at the ...

Over 150 people were arrested as religious parties attempted to hold a demonstration in favour of the blasphemy law in Punjab’s provincial capital Wednesday on the death anniversary of former Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer. Protesters belonging to the Sunni Tehreek, Tehreek-i-Khatme Nabuwat and Tehreek-i-Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah were among those who had planned to march from Kalma Chowk to Liberty ...