ISLAMABAD: The Taliban has vowed a nationwide campaign of terrorism targeting candidates and voters in Saturday’s general election in Pakistan. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Pakistan
Pakistan: We don’t need no stinking democracy!
Pakistan: Taliban terrorists kidnap ex-PM’s son
GUNMEN last night kidnapped a son of a former Pakistani prime minister canvassing for votes on the final day of campaigning for landmark elections, which have been marred by bloody attacks. Continue reading
Pakistan: Three killed in bombing
THREE people have been killed and 35 others wounded in twin bomb blasts near a local party office in the southern city of Karachi, police say, ahead of next week’s historic elections. Continue reading
Pakistan: Bomb near mosque wounds 13
A BOMB attached to a bicycle has injured at least 13 passers-by near a Shi’ite Muslim mosque in Pakistan’s southwestern city of Quetta, police say. Continue reading
Pakistan: Bomb kills four soldiers
A ROADSIDE bomb targeting a military convoy has killed four Pakistani soldiers and wounded four more near the Afghan border.
Sunday’s blast was triggered by remote control in Mirali in North Waziristan tribal district, a notorious hub of Taliban- and al-Qaeda-linked militants.
Pakistan: Roadside bomb kills 8
A roadside bomb explosion killed eight people and injured 10 more Saturday in the Pakistani town of Mattani, said Imran Shahid, a senior police official in Peshawar.
Pakistan: ‘Systematic genocide’ of Shi’ite Muslims
Facing what they have described as a ”systematic genocide” in Pakistan, more and more [Shi'ite Moslem] Hazaras are trying to leave by any means possible. Continue reading
Pakistan: Suicide attack kills at least six
A suicide attack on a convoy carrying a senior police commander in the north-western Pakistani city of Peshawar has killed at least six people, police say. Continue reading
Pakistan: Female teacher killed by Taliban
Shahnaz Bibi was shot dead on Tuesday by two motorbike riders as she disembarked from a passenger van near the school where she taught in the Khyber tribal region.
Saudi Arabia: Crucifixion AFTER death?
Well, it hurts less that way. Continue reading
Pakistan: Daily life under Islam — Part 6: Burning suburbs
An enraged mob torched dozens of houses located in a Christian-dominated neighbourhood of Lahore on Saturday, DawnNews reported. Continue reading
Global: If it helps people, we’re against it!
Efforts like the one being led by Bill Gates and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg have reduced the number of children paralyzed by the polio virus from 350,000 in 1998 to fewer than 225 cases in 2012. Continue reading
Pakistan: Daily life under Islam — Part 3
At least 45 people have been killed by a bomb explosion in the Pakistani city of Karachi, police say. Continue reading
India: Another bombing, 12 dead
Hyderabad, the venue for Australia’s second Test against India starting next week, has been hit by bombings that killed at least a dozen people and left more than 50 injured.
At least two separate blasts occurred in a crowded area outside a movie theatre and a bus station in the southern city’s suburb of Dilsukh Nagar, police said at the scene. Indian television reported that other cities had subsequently been placed on “high alert”. It was the first major bombing in India since September 2011.
Islam? We don’t know yet. But what are the odds?
Pakistan: Business as usual…
A bomb blast targeting Shi’ite Muslims in south-western Pakistan has killed at least 64 people and wounded 180. Continue reading
Pakistan: Suicide bomber kills 24 at mosque
A SUICIDE bomber has targeted a Shi’ite Muslim mosque in northwest Pakistan, killing 24 people and wounding up to 55 as worshippers poured out of weekly prayers, officials say. Continue reading
Pakistan: 10 years jail for blasphemy
After a trial spread over 14 months and conducted in an uneasy environment, Additional District and Sessions Judge Raja Pervez Akhtar jailed a blasphemy accused for 10 years and imposed a fine of Rs200,000 on Tuesday evening.
The verdict left the lawyers of both groups baffled and they now intend to go to the Lahore High Court — one would file an appeal for getting the sentence quashed while the other would file a review petition.
Convict Ghulam Ali Asghar, a resident of Chinji village in Talagang tehsil, was booked on Nov 17, 2011, on a charge of blaspheming the Holy Prophet (PBUH) by misquoting a Hadith in Punjabi language.
Judge Raja Pervez Akhtar acquitted Ghulam Ali Asghar of the allegation levelled under 295-C (the section which forbids blaspheming the Holy Prophet [PBHU]), but imprisoned him for ten years under 295-A (which forbids outraging religious feelings) and also imposed a fine of Rs200,000. The convict will have to undergo an additional jail term of six months if he does not pay the fine.
This would be a cruel and unusual punishment, if it was unusual.
Pakistan: While I was playing billiards…
Religious maniacs were killing people.
A SERIES of bombings has killed 115 people across Pakistan, including 81 who died in twin blasts on a bustling billiards hall in a Shiite area of the southwestern city of Quetta.
Pakistan’s minority Shiite Muslims have increasingly been targeted by radical Sunnis who consider them heretics, and a militant Sunni group claimed responsibility for today’s deadliest attack – sending a suicide bomber into the packed pool hall and then detonating a car bomb five minutes later.
It was one of the deadliest days in recent years for a country that is no stranger to violence from radical Islamists, militant separatists and criminal gangs.
What’s new?
Pakistan: Six Islamic militants killed by US drone
US drone strikes have killed a Pakistani warlord who sent men to fight NATO troops in Afghanistan.
Mullah Nazir was the main militant commander in South Waziristan, part of Pakistan’s tribal belt where the Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked militants have bases.
Pakistani officials said on Thursday he was killed when a US drone fired two missiles at his vehicle in the Sar Kanda area of Birmil in South Waziristan. Five of his loyalists, including two senior deputies, were also killed.
Pakistan: more health workers killed
Because God wants children to die of polio.
Gunmen ambushed a van in north-west Pakistan on Tuesday and shot dead seven aid workers – five of them women teachers – in an attack likely to rekindle fears of militant assaults on the nation’s education and health services.
The aid workers, members of a Pakistani non-governmental organisation called Support With Working Solutions, were in a van leaving a community centre near the north-western city of Swabi when two gunmen on motorcycles forced the vehicle to stop, the police said.
Pakistan: Mob kills man for ‘blasphemy’
Police in Pakistan say a man has been beaten to death by a mob for apparently desecrating Islam’s holy book, the Quran.
The crowd of hundreds of villagers set the body of the man, believed to be mentally unstable, on fire after killing him on Friday in Dadu district of Sindh province, police said on Saturday.
About 200 people reportedly stormed the police station where the man was being held and attacked him. His body was later set on fire.
This sounds very similar to an earlier story, which makes me wonder: is this now becoming a way to get rid of unwanted relatives?
Pakistan: Islamic militants kill polio vaccination workers
Gunmen have shot dead six health workers in Pakistan at the start of a polio vaccination drive, in a spree of apparently co-ordinated attacks on the nationwide medical campaign.
via SMH
Because… Because… You know, I can’t be bothered thinking up any kind of even remotely plausible reasoning behind this outrage.
Because God, right?
Update: Three more killings.
Pakistan: Running short of goats?
This small but healthy herd of free-range children will bring top price at the livestock market
Don’t worry — you can pay your debts in children.
Last month, a blood feud between two battling tribes in the Dera Bugti district of Balochistan province was settled by a tribal “Jirga” (assembly of elders) that decided to hand over as many as 13 young girls in “vani” – an age-old tribal custom that gives females in marriage to males of another tribal group to settle a dispute…
Nabi also alledged that Mir Tariq’s guards held a man from his tribe hostage till all 13 girls were handed over along with a Rs3 million (about $30,000) fine.
Child marriage – known as “swara” in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, “vani” in Punjab, “sang chati” in Sindh, and “vani” and “lajai” in Balochistan – are enacted in disturbingly large swathes of Pakistan and reinforced by customs that treat women as commodities.
Despite the fact that Pakistan is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of Children, which refers to early marriage as the marriage of people less than 18 years of age, 30 per cent of all marriages in the country fall in the category of child marriages, according to the Rahnuma-Family Planning Association of Pakistan.
http://www.asafeworldforwomen.org
I wonder what the exchange rate is?
Pakistan: Pakistani Christians should stick together, right?
Wrong.
A Sunday service could not be arranged at the Church of Pakistan in Faisal Town this week after a fight between two groups on October 28. Three men were injured in the fight.
A case was registered against eight men for assault. Police said Priest David Asghar and his companions were attacked by Priest Iqbal Masih’s supporters when the former was holding a prayer service at the church.
Three men from Priest Asghar’s group were injured in the incident. He filed a case against Priest Iqbal Masih, Munir Aasi, Ulfat Masih, Javed Masih, Shafiq Masih, Arshad Mashih, Waqas Masih and Emanuel Masih. Khanewal District Police Officer has ordered an inquiry into the matter and directed Deputy Superintendent of Police Javed Khan to seal the church.
Just to show it’s not only Islamic fundamentalists who are crazy.
Pakistan: Daughter talking to a boy? Kill her with acid!
A mother and father in Pakistan-administered Kashmir killed their 15-year-old daughter by dousing her with acid after seeing her talking to a young man, police said on Thursday.
Local police officer Tahir Ayub told AFP the father, Mohammad Zafar, had had suspicions about his daughter Anvu Sha and became enraged when he saw her with a boy outside their home on Monday.
“Zafar beat her up and then poured acid over her with the help of his wife. She was badly burnt but they did not take her to hospital until the next morning, and she died on Wednesday,” Ayub said.
How much foreign aid are we giving these people again?
Pakistan: 18 killed
Why? Do you need to ask?
At least 18 people have been killed in a huge blaze that erupted after gunmen opened fire on a passenger van at a petrol stall in restive southwest Pakistan, officials say.
Senior local official Abdul Mansoor Kakar told AFP four gunmen opened fire on the van with automatic rifles, igniting petrol drums by the roadside and triggering a massive inferno.
Pakistan: Taliban explains why it’s OK to shoot a fourteen-year-old girl in the head
“Fourteen-year-old girls, man, you know? THAT’S why they gave me a rifle!”
“She used to propagate against mujahideen (holy warriors) to defame (the) Taliban. The Quran says that people propagating against Islam and Islamic forces would be killed…
“We did not attack her for raising voice for education. We targeted her for opposing mujahideen and their war,” said the Taliban. “Shariah (Islamic law) says that even a child can be killed if he is propagating against Islam.”
So that’s all right, then.
Can you even begin to imagine how absolutely pants-wettingly scared these men are? Of everything?
Pakistan: How to win friends and influence people
An attempt by the Taliban to kill a 14-year old girl, famous for speaking out against the Islamic militants and their attacks on girls’ education, has triggered a wave of national revulsion in Pakistan.
Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head and neck while she sat with classmates on a school bus as it prepared to drive students home after morning classes in Mingora, a city in the Swat Valley where major operations were conducted in 2009 to crush a Taliban insurgency. She was taken to hospital before being whisked by military helicopter to an intensive care ward in the city of Peshawar.
Police said a bearded man approached the bus and asked which of the girls was Malala. When one of the other girls pointed at her she denied who she was. The gunman then shot both girls, although police say a total of three people were wounded….
Murtaza Salangi, the director of Pakistan Radio, said people were “standing up to be counted as if this was their own daughter … I think it is a watershed moment because the outpouring of sympathy and support for this young girl is just unprecedented. She could be a rallying poster for people who think that extremism and terrorism is the biggest challenge, even an existential challenge, for this country.”
Killing people, throwing acid, setting off bombs in public places, that was just high spirits. Shooting a fourteen-year-old girl in the head, however…
Pakistan: Creepy Cabinet Minister issues bounty for filmmaker’s death
A Pakistani Cabinet minister has offered a US$100,000 reward for the death of the person behind the anti-Islam video made in the United States that has roiled Muslims around the world, even suggesting that Taliban and al-Qaeda militants could carry out the killing.
Railways Minister Ghulam Ahmad Balor said at a news conference in Peshawar that he would personally finance a bounty aimed at the maker of the crude, low-budget video that denigrates the Prophet Muhammad.
Mr Balor acknowledged that incitement to murder was illegal but said he was “ready to be hanged in the name of the Prophet Muhammad.”
Well, let’s not muck about — give the man what he wants.
Pakistan: Christians flee after mentally disabled girl charged with blasphemy
As many as 600 Christians have fled their colony bordering the capital, fearing for their lives, officials said, after a mob last week called for [a Christian] child to be burned to death as a blasphemer.
The girl, who authorities have described as mentally challenged, sits in jail in Rawalpindi, charged by police with blasphemy, while her family has been put in federal protective custody. The evidence against her is muddled at best, but police said they arrested her in part to assuage the mob and also because they knew she would be safer in jail.
“The one who burned the Koran should be burned,” said Shaukhat Ali, an assistant at the local mosque, expressing a sentiment shared by many Muslims in the community.
Sorry, who is it that ought to be in jail again?
Update 2012/09/02: One of the girl’s accusers has been arrested for fabricating evidence. What a lovely lot of people these believers are!
Update 2012/09/05: Some good news — an Islamic cleric has come out in support of the accused girl.
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