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A Somali football fan adjusts the Television set for the group D game between Ghana and Serbia Photo: EPA Unbeleivable as it may sound but according to news reports Somali religious extremists have banned watching soccer matches on TV screens! It seems Somali militants are following footsteps of their Taliban brethren who banned music, TV, [...]

This is a copy of the letter sent by Women's Action Forum (WAF) against the appointment of Maulana Sherani of JUI as chairman of Council of Islamic Ideology. The CII mandate is very broad and can bring review of any law, policy or development into its ambit to question and comment on it, effectively, a veto power. The Prime Minister of [...]

Here is a news report from daily The News describing how a local Taliban leader, a mullah in a Jamaat-e-Islami madrassah, was involved in child molesting. This shows the real hypocritical character of these munafiqeen who are raping Islam in the name of Islam. In this instance the culprit was aptly exposed and ridiculted by the local tribal [...]

For months the Zaid Hamid brigade had been congesting cyber space and the two TV channels that the haughty ideological quack is a regular fixture on, with promises of holding a ‘massive gathering of youth’ at the Minar-e-Pakistan on this year’s Pakistan Day (23rd March). However, the no-show by Zaid and his fans at the Minar-e-Pakistan [...]

Awards night Hello people, and welcome to the First Annual Pakistani Private TV Channels Awards. I, Wamid Mir, will be your host for the evening and with me will be the lovely, Dr. Shireen Blackwater Baymaari. Let’s kick off this grand event, but first, a choti se break, and a word from our main sponsors, Aafia Fairness Cream. Yes, people, [...]

Dawn's Editorial: Media coverage IT is the electronic media’s job to report on events as they unfold and relay news to viewers as quickly as possible. A spirit of competition — and there is a lot of it these days given the number of television channels vying for ratings and advertising revenues — also prompts organisations to stay one [...]

Religion being used to further evil designs: ulema council HYDERABAD, April 18: The Ittehad Ummat Council’s Sindh chapter said on Saturday that a handful of people were using the name of Islam to further their own nefarious designs and urged civil society and media to raise a forceful voice against the un-Islamic acts taking place in the name [...]

AWWAMIYA: The street graffiti is so brazenly political in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province that it hardly seems like Saudi Arabia at all, Reuters reports. ‘Down with the government’, ‘Death to the traitors’ read the messages on the walls of Awwamiya, a small town in the eastern region on the Gulf coast where most of the conservative [...]

The crisis in FATA and Swat has increasingly become reduced to a narrative of the evil Taliban versus the helpless state and society. That the Taliban have instituted a horrendous regime of terror is beyond question. But it is evasive and dangerous to think that the Taliban are the only bogeymen. We need to understand the (more...)

A couple of months ago, I wrote a column in praise of certain Pakistani pop stars and bands, arguing that there are a fair number of songs that display political consciousness and a related sense of responsibility. I referred to such songs as Junoon’s ‘Talaash’, Shahzad Roy’s ‘Lagay Raho’ and (more...)

Their lordships overstep the mark By Ayaz Amir The Pakistani disease, if we have to choose one and place it above all others, is not to do what one is qualified to do but to do that which one is not meant to do. The political class has forgotten the art of leading (it dances to the tunes of others). The administrative class is no longer any good [...]

Their lordships overstep the mark By Ayaz Amir The Pakistani disease, if we have to choose one and place it above all others, is not to do what one is qualified to do but to do that which one is not meant to do. The political class has forgotten the art of leading (it dances to the tunes of others). The administrative class is no longer any [...]

Preparing for a funeral Imran Khan has made us proud on so many occasions. From the world cup to the first cancer hospital in Pakistan, he has given his all for the (more...)

File Photo: Banned Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) is now operating as "Sunni Action Committee" and "Ahl-e-Sunnat Wal Jammat". In above picture activists of SSP demonstrating in front of Karachi Press Club. A terrible threat Monday, June 15, 2009 The letter sent to an Imambargah in Lahore, and reproduced by this newspaper, says nothing that is [...]

The faces of militant commanders for whose capture the government has announced millions of rupees seem all too familiar. Just three weeks before the start of the latest round of military operation in Swat I met most of them — not in their mountainous hideouts, but in (more...)

Swat's last standBy Noor KhanWhen a military operation first started in Waziristan and after it was stopped in the middle, one politician voiced sense: Imran Khan. As he says in his article in The News on May 23, the operation in Waziristan did indeed have a (more...)

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Five burqa-clad Arabs arrested in Mohmand GHALANAI: At least 13 militants were killed in a clash with security forces following arrest of five burqa-clad Arabs, one Afghan national and a local man in Mohmand Agency on Tuesday. Four of the five Arabs are Saudi nationals — Ahmed, Ali, Mohammad and Obaidullah — and one Libyan national, [...]

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!ISLAMABAD: The federal government on Thursday announced a full-scale military operation to wipe out the Taliban from the insurgency-hit areas.In a televised address to the nation, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said that after deliberations and discussions with all stakeholders, the government had decided to call in the [...]

Body of a Taliban victim in Herat, Afghanistan. (more...)

Where is the Pakistan army? By Dr. Farrukh Saleem Five thousand square kilometres of Swat are now under Taliban control -- de jure. Chitral (14,850 sq km), Dir (5,280 sq km), Shangla (1,586 sq km), Hangu (1,097 sq km), Lakki Marwat (3,164 sq km), Bannu (1,227 sq km), Tank (1,679 sq km), Khyber, Kurram, Bajaur, Mohmand, Orkzai, North [...]

فضل کریم خٹک نئے مالاکنڈ کمشنر مقرر عبدالحئی کاکڑ صوبہ سرحد کی حکومت نے طالبان کے مبینہ حامی ہونے کے الزامات کی زد میں رہنے والے مالاکنڈ ڈویژن کے کمشنر سید محمد جاوید کے تبادلے کا باقاعدہ [...]

Tableeghi Jamaat leaders denounce gunpoint Sharia ISLAMABAD: In an unprecedented move, top leaders of the Tableeghi Jamaat have denounced enforcement of Sharia at gunpoint, religious extremism, militancy and terrorism. Leaders of the Jamaat, who scrupulously avoid speaking on controversial issues, also called for promoting inter-faith harmony, [...]

Co-edu institutions in city receiving threats from Taliban? KARACHI: Panic has spread in the city’s co-education institutions after receiving threats, believed to be from the Taliban, in which they have been warned to close down or face the consequences, Daily Times learnt on Monday. Various educational institutions including schools, [...]

By Paul Wiseman and Zafar M. Sheikh ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A public backlash is building against the Pakistani Taliban, who looked triumphant after gaining control of the northern Swat region last week. Since Pakistan's parliament approved a peace deal turning Swat over to militants on April 13, their leader Sufi Muhammad has moved forces into [...]

By ZAHID HUSSAIN ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan's Taliban seized control of another district in the country's northwest just 70 miles from the capital after consolidating their hold on the Swat Valley, according to local government officials and residents. The latest Taliban advance into the Buner district has spurred fears that a controversial peace [...]

Some Examples of Talibani Justice ! (more...)

Taliban warn lawyers against appearing in ‘un-Islamic’ courtsThe Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) warned Shangla district lawyers on Tuesday of serious consequences if they continued to appear in un-Islamic courts (civil and district courts) from today (Wednesday). “Lawyers are warned through this notice not to appear before civil and [...]

TTP says Osama welcome in Swat: * Taliban reject peace accord * Muslim Khan wants Taliban model of sharia in Pakistan, ‘even in America’ * Those who disagree with Taliban are non-Muslims Swat Taliban have said they are not bound to honour the peace accord between the government and cleric Sufi Muhammad, a private TV channel reported on [...]

A scenic view of beautiful Buner Valley. The above map shows Talibans are only 55 miles away from Islamabad. Buner falls into the hands of Swat Taliban BUNER: Taliban militants from Swat took control of Buner on Tuesday and started patrolling bazaars, villages and towns in the district. The militants, who had sneaked into Gokand [...]

*Governor NWFP has said World Powers want Pakistan's division & if the world is 'playing boxing with us' then we don't have any choice but to fight with them and answer them in same manner ! (more...)

ISLAMABAD, April 20: Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif is generally believed to be a discovery of General (retd) Ghulam Jilani, the governor of Punjab in Gen Zia-ul-Haq’s dictatorial regime in the early 80s, but actually it was the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) which found him to be “a true patriot (more...)

Silence of the Lambs *The Taliban are here to stay and unless we stand up against them in every (more...)

There is no limit to Talibans ruthlessness !They can not only behead their enemies but they can also (more...)

Endorsing surrender —Abbas RashidEven before the ink has dried on the signed copy of the Nizam-e Adl Regulation 2009, the TNSM/Taliban leadership has seen it fit to clear up any confusion on the part of even the most optimistic among us.It turns out that from their perspective, the agreement obliges them not to display arms — there can be no [...]

Maulvi Imran Khan, Munawwar Hassan, Gen Hameed Gul, Federal Interior Sect. Kamal Shah and yellow journalists Ansaar Abbasi, Shahid (more...)

سوات میں طالبان کا ’شادی مرکز‘ عبدالحئی کاکٹر صوبہ سرحد کے ضلع سوات میں طالبان نے رشتے کروانے کے لیے ’شعبہ عروسات‘ کے نام سے ایک الگ شعبہ قائم کردیا ہے اور طالبان کے مطابق ان کی فہرست میں [...]

Maulana Abdul Aziz AKA Burqa-posh Maulvi of Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) has got released under an agreement that he will not create any trouble for the government, however according to Dawn hate literature and militant (more...)

THEN NOW Lal Masjid cleric vows not to seek revenge ISLAMABAD, April 16: The former Khateeb of Lal Masjid, Maulana Abdul Aziz, was released on Thursday reportedly under a ‘deal’ and he announced that he would not seek revenge on former president Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf who has been accused of killing [...]