Some 200 Afghans protested at the UN office in Kabul Jan. 31 against the death sentence passed against Perwiz Kambakhsh, a reporter convicted of blasphemy. The protest was organized by the small Solidarity Party of Afghanistan. The upper house of… Read moreAfghanistan: civil society stands up to political Islam
Wanted al-Qaeda figure Abu Laith al-Libi was killed in Pakistan by a CIA air-strike, anonymous officials told CNN. Al-Libi was said to have been behind several attacks on US forces in Afghanistan, including the February 2007 bombing at Bagram Air… Read moreAl-Qaeda superstar bites it: CIA
Hundreds of Afghans chanted anti-US slogans in Ghazni Jan. 24 to protest the deaths of nine police, including a district commander, who local officials said were killed the previous day in an anti-Taliban operation by coalition troops. The coalition denied… Read moreAfghans protest US air-strikes
Hundreds of Islamic militants armed with mortars and rocket-launchers overran a fort at Sararogha, in Pakistan’s tribal borderlands Jan. 15, killing some 20 paramilitary troops of the South Waziristan Scouts and taking several more captive. The Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (Taliban Movement… Read moreNATO to intervene in Pakistan?
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Jan. 16 he believes NATO forces currently deployed in southern Afghanistan “don’t know how to do counterinsurgency operations.” Most of the NATO troops in the south are British, Canadian and Dutch, while those in… Read moreCanadian death toll hits 78 in Afghanistan
In a victory for Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda after weeks of bitter partisan struggle, Japan’s Diet Jan. 11 approved legislation reauthorizing the naval refueling mission that the Self-Defense Forces launched in 2001 in support of US-led military operations in Afghanistan…. Read moreJapan returns to Afghan mission
From the Asian Human Rights Commission, Jan. 2: The two daughters of Ms. Asma Jehangir, a well known lawyer, human rights activist and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of religion or belief, were assaulted and… Read morePakistan: ruling-party gunmen threaten Asma Jehangir’s daughters
Pakistan’s biggest city of Karachi is completely shut down after rioters burned dozens of cars and set fire to stores in outrage at the killing of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. All the city’s petrol stations are sealed off and… Read moreMusharraf behind Bhutto assassination?
Pakistan’s security forces have been waging a “secret war” in the Baluchistan region since the death of tribal leader Mir Balaach Marri in combat last month. Peter Tatchell writes in The Guardian, Dec. 21: “The often indiscriminate attacks on civilian… Read morePakistan’s army wages “secret war” against Baluchistan
“Al-Qaeda right now seems to have turned its face toward Pakistan and attacks on the Pakistani government and Pakistani people,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Dec. 21. “There is no question that some of the areas in the frontier area… Read moreGates: al-Qaeda in Pakistan borderlands
The recapture of Musa Qala from the Taliban by British-led forces has resulted in many civilian casualties, local residents say. British military authorities report only two civilian dead in the battleāboth children. But residents say they counted 15 women and… Read moreAfghanistan: civilian casualties in Musa Qala?
Faiz Mohammed Baluch and Nawabzada Herbiyar Marri, two exiled human rights activists from Baluchistan, were arrested Dec. 4 by London Metropolitan Police in a supposed anti-terrorist operation code-named “Super-Sweep.” Fellow rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said: “I know one of the… Read morePakistani Baluch activists arrested in London
