Tag "counter-terrorism"
On February 16, 2016, two leading Asian newspapers published opposing stories on bilateral talks. The Hindustan Times quoted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Special Assistant on Foreign Affairs Mr Tariq Fatemi that Pakistan was ‘ready to forge cooperative relations with India’. On the other hand, a report by Dawn quoted India’s new High Commissioner to Pakistan Mr Gautam Bambawale saying that the dialogue between both countries would resume ‘once the atmosphere
On February 4, Pakistan’s army chief General Raheel Sharif witnessed the first ever trilateral counter terrorism exercise “Eagle Dash-I” involving special forces from Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives. The two week-long exercises were held at Pakistan Army’s renowned National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) in Pabbi. The centre’s geography which includes hills and jungles offered participants the perfect environment to simulate operations against a fictitious terrorist group which could employ
In what appears to be a significant step forward in Pak-Russia security ties, Commander-in-Chief of Russian Land Forces Col Gen Oleg Salyukov announced on January 22 that his troops will be participating in the first ever army exercises in Pakistan. The yet unnamed exercises with Pakistan, according to Salyukov, are “special mountain drills”, a probable reference to high-altitude warfare training involving special forces from both countries. It is yet unclear
The year 2015 proved to be a game changer for Pakistan in several aspects. Although it would be ignorant to forget major critical problems related to governance, economic growth and the general law and order situation in the country, it is important that important feats be acknowledged. And not just any accomplishments; the 5 selected achievements I have highlighted below are milestones in themselves. I say this not out of
After a prolonged period of drastic reduction in major terrorist attacks, Pakistan is again bleeding. Terrorists associated with the Pakistan Taliban’s (TTP’s) Tariq Geedar group, headed by Umar Mansoor alias “Naray (Slim)”, claimed responsibility for yet another brazen attack on an educational institution. The Bacha Khan University (BKU) in Charsadda was attacked on the morning of January 20 by a group of killers who looked almost the same age as
The English-language version of Chinese military’s mouthpiece reported on October 15, 2015 that a cyber (Internet-based) exercise codenamed “Xiamen-2015” was held in the city of the same name in Fujian province. The decision to hold this exercise was undertaken on April 10, 2015 during the SCO RATS Council’s 26th regular meeting in the Uzbek capital Tashkent. It was jointly organized by member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) of
Politics in Pakistan is plagued with corruption, nepotism, self interest and several multi dimensional aspects of immoral practices, but this is high time we recognize that religion in Pakistan is equally plagued with Politics and Politicians. Since more than a decade the social divide based on religious grounds have widened to a large degree, while there is less than no doubt about the political elite adapting to self-inclined religious narratives
According to statistics updated on June 14, 2015 by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATA), almost 58,055 Pakistanis (civilians and military personnel) have lost their lives to terrorism since 2003. This means that around 4,838 people were killed per year on an average. These figures reflect the next-to-none assurance of human security in a country that has played the role of a frontline state in the so-called War on Terrorism.
