Asif Haroon Raja Terrorism in Pakistan is the outcome of backup support provided by USA, India and Afghanistan to TTP and its affiliated groups in the northwest and to BLA, BRA and BLF in the southwest. While foreign agencies fund, equip and provoke the terrorists to strike civil and military targets in Pakistan so as to create bedlam, the liberals and section of media on the payroll of outside powers keep ...

World View: Everyone knows where al-Qa'ida gets its money, but while the violence is sectarian, the West does nothing By Patrick Cockburn Donors in Saudi Arabia have notoriously played a pivotal role in creating and maintaining Sunni jihadist groups over the past 30 years. But, for all the supposed determination of the United States and its allies since 9/11 to fight "the war on terror", they have showed as ...

Asif Haroon Raja The provisional/interim nuclear deal signed between Iran and P5 plus 1 in Geneva on November 24 has apparently defused the explosive situation in Middle East. It has been widely hailed as the triumph of diplomacy. President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Javed Zarif are being applauded for their pragmatism and for averting a catastrophic war in the making. High sounding names are being ...

Asif Haroon Raja During the Reza Shah Pahlavi era in Iran from 1953 to March 1979, Iran-Pakistan relations were extraordinarily warm. Iran supported Kashmir cause, extended military support during 1965 Indo-Pak war and full diplomatic support in the 1971 war with India. Iran helped in quashing 1973 insurgency in Balochistan. After Shah’s departure, certain events like Islamic revolution in Iran, Jihad again ...

Asif Haroon Raja Once Bajaur came into the loop of terrorism in 2006, it became the exclusive domain of Maulvi Faqir Muhammad because of easy inflow of arms, equipment and funds from Kunar. This route of supply was also used for Swat via Dir. Srarogha within Mehsuds inhabited South Waziristan (SW) became the command centre of TTP under Baitullah Mehsud, where Qari Hussain trained small boys aged between 11 ...

 By Sajjad Shaukat Having pro-Indian tilt, since Bangladesh’s Awami League came into power, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajid has started a deliberate propaganda campaign against Pakistan, its army and especially Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). In this context, on the direction of India, unlike the past years, a ceremony was held in Dhaka on March 24, 2013, with full pump and show to honour ‘Foreign Fri ...

 By Abu Ezaan In the backdrop of impending US-Afghan Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA), the debate on the American interests in the region and the necessity of maintaining military bases in Afghanistan is gaining momentum. With Afghan side aspiring maximum through negotiations on BSA, there is an apparent effort from some renowned American analysts to down play the significance of the agreement vis-à-vis U ...

              By Sajjad Shaukat Being a neighbouring and brotherly country, Pakistan always respects Iran’s sovereignty, system of governance and its socio-political developments. But, some external elements misguide Iran through false propaganda by manipulating various terror-incidents which take place inside Iran, especially its province of Iranian Sistan-Baluchistan and Pakistan’s province of Balochistan ...