Brig( retd) Farooq Hameed Khan   The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) setup in Bangladesh in 2010 by Prime Minister Hasina Wajid’s Awami League government, sentenced Abdul Quader Mollah,  a senior Jamaat-e Islami (JI) leader to life imprisonment on February 05 for  alleged  ‘atrocities’, in a trial that reopened the wounds of 1971 East Pakistan tragedy. In January the tribunal awarded death penalty in ab ...

Unreliable data can incite and escalate a conflict – the latest UN-sponsored figure of 60,000 should not be reported as fact By Sharmine Narwani February 16, 2013 "Information Clearing House" - Less than two months after the UN announced "shocking" new casualty figures in Syria, its high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay estimates that deaths are "probably now approaching 70,000". But two years int ...

 Asif Haroon Raja Deaths of Maulvi Tamizuddin and Khawaja Nazimuddin in 1963 followed by death of Suhrawardy in 1964 were setbacks for Pakistan. These three Bengali leaders were a bridge between the peoples of two wings and had always believed in oneness of Pakistan and were against centrifugal forces. Their departure gave free passage to Mujibur Rahman to give vent to his regional tendencies. In September ...

By Sajjad Shaukat Both open and clandestine techniques of state terrorism are being employed by India to suppress the struggle of Kashmiris who are fighting for their genuine right of self-determination as recognised by the UN resolutions. In this regard, after fabricating a false case of his role in attacking the Indian parliament in 2001, Mohammed Afzal Guru was hanged on February 9, this year, while he h ...

By Bill Van Auken A US airstrike in eastern Afghanistan Wednesday killed 10 civilians, including five children. The deadly attack came just hours after the State of the Union speech in which President Barack Obama falsely claimed that the more than decade-long US war and occupation in Afghanistan “will be over” by the end of next year. Afghanistan’s Pajhwok Afghan News agency (PAN) reported that the civilia ...

By Usman Khalid, Director Rifah Institute of Foreign Affairs (RIFA) Not many people know that Hindus are a minority in India. The number of those within the fold of chaturvarna i.e. four castes (Brahmin, Kashatri, Vesh and Shudara) are no more than 15% of the population of India – the same as the Muslims. The original inhabitants of India are treated as ‘untouchables’ like the shudras but their number is 65 ...

By Zaheerul Hassan Last year Asian giant has made significant increase of 17.6 percent over the previous amount of defence budget for 2011-12. Her defence budget for 2012-13, was US $40.3 billion for the Defence Services that include the three armed forces (Army, Navy and Air Force), the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Ordnance Factories. The major portion of the Civil Estimate is h ...

Professor Ali Sukhanver Recently a Bangladeshi judicial tribunal sentenced life imprisonment to Abdul Qader Mullah, a leader of Jamat-e-Islami, for his role during the independence war against Pakistan in 1971. According to the media reports, somewhere in 2010, the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina initiated the process of trying those accused of committing crimes against humanity during the war, u ...