By Yvonne Ridley The only thing that surprised me when I heard that the Algerian kidnappers had called for the release of  Dr Aafia Siddiqui was that it hadn’t happened sooner. Don’t get me wrong, as a former hostage myself, there is no way I condone the actions of what has unfolded in a remote corner of the Algerian desert. And my heart goes out to the families of those who have lost loved ones in the unfo ...

By Zaheerul Hassan On 16 January 2012, Director General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of Pakistan and India established contact with each other on hotline and decided to tone down the tension between the deployed troops on Line of Communication (LoC). Meanwhile Hina Rabbani Kher, Foreign Minister of Pakistan has also spoken to her Indian counterpart to play his positive role for reduction of tension on Kas ...

By: Shahid Aziz Kargil, like every other meaningless war that we have fought, brings home lessons we continue to refuse to learn. Instead, we proudly call it our history written in the blood of our children. Indeed, our children penning down our misdeeds with their blood! Medals for some, few songs, a cross road renamed, and of course annual remembrance day and a memorial for those who sacrificed their tomo ...

By Jay Janson Panetta said the Pope said to him, “Thank you for helping to protect the world.” said he replied, “Pray for me.” Fellow Catholics, can only hope that the Pope said something else that Panetta was reluctant to mention to US foreign policy promoting reporters. One paragraph re Panetta’s crimes, Reagan’s Assist. Sec of Treasury quoted, and the usual plea for a responsible public to call for prose ...

Asif Haroon Raja In order to hide their crimes and to distort historical facts, Indian historians and political leaders have chosen to paint Quaid-e-Azam as the ‘villain of the piece’. The Indians propagate the theme that ‘Muhammad Ali Jinnah was a communalist responsible for the bloody break up of Pakistan. He founded a theocratic and non-secular State’. The BJP and other Hindu hardliners even now accuse h ...

ISLAMABAD: Tehrik-e-Minhajul Qauran chief Allama Tahir ul Qadri culminated his four days long march after an agreement with the government here on Thursday. After successful negotiations with the government, he congratulated the participants of long march, the nation as well as the ruling coalition for what he termed the successful culmination of the long march. Addressing the participants of the sit-in, fo ...

By Zaheerul Hassan Top military commanders of India and Pakistan on16 Jaunary 2012 agreed not to allow escalation of tensions along the Line of Control (LoC) with the Pakistan Army asking its troops to observe ceasefire strictly and exercise restraint. The ways to defuse the tension on the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir, which was triggered by the killing of initially one and later on two Pakistani soldiers by th ...

By Sajjad Shaukat On the one hand, India has been emphasising to strengthen the Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) with Pakistan to normalise relations between both the countries, but on the other, it has continuously been giving a greater setback the CBMs in one or the other way, which shows Indian dubious approach. In this regard, Indian soldiers crossed over the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir on Janua ...