India on Friday blamed Pakistan for an Islamabad court ordering release of Mumbai terror attack mastermind Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, saying Islamabad did not produce the evidence against him despite having enough of it.
Any Indian government at this juncture would have voted and spoken exactly this way. It isn't just about the vast Indian dependence on Russian-origin military equipment. It is also about trust, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
Maryam and her husband are likely to file an appeal challenging the verdict in the Avenfield Properties corruption case.
First look of Benazir Bhutto with members of the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy
District and Sessions Judge Akmal Raza issued the order in Islamabad after lawyer Aslam Ghuman filed an application in his court asking for a case to be registered against Musharraf, who is currently in Europe.
'When the decision was announced, the possibilities of cross border infiltration and terrorism, we know that there would be incitement to violence. We have simply taken preventive steps'
'The purpose is not to jail him for kidnapping,' a Pakistani security official told Rediff.com, 'But we cannot let him go. We have to keep him behind bars one way or another.'
'India is our jageer,' Taliban spokesperson Azam Tariq said, 'and we will attack to take possession of it. We are training lots of fighters and suicide bombers who will be used for this purpose.'
According to the sources, those who have left include commercial counsellor Syed Furrukh Habib and first secretaries Khadim Hussain, Mudassir Cheema and Shahid Iqbal.
Acting tough, India on Monday called off foreign secretary-level talks with Pakistan next week and conveyed a blunt message that it was interfering in India's internal affairs by holding talks with Kashmiri separatists which was "unacceptable".
Pervez Musharraf was Thursday formally arrested by Pakistani investigators over the murder of Benazir Bhutto after an anti-terrorism court directed them to include the former president in the probe into the 2007 assassination.
If New Delhi finds itself out in the cold in Afghanistan, both the Congress-led UPA and BJP-led NDA have only themselves to blame. Each has been in power for a full decade from 2001, without reaching out to the Taliban, points out Ajai Shukla.
Militant commander Maulvi Faqir Muhammad declared himself the head of the Pakistani Taliban, saying he was temporarily replacing Baitullah Mehsud, whom Washington and Islamabad have said was almost certainly killed in a drone attack.
A Pakistani court on Thursday allowed the trial of former military ruler Pervez Musharraf for sacking and detaining dozens of judges in 2007 to be conducted at his farmhouse that has been declared a "sib-jail".
Beleaguered former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf faced fresh trouble on Thursday with the police arresting him over the killing of Baloch leader Akbar Bugti in a 2006 army operation, the third time he has been taken into custody within a fortnight in three separate cases.
In a fresh setback to the Mumbai attack trial, a Pakistani court has dismissed the government's petition seeking voices samples of 26/11 mastermind Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and six other suspects in the case.
Security at sensitive installations, including places of worship, airports, government offices and international missions, has been beefed up.
A realistic assessment will tell us that not much has changed between India and Pakistan; the relationship remains as fraught as before with little prospect of reconciliation, notes Ajai Shukla.
Pakistani police on Tuesday said they had defused a car bomb near ex-President Pervez Musharraf's sprawling farmhouse in Islamabad, prompting authorities to beef up security for the former military ruler.
Islambad has already experienced two suicide attacks, one on January 26 at Marriot Hotel and later on the airport on February six.
The world's attention is on the new Taliban and the imminent announcement of an inclusive government in Kabul, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar
He was the mastermind of the deadly 26/11 terror strike and the United States administration has already declared a bounty of $10 million for him.But the Pakistan government has, time and again, expressed its reluctance to prosecute Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief and Lashkar-e-Tayiba founder Hafiz Saeed.
Pakistan has too much at stake to allow even an iota of rapprochement between India and the Taliban, says Vivek Gumaste.
'India has strictly adhered to the 'No First Use' policy. What happens in future depends on the circumstances'
The Imran Khan government termed the leaked video "doctored" and demanded its forensic audit, saying that "it is an attack on the judiciary."
A Pakistani court has resumed hearing two petitions filed by authorities to seek permission to obtain voice samples of seven suspects charged with involvement in the Mumbai terror attacks and to declare the Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative Ajmal Kasab a "proclaimed offender" or fugitive
'No matter what Modi may boast about 'new India', the geopolitical reality is that India's stature diminishes when it needs a small country like Saudi Arabia under an autocratic ruler to help out with what is arguably one of the most critical templates of its diplomacy,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'The picture only looks worse from where Bajwa sits.' 'He sees a domineering India to the east, an unravelling Afghanistan and a complex Iran to the west, an overbearing China on the north and a US which is no longer an ally,' observes Shekhar Gupta.
India and Pakistan are back on the dialogue table to sort out issues between the two nations, Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar has declared, saying that Islamabad cannot afford to be selective in improving ties with its neighbours.
Pak also suspended all bilateral visits as a mark of protest.
There is a perception amongst those fighting the government in Pakistan that the only sure shot way of drawing Islamabad's attention is to attack the Chinese, as the government does not pay much heed to attacks on hapless Pakistani citizens, says Alok Bansal.
The PIA plane PK-661 with 48 people, including famous pop singer-turned-Islamic preacher Junaid Jamshed, his wife and Deputy Commissioner Chitral Osama Warraich, on board crashed on Wednesday in Saddha Batolni village near Havelian while en route to Islamabad from Chitral in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
In the strongest warning so far to Pakistan, the United States on Thursday said it is reaching the limits of its patience with Islamabad for allowing terrorist safe havens, specially the dreaded Haqqani network.
Seeking to allay fears on Indian team's security during the Davis Cup tie, Pakistan Tennis Federation president Salim Saifullah Khan assured that the contest will be held in safe and secure environment, promising "impressive hospitality" to the visitors.
Pakistan could see a repeat of the "disastrous" pattern of civilian governments being cast aside by military coups, American media reports said, declaring that a stable Islamabad was of critical interest to Washington.
The Goa declaration didn't refer to Pakistan-based terrorist groups or cross-border terrorism.
His remarks came in response to the India-US joint statement issued after the talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump.
The confiscation of properties of JuD and FIF comes after Pakistan formally placed them in the list of banned organisations on Tuesday.
She also said the Kartarpur corridor initiative was not linked to the dialogue process with Pakistan.
'The scheduling of Imran Khan's visit to Beijing and its focus on the J&K situation underscores that Beijing shares the Pakistani concern that tensions with India are only going to escalate further in the period ahead,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
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