New HRW report on British complicity in torture in Pakistan

The 46-page report, “Cruel Britannia: British Complicity in the Torture and Ill-treatment of Terror Suspects in Pakistan,” provides accounts from victims and their families in the cases of five UK citizens of Pakistani origin — Salahuddin Amin, Zeeshan Siddiqui, Rangzieb Ahmed, Rashid Rauf and a fifth individual who wishes to remain anonymous — tortured in [...]

CIA agents reveal money flows to Pakistani ISI in Reward for Justice programme, say up 700 suspects were handed over

The CIA has funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to Pakistan’s intelligence service since the Sept. 11 attacks, accounting for as much as one-third of the foreign spy agency’s annual budget, current and former U.S. officials say to the LA Times. The Inter-Services Intelligence agency also has collected tens of millions of dollars through a [...]

Pakistan Says U.S. Should Share Information on Rebels

The U.S. and NATO should share intelligence with Pakistan to help “sanitize” the border with Afghanistan, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said.
The “flow of weapons, drugs, illicit money and militants” must be prevented along the 2,430-kilometer (1,510-mile) frontier, Gilani told a U.S. congressional delegation visiting Islamabad yesterday, the official Associated Press of Pakistan reported. Improved [...]

In Afghanistan, Taliban surpasses al-Qaeda

As violence rises in Afghanistan, the power balance between insurgent groups has shifted, with a weakened al-Qaeda relying increasingly on the emboldened Taliban for protection and the manpower to carry out deadly attacks, according to U.S. military and intelligence officials in The Washington Post. Although the war in Afghanistan began as a response to al-Qaeda [...]

New America Foundation: drones killed 320 innocents in Pakistan

How many civilians have been killed in the U.S. drone war in Pakistan? The number could be as high as 320 innocents, according to an analysis by Peter Bergen released today by the New America Foundation. That’s about a third of the 1,000 or so people slain in the robotic aircraft attacks since 2006, Wired [...]

Pakistan Launches Full-Scale Offensive in war with domestic Taleban

The Pakistani military launched a major ground offensive Saturday in the insurgent haven of South Waziristan, starting a much-awaited fight that could define the nation’s increasingly bloody domestic struggle against Islamist extremism. Pakistani officials said nearly 30,000 troops were deployed in the Taliban and al-Qaeda stronghold, from which militants have planned a two-week-long string of [...]

Pakistan court drops charges against leader of group suspected in Mumbai terror attacks

[JURIST] A Pakistani court on Monday dismissed charges against Islamic cleric Hafiz Muhammad Saeed , the founder and leader of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), an Islamic group suspected of playing a key role in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. A two-judge panel of the Lahore High Court dismissed the charges, which included using language criticizing Pakistan and [...]

Pakistan amends anti-terror laws

The government of Pakistan has amended its anti-terrorism laws to increase the remand period for the interrogation of terror suspects from 30 to 90 days.
Correspondents say that the move is one of the conditions of a recent bill passed by the US Congress which triples non-military aid to Pakistan. The Kerry-Lugar bill provides an annual [...]

Democracy is main weapon in Pakistan’s struggle against extremism, Zardari tells UN

One of the main weapons in Pakistan’s arsenal in its struggle against extremism is democracy, the South Asian nation’s leader told the General Assembly today, calling for increased global support for humanitarian efforts in the wake of recent military operations.
“Democracy has given people ownership to the fight against terrorism,” President Asif Ali Zardari told [...]

UK court convicts three in 2006 airliner plot

After two trials and the largest counter-terrorism investigation in Britain’s history, three out of eight accused were found guilty of conspiring to kill passengers and crew members aboard at least seven trans-Atlantic airliners on a single day with liquid explosives smuggled aboard in soft-drink bottles and detonated by devices powered with AA batteries. The men [...]