Category Archives: Pakistan

Why Modi’s Kashmir coup threatens India’s democracy

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A clumsy intervention by Donald Trump into the dispute over Kashmir may have promted the Indian PM to act

It’s tempting, though illogical, to blame Donald Trump for all the world’s ills. Yet was it America’s self-aggrandising president who triggered last week’s sudden crisis between India and Pakistan over Kashmir? When Trump took office in 2017, his ignorance of international affairs was seen as potentially dangerous. Those fears now look well-founded. Kashmir may provide conclusive, catastrophic proof.

The trouble started on 22 July when Trump hosted Imran Khan, Pakistan’s prime minister, in the Oval office. Despite previously accusing Pakistan of supporting terrorism and slashing US aid, Trump was all smiles. Why? Because he needed Khan’s help in cutting a peace deal with the Taliban. Trump yearns to tell America’s voters next year that he ended the 18-year Afghan war and brought the troops home.

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Kashmir: India’s ‘draconian’ blackout sets worrying precedent, warns UN

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Exclusive: Special rapporteur speaks out as Indian-administered territory faces fourth day in lockdown

The unprecedented communications blackout imposed on Indian-administered Kashmir could signal a departure in the way democratic states clamp down on information in contentious areas, the UN’s special rapporteur on freedom of expression has said.

“There’s something about this shutdown that is draconian in a way other shutdowns usually are not,” David Kaye told the Guardian.

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Kashmir: Pakistan will ‘go to any extent’ to protect Kashmiris

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Pledge follows announcement by India that it intends to revoke territory’s special status

Pakistan has vowed to take any measure necessary to “stand by” people in Kashmir, where an unprecedented communications blackout continues a day after the Indian government said it would revoke the territory’s special status and divide it in two.

Landline connections, internet and mobile coverage in the territory were all suspended on Tuesday, while prominent political leaders who oppose the Indian government’s move were reportedly arrested.

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India set to withdraw Kashmir’s special status and split it in two

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Move to split disputed state follows security crackdown and detention of politicians

India is set to withdraw the special status of the disputed territory of Kashmir and split the state in two, in a move likely to face major resistance in the Muslim-majority state and escalate tensions with Pakistan.

The proposal, which has been advocated by Hindu nationalists for decades, is the most radical change any government has suggested for Kashmir’s status since the region was granted autonomy in exchange for joining the Indian union after independence in 1947.

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Heightened security and anxiety in Kashmir amid fears of unrest

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People queue for hours for petrol and cash, following evacuation of thousands of tourists and pilgrims

People across the Indian-administered side of Kashmir queued for hours outside petrol stations and cash machines on Sunday following a heightening of security measures that has prompted fears of unrest.

Thousands of tourists and Hindu pilgrims have been evacuated since Friday, after the Indian government cancelled the annual Amarnath Yatra, a 45-day pilgrimage to a Himalayan cave shrine. Officials said they had received intelligence suggesting an attack on pilgrimage routes, which 300,000 people have set out on since July.

Kashmir residents were told not to panic, though curfews and evacuations continued to be imposed on hospitals and educational institutions over the weekend. On Sunday evening mobile internet was cut across Kashmir valley.

Kashmir is claimed by India and Pakistan in full and ruled in part by both. An insurgency on the Indian-administered side has been ongoing for three decades, and tens of thousands of people have been killed.

The region in the foothills of the Himalayas has been under dispute since India and Pakistan came into being in 1947.

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Thousands of tourists flee Kashmir after security alert

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India claims it killed five militants trying to attack its forces in disputed region

Tens of thousands of tourists, pilgrims and workers have begun leaving the disputed region of Kashmir after local officials issued a security alert and India said it had killed at least five militants who were trying to attack its forces.

The Foreign Office on Saturday issued new advice to avoid all travel to Jammu and Kashmir, adding: “There is a risk of unpredictable violence, including bombings, grenade attacks, shootings and kidnapping.”

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Activists scramble to prevent Uighur man’s deportation to China

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Ablikim Yusuf, who had been living in Pakistan, faces detention and torture if he is sent to China, say supporters

Human rights activists are scrambling to prevent the imminent deportation of a Uighur man to China, where they say he faces torture.

Ablikim Yusuf, 53, who has been living in Pakistan, posted a desperate video on Facebook asking for help from the overseas Uighur community. He says in the video, translated and circulated by activists on Saturday: “I am currently being held in Doha airport, about to be deported to Beijing, China. I need the world’s help. I am originally from Hotan.”

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Aftermath of deadly Pakistan military plane crash – video

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Seventeen people have been killed after a small military plane crashed into a residential suburb of Rawalpindi in Pakistan. The crash caused a fireball that lit up the night sky and terrified residents of the garrison city that is home to the army’s headquarters. The Pakistani military said the plane was on a routine training mission

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Pakistan military plane crash kills 17 in Rawalpindi suburb

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Plane came down in poor district creating ‘huge explosion’ and fireball in the middle of the night

Seventeen people were killed when a small military plane crashed into a residential area in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi, officials have said.

The crash created a fireball that lit up the night sky and terrified residents after the plane came down in a poor village in the garrison city that is home to the army’s headquarters.

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Fury in India over Donald Trump’s Kashmir claims

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US president said during meeting with Pakistani prime minister, Imran Khan, that India wanted him to mediate

India’s foreign minister has firmly denied Donald Trump’s claim that the US president was invited by the Indian government to mediate in the Kashmir dispute, following a furious response from opposition MPs.

Trump’s remarks, made sitting alongside the Pakistani prime minister, Imran Khan, on Monday, provoked uproar in the Indian parliament and demands for the prime minister, Narendra Modi, to respond.

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Trump says he could win Afghan war and wipe country ‘off the face of the Earth’ – video

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Donald Trump has said that he could win the Afghanistan war 'in a week' adding that the country 'could be wiped off the face of the Earth. I don’t want to go that route'. The president made the claim sitting alongside the Pakistani prime minister, Imran Khan, who is seeking to have more than $1bn in US aid restored, after Trump cut it off last year blaming Islamabad for not doing enough to fight extremism. Trump said he would not do it because 'I just don't want to kill 10 million people'

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Trump says he could win Afghan war ‘in a week … but I don’t want to kill 10m’

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  • President hosts Pakistani PM Imran Khan amid aid dispute
  • US pursues talks with Taliban with Islamabad’s cautious support

Donald Trump has said that he could win the Afghanistan war “in a week” but did not want to wipe the country “off the face of the Earth”.

At the same White House, the president also made a quixotic offer to mediate the longstanding Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan, claiming the Indian government had invited to act as broker – a claim quickly denied in New Delhi.

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Imran Khan hopes to win over Donald Trump in first US visit

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Pakistani PM in Washington seeking concessions on military aid and sanctions

Imran Khan will meet Donald Trump on his first visit to Washington as Pakistan’s prime minister, burdened by the task of trying to mend relations mired in mutual distrust and restoring financial support cut off by the US president.

The US has suspended most of its military aid, worth $300m (£240m), after Trump accused Pakistan of not doing enough to fight extremism.

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‘Inspired by Central Park’: the new city for a million outside Karachi

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Bahria Town promises Pakistan’s middle classes respite from traffic, terror attacks and blackouts – local villagers are fighting to be heard by developers

Fronted by a dramatic gated arch, its roads fringed with neatly trimmed hedges, palm trees and lush grass, Bahria Town bears little resemblance to the urban chaos of nearby Karachi.

The economic heart of Pakistan is an overcrowded and often violent megacity with an official population of 15 million (closer to 20 million if the urban sprawl beyond the city perimeter is included). Infrastructure has not kept pace with its rapid expansion, and basic amenities such as water have become a commodity for criminal gangs. The city is also an organisational centre for the Pakistani Taliban, who attacked the airport in 2014.

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‘It’s ripped families apart’: the border wall no one is talking about

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Construction of a fence along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, one of the world’s most dangerous crossings, is splintering families while failing to halt the flow of smugglers and terrorists

Keramat used to visit her sons all the time, crossing the border between her home in Afghanistan’s Kunar province into Pakistan, where they live and work.

But a fence built to mark a border between the two countries, which has not been recognised by the Afghan government, has made the 55-year-old’s journey much longer, and more bureaucratic.

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‘People think we’re from another planet’: meet Karachi’s female cyclists

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Teams of women and girls are among numerous cycle groups increasingly to be seen on the streets of the frenetic Pakistan megacity

Early on Sunday morning in Karachi, a group of girls are riding loops around an empty stretch of road outside the colonial-era Custom House. At 6am they left the narrow alleys of the old neighbourhood of Lyari, branded a war zone by national and international media after a lengthy and brutal gang conflict. Two hours later they are still happily pedalling away, in ballet slippers and with headscarves tucked under helmets.

“I used to cycle alone,” says Gullu Badar, 15. “It’s nice to cycle here because there’s no danger, no cars. It feels good that there are other girls cycling with me too.”

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Home Office finally allows stranded mother and baby home from Pakistan

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Visa decision overturned for British resident Nina Saleh, 48 hours after Guardian and others published her story

A woman who was refused a visa to return to London after travelling to Pakistan to adopt a baby has been told she can come home.

Nina Saleh has a Norwegian passport but full UK residency rights after living in London for 20 years. She was refused a visa to return home with baby Sofia three times, despite going through a stringent and lengthy adoption process in the UK with British authorities’ involvement.

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Pakistan to create 1,000 courts to tackle violence against women

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Chief justice says in televised speech that abuse survivors will be able to ‘speak their heart without any fear’

Pakistan is to set up more than 1,000 courts dedicated to tackling violence against women, the country’s top judge has announced, seeking to tackle a problem activists say the criminal justice system has long neglected.

Chief justice Asif Saeed Khosa said the special courts would allow victims to speak out without fear of retaliation in the conservative Muslim country, where domestic violence is often seen as taboo.

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Himalayan glacier melting doubled since 2000, spy satellites show

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Ice losses indicate ‘devastating’ future for region and 1 billion people who depend on it for water

The melting of Himalayan glaciers has doubled since the turn of the century, with more than a quarter of all ice lost over the last four decades, scientists have revealed. The accelerating losses indicate a “devastating” future for the region, upon which a billion people depend for regular water.

The scientists combined declassified US spy satellite images from the mid-1970s with modern satellite data to create the first detailed, four-decade record of ice along the 2,000km (1,200-mile) mountain chain.

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Mother and baby stranded in Pakistan: claims of Home Office ‘negligence’

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British resident Nina Saleh unable to return home with adopted baby after being refused visa three times

A Norwegian woman who has lived in Britain for 20 years says she has been left stranded in Pakistan after travelling there to adopt a baby.

The UK Home Office has refused Nina Saleh a visa to return home with baby Sofia three times, despite Saleh going through a stringent and lengthy adoption process in the UK with British authorities’ involvement.

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