Pakistani Christian man and wife sentenced to death for text messages sent to Muslim
The case of a Christian couple on death row in Pakistan after being convicted of blasphemy has reportedly been taken up by the lawyer who defended Asia Bibi.
Shagufta Kousar and Shafqat Masih were accused of sending blasphemous text messages to a Muslim man. They were sentenced to death, but have appealed to the high court in Lahore.
Continue reading...A hoax video showing children falling ill after polio vaccinations underlines the obstacles facing health workers for whom danger has become a way of life
It began with a rumour, a breathless video circulating on Facebook saying children in Peshawar had been taken ill after being vaccinated for polio.
Within hours, a second video emerged showing the same children being instructed to lie down and feign illness. But it was too late. The latest attempt to derail Pakistan’s formidable drive to eradicate polio had already taken hold, leaving thousands of parents panic-stricken and a government health facility partially burned down.
Continue reading...Gunfire heard at Pearl Continental hotel in Gwadar, in restive Balochistan province
At least three armed militants have stormed a luxury hotel in Pakistan and exchanged fire with government forces.
Local media said the fighters stormed the Pearl Continental hotel in Gwadar just before 5pm local time on Saturday. Firing was still ongoing at 8pm, the assistant superintendent of police in the city told the Guardian. Security personnel cordoned off the area around the hotel.
Continue reading...Azeem Wazir left Pakistan in 2015 over involvement in protest against blasphemy laws
A Christian man who has been living in Bristol for four years says he is at risk of being killed if he is deported to Pakistan after protesting against the country’s draconian blasphemy laws.
Azeem Wazir is being held in Colnbrook immigration removal centre near London, and may be deported as soon as Friday following his arrest last week.
Continue reading...Islamic extremists vow to pursue Christian acquitted of blasphemy in Pakistan
Asia Bibi has arrived in Canada hoping to start a new life after her years on death row. But although there is huge relief among campaigners for religious freedom that she is out of Pakistan, her ordeal may not be over.
Islamic extremists have pledged to pursue the Christian woman and kill her for the act of blasphemy of which she was accused and later acquitted. Bibi may spend the rest of her days looking over her shoulder in fear of an international assassin.
Continue reading...Christian woman freed last year after spending eight years on death row for blasphemy
Asia Bibi, a Christian woman who spent eight years on death row in Pakistan for blasphemy before she was freed last year, has flown to Canada where she has reunited with her family, her lawyer has said.
“It is a big day,” Saiful Malook told the Guardian. “Asia Bibi has left Pakistan and reached Canada. She has reunited with her family. Justice has been dispensed.”
Continue reading...Explosion reportedly targeted van carrying elite police officers as hundreds of pilgrims gathered at 11th century site
At least eight people have been killed in a blast near Lahore’s Data Darbar, the largest Sufi shrine in south Asia, police in the Pakistani city said.
The explosion was reported around 8.45am local time (4.15am GMT) on Wednesday morning. City police chief Ghazanfar Ali told Associated Press that police officers were the apparent target.
Continue reading...Deaths follow wave of rumours and a hoax video intended to derail final push to eradicate the disease
A federal government campaign to vaccinate more than 40 million children under five against polio in Pakistan has been suspended following a series of attacks on workers and police over the past week.
On 23 April a police officer responsible for protecting polio workers was gunned down in Bannu. The same day, a polio worker was injured with a knife in Lahore by a man refusing to allow his child to be vaccinated, citing a recent hoax video that claimed children were becoming ill after the immunisations.
Continue reading...Inclusiveness and an appreciation of cultural nuances are key to changing attitudes in a society where harassment is the norm
When I was in seventh grade in Pakistan, a classmate tapped my best friend’s shoulder and remarked: “Nice bra”. We were 12, and accustomed to friendships with boys. But youthful idealism meant less tolerance for unsolicited sexual innuendo. We marched to the headteacher’s office ready to change the world, only to be asked to repeat verbatim, several times, the words that had been spoken.
“These things happen in co-education,” we were told. The headteacher downsized our trauma, reducing our complaint to a cheap, inflated scandal. The boy escaped without punishment and the message was clear: girls, pick your battles.
Continue reading...Men went missing almost a fortnight ago while ascending mountain in Pakistan
The bodies of Tom Ballard and Daniele Nardi, the British and Italian climbers who went missing a fortnight ago, have been found on the mountain Nanga Parbat in Pakistan.
Italy’s ambassador to Pakistan, Stefano Pontecorvo, said on Saturday that the search team had confirmed that silhouettes spotted on the mountain “through telescope and pics beyond reasonable doubt” were the bodies of the two men.
Continue reading...Campaigners will march on International Women’s Day to protest against harassment, child marriage and ‘honour killings’
During Jalwat Ali’s school days in Lahore, there were limited spaces to gather with other women, never mind flood the streets with punchy placards.
Public spaces often feel constricted in Pakistan, as though under critical male scrutiny. But over the past few days, Ali has been recruiting dozens of women, from garment workers to domestic helpers who barely get a day off. “To solve any problem, we need to make a collective effort,” she says.
Continue reading...Briton Tom Ballard and Italian Daniele Nardi disappeared on Nanga Parbat
A search for the missing British climber Tom Ballard and his Italian climbing partner, Daniele Nardi, who disappeared on the Himalayan peak Nanga Parbat, has been called off.
The decision involved Pakistani and Spanish climbers from nearby K2, a Pakistani mountaineering official told the Associated Press.
Continue reading...Analysis of air pollution data finds that 64% of cities globally exceed WHO guidelines
Twenty-two of the world’s 30 worst cities for air pollution are in India, according to a new report, with Delhi again ranked the world’s most polluted capital.
The Greenpeace and AirVisual analysis of air pollution readings from 3,000 cities around the world found that 64% exceed the World Health Organization’s annual exposure guideline for PM2.5 fine particulate matter – tiny airborne particles, about a 40th of the width of a human hair, that are linked to a wide range of health problems.
Continue reading...India and Pakistan’s differing narratives are not unusual in the social media age, say experts
India struck Pakistan. Pakistan hit back, capturing an Indian pilot. Those are the established facts. Virtually everything else about the clashes between south Asia’s two arch-enemies last week is bitterly contested.
Did India hit a militant training camp in Pakistan? Did it cross the ceasefire line between the two countries in disputed Kashmir? How many people did the strikes kill? Was a Pakistani jet shot down while bombing Indian territory the next day?
Continue reading...US embassy looks into reports incident violated military sale agreements with Islamabad
The US has said it is trying to find out whether Pakistan used US-built F-16 jets to down an Indian warplane, potentially in violation of trade agreements, as the standoff between the nuclear-armed Asian neighbours showed signs of easing.
Pakistan and India both carried out aerial bombing missions last week, and on Wednesday an Indian pilot was shot down over the disputed region of Kashmir in an incident that sparked fears of a full-blown war.
Continue reading...Khadija Shah gave birth to daughter Malaika, now 6, while serving a life sentence for smuggling heroin
A six-year-old girl who has spent her entire life inside a Pakistani prison after her British mother was convicted of drug trafficking has been released and returned to the UK.
Khadija Shah, 32, gave birth to her daughter Malaika while serving a life sentence inside the notorious Adiala prison in Rawalpindi, in the Punjab province.
Continue reading...British mountaineer and his climbing partner are missing on Nanga Parbat in Pakistan
The search for a British climber who went missing on the world’s ninth-highest mountain in Pakistan is facing further delays due to bad weather.
Tom Ballard, who is originally from Derbyshire but lives in Scotland, was reported missing on Nanga Parbat mountain in the western Himalayas earlier this week with his Italian climbing partner Daniele Nardi after losing contact last Sunday as they went above 6,300 metres. They had been climbing the 8,126 metre (26,660ft) peak, also known as Killer Mountain.
Continue reading...At least six civilians and two Pakistani troops killed as clashes along frontier continue
Indian and Pakistani soldiers have targeted each other’s posts and villages along the volatile frontier in disputed Kashmir, killing at least six civilians and two Pakistani troops, officials said.
Tensions have been running high since Indian aircraft crossed into Pakistan on Tuesday, carrying out what India called a pre-emptive strike against militants blamed for a 14 February suicide bombing that killed 40 Indian troops. Pakistan retaliated, shooting down a fighter jet on Wednesday and detaining its pilot, who was returned to India on Friday in what Islamabad described as a peace gesture.
Continue reading...The Indian pilot who survived being shot down in Kashmir on Wednesday is returned by Pakistan in a 'peace gesture' it is hoped will de-escalate military tensions between the two nuclear states. Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman was involved in the worst military crisis in decades between the countries over the disputed territory of Kashmir
Continue reading...Imran Khan says pilot to be freed as ‘peace gesture’ amid rising tensions between nuclear neighbours
Pakistan says it will release a captured Indian pilot as a “peace gesture” between the neighbours amid the gravest military crisis in the subcontinent in two decades.
Imran Khan, the country’s prime minister, told a joint sitting of parliament that the Indian wing commander, Abhinandan Varthaman, who was shot down over the heavily guarded ceasefire line in disputed Kashmir on Wednesday, would be released on Friday.
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