Habib Siddiqui

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan Thursday announced to release captured Indian Air Force pilot Wing Commander Abhinandan today (Friday) as a ‘gesture of peace’. However, in the same breath he warned India that any ‘miscalculation’ may prove disastrous for the whole region. “Do not misconstrue Pakistan’s desire for de-escalation as weakness,” the prime minister asserted while addressing a joint parliamentary session here at the Parliament House. “I address the Indian government: do not force us for retaliation. We are prepared for any eventuality and response. I beseech India not to force us down the path of war,” he said. Presenting a tribute to the opposition and the entire nation for standing united during the difficult time, he again urged India not to go beyond this point of aggression as all issues should be resolved through dialogue. “Countries are ruined because of miscalculations. War is not a solution. If India takes any action, we will have to retaliate,” he vehemently...

Dr Syed Nazir Gilani Pakistan is a nuclear state. It has cancelled out the threat of India’s size, military might and nuclear reach once for all. Unless Indian leaders decide to consign their cities and people to history books, there will be no war. The Indian Government is engaged in a war with the people of Indian administered Valley for the last 27 years. During these years these forces have killed a generation of Muslims who lived in Kashmir valley. A UN report has estimated that there are 500,000 to 700,000 Indian soldiers in the Valley. The number is aided and assisted by special laws and now a ‘strong state doctrine’ has been put in place to use brute force and kill as many Kashmiris as possible. United Kingdom Expert on the Sub Commission of Human Rights in Geneva moved a resolution against violation of human rights in Indian administered Kashmir E/CN.4/Sub.2/1997/L.21 on 15 August 1997, and reminded the world that United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland had left...

By Robert Fisk When I heard the first news report, I assumed it was an Israeli air raid on  Gaza . Or  Syria . Airstrikes on a “terrorist camp” were the first words. A “command and control centre” destroyed, many “terrorists” killed. The military was retaliating for a “terrorist attack” on its troops, we were told. An Islamist “jihadi” base had been eliminated. Then I heard the name  Balakot  and realised that it was neither in Gaza, nor in Syria – not even in  Lebanon  – but in  Pakistan . Strange thing, that. How could anyone mix up Israel and India? Well, don’t let the idea fade away. Two thousand five hundred miles separate the Israeli ministry of defence in Tel Aviv from the Indian ministry of defence in New Delhi, but there’s a reason why the usual cliche-stricken agency dispatches sound so similar. For months, Israel has been assiduously lining itself up  alongside India’s nationalist BJP government  in an unspoken...

By RAPHAEL SATTER and ARON HELLER LONDON (AP) — A Canadian attorney says he appears to have been targeted by the same undercover operative unmasked by The Associated Press at a New York hotel last month , drawing a line between the man and the notorious Israeli intelligence firm Black Cube. In a court filing made public last week, Toronto attorney Darryl Levitt says that the spy, whose real name is Aharon Almog-Assouline, “bears a striking similarity” to a man he identified as an alleged Black Cube operative. Levitt says he was targeted because of his involvement in a long-running legal battle between two Canadian private equity firms, Catalyst Capital and West Face Capital. Previous media reports have hinted at a link between Almog-Assouline and Black Cube, but Levitt’s Feb. 21 claim before Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice is the first attempt to substantiate the connection by requesting receipts and surveillance footage. Black Cube has previously acknowledged doing wor...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — After 10 years of delay, a federal judge has ruled that three former inmates who say they were tortured at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison can go forward with their lawsuit against a military contractor. Arlington-based CACI Premier Technology asked the judge Wednesday to dismiss the lawsuit. The company, which supplied the Army with civilian interrogators, argued that the government's refusal to declassify key facts is making it impossible to defend itself. U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema acknowledged CACI's frustration but said the lawsuit can move forward even though the government says certain facts like the identities of the interrogators are state secrets that can't be declassified. The case is now slated to go to trial in April. While other pretrial matters remain unresolved, Brinkema told both sides that "you should expect if you don't settle this case, it'll go to trial." The lawsuit, first filed in 2008, ha...

By Chris Scott, news producer Since August 2017, more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar into neighbouring Bangladesh. Thousands are still trying to escape every day, according to the United Nations. If you ask the Rohingya men, women and children about why they fled, the accounts are similar; reports of the Myanmar army burning down their villages, raping women and killing their family and friends. The chair of the UN fact-finding mission on Myanmar, Marzuki Darusman, described the situation as an "ongoing genocide" . "They came to the village shooting at us," said one female refugee. "We hid our money and jewellery inside pockets in our dresses. They stripped us naked and stole everything. And this was in front of everyone. "They came in groups and one or two stood guard while the rest went into the houses to violate the other women. One grabbed my hand and took me to a path between some trees and pushed me. I fell d...

Christine Schraner Burgener is the Special Envoy on Myanmar. She roperted on the Situation in Myanmar at the  Security Council, 8477th Meeting 28 Feb 2019 -  Remarks by Christine Schraner Burgener, Special Envoy of the Secretary General on Myanmar, on the Situation in Myanmar. Click the link here Or, http://webtv.un.org/topics-issues/watch/christine-schraner-burgener-special-envoy-on-myanmar-on-the-situation-in-myanmar-security-council-8477th-meeting/6008601269001/?term = to view her presentation.

After denying racism, videos of Meadows vowing to send Obama 'home to Kenya' resurface. ======== WASHINGTON – After Rep. Mark Meadows defended himself against allegations of racism during a House committee meeting Wednesday, critics resurfaced two 2012 videos of the North Carolina Republican in which he vowed to send then-President Barack Obama "home to Kenya."  The videos were shared by Liberal commentators in response to an exchange between Meadows and Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., during a hearing featuring President Donald Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen. Meadows invited Lynne Patton – a longtime Trump associate and current Housing and Urban Development official – to the hearing and referred to her while disputing Cohen's allegation that the president is a racist .  "Just because someone has a person of color, a black person working for them, does not mean they aren't racist," Tlaib said. She added that ...

In the last few days, India bombed Pakistan, and now Pakistan has struck back. Both countries have nuclear weapons. While the media is focusing on the two countries, what is being ignored or underreported is the core of the issue: Kashmir, Kashmiris, their rights, and their aspirations for freedom and peace. The latest conflict began after a Kashmiri freedom fighter attacked a convoy of Indian soldiers, killing at least 40. This came on the heels of 2018, when Kashmiris faced the worst year in a decade of human rights abuses by the Indian army, according to Human Rights Watch, which has called for international investigation. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, even asserted that in Kashmir Indians have “… almost total impunity for enforced disappearances….” The horrific case of Asifa Bano, an eight-year-old girl gang-raped and strangled to death in a Hindu temple by eight men in Indian-occupied Kashmir, including four police officers is just...

Earlier this month, a new round of reports began surfacing suggesting that people were fleeing escalating violence in Myanmar’s southern Chin state and Rakhine state because of a deteriorating security situation. The reports once again spotlighted the ongoing worst suspicions about how peace and conflict issues are being addressed in Myanmar under the government of Aung San Suu Kyi. Though Myanmar has long had a history of difficulties in forging peace among diverse ethnic groups and addressing deeply rooted issues of identity, in some cases the situation has deteriorated significantly. Of particular note is the tragic plight of the Rohingya issue, which continues in spite of years of international outrage. The situation, if anything, appears to continue to be dire. The violence in north Rakhine state, from where 730,000 people have fled, continues. The army recently said 13 ethnic Rakhine fighters were killed in attacks last month, which were launched...