Bangladesh & 1971 syndrome
Bangladesh is again plunging itself into another phase of political turmoil and violence. The decision by the Dhaka-based International Criminal Tribunal (ICT) to award capital punishment to two key leaders…
Viewpoint: Qadri, Qadeer And The Media
Tahirul Qadri who flew in from his home in Canada with the stated objective of saving this state from politicians and the unstated aim of derailing the democratic system by…
Arab Spring’s first hope Tunisia rocked by assassination
The assassination of opposition politician Chokri Belaid has plunged Tunisia, poster child for the Arab Spring, into its worst crisis since police opened fire two years ago on pro-democracy protesters.…
The long shadow of Afzal Guru
When Afzal Guru was hanged secretly last month in Tihar Jail, Indian officials claimed that it was a simple case of the law taking its course and that politics had…
A partial reckoning
Abdul Quader Mollah certainly did himself no favours when, earlier this month, he flashed a smile and a V-sign as he emerged from a hearing of the International Crimes Tribunal…
China aims to press Abe into talks on islands
As right-wing supporters push Japan's new leader to get tough with China, analysts expect Beijing to step up its pressure on Japan to discuss the Senkaku islands, potentially escalating a…
Viewpoint: Wrong ideas of national security
A newly revised Army Doctrine identifies home-grown militancy as the "biggest threat" to national security, replacing India as the enemy Number One. That of course does not mean the conventional…
The curse of silence
We are watching a genocide take place before our eyes; Shias are being killed mercilessly. The Hazara community in Quetta has been decimated. The Hazara Shias – numbering some 700,000…
The fulminations of Tahirul Qadri
The politicians of Pakistan are incapable of saying anything without indulging in coloured phrases of rhetorical exaggeration. The pathetic grandiloquence of their speeches is invariably laced with barbs against their…
Beginning of the end
Thousands of Shia protesters braved sub-zero temperature for nearly three days as they staged a sit-in in Quetta, refusing to bury 87 victims of the January 10 twin bombings at…
