This morning I was alarmed to listen to three rumors: 1) banks are unable to buy foreign exchange for their clients from the inter-bank market, 2) whatever US dollars are still held by the central bank just can’t be used and 3) most probably the PML-N will do, what it did in nineties freezing of foreign currency accounts of Pakistanis […]

On June 4, 2022, suspected militants shot and injured a businessman identified as Sunil Mondol at his house in the Narabari area under the Serfanguri Police Station in Kokrajhar District. According to Mondol’s family, the businessman had received an extortion demand of INR 200,000 from the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO) a few days earlier. On June 4, 2022, suspected militants […]

On June 19, 2022, two Policemen, including one head constable, killed when unidentified assailants attacked a Police check post in Dera Allahyar area of Jaffarabad District in Balochistan. No outfit claimed responsibility for the attack. On June 14, 2022, two Army personnel were killed and another two were injured when Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF) cadres attack an Army post in […]

In a virtual panel discussion hosted by the Press for Peace Foundation UK, environmentalists and civil society representatives have called on the government to address the deteriorating environmental situation in the region of Azad Kashmir. A statement issued at the end of the virtual panel discussion on Monday said that the process of diverting rivers for power generation projects has […]

Since the outbreak of the Ukraine war, there has been a direct clash between Russia and the west and things have gone beyond a certain point where other states have to take sides: whether with the west or Russia. However, India which has a close strategic partnership with the US did not side with the west despite efforts on the […]

There is something definitely non-linear with the politics of PTI. The fictitious foreign conspiracy mantra viciously trumpeted by Imran Khan and his PTI has been stumped by the presentation of facts by all relevant stakeholders domestically as well as internationally. On display is a classic case of blind devotion by PTI supporters who see nothing wrong in what Imran Khan […]

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine escalates into brutal street-to-street combat in the Donbas region, the Kremlin has looked to gain international recognition for their proxy states before full annexation ala Crimea. Most international governing bodies have rejected any sort of recognition for the “LPR” and “DPR” save for states with longstanding despots such as Belarus, Venezuela, Eritrea, and Syria. What […]

In April, India and the United States released a joint statement in which they urged the Taliban to uphold human and women’s rights. In addition to this, they urged the Taliban to prevent Afghanistan from providing assistance to terrorists or sheltering terrorists. After then, a meeting between the US Special Representative for Afghanistan and high-level Indian officials took place one […]

After having repeatedly warned the public “not to drag Pakistan armed forces and their leadership in [the] ongoing political discourse in the country,” Rawalpindi finally got down to walking its talk with military precision by ‘taking-on’ a prominent and ‘marked’ [but soft] target. On May 26, it filed an FIR against lawyer and rights activist Ms Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir for […]

In the first half of this year, measures taken against the COVID-19 pandemic have greatly impacted China’s economy. Shanghai, the largest city in China, was the hardest hit. The city-wide lockdown that lasted for more than two months is unprecedented in Shanghai’s urban economy, social development, and urban governance. Such an experience will become part of the city’s indelible memory. […]