Look for the “Bear” Necessities…

I am currently in the midst of conceptualizing and writing far deeper posts, but this story was just too ironic to ignore. According to news agencies Tuesday, a bear killed two militants after “discovering them in its den” in Kulgam district, just south of Srinigar in Indian-administered Kashmir. According to the Telegraph, the men, known [...]

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The Opiate of the Masses – Literally.

The United Nations Office on Drugs & Crime came out with an interesting report this week, which found that Afghanistan-grown poppies fuel a $65 billion heroin and opium market that feeds 15 million addicts. The paper, entitled, Addiction, Crime & Insurgency – The Transnational Threat of Afghanistan’s Opium, reported that the country “produces 92 percent [...]

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BREAKING NEWS: Lahore Attacks

On Thursday morning [9:15 am PST], media agencies reported that gunmen dressed in police uniforms targeted three law enforcement agencies in Lahore – the Federal Investigative Agency on Temple Road, the Manawan Police Academy, [the site of a previous militant attack, see related CHUP post], and the Elite Force Training Institute on Bedian Road. According [...]

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NY Times Documentary on Swat: “The War is Far from Over”

Yesterday, the NY Times posted a documentary by journalist Adam Ellick that chronicled the journey of a family who were displaced from their home in Mingora following the military offensive in Swat Valley, [click here to see Part I of the film, "Class Dismissed," released back in February]. The short film, entitled, “A Schoolgirl’s Odyssey,” [...]

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The Art of Saying Nothing At All

I don’t know if you were able to catch Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on CNN’s Wolf Blitzer yesterday, but the official sat down and discussed U.S.-Pakistan relations with the news anchor, as well as America’s presence in Afghanistan. The interview went as expected, given the party lines/rhetoric that had to be toed, but [...]

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Bombing at United Nations Food Office

On Monday, a suicide bomber detonated eight kilograms of explosives inside the Islamabad office of the United Nations World Food Program. The bombing, the first in Islamabad since June, killed five people – four Pakistanis and one Iraqi national [including two women], and injured six. Adam Motiwalla, an information officer at the UN agency who [...]

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He Said What?!

If you haven’t had a chance to read Dr. AQ Khan’s “Random Thoughts” column in The News today, you are missing out. In the piece, entitled, “Pleasant Memories,” the father of Pakistan’s atomic bomb unveils his “special interest” in the Makrani people, an ethnic group of African descent [also known as the Sheedis] who live [...]

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Highway to the Dangerzone: Pakistan’s Female Fighter Pilots

CNN on Monday included a refreshing piece on the seven women who are trained and ready to fly Pakistan’s F-7 supersonic fighter jets in the Air Force. For sixty years, it was nearly impossible to break into the male dominated profession. According to BBC News, “Women could join the armed forces but only for non-combat [...]

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19 Women Killed in a Stampede for Food

On Monday, at least 19 women were killed in a stampede in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Karachi. According to the NY Times, “The stampede occurred as a local trader was distributing food [flour, lentils and other goods] in Khori Garden, a sprawling neighborhood in the southern part of the city. Hundreds of women [...]

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Leaking Haqqani’s Letter

On Saturday, CNN-IBN reported that they had obtained a copy of a letter sent from Pakistan’s U.S. Ambassador Husain Haqqani to Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary and Chief of the Inter-Services Intelligence Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha. In the letter, dated July 28, 2009, Haqqani warned that “harassing Americans or denying them visas hurts the country’s image [...]

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