Amid regional threats of terrorism, military leadership from China, Afghanistan and Tajikistan formed a Quadrilateral Cooperation and Coordination Mechanism (QCCM) to counter terrorism that held its inaugural meeting in Urumqi, Xinjiang in China on August 3. The four countries unanimously agreed that terrorism and extremism are a serious threat to regional stability. They pledged to cooperate with each other in tackling terrorism and extremism. Sources close to the inaugural session said that the growing threat of Daesh was also discussed in detail. QCCM will coordinate and provide mutual support limited to four countries only in the fields of counterterrorism, situation evaluation, clue verification, intelligence sharing, capacity building, joint training exercises and personnel training In a separate development, on the occasion of ninth political consultations between Pakistan and Iran last week, the threat from Daesh was echoed and close cooperation was stressed. The consultative meeting was held in Tehran between Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry and Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister on August 6. Soon after these two important meetings, suicide attack in Quetta Civil Hospital killed 72 people and injured over 100. Tehrek-e-Taliban Splinter group Jamaat-ur-Ahrar, which has allegedly joined hands with Daesh in Afghanistan claimed responsibility for the attack. While on its website, the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant also known ISIS or Daesh claimed responsibility too. The claims seem to be increasing coordination and presence of Daesh in the region as allegiance to it has started. Earlier, Daesh first ever attack in Kabul killed 80 people and injuring over 200 in July. This was a suicide attack and the local chapter of Daesh known as Islamic State of Khorassan Province claimed responsility. Before the IS attack in Kabul, it was believed that Daesh activities are limited to Nangahar province only and they cannot move ahead due to their antagonism with powerful...

The latest casualty of the deadly India-Afghanistan-Pakistan contest in the region were nearly five dozen innocent non-combatants at Quetta on August 8. Only two weeks ago, on July 23, at least 80 innocent people fell victim to a terrorist attack in Kabul. At the same time, over seven dozen Kashmiris have lost their lives and or eyes to pellet bullets fired by the brutal state machinery in the Indian-administered Kashmir since July 8. And this is just a glimpse. Hundreds of lives lost to terrorists every month in Pakistan and Afghanistan are just one dimension of the embittered relationship between these two neighbours. Allegations, rooted in mistrust as well as trans-border alliances, keep flying across the Durand Line, at times reducing this to a juvenile contest of egos. Kabul, Islamabad and New Delhi are caught in a spiral of allegations and counter-allegations. During the August 9 corps commanders conference at the General Headquarters (GHQ), the military top brass reportedly concurred that the terrorist threat is transforming because of a growing nexus between hostile actors in the neighbourhood and ‘facilitators’ within the country. The attending generals “were told that threat was emanating from Afghan soil, which was being managed by Indian intelligence agencies. However, at the same time there was an acknowledgment that a network of ‘facilitators’ within the country provided an enabling environment for the external enemy,” according to the daily Dawn. It was a field day for rumor-mongers In Kabul, all those who matter point fingers at Pakistan as the lynchpin for all the ills that are currently afflicting Afghanistan. They refer to the support for Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network. Most Afghan media drew on statements by ex-senator Afrasiab Khattak and Maulana Sherani to reinforce their view on Pakistan. “It is also public knowledge that non-state actors find no obstacles to their agenda,” Khattak was quoted as saying in a report by Gandhara/RFERL....

In Solidarity with Pakistan’s Minorities’ On the global day of minorities, Pakistan’s religious minorities too are observing the day. In a largely Muslim population of nearly 200 million, minorities are estimated to be about three percent.  According to the last census conducted in 1998, the population of Christians stood at 2.5 Million followed by Hindus, Sikhs and Parsis.  Moreover, Shia and Ismaili Muslims, which may be some 20 percent of the total population, are often referred to as minorities, particularly by radical extremist Sunni sects. The International Day reminds Pakistanis of the commitment that the founding father Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah had made on 11th August, 1947 in his speech to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan: “You are free, you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or any other place of worship in this state of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or cast or creed — that has nothing to do with the business of the State ... Now I think we should keep that in front of us as our ideal and you will find that in course of time, Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense, because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as citizens of the State,” Jinnah had said  while outlining his vision on the rights of minorities in new Pakistan as equal citizens. Unfortunately, contrary to the Quaid’s vision, the current state of minorities in Pakistan is far from what the founding father had envisioned.  Between 2012- 2016, for instance, the minorities have remained victims of blasphemy accusations, sexual assaults, forced conversions, forced marriages. In the first half of 2016, for example, four incidents of violence against minorities were reported from the northwestern province Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and eight from the southern Sindh.[1] In one instance, a policeman stormed into the Church and beat up the pastor in Lahore...

During the Cold War epoch, divergent priorities and self-interests, the Indo-Russian partnership and geo-political realities could not allow a breathing space for Pak-Russia relations to grow and strengthen. The geopolitical scalar did not change after the USSR’s collapse either. It is only now, after a quarter of a century, that Moscow is looking to reinvigorate bilateral relations. Moreover, traditional Indo-Russian military exclusivity, which has a history of bilateral cooperation, has been under strain for a while — due to strong Indo-US defence ties — and cracks are opening up, indicating that new opportunities for defence cooperation between Pakistan and Russia are in ferment. Taking advantage of India’s blossoming economy still remains a priority for Russia’s foreign policy. But lately, it has also been seeking diversification in its foreign policy options and is looking for improved multidimensional ties with Pakistan. The Russian renaissance in global political affairs, with a strategic motif of balancing of force in the Putin era, has been shaping new contours in international politics that could provide a favourable environment for improving Russia’s overall relations with Pakistan. A Russian-Pakistani rapprochement started with a milestone military cooperation pact when the Russian defence minister, after 45 years, paid an official visit to Pakistan in December 2014. Another landmark was achieved with a $2 billion inter-governmental deal between the two countries for the construction of a gas pipeline from Lahore to Karachi in October 2015. In the same year, Moscow agreed to sell four Mi-35M helicopters to Pakistan and welcomed Islamabad when it joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). This year, already, Russian Army Commander-in-Chief Oleg Salyukov has announced the first-ever “mutual special drills in mountainous terrain” and Khawaja Asif, Pakistan’s defence minister, visited Moscow to enhance further cooperation. These recent engagements...

A chorus of confused responses followed the Quetta carnage on August 8, that left over 70 dead and dozens maimed. The top civil and military leadership called it an attempt by the “enemies of the country” to sabotage the ongoing China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project. The CPEC began only in 2015 but Pakistan has been reeling from terrorism of this scale since July 2007. Several parliamentarians and analysts declared the attack a result of “non-effective” implementation of the National Acton Plan (NAP). Syed Naveed Qamar, the parliamentary leader of the PPP, demanded that parliament be explained why incidents of such magnitude continue to occur after all parties had given a mandate to the federal government under the NAP to go after terrorists. The question is: can NAP really prevent such well-planned attacks? There is also the view that Quetta witnessed a bloodbath because terrorists had been defeated in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and they were shifting their focus to Balochistan now. Explaining this attack as a consequence of Operation Zarb-e-Azb? What about the enmass killings of minorities and other Balochistan citizens between 2009 and 2013? Who was involved in those atrocities then? As usual, Maulana Sheerani of the JUI-F, reiterated the religious right’s narrative that the security establishment brought this bloodbath to the country by joining the US-led anti-terror war. The arms received from America under the Coalition Support Fund were being used “to fight our own people and that’s why we have to face such incidents,” insinuated the Maulana. But excuse me! Are the masterminds of the TTP/Jamaatul Ahrar or members of other terrorist outfits “our own people”? For people like Maulana Sheerani, the narrative refuses to change. Ghulam Ahmad Bilour of the Awami National Party offered some wisdom, though still mixed with a possibly inaccurate diagnosis — the country is facing such problems because decision-making authority has been taken from politicians, he...

A chorus of confused responses followed the Quetta carnage on August 8, that left over 70 dead and dozens maimed. The top civil and military leadership called it an attempt by the “enemies of the country” to sabotage the ongoing China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project. The CPEC began only in 2015 but Pakistan has been reeling from terrorism of this scale since July 2007. Several parliamentarians and analysts declared the attack a result of “non-effective” implementation of the National Acton Plan (NAP). Syed Naveed Qamar, the parliamentary leader of the PPP, demanded that parliament be explained why incidents of such magnitude continue to occur after all parties had given a mandate to the federal government under the NAP to go after terrorists. The question is: can NAP really prevent such well-planned attacks? There is also the view that Quetta witnessed a bloodbath because terrorists had been defeated in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and they were shifting their focus to Balochistan now. Explaining this attack as a consequence of Operation Zarb-e-Azb? What about the enmass killings of minorities and other Balochistan citizens between 2009 and 2013? Who was involved in those atrocities then? As usual, Maulana Sheerani of the JUI-F, reiterated the religious right’s narrative that the security establishment brought this bloodbath to the country by joining the US-led anti-terror war. The arms received from America under the Coalition Support Fund were being used “to fight our own people and that’s why we have to face such incidents,” insinuated the Maulana. But excuse me! Are the masterminds of the TTP/Jamaatul Ahrar or members of other terrorist outfits “our own people”? For people like Maulana Sheerani, the narrative refuses to change. Ghulam Ahmad Bilour of the Awami National Party offered some wisdom, though still mixed with a possibly inaccurate diagnosis — the country is facing such problems because decision-making authority has been taken from politicians, he...