News & Updates

(Reuters) – Hafiz Saeed, widely considered one of South Asia’s most dangerous militants, has no doubt who is to blame for devastating floods that have submerged swathes of Pakistani countryside and claimed hundreds of lives. “India irrigates its deserts and dumps extra water on Pakistan without any warning,” the bearded Saeed told Reuters, as he surveyed a vast expanse of muddy water from a rescue boat just outside the central city of Multan. “If we don’t stop India now, Pakistan will continue to face this danger.” His comments will surprise few in India, where Saeed is suspected of helping mastermind the 2008 Mumbai massacre which killed 166 people, a few of them Americans. Saeed, who also has a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head, denies involvement. But his presence in the flood-hit area is part of a push by Pakistani Islamists, militants and organisations linked to them to fill the vacuum left by struggling local authorities and turn people against a neighbour long...

SAHIWAL: Twenty-seven landowner families of Dad Balooch Village have become landless tenants because of high flood and continuous erosion by the Ravi during the past two weeks. It is learnt that more than 50 acre land of these families has been washed away in recent floods. These families demand alternative agriculture land for their livelihood. As many as 144 members of these families are temporarily residing in makeshift tents established on eastern side of the river or in the flood relief camp set up by the district government at Government High School, Karam Balooch. District Coordination Officer Dr Sajid Mamhood has assured the affected families that alternative land will be arranged and allocated on a permanent basis. Mansab Ali Balooch is head of a joint Balooch family having 30 members. One month back his family was the owner of six acre agriculture land, a tubewell, an animal farmhouse and an outhouse but now he is sitting in another landowner’s area as a landles...

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama has included both India and Pakistan among 22 major illicit drug-producing or drug-transit countries, says a presidential determination released by the White House. Afghanistan is also on the list. Of these 22, three countries – Bolivia, Myanmar, and Venezuela – are on a list of those who can face US sanctions. All three are accused of “failing demonstrably” to fulfil their obligations under international counter-narcotics agreements and conventions. But President Obama granted Myanmar and Venezuela waivers, declaring that it was in the US national interest to continue its assistance to them. Besides India and Pakistan, other countries on the list are: Afghanistan, the Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia, Myanmar, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Laos, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela. The presidential memo pointed out that opium poppy trade in Afghanistan “threat...