Asia

Uproar over assault & abduction of Turkish family by Pakistani security forces

The forced abduction and assault of a Turkish couple by Pakistani security forces has sent shockwaves through the human rights community. On September 27, plainclothed officers of Pakistan’s counter-terrorism department raided the house of Mesut Kacmaz, a former director of Pak-Turk schools. An Eyewitnesses reported how Kacmaz, his wife Meral, and two teenage daughters were brutally assaulted by plain-clothed officers and taken to an unknown location. The incident is the latest in Pakistan’s crackdown on Pak-Turk Schools, which the Turkish …

Turkish couple reportedly “kidnapped” by Pakistani security forces for Gulen links

According to reports, a Turkish couple with alleged links to controversial Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen has been “kidnapped” by Pakistan’s security forces. Mesut Kacmaz, the former director of PakTurk school and his wife were picked up during a midnight raid on their rented house in the city of Lahore. Kacmaz and his family had been staying in Wapda Town, Lahore on an asylum seeker certificate issued by United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). The couple applied for asylum after Turkey …

Pakistan and Russia launch joint counter-terrorism exercises

Today in the village of Nizhny Arkhyz, Karachay-Cherkess Republic (KChR), a solemn ceremony of opening the joint Russian-Pakistani exercise “Friendship-2017” was held. More than 200 servicemen of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan took part in the event. The opening ceremony of the exercises began with the raising of state flags and the playing of the national anthems of Russia and Pakistan. Colonel Sergey Dmitriev, commander of the motorized rifle brigade of the …

Pakistani envoy to UN caught using picture from Gaza to show Indian atrocities in Kashmir

Pakistan’s envoy to the U.N. has been called out for using a fake image to illustrate Indian atrocities in the disputed region of Jammu and Kashmir. The move backfired when Maleeha Lodhi, the Pakistani envoy to U.N. showed a picture of an alleged “pellet gun victim” in the UN General Assembly. However, the picture that Lodhi displayed was of 17-year-old Rawya Abu Jom’a who was injured during Israeli airstrikes on her family’s apartment in Gaza during the 2014 war. was, …

IAEA honors Pakistani Nobel laureate Abdus Salam

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has honored Pakistani Nobel laureate, Dr Abdus Salam by unveiling a bronze bust at the agency’s headquarters in Vienna. The bust was unveiled on Wednesday by IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano, according to a statement issued by Pakistan’s Foreign Office (FO). The bust of Dr Salam will be placed at the IAEA HQ alongside those of other notable figures, most of them scientists, who were instrumental in the promotion of nuclear science and technology. …

Pakistani PM Abbasi dodges question on Blasphemy Laws

Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi dodged the question on the country’s controversial blasphemy laws while speaking at a session organized by U.S. think tank Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). Kenneth Roth of the Human Rights Watch asked Abbasi whether he as prime minister would speak out against the blasphemy law under which a Christian man was recently sentenced to death for a poem he sent on WhatsApp that was deemed blasphemous. Abbasi responded by saying: The laws in the …

From Myanmar’s Rohingyas to Pakistan’s Ahmadis

There was much hope associated with Aung San Suu Kyi. A mild looking woman taking on the Myanmarese military establishment, determined to restore democracy in her country. With her emphasis on non-violent political philosophy she was seen as a reincarnation of Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr and Mahatma Gandhi. But then she came to power and the idealism constructed around her began to evaporate. In October 2013 when she was pressed on her silence on the Rohingya issue in …

Pakistani refugees make their home in New Zealand

Over three months, Stuff journalists Adam Dudding and Chris McKeen followed a family of Ahmadi refugees from Pakistan as they arrived in New Zealand and went through an immigration experience unlike any other in the world – a six-week assessment and support programme that is also a kind of crash-course in being a Kiwi. Attia Tul Kafi is in the back seat, looking out at the rolling green hills. She’s six-and-a-half, though she’s so tall she could pass for eight, …

In Malaysia, a 17-year-old Pakistani refugee is helping educate fellow refugees

When 14-year-old Geeti Ara moved to Malaysia from Pakistan as a refugee she dreamed of becoming a teacher. But Geeti’s dream was nearly impossible, as she and her parents belonged to the severely persecuted Ahmadiyya community. Now the 17-year-old Pakistani refugee is fulfilling her dreams by helping educate fellow refugees in Malaysia. Geeti started teaching at the Smart Iqra Education refugee school in 2014, while she was still 14. After her inspirational story came to light she was asked to …

Pakistan puts portrait of U.S. designated terrorist on celebratory train

On Wednesday the U.S. State Department designated Hizb-ul-Mujahideen as a Foreign Terrorist Organization as Pakistan celebrated the terror organization by placing a portrait of Hizb leader on a celebratory train. As part of Independence Day celebrations, Pakistan ran a special ‘Azadi’ train from Islamabad on August 12 which reached the central city of Lahore on August 16th. The ‘Azadi’ or Freedom train had floats and carriages showcasing culture and traditions of the different provinces of the country. The train also …

Blasphemy, the Fate of Ahmadiyya in Lombok, Indonesia

Though Indonesia has claimed a principle of Bhinneka Tunggal Ika (“different but one”), in reality, the country has faced fragmentation over the differences in its society, with its people blaspheming and killing each other. Ironically, the inter-religious conflict which has occurred is no longer between practitioners of different religions, but between practitioners of the same religions. The indigenous people of Lombok are the Sasak. They are the majority ethnic group that represents 89% of the island’s total population; the remainder …

The Former Hamas member who now preaches Peace

Sheikh Muhammad Jaber planned an attack on Israeli soldiers but was arrested and spent several years in prison. Today he openly walks around in Hamas stronghold of Hebron, calling for peace with Israel and preaches against violence. If Sheikh Muhammad Jaber of Hebron was ever asked what he thought of the Jews, he would simply have said, “You have to kill and slaughter them.” In the 1980s, when he was affiliated with he planned an attack against Israeli soldiers in …