One of the most dangerous places in the world to be a woman

Haroon Janjua reports at the New York Post,

Two Pakistani teenagers who tried to elope were brutally murdered by relatives with electric shocks last month as an “honor killing” in the southern port city of Karachi, police confirmed.

The tribal boy and girl accused of falling in love with each other were declared by the local tribal council, or jirga, as a symbol of “dishonor” on the Pashtun community.

On the orders of the influential tribal council, the teenage girl was murdered first, and the boy was killed the next day. The bodies were buried secretly at night and no funerals took place.


Pakistani elders meet in 2006 for a traditional gathering known as a jirga in the town of Mir Ali. AFP/Getty Images

...Pakistan is regarded as one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a woman, with 2014 research finding that each day six women were kidnapped, four were murdered, four were raped and three killed themselves.

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The big geopolitical picture

Sundance writes at The Conservative Treehouse,

Remember, when President Trump gave truthful and rightful, ownership of the Muslim Brotherhood’s extremism to the Arab Gulf States? Their first response was to refute the position. Quickly they accepted reality; and now the GCC, led by Saudi Arabia, is confronting MB’s enabler, Qatar.

Remember, when President Trump gave truthful, and rightful, ownership of North Korea’s nuclear ambitions to China? The first response was Beijing refuting the position. Eventually, they accepted reality; that process is ongoing.

...Chemical weapons stopped in Syria. Financing of the Muslim Brotherhood stopped in Qatar. Nuclear threats stopped from North Korea. And now getting the Taliban up to the table of negotiations within Afghanistan…

...There’s no downside to Pakistan being directly linked to Afghanistan/Taliban, simply because Pakistan is directly linked to Afghanistan/Taliban. Additionally, inherent in the Trump Doctrine of economics and trade used to secure national security objectives, there are going to be ‘winners’ and ‘losers’; ‘allies’ and ‘adversaries’.

In the BIG geopolitical picture, people get nervous because Pakistan has nuclear weapons. Fair enough. However, Pakistan’s #1 economic ally is China. China has massive investments in Pakistan. China is attached to Pakistan. Both China and Pakistan have nuclear weapons. Dealing with China and Pakistan is congruent.

Meanwhile, India has nuclear weapons. Afghanistan’s #1 economic ally is India. India has massive investments in Afghanistan. India is attached to Afghanistan. India has nuclear weapons. President Trump is positioning India as a favored nation to the United States, and Trump is also accepting China and Pakistan are connected.

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“Purifying the Land of the Pure,”

That's the title of a new book on Pakistan, reviewed by Clifford May in the Washington Times.

What went wrong? In an excellent new book, “Purifying the Land of the Pure,” Farahnaz Ispahani both recounts and laments Pakistan’s “descent” into what it has become today: unfree, undemocratic, intolerant and both a sponsor and victim of terrorism.

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Pakistan threatens to nuke India

Sara Kamouni reports at The Sun,

PAKISTAN’S Defence Minister has threatened to “destroy” India – after India said on Thursday it had carried out “surgical strikes” on suspected militants preparing to infiltrate from Pakistan-ruled Kashmir.

The strikes, which were a response to shots fired across the de facto border through the disputed Himalayan territory, could lead to a military escalation between the two nuclear-armed neighbours – risking a ceasefire agreed in 2003.

Responding to India’s latest strikes, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said: “We will destroy India if it dares to impose war on us.

“Pakistan army is fully prepared to answer any misadventure of India.

“We have not made atomic device to display in a showcase.

“If a such a situation arises we will use it and eliminate India.”

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Will ISIS get a nuclear weapon from Pakistan?

India is concerned that Islamic State militants (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) could get their hands on a nuclear weapon from its regional foe and fellow nuclear power Pakistan.

Hatf IX (NASR) missile being fired during a test at an undisclosed location in Pakistan (Reuters / Pakistan Military Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) via Reuters TV / Handout) / Reuters
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"Cover 'em like a sack of flour, and keep them inside your homes."

The New Indian Express reports that the gentleman in the photo above held a news conference in Islamabad, Pakistan asking for military strikes against women who wear jeans.

According to him, the immodesty of women is the cause behind earthquakes, inflation and other kinds of disasters.

Fazlur Rehman went on to say that a woman who is not covered like a 'sack of flour' is a mobile weapon of mass destruction for her state and that Pakistan has multitude of such nuclear missiles in all its major cities.

Rehman then blamed 'immodest women' for the Baluchistan crisis, lack of energy supply and the deteriorating security situation in Pakistan.

Fazlur Rehman was suggesting that, if these women are wrapped in sacks and kept inside homes and if the Shariah law was in place, then the Taliban brothers would not be attacking Pakistan.

And you think we aren't blessed for living in America?
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Arms race

Bill Sanderson reports in the New York Post,

Saudi Arabia will join the nuclear club by buying “off the shelf” atomic weapons from Pakistan, US officials told a London newspaper.

The Saudis — who financed much of Pakistan’s nuke program — are fearful of international efforts to keep its enemy Iran from acquiring a bomb, the Sunday Times of London reports. The Saudis think the deal, backed by President Obama, will actually accelerate Iran’s nuke push.

Saudi Arabia has talked for years about acquiring a bomb from the Pakistanis. “The House of Saud has now made the strategic decision to move forward,” a former US defense official said.

Christians fighting back in Pakistan

Ed Krayewski writes at reason.com,

A pair of suicide bombings the Pakistani Taliban took credit for interrupted Sunday mass at two churches in the Christian neighborhood of the city of Youhanabad. At least 15 people were killed, including two police officers who tried to block the terrorists’ way into the churches. Two suspected attackers were also killed by a mob that gathered after the attacks.

Via the Pakistani newspaper Dawn:

Up to 4,000 Christians later spread across the city’s streets; many were armed with clubs as they smashed vehicles and attacked a Metro bus station in a rare show of anger by the beleaguered minority…

The thousands of Christian protesters who clashed with police on Sunday attacked their cars with stones and sticks, as women wept and beat their heads and chests.

The protesters, some wearing crosses round their necks, later turned on the city's bus rapid transit system -- a signature project of the ruling PML-N party of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Christians make up around two percent of Pakistan's mainly Muslim population of 180 million. They have been targeted in attacks and riots in recent years, often over allegations of blasphemy…

Christians also took to the streets in other cities, including Karachi, where around 200 protesters blocked a main road and burnt tyres. There were also demonstrations in Peshawar in the northwest, in the central city of Multan and in Quetta in the southwest.

How the Taliban and Pakistan's religious leaders work together

Carlotta Gall writes about how the Taliban and Pakistan's religious parties work together in madrasas in Pakistan to raise an army of militants.

The linchpin in this two-pronged and at times apparently oppositional strategy is the ISI. It’s through that agency that Pakistan’s true relationship to militant extremism can be discerned — a fact that the United States was slow to appreciate, and later refused to face directly, for fear of setting off a greater confrontation with a powerful Muslim nation.

The ISI is Pakistan's main intelligence service.

Read more here.

thanks to Scott Ott for linking to this piece.