SHAFAQNA

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Thousands of Shia Muslims have staged a demonstration in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi to condemn the Shia killings in the South Asian country. On Friday, the demonstrators shouted slogans against the government and criticized Pakistan’s security forces for failing to provide security to the country’s Shia Muslims. They also denounced the Saudi Arabian policy of funding extremist groups that commit acts of violence against Muslims in Pakistan. In addition, the protesters…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –Angelina Jolie paid glowing tribute to the Pakistani teenager who was shot by the Taliban for advocating for girls’ education, introducing Malala Yousafzai to the Women in the World summit via a new video from Britain. “Today I’m going to announce the happiest moment of my life,” the 15-year-old said, at one point shyly covering her face with her hands. She said a new school in Pakistan would be built for 40 girls. “Let us turn…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – The swift growth of Islamic banking is amazing economists in Muslim-majority Pakistan, a boom analysts predict to grow further due to the big potentials of the sector. “In given circumstances, this is an amazing growth,” Muzzamil Aslam, a Karachi-based economist, told OnIslam.net. “But it does not amaze me a lot. Not because it is not a big achievement, but because the growth could me much higher if the potential of Islamic banking is actually…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –Dozens of suspected militants attacked a major power station in northwest Pakistan with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades and killed seven people, police said on Tuesday. The assault, in the run-up to May 11 general elections, destroyed the biggest power station in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, suspending electricity supply to half of the major city of Peshawar. It served as a reminder that Pakistan's leaders have failed to tackle a Taliban insurgency that remains potent despite a…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager shot in the head by the Taliban as she returned home from school, is writing a book about the traumatic event and her long-running campaign to promote children’s education. Publisher Weidenfeld and Nicolson announced that it would release “I am Malala” in Britain and Commonwealth countries this fall. Little, Brown and Co. will publish the 15-year-old’s memoir in the United States and much of the rest of the world. “Malala…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's former president, has arrived in Karachi, returning to the country after more than four years in self-imposed exile to run in upcoming elections. Musharraf landed at Karachi's Jinnah International airport as scheduled on Sunday, aboard a commercial flight from Dubai. The airport was heavily secured after a death threat against Musharraf by the Pakistani Taliban on Saturday. Al Jazeera's Imran Khan, reporting from Karachi, said Musharraf, who was the former chief of…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- The Pakistani Taliban vowed to assassinate former President Pervez Musharraf if he returns to the country as planned Sunday, a spokesman for the terrorist group said in a video message online. Tehrik-i-Taliban will send out a "death squad" to kill him, Ehsanullah Ehsan said Saturday. One of the squad members addressed Musharraf in English, demanding the former president surrender himself. After resigning in 2008, Musharraf spent five years in self-imposed exile in London and…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – An airstrike carried out by US assassination drones has killed four people in Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal area, which borders Afghanistan, security officials say. US drones fired two missiles on a house in Dattakhel town, 35 kilometres (21 miles) west of Miranshah, the main city in North Waziristan, in the early hours of Friday morning, killing four people and injuring several others, the Pakistani television network Dawn News reported. Between 2,536 and 3,577 people…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –At least twelve people were killed on Thursday by a car bomb at a camp in northwest Pakistan for people displaced by fighting between government forces and Islamist militants, police said. The bomb exploded in the Jalozai camp in Nowshera in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, an area bordering Afghanistan and a stronghold for insurgents bent on toppling Pakistan's U.S.-backed governmen "Food was being distributed among the internally displaced persons when the blast took place," Nowshera police chief…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –Malala Yousafzai has returned to school for the first time since she was shot in the head by the Taliban in October for campaigning for the education of girls. The 15-year-old said on Tuesday that she had "achieved her dream" and was looking forward to meeting new friends at the independent Edgbaston High School for Girls in Birmingham, central England, where she is now living. Malala was flown to Britain for surgery following the attack and underwent…