SHAFAQNA

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- India's army chief accused Pakistan on Monday of detailed planning of an attack along Kashmir's de factor border last week in which two soldiers were killed and said India reserved the right to retaliate. The comments, which came as public anger mounts over the decapitation of one of the slain soldiers, appear certain to further inflame tensions between the nuclear-armed enemies. Last week's fighting was the worst outbreak of violence in Kashmir, the Himalayan region…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – The Shia genocide in Pakistan is the product of a twisted ill-defined mentality systematically promoted by the US and its puppet Arab regimes, an academic says. “The root causes of religious extremism in Pakistan are traceable to the time when the US government sought to oust Soviet forces from Afghanistan. In those days, the ISI [Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence] was heavily mobilized by the US and funded by the Saudi Wahhabis to achieve this goal,”…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Tens of thousands of Pakistani Shia Muslims have staged demonstrations across the country to condemn Thursday’s massacre in the southwestern city of Quetta. More than 90 Pakistanis lost their lives in twin bomb attacks that targeted Shia Muslims in a crowded billiard hall in Quetta. Two other bomb attacks were carried out in Pakistan on Thursday -- one in the Swat Valley and one more in Quetta -- that left a total of 130…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- Talks between Pakistani officials and Shia leaders have failed to quell a protest that brought thousands of people out onto cold, wet streets for a second night to watch over the bodies of 96 people killed in Quettain one of the country's worst sectarian attacks. Qayyum Changazi, chairman of the Yakjehti Council, a national alliance of predominantly Shia organisations, said on Saturday the talks had produced no result. He said the protest would continue until the army took…

SHAFAQNA(Shia International News Association)-Taliban militants in Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan have destroyed 10 supply trucks bound for US-led troops in Afghanistan. The incident took place late Friday after the militants attacked a convoy of NATO trucks on the outskirts of Quetta.  The provincial officials said that the militants fired four rockets at the trucks, which were parked at a terminal near the Hazara Ganji area of Quetta, damaging 10 of the trucks.  The trucks were on the way to…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Iran has strongly condemned recent bomb attacks in Pakistan in which more than 100 people, including Shia Muslims, were killed. According to Press TV, on Friday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast also called for an international condemnation of the criminal acts and offered his sympathy to the families of the victims of the terrorist attacks. He referred to the increased killing of Pakistani citizens in recent weeks as “targeted” attacks. Mehmanparast said: “Undoubtedly,…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a Sunni Muslim extremist group, has claimed responsibility for an attack targeting Shia Muslims in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta. More than 100 people were killed and scores of others wounded in a series of multiple attacks across Pakistan, including at least 81 in the bombing in Quetta. Bomb explosions and violent deaths rocked Quetta, the Swat Valley in the northwest, and the port city of Karachi on Thursday. At least 92…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- A series of bombings in different parts of Pakistan killed 103 people on Thursday, including 69 who died in a sectarian attack on a bustling billiard hall in the southwest city of Quetta, officials said. The blasts punctuated one of the deadliest days in recent years in Pakistan, where the government faces a bloody insurgency by Taliban militants in the northwest and Baluch militants in the southwest. Elsewhere in Pakistan, a bomb in a crowded…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- India reacted angrily today at what it called the "inhumane treatment" of one of two soldiers killed Tuesday in a skirmish along the de facto border with Pakistan. Pakistan challenged the Indian army's allegations and said it is prepared to hold an investigation through the United Nations Military Observers Group for India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) into recent ceasefire violations along what is known as the Line of Control (LOC). The killing of Indian troops…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- Last month Pakistan's government briefly lifted its ban on YouTube, only to reinstate it just a few minutes later upon discovering that the controversial film "Innocence of Muslims" had not been removed. But now it looks like the country is set for a more permanent solution. As reported by Pakistani newspaper Dawn, the government will unblock access to YouTube once it has completed a filter to sift out offensive content. "We believe in access to free information," Prime…