Kunwar Khuldune Shahid is a Pakistan-based correspondent for The Diplomat
From our UK edition
Pakistan and Afghanistan are at war with each other. Early Friday morning, Pakistan struck major Afghan cities including Kandahar and the capital Kabul, targeting Taliban military offices. ‘Ghazab Lil Haqq’, or Operation Righteous Fury, began after the Pakistani government said it had ‘run out of patience’ with the Taliban. On Thursday, the Taliban launched cross-border
From our UK edition
At least 31 were killed and over 170 wounded in a suicide bombing targeting a Shia mosque in Islamabad on Friday. The deadliest attack on Pakistan’s capital since 2008 comes just months after a bombing targeting one of the district courthouses jolted the city in November. These successive terror raids in the capital – already
From our UK edition
A Bangladeshi court sentenced the Labour MP Tulip Siddiq to two years in prison in absentia on Monday. Siddiq, who stepped down as anti-corruption minister earlier this year, has been found guilty of ‘influencing’ her aunt, the former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina, to secure a plot of valuable piece of land for her family outside Dhaka.
From our UK edition
The kidnapping of over 300 students and teachers from a Catholic school by armed men in the Papiri area of central Nigeria is one of the worst mass abductions the country has ever witnessed. The horrifying incident on Friday is far from isolated: more than 2,500 students have been taken in at least 70 raids
From our UK edition
At least eight people were killed in a car blast near New Delhi’s historic Red Fort on Monday. Less than 24 hours later, a district courthouse was targeted by a suicide bombing in Islamabad. A dozen people died. These successive blasts in the capitals of India and Pakistan have raised tensions between the two nuclear-armed
From our UK edition
Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, has expressed his support for Britain banning the burqa. ‘I probably would ban the burqa… There are basic values in this country and we should stand up and defend them, and… whether it’s sharia courts or wearing of the burqa, these are issues we’re going to have to confront,’
From our UK edition
Nepal’s prime minister KP Sharma Oli has resigned after nationwide demonstrations descended into bloodshed. At least 22 people have been killed and hundreds injured in the country’s deadliest protests for nearly two decades. Spearheaded by the Nepal’s disaffected youth, the ‘Gen Z protest’ has evolved into one targeting the corruption of the government coalition led by the Congress and Communist parties. The protests were
From our UK edition
Burkina Faso’s transitional legislative assembly passed a bill this week to outlaw homosexuality – making it the 32nd out of 54 African countries to criminalise homosexuality. The legislation, enacted under the military junta-run country’s new Persons and Family Code, penalises ‘behaviour likely to promote homosexual practices’ with prison sentences up to five years. The move
From our UK edition
More than 800 people have been killed, and thousands more injured, as of Monday evening after a magnitude-6 earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan late Sunday night. With the epicentre around 27km away from Afghanistan’s fifth-largest city, Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar, heavy tremors were felt as far as Kabul, around 130km westwards, and also eastwards in
Group forced Ottawa Pride march to be canceled
From our UK edition
The corruption trial of Tulip Siddiq formally commenced in Bangladesh on Wednesday. Among other allegations linked to £3.9 billion worth of embezzlement, the Bangladeshi-origin Labour MP has been accused by the Anti-Corruption Commission of securing luxury property for her family in Dhaka, using her relationship with the country’s former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who was
From our UK edition
Over 500 people are estimated to have been killed in the ongoing sectarian clashes between the Druze and Bedouin populations in Syria’s southern Suweida province this week. Vowing to protect the local Druze, and backing the community’s militia, Israel has bombed Syrian government forces around Suweida and launched missiles on Damascus. While Syria’s interim president
It is hard to imagine him lampooning Islamic festivals as he has Christmas and Hanukkah
From our UK edition
Journalists at LeMan are in fear for their lives after the Turkish satirical magazine published cartoons appearing to depict the Prophet Muhammad. The publication’s editor-in-chief Tuncay Akgun denied that the picture showed Muhammad, but his pleas have fallen on deaf ears. A mob gathered outside the magazine’s office in Istanbul on Monday. In the days
He doesn’t treat his religion or community with the scrutiny he reserves for others
From our UK edition
Swift condemnations have poured in from the Muslim world castigating Israel for bombing Iran. The UAE condemned Israel ‘in the strongest terms’, Jordan spoke up against Israeli attacks ‘threatening regional stability’, Saudi Arabia denounced ‘blatant Israeli aggressions’, Turkey espoused ‘an end to Israel’s banditry’, while various Muslim diplomatic groups, including the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), demanded ‘international action’ against the Jewish State. But cloaked
From our UK edition
MPs from Nigel Farage’s Reform party are calling for a burqa ban in Britain. Sarah Pochin, who won the Runcorn by-election last month, asked Sir Keir Starmer in the House of Commons this week if he would consider outlawing the garment. Her demand attracted the ire of Reform chairman Zia Yusuf, who has since stepped down
From our UK edition
Hamit Coskun has been found guilty of a ‘religiously-motivated public order offence’, after he burnt a Quran in front of the Turkish embassy in London. This is Britain’s first formal capitulation to Islamic blasphemy laws. Not only does it suggest that Islam deserves special protection against sacrilege, and shielding from the freedom to offend, but
From our UK edition
After more than four days of clashes since the early hours of Wednesday morning, India and Pakistan have agreed to a full ceasefire. President Donald Trump announced it on his Truth Social Platform, confirming that the ceasefire had come ‘after a long night of talks mediated by the United States’. The announcement was made hours
From our UK edition
During the early hours of Wednesday, India launched airstrikes targeting nine sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, killing at least eight people, with Islamabad claiming as many as 26 may have died. In a press release issued overnight, the Indian government said the strikes were aimed at ‘terrorist infrastructure’ in response to the April 22
