Asad Hashim
@AsadHashim
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Journalist, sometimes anthropologist. Editor with AFP. Ex-AJE digital corro in Pakistan. Ex-Reuters. AFP Kate Webb Prize '18. All views and opinions my own.
Joined June 2010
In 2001, Wajeeh-ul-Hassan was arrested for committing "blasphemy", allegedly writing a series of letters insulting to Islam and its Prophet. He spent almost half his life on death row, before the Supreme Court acquitted him in October. This is his story:
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Pakistani FM SM Qureshi and military spokesperson Maj-Gen Babar Iftikhar accuse India of being a "state sponsor of terrorism in Pakistan". The accusation is common, but in presser FM and DG ISPR shared documents, names, phone numbers and signal intercepts, which is unprecedented.
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At Islamabad's Red Mosque, hundreds have gathered for Friday midday congregational prayers, in defiance of government orders on social distancing in the wake of the country's coronavirus outbreak.
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Reporting from the site of Indian bombing in the Pakistani village of Jaba today, for @AJEnglish. It appears two bombs impacted in uninhabited forest, two in a farmer's field. One minor injury, none killed. More to follow.
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Pakistan Navy "detected and blocked" an Indian submarine from entering Pakistani territorial waters on Oct 16, in third attempted incursion in recent times, says Pakistani military in statement. Short accompanying video appears to show FLIR camera footage of a submarine mast.
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"I'm not worried," says Yasmin Rashid, a PTI candidate who failed to win her Lahore constituency against the PML-N. "The most important thing is that our party has won." Rashid will now enter the Punjab Assembly on a reserved women's seat.
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Pakistani PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has announced a state funeral for Ruth Pfau for her "selfless and unmatched services" to Pakistan.
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Have never been at a rally demanding basic human rights, such as an end to encounter killings and enforced disappearances, that has been as big as this. #PashtunTahafuzMovement #PashtunLongMarch2Peshawar
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In major, marked policy change, Pakistani PM Khan says will grant citizenship to all Afghan and Bengali refugees who have been born in Pakistan.
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[For @AJEnglish] Pakistani journalist @HamidMirPAK taken off the air, his news organisation confirms, days after criticising the country's military at a protest against an attack on a fellow journalist.
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BREAKING: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan says Pakistan will release the captured Indian air force pilot tomorrow.
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BREAKING: Pakistani PM Imran Khan says would give Kashmir right to independence if Kashmiris choose it, after UN-mandated plebiscite and if they vote to join Pakistan in that referendum.
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.@HamidMirPAK on Geo right now, rightly telling a panel of analysts that if today's suicide blast in Mastung had taken place in Punjab, everyone would be talking about it. Instead, they're speculating wildly about NS' plane.
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Pakistan's Supreme Court has acquitted Wajeeh-ul-Hassan, 41, a man who has spent 17 years on death row for "blasphemy", his lawyer tells AJE. Hassan was accused of writing "blasphemous letters" to the complainant, a Lahore-based lawyer, in 1999.
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EU observer mission says overall, 2018 elections were "not as good" as 2013 elections, mainly due to warped pre-election environment.
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An incredibly moving account from a survivor of the Army Public School attack in Peshawar in 2014. "When I arrived in the emergency room, I was left with the dead bodies and not the patients. I had lost so much blood that my body was paralysed." .
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.@HamidMirPAK, live on Geo News, says he will name who is behind the conspiracy toppling government, pauses, and then says "Imran Khan". Everyone on the panel chuckles, and anchor Shahzeb Khanzada jokes that he was afraid Mir would take a diff name "and be taken off air again".
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Pakistan's media says it is banned from covering opposition politicians, their views, and dissent in general, on pain of vanishing off-air. For @AJEnglish, I documented cases of censorship, how it happens, and how journalists are internalising red lines:
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Judge Atir Mehmood admonishes petitioner for wasting the courts time, pointing out that only federal govt can initiate treason proceedings. Meanwhile, the SAME JUDGE is sitting on the bench hearing the treason petition against @cyalm and two former PMs.
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BREAKING: Pakistani PM Imran Khan offers to speak to Indian PM Narendra Modi via telephone, "is ready to offer peace", says Pakistan FM to Geo News. "Is Modi ready?".
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Local journalists tell @AJEnglish that location of Indian payload drop appears to be Jaba, an uninhabited forest area in Mansehra district located about 10km from border with Pakistan-administered Kashmir and 60km from LoC.
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Muhammad Ali Rezai normally travelled with a police guard, but his protection was withdrawn under orders from the Supreme Court to withdraw all guards from private citizens. In the 12 hours it took to reissue orders, he was shot dead.
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Toronto police confirm the body of Karima Baloch, 37, a prominent Pakistani rights activist, has been found. "It is currently being investigated as a non-criminal death and there are not believed to be any suspicious circumstances," says police spokesperson.
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In which the Pakistan Air Force "forcibly occupied" land in Lahore for "national security" purposes, to set up a radar station, then converted it into a housing scheme. Classic.
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At least four killed and seven wounded in Kotli district of Pakistan administered Kashmir, hospital official tells AJE. Intense shelling at the Line of Control this evening in Nakyal and Koiratta sectors, residents say.
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I actually don't know how to process this. 152/0? Pakistan? _My_ Pakistan? By ten wickets? Yeh bhi hota he cricket mein? Love this team.
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This story keeps getting more fascinating. Muhd Fayyaz never completed his schooling, and taught himself how to make this ultralight aircraft by watching National Geographic's Air Crash Investigation. Now, he just wants his plane back.
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UK's National Crime Agency agrees £190 million settlement after investigation into Pakistani property tycoon Malik Riaz. "The assets will be returned to the State of Pakistan," says NCA statement.
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BREAKING: Pakistan says undertook air strikes vs Indian targets from Pakistani side of LoC. "We have no intention of escalation, but are fully prepared to do so if forced into that paradigm. That is why we undertook the action with clear warning and in broad daylight," says FO.
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Pakistan's crowdfunding effort for two hydroelectric dams in the north of the country hits $71.56 million. Just $12.3 billion to go. At this rate, should only take about 116.1 years.
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India's Sports Authority spent more than $600,000 on Neeraj Chopra's training in the last four years alone, but Nadeem Arshad lost out on medals because of "extensive social media use", according to POC vice-president Brig Zaheer Akhtar. 🤦��️
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"I saved democracy in this country, I am the biggest supporter of democracy," says Army Chief Bajwa. From who, exactly, General?
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So, err, a thing happened. Very honoured to be selected by the jury this year, at a time when reporters around the world are working in increasingly difficult environments, with restrictions often enabled by governments.
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"Since it was such a long flight, the pilots took the plane for a test flight, and when they landed pieces of the engine had come apart," says Pitbull, in apology for cancelling appearance at PSL opening. Best version of "my dog ate my homework" I've ever heard.
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Interior Ministry says rights activist Gulalai Ismail, a prominent member of the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement, was placed on the ECL due to her alleged "anti-state activities", at the ISI's suggestion. Extraordinary.
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“Imran Khan wanted to sack the army chief, but the forces received information about it and they thwarted his plan after they came to know about it,” @guardian quotes a security official as saying. “Khan wanted to create a huge crisis to remain in power.”
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A couple of hundred PML-N, PPP, ANP and other party protesters here outside the Election Commission, rejecting Pakistan's general election result.
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Tested positive for COVID two weeks ago. Spent 11 days in isolation, at least two of those in bed and pretty much unable to move. Symptoms included a fever that came and went with wild abandon and little regard for any medication. Zero out of five stars. Do not recommend.
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Saudi Arabia agrees to loan Pakistan $3 billion for one year as "balance of payment support", and to provide a one-year deferred payment facility for oil payments, up to $3 billion: Pakistan Foreign Office.
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In contrast, other mosques in the Pakistani capital have also held congregational prayers, but advised people to maintain distance between them when they pray. (This picture taken at a main mosque in the city's F8 sector.)
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True heroes.
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A bit of a personal update: Today is my last day at @AJEnglish, after >11 years with the organisation. AJE's is a unique newsroom, one that is thoughtful, reflexive and constantly centres the core value of speaking truth to power. It's important work, long may it continue.
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"They talk about 'an era of development'. Tell them that in your 'era of development' our bodies [of Pashtuns] are being found by dogs," says @ManzoorPashteen in press conference in Islamabad. "Those who talk of [human] rights are branded as traitors."
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Manzoor Ahmed, 70, is winning today's 'Best Protester Prop' award, so far:
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Extraordinary. Police in Islamabad arrested a civilian engineer for writing letters criticising army policy to Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa, charged him with "abetting mutiny" and handed him over to army custody.
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PTI leader Asad Umar says the PML-N and others who are claiming rigging are "sympathetic to India.".
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Shah Mehmood Qureshi now essentially delivering Imran Khan's inaugural speech as prime minister in the third person. Bizarre.
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A journalist is abducted in broad daylight in the Pakistani capital, and the JIT, FIA, Islamabad police (who sought ISI and IB help, as per this report) and NADRA tell the Supreme Court it is impossible to identify who abducted him.
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Early in his speech, Imran Khan brings many of his arguments back to stunted growth and mental capacity due to malnourishment. It's a very real, under-reported crisis.
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Interesting. Just did the math. The US has actually given Pakistan $14.788 billion in civilian & military aid since 2001 (Source: , in addition to $14.585 billion in Coalition Support Funds, which is a reimbursement, not aid (
The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!.
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Amna Bibi, 74, is voting for the PTI in Lahore's NA-125 constituency. A former PPP activist, she says she left the party when Benazir Bhutto was killed. "[Imran] is a man you can look in the eye," she says. #PakistanElection2018
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Both FM and DG ISPR made allegations regarding specific attacks on Pakistani soil, mentioned names of alleged Indian intelligence handlers of armed groups in Pakistan, shared documents regarding alleged financial transfers to those groups and internal Indian security meetings.
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With @TahaSSiddiqui right now. It is a miracle that he escaped. He was beaten, threatened with death and his belongings taken.This is unacceptable. Journalism is not a crime.
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BREAKING: Far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders cancels cartoon competition depicting Islam's Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), citing threats to his and others' safety.
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BREAKING: Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi says Pakistan is "ready to consider" release of Indian pilot "if it allows for a de-escalation".
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Mazhar Abbas, on Geo, says Indian and Pakistani media should show footage of Hiroshima & Nagasaki, and testimony of nuclear bomb survivors.
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Geo News, after a breathless day of reporting possible outbreak of war between India and Pakistan, now back on its PSL special transmission. Ah, the power of cricket.
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Pakistan blocks Voice of America's Urdu language service website - after blocking the Pashto website months ago - for its coverage of the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement rights group and its rallies, with govt accusing the org of not covering "positive" stories.
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Sikhs worldwide celebrate Baisakhi today, and more than 1,800 Indian Sikhs are among the pilgrims at Panja Sahib, in Pakistan. "If there is war, all will suffer, on both sides. We are one people," Jagah Singh, 70, a pilgrim from Nangal told AJE.
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"Surely Pakistan cannot lose this from here. " is pretty high up there, as a Pakistan cricket fan.
What is the scariest sentence you can hear in cricket? 🙈. #Halloween.
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At least 30 confirmed killed in PIA air crash in southern Pakistani city of Karachi, with several wounded, says Sindh health department. So far, only three bodies' identities confirmed due to severe burns. At least two aircraft passengers are confirmed to be among the survivors.
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Ridiculous events at the Lahore High Court today. That court even admitted a treason petition vs a reporter for doing an on-the-record interview (!!) w a former prime minister is insane, and the implications for our slide into actual fascism clear. #Journalismisnotacrime @cyalm.
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Supreme Court questions whether parties like Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, which oppose the constitution of Pakistan, can be registered as political parties. These remarks could also have implications for the 'mainstreaming' of the JuD's MML, LeJ's SSP etc.
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Cate Blanchett should be given every acting award that exists for her work in Mrs America. And then they should invent a bunch of new ones and give them to her, too. She was phenomenal.
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In the name of Pakistan's martyred soldiers, the military takes a staggering amount of land from poor farmers, at 1/100th the market rate (paid to the Sindh govt, not the farmers). And we pretend our military is not a business? .
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Family of Baloch rights activist Karima Baloch says Pakistani security officials refused to hand over her body to family on arrival in Karachi and are now taking it to an unknown location.
Previously we thought only living Baloch are prone to abductions. Here, this is a new law. Even a Baloch dead woman is not spared from abduction by Pakistan
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Dawn reports that the Sindh govt will be converting the Karachi Expo Centre into a temporary 10,000-bed hospital. Pro-active steps like this - before coronavirus cases hit - appear to be imperative in order to ensure effective control of the outbreak.
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SJC issues show-cause notices to Justice Qazi Faez Isa,one accusing him of not disclosing children's assets, another saying he inappropriately responded to the accusation. Isa is the only Supreme Court judge who has challenged the military in his rulings.
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In stinging rebuke to Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, PM Khan says their actions are akin to those undertaken by enemies of the state and are unlawlful. "I ask you: do not force the government to have to take action," he concludes. #AasiaBibi.
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Well, that was interesting. Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adil al-Jubeir launches a tirade against Iran as the "chief sponsor of terrorism" in the world - state media cuts audio feed, with anchor cutting in to speak over that portion of press conference.
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"The death sentence for Zahir Jaffer, this was very necessary. I said time and again that this was not a case of my daughter, it is a question of all of Pakistan's daughters," says Shaukat Mukadam, Noor Mukadam's father, after Zahir Jaffer sentenced to death for Noor's murder.
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Pakistan calls on international community "to play its role for peace and stability in the region by a) compelling India to immediately halt its state sponsorship of terrorism in Pakistan" says Pakistani FM @SMQureshiPTI.
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For @AJEnglish, from the site of the Indian airstrikes in Jaba: no casualties visible, with four craters in a forest and a field. But an air of mystery surrounds a nearby Jaish e Muhammad madrassa.
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Yesterday, an anti-terrorism court in Peshawar indicted the parents of rights activist @Gulalai_Ismail on charges of actively aiding two TTP attacks, on a church (2013) and a Shia mosque (2015), in Peshawar, claiming they funded them and provided resources. They deny all charges.
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The IPI names Pakistan's Cyril Almeida @cyalm as its 2019 World Press Freedom Hero. A thoroughly deserved prize, for a journalist who has faced treason charges and extraordinary intimidation for doing his job. It could not go to a finer journalist.
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"We are presenting irrefutable evidence to the world to demonstrate the Indian state's direct sponsorship of terrorism in Pakistan [. ]The intl community can no longer turn a blind eye to this rogue behaviour by a state that refuses to adhere to intl laws [. ]." - @SMQureshiPTI.
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In interview with @AJEnglish, @mjdawar says he is in "extreme danger" and in hiding in North Waziristan, denies attacking check post, says was in area to investigate allegation of rights abuse during a security forces raid.
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In Kasur, a man strangled his sister to death after she moved home following a divorce. In the same district, another man beat his mother to death after an argument.
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[For @AJEnglish] Every few weeks, a new blasphemy allegation surfaces in Pakistan, often accompanied by calls for the accused to be murdered. So, what makes blasphemy such an emotive issue in Pakistan? (Hint: it's less religion, more politics.)
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And Prime Minister Imran Khan claims Pakistan's media is "too free".
Spot the difference in the instructions sent by ISPR on whatsapp on how to report the Bajwa story, and the story filed by Tribune. Turning even their corruption into a virtue. Saddest day in Pakistan’s journalism.
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PTV appears to be muting the audio when senators vote "no" during the live telecast of the Senate session, as the upper house takes up the bills for extension in the army (and other armed forces) chief's tenure. Extraordinary.
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Alamzeb Mehsud is one of the founders of the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement, and has been instrumental in gathering data on missing persons and landmine victims for the organisation, as well as in organising PTM's demonstrations around the country.
Alamzaib was picked up from Karachi earlier today. Other PTM activists with him were allegedly beaten up. Freedom of peaceful assembly must be protected. Activists must never be attacked. #ReleaseAlamZaib #Pakistan.
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Anatomy of a Pakistani lynching:the story of how a Christian couple came to be burned alive for blasphemy: http://t.co/5odZkgynqt [for AJAM].
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Hassan becomes only the third Pakistani accused of blasphemy whose appeal has ever been heard by the Supreme Court - the SC has upheld all three appeals, acquitting each of the accused, notably Aasia Bibi in 2018.
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There is a Jaish-e-Muhammad run seminary near the site of the bombing, located about 500m away as the crow flies but over a steep ridge. (Photograph taken today, showing Masood Azhar as "leader" and Muhd Yusuf Azhar as "administrator".) More reporting on this to follow.
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PTI chief Imran Khan drags "blasphemy" into election, says: "In order to make the international lobby happy, [the PML-N] changed an oath on the finality of Prophethood, in secret." AJE reports on how far-right is entering Pakistan's political mainstream:
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Was an honour and privilege to be awarded AFP's Kate Webb Prize in Islamabad today, and to meet with Webb's siblings. It, I feel, is a recognition of the incredibly challenging circumstances in which all Pakistani journalists have been working for the last year, and beyond.
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At least 39 people killed and 135 injured in thunderstorms, high winds and dust storms across the country since Sunday, Pakistan's NDMA says in statement.
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The wreckage of a mosque is seen after Indian strikes in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, on May 7, 2025. Photo: @AFPphoto
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Top trend in Pakistan right now: #ArrestAntiPakJournalists, credit for which is being taken by two separate accounts that claim to support Prime Minister Imran Khan's PTI party. #JournalismIsNotACrime.
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Taha Siddiqui, a Pakistani journalist, was beaten and threatened, and only escaped by running through oncoming traffic.
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Pakistan's Information Minister @fawadchaudhry says Pakistan has helped evacuated at least 22,400 people from Afghanistan of various nationalities, with 3,400 flying by air and more than 19,000 leaving by land border crossings.
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In which, instead of ordering an investigation or action, PM Khan and his cabinet "reject" an audit report that found $29.8 million in irregularities in the government COVID-19 response programme spending.
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Quetta's Hazaras live in two protected enclaves in the city. They cannot leave these enclaves due to threats to their lives. Every morning, police escort a convoy of Hazara vegetable sellers to the sabzi mandi to stock up for the day. The explosion targeted this group.
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I wonder what Yousuf Raza Gilani is thinking, hearing all this about it being "historic" that a Pakistani PM is being called before the SC. .
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