Tag - pakistan

 
 

PAKISTAN

A soldier stands guard at a railway station in the Sibi district of southwestern Balochistan province, Pakistan, on March 12 as part of a security operation after militants hijacked a passenger train the previous day.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 19, 2025
Pakistan’s economy is back. But so is terrorism.
The disconnect between the grim drumbeat of terror attacks on the country’s margins and the positive economic news from its heartland is startling.
An injured train passenger is being transported following an operation against armed militants who ambushed the train in the remote mountainous area in Mach, southwestern Balochistan province in Pakistan on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Mar 13, 2025
Pakistan train hijacking ends with more than 50 people killed
The outlawed Balochistan Liberation Army took responsibility for the attack. 
A worker adjusts an anti-smog dust suppression sprayer installed at a construction site in Lahore on Feb. 17. Tens of millions of Pakistanis spent at least four months breathing toxic air pollution 20 times above safe levels, in the worst winter smog season for several years.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Mar 12, 2025
'Really suffocating': Pakistan emerges from record smog season
Pakistan regularly ranks among the world's most polluted countries, with Lahore often the most polluted megacity between November and February.
Students wave flags as they join during a rally at the University of Dhaka in Bangladesh on Sept. 5, 2024.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 23, 2025
After revolution, Bangladesh textbooks rewrite history
Radical changes to school curricula are routine in Bangladesh, where fierce political divisions date back decades.
U.S. President Donald Trump is seen on a TV screen in Kabul. Trump’s first term resulted in talks that eventually led to the Taliban’s return to power, but this time around, Afghans hope that the president will take a tough stance against the brutal regime.  
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 21, 2025
What Trump’s return could mean for Afghanistan
Despite Afghan refugees being denied admission to the U.S., at least for now, there is hope that the new Trump administration will undermine the brutal Taliban regime in Kabul.
An Afghan woman sits with her children along the roadside in Kandahar on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 10, 2025
Pakistan to force tens of thousands of Afghan refugees out of the capital
Pakistan has ordered Afghan refugees in Islamabad to leave by March 31, as Trump’s refugee ban leaves thousands in limbo.
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, sentenced to 14 years for corruption, reflects the country's recurring cycle of leaders rising with military backing and then falling out of favor.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 21, 2025
Jailing Imran Khan won’t fix Pakistan’s problems
Pakistan’s economic recovery hinges on reforms, stability and military backing.
Humaira Rafaqat, a senior traffic warden, teaches women how to ride a motorcycle while wearing an abaya, during a training session as part of the Women on Wheels program organized by the traffic police department in Lahore, Pakistan, on Oct. 1.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Dec 31, 2024
Women on Wheels: How a driving school program empowers Pakistani women
The driving program for women has become increasingly popular as car prices have soared and motorcycles offer a cheaper alternative.
People mourn over the graves of relatives who were killed after gunmen opened fire on passenger vehicles in the Kurram tribal district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, in Shalozan, Pakistan, on Nov. 22.
WORLD / Society
Dec 23, 2024
Terrorism roars back in Pakistan, 10 years after a campaign to end it
Violence has surged in northwestern Pakistan in the past few years, which experts attribute to the Taliban’s 2021 seizure of power in neighboring Afghanistan.
Factory workers make jeans in Dhaka in March 2023.
BUSINESS
Dec 9, 2024
Extreme heat puts garment factory workers at risk, study shows
New European Union regulations make retailers selling in the bloc legally liable for conditions at their suppliers.
A supporter of former Prime Minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party gestures after tear gas was fired by the police to disperse the crowd during a protest to demand Khan's release in Islamabad on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Nov 27, 2024
Pakistani forces launch midnight raid on Khan's supporters
At least six people, including four paramilitary soldiers, were killed before the night raid was launched.
Supporters of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party march toward Islamabad in Punjab province on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 26, 2024
One killed in clashes with Imran Khan's supporters in Pakistan
The latest protest march, which former Prime Minister Imran Khan has described as the "final call," is one of many his party has held to seek his release from jail.
A farmer cleans solar panels in a field in the Baluchistan region of Pakistan.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Nov 25, 2024
Surprise solar boom in Pakistan helps millions, but harms grid
The rise of solar in Pakistan has many benefits, but a rapid and unregulated boom also threatens to weaken the country’s utilities and destabilize the fragile economy.
A member of Pakistan's Airport Security Force stands guard near the wreckage of vehicles after an explosion near Jinnah International Airport in Karachi on Oct. 6.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 13, 2024
Beijing pushes to join security efforts for citizens in Pakistan, sources say
Last month's airport bombing that killed two Chinese engineers was the latest in a string of attacks on Beijing's interests in Pakistan.
Rizwan Gondal, the head police officer in Rahim Yar Khan distric, says that his detectives have a dossier proving the "heinous criminal activities" of Pakistani gangster Shahid Lund Baloch, who broadcasts on TikTok, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram defiant messages delivered gun-in-hand, romanticizing his rural lifestyle and cultivating a reputation as a champion of the people.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Nov 6, 2024
TikTok bandits terrorize and transfix Pakistan riverlands
In riverine terrain in central Punjab that has long offered them refuge, bandits use the internet to enthrall citizens even as they prey on them.
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a press conference at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Oct 25, 2024
Spurred by shared grievances, BRICS group gathers pace
BRICS' first summit, with its new batch of members, showed clear signs of the group's growing weight.
A young man waits for customers, while selling national flags and patriotic memorabilia in Karachi in August.
WORLD / Society
Oct 15, 2024
Pakistan 'vigilantes' behind rise in online blasphemy cases
Cases of online blasphemy — a crime that carries the death penalty in the country — have exploded in recent years, with arrests turning lives upside down.
Security officials examine the site of an explosion near Karachi's international airport in the Pakistani city on Sunday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Oct 7, 2024
'Terrorist attack' near Karachi airport kills two Chinese nationals
Separatist militant group Baloch Liberation Army has claimed responsibility over the attack, which it said targeted Chinese nationals.
Aziz Ahmed talks about young language carers in Maebashi City, Gunma Prefecture, on Sept. 18.
JAPAN / Society
Oct 5, 2024
Young language carer hopes to support others facing hardships in Japan
Aziz Ahmed came to Japan from Pakistan at the age of 9 and remembers the hardships he faced interpreting for family members who do not speak Japanese.
Bangladeshi military personnel stand guard at an empty police station in Dhaka on Aug. 9. The U.S. and Western nations have sacrificed democracy for geopolitics, evident in Bangladesh’s chaos and violence after the prime minister was recently forced from power.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 6, 2024
The Western world's stealthy assault on democracy
Elections alone — even if competitive — do not guarantee popular empowerment or adherence to constitutional rules, especially when the military holds decisive power.

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone. 
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan