Category: Pakistan

Nuclear-Armed Pakistan Developing Long-Range Ballistic Missile Capabilities

What could possibly go wrong?

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According to Reuters, nuclear-armed Pakistan “is developing long-range ballistic missile capabilities that could eventually allow it to strike targets well beyond South Asia, making it an ’emerging threat’ to the United States.” Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer identified the nuclear-armed states with missiles capable of reaching the United States: Russia, North Korea and China. And Pakistan “is striving to join” them, while helping to destabilize the region and fueling the Axis of Evil. The Brookings Institution put forward the idea of appeasing Pakistan so as not to inflame it and escalate, but history demonstrates that appeasement never works with states that advance jihad. Any “close ties” between Pakistan and America were always based on falsehoods to begin with. Pakistan has always played a double game, steadily advancing terrorism as a state funder.

Pakistan is also as virulently against Israel for being a Jewish nation as it is against India for being a Hindu nation. It has become increasingly problematic and threatening to free societies. Consequently, the US has updated a travel advisory for Americans considering visiting the country:

Terrorists may attack with little or no warning, targeting transportation hubs, markets, shopping malls, military installations, airports, universities, tourist attractions, schools, hospitals, places of worship, and government facilities. Terrorists have targeted U.S. diplomats and diplomatic facilities in the past.

In response, the U.S. has levied sanctions. Eurasian Times reported on December 21, 2024:

From sending its armada to support Islamabad during the 1971 war against India to sanctioning a Pakistani state-owned enterprise trying to develop long-range ballistic missiles that threaten Washington, US-Pakistan relations have come full circle.

As per the Pentagon’s assessment, Pakistan is striving to join a small list of adversaries – Russia, North Korea, and China that can strike United States territory. Islamabad’s sophisticated missile development program that brings territory outside South Asia within its striking range is inimical to the interests of the United States.

It is the first time that the US has sanctioned a Pakistani state-owned enterprise tied to missile development. Sanctions have been imposed on four Pakistani entities, including the state-owned National Development Complex (NDC), for their role in advancing Pakistan’s missile program….

As per the US assessment, the NDC is responsible for Pakistan’s development of ballistic missiles, including the Shaheen-series ballistic missiles….

The four “entities” named in the American sanctions for contributing to Pakistan’s Ballistic Missile Program are: the National Development Complex (NDC), located in Islamabad; Akhtar and Sons Private Limited, Affiliates International, and Rockside Enterprise–located in Karachi. The US Executive Order “targets proliferators of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery.”

Pakistan’s reaction to American sanctions was an expected one. Similarly to Iran, it downplayed its nuclear intentions:

Pakistan considers the US decision to impose sanctions on NDC and three commercial entities as unfortunate and biased. Pakistan’s strategic capabilities are meant to defend its sovereignty and preserve peace and stability in South Asia. The latest installment of sanctions defies the objective of peace and security by aiming to accentuate military asymmetries. Such policies have dangerous implications for the strategic stability of our region and beyond.

With a nuclear Pakistan, America must act. Ironically, The Guardian called for peaceful diplomacy with Pakistan in 2017, which it accused Trump of “shunning.” In the words of The Guardian: “attempts to strong-arm Islamabad could push it deeper into a growing alliance with China and Russia, and lead to more instability.” Yet after four years of an appeasing Biden regime, Pakistan has escalated its threats. Trump had it right when he considered a “harsher stance” to deter Pakistan for its support of jihadist groups in Afghanistan.

Appeasement never works with jihadists, but leftists are immune to accepting this reality.

Pakistan: Muslims torture Christians and force them to recite the Islamic profession of faith

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SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2024/02/pakistan-muslims-torture-christians-and-force-them-to-recite-the-islamic-profession-of-faith; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

The Qur’an says “There is no compulsion in religion” (2:256). However, what constitutes “compulsion” is in the eye of the beholder. The institutionalized subjugation of the dhimma, with its regular humiliation and harassment, from which one can be freed for the simple price of converting to Islam, is not considered compulsion. Remember Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig, the journalists who were kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam — even though their conversions were obviously coerced, their captors made them say that they were converting freely, and the captors probably believed that themselves. After all, the journos could have chosen to be killed instead.

“Christians Tortured, Forced to Recite Islamic Creed in Pakistan,” Morning Star News, February 1, 2024:

LAHORE, Pakistan (Christian Daily International–Morning Star News) – An Islamist cleric presided over the forced conversion of two Christians into Sialkot District, Pakistan, after they were tortured into reciting the Islamic conversion creed, sources said.

Azam Masih, 28, and his brother, Nadeem Masih, were abducted, beaten with iron rods and pressured to convert to Islam on Jan. 22 in the Kotli Loharan area, said Adil Ghauri, chairman of the Masihi Baidari Tehreek or Movement for Christian Awakening.

Azam Masih was working at his tailoring shop in the Kharota Syedan market when Naseem Shah and accomplices held him at gunpoint and forcibly took him to the house of another suspect, Sunny Shah, Ghauri said.

“The assailants accused Azam of patronizing ‘wrongdoings’ in the area and started beating him with iron rods,” Ghauri told the Christian Daily International-Morning Star News, adding that the suspects later abducted his younger brother, brought him to the house and subjected him to the same torture. “The accused then forced the two Christians to recite the Kalima [proclamation of Islamic conversion] if they wanted to save their lives, threatening to kill them if they refused. The tortured brothers had no choice but to surrender to this demand.”

The suspects also recorded a video statement from the two brothers in which they were forced to say that they were converting to Islam of their own free will, Ghauri said. He added that the assailants also snatched mobile phones and other belongings from the two brothers before releasing them.

The rights activist said the brothers and their impoverished Christian family chose to keep silent about the ordeal, as the suspects had warned them against contacting police.

“We came to know about this incident on Jan. 24 and immediately contacted the family,” Ghauri said. “After much persuasion, we were able to convince the family to file a First Information Report [FIR] with the police, as keeping silent would have only encouraged the perpetrators to target more Christians living in the village.”

More than 300 Christian families are settled there, he added.

Kotli Loharan police arrested a Muslim cleric alleged to have conducted the conversion and registered charges against the suspects of kidnapping, punishable by death or life imprisonment; theft with intention to cause injury or death, punishable by up to 10 years in prison; threatening death or grievous injury, punishable by up to seven years in prison; causing injury to extort a confession, punishable by up to 10 years in prison; and acts committed by several persons in furtherance of common intention.

The suspects, Naseem Shah and Sunny Shah, have criminal backgrounds and have been involved in inciting hatred against Christians, Ghauri said.

“This is not the first time Christians have been targeted in that area,” Ghauri said. “In fact, after the Aug. 16, 2023 attacks in Jaranwala, at least two-three attempts were made to stir religious tension by throwing torn pages of the Quran near Christian homes. Had the police and district administration taken timely action against the perpetrators of those incidents, this incident could have been prevented.”…

30,830 Turks, 6,386 Afghans, 1,613 Pakistanis, 659 Iranians, 538 Syrians caught at Southern border since 2021

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SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2023/10/30830-turks-6386-afghans-1613-pakistanis-659-iranians-538-syrians-caught-at-southern-border-since-2021;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

Once again, what could possibly go wrong? What could be more wonderful than diversity?

“Thousands of ‘special interest aliens’ from Middle East countries stopped at southern border since 2021: data,” by Adam Shaw, Bill Melugin, and Griff Jenkins, Fox News, October 10, 2023:

Thousands of “special interest aliens” from numerous countries, including the Middle East, have been arrested by Border Patrol agents while attempting to cross the U.S. southern border illegally over the last two years, according to internal Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data leaked to Fox News.

“Special interest aliens” are people from countries identified by the U.S. government as having conditions that promote or protect terrorism or potentially pose some sort of national security threat to the U.S.

That data, confirmed by multiple CBP sources and reflects apprehensions between ports of entry between October 2021 and October 2023, shows that agents encountered 6,386 nationals from Afghanistan in that period as well as 3,153 from Egypt, 659 from Iran and 538 from Syria.

Agents also encountered 13,624 from Uzbekistan, 30,830 from Turkey, 1,613 from Pakistan, 164 from Lebanon, 185 from Jordan, 139 from Yemen, 123 from Iraq, and 15,594 from Mauritania. The data does not include information on how many of those migrants were removed or who were released into the U.S. with a court date….

Border Patrol sources tell Fox they have extreme concerns about the people coming across from special interest countries, given they have little to no way to vet them. Unless they have committed a crime in the U.S. or are on a federal watch list, agents have no way of knowing their criminal history because their countries do not share data with the U.S., so there is nothing to match their name against when authorities run their fingerprints….