Chinese bank backs out of Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project; Activists petition UN, calling for Pakistan to release Christian woman sentenced to death; Remote control bomb kills members of anti-Taliban militia; Three police officers killed in separate shooting incidents in Karachi; Security forces blow up office belonging to Lashkar-e-Islam in Khyber agency; Militants gun down three locals in Tirah valley; Unknown assailants open fire on police check post in Peshawar.
International Relations
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A Pakistani Finance Ministry official said Tuesday that the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), which had agreed to finance the Pakistani section of the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline, is backing out of the project. “I don’t think they [ICBC] are in the mood to brave American pressure and the threat of sanctions from any dealings with Iran,” said the official. Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar told reporters that ICBC’s reluctance would not impact the project, because “there are always a multiplicity of funding sources…available, and it is a “fairly viable project.” Pakistan’s Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) met on Tuesday to review alternate funding options for the pipeline. According to the ECC, if the ICBC formally backs out of the project, there are four possible options: a new tax, other banks, agreements with Russia or China, or an agreement with Iran.[1]
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Activists presented a petition to the UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday, calling for Pakistan to release Asia Bibi, a Christian woman who has been sentenced to death on the charge of blasphemy. A Pakistani court found Bibi guilty of violating the country’s blasphemy laws by defiling the name of the Prophet Muhammad during a 2009 argument with Muslim colleagues. The petition was signed by 50 activists including the UN General Assembly president and a former Czech foreign minister. In 2011, Punjab Governor Salman Taseer was assassinated after saying that the country’s blasphemy laws should be repealed, because they were being misused to persecute religious minorities such as Bibi.[2]
Militancy
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A remote control bomb exploded near a bus traveling through the Mamund area of Bajaur agency on Wednesday, killing at least five members of an anti-Taliban militia and wounding two others.[3]
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Three police officers, including an assistant sub-inspector and a head constable were killed and one was injured in multiple shooting incidents in different areas of Karachi.[4]
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During a search operation in the Sepah area of Bara tehsil, Khyber agency on Tuesday, security forces blew up an office belonging to Lashkar-e-Islam and killed a militant trying to escape the area.[5]
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Militants gunned down three locals in the Koki Khel area of Tirah valley on Tuesday, when they tried to stop the militants from entering the area.[6]
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Unknown assailants opened fire on a police check post in the Matani area of Peshawar on Wednesday, wounding three police officers.[7]