Pakistan
Honda motorcycle and Kerala state transport workers strike in India; Pakistan health workers oppose privatisation
Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific
9 November 2019
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.
Detentions without charge, night-raids, torture:
India’s state of siege in Kashmir continues
By Wasantha Rupasinghe, 10 October 2019
With the blessing of India’s Supreme Court and the staunch support of big business and the opposition, the BJP government continues to impose an unprecedented security lockdown and communications blackout.
Sri Lankan PM backs Indian repression in Kashmir
By Wasantha Rupasinghe, 28 August 2019
The support for New Delhi’s anti-democratic measures in J&K reflects the fact that all factions of Sri Lanka’s ruling elite are moving towards the imposition of dictatorial rule.
Indian assault on Kashmir in third week, thousands arrested
By Deepal Jayasekera and Keith Jones, 21 August 2019
Despite India’s efforts to black out what is happening in Kashmir, information is leaking out that points to both widespread repression and popular resistance.
India’s unprecedented lockdown of Kashmir in eleventh day
By K. Ratnayake, 15 August 2019
India’s Hindu supremacist BJP government has imposed a brutal lockdown to suppress mass opposition to its subjecting Indian-held Kashmir to permanent central government domination.
New Delhi’s assault on Kashmir and the fight against communal reaction, imperialism, and war
By Keith Jones, 10 August 2019
With the aim of inciting communal reaction against mounting social opposition and strengthening its hand against Pakistan and China, India’s BJP government has illegally stripped Jammu and Kashmir of its special status.
Report details Indian security forces use of torture against Kashmiri people
By Wasantha Rupasinghe, 23 July 2019
Jammu and Kashmir has been under de facto military rule since 1990, with over half a million security forces deployed in a state of just 13 million people.
Pakistan government prepares savage austerity following IMF “bailout”
By Sampath Perera, 31 May 2019
Washington is seeking to exploit Pakistan’s fiscal and economic crisis to disrupt Islamabad’s growing economic and strategic ties with China.
Reports underscore how close India and Pakistan came to all-out war in late February
By Keith Jones, 20 March 2019
Just three weeks ago, India and Pakistan became the first nuclear-armed powers to ever attack each other with warplanes.
Days after coming to the brink of all-out war
India and Pakistan stoke chauvinism, exchange threats
By Deepal Jayasekera, 6 March 2019
Although cross-border shelling has reportedly declined since Sunday, continuing tensions between South Asia’s rival nuclear-armed states have left the region on the brink of a catastrophic war.
India-Pakistan war tensions escalate
By Deepal Jayasekera, 4 March 2019
At least six civilians and two Pakistani soldiers have been killed as a result of cross-border shelling from both sides along the Line of Control.
India and Pakistan tobogganing toward a catastrophic war
By Keith Jones, 2 March 2019
India and Pakistan are teetering on the brink of what would be the first-ever war between nuclear-armed states.
India and Pakistan issue fresh war threats
By K. Ratnayake, 1 March 2019
Even as Islamabad agreed to release a captured Indian pilot as a “peace gesture,” India and Pakistan continued their war preparations.
Nuclear-armed India, Pakistan on brink of all-out war
By K. Ratnayake, 28 February 2019
Pakistan announced Wednesday that it had struck targets in India after India carried out a large-scale bombing raid deep in Pakistan on Tuesday morning.
India bombs Pakistan, Islamabad vows military retaliation
By Wasantha Rupasinghe, 27 February 2019
Washington gave the green light for Tuesday’s attack, although it could trigger tit-for-tat retaliatory action that quickly cascades into all-out war.
Indian government intensifies retaliatory threats against Pakistan
By Deepal Jayasekera, 19 February 2019
Any Indian military strike could easily lead to a tit-for-tat escalation and rapidly cascade into an all-out war between South Asia’s rival nuclear-armed states.
Indian government seizes on Kashmir attack to ratchet up tensions with Pakistan
By Deepal Jayasekera, 16 February 2019
New Delhi’s denunciations and blood-curdling threats are all but an announcement of an impending Indian military strike on Pakistan.
New postings in Urdu on capitalist breakdown and war, France’s Yellow Vest protests
27 December 2018
Four recent WSWS Perspectives are now available in Urdu, Pakistan’s national language.
Chinese consulate in Pakistan attacked by Balochi separatists
By Sampath Perera, 29 November 2018
The targeting of the Chinese consulate comes amid a concerted US campaign against deepening China-Pakistan strategic ties.
Pakistan prime minister visits Beijing amid heightened US-China tensions
By Pradeep Ramanayaka, 21 November 2018
If Khan was hoping for an immediate financial bailout from China, he was disappointed as Beijing offered no specific aid and signed no significant agreements.
Pakistan’s government bows to Islamist right, victimises anew woman in blasphemy case
By Sampath Perera, 9 November 2018
Pakistan’s PTI government has ordered the Supreme Court to review its decision vacating the blasphemy conviction and death sentence imposed on Asia Bibi.
Pakistan caught up in intensifying US-China rivalry
By Pradeep Ramayake, 27 October 2018
Amid a worsening balance-of-payments crisis, Pakistan desperately needs an estimated $12 billion, but is under pressure from the US to distance itself from China.
As Pakistan seeks IMF bailout, US intensifies pressure on Islamabad
By Sampath Perera, 16 October 2018
Washington has served notice that it intends to leverage Pakistan’s current account crisis to disrupt Islamabad’s economic and strategic partnership with China
Pakistani premier Imran Khan imposes austerity mini-budget
By Athiyan Silva and Kumaran Ira, 2 October 2018
Barely two months after his election, Khan’s anti-imperialist and populist posturing has been utterly exposed.
India cancels talks with Pakistan, threatens military action
By Keith Jones, 24 September 2018
India’s army chief said “pain” should be inflicted on Pakistan, while applauding New Delhi’s scuttling of foreign ministerial talks with Pakistan.
Pompeo visits Pakistan to demand “reset” in support for Afghan war
By V. Gnana and Athiyan Silva, 7 September 2018
US Secretary of State Pompeo and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dunford staged a four-hour visit to Pakistan on Wednesday.
Bangladesh jute mill workers demonstrate; Paradip port workers strike in Orissa
Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific
25 August 2018
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.
Right-wing populist Imran Khan sworn in as Pakistan prime minister
By Sampath Perera, 22 August 2018
Khan’s promises of an “Islamic welfare state” will quickly prove to be a cruel hoax as his government imposes a fresh-round of IMF-style austerity.
US threatens to nix IMF bailout of Pakistan
By Sampath Perera, 10 August 2018
The 12 previous loans Pakistan has obtained from the IMF were all conditional on the imposition of brutal “structural readjustment” measures.
Amid charges of massive irregularities
Right-wing Islamic populist Imran Khan claims victory in Pakistan elections
By Sampath Perera, 27 July 2018
It is widely expected the new government will have to turn to the IMF for a bailout and will be tasked by it with imposing a new round of savage austerity measures.
Former Pakistan PM Sharif arrested in run-up to election
By Sampath Perera, 17 July 2018
Pakistani state authorities banned all public gatherings in Sharif’s home town prior to his arrival, suspended mobile services, and deployed thousands of police and paramilitary Rangers.
Millions of refugees face harsh conditions across South Asia
By Rohantha De Silva, 13 July 2018
The plight of millions of refugees in South Asia is a damning indictment of the imperialist powers and the regional ruling elites.
WSWS call to fight Internet censorship published in Urdu, Bengali, and Telugu
21 February 2018
The US government, in close collaboration with Google, Facebook, and other giant IT corporations, is implementing massive restrictions on Internet access to socialist, antiwar and progressive websites.
Indian-Pakistani clashes in Kashmir put South Asia on knife’s edge
By Sampath Perera, 31 January 2018
India’s army chief has said that if the deteriorating situation along the border warrants it, his forces stand ready to call Islamabad’s nuclear “bluff” and strike inside Pakistan.
US suspends security aid to Pakistan as part of Afghan War push
By Jordan Shilton, 6 January 2018
The deepening of US-Pakistan tensions is bound up not just with the Afghan War, but also the growing polarization of the region between the Indo-US and Sino-Pakistani military-strategic alliances.
WSWS publishes Urdu translation of Trotsky’s Lessons of October
13 December 2017
Lessons of October reviews the history of the October 1917 Russian Revolution and the pivotal role of revolutionary leadership.
Preface to the Urdu edition of Lessons of October
By Keith Jones, 13 December 2017
Trotsky’s Lessons of October was written from the standpoint of preparing future “Octobers,” both in the advanced capitalist countries of Europe and the US, and in the oppressed countries of the East.
Tillerson delivers stern warning to Pakistan
By Sampath Perera, 28 October 2017
In a visit of just four hours, Tillerson spelled out Washington’s demand Pakistan join the US in dramatically escalating Afghan war violence or brace itself for reprisals.
Pakistan boycotts talks with US, rejects role for India in Afghanistan
By Sampath Perera, 1 September 2017
US President Trump’s Afghanistan strategy has provoked an angry reaction in Islamabad.
US threatens Pakistan as part of new Afghan war drive
By Keith Jones, 24 August 2017
Trump’s threats include closer cooperation with Pakistan’s arch-rival India, which has repeatedly boasted of its readiness to mount military raids inside Pakistan even if they risk provoking all-out war.
Seventy years since the communal Partition of South Asia
By Keith Jones, 16 August 2017
The Partition was one of the great crimes of the 20th century—a crime that has shaped, or more precisely deformed, the entire subsequent history of South Asia.
Pakistan plunges deeper into crisis as prime minister ousted on corruption charges
By Sampath Perera, 31 July 2017
The immediate beneficiary of Sharif’s ouster and the weakening of the PML (N) government is Pakistan’s politically powerful military.
Mounting tensions between India and its nuclear-armed neighbors, China and Pakistan
By Wasantha Rupasinghe and Keith Jones, 14 July 2017
For the past month, Indian and Chinese troops have been arrayed against each other on a Himalayan ridge that is claimed by both China and Bhutan.
Over 150 people die in oil tanker explosion in Pakistan
By Wasantha Rupasinghe, 27 June 2017
In an exercise in political damage control, the prime minister expressed his “sympathy” for the victims and announced compensation for the families of the dead and injured.
India and Pakistan admitted to Shanghai Cooperation Organisation
By Wasantha Rupasinghe, 14 June 2017
Despite India and Pakistan becoming full SCO members, there has been no de-escalation of war tensions between the two nuclear-armed South Asian rivals.
Indian establishment lauds military’s use of Kashmiri youth as “human shield”
By Wasantha Rupasinghe, 24 May 2017
Predictably the military’s announcement that it would convene a court of inquiry to investigate the incident has proven to be a cruel joke.
India intensifies repression in Kashmir
By Kranti Kumara and Wasantha Rupasinghe, 16 May 2017
India’s former National Security Advisor has warned that the ruling elite has lost control of the situation in Kashmir, with unarmed youth repeatedly risking their lives to impede security operations.
Afghanistan-Pakistan border clash erupts amid seething regional tensions
By Sampath Perera and Keith Jones, 8 May 2017
Fighting Friday between Afghan and Pakistan troops killed at least 12 people and possibly many more.
Indian military given green light to strike Pakistan
By Keith Jones, 3 May 2017
Relations between India and Pakistan are again on the boil, just months after South Asia’s rival nuclear-armed powers came to the brink of war.
New in Urdu
Urdu translation of “The Political Lessons of Syriza’s Betrayal in Greece”
8 March 2017
The statement is a devastating exposure of the pseudo-left in Greece and internationally who shamelessly promoted Syriza as a means for working people to oppose austerity.
South Asian nuclear arms race accelerates amid India-Pakistan standoff
By Sampath Perera, 28 February 2017
India and Pakistan are rapidly expanding their nuclear arsenals and proclaiming adherence to aggressive military strategies that increase the prospect of nuclear war.
New Indian army chief threatens Pakistan and China
By Wasantha Rupasinghe, 7 January 2017
As India conducts tests of nuclear-capable ballistic missiles, its new army chief has warned of a possible “two front” war against China and Pakistan.
India rebuffs Pakistan’s “peace” overtures
By Keith Jones, 6 December 2016
India has demonstrably rebuffed Pakistan’s attempts to initiate a dialogue aimed at defusing the almost three-month-long war crisis between South Asia’s rival nuclear-armed states.
War tensions between India and Pakistan intensify
By Wasantha Rupasinghe and Keith Jones, 1 December 2016
The truce along the Line of Control between Indian- and Pakistan-held Kashmir, that was put in place in the aftermath of a war crisis in 2001-2002, has manifestly broken down.
Indo-Pakistan tensions escalate
By Wasantha Rupasinghe, 8 November 2016
The ongoing clashes along the Line of Control between India and Pakistan highlight the dangerous standoff that has brought the nuclear-armed rivals to the brink of war.
Death toll rises to 25, as India-Pakistan border clashes heighten war danger
By Alex Lantier, 2 November 2016
As US officials pledge greater support to India against Pakistan and China, both Indian and Pakistani officials are vowing to escalate their conflict over Kashmir.
India-Pakistan cross-border barrages heighten South Asia’s war crisis
By Keith Jones, 1 November 2016
India’s BJP government calculates that it can exploit the war crisis to strengthen its hand against Pakistan while stoking reaction and rallying support at home.
Terror attack on Pakistani police academy kills more than 60
By Keith Jones, 26 October 2016
The attack on the Balochistan Police College is said to be the deadliest terrorist attack ever mounted on Pakistan’s security forces.
Bangladesh government accused of “kneecapping” opponents
By Sarath Kumara, 22 October 2016
The Hasina government, which confronts widespread opposition, is increasingly resorting to police-state methods to maintain its rule.
US amplifies its support for India’s military strikes on Pakistan
By Deepal Jayasekera, 18 October 2016
Washington’s endorsement of India’s jettisoning of “strategic restraint” will only encourage New Delhi to carry out still more aggressive and provocative military actions.
Indian Stalinists aid BJP’s bellicose anti-Pakistan campaign
By Wasantha Rupasinghe and Keith Jones, 14 October 2016
India’s principal Stalinist party, the CPM, is playing a foul role in the reckless, bellicose offensive India’s ruling elite is mounting against its nuclear-armed arch-rival, Pakistan.
Opposition grows in Indo-Pakistan borderlands to India’s warmongering
By Wasantha Rupasinghe, 10 October 2016
Despite the bellicose propaganda campaign of the Indian government and media, there is widespread public opposition to a war between Pakistan and India.
Pakistani elite rattled by “strategic isolation” following Indian attack
By Keith Jones, 8 October 2016
To the shock of Pakistan’s elite, its appeals for international condemnation of India’s military strikes have fallen on deaf ears.
India’s military calls for more strikes on Pakistan
By Keith Jones, 6 October 2016
Large sections of India’s ruling elite are urging the Hindu communalist BJP government to further escalate military pressure on Pakistan.
Amid war crisis, Pakistani actors hounded out of India
By Kranti Kumara, 4 October 2016
The Indian Motion Pictures Producers’ Association has passed a resolution banning Pakistani actors, singers and technicians from Bollywood productions.
India and Pakistan teeter on the brink of war
By Keith Jones, 3 October 2016
In anticipation of a possible Pakistani counter-strike, or to facilitate their own war preparations, India is evacuating tens of thousands of people living near the border.
US backs India’s military strikes on Pakistan
By Keith Jones, 1 October 2016
Washington’s readiness to endorse India’s new aggressive posture will only encourage New Delhi to take still greater military-strategic risks.
India launches military attacks against Pakistan
By Keith Jones, 30 September 2016
Indian military strikes killed people in the “double-digits,” according to media reports, bringing South Asia perilously close to an all-out war with potentially catastrophic consequences.
After Kashmir attack, US media threaten to support India in war with Pakistan
By Kumaran Ira, 29 September 2016
Washington’s anti-China “pivot to Asia” is fueling war tensions between Pakistan and India, which have escalated since Islamist militants attacked an Indian military base in Kashmir.
India launches campaign to “punish” Pakistan
By Wasntha Rupasinghe, 28 September 2016
The publicly announced steps India has taken against Pakistan are of a diplomatic and economic character. But behind the scenes feverish preparations continue for a lethal “counterstrike.”
Pakistan replies with belligerence to Indian threats
By Sampath Perera, 27 September 2016
The Pakistan Air Force conducted war exercises last week, including over the skies of the national capital, Islamabad, and on the highway connecting it to Lahore.
India and Pakistan teeter on the precipice of war
By Keith Jones, 21 September 2016
Four days after India’s government held Pakistan responsible for a terrorist attack in the disputed Kashmir region that killed 18 Indian soldiers, New Delhi continues to be gripped by war fever.
Bellicose campaign in India against Pakistan after attack on Kashmiri base
By Wasantha Rupasinghe, 20 September 2016
Led by senior figures in the ruling BJP, India’s political and defense-security establishments are clamouring for military action against Pakistan.
Pakistan “reassessing” relations with US following Modi visit, Mansour assassination
By Sampath Perera, 15 June 2016
Angered by the US’ downgrading of their alliance and boosting of India, Pakistan has issued warnings that the US has overturned South Asia’s balance of power.
The assassination of Mullah Akhtar Mansour: Washington plays with fire in Eurasia’s geopolitical tinderbox—Part Two
By Thomas Gaist, 7 June 2016
Last month’s assassination of the Taliban’s political leader by a squadron of US military drones that had invaded Pakistan has intensified explosive geopolitical conflicts in the Eurasian heartland.
The assassination of Mullah Akhtar Mansour: Washington plays with fire in Eurasia’s geopolitical tinderbox—Part 1
By Thomas Gaist, 4 June 2016
The US’s May 21 assassination of the Taliban’s political leader was an immense provocation and a grave warning to the international working class.
US assassination of Taliban leader signals escalation of Afghanistan-Pakistan war
By Thomas Gaist, 24 May 2016
The killing of Mansour occurred in Pakistan’s southwestern province of Baluchistan, which was previously off-limits to US strikes due to opposition from sections of the Pakistani state.
US refuses to finance F-16 fighter jets for Pakistan
By Sampath Perera, 16 May 2016
As tensions with Washington escalate, Pakistan has indicated it is looking for alternative jets from China and Russia.
Pakistan’s military expands its power in wake of Lahore terror attack
By Sampath Perera, 1 April 2016
Pakistan’s military has seized on last Sunday’s terrorist atrocity to implement plans for an “antiterrorism” offensive and to strengthen its authority over the civilian government.
Terrorist attack hits crowded children’s park in Pakistan
By Sampath Perera, 28 March 2016
Regardless of who carried out the atrocity on Sunday, it will be seized on by Washington and Islamabad for reactionary ends.
The Hillary Clinton emails: A record of imperialist crimes
By Tom Hall, 7 March 2016
In its extensive reporting of the email scandal, the American media has virtually ignored the actual content of these emails, which contain a wealth of information about the day-to-day functioning of the Clinton State Department.
Inaccurate metadata analysis used to kill thousands in US drone strikes
By David Brown, 24 February 2016
The Obama administration’s drone assassination program is based on fundamentally unsound metadata analysis that flags thousands of innocent people as terrorists.
Pakistan steps up privatization drive after unions suppress airline strike
By Sampath Perera, 20 February 2016
Nawaz Sharif’s government has seized on the unions’ betrayal of the PIA anti-privatization strike to victimize hundreds of the most militant workers.
Unions preparing to shut down Pakistan airline workers strike
By Sampath Perera, 9 February 2016
As the militant strike of 14,000 Pakistan International Airlines workers enters its second week, the unions are maneuvering to shut it down.
Pakistan airline workers defy government repression, continue strike
By Sampath Perera, 6 February 2016
Workers’ defiance in the face of Tuesday’s bloody crackdown and threats of mass firings and jailings marks a major intensification of the class struggle in Pakistan.
Two workers killed as government seeks to crush Pakistan airline strike
By Sampath Perera, 4 February 2016
Pakistan’s government is determined to break the strike so as to demonstrate mass opposition will not deter it from pushing through a sweeping IMF privatization program.
India-Pakistan talks may be derailed even before they begin
By K. Ratnayake, 13 January 2016
Whoever was responsible for the January 2 assault by armed gunmen on India’s Pathankot Air Force Base, its purpose was to scuttle the US-backed “dialogue” between the two nuclear-armed rivals.
India’s Modi makes surprise visit to Pakistan
By Sampath Perera, 29 December 2015
Modi’s Pakistan trip was a pragmatic maneuver aimed at placating Washington and shoring up the increasingly embattled Indian government domestically.
Scores killed in Pakistani textile factory collapse in Lahore
By our correspondent, 6 November 2015
At least 21 workers were killed and dozens injured, and fears are increasing that the death toll will go up once the clearing of debris is completed.
US-Pakistan summit fails to paper over growing strategic rift
By Sampath Perera and Keith Jones, 31 October 2015
Pakistani authorities have issued increasingly alarmed warnings that the US has upset the balance of power in South Asia through its military-strategic embrace of India.
Mounting humanitarian crisis in wake of Pakistan-Afghanistan quake
By Oscar Grenfell, 29 October 2015
The lack of government assistance and aid in both countries is creating mounting discontent amid deteriorating conditions.
Hundreds dead in Afghanistan and Pakistan after 7.5 magnitude earthquake
By Oscar Grenfell, 27 October 2015
The devastating consequences of the natural disaster will be compounded by 15 years of US-led neo-colonial occupation.
Pakistan expresses alarm over ever-expanding US-India strategic partnership
By Sampath Perera, 28 September 2015
In the run-up to today’s meeting between Indian Prime Minister Modi and US President Obama, New Delhi and Washington have further enhanced their military-security ties.
India and Pakistan exchange war threats
By Sampath Perera, 12 September 2015
For months, India and Pakistan have been regularly exchanging artillery fire across the Line of Control that separates Indian and Pakistan-held Kashmir.
India-Pakistan talks abruptly cancelled
By Sampath Perera and Keith Jones, 28 August 2015
The collapse of the Indo-Pakistani talks before they even began exemplifies the explosive tensions between the rival nuclear-armed powers.
Tensions between India and Pakistan escalate despite Modi-Sharif meeting
By Sampath Perera, 1 August 2015
India’s 15-month-old BJP government continues to integrate New Delhi ever more completely into Washington’s anti-China “pivot.”
Over 1,100 killed by heat wave in Pakistan
By Sampath Perera, 27 June 2015
The victims have died because of electricity outages, water supply shortages, inadequate healthcare facilities and government indifference.
Obama gave CIA free rein for drone assassinations in Pakistan
By Bill Van Auken, 28 April 2015
Rules supposedly imposed elsewhere to reduce the killing and maiming of civilians were secretly waived for CIA operations in Pakistan.
China invests $46 billion in strategic Pakistan-China Economic Corridor
By Athiyan Silva, 28 April 2015
The deal would allow China to largely circumvent the threat of a blockade of its energy imports by US and allied navies in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
Obama admits US drone strike killed two Al Qaeda hostages
By Patrick Martin, 24 April 2015
The statement from the White House gives a glimpse of the reality of US drone warfare, in which thousands of innocent people have been slaughtered.
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