Gee, just what Musharraf needs—the State Department weighing in for his repression, augmenting the (accurate) perception that he is Washington's toady. Don't they have enough sense to keep quiet? This brings Pakistan one step closer to an Islamist coup, which has been long in the making... From Pakistan's Daily Times, July 11:

US backs mosque action
The US State Department backed Pakistan’s decision to storm Lal Masjid in Islamabad on Tuesday.

From Reporters Without Borders (RSF), via the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX), July 6:

Reporters Without Borders has condemned the arrests of two journalists by intelligence officers in the past six days. Both Mohammad Asif Nang, editor of the government magazine Peace Jirga, and Kamran Mir Hazar, editor of the Kabul Press website, had been critical of the government.

Security forces arrested Maulana Abdul Aziz, imam of the Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) in Islamabad, as he attempted to escape covered in a burqa with a group of similarly clad women July 4. More than 1,000 of his followers surrendered as army and police troops backed by armored vehicles and helicopters tightened their siege of the complex. Authorities say Abdul Aziz will face terrorism and murder charges.

Ten civilians were killed June 23 inside the Pakistani tribal area of North Waziristan in a mortar attack from Afghan territory—fired by foreign forces, a local authorities say. "Ten innocent people were reported killed when some mortars hit civilians in Mangroti village in the Shawal region," said military spokesman Maj-Gen. Waheed Arshad. Thirteen others were injured, he said. Some locals put the death toll at 20, and a home was destroyed. Residents said the dead included a child, a woman and seven men, all from the same family. "Pakistan has lodged a strong protest with coalition forces seeking an explanation," Gen. Arshad said.

A NATO air-strike on supposed Taliban insurgents in southern Afghanistan has killed dozens of civilians, including women, children and a Muslim cleric, Afghan officials charged June 22. The clash began the previous night when Taliban fighters attacked NATO troops in the Gereshk district of Helmand province and then fled to a residential area, said Mohammed Anwar Esaqzai, a local member of parliament. After a firefight of several hours, he said, NATO forces called in an airstrike that killed 36 civilians belonging to three families. "This is happening a lot," Esaqzai said. "If it continues to happen, it will raise the anger of the people and cause big problems for NATO."

Pakistan is nearing completion of a previously unknown plutonium-producing reactor at Khushab, approximately 109 miles south of Islamabad, the third such facility at the complex, a new satellite photo reveals. David Albright, the president of the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), along with DigitalGlobe, provided the satellite image to ABC News. Pakistan's government did not comment on the revelation.

Freedom's on the march. From India's Zee News, June 19 (emphasis added):

KABUL — Forced to wear yellow patches in the days of the Taliban, the homesick Sikhs of Afghanistan still hide in back alleys and yearn for India. In the Taliban's birthplace, the southern city of Kandahar, their children cannot go to school and locals stone or spit on the men in the streets, who mostly try to hide in the narrow alleys of the mud-brick older quarter of the city.

At least 22 people were killed and 10 wounded when a missile hit a cluster of compounds in Datakhel district of Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal region, locals said. Taliban leaders said the death toll was as high as 32. Reports were sketchy about the cause of the explosion but local people insisted that missiles had hit a madrassa, killing several people and wounding scores of others. Maj-Gen Arshad Waheed of Pakistan's military denied reports that national army or coalition forces had carried out the attack, calling it an "accidental blast."