Three killed in Lahore bomb blast

Deadly blast: A bomb exploded Tuesday near the business-class waiting lounge at a Lahore train station, killing three people, including a nine-year-old boy who succumbed to his injuries later that evening, and injuring dozens (Dawn, ET, DT, NYT, AFP, Reuters,CNN, AJE). And on Wednesday morning, police defused a bomb on a passenger train from Karachi to Peshawar, after a guard found an unattended briefcase in one of the cars (ET/AFP, The News, Dawn).

Pakistan successfully test-fired on Wednesday an intermediate-range missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, which likely has a range of between 3,000 and 5,000 kilometers, just six days after India launched a new nuclear-capable long-range missile with a range of over 5,000 kilometers (AP, NYT, WSJ, CNN, AJE). Lt. Gen. Khalid Ahmed Kidwai, who heads Pakistan’s nuclear program and was present at the missile launch, said in a statement released by the military that the improved weapon "will further consolidate and strengthen Pakistan’s deterrence abilities."

Reuters’ Michael Georgy reported Wednesday on the Pakistani military’s effort to use a two-pronged approach of security operations combined with re-education programs to battle militancy in the country’s tribal regions (Reuters). A school dedicated to de-radicalizing former militants in Swat has graduated around 1,000 people since it began in 2010, but it remains in the hands of the Pakistani government to solidify these gains by providing graduates with jobs.

The Obama administration is reportedly considering sending one of five Taliban detainees at Guantánamo requested for release by the insurgent group directly to Afghan custody, as a goodwill gesture aimed at restarting peace talks with the Taliban (Reuters). The United States and the Taliban had previously discussed transferring all five detainees to Qatar, where the Taliban was opening an office, in return for the group’s denunciation of terrorism. This plan never materialized.

NATO said in a statement on Wednesday that two coalition service members were killed in two separate attacks using improvised explosive devices; one on Tuesday and the other on Wednesday (AP). Gen. Knud Bartels, chief of NATO’s Military Committee, said Wednesday that alliance members remain "cautiously optimistic" that the war in Afghanistan is "on track" (AP). 

According to a report by the Post’s Kevin Sieff on Tuesday, a secret girls school in the eastern Afghan village of Spina is representative of a wider trend across the country, in which locals are educating young women despite insurgents’ shuttering of formal schools (Post). U.S. and Afghan government efforts to expand girls’ education has been largely successful, but in areas where the Taliban are able to enforce their views these underground schools provide an alternative.

Some may think that the rising number of fashion weeks hosted by different fashion organizations in Pakistan is a positive development, but in reality it may be forcing designers to put quantity before quality (Dawn). During the Pantene Bridal Couture Week (PBCW), however, which wrapped up last week, the focus on a niche market allowed designers to wow audiences with well-thought-out creations and experimental color schemes.

— Jennifer Rowland