Anja Niedringhaus / AP

Ahmedi guards protecting an Ahmedi mosque in Lahore, Pakistan on April 30, 2013. Ahmedis are reviled by mainstream Muslims as heretics because they believe a prophet followed Mohammed, defying the basic tenet of Islam that says Mohammed is the last prophet.

Lahore, Pakistan — In majority Muslim Pakistan, religious minorities say democracy is killing them.

Intolerance has been on the rise for the past five years under Pakistan's democratically elected government because of the growing violence of Islamic radicals, who are then courted by political parties, say many in the country's communities of Shiite Muslims, Christians, Hindus and other minorities.

On Saturday, the country will elect a new parliament, marking the first time one elected government is replaced by another in the history of Pakistan, which over its 66-year existence has repeatedly seen military rule. But minorities are not celebrating. Some of the fiercest Islamic extremists are candidates in the vote, and minorities say even the mainstream political parties pander to radicals to get votes, often campaigning side-by-side with well-known militants.

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Ahmedis praying in their mosque, which displays an Arabic sign saying 'In the name of god, people are praying', in Lahore on April 30, 2013.

Anja Niedringhaus / AP

A Shiite worshipper at a shrine in Jhang on May 1, 2013. Minority Shiites in Pakistan have little hope that the May 11 general elections will help them because they fear Sunni radicals, who have targeted Shiites, could gain political strength.

About 96 percent of Pakistan's population of 180 million is Muslim. Most are Sunni, but according to the CIA Factbook about 10 to 15 percent are members of the Shiite sect. The remaining 4 percent are adherents to other religions such as Christians, Hindus and Ahmedis.

More than a dozen representatives of Pakistan's minorities interviewed by The Associated Press expressed fears the vote will only hand more influence to extremists. Since the 2008 elections, sectarian attacks have been relentless and minorities have found themselves increasingly targeted by radical Islamic militants. Minorities have little faith the new election will change that. Read the full story.

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A Christian woman peering out from inside a church as angry Christians protest the beating of a young man from the Joseph Colony, a Christian neighborhood in Lahore, on April 30, 2013.

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Barber Elias, 25, a Christian who was injured when he was beaten by radical Muslims, in the Joseph Colony in Lahore on April 30, 2013.

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Christians protesting the beating of a young Christian belonging to the Joseph Colony, in Lahore on April 30, 2013.

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A Christian repairing his home after it was attacked by radical Muslims, in the Joseph Colony in Lahore on April 30, 2013.

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Homeless Hindus sleeping in a shrine cared for by Omparkarh Narian, 55, in Rawalpindi on May 4, 2013.

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PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- A suicide bombing at an Islamist party's election rally killed at least 25 people and injured 65 others Monday in Pakistan's Kurram tribal region, local officials said.

Ulfat Hussai, an administrative official, said the leader of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) party, a candidate for the National Assembly from the region, was among the injured.

Another government official said a suicide bomber blew himself up as JUI-F leader Munir Hussain Orakzai was about to leave the gathering in the village of Sewak after his speech to local tribesmen.

Dr. Inayatullah Khan, administrator of the Agency Headquarters Hospital in Sadda, said 20 bodies and 65 injured had been brought to his hospital while the bodies of five others had been taken directly to their homes by relatives.

Khan said the death toll could rise as half a dozen of the injured were still in critical condition.

Officials at the scene said many of the dead appeared to have succumbed to blood loss. The village is in a remote mountainous area, making it impossible to quickly get victims to hospitals.

Dr. Abdul Qadir, younger brother of Orakzai, said by telephone that he, his brother, two bodyguards and six close relatives were injured in the blast.

"They have been taken to the hospital and their condition is out of danger," Qadir said from Parachinar, the headquarters of Kurram tribal region, which is near the Afghan border.

He said the injured were being taken to hospitals in Parachinar and Sadda, the second-largest town of the volatile region.

Monday’s incident marked the first time a political gathering of a religious party such as JUI-F, considered pro-Taliban, had been targeted in the tribal areas.

Taliban spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan called NBC News and claimed responsibility for the suicide attack.

Ishan said Orakzai was their target, claiming that in the past five years, he had been involved with three major secular parties that the Taliban considers pro-American.

The Taliban launched has launched an offensive that has killed several leaders and activists belonging to the three parties: the Pakistan People's Party, Mutahidda Qaumi Movement and Awami National Party. 

Related:

• Prosecutor probing Pakistan ex-PM's assassination slain in 'targeted killing'
• Afghan and Pakistani forces clash in deadly border firefight

This story was originally published on Mon May 6, 2013 10:46 AM EDT

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- A prosecutor investigating the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was shot dead in a “targeted killing” in Islamabad on Friday, police sources said.

Several attackers on motorcycles and in a taxi opened fire on Chaudhry Zulfikar’s car as he drove to work at about 7 a.m. local time (10 p.m. ET on Thursday), the sources said.

His guard, a paramilitary soldier provided by the government, and a woman on the side of the road were both shot and wounded in the attack. The woman was also hit by Zulfikar’s white Toyota when it veered off the road.

Security expert Amir Rana told Reuters that Zulfikar was probably a marked man because he had been prosecuting militants who were jailed in connection with Bhutto's death or other cases.

Bhutto was killed in a gun and suicide bomb attack carried out by a 15-year-old boy after an election rally in the city of Rawalpindi, just weeks after she returned to Pakistan from years in self-imposed exile in a bid to reclaim office.

Bhutto was a fierce critic of Pakistan's Taliban and Islamist groups that had been supported by some elements of Pakistan's military.

Her death was one of the most shocking events in the country's turbulent history, and had a similar impact on the nation as the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy in the United States.

Speculation has lingered that Bhutto was the victim of a plot by allies of General Pervez Musharraf, the president at the time, who did not want her to come to power.

Zulfikar was also the prosecutor investigating the 2008 attacks on India's commercial capital, Mumbai, in which 166 people were killed. India said militants based in Pakistan were behind the three-day rampage.

The killing of the prosecutor comes days after a Pakistani court put Musharraf on a 14-day judicial remand for charges of failing to provide adequate security for Bhutto before her assassination.

The former army chief, who has always denied responsibility for Bhutto's death, returned to Pakistan in March after nearly four years of self-imposed exile to contest the May 11 general election. But he has since been banned from politics for life.

In 2010, a United Nations Commission of Inquiry report concluded security arrangements for Bhutto were “fatally insufficient and ineffective” and that the investigation of her death had been “prejudiced,” describing it as a whitewash.

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In a statement issued about the report, the U.N. said the government “was quick to blame local Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud and al Qaeda although Ms. Bhutto’s foes potentially included elements from the establishment itself.”

“A range of government officials failed profoundly in their efforts first to protect Ms. Bhutto and second to investigate with vigor all those responsible for her murder, not only in the execution of the attack, but also in its conception, planning and financing,” the commission said.

“Responsibility for Ms. Bhutto’s security on the day of her assassination rested with the federal government, the government of Punjab and the Rawalpindi District Police,” it added. “None of these entities took necessary measures to respond to the extraordinary, fresh and urgent security risks that they knew she faced.”

Reuters contributed to this report.

Related:

• Pakistanis honor 'martyred queen' Benazir Bhutto
• An A to Z guide to the Islamic Republic of 'Banistan'
• Full NBC News coverage of Pakistan

This story was originally published on Fri May 3, 2013 5:08 AM EDT

Raminder Pal Singh / EPA

School children in Amritsar, India, pay tributes on Thursday to Sarabjit Singh, who died after being beaten in a Pakistani prison. Singh was convicted in Pakistan of spying and involvement in 1990 bomb attacks that killed 14 people. His family has always maintained his innocence.

Alive, he was a spy in purgatory on death row – neither executed by his Pakistani captors nor released to return home to India.

In death, Sarabjit Singh, 49, has become the source of a tense verbal battle between South Asia's nuclear-armed rivals.

After serving 22 years in a Pakistani jail for a confession-backed conviction for espionage and involvement in bombings in 1990 that killed 14 Pakistanis, Sarabjit Singh was beaten into a comatose state by two fellow inmates on April 26, officials said.

In the early hours of Thursday, after a week on life support, he died of cardiac arrest.

While the coma lasted, Pakistan allowed access to Singh that was unprecedented for an Indian prisoner. There were visits by his family and Indian diplomats and officials.

It seemed that if he lived, he would become a symbol of cooperation between New Delhi and Islamabad.

But after his death, the normally tense relationship between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan plummeted even further.

Indian opposition leaders and conservative media demanded an immediate downgrading of relations with Pakistan. Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid appeared on television, bluntly saying ties with Pakistan "may be affected."

K.M. Chaudary / AP

Pakistani hospital staffers transfer the body of former Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh after an autopsy in Lahore on Thursday.Singh's death raised tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad.

Indian media, opposition leaders, and even government officials have accused Pakistan of not being a responsible custodian. Singh's family has long said that he was neither a spy nor a terrorist, arguing that he was an innocent farmer and that he must have accidentally entered Pakistan while intoxicated.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is not related to the deceased, issued a strongly worded statement about the "barbaric and murderous" attack against Singh and said Pakistan never seriously considered the convicted spy's pleas for mercy.

There is angry rhetoric from Pakistanis, too, with many people on the country's social and conventional media networks saying Singh's confessed involvement in actions that killed Pakistanis is reason enough to justify his untimely death.

The Pakistan Foreign Office and media have responded with carefully worded statements and analysis that reinforce Islamabad's message: that Mr. Singh "was being provided the best treatment available and the medical staff … had been working round the clock since his hospitalization to save his life."

Also emphasized by the Foreign Office through various media was the fact that there were no violent incidents reported against Singh during more than two decades of incarceration and that Pakistanis had cooperated with the Indian government and given it high-level access to the investigation and the interrogation of the two men accused of attacking Singh.

Cooler heads may be prevailing.

Out of the spotlight, the Pakistanis and Indians are cooperating, and after the initial bout of highly emotive statements, both countries appear to be following the "less is more" technique of back-door diplomacy.

Islamabad has suspended jail officials and appointed judicial, medical and investigative commissions to probe the exact cause of Singh’s death. 

And now it is transferring Singh’s body to the Indian embassy, which has arranged a special flight for its return.

Related:

Pakistan test-fires missile that could strike deep within India

Pakistan and India trade barbs over cross-border attacks

India hangs only surviving gunman of 2008 Mumbai attacks

Nisar Ahmad / AP

Afghans carry the body of a policeman killed in a border clash with Pakistani troops on Thursday.

An Afghan border police officer was killed and two Pakistani soldiers were injured during a prolonged firefight on the troubled border between the two countries, officials said.

Pakistan’s Foreign Office said in a statement that it had summoned an Afghan embassy official to protest what it called an “unprovoked firing incident” at a disputed border gate late Wednesday.

“Two Frontier Constabulary soldiers got injured as a result of the heavy fire directly targeting the post,” the statement said. “Pakistan security forces exercised maximum restraint and communicated first to the Afghan side about this serious violation through military channels.”

“This is not the first time that the heavy fire was initiated from the Afghan side causing heavy injury and damage to the Pakistani structures,” it added.

Afghan Ministry of Interior spokesman Sidiq Sidiqqi said the fighting continued into early Thursday.

“One [Afghan] border policeman was killed. Pakistani and Afghan local officials are holding talks to ease the situation,” he said.

The latest tensions are focused on Pakistan's building of the military gate at Gursal that Afghan officials say is inside Afghanistan, Reuters reported. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has ordered his top officials to take immediate action to remove the gate and other "Pakistani military installations near the Durand Line."

The Durand Line is the 1893 British-mandated border between the two countries. It is recognized by Pakistan but not by Afghanistan. Afghanistan maintains that activity by either side along the Durand Line must be approved by both countries.

Afghans living near the border with Pakistan praised what they saw as Kabul's decision to stand up to Islamabad.

"Our security forces have done a great job standing up to Pakistan. We are proud because Pakistan keeps on pushing us and will try and occupy us some day. I'm angry about the situation but glad we have acted,” Mohammed Sabil, a taxi driver, said.

Gula Jan, who works at a gas station near the border, said: "We thought Afghanistan could not do anything against Pakistan -- that we were turning into slaves of Pakistan, but now we know that isn't true, and I back the Afghan government's actions.”

Afghanistan has grown increasingly frustrated with Pakistan over efforts to pursue an Afghan peace process involving the Taliban, suggesting that Islamabad is intent on keep Afghanistan unstable, Reuters reported.

Afghan officials say Pakistan has a long history of supporting Afghanistan's Taliban and other insurgent factions, the news service noted. Pakistan has in turn accused Afghanistan of giving safe haven to militants on the Afghan side of the border.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Related:

• Pakistan intelligence agency claims Afghanistan supports Taliban splinter groups
• Karzai accuses US and Taliban of conspiring to keep troops in Afghanistan
• Pakistan, Afghanistan trying to turn Taliban into political movement

Rehan Khan / EPA

A general view of damage at the scene of a bomb explosion targeting an election campaign office of the Mutahida Qaumi Movement in restive Karachi, Pakistan, on Saturday.

Two bomb blasts — the fourth and fifth in two days — shook the largest city in Pakistan late Saturday, according to local media.

Local media reported that at least two people were killed and 20 injured in Karachi in the first blast, a car bomb that was accompanied by a grenade attack.

Sharfuddin Memon, the special security adviser to the Pakistani province of Sindh, which includes Karachi, told NBC News that “there might be several casualties” in the first bombing.

Col. Shafiq Ahmed, a spokesman for the paramilitary unit that polices Karachi, told NBC News that emergency measures were being taken and that there was an unscheduled high-level security meeting under way in Karachi.

The first bombing Saturday was in a residential area and the second in Karachi’s largest slum, Lyari.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the previous three bombings, which targeted rallies and offices of liberal political parties. Pakistan holds national elections May 11.

This story was originally published on Sat Apr 27, 2013 3:33 PM EDT

QUETTA, Pakistan - Powerful aftershocks rocked the border between Iran and Pakistan Wednesday, a day after a major earthquake tore through the region, collapsing buildings and killing at least 39 people and injuring more than 170.

The Pakistani town of Mashkel was “totally destroyed,” according to a local journalist at the scene. Reporter Farooq Kabdani said almost all of the town's mud houses and shops had collapsed. He suggested the death toll could climb as about 25 people remained missing.

Tuesday’s major quake, rated at magnitude 7.8 by the U.S. Geological Survey and 7.5 by the European-Mediterranean Seismological Agency, was centered about 50 miles east of the city of Khash, Iran, but shook tall buildings as far away as New Delhi, nearly 1,500 miles away.

Fifteen seriously injured victims have evacuated to the Central Military hospital Quetta by the Pakistan Army.The victims range in age from 3 to 50 years old.

It was described by Iranian media as the worst in 50 years, but the majority of confirmed casualties appeared to be on the Pakistan side of the border.

Officials in Mashkel District in Pakistan's Balochistan province said 38 people were killed there, while 170 were injured, including 30 in critical condition.

Banaras Khan / AFP - Getty Images

Earthquake survivors stand on the rubble of their collapsed mud houses in the Mashkel area of southwest Pakistan, Wednesday.

Iran’s state-run Press TV reported one confirmed Iranian death, noting that initial reports had suggested a much higher death toll. A hospital in the Iranian city of Saravan, which is close to the epicenter, reported 10 fatalities on Tuesday. 

Washuk Khan Mohammad, the local deputy commissioner, said the Mashkel area was hit by two more aftershocks on Wednesday, which he said measured 6.5 and 4.4 on the richter scale, causing more damage.

Conditions in Mashkel, which lies south-west of Quetta, were described as “miserable” by Kabdani. The area is “totally destroyed,” he added.

While the earthquake's epicenter was in a thinly populated area, the USGS estimated that about 400,000 people live in areas where the shaking was very strong to severe; 1.7 million live in areas where it was considered strong; and another 2.6 million are in territories where it was classified as moderate.

The State Department expressed its condolences for the lives lost in the earthquake.

"The United States sends our deepest condolences for those lost in the earthquake in southeastern Iran and western Pakistan today," a statement released Tuesday read. "Our thoughts are with the families of those who were killed, those who were injured, and with those communities that have suffered damage to homes and property. We stand ready to offer assistance in this difficult time."

The Tehran Geophysics Center said the quake lasted 40 seconds and described it as the country's strongest in more than 50 years.

An April 9 earthquake near the country's only nuclear power plant killed 37 people and injured at least 850 more, leaving entire villages devastated.

Despite the scare caused by that quake, Iran pledged that it would continue to build more reactors in the heavily seismic region, which is hundreds of miles from the site of the latest temblor, on the other side of the country's south.

Iran has a history of devastating earthquakes. A magnitude-6.6 quake in 2003 killed an estimated 31,000 people, and a 7.5 in 1990 killed as many as 50,000, according to the USGS.

NBC News' Ali Arouzi contributed to this report.

Related:

What caused latest deadly earthquake in Iran?

This story was originally published on Wed Apr 17, 2013 5:50 AM EDT

PESHAWAR — A suspected U.S. drone missile strike killed five people in northwestern Pakistan near the Afghan border Sunday evening, according to Pakistani security officials.

Officials and local villagers said the suspected drone fired two missiles and struck a suspected militants’ hideout in the Datta Khel town of the North Waziristan tribal region after a double-cabin pickup truck entered the premises.

“Five bodies were later recovered from debris of the house when two drones flying over the area disappeared,” Hashim Khan, a local tribesman, told NBC News.

The identities of the victims are not known.

Datta Khel is considered a stronghold of foreign militants linked to al-Qaeda, according to Pakistani security officials. Officials added that the people killed in Sunday’s attack are believed to be non-locals.

U.S. military officials typically do not comment on suspected drone strikes.

Additional reporting by Daniel Arkin in New York.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Pakistan raised its nuclear ante Wednesday by saying it had conducted a successful test of an intermediate-range ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead almost 600 miles, far enough to strike deep within India, its nuclear-armed neighbor.

The Shaheen-1 missile struck its intended target at sea, according to a statement from the Pakistani military.

The missile incorporates a series of technical improvements and has a longer range than its predecessors, the statement said.

Pakistan has an arsenal of at least 90 nuclear warheads and has been quickly increasing the range of its missiles, according to a report from the Congressional Research Service. 

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists says Pakistan has the world's fastest-growing nuclear stockpile.

Meanwhile, India has an estimated 100 nuclear weapons, according to the Arms Control Association, and tensions between the next-door neighbors, which have historically been high, have risen lately with a conflict over the disputed Kashmir territory.

In August 2012, Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna hinted at Pakistan when he mentioned “rampant proliferation in our extended neighborhood” during a speech in New Delhi.

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“Nuclear weapons today are an integral part of our national security and will remain so,” Krishna said.

Pakistan, whose foreign ministry has said the country "is mindful of the need to avoid an arms race with India,” said Wednesday that the Shaheen-1 can accurately hit a target up to 560 miles away, compared with 430 miles for the previous version.

Senior military officers, along with scientists and engineers from the National Engineering and Scientific Commission, watched the launch, the government said.

Among those on hand was retired Lt. Gen. Khalid Ahmed Kidwai, director general of the country’s Strategic Plans Division, who was quoted by the government as saying the new version of the missile had “consolidated and strengthened Pakistan’s deterrence abilities manifold.”

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Giving voice to Pakistan's 'voiceless': Housewife becomes first female candidate in tribal region

Malala Yousafzai, Pakistani teen shot by Taliban, back at school -- in UK