NewsTracker Answers for week of Oct. 15, 2012

Q: The Taliban outraged Pakistanis by brazenly claiming responsibility for shooting a 14-year-old girl in retaliation for her work in promoting girls’ education and children’s rights in Pakistan's Swat Valley. Where is Pakistan on this map?

Circle the area on this map


Q: Pakistani officials have offered a $105,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the attackers who shot Malala Yousafzai and two other girls as they returned from school in the area near the Afghan border. Afghanistan is . . .

A. West of Pakistan

B. Northwest of Pakistan

C. Northeast of Pakistan

D. Southeast of Pakistan


B. Pakistan is bordered by Afghanistan to the northwest, China to the northeast, India to the southeast, the Arabian Sea to the south and Iran to the west. Taliban religious militants once ruled all of Afghanistan and still exert control over much of the area along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.


Q: The Taliban said it would attack Malala again if it got a second chance, and it reportedly threatened to kill her father. The Taliban and vast majority of Pakistanis are . . .

A. Buddhists

B. Hindus

C. Muslims

D. Sikhs


C. Pakistan is the second most populous Muslim majority country in the world, with 95 percent of Pakistanis observing Islam. Pakistan's top military leader, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani visited Mala in the hospital and said her attackers "have no respect even for the golden words of the prophet ... that 'the one who is not kind to children, is not amongst us.' "


Q: The military holds great power in Pakistan, which developed nuclear weapons after it's chief rival tested such a weapon in 1974. Which nation is Pakistan's top rival?

A. Afghanistan

B. Iran

C. China

D. India


D. Pakistan and India have fought four wars since the two states were created by the partition of British India in 1947. The partition caused the migration of 14.5 million people as Hindus and Sikhs fled into India and Muslims ran to Pakistan. Estimates of the number of deaths from religious violence on both sides of the border range around roughly 500,000.


Q: Three of Pakistan's wars with India involved Kashmir, a border territory with a Muslim majority population that is mostly controlled by India. But, a war in 1971 involved East Pakistan breaking away to become the nation of . . .

A. Bangladesh

B. Burma

C. Sri Lanka

D. Tibet


A. It is estimated that between 2 million and 3 million people in Bangladesh were killed by Pakistani armed forces as the Muslim but ethnically different population of eastern Pakistan fought to secede from control by the western provinces. Pakistani troops were forced to surrender, and India took approximately 90,000 prisoners of war who were eventually returned to what was left of Pakistan.