Pakistan

Islamabad, March 16: In a move that is likely to raise temperatures across the border, the US has delivered a squadron of 14 AH-1 Cobra advanced helicopter gunships to Pakistan.

The US has also given $750,000 to update Pakistan Army Aviation’s current fleet of Cobra variants like AH-1S, AH-1F, Online news agency reported, quoting sources.

Pakistan has also been assured it would receive the latest AH-1Z variant in phases by 2015, the sources added.

The AH-1 has been supplied by the US America from its Jordan Air Base stock.

Karachi, March 16: At least one person was killed in an explosion in the south Pakistani port city of Karachi, sources said.

Locals said the blast took place in the Katchra Kundi bazaar near Chandni Chowk in Karachi, killing one woman and injuring two. They said more casualties are feared as the blast was very powerful, media reported.

The nature of the blast is not known yet and police have sealed off the area for investigation.

—Agencies

Islamabad, March 16: Pakistan on Tuesday urged the US to provide it civilian nuclear technology to help the country overcome its energy crisis and also bridge the trust deficit between the two countries.

President Asif Ali Zardari made the demand at a meeting with the visiting US Director of National Intelligence, Dennis C. Blair, here.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar said Zardari maintained that the provision of civilian nuclear technology would go a long way in addressing misconceptions about the US in Pakistan.

Islamabad, March 16: A suspected US drone strike killed at least 11 militants Tuesday in Pakistan’s tribal region near the Afghan border, an intelligence official said.

Several more people were injured in the aerial strike in the Datta Khel area of the North Waziristan tribal district, a known hub of Islamic militancy.

An intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity said four missiles were fired from a drone at two insurgent camps in the mountains.

Islamabad, March 16: Suspected pro-Taliban militants have set fire to a truck carrying supplies to US and NATO forces in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province.

The incident took place when unidentified armed men attacked a convoy of NATO oil tankers in the Dahakar area of the country’s southwestern town of Sibbi on Tuesday.

“One oil tanker was completely destroyed in the attack,” local police officials told Press TV.

The tankers were on their way to Chaman Pass on the Afghan border from the southern port of Karachi, the officials added.

Islamabad, March 16: Pakistani intelligence officials say a suspected U.S. missile attack has killed at least four people in north-western Pakistan.

Two intelligence officials said an unknown number of people were also wounded in Tuesday’s strike in the North Waziristan tribal region.

The CIA has repeatedly targeted militant positions in Pakistan’s tribal regions since December, when a suicide bomber killed seven CIA employees in neighbouring Afghanistan.

The intelligence officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Lahore, March 15: Pakistan intelligence has alerted for severe terrorist threat following indications that Taliban fighters may attempt to hijack aircrafts in the near future.

Pakistani security forces have so far foiled several bids to smuggle weapons onto aircrafts, the Daily Times reports.

On March 10, the authorities arrested a man who tried to bring a pistol and explosive material on board a Dubai-bound flight at the Quaid-e-Azam International Airport in Karachi.

Islamabad, March 15: The Pakistani army helicopters have bombed militant positions in the northwest of the country, killing at least 16 people and injuring several others.

According to Pakistani officials, the attack destroyed three militant hideouts and two houses of militant commanders in the Orakzai tribal area on Sunday.

The Orakzai agency is a stronghold of pro-Taliban militants, where Pakistani troops have been fighting for months.

The assault comes two days after twin bomb attacks killed at least 45 people and injured about 100 others in the eastern city of Lahore.

Islamabad, March 14: Pakistan wants to bridge an existing trust deficit and develop a solid framework for long term relations during its upcoming strategic dialogue with the US, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said.

“The objective of the strategic dialogue is to enhance the people-to-people strategic relationship, which will bridge the trust deficit,” Gilani said yesterday while chairing a meeting of the country’s top civil and military leaders to develop a comprehensive and coordinated approach for the parleys.

Islamabad, March 14: The Pakistani government, which has steadfastly refused Indian demands for action against Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder Hafiz Saeed, who New Delhi says masterminded the 26/11 attacks, has now sought the arrest of Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone gunman captured alive during the carnage and who is being tried in a Mumbai court.

Islamabad, March 13: Pakistan Air Force (PAF) will conduct its biggest exercise in the third week of this month. It will cover the entire country from Skardu in the north to Arabian Sea in the south and will last 45 days.

Quoting sources, Dawn reported that Exercise High Mark-2010 will “be different from all previous exercises because it would also feature operations involving army and navy personnel”.

Islamabad, March 13: Officials say at least eight people have been killed in a suicide car bombing in northwest Pakistan.

Army spokesman Maj. Mushtaq Khan says the attacker detonated the car bomb near a security checkpoint in the Swat district.

Police official Mohammed Anfal says nearly two dozen people were also wounded in Saturday’s attack.

The Pakistani military launched a major offensive in Swat early last year after peace deals with local Taliban collapsed.

The military took back the Swat Valley by mid-2009, but sporadic violence has continued.

Lahore, March 13: The toll in the twin suicide attacks here Friday has risen to 57, even as seven low-intensity blasts late at night kept police on their toes for over eight hours.

Nine security personnel were among those killed in the suicide bombings that wreaked havoc in the cantonment area, injuring 136 people.

According to police, two suicide bombers blew themselves up near security forces’ vehicles in the RA Bazaar in the southern part of the cantonment, killing 57 people.

Islamabad, March 13: Pakistan’s oil mafia is alleged to have siphoned Rs.90 billion annually during former president Pervez Musharraf’s tenure by supplying substandard diesel at the rates of the high quality premium variety, a media report said Saturday.

Some key officials of Musharraf’s presidency, the petroleum ministry, the Central Board of Revenue, marketing agency Pakistan State Oil (PSO) “and even some top rulers of that time are believed to have multiplied their fortunes”, The News said.

Islamabad, March 13: Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Friday directed the country’s anti-corruption watchddog to reopen graft cases against Asif Ali Zardari and 8,000 others that were quashed under the controversial National Reconciliation Ordinance, a move likely to further weaken his hold on the presidency.

A three-judge bench headed by Justice Javed Iqbal directed the National Accountability of Bureau to implement its verdict to reopen cases that were quashed under the National Reconciliation Ordinance, promulgated by former military ruler Pervez Musharraf in 2007.

Amritsar, March 13: A teenaged Pakistani boy who ran away from his home near Lahore city in Pakistan two months back after a scolding from his father and landed up in the custody of security agencies in India, was finally repatriated to Pakistan to be re-united with his family.

Mohammad Ateeq, 13, walked across the zero line at the Attari-Wagah international border check-post between India and Pakistan, 30 km from here, Friday evening.

Lahore, March 13: Panic and fear gripped Lahore on Friday after it was rocked by a twin-suicide attack that killed at least 50 people, followed by a series of low-intensity explosions that made a mockery of the security apparatus.

Two suicide bombers struck in R.A. Bazaar area of the cantonment in the afternoon, killing 50 people, including eight soldiers, and injuring around 120 others. Then in the evening, six blasts shook Allama Iqbal Town and Samanabad.

Lahore, March 12: Hours after two suicide attacks targeted a military convoy in Lahore, killing at least 48 people Friday, a powerful third blast ripped through a crowded market place in Pakistan’s eastern city.

The third blast occurred at Lahore’s Moon Market, where dozens of people were killed in two blasts in December last year.

Friday’s blast injured four people, Geo News reported.

The nature of the blast has not been confirmed.

Lahore, March 12: A Twin suicide attack targeting Pakistani army vehicles in the eastern city of Lahore killed 20 people and injured at least 35, a senior police official said.

“We have the heads of both the bombers,” Chaudhry Mohammad Shafiq said.

“There was an interval of 15 seconds between the two attacks. They were on foot. Their target was army vehicles.”

He said at least 20 people were killed, and a number of army personnel are in a serious condition.

Islamabad, March 12: Pakistan Army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who is due to retire in October, is unlikely to get an extension, a close aide of President Asif Ali Zardari has said.

However, the repeal of a controversial constitutional amendment could see him continue in office as Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani would then take a call on the issue.

“Neither the army chief nor anyone from the (ruling) Pakistan Peoples Party has forwarded a proposal to the president in this regard,” Fauzia Wahab, PPP’s central information secretary, has been quoted as saying this week.

Islamabad, March 12: A bomb blast shook the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore on Friday, the second attack there this week and an indication that militants may be stepping up assaults on the country after weeks of relative calm.

Casualties were feared in the blast, which was followed by gunshots, police official Naveed Hassan said.

The area struck was RA Bazaar, a residential and commercial neighborhood where several army and security agencies have facilities. Pakistani TV channels showed security forces swarming the area as bystanders rushed the injured into ambulances.

Lahore, March 12: Two near simultaneous blasts ripped through a market within the heavily-guarded cantonment here today, killing at least four persons in the latest in a series of terror attacks across Pakistan.

Officials of a state-run rescue service said four persons were killed. Several persons were also injured in the blasts in the R A Bazar area and were rushed to nearby military and civilian hospitals.

There were reports that the blasts were preceded by firing.

Army troops cordoned off the area and barred people and media from going to the site of the blasts.

Islamabad, March 12: The Pakistan Navy tested missiles and torpedoes in the Arabian Sea, authorities said Friday.

The Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) said the missiles and torpedoes were fired from F22 Frigate, P3c and Agosta 90 b submarine, Xinhua news agency reported.
–IANS

Islamabad, March 12: Four people, including a senior Muslim cleric, were killed in a drive-by shooting in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi, police said Friday.

Mufti Saeed Ahmed Jalalpuri, the senior leader of the Sunni Muslim group Jamaat ahl-e-Sunna, his son, and two associates died when four gunmen riding on two motorbikes opened fire at their vehicle late Thursday, officers said.

‘Mufti died on the spot while three other people succumbed to their injuries later at the hospital,’ said senior police officer Javed Meher, who said he suspected it could be a sectarian attack.

Islamabad, March 12: At first it seemed like a simple case of abduction: a five-year-old British boy snatched by masked gunmen in Pakistan on the last day of a two-week holiday with his father.

A £100,000 ransom demand for his safe return had been issued and, as the boy’s father and police frantically searched the Punjab, a distraught mother made a desperate appeal from her home in Oldham to be reunited with her child.

But since Sahil Saeed was bundled from his grandmother’s house in the Pakistani city of Jhelum on 4 March, the story has become more complicated by the day.