Islamabad, June 18: The Supreme Court Thursday reserved orders in a case in which former prime minister Nawaz Sharif is accused of ‘hijacking’ an aircraft carrying then army chief Gen. Pervez Musharraf by attempting to prevent it land at Karachi in 1999.
Concluding his arguments in the case, Sindh Prosecutor General Shahadat Awan maintained that Sharif had been rightly convicted by the trial court and his appeal was thus liable to be dismissed.
Islamabad, June 18: After joining the “war on terror” following the attacks on the United States in September 2001, Pakistan saw a significant rise in attacks by tribal movements and groups linked to the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
The security forces have borne much of the brunt of the violence but hundreds of civilians have also been killed.
2009
June 13: The military expands its military offensive into South Waziristan, where the Pakistani Taliban movement is based.
Lahore, June 18: In what may be seen as a probable fissure in the Taliban’s leadership, a commander of the outlawed organisation, Qari Zainuddin Mehsud, has blamed the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Baitullah Mehsud for all the terror strikes in Pakistan.
Mehsud said he was not in favour of carrying out attacks inside Pakistan, as it was against Islam.
Mehsud told a private television channel that he and many other insurgents had sided with the TTP chief against non-Muslims, and not for carrying out attacks inside the country.
Peshawar, June 18: Pakistan today shut down the Peshawar Airport for all domestic and international flights for an “indefinite period” owing to terror threats as well as planned military operation in Waziristan to hunt down Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan chief Baituallah Mehsud.
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), however, has cited “technical” reasons for its closure.
Islamabad, June 18: The raging wave of suicide bombings and attacks, some in reprisal for the military operations against local Taliban, are casting their shadow over cultural, film and showbiz activities in the country.
Lahore, the cultural capital and the center of Pakistan’s film industry, which is locally known as Lollywood, is the hardest hit. “Producers and actors are shattered. They have lost their confidence,” Khalid Farshori, a senior cultural reporter, told.
“Many of them have personally told me that they are thinking of joining other professions to earn their livelihood.”
Islamabad, June 17: Waziristan may be home to Osama bin Laden, but it is the much younger Baitullah Mehsud who is the target of the new military operation being launched there, one intended to crush him.
Moscow, Jun 15 : Ahead of his participation in the summit of the heads of state and government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari said today Islamabad counts on its full membership of the regional group.
Mr Zardari will attend the SCO summit opening in Yekaterinburg as an observer, along with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and a special envoy of Mongolian President as observer-members.
Islamabad, June 15: Pakistan has warned that the Taliban could spread beyond its borders to neighbouring India and as far as the Persian Gulf, unless it receives international aid to help battle militancy on its soil, the Online news agency reported Monday.
Pakistan would need up to $2.5 billion in emergency aid and for long-term reconstruction of the Swat Valley and the neighbouring region, once the fighting between government troops and militants, now in its final stage, ended, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said in an interview with the Financial Times.
Islamabad, June 15: Pakistan ordered its army to go after the country’s top Taliban commander, a feared al-Qaida-allied militant whose remote stronghold could prove a difficult test for troops but whose demise would remove a major threat to the country’s stability.
Islamabad, June 14: A suspected US missile strike killed at least five people today in a tribal region where Pakistan’s top Taliban commander is based, intelligence officials said, breaking a lull in such attacks and posing a test for growing anti-Taliban sentiment in the country.
Islamabad, June 13: Terming the stepped up strikes by militants as an attack on the “sovereignty” of Pakistan, President Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday underlined his determination to fight the Taliban insurgency to the end.
“We are fighting a war for our sovereignty,” Zardari said, responding to a spate of deadly terrorist attacks that have killed dozens across Pakistan.
In a televised address, the President called on the people to unite behind the anti-Taliban cause.
Islamabad, June 13: The funeral prayers of Allama Dr Muhammad Sarfraz Naeemi will be offered today on Saturday at 5pm in Nasir Bagh Lahore. He would be laid to rest in the premises of Jamia Naeemia.
The Tanzimul Madaris Ahle Sunnat (Barelvi) has announced three-day mourn, the Anjuman Tajiran announced strike while the Muttahida Qaumi Movement called to observe the day of mourn across the country over the martyrdom of the religious scholar.
Religious parties’ leaders and workers on Friday took out protest rallies to condemn the suicide attack that killed Dr. Naeemi.
Islamabad, June 13: Pakistan said Saturday India should not doubt its intentions in the probe into the 26/11 Mumbai carnage and called on New Delhi to resume the sub-continental dialogue process with Islamabad. Interior Minister Rehman Malik, during a meeting with Indian High Commissioner Sharad Sabharwal today, said resumption of the Pakistan-India dialogue “is imperative for regional peace” and India should not doubt Pakistan’s sincerity in bringing the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks to justice.
Islamabad, June 13: Tariq-ur-Rehman, one of ten Pakistani students detained by British police in April on terror-related charges, accused his prison guards of religious harassment and abuse.
“They committed sacrilege of Noble Qur’an many times,” a visibly moved Tariq told, on his arrival at Benazir Bhutto International Airport in Islamabad. “When we read the Qur’an, they came with sniffing dogs and let them sniff the Qur’an.
“We used to cry and begged them not to do that but they said it was their duty.”
Islamabad, June 13: Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari today said his country was fighting for its “survival” and promised that the ongoing offensive against the Taliban would continue “until the end”.
“We are fighting a war for our sovereignty,” Zardari said in a late-night television address to the nation. “We will continue this war until the end, and we will win it at any cost.”
Lahore, June 12: At least two people have been killed in near-simultaneous blast in Pakistan, officials say.
One blast took place inside the offices of the Jamia Naeemia religious school and mosque in the eastern city of Lahore soon after Friday prayers, police said.
One of those killed in Lahore was a prominent religious leader known to oppose the Taliban, police said.
“Unfortunately, Maulana Sarfraz Naeemi has been martyred,” Pervez Rathore, a Lahore police chief, told the Reuters news agency.
Another person was killed and at least six others hurt in the attack.
Islamabad, June 11 : Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has offered a ‘badly needed’ olive branch to restore sub-continental peace by offering to walk half the way to resume the dialogue with Pakistan, an editorial in a leading English daily said Thursday, while another hoped Islamabad would ‘be able to meet’ New Delhi at that point.
Manmohan Singh’s statement in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday “will be seen as the olive branch that is badly needed in the present state of impasse between India and Pakistan”, Dawn said in an editorial headlined “A silver lining”.
Islamabad, June 10: The death toll from a suicide car bombing at a luxury hotel in Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar rose Wednesday to 16, which included two foreign UN officials and a Spanish national, while up to 60 people were injured, a police official said.
Three suicide attackers in a pickup truck entered the Pearl Continental Hotel late Tuesday after shooting the security guards and rammed the explosives-laden vehicle into its main building.
Islamabad, June 10: The UN is set to begin its probe into the 2007 assassination of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto with the appointment of a former Irish policeman as the third member of a commission that has been set up to conduct the enquiry.
Peter Fitzgerald, a former deputy commissioner of the Irish National Police Force, Garda Siochana, was a member of the UN commission that probed the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Harriri, Dawn reported Wednesday.
Islamabad, (Peshawar) June 10: A huge suicide truck bomb ripped through a luxury hotel Tuesday killing 14 people and wounding 52 in Pakistan’s Peshawar city, capital of a northwest province plagued by Taliban violence.
Two foreigners were among the dead in the devastating blast at the five-star Pearl Continental hotel, provincial Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said, but would not reveal the nationalities.
Peshawar, June 10: A huge suicide truck bomb ripped through a luxury hotel Tuesday killing 11 people and wounding 52 in Pakistan’s Peshawar city, capital of a northwest province plagued by Taliban violence.
Two foreigners were among the dead in the devastating blast at the five-star Pearl Continental hotel, provincial information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said, but would not reveal the nationalities.
London, June 09: Former Pakistan President General Parvez Musharraf has conceded that his country’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) maintains link with militant commanders like Sirajuddin Haqqani, suspected of having masterminded the attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul.
Musharraf said that ISI had “used Haqqani’s influence” to get Pakistan’s Ambassador to Afghanistan, who was abducted by Tehrik-e-Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, released.
London, June 08: Former Pakistan President General Parvez Musharraf has conceded that his country’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) maintains link with militant commanders like Sirajuddin Haqqani, suspected of having masterminded the attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul.
Musharraf said that ISI had “used Haqqani’s influence” to get Pakistan’s Ambassador to Afghanistan, who was abducted by Tehrik-e-Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, released.
Islamabad, June 08: The killing of two aides of radical cleric Sufi Mohammad who had brokered a controversial peace deal between the Taliban and the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) government points to a change in the militants’ tactics as religion no longer seems to be working for them, an editorial in a leading English daily said on Monday.
“Religion is no longer working for Baitullah Mehsud as the national consensus in Pakistan veers against his TTP,” Daily Times said in an editorial headlined ‘Possible change in Taliban tactics’.
Islamabad ( RAWALPINDI), June 07: The naib ameer of Tahreek-e-Nifaz Shariat Muhammadi(TNSM) and spokesman Ameer Izzat Khan have been killed during trade of fire between security forces and militants in Sakhakot, ISPR said. An army personnel has been martyred and five injured in the clashes.
–Agencies