Pakistan

Karachi, January 09: Eight suspected militants were killed on Friday when an explosion turned the house in a poor neighbourhood of Baldia Town into rubble, Karachi police said.

Huge quantity of arms including guns, grenades and two suicide vests were recovered from the debris of the house that law enforcement personnel claimed was used as a hideout by the militants.

After the blast the entire area was sealed off and police claimed to have arrested eight suspected militants including a woman.

Islamabad, January 09: Pakistan’s top civil and military leadership, in meetings with a delegation of visiting US senators, disagreed on the efficacy of drone attacks while calling for their halt on plea that these undermined “the national consesus” that supported the war against militancy.

Islamabad, January 09: Chief of the Army Staff General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani has said militancy could only be eliminated by greater intelligence sharing between Pakistani and Nato forces about the movements of Taleban militants.

Gen. Kayani made these remarks while talking to a four-member US congressional delegation led by Senator John McCain who called on him at GHQ in Rawalpindi on Friday.

Overall security situation in the region was also discussed.

Islamabad, January 08: An Asian rights group has accused Pakistani police of extra judicial killing of a 31-year-old man of a minority community who had refused to pay Eid “bribe” to cops.

The Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) Friday wrote to the UN special rapporteur on torture, extra-judicial killings calling for its intervention into the murder of Abid Javed Francis, 31, who was arrested “without charge” and later tortured to death in a police station.

Peshawar, January 08: A suicide bomber blew himself up today at the headquarters of a banned militant group in Pakistan’s Khyber tribal region, killing six persons and injuring 12 others.

The attacker tried to enter the main gate of the headquarters of the Ansar-ul-Islam group in Tirah valley of Khyber Agency, witnesses said.

He detonated his explosives when a watchman stopped him.

Witnesses and local residents said six persons were killed and a dozen others injured.

However, Ansar-ul-Islam leader Mehboob-ul-Haq claimed only one person was killed.

London, January 08: The UN says tens of thousands of Pakistanis are likely to be displaced again this year as the military continues with its offensive against the militants.

Head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Manuel Bessler warned on Thursday that providing basic humanitarian relief for the displaced Pakistanis is likely to prove a major challenge in 2010.

Krachi, January 08: At least five persons were killed and eight others injured in an explosion at a house in southern Pakistani city of Karachi today, police said.

The blast occurred at a one-room house located near Babri mosque in Baldia town area of Karachi at around 8.15 am, deputy inspector general Sardar Majeed said.

Other officials said five persons were killed and eight others were injured in the explosion.

Islamabad, January 08: Pakistan warned US senators Thursday that American drone attacks against militants on its territory undermined “the national consesus” that supported the war against militancy.

President Asif Ali Zardari made the warning to a US delegation led by former US presidential candidate and Republican Senator John McCain one day after US missile attacks killed at least 13 militants on the Afghan border.

Islamabad, January 07: President Asif Ali Zardari has said that Pakistan is ready to wage a thousand-year war with India over the Kashmir dispute.

The Daily Times quoted Zardari as saying that this was a war of ideologies and would last for generations. Addressing a joint session of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Assembly and the Kashmir Council, Zardari said democratic governments had played a key role in moving forward on the Kashmir dispute.

Washington, January 06: Using drones, the United States mounted Wednesday three successive missile raids in northwestern Pakistan, killing at least 13 people.

The attacks were carried on the Sangzlai area in North Waziristan’s Tehsil Datta, reported the private satellite news channel Samaa.

North Waziristan has witnessed a growing number of US missile raids.

The attacks, carried out by the US Central Intelligence Agency in cooperation with the Pentagon, reportedly killed more than 700 civilians in Pakistan in 2009.

Islamabad, January 06: A suicide bomber struck an army barrack in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir today, killing at least three soldiers and wounding 11 more in the latest in a wave of terrorist attacks across the country.

The bomber targeted the barracks close to an army hospital at Tararkhal, over 90 km from PoK capital Muzaffarabad, police said.

Part of the barracks was destroyed by the blast.

There were about 35 soldiers in the facility at the time of the attack this morning. Three soldiers were killed instantly and 11 more injured.

The wounded were taken to the army hospital.

Islamabad, January 06: A suicide bomber struck an army barrack in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir today, killing at least three soldiers and wounding 11 more in the latest in a wave of terrorist attacks across the country.

The bomber targeted the barracks close to an army hospital at Tararkhal, over 90 km from PoK capital Muzaffarabad, police said.

Part of the barracks was destroyed by the blast.

There were about 35 soldiers in the facility at the time of the attack this morning. Three soldiers were killed instantly and 11 more injured.

The wounded were taken to the army hospital.

Islamabad, January 06: At least three people were killed and 11 injured on Wednesday in a massive explosion that tore the barracks of a military hospital in Pakistan’s Rawla Kot region, media reports said.

The injured were taken to the military hospital. Four of the injured were in a critical condition, Geo TV reported.

It was not immediately clear whether the blast was caused by a bomb planted in the barracks or a suicide attacker, DPA news agency said.

Islamabad, January 06: A massive explosion took place near a military hospital in Pakistan’s Rawla Kot region, a media report said.

The injured were taken to hospital.
–IANS

Karachi, January 06: Shaheed Benazir Bhutto International Boxing Tournament turned historic on Tuesday when nine foreign boxers, who were Christians, embraced Islam after they were moved by the way they were treated here during their sojourn, writes Alam Zeb Safi.

Islamabad, January 06: Engaged in a full-fledged battle for survival in office, President Asif Ali Zardari displayed an uncharacteristically hawkish view on the Kashmir issue on a visit to Pakistan Occupied Kashmir on Tuesday, his first to the territory since taking office in 2008.

Gone was the Zardari who said in March 2008 that the Kashmir issue should be put on the back-burner so that India and Pakistan could focus on improving trade relations.

Islamabad, January 05: At least 10 people were killed when a massive landslide hit a remote village in Pakistan’s mountainous northern areas Monday, media reports said.

The incident occurred at Attabad in Hunza, a picturesque valley in the country’s Gilgit-Baltistan region, 720 km north of the capital, Islamabad.

Local Geo TV quoting hospital officials said that so far 10 bodies had been transported to their emergency and casualty department.

The landslide also destroyed 26 houses, and injured a number of people.

Peshawar, January 05: When Samiullah Jan was told to pack his few belongings and get ready to head back home to war-ravaged Afghanistan, he felt being sentenced to death. But after few days, he was granted clemency.

“I am very happy that at least for the next three years I won’t be forced to leave,” the Afghan refugee, who has been taking shelter in the suburbs of Peshawar for the past nine years, told.

Like millions of Afghans, Jan and his family fled their home after the 2001 American invasion and headed to neighboring Pakistan.

Islamabad, January 04: Pakistan’s foreign minister and the country’s main opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Monday criticised the Indian Army chief’s reported remarks that it was capable of fighting a two-front war with Pakistan and China, saying it detracted from the war on terror.

“I am surprised at the statement of the Indian army chief. On the one hand, India talks of dialogue and than it backtracks on its own words,” Online news agency quoted Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi as telling reporters in Karachi.

Lahore, January 04: The violence and a fire that erupted after a blast targeting a Muharram procession in Karachi on December 28 were “thoroughly pre-planned”, according to a private TV channel.

At least 42 people were killed and 83 injured when a suicide bomber ripped through the provincial capital’s central Youm-e-Ashur procession on MA Jinnah Road on Monday.

Islamabad, January 04: Pakistan’s airline is increasing security screening for passengers heading to the United States, after the U.S. Transportation Security Administration said those arriving from certain countries would be subject to enhanced screening techniques.

A spokesman for Pakistan International Airline said on Monday the company began applying new security standards from Jan. 1 on U.S.-bound passengers.

Islamabad, January 04: Two soldiers and 13 militants were killed in fresh fighting in Pakistan’s troubled Waziristan region and northwestern Swat valley even as troops were attacked by rebels at several places in the tribal belt on Sunday.

Four soldiers were also injured in the clashes and troops captured 36 militants during search and clearance operations across the country’s northwest, the military said.

A soldier was killed and four more were injured when Taliban fighters targeted security forces with an improvised explosive device near Jandola sector of Waziristan.

Peshawar, January 04: Pakistani authorities faced a furious backlash Sunday after a suicide strike on a volleyball match killed 101 people, as more violence killed a former provincial minister and seven others.

Authorities rounded up dozens of suspects after the volleyball attack and opened an investigation into poor medical care, while doctors in the remote northwest tried to treat casualties on hospital floors without enough medicine.

Islamabad, January 04: A bomb attack in northwest Pakistan killed a former minister on Sunday, officials said, keeping up pressure on a government struggling to contain a raging Taliban insurgency and stabilise the country.

A roadside bomb hit the car in which former provincial minister Ghani-ur-Rehman was travelling.

“The minister, his bodyguard and driver were killed,” said Fazal Naeem, a police official in the town of Hangu, where the attack took place. A second bodyguard was also killed.

Islamabad, January 03: An underground explosion in a coal mine in Pakistan’s south-western Balochistan province killed nine people, a media report said Sunday.

The blast ripped through a gas-filled mine Saturday at the Marwar coalfield, located 80 km from the provincial capital, Quetta.

Rescuers recovered the bodies after a search operation that continued through Saturday night, local official Farooq Ahmad was quoted as saying by the Geo News television channel.