Islamabad, December 30: At least four pro-Taliban militants have been killed in a car bomb blast in Orakzai Agency in northwestern Pakistan, officials say.
Officials said the militants were travelling in an explosive-laden vehicle when it exploded, a Press TV correspondent reported.
The car exploded in Bezot area of Orakzai agency late Tuesday, killing all four pro-Taliban militants.
The vehicle was completely destroyed in the blast.
Islamabad, December 30: The United States has rebuffed reports that said that Washington is brokering talks between India and Pakistan to resolve the long-pending Kashmir issue.
Responding to an article published in a local daily, which quoted President Barack Obama’s special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke as saying that the White House was mediating talks between India and Pakistan, the US embassy described the report as ‘baseless’ and ‘false’.
Lahore,December 29: Controversial US private security firm Blackwater, accused of carrying out secret operations in Pakistan, has hired services of army officers and former employees of intelligence agencies of this country for “handsome” salaries, a retired ISI official has claimed.
Khalid Khwaja, who has been at the forefront in raising the issue of “missing persons” or people detained without charges by Pakistani security agencies, said that ex-intelligence personnel hired by Blackwater had been asked to “pick up people with alleged connections to Taliban or al-Qaeda.”
Karachi, December 29: The death toll in Monday’s suicide attack which targeted a Muharram procession at MA Jinnah Road here has reached 40.
The blast occurred when a suicide bomber blew himself up near the Light House at the MA Jinnah Road when the city’s main Ashura procession was passing by.
At least 30 people were killed on the spot and over 95 sustained serious injuries.
The blast triggered a stampede and panic among the participants of the procession. Some gunshots were also heard which aggravated the situation, The News reports.
Islamabad, Dec 29: The death toll from a suicide bomber’s attack on a Shiite religious procession in Karachi was reported to have risen to 40 on Tuesday, as the city reeled from rioting overnight amid fears that extremist groups already waging a multifront war against the government were now trying to foment sectarian violence against the country’s minority Shiite Muslims.
A suicide bomber attacked a Shiite Muslim procession in Karachi on Monday.
Karachi, December 29: A suicide bombing tore through a procession of Shia Muslims in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi Monday, killing at least 30 people and injuring more than 80, officials said.
Hundreds of Shia mourners were marching on the main M A Jinnah Road lined with multi-storey buildings when the attacker detonated his explosives close to the front of the procession.
“At least 30 people are confirmed dead and more than 80 others wounded,” Hashim Raza Zaidi, the top health official in the province Sindh, of which Karachi is the capital, told Geo television.
Karachi, December 28: A suicide bomber targeted the Muslim Shia Ashura procession killing at least 20 people and injuring 40 others in a sectarian hit here, marking a bloody start of the holiest day of Muharram.
The terrorist suicide attack came close on the heels of a militant bombing that killed eight people in Pakistan- Occupied-Kashmir capital of Muzaffarabad and Karachi last night.
Islamabad, December 28: The death toll from a suicide bombing at a Shiite Muslim gathering in the capital of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir increased to eight Monday, police said, as minority Shiites marked the key holy day of Ashura.
Another 80 people were wounded in Sunday night’s bombing in Muzaffarabad — a rare sectarian attack in an area police say has little history of militant violence. The dead included three police, said police official Yasin Baig, adding that another 10 police were among the wounded.
Islamabad, December 28: The death toll from a suicide bombing at a Shiite Muslim gathering in the capital of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir increased to eight Monday, police said, as minority Shiites marked the key holy day of Ashura.
Another 80 people were wounded in Sunday night’s bombing in Muzaffarabad — a rare sectarian attack in an area police say has little history of militant violence. The dead included three police, said police official Yasin Baig, adding that another 10 police were among the wounded.
Islamabad, December 27: A Suicide bomber killed at least five people and injured 60 yesterday at a Shi’ite mosque in Pakistan.
Sunday is the climax of the 10-day Ashoura religious period and one of the holiest days in the Shi’ite calendar, causing worshipers to gather to mark the death of Imam Hossein, the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson and a beloved Shi’ite saint, in 680 AD.
—Agencies
Islamabad, December 27: An investigation continues in Pakistan in connection with five Americans taken into custody there on suspicion of trying to link up with terrorist elements.
Police say they are trying to determine whether the young Muslim men, who are from the Washington, DC area, had been plotting to attack a complex that houses nuclear power facilities.
The five were picked up in Pakistan earlier this month. The case has bred fears that Westerners are traveling to the South Asian country to join terror groups.
Islamabad, December 27: A US missile attack that demolished a compound in Pakistan’s tribal belt used by militants crossing into Afghanistan killed 13 fighters, Pakistani security officials said Sunday.
A US drone slammed two missiles into the building on Saturday in Saidgi village, seven kilometres (four miles) north of Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan tribal district bordering Afghanistan, officials said.
Islamabad, December 27: A bomb ripped through a government official’s house in northwestern Pakistan on Sunday, killing him and his five family members in an attack that police said was in retaliation for military operations targeting Taliban in the area.
The military has stepped up airstrikes in Kurram since many militants fled there following a major ground offensive launched in nearby South Waziristan in mid-October. Both areas are in Pakistan’s lawless tribal region near the Afghan border.
Karachi, December 27: At least 19 people, including five women and a child, were injured when a ‘home-made’ bomb planted in a car exploded in a populated area here during a procession by the minority Shia community.
The blast took place yesterday near a graveyard in Paposh Nagar area just two days ahead of the 10th day of Muharram processions.
A senior police official told PTI that initial inquiry showed that the bomb was a home-made device and planted in the car which was gutted after the explosion.
Islamabad, December 27: An anti-Taliban tribal elder of the Salarzai tribe has been beheaded and his body dumped by the roadside in Pakistan’s volatile northwest.
Gul Mohammad, 42, was beheaded and his body was found on Saturday morning in Mamund village with a note attached warning that, “Anyone joining the militia against the pro-Taliban would be killed in the same manner,” Faramosh Khan, a local administration official in Khar, the main town in Bajaur, told AFP.
Karachi, December 27: A close relative of slain Pakistani former prime minister Benazir Bhutto has accused her widower President Asif Ali Zardari of tampering with evidence relating to the assassination.
Mumtaz Bhutto, a cousin of Benazir’s father and former president Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, made the remarks while speaking to reporters in Tandojam, in Sindh’s Hyderabad’s district.
He also lamented that two years after the assassination, neither had the killers been arrested nor had a case been registered.
Lahore, December 27: Holding former President General Pervez Musharraf responsible for former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, Pakistan’s High Commissioner to Britain Wajid Shamsul Hassan has said that Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Baitullah Mehsud could not have proceeded with plans of assassinating Bhutto without Musharraf’s nod.
A private television channel reported Hassan, as saying that if Benazir would have been alive, trouble for Musharraf would have doubled.
Lahore, December 27: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif on Saturday said the martyrdom of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was a sad chapter in the political history of the country.
In his message on the second death anniversary of Banezir Bhutto, he said Benazir had achieved a unique status in Pakistani politics due to her extraordinary intelligence, tireless efforts and bold style of politics.
Peshawar, December 26: A fierce clash between Pakistani security forces and militants in the restive Mohmand tribal region today left at least four Taliban militants dead and seven injured, officials said.
The clash occurred overnight in Chamarkand area of Mohmand Agency, one of seven semi-autonomous tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan.
Security forces have launched search operations in various areas of the agency, officials said.
Karachi, December 26: A close relative of slain Pakistani former prime minister Benazir Bhutto has accused her widower President Asif Ali Zardari of tampering with evidence relating to the assassination.
Mumtaz Bhutto, a cousin of Benazir’s father and former president Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, made the remarks while speaking to reporters in Tandojam, in Sindh’s Hyderabad’s district.
He also lamented that two years after the assassination, neither had the killers been arrested nor had a case been registered.
Islamabad, December 26: Pakistani police say they are pursuing terrorism charges against five detained Americans.
The five young Muslim men have not yet been formally charged.
But Sargodha police official Nazir Ahmad says the police allege the men were collecting and attempting to collect material to carry out terrorist activities in the list of recommended charges to be presented to a court.
The court has the power to formally charge the men.
Islamabad, December 26: The 133rd birth anniversary of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, was celebrated across the country Friday.
The day began with special prayers in mosques for the founder of the Pakistan. The change of guard ceremony was also held at Jinnah’s mausoleum in the southern port city of Karachi, Xinhua reported.
Cadets from the Pakistan Military Academy mounted the guard at the mausoleum.
President Asif Ali Zardari urged the country to unite and reclaim the values which Jinnah bequeathed to the nation as his heritage.
Islamabad, December 26: The second anniversary of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto’s tragic assassination coincides with the observance of Ashura, the annual reminder to the Muslims of the ultimate sacrifice of the holy prophet’s grandson Imam Hussain (RA) in the desert of Karbala.
Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto was inspired by the great tragedy that has been inspiring the Muslims throughout the history to put principle before self and to oppose tyranny.
Islamabad, December 26: An Indian fisherman lodged in a Pakistani jail died of cancer Friday, officials said.
The fisherman identified as Sukkan Koma was arrested for illegal fishing in Pakistani waters in 2006, jail officials in the Pakistani port city of Karachi said.
The 50-year-old Indian had been provided every possible treatment for cancer, Xinhua reported citing officials.
The body will soon be handed over to the Indian authorities for repatriation, they said.
Islamabad, Dec 25: Ruling out any differences between the government and the Army, Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said the force was working within the ambit of the constitution and has to follow official policies.
Gilani also made it clear that the Inter-Services Intelligence is “working effectively” under his control.
During an interview with a TV news channel, he expressed complete confidence in the working of the ISI and said “we do not want to politicise them”.