Pakistan

Islamabad, Dec 17: US drone attacks in Pakistan usually result in the death of civilians.

The latest US drone strikes have killed at least two militants in northwestern Pakistan, security officials say.

The attack took place on Thursday when a missile from an unmanned US aircraft slammed into a suspected militant base.

A house was hit in Dattakhel village, some 30 kilometers (18 miles) west of Miranshah, the main town of the restive North Waziristan tribal district bordering Afghanistan.

Islamabad, December 17: Pakistan has held up visas for US diplomats, military service members and others, apparently because of hostility within the country toward the expansion of US operations in Pakistan, a senior US diplomat said on Wednesday.

American diplomats have also been stopped repeatedly at Pakistani checkpoints as part of what US officials say is a wider focus on foreigners working in Pakistan. US cars are searched, although diplomats are told to open the trunk but to refuse access to the passenger compartment.

Islamabad, December 17: Pakistan was headed for a political crisis with uncertainty surrounding Asif Ali Zardari continuing as President after the Supreme Court scrapped an Ordinance under which he and several other prominent politicians had been granted immunity from prosecution in corruption cases.

The court also directed authorities to reopen a slew of corruption cases.

Islamabad, December 17: Pakistan has warned that US drone attacks on southwestern Balochistan would hinder Islamabad’s efforts to confront militancy in the country.

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen on Wednesday that drone attacks in Balochistan would be considered as an aggression against the country, the .

Earlier in the day, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abdul Basit said his country will not allow drone attacks on suspected Taliban bases in the province.

Lahore, December 16: Former Attorney General Abdul Qayyum stated in the Supreme Court that the then President Pervez Musharraf directed to end the Swiss case on which he wrote letter to the Swiss court to halt the case.

Abdul Qayyum was summoned by the Supreme Court where he told that Asif Ali Zardari filed petition in the Sindh High Court under NRO on February 15, 2008 and the court ordered to end all local and foreign cases against Asif Zardari. Pervez Musharraf directed to act upon the court orders.

Lahore, December 15: The Lahore High Court on Monday directed the Pakistan government not to deport five American Muslims held on suspicion of terror links to the US or any other country.

The court issued the orders in response to a petition filed by former ISI official Khalid Khwaja.

The five men – Waqar Hussain Khan, Omar Farooq, Ahmed Abdullah Minni, Ramy S. Zamzam and Iman Hassan Yemer – were arrested by the Pakistani police last week in Sargodha area of Punjab province. The father of one of the men – also a US national – was arrested along with them.

Islamabad, Dec 15: The differences between Pakistan’s civilian government and its all powerful military spilled out in the open on Monday with a lawyer representing the government telling the Supreme Court that the Army and an American intelligence agency posed a threat to the country’s democracy.

Later, Pakistan Army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani called on Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani. It was an unscheduled meeting, and came after he had already met the Prime Minister once before in the day along with the visiting U.S. Centcom chief, General David Petraeus.

Islamabad, December 15: As the country is gripped by Taliban insurgency, the Pakistani government is planning to brainwash hundreds of militants in cooperation with Saudi Arabia.

“We are going to set up a special cell for the detained militants in line with Saudi Arabia, where they will be psychologically treated by senior physiatrists,” Interior Minister Rehman Malik told IslamOnline.net Monday, December 14.

Lahore, December 14: A Pakistani court today directed the government not to deport five American Muslim youths, arrested on suspicion of terror links, to the US or any other country.

Chief Justice Khwaja Muhammad Sharif of Lahore High Court issued the order in response to a petition filed by former Inter-Services Intelligence agency official Khalid Khwaja.

Lahore, Dec 14: An official says a top Pakistani court has issued an order saying five American men held here on suspicion of terror links cannot be deported before judges review their case.

Pakistani police have said the five Muslims wanted to join militants in Pakistan’s northwest tribal areas before going to Afghanistan.

They were picked up by local police last week in the town of Sargodha. They have not been charged with any crime in Pakistan or produced in court.

Washington, December 14: After confirmation that the CIA has been operating drone strikes in Pakistani territory, a new report says the US is seeking to expand the attacks into the country’s cities.

The Los Angeles Times reported on Sunday that top US officials were pushing to expand the air strikes beyond Pakistan’s tribal region and into the major city of Quetta to allegedly target the Taliban.

Karachi, December 14: Minister for Interior Rehman Malik on Monday said religious scholars belonging to different schools of thought were of the view that terrorism and suicide bombings were un-Islamic and funeral prayer of a suicide bomber was not permissible.

Addressing a press conference after attending a meeting with Ulema here at the Chief Minister House, the minister said the participants of the meeting exchanged views in detail about terrorism and all were unanimous in condemning acts of terrorism and suicide bombings.

London, December 13: Ten Pakistani students, whose arrest on terror charges caused a row between Pakistan and Britain this year, had been cleared to work as security guards in Britain, a newspaper reported Sunday.

The arrests of the men in April on suspicion of plotting to blow up a shopping centre and a nightclub in the city of Manchester caused a diplomatic spat, prompting Britain to release them days after Prime Minister Brown warned of “a very big terrorist plot”.

Islamabad, December 12: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani congratulated Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif for consensus among provinces over the National Finance Commission Award.

Shahbaz Sharif called on the prime minister at his residence in Lahore Saturday morning to discuss overall national situation with special focus on security situation in Punjab.

Prime Minister Gilani directed the chief minister to ensure stringent security measures during Muharram. Shahbaz assured the prime minister that security will be stepped up in the province.

–Agencies

Islamabad, December 12: All the five detained US origin terror suspects would be deported as soon as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) completes its investigations, a senior Pakistan Interior Ministry official has said.

“A five-member FBI team along with Pakistani intelligence officials, a legal advisor and a political counsellor of the US embassy Islamabad is engaged in grilling the five Americas about their alleged links with militant organizations and future plans. As soon as theinvestigations are over, they will be deported to their country,” said the official.

Islamabad: As the American diplomats stationed in Islamabad again ignored the security cordon around the capital city, they were made to apologise this time to the traffic police.

A black Land Cruiser was signaled by security personnel to stop at a checkpoint on the Kashmir Highway on Wednesday evening, but the driver sped away. Sub-divisional police officer, Liaquat Ali Malik chased the four-wheel drive with his staff and intercepted just short of the Islamabad Toll Plaza. As the driver again hit the gas, police officers drew pistols and made the diplomat give up the race.

Islamabad, Dec 12: The five American nationals who came to Pakistan for jihad and were detained earlier this week, sought to join two anti-India militant groups, Jaish-e-Mohammed and the Lashkar-e-Toiba front organisation Jamat-ud-dawa, but were turned away apparently because they could not show the right credentials.

The five, the oldest of whom is 24 years and the youngest 18 years, were detained from a house in Sargodha in Pakistan’s Punjab province on December 9, following a manhunt initiated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the United States.

Islamabad, December 11: The love-hate relationship between Pakistan and the US came to the fore again, when President Asif Ali Zardari accused Washington of ‘supporting dictators, and manipulating and exploiting Pakistan’.

Islamabad, December 11: Pervez Musharraf was “bullied” into supporting the US in its ‘war on terror’, claimed Pakistan’s former Chief of General Staff Shahid Aziz, who also accused the ex-President of deceiving other army officers and corps commanders in the decision leading up to the anti-Taliban campaign.

Aziz said the decision to support America was taken unilaterally before a crucial corps commanders meeting took place.

Islamabad, Dec 11: Justice Khwaja Imtiaz Ahmad of the Rawalpindi bench of Lahore High Court issued the order against Musharraf, former Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi, ex-Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz Khan and former Interior Ministry official Javed Iqbal Cheema

A Pakistani court has ordered ex-parte proceedings against former President Pervez Musharraf and three others in connection with a petition seeking registration of a case against them for alleged involvement in the killing of ex-premier Benazir Bhutto.

Islamabad, December 11: Critics in Pakistan and Afghanistan have questioned the wisdom of giving a noble peace prize to US President Barack Obama who is blamed for the recent surge in violence there.

Independently conducted polls show that there was widespread anger and resentment following the prize giving ceremony in troubled parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan, where many blame Washington for instability in the region.

Islamabad, December 11: Pakistan accused some world powers of enabling India to pursue its nuclear programme to the detriment of regional peace and stability and said it would take all possible steps to protect its security interests.

World powers have a significant responsibility in ensuring peace in the region but some of them had “contributed negatively in enabling India to pursue its ambitious nuclear programme more rapidly to the detriment of peace and stability in South Asia”, Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said.

Islamabad, December 11: Pakistan has rejected reports claiming the al-Qaeda leadership is “definitely” hiding in the country’s tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.

“Even US leaders have lately accepted that we do not know about the whereabouts of al-Qaeda leadership and we have seen statements to this effect,” Pakistan’s Foreign Office Spokesman Abdul Basit said on Thursday.

“So, I think, we come down to the same point that, had we known the whereabouts of al-Qaeda leadership, we would have addressed this particular issue long ago.”

Islamabad, Dec 11: A day after the Supreme Court sought details of a case in a Swiss court against President Asif Ali Zardari that was closed under the National Reconciliation Ordinance, the Pakistan government, which had earlier declared it would not defend the controversial law, found its voice on Thursday to hint to the judges that they were politicising the case with the possibility of serious consequences for the country.

Islamabad, December 11: “The Nobel prize is for those who have made achievements, but Obama is a killer,” Jabir Aftab, an engineer living in the shadow of bomb attacks in Pakistan’s city of Peshawar, said on Thursday.

As President Barack Obama conceded others “may be more deserving” of the prize, there was anger in troubled parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan where many blame the United States for a surge in violence.

“He is the president of a country which has a history of bloodshed and rises to a quarrel. How was he selected for this prize?” said 27-year-old Aftab.