Pakistan

Islamabad, December 08: A suspected U.S. drone fired two missiles into an al Qaeda and Taliban sanctuary in a Pakistani region the Afghan border on Tuesday, killing at least three militants, Pakistani intelligence officials said.

The strike in the North Waziristan region was the first since U.S. President Barack Obama’s speech last week outlining plans to send 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan.

Obama said Pakistan must not allow its territory to be used as a sanctuary for militants.

Islamabad, December 07: Eight persons, including a child, were injured in a bomb attack in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta on Monday, police said.

The bomb, hidden in a motorcycle parked outside the gate of a residential complex for government officers, was detonated by remote control, police said.

Unidentified men parked the motorcycle in the area shortly before the blast.

A child was among the eight persons injured in the attack.

One of the injured lost his arm. The explosion damaged three vehicles and two motorcycles.

Islamabad, December 07: Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Monday said David Coleman Headley, a terror suspect of Pakistani origin detained in the US, should face action under American laws.

Though Headley was of Pakistani origin, he had left the country in his youth, Malik told reporters in the southern port city of Karachi.

“If he has committed any crime, he should be punished under US laws,” he said.

Malik was responding to a question on whether American authorities had sought Pakistan’s help in probing Headley’s links in the country.

Peshawar, December 07: At least 10 people were killed and nearly 50 others injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a crowded court complex in this northwestern Pakistani city today, the latest in a wave of deadly terrorist attacks across the country.

The bomber, who came to the court complex in a rickshaw, tried to flee when he was challenged by police, said North West Frontier Province Senior Minister Bashir Bilour.

He blew himself up when police opened fire, the minister told reporters at the site of the explosion.

Peshawar, December 07: Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar shook again on Monday with an explosion in a vehicle near a crowded court complex in the heart of the city, killing two people and wounding 20.

Witnesses said the blast occurred in an auto-rickshaw outside the sessions court complex on Jail Road in Peshawar. About 20 people were injured in the attack, six of them seriously.

Police cordoned off the area and sealed key roads as ambulances took the injured to nearby hospitals.

Authorities are still investigating the nature of the blast.

Peshawar, December 07: An explosion near a court complex rocked this Pakistani frontier city Monday, Geo News reported.

Peshawar is the capital of the North West Frontier Province.

—IANS–

Peshawar, December 07: Police commandos acting on a tip killed one militant and arrested five others Sunday in a raid against a bombing cell accused in recent attacks around the northwest Pakistani city of Peshawar, authorities said.

Elsewhere in the volatile region, a remote-controlled roadside bomb killed two anti-Taliban tribal elders — underscoring the difficulty Pakistan faces in cracking down on the loose and flexible network of militants threatening its stability.

Peshawar, December 06: Police said they have killed one militant and arrested five other members of a gang suspected of involvement in recent bombings and other attacks around the northwestern Pakistan city of Peshawar.

Regional police Chief Liaquat Ali Khan said commandos acting on a tip raided a compound Sunday in the village of Kaka Khel near Peshawar. He said one suspect was killed and five others arrested after a fierce gunbattle.

He says two of those arrested were wounded and police seized explosives and other weapons from the compound.

Lahore, December 06: Suicide attacks and bomb blasts are not allowed in Islam; these acts are ‘un-Islamic’.

Head of Minhaj-ul-Quran International Tahir-ul-Qadri said this during a video conference held with reference to his 150-page ‘Fatwa’. “This Fatwa will be released in three languages across the world,” he said.

The Fatwa describes viewpoint on Islam and terrorism in the light of the holy Qur’an and Sunnah.

“Any armed struggle against an Islamic state falls in the domain of rebellion,” he explained.

London, December 06: Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani, in an interview with The Times, talked down the anti-US feeling in his country, saying that Pakistanis, horrified by the violence, now saw the fight against militants as “their war.”

“It is our war that we are fighting, not a proxy war for the US,” he told the paper’s foreign affairs editor Bronwen Maddox in the interview, arguing that his country was an ally among equals in the battle against terrorism, not an American or British stooge.

Islamabad, December 06: President Asif Ali Zardari on Friday said the operation against militancy would continue till its complete elimination from the country.

In a meeting with Chief Minister NWFP Ameer Haider Khan Hoti at Aiwan-e-Sadr, the President said heinous incidents such as bomb blast across the country would not shake the government’s resolve to continue the fight to its logical end.

The matters that came under discussion included drive against militants and rehabilitation of displaced persons, law and order situation and development projects in the province.

Islamabad, December 05: UP to 40 militants have attacked an army checkpoint, killing one soldier, a security official said today, after suicide bombers and gunmen killed dozens at a mosque near Pakistan’s military headquarters.

Pakistan’s army, which heavily supported militant groups in their war against Soviet occupation in Afghanistan, now faces a stubborn Taliban insurgency on its own soil and mounting US pressure to root out Islamist fighters in tribal border areas.

Peshawar, December 05: At least three people were killed and 13 others wounded in an accidental blast at a building in Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar on Saturday, officials said.

“It was a low intensity explosion caused by a chemical reaction,” local bomb disposal chief Shafqat Malik told AFP.

He added that the blast occurred in a chemical shop in the market.

Islamabad, December 05 :Terrorists attacked a mosque frequented by military officers and their families in the garrison town of Rawalpindi on Friday killing 40 people. Six military officers were among the dead.

A military statement said four attackers hurled grenades, then opened fire as they rushed toward the mosque, which was located on Parade Lane in a military residential colony, just a few kilometers from the capital. Two suicide bombers then blew themselves up inside, while the other two were killed in an exchange of gunfire, it said.

Islamabad, December 05: A trial of seven Pakistanis suspected in last year’s attacks on the Indian city of Mumbai was delayed after lawyers went on strike to protest against a militant attack near Pakistan’s military headquarters.

In the most daring attack since October, two suicide bombers yesterday blew themselves up at a mosque and two other militants fired on worshippers in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, killing at least 40 people.
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Rawalpindi, Decembner 05: Senior Pakistani army officers were targeted yesterday in a bloody militant suicide bomb attack that killed at least 40 people.

In the most high-profile assault on the army since it launched a major ground offensive against Taliban militants in South Waziristan two months ago, suicide bombers and gunmen laid siege to a two-storey mosque in Rawalpindi’s garrison quarter.

Islamabsd, Dec 05: Up to 40 militants have attacked an army checkpoint, killing one soldier, a security official said on Saturday, after suicide bombers and gunmen killed dozens at a mosque near Pakistan’s military headquarters.

Pakistan’s army, which heavily supported militant groups in their war against Soviet occupation in Afghanistan, now faces a stubborn Taliban insurgency on its own soil and mounting U.S. pressure to root out Islamist fighters in tribal border areas.

Peshawar, Dec 05: A massive blast tore through a commercial area housing shops and private offices in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar on Saturday, leaving at least six persons injured.

The blast, which occurred in a three-storey building situated on University Road shortly after 11.30 am local time, sparked a major fire. Witnesses said they had seen ambulances taking six injured persons to nearby hospitals.

Peshawar, December 05: A day after gunmen stormed a mosque near Army headquarters in Rawalpindi; Saturday, once again, it was the turn of Pakistan’s north-western city of Peshawar to be hit again.

According to the latest news report, a blast ripped through a restaurant, supposedly a KFC outlet, at University Road, killing at least two persons and injuring at least two others.

Washington, December 05: Acknowledging Pakistan as a “nuclear state”, the Obama administration today said that the country has “enormous responsibilities” within the community of nations that have such weapons.

“As a nuclear state, Pakistan has enormous responsibilities within the community of nations that have nuclear weapons,” National Security Adviser, General (retd) James Jones said while briefing foreign correspondents here.

Washington, December 05: The Indo-Pak border situation has “improved” but suspicions continue to run deeper between the two countries, according to influential US Senator John Kerry, who is a key foreign policy aide to President Barack Obama.

“It (situation along the Indo-Pak border) has improved in the last few months. The tensions over Mumbai have been deep. And the suspicions run even deeper,” he told PBS news channel.

Lahore, December 05: Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer has expressed grief over the terrorist attack in a mosque in Rawalpindi, which killed several innocent people besides leaving many injured.

The governor said the attack on the mosque was proof that the terrorists had no relations with Islam. He prayed to Allah Almighty for eternal peace for the departed souls and early recovery of those who were injured.

The governor said that the sacrifices of people, security forces and particularly the Pakistan Army for the stability and integrity of the country would not go to waste.

Rawalpindi, December 05: A Taliban suicide squad targeted Pakistani military officers and their families praying at a mosque close to army headquarters in a gruesome display of the militants’ ability to strike at the center of power in the U.S.-allied, nuclear-armed nation.

The barrage of bombs and bullets Friday left 37 people dead, including seven senior officers and 17 children.

Islamabad, December 04: Pakistani police today released a sketch of the suicide bomber who blew himself up outside the naval headquarters complex in the federal capital and announced a reward of Rs 2.5 million for information on the masterminds of the attack.

The sketch depicted a clean-shaven youth aged about 16 or 17 years. Police said he was short and had a fair complexion.

December 04: The ISI is fully under “government control” and no one can question its “credibility” in counter-terrorism efforts, Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said.

Gilani, currently on a visit here also claimed that “India is increasing its role in Afghanistan.” He did not elaborate.

“The ISI is our asset for the country and they are doing everything under the control of the government.