Pakistan

Pakistan, November 30: Pakistani Premier Yousuf Raza Gilani says that the US’s decision to send thousands of extra troops to Afghanistan may destabilize his country.

Gilani, in an interview with DPA, said in Islamabad on Sunday that an increase in US troops in Afghanistan is likely to lead to a spill over of militants inside Pakistan.

Civilians and military officials in Islamabad say the US troop build up could force Taliban militants to infiltrate into Pakistani southwestern province of Balochistan that borders Helmand.

Islamabad, November 29: Pakistan’s main opposition party demanded Sunday that the president immediately relinquish much of his power amid calls for the unpopular leader to assume a ceremonial role or resign.

The political turmoil threatens to distract the U.S.-allied country from its fight against the Taliban and al-Qaida near the Afghan border.

Lahore, November 29: Ajmal Kasab and nine other terrorists who attacked Mumbai last year were in constant touch with top LeT commanders in Pakistan during the strikes and received instructions to kill ”political leaders, foreigners and prominent personalities of India.”

This was stated in the six-page chargesheet filed against the seven suspects in custody in Pakistan, including “mastermind” of the attacks Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, who is also the LeT’s operations chief, and the terror group’s communications expert Zarar Shah.

Islamabad, November 29: Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari has claimed “considerable success” in a military offensive against Taliban fighters in the remote tribal northwest, his office said Sunday.

Zardari made the remarks during a telephone conversation late Saturday with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar said in a statement.

“Referring to the ongoing drive against militancy in the tribal areas of South Waziristan, the president said that considerable success had been achieved,” Babar said.

Islamabad, November 29: Pakistan’s unpopular president is coming under increasing pressure from the powerful army and political opponents to resign or relinquish most of his powers, fuelling political turmoil just as the West wants the country to focus on the threat posed by al-Qaida and the Taliban.

An amnesty protecting President Asif Ali Zardari and several of his key allies from graft prosecution expired on Saturday, raising the possibility of legal challenges to his rule and triggering calls from the major Opposition party for him to step down.

Islamabad, November 29: Pakistan has released fifteen of the thousands of missing Bugti tribesmen under the Balochistan Package announced by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.

Official sources told a Press TV correspondent on Saturday that the tribesmen were released in the Dasht-e-Goran area of Dera Bugti district late on Friday and were able to join their families for the Eid al-Adha celebration.

Islamabad, November 29: President Asif Ali Zardari has given up control of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal in a bid to fend off mounting pressures threatening to weaken his rule further and complicate the war on the Taliban.

Mr Zardari took the decision overnight as an amnesty protecting him and key aides from corruption cases expired and risked flinging the country, struggling to contain a Taliban insurgency in the northwest, into fresh political crisis.

Islamabad, November 29: Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s public relations officer (PRO) Saturday confirmed that terror suspect David Coleman Headley was his half- brother but said there had been “very little contact” with him for the past seven years.

The PRO, Danyal Gilani, also said his family was in no way related to the prime minister.

Islamabad, November 29: Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s public relations officer (PRO) Saturday confirmed that terror suspect David Coleman Headley was his half- brother but said there had been “very little contact” with him for the past seven years.

The PRO, Danyal Gilani, also said his family was in no way related to the prime minister.

Islamabad, November 28: Eid-ul-Zuha was celebrated across Pakistan Saturday with religious zeal and fervour in commemoration of the supreme sacrifice offered by Hazrat Ibrahim Khalilullah and his son Hazrat Ismail Zabiullah in fulfilment of a divine order.

Eid prayers were offered at Eidgahs, principal mosques and open places across the country where the Ulema and Khateebs highlighted the significance and philosophy of the sacrifice and called upon Muslims to follow the teachings of Islam in true spirit, Geo TV reported.

Islamabad, November 28: A controversial law which scrapped graft cases against Asif Ali Zardari and his key allies expired on Saturday, but the President felt it will not affect him as the Constitution provides “indemnity” to the person holding the top post in the country.

“According to our legal team, the President has indemnity and (his) eligibility cannot be challenged now,” Zardari said hours before the lapse of the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), which was issued by former military ruler Pervez Musharraf two years ago.

Peshawar, November 26: A roadside bomb targeting a police officer exploded in the main northwestern city of Peshawar on Thursday, injuring three people in the latest of a wave of attacks to strike the area since the army launched a major anti-Taliban offensive last month.

The bomb was detonated by remote control as Riaz-ul-Islam, the head of a police station in Peshawar, was passing by in his vehicle in a residential area of Peshawar near a school, said Hakim Khan, a police officer at the scene of the attack.

Islamabada, November 25: A Pakistani anti-terror court on Wednesday framed charges against LeT’s operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and six others for involvement in the Mumbai attacks and declared 16 people, including Ajmal Amir Kasab, as proclaimed offenders.

Judge Malik Muhammad Akram Awan, who is conducting the trial at Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi for security reasons, formally charged the seven suspects, sources said, adding the accused protested against their indictment.

Islamabad, November 25: Pakistan has issued a verbal salvo, accusing its archrival India of preparing for a “limited” war against it.

“India has long been working on the so-called ‘Cold Start’ strategy and preparing for a limited war against Pakistan,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Abdul Basit said Tuesday in response to an earlier statement by the Indian Army chief.

General Deepak Kapoor told a seminar on “Changing Nature of Conflict: Trends and Responses” Monday that the possibility of a limited war under a nuclear overhang was still a reality in South Asia.

Amritsar, November 25: Pakistan national Akhtar Ali, a resident of Karachi, was today sent to his country through the international border here after serving two years imprisonment for violating visa norms.

Ali had come to India by air in 2007 on a 10 days visa to Mumbai but stayed back in the country despite the expiry of his visa, according to an official at the border.

He was arrested by the police and sentenced to two years imprisonment by a court. He served his sentence in Tihar jail in the national capital, the official said.

–PTI

Islamabad, Nov 25: The Pakistan Army confirmed on Tuesday that a retired Major has been detained for suspected links with David Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana, arrested last month in the United States for plotting a terror attack in Denmark.

Denying a report that serving officers were picked up in connection with the case that was being probed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Major-General Athar Abbas, the military spokesman, said only one retired Major was picked two months ago and was now being questioned by intelligence agencies.

Peshawar, Nov 24: Backed by helicopter gunships, Pakistani troops on Tuesday killed 15 militants and captured six others during an operation against the banned Lashkar-e-Islam group in the restive Khyber tribal region in the northwest after authorities imposed a curfew in a key district there.

The security forces launched the operation in Bara sub-division of Khyber agency this morning after curfew was clamped on the region for an indefinite period.

Troops entered the militant stronghold of Gurgurey and occupied important heights, the Frontier Corps’ media cell said.

Islamabad, November 24: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) as well as opposition parties are demanding that President Asif Zardari and several ministers resign and face trials for alleged past crimes.

The call for the resignations came after some cabinet ministers were named this weekend in the Law Ministry’s list of people that have benefited from the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), or an amnesty decree that dismissed their past alleged crimes.

Islamabad, November 23: Pakistan is likely to launch another full-fledged military operation against militants in Pakistan’s Khyber tribal agency with over 1,000 security personnel deployed in Bara area of the region, local media reports said Monday.

Security forces equipped with artillery guns and rocket launchers were stationed in different parts of Bara Tehsil Sunday, Xinhua quoted private newspaper The News as saying.

Toronto, November 23: A Taliban insurgency and the war in neighbouring Afghanistan have put Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal at risk giving rise to a “troubling” situation, an arms control expert who served as former US president George W Bush’s national security adviser has said.

“The situation in Pakistan is troubling from a lot of perspectives,” Stephen Hadley, who now advises Washington-based think-tank the US Institute of Peace said.

Islamabad, November 23: The Pakistan-based militant group that attacked the Indian city of Mumbai a year ago remains an implacable Indian foe and could strike again despite Pakistani efforts to rein it in.

The Lashkar-e-Taiba emerged from the embers of the Islamist battle against Soviet occupiers in Afghanistan in the 1980s and began fighting Indian forces in the disputed Kashmir region in the early 1990s.

Islamabad, November 22: Fifteen militants, including a key commander, were killed and several others injured during operations by security forces in Pakistan’s restive Bajaur tribal region and South Waziristan, the military said on Sunday.

Ten militants, including a key commander, were killed and several others injured during an operation in Bajaur tribal region.

Officials of the Frontier Corps said the operation was conducted in Loesan area of Bajaur Agency.

An “important commander” was among those killed, they said.

Islamabad, November 21: The alleged mastermind of the suicide attacks on the World Food Programme office and on a police helpline office here has been arrested, police said.

Briefing reporters, Islamabad Inspector General of Police Kalim Imam said the suspect, Jamsheed alias Tahir belonged to the tribal Orakzai Agency in the country’s restive northwest.

A suicide jacket recovered from Jamsheed was also displayed at the briefing, Online news agency reported.

Islamabad, November 21: An incessant spate of suicide bombings and terrorist attacks nationwide has virtually crumbled the already dismal economy, but has ironically created thousands of security and guarding jobs.

“I am lucky to get job in these circumstances, when thousands have been rendered jobless,” Gul Nawaz, 24, told.

He is one of the thousands of new security guards hired by some 70,000 private schools across Pakistan fearing attacks in retaliation for the ongoing military offensive against local Taliban militants.

Islamabad, November 20: The CIA boss Leon Panetta on Friday met Pakistan’s top civil and military leaders to discuss the war against terror and sharing of information between Washington and Islamabad to boost the campaign against militants operating along the Afghanistan border.

Panetta, whose visit was kept low key apparently due to security concerns, met Inter-Services Intelligence agency chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.