Pakistan

Mingora, October 16: Saeed Khan lost his CD and video shop in Timargarah, the capital of Dir district, after it was attacked by local Taliban militants for not heeding their threats to stop selling porn movies.

Now that Taliban has almost been defeated in the restive province, he is ready to reopen his shop, but is vowing never to resume his old bad business.

“I believe whatever we have recently faced (migration and destruction) was simply the punishment for our bad deeds,” Khan told.

“We all must learn form that.”

Lahore/Islamabad, October 16: Suspected Taliban militants today unleashed a fresh wave of terror in Pakistan storming three security facilities in Lahore in near-simultaneous attacks and carried out a suicide bombing at a police station in northwestern Kohat city, leaving at least 41 people dead.

At least 20 people — 16 security personnel and four civilians — were killed in attacks on an office of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and two police training facilities in Lahore by three groups of terrorists between 9.15am and 9.40am local time, police said.

Lahore, October 15: Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik has commended the security forces for thwarting three major terrorist attacks in Lahore Thursday, the Online news agency reported.

Malik made the remarks during a visit to the FIA (Federal Investigation Agency) building where five militants were killed after a daring attack Thursday.

He said he “appreciated the professionalism of police and elite forces”.

He also lauded the media “for not creating a negative hype”.

Srinagar, October 15: Welcoming the statement of union Home Minister P Chidambaram that the Centre was ready for a dialogue with representatives of all shades of opinion in Jammu and Kashmir, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today wanted resumption of India-Pakistan talks stalled in the wake of Mumbai terror attack.

“There is a need to resume Indo-Pak talks which have broken down after 26/11 Mumbai incident”, Omar said addressing a public gathering at Lassipora, 30km from here in Pulwama district today.

Lahore, October 15: Taliban terrorists laid siege to Pakistan’s Lahore city today morning with audacious and simultaneous attacks on three police establishments that killed 25 people including 10 of the attackers.

An unknown number of armed men – and probably a few women – dressed in military fatigues stormed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) building in a thickly populated area, the sprawling police training school at Manawan, only 12 km from the Indian border, and the Elite Force training centre, another huge complex.

Lahore, October 15: Taliban terrorists laid siege to Pakistan’s Lahore city Thursday morning with audacious and simultaneous attacks on three police establishments that killed 25 people including 10 of the attackers.

An unknown number of armed men – and probably a few women – dressed in military fatigues stormed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) building in a thickly populated area, the sprawling police training school at Manawan, only 12 km from the Indian border, and the Elite Force training centre, another huge complex.

Lahore, October 15: Unleashing a fresh wave of terror, suspected Taliban militants, including women, on Thursday stormed a Federal Investigation Agency office and two police training units in near-simultaneous attacks in Pakistan’s Lahore city, sparking fierce gun battles that killed at least 23 people.

Among those killed in the attacks that took place a little after 9.15 am local time were five terrorists while the rest were security personnel and civilians. At least 18 people were also injured in the strikes.

Islamabad, October 15: Teams of gunmen attacked three security sites today in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore while a suicide bomber hit a northwestern town, killing a total of 26 people in an escalating a wave of terror aimed at scuttling a planned offensive into the militants’ heartland on the Afghan border.

The assaults paralyzed one of the nation’s most vibrant cities and showed the militants are highly organized and able to carry out sophisticated, coordinated strikes against heavily fortified facilities, despite stepped up security across the country.

Lahore, October 15: An official says gunmen are firing inside a federal building in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore.

Terrorists struck Lahore in a big way Thursday, storming Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency building and attacking two police training centres in synchronised attacks, triggering fierce exchanges of fire with police that left at least 11 dead and several injured.

Lahore, October 15: In audacious attacks, terrorists today stormed the Federal Investigation Agency building and two other security establishments in this eastern Pakistani city, triggering fierce exchanges of fire with police that left at least four persons dead and several injured.

Terrorists attacked the FIA office on Temple Road, located close to the Mall Road, a key thoroughfare of Lahore this morning and opened indiscriminate fire. The gunmen also took several in the building hostages, Pakistani TV channels said.

Islamabad, October 14: Acting on a High Court order, Pakistan police has registered a murder case against former President Pervez Musharraf and several of his key aides in connection with the killing of Baloch nationalist leader Nawab Akbar Bugti in a military operation in 2006.

The case was registered yesterday at Dera Bugti police station in Balochistan on the orders of the provincial High Court, lawyers representing Bugti’s kin said.

Islamabad, October 13: The Pakistan Army has become a tool in the hands of the “crusaders” to save American and NATO troops from certain defeat in Afghanistan, Al Qaeda’s second-in-command said in a new video message Tuesday.

“At this moment Pakistani forces are playing the central role in this crusade that has been imposed on Islam and Muslims,” Ayman al-Zawahiri said in a 26-minute video posted on Muslim extremist websites.

Islamabad, October 13: An audacious weekend assault by Islamic militants on Pakistan’s army headquarters is again raising fears of an insurgent attack on the country’s nuclear weapons installation. Pakistan has sought to protect its nuclear weapons from attack by the Taliban or other militants by storing the warheads, detonators and missiles separately in facilities patrolled by elite troops.

Pakistan, October 13: Taliban kidnappers who attacked Pakistan army’s headquarters over the weekend were planning to hold senior army officers hostage until more than 100 militants were released from the country’s jails, the military has claimed.

The news came as militants launched yet another attack on a military target in the country’s north-west, killing dozens of people in a crowded market with a suicide bombing that emphasised how Taliban insurgents have strengthened their hand by developing ties with sympathetic militants outside of their traditional strongholds.

Peshawar, October 13: A devastating suicide bomb hit northwest Pakistan killing 41 people on Monday, as the military geared up for an assault on Taliban rebels blamed for increasingly bloody and brazen attacks.

The bomber, reported to be aged about 13, flung himself at a military convoy passing through a busy market in Shangla, a northwest district near Swat where the army claimed to have flushed out Taliban rebels after a fierce offensive.

Pakistan, October 12: Pakistan’s Lahore High Court on Monday dismissed the FIRs lodged under anti-terrorism act against JuD chief Hafiz Mohd Saeed, who is the main accused in the 26/11 terror attacks.

“Anti-terror law does not apply to Saeed,” the high court said while dismissing the case.

The Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief is the alleged mastermind of the Mumbai terror attacks in November 2008 in which more than 170 people were killed.

Saeed’s lawyer has all along claimed the case against his client was weak.

Khar, October 12: Pakistani fighter jets bombed suspected militant hide-outs Monday in a tribal region where the military had previously declared victory over the Taliban, killing 13 alleged extremists a day after the end of a deadly siege of the army’s headquarters.

A series of attacks over the past week shows that the Taliban have rebounded and appear determined to shake the nation’s resolve as the military plans for an offensive in South Waziristan, the insurgents’ main stronghold along the Afghan border that has never been fully under the government’s control.

Islamabad, October 12: An officer in the Pakistan Embassy was electrocuted at his house at Vasant Vihar in South Delhi.

Mohammed Khan, 50, a staff member of the Political Council in the Embassy, was using a hair dryer at around 2200 hrs yesterday when he got electrocuted.

He was taken to the Fortis Hospital, but could not be saved, a police officer said.

He is survived by his wife and two children.

The body was handed over to the family members without post-mortem as he was a foreign national.

—Agencies

Islamabad, October 12: Pakistani aircraft attacked Taliban militants in their South Waziristan stronghold near the Afghan border as the government said a ground offensive against the al Qaeda-lnked fighters was imminent.

The aircraft struck the militants late on Sunday, hours after commandos stormed an office building and rescued 39 people taken hostage after an attack on the army headquarters.

“The jets hit and destroyed two of their hideouts in Makeen and Ladha and we have a total of about 16 militants killed,” a Pakistani intelligence official in the region said.

Islamabad, October 11: Military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said that Aqeel initially managed to flee and detonated a cache of explosives, injuring five security personnel, but was eventually injured and arrested.

“He was leader of the group,” Abbas said. He told AFP that the militant appeared to have the same name and alias as one of the militants wanted in connection with the March gun and grenade attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in the eastern city of Lahore.

Quetta, October 11: India and Afghanistan are supporting an insurgency in Pakistan’s Balochistan, trying to bolster the leadership of separatists fighting the Pakistan government, a top security commander said on Saturday.

“A lot of evidence of Indian involvement through Afghanistan is there, supporting the separatist movement,” Major General Salim Nawaz, Inspector General of the Frontier Corps in Balochistan, told Reuters in an interview at his headquarters here.

Rawalpindi, October 11: A terrorist arrested from the Pakistani Army headquarters has been identified as the mastermind of the attack on the Sri Lanka cricket team in March, a media report said Sunday.

Muhammad Aqeel alias Dr. Usman, a former Pakistani soldier, was taken into custody after he led an audacious attack on the army headquarters here Saturday that left some 20 people dead.

Geo TV reported that he was also the mastermind of the attack on the Sri Lankan team in Lahore in March that forced the visitors to cut short their trip and head home.

Rawalpindi, October 11: Nine people were killed Sunday in a dramatic hostage rescue operation at Pakistan’s military headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, an army spokesman said.

Major General Athar Abbas said three hostages, two military commandos and four of the attackers died in the operation that freed several hostages after a 22-hour standoff inside the army base.

“By the grace of God, the operation has been successfully completed,” Abbas said. “Up to 30 hostages have been rescued from the building and four terrorists are dead.”

Islamabad, October 11: Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has claimed responsibility of the terrorist attack on General Headquarters of Pakistan Army in Rawalpindi.

According to official sources, the TTP has taken the responsibility of the terrorist attack on GHQ and warned of more attacks if military operation against Taliban was not stopped.

Rawalpindi, October 11: Pakistani commandos stormed a building near army headquarters on Sunday and freed 25 hostages being held there by suspected Taliban militants, a military spokesman said. Three hostages and four of the gunmen were killed, said the spokesman, Major General Athar Abbas.

Saturday’s brazen attack on the tightly guarded headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi came as the military prepared a major offensive against the militants in their northwestern stronghold of South Waziristan on the Afghan border.