Pakistan

Rawalpindi, October 10: An unknown number of insurgents took hostage around a dozen soldiers, including two senior officers, after a raid on the Pakistani Army headquarters in this garrison city Saturday in which six troops were killed, an intelligence official said.

The official said more than two insurgents managed to sneak into the army headquarters and took hostage “more than a dozen soldiers, including some officers” around 10 hours after the initial raid Saturday morning.

Washington, October 10: Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI was behind the attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul which killed 17 people and wounded more than 60 others, Afghan envoy to the US has claimed.

“Yes, we do,” Afghan Ambassador to the US Said T Jawad told the PBS news channel in an interview when asked if he was pointing the figure at Pakistan for the suicide bombing that took place on Thursday.

“We are pointing the finger at the Pakistan intelligence agency, based on the evidence on the ground and similar attack taking place in Afghanistan,” Jawad said.

Islamabad, October 10: The death toll of the Khyber Bazaar suicide blast in the northwest Pakistani city of Peshawar has reached 52 while a large number of victims are still under treatment in various hospitals, a local TV channel reported Saturday.

The authorities feared increase in the toll, the private TV GEO News reported.

Meanwhile, security has been tightened in the city, the capital of North West Frontier Province (NWFP), after the blast as investigations are underway.

Islamabad, October 10: Tehreek-e-Taliban has claimed responsibility for the brazen attack on the Pakistan Army’s Headquarters in Rawalpindi on Saturday, which left four of its militants and eight soldiers dead, and demanded a halt in ongoing military campaign in the NWFP.

The Amjad Farooqi group of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) umbrella grouping claimed that it was behind the audacious attack and demanded that former President Pervez Musharraf be put on trial.

Islamabad, October 10: Four suspected militants dressed in army uniforms attacked Pakistan’s army headquarters on Saturday, killing four guards and triggering a gun battle in which the gunmen died, military officials said.

The brazen attack on the tightly guarded headquarters in the city of Rawalpindi came as the army prepares a major offensive against Pakistani Taliban militants in their northwestern stronghold on the Afghan border.

Islamabad, October 10: Four suspected militants dressed in army uniforms attacked Pakistan’s army headquarters today, killing four guards and triggering a gun battle in which the gunmen died, military officials said.

The brazen attack on the tightly guarded headquarters in the city of Rawalpindi came as the army prepares a major offensive against Pakistani Taliban militants in their northwestern stronghold on the Afghan border.

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Peshawar, October 10: Four gunmen and several troops have been killed as an attack on Pakistan’s army HQ outside the capital Islamabad was foiled, the military says.

Troops engaged the gunmen after they tried to enter the heavily armed complex in Rawalpindi. An intense gun battle followed.

The attack follows a series of bombings in north-western Pakistan. On Friday at least 49 died in a blast in Peshawar.

The attacks come as the army prepares a major operation against the Taliban.

Peshawar, october 10: The death toll from the suicide car bombing in Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar has risen to 52 after three more people died in hospital overnight, police and health officials said Saturday.

The massive blast ripped through a packed market at midday on Friday killing at least 49 people and injuring over 100.

Charred corpses were strewn in a shopping area of the city’s main Khyber Bazaar, with cars reduced to burning wrecks and a city bus destroyed and flung on its side.

Islamabad, October 10: An attack on Pakistani army headquarters near Islamabad ended on Saturday with all four attackers killed, a military spokesman told Pakistani television.

“All the four terrorists have been killed. The fighting is over now. The situation is under control,” Major General Athar Abbas told private TV channel Geo in a live interview.

—Agencies

Islamabad, October 10: A team of gunmen brandishing assault rifles and grenades tried to break into Pakistan’s Army headquarters on Saturday, sparking a raging gunbattle with troops outside the capital of Islamabad, police said.

The brazen attack was the third major militant assault in a week and came as the government said it was planning an imminent offensive against Islamist militants in their strongholds in the rugged mountains along the border with Afghanistan.

Peshawar, October 09: A suicide bomber blew up his vehicle near a crowded market in northwestern Pakistan on Friday, killing 49 people and pushing the country closer to an offensive against militants in their main stronghold along the Afghan border.

The attack, which wounded more than 100 people in Peshawar, was Pakistan’s deadliest in six months and was a reminder of the ability of insurgents to strike in major cities despite operations against them and the death of their leader in a U.S. missile strike.

Islamabad, October 09: Pakistani militants have destroyed hundreds of NATO trucks over the past months Suspected pro-Taliban insurgents in Pakistan’s troubled northwest have torched several trucks and containers taking supplies to NATO-led forces in Afghanistan.

The incident took place near Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar.

Witnesses said at least six trucks, an oil tanker and a container were totally destroyed by the blaze.

Pakistani militants have repeatedly launched attacks on NATO trucks in region.

Islamabad, October 09: Pakistan opened its account in “shoe-gaming” with a Karachi student flinging his shoe at a US journalist.

The shoe was flung at Clifford D May, a US journalist visiting Karachi University on Thursday, local media reported.

May, who is a Republican and was said to be an active member of the party during George W Bush’s administration, was speaking at the Department of International Relations on ‘Pakistan’s Role in Countering the Challenge of Terrorism’ when a student got into action.

Peshawar, October 09: A powerful blast ripped through a crowded bazaar in the northwest Pakistani city of Peshawar on Friday, police said, fearing casualties.

—Agencies

Islamabad, October 08: Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ijaz Butt has scotched suggestions the team fixed matches at the Champions Trophy, and scolded an official who attacked an umpire’s performance.

Butt returned home on Thursday after the Champions Trophy in South Africa, where he also attended International Cricket Council board meetings.

A parliamentarian in Pakistan has accused the national team of throwing games in the Champions Trophy and has asked Butt, coach Intikhab Alam and captain Younis Khan to appear before a sports committee of the lower house on October 13.

Seven killed in blast outside Indian embassy in Kabul

Kabul, October 08: A large bomb exploded near the Indian embassy in the centre of the Afghan capital on Thursday, killing seven people and wounding 45, two police sources said.

The blast tore through a market building across the street from the heavily fortified embassy compound, leaving rubble and debris strewn across the road, where the the Afghan Interior Ministry is also located.

Ambulances and other emergency vehicles rushed to the blast site.

Islamabad, October 08: Pakistan’s opposition has expressed concerns about a US aid package that would provide the country with 7.5 billion US dollars over the next five years.

Last week, the US Congress approved the bill to give Pakistan 1.5 billion dollars annually in aid for the next five years.

However, the opposition as well as the army say some parts of the legislation might have negative impacts on Pakistan’s national security.

Lawmakers from the main opposition party Pakistan Muslim League-N believe the bill would push the country into US enslavement.

Islamabad, October 08: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani called on President Asif Ali Zardari here Wednesday at President House.

The meeting between the two held in the backdrop of Pakistan Army’s announcement that it has had ‘severe concerns’ over the conditions posed by Kerry-Lugar bill – a multibillion dollar legislation aimed at tripling to $1.5 billion a year US aid for Pakistan.

Islamabad, October 08: Pakistan’s powerful military rejected U.S. attempts to link billions of dollars in foreign aid to increased monitoring of its anti-terror efforts, complicating American attempts to strike al-Qaida and Taliban fighters on the Afghan border.

Islamabad, October 07: The government may ask the Interpol to issue a Red Corner Notice for former President Pervez Musharraf if Pakistani authorities sought his arrest in connection with a case related to the killing of Baloch nationalist leader Nawab Akbar Bugti, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said today.

Malik made the remarks after the Balochistan High Court today directed the police to register a case against Musharraf and several of his close aides, including former premier Shaukat Aziz, in connection with the killing of Bugti in a military operation in 2006.

Karachi, October 07: National coach Intikhab Alam accused the Indian media of triggering and fanning the match-fixing debate here and said the Pakistan Cricket Board should decide whether there is any need to restore cricketing ties with a neighbour which is “hell bent” on damaging them.

“The Indian media should be ashamed of itself for creating these stories about our team being involved in match-fixing in the Champions Trophy,” a furious Alam said in an interview.

Islamabad, October 07: Pakistan’s military asks the US to provide solid information about the alleged presence of Taliban leadership in its southwestern province.

“After getting all kinds of intelligence reports on the subject we have informed the US that the Taliban and al-Qaeda leadership do not exist in Quetta [in Baluchistan province],” Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, a military spokesman told a local Pakistani private TV channel, a Press TV correspondent reported.

He said the US officials are making such claims just to cover their failures in Afghanistan.

Islamabad, October 07:US may know the whereabouts of Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said Wednesday.

Talking to newspersons in Washington, Qureshi said US troops equipped with state of the art technology and weapons were present in the region.

“US may be aware of the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden,” The News International quoted Qureshi as saying.

He asserted that Pakistan-Afghanistan relations will further improve.

—–IANS

Islamabad, October 07: The Pakistani army expects Taliban and al-Qaida fighters in the South Waziristan tribal region to put up “tough resistance” against a military offensive, the army’s chief spokesman said.

Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas also confirmed earlier reports that the military has completed preparations for the long-awaited offensive in the lawless northwest region bordering Afghanistan, but would not give a start date.

Washington, October 07: Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi urged the US Tuesday to outline a clear commitment for stability and economic development in South Asia.

Meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Qureshi said his government has the political will to tackle the extremism and militants along the border with Afghanistan.

“The people of the region have to be assured that the United States has a vision for the entire region,” Qureshi said. “Not just Afghanistan and Pakistan but the entire region.”