Pakistan

Karachi, September 28: Pakistan Monday repudiated reports that it had illegally modified the US-supplied Harpoon anti-ship missile to enable them to strike at land targets in India.

‘We have not and will never violate any convention or principles on that, and all international obligations are being honoured by the Pakistan Navy,’ naval chief Admiral Nauman Bashir said.

The US protest on the issue ‘is based on sheer misunderstanding, which is being clarified at the appropriate level’, he told reporters on the sidelines of an international conference on piracy on the high seas.

Lahore, September 28: A Pakistani court Monday admitted a petition filed by banned Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed challenging two cases registered against him by police under the Anti-Terrorism Act for inciting people to wage ‘jehad’.

After a preliminary hearing, a two-judge bench of the Lahore High Court issued notices to the federal and Punjab governments and police officials in connection with the two First Information Reports registered in Faisalabad against Saeed, who has been blamed by India for masterminding the Mumbai terror attacks.

Islamabad, September 28: Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone surviving Mumbai attacker who is currently being tried by an Indian anti-terror court, isn’t the only notorious Kasab from Pakistan.

There have been at least two other Kasabs, all “religious crackpots”, according to a leading columnist.

“What’s with this name, Kasab (sometimes also spelled with a Q)? There have been three (in) famous Kasabs in Pakistan – and all of them religious crackpots!” Nadeem F Paracha wrote in a daily.

Islamabad, September 28: Five people were killed Monday in car bomb attack near a police checkpoint in northwest Pakistan, a TV report said.
The attacker rammed his explosives-laden vehicle into the car of former Taliban commander Maulana Abdul Hakim in the Bannu area in North West Frontier Province, Express TV channel reported.

Abdul Hakim had joined a peace committee to support the government against the militants.

Five people, including Hakim, were killed in the attack.

A woman was also injured in the blast.

Islamabad, September 28: Dismissing reports of a safe exit “deal”, former military ruler Pervez Musharraf has said he did not resign as President or leave Pakistan under the terms of any secret agreement.

“I neither quit the government nor left the country under any deal,” Musharraf, who is currently in the US for a lecture tour, told reporters in Virginia.

Musharraf quit as President of Pakistan in August last year. He left Pakistan in mid-April and has been living abroad since then.

Islamabad, September 28: A Pakistani court has summoned former President Pervez Musharraf and several of his key aides to appear before it on October 7 for the hearing of a petition seeking their trial in the murder of Baloch nationalist leader Nawab Akbar Bugti.

New York, September 27: Pakistan does not want to take to court a “half-baked” case against JuD chief Hafiz Mohd Saeed, blamed by India for masterminding Mumbai attacks, and needs “legally tenable” evidence against him, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Sunday, hours ahead of crucial talks with his Indian counterpart S M Krishna.

Islamabad, September 27: A Pakistani anti-terrorism court hearing the case against seven suspects, including Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, arrested for their involvement in the Mumbai attacks was on Saturday put off till October 3 as the judge conducting the trial was on leave.

Judge Baqir Ali Rana of the anti-terrorism court No 2 is conducting the trial of the seven suspects within the high-security Adiala Jail in the garrison city of Rawalpindi due to security reasons.

Islamabad, September 27: The death toll in a pair of car bombings in northwestern Pakistan rose to 27 Sunday, police and hospital authorities said.

Rescuers found two more bodies of policemen as they clawed through the rubble of a police station in the volatile Bannu district, where a suicide bomber blew up an explosives-laden pickup truck Saturday morning.

‘The confirmed casualty count as of Sunday stands at 14 – nine policemen and five civilians,’ police officer Talha Khan said.

Islamabad, September 27: Two suicide car bombs killed 16 people and wounded about 150 others in separate attacks in north-western Pakistan yesterday, just days after the Taliban warned suicide strikes were coming if the military pressed forward with an offensive. A third bomb injured four in the restive region.

Pakistan’s mountainous, lawless north-west region along the Afghan border – where the government holds little control – is a favoured area for insurgents to plan attacks on US and Nato troops in Afghanistan, as well as on Pakistani security forces and government workers.

–IANS

New York, September 27: The Indian and Pakistani Foreign Secretaries met in New York on Saturday to prepare the ground for the crucial talks between their Foreign Ministers.

With India insisting on concrete steps against the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks, Pakistan said India should not hold the relationship back on a single issue as it has done what was “required” in the case.

Islamabad, September 27: The expected indictment on Saturday of seven suspects in the Mumbai attacks case by a Pakistani anti-terror court did not take place as the judge was on leave.

The case has been adjourned to October 3.

The seven include Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and Zarar Shah, top militant leaders of the Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Islamabad, September 27: Seventeen people were killed Saturday in three separate blasts in northwest Pakistan, police said.
Soldiers secure a site where a bomb blast took place in Peshawar, Pakistan, on Saturday.

Soldiers secure a site where a bomb blast took place in Peshawar, Pakistan, on Saturday.

At 7 a.m., six people died when a police station in the Bannu district of North West Frontier Province was targeted by a suicide bomber, said Bannu Police spokesman Muhammad Ghulam. The bomber was also killed, Ghulam said.

Centurion, September 26: With the help of brilliant century by Shoaib Malik, Pakistan posted mammoth 302 runs on board in the 6th match of ICC Champions Trophy 2009.

After losing three wickets early, Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Yousuf consolidated Pakistani innings brilliantly. Duo guided Pakistan towards big total with 206 runs partnership.

Malik smashed 128 runs while Yousuf scored 87 in just 88 deliveries. They rescued Pakistan from 65/3 and put their side on driving seat.

New York, September 26: Pakistan is contemplating appointment of veteran diplomat and former foreign secretary Riaz Mohd Khan as its special envoy on Indian affairs, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said here today.

“Yes, we are considering very senior former diplomat, former foreign secretary – a gentleman called Riaz Mohd Khan,” Qureshi told CNN-IBN, referring to reports that Pakistan was to name a special envoy for informal talks with India.

Khan held the post of Foreign Secretary from 2005 to 2008 and retired from it citing personal reasons.

Peshawar, September 26: Two separate suicide car bombings Saturday rocked Pakistan’s volatile northwestern region, killing at least 15 people and injuring dozens more, police and witnesses said.

A suicide attacker detonated his explosive-packed vehicle at a busy commercial area of provincial capital Peshawar, hours after a bomber exploded his truck at the gate of a police station in Bannu town.

Seven people were killed at the scene while two succumbed to their injuries at the hospital. At least 85 more were injured, senior police officer Abdul Ghafoor Afridi said.

Islamabad, September 26:A car bomb exploded in Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar Saturday, killing at least seven people and injuring another 30, hours after a suicide bombing outside a police station in the restive North West Frontier Province (NWFP) killed six people, police said.

Explosives packed in a car went off just around midday outside a busy commercial centre in Peshawar’s Saddar area, one of the main routes to the army-controlled neighbourhood in the city, police said.

Islamabad, September 26: In a frontal attack on his inveterate foe, Nawaz Sharfi, ex-military leader Gen. Parvez Musharraf has labelled the former premier as a ‘closet Taleban’.

In an interview with the ABC News, Musharraf recalled Sharif’s alleged meetings with Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and described him as “abrasive and confrontational”.

“He has never been on good terms with any president of Pakistan, so I don’t know what kind of mental make-up he has. But the man is abrasive against the other power brokers of Pakistan,” he said.

Islamabad, September 26: At least four people were killed in a suicide attack on a police station in restive north-west Pakistan, television station GEO TV reported Saturday.

The attackers used a pickup truck to carry out the attack in Bannu in North-West Frontier Province. The area near the border with Afghanistan is a stronghold of the radical Islamist Taliban.

The report added that at least 20 other people were injured in the incident and many of them were in a critical condition.
–Agencies

Islamabad, September 26: Pakistan is set to replace India in the Interpol’s executive committee, elections for which will be held next month.

The director-general of Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Tariq Khosa, would be the country’s candidate for one of the two seats allotted to Asia in the committee. Khosa confirmed that he was Pakistan’s nominee for the seat.

The terms of India and Korea, the current members representing Asia in the committee, end in October.

New York, September 25: Pakistan is a country in the world where exist no law against corruption. This is what anti-corruption watchdog “Transparency International” says. Its 2009 Global Corruption Report, released on Wednesday, Transparency International portrays Pakistan amongst the most corrupt nations in the world.

Islamabad, September 25: Mounting new attacks on militant hideouts in Pakistan, a US drone fired missiles killing 12 extremists in a house in North Waziristan close to the Afghan border.

The drone fired several Hellfire missiles at the militant hideout, suspected to belong to Afghan Taliban warlord Jalaludin Haqqani at Danday Darpakhel near Miranshah, a key town in North Waziristan Agency.

Nine militants were killed instantly in the attack late on Thursday night, while three bodies were pulled out of the debris today, according to local reports.

Islamabad, September 25: Pakistan’s Taliban movement is stronger than ever despite the killing of its top commander and will stage more suicide attacks if the army launches another offensive against it, a top militant has claimed. Qari Hussain Mehsud, known for training Taliban suicide bombers, met with an AP reporter Thursday at a secret location in North Waziristan, near the Afghan border, just hours before a U.S. missile strike hit the tribal region and killed 12 people.

Islamabd, September 25: Militants in Pakistan have attacked and killed tribal elders who were involved in setting up armed militias to try and protect their communities against the threat of the Taliban.

At least nine people were killed in one attack in the north-west, when militants ambushed a convoy that was travelling to meet security officials. The three vehicles were sprayed with gunfire. At least four elders were among the dead. Reports say that residents rushed to the scene and attacked the militants, stopping them from killing survivors.

Islamabad, September 25: Pakistani authorities have said that 26/11 mastermind and Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed was not under house arrest as was being claimed earlier.

Officials claimed there was still no credible evidence to take action against Saeed for the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai.

Earlier, Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had said that Saeed had been arrested following the filing of FIRs against him. But Saeed’s lawyer denied the arrest, saying an appeal had been filed in the Lahore High Court.