Islamabad, September 09: About 20 masked gunmen kidnapped a Greek from his residence in Pakistan’s majestic Kalash valley after killing his guard in a first-ever incident in area known as the “heaven on the earth”.
Kazakhstan, September 09: Thirteen people were missing on Tuesday after a Kazakh border patrol helicopter crashed in a remote region in the south of the Central Asian state, the state security services said.
Thirteen people are reported to have been lost after a Kazakh border patrol helicopter crashed in a remote region in the south of the Central Asian state on Tuesday.
All the missing are the board members of the state security service (KNB, ex- KGB) responsible for the state security.
Islamabad, September 09: America’s plans for a major expansion of its diplomatic presence in Pakistan, including the possible takeover of a bombed luxury hotel near the Taliban heartland, have heightened tensions and bred rumors in a population rife with anti-U.S. sentiment.
Among the tales being floated: that 1,000 U.S. Marines will land in the capital, that Americans will set up a Guantanamo-style prison and that the infamous security contractor once called Blackwater will come in and wreak havoc.
Peshawar, September 09: Terming the Taliban “enemies of Islam” for destroying schools, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said the federal government would announce a development package of Rs 2 billion for the reconstruction of Malakand division.
Pakistan, September 08: A U.S. drone aircraft fired missiles into Pakistan’s North Waziristan on the Afghan border on Tuesday, killing up to 10 militants in the second strike in as many days, intelligence officials said.
Although U.S. ally Pakistan is battling militants in its northwest it officially objects to the U.S. strikes by pilotless aircraft, saying they are a violation of its sovereignty and cause civilian casualties which bolster Islamist support.
Mumbai, September 08: Alarmed by damage made by Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) in last Lok Sabha polls, BJP has chalked out a campaign strategy which would focus on making people realise that voting MNS is akin to voting for Congress-NCP.
“We would appeal to the people that voting for MNS is like voting for Congress-NCP alliance again and if they need change, they should vote Sena-BJP and not MNS,” state BJP President Nitin Gadkari told PTI here.
Islamabad, September 08: Four students on their way to school were killed and several wounded Tuesday in a militant attack in Pakistan’s Orakzai Agency.
‘Militants opened fire with automatic weapons on the children going to school,’ Geo TV reported.
Four children have been killed on the spot and several injured.
Local tribes took retaliatory action against the militants soon after the incident.
–Agencies
Washington, September 08: The United States is satisfied with the security of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said in an interview aired on Monday, calling the arrangements in place “sufficient and adequate.”
“I’m quite comfortable that the security arrangements for the Pakistani nuclear capabilities are sufficient and adequate,” Gates said in an interview with Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based satellite news channel, according to a transcript.
Peshawar, September 08: Taliban militants attacked a group of high school students on their way to school in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday, killing four of them and wounding three, a government official said.
The students were apparently attacked because they were minority Shi’ite Muslims.
Islamabad, September 08: A Greek national has been abducted in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province by unidentified gunmen who shot dead his bodyguard, reports said Tuesday.
Islamabad: A Greek national has been abducted in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province by unidentified gunmen who shot dead his bodyguard, reports said Tuesday.
–Agencies
Islamabad, September 08: A petition seeking registration of police case against former President Pervez Musharraf and his close aides for “assassination” of Baloch nationalist leader Nawab Akbar Bugti was filed Tuesday in Balochistan’s High Court, four days after a similar plea was dismissed by a lower court.
Bugti’s son Nawabzada Jamil Akbar Bugti filed the petition requesting the High Court to direct police to register a case against Musharraf, former premier Shaukat Aziz, ex-Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao and the then Balochistan Governor Owais Ahmed Ghani.
Toronto, September 08: Canada is set to throw out yet another Pakistani couple and their children after the top federal court rejected their plea to stay deportation orders against them.
The couple had moved the highest court after the immigration and refugee board rejected their application for refugee status. This will be the second case of removal of a Pakistani couple from Canada in as many months.
Montreal-based Naveed Akram Chaudhary, wife Safia and their three Canada-born children will be put on the plane back to Pakistan Sep 12.
Karachi, September 08: Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain has forgiven former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, army and rangers officers for launching a military crackdown on the Karachi-based party, its leaders and workers in 1992.
Islamabad, September 08: Pakistan on Monday reiterated its sincerity in bringing the perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks to justice, saying India should assist in the process instead of making allegations on Islamabad’s intentions.
“India should not doubt our sincerity in handling this case. Instead of levelling allegations they should provide us with concrete proof so that we could take this case forward in a meaningful way,” Foreign Office spokesperson Abdul Basit told BBC radio in an interview.
Karachi, September 08: Five people were killed and six others wounded Monday in a US drone attack in northwest Pakistan, the Online news agency reported.
A US drone fired two missiles on a house in Mir Ali tehsil of North Waziristan after information was received that militants were hiding there, an official said.
The house was completely destroyed in the attack.
The injured were taken to Mir Ali Hospital.
Local residents said there were no militants in the house and all the victims are civilians.
London, September 07: Former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf has said it would be incorrect to dub him a dictator as, but for him, the media would not be enjoying the freedom it does.
“If I was a dictator, the media would not have gotten independence during tenure,” he told a delegation of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) here, Online news agency reported, quoting a private TV channel.
The overall political situation in Pakistan, the war against terrorism and regional issues were discussed at length during the meeting of the erstwhile ruling party.
Islamabada, September 07: Pakistan Premier Yousuf Raza Gilani on Sunday said Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa had told him the terrorists involved in the attack on his country’s cricket team in Lahore were funded by Lankan elements in the island.
Gilani said he had asked Rajapaksa to share more information about the funding so that Pakistan can send a team from the Interior Ministry to go into the issue further.
Lahore, September 07: Osama bin Laden introduced Nawaz Sharif to the Saudi royal family in the late 1980s and during a meeting the former Premier had asked the Al Qaida chief to provide employment to Pakistanis in Saudi Arabia, former ISI officer Khalid Khwaja claimed on Sunday.
Khwaja, who was close to Sharif in the late 1980s and early1990s, made the claim in an interview.
“During his first visit to Saudi Arabia as Chief Minister of Punjab in the late 1980s, no one from the royal family had given Sharif importance,” he said.
Islamabad, September 07: A roadside bomb struck a Pakistani military convoy close to the Afghan border Monday, killing at least two soldiers, a security official said.
The attack took place near Wana, the main town of the Taliban heartland of South Waziristan.
‘Two soldiers were killed and three others wounded when their vehicle was blown up by an explosive device planted along the road,’ the official said on the condition of anonymity.
Troops were moving to Wana from the nearby north-western city of Dera Ismail Khan to expel militants from a local telephone exchange.
Islamabad, September 07: Thirty-three militants were killed and two terrorist training camps and seven hideouts were destroyed by helicopter gunships in the remote Tirah valley of Khyber tribal region as Pakistani troops opened a new front against insurgents, days after 22 policemen were killed in the region in a suicide attack, officials said.
Most of the attacks were carried out in Naree Baba and Tharkho Kas areas where the proscribed Lashkar-i-Islam (LI) group is believed to have set up private jails and training centres, officials said late yesterday.
Islamabad, September 07: A former federal minister in ex-president Pervez Musharraf’s government has said that the General would actively participate in politics after November 30 when a two-year constitutional restriction barring him to hold public office comes to an end.
Talking to newspersons in Islamabad late yesterday, Mr Chaudhry Shahbaz said he held several meetings with the former President in London and also met him recently in Jeddah. He said Mr Musharraf was given official protocol in Saudi Arabia, where he was invited by the Saudi King.
Islamabad, September 07: The terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore was funded by elements from the island nation, said Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, based on information given to him by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
“In Libya, the Sri Lankan President told me they had clues that the attack on the [Sri] Lankan team was funded from Sri Lanka. I told him if he was willing to share these clues, we could send our officials from the Interior Ministry,” Mr. Gilani told journalists here.
Islamabad, September 07: US and “internal powers” were behind the 1988 plane crash that killed General Zia-ul-Haq, who ruled Pakistan from 1978 till his death, a former Pakistani spymaster has claimed.
Imtiaz Ahmed, a former chief of the Intelligence Bureau, said the US collaborated with “internal powers” in Pakistan to assassinate Zia.
Ahmed, who also served in the ISI, has shaken up political parties with revelations of huge payments allegedly made by the Inter-Services Intelligence to strengthen the opposition to former premier Benazir Bhutto in 1990.
Karachi, September 07: Women in posh areas of Pakistan are increasingly thronging the mosques during the holy fasting month of Ramadan to join mass Tarawih prayers, while some use the trend as a social and charity tool.
“There is a huge difference between offering Tarawih prayers alone at your home, and with hundreds of other women in the mosque,” Salma Ahmed, a Karachi resident, told Islamonline.net.
Thousands of women from higher social classes are now flocking to the mosques to offer the special Ramadan nightly prayer along with their husbands and children.
Peshawar, September 06: Thousands of civilians have fled Pakistan’s northwest Khyber tribal region where the latest military offensive killed 33 more suspected militants Sunday.
Pakistan is under intense U.S. pressure to crack down on insurgents along its border with Afghanistan, especially the lawless tribal belt where al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden is suspected to be hiding. The U.S. believes militants use Pakistan’s tribal areas as safe havens from which to plan attacks on Western troops across the frontier in Afghanistan.