Pakistan

Islamabad, August 30: An official says a suicide bomber has killed at least 12 police recruits near the main police station in Pakistan’s Swat Valley. It is one of the largest attacks in the northwestern valley since the army said it regained control of it from Taliban militants.

Television footage from the scene Sunday showed officers gathering up mutilated bodies outside the station in the valley’s main town of Mingora.

Police dispatcher Mohammad Akhtar says the blast came as new recruits were being trained.

Islamabad, August 30: Pakistani police have arrested two more suspects involved in the planning of a militant attack on the Indian city of Mumbai last November, bringing the number in custody to seven, a state-run news agency reported after a court hearing on Saturday.

Islamabad, August 29: Pakistan on Saturday said it was awaiting “concrete evidence” to prosecute Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Saeed who India accuses of masterminding the audacious 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks that killed over 170 people last year.

“We have asked India to share concrete evidence in this respect (to prosecute Saeed). Courts in Pakistan are independent,” Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told reporters here.

Islamabad, August 29: Pakistan Saturday said it was willing to resume the dialogue process with India but there “is no response” from New Delhi.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said Pakistan invited Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao to Islamabad as per the Sharm el-Sheikh declaration between Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Geelani and his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh “but there is no response from New Delhi so far”.

Islamabad, August 29: Pakistani security forces killed at least six militants in the country’s restive north-western Swat region, the army said on Saturday.

Pakistan launched military operations in the area in late April against local Taliban who violated a peace deal with the government to advance dangerously closer to the capital, Islamabad.

The government announced last month that it had defeated the rebels and destroyed their network, but warned that sporadic violence may continue for some time.

Islamabad, August 29: A Pakistani court on Friday ordered the lifting of restrictions on the movement of nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, his counsel said. The Lahore High Court told the government to remove the curbs, and explain why Khan was not being allowed to lead a normal life.

Judge Ijaz Chaudhry observed that A Q Khan should be free to move around, attorney Ali Zafar told reporters.

Mumbai, August 29: Dina Wadia, the only daughter of Pakistan’s founder, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, has argued that her father had not left any will behind, and that he was a Khoja Shia and hence governed by Hindu Succession Law.

Khoja Shias are not governed by the law of Shariah, which says the property of a Muslim who dies without a will goes to his or her siblings. Wadia (90) had approached the Bombay High Court in 2007, claiming rights on her father’s bungalow in south Mumbai’s plush Malabar Hill area.

Islamabad, August 28: Pakistan needs to examine the evidence provided by India on the basis of which Interpol issued a Red Corner Notice against Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said.

“We will examine it (the Red Corner Notice),” he said. Malik said “certain procedures were required to pursue” the notice. Malik was responding to a question on the Red Corner Notice issued for Saeed by Interpol at a news conference he addressed in London yesterday. He said Pakistan will never allow anyone to use its territory “against India or anyone else”.

Islamabad, August 28: At least 28 people were killed Thursday in a suicide bombing and a missile attack carried out by a US pilotless aircraft in Pakistan’s troubled northwest region, government officials said.

A suicide bomber struck at a Pakistani security post on the border with Afghanistan when members of tribal police, known locally as the Khasadar force, gathered at the Torkham border checkpoint in the north-western tribal district of Khyber for an iftar, a meal to break the daily fast during the Muslim month of Ramadan.

Peshawar, August 28: A suicide bomber attacked the main border crossing for convoys ferrying supplies to U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan on Thursday, killing at least 19 security officers, officials said.

The strike will raise fears the Pakistani Taliban is regrouping and making good on its word to carry out revenge attacks following the slaying of its leader, Baitullah Mehsud, in a CIA missile strike earlier this month.

Islamabad, August 27: At least 20 security personnel were killed and several injured Thursday in an apparent suicide bombing in north-west Pakistan, media reports said.

The explosion ripped through the barracks of the tribal police known locally as the Khasadar force in the Khyber district that borders Afghanistan.

—IANS

Islamabad, August 27: A suspected US missile strike Thursday in Pakistan’s north-western tribal region near the Afghan border killed at least six militants, an intelligence official said.

The attack took place in the South Waziristan district, a stronghold of slain Pakistani Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud.

A US drone fired missiles on a militant hideout in the Kani Guram area, killing six militants and wounding at least eight more, the intelligence official said on the condition of anonymity.

Identities of those killed in the raid were not immediately known, he added.

Islamabad, August 27: Interior Minister Rehman Malik said a task force would be constituted to address the problems of Pakistani students studying abroad, a media report said.

He made the remarks during his meeting with British officials over the detention of Pakistani students in that country on terrorism charges, the Online news agency reported on Wednesday.

The minister said officials of the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) would be included in the task force to verify the identity of Pakistani students.

—IANS

Lahore, August 27: Over 100,000 Indians, including former test cricketers and chief justices, have signed a mercy petition addressed to President Asif Ali Zardari seeking clemency for Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh, who is on death row in a Pakistani prison.

Awais Sheikh, the counsel for Sarabjit, said he had brought back the mercy petition with more than 100,000 signatures when he returned from a recent visit to India.

Islamabad, August 27: The Pakistani Taliban’s new chief Hakimullah Mehsud, who only managed to assume the mantle after reaching a power-sharing deal with his rival, has threatened to strike the US in revenge for the slaying of their leader Baitullah Mehsud.

Hakimullah, 28, issued the threat as he was declared the new central ‘amir’ (chief) of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), but with an estimated 25,000 armed militants and the organisation being under Wali-ur Rehman, who was named amir for South Waziristan, Pakistani TV channels reported.

Lahore, August 27: Pakistan is rewriting history. From a parochial view of the subcontinent’s past, it is shifting towards a more inclusive reading.

Lahore, August 27: The lawyer of Sarabjit Singh, an Indian prisoner awaiting execution in a Pakistani jail on terrorism charges, said the case has affected India-Pakistan relations and the government should release him as a goodwill gesture, a media report said.

Owais sheikh told reporters at the press club here Wednesday that he received applications from various individuals, including the Shahi Imam of Delhi, Muslim organisations and other NGOs when he visited India on the invitation of Sarabjit Singh’s sister Dalbir kaur.

Islamabad, August 27: Interior Minister Rehman Malik said a task force would be constituted to address the problems of Pakistani students studying abroad, a media report said.

He made the remarks during his meeting with British officials over the detention of Pakistani students in that country on terrorism charges, the Online news agency reported Wednesday.

The minister said officials of the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) would be included in the task force to verify the identity of Pakistani students.

–IANS–

Islamabad, August 26: A Pakistani court on Wednesday ordered the release from detention of three sons of hardline cleric Sufi Mohammad, who was arrested last month for his links to the Taliban in Swat, saying the authorities failed to provide ‘sufficient proof’ of their involvement in acts of terrorism.

The Peshawar High Court accepted a petition from Mohammad’s sons – Rizwanullah, Hayatullah, and Ziaullah – challenging their detention.

Kabul, August 26: President Hamid Karzai widened his lead over his top challenger today after Afghan officials released more partial vote results. The president’s new total pushed him closer to the 50 per cent threshold that would allow him to avoid a two-man runoff.

The Independent Election Commission released its second batch of results from last week’s presidential election. More will be released in coming days, and final certified results won’t be ready until at least mid-September, after the dozens of serious complaints of fraud have been investigated.

Islamabad, August 26: Pakistani security forces killed five militants and captured 13 others during operations against the Taliban in the northwestern Malakand division, the military said today.

Three militants were killed during an exchange of fire with security forces at Dangram in the Swat valley, the military said in a statement.

In another incident in Mingora, the main city in Swat, local residents surrounded a house after they spotted four militants entering it.

United Nations, August 26: A high-level UN delegation has wrapped up its mission to discuss the strengthening of humanitarian assistance to those uprooted by military operations in Swat district of North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan, the United Nations has said.

“We met district authorities and national and international non-governmental organisations, and established the need for early recovery activities to start as soon as possible,” Martin Mogwanja UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Pakistan said.

Islamabad, August 26: Two Pakistani Taliban commanders have acknowledged that top leader Baitullah Mehsud is dead, saying he died 18 days after a US missile strike and disputing reports that the al-Qaida linked movement he left behind is falling apart.

In a joint phone call Tuesday to The Associated Press, Waliur Rehman and Hakimullah Mehsud confirmed an earlier Taliban announcement that the latter was the new Pakistani Taliban chief.

Islamabad, August 26: A Pakistani Taliban commander has said his organisation is committed to fight the foreign troops in Afghanistan and capable of hitting targets as far as London, Washington and Paris, the Online news agency reported.

Militant commander Waliur Rehman Mehsud said US President Barrack Obama is ‘number one enemy’ of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and would fight till the US and its allied forces are expelled from Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Dera Ismail Khan (Pakistan), August 26: Two Pakistani Taliban commanders have acknowledged that top leader Baitullah Mehsud is dead, saying he died 18 days after a U.S. missile strike and disputing reports that the al-Qaida linked movement he left behind is falling apart.