Pakistan

Islamabad, August 23: Two people were killed and two others seriously injured Saturday in a car bomb attack in this northwestern Pakistani city, the Online news agency reported.

The incident took place near the Hayatabad Medical Complex in Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

The victims were targeted by a banned organisation in Khyber Agency, an official said, adding that the bomb was placed inside the victims’ car and was detonated through a remote control device.

Meanwhile, the police have detained two people in connection with the case.

Washington, August 23: Pakistan’s fight with extremism would have been in better shape had the United States invested more in the nation’s schools not just its military, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.

The United States has pumped more than seven billion dollars into Pakistan’s military since the September 11, 2001 attacks, which transformed the nation from Taliban backers into frontline US ally.

Hangzhou, August 23: Visiting Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has urged Chinese entrepreneurs to set up business ventures in that country in a bid to boost foreign investment.

Zardari made the call during his visit to Hangzhou, capital of China’s Zhejiang Province, Saturday.

With the gradual recovery of its economy, Pakistan is making efforts to explore new international markets and remove barriers for investment and trade so as to attract more foreign investment, Zardari told reporters in Hangzhou.

Islamabad, August 23: A Taliban faction in Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal region Saturday declared a 40-day unilateral ceasefire because of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Ahmadullah Ahmadi, spokesman for the Taliban group led by Hafiz Gul Bahadar, said: “In respect of the holy month of Ramazan and for the sake of the people, the local Taliban Shura (council) has decided to declare a unilateral ceasefire.”

The NNI news agency quoted Ahmadi as saying that Taliban commanders in the region have been ordered to stop attacks on the security forces.

—Agencies

Islamabad, August 22: Two security personnel were killed and as many injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up to evade arrest in the troubled Swat valley today while troops captured 27 militants during search operations across the Malakand division in northwestern Pakistan.

Troops conducting a search operation at Kanju in Swat spotted the suicide bomber while he was trying to enter a residential area and chased him. The bomber detonated his explosives when the house in which he was hiding was surrounded by security forces, officials said.

Islamabad, August 22: In what could spell fresh trouble for the ex-Pak President, a petition was filed in Supreme Court on Saturday seeking the trial of former military ruler Pervez Musharraf for high treason, a news report said.

Zafar Ali Shah, a senior leader of Pakistan opposition party PML-N, petitioned the apex court to begin a trial for high treason under Article 6 of the Constitution against the the 66-year old former President, The Nation newspaper said.

Islamabad, August 22: Hakimullah Mehsud has been nominated as the successor of the banned group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Baitullah Mehsud, Pakistani Taliban said on Saturday.

According to the private channel GEO News, TTP commander Maulvi Faqir Muhammad has claimed that Baitullah Mehsud is alive, but wants to nominate his successor before his demise. However, reports have claimed that Mehsud was killed by a US drone on August 05.

Islamabad, August 22: Pakistan Taliban have detained and are interrogating four close relatives of the group’s slain commander Baitullah Mehsud, on suspicion of tipping off authorities of his whereabouts.

Those being held include Baitullah’s father-in-law Ikramuddin Mehsud, his son, one of his brothers and a nephew, Dawn news reported quoting unnamed security and intelligence officials.

Washington, August 22: Pakistan’s fight with extremism would have been in better shape had the United States invested more in the nation’s schools and girls and not just its military, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.

The United States has pumped more than seven billion dollars into Pakistan’s military since the September 11, 2001 attacks, which transformed the nation from Taliban backers into frontline US ally.

Islamabad, August 22: As authorities here asserted that the militants on the country’s soil were in disarray, Pakistani Taliban today announced Hakimullah Mehsud as their new chief, days after reports claimed that he was killed in a duel with a rival claimant.

The announcement of new Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan chief, who led a campaign to impose the ‘jiziya’ tax on the minority Sikh community, was made by militant commander Maulvi Faqir Muhammad, who just days back had appointed himself as the successor to Baitullah Mehsud.

Islamabad, August 22: The banned Pakistani Taliban, against whom the security forces are engaged in a major offensive in the country’s restive northwest, had planned to target Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and other dignitaries, an intelligence report said Saturday.

Among the others on the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) radar were Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, as also sensitive buildings.

Islamabad, August 22: Pakistan is estimated to have lost a staggering Rs.150 billion ($1.8 billion) thanks to the immunity granted to politicians, bureaucrats and senior military officers charged with corruption and the scrapping of the country’s corruption watchdog, a media report said Saturday.

Parachinar(Pakistan), August 22: Nine more bodies were pulled from the rubble of houses hit by a suspected U.S. missile strike targeting a Taliban commander in northwestern Pakistan, bringing the total number of dead to 21 on Saturday.

The airstrike in North Waziristan on Friday near the Afghan border was aimed at Siraj Haqqani, a Taliban commander with suspected close ties to al-Qaida who is blamed for masterminding ambushes on American troops in Afghanistan. It was unclear whether he was among the dead, intelligence officials said.

Islamabad, August 21: Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has insisted that the Kashmir issue is the “cornerstone” of the country’s foreign policy and the government is vigorously pursuing it.

“Kashmir is the issue of the whole country and our total moral support is with the Kashmiri brothers,” Gilani told the National Assembly or Lower House of Parliament.

The government fully supported the Kashmiri people, he said adding the Kashmir issue is the cornerstone of Pakistan’s foreign policy.

Islamabad, August 21: A Pakistani anti-terrorism court has remanded a LeT-linked “important suspect” arrested for allegedly facilitating the Mumbai attacks, to judicial custody till September 3.

Jamil Ahmed, who was arrested by the Special Investigation Unit of the Federal Investigation Agency on August 5, was produced in the anti-terrorism court of Judge Akram Awan in Rawalpindi yesterday.

Islamabad, August 21: A suspected US missile strike early Friday killed at least nine people in a border tribal area of northwest Pakistan known as a Taliban hideout, officials said.

“A missile hit a house at 3:50 am (2150 GMT Thursday). It was a drone attack. The missile targeted a house in Dandey Darpa Khel,” a Pakistani security official told AFP.

The house was badly damaged and so far nine bodies have been recovered, a security official said.

Residents said the militants surrounded the compound and a tractor was used to remove the debris.

Islamabad, August 21: A suspected missile attack early Friday destroyed a militant hideout in northwest Pakistan, killing at least seven people, two intelligence officials said.

The officials said some people also were wounded when the two missiles hit a compound in the village of Dande Darpa Khel, near Miran Shah in troubled tribal region of North Waziristan.

Islamabad, August 21: Several people, including civilians and Islamic militants, were feared killed in a US drone strike in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal region bordering Afghanistan early Friday morning, Geo news reported.

The suspected US drone carried out missle attacks on Danday Dar Khel area in Miranshah, a town in North Waziristan, the report said, citing police sources who believe several civilians could have been killed in the attack.

Islamabad, August 20: Pakistan today launched the indigenous production of pilotless drones, days after Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani pressed the US to transfer the sensitive technology for a more potent type used by the American military to target the Taliban.

The Pakistan Aeronautical Complex at Kamra in Punjab province has commenced producing Falco unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in collaboration with Selex Galileo of Italy, which has also designed the pilotless planes. The co-production project was inaugurated by Air Marshal Farhat Hussain Khan.

Islamabad, August 20: Pakistan’s ruling PPP today dismissed a new book’s claims that its slain chairperson Benazir Bhutto once had a love affair with cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan and labeled it as “scandalous and malicious.”

In a statement, Pakistan’s High Commissioner to Britain Wajid Shamsul Hasan said that Benazir, two-time former premier, did not have anything ever to do with Khan when she was studying in England’s famous Oxford University.

Islamabad, August 20: Seeking to give Muhammed Ali Jinnah a clean chit for country’s partition might have caused his expulsion from BJP, but former External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh’s book has earned him supporters across the border.

Jaswant’s book and particularly remarks on Pakistan’s founder Jinnah has become a subject of animated debate in the country with the newspapers and electronic media giving extensive coverage to the event including his expulsion from the BJP.

Islamabad, August 20: Pakistan today said it has invited new Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao to visit the country for talks, but New Delhi was yet to respond. India and Pakistan have been unable to arrange a meeting of their Foreign Secretaries ahead of crucial talks between the Foreign Ministers, apparently due to differences on the venue for such a meet.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told a group of editors that Pakistan had invited Rao to visit the country for talks. However, he said New Delhi had not yet responded to the invitation.

Islamabad, August 20: Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and other members of the Bhutto family have been “profoundly grieved” by a new book that claims Benazir Bhutto had a college affair with former international cricketer Imran Khan, Pakistan high commissioner to Britain said Thursday.

Wajid Shamsul Hasan, the envoy who is a close friend of the Bhutto family and was a confidant of the slain former Pakistani prime minister, said the book by Christopher Sandford – a biography of Imran Khan – does not give any evidence linking Benazir Bhutto and Khan during their Oxford University days.

New York, August 20: The government of Pakistan is seeking new lawyers to represent a U.S.-trained Pakistani neuroscientist who faces a possible life prison sentence for the attempted murder of U.S. interrogators in Afghanistan.

Aafia Siddiqui, 37, who the U.S. government has accused of links with al Qaeda, was recently ruled fit to stand trial after a hearing in which her defense lawyers argued she was delusional, while prosecution witnesses suggested she was exaggerating a mental disorder.

Islamabad, August 20: The author of a new biography on Imran Khan claims that the cricketer-turned-politician was romantically involved with slain Pakistan PM Bhutto became infatuated with Khan, and the pair enjoyed a ‘close’ and possibly ‘sexual’ relationship, says a book.

In his book, Christopher Sandford has written that Bhutto became infatuated with Khan and the duo enjoyed a “close” and possibly “sexual” relationship. The author has also alleged that Khan’s mother even tried to organise an arranged marriage between the pair, but to no avail.