Pakistan

Islamabad, August 11: Al-Qai’da militants may be trying to install their own “chief terrorist” to succeed Baitullah Mehsud as the head of the Pakistan Taliban following his death during a US drone strike, Pakistan’s top security official believes.

The head of the country’s interior ministry, Rehman Malik, said the Pakistan Taliban was in disarray following last week’s targeted killing of Mehsud and that in the ensuing uncertainty al-Qa’ida was using its influence to try to ensure it selected his replacement.

New Delhi, August 11: A British professor has warned that Pakistan’s nuclear facilities were under threat from terrorists and had come under attack three times.

Shaun Gregory, professor at UK’s Bradford University, said Pakistan’s nuclear facilities had been targeted by home-grown extremists and terrorists over the last two years.

The incidents, Gregory said, included an attack on the nuclear missile storage facility in Sargodha on November 1, 2007. This was followed by an attack by a suicide bomber on December 10, 2007 at a nuclear airbase in Kamra.

New York, August 11: Some 765,000 people who had been forced to leave their houses due to fighting between troops and militants in northwest Pakistan have returned home, though continued fighting was causing a fresh round of displacement, the UN has said.

Some 1.2 million people had been displaced because of the fighting and over 160,000 are sheltering in 21 camps, WAM news agency reported Tuesday quoting the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Washington, August 11: The United States has told Pakistan it would keep up ‘very strong and growing partnership’ with India even as it tries to improve its partnership with Pakistan saying ‘this isn’t a zero-sum game.’

‘The first thing I would say to Pakistanis is that this isn’t a zero-sum game,’ State Department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters Monday when asked how Washington was addressing Pakistanis’ concern about growing US relationship with India.

Islamabad, August 10: Pakistan is making serious efforts to conclude a civil nuclear accord with the United States to overcome its crippling energy crisis, a top government official said today. Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a seminar organised by Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Sardar Asif Ahmad Ali said Pakistan was “struggling” for a civil nuclear pact with the US. The government”s efforts in this regard are aimed at overcoming the country”s crippling energy crisis, he said.

Islamabad, August 10: A solider and three militants were killed in clashes between the Taliban and security forces in Pakistan”s northwestern Malakand division and the adjoining tribal region, the military said today. Three security personnel were injured in the clashes.

Islamabad, August 10: A Pakistani court today asked the police to register an FIR against former military dictator Pervez Musharraf for “illegally” detaining 60 members of the superior judiciary after imposing Emergency in 2007, two weeks after the apex court declared his move as “unconstitutional.” District and Sessions Judge Akmal Raza issued the order here after lawyer Aslam Ghuman filed an application in his court asking for a case to be registered against Musharraf, who is currently in Europe.

Islamabad, August 10: Demanding that Pervez Musharraf be tried for treason, PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif has said the government should play its role in the light of the Supreme Court’s verdict on the former President’s actions to end the military’s interference in Pakistan’s political set-up.

In his first comments on the recent Supreme Court judgement on Musharraf, Sharif said “several dictators had hijacked Pakistan because none of them had been tried in the past.”

He said the court verdict on July 31 was “historic” as it had declared Musharraf’s action as “unconstitutional.”

Islamabad, August 10: Pakistan is worried that al Qaeda is trying to install its own “chief terrorist” as the head of Pakistan’s Taliban following the apparent killing of the group’s leader in a CIA missile strike, a top official said on Monday.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik told BBC radio that all the “credible information” points to Baitullah Mehsud having died in the Wednesday attack, despite claims to the contrary by some Taliban leaders.

The Pakistan Taliban appear to be in disarray, Malik said, amid unconfirmed reports of deadly infighting over who should replace Mehsud.

Islamabad, August 10: Demanding that Pervez Musharraf be tried for treason, PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif has said the government should play its role in the light of the Supreme Court’s verdict on the former President’s actions to end the military’s interference in Pakistan’s political set-up.

In his first comments on the recent Supreme Court judgement on Musharraf, Sharif said “several dictators had hijacked Pakistan because none of them had been tried in the past.”

He said the court verdict on July 31 was “historic” as it had declared Musharraf’s action as “unconstitutional.”

Islamabad, August 10: Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and Army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani on Monday made an unannounced visit to the restive Swat valley where the troops are engaged in flushing out the Taliban militants.

A top level review of the security situation and return back of the displaced people uprooted by insurgency was the highlight of the visit, TV channels quoted officials as saying.

This was Gilani’s first visit to the region since he called in the Army in early May to eliminate the Taliban after after a peace deal with them in Swat fell through.

Islamabad: Pakistan is worried that al Qaeda is trying to install its own “chief terrorist” as the head of Pakistan’s Taliban following the apparent killing of the group’s leader in a CIA missile strike, a top official said on Monday.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik told BBC radio that all the “credible information” points to Baitullah Mehsud having died in the Wednesday attack, despite claims to the contrary by some Taliban leaders.

The Pakistan Taliban appear to be in disarray, Malik said, amid unconfirmed reports of deadly infighting over who should replace Mehsud.

Islamabad, August 10: Senior commanders of Pakistan’s Taliban may be fighting over who will lead the militants and control funds and weapons following the killing of chief Baitullah Mehsud in a U.S. missile attack.

Arms and cash worth millions of dollars could be at the center of wrangling following Mehsud’s killing, The News daily reported, citing security officials it did not name. Hakimullah Mehsud, a potential successor, was killed in a shootout with another leader, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said yesterday.

Islamabad, August 10: Eleven days after Pakistan’s Supreme Court invalidated then president Pervez Musharraf’s November 2007 declaration of an emergency and sacking of apex court judges, police were Monday asked to register a case against the former military dictator for ordering the house arrest of the judges.

Additional Sessions Judge Muhammad Akmal Khan passed the order after hearing a petition filed by advocate Aslam Ghuman, who contended that Musharraf had ordered the house arrest of the judges to prolong his rule.

Islamabad, August 10: A pro-government tribal leader and four of his supporters and 11 Taliban fighters have died in clashes in Pakistan”s restive Mohmand tribal region, officials said today.

Malik Ajmal Khan, head of an anti-Taliban “peace committee”, and four members of his group died in overnight clashes in Khwazai sub-division of Mohmand Agency, officials of the local political administration said.

London, August 10: A desperate wish for a son may have led to the death of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, a British newspaper reported.

Mehsud was spending the night with his second wife in the village of Zangarha on Wednesday when he was killed in an American drone attack, the Sunday Times said.

It said the 35-year-old Mehsud, who has four daughters by his first wife, took a second wife, the daughter of an influential cleric, last November.

Islamabad, August 10: Pakistan Muslim League Quaid-e-Azam (PML-Q) information secretary and senator Tariq Azeem has said transmission of all Indian channels being relayed in the country be stopped in line with decision of senate standing committee on information and broadcasting.

Azeem said the Indian government had jammed transmission of all Pakistani TV channels in that country in the past. But “our government was showing apathy on this issue.”

Islamabad, August 09: President Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday signed the summary scrapping the Local Government system in the country.

Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani had forwarded the summary proposing appointment of administrators by replacing nazims.

On the other hand, spokesman to the president Farhat Ullah Babar denied signing on summary by the president.

According to media reports, he said that no such summary has been signed by the president.

Islamabad, August 09: At least eight people were killed in a clash between Islamist rebels and a pro-government tribal militia in Pakistan’s restive northwestern region, officials said Sunday.

Fighting erupted late Saturday and continued through Sunday morning in the Khwazai area of the Mohmand tribal district, bordering the Afghan province of Kunar.

Militants attacked the house of a militia leader, Ajmal Khan, in Wacha Jor village, about 35 km from the district’s main town Ghalanai.

Islamabad, August 09: Confusion persisted today about the fate of two top militant commanders vying to replace Baitullah Mehsud as chief of the Pakistani Taliban, with conflicting reports emerging about their death in a fierce clash between them in the lawless tribal belt.

The fighting broke out between Hakimullah Mehsud and Wali-ur-Rehman during a meeting of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan ‘shura’ or council to choose Baitullah’s successor following the outfit chief’s reported death in a US drone attack, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said last night.

Rawalpindi, August 09: The additional sessions judge has adjourned till August 31 the hearing of application seeking registration of FIR against 13 people, including former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf, in Benazir Bhutto’s assassination case, a media report said.

Islamabad, August 08: Spokesman of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Hakimullah Mehsud and another Taliban leader Wali-ur-Rehman have been killed in an armed clash erupted during the Tehreek’s Shura meeting, according to media reports.

Amidst reports of Baitullah Mehsud’s death the Pakistani government had received reports that shooting broke out between two rivals for the leadership of the Pakistani Taliban.

Islamabad, August 08: Former Pakistani foreign secretary Niaz Naik, who had been involved in back channel diplomacy with India, has been found dead in his house here, police said Saturday.

The police said they were informed that the lights in Naik’s house were on all night but there was no apparent movement there. The doors were then broken open and Naik’s body was found.

Naik had died three to four days ago, police said, adding an autopsy would reveal the cause of death.

Islamabad, August 08: Pakistan Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, said to be responsible for the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, was not killed in a US drone attack but is in hiding as part of a “strategy”, a spokesman for the group said today.

Speaking to an Arabic TV channel, Tahreek-e-Taliban spokesman Hakeemullah Mehsud, a close relative of the militant leader, said a videotape would soon be released to prove that Mehsud was alive.

Islamabad, August 08: Pakistan on Saturday insisted that the information provided by India on the Mumbai attacks is “not sufficient” for it to take appropriate measures to bring those responsible for the 26/11 carnage to justice and accused New Delhi of adopting a “non-serious” attitude.

The information provided by India so far is “not sufficient,” Interior Minister Rehman Malik was quoted as saying by the “Express 24/7” news channel.

He also said that India has not given some of the information sought by Pakistan last month.