Pakistan

Karachi, July 15: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief Ijaz Butt said Wednesday that he will continue to make efforts to revive Pakistan’s status as a 2011 World Cup host even after the event’s three organisers redistributed the country’s share of matches amongst themselves at a meeting in Mumbai Tuesday.

The PCB chairman told IANS that he will have a meeting with the International Cricket Council (ICC) president David Morgan in Dubai later this month in which the issue will be extensively discussed.

Islamabad, July 15: Pakistani security forces killed six Taliban militants in Swat valley, officials said Wednesday, as thousands of people displaced by a government offensive returned to their homes in parts of the district.

The clash took place in the Kabal area, one of the former bastions of the guerrilla fighters, located near Swat’s main town of Mingora.

“Six terrorists were killed and several others wounded in the intense gunfight,” a security official in the region said on condition of anonymity. “Troops did not suffer any casualties.”

Islamabad, July 15: Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has asked the government to launch “economic diplomacy” to quickly get the money pledged by the global community for rebuilding in the wake of the war against the Taliban, a media report said.

He made the remarks during a meeting at his office to review the progress made so far after two separate donor meetings to help Pakistan in Tokyo this April. Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and senior officials attended the meeting, the Online news agency said on Tuesday.

Islamabad, July 15: At least four people were killed Wednesday in an explosion at a fireworks factory in eastern Pakistan, TV reports said.

The incident occurred in Muridke city of Punjab province. Eight people were critically injured in the blast, the Dawn TV channel said.

Three neighbouring houses collapsed due to the impact of the blast.

The injured were rushed to hospitals.

—-Agencies

New York, July 15: The three-member UN Commission of Inquiry established to investigate into the facts and circumstances of the assassination of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto would soon arrive in Islamabad. The commission is slated to arrive in the Pakistani capital later this week.

New York, July 15: Refugees from Swat valley, displaced by conflict between the Taliban militants and the Pakistani forces in the restive north-west region of the country have started returning home, the UN has said.

While 800 internally displaced people returned to the Swat Valley yesterday, another 5,200 people were scheduled to return home today, the UN spokesman, Michele Montas told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York.

Paris, July 15: Pakistan has handed over a fresh dossier on its probe into the Mumbai terror attacks to India, ahead of the meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani on Thursday in Egypt.

The dossier, handed over to the Indian High Commission officials in Islamabad on Saturday, identifies 13 new suspects and gives an update on Pakistan”s investigations into the November 26 attacks, informed sources said.

Khar, July 15: Pro-government tribesmen killed 23 militants in clashes in Pakistan’s northwest in the latest violence between tribal militias and Taliban insurgents, a government official said Tuesday.

Elsewhere in the volatile northwest, suspected militants attacked an oil tanker carrying fuel to NATO forces in Afghanistan, killing two people, an official said.

Islamabad, July 15: Sending indecent, provocative and ‘ill-motivated’ e-mails or SMS is now a punishable offence in Pakistan and violators can be jailed up to 14 years under the Cyber Crime Act.

Overseas Pakistanis will be liable to be deported to Pakistan in case they violate the new law, according to a senior official in the Ministry of Interior.

The Pakistan government has also entered into an agreement with the Interpol to identify e-mail addresses and websites registered abroad that are being used for malicious campaigns against the government.

Islamabad, July 15: Hafiz Muhammed Saeed, the venom-spewing leader of jihadi outfits Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jamaat-ud-Dawa — and one of the main accused in the 26/11 attack — will remain free to plot fresh terror attacks on India.

The Punjab government on Tuesday told the Supreme Court it was withdrawing the case and an appeal against a lower court order to release Saeed, who was detained after 26/11.

Islamadad, July 14: Pakistan on Tuesday accused India of launching an attempt to malign it. Pakistan’s Minister of State for External Affairs Nababzada Malik Ahmad Khan said that “India is constantly blaming Pak for ills that we don’t deserve.”

Ahmad said that “Even India is involved in so many things that should be exposed too.” He however could not mention any “ill” committed by India.

Islamabad, July 14: Women from all strata of Pakistani society have become cautious after a woman legislator belonging to PML-N Shumaila Rana allegedly stole credit cards and bought jewellery and clothes worth Rs 80,000 with it.

Police sources said the three PPC sections 420, 468 and 471 were added to the case of MPA Shumaila Rana for committing fraud and cheating the complainant woman.

Earlier, the case was registered against the accused MPA only under section 379 of PPC.

Islamabad, July 14: The government in Pakistan’s Punjab province has decided to disassociate itself from the Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed case and filed a plea for its withdrawal.

On Monday, the provincial government informed the Supreme Court that it has challenged the release of Saeed due to certain “confidential evidence” against him.

According to Punjab Advocate General Raza Farooq, Saeed was put under house arrest on the directive of the federal government, which failed to provide solid evidence to maintain his house arrest.

Islamabad, July 14: A pro-government militia killed at least 15 Islamist insurgents in Pakistan’s northwestern Mohmand tribal district near the Afghan border, a security official said on Tuesday.

Local tribesmen in the district’s Ambar village Monday night asked the guerrillas to leave their area, triggering an intense gunfight that continued through Tuesday morning.

‘The clash left 15 militants dead, while three tribesmen also suffered bullet wounds,’ the official said on condition of anonymity.

Islamabad, July 14: The provincial Punjab government on Tuesday informed Pakistan’s Supreme Court that it wanted to withdraw its petition challenging a lower court’s order that released JuD chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed from detention, saying it did not have adequate evidence against him.

When two petitions challenging Saeed’s release from house arrest were taken up by a three-member Bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, Punjab Advocate General Muhammad Raza Farooq informed the court that the provincial government wanted to withdraw its appeal.

Mingora (Pakistan), July 14: Pakistan lifted on Tuesday restrictions on the return of people displaced by fighting in the Swat valley, hoping to boost confidence among residents wary the Taliban might come back.

The army went on the offensive in late April to crush a Taliban insurgency in Swat after the militants took over a district 100 km (60 miles) from Islamabad, raising fears for U.S. ally Pakistan’s stability and the safety of its nuclear weapons.

Peshawar, July 14 : NWFP Chief Minister Ameer Haider Hoti has said that the Taliban will not be allowed to disrupt peace in the scenic Swat valley again.

The Chief Minister said the war against those involved in “destruction and blood shed” would continue until the last of the terrorists had been eliminated.

He said that administrative changes in Malakand division had been introduced for the implementation of sharia and the security of the population.

Islamabad, July 14: Two officials of a United Nations technical assessment team have visited the spot in the Pakistani garrison city of Rawalpindi, where former premier Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in December 2007.

Police officials said the UN officials went to the site at Liaquat Bagh yesterday, to assess security arrangements in the area ahead of a visit by members of the UN commission that will investigate Bhutto’s killing.

The commission is due to arrive in Pakistan soon.

Islamabad, July 14: The government of Pakistan’s Punjab province has decided to dissociate itself from the court case against Hafiz Saeed, the alleged mastermind of Mumbai terror attacks, and filed a plea for withdrawal of the case, a media report said Tuesday.

Punjab Advocate General Punjab Raza Farooq said the Jamaat-ud-Daawa chief was put under house arrest on the directives of the federal government, which failed to provide solid evidence to support the house arrest, according to the News International.

Khar, July 14: Pro-government tribesmen killed 23 militants in clashes in Pakistan’s volatile northwest in the latest violence between tribal militias and Taliban insurgents, a government official said Tuesday.

The fighting took place in the village of Ambar in the Mohmand region, part of the lawless tribal belt along Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan where top Taliban and al-Qaida leaders are believed to be hiding.

Khar, July 14: Pro-government tribesmen killed 23 militants in clashes in Pakistan’s volatile northwest in the latest violence between tribal militias and Taliban insurgents, a government official said on Tuesday.

The fighting took place in the village of Ambar in the Mohmand region, part of the lawless tribal belt along Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan where top Taliban and al-Qaida leaders are believed to be hiding.

Jalozai camp (Pakistan), July 14: Hundreds of refugees have started returning to their homes in Pakistan’s scenic valley of Swat with deeply ambivalent emotions – following a two month-long army offensive against the Taliban which displaced millions. The men, women and children were happy to leave behind the sufferings they faced at the temporary refugee camps for weeks, but they were not sure whether the situation at home has really improved and whether they could rebuild their shattered lives again.

Islamabad, July 14: The provincial Punjab government in Pakistan on Tuesday withdrew its plea against the release of Jammat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Saeed citing lack of evidence.

The move would now figure highly during the talks between Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon and his Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir today in Egypt ahead of the Nam summit.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will also be meeting Pak PM Yusuf Raza Gilani on Thursday and is now expected to take up the matter of Islamabad’s apparent soft stance towards terror suspects.

Islamabad, July 13: At least 16 people, including several children, died and 120 others were injured today in a powerful explosion in a madrassa being used to make bombs as six Taliban militants were killed in a skirmish with security forces in Pakistan”s South Waziristan tribal region. As the Army prepares to launch a major assault against Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan chief Baitullah Mehsud and his network in South Waziristan, troops captured four militants in continuing search and clearance operations in the northwestern Swat valley.

Islamabad, July 13: At least 15 people, including seven children, were killed and 70 others injured today in a powerful blast which destroyed a madrassa in a small village in Pakistan’s Punjab province.

The blast, caused by explosives stored in the house of a teacher, destroyed the madrassa and several houses in the village near Mian Channu in southern Punjab, officials said.

Local police and rescue officials told TV channels that 15 people, including seven children, were killed in the blast. Many of the dead were buried under the debris of collapsed homes.