Pakistan

Attari, July 06: concerns in Punjab’s border belt following Saturday night’s ‘rocket’ attack on Indian territory from the Pakistani side, the Border Security Force (BSF) is awaiting a response from Pakistan Rangers regarding the incident.

The BSF had lodged a ‘strong protest’ with the Pakistan Rangers, the border security agency of Pakistan, Sunday following three ‘rockets’ fired into Indian territory from the Pakistani side of the border.

Islamabad, July 06: The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Monday rejected on technical grounds two petitions by the federal and Punjab governments challenging the release of Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Mohd Saeed from house arrest, prompting authorities to announce they will file fresh pleas.

Saeed is a key accused in the Mumbai attacks.

The petitions submitted on Saturday though the office of the Supreme Court registrar had not completed formalities for them to be taken up by a bench. The petitions were rejected due to technical flaws, sources said.

Tehran, July 06: A senior Pakistani official reveals that two major western and Islamic states are exerting pressure on Islamabad to scrap its multi-billion-dollar gas deal with Iran.

The initial agreement of the $7.5 billion Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline, also known as the Peace Pipeline, was signed in Tehran in May between the Iranian and Pakistani presidents.

Iran says that via the pipeline it will deliver eight billion cubic meters of natural gas to Pakistan annually.

Islamabad, July 06: Producing newspaper clippings former prime minister Nawaz Sharif nailed what he called as Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s “utter falsehood” that he (Musharraf) had not asked him to go to Washington to seek the then US President Bill Clinton’s help for a ceasefire in Kargail in July 1999.

Karachi, July 06: At least eleven people, seven children, three women and a man, died after allegedly being administered wrong injections and lack of oxygen in Nawabshah and Hyderabad hospitals, two major cities of Sindh province, national news media reported.

The news of the deaths spread like wild fire in both the cities and the adjoining areas as angry parents and relatives surrounded the hospitals demanding action against the staff for negligence that led to the alleged deaths of their near and dear ones.

Amritsar, July 05: Three rockets were fired from the Pakistan side of the border with two of them landing inside in as many Indian villages, injuring a youth besides triggering panic among villagers, a top BSF official said on Sunday.

“Last night around 9.50 pm, three rockets were fired from the Pakistan side, out of which two landed in Dhandae and Baherwal villages close to the Attari international border. A youth was injured in the incident,” BSF’s Inspector General (Punjab Frontier), Himmat Singh told PTI over phone.

Islamabad, July 05: Pakistan will share with the international community the evidence of foreign elements supporting terrorists to destabilise the country, a foreign ministry official said on Saturday.

“We have gathered proofs of some anti-Pakistan foreign elements supporting terrorists in our tribal areas to destabilise Pakistan and we would share it with the concerned countries at international level, foreign office spokesman Abdul Basit was quoted as saying by the Online news agency.

Islamabad, July 05: At least 27 pro-Taliban militants have been killed when Pakistani fighter jets pounded the hideouts of the militants in north western Pakistan.

The Saturday air strikes hit three suspected militant positions in the Orakzai region, part of the rugged, lawless tribal belt along Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan, killing at least 12 militants, Press TV has learned.

Sources said various hideouts of militants were destroyed during the air assault, just a day after a helicopter crash that had claimed the lives of at least 26 soldiers in the Orakzai agency.

Karachi, July 05: Noted religious scholars of the country have issued edict (fatwa) calling for civil disobedience and stop paying electricity bills as long as the loadshedding remains.

This is the first time in city’s history that religious scholars of two sects, Sunni and Shia, agreed to issue an edict saying that it was ‘haram’ to send bills without providing electricity and increase power rates without any justification.

Islamabad, July 05: Chief of his faction of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Nawaz Sharif, has said he would feel it an honour if asked to serve the country as prime minister for the third time.

Talking to reporters in London, Sharif said military dictator Gen. Musharraf had mutilated the constitution and concentrated powers in the presidency turning the prime minister as an ineffectual figurehead. “He also imposed the ban on two-time prime ministers to seek a third term in order to keep me and late Benazir Bhutto out of the race,” he said.

Islamabad, July 05: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has voiced Pakistani concern that the latest offensive by US forces in Helmand, south of Afghanistan, will destabilise the situation in Balochistan.

“We fear a spill-over effect on Balochistan of surge in the number of US troops and their latest massive offensive in Helmand that is likely to push Taleban to cross over to Pakistan,” the prime minister told reporters here.

He said he has conveyed his reservations to US officials and they had assured him that no extremist would be allowed to cross into Pakistan.

Islamabad, July 05: Pakistan will share with the international community the evidence of foreign elements supporting terrorists to destabilise the country, a foreign ministry official said.

”We have gathered proofs of some anti-Pakistan foreign elements supporting terrorists in our tribal areas to destabilise Pakistan and we would share it with the concerned countries at international level,? foreign office spokesman Abdul Basit was quoted as saying by the Online news agency.

Peshawar, July 05: The Taleban claimed responsibility Saturday for a Pakistani helicopter crash that killed 26 security personnel, as helicopter gunships pounded suspected militant hideouts in the northwest.

“We shot down the helicopter,” a spokesman for Taleban insurgents based in the nearby Darra Adam Khel region told AFP.

The spokesman, identifying himself as Muhammad, said the helicopter had been targeted in retaliation for the Pakistani military operation in South Waziristan, a stronghold of the Taleban and Al-Qaeda.

New Delhi, July 04: The CPI today began a review of its debacle in the general elections and an exercise to chalk out action plan to oppose any ‘anti-people’ measures in the upcoming general budget.

The three-day meeting of the party’s National Council started with General Secretary A B Bardhan tabling the report of the National Executive on the poll performance of the party, whose strength in the Lok Sabha declined from ten to four.

Discussions began on reports from the states where the party had put up candidates, including Left bastions of West Bengal and Kerala, party sources said.

Islamabad, July 04: The Pakistan Army has named Maj. Gen. Ashfaq Nadeem to command the Swat operation against the Taliban, a media report said Saturday.

The army said the outgoing Maj. Gen. Ijaz Awan had completed his three-year tenure and would get a new posting.

Gen. Nadeem, recently promoted as major general, would take charge of the Swat operation in northwest Pakistan.

Army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani has approved the appointment, Online news agency said citing official sources.

Twenty major generals of the Pakistan Army have also been reshuffled, the report said.

Islamabad, July 04: Pakistan has sealed its South Waziristan border with Afghanistan and imposed a curfew there to prevent Afghan militants from infiltrating into its territory in the wake of fresh offensives by US troops on the Taliban on the other side of the border.

US Marines push deeper into southern Afghan townsThe Pakistan Army has already deployed additional troops at the border on the directives of the federal government, the Online news agency said on Friday.

A curfew has also been imposed in the border areas to stop the likely infiltration of Afghan militants.

Peshawar, July 04: Clashes between tribesmen and Taliban militants left 16 people dead in Pakistan’s northwest on Saturday, officials said, in the latest violence between pro-government tribal militias and insurgents.

Also Saturday, the Taliban said it shot down a helicopter that crashed Friday in the northwest, killing 26 government troops. The government blamed it on a technical problem.

Islamabad, July 04: All 26 security personnel aboard a Pakistani military helicopter were killed in a crash in the country”s restive tribal belt even as the Taliban today claimed responsibility for downing it. The Russian-made Mi-17 helicopter came down yesterday about 20 km from the northwestern city of Peshawar at a spot located along the boundary of the Orakzai and Khyber tribal regions, official sources said.

The sources said 26 security personnel on board the helicopter were killed. They said the helicopter crashed due to a technical fault.

Islamabad, July 04: Pakistan urges US officials to chalk-out a comprehensive strategy to counter cross-border infiltration of militants from neighboring Afghanistan.

“The US government should support Afghanistan in working out a permanent solution to check uncontrolled, illegal crossings, particularly of militants, terrorists and drug trafficking across the border with Pakistan,” Pakistani Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani told US Secretary for Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano in Islamabad on Friday, a Press TV correspondent reported.

Islamabad, July 04: Stepping up its rhetoric on Kashmir, Pakistan on Friday said the peace in the region cannot be discussed without the resolution of the long-standing issue with India.

“Kashmir issue can’t be kept out of the bilateral talks,” Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told reporters at the Multan airport. “We can’t discuss peace without (settlement of) Kashmir issue.”

The Pakistan Foreign Minister said the world has come to accept that “Kashmir is disputed.”

Islamabad, July 04: Pakistani authorities on Friday filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against the release from house arrest of banned JuD chief Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, wanted by India in connection with the Mumbai attacks, saying they had evidence of his group’s links to terror outfits.

Islamabad, July 04: Pakistan has sealed its South Waziristan border with Afghanistan and imposed a curfew there to prevent Afghan militants from infiltrating into its territory in the wake of fresh offensives by US troops on the Taliban on the other side of the border.

The Pakistan Army has already deployed additional troops at the border on the directives of the federal government, the Online news agency said Friday.

A curfew has also been imposed in the border areas to stop the likely infiltration of Afghan militants.

Islamabad, July 04: Pakistani residents in the Hamza Banda area of Lower Dir district have ordered Taliban commander Mufti Aftab to leave the area immediately, a media report said Friday.

The Taliban commander along with his eight aides had entered the area some days ago, the Online news agency said.

The residents have formed a militia group with help from the local authorities to fight the Taliban.

Security officials said they have tapped a phone call from Aftab to his associates to carry out suicide attacks.

–IANS–

Islamabad, July 03: Turning suicide bombing into a “production output” Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan chief Baitullah Mehsud is spending up to Rs One million to buy children who could be made suicide bombers, US media today quoted Pakistani and American officials as saying.

A Pakistani official told the Washington Times that the price for child bombers was Rs 500,000 to Rs One million.

Islamabad, July 03: Government of the Punjab province of Pakistan on Friday filed an appeal in the Pakistan’s Supreme Court against release from detention of Jamaat-ud Dawah chief Hafeez Mohammad Saeed, who India claims is the mastermind of the Mumbai terror attacks.

The appeal against the Lahore High Court order, filed in the apex court this morning, said Saeed needed to be detained for his own “protection”.

Saeed was released as per the Lahore High Court order on June 02.