Pakistan

Lahore, June 19: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif said terrorism cannot be linked to Islam and there is a need to focus on the root cause that leads to violence, Online news agency reported Friday.

Sharif made the remarks during his meeting with former Pakistani president Rafiq Tarar and religious scholar Maulana Tariq Jameel here.

“We will have to work together – beyond party political considerations to face this challenge. Every one has to play one’s role in this regard,” said Nawaz.

They also discussed the prevailing political situation in the country.

Islamabad, June 19: When Prime Minister Manmohan Singh goes to Sharm-al-Shaikh for the Non-Aligned Movement meeting, it will not be President Asif Ali Zardari from Pakistan who he will meet on the sidelines to take forward the process launched at Yekaterinburg, but Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani.

Earlier this week, after the meeting in Russia between Mr. Singh and Mr. Zardari, officials on both sides said the two leaders would meet again in July on the sidelines of the NAM summit, preceded by a meeting between their foreign secretaries.

Islamabad, June 19: A militant leader who broke away with Pakistan’s Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud has accused him of killing former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto, a media report said Friday.

Haji Turkistan Baetani, former right-hand man of Mehsud, claimed that Mehsud had planned the assassination of Bhutto.

Baetani told Geo TV that he heard Mehsud say, “I have moved two of my associates to Rawalpindi (for) slaying Mohtarma B.B. (Benazir Bhutto).”

Islamabad, June 19: In a sudden development, President Asif Ali Zardari has decided not to attend the NAM Summit in Egypt next month, apparently to avoid another meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh whose blunt public comments appear to have annoyed Pakistan.

Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani will lead the Pakistani delegation to the Summit at Sharm-el Shaikh on July 15, the Foreign Office announced, a day after Singh had told reporters that he and Zardari would be meeting on the sidelines of the Summit.

Islamabad, June 19: Denying that Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) founder Maulana Masood Azhar has been placed under house arrest in Bahawalpur, Pakistani authorities have said his whereabouts are unknown and he might have fled to the Waziristan region. But some intelligence officials believe that Azhar could be living under the protection of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

Following the June 17 arrest of five JeM activists from Punjab’s Sialkot district, there were rumours that among them was Azhar, whom the Indian government wants extradited.

Islamabad, June 19: Pakistan said on Thursday that the country looked forward “to a productive meeting between the foreign secretaries” (of Pakistan and India) to be held next month.

Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said: “We hope they will be able to take up all issues and that the outcome of their meeting will lead to a resumption of dialogue.”

Islamabad, June 18: President Asif Ali Zardari has decided to drop out of a proposed meeting with prime minister Manmohan Singh, apparently unhappy over his blunt public comments telling him that Pakistan’s soil should not be used for terrorist activities against India.

However, Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit told the weekly news briefing today that prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani would lead the Pakistani delegation to next month’s NAM summit to be held in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Islamabad, June 18: Pakistan’s nuclear weapons formed the cornerstone of its deterrence doctrine and would be retained at all costs, a top military commander said Thursday.

‘No amount of coercion, direct or indirect, can force us to compromise on this core interest,’ Online news agency quoted General Tariq Majid, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, as saying while addressing the convocation of the National Defence Course, Armed Forces War Course and Allied Officers War Course at the National Defence University here.

Islamabad, June 18: The Supreme Court Thursday reserved orders in a case in which former prime minister Nawaz Sharif is accused of ‘hijacking’ an aircraft carrying then army chief Gen. Pervez Musharraf by attempting to prevent it land at Karachi in 1999.

Concluding his arguments in the case, Sindh Prosecutor General Shahadat Awan maintained that Sharif had been rightly convicted by the trial court and his appeal was thus liable to be dismissed.

Islamabad, June 18: After joining the “war on terror” following the attacks on the United States in September 2001, Pakistan saw a significant rise in attacks by tribal movements and groups linked to the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

The security forces have borne much of the brunt of the violence but hundreds of civilians have also been killed.

2009

June 13: The military expands its military offensive into South Waziristan, where the Pakistani Taliban movement is based.

Lahore, June 18: In what may be seen as a probable fissure in the Taliban’s leadership, a commander of the outlawed organisation, Qari Zainuddin Mehsud, has blamed the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Baitullah Mehsud for all the terror strikes in Pakistan.

Mehsud said he was not in favour of carrying out attacks inside Pakistan, as it was against Islam.

Mehsud told a private television channel that he and many other insurgents had sided with the TTP chief against non-Muslims, and not for carrying out attacks inside the country.

Peshawar, June 18: Pakistan today shut down the Peshawar Airport for all domestic and international flights for an “indefinite period” owing to terror threats as well as planned military operation in Waziristan to hunt down Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan chief Baituallah Mehsud.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), however, has cited “technical” reasons for its closure.

Islamabad, June 18: The raging wave of suicide bombings and attacks, some in reprisal for the military operations against local Taliban, are casting their shadow over cultural, film and showbiz activities in the country.

Lahore, the cultural capital and the center of Pakistan’s film industry, which is locally known as Lollywood, is the hardest hit. “Producers and actors are shattered. They have lost their confidence,” Khalid Farshori, a senior cultural reporter, told.

“Many of them have personally told me that they are thinking of joining other professions to earn their livelihood.”

Islamabad, June 17: Waziristan may be home to Osama bin Laden, but it is the much younger Baitullah Mehsud who is the target of the new military operation being launched there, one intended to crush him.

Moscow, Jun 15 : Ahead of his participation in the summit of the heads of state and government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari said today Islamabad counts on its full membership of the regional group.

Mr Zardari will attend the SCO summit opening in Yekaterinburg as an observer, along with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and a special envoy of Mongolian President as observer-members.

Islamabad, June 15: Pakistan has warned that the Taliban could spread beyond its borders to neighbouring India and as far as the Persian Gulf, unless it receives international aid to help battle militancy on its soil, the Online news agency reported Monday.

Pakistan would need up to $2.5 billion in emergency aid and for long-term reconstruction of the Swat Valley and the neighbouring region, once the fighting between government troops and militants, now in its final stage, ended, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said in an interview with the Financial Times.

Islamabad, June 15: Pakistan ordered its army to go after the country’s top Taliban commander, a feared al-Qaida-allied militant whose remote stronghold could prove a difficult test for troops but whose demise would remove a major threat to the country’s stability.

Islamabad, June 14: A suspected US missile strike killed at least five people today in a tribal region where Pakistan’s top Taliban commander is based, intelligence officials said, breaking a lull in such attacks and posing a test for growing anti-Taliban sentiment in the country.

Islamabad, June 13: Terming the stepped up strikes by militants as an attack on the “sovereignty” of Pakistan, President Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday underlined his determination to fight the Taliban insurgency to the end.

“We are fighting a war for our sovereignty,” Zardari said, responding to a spate of deadly terrorist attacks that have killed dozens across Pakistan.

In a televised address, the President called on the people to unite behind the anti-Taliban cause.

Islamabad, June 13: The funeral prayers of Allama Dr Muhammad Sarfraz Naeemi will be offered today on Saturday at 5pm in Nasir Bagh Lahore. He would be laid to rest in the premises of Jamia Naeemia.

The Tanzimul Madaris Ahle Sunnat (Barelvi) has announced three-day mourn, the Anjuman Tajiran announced strike while the Muttahida Qaumi Movement called to observe the day of mourn across the country over the martyrdom of the religious scholar.

Religious parties’ leaders and workers on Friday took out protest rallies to condemn the suicide attack that killed Dr. Naeemi.

Islamabad, June 13: Pakistan said Saturday India should not doubt its intentions in the probe into the 26/11 Mumbai carnage and called on New Delhi to resume the sub-continental dialogue process with Islamabad. Interior Minister Rehman Malik, during a meeting with Indian High Commissioner Sharad Sabharwal today, said resumption of the Pakistan-India dialogue “is imperative for regional peace” and India should not doubt Pakistan’s sincerity in bringing the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks to justice.

Islamabad, June 13: Tariq-ur-Rehman, one of ten Pakistani students detained by British police in April on terror-related charges, accused his prison guards of religious harassment and abuse.

“They committed sacrilege of Noble Qur’an many times,” a visibly moved Tariq told, on his arrival at Benazir Bhutto International Airport in Islamabad. “When we read the Qur’an, they came with sniffing dogs and let them sniff the Qur’an.

“We used to cry and begged them not to do that but they said it was their duty.”

Islamabad, June 13: Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari today said his country was fighting for its “survival” and promised that the ongoing offensive against the Taliban would continue “until the end”.

“We are fighting a war for our sovereignty,” Zardari said in a late-night television address to the nation. “We will continue this war until the end, and we will win it at any cost.”

Lahore, June 12: At least two people have been killed in near-simultaneous blast in Pakistan, officials say.

One blast took place inside the offices of the Jamia Naeemia religious school and mosque in the eastern city of Lahore soon after Friday prayers, police said.

One of those killed in Lahore was a prominent religious leader known to oppose the Taliban, police said.

“Unfortunately, Maulana Sarfraz Naeemi has been martyred,” Pervez Rathore, a Lahore police chief, told the Reuters news agency.

Another person was killed and at least six others hurt in the attack.

Islamabad, June 11 : Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has offered a ‘badly needed’ olive branch to restore sub-continental peace by offering to walk half the way to resume the dialogue with Pakistan, an editorial in a leading English daily said Thursday, while another hoped Islamabad would ‘be able to meet’ New Delhi at that point.

Manmohan Singh’s statement in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday “will be seen as the olive branch that is badly needed in the present state of impasse between India and Pakistan”, Dawn said in an editorial headlined “A silver lining”.