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India-Pakistan
Intruder detained on LoC in Rajouri: officials
2023-05-16


An infiltrator was detained on the Line of Control in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir while he was trying to intrude into this side of the border, reports said today.

Quoting officials, news agency KNO reported that the intruder was nabbed while he was trying to infiltrate from Tarkundi area.

The apprehended intruder, initially identified as Mohammad Usman, is a resident of Kotli district, Kerela village of PoJK.

Officials said that the alert troops picked up the suspicious movement of the man on the LoC and thwarted his attempt to infiltrate.

The man is being questioned, they said.
Related:
Rajouri district: 2023-05-10 NIA conducts raids across 16 locations in J&K to crack down on newly-launched terror groups
Rajouri district: 2023-05-07 2nd gunfight in Baramulla in 24 hours, terrorist killed: Police
Rajouri district: 2023-05-07 Day 3: Searches continue, no fresh contact with terrorists in J&K’s Rajouri
Related:
Kotli district: 2019-09-21 Pakistan Army major, sepoy martyred in IED explosion near Afghan border: ISPR
Kotli district: 2019-04-02 Elderly man killed, 5 wounded in cross-LoC shelling by Indian troops in AJK
Kotli district: 2019-03-17 Indian spy drone shot down near LoC
Link


India-Pakistan
Punjab challenges court order to stop land transfer to army
2023-04-20
[Dawn] The caretaker Punjab government has filed an appeal in the Lahore High Court challenging its stay order against handing over of 45,267 acres of land on a lease to the Pakistan Army for corporate farming.

Assistant Advocate General Mohammad Usman Khan filed the appeal on behalf of the provincial caretaker setup pleading that a single bench passed the stay order without hearing government’s point of view. The appeal contends that the land lease was duly approved by the cabinet, with the objective to protect food and environment.

The LHC on March 31 stopped the handover of 45,267 acres of land on a lease to the Pakistan Army for the purposes of corporate farming. Justice Abid Hussain Chattha at the initial hearing of the petition of the Public Interest Law Association of Pakistan (Pilap) — a not-for-profit legal organisation — noted that the army neither had the jurisdiction to directly or indirectly engage in business ventures outside its scope nor could it claim any state land for corporate agriculture farming. The single bench while passing the order to not hand over the land for corporate farming also had issued notices to the respondents for submission of reports by May 9.

The petition questioned the power of the caretaker government to take the decision of handing over the land. It said the purported handing over of the land was also in violation of the Doctrine of Public Trust, which stated the government was responsible for protecting certain natural resources and cannot give them away to private citizens arbitrarily.

The petitioner also argued that there is no provision in the Pakistan Army Act, 1952 empowering the entity to undertake any activity beyond its scope for welfare unless the federal government expressly granted permission to do so.

The caretaker government of Punjab signed an agreement to hand over at least 45,267 acres of land in three districts — Bhakkar, Khushab, and Sahiwal — of the province to the Pakistan Army for ‘Corporate Agriculture Farming’.

According to a document, the military’s land directorate wrote to the Punjab chief secretary, Board of Revenue and secretaries of the agriculture, forest, livestock and irrigation departments for handing over of 42,724-acre land in Kaloor Kot and Mankera tehsils of Bhakkar, 1,818 acres in Quaidabad and Khushab tehsils of Khushab district, and 725 acres in Chichawatni tehsil of Sahiwal.

The letter referred to a notification of the Punjab government dated Feb 20, 2023, and a joint venture (JV) agreement of March 8. It reminded that “while signing the JV management agreement on March 8, it was decided that state lands immediately required for the project be handed over to Pakistan Army.”

According to informed sources, the JV has been signed between the military, the Punjab government, and private firms dealing with corporate farming.

About the salient features of the proposed project, sources said that the Punjab government would provide the land while the army would utilise its resources and retain the management of the project. The private sector, on the other hand, would invest and provide auxiliary support, including the supply of fertilisers.

Military sources had confirmed this development, stating that the army was “not taking over the ownership of the land as it will remain the property” of the Punjab government. “The intervention of the army will provide a coherent administrative structure,” the sources added.

They said that the land in question was mostly barren, uncultivated, and under-cultivated and added that the army with the assistance of the relevant stakeholders, including its JV partners and locals, would turn this into fertile land.

At least 40pc of the revenue generated from the cultivation would go to the Punjab government, 20 per cent would be spent on modern research and development in the agriculture sector, while the remaining would be used for the succeeding crops and expansion of the project.
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India-Pakistan
Seven injured in two Quetta attacks
2023-02-06
[Dawn] Seven people were maimed in two terrorist attacks, one of them said to be a suicide kaboom, on Sunday.

The first incident took place near the Police Lines on Gulistan Road and the other on Mano Jan Road.

Five people, including an office-bearer of the Civil Secretariat Staff Association, suffered injuries in the first attack.

According to police officials, the blast occurred near a bridge.

There was no official word about the nature of the blast, but eyewitness accounts claimed it was a suicide kaboom.

Police collected the ’bomber’s remains’ from the scene of the earth-shattering kaboom, they claimed.

The injured were identified as Qaim Khan Kakar, general secretary of the Civil Secretariat Staff Association, Mohammad Usman, Fazal Mohammad, Mohammad Anwar and Thomas.

The outlawed TTP later grabbed credit for the blast, saying that it was a suicide kaboom.

In the other incident, a woman and her child were maimed when unknown persons riding cycle of violences hurled a grenade into the house of Nazeer Ahmed on Mano Jan Road. The grenade went kaboom! in the courtyard.

The wife and son of Nazeer Ahmed were maimed in the grenade blast. They were admitted to the Civil Hospital’s trauma centre.

The attack took place at the time when Quetta Gladiators and Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistain's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire...
Zalmi were playing an exhibition match at the Akbar Bugti Stadium a few miles away from the site.

The attacks in Balochistan
...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
’s capital were the latest in a series of terrorist attacks which spiked since the outlined TTP rescinded the ceasefire with the government in 2021.

On Jan 30, a jacket wallah targeted a mosque in Peshawar’s Police Lines, resulting in the death of over 84 people, according to figures released by the city police.

The outlawed TTP had initially grabbed credit for the attack. It later distanced itself from it but sources earlier indicated that it might have been the handiwork of some local faction of the banned group. January was the deadliest month since 2018, in which 134 people bit the dust — a 139 per cent spike — and 254 received injuries in at least 44 krazed killer attacks across the country.
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Afghanistan
Armed Robbers Fire at Two Brothers, Killing One in Northwest Afghanistan
2022-10-11
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] Local sources reported that two brothers were shot at by armed robbers in the Badghis province of northwest Afghanistan. One brother was killed and the other was injured, and the brothers’ motorcycle was taken.

The two brothers were traveling on a motorcycle when they were stopped and cornered by the armed robbers, who then shot at them and stole their motorcycle, according to the sources.

The sources said that the incident took place on Sunday, October 9, when the two brothers were headed to Qala-e-Naw, the provincial capital of Badghis.

Mohammad Usman, whose brother was also wounded, is the victim who passed away after being shot by the armed robbers, according to local media reports.

Local Taliban security officials confirmed the veracity of the news and also stated that two people have been arrested in connection with the robbery that led to murder.

Meanwhile kilometers away from Badghis, unidentified gunmen in the northern Afghan province of Faryab killed a man.

While the Taliban have yet to determine the cause and motive of the criminal act, the perpetrators have fled the crime scene.

This comes as poverty, unemployment, and hunger have skyrocketed in Afghanistan since the Taliban seized power, leading to a significant rise in crime rates and crime victims.
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India-Pakistan
What you should know about this Tamil Nadu outfit whose members threatened judges in hijab case
2022-03-26
A few days ago we thought we knew that TNTJ is a dawa (Muslim outreach) group established in 2004 that claims to be apolitical. Oddly enough, they found it necessary a few years ago to fire the founder for getting taped interfering with a plural number of women. Here’s what the Indians say:
[OneIndia] Courtesy the hijab issue created by some motivated individuals in Karnataka, the Tamil Nadu Thowheed Jamath (TNTJ) is back in the news. Three members of the TNTJ, Rahamatullah from Madurai, Covai Rahamathulla from Tirunelveli and S Jamal Mohammad Usmani from Thanjavur were arrested for threatening the judges of the Karnataka High Court over the hijab case.

These persons had issued a death threat to the judges who delivered the verdict in the case.

This group was formed in 2004 and was in the news following the Sri Lankan suicide kabooms of 2019.

However the group clarified that it had no role in the attack. The Indian connection to the blasts were found by the Intelligence agencies. The criminal mastermind behind the attack, Zahran Hashm was a follower of the TNTJ's founder P Jainulabdeen. However Jainulabdeen was expelled from the outfit for alleged sexual misconduct and misappropriation of funds in 2019.

The Bengaluru police had filed a case after a video of Rahamatullah surfaced in which he is heard saying that if the judges get killed they themselves will be responsible for the same. He also cites an incident from Jharkhand when a judge was mowed down while going on a morning walk. He says that people know where the CJ goes for a walk in the morning.

In a statement, the TNTJ said, "we want to make it clear that the actions of these few individuals who have been arrested do not reflect the views of the TNTJ outfit as a whole in any manner. Further, we don't even resort to protests that go as far as road rokos as it would cause inconvenience to the common public. There are untrue messages being spread tarnishing the image of the TNTJ."

The outfit's name had cropped when the NIA filed a chargesheet against one Mohammad Naseer in 2016. Naseer was heading to Libya from Sudan, but was apprehended and later deported to India.

He did his computer engineering from the MNM college in Chennai. It was at this time that he would visit a mosque at Chennai which was run by the Tamil Nadu Thowheed Jamath, non-political Islamic Organisation that preaches a puritanical version of Islam.

In 2015, the NIA had raided three locations of the TNTJ for their alleged terror links. In 2015, the Chennai police an FIR against the group following a complaint by an American national who accused the group of assaulting him for attempting to convert Moslems to Christianity. In 2019, a member of the group Faisal was arrested for his hate speech against Union Home Minister, Amit Shah.

In January 2021 tensions prevailed in the Mannady area of Chennai after members of the TNTJ protested actions of the Deputy Custodian of the Enemy Property Act of trying to seal their office. The officials alleged that the headquarters was being used for purposes other than what is declared. The TNTJ however said that the party pays Rs 4 lakh rent every year to the Union Government and is ready to purchase the property if the government is ready to sell it.
Related:
Tamil Nadu Thowheed Jamath: 2022-03-21 Karnataka HC judges who gave Hijab verdict get Y-category security cover; 3 booked for issuing death threats
Link


India-Pakistan
Karnataka HC judges who gave Hijab verdict get Y-category security cover; 3 booked for issuing death threats
2022-03-21
That’s one way to flush out future bad guys.
[OneIndia] Amid arrests over death threats, three Karnataka high court judges who gave the Hijab verdict to get Y-category security cover.

Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said, "We've decided to give 'Y' category security to all three judges who gave the Hijab verdict. I have instructed DG and IG to probe the complaint filed in Vidhanasoudha PS thoroughly in which some people gave life threats to the judges."

Three Tamil Nadu Thowheed Jamath
...a dawa (Muslim outreach) group established in 2004 that claims to be apolitical. Oddly enough, they found it necessary a few years ago to fire the founder for getting taped interfering with a plural number of women...
functionaries have been booked for for allegedly issuing death threats against the Karnataka High Court for its verdict on the Hijab row. The Jamath had recently held a public meeting in the Koripalayam area of Madurai regarding the Karnataka High Court's ruling.

While Kovai Rahamathulla was arrested from Tirunelveli, S. Jamal Mohammad Usmani was taken into custody from Thanjaur. Both the arrests took place on Saturday night.

The accused are office bearers of the Tamil Nadu Towheed Jamaat (TNTJ).

The arrests were made after multiple complaints against the accused in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Police sources said that several persons have been booked in this connection.

Following the complaint, Madurai police have booked three TNTJ functionaries under five sections of the IPC including 153(a),505(1)(c),505(2),506(1) r/w 109 IPC.

On Tuesday, the high court ruled that "the prescription of school uniforms is a reasonable restriction" which students could not object to, dismissing the pleas challenging the ban imposed by the state government.
Related:
Hijab: 2022-03-19 Unknown Gunmen Abduct Eight Leaders Of Ruling Party, APC
Hijab: 2022-03-16 Karnataka HC upholds Hijab ban: A look at countries where veils are barred
Hijab: 2022-03-07 Why radicals have a field day in South India targeting Hindu leaders
Link


Afghanistan
2 people including an Intelligence Officer Assassinated: Parwan
2020-09-06
[KhaamaPress] Local sources report, 2 people were assassinated in Sayed Khail district of Parwan by the bandidos gunnies affiliated with the Taliban
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
Mohammad Usmanyar, the district governor said, one of the killed individuals was working for the Bagram intelligence department.

He added the incident took place this morning around 7:00 am in the Aqtash area of the district.

Identities of the dear departed individuals are not exactly confirmed, said the Governor.

The bandidos gunnies were on a cycle of violence when the liquidation occurred, and both have escaped the area after finishing their task.

Taliban have not commented based on this incident.
Link


India-Pakistan
Two murder accused shot dead by complainant in Gujar Khan court
2017-07-20
[DAWN] Two suspects in a robbery and murder case were bumped off by the complainant in the case while they were on court premises in Rawalpindi's Gujar Khan Tehsil on Wednesday.

The person who reportedly opened fire on the victims is reported to have turned himself in right after the incident. The pistol used in the incident was recovered from his person.

The victims, Mohammad Usman and Adnan Altaf, had been brought to the court for a hearing of a two-year-old case of dual murder and robbery against them. The victims in that case were brothers of the man who opened fire on Wednesday, the Gujar Khan SHO informed DawnNews.

A first information report (FIR) against the accused has been registered, he said.

Meanwhile relatives of the slain individuals protested with their bodies and blocked GT road. They said that the security at the court was not adequate which resulted in the killings. They also demanded the arrest of 'other culprits' in the case.

The protesters however dispersed after successful negotiations with the police. The superintendent of Saddar police had suspended all personnel deployed at the court and assured protesters that all found involved will be tossed in the clink
Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages!
Link


India-Pakistan
26/11:'financier' gave Rs 4 mn to LeT; sent to JC
2016-08-23
[PTINEWS] The alleged financier of the 2008 Mumbai terror attack, who supplied nearly Rs 4 million to the LeT men, has been sent to judicial remand after the Pak anti-terrorism court hearing the case did not allow the FIA to have his custody for more days.

Sufayan Zafar has joined the other six suspects - Abdul Wajid, Mazhar Iqbal, Hammad Amin Sadiq, Shahid Jameel Riaz, Jamil Ahmed and Mohammad Younis Anjum - in the high-security Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi, where they are lodged since 2009.

Lashkar-e-Taiba
...the Army of the Pure, an Ahl-e-Hadith terror organization founded by Hafiz Saeed. LeT masquerades behind the Jamaat-ud-Dawa facade within Pakistain and periodically blows things up and kills people in India. Despite the fact that it is banned, always an interesting concept in Pakistain, the organization remains an blatant tool and perhaps an arm of the ISI...
(LeT) operations commander Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi, the criminal mastermind of the Mumbai attack, is living at some holy man's guesthouse an undisclosed location after being released from jail on bail over a year ago.

The anti-terrorism court sent Zafar on the judicial remand on Saturday noting that the Federal Investigation Agency had been given enough time to probe the suspect, a source in the FIA told PTI today.

He is accused of providing Rs 3.98 million to co-accused Riaz through account no. 2338-2 of the Moslem Commercial Bank's Drigh Road branch in Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
and account no. 2464-0 of the Allied Bank's Drigh Colony branch in Karachi prior to the Mumbai terror attack.

During interrogation by the FIA, he was quizzed over providing millions of rupees to the suspected holy warriors of the Mumbai attack case, his relations with them and other absconding suspects, the source said.

"The FIA has interrogated Zafar for providing financial assistance to the co-accused in the Mumbai case besides his connection with the holy warriors and the LeT. He was also interrogated for the channel/source from which he got the huge sum of money to provide it to the co-accused," he said.

Zafar was absconding after being declared proclaimed offender in the Mumbai case. He was tossed in the slammer
Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit!
early this month (on August 3 or 4) from his hideout in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
province. A resident of Gujrawala district of Punjab
1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots....

- some 80 kms from Lahore, Zafar is among 21 other absconding suspects wanted in this high-profile case.

According to court documents, the other suspects who allegedly arranged funds for the attacks include undertrial Ahmed and Anjum and proclaimed offenders Mohammad Usman Zia, Mukhtar Ahmed, Abbas Nasir and Javed Iqbal.

The FIA wanted more time to investigate him further, the source said, adding that the agency would indict him along with the seven other suspects of the case in the trial court after completing his challan.

The trial court will resume the hearing of the case on September 7 after over a month-long court summer vacation.

Defence lawyers are of the view that indicting Zafar along with the seven accused may further delay the conclusion of the case, which has been pending in an anti-terrorism court (ATC) since 2009, due to repeating the exercise of cross- examining witnesses in the light of the new arrest.
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Europe
Pakistani man one of two 'accomplices' charged in Paris attacks
2016-07-31
[DAWN] French authorities filed terror charges on Friday against two men, including Pak national Mohammad Usman, who are suspected to be members of the same hard boy Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
(IS) group cell that massacred 130 people in Gay Paree last November, a judicial source said.

The 35-year-old Pak Mohammad Usman and 29-year-old Algerian Adel Haddadi were charged with "criminal conspiracy with terrorists", the source said of the men turned over earlier Friday by Austrian authorities.

Investigators believe they travelled to the Greek island of Leros on October 3 on the same boat full of refugees as two men who took part in the November 13 attacks.

Those two, thought to be Iraqis, blew themselves up outside the Stade de La Belle France stadium, one of a series of brazen assaults by around 10 people around the French capital.

But Haddadi and Usman were held up, detained by Greek authorities for 25 days because they had fake Syrian passports.

Once let go, they followed the main migrant trail and made it to Salzburg in western Austria at the end of November -- after the Gay Paree attacks.

Austrian police commandos then tossed in the clink
Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out!
them in December at a migrant centre a few hours after French authorities informed them the men could be in the country.

Link


India-Pakistan
18 die in Lahore factory accident
2015-11-05
LAHORE: At least 18 labourers were killed and dozens injured when an under construction factory collapsed in Lahore Wednesday evening, rescue and city administration officials said.

More than 70 people were rescued from under the debris till late in the night, DCO Lahore Capt (retd) Mohammad Usman said.

“The rescue workers have so far retrieved 16 dead bodies while at least 40 injured have been taken to hospitals,” Usman, the city's top administration official who was coordinating the response to the disaster, said.

Later, Edhi officials told Dawn they shifted 18 dead bodies to hospitals.

The injured labourers, some of them critical, were shifted to Jinnah Hospital and Sharif Hospital where they received emergency medical treatment.

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif visited the site and said it was possible the building had been damaged after the October 26 earthquake.

“I have heard the earthquake affected the building, but according to labourers the owner continued to build an extension,” he told reporters.

He announced a compensation of Rs0.5 million for the heirs of the labourers who died in this unfortunate accident.

Rescue officials further said around 100 people are feared trapped under the debris, including underage employees, and the death toll is expected to rise.

The factory is located in Lahore's Sundar Industrial Estate and manufactures polythene bags.

Rescue officials faced difficulties during rescue operations, which continued throughout the night. However, the use of heavy machinery was halted until sunrise.


The DCO Lahore said that the actual number of casualties will be ascertained once the rescue operation is completed.

He, however, claimed that all available resources are being utilised to carry out the rescue and relief operation.

Army teams also reached the site and carried out search and rescue operation alongside the city administration teams, the ISPR said.

The military was flying urban search-and-rescue teams to the scene, said a military spokesman in a text message.

“Army engineers have been immediately moved for the rescue operation,” the message said.

Video and more at the link
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India-Pakistan
Salman Taseer's commemoration attacked in Lahore
2015-01-05
[DAWN] Unidentified miscreants attacked a candlelight vigil organised to mark death anniversary of former Punjab governor Salman Taseer who was murdered by his own security guard Mumtaz Qadri for demanding reforms in Pakistain's blasphemy laws in 2011.

The attack was carried out when members of civil society gathered at Liberty Chowk to light candles in the slain politician's memory.

Qadri, who was Taseer's bodyguard, shot him dead on January 4, 2011 at Kohsar Market in Islamabad over the politician's call for blasphemy laws to be reformed.

An anti-terrorism court had awarded death penalty to Mumtaz Qadri in October the same year.

Qadri was feted as a hero by a wide section of the public, including lawyers, and was even showered with rose petals as he arrived at court for a trial hearing.

The baton wielding miscreants tore apart banners and posters as they attacked members of civil society. Several people were maimed in the sudden attack. The attackers, however, managed to flee before police arrived at the scene.

Civil society activists said that candlelight vigils have been organised in Taseer's memory for the last four year, but this was the first time it was attacked.

Ordering a probe into the incident, DCO Captain (retd) Mohammad Usman has ordered swift arrest of the culprits behind the attack.
They've got photos of the guys in the act, but they'll a.) probably not be found and if b.) they are there won't be sufficient evidence for a conviction.
Other police officials told the media later that the eye witness accounts have been recorded and vowed that the culprits would soon be brought to justice.
Sure they will.
Condemnation poured in soon after the incident was reported on local media with politician and members of civil society demanding arrest of the culprits.
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