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India-Pakistan

Angry mourners chase away Pakistani officials

2007-09-16

A chanting throng of more than 100,000 mourners chased away senior Pakistani officials from the funeral of a leading pro-Taliban cleric, police and witnesses said. They hurled shoes at government officials who tried to enter the sprawling stadium where the prayers were being held for Maulana Hassan Jan, 69, who was killed Saturday in the northwestern city of Peshawar. "Get out!" they chanted when Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao arrived, and provincial chief minister Akram Durrani was given similar treatment. Security officials hurriedly escorted Durrani out of the stadium to other chants directed against Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and US President George W. Bush. The crowd, mostly made up of students at religious schools, also smashed windows and gates at the stadium, witnesses said. Provincial information minister Asif Iqbal said more than 100,000 people attended the prayers, and that Jan was buried at a graveyard on the outskirts of Peshawar. Jan, who preached a message of harmony among different Muslim sects, was a respected Islamic teacher who had pupils in Pakistan, Afghanistan and several other Arab and Islamic countries. He taught Sharia law in Saudi Arabia and was an influential figure among Taliban leaders, including the hardline militia's fugitive chief Mullah Omar, his friends said. He was against suicide attacks and had issued fatwas (religious decrees), calling suicide bombings "un-Islamic." A former lawmaker, Jan was among a group of officials and clerics who went to Afghanistan in late 2001 to convince Mullah Omar to expel Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden following the September 11 attacks in the United States. He was shot dead by unidentified gunmen who fled in a car, in what senior police office Tahir Khan called a "terrorist act." "The murder was plotted to trigger unrest in the country," he said. Jan was also a vice-president of the Pakistan madrassa federation, which looks after thousands of seminaries across the country.

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Afghanistan

Call for joint fight against Qaeda, Taliban

2007-08-10

Pakistan and Afghanistan Thursday declared Al Qaeda and the Taliban "dark forces" and a "joint threat" to the two countries and said they should work together to defeat them, but differed on how to tackle the problem, as the four-day Afghan-Pak Peace Jirga kicked off in the Afghan capital without President Gen Pervez Musharraf. "Terrorism, militancy, the violent creed preached by Al-Qaeda, extremism and Talibanisation represent pain, intolerance and backwardness in our societies and a phenomenon that has maligned our great and noble faith, Islam. We must fight these dark forces and must do it jointly," Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, attired in shalwar-kameez, told the jirga delegates from the two countries, Kabul-based diplomats and civil society members. He said it was important to take military action against these militants, but added that military action alone was insufficient and political and developmental measures were also necessary to win the war. A banner inside the big white tent hosting the jirga read: "Terrorism common threat to Pakistan and Afghanistan. The remedy is simple ? a common strategy." Scanning machines, sniffing dogs and guards were deployed inside and outside the tent for security. Aziz said doubt and misgivings would only compound the two countries' problems. "We must move together to achieve successes," he said, and declared categorically: "(Pakistan has) no interest in controlling Afghanistan." The prime minister said his country could not escape the consequences "if we supported these forces (Al Qaeda and Taliban)". He insisted that most Taliban were from Afghanistan but conceded that some were receiving support from sympathisers in Pakistan's tribal areas. But he added: "The Taliban in our areas are getting support from the other side of the border." Afghan President Hamid Karzai said the two countries could take out the threat of Al Qaeda and the Taliban in a single day if they worked together. "If we want to eliminate this threat we can do it tomorrow," he said. Aziz said that he did note share Karzai's assertion that the problem could be solved in a day. "It needs efforts and we cannot fix the problem in a single day," he told Daily Times moments before his return to Islamabad. Karzai appeared to differ with Aziz's assertion that most Taliban fighters were Afghans. "Whatever is happening here (in Afghanistan) is not done by the Afghans. They are non-Afghans," he said. The Afghan leader said he had often asked Pakistan: "Why from your soil and administration is this evil coming to us?" Islamabad had denied involvement, he said, and now it was the task of the jirga to answer these questions. "Who are they who bother Pakistan and Afghanistan?" he asked. "Who is training them? By whose money are they being trained? We ought to know who these terrorists are and we have to flush them out from the two countries," he said in Pushto. Earlier, Afghanistan nominated a non-Pushtoon ? former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah - as its chairman to the jirga. Pakistan elected Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao Khan as its chairman.

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India-Pakistan

SC moved against Lal Masjid raid

2007-08-05

Wafaqal Madaris Chief Administrator Qari Hanif Julandhri told a press conference on Saturday that a constitutional application had been filed in the Supreme Court (SC) against the “extra-judicial killings” in the Lal Masjid operation. The petition was filed against President Pervez Musharraf, Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao, the Rawalpindi corps commander, chief commissioner, inspector general and deputy commissioner. It requested the SC to order registration of a first information report (FIR) against them. The SC will hear the case on August 9. Julandhri said that according to the constitutional application, a large number of men, women and children were killed in the operation, which was “extra-judicial murder”, and that the government had no right to kill, according to the Constitution. The application stated that Jamia Hafsa was demolished to “remove evidence of murder” of the people in there. The petitioner requested the court to issue orders to safeguard the debris of Jamia Hafza till the completion of an investigation. The petition also requested that Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa students who had surrendered be released immediately, and asked the court to take action against the alleged desecration of the Holy Quran.

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Afghanistan

Pakistan says no influence on Taliban

2007-08-03

Pakistan said on Thursday it had no influence over the Taliban holding 21 South Korean hostages in Afghanistan, stressing it was at war with the Islamist militia and Al Qaeda elements within its own borders, AFP reported. “Pakistan itself is a victim of such incidents,” State Minister for Foreign Affairs Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtyar said after a meeting with South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-Soon. Pakistan would like to help, Bakhtyar said, but was at war with Taliban and Al Qaeda elements at home, he said. “Naturally we have no lines of communication with the Taliban,” he said. Meanwhile in Islamabad, a South Korean presidential envoy met Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao and Opposition leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman to plead for help in securing the release of 21 Korean hostages held in Afghanistan. Baek Jong-chun refused to talk to reporters after meeting with Maulana Fazl, and his aides requested a media blackout to avoid further problems for the hostages. But Rehman later told reporters Baek had asked for his help in securing their safe release. “I have already issued an appeal to those who are holding the hostages, and today again I am issuing a second appeal to them, that (they) please release them, they were on a medical mission there, not for fighting,” Rehman said. Earlier, Baek met Sherpao and senior security officials to request their help in ending the crisis, officials said. Meanwhile, Taliban militants said in Ghazni they were ready to meet a South Korean delegation over the fate of 21 hostages held in Afghanistan. But the embassy in Kabul did not confirm that it would go ahead with such a meeting, which the Afghan government and the Taliban told AFP was already being planned. “A South Korean diplomatic delegation is to meet the Taliban for face-to-face talks to look for ways and solutions to free the South Korean nationals,” Ghazni governor Mirajuddin Pattan told AFP. “This request from the Koreans has been accepted by the Taliban and now we are working on how, where and when this meet could take place,” he said. Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP the group had selected a team to meet the South Koreans at a secret location. Seoul was meanwhile seeking the help of the United States. The propaganda-savvy Taliban pointed to Washington as the main obstacle to the negotiations, with Ahmadi saying: “The Americans do not permit the Kabul administration to free our prisoners.” South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon and US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte met on the sidelines of a regional security forum in the Philippines. “They agreed that both countries will not use any kind of force,” a South Korean diplomat said.

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Afghanistan

Musharraf, Karzai to open jirga in Kabul

2007-08-02

President General Pervez Musharraf and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai will inaugurate the Pak-Afghan Jirga Commission’s meeting on August 8 in Kabul, Daily Times learnt here on Wednesday. Seven hundred members of the commission from both the countries will participate in this first ever meeting. The meeting will deliberate on the ways and means to end terrorism in Afghanistan and tribal areas of Pakistan. Sources said that the three-day meeting, which would continue till August 10, would also discuss border security and improvement in bilateral relations. Promotion of people-to-people contacts would also come under discussion. Sources said that after inauguration of the meeting the commission members would be divided into different committees, who would forward their recommendations to the main jirga where the decisions would be taken. The commission members would also constitute a permanent commission, which would monitor the status of the implementation of the decisions taken in the meeting, said the sources. Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao will head the 350-member Pakistani delegation. Pir Syed Said Ahmad Gilani, Afghan jirga commission’s chairman, will lead the Afghan members. Governor NWFP Lt-Gen (r) Ali Muhammad Jan Orakzai, Governor Balochistan Owais Ahmad Khan Ghani, federal ministers Dr Ghazi Ghulab Jamal and Yar Muhammad Rind, former bureaucrats Sahibzada Imtiaz, Khalid Aziz, 17 members of the Parliament from tribal areas, notables and clerics from NWFP and tribal areas will also be the part of the Pakistani delegation, said the sources. According to the sources, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, was also invited to participate in the jirga meeting being held in Kabul, but he declined the invitation due to his engagements here.

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India-Pakistan

Pakistan denies Osama bin Laden on its soil

2007-07-23

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan on Sunday denied a US claim that Osama bin Laden is in the country’s tribal areas, saying that if Washington knows the Al Qaeda leader’s whereabouts then it should inform Islamabad. US intelligence chief Mike McConnell told American television on Sunday that he believed bin Laden is alive and sheltering in lawless parts of Pakistan on the border with Afghanistan. “Our stance is that Osama bin Laden is not present in Pakistan,” the country’s Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao told AFP. “If anyone has the information he should give it to us, so that we can warn apprehend him.” McConnell also blamed the government of President Pervez Musharraf for allowing Al Qaeda to regroup through a controversial peace pact last year in the troubled border region. “My personal view is that he’s alive,” the director of national intelligence said on NBC television when asked about bin Laden. “I believe he is in the tribal region of Pakistan.” A new report by the US intelligence community last week said that Al Qaeda had regrouped in its Pakistani “safe haven” and was determined to inflict mass casualties through new attacks on the United States. McConnell said that had been made possible by a September peace accord between the Pakistani government and pro-Taleban tribal leaders in the ill-governed region bordering Afghanistan. A week ago, the tribal militants seethed tore up the pact, stoking tensions as deadly violence erupted across Pakistan after the military crushed a pro-Taleban uprising at the Red Mosque in Islamabad.

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India-Pakistan

Bombers target Chinese, police, military, 51 killed

2007-07-20

Suicide bombers struck in the industrial town of Hub in Balochistan, and at a police training centre in Hangu and at a mosque in Kohat in NWFP, on Thursday, killing a total of 51 people and injuring several dozen others. At least 29 people, including seven police officers, were killed and around 50 injured in a suicide attack at the Gadani Bus Stop in Hub at around 8:40am, police said. “It was a suicide attack that was targeted at Chinese engineers working in Balochistan,” Tariq Masood Khosa, Balochistan’s Inspector General of Police, told Daily Times. “It is premature to say who masterminded the blast. One can’t say if it was to avenge the military operation in Jamia Hafsa or was carried out by Baloch insurgents or Taliban elements. All options are under consideration.” Khosa said that the seven police officers had sacrificed their lives to save the engineers. “As the vehicle carrying the engineers arrived, the suicide bomber tried to strike them but the police officers moved to stop the car from coming closer,” he said. Hub police chief Ghulam Mohammed Thaib said 29 people were killed. Local police said that a 50-kilogram bomb had been fixed inside the car. “Around 300 Chinese people are working on a lead and zinc project at Dhodar area in Lasbela district. They visit the site every Thursday ... they were the main target,” said a resident. The injured were shifted to Jinnah and Civil hospitals in Karachi while a state of emergency was declared at the local Jam Ghulam Qadir Hospital. The whole town was cordoned off and all shops, institutions and offices were shut. The blast also damaged 10 cars and temporarily disrupted the power supply to most of Hub. Two of the destroyed vehicles belonged to the Balochistan police while one of them was that of the Chinese engineers. The Chinese Embassy in Islamabad instructed its citizens and companies operating in Pakistan to remain “more cautious and refrain from going out unnecessarily” after the Hub blast. Police targeted in Hangu: At least seven people were killed and 35 injured when a suicide bomber set off his explosives-packed car at the Hangu Police Training College (PTC), police said. Police official Rehman Gul Khan said the suicide bomber wanted to take his car inside the PTC on the main Hangu-Kohat Road at around 7:30 am, while 500-600 police cadets were doing their routine morning parade. Gul Khan said the attacker, riding a Suzuki car, blew the vehicle up when police personnel deployed at the PTC gate tried to stop him. He said the explosion killed a police constable, along with five civilians, and injured around 35 people including seven policemen. Hangu District Police Officer (DPO) Ghulam Mohammad told Daily Times that the explosives weighed around 40-50 kilograms and the blast was so powerful that it scattered parts of the car nearly 450 feet away from the scene. Kohat Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Zulfiqar Cheema told reporters that the suicide attack was a continuation of the ongoing terrorist activities across the country. He said the bomber was alone and coming from the Kohat side. He added that police had collected parts of the bomber’s body. After the blast, the administration imposed an emergency in the Hangu tehsil headquarters hospital and the main Hangu road was blocked for hours. Army mosque attacked in Kohat: At least 15 people, including a prayer leader and two children, were killed and many wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a mosque in the Pathan Lines Centre, Kohat Cantt, during Isha prayers, police said. Most of the victims were army officials. The injured were rushed to the Kohat Combined Military Hospital, where an emergency was declared. “Indirectly these attacks are a backlash reaction against the Red Mosque,” Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao told AFP.

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India-Pakistan

More troops to deploy in NWFP and Tribal Areas

2007-07-17

A high level meeting chaired by President Pervez Musharraf on Monday decided to deploy additional forces in NWFP and the tribal areas to combat a surge in militancy in the region, television news channels reported. According to Aaj TV, the government decided to expedite the recruitment of 15,000 troops in the security forces to maintain law and order in NWFP. Some 100 people, mostly security personnel, were killed in three suicide bombings in NWFP and the tribal areas over the weekend, in attacks believed to be linked to the government operation to clear Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa in Islamabad of militants. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao, Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri and NWFP Governor Jan Orakzai also attended the meeting at the presidential camp office in Rawalpindi where the decision was made, Geo News reported. It added that the government also decided to enhance the capacity of the forces in these areas to effectively combat terrorism and militancy. ISI Security officials at the meeting said they had warned the government about the expected reaction in the tribal areas and NWFP after the Lal Masjid operation. The meeting was told that a strategy was drawn up and approved by the president to cope with the expected backlash, but it could not be implemented at once. Agencies add: The NWFP governor has been directed to hold the necessary parlays with tribal elders on the new security measures approved by the government, sources told Online. Gen Musharraf said that the North Wazirstan accord was not signed with the Taliban but with tribal elders, and directed the NWFP governor to hold talks with these elders to revive the deal. He said Pakistan wants peace and stability in Afghanistan. The prime minister pledged at the meeting that the NWFP government would be given all the resources it needs to maintain law and order and the government’s writ in the province. NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani did not attend the meeting, and the prime minister later called him up and discussed the security situation and the recent suicide attacks with him. He directed the chief minister to tighten security in the province. The president and prime minister also held a one-on-one meeting where they discussed the North Waziristan peace, the “political role of opposition parties, role of religious parties, and increasing unrest among the people regarding law and order”, sources told Online.

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India-Pakistan

Pakistan militants end truce deal

2007-07-15

Pro-Taleban militants in Pakistan's North Waziristan region say they have ended their truce with the government. In a statement issued in Miranshah, the main town, the militants accused the government of breaking the agreement. It came as Pakistan deployed more troops in the area, fearing "holy war" after the storming of the militant Red Mosque last week left 102 dead. More than 50 Pakistanis, including soldiers and police recruits, have died in three attacks in the past two days. Growing tension Last September's truce had ended two years of clashes and was aimed at stopping cross-border attacks into Afghanistan. "We are ending the agreement today," the Taleban Shura or Council said in pamphlets distributed in Miranshah, the capital of North Waziristan. The council leaders released the statement on Sunday amid growing tension in the area. In a second consecutive day of violence at least 11 Pakistani soldiers - and three civilians - were killed in the Swat area of North West Frontier Province. Two suicide bombers rammed cars into a convoy - as a roadside bomb also went off. Another 40 were injured in the attack near the town of Matta, local police said. In the city of Dera Ismail Khan, in the same province, at least 18 people died in a blast at a police recruitment centre. About 60 were wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up among young men waiting to take a police recruitment exam. On Saturday, a suicide attack on an army convoy near the village of Daznary, about 50km (30 miles) north of Miranshah, killed 24 and wounded at least 30. The area is well-known as a stronghold of pro-Taleban militants, police said. The 102 dead in the Red Mosque (Lal Masjid) siege included 11 soldiers and an as yet unknown number of extremists and their hostages. The government has sent thousands of new troops to the north-west fearing there could be a new "holy war" in revenge. Many of the militants in the Red Mosque complex were thought to have come from the north-west. "The attacks in Swat and D I Khan could be linked to the Lal Masjid," Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao told Geo TV. "It's very difficult to stop suicide attacks."

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India-Pakistan

Security forces dynamite Lal Masjid wall

2007-07-08

Security forces besieging the Lal Masjid late on Saturday blew up part of the wall of the compound, a security official said, AFP reported. There was also an intense exchange of fire before midnight between security forces and militants holed up inside the mosque complex, the official said. “Security forces dynamited the wall to allow people inside to come out if they want to,” he told AFP. People inside the compound who wished to leave risked being shot by hardline students if they attempted to climb the wall, which is seven to eight feet high, he said. Breaching the wall also gave security forces a clearer picture of what was happening, he added. Security forces blew up another section of the wall early Sunday with the deafening blasts heard several kilometres away. “There has been another round of intense firing but there have been no casualties on the security forces’ side,” the official said. An AFP photographer at the scene said heavy firing between the security forces and the militants continued for more than 45 minutes late Saturday with several bullets hitting the walls of several houses. Meanwhile, Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao warned Ghazi Abdul Rashid to let the hostage children come out otherwise he would be held responsible for any harm to them. A source at the mosque told AFP that one student was killed in the battle lasting around an hour. The official death toll from five days of fighting stands at 19. Staff report adds: Earlier in the day, the security forces increased their presence in Sub-Sector G-6/1 and erected sandbag bunkers in front of the main street after gunshots were fired from a nearby mosque. The incident, which could not be confirmed by independent sources, took place in the morning as the curfew was relaxed from 8:00 to 9:30 am to allow local residents to go to their offices and buy food. Security sources told Daily Times that 13 people had been arrested for violating the curfew in G-6/2. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz chaired a meeting where he directed security forces to exercise restraint to minimise the loss of life. He also formed a three-member committee to supervise the situation.

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India-Pakistan

Lal Masjid militants grimace, roll eyes, stand defiant

2007-07-07

* 17 more surrender, two killed in crossfire as siege continues * Ghazi, supporters sign wills ISLAMABAD: Two heavy blasts and gunfire rocked the Lal Masjid on Friday evening, as a dense cloud of smoke rose over the building in the latest clashes. Abdul Rashid Ghazi, deputy prayer leader of Lal Masjid, and his supporters said that they would prefer death to arrest after the government called for an unconditional surrender. Security forces fired several teargas shells at Lal Masjid that also troubled inhabitants of the areas around the mosque. There were unconfirmed reports of many casualties inside the mosque. The security forces continued their strong buildup, but exercised maximum restraint in launching the final assault despite capturing strategic positions on Thursday evening. The restraint is being exercised to secure the release of maximum students, especially females, to avoid massive causalities in case of an operation, authorities said. Security forces kept announcing safe passage for surrendering students throughout the day and the number of students who have evacuated the mosque premises reached 1,221 – 795 male and 426 female students – on Friday night. The officials put the number of those killed in the operation at 19 and the injured at 98. Addressing reporters, Interior Secretary Kamal Shah repeated the government’s demand that Ghazi and his companions surrender unconditionally. Shah requested religious parties to come forward and play role in resolving the standoff. The security forces relaxed curfew for three hours between 12:30pm to 3:30pm in Sector G-6 so that the residents could purchase daily use items. Earlier in the day, Ghazi and his ‘400 followers’ wrote wills. Ghazi’s special assistant Abdul Qayyum told Daily Times on telephone that besides a collective will, all students had written individual wills which would be placed on the mosque’s rostrum. In the collective will the students have demanded burial inside the mosque’s courtyard if they are killed in the operation. Jamia Hafsa Principal Umme Hassan, wife of Maulana Abdul Aziz, claimed that more than 80 bodies – 50 men and 30 women – were lying in the compounds of the mosque and the madrassa. Agencies add: Two students of Jamia Hafsa, who were surrendering to the authorities, were killed in crossfire between security forces and the madrassa militants. Also, 17 students including five females surrendered to security forces. Separately, a meeting chaired by Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao discussed law and order situation arising out of the Lal Masjid operation, Online reported. Fire broke out at Jamia Hafsa at around 1:30 am Saturday after a mortar shell was fired, Geo TV reported.

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India-Pakistan

Govt snubs Ghazi's 'surrender' offer

2007-07-06

Security forces used helicopters and explosions to rattle militants still holed up inside Lal Masjid on Thursday, as the government turned down a conditional offer from the mosque’s deputy chief cleric to surrender. Abdul Rashid Ghazi – whose brother Abdul Aziz Ghazi was caught on Wednesday– told a television channel he was willing to hand over the mosque and its affiliated madrassas to the government department for religious buildings. “I want to stay in one of the houses behind in the mosque compound with my mother who is sick and with the wife of my brother until I get an alternate place to move to.” “I want to stay in one of the houses behind in the mosque compound with my mother who is sick and with the wife of my brother until I get an alternate place to move to.” Minister of State for Information Tariz Azeem dismissed the offer, telling AFP that Ghazi must surrender unconditionally and allow all women and children in the mosque to leave. Another 38 students surrendered yesterday, taking the total to 1,146 - 745 boys and 401 girls. Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said 50 to 60 “hardcore militants” were still inside with AK-47s and petrol bombs. Azeem said the militants planned to use women and children as “human shields”. Security forces kept up a tight ring around the complex and made repeated announcements calling on the militant students to surrender. Helicopters hovered overhead and armoured personnel carriers patrolled around the mosque. Early on Thursday, loud blasts rocked the mosque as witnesses said security forces blasted holes in the outer walls. Blasts were heard later as well and official sources said they were trying to break the will of the militants holed up inside. Intense gunbattles erupted in the afternoon, with students opening fire on troops and hurling hand grenades. Rangers arrested six men with links to banned militant groups and suspected of planning suicide attacks from near Lal Masjid. The official toll since clashes began is 19 dead and 98 injured. Unofficial figures say 30 have died and 200 been injured.

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