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India-Pakistan

Sherpao attack accused killed

2008-02-28

Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz Khan on Wednesday said a tribal militant commander and mastermind of two suicide attacks on former interior minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao and killer of a serving Intelligence Bureau (IB) official was killed in an encounter with security agencies on Tuesday. “Abdul Siar, head of Siar group in the Tribal Areas, was killed on Tuesday in an encounter between security agencies and his men between Charsada and Mohmand Agency,” Hamid told reporters after attending a National Public Safety Commission meeting. Nawaz said almost 116 innocent people had died in various terrorist attacks by Siar and his men in various parts of the country. He said security agencies had also arrested two of Siar’s men during the encounter, who divulged important information after which the government had increased security of prominent politicians and important public buildings across Pakistan.

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India-Pakistan

'Orakzai removed due to peace deal failure'

2008-01-27

Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz Khan said on Saturday that former NWFP governor Ali Muhammad Jan Orakzai was removed from office because of the failure of a peace agreement with militants in the Tribal Areas. He told reporters at the National Police Bureau here that following the change of the provincial governor, the government had changed its policy on the ongoing operation in the Tribal Areas, reported AFP. Hamid said that the military operation in Darra Adam Khel would continue till miscreants were eliminated from the area. “We have achieved some level of success, however, the operation in Darra will continue till the elimination of miscreants there,” Hamid said. About the interrogation of Aitezaz Shah, the 15-year-old arrested in connection with former premier Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, Hamid said many arrests had been made on Shah’s information. Hamid said his ministry had already issued an advisory for the protection of key politicians. Worsening situation: He said the law and order situation could worsen in FATA, Swat and Kurram Agency during the elections, reported Online.

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India-Pakistan

Soldier killed, three injured in Wana clash

2008-01-09

Clashes between security forces and militants in South Waziristan left one soldier dead and three others injured on Tuesday, Online reported. Unidentified miscreants opened fire on checkposts at Tayyarza Force and Chaghmalai Force. Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad confirmed the casualties. Armed men fired rockets and opened fire with automatic weapons at a security forces fort, an official told NNI. Separately, political agents said miscreants also targeted checkposts at Omar Adda, but no loss of life and property had been reported, Online said. Police in nearby Tank city said unidentified men fired several rockets at the city last night, but there was no casualties, NNI added. Kidnapped: Three soldiers were also kidnapped from the Sarokey area of South Waziristan, according to locals. The soldiers from the Waziristan Scouts Force were kidnapped while travelling in a private car, local officials said. Masked armed men stopped the car, forced the soldiers out and took them to an undisclosed location, reported NNI. Authorities blocked all traffic on the road to stop the militants from shifting the soldiers out of the tribal region, locals said. Caretaker Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz Khan says security forces have planned a major operation against Baitullah Mehsud, the linchpin militant commander in South Waziristan. President Pervez Musharraf has blamed Mehsood for Benazir Bhutto’s assassination and accused him of recruiting suicide bombers. One of Baitullah Mehsud’s spokesmen, however, has denied any involvement in Benazir’s assassination.

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India-Pakistan

Pak Minister: "That Bhutto-Lever Story? We Lied. Our Bad"

2008-01-01

ht to AOSHQ In a dramatic U-turn, Pakistan government has "apologised" for claiming that former premier Benazir Bhutto died of a skull fracture after hitting the sunroof of her car during a suicide attack. Caretaker Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz Khan has asked the media and people to "forgive and ignore" comments made by his ministry's spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema which were slammed by her Pakistan People's Party as "lies" and led to an uproar at home and abroad. The Interior Minister made the apology during a briefing for Pakistani newspaper editors on Monday. Punjab province on Tuesday issued a front-page advertisement in newspapers that offered a reward of Rs 1 crore for information about a gunman and a suspected suicide bomber seen in the photos and video footage of the assassination. The government's apparent damage control exercise on Cheema's comments made at a news conference a day after Bhutto was assassinated at Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi on December 27, came after TV channels aired privately shot photos and video footage which showed a gunman shooting at Bhutto. The Pakistan People's Party leader is seen in the footage falling through the sun-roof before the suicide bomber detonated his explosives. The briefing by caretaker Prime Minister Mohammedmian Soomro was also attended by the foreign, interior and information ministers and senior officials. "Editor after editor lambasted the government for its non-serious attitude towards the tragedy, specially the statement that Bhutto had died by hitting the lever and not (due to) a bullet or shrapnel," The News reported.

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India-Pakistan

Taliban outfit faces ban

2007-12-21

The government has decided to ban Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a militant outfit that recently emerged in the insurgency-hit Tribal Areas, Daily Times learnt on Thursday. Sources told Daily Times that the decision had been made on the recommendation of top officials of the country’s security apparatus. The government has banned 18 militant outfits and put two on the watch list since 2001. Caretaker Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz Khan told Daily Times that no decision to ban TTP had been made as yet but the matter was under the government’s serious consideration. “Yes, we’re seriously considering the ban but a decision to this effect will come only after a thorough examination of all the aspects concerned,” he said. On December 14, around 40 local Taliban leaders announced to form the TTP in a bid to centralise their command. On December 14, around 40 local Taliban leaders announced to form the TTP in a bid to centralise their command. Sources said that intelligence agencies had already been tasked to check out the TTP infrastructure including its main leaders, financiers and supporters in the Tribal Areas and elsewhere. Sources said the government had already launched an unannounced crackdown on TTP leaders and activists across the country. Forty Taliban leaders from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and some normally governed districts of the NWFP had set up TTP, a centralised organisation under warlord Baitullah Mehsud of South Waziristan “to enforce Sharia, to unite against the NATO forces in Afghanistan and do defensive jihad against the Pakistan Army”.

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