India-Pakistan |
ATC reissues arrest warrant against Musharraf in Benazir case |
2011-06-12 |
[Dawn] The Rawalpindi Anti-Terrorist Court (ATC) on Saturday reissued the arrest warrant against former military ruler ![]() PervMusharraf ... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ... in the Benazir Bhutto murder case, DawnNews reported. The court also asked for all details of the former president's property. The case was being heard in the Adiyala Jail by ATC special Judge Rana Nisar Ahmed. The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had requested the court to issue a permanent warrant for Pervez Musharraf. The FIA request also entailed the confiscation of Musharraf's property. During the hearing, DG FIA Malik Iqbal apologised for attempting to change the investigation officer in the Benazir Bhutto murder case. He moreover told the court that Khalid Rasool was still heading the investigation in the case. Subsequently, the court adjourned the hearing to June 25. |
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India-Pakistan |
Nuggets from the Urdu press |
2010-07-09 |
These nuggets are culled from the Urdu press. They are summarised here without comment. Absurd or ridiculous, TFT takes no responsibility for them Separate Muslim currency ![]() Quoted in daily Jinnah leader of Jamaatud Dawa Hafiz Said stated that news about removing blasphemous cartoons from the Facebook and apology from the up-loader were all fibs. The only way to fight the cartoons was for the Muslim rulers to get together and separate their economic system from the West, have their own currency and prepare a common defensive system. Maulvi Shehbaz and maal banana ![]() Columnist Amir Hamza writing in Islamist publication Jarrar stated that Shehbaz Sharif was talking like a Maulvi and not like a Chief Minister when he warns of a bloody revolution, but people knew andar khatay (inside) that his government was busy making maal (money) in the old style. After water war, the fish war Reported in Daily Express Indian fish Goncha had attacked Pakistan and entered its rivers from the sea. Goncha was a cruel variety that ate other fish but it was particularly targeting the Pakistani fish, Kalbans and Palla whose two generations were now at risk. The Fisheries Department warned that if counter-measures were not taken the attack from the Indian fish, Pakistani fish will come to and end. PM in the driving seat ![]() Columnist Nazir Naji wrote in Jang that Prime Minister Gilani landed in Hunza on a copter but when he was being driven to the Attabad accidental lake he insisted on driving the vehicle. He was told that in those heights only the locals could drive safely but he insisted on driving. Naji quipped that only the President could stop him. Gilani and Leghari ![]() Writing in Jang Nazir Naji stated that although both had feudal background Farooq Leghari and Yousaf Raza Gilani were of different temperaments. (Benazir wanted Waseem Sajjad as her president; Zardari wanted Leghari and prevailed.) Gilani knows that if he adopted Legharis ways he would not survive. Madrassa Haqqania didnt kill Benazir! ![]() Reported in daily Islam a spokesman of Madrassa Haqqania Akora Khattak stated that the FIA finding - that the killers of Benazir had belonged to the madrassa in Nowshehra and had plotted to kill her there - was wrong and a conspiracy to conceal her real killers. He said the UN report had not charged the madrassa in her assassination in 2007. Hamid Mir victimised by Voice Cloning ![]() Famous Pakistani TV anchor Hamid Mir wrote in Jang that he was being accused of getting an ex-ISI agent Khalid Khwaja killed by the Taliban on the basis of a taped telephone conversation that was made by the Americans with a software called Voice Cloning sold by an American Company Natural Voices which can be bought for a few hundred dollars. But actual cloning through it was a very difficult art and not within reach of everyone. He said in Pakistan artist Nisar Butt could easily copy anyones voice. Two Pakistanis paid Faisal Shahzad Reported in Jang out of the four Pakistanis arrested in Pakistan for their connection with the bomber Faisal Shahzad in the US, two proudly accepted that they had given money to him through havala. They however insisted that they did not know for what purpose the money was being given. Judges and talk of war ![]() Quoting leading lawyer Hamid Khan, daily Pakistan stated that judges should not make public announcements of war against the executive signalling that they were ready for this war. He said attempts were being made to stage a war between the judiciary and the executive. Justice (Retd) Tariq Mehmood abstained from commenting on the statement of the Chief Justice of Lahore High Court that he and his fellow judges were ready for a war with the PPP government. Shami and Chief Justice ![]() Daily Jinnah revealed that at a seminar held in Lahore, senior journalist Mujibur Rehman Shami stated that he respected the judiciary and the army but the judiciary should pay more attention to the courts and let the system run; and not give threatening statements about the skies falling down. He was referring to an earlier statement of the Chief Justice of Pakistan that skies may fall but justice will be done. To the rescue of khusras ![]() Daily Jinnah reported that two European diplomats had reached Peshawar to rescue the two men (one of them khusra) alleged to have married each other. An asylum in Europe for them was being planned through an international conspiracy. The effort was to save the two men (?) from being punished by the brave police of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa who have taken training for months to fight the Taliban but are more conscientiously making great sacrifices to apprehend khusras before they destroy the manhood of the Pakhtun ANP government. Governor Taseer as tissue paper ![]() Quoted in Nawa-e-Waqt Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said that Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer after the passage of the 18th Amendment was like tissue paper which can be used and thrown away. He said the charges the Governor had levelled about the number of bullet-proof cars with the chief minister were false. Lal Masjid madrassa in DG Khan under attack ![]() Reported in Nawa-e-Waqt the police attacked a girls madrassa in Rajanpur in DG Khan and arrested a boy from there. The girls madrassa is funded by the Lal Masjid chief of Islamabad Maulana Abdul Aziz who has named it after his father Abdullah Ghazi killed in Islamabad some years ago. Another Mahabharata will destroy India! ![]() Quoted in Nawa-e-Waqt Majeed Nizami said that a Mahabharata was in store for India when the untouchables and the Muslims will unite to finish off the Brahmans. This would be like Indias plot to separate East Pakistan through Mukti Bahini. Pakistan will use the untouchables of India to bring about the end of India. Arrested for marrying khusra ![]() According to Jang the police swooped down on a man in Peshawar accused of marrying a khusra (transvestite). The expensively trained police most conscientiously acted like commandos and captured Malik Iqbal, the bridegroom, his bride, Kashif alias Rani and 45 baratis (invitees to the wedding). The arrested party was brought to the magistrate under heavy guard to give the citizens a sense of security under attack from the Taliban. The police, while getting ready to save the population from the Taliban, were overjoyed to know that the khusra and his bridegroom could be given a life sentence. Army officer behind Faisal Shahzad Reported in Jang intelligence agencies swooped down on one Major Adnan of the Signals Corps for helping terrorist Faisal Shahzad plan his bombing of Times Square in New York. His younger brother Qamar Ejaz, a software expert, was also picked up. They were picked up after the arrest of contacts of Shahzad Salman Ashraf and Raza Ahmad whose parents are in catering business in Islamabad. One Hanbal Akhtar, a graphic designer, was picked up from Rawalpindi. Sources said the men are pure (mutaqi) Muslims. Major Adnan learned the Quran by heart after joining the army and his brother is learning the Quran at Faisal Mosque in Islamabad. 18th Amendment is right! Well-known lawyer Athar Minallah wrote in Express that the Article 174-A in the 18th Amendment allowed an immaculate method of induction of judges compared to the old Article 193 under which everyone from Chief Justice of the provincial high court, the governor of the province and chief minister were involved together with law ministry in Islamabad. On the other hand, the new law set up a Judicial Commission comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan, two judges of the Supreme Court, one retired judge of the Supreme Court selected by the Chief Justice, Law Minister, Attorney General. Those selected by the Commission will then go to a parliamentary committee of eight, four each from treasury and opposition benches, deciding on the basis of three-fourths majority. |
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India-Pakistan |
Spate of attacks leaves 27 dead, 30 injured in Lahore |
2009-10-16 |
[Dawn] Teams of gunmen attacked three security sites on Thursday in Lahore, killing a total of 27 people and leaving at least 30 injured. One of the attacks, on the Elite Police Academy on Bedian Road, lasted into Thursday afternoon before security forces killed the five attackers and freed a family they were holding hostage, police said. The assaults paralysed the cultural capital of the country, showing the militants are highly organised and able to carry out sophisticated, coordinated strikes against heavily fortified facilities despite stepped up security across the country. No group immediately claimed responsibility, though suspicion fell on the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan who have claimed other recent strikes. The attacks on Thursday also were the latest to underscore the growing threat to Punjab. 'The enemy has started a guerrilla war,' Interior Minister Rehman Malik said. 'The whole nation should be united against these handful of terrorists, and God willing we will defeat them.' The wave of violence halted activity in Lahore. All government offices were ordered shut, the roads were nearly empty, major markets did not open and stores that had been open pulled down their shutters. The violence began just after 9 a.m. when a group of gunmen attacked a building housing the Federal Investigation Agency, a law enforcement branch that deals with matters ranging from immigration to terrorism. 'We are under attack,' said Mohammad Riaz, an FIA employee reached inside the building via phone by The Associated Press during the assault. 'I can see two people hit, but I do not know who they are.' The FIA building was the target of a suicide truck bomb in March 2008 that killed 24 people and wounded more than 100. Thursday's attack lasted about one-and-a-half hours and ended with the death of two attackers, four government employees and a bystander, senior government official Sajjad Bhutta said. Senior police official Chaudhry Shafiq said one of the dead wore a jacket bearing explosives. Soon after that assault began, a second band of gunmen raided a police training school in Manawan on the outskirts of the city in a brief attack that killed five police officers and four militants, according to DawnNews. One of the gunmen was killed by police at the compound and the other three blew themselves up. The facility was hit earlier this year in an attack that sparked an eight-hour standoff with the army that left 12 people dead. A third team of at least eight gunmen scaled the back wall of an elite police commando training centre on Bedian Road, not far from the airport and attacked the facility, Lahore police chief Pervez Rathore said. Senior police official Malik Iqbal said at least one police constable was killed there. Lt. Gen. Shafqat Ahmad said five attackers were slain in a gun battle and suicide blasts in the facility, and Shafiq said security forces freed a family that was being held hostage at the compound. Seven people were injured in the Bedian attack. Out of the 13 terrorists involved, three were females, said an official. Television footage showed helicopters in the air over one of the police facilities and paramilitary forces with rifles and bulletproof vests taking cover behind trees outside a wall surrounding the compound. Rana Sanaullah, provincial law minister of Punjab province, said police were trying to take some of the attackers alive so they could get information from them about their militant networks. |
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India-Pakistan | |
Pakistani militant groups uniting | |
2009-05-29 | |
The Lahore bombing is the latest sign, according to ABC News, that diverse militant groups from across the country are uniting. The Taliban and Punjabi militant groups "are working hand in glove," says Malik Iqbal, the former Lahore city police chief. "Ultimately we're going to reach a tipping point where the Taliban will have opened so many fronts in Punjab that it will be almost impossible for the army to deploy against so many fronts which are so distant from each other geographically," says Ahmed Rashid. US officials believe the Punjabi groups are stronger and more radical than ever. Pakistani and US officials say Lashkar-e-Jhangvi teamed up with the Taliban to attack the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore, as well as helping destroy Marriott Hotel in Islamabad last year. "Police is not trained for this purpose. It's a force against crime. It's not a force against terrorism," said Saud Aziz, the police chief in Multan. Another problem is the inability to crack down on the militant groups, Aziz said.
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India-Pakistan |
PML-N MNA, supporters 'beat Food Dept official' |
2008-04-27 |
A Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) member of the National Assembly (MNA) and 60 of his armed fellows on Saturday allegedly tortured a Punjab Food Department official in Raiwind for stopping his [MNAs] wheat-laden tractor trolley, the Express News has reported. The channel said that Food Department official Asad Gull seized the tractor trolley of MNA Mazhar Hayat Khan for transporting wheat without carrying the required documents. An angered Khan along with around 60 armed men reached the scene and tortured Gull. They also retrieved the trolley from him. The home secretary and Capital City Police Officer Malik Iqbal later directed the area police to register a case against the MNA. Khan told the channel that he had been falsely implicated in the case, and that a thorough investigation would prove him innocent. |
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India-Pakistan |
Police in Lahore arrest 4 terrs, seize boom jackets |
2008-03-28 |
![]() City police officer, Malik Iqbal, addressing a press conference in Lahore city told newsmen that four terrorists have been arrested and two of them are suspected to be involved in suicide attacks on Naval War College (NWC) and near High Court building. He said police also recovered suicide jackets, 20 detonators and huge cache of ammunition from their custody. He added that the terrorists belong to a banned extremist group. The officers said that detained terrorists during initial investigations admitted to have planned attacks on vital government installations in the city. Four suicide attacks in last two months targeted NWC, six-storey building of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and a former FIA special investigation cell building. The attacks left over two dozen killed and near 100 wounded. |
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India-Pakistan |
Three suspected bombers held |
2008-03-07 |
Security forces arrested three suspected militants and seized suicide jackets and explosives at Batti Chowk near Minar-e-Pakistan in Lahore on Thursday, police said. Lahore Police Chief Malik Iqbal said police and intelligence agents arrested the suspects after they arrived on a bus from the Tribal Areas. Police seized four suicide jackets, 50 kilogrammes of explosives and other bomb-making materials that the three men were carrying in their luggage, Iqbal told a news conference. The men said they belonged to a terrorist organisation, Iqbal said. They were to accelerate the wave of terrorism in Lahore and had planned to blow up some important installations and target some important personalities, he said. Iqbal didnt identify the terrorist group or the suspected targets saying it was a sensitive matter. |
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India-Pakistan |
Salvation Army chief's murder suspect escapes |
2007-10-01 |
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Afghanistan/South Asia |
77 clerics booked |
2005-08-08 |
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Afghanistan/South Asia | |
Tribesmen vow to catch al-Qaeda | |
2004-04-06 | |
This should be good for a laugh UNDER pressure from the regional governor, hundreds of armed Pakistani tribesmen today started a hunt for al-Qaeda suspects believed to be hiding in remote territories near the Afghanistan border, a tribal elder said.
Officials believe that hundreds of al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters are hiding in the South and North Waziristan regions, some harbored by tribe members in villages near Wana, the main town of South Waziristan. On Tuesday, about 600 Utmankhel tribesmen, many armed with assault rifles, Wazirâs pledge notwithstanding, it was not immediately clear with what level of conviction the search was being undertaken. US, Afghan and Pakistani authorities all accuse the tribesmen of doing little to move against the foreigners in recent months. Shin Warsak is in a region where Pakistani troops fought fierce battles last month with militants hiding in fortress-like mud houses, killing at least 63 foreign and local militants. Nearly 50 Pakistani troops and officials, and a dozen civilians also died in the clash. Government soldiers captured more than 160 suspects, but hundreds managed to escape. Uzbek militant leader Tahir Yuldash, believed to be among the escaped, was wounded in the action, officials said. | |
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India-Pakistan | |
Pakistan judges âheld hostageâ | |
2003-07-25 | |
Rioting prisoners in a Pakistan jail are reported to have taken several visiting judges hostage. Five prisoners are holding at least five judges who were inspecting the prison and two prison officials, police said. "Judge, the prisoners are revolting!" "Yes, and they smell, too." (rimshot) Three other hostages were freed to convey the prisonersâ demands. The prisoners are also holding around 50 other inmates, according to the AP news agency. And this is a problem, how? Deputy Inspector General of Police Malik Iqbal told the BBC that the five prisoners had opened fire on a team of judges who were on an inspection tour of the district jail. The judges, thought to be district-level judicial officers rather than high court judges, escaped injury but were taken hostage. Police are reported to have surrounded the jail and negotiations are under way. The prisoners were asking for more arms and ammunition. Ah, no. Possession of arms by prisoners has become increasingly common in Pakistani jails. Last year, a prisoner convicted under the blasphemy law was shot dead by a fellow inmate in a Lahore jail. Having prisoners armed is a really bad idea, even by Pak standards. You might want to fix that. FOLLOWUP: From abc.net.au... Three kidnapped judges and five prisoners have been killed in Pakistan when police raided a jail to free seven judges taken hostage by the prisoners, police said. The judges had been taken hostage by armed prisoners while visiting the main jail in Sialkot town. Police said up to three judges were wounded in the gunbattle but all the survivors were freed.
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India-Pakistan |
More Suspects Sought in Pakistan Attack |
2002-12-27 |
Police said Friday they were hunting for five more suspects in the Christmas Day grenade attack on a church in this mainly Islamic nation. "Investigators are questioning some suspects and police are chasing the footprints of those terrorists who carried out the attack," Javed Iqbal Cheema, a senior Interior Ministry official, said. Six men were arrested Thursday in the attack on about 40 Pakistani worshippers in Chianwala. Chief among them was a Muslim cleric who allegedly told his followers to kill Christians. The suspects are believed to be affiliated with Jaish-e-Mohammed. Based on leads from the arrested cleric and Pakistani intelligence agencies, police spokesman Malik Iqbal said officials were looking for five more men who may have been involved in the attack. "Yes! It is holy to kill Christians! Matter o' fact, it's holy to kill just about anybody, ain't it?" |
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