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Britain
UK agrees to hand over Imran Farooq murder case evidence to Pakistan
2019-09-18
[DAWN] The United Kingdom has agreed to hand over evidence to Pakistan in connection with the Imran Farooq murder case, it emerged on Tuesday.

Toby Cadman, the lawyer for the Pakistan government, told Dawn that he had submitted the documents related to the case in the Islamabad High Court (IHC). The documents include the index of evidence as well as a letter from the UK government agreeing to share the originals.

Additionally, he confirmed that Pakistan had made a request for mutual legal assistance (MLA) to transfer evidence relevant to the inquiry regarding the Muttahida Qaumi Movement leader's murder.

Cadman said he is currently in Pakistan to deliver the letter of acceptance, the evidence list and to attend a hearing of the case.

Meanwhile, a two-member high court bench comprising IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Mian Gul Hasan Aurangzeb, overturned a trial court's verdict and allowed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to take more time to collect evidence. The court said that the trial should be completed within two months after the submission of evidence.

The letter of acceptance was also submitted in the court during today's hearing.

Dr Farooq, a senior leader of the MQM, was murdered outside his home in London in 2010.

In June, the FIA special prosecutor Khawaja Imtiaz had informed an anti-terrorism court (ATC) that the UK was ready to share evidence in the murder case provided the accused was not given the death penalty in the case of conviction.

Imtiaz had told the ATC that the UK Central Authority, in response to correspondence related to sharing of evidence in the murder case, said that European laws did not permit sharing of evidence with a country where the offence was punishable by death.
Related:
Imran Farooq: 2016-12-03 Imran Farooq murder: ATC issues arrest warrants of three suspects
Imran Farooq: 2016-01-09 Two suspects confess in Imran Farooq murder case
Imran Farooq: 2015-12-06 Dr Imran Farooq murder: FIA registers case against Altaf Hussain
Related:
Muttahida Qaumi Movement: 2019-09-13 Altaf Hussain leaves London police station as bail extended in hate speech case
Muttahida Qaumi Movement: 2019-09-09 Mayor seeks open trial of KE officials for ‘mass murder’
Muttahida Qaumi Movement: 2019-08-22 Death sentence of PTI leader’s killers commuted to life term
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India-Pakistan
Two ANP men among 10 killed in city
2012-04-20
[Dawn] KARACHI: Nearly a dozen people, including two activists of the Awami National Party, were killed in the city on Wednesday as sporadic gun attacks on roadside restaurants and shops continued on a third consecutive day, police said.

Circulation of text messages on cellphones warning people to stay indoors amid fear of more 'violence and bloodshed' fanned further speculations and a sense of insecurity, as the authorities seemed unable to control the fresh round of violence during which a couple of bodies bearing torture marks were found dumped on roadsides.

North Nazimabad emerged as the worst-affected part of the city, where four people were killed within a few hours.

ANP workers

In the early hours of the day, two youngsters were found dead in Block M near the Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
Medical and Dental College. "Both in their mid-20s," said an official at the Taimuria cop shoppe.

"Some area people spotted the bodies lying along the service road and informed the police. The victims, clad in shalwar kameez, were strangled after severe torture."

The bodies were moved to the Edhi morgue after medico-legal formalities at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for want of identification.

The victims were later identified as activists of the Awami National Party.

Mian Gul, 25, and Sardar Wali, 26, were residents of Bihar Colony and associated with the party's ward in Lyari
...one of the eighteen constituent towns of the city of Karachi. It is the smallest town by area in the city but also the most densely populated. Lyari has few schools, substandard hospitals, a poor water system, limited infrastructure, and broken roads. It is a stronghold of ruling Pakistan Peoples Party. Ubiquitous gang activity and a thriving narcotics industry make Lyari one of the most disturbed places in Karachi, which is really saying a lot....
UC-7.

Restaurant owner, visitor

In the afternoon, two more people were killed in the same block, the police said.

"Gunmen riding two cycle of violences targeted a roadside teashop in Block M," said the official at the Taimuria cop shoppe.

He added: "The firing left 24-year-old Sanobar Khan, the owner of New Quetta Bolan Hotel, and Latif, a resident, dead."

The police suspected that Latif, son of Ghulam Sarwar, was not the actual target. However,
the hip bone's connected to the leg bone...
the police said, investigation was under way.

With the latest attack on the hotel, the number of people killed in the North Nazimabad area over the past 24 hours increased to seven as on Tuesday night three people, including a man and his son, were rubbed out in a similar attack on a roadside hotel in Block Q.

Speaking to Dawn, SP of North Nazimabad Tanveer Alam Odho said: "None of the victims was associated with any political or religious group. Mostly 9mm pistols have been used in the recent firing incidents. But we are gathering more facts and it will be a little too early to arrive at a conclusion."

Gunny bag

Earlier, a gunny bag containing the body of a youngster was found near a meat market in Block 3 of the Federal B Area on Wednesday morning.

"The young man was strangled to death as some torture marks were visible on his neck," said Azizabad SHO inspector Qureshi.

He said the victim was later identified as Amanullah Baloch, a resident of Chakiwara.

The police quoted his family as saying that the victim had been missing since Tuesday night. He had been working at a catering outlet in the F. B Area for the past several years.

According to the family, the victim was not associated with any political or religious party.

The victim's elder brother, Ahsanullah Baloch, later lodged an FIR (101/2012) with the Azizabad police under Sections 302 (premeditated murder) and 34 (common intention) of the PPC against unidentified suspects.

Owner of shop

In the evening, a hardware shop in Liaquatabad came under a gun attack that left its young owner dead.

Mohammad Rehan, 26, along with his father, Mukhtar Ahmad, had been running the business for past many years, police said.

Two gunnies riding a motorbike opened fire on the shop situated near the 420 Hotel bus stop and sped away, said an official "We have talked to area traders who do not see the incident linked with any extortion threat," said DSP Wajahat Hussain, the area sub-divisional police officer.

Teashop boy

After the sunset, a teenager was killed and three others were maimed in a gun attack on a roadside teashop in Gulistan-e-Jauhar, police said.

"The teashop, New Quetta Abbasi Hotel, was targeted in Block 16 of Gulistan-e-Jauhar," said DSP Pervez Iqbal Bhatti.

The police said that gunnies riding a motorbike opened fire on the teashop, leaving 15-year-old Rafiullah working there dead and three others maimed.

The three people who sustained bullet wounds were identified as Asif, Hafeez and Niaz. "All the victims have been shifted to hospital," said the DSP.

Youngster

A young man was rubbed out near a community centre in the Bakra Piri area of Lyari, said police.

Armed men riding a motorbike shot at Imam Bakhsh and sped away, said an official at the Kalakot cop shoppe."The victim, aged between 20 and 25 years, sustained a single bullet wound that proved fatal," said DSP Nasir Lodhi.

Industrial worker

A young man was rubbed out in Surjani Town on Wednesday.

Area police said armed riders spotted Nadim while he was returning home near 4-K Chowrangi.

"The victim was an industrial worker," said an official at the Surjani Town cop shoppe, adding that he had arrived in Bloody Karachi from Sukkur a few years ago.

Young man

A 32-year-old man was rubbed out in the Site area in the late hours of Wednesday, police said.

They added that Shahbaz Bashar was attacked by gunnies riding a motorbike near Malakand graveyard in Metroville.

"The victim, who originally hailed from Swat, had been living here for the past few years," said an official at the Site-A cop shoppe.
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India-Pakistan
Four killed in attack on homes of anti-Taliban elders in Mohmand
2011-06-21
[Dawn] Dozens of faceless myrmidons attacked the homes of two prominent anti-Taliban tribal elders in northwest Pakistain, killing four people and wounding six others, a government official said.

Zabit Khan said the attacks early Monday in the Mohmand
... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Bloody Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar...
tribal area were nearly simultaneous. More than 80 faceless myrmidons assaulted the homes of Malik Ghazi Gul and Malik Mian Gulab with grenades and machine gun fire.

Khan said Gul was critically maimed along with two guards and an unidentified woman. His 12-year-old son was killed. Gulab was not maimed, but his brother, son and nephew were killed. Two women at Gulab's house were also maimed.

Both homes were located in the Safi area of Mohmand. Gul and Gulab were members of an anti-Taliban militia.
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India-Pakistan
Wanted Swat Taliban leaders killed
2010-03-18
PESHAWAR: Security forces on Wednesday killed five terrorists, including two Taliban commanders who were wanted over an uprising in Swat, the military said. Bakht Farzand and Mian Gul, who had a Rs 10 million reward on their heads, were killed along with three other militants in a clash in Pattan town.

They were killed in a “joint operation launched by the Pakistan Army and police in Pattan,' the military's media centre in Swat said. “One soldier and one police constable were wounded in the encounter,' it added.

The operation was mounted following an intelligence report that the militants were hiding in the area, a security official said, requesting anonymity.
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India-Pakistan
Two Taliban 'commanders' among 20 killed
2009-12-05
[Dawn] Two Taliban 'commanders' were among 20 militants killed in clashes and air strikes in Swat and Orakzai Agency on Thursday.

In Swat, 13 insurgents were killed in clashes with security forces on Thursday. According to Swat media centre, security personnel came under fire when they raided a Taliban hideout in Sigram area of Koza Bandai. During an exchange of fire, 10 militants and one soldier were killed.

Detained militant commander Mohammad Naseem alias Abu Faraj was with the troops and he was also killed in the clash. Abu Faraj, a close aide of Maulana Fazlullah, was captured by security forces in September.

The terrorists killed in the clash included Luqman, Abdul Azim, Zahid, Nawab Ali, Abdul Samad, Amir Baz Khan, Saeedullah, Shafeeq Ahmed, Ali Hussain, and Shah Hussain. Their bodies were handed over to local police.

Another Taliban Commander Alamgir, and his father were killed in an exchange of fire with security forces in Bar Thana area of Matta tehsil.

Bodies of two militants, Mian Gul and Zakir, were found in Peochar and Khwazakhela, respectively.

In Dherai, security forces blew up houses of three terrorists. Security personnel also arrested 180 suspects in different areas of Swat during house-to-house searches soon after the death of ANP MPA Shamsher Ali Khan in a suicide attack in his hujra in Dherai area, the hometown of Maulana Fazlullah.

In Orakzai, seven terrorists were killed and their five hideouts and camps of insurgents were destroyed by helicopter gunships in lower Orakzai agency on Thursday.

The helicopters pounded the hideouts of TTP terrorists in Feroze Khel, Dara Garhi and Mirbak areas where members of the Tariq Afridi group of Taliban are said to be based.

Afridi is the TTP chief of Khyber Agency and Darra Adam Khel. The death toll may rise because, according to sources, the house of local TTP chief, Akhunzada Aslam Farooqui, and an ammunition depot in Feroze Khel area were razed to ground.

Official sources said that almost all suicide attacks in Peshawar had been planned in the Orakzai Agency.

Police in Kohat, meanwhile, arrested 17 suspects, two foreigners among them, in a search operation on Thursday. Police also seized eight Kalashnikovs, five shot-guns, two rifles, six pistols and hundreds of cartridges.
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India-Pakistan
 Wanted Swat Taliban list reissued with corrections
2009-06-12
The NWFP government quietly corrected the mistakes made in its earlier list of the wanted Swat militants and placed a new advertisement in the newspapers on Tuesday, offering higher amount of head money for the capture of the 21 top Taliban commanders.

A minimum of Rs10 million as head money was offered for the capture, dead or alive, of 20 Taliban commanders from Swat. Earlier, amounts ranging from Rs1 million to Rs4 million were announced for the capture of these 20 men. The decision to raise the head money was apparently made to tempt informers and improve the chances for the capture of the wanted militants.

For Maulana Fazlullah, the head money remained the same, i.e. Rs50 million. In fact, the federal government had raised it to Rs50 million after realising that the amount of Rs10 million being offered by the NWFP government was too small to lure bounty hunters.

In the new list advertised by the provincial government, the name of Taliban commander Liaquat has been removed as he was already in jail but the authorities were unaware of this fact. The name of Maulana Rasheed Ahmad has also been omitted because he had left Swat a year ago after being cleared by the intelligence agencies and freed by a court. Since May 2008, he had been teaching at a seminary in Turangzai village of Charsadda, a fact vouchsafed by elders of the area and leaders belonging to the JUI-F.

The government also did not publish the picture of militant commander Qari Mushtaq after having committed a blunder by putting the photo of the wrong person, banker Mohammad Mushtaq, in the previous advertisement. The government still does not have the picture of Qari Mushtaq and the place for the photo in the advertisement was left blank.

The government also added a few names to the wanted list. One is Fakhar Alam alias Mufti Aftab, who was a member of the Taliban court and whose picture was published, another is Maulana Mohammad Alam Binori alias Khalil, and the third is Omar Rahman alias Fateh. Their names were missing in the earlier list. There were no photos of Khalil and Fateh in the advertisement.

Others in the list were also listed in the earlier advertisement. They included Muslim Khan, Maulana Shah Dauran, Mahmood Khan, Akbar Hussain, Sher Mohammad Qasab, Sirajuddin, Bakht Farzand, Mian Gul Ghafoor, Nisar Ahmad, Lal Din alias Baray Mian, Anwarullah alias Anwar, Bashir Ahmad, Sultan Hussain, Ibne Amin, Shahinshah from Shah Dheray and Maulana Mohammad Amin.
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India-Pakistan
Head money for Fazlullah increased to Rs 50 million
2009-05-30
The government on Friday increased the head money for Mullah Fazlullah, the commander of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Swat, from Rs 5 million to Rs 50 million. The government has also announced reward for those who would assist in the arrest of other Taliban leaders in Swat and Mingora. Head money of Rs 10 million was also announced for Muslim Khan, Fazalullah's spokesman. Bounty of Rs 10 million each has also been announced for Taliban leaders Shah Dauran, Mehmood Khan, Akbar Hussain, Sher Muhammad Qasab, Sirajud Din, Bakht Farzand, Mian Gul Ghafoor, Nisar Ahmed, Lal Din alias Baray Mian, Anwarullah alias Anwar, Bashir Ahmed, Sultan Hussain, Rashid Ahmad and Ibn-e-Amin.

Meanwhile, NWFP Information Minister Iftikhar Hussain said it was not sure if Fazlullah was dead or not. He was commenting on media reports that said Fazlullah could already be dead. "There is no confirmation whether he is dead or not. It's only a rumor."
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India-Pakistan
Five killed, 20 hurt in Swat attacks
2008-08-18
Five people, including a woman and a police constable, were killed and 20 others injured as violence continued in parts of the troubled Swat valley on Sunday.

Sources said six cattle heads also perished and a number of houses were destroyed in artillery shelling and firing while miscreants torched a girls' middle school, a boys' primary school, a health centre and a barber shop in different localities of the valley.

The security forces continued shelling suspected militants' locations in different areas. A woman was killed and five other members of a family sustained severe injuries when a shell hit the house of Wazirzada in Dagai area of Kabal Tehsil.

Another shell landed on the house of one Mian Gul, killing a 15-year-old youth and injuring four others in Hazara area of Kabal. In another incident, two persons identified as Sher Bahadur and Muhammad Rahim were killed and five wounded when the security forces shelled the area after unknown armed men opened fire on them at Manglawar.

A police constable, Fazal Murad Khan, was killed when armed men attacked the Wenai check-post in Matta Tehsil. Soon after the incident, gunship helicopters bombed militants' hideouts in upper areas of Kabal and Matta Tehsils.

Miscreants set ablaze a health centre in Gulibagh area of Charbagh Tehsil, reducing the furniture and medicines to ashes. They also torched a barber shop run by Usman Ali in the same area.

Likewise, a girls' middle school in Sambat area of Matta and a boys' primary school in Qambar near Mingora city were set on fire by the miscreants. All the furniture and record of both the schools were destroyed.

A bomb planted by unknown miscreants at a police post building in Dew near Landaki, exploded, damaging it completely. However, no casualty was reported as personnel of the law-enforcement agencies had already abandoned the building. APP adds: The curfew in Swat district will be relaxed from 7:00 am to 8:00 pm on Monday morning.
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India-Pakistan
TIQ pledges support to Taliban in Waziristan
2008-05-01
Tehreek-e-Ittehad Qabail (TIQ), a tribal organisation in North Waziristan, on Wednesday extended its support to the Taliban, claiming that they have maintained peace in the troubled region. Addressing a press conference at the Peshawar Press Club, TIQ President Malik Syed Mian Gul alleged that the government was trying to create a rift between the Khasadars (tribal police) and the Taliban of North Waziristan. Gul, who is also the national councillor of North Waziristan, claimed that the political administration of the agency had not paid the salaries of Khasadars for 10 months.

He alleged that the political administration was trying to force the Khasadars to take the law into their own hands, adding that this could disturb the peace established by the Taliban. Mian Gul said that the Taliban had restored peace in the agency and it might be disturbed due to the “unjust and inhuman attitude” of the political authorities. He demanded that the government release the salaries of the Khasadars at the earliest, saying that law and order would be difficult to restore if it deteriorated.

The TIQ president also asked NWFP Governor Owais Ahmed Ghani to prevent the smuggling of commodities, including wheat and flour, from the Tribal Areas to Afghanistan. He alleged that the political administration was responsible and that if action were not taken, the government would be responsible for the peoples’ response. Transfer: Gul demanded the government reshuffle the political authorities, adding that if this action were not take, the TIQ would block the roads in the agency. However, he clarified that the organisation would not launch any attacks on army convoys, as the soldiers were “brothers”.
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India-Pakistan
Suspected Qaeda militants elude security forces
2005-12-13
Foreign militants suspected of having links with Al Qaeda escaped before a search operation by security forces in North Waziristan, a senior administration official said on Monday. "No foreigner was found in the two houses searched by the security forces," the official said.
Oh, I am so surprised!
"What about the other houses?"
"Umm, we didn't think to search them."
The houses of local tribesmen Khanan and Mian Gul in the Saidgai area close to the border with Afghanistan were searched early on Monday morning, where intelligence reports suggested the presence of foreign militants. Security forces found a few children in the two houses. The operation was called off at 1:00pm after nine hours, the administration official said.
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