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India-Pakistan

Heavy rain, floods kill 26 in Pakistan

2012-08-24

MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan: Flash floods and landslides triggered by heavy rain have killed at least 26 people and destroyed hundreds of houses in northern Pakistan, officials said yesterday. Chaudhry Abdul Majeed, the prime minister of Pakistan-administered Kashmir said at least 17 people have been killed and nine others injured in six districts since Monday. “Some 685 houses and 125 shops have been damaged and roads washed away,” Majeed said, adding that a request has been made to the federal government for financial help. The majority of the deaths in Kashmir came when buildings collapsed due to the rains, and a further nine people died in flooding in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, officials said. Adnan Khan, an official from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said he feared the death toll there could rise. “Dozens of families have suffered and their houses were destroyed, several people are still missing” Khan told AFP. Weather officials are predicting heavy rain in the next three days and rescue teams are closely monitoring the situation, Bhatti said.

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India-Pakistan

Malik urges Taliban to surrender, work for future of children

2011-11-20

[Dawn] Interior Minister Rehman Malik Pak politician, current Interior Minister under the Gilani administration. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. He later joined the Pak Peoples Party and was chief security officer to Bhutto. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Näwaz Shärif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. on Saturday advised Taliban to furnish the children with pen and book, instead of preparing them for suicide kabooms and asked them to surrender by disarming themselves and refrain from playing into the hands of the enemy. He said the government had taken various steps to curb tendencies of extremism and terrorism in the country. Addressing the inaugural ceremony of the passport office in Islamgarh town of Mirpur district, he said "We want the youth of Pakistain to carry book and pen instead of the suicide jackets." AJK Prime Minister Chaudhry Abdul Majeed and others also addressed the ceremony. The Interior Minister said suicide incidents had reduced considerably and law and order had improved to a great extent. The minister said that following the reconciliatory policy of President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... , the country succeeded in achieving speedy progress, stability and prosperity. Malik recalled that the country was on the verge of destruction when the PPP came into power. The law and order situation was worsening and the economy was in bad shape, he added. He said the PPP government focused on improving the law and order situation. After relentless efforts of the law enforcing agencies, the terrorism was brought under control, he added. The minister said efforts were being made to eliminate extremism and terrorism not only from the country but in the region as well. He reiterated the present government's resolve to take all political parties along while dealing major national issues in the national interest. He advised the PML-N not to be anguished with the federal government as it was people who had confined it to a province. He said that those talking of staging 'long-march or short march' will be able to evaluate their position in the coming March (referring to Senate election.) Expressing solidarity with the people of Jammu & Kashmire on behalf of the people and the Government of Pakistain, Rehman Malik said that Pakistain would continue to extend moral political and diplomatic support to Kashmiris struggle for the right to self-determination. Earlier the Minister inaugurated the passport office at Islamgarh, the constituency of AJK Prime Minister Ch. Abdul Majeed. The office will benefit thousands of UK-based Kashmiri expatriates hailing from Islamhgarh and rest of the adjoining areas.

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India-Pakistan

Officials named in UN report suspended

2010-04-20

[Dawn] Four days after the release of the UN Commission's report on Benazir Bhutto's assassination, the federal government went into action and suspended eight officials, including former City Police Officer (CPO) Saud Aziz, who were responsible for former prime minister's security at the venue of her last public meeting. Their names were also included on the Exit Control List (ECL). These officials have been suspended and the contract of Director-General of Civil Defence Brig (retd) Javed Iqbal Cheema has been cancelled. Brig Cheema, as the spokesman for the interior ministry, was the first government official to state that Ms Bhutto had died because of injuries she sustained when she hit the lever of the escape hatch of the vehicle she was travelling in. He was serving as DG National Crisis Management Cell (MCMC), a department of the interior ministry, at that time. However, on Sunday there was no official word about the fate of the PPP leaders identified by the UN report for having provided 'insufficient' security cover to Ms Bhutto. These PPP leaders include high-profile government functionaries such as Interior Minister Rehman Malik and Sindh Home Minister Zulfiqar Mirza. Aware perhaps of the fingers being pointed at him, Mr Mirza claimed on Sunday that he and Rehman Malik were under investigation and that he had volunteered himself for it. However, there has been no confirmation of this from the interior minister. Presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar confirmed the suspension of the eight officials and said the orders had come from the prime minister. "The action on the UN report has been started on the directives of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani." He added that the officials' names had been placed on the ECL. Those who have been suspended include former Rawalpindi CPO Saud Aziz; former District Coordination Officer (DCO) Rawalpindi Irfan Elahi; Former Inspector General Police, Rawalpindi, Chaudhry Abdul Majeed; Superintendent Police Ashfaq Anwar; SP Operations Yaseen Farooq and Khurram Shahzad. The suspended officers are expected to be presented before the second Joint Investigation Team (JIT), which is investigating the murder of Ms Bhutto, in a couple of days. They are expected to testify before the JIT. Sources within the PPP say an FIR would also be registered against former president Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf, the suspended officials and some PPP leaders who had been made responsible for her security by the party. The decision to take action in the light of the UN report was taken by the PPP Core Committee meeting held on Saturday. The meeting was chaired by President Asif Ali Zardari. Some PPP leaders are willing to confirm this. For instance, Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira has promised action against all those responsible for Ms Bhutto's death. "Action will be taken against all those who have been identified in the UN report including those who were in the black Mercedes," he told a private television channel. The UN Commission's report says that the black Mercedes was part of the security detail as the back-up vehicle. This Mercedes was supposed to follow the vehicle of Ms Bhutto as she left Liaquat Bagh. However, the report concludes that the Mercedes left ahead of Ms Bhutto and it exited the venue a few minutes before the shooting and the blast took place, which claimed the lives of the PPP chairperson and some party workers. According to dissident PPP leader Senator Safdar Abbasi, who was in Ms Bhutto's vehicle, Mr Rehman Malik, Law Minister Babar Awan and Presidential Spokesman Farhatullah Babar were in the black Mercedes. However, these are not the only PPP leaders who have been thrust into the limelight by the UN report. The commission's findings also mention that Ms Bhutto's then security advisor Zulfiqar Mirza and others had formed a security force --Janisaraan-i-Benazir Bhutto -- comprising 5,000 volunteers who were supposed to form a human shield around her at public meetings. But, it appears, that this force was missing from Liaquat Bagh at the time of her killing. Some security analysts believe that the UN Commission' report has provided enough lead to initiate criminal investigations to catch the planners, abettors, financiers and killers. Sources close to Saud Aziz say that he is ready to face justice and that he is confident that he can fight his case at any forum. According to the sources, he is claiming that he has not received any such orders. Mr Aziz is also reported to have questioned why no action had been taken against Musharraf, who had been directly held responsible by the UN commission for the then government's neglect of Ms Bhutto's security.

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India-Pakistan

Baitullah Mehsud paid out $7000 for Bhutto assasination

2008-02-18

Pakistani Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud paid out more than $7,000, including money to purchase suicide jackets, for the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the chief Pakistani investigator said Sunday. Four suspects in custody said Mehsud also planned the December 27 attack, Chaudhry Abdul Majeed told reporters. Mehsud, who has ties to al Qaeda, remains at large. Majeed said two of the four men in custody last week confessed before a Pakistani judge that they had participated in the plot. Many others who helped plan the attack "have yet to be arrested," Majeed said. A day after Bhutto's death, Pakistan's government announced that Mehsud was behind the attack. The CIA later reached the same conclusion. But two recent nationwide polls in Pakistan found a majority of Pakistanis believe President Pervez Musharraf's government had a role in her killing. Majeed said Sunday that he announced the details about Mehsud's connection to the attack because Pakistan could formally charge him at a later date. Two of the suspects told a judge on Wednesday that they provided the suicide bomber with a house, transportation, a pistol and the suicide jacket he allegedly used in the attack that killed the opposition leader and nearly two dozen others, Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said. Both were at the Rawalpindi park when Bhutto was assassinated, according to Majeed. He said the bomber was motivated to carry out the attack because his friend was killed after Pakistani security forces stormed the Red Mosque in Islamabad last year to rout Islamic extremists holed up inside.

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India-Pakistan

Another BB assassination suspect confesses involvement

2008-02-16

Abdur Rashid, another suspect in the Benazir Bhutto assassination case, met with Islamabad's All-Truncheon Team and confessed before a court on Friday that he had provided weapons and explosives to Benazir’s murderers. The accused was produced before Special Judicial Magistrate Ahmad Masood Janjua under tight security by the joint investigation team (JIT). He was then sent to jail on a 14-day judicial remand. No media was allowed to cover the court proceedings. Later, the JIT officials shifted him to Adiala Jail. Sources said that Rashid was arrested on Thursday from the limits of Pirwadhai Police Station. JIT head, Crime Investigation Department’s Additional Inspector General Chaudhry Abdul Majeed, told reporters at a press conference that Rashid was a key member of the gang but was not at the scene of the killing. He said Rashid had confessed his supporting role in the assassination plot, AFP reported. He said the preliminary investigations had revealed mild similarities in the intentions of the five accused, adding that the JIT had yet to establish a link between them.

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India-Pakistan

Bhutto co-conspirator sez: "It was all about the Revenge™!"

2008-02-14

An Islamic militant who is accused of helping carry out the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto wanted to avenge the death of a friend in the military attack last year, a senior police officer said Wednesday. A statement that may very well contain some truth in it, but most certainly not the *whole* truth. Husnain Gul and his cousin, identified only as Rafaqat, were arrested last week in the Dec. 27 death of Bhutto. The senior policeman leading the murder investigation, Chaudhry Abdul Majeed, told reporters that Gul began preparing for the attack when his handler ordered him to go see Mahmoud the Martyrmaker and tell him "Big Tony would like a cannoli with extra mascarpone." in November. His friend had been killed in military operations against Islamic militants holed up inside Islamabad's Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, in July. "Their motive for attacking Bhutto was that she was coming to Pakistan at the behest of a foreign power," Majeed said. "Ask anyone!" Majeed would not speculate on the mastermind of the assassination. U.S. and Pakistani officials suspect the attack was ordered by Baitullah Mehsud, an al-Qaida-linked extremist in northwest Pakistan. "See this little plastic ring sticking out of my back? If you pull on it, I say 'Dire Revengeￜ' in Urdu, Pashto, Arabic and Yorkshirese!" Four people, including a 15-year-old boy, have been arrested in the probe. Majeed said a fifth suspect is being sought but he refused to elaborate. "He was s'posed to call when he made it to the safe hou...er, I mean I can say no more!" Majeed said that Gul and his cousin told investigators details of the plot against Bhutto. Based on that testimony, Majeed said police have learned that two assailants were stationed by whom? at a pair of gates to the park where thousands of Bhutto supporters had gathered. Majeed said the two suicide bombers spent the night at Gul's home in Rawalpindi Listening to Malcolm X speeches and watching beheading videos on the eve of the attack. Gul also drove the two bombers to the public park where the attack occurred, Majeed said. The primary assailant was identified only as Saeed, who was using the alias Bilal. Majeed said Bilal opened fire with a pistol and then detonated explosives hidden beneath his clothing, fatally injuring Bhutto. The other assailant, identified only as Ikramullah, was to have attacked Bhutto if she had escaped the first blast. With the first bomb proving fatal, Ikramullah left Rawalpindi the next morning, Majeed said, without saying where. "Polly want a cracker?"

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India-Pakistan

Benazir murder planned in 2007

2008-02-14

CID Additional Inspector General (Addl IG) Chaudhry Abdul Majeed said in a press conference on Wednesday that the plot to kill Benazir Bhutto was made in 2007, Geo News reported. He said two men charged with Benazir Bhutto’s assassination confessed to their involvement in the attack and were remanded in custody. Hasnain Gul and Rafaqat were cousins, he said, and had been class fellows at the Hazro seminary, where they also received militant training. The arrested men revealed that five people were involved in the attack, including two prepared for suicide attacks – Bilal, who shot at Benazir and blew himself up, and Ikramullah, who was prepared to attack Benazir if she left from the other gate. The fifth suspect was not identified because the Addl IG said it could affect the investigation. He said Gul had confessed to providing an explosives-laden jacket, a grenade, a 30-bore pistol and sunglasses to Bilal. Bilal, the attacker, visited Liaquat Bagh on December 27 twice between 8am and 9am in a taxi, the Addl IG told the press conference. Bilal was positioned on Gate 1 of the site and Ikramullah on Gate 2, he said.

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