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Afghanistan/South Asia

Police arrests 20, seizes weapons in Quetta

2005-02-28

Pakistani security forces detained 20 people and seized rockets and automatic weapons at the weekend during raids on tribal homes outside Quetta, police officials said on Sunday. Fifteen people were taken into custody on Sunday, while another five were arrested on Saturday night for having suspected links to militants in the restive region, Quetta DIG Pervez Rafi Bhatti said. Three rockets, 33 automatic weapons and a large cache of ammunition were seized during the raids, said provincial police chief Chahdhry Muhammad Yaqoob. During the raids police also unearthed a private prison and a "torture cell" set up by the suspected rebel tribesmen, he said without giving details. Bhatti said that the raids were on a "fort" owned by tribal chief Nawab Bukhsh Marri in the Marri Camp area. He said 1,500 policemen were involved the operation. A Pakistani flag was hoisted atop the fort. Suspected militants threw a grenade onto the grounds of a state-run radio stations late on Saturday, breaking windows but causing no injuries, Bhatti said. "A grenade thrown onto the lawn of Radio Pakistan exploded late Saturday night and broke the windows of a room located at a corner, but no one was injured," he said, blaming insurgents linked to Marri tribesmen for the attack.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Explosion kills one in Quetta, injures five

2005-02-19

A boy of 14 was killed and at least five others were injured in an explosion near a barber's shop on Friday morning. Conflicting reports appeared about the explosion. IG Chaudhry Yaqub and DIG Pervez Rafi Bhatti said it was a gas explosion and police had found no evidence of a rocket. However, witnesses said they saw a rocket hit the building in Duraniabad, where two rooms of house collapsed and shops were badly damaged. Witness Nazar Muhammad said he saw a rocket hit the shop. The boy was killed and at least five were injured, though some reports said seven people had been hurt.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

50 LeJ members arrested in Karachi

2005-02-18

Two Sunni Muslim militants who were planning an attack on rival Shiites blew themselves to bits with a hand grenade after a gunbattle with Pakistani police on Friday, officials said. Police said the men, who were members of the banned Al-Qaeda-linked group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, killed themselves during a raid on their hideout near a Shiite mosque in the turbulent southwestern city Quetta. "When police knocked at their door, they resorted to firing and when besieged they blew themselves up with hand grenades," Quetta police chief Pervez Rafi Bhatti told AFP. "Their bodies were blown into pieces." Five hand grenades, two Kalashnikov rifles and hundreds of bullets were recovered from the house, the walls of which had been daubed with anti-Shiite slogans, police said. "The militants could have attacked Shiite processions in the city today and there is also a possibility they were planning to attack the main Ashura procession" on Sunday, provincial police chief Chaudhry Muhammad Yaqub told a press conference. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi later said in a statement faxed to newspapers that the militants were its members and that it was proud of their acts. The group vowed it would carry on attacks against Shiites and warned the government not to be happy about killing two of its men. "Our members were ready to launch suicide attacks and by dying they have provided inspiration to other Lashkar-e-Jhangvi mujahideen and Sunni youth to follow their footsteps," spokesman Commander Zarar said in the message. Police said they raided the house in Quetta after neighbours became suspicious about the activities of the men, who rented the house two weeks ago. One of the dead was identified as Niaz Muhammad, a Lashkar-e-Jhangvi activist. The other guy was just a corpse... Meanwhile police in the southern city of Karachi on Friday arrested around 50 suspected members of outlawed Sunni extremist groups, city police chief Tariq Jamil told AFP. Most were members of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. The organisation has mounted numerous attacks on Shiites, who make up 20 percent of Pakistan's population, and is also blamed for the murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002. Police in Karachi last week said they had arrested four militants including a suspected suicide bomber. "Those arrested overnight were being interrogated to find out their links with the four suspects and also about any conspiracy to disrupt peace in the city," Jamil said.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Pakistan arrests six suspected militants

2005-02-16

QUETTA, Pakistan - Authorities in southwest Pakistan have arrested six suspects in connection with two massive sectarian attacks on Shiite Muslims in which 100 people died, police said Tuesday. The arrested men were members of Sipah-e-Sahaba, a banned group of extremists from the rival Sunni sect, Quetta police chief Pervez Rafi Bhatti told AFP. The "banning" of Sipah has to be one of the most ineffectual gestures ever made by a government. Other than putting them on a list, I'm not aware of any move at all that was actually made to break them up or to jug the most violent members. The attacks were both in Quetta. Fifty people were killed in suicide attack on a Shiite procession last March, while in July 2003 another suicide bombing on a Shiite mosque also left 50 worshippers dead. Bhatti said police raided several places in Dera Murad Jamali, southeast of Quetta, after a tip-off.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Taliban may be deported

2005-01-31

Senior former Taliban officials arrested in Balochistan and suspected of links to Al Qaeda will be handed over to Afghanistan if nothing can be proved against them, police said on Sunday. "If nothing is proved against them except living without any legal documents in Pakistan, they will be handed over to the Afghan government for being Afghan nationals," said Pervez Rafi Bhatti, the Quetta police chief. The 17 Afghan suspects were picked up by police in a swoop on Thursday on hideouts in Quetta in Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, AFP reported. AP quoted Bhatti as saying that the police had gleaned "useful" information from the suspects, but he would not give further details. He said six suspects were released late on Saturday after questioning proved they were Pakistanis with no links with the Taliban. A security official in Quetta, who asked not to be named, said on Saturday that the Taliban suspects were being interrogated to know where Mulla Omar was hiding. "The suspects are being questioned about their links to Al Qaeda," Bhatti said. Investigators have identified one detainee as Mulla Abdur Razzak but on Sunday still could not confirm whether he is the former Afghan interior minister of the same name during the Taliban's rule. The former deputy governor of southern Helmand province, Mulla Khush Dil, and ex-Kabul police chief Mulla Ibrahim were also among the arrested group.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Pakistan may deport Taliban

2005-01-31

Senior former Taliban officials arrested in Balochistan and suspected of links to Al Qaeda will be handed over to Afghanistan if nothing can be proved against them, police said on Sunday. "If nothing is proved against them except living without any legal documents in Pakistan, they will be handed over to the Afghan government for being Afghan nationals," said Pervez Rafi Bhatti, the Quetta police chief. The 17 Afghan suspects were picked up by police in a swoop on Thursday on hideouts in Quetta in Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, AFP reported. AP quoted Bhatti as saying that the police had gleaned "useful" information from the suspects, but he would not give further details. He said six suspects were released late on Saturday after questioning proved they were Pakistanis with no links with the Taliban. A security official in Quetta, who asked not to be named, said on Saturday that the Taliban suspects were being interrogated to know where Mulla Omar was hiding. "The suspects are being questioned about their links to Al Qaeda," Bhatti said. Investigators have identified one detainee as Mulla Abdur Razzak but on Sunday still could not confirm whether he is the former Afghan interior minister of the same name during the Taliban's rule.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Bomb explosions rock Quetta

2005-01-31

Two bombs exploded in and around Quetta on Sunday, officials said, the latest in a series of attacks that have targeted government installations and security forces in the region. No injuries were reported. A bomb hidden in a plastic shopping bag went off near a park fence in a northern neighbourhood of Quetta, said Pervez Rafi Bhatti, the city's police chief. The second bomb exploded near a roadside restaurant in Kuchlak, a small town about 20 kilometres north of Quetta, damaging a trolley parked nearby, Bhatti said. No injuries were reported in the blasts. Elsewhere in the province, security forces seized a cache of arms and munitions in a dry stream in Naukundi, said Lt Col Rizwan Malik. No one was arrested and it was not known who dumped the cache there, Malik said. BLA spokesman Mir Azad Baluch claimed responsibility for Saturday's explosions in telephone calls to newspaper offices in Quetta.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

FC soldier injured in Quetta rocket attack

2004-12-27

QUETTA: A Frontier Corps (FC) soldier was injured when unidentified people fired a rocket at an FC checkpoint on Sariab Road late on Monday night. Police said the rocket was fired from five to six km away and hit a wall near the checkpoint. Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Pervez Rafi Bhatti said another explosion was heard from the same area at the same time, but there were no reports of any damage. Meanwhile, a bomb exploded on Adalat Road on Monday evening, but caused no damage to life or property. The CCPO said police had arrested about 35 suspects in connection with the Meezan Chowk blast that killed 11 people including two soldiers. He said 30 of them were released and five were still being interrogated. He said one suspect was arrested from the house of an influential tribal chief. About the arrests and continuing bomb blasts, he said the explosions could be in retaliation of the arrests. He said police had arrested several important people and their cohorts could have accelerated their activities to pressure the government. Dire Revenge™: It's not just for personal disputes.

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