| India-Pakistan |
| Azeem, Sattar roughed up |
| 2007-09-30 |
 State Minister for Information Tariq Azeem and MQM leader Dr Farooq Sattar were thrashed in two separate incidents. Journalists outside the ECP spotted Azeem hiding in an ambulance that was called to take injured journalists to hospitals. They dragged Azeem out of the ambulance and beat him up. Sattar was injured when some wounded lawyers attacked him at a local hospital. Azeem and Sattar lodged FIRs against journalists and lawyers for attacking them. |
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| India-Pakistan |
| Suicide attack kills 16 at CJP rally |
| 2007-07-18 |
 A suicide bomber struck outside the venue of a lawyers rally here on Tuesday, killing 16 people and injuring at least 63, including 10 police officials, according to hospital sources. The powerful blast went off at about 8:27pm outside the main entrance of the corridor leading to the venue of the event in F-8 Markaz, shortly before Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry was to pass through the site to give a speech to lawyers of the Islamabad District Bar Association.The site was littered with body parts and blood, and at least 13 people died at the scene. Ambulances rushed the injured to Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) and Federal Government Services Hospital, the two major government hospitals of the city. Nine of the injured are in critical condition. The site was 40 metres away from the main stage where hundreds of supporters of the Pakistan Peoples Party and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz had set up camps to welcome the chief justice. The blast occurred within the PPP camp and many of the dead, including three women, were activists of the party. The chief justice later arrived at the site with his team of lawyers. Initial reports suggested they planned to go ahead with the function. However, the chief justice postponed the speech, after offering prayers for the dead and injured and calling for a nationwide strike on Wednesday in protest at the blast. The rally was the latest in a series, which have drawn tens of thousands of Justice Chaudhrys supporters around the country. An emergency was declared at all hospitals in Islamabad, including the nearby PIMS, where 10 charred bodies and over two dozen injured were taken. Two unidentified dead bodies and three injured people were brought to the Federal Government Services Hospital. The Pakistan Bar Council and Supreme Court Bar Association held an emergency meeting in the Supreme Court that was still continuing when this story was filed. State Minister for Information Tariq Azeem said the incident was a suicide attack and the head of the suicide bomber had been found. It is a very unfortunate one and deplorable. However, it is too early to say anything about the target and motive behind this attack, he said. The minister said that security had been tightened in the capital after warnings of more suicide attacks. The security agencies have cordoned off the scene and started investigations, he added. Security agencies have warned of the possibility of more attacks in the capital, claiming that a number of suicide attackers had entered the city a few days ago. Geo News quoted witnesses as saying the suicide bomber pulled up at the scene on a motorcycle. Azeem said the reports were being investigated but nothing could be said definitively till the investigations are complete. Earlier, Islamabad Inspector General of Police Iftikhar Chaudhry and Chief Commissioner Khalid Pervez confirmed that the blast was a suicide attack. They said one indication that it was a suicide blast was that there was no crater left at the site. At least 12 people were killed and around 40 wounded in the blast, Pervez had said earlier. The blast came days before the Supreme Court is expected to decide the chief justices petition challenging his suspension and the presidential reference against him. There was no immediate indication of who carried out the attack or whether it was linked to a spate of bombings and suicide attacks in the NWFP and tribal areas in recent days that have been blamed on religious extremists. Agencies add: I heard a huge bang and thought it was an electrical blast, but then I saw so many injured and dead people, said PML-N worker Malik Shuja, who had bloodstains over his shalwar kameez. The injured were crying Help us! We put four people into each ambulance, not only on stretchers but also on the floor. |
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| India-Pakistan | ||
| Radicals' buildup under agencies' nose a question | ||
| 2007-07-13 | ||
 As troops cleared bodies and booby traps from the Lal Masjid, the question arose: how could Islamic radicals build a fortress under the noses of intelligence agencies in the capital?At least 73 militants and nine soldiers died in two days of fierce room-to-room fighting at the complex in the heart of Islamabad, where insurgents had built bunkers and trenches to hold off the army commandos. The militants used heavy weapons including rocket launchers and machine guns to combat security forces. A decapitated head indicated there had been a suicide attack during the raid and an unexploded suicide belt was also found. Many residents have asked how the radicals were able to amass this arsenal. It looked like a real
It was the biggest intelligence failure, said SCBA President Munir A Malik. How come the intelligence agencies were not aware of the happenings in the mosque?
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| India-Pakistan | |
| Ghazi prefers martyrdom | |
| 2007-07-07 | |
 Abdul Rashid Ghazi,
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| India-Pakistan |
| No compromise with mullahs: Musharraf |
| 2007-07-05 |
 President Gen Pervez Musharraf has said there will be no further talks or compromise with the administration of Lal Masjid and the two clerics that run the mosque and its madrassas must surrender, Online reports.Chairing a meeting on Wednesday that reviewed the situation at the mosque, Gen Musharraf said the government would use all its resources to maintain its writ. He expressed satisfaction that several hundred madrassa students had surrendered, and directed the government departments concerned to pay for the education of the students who surrendered in other schools. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz briefed the president on his talks with Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Maulana Fazlur Rehman, who is trying to mediate between the Lal Masjid clerics and the government. Information Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani, State Minister for Interior Zafar Iqbal Warraich and senior military officers also attended the meeting. Staff report adds: The prime minister also chaired a federal cabinet meeting on Wednesday to discuss the Lal Masjid issue. He said at the meeting that the government had tried its best to resolve the issue through dialogue, but the Lal Masjid clerics had taken this as a weakness and now the time for talks was over. Briefing reporters after the meeting, Information Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani said no timeframe for the Lal Masjid operation could be given as the situation is changing rapidly with every passing moment. He said use of force was still an option to free the childrens library occupied by madrassa students. He said no major breakthrough was made in the talks between Maulana Fazlur Rehman, leader of the opposition in the National Assembly (NA), and Lal Masjid mullahs. He said the forces involved in the operation against Lal Masjid would decide when and if to relax the curfew. The cabinet also approved a set of new initiatives to combat extremism and militancy in FATA, PATA and adjoining districts. Interior Ministry spokesman Brig (r) Javed Iqbal Cheema told reporters that government had not launched a full-fledged operation against Lal Masjid students to save lives and give them a chance to surrender. We are trying to minimise the loss of lives. We are trying to facilitate all those who want to surrender, he said. State Minister for Information Tariq Azeem said the government would grant amnesty to all Lal Masjid students who surrender and leave the mosque peacefully, including all women and children. However, he added that there would be no amnesty for the two cleric leaders of the mosque. He said that Rs 5,000 would be given to each student who surrendered so they could return home. |
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| India-Pakistan |
| CII asks govt to leash extremism |
| 2007-03-31 |
 The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) said on Friday that the government should take stern action against religious organisations challenging the writ of the government and disrupting law and order in the country. The CII made this recommendation to the government after students of the Jamia Hafsa madrassa challenged the writ of the government by starting an unofficial anti-vice campaign in the federal capital, sources privy to the CII meeting told Daily Times. The sources said that the CII members discussed the law and order situation with particular focus on the recent developments involving madrassa students and recommended that the government take a firm stand on the issue. The sources said that the meeting chaired by CII Chairman Dr Khalid Masud and attended by Javed Ghamadi, Dr Manzoor Mughal, Rashid Ahmad Jullandhry, Justice (r) Munir Mughal, Daman Ali Shah, Abdullah Khilji and Said Bibi expressed concern over the growing lawlessness and religious extremism in the country. A press statement issued after the meeting said that the council appealed to clerics and religious scholars to condemn sectarianism, religious extremism and violation of law and order in the Seerat conferences to be held in connection with Eid Miladun Nabi. The sources told Daily Times that the CII would continue its meetings on Saturday and Monday, adding that the council members would attend a Seerat conference on Sunday. Meanwhile, State Minister for Information Tariq Azeem said the government was considering moving the madrassas out of Islamabad. Azeem told reporters that madrassas in Islamabad would be relocated for the convenience of residents, adding that the government would provide land and financial support for the construction of new madrassas. |
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