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Air force men’s hand in bids on Pervez’s life Gang smuggling Indians into UK
to be sentenced US soldiers escorting prisoners attacked
Gruesome child killings shock Baltimore Six killed, 32 hurt in Lebanon clash Kamala Markandaya dead |
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Air force men’s hand in bids on Pervez’s life
Islamabad, May 28 A day after General Musharraf said on television that several low-ranking army and air force officers had taken part in the assassination attempts conceived by an Al-Qaida foreigner and masterminded by a Pakistani, the report said air force technicians planted powerful C4 plastic explosives on a bridge and blew it up as General Musharraf’s car drove over it on December 14, 2003. General Musharraf escaped death by a matter of seconds, only to be targeted in a second attempt on Christmas Day, this time by two suicide bombers who rammed explosives-laden trucks into his motorcade. “We can say that the first attempt was a near exclusive job of more than a dozen Pakistan air force brainwashed technicians who lived nearby in a PAF residential facility,” an official said. The PAF technicians were directed, motivated and armed by the Pakistani contact person of the Al-Qaida, he told ‘The News’ daily. The military investigation of the two successive attempts on General Musharraf’s life was headed by Lt-Gen Ashfaq Kiyani, who had marshalled dozens of military investigators for about four months until the President was informed about the completion of the probe and identification of all suspects last month. Official sources familiar with the probe said a nationwide hunt was on to track Amjad Farooqi, a key accused in the kidnapping and murder case of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. His connections, sources said, have been traced to Shafiq and Jamil Ahmad, the suicide bombers in the second assassination attempt against the President, the daily said, adding that Farooqi was also alleged mastermind behind the suicide car bomb attack at the US consulate in Karachi in June 2002.
— PTI |
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Gang smuggling Indians into UK to be sentenced
London, May 28 The gang was busted following a joint British and French surveillance operation codenamed “Gular”. The immigrants, believed to be from Punjab, paid £ 8,000 each to be smuggled in through ferry ports before being dropped off at their chosen destination as part of a “door-to-door” service. They were “fed and watered” and transported in people carriers by the gang members. The immigrants reportedly sold land and businesses in their home country to reach the UK via safe houses in Paris. The gang leader, Shakean Chahal (29) of Meeting Street, Wednesbury, and Talbinder Gill (29) of Raven Road, Walsall, allegedly brought in around 400 illegal immigrants over two years. Chahal lived the life of luxury, driving a Ferrari and a Range Rover. Authorities are now trying to seize assets worth more than £ 2 lakh, which he accumulated through the scam. Chahal, Talbinder Gill and three others have all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to facilitate illegal immigration at an earlier court hearing. Detectives of the National Crime Squad and the Kent police were first alerted about the gang when members of the gang were stopped at a port in 2001. In June, 2002, the Kent police had charged some of the smugglers, including Chahal, but released them on bail. Finally, arrests were made in June, 2003 after the police found people carriers containing 14 illegal immigrants near Canterbury.
— UNI |
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US soldiers escorting prisoners attacked
Abu Ghraib, May 28 The prisoners had just left the Abu Ghraib facility, the centre of a scandal involving abuse of detainees by the American soldiers, when shots were fired from buildings near the freeway. The soldiers hunkered down and the convoy of at least 13 buses stopped. The shooting ended quickly, but the US forces remained in place. Hundreds of relatives who had been following the convoy also stopped and then swarmed around the vehicles. The prisoners then got off the buses and went home with their families. The release, which was the second from the facility, came about a week after the first American accused in the scandal was sentenced to a year in prison for sexually humiliating detainees and taking a photo of prisoners stacked naked in a human pyramid.
— AP |
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Gruesome child killings shock Baltimore
Washington, May 28 Police said the victims were two nine-year-old girls and a 10-year-old boy. One child was fully decapitated and two were partially decapitated, according to local news reports. Police said at least two of the children were related. ”I’ve been around for about 35 years. I’ve not seen anything as gruesome as this. One of the saddest things I’ve ever seen and unfortunately something I’m sure I’ll remember till I draw my last breath,” Deputy Police Commissioner Kenneth Blackwell told local news media. Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley, who visited the scene, called it a “brutal, tragic, unfathomably sad murder of three young children.” Mr Blackwell said a “person of interest” was being questioned in the case.
”We do understand... that there was some sort of disagreement with the individual that we’re talking with now,” Mr Blackwell said. Police said the man had not been arrested and they had not filed charges against the man who was found a few blocks away. There was no word on what relationship the man had to the family, local news
reports said. The Baltimore Sun quoted Mr Blackwell as saying investigators recovered a weapon from outside the apartment, but he would not elaborate on the type of weapon or where exactly it was found.
— Reuters |
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Six killed, 32 hurt in Lebanon clash
Beirut, May 28 A civil defence fire fighter also died in the hospital yesterday after being hit by gunfire while trying to douse burning tires that were set afire by demonstrators, officials said. The Lebanese army said 20 soldiers were wounded in the clashes with stone-throwing demonstrators. Dozens of demonstrators were rounded up, security officials said. The violence followed a strike call by the General Confederation of Labour and Trade Unions protesting the government’s economic policies and demanding a reduction in gasoline prices. Demonstrators blocked roads, including the Beirut International Airport highway, with burning tires. Schools, universities and many businesses closed and traffic was thin on the normally bustling streets of the Lebanese capital.
— AP |
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