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Mumbai Attacks
Swat Taliban chief Fazlullah killed?
Facebook changes privacy tools
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Oil stains 100 miles off Louisiana coastline
Tight pants ban takes effect in Aceh
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Mumbai Attacks
Islamabad, May 27 A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry said Lakhvi could approach the higher courts after his case is decided by the anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi. It dismissed the petition of Lakhvi, the operations chief of LeT, after his counsel withdrew the plea. Lakhvi and six other suspects are currently being tried by the anti-terrorism court on charges of planning and facilitating the Mumbai attacks. Lakhvi had contended in his petition that the charges against him were based solely on the confession of Ajmal Kasab, the lone Pakistani terrorist arrested alive in India for the 2008 attacks, and that the prosecution had no other evidence. He had sought his acquittal in the case in the anti-terrorism court and the termination of criminal proceedings against him. Malik Rab Nawaz Noon, the senior advocate who represented the government in the Supreme Court, told PTI: “Lakhvi’s counsel argued that Kasab’s confessional statement had no evidentiary value in Pakistan but the judges were not in agreement.” The government also withdrew a petition it had filed in the apex court to challenge Lakhvi’s plea. After Lakhvi filed his petition, the Supreme Court obtained a copy of Kasab’s confessional statement to study it. In his confessional statement, Kasab had named Lakhvi as the mastermind behind the Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people. A special court in Mumbai recently convicted Kasab on charges of murder and waging war against India and sentenced him to death. Lakhvi’s counsel Khwaja Sultan said the apex court had acknowledged there were “sound technical arguments” in their petition. However, the bench had ruled that the case should be decided by the anti-terrorism court and that the apex court was not the proper forum to take up the matter at this stage, he said. The bench observed that Lakhvi could approach the higher courts once the anti-terrorism court gives its decision, Sultan said. Sultan also said the curbs on media coverage of proceedings in the anti-terrorism court should be lifted. “The curbs on media coverage are not good. The media should be allowed to cover the proceedings in the Rawalpindi court,” he said. He pointed out that India had allowed the coverage of Kasab’s trial in a special court in Mumbai. The anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi is conducting the trial of Lakhvi and the other suspects within Adiala Jail for security reasons and media is barred from the proceedings. The bench comprising Chief Justice Chaudhry and Justices Ghulam Rabbani and Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday said Lakhvi could approach the higher courts only after his case is decided by the Rawalpindi-based anti-terrorism court. It told Lakhvi’s counsel Sultan to approach the anti-terrorism court instead of coming directly to the Supreme Court. Sultan then sought the court’s permission to withdraw the petition. The bench granted the permission and dismissed the case as withdrawn. “How can we acquit the petitioner at this stage?” Justice Ramday observed. — PTI
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Swat Taliban chief Fazlullah killed?
Kabul, May 27 The TTP, however, has not confirmed Fazlullah’s death and said that reports regarding him being involved in fighting against the Afghan and international forces in Afghanistan were untrue. “He (Fazlullah) could be in Nuristan because the Taliban have been moving back and fourth along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. He may be living in Nuristan but he is not engaged in any fighting there,” Maulvi Faqir Mohammad, chief of the Taliban’s Bajaur faction had said earlier. Fazlullah, in an interview to the BBC last November, had said that he has sneaked into Afghanistan to escape the Pakistan Army’s offensive in the Swat valley, and other tribal regions controlled by the TTP. Earlier media reports said that the Afghan security officials had called for reinforcements after hundreds of extremists led by Fazlullah, also known as Radio Mullah, engaged in fierce clashes with security forces in Nuristan. The Afghan Interior Ministry had also confirmed that at least seven Taliban and two policemen were killed in an intense battle between the Afghan police and extremists so far. — ANI
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Facebook changes privacy tools
Washington, May 27 In an hour-long news conference at its Palo Alto headquarters in California, Facebook’s 26-year-old CEO Mark Zuckerberg outlined “a pretty big overhaul” and billed it as a dramatically simpler way for people to control who sees information they post on the online social networking service. “The number one thing we’ve heard is that there just needs to be a simpler way to control your information. We’ve always offered a lot of controls, but if you find them too hard to use then you won’t feel like you have control. “Unless you feel in control, then you won’t be comfortable sharing and our service will be less useful for you. We agree we need to improve this,” he wrote on his blog. Facebook unveiled a redesigned privacy settings page to provide a single control for content and “significantly reduce” the amount of information that is always visible to everyone. The changes, to be introduced over the next few weeks, mean that one click can block any third-party sites from tapping into Facebook’s data on a user. —
PTI
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Oil stains 100 miles off Louisiana coastline
New Orleans, May 27 Jindal said the extent of oil slick damage was more than 100 miles of shoreline, more than the entire coastline of Mississippi and Alabama combined. “And we don't have time to wait,” He said, who has pressed for federal approval of a plan to dredge up berms to protect Louisiana marshland, a prime breeding ground for fish and wildlife. — AFP
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Tight pants ban takes effect in Aceh
Meulaboh (Indonesia), May 27 The long skirts are to be given to Muslim women caught violating the dress code during a two-month campaign to enforce the regulation, said Ramli Mansur, head of West Aceh district. Islamic police will determine whether a woman’s clothing violates the dress code, he said. During raids today, Islamic police caught 18 women traveling on motorbikes who were wearing traditional headscarves but were also dressed in jeans. Each woman was given a long skirt and her pants were confiscated. They were released from police custody after giving their identities and receiving advice from Islamic preachers. “I am not wearing sexy outfits, but they caught me like a terrorist only because of my jeans,” said Imma, a 40-year-old housewife who uses only one name. She argued that wearing jeans is more comfortable when she travels by motorbike. Motorbikes are commonly used by both men and women in Indonesia.
— AP
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Pakistan’s Supreme Court today dismissed LeT commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi’s petition seeking his acquittal in the Mumbai attacks case, saying it was not the proper forum at this stage to take up the matter which is yet to be decided by an anti-terrorism court.
