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Kejriwal to announce party

New Delhi: Months after splitting from Team Anna and announcing the decision to float a political party, India Against Corruption (IAC) activist Arvind Kejriwal and his 300 colleagues will finalise the name of his new political party in the national capital on Saturday.

“It is aam-aadmi’s party or people’s party. The first members of the party will meet today and will decide on the name of the party. The meeting will also finalise the first national executive of around 30 people,” said Kejriwal while speaking to CNN-IBN.

"The Constitution for the party will also be adopted in the meeting today. The party will have no high command and will be democratic," said Kejriwal.

The announcement regarding the name of the party is expected later during the day.

"The name (of the party) will be announced and its formal launching ceremony is on Monday at Jantar Mantar," he added.

Kejriwal was noncommittal about contesting the forthcoming elections in Delhi, an India TV statement Friday said.

JK militant killed in encounter

Srinagar: A top Jaish-e-Mohammad militant commander was killed in an encounter with security forces in Sopore in north Kashmir's Baramullah district in the wee hours today.

Sopore Police and 22 Rashtriya Rifles cordoned Chatlora village, 55 kms from here, at around 1 AM after receiving information that a self-styled divisional commander of foreign origin of the outfit was hiding in a village, official sources told PTI.
At around 4 AM, when the security forces were conducting search operations, the militant opened fire and he was killed in the exchange of fire, the sources said.

The militant was operating with the code names Shoaib and Yasir and was active in Sopore area from 2007, they said, adding he had come to Kashmir in 2002.
He was involved in many field killings and attacks on mainstream politicians, the sources said, describing his killing as a "great achievement". A sub-inspector identified as Dilraj was also injured in the encounter.

Mobile services off in major Pak cities

Islamabad: Pakistan’s Interior Minister said Friday that the government will suspend cellphone service in most parts of the country over the next two days to prevent attacks against Shia Muslims during a key religious commemoration.

Militants often detonate bombs using cellphones and the Pakistani government has implemented similar service suspensions in the past, but not on such a wide scale.

Saturday and Sunday are the most important days of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar, which is especially important to Shiites.

Pakistani Shiites on Sunday observe the Ashura, commemorating the seventh-century death of Imam Hussein, the Prophet Mohammed’s grandson. The Sunni-Shiite schism over the true heir to Mohammed dates back to that era. Different parts of the Muslim world mark Ashura on different days – neighbouring Afghanistan, for example, observes it on Saturday.

Sunni extremists often target Shiites during Muharram, especially on Ashura, frequently using cellphones. Several bombings targeting Shiites earlier this week killed more than a dozen people.

The suspension of cellphone service will begin at 6 a.m. Saturday and run through the next day, Interior Minister Rehman Malik told reporters in Islamabad. He said 90 per cent of the bombs set off by militants in Pakistan have been detonated using cellphones.

Some commentators have criticized the government for the policy of suspending cellphone service, saying it was a huge inconvenience to millions of Pakistanis and that militants could find other ways to stage attacks.

“The people it truly affects is every other Pakistani who may not have any alternative means of communication,” wrote Nadir Hassan in a column Friday in The Express Tribune newspaper.

“These are the people caught in accidents who need to call for help, those who just want to go about their everyday business without being unduly hindered by the state,” Mr. Hassan said.