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Top Pak Taliban commander captured in Afghanistan
NATO, Afghan forces kill 25 insurgents
Special to
The Tribune
Shias bury victims of Quetta blast
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Top Pak Taliban commander captured in Afghanistan
Islamabad, February 20 Reports from Afghanistan said Afghan intelligence agencies had captured Mohammad, who was the deputy to Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan chief Hakimullah Mehsud till 2011, and four aides when they were trying to cross into Pakistan from Nangrahar province. An unnamed Pakistani security official said: "This is big news. We are reasonably sure that reports of his arrest are correct but unless the Afghans officially confirm it, we would not like to say anything publicly on this." The official claimed the reports had confirmed Pakistan’s contention that "Maulvi Faqir and others have fled and taken shelter in Afghanistan". He expressed hope that other Pakistani militant commanders hiding in Afghanistan would also be captured. An official in Mohammad’s native Bajaur tribal region said the fugitive militant had been captured at Basawal while trying to cross over Pakistan’s Khyber Agency.
— PTI
Big catch
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NATO, Afghan forces kill 25 insurgents
Kabul, February 20 The Interior Ministry said on Wednesday that 15 insurgents were killed in an Afghan operation carried out in Mehterlam, the capital city of eastern Laghman province. It said yesterday's raid also killed the insurgent's commander, identified as Qari Almas. NATO said it had killed 10 insurgents during joint operations in south and east
Afghanistan. — AP
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Special to
The Tribune A British film maker who documented the last few months of Sri Lanka’s civil war says there is credible evidence that Tamil Tiger (LTTE) leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran’s 12-year-old son was alive and well in the custody of the Sri Lankan army shortly before his bullet-riddled corpse was discovered in May 2009.
Stills photographs of Balachandran alive, alert and unharmed are part of a documentary entitled ‘No Fire Zone’ made by Callum Macrae that is due to be screened at next Monday’s meeting of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC). An abbreviated version is also due to be screened this week end in Delhi. The photographs show how Balachandran Prabhakaran was seated on a bench, surrounded by sandbags and eating chocolate, two hours before he was shot dead. Macrae argues the pictures are a rebuttal of the Sri Lankan government claims that Balachandran was killed in cross fire. "His death was deliberate and calculated. This is a proof, beyond reasonable doubt, of the execution of a child - not a battlefield death," Macrae said. "The pictures fill in chilling details on the circumstances of his murder - and leave the Sri Lankan government with yet more questions to answer." “The picture of Balachandran alive was taken only hours before he was dead,” adds Alan Keenan of the International Crisis Group (ICG). “The implication is that they (the Sri Lankan army) had him alive before he was executed. I think its strong evidence. It’s pretty conclusive that a large number of people were executed in the war.” The ICG, which works for conflict prevention and resolution, and human rights advocates say the world tends to look the other way when leaders of a conflict are killed, but the stakes are different and higher if the victim of a killing turns out to be a child. In London and other world capitals there is speculation that Balachandran was killed because the Sri Lankan authorities feared that he posed a security threat because he could one day inherit his father’s legacy. There is also concern that Sri Lanka is “selling” its war against the Tigers as a counter-insurgency model that other governments could usefully imitate. The British Foreign Office, which lists Sri Lanka as a “country of concern”, commented last year on how the human rights situation there had been marked by negative developments. Macrae is supported by the campaigning group, Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS), which says Balachandran was summarily executed. The JDS says analysis of the data shows the pictures were taken by the same camera, two hours apart, on May 19, 2009, the last day of the Sri Lankan army’s 26 year war against the Tamil Tigers. A spokesman for the Sri Lankan army has denied the charges, saying they were based on “lies, half truths and rumours” and that the pictures of Balachandran showed “no substantive evidence” that he was executed. “This is not the first time such unsubstantiated allegations have been levelled against the Sri Lankan forces,” military spokesman Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasooriya said. “Interestingly, these come up as we near a UNHRC meeting and die down thereafter. No substantive evidence has been presented for us to launch an investigation. Unfortunately, it appears that the parties who float such baseless allegations never want these to be investigated or solved. They want to keep them as mysteries in order to tarnish the country’s good image as and when it suits their agendas.” Meanwhile, New York-based Human Rights Watch has called on members of the UNHRC to authorise an independent, international investigation into war crimes committed during the final months of Sri Lanka’s armed conflict. “Over the past year, the Sri Lankan government has alternated between threatening activists who seek justice and making small, cynical gestures to keep the international community at bay,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The Human Rights Council should dismiss these tactics, end the delays and authorise an independent, international investigation into the estimated 40,000 civilian deaths at the conflict’s end.” Human Rights Watch adds that credible allegations have been made of human rights abuses committed by both Sri Lankan forces and the Tamil Tigers, but the Sri Lankan government has taken no significant steps to undertake impartial and credible investigations. On the contrary, an army court of inquiry has issued a report exonerating the army for any liability for civilian casualties. London-based human rights groups say more pictures are due to be released in coming weeks that show other Sri Lankan Tamils, both civilians and fighters, who were alive and well shortly before their bodies were discovered. They include a woman called Isaipriya, a news reader on the LTTE news channel. Similar images are said to be available of Tigers commander Colonel Ramesh, who is shown being interrogated, followed by pictures of his cremation with Sri Lankan army officers watching in the background.
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Shias bury victims of Quetta blast Islamabad, February 20 Shia leaders yesterday called for the burial of those killed in the bomb attack on February 16, but Shia groups refused to end the protest with the bodies till the security of Quetta city was handed over to the army. Following talks early this morning, the Shia groups finally agreed to bury the dead. As over 4,000 mourners gathered to bury the dead, some persons pelted stones at a deputy commissioner's car. Both security forces and protesters then fired in the air though no one was injured, witnesses said. Footage on television showed mourners running in panic during the firing at the Hazara graveyard. The situation was brought under control by the local administration and security forces.
— PTI LeJ warns of more attacks Islamabad:
The banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, responsible for two terror attacks in Quetta that killed nearly 200 persons, has warned that it will continue targeting the minority Shia sect despite the imposition of Governor's Rule in Pakistan's Balochistan province.
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Islamabad, February 20
A British film maker who documented the last few months of Sri Lanka’s civil war says there is credible evidence that Tamil Tiger leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran’s 12-year-old son was alive and well in the custody of the Sri Lankan army shortly before his bullet-riddled corpse was discovered in May 2009.
