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Former Pak PM Gilani's son abducted from poll rally
ISLAMABAD: Former Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's son Ali Haider Gilani was on Thursday kidnapped in Pakistan's Punjab province by unidentified gunmen who shot dead his personal secretary and a bodyguard.
Haider was participating in a campaign meeting at Multan city this afternoon when the gunmen opened fire at his supporters.
His secretary Mohiyuddin and bodyguard were wounded and later succumbed to their injuries, TV news channels reported.
Five others were injured in the attack, news channels reported.
There was no official word on the development. No group claimed responsibility for the attack or the abduction.
Footage on television showed Ali Moosa Gilani, another of the former premier's sons, crying and trying to control irate workers of the Pakistan People's Party.
A witness told Geo News channel that the gunmen came to the spot in a car and fired indiscriminately at Haider Gilani's supporters.
He said he had seen the gunmen bundle Haider into a car and drive away. The gunmen kept firing as they drove away, the witness said.
The banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has warned it will target secular parties like the Pakistan People's Party and Awami National Party ahead of the May 11 general election.
The threats have forced the parties to virtually stop campaigning for the polls. — PTI
Pak prisoner Sanaullah dies
CHANDIGARH: Pakistani prisoner Sanaullah Ranjay, injured in a scuffle with another inmate in a Jammu jail and admitted to PGIMER here, died this morning, an institute spokesman said.
“The patient was brought in a brain dead condition and died this morning due to multiple organ failure,” a PGI spokesman said here.
The body has been shifted to the mortuary of the Institute from the ICU in the Advanced Trauma Centre.
The 52-year-old Sanaullah was airlifted from Jammu to the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) on Friday.
The PGI spokesman said that it was a case of death in custody and a post-mortem will be conducted for which a medical board is being constituted.
“The post-mortem will be conducted by the medical board in the presence of a Magistrate and videography will be done of the process,” he said.
When asked about handing over of the body to the two relatives of Sanuallah, who arrived here on Tuesday from Pakistan, the spokesman said that it was for the Chandigarh
Administration and the Union Home Ministry to decide.
“The PGI will act on handing over of the body as per the instructions of the government,” the spokesman said. His condition had worsened on Tuesday following kidney failure and neurological problems.
“Patient has become extremely critical. He has developed renal failure with no urine output since morning. Hence he was put on peritoneal dialysis by Nephrologists,” the bulletin issued last evening said.
A resident of Sialkot in Pakistan, Sanuallah was serving a life term after he was convicted under TADA provisions following his arrest in 1999.
He was injured in a scuffle with another inmate in the high-security Kot Balwal jail in Jammu and rushed to the PGIMER here in an air ambulance on Friday last.
The assault came a day after the death of an Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh who was brutally attacked by fellow inmates in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat Jail.
Sanuallah’s relatives, brother-in-law Mohammed Sehzaad and nephew Mohammed Asif visited him for about 10 minutes in the Advanced Trauma Centre of the PGIMER here on Thursday.
Tight security arrangements had been put in place around the Advanced Trauma Centre where Sanuallah was hospitalised. — PTI
Sanaullah's body to be handed over to Pak: Shinde
NEW DELHI: The body of Pakistani prisoner Sanaullah Ranjay, who succumbed to injuries at a Chandigarh hospital on Thursday, will be handed over to Pakistan.
"We will hand over the body to Pakistan," Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said.
Shinde said the Ministry of External Affairs is coordinating with the Pakistani authorities to complete the formalities to send back his body home. "Once the formalities are done, we will hand over the body," he said.
Sources said a detailed post-mortem of Sanaullah, 52, would be done in Chandigarh and the travel arrangements would be made as per the request made by Pakistan.
The government has been informed that Pakistan is arranging an aircraft to fly his body back home, the sources said, adding,
"if they arrange a non-military registered plane, the clearance would be prompt".
Sanaullah, a convicted terrorist serving life sentence, was injured in a scuffle with another inmate in the high-security Kot Balwal jail in Jammu and rushed to the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) in Chandigarh on Friday last. — PTI
SC dismisses Jagan Reddy's bail plea in illegal assets case
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed the bail petition of YSR Congress president YS Jaganmohan Reddy, popularly called Jagan, in a case of disproportionate assets.
The apex court also cancelled the bail of Jaganmohan Reddy's auditor Vijay Sai Reddy and directed him to surrender by May 30, CBI counsel Ashok Bhan told reporters outside the Supreme Court.
The court also rejected the bail plea of industrialist Nimmagadda Prasad, an accused in the case.
The Supreme Court directed the CBI to complete its investigations in four months.
Jagan, a Lok Sabha member from Kadapa, Andhra Pradesh, was arrested by the CBI on May 27 last year. — IANS
SC's caged parrot remark is correct: CBI chief
NEW DELHI: CBI chief Ranjit Sinha on Thursday accepted the Supreme Court's observation that the country's premier investigating agency was a "caged parrot" that "speaks in its master's voice".
Asked by reporters about his views on the apex court's caged parrot remark, Sinha said: "Whatever Supreme Court said is correct."
However, Congress leader Digvijaya Singh said that the court had just made a comment and it was not an order. Moreover, the government had done nothing wrong, he added.
"It is a comment by the court and not an order. If it was a written order, then we would have reacted to it. The government has done nothing wrong... The investigation has not been affected and there was no intervention in the investigation," Digvijaya Singh told reporters.
The court made the observation on Wednesday on Sinha's second affidavit filed on Monday which stated that
Law Minister Ashwani Kumar and senior officials of the Prime Minister's Office and the
Coal Ministry had made certain changes in the report on the allocation of coal blocks.
The Bench also asked the government whether it was contemplating a law to make the working of the CBI independent and insulate it from extraneous intrusion and interferences. It also made it clear that choice was with the government and in case government dithered, the court would step in. — IANS
Coalgate: CVC seeks report from CBI on govt
interference in probe
NEW DELHI: The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has sought a detailed report from the CBI over the Centre's interference in its investigation into the coal blocks allocation scam.
The CBI has also been asked to submit its latest status report on the case to the commission, official sources said on Thursday, adding the CVC has taken cognizance of reports citing interference in CBI's probe in the coal blocks allocation case.
The move came after it came to light that certain changes were made in the agency's draft status report on the case submitted to the Supreme Court. CBI is probing irregularities in allocation of coal mine blocks on the direction of the CVC.
The apex court had on Wednesday rapped the CBI, Prime Minister's office and coal ministry officials for changing the "heart" of the coal scam probe report.
The CVC, which exercises superintendence over the CBI in matters related to corruption, has expressed unhappiness over the whole issue of interference by a political functionary and government officials in vetting of the agency's draft status report, the sources said.
"The commission will soon hold a meeting with CBI director Ranjit Sinha to take stock of the agency's probe in the matter," the sources added.
The CBI director has admitted before the SC that its status report on the coal blocks probe was shared with
Law Minister Ashwani Kumar and two joint secretaries, Shatrughna Singh and A K Bhalla, in the PMO and
Coal Ministry respectively.
Taking a stern view over the vetting of its draft report, the apex court had on Wednesday said the CBI has become a "caged parrot" speaking in its master's voice.
CBI has so far registered 11 FIRs in the case. — PTI
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