Brother of Afghan national security adviser shot dead
Herat (Afghanistan) July 17
Gunmen assassinated a brother of Afghanistan's national security adviser Rangin Dadfar Spanta outside a public bathhouse in the family's relatively peaceful home province today, the police said.

Dhaka, July 17
A top leader of the fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami party was sentenced to death today by a special Bangladeshi tribunal for committing "crimes against humanity" and unleashing ruthless militias on unarmed intellectuals during the country's 1971 liberation war.

Sixty-five-year-old Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed was given death penalty by the International Crimes Tribunal-2, two days after JI's 91-year-old supremo Ghulam Azam was sentenced to 90 years in jail.

"He will be hanged by neck till he is dead," Justice Obaidul Hassan, the chairman of the three-member panel of judges pronounced, reading out the operative part of the verdict in a jam-packed courtroom here.

Mojaheed, initially looked expressionless as he was brought to the dock but appeared shocked as the judge handed down the punishments.

Hassan said five of the seven charges brought against Mojaheed were "proved beyond doubt" and the court sentenced him to death on two counts for personal involvement in the killings of several pro-liberation activists.

Mojaheed was the second in command of the infamous Al Badr militia forces, manned mainly by Jamaat's then student wing.

Al Badr had systematically killed leading Bengali intelligentsia during the liberation war and acted as an elite auxiliary force of the Pakistani troops. — PTI

‘crimes against humanity’ During the 1971 liberation war, Mojaheed was the second in command of the infamous Al Badr militia forces Al Badr had systematically killed leading Bengali intelligentsia and acted as an elite auxiliary force of the Pakistani troops

Islamabad, July 17
Days after Malala Yousufzai made a passionate appeal at the UN for the education of children, the Taliban today asked the teenage activist to return to Pakistan and join a madrassa in the restive northwest.

Adnan Rashid, a Taliban fighter wanted for an attempt to assassinate former President Pervez Musharraf, wrote a letter to Malala, who was shot in the head in a militant attack last year.

"I advise you to come back home, adopt the Islamic and Pashtun culture, join any female Islamic madrassa near your hometown, study and learn the book of Allah, use your pen for Islam and the plight of Muslim ummah and reveal the conspiracy of the tiny elite who want to enslave the whole humanity for their evil agendas in the name of a new world order," Rashid wrote.

The over 2,000-word letter was dated July 15 but it was not immediately clear from where it was issued. It was released to the media today.

Rashid, a former air force personnel, tried to justify the attack on 16-year-old Malala by claiming that she was involved in an "anti-Taliban campaign".

"Taliban never attacked you because of going to school," he wrote. "Taliban believe that you were intentionally writing against them and running a smear campaign to malign their efforts to establish Islamic system in Swat and your writings were provocative," he added. — PTI

Herat (Afghanistan) July 17
Gunmen assassinated a brother of Afghanistan's national security adviser Rangin Dadfar Spanta outside a public bathhouse in the family's relatively peaceful home province today, the police said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the killing of Wali Jaan, a public prosecutor in the small town of Karukh in the western province of Herat which borders Iran.

"Today at around 8.30 am, Wali Jaan, the brother of Dr Spanta, was gunned down. He was attacked by two persons on a motorbike as he came out of a (public) bath," Herat police spokesman Abdul Rauf Ahmadi said.

"The attackers fled the area," he added.

Herat police chief Rahmatullah Safi confirmed the killing but gave no further details.

Taliban spokesman, Yousuf Ahmadi called AFP from an unknown location and said the insurgent militia was responsible.

"This person, who has worked with the government over the past four years, was killed in a guerrilla attack by one of our mujahideen in Herat," Ahmadi said.

"He was a key government official," he added.

Spanta is one of the most influential people in the Western-backed government. He served as Foreign Minister before becoming national security adviser to President Hamid Karzai.

Taliban insurgents have carried out attacks in Herat since the 2001 US-led invasion brought down their regime in Kabul, but most of their activity is concentrated elsewhere. — AFP

Sanaa, July 17
Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has confirmed the death in a US drone strike of its deputy leader Saeed al-Shehri, whose killing has been announced a number of times by Yemeni authorities.

"Sheikh Saeed al-Shehri, aka Abu Sufyan al-Azdi, was killed in a US drone strike," said Ibrahim al-Rubaish, a leader of Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, in a video posted on Islamist websites today.

Ibrahim al-Rubaish gave no indication of when Shehri was killed.

Shehri had been hounded by Yemen's security forces and had survived a number of attempts on his life.

His death has been announced several times by the Yemeni authorities, most recently on January 24.

In April, AQAP released an audio message purported to be a newly-delivered address by Shehri.

Last October, Shehri himself denied a September announcement by Yemen's Defence Ministry that he had been killed in an army raid, in an audio message posted on extremist Internet forums.

An official Yemeni statement in January called him "one of the (Al-Qaida) leaders who played a major role in the planning of local, regional and international terrorist acts".

It said he was "the military commander of terrorist elements" during deadly clashes with the army in the southern Abyan province, which Islamist rebels largely controlled for a year before Yemeni forces recaptured it in June 2012. — AFP

In an embarrassing swap, the Punjab Police released three men of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi (LJ) — Bashir Bakhrani, Ishaq Changwani and Razzaq Changwani — in exchange for eight policemen held hostage by Chotu Mazari, a most-wanted member of LJ.

Member of Provincial Assembly Atif Mazari had struck the deal with Chotu Mazari’s aide Patt Umrani and secured the swap. Earlier on Monday, Chotu’s gang had released three abducted civilians on the receipt of Rs 2 million ransom.

The LJ is an extremist outfit accused of series of bomb blasts, suicide attacks and kidnappings for ransom. It mainly targets Shias across the country and is believed to be responsible for the massacre of Hazara community in Balochistan.

Opponents of Sharifs, in particular Punjab CM Shahbaz Sharif, blame them for links with the LJ and for securing its support in the elections. The LJ also has a mutual cooperation arrangement with terrorist organisation Tehrike Taliban Pakistan.

The Punjab Police hostages were released in the early hours of Tuesday at an pre-determined location. The police said their prime objective was to secure the release of the eight officials. They insisted that no other demand made by Chotu Mazari had been fulfilled.