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Thousands rally against Pakistan CJ’s sacking
Pak bureau revives division
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Tigers airborne again in northern Lanka
Attack on Ethiopian oilfield leaves 74 dead
Yeltsin to be buried next to Gorbachev’s wife
3 ex-BNP ministers chargesheeted
6 held under anti-terrorism law
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Thousands rally against Pakistan CJ’s sacking
Islamabad, April 24 This was the biggest protest rally since March 9 when President Pervez Musharraf sacked Justice Chaudhry for misuse of his position and getting his son a job in the Pakistan Police Service in complete disregard of government rules. Thousands of workers belonging to the Islamic opposition alliance Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal, the Pakistan People’s Party of former exiled Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and the Tehrik-e-Insaf of cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan assembled in front of the Supreme Court after breaking through security cordons and raised slogans against Musharraf. “We will not allow Musharraf to play with the prestige and dignity of the judiciary,” MMA chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad told hundreds of his flag-waving supporters under the blazing son. He said the opposition’s struggle was not merely confined to bringing back the Chief Justice. “We want an independent judiciary, free of military's influence and capable of guiding the nation in the right direction,” he stressed. The situation turned dangerous with chances of violent clashes as ruling Pakistan Muslim League chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain arrived at the venue leading a pro-Musharraf rally of over 1,000 people. “We will not allow the opposition to disgrace the judiciary,” Hussain told his supporters, as the police and paramilitary rangers took positions to avoid any clash. This was a first-ever rally by the ruling PML in support of Musharraf, who is accused by his opponents of trying to weaken the judiciary to ensure his re-election from parliament for the second term while retaining office of the army chief. Meanwhile, a full bench of the Supreme Court referred Justice Chaudhry's petition, in which he has challenged his suspension and the constitution of the council, to acting Chief Justice Rana Bhagwandas, who will now constitute a larger bench or a full court of judges to hear the case. — UNI
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Pak bureau revives division
The national accountability bureau (NAB) has revived its special operation division and Major-Gen Nasir Mehmood will be the new director-general of the division while Abdul Baseer Qureshi will be the special prosecutor.
The division had conducted inquiries against former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, her husband Asif Zardari and other prominent politicians and high-level civil and military bureaucrats on corruption charges. Abdul Baseer Qureshi was formerly attached with the special operation division as deputy prosecutor general but he was suddenly removed from his office a few months ago. He had also filed a petition against this action in the Lahore high court, Rawalpindi bench, but a few days back the division was closed and its head, the deputy chairman, NAB, was sent back to the governor, Punjab secretariat. Abdul Baseer Qureshi, who had been dismissed from service on the charge of misconduct, took back his petition against the NAB on April 19 on some assurance from the NAB, the sources
said.
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Tigers airborne again in northern Lanka
Tamil Tigers claimed that they carried out their second air attack against a major military installation in northern Sri Lanka on Tuesday morning. The government denied the claim and said the air force had repulsed an attempt by an unidentified light aircraft to enter the camps high security zone. The pro-Tamil Tiger website TamilnNet quoted the LTTE military spokesman Irasiah Ilanthirayan as claming that two rebel aircraft dropped eight bombs on the military complex at Palali, about 390 km north of Colombo, inflicting heavy damage and casualties. The government’s media centre for national security said troops on duty had sighted a light aircraft and had reacted with anti-aircraft fire forcing it to turn back. However, the aircraft had dropped two ‘explosive devices’ near the beach but neither damages nor casualties were reported. The government moved quickly to fly a group of mediapersons to the northern air base to dispel the rebel claims of heavy damages and casualties. Even though no casualties were caused in the air attack, the military admitted that six soldiers were killed in an artillery fire by the rebels directed at another army camp in the north. Palali is a strategic military base and its’ airstrip is the main supply line for thousands of government troops stationed in Jaffna peninsula. Any major damages to the camp would hinder the government operations against Tamil rebels in the north. This is the second air attack by the Tigers. The first in last month was on the country’s main air base at Katunayake, which is located next to the main international airport of the country. The attack killed three airmen and wounded several others.
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Attack on Ethiopian oilfield leaves 74 dead
Addis Ababa, April 24 Seven Chinese workers were kidnapped in the morning attack at the oil installation in a disputed region of eastern Ethiopia, Xu Shuang, the general manager of Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau, said. China has increased its presence in Africa in recent years in a hunt for oil and other natural resources to feed its rapidly growing economy. Its forays into areas considered politically unstable, however, has exposed Chinese workers to attacks. The Ogaden National Liberation Front said in a statement sent to the Associated Press they had launched “military operations against units of the Ethiopian armed forces guarding an oil exploration site,” in the east of the country. The rebel group, which is fighting a low-level insurgency with the aim of creating an independent state for ethnic Somalis, warned last year that any investment in the Ogaden area that also benefited the Ethiopian government “would not be tolerated.”
— AP
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Yeltsin to be buried next to Gorbachev’s wife
Moscow, April 24 “Boris Nikolayevich’s grave will be located next to the graves of Lebed and Gorbacheva,” a cemetery official told Interfax news agency today. The Kremlin press service earlier reported Yeltsin would be buried in Novodevichye Cemetery tomorrow. President Vladimir Putin has declared it as a day of national mourning. Moscows historic Novodevichy Cemetry has been the burial ground of such diverse Russian personalities as writer Anton Chekhov and former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.
— UNI
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3 ex-BNP ministers chargesheeted
Dhaka, April 24 The police in northeastern Rajshahi submitted the chargesheet before a magistrate’s court naming former telecommunication minister Aminul
Haque, ex-deputy minister for land Ruhul Kuddus Talukhdar Dulu and former Bangladesh Nationalist Party lawmaker Nadim Mostafa.
— PTI
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6 held under anti-terrorism law
London, April 24 No further details were immediately available. A police source said the arrests were not related to the July 7,2005, suicide bomb attacks in London or any other ongoing counter-terrorism operations.
— Reuters
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