 |
|
|
Militants kill 16 soldiers in Pak
It was suicide attack in reprisal: Pak
Pakistani lawyers shout anti-Musharraf slogans in Lahore on Wednesday as they take part in a protest against a suicide
bomb attack at a rally in Islamabad. — AFP photo |
|
|
Lal Masjid
Crackdown
Musharraf rules out imposition of emergency Russian bombers intercepted
Battle royal on in Ealing Southall byelection
Camilla does not want
to be Queen
Medics’ death sentence commuted
227-kg man rescued after 12-hour ordeal
China rains sets Met record
|
|
Militants kill 16 soldiers in Pak
Islamabad, July 18 Militants fired at a military convoy at the Madakhel area in North Waziristan tribal agency killing 16 soldiers, the Army said. Around 14 soldiers were also injured in the attack near the Afghan border, defence spokesman Major Gen Waheed Arshad said. Defence officials said the exchange of fire left some militants dead too. In another incident, seven persons, including a soldier, were injured in a roadside blast near a convoy of security forces close to Miranshah, the headquarters of North Waziristan. Arshad said the bomb was exploded through a remote control when several army and private vehicles were passing by the area. Local TV channels reported that the security forces fired at the direction from where the attack was carried out. A private car also came under attack, which later fell down from a bridge. Since the July 11 military operation against the pro-Taliban Lal Masjid in central Islamabad, militants have been targeting the convoys of security forces with either suicide bombings or through direct attacks as the Pakistan Army stepped deployment of troops in the troubled tribal belt to establish its writ. Attacks on security forces in North Waziristan have also increased after the local Taliban scrapped a peace deal with the government. A suicide bomber yesterday killed three soldiers near Mir Ali, a town in North Waziristan. At least five Pakistani soldiers had died in a suicide attack in North Waziristan on July 4. Meanwhile, the toll in yesterday’s suicide bombing at the venue of a lawyers’ meeting to be addressed by suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar M Chaudhry here has climbed to 17. Over 60 others were also injured in the attack.
— PTI
|
|
It was suicide attack in reprisal: Pak
The authorities on Wednesday confirmed that the Tuesday evening blast at the venue of suspended Pakistan’s Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary’s meeting was a suicide attack. They added that the belt used in the suicide attack and other evidences had been collected from the site of the explosion, besides seizing the badly mutilated head of the attacker. Interior minister Aftab Sherpao informed the cabinet meeting that all evidence gathered so far strongly endorsed that the blast was carried out by a suicide bomber. He said a top level team of experts had been named to investigate the explosion. A joint team of intelligence agencies, the FIA and the police had been constituted to investigate the Islamabad attack, Sherpao said. He endorsed the view that the explosion was a reprisal action to avenge the Lal Masjid operation. Officials said the investigators had found similarity in the explosives used in the suicide attack in Islamabad and an attack on the federal minister of interior in Charsadda. The head of the bomber found near the place of the incident was said to be mutilated badly with 30 per cent safe portion, including an eye, forehead and a portion of the head. The severed head had been sent for tests to the Army hospital after DNA tests of some body parts of the suspected bomber. Some eyewitnesses had also been included in the investigations. Pakistan Peoples’ Party chairperson Benazir Bhutto has, however, said the PPP was the target of the blast and suspected that the government was spreading anarchy to justify the imposition of emergency. Three PPP leaders, Raza Rabbani, Raja Ashraf Pervez and Shah Mehmood Qureshi, while addressing a joint news conference this afternoon, held the government responsible for the blast and called for a judicial inquiry. They debunked reports that Benazir’s tough statement in support of Musharraf for the Lal Masjid operation might have triggered the blast.
|
|
Lal Masjid Crackdown Ashish Kumar Sen writes from Washington By acting decisively against militants holed up in a mosque in Islamabad, President Pervez Musharraf crossed a line from which there is “no going back,” a State Department official said on Tuesday, while calling on Pakistan to use military force against militants along the Afghanistan border. Assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, Richard Boucher, said General Musharraf’s use of force against militants in Lal Masjid earlier this month showed that his government was prepared to act against “dangerous militancy that has come to infect various areas in parts of Pakistani society.” But, he added, “now having dealt with the mosque, it’s pretty much, you know, crossing a line and there’s no going back.” Washington’s insistence that Musharraf keep up pressure on the militants came with an admission that a peace pact the general had worked out last year with tribes straddling the border with Afghanistan had failed. Boucher said Al-Qaida had been able to exploit the opportunity presented by the Waziristan deal. “By violating the terms of that agreement, they were able to operate, meet, plan, recruit, obtain financing in more comfort in the tribal areas than previously,” he said. The Waziristan agreement sought to end local support to Al-Qaida and the Taliban. After it was signed in September, it became clear by November-December it wasn’t working out that way, Boucher said. At the White House, President George W. Bush’s homeland security adviser Fran Townsend said the agreement with the tribes “hasn’t worked for Pakistan. It hasn’t worked for the United States.” But, she added, “It’s clear that President Musharraf is serious about taking action in the tribal areas... And I think it is fair to say President Musharraf is committed to the fact that he will not permit that to be a safe haven. And we will work with him to ensure that safe haven is denied to them.” The director of National Intelligence on Tuesday released some unclassified key judgments of the National Intelligence Estimate. This found that Al-Qaida has “protected or regenerated three of the four key elements of homeland plotting: a safe haven in the Pakistan Federally Administered Tribal Area, operational lieutenants, and its top leadership.” Boucher said Musharraf would have to take some military action against “elements in these areas that are extremely violent and are out to kill government people, out to kill government leaders, and will not settle for a peaceful way forward.”
|
||
|
Musharraf rules out imposition of emergency
Repudiating speculations regarding the imposition of emergency to defer elections for a year, President Pervez Musharraf on Wednesday said nobody was contemplating such an option adding that presidential and general elections would be held on schedule.
Talking to senior journalists and editors at the Presidency, Musharraf reiterated he would seek election from present assemblies and decide about his uniform at an appropriate time in accordance with the Constitution. He said Pakistan would oppose any US strikes against militants in Pakistan’s tribal areas. He said the USA should respect Pakistan’s interests. “We shall oppose if anything was done against our national interests”, he added. He rejected statements emanating from Washington that Al-Qaida had regrouped and establish a hub in Pakistan from where it directs terrorist acts in Iraq and elsewhere. On growing influence of Taliban in settled areas of
NWFP, Musharraf said they were not Taliban but another variety of extremists and people indulging in drug trade as well. Musharraf said he would like to take moderate politicians and religious leaders along to combat extremism but thought that a round table conference howsoever desirable to develop national consensus might not be possible because of attitude of the opposition politicians. In this context he referred to the all party conference in London where abusive language was used against him. He said it would be possible to move decisively for elimination of extremism if people elected moderate forces in elections. A comprehensive strategy had been devised to combat extremism and tribal militants in the
NWFP. The provincial chief minister Akram Durrani is fully supportive of this strategy and cooperating whole-heartedly, he added. On the Lal Masjid operation, Musharraf said the government showed utmost restraint and patience in dealing with rebel clerics and their militant colleagues. He denied having vetoed the agreement reached with Rashid Ghazi on the eve of the operation. He said negotiations broke down when Ghazi insisted on general amnesty for himself and foreign militants as well. He said about 2,000 students left the mosque prior to the start of the operation while 1300 others handed themselves over after the firing began. He urged the media not to allow any space to terrorists and assist the government in eliminating extremism and terrorism.
|
||
|
London, July 18 The newspaper said two RAF Tornadoes from its rapid reaction force took off from RAF base Lemming in northern England to confront the two Tu95 “Bear” bombers after they were shadowned by F-16s from the Royal Norwegian Air Force. An unnamed RAF spokesman was quoted as saying that the Russian bombers, based near the northern port city of Murmansk in the Arctic Circle, turned back before they reached British airspace. — AFP
|
||
|
Battle royal on in Ealing Southall byelection
London, July 18 The by-election, which will be the first popularity test for Prime Minister Gordon Brown, is being held due to the death of 82-year-old Labour MP Piara Singh
Khabra. Khabra had won the seat in the 2005 general election with 11,440 majority. The Conservative candidate Mark Nicholson had finished third with 10,147 votes. Nigel Bakhai of Liberal Democrats, who had come second with 11,497 votes then, is trying his luck once again this time. Conservative party leader David Cameron, who was instrumental in fielding 34-year-old Tony Lit, who had joined the party barely a few days ago as the party’s nominee, now faces flack after the reports that Lit had attended a Labour fund-raising event last month donating 4,800 pounds and posed for photographs with the then Prime Minister Tony Blair. The by-election, along with that of
Sedgefield, vacated by Tony Blair, comes in the wake of a surge in the popularity of the Labour Party. According to the ICM poll for The Sunday Telegraph, Labour hit the vital 40 per cent mark while Tories were on 33 per cent and the Liberal Democrats on 19. In a separate ICM poll for the News of the World, Labour was on 35 per cent, with the Tories trailing on 28 per cent. About 53 per cent found that Labour under Brown were best equipped to run country while only 27 per cent opted for Cameron’s Tories. The by-election has also seen high-profile campaigning by NRI industrialist Lord Swraj Paul and NRI Labour MP from Leicester East Keith
Vaz. The 60-year-old, Virendra Sharma, who works in care services, expressed hope that people would reward him for his track record. “This has been a Labour seat in the past and generally we have very good response at the door-to-door campaigns because of my track record as a councillor for 25 years and my community work for the past 35 years. People do recognise it and I am confident that they will reward me with their vote on Thursday,” Sharma said. Nobody could match the10-year record of the Labour government, Sharma, son of a veteran Punjabi politician, said. He also feels that the defection of five Labour councillors to Conservatives will not make much of a
difference. — PTI
|
||
|
Camilla does not want to be Queen
London, July 18 Camilla confided in her friends that she would be happy if she never became Queen and wanted only a supporting role in Charles’ official duties, British tabloid ‘The Sun’ reported here today. In fact, the revelation came as Camilla celebrated her 60th birthday yesterday in Bromham, a village near her country home. Till now, there is no precedent for a UK King married to a wife who is not Queen. “No matter what the precedent is, the Duchess fully intends to be known as the princess consort when the time comes,” the tabloid quoted an unnamed senior Royal figure as saying. “She is fully supported by the Prince in this.” Meanwhile, on the occasion of her birthday, Camilla visited churches, shops and pubs with Prince Charles during their two-and-a-half hour visit to Bromham, Wilts. And, when the couple visited a post office, the Duchess jokingly said, “I could draw my pension from here now.” The royal visit marked Bromham’s newly acquired title as the West of England’s Calor Village of 2006-07. — PTI
|
|
Medics’ death sentence commuted
Tripoli, July 18 “The Judicial Council decided to commute the death sentence to life in prison,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor, who has been granted Bulgarian citizenship, could serve out their sentences in Bulgaria, as the two countries have an extradition treaty. It was not immediately clear if the six would be sent to Bulgaria. The decision came after the
children's families dropped their call for the death penalty following a compensation deal worth millions of dollars. “We have renounced the death penalty ... after all our conditions were met,” said Idriss Lagha, spokesman for the families. “All the families have received compensation.” The Kadhafi Foundation involved in mediating a resolution to the case that has dragged on for eight years and strained ties with the West, has previously said the compensation amounts to about one million dollars per child. The medics, who have been behind bars since 1999, were convicted of deliberately injecting 438 children in a Benghazi hospital with HIV-tainted blood. Lagha has said the number of victims has risen to about 460 after several mothers were infected. Fifty-six children have since died.
— AFP
|
|
227-kg man rescued after 12-hour ordeal
Milawaukee (US), July 18 Martin Rike (39) was treated at the Burnett Medical Centre in Grantsburg 12 hours after the authorities first received reports that he had run aground. Rike was rafting alone on the St Croix river on Monday afternoon about 113 km northeast of Minneapolis when he experienced an unspecified health problem, said chief deputy Steve Ovick of the Pine County Sheriff’s Office in Minnesota. Rike left his raft and began walking but tumbled on the slippery, irregular rocks and injured an ankle and knee. Rike’s family called authorities around 8.15 pm (local time), concerned that he was overdue, Ovick said yesterday. A helicopter crew spotted him and directed ground rescuers to him, but their boats and canoes got stuck because the river was only 5.08 cm deep in that area, Ovick said. Rescuers laboured unsuccessfully to reach Rike, first with an all-terrain vehicle and then a hovercraft. “Every resource we had simply did not work until we got down to physical manpower,” Ovick said. “The aircraft that found him said they could not lift that amount of weight.” Eventually the authorities managed to load Rike into an aluminum boat. “There wasn’t enough water for it to float, so they physically used that as a stretcher,” Ovick said. — AP
|
|
Beijing, July 18 The city of Chongqing in southwest China, received 266.6 mm of rainfall between Monday night and Tuesday afternoon, the largest volume since records began in 1892, the municipal meteorological bureau said. The previous record was set on July 21, 1996, when Chongqing, China’s largest municipality, received 206.1 mm of rainfall, it said. — PTI
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
The authorities on Wednesday confirmed that the Tuesday evening blast at the venue of suspended Pakistan’s Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary’s meeting was a suicide attack.
