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Pakistan PM Gilani’s motorcade attacked
Baloch insurgent groups suspend operations
Pak protests killing of civilians in US raid |
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Poll deal: Khaleda’s son released on bail
Indian students may have to push harder for Australian visa
Thai minister quits amid protests
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Pakistan PM Gilani’s motorcade attacked
A few unknown gunmen of Pakistani Taliban showered bullets on the motorcade of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani while on way to bring him from the Islamabad Airport today. "The Prime Minsiter was not traveling in the car and nobody was injured," a spokesman of the PM House here said. Gilani had gone to Lahore and was due back this afternoon for which the motorcade of bulletproof cars was dispatched to the airport, he said. According to the spokesman, the burst of fire came from a hilltop on the other side of the road and hit windowpane of the car, leaving two marks on the bulletproof glass. He said the Prime Minister returned to Islamabad on time and traveled safely to the PM House. The PM motorcade usually comprises more than one bulletproof car that accompany as decoy. "The Prime Minister is safe and unperturbed," information minister Sherry Rehman told reporters later. She said he was performing his normal functions. The PM House spokesman said police had rounded up three suspects who were being interrogated.
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Baloch insurgent groups suspend operations
Three leading insurgent Baloch nationalist groups have suspended their armed ‘activities’ indefinitely, ostensibly in response to several conciliatory moves initiated by the government.
Beebargh Baloch and Sirbaz Baloch, spokesmen for the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and the Balochistan Republican Army (BRA), while talking to mediapersons on satellite phones, announced the decision. The PPP-led central and provincial governments have freed detained leaders and vowed to compensate for the injustice done to people of the province for the past six decades. The announcement was greeted in Islamabad as a good omen for the PPP co-chairperson and front-runner in the presidential race, Asif Zardari, ahead of the September 6 election. He has spearheaded a vigorous initiative to launch a healing process in the province.The government has accused foreign powers of instigating the insurgency. “All three militant organisations have jointly decided to suspend their resistance movement for an indefinite period,” they said.
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Pak protests killing of civilians in US raid Islamabad, September 3 Mohammed Sadiq, a spokesman for the Pakistani foreign ministry said US Ambassador Anne W. Patterson had been summoned to receive a formal protest over “the gross violation of Pakistan’s territory and immense loss of civilian life.” He added: “We strongly condemned the helicopter-borne ground attack, supported by air assaults from Afghanistan, on a village near Angoor Adda in Pakistan’s tribal region along the Afghan border.” Earlier, Owais Ahmed Ghani, governor of the North West Frontier Province, said in a press statement “20 civilians were martyred” in what he called an “outrageous” attack in the South Waziristan tribal district. “This is a direct assault on the sovereignty of Pakistan and the people of Pakistan expect that the armed forces would rise to defend the sovereignty of the country and give a befitting reply to all such attacks,” he said. “The government will try its best to protect its citizens from such cowardly attacks in the days to come,” Ghani said. — DPA
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Poll deal: Khaleda’s son released on bail
Dhaka, September 3 Rahman,43, popularly known as ‘Mr 10 per cent’ for his corrupt practices during the last BNP government led by his detained mother, is widely expected to fly to Europe to receive medical treatment after an 18-month stint in jail. At present, he is being kept at a hospital before flying overseas. In long-running negotiations with the government, Zia had said Tarique's release was a pre-requisite for her to agree to run in the planned parliamentary elections in December, which would return the country to civilian rule after two years under a state of emergency. Zia's release is likely to follow later this week. In June, the government had also given bail to former premier and Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina to persuade her party to run in the elections. Tarique was arrested on March 7 last year as part of the army-backed government's crackdown on corruption after it took power on January 11, 2007. Considered to be the heir apparent of the BNP, Tarique was at the center of the current government's anti-corruption allegations that he ran the massive corruption apparatus during his mother's tenure as prime minister. He still faces 13 corruption charges. Tarique was admitted to a prison ward at a local hospital in January after doctors alleged that he was partially paralysed from being tortured in custody. Zia's youngest son, Arafat Rahman, is also out on bail and is currently receiving treatment in Thailand.
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Indian students may have to push harder for Australian visa
Melbourne, September 3 According to the latest official data, there were 65,000 Indian students in Australia, mostly in vocational education. Although they constitute a smaller number as compared to Chinese students, but their growth rate was much higher - up to about 55 per cent as compared to China’s 19 per cent. While India was not alone in moving up the risk scale, visa applicants from Colombia, Egypt, Ghana, Jordan, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Romania and Zimbabwe will also have to do extra work to show that they were bona fide students. “The status of these nine countries had been changed ‘to combat increased levels of immigration risk’,” a spokesperson from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship said. The spokesperson, however, said, “genuine applicants had nothing to fear from the changes”. “All universities were likely to ask students to lodge their visa applications and get these processed before the September 1 change in immigration risk levels, which affects a host of overseas markets,” the pro-vice- chancellor (international) of New South Wales University, Jennie Lang said. —
PTI
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Thai minister quits amid protests
Bangkok, September 3 "If it is true, it is another step toward the end of this falling government," Ramkhamhaeng University analyst Boonyakiat Karavephan said of Tej's reported resignation. Samak, who has refused to bow to protesters occupying his official compound for nine days, declared emergency rule on Tuesday after clashes between his supporters and anti-government protesters killed one man and injured 45. Hundreds of riot police were outside the Government House compound on Wednesday but made no move toward the thousands of protesters who are camped inside, singing and chanting anti-government slogans. The anti-government People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) -- a motley coalition of businessmen, academics and activists who accuse Samak of being an illegitimate proxy of former Premier Thaksin Shinawatra — have vowed to stay until Samak steps down. The PAD paints itself as a defender of the revered King and accuses Thaksin and the government of seeking to turn Thailand into a republic, charges they deny. Howeve, a public sector strike failed to disrupt eletricity, water and transport services in the city of 10 million people on Wednesday. Thailand's biggest power producer, EGAT, said it was business as usual at its power plants as most staff showed up for work. Bus routes were operating as normal, as well as the city's skytrain and underground subway. —
Reuters
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A few unknown gunmen of Pakistani Taliban showered bullets on the motorcade of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani while on way to bring him from the Islamabad Airport
today.
