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With Taliban out, normalcy returns to Buner
Taliban prevent army from entering Swat
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UN chief rushes to Colombo
‘Punjabi village’ raises $35,000 for orphans
NKorea starts nuclear facilities
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With Taliban out, normalcy returns to Buner
Life in Buner returned to normal on Saturday after the Taliban pulled out while security forces entered Kalapani, the ancestral village of religious leader Maulana Sufi Mohammad in what officials acknowledged as demonstration of toughening of attitude towards militants.
In Peshawar the provincial government announced appointment of eight judicial officers to be called qazis in Swat area as first concrete measure to implement the Nizame Adl Regulation. The regulation was promulgated in keeping with the peace accord signed by the provincial government with Sufi Mohammad, the religious mentor of the Taliban. Sufi’s spokesman, Izzat Khan, talking to reporters said the appointment of qazis was welcome but his organisation would examine their credentials to ensure that they are well versed in shariah laws. District administration in Buner said most of Taliban had retreated from the area but a couple of armed men were still maintaining presence but not displaying arms. It demanded full withdrawal of militants to fully restore normal life in the area. In a related development, the provincial administration replaced commissioner Malakand/Swat division Syed Muhammad Javed and named Fazal Karim Khattak as new commissioner of the troubled area. Javed was known to be quite close to the Taliban leader Faqir Mohammad but claimed his ties helped him persuade the Taliban accept the peace accord. In a related incident nine people, mostly children, died in Banda town of lower Dir district adjacent to Swat, when a bomb exploded in the house of a local.
Officials said it was a toy bomb, which children had found outside their school and took it to home where it exploded. While officials confirmed that the security forces were consolidating their position in the troubles areas, Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan expressed concern over their movement into Buner and Kalapani areas saying it violated the peace accord. Khan said under the accord the government was committed to enforce Shariah, release all prisoners and withdraw troops from the area. The reinforcement sent to shore up security presence contravened these commitments,
he added. Officials said security forces were consolidating their positions in Kalpani area. Residents said army gunships also resumed gunship flights over the area. According to well-placed sources, the area has been termed sensitive by the government due to increasing cases of kidnapping for ransom and other crimes.
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Taliban prevent army from entering Swat
While truckloads of militants made their way back from Buner, another stand-off developed in the Swat as a convoy of seven army trucks was stopped by armed Taliban at Qambar, a small town near Mingora, the main city in the valley. The stand-off between the army and Taliban militants came in the backdrop of reports that Pakistan had ordered mobilisation of its army within 48 hours for a possible operation to dislodge the militants from Swat.
Though there was no official reaction to the blocking of the army convoy, Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan said the deployment of additional troops in Swat is against the peace deal signed in February. However, officials said the peace accord allowed for free movement of Army troops. Though all Taliban militants from Swat who had come to Buner had withdrawn, but local fighters from Buner were still present in the area, Khan said.
— PTI
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UN chief rushes to Colombo
United Nations, April 25 Holmes will arrive in Colombo on a three-day visit today during which he will meet with the authorities to discuss urgent issues, including the need for the Government to help humanitarian agencies access the conflict area, as well as the situation of camps set up for IDPs. “He (Holmes) will discuss with the government of Sri Lanka issues of pressing importance, including the need for the government to actively facilitate humanitarian missions critical to this area, access to those displaced persons,” UN spokesperson Marie Okabe said at a press briefing yesterday. He said Holmes will also press for the release of UN staff members detained in camps. The latest UN move came as the White House asked Sri Lanka and LTTE to immediately end the war in the island’s north and cautioned Colombo that its unity and reconciliation could be at stake if it continued with its current endeavours to end the ethnic conflict “militarily”. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had on Thursday said he is dispatching a relief team to the shrinking conflict zone, a five square-mile pocket of land where fighting rages between the Government and the LTTE. Okabe said today that the mission will be carried out by the UN Country Team already in Sri Lanka, not sent in from the outside. Meanwhile, the Office for the Coordination (OCHA) emphasised that the humanitarian situation in the embattled Vanni region continues to be critical, calling civilian casualties tragically high and the people’s suffering horrendous. The UN estimates that some 50,000 civilians remain trapped inside the conflict zone, where fighting continues to be reported, while the Sri Lankan government says 1,09,000 people have fled the war-torn area.
— PTI
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‘Punjabi village’ raises $35,000 for orphans
California, April 25 The local Punjabi American Heritage Society, which has been in the forefront of raising funds for slum dwellers and orphans in India, organised a colourful Punjabi evening on Thursday to raise the money. Known as the first Punjabi village of North America, Yuba City is home to the descendants of the earliest Indian immigrants to the US. Mayor Rory Ramirez, vice mayor Kash Gill, councilman Tej Singh Mann and County supervisor Jim Whitaker were among those who joined the Punjabi evening to contribute from $10 to $1,000 to raise the money. “Every year, we are raising the bar to collect money for the poor and orphans of India. This is one of the many fundraisers that we organise here to help the less fortunate in India,” said event organiser Jasbir Kang.
— IANS
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NKorea starts nuclear facilities
Beijing, April 25 A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman made the comment. “The reprocessing of spent fuel rods from the pilot atomic power plant began as declared in the Foreign Ministry statement dated April 14” .
— Kyodo
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