Confirming reports of growing US concerns about the alleged role of Taliban leader Mulla Omar and his lieutenants in Quetta, capital of Balochistan, US ambassador to Pakistan Anne W Patterson has said the Afghan Taliban “Quetta Shura (council)” is high on Washington’s list.

“In the past, we focused on Al-Qaeda because they were a threat to us. The Quetta Shura mattered less to us because we had no troops in the region,” Patterson said in an interview with the Washington Post. Her comments came amid reports that the US is focusing attention on Taliban activities in Quetta and is even planning to bomb alleged Taliban hideouts in Quetta.

“Now our troops are there on the other side of the border, and the Quetta Shura is high on Washington’s list,” Patterson said.

Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik, in an interview with Reuters on Monday, dismissed as “incorrect and baseless” the speculations about Mulla Omar’s presence in Quetta. He said the Mulla was in Kandahar.

“The US would not be allowed to carry out drone attacks in Balochistan at any cost,” Rehman said and urged the US and Europe to provide information to Pakistan, if they have any. “Over and again this topic has been coming up. But the Quetta Shura according to us does not exist,” he told Reuters in an interview in London.

The Washington Post also quoted other US officials as admitting that US has no capacity to strike in the vast desert region of northwestern tribal areas. They have few windows into the turbulent mix of Pakhtun tribal and religious politics that they believe has turned the area into a sanctuary for the Taliban leaders, who are known collectively as the “Quetta Shura”.

Patterson put it, bluntly: “Our intelligence on Quetta is vastly less. We have no people there, no cross-border operations, no Predators.”

According to Pakistani analysts, the Taliban’s presence in the Quetta region is more discreet than it was earlier in the decade, when Omar fled there from US and Afghan military attacks. He was joined by thousands of fighters, who blended into ethnic Pakhtun neighbourhoods and refugee camps.

“Quetta is absolutely crucial to the Taliban today,” said Ahmed Rashid, a Pakistani expert on the Taliban, in a telephone interview. “From there they get recruits, fuel and fertilizer for explosives, weapons, and food. Suicide bombers are trained on that side.

The Kerry-Lugar bill that provides for annual $1.5 billion US aid to Pakistan specifically requires Pakistan to act and dismantle Taliban safe haven in Quetta.

“What we are requesting to the US and the UK and all other stakeholders, please give us real-time information. If you know that they are present you must be knowing their names, details... if there is any sign of the Quetta Shura, we will smash it.” 

Manila, September 30
One of the most destructive storms in years extended its deadly path across Southeast Asia, blowing down wooden villages in Cambodia and crushing Vietnamese houses under mudslides after submerging much of the Philippines capital.

The death toll today climbed past 300 and was rising.

"We're used to storms that sweep away one or two houses. But I've never seen a storm this strong,” said Nam Tum, Governor of Cambodia's Kampong Thom province.

The immediate threat was easing as Typhoon Ketsana was downgraded to a tropical depression as it crossed on Wednesday into a fourth nation, Laos. But its powerful winds and pummelling rain left a snaking trail of destruction.

Landslides triggered by the storm slammed into houses in central Vietnam yesterday, burying at least seven persons, including five members of the same family, the government said. They were among 52 people killed in the country, some by falling trees, the officials said.

The storm destroyed or damaged nearly 1,70,000 homes and flattened crops across six central Vietnamese provinces, the officials said. More than 3,50,000 persons were evacuated from the typhoon's path, posing a logistical headache to shelter and feed them. — AP 

Padang (Indonesia), September 30
A powerful earthquake struck off the city of Padang on Indonesia’s Sumatra island on Wednesday, killing at least 75 persons and trapping thousands under rubble, officials said.

The death toll was likely to rise as many buildings in the city of 9,00,000 people had collapsed, vice-president Jusuf Kalla told a late night news conference in Jakarta.

“We have received a report from the mayor of Padang that the death toll is 75. But many others are trapped in collapsed shops, building and hotels. It is difficult to know because it is dark now,” Kalla said.

A TV footage showed devastation, with piles of rubble and smashed houses after the 7.6 magnitude earthquake, which caused widespread panic across the city. Rustam Pakaya, the head of the health ministry’s disaster centre in Jakarta, said, “Thousands of people are trapped in the rubble of buildings”.

The main hospital had collapsed, roads were cut by landslides and Metro Television said the roof of Padang airport had caved in. Thousands were expected to spend the night in the open while a full assessment of the damage would need to wait until daybreak. — Reuters

At least 23 persons, including an Indian from Darjeeling, have been killed and 63 others sustained injuries when a makeshift church packed with around 2,000 persons collapsed on Tuesday night.

The victim from India has been identified as Nika Rai, a 35-year-old woman from Guathan in Siliguri, and two other injured from India are identified as Karma Chodin, 29, and Sarada Rai from Sikkim.

The three-storied bamboo tent having tin roofs, which was built at the Zion Prayer at Victoria Chowk in Dharan of Sunsari district in eastern Nepal to accommodate the participants, was collapsed at around 11 pm on Tuesday as the overcrowded makeshift could not withstand the weight of the people.

Most of the deceased and injured belong to the deprived and marginalised castes and ethnic groups who had converted to Christianity renouncing their traditional Hindu religion.

The police said the temporary structure fell down when large number of participants of the religious function chose to sleep on the top-storey as it was relatively cooler than downstairs.

According to Baiju Yogi, a police inspector at local police post, around 2,000 Christians were gathered in Dharan, around 200 miles east from the capital city of Kathmandu of Himalayan nation, to attend an eight-day international convention organised by El-Shaddai sect Church, which was founded by Bhagat Singh of Punjab. A large number of participants are from Sikkim, Kalimpong and Darjeeling of neighboring India, he added.

The organiser said majority of those killed and injured are women as the three-storyed structure was built for women participants.

The high number of casualty occurred, officials believe, because attendees were sleeping at the time of the incident, which occurred around midnight.

Meanwhile, Home Minister of Nepal Bhim Rawal inspected the site and expressed commitment to provide free treatment to those who have been sustained injuries. He also said he would take up a proposal at the Cabinet meeting to provide financial assistance to the family members of the victims.