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All 155 aboard Pak jet killed in crash
Sabotage not ruled out: Malik
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Attack on Indian
China makes its own Guinness book!
Another Nazi guard charged with murder
Pak angry over Cameron’s remarks
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All 155 aboard Pak jet killed in crash
Islamabad, July 28 The Airbus A321 operated by private airline Airblue, which had 147 passengers and eight crew aboard, hit the Margalla Hills near Daman-e-Koh viewpoint at about 10 am local time and exploded into pieces. "It saddens me to announce that (while) some intact bodies were showing signs of life, nobody has survived," Interior Minister Rehman Malik said. Bodies were mostly mutilated and in pieces, he said, adding they could not be identified immediately. "It's a big tragedy. It's really a big tragedy," he said. Earlier, Malik and Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira had said that rescuers had found some survivors. Two Americans, five members of the same family and a newly married couple coming to Islamabad for their honeymoon were among passengers of the aircraft, which took off from Karachi at 7.50 am. Five children and 29 women were also on the aircraft. The plane was about to land at Islamabad's Benazir Bhutto International Airport when it lost radio contact with the control tower and later crashed into the thickly-forested hills overlooking the capital city, officials said. The wreckage fell into a deep ravine between two hills. Several hours after the crash, rescue workers and military personnel pulled out the bodies from the smoldering and burning wreckage that lay scattered over a thickly forested area in inaccessible hills shrouded by clouds and fog. Officials said they believed the crash was caused by bad weather. However, the exact cause would be ascertained by an inquiry to be conducted by the Civil Aviation Authority, they said. Officials and rescue workers said they were unable to find even a single body that was fully intact. The body parts were placed in bags that were tied with rope and removed from the crash site. Rescue workers said they had shouted out for possible survivors but received no response. Airblue official Raheel Ahmed told reporters in Karachi that the aircraft’s pilot, Pervez Iqbal Chaudhry, had 35 years of experience and had logged over 25,000 flying hours. The Airbus A321 was 10 years old and had been used by Airblue for the past four years, he said. Local TV channels showed twisted metal parts hanging from trees and scattered across the ground. The crash occurred in an area that is not easily accessible as the Margalla Hills are covered by thick forests.
— PTI
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Sabotage not ruled out: Malik
Interior minister Rehman Malik has said the possibility of sabotage or act of terrorism could not be ruled out in the plane crash on Islamabad's Margallah Hills.
"Anything could have happened and we rule out nothing," Malik told reporters here on Wednesday. "The concerned security agencies have been asked to check list of passengers and submit a report at the earliest," he said.
Most of the passengers were Pakistanis and the list did not show any high profile target. But US Embassy in Islamabad announced in the afternoon that two American nationals were also travelling in the plane. It did not immediately give their identity. Malik said a couple of things related to the crash remain unexplained. The pilot had descended up to 2,600 ft for landing from the routine Kahuta side east of Islamabad's Benazir Bhutto International Airport. He was asked by control tower to take a round and land from the Murree Road side. Instead he veered towards north flying up to about 3,000 feet to Magagallah Hills where the plane hit a steep mound while its landing gears were still down. Managing Director of the national career PIA, Capt Ejaz Haroon, also said the pilot did not follow the specified alternative route and strayed beyond the requisite five-mile radius to the heavily wooded Margalla Hills north of the capital for no apparent reason.
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Attack on Indian
Melbourne, July 28 The three suspects were arrested after 22-year-old Rajan Kumar Katkam was assaulted on a bus travelling towards Portsea on February 6. The accused also threw chicken pieces at him. Katkam, who arrived here in 2008 to pursue a course in Graphics, had filed a case with the office of Victims of Crime following the incident which forced him to defer his studies. Two of the suspects have received summons to appear before the court on September 1, while the third man is expected to be charged over the incident "in the near future," police said. The two have been charged with intentionally causing injury, unlawful assault, assault in company, offensive language and inciting racial hatred. Katkam expressed happiness over the handling of the case by the Victorian police. "I'm happy at the outcome and I hope my case will send some message to the racists elements in the country. It's not good to be racist as we come with lot of expectations and want to contribute to this country," he said at a media conference. The "racist elements" should not do such a thing in a multi-cultural society like Australia, Katkam said. A Victoria police spokeswoman said she hoped the charges "would send a strong message to the community that this behaviour will not be tolerated". "This is the first time that charges of this nature have been put before the courts," she said. Police commissioner Simon Overland said the police needed the approval of the Director of Public Prosecutions before proceedings. "You've ultimately got to prove the charge... to the criminal standard, which is a pretty high standard," the top cop told ABC Radio. "We obviously feel that we have enough evidence. The director agreed with that and these matters will now proceed through court. These people are innocent until proven guilty but they will face those charges and have to defend them," he said.
— PTI
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China makes its own Guinness book!
Beijing, July 28 “The trademark application took three years for verification and the SAIC’s three month announcement period,” said 46-year-old Zhang Dayong, the founder of Chinness.net. Zhang set up the website in 2003. Since then, it has assessed about 500 individual applications of which 300 have been recognised as “China’s Best”. “I got the idea and started to work on the Chinese version of Guinness in 1989. My mother and younger brother helped me collect back numbers and old newspapers to help me sort through the information about Chinese records,” he said. Chinness is hence a certification body for accrediting Chinese records, set by Chinese people or set in China. “If Guinness is like the Olympic Games, Chinness is like China’s National Games,” explained Zhang.
— PTI
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Another Nazi guard charged with murder
Berlin, July 28 He has also been charged over the deaths of another 10 Jews in two separate incidents which also allegedly occurred at Belzec, said the spokesman, Christoph Goeke.
— AFP
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Pak angry over Cameron’s remarks Islamabad, July 28 Noting that terrorism is a "global issue", Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said the world community should instead ask India to “view this issue objectively”. "Pakistan has done much more than any other country in combating terrorism. Our people and security forces have rendered innumerable sacrifices,” Basit said in a statement. — PTI
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Malik said he had asked the Federal Investigation Agency to ascertain the details of all passengers and to look into the possibility whether the crash may have been caused by an act of sabotage or terrorism.