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Taliban kill 80 in Pak as ’revenge’
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Osama operation an ISI failure, I’m ready to quit: Pasha
Osama emailed without being detected by US!
US questions bin Laden’s widows
Al-Qaida chief had no escape plan
Mubarak’s wife detained in illicit wealth probe
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Taliban kill 80 in Pak as ’revenge’
Peshawar/Islamabad, May 13 Over 115 persons were also injured when the bombers struck a large group of Frontier Constabulary personnel in attacks minutes apart outside the complex, hitting the soldiers as they were about to set off on leave after completing a year-long training. Eighty persons, most of them Frontier Constabulary personnel, were killed, provincial Senior Minister Bashir Bilour said. The bombers, who came separately on motorcycles, struck the sprawling complex after dawn, with the first attacker detonating his explosive vest near the main gate of the Frontier Constabulary training centre at Shabqadar, 35 km from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa capital, Peshawar. Eight minutes later even as security personnel were removing the dead and injured from the spot, the second motorcycle-borne bomber struck creating mayhem at the centre, witnesses said. Over 115 injured persons were taken to hospitals in Shabqadar and Peshawar, officials said. “The attack was the first revenge for the killing of Osama bin Laden,” Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan told reporters in northwest Pakistan on phone from an undisclosed location. He warned the militants would carry out “bigger attacks”. The attack was a deadliest in Pakistan this year and came as the country's military and civilian leadership are in crisis over the killing of bin Laden. Police officials said they feared the death toll could rise. The condition of 40 injured was described by officials as serious. The powerful blasts destroyed about 20 shops and a dozen vehicles in a market located opposite the gate of the training centre. At least eight civilians were among the dead, the police said. Footage on television showed rucksacks, footwear and other belongings lying scattered amidst pools of blood at the site of the attack. Frontier Constabulary commandant Akbar Hoti told reporters that precautions taken by his force had limited casualties. "We were taking precautions, such as sending the personnel on leave in batches of 15. More casualties were caused by the second blast," Hoti said. This was the first major terrorist attack in Pakistan since bin Laden was killed in the US raid in Abbottabad, also in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. The Taliban and other militant groups had vowed to avenge bin Laden’s death. President Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned the attack. Gilani said militants have no regard for human life or religion and were “pursuing their own nefarious agenda”. — PTI
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Osama operation an ISI failure, I’m ready to quit: Pasha Chief of Pakistan's spy agency, the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), Lt Gen Shujaa Pasha on Friday offered to quit while accepting responsibility for negligence over US operation in Abbotabad that killed Osama bin Laden on May 2. “It was the failure of my institution and I am prepared to resign if the Parliament so desires,” Pasha said in his testimony before an in-camera joint session of the Parliament. The proceedings were leaked to the press by MPs during break for prayers. Federal Minister Riaz Pirzada confirmed most media reports, but denied there were any hot exchanges or that slogans were raised during Pasha's statement. The session continued late at night. Pasha acknowledged that the US did not share intelligence with Pakistan about Osama's presence in Abbottabad and later the helicopter raid to kill him. He said during his reported presence in Abbottabad Osama never emerged from the house. He admitted that the intelligence agency was unable to detect presence of either Osama or his family in the house. The ISI chief had to face severe criticism from opposition members who blamed his agency for involvement in political affairs and masterminding toppling of democratic governments or forming alliances at the cost of preserving security and defence of the country. Air Chief Marshal Rao Qamar Sulaimanalso acknowledged that his institution's radar system failed to detect the flight of American helicopters, which, he said, had stealth technology. He said the helicopter flew as low as 50 feet from the ground and chose hilly pathway to avoid radar detection. Army chief Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani was also present during the briefing, the second in three years.
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Osama emailed without being detected by US!
Washington, May 13 His methods, described in new detail to The Associated Press by a counter-terrorism official and a second person briefed on the US investigation, frustrated Western efforts to trace him through cyberspace. The people spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive intelligence analysis. Bin Laden's system was built on discipline and trust. But it also left behind an extensive archive of email exchanges for the US to scour. The trove of electronic records pulled out of his compound after he was killed last week is revealing thousands of messages and potentially hundreds of email addresses, the AP has learned. At that location, the courier would plug the memory drive into a computer, copy bin Laden's message into an email and send it. Reversing the process, the courier would copy any incoming email to the flash drive and return to the compound, where bin Laden would read his messages offline.— AP
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US questions bin Laden’s widows
Washington: US intelligence officials have reportedly questioned the three "hostile" widows of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan but under the watchful eyes of the ISI. The women — who were all interviewed together this week — were "hostile" towards the Americans, according to a senior Pakistani government official and two senior US officials, CNN reported. The eldest of the three widows spoke for the group. ISI members were in the room along with the US intelligence officers, the unidentified officials said. The report said Americans had wanted to question the women separately to figure out inconsistencies in their stories. — PTI
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Al-Qaida chief had no escape plan
Washington: With a “support network” in Pakistan, Osama bin Laden had become “complacent” and kept staying at one location for the past several years without any ready escape plan, a media report said on Friday. Nearly two weeks after the world's most wanted terrorist was killed in Abbottabad, “US officials say key indicators bolster their initial impression that bin Laden had a support network in Pakistan that resulted in his staying in one location for the past several years, feeling comfortable he would not get caught,” CNN reported.
— PTI
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Mubarak’s wife detained in illicit wealth probe
Cairo, May 13 The 70-year-old former first lady was questioned yesterday by Egyptian investigators looking into allegations of illegal acquisition of wealth. “The head of the Illicit Gains Authority, Assem al-Gohari, has ordered the 15-day detention of Suzanne Thabet pending investigation over accusations she abused her position for the illegal acquisition of wealth," MENA reported. The authority also ordered that Mubarak be detained for another 15 days.— PTI
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Peshawar/Islamabad, May 13
Chief of Pakistan's spy agency, the Inter Services Intelligence
(ISI), Lt Gen Shujaa Pasha on Friday offered to quit while accepting responsibility for negligence over US operation in Abbotabad that killed Osama bin Laden on May 2. “It was the failure of my institution and I am prepared to resign if the Parliament so desires,” Pasha said in his testimony before an in-camera joint session of the Parliament. The proceedings were leaked to the press by MPs during break for prayers.
