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Qaida No. 2 ‘killed’ in Pak
Al-Qaida’s second-in-command Abu Yahya al-Libi. — AFP
Pak test fires Hatf VII, its fifth missile launch since Agni V
Security agency planning to ‘kill’ me, claims Asma Jehangir
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Pak’s 26/11 trial
13 Pak MLAs get SC notice over dual citizenship
China, Russia pledge to prioritise ties
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Washington, June 5 The Times said a senior Pakistani security source in Peshawar had said, "It looks like he has been killed." The paper said tribal sources in Mir Ali, where the drone attack occurred, said the Libyan ideologue was either killed or seriously wounded in the strike, which Pakistani officials said killed at least 15 persons. US officials said that Libi, on whose head Washington had put a bounty of $1 billion, had been the target of the missile attack in North Waziristan, the third drone strike in as many days and the deadliest this year. "If his killing is confirmed, it could be a major blow to the core of Al-Qaida removing the organisation's number two leader twice in less than a year," they said. Libi took the second in command spot when Egyptian cleric Ayman al-Zawahari took charge of the Al-Qaida after Osama bin Laden's death. Libi oversaw the terror group's day-to-day operations in Pakistan's tribal areas and maintained links with its regional affiliates. Top US intelligence officials said degradation to core Al-Qaida during the past several years had depleted the ranks to such an extent that the organisation could have no replacement for him. Libi, a Libyan citizen believed to be in his late 40's, has been an influential Al-Qaida commander and made a dramatic escape from a prison at Bagram Air base in Afghanistan in 2005. He was captured in 2002 after NATO forces toppled Afghanistan's Taliban rulers. He became the international terror network's deputy leader after Atiyah abd al-Rahman, another Libyan national was killed in a US missile strike in North Waziristan last August. Earlier too, Libi had been reported killed after a December 2009 drone strike in South
Waziristan. — PTI
20 militants, one soldier killed in Pak Encounter Islamabad: At least 20 pro-Taliban militants and a Pakistani soldier were killed on Tuesday in a clash in the restive Mohmand tribal region bordering Afghanistan, officials said. Four soldiers were injured in the skirmish, which erupted when the militants launched an attack on a check post at Salala in Mohmand agency after Monday midnight.
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Pak test fires Hatf VII, its fifth missile launch since Agni V
This was the fifth missile test by Pakistan since
late April. "The test will consolidate Pakistan's strategic deterrence capability and further strengthen national security," the military said in a statement. The military described the Hatf-VII or Babur as
an indigenously developed multi-tube cruise missile system. The missile is a "low flying, terrain-hugging" weapon with "high manoeuvrability, pinpoint accuracy and radar avoidance features". The Hatf-VII can carry nuclear or conventional warheads and has
stealth capabilities. It incorporates the "terrain contour matching" and "digital scene matching and area co-relation" technologies, which enhance the missile's precision and effectiveness manifold, the military claimed. The missile was launched from a multi-tube missile launch vehicle that "significantly enhances the targeting and employment options" of the Hatf-VII in both conventional and nuclear modes, the statement said. The test was witnessed by Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Chairman Gen Khalid Shameem Wynne, Strategic Plans Division Director General Lt Gen (retired) Khalid Ahmed Kidwai, senior officers of the armed forces and strategic organisations and scientists. The President and Prime Minister congratulated the scientists and engineers, the statement said. Pakistan has tested a wide array of missiles since late last month. On April 25, it tested an improved version of the nuclear-capable Hatf-IV intermediate range ballistic missile with the range of 1,000 km. The launch came just six days after India tested the Agni-V missile with a range of 5,000 km.
— PTI
The ‘famous’ Fifth
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Security agency planning to ‘kill’ me, claims Asma Jehangir
Asma spoke out on a couple of primetime talk shows on Monday night stating that the establishment, particularly a sensitive agency, was upset with her for picking up cudgels for the Baloch people and speaking out against the role of the security establishment in the restive province of Balochistan. In an apparent reference to the ISI, Asma said she has been informed about the plot by a credible source and had no doubt in her mind that the security agency was behind it. She has been receiving threats from a variety of forces all along but this one was serious. Asma went public with her fears after an “information-leak from a responsible and highly credible source”. Alarmed by this leak, members of Pakistan’s civil society said: “What makes the reported conspiracy to liquidate Asma Jehangir especially serious is the environment of target-killings, in which dissident persons’ dead bodies are being dumped all over, and the fact that the finger of accusation has been pointed at the extraordinarily privileged state actors.”
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Pak’s 26/11 trial
Islamabad, June 5 Anti-terrorism court Judge Shahid Rafique, who was hearing the matter, was transferred and posted as district and sessions judge in the Jhang area of Punjab province, officials said. Following the transfer, the case was adjourned till June 9. Khwaja Haris Ahmed, the counsel for Lakhvi, the mastermind of the Mumbai attacks, expressed disappointment on yet another change in the judge conducting the trial. "It is disappointing," Ahmed said. No reason was given for the judge's transfer, but Ahmed said the move was "not unusual." A prosecutor described the development as a routine transfer and posting. — PTI
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13 Pak MLAs get SC notice over dual citizenship
Having suspended the membership of Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Mali and MP Farah Naz Isphani for dual nationality, the Supreme Court has issued notices to 13 parliamentarians allegedly holding dual citizenship in response to another application.
The notices were issued to elected members from the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM). Finance Minister Hafeez Shaikh and PML-N MLA Khawaja Asif are prominent among the names with US and Canadian citizenship, while deputy senate chairman Sabir Baloch is also included in the list although his nationality remains unmentioned. Both Shaikh and Asif denied they had ever acquired citizenship of any other country. The applicant, advocate Waheed Anjum, who is representing the Rawalpindi Bar Council, provided the lawmakers’ foreign passports numbers to the apex court. Media reports said total number of lawmakers holding dual nationality is 27.
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China, Russia pledge to prioritise ties
Beijing, June 5 As Putin arrived this morning to hold talks with Chinese leaders, the state-run CCTV virtually covered the event live. The two countries pledge to prioritise their relations, Xinhua news agency reported after the meeting between Putin and President Hu Jintao.
— PTI
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Al-Qaida's second in command Abu Yahya al-Libi was the main target of the US drone strike that killed 15 militants in Pakistan's lawless Northwest yesterday and US officials said they were "optimistic" that the Libyan had not survived.
Islamabad, June 5
Pakistan’s human rights activist Asma Jehangir has said the country’s powerful security establishment was planning to get her killed using one of the many jihadi outfits operating in the country.