The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Taliban attack Pakistan police station, 8 killed

Islamabad, December 10
A group of Taliban suicide attackers stormed a police station in Pakistan's restive northwest today, triggering a gun battle that left eight persons dead, including four policemen.

The terrorists, armed with heavy weapons and wearing suicide vest, launched the attack at Kakki, located 14 km from Bannu city in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, while policemen and local residents were offering prayers at a mosque inside the police station compound.

The terrorists began firing and lobbed grenades after they were challenged by a policeman. About 20 policemen who were present in the police station returned fire, triggering a gun battle that continued for over an hour.

Four policemen and two civilians were killed when one suicide attacker blew himself up in the mosque. Another attacker blew himself up in a nearby market while fleeing, state-run Radio Pakistan reported.

At least eight persons, including two policemen and an officer, were injured in the attack.

There was confusion about the total number of attackers, with some reports saying up to five terrorists were involved in the incident and that some of them had escaped.

Army troops were called out after the attack and the security forces cordoned off the area and conducted a search operation.

The banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attack, with spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan saying it was carried out in retaliation for the recent killing of Ibrahim Mehsud, a nephew of slain former Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud.

The Bannu region is located close to the Taliban stronghold of North Waziristan and has witnessed several attacks by militants.

President Asif Ali Zardari condemned the attack, saying such cowardly acts cannot shake the government's resolve to wipe out terrorism. — PTI

Attacks kill Afghan police chief, official

Kandahar, December 10
An Afghan provincial police chief and an official in charge of women's affairs were killed in separate attacks in Afghanistan today. The police chief for Nimroz province was travelling home from neighbouring Herat province when his vehicle struck a roadside bomb in the morning hours, said the chief's secretary Obaidullah.

Police chief Gen Mohammad Musa Rasouli was seriously wounded and was rushed to the hospital, where he died of his wounds, said the secretary. Rasouli was returning to his job in Nimroz after a short break in Herat province, Obaidullah said.

Also this morning, gunmen shot and killed the head of the women's affairs department for the eastern Laghman province, said Sarhadi Zewak, a spokesman for the provincial government.

Nadia Sediqi was on her way to the office from her home on the outskirts of the provincial capital when she was attacked, Zewak said. No one has claimed responsibility for Sediqi’s death so far. — AP

Pak Taliban reject reports of rift in its top leadership

Islamabad, December 10
The outlawed Pakistani Taliban today rejected reports of a rift in its top leadership and said there was no move to replace its chief Hakimullah Mehsud with Wali-ur-Rehman.

"The reports have no truth. We held the main shura (council) meeting two weeks back in North Waziristan Agency and all the 42 members or their representatives attended the meeting chaired by Hakimullah Mehsud. This is sufficient to rebuff reports of any change in Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan's (TTP) top slot," Taliban spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan said.

Ihsan was quoted as saying by the website of the Dawn newspaper that he too had attended the meeting of the shura. "Wali-ur-Rehman and all the other top leadership from Mohmand, Bajaur, Dara Adam Khel and the rest of Pakistan had attended the meeting and reposed confidence in Hakimullah Mehsud besides discussing organisational affairs of the TTP," he said.

Only Mullah Fazlullah, the erstwhile Taliban chief of Swat Valley, was absent from the meeting. — PTI

Pak police arrests professor on blasphemy charge

Islamabad, December 10
The police in the Pakistani capital have arrested a professor on a charge of blasphemy after hundreds of people, including clerics and seminary students, joined a protest and demanded the registration of a case against him.

Iftikhar Khan, a professor and author in his 60s, was accused of blasphemy by his nephew Sheikh Usman, a trader from Rawalpindi.

Usman claimed two books written by his uncle contained "blasphemous comments".

Khan is a PhD scholar and returned to Pakistan in 1987 after spending 12 years in the US.

Media reports said Khan and Usman were involved in a dispute over property.

Yesterday, hundreds of people, including local residents, clerics and madrassa students, joined a demonstration in the industrial area of Islamabad and demanding the registration of an FIR against Khan under the harsh blasphemy law.

Subsequently, Khan was arrested by the police and Superintendent of Police Khurram Rasheed was deputed to investigate the matter, media reports said.— PTI

US shootout leaves five dead; two children injured

Porterville (US), Dec 10
The church bell that rings out to announce the deaths of tribal members on the Tule River Indian Reservation tolled repeatedly after a man went on a shooting rampage that left a daughter, his mother and her two brothers dead. The suspect also died in a shootout with the police.

Authorities cornered Hector Celaya, 31, on a country road in the middle of citrus orchards 30 miles away from the reservation and about six hours after the shootings on Saturday night that also left two of his other children wounded.

In the car with him were two daughters, eight-year-old Alyssa and five-year-old Linea. One had life-threatening injuries; the other did not.

Authorities said Celaya was fatally wounded by deputies after he opened fire on them.

By yesterday night, authorities confirmed that Alyssa died of her injuries. The police said Celaya had a tattoo of her name on his right leg.

Authorities have not disclosed what motivated Celaya to kill his relatives, who lived in a travel trailer on a family compound on the reservation of about 800 people. But tribal members said the former custodian at the reservation's casino had a troubled past.

"He had a real hard life," said Rhoda Hunter, the tribal council secretary. "But all of us do, we all have a hard time. But we try not to let it get the best of us."

Hunter said that Celaya's mother was a friend of hers.

The Tulare County sheriff's department, which is investigating the case, identified her as 60-year-old Irene Celaya.

The killings stunned the tightknit tribal community.

"We've had a lot of deaths here, but nothing like this. Not murder. No, not murder," Hunter said.

The remote reservation relies on the Eagle Mountain Casino for revenues. Each tribal member receives $500 a month, but Hunter said most of the profit is invested into educational programmes for the children.

The compound where the shooting took place is on a dirt road in a scenic canyon lined with oaks and sycamore trees. — AP

Oz RJs sorry for Indian-origin nurse’s death

Melbourne, December 10
Two Australian radio jockeys (RJ) who made a hoax call to an elite London hospital treating Prince William's pregnant wife Kate today apologised, as they tearfully spoke of being "shattered, gutted, heartbroken" over the death of an Indian-origin nurse caught up in the prank.

Radio station 2Day FM presenters Mel Greig and Michael Christian said they were devastated by the news of 46-year-old Jacintha Saldanha's death, according to media reports here.

When asked how they reacted when told of the death of Saldanha, the mother of two, both DJs broke down in tears.

While Christian said he was "shattered, gutted, heartbroken", Greig replied it was "gut wrenching", the worst phone call of her life.

"Our deepest sympathies are with the family and the friends (of Saldanha)," Christian said.

"It came into my head that I just wanted to reach out to them (the family), give them a big hug and say sorry. I hope they're OK, I really do," Greig said.

The two presenters were interviewed by Channel Nine and the Seven Network.

Greig and Christian posing as Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles made the call which was received by Saldanha at London's King Edward VII Hospital.

She put them through to a colleague who divulged details of the pregnant Kate's health conditions. Saldanha was subsequently found dead under mysterious circumstances.

According to 'The Age', their partial transcript pre-recorded interview with A Current Affair, will be screened tonight.

The host Tracey Grimshaw asked who came up with the idea for the prank call.

"It was just the team sitting down before the show - just had the idea for just a simple harmless phone call," Christian said.

"... when we thought about making a call, it was going to go for 30 seconds. We were going to be hung up on, and that was it," Christian said. — PTI

Radio station assures cooperation in probe

London: The owners of the Australian radio station that carried out the prank call which apparently led to an Indian-origin nurse's suicide have assured the King Edward VII's Hospital that the company will cooperate with it in any investigation into the matter. — PTI

India awaiting report from its London mission

New Delhi, December 10
India is awaiting a report from its mission in London on the alleged suicide by an Indian-origin nurse who transferred a hoax phone call that gave away information about the condition of pregnant Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, to Australian radio presenters.

"We don't know enough about it. Let's wait and see what exactly has happened and why it happened," External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said while terming the incident extremely sad.

Official sources said the Indian mission in London has been asked to give a detailed report on the entire incident and the ministry was awaiting a response.

Asked if she will be buried in India, sources said her husband was yet to approach the mission in this matter. — PTI

Tibetans inciting self-immolation to be charged with homicide

Beijing, December 10
As the self-immolations in Tibet continued unabated, China has brought a new law under which anyone caught helping someone self-immolate would be held liable for "intentional homicide", a regulation officials hope will bring down such cases.

Tibetans living in exile light candles as they take part in a candlelight march in New Delhi on Monday to mark World Human Rights Day. — AFP

According to a regulation recently drafted by the Ministry of Public Security and the judicial bodies, people who plan, organise, incite or help others perform self-immolations will be tried for intentional homicide, state-run Global Times reported today.

"Those who parade a corpse through the streets or gather to watch the immolation without actively stopping the suicide will also be subject to criminal prosecution," it said.

One Buddhist monk and his nephew in Sichuan Province, close to Tibet were arrested for encouraging eight people to commit self-immolations, official media announced yesterday.

According to overseas Chinese groups the self-immolations were aimed at protesting the Chinese rule in Tibet and calling for return of the Dalai Lama from exile.

So far 92 people committed self immolations in the recent months and according to reports the numbers went up to 23 last month coinciding with once-in-a-decade-leadership meet of the ruling Communist Party of China.

Xi Jinping was elected the new leader replacing the outgoing President Hu Jintao.

The Chinese government has long condemned the Dalai Lama clique for encouraging innocent people to engage in self-immolation on the Chinese mainland and now this case has provided overwhelming evidence, Xiong Kunxin, a professor of ethnic studies at the Minzu University of China, told the Global Times. — PTI

Allow probe, says Tibetan admn

Dharamsala: The Central Tibetan Administration on Monday asked the Chinese authorities to allow the rights groups across the world to investigate the reasons behind the deteriorating human rights situation in Tibet. “If China genuinely wishes to end the self-immolations, it should allow unfettered access to international bodies to Tibetan areas to investigate the root causes behind these incidents," Tibetan PM-in-exile Lobsang Sangay said here. — PTI