W O R L D

Boycott poll, Taliban tell voters
Islamabad, April 26
The banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has distributed pamphlets in several Pakistani cities, including Peshawar and Karachi, warning people not to participate in next month's landmark general election.

Election banners on a street in Lahore. — AFP

Voting a religious duty: Fatwa
Religious scholars have issued a ‘fatwa’ (edict) declaring voting a ‘religious responsibility’ for every Pakistani including women. The move comes after the Taliban issued threats warning people, particularly women, of consequences if they cast their vote.

Taliban plan to ‘kidnap’ ex- Prez
Islamabad, April 26
Pakistani intelligence agencies have warned that the Taliban have made plans to kidnap Pervez Musharraf.

• the ringside view

38 killed in Russia hospital fire
Moscow, April 26
A pre-dawn blaze at a Russian psychiatric hospital today killed 38 persons, mostly patients, who died in their sleep inhaling the fumes, officials said.


Smoke rises from the burnt psychiatric hospital in Ramensky town, 40 km outside Moscow, on Friday. — AFP

Boston bombings suspect moved from hospital to federal prison
Boston, April 26
The lone surviving Boston bombings suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was injured in a deadly shootout with police here last week, was today transferred from a hospital to a prison medical centre in Massachusetts.

Boycott poll, Taliban tell voters

Islamabad, April 26
The banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has distributed pamphlets in several Pakistani cities, including Peshawar and Karachi, warning people not to participate in next month's landmark general election.

Leaflets distributed in several areas of Karachi, the country's largest city, threatened people not to attend political rallies or cast their votes, Dawn News channel reported.

Pamphlets were also distributed at Badabher, Mattani and Adezai areas on the outskirts of Peshawar and at Buner and Swat in the northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.

In Buner, leaflets distributed near a mosque in Shingrai warned local residents against participating in the poll.

The pamphlets warned people that they would be responsible for their lives if they violated the Taliban's ban on voting in the May 11 general election, which will mark the first democratic transition in Pakistan's 66-year history.

Local residents and security personnel confirmed that leaflets were distributed in several areas of the restive northwest.

They said the pamphlets contained threats similar to those made by the Taliban during elections in 2008.

Taliban spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan was quoted as saying that his organisation considered democracy as "un-Islamic" and the "agenda of secular forces in Pakistan".

He said the Taliban were opposed to democracy.

Ihsan said the Taliban would continue its fight against "secular forces and governments which were backed by secular countries".

The Taliban had earlier warned that they would target leaders and election rallies of secular parties like the Pakistan People's Party, Awami National Party and Muttahida Qaumi Movement.

The Taliban gunned down a MQM candidate in the southern city of Hyderabad while about 20 people were killed when a suicide bomber recently targeted a ANP meeting in Peshawar.

In 2008, the Taliban had carried out a suicide attack in Buner during byelections for a parliamentary seat. At least 45 persons were killed and 150 injured in that attack. — PTI

Voting a religious duty: Fatwa
Afzal Khan in Islamabad

Religious scholars have issued a ‘fatwa’ (edict) declaring voting a ‘religious responsibility’ for every Pakistani including women. The move comes after the Taliban issued threats warning people, particularly women, of consequences if they cast their vote.

“Since change in Pakistan is possible only through the ballot, it is the religious responsibility of every Pakistani,” stated the edict issued by the Pakistan Ulema Council (PUC).

PUC chairman Allama Tahir Ashrafi read out the edict in the presence of various religious leaders and scholars from different schools of thought as well as representatives of religious minorities.

Benazir murder: Musharraf remanded in FIA custody
Afzal Khan in Islamabad

Taliban plan to ‘kidnap’ former President

Islamabad, April 26
Pakistani intelligence agencies have warned that the Taliban have made plans to kidnap Pervez Musharraf.

The intelligence agencies have issued an advisory that Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan might attempt to abduct him while he is being taken from his farmhouse to court. — PTI

the ringside view

Death of MQM men: Shutdown in Sindh

Islamabad: Businesses, shops and schools remained closed in Karachi and other parts of Sindh on Friday after the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) called for a day of mourning over the killing of its activists in Karachi. Five persons were killed and 12 others were injured in a blast outside the MQM camp office on Thursday evening. Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan spokesperson Ehsanullah Ehsan claimed responsibility for the attack. Traffic on the roads was thin as businesses, educational institutions and shops remained closed. — TNS

5 political workers hurt in Balochistan blast

Islamabad: Five supporters of a political leader were injured when their motorcade was targeted with a roadside bomb in the restive Balochistan province of southwest Pakistan on Friday, security officials said. The incident in Bolan district targeted the motorcade of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam leader Hashim Shahwani, who is a candidate for upcoming polls to the Balochistan Assembly. Shahwani escaped unhurt, security officials told the media. The injured persons were taken to a nearby hospital. No group claimed responsibility for the attack. — PTI

38 killed in Russia hospital fire

Boston bombings suspect moved from hospital to federal prison

BRIEFLY

S Korea calls for pullout from joint industrial zone
Seoul: South Korea called on Friday for the withdrawal of all remaining staff from its joint industrial complex with North Korea, after Pyongyang shunned an offer for talks on the zone’s future. “The government has made the inevitable decision to withdraw all the remaining people for their protection,” the South's Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-Jae said. It was not immediately clear how the government decision will be implemented, with questions as to its jurisdiction over the 123 South Korean commercial firms operating at the Kaesong complex. — AFP

Philippines poll ambush: 12 dead
Iligan (Philippines): Twelve persons were killed in an ambush on a Philippines mayor, officials said on Friday, in the deadliest of a string of violent incidents that have marred the campaign for May elections. Gunmen opened fire on a truck carrying Mayor Abdulmalik Manamparan and his supporters on southern Mindanao island late on Friday, local military commander Colonel Ricardo Jalad said, with his relatives among the victims. — AFP

B’desh building toll passes 300
dhaka: Bangladesh textile workers vented their anger on Friday, burning cars and clashing with the police, as the death toll passed 300 following the collapse of a building housing factories that made low-cost garments for Western brands. Rescuers were still pulling people alive from the rubble two days after the eight-storey building collapsed on the outskirts of Dhaka. — Reuters

45 dead as Afghan bus hits tanker
Kandahar: A passenger bus in Afghanistan collided on Friday with a wrecked fuel tanker left on a road after a Taliban insurgent attack, killing at least 45 persons. — AFP