|
|
|
|
|
Took a month to plan jail attack, spent Rs 1 crore: Pak Taliban
Hate Crime
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Third Prez-PM showdown sees heavy voter turnout in Zimbabwe
Find a safe haven, father tells Snowden
Kerry arrives in Pakistan for key talks
Pak CEC quits over allegation of poll rigging
|
|
Took a month to plan jail attack, spent Rs 1 crore: Pak Taliban
Peshawar, July 31 The Taliban gunmen launched their attack on the Central Prison in Dera Ismail Khan of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province bordering the restive South Waziristan agency yesterday around midnight with a series of heavy explosions before firing rocket propelled grenades and machine guns. Adnan Rashid, a Taliban commander who was released by the militants in a jail break incident in Bannu few years back, said the operation was named "Marg-e-Nijat" and it was launched to set free six militants of Quetta and some others. It took a month to plan the assault and cost Rs 1 crore to materialise the plan, he said. During the attack yesterday, the militants killed six policemen, six Shia prisoners and two private security guards. Security forces released a list of 252 prisoners who had gone missing after the Taliban attack on the prison. The list includes the names of 11 high-profile terrorists, Dawn News reported. Meanwhile, the police today re-arrested 45 prisoners who had escaped. Security officials were quoted by the daily as saying that the re-arrested convicts had voluntarily surrendered themselves to the police and that a search was still under way to apprehend as many escaped prisoners as possible. "We freed two important commanders hailing from Parachinar, six each from Dera Ismail Khan and Quetta. Our friends have now reached a safe place in Mir Ali in North Waziristan agency," Rashid told a private TV channel. He also claimed that a lady police constable was in their custody. "It was part of the plan to remain in the jail premises for 20 minutes and then escape to the adjacent tribal agency South Waziristan within one hour of the attack," Rashid said. "Eight special commandos (suicide attackers) participated in the jail break attempt who were equipped with latest night-vision gadgets and weaponry. In all, thirteen vehicles were used in the operation and used two ways to reach the jail," the Taliban commander said. Taliban commander Haji Abdul Hakim, Haji Ilyas and Walid Akbar are among those who have been set free in the jail attack, sources said. Akbar was main accused in the attack on a Muharram procession in Dera Ismail Khan last year. Most-wanted militants from Bajaur also escaped in the incident, sources said.
— PTI Zawahri vows to free Guantanamo inmates Dubai: Al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri slammed US treatment of hunger-striking inmates at the Guantanamo Bay and said the group would spare no effort to free them, according to an audio recording posted on Internet on Wednesday. Zawahri also said Shi'ite Hezbollah's intervention in the conflict in Syria was an attempt to promote Iranian hegemony over the country. Musharraf’s farmhouse to be ‘stormed’
Islamabad: Banned militant outfits — the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan — have planned to attack former dictator Pervez Musharraf's Chak Shahzad farmhouse, which was declared a sub-jail on April 20 here, a media report said on Wednesday. |
||
|
Hate Crime Los Angeles, July 31 “The Sikh gurdwara in Riverside was vandalised on the night of July 29 in an apparent hate crime. The word ‘terrorist’ was spray-painted around the complex,” the Sikh American Legal Defence and Education Fund (SALDEF) said. The group said it has been in direct contact with Riverside County Sheriff Department, the Riverside Police Department, the FBI and Department of Justice CRS urging them to investigate the incident as a hate crime. “It is horrible to see an attack of hate on a place of worship as we reflect on the lives lost one year ago during the attack on the Oak Creek Gurdwara,” said SALDEF executive director Jasjit Singh. A year ago on August 5, 2012, six Sikh worshippers were shot dead by a US Army veteran and white supremacist, Wade Michael Page, who went on a shooting rampage in the gurdwara in Oak Creek. “Attacks and vandalism against any of the nation’s houses of worship must be condemned by all Americans. These acts strike the very foundation of religious tolerance, a fundamental freedom this country was built upon,” he said. “We call upon local and federal law enforcement agencies to rightfully classify this incident as a hate crime and bring the perpetrators to justice to show that hate and violence are not tolerated in our society,” he added.
— PTI
|
||
|
Third Prez-PM showdown sees heavy voter turnout in Zimbabwe
Harare, July 31 With no reliable opinion polls and amid allegations of vote-rigging, it is hard to say whether Tsvangirai will succeed in his third attempt to oust 89-year-old Mugabe, who has run the southern African nation since independence from Britain in 1980. Both sides are forecasting landslide wins but in a country with a history of election violence, the big question is whether the loser will accept the result of a poll dogged by logistical problems and reports of intimidation and irregularities. Mugabe, who rejects past and present charges from critics of vote-fixing and intimidation by his ZANU-PF party supporters, has said he will concede if defeated. "I'm sure people will vote freely and fairly," he told reporters after casting his ballot at a school in Harare's Highfields township. "There's no pressure being exerted on anyone." Polls opened on time at 0500 GMT, with long queues of people braving unseasonably cold weather to stand in line from well before dawn.
— Reuters |
||
|
Find a safe haven, father tells Snowden
Moscow, July 31 "Edward, I hope you are watching this. Your family is well. We love you. We hope you are healthy, we hope you are well, I hope to see you soon, but most of all I want you to be safe. I want you to find a safe haven," Lon Snowden said in an interview broadcast on Rossiya24 channel. Edward Snowden has been holed up in the Sheremetyevo airport outside Moscow since June 23, when he flew in from Hong Kong after leaking information about US surveillance programmes. He is currently awaiting a response to his request for temporary asylum in Russia.The United States is pressing Russia to hand over the former NSA contractor, who Washington wants to put on trial. In the interview dubbed into Russian, Lon said he hoped his son would return home one day. But he said that events over the past few weeks suggested that there were no guarantees of a fair trial in the US, and that he, therefore, agreed with his son's decision to remain in
Russia. — AFP |
||
|
Kerry arrives in Pakistan for key talks
Islamabad, July 31 Kerry, who had earlier postponed his visit, will hold meetings with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and army chief General Ashfaq Kayani tomorrow. This is Kerry's maiden visit to Pakistan after becoming the Secretary of State. Bilateral relations and regional situation, especially resumption of strategic dialogue between Pakistan and the United States, besides the issue of drone strikes will be discussed during Kerry's meeting with the top leadership. The two sides are expected to discuss resumption of strategic dialogue as well as cooperation in different fields including energy.
— PTI |
||
|
Pak CEC quits over allegation of poll rigging
Pakistan’s Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd) Fakhruddin G Ebrahim resigned from his post amid persistent allegations of rigging and mismanagement of the May11 elections and latest fiasco in rescheduling the presidential election. Ebrahim’s resignation was confirmed by the Election Commission of Pakistan . The resignation has been sent to the President for approval. Ebrahim, one of the country’s most respected jurists, oversaw the May 11 general elections of Pakistan, whose conduct and outcome was criticised by virtually every party, including the PML-N which blamed rigging in Sindh. PTI chairman Imran Khan alleged that the elections were stolen from his party due to "massive" rigging. The PPP which lost all over, except in Sindh, said it had accepted results with reservation.
|
UK’s first Muslim MP renounces citizenship to be governor in Pak Rowling wins damages over pseudonym leak Pope sacks top Slovenian clergymen Berlusconi’s lawyers for acquittal in tax fraud
|
|||||
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | E-mail | |
