Nato supply route re-opened

PESHAWAR: Nato can resume supplying its troops in Afghanistan through a key Pakistani route on Monday after protesters against US drone strikes lifted a blockade, an official said.

Imran Khan addresses the crowd during a rally against the US drone strikes in Peshawar.

Supporters of former cricketer Imran Khan’s political party on Sunday ended a two-day sit-in at a Peshawar road, which was called to compel the US to end a covert missile campaign against militants in Pakistan’s tribal belt.

“Peshawar ring road has been cleared and re-opened for vehicular traffic,”senior local administration official, Mohammad Siraj Khan told AFP.

Trucks will only be able to use the route from Monday morning because of security reasons, he added.

Imran Khan -who leads the Tehreek-e-Insaf (Movement for Justice) party -earlier said his supporters would “block supplies for Nato in different parts of the country if drone attacks are not stopped within one month.”

“We will also stage sit-in in Islamabad if the government fails to stop these strikes,” he told a crowd of some 5,000 people at the end of the two-day sit-in.

Supporters waved party flags and chanted slogans such as “stop the drone attacks, stop killing innocent people and down with the government,” during the speech, an AFP reporter at the scene said.

“We want a sovereign Pakistan,” Khan said, adding that “the American people will hold even bigger demonstrations if they come to know that the innocent civilians are being killed in the drone attacks.”

The party called the demonstration in protest at US missile attacks from unmanned aircraft in Pakistan’s lawless tribal areas, which many feel infringe Pakistani sovereignty and which locals say sometimes kill civilians.

Public anger intensified after a March 17 drone attack killed 39 people including civilians.

Nato supply trucks and oil tankers are the targets of frequent attacks blamed on insurgents attempting to disrupt supplies for the more than 130,000 international troops fighting in Afghanistan.

Most supplies and equipment required by coalition troops in Afghanistan are shipped through Pakistan, although US troops increasingly use alternative routes through central Asia.

Who are behind Shahbaz Bhatti’s murder?

In wake of continued terrorist acts in Pakistan, on March 2 this year the cold-blooded murder of the country’s Federal Minister for Minorities Affairs, Shahbaz Bhatti has intensified the debate that as to who are behind his assassination. Although Tehrik-e-Taliban-Pakistan, a militant group has taken the responsibility of Shabaz’s murder, yet Pakistan’s intelligence and security agencies are investigating in connection with some foreign hands or the possible involvement of Xe International, (formerly Blackwater) and indian intelligence agency RAW, specifically looking into the activities of a white foreigner who is acting as a “security consultant” in Islamabad. In this regard, some high officials of Pakistan have revealed that a third hand or party might be involved in the assassination of the federal minister for minorities.

Some intelligence officials told a Pakistani newspaper that they found suspect-the activities of the foreigner who was living under the umbrella of a NGO and running an office in sector G-11 of Islamabad. They indicated, “nobody knows what he is doing in Islamabad and on what mission”, he is. The paper explained that the foreigner also met with some security officers a couple of days back posing as “security consultant” and interviewed them regarding the current security situation of Pakistan, asking them whether Pakistan could face Libya-like situation in the near future. In this respect, a Pakistan’s renowned newspaper insisted, “the fact that the foreign hand that has been creating unrest in the country for a long time now could be behind the incident cannot be ruled out…links between foreign intelligence agencies like Indian RAW, Israeli Mossad and American CIA and militants have been suspected…RAW is even known for having provided financial and military support to spread violence in Pakistan.” In another report, the paper, while quoting “well-informed sources” disclosed that in 2010, the Obama administration deployed over 400 pro-India and pro-Israel CIA agents in Islamabad, Quetta, Peshawar, Lahore and Karachi, the country’s biggest cities.

Washington hired these contractors from private security companies like Blackwater, and leading Indian and Israeli businessmen including their secret agencies which have been clandestinely and heavily funding such companies to carry out secret operations in the Middle East, Asia and Africa as per their interests against the Islamic countries. Some reliable sources suggest that the Blackwater has hired 286 houses in different residential sectors of Islamabad for their suspicious activities. Regarding the killing of Shahbaz Bhatti, the police confirmed that the terrorists used 7.62 mm-AK-47 Klashnikov, an automatic gun and sprayed 35 bullets with two guns, adding that police recovered all the 35 empties from the scene.

It is notable that the terrorists threw on the road the pamphlets with Kalma-e-Tayyaba printed on them and also the name of the holy Prophet Mohammad (Peace Be Upon Him) after killing Shahbaz Bhatti. Th fact remains that no Muslim can ever think of dropping on ground such sacred material. Nevertheless, that condemnable act might also have been committed precisely to divert the investigations away from the real terrorists which belong to RAW, CIA and Mossad.

It is mentionable that through their secret agencies, the concerned foreign countries want to fulfil their multiple-nefarious aims against Pakistan by the murder of the federal minister for minorities affairs. In this regard, firstly, they intend to divert the attention away from the issue of Raymond Davis including his companions who are agents of the American CIA and were on an anti-Pakistan mission. Especially, Davis is part of the illegal activities of the Blackwater whose employees entered Pakistan in the guise of diplomats. Secondly, these covert agents of the related intelligence agencies want to distort the image of Pakistan in the comity of nations as they have already tarnished the country’s image through various subversive activities-are now working against Pakistan by taking advantage of the country’s deteriorated law and order situation which they have themselves created through their secret forces. Notably, in this context, the rulers and leaders of the western countries have strongly condemned the murder of the Federal Minister for Minorities Affairs, Shahbaz Bhatti, expressing outrage and termed it as “unspeakable”, “unacceptable” and a “dastardly crime”, and also called it an attack on the values of tolerance. In this regard, British Prime Minister David Cameron said that the assassination of Bhatti was “absolutely brutal and unacceptable”. He also stated that the minister’s murder showed what a huge problem we have in our world with intolerance. He further added, “I will send not only our condolences but our clearest possible message to the government and people of Pakistan that this is simply unacceptable.” US President Barack Obama pointed out that he was saddened by the “horrific” assassination. He said, “I am deeply saddened by the assassination of Pakistan’s Minister for Minorities Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti,” and “condemn in the strongest possible terms this horrific act of violence.” US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a US Senate committee, “I was shocked and outraged by the assassination of Bhatti…I think this was an attack not only on one man but on the values of tolerance and respect for people of all faiths.” German Federal Foreign Minister, Dr Guido Westerwelle, expressed his shock and dismay over the assassination of Bhatti, and said, “he was the only Christian who was passionately committed to the rights of minorities in Pakistan.” Meanwhile, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Indian leaders have also expressed similar views. However, this is what the anti-Pakistan secret agencies wanted to achieve through the murder. Thirdly, the assassination of Shahbaz Bhatti was actually aimed at further creating rifts between different religious communities, accelerating sectarian violence in Pakistan. Fourthly, it is noteworthy that Pakistan is the only nuclear country in the Islamic World; hence the US, India, Israel and some western powers are determined to weaken it. Despite American cooperation with Islamabad, its main aim along with India and Israel remains to de-nuclearise our country whose geo-strategic location with the Gwadar port entailing close ties with China irks the eyes of these countries, therefore, they are in collusion to destabilise Pakistan. For this purpose, a well-established network of Indian army, RAW, Mossad and CIA which was set up in Afghanistan against Pakistan in order to support insurgency in the Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa and separatism in Balochistan have been extended. Fifthly, the major aim of these external secret agencies is to show that Pakistan is a prejudiced country where religious extremism is running high, and where people cannot tolerate other religious communities, particularly Christians. Sixthly, by creating such an aggravated situation, these secret forces are determined to isolate Pakistan with the efforts of Indo-Jewish and American lobbies which are already working on the anti-Pakistan agenda.

Nonetheless, while taking cognizance of the real aims of the external intelligence agencies in relation to the assassination of Shahbaz Bhatti, the patriot people of Pakistan must wake up in order to apprehend the secret forces which have been trying to weaken the country. For this purpose, foreigners such as covert operatives who are running clandestine networks in the country must be captured by our intelligence agencies with the cooperation of public as quickly as possible. In this respect, a comprehensive strategy must be prepared to secure the lives of all people as well the survival of the country.

12 killed in 3 US drone attacks in NWA

Peshawar-The CIA operated American planes commonly known as drones on Wednesday killed up to a dozen more people in North Waziristan Agency when they targeted suspected vehicles and a compound in three different missiles hits.

The infamous drone or the pilot-less planes , which have been on the killing spree in Pakistani northern belt for the last couple of years killing over eleven hundred people in North and South Waziristan agencies, reports reaching here said fired two missiles on a vehicle in Qutab Khel area some five kilometers south east of NWA headquarters Miran Shah.

Sources say the projectiles landed well at their target converting the vehicle in to a fire ball as at least four people on board died on the spot and their bodies were burnt badly going beyond recognition.

The officials, as usual, said those killed were the suspected militants and the predator planes struck on the vehicle on a tip off, the locals say it was extremely difficult to say as to who were the victims of the fresh missiles hit as the bodies were badly mutilated and they might be the local tribesmen.

The US drones killed at least four people who might be the Taliban militants when their vehicle was hit by two missiles in the suburbs of Miran Shah”. Security officials said.

The infamous drones, as the reports say, again struck at Paee Khel closed to Miran Shah targeting another vehicle this time also targeting a suspected vehicle killing yet another four people aboard the vehicle.

“The locals against found it hard to get closer to the targeted vehicles to retrieve the dead bodies under the apprehension that the American planes might hit back as they usually do.

The surveillance American planes, as the reports say fired at least three more missiles in the area and targeted a compound killing more people. The sources say the number of people killed during three missiles hit on Wednesday stood at 12.

The official sources, however, found it hard to confirm the three missiles hit in North Waziristan agency on Wednesday saying they had credible information of a drone attack in Qutab Khel area killing four suspects on Wednesday but were trying to gather information about more missiles hit the same day.

US, Nato forces should eliminate terror bases in Afghanistan’

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Information Mian Iftikhar Hussain on Tuesday linked regional peace to elimination of terrorism in Afghanistan, asking the Nato and US forces to uproot the bases of terrorists in the war-torn neighbouring country.

Speaking at a gathering at the Press Club here, the minister said the Awami National Party (ANP) had always advocated a political and peaceful solution to the ongoing crisis but there were certain foreign elements in Pakistan and Afghanistan that never responded positively to the peace initiatives in the region.

“Perpetual peace in the region is linked to complete tranquillity and harmony in Afghanistan,” he said, adding that a peaceful Afghanistan was a must for peaceful Pakistan, particularly for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the tribal belt.

Mian Iftikhar said that some opportunists were out to weaken the democratic government but they would not succeed in their bid in the presence of an independent judiciary, free media and strong parliament.

“Our government still has reservations over the distribution of the US aid for the flood-hit areas under Kerry-Lugar Bill,” he said, adding that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was already suffering from militancy when the floods hit the province.

Kidnappers operating in Peshawar with impunity

PESHAWAR: Dwellers of the provincial capital are once again feeling a sense of insecurity as kidnappers have been striking quite often in almost all parts of the district with impunity.

Those who have been kidnapped during the last many days included serving and retired top government officials, well-off people and commoners. Among those kidnapped in the recent days and yet to be recovered are the vice-chancellor of Islamia College University, Ajmal Khan, and former deputy commissioner of Peshawar and lawyer Zain Khan.

The former was kidnapped from Professors’ Colony while the latter was abducted from Pishtakhara Bala.

Lawyers have expressed concern over the poor law and order following kidnapping of their senior colleagues, Zain Khan and Shamsher Afridi, another lawyer seized from Khyber Bazaar. Both are yet to be recovered.

There were reports that police had arrested two main suspects in the kidnapping of Ajmal Khan. The evidence collected in the case indicates that he had been shifted to a tribal area.
Action against the main kidnappers’ network led by Nasrullah Khattaki has earned appreciation for the police but the everyday kidnappings in the city have shattered people’s hopes of improvement in the law and order situation.

The family of one Abid Ali of Sherkera is running from pillar to post for his safe recovery but no progress has been made in the case despite passage of several weeks.There are dozens of other families left with no option but to pray for the safe return of their loved ones.

Police have also failed to take action against property dealers renting out houses to the criminal without proper verification. A number of these houses are being used as dens of the kidnapping rings where most of the abducted people are being kept.

3 drone attacks kill 10 in NWA

The Nation

PESHAWAR – As many as 18 militants were killed and five others got injured in three attacks carried out by US drones in Miranshah, North Waziristan Agency, on Wednesday.

In the first attack, a US drone fired missiles on two houses allegedly used by militants as compounds. At least 10 militants were killed and three others wounded in the attack, official sources said.

The targeted houses located in Daga Munadi area of Tehsil Miranshah were totally destroyed in the attack. The rescue operation was started soon after the incident.

In the second missile strike, a car allegedly driven by militants was targeted in Amborshaga area of Dattakhel. Sources said as many as three missiles were reportedly fried from US unmanned aircraft which killed at least four militants, while two others received injuries.

Agencies add: “At least 10 militants were killed in the US drone attack which targeted the compound of a local militant, Abdul Aziz,” a senior security official in the area told AFP, adding that the death toll may rise.

The third US drone attack targeted a compound in Dandey Darpakhel village, five kilometres northwest of Miranshah, killing four more militants, security officials said.

“A US drone fired three missiles, the target was a militant compound. Four militants have been killed but the death toll may rise,” a security official based in Peshawar told AFP.
The official said the nationalities of the dead militants were not yet known.

Two intelligence officials in Miranshah confirmed the attacks and the toll.

More than 1,040 people have been killed in 122 drone strikes in Pakistan since August 2008, including a number of senior militants. However, the attacks fuel anti-American sentiment in the country.

Bomber targets mourners at minister’s house

PESHAWAR: The shock surrounding the murder of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa information minister’s young son by the Taliban had barely sunk in when a teenage suicide bomber targeted the mourning congregation on Monday, killing at least seven people.

A man mourns the death of a relative following the suicide attack in Pabbi. PHOTO: AFP

The brazen assault in Pabbi, on the outskirts of Peshawar, was targeted at senior government officials gathering for the Soyem of Mian Iftikhar Hussain’s son.

Mian Rashid Hussain, 26, son of Mian Iftikhar Hussain, was shot dead by unknown gunmen on Saturday. On Sunday, the outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the killing, saying that the youth was targeted because his father was an outspoken critic of their movement.

The bombing took place in Khansher Garhi, the native village of Iftikhar Hussain.

The bomber detonated the explosives strapped to his body outside the street where Hussain’s home is situated, officials said. The attack coincided with a visit by federal interior minister Rehman Malik to the village to offer condolences to Hussain.

The blast damaged a police vehicle and several shops, splattering blood on the ground and smearing human flesh across the walls.

Medics at the Pabbi hospital confirmed seven fatalities. They were identified as ASI Gul Malook, Head Constable Himmat Khan, Constable Alamzeb, 10-year old Ashi, Mian Suleman, Raziq Shah and Mudassir. At least 21 people, mostly policemen, were also wounded in the attack. Sub-Inspector Ejaz Hussain was rushed to Peshawar’s Lady Reading Hospital due to his precarious condition. He was immediately operated upon and medics say his condition is now stable.

Security officials said the bomber was in his late teens and that both of his legs had been recovered from the blast site. “The suicide bomber was trying to enter the visitor’s compound at Hussain’s house,” senior police official Liaqat Ali told AFP. “The target was Mian Iftikhar and other officials sitting there.”

It was the third day of mourning for Hussain’s son and a large gathering had been expected to attend the Soyem later Monday. Federal ministers and other high-ranking officials had been due to arrive and some were sitting in the guest compound when the bomber struck. All ministers and other officials who had been at the home, including Iftikhar and his relatives were unhurt, police said.

“The teenage boy, wearing black clothes, blew himself up when the policeman was trying to search him,” Arshad Iqbal, a police official at site, who received scratches told AFP.

Sakhi Marjan, 50, a farmer in the village said the body of the policeman who tried to search the bomber was ripped to pieces

Police and paramilitary started a search operation after reports surfaced about two more suicide bombers in the village and urged people to stay at home.

Meanwhile, interior minister Rehman Malik confirmed that Faisal Shahzad, the would-be Times Square bomber, had met the TTP chief Hakimullah Mehsud. “He visited Pakistan seven times and he met Hakimullah Mehsud and also met other people, those so-called leaders of the Taliban,” Malik told reporters in Pabbi.

3 tortured Pakistanis arrive back from Afghanistan

Online International News

PESHAWAR: 3-Pakistanis who were held in Afghan Jail under terrorism allegations lost their mental-consciousness owing to torture and have been shifted from Kabul to Peshawar here on Wednesday.

Interior department Balochistan said that Afghan Police detained these 3-Pakistanis Najeeb Ullah, Lal Murjan and Nur Zameen under terrorism allegations and later they were shifted to Kabul Jail, where the Afghan security forces inflicted every brutality of torture owing to which the detainee Pakistanis lost their mental-level.

These Pakistanis were handed over to political administration at Pak-Afghan Torkham border and the provincial government of Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa has constituted a doctors panel for medical examination of these 3-people, while interior department of KP also contacted with interior department of Balochistan for shifting of these people to Quetta.

23 Taliban insurgents killed in firefight

By: Manzoor Ali

PESHAWAR: Security forces claim to have killed at least 23 Taliban insurgents in a gunfight during a search operation in Lower Dir district on Tuesday.

Showdown in Kalpani village during search operation

The gunfight took place in the Kalpani village, in the Maidan tehsil of Lower Dir, the district where four suicide car bombers attacked a paramilitary checkpoint, killing one soldier in the early hours of Monday, Operation Commander in Lower Dir, Colonel Nadeem Mirza, told reporters on Tuesday.

He said policemen, army and paramilitary personnel were carrying out a joint search operation in the village when a group of about 50 insurgents opened fire on them, triggering the gunfight.”Security personnel killed 23 militants and destroyed three of their hideouts in the village,” he said, adding that a huge cache of arms and ammunition was also recovered from the hideouts.

Medics at the Timergarah district headquarters hospital confirmed that they have received bodies of 14 militants killed in Tuesday’s clash.

On Monday four suicide bombers tried to ram their explosives-laden vehicles into the headquarters of the paramilitary Balambet Scouts in the Timergarah area of Lower Dir district.

Security officials claimed that the bombers were killed and their vehicles destroyed in the ensuing battle with paramilitary troops. However, chief of the Dir chapter of the outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Hafizullah, claimed that they freed their colleagues imprisoned in the headquarters of the paramilitary force.

Colonel Mirza, however, rejected Hafizullah’s claim, saying the paramilitary troops had thwarted the attack and that no militant was freed during the attack. He said security forces were in full control of the situation in Lower Dir district.

Monday’s in-synch suicide attack was the third major militant hit this year. Earlier, eight persons, including three US soldiers, were killed in a militant strike in February. On April 5, more than 50 people were killed when a suicide bomber detonated explosives at a political rally organised by the ruling Awami National Party to celebrate the renaming of the NWFP Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in Timergarah.

Separately, Taliban militants destroyed two state-run schools in the Bajaur tribal region on Tuesday, sources said.

Pakistan starts resettling South Waziristan tribes

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – Pakistan on Sunday launched a process of resettling tens of thousands of tribesmen displaced in a major offensive in the Taliban stronghold of South Waziristan last year, officials said.

More than 40,000 families or some 300,000 people fled their homes

Pakistan’s military launched a sweeping offensive into South Waziristan last October aimed at wiping out the nerve centre of the main Taliban faction behind a wave of attacks that have killed about 3,400 people since July 2007.

The government has now set up two centres for registration of people who want to resume normal life in the rugged mountainous region, local administration official Mudassar Riaz Malik said.

More than 40,000 families or some 300,000 people fled their homes during the offensive in the area, which was known to shelter battle-hardened Uzbeks and Arabs with links to Al-Qaeda.

The military is now pursuing insurgents believed to have fled to the other six districts that make up the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).

South Waziristan’s displaced have mostly been staying with relatives, friends or in rented houses.

“The registration centres in Tank and Dera Ismail Khan towns started working today and the response was good,” Malik told AFP by telephone. The actual resettlement process will begin soon after registration is over, he said.

“We want to resettle all those who had been displaced,” he said adding that two more centres would be established to expedite the work.

The returnees will be provided with food and other essentials in addition to cash assistance to help in resettlement, he said.

The government offered to begin resettling displaced people earlier in the year but the tribespeople proved reluctant to move until the situation was completely stabilised, tribal sources said.

Malik said troops would remain in the area to ensure peace and security and would “stay there as long as needed”.

The military confirmed it was providing security for the process.

“It is a joint effort, we are involved in the repatriation process,” a military official said.