Protests erupt as Hindus are served beef in flood camps
PAKISTAN: Two more Ahmadis murdered in target killings5 more NATO tankers blown up at Torkham
Six Somali lawmakers among 32 dead in hotel carnage
Terrorists will try to exploit flood crisis, says Zardari
Pakistan moves choppers from Taliban fight to relief
Afghan withdrawal date bolsters enemy: US general
Hezbollah clash with Lebanon Sunni group kills one
Austria far right wants vote on minaret, veil ban
Al Dahab is Islamic Personality of the Year
Israeli police arrest rabbi over inciting violence against non-Jews
Saudi not mulling paralysis penalty for attacker
Debate rages over Saudi women working as cashiers
Pak dismantles LeT relief camps
Brother of ANP leader shot dead in Karachi
12 Taliban fighters killed, 15 injured in US drone attacks
US drone strike kills 20 in Miranshah
Suicide attack kills 15 at mosque in Pakistan's Waziristan
Kashmir: Normalcy returns as curfew lifts
Tehran shuts Swedish cosmetics firm, arrests five
Pak exaggerating flood damages to get more aid?
Kabul assails US for embracing Pakistan as ‘strategic partner’
Kabul feels the heat of 'working' with Pakistan
Pak sabotaged Afghan peace bid
‘No affected Sindhi should be forced to leave Karachi’
Taliban kill three members of lashkar in Peshawar
Torture of boy reveals police modus operandi
25 militants escape from Tajik prison
Controversial Ahmadinejad aide named as Mideast envoy
Solicitor-General to Head Communal Violence Bill Panel
Kashmir situation serious: Karat
Prisons asked to produce Sayedee Sept 21
War crime probe against Ghulam Azam begins
Pirates kill fisherman, abduct 125 for ransom
Indo-Bangla ties worsened after Bangabandhu's death
Jamaat men backtrack on war trial act
Mike Tyson in Saudi Arabia for pilgrimage
Spanish aid workers freed by Al-Qaeda return home
Floods: Pakistan eases visa regime except for Indians
Bangladesh battling anthrax outbreak
US support of Pakistan ‘strategic mistake’
UAE, US ink deal on nuclear safeguards
Afghan security force training faces big hurdles
Saudi flood rescue team reaches Pakistan
First locomotives for mineral railway arrive
Compiled by: New Age Islam News Bureau
Photo: Dr Najmul Hasan who was murdered in Pakistan
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Protests erupt as Hindus are served beef in flood camps
24 August 2010
ISLAMABAD: Hundreds of minority Hindus rendered homeless by the devastating floods in Pakistan were served beef by authorities at a relief camp in Karachi, triggering protest from the community members.
The Hindus belonging to the Baagri and Waghari nomadic tribes, who numbered around 600, are among 4,000 flood victims of different faiths living in the relief camp in Lyari area.
"We are Hindus and consumption of beef is prohibited in our religion but we were given beef, which is unacceptable," Mohan Baagri, a Hindu living at the camp, said. Several women with traditional tattoos on their faces and wearing ‘lehengas’ left the camp with their children and demanded that they be shifted elsewhere.
Following the protest, officials of the minority affairs ministry of Sindh province rushed to the camp and intervened to resolve the issue.
"It was a misunderstanding. The food was for the residents of the camp but the authorities were not aware of their faith. However, we have made arrangements and they will now be given rations so they can cook their own food," said Dara Kazi, personal assistant to provincial minority affairs minister Mohan Mal Kohistani. PTI
Times of India
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PAKISTAN: Two more Ahmadis murdered in target killings
24 August 2010
Two more Ahmadis, Dr. Najam al-Hasan and Pir Habib al-Rehman have been murdered in religiously motivated killings. Once again, no one has been arrested and the likelihood of anyone being prosecuted is virtually nil.
Dr. al-Hasan was leaving his clinic in Karachi, the capital of Sindh province, and had just entered his car when he was shot dead by a group of assailants, who remain unidentified. Dr. al-Hasan was just 39 years old and a professor at the Dow Medical University, Karachi.
Pir Habib-al-Rehman, a resident of Sanghar city, Sindh province, was on his way to his farm when two masked assailants approached his vehicle and shot him twice. One of the shots fired struck his head. He was rushed to the hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival. Pir Habib al-Rehman was a US citizen and had been in Pakistan on personal business. He is the second US citizen in two years to be killed for being an Ahmadi. In 2006 Pir Habib's brother, Dr. Pir Mujeeb al-Rehman, was also killed for being an Ahmadi Muslim in Sanghar city. Previously in September, 2008, Dr. Abdul Mannan Siddiqi, also a US citizen, was brutally killed in Mirpurkhas.
Since the anti-Ahmadiyya Ordinance XX in 1984, 20 Ahmadi doctors have been killed in sectarian attacks, ten of whom were murdered in Sindh province. Dr. Najam al-Hasan becomes the second Ahmadi to be killed in Karachi this year because of his religion. Such violence is a result of the continuing hatred that is spread throughout Pakistan against Ahmadiyya Muslims.
Violent assaults against Ahmadis are carried out in the name of religion and all too often they are premeditated and well organised. It is most unfortunate that certain parts of the media in Pakistan are being used to incite the sentiments of people against Ahmadis and inflame the already raging fire of sectarianism in the country. It is unacceptable that some of the main media and press is aiding the fundamentalist and extremist agenda by openly declaring Ahmadis to be Wajibul Qatl (must be murdered) which is leading to the deaths of innocent Pakistanis. The fundamentalists encourage these deaths by claiming that the killers will be entitled to place in heaven.
The recent attacks on Ahmadis in Lahore have shown that it is open season for extremist and fundamentalist mullahs to spill their venom against Ahmadis which has resulted in the persecution of Ahmadis in various cities and towns of Pakistan. This lack of law and order is resulting in increasing agitation and lawlessness in Pakistan which does not bode well for the country moving forward.
It is also deplorable to learn that during the current national emergency (flooding) Ahmadi victims have been denied aid and have been turned away from shelters. In view of the fact that the government of Pakistan has been asking for millions of dollars in international aid they have a duty to explain this to the funding countries. The aid is being provided for all Pakistanis and this includes the extremists, fundamentalists, Ahmadis and Christians alike. The AHRC calls on the government of Pakistan to end this inhumane and barbaric treatment.
The AHRC urges the authorities in Pakistan to safeguard the security and dignity of all its citizens irrespective of race, religion or creed. In particular it is the Ahmadis who have been denied basic fundamental human rights and whose tormentors and killers are never brought to justice.
In the case of the recent killings the government of Pakistan must show its sincerity to the world and the countries funding the aid by ensuring that minority groups will receive the same degree of aid that the majority are receiving. The killers of Dr. Najam al-Hasan and Pir Habib al-Rehman must be brought to justice.
A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission
About AHRC: The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.
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5 more NATO tankers blown up at Torkham
25 Aug. 10
LANDIKOTAL: Five NATO oil-supply tankers were blown up at the Torkham border on Tuesday. On the second consecutive day, in a parking lot at the Torkham border, five oil tankers carrying fuel to NATO forces in Afghanistan were blown up by a bomb fixed to one of them. The rest of the tankers caught fire and were burnt totally. No casualties were reported until the filing of this report. More than 150 Afghanistan-bound oil tankers had been parked near the Torkham border for customs clearance on Tuesday when a powerful bomb went off in one of the tankers, turning four more into ashes, a Khasadar Force official said.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\08\25\story_25-8-2010_pg7_9
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Six Somali lawmakers among 32 dead in hotel carnage
25 Aug. 10
MOGADISHU: Somali extremist militants disguised as government soldiers went on a shooting rampage in a Mogadishu hotel on Tuesday, killing 32 people including six MPs before blowing themselves up.
The brazen attack by two rebels from the al Qaeda-inspired Shebab movement a stone’s throw from the presidential palace marked a new escalation on the second day of clashes in the capital that had already left 29 civilians dead.
“Thirty-two people died in this ambush. Six of them are members of the Somali parliament and four are Somali government civil servants,” Deputy Prime Minister Abdirahman Haji Adan Ibbi told reporters.
“The 20 others are innocent civilians who died in this horrible incident.” An AFP reporter who managed to enter the Hotel Mona compound said the doors of every single room and even the toilets had been smashed open by the two attackers.
Officials visiting the scene of the carnage held their noses because of the stench of burned flesh and smoke.
Witnesses and hotel staff said the attackers were wearing government security uniforms and shot dead security guards at the gate to the compound as they rushed into the three-storey building.
“They rained gunfire on everybody. Nobody stood a chance. I was lucky because they aimed at me but I jumped out of the window and survived,” hotel employee Adan Mohamed told AFP.
“People were screaming, there was total panic. When they decided they had finished killing everybody, they climbed to the balcony and started opening fire on government forces outside the hotel,” he added.
One government soldier who took part in the fighting and refused to give his name said one of the bombers detonated his suicide vest on the balcony when he saw they were surrounded. “These two guys were on the balcony, close together, shouting God is greatest. It seems one of them failed to detonate his vest but the other did and that probably killed both of them,” he said.
“One of them was blown to pieces, only the head remains. The other one’s body is completely burned, he is all black,” the soldier added.
Shebab spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamoud Rage claimed responsibility for the attack during a phone press conference.
“Our commando units carried out this attack,” he said. The bloodbath at Hotel Mona, which lies in the small area firmly under government control, came on the second day of a deadly battle in the city.
The embattled transitional government and the UN condemned the attack.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\08\25\story_25-8-2010_pg1_5
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Terrorists will try to exploit flood crisis, says Zardari
25 Aug. 10
LONDON/ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday warned that the Taliban could take advantage of the country’s floods crisis while defending the government’s handling of the catastrophe.
He told The Guardian that it would take at least three years for the country to rebuild the devastated areas, but “I don’t think Pakistan will ever fully recover”. However, he said he believed Pakistanis had the resilience to withstand the challenge.
Zardari said the furore surrounding his overseas trip at the start of the disaster actually showed how much he is “wanted” at home. His comments came as the Taliban killed at least 36 people in three separate attacks in the country’s north-west, and the raging waters hit new areas in the south of the country.
“Obviously the only political forces waiting in the quarters is the rightist forces,” he told the paper. “The ideal hope for the radical is that hopefully the structure of the state will fail and he (radical) will evolve and come out the winner. It’s like when they assassinated my wife. It was not just an action to get rid of a prime minister-to-be, it was an action because her personality was a challenge to their ideology.”
Full report at:
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\08\25\story_25-8-2010_pg1_3
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Pakistan moves choppers from Taliban fight to relief
25 Aug. 10
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has relieved some helicopters from the fight against the Taliban for use in rescue and relief operations in flooded regions. “The first priority of these helicopters is relief work,” a security official said on condition of anonymity. Asked how could it impact operations against militants in the northwest, he said, “They cannot be readily available, but we can bring them back any time if needed. We haven’t lowered our guard”. Additionally, the army has redeployed about 60,000 troops for relief efforts. Military officials say they have not withdrawn any of the 140,000 ground troops fighting militants along the border with Afghanistan, rather redeployed some from central Punjab. Any diversion of army’s focus from the fight with militants would raise alarm in the US, as Pakistan’s action in its Tribal Areas is crucial for Washington’s efforts to suppress Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan. reuters
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\08\25\story_25-8-2010_pg1_4
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Afghan withdrawal date bolsters enemy: US general
25 Aug. 10
WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama’s July 2011 date to start withdrawing troops from Afghanistan has given morale boost to Taliban insurgents, who believe they can wait out NATO forces, the top US Marine said on Tuesday.
But General James Conway, who is retiring this fall as commandant of the Marine Corps, said he believed Marines would not be in a position to withdraw from the fight in southern Afghanistan for years. “In some ways, we think right now it is probably giving our enemy sustenance,” he said of the deadline.
“We can either lose fast or win slow,” Conway, quoting one of his own commanders, told reporters at the Pentagon. The timetable for withdrawal is certain to come under close scrutiny in a White House strategy review, which Obama called for last December when he announced the deadline and additional forces.
Full report at:
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\08\25\story_25-8-2010_pg7_7
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Hezbollah clash with Lebanon Sunni group kills one
25 August 2010
BEIRUT — Supporters of Lebanon’s Shiite movement Hezbollah clashed on Tuesday with partisans of a small Sunni Muslim group in the Lebanese capital, killing one person, an army spokesman said.
“A personal fight between a supporter of Hezbollah and another of Al-Ahbash erupted just after 7:00 pm (1600 GMT) in Beirut’s Burj Abi Haidar neighbourhood and escalated into a firefight in which a supporter of Hezbollah was killed,” an army spokesman told AFP.
“The army has intervened and is trying to restore calm in the area,” he said.
A police spokesman told AFP the fighters were using shoulder-launched rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns.
Three people were injured in the clashes, a Red Cross aid worker told AFP.
An AFP correspondent said the army had cordonned off the area as several Red Cross ambulances arrived to the site of the clashes.
Full report at:
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle08.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2010/August/middleeast_August473.xml§ion=middleeast
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Austria far right wants vote on minaret, veil ban
24 August 2010
Austria’s far-right Freedom Party, mindful of a forthcoming regional election in Vienna, has called for a special vote on whether to ban minarets and Islamic face veils.
Analysts say the debate will play a major role in the Oct. 10 regional election in the capital Vienna, a stronghold of the struggling Social Democrats in conservative Austria.
The non-binding referendum that Freedom wants can be called by Austria’s parliament and could influence government policy. There has not been such a vote at a national level in post-war history though some provinces including Vienna have held such polls.
Around 1.2 million can vote in the province which comprises the capital city, Austria’s financial and political hub.
Freedom, an anti-foreigner party which captured 17.5 percent of votes at a national level two years ago, says the proposed poll would also ask whether Muslims should promise to recognise the Austrian legal system above sharia, or Islamic law.
“Vienna should be the first province to hold such a poll as this is where the most Muslims live and because there are a growing number of legitimate protests against Islamic building projects,” said Freedom leader Heinz-Christian Strache.
The poll would ask voters whether there should be a ban on headscarves in public and a complete ban on full face veils.
Full report at:
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/displayarticle.asp?xfile=data/international/2010/August/international_August1292.xml§ion=international&col=
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Al Dahab is Islamic Personality of the Year
24 August 2010
Former Sudanese president Field Marshal Abdul Rahman Swar Al Dahab won the Islamic Personality prize for his service to Islam, the Holy Quran and humanity.
Deputy Chairman of the Dubai International Holy Quran Award organising committee Dr Saeed Harib made the announcement late on Sunday night at the Dubai Chamber of Commerce.
“Al Dahab — born in Al Obeid town in 1930 — has been named for the Dh1 million prize in appreciation of his noble activities for the Arab and Islamic worlds.”
Several scholars, scientists, presidents and institutions have won the Islamic Personality Prize over the past 13 sessions. The first winner was Late Sheikh Mohammed Metwally Al Shaarawy of Egypt in 1997 while former German ambassador to Algeria Dr Murad Hofmann was the last winner in 2009.
Al Dahab graduated from the military college in 1955 and joined the armed forces. He served as Minister of Defence, Military Commander and became the president from April 6, 1985 to May 6, 1986.
Retiring from politics and dedicating himself for charity and humanitarian works, he became chairman of the Islamic Call Organisation in Sudan in 1987.
“Since then he initiated the construction of more than 205 Schools, 2,000 Masjids, 1,000 wells, 10 irrigations projects, 14 hospitals, 800 clinics, 120 centres for child and mother care, and 6 orphanages in the whole world, particularly in Africa and Europe, and Islamic countries,” Harib said.
Swar Al Dahab — whose name means golden bracelet, also holds membership of 11 Islamic and international organisations and has presented several research papers on Islam at conferences.
Selected from several short-listed candidates, Al Dahab will fly to Dubai in a special airplane, and is expected to receive the prize at the concluding ceremony on Ramadan 20 corresponding to August 30, 9:30pm at the Dubai Chamber of Commerce.
Ahmed Al Zahid, Head of Media Unit, said the award has a list of Muslim Arab and Non-Arab personalities. “The activities and services of the dignitaries listed are discussed, and hence a candidate is picked up either by agreement or voting.”
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/displayarticle.asp?xfile=data/theuae/2010/August/theuae_August663.xml§ion=theuae&col=
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Israeli police arrest rabbi over inciting violence against non-Jews
August 19, 2010
By MOHAMMED MAR’I | ARAB NEWS
RAMALLAH: The Israeli police on Thursday arrested Rabbi Yosef Elitzur from the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar on suspicion of incitement for violence against non-Jews, possession of racist text and possession of material that incites violence.
The police said that Elitzur was questioned by investigators from the international crimes unit. It added that Elitzur was scheduled to be brought before the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court for a remand hearing later on Thursday.
According to the police, the arrest comes as part of the investigation into the book “Torat Hamelech” (“The King’s Torah”), co-written by Elitzur and Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira of Yitzhar and was published in November.
The preface of the book states that it is forbidden to kill non-Jews but the book then describes the context in which it is permitted to do so.
According to the book, it is permissible to kill a non-Jew who threatens Israel even if the person is classified as a “righteous gentile.” The book says that any gentile who supports war against Israel can also be killed.
“It is permissible to kill the Righteous among Nations even if they are not responsible for the threatening situation,” Shapira wrote, adding: “If we kill a Gentile who has sinned or has violated one of the seven commandments — because we care about the commandments — there is nothing wrong with the murder.”
The book has attracted a firestorm of controversy since being published in 2009, and police have questioned Shapira over the texts last month, while raiding the Od Yosef Chai seminary in Yitzhar in order to confiscate copies of the text.
Full report at:
http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article106238.ece
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Saudi not mulling paralysis penalty for attacker
24 August 2010
Saudi officials are trying to persuade a man paralysed in a fight in the conservative kingdom to accept compensation for his injuries.
The also asked the man to drop a demand that his attacker have his spinal cord severed, a judicial spokesman said on Monday.
Amnesty International had said earlier that the court in the province of Tabuk approached a number of hospitals about the possibility of paralysing the attacker in a medical setting. Amnesty urged the state not to carry out such a penalty.
The spokesman for the court said it had ruled for monetary compensation to be paid to 22-year-old Abdulaziz al-Mutairi and that the Tabuk provincial governor, Prince Fahad Bin Sultan, had ordered mediation between the two parties.
“Mutairi did request that the attacker face the same bodily harm he received, but the court ruled that he is to obtain a financial compensation agreed upon between the two parties,” the spokesman said.
“When Mutairi insisted that the assailant face the same condition he is in, we contacted hospitals to persuade him that such operation may cause death. The governor is sending envoys to mediate,” he added.
Saudi Arabia, a close U.S. ally, follows an austere version of Sunni Islam that includes floggings for some offences, amputations for thieves, and public beheadings for crimes including murder, rape and drug smuggling.
Human rights activists say that while Islamic law stipulates like-for-like punishments, victims or their surviving family members can often be persuaded to forgive an assailant, often in exchange for monetary compensation.
In this case, the attacker has already been convicted of severing Mutairi’s spinal cord with a cleaver during a fight, according to Amnesty. The offender was sentenced to pay compensation but remains in jail until the amount is agreed.
It was not clear whether the attacker might face any further penalty beyond financial compensation. It was also not clear who started the fight.
The Saudi justice ministry could not be immediately reached for comment.
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/displayarticle.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2010/August/middleeast_August447.xml§ion=middleeast&col=
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Debate rages over Saudi women working as cashiers
By FATIMA SIDIYA | ARAB NEWS
JEDDAH: The Saudi society has been debating on the Internet about the announcement by Panda supermarket chain that they will have women cashiers.
Many disagreed with the decision, believing it will only create more social problems and put Saudi women in embarrassing situations where they could be harassed by customers. Others, however, supported the idea believing that women have already been working in mixed environments for long time.
Arab News went to number of public places where women are selling, including Jeddah’s downtown (the Balad). Om Amir, a Saudi woman who sells henna and traditional clothing at the Bedouin Souq, said that she and her eldest daughter work the booth.
“We have been selling here for ages, I raised my children from what I sell here,” she told Arab News.
The Bedouin Souq contains many women plying their wares, not just Saudis but also Egyptians, Indonesians and Africans.
Meanwhile, in the malls of north Jeddah, only a handful of shops have female sales clerks and they’re all women-only establishments. Women also work in theme parks and play areas and bazaars at malls. Salaries range from SR1,500 and SR3,000 a month. About 16 women work now as cashiers in Roshan Mall in Jeddah to serve women and families.
The main criteria for women to work as cashiers is that they be Saudi, above 28 years of age, have a financial need, be a widow or divorced woman and stick to dress code that goes with the religion, a source said, adding that people who are against women working at these jobs should see the location before even criticizing them. “It will take time anyway to accept it but we will move forward anyway,” the source said.
In Saudi forums people have been criticizing the decision or supporting it based on their own views. Members of the public expressed concern that this could lead to harassment because women will meet young men and that could harm both of them. Other groups however said that though the idea is new the society can still consider it and get used to it with time.
“Our problem is that we go against that which is new even though it is permissible. There are women who already sell in public places. The whole issue is about social acceptance of these jobs,” wrote Sa’ad Al-Mutairi, a poet, at Qanof Forum.
Abdullah Al-Amri however expressed his dissatisfaction with the decision which he said is humiliating to Saudi women who might also end up working as maids and security guards.
Sheikh Mohammad Al-Habdan, the CEO of Al-Osra religious channel, told a local online newspaper that this decision violates the law of the General Presidency of Scholarly Research and Ifta, which states that women should not compete by going into men’s jobs.
“That is not permitted because it has disadvantages and leads to many harms,” he said. “Giving her that opportunity prevents men from having these job opportunities.” He said that women working as cashiers violate another bylaw of the Labor Ministry by which women are not allowed to work in mixed environments.
Former Shoura Member Mohammad Al-Zulfa attacked the conservatives who are against women working as cashiers. “They are not considering developing the society,” said Al-Zulfa who asked where the millions of girls who graduate are supposed to work. “These girls have the right to job opportunities. What is the problem if the Saudi women worked as cashiers in a shopping center or as a supervisor or sales agent or in lingerie shops?”
He called on the scholarly council to announce that there is no problem with women working. He said that scholars should clarify that this can benefit the country, especially that some women are paying the expenses of their families.
Al-Zulfa also added that people who go against women working in public places “have mixed the social traditions with their religious and their personal views.”
Saudi forums and social groups have been negotiating the matter ever since the general manager of the Jeddah Labor Office, Qusai Al-Filali, announced that Saudi women will soon work as cashiers in supermarkets.
Al-Filali added that this falls under the ministry’s requirements that include providing partitions, and giving the families the freedom to pay a man or a woman cashier.
http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article106238.ece
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Pak dismantles LeT relief camps
24 August 2010
ISLAMABAD: Authorities in northwest Pakistan have launched a crackdown against banned terrorist groups like LeT that are engaged in relief efforts for flood victims and closed down 16 camps set up by these organisations.
The government of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province decided on Sunday to act against outlawed terrorist groups involved in collecting donations for flood victims by using different names, media reports said on Monday.
The provincial government has closed 16 relief camps established by groups with terror links, including the Jamaat-ud-Dawah, a front of LeT, which has been blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
Relief camps established in Peshawar, Nowshera, Charsadda, Swat, Dir, Dera Ismail Khan, Shangla and other flood-affected districts were among those closed down. Details about the closure of the relief camps have been sent to the federal interior ministry by the provincial government.
The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government acted after receiving reports that outlawed terrorist groups like the LeT and JuD had been collecting donations for flood victims by using different names and by disguising their actual leadership.
The provincial government issued directives to all district administration chiefs to strictly monitor the activities of banned groups involved in collecting donations for victims of the devastating floods that swept northwest Pakistan. pti
Times of India
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Brother of ANP leader shot dead in Karachi
24 August 2010
KARACHI: A brother of a senior leader of Awami National Party and MNA from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was gunned down here on Monday.
Police and party sources said that 55-year-old Asif Jan was going home from his office in the Civic Centre when his car was intercepted near a petrol pump by two gunmen who fired four shots.
“One of the bullets hit Mr Jan in the head and another in the abdomen. He was taken to a hospital by his driver, but he succumbed to the wounds during treatment,” Inspector Tariq Imran, SHO of the New Town police station, said.
He said that according to witnesses the attackers were wearing trousers and shirts.
Asif Jan, who worked for the land department of the city district government, lived in KMC Apartments in Civil Lines. He was younger brother of MNA Pervaiz Khan from Swabi.
Although police could not ascertain the motive behind the killing, the ANP leadership described it as continuation of attacks on people associated with the party. The ANP criticised police and security agencies for their failure to provide security to it leaders and activists.
“We have initiated an investigation, but not found any active association of the victim with any political party, except that he was brother of an MNA,” said DIG East Dr Amir Sheikh.
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/08-brother-of-anp-leader-shot-dead-in-karachi-ts-02
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12 Taliban fighters killed, 15 injured in US drone attacks
24 August 2010
PESHAWAR: Twelve Taliban militants were killed and fifteen injured in two US drone attacks in Pakistan's restive North Waziristan tribal region, which is known as the hub of al-Qaida linked terrorist groups.
Five Taliban fighters were killed and three others injured when US a drone targeted a militant compound in the volatile North Waziristan tribal region.
The drones fired three missiles at a house in Danday Darpakhel area, three kilometres north of Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan Agency.
The region is also famous as stronghold of the al-Qaida-linked Haqqani network, known for staging attacks on US and NATO troops in Afghanistan.
Local residents rushed to the site and retrieved the dead and injured from the collapsed building.
In the second attack seven Taliban militants were killed and 12 others were injured. The second attack took place at Dargah Mandi six kms north of Miranshah.
US spy planes have increased their operations against militants in Pakistan's tribal region during the past three days. Monday's drone strike was the third attack in a row in as many days.
Monday's attack is the second in three days, following a similar strike in North Waziristan on Saturday which killed four militants, the official said.
The missiles targeted a compound used by militants in Kutabkhel village, some three kilometres south of Miranshah.
The nationalities of the militants killed in the today's attack were not immediately clear, but intelligence officials in the area said most of those killed were Afghans.
US forces have been attacking the Taliban and al-Qaida linked commanders in Pakistan's northwestern tribal belt, where militants have carved out havens in mountains outside direct government control.
The US has branded the rugged tribal area on the Afghan border, part of which has now been hit by Pakistan's catastrophic flooding, a global headquarters of al-Qaida and the most dangerous place on Earth.
Times of India
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US drone strike kills 20 in Miranshah
August 24, 2010
MIRANSHAH: Missiles fired from a US pilotless drone aircraft killed 13 militants and seven civilians in North Waziristan on Monday, Pakistani intelligence officials said.
On Monday, the missiles targeted a compound used by militants in Kutabkhel village, some three kilometers south of Miranshah. The nationalities of the militants killed in the Monday attack were not immediately clear, but intelligence officials in the area said most of those killed were Afghans. Residents in Miranshah said militants linked to the Haqqani network were using the house as a training camp.
Most of the militants killed were members of the Afghan Taliban. Four women and three children were among the dead, said the officials. “The missiles hit a militant compound and a house adjacent to it. We have confirmed reports of 20 dead,” said one of the intelligence officials.
Another official said members of the al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani network — one of the most effective militant forces fighting Western troops in Afghanistan — had been using the compound.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/24-08-2010/Top-Story/107.htm
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Suicide attack kills 15 at mosque in Pakistan's Waziristan
24 August 2010
WANA (Pakistan): A blast inside a mosque in Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal region on the Afghan border killed at least 15 people on Monday, Pakistani intelligence officials said.
Taliban insurgents, who have carried out similar bombings, have been keeping a low profile during Pakistan's flood crisis, which has overwhelmed the government.
"Apparently it was a suicide attack and Maulana Noor Mohammad was the target," said an intelligence official in Wana, referring to a pro-government cleric.
Pakistan had said it made serious progress against militants before the floods hit more than three weeks ago.
Times of India
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Kashmir: Normalcy returns as curfew lifts
24 August 2010
After days of unrest, the situation in the Kashmir Valley was today calm with curfew being lifted from all areas.
With the lifting of curfew coinciding with the separatist' decision not to call for a shutdown, shoppers flocked markets and business establishments reopened in Srinagar and all major towns of the Valley.
The situation is peaceful throughout the Valley and curfew has been lifted from all parts, police said.
Traffic snarls were seen at many place as people came out to stock supplies particularly in view of the ongoing holy month of Ramzan.
Schools, colleges, banks and private offices reopened and public transport was back on the roads.
The Valley was rocked by violence following the death of a teenager on June 11 after he was allegedly hit by teargas shell near Rajouri Kadal area. After that street protests broke out in the Valley which has claimed 63 lives so far.
http://www.dailypioneer.com/278312/Kashmir-Normalcy-returns-as-curfew-lifts.html
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Tehran shuts Swedish cosmetics firm, arrests five
24 August 2010
23 August 2010 STOCKHOLM — Iranian authorities have arrested five employees of Swedish direct-sales cosmetics firm Oriflame and shut its Tehran office amid reported Iranian allegations of a massive pyramid scheme.
“The authorities have now closed Oriflame’s operation in Tehran (and) have also detained three members of staff and two sales consultants without disclosed reasons,” the company said in a statement on Monday.
The Oriflame Tehran branch was on Sunday “abruptly shut down with authorities coming into the office,” the company’s chief financial officer Gabriel Bennet told AFP.
“We are working with the embassy to find out why this is, and to try to secure (our employees’) release,” he said, adding that a Swede and another foreigner were among those arrested.
Bennet said the company so far had received no explanation from authorities about the closure and arrests, but believed they may be linked to its business model.
“Our business model is to sell cosmetics and give 40,000 Iranians, mainly women, a possibility to earn money through direct sales,” he said, adding that the arrests could be seen as a sign that business conditions in Iran were worsening.
Iranian media meanwhile reported Monday that the closure and arrests were linked to suspected fraud in connection to a massive pyramid scheme.
According to hardline Iranian daily Kayhan, the Oriflame headquarters in Tehran had on Sunday morning been “searched and sealed” and “four top managers were arrested on accusations of 250,000 cases of fraud” linked to a 70-million-dollar (55-million-euro) pyramid scheme.
The conservative Tehran Emrouz newspaper also said tax officials had seized Oriflame documents and had halted all its operations over suspected fraudulent operations.
The company managers did not have a convincing answer when asked about compulsory sales of products, charging membership fees and recruiting members as consultants,” Hassan Radmard, the head of the Traders’ Centre at the Iranian commerce ministry, told the paper.
Oriflame “has over 200,000 members so it is a pyramid scheme with unlimited members,” he added.
Oriflame’s Bennet said he would not comment on these “rumours” further than to say any reference to a pyramid scheme was “ridiculous.”
“We work the same way in Iran as in the rest of the world, in over 60 countries ... A pyramid firm could not run an internationally recognised business for more than 40 years,” he said.
Oriflame acknowledged in its statement that business conditions were difficult in Iran, but said it was intent on staying in the country, which is an important part of its growing Asian business.
The company’s business in the country represents 20 percent of its sales in Asia, a region which produced fast growing sales totalling 39.2 million euros during the second quarter, according to an earnings report published this month.
The company said a definitive closure in Iran may lead to extraordinary costs of approximately 10 million euros this year, although it maintained its overall sales target.Following the news Monday, Oriflame’s share price fell 3.36 percent in early afternoon trading on the Stockholm stock exchange, which was up 0.1 percent overall.
A spokeswoman for the Swedish foreign ministry meanwhile confirmed that one of the people detained held dual Swedish-Iranian nationality, something that could limit Swedish authorities’ ability to help him, since Tehran does not recognisedualnationalities.
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/displayarticle.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2010/August/middleeast_August448.xml§ion=middleeast&col=
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Pak exaggerating flood damages to get more aid?
24 August 2010
NEW DELHI: Is Pakistan exaggerating damages caused by floods to garner more aid? Discrepancies in figures bandied around by none other than the Pakistani government on the number of people affected suggest that the authorities had initially overestimated the damages with an eye on aid from international agencies.
According to official figures, of the 6.378 million affected in the country, 2.45 million belong to Sindh, 1.9 million to Punjab, 1.56 million to Khyber Pakhtunkwa, 476,845 to Balochistan and 87,000 to Gilgit-Baltistan.
Noted security analyst B Raman commented that initially Pakistan might have exaggerated its losses on purpose, and Indian donors must ensure their aid reached organisations that are friendly with New Delhi. "Originally, the Gilani government had claimed that about 20 million had been affected by the floods. It has now come down to 6.378 million, one-third of the initial estimates. The international aid pledges made, so far, were on the basis of the estimate that about 20 million had been affected as claimed by the Pakistani government. This has turned out to be a highly exaggerated estimate," said Raman.
"While many governments and the UN Secretary-General were moved by the dramatic account of the damages painted by Pakistan, NGOs and individual donors apparently suspected that there was an element of exaggeration in the accounts disseminated by Pakistan abroad," he added.
Times of India
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Kabul assails US for embracing Pakistan as ‘strategic partner’
24 August 2010
Afghanistan’s National Security Adviser Rangin Dadfar Spanta has obliquely criticised the United States for embracing Pakistan as a ‘strategic partner’ even though that country is ‘nurturing terrorism’ and continues to actively back Al Qaeda and a host of Taliban groups.
In a sharply-worded op-ed piece in The Washington Post, Spanta has slammed Pakistan as a country that “still sees terrorism as a strategic asset and foreign policy tool”. And its spy outfit, the ISI, “still regards Afghanistan as its sphere of influence”.
Putting it bluntly, Spanta warned: “Global efforts to counter terrorism will not succeed until and unless there is clarity on who our friends and foes are… How can we persuade Afghans, or the parents of young soldiers from coalition countries, to support a war where our ‘partners’ are involved in killing their sons and daughters?”
“While we are losing dozens of men and women to terrorist attacks every day, the terrorists’ main mentor (Pakistan) continues to receive billions of dollars in aid and assistance. How is this fundamental contradiction justified?,” he asked in comments primarily aimed at the US.
Writing under the title — A US ally that nurtures terrorists, Spanta said that despite facing a growing domestic terror threat, Pakistan “continues to provide sanctuary and support to the Quetta Shura, the Haqqani network, the Hekmatyar group and Al Qaeda”.
As he put it, dismantling the terrorist infrastructure “requires confronting the state (Pakistan) that still sees terrorism as a strategic asset and foreign policy tool”.
“There is ongoing domestic and international confusion in identifying Afghanistan’s friends and foes,” he said, pointing out that the documents recently disclosed by WikiLeaks made public “further evidence of the close relations among the Taliban, Al Qaeda and Pakistani intelligence”.
Although the international community present in Afghanistan aims to dismantle the international terrorist networks, Spanta felt its focus “has progressively eroded and has been compounded by another strategic failure: the mistaken embrace of “strategic partners” who have, in fact, been nurturing terrorism”.
Spanta also took exception to Western criticism of the Afghan Government over its political will, governance and corruption, commenting: “The international terrorist presence in the region is not entrenched solely because of Afghan corruption. Britain, Spain, Turkey, China, Germany and India have all been victims not of Afghan corruption but of international terrorism — emanating from the region.”
Meanwhile, the ISI has issued a warning of sorts to the Taliban, asking it not to hold negotiations with the Hamid Karzai regime or the United States “without its permission”. According to Pakistani security officials, cited by The New York Times, the Taliban leaders have been warned against carrying out freelance negotiations to the exclusion of Islamabad. “The message from the ISI is: no flirting,” the Times said quoting a western diplomat.
In a new account of the ISI’s help to the CIA last January to capture top Taliban commander Abdul Ghani Baradar in Karachi, the paper said the Pakistani agency’s real motive was to shut down the secret talks that Taliban leaders had been conducting with the Afghan Government.
The parameters of the Pakistani strategy on this score are said to include “retaining decisive influence over the Taliban, thwarting archenemy India, and putting Pakistan in a position to shape Afghanistan’s postwar political order”.
“We picked up Baradar and the others because they were trying to make a deal without us…We protect the Taliban. They are dependent on us. We are not going to allow them to make a deal with Karzai and the Indians,” the Times quoted a Pakistani official as saying.
http://www.dailypioneer.com/278111/Kabul-assails-US-for-embracing-Pakistan-as-%E2%80%98strategic-partner%E2%80%99.html
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Kabul feels the heat of 'working' with Pakistan
24 August 2010
NEW DELHI: Afghanistan is feeling the cost of its much-hyped joined-at-the-hip relationship with Pakistan. After months of trying to "work" with Pakistan to get some kind of a reconciliation programme going in Afghanistan, the Afghan frustration has been expressed by no less than its national security adviser, Rangin Dadfar Spanta.
In fact, as India prepares to receive Afghan foreign minister, Zalmay Rasoul, on Tuesday, the collective exasperation with Pakistan is now palpable. Spanta, in an sharply worded article in The Washington Post, said: "We cannot mobilize the Afghan people with uncertainty, confusion or appeasement of those who sponsor terrorism", a thinly-veiled reference to US-Nato's indulgence of Pakistan's terrorism antics.
"Pakistan continues to provide sanctuary and support to the Quetta Shura, the Haqqani network, the Hekmatyar group and al-Qaeda. Yet the focus on this fundamental task has progressively eroded and has been compounded by another strategic failure: the mistaken embrace of "strategic partners" who have, in fact, been "nurturing terrorism."
Since January, when Pakistan's ISI conned the CIA into arresting Taliban's no 2 leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, from Karachi; Karzai, who had been talking to Baradar for months, went to Islamabad, hat in hand, egged on by the US to strike a deal with Pakistani army chief Gen Kayani. As reported by the TOI at that time, despite Washington's exultation at having found a Taliban leader, which for them signified a change of heart by Pakistan, intelligence officials in India were aware that the arrest was intended to pre-empt direct talks where Pakistan had no role.
On Monday, New York Times reported that ISI had duped the CIA on Baradar's arrest. In the ensuing months though, Pakistan has not stopped its support of the Afghan Taliban, while trying to make sure India doesn't get a piece of the action. To this end, Kayani has been reasonably successful. Karzai sacked his intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh at the direction of Kayani, though he refused to shut down India's consulates.
India was kept out of the recent conference in Sochi, Russia, that was attended by Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Russia. Even though India put up a brave face about it, its clear that while the world tries to persuade Pakistan to stay away from the terrorists, they will agree to Pakistan's "no-India" condition.
Iran will soon host another regional meeting on Afghanistan with Pakistan and Afghanistan, but without India. Turkey is expected to hold its next regional economic conference on Afghanistan in September. Turkey had kept India out of its January conference, but after India protested, it agreed to bring New Delhi into its "donor" conference. But in the run-up to the conference, India finds itself being kept out of preparatory meetings.
Times of India
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Pak sabotaged Afghan peace bid
24 August 2010
WASHINGTON: Even as the United States and the rest of the world is busy rescuing Pakistan’s from its flood crisis with billions of dollars in aid, it transpires Islamabad has been screwing Washington and the international community by sabotaging peace efforts in Afghanistan in a ceaseless pursuit of its policy of strategic depth.
In one of the more egregious cases of “biting the hands that feed” recorded in recent times, Pakistan arrested Mullah Baradar and some other top taliban leaders “to shut down secret peace talks that Baradar had been conducting with the Afghan government that excluded Pakistan,” the New York Times reported on Monday.
“We picked up Baradar and the others because they were trying to make a deal without us,” a Pakistani security official was quoted as saying brazenly, about the murky arrests earlier this year. “We protect the Taliban. They are dependent on us. We are not going to allow them to make a deal with Karzai and the Indians.”
The report, coming at a time an already parlous Pakistan is facing unprecedented floods — which some critics are starting to claim are exaggerated to extract international aid — could weigh against aid to the country. Already, one of the explanations being offered for the initially tepid international response to the crisis was Pakistan support for terrorism and its image deficit. Pakistan though has been riding on the unstinting support it enjoys from top Americans such as senator John Kerry and Admiral Mike Mullen to demand more from US.
But in remarks that could rankle even such ardent supporters, a Pakistani security official sneered at American gullibility while explaining how Islamabad hoodwinked Washington in the Baradar episode. “They are so innocent,” the official mocked even as other Nato officials acknowledged Pakistan had taken the world for a ride.
The NYT report offered a murky account of why and how Pakistan arrested Baradar, an enterprise that not only involved fooling Americans but standing up to Washington, which purportedly backed Baradar’s peace talks with Kabul without Pakistan’s knowledge.
When Pakistani intelligence officials learned of the overtures, they became unnerved by what they saw as an attempt by the Afghans to strike a peace deal without them. In particular, the ISI suspected the Americans were orchestrating the talks and accused them of disregarding Pakistan’s legitimate security interests.
“The Americans and the British were going behind our backs, and we couldn’t allow that,” a Pakistan official was quoted as saying.
Pakistani intelligence officials then took technical help from the CIA to home in on Mullah Baradar and arrested him, but they did not reveal his identity to the Americans even as they spirited him away and initially denied them access to him.
Baradar remains in Pakistani custody “relaxing”, according to a Pakistani official; many of the other Taliban leaders, “after receiving lectures against freelancing peace deals, have been released to fight again,” the NYT reported, noting that “at a minimum, the arrest of Baradar offers a glimpse of the multilayered challenges the US faces as it tries to prevail in Afghanistan.”
“It (Washington) is battling a resilient insurgency, supporting a weak central government and trying to manage Pakistan’s leaders, who simultaneously support the Taliban and accept billions in American aid,” the paper said.
The latest disclosures, coming on top of the wikiLeaks episode that painted Pakistan as a terrorism patron, were accompanied by a scathing op-ed by Afghanistan’s national security adviser Rangin Dadfar Spanta, in which he virtually called Pakistan the main mentor of terrorists and a saboteur of peace in the region.
Times of India
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‘No affected Sindhi should be forced to leave Karachi’
24 August 2010
Karachi :A large number of flood-affected people have arrived in Karachi from interior Sindh after losing their lands and properties, and all the Sindhis have the right to stay in the provincial capital as long as they want and no one should have any problem in this regard.
Addressing a press conference at the Karachi Press Club on Monday, Chairman Save Sindh Movement (SSM) Syed Shah Muhammad Shah said that no one should force the flood victims to leave the city. “It is a different if the affected people would voluntarily go back to their respective areas once life returns to normal in their native towns.”
Shah is also a leader of the Sindh Progressive Nationalists Party (SPNA), an alliance of several Sindhi nationalist parties, including Sindh Taraqi Passand Party (STP), Awami Tehreek (AT), and Sindh United Party (SUF).
Vice Chairman STP Ali Hasan Chandio was also present on the occasion. He claimed that the SPNA and other Sindhi nationalist parties have been collecting data about the affected people and the government should also come forward in this regard.
The SPNA leaders claimed that 0.35 million affected people have arrived in Karachi, whereas the government claims that only 30,000 people have entered the city.
Shah said that the federal government should take responsibility of every kind of funding because the people of Sindh have lost trust in the provincial government.
“They are dishonest, the whole system is corrupt, people have no faith in the rulers,” he declared.
He, however, condemned the statement of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain, saying, Sindhis had never supported dictatorship and they would not allow another martial law in any condition.
Shah also alleged that the partners in the Sindh coalition government were responsible for the worsening law and order situation in Karachi, saying: “They are involved in target killings and have no interest about anyone else”.
http://thenews.com.pk/24-08-2010/ethenews/e-831.htm
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Taliban kill three members of lashkar in Peshawar
August 24, 2010
PESHAWAR: At least three members of the anti-Taliban Adezai Qaumi Lashkar were killed and 11 people were injured when a blast rocked the Matni bazaar near Peshawar on Monday evening.
The bazaar is near Darra Adamkhel along the Peshawar-Kohat road, about 25km from the provincial capital. A few days ago, police had defused a 15kg bomb in the same area.
Israr Khan, commander of the lashkar, and members Islam Gul and Khaista Gul were killed in the blast said to have been caused by an improvised explosive device.
According to witnesses, the explosion was followed by heavy firing in which some local people were injured.
They said several houses were damaged and power supply was disrupted by the explosion.
Rural Circle SP Abdul Kalam Khan said the device had been placed in a wheelbarrow and detonated by remote control. He said the victims had gone to the bazaar to buy food for Iftar.
The injured were taken to the Lady Reading Hospital. SP Kalam Khan said security personnel had cordoned off the area and were looking for the attackers.
An official of the bomb disposal squad said about 10kg of explosives had been used for the blast.
Israr Khan was nephew of a former chief of the lashkar who was killed in a suicide attack last year.
The head of the lashkar expressed concern over increase in militant activities in the area in recent weeks and failure of law-enforcement personnel to prevent such incidents.
“We have time and again asked the police officials concerned and the district administration to launch an operation against militants who are regrouping, but no action has been taken so far,” he said.
Abdul Sami Paracha adds from Kohat: The Tariq Afridi group of the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attack and threatened to eliminate all members of the lashkar.
Local TTP spokesman Mohammad Hamza told Dawn that the group had avenged the killing of two students of a seminary by the lashkar four months ago.
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/08-blast-in-peshawar-targets-peace-jirga-ts-03
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Torture of boy reveals police modus operandi
August 24, 2010
THE police system developed to protect the life and property of citizens is in fact tailor-made to help the law enforcers exploit those in peril. Though the Lahore Police bosses award punishment to the culprits in uniform who subject innocent citizens to torture, the punishments are mere eyewash.
A boy who underwent a 10-day long torture not only revealed a brutal tale of police affairs but also exposed the mechanism of so-called monitoring system.
The scars of cigarettes on both sides of his shoulders, his swollen toes and fear in his mind were visible when the boy visited the Jang/The News offices to tell as to how he was tortured and forced by police to identify innocent people, trapped by police, for involvement in crimes.
Waqas, 16, son of Muhammad Iftikhar of Gohawa, was kidnapped by ASI Muhammad Yousaf and his men from the Batapur Police limits on August 2, 2010. The boy had reached there in a rickshaw of one Basharat to see his grandmother living in Behseen village, Batapur.
“The policemen beat me up to their satisfaction. They used to hit my soles with sticks, burnt my back with cigarettes and candles, pulled my nails out and hanged me upside down for hours,” Waqas said while reconstructing the torture meted out to him. Batapur SHO Javed Dogar used to direct his subordinates about the torture techniques. The boy and his family could not find out the reason behind the police torture.
Later, ASI Muhammad Yousaf told Waqas that he would bring some people and the victim would identify them as his accomplices in an auto-rickshaw theft. Waqas identified no less than 12 strangers as his accomplices in the theft and policemen took bribe from the identified people for their release.
Waqas was kept in the police station as his the policemen knew that neither SP Cantt Jawad Qamar nor the SDPO would visit the police station.
Five days later, when the victim’s father Iftikhar, a labourer, came to know about the detention of his son, he visited the police station but was not allowed a meeting with his son. He got his son released through a bailiff on August 12, 2010. The police registered a report in the daily diary to show the illegal confinement as lawful but still no FIR was registered about the rickshaw which police had recovered from the victim.
The district and sessions judge granted bail to Waqas and snubbed police who failed to give a logical reason of detention and torture. The Batapur Police had registered a case against the boy under Section 411. According to complainant Basharat Ali, a resident of Hajipura, North Cantt, he parked his rickshaw at a parking stand near Taj Bagh Scheme Gate No 3, Ghaziabad. On August 5, 2010, his rickshaw was missing from the parking stand. He started looking for his rickshaw and spotted Waqas while passing from the GT Road BRB Canal in his rickshaw. He raised alarm, upon which Waqas left the vehicle and disappeared in the nearby locality.
Most of the police officers, requesting anonymity, termed the contents of the FIR ridiculous and said that police registered such FIRs when did not have any other option to save their skin. When contacted, SHO Batapur Javed Dogar’s gunman said that Sahib was offering a prayer. However, SP Cantt Jawad Qamar fully supported his subordinates and said that such torture was not possible in the present circumstances.
“Policemen refuse to torture even on our directions because of checks and accountability,” he claimed, adding that he would look into the matter.
Later, the SP contacted this scribe and said that he was told by the SHO that the boy was caught on the tip-off by the complainant whose rickshaw was taken away from Harbanspura. The boy had also taken away a rickshaw of his paternal uncle who did not register a case against him, he added.
The victim’ lawyer Malik Ejaz said that the complainant Busharat himself handed over his vehicle to Waqas, adding that Basharat wanted his vehicle impounded by police back without legal complications so he followed the police instructions and fabricated a fake story of his vehicle’s theft. He said there had been no FIR registered pertaining to theft of both the rickshaws the SP claimed the boy Waqas had lifted.
The attitude of police is a testament to the fact as to how they have become desensitised to torture as they carried out the torture publicly and in police stations where the accused are forced to confess crimes. And if it is not so, this police stand by and watch the innocent being killed publicly as a spectator as happened in the Sialkot incident.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/24-08-2010/lahore/
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25 militants escape from Tajik prison
August 24, 2010
DUSHANBE: A group of 25 militants serving time on terrorism charges have escaped from a prison in Tajikistan's capital after dramatic assaults that left at least five guards dead, the security services said Monday.
The escaped convicts include many members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan group, among them Russian and Afghan citizens, officials said.
The violent breakout from a prison run by the National State Security Committee in the capital, Dushanbe, has dealt the government an embarrassing blow after it claimed successes lately in a clampdown on alleged militant organizations.
The prisoners attacked their guards late Sunday, killing one and badly wounding two others, the security services said. They then grabbed a supply of weapons, changed into camouflage uniforms and fled.
Three hours later, at 1:10 a.m. local time, they attacked a nearby prison checkpoint, killing four guards, the security services said. They then drove off in vehicles, their direction and destination unknown.
President Emomali Rakhmon has ordered the Interior Ministry to boost the presence of armed police on roads and at airports and train stations.
Impoverished Tajikistan, which shares a long and porous border with Afghanistan, has enjoyed relative stability since the end of a civil war in the 1990s that pitted a loose coalition of religious fighters and nationalists against elements of the former Soviet elite.
The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, or IMU, is a group that emerged in the 1990s and at its outset comprised militants mainly set on toppling the authoritarian regimes in the neighboring former Soviet states of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
The IMU had training camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan and at one time fought on the side of Taleban, but was believed to have suffered significant setbacks in the US-led operations. Analysts have speculated that security operations along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan last year may have compelled militants to return to their home countries in Central Asia, prompting an upsurge in their activity in the region.
Trials against alleged terrorist cell members in Tajikistan are usually held behind closed doors and details of investigations remain closely guarded, making it difficult to determine the exact activities and goals of the locally based militant groups.
One of the fugitives was identified as Abdurasul Mirzoyev, the brother of a jailed former head of the presidential guards, who was sentenced to 30 years in prison last month on charges of involvement in a plot to overthrow the government.
Among the others who escaped were some of the 46 people sentenced to lengthy prison terms last week for involvement with an illegal armed gang led by Mirzo Ziyoyev, a commander of the United Tajik Opposition, a rebel group in the civil war.
http://arabnews.com/world/article111240.ece
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Controversial Ahmadinejad aide named as Mideast envoy
August 24, 2010
TEHRAN: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has defied calls to fire one of his closest aides and appointed him envoy to the Middle East instead, suggesting that for now he may have the upper hand over his critics.
Media reported on Monday that Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaie, the target of frequent criticism from inside the hardline establishment since he became chief of staff last year, was taking one of four new foreign policy posts.
News of Rahim-Mashaie’s appointment came a day after Ahmadinejad and the head of Parliament met and said they would put aside differences that have exposed deep divisions among hardliners and prompted a warning from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Rahim-Mashaie, whose daughter is married to Ahmadinejad’s son, has become the focal point for infighting among the hardliners who rule the Islamic Republic.
A year ago Khamenei forced Ahmadinejad to sack him from the post of first vice-president amid fierce criticism from many conservatives who were particularly offended by his suggestion that Iran was a friend to all nations, including the people of Israel.
But the president managed to hang on to his charismatic political ally by making him chief of staff.
Analysts say the establishment in-fighting has become increasingly evident in recent months as opposition protests over Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election in June 2009 have died down in the face of sometimes brutal repression.
The move also signalled Ahmadinejad’s intention to take a more hands-on role in regional diplomacy.
http://arabnews.com/middleeast/article111205.ece
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Sol-Gen. to Head Communal Violence Bill Panel
August 24, 2010
Solicitor-general of India Gopal Subramaniam will head the drafting committee formed by the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council to prepare the Communal and Sectarian Violence Bill, 2010 by November this year.
Having rejected the Communal Violence (Prevention, Control and Rehabilitation of Victims) Bill, prepared by the government last month, the NAC has decided to broaden the scope of the legislation by changing its nomenclature to Communal and Sectarian Violence Bill, 2010 keeping in mind the concerns of the civil society groups.
The NAC has also set a timeline for the drafting committee and has asked it to work out the draft bill by November this year. Besides well-known Supreme Court lawyers like Maja Daruwala and Najmi Waziri, other members of the drafting panel include social activist Teesta Setalwad and lawyers Usha Ramanathan and Vrinda Grover.
The NAC has also constituted an advisory group, including activist like Asgar Ali Engineer, Shabnam Hashmi, legal experts like H.S. Phoolka, Justice Hosbet Suresh, academicians like Sukhdeo Thorat, Upendra Baxi, Roop Rekha Verma and minority community leaders like John Dayal and Sister Mary Scaria. According to sources, key elements of the draft bill will be shifting from empowering the state to seeking action and accountability of public officials and setting up of an independent national authority to ensure effective compliance of the law, without disturbing the federal structure.
The draft bill would look into the need to specifically define and include new crimes/offences including sexual assault, enforced disappearances, torture, long-lasting social and economic boycott, and genocide, among others.
The draft bill would propose amendments in CrPC and Indian Evidence Act to meet extraordinary circumstance of communal and sectarian violence to protect victims’ rights, said sources. The draft bill would also define communal and sectarian violence to cover both isolated incidents and mass crimes against people on the basis of religion, caste, linguistic and other identities.
http://www.asianage.com/india/sol-gen-head-communal-violence-bill-panel-174
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Kashmir situation serious: Karat
August 24, 2010
SRINAGAR: Terming the current situation in Kashmir “extremely serious,” Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat on Monday said there was no justification for deaths when protesting youth were only throwing stones.
Talking to journalists here, he said the CPI(M) was shocked at the death of 62 youths in the firing by the Central paramilitary forces and the police. These deaths could not be condoned and “we have a deep sense of sympathy with the families who have lost their young members.”
“There can be no justification whatsoever for these needless deaths when the protesting youth were only throwing stones. There has to be an immediate end to these brutal and inhuman police firings. There has to be a strict no-firing policy to face stone-throwing crowds. Other measures are to be resorted to in such confrontations.”
Mr. Karat said the CPI(M) did not share the view of the Government of India over Kashmir. “We are of the opinion that Jammu and Kashmir has to be treated as a special case and not in a conventional manner. Provisions of maximum autonomy are the only way forward to find a political solution.”
The process of dialogue should be open-ended and involve all sections of people. He urged the Centre to have a road map for talks. “I don't subscribe to the view of the Home Minister [P. Chidambaram] that protests were engineered.”
The CPI(M) leader said talks with Pakistan should also be resumed and the exercise should cover all the issues. “It is necessary to take the dialogue in J&K forward.” The State administration should provide adequate compensation to those injured in police action and rehabilitate those suffered had permanent disabilities.
To help restore normality, the administration should release all juveniles detained and lodged in prisons.
“We appeal to people, particularly the youth, to pursue their protests through peaceful means.”
Mr. Karat demanded that the government amend the Armed Forces Special Powers Act to remove certain draconian provisions. “Till then, the Disturbed Areas Act should be withdrawn from Srinagar and certain other civilian areas given the significant decrease in militant activities. This will make the use of the AFSPA redundant in these areas.”
The Prime Minister's assurance on zero tolerance of human rights violations should be implemented. Action should be taken against those guilty in the Pathribal incident and the recent Machil fake encounter.
Besides announcing Rs. 5 lakh for the injured in hospitals, Mr. Karat said the CPI(M) central committee's next meeting would be devoted to Kashmir and “we will come out with our own approach paper.”
The CPI(M), he said, had been consistently advocating the need for a sustained political dialogue with all sections in the State to eventually reach a political settlement. It was unfortunate that the UPA-II government had totally failed to pursue this path.
“The way forward is by recognising the special status of the State and the need to assure the Kashmiri people of their identity. These require a new political framework of which the bedrock is maximum autonomy.”
CPI(M) central committee member M. Salim and State secretary M.Y. Tarigami were present.
The Hindu
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Prisons asked to produce Sayedee Sept 21
August 24, 2010
The International Crimes Tribunal on Tuesday again directed the prisons authorities to produce detained Jamaat-e-Islami Nayeb-e-Ameer Delwar Hossain Sayedee before it on September 21.
The tribunal also fixed September 21 for holding hearing on the eight applications filed earlier by Sayedee and four other top Jamaat leaders.
Prosecutor Rezaur Rahman during his submission earlier told the court that primarily it is evident through the investigation, and collected evidence and information that crimes against humanity (as per article 3(2) of International Crimes Tribunal Act, 1973) were committed in 1971 at different places in Pirojpur and Sayedee committed those crimes.
On August 10, the tribunal had directed the prisons authorities to produce Sayedee before it on August 24. But the tribunal deferred the date as the structural reform of the court building has been going on.
The four Jamaat big shots who earlier filed the petitions are Motiur Rahman Nizami, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid, Mohammad Kamaruzzaman and Abdul Quader Molla.
The Jamaat leaders filed the applications for withdrawal of the tribunal orders that earlier issued arrest warrants against them. The applications also sought the court orders to acquit them of the war crimes charges and for necessary documents and papers.
Tribunal Registrar Md Shahinur Islam told reporters that the judges of the tribunal sat in their chamber on the court premises in the morning and fixed the date for hearing the applications of the Jamaat leaders.
Daily Star
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War crime probe against Ghulam Azam begins
August 24, 2010
A team from the International Crimes Tribunal started investigating the war crimes charges against the former ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh Ghulam Azam yesterday.
The three-member team was led by Matiur Rahman, additional superintendent of police, along with investigation officer Shyamol Chowdhury and Probir Bhattacharya.
The team reached Brahmanbaria Sunday afternoon and visited various sites including, the prisons, Poirtola Baddhabhumi, Kaltali Soudho Hironmay and Intellectual Monument yesterday morning.
They also spoke to the locals for information on the killings of sub-inspector Shiru Miah and his son during the War of Independence in 1971.
The team expects to work for several days to delve into the war crimes committed by Ghulam Azam, who was born in Beergaan village under Nabinagar upazila of the district and collaborated with Pakistani occupation force during 1971.
ASP Matiur Rahman told The Daily Star that he prefers not to divulge any information about their findings yet.
Daily Star
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Pirates kill fisherman, abduct 125 for ransom
August 24, 2010
Pirates killed a fisherman and abducted at least 125 fishermen while looting 84 trawlers in Borguna and Bagerhat on Sunday.
Pirates killed a fisherman and shot four others near Chalna Boya point of the Bay of Bengal in Borguna district on Sunday night.
They also looted four fishing trawlers and abducted 25 fishermen at around 11:00pm, reports a correspondent from Barisal.
The deceased was identified as Ripon Khan, 30, son of Rezwan Khan of Kalmegha village under Patharghata upazila of Borguna.
At least 26 other fishermen jumped into the river to save themselves from the pirates.
The nearby fishing trawlers rescued them from the sea. All of them hailing from Banshkhali of Chittagong returned to Patharghata at around 10:00am yesterday.
The injured were identified as Jagdish, Suvash, Abul and Kasem.
UNB from Bagerhat says, pirates looted valuables worth Tk 25 lakh from 80 trawlers and abducted over 100 fishermen demanding ransom of Tk 30 lakh in separate raids in the coastal areas of the district on Sunday night.
Fisherman Alauddin of Kochikhali said pirate number 30-40 belonging to infamous Zulfiqar Bahini in separate groups launched attack on the 80 trawlers while they were catching fish at Narkelbaria, Dublar Char and Meher Ali Char in coastal areas of the Bay of Bengal.
As the fishermen tried to resist the bandits they beat them up indiscriminately, leaving around 30 of them seriously injured, he added.
Later, the pirates looted nets and the fishes of the fishermen worth about Tk 25 lakh from the trawlers.
The gang also threatened to kill the abducted fishermen if their family members fail to pay the ransom money within next seven days. The victims hailed from Sharankhola, Kachua, Charduani areas of the district and Patharghata upazila of Barguna district.
Lt Commander Lokman Hakim of Mongla West Zone Coast Guard said drive was on to nab the pirates.
Sources said, pirates abducted more than 200 fishermen for ransom and looted valuables worth Tk 50 lakh from at least 150 trawlers in the last 10 days.
Another report says, Coast Guard members arrested three pirates from Karamjol area of Passur river in Mongla upazila Sunday midnight.
The arrestees were identified as Nurul Islam, 35, Sawpan Hawlader, 37, and Jahangir Farazi, 36, of signal tower area in the upazila.
In Satkhira, police arrested four pirates yesterday while they were collecting illegal tolls from the fishermen in the river Kabodak near Jelekhali point adjacent to the Sundarbans in Shyamnagar upazila, reports our correspondent.
The pirates are Abul Kalam, 35 son of Abdus Sabur and Mizan, 40, son of Abdul Khaleque Sheikh of village Koira and Rokon Sheikh, 25 son of Sheikh Abdul Jalil and Masum Billal, 23 son of Shahidullah of village Katakhali in Koira upazila under Khulna district.
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/latest_news.php?nid=25473
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Indo-Bangla ties worsened after Bangabandhu's death
August 24, 2010
Relations between India and Bangladesh worsened after the death of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975, as political parties instilled anti-India sentiment in people to gain political advantage.
Such practice by the political parties even adversely affected the economic development of both the countries, said speakers at a discussion yesterday on “Bangabandhu: Relationship with India under present perspective” at the city's Engineers' Institute organised by Shaheed M Mansur Ali Smrity Sangsad. The organisation arranged the discussion to mark the August 15, 1975 tragedy.
They also said Bangabandhu had established a strong bilateral relationship with largest neighbouring country India considering its economic potentials.
Without mentioning any political party, Golam Sarwar, editor of Dainik Samakal, said political parties were reluctant to identify India as a friend in fear of losing public acceptance during elections.
He however said the situation has changed for the last one and a half years and bilateral relations have improved.
Manjurul Ahsan Khan, president of Bangladesh Communist Party, said Bangabandhu had never compromised on anything that went against the country's interests.
Rashed Khan Menon, president of Workers Party of Bangladesh, said there were fears after the country's independence as to whether it would be a right decision to build a good relationship with India, but Bangabandhu had made it clear that there was nothing to be ashamed of having good relations with a friendly state.
Speakers have expressed frustration saying that even 39 years into the Liberation War, no memorial has been made in Bangladesh in memory of Indian soldiers who sacrificed their lives in 1971.
They praised the ruling Awami League-led alliance government for signing contracts with India and hoped that the contracts would be implemented accordingly.
At the programme, Commerce Minister Faruk Khan said it is expected that people of both the countries will start getting benefits of the bilateral agreements from next year.
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=152042
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Jamaat men backtrack on war trial act
August 24, 2010
Two Jamaat-e-Islami leaders yesterday withdrew from the High Court a writ petition that challenged the first amendment to the constitution and some sections of the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act, 1973 under which the war crimes trial is being held.
Jamaat assistant secretaries general Muhammad Kamaruzzaman and Abdul Quader Molla jointly filed the writ petition on August 16 seeking HC's directive to stop proceedings of the trial against them under the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act.
Petitioners' counsel Abdur Razzaq told an HC bench that his clients had asked him not to proceed with the writ petition.
Following the court order, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said there is no legal bar now to proceed with the trial of the 1971 crimes against humanity and war crimes under the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act, 1973.
He said the Jamaat leaders might move the same writ petition to another HC bench in future.
Daily Star
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Mike Tyson in Saudi Arabia for pilgrimage
August 24, 2010
DUBAI: Former boxing champion Mike Tyson is on his first visit to Saudi Arabia for pilgrimage.
Tyson, who embraced Islam while serving a prison sentence in the 1990s, arrived in the holy city of Madinah on Friday to perform prayers at the Prophet's Mosque, Arabic media reports said.
From Madinah, Tyson will travel to Makkah to perform 'Umrah' and later will visit Jeddah, Abha and Riyadh as part of his tour.
His visit was arranged by a Canadian organisation which organises visits for new Muslim celebrities to Islamic sites in Saudi Arabia.
Tyson would be in the Kingdom for one week, visiting the holy places as well as important landmarks in the country and will meet the Saudi people to know their culture and traditions.
Times of India
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Spanish aid workers freed by Al-Qaeda return home
August 24, 2010
BARCELONA: Two Spanish aid workers freed by Al-Qaeda's North African branch returned home on Tuesday after a nine-month hostage ordeal in the Sahara, and said they were well-treated by their captors.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) said it agreed to free the two after some of its demands were met, the Spanish newspaper El Pais reported, quoting an audio statement it said was from the group.
The group did not give details. But Spanish newspapers reported that a ransom of several million euros was paid, and hours before the hostages' release the mastermind behind the kidnapping was freed in Mali, according to a member of his family.
Albert Vilalta, 35, and Roque Pascual, 50, who worked for Catalan aid group Accio Solidaria, were seized north of the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott on November 29 along with a third Spaniard, 39-year-old Alicia Gamez, who was freed in March.
They were handed over to the AQIM, which held them in Mali.
Following their release on Sunday, they were flown to Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, from Mali.
They arrived at Barcelona's El Prat airport at around 1:20am (2320 GMT Monday) on a Spanish military plane from Ouagadougou, accompanied by Spanish Secretary of State for Cooperation Soraya Rodriguez, and were greeted by family members and regional officials.
"It is very important day for us, it was a hard nine months for us being held hostage, and now we are free, I am very happy and very emotional," Vilalta said in a brief statement.
"We were treated properly within the very, very hard conditions of life in the desert," he said. "We lived like they (the kidnappers) lived, ate what they ate, slept like they did," he said.
"We know that the Spanish government has made a major diplomatic effort with all governments in the region. We are very proud of our government," added Vilalta, who walked with the aid of a crutch due to a leg injury he suffered while held captive.
Pascual also thanked the government for its "patience" and all those who helped in a "very long, very complicated process."
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said Monday the release was "very good news" and "puts an end to a terrorist action which should never have happened."
Their release follows the August 16 transfer from Mauritania to Mali of the kidnap mastermind, Malian national Omar Sid'Ahmed Ould Hamma, who had been jailed for 12 years by a Mauritanian court.
A member of his family and a regional mediator said late on Monday that Hamma, who has strong ties to AQIM although is not a member of the group, was freed shortly before the hostages were released.
Spanish dailies El Mundo and ABC both reported on Monday that the hostages' release was the result of Hamma's transfer and a payment by the Spanish government which El Mundo put at 3.8 million euros (4.8 million dollars) and ABC at between 5.0 million and 10 million.
Zapatero said the government had "stepped up the activities of its political, diplomatic and intelligence services to secure their release," but made no mention of any ransom.
The AQIM statement, as released by El Pais on its website, said that "Thanks to God, the mujahedeen have found a positive solution to the issue of the Spanish hostages Albert Vilalta and Roque Pascual, which ended on Sunday ... with their release after some of our demands were met."
It added that the release "is a lesson for the French secret service to take into consideration in the future," referring to a French-Mauritanian raid in Mali last month that failed to rescue a French hostage and in which seven AQIM members were killed.
"They had the chance to act responsibly and use their heads with the mujahedeen and avoid the madness and anger that led to the deaths of their citizens...
"Because Christian jails are filled with thousands of innocent Muslim brothers, and the Muslim community has to ask hard and every way possible for their liberation by all possible means", said the statement, which El Pais translated from Arabic to Spanish.
The two Spaniards were being held by an AQIM cell led by Algeria's Mokhtar Belmokhtar, who paid Hamma to kidnap them.
While Belmokhtar is considered more a businessman than a religious fanatic, he is believed to be under pressure from a radical branch of AQIM led by another Algerian, Abdelhamid Abou Zeid.
Zeid has overseen the deaths of two Western hostages, Briton Edwin Dyer and Frenchman Michel Germaneau. The latter was slain in the aftermath of the Franco-Mauritanian raid to free him, in which seven of Zeid's men were killed.
He is believed to have been demanding the execution of the Spaniards in retaliation for the July 22 military operation.
Times of India
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Floods: Pakistan eases visa regime except for Indians
August 24, 2010
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has eased visa restrictions for aid workers from all countries except India and Israel to help the nation deal with the humanitarian crisis caused by the devastating floods.
All Pakistani missions abroad have been authorised by the Interior Ministry to “grant three months “Relief Work'' visa to aid workers/relief providers [except from India and Israel] taking part in relief/rescue operation for the flood victims''. This facility will be available to all U. N. officials and international aid workers also.
Additionally, aid workers from well-known organisations will be granted Visa on Arrival free-of-cost initially for three months by the Federal Investigation Agency (Immigration) at entry points including airports.
While security considerations had forced the United Nations to scale down its international staff presence in Khyber-Pukhtoonkhwa to the bare minimum last year, the government had also imposed restrictions on international aid workers in view of the attacks on them by terrorist outfits who questioned their motives. Still, the visa regime had been flagged as a constraint by several donor agencies in the wake of the floods and Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi had indicated earlier this month that the standard operating practice would be relaxed.
However, according to the former Senator, Sanaullah Baloch, international aid workers and NGOs were still being prevented from going to Balochistan. Criticising the decision and demanding that aid be equally distributed to all four federating units of the country, he wrote in The Dawn that “the National Disaster Management Authority has banned international donor agencies, aid organisations and NGOs from directly assisting the flood-affected people of the province''.
The Hindu
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Bangladesh battling anthrax outbreak
August 24, 2010
Health officials are struggling to contain a major outbreak of anthrax in northern Bangladesh, with at least 52 new infections registered in the past week, the Health Ministry said on Monday.
At least 162 people have been infected with the bacteria in nine separate outbreaks in less than a year, but no one has died so far, Mahmudur Rahman, a Health Ministry director, said.
Most of the cases have been in the rural cattle-rearing region of northern Bangladesh.
“In the latest outbreak in the northern town of Shajadpur, 52 people became infected in the last week,” Rahman said.
Anthrax is a potentially lethal bacterium that exists naturally in the soil and commonly infects livestock which ingest or inhale its spores while grazing.
It can be transmitted to humans who handle or eat infected animals.
Rahman said the latest outbreak was caused by cattle farmers slaughtering diseased cows and selling the contaminated meat.
There is a vaccine to prevent infections in cows, but the Bangladeshi livestock authorities “do not have adequate supplies” to immunise all the country’s cattle, Rahman said.
“It’s an emerging disease in Bangladesh — one that has caught the farmers and the livestock department off guard,” he added.
http://www.dailypioneer.com/278098/Bangladesh-battling-anthrax-outbreak.html
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US support of Pakistan ‘strategic mistake’
August 24, 2010
WASHINGTON: A senior Afghan official is urging the United States to re-evaluate its friendship with Pakistan, accusing the country of supporting al-Qaeda and other extremists as it plays a double-game.
Writing in Monday’s Washington Post, Afghanistan’s national security adviser Rangin Dadfar Spanta said Pakistani policy has helped maintain a level of violence that is leading to the erosion of Western support for the war. US-led troops are deployed with a mission to fight extremist groups, but the task “has been compounded by another strategic failure: the mistaken embrace of ‘strategic partners’ who have, in fact, been nurturing terrorism,” he wrote.
“While we are losing dozens of men and women to terrorist attacks every day, the terrorists’ main mentor continues to receive billions of dollars in aid and assistance. How is this fundamental contradiction justified?” Spanta wrote.
Pakistan and Afghanistan have long had a fraught relationship. The United States last year approved a 7.5 billion-dollar aid package for Pakistan and has played a lead role in assistance during major floods, hoping its helping hand will reduce rampant anti-Americanism.
US officials credit Pakistan with stepping up the fight against homegrown Taliban, including through a blistering assault in its tribal northwest last year, but many believe Pakistani intelligence has maintained links with extremists targeting Afghanistan and historic enemy India.
http://thenews.com.pk/24-08-2010/ethenews/t-123.htm
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UAE, US ink deal on nuclear safeguards
August 24, 2010
The nuclear regulatory bodies of the UAE and the US have inked a deal for cooperation in areas like safety, security and safeguards of the nuclear installations.
The nuclear regulatory bodies of the UAE and the US have inked a deal for cooperation in areas like safety, security and safeguards of the nuclear installations, taking the historic 123 agreement signed by the two countries earlier for collaboration in nuclear fields to greater heights.
The latest agreement has been signed between the Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR) of the UAE and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) of the US at the NRC’s headquarters in Washington, D.C, according to a communication issued by the UAE’s official news agency Wam here on Monday.
This Arrangement was made within the framework of the bilateral nuclear cooperation (123) agreement between the Governments of the UAE and the US which was signed in January last year and implemented on December 17, 2009, Wam report said.
The signing ceremony was attended by Yousef Al Otaiba, UAE Ambassador to the US, and other UAE officials. The FANR-NRC Cooperation Arrangement will allow the exchange of technical information, joint safety research and training for nuclear safety personnel.
The 123 Agreement has a term of 30 years and permits the transfer of nuclear material, equipment (including reactors) and components for civil nuclear research and civil nuclear power production. The strong commitments made by the UAE on nuclear non-proliferation had made it easier to get the US Congressional nod for the 123 Agreement.
Earlier in February this year, the UAE and the US had signed an ‘implementation arrangement’ which would provide further framework for cooperation between the two governments in the peaceful nuclear energy field.
The ‘implementation arrangement’ was then signed by the UAE Minister of State for Foreign affairs, Dr Anwar Gargash, and the visiting US Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu, in Abu Dhabi and relates to information exchange between the two countries on building up capabilities for the development of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
Agreements are also being worked out between the UAE and the US in terms of capacity building in the nuclear field in the UAE.
The Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation, or ENEC, has identified Braka near Ruwais in the western region of Abu Dhabi as the tentative site for the first nuclear power station in the UAE.
The first nuclear power station in the country will comprise of four 1,400 MW nuclear power plants and the Korean consortium led by Korea Electric Power Corporation or KEPCO has already been awarded the Dh75 billion contract for the construction of the plants. The FANR has recently given clearance for site preparation for Braka site.
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/displayarticle.asp?xfile=data/theuae/2010/August/theuae_August662.xml§ion=theuae&col=
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Afghan security force training faces big hurdles
August 24, 2010
24 August 2010 WASHINGTON - High drop-out and illiteracy rates mean it will take until late October 2011 to build up Afghanistan’s police and military so they can take the lead in more areas, a senior U.S. commander said on Monday.
Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon via video link-up from Afghanistan, Lieutenant-General William Caldwell said at the current pace of training, the Afghan army and police could take the lead only in “isolated pockets” of the country and with support from foreign forces.
“To say they will be able to do much more before October next year would be stretching it, only because we have not finished the development of their force,” said Caldwell, who leads NATO’s training mission.
“So if somebody says, when will the security force have the lead in a particular area, we will not have finished building the entire army until October of next year,” he added.
U.S. forces are expected to start withdrawing from Afghanistan from July next year, but the scale and pace of the pullout depend on the ability of Afghans to take responsibility for security in major parts of the country.
“We are aware of the date,” said Caldwell when asked whether the timing of troop training was in line with a pledge by President Barack Obama to start withdrawing U.S. forces from July 2011 if the right conditions exist.
“We continue to say that by ... the end of October, we can make the current growth objectives with our Afghan counterparts as we move forward,” said Caldwell.
Literacy Hurdle
There are several major hurdles to creating a professional force, including staggeringly high illiteracy and attrition.
Only 14 to 18 percent — less than two out of 10 — of current recruits were literate and in some police units, the attrition rate was as high as 47 percent, said Caldwell.
“There are no shortcuts,” Caldwell said of building up a new force. “Significant challenges do remain.”
Literacy has become a major focus, with the realization that if a policeman could not read numbers he would not, for example, be able to do a simple task such as note the serial number on his rifle.
Another practical problem was in paying a force via electronic means when they could not read bank statements or numbers on an automatic banking machine set up in bases.
“Only when they read how much they are owed and how much they have received will they be able to prevent the theft of their own pay,” Caldwell said.
About 27,000 army and police recruits have taken part in literacy programs. That number is expected to reach 50,000 by the end of December and double by June 2011. The goal is to reach the reading age of a third grader — roughly an 8-year-old.
There are 249,500 personnel — 134,000 army and 115,500 police — in the Afghan security forces, with a goal of getting that figure up to 305,000 by October 2011.
With current dropout rates, desertions, deaths and injuries, about 141,000 would have to be trained to fill that quota of 56,000 needed, said Caldwell.
In the Afghan National Army, the attrition rate is about 23 percent while in the police overall it is about 16 percent, he said, adding that these figures varied from unit to unit. In the Afghan National Police, for example, the attrition rate was about 47 percent.
Asked how much it cost to train each policeman or soldier, Caldwell said he did not have exact figures. “I’ve never actually been asked that question before,” he said, an answer likely to raise eyebrows in Congress where lawmakers are always pressing for exact figures.
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/displayarticle.asp?xfile=data/international/2010/August/international_August1274.xml§ion=international&col=
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Saudi flood rescue team reaches Pakistan
August 24, 2010
JEDDAH: A team of Saudi search and rescue workers arrived in Karachi on Monday to take part in relief and rescue operations in Pakistan and assist flood victims. They were sent on orders of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah.
The team, including officers of civil defense and border guards, arrived on three large transport planes. Saudi Ambassador Abdul Aziz Alghadeer said the team would go to Hyderabad to work with the Pakistani armed forces in rescue operations."The sending of a search and rescue team to Pakistan reflects the deep-rooted relations between the two countries," said Alghadeer and urged the team members to exert all possible efforts to save the lives of their Pakistani brethren.
Prince Muhammad bin Naif, assistant interior minister for security affairs, said the Kingdom would send a second search and rescue team to Pakistan on Tuesday. He said the Saudi team members were trained in rescuing people trapped by floodwaters.
"Our team members are not only given advanced training but also provided with modern rescue equipment including rescue vehicles, boats, heavy equipment and electricity generators," the prince said.
Meanwhile, the response to appeal for aid to flood victims has been overwhelming in Britain. The British public has given 29 million pounds ($45 million) in aid to flood-ravaged Pakistan, charity officials said Monday.
After a slow start blamed on a lack of awareness of the crisis, the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), which coordinates humanitarian appeals from a dozen charities, said donations from the public were growing.
"This is a tragedy unfolding in slow motion with new areas still being flooded and the threat of deadly water-borne diseases stalking millions of survivors," said DEC chief executive Brendan Gormley.
He said the British public was "shaming politicians across the world" with its generosity.
British Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell said last week the government was doubling its emergency aid for Pakistan to more than 64 million pounds.
Oxfam humanitarian director Jane Cocking said the catastrophe has "the scale of the tsunami, the destruction of Haiti and the complexity of the Middle East."
The slow response by some countries has been criticized by UN officials. Britain's government has created a $100 million relief fund.
http://arabnews.com/world/article111249.ece
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First locomotives for mineral railway arrive
August 24, 2010
RIYADH: The first consignment of six of the 25 locomotives for the mineral railway line project was received Sunday by the Saudi Railway Company (SAR) at the King Abdulaziz Seaport in Dammam.
"The locomotives are imported from EMD (Electro-Motive Diesels)," Fawaz Al-Magati, rolling stock supervisor of SAR, told Arab News on Monday.
Al-Magati said that the remaining 19 locomotives will arrive here by the end of this year. These 4,300-hp engines will be used for transporting mineral on the North-South Railway.
"They are designed to suit the climatic conditions of the Kingdom and are equipped with pulse and sand filters to travel through desert conditions," said Al-Magati.
Early last month, SAR received 125 of the 688 wagons for the mineral freight line. The locomotives are manufactured in Canada for the US-based company while the wagons are produced by the Chinese CSR company.
Al-Magati said training for the engine drivers and other technicians would start in October. The company's target is to start operations before the end of the year.
"We may do a test run in early November, Insha Allah," he said. "The 2,400-km North-South Railway is given priority due to its important role in industrial development of the Kingdom. It would ferry minerals from mines in the north and central zones of Al-Jalami and As-Zabirah to Ras Al-Zour in the east for processing."
The rail line — sponsored by Public Investment Fund — is integral to planned phosphate and bauxite mining projects in the north of the country that will link up with processing plants and smelters on the Gulf coast.
The new railway would transport 15,000 tons of minerals in a single trip, the equivalent of 600 cargo trucks. Al-Magati said each locomotive would pull 100 wagons.
http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article111244.ece
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Sultan Shahin
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