indian affairs

Wednesday, 23 July 2014

Karachi police operation, 30 suspects held

KARACHI: Police in a search operation in Orangi Town on Wednesday hauled up 30 suspected persons, Geo News reported.

SP Orangi Town, Sajid Amir Saddozai said that police launched an operation against suspected persons at Pirabad, Qasba and Frontier Colony in Orangi Town by blocking all exit/entry roads started house-to-house search operation and picked up 30 suspects in the process.

PESHAWAR: At least 13 suspected militants were killed and their hideouts were destroyed Wednesday in air strikes carried out by fighter jets in the Shawal tehsil of North Waziristan.

Sources claimed that the jet strikes destroyed at least six hideouts in the Shawal mountains and the area near Dattakhel.

However, these claims could not be independently verified.

Air strikes were also carried out late on Tuesday.

Goalpara: One person was killed and three others injured in a blast in front of a police station in Assam's Goalpara district today.

Police say at around 8 am, an IED or Improvised explosive device allegedly planted on a bicycle exploded outside the Krishnai police station.

The injured have been taken to hospital where they are being treated.

Parliamentarians of the Shiv Sena allegedly forced a Muslim catering supervisor, who was fasting for Ramzan, to eat a chapati during a row over food at the Maharashtra Sadan last week.

The Sena leaders have been accused of misbehaving with the staff for not serving them Maharashtrian food.

The Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Company or IRCTC has reportedly stopped catering for the state guest house in protest, alleging that their resident manager, Arshad, was forced to eat a chapatti.

Gaya: A major disaster was averted after a pilot engine detected a damaged railway track near Gaya in Bihar just hours before a Rajdhani train was to pass though that area. Maoists had allegedly blown up the track last night.

The incident happened around 11 pm last night when the driver of the engine alerted authorities about the track between Islampur and Rafiganj. It was running ahead of the New Delhi-Howrah Rajdhani as also a Rajdhani that was headed from New Delhi to Bhubanewswar.

GAZA CITY: Israeli strikes killed at least 13 women and children in Gaza on Tuesday, medics said, as the army announced the deaths of two more soldiers in the two-week conflict.

The fatalities, which were among nearly 40 on Tuesday alone, brought the total death toll to more than 600 Palestinians, according to Gaza´s emergency services, and 29 Israelis -- 27 soldiers and two civilians.

A child and three women, one of them pregnant, were killed in two separate Israeli air strikes in Zeitun, in the central Gaza Strip, and Beit Hanun, in the north, emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said.

GAZA CITY: The death toll in Gaza rose to 572 on Monday. And the Israeli army said another seven soldiers had been killed in fighting in Gaza, raising the overall Israeli death toll to 27, all but two of them soldiers.

BANNU: At least six Al Qaeda commanders were killed during the recent US drone attack in Dattakhel area of North Waziristan tribal region, Al Qaeda leadership confirmed, ACCORDING to a report PUBLISHED in The News.

The head of the Al-Qaeda victory Committee, Sanafi al-Nasr, who is based in Syria, confirmed via a SOCIAL NETWORKING SITE that six of his members belonging to the Hafiz Gul Bahadur group were killed in the July 10 drone attack.

The chief of the Bihar unit of the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) party, Vashisht Narayan Singh, on Tuesday, said that his party is inching closer to the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), but added that the timing of meeting RJD chief Lalu Yadav is yet to be decided.

Singh said, "Time has not been fixed (to meet Lalu) till now. When talks will be done with him (RJD chief) and time will be fixed, then, I will be able to say something. But this is for sure that we are coming closer and supporting each other. We expect that this will give way to our future plans as well."

KABUL: A Taliban suicide bomber detonated himself on Tuesday outside Kabul International airport, killing three foreign advisers and an Afghan interpreter, police said.

The nationalities of the foreign advisers were not immediately clear.

The explosion comes days after one of the most audacious militant attacks in a year on the airport, which is used by both civilians and the military.

Kuwait has stripped five well-known opposition figures of their citizenship, including the owner of a newspaper and television station.

The official Kuwait News Agency announced the decision by Kuwait's cabinet on Monday, which approved a draft decree to revoke the citizenship of the five.

Among those named in the decision is Abdullah al-Barghash, a former Islamist opposition legislator, and three other members of his family.

Youm-e-Ali (RA) being observed across the country today

KARACHI: The country is observing Youm-e-Ali (RA), the martyrdom day of Hazrat Ali (RA), as law enforcement agencies have made strict security arrangements to avert any untoward situation in any part of the country, Geo News reported.

The mourning processions following the planned routes and finally gather at the pre-decided venues. Strict security is being observed throughout the processions routes while the district administrations have also installed CCTV cameras.

ISTANBUL: One thousand Muslims are being killed each day and 90 percent of the killers are also Muslims, head of Turkey's Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) has said.

"They are being killed by their brothers, not only in Syria and Iraq, but also in Libya, Pakistan, Africa and Myanmar," Prof. Dr. Mehmet Görmez said in his address to the participants of "World Islamic Scholars, Peace, Moderation and Commonsense Initiative" conference in Istanbul on July 19.

Görmez cited "some studies" without specifying the exact source for the figures he quoted.

GAZA: Fresh Israeli bombardments killed five people in Gaza Sunday, hiking the death toll from the assault to over 350.Israel pressed its air, sea and ground offensive against the besieged coastal territory.Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal was to meet Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in Qatar to discuss an Egyptian-proposed truce on Sunday, and the movement said it had received an invitation to Cairo for ceasefire talks.

MIRAMSHAH: A US drone strike targeting a compound early on Saturday morning killed eleven suspected militants in Madakhel Tehsil in Data Khel, North Waziristan.“The drone fired eight missiles on the compound at around 2:00am (2100 GMT) on Saturday killing eleven members of the Punjabi faction of the Pakistani Taliban,” a senior security official in the region told AFP.

ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi is scheduled to travel to the United States on an official visit from the 21st to the 28th of this month.

"Mr Fatemi is scheduled to hold meetings with senior officials in the State Department, Defence Department and the White House to exchange views on bilateral relations," Foreign Office spokesperson Tasneem Aslam told Dawn.

Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Khalid al-Sabah on Sunday told a visiting Hamas delegation that his country supports an Egyptian proposal for a ceasefire between Palestinian factions and Israel in the Gaza Strip.

During a meeting with Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, who arrived in Kuwait earlier in the day, Sheikh Sabah condemned Israeli "aggression and crimes" against the Gaza Strip and reaffirmed support for the Palestinians.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s strong-worded criticism against Israel and the United States over the former’s military operations in Gaza has transformed into a diplomatic spat between Ankara and Washington, with Erdogan calling for the U.S. to be “self-critical” over its Israel policy.

“If America is still saying that ‘Israel is using its right to self-defense’ then it should be critical of itself. It’s America who is offensive,” Erdogan told TGRT on July 20 in an interview.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has condemned as “anti-Semitic” Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s criticism of the latest military operation in Gaza, Israeli newspaper Hareetz reported on July 20.

Netanyahu told U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in a telephone conversation that Erdogan’s recent remarks, accusing Israel of massacring Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and carrying out war crimes “worse than Hitler” were anti-Semitic, adding that they “desecrated the memory of the Holocaust.”

At least 30 Taliban fighters have been killed, and 15 others wounded in various regions of Afghanistan, the country's Defense Ministry said Monday.

According to the ministry, security forces in the eastern Khost province carried out operations against the Taliban that left 23 fighters dead and 12 wounded.

Another seven Taliban fighters were killed and three others wounded in the southern province of Helmand.

Twelve killed, over 20 injured as bus falls into ravine in AJK

MUZAFFARABAD: At least 12 people were killed and over 20 others were injured Monday when a speeding bus fell into a ravine in Azad Kashmir’s Mirpur area, DawnNews reported.

The bus carrying passengers from Bhimber was travelling to Samahni when the driver lost control at Poona due to speeding. As a result, the bus fell into a ravine.

On receiving information, police and rescue team personnel reached the site of incident and retrieved the dead bodies and injured persons out of the bus with the assistance of locals present in the area.

UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council opened urgent talks on the escalating violence in Gaza to consider ways of stepping up ceasefire efforts.

The 15-member Council met as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was holding talks with leaders in the region amid a spike in violence that left more than 100 Palestinians dead in a single day.

“We have to know from the secretary-general the result of his efforts, his travels and whether there is any hope of moving forward to a ceasefire,” said French Ambassador Gerard Araud as he headed into the meeting.

HRABOVE: US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday that the evidence indicates that a Russian missile was used to down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, while Britain said Moscow faced “pariah” status and the threat of further economic sanctions.

Islamist-led militiamen have stepped up their assault on Libya's main airport, controlled by rival fighters, which the health ministry said on Monday had left at least 47 dead in a week.

The fighting, which erupted on July 13 and shut Tripoli international airport, also injured 120 people, according to figures for the week until Saturday.

Seven suspected militants, one elite force man killed in Lahore clash

LAHORE: An armed clash between security forces and suspected militants during a search operation early Thursday in a compound situated in Lahore’s Raiwind Road area killed seven suspected militants while one elite force man was also killed and five others had been injured, Punjab Minister for Anti-Terrorism Col. (retd) Shuja Khanzada said.

Speaking to media representatives, Khanzada said that the exact figure of militants present the area could not be established and several of them appeared to have fled.

He said security forces wanted to apprehend the militants alive, adding that terrorism could not be eliminated in a single day.

A Saudi mufti with the Islamic State (IS or Daesh) has been killed in Iraq by the country’s armed forces, says an Iraqi news site, quoting an Iraqi military commander.

“Daesh mufti Abu Osama Al-Qahtani was killed inside a building in Baiji, Tikrit, along with four of his assistants in an air raid that targeted an IS meeting on Tuesday,” Lt. Gen. Ali Al-Freiji, commander in Saladin province, was quoted by Waradana as saying.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan here on Thursday called on Afghan authorities to ensure their border security so that attacks emanating from their soil are stopped. Speaking during her weekly press briefing, the Foreign Office spokesperson Tasneem Aslam has said that that Pakistan condemns all forms of terrorism.

ISLAMABAD: Chief military spokesman Major General Asim Bajwa said on Tuesday that the Pakistan army will "completely eliminate" terrorists sanctuaries and hideouts from North Waziristan.

Speaking to media personnel in Islamabad, Bajwa said, "North Waziristan had become a hub of terrorism where several terrorist networks were based and had been operating for a long time."

"Terrorists used to brainwash suicide bombers while recruiting them in North Waziristan."

Five killed during operation in Karachi's Landhi area

KARACHI: Five suspected militants were killed during an operation in Gulshan-i-Buner area of Karachi's Landhi area.

Security sources said that a police team conducted the raid after receiving a tip-off regarding the presence of hardened criminals in the vicinity.

The police team was fired upon once they entered the area.

At least five 'terrorists' were killed in retaliatory firing by security personnel, while police also claimed to have recovered a weapon factory, in addition to a large quantity of arms and ammunition.

A suicide car bomber has killed at least 38 people in the east of Afghanistan.

Mohammad Reza Kharoti, an administration chief in the Urgun district of Paktika province, said the attack on Tuesday also wounded more than 40 others.

He said the bomber detonated his vehicle full of explosives near a mosque and a market. All the casualties were civilians.

Egypt has proposed a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza that would start on Tuesday, ending a week of cross-border warfare, and be followed by talks to prevent further hostilities.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu planned to convene his decision-making security cabinet on Tuesday to discuss the proposed truce, an Israeli official said.

The official appeared to put a positive spin on the Egyptian initiative, saying Hamas had been weakened military by Israeli air and sea bombardments.

Jihadist militants publicly executed four Syrian men in a western Iraqi town for allegedly spying for President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, witnesses and a doctor said on Monday.

Militants flying the flag of the jihadist Islamic State (IS) group brought the men to a main street in al-Qaim, near Iraq’s border with Syria, in a convoy of trucks on Sunday, witnesses said.

One militant then announced that they were spies for Assad’s regime, which the IS is fighting in Syria, and the men, their hands bound, were shot dead one by one.

KIRKUK: Iraqi security forces advanced into militant-held Tikrit on Tuesday in an assault aimed at revitalising flagging efforts to retake the city, officials said.

Security forces began the attack in morning and have succeeded in retaking government facilities in the city's south.

PESHAWAR: At least 18 suspected militants were killed Wednesday in a US drone attack in North Waziristan tribal region's Dattakhel area.

Intelligence sources said that the drone fired missiles on a compound in Saidgai area of Dattakhel as a result of which the compound was completely destroyed whereas 18 suspected militants were killed.

A typhoon killed at least 10 people as it churned across the Philippines and hit the capital, prompting the evacuation of almost more than 370,000 people, shutting financial MARKETS, offices and schools, rescue officials said on Wednesday.The eye of Typhoon Rammasun, the strongest storm to hit the country this year, passed to the south of Manila on Wednesday after cutting a path across the main island of Luzon, toppling trees and power lines and causing electrocutions and widespread blackouts.

Saudi Arabia has denounced the brutal Israeli aggression on the Palestinians in Gaza and has urged the UN Security Council and the Human Rights Council to realize their responsibilities and apply the Fourth Geneva Convention against Israel to stop its crimes and atrocities against the Palestinian people.

The Council of Ministers, which met under the chairmanship of Crown Prince Salman, deputy premier and minister of defense, lauded the SR200 million donation ordered by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah to secure medicine and medical equipment required by the Palestinian victims of Israeli attacks on Gaza.

JAMMU: Eight people were killed after their vehicle plunged into the Chenab river in Kishtwar district of Jammu region on Wednesday, police said.

"A taxi went out of the driver's control and fell into the river at Dachan," a police officer said. "Eight passengers were killed in this accident."

Karachi: Pakistan team management have decided to restrict tall paceman Mohammed Irfan to only ODIs and T20s, keeping in mind team's interest in the next year's World Cup.

Injury-prone Irfan was stopped from participating in any Ramazan tournament as coach Waqar Younis called him back to the national cricket academy to concentrate on fitness.

"Waqar, who himself has been a fast bowler, has made it clear to Irfan that he should just work on his fitness and training at the NCA till the next domestic season starts in September," a source close to Irfan told PTI.Irfan said that he had been told that the Pakistan management had prepared a proper schedule for him and he would only be playing in the one-dayers and T20 matches in future.

Germany humiliate Brazil 7-1 to reach World Cup final

BELO HORIZONTE: Brazil's World Cup dream was smashed into oblivion as majestic Germany ran riot to win an extraordinary semi-final 7-1 and send the South American hosts crashing to their worst ever defeat in their 100-year footballing history.

Sixty-four years after Brazil was plunged into national mourning after their loss in the 1950 final, the hosts were torn apart in a defeat likely to be every bit as traumatic as the fabled "Maracanazo. "Germany advanced to Sunday's final in the Maracana after a brilliant first-half blitz which included a burst of four goals in six devastating minutes.

Syrian troops have advanced inside and near northern Aleppo in what appears to be an attempt to lay siege to rebel-held parts of the country's largest city, activist say.

Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said on Monday that reinforcements, including members of Iran's elite Republican Guards and allies from Lebanon's Hezbollah group, had recently arrived in Aleppo.

JERUSALEM - Israel on Tuesday launched its largest offensive in the Gaza Strip in nearly two years, carrying out a blistering aerial assault on scores of targets and killing 25 people in what officials called an open-ended operation aimed at ending weeks of heavy rocket fire. As Gazamilitants unleashed salvos on cities including Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Israel mobilized forces along the border for a possible ground invasion.

A Taliban suicide bomber killed 16 people, including 10 civilians and four NATO soldiers, in an attack in eastern Afghanistan Tuesday, officials said, as foreign troops wind down their war against the insurgents.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying one of its suicide bombers had blown himself up near a NATO patrol in the province of Parwan, north of the capital Kabul.

The attack comes as Afghanistan is mired in political crisis, with a bitter row raging over allegations of fraud in the presidential runoff election.

Jerusalem - Israeli officials say the army will carry out more air raids on the Gaza Strip overnight and call up 1,500 military reservists, as the country moves closer to its third major offensive in the Palestinian territory in six years.

Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israeli army, posted a tweet late on Monday saying that the military had launched "Operation Protective Edge" and would be targeting the Palestinian faction Hamas.

MANAMA :US Assistant Secretary of State for Democratic Affairs, Human Rights and Labour Tomasz P. Malinowski is persona non grata, Bahrain's Foreign Ministry said in a statement published by state's news agency (BNA) on Monday, urging him to leave the country immediately.

Three Hawn rockets fell on Monday in a desert area near the northern border area of Jadida Arar, but caused no injuries or damages, a spokesman of the Border Guards has revealed.

An investigation has been launched to identify the source of the rockets, Maj. Mohammed Al-Ghamdi, the spokesman, told Arab News.

He said security forces are prepared to protect all the country’s borders. This includes tackling smugglers on the southern border and dealing with any fallout arising from the Iraq crisis.

PESHAWAR: A police official was injured on Tuesday in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast on a police van near Pishtakhara police station in the Safed Dheri area of Peshawar.

According to police sources, personnel from the Pishtakhara police station were on routine patrol on the Dora Road when the roadside bomb exploded.

Constable Aijaz was injured whereas the police van was completely destroyed in the explosion.

Snooping Row: 'Unacceptable', Says India As It Summons Top US Diplomats

India today summoned senior US diplomats in Delhi to lodge a strong protest over a report that America's National Security Agency was authorized in 2010 to snoop on the BJP. Calling it 'unacceptable', New Delhi sought an assurance from the US that it won't happen again. (In 2010, a US Court Allowed Agency to Spy on BJP: Report)

The BJP, which took power in May, was among six political outfits in the world that the National Security Agency or NSA was allowed to spy upon, according to classified documents reportedly leaked by whistle-blower Edward Snowden.

ISLAMABAD: A Supreme Court bench was flabbergasted on Tuesday when it was told that no subsidy on food items has ever been extended to the neediest segments of Balochistan since the year 2009.

This is not all. Not a single fair price shop exists outside Quetta city to ensure the delivery of wheat flour or foodgrains at affordable prices to the poorest people of the province.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Tuesday reiterated that the ongoing Zarb-i-Azb military offensive, launched to eliminate insurgent hideouts in the North Waziristan tribal area, would target all militants, including the feared Haqqani network.

Briefing a delegation of foreign media reporters, DG Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major General Asim Bajwa insisted the current operation would target “terrorists of every hue and colour.”

ISLAMABAD: Justice Nasirul Mulk was approved on Tuesday as the new Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP), DawnNews reported.

The appointment of Justice Mulk was approved by President Mamnoon Hussain. An official notification is still pending in this regard and is expected to be issued in a few days.

Militant ambush in NWA kills two security personnel

PESHAWAR: Two security personnel were killed and another injured in a militant attack on a security forces' vehicle in Mirali tehsil of North Waziristan Agency, as the ground offensive launched by the military a day earlier continues.

Military sources confirmed that two soldiea

The security forces' convoy was fired upon from an elevated position.

QUETTA: Armed militants kidnapped Judicial Magistrate Ziarat Jam Saka Dashti from Pishin district of Balochistan on Monday, police said.A senior police officer who requested anonymity told Dawn.com that gunmen seized the vehicle of the judicial magistrate in Pishin district.

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