indian affairs

Monday, 20 January 2014

Four UN staff killed in Kabul attack: Ban

UNITED NATIONS: UN leader Ban Ki-moon on Friday strongly condemned a suicide gun and bomb attack on a Kabul restaurant in which four UN staff were among at least 14 fatalities.A UN statement said other dead from the attack claimed by the Taliban were from other international organisations“Such targeted attacks against civilians are completely unacceptable and are in flagrant breach of international humanitarian law,” Ban was quoted as saying by a spokesman.

At least 18 people were killed in a stampede that broke out in the early hours of Saturday near the Malabar Hill residence of Dawoodi Bohra spiritual leader Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin, who died on Friday morning, officials said.

According to the Mumbai Police and officials from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Disaster Control, the stampede took place at around 1.30 am when thousands of mourners assembled near Saifee Mahal, where the Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin's body was kept for people to pay their last respects.

New Delhi: Sunanda Pushkar Tharoor, wife of union minister Shashi Tharoor, has been found dead at the five-star The Leela Palaces Hotel in Delhi, two days after she said she was deeply disturbed by an alleged affair her husband was having with a Pakistani journalist. (Read: Unseemly Twitter war involving Tharoors)

Mrs Tharoor was 52; she has a 21-year-old son from an earlier marriage.

Sources said a suicide note has not been found. A tweet by her very early this morning, in response to someone who wished her well, said "will try got so many issues diagnosed in KIMS that know who knows when I got 2 go with joy Hastay hua jayegay (sic)." (Condolences pour in on Twitter)

In a fiery crash near Dakhna on Hejaz Road, Qassim, a jeep carrying a maid and a 7-member Saudi family — a military officer, his wife and five children — collided head on with a car with two youngsters in it, killing all 10 on the spot.

Such was the impact of the collision that bodies of nine people were charred beyond recognition, and the vehicles turned into a mangled pileup of steel.

The bodies of 14 Sunni Muslim tribesmen were found in date palm groves north of Baghdad on Thursday, a day after they were kidnapped by uniformed men in security forces vehicles, Iraqi police and medics said. The victims, all from the Albu Rawdas tribe, had been abducted while they were attending a funeral in the town of Tarmiya, 25 km (16 miles) north of the Iraqi capital.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan said trust in Turkey's legal system was essential to it attaining its long-term growth goals, as the government pressed ahead with plans to assert control over the judiciary.

DALLAS: Personal physician of former president Pervez Musharraf and a prominent cardiologist Dr. Arjumand Hashmi has said that Musharraf is under his care since 2006.

Talking to Jang/Geo correspondent, Dr Hashmi said that he was in good health during his medical examination in 2006. However, his health condition has gradually deteriorated which is reflected in his periodic medical examination reports.

Dr. Hashmi said that he has issued a medical certificate on General Musharrf's health condition upon a request from his family.

PESHAWAR: At least ten people were killed and more than 60 injured Thursday evening when a bomb exploded at a religious centre in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Eyewitnesses said the blast occurred when the second rakat of the Maghrib prayers was being offered.Those killed in the blast included Azim Khan of Ittehad Colony in the city and his 10-year-old son Ismail, Arsala Khan of Musazai village near Peshawar and one Umar Gul.

“The blast was triggered by a time-device. Five kilograms explosives were used in the explosion,” Assistant Inspector General (AIG) of the Bomb Disposal Unit (BDU) Shafqat Malik told The News.

PM calls for world’s support as 52 die in Iraq bombing

Bomb attacks hit the Iraqi capital Baghdad and a village near the northern town of Baquba today, killing at least 52 people, police and hospital sources said.

In the deadliest incident, a bomb blew up in a funeral tent where mourners were marking the death two days ago of a Sunni Muslim pro-government militiaman, police said. It killed 18 people and wounded 16 in Shatub, a village south of Baquba.

ISLAMABAD :India has imposed few new conditions for issuing visas to those Pakistanis who intend to visit the neighboring country in future.

According to a letter received by the Pakistan Foreign Office from the Indian High Commission in Islamabad, all those Pakistanis must drink polio vaccine drops six weeks prior to start of India tour.

RIYADH: Saudi authorities beheaded Tuesday two Pakistanis for drug smuggling in the ultra-conservative kingdom's first executions of the year, the interior ministry said.

Abrar Hussein Nizar Hussein was executed in the Red Sea city of Jeddah after being convicted of trying to smuggle in heroin hidden in his stomach, the ministry said in a statement carried by SPA state news agency.

Zahid Khan Barakat was beheaded in Qatif, in Eastern Province, over a similar charge, a separate statement said.

KABUL: Afghan police say security guards killed a suicide bomber in Kabul as he tried to attack the home of a tribal elder opposed to the Taliban.

Gen Gul Agha Hashimi, the head of the Kabul Criminal Investigation Department, said the bomber was shot Tuesday as he tried to enter the elder's home in western Kabul.

He says the house belonged to Mohammad Alam, from northern Baghlan province.

CAIRO: Egyptians lined up in numbers to vote Tuesday on a new constitution many said they had not read but would approve anyway in support of the army’s ouster of President Muhammad Mursi.

Polling at most stations got off to a smooth start, but 10 people were killed in clashes between Mursi supporters and police and anti-Mursi groups in central and southern Egypt, security officials said.

The referendum has been billed by authorities as the first in a series of polls that will restore elected government by the end of the year.

Chandigarh/Amritsar: Amid claims that the Margaret Thatcher government might have helped Indira Gandhi plan Operation Blue Star, the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal in Punjab on Tuesday said this had exposed a "major conspiracy" of the Congress against Sikhs.

"The party (Congress) had even gone to the extent of compromising the national sovereignty for political gains," SAD secretary Daljit Singh Cheema said in a statement in Chandigarh.

CAIRO: Egyptians vote for a new constitution on Tuesday in a referendum seen as a test of support for a presidential bid by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, almost seven months after he toppled Mohamed Morsi.An Islamist coalition led by Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood has called for a boycott and "civilised peaceful protests" during the two-day referendum, but the interior ministry has pledged to "decisively" confront any attempts to disrupt voting.

KARACHI: In a bid to thwart any untoward terrorist incident on the occasion of Eid Milad-un-Nabi, mobile phone services were suspended in most parts of Pakistan on Tuesday whereas security was beefed up in all major cities of the country, DawnNews reported.Muslims across the country celebrate the birth of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) on 12 Rabi-ul-Awwal, which falls on Tuesday, January 14 this year.Over 100 Ulema, Mashaikh and scholars of the Sunni Ulema Board have urged people to maintain peace.

BAGHDAD: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged Iraqi leaders to address the “root causes” of a surge in bloodshed as security forces clashed on Monday with gunmen in violence-racked Anbar province.

General Bikram Singh says army must stay and have special powers in view of possible "terrorist spill-over" into region.

India’s top miliatary general has argued for the continuing presence of soldiers in Indian-administered Kashmir in view of the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan that may result in a "terrorist spill-over" into the disputed region.

US explains nuclear deal with Iran

WASHINGTON: Iran will receive $4.2 billion from blocked overseas funds and about $7 billion of benefits from sanctions relief for concluding an interim nuclear deal with the P5+1 countries, US officials said on Monday.The first instalment of $550 million will be released on Feb 1 and the rest will in six instalments. The entire fund, blocked in the West due to a nuclear dispute with the West, will be transferred to Iran by July this year.

SRINAGAR, India: Indian law enforcement officers killed two suspected militants in a gunbattle Monday in the Indian-controlled portion of the disputed Kashmir region, police said.

Indian police and paramilitary forces also trapped a third suspected rebel in the shootout in Sopore, about 55 kilometers (34 miles) northwest of Srinagar, the main city in Indian-ruled Kashmir, area Police Chief Abdul Qayoom said.

PARIS: Ahmad Jarba, the leader of Syria’s opposition National Coalition, said on Sunday that the US-led “Friends of Syria” grouping had agreed that President Bashar Al Assad and his family will have no role in the country’s future.

Jarba did not announce whether or not the opposition would take part in peace talks with representatives of Assad’s regime due to start next week in Switzerland. The coalition, which is under intense pressure to confirm its participation, has said it will decide on the issue on Jan.17.

Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates is the most admired person on Earth, while retired cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar is fifth on the list of the 30 most admired people, compiled from 13 countries.

The survey 'world's most admired people' was conducted by YouGov for The Times, in a survey sample of almost 14,000 people in the US, Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia, India, China, Australia, Pakistan, Brazil, Egypt, Nigeria and Indonesia.

Saudi Arabia announced on Sunday that it would continue to impose a 20-percent cut in foreign pilgrims and a 50-percent reduction in domestic pilgrims during the upcoming Haj season.

“The government will continue to request foreign countries to slash the quota of their Haj pilgrims by 20 percent due to ongoing expansion works in Makkah and the holy sites,” said Haj Minister Bandar Hajjar.

Speaking to the Turkish Haj mission, he said the measure was taken upon directives issued by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah to ensure the safety and security of pilgrims.

ISLAMABAD: India and Pakistan are set to resume secretary-level trade talks in New Delhi Jan.14, a media report said on Monday.

According to a Dawn report, the meeting will only maintain the "momentum of talks" as part of the composite dialogue process.

The meeting starting Tuesday is likely to agree on fresh timelines for implementing the road map for removing bottlenecks in trade liberalisation, the report said.

Jerusalem: Israeli security forces were put on high alert today ahead of former premier Ariel Sharon's funeral in the southern Negev desert which is likely to be attended by thousands including US Vice President Joe Biden, given its close proximity to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

Sharon, who died on Saturday at the age of 85 after remaining in coma for eight years, will be laid to rest beside his wife Lily at Anemones Hill nearby the family's northern Negev Sycamore Ranch this evening.

ADEN: Armed tribesmen attacked an army post in southeast Yemen on Sunday and killed six soldiers in the latest assault targeting security forces in the area since December, a military official said.

The attack took place near Shahr in Hadramawt province, which has been hit by protests against the central government since last month, after the army killed tribal chief Said Ben Habrish and his bodyguards at a checkpoint.

Taliban bombing kills senior police officer Chaudhry Aslam

KARACHI: A powerful explosion targeted a convoy of police vehicles in Karachi on Thursday killing senior police official Chaudhry Aslam Khan.

Chaudhry Aslam, who had survived numerous assassination attempts in the past, died along with two other officers when the bomb targeted the convoy on the Lyari expressway in Karachi.

Senior police officer Iqbal Mehmood confirmed to reporters that SP CID Chaudhary Aslam Khan died in the attack, which took place around 4:40 pm near the Essa Nagri area.

AMMAN: The al Qaeda-linked Islamist State of Iraq and the Levant executed dozens of rival Islamists over the last two days as the group recaptured most territory it had lost in the northeastern Syrian province of Raqqa, activists said on Sunday.

One of the activists, who spoke from the province on condition of anonymity, said up to 100 fighters from the Nusra Front, another al Qaeda affiliate, and the Ahrar al-Sham brigade, captured by ISIL in the town of Tel Abyad on the border with Turkey, the nearby area of Qantari and the provincial capital city of Raqqa, were shot dead.

Libya's deputy industry minister, Hassan al-Droui, was shot dead during a visit to his hometown of Sirte, east of Tripoli, security and hospital sources said.The identity of the shooters was not immediately known, but the official's death was the first assassination of a member of the transitional government since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi's government in October 2011.

United Nations: The UN Security Council on Friday gave strong backing to an Iraqi government campaign to retake provincial strongholds from al Qaeda-linked militants.The 15-nation council agreed a statement backing Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki amid mounting concern over the battle for Anbar province, which runs from the western suburbs of Baghdad up to the border with Syria.

ISLAMABAD: An attempt by former president retired General Pervez Musharraf to avoid his possible indictment on Jan 16 came to naught on Friday when the special court seized with his treason trial dismissed an application seeking suspension of his summons.“This court has no jurisdiction to modify, alter or change its orders, except correcting the clerical mistakes,” observed the three-judge court, headed by Justice Faisal Arab of the Sindh High Court.

QUETTA: An 18-inch Sui gas pipeline was blown up on Saturday by unknown miscreants in the Dera Murad Jamali district of Balochistan, DawnNews reported.Police personnel stated that due to the gas pipeline explosion, gas supply was disrupted to Quetta and several other districts of Balochistan.

NEW DELHI: India's most wanted terrorist Dawood Ibrahim is in Pakistan and joint efforts with the US were being made to nab him, Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde said on Friday.

"As per our information, Dawood is in Pakistan. When I went to America last year to discuss inland security, I met the Attorney General who looks after the FBI.

PESHAWAR: Police say gunmen have shot to death two workers at a small Sufi Muslim shrine in Peshawar.

Local police official Iqbal Khan says the bodies of the men were found on Friday at the shrine of Ghazi Shah Baba in the northwestern city of Mardan in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Mardan lies 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of the northwestern city of Peshawar.

Earlier in the week, militants killed six people at a shrine of a Sufi saint in the port city of Karachi.

KARACHI: Three militants, including Amanullah Mehsud who operated as chief of the Tehrik-i-Taliban in Karachi's Quaidabad area, were killed in a police encounter in the city's Musharraf Colony on Friday, DawnNews reported.

The militants, including Mehsud, were affiliated with Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), police said.

Mehsud was the chief of the Taliban in Quaidabad and the other two militants have been identified as Mirza Ali and Sher Mohammad.

Bangkok: In their latest push to unseat PM Yingluck Shinawatra, Thai protesters on Monday blocked all major roads leading to the capital to shut down Bangkok in a bid to disrupt the snap elections scheduled for Feb 2.

Ratcheting up their campaign against the PM, the protesters donning T-shirts with “Shutdown” inscribed on them, thronged the major intersections in the country.

LAHORE: Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan Thursday reiterated his stance of negotiating with banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) following the killing of SP CID Chaudhry Aslam in Karachi, which was claimed by the terrorist group, DawnNews reported.

Condemning the assassination of the top Karachi cop, while speaking to reporters in Lahore, he said that prevailing violence and killings in the country would not end without pulling out from ‘someone else’s war’.

New law: Visa traders to be deemed human traffickers

The Ministry of Labor plans to introduce a new law that would punish visa dealers as human traffickers.

Speaking at a business forum at the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI) on Thursday, Abdullah Abu Thunain, undersecretary for inspections, said the ministry had found 8,000 firms involved in irregularities since the inspection campaign began two months ago.

He said the inspection campaign would continue with about 1,000 trained inspectors.

Energy Minister Taner Yildiz denied Turkey had any interest in enriching uranium through the nuclear deal with Japan, claiming a demand for uranium enrichment allowance was only aimed at learning about the nuclear fuel production process.

“We don’t have any project regarding nuclear fuel and [uranium] enrichment,” Yildiz told a group of reporters on a plane flying from Japan to Singapore on Jan. 8, Anadolu Agency reported.

BAGHDAD: A suicide bomber killed 13 Iraqi army recruits and wounded more than 30 in Baghdad on Thursday, police said, in an attack on men responding to a government appeal for volunteers to help fight Al Qaeda-linked militants in Anbar province.

Police said a man with an explosive vest had blown himself up as recruits were registering their names at the small Muthanna airfield, now used by the army in the Iraqi capital.

ISLAMABAD: Two buses collided and fell down in a 30 ft river leaving at least 15 people dead in Salgiran near Murree on Wednesday evening, Express News reported.

According to Rescue 1122‚ at least 25 injured passengers have so far been shifted from the wreckage to the PIMS and Polyclinic Hospital in Islamabad, reported Radio Pakistan.

Nato soldier killed in Afghan multiple suicide attack

JALALABAD: Six Taliban suicide attackers launched an assault on a joint Afghan-Nato base in the east of Afghanistan on Saturday, killing one Nato soldier during a prolonged firefight, officials said.One attacker in an explosives-packed vehicle blew himself up at the entrance of the base in Nangarhar province, and five other insurgents were shot as they tried to storm the facility.

ISLAMABAD: The special court, hearing the treason trial against Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf, granted exemption to the former military ruler from attending today's hearing of the case while adjourning the hearing until tomorrow, DawnNews reported.

The court also instructed for medical reports of the former military strongman to be submitted before it by 11:30 am tomorrow.

A senior Iranian military official said on Monday Iran is ready to help Iraq battle al-Qaeda “terrorists” in the neighbouring country’s Sunni-dominated western Anbar province.

Iraqi troops have been trying to dislodge fighters from the al-Qaeda group known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant from two key cities the militants overran last week.

An armed Kuwaiti eluded police and stormed a packed mosque in the oil-rich Gulf emirate to call for jihad (holy struggle) before to he was trounced and arrested by cops coming up outside, a newspaper reported on Sunday.

Police had tried to stop the man when they saw the gun in his hand but let him drive away after he started to shoot in the air and threaten passers-by.

As they chased him, he bunged his car near a mosque which was packed for Friday’s prayers and stormed in subdue waving the gun at them.

SANGHAR: Motorcycle-riding assailants gunned down an activist of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement in Tando Adam on Monday, which led to the sudden closure of the town by enraged activists.

Arif Shaikh, zonal in-charge of the MQM, told Dawn that Shahid Shaikh who had remained taluka naib nazim of Tando Adam was targeted on M.A. Jinnah road near Jama Masjid close to his house. He said the assailants who wore masks and were riding a motorcycle shot him dead from a close range. It was a targeted killing, he said, adding that the victim succumbed to injuries when he was being taken to Hyderabad.

ISLAMABAD: PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain has presented himself for trial under Article 6 of the constitution for having supported former president retired Gen Pervez Musharraf’s decision to proclaim the state of emergency on Nov 3, 2007.

Crown Prince Salman, Deputy Premier and Minister of Defense, discussed expanding Saudi-American military cooperation during his meeting with Gen. Lloyd Austin, commander of US Central Command, in Riyadh on Sunday.

The two discussed latest Middle East developments emphasizing the strong relations between Saudi Arabia and the United States.

FALLUJAH: Iraq has lost Fallujah to al Qaeda-linked fighters, a senior security official said Saturday, putting militants back in control of the city in Anbar province where American forces repeatedly battled insurgents.And fighting in Anbar killed 65 people on Saturday – eight soldiers, two government-allied tribesmen and 55 militants from al Qaeda-linked group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), security officials said.

The two discussed latest Middle East developments emphasizing the strong relations between Saudi Arabia and the United States.

Civil Defense teams rescued 12 female teachers trapped in flash floods in a valley south of Makkah on Sunday.

Col. Saeed Sarhan, the department’s spokesman, said “The teachers were taken to a secure place before reuniting them with their relatives.” He said the rescue operation began after the department’s officers received a call from the teachers’ relatives.

ISLAMABAD: The special court, hearing the treason trial against former military ruler Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf, reserved its judgement over the absence of the former president from today's hearing of the case while the the next hearing until tomorrow, DawnNews reported.

A three-member bench, led by Justice Faisal Arab, resumed the hearing of the 'high treason' case under Article 6 of the Constitution against Musharraf, who has been charged by the government charged of abrogating, subverting, suspending, holding in abeyance and attempting to conspire against the 1973 Constitution by declaring emergency and overthrowing the superior judiciary in November 2007.

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