Pakistan – Page 12

India to resume talks with Pakistan after 6-month hiatus

February 13, 2015 by Nasheman

File photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif during a meeting in New Delhi. Photo: The Hindu

by Munir Ahmed & Ashok Sharma, AP

India is sending its top foreign ministry official to Pakistan to resume talks after a six-month hiatus.

Taking advantage of the Cricket World Cup, where their teams play this weekend, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted Friday he spoke to his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif on the phone and offered to further strengthen ties.

Sharif welcomed the Indian official’s proposed visit to Pakistan “to discuss all issues of common interest,” Sharif’s press secretary said in a statement in Islamabad. No dates have been announced for the visit.

Modi also said he spoke to leaders of some of India’s other neighbors — Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan — all cricket-mad nations participating in the sports competition being jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand.

“Conveyed my best wishes for the Cricket World Cup,” Modi said.

India’s Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar is also scheduled to visit Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan apart from Pakistan, Modi said.

Last August, India called off talks with Pakistan after its ambassador in New Delhi met with Kashmiri separatist leaders, saying the Pakistani official could either talk with India, or talk with the rebels.

The setback came shortly after India and Pakistan had agreed to resume talks in May when Sharif attended Modi’s inauguration.

As tensions increased, Indian and Pakistani troops exchanged fire regularly in the disputed Kashmir region.

India and Pakistan have used “cricket diplomacy” to break past impasses.

Then-Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani met with then-Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2011 during a World Cup cricket match in the northern city of Chandigarh, using the same cover employed in 2005 by then-President Pervez Musharraf for a meeting with Singh during an India-Pakistan cricket match.

Then-President Ziaul Haq visited Jaipur, India, to watch a cricket match between the two countries in the 1980s.

Since their independence from Britain in 1947, India and Pakistan have fought three wars, two of them over Kashmir. Both countries control parts of the Himalayan region and claim it in its entirety.

19 killed in gun and bomb attack on Peshawar Shia mosque

February 13, 2015 by Nasheman

At least 19 people killed, more than 50 injured, in attack on Shia mosque in Peshawar, Pakistan medical sources say.

by Al Jazeera

An attack on a Shia mosque in Peshawar has killed at least 19 people and injured more than 50 others, hospital sources said.

At least four suicide bombers, wearing uniforms of security forces, hit the Imamia mosque during Friday prayers, officials said.

Three of them succeeded in exploding their vests, while one was unable to do so. His unexploded vest was defused by Peshawar’s bomb disposal unit.

Senior police official Rana Umer Hayat said several gunmen threw grenades before storming the mosque.

Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder, reporting from Islamabad, said: “The police and military forces that surrounded the area have now cleared the area, and are combing nearby areas for any attackers that may have escaped.”

Helicopters were visible overhead, as security forces combed the streets around the blast site in a bid to find one of the attackers.

At least four suicide bombers hit the mosque during Friday prayers. Three of them succeeded in exploding their vests, while one was unable to do so.

Several unexploded grenades were also recovered from the site, Shafqat Malik, senior police officer and head of bomb disposal unit, said.

The attackers appeared to gain access to the mosque, which is under tight security, from an under-construction building next door.

“They cut razor wire on the boundary wall to gain access,” provincial police chief Nasir Durrani said.

Asked whether there was a specific threat against this mosque, Durrani said: “The operation in Zarb-e-Azb and in Khyber agency [against the Taliban] is ongoing. We are in a war state.”

This is the third attack against a Shia mosque since the attack on a Peshawar school killed more than 141 people on December 16.

The last attack took place two weeks ago, also during Friday prayers, at a Shia mosque in the town of Shikarpur, killing at least 60 people.

Amitabh Bachchan to make his commentary debut for India vs Pakistan World Cup match

February 2, 2015 by Nasheman

According to a report in ‘The Asian Age’, Amitabh will join Kapil Dev and Harsha Bhogle in the commentary box at Adelaide on February 15 for the much-awaited match.

Mumbai: An India vs Pakistan match is never short of drama and to add to that intensity for the World Cup encounter at The Gabba on February 15 will be India’s most iconic film personality – Amitabh Bachchan.

According to a report in the The Asian Age, Amitabh will join India’s 1983 World Cup-winning captain Kapil Dev and commentary expert Harsha Bhogle as the commentary team for the much-awaited match of the showpiece event.

The newspaper quoted film-maker R Balki confirming the news. He said that Amitabh’s commetary debut will double as promotion for his movie Shamitabh, besides exciting millions on both sides of the border.

“Mr Bachchan’s voice is the star of my film Shamitabh. The plot revolves around the baritone. There’s nothing that Mr. Bachchan’s voice can’t do. I think two voices, Lata Mangeshkar and Amitabh Bachchan, unite India and Pakistan better than anything else.”

At least 20 killed in blast at Shia mosque in Pakistan

January 30, 2015 by Nasheman

by Ubaidullah Shaikh, Dawn

Shikarpur: At least 20 people were killed and 55 others were injured in an explosion inside a central imambargah (mosque affiliated with Shia Muslims) in Sindh province’s Shikarpur district on Friday.

The imambargah is located in Shikarpur’s Lakhi Dar area and the explosion occurred just after Friday prayers.

A number of victims were trapped under debris after the roof of the imambargah collapsed due to the intensive blast.

Majlis Wahdatul Muslimeen (MWM) central leader Allama Mohammed Amin Shaheedi announced three days mourning, describing the incident a failure of the government.

He told Dawn that the party’s further course of action would be announced in a press conference later in the evening.

The Jafria Disaster Cell (JDC) demanded that the critically wouinded victims be immediately shifted to Karachi for treatment.

Civil Hospital Shikarpur Superintendent Shaukat Memon confirmed that at least 20 people were killed and 55 others injured. The casualties included many children.

The condition of the wounded is said to be critical.

Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon told Dawn that an emergency had been imposed at all hospitals in Shikarpur and surrounding talukas and cities.

He added that provincial Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah and Sindh Health Minister Jam Mehtab Dahar have taken strong notice of the incident.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, President Mamnoon Hussain, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan and Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain issued condemnation messages against the incident.

A bomb disposal squad team has been dispatched to the area from Sukkur and rescue teams have reached Imam Bargah Maula Karbala where the explosion took place.

Speculation prevails that the explosion may have been carried out by a suicide bomber.

The incident comes as Pakistan is attempting to implement the National Action Plan to combat and root out terrorism from the country, an initiative that was set in motion after the Dec 16 attack on Peshawar’s Army Public School in December 2014.

It was the second major attack on an imambargah in the country since the beginning of 2015; the first being an attack on Rawalpindi’s Imambargah Aun Mohammad Rizvi in the garrison city’s Chatian Hatian area.

At the same time, Pakistani security forces are engaged in the North Waziristan and Khyber tribal regions — with the operation in Waziristan starting soon after a terrorist attack on Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport and the theatre of war expanding into Khyber.

Ceasefire violations and effects on civilians in border areas of Jammu and Kashmir – a preliminary report by PIPFPD

January 22, 2015 by Nasheman

India and Pakistan agreed a ceasefire in 2003, but it is often violated

by Anuradha Bhasin Jamwal, Asha Hans & Jatin Desai, PIPFPD

The ceasefire violations on the International Border and the LoC between Pakistan and India that have taken place in the past few months, after the ceasefire was agreed to in 2003, has been shocking. Over 550 incidents of ceasefire violations took place in 2014 and the Indian and Pakistani governments are busy giving each other a neck to neck competition with the number of jawans and civilians on both sides dying and many sustaining injuries.

People affected in India: One Border Security Force (BSF) jawan lost his life and a woman sustained injuries on January 5, 2015. During the first week of January, four jawans and a woman were killed in Pakistan shelling and firing.In the year 2014, 19 people including 5 jawans were killed and over 150 injured. More than 3,000 people in border villages in Samba and Kathua have abandoned their homes and are living in makeshift accommodations in safer places. (Source:http://www.kashmirtimes.com/newsdet.aspx?q=40127)

People affected in Pakistan: The latest casualties as on January 5, 2015 mounted the civilian death toll on the Pakistani side to four. Earlier, two civilians, including a woman and an 18-year-old boy died as a result of the firing. (Source: http://www.dawn.com/news/1155068)

Pakistan India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy is consistently demanding a complete stop to the ceasefire violations to both the Indian and Pakistani governments and implementation of ceasefire agreement of 2003 in letter and spirit. In November, after a series of ceasefire violations and border displacements the Forum decided to commission a fact finding team (FFT) to study the conditions of civilians in the border areas International Border (IB) and the Line of Control (LoC)). A fact finding team consisting of Journalists, Human rights activists and Forum members visited the border areas in the Indian side from the 6-8th of November 2014.

The team visited the BSF headquarters in Jammu, BSF Border Observation Post (BOP) in Arnia, border villages like – Arnia Kasba and Trewa Village in Jammu district, Galar and Chiliyari in Samba district as part of its preliminary fact finding visit. Based on the visit of the FFT and its interaction with people living along the border areas a report was formulated that contains testimonies of people, findings and recommendations of the FFT based on the findings.

Some of the key findings of the fact finding report includes first-hand information on “The relief camps and the conditions in the relief camps, the conditions of schools, college and other education facilities, lack of rehabilitation measures and inadequate or lack of compensation, the life and livelihood loss in the border areas, the psychological and social disturbances to women & children living in border areas.”

“The drastic increase in the ceasefire violations is greatly becoming like a show of power. And, if we need a positive development and growth in South Asia we cannot ignore the issues between India and Pakistan. The border population is getting displaced at a massive rate and there are forced migrations in most parts of the IB recently after the recent escalation and this is indeed a very serious threat to peace in South Asia”says Mr. I D Khajuria from Jammu & Kashmir, A Fact Finding team member from Jammu region.

“The blame game must stop immediately and both India and Pakistan must look in to the issue of ceasefire violations more seriously” says Ms. Vijaya Chauhan, a fact finding team member fromMumbai.

Ceasefire violations and the basis of it, is what needs to be probed into. There are various ways in which the ceasefire agreement can be implemented as long as there is a will to do so from both sides. It is important for both sides to realize that positive dialogue processes are the need of the hour.

We appeal to the people and governments of both countries to give a joint call for restoring peace in the region.

A letter along with the copy of the report was sent to the President of India, Prime Minister’s office, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Defence, Chief of Army Staff and the Chief of BSF on the 11th of January 2015 and their response was sought. The Forum did not receive any response until the 20thof January 2015.

Please find attached a pdf copy of the report along with photographs.

Peshawar army school reopens after massacre

January 12, 2015 by Nasheman

Security is tight as children return to school where the Pakistani Taliban killed 141 people last month.

More than 130 young students were killed in the attack, the deadliest in Pakistan’s history [Reuters]

by Asad Hashim, Al Jazeera

Peshawar, Pakistan: Peshawar’s Army Public School, the site of a massacre that killed 141 people almost a month ago, has reopened amid tight security in the capital of Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.

Helicopters flew overhead as dozens of army soldiers patrolled the streets around the APS, tightly screening entry and exit points to the school, early on Monday morning.

Grim-faced soldiers stood guard as hundreds of children and their parents streamed into the school, where a memorial service was held in the presence of the country’s army chief, General Raheel Sharif.

The mood among the students was sombre, but defiant, as they entered the premises. Many of the children were brought to the school in army trucks, which doubled up as school buses on the first day of school in the new year.

Access to the school was tightly controlled, with army soldiers standing guard on several pickets established in the streets around the school, as well at the graveyard immediately adjacent to it.

Deadliest attack

Particular attention was paid to the locality behind the school, from where at least seven gunmen broke into the premises on December 16, in an attack that saw them go room by room, killing 141 people in all, the deadliest attack in Pakistan’s history.

More than 130 of those killed were students, many of them executed in their classrooms and in the school’s main auditorium.

In the wake of the attack, Pakistan lifted a moratorium on executions in what it called “terrorism cases”, and constituted military courts to try said cases.

The army also stepped up ongoing military operations in the country’s tribal areas, where troops have been battling the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and its allies since June.

The TTP claimed responsibility for the attack on the school in Peshawar, saying it was carried out in “revenge” for the alleged killing of women and children in the tribal areas by the military.

‘Challenging the TTP’

“I think it is a good thing that the school is reopening,” Tariq Aziz, 30, whose younger brother, Asad, was killed in the attack, told Al Jazeera. “Already time has been wasted, and the students’ studies are suffering.”

“Even if we are not safe, what can we do? We have to send our children to school. For the sake of their education.”

Hasan Syed, 10, survived the attack, and was one of those who went back to the school on Monday.

“I will not be afraid of going back – I will go back to the school,” he told Al Jazeera. “This determination is because my cousin [Asad Aziz] was martyred. If I go to school, it is like I am challenging the terrorists.”

The reopening of the APS and other schools across Pakistan has been delayed several times, as authorities race to verify that adequate security arrangements are in place.

On Monday, thousands of schools reopened across the country, but many remained shut, as the government had not yet issued them certificates of approval for commencement of classes.

In Peshawar, 118 schools reopened on Monday, while a further 1,380 remained shut.

Team Pakistan for ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 announced

January 7, 2015 by Nasheman

Sohail Khan. — AFP/File

Pakistan announced their 15-man World Cup squad on Wednesday, leaving out Fawad Alam and Umar Gul and including pace bowler Sohail Khan who last played international cricket in 2011.

Veteran batsman Younis Khan, who hit a purple patch in Test cricket but was mediocre in the recent ODIs against New Zealand, was also included in the squad.

Left-hand middle-order batsman Fawad Alam, who has been Pakistan’s most reliable ODI batsman of late, will feel unlucky to have missed out, the selectors instead preferring another player in similar mould, Haris Sohail.

“We did consider both of them [Fawad and Malik], but in the end we believe Haris Sohail bowled well in the series against New Zealand with his left-arm bowling,” chief selector Moin Khan said.

“He also gives us an added advantage of being a left-handed batsman.”

Fast bowler Junaid Khan also returned from a knee injury after missing the series against New Zealand, and will lead Pakistan’s pace attack with Mohammad Irfan.

Pakistan, placed in Group B, will open its campaign with a highly-charged clash against arch-rivals and defending champions India in Adelaide on February 15 followed by matches against the West Indies, Zimbabwe, the United Arab Emirates, South Africa and Ireland.

The top four teams from each of the two groups will qualify for the quarter-finals, leading up to the final in Melbourne on March 29.

Khan said the team was selected after consultation with Misbah and coach Waqar Younis.

“We selected the squad after thorough consultation… and although no one can give assurances of results, we are hopeful that the team will do well,” said Khan, a member of Pakistan’s only World Cup winning side in Australia in1992.

Squad:

Ahmed Shehzad, Mohammad Hafeez, Sarfaraz ahmed, Younis Khan, Harris Sohail, Misbah ul Haq, Umar Akmal, Shoaib Maqsood, Shahid Afridi, Yasir Shah, Mohammad Irfan, Junaid Khan, Ehsan Adil, Sohail Khan, Wahab Riaz

Pakistan rejects Indian report on explosives boat

January 3, 2015 by Nasheman

Islamabad: Pakistan has rejected India’s claim that the crew of a Pakistani fishing boat blew up and sank their vessel in an attempt to evade capture at the hands of the Indian Navy in a high-speed chase at sea, Geo News reported.

Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Tasneem Aslam denied that any boat from Keti Bunder port of the country’s Sindh Province had sailed off.

Sources in the Foreign Office termed the Indian claim as mere propaganda to tarnish the image of Pakistan, the report added.

The Coast Guard on December 31 night intercepted a Pakistani fishing boat with explosives near the maritime boundary off the Porbandar coast in the Arabian Sea.

Based on the intelligence inputs, a Coast Guard Dornier aircraft undertook a sea-air coordinated search and located the suspect fishing boat 10-15 km inside Indian waters. Thereafter, a Coast Guard ship on patrol was diverted and it intercepted the unlit boat around midnight, 365 km west-southwest of Porbandar.

(IANS)

Boat, allegedly from Pakistan, intercepted, explodes, sinks

January 2, 2015 by Nasheman

New Delhi: A suspicious Pakistani fishing boat intercepted by the Coast Guard and navy in the Arabian sea exploded and sank after its crew set fire to it, the Indian government said Friday.

The boat had set off from Keti Bunder near Karachi and was planning ‘some illicit transaction’ in the Arabian Sea, a defence ministry statement said.

Indian Coast Guard ships and navy aircraft tried to intercept the boat near the India-Pakistan maritime boundary, about 365 km from Porbander in Gujarat, on the night of Dec 31-Jan 1.

A Coast Guard ship warned the boat to stop for investigation of the crew and cargo. But the vessel increased speed and tried to get away.

‘(A) hot pursuit continued for nearly one hour, and the Coast Guard ship managed to stop the fishing boat after firing warning shots,’ the statement said.

‘Four persons were seen on the boat who disregarded all warnings by the Coast Guard ship to stop and cooperate with investigation.’

The suspicious crew then hid themselves below the deck and set the vessel on fire, resulting in an explosion and a major fire.

‘Due to darkness, bad weather and strong winds, the boat and persons on board could not be saved or recovered. The boat burnt and sank in the same position in early hours of Jan 1,’ the statement said.

(IANS)

Five dead in New Year's Eve clashes on LoC

January 1, 2015 by Nasheman

India and Pakistan agreed a ceasefire in 2003, but it is often violated

by Reuters

Srinagar: Indian border forces killed four Pakistani interior-ministry troops on New Year’s Eve, ending a year in which clashes between the nuclear-armed neighbours have escalated and hopes for reconciliation faded.

Wednesday’s incident, on the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir, followed the killing earlier in the day of an Indian border guard, a senior officer from India’s Border Security Force said.

“We have retaliated effectively … four Pakistani rangers have been killed along the International Border in Samba sector this evening, said Rakesh Sharma, BSF inspector general for the Jammu Frontier.

“As Pakistani rangers suffered casualties, they waved white flags, asking BSF to stop the firing so that they can lift the bodies of the dead men. We stopped the firing after their request,” Sharma said.

Frontier clashes have intensified in recent months, dashing hopes that a brief thaw in relations after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was elected in May would lead to a calming of the situation.

The worst violence has been further north in the mainly Muslim Kashmir Valley, where separatist militants killed 11 Indian soldiers and police in early December, the worst losses in six years.

Jammu and Kashmir held state elections in December in which Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party made gains. While leaving the party short of a majority, the result could open the way for it to form a ruling coalition with a regional party.

(Reporting by Fayaz Bukhari; Editing by Douglas Busvine, Larry King)