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Pakistan kills 43 suspected Taliban members in airstrikes

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A Pakistani F-16 fighter jet performs in-flight maneuvers. (AFP/File)

A Pakistani F-16 fighter jet performs in-flight maneuvers. (AFP/File)

by Andolu Ajansi

Pakistan’s army has claimed to have killed 43 suspected Taliban fighters in the North Waziristan tribal area on Thursday.

The army’s media wing Inter Services Public Relations said air strikes hit the fighters in the Gharala Mae and Shawal valley areas near the Afghanistan border.

More than 160 fighters have been killed in five consecutive days of strikes by the army, which followed the killing of a provincial official in the northeastern Punjab province in a suicide attack on Sunday.

North Waziristan – one of the seven semi-autonomous tribal regions in Pakistan – has been a battleground between the army and the Taliban since June 2014 following a full-scale military onslaught that has killed around 3,000 suspected militants.

The figures cannot be independently verified as the army has declared the area off-limits to journalists.

Over 350 soldiers have also lost their lives in landmine blasts and clashes with the Taliban during this period and the military operation has displaced a million tribesmen from North Waziristan.

Pakistan police officers held in child-abuse probe

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Three officers transferred amid scandal over abuse of hundreds of children for nearly a decade in Punjab province.

People have protested in the wake of the scandal calling for action against perpetrators [AFP]

People have protested in the wake of the scandal calling for action against perpetrators [AFP]

by Al Jazeera

Three Pakistani police officers have been transferred to other districts over accusations of negligence amid a deepening scandal over a paedophile ring alleged to have abused hundreds of children for nearly a decade, officials say.

A prominent family in the central Punjabi village of Husain Khan Wala allegedly used guns, knives and axes to force children – some as young as five – to perform sex acts on video, which they then sold or used to extort money from the victims’ families, villagers said.

This weekend, the prime minister pledged an investigation after Pakistani media covered protests by parents claiming that police in the district of Kasur had not investigated their complaints.

The officers were removed from their posts “for their negligence on the Kasur sex scandal”, Nabeela Ghazanfar, a spokesperson for the provincial police, told Reuters news agency on Wednesday.

Rai Babar, the district police chief, and two deputy superintendents were reassigned out of the district. Police in Pakistan are rarely sacked.

Parents told Reuters that police had refused to register some complaints and treated some of the victims “like criminals”.

The police have arrested 14 suspects so far. Seven cases have been registered against them for alleged sodomy, kidnapping and torture, Muhammad Amin, a police official, said.

The accused would be tried in an anti-terrorism court, Amin said. Law enforcement officials frequently use the anti-terror courts to bypass Pakistan’s moribund judicial system.

On Monday, opposition politicians criticised the ruling party over the scandal in Punjab, the country’s biggest and wealthiest province and the political heartland of the ruling party.

Shahbaz Sharif, Punjab’s chief minister and the brother of the prime minister, said on Tuesday that he was “personally monitoring” the case.

“We will not let anyone involved in this incident escape the law and justice. All victims and their families will be provided every possible assistance to identify culprits without any fear,” he said in a statement on his Facebook page.

Parents in Kasur have protested that police in the district in Punjab did not investigate their complaints [The Associated Press]

Pakistan stumbles upon its ‘biggest’ child abuse case

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Shock and anger as police discovers 400 video recordings of more than 280 children being forced to have sex in Punjab.

People have protested in the wake of the scandal calling for action against perpetrators [AFP]

People have protested in the wake of the scandal calling for action against perpetrators [AFP]

by Al Jazeera

Officials in the Pakistani state of Punjab have called for a federal inquiry into what it called the largest-ever child abuse case in the South Asian country’s history involving nearly 300 children.

The government of Punjab state on Sunday ordered a judicial investigation into the case that came to light last week after discovery of about 400 video recordings of more than 280 children being forced to have sex.

“Those involved in the case will be severely punished. They will not be able to escape their fate. The affected families will be provided with justice at any cost,” Chief Minister of Punjab Shahbaz Sharif was quoted as saying by Dawn newspaper website.

So far seven people have been reportedly arrested by the police over the case that has shocked the nation of 180 million.

Most of the victims were under 14, including a six-year-old boy, Rai Babar Saeed, district police chief of Kasur, where the incident happened, told reporters, adding that a 10-year-old schoolgirl was filmed being molested by a 14-year-old boy.

Videos of these assaults were filmed and thousands of copies are believed to have been sold in Hussain Khanwala village in Kasur district, the police said.

One of the victims said he was injected in the spine with a drug before he was assaulted, they added.

Government in denial

The scale of the scandal emerged earlier this week after the victims’ parents clashed with the police during a protest against their failure to prosecute the men who orchestrated the scandal.

Pakistan experienced a similar tragedy in the late 1990s, when 100 children were sexually abused and murdered in Lahore by Javed Iqbal Mughal, a serial killer.

Al Jazeera’s Nicole Johnston, reporting from Islamabad, said that a gang of 25 men were involved in the crime, coordinating it.

“Some of the victims’ families started to speak up. This is creating a lot of controversy in Pakistan,” she said.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, Tahira Abdullah, a human rights activist in Islamabad, said that the government is “in denial” about the abuses.

“I think Pakistan is failing its children,” she said, adding that the stigma about the cases, and the lack of trust in the court system, have prevented the arrest and persecution of abusers.

Pakistan says captured terrorist not its national, asks India to give proof

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Kasim Khan

Islamabad: Pakistan today rejected India’s assertion that a LeT terrorist captured alive after a terror attack in Udhampur yesterday was of Pakistani-origin and asked India to refrain from making “accusations”.

“We have also seen media reports and I will not offer any comment on that issue. We expect the Indian authorities to share information with us on the claims that are being made in the media,” Pakistan Foreign Office Spokesperson Syed Qazi Khalilullah said on the arrest of the terrorist in India.

“We have said many a times that making immediate accusations on Pakistan is not correct. These things should be based on facts. We expect that whenever Pakistan is being accused of something, it will be accompanied with correct evidence,” he said.

Khalilullah said that the Indian claim was baseless. “We have repeatedly asked India to refrain from accusations.”

Separately, a Pakistan government source was quoted by the Express Tribune as saying, “National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) record shows Indian claims of an arrested person, Usman Khan (Mohammed Naved Yakub), originating from Pakistan are totally baseless.”

In yet another terror attack suspected to be originating from Pakistan, two BSF constables were killed on the crucial Jammu-Srinagar highway yesterday, but one of the two Lashkar- e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists involved was captured alive like Ajmal Kasab in the 2008 Mumbai terror strike.

Armed with AK assault rifles, Mohammed Naved Yakub, son of Mohammed Yakub and resident of Ghulam Mustafabad area in Faislabad town of Pakistan, along with another terrorist Noman alias Momin, fired at a BSF convoy on the highway at Simroli. BSF jawans retaliated killing Noman while Naved was later captured alive.

Pakistani officials were quoted by media reports as saying that there was no record of the man arrested in India.

Geo TV also reported that the man arrested in India was not registered with NADRA.

(PTI)

Wasim Akram shot at in Karachi, escapes unhurt

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Wasim Akram

New Delhi: Former Pakistan skipper Wasim Akram escaped unhurt on Wednesday in a bullet attack in Karsaz, Karachi.

Unidentified gunmen opened fire at his car, while he was going to the National Stadium for a bowling camp.

Confirming the incident, Wasim said that a vehicle rammed into his car from behind.

He added that some guards and the owner of the other vehicle came out and shot at me.

“The bullet hit my car’s tires but I remained safe ,” said Wasim immediately after the incident.

While speaking to to Geo News, Wasim later added: “I was not facing any particular threats. I have noted the registration number of the other vehicle and gave it to the police. The other car appeared to be government vehicle.

However, according to the Dawn, Akram’s car found itself in the middle of a traffic accident. And per the police reports, the two parties involved in the incident exchanged verbals before one of them pulled out a gun and fired a shot which hit Akram’s car tyre.

Police officials present at the scene said that the Pakistan legend was not the intended target and was extremely unlucky to have found himself in what could have been a tragic situation.

Pakistan’s World Cup winning skipper, Imran Khan, condemned the attack on Sultan of Swing.

I strongly condemn the firing on Wasim Akram’s car in Karachi.

Suspected Pakistani terrorist caught alive after militant strike kills 2 BSF men

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Kasim Khan

Jammu: A suspected Pakistani terrorist was caught alive after militants today attacked a BSF convoy on Jammu-Srinagar national highway in Udhampur killing two men of the border guarding force and injuring 11 personnel while the other terrorist involved in the strike was shot dead in retaliatory fire.

The terrorist identified as Kasim Khan, who had escaped from the encounter site and taken three persons hostage in a school building in a nearby hamlet, was arrested after an operation was launched by the army and the police, defence sources said.

All the hostages have been freed and the operation has ended, Deputy Commission, Udhampur, Shahid Iqbal Chaudhary said.

One terrorist has been killed, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said in Delhi, adding that there was no link between the attack and Amarnath pilgrims passing the area.

He offered condolences to the families of the jawans identified as constables Rocky and Shubhendu Roy who died in the attack even as he spoke to BSF Chief D K Pathak about the incident.

The militant strike was the first in Udhampur district in over a decade coming days after terrorists attacked Dinanagar Police Station in Gurdaspur in Punjab.

“There was firing on a BSF convoy on the highway near Samroli by militants early this morning,” Chaudhary said.

Two BSF jawans were killed and 11 personnel were injured, IG, BSF (Jammu Frontier), Rakesh Kumar said.

The militants hurled grenades and opened indiscriminate fire on the convoy when it reached Nassu belt on its way from Jammu to Srinagar, IG Jammu, Danish Rana said, adding that the BSF jawans retaliated, killing one of the two militants.

The injured jawans have been taken to a hospital, he said, adding a massive combing operations has been launched by the army and the police in and around the area which has been cordoned off. Vehicular movement on the highway has been stopped due to the incident.

Reacting to the attack, Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said, “Those behind such attacks very well know that their terror designs won’t be running for long in India. That is why they are doing all such kinds of activities.”

The government and the security forces were doing their best to tackle such evil designs and “without a doubt the country’s respect, honour and the people’s security is the government’s topmost priority,” he said in Delhi.

Congratulating the security forces for killing one militant and nabbing the second terrorist alive, senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said, “Catching a terrorist alive is a huge achievement. Due to this, in the coming time we will get to know about the future attacks which Pakistan has planned.”

(PTI)

Pakistan hangs Shafqat Hussain despite appeals

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Defenders say convict was a teenager when he killed a boy in 2004 and that he was tortured into confessing.

Shafqat Hussain

by Al Jazeera

Pakistan has executed a man whose case triggered an international outcry after his lawyers said he was arrested as a juvenile and tortured into confessing to a murder.

Shafqat Hussain was hanged on Tuesday at a jail in Karachi for allegedly killing a seven-year-old boy in 2004.

His lawyers and family say he was only 15 years old at the time of the killing but according to a federal investigation, he was 23.

“Despite opposition from within the country as well as Amnesty International, Pakistan went ahead with the execution,” said Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder, reporting from Pakistan’s capital Islamabad.

Prison officials handed the body over to his brothers, who alleged the execution was not carried out properly.

“There is a cut mark on his neck and half of his neck is separated from his body,” Abdul Majeed, his brother, told AFP.

Family outrage

At Hussain’s hometown in the Pakistani-administered part of Kashmir, his family was distraught.

“Why did they hang my innocent brother, only because we were poor?” said his sister Sumaira Bibi, beating her chest and weeping.

“My son was innocent, only Allah will prove his innocence in his court,” his mother Makhni Begum told AFP.

“We can’t do anything but they [executioners] will face Allah on the day of judgement,” she said.

United Nations rights experts have said Hussain’s trial “fell short of international standards” and urged Pakistan to investigate claims he confessed under torture, as well as his age.

Lawyers for Hussain said school records showed he was 17 in 2004 when he was burned with cigarettes and had fingernails removed until he confessed to killing a child.

Hussain was originally due to face the noose in January but won four stays of execution as his lawyers fought to prove he was under 18 at the time of his offence and could therefore not be executed under Pakistani law.

Pakistan has hanged nearly 200 people since December, when a massacre by the Taliban at an army-run school in Peshawar prompted the government to lift a de facto ban on capital punishment.

Only Iran and China have executed more people than Pakistan this year, says Amnesty International.

Lashkar-i-Jhangvi chief Malik Ishaq, two sons killed in Muzaffargarh ‘encounter’

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Malik Ishaq

by Imran Gabol, Dawn

Lahore: Malik Ishaq, chief of banned sectarian outfit Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, his two sons Usman and Haq Nawaz, and 11 others were killed in an alleged exchange of fire with police personnel late on Tuesday night.

At least six policemen were injured in the alleged encounter.

Ishaq and his sons were arrested by the Counter-Terrorism Department a week ago. Following their latest arrest, the police had interrogated them and had subsequently taken them to Shahwala in Punjab’s Muzaffargarh district to aid the police in recovering weapons and explosives, sources in the CTD said.

The encounter appears to have taken place as militants attacked security forces and tried to free Ishaq who was killed in the ensuing exchange of fire, security sources say.

A spokesman for CTD Multan said Ishaq, his two sons, one Ghulam Rasool Shah and two other accused, all from Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, were taken to Muzaffargarh by the counter-terrorism department to aid in the recovery of arms and explosives.

The spokesman said that when the police party was returning after making the recovery, it was attacked by some 12 to 15 gunmen who succeeded in freeing Ishaq, his sons and the other accused and fleeing away on motorcycles.

The militants were met with by SHO CTD police station who had quickly been informed about the attack on the police party and was travelling on the route that the militants had taken, the spokesman said, adding that that’s how the encounter ensued.

The SHO challenged the militants, resulting in the encounter in which six police personnel sustained injuries, the spokesman said. They were shifted to the district headquarters hospital.

The spokesman added that 14 militants, including Malik Ishaq and Ghulam Rasool Shah, were killed by the attackers themselves.

A large amount of weapons and ammunition was recovered from the attacking men and an investigation has been initiated into the events.

All bodies have been shifted to DHQ Muzaffargarh. The bodies of Ishaq and his sons will undergo a postmortem before being taken to Rahim Yar Khan, where he was based.

Lashkar-i-Jhangvi is regarded as the most extreme Sunni terror group in Pakistan and is accused of killing hundreds of Shias after its emergence in the early 1990s. The organisation is also said to have links with Al Qaeda.

The organisation was banned more than a decade ago by former president Pervez Musharraf.

Ishaq, who is a leader of the feared organisation, has been implicated in dozens of cases, mostly murder.

He was arrested in 1997 and is implicated in dozens of cases. He was released on bail in July 2011 after serving a jail term of nearly 14 years.

 

Since his 2011 release he has been frequently put under house arrest as his sermons raised sectarian tensions. He was also arrested in 2013 over deadly sectarian attacks targeting the Hazara Shia community in Quetta. The first attack took place on Jan 10, 2013 targeting a Hazara snooker hall and killing 92 people and the second bomb attack occurred on Feb 16, killing 89 people. The attacks were claimed by Lashkar-i-Jhangvi.

Ishaq was also accused of masterminding, from behind bars, the 2009 attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore, which wounded seven players and an assistant coach, and killed eight Pakistanis.

The attacks saw Pakistan stripped of its right to co-host the 2011 cricket World Cup and jeopardised the future of international cricket in the country.

Pakistan summons Indian envoy over ‘spy’ drone issue

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The Pakistan military maintains that the 'spy drone' is used for aerial photography. (Photo: Twitter)

The Pakistan military maintains that the ‘spy drone’ is used for aerial photography. (Photo: Twitter)

Islamabad: Pakistan today summoned Indian envoy to Foreign Office here claiming violation of its territory by an alleged Indian “spy” drone which was being used for aerial photography near the Line of Control (LoC).

High Commissioner T C A Raghavan was called to the Foreign Office today, an official of Indian mission said.

Pakistan Army yesterday claimed that the Indian drone was being used for aerial photography near the LoC in Bhimber area of Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) and was “brought down for violation of Pakistan’s territorial integrity”.

The Indian Army as well as the Indian Air Force, however, denied that any of their drone has been shot down or crashed.

Days after India and Pakistan agreed to re-engage, fresh strains surfaced in the ties yesterday after Pakistan Rangers violated the ceasefire twice by resorting to firing and mortar shelling in the Akhnoor sector in which a woman was killed and six others, including two BSF jawans, were injured.

(PTI)

Modi accepts Sharif’s invitation to visit Pak for SAARC summit

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Modi-Sharif

Ufa: India and Pakistan on Friday decided to revive the stalled dialogue process and find ways to expedite trial of the Mumbai attack case as Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif agreed to cooperate to eliminate terrorism from South Asia.

Mr. Modi and Mr. Sharif met for nearly one hour in Ufa on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit and discussed entire gamut of issues between the two countries.

Foreign Secretaries S. Jaishankar and Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry held a joint press meet where they read out a joint statement on the outcome of the meeting between the two leaders.

National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and his Pakistani counterpart Sartaj Aziz will meet in New Delhi to discuss all issues connected to terrorism, said the joint statement.

“Both sides agreed to discuss ways and means to expedite the Mumbai atack trial, including additional information like providing voice samples,” the statement said.

Mr. Modi accepted Mr. Sharif’s invitation to visit Pakistan for the SAARC Summit in 2016.

“They agreed that India and Pakistan have a collective responsibility to ensure peace and promote development. To do so, they are prepared to discuss all outstanding issues,” the statement said.

russia1

Fishermen to be released

Both sides also agreed to hold early meetings of DG BSF and DG Pakistan Rangers followed by that of Director Generals of Military Operations (DGMOs).

It was decided to release fishermen in each other’s custody, along with their boats, within a period of 15 days.

A mechanism for facilitating religious tourism will also be worked out, as per the five-point “steps” to be taken by the two sides.

The two leaders warmly shook hands and posed for the shutterbugs before settling down for the talks.

(PTI)

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