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Muttahida wants to eliminate feudal system: Gabol
Minor killed in accident
'Karo-kari killings top in Punjab'
Altaf seeks inquiry into Dr Khan's trips abroad
Beg denies involvement in N-tech transfer
Attack on girls school slated
Suicide bomber dies in attack on Rawalpindi Imambargah
13 killed in South Waziristan ‘mistaken fire’ shooting
US, Pakistan deny Osama’s capture
Muttahida wants to eliminate feudal system: Gabol
THATTA: Adviser to Sindh government Malik Faisal Gabol has
said Muttahida Qaumi Movement is struggling for the rights of poor and
downtrodden masses of the province. Addressing an open Kutcheri in
Mirpursakro on Friday, he said that Muttahida wanted to eliminate the feudal
system. Prominent among those who spoke on the occasion were MPA Heer Sooho,
Farrukh Azam, Ibrahim Sooho, Dr Dildar Khaskheli and Aziz Soomro. The adviser
issued on the spot directives for the solution of the problems presented to
him by a large number of people. On the occasion, over 100 notables and heads
of various communities announced to join Muttahida Qaumi Movement.
Minor killed in accident
KARACHI: A minor girl was run over by a recklessly driven
tanker in Boating Basin police jurisdiction, while elsewhere in the city a
young girl died and her sister fell unconscious after they had
"mistakenly consumed poison" on Saturday, police said.
Two-year-old Nehaal, daughter of Welaiat Khan, was killed
when a recklessly driven tanker (JT-1104) knocked her down in the Katchi
Abadi of Shah Rasool Colony while she was playing in front of her house,
police said.
Her body was shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical
Centre (JPMC) and later handed over to her family, police said, adding that
they have arrested the errant driver identified as Riasat Hussain.
Nousheen, 18, and Rizwana, 16, both daughters of
Badaruddin, residents of house No 357, Ghaziabad, Sector 11 1/2, Orangi Town,
were taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital who had fell unconscious after
mistakenly consuming poison, police said quoting family members.
Nousheen died before she could be provided medical aid,
while Rizwana was referred to the JPMC by the doctors of Abbasi Shaheed
Hospital, police said, adding that her condition was critical.
The two sisters had been living with their brother since
the death of their parents, police said, adding they were investigating
whether the pair tried to commit suicide or consumed poison by mistake.
BODY FOUND: Body of a young woman was found at isolated
vicinity, near Chakar Hotel at Superhighway in Sohrab Goth police
jurisdiction late on Friday night.
The body was shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital early
on Saturday morning, where MLO said the deceased might have been strangulated
after having been subjected to torture.
'Karo-kari killings top in Punjab'
LARKANA, Feb 28: Speakers at a seminar on Saturday stated that Punjab topped in Karo-kari killings in the country. The seminar "human rights and policing" was held under the aegis of Sindh police in collaboration with the ministry of law, justice and human rights.
According to the figures presented in the seminar some 1,797 Karo-kari cases were registered in Punjab from 1997 to May 30, 2003, out of which 1,142 had been disposed of. The conviction ratio was assessed at 28% and the acquittal ratio 71.97%.
During the same period some 910 Karo-kari cases were registered in Sindh and the conviction was 8.53% while the acquittal ratio was 91.4%.
In Balochistan only 57 cases were registered and 39 disposed of while the conviction remained 33.3% and the acquittal percentage was 43.13%.
At least 239 Karo-kari cases were registered in NWFP out of which 141 were disposed of while the conviction was only 7% and the acquittal was 92.9%.
The accused were reported to be 56.7% husbands, 2.7% fathers, 8.77% brothers, 1.42% sons, 29.6% others relatives.
Sindh AIGP Niaz Ahmed Siddiki, DIG training Saud Ahmed, former ambassador Abdul Razzak Soomro, Amnesty International Pakistan secretary-general Iqbal Detho, district Nazim Khurseed Junejo, human rights activists Akhtar Ali, Kalpna Devi advocate, Viqarunisa Hashmi and others spoke on the occasion.
It was pointed out that illegal raids, detentions and torture had remained the hallmark of our police.The speakers said the police as an institution had yet not acquired the status that it should had only because of its negative attitude.
It was also pointed out that police in Pakistan were underpaid, "underfed" and under-trained than police of other countries.
The seminar concluded that people suffered due to leniency by the judiciary and lacunas in the legislative system. This coupled with other socio-economic changes also increased the cases of Karo-kari.
Altaf seeks inquiry into Dr Khan's trips abroad
KARACHI, Feb 28: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief, Altaf Hussain, has demanded full scope inquiry to determine who had given permission and provided air force planes to Dr Qadeer Khan for travelling.
Addressing 17th annual convention of the MQM's labour division here on Saturday, Mr Hussain said that if Dr A.Q. Khan was guilty of clandestine transfer of nuclear technology he should be punished. However, he added that prior to such punishment, the nation must be informed who had given him the permission to visit North Korea, Libya and elsewhere and with whose permission he was provided air force planes (C-130) to travel.
He demanded that the matter should be fully investigated and cautioned against possible change in the US attitude once its present objectives were achieved.
"Today, we are very dear to the United States, but, as soon as the situation changes the issue of nuclear proliferation will crop up and will be reopened to our detriment," he said adding that all decisions should be taken while keeping Pakistan's interests in mind.
Mr Hussain also emphasized that intelligence agencies and army should not interfere in politics. They should keep a vigil on the enemy and national frontiers, he said.
On the occasion, the MQM chief also got approval from the party workers to unseat parliamentarians and remove those party ministers against whom there were complaints.
The approval is an indication of a major shake up in the Muttahida Qaumi Movement soon after Ashura.
Mr Hussain advised his supporters to keep a close vigil on the evolving domestic and international situation because change could take place at anytime. However, he said, "Before taking a position on the change, we must analyze the development."
He also proposed a six-point formula for strengthening the concept of one nation. The six points included end to feudalism, provision of justice to all and banishment of intolerance as well as extremism from society.
He said that a strong Pakistan was only possible if rights of all the federating units were respected and thereby strengthening cultural pluralism.
Mr Hussain claimed that a powerful and oppressive federation would weaken Pakistan and undermine its religious and ethnic harmony. He castigated the oppressive feudalism in Pakistan and regretted that the rulers alone could not act against this menace, which had been haunting the poor people.
In the past, he said, vested interest had pitted one group against another by creating misunderstandings. However, he expressed hope that the people would not fall in such traps again.
Beg denies involvement in N-tech transfer
ISLAMABAD, Feb 28: Former chief of the army staff Gen Mirza Aslam Beg (retired) has refuted the contents of a report appearing in New York Times alleging that he was involved in transfer of nuclear technology to Iran in 1990.
In a statement here on Saturday, the former chief said the then deputy secretary of defence Henry Rowen had made the revelation that he (Mr Beg) had told him that in the event the US stopped giving arms to Pakistan, Islamabad would be compelled to transfer nuclear technology to Iran.
Mr Beg termed this claim a "blatant lie and a figment of imagination".
He said similar allegation was made by former US ambassador to Pakistan Robert Oakley, a reverberation of which was in the statement made by PML-N Senator Ishaq Dar in the Senate session on Friday. In the Senate session, he said, Mr Dar had once again reiterated Mr Rowen's statement, which indeed was surprising as to "what precisely was the complicity between the US establishment and Mr Dar?"
Mr Beg said: "The allegations made against me are a part of conspiracy to create a dent into Pakistan-Iran relationship." It was no secret as to what was the nature of defence cooperation between Iran and Pakistan, and in the light of this to contend that there was exchange of nuclear secrets, was "concocted and baseless story."
He said: "To make allegations based on hearsay is nothing but a crude attempt at character assassination. My own 'self' is not important but I certainly view the country's interests very vital, which are under threat through an orchestrated propaganda of this kind."
Suicide bomber dies in attack on Rawalpindi Imambargah
RAWALPINDI: An unidentified suicide bomber was killed and
four worshippers injured in an attack on a local Imambargah here on Saturday.
The suicide bomber entered into the Imambargah situated at
Commercial Market, Satellite Town, to join the collective prayers during
which the device exploded. He was killed while four others standing beside
him received multiple injuries. None of them is, however, in critical
condition.
The bomb disposal squad, army experts and top officials of
secret agencies rushed to the scene and examined the situation.
Army cordoned off the Imambargah while paramilitary forces
have been deployed at all the Imambargahs of Rawalpindi and Islamabad to
maintain peace and order during the Ashura days.
A brief note regarding the suicide bombing was sent to
President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali.
According eyewitnesses and police experts, a 27-year-old
suicide bomber equipped with an explosive device entered Jama Masjid Mualla
Jaferia at about 6.40 pm adjacent to Imambargah Bargah-e-Hussaini to join the
evening prayers and stood in the third row, an eyewitness said.
Suddenly an explosion occurred and thick smoke engulfed
the hall while the suicide bomber and four persons standing adjacent to him
were wounded.
Allama Muzaffar Hussain Jafri told this scribe that around
50 worshippers, including women and children, were present in the mosque
while the Majlis was scheduled to start at 7.00 pm.
"The attacker was breathing when the rescuers tried
to take him to hospital. They found the exploded device fixed on his chest
and wires on his arm", Syed Qamar Abbas Naqvi told The News.
Detectives dealing with sectarian terrorism were of the
view that the bomb went off before time. The suicide bomber wanted to explode
the bomb during the Azadari Majlis that would have caused a big loss of
lives.
"The terrorists were more than one", a detective
asserted quoting an eyewitness who heard a voice saying ‘Hurry up, hurry up’
a moment before the explosion.
Attacks on Imambargahs were expected after the murder of
Maulana Azam Tariq and the law enforcing agencies were informed about the
threat, an officer of a secret agency said.
DIG Police, Rawalpindi Range, Chaudhry Iftikhar Ahmad told
this correspondent said that apparently the bomber was Pakistani. "We
have learnt the lesson that every body entering Imambargahs must be checked
properly", he added.
Troops have already been called in to help police maintain
peace during the Ashura-e-Muharram, he said adding after the incident
stringent security measures have been adopted in the metropolis.
"It is premature to say anything about the sort of
device used in the bombing," Iftikhar said. The wire was wrapped to the
bomber’s right arm with insulation tape and connected with the device and
battery, he said.
Syed Satwat Abbas, 16, Syed Shehwaiz Abbas, 24, Javaid
Asghar, 20, and Ejaz Hussain, 33, sustained serious injuries. However, their
condition was stable in hospital.
Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Shaikh
Rashid Ahmad and provincial minister Raja Basharat visited the Imambargah and
assured that everything would be done to avert such incidents in future.
Attack on girls school slated
PESHAWAR: The provincial coordinator, ‘Sarhad NGOs
Ittehad,’ Shakeel Waheedullah Khan has condemned the terrorists’ attack
over a non-formal school for girls at Chilas, Northern Areas. In a statement
issued here on Friday, he said the basic purpose of such cheap tactics was to
create hurdle in the way of people progress. He said the NGOs, on one hand
were playing their role for the welfare and prosperity of people, while on
the other they were shouldering the government responsibilities. He said the
government should ensure the security of the lives and properties of its
citizen.
13 killed in South Waziristan ‘mistaken fire’ shooting
PESHAWAR: As many as 13 passengers were killed and five
injured, including five local tribesmen, when personnel of the law
enforcement agencies opened fire on a passenger vehicle in South Waziristan
Agency on Saturday.
Official sources confirmed that personnel of the armed
forces and militia force manning the Ziary Noor check-post opened fire on a
pick-up following a wireless message from a nearby picket that some suspects
might try to flee from the area disguising themselves as passengers.
Eyewitnesses said that personnel of the law enforcement
agencies targeted the pick-up with rocket-propelled grenades and machinegun
fire after the driver failed to stop the vehicle at the checkpoint. Two other
passenger pick-ups were also caught in the firing, which resulted in the
killing of 13 persons and injuries to five others.
Local sources claimed that the victims were either
tribesmen or Afghan refugees and there was no terrorist among them, adding
that eight out of those killed were Afghans including a 14-year-old boy. The
check-post is close to Angoor Adda area, the trouble spot of the agency, from
where suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters are believed to organise
guerrilla attacks against the US and their Afghan allies across the
Pak-Afghan border. Two of the injured have been shifted to DI Khan while the
rest were admitted to the FC-CMH Wana, headquarters of the agency.
However, the military authorities said that personnel of
the law enforcement agencies retaliated after they came under fire from the
attackers, which resulted in the killing of 13 persons. No casualties have
been reported either among the Army personnel or militia force.
"The personnel at the check-post received a message
on wireless that some suspects were heading towards the check-post and needed
to be stopped," said an eyewitness adding, "The vehicle did not
stop when signalled and rather tried to flee, which was fired upon
instantly".
The local tribesmen killed in the incident were identified
as Muhammad Sharif, Mira Jan, Hazrat Omar, Dangar Khan and Reshmin Khan.
It is to be noted here that the Ziary Noor camp of
Pakistan Army came under mortar attack on Friday night and according to
reports one Army personnel was injured.
No details about the identity and condition of the injured
persons could be obtained as most of the officials either refused to comment
on the incident or simply avoided mediamen.
There is resentment among the tribesmen over the ongoing
operations in South Waziristan Agency as well as the killing of innocent
people in the name of terrorists, a local tribal elder said pleading
anonymity.
Thousands of angry tribesmen assembled at the funeral of
the killed persons while the situation remained tense in the agency,
eyewitnesses said.
In a similar development, some unidentified miscreants
fired as many as four missiles on the Bannu Cantonment on Friday night, but
caused no damage, sources said. Three of the missiles exploded with loud
bangs causing unrest among the residents while one was defused. Search for
those involved in the attack has been started. However, no arrests have so
far been made.
Locals believe that the attack on the cantonment could be
in retaliation to the military operations being conducted in Bakakhel and
Wana.
Agencies add: An intelligence official told Reuters
initial investigations suggested those killed in the South Waziristan tribal
region were not militants and that it was "mistaken fire", but a
military statement said some may have been "terrorists".
The military said the deaths occurred in crossfire after
the army post came under mortar attack and a checkpoint came under fire from
two to three vehicles. "The chances of some civilians having been killed
cannot be ruled out," the military said.
A military statement confirmed 11 reported deaths and said
16 people had been arrested.
"The situation in Waziristan is very tense after the
incident, the people are very angry," a resident told Reuters.
The intelligence official said four armed men travelling
in a car fired in the air as troops were trying to defuse rockets in Shulam,
a village near Wana. He said troops radioed a message to a nearby military
post and the troops fired on the van, mistaking it for the fleeing car.
Meanwhile, Minister for Information and Broadcasting
Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said the casualties followed cross firing that took place
between the FC men and those who attacked the FC post. However, he said
investigations are being carried out to ascertain the identity and other
details in this regard.
US, Pakistan deny Osama’s capture
TEHRAN: Pentagon and Pakistani officials on Saturday
denied an Iranian state radio report that Osama bin Laden was captured in
Pakistan’s border region with Afghanistan "a long time ago".
The claim came as Pakistan Army hunted terror suspects in
a remote tribal region along the border, believed to be a possible hiding
place for the al-Qaeda leader.
The director of Iran radio’s Pashtun language service,
Asheq Hossein, said the report was based on two sources.
The report said Osama had been in custody for a period of
time, but that US President George W Bush was withholding any announcement
until closer to November elections. "Osama bin Laden was arrested a long
time ago, but Bush is intending to use it for propaganda manoeuvring in the
presidential election," the radio said.
Pakistani officials have denied knowing Osama’s exact
whereabouts, although there have been reports that military forces believe
they know his general location and had him encircled.
The state radio report, quoting an unidentified source,
said US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s visit to the region this week
was in connection with Osama’s arrest.
Larry Di Rita, the chief Pentagon spokesman who travelled
with Rumsfeld this week to Afghanistan, denied the report. "I don’t
have any reason to think it’s true," he said.
Lt-Col Bryan Hilferty, a spokesman for the US military in
Afghanistan, also said he had no information to suggest Osama had been
caught. "Things are going well, and we believe we will eventually catch
all the leaders of al-Qaeda, but I know nothing of that report," he
said.
Speaking to AP in Tehran, the radio director identified
one of the sources for the report as Shamim Shahed, a Pakistani journalist.
Hossein said Shahed told him on Friday night that Osama
was arrested "a long time ago".
But Shahed denied telling Iranian radio that Osama had
been captured. "I never said this," he said in a telephone
interview with AP’s Islamabad bureau. "But I have for the last year
been saying that he is not far away. He is within their (the Americans’)
reach, and they can declare him arrested any time. I have been misquoted. On
this matter, we never talked, the last two months."
Hossein said he had a second source for the report but
declined to identify him other than as "a man with close links to
intelligence services and Afghan tribal leaders".
Pakistani officials denied the radio report as
"baseless".
Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri told reporters at
a press conference that he could not confirm reports carried by
"international media" that Osama has been arrested in Pakistan.
"We cannot confirm it at all," Kasuri said.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan told AFP
"there was no report of bin Laden’s arrest from the tribal areas of
Pakistan".
Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed called the report
"baseless". "We have neither arrested Osama nor have we any
information about him," he told AP. "There is no substance in this
news as neither he has been arrested nor been kept in Pakistan."
Pakistan Army spokesman General Shaukat Sultan also said
the report was not true. "That information is wrong," he said.