DAWN/The News International, KARACHI
30 January 2005, Sunday, 19 Zilhaj 1425
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PML rejects Muttahida’s policy on Balochistan
Offices of Geo, Jang group ransacked over Peres interview
4 killed in road accidents
Security forces to remain in Sui: Owais
4 power supply poles blown up in Naseerabad
Pro-govt tribesman, son killed in Wana
Musharraf urges moderates not to allow the menace in Madaris, mosques
TOBA TEK SINGH: SHO, three others booked in torture case
PML rejects Muttahida’s policy on Balochistan
ISLAMABAD: The major ruling coalition party, Pakistan Muslim League (PML), has disapproved its junior partner Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s
attacking policy on the Balochistan situation
. "To show our
disapproval
, we didn’t send any of our central leader to the Muttahida’s roundtable conference (
RTC
) in Quetta on Friday to represent the PML," a senior PML leader told The News. However, he noted that Muttahida chief Altaf Hussain has since lowered his rhetoric compared to his assertions projected immediately after the eruption of the Balochistan situation in the wake of a terrorist attack on the Sui purification plant. But, the PML leader said, the Muttahida chief needed to further
tone down his remarks
, matching his party’s partnership in the federal and Sindh governments. He said the Muttahida was repeating that no military operation should be launched in Sui and Dera Bugti while the government also says the same but vows to catch hold of the terrorists and saboteurs, who had fired rockets on the purification plant. "Nobody should have any objection over a stern action against those who damaged national installations," the PML leader said. "Such elements need no leniency." The PML representation in the RTC was negligible. Two of its MPAs and a minister of state (Naseer Mengal), belonging to Balochistan, attended the conference. All the mainstream opposition forces, including PML-N, Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPPP), Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) and Pukhtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party of Mehmood Achakzai, stayed away from the RTC. The conference turned out to be mainly a gathering of Balochistan nationalists. The PML leader said the Muttahida’s policy on the Balochistan situation was not a good reflection on the federal coalition. It gives the impression of disarray, he added. Meantime, the parliamentary subcommittee on Balochistan, headed by PML Secretary General Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed, will prepare and submit its report some time next week. The committee will finalise its report after PML President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Mushahid meet Jamhoori Watan Party chief Nawab Akbar Bugti to persuade him into giving up his threatening posture and coming to terms with the federal government in order to maintain peace around the Sui gas plant.
Offices of Geo, Jang group ransacked over Peres interview
KARACHI: About 30 to 35 unidentified people, riding on 18 to 20 motorcycles, attacked the main building of the Jang Group of Publications here in the wee hours of Saturday at about 2.00am. They opened fire, beat the security staff of the building and overpowered them. Later they ransacked the reception area and smashed the mechanised glass doors of the main entrance. Thereafter they dashed to the mezzanine floor, where they also broke the glass doors of Geo TV offices and then entered the office of Daily Awam, an Urdu-language eveninger of the Jang Group. The reporting section of the Daily Awam was damaged. The attackers were armed with weapons and also carried bags of stones, which they pelted all around freely. The renegades also broke open the locked doors of the cash counter and took away cash and valuables. One of the cabinets was also set to fire. Turning to the parking lot of the Daily Jang building, the self-styled vigilantes damaged seven vehicles of Daily Jang and Geo TV and personal cars of staffers of the Group. The attackers did not even spare the relief camp set up along the building by the Mir Khalil-ur-Rahman Foundation for collecting relief goods for the tsunami victims. They uprooted the camp and threw the collected relief goods across the I I Chundrigar Road. A police mobile was present at the scene of the incident while more contingents of police reached the spot on information. Later the attackers fled in the presence of police giving threat of serious consequences and using abusive language. The Jang Group considers the attack was in reaction over the publication of a TV interview of the deputy prime minister of Israel, Shimon Peres, with reference to India in the newspapers of the Jang Group, especially in Daily Jang and The News. The officials of Jang Group in Islamabad had received a telephone call form a foreign journalist who spoke in a threatening tone and asked aggressive and sensitive questions regarding the publication of the interview. Another call was received from the said journalist after the attack. The Group had also received a number of telephone calls with threats of serious consequences over the Friday telecast of the weekly programme ‘Uljhan, Suljhan’, which deals with psychological problems of the invitees and the viewers at large. The report of the incident has been lodged with the Mithadar Police Station and the matter is under investigation.
4 killed in road accidents
KARACHI: At least four persons lost their lives in separate road accidents and a security guard was gunned down on Saturday, police said. According to details, Sajid Razzak, 18, and Tariq Akhtar, 17, two cousins and residents of Bilal Colony Katchi Abadi in Sector 7-A North Karachi, were seriously injured when a pickup bumped their motorcycle. Police said that when they reached near Younus Mosque in Sector 9 North Karachi, a speeding pickup knocked them down. The injured cousins were rushed to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital (ASH), where doctors pronounced Tariq dead and Sajid died. People caught the errant driver and handed him over to the police. The arrested driver was identified as Wazeer Gul. Police have registered a case against the arrested driver on complaint of Akhtar Ali, father of Tariq. Abdul Jabbar, 26, a truck cleaner, received serious injuries when he fell down from his moving truck on the Superhighway in the Gaddap police limits. The injured was rushed to the JPMC, where he breathed his last. His body was placed in the Edhi morgue. A 35-year-old unidentified man was seriously injured when a recklessly driven hit-and-run vehicle knocked him down on Superhighway in the Gaddap police limits, while he was crossing the road. His body was shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) and later placed in the Edhi morgue. GUNNED DOWN: Dedaar Shah, 22, a security guard, who hailed from Diameer Chillas (Gilgit), residing in Khuldabad area, was shot dead when unknown gunmen opened fire upon him, while he was buying pan in Qaddafi Town Khuldabad within the Shah Lateef Town police jurisdiction. His body was shifted to the JPMC. FOUND MURDERED: A middle-aged woman was found murdered with severe injuries on her head and wrapped in a gunny bag in an isolated vicinity of Korangi. Passers-by saw a gunny bag lying in the bushes along the Double Road in Sector C-17 within the Shah Lateef Town police jurisdiction and informed the police. Police shifted the body to the JPMC. The body was placed in the Edhi morgue. Police have registered a case against the unknown killers.
Security forces to remain in Sui: Owais
QUETTA, Jan 29: Provincial Governor Owais Ahmed Ghani has said that security forces' deployment in Sui was on a permanent and long-term basis to protect the national installations and the provincial government has been taken into confidence. He said the miscreants who had attacked the gas installations could again target the sensitive installations, hence presence of the security forces in Sui was necessary to counter such acts. Talking to newsmen on Saturday after a Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (Smeda) workshop, he asserted that the situation in Sui was normal and peaceful. No military operation had been launched in that area nor there was any need for such an action, he added. Mr Owais said the provincial cabinet, which was given a briefing in the Corps headquarters on Saturday, would visit Sui on Sunday to review the situation in Dera Bugti district. He claimed that Nawab Akbar Bugti had said that his tribesmen were not involved in the rocket attacks on the gas installations, therefore, the Jamhoori Watan Party leader should cooperate with the government in apprehending the miscreants.
4 power supply poles blown up in Naseerabad
QUETTA: Almost the whole of Balochistan, including the provincial capital, plunged into darkness on Saturday evening for over one-and-half hour when four power supply poles of 220 KV lines were blown up near Naseerabad district, sources said. Reports reaching here from Naseerabad said that unknown terrorists planted heavy explosive material near the power supply poles in the Chahtar area of Naseerabad which exploded with a big bang, blowing up the poles. Consequently, power supply to over 15 district of Balochistan and some parts of Sindh was disrupted. Officials of the Naseerabad administration, Bomb Disposal Squad and the police rushed to the spot. After hectic efforts, Wapda officials restored power supply to the affected areas from alternative lines, the sources added. The police had cordoned off the whole area and were investigating the incident. The power supply was suspended around 7.15pm. An official of the Quetta Electric Supply Corporation (Qesco) told this correspondent that the breakdown was due to a technical fault in the power supply system. The power supply was restored to Quetta around 8.40pm. However, over 15 districts of the province - including Khuzdar, Kalat, Mastung, Pishin and Ziarat - were in complete darkness till the filing of this report. While another Qesco official insisted that some technical fault had caused the breakdown in the power supply from the Guddu transmission line, reports suggested that the power supply was suspended following the explosions. The Qesco official added that the power supply to the remaining parts of the province would be restored as soon as the damaged poles were repaired. The power disruption paralysed health care facilities, particularly at the civil hospital and other private hospitals, where there was no proper alternate arrangements. Besides, business and trade activities came to a standstill and most shopkeepers left for their homes, as they were sure that power would remain suspended till late at night.
Pro-govt tribesman, son killed in Wana
TANK: A tribesman and his son were shot dead in Wana Saturday for allegedly assisting the military amid reports that one of the most wanted militants Baitullah Mahsud had made up his mind to avail the Government’s amnesty offer. Official and tribal sources said one Hayatullah and his son Pir Wal, belonging to the Machikhel sub-tribe of the Mahsuds, were fired at from a vehicle with tinted glasses in Wana’s main Rustam bazaar around 9 am Saturday. Both died on the spot as the killers made their escape. It was after some time that such targeted killing took place in Wana, headquarters of South Waziristan tribal agency. Tribal sources recalled that the military had used Hayatullah’s home in Tiarza in the Mahsud territory on June 9 last year during a big operation against local and foreign militants in the Torwam area. As many as 15 troops, including six Pakistan Army soldiers and nine Frontier Corps militiamen, were killed in the fighting. Around 50 tribal and foreign militants were also killed in the bloody confrontation. Four innocent tribesmen were killed and eight sustained injuries on that occasion. Most of them were women and children who were caught in the crossfire. Meanwhile, some positive news was coming out of a remote part of South Waziristan where Baitullah Mahsud, leader of the pro-Taliban tribal militants, was holed up. A 21-member jirga comprising 11 religious leaders and 10 Mahsud tribal elders were on their way back to Tank town after meeting Baitullah Mahsud at an unknown place and convincing him to give up militancy and seek amnesty from the government. Malik Mohammad Iqbal, a Shabikhel Mahsud tribal elder, who accompanied the jirga, told The News that Baitullah Mahsud had agreed to accept the government’s amnesty offer in return for a promise not to fight the government or harbour foreign militants. He felt it would take a couple of days to finalize the deal and resolve the issue. The 21-member high-level tribal jirga had decided to visit Baitullah Mahsud once the spadework was done by the Shabikhel Mahsud elders. The Shabikhel Mahsud elders, accompanied by three members of an intelligence agency, had held a preliminary meeting with Baitullah Mahsud to sound him out on the government’s amnesty offer. They had also met South Waziristan’s political agent Asmatullah Mahsud before and after holding talks with Baitullah Mahsud. It was now being speculated that a clear picture about the deal would emerge by Sunday evening. Top government functionaries, including Corps Commander Peshawar Lt Gen Safdar Hussain, have been saying in recent days that Baitullah Mahsud was willing to surrender and would be amnestied once he gives up militancy. However, the corps commander made it clear that there would be no amnesty for Abdullah Mahsud, a 29-year old former Taliban fighter, who spent 25 months in US custody in Guantanamo Bay, because he had ordered the kidnapping of the two Chinese engineers and was responsible for attacks on the military.
Musharraf urges moderates not to allow the menace in Madaris, mosques
OKARA: President Pervez Musharraf on Saturday called upon "moderate political parties to join hands to foil extremists’ conspiracies damaging the country and democracy". Addressing a public meeting organised by PPP-Patriots chairman and Defence Minister Rao Sikandar Iqbal here at Mansoor Stadium, the president said the moderates should not let the extremists play with the fate of the country and democracy, which have been put on the right track. He said religious people are duty-bound to tell people the true meaning of Islam. He said the people should not allow any person to fan extremism from mosques and religious institutions. Musharraf said he was not afraid of external threats but of internal threats. He said both the PML and the PPP-Patriots should unite to eliminate extremism from Pakistan. He said that when different parties, like PPP-Patriots and PML, could unite with him, there was no question of internal differences among political leaders. Previously, he said, Pakistan was considered a beggar country with its leaders running after donor agencies, but now because of the concrete economic measures Pakistan had bidden farewell to the IMF, rather started extending momentary assistance to other countries. The president said the government had laid foundations of strong and true democracy and this and next governments would complete their tenures. With introduction of the local government system, he said, all the financial and administrative powers had been devolved to the grassroots level. Further, he said, the provinces had got "unparalleled" autonomy besides heavy financial grants. This grant to the provinces and the districts had been possible due to improved economic condition, he said. Musharraf said the government had introduced measures to boost agriculture like offering Rs 3 billion loans under Kisan Package. He said the government had ensured that these loans should be released to small farmers. In future, he said, the government would reserve Rs 8 billion for the purpose and gradually enhance it to Rs 15 billion. He said the government had also planned to brickline 87,000 watercourses. The president said he knew the need for water reservoirs and soon the people would hear a good news about the construction of a big dam. He added that the Mangla dam was being raised up to 30-ft for the biggest water storage in the country.
TOBA TEK SINGH: SHO, three others booked in torture case
TOBA TEK SINGH, Jan 29: A local court on Saturday ordered registration of a case under the new police order against the Arrouti SHO, an ASI and two constables for torturing a school teacher. Shah Nawaz pleaded before court that he was present in his village 747-GB on Friday night when the policemen came there during patrol duty. He said the policemen drew out Rs1,400 from the pocket of his cousin Khalid Mustafa during the body search. He said the policemen returned only Rs900 when Mustafa demanded back his money. He further said that on the request of his cousin he asked SHO Abdul Majeed to return the whole amount. At this, he said the SHO, ASI Bashir Ahmed and constables Bahadur Ali and Muhammad Arshad thrashed him severely in the main village intersection. Later, he said they took him to the police station where they beat him up again and registered a fake case against him. However, the police released him on the intervention of the elite of the area. The judge ordered the DHQ Hospital MS for his medical examination which confirmed about 15 torture marks on his body.
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