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Who ordered FIA to raid Ahmad Ali’s factory?
Brothers stab sister to death; teenager killed in accident
DERA GHAZI KHAN: Rape victim refuses to own baby
17 killed in Riyadh suicide bombings
Who ordered FIA to raid Ahmad Ali’s factory?
ISLAMABAD: Federal Communication Minister Ahmed Ali feels
that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) recently raided his
pharmaceutical company in Karachi on orders from Interior Minister Faisal
Saleh Hayat.
Faisal denied the other day that the FIA conducted raid on
Ahmed Ali’s factory on his direction or any person was harassed.
The communication minister, belonging to the Muttahida
Qaumi Movement, has brought the raid issue to the notice of Prime Minister
Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali as well his party leadership. It was after that
that Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad strongly protested to the federal
government against the raid and subsequently further proceedings were
immediately halted.
Sources close to the communication minister told The News
that Faisal was annoyed with Ahmed Ali for stopping the National Highway
Authority (NHA) to allow him (interior minister) to inaugurate a bridge near
his native Jhang district at the behest of Punjab Chief Minister Ch Pervaiz
Elahi.
Faisal had got sanctioned Rs 200 million from the prime
minister for constructing the bridge and requested Jamali that he should be
allowed to inaugurate the bridge. The premier had agreed to it.
However, the Punjab chief minister did not have the same
opinion. The inauguration of the bridge is yet to be performed by somebody.
Ahmed Ali believed that the moment Faisal came to know
that he was out of the federal cabinet, he let loose the FIA against his
prestigious pharmaceutical company to teach him a lesson for ordering the NHA
not to let the interior minister to perform inauguration of the bridge,
sources said.
It was because of this controversy that the prime
minister, during his recent visit to Jhang, was the guest of Pakistan Muslim
League-Quaid-i-Azam (PML-N) MNAs and MPAs of the area, instead of Faisal, who
is the chief leader of the Pakistan People’s Party
Parliamentarians-Patriots (PPPP-P). However, Jamali had also made an
appearance with Faisal during his visit to show solidarity with him being a
partner in the ruling coalition.
From day one, the interior minister and the Punjab chief
minister are having no smooth relationship. After the assassination of
Maulana Azam Tariq, they had a heated argument in a recent federal cabinet
meeting over the question of law and order and working of police in the
Punjab province.
Ahmed Ali’s resignation has also to do a lot with his
attempt to secure control over the giant state-run organisations like the
Pakistan National Shipping Corporation (PNSC) and the NHA etc, which are
headed by serving or retired military generals.
The communications minister’s recent confrontation with
the NHA, fully publicised in the press, was also a factor behind his
resignation, which was hardly voluntary.
The sources said that Ahmed Ali, a business tycoon in his
own right, had also objected to a recent PNSC deal.
Brothers stab sister to death
KARACHI: A sister was murdered by her brothers, while two
persons lost their lives in separate incidents on Sunday, police said.
Nausheen (35) wife of Saleem was stabbed to death by her
brothers Asghar Ali alias Pappu and Kamran and Musarrat, wife of Asghar in
her house, located in Bijli Nagar in Mominabad police limits. Asghar wanted
to get his other sister married to his brother-in-law. The proposal was
refused by Nausheen due to which a quarrel occurred. Her body was shifted to
the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital. However, police registered a case against Asghar
Ali, Kamran and Musa
INJURED: Mubeen, an office bearer of the union of Jauhar
Complex in Gulistan-e-Jauhar area within Sachal police limits opened fire on
a resident of the complex, who was allegedly not obeying the laws. As a
result Abdul Waheed (8) and Muhammad Arif (27) both passers-by sustained
bullet injuries and were rushed to the Civil Hospital. Mubeen fled away after
the incident. The incident took place after the union severed the water
connection of a resident of the complex.
Waseem, a passer-by sustained bullet injuries when a stray
bullet hit him in Kalakot police limits. He was rushed to the Civil Hospital.
ROBBERIES: Three dacoits barged into the house of Muhammad
Farooq in Shah Faisal Colony and collected Rs655,000, prize bonds, jewellery
and a licensed TT pistol at gunpoint.
Two muggers intercepted a person on Kashmir Road - in his
vehicle - and snatched Rs50,000 from him.
Unidentified bandits looted the house of Arsalan Alam in
Shamim Shaheed area of Nazimabad police limits.
Meanwhile, Asad Ashraf Mallick, the CCPO Karachi, in a
meeting of senior police officials, ordered his subordinates to establish
committees to solve public problems.
He directed that a telephone line and a fax machine must
be reserved for public complaints and the complaints received there must be
responded to at once.
DERA GHAZI KHAN: Rape victim refuses to own baby
DERA GHAZI KHAN, Nov 9: A baby girl, born at Darul Aman to a victim of gang-rape, has created problems for the social welfare department, as the mother has refused to own her.
The victim was admitted to Darul Aman on the orders of a civil judge on Nov 5. The Dajil police in Rajanpur district had registered a case against five brothers, who allegedly raped 'Z' on April 15, under Section 10/7/79 of the Hudood Ordinance. The accused were identified as Farooq, Ghafoor, Zahoor, Amanullah and Saifullah, sons of Dur Mohammed. They were arrested in May but granted bail by Lahore High Court's Multan bench in July.
On Nov 5, the victim's father appeared before Jampur Civil Judge Majid Karim Farooq in the company of his daughter and sought provision of security, saying that the girl was being threatened with dire consequences by the accused. The judge directed the police to shift the pregnant victim to Darul Aman, where she gave birth to a baby girl on the very same day at 10pm.
The rape victim was shifted to the DHQ hospital in critical condition on the advice of Dr Sajida, where she was infused with three pints of blood donated by the inmates of Darul Aman.
District Officer (Social Welfare) Mohammed Iqbal Tariq told Dawn that the rape victim had refused to adopt the newborn. He added that the department had sought help of the Gehwara in Rawalpindi for the adoption of the baby. The district officer said he had written to the authorities concerned that the rape victim should be shifted to jail rather than Darul Aman.
Darul Aman Superintendent Riaz Ahmed Mastoi said the rape victim would not be sent to the court of Jampur Additional Civil Judge Abdul Sattar Asghar in connection with the trial on Nov 10, as Dr Sajida Mehboob had said that she could not travel on account of poor health.
According to the FIR, Ms Z's nikah was solemnized with one Rauf, son of Gul Mohammed Borera, two years ago, but rukhsati had not taken place. The cousins of her husband allegedly broke into her house one day and declared before raping Z that they had come to avenge the illicit relationship of her brother with their sister. A family member said it was a matter of marriage-in-exchange.
17 killed in Riyadh suicide bombings
RIYADH: Eleven people died and 122 were wounded when a
midnight suicide car bombing devastated a housing compound outside the Saudi
capital, the interior ministry said on Sunday as officials blamed al-Qaeda
militants.
The blast, which shook buildings as far off as the centre
of Riyadh, was a "terrorist bombing", the Saudi interior ministry
said in a statement. Witnesses said the bomber drove a police jeep apparently
stolen from security forces. "A car laden with explosives succeeded in
penetrating the fortified compound surrounded by cement blocks," a
security officer at the site said. "The car blew up inside the
compound," he added, but could not tell if one suicide bomber or more
were involved.
An AFP correspondent saw the wreckage of the vehicle,
which created a crater around two metres deep. At least 15 cars, including
one with diplomatic licence plate, were gutted. Witnesses described flames
engulfing a series of villas and residents — men women and many children
— fleeing for their lives.
A dozen ambulances quickly arrived. Civil defence cars
followed as security forces cordoned off the area and a helicopter buzzed
overhead. Compound owner Mohammad Saleh al-Muhaya described how the ordeal
began when gunmen opened fire from a nearby hill before the jeep drove in. A
Sudanese guard named Assi Makki Zain was shot dead, he said.
"About 30 men from the Saudi National Guard were
deployed in the area," al-Muhaya said. The stricken site lies beyond
Riyadh’s diplomatic quarter which was closed off by security forces after
the blast as Washington ordered its diplomatic staff and their families to
remain in their homes and not leave the Riyadh area.
Six villas were razed and another 17 badly damaged on the
200-villa site where virtually all buildings suffered some damage. Compound
manager Hanadi al-Khandakli said several Western families also lived at
al-Muhaya although most residents were Arabs, including Saudis.
A ministry official told the Saudi Press Agency that
Saudis and Sudanese were also among the dead at the al-Muhaya complex in the
Wadi Laban suburb, behind the al-Yamama royal palace, west of Riyadh.
Most of those injured were lightly wounded, the official
said, but 25 people remained in hospital on Sunday night. An Egyptian mother,
father and two children, aged four and eight, perished in the blast and were
found on Sunday under the debris of their home, Cairo’s embassy told AFP.
Four Lebanese, including a woman and two children, also
died and 24 were wounded, some in a critical condition, Lebanon’s embassy
said here. The ministry listed the wounded as Bangladeshis, Egyptians,
Eritreans, Ethiopians, Filipinos, Indians, Indonesians, Jordanians, Lebanese,
Pakistanis, Palestinians, Romanians, Saudis, Sri Lankans, Sudanese, Syrians,
and Turks, as well as Americans and Canadians, most of them of Arab descent.
Lebanese topped the list of wounded at 53, followed by
Egyptians, 17, and Jordanians, eight. Thirty-six of the wounded were
children, and the male-female ratio was 66-56. According to the ministry’s
breakdown of the injured, they included four Arab Americans and six
Canadians, five of whom are of Arab extraction.
"The method in which the bombing was executed is
similar to that used in the May 12 bombings" of three expatriate
residential compounds, said the official, requesting anonymity. "This
confirms that those who carried out the bombing belong to the al-Qaeda
movement," he said.
The French embassy said three French families living on
the compound escaped unharmed, although their homes were damaged. The German
embassy said it was checking reports about a German family housed at
al-Muhaya.
The Foreign Office in London said three Britons on the
compound were safe and well. The blast occurred at 2100 GMT, a time when many
families would have been gathered for the night-time celebrations before the
dawn-to-dusk fast observed during Ramazan.
The US, Britain, Canada and Australia have all advised
their citizens to defer non-essential travel to the oil-rich kingdom over
fears of terror operations.
Early on Sunday, Al-Arabiya TV, quoting unnamed Saudi
sources, reported the discovery of an unspecified number of bodies belonging
to attackers involved in the blast. The Interior Ministry official said he
did not know how many attackers were involved.
In comments published on Sunday on the Web site of Saudi
daily Okaz newspaper, Interior Minister Prince Nayef said they could not rule
out a connection to suspected al-Qaeda terrorist cells targeted in recent
sweeps, as a number of suspects from those cells were still at large.
Prince Nayef toured the site early on Sunday and then
warned that authorities would pursue anyone who would attack the kingdom and
stop them "no matter how long the path is...until we are completely
certain that our country is free of every devil and every evil person".
"No mercy or pity should be felt for anyone thinking of carrying out
such acts," he said.
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Amanda Batt
said: "Some Americans were treated for minor injuries and
released," but there were "no known American fatalities". The
Saudi Interior Ministry statement also said four US citizens and six
Canadians had been injured.
A Lebanese, Gaby Kallas, who was slightly injured, told
the AP he heard gunfire and three explosions. The ceiling of the compound
cafeteria where he and his friends were at the time collapsed and windows
shattered, he said.
The Saudi official said the attackers exchanged fire with
guards and there were apparently three explosions. Diplomats reported one big
blast about midnight, followed by two smaller ones 15 seconds apart. It was
unclear if three bombs had detonated or whether one set off multiple
explosions.
Police said the explosions were five kilometres from an
entrance to the Saudi capital’s diplomatic quarter, close to the Saudi
royal family’s main palaces. Meanwhile, Western embassies in Saudi Arabia
urged their nationals to remain vigilant and restrict their movement to and
inside the kingdom.
Britain and Canada advised citizens to defer non-essential
travel to the kingdom, while US and French embassies urged their communities
against non-essential movement outside housing areas.