| DAWN/The News International, KARACHI | 10 October 2001, Wednesday, 22 Rajab 1422 |
KARACHI: Unknown assailants, riding on a motorbike, assassinated the principle of Govt Mono-Technical College, Orangi Township, witnesses and officials said.
Gul Imam Shah was assassinated at the doorstep of his institute, within Mominabad police precincts. Witnesses said the targeted victim was on his way home in Ancholi. As soon as he reached at the gate of the institute, two assassins, riding a motorbike intercepted him and opened fire. He died instantly.
Gul Imam was the 27th victim in one-month period from September 4 to October 9. Earlier, some 26 people were killed in different sectarian coloured high-profile terrorist strikes during the month of September and first week of current months of October.
Karachi has its hottest dayKARACHI: The mercury further shot up to 42.6 degrees Celsius on Tuesday as the people endured one of the hottest days of the current summer. The drop in humidity in the air further aggravated the situation as the Met recorded only 21 per cent humidity. This was the second highest temperature during October in the recorded history of Pakistan; the highest temperature recorded was 43.3 in October 1, 1951. "Due to development of a weather system in the Arabian Sea, the direction of winds changed from southerly to westerly," said Director of Meteorological Department Arif Mehmood. He said this hot spell would continue for another two days. Minimum temperature of the city was recorded at 23.5. The scorching weather hit the school-going children the most while consumption of fluids and cold drinks increased manifold.
Four SHC judges appointedISLAMABAD: The president has appointed four additional judges of the Sindh High Court to be permanent judges of the court with effect from the date their present term expires. Those judges who have been appointed included Justice S Ali Aslam Jafri, Justice Muhammad Mujeebullah Siddiqui, Justice Syed Zawwar Hussain Jafri and Justice Muhammad Moosa K Leghari. The president has also extended the tenure of office of the two additional judges of the SHC for of one year.
Clarification: "Reverted police offices occupy coveted posts"QUETTA: Pakistan Railway has temporarily suspended train operation on Quetta-Chaman section in view of the prevailing situation. However, the staff, posted on the section, will remain available at their stations, said a press release issued by the divisional superintendent Railways Quetta here on Tuesday.
DIG Quetta removed for pro-Taliban tiltISLAMABAD: The government has removed Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Quetta Haji Habibur Rehman for his pro-Taliban tilt.
An official told The News that authorities had ordered the DIG to ensure arrest of 18 persons, who could disturb peace through protests in Quetta, but he did not arrange apprehension of even a single man.
The government took instant action and sidelined the DIG after it probed the reason for the inaction on the part of the senior police officer. However, it did not remove Balochistan Inspector General of Police (IGP) Shoaib Suddle in the wake of violent protests in the province, on the mere ground, that he assumed the office just a few days ago, the official said.
He said that the federal government was extremely vigilant about the law and order situation in Balochistan that was the stronghold of Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam headed by detained Maulana Fazalur Rehman and Afghan refugees. The official said that the army authorities were closely coordinating with the provincial law-enforcement agencies to control the situation in Balochistan that again turned violent on Tuesday. The transfer of the Quetta Corps Commander was also related to the new Afghan policy of the Musharraf government, the official said.
Three killed as police, protesters clash near QuettaQUETTA: At least three people were killed and over a dozen others injured as violence continued in Quetta and some other parts of Balochistan on the second day on Tuesday to castigate the US-led attack on Afghanistan.
The supporters of Taliban staged protest demonstration in all the cities and divisional headquarters of the districts in the province. The leaders of the religious parties led the processions to condemn the US attack.
The worst riots took place at Kuchlak, some 25 kilometres from here, where hundreds of students of various religious schools, wearing black and white turbans, gathered and attempted to stage a demonstration.
During the demonstration, some miscreants attacked the Kuchlak Police Station and pelted it with stones. The mob also ransacked telephone exchange, post office and railway station, and later torched them. Consequently, one policeman sustained serious stone injuries, police told The News.
Initially police used tear gas and baton-charge to disperse the mob, however, when the things went out of control, police and the law-enforcement agencies had to open fire in which 15 people sustained bullet injuries.
One Hameedullah, 10, received bullets in his chest and succumbed to his injuries on the spot, while two other injured, Muhammad Azam and an unidentified Afghan refugee, died on their way to hospital. The bodies were removed to the morgue of Civil Hospital, Quetta, for autopsy whereas the injured were admitted to the hospital. Hospital sources told The News that condition of some of the injured are precarious.
Some enraged people also pelted vehicles with stones, besides smashing windscreens of more than three dozen vehicles, at Kuchlak. On being informed, the senior officials of the police and law-enforcement agencies rushed to the spot and arrested over a dozen miscreants. The police officials claimed that the situation was "totally" under control.
Meanwhile, the routine life was completely paralysed in Quetta, Kuchlak, Chaman, Khuzdar, Kalat, Loralai and other parts of Balochistan as fierce clashes took place between the supporters of Taliban and the personnel of the law-enforcement agencies at several places.
The mobs were chanting slogans against the Bush administration and in favour of Taliban regime and Osama bin Laden. All business centres in Quetta and other parts of the province, including Sibi, Loralai, Pishin, Ziarat, Kuchlak, Sanjavi, Dukki, Khuzdar, Turbat, and Panjgur remained closed.
Meanwhile, reports reaching here from Chaman said leaders and activists of JUI-F staged a demonstration at the main Bazaar and chanted slogans against the US and in favour of the Taliban Osama.
The demonstrators, carrying placards, banners and portraits of Osama, marched through various roads of the Chaman city and vowed to wage Jihad against the US forces. The protesters were raising slogans against George W Bush, Tony Blair and Vajpayee. They also torched an effigy of the US president. Later, the demonstration converged into a public meeting.
Addressing the meeting, the JUI-F leaders asked the US and allied forces to get ready to face the wrath of millions of Muslims. "We will fight shoulder to shoulder with the Taliban," they vowed.
Meanwhile, addressing a public meeting at Kalat, JUI-F central secretary-general Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri refuted the claim of General Musharraf that only 15 per cent people in Pakistan were with the Taliban. He said that the US forces had broken all records of terrorism by imposing aggression on the war-ravaged and drought-hit country. This is not a fight between US and Afghanistan rather it is a war between Muslims and anti-Muslim forces, he remarked.
Heavy contingents of Frontier Corps, Police and Balochistan Reserve Police (BRP) had been deployed in city to maintain law and order situation. The FC and BRP personnel were patrolling the roads to avert any unpleasant incident.
When the riots were going on in the city, the Balochistan cabinet was holding its meeting to review law and order situation. "We will not allow anybody to take law into hand," said Governor Justice (retd) Amirul Mulk Mengal. He directed the authorities to take all possible measures to provide security to the life and property of the citizens.
The Balochistan government issued here on Tuesday night said certain Afghan refuges residing in and around Kuchlak, some 25 kilometers from the provincial capital, "instigated" the local population to join them in an agitation against the attack on Afghanistan.
It said upon refusal of the local population to do so, they attempted to get close the markets and bazaars of Kuchlak forcibly. A fight, therefore, ensued between the Afghan refugees and local population. The Afghan refugees, thereafter pelted stones at the police station and set ablaze the local post office, it added.
The refugees attempted to ransack and loot Muslim Commercial Bank (MCB), Kuchlak. Upon receipt the information, the DIG Police, Quetta, along with police force, immediately rushed to the spot. The police baton charged the miscreants and fired tear gas to disperse the mob. Some of the Afghan refugees resorted to firing on the police. The police in retaliation also fired a "few" rounds, said the official press note.
During the cross fire, three miscreants, who were Afghan refugees, received bullets injuries, and later breathed their last, it added. The official announcement said that two of the deceased were identified as Hameedullah, Muhammad Azam while the name of the third one could not be known.
It said that police had arrested over 50 people on the charges of the riots. However, the locals, who were found "innocent", were released subsequently. It said that 40 miscreants -- all Afghan refugees -- were sent to jail. Cases have been registered against them and they would be tried under law. "The situation was later on restored and all shops were opened," the announcement added.