HYDERABAD: The member of the family of a journalist were subjected to torture and his 16-year-old sister was kidnapped at gunpoint by ten armed men from a house located near Haidri Mosque, Taluka Sakrand, Nawabshah district.

Reports said ten people entered the house of a Hyderabad-based journalist, Ghulam Hussain Khaskheli and after subjecting the family members to torture they abducted Haseena from there.

A telegram sent by journalist Ghulam Hussain to Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court (SHC) in Karachi said the armed men asked the family members not to disclose the matter to any one otherwise they would be treated accordingly.

The journalist named Ali Mohammad, Noor Mohammad, Wali Mohammad, Ali Sher, Siddique, Mehram, Ali Akbar and others as accused in the telegram to CJ. He informed the CJ that the police were not taking any action against them. He said the accused were hooligans and issuing threats to the family. He appealed to the CJ to get his sister freed, as her life was in danger. On Tuesday, Over a dozen journalists belonging to various regional newspapers observed hunger strike against the incident and demanded of SSP Nawabshah to take note of the matter.

HYDERABAD: Six dacoits, and a policeman were killed as Sanghar district police recovered the Sanjhoro Taluka Nazim from the captivity of dacoits at Goth Rampur, about 100 km off here, on Wednesday. The persons were also injured.

Those who got killed included dacoits Ali Bukhsh Machi, Shaukat Lili, Jam Khoso, Maula Bukhsh Khaskheli, Adloo Khoso and Mumtaz Khoso, besides gunman of DSP Headquarters Maulana Bukhsh Malano.

The three injured are two policemen, Qasim Keriyo and Qasim Nohri, and a dacoit Abdul Ghafoor. Talking to The News on phone from Sanghar, SSP Sanghar Shahid Hanif said that dacoit Ali Bukhsh Machi had been wanted by Hyderabad, Sanghar and Nawabshah police for eight years. He carried a head money of one million rupees. Other dacoits, who got killed in the encounter, also carried head money of half a million rupees each.

The SSP said that Sanjhoro Nazim Rana Mohammed Anwer Rajput had been recovered in an injured condition. "However, he is out of danger at a hospital," he added. He said that three rocket launchers, a rocket, three SMGs, four hand-grenades, a G-3 rifle, one 12-bore shotgun and 400 live bullets were recovered from the possession of the dacoits.

The operation against the Ali Machi gang was carried out after the killing of four employees of Municipal Council Sanghar -- Shahid Ali Jatt, Pir Bukhsh Khaskheli, Sath Deva Mal and Ghulam Mustafa Kachi -- by the gang on Tuesday. During the attack, three people were also injured.

After the Tuesday incident, the SSP Sanghar district lunched a major hunt against the notorious gang which continued for the whole of Tuesday-Wednesday night. On Wednesday afternoon, the police clashed with the gang members. The two sides exchanged fire for about eight hours in a village, Ring, outside Taluka Sanjhoro.

The SSP said that the IGP had announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh for the deceased policeman while his family members would be provided with jobs. The body of the policeman was sent to Larkana district after funeral prayers, also attended by DIG Mirpurkhas Syed Jamal Shah, SSP Shahid Hanif and other senior police officers.

APP adds: Sindh Governor, Muhammedmian Soomro and Corps Commander, Lt Gen Tariq Waseem Ghazi has congratulated the Inspector General Police Sindh and DIG Mirpurkhas on the killing of six dacoits in Sinjhoro and safe recovery of an abductee alongwith arms and appreciated the police operation.They expressed the hope that with repeated demonstration of such performance, the police will weed out crimes from the Province at the earliest and specially their hide outs in the interior of Sindh will be destroyed.

ISLAMABAD: The Musharraf government has directed that stern action should be taken against any Jihadi organisation involved in violence in any part of Pakistan.

The Chief Executive's Secretariat has sent a letter to the Interior Division directing it to "take stern action against those Jihadi organisations found involved in violence, brandishing of weapons and creating fear amongst masses."

The Interior Ministry in Islamabad has identified 10 'Jihadi' organisations, which were previously said to be "untouchables" as they were said to be carrying out a freedom struggle in Kashmir, sources in the President's Secretariat told The News.

But after the US attack on Afghanistan some of these Jihadi organisations also took part in anti-US demonstrations in different parts of Pakistan along with some sectarian outfits. Some of these demonstrations became violent, especially in Quetta, Peshawar, Malakand Agency and parts of Sindh.

The ten 'Jihadi' organisations identified officially are: Hizbul Mujahideen, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen, Tehreek-e-Jihad, Jaish-e-Muhammad, Tehreek-ul-Mujahadeen, Harkat-ul-Jihad-e-Islami, National Liberation Army of JKLF and Al-Badr Mujahideen.

In a separate list nine sectarian organisations have also been identified. These are: Sipah-e- Sahaba, Lashkar Jhangvi, Sipah Mohammed, Tehrik Fiqh -i-Jafaraia (TJP) (Sajid Naqvi Group), TJP (Moosvi Group), Sawad-e-Azam, Lashkar Ahle Bait, Tanzeemul Ikhwan and Sunni Tehrik.

The military government has also directed the Interior Ministry to adopt a proactive policy against the extremist organisations and furnish a progress report to the President after firm action, very shortly.

PESHAWAR: The NWFP chapter of Defence Council of Afghanistan has threatened to attack the so-called Afghan Loya Jirga being held at Nishtar Hall Peshawar with the blessings of the government against the ruling Taliban in Afghanistan.

Leaders of component parties of the Council appealed to the government and Afghan leaders to abandon the process or face retaliation on the second day of the moot today (Thursday). "We will hold a meeting at Masjid Qasim Ali Khan and take out a procession against the government and its dual policies.

A march would be made on Nishtar Hall Peshawar where the NWFP government has provided every facility to the Afghan leaders to hold a meeting against the ruling Taliban," said provincial amir of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Fazl Group) Maulana Amanullah while speaking at an emergency news conference here on Wednesday.

Accompanied by the deputy amir of Jamaat-e-Islami and NWFP president of the Defence Council of Afghanistan Hakeem Abdul Waheed, Haji Ihsanul Haq, provincial leader of Sipah-e-Sahaba Shahid Noor, chief of Tanzeem-e-Islami Major (retd) Fateh Mohammad and dozens of other activists, Maulana Amanullah said the government provided every facility to "Jews and Christians" (a reference to US and her allies) to attack the innocent people of Afghanistan and hurt the feelings of Muslims inside and outside that country.

"Now the government has started propaganda in favour of former king Zahir Shah. The government invited Pir Syed Ahmad Gailani and made every arrangement for him to organise the Jirga. The NWFP government itself invited Afghans to the Jirga to 'provoke' the people," he added. The Council leader said: "We warn the government well on time to stop patronising the pro-Zahir Shah groups.

Since Taliban and their supporters have been denied the right to hold meetings and processions here, the government by going back on its words should also not allow Pir Gillani to hold a Jirga on the Pakistani soil".

He said the Frontier chapter of the Defence Council at its meeting unanimously decided to observe protest demonstrations today (Thursday)."We will march towards the venue of the Jirga and the government would be responsible for any untoward incident if the process is not stopped."

Deputy Amir of Jamaat-e-Islami Hakeem Abdul Waheed said the government was creating hurdles in their way from staging processions in favour of Taliban while facilitating others to hold anti-Taliban proceedings.

He alleged that Zahir Shah was responsible for all the miseries of the Afghan nation and destruction of Afghanistan. He questioned as to why the government of Pakistan was trying to re-impose the former king on the Afghan nation.

He recalled that President Pervez Musharraf himself had stated that Taliban were in
control of 85 percent of the Afghan territory, then why he was talking about the establishment of a broad-based government there? He said they had been organising peaceful meetings and processions and would remain peaceful until such time the government did not create hurdles for them.

The leader of Tanzeem-e-Islami Major (retd) Fateh Mohammad said the days of monarchy are over. He said the only option for former king Zahir Shah was to enter Afghanistan over a cruise missile.

PESHAWAR: The US-led air strikes on Taliban frontlines north of Kabul and targets in different Afghan cities continued on Wednesday amidst claims by Taliban diplomats that Indian army generals have been spotted in the north of the country holding meetings with the opposition leadership.

"The main targets in Wednesday's bombing were the frontlines near Bagram airbase and other areas north of Kabul. A few bombs have been dropped around the city, but no details of loss to human lives and damage to property is available yet," said the Islamabad-based Taliban deputy ambassador, Sohial Shaheen.

The coalition forces targeted Osama's old house and Siaf hospital. Reports indicate that over fifteen thousand Taliban are hiding in caves and bunkers and it will take many weeks to search them, confessed US authorities.

In another related development U.S Vice President Dick Chenney said that Osama and his al-Queda can perpetrate more acts of terrorism on American interests in the US and around the world.

"The Americans and their allies want to destroy our national assets and kill civilians in the name of fighting against terrorism. This is a crime against humanity," said the Peshawar-based Vice Consul of Taliban, Faiz Ahmad Faiz.

The Afghan diplomat was commenting on the statement of the Islamabad-based UN spokesperson, Stephanie Bunker, in which she said that US planes bomb civilian areas because that Taliban soldiers were hiding in cities and populated areas.

"This is cruel joke and a deliberate attempt on the part of the UN spokesperson to justify killing of civilians and innocent people of Afghanistan," Faiz Ahmad Faiz said. Reports reaching Peshawar suggest that US planes hit targets with missiles and dropped several bombs in Herat and Paktia provinces, but no details of the damage and loss to human lives, if any, could be obtained.

"The sounds of explosions and fires of Taliban anti-aircraft guns were quite audible in Kurram agency," locals informed. Kurram Agency is a Pakistani tribal area, which shares borders with Afghanistan. However, Jalalabad is calm for the last four days, as no fresh air strikes have been resumed yet, Taliban officials informed from Jalalabad.

Taliban officials in Kabul and their diplomats in Islamabad claimed that two Indian army generals have secretly visited Badakhshan province of Afghanistan on Tuesday and held talks with the leaders of the Northern Alliance on the future strategy for taking control of Kabul.

"A new triangle of India, Russia and Iran is in the making. We are watching the whole development very closely", said a Taliban diplomat in Islamabad. The diplomat, who asked not be named, said that the Indians have sought assurance from the Northern Alliance to give control of Jalalabad airport to India, in case deposed Afghan president, Burhanuddin Rabbani is installed in Kabul after the ousting of Taliban from power. The report, however, could not be confirmed either from the Northern Alliance or any independent sources. The Indians, the diplomat said have promised all possible help in logistics, financial and ammunition to the anti-Taliban forces.

AFP adds: North of the capital Kabul, five US jets carried out a sustained raid on Taliban frontlines, dropping at least 13 bombs. The warplanes were seen by AFP flying high over the Shomali plains that sweep north of the city after 4:30 pm (1200 GMT), drawing strong Taliban anti-aircraft fire in a sign that militia positions were still fully intact.

The bombs hit targets near Siaku at the mouth of the Kapisa valley, around 80 kilometers northeast of the city, and an area near Bagram airbase, situated close to the Taliban's main frontline on two parallel running roads north of the city.

On two occasions, bright lights were seen emerging from the rear of the jets, but it was unclear if the planes were dropping flares to avoid surface-to-air missiles or if the flashes were from air-to-ground missiles.

The one-hour-long attack was the fourth consecutive day of airstrikes on the front. Opposition officials have complained that the attacks have so far been too small to make any significant difference to the Taliban's positions.

Since the beginning of airstrikes on October 7, the US has only hit the frontline north of Kabul on a limited number of occasions, even though witnesses have reported seeing convoys of additional militiamen travelling to the lines to evade US-led strikes on Kabul.

Opposition troops here, outnumbered and overlooked by the Taliban, and still reeling from five years of setbacks, admit they are still in no position to launch their own attack. On Monday a US jet mistakenly dropped two bombs on an area controlled by the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, and military officials here suggest that nothing short of carpet bombing of the Taliban front would cause the frontline to collapse.

US officials have been playing up coordination with the Northern Alliance in recent days, having largely held off on attacking the Taliban frontlines in the first two weeks of the campaign when the focus was on air defences and other key infrastructure.

This had led some analysts to suggest that Washington was reluctant to see the Northern Alliance advance on Kabul, fearing it would make it harder to engineer a stable post-Taliban administration.

US warplanes bombarded a southern Afghan village in the early hours of Wednesday, killing 12 people in the second incident of its kind in 24 hours, the Taliban claimed. Taliban information chief Abdul Hanan Hemat told AFP that a mountain village near the town of Deh Raud had been bombarded, apparently after being mistaken for a terrorist training camp.

"It is very remote and there are no clinics nearby where injured people can be treated. It is a really terrible situation," Hemat said. The Taliban claim came a day after the Arabic television station Al Jazeera reported that US planes had bombarded Chakoor Kariz village, 15 kilometres southeast of the militia stronghold of Kandahar.

The station broadcast pictures of what it said were victims being treated in a Kandahar hospital. It was impossible to confirm casualty figures. The Taliban said at least 52 people had died. Overnight raids on Kabul included attacks on military bases in the Gul Bagh and Rishkhor areas of the city, Hemat said.

Buildings were destroyed in the attacks but they had all been evacuated, he said. At least 20 Afghan civilians, including nine children, were killed as they tried to flee a town under attack by US warplanes, according to survivors who managed to escape to Pakistan.

The refugees were on the outskirts of the southern Afghan town of Tirin Kot on Sunday when the tractor and trailer they were travelling on was struck by a bomb. Some of those who survived managed to cross the border on Tuesday and have been hospitalised in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta.

One of them, Abdul Maroof, 28, said that after the bombings, injured people were left screaming for help with no hospitals nearby and the main southern city of Kandahar a six-hour drive away.

"When the bombing started the people panicked and were running here and there for shelter. After the bombing there was just dust because the walls and roofs of our mud houses had collapsed and many were trapped," he said.

After the initial bombing, 25 people decided to flee and climbed onto a trailer hitched to the back of a tractor. Faizul Mohammad said as the tractor was leaving Tirin Kot, US warplanes homed-in on the village and a bomb hit the tractor and trailer. Nineteen died immediately.

Mohammad lost a foot in the bombing and with six other survivors travelled to Kandahar in the back of pick-up trucks. They were told no treatment was possible in Kandahar, the stronghold of the ruling Taliban which has been devastated by US bombing.

He said the injured then travelled to Chaman where Pakistan border guards allowed them to travel to Quetta for treatment in hospital. One of the injured, a woman who had lost four children in the bombing, later died, Mohammad said. Taliban officials have reported at least two other incidents of US planes bombing refugee convoys but they have not been possible to confirm. They claimed on Monday that at least 30 shops had been destroyed in Tirin Kot by a US attack which killed scores of civilians.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Wednesday said that 35 people killed in the US attacks on Kabul had not yet been identified as Pakistanis, but the government would look into the issue if their identity was ascertained as Pakistani.

The spokesman at the Foreign Office said this at a press briefing when asked about reports that Pakistan border guards on Wednesday refused to let in the bodies of eight of the 35 Pakistani fighters killed in US bombing on Kabul.

Reports say that these men were members of Harakatul Mujahideen. "The question about allowing these dead into Pakistan is a hypothetical question as so far they have not been identified nor have we been approached to allow them in. But if they are identified as Pakistanis then we will look into it. We are not aware of any Pakistanis who have gone into Afghanistan and we are not aware of their numbers nor can I confirm or deny this report," he said.

The spokesman said that Islamabad had earlier told the Afghan government not to allow Pakistanis to be part of any of their forces and not allow them to get any so called training in Afghanistan. "We had requested the Afghan government to apprehend and hand over a large number of people indicated by our country who had absconded and were wanted by the courts," the spokesman added.

When asked if Pakistan had any nominees like Pir Gillani as the future prime minister in a fresh Afghan set-up, the spokesman replied: "Pakistan is making no nominations as it is a matter for the Afghans to decide. The only other agency is the UN, which can help. Pakistan will not make any nominations but our blessings are with the process. Everyone is interested in peace and stability inside Afghanistan."

About the visit of UN's special envoy on Afghanistan Lakhdar Brahimi, the spokesman said: "He will be also travelling to other countries in the region and would discuss the prospects of a broad-based government inside Afghanistan. He may have some ideas but we do not have the specifics about what he will want to talk about or about any specific proposal."

The spokesman reiterated that Pakistan would welcome any country to take some of the Afghan refugees but added that any such request would be unrealistic. "You saw what happened to the asylum-seekers Many countries want to push illegal Afghans to Pakistan, saying that we are the first country. But we have enough refugees," he said, adding that no country is putting pressure on Pakistan to admit these refugees except the UNHCR. The spokesman said it was a great tragedy and some camps have been put up outside Chaman where Pakistani and other humanitarian agencies are providing them with food and other assistance.

To a query about the US claim that its helicopter was fired upon in Pakistan, the spokesman replied: "It was a minor incident and related to a disabled US helicopter being taken to the Indian Ocean area but could not be taken overnight and had to stay back. It was a minor incident and I cannot give any details."

Earlier, the spokesman announced that the Dutch prime minister would arrive in Pakistan on November 27. The German chancellor who will come this week, the spokesman said, will be the first member of the EU to do so.

"... We do not have any specific expectations from the visit. The German foreign minister visited Pakistan and assured that economic and trade cooperation will be enhanced and further Germany will work with the EU to take care of and help Pakistan's economic interests. EU has given access to our products without tariffs," the spokesman added.

APP adds: About Prime Minister Vajpayee's statement against Pakistan, the spokesman said Pakistan is for peace and certainly opposes war and is in favour of resumption of dialogue with India.

"But since we have been hearing hostile and threatening voices from the Indian side by some important Indian personalities. There has been a talk of pro-active policies or moves and even some suggestions of hot-pursuits," he said.

But, the spokesman said the president has also reaffirmed Pakistan's desire for resumption of dialogue with India. "For resumption of meaningful dialogue it requires also a political determination on the part of India," he added.