Pakistan "disciplines" officers over base attack

[Son of Govinda]

AFP: Pakistan disciplines officers over base attack

KARACHI — Pakistan is to discipline three navy officers for negligence a year after a 17-hour militant assault on a military base in the heart of Karachi, a navy spokesman said on Tuesday.

Heavily armed militants stormed the naval base in the country's biggest city on May 22, 2011, destroying two US-made P-3C Orion surveillance planes and killing 10 personnel.

It was one of the worst such assaults in Pakistan and embarrassed the armed forces just weeks after US Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden near the country's premier military academy in the town of Abbottabad.

The three officials, who include the base commander at the time of the attack, Commodore Raja Tahir, were found guilty of negligence by a board of inquiry.

"Disciplinary action has been initiated in accordance with Pakistan naval law," a navy spokesman told AFP.

Details of the punishment were not released, but officials suggested that they would be limited to a freeze on promotions and command appointments.

Analysts believe the navy is likely to be lenient, partly because it was a joint air force and naval base, where responsibilities may not have been clearly defined.

The four to six gunmen were armed with rocket-propelled grenades, explosives and rifles. They climbed over the wall of Mehran base under the cover of darkness and took 17 hours to eliminate.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

Journalist Saleem Shahzad was tortured to death last May just days after writing about links between rogue elements of the navy and Al-Qaeda following the Mehran base attack

 

[W.G.Ewald]

Journalist Saleem Shahzad was tortured to death last May just days after writing about links between rogue elements of the navy and Al-Qaeda following the Mehran base attack.

Who is behind the abduction and killing of Saleem Shahzad?

Link

Pakistan, where disappearance and torture of people is not uncommon, Saleem Shahzad, a prominent journalist was tortured and killed after abduction by unidentified men from the capital, Islamabad, on Sunday, May 29. His tortured body was found two days later in a canal on Tuesday.

Who is behind his abduction and killing? Since his disappearance, it was speculated that Shahzad was picked up by intelligence agencies for his article suggesting that the attack on the naval airbase, PNS Mehran, was in retaliation to the Navy's crackdown on al-Qaeda operatives and sympathizers within the service, and its refusal to release some of these elements who had been arrested. The first of his two-part article appeared on May 27 in Asia Times Online of which he was the Pakistan bureau chief.

 

[Son of Govinda]

Gunmen open fire at rally in Pakistan, 9 killed

The Associated Press: Gunmen open fire at rally in Pakistan, 9 killed

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Gunmen opened fire on a political rally in the Pakistani city of Karachi on Tuesday, killing at least nine people and sparking rioting, police said.

The violence was a reminder of the port city's volatility. It is home to several political parties with armed wings that extort its citizens and feud among themselves, leading to frequent outbreaks of violence.

City police chief Akhtar Gorchani said nine people were killed and more then 30 wounded in shootouts. Another police officer, Mohammed Amir, said the attackers fired on a rally held by Awami Tehrik, a small nationalist group, and it was attended by members of several other parties in the city.

Several cars and shops were burned following the incident.


It was unclear who the attackers were, Amir said. He said authorities were trying to restore order.

Karachi is home to 18 million people and is the commercial hub of Pakistan. But it is riven with ethnic, political and sectarian tensions, and is also believed to be a hiding place for Taliban and al-Qaida militants.

The latest violence there started hours after the Pakistani Navy said it had court-martialed three officers for "negligence" in connection with a dramatic Taliban attack on a naval base in the southern port city of Karachi last year.

The brazen, 18-hour assault on Naval Station Mehran last May destroyed two U.S.-supplied surveillance aircraft and killed 10 people on the base.
The ability of the militants to penetrate the high-security base led to speculation they may have had inside information or assistance.

The three naval officers were punished for "negligence in their duty performance," but there was no evidence they were linked to the militants or helped them attack the base, said Navy spokesman Commodore Irfanul Haq. He declined to identify the names or ranks of the officers, or provide details about their punishment.

Military personnel who are court-martialed in Pakistan can be stripped of their rank and kicked out of the force, depending on the severity of the verdict handed down by the military court. They could also be demoted in rank.

The base attack was an embarrassment for the Pakistani military, especially since it came about three weeks after U.S. commandos killed al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden in a covert raid in the northwest Pakistani town of Abbottabad. The operation outraged Pakistani officials because they were not told about it beforehand and left the Pakistani military red-faced because they were unable to stop it.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the base attack and said it was in retaliation for the killing of bin Laden.

Copyright © 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.