Pakistan's Descent into Chaos: Terrorist & Drone Attacks

[IBRIS]

Caught in crossfire, civilians flee Waziristan

VIDEO: Caught in crossfire, civilians flee Waziristan - CNN.com

Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan (CNN) -- They come trudging up a dirt path in single file, towards a white cricket stadium in the middle of this dusty provincial town.

Pakistanis forced to flee their homes after the mountainous border region of South Waziristan once again became the site of fierce fighting between the Pakistani military and the Taliban.

Some, like a spectacled teacher name Amanullah, spent four days traveling on foot with his family of seven. He says they fled the daily bombardment of their village.

"Everything is damaged... everything is lost," he says, in broken English. "Very large bombing. We are running."

The Pakistani army estimates more then 160,000 civilians have fled the region, more then half of the population of South Waziristan.

The army is running the aid operation here in the neighboring region of Dera Ismail Khan. Workers distribute food, sleeping mats, tents, buckets and cash hand-outs equaling about $60 a month per family. In a single day, they have doled out assistance to more then 1,300 families.

It is a heavily-guarded operation that is strictly controlled by the military, the same military whose offensive against the Taliban forced these people to flee their homes.

Soldiers with machine guns defend the walls of the stadium. Confused and traumatized civilians clutching ration cards file past armed men in uniform.

International aid organizations and foreign journalists have been banned from operating anywhere near this conflict zone. The only way outsiders can legally get a glimpse of what is happening here, is with a military escort.

"The problem of not getting the international community actively involved in this area is the security concern," said Lt. Gen. Nadeem Ahmed, the commander in charge of the relief effort here.

"God forbid if something happens to an international [aid worker]. It dents the image of the country. It puts the entire relief operation on hold."

The displaced people here offer outsiders a glimpse of life in the conflict zone.

"The government is bombing us with jet planes. And the army fires its artillery. And the shelling continues day and night. The poor people are dying," says Faizel Khaliq, a black-bearded man who fled the village of Makin with 25 family members.

"There was only one road to escape. It was a dirt track."

Some of the escapees said they had seen civilians killed after they were caught in the crossfire.

But no one was willing to talk about the militants and their foreign fighter allies who, by some accounts, had turned South Waziristan into a virtual Taliban mini-state.

When asked about the militants, men laughed, hid their heads in their hands, or simply refused to talk.

The teacher, Amanullah, says the civilians have been caught between two armed enemies, the army and the Taliban.

"People between two sides," he says. "Crushed."

International aid organizations are calling for the Pakistani authorities to provide more outside access to the conflict zone.

"If we're not allowed to get in there it means very little humanitarian aid can reach the population," says Sebastian Brack, the spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Islamabad.

For many of the displaced people, this is the third time they have been forced to flee their homes in recent years. The army launched previous offensives against the Taliban in South Waziristan in 2004 and 2007.

Nadeem says this time, the operation is different. He insists that after waves of deadly militant suicide bombings, the military now has the public support to finish the job. And he says this time, the military is offering humanitarian assistance to the civilian population, even as its forces pound suspected militant hide-outs.

"By virtue of running an equally effective humanitarian operation," Nadeem argues, "there is every possibility for you to win the hearts and minds of the people."

The general predicts the citizens of South Waziristan probably won't be able to return home until at least March 2010.

That is little consolation to the Pakistanis who leave the stadium, clutching donated plastic buckets and wheelbarrows full of food, who now face an uncertain future after being forced to abandon their homes.
Ordinary pakistanis are blaming USA. Video: Video - Breaking News Videos from CNN.com

 

[Pintu]

http://www.ptinews.com/news/356077_Seven-Pak-soldiers-killed-in-bomb-attack-in-Khyber

Seven Pak soldiers killed in bomb attack in Khyber

STAFF WRITER 14:39 HRS IST

Islamabad, Oct 31 (PTI) A roadside bomb targeting two vehicles belonging to security forces killed seven paramilitary troopers and injured 11 others in Pakistan's restive Khyber tribal region today.

The two vehicles were carrying rations from the northwestern city of Peshawar to troops deployed in the tribal belt.

The attack occurred 15 km from Peshawar and the bomb was triggered by remote control, officials said.

Security forces launched rescue efforts shortly after the explosion was reported.

The injured security personnel were taken to hospitals to Peshawar.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack.

Pakistani troops have been conducting operations against banned militant groups like the Lashkar-e-Islam in Khyber Agency, through which supplies are sent to US and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

 

[RPK]

VOA News - Blast Near Pakistan Army Headquarters Kills 30

Pakistani police say a suicide bomber has killed at least 30 people near the country's army headquarters in Rawalpindi.


Pakistani policemen secure the site after a sucide bomb blast in Rawalpindi, 02 Nov 2009
Police say Monday's blast occurred outside of a bank near the Shalimar hotel, just a few kilometers from the capital, Islamabad. Television stations showed ambulances and police vehicles racing to the scene.

Meanwhile, the government has offered a reward for the capture - dead or alive - of the country's Taliban leaders. A government announcement in newspaper advertisements offered up to $5 million for the capture, or information leading to the capture, of Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud and more than a dozen other Taliban leaders.

The Pakistani army is fighting militants in a major offensive in the South Waziristan tribal region of the northwest. Militants carried out several retaliatory attacks last month that killed hundreds of people.

The violence prompted the United Nations to announce the withdrawal of its international staff from northwestern Pakistan due to security concerns.

Pakistan's foreign minister said Sunday his country's military is likely to uproot Taliban militants hiding in the mountains along the Afghan border by late December.

Shah Mahmood Qureshi said in Malaysia Pakistan's offensive in South Waziristan has been "very successful" and has the Taliban fighters "on the run." He spoke on the sidelines of a conference for developing Islamic countries.

 

[Pintu]

The Associated Press: Suicide bomber kills 35 near Pakistan's capital

Suicide bomber kills 35 near Pakistan's capital

By ASHRAF KHAN and SEBASTIAN ABBOT (AP) – 40 minutes ago

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan — A suicide bomber killed 35 people outside a bank near Pakistan's capital Monday, as the U.N. said spreading violence has forced it to start pulling out some expatriate staff and suspend long-term development work in areas along the Afghan border.

Hours after the first blast, another suicide bomber struck in the eastern city of Lahore, exploding a car at a police checkpoint as officers went to search it. At least seven policemen were injured and two were in critical condition, officials said.

"By putting their lives in danger, our men have saved the city from enormous sabotage," Lahore Police Chief Pervaiz Rathor told reporters at the scene.

Checkpoints, where cars are forced to drive slowly past police officers looking inside, have become common sights across Pakistan amid a surge in violence that has left at least 300 people dead over the past month. The violence has grown bloodier since the government launched an anti-Taliban offensive in mid-October.

Several U.N. personnel have been among those killed in the violence, and the world body's decision to curtail development work could imperil Western goals of reducing extremism by improving Pakistan's economy.

The first attack Monday came in Rawalpindi, a garrison city just a few miles (kilometers) from Islamabad. It occurred as many people waited outside the National Bank on a pay day to collect salaries.

The bank is close to the army's headquarters, and a majority of the people waiting in line were from the military, said Mohammad Mushtaq, a soldier who was wounded. Militants raided the headquarters last month, triggering a 22-hour standoff that left 23 people dead.

"I was sitting on the pavement outside to wait for my turn," said Mushtaq, who suffered a head injury. "The bomb went off with a big bang. We all ran. I saw blood and body parts everywhere."

Four soldiers were killed in the attack, and nine were wounded, said the army's chief spokesman, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas. In total, 35 people were killed, said Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira. Several dozen others were wounded.

No group claimed responsibility for the bombing, but that is not unusual in attacks that kill many civilians.

Pakistan's president, prime minister and other top officials condemned the blast but vowed to continue the offensive in South Waziristan, an impoverished and underdeveloped tribal region next to Afghanistan where al-Qaida is believed to have hide-outs.

Abbas said the army had captured the town of Kaniguram, one of the Taliban's bases, and killed 12 more militants in the past 24 hours of the offensive, which began in mid-October. The U.S. supports the operation because it believes South Waziristan is a safe haven for Islamist extremists involved in attacks on Western troops in Afghanistan.

The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, met with Pakistani army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani on Monday at the army headquarters in Rawalpindi. The U.S. Embassy declined to say if he was there at the time of the attack.

Washington has stepped up its efforts to use development aid in a broader battle against spreading militancy. The U.S. government recently approved $7.5 billion in aid over five years to improve Pakistan's economy, education and other nonmilitary sectors.

But the U.N. decision to suspend long-term development work in Pakistan's tribal areas and its North West Frontier Province could frustrate Washington's goals.

The U.N. made its decision after losing 11 of its personnel in attacks in Pakistan this year, including last month's bombing of the World Food Program's office in Islamabad that killed five people.

The world body will reduce the level of international staff in the country and confine its work to emergency, humanitarian relief, and security operations, and "any other essential operations as advised by the secretary-general," the organization said in a statement.

The U.N. has been deeply involved in helping Pakistan deal with refugee crises resulting from army offensives against militants in the northwest.

U.N. spokeswoman Amena Kamaal told The Associated Press that the organization is still determining which programs will be suspended and how many staffers will be withdrawn from the country. She said "long-term development" applied to programs with a five-year or longer timeframe. The staff that remain in the country will be assigned additional security, she said.

"We have had 11 of our colleagues killed because of the security situation," Kamaal said. "All of the decisions are being made in light of that."

The U.N. has deemed 12 other countries or parts of countries so dangerous that it has suspended long-term development work, but that does not include Afghanistan, said Ian Miller, a U.N. official in Islamabad.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit said Pakistan understood the U.N.'s reasoning, but that he hoped the organization would resume its development work after the military completes its operation in South Waziristan.

Pakistan's shaky, U.S.-allied government also came under pressure Monday when a faction of the ruling coalition said it would oppose a measure being debated by Parliament that grants President Asif Ali Zardari and other lawmakers amnesty from corruption charges.

Such a rift within the ruling coalition could lead to distractions just as the U.S. wants Pakistan to focus on fighting militants.

Zardari denies the corruption allegations and has already spent years in prison fighting them.

Associated Press writers Zarar Khan and Nahal Toosi in Islamabad and Babar Dogar in Lahore contributed to this report.

 

[Pintu]

Cowards !!! ( , they can not fight only to kill unarmed

ITN video link on the attack posted on You Tube :

YouTube - Pakistan blast kills dozens

 

[Singh]

Twin suicide attack in Pakistan's Lahore: police​

LAHORE, Pakistan — Two suicide bombers blew themselves up at a police checkpoint at the entrance to Pakistan's city of Lahore late Monday, wounding seven people, a senior police official said.

The bombers struck after dark in a congested area near bus terminals on a link road to Pakistan's intercity motorway.

"A car was stopped at the checkpost and the two suicide bombers in the car exploded themselves. We have found legs and a head," city police chief Pervez Rathor told reporters at the scene.

"One warden and two constables were critically wounded and four civilians are also injured."

Rathor said the car was packed with a huge quantity of explosives and "could have caused a catastrophe" had it entered the city.

"Bomb disposal staff are defusing remaining explosives in the car. Thank God no one died," he added.

Private Geo television showed security officers inspecting a small mangled car in front of a truck and a few other vehicles on a wide road where low concrete blast barriers were visible in front of the damaged car.

There were small pieces of debris scattered across the road.

Mohammad Akram, a police driver who witnessed the bombing, said the car did not stop at the first barrier and, when it approached another, policemen in front of it raised their guns.

"When policemen took the occupants of the car on at gunpoint, one of them came out of the car and blew himself up as the other man was still sitting in the car," Akram said.

The incident happened on a link road to the motorway that dissects the country from the northwestern city of Peshawar to the capital Islamabad and east to Lahore.

Pakistan has been on full security alert for weeks, following a surge in bloodshed blamed on Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants.

A suicide bomber killed 35 people outside a bank and hotel complex near Pakistan's army headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi earlier on Monday.

 

[Rage]

My my my..


Village razed to the ground in Hangu

By Abdul Sami Paracha
Monday, 02 Nov, 2009

Villagers who were fleeing the blasts, walk in a queue at a
distribution point for internally displaced persons (IDPs). – Photo by Reuters.


KOHAT: Militants razed a whole village to the ground in Shahu Khel area by conducting a series of blasts on the third consecutive night in Hangu district on Saturday.

The village had roughly 100 houses and families belonging to a rival sect had been migrating after the Taliban started target killings and kidnappings a few months ago.

The TTP is in complete control of Shahu Khel and its militants started blowing up houses after security forces and police started operations against them and eliminated some of their important training camps and hideouts. They had planted 40 bombs and blew up as many houses on Saturday night. Earlier, they had destroyed two schools, an Imambargah, two houses and a basic health unit on Friday night.

Blasts continued since Saturday night and by Sunday the entire village was razed to the ground. No casualties were reported from the area as the entire village was empty after the migration of the entire population to safer places.

Leaders of the Qaumi Wahdat Council have been urging the government to improve its writ in Shahu Khel so that the people displaced by the Taliban could return to their village.

Security forces have often used artillery fire to stop the Taliban from blowing up houses, but with little success.

It is the same area where a renowned cleric and office-bearer of JUI-F, Maulana Muhammad Amin, was killed in an air strike in his Jamia Yousufia seminary in June last year.

At least 13 people, including children, eight women and prominent religious leaders, were killed and several injured in shelling by helicopter gunships in Hangu.

Maulana Muhammad Amin, whose 12-year-old nephew was also killed in the air strike, was also the deputy chairman of Sunni Supreme Council. During shelling at another seminary in Shahu Khel, three women were killed when a house was hit by helicopter gunships.


DAWN.COM | Provinces | Village razed to the ground in Hangu

 

[dineshchaturvedi]

Why are they doing this. What benefit are they going to get, can someone help me understand.

 

[Flint]

Pakistan militants kill 2 women teachers
(AP) – 1 hour ago

KHAR, Pakistan — Officials say a group of militants has ambushed a van traveling near Khar, the main town in the Bajur tribal region. Two women teachers were killed and two other passengers were wounded.

Local official Adalat Khan says militants hiding on both sides of a rural road sprayed the van with automatic weapons fire as it went past. The fighters then fled on motorcycles.

Pakistan's Taliban fighters are deeply opposed to modern education, particularly for girls, and have blown up schools and attacked teachers across the country.

The Pakistani government launched an offensive in mid-October in the tribal region of South Waziristan, viewed as the main stronghold in the country of both the Taliban and al-Qaida. The offensive has drawn retaliatory militant attacks across Pakistan.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

 

[Flint]

Militants blow up Pakistan girls school: officials

(AFP) – 28 minutes ago

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Islamist militants blew up a girls' school in Pakistan's Khyber district on Thursday, the second such attack in the lawless region on the Afghan border in four days, officials said.

"Militants used 25 to 30 kilograms (55 to 66 pounds) of explosives to blow up the two-storey school on the outskirts of Bara town," local administration official Farooq Khan told AFP.

Khan said the school had 26 rooms in all, including a science laboratory, adding that the explosion completely destroyed eight rooms.

Another senior administration official Shafeer Ullah confirmed the incident.

The new attack came four days after twin bombs ripped through an 18-room government high school for girls at Kari Gar village in Khyber wounding four people in neighbouring homes.

Islamist militants have destroyed hundreds of schools, mostly for girls, in the northwest of the country in recent years.

Nearly 200 schools were destroyed in the Swat valley alone during a two-year Taliban uprising to enforce sharia law in a district once favoured by Western tourists for its ski slopes and bracing mountain air.

Following up a similar offensive in Swat this summer, Pakistan has been fighting against homegrown militants in Khyber and pressing a major assault designed to crush Taliban sanctuaries in South Waziristan.

Authorities last month shut schools across Pakistan following a suicide attack on a university campus in Islamabad, although most have since reopened.

 

[Vladimir79]

Why are they doing this. What benefit are they going to get, can someone help me understand.

Pretty simple psychology really --- Pakistanis believe this war is fault of the US and blames the government for it. Taliban does as much damage to make them turn on the government. The more they do, the more they hate US and Zadari. Taliban for the win.

 

[jakojako777]

US puts its faith in Pakistan's military

US puts its faith in Pakistan's military
By Syed Saleem Shahzad

ISLAMABAD - Abdullah Abdullah, who this week withdrew from the presidential election runoff in Afghanistan, thereby handing victory to the incumbent, Hamid Karzai, did so under pressure from the United States, Asia Times Online has learned.

In exchange for the pullout of the non-Pashtun Abdullah, Pakistan's military has agreed to actively mediate between Washington and the Taliban over a reconciliation plan that will allow the US to exit from Afghanistan, as it is doing in Iraq, with a semblance of success.

A senior Pakistani diplomat involved in backchannel negotiations on Pakistan, Afghanistan and US relations told Asia Times Online



on the condition of anonymity that the deal over Abdullah, whom Islamabad considers to be pro-India, was made during the three-day visit to Pakistan last week of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Apart from other senior officials, Clinton met with the chief of army staff, General Ashfaq Parvez Kiani, and the director general of Inter-Services Intelligence, Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha. It was agreed that all US-led negotiations with Abdullah, which included offering him the position of chief executive officer of Afghanistan, would stop, and Karzai would get full backing for a second five-year term.

It was also acknowledged that Washington's political leadership, like the Pentagon, now accepts that the Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan is best tackled with contact between the Pakistan armed forces and the Taliban, and not by the political governments of the region.

Clinton's visit came at a crucial time as Pakistan is engaged in a battle against the Pakistani Taliban and other militants; if it fails, there will be a cascading effect in the whole region and a sure defeat of American interests in Afghanistan.

In this context, Clinton supported Pakistan's vision of Afghanistan, that Abdullah's participation as a major player in the government would be detrimental to the cause of dialogue with the Taliban. Clinton also played a major role in India's decision to pull out its forces from the Pakistan-India border near Kashmir. This allows the Pakistan army to concentrate on its fight against al-Qaeda in the Pakistani tribal areas. The army assured Clinton it would broaden this fight in the coming months.

These developments dramatically unfolded at a juncture when there was clear hostility between the Pakistani armed forces and Washington on the issue of conditions attached to the Kerry-Lugar aid package for Pakistan that was approved in the US last month.

The package, which Senator John Kerry Kerry co-authored with Senator Richard Lugar, triples non-military aid to Pakistan to an annual outlay of US$1.5 billion for five years. The Pakistani army has expressed "serious concerns" about "clauses impacting on national security". The civilian government has hailed the package.

The army is concerned about conditions relating to the non-intervention of the Pakistan armed forces in political affairs and clear guarantees over nuclear non-proliferation and action against proliferators.

In confidential correspondence between the office of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff committee of the armed forces and the Office of the President, the forces called the bill "a conspiracy against the national security of Pakistan".

Prior to her visit, Clinton categorically voiced her support for the democratic Pakistan government and strongly supported the conditions attached to the bill, and, taking a tilt at the military, said that if Pakistan did not like it, it had the option to refuse the package.

Unlike the American military establishment, which has developed a close relationship with Pakistan's military establishment, the American political leadership has tended to view Pakistan's political administration as the real force in the country in the period following the end of the military rule of Pervez Musharraf in August last year.

The military decided, according to diplomatic sources who spoke to Asia Times Online, that Clinton's visit was a good opportunity for it to impress on her the importance of the men in uniform, and that without the support of the army, any political administration is a lame duck.

The "lesson" began when Clinton arrived in the capital, Islamabad. The Office of the President advised the Office of the Prime Minister to receive her at the airport, along with cabinet members. But Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani, who is clearly bracketed with the military establishment, refused, saying such protocol was reserved for a head of state.

Similarly, at a reception at the presidential residence in Islamabad, President Asif Ali Zardari wanted the cabinet lined up to meet Clinton, which members did, except for Gillani, who said it was "against his decorum".

And once Clinton sat down with the military bosses, it was made clear she was talking to the real players; she ended up speaking for hours with Kiani, and the meeting endorsed the role of the Pakistan army from Islamabad to Kabul in the coming months.

Setback for Zardari
After what appeared to be a start full of hope after becoming president last September, Zardari's star has faded in the garrison town of Rawalpindi, as well as in Washington.

In 2007, as a result of a Washington-brokered deal between former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and then-president Musharraf under which he pardoned all corruption cases against Zardari and Bhutto (Zardari's wife), Musharraf signed a National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO). This paved the way for Zardari and Bhutto to return to politics. The NRO, which was due to be presented in parliament this month for approval or rejection as a constitutional act, has come under heavy fire from all quarters.

The biggest setback to the ruling Pakistan People's Party came from its main ally, the Muttehida Quami Movement, the only real anti-Taliban and pro-American political party in the country. In a very humiliating way, it advised Zardari to step down as president and face the courts.

As a result, Zardari decided not to present the NRO in parliament and to let the courts, already hostile to Zardari, decide the fate of the ordinance.

The events playing out now between Zardari and the army are similar to those between Musharraf and the army in his final days before he stepped down last August.

Musharraf, who had resigned as chief of army staff in November 2007, picked Kiani to replace him. But after election results in February 2008 went against Musharraf's allies, Kiani distanced himself from Musharraf. Musharraf, being supreme commander of the armed forces by the virtue of being president, twice tried to change the chief of army staff.

In May 2008 and then in April, he urged the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff committee, General Tariq Majeed, to hold both positions, but Tariq refused, saying it would be detrimental to the interests of the army. Kiani then replaced Musharraf's personal security staff with his own. Musharraf got the message, that he had lost his constituency in the army, and resigned in August.

After Zardari became president, he tried to make Kiani a personal friend. He reportedly extended business favors to two of his brothers and feted Kiani with lunches and dinners. This did not go down well with the corps commanders, who criticized the military chief for his closeness to the president.

However, a real breakup emerged after the military felt that Zardari was working as a stand-alone operator on issues of national policies. At this point, they decided to clip his wings.

The army prevented an alliance between the Quaid-i-Azam, a breakaway faction of the Pakistan Muslim League, and the Pakistan People's Party to topple the Nawaz Sharif-led government in Punjab province. Sharif, a former premier, is a leading opponent of Zardari.

In March, when an opposition rally started from Lahore to besiege Islamabad to demand the restoration of the chief justice, Ifikhar Mohammad Chaudhary, who had been sacked by Musharraf, Zardari urged Kiani to control the situation with the army. He refused and prevailed on the prime minister to order the restoration of Chaudhary when the rally was still only half way to Islamabad.

Now, given the latest cooperation between Washington and General Headquarters Rawalpindi, the next step is to further erode Zardari's power by passing some of it to parliament, or even forcing his departure from office.

Very much as the US watched on while Musharraf departed, Washington is ready to see Zardari sidelined. This is in the realization that the army is the last hope for Pakistan to deliver the goods in the Afghan conflict.

Asia Times Online :: South Asia news, business and economy from India and Pakistan

 

[Flint]

Third gun attack on brigadier in Pakistan capital(AFP) – 2 hours ago

ISLAMABAD — Gunmen on a motorbike on Friday wounded an army brigadier and soldier in Pakistan's capital Islamabad before escaping in the third such attack in two weeks, officials said.

The officer and a soldier were shot while travelling in a jeep through the I-8 residential neighbourhood, police officer Mohammad Azhar told AFP.

"Two gunmen riding on a motorbike opened fire on the jeep. Two people in the jeep were wounded. They were taken to hospital," Azhar said, giving no further details.

A doctor at the capital's Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences hospital said the victims were in a stable condition.

"Two army officers, including one brigadier were injured when unknown gunmen opened fire on their vehicle," Doctor Nasir Ahmad told AFP.

"Both have firearms injuries but both are stable," he added.

The attack was the third targeting senior army commanders in the capital in around two weeks, as Pakistan wages a major assault against the Tehreek-e-Taliban network in the northwest tribal region of South Waziristan.

On October 22, a Pakistani brigadier on leave from a UN peacekeeping mission was shot dead in the capital Islamabad. There was a similar gun attack on another military jeep on October 27, but no one was wounded.

Friday's shooting came four days after a suicide bomber killed 35 people outside a bank in Islamabad's twin city of Rawalpindi, not far from Pakistan's army headquarters.

 

[RAM]

PAF's Karachi base under severe terror threat: Intelligence


Karachi: Pakistan Intelligence agencies have issued warnings regarding a probable terror attack on the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) base in Karachi.


According to a communique issued by the Intelligence agencies, the terrorists are planning to target PAF's base in Masroor as well as the NATO containers parked nearby the base. "It has reliably been learnt that a week earlier - suspicious individuals - young bearded men - boarding two grey Land Cruisers were noticed near the damaged Shershah bridge close to the Shell Petrol Pump, Hub River Road. The individuals were spotted watching the damaged wall of PAF Base Masroor. It appeared that the suspected terrorists were carrying out reconnaissance of the area," The Nation quoted the statement, as saying.

The communique also warned the agencies that no proper security arrangements have been taken to safeguard the strategically important installation. "Eastern side of PAF Base Masroor is completely unattended, covered with scattered seasonal bushes and the lower portion of the boundary wall is open," it said.

It added that in the wake of the current situation, where the extremists have particularly targeted security installations, the threat to the PAF base and NATO supply parking should not be taken lightly and every step must be taken to safeguard these establishments

PAF`s Karachi base under severe terror threat: Pak intelligence

 

[RPK]

Suicide bomber attack kills 11 people in northwest Pakistan | Top Russian news and analysis online | 'RIA Novosti' newswire

ISLAMABAD, November 8 (RIA Novosti) - At least 11 people, including a local mayor, were killed in a suicide bomber attack in northwest Pakistan on Sunday, the CNN TV news channel reported.

At least 36 others were injured in the deadly attack in the outskirts of Peshawar. About 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of explosives were used, CNN quoted Shahibzada Anis Khan, district coordination officer, as saying.

Khan said that Matni-area Mayor Abdul Malik was the target. He was standing outside his home when a car pulled up and blew up, killing the mayor, CNN reported.

Malik was in charge of organizing Lashkhar, a local volunteer militia fighting militants. There had been several attacks on his life, CNN quoted Khan as saying.

The area separating Pakistan and Afghanistan has been a stronghold for Taliban radicals who fled Afghanistan after the U.S.-led invasion toppled the Taliban regime there in 2001, as well as for Al-Qaeda fighters.

 

[Flint]

Peshawar hit by fatal bomb blast
At least three people have been killed and five hurt in a blast in the north-western Pakistani city of Peshawar.

Police say a bomb went off near a police post, in what they believe was a suicide attack.

It comes a day after at least 12 people were killed in a suicide bomb attack near the city.

Islamist militants have unleashed a campaign of attacks in Pakistan in recent weeks in retaliation for an army offensive in South Waziristan.

Police said Monday's blast happened on the city's ring-road.

Reports say the bomber got out of a rickshaw and detonated his explosives at the police checkpoint.

Television footage later showed ambulances rushing to the scene of the blast to take the injured to hospital.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.

Last month a massive blast at Peshawar's Peepal Mandi market killed 118 people.

The government blamed the attack on Pakistani Taliban, but the head of the militant group denied being behind it.

 

[RPK]

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Deadly blast hits Pakistani town

At least five people have been killed and 15 injured in a car bombing in the north-western Pakistani town of Charsadda, police say.

The blast occurred at a busy traffic intersection in the town, which lies north-east of Peshawar, reports said.

Details about the explosion are still emerging. Some reports say 10 died.

More than 300 people have been killed in a wave of attacks since Pakistani troops launched an assault against the Taliban in South Waziristan.

 

[Daredevil]

Attacks kills 10 soldiers in Mohmand

PESHAWAR: A landmine attack and ambush killed 10 Pakistani troops near the Afghan border Wednesday, in a sign that violence is spreading away from the frontlines of a major anti-Taliban offensive.

Wednesday's deaths were reported in Mohmand, where the paramilitary Frontier Corps has been operating for well over a year against the Taliban, and after security officials warned that the militants are stepping up attacks elsewhere.

'Eight soldiers were martyred and two were wounded when their vehicle hit a landmine buried on the roadside,' Major Fazal ur-Rehman, spokesman for the paramilitary Frontier Corps, told AFP.

The attack happened on the outskirts of Safi town near the Afghan border in Mohmand tribal district, the paramilitary said.

'The soldiers were on a routine patrol. The landmine was buried by militants. The explosion damaged the pick-up,' said Rehman.

He said the incident was separate to a Taliban ambush that left two paramilitary personnel dead and eight others missing after militants attacked a another convoy nearby at Ghanam Shah on Wednesday.

Local official Rasool Khan said two security personnel, initially reported as missing, later made contact.

'A search operation is continuing for the remaining eight who are missing,' Khan told AFP by telephone from Mohmand.

Two bodies were recovered after the ambush and 10 rebels killed after attack helicopters shelled suspected militant hideouts in the area on Wednesday.

The United States has put Pakistan on the frontline of its war against Al-Qaeda and has been increasingly disturbed by deteriorating security in the country where attacks and bombings have killed about 2,500 people in 28 months. -AFP

 

[RPK]

Iranian consulate official shot dead in Peshawar

Islamabad, Nov 12 (IANS) An official of the Iranian consulate in Peshawar died after he was shot at near his home, a media report said Thursday.
Abul Hasan Jaffery, who was director public relations of the Iranian consulate in Peshawar, was seriously injured when he was shot near his residence in Gulberg. He later succumbed to his injuries, Geo TV reported.

 

[Vladimir79]

There is the start of their guerilla war as was predicted. The snow is starting to fall and the ambushes will only increase. Now it looks like they are trying to destabalise Iran-Pak relations with help from Jundullah and Bolochistan Liberation Army. Punjab resistance cells only seem to be growing. Generals are attacked at will. Squares, mosques and schools are blown up at random and the people just blame the United States. This war is lost unless attitudes are changed.