Fifteen killed as rival militant groups clash in Orakzai

PARACHINAR: At least 15 militants were killed in a shootout between the supporters of two Pakistani Taliban commanders near the Afghan border, a government official said.
The official, Mir Alam, said several insurgents were also wounded during Saturday’s gunbattle in the Orakzai tribal region. He said it was unclear what sparked the shootout.
However, such clashes are common in Orakzai where an unspecified number of insurgents and their commanders have been hiding after fleeing a military operation in nearby regions in recent years.
Pakistan’s army declared a victory in Orakzai last year but violence has continued.

Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan to ‘jointly combat terrorism’

TEHRAN: The presidents of Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan agreed on Saturday to join forces in combating militancy as they attended a counterterrorism summit in Tehran.
The joint statement by the three neighbours also came hot on the heels of an announcement by US President Barack Obama that Washington will withdraw 33,000 of its 99,000 troops from Afghanistan by the end of next summer.
“All sides stressed their commitment to efforts aimed at eliminating extremism, militancy, terrorism, as well as rejecting foreign interference, which is in blatant opposition to the spirit of Islam, the peaceful cultural traditions of the region and its peoples’ interests,” the statement said.
“All sides agreed to continue meeting at foreign, interior, security and economy ministers’ level to prepare a roadmap for the next summit due to be held in Islamabad before the end of 2011,” added the statement carried by Iran’s official IRNA news agency.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his Iranian and Pakistani counterparts Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Asif Ali Zardari held three-way talks on Friday ahead of a six-nation counterterrorism conference on Saturday.
The three leaders discussed “ways of battling terrorism, extremism and drug trafficking,” IRNA said.
In his speech at the opening session of the two-day summit, Karzai said that despite his government’s efforts, militancy was on the rise both in his country and in the region.
“Unfortunately, despite all the achievements in the fields of education, infrastructure and reconstruction, not only has Afghanistan not yet achieved peace and security, but terrorism is expanding and threatening more than ever Afghanistan and the region,” the Afghan leader said.
President Zardari said: “Terrorists violate both human and divine values by inflicting death and destruction on fellow human beings. They have no religion.”
He said attacks had resulted in the deaths of 35,000 people in Pakistan, 5,000 of them law enforcement personnel, and material damage totalling $67 billion.
In his speech to the opening session, Ahmadinejad again accused the United States of using the September 11, 2001 attacks as a “pretext” for sending troops to the region.
“In light of the way it was approached and exploited, September 11 is very much like the Holocaust,” the Iranian leader charged.
“The American government used the attacks as a pretext to occupy two countries, and kill, injure and displace people in the region,” he added.
“If the black box of the Holocaust and September 11 is opened, many of the realities will come to light. But unfortunately despite worldwide demand, the American government has not allowed it.”
Ahmadinejad has repeatedly courted controversy by questioning the accepted version of both the September 11 attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people in the United States, and the Holocaust.
He has dubbed 9/11 a “big lie” and a “suspect affair” similar to the Nazi Holocaust, which he dismissed as a “myth” shortly after coming to power in 2005, triggering an international outcry.
In his message to the counterterrorism conference, which was also attended by the leaders of Iraq, Sudan and Tajikistan, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also spoke out against what he charged was Western abuse of the terrorist threat.
“The diabolical calculation of the dominating powers is to exploit terrorism as a tool to gain their illegitimate aims and they have used it in their plans,” he said in the message which was read out to the conference.
“In their view, terrorism is whatever threatens their interests. They consider those who are fighting for their legitimate right against occupiers as terrorists but do not consider their mercenaries and malicious groups who harm innocent people as terrorists.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said the next conference of the six nations would be held in Baghdad next year, and a permanent secretariat would be opened in Tehran.

Failed bomb attack on Red Cross office in Karachi

KARACHI: A bomb failed to explode outside the international Red Cross office in Karachi on Saturday, police said.
A small blast did take place from the detonator of the home-made bomb, which two motorcyclists left in a trash bin outside the main gate of the International Committee of the Red Cross office in Karachi’s Bahadurabad area.
“A detonator of a locally-made bomb exploded, but it failed to explode the bomb,” senior police investigator Omar Khitab told reporters.
“There were no casualties or damage,” he added.
Khitab said that the bomb resembled the one defused by police on Friday in the residential colony of Karachi’s Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre.
Provincial interior ministry spokesman Sharfuddin Memon confirmed the incident.
No one has so far claimed responsibility for the botched attack.
Karachi suffers from killings linked to political and ethnic tensions and crime, but militant violence is also on the rise in the city of 16 million people whose port is a hub for Nato supplies bound for Afghanistan.
Last month, it took the navy 17 hours to fight off a handful of militants who killed 10 security officials and destroyed two US-made aircraft at the only naval air base in Karachi.

President Zardari says will not let terrorists succeed

TEHRAN: Vowing not to let the terrorists succeed, President Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday called for collective global efforts to counter the growing threat of terrorism.
Addressing the international conference on the “Global Fight Against Terrorism,” President Zardari called for addressing the root causes and of fighting the “mindset” by giving people hope.
President Zardari pointed that law enforcement measures help to contain the problem temporarily and said long term solutions must address political, economic and social aspects of the problem.
“The way to permanently defeat militancy is to remove the fear and instability on which it thrives,” he said.
President Zardari said the way to defeat terrorism was to provide jobs, education and healthcare for all.
“The way to win this war is to give hope to our people in the future,” he said and warned that violence begets violence.
“All must avoid senseless use of force…ensure respect for the rule of law and due process.”
He said respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity of states must be the basic principle of the fight against terrorism.
He said Pakistan supports the idea of a counter narrative to win the battle for hearts and minds. It is only by defeating the terrorists on the ideological front that victory could be achieved, he said.
President Zardari, who is in Tehran on a two-day visit for the conference, said Pakistan has suffered US 67 billion dollars in material losses, besides a loss of 35,000 people including 5,000 law enforcement personnel.
“We cannot allow terrorists to prevail,” President Zardari said.
He termed terrorism a mindset that promotes violence and intolerance.
“It is the disease of the mind that preaches intolerance and violence. Terrorists violate both human and divine values by inflicting death and destruction on fellow human beings. They have no religion,” Zardari added

At least 35 killed in suicide bombing in southeast Afghanistan

KABUL: Thirty-five people were killed in a suicide bombing at a hospital in Afghanistan’s Logar province south of Kabul, provincial officials said on Saturday.
Another 45 people were wounded in the blast in the remote Azro district.
“The information we have is that a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a hospital, killing 35 civilians and wounding 45 more,” said Deen Mohammad Darwish, spokesman for the provincial governor.
Wali Wakil, head of the provincial council, confirmed the toll.
Interior minister deputy spokesman Najib Nikzad said a suicide bomber in a car set off his explosives, but did not give details.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid denied responsibility and said insurgents never attack hospitals.

Four bullet-riddled bodies found in Khi

KARACHI: Four bullet-riddled bodies were found from Shahnawaz Chowk, Pak Colony in the wee hours of Saturday, Geo News reported.

According to police, all the four person were tortured and later shoot dead. The identity of the deceased could not be ascertained.

Police have shifted the bodies to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for legal formalities.

Fans to miss SRK, Ash performance in IIFA

MUMBAI: Superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s fans are likely to get disappointed as buzz is in the air that he may not perform at the IIFA Awards, due to his knee problem.

Fans are eagerly waiting for the superstar who was supposed to perform at the stage of the prestigious IIFA Awards after 7 years.

Shah Rukh Khan has posted a tweet stating that he is in hospital getting his knee tapped up. He is feeling awful as he is not fully fit for performing at the IIFA.

But he also told his fans that he will try and give his best. He had attended the IIFA Weekend twice in the past—in Singapore in 2004 and in Amsterdam in 2005.

King Khan had performed last at the Singapore show. The superstar has been nominated as the best actor for his character of Rizwan in My Name Is Khan who suffers from Asperger’s syndrome.

On the other hand, news is that Aishwarya Rai Bachhan is also not performing in the upcoming awards due to her pregnancy. Ash and Abhishek will not attend the grand award ceremony that is scheduled to take place from 23rd to 25th June at Toronto.

Osama weighed name change for Al-Qaeda: US official

WASHINGTON: Osama bin Laden was so worried about Al-Qaeda's image that he proposed changing the group's name to try improve its ‘brand,’ a US official said Friday.

In a letter found at his compound, the late Al-Qaeda mastermind contemplated new names for his network that he hoped would better reflect his vision of war with the West, the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told this news agency. "It was sort of like brand-imaging," the official said.

Bin Laden's proposals for alternative names were not exactly dynamic.

He suggested possibly Taifat al-Tawhed Wal-Jihad, or Monotheism and Jihad Group, and Jama'at I'Adat al-Khilafat al-Rashida, translated as Restoration of the Caliphate Group, the official said.

News of the letter, which was first reported by the Associated Press, quickly sparked a flurry of online parodies, including satiric contests to select Al-Qaeda's new name.

The defense blog Danger Room's contest included entries for "League of Extraordinary Beards," "iQaeda" and "Kandahar Ardent Brotherhood Of Orthodox Muslims (KABOOM)."

Danger Room proposed a new slogan: "Now With 20 Percent Less Eschatological Violence."

Bin Laden debated the name change because he was unhappy that the original name of his group -- Al-Qaeda Al-Jihad, or The Base of Holy War -- had been widely referred to only as Al-Qaeda, dropping the reference to religious war, the US official said.

"His concern was that the al-Jihad part was dropped and it was short-handed to just al-Qaeda," the official said. "From his perspective, that sort of separated the religious aspect of Al-Qaeda's mission. And that allowed the West to portray it as an organization and not tied to a ...religious movement," he said.

Bin Laden, who was killed in a raid by US Navy special forces last month, comes across in the letter as a leader struggling to get the upper hand in the "information war" against the United States, the official said.

"What he was being frustrated by was that most people were seeing the fight against Al-Qaeda for what it really is -- it's an effort stop a violent organization not a war on religion," he said. "That bothered him."

It was not clear who the letter was addressed to or whether or not it was delivered, but the document appeared to be written in the last couple of years, according to the official.

In other letters, bin Laden also wrote to his then number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri, to voice his concern that attacks that had left Muslims dead -- especially in Iraq -- had harmed Al-Qaeda's image, the official said. 

US grounds fleet of F-22 fighter jets

WASHINGTON: The US Air Force has grounded its entire fleet of F-22 fighters, the most sophisticated combat aircraft in the world, after problems emerged with the plane's oxygen supply, officials said Friday. 

The radar-evading F-22 Raptors have been barred from flying since May 3 and Air Force officials could not say when the planes would return to the air.

"The safety of our airmen is paramount and we will take the necessary time to ensure we perform a thorough investigation," spokeswoman Captain Jennifer Ferrau said.

The Air Force was probing possible breakdowns in the oxygen supply system for the plane after several pilots reported problems, according to the journal Flight Global.

In one case, an F-22 scraped tree tops before landing and the pilot could not remember the incident, indicating a possible symptom of hypoxia from a lack of air, the magazine reported.

Ferrau said it was too soon to say for certain that the technical problem was related to an onboard oxygen generating system, known as OBOGS. "We are still working to identify the exact nature of the problem. It is premature to definitively link the current issues to the OBOGS system," she said.

Since January, F-22 pilots have been barred from flying above 25,000 feet (7,600 meters), following the crash of a Raptor jet in Alaska during a training flight.

Grounding an entire fleet of aircraft is a rare step, officials said.

In November 2007, the Air Force grounded all F-15 fighters after one of the planes broke apart in flight and crashed. The planes were not allowed back in the air until March 2008, said Major Chad Steffey.

The Air Force has more than 160 F-22 Raptors in its fleet and plans to build a total of 187. The planes have not been used in the NATO-led air campaign in Libya or the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Pakistani leaders weren’t aware of Osama presence

WASHINGTON: The Obama administration has sent a letter to Congress, assuring the lawmakers that senior military and civilian leaders in Pakistan were not aware of Osama bin Laden’s presence in Abbottabad.
The letter, signed by US special envoy Mark Grossman, aims at curbing rapidly growing anti-Pakistan feelings in Congress where lawmakers from both Republican and Democratic parties are demanding new restrictions on aid to Islamabad.
Ten US senators had sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asking her to explain why the United States should continue to provide civil and military aid to Pakistan after the May 2 raid on Bin Laden’s compound.
In the letter to the lawmakers sent on Thursday, Ambassador Grossman says: “We see no evidence to indicate that anyone at the highest levels of the government of Pakistan knew that Bin Laden was living in Pakistan.”
“Now, that may be true, but I don’t think there’s an American who believes that,” said Senator Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, while commenting on Mr Grossman’s response. And he was assured by a person no less than the secretary of state that her envoy was right.
At a congressional hearing on Thursday evening, she told Senator Menendez: “We have looked very hard and scrubbed all of the intelligence that we have. And … the conclusion Ambassador Grossman gave you in the letter is the one we have reached.”
But then she also raised the doubts that are often expressed across America: “We do not in any way rule out or absolve those who are at lower levels, who may very well have been enablers and protectors. Now, the fair question is, were they protecting their higher-ups? Could be. Was it one of these kinds of a wink and a nod? Maybe so.”
Realising that her statement could have raised more doubts than it answered, Secretary Clinton hastened to add: “But in looking at every scrap of information we have, we think that the highest levels of the government were genuinely surprised.”
If senior Pakistani leaders had reasons to believe that Bin Laden was hiding in their country, they thought he was in the tribal areas, protected by the Taliban or by the Haqqani network, she said.
“But they did not know and we have no reason to believe that they are running some massive deception on us to that point.”
Secretary Clinton then explained why the US wanted to continue to engage Pakistan despite the problems it was having in maintaining this relationship. “It is our conclusion that we have to continue to try to pull and push to get it more right than wrong,” she said.
“So, for example, when it comes to our military aid… we are not prepared to continue providing that at the pace we were providing it unless and until we see certain steps taken,” she added.
“We’re trying to play this orchestra the best we can, where we look in one direction and say to those who we think are largely responsible for the difficulties we know that exist within Pakistan, you can’t continue doing that.
“But, on the other hand, we have a democratically elected government which has made some courageous decisions despite the challenges.”
Secretary Clinton said that during her last visit to Islamabad, she had a “very emotional meeting” with President Asif Ali Zardari who said to her: “Look — Al Qaeda was in league with the people who killed my wife! I would never have turned a blind eye if I had known anything.”

AJK poll campaign ends

MUZAFFARABAD: The election campaign of 421 candidates in 41 constituencies of Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly ended at Friday midnight after days of fiery speeches, fascinating claims, allegations and counter-allegations.
It was for the first time in AJK’s parliamentary history that leaders of two mainstream Pakistani parties — Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani of PPP and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif of PML-N — led their parties’ campaign, addressing rallies after rallies at different places.
Several candidates held their last electoral meetings in the evening hours of Friday.
In Muzaffarabad, PPP nominee Khwaja Farooq Ahmed held a big meeting at Upper Adda after 9pm. Mr Ahmed, whom the party has preferred over its sitting MLA, is facing former AJK prime minister and PML-N nominee Raja Farooq Haider, besides several others.
Earlier in the day, the picturesque Neelum valley was the focus of Prime Minister Gilani and Mr Sharif who addressed rallies in Kel in the upper belt and Athmuqam in the lower.
Mr Sharif, who had addressed a rally here on Thursday night, drove to Neelum valley on Friday morning. He addressed a big gathering in the town of Patikka before arriving in Athmuqam where his party has nominated former speaker Shah Ghulam Qadir.
The PML-N chief severely criticised the PPP-led federal government and urged the people “not to vote for the nominees of the rulers involved in loot and plunder”.
Terming Prime Minister Gilani’s participation in the election campaign shameful, Mr Sharif asked why hadn’t the development of Azad Kashmir concerned him over the past three years. “These rulers, who are engaged in loot and plunder in Pakistan, can give you nothing. They just want to fill their coffers with ill-gotten money.”
He said PML-N workers would thwart any attempt to rig the elections.
Prime Minister Gilani accused the rivals of PPP of promoting their personal agenda. “We don’t have any personal agenda. In Pakistan we have the agenda of Pakistan and in Kashmir we have the agenda of Kashmir,” he said.
Mr Gilani said people knew how relentlessly the PPP had fought the dictators. Its founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto gave the Constitution of 1973 which envisaged respect of institutions, including the army and judiciary.
He said Pakistan would not let the Kashmir issue held hostage by extremists and would continue its endeavours to find a solution to the problem through a peace process.
In 1998, the late Benazir Bhutto had proposed the opening of the Line of Control to reunite the divided families, he said.
“Today every party is participating in these polls and the international community is also satisfied with the arrangements,” he said.
Urging voters to choose PPP nominees, he said he would extend full cooperation to AJK lawmakers for the development of the region.
Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif also addressed a public meeting in Bagh where he rejected a perception that the PML-N was against the army. “We are against a set of generals who brought President Asif Ali Zardari to power through the infamous NRO,” he said.
A rally held by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement on Friday was addressed by its leader Altaf Hussain on phone from London.
APP adds: With polling only a day away, parties’ flags and posters are hanging in every nook and corner of AJK, replacing most of the billboards and signboards.
Polling for 41 of the 49 assembly seats will be held on Sunday. Eight seats are reserved for women and technocrats

CJ wants effective monitoring of lower judiciary

KARACHI: Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry said on Friday that chief justices and judges of high courts were duty-bound to actively supervise the subordinate judiciary by paying surprise visits to courts.
He was speaking at a session of the National Judicial Police Making Committee convened to examine the effective implementation of the National Judicial Police. The meeting was attended by the judges of the Supreme Court, chief justices of all high courts and judges of the Sindh High Court.
The chief justice said the lack of supervision of the subordinate courts was one of the major reasons for delay in cases and ineffectiveness of lower court forced many litigants to approach the Supreme Court for relief.
He observed that the basic idea behind the exercise was to identify the loopholes in monitoring system and to evolve strategies for effective implementation of the judicial policy to meet the expectation of the litigants.
“This is the time for realisation and to account for what was to be done and what is being done. This is time to step forward and assume our roles and duties. Every step towards the goal of justice requires sacrifice, tireless efforts and passionate concern of dedicated individuals,” he observed.
The chief justice said the national judicial policy provided a path for reforming the administration of justice in the country in order to realise the goal of ensuring expeditious and inexpensive justice for all by mobilising the existing resources.
He said the policy articulated strategies for independence of judiciary, eradication of corruption, clearance of backlog and quick dispensation of justice, adding that attention was given to timely disposal of criminal cases, especially cases of under-trial prisoners, languishing in jails.
He said that corrupt practices on part of the judicial officers and the court staff had lowered the confidence of litigant public in judicial system and to curb this menace, the policy provided an exhaustive mechanism which included establishment of a cell for eradication of corruption from judiciary under the supervision of the chief justices of the high courts, monitoring the performance of the district and sessions judges by appointing a judge of high court and conducting surprise visit and inspections of the courts, establishment of a committee headed by sessions judges and presidents of respective bars to curb the corruption of court staff etc.
He expressed hope that the situation could improve if the chief justices of the high courts and their team members ensured the implementation of the judicial policy through strict and efficient monitoring.

NAB’s former bosses do not believe in their accountability

ISLAMABAD: Despite their removal from National Accountability Bureau, its former chairman and other senior officials are enjoying official perks and privileges, informed sources have told Dawn.
Those enjoying official perks include NAB’s former chairman Justice (retd) Syed Deedar Hussain Shah, former prosecutor general Irfan Qadir and NAB’s former director general (Punjab) Rana Zahid Mehmood.
“Despite receiving several letters from NAB headquarters, these officials have not returned their official vehicles and are still occupying official residences,” a senior NAB official said.
By law, they were supposed to return official vehicles and vacate official residences the day they were removed from their offices.
The sources said that former chairman Justice Shah still had two official vehicles under his use.
The former director-general for Rawalpindi and Lahore, Raza Zahid Mehmood, still has six official vehicles even though he was entitled to only one 1300CC car.
Sources also said that Mr Mehmood had also used Rs500,000 special funds from NAB’s kitty.
“He took Rs300,000 special funds from Rawalpindi region and Rs200,000 from Lahore region,” a NAB official said on condition of anonymity.
The NAB Headquarters has also received a bill of Rs55,000 as accommodation charges in federal lodges because Mr Mehmood was said to be still living in a suit in the lodges.
Mr Mehmood was appointed NAB’s Rawalpindi DG for one year on April 21, 2010, and later he was also given the additional charge of NAB’s Lahore DG. He retired from NAB on April 21, 2011, but continued to hold dual offices. Finally, he was removed from the bureau on the Supreme Court’s orders.
Similarly, NAB’s former prosecutor general Irfan Qadir is using an official car and lives in an official residence in Islamabad.
Mr Qadir, whose appointment as the PG, was declared illegal by the Supreme Court on September 1 has been still living in his official residence No-29 near Kohsar Market in F-6/3 area. Besides, he still enjoys other perks, including the latest model chauffeur-driven black Corolla car and official security guards posted at his residence

Relationship more honest now, says Obama

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama has said the relationship between the United States and Pakistan has become more honest over time.
In his first interview since Wednesday evening when he announced his new strategy for the Pak-Afghan region, President Obama also acknowledged that the US focus had shifted from Afghanistan to Pakistan.
“I think the focus shifted to Pakistan, in my view, two years ago. So we’ve sought to strengthen cooperation with Pakistan,” he told Voice of America, the US government’s international broadcasting service.
“Obviously, that has created tensions as well, but overall Pakistan has cooperated with us in our intelligence-collection efforts, in striking at high-value targets within Pakistan.”
Mr Obama said he believed that no country had suffered more from terrorist attacks than Pakistan, “so this is entirely in their self-interest” to combat terrorism.
Explaining his focus-shift, Mr Obama said events forced him to look at Afghanistan and Pakistan as part of a similar problem.
Pakistan’s tribal areas, he said, provided Al Qaeda and other extremists groups with safe havens from where they launched attacks into Afghanistan, Pakistan and around the world. Like his secretary of state, Mr Obama also said that he believed Pakistan had a legitimate role to play as part of the process of reconciliation with the insurgents.
He also noted that Afghan President Hamid Karzai recently travelled to Islamabad where he agreed to form a core group, including Afghanistan, Pakistan and the United States. This group would “discuss how we can proceed in this process”, Mr Obama said, noting that Pakistan not only had a responsibility but also “a deep interest in dealing with the terrorist elements that are still in their territory”.
Asked if the US-Pakistan relationship had soured, Mr Obama said: “I think what happened is that the relationship has become more honest over time.” This openness, he said, had raised “some differences that are real” and the operation to take out Osama bin Laden created additional tensions.
“But I had always been very clear to Pakistan that if we ever found him and had a shot, that we would take it,” he added. “We think that if Pakistan recognises the threat to its sovereignty that comes out of the extremists in its midst, that there’s no reason why we can’t work cooperatively to make sure that both US security interests, Pakistani security interests, and Afghan security interests converge.” Asked if Pakistan has to play a greater role against terrorism, Mr Obama said: “I think that Pakistan has always seen terrorism as either a problem for somebody else, or has seen elements of the Taliban as a hedge in terms of their influence within Afghanistan.” The US, he said, had suggested to Pakistan that not only terrorism threatened Pakistan more than just about any other country, but it also strained its relations with its neighbours and with friends like the United States.
The US had also informed the Pakistanis that if they had “direct” and “constructive” relationship with the Afghan government,
“there’s no reason for them to see the Taliban as a hedge against Afghanistan. Instead, they should see the Afghan government as a partner they can work with”.

Pakistan kills 10 alleged insurgents: official

PARACHINAR: A government administrator says Pakistani fighter jets have bombed suspected militant hideouts in a northwestern region near the Afghan border, killing at least 10 alleged insurgents.
Javed Khan says the airstrikes Friday hit two areas of the Kurram tribal region based on intelligence reports about the presence of militants.
Pakistan’s army has waged multiple offensives in various parts of Pakistan’s lawless tribal belt in order to force out al-Qaida and Pakistani Taliban fighters.

India sailors held by pirates home after 11 months

NEW DELHI: Six Indian sailors returned home Friday to a joyous welcome after being held captive for nearly a year by Somali pirates.
Huge crowds thronged the airport where tearful family members greeted the six men with marigold garlands and sweets after they landed in New Delhi.
The men were freed after a $2.1 million ransom was paid to secure the release of the merchant navy ship that was captured 11 months ago by pirates operating in the Indian Ocean.
The men were mobbed by cheering crowds and television crews as they emerged from the airport lobby. There were hugs and tears as overjoyed family members surrounded the exhausted-looking men.
”This is a rebirth for me. The joy I feel cannot be expressed in words,” N.K. Sharma, one of the sailors, said Friday as he embraced his wife and children.
A Pakistan-based organisation, The Ansar Burney Trust, had negotiated the release of the 22 sailors aboard the MV Suez after the pirates demanded nearly $30 million as ransom money. Finally they settled for $2.1 million before releasing the crew that included 11 Egyptians, six Indians, four Pakistanis and one Sri Lankan.
India’s external affairs minister S.M. Krishna said he was relieved that the ordeal of the sailors was over.
”We appreciate the timely help extended to them and sailors of other countries, by the Pakistani navy,” Krishna said.
He called for a well-coordinated global response to wipe out the scourge of piracy.
Somali pirates are holding about 26 ships and 600 crew in captivity.
Somalia hasn’t had a functioning government since 1991, allowing piracy to flourish off the Horn of Africa nation.
International militaries patrol the region, particularly near the Gulf of Aden, but pirates now attack hundreds of miles off East Africa, an area that is too big to effectively patrol.

With Afghan withdrawal, US focus turns to Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: As the US looks ahead to its phased withdrawal from Afghanistan, even more attention is being directed toward Pakistan, where Obama administration officials say al Qaeda and its allies are still plotting attacks against the West.
They argue that threat has been effectively neutralised in Afghanistan, a key justification for President Barack Obama’s announcement Wednesday that the US will withdraw 33,000 troops from Afghanistan by next summer. The US invaded Afghanistan in 2001 because al Qaeda used it as the base to launch the 9/11 attacks.
Afghanistan could take on new significance for the US as a base to launch unilateral strikes against militants inside neighboring Pakistan, an unstable nuclear-armed country that many analysts say is more strategically important than Afghanistan.
That future has become more likely as the relationship between Pakistan and the US has deteriorated following the American raid that killed al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden not far from the Pakistani capital last month.
“We haven’t seen a terrorist threat emanating from Afghanistan for the past seven or eight years,” said a senior administration official in a briefing given to reporters in Washington before Obama’s speech. “The threat has come from Pakistan over the past half-dozen years or so, and longer.”
One of the most high-profile attempted attacks against the US homeland coming from Pakistan recently was by Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistani-American who tried to set off a car bomb in New York’s Times Square last year. He allegedly traveled to Pakistan’s tribal areas and coordinated his attack with the Pakistani Taliban.
Since Pakistan effectively prohibits American troops inside the country and has been a reluctant ally in targeting militants the US deems a threat, Washington has increasingly relied on covert CIA drone missile strikes to target al Qaeda and Taliban fighters holed up in Pakistan’s mountainous border region with Afghanistan.
The US refuses to acknowledge the drone program in Pakistan, but Obama alluded to its effectiveness in his speech, saying “together with the Pakistanis, we have taken out more than half of al Qaeda’s leadership.”
But the future of the drone program in Pakistan could be threatened by pervasive anti-American sentiment and anger over the US commando raid that killed bin Laden in the garrison town of Abbottabad on May 2.
The drones are extremely unpopular in Pakistan, and lawmakers took the opportunity to demand the government, which is widely believed to allow the drones to take off from bases inside the country, halt the program.
That demand found resonance with Pakistanis, nearly 70 per cent of whom view the US as an enemy despite billions of dollars in American aid, according to a recent poll conducted after the bin Laden raid by the Washington-based Pew Research Center. Only 12 percent of Pakistanis have a positive view of the US, according to the poll, which had a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points.
If Pakistan were to prevent drones from taking off from inside the country, the US would have to launch them from Afghanistan, an act that would further increase tensions in the region, said Riffat Hussain, a defence professor at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad.
“The staging area would then become Afghanistan, which would be totally anathema to Pakistan because then you are using another country’s territory for attacks against Pakistan,” Hussain said. “That will not only escalate tension between Pakistan and Afghanistan, but it means America has declared war on Pakistan.”
The US has also made it clear that if it obtains intelligence on future high-value terrorist targets inside Pakistan, it could stage special forces attacks from Afghanistan like the one that killed bin Laden.
The raid infuriated Pakistan because the government wasn’t told of it beforehand. US officials have said they kept the Pakistanis in the dark because they were worried that bin Laden would be tipped off by extremist sympathisers in the Pakistani military.
Pakistan responded to the raid by kicking out more than 100 US troops training Pakistanis in counterterrorism operations and reduced the level of intelligence cooperation — something that could make it more difficult for the US to target militants in the country.
One of the primary causes of US frustration with Pakistan is its unwillingness to target Afghan Taliban militants and their allies in the country who launch cross-border attacks against NATO troops in Afghanistan. Pakistan says its troops are stretched too thin by other operations, but many analysts believe the government is reluctant to attack groups with which it has historical ties and could be useful allies in Afghanistan after foreign forces withdraw.
Hussain, the defence professor, said the beginning of the American withdrawal from Afghanistan and Obama’s admission that the US would support reconciliation talks with the Taliban made it even less likely that Pakistan would target militants deemed a threat by Washington.
“If you are talking to the Taliban, then you can’t expect Pakistan to go after them,” Hussain said.
Obama said he would press Pakistan to tackle the militant threat inside the country, but also implied the US would not hesitate to go it alone when its security was endangered.
“For there should be no doubt that so long as I am president, the United States will never tolerate a safe-haven for those who aim to kill us,” Obama said.

Bomb defused at Karachi’s Jinnah Hospital

KARACHI: Police said they defused a bomb left in a makeshift mosque inside a hospital compound in the country’s biggest city of Karachi, fearing it could have detonated during Friday prayers.

The police found a bag in a tented mosque in the residential colony of Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre with the live bomb inside.
“Some witnesses informed the police about a suspicious looking bag, which some unknown men had abandoned in the mosque,” Iqbal Mehmood, a senior police official, told reporters.
Speaking to media representatives, the official said that more than 20 kilograms of explosive material, including two detonators, was hidden inside a sack and was planted at the location.
He added the explosive device was similar to the ones used in the naval bus attacks earlier this year.
Another police official said on condition of anonymity that it was a remote-controlled bomb and that police feared it could have been detonated during the main Friday prayers in the afternoon.
Mr Mehmood said security was being tightened around places of worship and the city had been put on high alert. Moreover, search operations were being conducted at mosques and imambargahs across the city.

Kabul urges end to Pakistani border attacks

KABUL: The Afghan government on Friday called for an end to cross-border attacks from Pakistan, warning that such incidents could affect “improving trust and cooperation” between the two wary allies.
“The ministry of foreign affairs of Afghanistan expresses its serious concern about the continuing Pakistani artillery shelling of Afghan villages in Kunar and Nangarhar provinces,” it said.
The ministry said that Pakistani shelling killed four children late Thursday in the northeastern province of Kunar, the latest in a series of incidents.
“The Afghan government calls for the immediate cessation of the artillery fire against Afghan villages,” it said.
“The continuation of such incidents could adversely affect the spirit of improving trust and cooperation between the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.”
The border between Afghanistan and Pakistan is porous, and relations between the two countries have long been strained over the presence of militants fighting against both governments.
Both sides have made a string of claims and counter-claims in recent days.
Last week, Pakistani officials said five people were killed when several hundred militants crossed from Afghanistan and targeted civilians in the Mamoond area of the lawless border tribal district of Bajaur.
But Afghan officials denied any attack and accused Pakistani troops of killing six people in a rocket strike in Kunar, as well as other attacks in volatile Kunar and Nangarhar.
The statement came after Afghanistan’s foreign minister Zalmai Rassoul met the Pakistani ambassador to Kabul over the issue Monday. Pakistan had earlier summoned the Afghan charge d’affaires over the dispute.

Pakistan, Afghan presidents in Iran three-way summit

TEHRAN: The presidents of Pakistan and Afghanistan arrived Friday in Tehran for a three-way summit with their Iranian counterpart and to attend an anti-terrorism conference, IRNA news agency reported.
The summit to be attended by President Asif Ali Zardari, Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad comes as the United States announced that it will draw down by 33,000 its contingent of 99,000 troops in Afghanistan by the end of summer 2012.
Several hundred French soldiers have also been recalled from the country recently.
Britain and Germany, which have the largest presence in Afghanistan after the United States, have also declared their intention to reduce their contingent by the end of the year.
Iran has always been hostile to the presence of Nato troops in neighbouring Afghanistan, saying this strengthened terrorist groups such as Taliban and Al-Qaeda more than it weakened them.
Tehran itself suffers from the activities of the armed Sunni Muslim group Jundallah around its border with Pakistan and Afghanistan. Jundallah is on the United States’ list of outlawed terrorist groups.
After the three-way summit, Zardari and Karzai will attend on Saturday an anti-terrorism conference alongside Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, Iranian media reported.
Other nations will also attend the conference as observers.
Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court, which has issued two arrest warrants on charges of crimes against humanity and genocide in the Darfur region, where a bloody conflict has raged for eight years.
Iran, which is on the United States’ list of state sponsors of terrorism, regularly accuses Israel and the US of plotting terrorist attacks against its territory.

Rangers men to be indicted on June 28

KARACHI: An Anti Terrorism Court (ATC) fixed June 28 for framing charges against Rangers men in extrajudicial killing of a youth, Geo News reported. The court also provided counsels to four of seven accused on state expense.

Judge ATC-I, Karachi, Thursday granted time till today as last chance to accused personnel of Pakistan Rangers, Sindh, to engage defense counsel in case pertaining to shooting to death of unarmed youth at Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Park in Karachi.

The court was told today that Sepoy Mohammad Tariq, Lance Naik Liaquat Ali, Shahid Zafar and Mohammad Afzal have not arranged counsels.

Defence counsels of Sub-Inspector Bahaur Rehman and Manthar Ali, M.R. Syed and Naimat Ali pleaded the court to adjourn the hearing for seven days.

Later, the court appointed a judge for the Rangers men and adjourned the hearing.

A case (FIR 227/2011) US 302 & 34PPC against accused and then incorporated Section 7 of Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 in FIR was lodged at Boat Basin police station, on complaint of victim's brother.

According to the charge-sheet, 22-year-old Sarfraz Shah was shot at and then left to die allegedly by Rangers personnel. Rangers initially claimed youth was armed & killed in encounter.

Punjab Governor demands commission on load shedding

LAHORE: pakistan Punjab Governor, Sardar Latif Khosa has said that a commission on electricity load shedding should also be constituted, which should investigate how come the People’s Party, which in 1996 had left the power generation capacity in the country at 19,000 megawatt and who later reversed the situation by humiliating the IPPs and dragging them to the Supreme Court.

Addressing the teachers training workshop at Lahore Kennard College and later talking to the media he said this.

The Punjab Governor said that the future of Pakistan was bright, electoral politics’ statements do come normally; he didn’t think it appropriate to respond to Rana Sanaullah harangues.

Sardar Latif Khosa said that by writing a memo to the chief minister against Rana Sanaullah’s ‘Fatwa’, he fulfilled his responsibility. He said that the Punjab CM hasn’t replied to his letter thus far. Declaring some body liable to be murdered was a crime under the law and the constitution. 

New York senate prepares to vote on gay marriage bill

NEW YORK: The New York senate prepared to vote on a gay marriage law on Thursday, after amending the state assembly-approved bill at the request of Republican officials, said a legislative source.

If the vote takes place, it will happen at about the the same time that President Barack Obama gives a speech in New York at a gala to raise funds for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community.

"There are some other pieces of legislation that have to be finished before. It's likely to be on the floor late today," said one legislative spokesperson.

The senate, which should have recessed on Monday evening, instead have been meeting in an extraordinary session to put the finishing touches on the bill's language, designed to address legal protections for religious organizations.

The document needs 32 votes out of 62 to be adopted. Thirty one senators have expressed their support for legalizing gay marriage, an issue that has already been repeatedly rejected by the NY senate in recent years.

Sheldon Silver, president of the Democrat-majority NY state assembly that approved the original bill last week, has already announced that if the senate passes their version, the house would meet to vote on the amended text.

After the assembly vote, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who introduced the bill, is expected to sign it into law.

If the law passes, New York would become the sixth and most populous state to approve gay marriage.

Currently, Iowa, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Vermont permit same-sex marriage.

States such as Hawaii, California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington DC and New Jersey offer civil unions to same-sex couples, but not marriage rights.

According to a March poll, the majority of Americans are currently in favor of allowing gay marriage, 53 percent to 44 percent

Commanders say Obama overruled them on Afghanistan

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama ignored military advice for a more modest drawdown from Afghanistan, his commanders said on Thursday, suggesting his decision carried risks for the war effort.

Both General David Petraeus and Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Obama's plan to withdraw 33,000 surge troops by the end of next summer was more "aggressive" than they had recommended.

Asked by Senator Carl Levin if he was prepared to resign over the war policy, Petraeus said: "I don't think it's the place for the commander to consider that kind of step unless you are in a very, very dire situation."

Petraeus, who indicated that he had received emails suggesting he should quit in protest, said: "This is an important decision, it is again a more aggressive approach than the chairman (Admiral Mullen), (Central Command chief General James) Mattis and I would have, indeed certainly, put forward.

"But this is not something where one hangs up the uniform in protest or something like that."

The four-star officer, who is due to step down in weeks as Obama's top commander in the fight against the Taliban-led insurgency and take over as CIA director, is credited by many for salvaging the war in Iraq.

His testimony in Congress provided more ammunition to Obama's critics on the right who accuse the president of endorsing a withdrawal plan for purely political motives ahead of presidential elections in 2012.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, in an interview with AFP, endorsed Obama's plan but acknowledged that waning political support for the grinding counter-insurgency campaign was an important factor in the decision.

The "advantages and disadvantages" of a range of options were debated at three White House meetings, including "not only the situation on the ground in Afghanistan but also political sustainability here at home," Gates said.

The military's top officer, Mullen, offered a qualified endorsement of Obama's decision, telling lawmakers that he had initially favored a more modest drawdown.

Mullen said "the president's decisions are more aggressive and incur more risk than I was originally prepared to accept."

But he said that keeping more forces in place also carried risks, including enabling Kabul to become more dependent on the American military presence.

"Let me be candid, however. No commander ever wants to sacrifice fighting power in the middle of a war.

"And no decision to demand that sacrifice is ever without risk," he warned.

Both Mullen and Petraeus said the president had to take into account other considerations beyond military conditions, a clear reference to political and fiscal pressures.

The American public is increasingly impatient with a war that has dragged on nearly a decade. In a new Pew Research Center poll, 56 percent of respondents -- the highest ever -- said American troops should be brought home as soon as possible.

White House officials insist Obama's move was based on military strategy -- not politics -- and that progress on the battlefield and the killing of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had made the drawdown possible.

10,000 US troops to leave Af by end of the year

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama on Wednesday declared that the United States has largely achieved its goals in Afghanistan and set in motion a substantial withdrawal of troops. The declaration is an acknowledgment of the shifting threat in the region and the fast-changing political and economic landscape in a war-weary America. 


Obama announced plans to withdraw 10,000 troops from Afghanistan by the end of this year. The remaining 20,000 troops from the 2009 "surge" of forces will leave by next summer, amounting to about a third of the 100,000 troops now in the country. He said the drawdown would continue "at a steady pace" until the US hands over security to the Afghan authorities in 2014. 


"Tide of war is receding," Obama said, asserting that the country that served as a base for the Sept 11, 2001, attacks no longer represents a terrorist threat to the United States. In a blunt recognition of domestic economic strains, he said: "America, it is time to focus on nation-building here at home." 


Afghan President Hamid Karzai welcomed the decision, sounding confident that Afghanistan's Nato-trained police and army can take control of the country from the departing forces. "At the end of 2014, the Afghans, for their homeland, for their protection, for the security of their people, completely should be in control," Karzai said in a televised address.