One Rangers personnel sentenced to death for Sarfaraz killing

Today, 01:50 pm
12/08/2011

KARACHI: A Pakistani court Friday found a paramilitary soldier guilty of murder and sentenced him to death for killing an unarmed man at point blank range in an incident caught on camera in a public park.

It marked the first time that a civilian court in Pakistan has sentenced to death a serving member of the military.

Although the Rangers paramilitary technically comes under the supervision of the interior ministry, it is considered part of the powerful armed forces, which has ruled the country for more than half its existence.

The June 8 killing of Sarfaraz Shah, 22, was filmed by a cameraman and broadcast on television, sparking a public backlash over the brutality of trained officers.

Judge Bashir Ahmed Khoso read out the verdict before an anti-terrorism court in Karachi, finding Shahid Zafar guilty of pulling the trigger, and sentenced him to death and a fine of 200,000 rupees ($2,300).

“The crime of killing Sarfraz Shah has been proved against you and I announce the death sentence and also impose a fine of 200,000 rupees,” said Khoso, addressing Zafar.

He handed life terms to five other paramilitary soldiers and a civilian who had accused Shah of robbery and dragged him over to them.

The judge ordered each to pay 100,000 rupees to the victim’s family.

The verdict concludes a relatively swift trial which got underway after the seven defendants were formally charged with murder and terrorism on June 29, just weeks after the killing.

So extreme was the public and media reaction to the killing that the government also took the rare step of removing the provincial chiefs of police and Rangers in Karachi.

The widely-aired footage of the killing showed a clean-shaven and unarmed Shah, wearing black trousers and a navy shirt, pleading for his life before he is shot twice.

He then begs for help while the soldiers appear to do nothing but watch him lapse gradually into unconsciousness.

Despite no evidence in the video that Shah was armed, Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik, whose ministry is responsible for the Rangers, had claimed that the victim had been carrying an unlicensed weapon.

http://www.dawn.com/2011/08/12/one-r...z-killing.html

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Karachi violence: 31 dead as fragile peace shatters

KARACHI:
The fragility of calm in Karachi has been exposed yet again.

What started off as a back-and-forth between two gangs, albeit with shades of political jostling, built into another day of intense violence, amidst what seemed to be progress towards peace.

By the end of Thursday, at least 31 more people were killed in a blowout of warring that ran against the play of a relative lull in the violence-stricken metropolis – which now finds itself hurtling towards another security-cum-political crisis.

There was chaos at the police surgeon’s office on M A Jinnah Road in Karachi as staff scrambled to absorb a consistently increasing body count.

Police surgeon Hamid Pardhyar said that he has been at work since Wednesday evening because of the escalating killings.

The latest spurt of violence started on Wednesday night, which saw seven people killed, including the gunning down of a former MNA of the Pakistan Peoples Party and a popular social worker Waja Karim Daad in Karachi’s troubled Lyari area.

“Seventeen people had been killed till Wednesday night and since then, 22 more bodies were found in different parts of the city,” said Additional Inspector-General of Sindh Police (IGP) Saud Mirza.

But Mirza sought to dispel the impression that the police had been ineffective in controlling the violence.

However, shoddy work on part of inspectors has just made it worse for those at the police surgeon’s office where the body count is being maintained. Reports on the victims are being brought in without completing formalities, they said.

Behind the killings

Off the record, police officials admit that the violence is a spill-over and a so-called chain reaction between two warring gangs in Lyari, namely the Arshad Pappu/Ghaffar Zikri versus the Peoples Amn Committee/Baba Ladla group. They also admit they are helpless in controlling the situation as gangsters are allegedly supported by the ruling political party. On Thursday, Sindh Home Minister Manzoor Wassan said the killings were a result of kidnapping and killing of five Baloch youth.

But the Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) Karachi Division general-secretary Saeed Ghani says the party, as a matter of policy, doesn’t support or patronise any criminal group in Lyari or elsewhere in the city. Ghani said he doesn’t believe the messages turning up in gunny bags are directed at the PPP.

However, SSP South Naeem Shaikh refused to speak about the role of Lyari’s infamous gangsters but admitted that the solution lies in Lyari even while many bodies continue to be discovered in other parts of the city.

Source: Karachi Killings

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Five police commandos killed, 40 injured in Korangi

Updated at: 0000 PST, Saturday, August 20, 2011

KARACHI: At least five police commandos were killed and 40 others injured when unidentified armed men opened fire at elite force police commandos bus in Korangi, Geo News reported.

According to police armed miscreants opened fire on the bus of elite force police commandos as result five commandos were killed and 40 others injured. DSP Quaidabad is among the injured police.

Majority of the police commandos were in plain clothes.

Two miscreants were also killed in retaliation of police commandos.

The bodies and injured are being rushed to Jinnah Hospital where emergency has been declared. The condition of some injured is said to be critical.

Five police commandos killed, 40 injured in Korangi - GEO.tv

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LAHORE: The son of a Pakistani governor who was killed by his bodyguard for his opposition to a harsh blasphemy law this year was kidnapped in the eastern city of Lahore on Friday, police and the family said.

Four men on motorbikes intercepted Shahbaz Taseer in his car in the upscale Gulberg area and took him to a nearby street before kidnapping him, police said, quoting witnesses.

“Shahbaz was out with a friend when four unidentified people kidnapped him,” his brother Shehryar Taseer told Reuters.

Shahbaz Taseer is a director in several companies his father founded, including Pace Pakistan Ltd., First Capital Equities Ltd., Media Times Ltd. and First Capital Securities Corp. Ltd.

“Our family has been receiving threats from the Taliban and extremist groups,” Shehryar said, adding they could be behind the abduction.

No one has yet claimed responsibility.

Shahbaz’s father governor Salman Taseer, of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party, was killed after he came out in support of a woman accused of committing blasphemy.

Asia Bibi, a Christian mother of four, was sentenced to death in a case stemming from a village dispute, putting the country’s blasphemy law in the spotlight.

Provincial Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said Shahbaz had been provided an official security detail in addition to the private guards he kept. But he was without security at the time of the incident.

“We are looking into it as to why this lapse happened,” he told Reuters .

Shahbaz filed the criminal case against the bodyguard who killed his father in January.

Salman Taseer’s son Shahbaz kidnapped from Lahore | Pakistan | DAWN.COM

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London: Altaf Hussain self exiled leader of MQM-A caught escaping to South Africa by the authorities. According to sources, ‘Altaf Hussain was hiding in the Wrexham area close to Slough in Berkshire for the past few days. He was stopped when was going to Heathrow Airport in a private taxi. Interestingly the taxi driver was a Pakistani whom Mr Hussain thought as an English man due to his appearance.
According to sources Altaf Hussain told the authorities that, ‘he is leaving UK and going to South Africa for security reasons and personal protection’. According to sources he was told that, ‘security can be provided to him in the UK’. It is not yet clear if Mr Hussain detained or taken in protective custody. Mr Altaf Hussain is a British Citizen and living in self imposed exile since 1992. He is never been to Pakistan since 1992, not a registered voter now and never voted in any elections ever since.

Earlier yesterday it was reported that British police raided two addresses including an office of MQM-A in London in connection with the on going murder investigation of Dr Imran Farooq. It is reported that police took the crucial evidence in custody including the carpets for forensic investigation. According to reports 35 well trained officers of the Scotland Yard took part in the operation on Thursday 24th August 2011”.

It is reported that those MQM-A terrorists arrested in Karachi were actually coming from Colombo Sri Lanka and had connections with the murder of Dr Imran Farooq. The arrests took place as result of tip off from British authorities.

According to reports both Khalid Shamim and another MQM-A terrorists who were arrested in Karachi while arriving from Colombo actually called in to be eliminated in Karachi by their own party MQM-A. They had crucial information related to Dr Imran Farooq’s murder as well as target killing cells in various countries including South Africa. They knew too much about the MQM-A illegal and terrorist activities and needed to be eliminated that is why they were called in Karachi. They are lucky to be alive in the custody of Pakistani authorities than killed by their own death squad.


The London Post

PESHAWAR: Twenty-six security personnel were killed and four others injured in a cross-border attack in the Chitral region on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border on Saturday.
Check-posts in the Langorbut and Kavti areas of Arandhi and Ursun and Mir Khani in Drosht came under attack in an early morning raid when militants crossed over at 4: 00am from Nuristan province in Afghanistan, officials said.
“Firing is still continuing in the area and it is feared that casualties might rise,” said an official.
There were unconfirmed reports of people missing, but officials said the situation was still unclear and there was limited communication because of the geographical location of the area.
Local sources said there were reports of militant activity in the border region after intense fighting in Nuristan.
Last year, an Afghan official claimed that Maulana Fazlullah, runaway chief of Swat Taliban, had been killed in a clash between security forces and militants in the Barg Mittal area of Nuristan.
The government has eyed the Afghan border with much suspicion and blames the Afghan government of not taking action against militants in the border areas. It is believed that militants who escaped the military operation in FATA and Malakand took refuge in Kunar and Nuristan in Afghanistan.
Militants from across the border have consistently attacked check-posts and raided villages in Dir, Bajaur and Mohmand from April to July this year.

Cross-border attack: 26 security personnel killed in Chitral – The Express Tribune

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RAWALPINDI: Anti-terrorist court (ATC) in Rawalpindi has ordered authorities to take control of former president Pervez Musharraf’s tangible assets i.e. property, bank accounts, etc. in Benazir Bhutto murder case, Geo News reported Saturday.

The decision was made after a FIA report containing information regarding the assets of the former president was presented before the court.

FIA officials informed the court that Musharraf owned a farmhouse in Chak Shahzad, Islamabad and a plot in the Gwadar Housing Society, while his bank accounts are worth Rs80.90 million at the moment.

Musharrafs assets seizure ordered

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People do not like to think. If one thinks, one must reach conclusions. Conclusions are not always pleasant.

Mufti Muneeb-ur-Rehman said the confirmations of moon sighting were received from many parts of the country including Karachi, Islamabad, Quetta, Hyderabad, Nawabashah.

KARACHI: The Central Ruet-i-Hilal Committee announced on Tuesday that the moon of the month of Shawwal had been sighted, Eid-ul-Fitr will be celebrated tomorrow, DawnNews reported.

The announcement was made by Chairman of the Central Ruet-i-Hilal Committee, Mufti Munib-ur-Rehman, after chairing the meeting of the committee in Karachi.

Speaking on the occasion, Mufti Muneeb-ur-Rehman said the confirmations of moon sighting were received from many parts of the country including Karachi, Islamabad, Quetta, Hyderabad, Nawabashah.

Expressing gratitude to the ulema of different schools of thought, he said they always endorsed and supported the decision of Central Ruet-i-Hilal Committee.


Shawwal moon sighted in cities across Pakistan | Pakistan | DAWN.COM

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Twin blasts in Quetta, 15 dead

07/09/2011

QUETTA: At least 15 people were reported dead and several injured on Wednesday morning when two powerful bomb blasts hit the DIG Frontier corps residence in Quetta, DawnNews reported.

“First a car bomb exploded outside the residence of DIG Frontier Corps, then a suicide bomber entered inside the house and blew himself up,” senior police official Hamid Shakil said, referring to the corps’ deputy inspector general.

“The DIG is safe. Thirteen people have been killed and 28 were wounded,” he added.

http://www.dawn.com/2011/09/07/twin-...er-office.html

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