PESHAWAR:
At least three suspicious miscreants have been killed in an explosion at a home in Peshawar when a bomb went off early Wednesday, police said.

According to News correspondent the blast occurred when a hand grenade went off in a house in Shaheedabad area, some 4 kilometer away from Peshawar, killing three people.

Police also recovered another hand grenade. The three men killed in the blast were apparently guests and staying in the sitting room of the house where blast occurred. An investigation of the incident is underway.

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WASHINGTON:

USA is stressing Pakistan to remove the serious faults that may become a hurdle in holding free and fair elections on February 18.

Answering the questions of a US Congress sub-committee, US assistant secretary of state Mr Boucher said Mr Boucher said that United States is working with Pakistan government to hold free and fair elections. US has spent about 100 million dollars to promote democracy there.

He said United States support an independent judiciary in Pakistan but the current issue of removal of judges has become a political issue.

The US assistant secretary of state said his country does not believe there is a need for a UN-led investigation.

Answering the questions of committee members, he agreed to a question that removal of Chief justice was not appropriate

Mr. Boucher said that Pakistan and United States are cooperating fully with each other in war on terror and military operations in FATA areas will be conducted maintaining the sovereignty of Pakistan.

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No US troops in Pakistan: FO

* Spokesman says foreign military strike will be ‘act of war’

ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office (FO) said on Wednesday that there were no United States army troops in Pakistan.

Addressing a weekly press briefing, FO spokesman Muhammad Sadiq reiterated that a military strike in Pakistan by the US, or any other foreign nation, would be regarded as an act of war and would be dealt with in kind, reported APP.

Sadiq said that caretaker Prime Minister Mohammadmian Soomro would lead a trade delegation to Yemen and Saudi Arabia on February 1. He said the two-day visit was aimed at boosting bilateral ties and expanding cooperation in the areas of economy and trade, reported Online.

The spokesman said the premier was visiting Yemen on the invitation of his Yemeni counterpart. Later, he would visit Saudi Arabia and perform Umrah, Sadiq added.

On President Pervez Musharraf’s meeting with Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak, the spokesman said it had been a chance encounter. He said the two leaders had not discussed Iran, adding, “Iran is our brotherly country and Pakistan stands by its principled position on Iranian nuclear issue.”

Sadiq said Pakistan had lodged a protest with the US over the treatment meted out to Abdul Sattar Edhi in New York. He said US authorities had confiscated Edhi’s passport and green card because his green card had expired, reported NNI.

The spokesman said his (Edhi’s) passport would be returned today but he would have to stay in the US to get his green card renewed.

He said the body of the US embassy official, who died in Islamabad on Monday, was transported to the United States on Wednesday.

The spokesman said Pakistan had taken note of reports that India was starting operations of the Baglihar Dam. He said it expected that the dam matched the specifications proposed by the neutral expert appointed by the World Bank. He said the Pakistan Indus Water high commissioner has requested a chance to inspect the dam before it’s operational.

He said the government was committed to conducting general elections in a free, fair and transparent manner. The names of more than 350 foreign observers have already been approved for election monitoring, he added.

He said the matter of the detention of 14 Pakistanis had been taken up with Spain’s government.

He said the OIC Ministerial Committee would meet in Jeddah on Sunday to discuss the Gaza crisis. Foreign Minister Inamul Haq will represent Pakistan at the moot, he added. agencies

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Aarwaa

Pakistan is ruled by three As - Army, America and Allah.

Local security forces, not foreign troops, key to stabilising Afghanistan: Karzai

* Afghan president says Kabul will support Pakistan in wiping out extremism

BERLIN: President Hamid Karzai said on Wednesday training the Afghan police and army was more important than sending more foreign troops to the country.

“More than anything else, we need help to rebuild our human capital and our institutions, our army, our police force, our administrative structure, our judiciary and so on,” Karzai told Die Welt.

“Although the situation has finally improved, the unintentional bombing of Afghan civilians by NATO and US troops is particularly painful, although it stems from a lack of ground troops. “However, I am not sure that sending more troops is the right answer.”

Karzai said he had the impression that the war “is not happening here,” but was being exported to Afghanistan from other countries.

“We should concentrate on the sanctuaries and the training camps,” he said.

“Afghanistan is not a sanctuary. It was one, but we have taken it back.”

Most concern focuses on the mountainous border area with Pakistan, where Afghan and Western forces believe Taliban extremists regroup to launch attacks in southern Afghanistan.

Karzai said his recent meeting with President Pervez Musharraf had been “very constructive”.

Eradicating extremism: “My hope is that Pakistan will take harder and clearer measures in the future and thus become a country where extremism is no longer used as a political instrument.

“If Pakistan takes a step in this direction, we in Afghanistan will take many steps to support it,” he added.

Afghanistan’s army currently numbers 58,000 troops, with a target of 70,000

The fledgling force is being trained by Western troops based in Afghanistan, who number around 60,000, mostly within the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.

The Aghan army is being to ultimately take the lead in land-based military operations.

NATO commanders say they need some 7,500 extra troops to carry out their mission as they battle a resurgent Taliban. afp

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Pakistan is ruled by three As - Army, America and Allah.

US New Year resolution — befriending hostile tribes

* Washington fears militants plotting devastating attack in West

ISLAMABAD: The United States this year will start spending $750 million where its troops can’t go in the hope of making Pakistan’s unruly tribal lands less hospitable for Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

If the Americans succeed, they hope other nations will join them in putting up a total $2 billion for development and security in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) by 2015. The only alternative is to let the environment in FATA become more conducive for militancy.

“We don’t have that choice. We have to go in and do this thing,” a senior US diplomat in Islamabad told journalists. A ferocious suicide bombing campaign run out of the tribal lands to destabilise President Pervez Musharraf has fuelled dread in the West over the future of nuclear-armed nation, especially after the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto last month.

Devastating attack: The US fears that militants using satellite telephones and laptops in mud-walled compounds in the NWFP are plotting a devastating attack in the West, just as Al Qaeda did from Afghanistan in 2001. Musharraf won’t allow American forces to enter national territory to fight a common enemy. Pakistan has deployed around 100,000 troops in the tribal region bordering Afghanistan, but results have been patchy, largely because the militants have garnered support among poor, illiterate tribesmen. “The military campaign in FATA has not degraded extremist recruitment, training or operations,” the US diplomat said.

The US has already given about $10 billion to Pakistan, most for its military, in the six years since it strong-armed Musharraf to become an ally. Hundreds of Al Qaeda members were arrested in the early years, but the network has regrouped, as has the Taliban. Critics say the United States struck a bad bargain, and has also retarded democracy by supporting a leader who came to power in a military coup more than eight years ago.

Overall literacy among FATA’s 3.2 million people is just 17 percent compared with 56 percent nationally.

Tribal communities are tired of the government’s empty promises of development, and a Crisis Group report in late 2006 said “anticipation is turning into alienation”. “The government has spent billions of rupees in recent years but where are the results?,” said Malik Khan Marjan, a tribal elder from the volatile North Waziristan. Asked by Musharraf to help, the US announced the $750 million disbursement over five years in early 2007. “Aid is welcome, but with no strings attached,” said retired Brigadier Mahmood Shah, a former head of security in FATA, told Reuters in Peshawar. “You can’t have development without security and you can’t have security without development,” said a US official familiar with FATA, repeating a maxim often heard in

Afghanistan and Iraq. The US military also plans to supply Pakistani commandos with more aircraft to fight the guerrilla war. reuters

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Aarwaa

Pakistan is ruled by three As - Army, America and Allah.

Caretakers face tough questions in Senate


By Raja Asghar


ISLAMABAD, Jan 29: The caretaker government will face unwanted questions in the Senate that meets on Wednesday evening to begin an opposition-called session, which is also likely to fuel political rivalries ahead of February 18 elections.

Interim Prime Minister Mohammedmian Soomro’s ministers will have to account for not only their own conduct during one and a half months they have been in office but also about their long-serving predecessors on burning issues ranging from the assassination of Benazir Bhutto to the country’s worst food shortages.

The government had sought to avoid calling the 100-seat upper house session even at the cost of violating the Constitution, apparently to spare the loyalists of President Pervez Musharraf the embarrassment of being blamed for so many bad things happening all around so close to the elections from the only parliamentary platform available after the National Assembly and the four provincial assemblies ceased to exist at the expiration of their five-year terms on November 15.

But Senate acting chairman Mir Jan Mohammad Jamali, standing in for Mr Soomro had to bow to a requisition for the session the combined opposition filed on Thursday with a six-point agenda aimed at putting the government on the spot in the upper house while it is already besieged by what critics see as the worst turmoil of more than nine years of President Musharraf’s military-cum-civilian regime.

The session is due to begin at 4pm and parliamentary sources said it could be brief despite a long agenda because some of the senators from both sides are contesting the elections and in view of the expected increase in party campaigns after a predicted end of a prevailing cold wave this week and a 40-day mourning of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) for its leader’s assassination.

The agenda includes a reference or discussion on Ms Bhutto’s assassination, the law and order situation marked by a wave of suicide bombings and militants’ revolts in the northwest of the country, inflation and shortages of essential commodities like wheat flour, and the aftermath of the now-lifted extra-constitutional emergency, which President Musharraf imposed on November 3 in his capacity as army chief and which was used to sack about 60 judges of the superior courts, detain thousands of political and legal activists and put new restrictions on the media.

It also seeks passage of opposition-sponsored resolutions for disapproving the two ordinances enforced under the November 3 emergency to curtail the freedom of both the print and electronic media.

Opposition sources said the opposition parties would also seek discussion on some of about 25 adjournment motions filed by their members since the Senate held its last regular session in August.

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Aarwaa

Pakistan is ruled by three As - Army, America and Allah.

Pakistan, UK agree to bolster defence ties

By Our Reporter

ISLAMABAD, Jan 29: Pakistan and the United Kingdom agreed to forge closer cooperation in the war on terror at the ninth meeting of the Pak-UK Defence Cooperation Forum held here on Tuesday.

The meeting was co-chaired by Defence Secretary Kamran Rasool and the British Under-secretary of Defence Bill Jaffrey.

Mr Jaffrey stressed the need for developing a wide-ranging strategic relationship and said Pakistan and UK had shared interest of security and stability in the region and cooperation between the two sides needed to be increased.

He appreciated the role played by the security forces of Pakistan in the war on terror. The Pakistan side dwelt on the steps taken for the socio-economic uplift of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).

Mr Kamran Rasool said that Pakistan was committed to combating terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.

He said that Pakistan was also making sincere efforts to promote peace and stability in Afghanistan because a peaceful and stable Afghanistan was in the interest of not only Pakistan but of the whole region.

The British delegation also met caretaker Federal Minister for Defence & Defence Production Syed Salim Abbas Jilani and discussed with him matters of mutual interest.

The minister said it was in the interest of both countries to develop cooperation on a sustainable basis.

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Aarwaa

Pakistan is ruled by three As - Army, America and Allah.

Elections first, judiciary issue later, says US



By Our Correspondent


WASHINGTON, Jan 29: A senior US official on Tuesday declined to support demands for the restoration of judiciary and a UN-led probe into the murder of PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto.

Appearing before a congressional panel, Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher made it obvious that the Bush administration still trusts President Pervez Musharraf but stopped short of calling him indispensable.

Mr Boucher faced scores of grilling questions on the US refusal to endorse the demand for the restoration of the previous Supreme Court in Pakistan but avoided getting involved in the controversy.

He reminded members of the House Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs that judiciary has always been controversial in Pakistan and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif also had a dispute with the Supreme Court.

Mr Boucher said that Pakistan could deal with the dispute involving the judiciary after the elections as it’s important to hold the elections first.

He said he was not in a position to judge if the previous Supreme Court overstepped its jurisdiction while hearing a case against President Musharraf, but he agreed with the assessment that it was wrong to sack the judges over this dispute.He said that the US did not support PPP’s demand for a UN-led probe because the situation in Pakistan was different from Lebanon where Washington encouraged the UN to hold such an investigation.

“A UN probe is not a cure for all situations,” he added.

When lawmakers reminded him that Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte has already called Musharraf an “indispensable” US ally in the war on terror, Mr Boucher said the Pakistani leader had done a lot for this war, but he stopped short of calling him indispensable.

Mr Boucher said that America’s fundamental goal in Pakistan remained a successful transition to democracy. “We are doing everything we can to ensure fair and free elections.”

He said that 20,000 domestic observers would monitor the Feb 18 elections and the US Embassy would also send 30 teams to the field. Other US and international groups will also monitor the elections, he added.

Asked to comment on media reports that Washington recently sent two senior CIA officials, including the agency’s chief, to Islamabad to seek greater role for CIA in the tribal areas but Pakistan turned down the request, Mr Boucher said: “Pakistan is a sovereign state and they take their own decisions.” He regretted that Pakistan was not allowing exit polls, but said exit polls were not the only means to ensure fair and free elections.

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Aarwaa

Pakistan is ruled by three As - Army, America and Allah.

Scanners planned at main cities’ entry points

By Syed Irfan Raza

ISLAMABAD, Jan 29: The government on Tuesday decided to provide advanced equipment to security forces to help them foil possible suicide attacks on politicians during the campaign for coming elections, according to Interior Ministry spokesman Brig (retd) Javed Iqbal Cheema.

He said at his weekly press briefing that the decision had been taken in a high-level security meeting presided over by caretaker Interior Minister Lt-Gen (retd) Hamid Nawaz and attended by home secretaries and inspectors general of police of the four provinces and heads of other security forces.

“The meeting gave a go-ahead to acquire latest equipment for prompt detection of any suspect carrying explosives and approaching security checkposts, barricades or any sensitive place,” the spokesman said.

He said scanners were also being purchased to be installed at provincial entry points on the main roads as well as entry and exit points of the main cities. “This will greatly enhance the capacity of the security apparatus to preempt suicide bombing”, he added.

The spokesman did not elaborate how the security forces would be able to foil suicide bombing with the equipment, when countries like Israel and Sri Lanka with better resources had failed to stop suicide attacks.

The Interior Ministry had already informed media that following the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on Dec 27 in Rawalpindi, prominent leaders of different political parties contesting elections-2008 were also on the hit list of terrorists.

Analysts said now the government appeared to believe that with the purchase of new equipment the security forces would be able to foil suicide bombings although in the past it had been saying that suicide attacks could not be stopped by any means. Then there is the question why such equipment had not been purchased in the past to avert the suicide attacks that have taken place in the country.

The spokesman said the federal and provincial governments were determined to ensure peaceful completion of democratic transition through fair, free and transparent elections. “All security arrangements have been put in place and final touches would be given to security plans ahead of the polling day,” he said.

Brig Cheema said the army would also perform its duty in different parts of the country to assist police and paramilitary forces in maintaining peace during polls.

On the basis of intelligence reports, he said some, 40 constituencies in the country had been declared sensitive.

He said: “The security forces have cleared the Swat region of militants and established the writ of the government in the area”.

The Kohat Tunnel was now under control and security forces were conducting a technical sweep before opening it to traffic.

The Indus Highway, he said, would be opened to traffic soon.

He said that 50 insurgents had been killed in the Darra Adamkhel operation.

Answering to a question about the investigation into Pakistan People’s Party chairperson Benazir Bhutto’s assassination and the return of the Scotland Yard Team, he said the team was expected to return next week.

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Aarwaa

Pakistan is ruled by three As - Army, America and Allah.

Darra largely cleared of militants; arms seized

By Munawar Afridi and Abdul Sami Paracha

KOHAT, Jan 29: Army and paramilitary troops, backed by tanks, patrolled the Darra Adamkhel town on Tuesday and seized arms and ammunition in different areas.

Because of a curfew in the town, residents remained confined to their homes. The security forces claimed on Tuesady to have captured the hilltops around the town.

They said that Sheraki area, considered to be a stronghold of militants, was under curfew, although most of the local people had left the area for safe places.

During a search operation, troops seized a truck with heavy weapons in Zarghunkhel area, and a large quantity of arms was found in bunkers vacated by the militants.

They continued to pound suspected militant locations with artillery on Tuesday.

The Corps Commander of Peshawar, Lt-Gen Masud Aslam, visited Darra Adamkhel where he was briefed on details of the operation by field commanders.

The corps commander expressed satisfaction over the progress of the operation and asked the security forces to clear the area as soon as possible.

The military authorities announced a relaxation in curfew from 3pm to 6pm but kept intact the restrictions on the movement of vehicles near the tunnel and other sensitive areas.

Troops also continued attacks in the Tor Chappar area near Jawaki on the fifth day of the operation in Darra Adamkhel.

The Zarghunkhel of the Afridi clan has been cleared of the militants but troops were yet to take control of the area.

Two commanders of the militants, Tariq and Zahid are reported to have escaped towards Khyber Agency. Another commander, Momin, has surrendered whereas another top militant who was holding the Kotal hill, died in a helicopter attack.

Meanwhile, an attempt was made to blow up the main gas supply line near Dodha village in Kohat district. Police found an oil container packed with 15 kg of explosives attached to the pipeline valve. The explosives were not properly attached to detonators and therefore no major damage was caused to the pipeline.

The forces have still not found the four ammunition trucks which had been seized by the militants on the Indus Highway on Wednesday.

There are reports that the militants had taken the trucks to the Afghan border on Wednesday night when the authorities were trying to resolve the issue through talks. The talks continued for two days and provided enough time to the militants to whisk away the trucks meant for troops in Waziristan.

Some of officials are of the opinion that the trucks had been blown up inside the tunnel by the militants. But considering the quantity of explosives in the trucks, the officials’ view does not appear to be correct because the tunnel has suffered very little damage.

Officials confirmed that 72 militants had died in the five-day operation and the locals were saying that dozens of bodies were still lying in the mountains.

In a related development, the Station Commander of Kohat, Brig Ishfaq Ahmed summoned the elders of Janglekhel and Sheikhan areas of Kohat district, to his office on Tuesady and were told that presence of militants in their areas had been reported.

Security agencies in Kohat had received reports that the militants fleeing Darra Adamkhel were behind the recent acts of terrorism in which railway track, and gas pipeline had been damaged and that they were now planning suicide attacks in the cantonment.

The station commander warned the elders that anyone found supporting the militants would be severely dealt with. He also warned them that the army could conduct operation on the pattern of Darra Adamkhel to flush out militants from these areas. He asked them to inform police and the army about the presence of militants to avert military action.

District Police Officer Dr Vaqar informed the commander that police patrolling had been stepped up in the area and assured him that police were ready to deal with any untoward situation.

The meeting was attended by Israr Shinwari, Faheem Khan, Haji Iftikhar, Shafi Durrani and nazims and councillors.

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Aarwaa

Pakistan is ruled by three As - Army, America and Allah.

Over million Iraqis dead since 2003 invasion

Updated at: 0350 PST, Thursday, January 31, 2008

LONDON: More than one million Iraqis have died because of the war in Iraq since the US-led invasion of the country in 2003, research published Wednesday showed.

According to data compiled by the Opinion Research Business (ORB) and its research partner the Independent Institute for Administration and Civil Society Studies (IIACSS), a fifth of Iraqi households lost at least one family member between March 2003 and August 2007 due to the conflict.

The study based its findings on survey work involving the face-to-face questioning of 2,414 Iraqi adults aged 18 or above, and the last complete census in Iraq in 1997, which indicated a total of 4.05 million households.

Respondents were asked how many members of their household, if any, had died as a result of the violence in the country since 2003, and not because of natural causes.

"We now estimate that the death toll between March 2003 and August 2007 is likely to have been the order of 1,033,000," ORB said in a statement.

The margin of error for the survey was 1.7 percent, making the estimated range between 946,000 and 1.12 million fatalities.

The highest rate of deaths throughout the country occurred in Baghdad, where more than 40 percent of households had lost a family member.

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Pakistan is ruled by three As - Army, America and Allah.