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  #201  
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Mehsud offers conditional talks

LAHORE: Militant commander Baitullah Mehsud has extended a conditional offer to the government to stop his aggressive activities, a private TV channel reported. Geo News quoted official sources as saying that Mehsud has told the government that he could halt terrorist actions if the key commanders and militants arrested by security forces were released. Senator Saleh Shah told the channel on Saturday that Mehsud had authorised him to negotiate with the government, adding that he would discuss the matter with the government at NWFP Governor’s House today (Sunday). Separately, the Interior Ministry did not confirm or deny any such contact between Mehsud and the government. daily times monitor
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US strike on Libi seen as limited success

* Analyst complains of ‘minimal activity’ in Qaeda strongholds for fear of provoking anti-US feelings among locals

WASHINGTON: The United States’ success in killing a top Al Qaeda operative this week showed that cooperation with Pakistan can be fruitful, but security analysts said there were limits to what the present strategy could achieve.

They said the unmanned Predator airstrike that apparently killed Abu Laith Al-Libi in a remote area of Pakistan demonstrated that the US had the military reach and intelligence sources to carry out a precision attack on a specific target [in Pakistan] with Pakistan’s consent.

But US participation in a ground offensive against Qaeda strongholds along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border is unlikely. President Pervez Musharraf has publicly opposed it.

“The arrangement that appears to have been reached between the US and Pakistan is that it’s OK to cooperate on targeted strikes against Al Qaeda leaders,” said Seth Jones, a RAND Corp terrorism analyst, who recently returned from the border region.

The RAND Corporation is a non-profit institution that helps improve policy and decision-making through research and analysis.

“But it’s not OK at the moment for US forces to try to clear and hold territory that is controlled by Al Qaeda or Al Qaeda-related groups in Pakistan,” he said.

Libi appears to have been one of 13 foreign militants killed in the North Waziristan border area. The strike followed a push in recent weeks by US officials to extend cooperation with Pakistan.

Jones said, “There has been a constant communication over the last couple of months ... it’s a drumbeat that’s coming from Washington,” that the crackdown on Al Qaeda must be stepped up.

Anti-Americanism: A series of plots against Western targets that have been linked to Al Qaeda in Pakistan raised the sense of urgency in the US and its NATO allies, Jones said.

He said there had been “minimal activity” in targeting Al Qaeda leaders in their strongholds, partly because US officials were wary of provoking more anti-Americanism within the population.

The US involvement has been limited to training Pakistani security forces, supplying equipment such as night vision goggles, and collecting intelligence, analysts said.

Similar Predator strikes against Al Qaeda leaders have met opposition in Pakistan when civilians were killed. Henry Crumpton, who led the CIA’s operations in Afghanistan when Al Qaeda and the Taliban were routed after the September 11 attacks, said Pakistan had been cooperative.

But it lacks control over the region and has to reckon with the fact Al Qaeda and the Taliban retain a firm hold over the border tribes, through intimidation and alliances.

Pakistan’s turbulent national politics has also made it more difficult for the government and military to take decisive action.

Crumpton told Reuters that the strikes against Al Qaeda leadership were a leg of a three-legged strategy necessary to neutralise the group’s threat. The other two legs were removing its safe havens and addressing the region’s economic and social needs to win tribal support. reuters
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  #203  
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Govt stops IRI from exit polling

* Visas of top officials not renewed
* Institute quits Pakistan in protest
* US trying to find another observer team to substitute for IRI

Daily Times Monitor

LAHORE: The government has stopped the International Republican Institute (IRI) from performing exit polls at the upcoming parliamentary elections, while refusing to issue new visas for the institute’s top in-country officials.

According to a report released on Chicago Tribune website on Saturday, critics said the government was taking the actions because a recent survey by the institute indicated that President Pervez Musharraf’s popularity had fallen sharply.

No visas: The Pakistani government has told the two US citizens responsible for IRI public-opinion polls that they will have to leave the country in three weeks because their visas will not be renewed, said Robert Varsalone, the country director for the IRI. The report said the government had tried to end their visas in January, but extended them a month after coming under diplomatic pressure.

“We’ve been told essentially, this is it for you,” said Varsalone, who has been in Pakistan for more than a year. “We always tried to be honest brokers of information.”

The other IRI official, Stephen Cima, has been in the country for two-and-a-half years, and the institute has worked in Pakistan for five years.

Quitting: The institute, headed by Senator John McCain, also has reversed a decision to send election observers for the February 18 vote because of fears that the increasingly volatile situation would prevent them from accurately gauging the elections. It was the only US group planning to send observers, although European teams still plan to be in place.

Several Pakistani officials refused requests for comment about the IRI visas or said they were not responsible for the decision. “The main purpose of IRI was to monitor the election process,” said Obaidullah Farooq Malik, a visa officer in the Interior Ministry, adding that he did not make the decision about Varsalone and Cima. “When the election is over, the task of IRI will be finalised.”

Varsalone said he did not want to speculate on what might happen in the elections or why IRI is having visa trouble, but Pakistani political analysts and human rights activists said they believed the group’s visa troubles are a result of IRI’s increasingly critical polls.

“Without a shadow of a doubt,” said Iqbal Haider, secretary general of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. “Musharraf is behaving, I keep saying, like a bull in a china shop.”

During a December visit, a US congressional delegation asked Musharraf about IRI and the alleged government pressure on the institute. “Personally I think it’s a form of intimidation by people who want to be in charge,” said Republican Darrell Issa, who was part of the delegation. “I don’t say the Pakistani president, but I say people who want to please him”.

Substituting: As of now, 60 observers from the European Union have been deployed in Pakistan, although 40 more may be sent. The US is trying to find another observer team that will substitute for IRI, the website says.

On December 24, the government denied IRI’s request to conduct an exit poll. Election Commission officials said that exit polls are not allowed in Pakistan because they are not mentioned in the country’s constitution. Kanwar Dilshad, the commission spokesman, said there would be no fraud in the elections and an exit poll could be confusing.

“Maybe the result of the exit poll would be different from the actual result,” he said.

According to an IRI poll in September 2006, Musharraf had a 63 percent approval rating. But last October 11, IRI released a poll showing him at 21 percent. Thirteen days later, the first official letter arrived, telling IRI that it was not possible to register the group in Pakistan “due to administrative reasons”.

Another poll was released on December 13, showing that Musharraf’s popularity had slightly rebounded, to 30 percent. The Pakistani government was highly critical, and presidential spokesman Rashid Qureshi said the survey had no validity.

The IRI, launched by Congress in 1983, is officially non-partisan and works in 70 countries. Its board of directors has several high-profile Republicans, including former secretary of state Lawrence Eagleburger and former US administrator in Iraq Paul Bremer.
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18 militant hideouts in Swat

* Interior Ministry report says 104 suicide, bomb and rocket attacks took place in valley since January 1, 2007
* Makes recommendations to bring peace to Swat

By Azaz Syed

ISLAMABAD: An Interior Ministry report says militants have established four “major” and 14 “small hideouts” in four Swat areas.

The report says that the majority of militants were hiding in Kabal, Khawanza Khola, Matta, and Minogra. It said the militants had also set up “small hideouts” in 14 valley suburbs – Totano Bandi, Bagh Dehrai, Manja, Salanda, Sarkhorai, Manosar, Guli Bagh, Shakardara, Sambat, Namal Gat, Shawar, Pewchar, Chupriyal and Manglawar.

“Kabal, Khawanza Khola and Matta were cleared on December 3, 2007, and law- enforcement agencies have established 13 checkposts on strategic locations in these areas,” the report said.

But it said the three areas had still been placed in the category of “remaining militant hideouts”. Shangla district, according to the report, was secured and reoccupied on November 29, 2007.

104 attacks: The report said that 104 incidents of bomb blasts and rocket and suicide attacks had taken place in Swat from January 1, 2007, to January 23, 2008.

The report said that 292 people – 195 officials from the army, the Frontier Constabulary, and police and 97 civilians – had been killed in the same period.

The ministry has made seven recommendations to improve the situation in the restive valley. They are public mobilisation against militancy; an effective use of force; strengthening of law-enforcement agencies; a special development package for the Malakand region; compensation for the people affected by operations in Swat and Shangla districts; speedy justice through amendments to Nizam-e-Adle Regulation, 1999, and cleanup operations to flush out militants.

Inter-Services Public Relations Director General Maj Gen Athar Abbas confirmed that militant were still hiding in the troubled area. He said big towns of Swat had been cleared of militants, adding that some militants were still present in Kanju, Pewchar and Chupriyal.
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  #205  
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PBC rejects complete boycott call



By Our Reporter DAWN


LAHORE, Feb 2: The Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) has refused to issue a call for a complete boycott of courts before judges who have taken oath under the Provisional Constitution Order (PCO).

The decision was taken at a council meeting on the premises of the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) on Saturday to review the demand of provincial bars for a complete boycott. “We have decided to uphold the bar’s Jan 13 decision, which restricted the complete boycott of the PCO judges to one day a week and an hour daily,” announced PBC vice-chairman Mirza Aziz Akbar Baig at a press conference. The PBC’s refusal to call for a complete boycott is in sharp contrast with the statement of Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) president Aitzaz Ahsan, who had said on Friday that a complete boycott of the PCO judges was essential for restoration of the deposed judges.

Giving details of the meeting, the PBC vice-chairman said the lawyers would observe a complete boycott of higher and subordinate courts on Thursdays besides taking out rallies.

He said the boycott call was mandatory for all bars across the country.

“However, the bars wishing to enhance the period of boycott were welcome to do so and would be appreciated,” he said. Mr Baig said that he had forwarded the PBC directives to the representatives of all provincial bars.

The directions come in the wake of complaints that lawyers are not adhering to even the one-day boycott of court proceedings before the PCO judges. Mr Baig said lawyers would hold conventions to broaden their horizon of their movement for restoration of judges, Constitution and the rule of law.

He said a lawyers’ convention would be held on February 9 in Islamabad along with a rally to the residence of Justice Iftikhar.
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Pakistani and Indian oil ministers to visit Iran


TEHRAN, Feb 2: Iran said on Saturday that the petroleum ministers of India and Pakistan would come to Tehran later this month to discuss a multi-billion dollar project to transport Iranian gas to India via Pakistan.

“We have invited the Indian petroleum minister with the Pakistanis to come here ... and they have accepted,” Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari told a news conference.

“We are making efforts to make it a tripartite deal or it will become a bilateral one,” he said, adding that talks were due to be held between February 14 to 16.

In November, 2007, Iran gave India a four-month deadline to formally agree its participation after finalising the content of the 7.4-billion-dollar gas export deal with Pakistan.

Talks on the much-delayed project to supply gas to India and to Pakistan itself through a 2,600-kilometre pipeline began in 1994 but were stalled by tensions between India and Pakistan.—AFP
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Rebels seize Chad capital
DAWN

NDJAMENA, Feb 2: Rebels seized Chad’s capital Ndjamena on Saturday after intense fighting with government forces, military and rebel sources said, as President Idriss Deby Itno remained holed up in the presidential palace.

“The whole of the city is in the hands of the rebels. It’s down to mopping-up operations,” according to the military source.

Chadian rebel spokesman Abakar Tollimi said the president could leave his palace, if he so wishes, but later added that there were plans to attack the presidential residence.

“We suppose that Deby is inside. If he wants to leave we have no problem,” the spokesman said by satellite telephone. “We control the situation, we control the city, there are some pockets of resistance.”

He said government troops were around the presidential palace and using heavy weapons against the rebels, who military sources said earlier were armed with machine-guns, assault rifles and rocket launchers.

A French military source later said Chadian government forces had beaten back the rebels surrounding the presidential palace.

“Chadian forces have enlarged the security perimeter around the presidential palace,” the source said, adding that fighting was continuing in the city and the outcome was still uncertain.

The wife and daughter of a Saudi employee at the Saudi embassy in Ndjamena were killed when a bomb hit the ambassador’s residence, the Saudi foreign ministry announced.France sent an extra 150 troops to the central African country, bringing to 1,450 the number permanently posted there and prepared to evacuate its citizens.

Chad’s Foreign Minister Amad Allam-Mi accused Sudan of masterminding the rebel offensive with the aim to stop the so-called EUFOR Chad-Central African Republic mission that is to protect refugees from the war-torn Sudanese region of Darfur, just over Chad’s eastern border, from deploying.

“Sudan does not want this force because it would open a window on the genocide in Darfur,” he told Radio France Internationale, adding that Sudan was trying “to install a regime in Chad that will bow to it.”

The EUFOR mission has a UN Security Council mandate to back up, for one year, some 300 UN police officers sent to monitor camps for Darfur refugees and internally displaced persons.

The rebels were seen on Saturday roaring around in camouflaged pick-up trucks, witnesses said, and had been welcomed with joy in some districts.

Witnesses said the main prison in Ndjamena had been stormed and inmates released, while security sources reported some looting had taken place.

The French foreign ministry strongly condemned “the attempt to seize power” in Chad by “armed groups from the outside”.

French troops have been deployed in Chad since 1986.

A spokesman in Paris for French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he had had a long conversation with his Chadian counterpart.

The country has 1,500 French citizens in Chad, a former French colony, with 85 per cent of them in the capital.

The United States said it was closely monitoring the fighting, as its embassy ordered the evacuation of staff families and selected employees.—AFP
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Pakistan ready to allay fears about Gwadar port



By Our Reporter DAWN


KARACHI, Feb 2: With the ongoing joint exercises of the Pakistani and Saudi navies entering the combat phase, Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral M. Afzal Tahir brushed aside his Indian counterpart’s concerns about Gwadar port. He also advised the world not to be overly concerned about the safety and security of Pakistan’s nuclear assets.

Admiral Tahir was witnessing the exercises, entitled Naseem Al Bahar in which the marine forces of the two navies are taking part along with their other wings. He was accompanied by Rear Admiral Abdullah Sultan Al-Sultan, the Commander of the Western Fleet of the Royal Saudi Naval Forces.

Responding to a journalist’s question regarding his Indian counterpart’s statement on the strategic partnership between Pakistan and China, with particular reference to Gwadar port, Admiral Tahir said: “It is purely a commercial venture and being a sovereign country we have all the right to take measures for the economic progress and development of the people of Pakistan.”

He said that if any country had apprehensions about the project, Pakistan was ready to allay its fears.

Answering another question, Admiral Tahir said Pakistan was fully capable of safeguarding its nuclear assets and there was little danger of their falling into the hands of extremists.

He said the ongoing exercises were a manifestation of the close relations between the navies of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. The exercises would help the two countries maintain peace, stability and security in the region, as it was a “lifeline for international trade and economy”.

Admiral Tahir said Pakistan Navy took pride in promoting mutual cooperation and harmony through joint efforts and had undertaken exercises with several other countries as well.

Many units of Pakistan Navy and Royal Saudi Naval Forces, including destroyers, submarines, missile boats and mine hunters, are participating in the exercises which comprise both sea and land phases. The exercises are being supervised by Vice Admiral Noman Bashir, the Commander of the Pakistan Fleet.

Admiral Tahir reached the Bandal Island, off Karachi, where he was received by Vice Admiral Mahmood Ahmad Khan. He witnessed a live demonstration involving defence of the beach by the personnel of the two navies.

On the occasion, the commander of Pakistan0 Marines gave a briefing to the media personnel on the land phase of the exercises.
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Suicide bombing kills 6 in Pakistan

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (AP) — A suicide bomber on a motorbike rammed into a minibus carrying security personnel, detonating a blast Monday that killed at least six people in the Pakistani garrison city of Rawalpindi, police said.
The bus was destroyed and several other people were wounded in the explosion on a road running through a bazaar near the offices of the army's National Logistics Cell, said Bisharat Abbasi, the local police chief.

Army spokesmen were not immediately available for comments, and it wasn't clear which branch of the armed forces the passengers were from.

Police and soldiers cordoned off the area, and erected a screen around the site. The blast was so powerful that it blew the roof off the bus, and damaged several nearby vehicles.

Shaukat Khan, owner of a nearby tire-repair shop, said he was sweeping the sidewalk when the explosion happened.

"It was very powerful," he said, adding that the bomb sent splinters that struck a wall beside him. Police and troops arrived at scene of the attack a few minutes later and transported the dead and injured to hospitals, he said.

In recent months there have been a series of suicide bombings in Rawalpindi, a city where the army has its headquarters, about 12 kilometers (seven miles) from the capital, Islamabad. President Pervez Musharraf also stays in the city.

On Dec. 27, opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and about 20 others died in a gun and bomb attack in Rawalpindi.

Prior to that, a series of attacks hit security forces and employees of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency, including two suicide bombings against a bus of ISI employees and an army checkpoint on Nov. 24 that killed up to 35 people.

There have been no claims of responsibility for the attacks, but authorities have blamed Taliban militants based near the Afghan border who pose a growing security threat across Pakistan.

The latest attack came just a week after a U.S. missile strike killed a top al-Qaeda commander, Abu Laith al-Libi, in a remote tribal village near the border with Afghanistan.

Although Pakistan and Washington have not formally confirmed the slaying of al-Libi, Pakistan has since then stepped up security to avoid possible retaliatory attacks by militants.

The killing of al-Libi, described by Pakistani intelligence officials as al-Qaeda's operational commander in the border region, was a boost for the U.S. in its battle against the terror network after a spate of pessimistic assessments of the coalition's campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan.


http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2...tan-bomb_N.htm
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Pakistan, India to reduce bus service frequency

* Senior official says limited number of passengers and strict visa policy affecting cross-border bus services

By Muhammad Bilal

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and India are likely to reduce the frequency of the cross-border bus service, as communication authorities from the two countries are expected to meet next week to discuss the issue.

A senior official of the communication ministry told Daily Times on Sunday that a standing committee formed to supervise all the operations regarding Amritsar-Nankana and Amritsar-Lahore bus services would hold its maiden meeting in New Delhi.

“The date of the meeting is still not confirmed but it is likely to be held in the second week of February. Our side will be headed by Additional Secretary Muhammad Abbas,” said the official, asking not to be named.

Affecting factors: He said some issues, including the limited number of passengers and strict visa policy were affecting the bus service.

The two countries launched the cross-border bus services to facilitate Sikh devotees.

The official said they were weighing two options, either to reduce the frequency of the bus service or amalgamate the routes of the two bus services.

“We will present these options in a meeting of the standing committee but there are more options as well, in order to make the bus service commercially viable,” he said.

There are some other issues concerning the operators of the bus services that will be discussed in detail at the meeting, he said.

Following the improvement in relations between India and Pakistan, the South Asian neighbours had launched a regular bus service between Amritsar and Nankana Sahib, keeping in view the sentiments of the people of Punjab who have been seeking a direct transport link to Nankana Sahib, birthplace of Sikhism founder Guru Nanak.

People had been facing tremendous difficulties obtaining visas to travel by the bus.

The bus diplomacy is one of the more tangible elements of the peace process between the nuclear-capable rivals, who nearly went to war over Kashmir in 2002.
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