Jundullah claims 600 suicide bombers present in Karachi

KARACHI: Six hundred suicide bombers are present in Karachi and they are planning a major attack, revealed Qasim Toori and Danish alias Talha during interrogations by law-enforcement agencies. Most of the suicide bombers are also former students of Islamabad’s Lal Masjid. The two militants, who were captured along with women and children during a raid in Sector-17A, Shah Latif, on January 29, have been handed over to the Anti-Violent Crime Unit (AVCU). A third militant, who was killed during the raid, has been identified as Gohar Muhammad alias Abrar Keamari Wallah, according to Special Investigations Unit (SIU) DSP Wasif Qureshi. Qureshi declined to comment. However, a source privy to the interrogation told Daily Times that the militants had confessed, “Around 600 Jundullah militants are present in Karachi. They are mentally prepared and trained to commit suicide attacks.” They confessed that they had robbed foreign banks and dispatched the money to their headquarters in Wana, from where their needs for weapons, explosives and other necessities were being met. The source added that law-enforcement personnel have also taken into custody two brothers, Abu Abdullah and Gohar Muhammad. Abdullah and Gohar are physically unfit, and it is rumoured that the brothers were to carry out suicide attacks. faraz khan

Fate of Pakistan pivotal to world’s future: Armstrong

* Says rapid secularism in Muslim countries gives rise to aggression

ISLAMABAD: The future of Pakistan, and how it balances the need for Muslim symbols with the secularism needed to run a modern state, will be important for the future of the world, according to historian and theologian Karen Armstrong.

The country is nuclear-armed and is reaping the grim harvest of “extremism” resulting from the West’s support for a religious war to drive the Soviet Union out of neighbouring Afghanistan, says Armstrong.

In such circumstances, Pakistan has a big question to answer, “How do you become a secular Muslim state?”

“Pakistan is on the frontier of this present struggle,” Armstrong told Reuters during a visit to Islamabad to celebrate the golden jubilee of the Agha Khan, the spiritual leader of the Ismaili Muslim sect.

“I think it is not so much important for the future of Islam as [it is] important for the future of the world,” said the 63-year-old Briton.

Both sides try to interpret the words of Pakistan’s founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah to suit their ends, she said. Jinnah died a year after the country was formed. “The kind of conversations I have about this topic remind me very much of conversations I had in Israel, another secular state born out of displacement and tragedy,” Armstrong said.

Armstrong said Israelis faced a similar struggle between secularists in tune with the vision of their country’s founder, David Ben-Gurion, and ultra-orthodox Jews, some of them militant.

Rapid secularism: The separation of religion in the state represents a modern, major change in societies where religion is a way of life, she said. When it happens too quickly, people feel threatened and if attacked through the media or by force, they become aggressive, said Armstrong.

“Most of these extreme movements are rooted in profound fear, a fear of annihilation,” she said, stressing that the same dynamics play out in Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

“In small-town America there are Christians who believe they are going to be wiped out by a so-called liberal establishment,” she added. Armstrong didn’t see militancy in Pakistan’s tribal lands, or Hamas or Hezbollah movements, or even Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda, as being motivated principally by religion. reuters

Police arrest bomber plotting to kill Fazl

* 16-year-old arrested from DI Khan
* Search for 2 other suspects on

PESHAWAR: Police arrested a teenager who had confessed to plotting a suicide attack to kill Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, security officials told Reuters on Sunday.

The 16-year-old boy was arrested late on Saturday in Dera Ismail Khan where the JUI-F chief lives.

“The boy was caught ... with a vest and explosives,” an intelligence official said anonymously. He said the would-be attacker had admitted that Fazl was his target.

The JUI-F chief is believed to have angered militants by opposing clerics who governed a radical mosque in Islamabad, before commandos stormed it in July. More than 100 people were killed, including many gunmen.

Two other intelligence officials confirmed a youth planning to become a suicide bomber and attack Fazl had been arrested.

The chief of police in Dera Ismail Khan said a boy had been arrested but denied he was part of a plot to kill Fazl. The JUI-F chief was not immediately available for comment.

Other suspects: Police official Sarfraz Khan told AFP that they were looking for two other suspects in this regard. The government has warned all politicians that they face the danger of attacks in the run-up to the February 18 general election.

Former Pakistan People’s Party chairwoman Benazir Bhutto was killed in a suicide attack on December 27.

Last month police arrested 15-year-old Aitezaz Shah in Dera Ismail Khan along with his “handler”. He allegedly told police he was part of a back-up squad tasked with assassinating the former premier. agencies

Bus service between Quetta and Mashhad from March


ISLAMABAD, Feb 3: The caretaker Minister of Communications barrister Habibur Rehman has said that the Quetta-Mashhad bus service will be launched in March.

He said in an interview on Sunday that arrangements for the bus service had been finalised with the Iranian government. The Noshki-Taftan road is being rehabilitated to ensure that the bus service is launched on time.He said that the government attached top priority to developing and extending communications network in the country.

Mr Rehman said that under President Pervez Musharraf’s Vision 2030, the communications sector would play a key role in socio-economic development of the country.

“The road network to be developed under the vision would not only reduce distances but also help boost economy and create employment opportunities in the country,” he added.

The minister also said the main task of the caretaker government was to hold free, fair, transparent and peaceful elections on Feb 18.

However, he added, continuity of various development projects was also the responsibility of the caretakers.

He said that the government had earmarked Rs29,612 million in the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2007-08 for the communications division for its various ongoing and new projects while Rs25,040 million had been allocated for the National Highway Authority (NHA).

Speaking about the NHA portfolio, he said at present the authority was working on 68 projects. Early completion of the Lyari Expressway project, Lowari Tunnel project, Rehabilitation of Karakoram Highway, Gwadar-Turbat-Hoshab Motorway project (M-8), Surab-Hoshab Road (N-85) were the top priorities of the ministry, he added.—APP

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

Unofficial ‘ceasefire’ in SouthWaziristan: Troops on the move, insists ISPR

By Zulfiqar Ali

PESHAWAR, Feb 3: An unofficial ceasefire agreed between security forces and militants has been holding ground in the troubled South Waziristan tribal region since Saturday, according to a tribal parliamentarian.

However, the ISPR denies there has been any truce and says that security forces are advancing and pursuing their operation against militants in the Mehsud-dominated areas.

ISPR Director General Maj-Gen Athar Abbas told Dawn that incidents of intermittent firing had been taking place in the area and there was no ceasefire.

“Not at all, forces are consolidating their positions in the region and operation is still going on.”

Senator Saleh Shah told this correspondent that the ceasefire between security forces and supporters of Baitullah Mehsud had been holding since Saturday. “The ceasefire has not been officially announced, but fighting has stopped now,” he claimed.

He said that back-door talks were under way to bring the two sides to the negotiation table. Locals said that the guns had been silent over the past two days.Troops, backed by tanks and helicopters, had launched an operation against the militants in several areas of the Mehsud tribe last month, killing scores of militants. Many soldiers also lost their lives. Hundreds of local people were displaced by the conflict.

Meanwhile, sources said that the government had decided to establish a relief camp at Azam Kot in the Frontier Region of Jandola for the displaced people.

A large number of families are still fleeing the conflict-hit areas and heading towards Tank, Dera Ismail Khan and the adjoining North Waziristan tribal region.

An official said that the political administration of South Waziristan had asked the Fata Secretariat, Peshawar, to provide some 5,000 tents for the displaced people to be sheltered in the proposed relief camp.

Relief activities are likely to be started in the camp from Monday and the displaced people would be provided tents, food and health facilities.

He said that even 10,000 tents would not be enough keeping in view the continuing influx of people. Many of the families had taken shelter with their relatives.

The authorities would provide relief goods only to the families which would register themselves with the authorities.

The senator said that roughly 150,000 people had left their homes in the Mehsud areas and moved to other areas. He said that people in Tiarza tehsil, Berwand, Sararogha, and Kaniguram had left their homes for safer places because of relentless shelling. A large number of people have migrated to Karachi and Hyderabad.

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

ISLAMABAD, 5 February 2008 — The secretary-general of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Qaid), Syed Mushahid Hussain, told the BBC yesterday that the government has decided to free Pakistan’s nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan from house arrest after general election.

Khan was detained in 2004 for his alleged involvement in unauthorized export of nuclear material and centrifuges to several countries. He appeared over state-run PTV and confessed that he had been involved in unlawful export of nuclear material to various countries through a Dubai-based outlet. He was later granted presidential pardon, but was kept under house arrest. It was unclear on what authority Mushahid Hussain made the statement about the next government freeing the scientist when the outcome of the Feb. 18 election was not known.

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JEDDAH, 5 February 2008 — Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has reiterated that his country will continue to extend its moral, political and diplomatic support for a “just and peaceful settlement” of the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the wishes of the Kashmiri people.

“The Kashmir issue remains on the agenda of the UN as an unfulfilled obligation. We remain engaged in a sincere, sustained and purposeful dialogue with India on Kashmir. We believe that with sincerity, courage and flexibility, we can achieve a solution to the long-standing Kashmir dispute,” he said in a message on the occasion of Kashmir Solidarity Day, which is being observed today.

Musharraf said that his four-point proposal was aimed at breaking the decades-old deadlock and demonstrating Pakistan’s readiness to work constructively to find a solution acceptable to all parties, especially the Kashmiri people.

“Pakistan has always stressed the need to end violence and human rights abuses in Indian-occupied Kashmir. We firmly believe that an enabling environment is necessary for the success of the peace process. Several Kashmir-related confidence-building measures initiated by us seek to bring some relief to the Kashmiris living on both sides of the line of control (LoC). Today, we stand in solidarity with our Kashmiri brothers and sisters and assure them of our full support in their just struggle for self-determination,” he added.

Pakistani Prime Minister Mohammedmian Soomro said the right of the Kashmiri people to self-determination was among the first to be recognized by the United Nations. “Nearly six decades later, this commitment by the international community remains unfulfilled. Lasting peace can only be achieved once the international community and India honor the pledge made to the Kashmiri people,” he said and expressed his confidence that the invaluable sacrifices of Kashmiris would not go in vain and that justice and freedom will eventually dawn in Kashmir. Expatriate Pakistanis will express their firm support for the “just cause of the freedom movement of the Kashmiri people” at a special function organized by the Kashmir Committee at the residence of Pakistan Consul General Zaigham Uddin Azam in Jeddah tomorrow. Ambassador Izzat Kamil mufti, special representative of the secretary-general of the Organization of the Islamic Conference on Jammu and Kashmir will be the chief guest.


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Zardari claims he’s best for PM’s job

By Anwar Iqbal

WASHINGTON, Feb 5: Pakistan People’s Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari has indicated that he may be the next prime minister if the Feb 18 elections bring the party to power.

In an interview to Newsweek, Mr Zardari based his claim to the country’s highest office to Benazir Bhutto’s will who, he said, clearly named him as her successor.

“There is not one single personality [in the party], apart from me, who anybody even knows,” said Mr Zardari while explaining why he thought he should be the prime minister. “No one else has a consensus.”

Mr Zardari, described by the Newsweek as Ms Bhutto’s ‘controversial widower’, also gave a copy of his wife’s handwritten will to the magazine.

In the will, Ms Bhutto addresses “the officials and members” of the PPP and writes: “I would like my husband Asif Ali Zardari to lead you in this interim period until you and he decide what is best.”

The magazine, however, notes that shortly after his wife’s assassination on Dec 27, Mr Zardari named his and Bhutto’s 19-year-old son, Bilawal, party chairman and indicated that the party’s prime-ministerial candidate would be vice-chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim.

But in a phone interview with Newsweek on Monday, Mr Zardari suggested he might be interested in the job, saying that he had the widest name recognition in the party.

The magazine also noted that a whispering campaign at home that he might not be Ms Bhutto’s legitimate heir, forced Mr Zardari to release a copy of her political will.

In his first news conference after his wife’s death Mr Zardari had refused to release the will for public, saying that it was a ‘personal property’ of his son and no one else had the right to see it.

The Newsweek quotes two long-time associates and loyalists of Ms Bhutto’s as saying that they have no doubt it is her handwriting. “I know her style,” said Mark Siegel, her long-time friend and Washington-based representative. “She wrote this document.”

The magazine notes that many election observers, including Bush administration officials, believe the PPP will dominate the voting, in part because of the anguish over Ms Bhutto’s murder.

But US officials, already concerned about Pakistan’s stability in the wake of widespread protests against President Musharraf’s rule, worry about Mr Zardari’s prominence in the party.

“A former playboy and polo star, Zardari is considered a mistrusted — and divisive — figure in Pakistan,” the report points out. “He is widely blamed for the tangle of corruption that strangled and cut short Bhutto’s terms in office.”

Mr Zardari, asked whether he was now interested in the prime ministership, at first demurred. “In order to be prime minister you have to be a member of Parliament. I’m not running for this Parliament at the moment,” he said. But, Mr Zardari added that the party leadership would ultimately decide who the PM candidate should be. “We’re not saying I am [one] or saying I’m not,” he said. He also argued that he had earned credibility by having gone to prison on what he says are trumped-up charges of corruption.

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Aarwaa

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

‘Waziristan-based terrorists may target political figures’

By Mohammad Asghar

RAWALPINDI, Feb 5: Intelligence agencies have warned that Waziristan-based terrorists may target American and British diplomats and nationals and VVIPs, including President Pervez Musharraf and political figures like Pervez Elahi, Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, Mohammad Ali Durrani, Amir Muqam, Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, a former MNA from Sialkot.

Sources said that a report containing information in this regard had been sent to all provincial governments and the Islamabad administration.

After receiving the alert, the federal government ordered police all over the country, including Azad Jammu and Kashmir and the Northern Areas, to beef up security for VVIPs and foreign nationals.

According to the report, Taliban leaders have formed a group of seven or eight young men from Waziristan to carry out suicide attacks.

The sources said the report identified four of the terrorists by name, age and physical descriptions.

The source said prominent political figures might be attacked through cars packed with explosives or explosive devices.

The report suggested that terrorist had planned to target Maulana Fazl during his election tour to Dera Ismail Khan. The government had already informed the JUI-F leader about the possibility of a terrorist attack.

Intelligence reports suggested Dr Firdous might be targeted by a Mardan-based suicide bomber aged between 20 and 22 and sporting a short beard.

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Aarwaa

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

Benazir’s handwritten will out

By M.B. Kalhoro

NAUDERO: The Pakistan People’s Party made public on Tuesday the political will of Ms Benazir Bhutto in which she named her husband Asif Ali Zardari to succeed her, setting to rest speculations that she did not hand the party leadership to him, but had instead nominated their 19-year-old son Bilawal as her successor.

The will was released by PPP’s Central Information Secretary Sherry Rehman at a press conference here.

In the handwritten, one-page document dated Oct 16, 2007, two days before her return to the country from exile, Ms Bhutto urged supporters to keep up her struggle.

“I fear for the future of Pakistan. Please continue the fight against extremism, dictatorship, poverty and ignorance,” she wrote.

“I would like my husband Asif Ali Zardari to lead you in this interim period until you and he decide what is best. I say this because he is a man of courage and honour,” Ms Bhutto said.

The will said that Mr Zardari “spent 11.5 years in prison without bending despite torture. He has the political stature to keep our party united.”

Ms Rehman said: “Some enemies wanted to create chaos in the party by spreading false speculations about the contents of the will.”

“That is why the party high command has decided to share the will with the public and media to foil all such controversies and keep the party united.”

She said it was Ms Bhutto’s ‘political will’. Her ‘personal will’, dealing with her assets, was private, she said.

She avoided answering a question about the delay in releasing the will. She defended the decision of the party’s Central Executive Committee to nominate Mr Zardari as co-chairman, adding that the move was aimed at keeping the party united and foiling designs of its opponents.

Ms Rehman said the PPP would stick to its demand for a UN probe into Ms Bhutto’s assassination. She said recent visits of PPP delegations to the US had evoked a positive response.

About Mr Amin Fahim’s candidature for the premiership, Ms Rehman said the party’s CEC would take a decision about it later.

She said there was no mention in Ms Bhutto’s will about Mr Fahim’s candidature for the prime ministership.

She said the PPP would resume its election campaign on Feb 8 after the Chehlum of Ms Bhutto.

She said the party was participating in elections ‘under protest’ and talked about numerous complaints about pre-poll rigging.

In reply to a question, she said a book written by Ms Bhutto would be launched in Islamabad on Feb 12.

AGENCIES ADD: PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar said the will had been released to quash speculations about its contents.

He said questions were being asked why the will was not made public at the time of her funeral.

“Everybody now can see it. It’s her own writing and any doubt or misgivings about leadership of the party will be set aside,” Mr Babar said.

He said it was not a deliberate attempt to strengthen Mr Zardari’s position within the party.

“His credentials as party leader were already polished up” by Ms Bhutto’s endorsement in her will and by the party leadership in December, the PPP spokesman said.

He said the party would discuss who it might put forward to lead a new government only when the election results were in.

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

A Pakistani Army helicopter crashed yesterday in the country’s northwest, killing three generals and five other soldiers.

The aircraft went down in South Waziristan, said Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, the director general of the Inter-Services Public Relations Directorate.

The area has been the scene of intense fighting between Pakistani forces and armed rebels, but Maj. Gen. Abbas said initial reports indicated the crash occurred due to a technical fault in the helicopter.

He said the pilot had reported an unspecified technical problem before the crash, which occurred near the road that links Wana, South Waziristan’s main town, with Jandola, another town in the area.

Weather in the area was “not bad” at the time, said Maj. Gen. Abbas. The crash victims were identified as Maj. Gen. Javed Sultan, Brig. Afzal Cheema, Brig. Saeed Khan, Lt. Col. Omar Farooq, Capt. Shehzad, Capt. Naveed, Capt. Haroon and Naik Amir.

Maj. Gen. Javed Sultan was in charge of anti-Taleban operations in the region.

The crash took place hours after Baitullah Mehsud, a pro-Taleban commander blamed for the murder of former Premier Benazir Bhutto, declared an indefinite cease-fire with government forces. “We have announced a cease-fire for an indefinite period because the government stopped attacking us,” Maulvi Omar, the spokesman for Tehreek-e-Taleban Pakistan, told news agencies by telephone.

“Baitullah Mehsud has ordered his people to stop attacks against Pakistani forces from Waziristan to Swat and other areas of Pakistan,” he added. “It is not a formal agreement with the government forces but we have done it voluntarily.”

Maulvi Omar said the cease-fire decision was taken at a shoura (consultative meeting) chaired by Baitullah Mehsud. “The government has shown leniency over the past four or five days,” he said. “That’s why we are declaring a cease-fire.”

However, Maj. Gen. Abbas said the army would keep up operations against the militant groups in the region. “There is no formal information conveyed to us from them about a cease-fire. When they stopped firing we thought it was because of the severe weather conditions in the region,” he said. “Our position is very clear — the operation has not ended, it will continue until the objectives of the operations are achieved,” he added.

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Gunmen on a motorbike shot dead an ethnic Pashtun politician in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi yesterday, raising tensions ahead of elections later this month, police said.

The attackers ambushed the car of Awami National Party Vice President Fazlur Rehman Atakhel in the city’s Sohrab Goth area and then fled, police official Javed Afridi told AFP. Atakhel, about 50 years old, died on the spot, Afridi said.

Witnesses said unrest gripped the Pashtun-dominated neighborhood after the killing and angry supporters of Atakhel’s ethnic nationalist party opened fire in the air. Groups of protesters torched a bus, pelted passing cars with stones and set up roadblocks using burning tires, local residents said.

Pakistan is due to hold general elections on Feb. 18. The polls were delayed for six weeks after the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto on Dec. 27. The Interior Ministry said yesterday British detectives will give their first report to the Pakistani government this week on their findings in Benazir’s murder.

A team of forensic and explosive experts from Scotland Yard spent more than two weeks in the country after President Pervez Musharraf sought British help following Benazir’s killing.

“They informed us that they would submit their report by Friday,” Interior Ministry Spokesman Brig. Javed Cheema told AFP. The British investigators are due to arrive here today from London.

British Embassy spokesman Aidan Liddle also confirmed the report would be presented to the government this week.

Saudi-Pak Naval Exercise

Cmdr. West Fleet of the Royal Saudi Naval Forces Rear Adm. Abdullah S. Al-Sultan said in Karachi Saudi and Pakistani navies enjoy decades-long cooperation and the joint exercise Nasim Al-Bahr is bound to strengthen cooperation between the two navies.

Speaking at a reception hosted by Saudi Defense Attache in Pakistan Abdullah Saeed Al-Ghamdi at a hotel, Adm. Abdullah said special forces were also taking part in the 9th edition of the joint naval exercise currently under way.

Adm. Abdullah said the exercise would make “our ties stronger and we are looking forward to improving it further.” Cmdr. Logistics of Pakistan Navy Rear Adm. Muhammad Shafi said a strong Saudi delegation and seven ships were taking part in the exercise. He said the exercise will continue till Feb. 9.


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