MQM-H man gunned down in Karachi

By Our Staff Reporter
Saturday, 14 Aug, 2010

KARACHI: An activist of the Mohajir Qaumi Movement, commonly known as MQM-Haqiqi, was shot dead in the Quaidabad area in the early hours of Friday, police and party sources said.

They said that 45-year-old Wasim Ahmed alias Bhutto along with his wife and son was returning home on a motorbike when assailants riding a motorcycle intercepted him near Dawood Chali and one of them fired multiple shots at him.

“He died on the spot and the attackers escaped from the scene,” said an official at the Quaidabad police station. “He was living in Sherpao Colony in Landhi and returning home after seeing some relatives in the Korangi area. The body was shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for a post-mortem examination.”

Hospital sources said that the victim sustained two bullet wounds in the head and chest.

The victim was associated with the Afaq Ahmed-led faction of the MQM-H.

Though the police remained clueless about the motive behind the killing, a spokesman for the MQM-H said that the murder was part of ongoing targeted killing of the workers of the MQM-H.

“The victim had shifted to Sherparo Colony from his Malir C-Area residence due to death threats, as he was associated with the MQM-H Malir sector. He was father of four,” the spokesman added.



Five die, over 3,000 stranded in Larkana

By M.B. Kalhoro
Saturday, 14 Aug, 2010
LARKANA: Five people died in flood related incidents in different parts of the district on Friday amid reports more than 3,000 people were still trapped in flooded villages in kutcha area.

Shahida Khuhro, 17, drowned when a wooden boat carrying seven people to Nusrat loop dyke from inundated Mitho Khuhro village capsized. Her body was later taken out while others were rescued.

Shahzad, 8, and Anila, 10, drowned in the Indus after their village Ali Dino Jatoi opposite the Larkana-Khairpur bridge was submerged by flood.

Bashir Bughio drowned in the river near Karani village in Dokri taluka and Umeedan Mai died when roof of her house collapsed in a village near Balhreji.

To save Shahdadkot from flood water from a breach in Begari Canal, Sindh Minister for Food Mir Nadir Magsi in consultation with townspeople, decided to use all available resources to erect a protective embankment around the town.

A 15-member committee was looking after the entire work and the minister had advised people not to leave the town in the event of flood threat.

The rail link between Jacobabad and Shahdadkot, which was cut off after submersion of tracks at Nawab Jamali village, has not yet been restored and Shahdadkot-Quetta road damaged near Khokhar village has also not been repaired.

Superintendent Engineer of Saifullah Magsi branch Shafqat Wadho told Dawn that water from the breach in Begari Canal had reached Umeed Ali Jumejo village near Shahdadkot and it was spreading without any direction because of manmade obstacles.

The water would definitely take its natural course parallel to the flood protective embankment and finally drop in Manchhar Lake through Hammal Lake and Main Nara Valley Drain but obstructions had forced it to meander away, he said.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people have taken shelter at the road leading to Larkana-Khairpur bridge and alongside the Abad-Mungli loop dyke. The flood-hit families were waiting for food and tents to survive.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah who passed the road during a visit to the area instructed local party leaders to urgently set up a tent village to house them and provide them food. He promised to provide 80 tents to accommodate them, said Ayaz Soomro, Sindh Law Minister.

A group of displaced people wielding sticks burnt tyres and blocked Larkana-Khairpur road prior to arrival of the chief minister. They stopped the law minister’s vehicle and complained to him that hundreds of displaced people who took shelter on the road and the dyke were not provided food and shelter.

Terrorists attack Wana seminary, Kurram jirga

Dawn Report
Tuesday, 24 Aug, 2010

WANA / PARACHINAR: Thirty-two people, a former parliamentarian among them, were killed and at least 42 others injured in two terrorist attacks in tribal areas on Monday.

In the South Waziristan town of Wana, a suicide bomber blew himself up at the seminary of Maulana Noor Mohammad, former MNA of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Fazl) from Fata, killing the cleric and 24 others, local people said.

Thirty-six people were injured and five of them who had suffered critical injuries were airlifted to Rawalpindi.

An eyewitness said Maulana Noor Mohmmad was about to leave the Jamia mosque near Wana bazaar after Zohr prayers when a boy in his teens approached him to shake hands.

At that moment a huge blast took place. The mosque was badly damaged. People rushed to the seminary to rescue the injured and retrieve bodies from the rubble.

Official sources said the head and legs of the suicide bomber had been found.

Maulana Noor Mohammad was elected to the National Assembly in 1997 from South Waziristan.

He was an influential figure and brokered several deals between Taliban militants and the local administration. He was reported to have opposed the presence of Uzbek militants in the tribal region.

Our correspondent in Parachinar adds: Seven people were killed and six others wounded when an improvised explosive device planted near a government school exploded at a time when a jirga of elders of Khomasa area of Kurram tribal region was in progress.

The jirga was held to sort out a dispute between two groups over the ownership of the school. The powerful blast made a three to four feet crater.

The Assistant Political Agent of Kurram said the blast might have been caused by a time-bomb.

An eyewitness reported seeing thick smoke billowing from the place after the explosion and people running towards the area. Seven bodies lay on the ground while the injured cried for help.

Administration personnel cordoned off the area and launched search operation. No group claimed responsibility for any of the explosions till Monday evening.

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Be shak, Main tery liye he jeeta hoon or tery liye he marta hoon.....!(Baba Fareed)
____________Punjab Police Zindabaad____________

PESHAWAR: Nato choppers have yet another time encroached Pakistani land by launching fresh shelling in Kurrum Agency, Thursday morning, Geo News reported.

According to preliminary reports, at least three FC men lost their lives and as many sustained injuries in Nato-backed air strikes.

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Every Heart Sings a Song,Incomplete until another Heart Whisper it Back-Plato

Moderate scholar Dr Farooq killed in Mardan

By Jamal Hoti
Sunday, 03 Oct, 2010


MARDAN: Dr Mohammad Farooq Khan, a religious scholar and vice-chancellor of Swat Islamic University, was gunned down in his clinic here on Saturday. One of his assistants was also shot dead.

Police quoted eyewitnesses as saying that two armed men entered Dr Khan’s clinic, in Baghdada locality, saying that they were patients. But as soon as they saw the doctor, they opened fire, killing him on the spot.

Dr Farooq’s assistant, Mohammad Saleem, was shot dead by the assailants when he offered resistance. The assailants escaped.

(“One of the attackers fired several shots at Dr Farooq with his pistol. He died on the spot,” Waqif Khan, city police chief, told AFP by telephone.)

Dr Farooq was a psychiatrist by profession. He frequently took part in television talk shows at which he used to criticise militants and described suicide attacks as un-Islamic.

In his student days, he was an active member of the Islami Jamiat-i-Talaba. Later on, he took part in a general election on a Jamaat-i-Islami ticket. However, he was expelled from the Jamaat after writing a book. For some time he also remained associated with the Tehrik-i-Insaf.

President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Owais Ghani and Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti condemned the killing, terming it a great loss for the nation.

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Be shak, Main tery liye he jeeta hoon or tery liye he marta hoon.....!(Baba Fareed)
____________Punjab Police Zindabaad____________

RPPs may prove to be white elephant

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By Khalid Mustafa
ISLAMABAD: The 10 Rental Power Plants (RPPs) of 1,491 MW, which are to be installed by January 2011, will have adverse impact of six percent raise on existing power tariff in 2011-12 and the fuel consumption in power sector would also surge by 2.9 million tonnes to 10.3 million tonnes from 9.1 million tonnes.
“If kept in view the existing price of furnace oil of Rs48,000 per tonne, the additional impact of 2.9 million tonnes of fuel would stand over Rs 139 billion that would be reflected in the electricity bills.”
According to the latest working, RPPs, along with the impact of Rs139 billion, will cause 6 percent raise in power tariff, a senior official at Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) told The News. This means that the RPPs, he said, would not only jack up the economic miseries of the 173 million countrymen, but would also add fuel to inflation across the country.
Earlier, the impact in power tariff was worked out by 3.1 percent if the said 10 RPPs were installed. Now this impact has increased by 100 percent just because of the increase in fuel raise that stands at Rs 48,000 per tonne.
In 2009-10, about 9.1 million tonnes of furnace oil (6.5 million tonnes fuel was imported while 2.6 million tonnes was purchased from local refineries) was consumed for power generation. However, in 2008-09, the fuel consumption stood at 7.9 million tonnes out of which 4.8 million tonnes of fuel was imported whereas 3.1 million tonnes was purchased from the refineries.
The official said that in the ongoing year, there stood a heavy reliance on the furnace oil for power generation as some of the gas fields had been badly affected by the flood and now the winter season had set in, owing to which the demand for gas would also surge manifold.“And on top of it, the 10 RPPs will be having lethal impact not only on the import bill, but also on power tariff.”
Six percent addition in power tariff would be other than the increase of 27 percent power tariff as agreed with the World Bank and the ADB, which is required to bridge the Rs 226 billion deficit. And on October 1, the government to this effect has increased the power tariff by 2 percent and to achieve the target to erase the gap of Rs 226 bn, the government has planned to raise power tariff by 2 to 4 percent monthly in the next 8 months.
This year, the government may install six RPPs and some will be installed in next year as banks have refused to provide funding to some rental power plants keeping in view the liquidity constraints. One of the top officials at the Ministry of Water and Power also confirmed, when contacted, saying that some banks had refused to fund some RPPs. However, he refused to name the RPPs. To a question, he said that the Government of Pakistan had started charging the penalties for the delay and if they failed to come up with financial closures, the government would withdraw the guarantees along with penalties. However, he hoped that the said RPPs would be installed in 2011.
According to the latest data available with The News, Gulf Power Ltd, Eimnabad, with capacity of 62 MW and Techno Rental Power Plant are functional and their projected furnace oil requirement stands at 25,935 million tonnes of fuel in 2009-10.
However, once the 10 RPPs come on stream, which include Gulf Power Ltd, Tecno Rental Power Faisalabad, Karkey, Karachi, Reshma Power Lahore, Young Gen Power, Faisalabad, Techno Rental Power Plant, Ruba Energy, Sialkot Rental Power Plants, Kamoki Energy, Tapal Family and Walter, Jamshoro, the fuel consumption would increase by 2.9 million tonne per annum.

Nightmare if govt falls ‘Pakistan steps up building new N-reactor’

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WASHINGTON: Pakistan appears to have stepped up construction of a new atomic reactor that could help the country produce easier-to-deliver nuclear weapons, a US research institute said.
Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal is one of the most sensitive topics for the United States as it tries to improve relations with its frontline partner in the campaign against Islamic extremism. The Institute for Science and International Security, a private US group, which is critical of nuclear weapons, said Tuesday it observed progress at Pakistan’s tightly guarded Khushab site, which is key to plutonium production.
In a September satellite image of the site in Punjab province, the institute said it observed a completed row of mechanical draft cooling towers at a third reactor, where construction began in 2006.
It marks a faster pace than for the second reactor, where such towers appeared after six years of construction, it said. “Based on what I see in the image, it wouldn’t surprise me if they started it up in 2011,” said Paul Brannan, a senior analyst at the institute.
The institute noticed steam from the second reactor in a December 31 image, indicating it was running. It did not see steam in the latest image, but said reactors were not operated continuously during early phases and that weather conditions may have reduced visibility.
Pakistan declared itself a nuclear weapons state in 1998, days after its historic rival India carried out similar atom bomb tests. Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal originally was based on highly enriched uranium.
Western analysts believe that China initially assisted Pakistan in developing Khushab nuclear site to produce plutonium, which can be miniaturized for cruise missiles — presumably aimed at India.
“Plutonium bombs give the ability to make smaller, lighter or more powerful weapons, and also more deliverable weapons, and I suspect that’s what Pakistan wants,” Brannan said. Pakistan, which experts estimate now has up to 100 nuclear weapons, has been adamant that its nuclear weapons are in safe hands and President Barack Obama has publicly concurred.
But the United States hinted at its frustration on Tuesday at the United Nations, where Pakistan has blocked a resumption of negotiations for an agenda in global nuclear disarmament talks.
Pakistan opposes a proposed Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty, which would limit access to highly enriched uranium and plutonium used to make nuclear weapons. Pakistan believes the treaty would lock in a nuclear imbalance in favour of India, with which it has fought three full-fledged wars since independence in 1947.
Rose Gottemoeller, the US assistant secretary of state in charge of arms control, warned “our patience will not last forever.” “I have to tell you that I expressed some disappointment at the fact that the conference on disarmament over the last years has been less energetic in terms of pursuing its overall agenda,” she told reporters.
Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, visiting Washington in April for a nuclear security summit, said his country had tight control over its weapons and urged the United States to offer civilian nuclear cooperation of the type it has with India.
Joseph Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund, which supports a nuclear weapons-free world, said the current safety of Pakistan’s arsenal was not the issue. “It’s the security of the government that worries me. If the government falls that’s when the nightmare comes,” Cirincione said.
“American politicians and policymakers live in a constant state of denial about Pakistan. They see a mess and then they look away and pretend it’s all going to get better somehow,” he said.

Pakistan army chief orders inquiry into shooting video
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DECLAN WALSH in Islamabad

PAKISTAN’S ARMY chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, has ordered an investigation into a video that purports to show a group of soldiers gunning down six blindfolded men in the country’s troubled northwest.

The video has renewed concerns about military human rights violations during operations against the Taliban. If authenticated it could jeopardise $2 billion (€1.4 billion) in US military subsidies to Pakistan, under a law that prohibits funding of armies with a record of gross human rights abuses. Gen Kayani said yesterday that a board of inquiry would determine the veracity of the video, including the identity of the killers in Pakistani army uniforms. But he added that in the past, Pakistani militants had posed as soldiers.

In the 5½-minute video, soldiers line up six blindfolded men, some apparently teenagers, in a wooded area. A soldier strolls up to the men and addresses them individually. Moments later a squad of at least six soldiers unleashes a volley of automatic gunfire. The detainees fall, some moaning in pain. – ( Guardian service)
This News Item was published in The Irish Newspaper on 9-10-2010

Murderer’s murderer murdered

Monday, 25 Oct, 2010

RAWALPINDI: Police Sub-inspector Mohammad Shah Gul, who had shot dead Said Akbar, the assassin of Khan Liaquat Ali Khan, in Rawalpindi nine years ago, was killed last night by some unidentified persons in his village Madina in District Gujrat. Shah, who was on duty in Liaquat Gardens on Oct 16, 1951 when the prime minister fell victim to Said Akbar’s bullets at a public meeting, had fired all the six bullets in his gun at the assassin who had died on the spot.

Later his action to fire on the assassin evoked controversy as it was argued in the Liaquat assassination enquiry that with the death of Said Akbar, the motives, if any, of the assassination of the first prime minister of Pakistan could not be established.

Sub-inspector Shah was suspended from service after the assassination of Mr Liaquat, but was later reinstated. Since retired from service, he was now reportedly building a textile mill near Gujrat where he was attacked and killed with hatchets last night.It is stated that Mohammd Shah was asleep in his under-construction mill when he heard shots being fired close by. As he came out, he was attacked and his body is said to have been cut into pieces. The assailants made good their escape under the cover of darkness. No arrest has so far been made.

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Be shak, Main tery liye he jeeta hoon or tery liye he marta hoon.....!(Baba Fareed)
____________Punjab Police Zindabaad____________

Zulhaj moon sighted; Eid on Nov 17

Updated at: 1742 PST,
Sunday, November 07, 2010

ISLAMABAD: Zulhaj moon has been sighted in Islamabad, therefore, Eid-ul-Azha will be celebrated across the country on November 17 (Wednesday), Geo News reported Sunday.

Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee’s meeting is still in progress in Islamabad which will make a formal announcement in this regard later.

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Be shak, Main tery liye he jeeta hoon or tery liye he marta hoon.....!(Baba Fareed)
____________Punjab Police Zindabaad____________

23 November 2010
The Gambia has said it is cutting all ties with Iran and ordered all Iranian government representatives to leave within 48 hours.

The two countries, both of which have faced criticism over their human rights records, have had fairly close ties.Officials from the small West African nation gave no reason for the move.But last month Nigeria said it had intercepted an illegal arms shipment in Lagos from Iran, apparently destined for The Gambia.The Nigerian authorities discovered the weapons, including rocket launchers and grenades, in containers labelled as building materials.

The France-based shipping company CMA CGM which transported the shipment said it was hidden in containers and attempts were made to send it to The Gambia before the Nigerian police seized it.
Nigeria has reported the seizure to the UN Security Council.

Iran is under UN sanctions because of its nuclear programme and is banned from supplying, selling or transferring arms.

"All government of The Gambia projects and programmes, which were [being] implemented in co-operation with the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, have been cancelled," the Gambian foreign ministry said in a statement.

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Sangdil Riwajoon ki ya Imart-e-Kohna Toot bhi Tou Skti hay
Yeh Aseer Sehzadi Choot bhi tou Skti hay