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Monday, June 24, 2013

Fierce gunbattle in Srinagar ahead of PM's visit,Four awans killed

Four army jawans were killed on Friday in a gunbattle with suspected Hizbul Mujahideen militants in Pulwama district, 45 km south of Srinagar — an incident that gave a blow to chief minister Omar Abdullah’s efforts to revoke the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from Jammu and Kashmir.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Monday announced that each member of the Indian team will be awarded a cash prize of Rs.1 crore for winning the Champions Trophy Sunday night.

Led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni, India beat England by five runs in a thrilling final at Edgbaston, Birmingham to be crowned Champions Trophy winners for the second time.

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - A Syrian Arab Army unit killed a notorious foreign terrorist from the FSA called Abdul Rahman Ayachi, the son of a Wahhabi cleric Bassam Ayachi, in Sinjar, near Maarat Noman in Idleb countryside north of Syria in what Nusra Front terrorist organization called ‘Fatah Mubeen’ battles, or ‘Clear Opening!’.

Actor Salman Khan will be tried for culpable homicide for a hit-and-run accident in 2002 in which one person were killed and four were injured in Mumbai.

If convicted for this charge, Mr Khan, who was not in court today, faces a 10-year jail term. He has been given a month to appear in court.

OHANNESBURG: Nelson Mandela is in a critical condition, South Africa's presidency said Sunday, a sudden and significant deterioration in the hospitalised hero's health.

“The condition of former president Nelson Mandela, who is still in hospital in Pretoria, has become critical,” said presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj, 16 days after Mandela was admitted for treatment for a lung infection.President Jacob Zuma visited Mandela on Sunday evening and was told by doctors “that the former president's condition had become critical over the past 24 hours.”

PESHAWAR: Unknown gunmen on Monday shot dead the Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) traffic and his driver in Peshawar’s Faqirabad area in a firing incident.

Sources told Dawn.com that gunmen opened fire on DSP Amanullah Khan and his driver Amjad when they were on their way to office on Faqirabad's Dalazak road.

The deceased were subsequently shifted to Lady Reading Hospital.

PATNA: Chief minister Nitish Kumar, who is looking for expansion of his Muslim vote bank after split in NDA, got a shot in his arm when the religious head of Ajmer Sharif dargah, one of the most important Muslim shrines in the country, praised the CM and called him 'commander' of secular forces.

GILGIT: The security forces have rounded up over 37 suspected persons during the search operation launched in different villages after killing of eleven persons including 10 foreign tourists at a base camp of Nanga Parbat in Diameer district of Gilgit-Baltistan on Sunday.

The suspected persons taken into custody have been shifted to unidentified place for interrogation.

DIG Gilgit-Baltistan told media police, army and scouts are taking part in search operation.

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif dropped the strongest hint on Monday to file a written request before the Supreme Court to try former military ruler General (retd) Pervez Musharraf for treason under Article 6 of the Constitution.

It is pertinent to mention that if convicted, Musharraf can face a possible death penalty or life imprisonment.

Addressing the National Assembly (NA), Nawaz Sharif said that the former president had committed treason by abrogating the Constitution and he should be tried under the law.

MADHOPUR (PATHANKOT): Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal on Sunday made a full-throated declaration of support for BJP election campaign committee chairman NarendraModi saying the NDA was a united and ShiromaniAkaliDal would contest the 2014 LokSabha polls under Modi's leadership.

"Punjab and I feel it's a privilege to have you addressing your first rally after taking charge. You are our flag-bearer now," the Akali patriarch said at a rally to mark the 60th 'martyrdom day' of Jan Sangh founder Shyama Prasad Mukherjee.

Ten Islamist militants get death in Bangladesh

Ten militants of a banned Bangladeshi Islamist outfit were sentenced to death on Thursday by a fast-track court here after they were found guilty of involvement in a deadly suicide bombing in 2005 that claimed eight lives.

The court handed down death penalty to 10 operatives of the banned Islamist outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) for the 2005 suicide bomb attack that killed eight people, including lawyers, at suburban Gazipur.

LAHORE: The government of Pakistan's Punjab province has justified its allocation of over Rs 61 million to the largest centre of the Jamaat-ud-Dawah, saying the funds are needed to continue the services being provided to people by the facility.

A spokesman of the Punjab government said the Punjab government had taken "administrative control of the welfare institutions being run by (the JuD) in compliance with Security Council resolutions of the United Nations".

ISLAMABAD: A Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MNA called for the release of Malik Mumtaz Qadri, the man who gunned down Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer in 2011.

PTI MNA from Mardan, Mujahid Ali Khan made the demand during a debate on the budget in the National Assembly.

Khan had won the NA-11 seat in the May 11 elections.

Singapore's prime minister has warned that the haze engulfing the city could last for weeks, as air pollution in the city-state soared to record levels.

At 13:00 local time (05:00 GMT) Singapore's pollution standards index reached 371, breaking all previous records and reaching hazardous levels.

The haze is caused by illegal forest fires in Indonesia's Sumatra island.

Former chairman of the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) Tauqir Sadiq – the principal accused in a multibillion-dollar scandal – is expected to return to Pakistan shortly after he voluntarily surrendered himself, documents available with The Express Tribune revealed.

National Accountability Bureau (NAB) officials said that a special team will leave for Abu Dhabi soon to bring the former Ogra chairman back after completing the legal formalities. The development comes after an Abu Dhabi court ordered deportation of Tauqir Sadiq on June 3.

The Himalayan tragedy continued to unfold today with fears that thousands of pilgrims staying in 90 rest houses may have been washed away in flash floods even as rescue operations were today stepped up with additional IAF choppers pressed into service to evacuate stranded people in Kedarnath area.

In its report to the Union Home Ministry, the State Disaster Mitigation and Management Centre has said that casualties in the affected areas may run into thousands with about 90 'dharamashalas' (rest houses for pilgrims) swept away in the flash floods. However, the toll has been kept officially at 150.

SOUTH WAZIRISTAN: Pakistan Army will stay in Waziristan till complete peace is restored, said Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani on Thursday.

According to a Radio Pakistan report, Kayani said “the army is engaged in the area to bring peace and provide protection to the people so that they could live peacefully.”

Kayani was speaking during the inauguration ceremony of 50-kilometre-long road from Wana to Angoor Aadda.

The United States has not scheduled talks with the Taliban, the State Department said, after reports that discussions with the Afghan insurgent group could begin this week in Qatar.

"Reports of a meeting being scheduled or on the books aren't accurate," spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters, saying Washington had "never confirmed" the date and place of any specific meeting.

Close to 63,000 people remained stranded or cut off in rain-ravaged Uttarakhand on Wednesday as the toll touched 150 and the rain finally let up after three days, helping authorities step up rescue and relief operations.

However, with 400-odd roads and 21 bridges washed away and vast swathes of land under water, it remained an uphill task.

The number of dead in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh - where many rivers are in spate - stood at 18 and in Himachal Pradesh at 14, according to reports.

Shiite Syed Imran Abbas, 32, was martyred when terrorists of Sipah-e-Sahaba opened fire on a school van in New Karachi.

The terrorists are believed to have been lying in wait for the school van and opened fire on it when it arrived. The driver, Shiite Syed Imran Abbas, was killed as a result. His body has been shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital.

Six soldiers were killed and two more injured when militants ambushed an army patrol on the outskirts of Peshawar in North-west Pakistan, security sources said on Thursday.

The patrol was passing through the Mattani area on the outskirts of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa capital when it was attacked by a group of militants at 10 pm on Wednesday.

MOGADISHU: Islamist militants carried out a deadly assault on the main UN compound in the Somali capital on Wednesday, dealing a blow to fragile security gains that have allowed a slow return of foreign aid workers and diplomats.

The assault, claimed by Islamist group al Shabaab, began before midday when a car bomb exploded outside the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) base. Rebel gunmen forced their way into the compound and fought with security guards.

New Delhi: After repeated postponements, Bharatiya Janata Party patriarch LK Advani finally met Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat on Thursday here.

On Wednesday, the meet between the duo was deferred after the BJP leader conveyed that he was "unwell".
Bhagwat and Advani couldn't meet on Tuesday either, as was expected.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has won the floor test in Bihar Assembly on Wednesday, with the JD(U) securing 126 votes in its favour.

Congress, CPI, LJP and some Independents voted in favour of the confidence motion moved by Mr. Kumar. Twenty-two MLAs from Lalu Prasad's RJD and two Independents voted against the motion.

Flash floods and landslips triggered by the monsoon fury left eight more persons dead, taking the number of people killed in calamity-hit Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh to 138 even as 2,700 pilgrims and locals were rescued from Rudraprayag and Chamoli districts.

The weather cleared in most places in the north making it easier for rescue personnel to launch operations for those stranded, especially in Badrinath shrine where 12,000 pilgrims are still stuck.

India today said it will take up with Islamabad the allocation of over Rs 61 million in Pakistan's Punjab province budget to a centre of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the parent body of terror group LeT that had carried out the 2008 Mumbai terror attack.

"I can't comment on what the state government in Pakistan is doing. Whatever comes to our knowledge and is a concern for our security will be taken up with Pakistan federal government," External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said.

LAHORE:A member of the Jamaat-i-Ahmadia was shot dead in Green Town, allegedly because of his faith.

Four armed teenagers entered Jawad Karim’s house on Monday and shot him dead. They then walked away from the scene, said Imtiaz Adnan, Karim’s brother and a witness to the incident.

Heavy rains continue in north India, Uttarakhand worst hit; flood warning in UP, Delhi

Heavy, continuous rains hit life in several north India states and wrought havoc in Uttarakhand where the death toll has reached over 50 while thousands were stranded after landslides, officials said Monday.With more rains expected, the situation is likely to worsen in the hill state while flood warnings have been issued in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.

Ten deaths, including five members of a family, were reported from Himachal Pradesh while 1,500 tourists, mainly from West Bengal, remained stranded in remote Kinnaur district after incessant rainfall triggered landslides.Also stranded was chief minister Virbhadra Singh, who was electioneering for the Mandi parliamentary by-poll slated June 23.

A Saudi cleric has sparked controversy when he issued a fatwa (religious edict) this week barring travel to Dubai because of the spread of “immoralities” there.

Sheikh Mohamed al-Shanar used his Twitter account to answer a question by a woman on whether a woman can visit Dubai without a male guardian.

“A woman asks me if it she may go to Dubai without a guardian. I answer her saying: going to Dubai is forbidden, whether she was accompanied by a guardian or not [because of the spread of immoralities], and sins increase if traveling without a guardian was not a necessity,” the cleric said on his Twitter account.

Calls to boycott Iranian products are gaining support in the region after a meeting of leading Sunni clerics in Cairo urged Muslims to declare a jihad against the Syrian regime supported by Iranian and Hezbollah fighters.

A declaration issued by the meeting also called for a boycott of ‘products, companies and interests’ of Iran. Several Kuwaiti supermarket chains have already begun boycotting Iranian goods.

A suicide bomber has blown himself up inside a Shia mosque in the Iraqi capital, killing at least seven worshippers, police said.

More than 20 people were wounded in Tuesday's attack in the al-Qahira district of northern Baghdad.

"The suicide bomber detonated himself among the worshippers, who were gathering after the call to prayer," said policeman Furat Faleh, who was near the site of the blast.

Some members of Afghan High Peace Council will travel to the Gulf state of Qatar to hold formal peace talks with the Taliban, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Tuesday.

"Members of peace council will go to Qatar to initiate peace talks with the Taliban," Karzai told a joint press conference with the visiting NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

Earlier on Tuesday, Afghan local media reported that the Taliban had opened a political office in Qatar earlier in the day.

Russian President Vladimir Putin faced further isolation on the second day of a G8 summit on Tuesday as world leaders lined up to pressure him into toning down his support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Following an icy encounter between the Kremlin chief and U.S. President Barack Obama late on Monday, the G8 leaders will seek to find resolution to a war that has prompted powers across the Middle East to square off on sectarian lines.

Five people have been sentenced to death and three others handed down life term by a Bangladesh court for murdering a Hindu leader 13 years ago. District and sessions Judge of Bagerhat S M Solaiman handed down the sentences in absentia on Wednesday as seven of the convicts were still on the run, court officials said.

Nine people were acquitted in the case.

Prosecution lawyers and police said a manhunt has been launched to arrest the absconding convicts.

The government of Pakistan's Punjab province has allocated millions of rupees in its budget for fiscal 2013-14 for the largest centre of the Jamaat-ud-Dawah, considered a front for the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Besides a grant-in-aid of over Rs. 61 million for the JuD centre known as

'Markaz-e-Taiba', the provincial government has allocated Rs. 350 million for setting up a "Knowledge Park" at the centre and other development initiatives.

Details of the allocations were presented in budget documents tabled in the Punjab assembly on Monday by the PML-N government led by chief minister Shahbaz Sharif.

Turkey has said it may bring in the army to help end nearly three weeks of nationwide anti-government protests.

The warning came as two major union federations went on strike on Monday over police violence against demonstrators.

The government raised the threat of putting soldiers on the streets after a weekend of violent clashes prompted by the eviction of campers occupying Istanbul's Gezi Park, the epicentre of the protest movement.

An explosion has hit the Afghan capital Kabul near the parliament building, on a day NATO forces formally hand over security to national forces.

Tuesday's blast occurred at around 9am local time in an area called Karta-e Seh, a Kabul police source said.

It came as hundreds of local and international officials gathered on the capital's outskirts ahead of a ceremony to mark the beginning of the final phase of security transition to Afghan forces across the nation.

Heavy rain in north India triggers landslides, floods; toll 22

NEW DELHI: Heavy monsoon rain on Monday wreaked havoc in the hill states of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh and flooded parts of Haryana where the water level in the Yamuna rose alarmingly, leaving 22 people dead and 1000 stranded.

KANDAHAR: The police chief of Afghanistan’s volatile Helmand province survived a suicide attack on Monday when his convoy was bombed in the city of Lashkar Gah, officials said.

Nabi Ilham’s armoured car was badly damaged by the early-morning explosion in the provincial capital, and three of his guards were wounded.

“At around 7:00 am (0230 GMT) the motorcade was passing through the city. A suicide car bomb targeted it,” Omar Zwak, the provincial governor’s spokesman, told AFP.

PARIS: The election of the moderate Hassan Rowhani as Iran’s new president is a game-changer which could set a new tone and soothe tensions with the West over Tehran’s disputed nuclear programme, analysts said.

Dubbed a “sheikh diplomat” for his negotiating skills in tortuous nuclear talks, the moderate cleric raised hopes internationally after he emerged as the victor of the key polls on Saturday.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (TPI) Chairman Imran Khan will take oath as a member of the National Assembly on June 19 (Wednesday).

“I will be taking oath in NA on 19th and speaking on the budget the same day,” Imran tweeted on Monday.

He has also planned to lay down his policy on national issues particularly on budgetary related matters before the Parliament on the same day. “My address to the Parliament will lay out PTI’s policy on crucial national issues and how the K-P Govt will be a role model of clean, efficient governance,” he added.

Members of two union federations in Turkey have gone on a one-day strike over the forced evictions of protesters from Istanbul's Gezi Park, the focal point of fierce anti-government demonstrations that swept much of the country over the past two weeks.

Labour groups representing doctors, engineers and dentists are also said to have joined the strike on Monday. The striking groups represent about 800,000 workers.

The Turkish Interior Minister Muammer Guler said the strike was "illegal" and warned of police action.

ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Monday presented a preliminary report on the attack on Jinnah’s Ziarat residency in the National Assembly.

Speaking on the floor of the House, the interior minister said a joint investigation team had been constituted to investigate the attack on the building in which the Quaid-i-Azam spent the last days of his life in 1948.

The Balochistan Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the strike.

Patna: The National Democratic Alliance is coping with the bitter end to the 17-year-old alliance between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Janata Dal United. Both the parties are blaming each other as Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has sacked all 11 BJP ministers in his Cabinet and seeks a trust vote this week.

"The alliance is no more beneficial to either of the parties. So, we have decided to part ways," said JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav said. Nitish Kumar ended his 17-year-old alliance with the BJP and making it clear that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's elevation has filled the JD(U) with apprehension about the future of the alliance, also accusing the BJP of succumbing to the 'autocratic personality cult' with no respect for democratic process.

QUETTA: Armed militants killed three policemen in Killa Saifullah district of Balochistan on Sunday, June 16.

Police sources told Dawn.com that the militants attacked a check post in Muslim Bagh area of Killa Saifullah where three deployed policemen were killed.

ISLAMABAD: Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani on Sunday reiterated the army’s resolve to meet future challenges squarely.

Addressing participants of the concluding session of military war games, the Exercise Azm-i-Nau-4, at the National Defence University, he said the army in coordination with the navy and air force was fully configured and prepared to thwart any aggression against the country.

All seven militants dead at end of Kabul airport attack

KABUL: All seven militants who launched an attack Monday on Kabul airport died in the assault, Afghan police said, adding that no civilian and security force casualties had yet been reported.

"There were seven assailants -- two (suicide bombers) died detonating themselves and five others were killed in fighting," Mohammad Ayoub Salangi, chief of Kabul police, told reporters.

The Lebanese Army issued a statement on Sunday in which it said that a citizen was killed in a clash which took place near the Iranian Embassy in Beirut, as demonstrators arrived to the region to protest the Syrian developments.

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