afghanistan articles: October 2013

Tuesday, 29 October 2013

Nawaz to meet Karzai, Cameron for tripartite talks

LONDON: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday left for a three-day official visit to London where he will attend a trilateral meeting with UK Prime Minister David Cameron and Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, DawnNews reported.

Prime Minister Sharif will participate in tripartite negotiations to be held among Pakistan, Britain and Afghanistan at the summit hosted by Cameron.

A FORMER first-class cricketer in South Africa has died after being hit in the head by the ball while batting. He was 32.

The national body Cricket South Africa says Darryn Randall died Sunday at a hospital in the southern town of Alice in the Eastern Cape.

GHAZNI, AFGHANISTA: Angry villagers in Afghanistan have stoned a man to death and riddled his body with bullets, believing he set off a bomb on a bus that killed 18 civilians, officials said on Monday.

The roadside blast ripped through a minibus carrying wedding guests in the central province of Ghazni on Sunday, killing 18 people, the majority of them women. Villagers hunted down a local man who was found hiding in a chicken coop next to his home, with the bomb's remote control apparently found nearby, Ghazni deputy provincial governor Mohammad Ali Ahmadi told AFP.

SRINAGAR : India said one of its soldiers was killed when Pakistan troops fired early on Monday across the border in Kashmir, the latest in a series of deadly flare-ups in the disputed Himalayan region.

The soldier was killed just after midnight at an army post along the northern part of the heavily militarised border that divides the two countries in Kashmir, an Indian army spokesman said.

MOGADISHU, Somalia: A United States military strike hit a vehicle carrying senior members of an al-Qaida-linked militant group in Somalia on Monday, killing at least two people including the group's top explosives expert, a militant and a government intelligence official said.

A senior United States military official says there was a US counterterrorism strike against a terrorist target in Somalia on Monday but would give no further details. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because there was no authorization to discuss the strike publicly.

ISLAMABAD: An accountability court on Tuesday adjourned the hearing of six corruption cases against Asif Ali Zardari until Nov 26 and again issued notices to the National Accountability Bureau and the former president, DawnNews reported.

Former federal law minister Farooq H. Naek submitted his power of attorney on behalf of Mr Zardari in the court informing it that the former president could not appear in court as he had to attend a conference on democracy outside the country.

DERA BUGTI: At least seven people were killed and five others were wounded in an attack at the residence of a tribal leader situated in Loti Zain area of Balochistan's Dera Bugti district, DawnNews reported.

Unknown gunmen opened indiscriminate gunfire at the residence of Tharra Khan killing seven persons and wounding five others.

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will be among the prominent leaders from the Muslim world at the ninth World Islamic Economic Forum opening in London on Tuesday which would encapsulate the emergence of new economic linkages between nations across borders, religions and cultures in a fast changing world.

The underlying theme of “Changing World: New Relationship”, will be examined across the framework of policy business, technology and finance with fresh presentations from industry leaders, frank and insightful discussions among senior representatives from key players and valuable inputs from analysts.

Turkish jets have intercepted a Russian military plane over the Black Sea, the General Staff said on Oct. 28.

The Russian planes were intercepted in international airspace off the coast of Kirklareli province in Turkey’s Thrace region, to prevent a “possible violation,” the statement said.

The incident came only four days after another Russian plane was intercepted by the Turkish military over the Black Sea.

Hyderabad : Six persons, including three women, were killed and as many as 14 others got injured when their mini-lorry rammed into a stationary vehicle on the city outskirts in the wee hours today, police said.

The mishap occurred at Vattinagulapalle under Raidurgam police station limits at around 4.45 AM when the mini-lorry rammed into another lorry parked there.

Unnao: After weeks of digging in Unnao, the Archaeological Survey of India has finally given up. It has found not an ounce of gold at the historic fort in Unnao despite having gone on an extensive dig after a seer claimed to have dreamt of 1,000 tonnes beneath the surface.

"What history teaches us is that after a crisis like this there is no going back," the Algerian diplomat told the Jeune Afrique website ahead of his first visit to Syria since December, when he angered the regime by insisting that all powers be handed over to a transitional government. The veteran troubleshooter admitted "the entire world will not be present" at the talks, but said the alternative to a political settlement could be a failed state in the heart of the Middle East.

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a plea which has requested that the Prime Minister be made a party in the FIR lodged by the CBI in the coal scam.

Refusing to issue any direction to the Prime Minister to file an affidavit on the coal block allocation, the apex court observed that "the probe was still going on and it is for CBI officials to look into it".

CAIRO: The three judges presiding in the trial of Muslim Brotherhood chief Mohamed Badie and his aides withdrew from the proceedings at the start of a session on Tuesday.

Prior to their decision to step down the judges ordered that the defendants continue to be held in custody, an AFP correspondent in the court said.

The Chinese government suspects that Monday's incident in which a vehicle ploughed into pedestrians in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, killing five including the three people in the vehicle, was a suicide attack, sources told Reuters.

At least 38 people were injured in the incident, but there has been no official word whether it was an accident or an attack.

Sialkot border villages hit hard by firing

SIALKOT: Unprovoked shelling and indiscriminate firing by Indian troops from across the border have caused the suspension of harvesting of paddy and other crops in villages along the Sialkot Working Boundary, residents of the affected areas told a team of foreign and local journalists on Thursday.

The people living in areas along Bajwat, Chaprar, Suchitgarh and Shakargarh sectors said the shelling and firing had intensified in recent days.

Two Chinese nationals jailed for stealing from mosque donation boxes

Two Chinese nationals who travelled here specifically to commit crime were each jailed for five months on Friday for stealing $1,719 from a mosque.

Wei Rengu, 30, and Qin Shi Gang, 29, admitted to the theft at Masjid Sultan at Muscat Street on Oct 10.

An executive officer of the mosque was viewing the CCTV footage that day when he saw Qin fishing money out of a donation box and Wei pretending to take photographs of the surroundings. The pair moved from one donation box to another.

Saudi Arabia on Thursday warned it will take measures against activists who go ahead with a planned weekend campaign to defy a ban on women drivers in the conservative Muslim kingdom.

"It is known that women in Saudi are banned from driving and laws will be applied against violators and those who demonstrate in support" of this cause, interior ministry spokesman General Mansur al-Turki told AFP.

Activists have called on social networks for Saudi women, individually, to go behind the wheel on Saturday, in a campaign in the world's only country that bans women from driving.

Qatar's Court of Cassation, the country's highest judicial body, upheld a 15-year prison sentence earlier this week for poet Muhammad Rashid al-Ajami, who goes by the poetic name Muhammad Ibn al-Dheeb.

The Qatari citizen had been seeking a retrial after he was first convicted by a lower court last year of “inciting the overthrow of the regime” with his poetry and given a life sentence, which was then reduced by the Appeals Court in February to 15 years in jail.

ISLAMABAD: A local court in Islamabad on Friday ordered that the hearings of the case relating to the murder of Lal Masjid cleric Abdul Rasheed Ghazi and his mother be held at the Chak Shahzad farmhouse of former president Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf which presently has the status of sub-jail, DawnNews reported.

The case was heard today by judicial magistrate Malik Aman.

During the proceedings, police requested the court to extend the judicial remand of the former army strongman who was not produced for the hearing.

LAHORE: Hafiz Saifullah Mansoor, one of the close aides of Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed and a founding member of the group, has been killed in a road accident here.

Mansoor was coming to Lahore from Islamabad on his car when it skidded off the road and overturned near Faizpur, a JuD statement said on Thursday.

He died on the spot, while his gunman and driver suffered serious injuries. They were shifted to a hospital in Lahore.

SRINAGAR, India: At least 10 civilians have been wounded as Pakistani troops fired guns and mortar shells at more than a dozen Indian border posts overnight in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, an official said Friday.

A paramilitary officer said on the customary condition of anonymity that Indian guards retaliated and an exchange of gunfire lasted several hours. He said the fighting continued till Friday morning at some places in southern Jammu region.

China says a controversial proposal to sell a Chinese missile defense system to NATO member Turkey should not be politicized.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Oct. 25 the deal constituted "normal arms trade cooperation." She said it should be viewed objectively, and that such a normal commercial competition should not be politicized.

Several Sikh, Hindu and South Asian rights groups have asked the United States justice department to probe the "discriminatory" surveillance of Muslims by the New York police department, saying such religious profiling unfairly "stigmatises" the community members and "breeds distrust".

These rights groups, among the nearly 120 advocacy groups, in a 12-page letter to the Civil Rights Division of the justice department, have sought the department's 'prompt investigation' into the NYPD's 'discriminatory surveillance' of American Muslim communities.

WASHINGTON: The dialogue with Taliban militants may start in the next few days, says Prime Minister's Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz.

In an interview to Dawn, Mr Aziz said the government had already covered a lot of grounds and "talks with the Taliban is likely to start in the next few days."

The adviser said he hoped that Mr Sharif's four-day visit to Washington this week would lead to a better understanding between the two countries on all major issues, including the drones.

Heavy rains continued to lash Andhra Pradesh on Friday, leaving 17 people dead and forcing the evacuation of 67,419 others from low-lying areas.

Seventeen people were killed in various rain-related incidents as the downpour continued for the fourth consecutive day on Friday even as two others were also missing, official sources said in Hyderabad.

KARACHI: Police claim to have arrested a senior member of Al Qaeda who was allegedly supplying explosives for terrorist activities in Karachi.

"Baloch Colony police have arrested Adil Azeem Sheikh and found a Kalashnikov and two hand-grenades in his possession," SSP South Munir Ahmed Sheikh said on Friday.

The flood situation in India's east coast turned grim on Saturday with at least 45 people having lost their lives and thousands evacuated in the last four days in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha. After Cyclone Phailin, now a cyclonic storm that turned into a deep depression over the Bay of Bengal has caused incessant rains, inundated hundreds of villages and damaged houses and crops.

TEHRAN: Iran's official news agency says armed men have killed 14 border guards in clashes near the frontier with Pakistan.

IRNA said authorities were investigating to determine whether the attackers were drug smugglers or armed opposition groups, both of which have occasionally ambushed Iranian troops.

Bomb targeting Shia pilgrims kills two FC personnel in Mastung

MASTUNG: At least two soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb hit a paramilitary van escorting a bus of Shia Muslim pilgrims in the Mastung district of Balochistan on Saturday, officials said.

The incident took place in Dringhar area, on the main Quetta-Taftan Highway in Mastung district, some 50 kilometres southwest of Quetta.

“The bomb exploded after a Frontier Corps (FC) vehicle stopped to check a parked car,” Sayed Mehrab Shah, a senior government official in Mastung told AFP.

TEHRAN: Iranian authorities on Saturday hanged 16 “rebels” following overnight clashes between alleged rebel groups and Iranian border forces in which 14 border guards were killed on the frontier with Pakistan, a judicial official said.

“Sixteen rebels linked to groups hostile to the regime were hanged this morning in the prison of Zahedan in response to the death of border guards in Saravan,” Mohammad Marzieh, the attorney general of Sistan-Balochistan province, was quoted as saying by Fars news agency.

Ten killed in Iraq violence

BAGHDAD: Attacks in Iraq killed 10 people on Saturday, seven of them from the same family, security and medical officials said.

In the Dura area of southern Baghdad, gunmen armed with silenced weapons shot dead a father, mother, four sons and the wife of one of them at their home, the officials said.

The father was a member of the Sahwa anti-Al-Qaeda militia, who joined forces with the United States from late 2006 and are frequently targeted by Sunni militants, who view them as traitors.

CHENNAI: With a defiant Sahara group refusing to furnish the requisite bank guarantee, the BCCI on Saturday decided to terminate Pune warriors from the IPL after a meeting of its all-powerful working committee.

The decision to terminate Pune, owned by Sahara, would leave the IPL an eight-team affair for the time being.

Dhaka: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday telephoned her arch-rival Khaleda Zia to invite her for talks to resolve a standoff on holding the next general election but failed to reach her, even as Bangladesh braced for a shutdown called by the main opposition BNP.

"The Prime Minister called the opposition leader at her official phone at 1:15 pm (local time) but nobody picked it for half an hour," Abul Kalam Azad, press secretary to the premier, told reporters here.

KABUL: Afghanistan will demand an explanation from Pakistan on the whereabouts of former Taliban second-in-command Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar when the leaders of both countries meet next week to discuss how to end years of insurgency, an Afghan official said on Saturday.

Ceasefire violation by Pakistan: One BSF jawan killed in firing, four injured

JAMMU: One Indian paramilitary trooper was killed and four people, including three Border Security Force (BSF) troopers and one civilian, were injured in firing by Pakistan Rangers in the RS Pura sector of the Jammu region overnight.

A senior police officer told IANS that the BSF trooper and the injured came under heavy shelling by the Pakistan Rangers on Indian positions on the international border in the RS Pura sector of Jammu district in the state.

JAMMU: Intelligence reports suggest Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder Hafiz Saeed could be visiting areas along the line of control (LoC) in Jammu & Kashmir to facilitate infiltration into the state, said union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Tuesday.

"It is true that information suggests Hafiz Saeed could be visiting areas of LoC to abet infiltration," Shinde told reporters in Samba town on the sidelines of a Border Security Force (BSF) Sainik Sammelan.

The Maldives will hold a new presidential election on November 9, the election commission said, two days after the police stopped the vote taking place.

The archipelago nation has been in turmoil since February 2012 when former president Mohamed Nasheed was removed in what his supporters called a coup.

A female suicide bomber has blown herself up on a bus in the southern Russian city of Volgograd, killing at least six people and injuring 30 others, officials said.

The suspected bomber was from Dagestan, one of the predominantly Muslim republics in the North Caucasus, said Vladimir Markin, the spokesman for the Investigative Committee, Russia's main investigative agency.

BILIN: Israeli forces on Tuesday killed an armed Palestinian militant, wanted for his alleged involvement in a Tel Aviv bus bombing last year, Israel's Shin Bet security service said.

The Islamic Jihad group said Mohammed Assi, 28, was one of its members.

The Shin Bet, which is in charge of Israeli internal security, said the Palestinian was killed in an exchange of fire with security forces who had come to arrest him near the village of Bilin in the occupied West Bank.

Islamabad: Pakistan expressed disappointment over Indian leadership referring Jammu and Kashmir as an integral part of the country as "unfortunate" and said the Kashmir dispute remained a "core issue" with India.

Pakistan's Foreign Office, in a statement, criticised External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid's remarks on the status of Jammu and Kashmir.

A 30-year-old man coming from the southeastern province of Diyarbakir was shot to death at Istanbul’s Atatürk airport by a man he allegedly had a dispute with.

The 19-year-old suspect of the homicide, E.G., was detained by the police right after the incident at the murder site.

According to witnesses, the victim of the armed attack, Ilyas Ugar, just got off Diyarbakir plane late at night on Oct. 21 encountered E.G., who claimed to have bad blood with Ugar, right outside the terminal building.

QUETTA: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Quetta Monday reissued arrest warrants against former prime minister Shaukat Aziz, former Balochistan governor Owais Ahmed Ghani and former District Coordination Officer (DCO) for Dera Bugti Abdul Samad Lasi in a case pertaining to the murder of Baloch nationalist leader Akbar Khan Bugti and ordered authorities to produce the accused persons at its next hearing on Nov 26, DawnNews reported.

QUETTA: One Levies man was killed on Tuesday when the convoy of an Arab prince was attacked in southwestern Pakistan's Kech district, DawnNews reported.

According to sources, an Arab prince and his convoy were on a hunting trip in Buleda, an area near Kech district's administrative centre Turbat, under security provided by Levies forces when armed men opened fire at them.

American going to Pakistan planned to aid Al Qaeda: prosecutor

LOS ANGELES: A 24-year-old American charged with trying to join Al Qaeda was intercepted by the FBI after using the Internet and Facebook to connect with the terrorist group, a prosecutor said Monday.

Sinh Vinh Ngo Nguyen confessed to federal agents that he had planned to offer himself as a trainer of some 30 Al Qaeda forces to ambush troops in Syria, where he had already spent five months fighting with rebels, Assistant United States (US) Attorney Judith Heinz said.

New Delhi: Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde visits the flashpoint areas along India's border with Pakistan in the backdrop of a series of ceasefire violations by Pakistani troops, the latest reported early this morning from the Abdullian sector in RS Pura. The visit also comes as a war of words between India and Pakistan over Kashmir is on, with Islamabad lashing out at India for calling the disputed region an integral part of the country.

Balochistan doctors threaten en masse resignation

QUETTA: The Chairman of the Core Committee of Pakistan Medical Association, Balochistan chapter, Dr Haqdad Tareen, said on Monday that 84 doctors had moved to other cities from the province because of threats to their lives and property.

Addressing a press conference at the hunger strikers’ camp at the Civil Hospital, he threatened that doctors serving in various hospitals would resign en masse if protection was not provided to them.

Two separate reports on U.S. missile strikes, including armed drone attacks, released Tuesday by two separate human rights organizations claim that the strikes have killed more civilians than the U.S. government has acknowledged and may be violations of international law.

One report, released by Amnesty International, investigated drone attacks in the Pakistani region of North Waziristan, a region dominated by the Pakistani Taliban, and far from the central authority of that country's Islamabad government, as well as the site of the more intensive U.S. drone campaign.

Turkey continues to exert effort to secure the release of two Syrian bishops who were kidnapped in April.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, Turkish Foreign Ministry officials told Hürriyet Daily News the negotiation process continued during the talks to free two Turkish pilots and Lebanese pilgrims.

CAIRO: Gunmen on a motorcycle fired on Egyptian wedding guests outside a Coptic Christian church in a Cairo suburb on Sunday night, killing three people, security sources said.

The masked assailants shot randomly at the people as they left the church, the sources said. It was not immediately clear if those killed were Christians, they said.

At least 16 dead in Nainital bus accident

NAINITAL/LUCKNOW: At least 16 people were killed when a bus in which they were travelling rolled down a gorge in Nainital, police said on Monday.

The incident took place near Kaladungi town Sunday evening. Around 50 people were in the ill-fated bus, which was returning from a marriage held in Barapatthar area.

The driver lost control of the bus while negotiating a turn and the bus skidded off the road and fell down in the gorge after breaking the divider.

New Delhi: Congress MP Rashid Masood was on Monday disqualified from the Rajya Sabha after he was convicted in a corruption case recently.

Masood was sentenced to four years in jail by a Delhi court in a corruption case.

He has become the first Member of Parliament to lose his seat after a July 10 Supreme Court judgment had removed the immunity for convicted lawmakers.
Masood, 67, was immediately taken into custody by the court.

Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Monday asked the Centre to explore other options if Pakistan continues to violate ceasefire.

Questioning the role of Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Omar said that either the Sharif was involved in the ceasefire violations or he was not in control of the situation.

"I don't understand whether Pak Prime Minister is involved (in the violations) or he is not in control of the situation. But whatever it is, we must strive to defeat these forces, who are trying to destroy the lives of our people living close to the borders," he said.

NRI couple arrested in Saudi Arabia on charges of practicing black magic

Kendrapara: An NRI couple were arrested in Saudi Arabia on charges of practising black magic, official sources said today.

Seikh Nizam and Noor Jehan, from Odisha's Kendrapara township, had shifted to Turba city of Saudi Arabia few years ago where they claimed to be a healer and mystic.

The couple was arrested last month after authorities reportedly found a variety of occult items in their possession, including herbs, Consulate general office of India office in Jeddah said.

Juba League worker killed in AL-BNP clash in Laxmipu

LAXMIPUR: A serious clash between the leaders and workers of ruling Awami League and opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party left at least one person dead at Ramganj upazila in the district.

The deceased has been identified as Faridul Islam, 27, a Jubo League member of Bholacot union. At least seven people were also injured in the clash. The injured people were rushed to the hospital.

JUBA, South Sudan : Rebels in South Sudan killed at least 41 people and wounded scores in a gun attack in a remote part of the country’s restive Jonglei state, a regional official said Sunday.

The attack on Sunday morning is believed to have been carried out by rebels loyal to militia leader David Yau Yau helped by youth from his Murle tribe, according to Hussein Maar, the acting governor of Jonglei.

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is set to suspend the membership of 70 legislators, including 23 members of the National Assembly and Senate, for their failure to submit statements of their assets and liabilities as required under the law, Dawn has learnt.

Sources in the ECP said a notification in this regard was likely to be issued on Monday (today).

DHAKA: Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad termed Syed Ashraful Islam’s Sunday’s speech false and baseless.

On Sunday night, in a joint press briefing with JP Secretary General, Syed Ashraf said that Awami League and Jatiya Party would participate separately in the election under interim government next, if BNP did not participate.

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