Day: September 25, 2008

QUETTA, Sept 24: A schoolgirl was killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up near a security vehicle not far from a military police checkpost. Twenty-three people were injured, six of them schoolchildren and 15 security personnel.

However, unconfirmed reports said that three security personnel had been killed.

Officials said that three injured soldiers of the Frontier Corps soldiers were in a critical condition. “Quetta Cantonment was the suicide attacker’s target of the suicide bomber,” Capital City Police Officer Mohammad Akbar told Dawn, adding that the bomber had walked up to the vehicle.

“The bomber’s severed head is intact and is in police custody. It will help establish his identity. Other parts of his body have also been collected,” he said, adding that the man was 18 to 22 years old. He said that two deaths had been reported.

According to sources, the suicide bomber was a young boy with a small beard. He walked up to two FC vehicles parked about 200 metres away from the checkpost at the Kandhari Chowk, near the Askari Park.

All FC personnel in the vehicles were injured. A schoolbus was also hit by shrapnel, killing Shahida Akhtar, a 9th class student, and injuring a number of other students. Security personnel cordoned off the area and took the injured people to the Combined Military Hospital and the Civil Hospital.

“The blast affected a wide area,” the police said.

CCPO Akbar said no army personnel had been injured. This is the second suicide attack in Quetta in 10 months.

In December last year, two suicide bombers blew themselves up near a checkpost of military police in Quetta Cantonment, killing seven security personnel. An explosion last week in a Madressah in Kuchlak, about 25 kilometres away from here, claimed six lives.

The CCPO said that an investigation team had been set up. He said that 400 to 500 more policemen would be deployed in Quetta.

Stressing that steps were being taken to maintain order in Quetta, he said that new pickets were being set up in the city.

The injured civilians include Durdana, Najiba, Shaheena, Aamna, Aasia, Ikram and van diver Wali Mohammad.

The injured FC soldiers were identified as Mohammad Sharif, Ali Jan, Mohammad Asif, Adil Rafiq, Ehsanullah, Amir Nawaz, Kaleemullah, Zafar Ali, Gul Rehman, Noor Azimm Faizullah, Abdul Qayyum and Asif Imran.

Balochistan Governor Nawab Zulfiqar Ali Magsi and Chief Minister Nawab Mohammad Aslam Raisani condemned the attack and expressed grief over the loss of innocent lives.

They ordered the authorities to take all measures to avert any other attack. They said that the people involved in the inhuman act had no ideology. “They are enemies of humanity.”

They also said that such cowardly acts would not lessen the government’s resolve to root out terrorism.

They appealed to the people to help the authorities in their efforts to curb terrorisms.
Source: Dawn
Date:9/25/2008

LAHORE: Three accused kidnapped a woman in the Manga Mandi area on Wednesday. Ghulam Rasool of Sama Busti reported to police that accused Munawar and two others kidnapped his wife Nasreen. Police have registered a case.
Source: The News
Date:9/25/2008

KARACHI – A four-member parliamentary delegation, formed to meet Dr. Aafia Siddiqui and to visit Guantanamo Bay prison, has failed to finalise the date of its departure for the US, The Nation learnt here on Wednesday.

The delegation will comprise on the members of foreign affairs and human rights committees of the Senate, namely Mushahid Hussain Syed, Talha Mehmood, Saadia Abbasi and Allama Abbas Kumaili.

During their visit, the delegation members will meet with Dr Aafia Siddiqui, who is still in US custody since last five years, and also visit Guantanamo Bay prison.

It may be noted here that the US authorities have reportedly allowed Pakistani parliamentarians to meet Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, who is currently detained in the US, but have not given the Pakistani parliamentarians permission to visit and assess the condition of Pakistanis detained in Guantanammo Bay prison.

Earlier, in August, Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed, along with members of Senate Foreign Affairs and Human Rights Committees, announced to meet Dr. Aafia Siddiqui in the US custody but his preoccupation in the last presidential elections disturbed his schedule regarding this mission.

When contacted, Senator Allama Abbas Kumaili told The Nation that the date to visit US in order to meet Dr. Aafia Siddiqui and other Pakistani prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay prison has still not be finalised but it would be possible that after Ramadan, a parliamentary delegation would visit the US. He added the said delegation would also visit the Guantanamo Bay prison to witness the treatment being meted out to the detainees.

“We will also meet Pakistani prisoners and ask the US authorities to close down the notorious prison,” he added. “US authorities have still declined to give the permission to visit the Guantanamo Bay prison but we will do our best to visit the detention facility,” he further said.

Kumaili said that “The Senate delegation will meet Dr Aafia Siddiqui and inquire about her ordeal in the prison and will try to get maximum relief for her in the US custody”.
Source: The Nation
Date:9/25/2008

LAHORE, Sept 24: The widow of a jeweller, who has been receiving life threats for pursuing the killing of her husband by robbers, has appealed to the chief minister to provide her security and order early arrest of the perpetrators.

Muhammad Ejaz of Alnoor Town was shot dead by two robbers at his shop on Sept 2.

According to EjazÂ’s wife Rukhsana Kausar, she has been receiving threatening phone calls from the accused for pursuing the case against them, but the Factory Area investigation police are not arresting them.

She said on Sept 2 her husband Ejaz was at his shop when two armed men shot him dead and escaped with Rs50,000 in cash, gold ornaments and a cell phone. She claimed that her husband had received some mysterious calls on his cell phone some time before his murder, which could help the police trace the culprits.

She claimed another jeweller of the same bazaar, who had earlier objected to Ejaz’s taking the shop on rent, was indirectly involved in the murder. His two brothers had been arrested by the police in a case registered under section 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

She complained that the police were not arresting the major accused despite having evidence.

Saeed Ahmed of Factory Area police station, who is investigation officer of the case, said efforts were being made to trace the killers.

He said on the complaint of the victim family, the police had arrested two brothers of a suspected jeweller and a case was registered against them.
Source: Dawn
Date:9/25/2008

LARKANA, Sept 24: Waleed police on Tuesday produced a 12-year old girl Shahnaz along with her father Allah Bakhsh Siyal in the court of the first additional session judge Larkana for sending her to Darul Aman due to threats to her life.

In her statement, she wished to go with her father as her husband Abdul Latif Brohi had been torturing her. She apprehended that she could be killed by her husband.

The court later asked police to go ahead in accordance with the law.

She was lodged at Women police station for medical check up on Wednesday.

Police later released her aged father Allah Bakhsh, a prayer leader in a village mosque.
Source: Dawn
Date:9/25/2008