Turkish Police Fight Gunbattle With Militants

A wounded man lies motionless on the ground near an apartment block under siege by Turkish police in central Istanbul

SEVEN OFFICERS WOUNDED

State-news agency Anatolian said police detained a total of 50 people in raids in seven cities across Turkey.

A wounded man lies motionless on the ground near an apartment block under siege by Turkish police in central Istanbul

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Turkish police laid siege on Monday to an apartment block in central Istanbul where armed militants were holed up, and seven police and two civilians were wounded in the shooting, authorities said.Heavily-armed police special forces surrounded the apartment block, on the Asian side of Turkey’s largest city, where police launched their raid in early morning.

Istanbul Governor Muammer Guler told broadcasters that the police raid was one of more than 60 carried out in Istanbul overnight against Islamist and lefitst militants suspected of planning “sensational attacks”.

State-news agency Anatolian said police detained a total of 50 people in raids in seven cities across Turkey.

Thick smoke billowed from the apartment block in Istanbul where residents were believed to be trapped inside their homes after police launched their raid at 5.30 a.m. (0230 GMT).

Television images showed a man lying motionless on the ground near the apartment block and media said he was a television cameraman who had been shot by the militants. Another civilian was also shot by the militants, who are believed to be armed with explosives.

Occasional gunshots rang out as the stand-off continued several hours later. Police sought to keep locals away from the apartment block while ambulances were stationed at the ready.

Islamist radicals have carried out bomb attacks in predominantly Muslim Turkey in the past, most notably in 2003 when al Qaeda militants killed more than 60 people in a series of bombings in Istanbul.

“These are extreme leftist, separatist and radical groups. There are more than 10 detained in the operations. Terrorists responded by throwing bombs in some places and seven policemen were wounded,” Guler said.

Turkey has also cracked down on members of the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Several armed leftist, as well as radical Islamist groups, are active in Turkey.

Serbia taken aback by South Stream Detour

27. April 2009. | 10:07

Source: EMportal, Blic

“Blic” points out that this is very significant difference from previous maps showing the line with three entrances to Bulgaria and three branches towards Hungary with one of them passing directly through Serbia, ending in Italy.

The latest map of the South Stream gas line has stirred bewilderment in Serbia. The “South Stream” map, showing the gas line steering way from Serbia, published just days ago on official site of the Bulgarian Energy Forum, triggers bewilderment.

The statement was made in an article in the Serbian newspaper “Blic”. The map shows the gas line coming from Russia underneath the Black Sea and reaching Bulgaria with one branch directed to Romania towards Hungary, barely touching Serbia.

“Blic” points out that this is very significant difference from previous maps showing the line with three entrances to Bulgaria and three branches towards Hungary with one of them passing directly through Serbia, ending in Italy.

The publication further comments that the situation becomes even more outrageous considering the fact that the “South Stream” contract is shaken by numerous squabbles between Bulgaria and Russia, which is the reason why Russia’s Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, canceled his Energy Forum participation.

“Blic” also notes that it seems likely Bulgaria would not be able to sign a new gas contract with Russia’s “Gazprom”.

Swine Flu Was “Cultured In A Laboratory”

Readers Number : 40 27/04/2009 Swine Flu Was “Cultured In A Laboratory” Paul Joseph Watson -`Global Research April 26, 2009 Al-Manar.com.lb is not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author’s alone. Editor’s note: On Friday, NPR reported that the deadly swine flu “combines genetic material from pigs, birds and humans in a way researchers have not seen before,” thus leading us to suspect it was cooked up in a lab. Swine flu panic is spreading in Mexico and soldiers are patrolling the streets after it was confirmed that human to human transmission is occurring and that the virus is a brand new strain which is seemingly affecting young, healthy people the worst. Questions about the source of the outbreak are also being asked after a public health official said that the virus was “cultured in a laboratory”. “This strain of swine influenza that’s been cultured in a laboratoryis something that’s not been seen anywhere actually in the United States and the world, so this is actually a new strain of influenza that’s been identified,” said Dr. John Carlo, Dallas Co. Medical Director. Was this a slip-up or an admission that this new super-strain of swine influenza was deliberately cultured in a laboratory and released? Alarming reports are now filtering in about people catching the illness who have had no contact with pigs whatsoever. These include a man and his daughter in San Diego County, a 41-year-old woman in Imperial County and two teenagers in San Antonio, Texas. In fact, in all U.S. cases, the victims had no contact with any pigs. Dr. Wilma Wooten, San Diego County’s public health officer, told KPBS “We have had person-to-person spread with the father and the daughter,” says Wooten, “And also with the two teenagers in Texas, they were in the same school. So that also indicates person-to-person transfer.” “Dr. Wooten says it’s unclear how people were exposed to swine flu. She says none of the patients have had any contact with pigs,” according to the report. Although the situation in the U.S. looks under control, panic is spreading in Mexico, where 800 cases of pneumonia in the capital alone are suspected to be related to the swine flu and the virus has hit young and healthy people, which is very rare with an flu outbreak. Despite the danger of a pandemic, the U.S. border with Mexico remains open. “Mexico has shut schools and museums and canceled hundreds of public events in its sprawling, overcrowded capital of 20 million people to try to prevent further infections,” reports Reuters. “My level of concern is significant,” said Dr. Martin Fenstersheib, the health officer for Santa Clara County. “We have a novel virus, a brand-new strain that’s spreading human to human, and we are also seeing a virulent strain in Mexico that seems to be related. We certainly have concerns for this escalating.” featured stories Medical Director: Swine Flu Was “Cultured In A Laboratory” The WHO insists that the outbreak has “pandemic potential” and has been stockpiling supplies of Tamiflu, known generically as oseltamivir, a pill that can both treat flu and prevent infection, according to officials. As we previously highlighted, those that have a stake in the Tamiflu vaccine include top globalists and BIlderberg members like George Shultz, Lodewijk J.R. de Vink and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Indeed, Rumsfeld himself played a key role in hyping an outbreak of swine flu back in the 1976 when he urged the entire country to get vaccinated. Many batches of the vaccine were contaminated, resulting in hundreds of sick people and 52 fatalities. The fact that the properties of the strain are completely new, that the virus is spreading from people to people, and that the young and healthy are being hit worst, has disturbing parallels to the deadly 1918 pandemic that killed millions. It is unclear as to why, if the virus is a brand new strain, that public health officials are so confident programs of mass vaccination, which are already being prepared, would necessarily be effective. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time that deadly flu viruses have been concocted in labs and then dispatched with the intention of creating a pandemic. When the story first broke last month, Czech newspapers questioned if the shocking discovery of vaccines contaminated with the deadly avian flu virus which were distributed to 18 countries by the American company Baxter were part of a conspiracy to provoke a pandemic. Since the probability of mixing a live virus biological weapon with vaccine material by accident is virtually impossible, this leaves no other explanation than that the contamination was a deliberate attempt to weaponize the H5N1 virus to its most potent extreme and distribute it via conventional flu vaccines to the population who would then infect others to a devastating degree as the disease went airborne. However, this is not the first time that vaccine companies have been caught distributing vaccines contaminated with deadly viruses. In 2006 it was revealed that Bayer Corporation had discovered that their injection drug, which was used by hemophiliacs, was contaminated with the HIV virus. Internal documents prove that after they positively knew that the drug was contaminated, they took it off the U.S. market only to dump it on the European, Asian and Latin American markets, knowingly exposing thousands, most of them children, to the live HIV virus. Government officials in France went to prison for allowing the drug to be distributed. The documents show that the FDA colluded with Bayer to cover-up the scandal and allowed the deadly drug to be distributed globally. No Bayer executives ever faced arrest or prosecution in the United States. In the UK, a 2007 outbreak of foot and mouth disease that put Britain on high alert has been originated from a government laboratory which is shared with an American pharmaceutical company, mirroring the deadly outbreak of 2001, which was also deliberately released. As we reported yesterday, last time there was a significant outbreak of a new form of swine flu in the U.S. it originated at the army base at Fort Dix, New Jersey.

On the brink of an abyss

By Aqab Malik

The govt appears to be in a deep sleep even as a civil war begins to envelop us. — AFP/File Photo

The fact that Pakistan is a nuclear-armed state does not go unnoticed by the outside world, neither does the situation in Swat, Buner and now Shangla. What is stopping the West from saying that enough is enough? The truth of the matter is that it fears that Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal may wholly or partially fall into the hands of insurgents or those that sympathise with them.

The fear is linked to a grand strategy to reduce any opposition to its supremacy in the world. Nevertheless, when looked at from the realist perspective, this is just what states have to do in order to survive. This is true for any state — if we want to see things from this perspective.

With the appointment of President Barack Obama, the realism of the Bush era was thought to have played its final note. The hope was that there would be a period of reconciliation, compromise and bridge-building — an extended hand of friendship as it were. However, parallel to this were some hard realities, considering that a bitter enemy of the US was not only seeking but also facilitating the fragmentation of a nuclear-armed state.
So one questions why no serious effort is being made by politicians and the military to repel the insurgents.
I have no doubt in my mind that the military has many contingency plans to secure the arsenal, but why let matters get to such a dismal point in the first place when an armed force can threaten the future existence of Pakistan, even foreign intervention, to acquire or secure the nuclear arsenal?

Is it that we have become so used to being on the brink of an abyss and in a constant state of crisis that we can no longer function without pushing ourselves to the precipice of extinction before cooler heads prevail?
We have faltered many times with this mindset with several wars prior to nuclearisation. That begs the question: what is really afoot? What do the Taliban really want? What do the politicians really hope to get by waiting until Islamabad falls? Wouldn’t it be too late then?

Pakistan’s main asset that provides the state leverage in the global community is its nuclear arsenal. In this respect, I refer to leverage in terms of deterrence where the threat of foreign invasion, on the part of India or some other party, is concerned. If this leverage is under threat or relinquished, what does Pakistan really have to defend itself from foreign intervention?

Furthermore, we must consider the intention of the Taliban at such a dangerous time. What is it that motivates them to move so far forward that they threaten the strategic stability of Pakistan at a time when it could well provoke outsiders to intervene?

As to this point, one would like to ask whether the Taliban actually want to, indirectly, invite foreign intervention, or foreign forces en masse on Pakistani soil? If this is the case, I can only presume that such a strategy is being pursued so as to induce Pakistani masses to make a choice under circumstances where few acceptable alternatives are perceived in the case of foreign intervention. That is, join us or join them. Join your Muslim brothers or side with the foreign invader who will occupy your lands.
No doubt, at such a crucial time, one could assume that under the threat of foreign invasion or bombing, the population would take the decision to set aside differences (if there are any) with the Taliban and join them against the foreign invader.

However unbelievable and farfetched this scenario may appear to others, it is not without reason. It has taken time for the momentum to evolve, but this is exactly what is happening in Afghanistan, especially amongst the Pakhtuns.

If this country were to come to such a point, I do not believe that the masses would accept a foreign invader, especially since the Taliban have been conducting an active recruitment drive throughout the country and have a credible presence in every city, town and village.

Their ideology focuses on the growing dissatisfaction of the masses. The latter are unhappy with the inept governance that they have endured for the past 60 years and which has done virtually nothing for the vast majority of the citizens of this country. They are undergoing a hand-to-mouth existence with millions destitute. All they have seen is the rich getting richer and lining their pockets, whilst the poor get poorer by the day, especially in these times of economic crises.

It is the loyalty of these masses to their cause that the Taliban are concentrating on. The Taliban have adopted a straightforward approach that has proved successful in recruitment to their ranks. Why this success? Well, because what have those who are recruited have to lose? After all, the Taliban are just like them. They come from their families and live like they do — a basic existence, but with hope for something better. This ‘something better’ has not been provided by the elite to any but themselves; and after all, the Taliban are Muslims who are providing a perceived form of absolute (heavenly) justice that these masses have not been given by the status quo.

What are the solutions then? Well, many politicians keep on saying, ‘It will take a long time to change the system, and ‘we have to win the hearts and minds of the people’, in regurgitated chorus without making any definite or practical effort towards this end.

What they fail to see is that there is an immediate threat that will not wait for years and must be tackled now. There are structural and systemic flaws that have to be tackled and yes, we have to win the hearts and minds of the people. But in order to avoid the chaos that is knocking at the door, we must take urgent steps now, not tomorrow or later.

There is an imminent threat and alarm bells have been set off around the world. Unfortunately, the government appears to be in a state of deep sleep even as a civil war begins to envelop us.  aqabmalik@hotmail.com

Breach of Indus Water Treaty : Farmers to block borders with India, warns PMKM

* Mahaz president says West, India want to see Pakistan destabilised through a water crisis

Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muttahida Kisan Mahaz (PMKM) on Sunday accused India of violating Indus Water Basin Treaty to destroy Pakistan’s irrigation system. It warned the treaty’s violation if continued could force Pakistani farmers to block Wagah, Monabao and Kashmir borders for Afghan Transit Trade and Indian commodities’ import to Pakistan.

PMKM President Ayub Khan Mayo told reporters at the press club that India was building dams on Pakistani rivers in violation of the Indus water basin treaty.

He asked Islamabad to hold objective dialogues with New Delhi over water conflict. He said only Baglihar Dam’s construction had deprived the country of thousands of cusecs of water and more such work was in the pipeline as had been indicated by India.

Mayo said all western countries and India wanted to see Pakistan destabilising through a water crisis. “We’re to put our acts together to avert such a situation otherwise India will block all rivers’ water flowing to Pakistan,” he warned.

The PMKM president announced to arrange agricultural conferences, seminars and meetings of farmers throughout the country to create awareness of violation of Indus basin water treaty by India. He said Pakistani farmers were already facing economic damages due to import of Indian vegetables and other crops. “We should also raise the issue globally to stop India from economic terrorism,” he said.

Mayo said the PMKM had condemned the Indian act of depriving Pakistan of water of river Ravi, Sutlaj and Bias.

“We are amazed as to what prevented Pakistani government from not responding to it promptly,” he said.

He said if India refused to hold further rounds of composite dialogue with Pakistan, the PMKM would stage a ‘million march’ on Wagah border. The Mahaz president said India wanted to occupy waters of three more rivers, Chenab, Jehlum and Indus, by deploying 0.8 million troops in occupied Kashmir.

He alleged India was eyeing a construct of 4,000 miles Greater Canal Project to turn the direction of Indus to destroy Pakistan’s agricultural economy. He said Pakistanis should forge unity to safeguard its irrigation system against Indian exploitations.

Drones and the law

—Liaquat Ali Khan

If the Obama administration is serious in turning the page in the Muslim world and if the American war on terror is to be conducted under the rule of law, drone attacks against the indigenous people of Pakistan’s tribal areas must immediately be called off

In a case filed with the Supreme Court of Pakistan, the petitioner states:

“The Americans, like in Musharraf’s time, have also been given a free hand by President Zardari and fundamental rights of the (indigenous) people are being violated daily in tribal areas and (in northern areas of) Dir, Swat and Chitral. A large number of (indigenous) people have migrated from these areas and suffered tremendous losses with no hope of returning to their homes because of US drone attacks, but the government is sitting as a silent spectator.”

Since August 2008, nearly 60 drone strikes in the tribal areas have massacred over 500 individuals belonging to a population that qualifies as indigenous people under international law. The majority of victims are poor and frightened men, women, and children. They have little to do with militants who are fighting the NATO occupation forces in Afghanistan.

To escape future drone strikes, thousands of residents living in the target areas have left their homes and businesses to seek asylum in other parts of Pakistan. Wretched stories of these internally displaced persons (IDPs) and their trail of tears have made little news in the international media.

After extending a hand of friendship to the Muslim world in his inaugural speech, President Barack Hussein Obama has personally authorised the continuance of drone attacks. Hoping to destroy Islamist militancy, the Obama administration is poised to expand drone warfare to other parts of Pakistan as well.

Presuming that Pakistan is secretly supporting these drone strikes, the vengeful militants have begun to attack the citadel cities of Lahore and Islamabad. As drone attacks continue to kill and generate IDPs among the indigenous population, and as militants undertake retaliatory measures in major cities, nuclear-armed Pakistan is predicted to plunge into uncontrollable chaos and carnage, threatening international peace and security.

Before Pakistan turns into another Iraq, the Obama administration should reconsider the wisdom and legality of drone strikes as a means of fighting militants in Pakistan.

For the indigenous people of the tribal areas, drones turned into despised symbols of American militarism, even though the US military and the CIA have not even once assumed responsibility for drone attacks. Ironically, in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and other Central Asian Muslim states, the drone has previously been known as a note or chord that is continuously repeated in musical pieces and Sufi songs. Torn from its musical connotations, the drone is now associated with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

UAVs perform a host of military functions, including intelligence gathering, surveillance, and missile strikes against electronically nominated targets. For the indigenous people of Pakistan, however, the drone is an American jahaz (aircraft) that, all too often around the time of morning prayers, sneaks into the tribal airspace, strikes fragile houses and compounds, and murders scores of people in each sortie.

In deploying military might, American policymakers consistently fail to comprehend a simple point: no nation looks forward to foreign military attacks. Be it in the Philippines, Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan, or Pakistan, the American military is rarely seen as a force of liberation or virtue. The American armed forces did serve the cause of liberation in the Second World War. Even during the Cold War, the American military retained some of its moral underpinnings.

No longer, however, is the American military welcome in developing nations. Ignoring this plain truth, American policymakers, driven by unexamined self-righteousness, continue to impose deadly military solutions over complex geopolitical problems.

The drone strikes in Pakistan, which has been a submissive American ally for more than sixty years, complicate the problem, not simplify it. They invite retaliation from militants and sow resentment in the Muslim world. Such strikes in Pakistan under Obama will be as unsuccessful as they were under Bush.

Drone attacks are not only unwise, they are also unlawful. Even when perpetrated with Pakistan’s permission, drone attacks are violations of international law because they produce unacceptably high collateral damage.

Collateral damage is a military term to describe damage caused to civilians, facilities, equipment, and property while attacking a lawful military target. The damage can occur to friendly, neutral, or enemy forces. “Such damage is not unlawful so long as it is not excessive in light of the overall military advantage anticipated from the attack.”

As a rule, therefore, the military benefit must be much higher than the cost of collateral damage. A military strike is unlawful if the collateral damage exceeds lawful military advantage. In the tribal areas, collateral damage has been egregiously high as drone strikes kill hundreds of civilians in order to neutralise a few militants. On the basis of casualty count alone, drone attacks are contrary to international law.

These attacks turn blatantly illegal when the collateral damage is fully assessed and aggregated. In addition to causing death and injury to non-combatants, drone attacks degrade the social and economic life of indigenous tribes. As noted above, hundreds of families have fled targeted areas to seek refuge elsewhere. Small businesses that sustain communities have been disrupted. Facing the uncertainty of drone attacks, parents decline to send children to schools.

When American officials threaten to broaden drone warfare, panic and the consequent social and economic disruptions are further increased. The physical, social, and economic cost inflicted on the tribal areas cannot be justified under the limited military advantage that drone attacks yield to the United States.

If the Obama administration is serious in turning the page in the Muslim world and if the American war on terror, which is shifting from the Middle East to South Asia, is to be conducted under the rule of law, drone attacks against the indigenous people of Pakistan’s tribal areas must immediately be called off.

Liaquat Ali Khan is professor of law at the Washburn University School of Law in Topeka, Kansas, and author of A Theory of International Terrorism (2006)

Taliban flayed for killing children

FORMER Federal Minister for Human Rights Ansar Burney has alleged that Taliban killed innocent children with a toy bomb in lower Dir, the NWFP on their refusal to become suicide bombers.

According to a press release issued on Sunday, Ansar Burney said that taking the innocent childrenís lives in Lower Dir bombing had once again unveiled the real face of Taliban.

He said Taliban were now taking the lives of even those innocent children who were refusing to become their suicide bombers.

Ansar Burney said that the representative of Ansar Burney Trust from Dir had confirmed that Taliban on the refusal of children to become ësuicide bombersí killed more than a dozen innocent schoolchildren with a toy bomb in Lower Dir. Burney demanded the government and opposition political parties come in public with truth instead of lies and hypocrites so that people know the truth.

Buner: a hard place for the Taliban to crack

ISLAMABAD: Initially, Buner was a hard place for the Taliban to crack. When they attacked a police station in the district last year, the resistance was fearless. Local people picked up rifles, pistols and daggers, hunted down the militants and killed six of them.

But it was not to last. In short order this past week the Taliban captured Buner, a strategically vital district just 60 miles northwest of Islamabad. The militants flooded in by the hundreds, startling the Pakistani and American officials with the speed of their advance.

The lesson of Buner, local politicians and residents said, was that the dynamic of the Taliban insurgency, as methodical and slow-building as it had been, could change suddenly, and the tactics used by the Taliban could be replicated elsewhere.

The Taliban took over Buner through both force and guile — awakening sleeping sympathisers, leveraging political allies, pretending at peace talks and then crushing what was left of their opponents, according to the politicians and the residents interviewed.

Though some of the militants have since pulled back, they still command the high points of Buner and have fanned out to districts even closer to the federal capital.That Buner fell should be no surprise, local people said. Last fall, NWFP Inspector General of Police Malik Naveed Khan complained that his officers were being attacked and killed by the hundreds.

He was so desperate — and had been so thoroughly abandoned by the military and the government — that he was relying on citizen posses like the one that stood up to the Taliban last August.

Today, the hopes that those civilian militias inspired are gone, brushed away by the realisation that the Pakistanis can do little to stem the Taliban advance if their government and military will not help them.

The people of Buner got nothing for their bravery. In December, the Taliban retaliated for the brazenness of the resistance in the district, sending a suicide bomber to disrupt voting during a by-election. More than 30 people were killed and scores were wounded.

Severe disenchantment towards the government rippled out of the suicide bombing for a very basic reason, said Amir Zeb Bacha, the director of the Pakistan International Human Rights Organisation in Buner. “When we took the injured to the hospital, there was no medicine,” he said.

The election was rescheduled, but turned out to be a farce. Voters were too scared to show up, said Aftab Ahmad Sherpao, a former interior minister, who lives in the area and has twice escaped Taliban suicide bombers.

The peace deal the military struck with the Taliban in February in the neighbouring Swat further demoralised people in Buner. Residents and local officials said they asked themselves how they could continue to resist the Taliban when the military had abandoned the effort. The Taliban were emboldened by the deal: it called for the institution of Shariah throughout Malakand Agency, which includes Swat and Buner. It allowed the Taliban amnesty for their killings, floggings and destruction of girls’ schools in Swat.

Still, when the Taliban rolled into Buner from Swat through the town of Gokan on April 5, a well-to-do businessman, Fateh Muhammad, organised another posse of civilian fighters to take on the militants in the town of Sultanwas.

Five civilians and three policemen were killed, he said. Some newspaper reports said 17 Taliban were killed.

At that point, the chief government official in charge of Malakand, Muhammad Javed, proposed what he called peace talks. Javed, an experienced bureaucrat in the Pakistani civil service, was appointed in late February as the main government power broker in Malakand, even though he was known to be sympathetic to the Taliban, a senior government official in the NWFP said. The government had been under pressure to bring calm to Swat and essentially capitulated to the Taliban demands for Javed’s appointment, the official said.

In an apparent acknowledgment that Javed had been too sympathetic to the Taliban, the government announced on Saturday that he had been replaced by Fazal Karim Khattack.

In what some residents in Swat and now in Buner say had been a pattern of favourable decisions led by Javed on behalf of the Taliban, the talks in Buner turned out to be a “betrayal,” said a former police officer from the area, who was afraid to be identified.

Global conspiracy behind Balochistan unrest: senators

By Mumtaz Alvi

ISLAMABAD: Senators from Balochistan fear that the situation in Pakistan’s largest province might soon reach a point of no return, if no drastic damage-control measures were taken now.

“We share common views that the situation in Balochistan is not normal. People, particularly youth in many areas, no more hesitate from openly demanding independence from Pakistan,” said these senators in an informal chat with The News here at the Parliament House the other day.

Sitting in the chamber of Deputy Chairman Senate Jan Muhammad Jamali, who also hails from Balochistan, these lawmakers wished the people sitting in Islamabad should have the full understanding of the real problems of the province.

Akbar Magsi, who made his way to the Senate in March, was of the view that the rulers, among others who matter, needed to comprehend the foreign element, which was also actively involved in disturbances in the province.

The Balochistan crisis, he pointed out, had its roots in a way in a global conspiracy, which eyed its massive natural resources blessed with gold, gas, copper and other precious reserves. However, he was quick to add that had the respective rulers comprehended Balochistan’s political, social and economic problems and strived for its solutions, people might have not raised slogans of saying goodbye to the federation.

In reply to a question, Magsi said that those who mattered should reach out to every segment of the Baloch and Pushtoon society and make them believe that they were serious in addressing their grievances in a stipulated period.

“I wonder, almost every senator whether sitting on the treasury or opposition benches, has openly spoken of the imminent threats to the Federation vis-a-vis Balochitan, but no real movement is so far observed or no effort is made in the corridors of power to rise to the occasion,” he maintained.

Shahid Bugti, who is the son-in-law of late Nawab Akbar Bugti, said he feared the situation in Balochistan was fast moving towards a point of no return, and this was because of the ineffective policies of the past rulers and the present set-up. Referring to the recently-concluded debate on Balochistan with particular reference to the law and order situation and the killing of three Baloch leaders, he said that it was time to act, though, he feared, it might be a bit too late now.

Sufi disobeys Holy Qur’an, says Imran

LAHORE: The Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) Imran Khan has accused Sufi Muhammad, the Swat cleric and head of banned Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammad (TNSM) of going against the laws of Holy Qur’an after the implementation of Nizam-e-Adl in Swat as Imran said, “He disobeyed the Swat Peace Accord.”

Sufi Muhammad is not just violating the peace agreement, rather he is violating the holy Quran, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan said.

He said this while addressing a function of party’s 13th foundation day on Sunday. Imran said Sufi Muhammad by violating the agreement with the government was violating the holy Quran and if he went on with such practices, the PTI would not support him.

To a question in regard to US drone attacks, Imran said government is carrying out dual-faced policy on drone strikes as he revealed the government, on one hand, is condemning the US drone attacks on Pakistani soil but on the other hand we keep receiving reports that those offence fully enjoy government’s consents.

He vowed to oppose those who go against the constitution of Pakistan. “Our party is striving hard for the establishment of constitution and the supremacy of law in country”.

Imran Khan demanded government of bring forth economic revolution and asked for implementation of equal education system for all and sundry.

On the occasion, party chairman announced to keep opened the membership of PTI for as late as six months.

Rehman Malik to take oath as federal minister today

SLAMABAD: Interior Adviser Rehman Malik will take oath as federal minister for interior affairs today (Monday).

Two senators would also likely take oath again as federal minister with Malik Rehman.

Malik was elected senator in the elections and now qualifies to be the federal minister for interior. Other two senators Babar Ghouri and Waqar Ahmad Khan would also expected to take oath as federal minister. They were reelected as senator.

Militants control 10-15 percent area of Buner. Commandant FC

BUNER: Militants took control of 10-15 percent area of Buner, Commandant FC Zafarullah Khan said on Monday.

According to FC Commandant, Taliban seized Shal Bandi and Sultanvas areas of Buner. He said we would retaliate if FC officials targeted. Taliban have also looted the offices of NGO’s in Buner, he added.

Taliban threaten taking revenge from Buner ‘Lashkar’

BUNER: Taliban in their double-dealing, while announcing general amnesty here, threatened taking revenge from the citizens of the villages Shalbandi and Sultanwus, who had formed ‘Lashkar.’

Talks were held between the different political, religious parties and Taliban, which gave rise to a conscientious on all the contentious issues.

Maulana Misbahuddin Malikpuri said that the issue of Shalbandi and Sultanwus would be resolved in a week, however, Taliban have threatened taking revenge from those forming ‘Lashkar’ from these two villages.

Meanwhile, defunct Tahrik-e-Taliban spokesman, Muslim Khan made it clear that arms would not be laid until the evacuation of all Americans from Pakistan and Darul Qaza was set up. The spokesman said that Darul Qaza alone could order disarming Taliban. He threatened that if the operation were not halted, then Taliban would launch attacks all over Malakand Division.

At least 40 militants killed in Dir operation

DIR: At least 30 to 40 militants have been killed as security forces operation speed up in district Dir.

Commander FC Brigadier Amalzada Khatak while talking to Geo News said search operation is underway in the area and situation is completely under control.

Earlier, security forces operation has entered into second day in Dir. Heavy shelling carried out overnight at militant hideouts in Madan and Kal and other areas of district Dir.

Indefinite curfew has been imposed in Lal Qila, Islampura, Kal Kot and other adjoining areas. Security forces tool control of Lal Qila, a key territory in tehsil Madan. The locals welcomed the action of security forces.

DCO Dir Ghulam Mohammad has issued the circular of closure of government schools in tehsil Madan. All markets are also reported closed in the Madan area.

Government starts military offensive against Taliban

Government starts military offensive against Taliban

TIMERGARA, Apr 27: Security forces launched an operation against militants in Lower Dir on Sunday and there were reports of fierce clashes from different parts of the district.

The ISPR claimed that several militants, among them a ‘commander’, had been killed in clashes in the Kala Daag area.

It said the operation had been launched at the request of the NWFP government and local tribal elders. Militants’ spokesman Muslim Khan, meanwhile, threatened that the Taliban would carry out attacks in the entire Malakand region if the operation was not stopped.

He accused the government of violating the Swat peace agreement by launching the operation.

‘The government should stop the operation; otherwise Taliban will resume their activities,’ he warned. He said militants would not lay down arms until ‘Sharia laws’ were promulgated in Malakand.

In the wake of fierce fighting, people started leaving their home and moving to other areas. Local people said that most of the people fleeing the villages in the affected area were women and children.

Fazal Rabbi of Hayaserai village told Dawn that hundreds of families left the area after Sufi Mohammad, chief of the banned TNSM, announced that people should leave Maidan before Sunday evening.

Shah Wazir of Galgot said two houses in his village had been hit by shells fired by helicopters.

He said he would take nine women and 14 children of his family to a relative’s place in Harichand in Mardan.

Hundreds of families from Hayaserai, Kad, Lajbok, Darmal, Shako, Shakar Tangay and Kaladag walked several miles to the Dir-Peshawar road to move to safe areas.

According to sources, a sepoy was killed and five others, a major among them, were injured when militants attacked a convoy of Chitral and Dir Scouts with rockets and heavy weapons in Dokrai. The deceased sepoy was identified as Bahadar of Chitral Scouts. After the attack, security forces backed by helicopters and artillery launched the operation in Maidan area.

Helicopter gunships pounded suspected militant hideouts and also shelled the house of Maulana Shahid, ‘commander’ of Taliban in Maidan.

Official sources claimed that the maulana and his four aides had been killed.All roads were blocked and telephone services were jammed in the area.

Journalists were barred from visiting the area and security personnel snatched the camera of a TV reporter, Syed Amjad Ali Shah, in Balambat and detained him in the Dir Scouts’ fort for some time.

Armed Taliban blocked the Chakdara-Timergara road in Adenzai and tried to kidnap Upper Dir District Forest Officer Hasham Khan, but local people protected him. However, the masked militants took away his official vehicle.

Taliban also kidnapped Major Rahim Khan of Levies in Upper Dir and sepoy Mohammad Khan, along with their official vehicle.

Taliban marched on the Gulabad-Asbanr road with heavy weapons and demanded end to the military operation. Militants in Gulabad told journalists that they would block troops’ convoys.

Meanwhile, the Jamaat-i-Islami held a protest demonstration in Timergara against the military operation. Hundreds of people, including traders and lawyers, attended the demonstration led by Maulana Ahmad Ghafoor Ghawas.

Lower Dir military offensive kills 26, spurs mass exodus

By Haleem Asad

Local residents flee from the troubled Lower Dir district, where troops are engaged in an operation against militants, Sunday, April 26, 2009. – AP photo

Thousands rally for peace in Buner

Searching for an end

US has ‘concerns’ over Pakistan’s nukes: Clinton

Taliban spark disquiet

TIMERGARA: Several thousand people began fleeing Lower Dir, residents said, a day after security forces launched an operation in the region after being attacked by Taliban militants. There were reports of fierce clashes from different parts of the district.

Helicopter gunships and artillery targeted militant hideouts in the villages of Lal Qala and Islam Qala.

A military spokesman said the bodies of 26 militants were found in the battle zone late on Sunday. Independent casualty estimates were unavailable.

Sporadic artillery fire was heard overnight and on Monday morning and residents saw a helicopter circling the area.

The ISPR earlier said several militants, among them a ‘commander’, had been killed in clashes in the Kala Daag area.

It said the operation had been launched at the request of the NWFP government and local tribal elders.

Militant spokesman Muslim Khan, meanwhile, threatened that the Taliban would carry out attacks in the entire Malakand region if the operation was not stopped.

He accused the government of violating the Swat peace agreement by launching the operation.

‘The government should stop the operation; otherwise Taliban will resume their activities,’ he warned. He said militants would not lay down arms until ‘Sharia laws’ were promulgated in Malakand.

In the wake of fierce fighting, people started leaving their home and moving to other areas. Local people said that most of the people fleeing the villages in the affected area were women and children.

‘I am leaving everything here and taking my family,’ said Karimullah, a farmer in the Samarbagh area of Lower Dir district.

‘We can’t take a risk with troops fighting the Taliban.’

Fazal Rabbi of Hayaserai village told Dawn that hundreds of families left the area after Sufi Mohammad, chief of the banned TNSM, announced that people should leave Maidan before Sunday evening.

Shah Wazir of Galgot said two houses in his village had been hit by shells fired by helicopters.

He said he would take nine women and 14 children of his family to a relative’s place in Harichand in Mardan.

Hundreds of families from Hayaserai, Kad, Lajbok, Darmal, Shako, Shakar Tangay and Kaladag walked several miles to the Dir-Peshawar road to move to safe areas.

According to sources, a sepoy was killed and five others, a major among them, were injured when militants attacked a convoy of Chitral and Dir Scouts with rockets and heavy weapons in Dokrai. The deceased sepoy was identified as Bahadar of Chitral Scouts.

After the attack, security forces backed by helicopters and artillery launched the operation in Maidan area.

Helicopter gunships pounded suspected militant hideouts and also shelled the house of Maulana Shahid, ‘commander’ of Taliban in Maidan.

Official sources claimed that the maulana and his four aides had been killed.All roads were blocked and telephone services were jammed in the area.

Journalists were barred from visiting the area and security personnel snatched the camera of a TV reporter, Syed Amjad Ali Shah, in Balambat and detained him in the Dir Scouts’ fort for some time.

Armed Taliban blocked the Chakdara-Timergara road in Adenzai and tried to kidnap Upper Dir District Forest Officer Hasham Khan, but local people protected him. However, the masked militants took away his official vehicle.

Taliban also kidnapped Major Rahim Khan of Levies in Upper Dir and sepoy Mohammad Khan, along with their official vehicle.

Taliban marched on the Gulabad-Asbanr road with heavy weapons and demanded end to the military operation.

Militants in Gulabad told journalists that they would block troops’ convoys.

Meanwhile, the Jamaat-i-Islami held a protest demonstration in Timergara against the military operation. Hundreds of people, including traders and lawyers, attended the demonstration led by Maulana Ahmad Ghafoor Ghawas.

Lower Dir is about 170 km northwest of Islamabad, and lies on Swat’s western flank.

Lower Dir is part of Malakand division where President Zardari sanctioned the imposition of Islamic sharia law this month after a peace deal with cleric, Sufi Mohammad, aimed at ending militant violence.

Our Mingora Correspondent Hameedullah Khan contributed to the report

Pak intelligence believes Osama is dead: Zardari

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari said Monday that Pakistani intelligence believes Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is dead but acknowledged they had no evidence.

“The Americans tell me they don’t know, and they are much more equipped than us to trace him. And our own intelligence services obviously think that he does not exist any more, that he is dead,” Zardari told reporters.

“But there is no evidence, you cannot take that as a fact,” he said. “We are between facts and fiction.”

Zardari was responding to reports that Pakistani Taliban in the troubled Swat valley have said they would welcome bin Laden if he wants to visit the former Pakistani hill resort which is now in the hands of Taliban.

“The question is whether he is alive or dead. There is no trace of him,” the president said.

Taliban gunmen shooting couple dead for adultery caught on camera

more about “untitled“, posted with vodpod

Taliban gunmen have been filmed executing a surprised couple whom they repeatedly shot for the alleged crime of adultery.

By Saeed Shah in Islamabad

Their deaths were squalid, riddled with bullets in a field near their home by Taliban gunmen as the execution was captured on a mobile telephone.

In footage which is being watched with horror by Pakistanis, the couple try to flee when they realise what is about to happen. But a gunman casually shoots the man and then the woman in the back with a burst of gunfire, leaving them bleeding in the dirt.

Moments later, when others in the execution party shout out that they are still alive, he returns to coldly finish them with a few more rounds.

Their “crime” was an alleged affair in their remote mountain village controlled by militants in an area that was only recently under the government’s sway. It was the kind of barbarity that has become increasingly familiar across Pakistan as the Taliban tide has spread.

But this time, with black-turbaned gunmen almost at the gates of Islamabad, the rare footage has shown urban Pakistanis what could now await them.

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff, has warned that Islamic extremists could take over the nation.

In the past few days the footage has circulated among Pakistanis who usually show little interest in the rough ways of the distant frontier regions.

They have now started to wake up to the fear that al-Qaeda-linked rebels from the frontier could take over their nation.

The killings happened in Hangu district, in North West Frontier Province, about two hours drive from the regional capital Peshawar. The punishment was administered by a local group of the Pakistani Taliban, the Islamic militia which has swept across the NWFP towards the capital Islamabad.

Last week, the Taliban had reached within 60 miles of Islamabad, in Buner district. Their takeover sparked panic in the West, which was already appalled by a peace deal that the government had signed this month with Taliban in adjacent the Swat valley.

In an extraordinary move, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, called on the people of Pakistan to defy their government, saying they “need to speak out forcefully against a policy that is ceding more and more territory to the insurgents”.

The Taliban had agreed a withdrawal, in the last couple of days, to their stronghold of Swat. That will scarcely make the government and elite in the capital Islamabad feel much safer, as Swat is only 100 miles from them.

“The Taliban are steady and confident, the government is weak and faltering,” said Pervez Hoodbhoy, a professor at Islamabad’s Quaid-e-Azam University and one of Pakistan’s leading intellectuals.

“A Taliban victory will enslave our women, destroy Pakistan’s rich historical and cultural heritage, make education and science impossible, and make the lives of its citizens impossibly difficult. Some are already contemplating an exodus.”

Pakistan today stands on a knife-edge, threatened with anarchy. The desperate deal signed with the Taliban in Swat looks set to fall apart. The result will almost certainly be violence. An army convoy heading into Swat on Saturday morning was stopped by the Taliban and forced to turn back, in a naked display of their power.

They seem to have been only emboldened by the peace agreement. Many believe that a bloody military operation now looks inevitable,

For those in areas falling under Taliban control, their harsh rule is terrifying.

An SOS text message sent out on Friday by a terrified local resident, in an area of Swat called Bahrain, says that the Taliban have established total control. Asking not be named for fear of reprisal, he said that they have set up check posts at the entrance to Bahrain, from where they kidnap those they want, including young women.

“They’ve even warned the local schools to close the girl classes or face dire consequences. Yet the government says its writ is in Swat.”

Another Swat resident said: “Every day I see armed Taliban move around freely. At the time of prayer, if they see anyone in his shop or walking about, they whip him with a stick.”

The Pakistani Taliban, a copy of the Afghan extremist movement, have long controlled the tribal area along the Afghan border, which is a sanctuary for militants, including al-Qaeda. But it is their march into the heart of the country that has horrified ordinary Pakistanis, and the wider world. And the threat comes not just from the Taliban to the west. Islamic extremists, who are not part of the Taliban, are already entrenched in Islamabad and across the Punjab, the most populous province, seemingly ready to surface when their moment comes.

Islamabad’s defences are being hurriedly fortified, with paramilitary troops stationed on the Margalla Hills, which overlook the city from the West. In the capital, there are thousands of followers of the radical Red Mosque, where there are now open calls for Islamic revolution at the weekly Friday prayers.

“The Taliban will not stop at Swat. They will come towards Islamabad,” said Hasan Askari Rizvi, a military analyst based in Lahore. “If the army is to take action against them, it is going to be a really bloody battle. And then civil government will be knocked out.”

“Extremist groups based in Islamabad will move from within and they (Taliban) will build pressure from outside.”

The footage Pakistanis have been watching shows them what they could expect.

A local journalist was invited to witness the execution, who filmed it with his mobile phone for a Pakistani channel, Dawn News. The Sunday Telegraph is showing the footage in the West for the first time.

There were no names for the two victims.

“Using the media is part of their (the Taliban’s) psychological warfare,” said Imtiaz Gul, chairman of Centre for Research and Security Studies, an independent think tank in Islamabad. “This way, they inject fear into the minds of people who might oppose them, keeping the majority silent.”

After the couple were shot, the family were told to take their bodies away for burial. The punishment was administered by a local group of the Pakistani Taliban linked to warlord Baitullah Mehsud.

Handful of Taliban can’t dismiss state writ: Rehman

ISLAMABAD: Advisor to Prime Minister on Interior Affairs Rehman Malik Sunday said operation in Lower Dir is not being carried out on pressure from the US administration and that a handful of Taliban cannot set aside government writ.

Talking to Geo News, Malik said that the operation was initiated in Lower Dir on the request of NWFP government and that in it many militants have so far been killed.

“The aim of the deal with Sufi Muhammad was to establish peace in the area and if this objective is not achieved then it is of no use,” the Advisor said adding “it was later felt that the agreement was not for peace.”

“The militants have shown their hideous face and now they will not be forgiven,” he vowed.

He said in the beginning the terrorists used youngsters for executing suicide attacks and now they are killing children by handing them toy bombs. It seems the militants have their own subversive agenda, he observed.

The Advisor said the Taliban have no other option left than to lay down arms. If they fail to disarm themselves we will take action, he warned.

Pakistan battles Taliban near Swat

Fighters from Swat briefly took over the district of Buner and pulled out later [EPA] Pakistan’s military has launched an operation against Taliban fighters in a district adjoining the Swat valley, threatening a truce  between the government and  anti-government fighters in the troubled region. The army said in a statement on Sunday that they had killed “scores” of fighters in the operation in Lower Dir, and that at least one soldier had been killed. There was no way to immediately verify the military statement but the Reuters news agency quoted a military spokesman as saying an “intense exchange of fire is going on in Lower Dir”. But officials said that the Swat peace deal was still intact, despite the operation. “The peace deal is intact – the government has not revoked the peace deal,” Farhatullah Babar, a spokesman for Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan’s president, said. “At the same time the government is determined to root out the militants hell-bent on destroying the law and order situation.” Military operation The government agreed a deal with the Taliban in Swat in February that has seen an end to fighting there in return for the enforcement of the Taliban’s strict interpretation of sharia, or Islamic law. In depth Video: Turning to the Taliban Media vacuum in Swat valley Swat: Pakistan’s lost paradise Talking to the Taliban Pakistan’s war Babar said that the government would fulfil its pledge under the peace deal - which covers the Swat valley and the surrounding districts that make up Malakand division -  to establish Islamic courts in the area.But he said that the government would not permit the fighters to spread their area of influence. In recent days, fighters from Swat began entering another district, Buner, which lies just just 100km from Islamabad, the Pakistani capital. Later reports suggested that the fighters had begun to pull out after military action was threatened. “The operation that got under way this morning got under way in an area called Dir, which is adjacent to Swat,” Kamal Hyder, Al Jazeera’s Pakistan correspondent, said. “The military moved in, but they have of course been using maximum restraint because they want this peace deal [in Swat] to work. “We also got reports today that the military arrested at least five Taliban who were violating the accord – they were toting weapons in an area of Swat.” ‘Syndicated extremists’ Critics of Pakistan’s deal with fighters in Swat say that it has only emboldened the Taliban and  in recent days, the US has increased pressure on Pakistan to confront fighters on its soil. General David Petraeus, the head of US central command, said Pakistan’s leaders should focus on the looming threat posed by fighters within their borders. “The most important, most pressing threat to the very existence of their country is the threat posed by the internal extremists and groups such as the Taliban and the syndicated extremists,” he said. Across Pakistan, more than 1,800 people have been killed in a wave of al-Qaeda and Taliban-linked attacks since July 2007.