Pakistani doctor faces treason charges after bin Laden raid

By the CNN Wire Staff

 

A Pakistani policeman stands guard in front of Osama bin Laden's former

compound in Abbottabad on May 7.

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- The doctor who is suspected of helping the CIA target Osama bin Laden will be charged with treason, Pakistan's information ministry said Thursday.

"A case of conspiracy against the state of Pakistan and high treason is made" against Dr. Shakeel Afridi, the information ministry said, summarizing a commission's investigation into the death of the al Qaeda leader.
Afridi is accused of helping the CIA use a vaccination campaign to try to collect DNA samples from people who lived in bin Laden's compound.

The United States "has repeatedly asked" for the release of the Pakistani doctor, a U.S. official said Thursday. The official declined to comment further on the treason charges.

Pakistani security forces detained the doctor in July, a senior Pakistani security official said at the time. He remained in custody Thursday, but it was unclear whether an attorney was representing him.

A May 2 raid by U.S. Special Operations Forces killed bin Laden at his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

The Guardian newspaper reported earlier this year that in the course of gathering intelligence for the raid, the CIA recruited a Pakistani doctor to run a vaccination program in the area. The goal was to try to obtain DNA evidence from bin Laden family members, the British newspaper said, citing unnamed Pakistani and U.S. officials.

Any DNA obtained from the people in the compound could then be compared with a sample from bin Laden's sister, who died in Boston in 2010, as evidence the family was in the compound, the newspaper said.

Neighborhood residents told CNN that two women who appeared to be nurses visited homes and offered free vaccinations.

"This was one very small piece of a very large intelligence effort to determine that bin Laden was located at the compound," a senior U.S. official told CNN over the summer.

The vaccination campaign occurred shortly before U.S. forces raided the compound, the senior U.S. official said.

"People need to put this into some perspective," the official added. "The vaccination campaign was part of the hunt for the world's top terrorist, and nothing else. If the United States hadn't shown this kind of creativity, people would be scratching their heads asking why it hadn't used all the tools at its disposal to find bin Laden."

The Pakistan commission's report also said the house where bin Laden lived would be turned over to the city's civilian administration, and that authorities had finished questioning members of bin Laden's family.

That means the commission's restraining order that required the family members to remain in Pakistan during its inquiry can be lifted, Thursday's statement said. The order barred Pakistani authorities from handing over bin Laden's family members to officials in other countries.

The commission is continuing its investigation.

CNN's Pam Benson and Reza Sayah and journalists Nasir Habib and Shaan A. Khan contributed to this report.

Pakistan and China: Strengthening Ties

by Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi
The American Spectator

As U.S. military operations in Afghanistan drag on, a strengthening relationship between Pakistan and China has emerged as tensions between the former and the United States continue to grow.

Of particular interest are the trilateral meeting just held between Chinese, Saudi and Pakistani intelligence officials in Islamabad and a two-day visit to Pakistan by the Chinese Deputy Prime Minister Meng Jianzhou. Both of these developments come in the midst of growing concern among U.S. officials about the problem of ISI (Pakistani intelligence) support for a militant group known as the Haqqani Network, which has bases in Pakistan and conducts operations against American and Indian targets in Afghanistan.

For example, the Haqqani Network is widely suspected of being behind the bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul in 2008, and more recently cell phone trails have established that members of the organization were in contact with Pakistani intelligence before and during the assault on the U.S. embassy in the Afghan capital this month.

Pakistan's response, however, has been to deny any links between the ISI and Haqqani Network, while accusing the United States of creating the group in the first place. In fact, Jalaluddin Haqqani, the godfather of the organization, was already a devotee to jihadist ideology by the mid-1970s, aiming back then to overthrow the government of Mohammed Daoud Khan, who had seized power from King Zahir in 1973 and established an Afghan republic.

Thus, the militants behind the Haqqani Network (including some Chechen, Palestinian and Yemeni fellow fighters) were already active well before the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the subsequent joint CIA-ISI enterprise of providing support to various mujahideen warriors in their jihad against the Soviet occupation forces in the 1980s.

Although the leadership of the Pakistan Army is now firmly refusing to take any action against the Haqqani Network in the form of a military offensive in North Waziristan, Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik has vowed to attack and pursue Muslim Uighur militants who operate in China's western province of Xinjiang but take refuge and undergo training in Pakistan's border areas with Afghanistan (often in cooperation with al-Qa'ida and other Islamist militant groups that have firm footholds in Pakistan). As Malik himself put it, "We will strike very hard against them [the Uighur militants]. Anybody who is the enemy of China is the enemy of Pakistan."

Strengthening ties extend to the realm of arms deals, and now even entail the deployment of Chinese troops in Pakistani territory. For example, in May, China agreed to provide 50 new JF-17 Thunder multi-role fighter planes to the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) "immediately" (a deal had been signed earlier, but during the Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Gilani's visit to China discussion was also raised over the possibility of further Chinese supplies to the PAF of J-20 Stealth and Xiaolong multi-purpose light fighter aircraft). It would appear that as Pakistan increases its military cooperation with China, the country is distancing itself from American military support and aid. Indeed, it is expected that the presence of U.S. military personnel in Pakistan will be halved.

As for the stationing of Chinese troops in Pakistan, it is estimated that there are currently around 11,000 soldiers of the People's Liberation Army in Pakistan's northern province of Gilgit-Baltistan and in Pakistani Kashmir, facilitating the opening of branches of Chinese banks and construction of concrete residential houses for these troops. This development should primarily be understood in light of the fact that engineers are working on a railroad that is intended to extend from the port of Gwadar in the southwestern province of Balochistan (a port that will be very important for future Chinese proximity to the Persian Gulf) all the way into western China.

Once Pakistan's strengthening alliance with China in opposition to what is perceived as a U.S.-India axis is taken into account, the policies of the Pakistani military and intelligence towards the various Islamist militants based or operating in Pakistan become very easy to explain. The inconsistency of refusing to launch an offensive against the Haqqani Network while vowing to hunt down Uighur militants has already been noted.

 Beijing certainly has no problem with ISI backing of the Haqqani Network: so long as the group harms Indian influence and interests in Afghanistan, so much the better for China. China, after all, feels the need as an ever growing economic power to compete with India for Afghanistan's vast mineral reserves, having already invested $3 billion in the vast Aynak copper mine.

Now we can also see why the ISI and Pakistan Army safeguard and protect the Taliban Shura and other Islamist militants based or operating in Balochistan (especially in and around the provincial capital of Quetta), for they serve as good proxies against the Baloch nationalist insurgency. The Baloch insurgency not only regards Pakistani rule and the presence of Punjabi settlers as an occupation but also is justifiably outraged at the fact that the indigenous population is largely deprived of income from Balochistan's massive copper reserves, which are being developed and exploited by China and the Pakistani central government.

Pakistan's desire to counter India applies to Punjab province as well, where a host of Islamist militant organizations (e.g. Lashkar-e-Taiba) enjoy the patronage of the ISI and the provincial government headed by Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.

These groups have often provided safe havens for militants returning from Afghanistan (as well as those in the border regions who have been given escape routes and early warnings by the Pakistani security forces during operations as part of a double game to win American financial support), allowing many Islamist militants to set up their own seminaries in south Punjab. The predictable result of all this has of course been the increasing destabilization of Punjab itself, giving rise to a phenomenon known as the "Punjabi Taliban" that has bombed Sufi shrines, inter alia.

The emerging picture is clearly one of a Sino-Pakistani partnership aligned against what is seen as a U.S.-India axis designed to limit Pakistan's assertion of its interests in Afghanistan, Kashmir and parts of India on account of an expansionist policy known as "strategic depth," which has always been espoused by the Pakistani military and intelligence and is rooted in Pakistan's perception of its identity as an Islamic state.

These developments could well lead to what some analysts have termed a "looming superpower clash" between the United States and China over Afghanistan and the wider region, triggered by Pakistan.

Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi is a student at Brasenose College, Oxford University, and an intern at the Middle East Forum.

Pakistan: AKI reporter Shahzad 'was initially supposed to be beaten, not killed'

Via: adnkronos.com

Pakistani journalist Saleem Shahzad was probably killed by his country’s
powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency, but the initial order
was to rough him up and give him a scare, according to a recent article in
The New Yorker magazine.

But sometime before he disappeared on 29 May the order changed from kidnap and hurt to kill, Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Dexter Filkins wrote, citing an unnamed senior American official.

Shahzad disappeared in Islamabad on 29 May. His body was recovered two days later in the remote rural area of Mandi Bahauddin, 150 kilometres southwest of the capital Islamabad, bearing signs of torture.

Pakistan's powerful military spy agency ISI has denied any involvement in Shahzad's abduction and murder, which occurred just days after he published an article in Asia Times Online alleging links between Al-Qaeda and officials in the Pakistani navy. He was also a contributor to Adnkronos International (AKI).

Shahzad upset the ISI for his articles that shed light on alleged ties between the Pakistani spy agency and Al-Qaeda. One article said Al-Qaeda, not the Taliban, attacked the Mehran base as punishment for the military’s crackdown on Al-Qaeda affiliates within the Pakistani navy.

Shahzad also seemed to have contact with Al-Qaeda’s chief of global military operations Muhammad Ilyas Kashmiri, who he wrote was responsible for the Mehran attack. Previously he got a major scoop by reporting that Kashmiri was actually not killed in a 2009 drone attack, as reported by US intelligence sources. When Kashmiri actually was killed by a drone days after Shazad’s murder, it raised suspicion that Shahzad caved in under torture and revealed the militant’s location to his interrogators, the New Yorker said.

His trouble with the ISI started months earlier on 25 March after he published an article that Osama Bin Laden was on the move, he told Filkins nine days before he disappeared, during meeting at an Islamabad coffee shop near Shahzad’s home.

He got a phone call from an ISI officer, “summoning him to the agency’s headquarters, in Aabpara, a neighbourhood in eastern Islamabad. When Shahzad showed up, he was met by three ISI officers. The lead man, he said, was a naval officer, Rear Admiral Adnan Nazir, who serves as the head of the ISI’s media division,” the article said. They asked him to retract the story and Shazad refused.

“We want the world to believe that Osama is dead,” Nazir said, according to Shahzad’s account. “They were obviously trying to protect bin Laden,” he told Filkins.

A book written by Shahzad was to be published that explored the links between Al-Qaeda, the Taliban and the ISI and the Pakistani journalist thought this would further anger his country’s intelligence agency.

Shahzad was vocal about his opposition to terror. But while in university he was involved in the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamist party that recruited thousands of people for armed groups. He told journalists that some of his contacts were the same people he met in Jamaat-e-Islami.

Filkins said there are other reason’s the ISI may have wanted Shahzad dead. He may have been a suspected foreign agent.

As tensions rise, Pakistan warns US: 'You will lose an ally'

Washington accuses Pakistani spy agency of working with militants launching strikes in Afghanistan

 

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan's foreign minister warned the United States in remarks broadcast Friday that it risks losing an ally if it continued to accuse Islamabad of playing a double game in the war against militancy, escalating the crisis in relations between the two countries.

Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar was responding to comments by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen, who said Pakistan's top spy agency was closely tied to the Haqqani network, the most violent and effective faction among Islamic Taliban militants in Afghanistan.

It is the most serious allegation leveled by the United States against nuclear-armed and Muslim-majority Pakistan since they began an alliance a decade ago.

"You will lose an ally," Khar told Geo TV in New York, where she is attending a U.N. General Assembly meeting.

"You cannot afford to alienate Pakistan, you cannot afford to alienate the Pakistani people. If you are choosing to do so and if they are choosing to do so it will be at their (the United States') own cost," she said.

"Anything which is said about an ally, about a partner publicly to recriminate it, to humiliate it is not acceptable," Khar added.

'Actively involved'

U.S. military officials told NBC News that the Pakistani government, through its intelligence service, is "actively involved" in directing the militant Haqqani network to launch terrorist attacks against U.S. and Afghan government targets in Kabul.

 

The officials told NBC News the ISI, Pakistan's powerful spy agency, directed the attacks by Haqqani militants on the U.S. Embassy on Sept. 13 and on the Inter-Continental Hotel on June 28. It is suspected the ISI also had a role in the massive truck bombing targeting an American base in eastern Afghanistan on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, the officials said.

In a congressional hearing Thursday, Mullen called the Haqqani network a "veritable arm" of the ISI. Testifying alongside Mullen, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the United States has warned Pakistani authorities it will not tolerate a continuation of the group's cross-border attacks.

Military officials told NBC the Pakistanis are convinced that the United States is preparing to totally withdraw all its forces from Afghanistan and are "hedging their bets" for when that day arrives. "They're looking ahead, well past the Americans," an official said.

Video: Mullen: Pakistan’s ISI behind 2 deadly attacks (on this page)

According to one senior military official, "the attacks are aimed at undermining the credibility of the Afghan government" so when the Americans leave, Pakistan will wield some influence over Kabul, NBC reported.

"They're double-dealing," the official said. On the one hand, the Pakistanis are cooperating with the United States against al-Qaida in Pakistan, while on the other hand undermining U.S. efforts in Afghanistan, the official told NBC.

Mullen and Panetta have publicly emphasized the United States is prepared to do whatever is necessary to protect American forces in Pakistan. One official said that could include unilateral U.S. military strikes against the Haqqani network inside Pakistan, but added it would be "foolhardy" to discuss any specific planning.

Pakistan relies on Washington for military and economic aid and for acting as a backer on the world stage.

"The message for America is: 'They can't live with us, they can't live without us," Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani told reporters.

But support in Congress for curbing assistance or making conditions on aid more stringent is rising rapidly.

'Instrument of policy'

In his final congressional testimony before retiring next week, Mullen said success in Afghanistan is threatened by the Pakistani government's support for the Haqqani network.

Repeating a charge he made earlier this week, Mullen said Thursday that with Pakistani support the Haqqanis were behind not only the Sept. 13 embassy assault but also a recent truck bomb that wounded 77 U.S. soldiers and a June 28 attack against the Inter-Continental Hotel in Kabul — as well as "a host of other smaller but effective operations."

Mullen said Pakistani intelligence is using the Haqqanis and other extremist groups as its proxies inside Afghanistan.

 

Mullen said Pakistan's government has chosen to "use violent extremism as an instrument of policy," adding that "by exporting violence, they have eroded their internal security and their position in the region. They have undermined their international credibility and threatened their economic well-being."

Mullen also deplored the "pernicious effect" of Afghanistan's own poor governance and corruption.

Panetta also decried Pakistani support for the Haqqani network. He said new CIA Director David Petraeus met recently with the head of the Pakistani intelligence agency and told him the U.S. won't stand for continued cross-border attacks by Haqqani militants.

"They must take steps to prevent the safe haven that the Haqqanis are using," Panetta said. "We simply cannot allow these kinds of terrorists to be able to go into Afghanistan, attack our forces and then return to Pakistan for safe haven."

He repeated the point later, adding, "That is not tolerable."

Limited 'strategic convergence'

Privately, Pakistani military and intelligence officials have told NBC News that their "strategic convergence" with the United States extends only so far as a stable and secure Afghanistan and the elimination of al-Qaida from the region. The Haqqanis, they argue, have never posed a threat to, nor carried out attacks within, Pakistan.

Sirajuddin Haqqani, the group's commander, said in a recent Reuters interview that he would take part in peace talks with Kabul only if the Taliban also joined the negotiations. Pakistani military and intelligence officials have echoed this desire to see the Haqqanis brought into the Afghanistan reconciliation negotiations, rather than targeted militarily.

Video: Tensions remain high between the US and Pakistan (on this page)

 

Pakistani officials also express concern that launching a full-scale operation against the Haqqanis could lead militants to direct attacks against the Pakistani state rather than against international forces in Afghanistan.

Such a situation would remain a threat to Pakistan's stability long after the United States leaves the region. "We'll be left just like we were after the Soviet war," one Pakistani intelligence official told NBC.

Shift in tone

The remarks by Mullen and Panetta highlight a notable shift in the administration's approach to Pakistan. Whereas U.S. officials previously kept their strongest criticisms of Pakistan private, in recent days they have been explicit in linking the government to extremists who are attacking U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

The dangers could be enormous if Washington and Pakistan, a largely dysfunctional state teeming with Islamist militants and run by a weak, military-cowed government, fail to arrest the deterioration in relations.

At stake are the fight against terrorism, the security of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal and — as Islamabad plays off its friendship with China against the United States — regional stability.

NBC News' Chief Pentagon Correspondent Jim Miklaszewski, NBC's Amna Nawaz in Pakistan, The Associated Press contributed to this report.

FROM: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44627163/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/t/tensions-rise-pakistan-warns-us-you-will-lose-ally/

Pakistan 'backed Haqqani attack on Kabul' - Mike Mullen

 

Outgoing chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen was speaking to a US Senate panel

 

The most senior US military officer has accused Pakistan's spy agency of supporting the Haqqani group in last week's attack on the US Kabul embassy.

"The Haqqani network... acts as a veritable arm of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Agency," Adm Mike Mullen told a Senate panel.

Some 25 people died in last Tuesday's 20-hour attack on Kabul's US embassy and other official buildings.
Pakistan's interior minister earlier denied links with the Haqqani group.

Rehman Malik told the BBC Pakistan was determined to fight all militants based on its border with Afghanistan.

Pakistani officials have consistently denied links with militant groups.

US-Pakistan ties deteriorated sharply after the killing of al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden on Pakistani soil by US commandos in May.

'Credible intelligence'
The Kabul attack on 13 September left 11 civilians dead, as well as at least four police and 10 insurgents.

"With ISI support, Haqqani operatives planned and conducted a truck bomb attack [on 11 September], as well as the assault on our embassy," said Adm Mullen.

"We also have credible intelligence that they were behind the 28 June attack against the Inter-Continental Hotel in Kabul and a host of other smaller but effective operations."

In July Adm Mullen, who steps down this month as chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, accused Pakistan's government of sanctioning the killing of investigative journalist Saleem Shahzad.

Pakistan called that statement "irresponsible".

Correspondents say that during his tenure, Adm Mullen has been a forceful advocate for maintaining dialogue with Pakistan and with its military establishment.

He was said to be close to the Pakistani army's chief of staff, Gen Ashfaq Kayani. Indeed, Adm Mullen is thought to have made more visits to Pakistan than any other senior US official or chief of staff in recent times.

But, correspondents say, the latest comments are yet more evidence of his patience wearing thin, and suggest he is prepared to be more outspoken as his term in office draws to a close.
Strained ties
The Haqqani network, which is closely allied to the Taliban and reportedly based in Pakistan, has been blamed for several high-profile attacks against Western, Indian and government targets in Afghanistan.

It is often described by Pakistani officials as a predominantly Afghan group, but correspondents say its roots reach deep inside Pakistani territory, and speculation over its links to Pakistan's security establishment refuses to die down.

The Haqqani network is thought have bases in Pakistan's volatile tribal regions

US officials have long been frustrated at what they perceive to be Pakistani inaction against the Haqqani network, and analysts say US concern about the group's capabilities is particularly acute as Nato begins withdrawing troops from Afghanistan.

Earlier this month, Washington said it could target the Haqqani network on Pakistani soil if the authorities there failed to take action against the militants.

But on Thursday, Mr Malik told the BBC that Pakistan's government had taken "very, very strict actions" whenever it had received information about militant groups.
"We will not allow any terrorist to operate from our area, fro
m our side, irrespective of any country, including Afghanistan," he said. "I assure you that, if their presence is there and which is detrimental, action is going to be taken."

Mr Malik said his government's efforts were hindered by the fact that neither Pakistan nor Afghanistan had control over some parts of the border area between them.

"There is no biometric system on the border. Forty thousand to 50,000 people cross this border every day. It is very difficult to keep an eye on everyone.

"[The US Senate's linking of $1bn US assistance to Pakistan to its action again Haqqani and others] will not make Pakistanis happy," he added. "We have sacrificed 35,000 lives [in fighting terrorism] and have suffered economic losses."

Ties between the US and Pakistan had already been strained by continuing US drone strikes targeting militants in the tribal areas and the controversy over the release of Raymond Davis, the CIA contractor who killed two Pakistani men in Lahore.

FROM: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-15024344

Afghanistan is most dangerous country for women

By Lisa Anderson | Reuters

 

 File photo of woman walking past riot police outside a gathering in Kabul File photo of victim of an acid attack by the Taliban

By Lisa Anderson

LONDON, June 15 (TrustLaw) - Violence, dismal healthcare and brutal poverty make Afghanistan the world's most dangerous country for women, with Congo a close second due to horrific levels of rape, a Thomson Reuters Foundation expert poll said on Wednesday.

Pakistan, India and Somalia ranked third, fourth and fifth, respectively, in the global survey of perceptions of threats ranging from domestic abuse and economic discrimination to female feticide, genital mutilation and acid attacks.

read more: http://beta.news.yahoo.com/afghanistan-most-dangerous-country-women-141808935.html

Pakistan Attacks Kill Scores, Taliban Deny

 

OnIslam & News Agencies

Taliban deny responsibility for the attacks, which killed scores in Peshawar

PESHAWAR – At least 34 people were killed Saturday, June 12, in twin bombings in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, the latest attacks since Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's killing last month.

"The first blast was quite small but as people gathered close to the site of the explosion, the second one, which was real big one, went off," a senior local police officer told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

A small blast rocked the Khyber Super Market district at 11: 30 pm, which drew onlookers before a second powerful explosion jolted the area.

read more: http://www.onislam.net/english/news/asia-pacific/452629-pakistan-attacks-kill-scores-taliban-deny.html

Chicago Man Convicted in Danish Terror Plot

By JOE BARRETT

CHICAGO—A federal jury found a Pakistani-born Chicago businessman guilty of two terror-related counts, including an aborted plot to attack a Danish newspaper, but found him not guilty of helping to plan the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

Associated Press

Tahawwur Rana in a December 2009 courtroom sketch.

After deliberating for two days, the jury late Thursday found Tahawwur Hussain Rana guilty of providing material support to the plot to attack a Copenhagen newspaper that had printed cartoons of the prophet Muhammad. The plot was never carried out. Mr. Rana, 50 years old, also was found guilty of supporting the terrorist organization Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Charles Swift, an attorney for Mr. Rana, said his client was "in shock." Mr. Rana, a Canadian citizen, faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison on the combined counts. He remained in federal custody without bond.

read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304259304576376060655801924.html?mod=rss_US_News

Pakistan government failing on minorities, report says

By Shahzeb Jillani BBC News

Pakistan's minorities are increasingly at risk, the report says

 

Pakistan's government is failing to protect the country's religious minorities, a new report says.

The rising tide of vigilante violence and extremism is threatening Christians, Hindus and Ahmedis, the report by the Jinnah Institute said.

The assassinations of two prominent advocates of minority rights this year had led to an atmosphere of fear and intimidation, it added.

The report warned extremists posed a serious threat to Pakistan's stability.

The 70-page report, entitled "A Question of Faith", was released on Tuesday by the Asian Human Rights Commission.

read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-13689542

The Death of Ilyas Kashmiri

Adrian Morgan, The Editor

 

On Friday June 3, Ilyas Kashmiri was reportedly killed in a U.S. drone strike. Kashmiri headed the Islamist terror group called Harkatul Jihad Islami. Following the killing of Osama bin Laden on May 1 (local time), it was briefly postulated that Kashmiri was a candidate to take over as the acting head of al-Qaeda. He was head of an al-Qaeda unit known as the 313 brigade.

 

According to the U.S. State Department, Kashmiri had given the orders for a combined ballistic and bomb attack upon the regional headquarters of Pakistan’s intelligence agency, in Lahore, Punjab province. That attack on the twin buildings of the local Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) on May 27, 2009 killed 35 people, including seven agency personnel. A senior ISI figure, identified as Colonel Amir, was among the dead.

 

Kashmiri had also been closely linked to the people who kidnapped a Hindu Pakistani film-maker called Satish Anand, who was snatched in the port city of Karachi in the south of Pakistan in October 2008. Anand was freed in April 2009 after a ransom was paid, with Ilyas Kashmiri involved in the negotiations. Though kidnapped in the south, Anand had been released in North Waziristan, in the north of Pakistan.

 

read more: http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.9680/pub_detail.asp

Pakistan: Deadly bomb kills six near Peshawar

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-13659326?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

 

At least six people have been killed in a bomb blast outside the north-western Pakistani city of Peshawar, police say.

The bomb was planted at a bus stop near a market in the town of Matani, about 20km (12 miles) south of Peshawar, police commanders told news agencies.

Matani is close to Pakistan's lawless tribal regions and the Afghan border.

It is not clear who carried out the attack but Pakistan has been battling Islamist militants and its own version of the Taliban.

At least 10 people were wounded in the attack in Matani.

It is the latest violence in Pakistan since the US special forces raid last month that killed al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden in the north of the country.

It comes a day after reports that a top al-Qaeda operative, Ilyas Kashmiri, was killed in a US drone strike in the tribal region of South Waziristan.

Since Bin Laden was killed, a paramilitary academy, a naval base, government buildings, a police station and a US consulate convoy have been attacked.

Pakistan, Iran ‘pillars of Muslim brotherhood’

 

 

Our correspondentWednesday, May 25, 2011

 

Islamabad

A delegation of the Al-Mustafa University, Iran, led by Pakistan Affairs Director General Professor Sajjad Hashmian, called on International Islamic University (IIU) Rector Professor Fateh Muhammad Malik here on Tuesday.

Gulzar Ahmad Khwaja, director general (Administration, Finance and Planning), IIU, Saqib Akbar, renowned writer and chairman of the Akhuwat Academy, Dr. Javed Hamdani, a scholar and Persian language expert, were present on the occasion.

Talking to the delegation, Professor Fateh Muhammad Malik said that Pakistan and Iran have cultural, religious and geographical importance for each other. Similarly, the foundations of both universities are common to promote Islamic as well as modern education. “Pakistan and Iran are the strong elements of Muslim brotherhood bond. This relationship will be much stronger in future,” he said.

Professor Sajjad Hashmian said that the IIU is striving for the same cause just like Al-Mustafa University, Iran. He invited the IIU rector to visit Al-Mustafa University to promote bilateral understandings between the two universities.

Professor Hashmian said that the Al-Mustafa University has several branches in other countries but unfortunately not in Pakistan.

 

 

 

http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=48958&Cat=6&dt=5/25/2011

 

Suicide car bomb razes Pakistan police station

The building is located in a highly secure area

Four people have been killed and 22 others wounded in a suicide car bomb attack on a police station in Peshawar, in north-west Pakistan.

The force of the blast flattened the building, police said. Emergency workers were searching for bodies and survivors in the rubble.

The building was close to Pakistani army facilities and the US consulate.

Pakistani Taliban said they carried out the attack, the fourth since Osama Bin Laden was killed on 2 May.
The deadliest attack was a twin suicide bombing which killed more than 80 people, most of them paramilitary recruits, in the north-west two weeks ago.

Last week, the Pakistani Taliban bombed a US consulate convoy in Peshawar, killing one Pakistani passer-by and wounding 10 others.

'Huge blast'

Police said the target of the latest attack was the building that housed the police's criminal investigation department.

"It was a huge blast which completely destroyed the three-storey building," AFP news agency quoted Liaqat Ali Khan, chief of police in Peshawar, as saying.

The building is in Peshawar's cantonment area close to the US consulate. Security is usually tight there.
A spokesman for Pakistan's Taliban said the attacks would continue until the US drone strikes and Pakistani military operations were stopped in the tribal regions bordering Afghanistan.

"We will further step up these attacks to avenge Osama Bin Laden's martyrdom," AFP quoted Ehsanullah Ehsan as saying.



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-13537059?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Pakistan retakes naval base after attack

 

Reuters – Soldiers depart from the Mehran naval aviation base after troops ended operations against militants in …

By Faisal Aziz and Michael Georgy Faisal Aziz And Michael Georgy – KARACHI (Reuters) – Troops recaptured a Pakistani naval air force base on Monday after a 16-hour battle with as few as six Taliban gunmen who had launched their attack to avenge the killing of Osama bin Laden.

The assault casts fresh doubt on the military's ability to protect its bases after a raid on the army headquarters in the city of Rawalpindi in 2009 and is a further embarrassment following the surprise raid by U.S. special forces on the al Qaeda leader's hideout north of Islamabad on May 2.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said just six militants were believed involved in the attack on the PNS Mehran base in Karachi late on Sunday, destroying two aircraft and laying siege to a main building in one of the most heavily guarded bases in the unstable, nuclear-armed country.

"When they fired the first rockets, they were intercepted," said Pakistan's navy chief Admiral Noman Bashir. "Then they could not launch another attack on other aircraft and they tried to hide." He said it took three to four hours to sketch out a plan to contain the militants.

At least 10 military personnel were killed and 20 wounded in the assault that started at 10.30 p.m. on Sunday (1730 GMT), a navy spokesman said.

Malik said three militants were killed in the gunbattle while the body of a fourth was believed to be buried under the rubble of a collapsed wall. Two suspects were believed to have fled the scene, he added.
One of two attackers hiding in the building blew himself up while two others were gunned down elsewhere, Bashir said.

The Pakistan Taliban, who are allied with al Qaeda, said they had staged the attack to avenge bin Laden's death.

"It was the revenge of martyrdom of Osama bin Laden. It was the proof that we are still united and powerful," Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.

LADDERS, GUNS, GRENADES

Malik said the militants, aged between 20 and 25, used two ladders to scale the walls of the base and jumped in by cutting barbed wire.

He said the militants had used guns and grenades in their attack on the base, 15 miles from the Masroor Air Base, Pakistan's largest and a possible depot for nuclear weapons.

PNS Mehran is ringed by a concrete wall with about 5 ft of barbed wire on top. An aircraft, armed with rockets, hangs on show on a stand outside.

As troops wound down their assault, some Karachi residents said they could not believe security could have been so lax.

"If these people can just enter a military base like this, then how can any Pakistani feel safe?" asked Mazhar Iqbal, 28, an engineering company administrator taking a lunch break in the shade outside the complex where a crowd had gathered.

"The government and the army are just corrupt. We need new leaders with a vision for Pakistan."
Malik said 17 foreigners -- 11 Chinese and six Americans -- were inside the base at the time. All had been evacuated safely. The Americans were contractors working for SAIC and Lockheed Martin doing maintenance on the aircraft.

Two P-3C Orions, maritime patrol aircraft supplied by the United States, were destroyed, said Colonel David Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman.
 
TALIBAN DENIES MULLAH OMAR KILLED
 
Pakistan has faced a wave of assaults over the last few years, many of them claimed by the Pakistani Taliban. Others have been blamed on al Qaeda-linked militant groups once nurtured by the Pakistani military and which have since slipped out of control.
 
The Taliban have stepped up attacks since bin Laden's death, killing almost 80 people in a suicide bombing on a paramilitary academy and an assault on a U.S. consular vehicle in Peshawar.
 
Malik said militants had planned to attack sensitive military installations as well as important figures at a meeting in North Waziristan -- a global hub for militants on the Afghan border -- after bin Laden's killing.
On Monday, at least seven militants, including three Arab nationals, were killed in a missile strike by a U.S. drone aircraft in North Waziristan, local intelligence officials said.
 
The Pakistani Taliban are led by Hakimullah Mehsud, whose fighters regularly clash with the army in the northwest, parts of which are bases for Afghan militants.
 
On Monday, an Afghan television station reported Taliban leader Mullah Omar had been killed in Pakistan, but the group denied it, saying he was safe and in Afghanistan.
 
The United States sees Pakistan as a key, if difficult, ally essential to its attempts to root out militant forces in Afghanistan.
 
Pakistan, however, sees militant groups as leverage to ward off the influence of its old enemy India in Afghanistan. The discovery that bin Laden was living in the town of Abbottabad has brought suspicion that militants may be receiving help from the security establishment.
 
Pakistan says its senior leadership did not know of bin Laden's whereabouts, but his presence, and his killing, have strained already fragile ties with the United States and deeply embarrassed Pakistan's military.
 
The military has come under intense domestic pressure for allowing five U.S. helicopters to penetrate Pakistan's airspace and kill the al Qaeda leader.
 
Many U.S. lawmakers are questioning whether to cut the billions of dollars of aid Pakistan receives to help root out militants.
 
On Monday, the Pakistani rupee fell to a record low against the U.S. dollar, partly because of concerns that growing tension with the West could choke off much needed foreign aid.
 
(Additional reporting by Chris Allbritton, Zeeshan Haider, Kamran Haider, Sahar Ahmed and Imtiaz Shah; Writing by Miral Fahmy; Editing by Nick Macfie and Alex Richardson)



http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110523/wl_nm/us_pakistan_blast

Punjab, anti-Christian violence: nurses sequestered, families evicted from home

PAKISTAN

by Jibran Khan

A Muslim colleague steals mobile phone and cash, then accuses two nurses of theft. The women, held in solitary confinement for nine hours, were subjected to physical violence. Muslims raid homes of two families in Gujrat. The episode ordered by a former lawmaker who wants to take possession of the land. Muslim doctors refuse treatment to Christian policeman.


Lahore (AsiaNews) - In the province of Punjab, Pakistan's most populous area, new cases of anti-Christian violence are emerging. Two nurses at the Fatima Memorial Hospital, Lahore, were attacked and abducted for several hours by a fellow Muslim. The man also charged them with theft after stealing their mobile phone and a sum of money. In a second incident, a group of Muslims - at the behest of a former MP of the area - attacked the houses of two Christians, to force the owners to abandon them and transfer the land ownership over to him.

Nusrat Bibi and Muneeran Bibi are two Christian nurses at Fatima Memorial Hospital in Lahore. A hospital source reports that in recent days the two women were attacked and abducted by a Muslim doctor, who works in the same building. He allegedly stole Nusrat ‘s mobile phone, a sum of money from Muneeran and when the girl put up resistance he attacked her. Then it was Nusrat’s turn to suffer, as the doctor beat her repeatedly with a wooden stick reducing her clothing to tatters.

The source speaking on condition of anonymity, added that the nurses "were segregated for more than nine hours." The hospital administration contends that the two Christian women are guilty of theft, although they were not found in possession of any object. Fr. Joseph Xavier, priest and local activist, speaks of a "brutal act" against two workers who "did not steal anything" and whose only crime is "being Christian" and "victims of brutality."

The second incident occurred on May 18 in Jattan Jalal, a town in the Gujrat district. A group of Muslims, hired by a former local lawmaker, invaded the homes of two Christian families to seize the buildings and surrounding farmland. Local priest Fr. Naveed Dominic confirms that the politician “'has set his sights on the land" belonging to Christians, who in the past "have received threats from various groups " but have never wanted to "leave their property. "

The group of Muslims threw furniture out of the house and property of the Christian families, attacking the women present at the time of the raid. Some local residents tried to contact the police, but officers refused to intervene. Fr. Dominic adds: "The church has received threats not to meddle in the affair." The priest confirms that "the authorities are turning a deaf ear, because cases of persecution and anti-Christian violence reported" do not seem to interest them. "

The climate of indifference, marginalization and violence against the religious minority is confirmed by a third episode. On 18 May the health care workers of the General Hospital in Lahore refused to treat a policeman wounded in a shooting earlier, because of his Christian faith. The ER chief doctor delayed his admittance on discovering that police agent Mushtaq Shaukat Masih was of Christian faith. Even a doctor who intervened later supported his colleague’s decision.

Wounded and exasperated by the situation, the policeman pulled the service weapon striking the doctor with the butt of his gun. He did not, however, noticed that it was loaded and, in the collision, a shot was fired wounding a person present at the time. The Christian policemand was taken to another facility where he received appropriate medical care. Doctors at the first hospital have filed a complaint against him, but from the earliest records, judges seem to be willing to drop the charges because the victim was provoked.




http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Punjab,-anti-Christian-violence:-nurses-sequestered,-families-evicted-from-home-21614.html

ADL Commends Arrests of Florida Residents for Providing Support to Pakistani Terrorist Organization

Date: May 17, 2011

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) commends Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, John V. Gillies, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Miami Field Office, and the members of the South Florida Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) for their investigation leading to the arrest of two South Florida imams for allegedly providing support to the Pakistani Taliban.
Hafiz Khan, the imam at the Flagler Mosque in Miami, and his son Izhar Khan, imam at the Jamaat Al-Mu'mineen Mosque in Margate, are accused of providing material support to a terrorist group responsible for numerous deadly attacks against American interests in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Andrew Rosenkranz, ADL Florida Regional Director, issued the following statement:

“ADL commends the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, the FBI Miami Field Office and the South Florida JTTF for their investigation leading to the arrest of Hafiz and Izhar Khan, and four others. While there have been several other cases of material support for terrorism that have emerged in Florida before, it is particularly disturbing to learn of the alleged involvement of local religious leaders in this case. We very much hope these arrests will serve as a meaningful deterrent for others who might attempt to aid other terrorist organizations.”

For information about terror fundraising and support in Florida, please see ADL’s online backgrounder: South Florida Imams Arrested for Supporting Pakistani Taliban.

Tiny Helmet Cameras on 25 SEALS Captured Entire 40-Minute OBL Raid

• Posted on May 12, 2011 at 8:52pm by Emily Esfahani Smith

CBS reports:

WASHINGTON – A new picture emerged Thursday of what really happened the night the Navy SEALs swooped in on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan.

CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports the 40 minutes it took to kill bin Laden and scoop his archives into garbage bags were all recorded by tiny helmet cameras worn by each of the 25 SEALs.

Officials reviewing those videos are still reconstructing a more accurate version of what happened. We now know that the only firefight took place in the guest house, where one of bin Laden’s couriers opened fire and was quickly gunned down. No one in the main building got off a shot or was even armed, although there were weapons nearby.

The SEALs first saw bin Laden when he came out on the third floor landing. They fired, but missed. He retreated to his bedroom, and the first SEAL through the door grabbed bin Laden’s daughters and pulled them aside.

When the second SEAL entered, bin Laden’s wife rushed forward at him — or perhaps was pushed by bin Laden. The SEAL shoved her aside and shot bin Laden in the chest. A third seal shot him in the head.

The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee went to CIA headquarters Thursday to view photos the SEALs took of bin Laden’s body.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/seal-cameras-recorded-entire-obl-raid-cia-chief-previously-spoke-of-25-minute-blackout/

Is the Obama administration setting up to toss the SEALs under the bus?

Is the Obama administration setting up to toss the SEALs under the bus?

Musharraf: Bin Laden mission violated Pakistan

By Ashish Kumar Sen

-

The Washington Times

10:56 a.m., Monday, May 2, 2011

**FILE** Pervez Musharraf, the former president of Pakistan (Associated Press)

 

Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf on Monday accused the U.S. of violating his country’s sovereignty by sending in special forces to kill Osama bin Laden.

“American troops coming across the border and taking action in one of our towns, that is Abbottabad, is not acceptable to the people of Pakistan. It is a violation of our sovereignty,” Mr. Musharraf told CNN-IBN, an Indian news channel.

He added that it would have been “far better if Pakistani Special Services Group had operated and conducted the mission. To that extent, the modality of handling it and executing the operation is not correct.”
Bin Laden was killed Sunday in a firefight with Navy SEALs in a million-dollar, fortified compound located in an affluent neighborhood in Abbottabad, about a two-hour drive from Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad.


rade more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/may/2/musharraf-bin-laden-mission-violated-pakistan/

US warns of anti-American violence after bin Laden

 

 

Press Matthew Lee, Associated Press – Mon May 2, 12:43 am ET

 

WASHINGTON – The State Department early Monday put U.S. embassies on alert and warned of the heightened possibility for anti-American violence after the killing of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden by American forces in Pakistan.

In a worldwide travel alert released shortly after President Barack Obama late Sunday announced bin Laden's death in a U.S. military operation, the department said there was an "enhanced potential for anti-American violence given recent counterterrorism activity in Pakistan."

"Given the uncertainty and volatility of the current situation, U.S. citizens in areas where recent events could cause anti-American violence are strongly urged to limit their travel outside of their homes and hotels and avoid mass gatherings and demonstrations," it said.

The alert said U.S. embassy operations would continue "to the extent possible under the constraints of any evolving security situation." It noted that embassies and consulates may temporarily close or suspend public services, depending on conditions.