Violent protests are continuing across Indian-administered Kashmir, following the deaths of two women who many believe were raped by Indian troops.
The bodies of the two women were recovered on Saturday morning after they went missing on Friday.
A general strike called by separatist groups in response to the deaths of the women brought life in the Kashmir Valley to a standstill.
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
Killings provoke Kashmir protests
Violent protests are continuing across Indian-administered Kashmir, following the deaths of two women who many believe were raped by Indian troops.
The bodies of the two women were recovered on Saturday morning after they went missing on Friday.
A general strike called by separatist groups in response to the deaths of the women brought life in the Kashmir Valley to a standstill.
Razmak Students recovered: ISPR
Tuesday, June 02, 2009 MIRANSHAH: Pakistan Army and FC recovered all the students and staff of Razmak Cadet College, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said Tuesday.Commissioner Bannu Sardar Abbas said Pakistan and FC launched a joint operation 20 kilometer to East of Razmak in Garium and recovered at least 73 students, two professors and a clerk of the cadet college.Bannu Commissioner said the police also recovered 10 vehicles in the operations.
Monday, June 01, 2009
Indian troops martyr 30 Kashmiris in May
ISLAMABAD: Indian troops, in their continued acts of state terrorism, martyred 30 Kashmiris, in occupied Kashmir including three woman and four children, in the last month of May.According to Kashmir Media Service, the total of Kashmiris martyred included four killed in custody. The killings rendered three women widowed and 13 children orphaned while two women including an eleventh class student were molested by the troops during the period. Seventy-two civilians were arrested and 499 injured as a result of troops' use of brute force against peaceful protestors while one youth went missing in custody. One residential house was also damaged by the troops with heavy mortar shelling during siege and search operation.
Police: Taliban suspects among Pakistani refugees
Soldiers of Pakistan army display arms and ammunition confiscated from militants in Mingora, capital of Pakistan's troubled Swat Valley, where military is fighting with Taliban militants Thursday, May 28, 2009. Police have arrested 39 suspected Taliban fighters hiding among refugees from a military offensive to rout militants from Pakistan's Swat Valley, a senior officer said Friday.Full Story: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/world/AP/story/1071329.html
Friday, May 29, 2009
Locals greet security forces in Bahrain
RAWALPINDI: Troops entered Bahrain town in the Swat Valley early on Thursday as the Operation Rah-e-Raast continued, and were welcomed by locals holding national flags.Troops destroyed an explosives-laden vehicle and killed two Taliban at Sattal, near Bahrain, and killed two Taliban in Malam Jabba. They consolidated their positions in Mingora, Qambar, Kanju and Kabal areas, and carried out cordon and search operations in Nawagai, Nawan Killi, Gulabad and Landaikas.Seven Taliban and four soldier were killed in the fighting in 24 hours, the ISPR said in a statement.The forces also carried out a cordon and search operation in Peochar village. They ambushed a group of 15 to 20 Taliban at Mano Derai and killed three of them and arrested four. The Taliban ambushed a convoy of eight Army trucks carrying relief goods and food for Chakdarra, Barikot and Mingora near Barikot and killed four soldiers.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
PAF capable of destroying drones: Air Chief
Updated at: 0957 PST, Thursday, May 28, 2009 RISALPUR: Air Chief Marshal Rao Qamar Suleman Thursday said that air force destroyed several hideouts and caches of ammunitions of militants and paved the way for the military to make advance in the troubled areas of Swat.He said that air force is completely supporting the military in its ongoing efforts in the tribal areas and Swat, adding F-16, F-7 and Mirages are taking part in the Swat operation.The Air Chief maintained that Pakistan armed forces are grappling with not only the greater external enemies but also the problems of extremism and terrorism within the country.Later talking to journalists, he said targeting the drones and taking them down is not a problem and Pakistan Air Force is fully capable for the purpose; however, any decision in this regard rests with the parliament and the government.However, the Air Chief added that the action could lead Pakistan to confrontation with Nato or US.Air Chief Marshal Rao said that Pakistan shot down Indian UAV drone during the 2001-02 standoff with India.He hoped that Pakistan is likely to receive AWACS planes in November or October, adding India was given the same aircrafts which could lead to fresh escalation and arms race in the region.Rao Qamar Suleman said that the country has a lot of expectations from the Air Force, which it will try to fulfil at all cost without fail.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Religious parties to stop acting on their “dual policies” about operation against militants
PESHAWAR: NWFP Minister for Information Mian Iftikhar Hussain has asked the religious and political parties to stop acting on their “dual policies” about operation against militants and settlement of IDPs as the time was not ripe for gaining political mileage but to cleanse the country of insurgency.Briefing journalists on the latest situation in Malakand division and exodus of local population, the minister said that until top leadership of militants were killed or nabbed, the apprehension of general public about operation might increase.“Keeping in view the plight of displaced families and those stranded in the troubled areas, the NWFP government wants successful completion of the operation at the earliest and elimination of top leadership of the militants in Swat, Lower Dir and Buner districts,” he said, adding, the credibility of the ongoing operation was dependent on the killing of prominent militant leaders.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Every Pakistani flag raised on Indian occupied territory or mainland is a slap on 'secular' India's face.
With the Cooperation of DAN............... Thanks Dan Bahi
India faces a greater threat from China than Pakistan
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India faces a greater threat from China than Pakistan because New Delhi knows little about Beijing's combat capabilities, India's air force chief told a newspaper in an interview published on Sunday.
The world's two most populous nations fought a brief but brutal war over their 3,500 km (2,200 mile) Himalayan border in 1962, and both sides claim the other is occupying big but largely uninhabited chunks of their territory.
India has also been pursuing closer relations with the United States, something that worries China............
Friday, May 22, 2009
Martyrs Of Rah-E-Rast 4 - Pakistan Army
Officers Of Pakistan Army Who Laid Down Their Lives In Operation Rah-E-Rast 4. Maj Abid SHAHEED (19th Punjab) Maj Azhar SHAHEED Capt Bilal Zafar SHAHEED (BALOCH\SSG) 108 PMA L\c Capt Najam Riaz SHAHEED (SSG) 108 PMA L\c Capt Asim SHAHEED Lt Saifulla SHAHEED 117 PMA L\c Lt Zia Long Live
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
4 Indian spies arrested in Lahore
LAHORE: Intelligence agencies are reported to have arrested four persons on suspicion of working for Indian spy agency Research and Analyst Wing (RAW) during raids at different places of the provincial capital on Tuesday.According to sources, the suspected agents, residents of Sheikhupura, Nankana and Kamonke, have been identified as Khalid, Abid, Karamat and Khizar. The sources said initial investigation revealed that the accused used to enter India from the border area of Bado Malai where Indian agents would take them to Amritsar.They were being paid Rs.40, 000 in exchange of completing one task.The sources further said that agencies were carrying out more raids at other places in order to apprehend their accomplices.
Children developing behavioural problems
In spite of the relatively short duration of their dislocation, children who have been displaced from their homes in the wake of the military operation around their homes in NWFP, are exhibiting behavioural problems and experiencing sleep disturbances.Talking to ‘The News’ here on Tuesday, Dr. Rizwan Taj, focal person of the mental health programme of the Ministry of Health and head of the Department of Psychiatry at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), shared that parents of children as small as a few months to 11 years of age are complaining of the sudden development of behavioural problems in their children, not to mention frequent sleep disturbances. “Living in tents, these children represent the real short- and long-term horror of this tragedy,” he commented on his return from a camp. He said, “A majority of the displaced children is aged between 3 months to 11 years. These children can, over a period of time, develop a wide range of psychological problems including depression, phobias, acute stress disorder, post-traumatic stress syndrome, and poor academic performance,” he calculated............
Full Story: http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=178516
US paper urges India to resolve Kashmir
NEW YORK: A US newspaper on Tuesday called on India to work towards resolving the decades-old Kashmir dispute with Pakistan. “Ignoring Kashmir is no longer an option,” The New York Times said. It added, “It is past time for India... to find a way to resolve tensions with Pakistan over the Kashmir dispute. If that festering sore cannot be addressed directly... then broader regional talks on environmental and water issues might be an interim way to find common ground.” app
Kayani meets Sarkozy: France wants to be Pakistan’s strategic partner
ISLAMABAD: French President Nicholas Sarkozy expressed his country’s desire for a strategic partnership with Pakistan during a meeting with Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Kayani in Paris on Tuesday.According to APP, the French president told the army chief that Paris would help Pakistan build the capability to meet the challenges it was facing.Gen Kayani also met the French foreign minister, defence minister, chief of defence staff and chief of army staff, and visited the French Army Headquarters. Later on Tuesday, the army chief briefed NATO’s top officers in Brussels about the fight against the Taliban in northwestern Pakistan, AP said.Officials discussed plans to provide training for Pakistani officers in NATO training centres, and reviewed the status of NATO’s main supply route to landlocked Afghanistan, NATO spokesman James Appathurai said. Gen Kayani also held talks with Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. agencies
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Every PML-N MNA to donate Rs500,000 for IDPs
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Monday announced that every MNA of the party would donate Rs500,000 for the rehabilitation of the internally displaced persons (IDPs).
The decision to this effect was taken in a meeting of the party’s central working committee. PML-N Quaid Nawaz Sharif presided over the meeting.
Nawaz said the Punjab government would run a camp for the IDPs in the province. “The whole nation should take this humanitarian responsibility to meet this challenge,” he added.
No linkage between US aid and Pak nuclear program: State Department
WASHINGTON: Chairman US Joint Chiefs Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen on Monday said Pakistan has not diverted any US assistance to advance its nuclear weapons program as his remarks quashed apprehensions cited in an American newspaper report. The State Department also categorically stated that there was no linkage between the US aid and Pakistan’s nuclear capability. The top US military officer also acknowledged that Pakistan has bolstered the security of its nuclear assets, saying it made use of American aid specifically targeted toward that end in the recent years. “I am not aware of any US aid that has gone towards nuclear weapons, save that which is very focused in the last several years, last three or four years on improving their security, which is exactly what we would like. And they have done that,” he said in response to a question. Mullen’s comments came after a story in The New York Times claimed that members of US Congress are concerned that Islamabad might divert US aid to it nuclear program. Mullen, who spoke on wide-ranging security issues at a leading Washington think tank, also rejected characterizations that the key anti-terrorism partner somehow might near a failure. He said both civilian and military leadership in Pakistan is conscious of the extremism threat to their country and advocated a long-term US relationship with Pakistan. At the State Department, spokesman Ian Kelly advised against drawing “any links between the issues of our assistance package and their nuclear capability.” “We shouldn’t connect these dots..Because this assistance package is for very specific purposes and we’re going to work very closely with the government of Pakistan for us to meet our joint goal...Of helping them re-establish stability. I don’t see necessarily a connection between the two,” he said. “We’re going to work closely with Pakistan to make sure that the money is spent for the specific purposes that the US Congress had in mind,” he said at the daily briefing.
Tamil Tigers’ surrender
It would be premature to assert that the final chapter has been written in a conflict that has claimed over 70,000 lives in nearly three decades of resistance and all-out war. Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers surrendered on Sunday and their leader Velupillai Prabhakaran has apparently been killed along with other commanders.
Yet, the Sri Lankans who are celebrating these days must be aware that a rout of the LTTE fighters does not necessarily signal the end of Tamil resistance. There is every possibility that remnants of the Tigers or their sympathisers, now deprived of an army, will shift their focus to more terrorist attacks and perhaps even sporadic guerrilla combat. The grudge, to put it mildly, runs deep and only the brazenly partisan can deny the institutional discrimination that Sri Lanka’s Tamils have faced for decades. Their rights have been denied and it must be recognised that the LTTE, for all its atrocities, was a reaction to the politics of ethnicity — if not outright racism — practised by many Sinhalese and their leaders.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Ashfaq Parvez Kayani Rejects Propaganda Against Pakistan Army
Reacting to comments from various quarters on the ability of the troops to handle low-intensity conflict (LIC) and the reported need for army men to be moved away from the country’s eastern borders and near the western frontier, he said the army had developed a full range of counter-insurgency training facilities tailored to train troops for anti-terrorism operations.
In a statement released here by the army spokesman Gen. Kayani said that the Pakistan Army generally didn’t need foreign training, except in the case of some specialised weapons and equipment. Owing to its vast experience, the army was suited to operate in Pakistani territories.
He said uncalled for aspersions from various quarters on the army’s training methods and orientation were apparently due to lack of knowledge and understanding of its training system.
He reaffirmed that strategic decisions regarding where, when and how many troops should be deployed were for Pakistanis to make, based on objective analysis and full understanding of the threat spectrum.
The decisions were made in accordance with national interests by the leadership, keeping in view the aspirations of the people of Pakistan. “Any outside advice or subjective comments towards this end are counter-productive and divisive in effect, rather than being helpful,” he remarked.
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