Posts Tagged ‘Baluchistan’

Memo commission directs issuance of visa to Mansoor Ijaz; increasing security of Hussain Haqqani

The judicial commission probing the memo scandal on Monday directed the concerned authorities to immediately issue visa to Mansoor Ijaz and enhance the security of former Ambassador Hussain Haqqani.
As the three member commission headed by Baluchistan High Court Chief Justice Qazi Faez Esa resumed its hearing, Pak Army’s JAG branch chief Brigadier Nau Bahar presented a written statement through …

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Pakistan charges Iranian border guards with murder

QUETTA: Pakistan police on Tuesday charged three Iranian border guards with the murder of a Pakistani man shot dead on Sunday in a cross-border attack in the country’s southwest. The three guards were held late Sunday in southwestern Baluchistan province along the Iranian border after they allegedly crossed the frontier and shot at a car, [...]

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Via DAWN.com

Iranian border guards still in Pakistani custody

QUETTA: Pakistani authorities have yet to decide what to do with three Iranian border guards who they say crossed into southwestern Pakistan while chasing after smugglers and killed one them, a government official said Monday. The incident occurred Sunday in the Mazah Sar area of Baluchistan province, a desolate, unpopulated region where the border is [...]

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Via DAWN.com

US personnel vacate Shamsi airbase

ISLAMABAD: The United States on Sunday vacated a Pakistani airbase following a deadline given by Islamabad over Nato air strikes last month that killed 24 soldiers, officials said. Pakistan’s military said in a statement that the last flight carrying US personnel and equipment had left Shamsi airbase, in the southwestern province of Baluchistan, completing a [...]

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Via DAWN.com

Munter say Washington is complying with Pakistan demand to vacate Shamsi air base

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The United States Ambassador to Islamabad Cameron Munter has said that Washington is complying with Pakistan’s demand to vacate an air base that has been used by American drones.
Pakistan gave the US until Dec. 11 to vacate Shamsi air base in southwest Baluchistan province after NATO air-strikes killed 24…

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Mastung killings, CID FC submit report in BHC

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Crime Investigation Department (CID) has submitted its report in Baluchistan High Court (BHC) regarding Mastung target killing incident in which 30 persons were murdered.
The two-member bench of BHC under the headship of Chief Justice Qazi Faiz Isa resumed the hearing of sue moto action regarding Mastung incident on Tuesday.<br…

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Fazal warns about US plots to create instability in Baluchistan

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President of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Maulana Fazl-Ur-Rahman warned that the US is attempting to create insecurity in Baluchistan province in a bid to destabilize the region, similar to what it has done in the Northern Waziristan province.
“The US is hatching plots to create a situation in Baluchistan like the situation…

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Four Nato tankers set ablaze in Balochistan

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At least four NATO tankers were set on fire by unknown miscreants here in Mastung district of Baluchistan on Tuesday. Sources said that some unknown armed men opened fire on a NATO tankers convey in Dasht area of Mastung district and managed flee. Sources said that fire erupted in tankers…

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UN needs $365 million to cope with Pakistan floods

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The United Nations has appealed for $365 million to help millions of Pakistanis affected by floods caused by heavy monsoon rains. Humaira Mehboob, a spokeswoman for the U.N.’s humanitarian arm, said Sunday the money would be used to help over 5.4 million people in the provinces of Sindh and Baluchistan…

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Malik harmful to peace process in Balochistan: Raisani

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Former provincial President of Pakistan Peoples Party, Baluchistan Nawabzada Lashkari Raisani has said that the role of Rehman Malik is very controversial and is sabotaging the peace process in Balochistan.
He was talking to media at Sarawan House, on the occasion of Chelum of his uncle Mir Haqmal Raisani here…

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Bomb blast at hotel kills 12 in Dera Allah Yar

QUETTA: A bomb attached to a timer ripped through a two-story hotel in Pakistan’s southwestern Baluchistan province Sunday, reducing the building to rubble and killing 12 people, police said. The attack in the town of Dera Allah Yar also wounded 23 people, said Jawed Iqbal Gharshin, the police chief in surrounding Jafferabad district. Police have [...]

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Via DAWN.com

US has backup plan if Pakistan shuts Shamsi airbase: US officials

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The United States plans to keep using an airstrip inside Pakistan for non-lethal drone flights against militants near the Afghanistan border despite demands from some Pakistani officials that Washington vacate the base, three US officials said.
The airstrip at Shamsi in Baluchistan will continue to be used for some drone…

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Swiss hostages moved to tribal areas in Pakistan

QUETTA: A Swiss couple kidnapped on holiday in Pakistan have been smuggled into the lawless tribal belt on the Afghan border, a notorious haven for Taliban and Al-Qaeda, an official said Monday. Olivier David Och, 31, and Daniela Widmer, 28, were abducted on Friday while driving through impoverished and sparsely populated Baluchistan province, which borders [...]

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Via DAWN.com

Four including 3 security personnel killed in a bomb blast and firing in Balochistan

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Four persons including three security personnel were killed and another injured in a bomb blast and a firing incident in different areas of Baluchistan.
Two personnel of Law Enforcement Agencies (LEA) identified as Shabir Ahmed and Mohammad Murad were killed while one Jalil Ahmed sustained injuries in a bomb blast…

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Two wounded in Quetta car bomb blast

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A car bomb exploded outside a charity’s office, wounding two people in Quetta, police said on Tuesday. Ten houses were also damaged in the remotely-detonated blast in the capital of impoverished Baluchistan, which suffers from a separatist insurgency, sectarian violence and Taliban militancy. “Two passers-by including a woman received shrapnel…

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Pakistan, India agree to resume peace talks

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Indian foreign minister Krishna and his Pakistani counterpart Qureshi. – File Photo

NEW DELHI: India and Pakistan announced Thursday they would resume wide-ranging peace talks that were frozen after the 2008 ,attacks in Mumbai,, which were blamed on Pakistan-based militants.

The US has been pressing the nuclear-armed rivals to restart their peace efforts in hopes that reducing tensions along their border would free Pakistan to focus on its fight against Taliban militants _ a key element of US strategy in Afghanistan.

The decision followed talks Sunday between the f,oreign secretaries of the two countries in Bhutan,, the latest in a yearlong string of meetings of top officials intended to rebuild the nations’ shattered trust.

A statement released simultaneously in New Delhi and Islamabad said the new talks would focus on ,counterterrorism,, humanitarian issues, peace and security, the disputed Kashmir region and other border issues.

It did not say when talks would begin, but the foreign minister of Pakistan will visit India by July to review their progress.

Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani welcomed the talks and praised his Indian counterpart, Manmohan Singh, for the ”opening of a new chapter in the relations between the two countries, which Pakistan fully reciprocates.”

But there is little expectation of a rapid agreement to end the six decade conflict between ,the bitter rivals,. Even if negotiators managed to bridge the gaps on everything from regional water sharing to sovereignty over a disputed creek, there is no guarantee that the shaky Pakistani government, or even the more stable Indian administration, could sell such a deal to their parliaments and their people.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars _ two of them over Kashmir _ since they won independence from Britain in 1947. Kashmir is divided between the two countries, which both claim the Himalayan territory in its entirety.

New Delhi broke off reportedly fruitful peace efforts after 10 militants from Pakistan laid siege to the financial capital of Mumbai in November 2008, killing 166 people.

India has accused Pakistani intelligence of being intricately involved in the planning of that attack, and insisted it would not return to the negotiating table until Pakistan cracks down on Lashkar-e-Taiba, the militant group blamed for carrying it out.

Pakistani officials have bristled at criticism they are not doing enough, noting that seven suspects in the Mumbai attacks have been put on trial. Islamabad says it needs more evidence from Indian investigators to make additional indictments.

But India has criticized Pakistan’s handling of the prosecution. The trial has been slowed by several procedural delays and the judge has been changed three times. By contrast, the only gunman to survive the assault, Ajmal Kasab, has been sentenced to death in India Indian officials did not offer any explanation Thursday as to why they changed their minds.

”It’s a manifestation of confusion and indecision by the Indian government,” said G. Parthasarthy, former Indian high commissioner to Pakistan.

The government only initiated the first peace talks, which began in 2004, after receiving assurances from Pakistan that it would not allow its territory to be used for attacks on India, he said. This time, no such assurance was given, he said.

For its part, Pakistan has called on New Delhi to take action against those responsible for the Feb. 18, 2007, bombing of a train on the Pakistan-India route set up during an earlier thaw in relations that killed 68 passengers. Last month, a Hindu nationalist confessed to an Indian court that Hindu hard-liners were involved in that attack.

Still, talks over the past year were clearly aimed at finding a way to bring both sides back to the peace table. That effort appeared to have foundered in July, however, after the foreign ministers of both countries held a tense meeting in Islamabad.

The press conference after that meeting was delayed six hours as the two sides debated what to say publicly. When they finally emerged to address reporters, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi lashed out at a top Indian official for his accusation that Pakistani intelligence was behind the Mumbai attack.

India’s foreign minister, S.M. Krishna, then brushed off accusations his country was supporting insurgents in Pakistan’s Baluchistan province and shot back that there had been an increase in militant infiltrations from Pakistan into Indian-held Kashmir. Qureshi denied Pakistan was behind any infiltrations.

Until Sunday, that was the last high-level meeting between the two sides.

US government officials have been encouraging talks among India, Pakistan and Afghanistan as a way to bring stability to the troubled region. The US also hopes a peace deal to the conflict would free up Pakistani forces to turn their attention to the militants operating along the rugged, mountainous border with Afghanistan. – AP

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Via DAWN.com

Big quake shakes Pak; no casualties, minor damage

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A powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.2 shook southwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, jolting residents of cities as far apart as New Delhi and Dubai, but doing little damage in the sparsely populated region.
The quake was more than 80 km (50 miles) underground, close to the town of Dalbandin in Baluchistan…

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