Posts Tagged ‘Baluchistan’

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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No one safe in Balochistan: Ansar Burney

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Chairman of the Ansar Burney Trust International and former Federal Minister for human rights, Ansar Burney has said that hundreds of Punjabi speaking families, Muslims from Shia sect and more than hundred Hindu families of Baluchistan province are making efforts to migrate to some safe place in other provinces after…

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PM leaves for Oman

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Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani left here for Muscat on Monday on two day official visit to the Sultanate of Oman.
He was accompanied by Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Chief Minister Baluchistan Muhammad Aslam Khan Raisani and Minister of State for Ports and Shipping Nabil Ahmad Gabol.
Talking…

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5.2 magnitude quake jolts different parts of Pakistan

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An earthquake measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale jolted many parts of Punjab and KPK early Friday morning at 23:17 GMT on Thursday (04:17 a.m. Friday local time), the U.S. Geological Survey said. The quake struck at 4:17 am with its epicenter 64 kilometres east of Zhob in Baluchistan, at…

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India creating ‘anti-Pakistan’ Afghanistan: Musharraf

NEW YORK: Pakistan’s former leader Pervez Musharraf said Tuesday that India was trying to create a hostile state in Afghanistan as he hit back at criticism of his country’s role in fighting extremists.

Musharraf, who is touring the United States as part of a comeback bid, said he has seen photographs of Kabul-based “Pakistan terrorists” a likely reference to Baluchistan separatists meeting in India with intelligence agents.

“If I’m allowed to be very, very frank, India’s role in Afghanistan is to create an anti-Pakistan Afghanistan,” Musharraf, a military ruler who stepped down in 2008, said at the Council on Foreign Relations.

“This is very clear to me. There are consulates in Kandahar and Jalalabad (which) are actually involved in creating trouble in Pakistan. They have no other role,” Musharraf said.

“Why wouldn’t the consulates be somewhere in the north facing Uzbekistan and Tajikistan?” he asked.

India has consulates in the southern cities of Kandahar and Jalalabad, but also in Mazar-i-Sharif in the north and Herat in the west. The Indian embassy in Kabul was targetted in an attack last year claimed by Taliban militants.

Pakistan has long voiced concern about India’s role in Afghanistan. US officials have given little credence to the assertions, with President Barack Obama in a speech Monday to the Indian parliament praising New Delhi’s assistance to the war-torn country.

India, not a traditional donor, has committed 1.3 billion dollars to Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban regime and is building roads, power lines and a new parliament building.

Pakistan had been the chief supporter of the Taliban but Musharraf switched sides after the September 11, 2001 attacks and assisted US forces that overthrew the hardline regime.

Musharraf bristled at criticism that Taliban and Al-Qaeda leaders, including perhaps Osama bin Laden, have been able to escape US-led forces in Afghanistan by crossing into safe havens in Pakistan’s lawless border areas.

“Pakistan is trying its best. Why is the responsibility only on Pakistan?”Musharraf said. “Why is the responsibility of their coming into Pakistan not the fault of Afghan forces and US forces and coalition forces?””It should be shared at least 50-50, we are at fault, you are also at fault,” he said. -AFP

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Via DAWN.com

Gunmen torch Nato trucks in Balochistan

QUETTA: Gunmen in Pakistan on Tuesday torched vehicles carrying supplies for Nato troops fighting the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan, in the second such attack in 24 hours, police said.

The two tankers were attacked in Balochistan, the southwestern province that borders Iran and Afghanistan and is suffering a regional insurgency as well as violence by the Taliban.

The attacks came a week after Pakistan reopened the main land border crossing used by Nato supply convoys, following an 11-day closure imposed after a cross-border Nato helicopter strike killed two Pakistani soldiers.

Two men riding on a motorbike held up the trucks at gun point, forcing the drivers and their helpers to leave, police official Khuda Bakhsh said.

The gunmen doused the trucks in petrol before shooting at them at Dasht Bado town, 175 kilometres (about 110 miles) south of the provincial capital Quetta, Bakhsh said.

The attackers fled on their motorbike, he said.

A senior police officer in Quetta confirmed the attack, which came less than 24 hours after three tankers were attacked in Baluchistan on Monday.

There was no claim of responsibility, but the Taliban mounted a series of similar attacks this month, exploiting the build-up of convoys caused by the border closure and saying they were avenging US drone strikes. – AFP

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Pakistan stability in play with flood aid: UNHCR

GENEVA: A UN refugee official suggested on Tuesday that Pakistan’s geopolitical stability was at stake unless international aid accelerates to help about 20 million Pakistanis hit by devastating floods.

The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that the situation remained “critically difficult” in some areas, while shelter and recovery for hundreds of thousands of people was still short nearly 10 weeks since flooding began.

“We need to draw the international community’s attention that the emergency in Pakistan is not over,” said Mengesha Kebede, the UNHCR’s representative in the country.

“Making sure 20 million people are rehabilitated I think is an international obligation: we are looking at a geopolitical situation where the stability of Pakistan we feel is in everybody’s interest,” he told journalists in Geneva.

Donors have so far funded just one-third of the 2.0 billion dollar UN aid appeal, while the UNHCR’s shelter needs are only half funded, a situation Kebede dismissed as “unacceptable.”

In hard-hit Sindh and Baluchistan provinces, a total of about 2.7 million people are still displaced.

Kebede underlined that about 600,000 displaced had sought shelter in schools in Baluchistan, where local authorities wanted to reopen them to start schooling again.

However, many of the displaced could not return to damaged homes and supplies to set up huge tented camps were short.

“That kind of challenge continues on a daily basis in every province,” Kebede added.

UNHCR is also caring for the world’s largest refugee population in Pakistan, some 1.7 million Afghan refugees, many of whom were in flood hit areas.

Another 1.2 million Pakistanis are still displaced by conflict in the northern Khyber Phatunkhwa province.

“That problem has become secondary because of the magnitude of the floods. Now that the floods have started receding it will definitely start surfacing again because the conflift continues,” said Kebede. – AFP

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Via DAWN.com

Second attack on NATO convoy in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Assailants in Pakistan launched two separate attacks on Friday on vehicles carrying fuel for NATO and American forces in Afghanistan, highlighting the vulnerability of the US-led mission a day after Pakistan closed a major border crossing.

A truck driver and his assistant were burned alive in the second attack on a single tanker in the parking lot of a restaurant in southeastern Baluchistan province, said police officer Mohammad Azam. He said ”anti-state elements” were behind the attack.

That term could refer to militants, separatist rebels active in the region or even common criminals.

Earlier Friday, suspected militants torched 27 tankers carrying oil for troops in Afghanistan in Sindh province.

Around 80 percent of the fuel, spare parts, clothing and other non-lethal supplies for foreign forces in landlocked Afghanistan travels through Pakistan after arriving in the southern Arabian sea port of Karachi. The alliance has other supply routes to Afghanistan, but the Pakistani ones are the cheapest and most convenient.

The Pakistani government shut one of the two border crossings into Afghanistan on Thursday in apparent protest of a NATO helicopter incursion that killed three of its soldiers on the border.

The events raised tensions between Pakistan and the United States, which have a close but often troubled alliance in the fight against militants.

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Via DAWN.com

ICRC curtails activities in Quetta after threats

The International Committee of the Red Cross has restricted the movement of staff and cut back its activities in southwestern Pakistan after receiving threats, a spokesman said Friday. The restrictions apply in Baluchistan, Pakistan’s largest province that borders Afghanistan and Iran, and where violence linked to a separatist insurgency and…

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Security stepped up at Baluchistan border

Security has been stepped up at Pak-Afghan border in Baluchistan province after launching of an anti-Taliban campaign across the border in Helmand province of Afghanistan, a private TV reported.
Pakistan has increased security men at border after US and Afghan forces drive against Taliban at Marja in Helmand province,…

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White House approves plan for Pakistan drone expansion: NYT

The White House has approved an expansion of the CIA’s drone program in Pakistan, the New York Times reported. The Obama administration reportedly is talking with Pakistan about expanding the program from Waziristan to Baluchistan, a controversial move since it is outside the tribal areas.
U.S. officials told the Times…

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Balochistan education minister Shafiq Ahmed shot dead

Gunmen riding on a motorcycle shot dead on Sunday the minister of education in Baluchistan provincial government, Shafiq Ahmed Khan, in the city of Quetta, police and hospital officials said. “He was wounded in the head and succumbed to his wounds on the way to hospital,” said a doctor in…

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Britain to train Pakistan’s Frontier Corps troops in Baluchistan: Report

Britain is building a training camp for Pakistan’s paramilitary Frontier Corps in the southwestern province of Baluchistan in an effort to combat the Taliban presence around the porous border with southern Afghanistan, The Times has learned. Britain also plans to deploy 24 army trainers at the camp for three years…

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