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Posts tagged Pakistan
Noida: Two alleged terrorists killed, cops say Pak involved
Jan 25th
Noida: On Sunday at about 2.15 am, in a encounter, 2 suspected terrorists on their way to Delhi from Ghaziabad were intercepted and killed in Noida’s sector 97.
In a combined encounter, the Uttar Pradesh police and the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), which intercepted the terrorists near the Noida expressway, gunned them down. A constable of the UP ATS was also injured in the encounter.
“ATS was following a terrorist module for one and half months. Yesterday, ATS received information that two suspects with AK-47s have been seen in Lal Kuan, Ghaziabad on their way to Delhi,” said Brij Lall ADG, UP police.
The terrorists had come in a Maruti 800 car and the police have found 2 AK-47s, 2 hand grenades and a bag from the car.
“Two AK-47 rifles, four magazines, 120 live bullets, five hand grenades, detonators, nine RDX shells, a Maruti 800 car, Pakistani passports, some documents and Rs 18,000 were recovered from the terrorists,” the ADG added.
The police have confirmed that the terrorists were Pakistani, after a Pakistani passport was found in the vehicle. The second man supposedly confirmed their individuality after being captured just before dying.
“Both militants were injured and taken to hospital. One of the injured terrorists said he is Farooq from Akara in Pakistan, and he named the other terrorist as Abu Ismail of Rawalkote in Pakistan. Both of them died on way to hospital,” ADG Lall said.
The encounter comes just ahead of Republic Day when security is at an extraordinary high around the National Capital Region.
In the meantime, a bomb disposal squad has been posted at the spot of the encounter to defuse grenades.
24x7newswire has learnt that the UP police and the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) had been functioning strongly over the last month tracking the case after they received a tip-off from intelligence sources.
According to Home Ministry sources, the Intelligence Bureau and the UP police were acting in close collaboration.
Pak govt was not involved in 26/11: UK
Jan 13th
On Tuesday Britain differed with India’s vision that Pakistan’s official agencies might include a role in Mumbai attacks even as it underlined that Islamabad has the “fundamental” duty to aim the “roots” of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) which was behind the Terror strike.
India hoped that Pakistan would hand over the “fugitives of Indian law”, despite Islamabad’s denial to do so, and asked the world community to make pressure on Pakistan in a “concerted” way to make sure that perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks are brought to justice.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who held “exhaustive” discussion with his British counterpart David Miliband, apprised him of facts of the Mumbai attacks and its links in Pakistan.
“It is clear where the responsibility lies for Mumbai attacks, it is with the LeT,” Miliband said at a joint press conference with Mukherjee after their meeting.
“Pakistan government, Pakistani state has the primary responsibility, fundamental responsibility to tackle the roots of this organisation,” the British Foreign Minister said.
On Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s view that official agencies of Pakistan could have been involved in the Mumbai strikes, Miliband said “we do not believe the attacks were directed by Pakistani state”.
He, though, said it is vital to watch what is the “approach of Pakistani state towards LeT organisation and the way Pakistani state takes on the LeT.”
Pakistani PM: Condition on Indian border weak
Jan 10th
Islamabad: Yousaf Raza Gilani Pakistani Prime Minister said on Friday the condition was “fragile” on the border with India, and regretted the deferral of peace meeting following the militant attacks in Mumbai in November.
Gilani’s comments came a day later than the Government confirmed that the single surviving gunman from the attack that killed 179 people in India’s monetary capital was a Pakistani.
The Prime Minister sacked his national defense consultant on Thursday for disclosing this before consulting him.
“The situation on our eastern border has once again become very fragile,” Gilani told a discussion group in Islamabad.
While tensions have run high among the nuclear-armed neighbors, there has been no symbol of a troop build-up by any side, and analysts say probability of India resorting to military act have receded.
Pakistani officials have warned that if there was any threat of a argument with India it would switch military from the western border with Afghanistan, where they are fighting pro-Taliban and al Qaeda militants.
Any such act would weaken inward US president Barack Obama’s preparation to nearly double the number of US troops in Afghanistan as part of a rush plan to suppress the Taliban mutiny.
Dell Dailey, the State Department’s counter terrorism coordinator, told reporters in Washington on Tuesday that the United States had not seen any stir of Pakistanis forces from western border regions to the east “in any degree that’s measurable”.
He said Pakistan stimulated troops to the eastern border in 2002, when it went to the point of a fourth battle with India.
“We do not want that to happen again and we’ll do as much as we can to prevent it,” Dailey said.
Burney: Kasab’s parents missing
Jan 9th
Foremost Pakistani rights activist Ansar Burney on Thursday claimed that the parents of Ajmal Amir Kasab, lone terrorist arrested by Indian authorities for the Mumbai attacks, were mislaid from their home in Faridkot village in Punjab district.
The ex- human rights minister said a squad from the Ansar Burney Trust lately visited Faridkot and found that Kasab’s parents were mislaid from the village.
“Where are the parents of Ajmal Kasab and who took them out from the village? This is another question that would create further doubts,” said Burney. He added that the squad from his Trust had confirmed that Kasab is a Pakistani national.
After weeks of refutation, the Pakistan Government on Wednesday recognized that a beginning inquiry by its security agencies had established that Kasab is a Pakistani national.
But, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani sacked National Security consultant Mahmud Ali Durrani for speaking to the domestic and international media on the topic.
Burney said the dismissal of Durrani for making a declaration concerning Kasab had “created further doubts” about participation of the Pakistan government and “some Pakistani organisations” in the Mumbai attacks.
“Durrani was sacked because he spoke the truth and admitted that some of the organisations from Pakistan are involved,” Burney assumed.
Burney criticized the handling of the situation by the President and Prime Minister. “How is the world going to believe our government any more after they take such steps?” he asked, referring to the sacking of Durrani and the “mishandling” of the issue of Kasab’s nationality.
He also demanded resignation of interior ministry chief Rehman Malik, who he suspected had “mishandled” the issue of Kasab’s nationality and formed more troubles for Pakistan.
Yousuf Raza Gilani: Pak will act if India’s proof is convincing
Jan 6th
Islamabad / New Delhi: Gilani on Monday said that they are reviewing a report that India had handed over to it’s Commissioner in New Delhi about the Mumbai attacks in November.
Prime Minister said that his government remains committed to action against the nationals accused of being connected to the Mumbai attacks if ‘credible’ proof is available against them.
He said this during the meeting with US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, Richard Boucher, who reached here on Monday to calm down the tensions between Pakistan and India.
Prime Minister Gilani spoke of ‘Pakistan’s persistent efforts to defuse current tensions with India, and the government’s commitment to take action against any Pakistani national in case credible evidence is provided,’ The News quoted his office, as saying.
Pakistan has over and over again said that its own inquiry of the attacks could move forward once India shared proofs with Islamabad. In Islamabad, a foreign ministry spokesman confirmed that Pakistan’s High Commissioner to India, Shahid Malik, had received the file in New Delhi on Monday and had sent it to authorities back home.
“The material has been received in Pakistan now and is being examined by concerned authorities,” the spokesman said. “It is our duty, my duty to examine the dossier carefully, understand it and be truthful to myself, to my country and the neighbourhood,” a news agency quoted Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, as saying.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, in an interview to media persons in New Delhi, said: “We have today handed over to Pakistan evidence of the links with elements in Pakistan of the terrorists who attacked Mumbai on November 26, 2008.”
“We are also briefing all our friendly countries. I have written to my counterparts around the world giving them details of the events in Mumbai and describing in some detail the progress that we have made in our investigations and the evidence that we have collected,” he added.
Minister Pranab Mukherjee added, “The Ministry will also be briefing all resident Heads of Missions here in the next 24 hours. Our Ambassadors will be doing the same in their respective countries of accreditation.”
The evidence includes:-
1.Matter from the interrogation of Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the Pakistani national who is in police custody for his role in the terror attack, details of the terrorists”
2. Communication links with elements in Pakistan during the Mumbai attacks, recovered weapons and equipment and other articles
3. and data retrieved from recovered GPS and satellite phones.
“This material is linked to elements in Pakistan. It is our expectation that the Government of Pakistan will promptly undertake further investigations in Pakistan and share the results with us so as to bring the perpetrators to justice,” Minister Pranab Mukherjee said.
He added, “We would also hope that Pakistan will implement her bilateral, multilateral and international obligations to prevent terrorism in any manner from territory under her control.”
US Ambassador to India, David C Mulford, on Monday said that a team of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is still in Mumbai pursuing leads into the conspiracy that led to the November 2008 terror attacks on Mumbai, and expressed Washington’s determination to get to the bottom of the conspiracy.
He further went on to say: “Under our American laws, if Americans are killed anywhere, the state itself has a duty to pursue, to get to the bottom of it. This the FBI is doing and will do in the coming weeks and months.”
Prime Minister’s Adviser on Interior Affairs, Rehman Malik said: “We will not take pressure from anyone. We are a sovereign state, and we will act according to our law. Nobody can put pressure on us.”
Hockey: Pakistan calls off India tour
Jan 4th
In a reaction, Pakistan decided to cancel its hockey team’s tour to India for the four-nation Punjab Gold Cup competition to be held later on this month, citing “security risks for the players” as the cause for the cancellation.
The result, which was predictable after India scrapped its cricket team’s tour across the border in the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks, will further sprain the sporting ties involving the two countries.
Even though Pakistan Hockey Federation was eager to launch the national team to India, they left the last choice on the Foreign Office.
In view of the rising tensions between the two nations, Sports Minister Jillani said the government had decided not to launch the hockey team to India.
“There is a security risk in sending our players to India at this phase because of the atmosphere in India. So we have not given authorization to the PHF for the tour,” he said.
Amusingly, Jillani’s declaration came after the organizers of the competition had already named New Zealand as Pakistan’s substitution in the double-leg occasion that also features Beijing Olympic gold medalist Germany, the Netherlands and host India.
Pakistan’s involvement in the tournament, to be held in Chandigarh from January 31, had come below cloud after Indian government cancelled the cricket team’s tour to the trouble torn nation.
There was well-liked reaction among citizens and former players that since Indian government refused to launch their cricket team, Pakistani teams should also crumb their India tours in a disciplinary move…
