Describing India as a 'mature democracy,' Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has said there is no threat to Pakistan from it, even as he sought resumption of the composite dialogue process stalled since the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.
Lashkar-e-Tayiba operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, one of seven suspects facing trial in connection with the Mumbai terror attacks, filed an application , on Wednesday, seeking the transfer of his case from Rawalpindi to Lahore due to a purported threat to his life.
Fakhar Zaman, chairman of both the World Punjabi Congress and the Pakistan Academy of Letters, has said the exchange of delegations will resume with two teams soon visiting India. A delegation of Pakistani writers, intellectuals, artists and educationists will visit the Patiala University later this month while another team will travel to Amritsar, Chandigarh, Patiala and New Delhi in February as part of efforts to resume people-to-people contacts, he said.
Khalid Khwaja, who has been at the forefront in raising the issue of 'missing persons' or people detained without charges by Pakistani security agencies, said that ex-intelligence personnel hired by Blackwater had been asked to 'pick up people with alleged connections to Taliban or Al-Qaeda'.
A Pakistani court on Monday directed the government not to deport five American Muslim youths, arrested on suspicion of terror links, to the United States or any other country. Chief Justice Khwaja Muhammad Sharif of the Lahore high court issued the order in response to a petition filed by former Inter Services Intelligence agency official Khalid Khwaja. In his petition, Khwaja said the five youths should be tried under Pakistani laws.
Two powerful explosions in a crowded commercial hub in Lahore on Monday killed a dozen people and injured over 80 others, hours after a suicide bombing in the northwestern city of Peshawar left 10 people dead. The blasts rocked Moon Market in Allama Iqbal Town area shortly after 8.45 pm. One explosion occurred within the market while the other occurred on its outer perimeter. The blasts went off within a minute of each other near a bank and a police station, witnesses said.
Ajmal Kasab and nine other terrorists, who attacked Mumbai in November last year, were in constant touch with top Lashkar-e-Tayiba commanders in Pakistan during the strikes and received instructions to kill 'political leaders, foreigners and prominent personalities of India'. This was stated in the six-page chargesheet filed against the seven suspects in custody in Pakistan, including 'mastermind' of the attacks Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi.
Two Pakistani journalists, arrested for allegedly misappropriating a press club's funds, have claimed that authorities are 'teaching them a lesson' for helping reporters trace the family of Ajmal Kasab, the lone terrorist captured alive during the Mumbai terror siege in November last year.
The Pakistan People's Party-led government is considering a proposal to seek Interpol's Red Corner notice against ex-military ruler Pervez Musharraf, in a bid to bring him back from abroad to face treason charges, days after he called party chief and President Asif Ali Zardari 'a criminal and a fraud'. Premier Yousuf Raza Gilani had even hinted that it might not be possible to put Musharraf on trial, after main opposition PML-N stepped up demands for action against him.
The United States on Thursday appealed to India and Pakistan to resolve their differences for the benefit of regional trade, but made it clear that the issues between the two countries can only be settled bilaterally.
Judge Malik Muhammad Akram Awan of anti-terrorism court replaced Rana on the orders of Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court Khwaja Mohammad Sharif. Rana was conducting in-camera the trial of the seven suspects, who included senior Lashker-e-Taiba operatives Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and Zarar Shah, in the high-security Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi.
In a possible setback to the trial of the seven suspects arrested by the Pakistan police for their involvement in the terror attack on Mumbai, the judge hearing the case has said he can no longer continue with the proceedings. Citing 'unavoidable reasons', Judge Baqir Ali Rana of the anti-terrorism court, who has been conducting the trial within the high-security Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi, has requested the Lahore High Court to excuse him from hearing the case.
"Raids are being carried out on the basis of specific and general information about terror suspects and so far we have taken a large number of Afghans and Pathans into custody," Senior Superintendent of Police (Operations) Chaudhry Shafiq Ahmed said.
A K Dogar-- Hafiz Saeed's lawyer is eager to visit his birthplace, Hoshiarpur in India's Punjab state and wants to take his grandchildren to the Taj Mahal in Agra. But he fears that even if the Indian government gives him a visa, he may face hostility in the neighbouring country because he is the lawyer of a man many Indians hate.
Pakistani law enforcement agencies have taken 36 suspects into custody in connection with the near-simultaneous terror attacks on three security facilities in Lahore that left 28 people dead, officials said on Friday.
Terrorists struck in a big way on Thursday, storming Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency building in Lahore and attacking three police facilities in synchronised attacks that killed at least 23 people. A suicide bomber also rammed in an explosive-laden vehicle in northwest Pakistan's Kohat town, killing 10 people.
In an operation in this capital of Punjab province, police picked up 40 people, including a key suspect Luqman, who was caught with an explosive jacket, police said. Most of the suspects arrested here belong to banned militant groups like the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Siphah-e-Sahaba, Sipah-e-Muhammad and Jaish-e-Mohammad, all Punjabi militant groups.
A Pakistani court on Monday admitted a petition filed by banned Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed challenging two cases registered against him by police under the Anti-Terrorism Act for inciting people to wage 'jehad'.
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari does not believe that India's demand to take action against Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, the mastermind of the terror attacks on Mumbai, is a 'major hurdle' and was hopeful that relations would be normalised soon between the two neighbours."I don't think the issue of Hafiz Saeed is a major hurdle in the normalisation of our relations. I am hopeful that ties between the two countries will be restored very soon," Zardari said.
A Pakistani court on Friday suspended the "security protocol" accorded by the government to nuclear scientist A Q Khan, accused of running a clandestine proliferation network, and directed authorities not to restrict his movements. Acting on a petition filed by Khan, the Lahore High Court said the scientist is a free man and can go wherever he wants.
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