The railway minister's indifference to her portfolio, the hesitation to install anti-collision devices that cost Rs 250,000 per km and the debate over the efficiency of home-grown technology are leading to more accidents.
Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Monday said his government will not amend the blasphemy law, which has been at the centre of a raging controversy since the assassination of Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer over his opposition to the statute.
A Pakistani court has sentenced an imam and his son to life imprisonment after convicting them on controversial blasphemy charges after they removed a poster containing Quranic verses, officials said.
With the incremental improvement in ties with Pakistan, the proposal to open the corridor from DBN to the Kiratpur Sahib gurdwara some 4 kilometres away on the Pakastani side, founded in memory of Sikhism's founder Nanak Bedi has once again been resurrected.
Altogether 250 labourers were trapped about 700 feet below the ground level in the underground mines near Talcher as the lift meant for bringing them up after their shift failed to function, a spokesman of MCL said. A rescue operation was launched immediately with the help of another lift meant for taking out coal from the mines and 100 workers were first brought up, he said.
The Pakistani government, reeling under criticism of not moving fast enough on flood relief, has faced another embarrassment with the media reporting that Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has twice visited "dummy" relief camps.
The situation in violence-hit parts of Punjab and Haryana was limping back to normalcy on Tuesday with paramilitary forces personnel conducting flag marches in sensitive areas following Saturday's violence by supporters of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh protesting against registration of a fresh murder case against him.
Following the Balochistan High Court's order, the Dera Bugti police has registered a case against former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in connection with Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Bugti's assassination.
Bakshish Singh Baba, a hardcore militant caught by the Punjab Police was working towards the revival of terror outfit Khalistan Liberation Force and planning to carry out a series of explosions in the state at the behest of Pakistan's ISI, a senior police official said.
A senior police officer was among the 12 people killed when a bomb went off near a police vehicle in Pakistan's troubled northwest on Tuesday. The bomb, believed to be hidden in a rickshaw, exploded as the police van passed through an area on the outskirts of Dera Ismail Khan city in Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa province, TV news channels quoted police sources and witnesses as saying. Over 10 others were also injured in the blast.
Top United States nuclear scientists have shockingly revealed in a report that Pakistan is enhancing its nuclear weapons and production capabilities.According to the report, which is yet to enter the public domain, Pakistan is readying a new nuclear capable ballistic missile for deployment and two nuclear capable cruise missiles. It is believed that this secretive and substantial arsenal build-up is targeted at India.
At least 8 people died and over 20 injured in the latest round of bomb attacks in northwest Pakistan, as a US drone strike killed 5 suspected militants in South Waziristan tribal region, considered a stronghold of Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud.
It is as much about farmer woes and the lack of job opportunities as about the mixing of religion and politics.
At least 25 people, including two children, were killed and over 50 injured when a suspected suicide bomber struck a religious gathering in Dera Ghazi Khan town in Pakistan's Punjab province on Thursday.
One of the six suspects, detained in connection with the attack on two visiting Indian Sikh preachers in Vienna in May, has been released due to lack of evidence. Three other suspects, including the alleged mastermind of the attack in which Dera Sacha Khand leader Guru Ramandand Dass was killed and Sant Niranjan Dass was severely injured, will remain in custody for the time being, while a decision on two other suspects would be taken next week, police said.
Sant Rama Nand, the head of a Dera sect, died early on Monday morning after being shot in a clash between two groups of Sikh worshippers at a gurdwara in Vienna.At least 11 people, including Sant Niranjan Dass, another Dera chief, were injured when the two groups clashed with knives and a handgun.The fight erupted following a dispute over the sermon given by a priest from Shri Guru Ravidas Sabha.
A hitherto unknown pro-Taliban group called 'Ansar Wa Mohajir' has claimed responsibility for Wednesday's car bomb attack in Lahore, for which four alleged Indian nationals have reportedly been arrested by Pakistani authorities.
At least 22 people, including five women and two children, were killed and over 60 others injured on Tuesday when a powerful car bomb went off outside the home of a senior Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader in Punjab province, the latest in a wave of terror attacks in Pakistan that have claimed more than 500 lives since October.
A suicide bomber struck at a hotel in a busy market in the restive North West Frontier Province on Thursday, killing at least 11 people and injuring over 20 others, most of them militants opposed to Pakistan's top Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud.The bomber struck at a hotel at the busy Jandola Bazar in Dera Ismail Khan, while scores of anti-Taliban militants were just beginning their meals. They were members of the 'Turkestan Bittani' group.
Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan is located across the river Ravi, about four kilometres from the Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Punjab's Gurdaspur district.
At least 28 people were killed and nearly 160 injured on Friday when a suicide bomber blew himself up in the funeral procession of a Shia cleric in the north-western Pakistani city of Dera Ismail Khan on Friday, sparking angry protests which prompted authorities to impose curfew.
'Gurmeet Ram Rahim's political clout inhibited the chief minister, affected the bureaucracy and restricted the police.'
Two persons were killed and several injured as violence triggered by the killing of a Dera leader engulfed Punjab and parts of Haryana, where protestors set afire train coaches, buses and clashed with the police, prompting authorities to impose curfew in four cities and calling out the Army in Jalandhar.
Bharti Wal-Mart's plan to open its first cash-and-carry store in the country at Amritsar on Tuesday has been postponed because of law and order problem in Punjab following violence sparked by killing of a Dera leader in Austria. "Due to the situation in Punjab, Bharti Wal-Mart is postponing the launch of its cash-and-carry wholesale store 'Best Price Modern Wholesale'," the company said on Monday.
"It is not in our interest to allow use of Pakistan's territory for terror outside," Khan said.
Reacting cautiously, MEA said an agreement has been signed between the two countries finalising the modalities for visits and India will stick to it.
The Pakistan government and Taliban militants in the restive South Waziristan tribal region are expected to swap prisoners as part of efforts for a formal peace agreement. A formal agreement could be reached in three to four days. The swapping of prisoners is expected to take place at Tiarza in South Waziristan, sources said. An official said all of them were members of the Mehsud tribe.
The recent attacks in Pakistan's Punjab should be taken as warning shots of an impending battle which will further destabilise that country and the region.
Wal-Mart defers launch of its first Indian store
Were the thugs not visible to the police team in the Qualis's headlights, alerting the policemen to their presence?
The police on Sunday shifted Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh to an undisclosed destination for "security reasons" amid continued protests over the gunning down of a Sikh demonstrator in Mumbai while radical groups demanded the Dera Sacha Sauda chief's immediate arrest.
Aitezaz Shah, a 15-year-old suicide bomber arrested last week along with one Sher Zaman in Dera Ismail Khan town of North West Frontier Province, was handed over to Punjab Police on Tuesday and brought to Rawalpindi.
Pakistan's northern area bordering Afghanistan has been a haven for foreign Islamist militants who have been engaged in violent activities in different parts of the world, including Afghanistan, Chechnya, China and India.
Khan, who had been detained for a week under anti-terrorism laws, was on a hunger strike demanding the reinstatement of the ousted Supreme Court judges.
According to agencies, supporters of a Shi'ite leader, who was shot earlier in the day, were protesting outside a hospital in Dera Ismail Khan town when the blast went off.
The babas' vote banks and the politicians' greed for en bloc votes, is the curse of Punjab and Haryana.
'Now I will see how you escape...'
Fifteen-year-old Aitezaz Shah, who was arrested from Dera Ismail Khan town of the North West Frontier Province, identified the bomber as a man named Bilal who belonged to the South Waziristan tribal region, Interior Secretary Syed Kamal Shah said.A team of investigators has gone to South Waziristan to meet Bilal's family to get more information about him. Reports said that the investigators had shown a photograph of the suspected bomber to Aitezaz Shah, who identified him.
high level delegation led by Shiromani Akali Dal President Sukhbir Singh Badal will visit Mumbai on Tuesday to meet the members of the family of Balkar Singh, who was killed in the incident of firing allegedly by private security guards of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmit Ram Rahim Singh.
Chawla, who is the general secretary of Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee and is known to speak for 'Khalistan', had shared the purported picture on his Facebook page.
