A day after its volte-face on the release of Sarabjit Singh, Pakistan on Wednesday went on a damage control mode saying there was no move to free the Indian prisoner and scotched speculation of pressure from army on the government.
When asked to explain, Musharraf, 73, said Gen Sharif played a role in "releasing the pressure" on courts to prevent him from leaving the country.
Pakistan's hockey team leaves on Monday for the World Cup in New Delhi amid warnings from a security expert that there is a genuine threat to the players' safety in India.
During the visit, apart from attending the SAARC meet, Singh is likely to have bilateral meetings with his counterparts from other SAARC member-countries, including Pakistan's Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan.
India Saturday night rubbished as "utterly baseless and false" Pakistan's allegation that New Delhi was supporting violence in Balochistan.
A senior police official probing the suicide attack on former Pakistan premier Benazir Bhutto's convoy in Karachi has been removed in the wake of objections raised by her Pakistan People's Party. DIG (Investigation) Manzoor Mughal, who was heading the probe, has applied for leave and will no longer be handling the probe, Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said.
Pakistani security officials have claimed arresting a Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan operative who is said to be the mastermind of the suicide attack which targeted former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's rally in Karachi in October 2007.
At least 25 explosive laden vehicles have reportedly sneaked into major cities of Pakistan, following which intelligence agencies have launched a massive search operation.According to sources, intelligence authorities have issued a warning to all four provinces in this regard, and asked them to take precautionary measures.The Interior Ministry has also issued a circular stating that suicide bombers along with the vehicles have entered Peshawar, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Islamabad.
A two-member delegation from Pakistan will inspect the venues and other arrangements for the team's tour in November-December.
In a bizarre development, Pakistan presidential spokesperson Major General (retired) Rashid Qureshi on Thursday said that no mercy petition of Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh is pending with President Pervez Musharraf. Sarabjit has spent 18 years on death row in Pakistan, after being convicted for his alleged involvement in four bomb attacks in Punjab province in 1990, which killed 14 people.Sarabjit's execution was deferred for 30 days by President Pervez Musharraf.
Pakistan on Thursday handed over its preliminary investigation report into the attack on Sri Lankan cricketers to the island nation, blaming it on a 'foreign hand' but admitting that it was a 'total security lapse'. The report revealed that the attack was planned in and financed by some foreign country and was carried out by militants from the South Waziristan tribal region. The report stated that the police had so far failed to arrest even a single attacker.
Pakistan on Monday briefed foreign envoys on its response to the Mumbai terror attacks and its own probe into the information provided by India, as part of an effort to counter the diplomatic initiative launched by New Delhi. Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and interior ministry chief Rehman Malik briefed the ambassadors and high commissioners of most foreign countries at the foreign office in Islamabad.
The decision comes weeks after killing of two Chinese nationals who entered the country on business visa.
Pakistan and Britain have decided to set up a joint working group to deal with terrorism, much on the lines of the anti-terror mechanism Islamabad recently agreed upon with India.
Home Minister P Chidambaram on Friday arrived to attend the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation Home Ministers' Conference and was personally received by his Pakistani counterpart Rehman Malik at the Chaklala airbase. Chidambaram arrived at the Chaklala airbase in the garrison city of Rawalpindi by a special aircraft. Malik, who will host his Indian counterpart later on Friday, went to the airbase to personally receive Chidambaram.
The diplomatic crisis between Pakistan and Afghanistan deepened on Sunday after Kabul announced that it will withdraw its ambassador and other senior staff from Islamabad after the abduction and torture of the daughter of its envoy to Pakistan.
The Pakistan government has sought a report from officials on how Indian Minister Jairam Ramesh "strolled" into Pakistani territory at the Wagah border, violating rules and regulations last week, a media report has said.
Pakistan will formally respond within a week to India's dossier on the Mumbai attacks by describing the information provided in it as "scanty and insufficient" and by renewing its offer for a joint probe into the terrorist strike, a media report said today.
The perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai attack, who shot dead 166 people, had confessed to details that should have been enough to hang him, but Pakistan enjoyed his anti-India rhetoric and let him spread his tentacles. A revealing excerpt from Khaled Ahmed's Pakistan's Terror Conundrum.
Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Saeed's detention may help ease India-Pakistan tension, media reports in Islamabad said on Tuesday even as supporters of the Mumbai attack mastermind launched protests across major cities against the government's decision which they say was taken under pressure from the US and India.
Dawn News channel had on Wednesday quoted its sources as saying that Pakistani investigators had completed the initial investigation into the dossier provided by India on January 5 and found that the Mumbai attacks were not planned in Pakistan.
During a meeting in Islamabad, Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik told Indian High Commissioner Satyabrata Pal about the inquiry being conducted by a three-member team into the information provided by New Delhi on the Mumbai attacks and other aspects of Pakistan's probe, official sources said. Pal, who sought the meeting with Malik, told PTI that the interior ministry chief had briefed him on the steps "already taken by the government by Pakistan.
Fifteen of these groups took part in sectarian violence, while the rest are jehadi outfits fighting against Western interests, the Daily Times quoted officials as saying.
India has much paranoia in India about a new 'Terroristan' coming up between Pakistan and a Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. Pakistan has zero ability economically, diplomatically, geostrategically or militarily to create one. If they try, it will be great for India as they will destroy themselves yet again, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
A suicide bomber on Thursday rammed his explosive-laden motorcycle into a bus carrying Pakistan Air Force personnel, killing eight of them and injuring 40 others, in the second such attack this week in Punjab province.
Masood said he talked to senior police officials who said a routine search operation was going against the terrorists.
The apex court asked the government to trace the missing persons within two weeks.
Khan said the Pakistan government was 'determined to demonstrate' that it is capable of protecting its people.
Pakistan's decision to ban media coverage of Lashkar-e-Tayiba, the Jamaatud Dawa and its front Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation and other outlawed groups was part of a commitment given to United States President Barack Obama by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during his recent visit, a media report said on Wednesday.
The interior minister said Shehbaz had not submitted any medical documents for travelling abroad or specified the treatment for his illness.
The United States and the United Kingdom have asked Pakistan to hand over Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, the mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attack, to India to improve bilateral ties or to them for his 'independent trial'.
Nine Chinese engineers were among 13 people killed on Wednesday when a bus carrying construction workers in northwest Pakistan's mountainous region was "attacked", according to officials and eyewitnesses.
He also said it was wrong on her part to go to Pakistan without informing anyone. The woman, Anju (34), was born in Kailor village in Uttar Pradesh and lived in Alwar district of Rajasthan. She and Pakistani national Nasrulla (29) became friends on Facebook in 2019.
A Pakistani court on Friday suspended the detention order of Lashkar-e-Tayiba operations commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the 2008 Mumbai terror attack mastermind, and ordered his immediate release, drawing India's ire.
'It will remain hostile to Indian interests owing to its close proximity to China.'
Pakistan Army on Wednesday withdrew a tweet that had rattled the civilian government over a media report about a rift between them over combating militancy in the country.
India today said none of its nationals was killed in a Taliban attack on a heavily fortified luxury hotel in Afghanistan's capital. Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi had said that four foreigners -- one each from New Zealand, Canada, Pakistan and India -- were killed in the attack on Serena Hotel which is used by UN staff and foreign diplomats.
The 34-year-old Indian woman was staying at her 29-year-old Pakistani friend Nasrullah's home in the Upper Dir district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. They became friends on Facebook in 2019.
The Taliban's official spokesman, Abdulqahar Balkhi, claimed responsiblity for the attack on Twitter.
Khan was injured on Thursday when an unidentified gunman opened fire on the container-mounted-truck carrying him during his protest march in the eastern city of Wazirabad.
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