Pillion-riding banned; 50 suspects held in Karachi

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KARACHI: Pillion-riding has been outlawed in Karachi for five days for a security precaution during the sacred event of 12th Rabi-ul-Awwal while at least 50 alleged suspects have been taken under arrest during search operations in different areas , reports TrendPK on Tuesday.

Home ministry of Sindh has notified imposition of ban on pillion-writing in black and white. The ban will stay effective till February 5.

After the fresh spate of target killing in metropolis, police and rangers launched a joint crackdown against the menace in different areas. At least 50 suspects were rounded up during targeted operations in Orangi Town and Liaquatabad areas.

Later, the residents of Ilyas Goth took to street and staged protest against the arrests from their area. Protestors blocked Teen Hatti Road and pelted vehicles with stones. Subsequently, police arrived on the scene and quelled the agitation by shelling and made many more arrests. TrendPK

Tom Hanks returns as an Oscar presenter

LOS ANGELES: Tom Hanks – an Academy governor, two-time Oscar winner and five time nominee – will serve as a presenter at the 84th Academy Awards, show producers Brian Grazer and Don Mischer announced on Tuesday.

Hanks has been a fixture at Oscar shows for more than two decades, with duties that have ranged from presenting the Best Picture award to making a film advising nominees on how to give good acceptance speeches.

He was also pulled out of the audience to participate in David Letterman’s “Stupid Pet Trick” during Letterman’s ill-fated stint hosting the show in 1995.

His is the most traditional Oscar booking to be announced so far; it came on the heels of Academy announcements that Jennifer Lopez and the cast of “Bridesmaids” would be presenters on the show.

The 84th Academy Awards will take place on Sunday, February 26 at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland, with Billy Crystal as host. AGENCIES

SC resumes Gilani court contempt hearing toady

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ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan is going to resume on Wednesday the hearing of contempt of court notice issued to Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani for his failing to pursue corruption charge against President Asif Ali Zardari, TrendPK reports.

However, the jury has exempted PM Gilani from appearing in the court after he faced the jury on January 19 th amid tight security and protocol.

Today, Prime Minister’s lawyer will submit his argument on the issue of immunity to Zardari which is the main reason cited by the government not to ask the Swiss authorities to reopen graft cases against the President.

A seven-member SC bench will hear the case.

Veteran lawyer and PM Gilani’s counsel, Aitzaz Ahsan will contend before the jury on whether or not the PM committed contempt of court by not ordering National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for reopening cases of Swiss accounts kept by Benazir Bhutto and President Zardari.

The issue of President’s immunity will also be hotly debated in today’s hearing.

NAB chairman Admiral (retd) Fasih Bukhari, Federal Law Minister Maula Bux Chandio, Federal Minister for Religious Affairs, Syed Khursheed Shah, PPP leaders Qamar Zaman Kaira, Nadeem Afzal Chan and other bigwigs are also present in the court.
 
Gilani had appeared before the court on January 19 th and had sought more time on why he didn’t ask the Swiss authorities to re-open cases against the Pakistan President.

In previous hearing, Aitzaz Ahsan was also given three week to look into the documental record regarding the NRO cases. TrendPK

"Secret" report says Afghan Taliban set to retake power

LONDON: The United States military has said in a secret report that the Taliban, allegedly backed by Pakistan, are set to retake control over Afghanistan after NATO-led forces withdraw from the country, Britain’s Times of London newspaper said on Wednesday.

“Many Afghans are already bracing themselves for an eventual return of the Taliban,” the newspaper said, quoting the report. “Once ISAF (NATO-led forces) is no longer a factor, Taliban consider their victory inevitable,” it quoted the report.

The Times said the “highly classified” report was put together by the U.S. military at Bagram air base in Afghanistan for top NATO officers last month. The BBC also carried a report on the leaked document.

Large swathes of Afghanistan have already been handed back to Afghan security forces, with the last foreign combat troops due to leave by the end of 2014.

The document cited by the Times and the BBC also stated that Pakistan’s powerful security agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), was assisting the Taliban in directing attacks against foreign forces — a charge denied by Islamabad.

Washington and its allies have long complained that the Taliban and other criminal groups operate out of safe havens in tribal areas in Pakistan’s west and northwest.

The document’s findings were based on interrogations of more than 4,000 Taliban and al Qaeda detainees, the Times said, adding however it identified only few individual insurgents.

A State Department spokesman and Britain’s Foreign Office both declined comment on the report. NATO and Pakistani officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

Despite the presence of about 100,000 foreign troops, violence in Afghanistan is at its worst since the Taliban were ousted by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in 2001, according to the United Nations.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) says levels of violence are falling.

Citing the same report, the BBC reported on its website (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16821218) that Pakistan and the ISI knew the locations of senior Taliban leaders and supported the expulsion of “foreign invaders from Afghanistan”.

“Senior Taliban leaders meet regularly with ISI personnel, who advise on strategy and relay any pertinent concerns of the government of Pakistan,” it said.

Pentagon officials said they had not seen the reports and could not comment on their specifics. But Pentagon spokesman George Little said: “We have long been concerned about ties between elements of the ISI and some extremist networks.”

Little said U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta “has also been clear that he believes that the safe havens in Pakistan remain a serious problem and need to be addressed by Pakistani authorities.”

The Times said in its report the document suggested the Taliban were gaining in popularity partly because the austere Islamist movement was becoming more tolerant.

It quoted the report: “It remains to be seen whether a revitalised, more progressive Taliban will endure if they continue to gain power and popularity. Regardless, at least within the Taliban, the refurbished image is already having a positive effect on morale.” AGENCIES

Pillion riding ban ineffective as two more die in Karachi

TrendPK.com

KARACHI: Imposition of ban on pillion-riding in Karachi seems to be ineffective as two more died in recent incidents of firing and targeted-killing, TrendPK reports Wednesday.

Some nine people have been reported killed over the past 24 hours.

Pillion-riding has been outlawed in Karachi for five days for a security precaution during the sacred event of 12th Rabi-ul-Awwal while more than 100 alleged suspects from different areas have been arrested by police and Rangers during search operations in restive parts – Orangi Town and Liaquatabad. TrendPK

Six soldiers, 17 Taliban killed in NW Pakistan clash

Afghan withdrawal timeline "irrational": Taliban

KABUL: The Afghan Taliban described NATO’s plan to withdraw combat troops by the end of 2014 as “irrational”, reiterating on Sunday its demand for all foreign troops to leave immediately or risk more bloodshed.

In a five-point statement released in response to a NATO summit that wrapped up in Lisbon on Saturday, the Taliban said delaying the withdrawal of foreign troops would only lead to more “tragic events and battles”.

U.S. President Barack Obama, who is due to review his Afghanistan war strategy next month, has already committed to a gradual drawdown of U.S. troops from July 2011, his counterpart Hamid Karzai saying he wants Afghans in control by 2014.

That target was agreed by NATO leaders in Lisbon on Saturday, although some U.S. and NATO officials have said a spike in violence and problems in building up a capable Afghan army and police force to take

Taliban show interest in negotiations: Holbrooke

Richard Holbrooke, the US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said that Taliban associates have been reaching out for talks about ending the war but that formal negotiations are not taking place.
Holbrooke spoke a day after a senior NATO official confirmed that the alliance has provided safe passage for Taliban leaders to travel to Kabul for face-to-face talks with the US-backed Afghan government. The account was the most detailed yet of the US and NATO role in the clandestine talks, aimed at bringing an end to the 9-year-old war in Afghanistan. On the various groups operating in the war-torn country, Holbrooke named the Al-Qaeda with which he ruled out any possibility of talks, the Afghan Taliban, which he said seems to be a loose organisation with a very shadowy arrangement. He also named the Pakistani Taliban or the TTP, the Haqqani network, which he called a notorious, separate group of Afghan Taliban inside Pakistan, who do a great deal of the mayhem and carnage inside Afghanistan. Holbrooke declined to further discuss the peace moves in Afghanistan, saying nobody’s interests were served by the constant speculation about talks. International troops and Afghan security forces have been putting pressure on the Taliban in recent months in eastern and southern areas where the movement’s heartland is located. But despite being heavily outnumbered, the militants have fought back, inflicting record casualties on NATO forces.

Taliban Talks Part of US Strategy on Afghanistan

WASHINGTON: The United States said Thursday it cannot see Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar meeting criteria for peace talks with the Afghan government and playing a constructive role in Afghanistan’s future.

US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said Taliban foot-soldiers and leaders could participate in Afghanistan’s future if they renounce violence, cut ties with Al-Qaeda and support the Afghan constitution.

But he doubted the opportunity would be seized by Mullah Omar, the Taliban’s one-eyed leader who is believed to be hiding in Pakistan and who, the Washington Post said last week, backs secret high-level peace talks with Kabul.

“From our view, Mullah Omar has been attached at the hip to bin Laden for some time. So, based on everything that we know about him today, in fact he will not meet the criteria that we have laid out,” Crowley told reporters.

“He had many opportunities during the ’90s and even after 9/11 to disassociate himself from Osama bin Laden. He chose not to,” Crowley said.

“So you know, there’s nothing that we see that indicates that Mullah Omar will, in fact, change his stripes. As a result, we don’t see that he qualifies to play a constructive role in Afghanistan’s future.”

Last week The Washington Post cited unnamed Afghan and Arab sources as saying the high-level peace talks were believed to involve delegates authorized by Mullah Omar and his Quetta Shura, the Afghan Taliban group based in Pakistan.

Mullah Omar and other top Taliban figures have insisted for years that US-led foreign forces must first leave Afghanistan before peace talks can begin.

But a source close to the talks told the Post that the leadership knows “that they are going to be sidelined,” and was negotiating with the government of President Hamid Karzai to ensure their positions are protected.

A senior State Department official, speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity, suggested Quetta Shura members would be taking part in the talks, just not those close to Mullah Omar.

“I don’t think we’re ruling out participation by members of the Quetta Shura. I happen to believe personally that certain members of the Quetta Shura will not qualify,” the official said.

“The Quetta Shura includes Mullah Omar but we’ll see who’s willing to actually disassociate himself from Al-Qaeda and who won’t.”

Hamid Karzai Confirms Holding Talks With Taliban

Afghan President Hamid Karzai confirmed in a US television interview that his administration has been holding unofficial talks with the Taliban “for quite some time” to try to end the nine-year war.

“We have been talking to the Taliban as countryman to countryman, talk in that manner,” Karzai told CNN’s Larry King when asked about a Washington Post report on secret high-level talks between the two sides.

“Not as a regular official contact with the Taliban with a fixed address but rather unofficial personal contacts have been going on for quite some time,” he said in excerpts of the CNN interview to air in full on Monday.

Last week the Washington Post said the secret talks were believed to involve the Afghan government and representatives authorised by the Quetta Shura, the Afghan Taliban group based in Pakistan, and Taliban leader Mullah Omar.

The Karzai interview is being aired a day after Afghanistan’s former president Burhanuddin Rabbani was elected chairman of a new peace council, a Karzai brainchild set up to broker an end to the war with the Taliban.

“Now that the peace council has come into existence, these talks will go on and will go on officially and more rigorously I hope,” Karzai told King.

The Taliban have said publicly they will not enter into dialogue with the government until all 152,000 US-led foreign troops based in the country leave.

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