9/11 remembrance ceremony starts in New York

A ceremony attended by President Barack Obama to honor nearly 3,000 people killed on September 11, 2001, began in New York Sunday with a procession of bagpipers and singing of the national anthem.

After Mayor Michael Bloomberg introduced proceedings at Ground Zero, saying it was “a chance to reflect and remember,” the ceremony observed a moment of silence to mark the exact time when the first hijacked plane hit the World Trade Center, starting the 9/11 attacks.

It was the first of six moments of silence to be observed at the ceremony at Ground 0: one for each of the towers hit, one each for the Pentagon and the crash of Flight 93 in Pennsylvania and one each for the collapse of two towers.

Pakistan’s 10 years of chaos after 9/11

ISLAMABAD: The 9/11 attacks that thrust Pakistan into the war on terror have brought the nuclear-armed state to its knees, fighting militants at home and risking pariah status abroad.

It was already evening in Pakistan when television channels, recently deregulated by then president General Pervez Musharraf, began broadcasting the terrifying scenes from the twin towers in New York.

Few slept that night, realising immediately that the world had changed forever and that Pakistan was in the eye of the storm after spending years fostering extremist movements for its own ends.

“My immediate thought was ‘oh my God, more trouble coming onto Pakistan’,” said author Imtiaz Gul, who has written extensively about the subsequent war and its fallout at home.

“My fears have been borne out… The 9/11 events shocked Pakistan into an unprecedented crisis of insecurity,” he said.

It didn’t take long for Musharraf to weigh up conditions imposed by Washington and announce on September 19 that Pakistan would offer its airspace, territory and capabilities to help the United States defeat terrorism.

But as America put the finishing touches to its war plans, Pakistan desperately tried to persuade its Taliban allies in Afghanistan to give up Osama bin Laden and avert catastrophic military action, to no avail.

Within weeks, bin Laden, his future successor Ayman al-Zawahiri and Taliban leaders had fled the American invasion into Pakistan.

And there in the northwestern tribal belt, which no government has been able to subjugate, they found refuge among an extremist support network dating back to the 1990s jihad against the Soviets in Afghanistan.

They regrouped, forming bases used by the Taliban to direct the insurgency in Afghanistan and training camps for Al-Qaeda to brainwash young extremists from all over the world into carrying out terror attacks.

As a result, the last decade has made the only Muslim nuclear power more unstable than ever before in its bloody and chaotic 64-year existence.

The watershed came in July 2007 when government troops cleared out extremists preaching hate from the Red mosque in the heart of the capital Islamabad.

The militants declared war and in the past four years, around 500 bomb attacks have killed 4,600 people, according to an AFP tally.

Just when it appeared things couldn’t get worse, this year the US discovered bin Laden living close to Pakistan’s equivalent of West Point, sending in Navy SEALs to kill him and sinking already fractured US-Pakistani relations.

“No doubt that this is absolutely the worst time for the country,” said Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid, whose book “Taliban” became an international bestseller after 9/11.

Rashid describes Pakistan as “completely isolated” by a war that “brought terrorism, sectarianism, a weakening of the state (and) much greater ethnic insurgencies” within the country.

But the blame — he says — is Pakistan’s for frittering away American aid money and refusing to realign its national security priorities.

“Politically, the most far-reaching mistake was the hosting and relaunching of the Afghan Taliban by the military and the intelligence agencies. That was enormously detrimental and led to the growth of the Pakistani Taliban.”

Pakistan routinely proclaims to have sacrificed the most of any country fighting terror.

The government claims that 35,000 people have been killed. The army confirms the deaths of 3,019 soldiers since 2001 — more than the 2,684 Western soldiers to have died in Afghanistan.

More than three million people have been displaced by violence and counter-terrorism activities in Pakistan since 9/11, according to International Crisis Group figures released in 2010.

The army says 147,000 troops are deployed in the northwest compared to 35,000 in October 2001, a drastic reversal from the previous concentration along the Indian border in the east.

Yet extremism has increased. An average of one US drone strike every four days against militants in the tribal belt is raising fears that the campaign is recruiting a new generation of insurgents and suicide bombers.

Jihadist groups — fostered by Pakistan’s security establishment to fight India in Kashmir and maintain Afghanistan as a strategic asset — have splintered, and increasingly turned the guns on their old allies in the state.

“Pakistan is a lot less secure country now than 10 years ago, because it has become a battleground, an extension of the Afghan war. Pakistan is now facing a serious threat for its stability,” said journalist Zahid Hussain.

Yet the public discourse concentrates less on how to defeat militancy than debating the merits of the hugely unpopular US alliance.

Trust between Islamabad and Washington is at an all-time low. Cooperation between the CIA and Pakistan’s ISI spy agency is poor. Blame games on both sides are played out in the media.

Compounding the sense of crisis is the country’s economic meltdown. Pakistan says losses related to the war are $68 billion. Critics say the country has squandered up to $20 billion in aid given by the United States.

“The biggest mistake was the failure to really address strategic issues in the economy. Pakistan could have changed its very weak economic structure at that point in time,” said Rashid.

Instead crippling inflation, rampant unemployment and an energy crisis with power cuts of up to 16 hours a day have left millions wondering how to fill the void. AGENCIES

Taliban gunned down US drone

Taliban spokesman Zabihollah Mojahed claimed that the militants gunned down the aircraft late on Saturday. Reports quoted witnesses as saying that they saw the drone catching fire mid-air and crashing into a civilian house. Earlier this week, another US drone crashed due to technical problems in eastern Ghazni Province, NATO said in a statement. But Taliban claimed the first crash as well.

The Taliban militants say they have shot down several aircraft and NATO choppers in different parts of Afghanistan over the past few months. Taliban have stepped up their attacks on US-led forces in the recent months.

Mumbai attacks case: contempt notice issued to Rehman Malik

The notice has been issued on a statement given by him in London with reference to despatching judicial commission to India in Mumbai attack case.

FIA had filed application under section 503 about despatching a judicial commission to India. FIA has completed its arguments on it while defence counsel Khawaja Sultan and other lawyers were yet to give arguments on behalf of Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and other accused.

Defence lawyer Khawaja Sultan Ahmad had made interior minister and government respondents in contempt plea. It was said in the contempt application that interior minister while addressing a seminar in London had said with respect to the petition pending hearing in the court in Mumbai attack case that court had granted commission’s request for sending judicial commission to India and the commission would leave for India within 7 to 11 days.

The court while granting plea of Khawaja Sultan Ahmad stopped debate over the application filed by FIA for sending commission to India and issued contempt of court notice to Interior Minister Rehman Malik on his statement.

The court on the request of lawyers has also summoned three prosecution witnesses including forensic expert of FIA Noman Ashraf Godla, Inspector Sardar Muhammad Azam and Nisar Jadoon from FIA on August, 13 for recording their statements.

Parcel bombs explode at Swiss and Russian embassies

ATHENS: Bombs exploded at the Swiss and Russian embassies in Athens on Tuesday and police found suspect packages at two other embassies in the latest wave of parcel bomb attacks to hit the Greek capital.

Police linked the attacks to Greek leftist guerrillas. Small bomb and gas canister attacks have been frequent in Greece since 2008 when the police killing of a teenager sparked the country’s worst riots in decades.

“A package was handed in at the entrance of the Swiss embassy in Athens today. Checks by our local employees revealed traces of metal,” said Swiss foreign ministry spokesman Georg Farago.

“When the external packaging was removed, the contents burst into flames,” he said, adding that there were no injuries.

Tuesday’s parcel bombs included one outside parliament, addressed to the Chilean embassy. Bombs were also found at the Chilean and

ST holds rally against attacks on shrines

Staff Report

KARACHI: The Sunni Tehreek on Sunday held a rally against the attacks on shrines in different parts of the country.

The rally crossing routs of city reached at Hazrat Abdullah Shah Ghazi’s shrine where it held sit-in.

The ST leader Shahid Ghauri, while addressing the rally participants, demanded the government to provide better security arrangements for shrine across the country. Trend Pk

SAMAA finds CNIC of attacker of Ghazi’s shrine

Staff Report

KARACHI: SAMAA found on Wednesday the Computerized National Identity Card (CNIC) of the suicide attacker of Abdullah Shah Ghazi’s shrine.

According to CID officials, the suicide attacker, Badshah Khan, son of Mohammad Shafi hailed from Ladha, South Waziristan. Badshah’s CNIC shows his date of birth as August 1, 1991 with no identity mark. There is no signature, but a thumb impression.

Police found attack links to Waziristan and a CID investigation team had gone to South Waziristan.

Sources also disclosed that law enforcement agencies are in search of the identity of the other bomber and mastermind behind the attacks. SAMAA

Surveillance cameras were not working at Ghazi’s shrine: Sindh CM

Staff Report

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah accepted on Friday that the surveillance cameras installed around Abdullah Shah Ghazi’s shrine were not working.

He said this while talking to journalists after visiting those injured from the blasts admitted in Jinnah Post-Graduate Medical Center.

Sindh CM said that the conspiracy of the attacks would be disclosed soon, adding that law enforcement agencies have had success probing the twin blasts at Ghazi’s shrine. It is too early to disclose anything, he added.

He said that Ghazi’s shrine will reopen by tomorrow (Saturday). SAMAA

Noshehra: 35 NATO tankers torched

Unidentified persons attacked NATO tankers in Khair Abad area of Noshehra on Wednesday night due to which 35 tankers were completely destroyed.
According to sources, 10 fire brigades are still struggling to extinguish the fire while further fire brigades have been called from Mardan, Peshawar and Noshehra. This is the fourth attack upon the NATO oil tankers on Western Bypass. Police has completely cordoned off the area and security has been tightened.
Attacks on NATO containers have been intensified. 35 NATO oil tankers were torched on Wednesday morning in Quetta. The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) had claimed responsibility for the attack. The Taliban said their attacks were to avenge US drone attacks and halt the NATO supply route through Pakistan.
The NATO supply to Afghanistan has not been restored even after an apology was extended to Pakistan and the families of the Frontier Scouts by the US ambassador to Pakistan, Anne Patterson.

Missile attacks kill five in Waziristan

Staff Report

MIRANSHAH: At least five terrorists have been killed in spy missile attacks in Datta Khel Wednesday evening.

Sources told SAMAA that two missiles were fired on a house located in Datta Khel Serai area of Miranshah.

Five terrorists have been killed and two others wounded. The house was completely damaged in the attacks, sources added. SAMAA

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