Corps Commanders discuss rehabilitation and security situation

Corps Commanders of Pakistan Army expressed satisfaction over the relief and rehabilitation activities of flood affectees.
According to ISPR, Corps Commanders meeting was held under the chairmanship of Army Chief Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani in which security situation of the region came under discussion. Armys professional preparedness, advancement on war against terrorism and rehabilitation of flood victims were also discussed in the meeting.

25 die as bus plunges into Kashmir river

SRINAGAR: At least 25 people were killed in Indian Kashmir when an overcrowded minibus skidded off a mountain road and plunged into a fast-flowing river, police said Saturday.

The accident occurred late Friday in Kishtiwar district, south of the summer capital Srinagar.

“Twenty-five people are dead,” a police spokesman said, adding two people were hospitalised after they jumped out of the bus.

“The bus plunged into flooded Chenab river and disappeared,” the spokesman said. Bus accidents are common in the area because of a combination of bad roads, congestion and poor maintenance of vehicles.

Turkey issues arrest orders of 102 over ”coup plot”‎

ISTANBUL: A Turkish court issued an arrest warrant Friday for 102 suspects, among them senior army commanders, charged over an alleged plan to stage a coup in 2003, Anatolia news agency reported.

The court also set the first hearing in the high-profile case for December 16 in a prison complex near Istanbul, said judge Davut Bedir as he announced the warrant, according to Anatolia.

Five serving generals and two admirals as well as retired commanders, including the alleged mastermind of the plan, were among the suspects on the warrant, the agency said.

A total of 196 defendants will stand trial over the alleged coup plan — codenamed Operation Sledgehammer — in the toughest judicial action so far against the influential Turkish military.

The plan was allegedly drawn up at the Istanbul base of the First Army in 2003, shortly after the Justice and Development Party (AKP), the offshoot of a banned Islamist movement, came to power amid fears it would undermine Turkey”s secular system.

The warrant included admirals Mehmet Otuzbiroglu and Kadir Sagdic, commanders of the navy”s northern and southern flanks respectively, as well as five serving generals, Anatolia said.

Also on the list were four retired generals and two admirals.

TTP leader Maulvi Fazalullah killed in clash: Afghan Police

The Afghan police officials claimed to have killed Maulvi Fazaullah, leader of outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Swat, Pakistan, along with six of his commanders in the Barg Matal district of Afghanistan’s Nuristan province, which lies close to the border with Pakistan.
Afghan police retaliated the attack launched by Taliban at Nuristan killing Maulvi Fazalullah and six of his commanders in the ensuing clash.
Mohammad Zaman Mamozai, chief of the Afghan border force for the eastern region said that’Maulvi Fazlullah was killed in direct clash with Afghan border police…last night’ (Wednesday night).
However, Taliban leader in Bajaur Maulvi Faqeer Muhammad denied the reports.

Taliban get Rs0.2m for each Nato soldier killed

Amid a western plan to pay insurgents to lay down their weapons in Afghanistan, rebel commanders have said the Taliban militants are earning up to 2 lakh Pakistani rupees for each Nato soldier they kill.
We can’t lie to our commanders: they can check to see if there was a fight in that area. We get money if we capture equipment too. A gun can fetch USD 1,000 [690 pounds], said a commander from Khost province who controls about 60 fighters.
Taliban rebels are earning up to 2 lakh Pakistani rupees (1,660 pounds) for each Nato soldier they kill, Times Online has said. The money usually reaches commanders via the traditional hawala transfer system which is then shared within the militia. It’s a lot of money for us. We don’t care if we kill foreigners: their blood allows us to feed our families and the more we kill, the more we weaken them. Of course we are going to celebrate this, a commander from Ghazni province was quoted as saying by the website of the London-based newspaper. The report said the money is said to come from protection rackets, taxes imposed on opium farmers, donors in the Gulf states who channel money through Dubai and from the senior Taliban leadership in Pakistan. So far, this year 213 Nato soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan, including 41 British troops, bringing the potential rewards for the Taliban to 350,000 pounds, it said.

Two Key Commanders Among 15 Nabbed In Khyber

The security forces have nabbed 15 militants including two key commanders in Khyber Agency on Monday.

Official sources said that the militants have been arrested from Qambar Khel and Sharubar areas of Bara and shifted to an undisclosed location.

Two unidentified bodies have also been found during the search operation, while the forces have imposed curfew in Bara area for an indefinite period.

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Two Key Commanders Among 15 Nabbed In Khyber was first posted on March 29, 2010 at 10:13 am.
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Iranians Train Taliban To Kill Nato Troops:British Newspaper

A British newspaper claimed that hundreds of insurgents have been trained in Iran to kill Nato forces in Afghanistan.

According to Sunday Times report, Taliban commanders have revealed that they had learnt to mount complex ambushes and lay improvised explosive devices, which have been responsible for most of the deaths of British troops in Helmand province. According to the commanders, Iranian officials paid them to attend three-month courses during the winter.

They were smuggled across the border to the city of Zahidan, in southeast Iran.

Clashes in Tehran Four Protesters killed

TEHRAN: Four people were killed in clashes between pro-reform protesters and security forces in Tehran on Sunday in a second day of violence during a Shi’ite mourning ritual, an opposition website said.

The casualties were the first reported killings in protests since the immediate aftermath of a disputed election in June in which the opposition says more than 70 people died.

The authorities have estimated the post-vote death toll at about half that number, including pro-government militiamen.

Sunday’s violence underlined escalating tension in the Islamic Republic six months after the presidential poll plunged the oil producer into turmoil and exposed widening splits within the clerical and political establishment.

The Jaras website, in reports that could not immediately be independently verified, said police shot dead three pro-reform protesters in downtown Tehran. It later said another demonstrator was killed in clashes between opposition supporters and security forces in the capital, without giving details on how he died.

“Three people were killed and two others were wounded when police opened fire at protesters,” it said.

The website later reported that police forces refused orders to shoot at protesters.

“Police forces are refusing their commanders’ orders to shoot at demonstrators in central Tehran … some of them try to shoot into air when pressured by their commanders,” Jaras said.

Shooting was also heard elsewhere in the city center and security forces had fired tear gas to disperse opposition supporters, it said.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators had packed the streets of Tehran and clashes also erupted in Shiraz, Isfahan, Najafabad and Babol cities, Jaras said.

The semi-official Fars News Agency said supporters of opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi and pro-reform cleric Mehdi Karoubi “followed the call of the foreign media” and took to the streets — reference to the government position that the unrest is being stoked by foreign governments opposed to the Islamic Republic.

It said the group of “deceived hooligans” damaged public and private property and “disrespected” the holy Shi’ite day of Ashura, without elaborating.

Foreign media have been banned from reporting directly from opposition demonstrations after the election.

Jaras said protesters set one police motorbike on fire. A plume of black smoke could be seen above the city center as police blocked streets and clashes intensified.

A witness told a UK-based news agency there was a heavy presence of both security forces and opposition backers in central Tehran, a city of around 12 million people.

“Police prevented groups of protesters from joining each other,” she said.

Other witnesses said thousands of pro-government Iranians were also gathering in central Tehran.

Despite scores of arrests and security crackdowns, opposition protests have repeatedly flared since the June poll, which the opposition says was rigged to secure hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election.

Reformist websites reported clashes in Tehran also on Saturday, saying baton-wielding riot police fired tear gas and warning shots to disperse Mousavi supporters in various areas.

The authorities had warned the opposition against using the two-day Shi’ite Muslim Tasoua and Ashura festival on December 26-27 to revive protests against the clerical establishment.

This year’s Ashura on Sunday coincided with the traditional seventh day of mourning for leading dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, who died a week ago at the age of 87 in the holy Shi’ite city of Qom.

A spiritual patron of the movement for opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi, he was a fierce critic of the hardline clerical establishment.

Unrest that erupted after the June vote is the biggest in the Islamic state’s 30-year history. Authorities deny opposition charges that voting was rigged.

It has complicated a long-running international dispute over its nuclear program, which the West believes may have military ends, not just civilian purposes. World powers have set an end-of-year deadline for Iran to agree a U.N.-drafted deal to ship most of its low-enriched uranium abroad in exchange for fuel for a Tehran research reactor.

The turmoil has also set back tentative efforts toward a rapprochement between Iran and its longtime foe the United States instigated by U.S. President Barack Obama when he took office in January.

Ashura is one of the main Shi’ite holy days, when the faithful commemorate the slaying of the Prophet Mohammad’s grandson Hussein in Kerbala in present-day Iraq in 680 AD.

State television showed live footage of big crowds taking part in the nationwide rituals but did not mention any clashes.

A photographer said police took his press accreditation on Sunday for taking pictures of Ashura mourning rituals outside Tehran.

“Police deleted all the pictures I had with any sign of green,” the photographer said, referring to the symbolic color of the opposition movement.

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Clashes in Tehran Four Protesters killed was first posted on December 27, 2009 at 7:44 pm.

Turkish Military Chiefs Quizzed over Alleged Plot

ISTANBUL: Turkish prosecutors are questioning former chiefs of the army and air and naval forces over an alleged secularist plot to topple Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Islamic-oriented government.

The questioning of the retired commanders, including Army Chief Gen. Aytac Yalman, Air Force Chief Gen. Ibrahim Firtina and Navy Chief Adm. Ozden Ornek, on Saturday is expected to shed light on allegations of abandoned coup plots.

Several other military officers are already on trial for their alleged role. Some charges are based on excerpts from a diary in 2007 that is said to belong Ornek. The diary talks about coup plans that were abandoned, partly because of a lack of support from other commanders. Ornek denied he wrote the diary.

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Turkish Military Chiefs Quizzed over Alleged Plot was first posted on December 5, 2009 at 5:26 pm.

Salman Taseer Says Conditions Normal For Bye-Polls

LAHORE: Governor of Punjab Salman Taseer has said the government was taking all possible measures to ensure security adding that conditions were conducive for holding bye-elections in the province.

Talking to Jamat Islami leader Hafiz Salman Butt, Punjab governor said election of representatives is the fundamental right of the people and no democratic government could curtail that right.

Earlier, US diplomat Brian D’ Hunt also called on the governor. He assured full US cooperation for completion of the educational projects in Punjab.

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Salman Taseer Says Conditions Normal For Bye-Polls was first posted on October 3, 2009 at 5:54 pm.

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