Pillion riding not allowed during Muharram in Lahore

Staff Report

LAHORE: Pillion riding during Muharram-ul-Haram has been banned in the city while army would be deployed to control the law and order situation.

Lahore CCPO Aslam Tareen, while talking to media persons on Wednesday, said that pillion riding is banned from first to 10th Muharram while children and women are exempted.

He also said that army would be deployed along with the police from 6th Muharram on sensitive locations.

Tareen said that the decision of the deployment of army and rangers has been taken for the protection of the general public. Trend Pk

U.S. to deploy tanks in Afghan war: report

WASHINGTON: The United States is sending battle tanks to Afghanistan for the first time in the nine-year-old war against the Taliban, the Washington Post reported on Friday.

Citing unnamed U.S. officers and defense officials, the paper said General David Petraeus, commander of the U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, approved the deployment last month.

“The deployment of a company of M1 Abrams tanks, which will be fielded by the Marines in the country’s southwest, will allow ground forces to target insurgents from a greater distance, and with more of a lethal punch, than is possible from any other U.S. military vehicle,” the Post said.

The initial deployment calls for 16 tanks to be used in parts of Helmand province, where fighting rages between Marines and Taliban guerrillas, the paper said.

It said Canadian and Danish troops have used a

Zardari vows to establish peace in Karachi at any cost

President Asif Ali Zardari has said that peace would be restored in Karachi at any cost. He ordered the Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik and Provincial Interior Minister (Sindh) Dr. Zulfiqar Mirza to take stern action against the miscreants without any discrimination. He also sought an explanation from Nabeel Gabol on his demand for army deployment in Karachi.
Taking notice of the disturbed situation of Karachi, President Zardari summoned Rehman Malik and Zulfiqar Mirza and ordered them to arrest the culprits responsible for target-killings and to bring them to justice so as to make it sure that no one dares to disturb the peace of the city in future.
President also sought an explanation from Nabeel Gabol on his last nights statement demanding deployment of army personnel for establishing peace in the City of Lights. On the other hand Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has rejected the rumors of army deployment in Karachi.

Conditions will set pace of Afghan pullout: Obama

WASHINGTON: The pace of a US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan will be determined by the conditions on the ground, US President Barack Obama said Tuesday in a landmark address to the nation.

As Obama formally declared an end to the US combat mission in Iraq, he vowed American forces fighting a Taliban and Al-Qaeda insurgency in Afghanistan would begin “a transition to Afghan responsibility.”

Amid growing unrest in Afghanistan, the US commander-in-chief reaffirmed US forces would begin handing over to Afghan forces next year, but appeared to temper an earlier pledge that a troop withdrawal would start in 2011.

“Next August we will begin a transition to Afghan responsibility,” Obama said in his Oval Office address, although the prepared remarks released by the White House ahead of the speech initially referred to “next July.”

He warned: “The pace of our troop reductions will be determined by conditions on the ground, and our support for Afghanistan will endure.”

“But make no mistake: this transition will begin because open-ended war serves neither our interests nor the Afghan people”s.”

There are fewer than 50,000 troops in Iraq now, as Obama switches his focus to hunting down Al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In a major speech in December unveiling a new fast-track war strategy, Obama announced he was pouring 30,000 more troops in Afghanistan, as he groped for an exit from a conflict seen by many as a Vietnam-style quagmire.

But Obama also told cadets at the West Point military academy that the American forces would start coming home from Afghanistan in July 2011.

“Within Afghanistan, I have ordered the deployment of additional troops who — under the command of General David Petraeus — are fighting to break the Taliban”s momentum,” Obama said Tuesday.

“As with the surge in Iraq, these forces will be in place for a limited time to provide space for the Afghans to build their capacity and secure their own future.”

US troops will begin training and advising Afghan security forces with the aim of handing over responsibility for defense matters.

“But as was the case in Iraq, we cannot do for Afghans what they must ultimately do for themselves,” Obama said.

Mexico drug violence, 17 killed

ACAPULCO: Drug-related violence left 17 people dead Saturday in Mexico’s southern Guerrero state, including four people who were decapitated, authorities said.

Five police officers were shot to death by a lone gunman in Tulchingo, near Acapulco, the officials said. One more lawman died later of wounds.

Five more bodies, including two decapitated ones, were found in the Native American village of Tres Palos, west of the resort.

Meanwhile, four civilians were also found dead in and around Acapulco.

In addition, two bodies of decapitated men were found overnight on Scenic Avenue in downtown Acapulco, officials said.

The states of Guerrero and neighboring Michoacan are largely under the control of the vicious “La Familia” drug cartel, one of the most powerful trafficking groups in the country.

Rival drug cartels are fighting deadly battles over lucrative drug routes to the north into the United States.

Drug-related crime has left more than 15,000 dead in the past three years in Mexico, despite a nationwide clampdown on the growing violence involving the deployment of some 50,000 government troops.

Stop Army Operation Against Taliban: Fazalur Rehman

Pakistan News: JUI Chief Maulana Fazalur Rehman has called upon the Supreme Court to form a judicial commission to figure out the reasons behind the army offensive, saying that the army is killing its own people.
Addressing a joint press conference with former JI chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed, he said the opposition was supporting the government, adding that the Kashmir issue was being neglected while the problems were also being enhanced at the eastern border. He observed that the president enjoyed immunity. He maintained that Taliban were deliberately cornered during the London Conference and called to immediately stop the operation in the country and initiate talks with the Taliban.

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Stop Army Operation Against Taliban: Fazalur Rehman was first posted on January 31, 2010 at 6:14 pm.

Foolproof Security For Chehlum Processions: CCPO Waseem Ahmed

Karachi, Pakistan News: CCPO Karachi Waseem Ahmed has said that foolproof security measures would be taken for the processions on the eve of Chehlum of Hazrat Imam Hussain.
Presiding over a security meeting at Karachi Arts Council, Waseem said that the routes of the processions would be taken over 24-hours ahead, while the cops would be given special passes before their deployment in the processions. Waseem said that distribution of Niaz in boxes would not be allowed.

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Foolproof Security For Chehlum Processions: CCPO Waseem Ahmed was first posted on January 31, 2010 at 6:33 pm.