SC Orders Prisoners-relatives Meeting

ISLAMABAD, News Trends: The Supreme Court (SC) today ordered the counsel for the intelligence agencies to arrange a meeting between the eleven prisoners and their relatives after it was known that they have been under the custody of intelligence agencies.

Later, the hearing was adjourned till first week of January 2011.

A counsel for country’s sensitive agency on Thursday apprised the apex court that eleven missing prisoners of Adyala Jail had been arrested along with a number of terrorists from their hideouts in Army operational areas.

Raja Muhammad Irshad, counsel for Federation, Pakistan Army, Inter-Services Intelligence, Intelligence Bureau, Military Intelligence, told a three-member bench consisting of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Ghulam Rabbani and Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday that after Court’s direction a massive operation was launched and more than 20 terrorists including these eleven people had been arrested in the operational areas.

He said they were in safe and secure hands and would be charged under Army Act. He assured the court that their trial would be held in General Field Court Martial in accordance with law.

Senior al Qaeda operative killed in missile strike

MIRANSHAH: A senior al Qaeda leader, Shaikh al-Fateh, isbelieved to have been killed in a suspected U.S. drone strike in a Pakistani tribal region on the Afghan border this week, intelligence officials said on Tuesday.

Al-Fateh was travelling through North Waziristan, a region known as a hotbed of al Qaeda and Taliban militants, when his vehicle was hit by a missile on Sept. 26, an intelligence official said.

“Four Arabs were travelling in that vehicle and Shaikh al-Fateh was one of them,” the official said only identifying him as an “important al Qaeda” leader.

According to LongWarJournal.org, which tracks militant groups in Pakistan and Afghanistan, al-Fateh — also possibly known as Shaikh Fateh al-Masri — is the operational commander for al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan, having taken over from Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, who was killed in a drone attack in

Clashes in Kyrgyzstan leave seven dead

BISHKEK: Ethnic violence overnight in southern Kyrgyzstan, once the stronghold of ousted president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, has left seven people dead and around 50 injured, the government announced Friday.

An earlier health ministry statement said the violence had left three people dead and 46 in hospital, of whom five were in a serious condition.

“Seven people have been killed and about 50 injured,” interim government spokesman Azimbek Beknazarov told national radio in updating the toll.

The violence had clearly been inter-ethnic and well organised, Beknazarov added, after having visited the city. And exchanges of fire continued even after a curfew was declared. Police in the city were still discovering bodies, said Beknazarov.

Afghan mission relates to Britain’s security

HILMAND: British Prime Minister David Cameron told troops on Friday they were not in Afghanistan for a “dreamy idea” or to build a model society, and pledged they would leave once Afghans could defend themselves.

On his first trip as prime minister to meet British troops in southern Afghanistan, Cameron said the new coalition he heads had a clear mission defending Britain”s national security from the threat of attack by al Qaeda.

He pledged to give the 9,500 British troops serving in Afghanistan, who have taken part in some of the fiercest fighting against Taliban insurgents, the equipment they needed.

Cameron, who formed a coalition of centre-rightConservatives and centre-left Liberals after the May 6election, said the operational allowance soldiers receive while on active service in Afghanistan would be doubled.

“We are not here to build the perfect democracy. We are no there to build some perfect model society. We are here to help the Afghans take control of their security so we can go home,” Cameron told about 400 British troops gathered on a dusty, sandstorm-swept parade ground at the Camp Bastion base in southern Afghanistan.

“I can sum up this mission in two words: It is about national security, our national security in the UK. We don”t have some dreamy ideas about what this mission is about,” Cameron said. “Just as soon as we have trained up that Afghan security we can go home with our heads held high.”

US says wants more from Pakistan

KANSAS CITY: The United States wants and expects more from Pakistan in the fight against insurgents and is ready to offer additional assistance if Islamabad asks, two senior Obama administration officials said on Friday.

“We”ve gotten more cooperation and it”s been a real sea change in the commitment we”ve seen from the Pakistan government. (But) we want more. We expect more,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told CBS” “60 Minutes” in an interview, excerpts of which were released on Friday.

She added that Washington had also warned of “severe consequences” if a successful attack in America were traced back to Pakistan. She did not elaborate.

Investigations into the Pakistani-American suspect in last Saturday”s failed bombing attempt in New York”s Times Square have uncovered possible links to the Pakistani Taliban and a Kashmiri Islamist group.

That has prompted speculation the United States, Pakistan”s top provider of aid, could press Islamabad to open risky new fronts against Islamic militants.

But Defense Secretary Robert Gates, speaking to reporters on a trip to Kansas, appeared to play down the chances of an expanded Pakistani crackdown on insurgents.

He pointed to the strain on security forces already battling militants in tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.

“With their military operations in the west, they”ve started to be pretty thinly stretched themselves, as well as taking a substantial number of casualties,” Gates said.

The United States was ready to step up assistance to Pakistan, he said.

“We”re willing to do as much … as they are willing to accept,” Gates said. “We are prepared to do training, and exercise with them. How big that operation becomes is really up to them.”

Citing anti-American sentiment in Pakistan, Gates added, “They (Pakistani leaders) are also very interested in keeping our footprints as small as possible, at least for now.”

President Barack Obama”s administration has repeatedly praised Pakistani military operations over the past year, including the recent capture in Pakistan of the Afghan Taliban”s No. 2, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.

Clinton said it marked an improvement from the “double game going on in the previous years, where we got a lot of lip service but very little produced.”

“We have seen the killing or capturing of a great number of the leadership of significant terrorist groups and we”re going (to) continue that,” she said.

The United States, which sees Pakistan”s effort against militants as crucial to its fight against the Taliban in Afghanistan, has about 200 military personnel in Pakistan, including Special Operations forces on a training mission.

The CIA is also waging a covert war using pilotless drone aircraft to target insurgents in Pakistan.

“I think cooperation has continued to (improve), the relationship is continuing to improve, and I think we just keep moving in that direction,” Gates said.

A White House official said the United States had been working with Pakistan and would keep assisting a Pakistani offensive to root out the Taliban.

“We”ve been working on the other side of the border, of course, with Pakistan in developing a strong partnership in which they have gone on the offensive — the largest offensive they”ve undertaken in some years — in order to root out extremists within their borders, including the Taliban,” deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters.

Quetta fire still raging after 16 hours

QUETTA: Fire fighters are still trying to bring fire under control erupted in a shopping mall in Quetta on Friday evening.

A fire has been broke out in City shopping center that gutted more than 100 shops of cloths, garments, cosmetics and electronics. Fire was extinguished briefly at 10:00 pm but once again erupted. Fire tenders are trying to douse. Police sources said fire was erupted due to short circuit.

Gilani seeks exemption from NSG

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Saturday conducted successful training launches of Short Range Ballistic Missile Hatf-III (GHAZNAVI), and Medium Range Ballistic Missile Hatf-IV (SHAHEEN 1).

The two separately conducted launches of the missiles were carried out at the conclusion of the annual field training exercises of Army Strategic Force Command (ASFC) aiming at testing the operational readiness of Strategic Missile Groups equipped with Ghaznavi and Shaheen Missile Systems, ISPR stated in a press release here. Both missiles can carry conventional as well as nuclear warheads to respective ranges up to 290 kilometers and 650 kilometers.

The field launches of the ASFC were witnessed by Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani, Chairman Joint Chief of Staff Committee General Tariq Majid, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Noman Bashir, Director General Strategic Plans Division, Lieutenant General Kahlid Ahmed Kidwai and other senior military officials.

Addressing the troops in the exercise area, the Prime Minister congratulated them on displaying a high standard of proficiency in handling and operating the state of the art weapon systems.

He said that the nation had developed a strong nuclear deterrence capability and expected that the officers and men entrusted with the task of deterring aggression would continue to train hard and maintain professional excellence.

He said that Pakistan’s Armed Forces were fully capable of safeguarding Pakistan,s security against all kinds of aggression and assured that his Government will continue to support the strategic program and meet all its needs.

The Prime Minster said that there is now a need for the world to move on beyond safety and security concerns.”These were laid to rest at the Nuclear Security Summit where Pakistan forcefully projected here forthright stance on the issue and the world expressed satisfaction at Pakistan’s nuclear security arrangements”, he said.

He emphasized that it is time for the world to recognize Pakistan as a dejure nuclear power with equal rights and responsibilities. He demanded that Pakistan be given a Nuclear Supplier Group (NSG) waiver for civil nuclear energy cooperation as energy is a vital economic security need of Pakistan and nuclear energy is a clean way forward.

“Pakistan is capable of providing nuclear fuel cycle services, under IAEA safeguards, and this offer was also made at the Nuclear Security Summit”, the Prime Minister said.

At least 10 dead in China workers” dorm fire

BEIJING: At least 10 people have been killed in a fire at a dormitory for railway workers in China”s Inner Mongolia region, the state news agency reported Tuesday, citing local firefighters.

Fourteen people were injured and taken to hospital in the fire, which broke out in the regional capital Hohhot late Monday, the agency said in a brief dispatch. Six of them suffered serious burns, it said. The blaze was quickly brought under control, the report said, adding that an investigation had been launched.The workers had been building a railway tunnel in the area.

US naval power threatened by new weapons: Gates

WASHINGTON: Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Monday said new weapons threatened US dominance of the high seas and questioned the US Navy”s reliance on costly aircraft carriers and submarines.

“We know other nations are working on asymmetric ways to thwart the reach and striking power of the US battle fleet,” Gates said.

The US military”s “virtual monopoly” in precision guided weapons was “eroding” and the spread of missiles jeopardized Washington”s means of “projecting power,” he said.

More sophisticated submarines that are more difficult to track along with other underwater weapons “could end the operational sanctuary our navy has enjoyed in the Western Pacific for the better part of six decades.”

The new “anti-access” weapons could potentially render America”s costliest vessels obsolete, with vast sums of money devoted to “wasting assets,” he said.

“Our navy has to be designed for new challenges, new technologies, and new missions — because another one of history”s hard lessons is that, when it comes to military capabilities, those who fail to adapt often fail to survive,” he said.

Pakistan gets 2nd AEW&C jet from Sweden

ISLAMABAD: The second Saab-2000 AEWC (Airborne Early Warning and Control System) aircraft, purchased by Pakistan, finally arrived in the country on Saturday.

The first such aircraft of the originally four contracted by Pakistan was acquired in December last year, while the second aircraft yesterday landed safely at an Operational Base of the PAF.

PAF sources have informed that this new entry would soon be inducted formally in PAF squadron, while remaining two would also be handed over to Pakistan soon.

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