SHAFAQNA

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –Yesterday’s suicide bomb blast near Alamdar Road in Quetta killed eight men including two security personnel. The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) has once again proudly owned up to its misdeed. Khaliq Hazara’s supporters were too quick to say that he was the target. But this is not true. The explosives used for the bombing were 100 kg. For a suicide bomber to kill just one person, 5 kilos of explosives will be enough. Such a light load…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –A car bomb targeting a Pakistani Shia politician has killed six and injured 37 others in the southwestern province of Balochistan, police says. The attack, which took place in Quetta on Tuesday, aimed at Abdul Khaliq Hazara, the leader of Pakistan's Hazara Democratic Party, who escaped unharmed, said police officer Fiyaz Sumbal, the Associated Press reported. The victims were paramilitary soldiers, and passers-by. The attacker had attempted to drive his vehicle into Hazara Town in…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) Pakistan's former military ruler Pervez Musharraf has appeared before an anti-terrorism court over the murder of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, officials said. Musharraf was driven to the court on Tuesday in Rawalpindi from his plush villa on the outskirts of Islamabad where he is serving a two-week arrest order for other charges dating back to his 1999-2008 rule. Musharraf faces charges of conspiracy to murder Bhutto, who died in a gun and suicide attack…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –When Maulana Ahmed Ludhianvi greets supporters on the Pakistan election trail, he opens his pitch with the kind of promises to the poor that any other politician might make. But behind the reassuring rhetoric lies what his opponents believe is a dangerous agenda — to gain a foothold in Parliament and further his designs to oppress Pakistan’s Shia minority. Ludhianvi, a radical anti-Shia Sunni (Wahhabi) cleric, is a hate figure for Shi’ites who accuse him…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) A Pakistani court has ordered the arrest of former president Pervez Musharraf in connection with charges relating to his clash with the judiciary in 2007 when he was still in power, his spokesperson has said. Islamabad High Court on Thursday ordered Musharraf be detained in connection with allegations that he committed treason when he sacked senior judges and declared emergency rule as he struggled to hold on to power. "Islamabad High Court has cancelled Musharraf's bail and ordered…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –A Pakistani court ordered the arrest of former president Pervez Musharraf on Thursday in connection with charges relating to his showdown with the judiciary in 2007 when he was still in power, television channels and one of his aides said. The former army chief returned to Pakistan last month after nearly four years of self-imposed exile to contest a May 11 general election, despite the possibility of arrest on various charges and death threats from the…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) Pakistani troops have mobilised to help the victims of an earthquake centred in nearby Iran that killed at least 34 people, as the United States offered help to both nations. The epicentre of Tuesday's magnitude 7.8 quake lay in southeast Iran, but most of the deaths reported so far have been across the border in Pakistan's province of Baluchistan, where hundreds of mud-built homes suffered damage. Iran's Mehr News Agency reported one death and five injuries…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- At least four Pakistanis have been killed in a roadside bomb attack that struck an election convoy of the main opposition party, the Pakistan Muslim League-N, in southwestern Balochistan Province. The attack was carried out on Tuesday in Khuzdar district, some 350 kilometers (220 miles) south of provincial capital Quetta.  According to authorities, Sanaullah Zehri, the head of the Pakistan Muslim League-N in Balochistan Province, was heading a convoy of vehicles to address an election…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) At least nine people have been killed and seven others wounded after a bomb exploded on a bus in Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar, officials say. Fazal Wahid Khan, a senior police officer, confirmed the toll to the AFP news agency, saying bomb disposal officials told him that Saturday's blast was a "timed device". Shafi Ullah Khan, another police official, confirmed the attack in the city's Matani suburb for which no one has claimed responsibility so far. The dead…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Taliban gunmen on a motorcycle killed a grocer running in Pakistan's upcoming elections, officials say. Pakistan's umbrella Taliban faction claimed responsibility for killing Fakhrul Islam, 46, a candidate for the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), a coalition partner in the outgoing government, on Thursday. Police said Islam was killed by assailants on two motorcycles when he left the shop that he owned with his father in Hyderabad city in southern Sindh province. "He sustained four…