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 will make it easy for a suicide bomber to get closer to the target. Khaliq Hazara has done nothing to offend the LeJ. The LeJ terrorists have never made an attempt to kill him because he has never reached out to the peaceful majority of non-Takfiri Muslims of Baluchistan against the LeJ. He suits the terrorists.

The fact is that the Shia genocide continues unabated. Like Quetta, there were bomb blasts in Karachi too targeting Shias. Fortunately, no one was killed, but the injured were Shias.

The governments in Islamabad and the provinces have been claiming to have taken strict measures to stop terrorism, but that is not what is happening. Terrorists can be stopped if and when the Army wishes to. But the Shias are an exception. The LeJ kills them at will and goes unpunished. The Takfiris have decided not to take a break from killing the Shias. Whereas they have started pre-poll rigging by targeting the leaders of the ANP and threatening to kill the PPP leaders if they take out political rallies, they have carried on their genocide of the Shias. The LeJ message is clear: The Shias will not be allowed to live a life which the constitution of Pakistan guarantees them. They will not be allowed even to vote in peace. The whole exercise of ‘peaceful’ election is futile. All claims about stopping the LeJ terrorists are bogus when it comes to the Shias. The state of Pakistan has capitulated to the Saudi Islamofascism which is being facilitated by the Army/ISI and executed by the LeJ. This is why, 55 ASWJ/LeJ terrorists have been allowed to take part in the elections which will choose ‘honest’ people!. -www.shafaqna.com/English

Source:abna

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 in 2007, one of three cases he is fighting in the courts since returning home last month after four years in self-imposed exile.

On Monday, Pakistan's caretaker government refused to put Musharraf on a separate trial for treason, telling the Supreme Court that it was beyond its mandate.

Security at the court was tight with journalists barred from entering. Armed police and paramilitary rangers stood alert and blocked all approaches, an AFP reporter said.

About 150 lawyers opposed to Musharraf shouted "dog, dog, Musharraf dog" while about two dozen of Musharraf's supporters chanted "Long live Musharraf".

He has been threatened with death by the Taliban and barred from running in next month's general election, a humiliating blow to the man who returned home promising to "save" Pakistan.

www.shafaqna.com/English

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 of devoting his decades-long career to fomenting an escalating campaign of gun attacks and suicide bombings targeting their community.
The prospect that he might win a place in the political mainstream at the May 11 vote horrifies Shi’ites who fear his presence in parliament will give him a much stronger platform to strike out at the sect.
And it looks like Ludhianvi may have a better shot than at the last election in 2008 when he came second. His main rival has been barred from the race and a Reuters visit to his constituency of Jhang, in the heart of populous Punjab province, found no shortage of supporters.
“I cannot bring any change if I am sitting as a layman outside parliament,” Ludhianvi, flanked by bodyguards, said in an interview. “If I get into parliament, everyone will be listening to what we want.”
As he toured Jhang, which served as the cradle of sectarian extremist groups in the 1980s, people in one village after another emerged from their homes to shower him with rose petals.
“If I get into parliament, I will be able to save this entire country from bloodshed,” said Ludhianvi, who wears a thick beard and an embroidered skull cap and projects a commanding presence.
The election is seen as a milestone for Pakistan’s fragile democracy, marking the first time a civilian government has completed a full term in a country which a long history of military meddling in politics.
Any triumph by Ludhianvi at the polls could be read as a sign that sectarianism — now seen as a top security threat — has made a troubling new in-road into the political sphere, which could further polarise the nuclear-armed country.
Ludhianvi was a leader of Sipah-e-Sahaba, a sectarian Sunni group which emerged in Jhang in the mid-1980s with the support of Pakistani intelligence and which has since been linked to hundreds of killings of Shi’ites. The group’s offshoot, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), evolved into one of Pakistan’s most feared militant groups and has claimed responsibility for many attacks on Shi’ites, including a series of bombings that killed almost 200 people in the southwestern city of Quetta this year.
Police in Karachi, the commercial capital, suspect LeJ or similar groups are behind a wave of gun attacks on Shi’ites.
Pakistan banned Sipah-e-Sahaba in 2001 under pressure from the United States to crack down on militancy but the group changed its name to Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamat, which Ludhianvi heads.

-www.shafaqna.com/English

Source:abna

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 his arrest in the judges' detention case today," Mohammad Amjad, secretary-general of Musharraf's All Pakistan Muslim League party, told Reuters.

Police made no immediate move to enforce the arrest order and Musharraf left the court flanked by his personal bodyguards for his farmhouse on the edge of Islamabad.

Police officer Ali Asghar said security personnel were deployed at the court building, but Musharraf's security team rushed him out and put him in a car before they could detain him.

Dozens of supporters gathered outside to denounce the decision, shouting "this is injustice," and "long live Musharraf" as senior members of Musharraf's political party swept inside the house for talks, an AFP reporter said.

Approach Supreme Court

A spokesman for Musharraf's All Pakistan Muslim League, said that the former president would appeal against the arrest order in the Supreme Court, but if the order was upheld, then he expected the authorities to put him under house arrest.

"Musharraf is composed and confident. We will go for an appeal in the Supreme Court today. If the court rejects our appeal, we will present ourselves to the law," APML spokesman Muhammad Amjad told AFP.

"I think if an arrest is necessary, the authorities will declare the farmhouse a sub-jail," he added.

The case is one of three against Musharraf in the Pakistani courts. He is also accused of conspiracy to murder opposition leader Benazir Bhutto in 2007 and over the death of a Baluch rebel leader during a military operation in 2006.

The Supreme Court is also hearing a separate petition from lawyers, demanding that Musharraf go on trial for treason for subverting the constitution by imposing emergency law in November 2007, a move which hastened his downfall.

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 Pakistani Taliban.

Election officials had barred Musharraf from running for the National Assembly earlier this week, effectively derailing his attempts to regain a place in politics by standing at the polls.

Pakistan's military has ruled the nation for more than half of its 66-year history, through coups or from behind the scenes. It sets foreign and security policy even when civilian administrations are in power.

www.shafaqna.com/English

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 Pakistani Taliban.

Election officials had barred Musharraf from running for the National Assembly earlier this week, effectively derailing his attempts to regain a place in politics.

Although Musharraf's legal battles have provided an electrifying sideshow in the election race, he commands scant popular support and the outcome of the drama is unlikely to have much impact on the final results.

Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the man Musharraf ousted in a coup in 1999, is seen as the frontrunner to win the premiership.

"Islamabad High Court has canceled Musharraf's bail and ordered his arrest in the judges' detention case today," Mohammad Amjad, secretary-general of Musharraf's All Pakistan Muslim League party, told Reuters.

Islamabad High Court 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. Critics said he acted unconstitutionally.

Police made no immediate move to enforce the arrest order and Musharraf left the court flanked by his personal bodyguards.

Various legal cases against Musharraf have been pending for several years but the proceedings have gathered pace since his return to the country, culminating in the arrest order.

Pakistan's military has ruled the nation for more than half of its 66-year history, through coups or from behind the scenes. It sets foreign and security policy even when civilian administrations are in power.

Pakistan's judiciary has, however, taken an increasingly assertive stance in recent years in confrontations with both the government and the army, and the move to issue an arrest order against a former army chief may rankle some in the military.

Some commentators believe it is unlikely Musharraf will arrested for any significant period since the military would be unlikely to tolerate such a humiliating spectacle for a retired general.

"It won't make any difference even if he is arrested - I don't think the military establishment would support any move against him," said Mehdi Hasan, a newspaper columnist.

Musharraf's decision to return has mystified many Pakistanis, with commentators questioning whether he misjudged the degree of popular support he might be able to muster.

The former army chief also faces charges of failing to provide adequate security for former prime minister Benazir Bhutto before she was assassinated in late 2007.

Musharraf also faces accusations in connection with the death of a separatist leader in the southwestern province of Baluchistan. He denies any wrongdoing. -www.shafaqna.com/English

Source:Reuters

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 and injured included women and children, and authorities transported them to a government hospital, an official said.

Abdul Haq, a senior bomb disposal expert told AFP that four to five kilogrammes of highly explosive material was used.

Bus driver Jehanghir Khan, who was not hurt, told reporters that the device had been planted under a seat.

"I didn't see any suspicious person. I don't know who planted this bomb. I was passing through the bazar of Matni when I suddenly heard the blast," he said.

Fresh military push

He said the blast damaged some shops nearby, as well as the bus.

"I was going to buy some milk when a huge blast took place. It was so powerful that it threw me back in my shop," Asad Khan, an 18-year-old shopkeeper in the market told AFP from his hospital bed.

The explosion occurred just hours after gunmen blew up the election offices of an independent candidate in the North Wazirstan tribal district fuelling concerns that violence will mar general elections on May 11.

An intelligence official in the city said the attack may be a reaction to a fresh military push in the Tirah valley of the Khyber tribal district, where the army has been fighting Taliban and Lashkar-e-Islam fighters.

Military officials said heavy fighting between Pakistani troops and fighters has killed 23 soldiers and 110 gunmen in Khyber this week.

Peshawar, capital of troubled Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province which borders Afghanistan, is one of Pakistan's most volatile regions and suffers deadly attacks almost on a monthly basis, many blamed on the Pakistani Taliban.

Earlier, this month dozens of gunmen attacked an electricity plant in the same region, killing seven people and disrupting power to 100,000 people overnight, officials say.

www.shafaqna.com/English

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has admitted that “a few” times his government allowed the United States to launch drone strikes inside the South Asian country.

In an interview with CNN broadcast on Thursday night, Musharraf said his government gave permission "only on a few occasions, when a target was absolutely isolated and [there was] no chance of collateral damage".

He stated that Islamabad and Washington discussed the drone operations at the military and intelligence level, and cleared only if "there was no time for our own [special operations task force] and military to act. That was… maybe two or three times only".

Musharraf added, "You couldn't delay action. These ups and downs kept going… it was a very fluid situation, a vicious enemy… mountains, inaccessible areas."

The former army general, who grabbed power in an October 1999 bloodless coup, stepped down in August 2008 as president of the country when his allies lost parliamentary elections in February 2008 and a new government threatened him with impeachment. A year later, he left the country.

Last month, the 69-year-old returned home after nearly four years of self-imposed exile in London and Dubai to run for the parliamentary elections, which are scheduled to be held on May 11.

On April 7, The New York Times also reported that Pakistan allowed the US to carry out assassination drone strikes on its soil following a secret deal between the two countries in 2004.

Islamabad has denied the report, calling it “baseless and a part of the propaganda to create confusion about the clear position of Pakistan on the matter.”

The Pakistani government has frequently voiced its opposition to US drone strikes, saying they violate the country’s sovereignty.

US officials refuse to publicly discuss any details of the covert program and the death toll from drone strikes remains a mystery.

According to the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism, in Pakistan alone 366 strikes have killed up to 3,581 people, with 884 being innocent civilians.

Washington uses assassination drones in several countries, claiming that they target “terrorists”. According to witnesses, however, the attacks have mostly led to massive civilian casualties.-www.shafaqna.com/English

Source: Press TV

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 bullets in his head and abdomen and died on the spot," Akhtar Hussain, a police official, told AFP news agency.

His father was not injured, but police said he was in "deep shock".

Islam was running for the Sindh provincial assembly in national and regional elections on May 11.

Second politician killed

The polls will mark the first democratic transition in Pakistan, which has been subject to extended periods of military rule.

Islam's death was the second such killing during Pakistan's election campaign. Adnan Qualti, a Pakistan People's Party candidate, was killed on April 2.

Pakistan's umbrella Taliban faction has directly threatened the main secular coalition partners in the outgoing government.

Aamir Latif, Karachi bureau chief of Online News Network, told Al Jazeera the Tehreek-i-Taliban, or the Pakistani Taliban, was turning its attention away from official military targets and was now targeting civilians in the run-up to the election.

The MQM said Islam had been targeted deliberately and accused "terrorists" of trying to sabotage a peaceful democratic process.

"The way he has been killed and his father remained unhurt shows the precision the killers have and also their intention to target him in particular," Wasay Jalil, MQM spokesman, said.

"Terrorists are threatening to sabotage elections ... but these terror acts will not deter us from taking part in elections and our stance against extremism and terrorism."

Deeply troubled cities

Hyderabad is the second largest city in Sindh after the port city of Karachi, which is deeply troubled by ethnic and political killings.

Latif told Al Jazeera the Pakistani Taliban had targeted candidates in the Karachi area and the northwest of the country to prove its presence in the region and show it had the power to disrupt the election campaign.

"They want to dispel any impression that they have gone weak in the wake of, and loss of, public sympathies and successful military operations in some of the tribal areas, which were earlier considered to be the strongholds of Taliban," he said.

Latif said that it would force the parties to run low-profile campaigns, but the Taliban's objective would fail because voters in Pakistan traditionally stayed loyal to their parties.

"Such kinds of tactics do not, will not, go in favour of the right-wing parties," he said.-www.shafaqna.com/English

Source: Al Jazeera

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – A trove of leaked classified reports has confirmed what many had suspected – US drone kills in Pakistan are not the precision strikes against top-level al-Qaeda terrorists they are portrayed as by the Obama administration.

Instead, many of the attacks are aimed at suspected low-level tribal militants, who may pose no direct danger to the United States – and for many there appears to be little evidence to justify the assassinations.

Top secret documents obtained by McClatchy newspapers in the US show the locations, identities and numbers of those attacked and killed in Pakistan in 2006-8 and 2010-11, as well as explanations for why the targets were picked.

The statistics illustrate the breadth of the US ‘drone doctrine’ – which has never been defined by consecutive US administrations. Between 1,990 and 3,308 people are reported to have been killed in the drone strikes in Pakistan since 2004, the vast majority of them during the Obama terms.

In the 12-month period up to 2011, 43 out of 95 drone strikes in the reports (which give an account of the vast majority of US operations in the country) were not aimed at al-Qaeda at all. And 265 out of 482 people killed in those assassinations, were defined internally as “extremists”.

Indeed, only six of the men killed – less than two percent – were senior al-Qaeda leaders.

Some of the groups include the Haqqani network and the Taliban Movement of Pakistan, both militant organizations, but ones the US did not designate as terrorists until 2012 and 2010 respectively. Neither one has ever conducted an attack on US soil.

It also confirms that attacks during the George W. Bush era, were conducted on targets picked by ISI, Pakistan’s security agency, which has no obligations to comply with US legal criteria.

Furthermore, in some cases it is difficult to confirm that the targets were militants at all.

In the strikes above, the internal reports showed that only one civilian had been killed. But the modus operandi revealed behind the strikes, shows that some of the attacks seem to have been based on the certain people or visitors being present as certain locations, or merely associating with those the US believes were terrorists. This chimes with the accusation that the US is carrying out a policy of “signature strikes” – attacks based on behavior, or “signature” that would be expected of a terrorist, rather than any specific illegal activity.

These “signatures” apparently include such suspicious behavior as taking part in a funeral procession or first responding to an initial drone strike. Last year, the United Nation’s special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, Ben Emmerson, said it’s believed that, “since President Obama took office, at least 50 civilians were killed in follow-up strikes when they had gone to help victims and more than 20 civilians have also been attacked in deliberate strikes on funerals and mourners.”

The US has previously refused to admit that it operates such a policy.

Some of the assassinations, such as that of, Mohammad, the younger brother of the leader of the Haqqani network, Badruddin, appear to have been simply errors, with the victims branded as terrorists only after the fact.

All this seems to go against the assurance of John Brennan, the former White House counterterrorism chief, and new CIA head, who is the mastermind behind the drone policy

“We only authorize a particular operation against a specific individual if we have a high degree of confidence that the individual being targeted is indeed the terrorist we are pursuing,” Brennan explained a year ago.

Obama’s administration has also said all targets are on a “list of active terrorists,” compiled with “extraordinary care and thoughtfulness”. Obama has also explicitly stated that drones should not carry out “speculative” killings.

But other than when ordering assassinations of US citizens, the President does not have to give full information to the Senate about the basis for any drone attack, much less give it a legal justification.

The latest revelations have unleashed a torrent of protest from experts who believe that the program is extra-judicial, violates Pakistan’s sovereignty, and is counter-productive in the long term.

“I have never seen nor am I aware of any rules of engagement that have been made public that govern the conduct of drone operations in Pakistan, or the identification of individuals and groups other than al Qaida and the Afghan Taliban,” Christopher Swift, a national security law expert from Georgetown University told McClatchy.

“We are doing this on a case-by-case, ad hoc basis, rather than a systematic or strategic basis.”

Micah Zenko, from the Council on Foreign Relations, a foreign policy think tank, went further, and accused the government of“misleading the public about the scope of who can legitimately be targeted.”

He added: “When there is such a disconnect between who the administration says it kills and who it actually kills, that hypocrisy itself is a very dangerous precedent that other countries will emulate.”

Last month Ben Emmerson, after a secret research trip to the country announced that drone strikes violate Pakistan's sovereignty.

Emmerson added that the Pakistani government conveyed to him that it does not consent to the attacks, something that is often challenged in Washington and fuels mass protests in Pakistan.

Drone strikes were first used after the 9/11 attacks from bases in Pakistan and Uzbekistan, in combat missions inside Afghanistan. More than a decade later, Washington has expanded the use of the remotely controlled aircraft into Yemen, Somalia and most of all Pakistan.

The US has carried out countless attacks on targets in northwest Pakistan since 2004 through the CIA’s Special Activities Division.  Begun by President George W. Bush, the intensity of the missions has increased under the presidency of Barack Obama.

Islamabad publicly condemns these attacks but is known to have shared intelligence with the US and allowed drones to operate from its territory until April 2011, when NATO forces killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in the Salala incident. WikiLeaks cables also revealed that Pakistan's Army Chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani sanctioned the flights and in 2008 even asked the CIA for more “Predator coverage.”

Ordinary Pakistanis have also repeatedly protested against these attacks as a violation of its sovereignty and because of immense civilian collateral damage, including the death dozens of women and children.-www.shafaqna.com/English

Source: RT

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –A Shia School teacher Syed Aijaz Hussain has been killed by Deobandi militants of Sipah-e-Sahaba on Saturday, April 06, 2013.

Martyr Syed Aijaz Hussain was targeted at Haji Mora Obhayal Pul by the armed terrorists.
About 6 members of martyr’s family have also been killed in past on account of Shia Genocide.
Shia community of Dera Ismail Khan has been facing huge threats by pro-Taliban terrorists but government and law enforcement agencies have failed to protect the citizens.
Deobandi militants kill Jaffer Hussain in Karachi
A Shia Muslim Syed Jaffar Hussain has been killed by Deobandi militants of Sipah-e-Sahaba on Saturday, April 06, 2013.
Martyr Jaffar Hussain was targeted in Orangi Town Rehmt Chowk area by armed militants of Sipah-eSahaba. He was rushed to hospital where he scummed to injuries.
Martyr was resident of Incholi area of Karachi.
Deobandi militants kill Shahriyar Kazmi in Karachi
Deobandi armed militants of Lashkar-e-Jhagvi  on Saturday shot martyred a Shia Muslim Syed Shahriyar Kazmi in Karachi.
According to the details, Syed Shahriyar Kazmi was gunned down by the terrorists of banned outfits of Lashkar-e-Jhagvi in Karachi’s Jaffar Tayyar area near Victoria Ground.
Martyr Shahriyar Kazmi was targetted early in the morning about 4:00 am.
The genocide of Shiite Muslims has been continued in Pakistan from last three decades but the government, armed forces and judiciary have failed to protect the Pakistani people and Shia Muslims from American-Saudi funded terrorists.-www.shafaqna.com/English

Source :abna