Sectarian Attack In Murree

[Wasif Rashid]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/2173184.stm

[Daniyal]

A truly shameful and deplorable act, which makes it more urgent upon the overnment to carry on racking down hard on those that carry out such murderous acts.

[osman]

After this i wont blame the foreigners for fleeing from pakistan like rats. who ever did this deserves to be punished and made an example for all potential terrorists. Enough is enough.

[Waqqas]

This was not a sectarian attack but a pure terrorist attack aimed at maligning and destabilizing Pakistan.

There are some local extremist elements who can be behind this. Also, we have to remember that foreign agents have permeated into Pakistani religous and political parties and this could be their work.

The two guards who were martyred deserve the highest possible praise for averting a much worse outcome of this tragedy. The government should make sure to take care of the families of these brave people.

[MohammedA]

These evil scum should be hunted down anywhere in the world and taken care of. Plus their parties infrastructure and leadership should be targetted and taken care of. Good to see increasing recent captures and killings of these extremist scum by police and military intelligence.



Telegraph.co.uk

Six shot dead at Christian school
By David Blair in Murree
(Filed: 06/08/2002)


Dried blood covering a sentry post showed where a Pakistani guard died yesterday trying to protect British children in a Christian school from gunmen who killed six people.

Four Islamic militants with AK-47 assault rifles attacked the Murree Christian School 35 miles north-east of Islamabad, where 25 of the 150 children are British.

Their carefully planned assault was launched at 11am on the eighth day of term when the classrooms were filled with the children of Protestant missionaries.

All but a handful of the children, aged between six and 18, were from Europe or the United States. 30 were American. Of the 35 teachers at the school, 12 Britons formed the largest single national group, followed by five Americans.

The attack was the second aimed at a Christian target this year and the worst since 16 people were killed in Bahawalpur last October.

The gunmen did not kill or injure a single foreigner in Murree Christian School. All of the dead were Pakistanis and four were Muslims. Five Pakistanis were wounded.

Abdul Rehman, 35, a carpenter at the school, was killed trying to escape from the gunmen. He leaves a wife, Fozia, a son of two and a baby girl. His brother, Mohammed Rubban, 38, stood outside the mortuary in the town of Murree yesterday waiting for his body to be released.

He said: "He had no enemies here. None of us should have enemies here. We have one God, whether we are Christians or Muslims."

Hundreds of armed police and paramilitary troops searched the surrounding heavily wooded hills for the gunmen. Supt Syed Maravet, the senior police officer in Murree, said the men were clean-shaven and dressed in tracksuits. They hid their weapons in sports bags.

Dressed to avoid suspicion, they walked to the school's red iron gate, topped with green spikes. Mohammed Rafique, a security guard in his fifties, was on duty at the entrance and challenged them. The men produced their rifles and shot him dead.

Then they entered the grounds of the school. Javed Masih, a school receptionist, ran out of the old garrison chapel, now used as an assembly hall. He was killed immediately.

Russell Morton, director of the school, which has eight guards, heard the shooting from inside the high school block. "My first action was to secure the entrance of the high school," he said.

"I didn't see the attackers, I just heard the shooting. It was heavy calibre fire and went on for about 15 minutes."

A police constable on guard duty opened fire and wounded one gunman. Afterwards the attackers appeared to panic. They ran past the old chapel, up a short flight of stairs, through another gate and towards the three-storey high school.

Scores of children lay under their desks inside the classrooms while the gunmen fired at random outside. They killed Zahoor Elahi, another security guard, and ran on to the elementary school building.

Although children were hiding in the classrooms the gunmen did not pause. Instead they approached an adjacent building used as a hostel for the handful of children who board. They directed heavy fire at the building, apparently failing to notice that it was empty.

Then they escaped by climbing the wall at the rear of the school. Outside they encountered Mukhtar Jangua, who was passing. The gunmen shot him dead. During their rampage they had also killed Baber Masih, one of the school cooks.

Supt Maravet said the policeman who opened fire saved many lives. "Their objective was to kill foreign children and anyone else they came across," he said. "If our constable had not returned fire the killing would have been much worse."

The gunmen left a message in a discarded bag. Supt Maravet said it "showed resentment against measures taken by the world powers". Part of the note read: "The Muslims are suffering the world over."

Britain and America advised all their citizens to leave Pakistan in June. Diplomatic families and all non-essential staff were evacuated in May. Yet the British and American children remained at the school.

Asked why official advice was ignored, Mr Morton said: "The commitment of the missionary community is to continue to work in Pakistan and not to respond to non-specific threats.

"The decision on whether or not to keep children at the school has been up to parents. The parents knew the risks."

All pupils have been sent home and the school board will meet today to decide its future.

[MohammedA]

They have been taken care of........



BBC.co.uk

'Suicides' after Pakistan school raid


At least six people died in Monday's attack

Police in Pakistan say three men suspected of attacking a Christian school on Monday have committed suicide.
The three blew themselves up in a village in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, some 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the school.

Officers said the suspects were challenged by police after a hand grenade was recovered from one of them; they rushed towards a nearby river and killed themselves with other explosives.

At least six people were killed when four gunmen fought their way into the Murree Christian School complex in the hills near Islamabad on Monday.




Pakistan attacks:

14 June - bomb outside US Karachi mission kills 11

8 May - Karachi bus blast kills 15

17 March - five killed in Islamabad church grenade blast

October 2001 - 18 killed in Punjab church attack

Pakistan's Islamic militants




The gunmen - who the government says were Islamic militants - opened fire indiscriminately, but were chased off after a gun battle with security guards.

Pakistan has condemned the attack as a "cowardly act of terrorism".

Correspondents say that because the school has mainly foreign staff and students, the attack appears to have been aimed at Western interests, rather than Pakistan's Christian minority.

Previous attacks on foreign interests in Pakistan have been blamed on Islamic militants angry at Islamabad's support for the US-led war on terror.

'Al-Qaeda link'

About 150 children, almost all of them foreigners, study at Murree, which is about 70 km (40 miles) north-east of the capital.

The school is reported to be considering whether it should remain open.


The attack is the third on a Christian target in Pakistan since President Pervez Musharraf joined the US-led campaign against al-Qaeda and the Taleban last autumn.

Police found a note left at the scene claiming the attack was in revenge for the ill-treatment of Muslims in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

The note was reportedly sent by a previously unknown group called al-Intiqami al-Pakistani (Revenge of the Pakistanis).

Islamic groups are also accused of carrying out two bomb attacks on foreign targets in the southern city of Karachi since March, killing 26 people.

The authorities suspect most of these attacks have been carried out either by members of al-Qaeda or their supporters in Pakistan.

[osman]

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/07/in...ia/07STAN.html

[Saad Hasan]

'Three dead' in Pakistan attack


Police are searching for clues to the Murree attack

Three nurses have been killed in a grenade attack on a missionary hospital in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, according to local officials.
Many people are reported to be injured, and one of the suspected attackers is also reported to be dead.

"The nurses were coming out of the chapel when someone threw explosives," Clement Bakhshi, an accounts officer at the hospital in Taxila, near the capital Islamabad. told Reuters news agency.

The attack comes four days after six Pakistanis were killed in an attack on a Christian missionary school in the town of Murree, also near Islamabad.

In the Murree attack, three gunmen, who the government says were Islamic militants, opened fire indiscriminately but were chased off after a gun battle with security guards. According to police, two Pakistani guards were killed along with a receptionist, a cook, a carpenter and a bystander. Four people were also wounded, but no pupils were among the casualties.

On Wednesday, the police announced that the three gunmen killed themselves in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

Bravery praised

Witnesses say the security guards averted a bloodbath by stopping the gunmen from entering a classroom full of children.




Pakistan attacks:

14 June - bomb outside US Karachi mission kills 11

8 May - Karachi bus blast kills 15

17 March - five killed in Islamabad church grenade blast

October 2001 - 18 killed in Punjab church attack

Pakistan's Islamic militants




"The terrorists attacked because Pakistan is waging a war against terrorism," Interior Minister Nissar Memon was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying.

"The victims of this attack were very brave and innocent persons. They laid down their lives in defence of the country."

Correspondents say that because the school had mainly foreign staff and students, the attack appeared to have been aimed at Western interests, rather than Pakistan's Christian minority.

Previous attacks on foreign interests in Pakistan have been blamed on Islamic militants angry at Islamabad's support for the US-led war on terror.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said it was a "deliberate attack on foreigners".

He urged Australians living in Pakistan to leave, as many other foreigners have done.

"The fact is this underlines the delicate state of security in Pakistan," he told Australian television.

[nausherwan]

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Musharaf's policies coming home to roost
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

you can't blame Musharraf for the ills of our previous rulers. Zia, BB, Nawaz, Musharraf all are to be blamed for all this mess.

These scum have declared open war on the nation and its now time for everyone of us to fight this battle. Its time to unleash the might of 140 million people.

[MohammedA]

I'm afraid there will be many more of these attacks. Even countries with advanced police forces, intelligence and resources compared to Pakistan cannot prevent every attack from occurring. Foreigners and Pakistani Christians will understandably be very worried and even leave, but the govt and people must stand upto these evil scum.


Jang.com.pk

Fighting terrorism: with grit and gumption



Shafqat Mahmood

The writer is a former Senator and a

former federal and provincial minister

smahmood@lhr.comsats.net.pk

Our international image took another battering last week with the attack on a mission school in Murree. The surprise is not the event itself but the fact that we were not prepared for it. This school was an obvious target. Its students are all foreigners, most of them from western countries. We know that terrorists have been targeting white people, whatever the country of their origin. We should have done a better job of protecting them. There is nothing more absurd then images of gun-toting soldiers and sandbags after the deed has been done. We need to anticipate and tighten security before anything happens. This, for some strange reason, we are seldom able to do.

It is a stroke of luck that the perpetrators of this crime were accosted and forced to take the ultimate step of killing themselves. It just shows how determined, and well trained, these people are. The police deserve credit for this but a lot more has to be done. There is not much to go on except one dead terrorist. The others besides blowing themselves up also ensured that their bodies were not found by jumping into the fast flowing River Jehlum. The challenge would be to identify this body correctly and then pick up a thread that leads to the masterminds, the real planners of such atrocities.

It is about time that we improved our systems, modernised them, and trained our police to work with new technologies. The threat of terrorism is likely to remain for sometime. We need to get organised in order to combat it. Ad hoc measures will not do. Neither will disjoined efforts at the provincial or the district level. There should be a terrorism task force within the FIA headed by a senior police officer that should exclusively deal with this problem. Similar outfits should be set up at provincial level, and in some key districts, that should work with the federal task force or perhaps under it to ensure a single unified effort.

We also need to create a finger print data base and network it so that when someone is caught, dead or alive, it give us a better chance to identify him or her. Everyone who applies for an identity card or a passport gives a thumb impression on the application. All these thumb impressions need to be a part of this database. It is not going to be easy and it is a gigantic task and would require lots of money and a great deal of manpower. But the threat we are facing is not simple and these terror attacks are just the beginning of a long drawn out struggle. We have to be prepared for it. There is little choice in the matter.

We also need to pay attention to all those others things that we hear the police use in western countries. Things like forensics, or laboratory analysis. I am no professional in these matters and my knowledge is largely based on movies or mystery novels, but clearly, the police in these countries rely heavily on modern technology. If we can spend billions of dollars on developing atomic weapons that have yet to provide us real security, we might as well start spending something on appropriate science to fight terrorism.

We also need to change the direction of our intelligence agencies. Too many of them waste their resources and energy in gathering useless intelligence on political people or blatantly interfering in the political process. Governments use them for this purpose because their main preoccupation is staying in power. This is a false assumption. No intelligence agency has kept a government in power. At best, they can pick up some tit bits which may help a ruler to know what his or her opponents are thinking. They cannot stop change, if change is inevitable. They can initiate a process or nudge things along but that is about it. They cannot change the substance of a situation.

It would be far better for the country if the intelligence agencies start focusing their energy in fighting terrorism. Their principal task should be to penetrate radical groups and identify potential terrorists. All modern gadgets such as phone taps, or eavesdropping techniques should be targeted on such groups. If this is done seriously, a pattern might emerge which would help in forestalling potential acts of terror. This would be a real service to the country and whatever investment is made in such agencies would then be justified.

We need to recognise that acts of terror are having a devastating impact on our economy and on our society. We often say this but do we really deeply understand it? If we did, we would be doing something about it but so far, it has just been words. Senior functionaries visit the sight of the crime, mouth appropriate inanities and that is it -- until the next time. It may be stating the obvious but we are really hurting because of these acts of terror.

Our foreign trade is suffering badly because foreign buyers are reluctant to come here. Even the World Bank and the IMF have cancelled their latest missions. To say the least, no one is willing to invest here and that is not only true of foreigners. Our society is going into a siege mentality or selective amnesia. Some people are making elaborate preparations to protect themselves. Others are in that strange state where danger is consigned to an unreachable part of the mind. If it does not happen to me than it does not happen, is the attitude. This cannot go on. Fear has begun to take its toll. Every public place is now a place of danger. Every foray into the open, a cause for worry. The normal flow of life has begun to disrupt.

One sign of this is the reluctance of foreign teams to come and play sports in Pakistan. In some ways, nothing gives a greater sign of normalcy than foreign sportsmen and women playing on our soil. This is now increasingly a question mark. It is absurd for us to insist that the Australian Cricket team should come and play test matches over here. Imagine the risk and the devastating consequences if something were to happen. Every moment that they spend here would be stressful. Not just for the government but also for cricket lovers who would be worried about something nasty happening to them.

It is not worth the heartache or the effort. We need to put our house in order and in the meantime play cricket or other sports in safer places. This will have a financial impact and more importantly hurt our pride. But it is better to be safe than sorry. It is better to have empty coffers than live with the ignominy of a tragedy. Let us not push the Australians too far and then get angry if they say no. It is better to work on alternate solutions than sever our links with the sporting world.

There are many serious problems in this country and fighting terror may not figure high in our priorities but it should. We not only need better resolve but also, in crude terms, put money where our mouth is. We need to invest a part of our meagre resources in making our country a safe and a secure place. Once we have achieved this, other good things will follow.

[MohammedA]

Nurses killed in Pakistan attack


The attack left the hospital chapel in disarray

Unidentified attackers have hurled grenades at a missionary hospital near Islamabad, killing three nurses.
One of the suspected assailants was killed in the attack and about 20 people were injured. It is the second attack against a Christian target in Pakistan in less than a week.


The incident happened on the grounds of the Christian hospital in Taxila, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) north-west of Islamabad.

"The nurses were coming out of the chapel when someone threw explosives," Clement Bakhshi, an accounts officer at the hospital, told Reuters news agency.

The attack follows a spate of violence against Christian and Western groups in the country, and comes just four days after six Pakistanis were shot dead at a missionary school in the town of Murree, also near Islamabad.

The BBC correspondent in Islamabad, Zaffar Abbas, says the authorities believe the attacks are linked, and are the work of Islamic extremists who oppose Pakistan's support for the United States in its war against terrorism.

'Attacks gaining momentum'

The Taxila hospital, which receives funds from the Presbyterian Church in the US and other Christian groups, specializes in treating eye diseases common among poor Pakistanis.

It was not immediately clear if any foreigners were working or being treated in the hospital at the time of the attack, but all three nurses who were killed are said to be Pakistanis, as are most of the wounded.




Pakistan attacks:

9 Aug - three nurses killed in attack on missionary hospital in Taxila

5 Aug - six dead in missionary school attack in Murree

14 June - bomb outside US Karachi mission kills 11

8 May - Karachi bus blast kills 15

17 March - five killed in Islamabad church grenade blast

October 2001 - 18 killed in Punjab church attack

Pakistan's Islamic militants



A police source in Taxila said one of the three attackers had apparently blown himself up.

"One was killed and two fled, and the explosives were tied to the body of the one who died," he told Reuters news agency.

Speaking to the BBC in Lahore, the presiding Bishop of the Church of Pakistan, Dr Samuel Azariah, said: "It appears that a spate of attacks on Christian institutions is gaining momentum."

Dr Azariah said these attacks were a response from Islamic fundamentalists to the situation in the Palestinian territories and General Musharraf's pro-US policy in Afghanistan.

Christian rights activist Shahbaz Bhatti also blamed Islamic militants.

"We are paying the price to be Christians here and to be allied with the West," said Mr Bhatti, who heads the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance.

"I think now it will be a complete genocide of the non-Muslims here if the Islamic militant forces are not checked," he told the French news agency AFP.

There have been six attacks on foreign targets in Pakistan this year, five of them deadly.

School attack

On Monday, three gunmen attacked the Murree Christian School about 60 kilometres (35 miles) north-east of Islamabad, killing six people.

Witnesses say security guards averted a bloodbath by stopping the gunmen from entering a classroom full of children.


Most of the pupils and staff at the Murree school are foreigners

The school had mainly foreign staff and students.

The three men responsible for the school attack blew themselves up on Tuesday after escaping from a police checkpoint in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, according to police sources.

Before killing themselves, they had warned that several other groups like them plan to carry out similar attacks on Americans, regional police commander Moravet Shah told the Associated Press news agency.

"We have no enmity with Muslims. Our targets are only Americans and non-believers," the men are reported as saying.

In response to Monday's attack, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer urged Australians living in Pakistan to leave, as many other foreigners have already done, saying the incident was a "deliberate attack on foreigners".

And on Friday, Australia's cricket team announced it was pulling out a three-Test tour of Pakistan amid security fears.

[MohammedA]

THREE NURSES KILLED IN PAKISTAN HOSPITAL ATTACK.


By Mike Collett-White
TAXILA, Pakistan, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Three Pakistani nurses were killed on Friday in a grenade attack on a missionary hospital near Islamabad, the second assault on a Christian institution in Pakistan in less than a week.
Doctors said 23 people, mostly nurses, were wounded after three men threw grenades into a crowd leaving a morning chapel service. The assailants had been waiting by the gates of the hospital in Taxila, some 20 km (12 miles) west of Islamabad.
One of the attackers was also killed, police said, although it was unclear whether he was shot by his accomplices or died from shrapnel wounds.
"The nurses were coming out of the chapel when someone threw explosives," said Clement Bakhshi, an accounts officer at the hospital. "Three of our nurses have expired."
Islamic militants, angered over Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's support for the U.S.-led war on terror, have stepped up attacks on Christian and foreign targets in Pakistan in the past year, killing dozens of people.
The victims have been mostly Pakistanis but have included 11 French engineers and an American diplomat's wife and daughter.
This week's attacks - the first was on a school for the children of foreign missionaries - show an increasing focus on soft targets.
Two small craters could be seen outside the chapel and its windows had been blown out. Shoes, clothing and a woman's hairband were scattered among the surrounding debris.
Relatives wailed and beat their heads with their hands in grief as hundreds of bystanders crowded around the hospital hours after the attack.
All those killed and wounded were Pakistanis, a hospital official said. The nurses killed were all female, as were most of the wounded. Two of the wounded were in a serious condition.
S.K. Tressler, a Christian who is Muslim Pakistan's minister for minority affairs, told Reuters the attackers threw two grenades from just inside the gate of the walled hospital compound, hitting a brick path leading to the chapel at around 7.45 a.m. (0145 GMT).
ATTACKER "SHOT BY ACCOMPLICES"
Tressier, speaking from the scene of the attack, said the attacker who died was shot by one of his accomplices after being wrestled to the ground by a hospital worker. "Presumably (this was) because they did not want him to talk," he said. Tressler's account was based on police information.
The attack, he said, bore similarities to one on Monday in Murree, about 60 km (38 miles) east of Taxila, in which three suspected Islamic militants shot their way into a school and killed six Pakistanis.
Police said the three school attackers blew themselves up on Tuesday after being challenged by police in Pakistani-held Kashmir.
"Like Murree, it looks like one group, but we will have to check," Tressler said. "The police are investigating."
He said the attackers wore jeans and t-shirts under traditional Pakistani dress.
Hospital administrator Joseph Lall said the Taxila Christian Hospital was a Presbyterian institution affiliated with the Presbyterian churches of Pakistan and the United States. He said it received U.S., Swedish and German funding.
Lall said he thought the hospital had been seen as a foreign target. "It must be," he said. "All whites are Christians in their minds."
"I think this is a matter of sadness for our country. It will cause fear - especially among the Christians. We feel trapped."
NO WESTERNERS HURT
No Westerners were at the hospital at the time of the attack, the latest in a series of fatal strikes on Christian targets.
In March, five people including the wife and daughter of an American diplomat died in a grenade attack on a church in Islamabad. Last October, 16 Christians and one Muslim were massacred in a church in Bahawalpur in populous Punjab province.
Attacks on foreign targets blamed on militants in the past year also included a car bomb at the Sheraton Hotel in Karachi in May that killed eleven French engineers and three Pakistanis and another at the U.S. consulate in the city on June 14 that killed 12 Pakistanis.
Islamic militants have been incensed by Musharraf's decision to support the U.S.-led war on terror against Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network and the former Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
Those responsible for the attacks inside Pakistan are thought to be connected to armed militant groups fighting a guerrilla war against India in divided Kashmir.
Earlier this week, suspected Islamic militants killed nine Hindus and wounded 31 as they slept in tents along a pilgrimage trail in Kashmir.
In a related development on Friday, the Italian consulate in Karachi said it had closed its visa section because of a security alert - the third consulate to halt operations in the troubled Pakistani city in less than a month.
Many Western nations advise their citizens against visiting Pakistan and embassies and foreign companies have scaled back staff levels in the wake of the attacks.
(C) Reuters Limited 2002.

[MohammedA]

Capitulation to terrorists.............


BBC.co.uk



Imran: Tour blow could bankrupt us


Imran led Pakistan to World Cup glory in 1992

Imran Khan believes the cancellation of Australia's tour could lead to the bankruptcy of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).
Australia decided to pull out of their three-Test series in Pakistan due to security fears, following a number of recent terrorist attacks in the troubled country.



The Pakistan Cricket Board is already on its knees

Imran Khan
"It's devastating for Pakistan cricket," Imran told BBC Radio Five Live.

"Firstly because the fans will not be able to see Australia, which is an extremely popular team.

"But also because this could lead to bankruptcy for the Pakistan board as this is not the first tour that has been cancelled.

"Somehow the ICC has to compensate Pakistan; otherwise they will soon not be in a position to sustain themselves."

Feature: Pakistan examines tour options
Pakistani cricket has been hit by a number of cancelled tours recently.

New Zealand withdrew from their tour in May after a bomb attack near their hotel in Karachi, while the West Indies opted to play a shortened series in Sharjah.

Despite the financial problems it will cause, Imran said he understood the Australians' decision not to make the trip.

"It's much more frightening when you see it from the outside," he added.

"For us living in the country we get used to the odd terrorist attack, but outside it's very frightening.


Australia right to cancel? Have your say
"The New Zealand experience, plus other terror attacks, probably convinced the Australians it's too risky for them."

The Australian Cricket Board (ACB) said they were still hopeful of playing the three-Test series, but it would have to be on a neutral venue.

Bangladesh, UAE and Sri Lanka have been mentioned as likely alternatives

PCB chairman Lieutenant General Tauqir Zia admitted the news had come as a blow.

"We have been hit hard by the cancellation of the tour and it's a huge disappointment for us," he told BBC Sport Online.

"We would ask the ICC why is Pakistan being singled out?"

Zia said the Australian side would not have been a target for terrorists had they decided to go through with the tour.

Boycott

Members of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding vowing to boycott any country that refuses to tour any one of them.


Warne and Waugh expressed doubts over the tour

"We have several options available, first we would talk to the ICC, then activate the ACC to consider an Asian boycott," Zia added.

But ICC president elect, Pakistani Ehsan Mani, played down fears of an Asian split in Test cricket.

"I don't see international cricket be split in Asia and sincerely hope the situation will not go to boycotts," he said.

"You have ten Test playing countries and can't have resentments between two or three countries."

The ICC is waiting to be fully advised by the ACB before making a decision on what it can do to resolve the problem.

"We're not going to force a team to play in a country their government advises them against travelling to," said spokesman Brendan McClements.

Additional reporting by Shahid Hasmi
WATCH/LISTEN

ON THIS STORY
Former Pakistan captain Imran Khan
"It's devastating for Pakistan cricket"


ACB chairman Bob Merriman
"Information strongly advised against touring Pakistan"


PCB head General Tauqir Zia
"We're also fighting against trouble"








Latest news
Australia pull out
Imran worry


Previous tours
Kiwis out after bomb
Sri Lanka agree visit
Windies opt for Sharjah
Quadrangular series off
Kiwis cancel tour


Features
Tour options examined
Sharjah Test no draw
U19s renew rivalry
Shocked from safety

SPORTS TALK

Australia right?


Top Cricket stories now:


Imran: Tour blow could bankrupt us

[Maisum Ali]

Senior Pakistan army officer shot


Police in Pakistan say that a senior army officer has been shot and seriously wounded in a suspected sectarian attack in the western city of Quetta.
Officers say masked gunmen on a motorcycle attacked Brigadier Bartar Hussain Naqvi as he was driving to work in his car.

Brigadier Naqvi, who is head of the military's National Database Registration Authority, was shot in the neck and is being treated in hospital.

The gunmen escaped and a search for them is underway.

The motive for the attack is unclear, but the brigadier is a member of Pakistan's minority Shi'a Muslim community which correspondents say is often targeted by Sunni extremists.

[Saad Hasan]

There is no way that these attacks could be conducted without the help of a foreign power, most likely India and to some extent, Israel and even Iran. Even if there is no evidence as such to prove this, it would not have hurt our interest to unequivocally blame India and since Musharaf's decision to clamp down on jihad movements, we have not only undermined our interest but have given other countries most notably India to underscore that all the terrorism originates from Pakistan.

Look how india deals with attacks in their country, every body in their chain of command, from an junior minister to the head of state, unequivocaly and categorically blames Pakistan, we on the other hand officially admit that we have terrorists breeding amongst us and we will clamp down on the "jihadi culture" and will stop all the "cross border infiltration"......So in essence these attacks are a sort of a self-fulfilled prophecies....Musharaf's tacit admittance arising from his promise to stop cross-border terrorism have manifested themselves in real and actual terrorism within Pakistan.....

[Saad Hasan]

Imran blames US for tour cancellation

ISLAMABAD: Former Pakistan captain Imran Khan on Friday strongly criticised the United States, saying their 'ill-conceived' campaign in Afghanistan was costing Pakistan dearly. "Since joining the coalition, Pakistan's suffering has increased... America's ill-conceived campaign in Afghanistan has cost us dearly and cricket is hit worst," he said.

Imran was reacting to the Australian Cricket Board's (ACB) decision to pull out of October's Test tour to Pakistan. "Foreign exports and foreign investments stopped last year and now no foreign team is prepared to tour Pakistan, which could mean bankruptcy for Pakistan's cricket," he said. "A country earns through a home series from TV rights, and if series after series are shifted, Pakistan cricket will be financially devastated."

"Australia's concerns are genuine and we should understand them and choose a neutral venue where proper funds could be generated," Imran said. He urged the world cricket governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC), to help Pakistan through the current crisis. "It's in the interest of cricket for the ICC and other countries to help Pakistan, because it's not a good omen if Pakistan cricket suffers due to declining finances," he said.

[osman]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...-2002Aug9.html

[MohammedA]

BBc.co.uk

Pakistan church attack nurse dies


Christian institutions have been targeted in Pakistan

A nurse who was critically injured in a grenade attack on a hospital church in Pakistan on Friday has died of her injuries.
Her death brings to four the number of nurses killed in the assault on the chapel in the town of Taxila to four.


Four nurses died in the attack on the chapel


More than 20 missionary staff were wounded by the blasts, two of whom remain in a serious condition.

Authorities believe Islamic militants opposed to Pakistan's support for the US-led war on terror carried out the attack.

On Saturday, Pakistani police expressed optimism about arresting two of the attackers who had escaped.

A third attacker was found dead at the scene, 25 kilometres (15 miles) west of the capital, Islamabad.

The attack came four days after six Pakistanis were killed in a gun attack on a Protestant missionary school in the Pakistani town of Murree, about 40km (25 miles) north-east of the capital.

Attacker identified

The nurse who died on Sunday was identified as 28-year-old Parveen Nelson.

The husband of another wounded nurse said doctors had told him there was no hope his wife would survive.


Security has been stepped up around soft targets

Police have identified the dead assailant as Kamran Mir, from the nearby district of Rawalpindi.

Rawalpindi police chief Marwat Shah said the attacker was a member of a "banned religious faction".

A military spokesman told French news agency AFP there was evidence the Taxila and Murree attacks were linked.

Police said they were searching for up to 20 militants involved in planning attacks on western targets.

Security forces have arrested members of outlawed groups in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir suspected of training extremists, the Associated Press news agency reported.

Karachi trial

A judge on Saturday postponed until next week the trial of three Islamic militants charged with the bombing of the US consulate in Karachi.

The Anti-Terrorism Court in Karachi also postponed the simultaneously scheduled trial of the militants on charges of plotting to kill Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

Both hearings will resume next week.

The three charged in both cases were Mohammed Imran, Mohammed Hanif and Mohammed Ashraf.

Mr Imran is identified as the leader of the Harkat-ul-Mujahedeen al-Almi extremist group and the other two as group officers.

Harkat-ul-Mujahedeen al-Almi, a splinter group of Harkat-ul-Mujahedeen, is believed to have worked closely with al-Qaeda in Afghanistan before the collapse of the Taleban Government.

[Ash]

This was a horrific attack. Ironey of it all is the people that were killed work towards healing and caring for people. Who ever carried out these attacks are nothing more than murders. They should get there just reward, i.e. death penality.





Salaam




Ash

[MohammedA]

PAKISTAN HOLD MANS OVER SECTARIAN SHOOTINGS.


QUETTA, Pakistan, Aug 22 (Reuters) - Pakistani police said on Thursday they had arrested a member of a banned militant group suspected of involvement in two sectarian attacks on government officials in southern Baluchistan province.
Karim Kurd, a member of the outlawed Lashkar-e-Jhangvi group, had been held in Baluchistan's capital Quetta for alleged involvement in attacks this month on Shi'ite Muslim officials, Inspector General of Police Shoaib Suddle told a news conference.
Unidentified gunmen shot and wounded a director general of provincial agriculture department on August 16 as he came out of his office in Quetta.
On August 9, Brigadier Bartar Hussain Naqvi, an officer of the government's National Database and Registration Authority, was shot and wounded on his way to work in the provincial capital.
Suddle said police had recovered a Magarov pistol from Kurd's house which was used in both attacks.
He said Kurd told investigators he was a right-hand man of Riaz Basra, the head of the banned Sunni Muslim militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, who was killed in an encounter with police in May.
Hundreds of people have been killed in sectarian violence involving militant organisations from the Sunni and minority Shi'ite sects of Islam in the past decade.
Suddle said Kurd had also told the police he was trained in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Last Wednesday President Pervez Musharraf, who has thrown in his lot with the U.S.-led war on terror, has vowed to crush militant groups blamed for a recent wave of violence.
He said that, while there were no "quick-fix solutions" to controlling sectarianism and extremism, better equipment and training for the police and intelligence services were already yielding results.
(C) Reuters Limited 2002.

[Uzair]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...ist_s_family_1

Father Recalls Militant Son
Fri Aug 23, 1:49 PM ET
By MUNIR AHMAD, Associated Press Writer

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (AP) - Four times in the last four years, Bashir Butt tracked down his son at training camps for Islamic extremists in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir ( news - web sites) and begged him to come home.


On July 9, police arrived at the Butts' modest home here and told them their son Kamran, 21, was dead. He died while attacking Christians leaving a church in Taxila about 30 miles west of Islamabad. Three Christian nurses were killed and a fourth was mortally wounded.

Bashir Butt, however, remembers his son as a shy boy who never caused trouble in the neighborhood and who "had a great respect for his fellow human beings."

"We never thought that one day he would become a terrorist," Bashir Butt said. "We never even imagined. ... These cruel jihadis made him a terrorist."

Kamran Butt was one of thousands of young Pakistani men who have been drawn in recent years into the network of Islamic extremists, known here as "jihadis," who recruited them to fight the Indian army in Kashmir and in Afghanistan ( news - web sites) before the collapse of the Taliban last year.

They were motivated in part by religious conviction and in part by the romance of battling the nonbelievers in the name of God like the great heroes of the Muslim faith centuries ago.

Among young and impressionable men, poorly educated and with a narrow view of the world, the appeal of the jihadis is as strong as that of religious cults among spiritual youth in the West.

To Kamran's family, however, his death seems pointless. It has left his family deeply bitter over the extremist groups and what they had done to him.

"I hate these jihadi organizations," said Bashir Butt, a 48-year-old widower with two other sons and a daughter. "I hate these so-called jihadi leaders. They are the killers of my son."

Bashir Butt said his son got caught up in the jihadi movement after joining Jamaat-e-Islami, a major Islamic political party. Although details are unclear, it appeared that Kamran Butt was recruited by Jaish-e-Mohammed, a militant group fighting Indian rule in Kashmir.

Jaish-e-Mohammed, or Army of Mohammed, has since been banned by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

Four years ago, Kamran disappeared for the first time, leaving a message for his family that he had gone "to participate in jihad (holy war)" in Kashmir, the father said.

Bashir Butt, who runs a small telephone service here, set off for Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, finally locating his son at a Jaish-e-Mohammed training camp there. Militant leaders told the father to leave but assured him they would send his son home in three days, he said.

The militants kept their word, but the son disappeared again after a few months.

"The second time, I spotted him at a camp near Muzaffarabad," Bashir Butt said, referring to the capital of Pakistani-controlled Kashmir. Again, the son returned after a few days. After a few months, he was gone again — off to the jihad. The cycle was repeated until the beginning of this year, Bashir Butt said.

"During the last four or five months, I could not find him," Bashir Butt said. "He made a few calls to his family, and I thought he would be back like always. But this time, instead of him, the police came. I was informed that my son was dead and that he has killed worshippers at a church."

Police told the family that Kamran Butt was among four militants who hurled grenades at worshippers as they left a church at a Presbyterian hospital in Taxila after a morning prayer service.

Police said a fragment from one of the grenades pierced his heart, and he died instantly. Several people have been arrested in connection with the attack.

The father said he repeatedly tried to talk his son out of devoting his life to the extremist movement but "Kamran always politely refused my suggestions."

"He used to tell us that this world is mortal and we should spend our life in accordance with the teachings of Islam and that Islam says we must participate in jihad," Butt said.

According to the father, no representative of any of the country's Islamic militant groups has contacted the family to express condolences. That's just as well, Bashir Butt said.

"I will kill them, I will butcher them, I will make a horrible example of them if they came here for condolence," Butt said.

Butt said he wants to visit the church where his son died to express his sorrow over the deaths of innocent people. "But I'm not sure how they will receive me," he said.

[MohammedA]

Pakistan 'militants' killed in shoot-out


The militants were said to belong to a banned group

Four suspected militants have been killed in a shoot-out with police in eastern Pakistan, officials have said.


Police said two of the men were linked to an attack on a Christian church last year, in which at least 16 people were killed.

The suspects - identified as Mohammad Waseem and Mohammad Akram - were being taken by police to recover arms and ammunition they said were hidden near the city of Multan.

While the convoy was on its way, it was ambushed by unknown assailants who managed to free the two detainees.

However, policemen from the escorting team gave chase and in the ensuing gun battle, shot dead four men, including Waseem and Akram, police said.

Church massacre

"When the firing stopped from the other side, police found four dead bodies, including the two militants," Deputy Inspector General of Police, Chaudhury Iftikhar, told the Associated Press news agency.


Militant attacks raised security concerns


The men were being held in connection with an attack on a church in the city Bahawalpur last October - the worst single massacre of Christians in Pakistan's history.

Police said Waseem had also been involved in an attack last month on a missionary hospital in Taxila in which four nurses and an attacker were killed.

The BBC's Susannah Price in Islamabad reports the police as saying both Waseem and Akram, and the men shot while trying to free them, were members of the outlawed Sunni organisation, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.

Several other members of the group were arrested earlier this year in connection with the attack on St Dominic's church, and three more suspects are on the run, the authorities said.

[Maisum Ali]

fake encounter...

not that I am complaining...

[MohammedA]

It's quite obvious from recent events and lessening of sectarian killings that govt's policy to sectarian nuts/killers has changed. Rather than neutralising them through lengthy court process or risking them escaping by killing witnesses,etc the military has decided on another solution........Not that I'm complaining either.