Pakistan and the war there. - Page 42

mlurp · #**411** (**permalink**) 09-07-2012, 12:33 PM

And from what I heard on the news earlier about Pakistans Military Internal Security and the Haggie (so I mis-spelled it) Terror Network working together there will be more of this BS from Pakistan if Obama tells our Security Networks
to follow the money tail.

They have been caught in one lie to many.

Do go back one page at the very bottom, for todays post.

mlurp · #**412** (**permalink**) 09-07-2012, 12:35 PM

to keep the readers informed...

There is plenty to read at each of these site.

Asia News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Middle East News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Africa News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Europe News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Latin America News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Enjoy.... And my

to each reader...

mlurp · #**413** (**permalink**) 09-08-2012, 02:52 PM

Well it is drawing to a close for this teen who was accuse wrongly by a Muslim Cleric. Who is yet to feel the heat of his deceit.

She is yet to be free, but I think it is to her safty at this moment.

Quote:

.Pakistan frees Christian girl accused of blasphemy

By ZARAR KHAN | Associated Press – 5 hrs ago. 8 Sept. 2012 .........

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (AP) — A young Christian girl accused of burning pages of Islam's holy book was freed Saturday from a jail near the capital where she had been held for three weeks, a Pakistani jail official said.

The release a day after a judge granted her bail is another step closer to ending an episode that has focused an uncomfortable spotlight on Pakistan's harsh blasphemy laws, which can result in life in prison or even death for defendants. Many critics say the laws are misused to wage vendettas or target Pakistan's vulnerable minorities like the Christians.

The jail official, Mushtaq Awan, said the girl left the prison in Rawalpindi, a garrison city near Islamabad amid tight security.

An Associated Press reporter on the scene said she was taken from the prison in an armored vehicle and whisked to a waiting helicopter while covered with a sheet to protect her identity.

A Muslim cleric from her neighborhood was arrested last week for planting evidence to incriminate the girl, an about-face in a case that has drawn strong international condemnation. Even in Pakistan where there is significant support for punishing people accused of desecrating the Quran or insulting Islam's Prophet Muhammed, the girl's age and questions about her mental state have earned her a degree of public sympathy often lacking in other blasphemy cases.

Her lawyers say they will now push to have the case against her thrown out entirely.

"Her parents were with her when she was freed from the jail, and she has been taken to a safer place," said a member of her legal team, Tahir Naveed Chaudhry.

The girl's release came a day after a judge in Islamabad granted bail to the mentally challenged girl, a move hailed by the human right activists and representatives of Pakistan's minority Christian community. Bail is rarely granted in blasphemy cases, and the decision signals a degree of sympathy that could result in all the charges being dropped.

The girl, who medical officials say is 14 years old, was arrested Aug. 16, shortly after hundreds of angry Muslims surrounded her house, and accused her of burning pages from the Quran, an act punishable by life in prison. Her lawyer has denied the allegation.

But in a sudden turn-around, police arrested a cleric after a follower from his mosque accused him of stashing pages of a Quran in the girl's bag to make it seem as if she burned them. He allegedly planted the evidence to push Christians out of the neighborhood and is now being investigated for blasphemy himself. He has denied the allegation.

The arrest was applauded as a rare occurrence when blasphemy accusers are held responsible for false claims.

In his ruling granting bail, the judge wrote that the arrest of the cleric cast serious doubt on the prosecution's case. He also said she was a minor, had mental challenges and that it was "not believable" that she had intentionally burnt the Quranic verses. On those grounds, he decided to grant the bail.

The tight security present during her release is a sign that authorities are taking her safety seriously in light of previous attacks on people accused of blasphemy. Two prominent politicians were gunned down last year for suggesting the blasphemy laws should be amended to prevent misuse. The killer of one of the politicians was later lauded by supporters who threw rose petals whenever he appeared at court.

A man in the central Pakistani city of Bahawalpur was beaten to death in July by an angry mob after he was accused of blasphemy.

__

Associated Press writers Munir Ahmed and Rebecca Santana contributed to this report.

Pakistan frees Christian girl accused of blasphemy - Yahoo! News

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mlurp · #**414** (**permalink**) 09-08-2012, 03:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mlurp

And from what I heard on the news earlier about Pakistans Military Internal Security and the Haggie (so I mis-spelled it) Terror Network working together there will be more of this BS from Pakistan if Obama tells our Security Networks
to follow the money tail.

They have been caught in one lie to many.

Now for some fact on this network which is spelled Haqqani.......

Quote:

.A glance at the Pakistan-based Haqqani network

By SEBASTIAN ABBOT | Associated Press – 17 hrs ago. Posted 8 Sept. 2012 ....

Associated Press/Mohammed Riaz, File - FILE- In this Aug. 22, 1998, file photo, Jalaluddin Haqqani, founder of the militant group the Haqqani network, speaks during an interview in Miram Shah, Pakistan. The …more

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Some questions and answers about the Pakistan-based Haqqani network and the potential impact of the Obama administration's decision to designate it a foreign terrorist organization:

Q: What is the Haqqani network?

A: The Haqqani network is considered one of the most dangerous militant groups fighting U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, partly because of its record of carrying out high-profile attacks in the capital, Kabul. The group is based across the border in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal area but also has significant strength in eastern Afghanistan, the original home of the network's founder, Jalaluddin Haqqani. He made a name for himself in the 1980s when he fought the Soviets in Afghanistan, with extensive support from U.S. and Pakistani intelligence agencies. He fled to Pakistan following the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Haqqani is now believed to be in his 60s or older and has handed day-to-day operations of the group over to his son, Sirajuddin.

Q: What impact will the U.S. designation of the Haqqani network as a foreign terrorist organization have on the group?

A: The designation requires U.S. financial institutions to freeze assets owned by the network and outlaws Americans from providing the group funds or material support. It can also prevent members of the group from traveling to the U.S. Analysts doubt the designation will have much of an impact on the group given the informal nature of its financing network and the lack of ties with the U.S. Many of the Haqqani network's senior leaders have already been blacklisted individually, and that has seemingly had little effect.

Q: What impact will the U.S. designation have on its relationship with Pakistan or the peace process in Afghanistan?

A: The designation could further strain already troubled ties between the U.S. and Pakistan. It could also complicate U.S. efforts to strike a peace deal in Afghanistan because of the close ties between the Taliban and the Haqqani network. Pakistan has long criticized the U.S. for trying to fight and talk with militants at the same time, and the designation could feed into that narrative.

Q: How many fighters make up the Haqqani network and how much violence are they responsible for in Afghanistan?

A: The network is believed to be composed of several hundred core members and thousands of fighters with varying degrees of affiliation and loyalty, according to the Combating Terrorism Center in West Point, N.Y. A U.S. defense official estimated the group's size at 2,000 to 4,000 militants. U.S. officials have told The Associated Press that the Haqqani network is responsible for less than 20 percent of all U.S. and NATO casualties in Afghanistan.

Q: What is the Haqqani network's relationship with the Taliban and al-Qaida?
A: The Haqqani network has pledged allegiance to Taliban leader Mullah Omar, but the group largely operates independently. The elder Haqqani developed close ties to slain al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden during the Soviet war in Afghanistan when both of them spent months together on the front lines, according to the Washington-based New American Foundation. The network's ties to al-Qaida and other foreign militant groups have remained strong, one of the reasons why it has become such a potent force in Afghanistan.

Q: Does the Haqqani network pose a threat to the U.S. homeland?

A: The U.S. intelligence community believes the Haqqani network is focused on attacking local enemies, with no aspirations to attack the United States, said a U.S. defense official. But the group's ties with al-Qaida and other transnational militant groups are a concern to the U.S.

Q: What is the Haqqani network's relationship with Pakistan?

A: Ties between Pakistan's intelligence agency and the elder Haqqani stretch back to the Soviet war in Afghanistan. U.S. officials have accused Pakistan of continuing to support the group, but Islamabad has denied the allegation. The U.S. has demanded Pakistan target the Haqqani network in North Waziristan, but it has refused. Many analysts believe Pakistan is reluctant to target a group that could be a potential ally in Afghanistan after foreign forces withdraw.

____And my thinking of just what will be the future of Afghan, which does not look to good now or in 2014 when we are to leave.

AP Intelligence Writer Kimberly Dozier in Washington contributed to this report.

A glance at the Pakistan-based Haqqani network - Yahoo! News

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mlurp · #**415** (**permalink**) 09-09-2012, 02:59 PM

A bit of a hard week in Pakistan.

Quote:

..Pakistan ends weeks of fighting; over 100 dead

By ANWARULLAH KHAN | Associated Press – 2 hrs 16 mins ago.. 9 Sept 2012.

KHAR, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani security forces pushed Taliban militants who came from Afghanistan back across the border after more than two weeks of fighting in a mountainous tribal region, spokesmen for both sides said Sunday. The government says over 100 people were killed in the offensive.

The violence in the northwestern Bajur area highlighted the growing problem of Taliban militants using sanctuaries in Afghanistan to attack Pakistan. The frequency of the raids has increased, and this was the first instance in which Pakistani Taliban militants coming from Afghanistan seized and held territory in Pakistan for a significant amount of time.

Pakistan has called on Afghan and NATO forces to do more to stop militants from crossing into the country. Kabul and the international coalition have acknowledged the problem, but also want Pakistan to do more to stop militants holed up on its territory from launching attacks into Afghanistan.

Security forces finally managed to push the militants back from the Salarzai region of Bajur on Saturday, said Jehangir Azam Wazir, the top political official in the area.

"Unexpectedly, the militants showed tough resistance this time, but finally our security forces along with volunteers of the Salarzai militia succeeded in eliminating them," said Wazir.

The dead included at least 80 militants, 18 civilians, 12 anti-Taliban militiamen and eight soldiers, he said. An additional 13 soldiers are missing and are believed to be in the hands of the Taliban.

Hundreds of people who were trapped by the fighting in a string of villages along the border were finally able to leave Saturday. They had been confined to their homes, and many were running low on food.

"Those days were very difficult and passed with a lot of hardship," said Hikmat Jan, who had been stranded with his family in Gambat village. "We were unable to go out and were tense, fearing the militants would come kidnap us or we would be killed by shelling or starve to death because we were running out of food."

Jan said the dead were strewn across the village.

............................................... CONTINUED ..............................................

Pakistan ends weeks of fighting; over 100 dead - Yahoo! News

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mlurp · #**416** (**permalink**) 09-10-2012, 02:00 PM

Pakistan and it's sectarian violence as in Iraq will someday come to a head and few would want to be even close to it and the results.

Keep using each link provided to eep above the mess and maintain some knowledge...

Quote:

..Car bomb kills 12 Shiites in northwest Pakistan

By HUSSAIN AFZAL | Associated Press – 11 mins ago.. 10 Sept. 2012 ........

PARACHINAR, Pakistan (AP) — A car bomb ripped through a crowded market in a Pakistani tribal region bordering Afghanistan on Monday, killing 12 Shiite Muslims in the latest instance of sectarian violence to rock this country, officials said.

Pakistan is dominated by Sunni Muslims, but is also home to a sizeable minority of Shiites, a separate sect of Islam. While most Shiites and Sunnis coexist peacefully, Sunni extremists have often targeted Shiites whom they do not consider to be true Muslims.

Government official Sahibzada Anis gave the death toll and said 45 other people were wounded in the blast in the town of Parachinar in the Kurram region — the only region along the Afghan border that is majority Shiite. It has seen bloody outbreaks of sectarian violence in recent years. Another government official, Naseer Khan, said all of the dead were Shiite Muslims.

The emergence over the last 10 years in Pakistan of extremist groups such as al-Qaida and the Pakistani Taliban has added to the frequency and viciousness of attacks against Shiites.

In February, a suicide attacker on a motorcycle blew himself up in Parachinar, killing 23 Shiite Muslims and wounding 50 people.

Many of the recent sectarian killings in Pakistan have been blamed on the militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which is allied with al-Qaida and the Taliban.

A court released the founder of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi on bail Monday, about a week and a half after he was arrested because of a speech he made that authorities said incited sectarian hatred, said police officer Ejaz Shafi. Bail was set at 500,000 rupees, about $5,280, Shafi said.

Police also arrested the founder, Malik Ishaq, in 1997, and he was accused in more than 200 criminal cases involving the killing of 70 Shiites. But the prosecution could never prove the charges, in part because of witness and judge intimidation, and he went free in 2011.

Also Monday, a radical prayer leader in Islamabad and 19 others were acquitted in the 2007 killing of a security officer, the cleric's lawyer said.

.............................................. CONTINUED ...............................................

Car bomb kills 12 Shiites in northwest Pakistan - Yahoo! News

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mlurp · #**417** (**permalink**) 09-11-2012, 01:14 PM

To happen on this day in which Ameica was attacked, to have two fires break out
in which people were burned to death and some jumped to only die, seems so ironic to say the least.

Quote:

.Double factory blazes in Pakistan kill 39

By ADIL JAWAD and ZAHEER BABAR | AP – 21 mins ago. 11 Sept. 2012 .......

Associated Press/K.M. Chaudary - A Pakistani fireman tries to extinguish a factory fire on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012 in Lahore, Pakistan. A fire that broke out in a factory in eastern Pakistan on Tuesday after …more

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — Factory blazes in two of Pakistan's major cities killed 39 people and injured dozens more on Tuesday, including some who leapt from the burning buildings to escape the flames.

First a fire swept through a shoe factory in the eastern city of Lahore, killing 25 people, said senior police officer Multan Khan.

Three people were also injured in the blaze, Khan said. Some of the people died from suffocation while others burned alive when the flames ripped through chemicals used to make the shoes and stored in the building, he said.

The fire erupted when people in the building were trying to start their generator after the electricity went out. Sparks from the generator made contact with the chemicals, igniting the blaze.

Pakistan faces widespread blackouts, and many people use generators to provide electricity for their houses or to run businesses. The fire is likely to add to public outrage over the government's failure to provide sufficient power.

Firefighters broke holes in the solid brick walled buildings to reach victims inside. At the morgue, bodies were lined up on a hallway floor, covered with white sheets.

One of the workers, Muhammad Shabbir, said he had been working at the factory for six months along with his cousin. He said all the chemicals and the generator were located in the garage, which was also the only way out of the building. When the fire ignited, there was no way out. Shabbir said he had just gone outside the factory when the fire started but his cousin was severely burned and died at the hospital.

Pakistani Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf in a statement expressed his shock and grief over the deaths.

Many people in Lahore have set up shoe factories at homes and in residential areas. Many of the factories are ill-equipped and often lack modern fire safety equipment such as fire extinguishers or sprinklers.

"The main reason of victims' death most probably is because the front was blocked. The people went to the back side of the building but there was no access, so we had to made forceful entries and ... rescue the people," said Numan Noor, a firefighter on the scene.

The second blaze erupted in the southern port city of Karachi, which is considered the country's economic heart.

At least 14 people were killed and more than 40 injured when a fire broke out at a garment factory, said an official at the Civilian Hospital in Karachi, Nazir Abbasi. All were workers at the factory.

Many of the workers were injured when they jumped from the burning building, said another doctor at the hospital, Karar Abbasi.

An injured factory worker Mohammad Ilyas, speaking at the hospital, said he was working along with roughly 50 other men and women on one of the floors when suddenly a fireball came from the staircase.

"I jumped from my seat as did others and rushed toward the windows but iron bars on the windows barred us from escaping. Some of us quickly took tools and machines to break the iron bars," he said. "That was how we managed to jump out of the windows down to the ground floor."

His leg was injured in the fall.

Pakistani television showed pictures of what appeared to be a three-story building in Karachi with flames leaping from the top-floor windows and smoke billowing into the night sky. Firefighters could be seen pounding on the metal grates covering some of the windows and pulling smoke-covered bodies from the windows.

__

Associated Press writers Zarar Khan and Rebecca Santana in Islamabad contributed to this report.

Double factory blazes in Pakistan kill 39 - Yahoo! News

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mlurp · #**418** (**permalink**) 09-12-2012, 02:16 PM

Well this blaze is whats in the news for the most part. As the death toll has risen and issues which were not spoke of when I frist posted this news has come forward.

Quote:

.Deaths in factory fires in Pakistan rises to 283

By ADIL JAWAD | Associated Press – 45 mins ago. 12 sept. 2012 ..........

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — The death toll from a pair of devastating factory fires that broke out in Pakistan's two biggest cities rose on Wednesday to 283 people, many of whom perished because they were unable to escape buildings that lacked emergency exits and basic safety equipment such as alarms and sprinklers.

The horrific toll highlights the atrocious state of industrial safety in Pakistan, where many factories are set up illegally in the country's densely populated cities, and owners often pay officials bribes to ignore safety violations.

The more deadly of the two blazes, which both erupted on Tuesday night, was at a garment factory in the southern city of Karachi, the country's economic heart.

The death toll there rose to 258 people Wednesday, as firefighters battled the flames for hours, said senior government official Roshan Ali Sheikh. He said earlier that 289 people died, but this figure double counted some of the deaths.

The fire was one of the worst industrial accidents in Pakistan's 65-year history, and Sheikh said the death toll could still rise because rescue workers were still pulling bodies out from the site in Karachi.

Most of the deaths were caused by suffocation as people caught in the basement were unable to escape when it filled with smoke, said the top firefighter in Karachi, Ehtisham-ud-Din.

The building only had one accessible exit, and all the other doors were locked, said Sheikh.

"It is a criminal act to lock the emergency exit doors, and we are trying to know who did it, and why?" Sheikh said.

Relatives of the victims said the factory owner locked the exit doors in response to a recent theft, thereby endangering the workers inside.

"The owner of the factory should also be burned to death the way our dear ones have died in a miserable condition," said Nizam-ud-Din, whose nephew died in the fire.

Workers on higher floors of the five-story building struggled to make it out of windows that were covered with metal bars. Many were injured when they jumped from the building, including a 27-year-old pregnant woman who was injured in the fall.
............................................... CONTINUED ..............................................

Deaths in factory fires in Pakistan rises to 283 - Yahoo! News

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mlurp · #**419** (**permalink**) 09-13-2012, 03:23 PM

And old saying comes to mind. You can't please all the people all the time.

Quote:

.Farmers angry at counterterror tactic in Pakistan

By RASOOL DAWAR and SEBASTIAN ABBOT | Associated Press – 2 hrs 41 mins ago. 13 Sept. 2012 .............

R ALI, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan's effort to cut off the flow of fertilizer to militants using it to make bombs in this key tribal sanctuary along the Afghan border has outraged local farmers, who complain the policy has cut their crop yields in half.

The blowback in North Waziristan could prove costly as the army grapples with how to tackle enemies of the state holed up in the remote, mountainous area, a task that is likely to be more difficult if the government is unable to mobilize support from local tribesmen.

No idiots it is easy tell the farmers that once the enemies are taken out they can have all the dang fertilizer they can use. Enlist their help.

"It's true that fertilizer is being used to make bombs, but the farmers are not the ones doing it, so why does the ban apply to us?" said Mohammad Daraz, a farmer in Miran Shah, the main town in North Waziristan.

Pakistan has struggled in recent years to avoid offending the population with heavy handed tactics as it battles domestic Taliban militants throughout the northwest.

The U.S. has faced this same difficulty in neighboring Afghanistan — not least in its efforts to keep fertilizer, most of which comes from Pakistan, out of the hands of militants whose bombs have killed hundreds of American soldiers.

Pakistan first imposed a ban on certain types of fertilizer in North Waziristan and other parts of the semiautonomous tribal region more than three years ago, officials and farmers said.

The government instituted the policy after determining that fertilizer had been used in most of the major bombings in Pakistan, especially those involving vehicles packed with explosives, said a senior government official who worked on the ban.

The ban was meant to apply only to urea and other fertilizers that contain ammonium nitrate because they can most easily be turned into explosives, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
............................................... CONTINUED ..............................................

Farmers angry at counterterror tactic in Pakistan - Yahoo! News

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mlurp · #**420** (**permalink**) 09-14-2012, 01:39 PM

I never thought this would help make any change in this sick law, that is so old it goes back to the late 600's if not a bit later.

Quote:

.Change of Pakistan's blasphemy laws unlikely

By REBECCA SANTANA | Associated Press – 10 hrs ago. 14 Sept. 2012 .....

Associated Press/Anjum Naveed,file - In this photo taken on Saturday, Sept. 8, 2012, A Pakistani police official and a Christian volunteer escort a young Christian girl accused of blasphemy, towards a helicopter …more

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The apparent collapse of a case against a Christian girl accused of burning pages of a Quran has given a dim ray of hope to critics of Pakistan's blasphemy laws, some of the harshest in the Muslim world.

The girl was believed to be mentally impaired, and a Muslim cleric from her neighborhood was eventually arrested for planting evidence to incriminate her. As the tables turned on her accusers, the girl was recently released on bail and whisked away in a military helicopter with her family to safety.

It was a remarkable turn of events in a country where people accused in even the flimsiest of cases of defiling Islam's holy book or the Prophet Muhammad have few defenders. Those accused of blasphemy can be sentenced to death if convicted — assuming they are not killed first by vigilantes.

Human rights activists and others hope the girl's case will, at the very least, help prevent further abuses of laws designed to punish people for maligning Islam. Some Islamic religious figures came to her defense, bail was granted and an accuser arrested. All steps are extremely rare, but the question is whether that will translate into deeper change.

"We need to build on that," said Mustafa Qadri, a Pakistan researcher with Amnesty International.

Nevertheless, there is little appetite to repeal or amend the blasphemy laws, which remain very popular among Pakistanis. A coming election and fear of assassination will likely scuttle any attempt at meaningful change, experts said. Instead, the case may remain the lone exception.

"The great concern is that once this case dies down the real concrete steps that need to be taken, won't be taken," Qadri said.

The girl was arrested Aug. 16 when an angry mob surrounded her house in a poor section of Islamabad after word rapidly traveled through the neighborhood that she had burned pages of the Quran, Islam's holy book. Christians left the neighborhood en masse, fearing they would be targeted as has happened in other parts of Pakistan when minorities are accused of committing blasphemy.

The case immediately struck a chord in Pakistan and abroad, partly because of the girl's age and questions about her faculties. A medical report listed her as 14 and said her mental age didn't match her physical age. Her lawyers said she has Down syndrome.

Among Pakistanis, cleric Tahir Mahmood Ashrafi was one of the first to come to her defense outside of the small group of liberals who have long advocated against the abuse of the blasphemy laws.

Ashrafi said he was moved to defend the girl partly because he has a son who also has Down syndrome. He said he would like to see steps to prevent the misuse of the blasphemy laws, such as having a senior level police officer investigate cases and authorities punish people who falsely accuse others of blasphemy. But he contended there was no need to change the laws themselves.

.................................................. ... CONTINUED ........................................

Change of Pakistan's blasphemy laws unlikely - Yahoo! News

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