Awaz Apni

CNews Pakistan: said on Saturday that it is in touch with the mediators for the release of its ambassador to Afghanistan Tariq Azizuddin, who was kidnapped in the Pakistani tribal region in February while proceeding to Kabul.The ambassador Tariq Azizuddin appeared on Arabic television on Saturday saying he was being held by the Taliban and urged the government to accept their demands. "We are in touch with the mediators to free the ambassador," Foreign Office spokesman Muhammad Sadiq said."We can not disclose demands of kidnappers for safety reasons," the spokesman told a private TV channel. The ambassador was kidnapped on February 11 along with his guard Amir Sultan and driver Gul Nawaz. It was stated earlier that the ambassador may have been kidnapped for ransom but the 4-minute video released by Al-Arabiya TV channel shows that he is in the control of Taliban.It was not clear if he is still in the Pakistani tribal region or taken into Afghanistan. "We were k...

CNews ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - An Islamic militant group said Saturday it had no link to Benazir Bhutto's killing and the opposition leader's aides accused the government of a cover-up, disputing the official account of her death. The government stood firmly by its account of Thursday's assassination and insisted it needed no foreign help in any investigation. "This is not an ordinary criminal matter in which we require assistance of the international community. I think we are capable of handling it," said Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema. Bhutto's aides said they doubted militant commander Baitullah Mehsud was behind the attack on the opposition leader and said the government's claim that she died when she hit her head on the sunroof of her vehicle was "dangerous nonsense." Cheema said the government's account was based on "nothing but the facts" Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton called for an inde...

GARHI KHUDA BAKHSH, Pakistan - Hundreds of thousands of mourners thronged the mausoleum of Pakistan's most famous political dynasty in an outpouring of emotion for Benazir Bhutto. The government said al-Qaida and the Taliban were responsible for her death, claiming it intercepted an al-Qaida leader's message of congratulation for the assassination. But many of Bhutto's furious supporters blamed President Pervez Musharraf's government for the shooting and bombing attack on the former prime minister, Musharraf's most powerful opponent. They rampaged through several cities in violence that left at least 23 dead less than two weeks before crucial parliamentary elections. "We have the evidence that al-Qaida and Taliban were behind the suicide attack on Benazir Bhutto," Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz said. Thursday's attack on Bhutto plunged Pakistan into turmoil and badly damaged plans to restore democracy in this nuclear-armed nation, a key U.S. ally in the...

SWAT: Local Talibans captured a coach after firing in Swat while they left the driver and other people. According to sources, the Talibans in Nangoi, an area of Swat, indicated to a coach to stop but on its non-response they began firing. However, the driver succeeded in running away the vehicle. On the other hand, the Talibans informed their colleagues at their headquarter in Mam Dherhi on which the armed people present in the area began firing as soon the coach reached there and stopped it. After capturing the coach, the Talibans allowed the driver and other persons to go.

WASSHINTON: The US military said Tuesday it expected Al-Qaeda to continue its "re-emergence" in sanctuaries in Pakistan's tribal areas from where it supported attacks in Afghanistan. Sanctuary was provided to Al-Qaeda and Taliban rebels after Islamabad signed a peace deal with militants in a desperate attempt to quell the unrest in its federally administered areas in September 2006, a US military official said. The militants called off the deal in July this year after Pakistani security forces raided a radical mosque in Islamabad where rebels had massed. Dozens were killed in those raids. "This area remains a support and sanctuary area for the insurgency as results of those peace accords," US Major Tim Williams, future operations intelligence planner, told reporters at Bagram Air Field, the main US base in Afghanistan. He said the Islamic rebels were likely to maintain their presence in those areas despite apparent efforts by Pakistani army to root them out. ...

A suicide bomber, wearing a woman's burka, has killed at least 15 people in an attack at a busy police checkpoint in north-west Pakistan, officials say. Four policemen were among the dead, and at least 20 people were injured in the blast in the garrison town of Bannu. The bomb was detonated in a rickshaw, which had been stopped for inspection. It is the latest in a series of deadly attacks blamed on Islamist militants in the North Waziristan tribal region near the border with Afghanistan. Police officials said the bomber was wearing a burka, a woman's garment which covers the body from head to toe.He, or possibly she, set off explosives at a busy intersection when police approached to check the vehicle. Bombings and attacks have soared since July when security forces stormed a radical mosque in Islamabad, and a ceasefire with pro-Taleban militants in the volatile border area broke down. Many of the attacks have been directed at the security forces. More than 200 soldiers and po...