Awaz Apni

Pakistan's problems start at the top Musharraf's military rule has damaged his country's ability to fight Islamist insurgents.By Pervez Hoodbhoy: Los Angeles Times, November 18, 2007 Gen. Pervez Musharraf seized power in Pakistan eight years ago, claiming that the army had to step in to save the country from corrupt and incompetent politicians. Since then, he has run both the army and the government himself, with the connivance of a rubber-stamp Parliament put in place through rigged elections. His rule has proved to be a dismal failure, creating more problems than those it set out to solve. Earlier this month, with opposition to his regime growing and the courts about to rule that he could not legally be president, Musharraf chose to suspend the constitution and impose emergency rule. He dismissed the Supreme Court and arrested the judges, replacing them with judges who will bend to his will. He blocked all independent television channels and threatened to punish the news ...

CNews SWAT: Estranged conditions continued to prevail in Swat, as at least 17 militants and 11 law-enforcers were killed and more than 35 others were injured on the third consecutive day of the clashes between the defiant Taliban and the security forces here on SundayUnconfirmed reports, however, said that 20 personnel of law-enforcing agencies had been killed in a reported suicide bombing in Sangota. The clashes left about 55 persons injured, two of them Islamabad-based journalists, 14 security personnel, 20 militants and 19 civilians, including women and children.The injured media persons were identified as Khalid Jameel and Reza Agha of a private television channel, who sustained injuries when a wall of a mosque fell on them after being hit by a mortar shell.There were conflicting claims from both the sides as the top military spokesman Maj Gen Waheed Arshad put the death toll of the militants at 50-60. “The report about the casualties is based on intercepted messages of the local m...

CNews SWAT: Home secretary NWFP Badshah Gul Wazir said that the government has to take further steps to control the situation in Mattah, an area of Swat. Here in Kabal, the attack from armed persons on the police station was averted and the security forces have imposed an unannounced curfew in Kabal. Talking with CNews News in Peshawar, home secretary Badshah Gul Wazir said that in the areas of Swat – Mattah and Kabal – law and order situation has become worse and to overcome it the government would take further steps. He told that the security forces have averted the attack from militants at the police station in Kabal. However, according to independent sources, the militants attacked the police station after which flames were seen rising from the police station. Later, the security forces imposed an unannounced curfew in Kabal. Badshah Gul Wazir further told that the chief minister NWFP, Shamsul Malik has announced to give a cash prize of Rs.500,000 to the security officials obstruct...

CNews HANGU: Some unknown persons have kidnapped three policemen from the security forces check-post at the Hangu district. Sources told that some unknown persons attacking the Torpal check-post in Tal area of the district Hangu abducted the policemen and took them away to some unknown destination. Taj Mohammad, Sakhi Badshah and Munsif Ali were included among the abductees. Police said that the investigations into the incident have started.

CNews SWAT: A blast tore through a security forces vehicle in restive northwest Pakistan on Thursday, killing 30 people and wounding dozens more, a senior security official said. The attack in scenic Swat valley in the North West Frontier Province was the latest in a wave of violence targeting the military since government troops stormed the Al-Qaeda-linked Red Mosque in Islamabad in July. The blast comes just one day after Pakistan deployed more than 2,000 military troops to the area to bolster efforts to stem the rising violence, which is linked to pro-Taliban militants. The truck -- carrying paramilitary soldiers and packed with ammunition -- was travelling on a road outside the valley's main city of Mingora when the explosion occurred, the security official said. "Thirty people were killed in the explosion including 17 paramilitary soldiers. The damage was high because the truck was packed with ammunition," the official, who asked not to be named, said. Swat mayor Faz...

CNews DERA BUGTI: Seven persons were killed in an explosion in passenger wagon traveling to Sui from Dera Bugti on Saturday, officials said. The blast was occurred in a bus at Mail Bazaar area of Dera Bugti this morning, in which seven passengers were killed on the spot and six others were seriously wounded, officials said. They feared increase in death toll. Security forces cordoned off the area immediately after the incident. It was probably a remote-controlled device that was used for explosion in the bus, sources said.

CNews DERA BUGTI: Unknown persons fired three rockets in Sui area of district Dera Bugti of Balochistan but no loss of life was reported. Government sources said that unidentified persons fired three rockets in Sui Town from nearby mountains last night but no casualty was reported in the incident. Police had registered the case and started investigations.

CNews PEHSHAWAR: A homemade bomb ripped through a music shop in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar on Tuesday injuring 20 people, police and hospital officials said. The blast happened in the Musafir CD Centre located in the basement of a busy shopping centre in the city, police and local shopkeepers said. The roof of the shop collapsed in the bombing, Peshawar police chief Abdul Majeed Marwat said. A doctor at a nearby hospital said 20 people were injured, five of them seriously. "No one has died," doctor Ruhul Amin said. The bomb had apparently been placed in a water cooler inside the shop, witnesses said. The owner of the shop had been receiving threats from suspected militants to close his "un-Islamic" business, shopkeepers said. Islamic militancy is spreading in the deeply-conservative province where militants, emulating the ultra-orthodox Taliban who ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, strive to impose their own strict brand of Islam.

CNews MIRANSHAH: Security forces operation against miscreants in Mir Ali area of North Waziristan was continued on Monday. In the operation that started Sunday morning 60 miscreants and 20 security men have been killed. After attacks on the forces, ground troops with support of helicopters launched operation against miscreants in Mir Ali area of North Waziristan and targeted hideouts of the militants, official sources said. The forces have killed 60 miscreants, while 20 security men were martyred in battles. According to eyewitnesses clashes between the forces and miscreants were continued in Anso Khel, Khadi, Hyderkhel and Khushhali areas adjoining to Mir Ali till the late night. Several shells during the clashes landed in houses resulting in deaths of several women and children, the witnesses added.

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...