MIRAMSHAH: Six militants were killed and three injured when missiles fired by a US drone struck a house in Dergah Mandi in North Waziristan on Sunday 29th September 2013 in the morning. The house caught fire and, according to sources, six people died on the spot and three were wounded. The sources said that the dead and the wounded belonged to Punjab and were associated with militant commander Qari Abbas who was killed in an earlier drone strike on a car in the area. The government, says APP, condemned the US drone strike and as a violation of the country`s sovereignty and (a threat to its) territorial integrity. The area attacked by US drone, according to AFP, is said to be the stronghold of Afghanistan`s Haqqani network, a guerrilla faction linked to the Taliban. Dawn, The Nation, The News.
PESHAWAR: In the third savage attack on civilians in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa since the massive suicide blasts at a church in Peshawar, terrorists targeted the busy Qissa Khwani Bazaar in the city on Sunday, killing at least 43 people, including 15 children and three women, and injuring 101. Eighteen of the people killed by the powerful blast were close relatives belonging to three families of Matta Mughal Khel village of Shabgadar. They were said to have come to Peshawar to attend a wedding. The main road was littered with human limbs and blood soaked clothes. The attack was carried out by a car packed with over 200 kgs of explosive, AIG Shafgat Malik, head of the bomb disposal unit, said. About 80 shops located on both sides of the bazar and a number of cars, motorcycles and auto-rickshaws were destroyed or damaged. The blast took place near the Khan Raiziq police station. Dawn, The Express Tribune, Daily Mashriq.
PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has decided to launch a targeted operation in Peshawar and other parts of the province after a flurry of suicide bombings over the past one week left more than 140 people dead and hundreds injured. The decision was taken at a high-level meeting presided over by Chief Secretary Arbab Muhammad Shehzad here on Sunday evening. Dawn.
LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) activists took out a torch-bearing rally to show solidarity with Kohati Gate church victims, while the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) demonstrated against Qissa Khwani Bazaar blast, Peshawar, here on Sunday 29th September 2013. PTI women wing activists, led by Dr Seemi Bokhari and Apa Sadiga, raised slogans against the perpetrators of the blasts and demanded that the federal government devise a strategy in accordance with the suggestions by PTI Chairman Imran Khan to eliminate terrorism. They urged the government to hold peace talks with Taliban to avoid future terror acts. Dawn.
ISLAMABAD: The third terrorist attack in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in a week brought the Pakistan Tehreek-iInsaf, the party leading the ruling coalition in the province, under severe criticism from almost all major political parties, with Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl demanding removal of the provincial government over its failure to protect citizens. Condemning Sunday`s bomb attack in the Qissa Khawani Bazaar in Peshawar in which over 40 people were killed, the political leaders particularly criticised PTI chief Imran Khan for his recent statement in which he had said that the Taliban should be allowed to open their of fices in Pakistan. Dawn.
PESHAWAR: We were happy then we heard a big bang. All I could remember after that was flames and dead,` says Sunbal, who still has red bangles on her wrists and eyeshade on her eyes.
Sunbal, a teenage girl from Matta Mughalkhel in Charsadda district, sustained injuries in Qissa Khwani Sunday`s blast. She is one of the three females, who have sustained injuries in the blast.
All her other relatives, more than 12, are either dead or missing Dawn.
PESHAWAR: The National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad, has confirmed four more polio cases in Federally Administered Tribal Areas and one in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, officials said on Sunday 29th September 2013. They said that three children from North Waziristan Agency and one each from Khyber Agency and Peshawar had tested positive for poliomyelitis. They said that with the fresh cases the number of affected children had now climbed to 24 in Fata and seven in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Dawn.
PESHAWAR: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has said that there is no harm in convening another All Parties Conference to discuss strategy for controlling the fresh wave of violence in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa particularly in Peshawar where over 144 people have been killed in one week.`If APC is convened for discussing deteriorating security situation then there is no harm,` he said while talking to journalists at JUI central secretariat here on Sunday.The APC, he said, did not mean that government should seek permission whether to hold peace talks with Taliban or start military operation. Dawn.
LAHORE: Youth Forum participants from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Khyber Pukhtunkhwa on Sunday 29th September 2013, put forward a wish-list of the changes they would like to see in their area. The forum has been organised by Channan Development Association (CDA) in collaboration with the USAID. As many as 180 youths from the FATA and 15 districts of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa participated in the gathering. The youth at the gathering called for repeal of the Frontier Crimes Regulation. They called for the constitutional guarantees of civic rights to be extended the FATA. They demanded a result-oriented dialogue with militant groups. They also called for formulation of youth-friendly policies. The Express Tribune.
