PESHAWAR: A local anti-terrorism court acquitted two suspected terrorists, including a would-be suicide bomber for lack of evidence. Judge Azhar Khan observed that the evidence on record did not connect the two, Fazal Shah and Zain Shah, both residents of Mohmand Agency, with terrorism. Police arrested the suspected terrorists on July 24 this year in the jurisdiction of Khazana police station on the outskirts of Peshawar, saying the two were riding a motorcycle. They claimed that Fazal Shah was wearing a suicide vest, while Zain Shah had a pistol and that the former wanted to blow himself up but didn`t identify target. Police said the suicide vest was later defused by the bomb disposal unit. Dawn.
PESHAWAR: Four more children from the tribal areas have fallen victim to the crippling polio virus. The National Institute of Health Islamabad reported the fresh cases after laboratory tests confirmed the presence of the polio virus. So far, this year the disease has disabled 31 children from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). In all 43 children across Pakistan were hit by the polio virus during the current year. The ban imposed by militant commanders on polio vaccination teams in North and South Waziristan Agencies and persistent security threats in other tribal agencies are hindering polio eradication efforts. The Express Tribune.
GHALLANAI: Security forces will safeguard the ideological and geographical borders of the country at every cost, said Corps Commander Peshawar Lt. Gen Khalid Rabbani, while addressing soldiers during his visit to Mohmand Agency. Speaking at Mamad Gat Camp on Friday, Rabbani said: “Due to the sacrifices of the security forces in the tribal areas, Mohmand Agency has been cleared of militants. We will render more sacrifices in the future to protect our tribesmen.” The Express Tribune.
DERAISMAIL KHAN: Cantonment police station registered a case against 154 prisoners of the DI Khan Central Prison who failed to return to the jail despite the expiration of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government’s deadline. According to a Cantt police official, Central Prison Superintendent Banyameen Khan Miankhel lodged a case at the police station against the escaped inmates under Section 224-225B of the Pakistan Penal Code. The provincial government had earlier given a 15-day deadline to the prisoners to return wilfully, adding no action would be taken against them. The deadline expired on September 24. The Express Tribune.
PESHAWAR: A suicide bomber drove a car filled with explosives into a military convoy, killing at least two soldiers in a restive northwestern Pakistani tribal area bordering Afghanistan, officials said. The bomber crashed his white Toyota Corolla into a vehicle travelling in a military convoy in Wana, the main town in the South Wasiristan tribal district. “At least two security forces personnel have embraced martyrdom and two others were wounded,” a senior security official told AFP. Local intelligence officials confirmed the attack and casualties. The Nation, Dawn.
MIRAMSHAH: The Pakistani Taliban said that they were `delighted` Malala Yousufzal missed out on the Nobel Peace Prize. Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Shahidullah Shahid told AFP the 16year-old had done nothing to deserve the Nobel, which went to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons for its work to rid the world of chemical arms. Dawn.