“The next 36 to 48 hours are critical but we are hopeful that Malala Yousufzai will recover soon as her condition is satisfactory,” said Major General Asim Saleem Bajwa, Director General of Inter Services Public Relations, here on Friday. Talking to media in his office, Gen Bajwa said that a panel of doctors taking care of the injured Malala Yousufzai had described her condition as satisfactory. He said that after arrival from the Peshawar CMH, she had been on a ventilator at the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology (AFIC). “The neurosurgical and intensive care specialists are satisfied with the current condition of Malala Yousufzai, but still the next 36 to 48 hours are critical,” the chief of ISPR said. While informing media about the health of the 14-year-old schoolgirl, who was targeted by Taliban in Mingora on Tuesday, he said that medical sketches and investigations carried out at the AFIC suggested that all her vital organs were intact and functioning properly. Dawn.
In the aftermath of the Taliban attack on Malala Yousufzai, several United Nations independent human rights experts have urged the Pakistan government to do everything it can to protect schoolchildren, particularly girls, a press statement issued here on Friday said. “Attempting to assassinate a 14-year-old girl who has the courage to speak out and claim the legitimate right of a generation of girls to receive education is a shocking attack on human rights defenders in Pakistan”, said the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders, Margaret Sekaggya. “The government has to make every effort possible to protect MsYousafzai and others who work towards increasing respect for women’s and girls’ rights”, she added in a news release from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). Special rapporteurs are appointed by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back, on specific human rights themes. Dawn.
Two security personnel and three militants were killed in a gunfight in South Waziristan on Friday, sources said. A group of Taliban attacked a bunker of security forces in Asmanzai area on the Wana-Ladha road. Troops fired back and the gun battle continued for over an hour in which two security men and three militants were killed. The political administration confirmed the deaths. Dawn, The News.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is struggling to contain polio due to influx of children from the restive Federally Administrative Tribal Areas and Afghanistan, according to Expanded Programme on Immunization deputy director Dr Janbaz Afridi. “However, serious efforts are underway to defeat the crippling disease and we are hopeful that they’ll bear fruit,” Dr Janbaz told a seminar on public awareness of polio at Peshawar Press Club. Pakistan People’s Party provincial president Anwar Saifullah Khan was the chief guest on the occasion, while noted among speakers were provincial director general (health services) Dr Rohullah Jan, World Health Organization’s Dr Ubaidul Salam, United Nations Children Fund’s Dr Jamil and Dr Gulshan.
The EPI deputy director said around 5.2 million children under five would be given anti-polio drops in 25 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from October 15 to October 18. Dawn.
A policeman was gunned down outside a mosque in Bakhshi Pul area on Charsadda Road during Friday prayer. A spokesman for police said Hukam Khan, an official of the special police force, was doing his duty at Abu Bakar Masjid in Bakhshi Pul area during Friday prayer when two people riding a motorcycle showed up and opened fire on him. He said the policeman got critically injured and later died at Lady Reading Hospital. The spokesman said a search operation had been conducted in Khazana area, but no arrests could be made. He said local residents saw attackers but were reluctant to share information about them with police fearing for their safety.
Unidentified people on Friday threw acid at a passenger coach in Durrani area of Kurram Agency injuring four people, including two girls. The injured were shifted to Agency Headquarters Hospital in Parachinar. The coach was coming from Peshawar to Parachinar.
On last Tuesday, too, three people were injured after their bus was targeted by acid throwers on Thall-Parachinar Road.
A mosque was destroyed in Roudh Mandi area of Mohmand Agency’s Haleemzai tehsil after explosives planted on the premises went off in the morning on Friday. No damage to human life was reported as no one was present in the mosque at the time of the blast. Security forces later arrested four tribesmen under Frontier Crime Regulation. Dawn, The Frontier Post, The Frontier Post, The News.
A polio case has been detected in far-flung Tatan Ragha area of central Kurram tribal agency, medics said. Dr Sultan Ali, medical superintendent at agency headquarters hospital Parachinar, confirmed the polio case. He said that polio virus was detected in the 18-month-old Sabia, daughter of Mohammad Ibrahim, in Tatan Ragha area of central Kurram in September. He said the polio drops could not be applied to children in the far-flung areas of central Kurram due to security reasons. Dawn.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik said Friday that the government would consider conducting an operation in North Waziristan Agency. Speaking to reporters upon his arrival in Karachi, Malik said intelligence reports and the residents of North Waziristan state that the hub of terrorists is the agency.
He added that political and military leadership would consider launching army operation as all the ways now lead to the North Waziristan after Taliban’s attack on Malala Yousufzai. The Frontier Post. The News, Daily Times.
According to BBC, Pakistani officials said they had intercepted a telephone conversation suggesting Taliban militants were planning attacks against the media over their coverage of the shooting of Malala Yousafzai and the way media has been giving so much coverage to Malala over her bravery to support girls in getting education. The Frontier Post.
Unidentified armed man killed one Lateef Jan at a food distribution point for IDPs in Nasir Pur, Chamkani. Muhammad Ali IDP of Bara and brother of deceased reported the incident to police that his brother was standing in line at the food distribution point to get food package when unidentified man shot him dead. The murderer managed to escape. Police said that the motive behind killing was not known. Sources said that World Food Organization has stopped food distribution on the said point for two days after the incident. The Frontier Post.
The death toll from the US drone attack in Orakzai Agency rose to 26 as eight more critically injured militants succumbed to injuries, official sources said on Friday. Eighteen militants were killed and 13 others were injured when a drone fired four missiles on the hideout of a militant commander, Mufti Shakirullah, in Bulandkhel area in the Orakzai Agency on Thursday. The political administration officials claimed that all the dead were Afghan militants affiliated with Hafiz Gul Bahadur and the Haqqani network. The sources said 16 of the dead militants were laid to rest in Bulandkhel, four in Miranshah and six others in various areas in the tribal region.
Some reports claimed that Punjabi Taliban commander Umar Haqqani and Mufti Shakirullah were also killed in the strike. Umar Haqqani is stated to be an expert in making improvised explosive devices. However, the spokesman for the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Abdullah Khurasani, said neither Shakirullh nor Umar Haqqani was killed in the attack. He termed such reports baseless and added that the drone had not targeted militants’ centre, but a madrassah was hit. He claimed innocent seminary students were killed in the attack. The News.
Four passengers, including two female students, sustained burn injuries when unidentified gunmen threw acid on them in lower Kurram Agency on Friday, official and tribal sources said. The sources said that unknown armed men fired at the Parachinar-bound passenger van (RIS-158) coming from Peshawar in Durrani area in lower Kurram to force the driver to stop the vehicle. “The gunmen forced four passengers to disembark and threw acid on them,” a source said. The News.
The journalists in Swat are receiving threats from suspected militants, sources said on Friday. Suspected militants were threatening journalists for what they claim was blowing the Malala incident out of proportion. Some journalists said they had received threatening messages on their cell phones asking them to stop highlighting the issue. The News.
NAWAF KHAN, SHARAFAT ALI CHAUDHRY
